Hermana Brayton: Winter in California!

December 2, 2019

¡¡Hola Y'all!!

Week 2 down in Santa Ana and 6 MONTHS down in the mish!! So crazy! I can't believe I'm already 1/3 of the way done, and that next year at this time I'll be packing up and heading home:( but don't worry, no ones trunky over here. If anything it makes me want to work 10x harder to really make the most of my time here. Santa Ana is such a dang party too, I love it here. This week we made friends with some gang members, just about froze at a service activity, and had ham for Thanksgiving (3 things I never expected to happen here) and it was the best time! We also got to know and teach a lot of really cool people here:)

On Thursday for Thanksgiving, we went up to the Honda Center in Anaheim and helped out with this super cool group to feed people in need. It was super fun bc there were a bunch of other missionaries there, and also service is just always a good time, but BOY it was sooo cold. It was pouring rain and couldn't have been over 55 degrees, and your girl didn't bring anything heavier than a rain jacket bc California is supposed to be warm and sunny all the time, right? Pues, that's what I thought. It's really all good though, it was such a fun time. And afterwards we had Thanksgiving dinner with our Obispo and his family, the Elders, and another family from the ward. It was sooo good and they're seriously the sweetest family. And on Saturday we actually had another "Thanksgiving dinner" with another family, and both times they only had ham and no turkey, so that's something new.

Also on Saturday, we started teaching this super cool guy named Marcos and he just had so many questions. I was worried he was going to try and bash us at first, but then he was actually super interested to learn more so that was cool. We also met this lady named Veronica that is SO sweet. Her life is so wild though, bc she had cancer a few years ago and then got a blessing from some people at church, and then her cancer just like went away! Wild! She has so much faith, and I want to teach her so badly, but she just has a lot of other hard things going on in her life right now that make it difficult, so if y'all could keep her and her family in your prayers I know she would really really appreciate it:)

Also this week I got to go on exchanges with my girl Hermana Hinton, and I love her. She's the best STL ever and seriously the best trainer I could've asked for!! Ily Hermana!!

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was super awesome though! I just want to challenge all of y'all to find someone to serve this week. It could be something super simple, but try to think outside of the box! I really truly believe that if we all just focused on serving and loving everyone around us, we'd all just be happier:) I love y'all muchísimo and I hope everyone has a great week!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Brayton 😊