September 15, 2014 - I Love to see the Temple!!!

Oh my goodness!  This week has been great!

We had Family Home Evening again with the Jepsens and Whiteheads.  The Whiteheads apparantly really love having FHE with us there.  And we certainly aren't going to complain.  Last week we did the lesson on trials, and the kids really seemed to soak it up.  Then we played a game in the backyard where we taped words all over the backyard, and then as I read scriptures the kids had to run around and hit the words I read.  It was pretty fun. :)

On Tuesday, we got bored of our room, so we rearranged the furniture.  We have to move it back now (via Sister Lawrence's request), but it was fun.  And nice.  We also taught the Martin Girls about tithing and fasting, and used candy to help teach that.  The girls really enjoyed the lesson-- and the candy!

Thursday was a sick day.  Sister Ketring got some sort of virus, so we ended up just sitting at home all day and just hanging out.

Then I got to go to the Temple on Friday!!!!!  YAY!!!!!  That was so exciting!!!  And I got to go with Sister Clemons, my old MTC companion! :D  I also went with Sister Branham, who's in my district.  It was so neat to be able to go again!  The feelings you have in the temple are unlike any other you experince, just because the Spirit was so strong there. :)  I loved it.  And then we went to President Cannons home afterwards and had dinner and a testimony meeting.  AND HE HAS A SOFT-SERVE ICE CREAM MACHINE!!!!!!  ... yeah... I had a lot of ice cream that night.  But the testimony meeting was amazing.   Just the feeling of the spirit and friendship together was really nice. :)

And then Saturday was the day almost every missionary dreads: TRANSFER CALLS.  Sister Ketring has left for Nampa North, and I'm staying here with Sister Stevens, who is super sweet. :)  I'm excited for this next transfer! :)

Well, that's it for this week really.  Sorry it's so short.  You know how it is.  Transfer days are crazy and my focus is out of whack.

Love you!  Keep the faith!

Love,

Sister Empey

September 8, 2014 - HUMP DAY!!!!!

I FINALLY MADE IT!!!!!  I'M HALFWAY THROUGH WITH MY MISSION!!! :O

Yup, yesterday was my official halfway mark-- I didn't do anything fun for it really, but it's still a cool day to acknowledge.  From here, it's all downhill!  (That's right, mom and dad-- you can start counting down the days now.  haha)

Anyways, this week has been... interesting.

So, Monday, we went to Kuna Caves with Sister Lawrence's nephew, Reid, his wife Nicole, and Holly, Sister Lawrence's granddaughter.  It was tons of fun!  Check it out:

Going down!  I went down first in our group.  (Yeah, I was the brave one.  Try to figure that one out.)

Sister Ketring and I. :)

You know when missionaries are down in the caves when they use the only source of natural light to strike a Saturdays Warrior pose.

Me climbing back up. :)  It was a good 50 feet down into the caves!

The "caves" (or, more accurately, "cave"), is a long lava tube that runs under Kuna, and apparently goes as far as Mountain Home!  It has several open caverns, with small crawling spaces in between.  The place is littered with graffiti, and glass, because it used to be a party place (well, still might be.  I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff), but it was fun to crawl through and check it out. :)  We didn't go too far out in the caves though.  We could only stay in for so long before feeling suffocated.  It was a nice change from our regular P-Day.

And then on Tuesday, we had Zone Conference, with Elder Gudoy of the First Quorum of the Seventy!  The training was really good-- he loved to interact with us, and had us all falling of the pews, stitched up with laughter!  But it really made me think too-- am I just going about, doing the day-to-day things, or am I really doing all I can to make my mission the most golden experience possible?  I came out of that meeting with a new commitment to be a better missionary and really trying to magnify my calling.  But the Zone meeting was really short-- we ate lunch and then it was over.  That was really weird to not have another training after lunch.  But, you know, whatever.  It was still really awesome. :)

Wednesday was.... unique.  So, we go out after lunch, around one o'clock, right?

WELL.... We knocked on 10 doors.  2 answered, neither let us in.  I crashed into Sister Ketring-- got a bruise on my back from the crash.  Her skirt got caught and torn.  My skirt got caught and torn.  Skirts caught caught a couple of more times.  My chain came off.  Sister Ketring fixed it, and as she turned my bike back over, she knocked her bike over, and her purse tipped out and spilled into the street.  And then her bike tire went flat.  And my chain came off again.

That all happened by 3 o'clock.

Needless to say, we sort of gave up on Wednesday.  With all of that happening within TWO hours.  We went home, hung out with Sister Lawrence's grandkids, went to dinner, went to a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader, stopped by Moxi Javas to get Italian Creme Sodas, and went home.  Yup.  That was Wednesday.

We also had Zone meeting this week, (yeah, Zone meeting on top of Zone Conference.  This was the week of meetings.  I kid you not.)  and Zone meeting was REALLY good.  President Cannon was actually AT our Zone meeting.  He came in to talk about some new rules-- we cannot own any sort of card or board game, and can no longer burn clothing at our halfway mark--  and told us that as we followed these rules that we would be blessed.  He got very real and personal with us, and it was a very spiritual moment that led to one of the most amazing Zone Meetings I've had.  Again, it was a reminder to me to stick to my commitment from Zone Conference, and I was nearly crying after we had our testimony meeting at the end.  It was really amazing.

Sunday was really amazing as well.  Both the Gospel Principles class and Relief Society were on faith, which we're exercising a lot of right now.  Both Sister Ketring and I were fasting for the Martin Girls.  Their mom came down this week, somewhat unannounced (they knew she was coming, but didn't know when she was), and said that they couldn't get get baptized because they would never know what they're getting into.  It broke our hearts to hear that.  So we've been fasting and praying that mom will soften her heart and let those girls be baptized.  They want it, so bad... it's sad to see them unable to be baptized because of their mother...

Anyways, that's it.  On Friday I get to go to the Temple!!!!!  I'm super excited to go!!!!  It's been so long since I've gone!  Can't wait to tell y'all about it!

Well, that's it.  I love y'all!  Keep the Faith!

Love,

Sister Empey

September 1, 2014 - Are ya Mormon?

HOLY COW!  This week was AWESOME!!! :D

So, it started out with a Family Home Evening with the Jepsens (Bro Jepsen 2nd counselor in the bishopric and our designated Ward Mission Leader, Sis Jepsen a Ward missionary, and all-around awesome family), the Whiteheads (a less active family), the Marsalas (recent converts), and VeAnne Jensen (another ward missionary).  It was lots of fun!  We talked about baptismal covenants, and played a game called KISS (aka- Keep It Simple Stupid).  Basically, you split the groups into two teams and put one member from each team up front.  You then show the rest of the people a word, and the teams each come up with one word to describe the first word.  The people up front have to guess what the word is based off the one-word description.  If that made sense.  I hope it did.  Anyways, it was fun. :)

On Wednesday, Sister Ketring was sick with the stomach flu (companion #2 that has had it), so most of the day was spent studying 1 Chronicles, reading the Book of Mormon, and watching Mormon Messages.  It was a nice, chill-out day.

We got to teach David Pitt on Thursday!  He's such a cute kid, and actually knew quite a bit about Joseph Smith.  I'm sure he'll be prepared for his baptism when he turns 8.  :)

On Friday, we had a meeting with President Francis (the Stake President for the Kuna East Stake), basically talking about how there were going to be some major changes soon in leadership in our ward, and about Progressive Mormonism, which is sort of running rampant in our ward.  We were both very grateful to be able to talk to him.

Later that day, we had the Jepsens come pick us up at Cheveron, because we had left our bikes at their house the night before, and we were buying a birthday gift for their daughter, Kylee.  Well, as the four of us were pulling out, we saw a bunch of the Elders at the sno cone shack, and Brother Jepsen said "Well, that was rude of them to not invite you!"

What he did next was hilarious.

he pulled up to them, and rolled down only his window (all his car windows being tinted), and yelled out in the most intimidating voice "HEY!  Are ya Mormons?"  (Brother Jepson has worked as Security before.  He knows how to be intimidating.)

All 8 Elders, including our zone leaders, sat there, slack-jawed and surprised.  So, he continued!  "I asked you, are ya Mormons?  Do you have one of those books?"  Finally, after a couple of minutes he yells "Come up here!  I want to talk to you!"

So, Elder Tupou, our fearless Tongan Elder, bravely strides up to the truck.  His Companion, Elder Astle, frantically pushed through the other Elders to back up his companion as needed.

Elder Tupou walks right up to the truck, looks inside....

And makes direct eye contact with Sister Ketring, who was trying to control her laughing, but couldn't.

All chaos erupted.  Both Sister Ketring and I burst out laughing with Elder Tupou's eyes growing so wide, and Brother Jepsen rolled down the back seats window so that the rest of the Elders could see that we had been sitting in back the whole time.

Their jaws dropped even lower, which just caused us to laugh harder.  It took them a couple of minutes to recover from the shock.  It was pretty funny.

On Saturday, we had exchanges with Sister Barnes and Cole, so I stayed in Kuna with Sister Barnes.  

Our morning started out busy.  We were out the door by 8:15 to go clean up the banks of the river, than an hour later we went to a less active's home to help her move out.  And there was SO MUCH HAIR in that home.  She had a Huskey dog, who slept under the bed, and there were hairballs the size of baseballs under it!  And she had only been living there since February!  It was sort of gross.  But it was good work.  We got a TON of cleaning done, and got everything out of the house in like, an hour flat.  It was pretty impressive.

After that, we went out to visit people, and around 4:20, were leaving a less-actives home, and Sister Barnes said "Our bikes are gone."

At first, I froze a bit, and then I realized that we were across from the Marsalas.  Now, Nick Marsala and Bro Jepsen are best friends, so my first thought was "... Marsala..."  So, I was trying to get Sister Barnes to cross the street with me, while she was distracted by another bike, when I see Brother Jepsens truck drive up to us.  With the bikes in back.  He had seen them when he stopped by the Marsalas home, and they had packed them in his truck and Brother Jepsen was going to take them to his house!  

However, he felt guilty, and came to return them to us.  It was pretty funny.  Especially when Nick came out and said "Did they catch you Shayne?!"

I yelled back "I knew you were a part of it!"

Nick just smiled and went back inside.

Yeah, great times. :)

And then Sunday was busy busy busy!  I got to sing in Sacrament Meeting for Jacob Goldsberry's homecoming.  I sang "More Holiness Give Me", and it was the best performance yet!  I can actually remember myself singing!  And it made it worth it when Jacob got up and said "I'm glad you sang that song.  One of the ladies I got to baptize asked for us to sing that song at her baptism, so I'm grateful for that little flashback."  It was really nice. :)

After that, we taught Gospel Principles in our ward, and then taught Young Womens in the 12th ward.  That was lots of fun. :)

We also got to eat dinner last night with Sister Lawrence, the lady we live with, and a bunch of her family was over, so we sort of took the night off and played with them.  We played soccer for like, 2 hours with the grandkids (something my feet are paying for-- 3 regular blisters, plus a blood blister.), and ended the night watching 17 Miracles.  it was pretty fun.

Well, that's it for this week!  The next couple of weeks are going to be busy-- we have Zone Conference tomorrow, with Elder Gudoi of the 70 coming to speak with us, and on September 12, I get to go on my first temple trip!  YAY!!!  I'm super excited!  Mostly for the temple trip.  Zone Conference-- only semi-excited.  They tend to drain me, but I can't wait to see what I'll learn. :)

Well, that's it for this week!  Hope y'all had as great of a week as I did!  Keep the faith!

Love, 

Sister Empey

August 25, 2014 - School is back in session!

Oh my goodness.  Summer is finally coming to an end.  THANK GOODNESS!  No more vacations!  No more crazy schedules!  The only down side is less busy mornings.  But I'm sure we'll find a way to fill them up.  Sister Ketring and I stay pretty busy. :)

Um.... I forgot my planner, so it's hard to remember what went on this week...

Ooh!  We have some (more) new people to teach!  So, the first person we're going to start teaching is this 7-year old named David Pitt.  His mom, Tera, is starting to be active, and David wants to be baptized, but since he hasn't grown up in primary or anything, the bishop wants us to teach him.  He is such a super sweet kid, sort of a ladies charmer.  He loves to flirt!  Cute, good kid. :)

Also, the Martin girls are going to start inviting their friend over to their lessons.  So, originally, the Martin girls were supposed to return to their mother with summer ending, but the parents ended up switching around their custody arrangements, and so now they're staying for the school year!  This is a huge blessing, because we were worried that if they went back to their mom, they wouldn't be ale to take the lessons anymore, and it's still looking iffy on if they can be baptized or not.  But apparently, mom is coming up to "assess" the living situation.  So we might be able to get permission from her this next week.  Anyways, we went to teach the girls last night, and they invited their friend, Emma over, and Emma's parents were okay with her coming over!  Emma's dad works with some LDS people, so apparently he's pretty impressed by his co-workers.  The martins plan to invite Emily's family to church soon, so it's super exciting!

We didn't get to teach the Stinchcombs this week (Josh and Evan), because of school starting, but we should be back to teaching them this week.

Um..... oh!  We're starting to teach the Marsalas the New member discussions.  They were baptized the Saturday before Sister Ketring and I got here.  Since Nick had to be in Twin Falls for work, we got to focus on Stephanie and talked about the Book of Mormon.  We committed her to finish reading the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, and we're going to read it with her.  

Anyways, I think that's it.  I love y'all!  Keep strengthening your faith!  It can produce miracles!

Love,

Sister Empey

And pictures....

This is what Elder Homer did last week for P-day.... photoshopping... it was pretty funny. :)  People from left to right: Elder Richardson, James, President and Sister Cannon, myself, Sister Ketring, unknown Elder whose name I cannot remember, and Elder Salinas.

Sister Ketring and I (you finally see a face!  GASP!)

 One of the Marsala's Pug, Baxter.

And I found R2D2!  It was a pretty awesome moment. :)

And that's all for this week.  Enjoy!  Love you!

August 18, 2014 - Busy, busy, busy!

D&C 18:10, 15-16

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

"And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"

I feel the joy that these scriptures express right now.  It is such a wonderful feeling!  The more I work in Kuna, the more I love the people and desire to bring them God's word.  The work is going great here!

So, we have 2 new investigators!  Their names are Josh and Evan Stingcomb, and they are 11 and 9.  Their dad, Brian, is a less active, and their mom is an atheist.  But Brother Vasso (the Elders Quarem President) has been working with Brian, and recently got him to agree to let his kids take the discussions!  Both of the kids are really sweet, along with their 6 year old brother Micah who's autistic.  Josh is obviously very smart, maybe a little too much for his own good, and likes to keep to himself and is looking forward to all the facts and such.  And then little Evan is very spiritual.  He talked about how he had been trying to pray the way Brother Vasso taught them a few weeks ago.  And when we committed them to say a prayer every night, he (Evan) committed to make sure his brother (Josh) prayed with him!  It was pretty cute. :)  Evan was very involved with our discussion-- we both can tell that he's prepared to hear the Gospel.  Josh might take a little bit more work, but he's a good kid, and I know that he'll feel the Spirit as well. :)

We also met a former/potential investigator named Scott Peterson.  He's married to a member, and has taken the discussions a couple of times, but just hasn't felt ready, or something dramatic happens.  He was really nice, and his wife and her daughter accepted us right in. :)

We also finally were able to meet one of the investigators the other sisters had last night at a seminary fireside-- Brittany Heitzman.  She's a super cute, bubbly, 16-year old who's on color guard.  Her friend in the 3rd ward introduced her to the church, and she wanted to be taught by sisters, so we're going over to her house to teach her.  She was also really excited to sign up for Seminary.

There are also 3 little girls that we are teaching right now-- Chloe and Chantel, who are twins and are... 10 I think, and then Tyla is 8, and they're all sisters.  They're super cute. :)  Their dad hasn't been active due to work mostly, and their mom, who lives in Oregon, has been completely inactive.  They live with their dad during the summer, and he lives with his parents, so we teach them every Monday.  And if the mom's work schedule changes, they might be staying through until the fall too!  It's pretty awesome. :)  We're hoping that they can get baptized-- they love primary, and love us. :)  They're super cute. :)

And..... I'm trying to think of anyone else...

OH!

So, cool story. :)

So, we were just knocking on members doors our first week here, trying to learn everyone, and trying to get a feel of who's active and less active, and we knock on the Renyolds door, who is a family that's completely inactive.  Shannon seemed a little weary, but Shawn was all like "Come on over and we'll feed you dinner!"

So, we scheduled a dinner appointment with them for this past Friday, and started praying that it wouldn't fall through.

Thankfully, it didn't.  We had buffalo burgers (which, by the way, are so good.  I think they're better than regular beef patties.), and we had a good time.  At first, we didn't know if they would say a prayer or not, so Sister Ketring and I said a silent mini prayer to ourselves and started eating.  Then Shawn, grinning, said "You know that the rule in our house is that whoever starts eating before the prayer has to say the prayer, right?"

He caught me mid-bite in my corn, so I offered the prayer.  It was pretty funny.  They're an awesome family too.  They're really into hunting, and have had a variety of interesting pets.  They currently have a scorpion, but have had 4 raccoon and a bobcat at one point.  We really like them-- they're pretty funny.  We don't know how willing they would be to come back to church, but we're just going to be their friends for now-- and that's not very hard to do. :)

And.... yeah.  I think that's it.  I'm getting the hang of riding a bike (Yup!  I'm in a bike area!), and it's been super fun.  I love it out here in Kuna, and love all the people I come in contact with. :)

I hope all of you are doing well!  I love all of you!  Keep the Faith!

Love,

Sister Empey

August 11, 2014 - SHOTGUNNING!!!!

Ohmigoodness, I LOVE Kuna!!!!  It seriously could possibly become my favorite area.

So, Sister Ketring and I are Shotgunning the area-- they took the two previous sisters out, and put the two of us in at the same time.  So we're both new to the area, and there's been a lot of exploring this week. :)

So, the first person we met was Sister Jepson, who is basically our unofficial WML.  She came over because she called us to see if our dinner schedule was filled out, and... we had no one for the week.  Completely blank.  so, she came to pick up the schedule, and invited us for dinner the next night.  Which was a good thing, because her husband is the first counselor in the Bishopric.  And as we were talking, he asked if we would be willing to talk, and both of us were like "YES!"

He was in shock.  He was surprised by how willing we were to talk in Sacrament meeting.

So we talked this week.  So, yesterday.  My talk was based off of Sister Burton's talk in the Conference Ensign-- "Help Wanted: Helping Hands and a Willing Heart", or something like that.  It turned out really good. :)  I think the congregation felt the spirit between Sister Ketring and I speaking, since both ideas were around the idea of being a Disciple of Christ.

So, with a brand-new area and an unmarked Ward Directory from January, we were off to meet the people of the ward!

Anyways, most of this week was just meeting people.  There's Sister Scott, a recent convert, who gave us a skirt for free (she sells skirts and dresses out of her home.);  Mr. Easley, who lived in a former members home and think could be a potential investigator; Cadhen Renyolds, an investigator who we need moms permission to baptize and not getting it; and the other Renyolds, who were apparently a "tread lightly", and they invited us over for dinner for this Friday!

Needless to say, it's been a busy week. :)  I love it out here.  And there's also a snocone shack in our area that gives us free snocones.  Yeah, life can't get much better right now. :)

Anyways, no pictures this week-- I can't find my SD card.  But hopefully I can send some home next week!

I'm sorry that this email is sort of short-- hopefully, as we develop relationships, my emails will have better detail.

I love you all, and hope everything is going well for you!  Keep the faith strong!

Love,

     Sister Empey

August 4, 2014 - *insert crazed happy face here*

OHMIGOODNESS I don't even know where to begin!!!  o_O

So, I'll just get the squealing out of the way:

I'M GOING TO KUNA IDAHO!!!!!!!!

Yup, I've had a great 6 weeks here in Nampa, but I'm moving on to Kuna, just south of where I am now, with Sister Ketring.  And Sister Ketring knows how to do hair too, so this will be an awesome companionship. :)  I'm super stoked to go to Kuna; I've been wanting to go to Kuna since I came out and started learning the areas.  So yeah, super excited.

So, highlight of the week:

I saw these 3 beautiful ladies yesterday at church (Namely Sierra, Marissa, and Jenny)!  They're all girls I went to Cosmo school with, and they were taking a road trip up to Seattle and just happened to stop by the church that I'm serving at for Sacrament meeting!  We couldn't talk for long-- I had a Ward Council meeting to go to, and they needed to get into Sacrament meeting, but it was super nice to see them. :)  I sort of sqealed like a little girl when I saw them.  In front of the high councilman for missionary work in my stake.  Oops.  He was pretty nice about it though.  He was happy that I had that little slice of joy, and commented that he could see how much they meant to me. :)

Anyways, there's not much else to report.  We were busy, I just can't remember what we did....

Oh!  We made homemade jelly this week. :)  Cherry Plum jelly.  It's SO good!

Um..... yeah.  I think that's it.  I can't really think of any other news.

So, on to pictures!

 Myself, Sister Fox (Sister Keyser's new companion), and Sister Keyser.

 Taylor Lawes (my mission BFF-- her little sister was Sierra), and me.

And let's admit it-- this is totally me. :)

Anyways, I love y'all!  Hear from you soon!

Love,

Sister Empey