May 23, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope all is well!

Love Elder Emery

May 16, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Emery

Besitos

May 2, 2011

Hey Family!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love you

LOve Elder Emery