Hot Weather!

It is November, uh, 17th, and it has been at least in the high eighties the past couple of days. Where am I? It's crazy. And in California they get those warm Santa Ana winds and the fires all started up this weekend down here. Lots of nasty smoke in the air. But otherwise, all is good!
Okay, so I will try to clear up a few details about the mission. This mission is bilingual. EVERYONE is called to speak a language besides English. Usually Spanish. And they might already happen to know Korean or Samoan, Vietnamese or Tongan. And pretty much everyone is trained in that other language in the MTC-again, the majority in Spanish. So some people here are bilingual (if you could call me bilingual) and others are trilingual. Most CA missions are like that now I guess. Then it's just luck of the draw, who gets to actually serve in a Spanish area. Some people leave their mission never getting to serve in an actual Spanish ward; others get to serve a lot. So I was lucky I suppose. Make sense? I hope so.
Second thing. So I live in a city called Tustin, but I don't actually serve there. It's just where they have housing for us. But my ward, my area, where I serve-is Irvine. Like last time my area was the city of Orange, even though I lived in Anaheim and my ward was in Santa Ana. Yes, don't be confused. So Irvine. Irvine is different than a lot of other "California" type areas. I don't see very many palm trees, and not everything is stucco. Some areas actually look a little Midwestern or northwestern. And yes, it is ridiculously expensive, and most rent. For example, for a condo out here-some people will pay $2-3,000 a month. And they're one, maybe two bedrooms. But that's more of the extreme. And yes, almost everyone in the ward is a lawyer. Lots of young couples, lots of families. We do eat with a different family every night, and every is sooo nice. Really great families, really strong.
In this ward what they're doing is having all of the auxiliaries come up with 5 people (they can't overlap people) either inactive or part members, that we can work with and they can be focusing on. As for us, we probably have 7 people that we're working solidly with. Most of the people have probably been meeting with the missionaries longer than someone in a Spanish area before getting baptized. But the difference is that these people are usually much more solid and sure of their choice when they do get baptized. This area has been a hard one. But it's been picking up in the last year. The stake has had double the baptisms this year-something like 17-since the year before. May sound low, but it's a great thing for this area.
Here's some info on some of the people we teach. There's Shellie Freedkin. She's actually in another ward (other elder's area), but because of a long story, the sisters are teaching her. She is from the Midwest-and seems like it. She just isn't CA, even though she's lived her for 30 years. She is loud and wears dark glasses and is just a funny character. She is getting baptized Nov. 29 because Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday. It has taken her a year to decide to be baptized. She had accepted almost everything, but I guess had a hard time with giving up tea. She said something like "am I going to let tea stop me from having eternal life?" Good point. I guess she finally called up the missionaries herself and said she was ready. So that's fun.
Then there's Paula. She also has been meeting with the sisters for a year. This is her and her husband's second marriage. He is a member on the high council. So he's pretty strong. But she's just slow. She keeps saying that she's afraid that she's get baptized and then somewhere down the line break a commandment or realize that it's hard. She just needs more faith. But we think she's pretty close.
And Stephanie Suzukie. She is amazing. The sisters started teaching her, uh, like 6 months ago. She's married and has two little boys. She's very involved in her own church-we think she probably has some leadership position. She told us last time we came that honestly, when she first met with the sisters, she thought she'd listen once and then be done. She would never have believed that she'd still be listening, but she said that she just had to. It makes sense to her that we have prophets, and has wondered where the people in her church get their authority. And she's started to FHE in her family, and last night she told us they're going to work on keeping the Sabbath day holy in her family. She just amazes us every time we talk to her. We think that after a strong lesson on faith this week, and one on baptism next week, that she might be ready. She admitted last time that it's time for her to do something. That the ball is in her court and that really there's not much more we can do. She's close!
Those are the main investigators. And they are all wonderful. We still tract most days-not as much as we did in Orange though. And we started counting our numbers different every week, so we don't count a lesson unless we have an opening and closing prayer (like in MN) when before, as long as we taught a couple of principles it counted. Anyway, the way we're doing things now will hopefully be more effective and we can really work with members more and people who can give us referrals. One thing we do with members is we share the scripture in Alma about small and simple things -36:6-7 (?) and then we give them this paper. It's the 21 day promise. As a family they pick out 5 people they know that they'd like to help learn about the gospel. Then everyday for 21 days they pray for those people by name and read a different scripture on the paper. The goal is that at the end of the 21 days they will have thought of some actions they can take with each person-invite them to an activity, to church, to meet us, whatever. So it's directed by their inspiration, not us telling them to give everyone Books of Mormon. People seem to like it.
Oh yeah, I saw someone else last night that I knew from before the mission. Down in Irvine, because it is so diverse, they do a lot of interfaith activities. I don't know if I mentioned that S. Moore and I and two elders went last week to a religious diversity forum at UC Irvine because they wanted some missionary representation. But last night they had this interfaith choir at our church. Sikhs, Baha'is, Buddhists, Baptists, Jains, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and maybe others, all had some musical number. And they asked us to usher. I got to hear a little of the beginning and loved it! That's what I was looking forward to about Irvine. Anyway, this girl came who I was pretty good friends with at BYU. I knew she was in Anaheim, but figured I'd never run into her. Weird!
We still hear a lot about Prop 8 down here-but mostly from the members. They're all worried about us, but really we haven't had any problems with it. No one says anything to us. Irvine is pretty conservative. Actually, in general, Orange County I think is the most conservative part of CA. So no worries!
Okay, so that's a lot of info for this week. I love you all and hope that everything is going fantastically in your areas of the world! Let me know how everything is going when you get a chance!
Love,
Emily

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)

Irvine Here I Come!

Well, well, well. Guess who's getting transferred. I'm pretty sure that all of the sisters-all 13 of us thought that none of us were getting transferred this time, since 3 sisters are leaving in December, so we're basically all going to have to change then anyway. Wrong. H. Chriswell is getting transferred and will now be in a threesome, in the Tongan program! Ha. We have a Samoan companionship, a Tongan companionship, a Spanish companionship, and 3 English companionships. And so we basically knew that I would have to leave, before I even got the official call. So I will be leaving in 2 hours to go down and be with Sister Moore. She is one of the sisters leaving in December, so I will have another new comp in 6 weeks. Crazy. So much for trying to keep people in their areas for 8-9 months! I don't know. I knew I would go down to Irvine at some point, I just didn't expect it to come so soon. Probably I will be down there for a while, but then, who knows? Sister Moore is sometimes a little intense, but honestly, from what I hear, we're probably a lot alike and I actually thought it was too bad that I wouldn't ever get to be her comp. Down to Irvine I go, to Pleasantville and superficial people and lots of middle easterners and organic food stores. Definitely will be a much different world than my little area of Orange and Santa Ana. I'm excited, but definitely sad. I loved my ward here. The elders had some baptisms here yesterday, and President Watrous came. So I just told him I'm fine, as long as I leave the mission fluent. Sometimes people need to be reminded. But he told me that 2 months should've been enough time. Ha! I feel like it's the MTC again, I've only been here 1 week more than the MTC and I'm in a threesome and I'm the one going solo! Sister Moore is pretty much fluent though in Spanish, so I'm sure I'll continue to improve.This week has been SLOW and no one has been answering their phones and they've been canceling their appointments. And all of our baptismal people-well, we just don't know what's happening. Araceli hasn't been to church in two weeks, and we couldn't see her last week, and it feels like she's slipping. We finally saw Eulalio Saturday night, after just about "dropping" him, but then he still didn't come to church. We couldn't see Maria Tellez this week and she has this dumb, not friendly husband who we think is causing trouble, and she didn't come to church. Cleotilde we saw once, but then he wasn't home all day Saturday even though we had an appointment, and he wasn't at church. What's the deal! It's amazing how much if you don't see these people all the time, how they just seem to lose it. And all of the people we thought we were teaching pretty solidly are also not so solid now. I think H. Ochoa and Fatkin will see LOTS of changes in who they are teaching this transfer. They will have to work hard to make these baptismal dates happen.
And then there's Lupe. We LOVE Lupe. She and Lulu have been reading the BOM together and Lulu loves it-always has lots of questions and has been highlighting things. She asked us what the rock is that we are supposed to build on. She is so smart! We talked to Lupe about getting married and she knows she needs to and we committed her to doing it this month. She has since talked to her "boyfriend" and it sounded like it would happen. We also were over there Thursday night because it was her bro's b-day and he fed us and the elders (who are teaching him) ribs. A little pre-Halloween party. Then we saw Lupe Friday and everything was really progressing. Saturday night I talked to her and she said she got work off so they could all come to church. Then apparently yesterday she and the "boyfriend" had a little fight over him not wanting her to go to church. The elders tell us that she tried to kick him out. We haven't talked to her ourselves so we're worried about her. I'm really sad because I won't be able to see her now to say goodbye. Hopefully the sisters can help her out.

I'm glad that Erin's eye surgery went wonderfully and that she will be able to get rid of the crazy eye! By the way Erin, there is a store down here called Sprouts and it is an organic grocery store-local farmers market type products and it's cheap. And it's nice and it's big. I think it's your store. Come down here and check it out.
Remember, if you write me, I only speak Spanish! Same goes for the Sprouts, if you want, you're welcome to write in Spanish, it makes me happy and it's good for me! I'm not sure why the Mendezes remind me of you, Mom and Dad. Hermano Mendez is just this really smart guy and his mannerisms are like Dad, and when he reads, he wears these glasses and looks like you. He asks the type of questions to us that I can see you asking us at the dinner table. Good discussion questions. They're just really nice people. They're home just feels comfortable I guess. We ate with them yesterday-so it was my last dinner in the ward, and it was appropriate. Probably they, and the bishop's family and another family in the ward are my favorites. They're just all such friendly and happy people and it's so fun. Now on to Irvine where the sisters haven't yet eaten with the same family twice! Wow!So there's my 5-page e-mail for the week! I hope everyone is happy and having fun (important!) and receiving blessings from having a daughter and sister on a mission! Ha ha ha! Thanks for everything family! Love you all muchisimo!
Love,Emily