Baptism!

Sisters Patten, Fatkin and Sanders
Mission President's house
July 2009

Buenos dias familia!

We had a great start to a new transfer this last week! We have some new people to teach and we’re pretty excited! The family ward has finally made contact with some of the people that ward council has been talking about having us teach them.. Sometimes it takes a while to get the process going. We didn’t teach any of the people yet, but it’s great that the work is moving forward, and we have some appointments set for this week. Mom, that’s crazy that Minnesota was one of the last states to learn about this process and get it going. I suppose we didn’t start it until around the new year, but I remember learning what it was all about, this time last year. It really is an inspired idea, and really helps missionaries have more people to teach. I hope that your missionaries find more opportunities to teach. If you’re not teaching as a missionary, it’s easy to feel like you’re not really making a difference or doing what you were called to do. But they’ll be okay, as long as they’re obedient and working.

MTC District

We knocked quite a bit last week: early in the day, in the afternoon, at dinnertime, and later on at night. Nobody let us in to teach. But we met a couple of people that said we could come back. So we’re going back! The first week of last transfer we knocked into this woman who was very nice, and had just had a baby like 2 days before, so it wasn’t a good time. And we kept thinking we needed to check on her again. So last week we did, and ended up meeting her brother-in-law (all the family live together). She told us we could come back the next day at the same time, but when we came back she wasn’t there, and he was. We didn’t think he was going to be available at that time, so we hadn’t planned ahead to have another girl with us. But the next day we came back with someone and taught him the Restoration. It went really well. He was a little hesitant to accept all of these things that seemed new and different, but he accepted a baptismal date. His name is Jose, and he’d be in the singles branch. Unfortunately he didn’t make it to church-because it’s football season. We’ll keep working with him.

Hermanas Chriswell, Sanders and Brown

We also have another potential young single adult investigator. The other sisters in our district are teaching this girl who was introduced to the church by a coworker. And because this girl is the young single adult age, the sisters are going to pass her to us, and she has a baptismal date too. Wow!

The best news though is about the Lopez family;. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned them. They moved into this ward in the spring and were sort of inactive then. The Mom is member, the Dad is a recent convert, and together they have 5 kids, 4 age eight and up. And only one has been baptized. So they are a family that is part of this process where they were invited by the ward to be taught by the missionaries. It’s been really frustrating to even have appointments with them. They want the kids baptized, and they’re really really good kids and they’re excited to be baptized. But the mom just hasn’t seemed to be putting it as a priority. But finally on Friday we had an appointment with the whole family together and we set a date! So on November 7 (as long as the dad’s work schedule will let him have the day off) the three kids-Michael (8), Kiara (9), and Cathey (10) will all be baptized! We’re really excited for them! And hey, if I can’t be there to see Ashleigh baptized, I can see some other kids get baptized! Hopefully that won’t be all.

There are still some other part member families that we’re trying to work with and we’re still looking for new investigators. So who knows what else will happen!

It’s getting a little cooler here in California, and it’s very nice, especially to be walking outside! Yesterday we ate with our ward mission leader and I thought of you Erin.because his wife put out lots of fancy cheeses that she had gotten from work. Stinky cheeses not so good, but also brie and gouda. You’d like that, right? Thought so.

Good to hear that everyone is doing well! That the Sanders are reunited in Philadelphia, and everyone is enjoying their fall (winter?) weather! Life here in Anaheim, California is wonderful! S. Cooprider and I continue to get along really well and are improving our teaching together. Life is happy! As always, thank you for your love and prayers and support! I love you all!

Love,
Emily

A Day in the Life

July 2009
La Habra District Transfer Day

Hello all! Everyday this week seemed to just blaze by. But by last night, I realized that somehow the week still seemed long and I was worn out! We had a very full week. Monday we pretty much just got our basic p-day things done really fast then spend the day cleaning our apartment. A couple of girls from the singles ward and Sister Chriswell and Sister Nekesi came and helped us clean. We found out this apartment had missionaries living in it for 5 years. I did almost a year in it myself! We got everything packed up and thrown away and organized and we moved on Thursday. We have elders who are also the "mechanics." They drive a truck so they can help missionaries move and drive around all the luggage when missionaries come/go.

And now we are in our new apartment. I will have to take some pictures. I think we live in the best deal in the mission aside from living with members. We have a washer/dryer in our apartment, granite countertops, all new appliances, very beautiful pool (oh wait, that doesn't effect us) and computers/internet to use on the main floor. They also have a nice little gym here, but we're not allowed to use the gyms as missionaries. Anyway, living here is definitely a perk. We'll see if I end up finishing my mission here! Moving took up a large chunk of our time on Thursday, but we actually were able to visit more people and teach more people this week than our first two weeks. Yeah! It was a very busy week! And we got a bunch of referrals from missionaries, members and other random sources. Even though not all of those are really going anywhere, it's still a blessing to receive referrals! I will try to share some of the highlights from the week.

We continue to teach Raven. He is doing so well! We had to explain to him that his baptismal date will be on hold until he's off probation. But he's reading everything we give him, and more. He came to stake conference on Sunday, and really, he is progressing. I've already seen the changes in him. He was a little more unkempt when we first met him, but he's cleaned up, got a haircut, wears the closest thing he has to a suit to church. I only pray that the branch will really just continue to fellowship him because he's on probation for at least a year, so this is a long term thing. But so far so good!

Right before I got to this area, the sisters received a media referral. A guy was referring his girlfriend to have the lessons. He even called the sisters. But other than that little contact, we had never been able to meet him or her or get in any more contact. After multiple calls this week, we finally talked to him, and he's down in Irvine, but her official home is here in Anaheim so he thought we could teach her.

Sisters Sanders, Patten, and Fatkin
July 2009
Ward Mission Leader's Home

We met with Raichel on Saturday. Her boyfriend couldn't come, but it all worked out. I have never in my mission met anyone who was sooooo incredibly prepared to just be baptized. She's 27, has always lived in Orange County, is really smart and has her own skin care/waxing business. She was raised Christian/Pentecostal; but she always felt something was missing. After ending a 2 year sort of destructive relationship she just wanted to do her own thing for a while. Lots of people kept saying she would meet someone soon who would change everything for her. A couple of days later she went to a club with a friend and saw this guy in line and told her friend "that's my husband." She knew it sounded crazy, but she just felt it. Later that night she finally saw him again and she was just thrilled to have met a "nice Christian boy." When he told her he was a Mormon it was no problem.

They've been dating 6 months and she says he's a little less active actually, but she's gone to church with him a couple of times and has a Book of Mormon and has read various chapters and she just knows it all makes sense. She had a couple of doubts/questions about the trinity, Satan, why we focus on the Book of Mormon, etc., and we talked about them, but after she said her questions were completely answered. She really really wanted to be baptized, but she just wasn't sure. And her dad's a little anti. It was amazing because I feel like we only had to be there to officially invite her to be baptized. As we taught her the Restoration she said she knew it was all true and she cried as we shared the first vision. I don't know that I've ever taught the Restoration where the spirit has been so strong or when the other person has made me want to cry too! Raichel is just incredible. She says she knows it sounds lame but all she really wants is to be a mom and have kids and she feels like that will fulfill her. Yeah! She went to some type of fireside where Elder Scott spoke and she just knew he was an apostle and she's so impressed with everything. She accepted the invitation to be baptized and is so excited and thrilled with everything. She's just so driven by a desire to do what is right. So that's my really long story about Raichel.

The only downside to the story is that we feel like because her boyfriend is in Irvine, and she'd really be going to church there, that the best thing for her would be to be taught by the elders there. Sad! But I'm so excited for her. I have no doubt that she'll be baptized and as long as this Cody, her boyfriend, is right for her, then they will be married in the temple. In fact she'll probably be the driving force for him to become fully active. That's my best story of the week!

Another interesting teaching experience was one we had yesterday. One of the counselors in our branch presidency has 2 Danish exchange students living with him. One is the daughter of a mission companion he had and the other girl isn't a member. And they've come to church together the last couple of weeks. So we thought, “Hey, why not go visit them?” They're both around 21ish: Pia (non member) and Sarah (member).

We talked with them for a little while about all their plans while they're here, and talked about Denmark (now I have someone to go stay with there!) and they had us try black Danish licorice. And I asked them about Ebbleskivers. We asked Pia a little about her religious background. She doesn't really have one. Kind of believes in God, but just figures people believe in whatever makes them feel good and she just doesn't have a belief in much. We asked if we could share a message. Pia was a little surprised, because obviously she doesn't know too much about missionaries. But Sarah wasn't surprised! We watched that video "Finding Happiness" and put it in Danish because though Pia speaks very good English, we figured it would be easier. It seemed perfect because it just talks about the basics, talks about there being a God.

Afterwards she really didn't have much to say. We all bore our testimonies on God and prayer. I invited her to try praying. Her response was kind of like "not to be rude, but is this what you do?" Wondering if that's what we do as missionaries. Yes. It was interesting. She really didn't respond much to the idea of praying or anything. But it's okay. We thought we'd try. Plus now she knows us so maybe if she gets a desire to learn more, she won't be afraid to ask. And I know the family they're staying with does FHE and family prayer together and everything. And they're really good to these girls, so that's a good impression. It was different though to teach someone who really was kind of ambivalent to the idea of God and though she said she's prayed before she never really felt like someone was listening. Hmmm. That was our Danish experience!

We had a really great week! Everything is going really well! We still aren't sure who is going to be baptized this transfer, but it will happen! The weather has been pretty nice, and I'm getting used to the ward/branch. I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and love and support!

Love,
Emily

Newport Temple

Cosmopolitan

Sisters Sanders & Jeung
Zone Conference
June 10, 1009

Hello familia! It is September. Weird, huh? Well, California recognizes the fall by heating up. So we've been enjoying warmer weather lately! Let's see. Well, for my birthday we didn't do too much. Not much to do here. We went and got frozen yogurt. At our Zone Conference I did get a couple of packages from home (my favorite part is the digital frame with the pictures of my cute family!) and everyone sang to us August birthdays, so I did get that!
We had a really good week. We didn't get quite as many lessons as the week before, but that's alright. We are still teaching Raven in the singles branch. He does his reading and comes to church and seems to get it. Though we're not sure that he REALLY gets it, and that he really has a testimony of the restored gospel. But luckily (I guess?) he will probably have some time to continue learning, because of the probation and not being able to get baptized yet. And there are a couple of girls in the branch who are really great about coming to the appointments with us; so we definitely appreciate that!
As I mentioned, we had zone conference, and that was really good. More training is always good! It's so weird; everyone started asking me when I'm going home-not yet! So we talked about being obedient and diligent and how to find people to teach. Later that day we were able to go teach our Jamaican family. Well, it's a dad, his grown daughter, and her two daughters. It was sort of odd because they were sitting/standing in their little kitchen, and we stood in the doorway of the kitchen as we taught the restoration. But it went really well! The dad, Antony, was a little more reluctant. But Shakira seemed really excited. When we talked about the first vision you could tell she liked it and when we asked her if she felt it was possible to Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet, she definitely believed it. They didn't want to commit to baptism, but they want to keep learning. Yeah! It was a really good lesson. We're going back to teach them tonight. There are a couple of guys in our ward who served their missions in Jamaica, so we have some built-in fellow shippers already that at least will get their culture.
We taught a couple of really good lessons on tithing and fasting this week to some less active-ish members in the ward. That's one lesson I really enjoy teaching because most people struggle with those things and don't seem to get the blessings that come through obeying the commandments. I've just always known that there's so much power in following those commandments, and I've been blessed and seen people on the mission blessed by being obedient to them. We actually like to teach these people by having them teach us. We tell them they have to explain tithing/fasting/fast offerings to us as if we didn't understand, and we basically ask them prompting questions the entire time. They end up realizing they know more than they thought, and it helps them see what they need to understand better.

There's this family, the Lucero’s, that are part members. The mom is a member; the husband and two daughters are not members. The mom's sister was in Santa Ana 10 and I knew them well. And I actually did exchanges once and met this family back in December and she remembered me, which was good. The sisters really haven't been able to get in and teach them for months. But apparently she likes Spanish speakers. So she likes me which is good, but awkward; I don't really like people playing favorites. Her husband is American and she is Mexican. The girls aren't baptized because Dad had never given permission, but they have permission now and are apparently waiting for some old elders to come back and baptize them. It's very lame. Anyway, it was a breakthrough that we were even able to visit them this week and it went really well. So that's great!
Oh, and there was a baptism! Cheryl Baldridge was baptized Saturday. It was an amazing baptism; the spirit was so strong. Cheryl actually was excommunicated years and years ago, so this wasn't a convert baptism, but that's alright; it's still exciting. The sisters were still teaching her. She's in her 50's and was once married and has some kids, but they weren't raised in the church. Cheryl met this English guy online about 2 years ago on some LDS link thing, and they've basically been dating for a while. He's a very active member, also divorced, and he'd been out to visit her, and she went to England this summer. Basically because of him, she decided she needed to come back to church and figure things out again. So she did, and he flew out from England to baptize her and she had all kinds of friends and family there too, and after the baptism he proposed. No surprise for us. But she was surprised! He is very hilarious, which I think he has to be; he's an undertaker. So now she's a member and engaged and it was a wonderful day!
Next time you talk to the missionaries in your ward, ask them if they have the video "Finding Happiness." It's probably one of my top top top favorites of the mission. It's like 5 minutes long and was originally made to introduce the idea of God to people who didn't have religious backgrounds. But it's amazing. I love showing it to members at dinner appointments and talking to them about how they've been blessed through the gospel. Then we give them the SLC temple pass along cards with the web site on the back. Every single time we watch that movie, at least for me, the spirit just comes right in. And I notice something new every time. It talks about there being a "designer" and how we can communicate with the designer. It's so good and you should ask your missionaries to show it to you!

Hermana Sanders & Lewis
Elders Cruz, Hall, Parker, & Staheli
Santa Ana April 19, 2009

Well, I guess a bunch of other things happened last week too, but those are some of the highlights. So this week we are moving. Our apartment lease is up and I am grateful! New apartment! I don't know why, but they've actually chosen for us a very very brand new apartment to live in that is very expensive and very nice. Washer and dryer in the unit! Crazy! So last week we had a lot of our extra furniture removed from our apartment and we will be cleaning all day today and then moving in on Thursday to our "high-end, cosmopolitan" apartment. It's too bad though that it will take up quite a bit of our time to actually go out and work this week. There's no time to lose!
Okay, family! I love you all! I hope the move to Philadelphia goes well for the Sanders when that happens, and that the sisters are feeling all better and that the babies are good and jobs are good and everyone is happy happy happy! Thank you for everything!
Love!
Emily

Hermana Lews, Sanders & Fatkin with Jung at her baptism
March 14, 2009

Seatbelts and Miracles

Hermana Sanders with Leticia Lopez in Santa Ana, May 2009

Familia! How is everyone this lovely week? How am I? I am doing fantastically! Claro que si!

This week was great as we were able to really reach some of our goals. Again, not that numbers matter to be successful, but they sure make you feel good if you can achieve them! We were able to begin teaching some different people in the North Hills wards-some less active types. And we've just been going through the ward lists and checking on everyone that we don't already know and had some "success" with that. We're still knocking doors all over the place, and every once in a while someone lets us in. In general I would still say people are very nice. Or maybe I just don't get offended by them. One old man said when we asked if we could come in and share a message with him "not right now," we asked, "when can we come back" "Wednesday" and by the time we asked what time would be best, he had the door closed. People are funny.

Oh other random info. We had our ward correlation meeting with our mission leader in north hills-Bro. Mummert (yes, funny name). He and his wife were on the way the next day to pick up their son from his mission in Cambodia. And guess who his mission president was (it changed this summer)...President Winegar from Layton! Crazy world, huh? And our other ward mission leader in the other ward, his daughter and son-in-law has been visiting for a couple of weeks from Philadelphia where he goes to dental school at Temple. And their stake president, or maybe it's bishop, I don't remember, is Pres. Storm! Random little connections.

Que mas? Oh yeah, mom and dad, you've both asked about meals here. The members pretty much do feed us everyday. Sometimes there are weeks were hardly anybody signs up. Summer has been less full because I think people just don't know if they'll be around, and they don't want to commit. We're always fed on Sundays though, that's for sure. And for breakfast/lunch, we all just do our own thing. I usually have oatmeal, grapefruit, or eggs. Today I bought cereal for the first time on the mission. I figured I'd treat myself. S. Lewis is mostly a cereal/sandwich eater, and S. Patten mostly eats ice cream. Seriously.

Sisters Sanders and Patten

July 4, 2009 in La Habra, California

(Sister Patten is a sister from the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission)

Funny story. David M. keeps getting pulled over by the cops when he's driving. We don't get it. But this last one, he was driving without his seat belt (not sure if that's why he got pulled over) and when the cop comes over and said, "Where's your seat belt?" David answers "Jesus is my seat belt." Oh man, only David could get away with that. Because he didn't mean it all smart alecky, but honestly meant it. It’s probably not what the cop expected. So then he asks him what else he believes and David basically says he's Mormon and that we believe in Christ but also in Joseph Smith and that he translated the Book of Mormon. The cop said he "gave the right answer." Speaking of David, he still won't be baptized yet. But he was definitely happier this week. We're not sure how to keep helping him; he's learned everything we teach to someone pre-baptism. But we're going to keep trying and praying for him!

Also, Vanessa's best friend, Leslie, and her two sons finally came to church! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! She has been in on the lessons on and off ever since we started teaching Vanessa. And her kids are ALWAYS at Vanessa's house and they listen to the lessons. Louis who is 9, is really smart and gets it all. He's ready to be baptized. So when mom is ready, the two can get baptized together.

Other little exciting things for us: we've been teaching this inactive man for the past two weeks, and his son has been there too and they both came to church on Sunday! Yeah! A member in one of our wards told us they have friends from another stake moving into our other ward (and this couple are recent converts) and she gave them our phone number. And she, the recent convert, actually called us! That's a miracle! They want to stay in their old stake, but want missionaries to keep visiting them, and since the old stake is out of the mission, well, we will visit them, and they probably will end up going to our ward. And there was another miracle this weekend. I don't remember if I mentioned her before, but last transfer we met this woman Kerry, and basically taught her the Restoration at her front door because she didn't let us come in but wanted to listen. Halfway through she just started crying and said she didn't understand. She didn't understand God she said. She said we could come back, but we were never able to see her again, despite knocking on her door lots and calling her (missionaries are sort of stalkers I think). Friday night we get this call from some member in the Long Beach mission. Long story short. He is a guy who is working and who is inactive but whose girlfriend is Kerry. She's mentioned things we taught her and he noticed the card on her fridge with our numbers that we left behind. They've wanted to call us, but didn't have the nerve. So this member friend took our number and decided to call us hoping it really was the missionaries and tell us his connection and tells us we needed to stop by her house again and try again. So we went by Saturday night and no one was home. And then randomly on Sunday we got a message from her just stating her name and number. Okay, not random... miracle! So we're hoping that we can be able to see her soon and baptize her! Yeah!

And one more. We were knocking this one street and the very last house (always the last house, right?) this young kid answers the door. He looked pretty eighties: the hair and video game shirt. He said he was going to Bible classes recently and asked us what church we were from. When we told him, he said "Interesting." A couple of years ago he was "trying to become Mormon" but he was 17 and his mom wouldn't let him. And just recently he "found God again" and was talking to a friend about maybe "trying to become Mormon again." Yeah! His name is Jimmy Carter. The president! Actually, we won't be teaching him ourselves, because he should go to the singles ward, so we passed him to the elders in that ward. But he is a pretty solid potential and it just showed us that good things that come of knocking!

That reminds me of another story. I don't know if I ever told it. Back with S. Lewis is Santa Ana in like March we were knocking this complex and NO ONE was home. We felt like stopping, but decided to go do the last floor. The last door again, was open. And this lady let us in. She had a long history of jail and different kids and drugs, but was working on getting her life in order. We taught her the Restoration and taught about the BOM and she said she already had one. Her daughter, who was now living with her grandma, had become Mormon and given her mom the book. She cried when she prayed and we set up our next appointment. She was English speaking though, so we had the English ward elders go with us to the next appointment and they continued to teach her. The elders kept us up to date on her progress, and about two months ago I got a call from one of the elders saying that Holly Stawali (her name) had just married her boyfriend and they both were getting baptized. Yeah! And now she's Holly Stawali Sanderson! Yeah miracles!

That's all I've got for now! It was a really great week! We are looking forward for this last of the transfer to be even better! I love you all and hope all is wonderful for everyone!

Love,
Emily

Read your Conference issue of the Ensign

Sisters Fatkin, Jeung, and Sanders, a multilingual companionship

Preparation Day

This is what Preparation Day "looks" like:



We are only going to the temple every other transfer now, and when we are scheduled to go, we have p-day. So that is today. We were afraid that we wouldn't make it an extra couple of days without a p-day, but I hardly even missed it. P-days actually end up wearing me out because we're running everywhere trying to get stuff done. And teaching lessons to people is really what energizes you as a missionary.
Anyway, it was fantastic to go to the temple! It's a perfect day today…not too hot, so it was a great day to take pictures.
Last week when we were out knocking, we meet a Korean woman. She was really nice and we taught her; Sister Yeom talked to her in Korean. I listened and tried to invoke the gift of the interpretation of tongues. Didn't work. But the woman also spoke English. It's really fun to teach a variety of people when we can. But in our mission, since we're in the Spanish ward, if we find someone English speaking, we pass them on to the missionaries who are in the English ward they would go to. Sad.
We did a lot of knocking last week; we knocked one complex that had hallways that just looked like a creepy old 70's motel. A lot of people made appointments with us for later but of course they weren't there. Oh well.
We had interviews with the president last week too. That was good. Usually mine last about 2 minutes. He doesn't usually have much to say and I don't really have questions. But this time I asked him about what he thought of our area, and what he was thinking about me staying here. He said he hadn't thought about it too much, but that he was told by Elder Clayton (the area authority here) that wards that have 2 companionships are less successful than those with 1. And we have 3. Sooo, I don't know; I think it's possible that the sisters might get pulled out of here. Who knows. Maybe I can just spend my mission here.
We are teaching some really funny “inactives.” I really love visiting and teaching inactive families and people. One family is just so awkward: the Flores. But they're great. They give us 2% milk when we visit, and when the kids read in Spanish, their dad corrects them on their words the entire time. It's funny how even though these kids who speak both languages (but English for school), have the natural Spanish accents that I would just looove to have; but I can read in Spanish a whole lot better than them. We watched “Legacy” in Spanish with them. Pretty funny. We also visit Hermana Olea, another inactive. Her personality is very American. She has been a nanny for a member family for like 17 years and knows English; through them is how she ended up getting baptized. She makes us dinner on Saturdays. She cooks reeeally good. She tells us how she doesn't like Relief Society, so she won't go to that part of church unless certain a woman is teaching because it just bores her. And she could never be in YWs because she'd “kill them.” She makes us laugh.
Well, we've been trying to commit everyone to be baptized, asking everyone: the new people, the old people, everyone. So we taught Hermana Mendez (remember her?) with her husband for a little FHE on Monday. I like to teach the Restoration with candles. Big one in the middle represents Christ-and we use lots of light scriptures (being power/authority/priesthood) and 12 little tea lights around the candle-being apostles. It's a cool lesson I must say. But it did not work in getting Hermano to accept a baptismal date. He's just very intellectual, and he's read all the scriptures, and pretty much knows it's true. Apparently he's just taking his time. He always says “one of these days, I'm just going to surprise you.” I told him if he wants to surprise me, he might only have 3 weeks to do it (in case I'm transferred). Hermana is going through the temple in June, so it would be great if a year later, they could be going through to be sealed too. We'll see. Monday was a pretty good day I must say though. Tuesday was even better. I played the piano at a funeral! My first Hispanic funeral. It wasn't much different than a “normal” funeral. Someone's mother in another ward passed away so they called me to play. This was our service for the week.
Then we went and visited Araceli. She came to church on Sunday (after like 7 or 8 weeks of random excuses of not being able to come) and her husband came too! Mostly because they were just planning on leaving right after church anyway, and she asked him to do it for Mother's day. We had planned on kind of dropping Araceli yesterday, giving her some time. It's hard to drop people though. I didn't really know how to say it. I think she understood though what we were trying to do, and she was confused. Well, we didn't drop her. Maybe we're not supposed to yet. I don't know what to do with her!
Then later that night, after getting some frozen yogurt (it's amazing here!) we went home and our bishop had been trying to get hold of us. When I called him he said “Hermana, I have some good news for you. Alma and Paulo are getting married Saturday and baptized Sunday.” Yeah! Yeah yeah yeah! They have been taught for over a year, and have wanted to get baptized, but she was just never ready to be married. We've had so many talks with her. They’ve even met our president and his wife; they talked about temples and marriage. I didn't think she wanted to marry him at all. But they live together and have a little girl. It's the miracle of having a ward getting involved. Our bishop has taken them on as his challenge, and he's met with them both several times, and apparently it's helped because we're having a wedding this weekend! So that was a fantastic end to the night! We're also hoping that our El Salvadorenans are getting married and baptized this weekend too, but I don't know if they're ready yet.
So that's that! It's a good week so far! Next Monday we're having a mission conference with Elder Packer (the son, not father), so I won't be writing again until Tuesday.
I love you all mucho mucho and thanks for supporting me and talking to me and loving me!

Love,
Emily

Dia de los Reyes

Another week that went by fast. We've (well at least I) have really been enjoying visiting some less active members lately. We were walking around one day handing out cards and this woman stopped me and told me she was a member and had just moved here from Tijuana. We've visited her couple of times and met her husband the other night. It was so perfect that we ran into her, or that she ran into us, because she didn't know where the church was. And they apparently were a little inactive before they came here. So now we're hoping to help them work towards going to the temple. She thought she would have to go to Utah, so when we told her there's one 15 minutes away, she was very excited. And her daughter isn't a member and she wants to start working on her. Yeah! And another man we met walking around actually it was the same day I think. He told me “I was baptized in your church.” You can never be so sure about that type of comment. So I repeated the church name and he said yes. And now we're visiting him. He's the only member of his family and his son has even been to our church a couple of times with some buddies when he was in the marines. Inactive part member families are great to work with!

We had lost track of Yesenia and Abel for a bit. Well, for only like 7 days-but that seems like forever on our schedule. Then we showed up at their house late one night and found them and even met and are going to begin teaching her aunt. Apparently somewhere they have a member in their family-and he went on a mission, so they have been exposed to the church a little. Abel seems to still be kind of ready to move forward, but Yesenia seems to really understand the commitment that comes with baptism, and wants to make sure she has her answer. But she gets it, so we'll just keep teaching and committing them to different things, and hopefully her faith will increase. We got Yesenia and Abel to come eat dinner at a member's home down the street on Saturday night. It ended up being a long appointment because of the members and their slowness, so we watched “The Restoration” and then talked and then finally ate. Guarachas. Basically tortillas with beans and cheese. Interesting how many different names they have for the same exact thing. Funny thing was that the member, he basically began teaching Yesenia and Abel the entire Plan of Salvation (luckily we had already taught the basics) complete with the council in heaven, the veil, temples, baptisms for the dead, and the millenium. Well. Less really is more. I think he had been reading ahead in the lesson manual for gospel principles for the next day. Good thing they are patient investigators and won't be scared off. They even came to church the next day! Hooray! Yesenia bought a skirt and even though they drove around in circles for awhile, they were there!

Our other great investigator is still Jung. Our Korean. On Wednesday we went over the first half of 3 Nephi 11. Since the original idea was to practice English with her, but we began to teach the gospel, we have her read aloud the scriptures and ask questions. It's a really good method. We can help her with her pronunciation and she always understands really well and asks good questions. She's said a couple of time that she always asks God when she prays “why am I here? Why did you bring me here to learn English?” Because Jung is here for 2 years just to learn English really well and then go back to Korea. Well, we know why she's here. We met with her on Saturday too and read the second half of the chapter. Our plan was to commit her to baptism with a date this week, and we'd just really start talking about baptism with the chapter, in preparation. But then she had all of these amazing questions and when we talked about how other churches baptize but it doesn't count, she said that she thinks this the true church. Afterward we all talked and said how we really just wanted to commit her right there, but none of us did it. Lame! And we really regretted it. So, we called her back after we left her. And we asked her over the phone. Well, it probably would've been better in person. But it was funny. She said that she wants to be baptized, but it seemed so soon. We'll see her this week and I know that she will accept the invitation. We just didn't want to let the opportunity go. We didn't want to regret not asking. Lesson learned. Listen to the spirit when it tells you to do something. When we told our DL, he said “I heard a story about some missionaries once, who were heading one direction and the spirit, told them to turn around, and they did, and a minute later they heard machine guns firing behind them the way they would've gone. It's important to listen to the spirit.” Thanks Elder.

We had exchanges this Saturday. S. Ochoa and S. Brown traded places. It was a blast to be with S. Brown again for a day. And I think she was a little overwhelmed by the Spanish. President basically told her that she will probably be in the Samoan program for a long time and probably never speak Spanish here. Being with her reminded me of how much fun we had in the MTC, and how much we probably were all talking all of the time. Funny. Since they only teach Samoan, they don't really go tracting, they rely on referrals from family members and church members. And when Samoans make appointments, they actually are there for them. My mission experience and her mission experience are very different! I would like to volunteer to learn Samoan and go work with S. Brown. Or maybe Korean. We do have a Korean sister coming out next transfer, who knows!
The work is still moving along and we're still working on increasing our number of progressing investigators. We still are working with Araceli and Cibelly, but they're just not progressing like they should. Since the marriage thing is still not happening, they at least need to be coming to church, but always have some excuse. It's so discouraging because just 3 months ago they got it. They wanted to be baptized and seemed like they were willing to do what they needed to do. And we still see Stephanie and Danny. We're just trying to get them to read the scriptures. It's funny how hard such a little thing can be to just do it. But probably because that little thing can make such a difference. Our recent converts are doing really well. Lupe and Lulu and Big boy are still coming to church, and Ernesto, the husband has even been coming. We're hoping we can soon begin to teach him.
Last week was dia de los Reyes (did you celebrate that in Spain Ryan?) and everyone buys this big wreath shaped pastries with little plastic baby Jesus dolls inside. You find it and you have to make tamales in February. Pagan Catholic holidays. So fun! Okay, I don't want to bore you all with anymore details. California is heating up again and I hear that the Eagles are doing well. And the world keeps moving forward, huh? I'm happy and speaking Spanish and doing fantastically! Love you all, thanks for the e-mails!

Brillan Rayos de Clemencia

Happy New Year familia! I hope all are happy and recovering from Christmas and ready for some New Year’s Eve fondue! I am. Well it was just fantastic and wonderful to be able to talk to EVERYONE on Christmas! Being stateside is quite convenient I must say. I’m happy that everyone had a great Christmas!
I think for me, Christmas Eve is always a little bit more exciting than Christmas day. Zone Conference was just really good to have on Christmas Eve. And there’s this woman in Tustin, who’s from Korea and wants to learn English. So it’s sort of like service, but really we go and talk to her about the gospel in English. And she’s so nice. Asians are so friendly, I love it! There’s another woman we do this with later in the week, and I always wish we could spend more time talking to them. We invited her to go to church on Sunday and meet the elders, and even though she was really nervous that she wouldn’t look right, the elders told us that she went and said that everyone was much nicer than at her Catholic Korean church. Yeah! We also went and visited our crazy Joanne on Christmas Eve. We sang to her and her son and just spent a little time there. It’s just so fun to be with people on Christmas Eve. Life would just be easier if I didn’t get attached to people so quick!
Of course talking to you all was the highlight of Christmas day. We didn’t do much the rest of the day. We went home and ate candy I think. We actually played a little indoor soccer with a couple of elders in one of the chapels. That was pretty fun-no injuries. Then that night we went around and delivered some cards with our pictures (so people will remember us!) and treats to members and recent converts and investigators. We didn’t really do any official teaching because there really wasn’t much time. We just tried to see everyone that we could.
What about the rest of the week. Well now that we’re in this sort of “new” area, we are always doing A LOT of knocking doors. So we did that this weekend. As missionaries it’s kind of like you’re mining for gold. You have to work hard picking through the dirt, and then you have to sift through as much as you can, and sometimes you think you find the good stuff-the gold, but really it’s that fool’s gold. Sometimes you spend some time on people that you find out aren’t so much the golden investigators. But if you sift through enough, you find the gold, right? How’s that for an analogy! I think it’s pretty good, worthy of an Erin or Dad analogy. Speaking of analogies, I wish I had more of an ability to come up with those on the spot, because it’s always helpful for people to have an example or something visual to relate to. I think Erin with her 5 analogies a day would be good at this missionary business. When I was here in Orange the other transfers, when we were walking around, we would have to pick an object that we saw-like a lamppost, and then relate it to something in the gospel, but in Spanish. Helped us practice Spanish, fill time, and you never know when you can use that analogy later.
So. We had a couple of appointments with Octavio this weekend, trying to see him lots before his baptism. We talked about reading the scriptures one day, and then on Saturday we had a little film night at the church. We invited him and Eulalio and Humberto and Francisco to all come watch the Joseph Smith movie that they show in the JSMB in Salt Lake. As missionaries, we’re used to 30 min movies, so an hour and a half was LONG. I think your attention span as a missionary is not very good. But they liked it. Eulalio has really progressed since we first were teaching him. He talks more-doesn’t just say “esta bien.” And we even got him to say the prayer at Octavio’s baptism. Yeah! We call all of these guys “the hermanos.” Francisco was baptized last spring, and invited his friend Humberto to learn. And Humberto was baptized in August and invited this guy he worked with (that the sister’s also knocked into) to learn too-Eulalio. And now they all know Octavio. So they’re a good little support system for each other and we’ve taught them all a lot. Octavio’s baptism went really well. He seemed like he was happy and nothing went wrong-so that’s good. And the elders are already getting him to go out teaching with them this week and that’s really good. He wants so much to be a missionary; we’re hoping he can be a ward missionary.
They just rearranged our bishopric. Obispo Vazquez and his family are from Argentina and are moving back there so they had to make some changes in the bishopric. I love the Vazquez family, they are one of my favorites, and we will all miss them a lot. They are just happy people. We decided he’s a “jolly” bishop; he sits up on the stand and just smiles at everyone. Our new bishop is a pretty young guy, though probably pretty experienced in the church as far as this type of stake goes. And he’s very missionary-minded and on the ball, almost intimidating. But it will be good because I think he will really be able to help us. Good things will happen!
Lupe’s husband Ernesto came to church with them on Sunday, so that was wonderful. We’re really going to try and see if we can teach him. It’s amazing how things really do change for some of these people after they get married and live the commandments! If only Araceli’s husband would get it, as well as Stephanie and Danny’s parents who aren’t married. We’ll see!
Yesenia and Abel were going to come to church-even to the baptism. We had a cita with them Sat. but Yesenia wasn’t there. We just read 3 Nephi 11 with Abel and reminded about church on Sunday at 11, and he said “hey, I thought I was invited to come to a baptism at 9:30.” Oh yeah! We are so impressed by him. Some people say that Satan controls the waters, I think he controls cars. They left at 9am for church, but there car had problems and they were never able to come. Lame! So we went over and taught them yesterday a little more. It’s so unusual (for me so far on the mission) to have both a husband and a wife be willing to listen. Especially because Abel seems to be the one who gets it more and is more ready. We’re really excited about them and are going to set a date with them for baptism this week.
We have interviews with the president this week and get to go to the temple in a couple of weeks-which is great. Announcements don’t always get all around the mission, but I found out from my comps that we are now not going to be allowed to go to the temple every transfer. When Elder Jensen came the other month, he didn’t think we needed to do that, so now it will be every other transfer. Not my most favorite idea. But I’m just glad that this transfer we do get to go.
That’s mostly it. I can’t believe it will be January this week! I hope everyone is healthy and happy and the babies and kids are adults are all doing wonderfully! Thank you everyone for making sure to help me have a wonderful Christmas! I love you all!
Love,
Emily