February 27 2012

Sooo today is pday... yep another one, and yesterday it felt like that was pday yet it was a week ago, time is flying by!!! This is so so so uber crazy!! I love you all!! Thank you mom for your letters they finally got to me... dear elders take some time to arrive here. just an FYI. I am planning on sending the book of Mormons today... and letters that i got in the mtc... so you can just put them with all my other stuff... but other than that, i don't have anything to send sorry. well... lets see my week... hmmm.... well we dropped two investigators... well they dropped us, but they were not ready for the gospel and now we have a lot less stress on our hands which is very good!! this week tonight is the only night that we don't have a dinner appointment, that is supper crazy!!! hmm last week, we had a lot of appointments for dinner too that is always nice :) hmm well i just started reading Alma and i am enjoying it a lot!! oh so i had a thought because i was reading about Noah... so when the flood happened they were in the boat for a very long time.. so the garden of Eden was here in America... so when the flood happened that's when they floated over to the middle east and started civilization there... its just a thought i don't know if it is true but it does make sense in my head. hmm i really don't know what to write... i really liked your email mom. it was short but it was still an email. that's nice. there has been a little drama between the seven of us ASL missionaries because one elder feels like he is the one who needs to do all the work... we hope it is all worked out, well yesterday there was a lot less stress so we pray  that it is over!! thank you for your comments about Joe i really like to read them. and oh yes i am praying for amber... oh can you send me their addresses again... i lost them pleaseeeessseee :) 

so lets see the crazy food i eat this week.... :D -- we on Saturday we went on exchanges and sis Nixon and i went to a hearing area... and the family that fed us that night took us to a restaurant. this place as Vietnamese.. i thinks that's how you spell it.. anyway the place is called PHO (fua) we pho is soup... it has noodles and broth and some type of meat in it. then you can add basil and sprouts and lime... and hot sasauge and plum sauce... well i added everything.. and it was really good, and in fact i would eat it again if i had the chance... but that was not the crazy part... the crazy part was the shake at the end you will never guess what kind it is... AVOCADO!!!!! it was sweet it was different and given the choice i would get it again.. but yep i had a green avocado shake and it was good :) that was my crazy food this week. 

the family that we are teaching is moving along so well!! this week we finished the plan of salvation. and they love it. they come to church they are involved at church they ask us so so so so many questions and they read the book of Mormon together as a family and i just love them to death. they have a baptism date for April 8 we know that they will make this date and we are so so so happy about it :) the parents are both deaf and their two children are hearing. the mom and the daughter have the same name and the same name sign. the son is not yet 8 but he is still asking questions in the lessons :) he is a little bit younger than Cali. we have so so so much fun teaching them. the dad is funny he knows both ASL and msl (Mexican sign) and he will sometimes get them mixed up, but he was so happy when he learned that he too can have the priesthood to bless his family it is so much fun. the names are dad= Sergio mom= Ana daughter= Ana son=Thomas

then there is a man, Stephen, we are teaching, his wife was baptized a year ago. but we are so so so happy because he received an answer this week about Joesph smith!! ya!! now he just needs to understand that baptism is important and that he wants to do it :) 

and then the other investigator i told you about "Jane" well i was told i can use their first names but not their last names. so Juana... is coming a long nicely we have a ride for her for church but not a ride home... we hope we will get one soon. 

hmm lets see, next week Tuesday sis Nixon goes home, i will miss her i have learned so much from her!! 

OK mom  :) the things that i need... :) or would like for my missionary work :) .... the doctrine and covenants church history DVDs in ASL... it will be around $4.50, any and all of the old testament, new testament and doctrine and covenants stories on DVD in ASL please please please please!!! :) and more family history... please i was looking over the chart and i want to learn more and more please on all sides please :) i think that is it and as always more and more more chocolate :D

so i love all :) i pray for all :) i want to know how everyone is going EVERYONE!!! please and what is going on in the news what is happening i have no clue at all!!!! please please please!!! love you!!

God be with you til we meet again :) 

<3 

Sister Longan

Week 2 in California

Feb 20, 2012
hello family 

well, week two, a very interesting week, to say the least. I received a long letter from Crystal and also one from Greg, that was nice of him. I have learned the meaning that missionaries are always tired because we never have a moment of peace, there is always something to be do, It's not hard to get lost in the work :) Mom, happy birthday, i will try and get a card mailed out today, but i don't know if it will get to you in time, if not I'm very sorry but i am thinking of you :) i hope you do something fun for your birthday!!! it is something to be celebrated, we had another beautiful year with you as our mother and you do so much for all of your children thank you so so so much!!! l love you so much mom, i am a little sad that i wont be able to see you and give you a hug but life will go on. 

so I've decided that i like seeing flowers year round. I saw the ocean on Saturday that was fun. We met a new deaf women in the Irvine area that we are going to start teaching and that is way south but i think it will  be fun :) Also Ivenoticed that even though it is only 75 in the morning in my apt i am still cold but yet when we get home at night and it still says that it is 75 then we are so so so hot it is so very interesting!! but i love it!! we drive by Disney land a lot, i realize how small it is, but i don't know, but i do know a lot of people who work there... and i think if you come pick me up which i don't know if that's what i want to do... i think i cant go because i will still be a missionary. but all is well and i don't even want to be thinking of that right now! 

So this week we had a dinner appointment... well it was more like a lunch appointment because it was a 3 but it was at a member home and they are Mexican... well... mom you could have not eaten one bit of the food... everyone said that it was spicy hot.. and it was... but all three of us ate was given to us and smiled... but it was so spicy that other members there said as much... but it did taste good, it was just spicy. But the whole time i was thinking man, mom would be dieing because this is way way to hot for her :) maybe Chris would like it. i could not tell you what it was though, it was i corn tortilla with onion and i  think cheese in the middle smothered with this red hot spicy sauce with a little bit of cheese on top and that was it, and then they has us put on this Salvador cream cheese, which was orange on it... that was different, and they did have lettuce which made it a little... very little less spicy but like i said i ate and i think if given the chance i would most likely eat it again :) 

So mom guess what... West Covina is in my branch... too bad that Jan and Jerry are not deaf or else they would go to my branch if they were deaf, cool! i think it is funny i was looking at the branch boundaries and i was west Covinaand then i looked for Azusa and i found it and i thought that's where my mom grew up that is so so so cool!! 

well, we now have 6 investigators with baptism dates, but we think that two of them will be postponed because they are well they don't quite understand what is going on but they are so so so willing to be baptized we just don't know if they understand or not. 

so mom we went to desert today, and i got the book of Mormon stories... and also all the other picture book stories... so you don't need to send it to me, but if you already have that's OK we always need it!!! because deaf people most of them cant read English and so the pictures help them so so so much and i need to be reading what the people i am teaching are reading. BUT!! mother if you love me... you would try and get the movies of them... that are in ASL the old testament and the new testament and the doctrine and covenants for me please please please they would be a DVD please please long time love you WILL!!! (that is in ASL) oh and thank you for allowing me to use your points to buy chocolate from Utah... it tastes really good thank you ;) 

Oh i also have a CD to send you with pictures on it... you must keep it safe... on accounts i have not received a memory card as of yet!!

how is every one at home??? i only get letters once a week so you can also email me and then i can get letters two times a week :D  just a thought... you know if you love me :) 

so a miracle happened... so sis Nixon was sick throwing up on Wednesday and we could not go visit our investigator "Jane" (the one i told you about in my last e-mail...) any way her brother, who is the person in charge of her said that we can only visit on Wednesdays at noon and that is it... well Jane has no phone... she cant read... so we had no choice but to go and visit her on Thursday and tell her we are sorry for not making it there the day before and that we will see her next week because we could not find a ride for her on Sunday... but that we would see her next week on Wednesday... but it was a miracle... we went to her home and she was home and we were able to talk to her and give her plastic to recycle... but we saw her brother and he was not mad at us and said nothing to us!!! it was so amazing!!! and she told us that she thought we didn't come because it was raining... and one thing that i have learned is that deaf people HATE the rain... so she thought we didn't come because it was raining ... anyway what a miracle :D

well! i love you all lots and lots!! i pray for you a lot! i send all my love! I hope you are all well :) 

Love 

Sister Longan :) 

First Week In California

Well..... well... its has been a very long week, and in turn a very very short week. Its really hard to explain all that i feel about time... the days feel like they are very long and then the days pass by in no time at all... its all very very strange, but i really like it :) so i assume you received my picture with the mission president and his wife. we were with them most of the day, they took us out to dinner at Mimi's and then we went back to the mission home for interviews and a getting to know you time. it was a good day then my companions, Sister Jackson and Sister Nixon came and picked me up, and from then on I have been working none stop and I love it!! My first full day I had my first lesson, oh man this investigator... Jane... she is very special, she is in her 50's and has no language, she has grown up without really communicating to her family except for home signs that she has made up, so teaching her is an adventure, but we love it :) she is so so so so much fun and so loving its truly amazing how much she loves. Well, she is reading her book of Mormon, the picture book  one, she studies the pictures because she doesn't know how to read, so she was showing us the picture from 3 Nephi when Jesus comes down to bless the little children. She told us at this part, it made her start crying, I felt the spirit so strong then wow! It is truly amazing to see how the Holy Ghost can talk to anyone no matter what level they are at. Jane has a baptism date for in March, we just hope we can teach her everything before then, the sisters have been teaching her a little over a year now. then.... there is this family that we are teaching... the mom and daughter have the same first name and the dad is there too and is involved in all  the lessons and they have a 7 year old son who is always playing when we go to see them. any way so they came to church last week and found out that they can receive priesthood blessing and they got one, and then on Saturday we had a movie to have a small deaf social, and they came to it, we... (I was the one the think of it and explain all the pictures) but we gave them a church tour before the movie and they thought I was deaf... they were very surprised to find out that i am hearing... the parents are both deaf... anyway so the movie we watched was The Testaments which was a good one :) and the mom said she felt this very odd feeling and that her hair stood on end, and that she cried... well we taught them later that night and we explained that was the Holy Ghost, and they set a baptismal date for very early April :) and that was only the second time that they had been taught but they also came to church yesterday, and they loved it so so so much!!! then as we walked into church yesterday,( i am in a deaf branch, all 7 of the ASL missionaries go to the branch) Then we meet two new faces, well they were there the week before but they told us that they want to get baptized, and so they want us to start teaching them as soon as possible... as you can see we are a very busy trio... and this does not include all the others that we are teaching ... the less active, the recent convert, all the referrals, and asking around for deaf people every where we go, it so so so so so much fun i love it!!!! SO California... there are a lot of people here... a lot of cars..... no place to park EVER!!! ... its not hot and its not cold... very green... yep  that's what I think right now... oh and I drove the other day... I was approved to drive... it was a little different at first because I have not done it in so long.. but it was only for a day when we went on exchanges... we have two more this week and only once do I get to drive and I am oookkkk with that. both of my companions are hearing and they are both from the Salt Lake area... ummm there are two deaf elders... ohhh yest erday i interpreted for sacrament meeting and for relief society, that was fun, we also had a linger longer lunch, that was very good too. oh mom you wanted to know my address here... well... sad news... the mail box at the apartment... oh and i live in the town of Fullerton, is well broken and so all of our mail is to be sent to the mission office and will be given to us at our district meetings once a week, so now you know... you just need to remember the one address ... the 2500 N. Bristol St. Santa Ana CA. I really like our apartment. its perfect... and i love the leather chair we have its so nice :) my p-days are always on Mondays... there is a temple in my mission... the Newport Beach Temple. we get to go every so often..umm we walk a lot!! I am having so so so much fun, and sorry to burst your bubble, but i really don't have time to think about home... sorry, but i do still pray for you :) well i love you and all is well i am perfectly fine and able... i am learning so much and having so much fun too. :) God be with you til we meet again.

 

Lots of love :)

 

Sister Longan

First Day in California!

This is the picture that they took once we arrivied to the mission home I hope you enjoy it!! i made it safely!! love you lots letter to follow!!

 

Love

 

Sister Longan