LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories
Popular LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" gives members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the opportunity to share their stories of inspiration and hope to other members throughout the world. Stories that members share on Latter-Day Lights are very entertaining, and cover a wide range of topics, from tragedy, loss, and overcoming difficult challenges, to miracles, humor, and uplifting conversion experiences! If you have an inspirational story that you'd like to share, hosts Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley would love to hear from you! Visit LatterDayLights.com to share your story and be on the show.
LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories
Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: Inspiring Stories from the Marcovia Project - Emily Hemmert
What if education could be the key to breaking the cycle of generational poverty?
Join us as we welcome back Emily Hemmert for her third appearance, sharing remarkable updates on the Marcovia Project - a nonprofit initiative that has transformed the lives of 122 students in Honduras.
From the crucial role of the church's Self-Reliance Program to the power of small business loans, Emily discusses how these elements are helping to lift families out of poverty. Her journey underscores the transformative power of education and the incredible impact of community support.
We then transport you to the heart of Honduras, where the emotional stories of resilience and hope come to life. Hear about the challenges children face, such as the absence of basic necessities like electricity and running water, and the incredible strength they display in pursuing their education.
You'll also meet Nellie, Emily's former missionary companion, whose own journey through adversity led to the co-founding of the Marcovia Project. This is a great, heartfelt episode filled with stories of hope, transformation, and the enduring power of education and love.
*** Please SHARE Emily's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***
To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/qhK6vY1ujDw
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To LEARN MORE about the Marcovia Project, go to: https://themarcoviaproject.org/
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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.
Hi everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.
Alisha Coakley:And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.
Scott Brandley:On today's episode we're going to hear how generational poverty and years of tragedy is teaching one woman to heal future generations in Honduras by healing herself. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today and we have a really special treat we're bringing Emily Hem hammered back for a third episode. Um, emily, it's good to have you it's good to be here again.
Alisha Coakley:Emily is like the og guest for ldl here. No other guest has been on three times. She's like paving the way for everybody. But we love it.
Scott Brandley:We love emily yeah, you're just so entertaining. It was just such good stories and we want to. We want to see what's the next chapter in the in the story so today's kind of special, though, because you're actually going.
Scott Brandley:We're going to talk a little bit about the marcovia project right, your non-profit, but then we're also going to talk about the story behind Nelly and Armando, who run it in Honduras, which is really cool. So, for the listeners that haven't watched our previous episodes, why don't you give us a little bit of background about who you are and what you're doing?
Emily Hemmert:Yeah. So we had the opportunity to be on the podcast, like they said two other times. When we first came on, we were just basically starting out with our nonprofit and because of Scott and Alisha and their generosity and their support, we've been able to grow a lot, and so thank you guys for your support because it's really been instrumental in our growth as an organization. We sponsor children in Honduras to receive their school uniform so they can go to school, and when we first started, when we were first on the podcast, we had like 11 students, and then the following year we had 60 students. And after last year's podcast, someone reached out to me. They said hey, I listened to this podcast. I'm wondering how I can help you double the number of students that you're helping. And so we've been working together and in this year in February, we reached our goal of doubling the number of students that we're supporting and we sent 122 students to school. Oh, my God, doubling the number of students that we're supporting and we send 122 students to school our humble beginnings right of um, our 11 students, and so, um, that's yeah. So basically our organization gets sponsorships for these students and then we also do small business loans and we have our. Our 122 students are part of 70 households and right now we have 12 households 12 of those households with a small business loan for the parents to start or grow a business, and our goal is to have more of those 70 households with a small business loan because, um, in terms of poverty alleviation, you know, helping kids go to school is a long-term benefit and helping them with these small business loans is like a short-term. There's a short-term benefit, which is that they're immediately able to like increase their income and have more savings and stuff like that, and so that's kind of our goal. Moving forward, is just supporting these 70 households. We have five seniors this year that are going to be graduating, and several of these students were, were, like, dropped out of school and, you know, were not projected to finish high school, and so the fact that they've been part of this program and are now graduating high school is really exciting.
Emily Hemmert:There's a study that I want to share that that they did in the US, and basically they concluded that, regardless of where you are born or your background, that if you graduate high school, you get a job, you get married before you have children, you are, like 98% likely not to be in poverty.
Emily Hemmert:And that statistic is so powerful because it shows, like, the importance of some of the values that we have in our faith of, you know, getting married before you have kids, and you look at a lot of these families that we have and they didn't complete high school. They, you know they're single moms, things like that, and so it's it's really important, like this work that we're doing, as far high school, you know, they can serve a mission, they, you know, can get a job and their chances of not being in poverty are a lot higher because of those steps that they're taking right, like graduating high school is a really important step in on the path to not being in poverty. So, yeah, that's kind of backstory with how we've grown since we've started this and it's been really crucial. The support that we've gotten from Scott and Alisha and the outpouring of support that we've gotten from listeners has been really awesome as well.
Alisha Coakley:That just makes my heart so happy. I love hearing that. That is really, really cool. And for our listeners, so you guys kind of well, I don't know if you center the project around the church's self-reliance program, but it's a part of the program, right, self-reliance classes and to really take that mission that the church has in building members of the church and just members of our community in such a way that they don't need to rely on a bunch of handouts. Instead they're like teaching them how to have a hand up, you know. And so I really I love that so much. I think it's awesome and I don't know you're, you're amazing. And for our listeners or the.
Emily Hemmert:this project was born from the self-reliance class. My husband and I were asked to facilitate the class on starting and growing a business and throughout that class we created this nonprofit. Like in our class, like as a group, we collectively created the project and and part of it was real that what people needed was just a little bit of capital and that they had the drive and everything else that they needed to be a successful business owner. And then our borrowers. Part of the requirement is to take that class and that's been really helpful for people to grow their business based on the teachings of that class. I think you said a few more.
Alisha Coakley:And they their loans, that they. And so for our listeners, you guys can go back and you can, we'll go ahead and maybe we can put, like, the link to Emily's first episode in the description. I think we can probably do that, right, scott? So so we can do that, so you guys can like definitely go listen to her story because it's phenomenal, it's, it's. I mean, there's just a lot in that first story which, for I know, for me really helped me to like see your vision fully. I know, for me really helped me to like see your vision fully. But your, as far as the loans go, they're, they pay them back to the organization and then you guys take that and you give it back to somebody else. Is that right?
Emily Hemmert:Right, so it's. It's very similar to in church history they had a perpetual loan for the pioneers and the pioneers they would get a loan to help come to the United States and cross the plains and then, when they repaid that, then that money was used to help additional people cross. So it's, it's similar and similar to the perpetual education fund, and then those funds just continue to be recycled over and over and over, which is cool because it's allowed us, with like a small fund for donations, to be able to like significantly, you know, multiply exponentially, exponentially, multiply that right to continue to give out loans year after year, which is awesome.
Alisha Coakley:It's synergy at its finest.
Emily Hemmert:So a few things that I wanted to share, that I have some notes on is. You know, in in doing this organization, I've read a lot of books and tried to have a really good understanding of a lot of these different things, and there's one book that stood out to me that I wanted to share with you, and it's called Toxic Charity, and it talks about how, you know, we can be really well intentioned and be hurtful in when we're trying to do the right thing, and so I'm going to read a few quotes from this book that you were just talking about self-reliance. It says for disadvantaged people to flourish into their God-given potential, they must leave behind dependencies that thwart their development, though rightly motivated, must be restructured if they are to reinforce self-sufficiency and become agents of lasting and positive change. And so I really like this because it's talking about, you know, people reaching their full potential, and in order to do that, you know they can't have a dependency, they need to be self-reliant and they need um, not to say that they don't need help, right, but um, let's see.
Emily Hemmert:So this other, there's two more um. This one says giving to those in need what they could be gaining from their own initiative may well be the kindest way to destroy people, and I really like that because, you know, sometimes we think that we're doing something good and in reality we're like, um well, this quote, this second quote, says it really well, because it's way more eloquent than I can be. It says when we do for those in need what they have the capacity to do for themselves, we disempower them, and so this book was really eye-opening because it helped me as a charity, a person in charity, to make sure that we were going about it in a way that's not creating dependency and really allowing people to have accountability and we're not just giving them the money like it's a loan, in the same way that you would get a loan, like that we would get a loan here from the bank. So it's not just like this handout, like you talked about.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, I love that.
Emily Hemmert:And if they pay it back they can get another one right about yeah, I love that, and if they pay it back they can get another one, right, yeah? And so we've had several people qualify for a larger loan, like after an initial loan, and because they don't have like a credit score, for example, like we'd have here, as a way to determine creditworthiness, we use their ability to pay back a small loan as a way to demonstrate creditworthiness to qualify for a larger loan. And so we've had several people take a small loan as a way to demonstrate credit worthiness to qualify for a larger loan. And so we've had several people take a small loan and then grow their business from there. You know, one of the our best stories of success is we have a woman who was selling food outside of her house and with her loan she was able to have a better location and a better stove and everything.
Emily Hemmert:And then now she has, like, several locations, right, so she's not just like she's you know, had her business and has been able to really grow it and now she has employees and things like that. So, yeah, they definitely can qualify for additional loans after repaying their loans and they have like 10 to 18 months to pay off their loans and some of them are able to pay them off early as well.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, that's so cool. Now you just went back to Honduras. Tell us a little bit about that. How was that trip? What was your?
Emily Hemmert:I went back in February and that's when kids start school. Every year is in February, and so I was there to help get all the kids kind of wrangled and go school, school, school, clothes shopping, and it was I mean, I've been several times with this trip was really impactful just because we had so many more students that I was able to meet and their stories and we've been able to kind of open up some new areas where we're helping students. There were a few things that stood out to me in talking with these kids and, you know, realizing like we have several households where they have no electricity, a lot of our households don't have running water, so that wasn't, as you know, like I knew that, but to learn that we have several households that don't have electricity and running water was really eye-opening to me and surprising, just like the intensity and how extreme the poverty that is that they're living in. But it was also just interesting to talk with them and realize that for kids living in poverty, they are really sheltered from big ideas or thinking that they can accomplish big things because they, you know, they just have their day-to-day struggle, and so it was fun to talk to them about like what are your hopes and aspirations and dreams and what are you looking forward to, and things like that.
Emily Hemmert:And we have some really incredibly bright students and you know really hardworking kids who have big dreams and goals for their life. So it was it was really, really fun to be able to go shopping with those kids and get their uniforms and stuff and just see how grateful they were. And you know that they are not taking this for granted, that they're not taking it the opportunity lightly. So one thing, too, is that we implemented a, a GPA requirement, so in order to continue getting support, they do have to have a B average. And that's to make sure that we're getting the kids who really want to be there, who want to go to school. And you know, like if if they're not willing to put in that effort, then the money can go towards students who really have that desire to be going to school and doing their best and succeeding in school so wow, that's cool that gives them something to work towards too right what's that?
Scott Brandley:that gives them a goal. It gives them something to work towards something to achieve.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, wow, very cool. Emily, you're awesome. I know we love you to work towards something to achieve. Yeah, wow, very cool.
Scott Brandley:Emily, you're awesome.
Alisha Coakley:I know we love you.
Emily Hemmert:And I meant to mention this when I started that you know, to me it's really admirable that Scott and Alisha do this, and you know it's like it takes their time, and they're not doing it for any like monetary gains. They're just doing this because they know that there are stories we're sharing that people need to hear, and that's really admirable in the world that we live in today, where most people are only doing things like if there's some financial benefit, you know, for them to do something, and so I think that's admirable that you guys have this and that you're using this platform to really just spread goodness.
Alisha Coakley:So, thanks, I give all the credit to Scott. I just show up cause I I'm bored and I had no friends. No, I really do love doing it and I I love Scott for inviting me on, so, all right, well, miss, emily, we're going to hear about Nellie's story today, right, and I know that you talked a little bit about Nellie in your first episode and about how you guys met and stuff like that, but we're just going to turn the time over to you, I guess. Where do you? I don't know. Do you want to tell us who Nellie is and then start her story? Or do you want to start her story and then insert how you guys met?
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, I can start off by just talking about how we met. And so, as a missionary in Honduras, it was really hard for me. I didn't speak Spanish and I, you know, honestly struggled with a lot of my companions, and so Nelly was one of my companions that we just really got along really well and she's like a true peacemaker, and you know, to be a peacemaker it's not just like avoiding contention, but it's also just like finding ways to create peace, I don't know. So she was a true peacemaker and we really got along and we kept our friendship after the mission. And so, basically, you know, in 2020, with COVID, they had back to back hurricanes in Honduras. She had kind of reached out and let me know that they were struggling and we were trying to kind of figure out a way to help them. And you know, one idea that we had basically was to create a nonprofit there and that her husband would be able to run the nonprofit and that would be his job, because he really needed some sort of steady income, and so that's kind of how the Markovia Project was born.
Emily Hemmert:But a few things about Nellie in terms of how she was raised and her life are kind of what I wanted to talk about today. I encouraged her to write an autobiography because she has this amazing story. I encouraged her to write an autobiography because she has this amazing story and journaling has been a really powerful tool for her to help her with her anxiety and depression, and so this was like really therapeutic for her to be able to get a lot of her history and everything on paper and like that process of writing I know, alisha, you do, you guys, I guess both do writing right so that process of like putting your thoughts paper is can be really, really powerful. But I just want to kind of share some of her story, because it is so powerful, and talking about why her goals, like what her goals are for her future and where those came from. In terms of how she was raised and so her story.
Emily Hemmert:She starts out by saying her grandparents were raised in poverty, her parents were raised in poverty, she was raising her children in poverty and she wanted something better for her kids and for their future, and so I am really hopeful that this will be the generation for them where, you know, the poverty stops. Her daughter is five years old, in kindergarten, going to a private school, learning English in a bilingual school and they're really great parents and they're doing everything that they can for their children to be able to have a successful life where they're not in poverty.
Scott Brandley:Does she describe poverty? Because I think that's something here we don't. I don't think we fully appreciate until we go to a third world country right.
Emily Hemmert:Right, yeah, so something I did want to mention is just the difference between poverty in countries like Honduras and Africa, or places like Honduras, africa, things like that, and how it compares to poverty in the United States. It compares to poverty in the United States, and so the type of poverty that they experience in Honduras is called absolute poverty, and that means that it's an inability to meet your most basic needs. So it's like lack of adequate shelter, lack of clothing, lack of clean drinking water and lack of food, right, and so what? The type of poverty that we experienced in the US is called relative poverty, and that means relative to your community. You have less than others.
Emily Hemmert:So here in the US we have kids who maybe don't have a video game console, or their parents don't have a car, or their house isn't as nice, right, and then that definitely is poverty. Or they, you know they don't have, they don't have good, nutritious food to eat, but they still have food. And the type of poverty that you know that she experienced and that her parents experienced and that her husband and his family experience is, like you know, not having three meals a day. Right, like that, that absolute, like your most basic needs are not, are not being met. Um she talks about her dad was one of 10 kids and for breakfast his mom would cook um an egg and um share it among the kids you know.
Emily Hemmert:So, um, one egg one egg for oh my gosh and so, um, you know, you look at, like, the the effects of poverty in terms, like the physical effects of poverty in Honduras, are that kids have stunting. So it's not like, you know, famine like we're seeing in um, gaza, where you know, like a kid might die from, from not eating for weeks, right, but it is that they might go a day or two days without eating or you know, and they do have stunting and just malnourishment. So that's the kind of poverty you know that she was raised with. She talks about. You know her parents always really tried to make sure that they had food on the table. But she lived in a house that was made and this is really common in the areas that we're at but they it's just made of like plastic tarp, right, so it's like some sticks and some tarp, and that's the kind of house that she grew up in. And you know she she ended up going to school to study architecture and she had these dreams of, you know, one day being able to have a nice home that you know was properly constructed and things like that.
Emily Hemmert:But, yeah, I mean to give you an idea of the poverty, it's like no running water. You know, like I mentioned, some of the houses don't have electricity, definitely not having enough food to eat, even like a shortage of clothing and adequate shelter, in terms of, like the rainy seasons there and houses flooding and all of that. So it's, you know, you know it's. It's defined as extreme poverty, basically as if you're living on less than $2 and 10 cents a day. And it is exactly that. It's just like it's really extreme in terms of your, your basic needs not being met.
Scott Brandley:Right, you're just trying to survive Right.
Alisha Coakley:Right, right, wow, yeah, right, right, right, wow, yeah, that's crazy. So okay, so go ahead and and and tell us like where, where does, where does all this? I don't know. I don't know how much you want to tell us.
Emily Hemmert:Okay, I had a few thoughts, you know, in terms of this the cycle of poverty being perpetuated, a few things. It's like it's it can be, it can poverty can be perpetuated, but so can, um, other issues like anxiety and depression and things like that. And so Nellie had a very traumatic childhood and, um, you know, that's something that she's really had to deal with and cope with as an adult, trying to process all of her childhood and the traumatic things that she experienced, partly because of poverty, just partly because of living in El Salvador, where, you know, it was really unsafe, where women especially don't have a lot of safety and travel, and things like that. Let me see, and things like that, let me see. So, yeah, like I mentioned, her dad was one of 10 kids. They were all 10 kids were from a different dad because her grandma was a prostitute, and so that was like the way that she was able to make a living for her children and they didn't have, you know, like access to contraceptives and stuff like that. Um, her mom was one of 10 children and at the age of eight, um, her grandma abandoned the family and went to live with somebody else, and so she was left with her dad and was also, like, had a lot of responsibilities to care for um in the the home, and so she never went to school and um and then her grandma or her mom so her mom never went to school, because she was um, because her mom is the one that left her um grandma left
Scott Brandley:her mom oh, okay, okay, yeah, so when?
Emily Hemmert:her mom when her mom was.
Scott Brandley:So this is her mom. This is her mom's story.
Emily Hemmert:Right. So this is her mom's story that when her mom was eight, nellie's grandma had left and then, when she was 12, her dad was beheaded in a war that they were having in El Salvador. So she was basically left an orphan at age 12, um, so at age 15 she went to the city to be like a servant, like a house a house servant, um, and you know she faced a lot of challenges with that. She ended up having a son when she was 18 and, you know, was really unable to care for him and there was so much going on with with the war and all these things that she was, you know, she had her, the father's family take care of the child, um, the father's family take care of the child and then eventually, um, you know, was just like, unable to go travel and see him because of the war and the travel restrictions and everything with that, and then he ultimately, you know, didn't didn't want anything to do with her and she lost all contact with him.
Emily Hemmert:So this would be Nellie's brother that you know. It was just interesting that this was perpetuated, that, like her grandma had abandoned her mom and then her mom also, you know, ultimately ended up having this child and not have that child. You know, it's interesting to me like I was reflecting on my own family tree, because I love family history. Um, and in my own family tree, my mom's parents died when my mom was 16 in a plane crash. But my grandma's grandma also died, um, when my mom's grandma was little, and so it's just interesting how some of these things you know perpetuate themselves, whether like intentionally or unintentionally, or just how those things work, right.
Emily Hemmert:But I guess one message that I wanted to share throughout all of this is that we have the ability to say, like, regardless of what's happened in our family tree, we can change things moving forward. Of what's happened in our family tree, we can change things moving forward and we do not have to carry on that baggage or like perpetuate those things from our family tree that we don't like. And I think that's really important, because I know a lot of us have things in our family tree, maybe that we're not proud of or that we don't like, and we get to be the person that decides like, going forward, my family tree is going to be different, right.
Alisha Coakley:Well, it's interesting Cause, like I saw this, this video that talked about the way that our DNA is created and like it's, we basically have like 50% of our parents' DNA and then our parents have 50% of their parents' DNA and and and so we do have some of those like tendencies to take on that personality or that addictive nature or to take on that that trauma or that mental health issue or whatever it is. This makes perfect sense to me. What you're saying, and I know you mentioned how your husband, anthony, he has this um testing thing that he does in his yeah, so my husband is a mental health.
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, he's a mental health therapist, and something that he does with his clients is called a genogram and what it is essentially is a family tree. But instead of just identifying the people you're talking about, what were the characteristics of that person? And you can start to identify different patterns and, um, psychological disorders and things like that, right, and that can be really eye-opening to see, like, well, my dad was an alcoholic and his dad was an alcoholic and turns out like his dad was an alcoholic, and you can kind of start to see okay, why am I the way that I am? And then use that information to say I understand that this is why I am the way that I am, but I can control my future and make decisions that go against maybe what, what this is telling me? Does that make sense?
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, yeah, exactly so it's a really powerful tool, that, um, that you can do and it's, like I think, worth doing for everyone to just you can, uh, look it up on Google genogram, butogram but it's really powerful to start to identify some of these behaviors and things and you can see like, oh, that's why, you know, I'm tick a little differently, or whatever it is right.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, yeah. And it's not that it gives you an excuse like oh well, that's just written in my DNA, that's just how my life is.
Emily Hemmert:It's like you know, I know it's cheesy and cliche, but knowledge is power, right? If you know what you're dealing with, then you can say oh cool, okay, now I get to figure out what tools I need to use or what I need to be aware of, so that I don't fall into allowing. That part, too is like the poverty cycle and how it's so powerful in trapping people, because oftentimes I think we think, like, why can't someone just, you know, toughen up and figure it out and, you know, do better kind of thing, right, yeah? But I'll just briefly like explain this. And if a child is raised in poverty, they are disadvantaged in receiving an education, and we see this in Honduras, because if a kid can't afford the school uniform, then they often don't go to school, right? So now you have a kid who didn't go to school, who doesn't know how to read and write, who can't get a good job, and then now they have a child and they're raising their child in poverty and that child has those same disadvantages in terms of going to school and it just gets perpetuated and it's actually a really difficult trap to break.
Emily Hemmert:Um, something that may. I'm kind of a science person, so somehow I came up with this idea, clicked in my head, that of newton's first law of motion, and it says that an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and direction unless acted upon by an external force. And so, to me, what I can understand from this is that the poverty cycle is going to happen and perpetuate itself until there is some intervention. Right, and we are that intervention. And so sometimes, like people look down on outsiders, thinking that they're coming into Africa or wherever, and like imposing themselves on people, right, and their ideas and their beliefs, right, but it honestly is like educating a child that that child can now become an educated adult and raise an educated child, right, but it's so necessary to like break that poverty cycle because it's such a strong force to like continue and perpetuate that um it really does need some sort of outside intervention.
Scott Brandley:All right.
Emily Hemmert:For Nellie was the church part of that cycle that helped her, yeah. So it's really honestly, really really cool to see, because, you know, in Honduras the families that are in the church generally do a lot better financially and in a lot of different ways. I think there's a few reasons for that. One of them that I mentioned was talking about the study that they did of how to avoid getting in poverty. But if you look at like, if you go on a mission and when you graduate high school, you go on a mission, you wait to have children, all of those things are setting you up for a more successful life than if you were like 14, 15, having kids and all those things.
Emily Hemmert:So Armand grew up a member of the church, um, and Nellie has a really it has a really awesome story, um, as far as that goes. So her parents, um, her parents joined the church when she was little, and her mom, so her mom was really interested in the church, met the missionaries really interesting. The church intercept and her husband wasn't as interested and she just gave him an ultimatum. She said you can choose to join the church with me or you can choose to not be part of her family, part of our family, like. That was just like, like, if you, if you want to be with me, like going forward as a family, like this is what we have to do, like this is what our family needs, right, and so I love that. So her dad was like, oh yeah, of course, okay, I'll do it.
Emily Hemmert:Um, and so they have this really awesome but also really heartbreaking story. So they were baptized, they end up being able to be sealed and then, within a so Nellie also had a younger sister, a younger sister, and when, um, shortly after being sealed as an eternal family, her sister died in a really tragic accident. She was, she pulled boiling water down on herself and died as a result of those burns. Um and so for nelly, like the fact that they were sealed in the temple was so comforting and allowed them to get through that really hard time. Because I have to imagine, like, if they hadn't just been sealed as an eternal family, like how would they have coped with the death of their young daughter, right?
Emily Hemmert:like and so the church and the gospel and all of that knowledge really was powerful for them to be able to overcome that really incredibly hard thing that happened to them. And so that was really, you know, I think for Nellie that really strengthened her testimony of eternal families. Like I said, she was my mission companion, mission companion, and so when we would go and we would talk to people about the blessings that come from being baptized, the blessings that come from being sealed in the temple, the blessings of the gospel, we could talk about that. She knew that one day she would see her sister again and how powerful that was for her to have that reassurance that she would be able to see her sister again. And it was really cool for her to be able to share that as a missionary.
Emily Hemmert:And you know, like, the lives that were touched by that in terms of being able to give people like testify of the reality of that truth that families can be together forever, yeah, definitely had a testimony of that and, like I was kind of talking about, you know she had this traumatic kind of some traumatic things happened. One of those things was that she, you know they came and she saw her sister who had just been severely burned and you know who died a few days later and dealing with, like the image of that you know she just has, that was just traumatic, right, and so she was later diagnosed with having some PTSD, I think, from that and some other life events that had happened. But you know it always comes back to like this reassurance that she knows that she's going to be able to see her sister again and the piece that that brings, I'm sure is, you know, incredibly helpful.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, yeah, for sure, wow. So, um, I guess you know how does. Well, where do maybe you know, I don't know, if you see, that's the thing. I don't know how much you know, so I don't know how much I can ask. But how did, how did her and Armando get together?
Emily Hemmert:Um, okay, so they. So she served. So she's from El Salvador. She served a mission in Honduras and then they didn't like um, meet each other on the mission, but somehow they were like made aware of each other or something that. And she had gone home and then he had sent her a message on Facebook and then they kind of just like were messaging on Facebook and, um, yeah, they, they ended up, you know, ended up getting married in the um, in the temple and everything like that. So, um, yeah, he's from, so he's from the area of Honduras where our project is. She's from El Salvador, which is close by and similar in terms of the poverty and things like that.
Emily Hemmert:You can see how the church has blessed their life as well and also the lives of their children, just because, as a missionary, it was really cool to see the kids going to primary and learning A lot of things that you don't the world doesn't teach you right like.
Emily Hemmert:That's where you learn just to have these core values of like being a good person, like you probably shouldn't rob someone and you probably shouldn't kill them, and you know, like just those basic values that maybe they aren't being instructed at home, but like learning those and just like being a good person and growing up in the young men's, young women's program, armando served a mission in Peru and so the church has definitely like blessed their life in countless ways and you know they serve a lot like. Armando is the district president, so he's over the four areas that we are working in and that's kind of what allows him to be a really successful leader in this project is because he's very acutely aware of people and their needs and all that's like happening, you know. So he like for his calling he is over all of these people but also for his job. He gets to like minister to them as part of his job, which is really cool.
Alisha Coakley:That is really cool. So, wow, I love when things like that work out. You know when it's just, when it just it's. It's too much to be a coincidence, right, like yeah.
Emily Hemmert:Yeah. So he, um, he is just like a natural born leader as well, and it's just cool to see like his hopes and visions and dreams for the area. So what he's he's trying to accomplish right now is that his district would become a stake, and then also they that they could be their own mission. And if they um accomplish the goal of being their own stake and becoming their own mission, then they, you know, will be able to have a temple there, um, in southern honduras, which would be really awesome.
Emily Hemmert:But you know, he's, um just a natural leader in terms of identifying, like having a goal and like working towards it, like okay, we want to have a temple, like what do we need to do to get a temple here, you know, and like and working towards accomplishing those goals and, um, yeah, he's a really great leader in the church there that is really what a cool.
Scott Brandley:Vision to come from nothing. And and envisioning, visioning building a temple. Right, you know that's so cool that is really, really, really cool.
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, poverty, that they still do, because a lot of experts estimate that the destruction that happened set their country back 50 years in economic development. And so you look at that time frame, like in the 90s, when everyone was developing, and they got put set back 50 years in development, right, because it just wiped out schools, it wiped out communities, you know, and so a lot of that area where we work is like still rebuilding and recovering from this hurricane that happened however many decades ago, you know, and it just shows the process and how, how, that you know, like the things that happened then are continuing to affect kids today that are being raised in that area, where, you know, homes were destroyed and people were left with nothing and all of those things.
Alisha Coakley:So Wow, oh man. So is there more to Nellie's story that you want to share with us?
Emily Hemmert:Sure. So, like I said, nellie, you know, and I've talked to her and she's okay with me talking about some of the stuff so she has suffered from, and I've talked to her and she's okay with me talking about some of the stuff so she suffered from. She suffers from depression and anxiety and in her story she kind of talks about, talks about some of that and I wanted to share, like in her own words, because I feel like her own words were really powerful Like having gone through some postpartum. I went through like postpartum psychosis, which is something I don't often talk about, went through like postpartum psychosis, which is something I don't often talk about, but I basically like was incredibly sleep deprived and just was like starting to like hallucinate and hear voices and kind of just going a little bit batty and so all my experiences in that like helped me, as her friend, to be able to, you know, help her get the resources and everything that she needed for her own like postpartum mental health, what we so Nellie wrote this in Spanish, in her native language, right?
Emily Hemmert:And then we put it into Google Translate. And then, you know, because Google Translate isn't perfect then I went through it and like read what she wrote, read what Google put in English, and like tried to make it into like what actually would make sense, right, and so it's still kind of like a process.
Emily Hemmert:But, ok, I'm going to. This is what I'll start with right here, so, ok, so this is like when she's first talking about her the early years of her and Armando's marriage. We had many economic difficulties. Since the beginning of our marriage, armando worked at a sugar cane factory with a difficult schedule. He alternated day and night shifts each week and it was not consistent. Night shift was the worst because he was home during the day, but that was his only time to sleep and he was so tired.
Emily Hemmert:Two years into our marriage, in 2017, we found out that I was pregnant. When I was eight weeks along, armando and I went to the doctor for an ultrasound to see our baby. We were so excited to hear the heartbeat and to see our tiny child in my womb. When the technician performed the ultrasound, we saw the tiny embryo, the miniature growth that we had great hopes and dreams for. Only there was no heartbeat.
Emily Hemmert:We were, we were devastated. It was very difficult. We felt hopeless and so confused. We had no answers for why my body miscarried and then they ended up doing you know, some sort of procedure, and she said you know, although everything went well, it was unspeakably difficult to leave the hospital without our child in my womb. The next year, in 2018, I found out that I was pregnant again, and while we were excited at the potential of having another baby, we were so afraid that the same thing would happen again. We went to the ultrasound and could hear the strong heart our own hearts burst with joy and gratitude. Months later, we found out this baby would be a girl girl.
Emily Hemmert:I always knew that I wanted my first daughter would be called emily, after my great mission friend, and so my daughter emily and um, you know, it's like nelly, she lost her sister, which was her only sibling, and we, you know, kind of bonded and became, like you know, we were sisters in the mission and we kind of bonded and have a relationship just like sisters, like real sisters, in terms of being able to like, call each other and support each other. Even though we live thousands of miles apart, we can be able to just be there for each other during hard times. So that was one story that I wanted to share. And then, um, okay, so Nellie, a little bit of a backstory, but you're not going to hear all that, because she loves Christmas, and so she just talks about how much she loves Christmas and then it leads. It leads into this. So it says for Christmas, I try, and this is talking about her depression and um, and I, if this is like triggering, I hope it's not triggering, but it does turn out really positive and there's a good takeaway here. So she said for Christmas, I tried to rejoice, but my mind was always restless.
Emily Hemmert:Even my favorite holiday could not shake me out of this bottomless trench. It was as if I looked normally outside, but inside my mind was going a thousand miles an hour, thinking tirelessly, day and night, and life did not improve. The financial problems did not improve. The pandemic left us with nothing. 2021 was about to start and I had already been struggling for several months with my feelings.
Emily Hemmert:One day, I woke up from a difficult night. I remember sitting on the edge of a bed and wishing I were dead. Thinking about living through the day was a burden. It was hard to think about living the next hour, let alone the next weeks, years, etc. I felt that I no longer wanted to be here. I no longer belonged to this world. The feeling was so dark that I did not even think about my daughter, my husband or the hope of the gospel. I just wanted to end all that burden that I felt in my body and in my, in my head and in my body. After that day, everything was like this my mind was no longer mine and my thoughts were only focused on dying. It was an obsession, something that, no matter how much I wanted to, I could not stop it or get it out of my mind. Looking at a hanging rope, using a knife in the kitchen, these intrusive thoughts were not normal. They were not me.
Emily Hemmert:One day, I asked Armando to give me a blessing, because even in the lowest depths of the darkness that was my mind, I could feel something above it all, a stirring of hope. Armando told me that taking my own life would not achieve anything. It was very hard. Armando couldn't go out to work because he wouldn't leave me alone If he went out. It didn't take long before I was calling him that I had an anxiety attack. I wanted to die, but I didn't want to. I became afraid.
Emily Hemmert:Being alone caused panic attacks because there would be no one to stop me if I committed suicide. I was afraid of what I could do to myself and I did not want to cause trauma to Emily if she saw me take my own life. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't find a way out. One time Armando had to go out.
Emily Hemmert:I remember Emily fell asleep and I sat in the armchair thinking what I was going to do. I had a clear plan. I didn't want to hurt myself, but I didn't want to continue living like this anymore. I knelt down and yelled at God, asking him why he had not helped me. I yelled at him Did he want me to take my life? Why wouldn't he stop the pain? I begged and pleaded. No matter how much I asked him, I couldn't feel better. I cried and I cried and I cried. I still felt the Lord wasn't listening to me. There was always something inside me that made me feel that I should continue to endure.
Emily Hemmert:Days later, I began to read the Book of Mormon. I began to remember my covenants, the Lord's plan, the purpose of life, and after a long time, I felt hope. Things remained the same my stomach was destroyed by nausea. The anxiety didn't leave me for a moment, but I felt that the Lord had not abandoned me and that I was still alive because of him, because of the strength he gave me and because, although I couldn't see that he had not left me, I understood that I had not taken my life, despite so many impulses and pain that I felt. Because of Heavenly Father, I asked for forgiveness. Things did not improve from one day to the next, but I had many people with me my parents, my husband, my daughter, my friend Emily. She was always with me. I started doing yoga and began a drug treatment. A psychiatrist diagnosed me with anxious depression and post-traumatic stress. The medicine didn't take effect right away. I spent many weeks adjusting, between the gospel of the Lord, prayers, the study of the book of Mormon yoga medicine and all those who were looking after me, I began to recover my life. It was a process and even today, sometimes the anxiety returns and the fear of having depression again invades me.
Emily Hemmert:I do not consider myself a survivor of depression, but rather lucky to have come out of it. I always have fear that it will return. There is nothing in the world that I fear more than feeling like this again. There is nothing more distressing than thinking that I could feel so hopeless again. It is something inexplicable and so real that you have to experience it to understand it.
Emily Hemmert:Since then, when I see that someone has taken their own life, I feel so sad because it could have been prevented. I want to have all the money in the world to create a place that helps people with depression for free, where they can come and receive treatment and find hope without consideration, but getting better. Now I know that I am not alone. Life has not been the same for me. The world no longer seems a safe place to me. The illnesses and all the sorrow that we go through are sometimes difficult for me to understand. Depression changed me forever, but it also left me with good things, many. If I think about it, I value my family more Heavenly Father's plan, my Savior Jesus Christ and the power of the priesthood. I know I can do everything with God's help.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, and so man.
Emily Hemmert:I think this is like an important story to share, because there is so much suicide everywhere I mean especially in my community, it seems like but I want to share just my experience, um, from being her friend and helping her through this time, um, just that there. I want to give hope to people like brighter days are ahead, especially like with the crappy weather and and then winter right, like summer is coming and like literally brighter days are ahead because we're about to have more sunshine and things are going to be looking up. But I hope that people can hear this and draw hope from it that you're not alone and, though it may feel like God has abandoned you, he hasn't and he still loves you and he still cares about you and you know that you can get through this. And that is kind of the message that I hope, um, that you guys can take away from hearing that story.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, I love that. It would be like I don't even know it would be so hard. I mean, I know I get like in my funks, but I I definitely I don't have depression or anxiety and I haven't had PTSD or anything like that and just in like those little funks that I get into it feels impossible to pull myself out of. So I can't imagine what she went through, and I know that she's not the only one. I know that there's so many other people that are going through that too.
Alisha Coakley:I've talked before about the book Visions of Glory and how there's a part in there that mentions how some people come to this earth with the specific mission of being a savior in suffering and so not that we're the same as Jesus Christ by any means, but that we have certain types of suffering that we we agree to go through in order for us to have that empathy and that compassion on other people's and to be able to help point them back to Christ.
Alisha Coakley:And so it's just hearing that little bits you know bit about it and stuff like that. I think it's really neat that Nellie is the type of of spiritual giant that you know that is becoming that savior in suffering who's becoming the person who had to go through the things she had to go through then had to find the resources and figure out how she can heal and because of her taking that on and healing herself, now she's able to actually extend that healing to others. It's such a beautiful thing and I love seeing not that I want to see people suffering, but I love seeing people come out of suffering and then shine their light on the others who have been through something similar or who are going through something similar right?
Emily Hemmert:yeah, I think, for for nelly and armando it's really cool the project, to be part of the project, because they get to um, help the kids, that and they can see themselves in those kids because they've lived that life, like they've lived in the plastic house and they've lived in those conditions and they've suffered through not having enough food, and so you know like they can truly relate to those kids and exactly what it is that they're experiencing. I mean, like I've never had, you know, really had to miss a meal, like you know. So, but it's like they, they have a lot of empathy to be able to relate to these kids and and a huge desire to see them succeed and to like come out on top of of everything.
Scott Brandley:Well, even for her to go through those incredibly dark times, through her depression. I mean, I'm sure the families that she's going, her and Amanda are going to help they're going through that kind of stuff on a regular basis. I mean, we can't even fathom some of the conditions that those people live in and, like I said, unless you've gone there. I've been to several third world countries. I've seen it, like you, emily right. Um, I've been to several third world countries. I've seen it, like you, emily right, but most people in the United States haven't seen that kind of stuff and they don't know just how dire the situation can be. I mean, that's, it's got it's. I've seen people live in those conditions and it's hopeless. I mean, it's just there's no hope.
Scott Brandley:I remember, um, when I was on my mission. I went mission. I was doing a service project in a town called East London and we took this load of garbage to the dump and we went into the dump and there were people living there. That was their home and these little kids. I still remember it to this day seeing these little kids just rummage through garbage in the dump, and that was just home, and these little kids. I still remember it to this day seeing these little kids just rummage through garbage in the dump and that was just how they lived and I mean it still like haunts me and I think about it because it was just so disturbing. But I'm sure situations like that are are the same in her in honduras yeah, we have a student.
Emily Hemmert:One of our students was um was digging through the trash with his dad. That's what his dad does, right, like to find recyclable materials, and so he went to school. We started school last year and this year and it's cool because, like, he still goes sometimes and he helps his dad and stuff, but he's like able to go to school and to learn to read and those skills are gonna help him in the future to be able to have a different job, because you know otherwise, you look at I'm sure you could ask him, like what do you want to do when you grow up? And he and he would probably say, like be a recycling guy, you know, like my dad you know like that's your reality and that's all you know, and so it is really cool to be part of changing.
Emily Hemmert:you know some of those problems like that, but, um, I do think you know something that's that helps to understand is like, the impact that you can have as a person to make a difference for these kids is, you know, a small amount. Um, even just like these small business loans, like we have loans starting at $165, and they can take that loan and grow a successful business and have savings and employ other people and feed their kids three meals a day, and all of that with a small amount of money and so it's really something to be a part of.
Scott Brandley:Explain to us what $165 can do.
Emily Hemmert:Explain to us what $165 can do, and with that kind of loan you could get everything that you needed to start a tamale business and sell tamales. Or we have people selling. One of our really successful borrowers actually sells little treats to the kids at the school, and so she just bought up a whole bunch of little stuff and now she can reinvest in her business, save money, pay herself. She pays a few other people to work with her, and so it's things like that and it's giving hope, because I think you talked about people feeling hopeless, and that's really what our whole purpose is is to give people hope, hope that you know, for a brighter future for them, hope for a brighter future for their children, because a lot of the reason that people are leaving hunters is because they feel hopeless. Here or there, you know, and there's, they feel like there's no opportunities, and so that's the reason that a lot of people are leaving. And we've found that if we can identify someone who maybe wants to leave to the US because they feel hopeless, and we can ask them what would it take for you to stay and what do you need and what are your goals, or what are some thoughts that you've had about a successful business that you can run, and they can identify that and put forward a plan. Ok, so one thing that I did want to share is that you know, in the United States we have the American dream and we think that that's just everywhere and in reality it's. That's why they call it the American dream, because it's uniquely American In that, like a high schooler today in my town could go get a job, they could make some good money. Right, there's some opportunities like they could go to college or even if they didn't, they could kind of maybe work their way up in some job.
Emily Hemmert:But when we were in Honduras, there was a young man who he was talking about his job and he works in the sugar cane factories and he makes $1.50 an hour and he works 12 hour shifts, seven days a week and you know, like sometimes nights, days, and it's like really demanding physical labor. And so when we were talking to some of the kids in the car while we were taking these trips, I said I'm gonna, I'm gonna make you a job offer and I told them I said you can work seven hours a day, 12 hour shifts, really hard physical labor making $1.50 an hour. You know do you want the job or not. And then you know some of them were maybe interested in, some of them were like, well, I don't know.
Emily Hemmert:And then I said, ok, or I have a different job, I have a different offer for you, but this one requires that you go to school and you graduate high school. And once you graduate high school, you're going to be able to get a job that you have days off, that you have a Sunday, that you could go to church. That you have. It's maybe like in an air conditioned office, it's not. You know tough, physical labor and you're going to be making a lot more money. Like, which of those two jobs do you want, right? And the kids were like, oh well, I want like the cushy office job with the air conditioning, making more money.
Emily Hemmert:You know it's like it's like, okay, well, if that's what you're going to aspire to, then you need to graduate high school, right, and you need to stay in school and you need to get good grades and all of those things, because that's what kids in Honduras are looking at right now for a job like if you that's what's available, right, like there really just aren't a lot of opportunities like there are here, especially like in the rural parts of Honduras. There's just less jobs available and the jobs that are available are all very physically demanding and very low-paying jobs. Mm-hmm.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, well, I love that you're encouraging them to stay too. You don't need to pick up and move, and it's good for some people and it's right for some people. But also it's like what was an old conference talk, where they talk about lift, where you stand and their place, and they just all live together. It's going to make everything so much better and brighter. And so I think that it's part of like that building the stakes in Zion right. Like it's part of like elevating the whole and not just focusing on what you can do for yourself, but like how can you stay in a place that needs to be built up and how can you be part of building that up, rather than just running away and, you know, finding some other place that's already built Right. So I love that you're like showing them how to kind of delay that instant gratification of like oh, I'll just hurry up and get a job and get money right now, versus like no, let's put a little bit more into it so we can get a lot more out later on.
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, and one thing I want to mention is we work with, like, the Church Perpetual Education Fund, and so if someone is able to take a class or like a course, then we can provide them, upon completion of that course, the tools that they need to be able to do whatever it is that they've studied. And so we currently, armando, is working with a like there's a Honduran, the church has someone over all of Honduras for self-reliance and they're working on creating classes where finding teachers who are willing to travel to these remote places and give the class, the class to a group, and then, once they complete that course, then we could supply them, like, with the tools, so that some of the different classes are like, um, hair cutting right.
Emily Hemmert:So it's like when they complete the hair cutting class, then they could get all the supplies that they need to have a little hair cutting business and things like that. And so it's cool to partner with the church in that way and like help people in that path of self-reliance.
Alisha Coakley:That's so cool. I really like that, wow. Huh. Well, emily, is there anything left that you want to talk to us about today as far as Nelly and the Markovia project?
Emily Hemmert:I really just hope that we can get this 40 pages or whatever into some sort of format that you can one day be able to read it, because there's so much here that I couldn't even touch on right in terms of her story and everything that she's experienced and everything that she's doing to um to create a better future for herself and for her children and to not perpetuate and pass on all of that trauma and, um, you know, like living in poverty, like her children are going to have a better life, and um, it's really exciting to think about. You know, we can't see the results of the work that we're doing necessarily in terms of sending students to school right now, but we are going to eventually be able to see it and it's going to be really cool to see what these kids end up doing with their education, like long term but you know we're not going to see that right away but it is going to impact, like, like future generations, which is really exciting.
Alisha Coakley:Wow. Well, I'm going to put this. I'm going to put a call out to our listeners right now. So, scott and I, we definitely have some people that we've met, that we've been networking with as far as, like publishing and book formatting and coaching and all that kind of stuff. So I'm going to put a call out to our listeners right now and I'm going to ask if you're feeling that little tinge of flutter happening in your chest and you happen to be probably a bilingual, let's say, maybe a publicist or someone in coaching or editing or something involving the books, I think it would be really great to kind of like take this off of Emily's shoulders.
Alisha Coakley:Emily is trying, you know, to help Nellie, but maybe if someone else can kind of give a hand up and help Nellie get her book complete and get it published, in a way that the organization can use it to either help inform people more about what it looks like, maybe to be someone who grows up like that and who is trying to change, or maybe they can even use it to give back to the organization, to give back to Nellie's family. Whatever they decide to do, if you're feeling a little tinge of like, maybe I should reach out. Please, please, please, do that, please, let us know, and we'll be able to get you connected with Emily and and she can, um, you know, bridge the whatever connection needs to happen between um Nellie and and things like that. So I'm going to rely heavily on our listeners to step up to give a hand up um, not a handout, but a hand up. And and especially for those of you who are listening who maybe haven't heard of the Markovia project, or maybe you have, you know, it's been a year like, let's send some more kids to school, let's get some more um donations rolling in and stuff like that, so that we can help with the funding of the business loans and that we can really help to heal these generations of of other children of our Heavenly Father, of our brothers and sisters.
Alisha Coakley:And I know, whenever I give, it makes me feel so much closer to the Lord and to my own purpose in life, and it's almost like the more I give, the easier it gets to give, right, like to the point where I'm like it'll be totally fine. Heavenly Father will provide a way. He, he will open doors and windows and and crooks and crannies and everything that he needs to in order for me to be able to continue giving and so, um, I just want to encourage our listeners to you know, to do that, to see how you guys can get involved in in the markovia project and then helping nellyie get her book out.
Scott Brandley:So, yeah, it is fun to be at the beginning of this and I still feel like it's just the beginning. I think you're going to do just amazing things as it continues. But yeah, if anybody's out there and they want a project that they can almost feel like they're in the grassroots of it all, this is a great one to be in. I mean, I'm sure you can just tell emily's heart's in the right place and her and her husband are really trying to make a difference for nelly and armando, and then nelly and armando are paying it forward and trying to make a difference to all those kids and their families. So what a what a great cause to be a part of.
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, I'll just mention yeah, we really try to be transparent with how we're using donations, and so, if you do follow us on social media we're on, we're on Instagram at at the Markovia project, but it's there that you'll see, like exactly how your money is being used, and so it's really I think our donors really appreciate that, that they can feel like they're donating and that they know that money is going directly to Honduras and helping kids, you know. So we really try to be transparent in all of that and I think people enjoy being able to follow along and see and see, like especially with the loans, like knowing that you're not just helping the initial family with their loan, but like every single month as they make loan payments and more loans are going out, it's like this exponential growth of your money being multiplied, you know, across years. So it's really awesome.
Scott Brandley:I love that. How does that make you feel, Emily, like as a person, just knowing that you're making a difference?
Emily Hemmert:For me. It just helps, give me a lot of purpose and like meaning in my life. I'm a stay-at-home mom and I have three young kids and that's very fulfilling. But it's also just really fulfilling to know that like I'm helping kids now and helping future generations I don't know. It's very gratifying.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, Awesome. Well and I know I do want to touch on this real quick before we go you guys had your first gala. What was it? A few months ago or something, wasn't it?
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, last fall.
Alisha Coakley:Okay, right, so it was in the fall. And, um, what are your plans? Do you plan on maybe doing another gala? It was for, uh, those who were able to contribute to the Markovia project. It was kind of like a thank you to them, right? Um, you guys, you shared some success stories there and things like that. Is that correct? Yeah, do you guys plan on maybe having another one in the future?
Emily Hemmert:Kind of what we're tentatively looking at is so we have 10 board members and several of them live in Las Vegas and we used to live in Las Vegas. So what we are tentatively looking at is having a fundraiser in Elko this year and a fundraiser in Las Vegas next year and then just all cycling through that. So like Utah, elko Vegas, utah, elko Vegas each year, that gives opportunities to like meet with and see different people and supporters and you know, like the accessibility of it in different places.
Emily Hemmert:As far as we have supporters in nevada, we have supporters in utah and other places like that, and so that's kind of our tentative um plan or schedule would be to have an event but, like you said, the annual gala is really an opportunity to thank our donors and to show them like the impact of of their donation and to highlight some of the goals that we have moving forward, and you know, to do that ask of like this is what we need to be able to reach these goals that we have moving forward, and so it's it's a really fun night. It's a really great opportunity to um, like I said, give thanks to our donors and and highlight the good that they're doing with their donations.
Alisha Coakley:Do you know when you guys are?
Emily Hemmert:planning on doing that this year? Is it going to be in the fall again? Um, so this year we are going to do it July 27th and that's going to be our Elko, but we are looking at possibly having some sort of online option for people to like that don't live in Elko obviously to be able to participate in that remotely somehow. But we are in the logistics of that.
Alisha Coakley:Okay, got it. Well, listeners, there's another project for you guys to take on. So, like you don't even have to donate financially to the projects. You guys could definitely donate some of your time and your talents and resources or even your networking, right Like, even if you guys know someone who might wanna get in and help out on this. I think that that would be really cool. So there's time to still become a donor of the Markovia Project and to be able to get that invite to go to the gala and to be able to see just kind of how impactful a little can do for those families and children, do for, um, for those families and children and stuff like that over in Honduras. So, emily, we just love you. Thank you so much for coming on here, for sharing more about the project and sharing about Nelly and Armando and, um, the good that you guys are all collectively doing together. I, you're just like one of my favorite people in the world and I.
Emily Hemmert:you're one of my favorite people too, I really appreciate you guys because, um, you know, a lot of what's happened here on the podcast has helped us to reach donors and um be able to grow our organization. And and also just your encouragement and your um support, you know, like your attitude of like you can do this and you got this, and you know, keep going, because you guys are both very entrepreneurial and both, um, very motivational. So I appreciate you both.
Alisha Coakley:Oh, thanks. Oh well, and thank you guys to our listeners for tuning in for the third time on Miss Emily. I always joke that Emily's just going to have to come be like a part, you know, like a part-time guest, like she's just going to have to take over.
Scott Brandley:Give Scott and I a break, it's not like she doesn't have anything else to do.
Alisha Coakley:She's not busy at all Changing the world Not at all. Oh.
Emily Hemmert:But we really do one like closing thought that I I wanted to share and I and I talked with alisha about this is that sometimes, when we watch people doing really awesome things, we makes us feel, um, inadequate or feel like we're not doing enough, and I hope that your takeaway from this is that you are uniquely you and you are doing what is important for you at your time and your place, and whatever it is that you're doing is enough and adequate, and Heavenly Father is pleased with whatever it is that you're doing, and I really just hope that you know you don't leave feeling like that you're not doing enough because you're amazing, and whatever it is that you're choosing to do is great. I love that, emily, because you're not doing enough, because you're amazing.
Scott Brandley:And whatever it is that you're choosing to do is great. I love that, emily, because you're a hundred percent right, and I even had a talk with my brother-in-law, who has been on the show. His name's Larry.
Scott Brandley:And he, he saw what we were doing with the podcast and he's like man, I just love what you guys are doing. I wish I could do something, and I'm like Larry, you can just. If all you can do is just go out and just share the podcast, or or find a find a really cool scripture or a quote from general conference and just post it on your Facebook channel, that is amazing.
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, it's like yeah, you're right.
Alisha Coakley:It's like you're right, I'm going can do that, can just have a huge impact. And and like emily, and with the funds of the marcovia project, with the loans, just kind of like constantly going back into it. I feel like any effort we make that especially is um is propelled by doing good because it's a good thing to do right, like not because you're wanting claim or fame or you know you're not expecting something coming back for you, but when you like genuinely just put your heart into it to do something good. Heavenly Father works all of that out in this very synergistic, beautiful multiplication type of way and he can just let it keep going and going and going and going. So, yeah, start wherever you guys are. You know, start by clicking that share button. The five second missionary work, right?
Scott Brandley:I mean, how much does it cost to sponsor a kid to go to school for a year?
Emily Hemmert:Yeah, it's about $150.
Scott Brandley:Okay.
Emily Hemmert:That includes everything that they need to go to school their uniform, some kids need their uniform, shoes plus PE shoes. It's like a brand new backpack all the supplies, a few sets of uniforms. Right now in Honduras, they are requiring that they wear turquoise uniforms, and so the students actually have to go and buy turquoise fabric and take it, like take a bus, take it to a seamstress, have it be made into a turquoise skirt, and so it covers all of those costs of like getting the skirt made by someone and the transportation and all the things that involve that. So it's. It maybe sounds like a lot, but it's a lot that goes into like making that all happen so that those kids can have all their supplies and everything that they need.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, yeah, wow.
Scott Brandley:Well, there you go. My point was like OK, if you can, if you can scrounge up one hundred fifty bucks, I mean you can put a kid to school for a whole year, give them hope and an opportunity they don't have right now. Okay, that's one option, right, if you're just thinking about what's something small I can do to make a difference? Or you could donate $10. Right, or?
Alisha Coakley:you can just share, like Alisha said you can share.
Scott Brandley:Or you can just post a positive comment and send Emily a post and be like Emily I love you, you're inspiring me. I'm going to keep going Like you're. You're my I'm. I'm cheering you on from the sidelines, right, whatever, wherever you can play the game, you can make a difference and even if it's just cheering her on, that's going to help make make a difference in in her life and that makes a difference in your life, cause you took the time to do that.
Alisha Coakley:Right.
Emily Hemmert:I appreciate that.
Alisha Coakley:Absolutely Well again. Yeah, in a time.
Alisha Coakley:I I'm sure we'll have you on a fourth time and we'll just make it like a, you know six months to a year, like just keep updating us, keep letting us know what's going on. Maybe maybe next time we can get to share, you know, more of one of the stories of either the children or the loans you know like maybe we can focus more on, like, who has been part of the Markovia project for an extended period of time and how that's helped, and that'd be really cool to share some some light on that.
Emily Hemmert:So yeah, I just have a quick thought. You know, when I first came on and I said, I said we've helped, we've just helped 11 students and I remember Scott said 11 students is a lot of students, like he was, like you know, it's not just 11 students, students, you know, and that was really helpful for me because I felt like we could be doing more or you know whatever, and so it. I just am grateful because because of Scott and because of your, you know, emotional support and all this, it's really motivated me to keep going, to grow and to like take the baby steps and to see, see the you know that what we're doing, regardless of how big or small it is, is making a difference. So I appreciate you guys and your support and all of that.
Alisha Coakley:Anytime, anytime.
Scott Brandley:Yeah, we love you, Emily Keep up the good fight.
Alisha Coakley:Well, and to all of our listeners guys, make sure that you I know Emily's trying to hurry up and go, she's gotta go to bed but we just want to thank you guys for tuning in, for listening, for commenting, for sharing, for doing all that kind of stuff, and we want to encourage you guys, if you have a story that you'd like to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others, just like Emily and Nellie, please, please, please, reach out to us.
Alisha Coakley:You guys can either head over to latterdaylights. com and fill out the page at the end of the form, at the bottom of the fill out the form at the bottom of the page, or you can email us or comment. Um, there's lots of ways to get ahold of us, but definitely go check out the Markovia project, um, you know, leave a comment for Emily and for Nellie and and see where you can help out. You know, see what it is that you guys can do to spread some more light to the world, because all parts of the world need help. Um, and if we, you know, can, can reach as far out from america to honduras, that would be phenomenal. We would love doing that.
Scott Brandley:so thank you, guys and thank you miss emily, anything else scott no, you're just awesome and and, yeah, we look forward to having you on again and just seeing where this goes. So good luck and I'm sure next time we have you on you're gonna have some other great stories to share with us, so yeah, that's awesome.
Alisha Coakley:Thank you, I look forward all right, thanks everyone, see you later take care bye.
