Germany

Wow, what an exciting week for all of you! You guys were all over. haha I am glad that you had a great week. It is crazy how fast this past week went by. I am glad you are all home safe and enjoying life as well. I am happy and doing a ton better with everything. I have had some cool experiences for sure. This week was crazy for us.

 

Thursday we had Zone Conference. It was the Conference where we all said our goodbyes to President Schwartz. It was such a powerful meeting and it was cool because President had me lead the meeting. Sister Schwartz talked and then President Schwartz ended it. It was actually super sad to see. President finished his remarks and we presented him our mission present we all bought for him. And to end the meeting we sang "God be with you, till we meet again." It was super powerful because we all stood up and sang it. Sister Schwartz was just bawling and it was so sad to see. They dedicated so much to the Lord and helped so many missionaries in the mission. I am so grateful for them personally in my life. They are such amazing people. Their faith is unshaken no matter how much it took to be Mission President. You deal with a ton of things. I am grateful for them and the work they did.

Thursday night we were able to watch the Soccer game. USA vs. Germany. Elder Lindsey, Elder Stimpson, Elder Baker and I we all watched it at a members house. We had a BBQ and it was really a lot of fun. Germany really looked like they knew what they were doing.. It was really cool because the whole town just shuts down and everyone stays at home, just watching the game. It is really quite cool how dedicated they are to soccer here. They love it. So that was cool being able to watch it. I don't know if it is cool because I am on a mission or just because the graphics on the TV got a lot better. I haven’t watched TV for more then a year so it was super cool to see how amazing the graphics and everything is. That was a really cool day.

 

We were also able to meet with our investigator twice this week. He is honestly the greatest. He keeps all his commitments and is super excited about his baptism this coming Saturday. He is doing so well. He has come every week to church and that is going well. So I will update you all next week. Also Friday our new mission President came in. He is a really, really nice guy. This coming week we will be super busy as well figuring everything with that out.

 

One awesome thing that happened was that we were able to have a street display on Saturday. It was 3 hours long and I loved this chance to talk with people. I talked with so many people but again not a ton of success. I talked with this girl for about 40 minutes and we had a very good conversation about our purpose in life. She was such a nice girl and she left with a card but I hope she calls us. 

 

That was the week. I am doing good. I don't have a lot of time so I have to give everything to the Lord. During my studies this week I studied about the importance of the Gospel. The Gospel is so important for all of us. Though we may not understand everything, the Gospel changes lives. A great quote I heard this week "The gospel changes bad people to good and good people to better". We just have to be open and be willing to repent from all our sins. Full repentance takes a lot of humbling and courage. But when we do it the Lord is really happy for us. I love this Gospel!

I hope you all have a splendid week.

Elder Emery

World Cup

Another week down here in Germany. The weeks are always one it feels like! It is absolutely crazy to think how fast things go! But I am loving every moment! This week was good but also had some really long days. This week was transfers and we had 22 new missionaries and 17 leaver missionaries. And being here in Frankfurt we have to deal with all of that! So on Wednesday and Thursday we were helping out with all of that and we had some nights till 1:00am. Then we got right back up at 6:30 so that was pretty tiring. But it was a good week and I felt like I got a lot done.

 

Really, really crazy story this week but it just strengthened my testimony about the Priesthood so much. So on Wednesday we went out with the New missionaries and we took them contacting and everything. I went out contacting with a Golden and we talked with about 20 people and then at the end there was this lady standing at a bus stop and she was wearing a cross on her necklace. I was together with this Golden and I told him we should talk to her. As I approached her I really had a bad feeling in me and I don’t know why but I contacted her anyways. We started talking and after about 3 minutes you could really tell something was just different about this lady. She was starting to talk about devil worshiping and all these strange different things. She told us how she has seen Jesus Christ and talked about the devil and all sorts of weird things. We bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and I have NO idea what happened after that but she started just freaking out and started saying these weird things and she cast a demon upon me. She was still going absolutely crazy and so I took the Golden and we just left. As we left she was still screaming just profane things. So we went back to the Church. I remember just feeling super, super weird and all my thoughts were just really bad. Right when she said she cast something upon me, it was seriously like a power was on me that I couldn’t describe. It was actually really, really scary. So I went back and I talked to Elder McGinn and Elder Chicky about it and I asked them for a blessing because I was feeling super, super weird! We went into a room and they gave me a blessing casting the demon out. It was really such a crazy feeling.. As soon as he said "Amen" I was completely free and I was back to normal. That was an experience that I have never had before. You always hear about stories like that and everything but to actually be a part of it was absolutely crazy. But it was just a really strong testimony to me about the Priesthood and how important it is to have the Priesthood. There are powers here on earth that sometimes we don't understand but they are absolutely real. Through the Priesthood we can be freed. I have used the Priesthood a lot in these past couple weeks just in my life. And I know the effects it can have. And I am glad that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints holds that priesthood. Our church is amazing and I am so very grateful for it.

 

Germans love the World Cup! It is absolutely nuts here as well. Most games are at night and so there is absolutely no one on the streets! It has been fun because that is all everyone talks about. President is allowing our mission to watch the Germany vs USA game on Thursday! Super sick :) The world cup here in Germany is sooo legit! People go crazy for it!

 

 

Elder Baker has had shoulder problems for a while. He was doing like a pushup and it just gave out. Nothing he could do. It was crazy because we were in the middle of the city and the streets were closed of because of this massive marathon was going on. So I was driving all over the place with him screaming in the back trying to find a hospital. I finally just went and talked to a police officer and he let us through and about 45 minutes later we got to the hospital. It was just a hectic night and we didn’t get back till about 1:00 am. 

 

We get a new mission President this week so that is also something that will happen! I will miss President Schwartz for sure! He helped me out so much in my life.

 

Hope you all have a great week! I love you guys. Have fun on your trips and everything! You are the best.

Elder Emery

This Week

Hey I am so glad to hear everyone’s week went well. That Annie had a good birthday and that mom and dad got to go up and eat lunch with her. That is really good. This coming week we have Dad's and Jackson's birthdays so I hope you guys have a great week! Also, Happy Fathers Day Dad! Thanks for everything that you have done. I have been so blessed with such an incredible family! And he is the Patriarch of our house and I am grateful for that. I hope you guys have a wonderful week!

Just some things that happened this week.

My companion Elder Baker dislocated his shoulder this week and so on Thursday night we were in the Hospital till 1:00am.. That next morning was rough. Then this weekend we were figuring out if he was staying here on the mission or going home to get it fixed. He is staying one more transfer and so that is it. Transfers were this weekend and we are staying together.

We did a lot of finding this week and didn’t see too much success. Other than that nothing was too special. The work here is really really slow and we are doing everything we can to change that! The coolest thing was that Clement came to church. He will get baptized in a week and a half!

I am doing well! I am healthy and learning lots! I love you and miss you all. Have a great week! 

Elder Emery

Contacts

Hey hey, Another great week here in Germany. This week was full of a lot of good things and a lot of doubt at the same time! It is amazing how much you learn in so many different experiences and how you know God is always there and then some weeks things don’t happen as you may have expected and hoped. But I am doing the best I can and I know that this is part of God's plan and I need to keep pushing.

 

I will share a few excerpts from my journal. But first I want to tell you a funny story. So we have been teaching this family from Ghana and we taught them on Friday. The lesson went really well and the husband actually came to church yesterday. He came for sacrament meeting and so we were super pumped. Everything was going really, really good. We said the first prayer of the sacrament and then during the prayer for the water about half way through,  our investigators phone started buzzing and then it started playing a really loud annoying tune. He was wearing jeans and so he couldn’t get to it in time and he kept trying to get it but just couldn’t.  And then he just yells "Oh sh**" in English... and the whole place was completely silent... I laughed so hard!!!  So that was pretty funny.

 

Another contacting story...

 

We talked with a couple people who didn't really have too much interest. So we go down and hop on a U bahn. As we were sitting there and after several stops, this girl gets on the U bahn and sees me and just smiles. She sits down in front of me with her back towards me. So me and Elder Baker were sitting and facing one direction, and this girl was facing the other direction. I kept telling Elder Baker that I needed to talk to this girl. This girl was wearing big headphones as she got on. But as I was telling Elder Baker I had this feeling to talk to this girl, she took her headphones off.  She looked back to me one more time and smiled and then turned back!  It was a feeling now that I was fighting whether or not to talk to her.  But I don't know if she was just prepared or it was the Elder Emery instinct that this girl is 20 years old and looks like a model. So I kept fighting the feeling to talk with her and it just kept pounding my heart. So I finally asked her “Entshuldigung, Was Hoerst du Gern?”, asking what her favorite music was. And she turned around and was just super, super friendly and just smiling. It was a really good conversation we had. I told her that we were here as missionaries sharing a very special message that we had. And that it has changed my life. She couldn't speak  any English but she kept complimenting us about how good our German was. I think it was just the Gift of Tongues during that moment. We just bore strong testimony. I asked if she believe in God and she said no. I told her about my conversion story and how it helped me. She asked, where is this book and how can I read it? And I told her we would love to meet with her and talk more about the book and how it can change her life. We talked for a little bit and she gave us her information. It was probably one of the most powerful contacts I have had on my mission. We got her information and I hope we can get an appt with her. It was super cool and I am glad I listened to the prompting to talk with her. She gave us her work address, her email and her phone number. So that was pretty cool. We got off at the next station and I literally felt so good about that contact and we just walked home and that is all I could think about. That is one reason I love contacting because once you get a feeling like that and you act upon it you just see how the Holy Ghost works. I love it and it strengthened my testimony.

 

I also went on 2 splits this week. They were both really good and I learned a whole lot. That is one thing about being a Zone Leader is that we get to work with all the missionaries. I loved it and it was super cool.

 

My testimony is growing every day and I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve. I love being a missionary and being so close to the Spirit because it really is true! It testifies to us when we do something wrong or before we even do something, the Spirit testifies and gives us warning.  Let us all be worthy enough to have the spirit in our lives and be able to be guided by its power. I love it and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I love working by the spirit and being able to do the things we do as missionaries. There are a lot of doubts that get brought up as missionaries but it’s been such a growing experience and I wouldn't change it for anything. I love this gospel. I hope you all have a pleasant week and enjoy the summer weather.

 

Elder Emery