Monday, April 25, 2011

April 25, 2011

Hey guys I hope you had a HAPPY EASTER!!
I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating the Resurrection of the Savior... one of the Greatest miracles is that Jesus Christ rose... atleast i think it is one of the greatest miracles! i know that he lives if he didnt then what would be the point of the atonement? he did the atonement so that we could all live with him again! and it is so great that we can be resurrected and be made perfect! i love that we have this knowledge.
This past weekend was Transfer weekend... and i have been transferred to................................................ Just joking my companion and i are staying together! it is going to be a good transfer... i have not had a companion that i have really liked since i was with Elder Dunn. speaking of Elder Dunn he just got transferred to chino so he will be serving close to me... we are pretty excited! so my companion and i are staying together and that is exactly how i wanted it to be!
Friday is the day that we get to go to L.A to see L. Tom Perry...it is going to be pretty awesome i am very excited about it! the other day i found out that we have to pick up the South Hills Elders and i am very excited about that because that is one of my old areas and i get to see how things are going and what is new there... i found out the other day that Mike... the guy i Baptized there... his daughter just recently was Baptized! i was excited to hear about that... i dont know if i told you about that or not.
There is a family here that i love... well their is a couple families that i love going by, but their is one that pretty much have us over every Sunday... just cause and i love it... they are the Clavels... Sister Clavel said that she is going to be writing you a letter here pretty soon. i am not sure what for, but it is suppose to be coming! haha we were over at there house yesterday and Brother Clavel wanted to Arm wrestle me... haha we were pretty close... i think i will take that as a win for me though! i have gained weight since i have been out here... i left weighing 153lbs... i weigh right now 170.... dont worry though i work out everyday so its muscle... i am alot bigger, but its all muscle! so haha its been good!
i have got to get going this week was a little bit slower.... i cannot believ that connor goes home Friday! will you please take a picture with him at the Airport with him and send it to me? that would be good.
LOVE you AlL
Love Elder EMery

April 18, 2011

Hey guys it was good to hear from you... Today it has been way good so far!! we went to the Redlands Temple it was so good to go to the Temple again! this temple that we went to was beautiful! it was amazing and i just felt way good there it is always a good feeling being in the temple.
Anyway so this week was pretty slow... we had 2 lessons... and they were less active lessons. our investigators are being really frustrating right now they just wont progress... we have like 7 investigators but we just cant seem to help them understand the gospel the way they should... i dont know it is pretty frustrating.
Well i dont have much time again this week to email, but i just have a couple things to say :
1) i no longer like UCLA... i dont like that school at all let me tell you why... we got a referral a couple of weeks ago and we have been trying to meet with this person for a long time... so we finally have a sit down with him... the guys name is ossar reshawn... number 11 quarterback for Ucla a couple years back... he was trying to change my religion.. he is a born again Christian and he told me what i was doing was wrong. i was so mad ... he was a nice guy but when we talked about religion he just didnt agrwee with us... i basically was really bold with him and told him all the things that he has been saying to us was wrong and that he was really close but he just needs to know more and if he was to start meeting and taking the lessons from us that he would have the fullness of it... haha i also asked him if he played in the game at BYU and he was like yeah i was on the sideline... i was like ha yeah BYU killed you guys... haha i thought that was funny, but he just made me mad so that is why i do not like UCLA anymore.
The second thing is that i am so glad that we have the priesthood in our home... the other day we were asked to go give a blessing to a child because she has been sick the past few days... the member of our ward that called us said that he has tried everyone but everyone is busy so he asked us to come with him to give the blessing... we get over there and it turns out that this lady has two sons that live there with her... in their 20's and they are not active so they cant excercise their priesthood so we were there to help out... i ointed on that one, but like my first day in this area a younger boy about 15 asked me to give him a blessing that was pretty cool but anyway... i was so mad at them i just wanted to chastise and tell them that they needed to get there act together and start doing the right things...i was just mad i dont know maybe i shouldnt have been, but do you know what i mean? so i am extrememly greatful that i and Dad have the priesthood in the home... it makes so much difference and i am sure you know that. there is kind of a cool story behind that night that we went and gave the blessing... i dont have time to share it though.
i continue to see the Lord putting us in the right place at the right time... it has been so great to see the blessings that can come from just putting your trust in the Lord...it has been great i know for a fact that i would not have had this spiritual growth if i would have not served and i am extremely greatful that you guys support me 110% it means so much to me!
ok for the ending here is a joke for you all... alright so in a 1st grade class a teacher was talking to her students about sports and they were talking about football and she says i am a San Diego Chargers fan... how many of you guys are Chargers fans?? and everyone in the class raises there hand except for one little girl... her name was jenny and the teacher says jenny why arent you raising your hand? who is your favorite team? she says "the 49ers" and the teacher says " now, Jenny why are you a 49ers fan?" Jenny replies " my mom is a 49ers fan and my dad is a 49ers fan so that makes me a 49ers fan" the teacher answers back and says " well jenny just because someone else is a fan of something doesnt mean you have to follow and be a fan of that too... what if your Dad was an addict and your mom was in jail?" Jenny says " hmmm... well i guess that would make me a raiders fan!" hahahah some guy told that joke in the ward talent show... i thought it was pretty funny!
Alright well i love you guys very much and i hope thinngs continue to go well for you... Brash i did not forget about you... i could not get to china town but i did get you something somewhere else, and i will hopefully be sending it to you either today or tomorrow so you should be on the look out for it ok!!
Have a good week...i love you all so much
Love Elder Emery

Monday, April 11, 2011

April 11, 2011

My Dearest Family,
How are you all doing today Eh? my hopes is that you all had a wonderful week and that you are still alive. i dont know why my email did not send the past week... just to let you know ahead of time... i will not have p-day on Monday next week... it will be on the 20th because that is the day we go to the RedLands Temple! it will be great and i am excited to go, it feels like i havent been in the longest time... the last time was the end of August. I shouldnt complain and just be happy that we get to go, because some missionaries in different missions dont get to go their whole missions.
This week Alright... My Companion and i are doing alright. we get along for the most part... there have only been a few things that have bugged me. The first thing was when we went and did Service for a Lady in the ward... she wanted us to help her change the water in her Water jugs for her food storage... i guess you have to change the water every few years or something... and they were a bit dusty and there were cob webs on them cause they had been there for like 3 years or something. We start helping her and my companion was complaining that he was not in his service clothes and he had gotten his slacks a little bit wet and he didnt want to get anymore dirty... i am so happy the lady did not hear him. i was kind of bugged at that because he wanted to change clothes for 20 minutes so he didnt get any cob webs on him... now that i think about it i think that she might have heard him because she asked me to help her plant a couple tomato plants for her because she had just been in a car accident that day and she hurt her back and could not get down on the ground to plant them her self and so i am the one who ended up doing that cause it doesnt bug me to get a little bit dirty especially if its to help someone who needs it... and then the next thing was yesterday... nevermind i dont want to continue to have hard feelings toward him, but do you understand why that bugged me a little bit? work is work sometimes we cant have it our way ya know?
We had alot of lessons fall through this week... it was a little ridiculous. i dont know why people just cant keep a commitment... they are fine making the commitment, but they just dont seem to want to follow through and make things happen. we have alot of investigators, but they arent really progressing and alot of its just little things that are holding them back, but all we can do is keep helping them out the best we can and i know by the lords help we can help them come unto him.
We did actually have an investigator come to church yesterday and that was great! and one of them went to choir practice... so hopefully she will continue to go to that... i hope she doesnt shy away because the ward was so excited to have a non member go... i think they overwhelmed her a bit ha, but its alright they just want people in the ward.
one of the hardest goals that i have is to have an investigator on every street... i dont know if i will ever be able to accomplish this goal... maybe its just too big for me to do... i have had it since i was in South Hills and i still have not accomplished it :( but i am not going to give up... that is what keeps me going everyday to work hard to do my best and things will happen i just know it!
We didnt do very much because my companion was sick for 3 days and that really made things hard... i actually go to the doctor tomorrow to see how my foot is doing... i am not sure what is going to happen because it still hurts... not as bad as before but its still not good. i tried to run on Grass last week to play soccer and that just wasnt going to work... it hurt my foot alot. so hopefully things go well. i think that it is still just tender and needs more love hahaha!
Oh i forgot to tell you... the Bishops wife took my companion and i to Costco 2 weeks ago and she spent alot on us... i was so appreciative of her doing that... it was very nice and it is hard to show how thankful i was for her doing that... we will just have to continue to serve them the best we can!
Well i have three minutes before this computer kicks me off! i hope everything is going well!
I am so happy that you made the Cheerleading team quincie! you are awesome!! keep up the good work and you will love it!
I love all of you and hope that everything is going how you plan it to go! i pray for you oft and love you so much!
Thank you so much for the package it was awesome!! i will send you the Pics of how the Cake got to me!! hahahaha
Love Elder Emery

April 4, 2011

Hey everyone... hope everything is going well and that you are all alright. i left some extra time today so that i could try and say everything that happened this past week it was a pretty good one!
First off i will talk about Conference! i think that this Conference was one of the best conferences that i have ever listened to! i could not believe how amazing it was!! The Saturday Session was really good i thought the Sister over the Primary that talked was really good... i was really touched by what she said it was so good to hear from her. the emotion and love that she showed while addressing us was wonderful i really felt the spirit while she was talking!
then the Elder i think was from the Quorum of the Seventy who Basically commited the whole world to be baptized... that was so cool! and something that i am going to do that he told less active members to do is Come Back to Church! i am just going to start inviting them all back to church no matter what... we will help them overcome their problems and they will understand the importance of church attendance and partaking of the sacrament... EVERY week not just when they feel like going... not just occasionally or on big holidays i want them all to come every week to partake of the sacrament to they can once again feel the peace and joy the savior can bring to them.
Priesthood session was intense i cannot wait to read those again next month in the ensign... it just makes me want to be better everyday in everything i do to magnify my calling and do the very best i can to live worthy to wear this badge with Christs name on it. oh it was so good.
Yesterdays Session was just as good as well! probably my most Favorite part cause it was all my favorite, but my most favorite part was when Elder Holland spoke... i was waiting and waiting for him to speak and then he was so powerful and oh man! i have now a greater appreciation for the prophet and apostles... what he said about them and how much they pray and fast jsut for us to know what we need to hear is so awesome!
Conference was all around the Highlight of the last few months i liked it alot!
The second best thing of the week was the part where we found a new investigator! Here we go... we parked the car getting ready to go knock a street that we had planned to knock and we get out of the car and are gettign all of our stuff together and here comes a man walking down the sidewalk. we stop him and talk to him about 10 minutes... we start talking about the Gospel and i invite him on a tour and he asked when... i said right now, and then next thing we know is we are getting in our cars and he is following us to the church! we start going on the tour and we ask him why he decided to go on the tour on such short notice... he said i dont know... something came over me and told me that i needed to go... i didnt even check to see if things were off in my house i just got in my car and followed you guys. i am usually a more reserved guy and i dont really open up to anyone but for some reason you guys are different... its almost as if you are angels... you guys could have taken me anywhere and i would have followed you guys, because i wanted to keep that feeling that you guys have with you. We explained what that was and took him on the tour and invited him to church, and then things started getting complicated he said that he is not sure his wife will be fully invested... we set up another appointment with him and he was really excited to meet with us again. He missed his appointment and we went by his house and he told us that his wife was not interested in what we talked with him about... He wanted to live with her forever but she didnt want to accept the gospel. he wanted it so bad... i wish there was more we could have done for him... i nkow that there was a reason that we ran into him and that he was so willing to come with us... maybe its just not his time right now, but i hope in the future that his wife will also want to be sealed to him forever... there seemed to be alot of talk about that in conference. it is so important! i know that we are guided everyday to these people and that if we cant get to them then hopefully the next missionaries will be able to make even more progress.
Something that was not very happy this week was the fact that a man tried to bash with us he started tearing down everything about us and i got really mad i tried not to let it show, but i eventually ended up telling him that he was wrong and that he cannot tell me that the Book Of Mormon isnt true without reading it... and that Joseph Smith Did restore the Gospel... i just testified to him and walked away... this has been happening a little more often lately.. this is what this area is known for... that is one of the reasons that i did not want to come here, but it has been strengthening me!!
Things are going well.
Hope Everything is well for you guys and that you had a good week i will talk to you later!
Love you all very very much and i miss you!
Love Elder Emery