January 31, 2011

Hey Guys... thank you so much for the E-mails they really made my day!

I just have to mention both of your emails to me today... you both Had great things to say about each other and i jsut have to say how thankful i am for your Love for eachother and the relationship you have... it helps us kids out alot when we see how close you two are... it makes us want to draw closer together as a family... it is wonderful, so thank you for your example. oh yeah i forgot to tell you this... last week Whitney wrote me... (she is a good writer) and said that she heard Lindsay will be getting married June 24th....LAAAaame its alright i am excited for her.

anyway yes i have played ball with Pattens little brother a few times... he is a pretty funny kid and he is a good player... he said i should try and play in college... its only cause i am better than jimmer fredett!! seriously though... you put me behind the 3 point line and i will go 8 for 10 i am money 3 pt range... i dont know what happened but i am a shooter now... and i throw down every once in a while too... my vertical has gone up a little bit. not right now cause i rolled my ankle last week playing but i am going to play today.

Sounds like Saturday was a good day, but very stressful. it was good to hear that story about how the missionaries came in and asked what they could do to help... i was just thinking the other day " i dont know what i can do to help the ward out more... everything i do just seems to be a waste." hearing how much you appreciated their help made me realize that no effort is wasted... that i do make a difference to someone when i ask them if they need help or if we can come share a message with their family... thanks for that i will just keep serving them with all my heart and try the best i can to bring a little peace and happiness to them. Mom i am glad that you stuck with your plan and didnt go with the salad idea... you knew what you were doing and you were being helped i mean if you really should have changed to salad then i think the spirit would have prompted you to change, but you were being helped by the spirit and i see it as almost like a test... satan was trying to get in the way and stayed strong to what feelings and impressions you had while preparing for this... and that is awesome.

Brash .... keep your hair how it is ok buddy!

my week went well we lost two investigators and picked up one... The one we picked up has been like a dry mormon for about 13 years now... his wife is an active member and her children go too... he has expressed to us that he wants to learn from us missionaries and be baptized so that he can baptize his son! i think i told you this last week but it is so cool! they had us over on Monday and we had a great lesson with him... they fed us a great meal and it was good... we really needed a good home cooked meal... its been a while... and we have a lesson with them again tonight and its the Plan of Salvation... my favorite lesson to teach!!

Being a District Leader is fun... i really have grown to like our District! they are great we all have a great love and respect for everyone in the District... the thing i still have to get used to is District Meeting! it is hard but it is good i really enjoy it!

well i have to get going i really do miss you guys... 9 months away from youall has been so so hard, but i do see the importance of it!

Thank you for the package it was great made my week !!!

i love you very much!!

i will write you kids this week thank you for those letters!

sorry it is not very long

Love Elder Emery

January 24, 2011

Well... i am not sure where to start... there has been alot of information given to me some that i would not have guessed and also some that i heard about but i am relieved to hear things are alright.

Grades sound good... i am glad to see my brother and sisters doing well in school! that makes me happy to see them doing so good, but there is always room for improvement right? and Brash i am glad you are trying your best in school... handwriting is a little bit hard when you are 8... my handwriting didnt get good until i came out here so you have time to make that better ok, so i willl send you a prize dont worry!

i am not going to lie mom your sales pitch was pretty good... but maybe you should tell dad that you will make him his own chocolate cake also haha!

Their is and Elder out here is name is Elder Rust... he lives like over across the street from swan lakes... i have become pretty good friends with him and we plan on doing some things together when we return back (like getting in a bball league playing golf... those kinds of things) and he has horses... he has alot he says... he told me to tell you about them and maybe i can get you and his parents talking to each other so that yoiu can ride their horses.. how does that sound? Elder Rust returns home at the End of August so a few months before me. Dad you might have played against him in your Clearfield league... i was telling him about you and stuff... he was like i think i know who you are talking about... " does he shoot lights out?" i was like yep thats my Dad!!

Haha we played baseball with some of the kids in the ward... they love us! it was pretty fun... they want to go Golfing and see if i am good at that also haha they are trying to find something that i am not decent at... as long as they dont say curling then i should be pretty good... but who am i kidding curling really isnt a sport.

We taught the seminary once and that was pretty fun... i can only imagine what my seminary teachers were thinking about me... we probably will teach it again in February... which will be really fun!

We also played basketball with some of the high school kids in our ward and that was fun... some of them play on the High School team so they were pretty good.

This week we found 4 new investigators... and we took them all on tours. two of them have Baptismal dates for February 13th... we are very excited about that. We are picking up another investigator tonight. he is not a member but his wife is and he wants to baptize his son... how cool is that? he goes to church almost every week and has been for the past 13 years!! it is so crazy!!

To answer your question about Casey going on a mission... i received a letter from his parents this past week and they didnt say anything about that, but they did say that Dylan has decided to go on a mission... i think that is great!! he doesnt turn 19 until next January... i might be home by the time he leaves...

We go around telling people the importance of Temple marriage and how happy you can be to live with your family forever. to see people faces light up after we tell them that they can have the opportunity to be sealed as a family to live with them and our Heavenly Father Forever it makes all the difference in what Choices i will be making when i come to the decision of marriage. i dont know what to say. i guess one thing that comes to mind is... if Our Heavenly Father wants them to be together and if they have the Desire to work things out and forgive for whatever the situation might be then everything will work out... Everything happens for a reason... we arent always sure why, but thats why we need to figure out what we need to learn from it.

Well i love you guys and i have Grown to love this work... i feel i have made the right choice to come out and serve the Lord even though everyday is hard and there are some days when i feel like going home, but then something happens that makes me understand why i am out here. I love the Savior and everything that he does for me... i know that coming out here is one of the best ways i can show to him that i love him for what he has done.

I love you guys so much and i miss you more than you know

Love Elder Emery

p.s hey would you be able to add Mary as my Friend on FB?? but only her! thanks you are the best! have a great week!

January 17, 2011

Hey guys!! Wow it sounds like things are going well! thats always good to hear!

This week was pretty good... well i guess it was alright. We had a couple tour accepts and they were sett up for this week but they fell through... people still dont keep their commitments :( it is frustrating. alot of people went out of town this week for chocolate mlk day... (thats what skee calls it) so knocking doors were pretty rough. we had interviews with President and Sister Pike.... that was really good!

I started talking to President about the District Leader position and those kinds of things adn then i asked hime why he chose me... he said because we have kind of a disobedient district and he said that i am an obedient missionary and i can help them do what they need to do to be successfull and you have been open with me and i have alot of trust in you... i thought that was pretty good ya know i was thinking that i am doing my job... then i started thinking about the trust part... and about home and you guys and my thought was... i wish i could have built my trust better with you two i didnt understand how much i cared about someone saying that they have great trust in me until now... i was excited when President said it and i think how much more excited and proud i would have been if i would have been able to have you say that to me... i regret being dishonest with you... i feel bad and my repentance isnt really valid i guess until i make restitution... i am sorry for those things i did to hurt your trust in me... i also apologize just for not being very truthful. hopefullly when i get back home i can always keep your trust in me... that is what i want and i will do what it takes to make that happen.

we have run into a few really rude people lately... yesterday a guy was standing outside his church building... i think he was a priest and we were just walking by because we are not aloud to proselyte in front of or around any other churches... so we were just walking by and the guys comes running up to us and starts swearing at us and telling us all this crap... it was actually pretty funny but he told us to leave his state of California and all this other stuff... well obviously i just kind of gave him some smart alec remarks... ya know like i dont have to leave i was born here haha... people just dont understand.

nothing else really has gone on... my companion is really good worker... he is kind of hard headed so it is a little hard to get through to him sometimes ya know? but usually it is pretty good... he is a little over the top almost robotic and i dontlike that at all, but for the most part we are doing well.

Sorry this isnt very long... i am in a hurry. some of the kids in our ward want us to go play baseball with them... so we are going to go.

Love you all i wish you guys could be here right now because it has been in the 80's the last couple of days... it is so awesome!!

Keep reading and praying... its the best way to take care of business!

Love you and miss you very much

Love Elder Emery

oh! i remembered something else! we had Stake Conference yesterday and was really good. Elder Ringwood came and talked with us... he is a great speaker. he could ahve gone on for another hour and a half and i would have been totally fine listening to him. I met him on Saturday when my companion and i were at the church... he was getting a drink and we walked in and we started to talk to him... it was pretty cool. He is a very very nice guy i really enjoyed what he said!

And we taught seminary on Friday... it was pretty good. the kids are crazy but they are starting to get involved with us!

Well thats it for this week i have to go get my Derek Jeter on and do work!

Love Elder Emery

January 10, 2011

Hello Everyone!

Well it sounds like things are going well back home... seems like you are all busy again wih everyones scheldules... how is school going for you kids? did it stink going back last week? i know i wouldnt be too excited about going back. the kids back here just went back to school today... they had a forever break it seemed like they were out for such a long time. i wish back home was like that... it would be so fun!

Alright so this week was pretty good... sorry i dont have too long to type because i have to start off with presidents letter now and that takes a little while because i have to talk about everything that happened this past week... and he likes detail so i try my best.

Anyway we had Leadership Training Wednesday, Thursday and Friday... it was so cool i learned so much! i dont know why we dont all get those trainings that they just gave us... it makes a difference in how we teach that is for sure. the thing is everyone does get the trainings but now it comes from the district leaders... i dont think i can teach it as well as it was presented to us... i t was so good, but i will try my best ya know. My first District Meeting as the District Leader will be this Thursday... i am excited but nervous at the same time. i feel inadequate to be in this position... it will be a challenge. i think it will be a good learning experience on how to teach and those kinds of things. yeah so those are my feelings towards this Position... Dad i am sure you were in leadership positions on your mission... how was it for you... what did you learn or do to help out other missionaries or just the people you serve around?

We are doing our best to help the ward out... it is going so well! we are really building some great trust with them! i have found out that one of the guys in our ward came up with Pirates of the Carribean and he does alot of stuff for those movies and ghe helped out alot with Tron... another guy does something with the show Glee... people around here seem to love working in the entertainment industry... i thought it was pretty cool! we are going to definitely try and get the ward to be more missionary minded... with a few different things. we can now use Mormon.org as a guide to help members and investigators... President told us we need to study it and get to know it in great detail! i think this will be great... when members start making profiles us missionaries can tell our investigators to go look up members in the area... so i think it will be a great helping hand!

Oh i have a question... when the missionaries come over to visit... what are they doing? i they just hanging out or are they taking care of business... building relationships is good, but there comes a point where us missionaries cant just be chilling ya know? so i was just curious.

Well my new companion is pretty solid... we do some good work together... the only bad part is he is from Idaho... so far my companions have been from: Colorado, Seattle, Wyoming, and Idaho? it is pretty weird, but it is good.

Our Baptism was super good! Brendon was excited and he was happy!... we actually just found out this past week that Mary... Brendons mom... has Breast Cancer. obviously she was kind of sad well really sad.. i would be too. we went over and gave her a blessing and she was at church yesterday... she seems to be handling it pretty well, but if you could just keep her in your prayers... that would be nice.

Well that is all for this week... thanks for the e-mail update on the Fam... i miss you guys alot and i pray for you guys everyday that you will have love from Hevenly Father in the home.

something interesting from this week... the parable about the talents. Christ has given us all talents... Testimony and Time. with our testimony we are suppose to share it with everyone... even if the person is a member... everyone could use a spiritual boost. We shouldnt be afraid to hand out a pass along card or share a scripture with someone... this is what we are here for D and C 60:2... to make it back to live with our Heavenly Father... we need to help other people Understand this also... that is why he has given us time... we will be judged on every minute of every hour of everyday... or something like that, but we should be doing what we cant to make it back to our Heavenly Father... i mean that is what we are here for right... to become like our Heavenly Father? so this time is preparation to be back in the presence of God... i thought that was pretty intersting... it definitely made me think about alot of things.

I love you all... you are the BEST thank you for everything!! i miss you so so much!!

Love Elder Emery

January 3, 2011

Hey guys! well it sounds like things are going alright there... that is good. well the holidays are winding down and things are probably getting back to normal eh?

i wish i could say the same, but this week was probably one of the craziest weeks of my mission so far!

Well to start off the week my watch broke :( and it was getting really annoying not have something on my arm and i didnt know the time. so i hope you dont care, but i took out 40 bucks to help pay for a new one... was that ok for me to do? i hope i know money is important and i shouldnt be wasting it.

Alright then for New Years we didnt do anything... we didnt even have dinner with families... Laaaamee. But something really interesting happened.

So saturday we are in our apartment and we get a call from President Pike he has to ET or emergency transfer out some missionaries out of a different area... he transfers Elder Campbell to that area... its Called Orangewood... crazy huh? Then president gets on the phone with me and tells me that i was going to be getting a new companion... his name is Elder Suitter. Then he was like " Elder Emery... you will be serving as Senior Companion" i was like holy crap... i wanted this to happen but i totally was not expecting it. i was freaking out i couldnt get any thoughts together and everything was going crazy, but things eventually worked out and my new companion adn i took care of business the rest of the day.

Oh wait but that is not all that happened... so yesterday morning at about 7 ( our church starts at 9 now so we have meetings at 7:30) anyway so about 7 i get a call from the Zone Leaders... they say " Elder Emery will you call in numbers tonight because you are the nwe District Leader." i think i pooed my brain right there. i was now overwhelmed and i didnt know what to do. everything worked out... and i found out that we have leadership training this week so that will help me nkow what i am suppose to teach.

Can you believe all that stuff??? i was so surprised... it was a good change though we are doing good but yeah i am a District Leader now... which means i will most likely stay in this area a few more transfers... i am ok with that because this Elder is a good worker.

We actually had a tour yesterday and it went really well!! she said that it would be so beautiful to be baptized... we are very excited for that!

The members are doing better... once i finally took a stand last month about going over and building relationships with them things started turning around!~

Thanks for your Email it was great to here from you guys... it was a really long and wild week but things will be good!!

have fun and find success in all that you do this week!

Oh and yes we do get to go to Brendons Baptism... Elder Campbell gets to come back and Baptize him!

Love you all!! Far more than skee loves the Utes hahah

Love Elder Emery