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

Back to Hermana

Hola familia, como estan todos? Well this week was busy, but I can't remember a lot from it. It was good to be back in Irvine after being in Anaheim on Monday, and then I guess the rest of the week just flew by! Let's see, we visited a lot of less-actives, some part member families, and of course, our normal progressing investigators. Here are some highlights from the week.
We taught Paula about obedience this week, and originally were going to try to “soft commit” her to baptism, but then decided it wasn't right and to instead also talk about the word of wisdom and commit her to living that. When her husband Randy sits in on the lessons, sometimes he makes most of the comments and I don't know if she focuses as much, but it was good this time and when we asked her to live the word of wisdom, she said that she had a feeling from the beginning of the lesson that we were going to ask her to do that. And that funnily enough, she had decided that not drinking coffee should be her new year's resolution. So she said she'll do it! This is great because we think she often makes a lot of excuses, saying she doesn't believe in other things, like Joseph Smith, when really, it might be that she didn't think she could live the word of wisdom. So progress there!
With Pete and Dana, after they fed us some ribs (!) we read from the BOM intro and started watching “The Testaments” with them. We thought it would be good because for some people you need some type of visual idea of what you're reading, and it makes it more interesting. They said they really enjoyed it and are going to read ever day. And they came to church this Sunday. Pete is always up for coming, but Dana is the one with the excuses. Oh yeah, and they told us that they are eloping after Christmas. To Las Vegas! They haven't told anyone-why do people tell missionaries their secrets? But we're really excited because now they will really be able to progress and see blessings for this decision.
Thursday night we got to go to the temple. The first man who was baptized on S. Moore's mission went through the temple. How lucky to be able to be there for something like that only a few days before going home! And this man also baptized his own father and step mom this weekend. We got special permission to go because we weren't going to be home until after 10, but it was so nice to go. Nice for S. Moore, and nice for me because it's really pretty awesome to see someone progress like that, that's the real vision as a missionary, not for them to stop at baptism, but to continue on to the temple. Plus, with transfers coming up, and thinking about that a lot, I got to have some time to refocus. We also had a little district meeting party on Thursday with Costco pizza, apples to apples (Bible edition!) and cheap Christmas karaoke music! Bringing that Costco card came in handy! Ha ha ha.
Friday was crazy. The Friday before missionaries leave, they get to go to the temple with president. So once again, I was on an exchange. S. Carranza came down with me to Irvine for some appointments, then we went up to Anaheim for some in her area. Only one of our scheduled appointments actually happened, so it was sort of a frustrating day for S. Carranza and I. I've never driven in Irvine, or Anaheim. It was interesting, I am grateful for carpool lanes in CA though. We were both very grateful to be going to our areas by the end of the night.
Transfers were Saturday night. We had sort of discussed some of the possibilities of what would happen with the sisters at transfers (because with 3 sisters leaving and only one coming, they would have to close an area to sisters) and I was trying really hard to not worry about what they would do. They chose to close Irvine and I now have two new companions. Okay, not new. Old. S. Ochoa and S. Fatkin. Yes. They have moved me right back to the same area. Oh man. I had a feeling they were closing Irvine, but never did I think they would send me back to Santa Ana and Orange. EVERYONE was very shocked. So on Sunday we had to call everyone and let them all know and the bishopric had us bare our testimonies and we prepared everyone to accept the incoming elders. One of the elders was already in our district, so we know him, and he's a good missionary. Because we're low on missionaries, they are doubling up a lot of companionships with multiple wards, so that's what my now old district is doing.
We ate with Stephanie's family this week which was good because her husband was there and we got to talk to him a little. We also had a really good lesson on recognizing the spirit that went really well. Then on Sunday she ate dinner with us over at the Moons. Sister Moon always is there when we teach Stephanie and they're becoming good friends. So we broke the news to Stephanie that not only was S. Moore not going to be here (she knew that) but I was also leaving. As much as it makes us sad that I won't be here to carry on the work with our investigators, we can see how maybe the elders can do things that we couldn't. We're hoping the elders will be able to help Stephanie get her husband to take the lessons. It will be good. Stephanie will eventually be baptized, but we hope it's sooner, so she doesn't get any more content! We asked Stephanie if she would meet with our mission president and talk to him, and she said she would. He's a convert, and he has a really strong testimony of Joseph Smith (which is what Stephanie says she struggles with) so we think maybe he can help her. I will really miss Stephanie, she's so sincere and honest and would do anything for us. She's like family, like an aunt. When she joins the church she will really do a lot of good.
Ironically, when I left my old/new area, I was sad because I was going to miss the baptisms of some people we had been working really hard with, like Eulalio and Lupe and Lulu. And of course, I only missed it by a day-they were all just baptized yesterday. I can't believe it! But I am very excited to go back and see Lupe and Lulu, I really loved them. And I'm sure the ward will be confused when I show up next week. Their pianist is back. And the district is the same except for one elder is gone. It's crazy where the Lord needs you to be and when. It definitely doesn't make much sense to me, but I'm going with it I guess. Maybe I just needed that little time to be in Irvine, to meet some of those people, maybe it was just to have the opportunity to be companions with S. Moore, and definitely maybe I needed to learn some lessons in Irvine about patience and humility! Back to Spanish I go-after not really speaking it for 6 weeks. Ha ha! And they've just realigned the boundaries for our area, so it's a lot of new area we will be working in, and that's exciting!
Well that's it from here, from Orange/Anaheim/Santa Ana. Happy birthday to Braden and Roger this week and happy anniversary to the Ryan and Melanie! I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I will talk to you all soon! Love you!
Love,
Hermana Emily (yep, back to Hermana!)

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!