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.

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