Yorba Linda or La Habra?

Sister Fatkin and Me


Hey familia! How is everyone doing this first week of June? Crazy! It's good to hear the update on everyone, job interviews, droughts, dogs, baby blessings, gardens, etc. Hooray! This last week was a great one! Change is good! I do miss the Spanish though. It's soooo fun to be with Sister Fatkin and Sister Jeung.
Sister Jeung is from Korea and is a temple square missionary. She has been out here the last two transfers with Sister Fatkin and is going back to temple square this Wednesday. She's a riot. Both Sister Fatkin and Sister Jeung mentioned right away how they aren't emotional, so that was a relief. I knew that about Sister Fatkin though; we just laugh all the time.
The area up here is just different. We cover two wards and really both of them just have a lot of work that can be done in terms of less actives and part member families. The sisters have been working really hard the last two transfers to get the work going with all of these people. So we don't knock doors very much. I actually miss it. But at the same time, its weird doing everything in English. Only a month and a half of my mission has actually been truly in English, and I've been realizing how awkward and weird it is to teach even basic lessons in English. But I'm adjusting. It will be good for me.
They also don't really have any investigators up here. Apparently they had a bunch just the other week, but they dropped all of them. Sister Fatkin's personality and style is much bolder; she really needs to see progress in people. So if someone isn't keeping commitments, then she drops them. And I don't blame her. I'm more that way, though at the same time, I probably have a little more patience for the people who go slowly. Though truly there are people who are ready to keep commitments and who are ready to be baptized. Someone shouldn't have to be convinced and bugged into praying and reading and getting baptized.
This last week we taught a lot of less actives and searched for a lot of people from the wards that we could visit that we're guessing probably have non-member family. It is weird being in wards where we are the only missionaries too. I can really see now how amazing the ward mission leader and bishop were that we had in Santa Ana. I miss them. They were absolutely devoted to this work. It's just different in these wards. But the sisters have been working really hard here so the work has started to move.
We actually have a baptism of a little 9 year old girl, Antonia Rodriguez, this Sunday. Her mom has been inactive, but Antonia has member friends and has heard about the church and told her mom she wanted to go to church, and then told her she wanted to be baptized. She is soooo excited. But I won't be there for it.
Because of the MTC pig flu and our new missionaries not being able to come out yet, there has been some rearranging of sorts; so for the next week, I will be with Sister Kioa (who has been with Sister Chriswell in the Tongan program for the last 7 months) in her new area of Yorba Linda/Placentia until her new comp comes out. This is a rich area. Like Irvine, but different. So it should be interesting. It will be fun to get to know Sister Kioa (who is from Tonga) because I've never been on exchanges with her or anything, but I've always wanted to.
And they have a baptism up here this weekend, so I'll get to be part of that. Then I'll go back to La Habra next Tuesday. Also, I guess I am going to continue being in a threesome. None of us were aware of it until the other day, because they didn't tell us when we got transfer calls, but the new temple square sister who is coming in Wednesday to replace Sister Jeung, will be with us in La Habra. So she will be with Sister Fatkin for the next week while I'm gone. Oh threesomes.
All of the gardens everyone has sound so fun. Too bad you can't have grapefruits and chiles and avocados. One of my favorite things out here is all the Jasmine. It's probably my favorite smell (that and Plumeria!). I'd always smell it and it reminded me of being in Italy because we'd walk by some of it everyday while I was there, but I never knew what the name was. Can Jasmine grow in Minnesota?
Oh yeah, up here they do work a little with Hispanic people. We met some and there are actually some in our wards, but they have translators. Normally if we find someone who speaks Spanish and who is interested, we teach them a little; then pass them to the elders in the Spanish wards. Sad.

Sister Fatkin and Me


Everything is going really well here though. This week I'll be seeing how Yorba Linda and Placentia are. Maybe I won't want to leave!
Oh yeah, last transfer we had 67 baptisms! That's a miracle, our goal every transfer is to have one baptism per companionship (a goal of faith of 2 baptisms)-which on average is about 57. We've gotten close, but hadn't reached it until this transfer and we surpassed it. We have 183 baptisms this year so far, and last year they only had 101 by the same time. Great things are happening! It's exciting! This week is my year mark. I can't believe it! It really does not seem too long ago that I went to the MTC. It's nuts! But it's been amazing! Thank you all for everything! I love you my family!

Love,
Emily

La Habra Here I Come!

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


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

Love,

Emily

Exchanges

Hello!
We are teaching one guy, Juan Carlos, who used to live in Logan with a brother and knows a little about the church. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation last week and before we started, he had questions about baptisms for the dead. Funny the things people find out about. He's still a little confused about the spirit world, but he's really interested in learning. He's been saying he would come to church the last three Sundays, and he's always had a valid excuse for why he hasn't come. Somehow I'm still sucked into trusting everybody who says they will come; it just doesn't get old being disappointed. But anyway, I called him after church and he was like “Hermana, believe me, I'm not playing, I really want to come to church.” He randomly had to pick his grandma up from church though. Anyway, I do have hope for him. He's had multiple contacts with the church and hopefully we are that seventh contact/interaction that will help him get baptized. He's a young guy and works at a golf course.
Exchanges last week were sooooo nice. I needed to get out of my area. I went around with Sister Jessop and we drove a lot. Their area is basically the whole mission anywhere there are Samoans. It was interesting teaching all day in English. Sometimes Sister Jessop would talk to people in Samoan, mostly if they were older people. But otherwise it was English. It was nice to be with an experienced missionary. And in the morning, we did some studying and role playing with the other sisters in the apartment: Sister Chriswell and her companion, Sister Kioa. Sister Kioa and Sister Jessop both came out with Sister Fatkin from the MTC and they all go home in July. No! Then we will be the “oldest.” My chances of ever being with anyone besides a newer missionary are getting smaller. It was a fun day.
I realized this weekend how much I really enjoy knocking doors and how much I just want to stay out every day as late as possible talking to people. At about 8:15 my comps just wanted to go home, and I just feel too guilty doing that. I want to knock every door and keep going.
I have to talk in sacrament on Sunday, so I suppose I will be preparing something all week. I would be nice if I could just teach the Restoration lesson. Maybe it will end up being a farewell talk for me. We have a lot of appointments planned for this week, so it will probably go by pretty fast. Things are going good around here and I love you all!

A Mexican Wedding and Baptism

Buenos dias! Let's see. The week went pretty quick after I wrote the last e-mail. We had plenty of time to do some door knocking and found some good people, but are going to have to work hard still to get back in the door and teach entire families.
One week we were walking down the street and this guy, Juan Carlos, in his car stopped us (this has happened a few times before). He used to live in Logan, with a brother, so knows a little about our church. He gave us his info and we said we'd call to set up an appointment. So finally last week we saw him on Friday and brought this girl who's a recently returned missionary in our ward (in Spanish they call them “ex-missioneros” I don't really like that. Why “ex?”). We taught him and his nephew and it went really really good. It's funny because there were four of us teaching, but I really like having this RM with us because we flow really well together. The nephew has grandparents who are members in our stake. I don't know them. But it's just another connection. They say that statistically it takes something like 7 contacts with the church before someone accepts and is baptized. Hopefully this is the seventh time.
After our appointment with him we went to this little taco/pupusa place for dinner, and in walks Juan Carlos to get some pupusas. Funny. He wasn't able to come to church, but I he truly seems interested, or at least has the desire to understand.
The best part of the week though was Alma and Paulo. We taught them and they had their baptismal interview Thursday night. Alma told me that her mother, Maria, isn't too happy with her deciding to get married. That she wasn't really talking to her. Luckily she did come to the wedding, though she didn't come to church or the baptisms the next day. Too bad. I believe she knows the church is true, and knows she needs to be baptized as well, but as a mother, she doesn't want to see her daughter be hurt again (because Alma's already been married and divorced) and so now she's upset and we think that's why she didn't want to get baptized too. Because in the past she said that when Alma could get baptized, that she would do it too. So now we still will be working with Maria, trying to help her.
But, the wedding and baptism were wonderful. It was so great Saturday when they got married. Alma almost never wears dresses to church, but was all dressed up; she's teeeeeeny, so she looked like a dolled-up 13 year old. And Paulo had bought a new tie and white shirt (still had the fold lines in it). It was just a little marriage. Hermano Montiel and his wife were there, bishop and his family, Hermana Acosta (teaches gospel principles and husband is stake pres) was there and another counselor and his wife. They just looked so happy. Of course!
And, we had been able to get in contact really fast with one of the missionaries who taught them when they first moved her last year, and he flew out the next day to be there and baptize them. So it was really special for them. And the baptism was even more amazing. Everyone was just sooo excited for them. They've been waiting so long to do this and you could just see them radiating happiness all day Sunday. I was able to blow up a nice picture of the temple that I have with a frame it for them to have in their house because this is definitely one family that will be going to the temple in a year. I don't doubt it.
And what else? We had some really good fish this weekend. Fish tacos!
Yesterday we had our mission conference. It was good. Elder Packer and his wife were mission presidents in Malaga, Spain a couple of years ago.
There were things in there that I learned that I can improve on. Right now I just really want to improve my teaching abilities. Become that master teacher! And I always love hearing from President and Sister Watrous speak too. They are just such good people.
Tomorrow I'm going on exchanges in the Samoan program. Yeah! So Sister Brown will be coming here to Spanish for the day. It should be interesting to have these three sisters here doing the Spanish on their own. But I think it will be a really good learning experience for them. And I'm excited to speak my native tongue of Samoan, and eat some “pig.”
We don't have any baptisms coming up...yet. But somehow, I know we can have at least one more baptism by the end of the transfer. We're trying!
Oh yeah, earthquakes. We had one a couple of weeks ago. We were teaching Alma and Paulo and all of a sudden I notice their faces were all funny, and then I realized that there was an earthquake. Just a little one. Sister Lewis and Sister Yeom were somehow oblivious to that one. Then Sunday night when we got home we had another earthquake. Like a 5.7 or something. It's too bad how those things excite me. It didn't last too long, but kind of was jerky in the way it moved. It scared my companions. I already know where I would go in our apartment to hide if there was a big one. Sister Dutson figured it all out one time. We have to think about these things, right? I'm pretty sure our apartment will just fall over if anything happens. Ha ha ha.
Love you all, thank you for everything!

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

Mung Mung

Sisters Ochoa, Fatkin, Sanders





Hey everyone! Well this last week we had some good lessons. We've been teaching these four people from El Salvador all of whom have a baptismal date. They're pretty funny. Sometimes they seem to get it. They always know they need to be praying and reading, but I have to wonder if they are always praying because they're really not progressing. We brought this very recent RM girl whose parents are in our ward to an appointment too, which was really nice, because there was someone else who spoke Spanish who could answer the questions. It's interesting because being the one who really can speak Spanish in our companionship, I am the one doing a lot of talking because I understand the people, and I can answer the questions. So I'm learning Spanish faster than if I were with a native. But, it sure makes me tired. It's nice to have other people talk, that's for sure. We actually have 7 people with baptismal dates, but none of them came to church this Sunday. Great. Okay, well one did, but she's not sure if she's going to get baptized-I think her dad might not be giving her permission. We had zone conference last week and the focus was completely on baptism. This was motivating but also makes me feel like if we don’t make these baptisms work out, then we failed. Ah! We're doing what we can though, so we'll see. It was kind of a long week, because we had a couple of days when everything fell through. Nobody was around Saturday and Sunday because there was this huge Cinco de Mayo street party going on in our area. Hispanics may say they don't celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but they're lying. They take advantage of anytime when they can throw gigantic parties. Saturday morning was interesting in companionship planning too because S. Lewis basically freaked out about a lesson we were planning, and didn't like any of the ideas we had, but wouldn't come up with anything else. Seemed like the longest hour of my life. Funny, because the day before she said "Sister Sanders, I know you're stressed. How can I help take some of the stress away?" My answer now would be, "stop freaking out!" Man, sometimes it seems like all companions are not created equal. But then things worked out and she apologized that night. There are rough moments, and there are great moments. So goes the mission, yeah? We went and talked to Yesenia, Abel and Eva last week too. We have an appointment with them this week, so we'll give them another try and see if they're ready to progress. I hope so. Yesenia and Abel were the type of couple I could really see going to the temple, and really that's the goal, not just baptism. Huh. What else? I really need to start thinking of actual interesting things to write in these e-mails. Sorry for the repetitiveness! How is everyone doing? I guess you can all tell me next Sunday when we talk! Ah! Love you family, hope everything is going fantastically for everyone!

Sisters Ochoa, Sanders, and Fatkin

Achicopalada

Hello family! How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is doing great. Weird to think it's almost May! Well, I'm going to try to think of some different things to say in the e-mail today because really basically it's all the same. We are still looking for more people to teach and still trying to get people to keep their commitments, etc. We have some baptismal dates with people---7 of them, but none of them even came to church yesterday, so....we'll see.
We have begun to teach three kids who are nieces/nephew to a bunch of members in our ward. In the way of the Hispanic culture, the entire extended family lives together, and I just never knew who all the extra people were. Now I know and someone else in the ward told me these kids needed to be taught. They are Lupe, Alejandra and Oscar Jacobo. Lupe and Oscar accepted the baptismal date. They're good kids and they definitely have the family/ward support already, but we just aren't sure their mom will give them permission. We also have a new goal in the mission. The very first time we teach anyone, we invite them to be baptized and with a baptismal date. It feels a little crazy, but we'll be doing it. So we knock on someone's door, they let us in, we talk for 15 minutes about whatever and maybe don't even finish the lesson, and maybe they have lots of doubts and are confused, but we still say "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God? We will be holding a baptismal service May 17; will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that day?" I feel a little like we're back in the days of memorizing lessons (even though I don't know what that feels like) because we are supposed to say exactly that because it's from Preach My Gospel. So, I suppose we will be having a lot of baptismal dates being set without all of them happening.
It was a good first week of the transfer though. Sister Yeom is doing well with her Spanish. It seems like everyone, besides English speakers, can pronounce Spanish better because they are used to pronouncing all of their letters. So she can't say much, but she says it with a good accent. Hay que aprender el idioma! Being back in a threesome, well it's familiar. What's new?
Um, a couple of days last week it was over 100 degrees. Hot. But it's cooled down again. People are starting to give us cantaloupe water again, so that is also very good.
We taught this guy Javier last week who is actually a referral from Araceli. He talks a lot. Really slow. We've been trying to set another appointment with him to meet with the elders, but he always wants to explain to me his entire week schedule and by 9:45 at night I'm done talking to him. He leaves messages like "Sister Sanders, it's Javier, it is 9:30 pm, what day is it....um....April 24, I am calling so that we can discuss my schedule for the week. Please call me back so we can chat about this." Except it takes him like 5 minutes to say that.
I think that as a missionary, my attention span has gotten pretty bad. I can't focus for too long. And now I am the one who people usually ask to talk to on the phone because they know I can speak to them. Sometimes I am "Hermana Sander" sometimes "Hermana Sandra." They have a hard time with the "rs" together. Ryan, could people say your name?
We got a new car to drive: a brand new Toyota Corolla that is silver. We are working on naming it. We had a Ford Fusion named Jorge earlier. I am thinking Pepito for the Corolla.
And that's my week!