Dear Family,
This past weekend was Henry's baptism. It was just so precious.All of
his family was there to support him, and his Dad was there to baptize
him.It was just a powerful testimony to me to see him enter into the
waters of baptism. His countenance has just changed with the teachings
he has accepted to live over the past several weeks. When you truly
live the teachings of Christ, you can see it in the faces of others.
We gave a special musical number for the baptism. To the tune of come
thou fount, another sister sang oh how lovely was the morning while my
other old companion signed the song, and then they had us bear our
testimonies of the restoration. I wanted to share my testimony with
you of that.
Over the past couple months, I have really just gained a testimony of
what the restoration truly is when we live it and are constantly
studying you grow. I know with all of my heart that Joseph Smith was a
prophet and that was given the power from God to restore the gospel on
the earth again today.Once you gain that powerful witness of the book
of Mormon, your desire changes and your relationship with his son,
Jesus Christ grows. You will desire to come unto him, by striving to
make and keep covenants, or our promises with God. As we start down
this path, the power of the atonement will increase. We will start to
understand that the atonement is not just for repentance of our sins.
It is a way of life,the only for us to return to live with our loving
heavenly father again.
I am thankful for the restoration. And for families! We were teaching
a less active family who still has yet to make church a priority in
their lives, but are slowly starting to read from the book of Mormon.
This family has 8 children, all under the age of 9. Sometimes, lessons
are a little crazy with so many kids, but I've just grown to love them
so much. We had a lesson on the ten commandments the last time we were
there. My companion was trying to show them one of the commandments,
the worshiping other gods before me by holding up a truck and asking
them if they would worship it. The mother thought it was funny. After
she made a funny comment about how much her kids break alot of the
commandments by just being kids:) I love teaching children. They are
so honest and have so many questions.
We are teaching another woman, from holland. She has an amazing
testimony already of tithing, and of the book of mormon. We took her
to the temple vistor's center last week, which was a perfect timing
because there were multiple weddings going on. She loved the temple.
We were in a lesson with her other friend who was also investigating
and she basically commited her to be baptized. This investigator, all
of her family were members but she was not. The investigator from
holland told her that she was going to be baptized after she died
anyway, so she might as well be baptized now. The logic of friends:)
Memorial day was pretty uneventful. We tried to go fishing, but the
line got tangled on one, and the other line broke and was lost in the
water. So, we ended up catching salamanders in a pond in the backyard
of an investigator's house. I think that was a way better idea than
fishing.
And for my last, my companions and I were out driving to go to street
tracting. As we pulled up to pray, a very big sandlot looking dog,
came out of nowhere to our window. My companion Sister Horne and I in
the front seat just started laughing. Needless to say, we didn't get
out there with that big of a dog. We were lucky we saw it before we
got out.
I love all of you, and please give my congrats to Cole on getting his
mission call!
Love,
Sister Embley
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Thursday, May 31, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
31-April-2012
Hello Family!
Transfers came and went this week and I'm still in a trio and not
back in the deaf work. It's great being able to focus on one area, but
some days it's just hard being in a trio. It's my third trio of
sisters, so i'm a pro at this experience. I've never been in it for
this long, so obviously the lord wants me to learn something from
it.Mom, I'll be able to call you (and the family) on Mother's Day! I
will most likely be calling from Bishop Deen's house unless plans
change. We will let you know more as that goes sooner, but it is just
like Christmas Day, i still get the 30-40 minute time line. I'm
excited to be able to talk to you again! It's coming up so soon!
My 9 month mark on the mission is also coming up this Thursday! It's
a bit of a crazy sister's tradition, they call it the 9 month
pregnancy mark. haha! I'm halfway through the mission. Can you believe
that? Time just flies by when you're working hard. I celebrated my
birthday last week with the Morby's. Don't know if I wrote you about
that or not, but it was so fun being able to spend some time with
them. We played games and they fed us food. It's nice being close to
the mission home. The Morbys are just so generous. They are always
spending time when they can with the missionaries, and will come out
for lessons when they can. I gave him a deaf name sign last zone
conference, it has something to do with the time they dedicate to us.
We taught combined RS, Priesthood and Youth yesterday for church. My
companion had created a sideshow and we had them all wear name-tags
like they were going to class at the MTC. We worked with them and had
them "roleplay" together and talk about missionary work. It was a huge
crowd, so we were a little nervous about how it was going to turn out,
but the ward loved it. We hope this will also help us get more
referels and families to teach.
Henry's baptism ( a young man i was teaching in my last area) is
coming up really soon. I'm able to go back to my old area for it and I
am just so excited for him. He was one who wouldn't pray with us for
the longest time and was just struggling with commitments. Now he
prays all the time and has completely changed his life around. It's
just a great thing to see when people really apply the atonement for
to their lives and when they progress. I love it. It's one of the best
things as a missionary.
We heart attacked some members of the ward last night and caught right
dead in the act. Right as I was hanging one up, one of the members
opened the door behind the screen and completely scares us. Being
totally subtle, we ran. Didn't even think about hiding and the fact he
saw us already:) The cat gave us away on that one as we had walked up.
Anyway, I'll be talking to you soon! I let you know the times when the
plan is more set. I love you! Sister Embley
Transfers came and went this week and I'm still in a trio and not
back in the deaf work. It's great being able to focus on one area, but
some days it's just hard being in a trio. It's my third trio of
sisters, so i'm a pro at this experience. I've never been in it for
this long, so obviously the lord wants me to learn something from
it.Mom, I'll be able to call you (and the family) on Mother's Day! I
will most likely be calling from Bishop Deen's house unless plans
change. We will let you know more as that goes sooner, but it is just
like Christmas Day, i still get the 30-40 minute time line. I'm
excited to be able to talk to you again! It's coming up so soon!
My 9 month mark on the mission is also coming up this Thursday! It's
a bit of a crazy sister's tradition, they call it the 9 month
pregnancy mark. haha! I'm halfway through the mission. Can you believe
that? Time just flies by when you're working hard. I celebrated my
birthday last week with the Morby's. Don't know if I wrote you about
that or not, but it was so fun being able to spend some time with
them. We played games and they fed us food. It's nice being close to
the mission home. The Morbys are just so generous. They are always
spending time when they can with the missionaries, and will come out
for lessons when they can. I gave him a deaf name sign last zone
conference, it has something to do with the time they dedicate to us.
We taught combined RS, Priesthood and Youth yesterday for church. My
companion had created a sideshow and we had them all wear name-tags
like they were going to class at the MTC. We worked with them and had
them "roleplay" together and talk about missionary work. It was a huge
crowd, so we were a little nervous about how it was going to turn out,
but the ward loved it. We hope this will also help us get more
referels and families to teach.
Henry's baptism ( a young man i was teaching in my last area) is
coming up really soon. I'm able to go back to my old area for it and I
am just so excited for him. He was one who wouldn't pray with us for
the longest time and was just struggling with commitments. Now he
prays all the time and has completely changed his life around. It's
just a great thing to see when people really apply the atonement for
to their lives and when they progress. I love it. It's one of the best
things as a missionary.
We heart attacked some members of the ward last night and caught right
dead in the act. Right as I was hanging one up, one of the members
opened the door behind the screen and completely scares us. Being
totally subtle, we ran. Didn't even think about hiding and the fact he
saw us already:) The cat gave us away on that one as we had walked up.
Anyway, I'll be talking to you soon! I let you know the times when the
plan is more set. I love you! Sister Embley