Anaheim Transfer

Andrew's & Vanessa's Baptism
Sisters Sanders, Fatkin, & Patten
June 28, 2009

Familia! Well it was another great week! We had lots of good appointments this week. teaching investigators and less actives as well. There was a lady a month of so ago, or more, Priscilla, who we went and checked on again. We recommitted her to be baptized and she accepted it and we saw her three times last week. That was good. But she flaked out for church. She's just a very distracted and extreme type. When we first see her at the door she's always all stressed out and anxious, but then once we start teaching, she gets all calm and happy. We explained to her it's the spirit and if she wants that all the time, then she needs to keep her commitments so she can be baptized. We'll see!
Leslie seems to be progressing more. We’ve always taught her at Vanessa’s, but now she would like us to come to her apartment to teach her and her sons (we’ve asked before, but she always just liked doing it at Vanessa’s) so I guess she has more interest. And we asked them to pray about being baptized, and to pray about a date. And her son Louis, who is 9, sort of sighed in exasperation, and she said he keeps bugging her about being baptized. Hopefully with Vanessa as a support, and with her son wanting to get baptized, she’ll truly try to learn more and have that desire to be baptized too. But Leslie didn’t come to church on Sunday, and David didn’t either. We were pretty disappointed.
Yesterday was a good Sunday. It was actually interesting because in both of our wards, there was a missionary “homecoming.” Our bishop’s son came home in one, and our ward mission leader’s in the other. The second talk was especially good. I was pretty impressed. We taught S. Arrington (the one with the very eclectic home) the 10 commandments with the signs, and she just loved it! She’s an elementary school teacher, and in she’s actually taught the commandments before as part of the curriculum, so now she has a new way to do it. And she gave us sponge cake, because yesterday was national sponge day or something.

Sisters Sanders, Fatkin & Dutson roasting huge marshmallows

February 2009

Anaheim Apartment

And I’ve been transferred. Somehow I really was hoping I’d stay in La Habra until the end, but with a threesome, things tend to change a lot. So Sister Patten is staying in La Habra and is senior sister to a sister that’s been in Anaheim for the first 4 months of her mission. And Sister Patten is very nervous about it. But she’ll be great! And Sister Lewis is moving over to Yorba Linda and Placentia and I am going down to Anaheim. Basically the other sister and I traded places. I’m pretty sad to leave the other sisters-we really had a great transfer together, one of those that fly by. I loved the people we taught and I really learned to love those wards too. Oh well!
My new companion is Sister Cooprider. She’s from Massachusetts, and came out in December. Except for her first transfer, she’s always been senior companion, so she said she’s really excited to not be the senior and to be able to learn from someone else. The President called me today to sort of tell me that even though she’s been in the area for awhile, that I am the senior and yeah, it was sort of a random call. Sister Cooprider’s a great missionary, but she really hasn’t had much training on her mission, so she has a few misguided ideas about things. I don’t know her very well, but I did live with her for a transfer, and she’s very nice. And now I’m moving back to the old, nasty apartment that I spent almost my entire mission in. I am in the Anaheim 2 ward, and the Anaheim 7 branch which is a YSA branch and not Spanish. It should be interesting. I’ve done exchanges in Anaheim before, and there are a lot of weirdos there!
Changes changes! Should be great! We’ll see what happens. Well I love you all and hope you have wonderful week!
Love,
Emily

Sisters on Bikes?

 

Hello familia! How is everyone? From what I hear, you all sound like you're doing great! Things are great here too!

Well last week we set a couple of baptismal dates. One was with a woman that some elders in the Spanish ward up here found. I'm not sure if I mentioned Priscilla last week. Well she was baptized RLDS years ago and remembers some stuff, so that sort of helps. And she's excited and knows this is all true and we set a date for July 26. She kept saying "Wow, wow, wow" and how this is all just an answer to her prayers; she used to see missionaries and wonder why they didn't knock on her door. She wasn't able to come to church on Sunday because of some family stuff. So that's Priscilla Diaz.

Also, on the 4 of July we were contacting out on the streets and talked to a family and went over to teach their daughter last week and taught her and her other 9 year old friend. They are two Hispanic families that live together. The girls want to get baptized. So we set a date. But we have to teach the families and they would need to get baptized in order for the girls to get baptized. Our bishop won't allow us to baptize children (without their parents) in our ward. I can understand that. So that is Maria and Destiny.



David Martinez (Vanessa's brother) is still doing really well. He still isn't ready to be baptized yet, but he's progressing. Just last week in school he started talking a little to this girl who someone mentioned she was Mormon, but inactive; he told her that he was "preparing to be a Mormon" and in the end, she said that he had motivated/inspired her to go back to church. Wow! He's really doing amazing.

Yes, Vanessa Delgado is Hispanic but grew up here. Everything did seem really quick with Vanessa. It only took two weeks for her to be baptized. The sisters met her the day before I came back from Yorba Linda for that one week. So I was in on the whole thing. Basically she works at this care facility and there are members there that have fellowshipped her and she went a couple of times to their ward. Then the elders (Spanish ward) showed up at her work place to do some service and the lady, who is the manager there and a member, she said "Elders, I have a referral for you." But because she would go to an English ward, we were the ones who taught her. Vanessa is 27 and has three kids. Andrew is 9 and the oldest. He got baptized. Ruby is 5 and Carina is 3.

Friday Sister Fatkin went to the temple (the departing missionaries all go right before leaving) and Sister Brown's companion was also at the temple, so she was on exchanges with Sister Patten and me for the day. Sister Brown is still in the Samoan ward and I guess the President asked her and her companion who they thought would do well in that program and they both said my name. And he said that's what he had been thinking too. But he wasn't sure because I only just got up here. So until transfer calls came in, I wondered if I'd be ending my mission with Sister Brown in Samoan. But no! Sister Patten and I are staying here and Sister Lewis is now coming up to join us. Crazy! I'm a little nervous about that, just because we had some interesting transfers together. But it will work out; it will be great. Sister Patten and I get along really well together, so I think it will all be fine.
My Sister Fatkin leaves today! Ah! I can't believe it. She had only been out a couple of months when I first got here! I'm not sure where time is going!

This morning I got a call from our vehicle coordinator, and he asked if we were going to be on bikes. Because apparently the President told them I wanted to be on bikes; he said that's fine and we just need to be careful. It was random. As much as I'd like to ride bikes, it doesn't make sense for me and Sister Patten to buy bikes at this point of our missions, and I'm not going to do it just for fun. If I was told to, then fine. But weird. I guess I could've done bikes if I had really wanted to! Maybe he heard about our bike ride!
Well, that's about all I guess! Mom, I did get the package. It was wonderful. Perfect! I shared the beef jerky and some of the other stuff. The elders all say thank you (especially Elder Lee from Korea) as do my companions! I've got an amazing family!

Love you all family! I hope you all have a wonderful, fantastic week! Thank you for everything!

Love,
Emily

La Habra Here I Come!

Well my Spanish experience has officially come to an end. At least for a little while I suppose. All of us in my companionship are getting transferred out of the ward, and no sisters are replacing us. It's sort of sad, because for a little while, there will be no sisters in our mission officially speaking Spanish. Sisters Lewis and Yeom will be “whitewashing” an English area that hasn't had sisters for a long time. I think that will be really good for them-really push them since they are both still relatively new missionaries, and now they will have an opportunity to really lead and learn how to be missionaries.
And I...well, I am going up to La Habra. And my companion will be Sister Fatkin! Yeah! I'm actually really excited; I've really missed Sister Fatkin. The sad thing is that this is her last transfer, so for sure I will have another companionship in just a month and a half. I don't know anything about La Habra, except that they cover two wards up there and it's the northwest edge of our mission. And their apartment is really nice. That's all. And yes, it's English. So I will just have to take advantage of every opportunity to speak Spanish and read Spanish and do anything Hispanic. Sad! But I'm really looking forward to the change.
I think this is the right time for this change to happen with our investigators too. So many of them have gotten to kind of a stand still point in terms of progression. The elders in our area will now be teaching them, and I think it will help them. Especially because hopefully all the fathers/husbands/boyfriends maybe will be more receptive to listening to the elders and then entire families can be baptized.
It was sad to leave Araceli's family, and Lupe and Lulu and Big Boy and just everyone. I really love this ward. Eight months! It has been home. But last week time just sort of dragged on, and I knew that is was definitely time for me to get out.


We do have some new people that are showing really really good potential that hopefully will be baptized soon. We went to visit Juan Carlos on Saturday, but he had to leave, so he told his grandma to let us in. She's 82, and organizes quinceneras (big parties for 15 year olds) and teaches the kids how to dance. They're like fancy sweet sixteen parties. Turns out she got baptized a couple of years ago and has gone through the temple and everything. So Juan Carlos has even more contact with the church than we realized. So he's close to baptism.
And Araceli and her entire family came to church again, as well as Lupe's husband. Yeah! Mom, you will be happy to know, that I handed out my amazing little "business" cards to everyone. I haven't had much chance to use them before that. I told everyone I will be visiting next winter.
So that's what's going on around here. It's been pretty cloudy every day here, and I can't believe today is June. Where did the time go? Thank you again all my family for all of your love and support and advice and prayers! They all help soooo much! I love being a missionary, and I'm so thankful to have a family that's so strong in the gospel!

Love,

Emily