Hasta Oceanside Hola Vista

Hola Familia,

Well from the title you are propbably wondering why that's the title. I got ET'd (Emergencey transferred) to Vista. Pretty much what happened is that me and another Elder that was in Vista, switched. So now he's in Oceanside with Elder Dowda, and I'm here in Vista with Elder... Wockenfuss! It's crazy to be companions with him again, we both now can understand Spanish perfectly, speak it well enough to share our testimonies and chat with members. Now I'm in a Relief Society district meaning that the other companionships in our District are Hermanas. Which is a little bit of a bummer but it's whatever. Our area is very hispanic and maybe one of the most hispanic areas I've covered in my mission which is exciting. We don't have too much going on right now but as I've seen things can change around pretty quickly. We did the ET on Wednesday night and I found out on Tuesday morning that I was leaving so I got to take pictures with some families which was good. Getting transferred to a new area is always cool because you have all these potential blessings that could happen if you work hard and have faith. The Ward is pretty cool, it's definatley all Spanish like Escondido, which I like as well. One of the families here has a kid named Emerith so needless to say when everyone found out my name they were like 'Oh! Like Danny's son!' Danny Perez said I'll be famous here in a few weeks. haha  The missionaries in my District are Me, Elder Wockenfuss, Hermanas Terron, Young, Frei, Robison, and Parris. So yeah it's nothing but sisters. Actual transfers won't happen for another 2 weeks so hopefully Elder Wockenfuss and I get to stay together for a whole transfer. I was actually praying to get sent to Vista next and look what happened, I got ET'd to VISTA. Also another Elder worked on my bike a little and now it's running pretty smooth so I don't think I'll have to worry about it for the rest of my mission which is good. I did have to take out $20 of my account because I got ET'd and it's the end of the month so I didn't have any on my mission card. These things just seem to happen to me where at the end of the month I all of the sudden need money because of something happining. I'm sure though that it will be able to help me out later in life when actual emergencies happen and I need money stored away. I'm driving again, we use a car here for administrative purposes and Elder Wockenfuss can't drive. So THANK YOU VERY MUCH for getting my liscense taken care of. I have enjoyed driving again since it's been over 6 months since I've been in the front seat of a car. Well I guess I can start sending pictures. Que pasen una buena semana!

Elder Emerick

Flores family who fed us every Wednesday night

Last picture of old district

Palacios family whom we helped to make Tamales

Goodbye Oceanside

Hello Vista

Missionaries are like the Angel Moroni

Hola Familia,

So this week Victoria Ortega was baptized. It was a great service, the Hermanas had a baptism as well so two people were baptized. It was great her nephew was able to come and baptize her. I always think it's better when family members or members of the ward baptize and confirm people into the church. Us missionaries move and leave. We may get forgotten as time goes on. But the members and family members of these converts will stay with them and help them persevere till the end. Being in a fairly populated area of California that's very civilized I'm not sure I'll have an experience like Dad's of random people showing up to a lesson asking for Books of Mormon. But I have had experiences where people have either testified or have felt God's Love for the first time or in a very long time. At the beginning of the baptismal service Hno Flor shared his testimony of missionary work and about how we are like these people's Angel Moroni. He said that "When the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in his bedroom after the Savior and Heveanly Father, he showed him what he needed to do to comply with what the Savior asked him to do. He provided the way. He said that the missionaries that taught you (The Investigator) are like your Angel Moroni. Moroni didn't appear at your bedside, but these missionaries knocked on your door, talked to you in the street, or called you on the phone. We are the ones that helped these people comply with God's commandments. That was something that really put things in perspective for me as a missionary. It's different in these hispanic Wards because 99% of the members are all converts or 1st generation pioneers for their posterity. Everytime I hear the testimony of a Member who found out about the gospel through the missionaries, it helps my testimony because that is what I'm doing right now, with the help of the Savior. Now on the opposite end of things you heard about the family that couldn't meet with us anymore because they were going to go through a divorce. Both Elder Dowda and I were shocked by the news because when we saw them read 1 Nephi 1 with us for the first time we knew that they had a spiritual manifestation telling them that it was true. But because of the adversary and previous circumstances I assume, they haven't met with us since she told us about the incident. I could tell through her tears that she really knew the gospel was true, but she let things get in her way and now doesn't want us to stop by anymore. The gospel does change lives, that's why the adversary goes through so much to stop people from hearing about it or receiving it. I'm thankful for having remained faithful to the gospel and deciding to serve a mission so I can do the best I can to help people receive these blessings. As far as other things that happened this week we had a zone review and President Kendrick has announced the next 3 weeks as a Jubilee period. Meaning that we are all going to try our best to be the best we can be and look for specific ways of receiving blessings from the Savior. As far as answering your questions, I haven't performed any baptisms yet nor confirmations. I've participated in tons of confirmations and have given many blessings in English and Spanish to members and missionaries. We don't just give out too many Books of Mormon here. We did in my first area but I quickly realized that people here aren't very caring of the material we hand out. So it's better in my opinion if we just carry around a copy in English and Spanish and just give out the cards like candy. Better it's saved for someone who really needs it here in Richy Rich California. Now if I was in Tijuana I'd be handing out LdM's like crazy and we'd be getting return appointments like no ones buisiness but a las the life of a Stateside missionary! The trash panda picture was just something funny we saw. Well hope you all have a great week! Les quiero!

Pictures good week and not so good.

Hola Familia,

This week was really good in some ways and not so good in others. First we set a baptismal date with one of our investigators named Victoria Ortega and she'll be baptized this Saturday! So that's really exciting. Also we had our Temple trip on Wednesday. But the weird thing is we couldn't find a ride to the temple from any of our members. So we had to ask one of the Hermanas in our District's Dad. It was pretty interesting having Hermana Adams Father take us to the temple. He lives in San Diego and works in the temple full time as management for facilities and other stuff. He also works their as a regular worker. Hermana Adams actually saw him on the temple grounds as well as when he took us to lunch afterwards! They didn't sit by eachother or even really acknowledge that the other was there. Needless to say it was an interesting day. Also one of the families we were teaching won't be able to meet with us anymore because they are going to be going through a divorce. We were all super depressed by the news and hope that everything will get better soon. But for the time being, we're not teaching them anymore. As I told President in my e-mail to him it really puts things in perspective. The people we teach go through a lot to be able to accept or find the restored gospel. The adversary works relentlessly to get these people off of the path and make them let go of the Iron rod. It's really sad but for this reason we need to always be faithful and cling to the gospel. I love sharing Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life to teach about the gospel or Plan of Salvation or whatever. It's one of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon that I've grown to love on my mission. As far as weather and such we just had a huge storm blow through here this morning but other than that it's been pretty temperate. There has been some kind of bug going around here and I've been feeling a little sick and haven't had much of an appetite to eat or anything for the past couple of days. The Spanish is going great, in fact while I've been writing this I've been thinking to put in words in spanish and having difficulty changing it into English. I love Espanol, it's such an amazing language and so different. I may enjoy it more than English. To answer some of your questions yes I do enjoy your letters. Every one I get, and I haven't been getting many recently? Anyways that's what's been going on here! Hope you all have a great week! Les quiero!

Elder Emerick

Our district at the San Diego Temple

My district

Fried Tilapia

Dead trash panda

Squirrels???

What is the purpose of this life?

Hola Familia,

This week we didn't teach too much. We did have an unexpected lesson with the Acevedo family and they told us that they would pray about baptism. Also we're teaching someone named Victoria Ortega and hopefully she'll be baptized soon! We haven't found too many new people but we're working with what we have now. We just had a mini district activity hike this morning and then had donuts afterwards. It's cool to go out and do things as a group and not be boring. haha 

Recently I've been pondering about what it is that people serving missions,or special callings,or whatever should be focusing on. Specifically as missionaries I feel that we focus a little too much on the numbers aspect of things. Sure it's good to try to help as many people as we can to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, but when all you focus on is hitting a number goal, or thinking about where is my next baptism going to come from seems a little shallow in my opinion. I believe that what we need to focus most on is being Christ-like. Learning to become like the Savior, after all that is why we're all here. To follow our Savior and become like him. It's just been a little frustrating to me when I talk to other missionaries and they seem to be focusing on the wrong things. They work really hard and are doing their best, but when they are not focused on helping the people come closer to their Savior... One night this week I was thinking about this and got up and just wrote my feelings about all this. We really need to not judge and be self less. Again becoming more like the Savior! This is something that I'm going to be focusing on these next to last couple months of my mission. The missionaries that I have served with that were the most Christ-like were the ones that have made the biggest impact on me personally. I know that as we are becoming more like the Savior that we will see changes in our lives and in the lives of others, especially the ones we are teaching the gospel. Anyways that's something that I have been thinking about recently. Ahora hablare un pequito espanol para mostrarles como voy aprendiendo. El idioma ya va bien para mi. Platicando con la gente, ayudando otros misioneros, todo ha sido un placer para compartir y disfrutar. disculpe se me culgo la computadora! Entonces quisas sera dificil para traducir lo que he dicho porque no hay accentos ni nada. Buena suerte entendiendo lo que dije!  

(Now I'll talk a little Spanish to show them how much I've learned. The language is going well for me. Talking with people, helping other Missionaries, everything has been a pleasure to share. I enjoy it a lot. I apologize for the Quisa's computer it might be difficult to translate as they speak Portugeuse. Good luck understanding what I said! ) I think I did pretty well translating it.

Anyways hopefully in the next coming weeks I'll have a lot more to share about things that are going on.

 I have started writing in my journal again so I'll think of some more stuff to write. I guess one thing that was cool is that we helped this family that makes tamales for a living with service! I just cleaned a lot of pots and it took me forever but it was good work! I think we'll be helping the Polacio family with this service every week this transfer so it should be fun! They really are a cool family. They even invited us over for breakfast this past Saturday. So cool. Well that might wrap it up for me. We get to go to the temple this Wednesday! So excited! Nos vemos y vayan con Dios! Les quiero! ( I'll see you, God speed and I love you ALL)

Elder Emerick