It's November!

Hi Everyone!

Man, this time at the Library goes by fast. Sorry! I know, I write so little. But don't worry, we'll just stay up and talk for a few days in a row when I'm home and I'll tell you everything and that will all make up for my horribly short emails. If it makes you feel better, I write everyone else short emails too. Brudder finally wrote me! yay! Though I just got it so I'll have to respond next week.

I'm so stoked for Wesley! I will actually be sending him a card today (shhh, don't tell, it's a surprise) so hopefully he gets that before he leaves Texas. Oh, before I forget! Next week we'll email on Tuesday because Monday is Veteran's day. Yeah, just so you know. No, I have never hiked up to those hot springs before (just the muddy ones over by Lehi) but they look beautiful and maybe we can go together some day :)

Oh, another "before I forget": Grandma - I received the information from my friend, but that is not in my area. In fact, it's in another zone, so I can send some missionaries over there, but I don't know who it would be because I would just have to send the referral through the system. Are you okay with that? Just let me know. Thanks. Love you! And way to be missionary minded! You're great Grandma and Grandpa! Love you loads and thanks for the letters!

Also, Mama, I think in that random box I sent home from the MTC (if you still know where it is) I had some headphones. I sent them home because we can't listen to music with headphones or anything, but at this library, there are no headphones and we come online usually once a week to be able to do training videos, watch conference talks, become familiar with Mormon.org, etc. and it would be nice to have my own again. Could you send them to me? That'd be great. I know, I could just buy more, but I'm cheap, okay?  

That is so exciting that Ariana and Chris are both on TV shows (either acting or their music)! Man! I have such a talented and soon to be famous family! I love it! I brag about you all, all the time. Seriously.

How is having the dog? Will that work with you out of town? Well, I guess Emily and Sharron are there. How are they? Are they living together again?

I LOVED the pictures! Man! Cute people and cute kids! Our Halloween was pretty great. We were in by 6:00 and it was the most productive night of my mission. Everyone in the apartment went to bed early, but I stayed up til 10:30 like usual, getting everything done - phone calls and referrals, updating P.I.s and the area book in general, writing in my journal, color-coding and coordinating the area book, maps, and whiteboard, cleaning, and organizing. It was fantastic. We put up a sign on our door so we wouldn't get trick-or-treaters, but only 1 or 2 came up to our apartment anyway. It's kind of an unsafe area for kids.

Did I tell you we have good size group of Satanists, as well as a drug rehab program in our apartment complex? It keeps things interesting. It's probably the most dangerous part of Temecula...but it's still Temecula, which is the 2nd safest city in the states (or so I've heard), so it's still not nearly as sketchy as Escondido was haha. 

We are gaining more trust with the ward as we bring investigators to church every week and I think that is helping them to reach out of their comfort zones and strive to help in the work (which is something they don't really do here much in this ward). They are great, just very comfortable, which is why this area has struggled for a great while. Things continue to go well though, and we're getting used to contacting into all the Bashers and Satanists.

We found and have been teaching an inactive woman named Lineth recently and she just warms my heart so much. Our lessons are so passionate and spiritual and I just can't get enough of them. Last time we were talking about why she has such a great hesitation to pray and it stemmed back to her misunderstand of her true relationship with her Heavenly Father. Have you read the talk The Grandeur of God by Elder Holland? Well, I love it. We read in Moses 7 as well (28-37 are great) and it was just fantastic. I love that we have the blessing of understanding the true nature of our Heavenly Father. It's so hard for so many that we teach to grasp that God could have a body of flesh and bone, and yet, for me it's the opposite. I couldn't imagine feeling such love from a massive, unknown spirit without form or affection. How grateful I am for the Restored Gospel. 

Our investigators are doing well! We are still focusing on finding more, but the few we have are great (or most of them are, for the most part). We set a baptismal date with Brandon this week, but then found out that he is 28 (not over 30 like we thought) so we will be passing him off to the YSA Elders on Wednesday. He came to church with us on Sunday though (because the YSA branch wasn't meeting) as well as a baptism on Saturday and he just loved it! He says that everything we teach is what he believes, it just fills in the gaps. And after the baptismal service that it was really nice, and it all felt so familiar. He is just steller and we will be sad to pass him off, but excited for him to be involved with the YSA branch.

Shoot, out of time. Well, Don is our other fantastic investigator and he doesn't have a date quite yet, but we had a great experience fasting with him about it on Sunday and it's sounding like Thanksgiving weekend will be the date. He is so amazing! Remind me to write more about him next week, okay? Sorry I'm out of time, but I think I did write more this week, no? LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS!! You're amazingly wonderful!!

Con amor,

Hermana Alyssa Nicole Escalante

The Zone

No Tricks or Treats here.