Christmas Phone Call!

Zoinks Skoob!!!

That´s what Shaggy says on Scooby Doo. Mom. I literally don´t have a lots of times to write, but I sure do love you guys. YES! I totally got that calendar for 2012! It is so cool! Thank you! Thanks for all the candy, we totally ate little candy canes one day and it made us even more stoked. I´m 91% jealous that you all went to the forgotten carols, but next year I will just go ahead and join you so don´t worry. This week has been super sweet, we got a family married and baptized. If I have more time next week I will totes send a picture your way. Ok, ok ok. 2 HUGE things! 1. I sent you guys a christmas package!!!!!!!!!! Hahahahahahahahahaha IF it even gets there. I have never sent a more ghetto package in my entire life. I am almost positive it WILL NOT get there hahahahaha. We didn´t have any boxes so I put all the stuff in an old Corn Flakes box, wrapped it up in scotch tape, and put my trust in the peruvian postal service. I am so so so so so so so sorry because I really don´t think it will ever get there, but if it does, it should have a small letter for all of you, a small hand-made peruvian nativity set for you, a memory card with all my pictures up to this point in the mission and a voice recorder so that you can hear my white guy voice. IF it gets there it will get there like right around christmastime I think. I hope. If it doesn´t get there, just act like I never sent anything and you won´t have any reason to be sad hahahaha. HUGE thing number 2. I am going to be calling you on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don´t even try to tempt me into talking for more than 40 minutes or I will feel bad haha. But that means that I will be calling you TODAY! It´s called a pre-call. I will be calling in like 30 minutes to figure out what time it is in Utah and to talk to you for like 5 minutes. Way cool.
Everything is going good in the ward and with me and my companion. I´m learning so much about the scriptures and missionary work I wish I could just share it all with you and listen to your ideas, but I just don´t have enough time. CALL ME!!!!!!!!!!!! I really do love you all so much. OH yeah, take a picture of the WHOLE family so I can see it and then send it to me cuz I have a family picture, but it´s like 3 babies out-dated.

Love Elder Emett

Met his goal of baptizing someone named Steven!!!

Dear my mother,

I am so stoked that you got to look up Iquitos on the internet and see where I am. It is a HUGE city, but I live on the outskirts haha. The house I live in is actually pretty nice, but the houses in my area aren´t really like houses in Lima. They are just like the happy little jungle huts in Yurimaguas. I was thinking about it and if you had to compare this place with the united states, it would be like the forest swamps in Louisiana. Last night we were crossing over a swamp on this hilarious ghetto bridge made of sticks and big pieces of wood and there were all kinds of bugs and snakes and frogs making all kinds of crazy sounds and there were fireflies and little jungle huts lit by candlelight and I just felt like I was totally in like some swamp-place in Louisiana. The spanish here is different, too. In spain, they speak spanish. In LIma they speak Castellano which is almost the same as spanish, but a little bit different, and in the jungle part of Perú they speak Castellano-Charapa. It´s kind of a joke to them, but it´s like a different dialect of sorts. They don´t really just talk, they kinda sing their words haha. It is really fun to listen to it, learn it, and speak it.
In the mission hand book, it says that we can only call for 40 minutes on christmas and we just got a letter from the president reminding us to follow that rule, so I will only be talking with you for 40 mintues instead of 1 hour on christmas day. We will also be doing a pre-call. I don´t know when, but it won´t be this week, so don´t worry yet. Everything is going very, very good here. We had another baptism on saturday. I kinda had a personal goal before the mission to baptize a man named Steven and I totally achieved that goal on saturday. The man´s name is Estevan Leyba. His wife died about 6 months ago and he came to church one day and asked us how he could make the pain go away and if he would ever see his wife again. He accpeted a baptismal date in the first lesson and has enjoyed every detail of the church. Before he was baptized, he told us that he misses his wife still, but he just can´t feel the pain anymore. He understands the plan of hapiness and he is looking forward to seeing her. He will be going to the temple in 1 year to be sealed to her for time and all eternity. What a stud.
One of the families we are teaching is going to get baptized this saturday and another one is going to get baptized on the 31st. And there are about 4 more who are ready to get married and baptized in January, we just need to get all their papers haha. We feel so blessed in the work right now. My health is good. The ward is doing amazing. And I complete 14 months in the mission tomorrow......... Don´t know how I feel about that haha. It´s better to think of it this way - I still don´t have a year in the field. But I will be home in 10 months. Cupla things. 1. I am totally going to work at best buy when I get home and I am 100% going to get a motorcycle to drive around, everyone here has one and it´s just grown on me. 2. I saw a picture of Paysli that dad sent me and it scared me half to death. She is bigger than Anne! I literally did not recognize her at all. 3. Can we have an Emett Family Fun Time when I get back? I know I didn´t like them before the mission, but I totally miss that haha. And... that´s everything. I love you all a whole bunch. I got both your christmas envelopes that you sent me and if my brothers have different christmas pajamas than me this year I am going to be way sad hahaha. Thanks!!!

Love Elder Emett

Yes, it is hot down here!!

yes mom, it´s hot here,

It is really hot. always. Except for when it rains. Then it is
just.... fresh haha. I wish I were a better person who took more
pictures, but I´m simply not a picture taker. I have 0 pictures to
send you, but I think i will send you a small package tomorrow with my
2 gig memory card full of pictures and the voice recorder with all
kinds of stuff for you to listen to and the small, hand-made peruvian
nativity that a lady in my lady ward gave to me. yes, dad, i got your
email. no, i will not be getting any letters or anything else for
quuuuuuiiiite a while haha. No, i do not live on the shore of the
amazon river, i live about 5 miles away. There are more bugs here than
I care to count. I am so used to bugs and spiders that i hold them in
my hands now and i play with them instead of being scared and killing
them. Iquitos is a big city, but we live in the ¨outskirts¨ of town.
98% of the roads are dirt and sand. The closer you get to the river,
the more beautiful everything is, all the sand is white. In the city,
there is one big store where we buy all our food for the week. it´s
called piramide and it´s about 1/3 the size of albertson´s. Everything
is going good with the ward and the investigators and my companion.
Today we are going to a small zoo place called Quistococha and I will
try and take some pictures haha. I am going to be eating a huge, white
grub that is a common jungle food here, but I´m going to eat it alive.
I will take a video so you can all laugh with me. There is absolutely
no more time left to write, I´m soooo sorry. I´m such a failure! But I
love you.

Love Elder Emett

Living by the Amazon River

TSCHIAMMMYY!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I´m such a failure! I had zero of time to write to you last week. I just felt like a meanie-pants the whole week cuz I didn´t write my family. Please try to forgive me. Ok, ok ok, I am in Iquitos, Perù right now. Have you ever heard of the Amazon River? That´s just right next to my house. I´m not kidding, it´s so cool here. Just get on the computer and look up Iquitos, Perù. It will be way way cool. Sometimes we have lots of baptisms. We are helping out all the elders in the zone and we are pretty sure that December 17th will be the best day ever. There is a ¨massive marriage¨ that day, and about 8 families in three of our areas are going to get marred, then baptized in our chapel that night. 8 families. Together. 1 night. It is going to be so cool. Two of the families will be families that we are teaching right now and one of them have a kid on the mission right now and another kid who leaves in january and they aren´t even members hahahaha, but they will be soon.
My companion is Elder Lazo. He has 22 months in the mission and he is a very dedicated missionary. He is kind of serious, but he likes to joke around with me too. I think I will be with him until he finishes his mission. We live in a house with 4 missionaries haha. There are only 2 places in the entire mission where missionaries live together and I have lived in both of those places hahahaha. It´s a little bit different here. We don´t have a pension. We buy all our own food and we cook breakfast and dinner in the house. We have a fridge, an electric stove, and a sink. I basically just eat tons of sandwiches. I found a place here that sells peanut butter and I bought a jar of it and I have literally been living off peanut butter sandwiches for a week and a half hahaha. It´s so much better than having a pension, I always wanted to cook for myself. It is blazing hot here. It is way hotter than Yurimaguas. I remember one day I was in my room studying spanish and I wasn´t really paying attention to how hot it was and like five minutes later it looked like I had just jumped into a swimming pool I was sweating so bad. So gnarly.
I will definitely get to call you on christmas day, but I can never understand what you guys are saying to me so I am kind of embarrassed to call. I am sorry to say I will not be getting the packages until a little after christmas, but it´s ok. It takes a while to get stuff here, but don´t worry, we will buy some chocolates or something to eat on christmas day. I didn´t even know that it was thanksgiving this past week. I woke up friday morning and the other north american misisonary, Elder Walker, was like ¨dude, I think yesterday was thanksgiving¨, and then we both just laughed because neither of us realized it was thanksgiving. Oh well.
Sorry, there really isn´t time to write, we have tons of good stuff to do so I gotta get going. I love you all. Thank you for writing me and keeping me updated. I will try and write you every week and let you know what´s happening in the amazon rainforest. call me.

Elder Emett

Headed to the jungle

Hasta Ver Buenos Aires................

This week has been possibly the best week of my entire mission. I had an interview with president and we got talking and I got to know him a lot better. He is such an amazing man. As we all know, there are changes this week... Usually we aren´t supposed to know until right now, but President told me on wednesday. I will be going to Iquitos. It´s a jungle-island. Jungle because it´s in the middle of the amazon rainforest and island because it is completely surrounded by three huge rivers that flow right from the amazon river. It is the farthest away zone in the entire mission, and I will be going there this wednesday. Cool eh? I am pretty stoked about it, it will be another good adventure. The stake where I am going is called Neuve De Octubre. I am going to be in a ward called Secada. The zone where I am going is called Secada which includes the ward Secada and three small branches- Santa Clara, Los Delfines, and Nauta. I will be in Secada, but I will travel to all the branches almost every week. President told me that I will probably be there for about 9 months haha. I am basically going to finish the mission there. Totally stoked. So, that´s the big news around here. It is going to be so hard to leave this ward. I am just sick about it. I dont know how to tell the Lopez family. I am going to miss them all so bad. I told a few people last night that I am going to be changing areas and all we could do is cry. This is one of the toughest parts of the entire mission, but things like this are necessary.

Elder Anderson is the greatest. Elder Flores called me and told me he was going to get married and I could hardly believe it. He was such a good, focused missionary, and I know he will have the coolest family ever. He is still my absolute hero from my entire mission. If you ever get to see him or talk to his mom or something, tell him that I love him and I am super proud of him and I will see him and his wife in 11 months hahahaha.

It sounds like the whole family is doing well. It makes me so happy to hear from you all and to know that you are all happy and healthy. Michele wrote me an email, too! I am so stoked to meet Addi, but she is so big already! I missed out on a ton, but I´m sure we will be best friends ever when I get back. We´re gonna eat some tortillas together and she (and all my other nieces) will be the only girls I flirt with ahahahahaha.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about Nefi´s experience with following the spirit. Nefi is such a good example of how to find solutions to problems and to not complain about anything. He, along with 3 older brothers, are commanded to return to Jerusalem to get the plates from the evil king Laban. Laman, Nephi´s older brother, is chosen between them to enter first, so he goes in and asks Laban for the plates and Laban gets mad and calls him a robber and chases him out. Laman returns to his brothers outside the city gates and tells them what happened and they all want just give up and go back, but Nephi says no chance! he says that they will not go back to their father in the wilderness until they have finished what he sent them to do. So they go back into the city with a plan to get all of their gold and precious things that they left behind before and give them to Laban in exchange for the plates. (pretty good plan for a couple teenage boys). So they go and offer him all their good stuff and Laban gets jealous and takes their stuff and tries to kill them! So they flee outside the city walls and hide in the cavity of a rock and Laman and Lemuel get mad and start beating Nephi and Sam with a rod and while that is going on, an angel appears and asks them what in the world they´re doing, Nephi was chosen to be their leader and they are beating him? The angel then commands them to go back into Jerusalem and they would have success. So Nephi goes back into the city WITHOUT KNOWING BEFOREHAND WHAT HE SHOULD DO. He has no clue what he has to do, he just has faith. The commandment was to get the plates, and if we all remember the story well, Nephi followed the spirit and did exactly what God wanted him to do and he left the city walls late that night with not only the plates, but Laban´s sword, servant, and his clothes!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we can keep reading in the book of mormon and see the importance that Laban´s servant, Zoram, and Laban´s sword had for years and years to come. I´ve said it so many times before, and I will say it again. I know the book of mormon is true. I know we´re in the true church and that the fulness of the everlasting gospel is here and available to everyone. I love you all so much. Thank you for all the support, love, and letters. Next time I email you I will be in the middle of the Amazon rainforest hahahahaha.

Love Elder Emett

Why I love the Book of Mormon so much!!!

Dear My Mom.

Last night was one of my investigator´s birthday and he gave us so much cake. I don´t even want any more cake. Thanks for all the great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything is going good here in San Juan de Lurigancho, just lots of dust and fun things and tons of investigators that are progressing and getting whay ready to be baptized. I was trying to come up with a logical reason in my mind this morning as to why I love the book of mormon so much, cuz, I mean, there has to be some logical reason. I came to the conclusion that in my mission, I have been able to experience a lot of what the book of mormon prophets experienced. I can imagine how Nephi must have felt when he was the only person who dared stand up for what´s right and set his older brothers right. I have stood in Abinadi´s shoes when he had to speak the truth of the scriptures to a room full of learned men who had all the intention of confusing him in his words, and I´ve had a glimpse of what it´s like to enter into an area or a city like Ammon and not find one single person who wants to listen to God´s message. I have been able to relate the book of mormon to my mission and my life so much. I have so many heroes in that book, but my all-time hero and example is Jesus Christ. The first chapter of the book of mormon testifies of the Messiah and the rest of the book is full of his teachings, his love and his example. I have been able to draw closer to Christ just from reading that book, and I understand now why I have so much faith and interest in it. I don´t even try to answer my investigator´s questions with my own thoughts or ideas, I just direct them to a book of mormon scripture and they realize that it´s a book full of answers and instead of asking me questions, they are showing me how the book of mormon gave them answers when I wasn´t even in their house. It´s an amazing book, and it´s amazing because it testifies of Jesus Christ.

This has been a good week. We are trying to focus more in finding families and talking to more people in the street. There is a part in Preach My Gospel that says that we should trust that God will put the people that he wants us to teach in our path, it is our job to simply contact everyone in our path and we will find everyone who God wants us to teach. Nike hit it right one when they came up with ¨just do it¨. We don´t need to be perfect, heck, we don´t even need to be good. We just have to be worthy and willing, then ¨just do it¨.

You guys are all gonna hate me, but I´m still not taking pictures. My memory is full now and I am just waiting to put together a christmas package that I will be sending this month to the house and I will send my camera´s memory with it. I don´t have tons more to say, nor do I have much time left haha, I have to write some... informes. I don´t know how to say that in english. But I love you all a WHOLE BUNCH I love all the letters that Dad and Riley send me and I am totally stoked to call you guys in two months my very last christmas in the mission!

Love Elder Emett

No Halloween in Peru!

mammy. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Perú will not be celebrating halloween this year because nobody knows what it is. They all think it is the devil´s birthday. Silly peruvians. I am actually doing amazingly good right now. My health is good, my companion is good, the investigators are good, the ward is good, and you guys are good. Everything is just going great right now. I love hearing all the great news from the house. Tell Beckham congrats on her swim meet and tell Branson that the corner is his until October 2012. I am sitting at a computer in a little internet shop looking at a big, amazing package full of american candy that you all sent me and a big letter full of love that says HAPPY HALLOWEEN. You will never understand how much the things like that mean to me. I know I am so bad at writing you all and sending pictures and all that, but I really do love you all so much. I wish I had more time to write you and think about you, and I will try to do better than I´ve been doing, but the mission is just too short. I know you understand.

You silly heads never even told me that Chase Jensen had a mission call. Where is he going? I guess I will just figure that all out when I get home hahahaha.

We found a really cool family this week. There are these huge hills in Lima that are just filled to the brim with houses. Every square inch of the hill has a house on it and the houses are ridiculously small, none of them have water, and all the people are extremely humble. We only have one hill in my area and we went up there on saturday in the morning and we found a family that said we could go back and teach them, so we went back yesterday and met the dad and his three older kids and taught them the message of the restoration. We were sitting on their beds in the room where all four of them live (about half the size of the piano room), without light or anything fancy and we just let the spirit explain the importance of the gospel to this family. A lot of times we are trying to explain things to people and they just don´t understand, but this family understood so well. The oldest son, Elias, was the most attentive. At the end of the lesson we invited him to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and he said he would pray, then we asked him why it was important to him that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He stopped and thougt for a minute, then said, ¨because if Joseph Smith was a prophet, then the church that you two represent is the true church.¨ Then we asked him, if the church that we represent really is the true church, why would it be important for him in his life to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and he told us that that´s exactly what he needed. The rest of his family accepted to be baptized, too. On Tuesday, we found another family, the Pizarro family and it was a similar situation. The mom told us that she felt like she needed to start going to church, but because there were a lot of churches, she didn´t know where to go. We shared Joseph Smith´s experience with her and invited the entire family to pray about it, come to church, and get baptized, and they all accpeted too! These experiences have helped me strengthen my testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and the power of the message of the restoration. Both of those families we found were just contacts we made knocking on doors. I know without a doubt that we are led by God. Not just us, but every missionary in the world. He has people prepared in every area where he has put his missionaries and in much more places, too. I have been learning a lot this week about the conversion process and about God´s elect. There are so many people here who are ready to receive this message, we just have to find them, and give it to them. I really do love this work so much.

I have some advice for Ben who will also be serving in a spanish speaking mission. DON´T BUY A BUNCH OF STUFF IN ENGLISH. You will use your english scriptures and your english preach my gospel and your english hymn book during your time in the MTC, but after that, everything is in spanish. Don´t be worried, you will learn the language just fine, but you don´t need to bring a bunch of english pass along cards and stuff like that with you in the mission. In the bookstore in the MTC, you will be able to buy a spanish hymn book and other fun things, but they will give you a bible and a triple combination and preach my gospel in spanish when you get there.

I am still in the same area and I actually have quite a bit of time here. It has gone so fast. normally, the missionaries are only here 2 or 3 changes and I will be completing my third change the 15 of november. I´m not sure if I will be changing areas, but something tells me that it might be a possibility. I kinda hope I stay here longer, this has been a very good area for me, but I will be just as happy if God wants me in a different place.

Today we are totally going to go play frisbee, then go to a supermarket place and buy some halloween candies to give all the little kids that we are teaching. I really do love you all so much. Thank you, dad for all the letters and all the support and love. See you tomorrow.

Love Elder Emett

Figured out his life career!!

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGENNNNNTIII

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dios quiere que los hermanos Emett hablen español. God wants the
Emett brothers to speak spanish! How exciting! One of my best friends
in the mission is from Argentina! He is such a cool guy!!! I don´t
know anything about Argentina, but I am soooooooooooo excited!! My
whole zone is absolutely stoked right now that there will be another
Emett in the field and that he will be learning spanish. I am never
speaking english with ben again. I can´t believe he didn´t end up
going to Russia or Guatemala or Fiji, but I am stoked stoked stoked. I
knew he would be speaking spanish! Oh, revelation is so cool. He is so
supposed to be going to Argentina. How is he doing the MTC? Is there
an MTC in Argentina, or will he be in the Provo MTC for 9 weeks? Such
cool stuff. I am so excited for him. And, I don´t know why, but I am
really excited that Josh and Michele are moving closer to our house
and that James isn´t going to cut his hair until I get back! Thanks
for all the great news. Ben is the man. Has anybody else gotten their
call that I don´t know about?
It has been a really good week in Lima, Peru. You asked me how
many people there are in Lima. I have no idea. There are roughly 30
million in the country and Lima is the most ginormous-est city in all
Peru, so probly like... a lot. I don´t know haha. My companion and I
are getting along just great. He has been thinking a lot about his
home and things like that and he has been kind of discouraged, but I
finally realized that he just needed to work even harder than we were
to forget about himself. So we started working even harder than we
were, and now we have 6 investigators with baptismal dates, and two
families that are just dealing with a few legal issues, and we are
finding tons of new people to teach every single day. It really is
going good.
Time is moving like a japanese race horse. I feel like I just
barely started out on my mission, and now Ben has his call. When he
actually gets in the mission, I will only have 8 more months left in
the mission. : ( That´s a frowny face. I had a dream last night that
I got sent home for medical reasons and I was so sad. It felt so real.
When I woke up, I literally shouted with delight to find myself still
in the mission. I was so stoked haha, my companion kinda looked at me
weird cuz it was 5 in the morning, but I didn´t care. My mission means
everything to me.
Today we are going to play soccer and eat tacos for pday. I am
just so excited today. It has been a really good week and I can´t wait
to have another Emett in the field and to talk spanish with him. I
love you all so much. Thank you for writing me with tons of great
news.

P.s. I was just pondering one day and I totally figured out what my
career is going to be afterwards hahahahaha. I´m going to be a high
school seminary teacher.

Love Elder Emett

My stoked-ometer is still full!

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There will be TWO Emetts in the field at the same time!!!??? That is great news. Ben is going to Guatemala. I´m sure of it. He is such a stud and he is so handsome.

Another successful week. My companion is having some major personal problems with self-esteem and I found him crying, packing up all of his stuff to go home. I sat him down, talked with him for a while and got him to calm down. Today we had ANOTHER interview with President. That guy is so patient haha. I´m sure he will be staying in the mission, but it has been a really hard 2 months for him. It has been tough to keep him stoked, but my stoked-ometer is still full. Sometimes we just gotta keep fighting. We had a few baptisms planned out, but the family wasn´t able to get baptized, so we will have to keep finding more people, and helping them out with their situation. So crazy that the mission is passing so fast. I had a dream that the mission was over and all I could do was cry.

There are so many little babies in our family!!!!!!!!!!! I never ever met Addie and now she is a year old. Kjirsten has a new baby, Shellie has a new baby. Is Jer married yet??? Thanks for all of the great news. I love you all so much. Kjirsten asked me what I want for christmas and I was going to ask for another year in the mission, but I think I will just keep it simple and ask for a small 2012 calendar. That would be rockin.

Don´t got a lot of time. I will email you all on monday.

CONGRATULATIONS BEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Emett

Star War Clone Bugs & Crazy Boys

Half Way Through the mission this week!!!!

Jill Emett,

I am such a silly little boy. Your email made me cry. I just can´t stand to see the words ¨half way over¨. My mission has meant absolutely everything to me. So crazy to think that it is going so fast. Ben´s an Elder?? That´s excellent. So in like two weeks, he should have his mission call? Where does everyone think he is going to go? I think he is going to come to my mission and I´m going to train him haha.

I¨m glad you all had such a good sacrament meeting and sunday. I miss sundays like that, but to tell you the truth I can´t even remember what it´s like to go to church in english. I´m afraid I wouldn´t understand everything.

My companion and I are doing just great. We are actually doing better than great. We are complete opposites and at first it was hard and disagreed on a lot of things because we were trying to think as individuals, but we have finally learned how to think as one and let our opposite personalities complement one another and it is amazing to see the results of that. We are teaching well together and baptizing and planning more baptisms, the ward absolutely loves us, and we absolutely love them and everything about where we have been called to work. My testimony of the power of prayer, faith, and fasting has grown a lot in these past few months. We have been able to help out a lot of people through the combination of the three. I could never doubt the reality or the importance of this work. And I could never doubt that God really does know us and he is so ready and so willing to help us out with everything. One month ago, we started teaching Helen. I invited her to be baptized in the first lesson and she told me that she doesn´t want anything to do with that kind of stuff, but she will happily go to church and all the activities. What do you do in that situation? I don´t know. We just gave her a book of mormon and bore our testimonies about it, then fasted and prayed that she would be able to receive an answer. She was baptized on saturday! Matt´s birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MATT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) The book of mormon is aboslutely true, mom.

Tell Shellie congrats on her little baby girl who will be born this week. How many little nephews and nieces do I have? I would like to meet some of them haha. I had a dream that I got sent home and me and Branson cried together then made plans to get me back on the mission hahaha. I could never imagine not being on my mission. I´m just so comfortable. I don´t have any problem talking to people or understanding them, I undertand more about missionary work, and I just love my calling. I feel like I am still just barely starting out. My mind absolutely denies the fact that I am going to be completing a year in the mission. It has been so fast.

Thank you for supporting me so much family! I love you all so much! I am sending two pictures, but neither of them are very good. just some bugs in yurimaguas that look like star wars clones and i forgot what the other picture is hahahahaha, I am so bad at taking and sending pictures.

Love Elder Emett

Loved Conference

Dear Mother,

Changes came today. I will complete a year this change. That is so off the chain!!!!!! I feel like I´m still in my first area! I´m finally realizing that the mission just might get over some day. I can´t see the end, but I can see how fast a year can pass and I´m scared out of my mind! I have to be a dad when I get back!!!! I´m SOOOOOOOOOOOO not ready! I just want to stay home and eat my shirts and play pokèmon.

I will be staying in the same place with my same companion. We had a small problem this week just for a lack of communication, but we talked about it and got it figured out and we are doing much better now. It has been a lot different with my new companion, he hardly ever ever talks which I am just not used to, but we are just focusing on our strengths and the things that matter most and we have 3 baptisms this saturday! One family! They are actually getting married today!!!!!! And we would totally be going to their wedding, but the lady is from the jungle and they went there to get married haha. Oh well.

The conference was so amazing!! Maybe you guys noticed too that Josh´s mission president spoke. That was cool. We were able to listen to the conference in english! Out of all the missionaries in the zone and all the members in the stake, there are 3 white people. So the three of us went into a little separate room and listened to the conference talks in english right from the internet. I LOVED CONFERENCE!!! I remember before the mission, I always just slept through all the talks and never really liked it that much, but I loved it sooooo much this time. I have a deep appreciation for the internet services that made it possible to listen in english, and the apostles and prophets are 100% my heroes. We had an investigator there who had a testimony before, but she was able to watch that testimony strengthen and now she has no doubts that she is making the right choice by being baptized this saturday. I loved all the talks about the book of mormon. I feel like I owe everything to that book, the men who wrote it, and ultimately, to God. I was reading in 1 Nephi 14 this morning and I found a scripture that helped me so much. God has expectations for us as members of his church. We ALL have so much responsibility and it makes me so happy to hear that you are all doing missionary work, too. I am so proud of Ben. The mission is going to change his life so much.

This morning, with my companion, we were reading about charity. We tried to study it in a way that gave us a clear idea of what we needed to do to become charitable missionaries. We had a few disagreements this week just over small, insignificant things, and studying together about the gospel really helped us out. We came to the conclusion that we are going to do 2 things better. We are always going to pray to have more charity and we are always going to put other people before ourselves and always look for opportunities to serve. I am sure that our relationship is going to grow and we are going to be able to help out a lot of people.

Tell Beckham congrats on her swim meet! That´s exciting stuff! I was never good enough to take second place in anything haha. I had a work visit with an elder in my district the other day and in the night, before we went to bed, we listened to a talk by Richard G. Scott about prayer and it got us both stoked to pray more and pray harder and with more intention to act on our impressions, so I have been praying like that and it is changing how I view everything. I just want everybody in the world to listen to conference haha. I am going to go today and buy some small speakers and download some talks from the prophets to be able to listen to in the night before I go to bed. And nothing else. Today is a free p day because of the changes, so we are just going to relax and get some housekeeping and cleaning and letter writing done. I am writing a letter to you guys that I have been writing for like 3 months, I just haven´t had any time to finish it haha and I always tell you all the good stuff when I send emails anyways haha. I am also writing a letter to the Lii family. No, I haven´t forgotten about them haha. I´m always happy to hear that all is going well with the family. I pray often for you all because I really do love you so much.

Love Elder Emett

p.s. I don´t have any pictures. to be straight honest, I´m just not taking pictures hahahaha

Cute email t o Kjirsten!

Dearest Sister Kjirsten,

Thanks for the email and the new nephew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Life sounds so exciting around there! I just want you to know that the plan of salvation is real and our family is really helping God out with his divine purposes!!! Thank you so much for understanding that plan and making our family even bigger and even happier than it was. Tell your little girls thank you for all of the adorable letters they wrote for me and tell your husband congrats for finally having a boy! Is his middle name axel or dumpster? I can´t remember which one you ended up putting, but I definitely will love him no matter what. Thanks for being a great sister! I love you and your family! See ya in a year!!!!!!!!!.......... and ten days.

Elder Emett

The Book of Mormon is the greatest book ever!!!!

Estimado Thammy,

Thanks for all the great news. I would have totally inserted an exclamation point after that sentence, but this ghetto keyboard doesn´t really work all that well haha. News numba 1: My companion is totally still here *exclamation point x 4* And he is doing great *more exclamation points* I talked with him for like two hours and then he had his interview with president and it all turned out great. He is good to go and we are working hard as normal.

We are teaching this man named Hugo, but without pronouncing the H. It´s just like..... OOOOOOHGOE. Almost. That´s not important, what´s important is that we taught him about Joseph Smith and invited him to pray and he told us that he still didn´t have his answer so we shared the book of mormon with him and we gave him just a few days to read it. When we went back to his house to check how he was doing with his reading, he had read like 15 chapters and told us that he didn´t have any more doubts about the church. He came to church on sunday and told us this is exactly what he has been looking for. The church is so true. The book of mormon is so true, and we couldn´t do anything without it. The book of mormon is just like an instant doubt destroyer, problem solver, and testimony builder all in 1 for the price of 0 nuevos soles. It gives me a reason to the missionary work. If the people will actually just read the book of mormon with interest and real intent to learn and be edified, it´s a fact, they are going to get baptized. It´s as simple as that. It is the most powerful tool I have seen in my entire mission. It gets me to a whole new level of stoked-ness. How come I never knew this stuff before the mission??? I always had a book of mormon. I just want to give away thousands every single day and watch the world change haha. And I thought you all would be interested to know, I found out my life calling. I am going to learn mandarin chinese and move to China and start teaching in secret haha. That would be the coolest thing ever. But before that I have to finish the mission of course. I just wanted to share with all of you how real the book of mormon is and how much it applies to everyone. It meant something different to me when I was a kid, it was something completely different when I was a teenager, it helped me prepare for my mission, and now it is everything to me as a missionary. I read it from the perspective of an investiagator, and it was something completely different and absolutely wonderful. Just...read it.

I can´t believe Ben is so close to getting his papers sent in. If he doesn´t come to the Lima Perù North mission, he is going to a Slovic country in Europe. That´s a fact. I love you all. I´ve had a really good week, and this is the last week of the change, but don´t worry cuz I am staying here.

p.s. we are playing soccer today and I forgot how to play

Love Elder Emett

D&C 29:39 Opposition in all things!

Good Mooooooooooorrrrrrnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnggg!!

Another week has passed by. I have no clue where it went, but yes, it went. This week has been extremely amazing and extremely bad. The amazing is that we are preparing 6 people to be baptized October 1st and we fasted so that everything would go good and they wouldn´t have any problems getting prepared, and everything is going good!!!!!!! Something that I am learning a lot about is the book of mormon. It is everything to me right now. Bueno, in my first area, my third change, we were teaching this lady named Lilian. She is like 25 years old and loved the missionary lessons, loved going to church, and always prayed, but she never fully understood the power behind the book of mormon. I feel kind of bad, because I never knew that´s what she needed and I never took the time to bear my testimony to her. Lilian was not baptized while I was there, and I haven´t heard anything from her since. We found the exact same situation here. We are teaching a lady named Helen. She is like 27 years old and she loves going to church and praying and everything, but she didn´t accept when we invited her to be baptized. So we took the time to explain to her about the book of mormon and testify of its truthfulness, then we gave her a week to read. After a week, she came right up to us and told us that she wants to be baptized. We didn´t even have to do anything!!!!!!!!!!!!! We just shared our testimonies and let her know about all the blessings and love that her heavenly father has for her and she is 100% convinced that she wants to be baptized. We have had A LOT of help from the members, and now she had tons of friends in the church and is totally stoked to get baptized. This experience kinda shocked me, so I started studying the first few chapters of first Nephi to see why people want to get baptized so bad after reading it. While reading the first few chapters, trying to think like an investigator, it almost brought me to tears. It filled me with a joy that was inexplicably sweet. I just felt at home. Then I read the first few chapters, trying to think as a missionary, and it changed how I view the mission. Nephi explains exactly what a person needs to do and feel to be a convert to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. In chapter 6, he explains our purpose as missionaries (with all the same elements found in Preach My Gospel). The first few chapters of 1 Nephi have sooooooo much power, and I perfectly understand why Helen accepted a baptismal date so easily.

One of my favorite scriptures is in D&C 29:39 explains that there is opposition in all things and that if we never know the bitter, we can´t taste the sweet. Our ability to recognize blessings from our heavenly father grows steadily as we humbly accept his will and every trial that comes our way. This week has been amazing, but we also had a taste of the bitter. On sunday (yesterday) we had a conference where President Thomas S. Monson, Elder Cristofferson, Julie B. Beck, and Elder Gonzalez of the seventy (I think), spoke directly to the members of Perú. They spoke a lot about marriage and law of chastity issues. It was a great conference. After the conference, I could tell something was bothering my companion, so I asked him what was going on and he flat out told me that he wants to go home. Instead of going to our lunch appointment with a family in our ward, we went straight home and I opened up my scriptures and started asking him questions to see why he was feeling that way. It took me almost an hour of questioning and scripture sharing until I found out exactly what was going on. He had some law of chastity problems he didn´t tell his bishop about before he came out on his mission. He is usually a really fun guy, really excited about things, but he just hasn´t been able to feel the spirit very strongly and it´s really been getting him down. So we called the assistants yesterday and my companion has another interview with President Blunck today right after we get done here. My companion is 100% convinced that he just wants to go home. He feels embarrassed and ashamed a little bit and he just doesn´t want to impede the missionary work. We talked a lot about the atonement, repentance, justice, and mercy yesterday and this morning and I shared a few peronal stories with him about my own repentance processes and he is feeling a lot better. For the first time in three weeks, he is laughing at my jokes and showing more life. I am not sure what will happen today. I hope he can get it all figured out with president and that he can stay in the mission, but I have just been praying that they can both know exactly what God wants at this time. So basically we have no idea what is going to happen, but I´m sure everything will be alright and that the work will continue here.

Tell dad ¨Yes!!!!¨ I am still getting his letters. I get more letters than any other missionary I have even heard of, and all of them are from him. I never have time to write him back, but I really am so grateful for all the letters and pictures. Also, I´m fully stoked about the decisions Ben is making right now in his life. Before he knows it, he will be looking at a missionary nametag almost identical to mine. I can´t wait to hear more about his preparation and his call. I love you all so much. Thank you for all of your support and love and for always writing me and telling me how the family is. I can´t believe how fast time has been passing. I had a dream last night that I came home from the mission and all I could do was cry. I miss you all so bad, but I literally can say that I´m just lost in the work right now.

Love Elder Emett

Dude its been like a week!

Dude its been like a week!

Dear, beloved Thammy my mother,

Thanks for the nice, long email! In case you guys were wondering, I´m still in Perù, so don´t worry. Does your computer have this - ñ - ? Didn´t think so. And, hold up. Addie can almost walk??? What do you expect me to do? Believe you? That´s insane!!!!!!!!!!!!! She just got born like two weeks ago... or maybe that was Brigham... or Shellie´s baby. People ask me how many people there are in my family and before I can respond, my body naturally just laughs. I don´t even know anymore. But it´s so good to know all the kids are having fun and growing up so fast and everything is good in Utah. I love to hear that everything is going good.

Well, we had a baptism this week! His name is Nestor. All of his family members are members of the church, including his wife, but he just never wanted to get baptized. With a little bit of help from the missionaries, a little bit of pushing from his family, and a LOT of help from God, Nestor was baptized saturday night and confirmed a member of the church on sunday. It was a very good day, and an amazing baptism. He will receive the priesthood this coming week.

We are both doing good! My compañion is progressing a lot and he isn´t that scared to teach anymore! He is a really good person. He is always thinking of ways that he can be better and he is always trying to invite the spirit in every single moment. It is helping me a lot, and it is really helping us out as a compañionship and it is helping the investigators a lot. This week, we found a new family to teach, and the dad came to church on sunday. His name is Hugo. When we met him, he explained his situation to us and why he wanted to listen to us (he was a referral from a member) and it seemed like a dream! He told us that all his life he had been searching for the truth and he had visited tons of churches, but he never felt quite right in any of them. He told us that just a few weeks ago, he prayed to God to be able to find the truth and then we showed up at his door. He told us that he was sure we could help him. I almost didn´t know what to say!!! I spend so much time bearing my testimony and just trying to get people to be willing to listen to a short message that I hardly knew what to do when we actually found one of the Lord´s Elect. Hugo went to church on sunday and sat right night to me in all 3 meetings. Before he left, I asked him how he felt in the church and he told me he felt very comfortable and that he needed our help convincing his whole family to start going to church. It´s so cool to read about the promises we have as missionaries in Doctrine and Covenants and The Book of Mormon and then watch those promises be fulfilled again and again and again. I love D&C 4. I read it with my companion this morning and we both came to the conclusion that the field really is white and ready to harvest and we have been called to the work. We both got way stoked and we are going to continue finding amazing families in our area.

Oh yeah! Something I thought was way cool! In relief society, you guys learned about the spirit world, right? That´s what our ward learned about in relief society, too! The church is soooooooooo organized haha.

So we totally got to go to president´s house last monday and it was amazing! HE HAS CARPET!!!!! That was the first time I have seen carpet since I left the MTC. His wife didn´t make me cookies, but she made me a sandwich and brownies and chips and juice! IT WAS SO GOOD! It was so amazing that I took a picture before I ate it.

I can´t even believe that Jake is so close to getting his mission call! You guys have to send me at least 50 emails telling me where he is going, when he is going, what he will be speaking, who his president will be, and how he feels about his mission. It will be so interesting to have two missionaries out at the same time on opposite ends of the mission to be able to see more about the missionary life. I´m ridiculously stoked about all this haha.

Guess what! We are going bowling today and I can´t even stand it I´m so excited. I haven´t been bowling since I went with Rosie when we were like 10 years old hahahaha. But really, missionary work is the most satisfying thing I have ever done, so for me, it is the most satisfying thing that one can do. I have such a strong testimony of this church. Nobody and nothing could ever prove it false, and even if someone could, they would never be able to convince me against my own testimony. The book of mormon absolutely was written by prophets, and Joseph Smith translated it. He saw God, and Jesus Christ, and there is a living prophet today, and there always will be. I love you all so much. Thank you for all your support.

Elder Emett

P.s. I´m attaching two pictures. One picture is of me and Nestor and my companion, Elder Galarza. The other picture if of the lunch that Sister Blunck made me!!!!

Missionaries are Awesome!

Loves his companion!

Thchssamy,

This week has been absolutely excellent! I was so scared of my new companion at first cuz he just didn´t talk, but I finally got him talking and now we are GREAT friends. He is the only member in his whole entire family. His mom isn´t even taking missionary lessons and his dad lives in Switzerland with his only brother. Elder Galarza has been an amazing example to me of courage and faith. He doesn´t doubt anything, and he knows that his mom will be baptized one day. I know it, too.

The whole house seems so amazing! I am super stoked that everyone is healthy and happy and that dinner with the Emett family is always a highlight. You wanted to know a little bit more about the apartment we live in? haha. We live above a little store in front of a park. We have our own little private bathroom with about 10 minutes of warm water every morning between the 2 of us. We have a decently big room where we have our beds and a dresser to put our clothes in and a separate room where our study desks are. The floor in concrete and the walls are made of brick with a thin layer of plaster or something. It´s actually a pretty nice house, except for the store below us sells beer and so there are always always drunks partying until 2 or 3 in the morning and it is hard to sleep at times. We don´t have a kitchen or any type of laundy machinery, all that kinds of stuff is in cargo de la familia lopez. The Lopez family is like our family, but Peruvian! They have like 8 kids and 9 grandkids and they are ALL members and they are ALL my favorites. We eat breakfast and dinner there every single day and they do our laundry, too. Their laundry machine is so cool. I think they made it haha. But I basically have my own Peruvian family and I really am happy. I still love you all so much, obviously, but it will be really hard to say goodbye to the familia Lopez.

It´s so crazy that Christmas is just around the river bend. I just barely had Christmas here!!!!!!! But I am going to search for a nativity and send it to you and I am putting together a small package for the family on christmas eve. I don´t want to talk about it now, but closer to christmas time, I will tell you about all the traditions and beliefs and stuff like that.

So, I know I have quite a bit of time in the mission, but I still have A LOT left. I am still learning new things every single day. Something I am learning a lot about is the spirit. I am learning that, as missionaries, we really don´t even have to do a lot. We just need to be obedient, worthy, and know the missionary lessons and the spirit is what converts the people! I want to share an experience with you that I shared with my mission president recently.

"I was bored of making contacts because I didn´t really feel anything. I was just inviting the entire world to church without any success. My last change, we made almost 1000 contacts and from all those contacts, we found 1 person to teach. 1 person. This week, we made 74 contacts and we found 10 people to teach. Including 3 families. Do you know what the difference is? I finally understand that the spirit does the work! In every single contact that we made this week, we testified of Jesus Christ and of the restoration of his gospel. We have seen a change in the area, in the ward, and in ourselves."

The spirit is so much more powerful than we are. This is not OUR work. it is God´s work. And there is no other way to do it than his way. So when I say I am learning so much about the spirit, that´s what I mean. It´s so amazing to meet someone in the street and watch the spirit work with them and change them and help them recognize us as servants of the Lord. I can´t even count how many people I have met for the first time and they have shared their life story with me and cried and cried telling me about past mistakes. When we use the spirit, we are absolutely doing what Christ would do if He were here. I have a stronger testimony of the spirit now than I ever have, and I´m excited to build on these experiences and serve with everything I have for the next 13 months.

So today, we are going to the Lopez family´s house to eat this way peruvian food called Pachamanca. There is this medium-sized hole back behind their house where there is space to put in hot coles and food and cover it up with earth and cook. They call it Pachamanca. All the food (potatoes, meat, chicken, vegetables, and this weird bread) is put in some kind of protective wrap stuff and then down into the hot coles in the hole. Then it is covered up with dirt and it cooks for like 2 or 3 hours of something like that. Then you take it out and eat it and it tastes WAY GOOD!!!! So we are going to her house (as a zone) today to eat Pachamanca and play soccer and we are all pretty stoked. But my companion and I have to leave right now because he had to re-schedule his interview and it´s today at 2 in the mission president´s house which is like an hour or so from here. We are hoping to go right now and have the interview really quick so we can get back to the Lopez house and eat with them haha. So we are going to go travel to the mission president´s house and I am going to ask his wife is she will bake me some cookies haha. There just aren´t any cookies here.

Oh, and guess what!!!??? The sun finally decided to come out! It is going to start getting cold where you are and HOT where I am and I´m totally ready! So my hands aren´t cold right now and that´s why I have been able to write a lot more. Oh yeah and my companion told me something that almost made me cry this morning. I was telling him about my mission and and how it had been and what I wanted to achieve in the next year and what I wanted to teach him in our time together and he told me I was the best companion he could ask for. He is such a good missionary. Well, I love you all. I am loving every second of my mission and I will see you all sooner than you realize.

Love Elder Emett

P.s. I am sending a picture from Yurimaguas. This is a baptism we had in there. I am the big fat white one on the far left and the others are all little skinny dark peruvians. This night was really special. 4 future priesthood holders were baptized by 2 recent converts who had just received the priesthood... and me haha.

- Show quoted text -

Fabulous Pictures

Loves Peru!

Dear Jill,

Haha Mom!!! You are such a worrier! Everything is fine here! Yes, I have permission to play the guitar even though I hardly have time to play it (like 2 or 3 times a week in the night just before I go to bed). And I´m sorry I don´t write a whole whole whole bunch to you guys. It´s not because I´m disobedient, it´s not because I´m not doing anything, its just cuz I am suuuuper busy all week then I get to the computer and my brain just shuts down. I never know what to say. SORRY! I will do whaahahhahay better today.

So I´m in a ward right now called Buenos Aires, it´s like an hour bus ride from the offices. Technically we are still in Lima, but it´s like a different city called San Juan de Lurigancho. It´s basically Lima haha. The ward members are good! We had to kind of straighten them out and get them all stoked, but we did it and now we are progressing like champions. The Bishop´s name is Bishop Calderón. He is a really nice guy, but he has been Bishop for a while and is just kind of tired now haha. We went to lunch with him like a week ago to this chicken restaurant called Norky´s and we ate so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Two full chickens, a bunch of other meats, three serving of french fries, two salads and dessert!!! The meal ended up costing like 140 soles for 5 people! That´s like 50 bucks. It was so funny. He really trusts us as missionaries and is giving us referrals to his friends and he is re-stoked about missionary work. Our pensionist is the best. We eat breakfast there every morning at 7 thirty. We usually eat yogurt and granola (even though they had no idea what gronola was until we told them haha... it´s just not typical peruvian food.) It is a big happy family named the Lopez family. We celebrated my birthday there and it was so cool! We had cake and empenadas and a piñata and jello and inca kola. It is so easy to feel the spirit in their house.

We are teaching a lot of amazing people right now, Including 5 different families, 2 of which who want to be baptized and the others steadily progressing. One really cool story is that our area is tiny! We almost know everyone and we have knocked every single door! So we have had a hard time finding people, but we are still trying! One night, we were walking to an appointment and this car was coming towards us and it stopped and this guy yelled ¨hey elders, come here!¨ He then explained to us that he is a member of the church, but he is inactive. He served a mission in northern peru like 25 years ago then moved to venezuela. He came back to Peru (to our area) and has been living there for like six months. He is living with a lady right now named Deysi and she has a daughter named Eymi, they were both born catholics and have never heard of the church. So the guy (Jimmy) basically told us that he wants to talk to the bishop, put his life in order, get married, baptize his family, and start coming to church!!!! How crazy!!!! So we have been working with him for a week and he will get married in September and the family (including Deysi´s brother) will all get baptized the saturday after the marriage. How cool is that!?

I hope that gives you all a little bit clearer view fo what´s going on here in Peru! Mom, I love this gospel so much. I love the church, and I love being a missionary. Prayer works and God really does have a plan for us. He wants ALL of us to return to live with him and there is a way for EVERYONE to achieve that. Dont worry about me mom. I am doing just great and totally stoked to be here. I am finally more comfortable in Peru than I can remember being in the States. This is just my home now haha. I love you all and I will write you more next week!!!

Love Elder Emett

P.s. just because i love you, i am sending you a picture of me in this place called Chorrillos. It´s like an hour away from where we are. We went there on my birthday! Just behind us, there is this huge statue of Jesus just like the one in Brazil, but this one is just a small dinky one compared to that one. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!

And.... another foto of my companion Elder Castillo cutting my hair in Yurimaguas haha. He was such a funny guy! And it actually turned out pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And.... We got our changes today. My companion is leaving. Pretty sad. We will get some pictures together to send to you next week. I will be staying in my same area so don´t even worry!

Beautiful Peru

I LOVE PERU!!!!!

WoahoawT-t-t-t-t-Thams

Moday. August 15th 2011. Lima, Peru. San Juan de Lurigancho. Small internet shop. Elder Anderson is officially flying into Utah tonight. I didn´t get to see him before he left. Joining him will be my good friend Elder Schreyer. I haven´t told you guys a ton about him, but he is going home today, too. He (was) in my zone here in Lima and he is way cool like Elder Anderson. I did get to say bye to him this morning. Big deal. I only have 23 months left!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, we figured out yesterday that our ward is really kinda falling apart. We are starting a rescue plan to get all the less actives to go back to church and we are going to start working with the ward members every day to strengthen them and get more than 30 people to go to church on sunday.

You are all just going to hate me, but I don´t have much to write haha. BUT I am going to try to send you all a few pictures right now (we will see how that works out). One huge favor, could you send me a few bags of sunflower seeds? Everyone here loves them, but there aren´t any. That would be ballin. I just want to thank you again for all the emails that you sent me last week haha, I still haven´t read them all!!!! Question. Is Kjirsten pregnant? How many Emetts are there? And is ben really sending in his papers in 2 months? That´s off the chain. ew. I just had to itch my eye with dirty keyboard fingers. It´s all good, I swear I´m immune to anything by now. We ate cow stomach and cow intestines for lunch on sunday. I LOVE PERU!!!!! But I´m not sure if I will miss the food too bad. Call me.

Love Elder Emett

Happy Birthday Kolby!

Family!!!!

So I opened up my email today and I had 15 messages from the family!!!!!!!!! thank you all so much!! It was so awesome to read about how everyone is doing. I just love you all so much. Wow, I spent all my time reading all your letters, and now i just dont have a lot of time to write you but i did want to say a couple of thingss! I love you all so much! T hanks for al lthe support and birthday wishes! As I am writing this, I am still nineteen, but I will be 20 in 22 minutes! How crazy! I wont have time today (or ever) to write you all back and tell you how cool the mission is or tell you how much you mean to me and the whole family, so just accept this as a family letter. Matt was wondering what kind of letter he could send me. Tell h im to ask josh what he did and do the same thing! Josh, that letter helped so much. You have no idea. Thank you for writing me in spanish, too haha. it makes me feel more normal. There were a few mistakes, but I knew what you were trying to say. Tell baylie congrats on her baptism!!! That is so cool. I didnt really understand baptism too well before the mission, but i understand a little better now and it really is someting so spec ial. Sorry im writing so bad, t his keyboard has seen better days. Yes. I got your birthday package adn yes, my companion and I thoroughly enjoyed eating poptarts adn brownies. That was so awesome. WE found two new families to teach this week and we are STOKED because they are STOKED! We had 8 investigators in church and we set up two more baptismal dates! All is going well and we are truly starting to see gods hand in everythign we do. Spanish is coming along good. Everyone tells me right when i start talking spanish with them that i talk really well. One lady told me she had never heard a white person sound so much like a peruvian haha. Im just stoked that they can actually understand me. it surprises me at times. Wow, just thank josh again for that letter, it changed my view on things, and i know you are all going to read this so, THANK YOU SO MUCH FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVED ALL YOUR EMAILS!!!! it means the world to me to have such a big, loving, supportive, family. I put a family picture of us all on my agenda that I carry around all day and I show it to everyone haha. I wish I had an updated picture tho! We got one family picture done, updated with evetryone right before i left and then l ike 3 days later michelle had a baby. but an updated picture of you all would be way cool! I love you all so much! Its so weird to not be a teenager anymore. Tonight we are going to have a small birthday party in the pensions house adn i am pretty stoked about it. I love you all so much. Call me.

Love Elder Emett

Last letter from my teenager!!

Tcheheyhammies,

This has been an iteresting week... We were walking in front of an Israelite church and some old guy with a big robe on called us over to talk to him so we talked to him for a minute, then he started attacking our church (which is fine with me, I´m not here to fight), but my companion wasn´t too stoked to get talked down on by some crazy old peruvian so he completely burned him, using his own bible haha. Then we invited him to church and started to walk away and he starting yelling at us and told us that somebody needs to talk to us so we went back and the whole entire congregation was just staring at us, including their weird pastor guy up front with his burning incense and his way cool-er robes. They invited us up to their pulpit (I stayed down on the front row) and my companion went right up to the pastor and starting questioning him. Long story short, my companion burned their pastor too hahaha. The poor Israelite guys had no idea what to say. So we invited them all to church and left. It was rad.

This sunday, we had 8 investigators in church! Including a family! We have 4 baptismal dates set up in august now and we are going to set up four more this week with the family we are teaching! The work is going really good right now and we are all stoked. My stomach doesn´t hurt at all and the cold is starting to go away. And wow, yes i did think about it one time. I only have 1 more week to be a teenager. That was fast. I´m really hoping it´s a super slow week so I can enjoy immaturity just a little bit longer. I don´t want to grow up yet. Big deal.

So, what is ben up to? Remember my best friend James? Is he still in St. George? I hope so cuz we are moving in together when i get back and if he is gone, I am going to have to leave the house right when I get back hahaha how sad. How is Brady Johnson doing in the states? Tell him every single person (including the missionaries at times) wants to be in the United States right now. You guys don´t even realize what a privilege that is. When does Paco go to Germany? When does Chaddy-cakes go to Guatemala? My companion is from Guatemala. Mala means bad in spanish haha. OH! My companion´s cousin is serving in the St. George mission!!!!! His name is Elder Paiz (the same as my companion). I don´t know how big the S.G. mission is or if it would be possible to see him, but if you do, tell him that his cousin is your son´s companion down in Peru! How crazy!!!

Guess what we´re going to do today!!! We are going to buy a guitar and learn how to play it in our free time. Cool huh? We are pretty stoked about it. And we are going to play soccer against another zone right now. I hope I don´t tear my ACL again. That would be a bummer. Not much else to say. Everything is going just perfectly great. I love you all and I will email you when I´m 20.

Elder Emett

Peruvians are so silly sometimes!

I´m running out of variations of the word ¨Thammy¨.

And my hands are cold, but this is the nicest computer I have used in Peru so far. It´s kinda fast and the keyboard isn´t broken. Man, I just feel like I don´t have anything to say. I just emailed you all on thursday haha. Thanks for the update on the family, sounds like you are all doing just great!!! That´s good, cuz I am doing just great, too. Not much to say about the investigators, cuz none of them came to sacrament meeting. Peruvians are so silly sometimes. They are all terrified of cold weather and none of them like to wake up early (probably cuz there isn´t any hot water here) and our sacrament meeting starts at 8 in the morning. If we actually wanted people in church, we would have to start at 3 in the afternoon. Oh well.

There is only one temple in Peru and it´s in Lima, like an hour from where we are. We have all heard rumors about a new temple that they are thinking about building in northern Peru in a place called Trujillo. But that´s not in the north mission and it won´t be built for a while. Yes, monday is always pday except for when we go to the temple which should be like one time every six weeks. So if there is some random monday that you don´t receive an email, just wait until thursday. Ummmmmmmmmmmmm, how is Ben doing?????? And have you guys even heard from or about James?? Where is that guy? What is he doing? Could you please like call him or something? Haha wow, my head is thinking in spanish right now and I keep on starting to write in spanish and going back and erasing it. Does that even make any sense? Does anyone there speak spanish? It is so much more comfortable speaking in spanish sometimes hahaha. Well, I love you all. Call me.

Elder Emett

Better late than never!!

Thammy!

Guess I´d better explain myself. Monday was not Pday. Today is! Cuz today we got to go to the TEMPLO! It´s a lot more fun to say in spanish hahaha. I think we are going to go after this to get some PIPZA! That´s not spanish, but that´s how everyone here says pizza. Then i´m gonna go home and do absolutely nothing! That´s actually really cool here.

So I just realized something the other day. You guys have heard enough about ME. It´s about time I tell you about the investigators! Deysi and Nataly just got baptized last week! Their mom is a member, but they just never got baptized so we helped them out! Saturday night after the baptism, Deysi sprained her ankle really bad, but she showed up to church on sunday, hopping on one foot, and told us that she needed to get confirmed before she went to the hospital! HAHAHHAHAHAHA! She is my hero!

We are teaching a family of 4 right now. The Hernandez family. We can only teach them once a week cuz they all work a lot, but just two weeks ago the mom told us that she received her answer about Joseph smith and she knows it´s true and now we are just waiting on the dad haha. He is really cool and pays a lot of attention to all the lessons. When we got to their house the other night, Peru (the soccer team) was playing in the quarter finals of some cup against Uruguay, and he turned off the game to listen to us! Background information- the world here shuts down when Peru plays. Nobody turns off their tv for anything and nobody does anything for any reason until the game is OVER and he turned the game off just after half time to listen to us! That was really cool. We taught them about eternal families and I showed him a picture of our family and testified that we would all be together forever. It was such a cool lesson!

We are teaching a lot of other people now and we have a few baptismal dates set up and we are way excited. One family we are teaching was kind of having a hard time getting along and the dad just got up and left them. So sad. But we have been trying to help them out and keep them stoked (the mom is a member) and now we have a baptismal date with their oldest son Paul: WELL MY KEYBOARD JUST BROKE CUZ I WAS TYPING SO FAST SO NOW THERE IS NOTHING BUT CAPS LOCK, SORRY HAHA. BUT THAT´S WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. i LOVE THE MISSION, I LOVE ALL OF YOU AND I WILL LET YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT THE INVESTIGATORS ON MONDAY!

LOVE ELDER EMETT

No Worries!

Thahahahahahahamy!

Needn´t thou worriest!!!!!!!!! I AM FINE!!!!! Just like I told you before ya silly mom. Everything is normal, just like before, except for my hands are freezing again haha. I guess I just have to tell you all the story from the start.

Thursday, July 30th. We got done with lunch at a members house (in Yurimaguas) and started walking to our 2 o´clock appointment and we were walking down this big hill and I felt a pain in my lower stomach, but it wasn´t bad so I ignored it. Then about ten minutes later, it was just progressively worse and I had to stop walking. On a 1 to 10 pain scale it was only like a 4,5,6, but it just scared me cuz it was impeding my walk-ability. So we went back to the house to lay down for a few minutes and the pain just didn´t go away. So we called Elder Anderson and he came over and checked it out and decided to call the mission president´s wife just to let her know and she got kinda scared because she thought it was something to do with my appendix because that´s one of the symptoms. So we went and checked out a doctor in Yurimaguas which was useless hahahaha then President called me and told me that he was scared it was my appendix and he didn´t want me to be in the middle of the jungle if something did happen. So Friday afternoon they brought me into Lima and I have been just fine since then. My stomach doesn´t hurt at all and I met with president and we are good to go. SO DON´T WORRY! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Absolutely nothing is wrong and nothing is going to happen.

Yes, I have a new companion, his name is Elder Paiz and he is amazing! He finishes his mission 2 days before christmas haha. But we are working hard and we are healthy and happy and the ward is good. I got to speak in sacrament meeting on sunday about missionary work and now everybody knows me and we are all good friends. Man, my hands are so cold. Just know that everything is WHAY good and I got like 20 letters from you all on thursday hahha. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! Riley has the biggest muscles ever!!! My companion and I are starting a work out program to be more like him haha. I love you all.

Some Extra Prayers Needed for Kolby!!!

Mom!

I´m not disappointed at all!!!!!!!! It´s just all so new! I love it here! don´t worry about me, my fingers are just really cold right now. I don´t have much to say cuz my head feels kinda sick haha. I don´t want to scare you, but yes I know why I got sent back to lima. I was having stomach problems, but I´m fine!!! I promise!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you all!!!! haha it´s like Christmas here right now cuz it´s cold. Don´t worry about me, I´m still just as stoked as ever, and I will tell you more about the area later! my pension is the best! we are going to have a piñata for my birthday hahaha

Tons of love

Transfer????

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm...

Hey Thams... I´m in Lima. I left Yurimaguas Friday morning and got here late Friday night. It is so cold here. They are in winter right now (cuz it´s opposite) and I don´t have winter clothes, but we are going to go buy some today. Sorry I can´t really type a lot, my fingers are cold haha.

so I´m not with Elder Anderson anymore, but we are definitely still best pals. I think you will see him before I do, though. Don´t worry, my new ward is awesome. The bishop and his family are really nice, and our pension makes me feel at home. Still having an amazing mission, still stoked, still love you all, still have cold fingers, still looking forward to the entire mission.

Love Elder Emett

Kolby sang a duet in church!

HEYHOTHAMMIES,

Wow. Good morning. Yesterday was fantastic. I don´t want to describe every detail cuz I don´t want to cry in this little internet shop, but God answers prayers. Specifically. We can ask for specific things, and he will hook us up! So, the word on the street is that Cap´n Brad is currently aware of my where-abouts via blog. Tell capn brad that I love getting his emails and I get stoked every time he has time to write to me, but it is against mission rules to write him back. I am kinda bankin on the fact that he will read this email sometime in the near future so this little part is for him. Capn Brad. You´re still my hero. I am stoked that your mission is bumpin and I can´t wait to see you again and listen to you speak cambodian. You are such a man. And don´t worry, we will get some snowcones together at harmons one day with all the cute boys. I know you are such a good missionary. Love Elder Emett.

That´s for capn brad. Also, HOW´S THE FAMILY? Did I spell family right? It just looks wrong to me haha. Spanish is messing with my mind so bad. There are so many Engish words that I just forgot how to pronounce. Spanish is way way prettier than english haha. I´m glad you all had a good time in Disneyland and at the family reunion, we had a good week too. I´m not sure if I´m going to permit Elder Anderson to leave. It just wont be the same without him here. In church on Sunday, we sang a duet! It was so cool! We were super nervous, but we just did it anyways. We sang ¨Love is spoken here¨ and he sang the girl part whilst I sang the boy part and it was way way good. It´s a good thing he has a good voice, or we would have sounded awful. After the song, the entire congregation clapped. Bienvenidos al Peru. hahahahahaha. They don´t know they´re not supposed to clap, but it´s ok. We still love them a whole bunch.

Answers to your questions...... I have no clue how things are in Peru, but things are GREAT in Yurimaguas. Just lots of rain and sunshine. I am keeping very busy. I am happy and healthy and working hard. Birthday package?? I want a copy of my patriarchal blessing, and a letter from josh and matt with a mission experience or something cool about the mission, and a hi five. So crazy, we have changes in 2 weeks and I´m not even 1 percent ready. I just want to stay with my companion the rest of the mission, but I will receive any assignment with a smile.

I was talking with Elder Anderson the other day and I decided that you and dad are the best examples I have ever had in life. Thank you so much. Dad always made the hugest deal about taking you on dates and now I understand why. THAT´S SO IMPORTANT!! Thank you dad for having an amazing relationship with mom and always showing your love for her and for all of us. You are the absolute man. Maybe me and you and zac can go do some manly stuff when I get back. We could go shoot some stuff or eat a big steak or something cool haha.

Everything is going excellent in the mission. I am so excited to be where I am and be able to teach the people I am teaching. Thank you for all your support. Talk to you next week!!

Love Elder Emett

Fireflies in Peru

HAHAHAHAHHEYYY FAMOLI!

I bet you guys are all in the car driving to Disneyland! Fun! Enjoy your time there! I have never met a Peruvian who has been to Disneyland so count your blessings and dont take one churro for granted. Well, knowing our family, I bet you guys are still at the house getting ready to go haha, but I hope you can enjoy my email and have a nice safe trip. It actually doesnt make me homesick to know you guys are going to Disneyland, haha. IM IN THE AMAZON RAINFOREST!!!!!!! Haha, Josh and Matt are right, I am having the time of my life. Which brings me to my next point. You guys know the Jungle Cruise ride in Disneyland???? The little hut place that you go into before you get on the ride is just what all the houses here are like!!! Some of them even have little rivers running underneath them. So just go on the jungle cruise ride and think about the cute little Peruvian homes.

So, dad has to give a report on my mission so far? Im sure he will do a great job. Just tell them that my companion is an awesome Chilean and I didnt know that weather could get this hot. I wont give you a number cuz thats lame, but yes, we are baptizing. And yes, I am slowly forgetting english. Yes, we have bread for sacrament and our building is just a small scale church building. We have anywhere from 50 to 90 people at church every week and yes, there are enough youth to make up the different classes and there are always classes. We teach english every tuesday night haha.

Coolest thing ever! We were in this little area last night and all the lights went out (that happens a lot here) so we could see all the stars and it was just fantastic. And I forgot to tell you all, but there are fireflies here!!!!! Yeah, they are as cool as they sound. We almost trapped one last night. Mom, dad, family, everyone else who reads this haha, I want you all to know that I am having the time of my life. I have been gone for 8 months and my life has already changed. I am so grateful for everthing i have, especially you guys. Mom, thank you so much for putting money in my account. We are not allowed to give people money for any reason at all, but it really helps so much to have money to help out other missionaries and be able to send letters and packages home and pay for all the Elders to eat out haha.

Let all my brothers know that they are my heroes and I cant wait to hear where Ben will be serving his mission. When does he send his papers in? Is Lincoln on his mission? Where is he at? I bet he is such a stud. Onesie garments- I dont even ever want to use them during the day, I just want to sleep in them, but if there arent any left I wont worry about it. Sorry this letter is so random haha, I just have tons of stuff to say and I dont know how to organize it all very well. Is Johny Esplin on his mission still? When does he finish? When does Marcus finish? I hope Elder Anderson never finishes, I just want him to stay here with me haha.

Im super stoked for all of you. Have a blast and a half in Disneyland and tell Ben if I were there we would totally own the whole park and talk to all the mexicans. I cant believe you all talked Jer into going with you. He is so fun. Tell Beckham and Scoots to have a blast and I miss them. I hope that email is big enough to enjoy for an entire week. Time is passing so fast. I love you all.

Love Elder Emett

a little clarification for Kolby's email

I thought I would clarify a few things so Kolby's email makes better sense. He talks about the lady with the tablecloth calling. We have a pretty big ward with lots of older people. I think it is a challenge to give them all callings. Several months ago a lady was called to be in charge of the tablecloths for the relief society. Kolby thought that was a hilarious calling. Of course, he thinks my calling as compassionate service leader is hilarious! Well, I recently finished with a funeral in our ward and was gathering up the tablecloths. I was planning on returning them to this sister, thinking she was going to wash them. Well, come to find out, she does not wash them, she just stores them! I told that to Kolby and he thought that was pretty funny.

8 month mark

THAAHAHAMMMI

So just guess what?????????? I 100% completed 8 months in the
mission today! haha, I still have no time at all. I love it! I was
talking with Elder Castillo the other day and we are both going to
extend our missions for 6 months. He is such a good guy. I am
basically loving the mission, as usual, and looking forward to the day
and the week. President is coming into town again this weekend so we
are all pretty stoked.
Soooooo, two things. first of all. Did Josh serve as the
assistant in his mission or is that something that I made up?
And......... Do onesie garments really exist? I would honestly pay
like 10 soles for a pair of onesie garments. Other thing. Yes. send my
p-blessing and call letter in an email if thats possible. I would
thoroughly enjoy reading them.
Im pretty sure you asked me a whole bunch of questions and what
not, but I am whay too lazy to save this draft and then go find the
questions then answer them and so I will just have to answer all your
questions with ´yes´. Even if it doesnt apply. But you know I am
healthy and happy and that I am really enjoying my time here in the
mission. But yes, I do miss you all a whole bunch. I explained Emett
Family Fun Time to Elder Eric Ross Anderson and we both got way
stoked, so maybe you could all invite him to an Emett Family Fun Time
this summer and I will join you all in 24 months.
Mostly right now I am just stoked about this lady in our ward who
has the most specific calling possible. She has been called to store
the tablecloths in her house. Not wash them. To store them. I would
have loved to have been the bishop who extended the call to her. How
did he extend a call like that AND make this lady feel important? I
could only imagine that it went something like this:

Bishop: As you are fully aware, we are all very grateful for the
service you have done for the church all your life, but we have a
calling for you that might require a little bit of effort on your
part. In our church building right now, we have 4 custodial closets
and they are just packed full of tables and chairs and other supplies.
The real problem we have right now are these 10 giant tablecloths that
just dont have a place. Is there any chance that you will accept the
call to keep these tablecloths in your home?

I could never extend a call like that, I would be laughing way
too much. But Im sure this lady loves her call and she does it well.
Thank you for writing me so much, mom. It really means a lot to
me. The time I have had here in the mission has just helped me realize
what is important to me and that is you guys. Keep writing me and stay
stoked. I love you all.
P.s. Tell the girl who works at the counter at Brick Oven to totally
go for Ben or Scoots. They are way cuter than me.

Elder Kolby Emett

Life is Good

Thahahammy

Yes. We are getting close to 8 months now. Pretty crazy, no???? Everything is going good in Peru. I never want to leave this area or this companion (Elder Castillo from Chile), and yes, we are rescuing all of our lost brethren. We are all so stoked. Im glad to hear you are taking your calling in the ward so seriously. Things like that change lives. You and I are doing the exact same work right now and it feels so good to play for the winning team. My companion and I are having tons of fun and lots of success right now. We have had 5 baptisms here in Yurimaguas (including one family!) and we are still finding all kinds of new people to teach. Im enjoying my mission to the fullest, and as a result, the time is just flying by. In exactly one week I complete 8 months in the mission. Thats just so crazy to me. I feel like I have been away for like 3 weeks.

I have a couple of favors to ask you. I brought my patriarchal blessing with me, but I left it in Lima and I wont be going to Lima again for quite a while. Is there any chance you can all find my copy at the house and send me a copy of it? That would be choice. And also a copy of my mission call? I want to read all that stuff again, but I just dont have any of it, so if it would be possible to send, that would be the greatest. And also a pair of shorts would be amazing. I ditched my other ones in the mtc cuz they were too big and I bought some here, but I just tore them in the crotch zone so I need some new ones and I havent any money. So if it is possible, some shorts would be amazing, or I will just steal some from Elder Anderson when he goes home haha. Other favor- could you ask matt and josh to give me just a brief summary of their missions or like an experience they had or something? I would thouroughly enjoy reading about their missions.

Mom. You are the absolute greatest. Thank you for supporting me so much. Dad. You, also, are the greatest. Thanks for all the letters and the pictures, they help me remember what a good, happy family we have and I am just so happy to be a part of our family. Thank you both so much for everything! All your emails, all your help with my knee surgery and your examples that helped me to gain my own testimony of the restored gospel. I love this church so much. I hope I can always serve in the church and help change peoples lives like you do and have a big happy family like we have. My patriarchal blessing tells me that my mission will be a big turning point in my life and I am beginning to watch that unfold. Life is so good.

We got kinda upset yesterday because we had 3 investigators tell us basically that they dont want us to come back to teach them anymore. It was so sad to hear and we felt so bad for them. I was reading in Alma chapter 8 this morning when he had an experience similar to mine. He went into the city of Ammoniah teach the people and they all just rejected him so he left and when he was leaving an angel appeared to him. The angel basically tells him that there is NOTHING TO BE SAD ABOUT! He tells him to go back to the city and everything is going to work out. My favorite thing the angel tells Alma is that he doesnt have anything to worry about and nothing to be sad about because he has kept the commandments of the Lord. Mom, I know that if we keep the commandments of the Lord, we have nothing to worry about. Nothing can ever stand in our way, and there will never be anything to get discouraged about. Im just so stoked to be a missionary haha. I love you all.

Love Elder Emett