Hey Family!
I am not going to give you all my address here because first off, I still do not know it. Second of all, the mission has asked that all mail be sent to the mission office. I have a few letters from people that have showed up in Mesa. Mailing things to the mission office will help prevent this issue in the future. It is not that I want this all to be a secret, but it is just easier that way!
I am going to start off by telling you all the thing that will probably scare the junk out of mom. On Wednesday night, I thought I was going to die. We went to an appointment with an investigator named Joaquin that has a date. He asked us if we could come back in half an hour, we of course agreed. We got in the car and drove to knock on the doors of some formers. As we got back in the car to go back to Joaquin, a Chevy Malibu with like 100% tint on the windows pulled up and blocked us in our parking space. The window rolled down and a scruffy white guy asks us to come over to his window. More out of fear than anything, I complied and went to speak with him. Luckily, he told us he was an undercover cop for Scottsdale PD and he requested our help in a sting they were about to do. Yeah, well, we agreed. He told us to go knock the door of this one house. He showed us a picture of the guy he wanted us to look for in the house. This criminal looked like Satan Reincarnate. So, my adrenaline was running, we knocked the door, and a blond lady answered. I did just as any door approach, but my companion was so scared he was speechless. We saw no sign of the guy. As we walk back to our car we both get the impression that our car is going to be gone. The cop never showed us a badge. Well, we walk the corner and the car and cop are still there. We tell the cop we saw no sign. For some reason I felt like I needed to take down the "cop's" plates. I did. He drove off and Elder Scherbel and I got into the car. Right when I put the key in the ignition, something told me not to. The inside of the car smelled like unlit fireworks, we had no idea why. We both felt prompted to get out and walk. We did. I got the number to Scottsdale PD headquarters and called in the plates. The car was not registered to an officer.....then I gave the address of the criminals house to the lady on the phone. Thank goodness, it checked out and there was indeed and officer in the area. He was just new and did not follow the proper procedure for asking citizen's help...I am alive and happy!
The best part of this week was on Thursday. Right after district meeting I felt terrible, but we felt as though we should go visit a potential investigator. His name is Carlos Jaimes. The little detail of it all is that he is mute. Communication is so vital in teaching, and with him we have to ask really good questions so that he understands and so that we know what he is thinking. It took a lot of effort, but we had an INCREDIBLE lesson with him. At the end, I extended the baptismal invitation. I was not planning on doing it at all. After all, I had never met the guy, not had he ever been taught. Well, he accepted it with the most powerful smile and nod I have ever seen. Then, Elder Sherbel extended a date; his smile got even bigger. Carlos was prepared and his health condition humbled him. I felt such pure love flowing through me towards him as we taught it was just incredible. It is so easy to feel the Spirit when we teach humble people.
We have this less active family we are working with. La Familia Delgado (Dos). They are the 2nd delgado family in the ward. They have never been inactive, but never active completely. Well, we felt like we should ask them to be the ones to give Carlos Jaimes and his wife a ride to Church. For the first time in over a year, the entire Delgado family was at Church. It is amazing to see the blessings that come to people as they help in missionary work. Our goal for the Delgado family is the temple, of course. If they remain active, they can be sealed in August I believe. They are the only members in my entire area, and they live in Tempe. All of the members are in Phoenix. Literally.
I also found out there is a woman in my branch who served in Venezuela in the 80's. She was not sure which years. Were there sisters in your mission, Dad? I still have no set opinion on sisters.
The Zoo was fun last week, but all of the animals were asleep. No joke. We had a great time and all, but I think the time could have been better spent. I would still say that the Oregon Zoo is better, for sure. The only cool thing that the Phoenix Zoo has is a condor. Those birds are amazing.
I am not going golfing any time soon. I remembered I am left handed and unfortuantely, there is not a single left handed golfer in the Arcadia ward. It is ok though, I am sure I would cause shame to fall upon an elite member of the Phoenician Golf Club.
I am so pumped for you all to be able to go over to Israel, I indeed will be jealous, but I will just read more of Jesus the Christ to feel like I am there. To Maddy and Will, do not take this trip for granted. There are only an handful of people that can say that they have stepped foot and walked where Christ and His apostles walked. It is a sacred, beatiful place, that is rich in History. If I ever get the chance, I plan to go there in the future.
Your cruise for next year sounds awesome, too. I figure with me out of the picture, these trips are 20% more affordable. That is a lot. A Sister from Honduras just went home last week or so and a new sister from Belize just got here. Those are two countries I would love to visit. Look for Elders in Honduras, half of my MTC Zone went there. In Belize, look for Elder Arrington. He is in the San Salvador West Mission, which covers Belize.
I love you all so much and pray/fast for you! I hope you all get better and I hope it warms up there. It is in the 80's daily now, which I think is PERFECT. I am loving the weather. We climbd Camelback this morning, and it was great. Coincidentally, all of the Visitors' Center Sisters were climbing it, too. It was fun to have so many missionaries up top. I will have to send you all pictures sometime soon!
Well, I love you. I love hearing from you all. Sorry I cannot be more detailed and personal, but time is not something of abundance on a mission! You're the best!
Elder Pearson
Posted By Maddy
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Hola From Scottsdale!
Hey Family!
Well, Scottsdale is a pretty different kind of place. It is a lot different than Mesa in just about every way. Mesa was pretty average housing to lower qulaity housing. Scottsdale is upper class housing with low income housing dispersed throughout the area. As Spanish Elders, we generally are out walking up and down these lower income streets as that is where the Hispanics are. This area is definitely going to be a lot tougher, but at the same time I already love it.
Thursday night we taught a man named Victor Carillo. He is huge, has a deep voice, and a pony tail with lots of tattoos. I would have never approached him to talk to him. Truth be told however, he is 100% a prepared soul. We went over and he asked me kindly if he could tell me about a dream he had recently had. I of course said, "Si." In his dream he saw Jesus Christ standing in a stream. Christ signaled to him and said, "Come to me and be baptized in the Church of the Latter-day Saints". That is what he said, verbatum. Yeah. We taught him the plan of salvation and he understands it so well. He understands the purpose of life. He knows he needs to get baptized and he said he will get baptized in this Church. He just wants more time to learn. Even in one of the toughest areas of the mission, God has prepared people. Our job is just to help him realize that he is ready. He is reading, praying, and striving to gain a testimony. That right there is a recipe for success.
Another AWESOME investigator we have is Paola. She is 15 and is best friends with a recent convert, Cintia. She wants to get baptized so badly. She has a testimony already and a desire to share the gospel with others. Her biggest obstacle is the fact that he mother is Pentecostal (inactive...) and does not want to give her permission to be baptized. We taught her out of the Ensign from January on recieving answers to prayers. It was an incredible lesson and I felt the Savoir's love for this girl the entire time. We challenged her to pray for the courage, and the spirit, to be able to touch the heart of her mother when asking for her permission. She told us yesterday that she is praying and doing all she can to muster up the faith and courage to ask again. We are praying for her, too.
I totally forgot to tell you about my new companion, Elder Jonathan Scherbel. He is from Star Valley, Wyoming and is one heck of an awesome missionary. He and I clicked from the start and things have just gone great. He loves teaching and he has a great knowledge of the Gospel. He knows the scriptures and the members love him. We get along great and we teach well together. I am looking way forward to this transfer.
We live with another companionship in out apartments. They serve in the Arcadia Ward, the rich people. Their names are Elder Harper (from Blackfoot, Idaho) and Elder Nuku (from Tonga). I love both of them as well. Elder Harper and I both have a lot of the same aspirations and interests. We talk a lot and he is helping me keep my english up to par. They are having rediculously great amounts of success considering the demographic that they work with. They have an Iranian man getting baptized in a week or two. He is the CTO of Caterpillar Construction....yeah.
The branch is great, but it is so strange going from a ward of 300 plus people to a branch of 45. There are a lot less members to work with and a lot more with higher-stress living situations. There are more less actives and fewer recent converts, due to the difficulty of the area we live in. However, the Branch is strong. I love it. Our branch President was mission president in Sao Paolo, Brazil about 5 years ago. He loves missionary work, he is kind. Our big struggle is that our ward mission leader does not exactaly know what his calling entails. He will not schedule regular meetings with us and I hear that has been the case for some time. We are going to read Chapter 13 of Preach My Gospel with him. In the words of Elder Scherbel, It is hard to tell someone to do something, without telling them to do something.
My area is gigantic. I cover 85% of Scottsdale and I am having a tough time memorizing all of the streets. A lot of them are the same names and such as my first area in Phoenix. I haven't ventured out to drive yet because we are running low on miles this month. We just have to make it through today.
I was way sad to leave Mesa, but I know my investigators and converts there will be well taken care of. A great Elder took my place and I am sure they are loving it there still. It ultimately comes down to the fact that I know President Ellsworth is called of God and I know the Lord wants me here for a reason. I am growing to love these people so quickly. It really feels like this area was meant for me. I am happy here, even though we teach less, bike never, and walk more. I am going to do all I can to help this area to grow.
Speaking of haircuts, I got one this morning. I did it myself and it is looking fine. It is waaaayyyy short. The heat is supposed to start coming back this week. Laundry is fine. I never really have to iron anything. I take most stuff to the dry cleaners. I am living well and I am healthy.
Oh, and a member of the Arcadia ward is paying for us to go to the Zoo today, and he wants to take us to golf the Phoneician (spelling?) next week. It is 6 star course I guess. I can't golf....yup.
The money in Scottsdale just amazed me. I see ferraris, lamborghinis, rolls-royces, mercedes, porches, etc. all day every day. There are actually lawns at the houses and the city is incredibly clean. I just cannot believe it.
I never got to cast out demons. They called and cancelled because Miguel had to go back to Mexico on an emergency errand. So, I got no crazy, spooky experiences.
This week has been good and I am glad you are all doing well. Just be sure to go to the mountain sometime. I really miss the snow! I love you all and I pray for you! I have to go for now, but just remember that I love you and I always will!
Con amor,
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
Posted By Maddy
Well, Scottsdale is a pretty different kind of place. It is a lot different than Mesa in just about every way. Mesa was pretty average housing to lower qulaity housing. Scottsdale is upper class housing with low income housing dispersed throughout the area. As Spanish Elders, we generally are out walking up and down these lower income streets as that is where the Hispanics are. This area is definitely going to be a lot tougher, but at the same time I already love it.
Thursday night we taught a man named Victor Carillo. He is huge, has a deep voice, and a pony tail with lots of tattoos. I would have never approached him to talk to him. Truth be told however, he is 100% a prepared soul. We went over and he asked me kindly if he could tell me about a dream he had recently had. I of course said, "Si." In his dream he saw Jesus Christ standing in a stream. Christ signaled to him and said, "Come to me and be baptized in the Church of the Latter-day Saints". That is what he said, verbatum. Yeah. We taught him the plan of salvation and he understands it so well. He understands the purpose of life. He knows he needs to get baptized and he said he will get baptized in this Church. He just wants more time to learn. Even in one of the toughest areas of the mission, God has prepared people. Our job is just to help him realize that he is ready. He is reading, praying, and striving to gain a testimony. That right there is a recipe for success.
Another AWESOME investigator we have is Paola. She is 15 and is best friends with a recent convert, Cintia. She wants to get baptized so badly. She has a testimony already and a desire to share the gospel with others. Her biggest obstacle is the fact that he mother is Pentecostal (inactive...) and does not want to give her permission to be baptized. We taught her out of the Ensign from January on recieving answers to prayers. It was an incredible lesson and I felt the Savoir's love for this girl the entire time. We challenged her to pray for the courage, and the spirit, to be able to touch the heart of her mother when asking for her permission. She told us yesterday that she is praying and doing all she can to muster up the faith and courage to ask again. We are praying for her, too.
I totally forgot to tell you about my new companion, Elder Jonathan Scherbel. He is from Star Valley, Wyoming and is one heck of an awesome missionary. He and I clicked from the start and things have just gone great. He loves teaching and he has a great knowledge of the Gospel. He knows the scriptures and the members love him. We get along great and we teach well together. I am looking way forward to this transfer.
We live with another companionship in out apartments. They serve in the Arcadia Ward, the rich people. Their names are Elder Harper (from Blackfoot, Idaho) and Elder Nuku (from Tonga). I love both of them as well. Elder Harper and I both have a lot of the same aspirations and interests. We talk a lot and he is helping me keep my english up to par. They are having rediculously great amounts of success considering the demographic that they work with. They have an Iranian man getting baptized in a week or two. He is the CTO of Caterpillar Construction....yeah.
The branch is great, but it is so strange going from a ward of 300 plus people to a branch of 45. There are a lot less members to work with and a lot more with higher-stress living situations. There are more less actives and fewer recent converts, due to the difficulty of the area we live in. However, the Branch is strong. I love it. Our branch President was mission president in Sao Paolo, Brazil about 5 years ago. He loves missionary work, he is kind. Our big struggle is that our ward mission leader does not exactaly know what his calling entails. He will not schedule regular meetings with us and I hear that has been the case for some time. We are going to read Chapter 13 of Preach My Gospel with him. In the words of Elder Scherbel, It is hard to tell someone to do something, without telling them to do something.
My area is gigantic. I cover 85% of Scottsdale and I am having a tough time memorizing all of the streets. A lot of them are the same names and such as my first area in Phoenix. I haven't ventured out to drive yet because we are running low on miles this month. We just have to make it through today.
I was way sad to leave Mesa, but I know my investigators and converts there will be well taken care of. A great Elder took my place and I am sure they are loving it there still. It ultimately comes down to the fact that I know President Ellsworth is called of God and I know the Lord wants me here for a reason. I am growing to love these people so quickly. It really feels like this area was meant for me. I am happy here, even though we teach less, bike never, and walk more. I am going to do all I can to help this area to grow.
Speaking of haircuts, I got one this morning. I did it myself and it is looking fine. It is waaaayyyy short. The heat is supposed to start coming back this week. Laundry is fine. I never really have to iron anything. I take most stuff to the dry cleaners. I am living well and I am healthy.
Oh, and a member of the Arcadia ward is paying for us to go to the Zoo today, and he wants to take us to golf the Phoneician (spelling?) next week. It is 6 star course I guess. I can't golf....yup.
The money in Scottsdale just amazed me. I see ferraris, lamborghinis, rolls-royces, mercedes, porches, etc. all day every day. There are actually lawns at the houses and the city is incredibly clean. I just cannot believe it.
I never got to cast out demons. They called and cancelled because Miguel had to go back to Mexico on an emergency errand. So, I got no crazy, spooky experiences.
This week has been good and I am glad you are all doing well. Just be sure to go to the mountain sometime. I really miss the snow! I love you all and I pray for you! I have to go for now, but just remember that I love you and I always will!
Con amor,
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
Posted By Maddy
Hey Family!!!!
Sorry for throwing ANOTHER loop your way. P-day is still going to be on monday from here on out, but with yesterday being president's day, President Ellsworth decided he wanted us to work our areas because most families would be at home. So, sorry for the confusion and all! I wish there was a way we could let you know ahead of time. It was a pretty last minute decision by President.
Hna Cruz posted the truth. Saturday night at midnight I got a call about transfers. I was 100% expecting to be staying because Elder Nerveza and I get along, and we work hard. Also, he has had 3 companions in his first three transfers, now 4 in his first four. I am going to the Camelback Scottsdale Stake. I started my mission in the Camelback 1st Branch. Now, I am headed to the Camelback 2nd branch! Back to Phoenix...kind of. My area is the Scottsdale side. Camelback mountain is in my area, so I am thinking of hiking it daily if my companion is up to it. The richest ward in the Western U.S. is in my stake. Arcadia ward. It is all of the mansions on the side of the mountain...yup. They are all members. My new comapanion is Elder Scherbel from Star Valley, Wyoming. I got to meet him at a Charla Fogonera (Fireside) in Phoenix sunday night. I think we should get along well. I am going to be greenie breaking him (his 1st companion after his trainer). I am excited, but not quite ready to leave here.
This last week was the polar opposite of the week before. It was still hard. I still had a lot of trials, but we had so many awesome things happen. Especially on Saturday when it was POURING rain here. In the last 3 days we have set two more baptismal dates with investigators. One with Jose Espinoza, and one with Miguel Duran. Miguel actually set his baptismal date himself. We talked to him, taught him, and in the end talked about baptism. He said, "I need to get baptized. When is the soonest I can do it?". We set a date with him for March 19th. I am way excited for him because his wife and kids have been members for 15 years and he has never had any interest. Well, something touched his heart as of late and he wanted us to come back over. The first time we taught him, it was actually via Skype because he was in Merida, Yucutan, Mexico. It was strange teaching like that. Yesterday, we taught him in his home.
Right before we left, his wife, Leydi, told us she was hesitant but wanted to ask us something. She says there is an evil spirit in their house that has been causing a lot of chaos and once even scratched her. She asked us to do something. Well, I have never done ANYTHING like that before so I called President Ellsworth. He told me to leave the house for one day and to go back later to cast out the evil. We are doing that tonight....I don't know what to think. President Ellsworth told me that if there is really an evil spirit there, to expect some crazy things to happen after we cast it out. Yeah. I know, it is pretty nuts. I will let you all know how that went next week!
Other than that, I think I had the best Sunday of my mission ever. We had 8 investigators at church, four of which had never gone before. It was the craziest day ever because I had to get one to primary, one to young womens, one to young mens, one to gospel principles, and one to the bishops' office. Ay caramba. It was great though. It really was.
Reyna came with all 5 of her children and her two youngest little boys LOVED primary and asked if they could go back tomorrow. Haha. I love the spirits that little children have. Their 5 year old asked for a Book of Mormon and said he needs to read it every day. His name is Jordi. He is pretty adorable.
A big step in progress happened with Moises and Graciela. They stayed all three hours of Church. We taught moises about the priesthood and he really wants it bad. We explained the responsibilities and blessings he will have and he now understands the importance of the third hour. He stayed. Their son, Moises, went to nursery and for this first week, he stayed with his mom in there. He loved it and it looked like he was making lots of little friends. It is going to break my heart to say goodbye to them tonight. I love them so much!
Also, we had some progress with Maria. Her husband has almosty got the divorce entirely paid for. After that, the ward is going to pay for marriage license and she is going to get married and baptized. She cried yesterday when I passed by to say goodbye. I am really going to miss her and her family, too.
Jose Espinoza loves the Gospel. A lot. He reads, prays, and has already recieved a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and the Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. So, we extended the baptismal invitation and he accepted. He came to church, stayed all three hours and participated in class and priesthood. He is getting baptized on the 19th of March also.
Dad, thank you so much for your email from last week. You prepared so much harder than me. Before leaving, I had read the Book of Mormon 3 times. I had read the Bible once, and D&C twice. I am so grateful for the example that you have always set for me studying your scriptures daily at breakfast. That is something I wish I started to do sooner. It brings such great joy to my day even when it is dumping rain out and all of our appointments cancel. You are a great father and I love you!
Mom, thanks for the snail mail! It is odd how excited a missionary gets when we get a letter! It really brightened my week and all! I will let you know my new address next week! Thanks for always showing me such patience and love even though I was not deserving of it.
Will, CONGRATS on getting into those schools. I would say that you should go to the K-8th one up by PCC. I heard it was way fun! Let me know what you choose! I love you and miss you! Seeing your picture made me tear up a wee-bit.
Maddy, you are going to have your licence in like, 3 months! AHHHHHHHHHH! Wow. You are gonna be a woman way too soon. Keep working hard and smiling. Read your scriptures and pray. Life will be brighter every day!
Overall, I love you all! I think about you when I have time, and I pray for you always! Keep being the best family ever. I will tell you all about the rich and prideful of Scottsdale next week!
Love,
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
Posted By Maddy
Hna Cruz posted the truth. Saturday night at midnight I got a call about transfers. I was 100% expecting to be staying because Elder Nerveza and I get along, and we work hard. Also, he has had 3 companions in his first three transfers, now 4 in his first four. I am going to the Camelback Scottsdale Stake. I started my mission in the Camelback 1st Branch. Now, I am headed to the Camelback 2nd branch! Back to Phoenix...kind of. My area is the Scottsdale side. Camelback mountain is in my area, so I am thinking of hiking it daily if my companion is up to it. The richest ward in the Western U.S. is in my stake. Arcadia ward. It is all of the mansions on the side of the mountain...yup. They are all members. My new comapanion is Elder Scherbel from Star Valley, Wyoming. I got to meet him at a Charla Fogonera (Fireside) in Phoenix sunday night. I think we should get along well. I am going to be greenie breaking him (his 1st companion after his trainer). I am excited, but not quite ready to leave here.
This last week was the polar opposite of the week before. It was still hard. I still had a lot of trials, but we had so many awesome things happen. Especially on Saturday when it was POURING rain here. In the last 3 days we have set two more baptismal dates with investigators. One with Jose Espinoza, and one with Miguel Duran. Miguel actually set his baptismal date himself. We talked to him, taught him, and in the end talked about baptism. He said, "I need to get baptized. When is the soonest I can do it?". We set a date with him for March 19th. I am way excited for him because his wife and kids have been members for 15 years and he has never had any interest. Well, something touched his heart as of late and he wanted us to come back over. The first time we taught him, it was actually via Skype because he was in Merida, Yucutan, Mexico. It was strange teaching like that. Yesterday, we taught him in his home.
Right before we left, his wife, Leydi, told us she was hesitant but wanted to ask us something. She says there is an evil spirit in their house that has been causing a lot of chaos and once even scratched her. She asked us to do something. Well, I have never done ANYTHING like that before so I called President Ellsworth. He told me to leave the house for one day and to go back later to cast out the evil. We are doing that tonight....I don't know what to think. President Ellsworth told me that if there is really an evil spirit there, to expect some crazy things to happen after we cast it out. Yeah. I know, it is pretty nuts. I will let you all know how that went next week!
Other than that, I think I had the best Sunday of my mission ever. We had 8 investigators at church, four of which had never gone before. It was the craziest day ever because I had to get one to primary, one to young womens, one to young mens, one to gospel principles, and one to the bishops' office. Ay caramba. It was great though. It really was.
Reyna came with all 5 of her children and her two youngest little boys LOVED primary and asked if they could go back tomorrow. Haha. I love the spirits that little children have. Their 5 year old asked for a Book of Mormon and said he needs to read it every day. His name is Jordi. He is pretty adorable.
A big step in progress happened with Moises and Graciela. They stayed all three hours of Church. We taught moises about the priesthood and he really wants it bad. We explained the responsibilities and blessings he will have and he now understands the importance of the third hour. He stayed. Their son, Moises, went to nursery and for this first week, he stayed with his mom in there. He loved it and it looked like he was making lots of little friends. It is going to break my heart to say goodbye to them tonight. I love them so much!
Also, we had some progress with Maria. Her husband has almosty got the divorce entirely paid for. After that, the ward is going to pay for marriage license and she is going to get married and baptized. She cried yesterday when I passed by to say goodbye. I am really going to miss her and her family, too.
Jose Espinoza loves the Gospel. A lot. He reads, prays, and has already recieved a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and the Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. So, we extended the baptismal invitation and he accepted. He came to church, stayed all three hours and participated in class and priesthood. He is getting baptized on the 19th of March also.
Dad, thank you so much for your email from last week. You prepared so much harder than me. Before leaving, I had read the Book of Mormon 3 times. I had read the Bible once, and D&C twice. I am so grateful for the example that you have always set for me studying your scriptures daily at breakfast. That is something I wish I started to do sooner. It brings such great joy to my day even when it is dumping rain out and all of our appointments cancel. You are a great father and I love you!
Mom, thanks for the snail mail! It is odd how excited a missionary gets when we get a letter! It really brightened my week and all! I will let you know my new address next week! Thanks for always showing me such patience and love even though I was not deserving of it.
Will, CONGRATS on getting into those schools. I would say that you should go to the K-8th one up by PCC. I heard it was way fun! Let me know what you choose! I love you and miss you! Seeing your picture made me tear up a wee-bit.
Maddy, you are going to have your licence in like, 3 months! AHHHHHHHHHH! Wow. You are gonna be a woman way too soon. Keep working hard and smiling. Read your scriptures and pray. Life will be brighter every day!
Overall, I love you all! I think about you when I have time, and I pray for you always! Keep being the best family ever. I will tell you all about the rich and prideful of Scottsdale next week!
Love,
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
Posted By Maddy
Lots of Changes....
Happy Valentine's day Family!
Sorry to throw you all off again, but the Church asked all mission president's to change their Preparation Days to Monday around the world to create unity and continuity throughout the Church. So, from here on out you will be recieving emails, etc. on mondays. Just to get to nitty gritty out of the way, I did indeed get my Rx from Medco and I did get your package from the whole family. The picture of Will kind of scared me because I can see how much he has changed in the last 7 months! He looks a little chubbier/muscular (euphemism) He looks like he will be a teenager in not too long. It really put in perspective to see that.
I enjoyed reading all of your little letters you sent. It was nice to hear from cousins and aunts and uncles! I miss you all at times, but I really know there is no where else in the world that is better to be. I am 100% a wittness to the fact that the mission is the hardest thing that anyone of my age can do. Weeks are long (but still somehow short?!?!) and challenging. I suffer disappointments and I get let down a lot by people. I see miracles and blessings. There is no other opportunity like this in the world.
The following weekend, both of the other companionships in my Ward will be having baptisms. We will not. I know it is just my pride getting in the way, but it is really hard to see so many others having success and baptisms while I feel like I am working so hard to little avail. I have always evaluated my success on numbers and percentages. I have always gotten upset when I do not meet goals. President Ellsworth spoke on how every companionship will baptize every month from here on out. I am 100% on board with that. I want that. I pray for that. I work HARD for that. But for some reason, with one more week left in this transfer, it is not looking like that is going to happen. I am praying so often. I am wiped out every night. It is just way hard. I am not losing hope. I am not losing faith. I just wish I could speak to God face to face to discover what I am doing wrong, or not doing right sometimes.
Elder Nerveza and I still are getting along great. We never argue, we have a lot of the same interests, etc. He is quite fond of deep doctrine, while I am not because it does not add anything to my testimony in large part. That is about all we differ in. The trouble he has is that he has 0% confidence in himself. I let him read my copy of "Beware of Pride" yesterday morning during personal study and during companionship study he expressed that he is not sure if he should be on a mission. He said that is how he felt when I read the talk. I am not a super supportive, wise kind of guy, so it is tough to counsel him. All I told him is that if it is really how he feels, he should talk to President. I hope he expresses some of his concerns to President in our letters today.
As for miracles (almost heart attacks)...our investigator, Reyna, got a job mid mast week. She was working 12+ hours a day and we never got to meet with her. I called her friday to see if she thought she was going to be able to come to church. She said, "I doubt it". I think right now she is our best progressing investigaotr with the fewest obstacles in order to get baptized. Once she decides to accept the date, she will be baptized. I am sure of that. But, with her telling us she could not come to church, I litterally broke down once I got back to the apartment. Instead of planning, I just went back to my bedroom and said a prayer, which was more a cry of desparation. I just pleaded and begged that someway, somehow Reyna would be able to make it to Church. All Saturday she sent me a text saying it was still a no. I was so sad that my prayer had not worked. I was devastated. Every prayer I said that day, even some in lessons, I prayed that she would be able to come to church. I really did not have much faith, but I knew that if I asked with all the faith I had, God's will would be done. Well, we kept on working all day. We did not have a ton of success. Elder Nerveza crashed on his bike and hurt his knee pretty good. We had a missionary coordination meeting that was more like 1.5 hours of our ward mission leader bearing testimony about baptisms for the dead. It was just a rough day. We went back to the apartment, prayed, planned, and then prayed again -- remembering Reyna in our prayers. When I was about to go to bed, 10:15 or so, we got a text from Reyna. "Lo Siento por decirles tan noche, pero voy a ir a la iglesia manana. Necesitaremos un ride! Gracias y buenas noches." (ride is spanglish, it is pronounced, RYE-TAY) After all of that stress, prayer, and worrying, my prayer was answered. Reyna and one of her daughters came to Church and stayed all three hours. Reyna loved Relief Society. Heavenly Father answers our prayers. I know it. For real.
Other than that, we found out two of our investigators will never be able to come to church because they are on house arrest!!!! So, we will visit them every once and a while, but there is not much we can do until those ankle bracelets are off.
It was just another hard week. I worked my tail off. My body hurts. I am tired, and I have had a continual headache, but I really don't care. I know that if I work as hard as I am right now for two years, I will have my successes. I will be able to say at the end of these two years, "I did my best Heavenly Father." I know that will be sufficient. It is that knowledge and thought that keeps me pressing forward when I have weeks like this last one. I am going to keep studying, praying, bearing testimony, and working hard. It is all I can do and put the rest in the Lord's hands. I am really be humbled right now, and I can't say that I love it. But, I know that God has some purpose behind it and I will understand these challenges in time. There are a lot of hardships, but there are also a lot of joys left over.
The Cruz family is doing great. They are starting temple classes and anthony is behaving better every week. If them being sealed was my only major even on my mission, I would be happy. That is one more family that can be together in Heaven.
I am really glad to have all of you back home supporting me. It was great getting some handwritten notes from you all. I am getting to that point in my mission when most missionaries just quit getting mail. I get emails from some people, but I cannot respond to them via email and I do not have their addresses.
I love you and I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Will and Maddy, leave mom and dad in peace to go out to dinner or something. Clean the house. Do something for them. This morning we went and cleaned up a member's yard so that he and his wife can eat dinner out back when she gets home tonight. Mowing that lawn felt good. It was not really a lawn though, mostly dust.
You are all in my toughts and prayers and I really appreciated your thoughfulness in sending me a package! I hope you all have lots of good Chocolate, too!
Con Amor y Oracion
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
Posted By Maddy
Sorry to throw you all off again, but the Church asked all mission president's to change their Preparation Days to Monday around the world to create unity and continuity throughout the Church. So, from here on out you will be recieving emails, etc. on mondays. Just to get to nitty gritty out of the way, I did indeed get my Rx from Medco and I did get your package from the whole family. The picture of Will kind of scared me because I can see how much he has changed in the last 7 months! He looks a little chubbier/muscular (euphemism) He looks like he will be a teenager in not too long. It really put in perspective to see that.
I enjoyed reading all of your little letters you sent. It was nice to hear from cousins and aunts and uncles! I miss you all at times, but I really know there is no where else in the world that is better to be. I am 100% a wittness to the fact that the mission is the hardest thing that anyone of my age can do. Weeks are long (but still somehow short?!?!) and challenging. I suffer disappointments and I get let down a lot by people. I see miracles and blessings. There is no other opportunity like this in the world.
The following weekend, both of the other companionships in my Ward will be having baptisms. We will not. I know it is just my pride getting in the way, but it is really hard to see so many others having success and baptisms while I feel like I am working so hard to little avail. I have always evaluated my success on numbers and percentages. I have always gotten upset when I do not meet goals. President Ellsworth spoke on how every companionship will baptize every month from here on out. I am 100% on board with that. I want that. I pray for that. I work HARD for that. But for some reason, with one more week left in this transfer, it is not looking like that is going to happen. I am praying so often. I am wiped out every night. It is just way hard. I am not losing hope. I am not losing faith. I just wish I could speak to God face to face to discover what I am doing wrong, or not doing right sometimes.
Elder Nerveza and I still are getting along great. We never argue, we have a lot of the same interests, etc. He is quite fond of deep doctrine, while I am not because it does not add anything to my testimony in large part. That is about all we differ in. The trouble he has is that he has 0% confidence in himself. I let him read my copy of "Beware of Pride" yesterday morning during personal study and during companionship study he expressed that he is not sure if he should be on a mission. He said that is how he felt when I read the talk. I am not a super supportive, wise kind of guy, so it is tough to counsel him. All I told him is that if it is really how he feels, he should talk to President. I hope he expresses some of his concerns to President in our letters today.
As for miracles (almost heart attacks)...our investigator, Reyna, got a job mid mast week. She was working 12+ hours a day and we never got to meet with her. I called her friday to see if she thought she was going to be able to come to church. She said, "I doubt it". I think right now she is our best progressing investigaotr with the fewest obstacles in order to get baptized. Once she decides to accept the date, she will be baptized. I am sure of that. But, with her telling us she could not come to church, I litterally broke down once I got back to the apartment. Instead of planning, I just went back to my bedroom and said a prayer, which was more a cry of desparation. I just pleaded and begged that someway, somehow Reyna would be able to make it to Church. All Saturday she sent me a text saying it was still a no. I was so sad that my prayer had not worked. I was devastated. Every prayer I said that day, even some in lessons, I prayed that she would be able to come to church. I really did not have much faith, but I knew that if I asked with all the faith I had, God's will would be done. Well, we kept on working all day. We did not have a ton of success. Elder Nerveza crashed on his bike and hurt his knee pretty good. We had a missionary coordination meeting that was more like 1.5 hours of our ward mission leader bearing testimony about baptisms for the dead. It was just a rough day. We went back to the apartment, prayed, planned, and then prayed again -- remembering Reyna in our prayers. When I was about to go to bed, 10:15 or so, we got a text from Reyna. "Lo Siento por decirles tan noche, pero voy a ir a la iglesia manana. Necesitaremos un ride! Gracias y buenas noches." (ride is spanglish, it is pronounced, RYE-TAY) After all of that stress, prayer, and worrying, my prayer was answered. Reyna and one of her daughters came to Church and stayed all three hours. Reyna loved Relief Society. Heavenly Father answers our prayers. I know it. For real.
Other than that, we found out two of our investigators will never be able to come to church because they are on house arrest!!!! So, we will visit them every once and a while, but there is not much we can do until those ankle bracelets are off.
It was just another hard week. I worked my tail off. My body hurts. I am tired, and I have had a continual headache, but I really don't care. I know that if I work as hard as I am right now for two years, I will have my successes. I will be able to say at the end of these two years, "I did my best Heavenly Father." I know that will be sufficient. It is that knowledge and thought that keeps me pressing forward when I have weeks like this last one. I am going to keep studying, praying, bearing testimony, and working hard. It is all I can do and put the rest in the Lord's hands. I am really be humbled right now, and I can't say that I love it. But, I know that God has some purpose behind it and I will understand these challenges in time. There are a lot of hardships, but there are also a lot of joys left over.
The Cruz family is doing great. They are starting temple classes and anthony is behaving better every week. If them being sealed was my only major even on my mission, I would be happy. That is one more family that can be together in Heaven.
I am really glad to have all of you back home supporting me. It was great getting some handwritten notes from you all. I am getting to that point in my mission when most missionaries just quit getting mail. I get emails from some people, but I cannot respond to them via email and I do not have their addresses.
I love you and I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Will and Maddy, leave mom and dad in peace to go out to dinner or something. Clean the house. Do something for them. This morning we went and cleaned up a member's yard so that he and his wife can eat dinner out back when she gets home tonight. Mowing that lawn felt good. It was not really a lawn though, mostly dust.
You are all in my toughts and prayers and I really appreciated your thoughfulness in sending me a package! I hope you all have lots of good Chocolate, too!
Con Amor y Oracion
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
Posted By Maddy
Good Week...
Hey Family!
Sorry for throwing you off another day. Tomorrow we have zone conference and so we had to do p-day today, or wednesday, but we have exchanges sscheduled for wednesday, so we decided to take it today. We started the day off early at five am. to go out to Phoenix to hike Camelback Mtn. Us four elders were the only ones there pretty much. It was chilly and dark when we got there. Elder Hernandez, the Elder from Cancun, was terrified at first to climb it in fear of bears, wolves, and snakes. After the first little rock scramble, he could not have enough and pretty much sprinted up the mountain. He loved it even more on the way down. He was bouncing from boudler to boulder trying his best to keep his balance. He fell once. I fell twice. Not any huge distances though, two to three feet tops. It was way good and I felt refreshed to get some good exercise out in the great outdoors. The sunrise was beautiful. We were the only ones on the summit. Elder Hernandez shouted out some Book of Mormon quotes about repentance and baptism. It was pretty funny. A guy was not too far behind us and told us that the shout was about enough to cause him to call 911! Ha. We are safe and healthy. I was in a lot better shape this time. If it was not for the other Elders, I probably could have done it in about a half hour. It took us about an hour to climb. We stayed up top and took some photos. It was pretty fun. It was a good way to start this week.
Last week's training was phenomenal. I learned so much that has already changed the way I approach missionary work. Often, it is pretty scary to extend a baptismal commitment to someone who you have never taught. The Brethren are now wanting us to invite people to be baptized in the first lesson unless we are really sure that the Spirit is indicating otherwise. I took some steps of faith and courage this week by inviting 5 of our new investigators to be baptized. All of them agreed, but none of them would set a specific date for now. We tried to resolve doubts and assure them that we would not baptize them until they were 100% prepared. They were still pretty hesistant. We are just going to keep baptism in the picture and keep on mentioning it. As we seel, and more importantly, feel their testimony growing, we will try once again to set dates. Taking these steps was pretty scary. I am a person that abosolutely abhors rejection. I do not deal well with it. The Spirit was working though, and these people all accepted. After this training, I really feel a lot more love for every person I talk to. I am more bold and open about extending invitations because it is only through keeping these commitments that our investigators can repent.
One cool event of the last week was with the Espinoza family. It is a couple, Eva and Jose, who are both in their 50's I would say. They have been without work for almost a year and their health is terrible. There is really not a ton of hope in their lives. They were refferred to us by a member of our ward who had a son dating their daughter. Sister Dominguez came with us to the lessons this last week and we taught them the Restoration. They seemed to understand the Restoration. Just to be 100% sure, we took them to the Visitor's Center to watch Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. They loved the movie and told us how much they felt the Spirit. The coolest part though was that Thursday night, Jose asked me for a blessing of comfort because he was really stressed. They had nothing left to sell but their house for money to pay the bills. We gave him a blessing and I really could feel the Spirit while I was speaking. (Giving blessings is always weird because we speak in TU form which is informal. As missionaries, we can only use TU form while participating in Priesthood Ordinances...) He told us that he was sure that things would get better. Well, Saturday night at the Visitor's Center, he told us he found a job! Yeah. The Priesthood is real.
Moises and Graciela are doing great, but the Mexican mail system is awful. We found out the birth certificate was on it's way, but when it got to a major mail center, the computers said that the address here in the U.S. was fake and therefore this last week it showed up at the house of Graciela's sister in Vera Cruz. Her sister put it in the mail this morning, but through a private carrier that garunteed us that it would be here by February 19th. I really, really, really want that to get here. We are seriously running out of things to teach them and when we go over to visit, we are just reading out of the Book of Mormon. If there was any one thing that Moises and Graciela could do better, it would be reading the Book of Mormon daily.
President Ellsworth challenged us to read the Book of Mormon 30 minutes daily from here on out. I have been doing it and my testimony of that book has grown exponentially. Every day it becomes more and more personal and I feel so dumb for having missed out on this chance to learn daily earlier in life. I love the Book of Mormon and I know it is true because I feel the power of it every day while I ready about it, and testify of it's veracity. I am in the last part of Alma right now. I am taking it slow and making good notes. I had some fear of marking my scriptures. I do not know why. I learn so much more that way. And, when I am teaching it just makes it all the better.
The Cruz family is also doing excellent. Jose (Dad) has lots of work and has good health. The kids are behaving better. Thing are just going dandy. The only this is, Anthony is having some learning struggles in School. We are praying for him. Mom and Dad started taking Temple Prep classes yesterday and so they are going to be able to get sealed soon. They are planning on sometime late May. We continue to visit them often. They are a great family.
Number wise, last week was not so good. But, at our training I learned to not care so much about numbers. All I need to do is give it my all. Invite people unto repentance, and put my trust in the Spirit of the Lord. We had a lot of progress made with a lot of our investigators last week even though we did not teach 20 lessons. We only taught 9 in fact, but it was still one of the best, if not THE best week of my mission yet.
It was SOOOO cold here last week. My blood is thinning out and 40 degrees felt like by hands were being frostbitten. It was windy. In fact, we were riding through a neighborhood with lots of palm trees and a big palm branch feel off and knocked me off my bike. I am fine though. It did not leave a mark. It was just crazy. Yesterday it finally started to warm up. Summer is supposed to start rolling around soon.
I knew it was Grandma's birthday! I am planning on writing her, but today is a kind of crazy P-day. We have some lessons in the middle of our p-day because we want to teach some people that were only available today.
Oh, and Dad, we started teaching a lady named Xiomara from Caracas, Venezuela. She was reffered by a member. She left Venezuela about 3 years ago. She said when she was a child, her family was being visited by the missionaries, but then the father said they could not come back one random day. She said it was North Caracas in 1982. Any chance you were there? It would be super crazy if we found one of your formers out her. When I met her I just got so excited. She humbled me by telling me about the climate there. Sounds awful. I am glad you survived.
Maddy, Will, I am glad you are doing well in school and all. I miss having you pests around, but you still have a year and a half to grow up! If there is ever anything you want or need, I will try to help.
Well, it is time to go! I love you all and I fasted and pray for you daily. Seek out every missionary opportunity possible. Pray for these opportunities. They will bring a new sense of joy to your lives.
I love you!
Elder Pearson
Posted By Maddy
Sorry for throwing you off another day. Tomorrow we have zone conference and so we had to do p-day today, or wednesday, but we have exchanges sscheduled for wednesday, so we decided to take it today. We started the day off early at five am. to go out to Phoenix to hike Camelback Mtn. Us four elders were the only ones there pretty much. It was chilly and dark when we got there. Elder Hernandez, the Elder from Cancun, was terrified at first to climb it in fear of bears, wolves, and snakes. After the first little rock scramble, he could not have enough and pretty much sprinted up the mountain. He loved it even more on the way down. He was bouncing from boudler to boulder trying his best to keep his balance. He fell once. I fell twice. Not any huge distances though, two to three feet tops. It was way good and I felt refreshed to get some good exercise out in the great outdoors. The sunrise was beautiful. We were the only ones on the summit. Elder Hernandez shouted out some Book of Mormon quotes about repentance and baptism. It was pretty funny. A guy was not too far behind us and told us that the shout was about enough to cause him to call 911! Ha. We are safe and healthy. I was in a lot better shape this time. If it was not for the other Elders, I probably could have done it in about a half hour. It took us about an hour to climb. We stayed up top and took some photos. It was pretty fun. It was a good way to start this week.
Last week's training was phenomenal. I learned so much that has already changed the way I approach missionary work. Often, it is pretty scary to extend a baptismal commitment to someone who you have never taught. The Brethren are now wanting us to invite people to be baptized in the first lesson unless we are really sure that the Spirit is indicating otherwise. I took some steps of faith and courage this week by inviting 5 of our new investigators to be baptized. All of them agreed, but none of them would set a specific date for now. We tried to resolve doubts and assure them that we would not baptize them until they were 100% prepared. They were still pretty hesistant. We are just going to keep baptism in the picture and keep on mentioning it. As we seel, and more importantly, feel their testimony growing, we will try once again to set dates. Taking these steps was pretty scary. I am a person that abosolutely abhors rejection. I do not deal well with it. The Spirit was working though, and these people all accepted. After this training, I really feel a lot more love for every person I talk to. I am more bold and open about extending invitations because it is only through keeping these commitments that our investigators can repent.
One cool event of the last week was with the Espinoza family. It is a couple, Eva and Jose, who are both in their 50's I would say. They have been without work for almost a year and their health is terrible. There is really not a ton of hope in their lives. They were refferred to us by a member of our ward who had a son dating their daughter. Sister Dominguez came with us to the lessons this last week and we taught them the Restoration. They seemed to understand the Restoration. Just to be 100% sure, we took them to the Visitor's Center to watch Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. They loved the movie and told us how much they felt the Spirit. The coolest part though was that Thursday night, Jose asked me for a blessing of comfort because he was really stressed. They had nothing left to sell but their house for money to pay the bills. We gave him a blessing and I really could feel the Spirit while I was speaking. (Giving blessings is always weird because we speak in TU form which is informal. As missionaries, we can only use TU form while participating in Priesthood Ordinances...) He told us that he was sure that things would get better. Well, Saturday night at the Visitor's Center, he told us he found a job! Yeah. The Priesthood is real.
Moises and Graciela are doing great, but the Mexican mail system is awful. We found out the birth certificate was on it's way, but when it got to a major mail center, the computers said that the address here in the U.S. was fake and therefore this last week it showed up at the house of Graciela's sister in Vera Cruz. Her sister put it in the mail this morning, but through a private carrier that garunteed us that it would be here by February 19th. I really, really, really want that to get here. We are seriously running out of things to teach them and when we go over to visit, we are just reading out of the Book of Mormon. If there was any one thing that Moises and Graciela could do better, it would be reading the Book of Mormon daily.
President Ellsworth challenged us to read the Book of Mormon 30 minutes daily from here on out. I have been doing it and my testimony of that book has grown exponentially. Every day it becomes more and more personal and I feel so dumb for having missed out on this chance to learn daily earlier in life. I love the Book of Mormon and I know it is true because I feel the power of it every day while I ready about it, and testify of it's veracity. I am in the last part of Alma right now. I am taking it slow and making good notes. I had some fear of marking my scriptures. I do not know why. I learn so much more that way. And, when I am teaching it just makes it all the better.
The Cruz family is also doing excellent. Jose (Dad) has lots of work and has good health. The kids are behaving better. Thing are just going dandy. The only this is, Anthony is having some learning struggles in School. We are praying for him. Mom and Dad started taking Temple Prep classes yesterday and so they are going to be able to get sealed soon. They are planning on sometime late May. We continue to visit them often. They are a great family.
Number wise, last week was not so good. But, at our training I learned to not care so much about numbers. All I need to do is give it my all. Invite people unto repentance, and put my trust in the Spirit of the Lord. We had a lot of progress made with a lot of our investigators last week even though we did not teach 20 lessons. We only taught 9 in fact, but it was still one of the best, if not THE best week of my mission yet.
It was SOOOO cold here last week. My blood is thinning out and 40 degrees felt like by hands were being frostbitten. It was windy. In fact, we were riding through a neighborhood with lots of palm trees and a big palm branch feel off and knocked me off my bike. I am fine though. It did not leave a mark. It was just crazy. Yesterday it finally started to warm up. Summer is supposed to start rolling around soon.
I knew it was Grandma's birthday! I am planning on writing her, but today is a kind of crazy P-day. We have some lessons in the middle of our p-day because we want to teach some people that were only available today.
Oh, and Dad, we started teaching a lady named Xiomara from Caracas, Venezuela. She was reffered by a member. She left Venezuela about 3 years ago. She said when she was a child, her family was being visited by the missionaries, but then the father said they could not come back one random day. She said it was North Caracas in 1982. Any chance you were there? It would be super crazy if we found one of your formers out her. When I met her I just got so excited. She humbled me by telling me about the climate there. Sounds awful. I am glad you survived.
Maddy, Will, I am glad you are doing well in school and all. I miss having you pests around, but you still have a year and a half to grow up! If there is ever anything you want or need, I will try to help.
Well, it is time to go! I love you all and I fasted and pray for you daily. Seek out every missionary opportunity possible. Pray for these opportunities. They will bring a new sense of joy to your lives.
I love you!
Elder Pearson
Posted By Maddy
weird schedule
Hey Family,
Sorry to sneak up on you all like this but I found out I was going to have p-day today last friday. We have leadership traning meetings in Scottsdale all this week and I got chosen to go up there. Tomorrow through friday I will be in a chapel in Scottsdale from 8am-4pm. I am way excited, but at the same time I am really wanting to be working the area more than just at night. But, I am 100% sure that I will be learning new things that will bless our area. I have been searching for new ways to teach and get our investigators to keep committments. I am sure that these meetings will help me grow as a more effective missionary.
This last week was a rough week number wise, but I feel like we had a lot of small victories overall that added up to be a great week. We got more members throwing out refferals from friends and we have gone and visited and taught all of these people and guess what?!?!? They ALL came to church. I think this shows 100% the magic and power of member involvment. We have had a really hard time having people committ to coming to Church this last month or so. We have the four regulars who come every week and we had not been able to break those few. It was really building and I was getting kind of depressed because we were teaching like fiends, but no one was coming to Church. I was trying to figure out if it was me or them, and I, as you all know, am really self-judgemental. If my investigators are not fulfilling their committments, it is not their fault but mine, in my eyes.
Well, Heavenly Father has really blessed us a lot these last few weeks, especially me. Our new investigators are Reyna, her kids (Beatriz, Reyna, David, Alan, Jordan), and Eva Quintana. We taught them all with their friends present as members and in each and every lesson I could feel the spirit working through me.
Reyna has gone through churches like a small baby goes through diapers. She goes to one once, gets offended, then goes to another, and the cycle repeats. She has studied with the Jehovah's Wittnesses. Therefore she is a little bit confused when we teach her at times. She has come to Church two consecutive weeks and she is growing more and more in the Gospel. She is socializing with a lot of the women and oddly enough she knows a lot of them from when she was younger. She is making new friends and she is really warming up to the Gospel. Her kids are all like little ducklings and follow her wherever she goes. They are all the most well-behaved, kind children I have ever met. It is just hard to teach them, and answer all of mom's questions at the same time. Teaching children is way hard, but I love it. I am learning to open up sometimes and just be a little bit silly. Kids are fun. I want a couple when I am older.
The next new lady is Eva Quintana. Her daughter used to date a member's son and the two mothers really hit it off in the preoccupations about the children being together. Hna. Dominguez introduced us and things are going great. Eva came to Church yesterday and stayed all three hours. She loved sacrament meeting, enjoyed Gospel Principles, and the third hour was meeeehhhhhh for everyone. Her husband has been without work for over a year and they are living in a nice house, that is empty, because they are selling everything inside to pay for the basics. She is way stressed and is really just looking for hope. The first night we taught her she was incredibly emotional. Her friend, Hna. Dominguez prayed and we all just broke out into tears. It was a sweet, honest, personal prayer.
Jocabed, well, we had to drop her. She had not come to church for 6 weeks after having regualrly attended for a month. She is almost done with the Book of Mormon and she will not ask specifically in prayer if the Book of Mormon is true. Nor will she ask regarding Joseph Smith. In her prayers she always says, "Oh God, please guide me down your path if these young men are on it." Yeah, it is hard. She is dropped for now, but I put it in her teaching records that she needs to be picked up a month or two down the road.
Moises and Graciela are back in town, FINALLY! We got to visit them and it was such a breath of fresh air to visit them and hear their powerful testimonies. He read while in New Mexico and she took her mother-in-law (out of law?!?!) to the temple twice. We are still awaiting her birth certificate so they can get married and baptized. They are so ready. I called the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix to ask them what to do. They said wait one more month for the mail, and then come in if it does not come and we can print out an official birth certificate their for $70. I hate tacking on another cost, but it might be neccesary. Graciela wants to become a citizen like her husband, so they need to be married under U.S. law. She wants her son, Moises, to not have to worry about her mom being shipped back to Mexico, never to return. I think that is a pretty fair statement.
Seeing as we ride 20-25 miles a day, my bike is a taking a decent beating. The chain broke last week and it was worn enough that it stripped down my cassette. I had to get those both replaced. ugh. That was another $60. Our money does not hit our cards until tomorrow, so I had to buy groceried from my personal funds. I am doing my bes to be prudent with my expenditures. I am not eating out or buying gadgets and stereos like some elders. I am just trying to keep my bike running so I can keep working. I got a good chain and a great cassette and a real nice crankset on their. I should have no more drivetrain problems for a while as long as I keep my chain cleaned and oiled.
Elder Nerveza and I are getting along great. He's got the islander spirit and all. He is nice, funny, and a hard worker. He is humble. He is my favorite companion thus far. I have been really blessed by the Lord with companions. I have been really blessed this last week with a lot of miracles! I have a much stronger testimony now of members and missionary work. I love it. I love, love, love, working with members. When I come home, I am not going to go to our ward. I am going to go out to the TV Branch. I hear it is pretty big and there is a lot of work. I also want to keep up the Spanish. We will see. That is a long ways away!
Next weeks email is my 7 month mark! AHHH! It just keeps on flying by. I love you all so much. Don't be in a rush to email me back. I won't read it till next monday. We have zone conference so P-day is monday again next week! I love you all. Keep studying the scriptures, and saying your prayers. You are in my prayers and I am going to fast for you all next week. No particular reason, I am just going to do it!
I am happy, healthy, and loving my time serving the Lord! I hope you are all happy as well.
Con amor,
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
posted by Maddy
Sorry to sneak up on you all like this but I found out I was going to have p-day today last friday. We have leadership traning meetings in Scottsdale all this week and I got chosen to go up there. Tomorrow through friday I will be in a chapel in Scottsdale from 8am-4pm. I am way excited, but at the same time I am really wanting to be working the area more than just at night. But, I am 100% sure that I will be learning new things that will bless our area. I have been searching for new ways to teach and get our investigators to keep committments. I am sure that these meetings will help me grow as a more effective missionary.
This last week was a rough week number wise, but I feel like we had a lot of small victories overall that added up to be a great week. We got more members throwing out refferals from friends and we have gone and visited and taught all of these people and guess what?!?!? They ALL came to church. I think this shows 100% the magic and power of member involvment. We have had a really hard time having people committ to coming to Church this last month or so. We have the four regulars who come every week and we had not been able to break those few. It was really building and I was getting kind of depressed because we were teaching like fiends, but no one was coming to Church. I was trying to figure out if it was me or them, and I, as you all know, am really self-judgemental. If my investigators are not fulfilling their committments, it is not their fault but mine, in my eyes.
Well, Heavenly Father has really blessed us a lot these last few weeks, especially me. Our new investigators are Reyna, her kids (Beatriz, Reyna, David, Alan, Jordan), and Eva Quintana. We taught them all with their friends present as members and in each and every lesson I could feel the spirit working through me.
Reyna has gone through churches like a small baby goes through diapers. She goes to one once, gets offended, then goes to another, and the cycle repeats. She has studied with the Jehovah's Wittnesses. Therefore she is a little bit confused when we teach her at times. She has come to Church two consecutive weeks and she is growing more and more in the Gospel. She is socializing with a lot of the women and oddly enough she knows a lot of them from when she was younger. She is making new friends and she is really warming up to the Gospel. Her kids are all like little ducklings and follow her wherever she goes. They are all the most well-behaved, kind children I have ever met. It is just hard to teach them, and answer all of mom's questions at the same time. Teaching children is way hard, but I love it. I am learning to open up sometimes and just be a little bit silly. Kids are fun. I want a couple when I am older.
The next new lady is Eva Quintana. Her daughter used to date a member's son and the two mothers really hit it off in the preoccupations about the children being together. Hna. Dominguez introduced us and things are going great. Eva came to Church yesterday and stayed all three hours. She loved sacrament meeting, enjoyed Gospel Principles, and the third hour was meeeehhhhhh for everyone. Her husband has been without work for over a year and they are living in a nice house, that is empty, because they are selling everything inside to pay for the basics. She is way stressed and is really just looking for hope. The first night we taught her she was incredibly emotional. Her friend, Hna. Dominguez prayed and we all just broke out into tears. It was a sweet, honest, personal prayer.
Jocabed, well, we had to drop her. She had not come to church for 6 weeks after having regualrly attended for a month. She is almost done with the Book of Mormon and she will not ask specifically in prayer if the Book of Mormon is true. Nor will she ask regarding Joseph Smith. In her prayers she always says, "Oh God, please guide me down your path if these young men are on it." Yeah, it is hard. She is dropped for now, but I put it in her teaching records that she needs to be picked up a month or two down the road.
Moises and Graciela are back in town, FINALLY! We got to visit them and it was such a breath of fresh air to visit them and hear their powerful testimonies. He read while in New Mexico and she took her mother-in-law (out of law?!?!) to the temple twice. We are still awaiting her birth certificate so they can get married and baptized. They are so ready. I called the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix to ask them what to do. They said wait one more month for the mail, and then come in if it does not come and we can print out an official birth certificate their for $70. I hate tacking on another cost, but it might be neccesary. Graciela wants to become a citizen like her husband, so they need to be married under U.S. law. She wants her son, Moises, to not have to worry about her mom being shipped back to Mexico, never to return. I think that is a pretty fair statement.
Seeing as we ride 20-25 miles a day, my bike is a taking a decent beating. The chain broke last week and it was worn enough that it stripped down my cassette. I had to get those both replaced. ugh. That was another $60. Our money does not hit our cards until tomorrow, so I had to buy groceried from my personal funds. I am doing my bes to be prudent with my expenditures. I am not eating out or buying gadgets and stereos like some elders. I am just trying to keep my bike running so I can keep working. I got a good chain and a great cassette and a real nice crankset on their. I should have no more drivetrain problems for a while as long as I keep my chain cleaned and oiled.
Elder Nerveza and I are getting along great. He's got the islander spirit and all. He is nice, funny, and a hard worker. He is humble. He is my favorite companion thus far. I have been really blessed by the Lord with companions. I have been really blessed this last week with a lot of miracles! I have a much stronger testimony now of members and missionary work. I love it. I love, love, love, working with members. When I come home, I am not going to go to our ward. I am going to go out to the TV Branch. I hear it is pretty big and there is a lot of work. I also want to keep up the Spanish. We will see. That is a long ways away!
Next weeks email is my 7 month mark! AHHH! It just keeps on flying by. I love you all so much. Don't be in a rush to email me back. I won't read it till next monday. We have zone conference so P-day is monday again next week! I love you all. Keep studying the scriptures, and saying your prayers. You are in my prayers and I am going to fast for you all next week. No particular reason, I am just going to do it!
I am happy, healthy, and loving my time serving the Lord! I hope you are all happy as well.
Con amor,
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
posted by Maddy
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