Just keep building up!

Wow.  Just.... WOW.  O_O  This week has been AMAZING!  And super fun too. :)

So, on Monday, we had a surprise waiting for us at the church building for a Zone activity: a member let us borrow sumo wrestler suits and we got to wrestle each other!  haha  It was super fun, and it was funny to watch everyone.  :)

(Sister Longhurst and I faced off. :) )

Anyways, on Tuesday, we went and read with the Hoaglands again.  It was just Kyle that time, and it was good to just work one-on-one with him.  Sister Hoagland was there, but she was busy helping me braid her hair (that's what I do every time I go there.  I don't really read with them, but I just sit there and work on braiding extensions into Sister Hoagland's hair.  I can comment to whatever they're reading though.).  Later that day, we went to the Petzingers, and we continued to teach AJ the lessons.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and the spirit was so strong.  It was really neat--after we were finished teaching, Brother Petzinger summarized it up in a really personal way for AJ, and the spirit was really strong as he testified of the reality of the Plan of Salvation.  Sadly, she isn't willing to set a baptismal date yet, because her dad won't let her be baptized, but she agreed to try to just be her best and treat her dad kindly, and hopefully that will soften his heart.  The other thing that happened on Tuesday is that we had a Zone Gathering, where each companionship agreed to try to find a total of 40 investigators (aprox. 4 per companionship) by the end of the transfer (next Sunday).  It was a really spiritually uplifting meeting, and it was an incredible opportunity to watch the Spirit work through all of us to come to this decision.

Which made District Meeting the next day amazing.  Elder Hulet, our DL, took the opportunity to have us talk about what our fears are about finding new investigators, and what we can do to find them.  It was an awesome meeting, just as good as the Zone gathering.  We then had a lesson with Chandler Dickson and his friend Lucas, and the Elders came to help us since Lucas knows the Elders.  Well, Lucas had no interest in our lesson, but Chandler pretty much stayed interested.  We used sidewalk chalk to map out the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then had a little game to go with each point.  It went pretty well, actually, considering the chaos of trying to keep Chandler and Lucas focused.  Yup.  It takes 5 missionaries to keep two 8-year olds focused.  Such is life.  Anyways, later on, we went to visit Sarah Adams, and she is just the sweetest person.  We just went in and sat and listened to her, and that was just what she needed.

Thursday, we went back to the Hoaglands, and started reading with them again.  But going in, both Sister Ma'ukoloa and I knew that we needed to invite Keenan to take the lessons.  And since Sister Ma'ukoloa is the one actually reading with them, we knew that it would be on her to invite him.  (Like I said, I work more so with Sister Hoagland, braiding her hair and helping her keep up with where we're at in the reading.)  So, she asked the two older kids, Kyle and Korena, about their baptisms and what it means to them.  They both gave great testimonies, and Kyle talked about the blessings of having the Priesthood too (he's a deacon).  Then she asked Kyle what baptism means to him.  When he replied that he didn't know because he hadn't been baptized, she invited him to take the lessons and to prepare to be baptized, and he said YES!!!!!  WHOOHOO!!!!!  Talk about a MIRACLE!  And not only that, but he asked if we could come by that Saturday!  O_O  We were like "Um.... YEAH!" :)  It was great.

Then Friday, we had a great visit with Terri.  I don't know if you remember, but we thought that a member lived at her home, so we knocked on her door back when I first came to Nampa, and she answered instead.  Well, I had the feeling that we should go visit her, and we did.  She's so sweet!  We had a good visit with her and got to know her background better.  All she wants is for everyone to be nice to each other!  And she talked a lot about her family history too.  She has a unique blend of cultures in her-- she's German, Irish, and Japanese and grew up in Hawaii.  We're thinking of inviting her to the family history center so that she can start tracing back her genealogy.

Saturday was SUPER busy.

So, we went to the Hoaglands, with lunch for them, and taught Keenan the first lesson.  After eating and getting him to sit down, we actually had a good lesson with him and he agreed to pray about what we taught him. :)  Then we went and finished pulling the weed at the house we were at last Saturday (District service again!), went to dinner, then we went to the church to give AJ a tour.  Sister Loomis, the Young Womens leader, come on the tour with us.  It was such a great experience!  We went around the building, showing her different rooms, and finished it in the chapel.  There was such a strong spirit there when we talked about Sacrament meeting, and about the purpose of the Sacrament.  It was really touching.  She loved all of the paintings in the hallways too.  Then after the church tour, we headed out to the Fries home and taught about Temple work.  We were so glad that the whole family could be there.  And even though David was super hyper, he actually understood some of what we taught him.  And I think it helped Brother and Sister Fries remember their own goal of going to the temple to be sealed as a family.  It was a great lesson.

So, we had THREE investigators come to church on Sunday!  AJ came (with her boyfriend), Keenan, and Francesca!  Francesca is this sweet girl who has been attending church for a year and plans to be baptized as soon as she's 18.  It's been difficult to get a hold of her recently because of some family stuff, but we've finally been able to catch each other, and we started giving her the lessons yesterday during the second hour.  She's so excited to go through the lessons so that she could be baptized!  And seriously, she's been coming to church so long that you wouldn't think that she wasn't a member!

Well, I think that's it for this week. :)

Next week, I'll try to email, and I should be able to since I'm in Nampa.  But just in case I don't....

These past 18 months have been incredible.  I don't know how else to explain it.  Between all the tears, yelling, screaming, and awkward moments, I have found the most inexplicable joy serving Gods children and bringing them closer to Christ in the way they needed to come closer to them.  It has been hard work, but it has been worth it.  And now as I near the end of this beautiful, incredible, and crazy journey, I can look back with a sense of peace, and know that I have accomplished what the Lord needed me to accomplish.  I love this Gospel, and I know that it's true.  I may not always follow it perfectly, but I know that I can always strive to be better, and I will become better through Christs Atonement so that I can return home to my Father, with my family--past, current, and future.  And thank you to all of you, who have been such a great support to making my mission so amazing.  I love and appreciate all of you.

Keep calm, carry on, and so we go.

Love,

Sister Empey

Gators, Less Actives and Miracles!

Hello dear family and friends! :)  I hope that everyone enjoyed their Father's Day celebrations. :)

SO!  This past week!  Let's see.... it was crazy. :)  Crazy awesome, as always. :)

So, at dinner, we ate with the Braden’s, and the son is a recovering alcoholic.  He asked us how we thought faith correlated with addiction recovery.  So we talked about how faith is acting upon our beliefs rather than just stating what we think could happen or could be.  There was a really great spirit as we talked about faith with him.

And then we went to the Snively's home to do a FHE with them.  They're a family that is just getting active again and are wanting to start up FHE, so we're helping them start it.  We talked about the Holy Ghost, and had activities where we were having them draw something and listen to a story, and talked about if we're involved too much in other things, it's harder to focus on the Spirit, who is whispering promptings to us.  It was really neat.

Tuesday was good.  We went to read with the Hoagland’s, like we usually do.  It was funny.  When we were finished and getting ready to go, Kyle (the oldest) comes down and is like "Oh, hey Sisters!" And plops down and gets ready to read with us!  We were like "Uh.... actually.... we're just getting ready to leave..."  Kyle's eyes got HUGE and he turned to his mom and was all like "Mom!  Why didn't you tell me they were here?!"  It was pretty funny.  But it's nice to see that we do have an impact on their family.  Kyle is a good kid.

Later on that day, we had a lesson with a less-active family, the Thomas's.  We taught the Plan of Salvation, and it went really well.  The Spirit was strong in the room, and Guage understood it all!  It was good. :)

Wednesday, we had a lesson with Chandler.  He's not very interested in learning right now.  We're trying to figure out how to help him.  We'll figure it out.  Eventually.  After that, we went to Joy and Shawnies, and we told them about a house down the street from us that's for sale, and they were already looking at the same house!  It was sort of funny. :)  We didn't get to stay for long though, because they were getting ready for a party, and we had to leave for dinner.  Then that evening, we did a missionary youth activity for the Priests and Laurels, which was great.  We talked a lot about Christ-like attributes, and how important it is to develop them to have a successful mission and life.  It was really great, and Bishop Ashcraft added his incredible testimony to how we need to have the spirit in our life and not just "do the dance steps".  It went really well.

We saw the Hoagland’s again Thursday (Kyle was included this time).  Poor Keenan was sick though.  He was super polite to us while we were there, and even introduced us to his teddy bear. :)  The kid has a soft spot, and really is just a kid a heart. :)  It was pretty cute. :)

Friday was mega huge.  We got a new investigator!!!  Whoohoo!!!!!  So, we went to dinner with this family named the Petzinger’s, and their daughter Hannah has a friend named AJ who she's been working with.  So AJ agreed to meet with us and eat dinner with us!  So we had dinner, and then the four of us went out to the patio and had the first lesson.  And man, Hannah prepped her well!  She already knew a good chunk of the first lesson!  There was a sweet spirit as you could see the Spirit work inside AJ.  She just BEAMS with light!  And at the end, we asked her if she would be baptized, and she said YES!!!!!  EEEEEEE!!!!!!!  Isn't that exciting?!?!  We'll get to see her on Tuesday, and we're super stoked to be teaching her the lessons.  She is SO prepared to have the Gospel in her life.  Super sweet girl. :)  After that, we went and visited the Fries.  Brother Fries was at work, so we just had a short lesson about baptism and confirmation, and then spent the rest of the night getting to know Sister Fries.  She's so sweet!  I love Sister Fries!  It was a great opportunity to really connect with her on a personal level.  But even better than that is that David actually understood the lesson we have him!  Usually he seems to not really comprehend what we're saying (it took us two lessons to get him to realize that the Holy Ghost isn't scary and that he's our friend), but he got it this time!  It was really neat. :)

Saturday was a really good day as well.  We went and met a potential investigator, Linda LaBeaf, and it turns out that her daughter had just came home from a mission about a month ago!  It was really fun to talk with them, and they want us to stop by again. :)  And then we went and did a district service weeding out someone’s garden.  It was pretty fun. :)  And then they fed us BBQ.  They had pretty good chicken.  (or at least, I did.) 

(Sister Longhurst, myself, Elder Astle, Sister Fa'amama, and Sister Ma'ukoloa.  Missing is Elders Hulet and Larson, who were chopping down overgrown trees. Of course I'm the one cuddling with the dog/wolf hybrid.  You wouldn't expect anything less from me, would you?)

​(Leaving service after eating.  Sister Ma'ukoloa, me, Elders Hulet, Astle, Larson, Sisters Longhurst, Fa'amama.)

So, Sunday.  We're out going around, and I can't ignore this prompting that we needed to go check on a less-active lady, Sarah Adams, whom we haven't been able to get a hold of.  So, we pull into a parking lot, and I pray, and at the very end, I knew that I needed to pray for a miracle for her, so I did.  So, we went and knocked on her door, and she answered!  The first time in almost 11 weeks she opened the door!  She was feeling sick last night, so she didn't let us in, but she said that we could try to stop by later!  Complete and total miracle on our end!  And hopefully she gained something out of our brief visit as well. After that, we went and contacted Roxanne Lowe, another person we have felt the need to contact.  She was excommunicated, but has expressed interest in coming back to church.  She's so sweet, and her kids are adorable!  The oldest, Jamie, is 8, and also wants to be baptized!  So it's super exciting.

So, long story short, the work is picking up and we're seeing progression.  I really do love this area and everyone we work with.  And we really are seeing miracles before our eyes.  It's amazing.

Well, I love you, and I hope that y'all have a good day!

Love,
Sister Empey

June 15, 2015

Isn't that the truth?! :)

With Carol Anne being baptized last week, I've been trying to live the Gospel more fully and more joyfully, which included me to stop praying for work and to more actively seek it out.  It wasn't that we weren't working, I just found a stronger desire to do it.  And find it we did!

Tuesday started out with a visit to the Hoaglands, and to our surprise, Brother Hoagland was there!  So, we sat down and read the first two chapters of Nephi with Brother and Sister Hoagland, Kyle (13),and Karina (11). It was the calmest I have ever seen that household.  I didn't really do any reading with them-- I was braiding Sister Hoaglands hair and trying to keep her awake, but I was able to put in comments here and there, and there was a good spirit in the home, probably the first time I have felt it there.  It was really neat. :)  After that, we decided to stop by Joy Redding's home, and her daughter, Shawnie Hill, was there!  YAY!!!  So we finally got to sit down and meet her!  Shawnie is SO super sweet-- she's an in-home caretaker for people with mental disabilities, and works a graveyard shift Thursday to Monday, but she's just so bright and bubbly!  As we visited with them, they mentioned how they've been a little stressed, because they're trying to put the house together for their realtor to take pictures on Thursday, but that they were behind on their cleaning.  Needless to say, we jumped on that opportunity and begged them to let us come over the next day to help clean.  They finally relented and agreed to let us come over. :)  The rest of the day we spent trying to invite people to the Relief Society activity that night, which was super fun.  We did some speed friendshipping, which was good for us as missionaries to meet the Sisters in the ward, and then we had ice cream.  It was a great way to end our night.

Wednesday was quite exciting. :)  After District meeting, we rushed back to our area to meet up with Paul.  Sadly, he said that he prayed to know if what was in the pamphlet was true, and he said that his answer was "no", but we had a good talk about different religious topics, and he still wants us to visit him, so we will, because we can still have the Spirit testify while we're there.  He's a great person.  Afterwards, we went home, changed into our service clothes, and headed over the Joy and Shawnie's home to CLEAN!!  So Sister Ma'ukoloa cleaned the bathroom, hallway, and kitchen, while I pulled together the patio in the backyard (all the while keeping windows and screen doors open so that we could see and hear each other.  The things missionaries do to stay in sight and sound).  They were so grateful for the help!  And it really did help out a lot-we should have taken some before and after pictures.  haha  But seriously.  It was a great experience, and we plan to invite Shawnie to take the lessons tomorrow when we go to visit.  I'm so excited!  And both Sister Ma'ukoloa and I feel like she's prepared to accept the Gospel now.  

Then on Thursday, we were finally able to get in the visit the Dicksons again to teach Chandler!  But I think he's more interested in my Origami abilities then the actual lessons.  And it was super crazy because dogs and people were running in and out.  We're hoping that next time we can get everyone in the home to sit down and participate in the lesson, and that we can get Chandler more excited about learning about the Gospel and not have to use Origami as a bribe to get him to sit down.  And then we had dinner with the Johnsons, a part-member family, and they made Yorkshire pudding.  AND IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!  :D  haha Yup, I loved it. :)

Friday was pretty good too. :)  We went to visit the Hoaglands again, and Keenan sat in with us while we were reading!!!  YAY!!!!  He totally just did it on his own will!!!  It was super exciting guys!!!!  He even read some verses in between cooking chicken nuggets!!!  Even after he said that he was done reading, he ended up coming back and read some more with us!!! PROGRESS!!!!  Hopefully, we can encourage him to come to church soon.  Then for the rest of the day, we were on exchanges, so I was with Sister Wright in the neighboring ward.  We had lots of fun, and good success. :)

On Saturday, we helped a Sister named Nina unpack in her new home.  It was pretty fun. :)  And.... yeah.  That was basically Saturday.

And then yesterday, we had a good visit with the Fries about going to church, praying, and reading their scriptures, and they committed to have family scripture study and prayer!!!  It was super exciting.

And... yeah.  I think that's it for this week. :)  It was a good, busy week. :)

Well, I love you all, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

Love,

Sister Empey

June 8, 2015

WHEW!!  What a crazy week! :)  It was great though. :)

On Tuesday, we had Zone Conference, which was really good.  It was sad though, because it was also my last one!  :(  I was able to sing one last time though.  Elders Bjorling and Stanley, Sister Massi, and I sang "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer" to the tune of "Oh My Father", and it was beautiful.  Most of our Zone Conference was on the Sabbath Day, and mostly on the Sacrament, and what it means.  And then at the end of it all, we were actually able to partake of the Sacrament!  President Cannon got permission from the church to have the Sacrament at our Zone Meeting!  It was a really neat experience, one that I'll never have again.  It was a very spiritually enriching meeting.  It was my favorite Zone Conference for sure.

Wednesday was a super good day. :D  We had a good visit with the Hoaglands.  Sort of.  We were reading the scriptures with Sister Hoagland, and the entire time Keenan and Kyle were fighting in the background.  So when we were done reading, we offered to take the two outside to toss a football around.  That ended up really softening Keenan up, and he agreed to think about why he wants to get baptized!  YAY!  ^_^  And then we went to contact a referral, Paul.  And Paul is pretty neat.  He used to be a Chaplin for the Prison, so he's had a lot of contact with members, but wants to understand our doctrine better.  The problem is that he's heard a lot of deep doctrine.  So we're doing a lot of clarifying.  But he was super sweet and nice!  And we get to go visit him next week, and he said that he's going to invite his son to sit in on our discussions!  Whoohoo!

So, we had an interesting experience on Friday.  We went to contact a former investigator, and she was all like "All of you in your church look so sad.  Your focus on having works is keeping you from discovering the true love of Christ" and so on and so forth.  We tried explaining things to her, but she sadly didn't listen, and only made the conversation more confusing.  We left her home, feeling a little frustrated that the only home in two days to let us in had no desire to listen, but we were even more sad that she sat there and was confusing herself on her own belief.

But that's okay, because Saturday was AWESOME!!!!! :D

I WENT BACK TO KUNA AND CAROL ANNE WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me, Sister Paxton, Carol Anne, Sister Hopper, and Sister Nelson

This was SUCH an exciting event!  I can't believe it really happened!!!  It was so exciting. :)  When she came up out of the water, this huge grin came upon her face, and I couldn't help it--I started crying I was so happy for her.  And talking with her afterwards, she was asking if I was going to be able to come up to see her go through the Temple and I was like "Um.... YES!!!"  Wow, she's come so far!  I am so happy for her.  And it was so good to see so many friends there too.  Really, the only thing missing was my family. :)  This is definitely the highlight of my mission.  So far.  It could change.  But for now, Carol Anne's baptism holds a very special place in my heart.  And it always will.  It always will.

Well, that's all for this week.  I love all of you, and I hope that you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Empey <3

Crazy, as always

Oh my goodness.... I'll try to remember what happened, but I totally forgot my planner today, so there's no guarantee to the sanity of this letter.

Um.... we finished moving on Monday... yup.  The lady we live with, Sister Draney, is super nice. :)

Tuesday..... we dropped off Sister Osburn at the mission office, where her mom picked her up.

I'm so excited for her!  She'll be a great missionary in Wisconsin. :)  

Um.... I really don't remember what has happened!..... um....

OH!  We met this lady named Krystal Kota this week.  She's been less active since she was a teenager, but she recently has been getting help from the church.  We had a really good visit with her, and she wants to to stop by every once in a while. :)  So hopefully we can visit her every once in a while.

Thursday was good. :)  I like, almost forgot it was even my birthday.  It was fun!  We went to this little cafe place in our area called "Sky Blue Cafe", and they seriously have the BEST burgers there!  It was totally worth the $10. :)  And then Sisters Gibb and Wright, our Sister Training Leaders, decorated our room for my birthday!  It looked super cute. :)  Also, thank you to everyone for all of your birthday greetings!  I felt so loved by y'all. :)

Ooh!  I totally forgot-- on Tuesday, we went over to the Stokes home so that I could cut Maci's hair, Myah was totally excited.... until I actually started cutting.

​

Here's me cutting her hair.....

And here's Myah crying once I started cutting.
(Photos courtesy of Brother Stokes.)

It was pretty funny.  She kept asking in between sobs "Is Maci okay?  Does Maci hurt?"  It was so sad, but it was more cute and funny.  The Stokes would completely agree.  But by the time I finished Maci's hair, Myah popped into the chair and was like "My turn?"  Oh goodness, that girl cracks me up.

Um.... yeah.  We've mostly just have been busy....

Oh.  Sunday!  We were able to visit the Fries on Sunday, and it was a good lesson. :)

Um... yup.  I can't think of anything else.  Love y'all, and I hope that you've had an awesome week!

Love,

Sister Empey