Transfers, a baptism, and 6 more weeks.

GUESS WHERE SISTER OSBURN IS GOING ON HER MISSION?!?!?!?!?!

MILWAUKEE WISCONSIN!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Can you believe it?!?!?!  How awesome is that?!?! :D  It's so exciting!!!!!!  I'm so glad that she gets to finish up in Wisconsin. :)  I'm so excited for her. :)  She'll be great there. :)

Well, there's not too much to report.  It was a really slow week sadly. :(  But Saturday was an exciting day!  It started out with transfer calls Saturday morning, and my new companion is Sister Ma'ukoloa (Mah-oo-koh-low-ah), who is Samoan and is from Oregon.  And then Saturday night, I got to go back to Caldwell/Marsing and go to Nicole Hunsakers baptism!  And even cooler is that Doug, her husband, got to baptize her. :)  It was really neat to be able to go back to Caldwell and see her take this step in her life.  And then I got to see the Taylors from Kuna, because they were picking up Sister Hopper and Paxton from the baptism (Sister Hopper taught Nicole before I got there).  And it was totally awesome to see them again. :)

Me, Sister Longhurst, Sister Hopper, Nicole & Doug Hunsaker

On Sunday, after church, we went so that Sister Osburn could go say good-bye to a couple of families, and then we went to Mission Presidents home so that President Cannon could give Sister Osburn her exit interview, and I picked up Sister Ma'ukoloa there, because Sister Gray left for home yesterday.  Can you believe that she's going home?!  Man, I'm getting old!  (Mission wise, that is.)  Anyhows, after that, the three of us (Osburn, Ma'ukoloa, and myself) went over to Sue Pearce's home, a recent convert of just over a year, and we did some baking for her daycare.  It was pretty fun.

Well, that's it for this week. :)  Sorry this email is so short.  This week will be crazy though.  We're moving into a different home today (no more kitties and old dogs and bunnies :(  Darn!), and Sister Osburn leaves to return home tomorrow. GAH!  Makes me wanna cry!!  She can't go yet!!!!  But... I know that she has to... the people of Wisconsin need her.  And who knows?  Maybe she'll run into people that Barb knew. :)  Wouldn't that be pretty epic? :)

Oh!  And the piece of news I got this week is that Carol Ann, a lady I taught in Kuna, is going to be baptized June 6!!!!  I GET TO GO BACK TO KUNA!!!!  WHOOO!!!!! :D

And so now, I'm on my 6 final weeks.  Do me a favor and please don't ask me if I'm "Trunky".  I have come to find out that THAT is my biggest pet peeve.

Love y'all, be safe, and so we go.

Love,

Sister Empey

The Stokes family.  They're great.  I'm holding Myah (9, and autistic) because that was the only way she was going to do the picture at that point.  I actually met them last 4th of July because I knew their cousins, the Illums in Nampa South 37th ward.  They're good friends, to say the least. :)  It helps that they're nerds like me. :)

Contacting Successes and Fails

Um.... so.... last week.  quite exciting.

We got a church media referral on Tuesday.  So we decided to check it out.  Since we pretty much have no one to teach at this point.  So, we knock on the door, and this lady answers, probably in her early 50's or so, and we asked if she was Shawnie Hill.  And she was like "No, but I'm her mother, and I'm LDS!"

O_O  wait, what?

So she invited us in and told us the story (sort of):  she, with her 2 kids and grandkids, moved from California up to their current home from Idaho 3 years ago.  She's the only member in her family, and as soon as she got up here, she had some health issues, so she hasn't had a chance to even figure out what ward she's in and hasn't been able to transfer her records up here!  So we had a good experience with her, and Joy (the lady), invited us to come back!  So we didn't meet her daughter, but we found a new member for the ward!  haha

Wednesday and Thursday was full of unsuccessful contacting.  And then there was Friday.

Friday was..... eventful.

So, we're helping the Relief Society President in one of our wards to contact several sisters who have not received contact for several years, and one of them apparently lived in a retirement home.  So we go over and knock on the door, and before she even answers the door, a man who works there walks up to us and asks us why we were here.  We replied that we were looking for this lady because she was on our church records and wanted to know if she wanted visitors from members from our church.  Well, as he's telling us that they don't allow religious solicitation of any kind (excuse me, were we tracting out the building?!), this lady answers the door and curtly tells us that she wants nothing to do with the church and that she's asked for her records to be removed several times, thankyouverymuch!  So we bid her goodbye, and apologized to this man, trying to clarify that we weren't trying to solicit or anything, we were just trying to help the church clean up the membership records, and that we were leaving.  His reply was "I don't care.  I let one of you in, I have to let everyone in."  We apologized (again) for our inconvenience of us coming, and started to leave.  And he followed us off the property to make sure that we left!!!  We couldn't turn around, because that would be rude, but we could hear his keys jingling behind us until we left the property!  And as soon as we left, we turned around, to see him turning around back to the building!  Holy cow, talk about awkward!  haha It was great though. :)

And all was well after that, because we got a new investigator!  His name is Steve, and he's a JW, but he wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true!  Yay!

Well, I gotta go now.  That's really it for this week.  Oh, and the Fries.  We had a lesson with Sister Fries about faith, and it was an AMAZING lesson. :)

Gotta go!  Sister Osburn just got a call from the mission office about a special white envelope she might want!  YAY!!!  Sorry gotta jet.  You know how antsy I was with getting my call.  You can imagine Sister Osburn's excitement.  Please know that I love you all!

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! <3

Love,

Sister Empey

Apparently this rock is going to eat my brain one day.....?!

YUS PLEASE!  haha  It was perfect. :)

A Week of Events

Hello dear family and friends!  It's that wonderful day where I get to email y'all. :)

So!  On Tuesday, we were on exchanges, so I was on the other side of the road from our area with Sister Gibb, who's also from Springville, and was Sister Osburns other companion!  haha  Pretty awesome, yeah?  Well, it wasn't too eventful.  We just walked, trying to contact people.

So!  We got a new investigator this week!  Remember me talking about the Niles last week?  Well, talk about MIRACLES.  So, Sister Osburn and I have talked and prayed a lot on how we can help them, and we decided that we should open up our spiritual thought with a Hymn, "Dearest Children, God is Near You".  Well, when we did that, there was such a strong spirit that filled the room, and we ended up inviting her to take the lessons again, and she really opened up to us.  She talked about why she isn't baptized yet, which is basically that she has a ton of questions.  So we came to an agreement that each time we visited, we would answer one of her questions.  so, she gave us our first question to study up on: Why is it so bad to have a cup of coffee in the morning.  The catch?  We have to prove it to be scripture related.  Eek.  She's like "I want it from the mouth of the Lord!"  ... um... yeah.  Praying for guidance and patience.

So, on Thursday, we had weekly planning.  Because we're still in the process of de-junking (which means cleaning up our area book), it usually takes up a huge chunk of our day, and this is how it usually ends up:

Yup.  Dogs and all.  The only thing missing is the area book, because Sister Osburn is usually the one flipping through it trying to find stuff.

Despite it looking relaxing, it's not.

Which is why Thursday night was so WONDERFUL.  The Stake put on a Women's Conference, and it was AMAZING.  It was all about being grateful for what the Lord has given you, and to love yourself for who you are, and to not let Satan get to your confidence!  It was amazing.

And then on Friday, we went to a local park, and we had a showing of Meet the Mormons!  Holy cow, I have not stayed out that late in a LONG time.  Because the movie was starting at around 8:30, President Cannon gave permission to all the missionaries in the area to stay out until 10, since we were supposed to be inviting less-actives and non-members to the activity.  One thing is for sure: I am NOT the night-owl I used to be!  But it was a lot of fun. :)  Sadly, no one we invited came, but according to Brother Bledsoe, who is the High Councilman over missionary work for the stake, we had 20 people there that aren't of the LDS faith!  SUCCESS!!  

On Saturday, we went and talked to a potential investigator, Jim.  he's older, maybe late 50's, and he LOVES to show off his garden (which is awesome, by the ways).  So apparently, a lot of his wife's family is LDS, so they like to have us over, and they want to feed us!  Well, you won't hear us turn that down!  Hopefully, we can eat with them soon.  We only got to meet his wife briefly, so we decided it would be better if we didn't invite them to the lessons.

The rest of Saturday was just trying to contact people.  We ran into a lady who apparently has a daughter coming home Wednesday from a mission and has Elders visiting her already (what?!), BUT!!!  We ran into someone with potential!  Joella was on one of our Potential Investigator lists, so we went to go see if she would like to know more.  Well, when we introduced ourselves, she was like "oh, you replaced the boys?!  They've told me a little bit, but I really want to know more!"  We were all like: O_O "YEAH!  When can we come over!"  She wasn't really too sure, since this next week her schedule is busy and different, but she told us to call her next Monday!  YUS!  Super excited!!!  There was an awesome spirit about her. :)  I feel really good about her.

And of course, Sunday. :)  Sunday was awesome.  It was nice to see and talk to the family. :)

Well, that's all for now!  I love y'all!

Love,

Sister Empey

Sister Osburn and I get a kick out of
this sign every time we see it.

Crazy Lessons, Commence!

Um..... the beginning of this week started FOREVER ago!!!!  It's been an interesting week too.....

So!  To start off, Monday evening.  We had dinner with Bishop Ashcraft, WHO JUST HAPPENS TO HAVE LIVED IN SPRINGVILLE AND KNOWS GRANDPA EDGEL!!!!! O_O  (by the ways Grandma, Darren Ashcraft says hello to Grandpa.)  Anyways, it was great. :)  He also knows John Call, and we just had all sorts of fun Springville talk, I think to the dismay of the rest of his family.  haha

After dinner, we went to the Lees, some potential investigators.  We ended up having an amazing conversation with them.  They're both strong Christian people, and love their Asian heritage (Ron is Chinese and Heather is Korean).  Ron even kept bringing up points that I was all like "YEAH!  The church totally believes that!!!"  But the sad thing is that at the end, when we offered the lessons, they declined. :(  Oh well.  What happens happens.

On Tuesday, we worked in the Sunnyridge Apartments.... pretty much all day.  We went and contacted the Hoagland family.  Brother Hoagland is trying to become active again, and wants his son, who is turning 9, to be baptized.  So we went over to meet Keenan and asked him if he wanted to be baptized.  When he said yes, we nearly leaped for joy and asked why, and his response was "to get people off my back."

... well, leave it to an 8-year old to give you the truth, right?

Anyways, the Bishop has asked us to give the lessons to the Hoaglands, so we taught them the first discussion.  Kennan didn't soften up to us at all until we were towards the end of the lesson when we started to talk about Joseph Smith.  We were talking about Joseph Smith, and I felt prompted to have Kyle, who is 13, read James 1:5, and we talked about what that scripture meant.  I think that helped a little bit, because while he still didn't say a whole lot, he stopped making dissatisfied grunts to all of our questions.  Cute kid.  He just needs some softening.

On Wednesday, we went over to teach a young woman in our ward, Gillian.  She's autistic, and so her mom thought it might be good if she had the lessons to help strengthen her testimony.  The lesson was going along great--until she asked when the Holy Ghost was going to get his body.  Then it got a little crazy as her mom dived into some deep doctrine and we were like "uh...... we dunno....."  it was a good laugh for later.

On Thursday, we met a part member family, the Niles.  HOLY COW, SO AWKWARD!!!  They're this super sweet and friendly couple.  The only thing is that Sister Niles (the non-member) insists that she call us by our fist names!  ACK!!!  Doesn't she realize that having people outside of our family call us by our first names is like hearing a swear word and makes our ears bleed?!?!  Man, I think I was flinching the whole time I was there.  And then they only muted the television, and Doc Martin, a favorite show of mine, comes on the TV!  I was like "I'M DYING INSIDE!!!"  Thankfully, at that point, Sister Niles took us for a tour through the house, so I tried to ask as many questions as possible to keep our 2-room house tour as long as possible.  haha  Anyways, we asked Sister Niles if she would like to take the lessons, and she flat-out didn't give us an answer.  She was just like "Oh, silly missionaries are asking me again!"  And we were like "Um.... is that a no?..."  Again, sort of a humerous visit.  We'll visit again.  And we'll ask for the TV to be turned OFF this time, because I have a feeling that there will be no house tour next time.

Friday and Saturday were spent contacting, but there wasn't much success sadly. :(  Oh well.

On Sunday, we had a lesson with a less-active family named the Fries, with the Titus's.  On the way over, Brother Titus told us that The Elders had taught them the 10 commandments the first time, and The Plan of Salvation was taught by the Titus's the second time because the Elders couldn't make it.

O_O  Wai... what?!

I was in total shock!  I was like "Who does the 10 commandments as a first lesson?!"  So, instead of teaching Lesson 3 as planned, we switched and decided to teach Lesson 1 with a lot of prayer.

It went really well though.  It was a good discussion with both the parents and their kid, David.  The Spirit was really strong there, even though our conversation got de-railed a couple of times.  We were always able to pull it back on track and end the lesson after an hour fifteen!  It was great. :)

Well, that's it for now.  I love y'all, and I hope you've had as great as a week as we had. :)

Love,

Sister Empey

Yes, we have an ALMA ln. in our area!  Pretty awesome, yeah? :)

Saw this while walking around on..... Thursday.  I think.  Made my day.

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!!!!  

Love you. :)

The Miracle of Baptisms

Hello everyone!  I hope y'all had an awesome week this week. :)

The work is picking up!  Thank goodness!  :)  Still don't have a lot to talk about, but I think I have more than what I had last week. :)

So, on Wednesday, we were out member tracting, and we ran into this Catholic lady, Terri.  At first, she was a little brash and rude, quickly proclaiming that she was happily Catholic.  We were all like "That's awesome!  Are you active in the Catholic church?" and she responded yes, and then talked about her Irish heritage (SCORE!).  Obviously, we started talking.  She soon after apologized for sounding so rude, and she agreed to let us visit her later!  And she agreed to try to read a little bit of the Book of Mormon!  Whoohoo!  That was pretty exciting. :)  We also contacted a 12 year old girl, Taylor Babneau, who wants to be baptized!  How exciting is that?!  So we're hoping to get a hold of her parents and getting them involved too, because we know that Brother Babneau for sure is less-active, and we think his wife isn't a member.  So it would be awesome if we could get them involved in the discussions as well. :)  We also met a Recent Convert named Sue Pierce, and she's super sweet. :)  She's getting ready to go to the temple soon!

Thursday through Saturday was sort of a blur.  I finally got the music I needed for the Williams baptism Thursday evening, and when I looked over it, I think my eyes grew to the size of baseballs as I realized that the notes were going to be too high for me.  I was praying for a miracle (or, more like I was praying for my mother who just automatically plays songs in a key I can sing).

So, I was in panic mode, thinking "OH MY GOODNESS!!!  What am I going to do?!?!  I'm not going to be able to have this prepared by the day of the baptism!!!  I have no one to play, and I can't sing these notes!!" o_O

So the Holy Ghost prodded the back of my head to go see the Hansens, who we had eaten with a couple of days before.  I figured it was at least a decent start-- Faith, the oldest daughter, can play the piano, so off we went.

Thankfully, when we reached the house and asked Faith, she agreed to play for us, and we starting running through.  Turned out I could barely hit the notes, but it was definitely out of my range.  Well, her dad, Brother Hansen, heard me screeching out the notes, and was like "oh no!  We are NOT killing your voice!"  So he comes over to the piano, tests out my vocal range, and then instructs me on how to transpose my music to the key of C!  MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!  I was SO happy!!!  

So I spent a lot of time on Friday and Saturday practicing for the baptism. But we had some breaks-- we had Zone Meeting (where I received revelation and rebuking as to how to make the last three months the best yet on my mission), we had a High Priest social where a guy came to talk about the different instruments used for bluegrass music (which was super cool--it was really enjoyable), and we helped Sister Trumayne weed out her front yard.

But it all boiled down to Saturday, 4:30 PM, when Sister Longhurst and I left our companions behind to go to Caldwell. 

LOOK AT HOW BEAUTIFUL GARY, AMANDA, AND TIM LOOK!!!!!! :D

​(ignore my closed eyes)

Isn't it so exciting?! :D  I'm so proud of them all!!!  The baptism went great, and it was a beautiful service.  And even President and Sister Cannon came to see it! :D  And I was able to sing my song well, and they all loved it.  Thank goodness!  Since they were the ones that asked for that particular song.  On the way home, I almost cried--I could visualize them all going to the temple, dressed in white, to be sealed as a family.  They have come so far, and they will continue to progress and grow.  They are a little miracle family, and it will take them far in the gospel.

On a last note, we got one new investigator Sunday.  Her name is Courtny Hauge.  She has a friend how is on their mission right now, and he sends her little reading assignments.  But she doesn't always understand what he sends her, so she wants our help in teaching her!  We're going to go see her this Saturday. :)  We're really excited. :)

Anyways, that's it for this week.  It's been crazy, but it's been wonderful.  I am so grateful for the time I had to teach the Williams, and that I could serve them for their baptismal service.  And I'm grateful that they are on the path to return home to their Heavenly Father, and that Heavenly Father has allowed me to be a part of their return home.

I love you all, and keep building your faith!

Love,

Sister Empey

​(PS-- This is me and Sister Osburn, my companion. :)  Thought you might enjoy a picture. :) )

April 20, 2015

Ummm..... wow.  I really don't know what to say.

This week had been CRAZY.  We didn't get to work like we normally do, because we had to clean out EVERYTHING.  But it was good. It looks like we have a lot of work to do, because we're basically starting from scratch.

Um.... due to the fact that we had to start a burn pile and be reborn from the ashes, there wasn't a whole lot that happened this week.  A big part of what we're doing is earning member trust right now.  We've really been trying to work with the bishops and ward mission leaders especially.  We're starting to map out ward mission plans for both wards.

OH!  But we had a totally cool experience on Sunday. :)  So, it was after both wards were finished, we were by the bishops office, and someone (whose name I can't remember), said "how old do youth have to be to teach lessons to?"

Thinking he meant us missionaries teaching a youth class, I replied that we would have to have a third female in order to teach any youth class.

And he was like "Oh, well, Ezekiel here is 15 and wants to take the discussions...."

O_O  My thoughts: wait, WHAT?!?!

So I quickly corrected myself: "OH!  Anyone can take the discussions!"

Yup.  We got a new investigator.  :D  He's been coming to mutual and had come to church for a couple of weeks and wants to learn more!  WHOOHOO!!!!

Anyways, that's all.  The lady we live with, Sister Trumayne, is awesome.  She has 2 dogs (Scooby and Bella), 1 cat (whose name  I don't remember-- she hides from us), two baby ragdoll kitties (Sis Osburn and I have dubbed them Sushi and Geronomo), and a rabbitt (Hunter).  Love it! :D  But you know me--I love animals. :)

Love all of you!  Keep being awesome!

Love,

Sister Empey

Come and Gone

Um..... well...... TRANSFER DAY!!!!

Do you know what that means?!  It means that I have NO idea what happened because my planner is packed away randomly somewhere!

But we'll get to that in a moment.

Um..... yeah.  I seriously can't remember what has happened this week..... we saw Gary and Amanda like.... 4 times this week.  Seriously.  We did a LOT of teaching.  After all, we gotta get them prepared for baptism!  Goodness, I feel like they take up all of my spare time!  I love it though!  It's so great to work with such amazing people! :)

Um... yeah.  It's already been 6 weeks!  Can you believe it?!  I've spent a whole 6 weeks in Marsing, ID!  But, apparently, it's time for me to move on.  And guess where I'm moving to?  Nampa East!  I'm in 2 wards again-- 30th and 34th.  And it will be nice, because Sister Longhurst is in the same zone as me. :)  So my companion is Sister Osborn, and she's from Rigby, ID, serving a mini mission. :)  I get to finish training her before she heads home.  I'm super excited for this opportunity. :)  So.... yeah.  That's about it.

Um... yeah.  Gary and Amanda were super bummed that we were both moving out, but that's okay-- they want me to sing at their baptism!!!  How crazy is that?!  I'm so excited!  They want me to sing "I Can Only Imagine"-- I just hope my voice will be in good condition for it!  haha

Well.... yeah.  I'm sorry that this is all I have to say!  I'll write more next week!  Love all of you, and remember how much the Lord loves you!

Love,

Sister Empey

 Cool Road.  You just.... well... have to be cool.  End of story.

Lizard Butte.... it kinda looks like a lizard.  Thus the name of the butte. 
Sadly, never got to hike it.

Sis Longhurst and I, as always. :)