I'm Here

2/17/2015

Padre,                                        

To answer your questions my flight was good. Long but good, I don't know why we needed a 4 hour layover in LA but its whatever. Probably just to keep us together with the other missionaries and its cheaper when you have a layover. The LA airport was huge! Customs we was fine, when they asked us if we were residents of the US we all said 'Si!' and they were like 'what?! Si?!' haha it was just a reflex because we haven't said yes in 6 weeks but everything was good. No I didn't really have a whole lot of time to call because I was worried about getting through security and getting to our flight on time just making sure that we didn't miss it. But that's okay!  Elder Wockenfuss  and I met the AP's at the airport and they took us to the mission home. We had a California Burrito to eat and it was awesome. I met with President Kendrick and he told me that it was his dad that served as an area President in the Philippines, so that was cool. We didn't spend a whole lot of time with them we just kind of got there, ate, met, and then went to the transfer meeting. My Trainer's name is Elder Martin, and he is fluent in Spanish. Everyone here seems to know a little bit just from picking it up off the streets. My first area is…… wait for it, Temecula!, or Temecutah as we call it here. We have the top part of Temecula for proselyting and the Hermanas have the south side. Our branch is the Santa Margarita Branch and the members are awesome! We went to the Branch President's house the first night I was there for Dinner. Their family is awesome. The whole Branch is great. We were White washed in so neither of us knew the area when we got here but we got it pretty much down now. I bore my testimony the first Sunday and some people laughed when I said that I can only speak a little and understand some but everyone said that my Spanish was really good. I can definitely see a difference in the people that went to the Mexico MTC instead of the Provo MTC for Spanish. Anyways I have taught the Restoration with my companion several times and kind of have the hang of some teaching and contacting. I love the area and the people, all the Spanish people are really nice. Sorry I didn't take a whole lot of pictures yet, but next week I will. Right now I'm just getting used to the work in general. Running every morning, walking for 5 hours, we do have a car so that’s nice. We are in a four man apartment, so it’s kind of like the Best 2 years movie haha. As to eating, the food from the members has been awesome. The 2nd counselor knows 0 English so we talk 100 percent Spanish at his house. We have had burritos, rice and all kinds of awesome stuff. I did miss the food here. I do think that it will take me some time to become fluent because of the English here but with time it will come. My trainer said it’s actually better to learn here because you will be able to translate easier, because he said he had friends that went to foreign places and they have a hard time translating it. But yeah, we 'found' 3 new investigators just this week so the work is very strong here. By the way the dork dot is a symbol of longevity, at the CCM, you don't get one when you arrive, you get one when you leave, so it’s kind of a prideful thing to have and its awesome haha.  Everything is great, study, prepare, proselyte, meet, and share the message. Contacting is definitely  new but I will get used to it. We went on exchanges on SAT with the Zone Leaders and Elder Shock thinks I'm great. We ran into a Spanish dude for a contact, he doesn't speak Spanish, so I took the lead and it went pretty well. I am getting used to all of this and it’s a lot to take in but I think it’s great here and love the people. I'll be sure to tell you more next week when I get a library card. I have a limit right now, but next week I'll have more time! Hasta Pronto!

Elder Emerick