Elder Emery Year 1

June 6, 2011

Hey Guys!

Oh man... Transfers were this week and it kind of came as a surprise to me. I have been transferred to Hacienda Heights 2nd ward and i am not District Leader anymore. my area is just a couple miles down the freeway from where i lived in Diamond Bar. The transfers this time were crazy... alot of the missionaries that have only been out for 2 transfers are training this transfer... this is my 10th transfer and im not even training it is crazy what is happening, but its what ever the Lord feels those missionaries and those areas need right? im still not sure how i feel about leaving the area and the Chino Zone... i liked it there alot and we really started getting some good work done! and then there are also other reasons why i didnt want to leave. it will be good though i am pretty excited to be over here. i actually have never served in this Zone... so it will be interesting to see the different things that go on here.

Alright so on my foot... yes i will take it easy on it so it can heal. i was told that i also have plantar fasciaitis( i think thats how its spelled) also. i think my foot just hates me, its just trying to give me problems, but its ok because its not really stopping me. i just have to keep doing what im suppose to be doing. this past week My companion and i caught a virus and we had to go into the Doctors... apparently it is been going around the mission. i swear its like one thing after another with me though... cant i jsut be normal? oh while i was at the doctors they did another urine and blood test for my kidneys... i guess it had been 6 months from the last time they checked me so i will hear about how those tests went whenever i call the Doctors Office.

So this week was a little bit slower, but we did have a lesson with an investigator who we have only been able to meet with a few times because of medical problems... he is in the process of getting a new Kidney and all of these different challenges keep coming up for him... his medical issues are the thing that is holding him back from being Baptized. anyway Yesterday he came to church and he was so happy to be there it was awesome!! i was so happy yesterday... just to see him there and his excitement was so wonderful! he believes everything about the Gospel... and his wife is a member... he wants to be baptized but medical things are getting in the way, but yesterday was one of my happiest days in Rolling Ridge! it was a blessing it truly was.

i have heard from alot of people that this ward that im going to be serving in now is a great ward and has alot of potential, so im definitely excited about that! it should be good here i think i will end up loving it!

i sent off the letters and sd card on Saturday... it was kind of hard to get them off sooner because we were sick :( but they should be getting there tomorrow if i remember right. i still have alot of people to write back so i will start getting that done over these next couple of weeks.

thats about it on me... it sounds like you guys have had a good start to your summer and are going to have a good one! thanks for everything you guys do for me... you are awesome!

I love you very much and pray for you everyday... thank you for all the prayers to i really appreciate them!

Love you

Love Elder Emery

Mother's Day Bonfire

Elder Emery having a Bonfire

s'more making party on Mother's Day

May 23, 2011

ey everyone! i hope your week went well for you and that you are all doing great! so whats new?? i have not yet received an E-mail from you this week i'm sure you are probably just busy today. i'm probably right when i say that your weekend was super busy... how many different activities went on this past weekend? it was probably way fun though right?

this week for me was really good, but really frustrating at the same time... i will start with the frustrating and then move on to the best parts of the week.

Alright so i have had alot on my mind this past week and it is just overwhelming and not to mention all the people who have problems with us. i just couldnt seem to get things going the right way and i didnt know what i could do to make things better... so i prayed and i just asked for help on different things... i got up and just started reading my scriptures and strted studying. ( i have been doing a little activity to help me memorize where scriptures are... i took a pass along Book Of Mormon and then out of the Topical Guide just go through alot of the different topics and highlight scriptures that have to do with those different things. it has been good! i will be able to better help other people with their specific challenge or doubt that they have by having that principal or topic right on hand ya know what i mean?) so i was doing this activity and right after i prayed i looked at the scripture i decided to use for affliction... the scripture was 1 nephi 21:13 i know i am not afflicted but it still applies... then i read on through verse 16 and what great comfort that did bring me. i knew that Heavenly Father was there helping me out and from there on things went and have been going alot smoother... its so amazing to get so much out of a simple scripture.

Alright so our success this week was so awesome... could have been better but i am not complaining! i dont know if i told you about the lady that we started doing service for?? we have been helping this older lady do service and she said that we could teach her a couple of lessons... we took her on a tour on Wednesday and it was a really good tour... i was a little nervous because it was a referral from a member and it was one of their friends and so you never want to mess things up... you know what i am saying? yeah so i was nervous but it went really well and she is going to read the Book Of Mormon and pray about it and Joseph Smith and if what we taught was true! we were so excited well i still am... the only bummer part was when we invited her to be Baptized... she said she has to read the Book first... i still have alot of hope in her, but she says she has to do that first, and we have to respect that, but it was awesome it was the best part of the week!

we also had other lessons this week but they were just normal lessons of people not really wanting to progress, but know that they should.

I had my MRI on Wednesday also and it was good i think... i am not sure of the results i am actually going to be calling the Doctors office today to hear about the results i think everything will be normal i dont think anything to serious is wrong with my foot, but i guess you never know right?

things are going good here and i hope the same for you guys... i love you all im sorry that its not very much this week. next week it will be alot longer because this week is going to be awesome!! thank you for the package it was great! i love the ties they are super legit!!

I love you guys with all my heart and miss you very much!!

Hope all is well!

Love Elder Emery

May 16, 2011

Hey Everyone!! it sounds like you are all doing pretty good, but very busy... i hope your week went really good for you though! i was thinking to myself yesterday that when i get home i want to be constantly going... i dont ever want to be sitting idle or any of that kind of stuff... i know that sounds weird but i have decided that i want to try a bunch of new things and i want to just always be using my talents... and i want to find all of my talents too... how do you know you are good at something if you never try?? so i want to do that ya know what i mean?

This week was alot better than last week... we have alot of things planned for this up coming week! we have a few potential investigators that will most likely become Progressing Investigators... that will be awesome! one of them told us that she already believes it all and she has had all the lessons before and she was about to get baptized but she couldnt quit smoking... she really wants to get her life back on track. i guess who wouldnt we all could do better in our everday lives... sometimes we have hangups that dont really help and are hard to push through.

This week i tried to focus on seeing other people how our Heavenly Father sees them... this really helped me... i felt like i was not being very effective in my contacting and i didnt know how to get out of that rut... it was getting me down alot, but then i was reading in PMG about our loving Heavenly Father... and that changed everything for me. i tried to really focus on their needs and what gospel principal they could use in their lives... what a change in the people that we came in contact with... some of them were still rude but alot of them had softer hearts and were willing to listen to our message that we brought to them... it felt like a really productive week!

Probably the worst part of the week was when we were invited in to a non members home... it was a potential investigators home. they had us come in and we were like alright this could be good...... boy was i wrong. we were yelled at the whole time about how we are wrong and how we dont know anything... it was really bad i have never had that happen before... one of the people told us that you dont have to follow the 10 Commandments and we were like... the scripture says if ye love me keep my commandments... he was like no that doesnt matter. i couldnt believe it... then the mother of the home told us that we are Wrong if we think Heavenly Father is as loving as we say he is... you dont want to know how that conversation went. i shared why the Atonement was necessary and the Lady Stormed off mad because she had nothing to say... it was super bad and that was the most effective way to waste the Lords time... then we left and i didnt even know what to do, but i contacted a man on the street and he was the nicest man i talked to all day and was super interested in the tour of the Church because he had been their before but had not taken a tour with missionaries. Now you cant tell me that God doesnt love us and doesnt know what we are going through... he knew exactly what just happened to us and he gave us peace and happiness to end our night... i know he is there and Love each and every one of us! there is no doubt in my mind.

well i have to be going but i will just say that i am super surprised that the Ward changed up... i am not going to lie one thing i was worried about was that Bishop satchwell would no longer be bishop when i get home... He helped me out so much to come out on a mission and i appreciate, love, and respect him so much... but Bishop Bovee will be a great Bishop also!

I'm getting the MRI Wednesday and 3:30 so i will let you know how that goes in my Email to you on Monday!

I love you all very much and miss you just the same!

Love Elder Emery

Besitos

May 2, 2011

Hey Family!!

Oh man it is super weird to think that i have been out here in California for 1 year... it is has truly been a great year! right now when i think about it and im like oh wow i have been out for so loooong.... but when i look back on the year and things that i have done im like oh wow that was quite quick and i have one year left to do even more work... i have a feeling that these next 12 months are going to be overwhelming, because i will want to get so much done in so short amount of time. it is going to be good though... i still remember that first day in the MTC like it was yesterday and feeling like i could not go through with mission stuff, but now i am thinking i dont see myself going home from this mission stuff. oh about the pictures... i am going to send the card home right after thursday because we are going out to eat with some other Elders for the Year mark and then i will send off the card ok? the book sounds really cool i will be excited to see it.

Things here this week were alright... the Highlight of the week was definitely Elder Perry he was awesome... it was really neat to see him and his personality. he was just himself, but still an Apostle... i dont know you dont really get to see that during General Conference so it was really cool to seem him like that.. he gave us some great advice and better ways to move the work along here in Arcadia California... i was so excited to go out and find new people... we have not found any nwe people ina while, but that is ok we are going to find them this week. the L.A mission was there too and it was weird they just looked different to us... im not trying to say that our mission is better than theres but tehy jsut seemed really different and i wasnt the only one who thought so. i dont know what it was but i know that i am glad im here in the Arcadia Mission!

We were bashed again this week... i hate it so much this guy had us come in and talk with him and he went Anti on us and it was not good... towards the end of the conversation he was saying that he can feel the Holy Spirit when he is sharing his stuff with us... i would have agreed with him if he would have been sharing truth with us, because the Holy Ghost can testify of truth... but he definitely was not sharing truth... he twisted so many doctrines it was not even funny. anyway he said that and i stopped him and said... Greg when i walked in your house and you handed me the Anti doctrine and told me to explain it to you... the Spirit left. he had nothing to say and then my companion read a scripture out of the Book OF Mormon and testified of the truth of it and our Religion and the guy had nothing else to say... thats pretty much where the conversation stopped. i dont like Bashing it is the most effective way to waste the Lords time, but people have to tell us what they think they should.

i am glad that you got the Email from Sister Clavel! they are such a cool family and they are so nice to us missionaries! i hope you email her back... i think that is what she wanted you to do if you already have not.

Happy Mothers Day mom i love you so much thank you for everything and your Card is on its way!!

sorry i have like 1 minute left... we will probably calling home around 4 so 5 for you... i will try to skype!

Love you

LOve Elder Emery

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

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

March 28, 2011

Hey guys! sounds like things are going well there i am so jealous that i missed baseball games and tennis matches and i will miss being able to see Q make the cheerleading team. I know that you will still be playing when i get back so i dont even worry... i did kind of get to see the pics a Brash, but it is always hard to see them on the computer... but i saw him and it brought back so many memories i wish i could be there to see that... i am not sure if i have told you this but i want to try and walk on somewhere for Baseball... i have been really thinking about the school in Virginia. but we will talk about that more in a few months... there is something that we should probably address though... my License expires february of next year and that is before i come home... i will have to renew it so i can continue driving towards the end of the mission. i dont know who we get in contact with to try and get that fixed.

Dangit i wanted Deamer to get called here so that i could train him haha i was really hoping that he would get called here but thats alright... there are already like 4 of us from kaysville. i have to write him today so if you see him this week tell him that i am writing him back this week.

Yeah i am really excited about L. Tom Perry coming to talk to us... we are going to actually be meeting down in L. A... its going to be cool... it is so soon after General Conference too which makes it even more Sick! we are going to the temple on the 20th also... We are going to the Redlands Temple though so that will be a new temple that i have never been to.

This week was pretty good i know that you said that you wanted to hear more from me this week but i have 7 minutes to try and get this all in to you so i am going to try and hurry... my presidents letter went a little bit long so that took a while.

We had 6 lessons this week so that was pretty good for this area... but we could have had 12... we had 6 fall through... it was lame but that is how this work goes... i met with president this week and just asked him questions and how i felt about the transfer... we got talking and he said some are called to areas to baptize... some are called to find and some are called to build up the ward... then he said what would christ say if he were to look at the area book in La Crescenta... then he said to me when you started in La Crescenta you were only having 2 Less active Lessons a week... you left there with teaching people and teaching 12+ Less active Lessons a week..,.i thnk you did your part there Elder Emery

It was really good to hear that from him i am sorry that this is short i have to hurry and send this off i will try and send you a quick note through the mail this week... keep it up you are all so wonderful and i love and miss you so much!!!

Love Elder Emery

March 21, 2011

Hey Guys! wow is sounds like you guys are all doing so wonderful... that is so awesome to hear! it also sounds like it was fun for you all in St. George oh the memories of st. george haha.

i am kind of in a hurry today so i will try and give you as much information as i can about this week in just a little bit of time.

Alright so to start off the Rolling Ridge area is pretty good... let me tell you though... people have to much money i am pretty sure its coming out of their ears. alot of preople are stubborn Born Again Christians and it is really hard to relate to them because they go to automatic hate towards us. But they deserve the Gospel just as much as we do, so we continue to knock on their doors. it is pretty small but its different than any other area that i have been in... all the houses are in subdivisions... you rarely see houses on a main road... so its like people are stuck in their own little community and dont want anything to do with any one else... its weird thats one thing i dont like about it. The ward seems like they will be good... we will have to do alot of the same things taht we did in La Crescenta. This is kind of a bummer because i just got done with helping really build up one ward for 6 months and now i am kind of thrown back into helping out this ward. i think it will be a little bit easier here for some reason though. the Bishop is really missionary minded and that is awesome.

We live with a member she is 82 years old and hilarious... i laugh everytime i talk to here. she has had missionaries for like 40 years! the only bad thing about living with her is that we live 8 miles out of our area... it takes us 20 minutes to get to and from our area, and so we will be on bike once we pick up our bike rack on Wednesday... Speaking of wednesday... we are having a meeting with President Pike to discuss our visit that we will be having from L. Tom Perry in April!!! that is totally cool huh he will be coming here and we will be meeting with another surrounding mission... i am so excited for that it is going to be sweet!!!

Distict meeting was good this week... yes i still really enjoy doing it. The new District is bomb! we have the Zone Leaders in our district and that is pretty good they are really good. one of them was my district Leader while i was in South Hills so if will be fun to go on exchanges with him again.

Nothing else really happened this week we are hoping to pick up some good investigators this week... we only picked one up last week so we definitely need to improve!

Well i love you guys and pray for you everyday keep giving it your all and do your best at everything you do!

Oh! mom Elder Rust told me to tell you to call his father about Horse stuff... and maybe he can help you i know they have a bunch of horses...

Gaylen Rust:

Hopefully he can help you out and it is pretty close to our house in Kaysville

Love you have a great day/ week!!

Elder Emery

March 7, 2011

Hey guys sorry this is late... we had a pretty busy P-day today..

First we went Frolfing (Frisbee Golfing)... then we went and played Ultimate Frisbee at the Rose Bowl i didnt really play cause of my ankle but it was still fun to go with a bunch of missionaries and hang out. Then i guy in our ward asked us if it would be alright to let him take a couple pictures of us to put into one of his paintings... he is an artist thats what he does for a living, and judging by the size of his house adn different things ... i think he does pretty well. and so we went and took some pics... that was cool. I guess i am just becoming famous here in California!!!

Transfers are coming up here this next week :( i would like to stay but i am not sure that i will... i have been here since the End of September... thats a pretty long time to be in an area, so i hear. i wouldnt mind getting a new companion... nuff said about that. i just dont want to talk bad about my companion so we will just leave it at that. i am nervous about this weekend, because i dont want to know that i am leaving!!

This week we had another session of Leadership Training... It was really good... we Learned alot and we got some more rules. i dont understand why we have to get more pointless rules... it jsut makes things more frustrating, because sometimes i feel that i walked out the door and did something wrong. it is what it is though... we have to follow the rules. We actually do get a new mission President in July... i dont know if you already knew that or not, but President Pikes 3 years is winding down... our new mission President is President and siter Bacerra... they are from utah and a funny interesting fact is that when they went on their own missions they both served in the California, Arcadia mission, crazy huh?? i thought that was pretty cool!

This past week was alright... the two new investigators we found last week dropped us on Saturday and so that was sad, they dont understand... they were so excepting when we took them on the tour, but then when we finally got in contact with them they told us that they were not interested anymore... i was sad because it seemed like this past week was slow.

We went by an older couple that we chopped wood for and they were really nice to us... they were like you guys didnt get to share a message with us last time you came by... we were like i know you guys said you were busy. adn she went and got a book of mormon that her brother gave her like 40 years ago or probably more because this book of mormon was printed in 1948... its the one that is red with the Angel Moroni on the front... she gave it to me and said it would probably mean more to me than to her, but she said that she wanted one of the Books Of Mormon that we give out now. so we did and she promised us she would read it and she told us to come back this next week to tell us how it went for her!! she was so cool she a very nice old Lady!! we were very excited to listen to the spirit and to be able to find them!

Well i have got to go to a lesson but i love you guys so much and i hope everything is going well for you!! i Miss you guys and thank you for everything you do!!

sorry this is short but i have to go!

Love Elder Emery

February 28, 2011

Hey Guys Sounds like things are going well for you!

Well today we went to get groceries and we found out that our Blue Cards didnt have money on them yet. so i jsut spent 50 dollars on groceries with my debit Card... sorry. i really do hate using my card because that money could be going some where else, so i dont know... to help me could you not put any more money on my card , because its like i always have a back up so if i use all my money on my Blue Card then i'm like "well thats ok i still have my personal car" and i dont want to say that. i have been really tempted to send my Debit Card home just because i feel like i dont have self control with it. And if there is no money on my Debit card then it will force me to manage my money better. Does this sound ok? i just dont want to be a financial burden for you guys... everytime i use my card i always feel guilty and i dont want that so i figured this is the best way for me... let me know what you guys think.

So for my week... well it was pretty good for the most part. We found 2 new investigators and set them with a Baptismal Date of March 20th... they are Hindu. Lately we have been running into aloft of Hindu people and they seem really interested in Learning more about the Gospel... and ya know what? thats alright with us!

But yeah these two people we found seem very interested and they are very sincere about meeting with us and coming to chruch... we are very excited about them and their desire to follow Christ!

We have run into alot of People that are interested in our religion, but they just wont make any appointments with us... This is very very Frustrating, because if only they knew what this Message could do for them i know they would be more receptive. Everyone has their Agency though and we definitely cant take that away from them, and so that gets in the way of things. I am still trying to find my place in this area... i know that i am here for a reason, but i feel like i havent found it yet. I keep praying for it everyday.

My Companion and i struggle a little bit... i am a very talkative kind of person and he doesnt really like talking. We notice that there is contention between us and its because of communication issues. Contention drives the spirit away so fast and i am trying my best to be more humble and do things his way and not talk and be boring but its so hard... i dont know what to do.He told me that he doesnt respect me... but then when i asked him why he couldnt give me and answer... it is going to be a hard next couple of weeks... Transfers come up in 2 weeks I cant wait!

Oh i forgot to tell you... it snowed here in california this past week again! it has been freezing here!

Its been hard these past weeks... Satan has really been working on me for some reason... he wants me to just give up. every time some one slams the door or chews us out about something... i get thoughts of " i am not good enough... jsut give up and go home.. this isnt worth it" i am not going to lie it has been a struggle lately and it is wearing down on me. he really is trying to get a wedge into me and i am doing all i can to keep him out. I pray everyday to be strengthened and to help me get through another week because i cant do it alone... it just doesnt work. The one thing that definitely keeps me going though is sharing the Message of the Atonement with members... it makes me forget about everything and jsut think about the Savior and what he went through...He was tempted but never gave in... i am tempted but because of the Savior and thinking about him it makes me stronger and i dont give in, because if Jesus would have given in to any temptation he wouldnt be perfect and their wouldnt be a way for us to get back to our Heavenly Father, But the Atonement is real and it makes me want to give my all for the Savior who gave his all for us... he knows what i am going through and he wants me to lean on his arm for help and honestly He gets me through every day. i am Happy though... how could i not be happy doing this Marvelous Work? My Joy has been great being able to bring souls unto Christ and that makes every hard day worth it... i really would give anything to see the happiness this Gospel brings to them... and it brings happiness to me and thats why i never give up. I dont even think about home the same way anymore... some of the things back home dont even matter to me anymore. Honestly this is going to sound weird but you could sale my Golf clubs and my Longboard... i am no longer attached to them... they didnt bring the same happiness that this brings me its weird i know but it is so true i Love doing this Work even though it is hard... " i never said it would be easy... i only said it would be worth it" So true.

Brash i will send you your prize... i cant right now because they changed the rules on where we can take our cars on P-days so i have to wait till we can get a member to take us to China town.

sorry this isnt very much but i have to be going... i am going to have a good week... and i hope you do too. i pray for you all everyday and i love you very much!

Stay safe and Be strong!

I love and Miss you very much

Love Elder Emery