Eight Days a Week

This past week we watched Braden learn to play an all important All American game: TBall. He is really having fun learning and says he is a real baseball player now because he slid into home base. He's earned the reight.
Kirk and I took Ashleigh on an outing with us to Medicine Lake where we rented a canoe and paddle around the lake a little bit. We had lots of fun together and even got wet..hmmm. It's always great to have opportunities to have individual times with the grandchildren. Just as I thought and do think it important with our own children, I still think it is a valuable thing to do with the grandchildren.
One of our new favorite things about Minnesota is to go to Lake Harriett where there is this bandshell and concerts are performed every night for the summer. We here in Minnesota have to make the most of the sunny, coat free days! We are loving going with a few our several thousand friends, setting up our chairs, and just relaxing at this most beautiful spot. Through the back windows of the bandshell you can see sailboats floating by. Incredible to me that such a frozen land can utterly transform for several months a year. We are determined to enjoy it!






 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Summer Fun!!!

Here are a few pictures from our summer so far.

Celebrating Father's Day

Elaine. Lexi and Kate (?), I think?

Stephanie, Lauren, Grandpa George and Ben Hatch

Elaine and Mark

Elaine, Mark and Anne

Grant, Caroline and Beckett Handy

Cole got a new million $$$$ helmet with all the "bells and whistles"!!

Cole loves his new helmet sooo much he even took a nap in it!!!

Cole attended football camps at Utah State, U of U, BYU and Washington State.

We took care of Belle, Fran's dog, while the Luczak's went to Yellowstone.

Riley was quite 'cited to have a slumber party.

McKenzie ran in Centerville's July 4th 5K and took 1st in her age division!!

Stork Delivery

Welcome the arrival of Jordan Ryan Sanders on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 1:19pm at St. David's Medical Center in Austin, Texas. Jordan was one of 23 babies born that day (a number not "lost" on Ryan as that number is Michael Jordans!).
Jordan is the first official Longhorn I guess you could say. He's beautiful, handsome and perfectly formed. Jordan is our fourth little grandson and 6th grandchild. So far, the boys are winning the "race."
Mommy and baby are doing great with Melanie's Mom and her Grandma there waiting on all of the Sanderses.
Ryan did his job by wearing only "Jordan" shirts while they were at the hospital for those two days. A wild and a crazy guy!

In the Pursuit of Happiness

In this world of ours that can at times seem gloomy it is wonderful to see a fine couple utilizing their talents to bring joy to others and in return receive it themselves many times over. To live such a way would enrich one's life and add years to it as well. As this youtube video was shared with me, I, too, wanted to share it with you in the hopes that you will be inspired as I was to be and to do a little better. And now I just need to find my duet partner (it's a bit late to get Kirk to learn this...taking applications!) Enjoy.

LOVE STORY (Taylor Swift) meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay) - Piano Cello - by Jon Schmidt

I have to give Erin credit for sharing this Jon Schmidit youtube music video with me. I think that you, too, will enjoy it.

No Sun in Yorba Linda

Araceli, Alfred, Hermana Sanders and Cibelly
 

Hello all. Well for an update on the last week, it was LONG. This area has, well, not much going on right now. I think maybe the elders dropped most of their investigators before the transfers were over, and the ones they still had, aren't very solid. So we were lucky if we had one set appointment a day. And usually, that was dinner.
Sister Kioa and I spent a lot of time really reading everything 39 times in the “area book”(where all the teaching records of everyone should be) and trying to visit every single person who were either former investigators, other investigators, and/or recent converts/less actives. There aren't any progressing investigators right now, so we also spent a lot of time finding good areas, and knocking doors for a couple of hours. It's different in these higher class white areas; people just aren't home. When they are home, they think they know everything about the church already so usually they don't even give us half a minute to say anything. Once they find out the church it's "Oh no, I'm not interested," and then the door is shut. I don't mind really, I don't really think people are being rude, they just assume they already know what the message is and they know better. Every area is different and you have to learn again how to be a missionary.
There also aren't many people out on the streets, so we don't have contacting opportunities. This is where member missionary work is even more essential, because that's how people are found. There are lots of part member families and inactives that we also tried to call and/or stop by, but they weren't home either. It just takes lots of hard work to get an area going, but it will happen. There's lot of potential here, and there are definitely people ready to learn and be baptized everywhere, it's just finding them.
The wards here do seem to be interested in missionary work though, so that's good. I think they're a little afraid of the fact that we invite people to be baptized the first time we teach them, but they'll get used to it. They probably think we're scaring their friends away. But if so, then they're just not ready right then.
Yesterday we were knocking in this little condo area, and we met someone who is of the Ba'hai faith from Iran (she gave us Iranian candy), a teenager who just moved from Russia, an 18 year old girl with an attitude who doesn't believe in religion and speaks Arabic and warned us from knocking any further because "they speak Spanish" or "aren't home," an entire household of women from Jerusalem who are Christian, a Hispanic “born-again” Christian, and a lady from Mexico whose boyfriend is an Arab Christian, and she says her only friends here are LDS. Well, we taught the last one. She was very nice. So that was some mixed knocking time, and I loved it! I just love those middle easterners and Hispanic people! And Russians I guess! Foreigners are fun. People make everything so interesting, even the ornery people. I miss knocking and having people actually talk to us. Plus, I was able to speak Spanish! Yeah!
And all week long the sun didn't come out once, except for yesterday. And we had a baptism yesterday in Yorba Linda whose name is Daniel Chavez and he has been taught by the missionaries for about a year. I had heard about him from the other sisters I lived with who used to serve in this area. We taught him once last week. He really studies the scriptures, and he has lots of questions. Apparently in the past those questions were stopping him from seeing the big picture, and really learning if the church was true. But he came to the missionaries when they were about to drop him and asked what he needed to do to be baptized. He is about 50 and Hispanic, but very Americanized. He is very nice. Everyone yesterday at the baptism described him as being very sweet and gentle, and it's true. When the bishop got up and welcomed him into the ward, he just cried and cried. The spirit was so strong at the baptism. It's taken him a long time to get here, but he's a true convert now. So it was a really wonderful thing to be apart of, even for just a week.
Love you all!

Love,
Emily

BROCK

Brock just completed his second year of lacrosse. The team went undefeated this past spring season and Brock improved his game a ton. Brock worked extremely hard to get better and play a more physical game. He also switched over from a "middie" to a "long stick defenseman". It was a fun team to watch this season with a lot of scoring. After every game, Brock wants to know what questions we have about what happened during the game. I'm still learning about lacrosse and am not sure I'll ever "get" all the rules. Brock is #10.

Brock (in his "John Lennon" glasses) singing in the 8th grade Boy's Choir. They are singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody - Brock loves this song!

Brock at Centerville Jr. High's field day.

La Habra Here I Come!

Well my Spanish experience has officially come to an end. At least for a little while I suppose. All of us in my companionship are getting transferred out of the ward, and no sisters are replacing us. It's sort of sad, because for a little while, there will be no sisters in our mission officially speaking Spanish. Sisters Lewis and Yeom will be “whitewashing” an English area that hasn't had sisters for a long time. I think that will be really good for them-really push them since they are both still relatively new missionaries, and now they will have an opportunity to really lead and learn how to be missionaries.
And I...well, I am going up to La Habra. And my companion will be Sister Fatkin! Yeah! I'm actually really excited; I've really missed Sister Fatkin. The sad thing is that this is her last transfer, so for sure I will have another companionship in just a month and a half. I don't know anything about La Habra, except that they cover two wards up there and it's the northwest edge of our mission. And their apartment is really nice. That's all. And yes, it's English. So I will just have to take advantage of every opportunity to speak Spanish and read Spanish and do anything Hispanic. Sad! But I'm really looking forward to the change.
I think this is the right time for this change to happen with our investigators too. So many of them have gotten to kind of a stand still point in terms of progression. The elders in our area will now be teaching them, and I think it will help them. Especially because hopefully all the fathers/husbands/boyfriends maybe will be more receptive to listening to the elders and then entire families can be baptized.
It was sad to leave Araceli's family, and Lupe and Lulu and Big Boy and just everyone. I really love this ward. Eight months! It has been home. But last week time just sort of dragged on, and I knew that is was definitely time for me to get out.


We do have some new people that are showing really really good potential that hopefully will be baptized soon. We went to visit Juan Carlos on Saturday, but he had to leave, so he told his grandma to let us in. She's 82, and organizes quinceneras (big parties for 15 year olds) and teaches the kids how to dance. They're like fancy sweet sixteen parties. Turns out she got baptized a couple of years ago and has gone through the temple and everything. So Juan Carlos has even more contact with the church than we realized. So he's close to baptism.
And Araceli and her entire family came to church again, as well as Lupe's husband. Yeah! Mom, you will be happy to know, that I handed out my amazing little "business" cards to everyone. I haven't had much chance to use them before that. I told everyone I will be visiting next winter.
So that's what's going on around here. It's been pretty cloudy every day here, and I can't believe today is June. Where did the time go? Thank you again all my family for all of your love and support and advice and prayers! They all help soooo much! I love being a missionary, and I'm so thankful to have a family that's so strong in the gospel!

Love,

Emily

Exchanges

Hello!
We are teaching one guy, Juan Carlos, who used to live in Logan with a brother and knows a little about the church. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation last week and before we started, he had questions about baptisms for the dead. Funny the things people find out about. He's still a little confused about the spirit world, but he's really interested in learning. He's been saying he would come to church the last three Sundays, and he's always had a valid excuse for why he hasn't come. Somehow I'm still sucked into trusting everybody who says they will come; it just doesn't get old being disappointed. But anyway, I called him after church and he was like “Hermana, believe me, I'm not playing, I really want to come to church.” He randomly had to pick his grandma up from church though. Anyway, I do have hope for him. He's had multiple contacts with the church and hopefully we are that seventh contact/interaction that will help him get baptized. He's a young guy and works at a golf course.
Exchanges last week were sooooo nice. I needed to get out of my area. I went around with Sister Jessop and we drove a lot. Their area is basically the whole mission anywhere there are Samoans. It was interesting teaching all day in English. Sometimes Sister Jessop would talk to people in Samoan, mostly if they were older people. But otherwise it was English. It was nice to be with an experienced missionary. And in the morning, we did some studying and role playing with the other sisters in the apartment: Sister Chriswell and her companion, Sister Kioa. Sister Kioa and Sister Jessop both came out with Sister Fatkin from the MTC and they all go home in July. No! Then we will be the “oldest.” My chances of ever being with anyone besides a newer missionary are getting smaller. It was a fun day.
I realized this weekend how much I really enjoy knocking doors and how much I just want to stay out every day as late as possible talking to people. At about 8:15 my comps just wanted to go home, and I just feel too guilty doing that. I want to knock every door and keep going.
I have to talk in sacrament on Sunday, so I suppose I will be preparing something all week. I would be nice if I could just teach the Restoration lesson. Maybe it will end up being a farewell talk for me. We have a lot of appointments planned for this week, so it will probably go by pretty fast. Things are going good around here and I love you all!