Letters From 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.