Monthly Archives: November 2013

Thanksgiving!

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I am so grateful for Thanksgiving!!! I think sometimes we need a holiday to remind us to be thankful. I have learned in my life that living in gratitude is the best way to live.

There are so many good stories and quotes that remind us what a great thing being thankful is, for example: “And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.” (D&C 78:19.), and the story of the ten lepers, etc.

I have learned in my life that I need to even be thankful for my trials and struggles. I think one reason is that I learn so much during a challenge. I also believe that I get closer to God during that time. I want to feel His comfort. I want His council and direction. I am waiting on the Lord. I see people who have difficult situations in their lives who become bitter. They accuse God of not doing enough. They don’t understand why or how He could let such a thing happen in their lives.

I hope I never do that.

I understand that part of the reason for this earthly experience is to face challenges and learn from them. I choose to see the blessings in my life, they are abundant.

Last year for the first time in my life I started a gratitude journal. I had such a neat experience listing something I was grateful for each day. I was amazed at how on somedays I couldn’t think of anything that I hadn’t already listed. Can you believe it? I think that’s why it was good for me. I take so much for granted. I have an abundance of the good things of the earth, and I am truly thankful for that. I am glad we have a holiday that reminds us to be thankful. I need to not just be thankful, but say thanks. That is very important too.

May we all recognize the blessings we are given, and thank our Father in Heaven for loving us so much. His Son is the greatest blessing we have. Without Him, all would be lost. So blessed.

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Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Out on a WIM #28

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#28

Hello my most wonderful family! How are you all? It sounds like you are all just pluggin’ along doing great 🙂

Mom:

Oh! I did know that Al Fox got married, I am so happy for she. She is adorable.
SIX MONTHS?? You. are. kidding. Just kidding I knew it was! But really it amazes me how fast time flies by. But then at the same time it feels like I have been here for a long time in learning and growing sense! It’s going by too fast 🙁 It scares me. Sometimes I just feel really sad when I think about leaving.. Especially where I am now. This place. Awwwww… My heart belongs here.
SO.
This week and month I have been thinking about all of the things that I am so grateful for. I am going to make a list this week of all the blessings I have. 
Scripture(s) of the week: Alma chapter 32. I have been ever so grateful for this chapter. It talks so much about Faith and Humility and really those two go hand in hand together.
Don’t forget to tell Tasha Bear that I love her so much.
That story from Matt Hales sounds great! I am sure he did great 🙂
Church was awesome. Matt Hales gave an excellent talk. He told a story from his mission. He said that he and his companion were walking down the road on the way to an appointment. They passed a woman walking and pushing a stroller. Matt felt like they should talk to her. They talked to her and got an address from her so they could visit her later. Then Matt got transferred. He found out later that the address was not her address, but when the elders went to the door the lady who answered the door said that she had been praying for the missionaries to come. Wow!!! She was baptized. Great story. 
The past couple of days I have been reading through my journal at entries from a while back. It is amazing to see the miracles that have happened and the struggles and joys that I have been through. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I have been learning a lot. Even learning how to be a better mother when I am one. Learning to love even when it is really hard. Which blows me away because I usually can love people so freely. I always remember what you said growing up, “the ones who are hardest to love are the ones who need it the most.” That has blessed me out here a lot. I am so grateful that I get to be humbled very often it helps my faith to grow. I am grateful for the people here. They are my family and heart belongs to them. I’ve laughed with them, I’ve cried with them and they are such a strength to me. I am so glad to be where I am. I know this is where I am supposed to be and it is wonderful 🙂
We have been doing tons of service lately and are finding wonderful teaching opportunities through that.
Funny Story: SO we were in Gospel Principles (the investigator and RCLA (Recent convert and less active) class) and we were learning about the WOW (Word of Wisdom) and somebody was talking about cooking birds (meat) and they made a cheesey joke about taking the feathers off before you eat it. Everyone just kinda laughed forcedly… BUT Sister W. thought it was the funniest thing in the world. She laughed and laughed(she has the cutest laugh) so she just keeps laughing. Next thing ya know we are all laughing just because she was, so the whole class just like erupted in laughter. It was hysterical. (I am not sure if this was “you had to be there moment”) But it was so funny… Hahahaha
Anyway M., she is struggling bad with her cancer. It is so sad. We had a lesson with her this week on the floor because she was in a lot of pain and we all just cried….The Elders came over and gave her blessing. It was a great experience. I love she bad. I hope everything will be ok for her.
anyway I love you mama! Have a great week. Stay excellent.
Daddy: I am glad to hear you fun with Grandmother on Sunday 🙂 Is everybody getting a dog while I am gone?? I am sorry that you will miss the Thanksgiving party! You and me both 😉 I love you Pops! Keep hanging in there. How is Murph? (Emily’s car Brett is driving)
News for this week: We are doing a Thanksgiving lunch with all of the missionaries today!
Sister H. started driving today!
I have read the BOM (Book of Mormon) two times through on my mission 🙂
We met some really nice people this week.
I tried a fig, it’s like a baby banana.
Ammm….. I think that’s all for this week! I love every single one of you a ton! Have you been getting my letts and stuff??
The Church is true!
Love, Sister Emily 🙂

Sunday Best!

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“In this day when the Bible is being down-graded by many who have mingled philosophies of the world with Bible scriptures to nullify their true meaning, how fortunate that our eternal Heavenly Father, who is always concerned about the spiritual well-being of his children, has given to us a companion book of scriptures, known as the Book of Mormon, as a defense for the truths of the Bible that were written and spoken by the prophets as the Lord directed.” (“Plain and Precious Things,” Ensign, August 1972).

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

The London Bridge!!!

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I saw the London Bridge!!!DSC06342On our way to Yuma last week I made a wrong turn on the route I planned and ended up passing Lake Havasu.

Then I saw signs saying “London Bridge”.

I was super excited! We were running a little behind on our schedule, because of my wrong turn so we decided we would stop on the way back home. Which I did. It has an interesting story. You can read about it here. Seeing the bridge was so fun because it’s probably the closest I’m ever going to get to England.

It is a beautiful bridge!

I love having an adventure like seeing things you weren’t planning on. Fun!

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Tuesday Adventure!

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This Tuesday Adventure was actually last Tuesday, and it wasn’t with my sweet husband. I drove all day Monday with my wonderful parents to Yuma, Arizona where my nephew and his darling wife live. Then on Tuesday we did some sight seeing around town.

First we went to this statue that tells about the Mormon Batallion. They stopped here as they marched 1900 miles. It is a beautiful statue. It was nice to see it!!DSC06228

We went to the Territorial Prison. That was quite interesting. It was in use from 1876 to 1909. It was very interesting to see the prison and hear about the inmates.DSC06254

This picture (above) is of one of the guard towers. It has a well below it. Clever. DSC06282

Some of the inmates used their time in prison doing crafts and learning a skill. These beautiful stitched items were made by one of the inmates. Wow, who knew?DSC06294

A row of cells.DSC06266

My favorite story is that the prison was used for a while as the high school. Their mascot is the “Criminals”. How funny!!!DSC06335This sweet puppy is Patches. He is a sweetheart and very fun to have around. He is my nephew and his wife’s puppy (that makes him my great nephew). It was so fun to see him. Squishy!!!

It was a great Tuesday Adventure! My sweet darlin’ stayed home and watched the daycare kids for me so I could go with my parents. What a sweetheart!

Out on a WIM #27

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#27

Hello my beloved family people 🙂

Mom it sounds like you had a very fun and party filled week in AZ! I am glad everything went well 🙂
2. Do you have a new senior couple yet?
2. We do not have a senior couple yet… We will soon hopefully!
3. How often do you trade off companions?
3. We go on a trade off normally 2 times a transfer so each sister has an opportunity to go out with the STL (sister training leader).
4. Are the Elder’s in charge of you, or the Sister training leader? 
4. Both of them check up on us! I have been working hand in hand with Sister W. (STL) with Sister H. and her comp! So I talk to all of them often. We are like a big family out here.
5. How often do you have district mtg? or zone mtg?
5. We have DM every Tuesday and Zone meeting like 2 Tuesdays a transfer.
6. Are the people who own the daycare where you do puppet shows members?

 

6. We do the puppet shows at different schools and no please the people are not members but everyone seems to be enjoying the shows! It helps to kind of bring the church out of obscurity! They are a lot of fun 🙂
8. Describe your typical meals in a day?
8. We eat for breakfast: Oatmeal, eggs, bagels, toast and cereal
Lunch and dinner: normal foods! Like Spaghetti, sandwiches, all kinds of stuff we would eat at home!
9. Do you have dinner appts? If so how often? 
9. Probably a dinner appointment every other week or something like that.. On sunday we went to eat at Sister C.’s house! We ate Bajan rice, potatoes and flying fish! IT WAS SO GOOD!! I love the food here bad.
10. What is one thing you wish you had done before your mission to prepare better?
10. I wish I would have gone out with the missionaries and studied more! I feel like I didn’t know anything before my mission! Haha but all in good learning 🙂
11. Will you be able to skype of Christmas?
11. Yes!! I am like almost positive that we will be skyping on Christmas!
12. Do you use phones? cars?
12. Yes we all have phones and communicate very often. We would lost without our phone. Yes we still have our car. Our car is really nice! We drive a new Corolla! Well it gets busted up quickly here because the roads are so narrow and there are always things mashing up the cyar.
(yes a spelled car like that for a reason) That is how the people say the word car here 🙂 hahaha
13. Are you always safe? Have you had any scares? Is it ever “sketch” as Flexy would say? 
13. Yes we try and be very safe. There are of course more sketch times than others. But I have never felt unsafe. The Lord is with us.
Funny story about that: The other day we were at one of our Member Referals house. Mary. She is so wonderful 🙂 But we were having a lesson with her and Sister C.’s and when we were leaving she said she wanted to walk us to our car because it was parked a little further down the road… She told us that there was a robber/murderer that had been around the neighborhood that tries to rob people and then chop them up with a cutlass. Then she started showing us her Kung Fu moves. It was hillarious!!! She is so cute. Needless to say we made it to the car safely.
But mom don’t worry we are fine I promise. But yes it is sketch sometimes. No more details 🙂
14. Favorite scripture of the week?
14. I have been thinking a lot about how great Nephi is and how much we can learn from the first book of Nephi. A lot of times people look over it but I love it. I have still been focusing on 2 Nephi ch. 4 again this week. I have searching and pondering on it so much. Oh man I love the scriptures.
We have met some great people this week and it has been going very well! Sorry I am basically out of time already! This coming week I will send pictures! I love you all so very much 🙂
Have a great week! Love, Sister Emily

Out on a WIM #26

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#26

Hello to my favorite people in the world! How are you all?? It sounds like life is going well for everyone!
Happy Birthday again Mom! Hahaha you are 52! When I saw that you were saying you were 53 I was thinking…. “what in the world, my mom is losing it” Just kidding. You are great 🙂
Tell Sarah that I say good job and that I love her and am proud of her. And Linds too! And Erin when she gets hers!

SO. This week has been wonderful. We had pretty great success this week. We met a family who we are teaching… Which is rare! The families are not super functional here. It is so sad. We met some people who seem really cool. And just now as we were emailing this cute lady walked up to the church and asked us if we had some booklets she could read!! It was great, so we are going to go and teach her really soon 🙂

As for training it’s still going really well. I love Sister H.! She is so fun.

I feel like for the first time in my life I have completely forgotten myself. Sometimes I wish I could just be better now. But I guess I have to have patience with myself too. Lately I have been referring a lot too 2 Nephi chapter 4 when Nephi is talking about how his heart sorroweth because of his flesh and iniquities. When I read these few verses it makes me think of myself. Sometimes I wish that I could just do everything right. I get frustrated because I just want to be good. My spirit gets upset with the “natural man” that is inside of me. Like come on!!! Haha it’s alright 🙂 I am learning a lot and am grateful for these experiences! I love myself, I’ll get there someday. But for now I will just take it one day at a time.

Also I was thinking this morning while I was cleaning about how we can have a relationship with the gospel of Jesus Christ. These words kept going through my head. “Not only do we need the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the Gospel needs us.” I don’t know where they came from.. Prolly the spirit.. 😉 But seriously though. The gospel cannot move forward with out us. Therefore it needs us. And we need it, I would DIE without the gospel in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!! (please excuse my dramaticness) Ahhhhhh man I love being a missionary.

Let me think, we did a service project in a members back yard this week! He is less active but came to church on Sunday! We were so happy 🙂 Ummm Brother K. was telling us about missionary opportunities that he has had. He is so great! And L. too. I love them a ton.

Oh man I have been thinking this week so much about so many different things!

Oh! To answer your question from last week about the Christmas Package it’s totally up to you. Whatevs works better for you is what I want to do!

If you do send a package it’d be nice if I could get some of my face powder to be sent!

I am at a loss today! Hahah I can’t remember all that happened this week. Oh just so you know Keat is doing really well! Still a ZL and now training another Elder to be one. He is super busy and working. WHAT A DOLL!!

Anyway! Any questions??

Keep doing great everybody! I love you all very much! The church is true. Go eat some Costa Vida and Chick-fil-a for me!

Is there anything more you’d like to be hearing in my emails that I don’t say?? Let me know!

Have a great week! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

Sunday Best!

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Helaman 5:12

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

Family History Friday: Grandma Blanche!

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Blanche

Did you ever love someone that you couldn’t spent much time with?

That is how I felt about my Grandma Blanche.

She is my dad’s mom. She was an amazing woman. She was the mother of 8 children. She was a very talented seamstress. She worked with my Grandpa sewing men’s suits at their tailor shop. She was always a hard worker, an example of industry. I wish I had been able to ask her how she did it all?

The family lived in Spokane, Washington. When my dad was a young adult, he left home to work in California. He never went back. Opportunities came and he met and married my mom, and they moved to Utah. At the time, the main mode of communication was letters. You could call, but it was expensive, and most people didn’t use it much, unless there was an emergency. I felt at times that I wish I could see my Grandma more, or at least visit with her. She did send me a birthday card every year.

I know she loved me.

I saw my Grandma Blanche about 5 times in my life. She passed away just before my second child was born. I remember being sad that I didn’t get to know her very well, and I didn’t have the opportunity to spend more time with her. She died in the spring, and when my birthday came in November I knew that I wouldn’t receive a card in the mail from her ever again.

I miss her.

I do believe that I will see her again someday.

I will get to spend time getting to know her better and loving her. I will be able to tell her how happy I am that she is my grandma, and I am very happy about that.

“I’m in the Armpit!”

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IMGBack in the day, many moons ago, Kelsey was in jr. high school. It was a tough time for her. It’s a tough time for everyone. I had a friend once call jr. high, “The armpit of life.” Ever since then, we call it that too. We didn’t hide this description from the kids, they knew that’s what we called it.

One day Kelsey was having a particularly hard day.

She was very upset about life, school, and anything else you can think of. We were giving her suggestions of things she could do to make things better, and we were probably giving her a little grief for not doing as well in school or life as she could be. She finally blurted out,

“I can’t help it, I’m in the armpit!!!”

We all started laughing, including Kelsey. It was a good. We all needed the reminder that the “armpit” was temporary. From that time on, she was much more relaxed about the struggles that come while you’re “In the armpit of life.”