Dia de los muertos!

Mi familia! Como esta todos? Estoy muy bien! This is the last week of the transfer-I don't like that. The prayers are starting again that we can all stay another transfer! Mostly I'm worried about being transferred because that means a little decrease in my Spanish learning. Oh yeah, plus all of the investigators we're teaching! Last week was great and we were exhausted the entire time.

We taught Araceli and got her husband to sit in with us. Mostly we were teaching him the restoration to see if he'd maybe come to church, and maybe marry Araceli. It's funny, as we've found out this "problem" we've realized that this is probably why teaching her in the beginning was a little slow, and why she was stubborn. She is absolutely ready to be baptized and wants it so much. She wants to get married. But she has this lazy stubborn husband. He's nice, but he's not doing the best things for his daughter and wife. After he basically said he didn't want to be pressured to get married, he left and Araceli actually broke down a little and cried. It's sort of refreshing because she's a tough person, and it was good for us to see how much she really wanted to be baptized. Sooo, for now, we're going to teach her this week and basically tell her she needs to make some hard decisions.

And then we have Lupe. We got Lupe to actually verbally commit to being baptized Nov. 15 last week. But then I was talking to her on the phone on Saturday and we were a little worried about whether or not she was married (we never asked) and after confirming some appointments, I asked her how long she'd been married. But then her daughter Lulu (8) wanted to talk on the phone and told me they'd been reading the BOM together (we just gave her her own) and then her little brother "big boy" who is 4 decided to get on the phone and chat too (I felt like I was talking to Ashleigh and Braden and it was very fun!). Lupe got back on the phone and told me she's not married. It was actually pretty funny this time. Maybe because we were all tired so everything gets funny like that. So we have some more work to do. She doesn't seem opposed to marriage, so hopefully....!

So officially we have one Maria Tellez being baptized Nov. 30, Cleotilde Curachura on Nov. 22, Eulalio (if he stops being lame and comes to church) on Nov. 30, and possibly Lupe and Lulu sometime in November. And we're just going to keep praying for Araceli and Cibelly.

I don't know what else we did last week. We definitely taught some people and talked to a lot of people but I just remember it flew by and we were tired and it never seemed like we did very much by the end of the day. But somehow we met all of our goals-so that's good!

A little more mission info. So I live in Anaheim in an apartment with my companionship and another companionship-those girls are serving in Anaheim, not officially Spanish. There is one comp of girls who just got moved to a new area last transfer (they used to be in a Spanish area) and they are in a very nice area apparently, living with members. I don't know that there are elders living with members. I actually work in Orange, but our ward is Santa Ana, and when there are people who need to be taught by sisters in Spanish, then we can go to other areas. Otherwise our area is verrry small. I haven't seen the ocean yet, but I think if I climbed some hills I probably could. And yes, there are hills here to the east of it and I love it because when we drive towards them they seem like mountains!

It's still very warm here-no snow. But a couple of mornings it has been foggy and chilly. I like that a lot. But mostly sun and hot/warm. My ankle is pretty much better, I don't notice it anymore, but I think it's still a little swollen.

So Friday is Halloween and we have to be in by 6. To avoid all of the crazies I suppose. We're really excited to be inside so we can have a little time. We're just hoping that we don't have to do our planning at night. Once a week on Friday mornings we do weekly planning and lately it takes us 3 hours to do. We're afraid they're going to have us do it Friday night instead this week. Oh well, I'm still buying a pumpkin today and eating candy corn on Friday.

The prop 8 thing is really getting crazy around here. With how much we here about it in our little sheltered world, it must be really big. Every week in sacrament and in relief society they talk about it. They even cancelled the ward Halloween fiesta so people could go out and hold signs-which they do a couple of times a week. I hear that members who have signs in their yards are getting harassed too. Spray paint on their side walks and things thrown in windows. And in the Orange circle one day we saw all of these college students (there's an artsy school in Orange-Chapman U) holding anti prop 8 signs. It's crazy! Thanks so much mom for the absentee thing-it is a miracle that you got that, hopefully it gets here in time! I need to uphold my civic duty, even if I'm on a mission, right?

I got an e-mail from my friend Kathleen and she's in Brazil and has been for almost two weeks now. It seems so crazy that here I am in California just being a missionary, and she's in the MTC in Brazil. It's interesting where you're called to-where is the right place for you with people that you can touch and help. California girl, huh?

Not much else going on-even though I'm sure there is and I'm just not thinking about it. We're doing some exchanges again tonight and H. Chriswell will be our temp comp tomorrow so I think that will be pretty fun to be back together. And the elders have some baptisms this Sunday so we're hoping that our investigators with fechas bautismales (baptismal dates, not failed baptisms) can come see them. We're also eating with la familia Mendez on Sunday for Dia de los muertos as a little anniversary of the death of Hermana Mendez's mom. Weird? Oh no, fun. Her husband isn't a member, but pretty much is. They both remind me of my own little parents!

I've been thinking and realizing a lot lately that I am pretty lucky to have the family that I do. It's just amazing how solid everyone is in the gospel-that's a miracle. And I love it! So I wanted to say thank you to my parents for being amazing parents and doing such a good job with everyone! I hope that I can be just like you some day! I love all of you my little family! Thanks for everything and "talk" to you in a week!

Love,
Hermana Emily

Rules & Baptisms

Good afternoon all! Another crazy, long, busy, week just finished. Today we have a 4 hour p-day. Yikes! Laundry, grocery, internet, and not much else! President Watrous is definitely a very stick to the rules kind of guy. He is probably not the most dynamic business type guy (which I'm thinking the last president was) but he's more humble and just full of faith, though also a little goofy. And as a result, all of our rules are becoming a little stricter and everything we do is much more by the book (the white handbook!). As a mission we're really trying to increase our faith and teach a lot more and get a lot more new investigatords and baptisms! And honestly, though it's hard for some people to get it (mostly those who don't have a lot of time left in the mission, so change is hard) I know that all of these changes are really going to improve the mission. I think things are already getting better and it's pretty exciting. This is an opportunity for great things to happen. Hooray for me being here the whole time! Last week was crazy. We didn't teach Eulalio once. We had a couple of citas that got cancelled; he's not being the most reliable right now. But we're still working on it. Basically we're trying to reschedule his baptism for Nov 22. We also decided to outright ask our most solid investigators if they are even willing to be baptized when they found out the truth. So we asked two of our "Marias" last week.
One Maria has been sporadic in our teaching her, but every time we do teach, and she reads, she says that everything is "claro." Everything is clear. And she said yes, that she will be baptized when she knows. And I think she will know. She then told us she wanted to come to church, and if her husband can't come with her, could we find a way for her to get there? Yes! So our ward mission leader picked her up and she came to church by herself. Afterwards she said she said she liked 100% of church. Yes! We brought a member with us to her lesson and I think they had a lot in common that really helped Maria feel comfortable. There's another testimony of the importance of members in missionary work (which reminds me-read those quotes from all the presidents in the first chapter-my purpose, of preach my gospel. It's at the end. I love the quotes).
We asked our "miracle" Maria the same thing about baptism that day too. She's turning out to be not as miraculous as she seemed to be. It's been hard to get a hold of her to teach, and she can't seem to come to church, and we always leave feeling a little confused about her desire. It seems like she just likes having these young girls come to be her friend. She didn't say yes to the baptism question, but I don't think she really understood what we were asking. We'll see what happens with her.Then there's Araceli. Last Wednesday we taught her and Cibelly. They are probably our favorite (can you have favorites?) investigadors. We just love them! Cibelly is just darling. Araceli somehow always seems like a big sister. She reminds me of Leigh. But we taught about Christ and baptism basically and just flat out told her we'd been really thinking and praying about her and think she would be ready for baptism by Nov. 8. When we asked, Cibelly threw her arm up in the air and really wants to be baptized. Araceli, I don't think, was surprised by the question but kept saying she doesn't know enough to be baptized. But we kept telling her we have plenty of time to keep working with her and she knows all she needs to and she is SO ready. She knew we were right. We said we'd just plan on that date and she could pray about it. We know we will have to get permission from the dad to get Cibelly baptized, but we think we can do that without it being too hard. Araceli came to church on Sunday (Cibelly was sick so she stayed home). H. Ochoa was talking to her and after church told us she had bad news. Totally unexpected. Araceli isn't married! Ah! She's always referred to her husband, as, uh, her husband. They have Cibelly-8, and Alfredo-almost 2. Apparently they've been afraid to get married because they're afraid that then everything will get hard. And she said she couldn't get baptized because they'd be living in sin. Guess what-already living in sin! Yikes! Oh man, so now we have to work with that. And Araceli is so ready and now we know why she's been kind of doubting it. At least Cibelly can get baptized anyway, but we want it all to happen at the same time. So now there's a new challenge for us!Lupe is an investigator the elders gave us and we asked her last week to be baptized the week after Araceli. She says that yeah, when she's ready she will be. That's the point. In a month, she also will be as ready as she can be. She said she'll pray about it. Her daughter Lulu is also 8, so she could be baptized. We have an appointment with her family and brother (who the elders are teaching and committing to baptism this week!) at 3:30 to do a little FHE, so we'll talk to her then. Then Saturday we committed another investigador-Cleotilde to baptism. A year ago other sisters were teaching him and he had a fecha bautismal, but then I guess he didn't think he was ready or knew enough, so it was cancelled, then he sort of "disappeared." But Saturday he was asking us what someone needed to know to be baptized, and we asked him, and he said he'd be baptized Nov 22. He's a crazy little 70 year old Mexican man that half the time just talks about social security. He'll take a little more work, but again, there's time to do it!So in conclusion, we have a couple for sure baptisms and some sort of and basically we're working really hard to teach and get everybody ready. That was the week. Other stuff happened too, but it's all sort of a blur. We're also trying to commit again the Mendoza kids-Stephanie and Danny, to be baptized. Hopefully that can happen this week. The mission's on fire! Hopefully!What else? Thanks for the e-mails family! That's so exciting about all the family history! I love it! I'm actually sitting in the family history library here e-mailing. We can't go to our library anymore, or do laundry by Disneyland because everything we do has to be within our zone. We don't even live in our zone! Oh well. Hey mom, that primary song you were talking about-if the savior stood beside me, I just learned. The kids here are singing it for the program coming up, and being the pianist, I learned it! Con el Salvador al lado! It's so cute, but probably for a while I will only know it in Spanish. I'm glad Alex got to Peru alright. For some reason I was thinking that she wasn't going there until January. I hope it will be good for her too. There probably isn't anyway you could get her address, is there? I would love to try to write her. Peruvians are funny. We have a Peruvian elder here in our district and he's kind of random, but makes me laugh. And we ate with the Peruvian family last night.What else? I ate mole twice last week. It's the chocolate sauce stuff they put with chicken. Thought you should know.
Also, we did our exchanges last week too. Hermana Moore-the sister "AP" came up here with H. Ochoa and me. She was H. Fatkin's last comp and is now with H. Chriswell, so we could compare our comp experiences. I really like H. Moore, I wish I could've been comps with her, but she's leaving next transfer. I'm glad that all the "Handy" family had fun out here. I wouldn't mind seeing family, but in terms of my being "private" really, it's just not allowed. So it's okay. It's good to not have the distraction.
Mom, if I ever see Tina Nielsen's friend/family then I will definitely convert her! I'll see if I can pass on the info-maybe.Oh yes! Thank you muchisimo for the package! I got both packages last week! Hooray for knee highs! They are wonderful! And all the FHE ideas are so fun, thank you so much! And the treats and drink mixes and everything was so great! And the CDs! Wonderful! My comps were thrilled to have new music! So we've only been listening to Motab and classical and basically church and some CDs are already scratched, so new stuff is great! Thank you for making the blog public mom! That will be helpful because some friends were e-mailing me because they couldn't do the blog thing, but I'm not allowed to e-mail friends anymore, so they'll have to use the blog if they care.Sounds like all the family is happy and doing well! Beautiful fall weather, lots of squirrels, bike riding, Thanksgiving plans, all kinds of fun things! It is a wonderful season, but it always goes by really fast!
Things are still going great. We are busy and still trying really hard to get the ward members more involved and trusting us more and trying to find all the people who are ready to be baptized and be happy! It definitely is hard to try to think of how best to help all these people and know who is progressing and who needs to be "dropped." But I guess it's best to not think of it as dropping, because they'll be taught later, and it gives us time to find people who are ready. Oh missionary work! Another week and another long e-mail for you all! Tomorrow is my two month anniversary of being in CA-it definitely feels like it's been two months, but I can't believe it's only been two months! The language is still coming and everything is wonderful! Muchisimas gracias por todos las oraciones y cartas y amor y apoyo! Les amo muchisimas!Love,Hermana Emily!

Conference & Chilequias

October 6, 2008


Buenos dias mi familia! How is everyone? How did everyone enjoy Conference? It was amazing, huh? We actually got to watch all of Saturday's sessions in English because we didn't have an investigator. And I am sooo glad because they were some amazing talks, huh? I definitely really liked Elder Bednar's on prayer. He's so straight to the point and I love that. And I thought it was interesting that Elder Oak's talk was basically an expanded version of the devotional he talked in my last MTC week. But that makes sense; they have a topic they like and they just study it. And yeah, Elder Holland's on angels was a favorite too. I loved that story about the little boy and his father. But the best part for me was hearing about those temples!!!! My mouth definitely was hanging open for the rest of the time. Philadelphia and Roma! I'm thinking that the Philadelphia one would probably be north of the city, maybe a little west? But I just like to guess. And Italia! Moltissimi buono! I think of all those ward members in Napoli who would have to go to the Switzerland temple. Especially this little old lady who had been a member for like 70 years and tried to go once a year. Hooray! These give me some future traveling ideas!
On Sunday we did listen to conference in Spanish because we had Eulalio there (he and the other guys came at 9 for the first session and stayed around until after the last session-a long day for them!) and it definitely was hard to focus sometimes on the talks. I seemed to get the general idea that a lot of them spoke about basically being optimistic/hopeful/faithful and having gratitude and the importance of families. Great topics!
In between sessions we lucked out and the stake president and his wife invited us and the three guys (Humberto, Eulalio and Francisco) to eat with them in the high councilor’s room. Ha ha ha. Chilequias. That's what we ate. It was funny because Humberto took it upon himself to get Eulalio's whole baptismal program worked out. He asked the stake president to baptize him, his wife to give a talk (she teaches gospel principles and is amazing), me to play piano, H. Fatkin to lead music, and H. Ochoa to pray. Way to be efficient Humberto. So Eulalio is getting baptized October 19.
And we're hoping that we're close to Araceli and Cibelly being baptized. They had planned on coming to conference and we had no doubt in our minds that they would, but we called them Sunday morning and no answer! So we were worried and ran over to their place and no one was home! Ah! We were so sad because we thought they had bailed on us. We went to conference and didn't expect anything. But then we're sitting there before the afternoon session started, and in walked Araceli and Cibelly! We were all a little bit shocked, pleasantly. Another miracle! And they just looked like members already when they walked in. Yeah, We're hoping!
The last week has been a little slower. We didn't have as many appointments to start off with, and lots got cancelled. That's just the way it goes. But it makes the good weeks even better!
Also, last Tuesday we went to teach Modesta and Jacqueline. They know the church is true and the Book of Mormon is true, but they are Catholic and conflicted because she knew she had to make a decision. And her priest told her that to come to our church would be bad. We've been trying really hard, but when we went on Tuesday she basically told us it was the last time we could teach her. Somehow I don't think any of us were surprised. She still said she believed it all, but had to make a choice. And she still thinks the Catholic church is true. That seems to be a common problem: people believe us, but they believe everything. It was really sad letting her go. But she is doing what she thinks is best for her kids, and I don't doubt that someday the missionaries will find her again and she'll be ready.
Last night we dropped another investigator. Myra. She's so crazy and emotional and dramatic and doesn't read and doesn't come to church, but she's still pretty funny. We've known for a while that we needed to let her go. She wasn't progressing. I think she knew too. When we told her, she was fine, and not surprised and I do think she understood. But then after a couple of minutes she just started crying. So we took some pictures with her to make her happy, and she gave us mugs. Ha ha ha. People are so funny. We really liked Myra, she was just kind of a drain on our energy, especially since she wasn't trying.
We've been doing A LOT of door knocking recently because we just really need some new people. We need that golden family! And we'll find them.
This week we have zone conference and we get to go to the temple. As for your temple question mom-no, we don't go with members. They assign the missionaries different days, and we get to go once a transfer. Yeah, the temple is a little temple, but it actually seems slightly bigger-on the outside-than the St. Paul one. And it's not the square shape, it's rectangular. I'm so excited to go again! I just can't believe that we're just about half way through another transfer.
Oh, funny things this week. We tracted in this one area and a young black guy answered the door. He had one of those nylon things on his head and was wearing boxers. When we told him who we are and what we're doing he was just blown away, he kept saying "what? You’re not even from this planet!" then he yelled at someone upstairs "Star! Star! Throw me down my pants!" Then he let us in and we basically just gave him the first lesson and explained a lot of things and he was hilarious, sitting in his vibrating chair and saying "It's beautiful man, beautiful." I love diversity! And we were contacting down at the Orange Circle and there's this little Irish pub; this guy was outside and I tried to give him a card, and he was only slightly drunk and pretty nice and said with a little southern drawl "Honey, I've been a bartender for 40 years, I ain't about to go to the other side now." We had a good laugh about that.
The weather cooled down a little bit and when I didn't see the palm trees, I forgot that I was in California and it would be 90 degrees the next day. But this week is going to be an amazing week! Hopefully lots of walking and contacting and getting people ready for salvation! The church is true and I love you all and thank you for everything!
Love,
Hermana Emily

This is the day which the Lord hat made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

Hello to you all! How is everyone doing on this fine Monday afternoon? Sounds like everyone is doing fantastically!
And yes, I've been thinking about piano music. And wishing I had some! What about yeah, some prelude music but also a couple of random copies of such things as Clair de Lune and the pride and prejudice "Liz on Top of the World" and Chopin Opus 72. I think they're all copied in my green notebook. Anything in there. I dont know. Hymns make me feel a little crazy.
Today is a little crazy too. We got a call last night after 10:30 from our DL telling us that p-day schedule would be different. Normally we get up and go straight to laundry and grocery shopping at 7am and do internet and go to zone activity and some doctor's appointment and clean and put stuff away and barely have time for much else. But we were told we needed to do basic personal and companion study this morning. We're not sure who that came from because as far as we know, only our zone did it. Hmmm. But we did it and now are doing internet at a family history center in one of the buildings here because being Columbus Day, stuff is closed. They don't celebrate that in Minnesota, right? And we are on our way down to another area so H. Ochoa can go to the chiropractor. We are going to meet two other sisters and go eat frozen yogurt because it was H. Fatkin's birthday yesterday. And then tonight we are coming back down again to do an exchange with the sisters. One of the sisters that used to be in this area will come up with H. Ochoa and I and H. Fatkin is going down to Irvine to be with H. Chriswell for the day. It will be interesting! And I don't know what's happening with the weather here. It was probably 100 degrees last Tuesday, it was ridiculously hot. And then this weekend it really cooled down and it's been really windy all day today. Maybe it's those Santa Ana winds. I hear there are some big fires going on around here. Who knows. But it's definitely not snowing here! Last week was an irregular week. It's been so hard to make everything go the way we planned and reach our goals. It's also the middle of the transfer though, and to me, that explains it all. We got to go to the temple again last Wednesday. FULL session. There were probably 60 or something people in there. They stuffed it full of chairs and people
We also had zone conference last Thursday and it was also amazing. We had these two guys speak to us from the missionary department in Utah. They are also fantastic speakers and I felt like I was in the MTC again. They talked to us a lot on contacting people and just interacting. Apparently this mission, and the western US in general has been struggling for years with baptisms. 300 a year is the goal, and they're usually pretty lucky if they get it. They said that we are just under 200 now, and each companionship needs to work for 2 baptisms in the next two months to reach the goal. President Watrous is just a funny, goofy type of guy. I would love to have seen him on his mission, with some of the things he says he did. And Sister Watrous is just this sweet, emotional, little woman.
They're great.

I think the conference really got everyone excited. I know that we went out last weekend and tried some new contacting methods and it was really fun. We talked to a lot less people, but we taught more lessons. So that's better. It's hard sometimes, because I feel like I need to do what my comps do. But in general I think I'm more forward than them, so it's not my favorite to sit back. It's kind of weird knowing you're being "trained." I've never really been given any type of words of wisdom or encouragement from the sisters, sometimes H. Ochoa tells me things I need to change. Unfortunately she's a little more uptight at times and I don't know if it's that she's getting burned out or what, but mostly I know it's not a big deal and try to get past it. They're both great missionaries and we all have different styles, and that's good.
We have heard that in general they're trying to keep missionaries in their areas a lot longer. Even up to 8 or 9 months. And I think our mission president is aiming for that. H. Ochoa leaves the end of January and it will be interesting to see if they keep H. Fatkin in here up until then and beyond. Who knows!
Eulalio. He bailed out of one appointment last week and didn't come to church yesterday. He had a little trabajito. Bad. So, we are changing his baptismal date for probably about a month away. Apparently he just doesn't get it and needs more time to understand. So we'll give him time. But we're going to commit Araceli to being baptized this week. She is sooo ready. We know she has to be. It will still take a lot of faith on her side, but we all know it's time to ask her. And as long as her husband consents, we know Cibelly will want to be baptized too.
We also are now teaching a family that some elders in another district gave to us. And the mom in this family is definitely super close to baptism. We've picked out a day for her, and might talk to her about it this week or next. We had 9 (!!!) investigators at church yesterday. It was ridiculous. And a miracle! We're not planning on that being normal, but we will definitely aim for it!

I just read the last church news-the one with the young women general president on the cover with the temple. I liked the scripture thought on the inside and think that I will use her scripture as a little theme. Psalms 118:24 (?) about today being the day the Lord made, so enjoy it. Something like that. ("This is the day which the Lord hat made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.")I like it.
I don't know what else is happening around here besides lots of missionary work. The work in Orange, California
is going fantastically and mostly because it has to! It's not always perfect, but hey, it's not my work, I just get to be apart of it, and hopefully I can help a little.

Muchisimas gracias in advance for the package that I'm sure is delightful! I'm excited for it! I love you all and hope everything is happy and wonderful for everyone right now! Thank you for everything!
Love,
Hermana Emily

Rain and the Three Marias

Hello! Today after laundry and grocery shopping, and before we went to play ultimate Frisbee with our zone, we had a miracle! It rained! I hope everyone is appreciating the rain they get to have! And a p-day with rain is just perfect! My official second transfer is going great-claro que si! Last week on p-day we actually went and did something, so that was fun. Usually everyone is unfortunately a little lame and wants to sit around in the apartment all day. But I demanded that we go do something, so we went and walked around what's called the "orange circle" which is like a much much better Provo center street, but in a circle. They have a lot of fun antique stores and little boutiques and places where you can just buy cupcakes. Ha ha. Orange is really a fun city; I would bring people back here to visit for sure. Maybe all the family that is going to be here in two weeks should come to Orange! It's just down the street from Disneyland. Weird that they'll be here!

We had a lot of great lessons last week, and a lot of members cancelled on coming with us. But it's interesting how it works out and it's usually better that it was just us teaching. We even found a miracle. We were out knocking this apartment building and while my companeras were talking to one woman, this other woman kind of walks up and I said hi to her and she asked if we were Mormons and I said yes and asked if she's spoken to missionaries before. We found out sister missionaries had been teaching her like twice a week something like 10 or 15 years ago but they were transferred out and she moved and yeah, here we are. We ended up sitting in her apartment finding and offering to teach her again and she told us all about her-she's from Venezuela and has cousins that are members in our stake and friends her are members in Utah. And she gave us chocolate and told us she was going to make us dinner this week and she's just excited to have us come again. And so are we! Her name is miracle Maria. Then we are teaching Maria de la paz (that's really her name, of the peace) who is really interested and Maria de los tomales (our name for her because she sells tomales in the park) who is also very interested. We have to keep our Marias straight. We also had a couple of days last week that were sort of random because nothing really worked out the way we planned. But hey, we had like an entire two weeks straight of amazing days. And I've found that as long as you plan well, it doesn't matter how everything turns out, but somehow the original planning just prepares you for whatever. It's a good thing! We did some service as a district down in Santa Ana on Saturday that was really fun. We got put in this group of Humanitarian workers that were ALL Muslim and we gave food to the homeless. This service group even did some recitations from the Koran and sang and everything and I LOVED it! It was like being back in Jerusalem. Especially because I was the only blonde. Hma Fatkin says that down in Irvine there are tons of Persians and Afghanis and Muslims and Indians and I'm really excited for when I inevitably serve down there! But for now the Spanish is great.
Speaking of Spanish, I do think my language has improved. I don't know how because we hardly ever get to really have language study, and it's not like we're speaking it all day long, but it's coming along. And that's good.
Araceli and Cibelly came to church again this week. Yeah! And the husband even dropped them off! And Hermana Mendez' husband was there too. But Eulalio and the Mendozas weren't there. We're going to have to have a little, loving talk with Eulalio about church again because now we will have to move his baptismal date so that he can attend church enough times. Some of these people you just want to shake! Because you know that they've received an answer, they just don't get how important it is to act on that answer! And I suppose that's why we're here too, to help them recognized what's happening and what they need to do. Oh well. He was going to get baptized on my four month mission anniversary, but it will be a week later now! It is going to be a great week! I can feel it already!
Oh, funny thing from last week. Sometimes Hma Fatkin says funny things that don't make sense, both in English and Spanish and H Ochoa and I look at each other and try not to laugh. But we were going to eat at someone's house and she was praying before we went in and said "gracias por sus deseos de ayudar y comer los misioneros." She meant to thank the members for the help and for feeding the missionaries. But instead we are now grateful that the members want to eat us. It only took about a 3 second silence after the prayer before H Ochoa and I busted up. Good times on the mission-the laughing is so important! I'm not sure I have much more to say! The mission is great and it's starting to really speed up-ah! My ward is amazing and my companionship is wonderful and everything is just going great! Thank you family again for you love and prayers! I hope everyone is doing wonderfully and is happy and enjoying the last days of September! Is it snowing yet? Ha ha! Love you!

Hermana Emily

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!

Hola mi familia! Como estan ustedes? Estoy buena! So yes, it is transfer week. Well, sort of. They let everyone know what's up Saturday and the moves happen next Monday. We're pretty confident in our comp that none of us will be going anywhere, but at the same time I suppose we're ready for anything. It will be interesting to see what happens! Oh, I just need to stay speaking Spanish! So last week we went to the temple. It really is a beautiful temple-though I suppose I wouldn't admit it if it was ugly. They're aren't very many pink temples out there, so it's fun. Small, obviously. Definitely more of a CA style I think. The creation room has a really pretty beach mural in it, and all the wood is dark, so I liked that! We saw the old movie version, and I had to look out for this BYU teacher who is in it. President Watrous told me that this art teacher at BYU is James in it. This teacher is the same person who interviewed me to go on the London study abroad. Funny to see him like 20 yrs ago. The time at the temple is always too short I think. The last time I'd gone to the temple was my last day at the MTC-crazy to think how much has happened since then, when really not that much time has passed. Let's see what I can tell you more about who and what and where about this mission. First of all, in Spanish wards, when they sing, they all sound like a bunch of little kids. It's funny, me gusta. The other night we "tracted" into a little fiesta that was happening on some street in honor of Mexican independence day or something. It was a bunch of little girls, some little boys (under 12 yrs) just dancing to music. And their parents were just watching in delight. Funny because the music and the way they were dancing...well, let's just say that they learn from a young age how to shake it. It was funny, we stood and watched and talked to some people and they gave us palomitas-a corn soup. Every single week in church they like to talk about Proposition 8, this thing that will be voted on soon here about whether or not people have to marry gay people. I don't know, as missionaries we get tired of it because investigadors get tired of hearing about it. Some of the elders had investigadors who didn't want to come back the next week, and really, I don't blame them. We had stake conference this weekend, and I swear that the whole things was geared towards this prop. 8. I understand it's good to do this, but sometimes some doctrine is good too. Oh well! So there's this man, Humberto who was recently baptized. And he was led into the church by another guy, Francisco. And we're teaching this man Eulalio, who we found out works with Humberto, and so now, since these are all 40ish, single men, we're thinking it would be great if they set up a little club for themselves. It's so hard for some of them because after they change their lifestyles they lose some friends and they just get bored. And then they get attached to the missionaries. Not so fun. Luckily we have a good ward mission leader who is trying to get the ward involved on giving the new member lessons, instead of the missionaries. It's a good idea and we're hoping it happens. We're teaching these two kids-Daniel (10) and stephanie (13) whose mom is a member and aunt is a member (wife of ward mission leader) and another aunt is a member. But the mom is not very active, yet wants the kids to be baptized. She never sits and listens when we teach the kids, and she definitely doesn't get them to church. So it's a little hard and we don't get it. But Daniel wants to be baptized, even though we keep having to move the date back, and Stephanie is just cautious and wants to make sure. She's really smart, much more like the mom, always trying to make sure they can get to church and that she writes down when we're coming by again. Yeah, we don't get some of these parents who want their kids taught, but beyond that they don't support them. We are also teaching the husband of a recently reactived woman. The Mendezes. We eat with them every week and sometimes he's not there because of work (and it's frustrating) but I think she just needs our support too. They actually live in a nice area called Anaheim hills, so she has this baby grand that I'm sure doesn't get used. She had me give her a piano lesson last week. My first piano lesson, and definitely my first in Spanish. Ha ha ha, we'll she how she does. I think I mentioned that everyday we wake up it's always cloudy. Sometimes I hope and pray for rain, but the clouds siempre go away and there are no clouds in the sky and it's hot. But last Friday it stayed cloudy! It was exciting because it was a change and I feel like CA has acknowledged fall! Last week we made papusas with our district. They're basically a tortilla-ish thing you put on a griddle. Sarah Ruth, our super laid-back El Salvadorian made all the ingredients for us so that we could make the rest ourselves. A little service always makes you love people more! We watched "The Restoration" with her family and some random friends last week and talked a little afterwards. Mostly I don't think she's every paying attention, but she's so nice anyway. But we got the impression last week that someone at that house needs to hear the message, so we'll keep going! That would be great if Christmas music eventually made it's way here-like Josh Groban, Mannheim, that one Mormon guy whose cd cover has a sleigh on it-Keith or Carl or something? Also, how about some sugar free hot chocolate? Tis the season! Saturday we cleaned part of one room of crazy Joanne, our inactive friend. Basically I told her she didn't have a choice and we just tried to take off the inch thick dust off of her civil war upright piano. It's so pretty! We found some cockroaches and silverfish (?) and earwigs and daddy long legs. It was great! She just doesn't have much money and is a very old looking 55 year old whose 19 year old son supports her. She sleeps in the front room and saves EVERYTHING. Boxes full of old yellow recipes and old bills and Advil and playing cards. It was only a little that we did but I think she appreciated it. I just wish she would come to church! So many people just need a friend at church, if they knew there was someone there to greet them and take care of them, they'd go and be okay. Oh, I almost forgot, when we had zone conference my second week here, we had a speaker, and I don't know if he's an area authority or what, but it is Elder Tenney. Sound familiar? I ate lunch with him and since he said he was a mission president in Spain, I figured I'd ask the question. And yes! Ryan's first mission pres! He remembered your name too. He was a really great speaker, I really liked him. What else can I tell about the mission? I think H. Ochoa said that maybe we got 300 baptisms the last year? I don't know though. We teach probably around 18 lessons a week, and then usually around 5 lessons with a member present. Those are so important! You ward mission leaders, make sure your missionaries have members that will come to appointments! It makes a huge difference! There are something like 120 elders here, and only 13 sisters. After transfers and incoming sisters (sister) by January we will have only 10 sisters. Yikes! Mom, if you look up the 1990 August Ensign, you can find an article about H. Ochoa's family. English is more her first language, she completely grew up in Vancouver. But she's obviously fluent in Spanish. Which makes it hard sometimes because I find that I rely on her. The language is coming I suppose, but it's definitely slowed down since the MTC. H. Fatkin is from a family of three kids, brother younger and older. Her parents are pretty inactive, she went to the temple and the MTC by herself. Her parents also got divorced while she was in the MTC, so she's really had to grow a lot. But it sounds like her dad is working on becoming active again. I'm pretty sure that the Watrouses are about your age mom and dad. They look and act so much older though! Way to be young! So everything is going great still! Every week seems like so much longer than a week and by the end of the night we can't remember what we did earlier. One of my favorite things is when we go to someone's doorstep and people listen to us for a second or two, and then when they go "oh, Mormons?" and then they say very angrily "you are from a cult!". These are Americans. Ha ha ha. It makes us laugh. It's so fun all the random people that are out there. Some are so nice and some are just, uh, fun. Yesterday we talked to two "previous" members. Grew up members and just haven't been doing it for a long time. So nice, said we could always stop by and they'd talk to us, but they don't want the lessons. Come on! Well, we're just going to have to go back! What else to say? I don't know. I'm sure I've said a lot already. Everyday seems pretty much like the last, but then it's still different somehow. But it's a great work, isn't it? Thanks for all the e-mails this week and loving me everyone! Love you all. Hasta la proxima semana!

Love,
Hermana Emily