What's with all this Christmas? Nov. 28 letter

I see how it is, Thanksgiving is barely done and you all get excited
about christmas? I understand actually, cause we started Christmas
lights!!!

My thanksgiving was pretty good actually. We played sports in the
morning. No such thing as sleeping in as missionaries anyway. Some
english members from another stake were playing in our gym (What the
heck) so we had to go find another one to play in. We played for about
an hour and then we all headed to denny's for breakfast. Not the
smartest thing to do but hey, since when have i been smart when it
comes to social situations? We all went home and i wrote letters
because i didn't have time to on the other pday i had that week.
Around 2 we went over to Hna Gonzalaz (who got sealed to her family on
saturday) and ate a turkey dinner with ham and stuffing and mashed
potatos. Yep, it was a lot. But we had to eat and run, because we had
to be at the VC at 330 for our final prep meeting before lights. We
practed our posts and presenting various things (Christus, Luke 2
movie, God's plan) and so  it went pretty well. we had our picture
taken and i'll see what I can do to send you pictures of my
beautifully curled hair by sister mckee.

The night went well, We had about 2000 visitor's the first night. I
was with Sister Card, a full field sister that has been known to talk
smack about the VC. Regargless, we had a good night. our numbers have
been way down tho. many of the sisters are afraid to talk to people
and ask for referrals or for them to accept missionaries. We are
hoping to fix that tho. So overall, the christmas lights are going
very well. Really crazy but a lot of fun.

I had a hard time this week. I've been getting down on myself for
being annoyed at people. I was just having a hard day so i went and
talked to sister McKenna about it because I never talk to her anymore.
We are never together. I guess she talked to sister Cottrell who told
me I was too hard on myself, that I needed to learn to be less
judgemental of myself and others. Which is true, when we are judging
ourselves for not doing something we become critical of other people.
So i've been working on that and things have been getting better.
Hopefully things will continue to do so.

number wise things have been hard for us. A lot of nights are taken up
by being in the VC. But God gives us miracles. Last night we contacted
a referral from an English member. It's a family of 4 with one on the
way. We were so excited. Our goal as a zone was to find 30 new
investigators. We found 36. so we are pretty excited. We also have
seen miracles with the investigators we do have. The members that aer
missionary minded are stepping up to the plate and calling and
inviting our investigator's to do something.

Our ward mission leader was released and so we are ward missionleader
less for who knows how long. Pray we get a good one. This ward has so
much potential. We just need good leadership.

A few weeks ago the bishop came up with the idea to go and rescue the
LA members of the ward by pausing sacrament meeting and having people
go out and get the families that they HT and VT. sounds like a good
idea right? well not so much. because we have sacrament last, we had
to talk bishop into doing it during RS and PH so tha people wouldn't
just leave during sacrament. And then when we did it, there was
rebellion. Many members complained and flat out refused to go and
visit the people that they are assigned to. We did however, get 2 of
our investigators at chruch because of the rescue (rescate in
spanish). During sacrament, sister Mckee and Lopez gave short talks.
The missionaries (mckee lopez, beu arias, pearson, santos and the Zls
panek and hiatt) sang a mix of Brightly beams our fathers mercy and
dear to the heart of the shepard. Finally a kid leaving on his mission
gave his talk. So overall, the intent was good, more organization was
needed. Was I surprised? No. Should i have had more faith? Probably.
But that's okay. We learn and move on.

It's been a crazy week were not a lot is going on but at the same time
we are always busy. I love you lots and hope you all enjoy getting
ready for Christmas!

love, emily

Dang it's cold - Dec. 5 letter

Hey family! Yes, it is cold. Yes, I hate it. I came to arizona for a
reason! because it was warm! where did it go?

But it's all good. God really is blessing us with the time that we do
have in our areas. We have been able to visit a lot of our
investigators. While it's hard to get them to progress when we don't
have the support of the ward, we are able to maintain them. We did get
a new ward mission leader this week. Found out on saturday at stake
correlations breakfast that it is a stake calling, not a ward one. And
that the stake has had no idea what has been going on in Liahona 4th.
Well well well. Am I really surprised? No. But we requested the
Escobars. A cute family that recently moved from Virginia. She has
helped us out a lot so we will be able to use them and train them to
get where they need to be. (high school musical moment: we're all in
this together!")

We had two lessons in members homes! its a goal that we have as a
mission, to teach investigators in member homes to help them feel the
sprit more. The first was with maria. We had dinner scheduled with a
family (the inzunza's, i love them to bits) that she is friends with
(the kids are 'dating') and so we asked the family if we could invite
her to dinner as well. They said yes so after we ate we had a short
lesson about the Savoir and his purpose for coming. Christmas is
coming! reason for the season, hello!

The other was with Myra with her visiting teacher, Hermana Gonzalez.
We are still trying to get the girls more excited. Taiz went to mutual
(she was called and invited) and then steffane came to the movie we
watched at the Gonzalez home. Saddly, myra nor steffane paid much
attention. Sis Mckee was really frustrated. We are thinking of
dropping her if she doesn't accept a date soon. We've been teaching
her since august. We'll see what she wants to do.

We have a LA lady that wants to come back to chruch and have her 2
younger boys baptized. One is chill, the other isn't sure yet. We
aren't sure why she's coming back to chruch (rent money) but we can
still teach and invite all of them to come to christ.

We found a new family. We had gotten the referral a long while ago but
they didn't show much interest then. We stopped by last night and sat
down and talked to them. They've been together for 4 years and are
getting married next weekend. Happy day! Hopefully we will be able to
help them as well.

It's always hard for me to begin teaching someone new. I always hope
that they will progress but then I'm afraid that they aren't the
prepared ones that we are told to look for. Regardless, I need to work
on increasing my faith. I feel that it's not been very high and i need
it focus on that more. I have been working on the whole faith hope and
charity bit. dang, life is hard sometimes.

Surprisingly, we set a date with eva and jose. We had stopped visiting
them because they weren't doing anything. But we were walking around
last week and randomly walked into jose. So we told him we would stop
by. And we did, and kinda set a date with them.Eva is still a lame
excuse maker and and hopefully we will be able to get them to move
forward and progress. Jose is totally ready. he just needs to come to
chruch.

Twice this week i have had a whole bunch of food in a very little
time. The other day, we went out for pizza after our shift at the VC
cause hna mckee was really craving it. so i had a good few slices and
some breadsticks, happy as a clam thank you very much. Then we went
and visited the Moreno family (who still haven't come to chruch) and
of course, they were eating dinner. Sister mckee somehow got out of
eating, but i had a burrito (pretty good actually ) and a coke
(PS....i've never had so much caffeen in my life as i have had on my
mission. that's probably why i haven't been getting any headaches now
that i think about it). Cool thing was, we scheduled a dinner/lesson
with them for tomorrow. And then we went to dinner at the Pozos. I was
full. But i'm still losing weight (kinda) so it's all good. Right?
After dinner, sister Pozos was asking me if i was on a diet or if the
necklace i wear is a promise ring (it's not, its and endure to the end
one thank you very much). She got a look in her eye. Her son recently
came home from his mission and is going up to BYUI after i told him he
should. And did I tell you that the Lopez family (related to the pozos
btw) want me to hook up with E. Stosich after the mission? I've got
options....

Friday, We went and read the BoM with Adriana and she was fixing some
soup for her nephews. of couse, we had to try the soup too before we
headed to dinner. Yes, it was amazing soup, better than the dinner
that we had afterwards. But i was pretty full.

Sister Mckee and I had to trade our 2009 chevy malibu with our zone
leaders this week. For their 2012 Ford Focus that only has 2000 miles
on it. Oh it was a happy day for me. It rides like a dream. hehehe. it
will be hard going back to the corsica...

other than that its been crazy. Christmas lights have been less busy
becuase of the cold and rain that we have been getting. But our PMR
numbers have been up. Sister Cottrell gave them all a pep talk about
their self worth and things have gone up ever since. It's still hard
some nights, but it's been really good. Sister Solorzano emptied out a
phone from a member for all of her non member contacts. I could have
skinned her. It's like knocking doors! rarely is it spirit bassed when
they go and do that. Think about a friend that isn't a member and
reffer them. Sheesh. But it's all good. Who knows how many of those
will turn out. Faith of Nephi and Lehi changed a nation (ether 12).

It's been a good week. I've been dressing up and accessorizing more
with scarves and such. Some of the sisters tease me, my comp
especially (direct quote: you're a real girl! - like pinocio off of
shrek). Whatevs. I'm going to be different when i get back. Watch out
for your wardrobe rebecca....

love you lots!
emily

Hey family!!!

 

Well yes, i have had a wonderful week. I love my companion and i can honestly say that i have never laughed as much this transfer as i ever have on my mission. Pictures are of me, sister mckee, sister arias and sister lopez at lunch with maria, a sweet old lady in our ward that loes taking us out to lunch. The other is the Leon family. hopefully you enjoy. And just so you know i have lost weight that even the members are commenting on it. Sheesh.

 

This week is always so busy, but then again, when wouldn't it be, right? I have Physical Therapy that I need to go to a lot. Saddly he said that the proboem is kinda a harder one that will take longer. might have to have it checked out when i get home. And yes mom, I will need an eye appoinment when i get home. I can last until then. :)

 

On Saturday we had a bike day. Thankfully sister Mckee is fast on bikes so we got to a location about 4 miles away in about 20 minutes. I was pretty proud of us. It's a love hate relationship with the cooler weather. Good for bikes. bad for everything else. But regardless, I still have fun. It's hard to keep under the miles alotted. and the month is halfway over. Dang!!!!

 

We are doing really well with the families that we are teaching. We have now gotten our teaching pool up to 16 people. we have about 3 groups of people we are trying to set a date with: Myra and daughters, Familia Moreno, and a group of granddaughters that their grandma wants to be baptized and taught (we just have to get mom on board). The girls did go to the primary program this week (which we had to miss because of the the VC but that's okay). Overall, things are going really well. We have about 2 days that we won't be in our area this week because of exhanges but look for the blessings and miracles and youwill see them.

 

Sister Mckee and I laugh all the time. We have so many private jokes and just work with the attitude of 'it's fun' and not 'it's duty'. makes life a lot better. She's a crack up and a half. Saddly, she has stomach problems and can't eat a whole lot so we  have to stay on top of what she eats. Or doesn't. I've given up on eating by the way. unless it's a member dinner. Eating had become a burden. but I still love to eat good food. Mexican food anyway.

 

Sister Mckee had a family that she taught in the branch escondido get baptized so we went to that. I was able to see a lot of the people that I had worked with before. The branch is amazing and doing so good on the member missionary part. Valencia ward got a new branch president so we'll see how improved it gets. Sister Hartgivsen hopes that becuse of the new bp i'll be able to go back and be comps with her in valencia. yeah...

 

Maria is a sweet hearted old lady that goes to our ward, she loves us and takes us out to a place called Rosas. Saddly, we all forgot what day it was (veterans' day) and it took about 2 hours to get lunch. Not enough people working that day. But regardless, we had fun and I still love to eat good food.

 

On Sunday we went to Camila's 3rd Bday party. Theme was princess and Hello Kitty. I love the Leon's. They sacrifce and serve all the time. THey got baptized almost a year ago and are working on getting sealed in January. Anyway, we had cheescack and hamburgers for dinner and had fun making camila laugh.

 

On sunday, we had our own little district fast for unity, member help and baptisms. I've been in this area since July and haven't had a baptism. This mission baptizes so i feel a bit of pressure for getting things done. But we do our part, have faith and look for the miracles.

 

That's about what I got. I laugh, work and keep busy. I had some cool people come into the VC. A 22 year old, drug addict, homeless kid named Trenton came in and wanted to be taught alittle so we had and awesome conversation with him. saddly we can't get in touch with him (no phone) but hopefully he will come back the the VC someday. earlier that day sister Mckee and I were watching I'm A Mormon videos and watched one about a recovered drug addict. And we both thought of it at the same time while we were teaching him and so we watched it together.

 

I love life, I love this tranfer. and yes. I am a pansy cause it is cold!!!

 

love, Emily

Happy birthday to All my Sisters!

(Editor's note: LA refers to less active and VC is the visitor's center.)

Hello one and all! 

 

We had a Charla Fogenera (fireside) last night. A Less Active family came to it. His dad is the Branch President of Via Verde, the branch that hosted. They say they go to that branch sometimes and maybe our ward once a month. Bishop has asked us to start seeing them. I don't know how to work with this family, because he was a declared apostate on his mission. And he invites missionaries here that are going home soon to come over and watch movies with him. So, habits haven't changed much since his mission. But that's okay. Because it was so far away, only 5 sisters went: McKenna, Nishiguchi, Sordes, Romano and I. Hartvigsen stayed behind. We sang some songs for the Charla and it was a neat place to hear so many testimonies.

Good news! Myra had her baby last Monday! A boy, named Cristofer. She seems to be very happy. We tried meeting with her last week but we couldn't get in contact with her. We actually found out that she had had the baby from a member who has known her for years (that would have been nice to know a while ago...) The RS has been doing great. They assigned her VT and brought her over meals. Progress for our RS. We are now really focusing on helpin Myra progress. We have a lesson set up with her this week and we'll try to meet her husband and see where he is at on the meeting with the missionaries issue.

Alma, the LA, came to the VC with us and her two kids. Her husband has been asking questions about the temple and sealings. So we attempted to get them all to the VC and talk about it. We ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation with the kids. I don' know how much is getting thru to the kids (ages 11 and 12). They aren't very responsive. But they did indicate that they wanted to get baptized.

We are visiting with a lot of LA families. One we have been trying to get to come to church and she preferes English to spanish and him spanish over english. But she wants him to come back to church bad enough that she wold go to a spanish ward. Its progress.

Maria is still doing well. We taught knowledge to her and her 13 year old daughter elizabeth. We talked about spiritual knowledge and scriptural knowledge. Maria is solid, and still lacks the funds for the divorce.

 

One night, we swaped companions for dinner, Arias and I went to a hispanic family, and Vause and Hart went to an english dinner. We listened to an amazing story of this woman who got baptized after listening to the missionaries for 4 weeks, and then served a 3 year jail sentence, and now is working on going to the temple to be sealed to her hubby, who has already gone thru the temple. It was amazing. Well, I ended up stealing hna arias for the rest of the night.  We attempted to go to a baptism, but Aria's investigator didn't show up. So we worked in my area and talked a lot about the politics of the VC, comp struggles (strong pulling along the weak) and challenges of the area. We did this over a shake at McDonalds because no one was home and it was 830 at night. I love sister Arias. She's a little firecracker.

 

During that night, we went over and taught one of the members how to conduct. She is a sweet sweet woman. She was having a hard time understanding when to move you hand. So we explained it for her, and in the end, she gave us pineapple and gave us some skirts that she had bought for sister Hartvigsen and I. beautiful white skirts that I will only wear on sundays...

 

earlier that week, we had sister vause with us because sister Arias had to go on exchanges. we worked in the VC and had a whole bunch of fun contacting people with her. She is so shy and timid. but hilarious!

 

We contacted a hilarious lady named Ana, and invited her to chruch, but no show. But she seems pretty interested.

 

In the VC, I had an awesome experience. Sister Romrell (one of teh senior couples) gave me a couple to give a tour to. He spoke english, she spoke spanish, and they were in love. Well, that's great. He ended up being an excommunicated member and so he loved her to eternity and back which made him think of the temple and him gettng rebaptized. and so the story begins. But they were both touched as they went thru god's plan and accepted missionaires. It was a good experience.

 

We've spent a lot of time in the VC, but it's been steady. We are working on Identifying the miracles that we see. it will be interesting to see the changes that happen when the new director comes in January.

 

So that's my life! I hope you all enjoy your week!

 

Love, emily

It's getting cold here

Okay, maybe 70 degree's isn't cold but i'm about ready to die. I have the heater on and my companion just looks at me with an "are you serious?" face. Yes. Quite serious.

 

We had a pretty good time with Ivonne and her kids. Carlos is 8, the one we are attempting to teach, so we made a CD of primary songs that talked about the restoration. They loved it. We listened to the CD with them and told them that they needed to memorize 2 songs to get brownies. They did, but unfortunitly they picked Do as I'm Doing and Popcorn Popping (the songs ment for the 4 year old down syndrom son). Regardless, they loved Soy un Hijo de Dios and have that mostly memorized. When we went over to check up on their memorization, the home seemed a lot more happier and they kids actually enjoyed performing the songs for us. They are assigned to memeorize a few more songs, and next on their list is Book of Mormon Stories. It really is too cute to watch. Ivonne is really grateful for it too. She seems to miss some things about chruch. Mainly the music. Hopefully this will provide motivation for her to bring her kids to chruch.

We found a new LA lady, Alma. She was about to go thru the temple years ago and decided to not do it because of too much opposition from her husband. She wants to go with us to the VC but doesn't want her husband to know. So we are still trying to figure out how best to help her on this one. She is a real nice lday tho. All of her kids (3 grown) are baptized too.
We met with Ronaldo and Leticia this week. They are some of the harder ones to find home. Leticia told us how she was feeling guilty for meeting with us and with the Jehovas witnesses at the same time and tried to tell us how Ronaldo was the one who wanted us to come and visit. That's fine. for now. So we just talked about what they planned on doing with the kids for Halloween and how holdays are meant for families. Eventually Ronaldo came home and we continued to talk and eventually the subject turned to death. Hmmm...But overall it lead to Leticia asking what happens to us after we die. Bingo! we had planned to teach plan of salvation too. We taught a real simple plan of salvation and talking about how God has given us the opportunity to be together forever and how life goes on after death. It was pretty good. We invited them to the VC, but they didn't show. I love this family. While Leticia has been meeting with JW for 3 years, she doesn't agree with what they teach. She is thrirsting for knowledge and is afraid to get it from us because of her previous obligation. But we will be here for when she is ready.
Maria is still progressing, we talked about Chasity and Virtue with her. She is worried about her 13 year old daughter that manages to get her way around the boys at school. We talked about the YW program and how it is meant to help and support and how she can do it too. We went to the VC with her; she had wanted to go for a while. We watched God's plan and she loved that and then Lamb of God afterwards.
Myra is going to have her baby this week. She does not look comfortable in the least, but she is estatic because her husband came from Mexico this week! Oh i am so excited for her. When we met with her we talked about forever families and asked if her husband was okay with her learning (yes) and if he had any interest (doesn't know yet). We really hope to be able to teach them as a family. She was the only one that came to church on sunday. Ready to pop and she still comes to church. :)We are going to meet her again this week.
We met with one of the referrals we had (few of those appointments are sticking btw). Her name is Adriana. her main concern was that all Churches are businesses and in it for money. We talked about how Christ's church was established on service and that is how we patterened ours. We taught the restoration and she seemed to like it. She is very receptive, just not so sure about the going to church thing.
We finally met with Jose and Eva together. They've been having issues since a long time ago. They managed to stay civil with us there and not fight, which is what they normally do when people come over (pick sides). So while we had them there we talked about how prayer can strengthen our relationships with God and with each other as we pray together as a family. Jose probably won't go to jail, his daughter who went AWOL about a month ago has an arrest warrent out for her. Another source of stress for Eva. We followed up with them and Jose wasn't there, Eva was, and they hadn't prayed. Sigh. It's okay, we keep helping.

We were excited when another one of our LA told us that her husband was interested in the Temples and being sealed. Good news for us, seeing as he didn't want to listen to us before (he's not a member). The Rincon's, a RC family, met with us in the VC. they told us they were fasting. Oh happy day! they come to church every once in a while. So that was a good sign to me that they are still wanting to come and do what they need.

 

As for the VC, well, we did something called a phone blitz. Object of the game is to get all of the cards that we had called and either confirmed, denied or thrown away so we have space for the Christmas cards. So our shifts were all phones. My companion hates calling and so it was a pain listening to her attempt to not complain but in reality complain.  I wasn't able to confirm but i did get an incomplete address completed so he could finally get missionaries. I have so much to do and not enough time to do it. One of the nights i got a mormon.org call and the guy initially was very argumenative (how do mormons get over 'you shall not add to this book' and that jesus had wine blah blah blah). Well, me, being me, started to argue back with my smarts. Eventually I recognized that i wasn't helping and calmed down and we had a pretty good conversation afterwards. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it helps us understand the bible and the chruch's position on gay marrage and homosexuality and so on. We ended up being friends, if youwant to call it that. His final question for me was what we believed about cats. Uh, they are animals and we keep them as pets...  Overall, it was a good experience.

 

The Youngs, a senior couple dearly beloved of us, left for home this week. I am going to miss them so much! I love them! they were the cutest couple ever. He always would wait until she got dressed and then pick a tie to match. He was so funny. She was so sweet. I am just going to miss them.

 

I got sick one day this week. Something didn't agree with me too well. but All is well now. I went home early and slept.

 

So that's my week. We work hard and try to find time to rid our bikes. Most of the time we have to many appointments and then they fall thru so it makes it difficult for us. But that's okay. We walk too. 

I Love you all so much!

 

emily

It's October already!

Hello one and all!

 

This was a pretty good week for us, mainly because we were able to get a lot of referrals and conact most of them and the ones that we have had for a while. We were able to set a return appointment with two of the families that we had meet. One was a former from another area but couldn't quit smoking and the other is his aunt. Luis (the former) is really excited to have us coming over. I was afraid that he was spewing information at his aunt because he was so excited. But luckily we have a return appointment set up so we can clearly go thru what he was excitedly telling her.

Some of the referrals are playing hard to get. One hung up on us after we told her we could provide spiritual support and not financial support. We've tried stopping over at her place a few times, but no luck. The other person works night and so we have met his wife but he hasn't been home yet. His wife is a LA. The kids are hilarious. The 8 year old asked us in spanish if we could speak english. we said yes, she said she could to. "puedo hablar en ingles. mire! hello!" It was pretty cute.
Myra is so ready to have her baby. She looks like she's about to pop. She isn't very good at keeping appointments right now becuase she sleeps when she can. Shes probably going to deliver this week or next week. We just try to see her when we can, and when she's awake. she came to about 2 minutes of conference. Dang it! but we'll hopefully visit her soon.
maria came to conference (and it was her birthday yesterday) and she loved it. we talked about how to apply charity to her life as a mother and the significance of it in our daily lives. We had dinner with her afterwards with the other sisters (Arias and Vause) and that was a lot of fun. Maria is such a sweetheart!
We finally found Ivonne (LA) again. life seems to have calmed down for her. She was excited to see us. We hopefully will teach them lesson one this week, in primary songs. Mainly because she has young kids and keeping their attention is really difficult. And one of them had down syndrom. Primary songs have potential, right?
Other than that we've been trying to balance VC and time in our area. The new schedule does allow for more time in our area, but most of it is when people aren't home. So, gratefully, most of the people that we have found this week work night shifts so we can visit them during the day! blessings!

Sister hartvigsen and I had a rough patch the other day. A few things had been bothering me about her lack of initative, and other things. So we had a talk about how to be better about some things. She cried for 2 days but I expressed my love for her and that I wanted to help her be the best Sister hartvigsen she could be. Things have been getting better.

 

elder Ilizaliturri's (elder from my mtc district) dad came in to the vc the other day. I was super excited about it. when i found out who it was i started jumping up and down, while i was shaking his hand. I then dashed off to get Hna McKenna to come and visit him. I guess elder ilizaliturri's doing good. not much of a writter tho...

 

We all watched conference in Spanish! and lucky me I was able to understand it! well, most of it anyway. My favorite was sister Thompson on revelation. It was a pretty mild conference. not extreem calls to repentance at least. A lot about obedience (something I need to be better at) and so it was encouraging, not shaming. Sister Hart listened in english with headphones. But overall, it was fun. during lunch break on saturday all the sister(us and arias and vause) went to get something to eat. Funness!

 

JDs been coming into the VC every day. Kid needs a job. But hes committed to the gospel. He knows that he's going to get baptized regardless of his family. But i found out that he's bipolar and he's going on a down swing, so he moved his baptism to november because of it. sad day! but he wants to get baptized. He was asking me how he could get a sister's address and phone number if he liked her and i said to wait till after her mission. oh gee, kids got a long way to go but he's so funny.

 

I was able to get a couple of referrals called and confirmed. It made me excited at least! I haven't done that in a while. Phones are a big push in the Vc because our numbers are down. it's an interesting battle that's going on. So far, the sisters seem to be getting along, but we spend less time with each other so it's difficult to tell. A lot less gossiping so far. sister Cottrell is still my favorite to talk to because she is down to earth and had a head on her shoulders and knows what she's doing. I'm going to miss her when she leaves.

 

other than that, we've been doing pretty good. We did good on our miles this month. a senior couple in the VC is going home soon. TRISTE! but overall things are happy.

 

I love you lots!

emily

Well it's been under 100 degrees this week ...

I think I left off right before transfers. Because we knew soccer would go out the window, we played pretty much every day for a week. We had a lot of fun and a whole bunch of members come and play with us. Most of them can't believe that I really didn't play before my mission. LOL. I"m getting better!

 

Our week has been crazy. The new schedule at the VC makes it so we have more time in our area and that we can eat with members more. So we've been learning how to balance that out. So we either eat at 430 or 6ish depending on the shift that we have. The VC has been good. JD has been coming in a lot. He's investigating the church and has felt the spirit, but has holdbacks (family and so on) but so far his plan is to quit smoking next week. He said he talked to his mom (who is a strong roman catholic) and she said that shes upset. So I asked him who he wanted to please more. God or he Family. He said his family. alright...

Sister Hartvigsen and I gave a tour the other day to a ward councile. They wanted to learn more about the recourses we have here in the VC and learn more about Mormon.org. So we helped with that. One of my elder friends from the Kimball zone was over that ward and he was a hoot. I have so much fun with people in the VC.

 

Our investigators are slow going. We finally found Eva again. She is depressed and as depressed people go, she doesn't want to do anything about her situation. So its hard for us to teach her. We plan on taking her to the VC to watch a movie or something.

Maria is still wonderful. She wants us to come over every day but we can't we are working on teaching her christlike attributes this week and so far we've covered faith and hope. On to charity! she's feeding us dinner this week too. :)

Myra is still pregant. and sick. We had to move an appointment. We watched a movie called finding faith in christ with her. Her daughters like to come out and watch movies with us but aren't overly fond of listening. But that's okay. they're 11 and 12. I wouldn't want to listen either.

 

We got lost one day trying to find dinner. and i lost my sunglasses. Which depressed me. And my jumpdrive. It wasn't a good day. But I enjoyed the bike ride. :)

 

We had a talent show in our ward! yay for ward activities! We didn't have time as sisters (Arias Vause, Hart and I) to do anything, but i found a CD on the VC Computer that had the accompaniment for the song I know that my redeemer lives from the EFY CD. So i copied the spanish words and viola! a talent! so that was fun. Lots of people came and lots of people participated. we even had nachos as a treat. it was a lot of fun and hopefull we can have another activity in the near future. hispanics love to party!

 

Saddly, I was unable to watch the RS broadcast. I was in the VC that night. But i'm excited to read about it. even still, afterwards, we went over the the Leon family (amazing people who help us with dinners and love us to bits even tho they have nothing!) and celebrated Hna Leons and Elder Santos' bday. The Elders made cake and we got a card. They are going thru tough financial times right now but we love them and they know it. Their kids, Damien and Camila are so cute. I am going to miss them! after they get sealed, they want to move back to mexico. Triste!

 

Sunday night we went to a training for mormon.org that the spanish ward leaderships were to go to. and no one knew about it. So it was about 11 members and 6 missionaries that showed up. Hmmm. Not so good. It's hard to prepare for this because it won't be in spanish. and you can't post a profile up in spanish because it hast be in english. hmmm....but that's okay. we'll figure it out.

 

We have 2 new sisters in the VC. sister Sordes and Mackenzie. Sordes is from France, really spunky and really happy. Sister Mackenzie does not speak english and loves to dance. Saddly, i don't get to talk to them much but they seem great. WE had a prep meeting the other day and for one of my responsibilities as Admin assistant I get to make quizes. So i created a transfer long quiz about how sisters need to get to know each other and get over themselves. I thought it was pretty good and hopefully we can fix this problem that we do have.

 

I love you lots and talk to you later!

 

love, emily