MTC and 1st week in Washington

Saying bye to Uncle and Cousins

Saying bye to Brian

Companion (next to Mikayla) and 2 other Sisters at the MTC

Bed at the MTC 

Mikayla and Companion

Flight to Washington

Standing behind a really tall guy

A member's home in Washington

Room in Washington

Room in Washington

First Email From Washington!

Wow, what a week. Seriously it has been insane. I will not be able to cover a tenth of it all, but I will try my best to get in some sweet details. ;)

Sooo, Tuesday we woke up at at 2:30 in order to get the bus to SLC airport and catch our flight to WA. President Eaton and his wife drove me and some of the other sisters to their house where all of us new missionaries went. We had little interviews and whatnot... we were all exhausted. Their home is in Maple Valley Washington and it's beautiful! I had REAL food for the first time in forever so that was nice. Later, we met at the Stake center and awaited the moment where we were going to be told who our companion/trainer would be and what area we would be serving in.

I was the last one to go up, so I kinda had an idea of who my comp would be. ;) She is Sister Cox from St. George UT. She's been out like 4 months, but I'm already her 3rd trainee. After her first transfer they made her a trainer. She loves to cook, clean, and do laundry as stress relief... haha! :) She is awesome. And I'm learning a lot from her. Funny thing is we have really similar family lives and I don't think President Eaton even knew that. She is really into Theater and make up design stuff to. She's awesome.

So my area is in Renton Washington. I'm serving in the Fairwood ward. Upon arrival at our little apartment which happens to be in the G-Unit, I realized that I had 23402784 times more clothes than my companion, but all is well she gets to use some so that's okay. :) Haha. My desk smells like sardines, but other than that the apartment is sweet. :)

The first day went right at it even thought I felt like a fool. For future notice, I am going to use fake names for the people I talk about (ward members, investigators and people like that) just because. :) Anywho, we went to my very first dinner at the Smith's house and they made delicious shiskabobs and rice and it was delicious. So my first meal was sweet. Weird thing is members only sign up for Sunday and Monday night dinners so we ate 234 PB&J's for the most part...which I'm okay with. Haha. :)

We are teaching a skitsophrenic 66 year old man... who seems like he's probably 100 yrs old. It's incredible what situations you put yourself in as a missionary that you wouldn't when you're not one. Something that will come easier with time, but that I'm already to see with myself is my ability to see others as God sees them... as what they can become rather than what they are right now. You look into this scraggly old man's shining blue eyes and just think, you really are God's son. Although he rolls cigarettes while we read the Book of Mormon to him, I so enjoy meeting with him. He actually came to church yesterday which was insane progress! (even if he left 30 minutes into it because he hadn't slept all night) His right foot is basically amputated. He hasn't taken a shower in months because he's scared because he fell down a while ago. We're working on getting a shower chair and we are doing is laundry today or tomorrow. He is awesome.

It's funny how God really does prepare people that you're going to teach. We met with a lady who formerly ignored the missionaries for a while, but we finally met with her. :) She is like automatically super into it and ontop of everything. Talking about how she wants to strengthen her relationship with God and it's time for her to get back to church. She even quite smoking and we hadn't even talked about that AT ALL.

One of the investigators that Sister Cox and her previous companion was teaching is getting baptized this Saturday and I am soooo excited! She is so cute. She's 20 and the girlfriend of one of the members in the ward. She knows it is right for her and it's awesome to see the light in her eyes when she talks about it.

Another thing is, people seem SOOOO familiar. Like they remind me of someone and I don't know who. People say that's because we probably met before in Heaven. Some of these people are people that are meant to meat me. :) It makes it a lot more important when you think of it that way.

The Bishop here is pretty awesome. He's super into missionary work which is sweet.

My area has both kinda ghettoish places and SUPER rich places. The nuggetest place like seriously it is beautiful would be Maple Valley which isn't in my area, but we drive through it to get to church. Literally, the little porch houses with flowers and ahhhh, it is awesome!

Anyways, I was feeling a little discouraged the other day. Just little things adding upon each other... and I like started to cry out of nowhere. Like we went up to a ladies door and I was trying to hold back the tears. Haha, embarrassing. But I prayed to have some thicker skin. To be able to take the constructive criticism from my Trainer and to not take it to heart when people are really rude to me. It helped SO much. :) My testimony of prayer is definitely growing and I KNOW I am out here for a reason. There is not anything I would rather be doing right now than being a missionary for Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.

RANDOM THINGS:

It's actually been sunny here, so I don't know what the rain is like at all yet. BUT I will see soon. I did see my first cloud yesterday though which was nice. Haha:)

Luckily I brought that iPod... my companion loves it! Haha. We have a nice car, so I just plug it into it and it brightens the day for sure.

I will probably inhale more smoke on my mission than ever before.

The recycle bins are WAY bigger than their trash cans here.

It's normal to park half on the sidewalk, half on the street.

A lot of people seem to get their milk delivered to them in the richer areas.

Hmmm, their church has a bunch of step stools everywhere for the kids.

Ranier cherries are delicious!

 Okay, I better be off. Talk to you all next Monday!

Love, 

Sister Pearson. :)

Dear Elder

Hey everyone, Mikayla will be in the MTC until July 23. If you want to send her a letter before she leaves for Washington the easiest way is by using dearelder.com. They have the Provo West Campus MTC on it and for the next few days that will be the easiest way to get a letter to her.

First Email!

Okay, so I only have a little time. It was already insane trying to find a computer because of course there were like 10 in the room and 5 of them didn't work so we searched for someone to ask but NO ONE was around soooo we are just kinda using our teacher's computers... which they don't really know about, but I'm sure they won't mind.

The MTC has been pretty sweet. I'm trying to figure out how to upload some pics, hopefully I can. Welp... actually I don't know how, but I will eventually get them to you. These computers are programed all weird so we can't do anything.

Ummmm... I'll start off with some of the regular things people probably want to hear.

The apartments are sweet. I have a walk in closet so I basically have all my stuff on every shelf... I wasn't the only person to bring a ton of stuff. Downfall, I am on top bunk and it is EXTREMELY close to the roof. I can't even sit up in it because it's so high. Also, last night for some reason the AC was off so I basically sweated the entire night and couldn't really breathe. But that's alright. A nightmare I realized that has come true is the food. Well, let's just say its all of the pre-packaged salads and croissant sandwiches that I would get out of the vending machines at BYU after work. Yeahhh, but that's fine. I can deal with 12 days of that.

We aren't supposed to say anything negative about our companions on here, and I'm going to try to do that... not saying it will be hard or anything, but I really want to see how long that can last and with all the companions I will have. Sister Gardner is my companion. She has lost 100 plus pounds so she could serve her mission and is still trying to lose more to make sure she can get out on the field. She's bubbly and seriously always so kind to everyone she passes by. Pretty nuggetish if you ask me. Speaking of nuggets, ALLLLLL of my district is full of nuggets. And my zone for the most part too, but I don't know them as well. District is my smaller group of 8 and zones are made up of a bunch of districts.

It's classes on classes on classes here. SOoooooooo many classes and it's only been a few days. The thing is they're not exactly like book work. They really want us to learn from God. That's something I need to get used to.

The first day and a half have been focused on loving people. And understanding what people need. And how they feel. It's SOOOO hard.

I know that my purpose is NOT to get people baptized. NOT to have them say yes when we invite them to be baptized. But to help them understand and experience the process of conversion.

It makes you really take a step back. I feel like an investigator to be honest. Yesterday, was rough for me and my comp.

We had to do basically a mock first meeting with someone and we are REALLY supposed to act completely as if it's real. And apparently we sucked because we were the only ones who they guy came and talked to after. He asked us "were we really thinking about Nate (our investigator) and I really thought I was, but maybe there's more to it..?  I have a lot to learn I guess, but I have faith I'm supposed to be here... so I just gotta be patient I suppose.

We learned about prayer. And it really was a smack in the face to me. How when we pray we are LITERALLY speaking to our Father. They brought into mind like would you honestly ask your father to bless the food to strengthen and noourish your body? Really? Would you say that to your dad? Not really... that doesn't even make sense. Haha. We are so into all these habits, and we sometimes forget our real relationship and WHO we are talking to. He is our Father. And something I'm trying to learn is to have faith and KNOW he will respond if I ask Him sincerely.  I'm really have trouble with the receiving revelation part which is probably not good because that'w how we are supposed to be directed, buuuut I will keep strong. Haha. Soooo... I guess it was hard for me to teach to my investigator about prayer when all the sudden I felt like I haven't been doing it right. That's why we learn and progress I guess.

Also, I need to figure things out with my companion. I was more on the lines of "well yeah, we can listen to the Spirit when we teach, but we still need to make a plan" and she didn't really think we needed to make a plan at all I guess, so I guess we weren't on the right page. Plus, it's really really hard to love someone (the investigator) when you see your teacher and not a real investigator.

The MTC is really eye opening I guess I'll say. Haha. :)

OH! found out that I actually leave at 4:30 AM on the 23rd. So yeah. I will have more time next Saturday to write.

And Kristen and Chelsea I got your letters. Thanks! Haha, they were awesome. I have had ZERO time to write back so forgive me but hopefully I can get around to it eventually. We have literally LISTS of stuff to do and zero free time so I don't really understand how we can get it all done. I have to write to my branch president, read the Missionary Handbook AGAIN, write a talk, and a bunch more.

Welp, I love you all and I'll talk to you later I suppose. 

SORRY THIS IS ALL SO RANDOM. I"M FREAKING OUT CUZ TIME ON THE COMPUTER IS RUNNING OUT! :0 I'll email another one if I have more time.

Love you all.

Doin' it the Federal Way,

Sister Pearson  <--- still not used to it.

And I'm off!

Dear Everyone,

I'm not going to act like this is the end of my life and I must bid farewell to everyone. I don't want to splatter tears all over my keyboard and shower the screen with sorrow. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being who you are and helping me be who I am. :) I will be MIA from my normal life for 18 months and serving the Lord full time. That's what I'm supposed to be doing at this point in my life. I know it. I am honored to represent Him during this time.

Some people might ask why? Why would I put aside school, work, family, friends, and regular life for 18 months? Wouldn't that mess everything up? Well let me ask you this. Why would a sinless man come to earth, be tempted and tried beyond measure, yet never succumb, set the ultimate example, bear the burdens of the world, suffer the unimaginable sins and sorrows of everyone who has ever lived, and die to be resurrected three days later? Because He loves us. Because He loves you. Because He loves me. So why am I doing this? Because I love Him. And if that means giving up social media, popular music, jeans, friends, boys, being alone, making money, going to school, or anything else than so be it. Giving up 18 months of my life is as big of a sacrifice that I can make for Him right now and that is infinitesimally insignificant compared to the life He lived, the death He suffered, and the life He continues to live for me.

I don't hope to move mountains or convert thousands; I simply hope to spread joy and bring others closer to Christ. I will strive to be obedient and honor all of those who have helped me get here or who have helped me become who I am today. I hope to grow, strengthen my testimony of the gospel, and have my comfort zone stretched. I hope to become more appreciative, more charitable, and more forgiving. I want to learn and I will. And most importantly I want to have joy and bring others that same joy.

So God be with you 'til we meet again my brothers and sisters.

Until then, I'll be living the Federal Way.

All my love,
       Sister Mikayla Pearson

Leaving this to Chelsea...

Yeah, so this is my best friend, and basically sister, Chelsea. She's going to help me out a whole lot while I'm gone. She'll be posting my address on Facebook, updating this blog right here, and doing some other things here and there for me. :) I love her. If you have any questions on how to contact me or something give her a shout.

Chelsea I love you! Thank you so much for doing this for me! Hopefully it will feel like by doing it I'm still around. ;) I'll miss you sooo much, but that just means you best be writing me! 

Doing it the Federal Way,
                              Mikaylalala

My YouTube Videos

Every two months a previously recorded song cover will be posted to Facebook and my blog right hurr. Mainly for my mama and friends, but for everyone who wants to hear as well. Just Check out my "Songs While I'm Gone" page and you can see them. :)