LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Alleviating Poverty with The Marcovia Project: Anthony Hemmert's Story - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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When the weight of financial and emotional struggles weigh down an entire community, can one visionary effort hold the power to lift them all?

For mental health therapist and father of four, Anthony Hemmert's path to aiding others began with a heartfelt desire to do more than just hand out money. Together with his wife Emily, the Hemmerts founded the Marcovia Project in Honduras—a holistic nonprofit that does far more than address financial strain. By offering small business microloans, educational scholarships, and spiritual mentorship, they’ve empowered individuals and families to lift themselves from the snares of poverty, remain united, and build the Kingdom of God in their own homeland.

In this inspiring episode of Latter-day Lights, Anthony shares poignant stories of how the Marcovia Project fosters both economic and emotional well-being. From children getting the chance to attend school, to struggling parents who discover renewed faith in their ability to provide, each life changed testifies to the truth that if we truly walk with someone through their trials, miracles can unfold.

Tune in and learn how simple acts of sacrifice, faith, and heartfelt connection can break the cycle of destitution, and brighten futures for generations to come.

*** Please SHARE Anthony's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/E1zdsd9vLhM

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To DONATE to The Marcovia Project, visit: https://themarcoviaproject.org/

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Scott Brandley:

Hey 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 one mental health therapist is helping others to alleviate poverty, both financially and mentally, through the Marcovia Project. 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. We're really excited to introduce Anthony Hemmert, which is Emily's husband, who's been on the show several times.

Anthony Hemmert:

Welcome to the show Anthony. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here.

Alisha Coakley:

Thanks for coming on. I mean, I'm sure Emily, it would have been a blast to have her again, but I'm kind of excited to get your perspective of this and to talk about the Marcovia Project, which you guys have been doing almost as long as we've been doing the show. I believe I think you guys started been doing almost as long as we've been doing the show. I believe, Right Like I think you guys started right around the same time, so about three years ago.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah, yeah, it's been about three years yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

That's awesome. Well, I think it's going to be so much fun and it's been a little. It's been a little bit of time since I've last, like heard you give a talk or anything like that or anything like that. But I've always remembered like I sit up a little straighter when Anthony starts. I'm like I really like what he says.

Anthony Hemmert:

I hope I can live up to that.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Scott Brandley:

So for those of you that don't know you, so you're from Elko, right, Anthony?

Anthony Hemmert:

Correct yeah, elko Nevada northern. Nevada.

Alisha Coakley:

Right and Alisha used to live in Elko, so that's how they got to know each other yeah, we were in the same ward together for a few years while we yeah, yep, yeah, yeah, that's really cool, and the hemorrhards are like one of my favorite families, so I just love them thanks, I appreciate that.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah, we love our ward family here that has been here still is here, and everyone that's moved away too.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, yeah. Well, why don't you tell our listeners just a little bit more about like you as a person you know? Give us a little sneak peek bio of Anthony.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yep. So I was raised in a little town in northern Nevada called Winnemucca. So I was raised in a little town in northern Nevada called Winnemucca, very small town, it's about two hours west of Elko and I hated it. I wanted to get out. I wanted to see the world. It's really small. There's about 5,000 people that live in the county and I did. I went and I saw the world. I served a mission in Argentina. I came back.

Anthony Hemmert:

I met Emily. We were dating about a year and a half and she decided to serve a mission and so that gave me time to catch up to her in college. So I went to college, graduated by the time she got back from Honduras, we were married in the Reno Nevada temple. We quickly then went to Vegas, started to have kids. I graduated from UNLV, became a mental health therapist and we saw the job opening in Elko and we took it and now we live in Elko. We love it, our kids love it, the schools and the parks, and we're just really, really happy here. Emily and I'll get into this later, but Emily, emily and I created the Marcovia Project, which is a nonprofit organization in Honduras to help alleviate poverty.

Alisha Coakley:

It does like, even so, much more than that too, and, like you said, we're going to get into that. We'll definitely be talking a little bit more about that, but yeah, I think I'm you know what. We should just start talking about it now. So we're going to do this, we're going to turn the time over to you and we're going to let you just kind of lead us today. It may be a little different than your typical one track story, but we we want to know kind of where, where, where are you going to take us from? What's your starting point for today's episode?

Anthony Hemmert:

Well, again, I'm honored to be here. I know that Emily's been here quite a few times and honestly, we have been so thankful for you, for your audience, for the platform that you've given us to grow and for the followers and the nation that have kind of risen up to help us in Honduras. Today, my challenge is to kind of tell you how the Marcovia Project came to be where it's at now and where we hope to be, from my perspective, from my lens, so, I think, to understand that a little better, I'd like to tell you a little bit more kind of about myself. As you said, I am a mental health therapist. So let's first talk about why I am the fifth of six children. My mother and father, dennis and Helen Hemmert, were living in Winnemucca, nevada, at the time. My father is a mechanic for the Nevada Department of Transportation and my mother is a school teacher, a special ed school teacher and I remember being very young like younger than kindergarten and my best friend across the street. His name is Lewis Clark. He said he wanted to be a doctor and I said well, why do you want to be a doctor when you grow up? Well, I want to help people. I was like, well, that's pretty cool, maybe I want to help people too. And then my little kid brain started thinking and I thought well, what if? What if someone breaks their arm, I can fix their arm, but maybe I can't make them feel better, right, I wanted to make people feel better. So I went to church and my primary teacher gave a lesson on Job and it just really hit me hard and I walked away from that lesson on Job. And Job had everything taken away from him his family, his health, his happiness, his success. And Job had everything taken away from him his family, his health, his happiness, his success. And yet at the end of that story he was still happy and I thought that's the type of doctor I want to be. I want to be someone who can help people feel happy, even if their arms and legs and everything is broken. And so I came home and asked my mom who does that? And it took her a while to decipher his little six-year-old Like what are you talking about, anthony? And finally they taught me the word psychologist. You want to be a psychologist? Okay, deal, I want to be a psychologist. I had a little kindergarten sign, like first day of school I had written psychologist and I went to college. I went to high school, went to college.

Anthony Hemmert:

In many ways I feel like I related a lot to the Savior or to people in the scriptures who had a lot of afflictions. I felt like a man of sorrows because at the age of 16, my best friend, lewis Clark the kid that wants to be a medical doctor he died. He killed himself, he died by suicide. Later that year my grandfather died and I just was really feeling it. There had not at that point in my life, there had not been a funeral that I had attended, where I wasn't a pallbearer, and I just really felt down in the dumps and I kept going back to that six-year-old me, that story of Job. I need to help people feel better. I need to help people feel better regardless of their physical state.

Anthony Hemmert:

So off to college, I went and I started studying and thankfully, the Lord called me to serve in Argentina and that was amazing and I saw and experienced a beautiful people, a people who were super, super poor, didn't have a lot of materialistic things, but that taught me that they didn't need materialistic things to be happy. And so I came home re-energized and in love with the Lord and in love with the gospel and wanting to help people feel better. I met Emily and I fell in love and she she told me she wanted to serve as well and that made sense to me. I was frustrated. I wanted to get married. I thought I thought marriage was the mission and she wanted to serve a mission and it was a blessing that that she got called to Honduras. I was super excited.

Anthony Hemmert:

She is a convert. I don't know if she's mentioned that in her previous podcast, but she is the only member of her family. The sister missionaries found her in college and thankfully was baptized and thankfully learned about the atonement, learned about Christ, learned about the fullness of the gospel and it has been one of the greatest blessings of my life to be married to a return missionary. She is definitely a pillar of righteousness in my home for my kids, for me, for extended family. I'm so thankful for the things that she learned and the way she grew and the person she is because of Honduras, so fast forward.

Anthony Hemmert:

We had not had kids yet and I was now in Las Vegas studying mental health, studying to become the psychologist, and one of her companions, nelly, and one of her companions, nellie, called us or emailed it must have been emailed us and said hey, the roof on my parents' house blew off, can you please send money? And we thought, like immediately, like yeah, of course we gave money that we really didn't have. We just made it work and we figured it out and tightened the belts that that month and the the impactful thing is that about eight years later, her and her husband, armando, sent us back the money that we had sent and they said, hey, thank you, thank you so much for that roof. We're just like holy smokes like who does that?

Anthony Hemmert:

And so so then Nellie and Armando fell on harder times and they they needed more help. And Emily and I were just in. It felt like in constant prayer of how do we help Nellie and Armando? Help Nellie and Armando. Now into my story.

Anthony Hemmert:

As a mental health therapist, I knew we had tried to just throw money at the problem, not throw money at the problem. We generously offered money and we said I am so sorry, these bad times are falling on you. Please, here's money. And we gave thousands of dollars and it just didn't seem to be helping. They would, they would have food, they would care for their children, they would start to get ahead, but not really feel like they were making traction.

Anthony Hemmert:

And I remember sitting with Emily one night and I said I just don't think we're helping Armando because he doesn't have a job and I think, as a father, he needs a job. I think he needs to feel like he can provide for his family. He needs to feel like he is a good man, like he has purpose, like he can provide and protect for his family. And we're not doing that by just sending money. And so we created this idea of how do we give Armando a job, and so from that birthplace, from that spot came the Marcovia Project and the whole time. For the last three years Emily has been focused on a whole lot of things and we'll talk about those things, but really from my perspective, my focus has been holistic mental health, and I am of the opinion that all health is connected to mental health.

Anthony Hemmert:

And so if we can help, someone be physically healthier, they're going to feel better. They're going to mental health. If we can help someone be physically healthier, they're going to feel better. They're going to think better. If we can help someone economically with their health, then they're going to be happier and healthier. If we can help someone socially to have better friends, to have better connections, then we are going to help their mental health.

Anthony Hemmert:

And I could quickly see that the Marcovia project needed to be something that was holistic and it wasn't just financial, it wasn't just something that we could give dollars to and fix problems. Now let me back up a little bit. I remember, right before my mission, my parents said we need to go get you a patriarchal blessing. Okay, let's do that. And again, I'm the fifth of six children and so I'd kind of seen this process with my older siblings and I was the first child to invite my parents to come along, which they were pretty like okay, so they come along with me. And in the process of receiving a patriarchal blessing which was a phenomenal experience and an experience that changed my life and really helped me feel loved. It helped me feel like my father in heaven knows who I am, has a job for me, trusts me and is proud of who I am. In the process of that whole experience, I was told that I would help the destitute. Now, remember little kid Anthony. That guy wanted to be a psychologist, and so I interpreted destitute to mean the sad, the lonely, the forgotten, and so for 15 years of my life I read my patriarchal blessing, feeling like I need to help the sad and lonely and forgotten.

Anthony Hemmert:

Now fast forward to my marriage and Emily, and here we are at the Marcovia project and we went down. We went to visit after we initiated the project, after we hired Armando as our first director of operations, after we quickly saw how awesome he is, how he found people who were perfect for this idea. He found people who were entrepreneurial. He found people who worked hard, who could keep their promises, who wanted to keep covenants. He found people who were so charged up that they just needed a little bit of money. We couldn. We couldn't give enough money quick enough. We were so excited to watch these people grow and to watch these people change. We went down, Emily and I, for the first time, and I was so excited to start to see number one, Armando. Armando's face changed.

Anthony Hemmert:

He was happier, he was healthier, he, I, I saw in him a priesthood holder who was so proud of the man that he'd become and he, he would call us often and and and he that first visit. He took us to every single family he knew and we were in dozens of homes and he was just so excited to, to introduce us to his friends, to his family, to his people, to the people there in the village and the community. And I started to see I think we're alleviating poverty. I took some notes and so I recently read of a study where 60,000 people were involved in the study and they took these tests and they took these surveys and all these things. Who we people, who we would determine, who we determined were in poverty.

Anthony Hemmert:

They defined poverty as a psychological state. So people without money really would describe poverty as a psychological state. It means that you're sad, it means that you're lonely, it means that you're forgotten, it means you're abandoned people, it means that you're lonely, it means that you're forgotten, it means you're abandoned. People out of poverty they all describe poverty as a physiological state or a temporal state. People who are out of poverty would describe it as oh, that means you don't have money and that means you don't have shelter and that means you don't have food and that means you don't have water, and I quickly could see the disparity of there. That, no, that that's not what it means. The people who are experiencing it, they think that poverty means that's when you're sad and that's when you're lonely. People out of poverty think, oh, I'm going to help, I'm going to help with people in poverty and so what I need to do is give money and power and electricity and shelter and all of those things are very, very important and we have done a lot to give those things. But to truly alleviate poverty for the people experiencing poverty, we need to help them mentally. We need to help them feel like they're not abandoned, like they're not forgotten, feel like they're not abandoned, like they're not forgotten, like they are important, like they are loved and cared for.

Anthony Hemmert:

And I personally have experienced that in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that when I go to church I belong and I fit in and people the Coakleys are excited to see me and the Smiths wanted to hear about what I did last weekend. And I now am not physiologically or psychologically alone. And if I'm having a bad day, if I'm feeling really upset. If someone in my family has died or I lost my job, I can call Brother Bramley and he at least knows what I'm going through. Even people at church who can't offer answers. They will sit through my grief and they will mourn with me as I mourn because of the example of the Savior, and I'm so thankful that the gospel has given me that.

Anthony Hemmert:

So back to Honduras. I was really really focused on we need to alleviate poverty. We need to help people feel loved and important and encouraged. Now I was a missionary at the time of President Hinckley. He is still very much my prophet. He signed the little card for me and President Hinckley taught that every member needs a calling, a friend, and to be nurtured by the good word of God. And I truly feel like in a conscious and maybe even subconscious level, emily and I and the Marcovia Project are trying to do all three of those things. We are trying to give people friends, we are trying to give people purpose and we are trying to give people the tools and the education and the knowledge that they need to alleviate poverty. And so we began. Emily gave me a whole bunch of numbers to give to you.

Alisha Coakley:

I was going to ask real quick just for listeners who maybe this is the first time hearing about the Marcovia project will you kind of tell them what you guys do, what the whole project is about, before you give us all the numbers yep.

Anthony Hemmert:

So the project started with the idea that we wanted to give people micro loans, and so we needed somebody in honduras to screen and to interview and to get to know people who had business ideas, who had business ambition but lacked business capital. And then we, the Hemmerts, or we, the Marcovia Project, would step in and say here's the capital that you need. And so we hired Armando to be our director of operations and he, the first year I think, he issued 10 loans, 12. I think it was one a month. And so he found well, we have all kinds of different types of loans. We have a floral shop, we have a taco shop, we have a welder, we have people in construction, we have fishermen, we have people who have livestock, we have some women who are sewing, we have some farmers. All of these people were given loans and, like I said, micro loans, like we're talking like $500. And then, with this capital going hand in hand with the example of the church, it's important to know that Armando is the district president in Marcovia. The name of the project is called the Marcovia Project because that is the name of the providence where these villages are. So Armando is the district president and, as part of the requirement of receiving a loan, the loan recipients signed up for the church's self-admiring class, and so Nelly and Armando and leaders of the church in Marcovia would then conduct these self-reliance classes, teach people how to use the capital that they got, how to a monthly basis, to run that project, to mentor people, to go to their homes, to go to their businesses, to help hold people's hands and say this is the way this can be done. Uh, pretty quickly.

Anthony Hemmert:

So our very first loan recipient his name was Felipe. He was a welder. We were meeting with Felipe and he introduced us to his family I think it was over FaceTime or Skype and he said well, I want you to meet my kids. And so he brings out his four beautiful children and he says and don't worry, I work them hard or they're hard workers, they have good work ethic, they all make popsicles and they help sell them in the streets for the family and emily and i's first thought was why aren't they in school?

Anthony Hemmert:

Because all of these kids were ranges 8 to 14, 8 to 15. It's cool and and just like it was commonplace, like why would you ask such a silly question, anthony? They said, oh, we can't afford it, like, school in honduras is free, but you only get to go if you bring all of the materials yourself, and so you need to show up with school uniforms, you need to show up with backpacks, you need to show up with books and notebooks and pens and scientific calculators and all the things, and we can't afford that for our four kids. So they're just not going to go to school. And Emily, especially, was not okay with that. So she quickly got on to Facebook or the socials or something and said, please, can someone help donate the money? We figured out how much money it would take to buy all of these kids two pairs of shoes, two uniforms, all the things they would need.

Alisha Coakley:

Please and that's what is that? A couple hundred, I believe, right, what is it?

Anthony Hemmert:

two uh, yeah, it's like 180 180 okay. Okay, yep and uh, although it's, we've done a lot of growing, so it started off.

Anthony Hemmert:

We're like I think we can do this for like a hundred bucks. And then the kid's shoes wore out and cause it's much different there, the climate's much different than we were expecting, and um. So anyway, emily got on on social networks and said, hey, can anyone help out? And within five minutes we had all all all four of those kids sponsored. Like it was very quickly. All of our friends, all of our family, all of our supporters were like yeah, of course, like these kids got to go to school.

Anthony Hemmert:

So then it became the Marcovia project was a two-fold mission. We we are going to alleviate poverty short-term, and the short-term is these microloans. Felipe is one of our greatest success stories. Again, his oldest child was 15 or 16 when we started and they had never celebrated a birthday, they never had extra money. And so I remember going through one year and what I thought would be impactful. What I thought would be like you're making your rent or your kids, you know your house is better, things like that. I said how is this helping? And he got really emotional and he said we were able to buy four cakes this year. Each of my kids had a birthday. I was like, holy smokes, this is working. We're alleviating poverty at the psychological level and it's just been an honor to watch this happen that quickly turned so.

Anthony Hemmert:

Short term, we're giving loans. Short term, we're helping people in business. Long term, we are ending poverty by sending kids to school. A lot of these kids would never go to school, they would never finish school, if they didn't have sponsors helping and sending them to school. So one of the statistics Emily gave me is that in Honduras of the statistics Emily gave me is that in Honduras. So what would happen is, oftentimes families would pick which student or which kid got to go to school, so not all four kids got to go to school at once before us, and so on average in Honduras, it takes 11 years to complete the first six grades of school. Wow, because like, oh, this year is Anthony's year, and then next year is Scott's year, and then it's Alisha turn, and so most kids don't get all the way through high school before they are now an adult and expected to work.

Anthony Hemmert:

And usually it's the boys right Is what Emily told us, yep, and so boys were being sent to school. Boys were being given preference, mostly. I don't know. There's a lot. There's a lot going on there. Is there definitely some misogynistic things happening?

Anthony Hemmert:

Yes, but also I think it became out of it grew out of economic um need. This boy is going to grow up and he's going to have to provide for a family. He's going to have to care for a family. We better make sure he knows how to read and write, while my little girl, she's going to grow up to not, and so she doesn't need that. And so we very quickly turned to that dichotomy and we said, no, all of our little girls need to go to school too. Turned that dichotomy and we we said, no, all of our little girls need to go to school too, and we need to keep these girls and boys on track to graduate in their childhood, because, as soon as they're not children in honduras, they have very, very hard lives. They are, they have lives that are committed to manual labor, um, and so what started off? We started with uh, 11 kids. In 2022, we had 11 kids felipe's four and then, I think, a few of the other loan recipients they had kids.

Anthony Hemmert:

Um 2023 we grew that number to 60 60 students wow and last year we sent 122 kids to school you guys, oh so wow this is me.

Alisha Coakley:

And now is this like is it like 11 and then 60 more or 60 including the 11? Like are they able to keep going?

Anthony Hemmert:

right original 11.

Alisha Coakley:

And they're adding to it.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yep. So last year we had five kids graduate and so we we caught a few teenagers who were right at the end of school and thankfully, with our help, they were able to finish out, and so we dropped five, and then also five dropped out. They just thought school was too hard or there. There just isn't enough educational importance in some families and communities yeah to see it, to see it through, and so, yeah, some of them were the original 11, who then grew to 60, who then grew to 120.

Alisha Coakley:

Um, yeah, oh my gosh, that's phenomenal. And to think in just three short years and like. It's not just those 120 kids, it's the generations below them, right.

Scott Brandley:

Like you just affected 120 generations.

Alisha Coakley:

You know that's just absolutely mind blowing, just absolutely mind blowing.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah, it again. It has been such an honor and such just really humbling experience to be a part of this, to to go and change people's lives, to recognize that very few of our dollars make big, big differences there and the things that we take for granted are huge blessings in their culture and in their society. So a few success stories that we've had there's a woman named Maria. We found her, armando found her cooking over an open fire. She would make a fire in front of her house every day and make food. We were able to get her a stove and get her a stovetop, and she has quadrupled her income, more than quadrupled, and is now employing other women who go out and sell food as well.

Anthony Hemmert:

Oh that's so cool, I love this Awesome and in a very real wayia is is the matriarch of her family. She's got her children living with her and grandchildren living with her, and maria, the grandma of the family, is the breadwinner for all of them and so she's providing all of those kids are going to school, all of those kids are being taken care of because Maria has the chance to work. So we're super excited about her. Another success story on the educational side May Lynn is a little girl who we found at nine years old. At nine years old she had never been to school, she had never been educated. Uh, she is now 13 years old and is in the fourth grade, and so she can see she's she's catching up. She's so excited that she's beginning to read and write and can do the academic things that other other kids can do that she never had the access to um a really, really cool. So one of the reasons or one of the ways that the Marcovia project stands out is we're very much working in partnership with the church, and so the church offers the perpetual education fund and then we work alongside it, and what we found is that Armando found a few women who wanted to learn how to sew the church perpetual education fund paid for them to learn how to sew and then, after they got done with their training, we bought them the tools they needed to use that and so, with our loans, they bought machines, they bought fabric, they brought thread, they bought the things that they would need and they are now successful business owners. They are now successfully taking care of their families and providing for food and water and electricity and all the things. So it's just really really cool to see how the church has helped us and how we have helped the church. Um, because Armando uh is the district president. He has a very um, he's a very close connection with with these villages and with these small communities, and it's been really, really interesting.

Anthony Hemmert:

It was really important to us that we don't operate like other churches in Honduras. So we try to get to Honduras once a year and each time we go the plane is full of other denominations, church members, and so we get to talking and like, oh, we're on a mission trip and we're this and we're that. And we learned very, very quickly that part of a requisite, a requirement for people in Honduras to receive their aid is that they were baptized and would participate in their church Really and it just felt forced. It felt like that's not how faith works. That certainly isn't the example that the Savior gave us. He baptized and spoke to and preached and helped and lifted Samaritans and Jews and Gentiles and was the Savior of the world, not just the savior of the chosen people, and so we've been very careful not to bleed those two lines.

Anthony Hemmert:

And yet, as people's needs are met, they have more opportunity to study the scriptures, they have time to pray, they have time and they want to be around the members of the church who are also receiving loans or who are going to school or who have met this Marcovia project why are those people so happy? I'm going to go to church with them. And so what happened is last year, half of the kids that received loans, half of the kids that were sponsored to go to school, were LDS. Half of them were not. Armando just told us last week, a few weeks ago, that half of the half that weren't have been baptized. And so the kids that are going to school with the LDS kids, the kids who also have uniforms from the Marcovia Project, the kids who are being befriended by the Marcovia Project, kids are coming to the church are recognizing that there are blessings and that there's more to be found here than just school supplies, and that's been really, really, really inspirational.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, that's cool. Emily texted us a picture of a big group of people getting baptized. It was like so cool.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, yeah, it's really cool it's been.

Anthony Hemmert:

really it's been a unique journey. I don't know, Alisha, if Emily say hey, because he's in charge of five branches.

Anthony Hemmert:

And like, hey, how's the Buena Vista branch? And he's like, oh, we had 180 people in church, like what I said, 30. Like how are you doing this? And uh, the church is just on fire there and and it just it honestly like fills my soul. I'm so happy that that. Not only are the are people thriving and people are going to school and they're lifting themselves out of poverty. They are experiencing the joy, the refreshing, refreshing alleviation of the atonement. The atonement is alleviating spiritual poverty there. And it's important to note too that way back three years ago, when Armando came more into our life, he was the district president. Then he was the equivalent of a stake president.

Anthony Hemmert:

And at that time he felt like his only option was to come to the United States to pay a coyote and to come here illegally. And Emily and I just lost our minds Like please don't do that. Like you would abandon Nellie, you would abandon your children. And he was a really good man. He wasn't going to leave his family, he wasn't going to forsake them, but the only avenue he could see was I'll go to the United States where there is opportunity and I'll send all my money home where there is opportunity and I'll send all my money home and we just pled with him.

Anthony Hemmert:

Please trust us, we're going to make this work, we're going to make this okay and we have. Because of the Marcovia Project, we've been able to keep him in Honduras for three more years a time at which the church is just exploding.

Anthony Hemmert:

We've gone through that similar process two other times, with branch presidents who have said I don't know what else to do. I'm going to go to the States. And Armando was able to speak to them with compassion and understanding and say, hey, there's a better way. We don't have to run away, we don't have to try to find something that's not there. We can build something here, we can stay here. Our families need us here. Let's make this work. And it's just really inspiring to see them stay, but stay for the right reasons. Right, they're staying because they love their kids, because they love their wives, because they just want to be good providers, good protectors, honorable priesthood holders. And it's, it's. It's just really is humbling.

Alisha Coakley:

It gave me chills when you talked about like just just staying and building where you are. You know like it reminds me of that old talk like lift where you stand, when they were talking about couldn't move that piano and so I had to just lift where they stood. Cause. I think that a lot of times that's what we think we just have to run away from our problems and we'll find the solution somewhere else. And sometimes you do have to leave, Like that's a very legitimate, you know possibility.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah, absolutely.

Alisha Coakley:

More often than not, I feel like, you know, possibility, yeah, absolutely More often than not. I feel like, like it's almost like a calling for us to improve our current circumstances where we're at, and to, um, to multiply and replenish the earth, like outside of just having babies. Right, like, multiply our talents, multiply the jobs, multiply the educational experiences, you know like, replenish the earth with resources and opportunities and ideas, and and um, I mean just it. It's just amazing to me. I think ever since the, the self-reliance program came out, which was actually when Scott and I were in the same ward together, I remember they like, like, rolled it out back then and I didn't know much about it. Do you remember this, scott, when we were in in the ward council and I was serving in young women's or whatever, and Scott's talking about the self-reliance program and he's like we got to find some facilitators. I'm like I'll be a facilitator because I just believed in it so much, like.

Alisha Coakley:

I just believe that God is really trying to call the members of the church especially, to elevate ourselves beyond what is just socially acceptable. Right, like, like he wants us to be financially secure, so he's giving us these financial self-reliance classes. You know, he wants us to be able to further our education to, you know, build and grow our businesses and and and to be emotionally resilient, right Like they. That recently became a newer option in the last couple of years is the emotional resilience class, which I love, is a nod to mental health.

Alisha Coakley:

You know, like the Lord has always seen this, but he's also seeing that as we get closer to the second coming of Christ, satan has very real tools at his disposal and most of them are no longer like just drinking and drugs and promiscuity. It's like deeply embedded in our psyche. You know, it's that feeling of loneliness, it's being that destitute, kind of just lack of something right Like lacking joy, lacking purpose, lacking the feelings that you need to have in order to really like further the kingdom of God. And, and you know, traditionally like people just thought therapy was just like oh, talk therapy, go talk about your problems. But it's so much more more than that, right, like right.

Alisha Coakley:

What the Lord is teaching.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah, and I, I'm just, I'm really, uh, I'm really amazed how many correlations, or how much mental health, mental health emphasis I already see in the scriptures. Wouldn't it be so nice if all that we had to do was feed sheep?

Alisha Coakley:

yeah, but the savior said give you a little bit of money and then send you on your way yeah, and I think I was definitely in that mindset.

Anthony Hemmert:

I was in that spot of like oh, feed sheep. I can do that. I got this. I'm going to give money, they're going to be fine.

Anthony Hemmert:

But then, when you look at the baptismal commitments and when you look at the baptismal covenants, the temple covenant, all of the things, we start to see the Savior's instructions to mourn with those that mourn and to grieve with those that grieve and to lift where you can. And to you know, someone asks of you something. Give them double and don't just give it like walk with them, take the steps that they step so that they aren't alone. Those are the calls to action that the Savior is giving us. Yes, he said feed my sheep, but I think he meant so much more than that and that's really what the Marcovia Project is trying to do in Honduras.

Anthony Hemmert:

And those are the testimonies and that's what I see in their faces. They have hope again. They're not looking for a way out or a trap door. They're excited to stay in their homeland. They're excited to be in their home. They're excited to be in their Zion building the gospel, baptizing and preaching and struggling to do ministering like we are, and all of the things. I'm so excited to see how holistically we are alleviating poverty, that the Savior is alleviating poverty, that, with the help of so many kind people, honduran kids are going to school, honduran families are feeding themselves and providing, and it's just been a magnificent blessing in our life.

Alisha Coakley:

It reminds me of saying you know, give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. But I think it even goes beyond that with what you guys are doing is it's more like teach a man to fish and feed an entire generation for a lifetime.

Alisha Coakley:

Right, Because these these people, you know, from the kids that are going to school to the ones that are, to the adults that are getting the microloans. Like you said with Maria, you know she's now employed five people. How many people has the Marcovia project added on other than Armando? You started with one and then the two of you guys look at him whipping out his paper.

Anthony Hemmert:

That's a good question. I got your figure.

Alisha Coakley:

Give us more stats. We love it.

Anthony Hemmert:

It's a good question. I got, I got. I got your figure. Give us more stats. We love it. We are now helping 80, 80, 80, 80, zero households. Wow, we are helping kids from 17 different schools in four different communities. Right now we have 26 active loans. 24 of them have been paid off. So an interesting thing is that if we give a loan to Wilmer, we've helped Wilmer. We've given him a business plan. He's given himself a business plan. We've guided him in this. He's taken the self-reliance classes. Then he paid his loan off in 12 months and was then eligible to get another one. And so we've had multiple loan recipients who have double or triple received. Again, they just keep rolling over the capital as they're building their business.

Alisha Coakley:

Didn't Emily say that it also goes to other microloans too?

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah, that's exactly right. We never take money out of the microloan fund, we just keep putting money into it and so it's perpetually. It's cyclical, which has been a huge, just a huge blessing. At this point it is funding itself for how many loans it's doing.

Alisha Coakley:

I love that so much.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

Because, then it's not it's oh yeah, so I'm going to stop you go Scott.

Scott Brandley:

Well, no, I'm probably going to say the same thing as you Like that would be extremely motivating as the recipient of a loan to pay that off. Because, if, because, if you knew that you could get another one and to even continue to grow your business and expand, you'd be, you'd be highly motivated to pay that loan off. You'd work super hard, yeah, yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

And how good would it feel to know that, like you, paying off your loan is now helping someone else to be able to have a loan. Right, it's all kind of going back and it's what's that it's like. My favorite thing ever is like a rising tide lifts all boats right Like everyone's being elevated in that Marcovia area and stuff like that, which just means so many more blessings for the next generation.

Anthony Hemmert:

so many more blessings for the next generation. Well, and it's building community ties, because they know that the money that they pay back is not going back to the United States. It's staying within their community and helping the next fisherman to buy his nets and his boats. And so, as they build their networking community, that they really are coming together.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really cool.

Scott Brandley:

Well, I think one of the things that you've done for Armando, that Nelly's husband's name yeah, Armando yeah. So one of the things you've done for him is given him the gift of time yes, because I mean I don't know about you guys, but I'm like so busy and I know I should be doing the things that Armando's actually doing. So you've given him a huge gift the ability of time and some resources to actually go and change people's lives. That's like a dream come true, you know to be, able to do that for a living.

Scott Brandley:

What a cool job yeah, no, it's.

Anthony Hemmert:

It's been really really cool uh, cool is the wrong word.

Anthony Hemmert:

I I feel humbled, I feel blessed, I feel honored um to see nelly and armando grow when they started um, so nellyelly and Emily were like best friends on the mission and so they go way back. And when their first child was born, they named their daughter after Emily. She's like I need to name this child after my favorite mission companion. And so their little kid, emily, wow, after my favorite mission companion. And so their little kid, emily, um, and so we were aware of her and we knew about little Emily and, and three years ago they got the bad news from the doctor that Emily was was failing to thrive and so she wasn't gaining weight and she wasn't meeting her milestones and and poor nutrition and all the things. And Nelly was calling Emily like what do I do? You're a mom? How do I pattern my life after you?

Anthony Hemmert:

Since the creation of the Marcovia Project, since infusing Nelly and Armando with a job, with a friend, with purpose and teaching and this ability and time, little Emily is not only thriving, she's excelling. She's in kindergarten. She's the same age as our little son Joseph. She's in kindergarten, she's learning English, she knows all of the things. She's a happy, healthy, wonderful little six-year-old. And Nellie and Armando, who previously didn't have the confidence to have more children, had a second child, and so I said, well, this child will clearly be named Anthony, right, and I was so close, close. Armando's full name is armando antonio and they named their son armando antonio. I kind of got the middle name a nod, there's a nod.

Anthony Hemmert:

There's a little, a little bit of a nod but how wonderful is that that not only did he stay with his wife and kids, they grew their family, they're raising their children in righteousness in the gospel. Blessings have really, really come to them. A year ago we had a donor, a person that someone show up to say how can I best help? What can I do? We said, well, right now Armando's taking buses to get everywhere. Um, and that's just really bogging him down.

Anthony Hemmert:

And this, uh, this kind soul gave us a huge check that we were able to then buy Armando a car and it was amazing, phenomenal, like it changed his life. They, they now can drive to church, they now can drive their daughter Emily to school, they now can go pick up groceries and he has means of transportation to visit all of the families that were helping recently. Recently, the their house flooded, their, their roof was caving in, it was. It was bad, they needed to move, and so again, donors stepped up and and we were able to help out and we got them a home and we're making payments on this home. But they are safe and they are secure and they are happy to be where they're at and it's just been such a blessing to watch Nellie and Armando's life get changed, to watch their mental health improve, to watch their physical health improve, to see how how they're growing spiritually, and we just can't wait to see what comes oh.

Alisha Coakley:

I just love this so much. My cheeks hurt from smiling. It's a happy story for sure. It's so happy I love it.

Scott Brandley:

That's why, when I knew that you were going to be on, I was like, yes, I can't wait to hear what's going on now? It's so exciting.

Anthony Hemmert:

So miracles are happening.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, like, where do you use? I mean, I know you can't predict the future, but what are some of the plans that you have?

Anthony Hemmert:

Well, I can, I'm a psychologist, remember.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, true.

Anthony Hemmert:

So, honestly, we're at. We're at the point now where I think, once, once we I remember having a conversation with Armando and we he said something to like we were, we were giving loans to kids, and somebody was like oh, and that other kid? And Armando said, yeah, he's on the list. And we're like what list? He said, oh, I started making a list of all the kids that can't afford to go to school. Like what? And that's how we grew quickly from like 11 kids to 60 to 122. And so the educational opportunities of the Marcovia Project exploded. But what's struggling to follow behind is all of the short-term alleviations for poverty. And so right now, we I don't remember where she said this oh, right here Twenty-three of our students live in a house with a loan. So 23 of our students, most of our students are being sponsored and their parents are not being helped, and so our goal in 2025 is to double the number of students that live in a home with a loan.

Scott Brandley:

With a micro loan.

Anthony Hemmert:

With a micro loan, exactly. And so what we've tasked Armando with, what we need now is to crowdfund and raise the money so that Armando can approach these families of these kids and say, hey, your kids are really turning it around, they are changing their life. Their futures will be better. How can we help you right now? How can we help you have more food on the table? How can we help you have health care? How can we help you prepare, prepare for and plan for the future? And so we'd like to approach those families and say come with us, we have a plan. We're going to get you in these self-reliance programs. We're going to teach you how to take care of yourself.

Alisha Coakley:

Wow.

Scott Brandley:

Awesome. So that's about 50, 50 microloans.

Alisha Coakley:

right Is what you're going to do. Yeah, Wow, and it's interesting because you're microloans right, that's what you're going to do. Yeah, Wow. And it's interesting because you're kind of going from the reverse angle now, Like now it's not just waiting for people to come to you, it's them out and being like how can we lift here? So is that going to? I mean, I imagine it's going to look a little bit different and you guys probably are still trying to figure out exactly like you know if you have a business idea, what?

Alisha Coakley:

what does that look like? Like? How are you guys going to help them to create a business idea? Or yeah.

Anthony Hemmert:

So it's definitely a shift. The first year it was just people coming at Armando saying, hey, I think this is cool, and he would weed people out or say, yeah, that would definitely work, we should do that. Now it's approaching families and saying what strengths do you have? How can we use what you have to grow you into something? Thankfully, armando has seen four dozen different types of businesses work, and so we've got a lot of business opportunity ideas. Also, early in the project, we realized that it's much easier to start and grow a business in Honduras, yeah, and in the United States. We have a lot of regulations, we have a lot of like you got to check all these boxes and you got to have all these things. And in Honduras we're able to say, hey, maria, you're really good at making tacos or tamales, you should do that and sell to your neighbors. And it just exploded and now she's doing really well. Or hey, manuel, you're great at roofing, let's get you a roofing nail gun and go do this thing.

Anthony Hemmert:

And so I think, really, armando has been and continues to be, the key to success in all of this. He knows what people can do to make a living there and I think we'll keep them within. That zone of this is going to work and this is not. But from the Marcovia Project perspective, we now need to shift our focus on to keeping the kids that we have, keeping them in school and continuing to fund Armando to be there, and so we're. We're looking at how do we get his yearly salary covered? How do we get transportation to these places covered? How do we get all of the startup costs for these loans covered? It's shifting away from kids and education and towards preserving what we have and let's make sure that these 122 kids and 80 families all thrive and do better.

Alisha Coakley:

What does that look like financially for you guys? Like what? What do you feel would be like a helpful number if you were going to ask for people to sponsor or donate, um, you know, for for these things, what?

Anthony Hemmert:

would that be? Uh, the Marcovia projectorg, the Marcovia projectorg. The Marcovia projectorg. That's the that'sProjectorg, Marcovia, Marcovia. That's the website. There are buttons there. Emily has spent a lot of time with people much, much smarter than me in creating the website and creating the platform, figuring out how to crowdsource money.

Alisha Coakley:

As we grow with the charity.

Anthony Hemmert:

We're learning that true success comes in multiple different ways. There are huge parts of our organization that can and should be crowdsourced. And what do I mean by crowdsource? I mean that we need a thousand people that all give $5, as opposed to five people that all give $1,000. And there's a few reasons, and I'm the mentaluras see, whoa, holy smokes, some complete stranger just gave us $10,000. It's amazing, it's life changing, right, it's phenomenal. But that same experience happens when we show them hey, check it out, 3000 people all helped, like, what? Like yeah, this huge crowd of of people imagine every single seat at your state conference filled that times four is how many people care about you is how many people want you to succeed and want you to thrive. That in itself is this emotional boost. It's this emotional success of like whoa, like holy cow.

Anthony Hemmert:

And so do we need crowdfunding? Absolutely, we need crowdfunding. We need people to share the project. We need people to go to the project. We need people. When you go to work next and your coworkers say, hey, what did you do this weekend? We need you to say I went to the Marcovia projectorg. Check this out. Like, these people are doing good things.

Anthony Hemmert:

However, so that that being said, we also need people with deep pockets. It has been so incredibly helpful when someone showed up and said here's $10,000, go buy Armando a car. Holy cow, that that grew, that grew the, the, the Marcovia project and our reach and and all of like, huge like, exponentially. And so we need a little bit of both. We we need those really big checks. We need those companies. If you're listening and you have a large company and you need a tax write-off. Emily has gone through all of the bureaucratic stuff to become a 5013C and do all like. She has all of the T's crossed and the I's dotted so that we can receive the help that we need, and so we need big checks. We need people just sharing. If you can't donate, please just share with your friends. People help us get awareness Because, within our interconnected digital world, the people of Honduras are seeing wow, like that video got how many likes and how many views, and I can't believe all of these people love and care for me.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh gosh, all right. So what's the what's the big dream Like? What's the dream that's so big it makes you sick to your stomach, thinking about what would be like one of the biggest things that someone could do right now Someone with deep pockets. Let's, let's go there.

Anthony Hemmert:

Most helpful right now oh, um, most helpful right now. I'll give you that answer in three levels. Okay, uh, pie in the sky, like the biggest thing that could like pay off armando's house. We just got nelly and armando into like an 85 000 house. Okay and uh, so paying off his house. Essentially, what that looked like is that we, the hemorrhage, bought a house in Honduras and put it in their name and we just increased his monthly salary to cover this cost 85 thousand dollars. What we need to grow 50 loans is like twenty thousand dollars. We need to grow 50 loans is like $20,000. We need to crowdsource about $20,000. What we need to get through this season, through spring, through they're all. They're about to go back to school. Right now. All of our kids have been sponsored. What we need to pay Armando's salary to continue until the next season is like 10 10 000 and so somewhere between 10 and 85 000 are where my dreams live I wouldn't say between.

Alisha Coakley:

I would say 85 plus 20 plus 10. That's where your dreams live. The big ones pie in the sky for this year right, you're not wrong a hundred thousand okay, but also, let's remember I I need a hundred thousand.

Anthony Hemmert:

I I need more a hundred thousand followers. I need a multitude of people to show the kids in Honduras and their families, their mothers, their fathers, their grandparents hey, we care about you, we are here to help you.

Alisha Coakley:

Gotcha Well. I'm thinking any of our listeners. You know, we ask you guys every week to do your five second missionary work. What if we also ask you to do your $5 missionary work? Just, you know what I mean. Like, let's just start there. Let's do our a little bit of crowdfunding. I don't know, scott, what do you think? Maybe you have a better idea. Scott's more businessy than I am.

Scott Brandley:

I was thinking the same thing.

Alisha Coakley:

I'm like man if everybody just went and donated five bucks, that could be a lot of money. Well, we've had. I mean, I think our our most listened show has had over 50 000 views on youtube and that's not including all the other places than audible and buzz sprout and I we're all wherever we're all. I don't even know all the things um spotify yeah so that's super doable.

Alisha Coakley:

I mean if, if we, if we could get this show, so do your five second missionary work listeners, hit the share button, share it on your social media. Let's see if you can get like five friends to listen to the show and if you and your five friends all donate $5, that could build very quickly and and not feel taxing on the majority of the people to to do that Right.

Anthony Hemmert:

Right, absolutely.

Alisha Coakley:

Five second missionary work, five friends $5.

Anthony Hemmert:

Change, changing lives, giving people hope yeah.

Scott Brandley:

Well, and for people that haven't been to a third world country, I mean it is insane. I took my kids to Guatemala a few, a few years back because I've done um. I've done some some different philanthropy work with my company and um I I've helped orphanages and things like that. But I took my kids and it was. It was life changing for them to see what, what a thirdworld country looks like and how they live. I remember one thing that happened there that I'll never forget, and my little daughter, Grace. She was around 12 at the time, I think maybe 13., but a little boy. We were in this market and a little boy her same age came up to her and asked if she, if he, he could polish her shoes. And he brought, he had this little box and she, you know, um, put her shoes up on it and and polished her shoes. And I don't, it was like hardly any money to do it, but I just remember watching her and this little boy that that's his life. He doesn't get to go to school, he polishes shoes.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, and it just broke my heart. But I'm like man, just so this opportunity that you have to put children into school, that that that was their life before right, like making popsicles, yeah, that's your life, and for for I mean hardly any money you can give a kid an education and give them an opportunity that will change generations. Like you were saying, Alisha, like it's insane, and it's so rewarding just to know that you've changed someone's entire life, for I mean going.

Anthony Hemmert:

You know what we would pay to go out to dinner once or twice, yeah, it's crazy, yeah, yeah, that's a beautiful story and and I have countless experiences like that with the hunter and people and, um, it's, it's just really humbling to see. In fact, I'll share a funny one with you. I am, at heart, a fisherman. I love fishing. Fishing is a passion. But while we were down there, we were meeting with one of our loan recipients who is a fisherman, and we bought him nets and we bought him the things that he would need, and at the time he was so excited to meet me because he heard that I'm Emily's husband, I'm the fisherman, and so at first he he was really apologetic. I'm so sorry, I don't have any like poles to fish with. It's like we fish with nets. I was like that's fine man, like whatever you do, like I'm excited. And he said do you want to go fishing right now? And Emily and Armando were with me and they're much more strict with our schedule and so we don't have time for that, and so I asked him. I said can I please come back in six months and go fishing? He said yeah, and so I went back with a few friends and he took me out onto the Golfo Fonseca, which is bordered by Naragua, honduras and el salvador, and that's the part of the world that we're at, and so we're out and they use these things called gill nets, and so there's these long 100 yard nets that they throw out into the water and and the whole time I'm thinking, holy smokes, this is exactly what the disciples were using in, yeah, in the middle east, because then they would cast their nets out and then, like you, would pull them back into the boat, right? And so we were fishing for shrimp at the time and we got back to the boat and our lone recipient his name is Naum he said do you want to go catch crabs? Yeah, it sounds awesome.

Anthony Hemmert:

And so his son, walter, came with and I was in Walter's boat and we went way out into the Gulf, but near where the tide was low, and they said, about five feet down there's all these crabs. I'm like, all right, and we're going to eat. Everybody throws a string over the boat and they have dead fish on them. And then we slowly, like, pull the crabs up and net them with a net. I said, awesome, let's do it. And so, sure enough, here come these blue crabs and we start we get like a whole basket full, and at one point, walter's really good at this, like really good at this, and he's 10, maybe 12.

Anthony Hemmert:

And at one point he was doing something with crabs. He was bringing crabs in and I look at Naum and he was crying and I was like what's going on, man? And he said I don't know how to thank you and and earlier, scott, you said teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. And it just really impacted me. He said before you came along, my son asked for permission to come fishing with you today. He was supposed to be at school and we said it was a special occasion. He can come fishing with Anthony, but normally, because of you, he goes to school. Now and I'm so thankful that he is not fishing and I'm so thankful because he used to come out here every single day and pull crabs out of the sea like this, and now he gets to go to school. And it just really like shook me, like teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. Put that kid in school and you feed his generations for life. Yeah, and just really changed me and I still keep in touch with walter.

Alisha Coakley:

Walter's doing great that's awesome yeah thank Anthony, making me cry.

Scott Brandley:

It's so awesome what you guys are doing and we're big, huge fans, and thanks for letting us be a small part of that story. It's been fun for us to be able to share it, for sure.

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah, Thank you Honestly. Without your help, without your support, without your encouragement, um, we wouldn't be who we are.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, we love you guys and we love what you're doing and and you know, one of the things that that I love to um, just about you guys is you guys are so open and so willing to share how to be successful at things Like I. I like I've talked to Emily so many times before about you know how to go through the paperwork and get the 501c organization stuff together and what to do with this, and she's she's always helping me with. You know, make sure you do your social media posts like this, because this is gonna help you with that, and I mean just so free with information. And so I had this thought. I was like well, maybe, maybe there's a listener right now who has something really heavy on their heart, has some type of charity that they think what you guys are doing should be duplicatable. You know like what?

Alisha Coakley:

if you had a project like that in Guatemala where Scott went, and what if you have another one? You know that's that's in all the different parts of the world, even even right here in the United States, like how many kids in the United States are not able to go to school, or how many people need little micro loans or whatever else. So like, if there's, if there's any listeners, I mean, I'm sure that if anyone has questions on like, how do you get started?

Anthony Hemmert:

Please reach out.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, we can get you guys connected and help brainstorm and you know things like that, cause that's.

Alisha Coakley:

it's a lot to put on one person's shoulders, but it is so much easier when everybody shares the education, the knowledge, the love. Right, if we can help each other increase the size of the pie for all, how much more beautiful of a world is that going to be? So I know that if listeners have something on their heart that they can reach out and they can just ask to be connected and we can, we can try to help out with whatever Scott's graded it to our. I don't know if our listeners know, but Scott is amazing at creating businesses and coming up with ideas and resumes and all this kind of stuff. So, yeah, we just want to hear from y'all. Tell us what your ideas are, tell us in the comments, like, what kind of things you guys are thinking about doing to make the world a better place and and to teach others how to fish, essentially. So, man well, mr Anthony, is there any last things that you'd like to leave with us? Ask us, share with us.

Anthony Hemmert:

Um Marcovia projectorg. That's the website. We we are helping people physically, we are helping people psychologically. Well, we, we couldn't do it without you. We are so thankful for everyone who's listening. We're so thankful for the help that we've received, for the strangers that we receive. We are so thankful that the savior is really at the focus of this church. He's at the focus of our lives, he, we, we keep ourselves busy feeding his sheep, but now we're befriending sheep and we're mourning with those who mourn and grieving with those who grieve, and we are alleviating the physiological and the psychological poverty. So, thank you so much.

Alisha Coakley:

Awesome. Thank you guys. You and Emily are just some of my favorite people in the whole world. I mean like true, genuine salt of the earth people, and I'm just. I'm so blessed to know you and so thankful that you guys came on again. This is our fourth right, fourth Marcovia show that we've done in three years. So, yeah, do you guys have a? This is our fourth right, fourth Marcovia show that we've done in three years. So, yay, do you guys have a? I know you did a gala last year or the year before. Are you guys planning on redoing any of those or do we?

Anthony Hemmert:

Yeah, yeah. So we were kind of rotating between a Nevada event, a Utah event and an online event, nice and so I think Emily is planning an event for 2025 in Elko.

Alisha Coakley:

Gotcha. Well, if you guys ever want to have a gala down here in Texas, I have a venue.

Anthony Hemmert:

We'd love to.

Alisha Coakley:

Pre-venue for you. I got to start getting my Lubbock saints over here to jump on board, so there's enough people to come to the gala here. There you go, awesome. So there's enough people to come to the gallery there you go.

Scott Brandley:

Awesome yeah, so is it the Marcovia Project or Marcovia Project Marcovia org. Okay, guys, go to the Marcovia Project. Yeah, go to Marcovia. And if you can donate five bucks, like just imagine that that goes towards helping one of these little kids go to school and get an education, or goes towards a micro loan to help their family make money and it can make a huge difference, a huge difference yeah, I want to encourage listeners.

Alisha Coakley:

Uh, hey, wherever you're listening from right, if you have the opportunity to comment on this show and you have either shared the show, donated to the Marcovia Project or maybe even tagged a few friends in this episode, will you just comment done or shared or just give us a little comment, because that also will help boost the algorithms. It'll help make the show more popular, you know, in newsfeeds and things like that too. So, uh, definitely drop us a comment, let us know what your favorite part of the show was. Uh, let us know how you're contributing. And uh, just know that we're. We're so, so, eternally grateful to the Marcovia Projects and Hemmerts um, to all those donors so far who've helped the last three years and to all of our listeners. We genuinely love you guys.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, Awesome. Well, thanks, Anthony for being on.

Anthony Hemmert:

Say hi to.

Scott Brandley:

Emily for us. For everyone that's watching. I'm sure they all want to say hi to her as well.

Anthony Hemmert:

I will, I will.

Alisha Coakley:

Okay, and remember, guys, if you have a story that you'd like to share and you want to come be a guest on the show, we'd love to hear from you. You can head over to latterdaylightscom or you can send us an email at latterdaylights, at gmailcom. Any personal story that you have that somehow grew your testimony in some way, shape or form, that's the requisite, that's it. That's the bar is not too strenuous to get to. So we would love to hear from you guys. But, anthony, thanks again. You guys, you guys are just amazing.

Anthony Hemmert:

Thank you, it's been an honor.

Scott Brandley:

Awesome. Well, thanks guys for tuning in, and we will be back next week with another episode from latter day lights. Until then, take care, see you later. Bye, guys.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host