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!