Last week of August

Here is Elder Emery again from Germany. I have had an awesome week and it was so much fun. I learn more and more every week. I honestly wouldnt change this experience for anything.

First experience was I had a split again up in Wetzlar (really pretty). That area has a lot of hills and some castles so it was awesome. I was with Elder Isham. Splits are really cool because I learn so much and I get to experience new areas. While in Wetzlar a lady in the ward up there had a stroke or something and was in the hospital. She couldnt even get up. So Elder Isham and I went to the hospital and gave her a blessing. I did the oil part and I did it in German; and I am pretty sure I butchered it in German but its okay, the Lord understands all prayers. But it was so spiritual and I absolutely loved it. I hope that she feels better and all will be well with her.

This week we again taught Jose the rest of the lessons and our baptism for this saturday is still on. It has been so awesome seeing Joses progress in the Gospel. He loves it more and more every time we teach him. He is such a humble man. People from Africa are always so humble and so receptive to the Spirit. Elder Lindsey and I have been so blessed to be teaching him. He is so ready and I am excited for this Saturday. I will let you know how it goes.

So I don't remember if I have told you about Thomas and Shirly yet.. But they are awesome! We taught them back in June when I first got here and then they went on vacation. They came back at the beginning of this month and they have met with us ever since. We teach them about 3 times a week and every time we teach them they tell us to come back. Shirly is such a sweetheart and didnt have any background of the Gospel at all. Thomas didnt want to believe before on God but now is loving it. He said his first prayer the other night out loud and he said he had never felt that good. They are some of the most prepared people I have ever met. I love teaching them and I can't wait to teach them more.

All is well here though. Transfer calls are this saturday also so we will see if I get transferred. I love this work and I wouldn't change it for anything. I love hearing from everyone so keep the letters coming. I love you all.

Elder Emery

Germany

Another week, Sorry last week’s email was super fast. We were in Frankfurt and it cost a lot of money to use the internet there so everything was rushed. But I am doing great. This week was a really good one for us and we got a lot done.

I went on 2 splits this week. The first split was with Elder Ruff. He is the Zone Leader in Frankfurt and he is awesome. He came to Friedrichsdorf and is such a great Elder. We went contacting for about 1 hour and I think we contacted over 10 people. Which is a record for me! But it was really cool because he made me do every contact. My German is finally starting to rapidly go up. But I had some mess ups and it was cool because he forced me into speaking German. I learned so much that day from him. He was an awesome missionary and it was so cool.

My second split was with Elder Robinson. We spent the day up in Usingen. I swear the whole day we just were driving. Usingen is massive and we had an appointment with someone all the way at the top of the area then back down to the bottom. It was super beautiful. It’s always fun meeting and having new experiences with other missionaries and enjoying the time. I love being a missionary.

So a cool story this week was on Thursday night we met with Thomas and Shirly again. They speak German but we teach them in English because they are really good friends with a family here from England, The Robertson’s. Anyways, we went to the Robinsons house to teach them with Thomas and Shirly. Our topic that night was about families and the Atonement. And wow, can I say the spirit was SOOOO strong. Ha the both of them were almost in tears. It was so cool. Its experiences like these that make a missionary so happy. There’s a reason a missionary is in an area and I have a strong testimony about that. Anyways they ask us every time when we can come back and teach them. So we are going back tonight. The Lord prepares families and people. It’s our job to go and find those people.

Jose is getting baptized on the 31st of this month. That has been so fun teaching him and seeing his progress in the Gospel. We are so excited for him and he is so ready. He has been so humble and so receptive of the Gospel. This Gospel is true. I know that will all my heart. Everything is on the Lords time.

I love you all. Thanks for all the letters and support.

Elder Emery

                                                               Making wooden ties:)

                                                 Eating in Frankfurt at a Thai Restaurant

 These guys were having a "rap off" behind me.

 Stuck in Bahnhof forever...!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick letter

Hallo,

Seems like everything is going good besides you all being sick. That is not good to hear and I am sorry that happened. Being sick is not fun but I hope you feel a lot better now. This week was an awesome week for us. I learned a ton this week.

So to begin the week, we had a meeting with all the missionaries that were in the MTC with me. I got to see my old companion Elder Lassley and all my buds from the MTC. I was super excited and it was a lot of fun. It was the Golden Trainers meeting so we all met up and had a meeting down in Offenbach. The topic was the Atonement. It was so cool and was so spiritual. I absolutely loved it. That day was super rainy too and just the dark clouds too. We had to walk a long way too so we were just drenched. Elder Lindsey had to stay in Frankfurt for a meeting so I was supposed to go to Weterau with those elders. We got to the Bahnhof (train station) and realized that there were no trains going out. The weather was too bad and I guess there were trees all over the tracks. So we ended up waiting about 4 hours till the zone Leaders came and picked us up. It was super hectic at the Bahnhof. It was actually a really interesting day and a lot of fun.

So I stayed in Weterau that day and then I actually stayed there again on a split with Elder Henderson. Since my companion is District Leader I get the opportunity to split with everyone in the district and experience something new. So I was up in Weterau twice this past week. That place is absolutely beautiful. This week I get to go to Usingen. It’s cool just experiencing different areas. I learn so many things.

Friday when I came back from the split, Elder Lindsey and I had an Investigator appt. with Jose. It was incredible. We set a Baptismal Date!!!! I was sooo happy. It’s for Aug 31st. It was the coolest feeling also. We asked him to get baptized and he said he wanted to but he wanted to ask Heavenly Father if he should. So we all got on our knees and he said a prayer. Once he was done with the prayer it was silent for about 30 seconds. Then he just said. Yep I need to get baptized!!!!! I was so happy and the spirit was so strong. We are so excited for Jose. He is such a great guy. So we actually have 2 baptisms that day. And we are teaching a family of 3 right now and they are super interested. The work here in Germany is picking up.

Another cool but sad experience we had was on Friday night.. We were eating with Christian Ottiker.. (one of the coolest guys) and we received a phone call from the sisters saying that an older lady in our ward, (about 85 years old) had fallen walking home from her temple work. She fell right on her face and actually broke her nose and her face was sooo swollen. So we went over there after our appointment, we knocked and saw her and it was so sad.. Her face was so swollen and did not look good at all. We asked if she was hurting and she said "No, Not at all." We walk in and look at the table and it is set up for dinner... that hit me hard. At a time where she had just barely broken her nose, she wasn’t caring about herself but she was caring for us. At a tough time for her she was thinking about others and not herself. I learned that even through hard times to care for others. That is what our Savior did for us. And she did the same thing for us. The blessing was so strong and I absolutely learned sooo much.
So yesterday at church I actually had a talk.. Wow it was so awful..  I sounded so bad. Ha but it was really cool. We had 7 investigators come to church!! That is unheard of and we were super excited.

I love you all.

Elder Emery

Another week has gone by

Geez it is so crazy how fast weeks go by on the mission. Everything just seems like a blur. But there were a lot of great experiences we have had so hopefully I can explain all of them.We have our investigator Jose, he is from Angola and absolutely loves this gospel. He is so humble and loves learning more and more about what we have. We met with him and a member on Thursday night and it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had yet. We gave him the first lesson and he was so excited. He kept asking more and more. We finally challenged him to pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true or not. He wanted to pray right then and there. So we all got on our knees and he prayed in Portuguese. That is his Mutter Sprach (native language). We didn’t understand anything but he had the biggest smile when he finished. It was silent for a while and everyone was just smiling so big. Ha I have never felt the spirit that strong. I felt so good. It’s amazing how much better my German is when the spirit is there. I felt so calm and just took everything in. I absolutely loved the feeling. Jose came to church again yesterday and is so excited to learn more. We are going to set a baptismal date hopefully next time we meet with him.

Saturday was one of the coolest days I have had so far on my mission. We had this finding activity down in Mainz with our district and also the Mainz district. We started right in the center of Mainz at the single adults building. It was fun. We had to get to the new ward house by only contacting people and asking for directions. We couldn’t use a map or GPS or anything. It was actually perfect because people were so willing to help when we bring up the church in a conversation. It took us about 5 hours to walk and get to the church. But in that time we probably contacted more than 40 people and gave away about 5 Book of Mormons. My German is finally starting to be a lot better. I can finally talk enough where I can have a full conversation. I still mess up because that is normal but I have figured if you just talk to people the language will come the quickest that way. German is a hard language I do have to say. But that activity was perfect. It was a new way to find people and to contact.

That night we went on splits and I was with Elder Noorda. Elder Lindsey is the new district leader so he goes on splits with everyone in the district at least once. So I go on splits with everyone. It is a lot of fun. Elder Noorda is also pretty new to Germany. So it was a lot of fun because both our German is not super great but we still went contacting and talked with a lot of people. I have learned not to have any fear for people. If you just are nice and smiling then some people accept what you are saying. But mostly people just walk past like we didn’t say anything. Some people get freaked out if we talk to them too.. It’s been super fun though. The best way I have found out to work the best if you just compliment someone on something. If you tell them they are nice they get all excited and they talk. We do whatever to help people out. Every opportunity we get we help someone out. It has been awesome.

Sooo yesterday was fast Sunday and it was one of the hottest days that we have had this summer here in Germany. So to get to our church we have to walk a ton. And we have to wear our suits so it was absolutely frying. Germany is humid and was super hot. So we were pretty much drenched going to church. There was one fan for all of the sacrament meeting room. So it was pretty rough. It has been so hot here the past few days.

Yesterday we met with a family named Familia Amtmann that are Born Again Christians. WOW is what I will say. They know the Bible better than anybody. We brought Bruder Brunotte for a joint teach from our ward who actually was a Jesuit Priest before he read the Book of Mormon and was converted. Bruder Brunotte is this 6’7 man that is smarter than anybody I know. He has 5 different majors and his apartment is filled with thousands of books. He is a genius. He is super friendly and every week he wears these awesome suits with these massive ties. I will take a picture then send it home. But they are sweet. Anyways, he came with us to this joint teach with Familia Amtmann.. And he absolutely is the best teacher I have EVER seen. I learned so much from that guy and how to teach. He bore testimony so powerful and so perfect the spirit was so strong. It was incredible. They only believe on the bible and believe all other books come from Satan. Bruder Brunnote bore solemn testimony of the divine power of the Book of Mormon and it was awesome.

This week was a good one. We are meeting with a family of three this week that are awesome also. They are Investigators who love what we have. The work here in Germany is picking up. We just need to continue with the prayers and keep having faith that it will get better and better. Thanks for the support everyone. I love you all.

Elder Emery

                                            Elder Noorda and I up in Weilberg.

 We are friends with these kids. We see them a lot. We were on splits and we were walking and all of them ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and they were all drunk. It was pretty bad smelling. But I got a picture with all of them. haha

                          Bruder Brunnote!! He is awesome, he is the bigger dude that is super happy.

 Sister Chard and I. She lives up in the Rices ward and is really good friends with them. She is one of the sisters here in Friedrichsdorf.

 Elder Lindsey and I. There is the Palace in Weilberg. It is soo pretty. That's where we went last Saturday for our P day