Hey guys! you all are so awesome... i love hearing about how ayou guys are doing and the different things that are coming up for you all. Thank you very much for the E-mails i loved them!
Well we had our 2 baptisms yesterday and they were awesome... Eduardo and Myles were really excited to be baptized! i was nervous to baptize Myles because i dont know if i told you last week or not that he has a fear of being under water... he was trying not to go under but i just had to force him down and his foot almost popped up. He would nto have let me baptize him again if his foot would have came up. it ended up being alright though so i was relieved. The Baptisms were really good though i will send some pictures soon.. speaking of pics... would i be able to get my cf card back?
Oh and i almost forgot to tell you... transfers were this week. we found out on Saturday what was going to be happening with us. My companion moved up to San Dimas with my MTC companion (the one i liked) so that means that he was with Elder Hampton (the MTC comp. that i was not very fond of) then with me and now he his going to be with Elder James (the mtc comp that i liked) i thought that was kind of funny that he had been with all of us now! Anyway i was called to stay in my area and i will be Training a new munchkin ;) i was way excited when i had the call come in but the last 2 days i have become nervous and i just hope that i can be a good example for this missionary that i will be training. i am nervous though. I think everything will be ok though... im still excited ya know but i dont know still nervous at the same time. it will go well though... We are going to tear it up here in this area, and i am hoping that we will help more people to the waters of baptism!
i had an experience that really stuck out to me this past week. so we had been teaching this family and their children for a while and the parents kind of dropped us but still let us teach the kids... their are 4 kids. The family is kind of struggling and i just so badly want to share with them the Plan of Salvation. well a couple of weeks the parents said that the kids could no longer have lessons or attend church. we were sad but we figured that they are just going through some hard times. Then the last 2 weeks the kids have come to church, so we were like awesome! we can start teaching them again. we went and stopped by last week and they let us in and were ok with us coming over and we were so excited! Weekly planning on Friday we felt as though this was the time for the kids to really progress. i fasted for them and i was feeling so good about talking with the parents and i thought for sure that the parents were going to let them start having lessons again. i started fasting and about an hour or two later we stopped by this family. as soon as we got to their gate the father just started yelling at us and told us to not stop by anymore and it was just really rude. it hurt me pretty bad... my thoughts were well i guess i can stop fasting... why would i fast for someone that is going to be so rude? and just those kinds of things came to mind. i decided to stick it out and fast the 24hrs. i do not regret fasting for that family i know that because i sacrificed just a little that the Lord will soften their hearts... maybe not for my companion and i to teach them but for the missionaries to come. i had alot of strength and i was able to feel the spirit work through me while i would testify to people. if anything comes from that experience it was that i grew in a different way... a way that would not have come if i would not have fasted. i just hope these people understand what they need in their life. i have learned from this experience... i really have.
Its kind of funny... mom you were telling me about what happened with Shag, and your feelings and then how you dealt with it. it is like the same situation. you could have just not talked to him the whole time he was over. i could have just stopped fasting right there. But we didnt. something that came to mind is the story of how Christ sits with the Sinners. Christ is asked why he is sitting with the sinners and in reply he says (sorry i dont have my scriptures they are in the car so i will paraphrase) do you go see a physician if you are whole? and the answer is no obviously because if you are not sick then you dont go to a doctor... so he sits by the sinners because they know him not and he wants to try and help them.
Personally i dont really like less actives because they know the truth but strayed away and they still need help coming back and having what they once had. so just by doing what you did... it helped him and i know that it all starts by building relationships and then ease in the gospel help them remember those spiritual experiences that they once had. something that i have started doing is i tell investigators and less actives that they are awesome.. everytime we end a lesson and they always smile and it makes a difference... it really does. i know that simple acts of kindness help people we just have to try it out or we will never know.
Thats all for this week wish me luck!
i have not received the package yet but i was just told that it is in the office for me so i will be getting it soon!
Thank you for everything i love you very much!!
if you need anything just let me know... as of right now i just pray for you and hope that works! i hope it all makes sense i didnt proof read very much at all.
I LOVE YOU!!
Elder Emery
