Second transfer = staying put

Hello family! Such lovely long e-mails I got today! It is always exciting! Transfer calls came in at about 10:30 Saturday night and.....I am staying! We all figured we'd still be here, but hey, the president can do what he wants, right? None of the 13 sisters are moving-I guess everyone moved the last time. There are only a couple of sister's areas here-two in spanish, my ward, and another ward in the stake. Then there is a sister's area in an Anaheim ward (they do a family and the singles ward in english) and there are sisters in Irvine (English, but a very nice suburbia with lots of middle easterners and Asians) and the Tongan and Samoan areas. So really not a lot of options for sisters who speak only spanish and english. But the elders obviously have a lot more areas they can serve in. Our little district did consist of our companionship and two elder companionships. One elder just got called to be a ZL (he looks exactly like Val Kilmer), another got called to be a DL, and our DL got called to be the AP (he doesn't have any shoulders). No wonder we had such a great district, it's full of leaders! So our district will be a little different this week after a new elder comes in and some other changes are made. And they're changing from having 6 zones to having 5 zones (used to be 150 missionaries, now 120) so we got plucked out of our spanish zone and are now going to be mixed with an english one. I think because there are so few areas for sisters, and because only two are spanish, that's the reason why it's harder for sisters to really get to learn the language. We don't have real opportunities to be immersed. Our old DL has been out 17 months and has been in spanish the entire time. Not fair! Well, we'll see, like I said before, one way or another, I will come back fluent. So that's the transfer dealio.

What else? Um, my daily schedule. Get up 6ish, walk down to a park down the street and run for like 20 minutes then walk back. Last week we were running there and I tripped on a pinecone and sort of twisted/sprained my ankle. I don't know. All I know is it's still swollen and the running doesn't happen at the moment. But hey, I have elastic bands! I just hook them up to the chain link fence and away I go! We then from 7-8 get ready, eat breakfast, all that stuff. 8-9 personal study. 9-10, companion study, 10-11 language study. 11-12 lunch. That's all if we're lucky. Rarely do we have a day when all of our studying happens. And it's so important in order to feel ready for our citas. During comp study we always plan what we're going to teach and who's doing what and all of those plans. It's a good thing the approved missionary library is small, because there really isn't time to read anything I find. I don't know where time goes, but I never feel like there's any extra of it. We obviously try to have citas planned for the dya, but it doesn't always happen, so we pick a street or two and go knock doors (formally called tracting!). Sometimes we just go somewhere public and just hand our the little cards-usually the finding faith in christ video. Podemos dejarle una tarjeta? Puede llamar este numero para recibir una pelicula gratis de la vida de Jesu Cristo. Bueno. 5-6ish is dinner, if we have to feed ourselves. But if a member feeds us, it's usually earlier-4ish. Sometimes they eat with us, but usually not. It's really informal. We get there and they're still fixing it and they give us the food and just talk to us, and more often that not, the kids have just gotten home from school and they eat with us, and the dad's not home. I just remember how having the missionaries over for dinner was such a big deal and we were all there and often it was a Sunday. We always leave with a message, obviously, but it's funny because we're usually just sitting at the dinner table and it's so casual. It's just a different culture I guess! Mostly the people feed us fried food. Fried thick torillaish things with beans or rice, sometimes chicken, tomales. Horchata! But we have gotten spaghetti and this other amazing pasta thing. Last week one of our investigators feed us carrot soup and salmon with vegetables that was sooo good. Missionaries appreciate food, but it's nice to get full on non-fried foods.

Our inves. Eulalio commited to being baptized last week. Hooray! He's such a funny little guy. We call him our little lamanite (he doesn't know that!). He's from this place in Mexico where some of my MTC friends are so I got info on his family (his wife and son still live there) so they can get them baptized too. So that date is Oct. 11. H. Fatkin is excited because he will be confirmed the next day, on her birthday. What a great motivation to get someone baptized. Ha ha ha! Daniel and Stephanie Mendoza. Well, I don't know. The mom last week said they aren't getting baptized, and that the dad wants them to wait a week. It's so frustrating, everyone's so noncommital about everything. But we invited ourselved to do a noche de hogar (FHE) with them tonight, so we'll be doing some talking to the dad and mom. Yesterday we had a nice little miracle! Our investigator Araceli and her 8 year old daughter Cibelly came to church yesterday! After weeks of it not happening, we went and picked them up on the bus and took them to church. Yeah! We're hoping she'll want to keep coming back, because she needs that extra spiritual boost. Plus we know that she's ready to kind of make a decision about what's she's doing. Because she gets it and feels good about it, but is kind of waiting for something. So hooray! We've had a couple of great weeks. I think the first couple of weeks here we did a lot of contacting and door knocking and it was hard and tiring, but I think the diligence and obedience is really paying off. I know that it will get harder again because that's just the way it goes, but it's been so nice to see something come of our efforts. And now we're so tired because of all the appointments we've had. Yeah for ward missionaries and members coming with missionaries to lessons-I'm so happy my family is involved in that. I definitely didn't get it before I got here, and I know I still don't really get it, but members are SOOOO important! Help and support those missionaries all you can. They'd rather have you help them with a lesson than feed them. Or go out and make some non-member friends and invite them over for dinner with the missionaries. That would be great!

So I need ideas. I'm not the most creative person at times, and if anyone has fun creative and random ideas for any object lessons on any subject, or things that could get kids involved in gospel topics, that would be great. Ryan, what's the tea bag trick again? Ideas for FHE lessons, and anything in the future that would be helpful in making us less lame in our lessons. It's been a while since I've been in primary, so yeah, I can't think of much. Ideas? Gracias! And also, mom, whenever you do send another package (no rush) would you also send my BYU ID card? It's in my wallet in the nightstand. In case I ever do anything and need a student discount!

It sounds like the family is doing wonderful. I wish I had more time to write you everything. I think of all types of things I want to say during the week, but I get here and feel like I don't really give you any good info. I'll try to think of some specific funny stories for the next e-mail, to keep it more exciting! Oh yeah, we have a car. You did ask that mom. I soooo wish we could bike, but only elders bike here. We have a certain amount of miles a transfer and just try our best to conserve those. So we park somewhere and walk as much as possible. And I'm trying really hard to not get the sister missionary voice mom. As long as I can stay spanish, I think I'll be safe! But you do have to be optimisitic, that's for sure. I can't stand it when people are all moody and lame (yeah I know I am sometimes), so even if it's annoying, I'd rather be optimistic. Hooray! Love you all muchisimo and thank you for the e-mails and everything!

Love,

Your Hermana Emily!

Hola mi familia! Como estan ustedes? Estoy buena! So yes, it is transfer week. Well, sort of. They let everyone know what's up Saturday and the moves happen next Monday. We're pretty confident in our comp that none of us will be going anywhere, but at the same time I suppose we're ready for anything. It will be interesting to see what happens! Oh, I just need to stay speaking Spanish! So last week we went to the temple. It really is a beautiful temple-though I suppose I wouldn't admit it if it was ugly. They're aren't very many pink temples out there, so it's fun. Small, obviously. Definitely more of a CA style I think. The creation room has a really pretty beach mural in it, and all the wood is dark, so I liked that! We saw the old movie version, and I had to look out for this BYU teacher who is in it. President Watrous told me that this art teacher at BYU is James in it. This teacher is the same person who interviewed me to go on the London study abroad. Funny to see him like 20 yrs ago. The time at the temple is always too short I think. The last time I'd gone to the temple was my last day at the MTC-crazy to think how much has happened since then, when really not that much time has passed. Let's see what I can tell you more about who and what and where about this mission. First of all, in Spanish wards, when they sing, they all sound like a bunch of little kids. It's funny, me gusta. The other night we "tracted" into a little fiesta that was happening on some street in honor of Mexican independence day or something. It was a bunch of little girls, some little boys (under 12 yrs) just dancing to music. And their parents were just watching in delight. Funny because the music and the way they were dancing...well, let's just say that they learn from a young age how to shake it. It was funny, we stood and watched and talked to some people and they gave us palomitas-a corn soup. Every single week in church they like to talk about Proposition 8, this thing that will be voted on soon here about whether or not people have to marry gay people. I don't know, as missionaries we get tired of it because investigadors get tired of hearing about it. Some of the elders had investigadors who didn't want to come back the next week, and really, I don't blame them. We had stake conference this weekend, and I swear that the whole things was geared towards this prop. 8. I understand it's good to do this, but sometimes some doctrine is good too. Oh well! So there's this man, Humberto who was recently baptized. And he was led into the church by another guy, Francisco. And we're teaching this man Eulalio, who we found out works with Humberto, and so now, since these are all 40ish, single men, we're thinking it would be great if they set up a little club for themselves. It's so hard for some of them because after they change their lifestyles they lose some friends and they just get bored. And then they get attached to the missionaries. Not so fun. Luckily we have a good ward mission leader who is trying to get the ward involved on giving the new member lessons, instead of the missionaries. It's a good idea and we're hoping it happens. We're teaching these two kids-Daniel (10) and stephanie (13) whose mom is a member and aunt is a member (wife of ward mission leader) and another aunt is a member. But the mom is not very active, yet wants the kids to be baptized. She never sits and listens when we teach the kids, and she definitely doesn't get them to church. So it's a little hard and we don't get it. But Daniel wants to be baptized, even though we keep having to move the date back, and Stephanie is just cautious and wants to make sure. She's really smart, much more like the mom, always trying to make sure they can get to church and that she writes down when we're coming by again. Yeah, we don't get some of these parents who want their kids taught, but beyond that they don't support them. We are also teaching the husband of a recently reactived woman. The Mendezes. We eat with them every week and sometimes he's not there because of work (and it's frustrating) but I think she just needs our support too. They actually live in a nice area called Anaheim hills, so she has this baby grand that I'm sure doesn't get used. She had me give her a piano lesson last week. My first piano lesson, and definitely my first in Spanish. Ha ha ha, we'll she how she does. I think I mentioned that everyday we wake up it's always cloudy. Sometimes I hope and pray for rain, but the clouds siempre go away and there are no clouds in the sky and it's hot. But last Friday it stayed cloudy! It was exciting because it was a change and I feel like CA has acknowledged fall! Last week we made papusas with our district. They're basically a tortilla-ish thing you put on a griddle. Sarah Ruth, our super laid-back El Salvadorian made all the ingredients for us so that we could make the rest ourselves. A little service always makes you love people more! We watched "The Restoration" with her family and some random friends last week and talked a little afterwards. Mostly I don't think she's every paying attention, but she's so nice anyway. But we got the impression last week that someone at that house needs to hear the message, so we'll keep going! That would be great if Christmas music eventually made it's way here-like Josh Groban, Mannheim, that one Mormon guy whose cd cover has a sleigh on it-Keith or Carl or something? Also, how about some sugar free hot chocolate? Tis the season! Saturday we cleaned part of one room of crazy Joanne, our inactive friend. Basically I told her she didn't have a choice and we just tried to take off the inch thick dust off of her civil war upright piano. It's so pretty! We found some cockroaches and silverfish (?) and earwigs and daddy long legs. It was great! She just doesn't have much money and is a very old looking 55 year old whose 19 year old son supports her. She sleeps in the front room and saves EVERYTHING. Boxes full of old yellow recipes and old bills and Advil and playing cards. It was only a little that we did but I think she appreciated it. I just wish she would come to church! So many people just need a friend at church, if they knew there was someone there to greet them and take care of them, they'd go and be okay. Oh, I almost forgot, when we had zone conference my second week here, we had a speaker, and I don't know if he's an area authority or what, but it is Elder Tenney. Sound familiar? I ate lunch with him and since he said he was a mission president in Spain, I figured I'd ask the question. And yes! Ryan's first mission pres! He remembered your name too. He was a really great speaker, I really liked him. What else can I tell about the mission? I think H. Ochoa said that maybe we got 300 baptisms the last year? I don't know though. We teach probably around 18 lessons a week, and then usually around 5 lessons with a member present. Those are so important! You ward mission leaders, make sure your missionaries have members that will come to appointments! It makes a huge difference! There are something like 120 elders here, and only 13 sisters. After transfers and incoming sisters (sister) by January we will have only 10 sisters. Yikes! Mom, if you look up the 1990 August Ensign, you can find an article about H. Ochoa's family. English is more her first language, she completely grew up in Vancouver. But she's obviously fluent in Spanish. Which makes it hard sometimes because I find that I rely on her. The language is coming I suppose, but it's definitely slowed down since the MTC. H. Fatkin is from a family of three kids, brother younger and older. Her parents are pretty inactive, she went to the temple and the MTC by herself. Her parents also got divorced while she was in the MTC, so she's really had to grow a lot. But it sounds like her dad is working on becoming active again. I'm pretty sure that the Watrouses are about your age mom and dad. They look and act so much older though! Way to be young! So everything is going great still! Every week seems like so much longer than a week and by the end of the night we can't remember what we did earlier. One of my favorite things is when we go to someone's doorstep and people listen to us for a second or two, and then when they go "oh, Mormons?" and then they say very angrily "you are from a cult!". These are Americans. Ha ha ha. It makes us laugh. It's so fun all the random people that are out there. Some are so nice and some are just, uh, fun. Yesterday we talked to two "previous" members. Grew up members and just haven't been doing it for a long time. So nice, said we could always stop by and they'd talk to us, but they don't want the lessons. Come on! Well, we're just going to have to go back! What else to say? I don't know. I'm sure I've said a lot already. Everyday seems pretty much like the last, but then it's still different somehow. But it's a great work, isn't it? Thanks for all the e-mails this week and loving me everyone! Love you all. Hasta la proxima semana!

Love,
Hermana Emily

Pics from ye olde MTC

These were taken sometime in August and had a rather rough time getting on a post with text. Emily sent these to us. Enjoy!



The quintessential MTC picture.



L-R: H. Brown, some lady functioning in some calling, H. Brown, Emily, and maybe their branch president's wife? No se. The three youngest ladies formed Emily's first three-companion set.



Getting some love from the biking elders sculpture: H. Sanders, H. Chriswell.

Monday, September 8, 2008

We have had lots of cancellations on citas (appointments) in the last two weeks, and we've been doing TONS of knocking doors. It gets kind of old, but it's always interesting. People keep things fascinating. White people tend to think they either know everything about religion in general or our religion in specific. The not so nice people like to tell us we believe in a different Christ than they do or that we are a cult. Whatever. It's okay, because if they can just turn us away really quickly (sometimes they like to take their time to be dumb though) then we can have more time to go find the people who are ready and willing to listen. Esta bien! We've talked to two different very young guys who have masters in theology and it was really interesting to talk to them. The Hispanic people are hard because they're all really nice and they listen and give you their contact info, but they're just not good at saying no. But they're still so fun.
But seriously the Hispanic people, and just a lot of cultures other than Americans just now how to have fun. They are more relaxed and generous and are always having parties and inviting you over. Not to say that American aren’t' like that too-hey, I'm patriotic! The Spanish is coming. Sometimes it's frustrating; I just want to be fluent. We're going to have to listen/watch General Conference is Spanish, so I decided I should be fluent by then-it would just be so much more convenient! We are teaching two different women (Delmy and Araseli) and their daughters, and both of them have so much potential, but they're just not coming to church. And if they can't commit to that, then we might have to "drop" them. It's so hard to keep coming back and teaching the same thing if they're not willing to get themselves to church. But they're both so amazing and one of them has this daughter who's 12 and when we read the BoM she always says that it's so beautiful and she's excited to come to church. Come to church people! Gosh! We just got a couple of hopefuls last week-Maribel and Maria. We have return citas with them this week and we're really hoping it works out because we need some new investigadors! We are also teaching the new member lessons to a couple of different men, they're funny. Hispanics just talk a lot. You don't have to ask much to get them going. Everyone in our stake seems to be related to someone else and it's hard to keep them straight. There are some inactive ladies that want their children to be taught and hopefully baptized (it seems kind of like a Catholic cultural thing-just get them baptized so they're good to go) but the women don't do much to support them. They're not there at the lessons and aren't getting the kids to church. I don't know.
We go visit this white woman every week that is in our area but not in our stake. She's a little crazy. She's a convert of 23 years and doesn't have any teeth (she's 55) and hasn't gone to church in a white because she's super sensitive and just needs someone to talk care of her. Her house is a crazy mess and her 19 year old son supports her. We're going to go clean and organize her house next week-hooray! She knows a lot of doctrine about the church and still believes it all, which is great, and she spends all of her time doing genealogy. So that's great, but coming to church would be great too. She likes to tell us false doctrine too, like how she knows that everyone will be white after the resurrection. She's funny, I really like her. Her name's Joanne. Plus last week she gave us some homemade zucchini bread!Anyway, things really are going wonderfully here, it's a challenge, but I pretty much planned on that, so that's just fine. If it wasn't hard, I don't think it would be real missionary work! Oh yeah, we are going to the temple this week so I'm reeeeally excited for that. It's a beautiful temple, come see it someday! Anyway, I'm happy, I'm healthy and doing just great! Thanks for the love and the e-mail and the packages and prayers and everything! Love you all!
Your missionary Emily!

A Post Labor Day Note

So being labor day yesterday we couldn't come to the library and e-mail. So we had to use this slim time before appointments to do some e-mailing. As a result, I have like 2 minutes to write. I haven't read most of the e-mails, I'll have to print them off and read them. Um, um, what's the most important to say. The mission is great!? It's all making more sense and I'm having more fun everyday. Definitely a lot to learn. Learning from the comps for sure-on both what to do and what not to do. They're definitely both really great. The ward here is really amazing too. Just really strong testimonies. Um, the people we're teaching-well it's interesting. They don't like to keep their commitments sometimes and come to church, but we're working on it. The spanish is coming along-though not as fast as the MTC. But it will happen mostly because I'm going to force it to. P-day yesterday was a lazy one and we ate some cake and our District leader and comp fed us chicken later and an investigator fed us Papusas later too. All a coincidence. A lucky one! It's hot here and people are crazy. We talk to a lot of people and contact a lot and it's not as hard as I would've thought. It's just fun to talk to different people. And we sang in church on my b-day and I played piano for sacrament. And what else. Um, we ate with the Peruvian fam again and it was their daughter's b-day too and the other daughter gave me some earrings she made. Very cute. I have pictures. You will see them someday. Anyway, I do have to run. Sorry this is so lame and short. It will be a great e-mail next week. ANyway, I love ALL and hope everything is going well. I know you all pray for me, but know that I pray for you all too! Love you, have a wonderful week and know that this work is great and I love it!