27 Feb 2012

Hi family!

How is everyone doing?! This week was a little crazy! We had a zone conference this last monday. It was actaully awesome. I really enjoyed it a lot. It was really fun. We did a lot of different activities and ate some good food :)

I dont have a lot of exciting things to tell you. My birthday was a normal day. But thanks for everyone that wished me a happy birthday. 23...crazy!

Guess what?! I gave a talk in church yesterday. It was crazy. I really hope people understood me ok. Just think about it this way. Its like some person that is learning English and they talk in English but their accent is realllllly thick. You have to sometimes concentrate REALLY hard to understand them. Ya thats how its like for other people when they hear me talk...haha.

Ok the best thing that has yet happened to me on the mission (ok MAYBE thats an overstatement...) Sister Checketts and I have been going through training (because Im still a "new" missionary). And we have been really trying hard to listen to the Spirit and teaching people and not lessons. We want the Spirit to work through us and for us to really know what to do and say. Also, we have been wanting to use the Book of Mormon more. Because in our conference, we have been challenged to use the book of mormon more because of the power it has. Right now we are reading the book of mormon as a mission. Like everyone is reading the same thing every day. We are all on 2 Nephi 22. Anyways...
So here is the situation. Last night we clapped at some gate. It was an old reference in our Area Book. So we found a lady. Her husband was at church, but she didnt go. We found out later she doesnt like to go to that church or something like that (as much as I got in Portuguese). And so we sat down and started talking to her a little bit. And she started crying even before we openned with a prayer! Seriously...I cant even describe how everything happened. It was me and Sister Checketts there but it wasnt really. I guess the way I talked...was Portuguese and me and Sister Checketts worked REALLY well together. We were smooth and we both had these impressions of things we should say and scriptures we should read. Holy cow. I know Im not explaining it very well...but it was awesome. During one scripture she read (Helaman 5:12) she started crying to. She really saw how the scriptures we read applied to her. It was a "duh" question when we asked if she would read the book of mormon. After the lesson I really thought, oh so THIS is how it works! Haha. It was pretty cool. We will see what happens. But I do know that the Book of Mormon has more power in it then we think. So read it! Everyone! Read the book of mormon. With the family, by yourself. Its food for the soul!

Anyways thats about it for this week. Time to go!

Love you all!
Sister Empey

Sister Empey's 'little' birthday cake she made for herself.

A fun picture that was sent to mom by Elder Ellsworth's family. These three missionaries are in our home stake here in WA and are all serving in Londrina!

Another little snipet from an email for katelyn's mom. "Oh ya! I’ve been listening to my music every day since last Tuesday when I got my birthday package! We had the time change so it’s like 5 hours different here from home. I haven’t baked my cake yet that you sent me for my birthday. I’m going to bake it today so that we can share with my district in our meeting tomorrow :) And I’ve been enjoying the candy and all the other good stuff. By the way, you MIGHT be getting a letter from my AP. He doesn’t speak (or write) English, but Im thinking Elder Angerbauer (your missionary mom friends son) will help him write it. Me and him have an ongoing joke because I keep on getting packages from you. So he wants to write you and ask you for a package for him, because he would be the son you never had :) I wrote our home address down in his planner. So we will see if he actually does it. He had to make sure that you would like it and not get annoyed or mad at him. I told him you would like it. The little hands of Natalie’s and Charlotte’s you sent- we like....awesome :)"