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