Hello from Tustin

Hello from Irvine! Well actually Tustin. Well I’m in transfer three, which doesn’t mean much in the missionary world. But I can already feel that it will be flying by. Here’s my latest missionary setup. Sister Moore and I live by ourselves in a city called Tustin. We then drive everyday into Irvine-not very far, but still probably about 15 minutes away. It’s a weird mission when your area is small enough that you don’t even live in it. Or live in your zone. Hmmm. But that’s what we do.The ward here is pretty much amazing. We’ve even just about everyday with someone in the ward, and they had a very belated trunk or treat on Friday (everything had been cancelled for Prop 8) so I’ve been able to meet quite a few people. We went to ward council Sunday morning (something we didn’t do in Santa Ana) then church is at 10 and ward missionary council after church. I think I heard that this ward has something like 600 members. And a lot are active…well enough to make it hard to know everyone. It will definitely take time to remember all of these names. S. Moore has been here since May, so everyone really knows and loves her and she’s worked hard to gain the trust here. This ward loves sister missionaries, I know they’ve been here for a least a year. Hopefully they’ll keep sisters here for awhile because they seem to respond to them well. The ward has a lot of young couples-well, in there thirties, and everyone seems like a strong member. Lots of lawyers. And there seems like there’s a lot of potential with these members helping us finding people to teach.Irvine is way different than Orange. Not so many Hispanics! And yes, a large cultural mix. As we tracted last week, here were the types of people we talked to-Buddhists, Indians, Armenians, Persians, Hindus, Muslims, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, etc. I’m sure I will find there are more. Tracting is different here because most people are more honest with you. Hispanics just listen and then tell you that you can come back, but then they’re not there. And they talk lots when you do end up teaching them. The “white” type of people may seem ruder, but at least they don’t waste your time as much. So it’s a trade off. Irvine also just looks different. It’s an expensive place to live-everyone lives in gated community places full of condominiums and apartments. In Orange there were palm trees of all kinds, but here I don’t see as many. I actually see some pine trees and stuff. And it’s cooler here because we’re closer to the ocean so we get a breeze. Plus it’s almost winter, right?The investigators here seem a little more long-term. They are slower in their progress, but they are a little more solid. One woman, Shellie, is getting baptized in a couple of weeks. And there’s one woman, Stephanie, who is really active in her own church, but is very interested in learning about ours. She is great and really has potential. The sisters have been working hard here and there are some great people we are teaching. We also visit a lot of the inactive members here, which I think is great. S. Moore figures they’ve already made the covenants, and they need some help. And we work with the ward a lot more than in Spanish. So that’s helpful. Everyone in the ward is so helpful and always wants to do something for us. They do take good care of their missionariesYeah Jolie Hales. Funny. Sister Moore didn’t say Hales. Just Jolie. And when we went into her apt, I was just confused and looking at her (she does look older) and finally just asked her. Funny stuff. She said I looked like Erin Sanders but didn’t think it was worth asking. We look alike? Also another funny: we went over to the ward mission leader’s home on Saturday to drop off a progress record, and someone was standing in their doorway and I said to Sister Moore “I know him.” He’s the brother in law of the ward mission leader and we were in the same ward my sophomore year. Crazy world. He was always a really good guy, so I am going to work on setting Sister Moore up with him when she’s off the mission.Prop 8. Yeah, it’s been crazy here. People were sooo involved in it. Apparently in the end what one it was the Hispanic and black communities. Hooray! The ward members have been really worried about us;they’re always asking if we’ve had any problems. But no, no one’s said anything to us. Did you hear about the commercial they made? With the missionaries and Prop 8? Someone showed it to us and that’s retarded. And yeah, they had the protesting at the temple in LA, and they closed down the streets and everything. They supposedly had protesting at the Newport temple too, but I don’t think much else happened.I really do think I will love as much as I did, and I hope that I will have an opportunity to stay here a little longer this time. I’d love to actually be there for some baptisms of people that I was a part of teaching. Just this last week we got a new rule that we can’t go to baptisms outside of our zone and we could before. So now I can’t go back to any of the baptisms of people back in Orange. Apparently the sisters dropped Eulalio because he was just a loafer, but they’re teaching everyone else. Especially Lupe and Lulu. It is just different and it’s a really great place.Ah, well, that’s all. I could always write more, but that’s enough for now! I am happy and missionary work is great and I’m just trying to learn as much as I can everyday. I love you all so much and thank you for everything!Love,Emily (since I am no longer Hermana)