Week 3

Hello my wonderful family and friends.

 

Its been a pretty good week. Sorry if this letter is short we just have such little time here on the computers! BUT thats ok and i will tell you all that i can in the time I have.

 

First I leave on thursday!!!!!! oh my goodness i cant believe im actually going to be in the DR and going to get to teach the people of my mission field on fridays!!! thats sooooo great!

Next we had our amazing zone leaders and the two other missionaries in their district leave monday m,orning. It was pretty sad. It's the coolest thing to see how we grow to be sooo close. They left to Argentina.

Next we have had two new "investigators" their names are Ana y Leo. Ana is only 18 and such a sweet sweet girl. I've really grown to love her and really wanted to bring her the joy and the happiness that we as members of the church are able to feel everyday. She has a catholic background but wasnt too set in it. My companion and i are really able to teach very powerful and spiritual things. its been a great experience. Our second lesson i actually told her joseph smiths first vision from memory!!!!! its so much fun teaching in spanish i really love this language.

Next is Leo. He's kind of a wild child. He likes to drink and smoke a lot with his buddies. Funny story i got my spanish mixed up a bit and for probably 2 lessons thought he was 29 when really he's only 19 and also thought he was in a pit crew for racecars when really he's in a pit crew for motorctycle races haha. But i do love the language. With him we really tried to help him understand how much his heavenly father loves him and that he can change his life through the power of the atonement.

Well thats about it. Thanks to Jenny and aunt dorie and my mom and my family for packages oh and the lovely jones family and thanks to ciera and kelsey for writing me. Letters and packages are the best!!! oh and thanks to kiffyn for making me the best wrap ever for dinner you're great! :)

well fam thats all the time i got

love you all!!!!

Elder Pemberton

Pictures from the MTC

Tyson Williams works at the MTC.  He is the son of our Bishop in Las Vegas and an amazing young man.  He served his mission in Columbia, where James is currently deployed.  They have spent a lot of time talking about the members there and Tyson has referred him some friends during his time in Columbia.  Jamie looks great and really looks like a missionary.  This picture brought everything to reality for me.  I am so proud of him!      

Week 2

hey family

 

mom ana and dad

sorry but i´d think you would all rather get a really good email thats to every one than an individual one thats had to be typed really fast.

So first things first!

Food

yes the food here is alright. not as good as homecooked meals but steal not too bad. they have burgers ALL the time and ive had to cut back on sweets because i think i feel a cavity coming on. I´m seeing the dentist here at the mtc on thursday.

My companion

my companion is elder Watkins. What an amizing guy!!!! he´s such a hard worker and is really firm in the gospel. He´s actually from moapa valley! so not too far from us in vegas but its amaizng how differently he grew up than i did. I guess moapa is a pretty small town. But we get along reall well and we definitely teach awesome lessons together. Ive had to really work on not taking over the lessons though. My strong personality is not helping me that often here. So i´m really excited to start working on some of my faults to become a better person all aropund.

Language

the language is coming along. i was amaized at how much i actually knew. Elder watkins knows a lot too so we cabn generally get our point across when we are teaching. Its a really great time. The gift of tongues is definitely here though! oh my goodness i see elders picking up their languages so quick and i know its because heavenly father is helping them. And i know he will help me too!

DR

oh and what´s the reason i´m speaking spanish in the first place?!?! oh yeah thats right because i´m going to the DR and when do i leave? drum rollll please......... I leave the 2nd of february!!! we got our travel plans i think on friday!! we felt soo cool. Its the coolest thing to get travel plans aroud here. We fly to dallas then miami and then go to Santo Domingo its goping to be awesome!

 

the last little bit of time that i have I want to tell you all aabout our first investigator we had here at the CCM.

Nico

In our first lesson with nico we just thought he lived in orem and that he came to learn from the missionaries because he was interested in our church. He has a daughter and is from Argentina. Nico has had some issues beliving in god lately. So for our first lesson we wanted to teach him that god is our loving heavenly father and that he loves us. We tried doing that for the frist two leasson there was no way we could get him to see that he truly is a son of a loving god. So the third lesson we figured iot out kind of. We realized its not going to be us to be able to convinve nico that god exists. The spirit has to testify of the truthfulness of our message and of gods love. So our third lesson we taught him how to pray (by this time we knew he was just a volunteer and not a real investigator but it definitely did not detract from the spirit). We challenged him that night to pray to heavenly father and see if god really excists we had him read Alma ch 32 v 27 it was really great. The lesson went a little long but we got through most of what we felt like would help him. The fourth lesson made all the difference! We walked in and we asked him if he had prayed.... unfortunatelty he said know. But he kept talking about the book of mormon. He said he was sad because his wife left him and norm,ally when he´s sad he drinks. This time he decided to go and read the Book of Mormon and he said he just felt the peace and the joy in his life that we had explained to him beforehand. For the rest of that lesson and the next one we taught him about the restoration of the gospel and the plan of happiness, respectively. The 5th lesson we asked him if he would commit to baptism. AND HE SAID YES!!!!! we learned later that the 5th lesson is waaaayyy tooo long to bring up baptism. But thats ok. The spirit was very strong during our lessons with nico and i´m so grateful for that experience.

 

My dearest family and friends. I know some of you do not understand why i am doing what i am doing or understand what i am teaching about. But i promise you this is gods true church and that there is no other kind of happiness and joy that can be brought than through the restored gospel of jesus christ. I´m sorry if i upset anyone but we´re learning here that it is important to be bold. So i´m practicing. I love you all and i am so grateful for the supposrt you all have given me. This is going to be the best two years of service for my lord that i will ever do. and i will make sure that i will not take any part for granted. I promise you dad that i´ll own it. now remeber who you are everyone and whom you represent. You are all children of a loving heavemnly father and if you want help all you need to do is ask.

Cant wait to hear from you all!

love,

elder pemberton

Week 1

Hey Ana!!! and i guess the rest of the world!!! :)

 

I have soooooo much to say but i just seriously have 0 time i'm not sure how well writing three seperate emails is gonna work out! sorry :/ My first night was GREAT!!!!! i'm really enjoying the MTC. I havent been tooo homesick yet. I've mostly just missed music and having fun. We cant listen to any music here at the MTC.... i'm not sure why. Just one of the many rules.

 

Ana congrats with your presidency thats sooo awesome. Sounds like church was great..

 

Here things are going really well!!!! My companion Elder Watkins and I are meeting with an "investigator" named Nico. He's a great guy from Argentina. Teaching is actually a lot harder than i though it would be. AND i cant even do it in my own language!

 

Please tell people to write me/ dear elder me and also maybe talk to the Missionary Mom's in Vegas and see if i can get their boys emails?

 

I'm supposed to leave on feb 2nd! So lets hope that that works out. the language is coming along! I talk very broken spanish but i can generally get my point across! I love talking the langauge and there's nothing better than being able to have good convo's with some elder's in my district in spanish!

 

People that i would really love to here from: (well every one but who ive been thinking of) Maddy, Ciera, Carl, and guys from vegas.

 

I love you all SOOOOO much hope to here from you soon!

 

Love elder Pemberton

 

Oh yeah THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!! I promise! :)

Jamie Enters the MTC

Jamie flew to Utah on January 10th to spend the evening with family there.  Kieth and Grandma picked hime up from the airport in the morning and spent all day getting him the last minute things he needed.  They also made sure he had some fun before he left.  The family got together that evening for dinner and had Cafe Rio salads at Rich and Kristin's house.  Goodbye's were hard but everyone is excited for Jamie and all the wonderful things he will experience these next 2 years.  

Jamie wanted to make sure he got his last favorite meal so Grandpa Kieth and Grandma took him to the Creamery on 9th.  He ordered a kids meal because it was the "perfect amount of food for a stomach with a little anxiety"! He was a little nervous about the unknown but excited to get started.

Jamie barely remembered to call me before he left!  Luckily he did and I got to say goodbye and tell him how much I love him!  He looks a little cold!  At least he will only be at the Provo MTC for 3 weeks so he won't freeze to death.

He was greeted by a host missionary that was also going to the Dominican Republic.  It was a warm welcome.  He said his goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa and off he went!  Good luck James-- we sure love you!!