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
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