Happy
St. Patrick's Day!!!!!!!!!!
Well,
now that I have that out of the way....
This
week was like.... crazy.
I
went to my first Zone Conference!!! Talk about crazy. There were so
many people! SO MANY. There were like...... 6 zones there.
And considering that each zone has approximately 16 people in
it..... yeah. A lot of people. So, we left at 7:30 to get there at
9 AM, and the meeting didn't finish until 4:30 PM.
I
think it was the longest day of my mission so far.
Not
that it was bad! It was actually really good! There was this talk
from Elder Holland that we read, about Teaching the Atonement, and it was SO
GOOD! I loved it! But being around that many people for that amount
of time is a lot. Especially when it's all the same people. Even
though it was like a semi-MTC district reunion (along with Sister Johnston and
I, Sister Clemons, and Elders Sorenson, Horne, and Sulka were there too), which
was awesome to see them again, I was done by the end of the day.
I was tired! It was kind of nice to go back to teaching people for
the second half of the night.
And
then the next morning, we had District meeting. Good golly Moses.
In my book, not fair. But the night before was sort of fun.
So, the Horseshoe Bend Sisters, didn't want to back up to.... Sweet....
yeah, Sweet. They didn't want to drive back up to Sweet after Zone
Conference only to turn around the next morning to come down for District
meeting, so they just spent the night with us! Since we were already
going on Splits with the South Slope Ward on Thurday night, we just included
them with us. So Sister Clegg came with me on splits, and we taught
Destinee her last lesson-- tithing. Ooh! I'm so excited for her!
She's being baptized next week! YAY! Anyways, after splits,
we all met back up and went to Sister Bennett's home, because she needed some
help. It was a lot of fun to be at her house! She had the other
three sisters work on cooking a meal that she needed to make for someone, and I
rubbed her feet.
Can
I just say that it was so nice to be able to do service like that? Just
to rub someones feet? And all four of us sisters agreed she needed that.
She seemed so over stressed, that I could literally watch the stress melt
off of her as I rubbed her feet. I know that doing things like
cooking meals and cleaning houses and raking leaves is important service, and
it is lots of fun to do that, but sometimes I have a hard time really seeing
the effect of doing that. It was nice to really see the effect of my
service for someone.
Oh,
and also, I have a namesake at her home now. She breeds Chihuahuas, and
she named the newest puppy that she's keeping after me. :D I
totally fell in love with that puppy when I first went over to her house-- I
seriously held it for about 3/4ths of the time I was there. And she comes
to me first when Sis. Rob and I go over. Feeling pretty proud of myself.
And
she now says that whenever I come over, I'm going to have to rub her feet.
Nice to know I haven't lost the touch yet!
So,
District meeting was good, and we had a bbq after for lunch. And there's
a good story to go along with why we had a bbq for our district lunch.
Last
Sunday, both Sister Robinson and I really wanted to go on a picnic. So,
we basically nagged everyone to join us on one last Monday. So, despite
the fact that it was raining, we packed up our little charcoal grill and met
the Sisters and Elders Olsen and Ross at the Stake pavilion. (For
some reason, the Soup Elders couldn't/wouldn't join us.)
WELL..............
we forgot to bring plates and utensils, and we couldn't
get the charcoal to light up. So, it sort of ended up being a junk food
fest where we played with tennis balls. It was still super fun though!
So,
the Elders promised us that we would have grilled chicken for district lunch
this week. Since we couldn't have it on Monday.
Anyways,
end of that story.
Saturday
was actually a pretty fun day too. We went over to Connie Draper's home
to clean and rearrange her living room (yay! PANTS!), and then afterward,
South Slope had a spring carnival going on, so we went to that to eat dinner
and see if any less actives or investigators would come. Sadly, there
were no less actives or investigators, but there was lots of grilled food.
And cotton candy. LOTS OF IT.
...
yeah. It was fun. :)
We
also gained a new investigator Sunday! The Letha Elders (Olsen and
Ross), gave us a couple of referrals. This one has a cool story to go
with it. Sherri Haskins car broke down, and Brother Walker (one of the
many Walkers in Emmett), stopped to help her. He gave her a Book of
Mormon to read with his number, telling her that if she ever wanted to know
more, she could give him a call. Well, she called him, and the Walkers
had her over to dinner with the Elders. And when the Elders told her that
there were Sister missionaries, she asked if we could go visit her! And
so the Elders gave her our number, and we got to meet her last night. And
it was AWESOME. Both she and her son, Isaiah, were reading the Book of
Mormon, and praying to know if it was true! So, we went over the
Restoration a little bit. It was so neat to see how the conversation
went. Sister Robinson felt really prompted to talk to her about
the priesthood, so we talked about how the gospel needed to be restored because
we lost the priesthood power on the earth. And then I felt really
strongly impressed to invite her to baptism. Like, the words were pressed
against my teeth and I needed to invite her in that moment kind of impression.
So, I took a deep breath in, said a little prayer for courage in my
heart, and asked her. At first, she said that she had been baptized
twice, and she was worried about it because you should only need to be baptized
once. Sister Robinson gave this amazing answer to her worry, which was
how she needed the priesthood authority for the baptism to be authentic.
And then Sherri said that if that was what God wanted her to, that she
would be baptized! It was so amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is so
willing to learn, and wants to please God so bad! I just love her!!!!!
Also,
Mary came to church again yesterday. We're hoping to set a baptism date
for her next week. Cross your fingers!
Anyways,
it's been a busy week out here. But it's been a good week. I'm so
grateful that both Sister Robinson and I have the same desire to be out here,
and to make this mission all that we can make it, because I know that if we
didn't, we would not have the kind of experiences we have had. If we
weren't constantly reminding each other to be exactly obedient, to listen to
the Spirit, and to lift each other up and remind each other of how amazing we
are, and that we are here to do the Lords work, that we would not make a good
companionship. I love it out here in Emmett, and I love the people out
here. And I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to bring my
greatest joy into the homes of others. And that joy is the gospel.
I
love you all, and I'll see you before you know it!
Love,
Sister
Empey
PS--
I PROMISE that there will be pictures next week! After all, there is a
baptism. :)
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