April 10, 2017-Transfers=New Companion & Crazy Weather

Hello Family,

Me and Sister Wright

This week has been a crazy one so far with a lot of changes. Sister Ure was a meanie and left me here. I am a little peeved, but I think I will forgive her eventually. (If you are reading this, you know I love you, Sister Ure) So, my new com padre is Sister Wright, from Clearfield, UT. She has been out about 16 months (2 transfers left). She is a very good missionary and works really hard, so I am definitely kicking it into high gear and learning a lot already. We are working really hard to find some solid investigators. We have a few that definitely have potential. Keep all the prayers coming that we can find some golden human beings that the Lord has prepared to hear the joyful news of the gospel.

There was a day this week where the wind was CRAZY. Trees and power lines were falling left and right. but DON'T WORRY. The Lord protects his missionaries and we were A-Okay. I honestly don't have anything exciting to tell this week. A lot of seeking referrals from members and finding them. I started reading the book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries". WOWZA! It is a good one. I would encourage every one of you to read it. It talks about the WHAT and the HOW of member missionary work and it is amazing. Missionary work is scary, even when you have a nifty tag on your chest, but there are SO MANY blessings that come along with it. I love you all. Thank you for your prayers and your support. I can feel it even all the way here in crazy Bend. 

Love,
Sister Emery

Me making a silly face in the freezing wind.

(I didn't know Sister Wright was going to take a picture) 

April 3, 2017- General Conference, Pilot Butte and Mark's Miracle

Family!

Sister Ure and Sister Emery hiking Pilot Butte

Wow, This week has been a weird one. A lot of lasts for Sister Ure. She has spent almost half her mission in Bend, so she has a lot of people she has grown to love. Conference was a GREAT way to end it if you ask me. I LOVED conference this time around. I don't know how to even choose a favorite. We got to watch every session of conference with a different investigator or less active member. It was a really cool experience to listen to the words of prophets and watch how the spirit works on people. Every session had a talk that SUPER applied to the person we were watching it with. Revelation is real and I have learned that in so many ways already. My top two were probably Elder Holland's talk about being a part of the Lord's choir and also Elder (I can't remember) talk about putting on the Armor of Light. I think I took General Conference for granted for a long time. How AWESOME is it that we have modern day prophets and apostles that can receive revelation for us in these crazy times in the world?! That is a miracle to us and I didn't look at it like that until now. Listening to our Prophet and apostles is honestly essential for our progression in the gospel. 

Besides General Conference, this week was not very eventful. We did have a super cool miracle happen. Sister Ure and I were both kind of having a down day. (Those happen every now and then, even as missionaries). We were sitting in our car, about to get out to visit a less active member and her three young daughters. When we got out of the car we noticed this man a little bit down the road who had the hood of his car open and was working on something. Sister Ure and I walked up and asked him (his name was Mark) if there was anything we could do to help him. He looked at our tags and made a weird face (we get that reaction a lot) and then he responded with, "Well, you could pray for my car to start."  He was totally joking, and laughed a little. Sister Ure, being the bomb missionary she is,  was like "Of course!  Can we say one with you right now?" He gave her the most flabbergasted look and then begrudgingly said, "I guess so."  We said a prayer that his car would start right there on the middle of the road. Then we gave him a pass along card with our number and told him to call us if he ever needed anything. As we were walking away, he was like, "Well, I guess I'll see if that prayer thing works".  So we kept walking away silently praying that his car started. He  turned the key, and the car started right up! We turned around and he had this surprised look on his face. He looked at us and gave us a thumbs up and was like, "Well, pray it keeps running." Then he drove away. It was a small little miracle, but it made our day. I love being a missionary. 

Transfer calls are scary because you are just waiting for the call to tell you your fate for the next little while. My fate is that I get to stay in Bend, which I am beyond excited about and my follow-up trainer is named Sister Wright. I am excited to see what happens in the Mountain View ward this next transfer. 

Today on P-day, Sister Ure wanted to hike Pilot Butte, which is pretty much this big hill right in the middle of Bend, and from the top, you can see all of Bend. We hiked it with one of our favorite less active members, Jacki. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful hike. It was nice to get out in nature and be able to see all of beautiful Bend.

I LOVE you all. I encourage you to watch or read the conference talks you missed and pray to have the Lord answer any questions you have. God doesn't answer unasked questions. So if you're asking and searching, answers will eventually come.

Pray lots and always remember your blessings, 

Sister Emery 

These pictures are from our hike to Pilot Butte...

Hiking Pilot Butte with one of our favorite less active members, Jacki.

March 27, 2017-Zone Conference, Women's Conference and SILENCE

Hey Family, 

Sister Ure and I watched women's conference at one of our
favorite members house on Saturday. This is a selfie that we
felt was necessary. 

This week has been another slow one for missionary work. It is something I am getting used to here in Bend. But though it is slow, there is still plenty of work being done. We have been really pushing work with the members this week. We have this new method where we go and visit a member family and we will play some music. While the music is playing we have each of them write down the names of all the nonmembers they can think of. When the song is over, we talk to them about how not all of those people are prepared for the gospel, but some of them are. We then ask the head of the household to offer a kneeling prayer and ask the spirit to tell us which name is prepared. We haven't done it many times yet, but the times we have we had a lot of cool experiences with the spirit bringing specific names to their minds. We hope that we can get some people excited about missionary work here in the Mt. View ward. Missionary work is pretty much NOT effective if the members are not involved. That is something I have learned really quick. 

We also had Zone conference on Friday. We drove to Redmond and were there for most of the day.  It was a really good conference. We got instruction from President and Sister Tateoka about finding through faith and being a successful missionary. Sister Tateoka talked about how we don't have to wait till the end of our mission to know if we were a successful missionary. We can ask Heavenly Father, right now, and we will get an answer. I loved that a lot. Then the AP's (Assistants to the President) did a training on lesson planning, which was very insightful. It was cool for me to see a bunch more missionaries from the OSM (Oregon Salem Mission) because on this side of the mountain, we are very secluded. I like Zone Conference and am excited for them in the future. 

Quote of the week: 

We were out visiting potential investigators near the white picket fence neighborhood (which is now our least favorite place in Bend). We knocked on this door and a lady answered. Then this happened... 

Sister Ure: "Hello! We are service missionaries, out looking for some service opportunities. Do you or does anyone you know need any help with anything?"

Women: " No"

Sister Ure: "Okay, that's totally fine. What did you say your name was?"

Women: *Sits there for literally 10 seconds straight in SILENCE* 

Sister Ure: "Okay, well, my name is Sister Ure. Have a good day."

We both walked away speechless. The lady was SO not interested in what we had to say she "forgot" her name. It was quite an experience, that is for sure. We are sorta laughing about it at this point, but it took us a few days to not be very frustrated at how lame that lady was. 

This week is the last week I have with Sister Ure. She leaves soon. I am not even sad. (THAT IS SARCASM BECAUSE I LOVE HER) We find out what happens with transfers on Saturday. I am hoping that I get to stay here in Bend, but with getting a new Trainer, it is a possibility that I will get transferred somewhere else. Cross our fingers I don't, cause I have a good feeling about Bend. 

I love and miss you all. Thank you for the prayers. I can feel them. 

Love, 

Sister Emery

March, 20, 2017-Paul, Transfers, and Sketchtown

Hello Fam and Friends and anyone else who is reading this email,

Us being typical Sister Missionaries and
heart attacking one of our fav investigators.

This week was a long one. The work here in Bend is slow and I think I decided one of the reasons why. Most people who live here are on the wealthier sides and are pretty happy with where their lives are at. And with that, they aren't open or looking for anything new in their life. This week, however, we met a new investigator. His name is Paul. I love Paul!!! We just started teaching him and his fiancé, Shasta. Shasta is an inactive member who hasn't been active for a long time. Both of them are at a real crappy time in their lives and they said that there has been little "coincidences" that have kind of turned their interests to the church. So they got on Mormon.org and referred THEMSELVES to the missionaries!! That doesn't happen, so Sister Ure and I were very pumped for our self-referral. When we called them they told us that they were living in a motel for the time being. We took a member with us and went to teach them the first lesson. They are SO GREAT. Sister Ure says that most investigators that missionaries find by their own efforts (tracting, street contacting, etc) don't usually progress very fast, but people that come TO the missionaries usually go places, quick. Paul is a really gruff looking guy with long hair and tattoos, so it is pretty clear he has had a rough past. He told us that he had reservations about meeting with us and that we would ask him to cut his hair and to shave. But after we talked with him, he was so glad that they contacted us. He said meeting with him made his day. (The day we met with them happened to be his birthday, so that was super fun!) The best part of this story is that Shasta and Paul both came to church. They were both in jeans and a t-shirt, but I have never been so happy to see people at church. We CANNOT get any of our other investigators to commit to church, but the first Sunday we know Shasta and Paul, they are there 10 minutes early. We feel really good about both of them and can't wait to see what happens next. 

We had exchanges this week, so I went to Prineville with Sister Mickelson, one of our STL's (Sister training leader) and Sister Ure stayed in Bend with Sister Jensen. I was really sad to have to leave Sister Ure.  I have a bit of separation anxiety because she is pretty much my second mother. I survived a whole 24 hours without her though, relatively unscathed. People who live in Prineville like to make it known how much better Prineville is than Bend, so that made me laugh. A lot of them call it "Primeville". It is a cute little town with a lot of cows. The sisters there have a whole house to themselves, so that was a cool experience. We also got the Prineville sisters a new investigator while I was there, so that was super fun. Exchanges are interesting cause it gives you opportunities to see how other missionaries do missionary work and see how other areas work. But at the end of the exchange, I was VERY happy to be back with my "mom" Sister Ure in the FANTASTIC city of Bend. 

Some funny experience of the week.

1. One night we were out trying to contact less active YSA and it was pretty dark. We put in an address into our GPS and it takes us to these SUPER SKETCHY trailers. We start walking and trying to find the right number and all of sudden both of us, without saying anything, just stop and turn around and go back to the car. The spirit pretty much said "Sisters, come back in the morning because these are kind of sketch." So we went back the next morning and no one answered. But they still looked just as sketchy. We took some pictures and a video of this encounter and I will try to attach those. 

2. One night when getting ready for bed I nonchalantly mentioned to Sister Ure that I don't really like my eyebrows... Before I know it, Sister Ure is like "Do you want me to pluck them for you?" I sat there for just a second and then I responded, "I already dislike them, so I guess it is worth a shot." 

UPDATE: I now have really nice looking eyebrows, THANK YOU Sister Ure. Who knows what I will do without her to help me with all the random struggles of my life. 

I LOVE being a missionary. While I was at the MTC I heard someone say "As a missionary, you can have your best day and your worst day, on the exact same day." I didn't realize how true that statement was until this week. Is missionary work hard? YOU BETCHA. But is there anywhere else I want to be right now? NO WAY. I love every day I am here and I know that I am learning and growing so much from everything I experience.  I LOVE YOU FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND ANYONE ELSE. And so does our Father in Heaven, and that is really cool to think about. 

I read a talk this week but President Uchtdorf called "Of Things That Matter Most" from October 2010. It was such a good one. He talks about pilots, when they approach turbulence, may think it is best to increase speed. But an experienced pilot would know it is best to decelerate before the turbulence. In life we ALL are going to have speed bumps. Sometimes everyday. But it is ALWAYS true that we have to slow down when approaching speed bumps. "It is not requisite that a man run faster than he has strength." Sister Ure has had to pound that in my brain. When we begin to struggle we think, we just got to keep running. When in reality, sometimes we just need to slow down and take a breath before we continue forward. Always remember friends. It is okay, even necessary to slow down sometimes when experience turbulence in our lives. I LOVE YOU BUNCHES. 

The two amigas celebrating St. Patty's Day.

(Thanks Gram for the bandanas!)

Sister Emery

Sister Ure and I taking an awkward mirror selfie.

Me and Sister Ure trying to stay focused

during weekly planning and failing.

March 13, 2017-"Spit Some Gospel", Tracting and Pride

Hello Family and Friends,

This week was definitely a slow one for missionary work. A lot of uninterested people, not to mention I was feeling a little under the weather for a couple of the days and Sister Ure, being the mom that she is, made me rest. I really was not happy about it, but she didn't care. haha And resting did help so now I am good as new and ready to go out and "spit some gospel". (That is what one of our investigators calls it when we teach her lessons.. I LOVE HER) 

Sister Ure and I found this cute neighborhood where every house has a white picket fence. The first time we drove through it, Sister Ure said "Aww, look at all those picket fences", and I wasn't really paying attention to her because I had this strong feeling that we needed to knock on one of the doors, but I didn't know which one. So I kept quiet and we drove away. The next day we drove through it twice and Sister Ure was kind of intrigued because in the last few months she has been in Bend she has NEVER driven by this neighborhood, and now we have driven by it 3 times in two days. So we decided that we were going to go tract it on Saturday. Pause.

Side thought: Tracting is something that is kinda controversial in the world of missionaries. If you don't find people to teach, then you won't have people to teach. But also, tracting is very ineffective. (That is my opinion at least.) About a week ago, I asked Sister Ure why we hadn't gone tracting very much, and she told me that she had never seen very much success when tracting and always believed it was better to be inspired tract. So rather than park and walk down a street, knocking every house, we will go and visit less actives and potential investigators, and if the spirit guides us to knock a house, then we do.  She told me we could start tracting more if I wanted, so when this white picket fence neighborhood kept appearing, we decided to tract it. 

So Saturday came and we loaded up our bags with Books of Mormon and Pass Along Cards and headed out. Here are some exact quotes from that day.

*Opens door*  "I have absolutely no desire to hear anything you have to say." *Closes door*

Me: "Do you have a belief in Jesus Christ?" 

Lady out raking her lawn: "My beliefs are my own and I would like to get back to raking my lawn so you can just head off somewhere else."

Me: "Okay, thank you! Have a nice day!"

Sister Ure: "Hello, we are missionaries and we are out today telling people how they can strengthen their families."

Man who looks like he thinks he is amazing: "Oh, I am so sorry, I am just getting ready to run out the door, you caught me at a bad time." 

Sister Ure: *Almost says something but stops herself.* 

Me: "Okay, have a nice day."

.... As we are walking away Sister Ure says, "I was so close to saying, Um no you aren't just getting ready to leave, but thanks." 

                      

           About 25 miuntes later, that guy was still at home... So looks like he needs to repent. 

After we were done knocking all the doors Sister Ure asked me, "So what are your thoughts on tracting now?" My response.... "I think we can find investigators other ways because I would prefer to never tract ever again." Haha 

But even with all these crazy people, I LOVE missionary work. I love that Sister Ure and I can just laugh it off and keep on working. We got a couple new referrals that we are going to visit later today. Progress is being made, slowly but surely. 

My favorite quote right now is out of Preach My Gospel, but I first heard it from Sister Ure. (Sister Ure is full of good quotes and wisdom. I hope when I am a seasoned missionary I can be half as cool as her.) The quote is "Discouragement will weaken faith." How true is that. If you get caught up in the negative and all the things that aren't going your way, it makes it kind of really hard to believe that good things are ahead. I am so grateful for my opportunity God has given me to be here in OR and preach the gospel to my brothers and sisters. 

Yesterday, during our gospel essentials class we talked about Pride. There is a talk by Ezra Taft Benson called "Beware of Pride". (April 1989) I would encourage all of you to read it when you have the chance. Pride is such a destructive thing, but it is also so easy to be prideful. My goal this week is to try and be more humble in EVERYTHING I do. 

I LOVE YOU GUYS. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. Missionary life is weird and hard, but the rewards far outweight all of that. 

Be happy, 

Sister Emery

March 6, 2017-Investigators!, Milk, & Disney

(I am not sure who/what/where of this photo. I pulled this off
the parents Facebook page.)

Wow! Okay. My last email was so not very organized, and we didn't have a lot of time. But we have more time today, so here we go. (I'm sorry if I repeat things I already said.)

I am in Bend! And I LOVE Bend. There are not very many missionaries, especially Sisters, on this side of the mountain. There are Two Spanish speaking sisters in Redmond, and there are our STL's (sister training leaders)  in Prineville. They are in our zone. In our district there is just Sister Ure and I, and 3 sets of Elders. So we are kind of outcasts, but we love it. We have a car (a 2015 Subaru) and I am a little bit obsessed with it. Because our area is pretty spread out, we do end up driving most of the day. But we did made a goal to try and be out of the car and walking more. It is a great way to earn member trust-if they see us out working. We live in a cute little duplex. It is covered in pictures of the temples and prophets and Jesus. We love our little home. We get fed every single day. Which is nice. But also, apparently, most sisters gain quite a bit of weight here, so I'm preparing to be chubby for the next year and a half. In the past week, we found 5 new investigators, and two of our investigators are now on date for baptism!!!!!!!!! Their names are Sharon and Kiff. When we were teaching a lesson about the importance of church attendance, there was a pause and I looked over at Sister Ure and we both knew we had to ask them if they would be baptized. Neither of us could breathe, and then Sister Ure asked if they would prepare to be baptized on April 8th. They were surprised, but said they would definitely work towards that. They are mid twenty's and living together and Sharon loves her coffee. So they have a ways to go with the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom, but both Sister Ure and I have a lot of faith in them and think that they will have the faith to be able to make some changes. Because Sister Ure and I are both so positive and excited about missionary work, things are happening. We had interviews with President Tateoka who was in town this weekend. He told me to work on paying attention to everything Sister Ure does. Because at the end of this transfer, I will have to lead the area. I will still have a trainer, but she won't know the members or directions, so I have to get prepared for that. Missionary work is hard. There are a lot of people who don't open the door for us, and the other half usually tell us to go away, (some in nicer ways than others). But man I LOVE IT. Even if the day is long and hard, as long as  I get to share my testimony with ONE person, or help ONE person get closer to Christ, then it is worth it. I feel like I am finally adjusting. Some funny things that happened this week-A few days ago I realized that we were running low on milk, so I have been eating Yogurt or fruit for breakfast so Sister Ure could use the milk. And today, after shopping, Sister Ure told me the past three days she has been putting CHOCOLATE MILK in her FROSTED MINI WHEATS so that I could use the milk. I was laughing so hard!!! Apparently, we still have a bit to go with communication. What the heck! She's so funny! Another story.... to preface... literally EVERYONE here has a dog. We were out tracting and knocked on this door and dogs started barking. It sounded like a few but we couldn't tell. They open the door and invite us inside and after about a minute I have counted 7 dogs. It took SO MUCH self control for me not to laugh at just how many dogs there were in this tiny house. It was so unexpected. The last funny thing was we went to visit this elderly couple that is less active last night. We went in and sat down. We realized they both were wearing Disney sweatshirts, and Sister Ure commented on a bookshelf they had covered with Disney figurines and trinkets. She said something like, "So I am going to take a wild guess, and say that you guys like Disney." The man replied, "You don't know the half of it." We laugh a bit and the he said,"Well, since you said that, come on upstairs really quick." So we follow him upstairs and there is this HUGE room filled from floor to ceiling with Disney collectibles-stuffed animals, clocks, baseballs, cars, statues, tea cups, paintings. It was insane. Sis Ure and I were flabbergasted. He was so proud and told us he had been collecting since 1962. It was so funny. Both Sister Ure and I were having an Eh day and this Disney lover cheered us right up. I love it here in Bend. I'm going to be better this week about taking pictures. There are so many nice members and nonmembers, and Sister Ure and I  know that good stuff is coming. I love all of you guys. I encourage you to all take full advantage of the Atonement-whether it be the cleansing power, or the healing power, or the strengthening power. Through Christ's Atonement, we can literally be WHOEVER we want to be. Sister Ure has been bearing her testimony about this a lot lately. If there is something about you that you don't like, or if there is something you wish you could change, DO IT. Through Christ, we can change and become who he wants us to be. I have already seen this so profoundly in life as a missionary. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL. It still doesn't feel real that I get this amazing opportunity to share it. HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING?! God is good and we are blessed to know of him.

LOVE YOU!

Sister Emery

February 27, 2017- Sister Ure, Bend and D&C 4:3

Hello Family (and friends)

President and Sister Tateoka & Sister Emery

OR is beautiful. Everyone told me this, but now I know for myself. This week has been insane and had a boat load of ups and downs. I had to say goodbye to all my MTC pals, including my foyer friends. I only bawled my eyeballs out for a couple hours. BUT I am not even sad, because we are all going to be kick butt missionaries so it doesn't even matter. We got up at 3am on Wednesday to report to the travel office (and by got up I mean I didn't sleep of course). It was snowing and each of us were lugging three huge suitcases from our residence (which is the opposite side of the MTC), and we were tired and nervous, and it was just an interesting adventure. Our bus driver ended up being sick so we had to split into two vans and drive to the frontrunner. After a lot of Trax hopping, we finally made it to the airport. We got to talk to some family on the phone and my mom didn't even cry. (nice job mom.) The flight was a short one and most of us slept all the way through it, but before you knew it, we were in Oregon. Its so beautiful and green and foggy and fantastic.  I'M DEAD. I LOVE IT HERE. We met our mission president and his wife. They're so funny and seem nice, but also kinda strict. (which isn't a bad thing.) We then drove from the airport to our mission home, which is so cute and really did feel like a home. We got some training and had some mission president interviews and then we went to bed. When we woke up the next morning (Thursday) and we headed to the church where we met our trainers. My Trainers name is Sister Ure. She's from Idaho Falls and she is on her LAST transfer. That means I don't even get to keep her as a trainer for the full 12 weeks, which is a huge bummer. Sister Ure is amazing. So amazing it makes it hard for me to feel like a good missionary, because she is the best. She is SO driven and is always ready to go out and work hard. We are in BEND!!!!!!!! (I LOVE BEND AND WANT TO LIVE HERE WHEN I GROW UP),  in the Mountain View ward. The work in Bend is really slow. It's liberal and pretty big and the last several missionaries that have been assigned to this area have gone home early. Missions are hard. Sister Ure is excited because we both are SO excited and positive about missionary work. Good things are bound to happen. We have a few investigators that we feel have the potential to progress,  as well as a few that haven't progressed in a while. But with me getting here to Bend, we are both looking at this like a clean slate. We are going to work hard and stay positive and bring some Oregonians the gospel. One of the MANY things I have learned from Sister Ure this far is the importance of members in missionary work. They are honestly essential. So we have been working hard to build member trust and get them excited for missionary work.  So I have a challenge for all of you out there. DO MISSIONARY WORK!!! Even if you aren't wearing a tag or don't feel like you could do it, you can be a missionary. D&C 4:3 "Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work." Talk to a non-member about our beliefs and knowledge. Or bear your testimony to a less active. You never know who you can touch. The work may be slow in Bend, but us missionaries get fed WELL, too well honestly. I gotta start getting good about exercising. (It is harder in the field.) I love being a missionary. Adjusting is hard and rejection is hard, but you find joy in the little things. I honestly am growing and learning so much. I can't wait to see what the next 17 months bring. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! 
Sister Emery

My address:

878 NE Hidden Valley Dr. #1

Bend, OR 97701

Sister Smith, Sister Demordaunt, Sister Emery, Sister Sorensen, Sister Hall





Sister Emery, Sister Demordaunt, Sister Smith

(we look happy, but we are sad to be leaving each other.)

 

Pretty clouds.

Incoming Oregon, Salem missionaries with President and Sister Tateoka

Me and my favorite trainer,

Sister Ure!



Dinner with the Wilcox's in Bend.





Dinner with the Blanscett family
n Bend.
Sister Ure, Sister Emery,
Paula & Sarah.

(Not picutured-Dean and Janet)





February 16, 2017-Otis, Foyer Friends, and "Because of Him"

Hey Fam,

Sister Emery and Sister Smith

This week at the MTC has gone by crazy fast. On Thursday last week, on our way to the temple, we saw this couple out walking their pet pig!! A PIG!!! His name was Otis and he was only like 4 or 5 inches tall. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen and honestly made my day. After P-day it was hard to get back in the groove of go, go, going all the time. I forgot to mention that Sister Jung and I were called as branch music coordinators and as Relief Society teachers (why we have two callings and some people have none, I'm not sure). So we choose the hymns for sacrament meeting and President Hall always wants a special musical number. Sister Jung and I are the only people in our whole zone currently that play the piano, and after searching for ages we couldn't find anyone who wanted to sing. Eventually a sister named Sister Dejong said she wanted to sing on her last Sunday here. She's been at the MTC for maybe 6 weeks instead of 3 because she has been having problems with her feet. We were so glad she offered to sing but she didn't want to sing alone, so Sister Emery to the rescue I guess. We sang A Child's Prayer, which means I sang the second verse all by myself in front of the entire branch presidency and the MTC president who decided to just drop by. It was kind of a train wreck, but it's all finished now, so we are all good. Classes have been good this week. Our investigators right now are named Ashley and Kristen. They are both the cutest ever. They are both married to LDS guys. Ashley is a lot more open to the gospel, but kind of has a hard time understanding the Book of Mormon when she reads it.  (And so did I sometimes, so that's understandable). She loves pizza and just got married like 3 weeks ago. She's going to BYU and majoring in Psychology. She's kinda scary cause when we teach her, she makes such deep eye contact it almost makes me uncomfortable. But we like her a lot. And then there's Kristen. Kristen is a devout Southern Baptist and has a hard time understanding why it isn't good enough that she's a Christian and so is her husband. She always says, "I've already been baptized." The hard thing with her is she kinda argues (she's a sassy one:), so it's hard for us to keep it as a lesson rather than an argument. Anyways. We love our investigators this week. We got a new district of 5 sisters and 6 elders and they're all going to Australia. They're the cutest. One of the girls was bawling at exercise time yesterday and felt so dumb and I just laughed and told her that I had my first breakdown at exercise time so it's all good. We had a good chat. We have these sisters we call our "foyer friends", because at night when we are out in the foyer writing in our journals (just a few of the Salem sisters), we will always talk with this trio of sisters. Two of them are going to Sweden and one is going to Norway.  And their roommates, who we don't know are going to Finland. So holy cow, pray for them all. They're the cutest. One of the best parts of the MTC is that we are all in the same boat. We all can relate and sympathize with each other. We are literally surrounded by hundreds of friends who love Jesus and the gospel and we all love each other.  I'm seriously SO SAD we are leaving the MTC soon. I'm going to miss my companions and a sister named Sister Smith. They're the only reason I've survived and been able to laugh through it all. And we laugh a lot. Our Sister Training leaders call us the three little pigs because Sister Smith snorts every single time she laughs without fail and it's starting to rub off on Sister Jung and me.  We laugh tons and tons here at the MTC. I love it here. I'm praying I love the field even more and praying for a good trainer. I love being a missionary! If you all have a second go watch the video "Because of Him". It's my sad day video and it brings the spirit like a ton of bricks. I have probably watched it 40 times since being here and it still doesn't fail to make me cry every time. I love it. Anyways, I love you all and miss you. Hope you're doing well.

Love, Sister Emery
PS.  I don't have any pictures this week.  I will try and be better. :)

*A side note from #jamie-Hannah sent me a couple of pictures as she was doing laundry while we communicating back and forth on Thursday morning.

Sister Emery and goofy Sister Smith

Sister Emery and 2 Austrailian sisters
doing laundry on P-day

February 9, 2017-Prayer, Exercise and District 41

*A side note from her mom-I know she is doing great because in her email to me, she called me Jamie. 💖

Hello family and friends,

Sister Emery and Sister Jung

     Holy cow.  Where do I even begin?  I have always heard people say "A mission changed my life",  "I learned so much",  and sometimes this was coming from people who have only been out for a month or two.  And I kinda always thought,  "How can they say their life is changed on just a couple of months? That seems a little far fetched." Well, let me tell you all my life has been changed in just a matter of days! I love it here at the MTC! My companion is named Sister Jung.  She was born in Seoul South Korea, but moved to California when she was four.  She speaks fluent Korean as well as fluent English.  So I've already learned a bunch of Korean words. (Okay a bunch meaning like 9 or 10, but I'm still impressed with myself.) Our district is made up of 6 Sisters and 3 Elders.  All 6 of us sisters are going to Salem.  The same mission!  We all room together and eat together, so saying goodbye to them in a couple of weeks is going to be so hard! The 3 elders are all going to Alaska.  All three of them are really nice guys.  One piece of advice we have heard a lot here is love your district and branch.  Our branch (branch 41) is made up of 4 districts. My district is 41D. 41D and 41B both got here on the 1st of Feb. I LOVE our branch.  We are so excited to get two new districts and get to have them for 2 whole weeks since we only got our old districts for a few days. Districts A and C have all been here a few weeks and have all been gone as of today.  They were going to New Zealand,  Washington DC,  Gilbert AZ and one sister (Sis Fowler) was going to Barbados. Sis Fowler hair is down to the middle of her bum and she cut off 8 inches before entering the MTC..  That still blows my mind.  Our Sister Training Leaders left to New Zealand and I already miss them both.  They were such amazing sisters.  But I love our new sister training leaders from district 41B. All 6 sisters from that district are going to Morristown NJ.  So Liz Finlayson from my stake is in my branch, so that's been cool.  This week I have gained a testimony of so many things.  Prayer first off,  wow.  I thought I was saying heartfelt prayers...  And then I came to here and have had to give some pretty meaningful prayers where I had to put my trust in Him and open my heart,  and I have felt such immense blessings from that. And yeah, just because I love it here,  doesn't mean this isn't the hardest thing I've ever done. The MTC is so hard.  All of the sisters have taken turns with their breakdowns. Mine was on Saturday.  It's just hard because as much as I love all these sisters (and trust me I love them and am so grateful the Lord sent us here to lift each other up), but we just don't KNOW each other.  Like we know names and where they're from and where they're going,  but we don't know pet peeves and little likes and dislikes like our family and friends would know about us,  and that's been hard.  But the MTC knows how to do this whole preparing missionaries thing.  We have class A LOT.  6 hours a day. Luckily my teachers Brother Parkinson and Sister Brennan are the most fantastic and I love learning from them.  We also have 1 hour of Book of Mormon study,  1 hour of personal study,  1 hour of companion study and 1 hour of Prepare (which we are given a topic to study to help with our lessons)  we also get 3 meals (thank goodness)  and an hour of exercise time.  I have gained a testimony of exercise time. haha I really have.  There's a lot of days where I've had moments of discouragement or just a lack of motivation, where I'm struggling to feel the spirit and after exercise time,  I am a new woman.  There really is something to getting up and moving around.  Sacrament meeting on Sunday was AMAZING!  The older districts all bore testimony of the MTC and I bawled like a baby.  Our branch president,  President Hall,  said something that was awesome.  He said "You'll never have a sacrament meeting like this after the MTC because 1. Every branch member is in attendance and 2. Every member holds a current temple recommend."  I think that's super duper awesome.  Anyways, I love and miss you all,  but being a missionary is the best ever.

Love,  Sister Emery

PS.  My P day in the MTC is on Thursday.  I can read emails as I get then but can't respond unless it's Thursday.  I'm lucky to have a tablet so I'm not really given an allotted time but also am encouraged to keep it short.

PPS. Sorry my email is all out of order.  I just kinda typed as I thought of things.

41D Sisters-All going to Oregon Salem!

41D!

February 1, 2017-Look Out Oregon! Here She Comes!

Hello Family!

Wow, they have this MTC thing down to a science. My host missionary Sister Proctor, that led me around at the beginning was so cool and helped me feel really at ease about this whole missionary thing. I took my stuff to my room and now we are filling out some surveys and doing orientation type things. I met my companion for a quick second. Her name is Sister Jung. She seems like a cutie. I'm SO EXCITED to be a missionary and I love you all. This is gonna be a fantastic 18 months! I don't know when my P-day is, but I'll write you as soon as I can. 

Love you guys!!!

Sister Emery