Spring Time

We have three baptisms coming up this Sunday. Stephanie Mendoza's cousins who are two girls kind of in the same situation as her with a member mom and a non-member dad, and who have been taught on and off for a while, have decided to get baptized. So we're teaching them and preparing them for that. And because they're doing it, Stephanie (and her mom) has finally decided she needs to get baptized, and she's actually going to stand up to her dad about it because the last thing we heard was he didn't want her baptized until she's 18. But if her mom will support her, then she can do it. So yeah! After personally teaching her for almost 7 months, I'm so glad she's going to do it! They're all living like members, just not getting the blessings from being baptized. So this is fantastic. In the mission the goal for every companionship is to have a baptism every transfer; that's the standard and the goal of faith is 2. So we're good to go; any other baptisms are just bonuses. And we plan on having a couple more. We had zone conference this week, and the president always gives us a topic to prepare a talk for and someone's name is randomly picked to talk. That was me. Yeah. “Seeking charity by first loving your companion.” I'm loving, right?

Sister Fatkin took off to her new area last week with her new companion and so we've been a twosome for almost a week now. It's working out really well. Training in a threesome was sort of hard for a while with too many people saying too many things. Sister Lewis and I get along really well and have a lot of fun. She's from Sandy, and has never lived away from home, but she's doing great; I know she misses her family, and that's okay. I'm just trying to keep us teaching. She has a really strong testimony and really cares about people, especially wants to help teenagers. That's probably good, because I guess I feel like I understand the teenagers, or maybe feel like I am one, so I end up being pretty straight forward with them. Sister Lewis is more compassionate. We're a good combination that way I think. Our mission goal is basically to teach 20 lessons a week: 10 other lessons, 5 with a member, and 5 to recent convert/less actives. I love teaching the RCLA probably the most. These are people who either have the fire, or once had it. It's like a little challenge trying to get them to keep or get that fire again. This week we had a lot of those lessons and 5 member lessons and only 6 other lessons. When we don't have someone to teach, or everything is falling through, we try to teach members. We just show up at their house and teach them the lessons. We hope that if they see us teaching them all the time, they'll say to themselves that we should be teaching other people, not them, and then they'll help us find new people. We're working on it. Things are going really well though. It's crazy that general conference is only in 2 weeks. Another conference in Spanish-ah! At least this time I will understand it more. I think my Spanish is still improving. Probably not as rapidly as I want it to, and I still don't sound like a Mexican, but I'm trying. Who knows how long I'll be in a Spanish area;I just want to keep speaking the language and eating their rice and salsa and tortillas. Which by the way dad, I will be able to make you some fantastic salsa that you will love when I get home. I just need some tomatillos-do you think you can grow those? How are all the baby mommas doing? I hope there's a new baby this week! I will celebrate baby Sally's birthday all week, just in case. Take some good pictures for me and send them soon! Oh yeah, and Sprouts, have fun on your cruise!!! Enjoy Mexico---land of my people! Things are going fantastically and I am doing super duper! Love you all!

My New Companion

Emily and the Persimmon Tree


Hi Family! This week was really good. My companion, Sister Lewis, came on Tuesday and we did the little orientation which is actually pretty long. I'm pretty glad now that I didn't do the whole normal orientation. You are just soooo tired and there is waaaay too much info to process.
That night we just had a dinner appointment and a lesson with Leticia, our recent convert, so hopefully it wasn't too much for S. Lewis the first day. She's really nice and willing to give suggestions to me, so I like that. Mostly I just want her to feel like she can say what she does and doesn't like the way we/I do something. She's from Sandy, UT and mostly has worked in a medical office for the last couple of years and taken some classes at SLCC. She's really great and really just wants to be able to share the gospel. It frustrates her that she doesn't feel like she can speak the language. It's an interesting thing to see someone who has just come and kind of see where I used to be. I haven't forgotten how it was frustrating in the beginning, to actually be able to communicate with people, but still, I guess my Spanish is a lot better than where it used to be.
Since S. Fatkin has been here the past week and maybe that was good to ease S. Lewis into the Spanish teaching because she didn't have to do as much. She mostly bore her testimony, said MTC style prayers and shared the first vision. But after Wednesday when S. Fatkin's comp comes in, it will just be the two of us. I'm not worried about her; I know it will take time to learn the language, and lots of patience. This is a really good area to start off the mission I think. This ward is amazing, I really love the people here but then that's what 6 months in one area will do for you.

Emily and her favorite MTC instructor, Sister Alexander

Leticia was confirmed Sunday and that went really well and she just really gets it. She truly is an example of someone who was prepared for the gospel and really wants to learn. I love it! We also found 6 new investigators this week and that was amazing; we didn't find any the week before. And we set a baptismal date with this young guy named Freddy. He asks really funny questions. He asks us where we heard things like living as spirits before we came here. Then we tell him we know from revelation and the scriptures, and he just accepts it. He didn't make it to church though, so he's not exactly solid yet. But we are putting out the commitment to be baptized with a hard date, on the second visit, so not everyone is actually very solid at that point. But if it's right, they will be!
Also, this week the Lopez family came back to church. Silviano (the alcoholic), Nicandra, and the kids. We had dropped them to give them a little time, but were planning on going back this week. But our ward mission leader never understood why we weren't still teaching them, and he called them this week and invited them to his house, and then to church and they came. It's a miracle because that's exactly what should be happening. Members should be involved as friends and continue to fellowship investigators even when we can't be doing the teaching. And it shows that when you have faith to “drop” someone, that you can be blessed for doing it. When Silviano saw us at church, he was very attached to us and kept asking us to come back and that they missed us. You always hope that people notice a difference, but we didn't expect such a reaction from him, because he always used to say that he didn't understand us. He did though. So we're going to go back tonight and eventually start teaching them again. I still believe this family will be baptized, I just don't know when.

Irvine: Shellie's baptism

It's interesting being at the halfway point in the mission; I feel like I finally get it. I get why people love being on missions. It took a while, but I really do love it and also get why missionaries start to think they don't want leave their missions. There's definitely some safety here. Everything's going really well and even though I don't know what will really happen this transfer, I think it will be great! Thanks for everything mi familia!

Greenies and Transfers

Sisters Fatkin, Ochoa and Sanders eating popsicles!

Well we ended the transfer with a baptism. Yeah! Everything with Leticia went really well. We visited her lots last week. She was excited and ready. The baptism was after church, and her son who is a member in the Young Single Adult ward, invited pretty much his whole ward to be there. So the room was full of 26 year old white people. And we had about 15 ward members and ourselves standing out in the hall waiting. So it was a good turn out! She said she feels really good and definitely understands what an important thing she has done. That's exciting! She won't be confirmed until church next week, so in the meantime we will keep teaching. Let's see, other progression. Well, we weren't able to see Stephanie last week much. We finally saw her once and she still kind of wants to be baptized, but honestly she just doesn't have the family support she needs. Her mom is not a very strong member and didn't react much when Stephanie said she wanted to be baptized. And I think she was going to tell her dad last night, but we know he is not at all supportive. So we're hoping and praying we can still get her ready and she can just be baptized this weekend. She's doing everything she should be doing; she's just not getting the full amount of blessings since she's not actually baptized. It stinks
A Hispanic Market

And transfers. Well, S. Dutson has been transferred to yet another new area, with someone who she's already been with, and they're both ending their missions at the end of the next transfer. She was shocked. At least we still live in the same apartment-she so fun. S. Fatkin has been transferred into a new area that hasn't had sisters. And she will be training a Korean sister that's coming from temple square for 2 transfers. But she doesn't come until next week so S. Fatkin will be here for one more week. And I will be training a sister named S. Lewis and staying in this same area. Crazy. So we'll see how that goes! Ha ha ha. At least this way I get to be here for Jung's baptism this weekend. Yeah! And the ward is not losing their piano player, so they're probably not aware of how grateful they should be. Well, I got some fantastic baby news this last week. Yeah baby sprout! Well, I want to say thank you to everyone who is pregnant right now, because all I wanted when I come home is to have new babies to love. Good job! It's all very exciting! Congratulations everyone! Okay, well that's that for now. Things are great and I'm loving it! Thanks everyone, I love you family!
Hermana Sanders with "Big Boy" and Lulu

Hello

Here are some updates on our progressing investigators. Leticia is doing amazing. Before someone has there actual baptismal interview by the DL, the missionaries are supposed to basically do the interview first. That way we know if they are prepared and ready. So we asked her about if she believed in living prophets and President Monson. She said she wasn't sure because honestly, we hadn't done a good job of teaching that to her. Oops? So she immediately said she'd pray about it that night. We came back the next day and shared a little about church organization and watched President Monson's testimony on “Special Witnesses of Christ”. We asked if she had prayed about him and she said “yes, and I felt good.” Honestly we were all saying how we've never had an investigator who understands that they really can pray to get an answer, and then have that investigator also recognize an answer through their feelings. She's amazing! She's just one of those investigators that you don't have to worry about too much; you know she understands everything, even if our Spanish isn't fantastic. She can always reteach us what we taught, but in her own words. That's a first! So she is getting baptized this Sunday and she's invited all her family. Yeah! We finally found Juan Carlos on Saturday-after almost two weeks. It turns out he had been going to a lot of AA meetings. We really hadn't taught him enough to even know he had an alcohol problem. He told us right off that he was going to church and he'd be there at 10:40 and he was taking the bus. But he didn't come. We're pretty sure he just told us what we wanted to hear. And the Lopez family. Well, after stopping by and calling all week-with nothing happening, finally we were walking (stalking?) behind their apartment the other day and the daughter was out on the patio. She came down and let us in. Sounds like they've had a pretty bad week and actually went to a different church. They think their kids like it better there and they just want to go together as a family. We basically let them go. It was realllly hard. The dad was crying and the mom at one point too. But sometimes honestly it is not someone's time. Maybe they're prepared enough for the next missionaries who come by. We had a lot of potential and new investigator that we just didn't get hold of this week. So who knows? We don't have very many progressing right now. One girl we were teaching, Angelica, was doing really well (even though she couldn't go to church because she is always taking care of her 7 month old brother) but we won't see her very much for a while because she is going to go help her 15 year old brother's girlfriend take care of her new baby (ah!) everyday. But we did set a baptismal date with Stephanie Mendoza! We chose March 14, and she said that's her cousin's b-day and she (the cousin) had been thinking of being baptized that day. So it sounds good to us! She basically accepted, and we're going to try hard to get and keep her prepared. Stephanie is doing everything she needs to be doing, everything a member does; she just needs to be baptized to get those blessings! We're doing a whole bunch of exchanges this week-3 or 4 or something. The week is going to fly by. And then we'll get transfer calls this Saturday. I have no clue what's going to happen. We're getting two new sisters and the numbers won't be right for a threesome, and a new area will have to open up, so who knows! I would love to be here for some of our upcoming baptisms (like Jung and Stephanie) but whatever works that will be fine. We've been having a really really good time in our companionship, so it will be sad. I think (?) we are learning a lot from each other and have a lot of fun. Oh well, we'll see what happens! Well familia, things are going fantastic! Good times being a missionary! Happy late birthday Ryan, happy birthday Erin and thank you everyone for the letters and love and prayers! I love you all!

Is A Short Week less than 7 Days?

Emily in Italy, Summer 2007


Okay, well this is going to be short this week. Here's what's happening with our people in our area. So the Lopez family is not getting baptized this Sunday. We were a little worried about them and if they really understand. It's just hard because every time the dad is there for the lessons he is just a big distraction. He's probably never completely sober, and he just asks questions that confuse everybody. And then he's never there for the lessons that we prepare that are super simple and just for him, so he can understand the restoration. His family is still progressing, but they aren't ready for baptism. She said her husband doesn't even want them to be baptized right now. So we will keep teaching and hoping! Meanwhile our ward mission leader is trying to help us with this family still. Leticia Lopez, not related, is still getting baptized. She's on track and likes it all and reads everything and asks good questions and comes to church. So she will be baptized March 8. Last day of the transfer. Juan Carlos Lopez (also not related) is crazy. We have not been able to find him for the last week. So we've lost our miracle. We hope we can find him and keep teaching him so he can be baptized. Because he does get it, and is ready, but needs to be taught!
Um, well everything is going well otherwise. I'm happy and time is flying. I guess that's it because we've got to run! Love you all, Bye!

**Dear Viewers and readers: I'm just waiting for some updated photos from the Happiest Place on Earth.

Rain & All That Crazy Stuff

 

Hello familia!
Lots of random things this week. The Lopez family is still progressing, but slowly. We set a baptism date with the mom and two kids. They are reading the Book of Mormon together and praying, so at least they're doing the right things. But then they didn't come to church. Patience, right?
Also, we had an interesting talk with Yesenia, Abel and Eva the other day. They finally told us how they really felt the one time they came to church. Apparently they didn't like how people didn't really use the scriptures a lot. They expected to be reading from at least the Book of Mormon a lot, but didn't feel like that happened. And they thought mostly people just talked about their own lives and experiences. It's an interesting point of view because it's true that sometimes we don't use the scriptures tons at church. Obviously it's not like we have some long discourse that the bishop gives as he reads the Bible or Book of Mormon. And maybe it's true that sometimes we could use the scriptures for more than just a back-up. But then we got to talking in the companionship and really, we think part of the reason is because of the huge emphasis the church puts on scripture study being a personal responsibility we all have. And also, that every lesson we learn from church is something that comes from the scriptures-well, mostly.
Yesenia and group had lots of questions that weren't really expected, and for a bit we all felt a little defensive, but it worked out okay, because really they are still interested, or else they wouldn't keep wanting us to come back. They're not “typical” Hispanic investigators because of the specific things they bring up. And sometimes you just can't leave it at bearing your testimony. So that's them.
On Friday this guy called and started talking to Sister Dutson in Spanish, so she threw me the phone, and it turns out that his aunt gave him one of the “Finding Faith in Christ” cards that we hand out, and he wanted the DVD. We were walking up to his house later that day and he came right out and had us sit down and we started talking. He was taught about 4 years ago by missionaries and his brother too. His brother now lives in Las Vegas, and he doesn't know if he's baptized. He pulled out this BOM that was his brother's and in the back are drawn the Plan, the Gospel, and the names of the missionaries that taught before (one that Sister Fatkin knew back at school). And inside there were some more "pass along cards," one with the name of a man in the ward that we're actually working on reactivating him and his family. Juan Carlos Lopez is the man's name that we were talking to. We taught him the restoration really quick, asked him if he believed it, he said yes, we asked him if would be prepared to be baptized this month, and he said yes. It was funny because it was so fast, but it was so obvious he was ready. We were all just ready to commit him. He wasn't able to come to church this Sunday, but next week he'll come. And hopefully we can teach his mom and sister too. And we're getting this ward member to come with us to the appointments, so it's a great opportunity for him to get back into the church and serve a little.
And, some zone leaders in another zone passed us an investigator that's really in our area (long story) and her son was baptized 2-3 months ago, and she's pretty much ready too. We went over to teach with the elders on Saturday and she fed us some carne asada and we “fed” them all the gospel and she now has a baptismal date too! And her husband probably won't be far behind. Her name is Leticia Lopez.
And Jung. We teach Jung, but some elders also teach her. In the beginning she requested sisters to teach/talk to her in English. But we decided to teach English by having her read gospel pamphlets. And the elders who are actually in her area were teaching a little too, but just as a back-up, and because one of the elders speaks Korean, so he can clarify. Well they officially set a baptismal date with her last Monday. Hooray! She hasn't told us the news herself, but as far as we know, she will be baptized this month.
Jung is funny. We were teaching about Adam and Eve and how Heavenly Father “let” the serpent tempt Eve. She didn't understand what “let” meant so Sister Dutson decided to give an example. She said, “okay, let's say I'm God, and Sister Fatkin is Satan, and Sister Sanders is Adam.” Jung is very expressive and she turned and looked at me and said “You have to be naked!” Just laugh, it was really funny to us. She's always learning random American language stuff like “same old week” and recently she learned how to use “blah”. So everything she says is “he said hello blah blah blah.”
The other week when we did lots of knocking we met some weird and interesting people. One man may have been pretty satanic. Outside the house was this funky painting that said on it “alchemy” and then he came to the door in all his black and when he saw us he yelled inside “Hey, do you want to join me on this one?” and he told us that he never passes up an opportunity to have a “discussion.” He had long yucky dark hair and was just sort of looming over us and started talking nice, then pretty fast he got crazy. Swearing and asking us why we weren't on bikes and quoting random things and I don't know what. We walked away pretty soon and he stood on his porch being dumb still. Yeah, he was evil. But you still kind of laugh walking away from those things because you just wonder how people can be so crazy.
Then the same day we were invited to talk to one woman's mother, who is a Quaker. She had a really big hair piece and lots of cats and talked about how woman needed to use the power they have over men. And wear makeup and that men aren't equal to woman. Then she proceeded to tell us all about ourselves. That I have a boyfriend and nice teeth, that Sister Fatkin looks content, so she must be married, and that Sister Dutson worried her because she didn't look happy. She was crazy.
We had zone conference, which was great and we learned more about obedience, how to use hand sanitizer and get more baptisms. Thanks for the letters and e-mails everyone!
I love you all! Happy Valentine's Day week!

Life as a Threesome

For those of you who don't know what it's like to be on a mission as a threesome, hear is some info from someone who has served just about 6 ½ months out of their almost 8 month mission in a threesome. It is very easy to get distracted. Three girls together means more talking. It also means shorter shower time. But you also end up knowing how to teach some really good lessons and getting lots of new ideas because you have three heads instead of one. And more testifying. I'm afraid I'm not going to know how to be in a twosome again. This last week was really good. Sister Dutson is really fun. We all get along really well and are really enjoying what we're doing. We knocked A LOT of doors last week. Which is good because so far all of the best people we've found have been through our knocking. We also had the opportunity last week to go to a zone leader's training thing all day last Thursday with President Watrous. He's decided it's good to get a sister's opinion in these meetings, so every transfer a different sister companionship will get to go. Though it was long, it was soooo nice to be able to get direct counsel from our president. He's so down to earth and it's nice to hear information directly from him instead of from ZLs or DLs and hear it the way president really said it. I think this mission is really changing a lot from the way it used to be. I guess at first it seems like it's less “fun” but really, I think everyone's working harder and more obedient. Last year this mission had maybe, maybe 300 baptisms. But we're supposed to get 600 this year, so that's a big goal to reach and we all have to work really hard to get there. It's kind of a cool thing that I get to be here for pretty much the entire year, to really see the success happen.
A week and a half ago we knocked into the family. The Lopez. The said we could come in and said they'd come to church, but then they didn't come. This week we visited them and brought a member and then visited them again Saturday and they said they would come to church. They don't have a car (which is sometimes annoying, but also sometimes good because then we are in control of the situation more) so our ward mission leader went to pick them up. The mom and three kids all came but the dad didn't. Hermano Montiel, our ward mission leader, and our new bishop are really on top of things and are really amazing. Our bishop met with the mom, Nicandra, in his office with us, and we found out that the father is an alcoholic and that's why he didn't come this week or the week before. Both Obispo Santos and H. Montiel want to be very involved in our teaching this family and have volunteered to basically “adopt” this family so we can get them all baptized. We're really excited because after our lesson Saturday the three of us walked out and we all just said that we know that this is our family that will be baptized. Of course all missionaries think those things. But hey, you have to have faith, right? We're just excited that the ward is getting involved. That will make this so much more likely to happen. So we have high hopes there.
Araceli and Cibelly are still doing well. They're still coming to church and Araceli seems to feel very at home and just a part of the ward. She needs that ward support, because until her husband marries her, she'll be in the same situation, and probably as missionaries, we won't be able to continue to visit her forever. But they are progressing in the little ways they can. S. Dutson was actually one of the sisters who first found Araceli, and now being back she's been able to really notice the big changes. Araceli really had come a long, long way. She will be a strong member when she is baptized.
Yesenia and Abel and Eva, well, we don't know. He doesn't have much work, so they might have to move back to Mexico. So that sort of halts baptism progress. But we taught the WOW and committed him to cutting back on his smoking and he's doing that. There's still hope. They're not really showing up for all of their appointments or coming to church though, so we might not be teaching them very much longer. The Mendoza kids are good, still kids. We were going to see them tonight and try to talk to them about their baptism concerns, but apparently Stephanie is camping or something. But we're going to try to set a baptism date with her soon. Cleotilde. I don't know if you remember him from before when I was in this area, but he is a funny little man. And he's getting married to this woman who doesn't want him to join the church. So he told us that he has to stop the visits. It's interesting. Sometimes you hold onto some investigaros that really become sort of a burden. I think they pull down your productiveness and faith. And letting them go is such a release. I think some other investigators might have the same fate soon. We've got to find those people who are ready to be baptized and be blessed! This next week is also going to be filled with lots of knocking and handing out cards and finding new people to teach. Yeah! I can't believe its February already! Love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week!