December 27, 2010

Hey Family! oh man it was so awesome to see you guys!! its alright that you guys got emotional... it was good for me i have been holding in some tears for a while now so it was good to get those out. you guys all look really good too! all of you look different since the last time i saw you! it was crazy... i am so glad they let us skype that was a wonderful Christmas gift to see you all... even though it has only been almost eight months it feels like it has been forever.
>
> everyone that was there looked different... thank you for letting them all come over and say hi... that was awesome... for some reason skee looked th most different out of the extended family... and Brash i thought looked the most different out of our family...
>
> sounds like for the most part all of you are doing great... i am so glad you read the scriptures... i wish i would have been more focused when i was in seminary and i wish i would have prepared myself better...but i didnt... i am happy that the other kids see teh importance of it it really does make me happy! you will have to tell me how reading the introduction and doing what it says turns out for you guys... cause like i said i never did that before the mission... actually i am not even sure i knew there was an introduction to the Book of Mormon... i never told you what scripture made known to me that the book is true and that Jesus is the Christ... it is 2nephi 8:15 and when i got to that verse i was no longer reading... it was speaking to me... and i know because of that... that the lord wants us to find the right path to follow and that verse wouldnt have spoken to me if i wasnt suppose to follow the teaching of the Book of Mormon. so dont forget to do that ok?
> Yesterday in sacrament meeting the 1st counselor asked us to get up and bear our testimonies... it was like last second... i was way nervous. i got up and shared my testimony about missionary work and about how i have a testimony of every member a missionary... i sharede a quick story and then testified... i have never had so many compliments on a testimony before... i think it was exactly what the ward needed to hear to get them a little more excited about being missionaries themselves. it was a pretty good day besides that... i enjoyed it.
>
> well thats about it for today... i miss you guys so much and i hope you have a fun rest of your break... i love you very very much. and i am so thankful for being able to talk to you all this past week... i love you!
> Love Elder Emery

December 20, 2010

Hey Everyone... hows it going??

Things are going alright for me.... the news is.... i.... am.... still... in....La Crescenta.... and... i...am....still... with.... Elder Campbell.........

Yeah we stayed the same and i am not really sure why. i thought for sure Elder Campbell would get the boot, but we are still together. my feelings about it... no comment i will talk to you about things on Saturday.... its alot easier to express whats on your mind when you can actually talk to them instead of e-mail.

I guess President was inspired to leave us together for another Transfer... i am still surprised that one of us didnt leave... Most of our Zone stayed the same.. i am ok with that because i like alot of the people in it. i am not going to lie though... i cant wait till January 31... thats the next transfer.

This week was pretty good.. well i take that back... it was on a scale of 1 to 10 probably about a 4.5... let me explain. It has been raining really hard the past few days... our area is really hard to find people, because nobody is home and nobody walks the streets because of the hills. Put those two together and there is absolutely nobody around, and add the fact that Christmas is just around the corner so people are going out of town... :( makes things really hard... its ok though we are making things work.

There were a few baptisms that happened this past week... there was a family that i taught twice on exchanges and they asked me if i would come and be a witness at their Baptism yesterday... so i got to witness a family of four baptisms yesterday... it was such a cool Baptism... they were all very happy and excited to be baptized... it was really neat. i was really happy they invited me to come do that for them... it really shows me that i need to always be doing my best because you never know who is watching... i know you guys have told me that before and i really do understand that.

Saturday at 8? like pm right? that should work for me i am really excited to talk to you guys i have so much to say and i just want to be able to tell everything... ya know what i mean... its been my whole mission so far and i really havent been able to tell you guys everything. you should write questions down that you hav so you can ask me on the phone sound good?? i will do the same! i really cant wait!!!

i did receive the packages this past week and i am excited about those also! no i have not opened them yet... i will wait till Saturday!

i am sending my package to you guys today right after i leave here so i can get it to you by Christmas... When you get it.... You can NOT open it until Christmas ok?? Christmas Day you can open it... that is our deal or i wont send it :) sound good? Great!

Mom i sure hope you get better... i actually have been sick for the last 4 days about... it really makes things hard. i am feeling better though so everything is good with me! i cant wait to talk to you guys this Saturday... i am Excited!!

Yesterday in Sacrament meeting it was the Christmas program and i was sitting there just kind of thinking about home a little bit and how i still have a long time till i come home... the thought came to me Our Heavenly Father sent his son... i started thinking about that a little bit. Our Heavenly Father set his Son Jesus Christ away for 33 or so years... i cant remember how old he was. He sent him away knowing exactly what needed to take place and what was going to happen... i have been asked to go away for 2 years... it was kind of like a smack in the face... its true though... i went away not knowing what was going to happen and i am still doing good.

so there was my thought for the day... i love you guys so much and i am excited for Saturday!!

Love and miss everyone of you...

Love Elder Emery

December 13, 2010

Hey Guys!!! sounds like things seem to be going well!

This past week it has been in the 70's.... yesterday it was 81 degrees!!! can yoiu believe that ?? it definitely doesnt feel like Christmas.

To start off i just want to say that i am not going to be very happy if Brashers Letter did not get there... dangit! i will re-address what i said in it in his birthday letter... i didnt get dads letter off either this past week but they will be there by the end of this week. that kind of frustrates me.

Holy Cow on the Christmas card... at first i really wasnt paying attention when i pressed the button, but then i stopped everyhing and realized what was going on. That was one of the coolest cards ever!!! it was so weird to hear your voices... you all sound a little different. thank you though i have listened to it a couple times and it is just as good every time i hear it! thanks.

It is kind of funny to hear about Brash counting the presents... i can totally see him doing that, but you are right... there are people that dont even get a single thing. Brash you need to be happy for what you have i see people all the time that dont even have a home to live in... you should have mom read you the talk from the Prophet this past conference on Gratitude :). Sounds like you are doing good in Basketball... keep working hard and you will have to tell me all about it on Christmas. Did Quincie adn Jensen get there letter this past week??

Mom you are pretty funny about the Pass along card thing... i know i have sent some cards home to you all... have you given those out yet?? maybe i will send you a pack of 100 sound good?

i have never heard of that 21 thing you were talking about... i am not sure what that is... you will have to inform me on Christmas. Speaking of Christmas... i dont care what time i call... so whatever time works for you just let me know next week and i will make sure to stay open for that time... yeah i guess we can only talk for 45 min... it bugs me Pres Pike is cracking down on us and i dont really like it at all... there are so many rules its un real... i will talk more about that on Christmas.

Not alot happened this week... things are going a little slow, but we are starting to pick up some more less actives! The ward is actually acting nice to us... must be something to do with Christmas... we are using it to our advantage. last week within 2 days we heard from 4 random people that our Ward is Mean... that makes things really hard when we knock on someones door and they say " i was investigating your church not too long ago and your ward is not very nice." ha what am i suppose to say to that when i agree with that person... the only thing i can say is " the church is true... the people arent!" haha just joking!

so about transfers.. we find out on Saturday if we are staying or going... i really dont know what i want to happen. we will see on saturday i guess.

The package i am sending home cant be sent until saturday also... and i will put my cf card in it also... and yes i still have both of them. i havent taken many pictures lately, but i do have a few... i will try and take a couple more before i send it.

How is the work coming dad? are things going well? i hope so... i pray for you all the time so that you will have the power and knowledge to make thes sales! i hope all goes well! new phone? i saw it said it sent from your blackberry.

sorry that i dont have much to say, but i do thank you guys for everything... i am very excited for Christmas... i think we have a couple things set up for that day, but besides that we are just going to be doing what we do!

Love you guys... and i think about you everyday... there is not a day that goes by that i dont think about you all!!

Love you

Love Elder Emery

December 6 2010

Hey Guys!! Merry Early Christmas... it is a little early but it is coming up quick!

Alright to start off first.... about Brash. i sent him a letter last week i think it will get to him today or tomorrow, and i am hoping that it will get him a little more excited about school and to also bring his grades up. it is a little bribe, but i figured it will be worth a try to try and get him back into enjoying school i do pray fro him and you guys also... i hope you will be able to figure him out.

Sounds like today is a busy day... grandpa sent me a letter and told me about the party that would be today.... can you believe this is the second year i will be missing this?? it is crazy, because last year i was down at school. the same with nana's party... she sent me a card with money in it.. it was very nice!

i can already see the blessings from your prayers... Brendon accepted to be baptized on December 19th... the only problem is his mom was just baptized and since he wasnt baptized at teh same time as her, because he is eight it is a ward baptism, so we had to move it to january 8th because that is stake baptism day... so that part is kind of lame, but we are very excited that he is making tis choice to be baptized!!! We took a man on a tour on tuesday... he is an older singe man who likes our church (he has been a few times) he accepted to bebaptized at the end of January!!! he will be in oregon until january 18th, but he said when he gets back he would like to be baptized!! There is this part member family there is 5 of them... the dad is not a member the wife is the oldest daughter is and the two youngest are not baptized.... they invited us over to teach the middle child... her name is phoebe. she is eight, and the parents want to make sure that she is getting baptized for the right reasons. the last missionaries that taught her.. the parents didnt like the way they were teaching adn so they told them not to come back... we got a return appointment... we must have been doing something right eh?? And then there is another family with the same situation who we are going to be doing the same thing with!!! it was a pretty good week! i felt like we did get alot done!

Thank you so much for your prayers you guys are the best!

Oh... everyone will be receiving a post card kind of thing of a couple of us missionaries... hahah they are awesome pictures... you guys will get a good laugh i bet!

Dad with the garage all i have dto say is... WOW. hahah sorry i definitely have to laugh about that... i dont understand how that is possible because isnt there like a beeping noise that goes off when something is behind you??hahahahaha that is pretty funny though i had to laugh a little!

last week on Monday we were playing basket ball and i hurt my hand... it was nothign to bad jsut a sprain. i went and got it x-rayed and the doctor told me that from a previous injury i had to fragments of bonde sitting around my joint... i was like whaaa??? isnt that crazy? i dont think there is anything that they can do about it.... it is getting better though so i am not worried. what i am worried about is my kidneys. my urine has been really murky lately ... on and off, but i dont know what to do. i am alright for right now , so i can just talk more about this with you on Christmas.

Something interesting i read this week was in Jacob 4:9-10. i would highly reccomend reading this, because it is just letting us kno that God can do anything.... and we dont need to be trying to counsel him on things, but we need to take his counsel and figure out why he puts us in so many different situations... i really enjoyed it!

Well family i have got to be going... i wish i was home, becasue it doesnt even feel like Chirstmas... it feels like spring and i dont like it at all!, but anyway i love you guys so much and really appreciate all you do... have fun at the Chirstmas party!! Love you guys i will get the girls there letter this week and also the package i am sending home!!

Happy Birthday DAD!!!!

Love Elder Emery

November 22, 2010

Hey Guys hows it going??... sorry i got on a 10:30 today but i didnt have any emails from you guys so i decided i would wait for a little bit... then we went and played some ball with some Elders... that was pretty tight if ya ask me.

Alright so about Thanksgiving dinner... we are suppose to be eating with our recent convert Mary... the one that was just Baptized on the 7th. i am kind of mad about it... Mary has been out of a job for about ummm a long time now, and she just went to court to declare bankruptcy... she really doesnt have the mondey to do this for us... besides that she has an 8 year old son to provide for. Here in La Crescenta there are alot of wealthy members who could have a less active member over so that we could come over and eat with them... because President said that we can only eat with Less Active Members... the Less active members around here haent been to church in like 10 years so its hard to get them to have us over. I am just kind of frustrated about the whole thing... Christmas is suppose to be the same way... only Less Active or Part Member families can have us over. But any way... we should be having dinner on Thanksgiving, but i am not quite sure yet. it honestly doesnt even feel like the Holidays... kind of sad huh?

if you cant tell... i really dont like some of the members here in this ward... its just the way they are taht makes me mad... its like gouging there eyes out to try and get some one to take a tour with us or for help with lessons... its irritating.

This transfer has seemed really long so far... its only the third week. President either needs to get me out of here or transfer another elder in here, because i really cannot deal with theis any longer... but i have to for 4 more weeks :{ we have another transfer the week of Christmas... kind of a lame time to transfer, but thats when it happens... so if you could just pray for me so i dont pull my hair out... well theres not much to grab on to, but you understand.

We had Zone conference on Friday... that was pretty good we basically just went over the how to find people part in our Preach my Gospel books... it seems like nothing we try in this area is working though, and my companion has lost alot of faith in this area... it makes it really hard for me to keep mine up when my companion barely wants to go out and talk with people... ya know what i mean?? Everything was good though we learned alot about different things on how to start teaching lessons to people and how to try and work more with ward members... we will see how things go.

Everything else seems to be going ok... we are getting closer to Baptism with Mary's Son he expressed some more interest into Baptism, so we continue to teach him... i think that he will be baptized within teh next couple of weeks.

Sorry nothing to exciting has happened this week just alot of frustrations have been making things really hard, but i am working on trying to get those out of the way.

Anyway thanks for everything i am extremely thankful for you guys... i am thankful for dads job so that he can provide for the family and me to be out here. i am thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, i am thankful for the very many blessings that our heavenly Father blesses us with... I love you Guys so Much and i hope you enjoy the Holiday up in PC...GO COUGS!!!!

Love you and miss you very much

Love Elder Emery

November 15, 2010

Hello... Hello! Sounds like things are going great in the Emery home... thats always good to hear! Dad i am glad to hear that some sales are coming up and that you will hopefully get your quota by the beginning of December... that would be so awesome!!... ok so just so you know my thinking now... right after i just typed that would be so awesome... my next thought or question was going to be "so what did you do different?... what are you applying to the work that you werent before?" yeah i know that is weird for me to say hahah that is just how we have to be thinking now out here, or we dont get anything done.

Thanks for the tips on the salads mom i will definitely go out and take care of business with the salads. Haha i am not sure if we will be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner with members or not... i am not sure if we can eat Christmas dinner with members either. Last sunday we got asked if we could come over for Christmas breaksfast and we had to tell the family we dont know the rules on that... as of right now its no, but we will get back to you. So to answer your question on that... i am not sure. we will find out this Zone Conference on Friday... i hope. Oh and before i forget... a couple weeks ago a lady came up to me and told me that she knew someone that was working at the bishops storehouse in Kaysville and said that she talked to you or something... i thought that was really cool! Small Small world and it seems to only be getting smaller. if you see Lara with in the next couple of days... tell her that the letter for her and her family was sent last week... and i have no clue how long it takes to get to V.A.

Alright so about my week... it was pretty slow. We did have a few tour accepts this week, but two of them fell through and the other one is on Sunday, so we are hoping that one goes through.

This area reminds me alot of my first area over in Temple City... nobody wants to talk to you and the streets have been tracted out over and over and over, so it makes things a little bit difficult. For this week there is not much to say because we just knocked doors and talk to all the crazy people... People we start to bash with us adn try to tell us how we are wrong and all this nonsense, but we always win... My companion says he loves defending the truth with me because i can answer all these peoples crap and tell them whats up... i am not going to lie ( were you making fun of that saying?? that is one of the greatest sayings ever haha) it gets annoying when people come at us like we are idiots... dont they understand that we study for 2 hours EVERYDAY?

For two days i had a new Elder with me... His name is Elder Alisa. he is from St. George... he had been out for 2 days... all the leadership positions in the mission were at leadership training. it is really weird being with an Elder that is still green as grass... hopefully i set a good example for him and i kind of got to show him the ropes and how to do a few things out here... it was fun he is a really cool Elder i think he will end up being really good... if he stays focused, because he has a girl waiting for him and i know that can take peoples focus off... My companion is the worst at that.

China town was messed up.

We had a really good lesson last night with a less active family... i had to prepare for it, because i have no clue what the heck my companion was doing... probably sleeping :(

I did an object lesson on Faith in Jesus Christ... this family wants to go to the temple... they just have a few hold ups. The whole point of the lesson was to show them how much faith they had and how that leads them to follow the Commandments. My companion said that the lesson was Awesome and that he didnt have anything that good to teach them! i was pretty excited!! i thought it could have gone better, but i know the family knows how important Faith is, and they know how much Faith they have in Christ.

That lesson was difinitely a testimony Builder for me and i wasnt even expecting that outcome... i was shown that others people Faith in Jesus Christ really helped me know that what i am doing out here is definitely for the good no matter what people are yelling to us while we are walking down the street. This is what life is all about... to see if we are willing to Trust in the lord and do all that he says and follow is plan... We will make it back to our Heavenly Father.

Something interesting that i was thinking about yesterday...when we are baptized we are buried in the water signifying the death of our old life, adn we are brought up out of the water signifying the start of a new... Christ was baptized... buried in the water death of old life... brought up start of a new... spirit came upon him. think about that.. that is like a spiritual resurrection.. because when Christ died he rose on the third day when you die your body adn sprit separate... your body is usually buried and your spirit goes to the spirit world... when you are resurrected your body and spirit reunite. i thought it was an interesting connection..

thats about it for this week... i love you guys and i pray for you everyday!!

oh and mom you asked for any requests... the honey mustard salad dressing sounds great and if you can... My two pairs of church pants that i left there... i thought those should be of good use out here in the field. if you can find them would you be willing to send those to me?

Love you and Miss you guys more than you know!!

Love Elder Emery

November 8, 2010

Hey Guys!!! I definitely agree with Monday to Monday being slow.

Transfers came in and i am.... Staying in La Crescenta with My same companion it should be a good transfer. Sounds like things are going well back home... except for the weather :( you should just come to california it has been very warm here... it is wierd it doesnt even feel like teh end of the year, because it really isnt cold.

We Had a very successful Baptism yesterday!! she was so excited to be baptized. she ended up being good with Tithing and just figures that it uis all part of Gods Plan and apart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

speaking of Gods Plan i have had some interesting mind boggling crazy learning experiences... well to start off... did you know that Heavenly Father has God?? and that he is the father of our generation, but that isnt just like the people that have lived here or that are living here or will live here... he is the God of all the worlds that he created... there are people out there in different worlds. God may have been a Christ... because heavenly fathers father 1st son was our heavenly father... it is crazy... it makes sense becuase its one eternal round, and "as man is God once was" makes sense right... it is really deep stuff... and it is very crazy.

So Q's picture is really good... she looks like she is twenty! thats not good cause that means i have to try and keep the boys off her... and i am in California so i cant keep up with that. Sounds like her experience with reading the scriptures was way good... i am not going to lie i dont think i would have ever thought she would be doing that, but i can tell you right now that the spirit was definitely there adn that is a cool experience... i am proud of her for that, because i never would have done that before the mission, but i will definitely do it when i get back!! oh and quincie who is you Geography teacher?? is it Mr. Dau or Daw i cant remembe3r how you spell his name, but if it is... just get on his good side and he will like you, because if i can get a B in his class i know you can too!!

Jensen well all i have to say is..... Boot camp is awesome, but just sleep in so that you dont have to go during Bikes!!;) hahaha just kidding i actually like riding bikes now since i have been out here.. its a great workout!!

Brash Sounds like you are doing good in your games... keep it up!! you are awesome buddy i love you. you have to do good in school too though so you can play in jr high and high school ok?!

That is cool that Lara is in town... not so cool that all of them are in Hawaii.....Lucky!! i am sending Lara adn Dereks letter to them today... i feel bad it has taken me so long to get back to them... i have just been really busy ya know?

Speaking of healthy food... will you send me some Salad recipes and things that will make me nice and healthy?? i think that would help alot... if i just eat really simply helathy meals because we are getting the shaft on dinners haha. would you be able to do that though?? i promise you that you dont want to know why i hate germs so bad... it will make you sick! i did buy some clorox wipes today at Albertsons though... that should help some of my problem... maybe in one of my next letters i will give more info.

Well i have to get going.. thanks for your prayers for our invetigators... it has paid off i pray for you all every night and i hope that things keep going well for you!!

in my last email i forgot to tell you thanks for the money for my Retainer... Thank you i really appreciate it. i have to wear it everyday besides when i am eating... its one of the kind that has the wire ya know what i mean?? so it kind of stinks but... it is what it is.

Love you guys you are all so wonderful!!!

Love Elder Emery

October 25 2010

Hey You Guys... i did receive your Package and it was so awesome!!! it definitely made my day... because it was kind of rough day... so thank you very much. I so hope the weather is good in vegas this weekend.. it has not been very good here, and we are suppose to get a big storm this week... so i hope it doesnt move that way.

Oh interesting fact... Obama was in town this week. He was in Glendale that is about 15 minutes away from where we are serving... just to give you an idea of where i am.

There are so many armenian people here... it is insane and on top of that they are really rude. Their is also alot of Korean people in my area... i honestly dont know why i am here... i dont speak any of these languages hahahah... Glendale is the highest populated area with armenian outside of armania... Can you believe that??

alright so about the baptisms... i only got to see Josh's because the other one ended up being on Saturday so i couldnt go to that.

He was so excited i took pictures of it but i cant send you my card until you send my other one back... could you send that back for me.

It was so awesome!!

i really dont have to much time to talk but i will definitely send you a letter with more info today. sorry i am just really rushed... there is not enough time to do everything on Mondays... it is kind of lame.

Haha i got three letters with hints towards me dating lindsay when i get home... haha you guys are funny... the reason her letter was so long was because i hadnt talked with her in over 4 and a half months... adn she asked what has been going on... ha so that is my explanation for the length of her letter... then she wrote me an 8 page one... it was like a novel!

Anyway i have to be going but i have alot more to tell you so be looking in the mail for my letter this friday ok...

Love you guys so so much, and i think about you often!!!

Love Elder Emery

November 1 2010

Hey Guys... Happy Halloween!!!! Yesterday?? Jensen Happy Birthday!!! i sent you a letter... its in the mail ok?

Well we invited Mary to be Baptized... She said YES!!! her baptism date is on Sunday the 7th... we taught her about the law of tithing... she was a little bit iffy on that one so we ust have to make sure she really understands that ya know? we are very excited she seems ready. she told us that so many good things have been happening since she has been investigating the church... she knows this is the path that God wants her to be on... it was way cool to hear her say that!!

Oh Man for halloween 2012 we have to come here to this area... it is way cool so put that on the calendar. There is this street that have a bunch of stores on it... the street is called Honolulu and there was so many people that were out trick or treating from all the businesess... it was soo coool we handed out candy and pass along cards also... it was like crowds at Disneyland...yeah that big!! They say on Christmas its even bigger on that street because they have a parade and everything... the street isnt very big either it is crazy... but its definitely on my to do list for when i return! (you guys will come too)

We had a former investigator tell us that she wants to get back into religion... so she is coming to us (cause we are profesh) we had a great sit down with her...it was cool we totally had the spirit with us why we were explaining things and fixing her doubts... it was great.

Well not too much happenend this week... i am turning into a germ a phob... i dont want too but it is happening and yes it is cause of my companion... i dont want to even go into detail... ha but its bad enough that i carry around hand sanitizer. We are getting along a little bit better... its a work in progress. we have transfers coming up on Monday... i am hoping for the best... if ya know what i mean :)

i wouldnt mind staying in this area... i have gotten used to it. it is the smallest area in the mission and it is still pretty good. i am thinking President Pike should change my Mission call to Korean or Armenian... what do you think?

Thanks again for the packages and letters they are always great!! i hope Vegas was good. sounds like you all had fun. how is the job coming dad??

i think about Brash's Baptism often and i still cant believe that i will be missing it. Definitely send me an invite... oh and no i couldnt see the pictures of the yard because of the program you used to send it... so i need to see that also.

Well i love you guys alot and i hope all is well miss you tons... wish me luck today... we are going to china town... it will be very interesting.

Love Elder Emery

October 18, 2010

Alright so my week was... hmm it was ok.

Would you like me to start with the Good news or the bad news?? i will probably start with the bad news because that is what has been stressing me out the most... alright so i got your letter last tuesday... the one where you said that i should try and get a old of an orthodontist down here. Well i did i talked with sister Pike and she referred me to this one place... so i called them up and i told them my situation, and they were like yeah we should be able to fix it (My teeth have started to shift back, so thats what they were saying they should be able to fix) For the New retainer it is going to be 600 dollars... 300 for the top 300 for the bottom... can you believe that... i about crapped my pants when they told me the price. Thats the bad news for the week... i am suppose to go in this thursday to so they can take a look and maybe make a mold... i am suppose to pay the 600 dollars when i pick up teh retainer... that is if we decide to go through with that. i am over 300 dollars on my card so maybe we can use the rest of that to help pay for it... sorry i am a pain and i still lose things... i feel bad about this because i know that the money could go towards something better. Since i probably wont hear back from you today... you can call the mission office before thursday so i can know if i should go in to the orthodontist that day, and then they will relay the information to me.

Alright well i guess i have more bad news... my companion adn i really dont see eye to eye on some things... it is really frustrating. i feel like we waste alot of time and it is starting to bug me. He for some reason does not feel the same way and i dont understand why. He justifies it with something good that we did, adn it is really starting to bug me. if you read my patriarchial blessing it tells me what kind of things i will do on my mission and the blessings i will receive and blessings others will receive by me serving a mission. Serving a mission means that you are promising to abide all the mission rules to the fulness of your ability... or being exactly obedient... my companion does not like the fact that i am trying to be so strict... sometimes part of me thinks that i am with this companion to loosen up a bit... but then part of me knows that is not true. I am definitely trying my hardest to make this work.

Our week was really slow and we had alot of zeros for our numbers and i know that is because we arent doing what we are suppose too... it is hard. like i said before he is my senior companion and my district leader and he isnt trying to lead me to be a better missionary, and i dont know what to do.

Oh i did go get my immunizations, so i am all taken care of there.

Ok so on to the Good News... two of my Investigators from my last area... South Hills are getting baptized next Sunday!!! yes one of them is Josh! the other one is Jessica we invited her to be baptized the week before i left... so i get to go back and attend that and i am very excited!! i am so happy for them and their choice to take the lords path. so that is my awesome news for the week... i was super happy to hear that.

How was quincie's B-day?? that was a surprise to hear that you were in the E.R with her... hopefully everything is ok and that she will get better... no more four wheeling.

You didnt say anything about brash.. how is he?? That is really funny that Jensen still cant stay home alone... but it does look like you guys are making progress there. how is the work dad?? any close sales? hopefully you are getting close... i have faith in you and i know things will work out.

So an interesting scripture that i read this week... 1nephi 1:15 " And my father dwelt in a tent." Lehi was commanded by the lord to leave all his belonging and take his family into the wilderness with him... and ya know i never really put any thought in this scripture i just thought it was the shortest scripture in the Book Of Mormon. Think of it this way...

The lord commanded Dad to leave all of his things behind... his job, the house, my driver, espn, and take our family to the jungle.... and then i would replace it with this scripture.. "And my father begged for food." i think of it that way and i am like holy cow that is crazy... leaving everything having your family hate you and murmur against you because you are following what the lord wants you to do... i cant even imagine that. Lehi did it and Did it with alot of Faith in the Lord... so that is my great thoughts for the week.

Well thats it for this week... hopefully you call the office so i can know what to do on thursday.

Love you guys hope all goes great for you today Miss you mor than you know!

Love you all the distance form here to 724 West Mindy circle

Love Elder Emery

October 11, 2010

Hey everyone... how is k-town treating you? is it starting to get cold there?? or is it still reasonable weather?? Cause here in California it has been really hot the past couple of days and it is pretty nice i wont lie!.. again about my retainer... i didnt really understand what you meant when you said "any progress on your retainer?"... no i have no progress i lost it so i dont have it anymore... thats why i was so worried about it... ya know what i mean?? cause i know its not good to go without it. so i was just wondering what you guys could do to help me with this situation.

Well this week was alright ... i think it definitely could have been better, but cant it always be better?? we actually had more lessons this week... we had like 5 or six as apposed to the week before we only had 1 so it is going pretty good... we had the opportunity to teach 2 first lessons yesterday and that was pretty good the people seemed to retain the information pretty well so hopefully we can get them to come on a church tour... that would be so awesome... just so we can let the spirit totally take over... ya know what i saying??

I went on an exchange this week... it was pretty good. The elders name is Elder Nixon... he is from south jordan. i think?? it was pretty funny because we were talking about idaho for some reason... and then i told him that we have a family cabin up there and he said he did to! haha you know when we are going down the dirt road before we get to our lot?? well before you turn into ours you would take a right adn go up that really bumpy hill... thats where his cabin is. small world eh?? they park their boat right next to our dock... on the left side if you are standing on our dock... that is pretty funny eh?? i thought it was hahah.

My Companions name is Elder Campbell... he is from wyoming... we have not been getting along to well the past couple of weeks. but we had companionship inventory on friday during weekly planning and we pretty much said what was goiing on. He is our District leader also... and he hasnt been being very obedient and so i had to get after him and tell him what was up. i pretty much said " why am i the one setting the example for you when you are my district leader, my senior companion , adn yiou have been out for 16 almost 17 months??" he didnt really like that i was bringing this stuff up but he eventually understood, adn so we should be ok from now on... i am just trying to be the best missionary i can. Mom and Dad you are paying for me to be out here and so i feel like i cant mess up i cant waste this time because you guys are sacrificing so much for me to be out here, so i told him that too... everything should be good now.

We also had interviews with Pres. Pike that was really good he gave me some good information... and he was really appreciative of me so ya know that helped give me more pride... hahah i am just joking i am very very humble ;) ahah... but it was really good i felt good after i walked out of the interview so i guess that means something right??

Other than that things have been pretty normal the area is going pretty good i am working hard to do this wonderful work!... oh did you say taht Lindsay stopped by?? what was that all about... you will have to let me know in your top ten highlight real that will be good...

How are teh Yankees and Cowboys... adn Also th cougars doing?? you got to give me something on those... that would be nice!

Love you guys alot... everyday it gets closer to the 25th of december... which means i will be speaking with you and it is going to be AWESOME!!

Love ya if you have anymore specific questions... jsut ask!

Love Elder Emery

October 4, 2010

Hey Guys... how are you all doing??

Well about my Retainer... yeah we did order another one at the same time that i got my first one.. but you probably dont want to hear this. when i was working in Montpelier with Scot i am pretty sure i left it in our motel... so yeah thats my bad again. I didnt really understand what you meant when you said i justy need to come to you guys in trust... Thats exactly what i did... i told you as soon as i could... it just ended up being a week later and i forgot to tell you in the email so i had to write you about it... so i did come to you knowing that you would understand, but yeah you might be a little frustrated but that just comes with it right?

Alright so on to my to my past week... it was a really slow week :( it just felt like it was dragging and dragging and draggging... especially now that we are in Car it makes the day go by alot slower for some reason, so that is one thing i dont like about car. the good thing about being in car is that i am the driver! so that makes things a little bit more interesting. We live with members in their huge house!! i will take pictures of it and send it to you. Speaking of pics can i get my cf card back?? or do you guys still need it? they are pretty nice people. the worse thing about it all is that we have to walk by their pool everytime we leave or return to the home... but it hasnt been too bad because we have had a few rainy days this week ( which makes it really hard when you are having a slow week because it just puts you in a depressed mood that you have to get out of.) Our area is one of the smallest areas in the mission... so i have heard. Our area from the bottom to the top elevates 1,400 ft... thats why we are in car haha. President pike also said that our area is the hardest area in the mission... i was like thanks for the encouragement pres. haha its alright though it hasnt had a baptism since february and that is exactly how South Hills was... it hadnt had a baptism since February. i have alot of faith that this area has alot of potential.

We dont have very many progressing investigators yet... but i feel something good about to happen so i am not to worried. we have had a couple good experiences and i am getting excited so i hope to see this area take off within the next couple weeks according to my faith, obedience, work, diligence and spirit driven desire to serve.

Dad with your work i felt a need to tell you this while i was listening to Conference... All i can say about your job is... The Lord wont let you down. Do all you can tehn put all... every bit of faith you have... in the lord. Just like the story in Ether Chapter 3 when they put all their Faith in the lord that he would touch the stones or diamonds... whatever they were, and the way would be lit or something i cant remember the story exactly, but you need to read it. The Lord can take away anything from us... he can also give anything to us because he owns everything... he knows what you need to sale to make quota... you just need to do your part not only in your job but also in family and spiritual life drawing near to Christ everyday... i know you do this because i have seen it, but for some reason i felt i need to say something.

Conference was so awesome... i sat in Priesthood wondering who you went with and i also had the thought... i wonder what Dad is thinking when they had us missionaries stand up... it was so great i learned so much... but i dont have much time i have to get going i love you guys so much , thank you for the package and letters they made my day it was so great...thank you

I love you guys so much and thought about you alot during conference hope all is well and all will continue to be well

I miss you all very very much adn sorry this is not very long

Love Elder Emery

September 27, 2010

Hey Guys... well i have been Transferred again:( i really wanted to stay in South Hills for another couple transfers i really enjoyed that area and the people there... it was awesome to be able to serve in that ward. I am in the La Crescenta 1st ward now i think it should be pretty good... i am still a little frustrated that i had to leave south hills, but there is nothing i can do about it.

Anyway the past week has been pretty good... Elder Dunn and i actually set up a free kool-ade stand haha we only had one person stop by and he was 19 and he was just basically just telling us how we are wasting our life... haha i thought it was pretty ridiculous, but hey we tried to get people to talk to us.

Went on exchanges with the district leader... and that was really good he said he really enjoyed being with me and he thought i was doing really good... so that was pretty good to hear!

Oh adn you said you wanted to know just a little bit more about Mike Cruz... well i am not sure what i have already told you... but Yes he does have a wife her name is Esther and there oldest Daughter is Perla she is 21, next is mike 18 and the youngest is Christian. They are a really cool family and one of the reasons that i am dissappointed that i am not still in south hills is because i dont get to help teach the rest of the family :( which is a big bummer ya know. i have to look on the plus side though... if the family gets really involved in the church and decides to be Baptized with in the next couple months... a year from that time i can go to their sealing in the Temple while i am still here on my mission! so that would be pretty exciting.

I dont know if you remember me talking about Josh Perez he was supposed to be baptized on September 19th. Well he cancelled that because his Friend at Mount Sac died in a wrestling match and so Josh wanted his baptismal day to be a really spiritual one... but he said it wouldnt be if he was just thinking about his friend the whole time.... so that was kind of a sad story to hear.

Saturday during the day we took dinner to three young girls Jackie, Maria, and michelle tejeda there Mom works alot so they are home all the time without a parent and they really ddidnt have much to eat so we decided to help them out. They were really excited, and it was a good feeling after we did that for them ya know what i mean??

Anyway not too much has gone on this past week... i am still trying not to be too bummed about leaving South Hills but it is hard ya know?? i hope things go good in this new area.

Sounds like things are still going good there... you will have to send me pictures of the front yard i have yet to see it

I got a letter from Connor this past week he seemed to have been doing really well... he is training right now and so he was telling me about that ... it was really cool to hear from him. i have been waiting for my letter from him for a while... now i am just waiting to hear back from Davis.. i will be excited to hear whats been going on with him.

Well i am glad that this is your favorite day... it is also one of my favorite days to because i get to tell you about what i have done the past week... well except for this past one because it was really slow but usually i like telling about my week.

How are the sports and school going?? i would love to hear back from the kids!

Sorry this Email isnt very up beat but i dont know what else to say... except that i love you guys very much and i so so so miss you with all my heart!
Love Elder Emery

September 20, 2010

Alright i guess you guys are not there...thats ok though you are probably busy.

Ok so this week was pretty good we talked with alot of people and invited them to take tours... we didnt have any tours this week, so that was kind of lame but its alright because i have good news...

well i have bad news and good news... which shall i tell first?? yeah i thought you might want to hear the bad news first, because then i can end on a good note.

Ok so this week we had an hour Zone Meeting on a few simple minor changes to the mission...

Well we can no longer eat with active members of the church :( it is kind of lame and i dont really know why it has to be put in affect... President Pike told us that its because when members feed us its them thinking that they have done their missionary work for the month... ok so i agree with this to an extent. some people have that mind set, but the greatest way to gain the members respect is to be with them... and it is hard to explain everything about this ya know... most members feed us and have a love for us so they dont want us to starve so i dont know really how i feel about this change but god does and thats what matters.

The good news is that our Baptism went through yesterday... it was sooo cool his name is Mike Cruz and he was way excited to get baptized... just to see the happiness that came after he was buried in the water and brought into his new life! he is the first to be Baptized in his family adn he cant wait to get the rest of his family involved... he has a family of 5 and he is excited for them to have the same happiness he has!

so that was a great way to end off the week... so everything is going good here! we have transfers next week... i so hope i dont move cause i love it here but its not my will ya know?? sounds like things are still moving along back in Ktown... Love ya guys and think about you alot!

Oh and i was the one who Mike chose to Baptize him!

Love Elder Emery

P.S i am attaching pictures of the Baptism to this so you can see it.

September 13, 2010

Hey Guys... well today started off pretty good...

Worked out

showered

took personal study

took companion study

Then the Stake Patriarch took Elder Dunn and I Golfing... it was soo sweet! I didnt play as well as usuall... i had to play with Graphite shafts so that was a little hard. I shot a 48 haha not too bad for not touching a club since May 4th (basically). Anyway so that was really fun today, and thats why i am E-mailing just a little bit later today... i did win though :)

Dad you mentioned something really interesting... about Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 " the worth of souls is great in the sight of god." i actually studied that this morning... wierd huh? anyway you could put that scripture into a different kind of context... Think of it like this. " The worth of souls is the Atonement in the sight of God." cause if you go on to verse 11 it talks about how Jesus took upon the sins and pains of the world or for all man... or something like that. then in verse 13 it says something like oh how great the joy or how he rejoices when men come unto repentance. god is like saying Finally they are repenting for their sins... i guess the atonement wasnt in vain... not that God would every say that, but do you know what i am saying... its because the worth of souls is Great!

Alright so our week was ok... we had another elder with us from Wednesday to Friday, adn that was a little bit hard... especially teaching, but we got by ya know. We had a good amount of lessons this week so i am not to dissappointed, but there is always room for

improvement.

I am pretty sure our Baptisms are still on... with Mike Cruz we are still on for sure... he was at church and he brought his daughter with him, and he seems really excited to learn more about the gospel. We have our last lesson with him tomorrow and then his interview is on Friday.

Josh Perez was not at church on sunday because he had wrestling... so we might have to move his back a week because you have to go to church atleast 3 times before you can get baptized... he has been twice but one of the times was a few months back so we are not sure on him yet... i sure hope he follows through because he really enjoys coming to lessons and he has been a little happier since the first time we met him... i wonder why?? probably the gospel.

Mom you are very lucky to be in Virginia...is it hot there? cause it is here and it kind of stinks riding bike in it. Yesterday the air was really dirty for some reason and it was really hard to breathe... i dont know what was going on.

That is really cool that you got to meet with missionaries... i bet they were really good at what they do... i am still trying to be better everyday because their is so much to learn in so little time. Yes definitely have the missionaries over sometime because building relationships with members is a big part of missionary work and their isnt any better way of doing that than to eat dinner with them!

You guys are the best and i love you alot... for some reason i have been having the thought alot of ... i just want to go home... and i really dont know why it was kind of hard to stay focused this week... and i dont even know why. Satan is probably just trying to do whatever he can to not have us get these next couple of people unto Christ... so i just have to stay strong because i am On the winning side in the long run!

Love you all as much love Jesus had to Create this earth, make a plan that revolved around him so that we can make it back to live with him and our Heavenly Parents

Elder Emery

Sept 7, 2010

Hey Guys... well things seem to be going really good around here. As you know we had our Baptism on Sunday and that was way cool! the lady we baptized was so happy and excited to get Baptized it was cool to see her progression from the first time we met her. at the end of the Baptism she got up and bore her testiomony... she has a very strong testimony of the gospel... she was just saying how much she has already grown in just one month. Elder Dunn was the one she asked to Baptize her... he did good haha he actually had to re-baptize her because her leg popped up.... maybe next time i will get a chance to do the baptism.

speaking of next Baptism... we have Josh Perez scheduled to get Baptized September 19th. he said yes he wants to be baptized, and he aslo was excited that he even told his friend about it, and she called us and told us how excited she was for him and that she wants to help out with the baptism... pretty cool huh? he enjoyed church on Sunday and he is really starting to grow too.

Mike Cruz we have not yet set a Baptism date with him yet... we are planning on doing that tonight actually... he has expressed his want for Baptism and for his family to really want to get involved in the church so that they can go to the temple together... i dont know why we have not committed him for Baptism yet. We will probably set him for September 19th also. Mike is currently working on this project out in Mexico... it is like a medical facility and a bunch of different things also surrounding this medical place... he asked me what Dad does for work and i told him you work for Stryker... instantly he started telling me how good Styker is and how they are the best in everything... he was just going off it was cool. Then he said that he actually might know you because your name sounded really familiar to him... he told me to ask you if you know the orthopedic surgeon Brent Prattley he was the surgeon at BYU... i dont know if he is anymore... He is one of Mike Cruz's Friends and that would be cool if you did know who he is... he said it might have been you that he talked to on the phone a few years back about something... i cant remember what.

any way besides those things nothing too exciting has been going on here... just doing work. I will send my Cf card home this week so you guys can see how it has been here in California ok.

Sounds like you had a pretty fun Labor Day weekend eh? Jensen sounds like she played pretty well... losing always stinks... sorry... you will get them next time!

It is very wierd it is already September... 4 months have come and gone kind of fast yet also kind of slow... but its alright because i am doing good and everything seems to be going well ya know. I love you guys and i hope you are all doing well.

Love Elder Emery

August 30, 2010

Hello Hello... o man i totally forgot about my plaque eh?? Well i am just not quite sure what scripture to put on it... there are so many good ones that have meant so much to me in these last few months that it is hard to choose. I guess one that i recently came upon was 1john 4:19 " we love him, because he first loved us." that is so true and i love that scripture very much because of the Love christ has for us that he would take upon my sins... my sins it definitely makes me wonder how many drops of blood the savior bled for me.

Then the other scripture that i came across was Doctrine and Covenants 88:63 "draw near unto me and i will draw near unto you ; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." this is what happened to the saints in kirtland when they were looking for some peace or strength... and i really like this one also because of the promise it makes in it... that he WILL draw near unto us if we Will just take time to draw near unto him. I am going to give you the choice on which one should go on the plaque... then you just let me know which one you choose... is that ok? I hope so

Yes the package came on saturday and i was so thankful for it... thank you very much! you guys are the best!!

Alright so about our week... well in all honesty it was really kind of a slow week. we didnt have very many lessons because our investigators like to drop appointments for some reason... i dont know why anyone would drop an appointment... crazy. yes Valerie is still planned to be baptized on the 5th... The Corderos were the family that kind of got her started in the gospel. Brother Cordero just became a member not even a year ago... and him and his wife are getting sealed in the temple this month! that is pretty cool if you ask me... but anyway we are hoping that she chooses Brother Cordero to baptize her because that would be so awesome for the both of them ya know... a new member of the church baptizing his friend... sooo cool!

so yes that is probably the only thing worth talking about on our investigators.

We always talk to crazy people on the street... sometimes its like.. Dude... where the heck did you come from?! you dont even know what your talking about... sometimes that is what i would like to say to people. haha

i actually have got to go right now but i was not done saying what i wanted to say... so i will write you guys some of my feelings about some things.. ok?

Love you guys so much i miss talking to you guys alot... only E-mail is very hard i wont lie...

Anyway love Elder E

August 23, 2010

alright to start things off... yes i did get skees package last week because it took a while to get here and then when usps tried to drop it by... i wasnt there a few times so that is why i havent wrote him yet. I plan on writing him and wishing him a happy birthday and also to write his family. You asked if i would write Bridger... yes i put it on my things to do last week i just didnt have enough time... (if you could somehow come up with a way to put another hour in a day that would be awesome)

This Morning while i was Studying... it hit me that the kids started school today. i was like Whoa!! that came pretty fast! That makes me sad that Brash was that nervous for school... i have thought about him too. You know that picture you sent me of him learning how to ride the dirt bike?? well i cut that out because it is pretty small and i put it on the back of my name tag... so i see him every time i put my tag on and everytime i take my tag off.

I remember dad saying something about Quincie going to do one dance class... that is great i am excited that she decided to go through with that and do the thing she loves to do! haha that is pretty funny what you told her about being nice to Jensen... Speaking of Jens... she wasnt nervous was she?? she has been ready for jr. high since last summer haha but i hope everything goes good for her to... it definitely takes time for the changes. that is funny that she is going to help dad lose 30 lbs. even though he probably is in pretty good shape cause doesnt he play basketball like everyday?? he probably deserves a chocolate cake ;) hahah!!

alright so for my week... well for the most part it was pretty slow. until last night when we found out that Valerie Contrerez (one of our investigators) is going to be Baptized September 5th... that is in two weeks!!! My companion and i are pretty excited we have been teaching her for about 3 and a half weeks... YESS!! My first investigator baptism!! she is really excited and she is learning a whole lot its awesome soo soo cool...

we are also making progress with many other investigators... we have like 8 but it is pretty slow for them... we have been given alot of referrals for this week to go by so hopefullly that goes good ya know?

Dad... it was interesting that you said that we will be giving people the Greatest gift in their lives... or you said something to that extent. It is wierd ot think about though... because its all falls into place from the wonderful Plan God has for us... if we center our lives around Christ and our Heavenly Father and do those things that are in harmony with their teachings the rest of our lives will just fall into place. We will be blessed with temporal blessings, but those arent important because that is not what we were brought here for ya know??... i dont know i just think it is intriguing to the mind...

Yes we get to go to the L.A Temple next week...I am pretty excited for that ... it seems like i havent been in forever... and it has only been about 3 months so that will be good. we have zone conference tomorrow finally we have it again... we havent had one since the first one we had.

well i miss you guys alot and i sure hope the kids get a good start off for school... hope everything goes well this next week... i cant believe that happened to Todd that is insane... if you could next week send me their address that would be nice... well off i go for another week... my favorite thing i read this week was Doctrine and Covenants 104 it is great...

Well i love you guys as Far as the sunshines!!

Elder Emery

August 9, 2010

Hey yall

Well from both of the Emails i received... sounds like alot has happened! haha i would have loved to see quincie and her friends run a 5k haha that would have been great. it is definitely crazy that 3 months have gone by and i am still alive... weird huh? This is the start of my sixth week with my companion... saturday is when we get the call on if we will be transferring or not! it seems like i just barely got with him ya know? Even if we do get transferred it has been fun working with him... he told me that i would probably go senior this next transfer haha i told him that might not happen haha that would be crazy if it did though. For some reason i thought davis was getting better obviously i was mistaken... hopefully things brighten up for him because what he is going through is probably really hard i would imagine (cause i cant really have any Empathy cause i have never been through it).

So Brash... you are going to be playing comp Baseball?? that is so cool man! I didnt even start comp until i was in like 5th or 6th grade. you must be really good at the pitcher position and you probably hit homeruns everytime you are up to bat huh? yeah because you are awesome!! keep practicing though because you can always get better no matter what.

Jensen and Quincie seems like things seem to be going pretty good... keep up the good work and dont hide your talents (read Matthew 25: 15- 30) because the lord is just waiting to bless us if we let our light shine forth in good. school starts up here in a few weeks... kind of sucks but work hard because i didnt and if i told you what i did do during school... you would end up only with barely above average grades so work harder than i did ok.

Alright so this week was kind of slow for some reason and their wasnt a whole lot that went on. We did have another tour on Wednesday and that was pretty exciting we didnt invite her to be baptized ... she wasnt ready for it but we have met with her 2 times since. i think in time we will get her to come unto the waters of baptism.

Sometimes i feel that we arent doing what we need to be doing because we havent had any baptisms... but i know that because we are working hard and doing all that we can to helping people to receive the restored gospel, because we can teach them all we know but once the ball is in their court it is their choice on whether it is important enough to them to take those next steps.

On Friday we had a lesson with Josh and i was doing an object lesson on repentance adn getting the Holy Ghost haha that could have gone alot better. it is the one with water soap and Pepper... i pretty much spilled everything everywhere i had josh laughing but thats ok because i got the point across on what he needed to do, so i just thought i would tell you about that funny experience.

My companion had another flat tire hahaha it is pretty funny... he gets really mad adn its just a bike ya know?? thats his 3rd one in 1 week!!

We are going to an investigators home today adn taking out all the bad stuff and burning it or throwing it away which ever one he feels will be most effective haha... that should be good.

I already have a couple goals i would like to do when i return

First i would like to run in the Ragnar or do the tour de france

Second i think it would be kind of fun to work as a E.F.Y instructor

Third learn to play the piano really good and also sing... for real

Fourth learn to play the acoustic guitar and write music and sing

Fifth ... for some reason i want to study einstien... i just enjoy some of his quotes and i think what he says is interesting.

My shoes have not came yet i dont know what is going on... its ok though Patience is a good thing to learn right?

Shampoo yeah just whenever you are not busy

Umm i dont think i need anything as of right now... i will let you know if i do. actually the sun has really been bugging my eyes lately and so i think i might go purchase some Sun Glasses... we will see though.

July 26, 2010

Hey

Its weird that i beat you guys to the Email today... i am guessing that you are probably pretty busy with getting Quincie off to EFY which is going to be a blast for her.

well not a whole lot went on this week it was pretty slow but kind of fast if that makes sense... which it probably doesnt because it is an impossible statement.

Monday well everything fell through and we had to find some other people to teach but we couldnt find anyone and so that kind of sucked... we just kind of chilled during the day because it was p-day so that was nice.

Tuesday i dont really remember what happened... we went and helped one of our members move, and we also went and did more service at the joslyn center and that is always interesting because we are working with old people ya know?

Wednesday we did alot of contacting and we went to a couple different parking lots and on the streets... we had a couple lessons not too many though. We met with a part member family and the wife is the non member and she is korean and she fed us korean food... that was really different, it was pretty good though. Their last name is Barnes and they have relatives that own or owned the Barnes bank in kaysville... i thought that was pretty crazy... dont you think?

Thursday is when we have district meeting and that was pretty good because we got a lot of time to practice teaching and do some role playing and things... that helped with knowing what to say to people when they give us certain answers back. we also had a lesson with another part member family and that was really good. the husband is not the member and the wife really wants to start going backe to church.. i mean who doesnt? but she is going to start to read the Book Of Mormon with her husband to hopefully spark an interest. then i saw a really cool quote in her kitchen... " if God brought you to it... he will get you through it" i thought that quote was awesome. i actually sent that quote to lara and Derek in the last letter i sent to them.

Friday was crazy because of weekly planning and also we had interviews with President Pike and that was really good... we had a good conversation and he cleared up a few of my questions i had about the work. all in all the day was good.

Saturday was alright we met with a man who was really wanting to get back on track and take his wife to the temple... we had a very spiritual lesson with him and we are going to work hard to help him reach that goal, because that is one of the greatest goals anyone could every achieve... that is one of my goals and i wont settle for anything less than that because there is no other way to get eternal family happiness.

well i am out of time thank you for everything and also thanks for the last package i forgot to thank you for that last week. would i be able to get some more shampoo if possible?

Love you all.

Elder Emery

July 19, 2010

Hey Mom,Dad,quincie,Jensen, and Brash,

Wow sounds like things are really going good there... everyone seems to be staying busy and having fun! haha i was thinking the other day that your summer is almost over it is pretty crazy... you only have a little over a month left wierd huh?

Anyway so this last week was a little bit different... all the district and Zone Leaders had meetings Tuesday through Friday so this meant that all of their companions had to go with other companions so we were in a tricompanionship and it was a little bit different.

Monday was a pretty good day once we got out and started doing stuff... we went by this family that had been contacted before and they were really nice and all. They were telling us that they really wanted to start going to church again, and that they were also going to be getting married soon... they really want us to come by again and the guy said that he would even take us fishing haha he was pretty cool. He grew up in calvary chapel church ( those are the ones who teach classes on how to hate LDS members) so we thought taht would make it difficult to talk with him but everything seemed to be ok.

Tuesday is when we had another elder with us... he just barely came out this last transfer so one after me. He is a pretty good Missionary. But we went to the joslyn center and provided service for the elderly people and then went and had a lesson with one of our investigators then we just went and visited with a bunch of different people ya know? we were suppose to have a tour this day but that fell through because nobody knows how to write anything down.

Wednesday i enjoyed this day because we went to a parking lot and contacted people.. we would just kind of go off and talk to seperate people( but we wouldnt get too far away from eachother) and i ended up setting up a tour with a couple people for saturday... i was proud of myself... then we ate at del taco. we visited a couple investigators... one of them we taught the 10 commandments and obedience very good lesson. we were suppose to have three other lessons and those fell through very lame. but i thought it was a pretty good day.

Thursday was alright we didnt seem like we had very much going on... we only taught like 4 lessons and most of them were with LARC (less actives/Recent Converts) wich is not a bad thing but still. we also had some more lessons fall through but that was alright because we found other people to talk with.

Friday... you know what this means dun dun dun... Weekly Planning but its not too bad anymore but dont get me wrong i am still not a fan of it. we only had 2 lessons a day... which is not bad because in my last area we would go a couple days without a lesson so everything is good. its only because people forget they set up to meet with us and then we show up and they arent there, but its ok because its summer and i think about if i was home... usually we were always out doing something like swimming or went to a movie ya know.

Saturday you know that tour that we set up?? well they didnt show up because basically we are "Mormon" and people dont get that we are still Christian even though we belong to the LDS church... if they would look at our name tags that would explain everything... so yeah that made me kind of frustated... besides that we only ended up meeting with a few people but we talked with alot of people on the streets.

Sunday was really good the lessons that were taught to us could not have been done any better... and you should have seen the hill we had to ride up for dinner... you would have pooed your brain.

all in all things are going pretty good... there was another earthquake not too long ago about a 5.4 or something so that was different but i didnt feel it... it has been really hot and humid the other day it was 108 and it rained and made things worse hahaha but its alright because i am still alive :)

Yes dad we get 140 dollars every month so that is good... helps us budget pretty well. anyway hope you all are doing good... i am writing you all today so be on the look out about wednesday for your letters alright!

Love you and Miss you

July 12, 2010

Hey Guys sounds like things are going pretty good there... but i am not really sure because its hard to put everything in a couple paragraph Email, but if everything is not well... dont worry the future is bright and we must not get ourselves down about what might have happened this past week because everything just gets better from here... i have been trying to think about that Daily.

Anyway Monday was a very different day.... because it was transfer day and i really wasnt looking forward to it because i had just gotten comfortable with my trainer, but there was nothing i could do about it because he has to train again. so we are on bike now... this is going to be a long transfer haha but whatev. we went by this less active family and they started getting tears in their eyes when they saw me because they said that i looked like their step son whom they havent seen in 6 years... that was pretty wierd and actually the next couple of times we went over their the father could keep himself together so that was a little bit of a different experience.

Tuesday is when i Emailed you last and we had service that day and we go to kind of a old folks home and help then out a little bit... that was pretty fun because then i wasnt doing yard work :) haha but while we are on bike we get to talk to alot more people and that is way cool because we can actually communicate with them because i have only seen about 5 asians around... its so wierd to see that like 10 miles away is like a totally different country ha. we set up a bunch of diffferent lessons with people and things should be going pretty good there.

Wednesday we had more lessons and just setting up l alot more times where we can meet with people and this day i met a few of the investigators and we are trying to get things going for them.

All the other days are about the same... we are just talking with a bunch of people and just asking people to take tours and if they are interested in talking with us haha but i am still just getting used to the area.

Yesterday was Sunday obviously and we had church at 11 and during sacrament the bishop had me get up and bear my testimony ha ha so that was a surprise... definitely not expecting that ya know... church was very good though . we also visited a bunch of families and went to dinner at a members house... we helped a lady change her blown tire that was sweet... we were driving to a members house to help them move some stuff around and on our wasy there i crashed on my bike and got all scraped up... my shirt might have to be thrown away because of all the blood and dirt on it... but thats ok because i have 9 others exactly like it haha!

We had 23 lessons this week and we picked up 2 new investigators... 0 tours :(

our goal for next week is 75 tour invites 5 new investigators which is very possible because of all the people we have talked to... and 5 new shouldnt be too hard of a goal.

So sorry this week wasnt very exciting for you to read about... but i just started here so things will only get better. right?

My Companion Elder Dunn is a really good guy... he knows his stuff really well and he also enjoys what he is doing which is really good... because their is alot of elders here who are really apostate. not me though:)

alright... No My shoes have not arrived yet i dont know what is taking them so long but it is ok for now i can wait... oh and i am not exactly sure who Paul Singley is... i am guessing he is related to the Singleys haha but that is all i would know.

Thanks for everything i will right the kids back as soon as i get enough time... we have just been really busy. umm you asked for things you could send me... right now i really dont need anything... you guys already do enough for me so their is no worries their. Oh and no your letters dont make anything worse... anybody that writes me actually make my day better if i am having a hard day cause i read them but i dont dwell on them... but things are going a little better so yeah letters are good.

Thanks again for everthing i love and miss you guys alot... hope all is going well... and hopefully you are getting some swim days in haha because i know those are the best!

Love you all!

Love Elder Emery

July 6, 2010

Hey Guys... My first 6 week are up and I have Been Transferred!!! it is so crazy i am really disappointed that i had to leave my ward because that ward reminded me alot of home. Ha and some of the members were a little sad too because i just barely moved into the ward, but i guess i must have done something right with my trainer because i am no longer with him... and i really was just starting to get along with him and we were just starting to get things going, but oh well.

Monday was kind of a crazy day last week we had a little Party for Elder Cronk ( he is the Elder who was in chinese speaking) He actually headed home yesterday... I liked him alot, but i will probably be able to see in when i get home because he is attending BYU. so we did that and i wrote alot of letters to people that made my hand tired.

Tuesday we had a couple lessons fall through and that is never fun so we just ended up contacting most the day... and sometimes i feel like that isnt very effective because we cant communicate with very many of the people ya know cause they speak Chinese :( so that is definitely hard not going to lie. We also stopped by alot of less actives and we came across one who was really wanting to get back involved with the church he just didnt know where to start kind of thing... adn he was saying his kids are getting to the age where they can do boy scouts... we decided to start there!

Wednesday this was a pretty good day we went to a grocery store parking lot and with the 2 elder speaking chinese and we split up with them... so i went with Elder Johnson and the other two went together. We invited 15 people to come on a tour and 1 said yes... that was pretty fun though just to be able to see how the chinese elders speak with the chinese people... but i pretty much invite everyone i talk to come on a tour with us so i am getting used to that ya know? we also went by a less active family and had a little lesson (well as much lesson as we could get out) with them.

Thursday this is the day we have district meeting and Elder Weenig is the District Leader so he just goes over thing that we learned about in Zone Conference 3 or 4 weeks ago... We have our next Zone Conference on July 13th so that will be good... we also did alot of door knocking today and as usuall we got yelled at to get off some peoples property ha i dont think that will ever get old... people are so rude and i dont know why? we were suppose to have a tour today but that fell through :(

Friday as usuall we had Weekly planning and i really dont remember what we did this day... except we were suppose to have two tours and those both fell through also :(. But me and my companion had kind of a cool/wierd experience in the church... we were walking down the hall and we passed a room i look over and i saw someone... i was like what the heck?? so i take a couple steps backward and no one was there... i told my companion and he said that was pretty wierd. then a few minutes later while i was using the John aka Restroom my companion said while he was sitting there playing the piano he saw someone s head pop into the window but he didnt get a good glance at it... then he said right before i came out of the bathroom he caught a glimse of something white pass by the glass window... i dont know what it was and the building was empty because we unlocked it and we went and checked to see if there were any cars around and there wasnt... Wierd Eh??

Saturday we had another tour but that also fell through... but we rescheduled that one...YESS! again we did alot of contacting and that fun stuff then later that night we waited for Transfer calls to come in... I moved to the South Hills Area its in the Glendora Stake and our apartment is in Covina... My New Companion is Elder Dunn he is a red head from Seattle seems like he will be a good missionary!

Sunday was just a typical sunday... for the Closing prayer a lady actually read Mathew 6:5-10 that was really wierd and i was like whaaaa??? then the counselor got up and said a Prayer haha yes we did go eat at a members so that was good... and we also didnt go to sleep until forever because people were doing fireworks all night!!! Crazy

anyway i have got to go do missionary work... i wrote you a letter yesterday i love you all and hope eeverything is well!! Quincie Jensen and Brash you guys will have to write me and tell me all about the cabin and the 4th love ya Elder Emery

June 28, 2010

well i will write you guys anything else that i might have missed... i have to get off now:( but i will talk to you all later i love you all... Brash Do good in your games and keep winning... Jens Play and Practice hard in Tennis Cause thats the only way you will be ablt to beat me... quincie Your Going On a Hike??? is Cody going ??? haha just kidding have fun and Good Luck at your appointment tommorow!

haha you guys are so wierd!! Anyway my Week was pretty good... i had my first exchange on tuesday and the Junior Zone Leader came down to our area and i had to take him around for the day and go to our appointments... that was very stressful because i also had to drive and i had no clue where i was going... i was kind of freaking out, but that elder is pretty cool so everything ended up being alright. He said that i did really good and to just keep doing what i am doing... we also found two potentials so i was pretty excited about that. when we exchanged back my companion was pretty surprised because we are just trying to find people and so he was pretty excited.

Then Wednesday seemed really long because we just contacted most of the day because we really didnt have any set plans which made things a little hard ya know. Because my companion is District leader we had to go on exchanges with the other missionaries in our district and that was an interesting experience... So Thursday is when we made the Exchange and we were on bike the whole day... Lamee!! anyway the Elder I was with didnt have any back up plans if the people we were going to see fell through. He wouldnt let me stop and get a drink. We got yelled at by some guy he told us that he would be our friends in the next life if we didnt talk about religion with him. got sworn at a couple times... Went to dinner with a family who thought i was Denzel Washingtons Son and were trying to get me to autograph things haha very fun family though... Went over to a lady Named Marcel and we start talking and she said she was from Haiti and so i was like oh nice my uncle is from Haiti and she was like Oh whats your Uncles name and i told her and she said she is Related to some Guillames and she wants me to get Zachs # so she can call him and see if they are related she got way excited about the whole situation so if at all possible would i be able to get his #? and then to end the night we had to ride up this huge hill i was very tired i must say... so that was Thursday

Fridays i dont really like because we have weekly planning from 10:30 till 2 it is so long and boring it is rediculous... that day wasnt to exciting i am trying to remember if anything happended.. ummm nope that was about it because our appointments fell through. oh and my Urine has been looking pretty Murky again lately... i dont remember if that is good or bad... anyway Saturday we were suppose to have a tour and that didnt happen... mainly because nobody writes anything down so they forget that we set up things with them haha kind of sucks if you ask me. Later that night their was a Patriotic Concert that we had to go to because we had to usher and ya know... that was pretty good not gonna lie. oh and before i forget... the night the lakers Won Everyone was going CRAZYYY juss saying. alright i dotn know if i have mentioned this yet but we live with Elders that cover the Chinese Part and they are pretty good guys. i Really Like Elder Cronk he has given me some good advice and he is cool to be around... he actually goes home on the 6th so he is pretty nervous. yeah so that means that we are coming to the end of this transfer pretty dope yo!!!