Hey Family!
I am WAYYYY unintelligent and never eventhought of sending you all of my pictures via email! So, today, more than writing about the events of my mission, I will be spending the time uploading all of the photos that I can! I feel was lame for not having realized this, but I figure you all would enjoy the pictures better late than never. These are mostly pictures of me in my area in Mesa. My pictures of me with Elder Scherbel are on another memory card that I may have lost!!!!
This last week was a good one. It was calm, we taught a lot, and found a great new family to teach. I will begin by speaking about them. They are the Rivera Family. The mom, Adriana was recieved as a referral at Christmas time, but the elders could never find her at home or get ahold of her to talk and set an appointment. She has two little boys, Sergio, and Tony. They are pretty adorable and incredibly polite. Adriana has a husband, Sergio, who does not really want to have anything to do with us, but the last time we visited them, we spoke with her about having her speak to her husband to get him involved. She said she wants to have her husband involved a lot and that she is excited. Adriana is so prepared. She wants to learn about the Gospel a lot. Currently, she attends a "Christian" church with her mom, Mercedes, who we are also now teaching. Just like in previous times, it was very difficult to contact her. We had given up on her and everything and had decided to quit passing by. Well, last p-day we had a little time with nothing to do. I sat in the car thinking of where we could possibly go, and Adriana came to mind. I thought it was a bad thought, but I have learned that by doubting my thoughts as a missionary, I am doubting the Spirit. Elder Faldmo and I followed that impression and went and knocked. She answered, invited us in, and listened attentively and smiles for the brief period of time we had to speak. We prayed, and she thanked us a lot for stopping by. We gave her a Restoration pamphlet and asked her to read it. She agreed. We set a return appointment, went on our way, and thanked Heavenly Father for that little miracle. We then passed by for our appointment on thursday and she was gone. Her husband, Sergio answered and was pretty rude, but told us to come back at 7:30. We did such and at first I feared speaking with her Husband again. He really is snappy. But, I asked the Lord for courage and strength. Sergio did indeed answer the door, went to the bedroom, and wouldnt come out. We taught Adriana, her mother, and father, Isidrio. This family is awesome. I am so excited to continue teaching them.
Saturday we had an excellent lesson with an investigator who has a date for June. His name is Margarito and he recently suffered a stroke. He struggles to read and for the longest time, would not pray in front of us. We felt like reading with him would benefit him most at this time so that he could be prepared for baptism. We read and he LOVED it. He was actually kind of tough to get to quiet up so we could continue reading. That is not a bad thing though. We read, and he said he will continue to read and will ask God if it is true. Well, we always end with a prayer, and hesitantly, I once again asked Margarito to offer the prayer. He sat in silence, then said, "Sure, why not?". It was a simple, sweet, honest, and heartfelt prayer. He asked God to tell him if we were telling him the truth. The way he worded everything was just so real. I loved people's first uttered prayers. They are always incredible. This was a big step of progress for Margarito.
Maria Rubio, our most rapidly progressing investigator, was IMPOSSIBLE to get ahold of this week. We called daily to no avail. We always seemed to just miss her at her apartment. We never got to teach her, but aparently she spent the entire week with her member fellowshipper, Hna. Batrez. They did not make it to Church, but they both love it a lot, so we will continue to call her, pray for her, and stop by her house so that we can help Maria be prepared for her baptism. We are going to need to reset the date because of missing Church, but we know that she is reading, we just need to check up on her prayers and how she is feeling about the truthfulness of the Gospel.
One night while passing by the visit her, we decided to visit Hna. Batrez's inactive family. The only one home was her oldest daughter who is married and has two little boys. Coincidentally, she had been thinking of calling and asking for a blessing. Her son has been in and out of the hospital and is only 7 months old. He has been real sick. She asked us if we could give her son a blessing because a blessing had healed her last son. We did such and we are stopping by tomorrow to check up on them. The Lord always guides us to places, we just hae to follow the Spirit to find out why. We did not stop by those apartments for Maria Rubio, but rather for that poor little boy, Valentin Miguel Angel.
Saturday evening was our branch Cinco de Mayo party. It was awesome. We had some AWESOME mexican food and the better part was that two investigators and a few less active families came. All enjoyed and the best part of it all was that yesterday, two of the less active families were at Church for all three hours. Also, an excommunicated member we have visited under President Lopez's direction came to sacrament meeting and came and sat by us. He is an RM who took a different path in life after his mission, who was touched by the spirit of general conference who wants to come back so that he can be with his family in the life after this. The Branch activity worked miracles. Though our branch members are so busy, they are great fellowshippers when they have the time. I love this Branch so much.
Amparo, the mother of some recent converts came to Church for the 4th time! She is like Maria Rubio, almost impossible to find because of working so much. Luckily, she is always at FHE with her children and she is alsmot always there on Saturdays. I think she knows the Gospel is true. She has seen the Gospel change the lives of her children. It has helped them through trials (when both son in laws were sent to Eloy) and given them hope. Members speak to her and treat her as the sister that she is. It is great.
Other than that, I got food poisoning from Taco Bell. Never going to eat there again.
It was a good week. No crazy stories. Just a lot of sweet, spiritual moments. I loved most every minute of it.
I got the Easter package on wednesday. I am indeed taking my medicine more regularly. I am today beginning a diet that Elder Faldmo promises will help me lose weight and get sick less. All I have to do is not drink milk, eat bread, or peanut butter. Those things are all expensive purchases every week, so I figure I will give it a try. I will keep you posted.
No one in our branch has long distance, so we are going to kick it old school and call you from the church phone. I am letting him call first at 3pm our time (which is Pacific) and I will be calling you all around 4pm. Worst case scenario, we will find an english member to go to. I promise I will call though. It will be around 4pm your time. I hope I am not interrupting! I love Mom and Maddy too much not to, especially on this holiday. I love you and Will as well, Dad. I often speak of the amazing parents that you are in lessons. I used Dad slurping his cereal and reading his scriptures every morning to help a young Recently Baptized family. The loved the story. I love it, too.
Well, I love you all so much. I will send another couple of emails with batches of pictures!
I love you family dearest. Have a great week! You are in my prayers.
Elder Jonathan Alma Pearson
(posted by Maddy)
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