Hey familia! How is everyone doing this first week of June? Crazy! It's good to hear the update on everyone, job interviews, droughts, dogs, baby blessings, gardens, etc. Hooray! This last week was a great one! Change is good! I do miss the Spanish though. It's soooo fun to be with Sister Fatkin and Sister Jeung.
Sister Jeung is from Korea and is a temple square missionary. She has been out here the last two transfers with Sister Fatkin and is going back to temple square this Wednesday. She's a riot. Both Sister Fatkin and Sister Jeung mentioned right away how they aren't emotional, so that was a relief. I knew that about Sister Fatkin though; we just laugh all the time.
The area up here is just different. We cover two wards and really both of them just have a lot of work that can be done in terms of less actives and part member families. The sisters have been working really hard the last two transfers to get the work going with all of these people. So we don't knock doors very much. I actually miss it. But at the same time, its weird doing everything in English. Only a month and a half of my mission has actually been truly in English, and I've been realizing how awkward and weird it is to teach even basic lessons in English. But I'm adjusting. It will be good for me.
They also don't really have any investigators up here. Apparently they had a bunch just the other week, but they dropped all of them. Sister Fatkin's personality and style is much bolder; she really needs to see progress in people. So if someone isn't keeping commitments, then she drops them. And I don't blame her. I'm more that way, though at the same time, I probably have a little more patience for the people who go slowly. Though truly there are people who are ready to keep commitments and who are ready to be baptized. Someone shouldn't have to be convinced and bugged into praying and reading and getting baptized.
This last week we taught a lot of less actives and searched for a lot of people from the wards that we could visit that we're guessing probably have non-member family. It is weird being in wards where we are the only missionaries too. I can really see now how amazing the ward mission leader and bishop were that we had in Santa Ana. I miss them. They were absolutely devoted to this work. It's just different in these wards. But the sisters have been working really hard here so the work has started to move.
We actually have a baptism of a little 9 year old girl, Antonia Rodriguez, this Sunday. Her mom has been inactive, but Antonia has member friends and has heard about the church and told her mom she wanted to go to church, and then told her she wanted to be baptized. She is soooo excited. But I won't be there for it.
Because of the MTC pig flu and our new missionaries not being able to come out yet, there has been some rearranging of sorts; so for the next week, I will be with Sister Kioa (who has been with Sister Chriswell in the Tongan program for the last 7 months) in her new area of Yorba Linda/Placentia until her new comp comes out. This is a rich area. Like Irvine, but different. So it should be interesting. It will be fun to get to know Sister Kioa (who is from Tonga) because I've never been on exchanges with her or anything, but I've always wanted to.
And they have a baptism up here this weekend, so I'll get to be part of that. Then I'll go back to La Habra next Tuesday. Also, I guess I am going to continue being in a threesome. None of us were aware of it until the other day, because they didn't tell us when we got transfer calls, but the new temple square sister who is coming in Wednesday to replace Sister Jeung, will be with us in La Habra. So she will be with Sister Fatkin for the next week while I'm gone. Oh threesomes.
All of the gardens everyone has sound so fun. Too bad you can't have grapefruits and chiles and avocados. One of my favorite things out here is all the Jasmine. It's probably my favorite smell (that and Plumeria!). I'd always smell it and it reminded me of being in Italy because we'd walk by some of it everyday while I was there, but I never knew what the name was. Can Jasmine grow in Minnesota?
Oh yeah, up here they do work a little with Hispanic people. We met some and there are actually some in our wards, but they have translators. Normally if we find someone who speaks Spanish and who is interested, we teach them a little; then pass them to the elders in the Spanish wards. Sad.
Sister Fatkin and Me
Everything is going really well here though. This week I'll be seeing how Yorba Linda and Placentia are. Maybe I won't want to leave!
Oh yeah, last transfer we had 67 baptisms! That's a miracle, our goal every transfer is to have one baptism per companionship (a goal of faith of 2 baptisms)-which on average is about 57. We've gotten close, but hadn't reached it until this transfer and we surpassed it. We have 183 baptisms this year so far, and last year they only had 101 by the same time. Great things are happening! It's exciting! This week is my year mark. I can't believe it! It really does not seem too long ago that I went to the MTC. It's nuts! But it's been amazing! Thank you all for everything! I love you my family!
Love,
Emily
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