Christmas in Carlsbad California

Hola Familia,

I hope you all enjoyed the time we had to Skype. It was fun to see you all and just talk and see how you all we doing. I'm glad you all enjoyed your Christmas and are continuing to do what you do. This week we had a huge Christmas party in Escondido with all the missionaries in the mission. It was good to see all our friends from other parts of the mission and have fun with them. Right now we don't have too much going on in our area. You could say this has been one of the toughest area's of my mission so far. As of right now we are just working with some Less active families that are part member families as well. So just working to find right now! We had a cool time at the party, there was a talent show, lunch, they handed out presents and other gifts from the mission and then we ended with a devotional. It all was super awesome

I don't have too many needs or wants on the mission. We live a simple life. haha Thank you to everyone who sent me gift cards, letters, money, and anything else. It was all greatly appreciated, thank you! Since we've been working with less actives recently I wanted to share what I sent to President in my recent e-mail to him. "As far as the work goes in our area, we are working to get some less active people back into church. They are both Part Member Families and have great potential. I asked the one member the question, "Even though it's been over 10 years since you've been to church, could you see yourself coming back?" She responded with a firm, 'absolutely.' I feel that when people go less active they feel that they are too far out of God's grace to return to him. This past week our Bishop gave a great lesson on overcoming the challenges of life. The natural man in all of us takes a life-time to overcome. The reason we come to church every week and serve the Lord is because every time we do that, we win one more battle against the natural man. Every week when we partake of the sacrament, we overcome another challenge. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to serve a mission. I'm thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even though the work has been slower over the past couple months, I know that we can 'turn it around' any given day, and it can start today." I know that is true! We all feel like we reach a point that we can't come back, deep down, that's how all people feel. As missionaries and members, we need to help to make these people feel welcomed and loved. That's how we overcome the trials of life, through the gospel. I hope you all enjoy your New Year! 

Les Quiero muchisimo!

Elder Emerick

Vamos Fiestar

Hola Familia,

Well as far as anything exciting, it's been pretty normal here! Just been doing the same missionary stuff. Going by members, eating, preaching, sleep, repeat. We've been working with a few people and actually had an investigator come to church. We will be looking to meet with a Part Member family this week to see if we can teach anyone who's not a member in the family. We had our Ward Christmas Party this Saturday and it was a good turnout. We had lots of non-members show up and it was a great experience. I ate a ton of Tamales and we had lot's of great food; like always. It's been a little chilly the past couple of days and I had to buy gloves at Wal-Mart to keep my hands warm as we bike at night time. It gets really breezy later at night and the gloves have helped. I did want a Jacket, I guess I'll see what I got on Christmas! I also received the package yesterday. At first I was excited because I thought you sent me chips, and then when I saw that they weren't chips I was a little disappointed for a second. Then I saw all the cookies and stuff. Thank you! Some of stuff fell out of the container, but for the most part everything stayed pretty good. I shared with the other Elders. It looks as if I'll be calling either in the morning time, mid-day, or later in the afternoon. We still haven't made plans with anyone, but I'm sure we won't have problems getting to call. I guess you could say I've kept some stories about Escondido that I haven't shared yet, I'll probably tell you them when I call so I can see your reactions.We actually had a member come out with us on Tuesday and he invited all the people he knew to the Dinner on Sat. I don't know if anyone came but he was more than willing to help us. We get feed pretty well by the members here. All you have to do is ask. I feel that a lot of the members hate feeding Sister's though because of Past missionaries not eating what they give them, or saying they have alergies and can't eat what they give them or stuff like that. You can really offend an old Hispanic lady by not eating there food. jaja To be honest I don't know where I'll be. We might not be getting any new spanish missionaries for a while, so they'll have to close some areas and make larger areas with fewer missionaries in each Ward. Escondido already has been cut down to 3 companionships (Usually 5 cover it) We'll see what happens. I'd like to stay here for atleast a few more transfers but if I have to go somewhere else, I'd like to go to Vista. It's super hispanic there, almost the same as Escondido. Other than that though, not much to report on. Like I said I've been reading Jesus the Christ and it has a lot of information on the birth of the Savior and stuff like that. Super cool. We'll also have a Mission wide Christmas party/devotional on Christmas Eve. Should be fun! I'll send some pictures now, Les quiero!

Elder Emerick

Someone from the Branch drew this

Our District with Santa at the Christmas Party

Legoland and Fake SNOW

Que hubale familia,

This past week was super eventful. First to start off, last P-Day we lost the keys to our apartment. We spent a good couple hours looking for them but to no avail and had to stay at the YSA's apartment till the morning. They live in the same complex practically behind us. So it was all good, now we both carry copies of the key. Our new district is super cool, we have two new hermanas, Hermana Ross, and Hermana Parris. We all get along great and have fun together, needless to say it'll be a pretty good transfer. Speaking of our district we went to LegoLand today. Yes it is allowed, and yes members gave us tickets. To be honest, it wasn't at all that great, but as a missionary where you get no adrenaline rush or feel normal; it was pretty cool for the first time. I wouldn't pay to go a second time, even after the mission. There just isn't any good rides or stuff that I'm all interested in. There was a part of the park where people could go and play with fake snow, I guess for Californian's it's pretty cool. But it was nice to have the feeling of snow in your hands. Other than that I just got a lot of pictures of structures made out of 10000000 lego blocks. We saw the Christmas devotional last night at the Moreno's house, it was a great meeting with a lot of good music and talks. As far as missionary work goes for us right now, we are still trying to concentrate on finding, and are using the navidad.mormon.org website to share with people and ask referrals from members, in fact we received like 6 referrals from one member. Hopefully something will come out of it. Sharing a Ward with 3 other companionships (4 Companionships in the Ward) makes finding a little tougher, especially when you only teach the hispanic people living in the U.S. Even though there are hispanics, it makes it a little tougher when most of the people you live around are white. jaja I'm not sure when we're going to call yet, it may end up being a little later in the day. Well better get on sharing those pictures. Les quiero!

Elder Emerick

Elder Emerick and an Elder from Switzerland

Raccoon

Pier

Elder Rodriguez me and FAKE SNOW

Hermana Frei

Elder Schow

Thanksgiving Dinner

Yes that's the Ocean in the background

Que hubole Familia,

Alright so to start off I'll answer some questions. Nope I'm not getting transferred, good thing too. If I got the 6 week shaft it would have been almost as bad as leaving Escondido! jaja As far as we know nothing will change in areas or companionships. I thought we might get put into a trio again but I guess not. As Elder Rodriguez would say you dropped the ball with not sending me an e-mail last week Dad. jaja I'm just joking I saw it. Me and Elder Rodriguez will stay together for another 6 weeks. All the Elders are staying in our District (Elder Winterhalter just came her with Elder Schow last week) but Hermana Andrade is leaving and Hermana Parker is dying. So we will have a couple new Hermanas in our district next transfer. Rod will still be our District leader as well. I enjoy California, No voy a mentir, but it is SUPER EXPENSIVE and the people aren't the nicest at times so I think I won't be living here anytime soon. As far as school goes, it'll take some more praying to find out what I'm going to do there. Christmas is here! I fell that the work will pick up as the holiday season moves in and people may be a little more willing for us to stop by, especially the hispanics. It was weird even for Thanksgiving (A holiday they don't even celebrate like us) we had the craziest Thanksgiving Party at Hermana Orozco's house. You would have thought it was New Year's Eve. jaja To be honest, I've felt like a seasoned missionary since Escondido, but I'm not going to get a big head about it. With the gift of tongues if you get all big and mighty about it, the very next person you talk to you'll struggle. So right now I'm just trying to keep myself from being prideful about it. It seems pridefull of me to say that I'm trying to not be prideful but there ya go. jaja I can't believe it's been a year. It's all down hill from here. Something I'll change is that I'll try to talk to more people. As missionaries we already do it, but I can improve. Again I do feel like I could teach anyone to speak Spanish, but pride... in short to answer your question, si. I'll definately work it into my life somehow. O Sea con mi marida, mi trabajo, mis pasatiempos, lo que sea. The missionary life is normal to me. I'm sure that once I return home it'll take some time to get accustomed to normal life again. Some old Hermanas that just recently returned home came to visit the mission and the old Wards that they served in. They told us how hard it was to call each other by their first name. So it'll be interesting. As far as work goes here, it's been one of the slower areas in my mission. Elder Rodriguez and I are going to see what we can do this transfer to stay busy and find new people. His mom might send him Tamales in the mail. Both his parents are from Mexico so they are pretty legit. He found out this week that his brother is engaged which kind of blind sided him when he read the wedding invite. It was pretty funny. Also I'm starting Jesus the Christ. It's super good. I wonder why the church doesn't put it in it's seminary program. Other things that are going on, we will probably go to LegoLand for a district activity this transfer. That should be pretty cool. That's the thing about Carlsbad. There's so much stuff to do here it's crazy. We had Thanksgiving dinner at a families house in Del Mar. As a Spanish Missionary I would rather be in a poor town like Escondido than in a richy rich place like Del Mar. I haven't been able to go by the Pier or actual down town Oceanside where are the sketchy gang stuff goes on. But I want to see how it is, over by Pasole and Central. Well I hope you all have a good week! I'll send some more pictures! Que Dios les bendiga!

(That's a super Catholic saying that we hear all the time, means "That God may bless you") De todos modos nos vemos!

Elder Emerick

The back of Jacob's Planner. He put John's picture to inspire Himself.

Thanksgiving at the Hollman House Elder Heath Elder Rodriguiz and me

My District

Del Mar

Del Mar

Del Mar Means by the SEA

Generosity of Members

Queibole Familia,

So today we get a half P-Day till 1, which means we get to e-mail! We will also have a P-Day on Thanksgiving, we might come back for e-mailing again. I'm not sure. But anyways this week was an alright week for us. Our area as it is right now doesn't have much going for it. We have some potential people to work with, but nothing too solid right now. The title says Day of the Turkey or it may be Turkey. (Guajolote is another word for Turkey in Mexico, they have a lot of names for it in Spanish) Oceanside is pretty cold compared to the rest of the areas I've served in. Where I'm located/our area isn't too hispanic. There are a lot of white people haha. I think I took for granted Escondido at times, because you could walk outside and there be hispanics everywhere. Here there's fewer and further between talking with hispanic people. We'll see what transfers brings in a week. This Saturday we'll find out who's getting moved out and if there are any changes in areas and stuff like that. All in All I like Oceanside, it has nice weather, good members, and its a good city. Right now there just isn't too much work to do. This week we were having dinner at the Vargas' and I got salsa all over my shirt. Hermana Vargas quickly ran to her room and brought me one of her husbands shirts. It was funny at the time because I thought everyone was making a big deal about it but it was good. I washed my shirt when I got home and it seems to be fine. Hispanics don't really celebrate Thanksgiving too much. They're kind of ignorant about the whole giving thanks day. They just think it's a day when Americans and Gringos get together to eat a bunch of food. They're not wrong, they just don't celebrate the specialness of giving thanks on that day. Por que los hispanos dan gracias a Dios cada dia jaja. Well we've had a lot of members invite us over for Thanksgiving so I don't think I'll go hungry that day. Elder Rodgriguez got two things in the mail. Both were wedding invites. One from his trainer, the other from his brother. The one from his brother completely took him by surprise. It was funny to see him open them. At least I won't have to worry about stuff like that for a while. A week or so back we had a General Authority come and give us some trainings/ insight on how we can become a better mission. He put a heavy push for re-activating people. After all finding through members, even the less active ones is the best way to find new people to teach. Not too much stuff to report on this week. I'll be sure to talk more about transfers next week. I'll tell you if I'm getting transfered out of the Carlsbad Zone (doubt it) or if our area gets changed. (plausible/likely) Anyways I'll send some pictures. Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Elder Emerick

P.S. Solomente Recibi como 1 correo esta semana. Que paso? jaja

Me, Elder Rodriguez, Elder Romney, Elder Schow, Hermana Andrade, Hermana Adkins, Hermana Frei, Hermana Parker

Ocean Side View of Pier

Ocean Side View

Same old Same old

Querido Familia,

This past week we had just a normal week in the mission! We had an investigator drop us, so that stank. But we've got some potential this week so as President says, forget the last shot and move on! This week he sent us a particularly good e-mail. He told us that we need to stop worrying about results so much and start focusing on trying our hardest. And then when we try our hardest is when the Savior will do the rest. But if we're focusing mostly on what the turn out will be, then most likely we'll end up being disappointed with not reaching our expectations. So Elder Ramos is being transferred. I know how that feels! It felt like I just got into Escondido, then I got shipped out! I felt like all that work I put into that area, was just going to be reaped by another missionary. HaHa Elder Ellsworth is actually in that area now, he's companion's with Elder Banana. Anyways I got invited back for Lucy's baptism as you saw, and from what Elder Ellsworth told me Gloria is getting baptized in a couple weeks too. So I'll get invited back for that as well! I really did feel sad about leaving Escondido, but I knew that I would be able to go help other people in my next area. So you want a story? Ok, I'll tell you about this one missionary named Elder Stewart. He was Elder Rodriguez's (My current companion) last companion. He is a legend amongst Spanish missionarys for being the most ridiculous Spanish missionary out of all of us. All Spanish missionary's are cooler than your average Elder, but Elder Stewart is a legend. He's 26 yrs old, and he is crazy. He like's to knock doors all the time. He eats anything, and thinks the Jaredites were 8ft tall black people. Anyways this Elder has been an influence on many missionaries, just from being himself. One story is that while he was in Oceanside tracting a person asked him how much money he gets paid for each baptism. He replied by saying 'You want to know how much we get payed!? For each baptism we get payed.......... $0!!!!' Needless to say the man wasn't very happy with him and actually spit on him.  Have a great week!

Elder Emerick  

p.s.

Old Catholic Mission on Mission Road Ocean Side CA

Pastel de 3 leche's for Elder Rodriguez's 20th Birthday

Oceanside at night

Over looking Oceanside at night holding Spanish version of Book of Mormon

Me and Natalie Vargas

Also just as a side note, my Bishop is Brothers to the guy who was just made President of BYU-Hawaii. Obispo Tanner is my bishop he's a really straight forward guy. You can read the article of his brother being inaugurated on Deseret News.

The land of Milk and Honey

Hola Familia,

The land of milk and honey? Perhaps. That's the title. So, we went to the temple. That was awesome. So great to serve in the Temple and feel the spirit so strong. There I met Elder Ramos' brother. He's the Ward Mission Leader in the YSA ward. He said it was so weird talking to me because over the past couple of weeks he's heard about Dad and our family. He's says that Elder Ramos loves you guys and the branch. That was good to hear about considering the branch is historically a tough place for missionary work. But that's good to hear that you guys are being the missionaries' best friends. That's great. Also the weather here is crazy temperate. It's always in the 70's and the only time it gets hot is when the Sun gets strong. Other than that there's always a breeze and its super fresh. I finally feel like I'm in Southern California. So this week we have Spanish Conference, I'm so excited. It's when all the Spanish missionaries in the mission get together and talk about Spanish stuff. It's going to be great. Also we are going to have a Zone Conference with half the whole mission with a general authority. It'll be cool as well to see other missionaries and talk to a seventy. Dang hopefully Kaitlynn gets better. We picked up an awesome new investigator this week! Her name is Sonya and she has had a pretty tough past. Needless to say she needs the gospel in her life right now. She couldn't make it to church this past week but we'll meet again with her this Saturday. Also we went on Exchanges with the traveling AP Elder Smith. He was my Zone leader when I was back in Temecula and we were in Spanish Zones. He's a great teacher and spanish speaker. I can't even explain how much I learned from him in a short 24 hours that he came with Elder Rodriguez and me. Well I better get going hope you all have a great week!

Elder Emerick

Ocean Side

Hola Familia,

So, I got transferred to Oceanside. It was a big suprise for me to get moved out of Escondido so soon. The transfer meeting was good and I'm in Oceanside with Elder Rodriguez.  I live off of Mission and Old Grove. The area we work in is pretty mixed. Not only hispanics like in Esco but there is still some which is good. I sure hope I wouldn't be transferred into an English area!!!! Remember I told you about OUTER DARKNESS!!! There is a chance/possibility I could return to Escondido. Everyone returns during the latter parts of their mission, especially if you haven't spent too much time there to begin with. But I'm almost possitive that I'll never be put into English work. But to be honest it won't happen. It was pretty tough eating wise. We only had a couple of dinner appointments. I know the YSA Elders that go to the Ward where Elder Ramos' brother is the the Ward Mission Leader. Our Bishop is a cool guy, he's white and super rich. (Lives right by the ocean in Carlsbad) The ward is pretty awesome we had an outstanding sacrament meeting with awesome talks. One of our investigators was there too so hopefully he felt the spirit. E. Rodriguez is from Mexico, but he's lived his whole life in Utah. I think I might speak better Spanish than him. He's pretty cool though. The weather here is nicer than anywhere I've served on my mission. Almost always in the 70's. The only thing that could make it better was if we switched areas with the Hermanas, they have the super sketchy hispanic part of Oceanside that has all the gangs and stuff. I want to go see how it is sometime. We hit 32.4 MPH going down a huge hill by our appartment. It was crazy. ALSO Lucy got baptized! I got invited back to Esco just for the baptism and it was great. Elder Banana performed the ordinance. It was crazy to see someone get baptized in such little time! It was like 2 1/2 weeks after we met her that she was baptized. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary. Don't have much more time so I'll just start sending pictures. Les quiero!!

Elder Emerick

P.S. Temple trip tomorrow!!!!

Lucy's baptism

Jacob looking impressed by Bishop's house