Almost fluent in 8 weeks.

April 13,2015

Hola Familia!

So this week was yet another great week here in California! 

I would totally live here when I get back, 

if it wasn't for the raging Liberalism and outrageous taxes! 

Haha Well this week was really good for my Spanish. Si ya saben yo estoy aprendiendo 

espanol todo via, pero progressando mucho no sabia!

( If you already know everything I'm learning Spanish via , but did not know much progressando !) 

{Google Translate Translation}

 I went on exchanges in Murrieta for a day with Elder Schow. He's been out for about 9 months now, but he still has problems speaking it well. He understands everything, but speaking is still a challenge for him. Anyways we went out and as we were talking to one of the members (No one knows me in Murrieta) she said 'How long have you been out Elder a YEAR?' My mouth dropped. You could probably imagine the response I got when I told them only 8 weeks. "SI?! Solomente 8 semanas?! Pues ya sabe como hablar espanol! Como es eso possible?!!?!" "(YES ?! solomente 8 weeks ?! Well, you know how to speak Spanish ! How is this possible? !! ?) Haha something like that, so they were really surprised and shocked about how much I already know. Even my trainer is saying that my Spanish is really good. Entonces esta semana fue muy bien por mi self- esteem (So this week was good for my self- esteem) haha. Really everyone recently has been telling me how good I can speak already in the mission field. Le solomente necesita hablar! Y puede aprender! I'm starting to surprise myself too, I've been dreaming in Spanish for quite a while, not totally, but I've been having dreams where I'm talking to members or people and it's pretty crazy. This past week we started visiting the Sanie family and they have a young boy they want to share the gospel with. (They are both really inactive but still have testimonies and everything. They asked us for Priesthood blessings before we left last Monday so that was a good sign. Tonight we are going to watch,  Finding faith in Christ with them, let's hope it sparks more of that testimony and they start coming back to church! Also we visited another less active family and she has a son who thinks he's possessed or at least being haunted by demons. Well so we talked a bit about Priesthood authority and the Holy Ghost with him. He's a YSA ( young single adult) so we are giving him to the Zones to bring back to church so he can go to the young single adult branch. But it was really cool he asked for a blessing of comfort and I gave him the blessing, it was really cool. A chapter in the Book of Mormon that we used in some of our lessons was Alma 24 it’s about the Anti- Nephi- Lehis and it’s a great story of faith. The work is same old same old. We run around tons trying to meet with people and progress them towards baptism. We had a great stake conference this week and it reminded me about the importance of the Temple. It would be great if you guys could make it to the temple at least 1 a month. People here in Temecula go like every week! Crazy! Well that's pretty much sums up this week, we're busy and my Spanish is improving haha. Keep working hard and have a great week everyone!

Elder Emerick

A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying

April 6,2015

Hola Familia,

Lots of things happened so I'll get straight to it. First in our first District meeting with our new district, (It’s all in Spanish) we had a discussion that was led by me about Prayer and how we can help investigators receive answers to their prayers. Everyone told me that it was a really good discussion! So that was good. We went on exchanges after and it was the first time I had the area without my Trainer because he went to the other area, but we had a good day set some good things up and overall learned a bunch! Well that night, we had a lesson with our investigator BUT she brought a friend from work. She told us before in a text about him and he is in a bad spot right now. She told us that he had contemplated suicide and that he she wanted us to offer some help with the lesson. Well it was me and the comp that was with me during the exchange, basically I met him and I could tell he wasn't doing very good right now. So I felt a strong impression to solely talk about Heavenly Father. I told him that yes there was a God out there and YOU ARE HIS SON. YOU ARE HIS SON and he loves YOU! I could definitely feel the spirit and knew that I was being directed by the Holy Ghost. In the end we asked him to ask in Prayer if there was a God and he said he would. I don't know if I'll see him again or anything but this I do know. That he felt the Spirit, he felt that comfort and peace because I felt it, I knew it. I told Dulce, (our investigator) that I'm no professional but I knew that I was helped in that situation. Miguel Enciso was at church for conference yesterday he is scheduled to be baptized this week but we'll see what happens, he is really progressing. We met up again, a miracle again, with the Sanie family (at least the mom) remember the family we met at Farmer Boys while we were going to the Bathroom? Well we scheduled a dinner apt tonight so we'll see if that falls through, but they're really exciting Less Actives too! We almost always take Julian with us now he has such a great testimony and is so funny haha. General Conference was great! I loved Elder Redlund's talk about A Saint is a sinner who keeps on trying. That was a great talk I thought. Spanish is so so. Everyone is already saying that I have the gift of tongues and all but I'm still learning, I can understand 90% now, I think but I need to keep working on Talking! Well, that about sums up this week. It was a good one but we got to keep working! Tenga una buena semana todo!

Elder Emerick

Your inner self

Hola Famila!

This week went fast! We have new zones now and they are Spanish speaking. They divided the mission into 2 Spanish zones and we are in the Spanish north side. My comp is district leader of our district and our district is called the Sky Cannon district. I'm so excited to have all mission meetings in Spanish! This week in Zone meeting President Kendrick was talking about our desires as missionaries, he said about the surface being to Invite people to come unto Christ. Then he said under that there are some other desires as humans we have. He asked me what I would rather do, Go to the Beach and get my tan on or spend a whole day proselyting. I told him Proselyting?? Everyone started laughing including President, then he explained a little bit of his point and then asked me again and of course I said I'd rather be at the beach. HAHA Then he said under that, we have our very deep desires, why we are here serving people,  and being missionaries. He said it is because it's part of the plan, we want to return to our Heavenly Father. It was a really good talk and message for all of us and the mission. We had a good visit with our Recent converts, I opened up to a scripture out of nowhere and it was exactly what he needed. I know that I am being guided by the Holy Ghost. We are teaching Dulce now because the sisters left and she is really progressing towards baptism soon! We had another Elder with us on Tuesday and we all had to go to the bathroom. So As the last person walked out of the bathroom a family came up and told us that they speak Spanish and are less active. The son isn't a member but he wants to learn about God! So we are going to try to meet up with them this week. It was a miracle to meet them. Everyone said that my testimony in Sacrament meeting was really good and they are all impressed with my Spanish. We also have lunches with Jorge once or twice a week and he's an amazing Mexican cook. His tacos are amazing! Well that's about all for now, go ahead and add more from the personal e-mails if you want, Have a good week!

Elder Emerick

 Me and hno Jorge who went to the temple for himself last week for the first time.

AdMe and hno Jorge who went to the temple for himself last week for the first time.d caption

Me and hno Julian, talks a lot and is super funny.

Transfers

March 23,2015

Hola Famila!

This week was pretty good! The big news is that the sisters are leaving the area this transfer so that means that my companion and I are the only Spanish missionaries in the stake, so our area of work just doubled! We are going to have to work extra hard this transfer, but the good thing is that there will be more opportunities to teach! Well this past Monday we went to a lesson with Wenseslado and he said that he was going off/ roading in his Suburban. My comp said is it alright if we go with you and share a lesson at the top of the hill? I thought he was nuts but Wenses said Heck ya Man! Anyways we went with him and he went up these steep inclines but other than that it wasn't too bad. At the top we taught him about the restauracion (restoration)   he had a bunch of good questions and we're going to meet up with him again! We found a miracle this week. This guy named Miguel Enciso wants to get baptized and we've been helping him progress, he's really excited which is weird but awesome! He's had lessons with sisters in Murrieta before so he already knows some stuff but he still has a ways to go. But we think he'll be baptized this transfer! Also I went on my first lesson without my trainer this week. I went with this RC (recent convert) who's awesome, named Tomas Villalobos. We taught Erik Zapot, the kid who just turned 8, about Joseph Smith and the Libro de Mormon (Book of Mormon). It was a little difficult because I'm not fluent yet but, they said that they understood me fine and that I did a good job! As goes the rest of the language, estoy progressando poco a poco! (Progressing little by little). We helped people move in to their homes and they were so grateful that we could help them. We helped the Zapot family put together a bed, their kids run them wild so they really don't have a whole lot of time for stuff so we helped them out. So all things considered it was a good week and good transfer but this next transfer will be even better! I hope you all are doing great, tenga una buena semana!

Elder Emerick

I just believe in Aliens!

Hola Familia,

Como estan? Para mi estoy feliz como una lombriz! Es un dicho en espanol que dice en ingles, pues voy a esperar por usteded buscar que lo significa. Hello everyone, everything including the weather is the same. Bright and sunny practically everyday in the mid 70's. I wear my sunglasses in the car almost everyday. (We are only allowed to wear them in the car.) Well where to begin? I am full ALL THE TIME! I am never hungry. Only before bed is when I have a sandwhich or soemthing but other than that we are fed TOO WELL. In latin culture they will keep putting stuff on YOUR plate until you physically stop them. And if you only eat one platefull, even if it was stuffed with food, they think that you have a small stomach haha. This past week I had a lot of opportunites to eat authentic Mexican food and it was great. Like hardened tortilla shells with beans and salad on top, pozole (Mexican garbonzo bean soup), and all kinds of stuff. We also get Dominican, Costa Rican, Salvadoran, Chilean, all kinds of stuff. We have had members with us out a lot. They are so willing to help the missionaries. As goes our investigators we are still working with a lot of them trying to help them progress. A lot of them won't read, pray, go to church and all that stuff but it takes time and patience sometimes. We were suprised yesterday to visit a boy who just turned 8 this week tell us, Cuando voy a ser bautizado!?!? We were really taken aback because we asked the mom but she said that he wasn't very interested. They are less active but still have testimonies which is important to have when getting back to church. But we set a date and hopefully as we keep visiting them he can get baptized soon! We think that this will help his cousin get baptized as well. So we are still working really  hard to find and teach people.Yesterday we were talking with a RC (recent convert) at church named Julian (You probably remember he's the guy that talks a lot from past e-mails) and we were talking and I metioned Chocolate caliente maybe once but when we went to see him that night he was making us hot chocolate. I said to my companion, 'I didn't tell him to make me hot chocolate!' but anyways we met with his neighbor who's another investigator and while we were in the lesson he tried calling our investigator (he knows and is helping to teach him) then tried to call us, but then he finally came next door to us. He rang the doorbell and my companion opened the door and the first thing he says to us is 'The Pancakes are ready!' which one is wierd because he doesn't know much English, and two because it was really random. But after our lesson we went over had a lesson with him and ate pancakes and  drank hot chocolate. Another thing that happened this week was we had a set appointment with our investigators and a member was coming along with us but they weren't there, turns out he was sick. So we just went contacting the gentleman and we met this lady who just started bashing us. She said she was mad because we believed in more than one heaven and yada yada yada yada, but anyways I did what we are supposed to do, I bore my testimony,  and invited her to pray and left. (Actually she left and just started being rude. She also mentioned that her DAD had a church and that they were better than us and all that. But it is what it is. But like she said her DAD has a church) After that I felt a little upset because she bashed us AND our member who doesn't speak much English but he understands well so that made me a little angry, but after that we went up to a guy who said don't bother I believe in Aliens. But after some discussion we were cracking up because he was actually a funny guy. We didn't leave anything with him but we left a good impression and after we left we could hear him talking to his spouse saying 'I just believe in aliens!' (She believed in God) So all that was pretty funny and hard at the same time,  este es la vida ed un missionero. Well that is a pretty good summary of some interesting stuff this week, so take care everyone! Tenga una buena semana!

Elder Emerick

Service and music

Hola todo mi Familia,

This week went fast! Tons happened this week! Monday we went to see a family that goes to an English ward for dinner but they speak Espanol also. They lived way out in wine country in a little house so we had to travel a ways down some dirt roads to get to them. Tuesday I had an exchange with the district leader and we had a good day. We ate dinner at a member's house and it was huge! Wednesday we helped the people that I talked about before, the person who is a designer for movies and knows people in Disney. She worked on old movies and stuff before as a drawer. But this week her family (they are elderly) went through some tough times so they needed help. We helped out and gave them stuff they needed, it felt good to help someone out who really needed the service. Thursday we went to Chinese buffet with a lady member for dinner, it was so good to have Chinese food again. She was really nice and is a very strong member that has had a lot of stuff happen to her family. Friday we found a new investigator! His name is Andres, turns out he was the first guy I contacted in Spanish. Funny thing is he was just a potential and lived with an investigator but now they both are investigators! It was a month since we've seen him and I first gave him the Libro de Mormon. And he said he's been reading ever since we gave him the book and he is very interested. We were both shocked and surprised, we are going to work to get him to church because he already accepted baptism. We just need to prepare him now and set a date, and continue to teach him because he has a lot to learn! And finally on Saturday we went to see a RC (recent convert) but his friend was sitting outside playing the guitar, my companion plays the guitar so he started playing Un pobre forastero. ( a poor way faring man) I sang along with  him playing the guitar and we ended up teaching him a little and he is now an investigator too. Could you please tell Mrs. Spiri thank you for helping me with choir and everything? We also sang Abide with me tis eventide to a RC (recent convert)  as well and she was crying and said it was bonito. (Yesterday we had dinner with her) But singing has definitely helped me to share the gospel and bring in the spirit to people's lives which I am so grateful for. Well I don't have much more to say so Espero que tenga una buena semana!

(I hope you have a good week)

Elder Emerick

Madre,

Muchas gracias por su carta, estoy bein aqui en California. Yes everything is fine. We are still almost everyday meeting new people and serving people. This past Wednesday we helped some people who were in desperate need of help. Remember when I told you about the drawer who knows people in Disney? Turns out they were kicked out of their complex so they were left outside there apartment with all their stuff with nothing to eat and really no where to go. They were in the process of moving, but they couldn't get everything out in time. They also have been caught up in the system a lot it seemed like. (Banks,companies, being lied too, fraud) So they have had it pretty rough. So when they told us they really didn't have any money now or food we just had to help them. We helped them pack the rest of their stuff up, fed them some pancakes for food, gave them water, toilet paper, boxes, tape, whatever they needed to help themselves get on their way. We actually called someone in the church to help them find a place to stay or to get work somewhere. They were really grateful for our service and I'm sure they are being helped more right now. We ended up missing a very important appointment with one of our investigators but he was fine and said come by next week. So we have another apt with him. Heavenly Father put us there at that time to help his children, because that is what we are, servants of our Heavenly Father. And like it says in Mosiah 2 when you are in the service of your fellow man, you are in the service of your God. It really strengthened my testimony of service and helping everyone. Because even when you think you have nothing, there are always people who aren't as fortunate as you that need your time and help. I think we all could do a little better with that. That was probably one of the biggest things that happened this week. Our Key indicators (numbers) weren't that good but we did our best and we'll keep on working. We just got back from a members house for Zone activity. Thanks again for your thoughtful letter madre. Me and my companions are getting together very well. I love this branch they are so nice and helpful. Espero que tenga una buena semana! Hasta Luego,

(have a good week, until next week.

Elder Emerick

California Temecula Dreams 3

Sheena, Jacob and Jackson.

Jacob and Companion teaching Sheena's family

Scenery in Temecula

Hola Familia!

Esta Semana encontramos como 6 investigadoras nuevas! Lo fue loco!  (We had 6 new investigators this week that is CRAZY) The people here are very receptive and kind. We'll see, I guess
how they progress. This past week I went on splits with the District leader's comp. Good thing it was his second transfer in the field or we both would have been greenies (brand new at being a Missionary). But we still both pretty much were. They are in a walking area so we walked like 9 miles that day, I'm not exactly used to walking that much yet so me legs and feet hurt pretty bad haha. But it was good, and they are both great missionaries. We didn't have a dinner apt for Saturday so we text-ed Sheena and asked if we could come over and she said yes so we went! It was great seeing them, they are such great church members and family members. I promise I didn't get trunky ( home sick) at all haha. We shared a message about faith and bringing things to pass little by little (Alma 37:6-7 which is one of my favorite scriptures).T Otra vez, mi espanol necesita mucho trabajo pero estoy aprendiendo poco a poco y puedo entender casi todo de que las personas dicen.(Again my Spanish needs a lot of work, but I'm learning slowly, and I can understand almost everything that people say)
the grammar will come and the regular conversational Spanish will come as well. I have deeply appreciated all the e-mails I've received from family. Thank you to everyone! As far as street contacts go we've had some crazy ones! Guys swearing, people bashing, not very many but some, and then just people who ignore us or at the beginning shut us down. As the 2nd counselor of our Branch said with us yesterday, when people say they are fine, they almost always aren't. Everyone in our branch has such a strong testimony of the gospel. I am so thankful for the Perez's, Pinedas, Hererras, Beltrans, Morgans, all of them. You can definitely feel their spirit as they bore their testimonies this past Fast Sunday. I love this culture, everything about it. I'm kind of jealous of Kelsey because she's fully immersed in it, but I can't complain about the Bathroom I have. haha Well last thing is I guess is did you guys get my package yet? I sent it last week? It has a bunch of stuff I got at Mexico for you guys, pins, ties, key chains, I hope you guys like them. I'll send you some pictures and then that will be it for this week. Tenga una buena semana familia!

Elder Emerick  

This  second  letter is to me I thought I would share it as you can see how his testimony has grown.
 
Madre,

Si yo tengo suffieciente para comer y pagar por comida. Thanks again for the package that you sent me! The work here is nuts! We found like 6 new investigators this week! A lot of people, especially the Latin people are so open and nice. The one family that we found said that they recognized us as messengers from God so that was pretty crazy. We'll see if they are sincere about finding the truth. My trainer and everyone we live with are awesome. We probably work a little harder than them but they are good missionaries too. I've really had my eyes opened to how the Lord can use you as a tool for his work. This week we met up with one of our investigators from before and we talked with him. We wanted to teach him about the Plan of Salvation but we kept getting of topic. So as we were talking about some random thing I thought to myself, how can we can get to talk to this guy about the gospel? (He's a little spiritual but he's had a rough life with Jail, gangs, drugs, and what not) So I'm thinking to myself and the thought comes to my mind to tell him our purpose. And then I'm thinking DUH its one of the points that we've been talking about (my comp and I that we needed to tell him in our studies) and we had it as a focus in Zone training that day. So I told him about why as missionaries we are here and what our purpose is, and that really stuck with him. We ended up having a long discussion about baptism and God's commandments. We challenged him to be baptized (like always) and he said he would, but their might be some things keeping him from it. So we need to work a little more with that. But it was such a strengthening of my testimony that God will help us and tell us what we need to say in the very moment that we need it. (D&C 84:85-88) So that was something that was good in our week, I hope you share that on the blog. Keep enjoying the weather! Y que Tenga buena semana madre!

Elder Emerick