Well Hello You Beautiful People, You!

How are you doing? Good to hear from you :) We are by orange trees! Well, our apartment isn't really, but they are in our area and so we pass by the orchards sometimes. And randomly people will have orange or lemon trees in their yard, it's fun stuff. I love when I'm walking outside and I see flowers and it's green and I have to take off my sweater because it's too hot and then I remember....it's February! Ha-ha I love So Cal.

We were visiting Dalia the other night (she's kind of an investigator right now...but she works so much we can hardly see her, but she's real sweet), and her sweet father Eduardo gave us 2 huge bags of fresh-picked oranges! He works in some sort of field and I guess he and his friends were on break and wondered over and took them. Not sure how honest it was...but we have lots of oranges now, nevertheless! :) Hermana Ruiz has got me hooked on oranges with Tajin, it's so good! You should try it. 

That's so crazy that Zach is home already! Sounds like he gave a great talk :) I just realized this week that that means that my friend Brady is probably home by now too! Wow, time just flies, huh? I can't believe it's been 4 months already since I left. I still feel like I just got here, though I'm definitely feeling more and more like a missionary everyday, instead of just doing missionary things.

I still think it's crazy that Ari, Mo, and Brudder are going to Cali. Just following my example, I guess, haha. I really do love it here though. I hope they love it too! Even though they'll be further north than I am.

Wes looks good :) You should send me a picture of Ashley and her pregnant-ness! I do love baby-filled bellies :) And I'm so excited to see a picture of my new nephew fairly soon! (When is she due again? March? May?) 

Yeah, we just heard about all the new missions too, and that there will be 3 new missions in CA alone! Wow! Rumor is that we will be losing some of our mission again, but we'll see. I had been to the San Diego Temple before, but only to do baptisms, so it was my first session there. Pretty wonderful :)

So transfers are today! Hermana Ruiz kept telling me that she was leaving because she's already been here 3 transfers and she's never been anywhere longer than 3 transfers, so we were both anticipating that. I was, well, to be honest, looking forward to getting a new companion, so we were both pretty shocked when we got the call Saturday night that we would both be staying. We were about to go to sleep, and as I was praying by my bed, asking the Lord to help me out somehow because I didn't think I could do another transfer with Hermana Ruiz, the phone rang and it was the APs. We are both staying, but still have to go to transfer meeting to pick up our new greenie! Yep, we will be training her together in a trio! Crazy sauce! There are so many new missionaries coming out (35 along this transfer) that they just have to group us up where they can. It is also likely that we will only be in the trio for a transfer, Hermana Ruiz will white-wash train somewhere, and I will finish training the greenie. Wow. And I just got done training 2 days ago! It is overwhelming, but we're both feeling pretty good about it and are excited for the upcoming weeks.

Spanish Missionaries

"The District 2" haha :)

So Priscilla and her sons (Oscar and Rene) didn't come to church on Sunday :( The dad still isn't stoked on us and kind of talked the kids out of going to church and Priscilla didn't want to come alone. We talked with them yesterday though and they are still doing great and progressing a lot. I love this family so much, it almost weirds me out! Seriously, I just love them and want to help them in the gospel so much! 

La familia Villa-Sanchez! Yo, Rene Ezekial (dad in the back), Oscar, Priscilla, y Hermana Ruiz. Me encanta esta familia!

Our other investigators are doing...alright. Magaly and Cristian we will teach tonight, and hopefully we can get them a little more motivated again. Maria is picking back up - she's so sweet. Oscar...he might be moving and won't be making his baptismal date for the 16th, but hopefully we can keep working with him. Mirtha...we need to see that lady more often. She's only half in it. We have been doing a lot of finding and will continue to do that more this week.

The work is good, I'm out of time, I know the Lord loves me and answers my prayers and cares about me and about His children here in Temecula. The church is true! It really is :)

Love you all so much! Like, a lot!

Con amor,

Hermana Alyssa Nicole Escalante