January 17, 2012

Hello Hello Family!

 

Well i was happy to get your emails today... thank you for those. some very surprising news about things going on with the family... i hope everything is ok with that...

sorry that this letter is not going to be very long... i just typed a super long letter to president but when i sent it... it didnt go through and it erased everything i typed........ so lame!!

 

This week was kind of quick for me. it seems like everyone is always too busy to do anything with us, so we jsut keep moving along the best we canand try new people to visit and try to always find new people to teach! i need to break out of my shell... i have broke out alot and im not as shy as i used to be but i feel that i need to really go out of my way with this ward to get them interested in working with us, so that is what im trying to do and for some reason it is really hard for me but hopefully i can break through a little bit more this week.

 

we had another lesson with Jackie and that was an interesting one... she just is taking her time with things...

 

We had a lesson with a family and they are just taking there time with things...

we had a lesson with another family and they are also taking their sweet time...

 

They all are just waiting for something amazing to happen for some reason... its so hard to teach people when they just want to take things slow. and from being on my mission and seeing different things i am a firm believer in taking it slow and making sure they have a burning testimony. i know that some of the people that i have taught have not had that burning desire, and it hurts to think that i might not have done everything i could have to help them be fully converted and i think that will be one of my biggest regrets, because i dont know what i can do to help them now... some of the people that i have baptized are less active... not many of them but 3 or 4 are and it makes me sad.

 

as i look at my missionary effort i notice things that i could have done better... as i look at other missionaries i notice that their recent converts are going to the temple and being sealed as families and i think what about these people i taught? what could i have done to help them to have seen the eternal perspective on things? i know that alot of the people that i have taught have been younger but the few that are old enough to go to the temple still have not... and it is always in my head.. so its just hard you know what i mean?  i actually wasnt expecting to start talking about this so im sorry you had to read my sob story but i just wanted to say it because it has been on my mind constantly.

 

everything else is going well! i love you guys and hope all is well with you ... take care and be safe i will pray for you everyday and have prayed for you everyday since my mission started... i love you very much!

 

Love Elder Emery

January 2, 2012

Hey Everybody... this will be a little on the shorter side today, because we are suppose to go meet up with some other elders, so i can show Elder Ebanks what he will be teaching for District Meeting... Yep you heard right. i am no longer a District Leader transfer calls came in Saturday morning and the Assistant told me that because i had been a District Leader For so long (7 transfers about 9 1/2 months) that they were going to let this other elder give it a shot. so i am just a regular missionary once again... its kind of weird not being in Leadership, but it will still be good.

 

I was not moved anywhere, but my awesome companion Elder Naeata was Transferred to Covina with elder Meeks... Lucky guy! i would love to serve with Elder Meeks again. i was sent a new companion his name is Elder Tovey... he is from Oregon and has been out for about 4 months. it should be good he seems like he will be a good companion who wants to work hard... we have some things in common, so that always makes things a little bit better. This transfer should be a good one... we are hoping to have 3 baptisms!

 

New Years Eve was good! we went over to a members home and played some games with them a little bit before we went in for the night so that was fun! it sounds like you guys had a crazy party and lots of fun... thats awesome!

 

Sunday night we had an awesome lesson with Jackie Meek... (her home is where we skyped from) she fed us and then her and i were talking in the kitchen about religion and what its all about. she is buddhist and believes that what ever church makes you happy is the church that works for you... i told her she has a view of religion all wrong. we began to have a pretty good discussion on the restored church and it was really good. she has a problem with mans hand involed with religion, but i told her that the Doctrine is true, what we believe is true and if God says that this is his true church... the only Church that God set up on the earth is this one, well dont you think you should be a part of it? and she said yeah and that makes sense and i would know what i would have to do (meaning get baptized)  but then she said that she had a bad upbringing with religion in her life and when she heard that most of her family is now newly members of the chruch she was like "oh great not this again" and so at this point she is kind of stubborn and is choosing Buddhism but we are slowly getting her to change! right after that talk we had... we shared the gospel overview lesson and im pretty sure she is hooked now! taught her straight out of the Bible so she could see that nothing has been changed Doctrinally. and so we will see how things are going with her when we stop by!

 

Everything is going pretty good for us! we hopefully have alot of good things going on this next week!

 

I love you guys and hope you all get back into work and school smoothly!

 

Love you very much and i thank you for everything!

 

Love Elder Emery

 

oh yeah my new years resolution is no more caffeine or carbonation... adn i am going to be a more loving kind caring person.