Hey Family!

Hey Family!

This week was an odd one, but good at the same time.

Monday, Elder Faldmo was sick and I took care of him. Tuesday at about 3am I woke up with the runs and they were so bad. I used the restroom 30-40 times on tuesday. I am not sure if it was the flu because of the time of year, but another possibility was food poisoning. It showed all the signs of that. So, I passed the first two entire days of the week in a bed or on the couch or studying. It was not ideal and it was a rough way to start a really, really important week.

Wednesday was transfers. Elder Kinney and Howard both brought a good lot of stuff so we had to go from phoenix to scottsdale, then back to phoenix, then back to scottsdale, then back to phoenix in order to get all of their stuff back here. Also, we had to wait around because the other Elders got a new apartment and phone so that took a good deal with contract signing and the like. To make an incredibly long story short, we did not get done with "transferring" everything until about 7:30pm. It gave us a nice amount of time to go out and make a couple of quick visits. Unfortunately, we did not work the east side too often and so I am basically opening up a proselyting area that has not been worked in over a year. In the hispanic community people move and change phone numbers so often. The former investigators in large part have all taken off and a lot of the inactive members have moved without letting anyone know. We did not really get to visit anyone.

Thursday was a breath of fresh air that was hard to swallow. It was my first full day of working the area and actually getting to know the streets, demographics of the areas, etc. We luckily had a couple of potentials to pass by and we ended up teaching one. His name is Esler and he is from Guatemala. We orginally had spoken with his wife when she was picking their 4 year-old up from the bus. Their daughter is legally blind and thus the family is in a somewhat humbles situation. We passed by and we were able to quickly teach a lesson to Esler. I do not know how well it went as we were in kind of a hurry due to his lack of time. We taught how the message was pertainent to him and his family and what he can know. I feel like we kind of ignored him as a person though. The rest of the day things were pretty dry. We drove a lot and tried to find people to talk to, formers and such. It was not to much of an avail. That evening we taught Karina and Frankie Perez. They are Elder Hainsworth's converts who are struggling in the gospel, but there is some hope. Karina is warming up to the idea of coming back to church and asked us to come over tonight to do a family home evening with them. She loves missionaries and she loves all of the sisters in the relief society.

Friday was planning. Due to this we did not get a whole lot accomplished in a teaching sense. It became one of the few and rare days of my mission when I do not teach anyone in a formal sense of the word. Days like this are tough, but the Lord has really blessed my mind with a great perspective. The way I am seeing things, this area is only going to get better and better as Elder Howard and I work it with more and more faith. We are finding people. We are talking to EVERYONE that we see. We are stopping by members and doing our best to do the Lord's work here in this area. We stopped by a lot of people Friday, but no one was around. Maybe they were all afraid of the end of the World. In my area there are at very least 30 signs with "May 21, 2011. Judgment Day. Cry mightily unto God. Your Church can not save you." yadi-yada-ya. The irony of it all is that they are still up. It really interests me how people can so easily trust in and lean towards the arm of flesh, but when they feel the spirit, they still doubt because they cannot see. Also, no man shall know the day nor the hour when Christ shall come again. I find it blasphemous and incredibly faithless that these people actually predicted the end of the world. The people who we did talk to friday always asked us if the world was going to end tomorrow. We answered, "We do not know. No one does. But, we should all be prepared like it is going to." Some people reacted, others took another drink out of their brown bottles.

Saturday was great! Our branch missionary, Nefi, came out with us for the afternoon. We visited the Martinez family, who was going to go to Oregon for the week, but we found out that they can not because of committments that Ivan has for music. He is one year younger than Nefi and they have the same interests more or less. Ivan is such a great kid and he is actually reading the Book of Mormon! The fact that he is 17 and doing that shows so much about how great he is and how he was raised. He wants to learn and we are going to do all we can to help him gain that testimony of the Spirit that the Book of Mormon is true. We just want to get his whole family on board. We learned that their youngest son, Adrian, is has a speaking/mental handicap. This family is just too prepared to believe. We just need to help them feel the spirit and find the time to teach them as an entire family.

Sunday was interesting. No investigators at church, but Church was full of drama -- that need not be explained via email. I am just going to try and keep it out of my mind. Nonetheless, the other elders, Elder Faldmo had a great sunday and I am so excited for them. Maria Rubio had and passed her baptismal inerview. She is being baptized on Dad's birthday! I am way excited for that. Amparo, the sister of a member that I had been teaching also set a date to be baptized in June. I am so glad that this branch is getting a really good dose of missionary work and success. The interesting thing is that all of these people being baptized are family and friends of members. Hint hint. Wink wink. Nudge nudge. Members finding = success nearly always. I know that with all my heart. I know that I will continue with missionary work after my mission.

We taught a man named Armando and his son, Armandito. They are formers and they were so excited to see us. They are prepared, but they are moving to colorado Wednesday! It was tough to find someone so great, only to have them move. We are teaching him again tonight and we will work it out so that he is visiting with the missionaries wherever it is that he heads to.

This week most of my family gets to be older! Tomorrow my sister is 16! Friday my brother is going to be 11! Saturday my dad is going to crest the peak of the hill! It is pretty crazy. I wish you all a happy birthday and I hope you all enjoy Canada. Enjoy the cool weather. The furnace here is just beginning. I love you all and will pray especially hard for you all on your special day.

Interestingly enough, Sunday I awoke with the strong impression to fast for our area and branch and for other reasons as well. I think that the Spirit helped me join in with your family fast to be able to help aunt mel. The glory of the plan of Salvation is that we know she is garunteed a better place after this life -- no questions asked. I love her and I too will continue to pray in faith for her. Please express to her my love and concern. Let her know that I am still thinking about her often!

Well, it is about time to go. I love you all so much. Even though you may all be going through some trials at work, school, health, church, etc. Just remember that Christ has been there before. Lean on him and your burden will be lighter. Every day WILL be brighter. My testimony of that is immense. In the challenges of opening a new area, I have felt the Spirit push me and keep my positive. I have seen miracles more easily and I am praying more mightily! I love the Gospel because it garuntees me the knowledge that I CAN be with you all, the most important people to me, forever. I am doing all I can to bring that to pass. The Gospel is great, and so are all of you!

I love you!

Elder Jonathan Pearson