Alleviating Poverty with The Marcovia Project: Anthony Hemmert's Story - Latter-Day Lights - LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

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Scott Brandley (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley (00:02):
And I'm Alisha Coakley.
Every member of the church hasa story to share, one that can
instill faith, invite growth andinspire others.

On today's episode we're going to hear how
one mental health therapist ishelping others to alleviate
poverty, both financially andmentally, through the Marcovia
Project.
Welcome to Latter-day Lights.
Hey everyone, welcome back toanother episode of Latter-day

(00:34):
Lights.
We're so glad you're here withus today.
We're really excited tointroduce Anthony Hemmert, which
is Emily's husband, who's beenon the show several times.

Anthony Hemmert (00:45):
Welcome to the show Anthony.
Thank you so much.
It's an honor to be here.

Thanks for coming on.
I mean, I'm sure Emily, itwould have been a blast to have
her again, but I'm kind ofexcited to get your perspective
of this and to talk about theMarcovia Project, which you guys
have been doing almost as longas we've been doing the show.
I believe I think you guysstarted been doing almost as
long as we've been doing theshow.
I believe, Right Like I thinkyou guys started right around
the same time, so about threeyears ago.

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

That's awesome.
Well, I think it's going to beso much fun and it's been a
little.
It's been a little bit of timesince I've last, like heard you
give a talk or anything likethat or anything like that.
But I've always remembered likeI sit up a little straighter
when Anthony starts.
I'm like I really like what hesays.

I hope I can live up to that.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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

Correct yeah, elko Nevada northern.
Nevada.

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

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

Yeah, yeah.
Well, why don't you tell ourlisteners just a little bit more
about like you as a person youknow?
Give us a little sneak peek bioof Anthony.

Yep.
So I was raised in a littletown in northern Nevada called
Winnemucca.
So I was raised in a littletown 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 thatlive in the county and I did.
I went and I saw the world.
I served a mission in Argentina.

(02:43):
I came back.
I met Emily.
We were dating about a year anda half and she decided to serve
a mission and so that gave metime to catch up to her in
college.
So I went to college, graduatedby the time she got back from
Honduras, we were married in theReno Nevada temple.
We quickly then went to Vegas,started to have kids.

(03:05):
I graduated from UNLV, became amental health therapist and we
saw the job opening in Elko andwe 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 happyhere.
Emily and I'll get into thislater, but Emily, emily and I

(03:26):
created the Marcovia Project,which is a nonprofit
organization in Honduras to helpalleviate poverty.

It does like, even so, much more than that too
, and, like you said, we'regoing to get into that.
We'll definitely be talking alittle bit more about that, but
yeah, I think I'm you know what.
We should just start talkingabout it now.
So we're going to do this,we're going to turn the time
over to you and we're going tolet you just kind of lead us
today.
It may be a little differentthan your typical one track

(03:57):
story, but we we want to knowkind of where, where, where are
you going to take us from?
What's your starting point fortoday's episode?

Well, again, I'm honored to be here.
I know that Emily's been herequite a few times and honestly,
we have been so thankful for you, for your audience, for the
platform that you've given us togrow and for the followers and
the nation that have kind ofrisen up to help us in Honduras.

(04:29):
Today, my challenge is to kindof tell you how the Marcovia
Project came to be where it's atnow and where we hope to be,
from my perspective, from mylens, so, I think, to understand
that a little better, I'd liketo tell you a little bit more
kind of about myself.
As you said, I am a mentalhealth therapist.

(04:52):
So let's first talk about why Iam the fifth of six children.
My mother and father, dennisand Helen Hemmert, were living
in Winnemucca, nevada, at thetime.
My father is a mechanic for theNevada Department of
Transportation and my mother isa school teacher, a special ed

(05:13):
school teacher and I rememberbeing very young like younger
than kindergarten and my bestfriend across the street.
His name is Lewis Clark.
He said he wanted to be adoctor and I said well, why do
you want to be a doctor when yougrow up?
Well, I want to help people.
I was like, well, that's prettycool, maybe I want to help
people too.

(05:33):
And then my little kid brainstarted thinking and I thought
well, what if?
What if someone breaks theirarm, I can fix their arm, but
maybe I can't make them feelbetter, right, I wanted to make
people feel better.
So I went to church and myprimary teacher gave a lesson on

(05:54):
Job and it just really hit mehard and I walked away from that
lesson on Job.
And Job had everything takenaway from him his family, his
health, his happiness, hissuccess.
And Job had everything takenaway from him his family, his
health, his happiness, hissuccess.
And yet at the end of thatstory he was still happy and I
thought that's the type ofdoctor I want to be.

(06:14):
I want to be someone who canhelp people feel happy, even if
their arms and legs andeverything is broken.
And so I came home and asked mymom who does that?
And it took her a while todecipher his little six-year-old
Like what are you talking about, anthony?
And finally they taught me theword psychologist.
You want to be a psychologist?
Okay, deal, I want to be apsychologist.

(06:36):
I had a little kindergartensign, like first day of school I
had written psychologist and Iwent to college.
I went to high school, went tocollege.
In many ways I feel like Irelated a lot to the Savior or

(06:56):
to people in the scriptures whohad a lot of afflictions.
I felt like a man of sorrowsbecause at the age of 16, my
best friend, lewis Clark the kidthat wants to be a medical
doctor he died.
He killed himself, he died bysuicide.
Later that year my grandfatherdied and I just was really

(07:18):
feeling it.
There had not at that point inmy life, there had not been a
funeral that I had attended,where I wasn't a pallbearer, and
I just really felt down in thedumps and I kept going back to
that six-year-old me, that storyof Job.
I need to help people feelbetter.

(07:39):
I need to help people feelbetter regardless of their
physical state.
So off to college, I went and Istarted studying and thankfully,
the Lord called me to serve inArgentina and that was amazing
and I saw and experienced abeautiful people, a people who

(08:00):
were super, super poor, didn'thave a lot of materialistic
things, but that taught me thatthey didn't need materialistic
things to be happy.
And so I came home re-energizedand in love with the Lord and
in love with the gospel andwanting to help people feel
better.
I met Emily and I fell in loveand she she told me she wanted

(08:28):
to serve as well and that madesense to me.
I was frustrated.
I wanted to get married.
I thought I thought marriagewas the mission and she wanted
to serve a mission and it was ablessing that that she got
called to Honduras.
I was super excited.
She is a convert.
I don't know if she's mentionedthat in her previous podcast,

(08:49):
but she is the only member ofher family.
The sister missionaries foundher in college and thankfully
was baptized and thankfullylearned about the atonement,
learned about Christ, learnedabout the fullness of the gospel
and it has been one of thegreatest blessings of my life to
be married to a returnmissionary.
She is definitely a pillar ofrighteousness in my home for my

(09:17):
kids, for me, for extendedfamily.
I'm so thankful for the thingsthat she learned and the way she
grew and the person she isbecause of Honduras, so fast
forward.
We had not had kids yet and Iwas now in Las Vegas studying
mental health, studying tobecome the psychologist, and one

(09:41):
of her companions, nelly, andone of her companions, nellie,
called us or emailed it musthave been emailed us and said
hey, the roof on my parents'house blew off, can you please
send money?
And we thought, likeimmediately, like yeah, of
course we gave money that wereally didn't have.

(10:03):
We just made it work and wefigured it out and tightened the
belts that that month and thethe impactful thing is that
about eight years later, her andher husband, armando, sent us
back the money that we had sentand they said, hey, thank you,
thank you so much for that roof.
We're just like holy smokeslike who does that?

(10:26):
And so so then Nellie andArmando fell on harder times and
they they needed more help.
And Emily and I were just in.
It felt like in constant prayerof how do we help Nellie and
Armando?
Help Nellie and Armando.

(10:50):
Now into my story.
As a mental health therapist, Iknew we had tried to just throw
money at the problem, not throwmoney at the problem.
We generously offered money andwe said I am so sorry, these
bad times are falling on you.
Please, here's money.
And we gave thousands ofdollars and it just didn't seem
to be helping.
They would, they would havefood, they would care for their
children, they would start toget ahead, but not really feel

(11:15):
like they were making traction.
And I remember sitting withEmily one night and I said I
just don't think we're helpingArmando because he doesn't have
a job and I think, as a father,he needs a job.
I think he needs to feel likehe can provide for his family.

(11:36):
He needs to feel like he is agood man, like he has purpose,
like he can provide and protectfor his family.
And we're not doing that byjust sending money.
And so we created this idea ofhow do we give Armando a job,
and so from that birthplace,from that spot came the Marcovia

(11:58):
Project and the whole time.
For the last three years Emilyhas been focused on a whole lot
of things and we'll talk aboutthose things, but really from my
perspective, my focus has beenholistic mental health, and I am
of the opinion that all healthis connected to mental health.

(12:21):
And so if we can help, someonebe physically healthier, they're
going to feel better.
They're going to mental health.
If we can help someone bephysically healthier, they're
going to feel better.
They're going to think better.
If we can help someoneeconomically with their health,
then they're going to be happierand healthier.
If we can help someone sociallyto have better friends, to have
better connections, then we aregoing to help their mental

(12:43):
health.
And I could quickly see that theMarcovia project needed to be
something that was holistic andit wasn't just financial, it
wasn't just something that wecould give dollars to and fix
problems.
Now let me back up a little bit.
I remember, right before mymission, my parents said we need

(13:08):
to go get you a patriarchalblessing.
Okay, let's do that.
And again, I'm the fifth of sixchildren and so I'd kind of
seen this process with my oldersiblings and I was the first
child to invite my parents tocome along, which they were
pretty like okay, so they comealong with me.

(13:30):
And in the process of receivinga patriarchal blessing which
was a phenomenal experience andan experience that changed my
life and really helped me feelloved.
It helped me feel like myfather in heaven knows who I am,
has a job for me, trusts me andis proud of who I am.

(13:51):
In the process of that wholeexperience, I was told that I
would help the destitute.
Now, remember little kidAnthony.
That guy wanted to be apsychologist, and so I
interpreted destitute to meanthe sad, the lonely, the

(14:12):
forgotten, and so for 15 yearsof my life I read my patriarchal
blessing, feeling like I needto help the sad and lonely and
forgotten.
Now fast forward to my marriageand Emily, and here we are at
the Marcovia project and we wentdown.
We went to visit after weinitiated the project, after we

(14:33):
hired Armando as our firstdirector of operations, after we
quickly saw how awesome he is,how he found people who were
perfect for this idea.
He found people who wereentrepreneurial.
He found people who worked hard, who could keep their promises,
who wanted to keep covenants.

(14:54):
He found people who were socharged up that they just needed
a little bit of money.
We couldn.
We couldn't give enough moneyquick enough.
We were so excited to watchthese people grow and to watch
these people change.
We went down, Emily and I, forthe first time, and I was so

(15:17):
excited to start to see numberone, Armando.
Armando's face changed.
He was happier, he was healthier, he, I, I saw in him a
priesthood holder who was soproud of the man that he'd
become and he, he would call usoften and and and he that first

(15:37):
visit.
He took us to every singlefamily he knew and we were in
dozens of homes and he was justso excited to, to introduce us
to his friends, to his family,to his people, to the people
there in the village and thecommunity.
And I started to see I thinkwe're alleviating poverty.
I took some notes and so Irecently read of a study where

(16:05):
60,000 people were involved inthe study and they took these
tests and they took thesesurveys and all these things.
Who we people, who we woulddetermine, who we determined

(16:26):
were in poverty.
They defined poverty as apsychological state.
So people without money reallywould describe poverty as a
psychological state.
It means that you're sad, itmeans that you're lonely, it
means that you're forgotten, itmeans you're abandoned people,
it means that you're lonely, itmeans that you're forgotten, it

(16:46):
means you're abandoned.
People out of poverty they alldescribe poverty as a
physiological state or atemporal state.
People who are out of povertywould describe it as oh, that
means you don't have money andthat means you don't have
shelter and that means you don'thave food and that means you
don't have water, and I quicklycould see the disparity of there
.
That, no, that that's not whatit means.

(17:07):
The people who are experiencingit, they think that poverty
means that's when you're sad andthat's when you're lonely.
People out of poverty think, oh, I'm going to help, I'm going
to help with people in povertyand so what I need to do is give
money and power and electricityand shelter and all of those
things are very, very importantand we have done a lot to give

(17:29):
those things.
But to truly alleviate povertyfor the people experiencing
poverty, we need to help themmentally.
We need to help them feel likethey're not abandoned, like
they're not forgotten, feel likethey're not abandoned, like
they're not forgotten, like theyare important, like they are

(17:52):
loved and cared for.
And I personally haveexperienced that in the gospel
of Jesus Christ, that when I goto church I belong and I fit in
and people the Coakleys areexcited to see me and the Smiths
wanted to hear about what I didlast weekend.
And I now am notphysiologically or
psychologically alone.
And if I'm having a bad day, ifI'm feeling really upset.

(18:17):
If someone in my family hasdied or I lost my job, I can
call Brother Bramley and he atleast knows what I'm going
through.
Even people at church who can'toffer answers.
They will sit through my griefand they will mourn with me as I
mourn because of the example ofthe Savior, and I'm so thankful

(18:43):
that the gospel has given methat.
So back to Honduras.
I was really really focused onwe need to alleviate poverty.
We need to help people feelloved and important and
encouraged.
Now I was a missionary at thetime of President Hinckley.

(19:03):
He is still very much myprophet.
He signed the little card forme and President Hinckley taught
that every member needs acalling, a friend, and to be
nurtured by the good word of God.
And I truly feel like in aconscious and maybe even
subconscious level, emily and Iand the Marcovia Project are

(19:27):
trying to do all three of thosethings.
We are trying to give peoplefriends, we are trying to give
people purpose and we are tryingto give people the tools and
the education and the knowledgethat they need to alleviate
poverty.
And so we began.
Emily gave me a whole bunch ofnumbers to give to you.

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

So the project started with the idea that we
wanted to give people microloans, and so we needed somebody
in honduras to screen and tointerview and to get to know
people who had business ideas,who had business ambition but
lacked business capital.

(20:26):
And then we, the Hemmerts, orwe, the Marcovia Project, would
step in and say here's thecapital that you need.
And so we hired Armando to beour director of operations and
he, the first year I think, heissued 10 loans, 12.
I think it was one a month.

(20:47):
And so he found well, we haveall kinds of different types of
loans.
We have a floral shop, we havea taco shop, we have a welder,
we have people in construction,we have fishermen, we have
people who have livestock, wehave some women who are sewing,
we have some farmers.
All of these people were givenloans and, like I said, micro

(21:08):
loans, like we're talking like$500.
And then, with this capitalgoing hand in hand with the
example of the church, it'simportant to know that Armando
is the district president inMarcovia.
The name of the project iscalled the Marcovia Project
because that is the name of theprovidence where these villages

(21:30):
are.
So Armando is the districtpresident and, as part of the
requirement of receiving a loan,the loan recipients signed up
for the church's self-admiringclass, and so Nelly and Armando

(21:51):
and leaders of the church inMarcovia would then conduct
these self-reliance classes,teach people how to use the
capital that they got, how to amonthly basis, to run that
project, to mentor people, to goto their homes, to go to their

(22:18):
businesses, to help holdpeople's hands and say this is
the way this can be done.
Uh, pretty quickly.
So our very first loan recipienthis name was Felipe.
He was a welder.
We were meeting with Felipe andhe introduced us to his family
I think it was over FaceTime orSkype and he said well, I want

(22:42):
you to meet my kids.
And so he brings out his fourbeautiful children and he says
and don't worry, I work themhard or they're hard workers,
they have good work ethic, theyall make popsicles and they help
sell them in the streets forthe family and emily and i's
first thought was why aren'tthey in school?

(23:02):
Because all of these kids wereranges 8 to 14, 8 to 15.
It's cool and and just like itwas commonplace, like why would
you ask such a silly question,anthony?
They said, oh, we can't affordit, like, school in honduras is
free, but you only get to go ifyou bring all of the materials
yourself, and so you need toshow up with school uniforms,

(23:26):
you need to show up withbackpacks, you need to show up
with books and notebooks andpens and scientific calculators
and all the things, and we can'tafford that for our four kids.
So they're just not going to goto school.
And Emily, especially, was notokay with that.
So she quickly got on toFacebook or the socials or

(23:50):
something and said, please, cansomeone help donate the money?
We figured out how much moneyit would take to buy all of
these kids two pairs of shoes,two uniforms, all the things
they would need.

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

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.
We're like I think we can dothis for like a hundred bucks.
And then the kid's shoes woreout and cause it's much
different there, the climate'smuch different than we were

(24:26):
expecting, and um.
So anyway, emily got on onsocial networks and said, hey,
can anyone help out?
And within five minutes we hadall all all four of those kids
sponsored.
Like it was very quickly.
All of our friends, all of ourfamily, all of our supporters
were like yeah, of course, likethese kids got to go to school.
So then it became the Marcoviaproject was a two-fold mission.

(24:49):
We we are going to alleviatepoverty short-term, and the
short-term is these microloans.
Felipe is one of our greatestsuccess stories.
Again, his oldest child was 15or 16 when we started and they
had never celebrated a birthday,they never had extra money.

(25:09):
And so I remember going throughone year and what I thought
would be impactful.
What I thought would be likeyou're making your rent or your
kids, you know your house isbetter, things like that.
I said how is this helping?
And he got really emotional andhe said we were able to buy
four cakes this year.
Each of my kids had a birthday.

(25:30):
I was like, holy smokes, thisis working.
We're alleviating poverty atthe psychological level and it's
just been an honor to watchthis happen that quickly turned
so.
Short term, we're giving loans.
Short term, we're helpingpeople in business.
Long term, we are endingpoverty by sending kids to

(25:53):
school.
A lot of these kids would nevergo to school, they would never
finish school, if they didn'thave sponsors helping and
sending them to school.
So one of the statistics Emilygave me is that in Honduras of

(26:14):
the statistics Emily gave me isthat in Honduras.
So what would happen is,oftentimes families would pick
which student or which kid gotto go to school, so not all four
kids got to go to school atonce before us, and so on
average in Honduras, it takes 11years to complete the first six
grades of school.
Wow, because like, oh, thisyear is Anthony's year, and then
next year is Scott's year, andthen it's Alisha turn, and so

(26:37):
most kids don't get all the waythrough high school before they
are now an adult and expected towork.
And usually it's the boys rightIs what Emily told us, yep, and
so boys were being sent toschool.
Boys were being givenpreference, mostly.

(26:57):
I don't know.
There's a lot.
There's a lot going on there.
Is there definitely somemisogynistic things happening?
Yes, but also I think it becameout of it grew out of economic
um need.
This boy is going to grow upand he's going to have to
provide for a family.
He's going to have to care fora family.
We better make sure he knowshow to read and write, while my

(27:20):
little girl, she's going to growup to not, and so she doesn't
need that.
And so we very quickly turnedto that dichotomy and we said,
no, all of our little girls needto go to school too.
Turned that dichotomy and we wesaid, 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 intheir childhood, because, as
soon as they're not children inhonduras, they have very, very

(27:43):
hard lives.
They are, they have lives thatare committed to manual labor,
um, and so what started off?
We started with uh, 11 kids.
In 2022, we had 11 kidsfelipe's four and then, I think,
a few of the other loanrecipients they had kids.

(28:04):
Um 2023 we grew that number to60 60 students wow and last year
we sent 122 kids to school youguys, oh so wow this is me.

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

right original 11.

And they're adding to it.

Yep.
So last year we had five kidsgraduate and so we we caught a
few teenagers who were right atthe end of school and thankfully
, with our help, they were ableto finish out, and so we dropped
five, and then also fivedropped out.
They just thought school wastoo hard or there.
There just isn't enougheducational importance in some

(28:56):
families and communities yeah tosee it, to see it through, and
so, yeah, some of them were theoriginal 11, who then grew to 60
, who then grew to 120.

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

Like you just affected 120 generations.

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

Yeah, it again.
It has been such an honor andsuch just really humbling
experience to be a part of this,to to go and change people's
lives, to recognize that veryfew of our dollars make big, big
differences there and thethings that we take for granted

(29:55):
are huge blessings in theirculture and in their society.
So a few success stories thatwe've had there's a woman named
Maria.
We found her, armando found hercooking over an open fire.
She would make a fire in frontof her house every day and make
food.
We were able to get her a stoveand get her a stovetop, and she

(30:17):
has quadrupled her income, morethan quadrupled, and is now
employing other women who go outand sell food as well.
Oh that's so cool, I love thisAwesome and in a very real wayia
is is the matriarch of herfamily.
She's got her children livingwith her and grandchildren

(30:39):
living with her, and maria, thegrandma of the family, is the
breadwinner for all of them andso she's providing all of those
kids are going to school, all ofthose kids are being taken care
of because Maria has the chanceto work.
So we're super excited abouther.
Another success story on theeducational side May Lynn is a

(31:03):
little girl who we found at nineyears old.
At nine years old she had neverbeen to school, she had never
been educated.
Uh, she is now 13 years old andis in the fourth grade, and so
she can see she's she's catchingup.
She's so excited that she'sbeginning to read and write and

(31:24):
can do the academic things thatother other kids can do that she
never had the access to um areally, really cool.
So one of the reasons or one ofthe ways that the Marcovia
project stands out is we're verymuch working in partnership
with the church, and so thechurch offers the perpetual

(31:48):
education fund and then we workalongside it, and what we found
is that Armando found a fewwomen who wanted to learn how to
sew the church perpetualeducation fund paid for them to
learn how to sew and then, afterthey got done with their
training, we bought them thetools they needed to use that

(32:11):
and so, with our loans, theybought machines, they bought
fabric, they brought thread,they bought the things that they
would need and they are nowsuccessful business owners.
They are now successfullytaking care of their families
and providing for food and waterand electricity and all the
things.
So it's just really really coolto see how the church has

(32:33):
helped us and how we have helpedthe church.
Um, because Armando uh is thedistrict president.
He has a very um, he's a veryclose connection with with these
villages and with these smallcommunities, and it's been
really, really interesting.
It was really important to usthat we don't operate like other

(32:58):
churches in Honduras.
So we try to get to Hondurasonce a year and each time we go
the plane is full of otherdenominations, church members,
and so we get to talking andlike, oh, we're on a mission
trip and we're this and we'rethat.
And we learned very, veryquickly that part of a requisite

(33:22):
, a requirement for people inHonduras to receive their aid is
that they were baptized andwould participate in their
church Really and it just feltforced.
It felt like that's not howfaith works.
That certainly isn't theexample that the Savior gave us.
He baptized and spoke to andpreached and helped and lifted

(33:48):
Samaritans and Jews and Gentilesand was the Savior of the world
, not just the savior of thechosen people, and so we've been
very careful not to bleed thosetwo lines.
And yet, as people's needs aremet, they have more opportunity

(34:10):
to study the scriptures, theyhave time to pray, they have
time and they want to be aroundthe members of the church who
are also receiving loans or whoare going to school or who have
met this Marcovia project whyare those people so happy?
I'm going to go to church withthem.
And so what happened is lastyear, half of the kids that

(34:34):
received loans, half of the kidsthat 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 beenbaptized.
And so the kids that are goingto school with the LDS kids, the

(34:56):
kids who also have uniformsfrom the Marcovia Project, the
kids who are being befriended bythe Marcovia Project, kids are
coming to the church arerecognizing that there are
blessings and that there's moreto be found here than just
school supplies, and that's beenreally, really, really

(35:16):
inspirational.

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

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

really it's been a unique journey.
I don't know, Alisha, if Emilysay hey, because he's in charge
of five branches.
And like, hey, how's the BuenaVista branch?
And he's like, oh, we had 180people in church, like what I
said, 30.

(36:05):
Like how are you doing this?
And uh, the church is just onfire there and and it just it
honestly like fills my soul.
I'm so happy that that.
Not only are the are peoplethriving and people are going to
school and they're liftingthemselves out of poverty.
They are experiencing the joy,the refreshing, refreshing

(36:32):
alleviation of the atonement.
The atonement is alleviatingspiritual poverty there.
And it's important to note toothat way back three years ago,
when Armando came more into ourlife, he was the district
president.
Then he was the equivalent of astake president.

(36:54):
And at that time he felt likehis only option was to come to
the United States to pay acoyote and to come here
illegally.
And Emily and I just lost ourminds Like please don't do that.
Like you would abandon Nellie,you would abandon your children.
And he was a really good man.

(37:15):
He wasn't going to leave hisfamily, he wasn't going to
forsake them, but the onlyavenue he could see was I'll go
to the United States where thereis opportunity and I'll send
all my money home where there isopportunity and I'll send all
my money home and we just pledwith him.
Please trust us, we're going tomake this work, we're going to
make this okay and we have.

(37:36):
Because of the Marcovia Project, we've been able to keep him in
Honduras for three more years atime at which the church is
just exploding.
We've gone through that similarprocess two other times, with
branch presidents who have saidI don't know what else to do.
I'm going to go to the States.
And Armando was able to speakto them with compassion and

(38:00):
understanding and say, hey,there's a better way.
We don't have to run away, wedon't have to try to find
something that's not there.
We can build something here, wecan stay here.
Our families need us here.
Let's make this work.
And it's just really inspiringto see them stay, but stay for

(38:22):
the right reasons.
Right, they're staying becausethey love their kids, because
they love their wives, becausethey just want to be good
providers, good protectors,honorable priesthood holders.
And it's, it's.
It's just really is humbling.

It gave me chills when you talked about
like just just staying andbuilding where you are.
You know like it reminds me ofthat old talk like lift where
you stand, when they weretalking about couldn't move that
piano and so I had to just liftwhere they stood.
Cause.
I think that a lot of timesthat's what we think we just
have to run away from ourproblems and we'll find the

(38:58):
solution somewhere else.
And sometimes you do have toleave, Like that's a very
legitimate, you know possibility.

Yeah, absolutely.

More often than not, I feel like, you know,
possibility, yeah, absolutelyMore often than not.
I feel like, like it's almostlike a calling for us to improve
our current circumstances wherewe're at, and to, um, to
multiply and replenish the earth, like outside of just having
babies.
Right, like, multiply ourtalents, multiply the jobs,

(39:29):
multiply the educationalexperiences, you know like,
replenish the earth withresources and opportunities and
ideas, and and um, I mean justit.
It's just amazing to me.
I think ever since the, theself-reliance program came out,
which was actually when Scottand I were in the same ward

(39:49):
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 inyoung women's or whatever, and
Scott's talking about theself-reliance program and he's
like we got to find somefacilitators.
I'm like I'll be a facilitatorbecause I just believed in it so

(40:09):
much, like.
I just believe that God isreally trying to call the
members of the church especially, to elevate ourselves beyond
what is just socially acceptable.
Right, like, like he wants usto be financially secure, so
he's giving us these financialself-reliance classes.
You know, he wants us to beable to further our education to

(40:32):
, you know, build and grow ourbusinesses and and and to be
emotionally resilient, rightLike they.
That recently became a neweroption in the last couple of
years is the emotionalresilience class, which I love,
is a nod to mental health.
You know, like the Lord hasalways seen this, but he's also
seeing that as we get closer tothe second coming of Christ,

(40:54):
satan has very real tools at hisdisposal and most of them are
no longer like just drinking anddrugs and promiscuity.
It's like deeply embedded inour psyche.
You know, it's that feeling ofloneliness, it's being that
destitute, kind of just lack ofsomething right Like lacking joy

(41:18):
, lacking purpose, lacking thefeelings that you need to have
in order to really like furtherthe 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 thanthat, right, like right.
What the Lord is teaching.

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

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

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.
But then, when you look at thebaptismal commitments and when
you look at the baptismalcovenants, the temple covenant,
all of the things, we start tosee the Savior's instructions to
mourn with those that mourn andto grieve with those that
grieve and to lift where you can.

(42:31):
And to you know, someone asksof you something.
Give them double and don't justgive it like walk with them,
take the steps that they step sothat they aren't alone.
Those are the calls to actionthat the Savior is giving us.
Yes, he said feed my sheep, butI think he meant so much more
than that and that's really whatthe Marcovia Project is trying

(42:54):
to do in Honduras.
And those are the testimoniesand that's what I see in their
faces.
They have hope again.
They're not looking for a wayout or a trap door.
They're excited to stay intheir homeland.
They're excited to be in theirhome.
They're excited to be in theirZion building the gospel,

(43:34):
baptizing and preaching andstruggling to do ministering
like we are, and all of thethings.
I'm so excited to see howholistically we are alleviating
poverty, that the Savior isalleviating poverty, that, with
the help of so many kind people,honduran kids are going to
school, honduran families arefeeding themselves and providing
, and it's just been amagnificent blessing in our life
.

It reminds me of saying you know, give a man a
fish, you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, you feedhim for a lifetime.
But I think it even goes beyondthat with what you guys are
doing is it's more like teach aman to fish and feed an entire
generation for a lifetime.
Right, Because these thesepeople, you know, from the kids
that are going to school to theones that are, to the adults
that are getting the microloans.

(44:10):
Like you said with Maria, youknow she's now employed five
people.
How many people has theMarcovia project added on other
than Armando?
You started with one and thenthe two of you guys look at him
whipping out his paper.

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

Give us more stats.
We love it.

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 from17 different schools in four
different communities.
Right now we have 26 activeloans.
24 of them have been paid off.

(44:49):
So an interesting thing is thatif we give a loan to Wilmer,
we've helped Wilmer.
We've given him a business plan.
He's given himself a businessplan.
We've guided him in this.
He's taken the self-relianceclasses.
Then he paid his loan off in 12months and was then eligible to

(45:11):
get another one.
And so we've had multiple loanrecipients who have double or
triple received.
Again, they just keep rollingover the capital as they're
building their business.

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

Yeah, that's exactly right.
We never take money out of themicroloan fund, we just keep
putting money into it and soit's perpetually.
It's cyclical, which has been ahuge, just a huge blessing.
At this point it is fundingitself for how many loans it's

(45:51):
doing.

I love that so much.

Yeah.

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

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

And how good would it feel to know that, like
you, paying off your loan isnow helping someone else to be
able to have a loan.
Right, it's all kind of goingback and it's what's that it's
like.
My favorite thing ever is likea rising tide lifts all boats
right Like everyone's beingelevated in that Marcovia area

(46:42):
and stuff like that, which justmeans so many more blessings for
the next generation.

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

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

Well, I think one of the things that you've
done for Armando, that Nelly'shusband's name yeah, Armando
yeah.
So one of the things you'vedone for him is given him the
gift of time yes, because I meanI don't know about you guys,
but I'm like so busy and I knowI should be doing the things

(47:37):
that Armando's actually doing.
So you've given him a huge giftthe ability of time and some
resources to actually go andchange people's lives.
That's like a dream come true,you know to be, able to do that
for a living.
What a cool job yeah, no, it's.

It's been really really cool uh, cool is
the wrong word.
I I feel humbled, I feel blessed, I feel honored um to see nelly
and armando grow when theystarted um, so nellyelly and
Emily were like best friends onthe mission and so they go way
back.
And when their first child wasborn, they named their daughter

(48:21):
after Emily.
She's like I need to name thischild 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 Emilyand, and three years ago they
got the bad news from the doctorthat Emily was was failing to

(48:41):
thrive and so she wasn't gainingweight and she wasn't meeting
her milestones and and poornutrition and all the things.
And Nelly was calling Emilylike what do I do?
You're a mom?
How do I pattern my life afteryou?
Since the creation of theMarcovia Project, since infusing

(49:02):
Nelly and Armando with a job,with a friend, with purpose and
teaching and this ability andtime, little Emily is not only
thriving, she's excelling.
She's in kindergarten.
She's the same age as ourlittle son Joseph.
She's in kindergarten, she'slearning English, she knows all

(49:28):
of the things.
She's a happy, healthy,wonderful little six-year-old.
And Nellie and Armando, whopreviously didn't have the
confidence to have more children, had a second child, and so I
said, well, this child willclearly be named Anthony, right,
and I was so close, close.

(49:50):
Armando's full name is armandoantonio and they named their son
armando antonio.
I kind of got the middle name anod, there's a nod.
There's a little, a little bitof a nod but how wonderful is
that that not only did he staywith his wife and kids, they

(50:12):
grew their family, they'reraising their children in
righteousness in the gospel.
Blessings have really, reallycome to them.
A year ago we had a donor, aperson that someone show up to
say how can I best help?
What can I do?
We said, well, right nowArmando's taking buses to get

(50:35):
everywhere.
Um, and that's just reallybogging him down.
And this, uh, this kind soulgave us a huge check that we
were able to then buy Armando acar and it was amazing,
phenomenal, like it changed hislife.
They, they now can drive tochurch, they now can drive their

(51:00):
daughter Emily to school, theynow can go pick up groceries and
he has means of transportationto visit all of the families
that were helping recently.
Recently, the their houseflooded, their, their roof was
caving in, it was.
It was bad, they needed to move, and so again, donors stepped

(51:21):
up and and we were able to helpout and we got them a home and
we're making payments on thishome.
But they are safe and they aresecure and they are happy to be
where they're at and it's justbeen such a blessing to watch
Nellie and Armando's life getchanged, to watch their mental

(51:41):
health improve, to watch theirphysical health improve, to see
how how they're growingspiritually, and we just can't
wait to see what comes oh.

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.

That's why, when I knew that you were going to
be on, I was like, yes, I can'twait to hear what's going on now
?
It's so exciting.

So miracles are happening.

Yeah, like, where do you use?
I mean, I know you can'tpredict the future, but what are
some of the plans that you have?

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

Yeah, true.

So, honestly, we're at.
We're at the point now where Ithink, once, once we I remember
having a conversation withArmando and we he said something
to like we were, we were givingloans to kids, and somebody was
like oh, and that other kid?
And Armando said, yeah, he's onthe list.
And we're like what list?
He said, oh, I started making alist of all the kids that can't

(52:48):
afford to go to school.
Like what?
And that's how we grew quicklyfrom like 11 kids to 60 to 122.
And so the educationalopportunities of the Marcovia
Project exploded.
But what's struggling to followbehind is all of the short-term
alleviations for poverty.

(53:09):
And so right now, we I don'tremember where she said this oh,
right here Twenty-three of ourstudents live in a house with a
loan.
So 23 of our students, most ofour students are being sponsored
and their parents are not beinghelped, and so our goal in 2025

(53:32):
is to double the number ofstudents that live in a home
with a loan.

With a micro loan.

With a micro loan, exactly.
And so what we've taskedArmando with, what we need now
is to crowdfund and raise themoney so that Armando can
approach these families of thesekids 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?

(54:01):
How can we help you have morefood on the table?
How can we help you have healthcare?
How can we help you prepare,prepare for and plan for the
future?
And so we'd like to approachthose families and say come with
us, we have a plan.
We're going to get you in theseself-reliance programs.
We're going to teach you how totake care of yourself.

Wow.

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

right Is what you're going to do.
Yeah, Wow, and it's interestingbecause you're microloans right
, that's what you're going to do.
Yeah, Wow.
And it's interesting becauseyou're kind of going from the
reverse angle now, Like now it'snot just waiting for people to
come to you, it's them out andbeing like how can we lift here?
So is that going to?
I mean, I imagine it's going tolook a little bit different and
you guys probably are stilltrying to figure out exactly
like you know if you have abusiness idea, what?

(54:50):
what does that look like?
Like?
How are you guys going to helpthem to create a business idea?
Or yeah.

So it's definitely a shift.
The first year it was justpeople coming at Armando saying,
hey, I think this is cool, andhe would weed people out or say,
yeah, that would definitelywork, we should do that.
Now it's approaching familiesand saying what strengths do you
have?
How can we use what you have togrow you into something?
Thankfully, armando has seenfour dozen different types of

(55:20):
businesses work, and so we'vegot a lot of business
opportunity ideas.
Also, early in the project, werealized that it's much easier
to start and grow a business inHonduras, 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 yougot to have all these things.

(55:41):
And in Honduras we're able tosay, 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 nowshe's doing really well.
Or hey, manuel, you're great atroofing, let's get you a
roofing nail gun and go do thisthing.

(56:01):
And so I think, really, armandohas been and continues to be,
the key to success in all ofthis.
He knows what people can do tomake a living there and I think
we'll keep them within.
That zone of this is going towork and this is not.
But from the Marcovia Projectperspective, we now need to

(56:26):
shift our focus on to keepingthe kids that we have, keeping
them in school and continuing tofund Armando to be there, and
so we're.
We're looking at how do we gethis yearly salary covered?
How do we get transportation tothese places covered?
How do we get all of thestartup costs for these loans

(56:49):
covered?
It's shifting away from kidsand education and towards
preserving what we have andlet's make sure that these 122
kids and 80 families all thriveand do better.

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

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 timewith people much, much smarter
than me in creating the websiteand creating the platform,
figuring out how to crowdsourcemoney.

As we grow with the charity.

We're learning that true success comes in
multiple different ways.
There are huge parts of ourorganization that can and should
be crowdsourced.
And what do I mean bycrowdsource?
I mean that we need a thousandpeople that all give $5, as
opposed to five people that allgive $1,000.
And there's a few reasons, andI'm the mentaluras see, whoa,

(58:29):
holy smokes, some completestranger just gave us $10,000.
It's amazing, it's lifechanging, right, it's phenomenal
.
But that same experiencehappens when we show them hey,
check it out, 3000 people allhelped, like, what?
Like yeah, this huge crowd ofof people imagine every single

(58:50):
seat at your state conferencefilled that times four is how
many people care about you ishow many people want you to
succeed and want you to thrive.
That in itself is thisemotional boost.
It's this emotional success oflike whoa, like holy cow.
And so do we need crowdfunding?
Absolutely, we needcrowdfunding.

(59:12):
We need people to share theproject.
We need people to go to theproject.
We need people.
When you go to work next andyour coworkers say, hey, what
did you do this weekend?
We need you to say I went tothe Marcovia projectorg.
Check this out.
Like, these people are doinggood things.
However, so that that being said, we also need people with deep

(59:35):
pockets.
It has been so incrediblyhelpful when someone showed up
and said here's $10,000, go buyArmando a car.
Holy cow, that that grew, thatgrew the, the, the Marcovia
project and our reach and andall of like, huge like,

(59:55):
exponentially.
And so we need a little bit ofboth.
We we need those really bigchecks.
We need those companies.
If you're listening and youhave a large company and you
need a tax write-off.
Emily has gone through all ofthe bureaucratic stuff to become
a 5013C and do all like.
She has all of the T's crossedand the I's dotted so that we

(01:00:20):
can receive the help that weneed, and so we need big checks.
We need people just sharing.
If you can't donate, pleasejust share with your friends.
People help us get awarenessBecause, within our
interconnected digital world,the people of Honduras are
seeing wow, like that video gothow many likes and how many

(01:00:42):
views, and I can't believe allof these people love and care
for me.

Alisha Coakley (01:00:47):
Oh gosh, all right.
So what's the what's the bigdream Like?
What's the dream that's so bigit makes you sick to your
stomach, thinking about whatwould be like one of the biggest
things that someone could doright now Someone with deep
pockets.
Let's, let's go there.

Anthony Hemmert (01:01:07):
Most helpful right now oh, um, most helpful
right now.
I'll give you that answer inthree levels.
Okay, uh, pie in the sky, likethe biggest thing that could
like pay off armando's house.
We just got nelly and armandointo like an 85 000 house.
Okay and uh, so paying off hishouse.

(01:01:27):
Essentially, what that lookedlike is that we, the hemorrhage,
bought a house in Honduras andput it in their name and we just
increased his monthly salary tocover this cost 85 thousand
dollars.
What we need to grow 50 loansis like twenty thousand dollars.

(01:01:48):
We need to grow 50 loans islike $20,000.
We need to crowdsource about$20,000.
What we need to get throughthis season, through spring,
through they're all.
They're about to go back toschool.
Right now.
All of our kids have beensponsored.
What we need to pay Armando'ssalary to continue until the

(01:02:12):
next season is like 10 10 000and so somewhere between 10 and
85 000 are where my dreams liveI wouldn't say between.

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

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

Gotcha Well.
I'm thinking any of ourlisteners.
You know, we ask you guys everyweek to do your five second
missionary work.
What if we also ask you to doyour $5 missionary work?
Just, you know what I mean.
Like, let's just start there.
Let's do our a little bit ofcrowdfunding.

(01:03:18):
I don't know, scott, what doyou think?
Maybe you have a better idea.
Scott's more businessy than Iam.

Scott Brandley (01:03:21):
I was thinking the same thing.

I'm like man if everybody just went and donated
five bucks, that could be a lotof money.
Well, we've had.
I mean, I think our our mostlistened show has had over 50
000 views on youtube and that'snot including all the other
places than audible and buzzsprout and I we're all wherever
we're all.
I don't even know all thethings um spotify yeah so that's

(01:03:47):
super doable.
I mean if, if we, if we couldget 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 likefive friends to listen to the
show and if you and your fivefriends all donate $5, that
could build very quickly and andnot feel taxing on the majority

(01:04:08):
of the people to to do thatRight.

Right, absolutely.

Five second missionary work, five friends $5
.

Change, changing lives, giving people
hope yeah.

Well, and for people that haven't been to a
third world country, I mean itis insane.
I took my kids to Guatemala afew, a few years back because
I've done um.
I've done some some differentphilanthropy work with my
company and um I I've helpedorphanages and things like that.
But I took my kids and it was.

(01:04:43):
It was life changing for themto see what, what a thirdworld
country looks like and how theylive.
I remember one thing thathappened 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.

(01:05:04):
We were in this market and alittle boy her same age came up
to her and asked if she, if he,he could polish her shoes.
And he brought, he had thislittle box and she, you know, um
, put her shoes up on it and andpolished her shoes.
And I don't, it was like hardlyany money to do it, but I just

(01:05:28):
remember watching her and thislittle boy that that's his life.
He doesn't get to go to school,he polishes shoes.
Yeah, and it just broke my heart.
But I'm like man, just so thisopportunity that you have to put
children into school, that thatthat was their life before

(01:05:52):
right, like making popsicles,yeah, that's your life, and for
for I mean hardly any money youcan give a kid an education and
give them an opportunity thatwill change generations.
Like you were saying, Alisha,like it's insane, and it's so
rewarding just to know thatyou've changed someone's entire

(01:06:14):
life, for I mean going.

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 countlessexperiences 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 onewith you.
I am, at heart, a fisherman.
I love fishing.

(01:06:38):
Fishing is a passion.
But while we were down there,we were meeting with one of our
loan recipients who is afisherman, and we bought him
nets and we bought him thethings that he would need, and
at the time he was so excited tomeet me because he heard that
I'm Emily's husband, I'm thefisherman, and so at first he he
was really apologetic.

(01:06:58):
I'm so sorry, I don't have anylike 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 gofishing right now?
And Emily and Armando were withme and they're much more strict
with our schedule and so wedon't have time for that, and so

(01:07:19):
I asked him.
I said can I please come backin six months and go fishing?
He said yeah, and so I wentback with a few friends and he
took me out onto the GolfoFonseca, which is bordered by
Naragua, honduras and elsalvador, and that's the part of
the world that we're at, and sowe're out and they use these
things called gill nets, and sothere's these long 100 yard nets
that they throw out into thewater and and the whole time I'm

(01:07:39):
thinking, holy smokes, this isexactly what the disciples were
using in, yeah, in the middleeast, 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 forshrimp at the time and we got
back to the boat and our lonerecipient his name is Naum he
said do you want to go catchcrabs?

(01:08:00):
Yeah, it sounds awesome.
And so his son, walter, camewith and I was in Walter's boat
and we went way out into theGulf, but near where the tide
was low, and they said, aboutfive feet down there's all these
crabs.

(01:08:21):
I'm like, all right, and we'regoing to eat.
Everybody throws a string overthe boat and they have dead fish
on them.
And then we slowly, like, pullthe crabs up and net them with a
net.
I said, awesome, let's do it.
And so, sure enough, here comethese blue crabs and we start we
get like a whole basket full,and at one point, walter's
really good at this, like reallygood at this, and he's 10,

(01:08:46):
maybe 12.
And at one point he was doingsomething with crabs.
He was bringing crabs in and Ilook at Naum and he was crying
and I was like what's going on,man?
And he said I don't know how tothank you and and earlier,
scott, you said teach a man tofish and you feed him for life.

(01:09:06):
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 schooland we said it was a special
occasion.
He can come fishing withAnthony, but normally, because
of you, he goes to school.
Now and I'm so thankful that heis not fishing and I'm so

(01:09:31):
thankful because he used to comeout here every single day and
pull crabs out of the sea likethis, and now he gets to go to
school.
And it just really like shookme, like teach a man to fish and
you feed him for life.
Put that kid in school and youfeed his generations for life.
Yeah, and just really changedme and I still keep in touch

(01:09:53):
with walter.

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

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

Yeah, Thank you Honestly.
Without your help, without yoursupport, without your
encouragement, um, we wouldn'tbe who we are.

Well, we love you guys and we love what you're
doing and and you know, one ofthe things that that I love to
um, just about you guys is youguys are so open and so willing
to share how to be successful atthings Like I.
I like I've talked to Emily somany times before about you know
how to go through the paperworkand get the 501c organization

(01:10:50):
stuff together and what to dowith this, and she's she's
always helping me with.
You know, make sure you do yoursocial media posts like this,
because this is gonna help youwith that, and I mean just so
free with information.
And so I had this thought.
I was like well, maybe, maybethere's a listener right now who
has something really heavy ontheir heart, has some type of
charity that they think what youguys are doing should be

(01:11:11):
duplicatable.
You know like what?
if you had a project like thatin Guatemala where Scott went,
and what if you have another one?
You know that's that's in allthe different parts of the world
, even even right here in theUnited States, like how many
kids in the United States arenot able to go to school, or how
many people need little microloans or whatever else.
So like, if there's, if there'sany listeners, I mean, I'm sure

(01:11:35):
that if anyone has questions onlike, how do you get started?

Please reach out.

Yeah, we can get you guys connected and help
brainstorm and you know thingslike that, cause that's.
it's a lot to put on oneperson's shoulders, but it is so
much easier when everybodyshares the education, the
knowledge, the love.
Right, if we can help eachother increase the size of the

(01:12:02):
pie for all, how much morebeautiful of a world is that
going to be?
So I know that if listenershave something on their heart
that they can reach out and theycan just ask to be connected
and we can, we can try to helpout with whatever Scott's graded
it to our.
I don't know if our listenersknow, but Scott is amazing at
creating businesses and comingup with ideas and resumes and

(01:12:24):
all this kind of stuff.
So, yeah, we just want to hearfrom y'all.
Tell us what your ideas are,tell us in the comments, like,
what kind of things you guys arethinking about doing to make
the world a better place and andto teach others how to fish,
essentially.
So, man well, mr Anthony, isthere any last things that you'd

(01:12:50):
like to leave with us?
Ask us, share with us.

Um Marcovia projectorg.
That's the website.
We we are helping peoplephysically, we are helping
people psychologically.
Well, we, we couldn't do itwithout you.
We are so thankful for everyonewho's listening.
We're so thankful for the helpthat we've received, for the
strangers that we receive.

(01:13:15):
We are so thankful that thesavior 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'rebefriending sheep and we're
mourning with those who mournand grieving with those who

(01:13:35):
grieve, and we are alleviatingthe physiological and the
psychological poverty.
So, thank you so much.

Awesome.
Thank you guys.
You and Emily are just some ofmy favorite people in the whole
world.
I mean like true, genuine saltof the earth people, and I'm
just.
I'm so blessed to know you andso 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?

(01:14:02):
I know you did a gala last yearor the year before.
Are you guys planning onredoing any of those or do we?

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

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

We'd love to.

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

Awesome yeah, so is it the Marcovia Project or
Marcovia Project Marcovia org.
Okay, guys, go to the MarcoviaProject.
Yeah, go to Marcovia.
And if you can donate fivebucks, like just imagine that

(01:15:00):
that goes towards helping one ofthese little kids go to school
and get an education, or goestowards a micro loan to help
their family make money and itcan make a huge difference, a
huge difference yeah, I want toencourage listeners.

Uh, hey, wherever you're listening from
right, if you have theopportunity to comment on this
show and you have either sharedthe show, donated to the
Marcovia Project or maybe eventagged a few friends in this
episode, will you just commentdone or shared or just give us a
little comment, because thatalso will help boost the

(01:15:38):
algorithms.
It'll help make the show morepopular, you know, in newsfeeds
and things like that too.
So, uh, definitely drop us acomment, let us know what your
favorite part of the show was.
Uh, let us know how you'recontributing.
And uh, just know that we're.
We're so, so, eternallygrateful to the Marcovia

(01:15:59):
Projects and Hemmerts um, to allthose donors so far who've
helped the last three years andto all of our listeners.
We genuinely love you guys.

Yeah, Awesome.
Well, thanks, Anthony for beingon.

Say hi to.

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

I will, I will.

Okay, and remember, guys, if you have a
story that you'd like to shareand you want to come be a guest
on the show, we'd love to hearfrom you.
You can head over tolatterdaylightscom or you can
send us an email atlatterdaylights, at gmailcom.
Any personal story that youhave that somehow grew your
testimony in some way, shape orform, that's the requisite,

(01:16:42):
that's it.
That's the bar is not toostrenuous to get to.
So we would love to hear fromyou guys.
But, anthony, thanks again.
You guys, you guys are justamazing.

Thank you, it's been an honor.

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

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

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Alleviating Poverty with The Marcovia Project: Anthony Hemmert's Story - Latter-Day Lights