Thursday, January 14, 2010

Last Email

Oh my family! Well here we are:  my last e-mail. We had a wonderful week. Wonderful! We found a couple of new potentials that seem really good. Sister Cooprider is staying in this area still and training. I'm excited for them as they have many new people that we have set appointments with them to teach. It's weird to know I won't be a part of that, but it's alright...I guess!  We had our two wonderful baptisms this weekend of Jenny and Ashley! It went really really well and was just a really nice day for them. I think it was really great for their Dad too. I know eventually he will have the desire and he will receive an answer that he needs to be baptized.

There are so many changes I feel coming up in the mission and coming up in these areas. It just makes you want to be here for all of it! But I suppose it always feels like things are changing and great things are about to happen when you're about to leave! But it has been so amazing and wonderful to see the progress that has happened in the Anaheim 2nd ward and the Anaheim 7th branch. They're starting to really get missionary work.  They've improved so much in fellowshipping both investigators, recent converts and less actives are so much better.  We don't have to worry as much about people being lost. Nicole is doing so well, and everyone has been so welcoming to her. I know that Sister Cooprider has learned a lot in the last little while too, especially in being bolder, and I know she will continue to see so many miracles here.

Last week we, Sister Brown, President and Sister Watrous and I, went to the temple and that was wonderful!. Last February we went to the temple and all wrote little letters-to ourselves sort of, about what kind of mission we wanted to have, and what we wanted to do and were going to learn. And then we were given those back while we were at the temple, so we could read them again. It was interesting, it doesn't feel like too long ago, but I know that I've (hopefully) grown since then. But it's still pretty odd to read the things that I said then, and to even see at that point how I had grown; I'm not sure how, but it seems like it. Our mission conference was really great. But geez, it's sort of unfair to have an inspiring mission conference right before you leave! Sang "Called to Serve" for the last time. Weird! Saturday morning I had my last interview with President. He renews our temple recommends, and then goes over all the info that mission presidents are supposed to say I guess. And he added in his own advice, and then he gives us a blessing. He's just such a great man. He is super humble and obedient and faithful. He really has been an amazing example for all the missionaries.

Today we're teaching one last lesson. Well, one last lesson for me with Raichel Goodyear. Remember I mentioned her once? She was golden, and sooo ready and we passed her onto some elders in another singles ward. Well, long story, she's back to being taught be us. We haven't seen her since September, and she wanted to be taught today. Fine by me! I'll do my last baptismal invitation as a missionary! I am so excited!

Well, I'll just say it. I LOVE being a missionary! It's been the best 18 months! And even though I really don't know what to expect after this, and I am a little anxious, I'm excited to see how life is just going to keep getting better. You know, I'm pretty lucky. I really am. I feel like I am blessed just over and over and over again and every year is better than the last! It's amazing to see how you really do become a missionary. Not just doing missionary things, but being a missionary. I'm so grateful for the things I've experienced and learned. Irreplaceable! My testimony of the gospel has just grown sooo much deeper. I have learned how to study the scriptures, to feast upon them! To love them! And I expect it to continue! If there's been a theme to what I've learned on the mission and what I've tried to teach others, it's love. It is the love our Heavenly Father has for us, and how everything he does is for our happiness. We just have to recognize it and act on it. I LOVE being a missionary! I am excited to see all of my little family again! I love you all so much and thank you so much for everything you've done for me! The love, the prayers, the letters! I love you! See you soon! Ah!

Love,
Emily

Return with Honor

On November 17, 2009 Sister/Hermana Emily Sanders returned with honor from her 18 month mission to the California Anaheim Mission.  We feel so very blessed by her service and example to all of us.










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Monday, November 16, 2009

A Marvelous Work and A Wonder

Oh my family! Well here we are: my last e-mail. We had a wonderful week. Wonderful! We found a couple of new potentials that seem really good. Sister Cooprider is staying in this area still and training. I'm excited for them as they have many new people that we have set appointments with them to teach. It's weird to know I won't be a part of that, but it's alright...I guess! We had our two wonderful baptisms this weekend of Jenny and Ashley! It went really really well and was just a really nice day for them. I think it was really great for their Dad too. I know eventually he will have the desire and he will receive an answer that he needs to be baptized.

There are so many changes I feel coming up in the mission and coming up in these areas. It just makes you want to be here for all of it! But I suppose it always feels like things are changing and great things are about to happen when you're about to leave! But it has been so amazing and wonderful to see the progress that has happened in the Anaheim 2nd ward and the Anaheim 7th branch. They're starting to really get missionary work.  They've improved so much in fellowshipping both investigators, recent converts and less actives are so much better.  We don't have to worry as much about people being lost. Nicole is doing so well, and everyone has been so welcoming to her. I know that Sister Cooprider has learned a lot in the last little while too, especially in being bolder, and I know she will continue to see so many miracles here.



Last week we, Sister Brown, President and Sister Watrous and I, went to the temple and that was wonderful!. Last February we went to the temple and all wrote little letters-to ourselves sort of, about what kind of mission we wanted to have, and what we wanted to do and were going to learn. And then we were given those back while we were at the temple, so we could read them again. It was interesting, it doesn't feel like too long ago, but I know that I've (hopefully) grown since then. But it's still pretty odd to read the things that I said then, and to even see at that point how I had grown; I'm not sure how, but it seems like it. Our mission conference was really great. But geez, it's sort of unfair to have an inspiring mission conference right before you leave! Sang "Called to Serve" for the last time. Weird! Saturday morning I had my last interview with President. He renews our temple recommends, and then goes over all the info that mission presidents are supposed to say I guess. And he added in his own advice, and then he gives us a blessing. He's just such a great man. He is super humble and obedient and faithful. He really has been an amazing example for all the missionaries.

Today we're teaching one last lesson. Well, one last lesson for me with Raichel Goodyear. Remember I mentioned her once? She was golden, and sooo ready and we passed her onto some elders in another singles ward. Well, long story, she's back to being taught be us. We haven't seen her since September, and she wanted to be taught today. Fine by me! I'll do my last baptismal invitation as a missionary! I am so excited!




Well, I'll just say it. I LOVE being a missionary! It's been the best 18 months! And even though I really don't know what to expect after this, and I am a little anxious, I'm excited to see how life is just going to keep getting better. You know, I'm pretty lucky. I really am. I feel like I am blessed just over and over and over again and every year is better than the last! It's amazing to see how you really do become a missionary. Not just doing missionary things, but being a missionary. I'm so grateful for the things I've experienced and learned. Irreplaceable! My testimony of the gospel has just grown sooo much deeper. I have learned how to study the scriptures, to feast upon them! To love them! And I expect it to continue! If there's been a theme to what I've learned on the mission and what I've tried to teach others, it's love. It is the love our Heavenly Father has for us, and how everything he does is for our happiness. We just have to recognize it and act on it. I LOVE being a missionary! I am excited to see all of my little family again! I love you all so much and thank you so much for everything you've done for me! The love, the prayers, the letters! I love you! See you soon! Ah!

Love,
Emily



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Monday, November 9, 2009

Sprinting to the End


Michael, Kiara, and Cathy

Nicole, Sisters Sanders & Cooprider                                                  Sister Sanders &  Cooprider      
                                                                                                               Michael, Kiara, Cathy

 Exchanges

Hi all family! This is your second to last e-mail from me! We had a great and busy week!

So Nicole was baptized on Wednesday. Everything was ready and people were getting there, but there was no Nicole for a while. Nicole comes to everything early. Church doesn't start until 11:00 and she gets there at 10:00. She wanted to be at the baptism an hour early, but we told her 6:30. When it was about 7:00 we were a little worried. Sister Cooprider and I ended up saying a little prayer together outside, and 40 seconds later, in walks Nicole and her husband and her mom. Yeah! Miracles! She was sooo nervous, and just shaking. When she saw all the people who showed up, she told us to tell them all to go home. Nope! But everything went perfectly. And once she was baptized, she was so happy. It's really good. And Sunday bishop confirmed her and it was really nice. And her husband came to church for it. So who knows, hopefully we can begin working with him.

Saturday is the Lopez's baptisms. Now they were there an hour early. Again, everything went perfectly. The ward really came out and supported both of these baptisms. The kids sang “I am a Child of God" at their baptism, and it was fantastic! It was just really really nice. And Sunday our ward mission leader confirmed them, and their dad stood in the circle, so that's good. It was a good Sunday with 4 confirmations, and the primary program. Yeah!

Let's see, what else. Um, we did exchanges on Thursday and I went to the Tongan area. Got to see what I missed by not speaking a Polynesian language. Malo lei lei! Fefehake. Saipe. I can do that much. It's always really great to have an opportunity to learn from a different missionary, to see how they work. Definitely I still have things I could improve. I still have a little more to improve.

This weekend is the Lucero's baptism. Good thing. It just needs to happen. And really we are just trying to find some new investigators, to keep the work going! This week should be really great, we also have a mission conference on Thursday where Elder Foster, one of the seventy is speaking to us, then Friday I go to the temple with S. Brown (I think the only other departing missionary, MTC reunion for us!) and President and Sister Watrous, then Saturday is my departing interview. Get all the good advice from President.

So that's all! Congratulations to Ashleigh on being baptized! I was thinking about you on Saturday and knowing you were being baptized too! Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Emily

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Marine Layers


Good afternoon (evening to some of you) my family! How is everyone? Well, everything is just grand here in Anaheim! I've heard all about the Philadelphia visit. Sounds like it was a fantastic time! Baby Yoda, cleaning carpets, doctor's appointments, and autumn back east. I'm jealous. Some of the trees here change colors. Not too much though. We're still having pretty amazing weather and I know I will miss it!

Well for Halloween we didn't do anything different. Just worked! And then we had chili with some Young Single Adults before they had a party. Hey mom, I remember how you made chili one year at Halloween, and you wouldn't let me go out until I ate some. In WA I think. Remember? Anyway


Friday night was interesting. We had an appointment to see Cesar. Now Cesar, he's a little different. He's not 100% there. He is, but he isn't. He gets everything we teach him, he understands the reading, and he speaks normal. But something's different. So when we get there, he's in a really bad mood. Apparently he had dropped his cell phone and cracked the screen and so he can't call anyone, and he wasn't able to receive calls, and felt cut off from the world. He wasn't in the mood to pray or to read or do anything. And no amount of our being patient and helping him think through his options would help. We had brought a Young Single Adult with us (Tracy), who is awesome and always comes with us, and she is so relaxed, very CA. She finally somehow distracted him by planning to meet him the next day and talking him to the stake center to do family history. He doesn't know who his parents are and doesn't even know if they're alive, so he wants to look them up. Oh, I was so grateful. I was getting so frustrated. I think I hide it well though. But seriously, he was just so upset that he wasn't seeing how it could be better, and he was just difficult. And I could only think that I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to be a mother if I have children that are stubborn like that. Huh mom? I just wanted to drop him right there! We all laughed about it though when we got out of the car.

On Sunday, our branch mission leader went to pick him up for church, and decided to have a little chat with him. Or in his own words he "interrogated" Cesar. And he decided Cesar wasn't ready to be baptized and told our branch president. We were so upset about it. It's all alright now, we've talked to Cesar again, and we'll just have to talk to our lame branch mission leader and reset the date. We're thinking November 15. He's accountable, he understands, and he wants to be baptized and is worthy. Who are we to not let him be baptized?

Nicole is doing really well. Her baptism is tonight at 7:00pm. The ward kept asking us why we are doing it during the week, and we said because we hoped it would deter some people from coming. Odd reason, we know. But Nicole's a nervous personality. And as it is, we know that a lot of people will still come, and she'll be happy with it. It will work. We're really excited for her.

Yesterday when we met with her she had a little breakdown because she's so stressed. Her mom has been driving her crazy, and she's sad that her husband smokes;-she fasted on Sunday for him to be able to stop-plus, they don't always get along. And it's hard, because she just feels alone, and even S. Cooprider is not always the most sensitive to Nicole. She's not very good at controlling facial expressions, and people notice. So Nicole was crying yesterday and I felt so bad for her. Sometimes there's only so much you can do. Unfortunately she's pretty attached to me, and I'm just hoping she doesn't have another breakdown when I leave. Ah! But all will be perfect with the baptism tonight!

And Saturday we have the baptism of the Lopez kids-Cathy, Kiara and Michael. Yeah! They're the best behaved little kids and just excited. So that's that! And the Lucero's are still a go for Nov. 14.

Last week we also did a couple of splits. It was so interesting because the last time I did splits, I was in a threesome, and I was with the other companion. It's so odd to not be with your companion for a while. It just feels wrong. But the appointments went really well. We visited a Hispanic family in the ward. The parents are from Mexico, and speak English, and the boys (should) go to the YSA branch. But they don't. One's an RM, and one needs to go on a mission. so we're trying to activate the boys, Bethuel and Yobel Montanez. And I went with a girl from the ward that’s going on a mission in a couple of months, and we visited this other less active family, the Chutes. They always cancel our appointments, so they frustrate us. But Jenny, the member, knows them really well, so it was a really good appointment. That's another reason why members are so invaluable in appointments-they give you another connection to the less actives you visit. It really helps! Also last week, we had a Hungarian dinner cooked by the Hungarian roommate of one of our less actives. He's a funny guy. And then another day we had Danish food cooked by the 2 Danish girls staying with one of the counselors in the branch presidency. But the funny thing was their Danish dinner was Mexican food. They said it's the way they do Mexican food in Denmark. Pretty much the same as we do it here. Also, we had our president's interviews last week. It was wonderful!

And that was the week! Pretty busy and amazing week! I love it! Everything is just fantastic and I'm still sprinting! I hope everyone is staying healthy. No swine flu! I love you all so much! Thanks for being my family!

Love,
Emily





Monday, October 26, 2009

Assyrian Babylonians!



Hello family! Well, it’s the halfway point of the transfer. Things are still excellent here! I love California. Seriously. It’s funny how a place becomes your home. I definitely will miss it here. I just love the people and the palm trees and the sunny days and everything else. It still is weird, but this is definitely the place where I needed to be! Who would’ve thought?Let’s see, an update on people.

The Luceros are doing great. For the last week and a half we had planned to read in the introduction to the Book of Mormon with them, and then get Brother Lucero (non member) to pray right then, with us, and then we were going to ask him to be baptized. This is what President Watrous wants us to do with everyone when we first teach them. And even though B. Lucero has been taught for a long time, we wanted to do it with him anyway. And it went really well. The spirit was definitely there, and we asked him to be baptized. He said he wasn’t ready. We pretty much expected that. But we had to ask. That’s what missionaries do! But for the next little bit that we were there talking to the girls about their baptisms, and when we left, he definitely looked like he was thinking really hard. Good! Who knows?The Lopez family is also doing great. Everything’s set to finish up the last couple of lessons and get their program together. And after saying it over and over again, we finally feel like people are starting to fellowship them in the ward. Good!

Raven’s good. 'We are still teaching him. Also still teaching Cesar and getting him ready for baptism. We found out he smokes but just because he’s bored. He said that the addictive properties don’t affect him, and he can completely stop whenever he wants. Alrighty, we’ll see. Cesar understands and remembers everything we teach, but he definitely still has some kind of disability. We don’t know what though. When we started talking about prophets and asked him why it would be good to listen to a prophet he said “because it’s a straight shot to the celestial kingdom.” True, true. We were glad he remembered the lesson about the Plan of Salvation a couple of days earlier! He also asked us if after the resurrection, if the pre-earth life would be destroyed-because there “would be no need for it.” Interesting, I’ve never thought about that one before. This is why it’s great talking to all the odd people we teach, because their perspectives are so different, and their questions are so much fun. I love it!



On Saturday we went to teach Nicole. Oh man. That morning she called and asked me if it was okay that she was already wearing her Halloween costume-because that night was our ward activity and she was going to it. I said that was fine. She said she should’ve called the night before to check with us and she was sorry. But I said its okay, you can be wearing it. She said she just wants to respect us and she’s sorry and blah blah. Really, Nicole is one of the most interesting characters ever. I will try my best to do an impression of her someday. We brought one of our ward missionaries with us to the appointment and when we opened the door, there she was, Snow White! The thing is, Nicole is very small, thin, super pale, black short hair, and always wears red or pink lipstick. So her doing Snow White makes sense. Yet she still wore a wig and oh wow, she looked pretty funny. It was so hard not to be distracted and look at each other and laugh. There she is sitting on the couch as snow white as we talked to her about prophets. Then there’s a knock on the door. Nicole freaks out and doesn’t want to answer it. That’s normal. She asks us if she should answer it. We say yes. She doesn’t want to because she thinks it’s her mom. Then you hear someone say something through the door, and Nicole’s 2 year old son George goes “Grandma!” So Nicole lets them in. It’s her mom and her grandma. We have never met them, and we’ve always been curious about Nicole’s mom. Nicole swears her mom doesn’t love her. Her mom is in these little black stretch pants and leopard print shirt and sweeps into the home and is like “oh Nicole, oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company, oh George! Oh Nicole, have you eaten..blah blah blah.” She was very dramatic and funny and came in with pizza and gave us all pizza as she talked the entire time and kept moving around, doing Nicole’s dishes, and cleaning her house and, well it was pretty hilarious to us, even though Nicole was distressed. I asked her mom where she was from and she said “Oh, we’re Assyrian Babylonian. We’re east Catholic, Nicole was baptized as a child…” and Nicole is going “Mother, please, Mother. you weren’t supposed to come until later. Mother…” Very funny. So apparently her family is from Iran. Who knew? Assyrian Babylonian. That’s a first from me. I guess I’m wrong, but I sure thought the Assyrian and Babylonian empire were destroyed a long time ago. Pretty much her mom is not what we expected. She is just a flashy/dramatic/nagging mom. And as she was doing her dishes, our member said she wishes her mom would come over and do her dishes at her house and Nicole pipes up and offers to come over and do her dishes for her. It was one of the best teaching appointments I’ve had: Snow white and her mom.That’s probably the best story of the week.

There are always lots of good stories. This week we should be pretty busy too. We have to go on splits a couple of times, and that should be crazy. Good to be busy! We’re just trying to find those new investigators, so that after these people are baptized, there will still be people to teach.

Just in case you were wondering what we’re doing here on Halloween…well, we’re doing normal missionary work! Last year we were supposed to be in the apartment at 6:00pm, studying, if we didn’t already have set appointments to go to. But this year we are to be out working as usual! So we’ll be doing that. Trick or treat, we brought you the Book of Mormon! And today we will be carving pumpkins as a district to celebrate!I can’t believe how time is flying. Everyday I love being a missionary more and more! It’s crazy! It’s odd and feels a little, uh, scary, to think I won’t be doing this much longer. So I try not to think about it! We’re still sprinting! I love you all so much!

Love,Emily


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Monday, October 19, 2009

Beginning of the End

Sister Sanders where? Oh yes, a soccer store.

My family! Alright, I’m “sprinting to the end” as President Watrous advises us missionaries with poquito tiempo. I’ve joked with S. Cooprider that we are going to skip lunch and dinner and work straight from 11-9. It’s sort of our joke, but some days it has felt like its true. And it’s a blessing to have so much to do! Everything is going really really well. I don’t want to jinx it! It’s so wonderful to look back over the last 8 weeks in this area, and see that our numbers have continually gone up!

Last week we had zone conference (my last, AH!) and it was pretty good. It was even raining that day-a miracle I say! We talked a lot about how to better introduce the Book of Mormon to people to “place it in their hearts” and help them begin to receive a testimony of it. I love it! Speaking of the Book of Mormon, for an update on my goal to read it all this last transfer…uh, its slow going. I’ve slowed down in Mosiah as I’ve decided to once and for all figure out the chronology and all the connections of the Book of Mormon. But hey, I’m still pushing to meet the goal! It was weird at zone conference to see all of these “new” missionaries, training new missionaries. Elders I’ve never seen in my life. Odd to think I will never serve with any of them. It was funny as some elders came up to me afterwards and were shocked that I was already going home. Especially ones that I came out with. It just reminds them of how much time they have left, or don’t have left! It’s all too crazy!


Here are some updates on our teaching pool:


The Luceros, Jenny and Ashley, are still getting baptized on Nov. 14, and their two previous elders are coming to baptize them. Sister Lucero is turning it into a Hispanic fiesta. Decorating tables and putting out balloons and party favors for her little comida after the baptism. We try to tell her that we need to focus on the baptism, and she understands, but she’s also been waiting a long time for this day and she’s going to festijar! Porque no? Yesterday when we taught the family, we were going to invite Dad to be baptized on the same day, but they ended up having visitors over and we had like 10 minutes to actually teach. So this week we will invite him. It should be interesting. In the beginning of September when we started teaching the Luceros again, Hermana said “don’t push my husband to be baptized.” Thing is, we’re missionaries, and it’s our responsibility to invite! If he says no, at least we know, and we don’t need to focus on him being an investigator. This way we know we’re done our part. But, he’s been coming to church, asking questions, and doing his reading. These are encouraging signs. Yeah baptisms!

The Lopez family are still good. We weren’t able to teach them last week. But as far as we know, we’re still on for Nov. 7. So that’s Kiara, Cathy and Michael who will be baptized. Funny, we realized that Michael’s b-day is Nov. 11, and if we waited a couple extra days, he would be a convert baptism too. But we don’t want to wait! So we continue to pray that all works out for dad to get his work off and everyone to be healthy (someone’s always getting sick there). In fact, Michael just had his interview for baptism with the bishop yesterday, so things are on schedule!

Nicole: after lots of thinking about her, last week Sister Cooprider and I talked about it and decided that she just needs to be baptized. That she wants to, and we’re teaching her, and she’s keeping commitments. She doesn’t understand everything, and she is kind of like a little kid who you have to have A LOT of patience with, but it’s not for us to hold her back from being baptized. So we’ve changed her date to Nov. 4, and we’re working towards that. She’s nervous about it all, because it’s new, but again, this way we know we’re doing all we can on our part, and if we’ve prepared her well, and she passes the interview, then she can have the Holy Ghost finally, which is what she needs to help her. And, we’re working on getting the ward really on board with it, because she needs a lot of support. If I hadn’t learned some degree of patience on my mission up to this point, then I’ve learned it with Nicole! Even when she drives us crazy, it’s always comes back so fast to me, that she’s a daughter of God. And somehow I can’t help but what to help her and love her. Yeah baptism!


Anaheim California Sister Missionaries


Raven. is still doing well. We continue to teach him once a week and he’s doing all of his reading. Yesterday he had some community service he had to do, so he missed church. But that’s the first time since I’ve been here that he hasn’t come. The branch has been absolutely amazing at fellowshipping him. They keep coming to appointments and helping him understand. It will be an easy transition for him to eventually have different missionaries, because really he can rely on the branch.

And there is Jose Barajas. We met him the week before last and set a baptismal date with him. We’ve taught him 3 times, but he hasn’t come to church yet. The lessons go really well. He has some doubts/questions concerning our not praying to saints or to the Virgin Mary. Since that’s his culture, it’s hard to give up. I don’t know though. He’s not progressing a lot. We’ll see what happens this week and see if he has the desire to find out if the gospel and church are true.

Caesar Castillo. He requested a Book of Mormon and Bible online, and since he’s in the other sister’s area, they brought him the Book of Mormon. But since he’s YSA age, they passed him to us. We taught him the Restoration, talked about the Book of Mormon, and invited him to be baptized Nov. 8. He accepted. He lives in some type of boarding house. We’re not sure. He’s a little bit slower. But he understood all the things we talked about and remembered all of his reading-which is more than Nicole! And Tracy-one of the YSA girls that we teach, came with us to the appointment, and volunteered to pick him up for church. So he was there yesterday, and it was wonderful!

And we visited a lot of other people this last week! We hadn’t seen Lisa Ruiz (inactive YSA) for awhile, but made contact yesterday. That was good. And one day coming into our apartment, we met this Asian girl who said she’s a member, but inactive. Alva Lee. She lives across the hall from us. Funny. So we visited her. She hasn’t been to church for years and years. She joined the church in Taiwan with her family, lived in Seattle for years, and just moved her, and was thinking about coming back to church. She said "its “lucky” that she met us." Now she should be coming to church! And we are teaching this other crazy YSA names Jennifer Cogburn. She’s divorced and has a little boy, and now lives with her parents. She splits her time between the YSA branch and the family ward her parents are in, and she’s trying to get to the temple. Her bishop asked her to take the missionary lessons from the elders in her ward. They’ve been teaching her for a while, but she’s a strong personality, and one of the elders is pretty honest too, and they clashed. So after apparently kicking them out of her house, she asked if we’d teach her. Oh hooray! She talks soooo much and has some doubts about prophets and different things. It looks like it will take some time to really help her. We’re also teaching this 16 year old girl in the ward whose family is inactive. Shannon. She recently came back to the church. We taught her the Restoration last night and she has a hard time believing any of it. Odd. She comes to church by herself and goes to early morning seminary-I guess because she feels like these things keep her on the right path, and keep her away from drugs and alcohol that used to be a problem for her. But otherwise she feels like we create religion and these stories to help us. Ah! Sometimes it’s hard for me to get people like that. Because sometimes I have questions too, and I wonder about stuff. But in the end, I realize that it doesn’t matter, and I know that the gospel is true, so the questions can leave my mind. Why do some people have to feel like they’re so intellectual and philosophical, using fancy words and questioning everything. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t make them feel better. Oh well. Hopefully we can go slow and help her. She apparently doesn’t like commitment, so she wouldn’t even agree to pray this week. She said she’s “try.” If we can get her to create some good habits, then I’ll feel good about it.

Hermana Fatkin and Hermana Sanders

So that’s the week! Lots of stuff. The rest of the transfer looks crazy busy. Which is good, except that makes time tend to move faster! No me gusta eso!

Thank you all for the e-mails and the prayers and all of your love! I love you all!

Love,
Emily