State Fair!

Good morning!

We are going to the state fair this morning, so I don't have a ton of time to write but I have some stories this week. This week was the first week that I really felt like a missionary, because I finally have crazy door-knocking stories. 

The beginning of the week started out pretty average, we had a zone p-day talent show, and then hung out for a bit afterwards. I love my zone, especially the sisters. It's amazing to see how different Hna Scholl and I are in a group, I would just naturally gravitate towards the other sisters, because we could relate. Sis Checketts came out the same day I did, Sis Matagi and Sis Parke are our Sis training leaders, and I love them all so much. Tuesday, average. Elder Aquino, our district leader, gave an excellent training on convincing vs persuading people to hear the message of the Restoration. We need to understand our investigators' desires and abilities to accomplish the things we commit them to. Wednesday, crazy. We had new missionary training, which was really good also. The part that stuck out the most was about how as companions we need to have unity and love each other, because we can't love our investigators if we don't have love for our companion. The crazy part started after dinner. We were at an apartment complex that a number of our investigators and members live at, looking for Janeth, a recent convert who is 14. her mom told us she was at the park, so we went over there. As we were walking two Kenyan guys called us over and asked what we were doing. One of them was asked if the missionaries helped pay for people to come to America and learn about the church, because he still has family in California. It was really hard to understand him because he had a heavy accent and we were by a busy road. The other guy was relatively interested in our message. So Hna Scholl taught him while I "distracted" the other guy, because literally every time I opened my mouth he would start talking. They started to ask us things like "how old are you?" "do you want kids?" "can you marry outside of your tribe?" hahaha the one I was talking to offered to by me a nice ring, so basically we were proposed to by some Kenyans in the park. The night gets better. After that, we went to Hna Yaya's, a sassy Costa Rican lady's, and she feeds us which I love. I think I've talked about her before actually. But she started telling us about her old boyfriends, and one in particular who she would tell that she loves "con todo su higado" which means all her liver, because he broke her heart. And then she told a story about when she worked in a casino and a guy started flirting with her so she poured hot coffee down his shirt. Crazy.

Thursday was normal, but Friday we had service. I love it! i also learned about the difference between Orthodox and Catholic, because apparently they're not the same thing. All of the volunteers we work with are Orthodox. Friday afternoon I went on exchanges with Sis Matagi in the English area. It was absolutely mind blowing to me how comfortable English work was. We had dinner with a member, ate pancakes, knocked on normal houses, not apartment buildings, like it was SO comfortable. Everything about it. Sister Matagi and I are the exact same person. She is awesome. I really loved it... Hopefully I get there with my Spanish.

One more cool experience: we have been working with a semi less active member, Hno Benjamin (ben-ha-meen). He loves the Gospel, but is lazy, and doesn't like to make the effort to come to church. So Saturday we went over and were talking about faith and obedience and when we're obedient we can have the desire to be more obedient. For the first time on my mission, I felt actually inspired. I asked him if he had ever fasted before, and he said no. I invited him to come to church, and think about fasting for fast Sunday next week. Guess what. He came to church. And there were two talks about fasting, and one of them was the third hour fifth Sunday discussion that Bishop Volz led. It was so good. Boom. Spirit. 

Bishop Volz is great, he learned Spanish by studying in college and going on a study abroad in Spain. And now he's a bishop of a Spanish ward. 

Dad, Bishop Volz is guerro (white), our ward mission leader is white, and there are like two or three others. They're usually married to a hispanic. Our area is kind of sketch occasionally. There hasn't been a time where I felt completely unsafe. We usually are in our car after dark. We spend a lot of time in apartment buildings. We don't use our bikes hardly at all, we're using them to get to the fair today! There is a designated driver in each area, and we're not allowed to drive in our first six weeks.

It's been a good week. I am soooooooooo excited for the fair. 

I am also really jealous of your weekend. But really glad you had fun. 

Love you!!

Emily

Time, Tornados and teaching

Thanks for your emails this week, the combination of Mom, Dad, and Lauren's emails and a letter from Josh really made my week. Mom, I haven't gotten the skirt yet, but I am sure it's waiting for me at the mission office. We're going over there a little later today for a zone talent show haha. So I'll get it then probably, and if it's not there, we have new missionary training (that's me) on Wednesday. This week has been cooler, the high today is like 65. So anytime you want to send that box of winter stuff it probably can't come too soon. 

Ok, what is it with the roads here?! The on ramp off ramp thing is insane!

Last Monday, I forgot a story I wanted to tell you. We ended up taking to a couple of Muslims in the park last week, and I really enjoyed learning more about them and answering their questions too. They weren't really interested in changing, just curious mostly, but the thing that made me laugh was the lady who would look at me with the "you poor child, your soul is lost" face. We actually get that face relatively often.

This last week, we spent half of Tuesday, all of Wednesday, and half of Saturday at home because Hna Scholl was sick. Who knew that Hna Wynne at the MTC was good practice for the field! I tend to go to hyperdrive when I've been stuck inside for multiple days. One of the days, I cleaned basically the whole apartment, caught up on my journal writing, did a couple other random things, got so much done. It was great for about the first three hours. It's all good though, we are healthy again. I was only sick on Sunday. We didn't do a ton this week because of that, and so this week feels like it didn't even exist. 

On the days we did go out, we did some cool stuff. On Monday, we went and played soccer as a district for p day and checked out one of the little Hispanic malls on Lake Street in Minneapolis. They are just a bunch of random tiendas, the culture shock is still settling in for me. On Tuesday morning we had zone conference, and it was exactly what I needed after last week. Sister Forbes talked about how we can be completely obedient if we choose one thing to work on at a time, and like I said last week, I was feeling overwhelmed because being a missionary is hard (who knew). The whole conference was about finding people to teach and the things we can use to help us. It really refueled my fire to teach and meet people. This week I have been a lot better about talking during lessons, talking to people at church, talking in general. It was amazing how much more I could understand at church yesterday than my first Sunday here. At zone conference, Elder and Sister Graff (Grandma and Grandpa Andrus' neighbors) talked to us about food and gaining weight. Let me just say that a food reformation is in order. 

Thursday, we had a zone service activity at Minnehaha park, we also went to the falls, aka the one man made water fall because there are no mountains here therefore waterfalls don't exist, but it was still fun. I think service is my favorite part of being a missionary so far. After service we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch, obviously the Elders' idea, but the burger was good. 

Friday we had dinner with Roger, a recent convert of almost a year. Let me tell you about Roger. He's only one of the coolest people ever. English was his first language, and then he moved to Puerto Rico where his parents are from. Grew up there, worked in Buenos Aires for a while, moved back here, retired because he saw that money wasn't getting him anywhere, (basically he was thinking about being a monk for a while) and now he basically just helps out the church as much as he can. He loves missionaries, so he takes one of the sets of missionaries out probably three or four times a week. And is always doing nice stuff for us, like bringing us soup and medicine when we're sick. Like four tubs of soup, a box of breadsticks, and two things of NyQuil. Amazing. 

Roger came with us to both our lessons that night. In one of the lessons, I had probably my best teaching moment since I've been out. We were talking about grace and how we don't need to be perfect, and Roger turned to me and asked something about how we develop more faith. I actually gave a fairly eloquent response about the cycle of obedience and faith and the spirit was there and everything. Both Hna Scholl and Roger mentioned it afterward about how perfect it was. It was neat to feel comfortable for a second. 

Saturday morning, we had breakfast with Hna Yaya, she's from Costa Rica, and my goodness it was good. Bread and sausage and potatoes, and juice and hot chocolate, and wait for it.... fried eggs. I ate them. And I actually kind of enjoyed it. I know your minds are exploding. She also told me that I look like a Barbie. Saturday night we had a lesson, and during the lesson it was storming sooooo hard! There was a tornado warning and everything! What do you even do during a tornado? I don't even know. 

Ok I'm almost done. Sunday, yesterday, like I said, I understood waaay more and I even initiated a couple of conversations. The members are nice to me and talk slowly and are cool to repeat things if I need them to. I really appreciate it. Church is so funny though. Like hilarious. First of all, singing hymns is so different. There is definitely like a mariachi almost yelling thing that happens. So funny. And less funny, it surprises me how few of the members are endowed. The vast majority have not been to the temple. It just creates a different atmosphere and calls for a different dress code at church, especially for the women. Also, Mexican stereotypes are real. When we go out to knock doors, we look specifically for Christmas lights in August, any holiday decoration that doesn't fit the time of year, cases of  bottled water, shoes left outside, etc. It's real. 

Last thing, This week Hna Scholl and I have gotten to know each other a little better, and I wanted to share, just so you can understand how different we are. Also to prove that you don't have to like the same things to get along. Hna Scholl was homeschooled up until college, she took five years of Latin, when I saw her run, I'll be real, I almost laughed out loud, she loves folk dance with a passion, and went to a concert almost every week at BYU. We graduated high school the same year. We have very different lifestyles, and different ideas of what a good lesson looks like. 

This week has been a lot better. Thanks for your support, this would be impossible without an awesome family. I took lots of notes this week, how do you feel about the longer email? 

Besos gorditos!

Love, Emily

Minnesota!

Hi fam, So as you can imagine, this week has been crazy. I've never been so tired in my life. My trainer's name is Hna. Scholl, she is from AZ, is the oldest of seven, has been on her mission for nine months, and has been in this area for six of them. We are in the Richfield/Bloomington Spanish area. Sister Cupke told you Roseville, which is wrong. Our area covers all of Richfield, Edina, Bloomington, Chaska, Eden Prairie, and the south part of Minneapolis, it also goes further west about two hours, but we don't have the miles to go that far. You can send my mail directly to my apartment, packages still go to the mission home.

8080 12th Ave S #111 
Bloomington, MN 55425


If you send me mail I can get a library card. I don't know why I need one, but you should send me a card or something.

My first night here, we taught a lesson in Spanish to three people. My second day, we started knocking doors a little bit. First door we knocked invited us back. A little bit of a shock to my brain, but it was good. We had a baptism on Saturday, so that was a neat way to start here. The Hispanic/Latino culture is one of my new favorite
things. It's so fun. I get told/asked how tall I am all the time. (Que alta hermanita!) Haha so cute. I love being called Hermana/Hermanita. Besitos (the greeting kisses) are adorable, church was an interesting and new experience. I've met so many awesome people in the past week. I think my favorite thing we did this week was service with an organization called FOCUS, which collects necessities like hygiene kits, clothes, and shoes for people that need it for free or really cheap. We go to help translate a little bit. You meet fascinating people at places like that. It's in this basement with 6'6" ceilings in Minneapolis. One of the volunteers Chris and I started talking. He's an older guy, with MS, so he doesn't walk very well, but he has two masters degrees and a doctorate degree in composition, piano performance, and like Greek or something like that. I love talking to people. Most of the volunteers there are from different denominations, so it's fun to talk to them. Chris is staunch Eastern Orthodox. Seriously, people are so fascinating.


My embarrassing/funny story of the week of course happened because I'm a gringa. Hna Perez is a fantastic member of the church, a single mom, and an RM, asked us if we wanted to go out to eat, and I said I wasn't
really hungry, but we could go if she wanted, etc etc, I don't really know what happened, I don't understand most of what anyone says to me. But fun fact, declining food is really rude. "Super offensive" I think is the phrase Hna Scholl used. Awesome. Hna Perez was cool about it though (I think?!) and we ended up going to this hole-in-the-wall Chinese buffet, and Hna Perez didn't even get anything! She just watched us eat. She said "coma con confianza" more than once and kept asking if I was full and to eat more and more. I felt bad about declining food earlier, so I ate probably three plates more than I would have (I only had three plates.) sketch. They had whole octopi there. So anyway. Funny, sort of. Hopefully I made up for it. I realllly dig Hispanic food though. Soooo good. One of our less active members made us mole (moh-leh) verde and it was probably the
best thing I've ever eaten. 

I love Minnesota. It's absolutely gorgeous. My favorite thing though is seen all the different types of people. So many different cultures. It really is awesome. My Spanish is coming along. It's harder than I though it would be, but even in a week I have gotten better. It's so fun. Basically the whole mission thing is great except for being so tired all the time. It's also been hard because even though Hna Scholl works hard and we teach a lot, I feel like we could be so much more productive and I don't know how to bring it up. She's been here for six months and obviously has a groove, but the groove isn't as productive as I want it to be. Things like spending twice as long at
lessons as we should be, or playing futbol every other Friday, just little things. I am going to bring up Thursday at the latest because that's when we have comp inventory. I want to be as obedient and productive as possible, and I don't know how to do that with another person haha. But it's inspired to have companion ships, so we'll see. All in all, I love it. The hardest thing is being tired, because it zaps motivation so quickly. Hopefully you've enjoyed my adventures this week!

Love, Emily

P.S. Also we have iPads. So send me pictures so I can save them. Will you also send me exercise ideas? I have done nothing this last week because Hna Scholl likes to stretch. The pictures I'm sending are of my desk and bed. I just bought the camo sheets today. I'm a cool kid. I actually love them. And then also my iPad selfie with Hna Scholl being productive bakering in the background.

​Christmas in July with my old roomies. Love them.

Hermana Brun's (far right) birthday on Sunday

Hola familia!

I am so excited to be leaving for Minnesota next week. I have to be at the travel office at 3:35 am on Wednesday (8/5) morning. So here's the deal. We are allowed to call home while we're at the airport. Nothing huge just like five minutes (almost literally) to say I'm alive and well and on my way. Do you have girl's camp next week? Who should I call? Do you even want me to call? It will be between 6-7 am your time because my flight leaves at 8:30am. Send me a Dear Elder and just tell me what to do, because I don't know what your plans are. But for real, I'm so excited. I'M SO EXCITED. I'm going to keep saying it. Because for real. 

It's crazy that there are so many babies in the ward now! I love the name Kimber. That's adorable. and I saw Kaylee's baby two days before I left. He was brand brand new. I love hearing about the family adventures. Send me pictures! I can't believe Sheralyn's engaged! When you go to their open house you are required to send me pictures! And tell Ryan I'm super proud of him and I brag all the time. So he'd better back me up with some more wins. 

I saw Josh Farish on Sunday, twice actually. He is doing great. And of course we're on the same plane. That will be so fun. Tell Jenny I'll take care of him:) 

Has Josh Lee emailed you lately? I got an email today and apparently a couple of weeks ago he got a mosquito disease. This is what he said "Two weeks ago I got chikungunya, a nifty brand new mosquito transmitted illness! Then the following week we were given mosquito nets and repellent....#justintime  Luckily, It didn't hit me too hard and after three days I was good to go :) " Isn't that just like him? Sheesh. 

I'm sort of sorry that this email is so scattered but at the same time, this week was not exciting at all. Except for Minnesota. That's exciting.

Our trio is hanging in there. I'm really not complaining because my companions are teaching me a lot about how teaching should work, how to be patient, being humble. I'm learning. Even just yesterday, I was put into my place (more like shoved forcefully back into my place, kicked in the face, and then left there to think about it for a second) after one of our lessons. Our Spanish is getting a lot better, which is cool except that now it's hard to teach simply because we can actually explain ourselves. I especially am working on this. And our teacher was more than happy to point it out. After mentioning that I said "um" about a million times. So that made me mad. But I'm learning. Being humble is hard, but being humbled is just painful. And annoying. So just be humble. Ugh I'm still cringing. Good thing I have 6 days to iron out any kinks. HA. A good dose of reality will be good for me. If you can't tell I'm still fuming a lot. Not complaining, just learning. Could be worse. I could have chikungunya. 

I am really appreciative of my teachers and branch presidency. They have been really complimentary of me this last week, and I hope I can live up to their expectations. 

I'm sorry this is so short, really nothing exciting happened this week. I am sooo looking forward to Minnesota. I'm also praying for a good trainer. PRAYING. 

I love you.

Love,

Emily

The 3 Yrekans

Max Bakes, Tyler Larsen and Emily...The 3 Yrekans!

Hola everybody!

The biggest new of this week is that Hermana Wynne was officially sent home. Her leukemia is back, and she is home and has already started chemo. She sent me a couple pictures and an email/DearElder, and she seems really upbeat. She is amazing, and I am so lucky to have had her as my companion for the last 3 weeks. I am absolutely convinced that we were called to serve together in the MTC. I learned a lot from her, especially about being patient through trials. Seriously her attitude through all this has been incredible. 

However, this does mean that I'm in a trio for realsies now. Yaaaay... It's really not that bad, it just feels like I'm always waiting for someone, or like we have an entire parade when one of us has to pee. It's been a growing experience for me because I have to have more patience than I have ever had before, in everything! Especially when we teach I find myself getting frustrated because it's hard to keep three Hermanas learning Spanish and an investigator on track. I have always been blessed with an ability to teach (sooooo thankful for that!) and the longer I'm here and especially in a trio the more I realize that it's a relatively unique gift... I love it. I love Spanish. This week has been a turning point for our district. All of a sudden it's really clicking. We are trying to "speak our language" or "HSI" more and more. Only one more P-day in the CCM! As of this week we are the oldest district in our zone. Crazy.

Our teachers are awesome as always. Hermana Tuft and us Hermanas had a discussion this week on how extravagant living and focus on material things is poison for the soul. It's especially a thing here in Utah. She is an incredible role model to me. 

Hermano Draut gave us an excellent lesson last night on asking questions; it's kind of been the theme for the week. But he brought up a fascinating point. He said, "why do you think Joseph Smith was the one chosen to see God and Christ? Don't you think someone else asked the same question?" He continued to explain that during apostasy, people choose to not look for the truth, some tried to reform it, but did anyone really ask which church really was true? His theory, backed by some authorities, is that Joseph received the First Vision simply because he was the first to sincerely ask. When he did ask, God answered his only question by saying "none of them." Joseph didn't receive further instruction until 3 years later when he asked for it. Moroni answered immediately. Isn't that a crazy thought?! What blessings does God have for us that we just need to ask for? When we study we need to have questions in mind, and that takes a lot of humility. I thought that that might be an answer to your Sunday observance question Momma, maybe have a family focus or question for the day and see who can find an answer. Just an idea.

To wrap up I just want to talk for a second about how people influence our lives. There are so many things that I have learned from the people around me at the MTC. Hermana Wynne's courage and faith, Elder Jeffrey's (seriously he reminds me of a taller, blonder, more talkative Ryan) humility and diligence, Elder Price's patience, President Monson's service, Hermana Tuft's wisdom and testimony, Hermano Draut's energy and passion, seriously there is something from every person I've met. Even negative attitudes have helped me learn. Never pass up the opportunity to talk to someone because you will always learn something if you have the right attitude. 

Have so much fun at the reunion, send me pictures!

Con mucho amor,

Emily

Bon Jovi - "We're half way there!"

Study, study, study!

Half way through my stay at the MTC! So first things first, Hermana Wynne has been sick the last week and a half, so she had blood work done on Friday. Yesterday they got the results and immediately sent her via ambulance to the Salt Lake hospital. She had severe anemia and probably will need blood transfusions. Scary. Even scarier is that she had leukemia when she was thirteen, so we are reaaaalllyy hoping and praying it's not leukemia part two. Our whole zone is fasting and praying for her today so hopefully that will help. Something that was really cool is that H. Wynne was able to get a blessing just before she left and she has been promised multiple times that she will be healthy. So we'll see if she comes back soon or not. I really hope so.

Right now I am in trio with the other two Hermanas in my district, and I...I don't even know. I don't like it very much. With Hermana Wynne the last few weeks I've felt like I've had all the patience in the world, but in the last 24 hours with the other 2 Hermanas it has all disappeared. They are great and they try hard but their natural pace of life is about 10000000000000000 times slower than mine. I'm trying hard to be patient and not complain, but we'll see how long I can keep my cool. They also struggle with Spanish and teaching. I've basically been told by my teacher that my primary job in this trio is to support and not take over. Soooo hard for me, but I will do it. I need to practice. That's the biggest thing right now. It's kind of throwing off my groove. But it's ok. It will all work out. I'm just happy it's not me in the hospital.

I LOVE getting DearElders! (Note: DearElder.com is a website where you can send an email and they will print it and deliver it same day to the MTC otherwise Emily can only check emails once a week, on Thursdays. Check it out!).

I am so excited for Josh to be here! (Note#2: Josh is Emily's cousin who was called to the same mission.) Next week will be great. We get our travel itineraries (whoop whoop!). It's exciting.

Our devotional on Sunday night was the importance of the converting power that the Book of Mormon has. I have always been told the Book of Mormon is proof that our entire church is true, but I never really could figure out why. So this week I studied it. I've kind of always thought that the point of missionary work was to tell people that the Gospel has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith which is partially true, but the main point of missionary work is to tell people that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth again, and it just happens to have been restored through Joseph Smith. Because it has been restored, we have access to all the covenants and blessings that Christ has always given to His people. It might sound the same, and I wish I could get into the nuances of what I mean, but I hope that kind of makes sense. 

In answer to your question about feeling the Spirit in our home and as a family, I think our family did well. I think the times I felt the Spirit most is when you (Dad) would play the Primary songs and we would sing and also just reading the scriptures together. One time I felt the Spirit the most was that one time we were at the cabin with all your family and we had a family testimony meeting. I still remember how strongly I felt that families are eternal, because there was no way we could deny that when we were all together.

I have had a bad cold the last two days, small sore throat and super stuffy. I feel a little better today though. Not bad considering half our district was puking their guts out last week. We've been a pretty sad bunch the last few days. 

I love seeing Tyler and Max around the MTC. We are trying to plan a rendezvous to get a picture before Tyler leaves. Hopefully that happens.

Well, I think that's all I have for today. I love you all, sad I'm missing the reunion but I'm also really happy to be here. Love you!

Emily

Week #1 (a little late because Mom was in Alaska)

Sorry I haven't been able to email until now, our p-days are Thursdays and we didn't get ours last Thursday. So I'm alive! I have so much I want to tell you! My companion is Hermana Wynne from New Jersey. She spent last year at BYU also, and we have a few mutual friends. She is amazing and I have already learned a lot from her. She had leukemia when she was 13, but made it through and is here now. She always has good insights, and our personalities are actually pretty similar. The only bummer is that she is not a huge fan of exercise. She will go to the gym and stuff, but doesn't do much more than ride the bike. I love being able to exercise every day though. It helps me feel better after sitting all day every day. Literally all day. 

Our district is fantastico. There are six elderes and four hermanas including us. The four of us are the only hermanas in our zone of 30 people. We were assigned as the sister training leaders, which isn't too hard with four of us. They are all younger than 19, so that makes focus hard for the elders sometimes, but they are all amazing people. I'll try to attach a couple pictures. Some of the computers here are weird though. My favorite thing to do here is study. I love the time that is set aside for personal study especialmente. I LOVE love LOVE Spanish, and I'm really good at it. Not nearly as good as I need to be, but good. We taught seven lessons in Spanish this week. One of our investigators is an adorable Guatemalan lady named Hely. She is less than five feet tall. Our Spanish teachers are so awesome. Hermano Draut y Hermana Tuft teach us so much about Spanish and about teaching. They have made this experience a thousand times better. They help us to not be discouraged and lift us up when we crash and burn. I don't struggle with Spanish too badly, I can usually get across what I'm trying to say, but my district has a little bit of a hard time. It's really neat to watch everyone improve so rapidly. Like I said, most of us spoke zero Spanish when we arrived lst week, and we've already taught 7 lessons in Spanish. 

When we got here last week they were having the annual mission president conference, so everything was a little off. We weren't eating in the cafeteria, the schedule was weird, etc. But we're back to normal now. We were living in building 17M the first day, and then the second day, all of the sisters had to move because of bats! Luckily we didn't see any. The only downside is that we moved to an older building and there are six of us sharing a four person bedroom that has an extra bunk shoved in. Makes for some good bonding time. The Hmnas that we live with are so funny, and we really enjoy them. It still surprises how many sisters arent in bed by 1030 and are up making noise and stuff. Whatever, I am always so tired it doesnt even matter. Ah I'm running out of time so fast!

My first two days here I ran into probably twenty people that I knew, and there are probably more now. Running into Elder Larsen was a highlight. He has three weeks left, and Russian is still hard apparently. Go figure. 

Our devotionals this week were given by Elder Allen who runs the missionary committee, and Elder Sitati of the first quorum of the 70. both were uplifting and motivated me to be better. THe hardest part of being here for me is learning to have faith that I am doing God's work, and He's not going to leave me behind. Because a couple of days I have felt a little ditched, but for the most part, I love the MTC. We watched Elder Bednar's talk on Sunday called THE Character of Christ. Look it up, you might have to dig a little, it is a fantastic talk about looking outside ourselves.  It's just pure truth all the time, and it's hard to beat that. I can't wait to be fluent in Spanish! I'm so excited. 

I love you, I miss you already, but I also love being here. This week went by really fast, and I hear it only gets faster. 

Love, Emily