Hola Familia,
Wow, Dad. A little impatient are we? Mom, you picked up correctly. I didn't know where I was being transferred to when I sent you the e-mail. In our mission, we all gather in a transfer meeting and President calls out two names and an area. That is your new best friend and your new home. So I'll stop dragging it out. I'm currently in
MISSION VIEJO 5TH WARD (spanish-speaking).
We cover an entire stake - Laguna Niguel Stake. There are three stakes that feed into the one Spanish ward and with my companionship there is now one set of missionaries for every stake. Crazy, huh?
My companion is Hermana Rebecca Pechin. She's from Utah - grew up in Orem/Provo and was attending Utah State. Her mom lives in Logan now. She's the youngest of 8 children. Her dad died about 4 years ago. She has lots of energy and is fun. She also has moments where I know she's 21. But it's all good. We get along fine -- we can always learn things from everyone :)
Oh yeah, we whitewashed the area. We are in a newly-rented apartment which is good and bad. We have next to nothing (the mission just opened 4 new apartments so had to divide all they had in storage between them), but it is a pretty nice place. Huge perk: we have our own washer and dryer. Drawback: they are mini!
So it has been crazy with whitewashing and now I'm the senior companion - ah! Luckily, we had 13 investigators when we came in (unlike in Oceanside where we had 2 or 3). We now have two with baptismal dates - Jose Luis and Lucia. We actually set the date in our first lesson with them. It was pretty great. And a handful progressing. We have some others that seem very promising currently. We both are excited to do the Lord's work in this area. It was a surprise to all of us to be transferred after only 1 transfer. Hna Pechin was being trained in San Marco by Hna Talbot (my trainer) so I'm her first non-trainer companion in her 2nd transfer in the mission. Wow! Lots of responsibility on my little shoulders. Luckily, I'm not alone at all. Couldn't do it if I was!
But, Hna Pechin said great things are going to happen because it was interesting how it all worked out and surprised us. Hna Talbot is training the new Spanish sister (her 4th time in a row to train) which was really surprising. She only has about 2 transfers left on her mission. President called and talked to her and said he didn't want to separate Hna Pechin and Hna Talbot because they were doing great things, but felt that Hna Pechin needed to be elsewhere and Hna Talbot needed to train again. So we are supposed to be here! Even President Brady wouldn't have automatically chosen this setup. It's so neat to know the work is guided by the Lord on such a micro scale.
So, I'm not exactly sure what else to share with you. There is a lot I probably could say...... that is good to hear Shantaye sent a letter my way. It feels like 5 weeks since I've received a letter from the family (I could be off on that).
We are going to work really hard to help the people in this area prepare for baptism. I'm hoping we can prepare someone in the time we are together (be it one or two or more transfers). I will definitely NOT be going back to Oceanside for any baptisms. We are about 40 miles north of there. I may be on the opposite end of the mission! I'm pretty sure we are nearly as far north as we can be. Orange County - yeah! It is a very different area - so much more money around here. Wow. It has been really good to have a change and change some ideas and habits that I had already developed in just 4 short months. We have zone conference next Monday which should be great. (but also means we have to frenzy clean today)
The ward members were SO excited to have sister missionaries in the ward. So many of them came up and greeted us and welcomed us. It's great to be a SISTER missionary :) Many sisters were really sad we are not in their area. But so it goes. We were told by Sis. Soto (who will probably become a best friend even though she lives outside our area - she's a semi-new convert and loves to go out with the missionaries) that sisters work harder than elders. The last set of sisters helped 10 people prepare for baptism and the elders just 1 person. Yes, there are many other factors that contribute. But we have a high standard set for us!! It's great. The Bishop was just called last week so there have been lots of changes in the ward recently. And again, it's strange to be around so much money. They are still humble, wonderful people. I'm so grateful I am serving with the Hispanics! We had dinner with the Fabian Family yesterday. Tostados...yum.
And the weather is totally different! We've had some hot days and cold nights. It's strange. I was just at the point of being okay with the weather in Oceanside. He he. I guess the further north you go, the more extreme the weather is? I'm not really sure.
Congrats to Isaac! That is so exciting. I LOVE the temple. Please convey this advice for me: go as much as you can before the mission! You'll miss it while you are out and will want to rely on your memories to sustain you and help you be a better person and missionary.
That's exciting about Ben. Tell him I'm excited for him. Where is basic training?
And woo-hoo on the sun! I'm here putting on sunscreen. me he he
Okay, I can't think of other things to tell you at this moment. I hope everyone is doing super well. And reading their scriptures and praying every day - it is ESSENTIAL. No joke. Just do it. And do it for yourself, not for me or anyone else. I KNOW it is how we maintain a firm grip on the iron rod so we can return and live with God and our families again. How blessed we are to have the gospel! I love it.
And I love you all. Have a HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! You're only just a little bit old now :D
Love,
Hermana Green
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