Hilarious little jungle city that he calls home!

Dear Thchiptopss,

Don´t even worry your little heart away. I´m still in Peru. I´m just in this little place called Yurimaguas ( Joo- di- maw- gwuhs). Its a hilarious little jungle city just placed out in the middle of the jungle. There is this little place called Tarapoto which is kind of a city, I´m like six hours from there in this tincy little place. I had to ride alone in this car with 5 other Peruvians to get here haha, it was the most amazing car ride of my life. I have never seen so many trees and waterfalls and plants and rain clouds and flowers and wow. It just blew my mind and now I live in the middle of it. I´m just not even in the same mission anymore, I feel like I have just been camping for a week. It is beyond hot here and I thought it was humid in Lima... hahahaha. There are like two parts of this city. One part is like a little jungle city and the other part is just straight up village with little huts and sand roads and trees mercilessly growing in every square inch of the ground. I would love to take tons of photos, but I´m not going to lie. I have absolutely no time. None. We have to wash all our own clothes here by hand and there is just no time to do all that and all the missionary work and have time to do anything else... at all. I haven´t even written in my journal for like five days haha. We are really just in survival mode here, focusing everything on the work.

This is the situation. There are six missionaries here. Me and my companion, named Elder Castillo. He is from Chile and he rocks. He is smart and funny and we get along well. Another companionship with Elder Villegas and Elder Flores, from Bolivia and Arizona and they are hilarious. And two other missionaries. The branch president and his secretary. Elder Anderson and Elder Tax. Elder Anderson is the old assistant to the president and Elder Tax worked in the mission offices. Elder Anderson is abosutely my hero. He was the AP when I entered in the mission and we always joked around and now I am in his zone haha. They are both also the zone leaders here. So pretty much this is THE smallest zone in Peru haha. We don´t even have a ward, just a little branch and Anderson is the president. We totally own the place hahaha, it´s so cool!!!!!!! But the best part is that we all live together right next door to the church haha. It´s the sickest set up ever. Yurimaguas is like the Rotuma of the Fiji mission. Just ridiculously small, ridiculously beautiful, and everybody wants to come here. I couldn´t even believe it when they told me I was going to come here. I was happy enough with going to Tarapoto. So basically I´m beyond stoked and I´m sun burnt like crazy and I won´t be receiving any letters for a loooooooooooooong time, and I haven´t stopped sweating for one second since I arrived. We sleep with mosquito nets and nothing is ever clean. Anything. Ever. We still eat rice and chicken religiously, but now just with more fruit- Papaya, mango and banana.

I didn´t have any problems on the plane ride or the windy 5 hour car ride, surprisingly haha. The plane ride was only an hour and I was just too stoked to get sick. Yes, I know the Elder here from Snow Canyon. We always joke around about St. George, his name is Elder Smith, but I won´t be seeing him for a while. I cried three times when I left my old area, once with the bishop, once with the ward mission leader, and once with the Paucar family. It was tough to leave, and it´s tough to try to adapt to a totally different life, but I love it so much and I know that all my callings come directly from God. I love you all and I hope everything is well at the Emett house and with all the other family and friends up there. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about families and the blessings of the temple and I showed everyone the family picture and they all loved it haha, then we went to an investigators house after and asked her what her favorite part of church that day was and she said, ¨Elder Emett´s family!¨ hahaha. The church is so true.

P.S. I don´t have any time to write hand written letters sooooooooooo. yeah.

P.P.S. attached file for Jessica.

Elder Emett

PS

Hey I forgot one little thing!! Hahahaha I totally ate guinea pig!!!!!! It´s really not that bad, but I felt so cool! I´m basically Peruvian now

Heading to the jungle!

The Thamspsons,

You want to know the truth??? Yeah, I´m getting transferred this week, but I have no idea where I´m going. I know only one thing, yes, I´m going to the jungle. My zone leaders still aren´t sure if I´m going to Tarapoto or Moyobamba, but it´s one of the two. I will get on a little Peruvian plane tomorrow in the morning with one 40 pound suitcase and fly into the Amazon Rainforest. I´m pretty much stoked to say the least, but the mission is about to change a whole bunch haha. It´s nothing to be worried about, it´s just something new and exciting. One little fact to note would be that I will be eating mostly only fruit for a while haha and YES! There are coconuts here! Sooooo, I have no idea what it´s like, I don´t know what to expect, and I´m still not even sure where I am going. But I hope that everyone is aware that I will be crying on the plane ride there. I have found life-long friends here in Lima. First of all with my zone. My zone leader Elder Cain is one of my heroes. I have known him almost 5 months and I can´t even imagine not having him as a zone leader. We had a ¨work visit¨ just the other day where we got to work together all day and I have never had so much fun on my mission. I finally don´t want to leave and I get my call to the jungle. I am with the zone now, and we are all kinda sad about it.

On a happier note, we have been working really hard and the work is going really good in my area! We have three baptismal dates in May and we are planning on more. I won´t be here to see their baptisms, but I´m still happy that I could help out. Tell Ben to send me the ¨pick me¨ videos so that for I could watch them and also tell him to start working on his mission papers or whatever and also tell him that I would love to see him after my mission so tell him to postpone the mission for a little while. Tell Zac WHAY TO GHO on his patriarchal blessing and that he needs to send me an email cuz letters are just so hard. And tell him that the people here are really nice so he doesn´t need to come down here with a shot gun and a four wheel drive. And tell them both that it´s about time I got a hug from them. I miss those guys. Also, If you could possibly make it happen, I want to try out these new garments that they don´t have here 100% nylon. Is that weird? Could you send me a couple pairs? Did I spell pairs right? Spanish is just easier sometimes. Paco´s farewell is this sunday?????? When does he leave. Will somebody please tell me what´s happening to all the cute boys??

Ok, well I am going to the forest tomorrow and next week I will write you all and let you know how it is and how much I miss my old zone. I love you all. Thank you so much for all your support and letters and emails.

Elder Emett

Six Month Mark!

Thamsies!

I have like no time at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I love you! It´s been a great week! I am going to try and attach a paper to this email that you can give to coach fielding for me cuz I can´t write directly to him, but you can send the letter to his email or print it off and give it to him or something, but quick please!! And also I attached another file for jessica. Could you send it to her email or just print it off and give it to her? her email is
Invited
jessie_ann6@hotmail.​com

I realized last week that I am more aware of what´s going on in the house right now than I ever was. I get AT LEAST three letters from dad every week and I don´t miss out on a detail. It´s really fun to hear from the house and I miss you guys and pray for you every single day.

Also, my zone leader, my very favorite missionary ever, Elder Cain, says hi. He is the greatest man ever and he is taking care of me.

Also, 3 favors. I want a little jar of honey. Impossible? Also kit kats, reeses, twix, and snickers would be amazing to share with all my friends here. And a huge huge huge huge huge huge favor. Can you send me a little cheap dinky voice recorder thing so that I can make little voice notes then send them to pals and to you guys and you can send me voice notes too????? THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!

So I know this is the most disappointing and smallest and most selfish email ever, but don´t be sad cuz guess what? I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! Thank you for everything mom. I will be sending my camera card to you soon and there are a couple videos for you to watch including a happy birthday message to you that I made on your birthday. Tell Shellie and Amelia happy birthday too!! Guess what? I´VE BEEN GONE 6 MONTHS HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I love you all.

Elder Emett

Guinea pigs. Pets or dinner?

Tramamine,

Ok, I will help you all out. YES. That picture with the guinea pig was taken in my house. I guess you could kind of compare this area to a backyard because it´s in the back part of the house, but it really is just the back part of the house. The family raises guinea pigs (along with te 200 other things they do for food and money) so they let us go back and play with them one day. I explained to them that where I´m from, guinea pigs are pets and they all thought I was pretty funny. We are gonna eat some next saturday and I had a little slab of one last night, neat eh? So this week has been absolutely crazy. We had trainings, work visits, interviews with the president, conference (every last session, 2 in english), and I got to do another baptism! We baptized this 20 year old guy named Manuel. He has been listening to the Elders for years and years now and finally decided it was true and just straight up told us one day that he wanted to be baptized. It was such a cool experience. He cried while he was giving his testimony after his baptism and he is preparing to serve a mission now. I´m so stoked about it. I´m glad you all are enjoying my package and I´m glad it actually got to you, I didn´t have my expectations too high for the little peruvian post office. I know it didn´t really have a lot in it, but it´s really expensive to send. I could eat three full meals a day for an entire week for what it cost me to send the package hahaha. I hope no one is feeling forgotten and I hope you are all happy and healthy.

We are all mature adults here, so just let me explain this to you simply. We have another change coming up in exactly two weeks. We never know exactly exactly what is happening until we receive our call which will be coming on Saturday, April 16th, but we all kinda have an idea of what will be happening because President always tells the Zone Leaders what he is thinking. He said that everyone in the zone right now (10 Elders) will be staying where we are for another change......except for me. He told my zone leader, Elder Cain, that he wants to send me to the jungle now. I have been in Lima for 3 changes and we are not positive, but more than likely, I will be going to the jungle this month. It´s nothing to be scared about, it just means that all my pictures will be a lot prettier, my diet will be a lot fruitier, my clothes will get a lot sweatier, my house will be a lot ¨shackier¨ and I will receive and send mail a lot less ¨frequently-er¨. None of this is set in stone, I´m just giving you all a heads up of what I know, and I actually hope I stay here in Lima. I have the coolest zone ever and I don´t want to change at all.

I´m so stoked to hear that soccer is going so good and tell Jackie and the Brown thanks for emailing me! Tell papa bear congrats on the p-blessing and tell jake to get on it. I showed an elder a picture of our family and he asked me if it was our ward hahahaha. 2 questions. How many temples are in the United States? And how many are in Utah? Everyone asks me and I never know. And mom, please send me the pizza dough recipe. It breaks my little heart when I have to tell this sweet old lady every week that I still don´t have the recipe I said I would get her. I love you all, keep writing and stop having kids. How many new family members do I have to meet when I get back?????????

Elder Emett