Ocean Side

Hola Familia,

So, I got transferred to Oceanside. It was a big suprise for me to get moved out of Escondido so soon. The transfer meeting was good and I'm in Oceanside with Elder Rodriguez.  I live off of Mission and Old Grove. The area we work in is pretty mixed. Not only hispanics like in Esco but there is still some which is good. I sure hope I wouldn't be transferred into an English area!!!! Remember I told you about OUTER DARKNESS!!! There is a chance/possibility I could return to Escondido. Everyone returns during the latter parts of their mission, especially if you haven't spent too much time there to begin with. But I'm almost possitive that I'll never be put into English work. But to be honest it won't happen. It was pretty tough eating wise. We only had a couple of dinner appointments. I know the YSA Elders that go to the Ward where Elder Ramos' brother is the the Ward Mission Leader. Our Bishop is a cool guy, he's white and super rich. (Lives right by the ocean in Carlsbad) The ward is pretty awesome we had an outstanding sacrament meeting with awesome talks. One of our investigators was there too so hopefully he felt the spirit. E. Rodriguez is from Mexico, but he's lived his whole life in Utah. I think I might speak better Spanish than him. He's pretty cool though. The weather here is nicer than anywhere I've served on my mission. Almost always in the 70's. The only thing that could make it better was if we switched areas with the Hermanas, they have the super sketchy hispanic part of Oceanside that has all the gangs and stuff. I want to go see how it is sometime. We hit 32.4 MPH going down a huge hill by our appartment. It was crazy. ALSO Lucy got baptized! I got invited back to Esco just for the baptism and it was great. Elder Banana performed the ordinance. It was crazy to see someone get baptized in such little time! It was like 2 1/2 weeks after we met her that she was baptized. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary. Don't have much more time so I'll just start sending pictures. Les quiero!!

Elder Emerick

P.S. Temple trip tomorrow!!!!

Lucy's baptism

Jacob looking impressed by Bishop's house

Moving along

So the Title says, Dang I'm already going! You know what that means! I'm getting transferred! It was kind of a shock when we got transfer calls on Saturday but I'm leaving! It's super weird because I've only been in Escondido for 2 transfers, but still it'll be cool to go to another place, meet more people and stuff. I'm pretty sure I'm going to Oceanside but we'll see. I'll be sure to tell you next week! Remember Elder Wockenfuss? My CCM companion? Well he's training this transfer! Elder Ellsworth said that'd it be good for him because he's a pretty shy guy and it might help him to start doing some things on his own. By the way that picture of us and the Nietos was Me, Elder Banana, and Elder Schooff, not Elder Ellsworth. But dang it's gonna be sad not seeing the Nieto's anymore. If they invite me back though when she gets baptized I'll be able to come back for that! So let's hope it's soon! Elder Banana is going to take over pretty much half of Escondido, they're taking out a companionship so he's going to cover a lot of area. As far as Lucy goes the person who we got a baptismal date with she might have to wait a little bit. Everything looked good for her to be baptized this weekend but the Ward Mission Leader knows them and want's to make sure that they'll be keeping the commitments to be baptized and stuff like that.I love interviews with President. President only meets with us for regular quarterly interviews, he asks the same exact questions every time. "How's your family? How's your teaching pool? How's your health? How's your testimony? Anything else Elder? Alright your great Elder! Love you." That's how EVERY INTERVIEW is haha So yeah it'll be different but like Julian told me yesterday, 'I'll meet new people and be able to help them out." That's the best way I can put it in English. Well I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Emerick

Me Bishop Parra and his family

Julian Rivera Hermano Castillo

Our district

family letter follow if you can.

Gloria and Radolfo Neitos

 Elder Schoof, Elder Banana, Elder Emerick and the Nietos

Que Tal Familia,

So the title says Jesus said, Simon Peter. It´s a joke because in Chilango (Mexico City slang) Simón means `yes´. I´ll explain it to you when I get back. So to start off by answering your questions, I sent a picture of the dog because it was a dog that the Yellow Deli people had, My favorite conference talk was probably Deiter F. Ucthdorf´s talk from Priesthood session, he was really straight forward and was very powerful on why we have to walk by faith in this life. I still have my bike, but we haven used it much this past transfer, because we cover 2 areas the AP's gave us more miles and full time car to use. So we use the car more often, park somewhere and walk. I'll get you more pictures of us. Kaitlynn te extraño mucho, when we have money we go out to eat, usually during the beginning of the month because that's when we get payed, but usually it depends on the companion on how much you eat out, there's a lot of Panda Expresses here I wouldn't mind having a gift card for there or Chik-fil-a, I've been driving since I've been with Elder Ellsworth, I know my drivers license expires next year, how are we going to renew it? Yep we excercise cada dia, Yeah I've been having ton's of experiences when I say something in English that you normally wouldn't say but say in Spanish, for example you say '¿se van a cellar?' that means 'are they going to ceal  themselves' (Temple), but usually you'd say "are they going to get cealed together?" Anyways I've had tons of experiences where I say stuff that you say in Spanish but not English, that needless to say has been freaking awesome. I know the language pretty well, I'm still making some mistakes but I know when I've made them which is good. Yeah we all know that the Hermanas have the worst spanish in the Ward, I've gotten a few compliments from other Older Missionaries on my language, but I'm not getting a big head about it. ;) Yes I still love tamales, Carne Asada is still my favorite though, when I come home I'll show you how to do tortillas and stuff like that. Nope I didn't know that you have a Dairy Queen/Grill. Sure I miss eating dinner with my cousins but eating with Spanish people is way cooler. No ones rich in Escondido, at least none of the hispanics. Ask him if he's heard of Hungry Bear, the Yellow Deli, Aztec Tacos, Pan Asia, just some of the best places to eat. Transfer calls are this Sat but I'm about 99% sure I won't leave the area. But I hope to be transferred to Oceanside next. Yep every day my testimony grows. In the Carlsbad mission we're more than Exactly Obedient, we're Consecrated missionaries. jaja But yes I am. And for that last question I'll tell you in Spanish. Ok, ustedes tenian razón por algunas cositas, y estoy agradecido por todo que me han ensenado. Alright so, this week we found a new investigator, she's the wife of a less active member. She we started teaching her and last night we had our second lesson. It was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and towards the end of the lesson we invited to baptism in 2 weeks. We felt that it might have been a little early but still we invited her. Within the first 2 seconds of inviting her she accepted to be baptized on the 24th of Oct. We were all kind of speechless. Her husband couldn't even believe it, he's just starting to get re-activated and now his wife want's to be baptized! She for the next week we'll be focusing on Lucy! Her date is for the first Sat of the next transfer but I'm pretty sure I'll stay here. We'll be meeting with the Nietos again next Thursday because they're on vacation in Mexico City, but we're pretty sure that they'll be baptized next transfer as well! So our work is starting to pick up again which is great. I'm so thankful to be serving a mission, it's helped me so much and I've learned a ton. I hope that everyone has that desire to share the gospel. Well, that's about all for this week! I'll tell you more about transfers and what not next week! Les quiero mucho!

Elder Emerick   

General Conference, bunnies, and chapulines

Hola todos,

So the title says, general conference, bunnies, and chapulines.(I'll let you google that last one) I'll get more into that later. So General Conference was good, I love it on my mission. It's better than the World Cup! haha maybe not that far. But I love it! I love to hear from our apostles and prophets hoy en dia! Going back to the bunny, Radolfo and Gloria came to conference sunday morn with us. When we invited them on Friday, she gave me and my companions gifts. They were glass bunnys that were containers for tie cllips, cufflings, etc. The thing is, we don't wear tie clips in our mission, so we can't wear them when we're out and about! So we'll have to carry them with us and when we knock on their door slip them on. haha The tie clip is a sign that's on every temple, it's the sign of melchezedek. I'll send a picture. On Saturday though we went to a Oaxaquena restaurant that made Chapulines. I ate one, so now I can say on my mission I ate chapulines. I didn't really like it, It's not that it was gross I just didn't really like it. Elder Banana ate a ton but then got an allergic reaction to it. After the men's session we got him benedrill and then when we got back to the apartment he got sick so we just stayed in after. Good thing too, because he threw them all back up. I'll just tell you that chapulines don't dissolve in stomach acid. But all in all the restaurant was really good! I sent a ton of pictures so I hope you like them. Some are of the Yellow Deli restaurant, they remind me of the amish back home. Scenes from Valley Center which is the largest proselyting area in the mission, it's giant! Also pictures from the Oaxaquenan restaurant. Enjoy them and have a great week!

Elder Emerick

short and sweet

Familia,

Title says 'Dang sister!' Holy Cow Kaitlynn broke her freaking arm!? That's crazy, you guys had a pretty full week! This week we went on a bunch of exchanges, one with another set of Elders in our district, and then with the ZL. We didn't get to meet with the Nieto much because they had work and other things to do. On Sat they went to Tijuana to have their son get a physical as well as other things. He's probably going to leave on a mission. Well my best friend in California is probably Julian. He's from Temecula and he's super funny. I like to eat cereal for breakfast, my favorite meal for dinner and lunch is carne asada. Elder Banana is from Makati, right next to Quezon City. He lived there until he was in 7th grade and he moved to New York when he was 12 or something like that. They speak Tagalog at home. Some things he liked back from the Philippines are Isaw (chicken intestines) squid/fish balls from venders, suishi, spaghetti from McDonalds, Burger steak from McD, Show Mai and Show pow, are also foods that he told me about. Conference this week! Somethings that have helped me on my mission, are having questions going into conference. During the conference you will have them answered if you listen closely to the talks. Dang, I need to take some more pictures I haven't taken some in a while, I'll sure to send some more next week. Hopefully we can find more people this week, we're looking for some new investigators. Well have a great week everyone!

Elder Emerick

no earthquake

Familia,

So that says, 'Earthquake? Clearly not.' So we didn't feel anything obviously and we did receive a text message that morning that we should study the evacuation plan just in case there was a tsunami. But nothing happened, everything was just fine. We actually would have liked some water because the past few days have been scorching!! Do you look at the weather in Escondido? It has been like 110 degrees the past few days. We got some rain on Tuesday but after that we just had pure heat. The tri companionship is going good, we all get along and teach well together. I thought you'd have some questions for Elder Banana about the Philippines? This week at church we had 3 investigators come to church! Gloria Nieto came, with her Son. It was cool to see her there. We sang Soy un hijo de Dios and she loved that song with the other Himnos that we sang. Radolfo didn't come, he got called into work last minute. Hopefully he can come next week and tonight they're coming to a FHE with the Bishop! So hopefully they can feel the spirit strong there and progress more towards baptism. After church Gloria was so happy she invited us to go out for tacos. After we told her that we don't buy things on Sunday if we can avoid it she called us when we got back to our apartment and invited us over for dinner! There she told us that from now on they're not going to buy anything on Sundays from now on. I think we're going to go into a little more detail about the Sabbath day holy and explain deeper. We taught them Alma 17-19 and they loved the story. We are also going to have them continue reading  from the beginning by themselves and we'll read specific chapters with them. Also we had one member take us out for tacos. I tried tacos de lengua for the first time, and it wasn't too bad. The meat was very soft and it was good. Another thing is we got to go to the Palomar Hospital and give someone a blessing. It was a cool experience to go to the hospital and help someone. Apparently the person is already home from the hospital, so that's cool! Our Bishop is so cool. Obispo Parra came to church one day in Tennis shoes because he couldn't find his regular shoes; they had just moved recently. I don't think I've ever seen him wear a suit to church either. He just loves serving and helping other people. Well that's about all for this week. Have a great week everyone!

Elder Emerick 

Now there are three

Hola familia,

So you can probably tell from my subject that Elder Banana is our new companion. It's cool to have a Filipino companion like Dad had. haha He moved to New York 5 years ago and his Mom is a convert to the church. No, Dad didn't baptize them. She's been a members since before Dad was born I think. I didn't see a lady with a camera at Transfers. Ha the thing about Spanish missionaries and English Missionaries... I guess you could say that we kind of keep to ourselves. In Temecula we always were around English missionaries, but here in Esco we just mainly stick to Spanish. There is about the same if not more Spanish missionaries here in Esco than English missionaries. There was a little Spanish Pride before I got here because both the AP's at the time were spanish missionaries. Now we have one and one and the one that is a Spanish missionary has been in English work for the most of his mission. Whenever a Spanish Missionary gets put into English work we call it 'Outer Darkness'. And it's probably the worst possible thing that can happen to a Spanish missionary, especially if they don't come back. haha Usually it happens when they get put into leadership like a Zone Leader or AP. For example, Elder Smith, the best white Spanish missionary in the mission was made Zone Leader of San Marcos. Outer Darkness. For the most part though we do associate with all the missionaries. One of the Sisters that came in with me, her name is Sister Bradley, I think? Apparently her Dad is a SUPER famous basketball player and was in Space Jam. I don't know if Dad would know who I'm talking about but that's what everyone says. We had a very nice, spiritual lesson with the Nieto this week. The Salvador family accompanied us to the lesson and it was very good. She's down to 1 small cup of coffee a day. So that's some progress. She told us that she's going to try to continue to lower it to one every other day and so on. Their Son Geo is helping them a lot. Ha something funny that happened was Elder Banana was giving himself a haircut yesterday while Elder Schooff was collecting numbers over the phone from the other missionaries. He said that he messed up so he just had to cut all his hair down to a 2. So know he has super short hair like me and Elder Schooff. I'll take a picture to show you all how short our hair is. Everyone is talking about 'El Nino' which means the boy in Spanish. What they're talking about is a huge storm that's supposed to be coming soon in Sept. Have you guys heard of some hurricane or something that's supposed to come soon? So now every time we see like a small little cloud we joke together and say El Nino!!!! Haha It's soooo hot here. I'm going to miss not seeing snow for another whole year. Isn't that crazy? Another year or so and I'll be done. Don't worry though I'm not getting trunky yet. Well I hope everyone has a great week!

Les quiero!

Elder Emerick