Bountiful

My new area is great! I mean, I miss Layton, but I already love it here. There are so many members who want to do missionary work, we just have to teach them how! We are living in a temporary place, it's kinda really ghetto. But we're moving again on Friday to a members house, so that will be nice haha.

My companion and I are getting along great, we haven't had any problems, and I'm going to do all I can to keep it that way. We aren't teaching a ton of people right now, but we are teaching the Lopez family from El Salvador. They are AMAZING! The two children, Iliana (18), and Erick (16) are going to seminary in school, and love the gospel. They want to be baptized ASAP, which is hopefully the 16th. The Parents are a little more behind, they have to get married first, but they both want to be baptized. I love this family so much! Erick is a lot like Brandon, I love messing around with him, it reminds me of home. And Iliana is the sweetest girl ever. They are pretty much already living the gospel, I don't know how we were so blessed to find them! 

So yeah, everything is great here, I love being a missionary. There is nothing that makes me happier than testifying of what I know to be true to these people. I love the Lord with all my heart. He did everything for me, and I want my brothers and sisters to know that too.

I am in Bountiful, but it covers Farmington, West Bountiful, Bountiful, and Centerville. I like it.

Oh, and something cool happened this week, we ate with the bishop and his wife, and usually they're kind of cold with the missionaries, but i just tried to get to know them and they opened up and were laughing, and offering to do things for us, my companion said it was a miracle. The same thing happened with two of our investigators. For some reason, the people here connect with me really well. It makes me happy.

Also, this week i have been asked If I'm from Mexico, El Salvador, and Italy. Apparently I don't look American! haha

Transferred!

Here is the update for the past two weeks:

Oct. 14, 2013

This week was kind of hard, we had two of our progressing investigators drop us. Just like that, no explanation, no warning, just "I don't want you to come over anymore." But it's ok. I know that there are others out here who are ready to receive the gospel. In fact, I'm pretty sure we found two of them last night. We went to go visit a sister who is getting baptized in November, and her son and his friend were outside (they might have been slightly drunk but that's ok.) and we started talking to them. They both want to learn more about the gospel, one of them recently lost his mother, and he cried when we started to talk about the Plan of Salvation. I think that he will love the gospel. I'm so sad that transfers are coming, I love this companionship, we have fun, and we work hard. I got to visit Roxie last night, for the first time in about a month, and it was so cool. She loves the gospel so much! She is so much happier than when I first met her, and she really loves me, so that always makes me feel good :D. I wouldn't trade this for anything. If she is the only person I see baptized it will all be worth it. And I know that we are planting seeds with people here, even if they aren't ready to act on it yet. 

Oct. 21,2013

My week has been crazy too. We had a huge mission meeting on Wednesday, then another one for the leaders on Thursday, and weekly planning on Friday. So we didn't get to teach as many lessons as usual, but it was a very spiritual week. I'm  getting transferred to Bountiful with Hermana Roades, so that will be interesting. I'm kind of scared, but i know everything will be ok. We got to pick pumpkins on Saturday, and we're carving them with sister Smith (the member we live with) tonight. It's going to be fun. I'm going to miss her so much! ALL of the people. That's the only bad part of being a missionary, you have to leave. This week I got to hold a puppy that was one day old! It was so cute, it's little eyes weren't even open yet! In one of these pics, we are with the elders in our ward and some members, the Garcia family. They're awesome, I love them so much!

One funny thing that happened this week. Saturday we had a lesson with two guys that we met, they live in the same house and one of our investigators, and they were wasted. SO drunk, but they said they'd come to church, and they liked talking about Christ, so that was good. But around 9 that night they called and said that they'd be too hung over to come to church, so they'd try next week haha. Being a missionary is just really awesome. Sometimes we go to random houses of members, because we felt like we should, and they needed us right then and there. It's the most amazing thing to feel the spirit work through you all the time, and to see how it helps the people around you. I love it, you will too! Like this one sister, she's been a member for about 5 years, but her husband is anti, and only lets her go to sacrament meeting. She wants to go to the classes so bad, but she is so grateful to be there just for one hour, it's inspiring. The people here are so amazing. Leaving them will be the hardest thing i've ever done. 

Emily's mail should be sent through the mission office for now as she thinks housing may change. Here is the address:

1535 South Edison Street
SLC, UT 84115

General Conference

Life continues to be busy both here in Ohio and for Emily in Utah. I'm so sorry that I have been a little slow in updating the blog, I will try to do better! Here is the update for the last two weeks. The second part is mostly about Emily's General Conference experience.


Sept. 30,
Oh, there is one cool story I can share. For dinner this week, we ate with a sister who just went through a terrible divorce, and she and her kids have been having a really hard time with it. We ate with her on Tuesday and had a great time there, she is wonderful. Later, on Friday, we were in the same neighborhood where she lives, and we decided to stop by to see her. We talked for a little bit about how things were going, shared a message, then we just started talking. She told us about how one of her talents is serving people. She has been helping us with one of our investigators, helping feel loved. We thanked her, then told her how special she is. She started to cry, and said that she was so happy we came. We were there when her ex-husband came to pick up the kids, it was really hard for her. I know that God sent us there that day, in a time when she really needed us. It was a wonderful experience.

Oct. 7,
We were in downtown for the whole weekend practically, it was great. We watched the Saturday am session in the Joseph Smith Memorial building, then afternoon in the Conference Center. We got Plaza seats! It was really cool. The story behind how we got those tickets is awesome too so I'll tell you about it. We got 3 tickets for Sunday Morning from Sis. Carter's mom, so we were going to go. But one of our investigators really wanted to go, but was busy Sunday. We found another companionship with Saturday afternoon tickets and traded two of ours for six them! Then Janeth couldn't even go... So instead we invited Vani, who we figured wouldn't want to go, but she did! Her parents came with her, it was great. And then we got to go too, so yeah! Then we got more tickets for Sunday morning, so that was fun. Oh, and the whole Chavez family went to the Sunday afternoon session! We are so excited. they loved it!
What was your favorite talk? Mine were Edward Dube's about never looking back, and Elder Holland's. They were both amazing! I love Conference!