Promise of a temple in Iquitos

THCheuammiesuasss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

     I´m not sure if that makes sense. Oh well. What´s up family!!!?????? Before I start let me just say happy father´s day to Dad, Jason, Scott, Matt, and Josh!!! Cool stuff!! Tell little Paysli happy birthday for me, and tell Branson congrats on  the great soccer playing!!!!!! I was never on a team that won anything hahaha. Well, you guys, I miss you all a ton. I sure have been in Perú for quite a long time. I wanna let you all know that I´m having a super great time! During my mission I have been blessed with the opportunity to listen to 7 apostles speak. This past week was one of those experiences. Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Cook were on an assignment in Manaus Brasil to dedicate a temple, then they flew on their personal jet directly into the city of Iquitos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They wanted to have a special fireside with all of the members, investigators, and missionaries in Iquitos!! So the conference was at 7 in the biggest stake center in the whole city. We showed up at 4, waited in a HUGE line for about an hour, then we got inside in the same room he would be speaking and just sat down and waited for two more hours. It was so cool when they came walking in!!!!!!! Elder cook´s wife spoke first, then Elder Cook. Then President Uchtodorf´s wife spoke and President Uchtdorf concluded. Every talk was so amazing!!! They were all just short talks (or long testimonies). President Uchtdorf promised the Iquiteños that if they all payed their tithing and they all had current temple recommends that the Lord would bless them with a temple in his own due time, which is a HUGE deal!!!!! Because the city of Iquitos is completely surrounded by big, jungle rivers, it´s basically an island. O sea, the only way to get into Iquitos is by air or boat which kind of costs a lot of money and these people just don´t have a lot of money so it is really hard for them to get to the temple. It would bless so many people´s lives if there were a temple here in Iquitos!!!! What a great promise!! All of the ward members are totally siked out about getting temple recommends now! It has been quite the experience. Just being in the same room as Elder Cook and Elder Uchtdorf was something I will never forget. I feel the same way every time I see a member of the 12. I just know that they are called of God.

      We are baptizing another family this next week!! We were just walking out of a lesson like 2 weeks ago and we saw this family walking back to their house and we both had a really strong impression to say something to them, so we did!! we went out of our way to go say hi and introduce ourselves and ask if we could come back and teach a message to their family. They guy told us that he was a member, that like 20 years ago he was baptized in a small city in the south part of the jungle called Yurimaguas (ever heard of that place???) and that he had just told his wife like the night before that he wanted to start going back to church and get married, but he just didn´t know where or how to start. I would love to say it was a coincidence that my companion and I felt a strong impression to talk to them, but I know that it wasn´t a coincidence. It was the will of God. He knew that this family was ready so he sent us. We listened and obeyed and now this sweet little young couple will get married and baptized THIS WEEKEND!!!!! They are just so cute in church haha because they come all dressed up and give us huge smiles and sit down with their two adorable little kids and just smile the whole time. We also receive a referral of another family that was in church on sunday, so we went to teach them sunday afternoon and the lesson just went REALLY REALLY GOOD! They accepted marriage and baptismal dates for the month of July. There are also a few other people we are teaching who are just absolutely amazing and will be getting baptized the 30th and a few more in July.

     It was just an all around great week. We had a special conference with President Blunck on Thursday and he asked my companion and I to teach about a creative way to talk to people and invite them to listen to our message, so we did a fun little training in the conference and everybody loved it! Well, I guess I´ll see you next week!!! Love you!!!!!

 

Elder Emett