Tuesday, July 19, 2011

July 18, 2011

Hey guys! you all are so awesome... i love hearing about how ayou guys are doing and the different things that are coming up for you all. Thank you very much for the E-mails i loved them!
Well we had our 2 baptisms yesterday and they were awesome... Eduardo and Myles were really excited to be baptized! i was nervous to baptize Myles because i dont know if i told you last week or not that he has a fear of being under water... he was trying not to go under but i just had to force him down and his foot almost popped up. He would nto have let me baptize him again if his foot would have came up. it ended up being alright though so i was relieved. The Baptisms were really good though i will send some pictures soon.. speaking of pics... would i be able to get my cf card back?
Oh and i almost forgot to tell you... transfers were this week. we found out on Saturday what was going to be happening with us. My companion moved up to San Dimas with my MTC companion (the one i liked) so that means that he was with Elder Hampton (the MTC comp. that i was not very fond of) then with me and now he his going to be with Elder James (the mtc comp that i liked) i thought that was kind of funny that he had been with all of us now! Anyway i was called to stay in my area and i will be Training a new munchkin ;) i was way excited when i had the call come in but the last 2 days i have become nervous and i just hope that i can be a good example for this missionary that i will be training. i am nervous though. I think everything will be ok though... im still excited ya know but i dont know still nervous at the same time. it will go well though... We are going to tear it up here in this area, and i am hoping that we will help more people to the waters of baptism!
i had an experience that really stuck out to me this past week. so we had been teaching this family and their children for a while and the parents kind of dropped us but still let us teach the kids... their are 4 kids. The family is kind of struggling and i just so badly want to share with them the Plan of Salvation. well a couple of weeks the parents said that the kids could no longer have lessons or attend church. we were sad but we figured that they are just going through some hard times. Then the last 2 weeks the kids have come to church, so we were like awesome! we can start teaching them again. we went and stopped by last week and they let us in and were ok with us coming over and we were so excited! Weekly planning on Friday we felt as though this was the time for the kids to really progress. i fasted for them and i was feeling so good about talking with the parents and i thought for sure that the parents were going to let them start having lessons again. i started fasting and about an hour or two later we stopped by this family. as soon as we got to their gate the father just started yelling at us and told us to not stop by anymore and it was just really rude. it hurt me pretty bad... my thoughts were well i guess i can stop fasting... why would i fast for someone that is going to be so rude? and just those kinds of things came to mind. i decided to stick it out and fast the 24hrs. i do not regret fasting for that family i know that because i sacrificed just a little that the Lord will soften their hearts... maybe not for my companion and i to teach them but for the missionaries to come. i had alot of strength and i was able to feel the spirit work through me while i would testify to people. if anything comes from that experience it was that i grew in a different way... a way that would not have come if i would not have fasted. i just hope these people understand what they need in their life. i have learned from this experience... i really have.
Its kind of funny... mom you were telling me about what happened with Shag, and your feelings and then how you dealt with it. it is like the same situation. you could have just not talked to him the whole time he was over. i could have just stopped fasting right there. But we didnt. something that came to mind is the story of how Christ sits with the Sinners. Christ is asked why he is sitting with the sinners and in reply he says (sorry i dont have my scriptures they are in the car so i will paraphrase) do you go see a physician if you are whole? and the answer is no obviously because if you are not sick then you dont go to a doctor... so he sits by the sinners because they know him not and he wants to try and help them.
Personally i dont really like less actives because they know the truth but strayed away and they still need help coming back and having what they once had. so just by doing what you did... it helped him and i know that it all starts by building relationships and then ease in the gospel help them remember those spiritual experiences that they once had. something that i have started doing is i tell investigators and less actives that they are awesome.. everytime we end a lesson and they always smile and it makes a difference... it really does. i know that simple acts of kindness help people we just have to try it out or we will never know.
Thats all for this week wish me luck!
i have not received the package yet but i was just told that it is in the office for me so i will be getting it soon!
Thank you for everything i love you very much!!
if you need anything just let me know... as of right now i just pray for you and hope that works! i hope it all makes sense i didnt proof read very much at all.
I LOVE YOU!!
Elder Emery

July 11, 2011

Hey guys how are you all doing? it sounded like you had a pretty busy but fun filled week! that is awesome!
Alright so i have 15 minutes untill this computer kicks me off and so i will try and type as fast as i can about all the things that happened this week Ok? so first off my foot is doing alright i am not liking it but atleast it will have a chance to heal... tracting is hard because of the crutches but sometimes you just got to do what you got to do ya know what im saying? i only have to have it on for a couple more weeks so im just waiting it out. i had hope that i would be able to get it cut off at the end of this week because a kid that we are teaching is getting ready to be baptized this sunday and he asked me to baptize him... and so i was like yes!! i get to take off my cast but the mission president said to just wrap it up :( the kid that is getting baptized his family are members... they would have had him baptized before but he is a little nervous about being under water he has some sort of autism... and turrets but he is a great little kid... i dont think that i have ever used karate in so many lessons... ha he is also telling me that he is going to splash me with the water when he gets baptized... i told him that wouldnt be very nice... he was like yeah but i will do it before the baptism and then that sin can be washed away hahaha i thought it was really funny!
The mission president is awesome... we met with him and i am going to like him alot. haha in our meeting that our zone had with him sister Becerra was asking what happened to my foot and i told her basketball and she was saying that President is a very good bball player and then president told me he could take me... and that he was going to dunk it over me. so i took the challenge but i wont be able to play until my cast is off!
He talked to us about faith and i tell you it was an aswer to my prayers i have been really trying to up my faith and i even studied about it the morning of our meeting with him and i feel so much better! what he told us was amazing im so grateful to be serving under him! it is going to be a really good year here in california! he wants us to double our baptisms and i know it is possible!
well i have to be going because i am out of time... it sounds like you guys are doing well and that everything is going pretty good for you i love you all very much...
oh yes we have 2 baptisms this week i will tell you all about it next week!!
Hey sorry guys i could not send my email yesterday because the computer kicked me off... so i was able to send this today...
i love you all and miss you very much! i hope you all have a great week!!
Love Elder Emery

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

July 5, 2011

Hey guys! happy 4th of July!! yesterday...
it is so good to hear from you guys! sounds like your week was a busy one but it was also probably a fun one too huh? yeah i bet it was! yeah about how next year i will be home for the 4th and i didnt like thinking about it... i try not to think about it... times moving to quickly. 10 months is not a long time and i feel like i still have so much to do in so short of time ya know what i mean? dont get me wrong i miss you guys alot and there are some days when im like darn i just want to be done... but i think long term and try to see what lies ahead of me these next one to two months ya know?
this week i actually had a couple bummer days... first off i guess i will tell you the bad news... i went to the doctor for my foot on Friday and he put me in a hard cast... have you ever knocked for two hours straight wih crutches? its quite hard. and i have to have it on until August 1st talk about a pain. but that day i had to go and tell the president what was going on with my foot and what the doctor told me to do... President Bacerra is a nice guy i only talked with him for about 3 minutes... we get to meet him on Friday and his family. but this cast... it is bugging me so bad i just want to cut it off and call it good. the other bad news is that i almost get in a car accident every time i get in the car. my companion does not know how to drive at all... the day i was coming back from the doctors with him i was literally scared. we almost got slammed by a diesel getting on the freeway... i tried to tell him the lane merged but he just didnt listen. my side of the car almost got t-boned by a lexus... he pulled out right in front of it and the Lexus slammed on its brakes coming to a skidding stop. i will stop there because im sure you understand.
Some good news is that we have a baptism this week and next week... we found a new investigator who wants to get baptized he just has to get his parents on the same page as him before he will set a date. Yesterday was a pretty fun day... we went to the ward pancake breakfast... then to the parade... went and knocked and visited less actives... had a Barbeque with nana... (she is the mission nana) and later watched some of the fireworks... well in this part of the mission im not so sure all of the sounds were fireworks... some were gunshots.
oh some other good news is that my foot can finally heal now... and we have our dinners back. President Pike changed it back right before he left! so hopefully we will gain a little weight! some other good news is that we have some good potential investigators that we are in contact with right now who want to know more about this gospel and so everything is going well i dont have too many complaints... atleast im trying not to complain ya know what i mean? ya so things are good i am enjoying my time here!
so you asked me again if i needed anything and i thought about it and the other day i had something, but i forgot... sorry. Oh i was curious about something... CTR rings... i have seen these CTR rings that are rubber and they are different colors... i have been wanting one like them and i have been told by many people that they are super cheap like as cheap as the ones you buy for the primary kids... i think you can buy them on ldsbookstore.com... i dont know usually CTR rings never interested me but for some reason these ones do. if you have time and can check those out for me that would be cool but if not no big deal.
I finally got to watch your dvd you made... it was so cool! when i saw Q dancing i was like now what song could they have possibly have used for a dance as cool as this? so i had to see what song it was and it was one of my favorite songs 17 years by ratatat it was a way cool dance i think that has to be one of the Best!
Jensen sounds like Longboarding is going to be epic when i return!
thats all from me this week guys i love you very much and hope you all stay safe this summer thank you for everything! stay faithful and keeping the Lord in your life is as just as important for you guys as it is for me.
Love you!!
Love Elder Emery

June 27, 2011

Hello everyone!
What a great day it is today! we had an alright week our numbers dont really say much but i dont think about the numbers... and i have been around alot of numbers missionaries lately and it really is kind of lame! but its whatev i guess the thing that bugs me the most is that we have a member of our ward who is the kindest man everand he loves doing things for the missionaries and he doesnt say no to us... well missionaries from a totally different ward use him because he wont be rude and tell them no. anyway i think it is ridiculous because you use members for fellowship in the ward... not so you can count it as a member present lesson i don know maybe i am wrong... and we have 2 sets of missionaries in our ward our ward is kind of slpit we cover the east side where all the active members are and the other Elders cover the West where only like 3 families are active one of them is the guy that goes out with the missionaries so we dont even use him because we want the other Elders to use him for their lessons but they cant always get a hold of him because of the Elders not in our ward use him... i just think it is messed up so i told the other missionaries that they should talk to president about that because to me its not appropriate, but i dont know.
Anyway this week was pretty good i enjoyed it my companion and i are getting along a little better... its not so much that we dont like eachother its more that we have almost absolutely zero in common. and so we have been working on that and not to mention his trainer didnt really train him... he kind of treated him like crap so i have just been trying to do what i can to help him have a good start to his mission ya know what i mean? its been good i think being with all these companions that i dont have anything in common with is just helping me be able to deal with alot of different kinds of people and be able to get along with them... so im just trying to look for the good in everyday and things have been going pretty smooth.
We had a Baptism Yesterday... it was super awesome the kids name is George he is a good kid and i have had fun teaching him. their whole family is less active and we have been working with them and trying to get them more active and it has been working! i love it! its the same family that are going to be having the Wedding and then the Baptism in August... they are coming along slowly but surely.
We had some good contacts this week... one night it was 8:50ish and we arent suppose to be in until 9 right? well anyway we didnt know what to do and we were heading home and i was feeling bad because i dont want to go in early i think that is a waste of time... so we are heading home and i just ask Heavenly Father what we should do and the thought came to me... you live in your area... walk down the street. That was all that came to me and that came to because i guess i forgot i lived in the area... i have been so used to living of my area that i didnt think about it... i have lived out of my area for about 9 months. and so thats what we did and we walked down the street and we came to two ladies that were standing talking to eachother waiting for their ride and come to find out they had talked to missionaris before and they moved and lost contact with them... she said she loved learning from them and that everytime they would leave she would desire more... we gave her our phone number and she said she would get in contact with us... i thought that was way cool... the promptings from the spirit are the best way missionary work can get done i could have easily just went in for the night but i listened to the spirit and i think it could end up giving us someone to teach!
we had a couple experiences like that and it really is a blessing to see the lords help everyday and i dont know what i would do without relying on him. thats about it for this week we are
hoping to have an even better week this upcoming one... we have another baptism this week it should be very good!
dont worry about not writing very much i dont really care the length of your emails... i just like hearing from you guys it makes my whole week and i love it... a great way to start of the week is just hearing from my family.
um you asked if there was anything i need and the only thing i can think of is my contacts... have you found anything out about that? i am wearing my last pair right now.
other than that...LiFe Is GoOd!
thank you all very much for everything and i hope you have an enjooyable week!
Oh! we do get our new President on Thursday and i am not sure what to think about it... i love President and Sister Pike alot they are awesome people... i am not sure if anyone would be able to replace Sister Pike she is a wonderful person and i will miss them alot. we have a goodbye meeting with them on Wednesday and i am super sad. But just like everything... you have to move on and enjoy what you have because if you dont then you are just wasting maybe some of the best things that could happen because you are to worried about the things in the past.
i love everyone of you with all my heart!!
Love Elder Emery

June 27, 2011

Hello everyone!
What a great day it is today! we had an alright week our numbers dont really say much but i dont think about the numbers... and i have been around alot of numbers missionaries lately and it really is kind of lame! but its whatev i guess the thing that bugs me the most is that we have a member of our ward who is the kindest man everand he loves doing things for the missionaries and he doesnt say no to us... well missionaries from a totally different ward use him because he wont be rude and tell them no. anyway i think it is ridiculous because you use members for fellowship in the ward... not so you can count it as a member present lesson i don know maybe i am wrong... and we have 2 sets of missionaries in our ward our ward is kind of slpit we cover the east side where all the active members are and the other Elders cover the West where only like 3 families are active one of them is the guy that goes out with the missionaries so we dont even use him because we want the other Elders to use him for their lessons but they cant always get a hold of him because of the Elders not in our ward use him... i just think it is messed up so i told the other missionaries that they should talk to president about that because to me its not appropriate, but i dont know.
Anyway this week was pretty good i enjoyed it my companion and i are getting along a little better... its not so much that we dont like eachother its more that we have almost absolutely zero in common. and so we have been working on that and not to mention his trainer didnt really train him... he kind of treated him like crap so i have just been trying to do what i can to help him have a good start to his mission ya know what i mean? its been good i think being with all these companions that i dont have anything in common with is just helping me be able to deal with alot of different kinds of people and be able to get along with them... so im just trying to look for the good in everyday and things have been going pretty smooth.
We had a Baptism Yesterday... it was super awesome the kids name is George he is a good kid and i have had fun teaching him. their whole family is less active and we have been working with them and trying to get them more active and it has been working! i love it! its the same family that are going to be having the Wedding and then the Baptism in August... they are coming along slowly but surely.
We had some good contacts this week... one night it was 8:50ish and we arent suppose to be in until 9 right? well anyway we didnt know what to do and we were heading home and i was feeling bad because i dont want to go in early i think that is a waste of time... so we are heading home and i just ask Heavenly Father what we should do and the thought came to me... you live in your area... walk down the street. That was all that came to me and that came to because i guess i forgot i lived in the area... i have been so used to living of my area that i didnt think about it... i have lived out of my area for about 9 months. and so thats what we did and we walked down the street and we came to two ladies that were standing talking to eachother waiting for their ride and come to find out they had talked to missionaris before and they moved and lost contact with them... she said she loved learning from them and that everytime they would leave she would desire more... we gave her our phone number and she said she would get in contact with us... i thought that was way cool... the promptings from the spirit are the best way missionary work can get done i could have easily just went in for the night but i listened to the spirit and i think it could end up giving us someone to teach!
we had a couple experiences like that and it really is a blessing to see the lords help everyday and i dont know what i would do without relying on him. thats about it for this week we are
hoping to have an even better week this upcoming one... we have another baptism this week it should be very good!
dont worry about not writing very much i dont really care the length of your emails... i just like hearing from you guys it makes my whole week and i love it... a great way to start of the week is just hearing from my family.
um you asked if there was anything i need and the only thing i can think of is my contacts... have you found anything out about that? i am wearing my last pair right now.
other than that...LiFe Is GoOd!
thank you all very much for everything and i hope you have an enjooyable week!
Oh! we do get our new President on Thursday and i am not sure what to think about it... i love President and Sister Pike alot they are awesome people... i am not sure if anyone would be able to replace Sister Pike she is a wonderful person and i will miss them alot. we have a goodbye meeting with them on Wednesday and i am super sad. But just like everything... you have to move on and enjoy what you have because if you dont then you are just wasting maybe some of the best things that could happen because you are to worried about the things in the past.
i love everyone of you with all my heart!!
Love Elder Emery