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!!!

June 21, 2010

Anyway my week was pretty good... to answer your questions about family Emailing... i am not quite sure... i know that i can not answer them back on the Computer... i would have to answer them back by writing them. An for the package... i received it on saturday so that means that it got to the mission office on Friday. Thank you so much for that and i hope you didnt have to Pay for another pair of shoes cause that would have been lame. The treats you sent were still in good shape and they were very good. and thank you for the Cd's

Mom i know how you feel With the whole Lara, derek, and Jack moving away situation... it is really hard not to be able to go over to your best friends house just to talk or have that person just come over to give you company. Ya know i had to give up some of that stuff and i am not saying it is the same situation cause their family will be gone for 8 years... but it is very similar. I think about them moving all the time and it is very sad because everyone says when you get back everything and everyone will be here waiting for you... thats true for the most part... but Lara and Derek and Jack will not be around and it makes me sad also cause i look up to them alot and they do so much for everyone in the family and especially our family. We could ask them anything and they would be there helping us no matter what, and they have been such a big influence on my life its crazy... they always give me advice and are willing to help me with anything... just how your relationship is with lara. I know it is a sad time but everything will work out for the best i promise.

For me this week ... we really didnt have alot going for us. we are stilll in the finding mode and we actually have 4 potentials from the other day when we went contacting at a few apartment complexes so that was pretty exciting! Then saturday we had more service with Sister Luras... speaking of her did you receive the email from her?? hopefully you did. Church was the same we had a pretty good day... except when we went contacting we didnt have very much luck :( so it was not a very exciting week at all , oh and there was a 5.7 earthquake last monday... that would have been wayy sweet if i would have felt it. and i keep getting the "you look like a young Denzel Washington" haha and one lady told me she wants to introduce me to their grand daughter haha dont they know i am not supppose to be thinking about that kind of stuff.

Anyway i hope brash is still enjoying baseball and is still doing awesome! Brash you should make dad take you to the batting cages... but he probably wont go cause you will beat him at that too hahaha!!

Quincie and jensen it sounds like you guys had a very fun time at girls camp! you will have to write and telll me about your experiences i bet you have some pretty cool ones! hope your summer has been good so far and hopefully it doesnt end to fast cause school kind of stinks haha.

hopefully nana got her letter from me and hopefully that cheered her up a little ya know??sorry i have not written very much for some reason i am typing really slow and i dont know why... but thank you for everything and i miss you guys alot feels like i have been out for forever and it really has only been like a month and a half. if you guys have any specific questions please ask because i would love to answer them... its just hard to know what to write about when you dont have a very interesting week ya know?

anyway love you all and miss you like crazy!!

Love Elder Emery

June 14, 2010

Hey Guys... I just Read your letter and I just wanted to say that yes I am Writing the kids back today. This is how i do it... whoever writes me within the week... that is who i write too on Monday... so thats why i havent written back because i just got their letters this week, and i can only write on Mondays.

I am glad you guys got my package, but you didnt say anything about my memory card... did you receive that also... i hope you did because that was the most important part of the message :)

Dang didnt mean to send that message... I wasnt done yet.

Anyway this week was a litte bit different...

Monday: we hadour P-day as usual and we played basketball with some people and then i just wrote some letters and did laundry and shopping ya know>

Tuesday: we had Zone Conference as i said in my letter to you guys. That was really neat sooo coool. the way they trained us and everything was awesome! they gave us some good tips on how to talk with people, and how to ask for referrals so i enjoyed that, it was from 9 in the morning till 2 or 2:30 seemed long but it went by really fast!

Wednesday: was just a normal usual day went out and talked with people... went by some Formers and Less Actives and alot of people just dont want anything to do with the church anymore because they think that because they have all of their stuff (Big House, Nice Cars, Cool Toys) that they dont need anyone in their life right now... especially God which is really frustrating and very sad. i dont know if i have told you this but we also teach a Book Of Mormon classes Wednesday night and i really like doing that... but we just need to get more people attendng the class... or we will have to drop it... which i dont want to do.

Thursday: we visited with our two investigators and we had really good lessons with them and they just need to come to church so they can be baptized... they are so close... so close they just dont have the right amount of faith right now. So that is what we are working on with them right now. we also ran into a really wierd/ funny guy but i dont have enough time to tell you about that right now... then we took a family on a tour (already members) and i enjoyed that... went very well.

Friday: we have weekly planning every friday, and that takes forever... but it needs to be done or we dont know what or how we are going to teach for the week... it is so Long though haha. we did alot of contacting and still havent found anyone new to teach.

Saturday: we had some service at a ladies house where we dug out some Huge Tree roots it was insane! they were so Big! i am actually going to give her your guys email so she can send you the pics :) we did alot of knocking and less active work and that was about it.

Sunday: went to church and did some contacting and formers and some referrals

so the week was alright it went pretty fast the start of the week then towards the end it was a bit slower. Now when i look back though i am like wow the week is over and we start the new one and we are almost half way done with today... so its pretty cool! Sounds like things are going well at home and i hope everything is well at home... Dad i just want to tell you happy Fathers Day... i am sending you a card... cause right now i am out of time... i love you guys alot and i pray for you all everyday!!

Love Elder Emery

June 7, 2010

Hey Guys,

How are you all doing? from the letters and email it sounds like you are all pretty good. my week was alright it didnt feel like we did very much ua know? but we are working hard so i guess thats all that matters!

So the day i sent my last e-mail we were out contacting this one street and like our 5th door wee knocked on a lady answered and seemed pretty interested in what we were talking about. Then out of no where she starts asking us all these weird questions and started saying some weird stuff then something she said made me clue in that she was like a devil worshipper and i was like oh boy... it was sooo wierd she was literally crazy. i just dont understand how people can do stuff like that oh and the weirdest part about the whole thing is that she was saying that it wasnt satan that was telling her to do what she does... it was our heavenly father. uggghhh that was such a frustrating conversation and then after i just felt sick, 'cause i was like what the heck just happened, but it ended up ok because when we left i just said a prayer to help keep us safe. adn i hope that never haoppens again

another thing that happened this week that made me very frustrated with my companion was... last sunday we set up an appointment with a guy to take him on a tour on friday... but we were going to go over to him and visit with him on wednesday just to see how he was doing and make sure he still wanted to go on a tour friday. So tuesday night while we were planning i mention at the end that we needed to go visit this guy at 3:30 because thats what time we set up an appointment with him... his name is pete by the way. My companion says well we have already made plans to go contact tomorrow at the other part of town so if he really wants to go on a tour he will be there later that night... i was like dude if we set up an appointment with somebody three days ago with someone who is snterested in what we teach... we had better be there, and he says no it will be fine you will see, and the donly thing i could say was whatever ya know. oh and we have a appointment with a pasture on Wednesday.... that should be very very interesting especially because he invited us over.

Wednesday we go where we are suppose to meet him... rember we are suppose to meet him at 3:30... we go over there at like 8 pm and guess what... he wasnt there! i was like bro i told you he wouldnt be here... if we set up something with someone we cant just blow them off. well he then says to me that oh its ok he will be ready to go on friday. ( this companion of mine just doesnt understand) Friday rolls around and to make a long story short... Pete wasnt there and we havent been able to contact him since. SO SOO mad you dont even understand. another thing... since i have been out (mtc included) i have developed a thiing where i want to be on time for everything. this companion really doesnt care and it is really frustrating... he is a great trainer for the most part but i really am not getting along with him. i love the ward i am in.... the people are awesome and great but i really wouldnt mind a new companion. I am sure you want me to return home in one piece... but that might not happen if i am with this guy. we were no more than 10 ft from getting t-boned on my side the other day... he pulled out in front of a car that was going like 45 i just about freaked out...he is the craziest driver i have ever been with we almost get in a crash everyday and i am not joking when i say that either. sorry i had to tell you all this but i wanted to tell someone and I am trying to make it work but it is very hard!

I was getting kind of frustrated while reading your E-mail, because of the part about baseball... that just makes me mad. Why cant they see how that hurts Brash? do they just not care or do they think he is too young??? what is going on there? I cant wait till i coach Brash and we beat them in whatever sport is in season... and then they will think to themselves... shoot.. we should have picked up Brash along time ago. Just tell him not to worry and everything will be ok... he is good enough to play with them even if he doesnt make it. well thanks for the letters and email i love them so much and also love and miss you guys alot... not a day goes by where i dont think about you all.. i will try and send you guys a letter on the other stuff that has been going on because i have run out of time so i have to get off... Love you ALL very much

Love Elder Emery

I'm here!!!

1st Letter from California

June 1, 2010

Hey Guys its tuesday afternoon here in California... it has been so crazy here the first week. when i first got her i was very nervous about everything that was to come... and i actually got sick and then it didnt help that the homesickness set in. Being at the MTC was wierd because when i was there i still felt really close to you guys... ya know because i was always going down that way to hang out with people. Here in California i just feel so far away its crazy, and the thing is... i really am not too far from home.

My companions name is Elder Weenig he is from Grand Junction Colorado. He is a great trainer... i am learning alot from him. he is a really nice guy... so i am doing good.

We only cover one ward but the boundaries are so spread out... its insane! We have dinner appointments almost every night, so that is pretty nice, but i will probably be huge when i get back... just saying. Now that i think about it i probably wont be to much bigger because we ride our bikes almost everyday.. so that is kind of nice.

On Sunday we had to speak in sacrament Meeting... On something from Preach My Gospel... That was very interesting and i was pretty nervous. Everyone was so nice after and told us how good we did... i really like the ward alot bunch of great people.

Ok so the teaching... kind of frustrating. Our Mission is the "Pilot" mission for "teaching in chapels"... you probably are undure what that is.... let me explain. So when we contact someone on the street and they are interested in learning more we ask them if we could set up another time to meet and share a lesson with them... the way we ask is by saying something like " How would you like to learn more about what we teach and about our beliefs?? we are actually taking people who are interested in our religion through a tour of our church... it should only take about 20 minutes." So we take people through a tour of our church and we stop at like 5 different stations you could say... and teach them about what we know. thats just the first lesson... the other lessons still have to be in the church too. i am not going to lie... its very frustrating i am not a fan of it yet... because the way i was just barely taught in the MTC is totally different from what we are suppose to do now, not to mention its also hard to get people to the church which is forever away. hopefully we can get more people doing it... cause right now we only have 1 person set up to tour this week.

Their are so many asian people around... its Nuts. honestly when people think of california... i can tell you this much... they dont think of where i am at which is Temple City its right next to Arcadia and it is rundown. the place we stay is gross but theres nothing i can do about it ya know?? i am going to be sending a package home it will have my shoes that are coming apart and also my CF card... i took a video on it and it is kind of hard to hear and its not the best recording ... My Bad, but it works pretty good, it was just my test run of how the video portion of my camera worked haha.

Any way i enjoy the letters from home... they always brighten my day! But i would just like say thank you Mom and Dad for everything you have done and will do for me... i appreciate it so much you guys mean so much to me and i also lopve you so much i miss you all like crazy. Something that didnt help was when we were at an investigators... their next door neighbor had their radio going and a U2 song came on and i started to tear up a little... and then we were at luch yesterday and the place we were in was playing IZ so it made me think about home. The week was really slow and people say it will speed up... so we will see haha but i am enjoying it here. we have a few investigators that we teach and also some less actives. Door knocking is hard... some people (mostly Asian) dont even open their door... instead they just yell through it... Sooooo lame i hate it, but again their is nothing i can do about it.

well i have to go... if you could send some family addresses and connors and davis address to... that would be great. love you all thanks for everything it means alot to me!!

Love Elder Emery

May 28, 2010

Elder Emery's flight to California

More MTC

2nd MTC letter

May 19, 2010

Hey Fam Just Read Your E-mail... kind of lame that i have to get it a week later and now alot of other stuff has probably happened. This Week has gone by pretty fast we've had a couple really good lessons and we have still been teaching our investigator. Actually on Monday one of our investigators that we were teaching was kind of starting to understand a litttle more about our religion.. so i took the initiative and asked her to be baptized and she agreed to it! Even thought the investigator is just playing a role it was still pretty exciting if ya ask me. I have alot of letters to send of today so you should tell everyone that they should be arriving by friday or saturday i just have to finish up a few and then i will send them off.

I didnt mean to push the send button... these computers here are messed up. Me and Elder Boyd he is a young man in my district get along really well he is from Florida and he is hilarious... and we are already planning on hanging out in two years. he has family that lives over in Kaysville by Ponds Park so i thought that was pretty sweet! How is everything going there seems like i have been gone for forever but at the same time it seems like havent been here for very long the days are flying by and this might sound wierd but we have been told that here at the MTC it goes by really fast... Out in the field it goes by even faster. and that makes me sad cause i enjoy what i have been doing and it is nice just learning and teaching the things of our Gospel. One of our Branch presidents told me in an interview with him on Sunday that He has seen a change in me... He said when he first met me i was kind of... well i cant remember the words he used but it was along the lines of friendly, talkative, fun kid... then he said but since you have been here i have seen that you have changed and become more serious... and the lord has put you in California because of your personality and when you mesh that with your seriousness you will make an outstanding Missionary and i would love to see the Elder Emery in two years because you will have changed so much it will be amazing! When he told me that i was pretty excited because i have not seen the change but i guess other people can!

We had some new Elders come in and There was this one in particular... He is from Romania and he is the only one in his family who is Mormon and while he was at school in Washington he sent in his papers. When he was back home his parents would never let him go to church or anything and they would make him go to the baptist church with them. When he told them that he was going on a Mission they said he would have to pay for everything and they would not be writing him (well atleast the Parents) And he is here and hasnt received mail from his parents... he has written them, but only his brother has written back.

He has tremendous Faith and i look at him and see a strong kid who wants to help bring people unto christ. I just thought i wuld share that with you because it was something i was thinking about.

Next week i get
Elder Emery

The MTC

1st Letter from the MTC

May 12, 2010

Hello Family!! I have survived my first week at the MTC, and let me tell you... it was the longest week of my life! I learned alot thought so much information has been given to us it really is so crazy. trying to take it all in and trying to memorize all i can is hard.

Wednesday Day 1: this day i was so sad and all i could think about was you guys my friends and everything else i have left behind and it really made my day hard cause it was making me just not want to be here at all. I Met my companions Elder James and Elder Hampton they are cool Elders Actually Elder Hampton is from Rigby Idaho... so thanks for jinxing me with that one haha. We just had meetings all day and then went to bed

Thursday: This day was the hardest to wake up 'cause it took me forever to fall asleep the night before and then we had to wake up at 6:15... it was Awesome. we met our teachers and i really like Brother Adams... he is a great teacher i have learned alot from him way awesome teacher. we also just had some discussions on the first lesson and stuff... nothing too exciting

Friday: again it took me a while to fall asleep the night before... but this morning we had to go do service at 6:30 holy crap i was tired it was unbelievable... but wait it gets better. we go to do our service and guess what we have to do... The Toliets! geez i was like kill me now... but it actually wasnt too bad so i didnt complain. we had more meetings and stuff like that personal study and companion study... you know how it goes right?

Saturday: We had to be at the Gym at 630... gym was great it actually woke me up... but after that we had to take showers and i still dont think i have had a warm shower up to this day. i cant remember what happened this day... sorry

sunday: This day was such a good day... the spirit was strong today with all of our study and companion study it just didnt get any better. And we have to prepare a talk every sunday because during sacrament meeting the branch president just gets up and anounces who will be speaking that day... that is pretty crazy if you ask me. i didnt have to give my talk pheww but i did have to bless the sacrament.. .so that wasnt bad. we also had a fireside which was great!

Monday: Today we gave our First lesson to an investigator... it was awesome i felt like the sister really understood what we were talking about and was really feeling what we were teaching to her was the truth. that was a great day i felt pretty good about the whole thing and i am going to challenge her to be baptized the next time we meet with her which is Monday... pretty exciting eh?

Tuesday: Today we learned how to give the whole first lesson in 1 Min... that is pretty cool that all that needs to be said can be said in 1 min... we have practiced that alot and it is going good i feel that when we just go up and start talking to people that i will be able to say everything i need to say in a minute and if they have any further questions that is when i ask if we can set up a time to meet with them. later that night we had a devotional... and guess who came and spoke with us?! Jeffrey R. Holland!! Wow he gave such a good talk it was so amazing i took alot of notes because it was so good. i dont have time to go into it right now cause of the time so maybe i will send a letter talking more about it ok? ok!.

Anyway thanks for everything you my family have been doing for me... i pray for everyone of you everyday and dads job speaking of that, hows that going? i love you all so much and Miss you all alot i hate not being able to get an answer from you guys as soon as i write haha but i guess that is just part of it. thank you for the packages and snacks and thanks for sending my watch it is most appreciated. Oh and i love DearElder it is so nice just getting letters on random days it is awesome keep doing that.

Hey Mom would you be able to give me G-pa and G-mas Address and Nanas and well just give me everyone you can think of:) love you all thanks

Love Elder Emery

MTC

Your family dropped you off at the MTC on

May 5th 2010.

Your journey has begun.

Set apart

Chaz was set apart the night of May 4th

there were many tears shed, but we love you

Chaz and are proud of you.