Hey family!
It is hard to believe and say that today officially began week two here in the new area. I emailed you all last week and pressed send. My email said that it went through but I guess that for some odd reason it did not. I pray that it made it through this time. If it did not, I am going to have to call the mission office and see what they can do about getting me a new email address. It would be sad if I lost all of the old emails though! My language study consisted of writing you all a letter in pure spanish so that should be coming in the mail here pretty soon. I hope dad still has the ability of translating it so that you can understand what it is that I was telling you all about.
If not, I am going to kind of recap here in this email.
Over the course of the last week, I have done a ton. I have not even come close to meeting all of the members of the ward here in Mesa. The Ward's name is the Liahona 4th ward. It has 300-400 members and they are all pretty active. This list of less actives that we recieve every week is actually quite short. I would say that it is about 20 members or so that are inactive. Not too shabby for a ward with hundreds of members.
My favorite experience is the last week occurred on Sunday Evening. We had an appointment with a couple who are some progressing investigators. The husband has wanted to be baptized for a while now, but it is only just recently that the wife has become involved in the Church. Their names are Moises & Graciela. They are in their late twenties and though they call eachother husband and wife, the reason Moises cannot be baptized is because he and Graciela are not actually married. The miracle of this all is that as of recent the two of them told the Elder's here before me that they just decided to get married. Also, both of them want to be baptized. So, we might get to do a wedd-ism here in the next few weeks! The reason that this was my favorite lesson of the week is because of where we did it. We did it here in Mesa at the Temple! We took a nice long walk around the temple and talked about what goes on inside the temple. They had their 1 year old son, Moises Jr., with them and they asked if he could come in. In return, I asked, "well, do you want him to live with you forever?" The mother answered, "Of Course!". I told her that was the answer to her question as well. I could really see them digesting everything they heard and saw. I wish we could teach every lesson on the temple grounds. The spirit is so strong there and everytime I walk around it everything just slows down and makes more sense.
After the lesson outside the temple, we went next door to the visitor's center. There is a man named Emilio and he has two daughters -- Estrella & Flor. We met the three of them in the visitors center. We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with them and I do not know why, but this time was especially strong for me. Something I have really been desiring and searching for as of late is a firmer more profound testimony of the First Vision. While watching the part where he was praying, I just was filled with peace and warmth to the point where I could not fight the Spirit and just started crying like a small child. The one daughter, Estrella, said to me when she saw a tear, "why does that make you sad?" It was hard to have he understand that in reality it made me oh so happy. After studying and praying and doing many other things to recieve a firmer knowledge of the veracity of the first vision, it finally came. It was not on my schedule, but on the Lord's. Part of "ask and recieve" is "seeking to find". I can now say with 100% of my heart that I know of a sureity that God and Jesus Christ appeared and spoke with Joseph. I believed it before, but I know it now.
Being at the temple is for sure my favorite place to be here on the mission. In some regards, I was somewhat disappointed when I got the news that I would be being transferred to Mesa. Phoenix was hectic, exciting, and fast paced. My area in Phoenix was gigantic. Here in Mesa on the other hand, everything is calm, easy-going, and quiet. My area is about 8 blocks by 8 blocks. It is mostly trailer parks and apartments and it is chock full of people who speak only spanish. Once again I have been blessed by being placed here in a great and alive part of the mission. The work is like wildfire here. We teach 3-4 lessons a day and I meet someone new daily. Cars always honk and people always wave. As a missionary here in the city of Mesa, you feel a lot more welcome and accepted than in Phoenix. Yeah, I can not say I live on the most dangerous street in Phoenix, but I can say I am surrounded by some of the kindest and loving people I have every met.
Here is my address by the way:
Elder Jonathan Pearson
1233 N Mesa Drive #1078
Mesa, AZ 85201
I am healthy, I am losing weight being on bike, and most important of all is the fact that I am loving the work. There are a lot of people to teach here who are ready to hear the message. There are a lot of members who are more than willing to help us out. Plus, every meal I have eaten here has been AWESOME! Probably way fattening though. I love Mole. It is a chocolate chili sauce that goes over grilled chicken and rice. It is the best. Mom, you should try to learn how to cook it for sure. Oh, and here is something that I think will blow all of your worlds apart. I love beans, and I love onions. Onions make my sweat smell awful, but I feel so good after eating them. The best part of all, with eating all of these veggies and such, my acid reflux is slowly decreasing in strength. I still take me pills, so do not worry mom! I am taking great care of myself. I work out hard every morning and I refuse to eat anything that comes out of a freezer. Chicken, beans, and rice are every lunch, and some days dinner, too!
Elder Williams is a great companion. I think my biggest struggle with him is he is too fun! It can be kind of hard to keep up with him and follow him in a lesson. He is really great in teaching kids and there are ton of kids that we are teaching. That is a gift he has for sure. Well, that and being able to get people to listen. I still have not gotten to hear his full conversion story, but it is good. I love him and I hope I stay with him for a few transfers. We are going to have some miracles happen here shortly, this I am sure of. He has only been out 2 transfers more than myself, so we are both kind of young when it comes to being missionaries.
Now, for the frustrating story of the week! There is this man named Rick. He is 59 and very stubborn. He speaks English, and he refuses to speak with sister missionaries because they are not people of wisdom to him. Also, he thinks women don't know the Bible. We have taught him twice in the last week. His big hangup is that he is SURE without a doubt that in Genesis 1 and 2 is tells us that there were people outside of the Garden of Eden before God placed Adam and Eve there. We never get anywhere in lessons because he says he needs to understand every page in the Bible before he takes on the Book of Mormon. He told us flat out he will not read the Book of Mormon until he understands the Bible. We have spent countless hours teaching him and testifying to him. I want to drop him because he flat out said he wants to find a church that agrees with what he believes. He is firm and hard hearted. But, for some unknown reason Elder Williams will not let us drop him. One thing we were taught in the MTC is that Satan will place people in our paths who will let us in the teach them, but they will not progress at all. Satan places these people in out paths so that we can not find those who are waiting and ready. I feel like rick is one of these distractors.
Well, I have limited computer time now, so my emails will probably be a little shorter while I am here. I have to use a library and such so I am limited to one hour. I wish I had more so I could write about every lesson I have had and about every person I have met. But, that is not the way it is.
I love you my family. I hope you all are seeing blessings in your own lives from my service here. I would love for you all to tell me about any of these if you have seen them because President Ellsworth said a good way to see if you are doing what is right is to ask your family if they are being blessed. If they are not, you need to work harder. I feel like I am doing my best -- I am pooped every day. I try talking to everyone. I just hope my hard work is blessing the people here that I love, as well as all of you back home whom I love. I pray for you every day. I think of you when I fast. Every 10 year old boy I meet that bounces off the wall reminds me of Will -- one's name is guillermo (William). Every teenage girl I teach reminds me of maddy. One man in the ward, Hno. Posos, reminded me of Dad. One woman, Hna. Mora, reminds me of mom. I love you and miss you, but I love it here and I need to be here. Keep me in your prayers!
With all my love,
Elder Jonathan Pearson
(Posted By Maddy)
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