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