In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, thank you to all of you who have influenced me and my family. Thank you for your love and support in all that my family does. Thank you for the relationship that we have not only by being related directly through our heritage, but for the relationship of love and friendship that we have as well. I feel so grateful for each and every one of you...my family and hope and pray for your well being, safety, and happiness. Thank you for being part of my life. I love you!
I wish each of you a grateful season of thanksgiving.
Please enjoy this link of "In the Spirit of Thanksgiving."

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Mission End

Oh my family! Well here we are:  my last e-mail. We had a wonderful week. Wonderful! We found a couple of new potentials that seem really good. Sister Cooprider is staying in this area still and training. I'm excited for them as they have many new people that we have set appointments with them to teach. It's weird to know I won't be a part of that, but it's alright...I guess!  We had our two wonderful baptisms this weekend of Jenny and Ashley! It went really really well and was just a really nice day for them. I think it was really great for their Dad too. I know eventually he will have the desire and he will receive an answer that he needs to be baptized.

There are so many changes I feel coming up in the mission and coming up in these areas. It just makes you want to be here for all of it! But I suppose it always feels like things are changing and great things are about to happen when you're about to leave! But it has been so amazing and wonderful to see the progress that has happened in the Anaheim 2nd ward and the Anaheim 

Last week we, Sister Brown, President and Sister Watrous and I, went to the temple and that was wonderful!. Last February we went to the temple and all wrote little letters-to ourselves sort of, about what kind of mission we wanted to have, and what we wanted to do and were going to learn. And then we were given those back while we were at the temple, so we could read them again. It was interesting, it doesn't feel like too long ago, but I know that I've (hopefully) grown since then. But it's still pretty odd to read the things that I said then, and to even see at that point how I had grown; I'm not sure how, but it seems like it. Our mission conference was really great. But geez, it's sort of unfair to have an inspiring mission conference right before you leave! Sang "Called to Serve" for the last time. Weird! Saturday morning I had my last interview with President. He renews our temple recommends, and then goes over all the info that mission presidents are supposed to say I guess. And he added in his own advice, and then he gives us a blessing. He's just such a great man. He is super humble and obedient and faithful. He really has been an amazing example for all the missionaries.

Today we're teaching one last lesson. Well, one last lesson for me with Raichel Goodyear. Remember I mentioned her once? She was golden, and sooo ready and we passed her onto some elders in another singles ward. Well, long story, she's back to being taught be us. We haven't seen her since September, and she wanted to be taught today. Fine by me! I'll do my last baptismal invitation as a missionary! I am so excited!

Well, I'll just say it. I LOVE being a missionary! It's been the best 18 months! And even though I really don't know what to expect after this, and I am a little anxious, I'm excited to see how life is just going to keep getting better. You know, I'm pretty lucky. I really am. I feel like I am blessed just over and over and over again and every year is better than the last! It's amazing to see how you really do become a missionary. Not just doing missionary things, but being a missionary. I'm so grateful for the things I've experienced and learned. Irreplaceable! My testimony of the gospel has just grown sooo much deeper. I have learned how to study the scriptures, to feast upon them! To love them! And I expect it to continue! If there's been a theme to what I've learned on the mission and what I've tried to teach others, it's love. It is the love our Heavenly Father has for us, and how everything he does is for our happiness. We just have to recognize it and act on it. I LOVE being a missionary! I am excited to see all of my little family again! I love you all so much and thank you so much for everything you've done for me! The love, the prayers, the letters! I love you! See you soon! Ah!

Love,
Emily

OCTOBER!!

A few pictures of the last week in October. Cole finished up his high school football career. His team finished tied for 2nd in the region but lost in the first round of the state playoffs. Cole loves, loves, loves football and is disappointed they didn't go farther in the playoffs. He worked his tail off this year and played great this season despite injuring his knee twice. Hopefully he can continue to play beyond high school - stay tuned.......... It's hard to believe his senior season is over - it seems like yesterday he was playing sophomore ball.

Cole and Grandpa George

Happy Halloween!! Brock and his friends dressed as up and just cruised around the neighborhood. They didn't know what they were dressing up as at first and then decided they were the "Mormon Mafia". What? Go figure.

Cole went the high school dance on Halloween night. The whole group he went with dressed up as pirates. He was supposed to be "Smee" from Peter Pan.

Assyrian Babylonians!

Hello family! Well, it’s the halfway point of the transfer. Things are still excellent here! I love California. Seriously. It’s funny how a place becomes your home. I definitely will miss it here. I just love the people and the palm trees and the sunny days and everything else. It still is weird, but this is definitely the place where I needed to be! Who would’ve thought?Let’s see, an update on people. The Luceros are doing great. For the last week and a half we had planned to read in the introduction to the Book of Mormon with them, and then get Brother Lucero (non member) to pray right then, with us, and then we were going to ask him to be baptized. This is what President Watrous wants us to do with everyone when we first teach them. And even though B. Lucero has been taught for a long time, we wanted to do it with him anyway. And it went really well. The spirit was definitely there, and we asked him to be baptized. He said he wasn’t ready. We pretty much expected that. But we had to ask. That’s what missionaries do! But for the next little bit that we were there talking to the girls about their baptisms, and when we left, he definitely looked like he was thinking really hard. Good! Who knows.The Lopez are also doing great. Everything’s set to finish up the last couple of lessons and get their program together. And after saying it over and over again, we finally feel like people are starting to fellowship them in the ward. Good!Raven’s good. Still teaching him. Also still teaching Cesar and getting him ready for baptism. We found out he smokes. But because he’s bored. He said that the addictive properties don’t affect him, and he can completely stop whenever he wants. Alright. We’ll see. Cesar understands and remembers everything we teach, but he definitely still has some kind of disability. We don’t know what though. When we started talking about prophets and asked him why it would be good to listen to a prophet he said “because it’s a straight shot to the celestial kingdom.” True, true. We were glad he remembered the lesson about the Plan of Salvation a couple of days earlier! He also asked us if after the resurrection, if the pre-earth life would be destroyed-because there “would be no need for it.” Interesting, I’ve never thought about that one before. This is why it’s great talking to all the odd people we teach, because their perspectives are so different, and their questions are so much fun. I love it!

On Saturday we went to teach Nicole. Oh man. That morning she called and asked me if it was okay that she was already wearing her Halloween costume-because that night was our ward activity and she was going to it. I said that was fine. She said she should’ve called the night before to check with us and she was sorry. But I said it’s okay, you can be wearing it. She said she just wants to respect us and she’s sorry, and blah blah. Really, Nicole is one of the most interesting characters ever. I will try my best to do an impression of her someday. We brought one of our ward missionaries with us to the appointment and when we opened the door, there she was, Snow White! The thing is, Nicole is very small, thin, super pale, black short hair, always wears red or pink lipstick. So her doing Snow White makes sense. Yet she still wore a wig and oh wow, she looked pretty funny. It was so hard not to be distracted and look at each other and laugh. There she is sitting on the couch as snow white as we talked to her about prophets. Then there’s a knock on the door. Nicole freaks out and doesn’t want to answer it. That’s normal. She asks us if she should answer it. We say yes. She doesn’t want to because she thinks it’s her mom. Then you hear someone say something through the door, and Nicole’s 2 year old son George goes “Grandma!” So Nicole lets them in. It’s her mom and her grandma. We have never met them, and we’ve always been curious about Nicole’s mom. Nicole swears her mom doesn’t love her. Her mom is in these little black stretch pants and leopard print shirt and sweeps into the home and is like “oh Nicole, oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company, oh George! Oh Nicole, have you eaten..blah blah blah.” She was very dramatic and funny and came in with pizza and gave us all pizza as she talked the entire time and kept moving around, doing Nicole’s dishes, and cleaning her house and, well it was pretty hilarious to us, even though Nicole was distressed. I asked her mom where she was from and she said “oh, we’re Assyrian Babylonian. We’re east Catholic, Nicole was baptized as a child…” and Nicole is going “mother, please, mother. you weren’t supposed to come until later. Mother…” Very funny. So apparently her family is from Iran. Who knew? Assyrian Babylonian. That’s a first from me. I guess I’m wrong, but I sure thought the Assyrian and Babylonian empire were destroyed a long time ago. Pretty much her mom is not what we expected. Just a flashy/dramatic/nagging mom. And as she was doing her dishes, our member said she wishes her mom would come over and do her dishes at her house and Nicole pipes up and offers to come over and do her dishes for her. It was one of the best teaching appointments I’ve had. Snow white and her mom.

That’s probably the best story of the week. There are always lots of good stories. This week we should be pretty busy too. We have to go on splits a couple of times, and that should be crazy. Good to be busy! We’re just trying to find those new investigators, so that after these people are baptized, there will still be people to teach. Just in case you were wondering what we’re doing here on Halloween…well, we’re doing normal missionary work! Last year we were supposed to be in the apartment at 6:00pm, studying, if we didn’t already have set appointments to go to. But this year we are to be out working as usual! So we’ll be doing that. Trick or treat, we brought you the Book of Mormon! And today we will be carving pumpkins as a district to celebrate!

I can’t believe how time is flying. Everyday I love being a missionary more and more! It’s crazy! It’s odd and feels a little, uh, scary, to think I won’t be doing this much longer. So I try not to think about it! We’re still sprinting! I love you all so much!

Love,Emily

Lunch with Braden

Last week I was invited to lunch with Braden at his beautiful elementary school, Hassan Elementary. He's a kid who really knows how to enjoy life: eat dessert first. Braden was so cute and when he saw me he came right to me, took my hand, and led me back to his table. What a wonderful thing that is to have your hand in the hand of a little person. Afterwards, I was invited to see his classroom and it is all so wonderful. Another wonderful thing about living in Minnesota: living near the Galloways!

Jones Update

These are some of the happenings in our world lately. Brock finally finished up his Eagle Project. He planted 10 trees at a new park in northeast Centerville. Brock, Raymond, Brock's leaders and troop worked hard on 2 different days to get them all planted. The soil was rocky and hard so he was grateful for all the help he received from everyone. Now to just get all the paperwork completed so he can be awarded his eagle.

It is hard to believe Cole has only 1 more regular season football game left. It seems he was just playing sophomore football and now his senior season is almost over.

The Viewmont Vikings have had some highs and lows this season with big wins over Davis, Weber, Northridge and Layton but difinitely should have won the close games against Syracuse, Fremont and Bountiful. It has been "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" this season. Cole tore his MCL against Layton. It ended up being a grade 1 tear so he only missed 4 practices and no games but will have to wear a brace until the first of the year.


Cole also had fun attending the Homecoming Dance!!

Home in Anaheim**

Sister Sanders with Vanessa Delgado and her children, Andrew, Ruby and Carina in La Habra

We had a pretty wonderful week I must say. Nothing especially spectacular. We did a Family Home Evening with the Lucero family and the stake president's family. We taught the Plan of Salvation and then basically played charades/catch phrase/pictionary with different Plan of Salvation words and phrases. Like what we did with Raven and the Restoration. It's good to see how much people know-it shows in how they explain it. Plus, we just want the Luceros fellowshipped more. I don't remember if I clearly explained the Luceros before. Sister Lucero is a member. She's Spanish. I knew her sister in the Santa Ana ward. Robert, the husband, is not Spanish, and not a member. For years S. Lucero took her two daughters with her to a Spanish ward, but last year decided it would be better for them to be in an English ward. Plus, if her husband ever joins, English is better for him too. The girls want to be baptized, always have, but Dad said not until the oldest was 15. So that's now. Jenny (15) and Ashley (13) will be baptized Nov. 14. The Dad is doing well too. He's had lots of missionary lessons. He's never seemed to show too much desire to commit to anything. But he's showing signs of change. Hopefully his daughter's excitement and baptism will help soften his heart!

Raven continues to do really well. We had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation. He's a deep thinker and had a bunch of questions the other week, so we decided we'd reteach this lesson and help answer/direct his questions. He has interesting questions about the resurrection. He's accepting of the things we explain, he just wants to get it even more. So he was asking if we all have a personal resurrection, at different times, and if Christ would have to be born again and die again and resurrect again so we could then be resurrected. I've never had someone ask that. He also asked if when people are resurrected, if people who aren't resurrected can "perceive them in their physical form." Meaning if we are here as mortals and someone else comes as a resurrected being, if we would see them as we see anybody else. We just used a lot of scripture references and stories to explain principles to him. We had a member there too who brought up all these crazy theories and together they got all philosophical about stuff. That's great. But bottom line is the other stuff doesn't matter. The scriptures tell us plainly what we need to know.

No new investigators this week. Close though! We both really want it though, and are absolutely committed to knocking as much as we need to and working with the members as much as possible to find new people to teach! There are some members that are really trying hard to work with their friends. Others are a little slower about it. Hopefully they got re-inspired from conference this weekend. I though Elder Perry's talk was great. Where he said that as members, we have to study and gain a testimony of the three basic lessons that missionaries teach, so that the member can be ready to testify of them as well. Also just the huge theme of loving one another and serving people that definitely is the heart of missionary work.

I must say my favorite talks were probably Elder Bednar's, because he's always very clear about what he wants to say. They were all wonderful. I really appreciated the ones that talked about learning to recognize the spirit in the first session. That's something I've been trying to improve from day one in the MTC! But I have to agree with you Dad, that Elder Holland's talk was just amazing. He's always sooo passionate and so direct in the way he talks. It's almost a little overwhelming sometimes. But I really appreciated his testimony of the Book of Mormon. It’s inspired me to read the Book of Mormon one more time before I'm finished here. I'm only in Jacob, so I'm really going to have to pick up my pace! It's just so wonderful to hear from the prophet and the apostles! They truly are men called of God!

We got a flat tire yesterday in between conference sessions. I was going to figure out how to change it, because I know it's pretty simple. But this nice man came out and changed it for us. He earned himself a pass-along card! Then yesterday we had dinner with a funny couple. It was S. Cooprider's b-day and she really likes this family. They're 60ish and she's super energetic and never stops talking. She joined the church when they first got married. He used to pitch for the Angels. Apparently he was one of their best. His name is Clyde Wright. (Their son also played baseball, but for the Yankees and for the Cleveland Indians-his name is Jared Wright-in case any crazy baseball fans want to look them up...David!) Anyway. Brother Wright joined the church like 6 years ago. He's crazy. He only goes to priesthood, and not every week. His wife isn't sure why he really joined the church. She said the only time she's heard him pray was when their son was pitching in the World Series. He's really nice though, and funny. He talks like he's an old man, and he calls us Jehovah's Witnesses. Dinner was interesting. This is probably the first time in a long time that they sat down together for dinner.

Love,
Emily

It's getting to be the last opportunity for any of you to write Emily a letter. Her mission home address is:

2500 North Bristol Street, Santa Ana, CA 92706

I am sure she would love to hear from you!!

Raymond and the Big 5-0!

I'm sure Raymond is going to love this post. Yup! He's 50 but can still beat anyone up the mountain. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYMOND!!

A Day on the "New" "Old" Boat

We went up to Pine View Dam last Saturday to test out the new, old boat. It has been in storage down at Rick's shop for a few years. Rick discovered that racoons had destroyed the inside of the boat and had been nesting there. They had ripped and chewed through the seats and had stripped the covering off the walls of the boat. They also chewed up the ski ropes and left lots of surprises. Rick has cleaned and cleaned and cleaned the boat. He also has worked and worked and worked to get it running. It's not the same boat that we have loved and spent so many wonderful hours on but we had fun!

Merri

Anne

Elaine

Rick

Rick is there somewhere!

Maddi, Merri & Lexie

E, F & A

It's Salsa Making Time

Most people equate autumn with the falling of leaves and cooler temperatures. We think of the autumn time and know that salsa making time is here. Every couple of years we buy enough supplies (tomatoes, onions, peppers) to brew our own home made batch (or more) or salsa by Kirk. This has become his project as he loves, loves salsa. He tweaks it this way and that to make it just the way that he likes it. I especially love that this has become his project from beginning to end. It's great to see his finished project.

Kirk's Kids



Salsa ingredients

Braden

Ashleigh


Justin

Nannie + 3 = Fun