March 5, 2012

Hey guys... this letter is going to be super super short.

 

but this week was alright... it seemed to go by so fast! i hate it... im not going to lie thinking of home makes me so nervous! i dont even know what to do. i try not to think about it too much but it happens because it is coming quick. it also doesnt help when you have an elder that came out with you who calls you up and says hey guess what... we have 65 days left. yep thats what happened this morning.

oh and by the way i hate cockroaches... they give me the heebie jeebies ya know what im saying?? yuck! i do plan on leaving alot of my stuff... i actually dont have too much, so you wont have to worry too much about those things! dont worry i would not even think about bringing those little demons home.

 

anyway our week was good it was kind of thrown off. we had to help the Zone Leaders 3 days in a row up at Mt. Sac... we set up a booth with them and talked to all the people walking by. it was actually very affective... well for the Zone Leaders, but not too much for us because wedont cover a singles ward. they had us help them all 3 days because we arent afraid to start talking with people and we wont scare them off and we get great referrals for the them... so we do it because its all the same work right?

 

we keep working hard and we stay at it everyday!

 

soundslike things back home are going good... while i was reading your email i was laughing out loud and people were looking at me all weird like. its so crazy to hear that quincie is driving... holy cow thats all i have to say!

 

i love you guys and hope everything is going well for you... i pray for you everyday and i hope for the best for each of you.

 

i love you and cant wait to see you again!

 

Love Elder Emery

March 27, 2012

Hey Family... we didnt have time yesterday to email because we were helping the Zone Leaders move apartments.. and helping other elders move also because it was transfers yesterday... and today i only have a few minutes because we have to help the Zone Leaders again up at Mt. Sac... man these zone leader guys are running us ragged!

 

anyway probably the most exciting new this week was well actually let me tell you a story...

 

so our investigator Melissa... the one with the munchkins. had a lesson with us on Thursday.. well the lesson did not go so well. we asked her to so either the opening or closing prayer and she was like no i dont want to pray, so we were trying to kind of figure out why she wouldnt pray and she was just being stubborn. so we were like whatever and then she was telling us that she wasnt  reading from the Book of Mormon. and we talked about it... she was just giving us excuses. finally i was like can i be serious with you? and she said i could be... and so i was and she did not like that at all. she just sat the rest of the lesson and would not open up. she even told us that she was so close to just getting up and walking away. at this point i am frustrated because i feel she is not even listening to what we are teaching, so we kind of ended the lesson midway through the Plan of Salvation.

 

10 minutes later we get a call from Gabby (a recent convert) and she tells us that Melissa said she felt attacked and belittled, i said well i didnt mean to come off like that we were just trying to figure out if she is serious about this... then Gabby said yeah i didnt feel that you did anything wrong, but Melissa said she does not like you at all.

 

so now im like great we are going to have to drop our investigator because of me... so i was a little more frustrated now... because i didnt know what to do besides just move on and keep working with other people ya know? anyway so a couple days later on Saturday to be exact... Melissa texted us and was like " i would like to apologize for the way i was the other day in our lesson... i hope you guys can forgive me... have a good night and i will see you at church tomorrow"  so we were like wow... that is cool that she would send that. now im feeling lame because i lost faith in her and i just wanted to drop her, but thats not the end of this story.

 

so Melissa came to church and she was totally different. we didnt talk to her much, but she had changed and she almost looked like she had a calmness about her. we met with her later on that day to have a lesson with her and her two friends which became new investigators and want to join the church. before we started the lesson she stops us and says " i would like to say something is that ok?" we tell her yes but in my head i was thinking great what is she going to say in front of her friends?  she looks at me and says i need to say this... i need to apologize especially to you. the other day in our lesson i felt attacked and belittled and i just felt you were rude. i want to say thank you for saying what you did... thats exactly what i needed to hear to give me the push to look at myself and see that i needed to change. today at church i felt so good and it was an overwhelming feeling the whole time i was there and i felt that thats where i needed to be. ( we had one of the most spiritual fast and testimony meetings i've had on my mission... it was amazing) she then said i want to be Baptized... am i still ok to be Baptized on the 15th?  

she says these things and i was just amazed how she had changed her whole attitude... i then apologized for kind of coming off rude and she said it was fine... i tend to just say it how it is kind of more straitforward now a days.

Later Sunday night we were with Gabby and she was talking to us about the lesson... and about how Melissa was doing and how she is so excited for her to get Baptized! and she then told us what Melissa said after we left the lesson. she said i feel in my heart that when i am Baptized i want Elder Emery to Baptize me, because he was the one who helped me understand that i need to do this and that it is important for me.

 

isnt that amazing how she changed in just a couple of days? i am so excited for her to get Baptized!! it is going to be awesome!

 

that is about all i have time to tell you about for this past week but hopefully next week i can fill you in on some more things that have happened.

 

i love you all very very much!!

 

Love Elder Emery

March 19, 2012

Hello everyone!

Sorry about the confusion last week... my bad. But i am glad that we were ablt to figure it out.

This week was Awesome! first off on Monday we had one of the most frustrating but wonderful lessons ever.

so we were teaching this lady named Melissa. She has 3 kids and two of them are twins... one is 5 the other two are 3.  these kids are insane!! not to be rude but for a couple minutes i didnt want to have kids. anyway so we are teaching them at a members home... a recent convert Gabby. she just kind of zones them out and so does Melissa... really frustrating. we are teaching melissa and the kids are going crazy fighting, yelling, screaming, crying, jumping, climbing, breaking, dancing, flying, swearing, they were like a bunch of whirling dervishes... yep just quoted kicking and screaming and i dont know how to spell that. so all this is going on and im trying not to just get up and walk out... my companion cant concentrate... what happened there was kind of funny. what actually made one of the kids settle down is he was running and tripped and smacked his cranium right on my knee... just looked at me, and i asked if he was ok and he just sat and colored the rest of the time... anyway so we are teaching her about how their is one church and we taught her from Ephesians 4 and we talked about that and she understood... then we talked about putting
God first and turning to him for help not giving into temptation... it was actually really good. she said that she really felt good about everything and that she really wants to start changing her life and do the right things... so that was good. we then invited her to be baptized, because we got the kids to go play off in the other room finally and the spirit was strong... and it was really good. she accepted and is scheduled to be baptized April 8th!! super awesome huh?

we had another investigator finally come to church and she loved it... and said she would come back. i had to give a talk yesterday in sacrament... and then they kind of made elder Edney and i do a duet during sacrament also... what the?? yeah making me do things i hate doing. getting up in front of people is liek the worst thing anyone could make me do. but it is what it is right?

we found 2 more new investigators.... that was pretty legit!

the best part of the week was that i got to go to the temple with nana and her sister. her name is aunt Betty she was baptized a little over a year ago and about 4 months ago she was diagnosed with cancer... the bad part about it is that the cancer is all over her body... everywhere... i dont think i have ever heard of anyone with that much cancer in their body... i didnt think it was possible, but it is. Nana invited me to go with them so i got permission and Elder Thompson and i went to the LA temple with them!

so this week was great! we ahve transfers coming up this next week and i will most likely be staying for my last transfer... i will probably get a new comp because he has been here for 4 transfers and if they left him with me he would have to stay for 6 transfers... or else they would have to white wash us... i dont think they would White wash this area.

i have to be going but thank you for your patience with me...

i miss you all very very much!!

i love you and i will get to see you soon.

Love Elder Emery