California Dreams 2

This week was great! I have a lot to say in this letter so I hope I can get it all down. First watch the movie Meet the Mormons! It's great and I know you guys will love it. We watched it as our Sunday video for our last Sunday at the CCM. It was amazing. Second, listen to the song Glorious, the one by David Archuleta is a great version  and it reminds me of the CCM. I almost started crying in the car when the song came on, when I was on exchanges with the Zone leaders because I just felt the Spirit so strong and it brought back great memories of my friends back at the CCM. It's awesome.

Jeff's text; We were getting ready to have dinner with Hma Caravaca when I saw a text from an 814 number on our phone. I almost screamed. As soon as I saw that area code I knew it was a family member. haha I told my comp about how Jeff and Sheena live in this mission and now I know that they live in Temecula. We cover the north part of Temecula in our work but we can go to any part in our zone, which is Temecula, for Dinners. We called the Mission President and he told us it was all good, and to just treat them like any other member. I'm not sure when Temecula ward goes to church or where exactly but Santa Margarita goes in the morning and some people don't go til like 2. But yeah that was cool. Our dinners for this upcoming month are almost set though so we might have to do a lunch or something .

 Next: last night we were knocking on doors and we went through like 10 doors of people just telling us to go away or that they weren't interested. It was raining pretty good too . Well we went up to this one house and this guy opens the door, says what can I do for you Gentleman? We told him who we were and what we do, after that he invited us in because it was raining. We sat down and he asked us if we wanted a hot Drink like Coffee because it was cold and rainy. We told him about how we don't drink coffee (and at this point I'm a little scared because I thought he just wanted to bash with us.) But instead he deeply apologized for it and said he didn't know and that he has always been interested about religions. He told us about his wife being all these different religions and about Trinidad and Tobago where she's from. So to make a  long story short they were awesome and we had a great talk, they thought we were awesome and just all this stuff. I can't fit everything into this e-mail but it was great, 

and I said 'I love you Heavenly Father!!, as we sat out in the rain, with the umbrella that they gave us, writing down their address for a referral.

In other news, I went to In and Out for the first time with Elder Shock the Zone leader on splits. I told my comp though that I still hadn't been so that he would take us out again. But after our District conference he found out that I lied because Elder Shock told him that we did haha. But it's pretty good.

I think its awesome. In our lessons we've had a lot with this guy named Julian. He talks really fast so at times I understand only 75% of what he says but (he's a RC) he says when I talk its corto y fuerza. Short and strong or powerful. So that always makes me feel good when he says that I'm still learning and have a ton left to learn but I know I'll get there. We got 3 new investigators this week all through missionary efforts so we've been working pretty hard. I know that he will bless me in my efforts. I am so thankful for this opportunity.I hope you have a great week!

Elder Emerick

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

 I can't believe Jacob's first 6 weeks are over. They went so fast! He has grown so much and is so happy. Being with kids with his own values, standards and purpose have been great for him. As of yesterday he is in California.  He is ready for the real work to begin and will be knocking on people's doors, doing his own shopping and speaking real Spanish.
We are all real excited for him.

California Here I come

Hola Familia,

Este es la ultima carta antes soy en el campo! ( this is the last letter I’m sending before I go into the field) I´m very excited to get back to the states! Although, I´m going to miss Mexico a little bit. My comp and I are both going to the same mission so we will both be on the same exact flights. This week was great! TRC was last night and we met with a lady named Carlita. She was so nice, we talked for like 15 minutes just about stuff.  I guess our Spanish is getting good! My comp just got help from a psychiatrist here and they think that they found a med to help him and it has. Before, he couldn´t speak during lessons at all, but now he´s doing great. For our priesthood meeting this past week we had a lesson on the parable of the olive tree and it was so good. Presidente Torres said that because of the prayers of the prophets in the Book of Mormon the Lamanites were spared and because of that, they are now able to hear the restored gospel. He said it was very important to him because one, he is a ¨Lamanite¨ and two, that we all were going to preach the gospel to his people. It was so good. I said closing prayer for the Devotional on Tues night. It was in front of the whole CCM I didn´t know why I agreed to it haha. I finally got James´ tie at the Tienda today. John has a red one, and James has a greenish one. They´re nothing special but they´re from Mexico so that´s something. I got Kaitlynn a tag that says Futura Misionera haha she´ll probably wear it every Sunday.

Everyone´s learning Spanish, studying, teaching our daily lessons, and other stuff. I think that everyone is ready to get out in the campo ya. Our friends in our casa are going to Chile Concepcion, Quito Ecuador, and Peru. Most  of the people in my district are going to California though. I can´t wait to eat a real hamburger again.

Sorry for making my last letter short, tell President Hark that it won´t happen again haha.. I got some money out of my account from an ATM here. I got about 200 pesos which is like $16.

We have played so much volleyball here it’s not even funny. But it’s so fun to be able to play with the whole district. My night teacher (used to be fake investigator Fernando but who really is Hermano Chan) is a Patriot fan and he was so excited when the Pats won the Super Bowl. Spring training is coming up soon so if you guys could e-mail me a little info every week about the Bucs that would be awesome. Hermano Chan also likes Real Madrid so I tease him about how I think that Barcelona is better haha

The weather has been perfect the past couple weeks. We haven´t gotten much precipitation and I only need to wear my sweater in the mornings when it’s a little chilly. I´m not looking forward to having to pack again but I can´t wait to back to the States. Apparently Lord of the Rings is pretty big with Mormons, so we have been arguing about which is better, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. I´m a little outnumbered.

I have not received any mail at all here, so I haven´t received your letters. Not much else to talk about but I hope this is sufficient for an e´-mail. Hasta Proximo Lunes!