Still in Tecksus

MAMZIES!!

             sorry i didn't email you on my p-day, but it's just that i'm still in the U.S. so i can't really go use the libraries computer's on Memorial Day haha, but here is an email for you!

            Yes, i'm still in Texas. In fact, i've almost made it a whole transfer! I'm in week five out of six right now and i totally thought i might only be here for like 3 hours or something, but i'm loving it so no worries. Also yes, we're still working with that family except the mom has some kind of beef with the members eventhough they're all the greatest people ever. She won't go to church because of it and the dad is just totally stoked about the church, he almost made the half hour commute to go to church on his own without his family because the mom wasn't all for it. But we're seeing them tonight and hopefully we can figure out what these doubts are that she has. i know that God has already began to change her though, her husband said he loves the change that he can see in her and wants that for his whole family and himself and that all came because of just reading the book of mormon. I have a lot of faith for the family because they are soo amazing, but just like most everyone else here they have that strong catholic background that's hard for them to get past.

             We even talked to a lady yesterday who said she took all the lessons and totally loved the gospel and church and everything our church taught, but when they asked her to be baptized she got bugged and stopped inviting the missionaries over because she has already been baptized... when she was a baby... pretty crazy stuff!! we're going to go back over and talk about the correct authority sometime haha but that's just the way it is with a lot of Hispanic people here, they love to talk about God, but they just hold tight to their church.

             It's getting super hot here, just like my St. Geezy so i'm already used to it! We do a whole ton of knocking doors though and i never used to do that in Saint George so it is a little different. Mostly we're just looking for new people right now because our investigator pool is so little. it's super hilarious to see all the ways people come up with to say no haha. one time we were walking out of a store and we said hi to a guy walking into the store and he just put his hand up and said, "pass." i guess i should just feel sorry for all them and i didn't laugh in front of his face, but sometimes it is just hilarious so i can't help it! Not all people are like that though, tons of people offer us water and at least talk to us for a little bit.

             I'm suuuuuuper jealous about the family reunion, it sounds like such a blast!! i absolutely love that Jeff has a wife already ahaha i had no idea, he ought to rub that one in jer's face ;) and i'm sorry i couldn't make it though, i sure did try!... kinda.

             thanks for writing Mami!! have a great summer, it took me forever to figure out how to get these pictures on so i don't have much more time but i hope you like them! sure do love you, send the fam loves for me too!

                                                                   love, Elder Emett (The Tecksus one)

Still shocked about no mountains!

Hey Mami!

          How is it now that Jesse isn't in town anymore? i'd guess it got a whole lot more serious in every way. I totally believe you about becca growing 6 inches since i left and to be honest i'm a little surprised that's it. I think my height is actually decreasing out here in Texas. I am soooooo jealous about the Gilbert family reunion! maybe i'll come home for it cuz i'm just over in texas right now, i'm probably only like 27 miles from Park City anyway.

          So you wanna know what's new in Texas? definately not the scenery. ok, i'm digging that joke into the ground but i'm still a little shocked about no mountains, will you send me a picture of mountains from Park City? those are great mountains. What is new though is that we got a new ward mission leader!!! and he's a Garnett so he's super active. the last one was wayyy inactive, in fact i'd never even met him. With Brother Garnett though, we'll be able to get so much more done because members really are key in this work.

          That Mexican family i was telling you about is way awesome!!! we visited them last week and the mom had been reading so she asked for a copy of doctrine y covenants and also pearl of great price because she had read about them and was curious. we met with the whole family about baptism yesterday and the dad, who is just the most awesome guy ever, said that it's something they had really been pondering and praying about. They just want to learn a little more to make sure thier kids know what is actually happening, but i feel really good about them and I love how Elder Rice teaches. A lot of missionaries just go to get as many baptisms as possible, but Elder Rice focuses on people and making sure they know it so their retention will be good and that's exactly what we're doing with this family.

              Will you tell Papa Bear i'm way proud of Him?! that's so awesome!! I love that the temple became His goal and i know that if he reaches his goal everything with Brooke would just be so much better.

             You asked if we do a lot of service here and no, not really. We offer everyone we see to help them out in any way they'd want, but nobody has ever had us do anything. On p-days we go out to a farm owned by the Garnetts and just do some manual labor so i guess that could count as service, but we don't do nearly as much service as we could or we'd like to do.

             We do find plenty of people to teach though, We found another family last week that has some super mean dogs, but once we got to the door it was totally worth it. We have just met with the mom once and talked to the dad for like 3 minutes one time. We taught the mom lesson one and she is just gold, before we started she talked about how she had no faith in the catholic church anymore and she didn't trust them, she just wants to know the truth now. and it was just like, "GREAT!! THAT'S EXACTLY WHY WE'RE HERE!!!" I hope she sees that God put us in her path for a reason. But because everyone has their religions here a lot of people don't really love it when we do what we're supposed to. So to have a neighbor of someone we're teaching tell our investigator lots of bogus things about or beliefs and Joseph Smith is not uncommon although it hasn't happened to me yet. Gotta love the bible belt!

             Will you tell Papi that i sure do appreciate all his awesome letters he sends me! I still don't really get how he is able to tell 2 missionaries about everything that happens at home, but it really helps me to feel loved.... plus i might need it a lot cuz up to this point in time there has never been a missionary to enter into the perryton area while writing a girl and leave writing the same girl sooooooo not saying that i'm expecting a dear John or anything, but everything sure would be a lot easier if my Papi was still sending me this many letters a week. ha

             Welp, i sure do love you, and make sure to send the fams my love! especially at the reunion. But i gots to go now, so i'll see you tomorrow

                                           love, Elder Emett (The one residing in the Lone Star State)N

Loves his companions!

Mamsi!!

             It was super wonderful to talk to you yesterday!! you're super nice for sharing like all of your mother's day time, sorry that i didn't just get to talk to you more. and sorry for making you cry!!! i sure didn't mean to! but it's ok, cuz hopefully it was tears full of happiness. The funniest part of the phone call had to be when the scoots told me about how scary my room is haha, welcome to the basement the scoots.

             I feel way bad cuz i really didn't even get to talk to everyone eventhough i'm not sure who all was there, i definately didn't talk to becca, amelia, or jason (just a little) or tons of others, but that hour just flew like none other! especially when i started talking to laura, thank you so much for sharing that time with her and it was totally ok, so no worries at all :)

            i'm so stoked to hear about jesse!! ahhh i could have just waited 2 weeks in the mtc and we could be best pals. and justin with his mission call is super exciting! but don't let me know where he's going, cuz he wanted to tell me himself, ok? thanks!

             You all kept asking about my companions and i was being totally honest when i said i love them, they don't read my emails so this is all honest, they are awesome!! Elder Rice looks just like Cristian Bale from the side and he's way realxed, patient and funny. Elder Grimmett is just a huge wrestler that pretty much bases his life off of humor. he is 6'2" and 320 pounds and i'm sure a lot of it is muscle. He pretty much looks like mikey from recess mixed with the bad guy from all the Jason Borne (if that's how you spell it) moviesWe're laughing pretty much all of the time and we all get along great, the only thing that's more awkward than having 2 companions is driving and walking cuz one of us just has to be the outcast a little.

             randy is from Amarillo?! i knew he was from here, but i didn't know it was that close, that's awesome!! i was actually down there on saturday. Amarillo is soooo different from what i expected. it's somewhat a big city and has tons of people living there, but everything looked like it was from call of duty (as in just super run-down and destroyed) except like 3 ginormous banks. and there were just like random dirt lots right in the middle of downtown haha soooo weird, but neat :)

            welp mami, have a fantastic summer with all those tiny children running around now! I'll talk to you soon!                         

                   love, Elder Emett (Mr. pump jacks and pivots instead of mountains, or texis)

The Texas Guy

mami mami mami!

     so sorry to keep you in the dark, i just kinda skipped a p-day cuz i arrived here on wednesday but p-day wasn't until now, next monday. But yes, it's true, i'm in texas!! in the united states! The flights all totally went great and on the flight after i called you i sat next to a traveling man named scott. i tried to share the gospel with him real good but he just straight said, "i don't wanna talk about that." So that was my first experience of sharing the gospel hahaha it's all good though, i'll live and i'll have plenty more opportunities. But i got here and the president of the mission picked us up from the airport. He is just a super nice, excited man who used to work with all the apostles and prophets eventhough he was converted at like 30 years old. I guess this mission is on like a high right now, last month they had the most baptisms this mission has ever had and that's way hard to do in the states so i came at a great time. We stayed overnight in the AP's apartment while we just did like introduction/orientation stuff, then the next day i headed up north cuz i got assigned to the Amarillo area!!! crazy, right? that's right where i wanted to go... i think haha. my companions picked me up in Amarillo and i'm actually serving in Perryton which is the pretty much the highest you can go in Texas. I say companions because i'm in a tri-panionship, neato, huh? One has been out for 17 months and he speaks awesome fluent spanish, his name is Elder Rice. He's from San Diego and he pretty much a pro surfer. I guess he's my trainer eventhough they didn't call him to be a trainer, he still teaches me lots though.

         My other companion is from Laton, Utah. His name is Elder Grimmett so when we introduce ourselves we always feel a little silly when they ask why our names rhyme but it's ok cuz i love the guy. He is super hilarious and a great, huge wrestler. He has been in the field for 3 months, which is only 2 transfers so he's done getting trained, but not ready to be a trainer yet.

         Texas is just neat haha. the biggest shock was the mountains and how there are absolutely none of them. There is no land formation out here that gets any taller than my shoes, it's soooooo different. on the busride up to Amarillo i would look out the window at times to see the scenery, but it's only big pump jacks that pump oil and what they call pivots which water fields. Pretty much everyone that lives out here either works in fields as a crop-duster or with oil in some way. I don't know if you remember the show 'The Big Green', but that's all that i can think of while i'm out here because it's always just like that, except there is a ginormous non-lds church on every single corner. The only Church in my area of Perryton and Spearman is the tiniest church i have ever seen in my whole life which hides behind a massive football stadium with a bazillion dollar  field because everyone out here loves football. Our church has 30 active members in the area i serve and it's a huge change for me. We had fast sunday yesterday and it was pretty much just a given that everyone has to go up and bear their testimony. plus they asked me to say the closing prayer right before the meeting started. All the members here are amazing and always want to feed us and invite their friends to church and help us, but the branch consists of 3 families and a few random others.

             The biggest family in the brach is the Garnett family and it was crazy because the first time i went over to their house one of the girls recognized me from a picture of Laura's at a track meet forever ago! I guess they were way good friends but yeah, tiny world. It just made me feel super at home way fast that someone knew someone i knew! and the fact that it was Laura just made it all that much better! She also knows my companion Elder Rice through some, super obscure way also. But pretty much there are two brother Garnetts that live here with their families and their super awesome members.

               Our apartment that we stay in is a lot nicer than i thought it might be. we have our own washer and dryer, three beds, and plenty of room for everything we need. My companions are super nice and share everything equally and help me out cuz i'm all new. I hope to send you some pictures of all this business soon... but i haven't really taken any yet so i'll try to get on that before i leave because it could just be any time. the President says that when he gets my visa he'll just pretty much send me off asap cuz he's a little overloaded with missionaries here at the time.

            Pretty much everwhere we go tracting here is just trailers. most of the cities' houses are just trailers and some of them are way nice. Both the Garnett families live in huge houses because their doctors and really good farmers, but like 65% of the people who live here speak spanish and just live really humbly. So humbly, in fact, that they just let their dogs go on the streets. i didn't think i would come across the dog problem here in in the states, but yes, there definately is a few dogs here and there who like to chase and bite, but i haven't been bitten yet. We do have a car and we spend most of our days driving, but sometimes we just walk. On Thursdays it's no-car day so we walk around everywhere that day and because i had just been sitting in the mtc forever my feet have become super weak. On my first no-car day i got super huge blisters on both of my feets! but it's all better now i think.

         Mamsi, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!! i'll call you, i promise. i get one hour to call and we just share a cell phone so i'll be calling from that. what time would be best? that would be great if you could send me some kind of indication about when to call, just let me call before kolby so everyone can be excited to talk to me, ok? haha jk. Also, here's my address for papi and whoever else might want it-

 

1513 s Jefferson #13

Perryton TX 79070

 

Welp, i think that was just about the longest email i have ever sent because i get an hour now!! so happy mother's day, i'll talk to you soon :)

                                                            Love, Elder Emett (The Texas guy)