Quatro en Uno

Hola Familia,

Entonces..... So yeah. This week.... Seriously writing letters has never been more difficult. I just don't know what to write anymore! Even Elder Wockenfuss is asking "What happened this week?" We picked up a new investigator but we cycle through new people ever week. It's because we have a lot of people around us and can find someone to be baptized any day. Like President tells us that it's never too late to turn around a day, week, month, year, mission, or life. We can ALWAYS turn around and become better. There is never a time when we can't in a sense turn it around. We had Stake Conference and President Kendrick spoke. He talked about our mission as how we help people become converted to the gospel. I remember at one Zone Conference he talked about how we're not a come one come all type of church. If someone were to walk into a Bishop's office out of the blue and asked to be baptized the correct answer would be you can't. Until you comply with certain things. That really how the gospel is as well, Heavenly Father gives us every opportunity to exercise our free agency. That's something that this culture doesn't understand very well. If you're born Catholic you stay Catholic if you like it or not and if you switch religions or even question it you become disowned depending on how devoted your family is. This people is very involved in their religion or in other words they are very loyal to it. Which makes it difficult and hard at the same time. One they are super nice and willing to have missionaries stop by but in turn have an extremely difficult time keeping commitments, progressing in the teaching/learning process hence keeping them from being baptized. They never tell us No when we ask them if we can stop by instead they would give us an excuse as to why we couldn't. Ayy es que tengo trabajo todos los dias! Bueno es que casi no estoy en casa! Pues tengo prisa ahorita, estoy trabajando ahorita. Ahorita no pero OTRO DIA seria mejor! Esta bien, cual dia? OTRO DIA, si. It's very frustrating sometimes because they're so nice and can't just give you a straight up NO. Sometimes I want to ask them, if you don't want us to stop by JUST TELL ME! Haha when I started my mission I thought that this work would be soo easy because they always may have told us yes or never had told us no. But then I learned that a lot of times we'll never see them again. Just goes to show you that everyone is different, every people is different, every culture everything. Which is why I'm so excited and have enjoyed my mission so much it's been a delight to conocer another culture. That's why I feel bad at times telling you how much I like it because then it comes off as saying that I don't miss you all. Trust me, if I was in Mexcio I would miss having an In and Out Burger or Sonic every now and then. I'd miss saying a few things in English to someone. The mission has made me appreciate here in different ways. But back to answering your e-mails, Elder Wockenfuss and I will definitely not be comps for the rest of the mission. I think I'll have at least one other area before I finish my mission. I don't know who or why they'd say that but I'll for sure have more companions and more areas after this. Vista is nice, there's lots of hispanics, the Ward is nice, shrinking but it's a work in progress. I miss having Elders in my district. I'll just leave it at that. haha I see President Kendrick decently often. More often in areas close to the mission home like Carlsbad or here in Vista than anywhere else for obvious reasons. We actually had quarterly interviews this past week and he asked the same stuff, just making sure everythings good and then he compliments me on how well I get along with my companions. And I have no doubt in my mind that I could communicate with Kelsey haha It's what I've been doing for the last year and a half! Well I hope that you can learn a lot of authentic hispanic stuff so that when I get home you'll know the difference between a chile relleno and a tortilla. Well hope I've given you some insight into the culture or what I deal with daily. Have a great week!

Elder Emerick

Hola Familia,

So Kelsey is already home? That's weird, seems like jsut yesterday she left in mid October and now she's done! Only 8 months left!!! I'm sooooo trunky!!!!!! JAJAJAJA Just kidding that's nuts though, hopefully she'll continue to speak it so when I get back we can platicar. Well that's the reason for the title Que Pasotes con esos zapatotes is Chilango slang. I'm not exactly sure what it means but I think it's like "what's up with that!" You should ask her about Chilango and see if she ever heard/spoke it. I don't think I'll have much of an accent, but I'll let you all be the judge of that. It's always disappointing to hear of when people serve their missions in places like Colombia, Peru, Mexico but then when they need to speak in sacrament meeting at a Spanish Ward they have to wear translation headphones because they completly lost it. I DON'T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN!!! Even though I'm serving in my native country I'm glad that I have been able to learn it to the ability that I have been. I still have a lot to learn and this Hermana missionary in our district corrects me whenever don't say something completely correct. Nonetheless Spanish is awesome! We're going to skype call in a few weeks, it'll be the last time I'll see you till we see each other in person. Honestly I have no idea what to write about. We had a couple of lessons with this one person named Itzel. She's a single mother and works 2 jobs. Hopefully she'll be able to come to church. One of the scriptures that I really liked this week was Alma 26:27. There's always times in your mission when you don't have much going on but from what I've seen is that anything can happen on any given day. Also me and Elder Wockenfuss went to Temecula this week! He needed to go to the doctors so we went up there. It was a nice drive and reminded me of home having to drive at least a half an hour to get anywhere. Sorry if my e-mails seem a little unorganized or unplanned. It's not that I don't want to put thought into them. Writing a single letter every week for the past year and 3 months you run out of things to say other than what's going on. I keep saying that hispanic food is the best food in the world and it is. I thought I'd miss white food but I don't. I'll miss the food here more. That's just how it is and how it'll be. I love this culture, I didn't know just how uncultured I was until I came out here and met these wonderful people. To me everyone back home has no idea just how great these people are and how amazing it is to speak to them. One dinner back in Oceanside I was sitting there talking to the family and then a thought came to my head. "I'm not speaking the language I was brought up speaking, I learned this in a year and now I'm having this conversation in a completely different tongue" I told the other missionary sitting next to me, HOLY COW I'M SPEAKING SPANISH!!!! Honestly it's just been crazy to see the Savior's hand in my life so much and to be able to receive the blessings that I've received. Well I hope you all have a good week!

La neta esta bien chido

Elder Emerick         

¿Como están? ¿Como que hablan español tan bueno como yo? ¡Me da mucho gusto para ver que están echandoles ganas a aprender el idioma de los cielos! Aprendí mi español despacito pero me ayudó a ser humilde y desarollar los attributos de Cristo. So how is everyone? General Conference was great! We did nothing but listen to the Prophets and Apostles for 2 days. It was definitely a filling experience. We watched it all at the Bobier building (The mission office, it's the largest meeting house I've been in) I really liked Utchdorf's talk during priesthood session. Thomas S. Monson looks old but he may have more things to do before he passes on, we'll see. Why do you think I'm in a Leadership role? Elder Wockenfuss is the District Leader in our District of Hermanas, I just drive everywhere! I've been the assigned driver of us. That's it! jaja Well I guess I can talk about our area. We cover central Vista and it's SUPER HISPANIC. Literally we can talk to 20 straight people and they'll all be mexican. It's wonderful. We have a lot of menos activo people in our area so hopefully we'll be able to help them feel the spirit again in their lives and come back. We have a few cool potentials lined up as well so this week should be a good week work wise! You can find someone that's willing to hear the gospel any day in an area like this so as long as you are optimistic and have faith, you can find someone that Heavenly Father has prepared for you! This week we had a doorstep lesson with a potential investigator and he seemed to be pretty indoctrinated in his church. He was nice but whenever we would ask him a pressing question or ask him to think about a restored truth that was different from what he thought he just kind of brushed it off. He had a hard time believing in another book than the Bible. I then asked him if he thought it was impossible for God to bring to pass more scripture and ofcourse he said no it wasn't impossible but then he just kept changing it back to the Bible and didn't let the Spirit testify, until when he said that the Holy Ghost tells us what we read in the Bible is true. At that point the Spirit told me to take advantage of that and I testified that that is EXACTLY how we find out if the Book of Mormon is true and that is why we were even on his doorstep in the first place. I testified that I knew it was true and that is why we were meeting with him right now and that if he read the Book of Mormon with pure intent and prayed to know it was true that God would reveal it to him. I felt the spirit super strong and knew that we all felt it. Although I'm not too sure that the man we were talking to wanted to accept it. So I left him 2 Nefi 28 and told him to read and pray about it, we'll see what happens, but that was a specific moment in my mission where I felt the Spirit testifying through me and knew that the Savior was with me at that time. Me and Elder Wockenfuss are getting along great. We teach really well together and have learned a lot since Mexico City. We went on exchanges with the Zl's on Wednesday and I HATED teaching in English. It's SOOO different and I honestly couldn't teach like I wanted to. I felt like a greenie, in my native language. It's just a testimony to me that I was called of God to Preach the Gospel in Espanol. Also I didn't want to take over because they were his investigators that we taught and he (The Zl I went on exchanges with) knows them better and what they need to hear. The next day after we exchanged back we stopped by a couple of people and I just talked their ears off. I apologized to Elder Wockenfuss for talking too much but he was fine with it, it was like my tongue just jumped out of hiding and was happy to spit out spanish. Well hope this is sufficient! Have a great week! Sigan adelante!

Hola Familia,

El titulo dice Miracles, Liars, and more so let me explain. Elder Wockenfuss and I went by a Less Active members house on Wednesday and had a lesson with them. It was really cool because his wife and his suegra aren't members, we asked if we could keep coming by and share the lessons with them and they said yes! It was all really cool dicussion and we all felt the spirit really strong. I don't know if you've seen the Mormon Message the Hope of God's Light yet but it's a really good video and we've been using it a lot recently. Anyways at the end they asked us if we wanted anything to drink/eat and we hesitated a little because we needed to go but before we knew it they were pouring us glasses of Juice, Milk, and giving us cookies. It was really cool to teach them and pick up some fresh people to teach. Also there had been some kids going around and pretending to be homeless begging for money to get them to Mexico. But they had already recieved what they needed and have kept going around asking for money. They actually came to church and told their whole fake story and such. Anyways I asked E. Wockenfuss if we should call PK and after we talked with him he told us that they had been going around and taking money from us. But we got it all sorted out and everyone should now to be on the look out. Now I'll answer some of your questions. The exact reason why I was ET'd is because an AP was called and they had to move some people around!!!! I miss having Elders in my district, Hermanas are cool but I already miss having guys to hang around with, visit/have dinner with, talk to, etc... No voy a contestar esa ultima pregunta. Thanks for finally getting my plaque, that's so weird that Kelsey is already home. You have to ask her how to make food, speak, everything. I WANT TORTILLAS WHEN I GET HOME!!!! Every member who's asked me about if I miss home I tell that I'll miss the Mexican food more when I get home. It's the greatest food in the world. And not Flour, actual corn tortillas. Not taco bell hard tacos or hamburger meat inside. When we eat Mexican food when I get back it'll be to the best of our ability LEGIT! JAJA I love this culture, Amo a este Idioma con cual predico y testifico. I hope that I'll be able to continue to be apart of it when I finish my mission. Well I hope I get to stay here for a while. We just got transfer calls on Sat and we're both staying for another 6 weeks together. Hopefully we can get another 6 weeks after that. Driving is fun, people don't know how to here but driving is fun I've missed it. We have done racing at K1 Speed in Carlsbad, that's probably what you've seen. We have done it for district activities and it's super fun. Elder Banana is so far the only person that has had a faster time than me but he's super into racing and cars. Must be the Filipino in him you know better than I do. I like Vista, it's very hispanic and the Ward has a lot of great members. I hope that Heavenly Father will bless us here. Well I'm glad everyone's doing good! Have a great week!

Elder Emerick