UHMMM Ya...This

Hola Familia,

I hope you all have had a good week. This week Teresa came to church! It was good to see her there and hopefully have her progress quicker. She told us her main problem was that she didn't like wearing dresses or skirts. After we told her that it was fine if she didn't wear a dress she felt better about it. She told us she believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet and her testimony is being strengthened. The new Hermana from Boliva still hasn't arrived yet hopefully she'll come soon. Elder Hernandez and I are working well, he still is learning certain things but is making progress. This past Sunday I translated a talk from English into Spanish for the congregation that didn't understand English. It was definitley a cool experience. This upcoming week we're having President Benjamin de Hoyes come to our mission and have a Zone Conference with him. It'll be cool to receive instruction from an area 70. We gave a lot of blessings it seemed this past week. Have you ever gone to Burlington Coat Factory? They have crazy good prices on ties, suits, socks, and all kinds of stuff. At least at the one here in Vista, legit you can get designer ties for less than 5 bucks. It's nuts. Well not too much stuff to talk about this week, but I'll be sure to talk about the Zone Conference and all the stuff we learned. Well Have a good week! Les quiero!

Elder Emerick

Busy again

Hola Familia,

So we're starting a new transfer this week.

Family Home Evening with Ang family

Family home evening with Ang family

Picture of Christ that someone gave HIM. They must know him well. He loves cats.

Baptism of Chrystal

Ocean Side

Ocean Side

Birthday Party for Elder Wockenfuss

Birthday Party for Elder Wockenfuss

This week we had a ton of stuff happen. Last night we found a new family to teach, their names are Anna and Techo Perez. They seemed very interested and we're really excited to start teaching them more. We'll see if they're willing to act on the message. So that's exciting! Also we had a Birthday Party for Elder Wockenfuss on Friday. It was good we all had sloppy joes, chips and soda. It was good to spend time with him and try to help him feel better since these past couple of weeks. Also an investigator that I taught in Oceanside invited me back to her baptism on Saturday. It was a great service and the spirit was really strong. She was so happy to finally be allowed to be baptized, and her Uncle performed the ordinance who just came back from his mission in Pittsburgh. Remember when I asked you about an Elder Garduno? That was him. She bore her testimony at the end and it was awesome. She talked about Girls camp and trek and all the people around her that helped her gain a testimony. That's honestly how things need to happen. If members will fellowship people investigating the church, share their testimonies with them, and help them to feel accepted into the Ward and Stake, then everything will fall into place. The Missionary work will flourish and everyone will get blessed like crazy. I'm pretty sure I'll have at least one more area in my mission. I hope to return to Escondido. We'll see though! We're getting a new Hermana from Bolivia in our District so that'll be interesting to see and experience. We'll really have to do pure spanish in our meetings now! Well that's about it for this week, but I'll be sure to tell you how everything goes down! Have a good week! Les quiero!

Elder Emerick

Having fun at district meeting

"It is by Obedience that we gather light into our souls"

Hola Familia,

This week we had a baptism in our District. The Hermanas baptized a muchacho and it was a good service. We had one of our investigators come and also President Thomas came! Also Elder It was good!

 Elder Romney came with me in Vista. Ok time for some fun facts. 

Did you know, that Elder Romney grew up in Chihuahua Mexico?

Did you know that His Mother's cousin is..... TODD HEAP? Yep, THAT Todd Heap.

Did you know that he had a scholarship offer from Oregon?

Lots of cool things. He's a great guy and we had lots of fun. I say had because he decided to serve a mission first, and well not too many schools are willing to wait that long. He will be going to another D1 school though I'm not sure which though. He also told me that his uncle Todd always told him that one of his biggest regrets was not serving a mission. I just thought that was cool that everytime the Steelers played the Ravens, we'd see Elder Romney's uncle and say how much we hated playing them. Other than that we haven't had too much stuff happen. We're still teaching Teresa and are hoping that we'll be able to make a more solid baptismal date with her. Still we are looking for more people to teach. 

President Thomas shared this quote at Zone Conference on Thursday, it's from a Talk by Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Obedience is the lifeblood of faith. It is by obedience that we gather light into our souls. 

But sometimes I think we misunderstand obedience. We may see obedience as an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. Or we may pound the metaphorical hammer of obedience against the iron anvil of the commandments in an effort to shape those we love, through constant heating and repeated battering into a holier heavenly matter.

No doubt about it, there are times when we need a stern call to repentance. Certainly, there are some who may be reached only in this manner.

But perhaps there is a different metaphor that can explain why we obey the commandments of God. Maybe obedience is not so much the process of bending, twisting, and pounding our souls into something we are not. Instead, it is the process by which we discover what we truly are made of."

When I heard this quote I thought about how sometimes when living in accordance with the commandments or church membership living in general can seem overbearing, a challenge, or simply too much in our lives. But this explains that when we are obedient and show Heavenly Father our love towards him to live worthily that we will be blessed and truly see why we live the gospel. It's not to make us into something we are not, but to show us what we are made of. 

Love you all!

Elder Emerick