Hot Weather!

It is November, uh, 17th, and it has been at least in the high eighties the past couple of days. Where am I? It's crazy. And in California they get those warm Santa Ana winds and the fires all started up this weekend down here. Lots of nasty smoke in the air. But otherwise, all is good!
Okay, so I will try to clear up a few details about the mission. This mission is bilingual. EVERYONE is called to speak a language besides English. Usually Spanish. And they might already happen to know Korean or Samoan, Vietnamese or Tongan. And pretty much everyone is trained in that other language in the MTC-again, the majority in Spanish. So some people here are bilingual (if you could call me bilingual) and others are trilingual. Most CA missions are like that now I guess. Then it's just luck of the draw, who gets to actually serve in a Spanish area. Some people leave their mission never getting to serve in an actual Spanish ward; others get to serve a lot. So I was lucky I suppose. Make sense? I hope so.
Second thing. So I live in a city called Tustin, but I don't actually serve there. It's just where they have housing for us. But my ward, my area, where I serve-is Irvine. Like last time my area was the city of Orange, even though I lived in Anaheim and my ward was in Santa Ana. Yes, don't be confused. So Irvine. Irvine is different than a lot of other "California" type areas. I don't see very many palm trees, and not everything is stucco. Some areas actually look a little Midwestern or northwestern. And yes, it is ridiculously expensive, and most rent. For example, for a condo out here-some people will pay $2-3,000 a month. And they're one, maybe two bedrooms. But that's more of the extreme. And yes, almost everyone in the ward is a lawyer. Lots of young couples, lots of families. We do eat with a different family every night, and every is sooo nice. Really great families, really strong.
In this ward what they're doing is having all of the auxiliaries come up with 5 people (they can't overlap people) either inactive or part members, that we can work with and they can be focusing on. As for us, we probably have 7 people that we're working solidly with. Most of the people have probably been meeting with the missionaries longer than someone in a Spanish area before getting baptized. But the difference is that these people are usually much more solid and sure of their choice when they do get baptized. This area has been a hard one. But it's been picking up in the last year. The stake has had double the baptisms this year-something like 17-since the year before. May sound low, but it's a great thing for this area.
Here's some info on some of the people we teach. There's Shellie Freedkin. She's actually in another ward (other elder's area), but because of a long story, the sisters are teaching her. She is from the Midwest-and seems like it. She just isn't CA, even though she's lived her for 30 years. She is loud and wears dark glasses and is just a funny character. She is getting baptized Nov. 29 because Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday. It has taken her a year to decide to be baptized. She had accepted almost everything, but I guess had a hard time with giving up tea. She said something like "am I going to let tea stop me from having eternal life?" Good point. I guess she finally called up the missionaries herself and said she was ready. So that's fun.
Then there's Paula. She also has been meeting with the sisters for a year. This is her and her husband's second marriage. He is a member on the high council. So he's pretty strong. But she's just slow. She keeps saying that she's afraid that she's get baptized and then somewhere down the line break a commandment or realize that it's hard. She just needs more faith. But we think she's pretty close.
And Stephanie Suzukie. She is amazing. The sisters started teaching her, uh, like 6 months ago. She's married and has two little boys. She's very involved in her own church-we think she probably has some leadership position. She told us last time we came that honestly, when she first met with the sisters, she thought she'd listen once and then be done. She would never have believed that she'd still be listening, but she said that she just had to. It makes sense to her that we have prophets, and has wondered where the people in her church get their authority. And she's started to FHE in her family, and last night she told us they're going to work on keeping the Sabbath day holy in her family. She just amazes us every time we talk to her. We think that after a strong lesson on faith this week, and one on baptism next week, that she might be ready. She admitted last time that it's time for her to do something. That the ball is in her court and that really there's not much more we can do. She's close!
Those are the main investigators. And they are all wonderful. We still tract most days-not as much as we did in Orange though. And we started counting our numbers different every week, so we don't count a lesson unless we have an opening and closing prayer (like in MN) when before, as long as we taught a couple of principles it counted. Anyway, the way we're doing things now will hopefully be more effective and we can really work with members more and people who can give us referrals. One thing we do with members is we share the scripture in Alma about small and simple things -36:6-7 (?) and then we give them this paper. It's the 21 day promise. As a family they pick out 5 people they know that they'd like to help learn about the gospel. Then everyday for 21 days they pray for those people by name and read a different scripture on the paper. The goal is that at the end of the 21 days they will have thought of some actions they can take with each person-invite them to an activity, to church, to meet us, whatever. So it's directed by their inspiration, not us telling them to give everyone Books of Mormon. People seem to like it.
Oh yeah, I saw someone else last night that I knew from before the mission. Down in Irvine, because it is so diverse, they do a lot of interfaith activities. I don't know if I mentioned that S. Moore and I and two elders went last week to a religious diversity forum at UC Irvine because they wanted some missionary representation. But last night they had this interfaith choir at our church. Sikhs, Baha'is, Buddhists, Baptists, Jains, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and maybe others, all had some musical number. And they asked us to usher. I got to hear a little of the beginning and loved it! That's what I was looking forward to about Irvine. Anyway, this girl came who I was pretty good friends with at BYU. I knew she was in Anaheim, but figured I'd never run into her. Weird!
We still hear a lot about Prop 8 down here-but mostly from the members. They're all worried about us, but really we haven't had any problems with it. No one says anything to us. Irvine is pretty conservative. Actually, in general, Orange County I think is the most conservative part of CA. So no worries!
Okay, so that's a lot of info for this week. I love you all and hope that everything is going fantastically in your areas of the world! Let me know how everything is going when you get a chance!
Love,
Emily

Hello from Tustin

Hello from Irvine! Well actually Tustin. Well I’m in transfer three, which doesn’t mean much in the missionary world. But I can already feel that it will be flying by. Here’s my latest missionary setup. Sister Moore and I live by ourselves in a city called Tustin. We then drive everyday into Irvine-not very far, but still probably about 15 minutes away. It’s a weird mission when your area is small enough that you don’t even live in it. Or live in your zone. Hmmm. But that’s what we do.The ward here is pretty much amazing. We’ve even just about everyday with someone in the ward, and they had a very belated trunk or treat on Friday (everything had been cancelled for Prop 8) so I’ve been able to meet quite a few people. We went to ward council Sunday morning (something we didn’t do in Santa Ana) then church is at 10 and ward missionary council after church. I think I heard that this ward has something like 600 members. And a lot are active…well enough to make it hard to know everyone. It will definitely take time to remember all of these names. S. Moore has been here since May, so everyone really knows and loves her and she’s worked hard to gain the trust here. This ward loves sister missionaries, I know they’ve been here for a least a year. Hopefully they’ll keep sisters here for awhile because they seem to respond to them well. The ward has a lot of young couples-well, in there thirties, and everyone seems like a strong member. Lots of lawyers. And there seems like there’s a lot of potential with these members helping us finding people to teach.Irvine is way different than Orange. Not so many Hispanics! And yes, a large cultural mix. As we tracted last week, here were the types of people we talked to-Buddhists, Indians, Armenians, Persians, Hindus, Muslims, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, etc. I’m sure I will find there are more. Tracting is different here because most people are more honest with you. Hispanics just listen and then tell you that you can come back, but then they’re not there. And they talk lots when you do end up teaching them. The “white” type of people may seem ruder, but at least they don’t waste your time as much. So it’s a trade off. Irvine also just looks different. It’s an expensive place to live-everyone lives in gated community places full of condominiums and apartments. In Orange there were palm trees of all kinds, but here I don’t see as many. I actually see some pine trees and stuff. And it’s cooler here because we’re closer to the ocean so we get a breeze. Plus it’s almost winter, right?The investigators here seem a little more long-term. They are slower in their progress, but they are a little more solid. One woman, Shellie, is getting baptized in a couple of weeks. And there’s one woman, Stephanie, who is really active in her own church, but is very interested in learning about ours. She is great and really has potential. The sisters have been working hard here and there are some great people we are teaching. We also visit a lot of the inactive members here, which I think is great. S. Moore figures they’ve already made the covenants, and they need some help. And we work with the ward a lot more than in Spanish. So that’s helpful. Everyone in the ward is so helpful and always wants to do something for us. They do take good care of their missionariesYeah Jolie Hales. Funny. Sister Moore didn’t say Hales. Just Jolie. And when we went into her apt, I was just confused and looking at her (she does look older) and finally just asked her. Funny stuff. She said I looked like Erin Sanders but didn’t think it was worth asking. We look alike? Also another funny: we went over to the ward mission leader’s home on Saturday to drop off a progress record, and someone was standing in their doorway and I said to Sister Moore “I know him.” He’s the brother in law of the ward mission leader and we were in the same ward my sophomore year. Crazy world. He was always a really good guy, so I am going to work on setting Sister Moore up with him when she’s off the mission.Prop 8. Yeah, it’s been crazy here. People were sooo involved in it. Apparently in the end what one it was the Hispanic and black communities. Hooray! The ward members have been really worried about us;they’re always asking if we’ve had any problems. But no, no one’s said anything to us. Did you hear about the commercial they made? With the missionaries and Prop 8? Someone showed it to us and that’s retarded. And yeah, they had the protesting at the temple in LA, and they closed down the streets and everything. They supposedly had protesting at the Newport temple too, but I don’t think much else happened.I really do think I will love as much as I did, and I hope that I will have an opportunity to stay here a little longer this time. I’d love to actually be there for some baptisms of people that I was a part of teaching. Just this last week we got a new rule that we can’t go to baptisms outside of our zone and we could before. So now I can’t go back to any of the baptisms of people back in Orange. Apparently the sisters dropped Eulalio because he was just a loafer, but they’re teaching everyone else. Especially Lupe and Lulu. It is just different and it’s a really great place.Ah, well, that’s all. I could always write more, but that’s enough for now! I am happy and missionary work is great and I’m just trying to learn as much as I can everyday. I love you all so much and thank you for everything!Love,Emily (since I am no longer Hermana)

Irvine Here I Come!

Well, well, well. Guess who's getting transferred. I'm pretty sure that all of the sisters-all 13 of us thought that none of us were getting transferred this time, since 3 sisters are leaving in December, so we're basically all going to have to change then anyway. Wrong. H. Chriswell is getting transferred and will now be in a threesome, in the Tongan program! Ha. We have a Samoan companionship, a Tongan companionship, a Spanish companionship, and 3 English companionships. And so we basically knew that I would have to leave, before I even got the official call. So I will be leaving in 2 hours to go down and be with Sister Moore. She is one of the sisters leaving in December, so I will have another new comp in 6 weeks. Crazy. So much for trying to keep people in their areas for 8-9 months! I don't know. I knew I would go down to Irvine at some point, I just didn't expect it to come so soon. Probably I will be down there for a while, but then, who knows? Sister Moore is sometimes a little intense, but honestly, from what I hear, we're probably a lot alike and I actually thought it was too bad that I wouldn't ever get to be her comp. Down to Irvine I go, to Pleasantville and superficial people and lots of middle easterners and organic food stores. Definitely will be a much different world than my little area of Orange and Santa Ana. I'm excited, but definitely sad. I loved my ward here. The elders had some baptisms here yesterday, and President Watrous came. So I just told him I'm fine, as long as I leave the mission fluent. Sometimes people need to be reminded. But he told me that 2 months should've been enough time. Ha! I feel like it's the MTC again, I've only been here 1 week more than the MTC and I'm in a threesome and I'm the one going solo! Sister Moore is pretty much fluent though in Spanish, so I'm sure I'll continue to improve.This week has been SLOW and no one has been answering their phones and they've been canceling their appointments. And all of our baptismal people-well, we just don't know what's happening. Araceli hasn't been to church in two weeks, and we couldn't see her last week, and it feels like she's slipping. We finally saw Eulalio Saturday night, after just about "dropping" him, but then he still didn't come to church. We couldn't see Maria Tellez this week and she has this dumb, not friendly husband who we think is causing trouble, and she didn't come to church. Cleotilde we saw once, but then he wasn't home all day Saturday even though we had an appointment, and he wasn't at church. What's the deal! It's amazing how much if you don't see these people all the time, how they just seem to lose it. And all of the people we thought we were teaching pretty solidly are also not so solid now. I think H. Ochoa and Fatkin will see LOTS of changes in who they are teaching this transfer. They will have to work hard to make these baptismal dates happen.
And then there's Lupe. We LOVE Lupe. She and Lulu have been reading the BOM together and Lulu loves it-always has lots of questions and has been highlighting things. She asked us what the rock is that we are supposed to build on. She is so smart! We talked to Lupe about getting married and she knows she needs to and we committed her to doing it this month. She has since talked to her "boyfriend" and it sounded like it would happen. We also were over there Thursday night because it was her bro's b-day and he fed us and the elders (who are teaching him) ribs. A little pre-Halloween party. Then we saw Lupe Friday and everything was really progressing. Saturday night I talked to her and she said she got work off so they could all come to church. Then apparently yesterday she and the "boyfriend" had a little fight over him not wanting her to go to church. The elders tell us that she tried to kick him out. We haven't talked to her ourselves so we're worried about her. I'm really sad because I won't be able to see her now to say goodbye. Hopefully the sisters can help her out.

I'm glad that Erin's eye surgery went wonderfully and that she will be able to get rid of the crazy eye! By the way Erin, there is a store down here called Sprouts and it is an organic grocery store-local farmers market type products and it's cheap. And it's nice and it's big. I think it's your store. Come down here and check it out.
Remember, if you write me, I only speak Spanish! Same goes for the Sprouts, if you want, you're welcome to write in Spanish, it makes me happy and it's good for me! I'm not sure why the Mendezes remind me of you, Mom and Dad. Hermano Mendez is just this really smart guy and his mannerisms are like Dad, and when he reads, he wears these glasses and looks like you. He asks the type of questions to us that I can see you asking us at the dinner table. Good discussion questions. They're just really nice people. They're home just feels comfortable I guess. We ate with them yesterday-so it was my last dinner in the ward, and it was appropriate. Probably they, and the bishop's family and another family in the ward are my favorites. They're just all such friendly and happy people and it's so fun. Now on to Irvine where the sisters haven't yet eaten with the same family twice! Wow!So there's my 5-page e-mail for the week! I hope everyone is happy and having fun (important!) and receiving blessings from having a daughter and sister on a mission! Ha ha ha! Thanks for everything family! Love you all muchisimo!
Love,Emily

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