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