Papaya Salad

Ahhhhh! This week has been insane, but every insane thing makes me happier and happier. Life is just good. :)

Well let me begin my letting you know one of the sources that has brought me the utmost joy this week... I got a hold of a guitar!!!! Woooohoooo! My callouses have already disappeared so even playing it my fingers are sore all over again. I am going to be singing at a Junalyn's baptism this Saturday. I'm going to sing the same song medley I sang at my nephew Payton's baptism a while back. Sister Cox is really throwing me under the bus with the singing thing too because now I'm singing at our District Meeting on Tuesday. Haha, I don't mind. I need to do that. A big aspect that President Eaton (my Mission President) has been focusing on is using your talents. So that's what I'm gonna do. Although, I will probably have to return the guitar back after the baptism. It's a teen in the wards and I told him I'd teach him some chords. He's a funny kid. So often on my lunch breaks Sister Cox and I have been making up so pretty incredible songs. Bahaha! All about mission life and inside jokes that we have along the way. It's great.

We had yet another exchange this past week. I got to spend it in my area with Sister Hill. She is from Utah... like most of them have been. It was good. She has pictures... I don't. So I don't know if I'll ever see those again. Haha. During the exchange we were able to teach Carol. A woman we've seen once a week each week for the past like 4 weeks. Every time we see her I'm on an exchange so it's always me and another Sister. It's interesting. She is amazing. She has the best questions and she is slowly, but surely progressing. The teaching circumstances are a little confusing, so it's kind of a difficult arrangement, but I've got nothing but faith in what's to come. :) It's incredible to watch people change.

Soooo... like I said before the week has been pretty crazy. Pretty dang peculiar actually. Some of it I will not put in this email... just due to lack of time. But let's just say there are creepers in ALL areas of the world. Haha. :) The rest I will mail to my mom. BUT although there are creepers, there are many brilliant people on this earth and it's a beautiful thing really. I LOVE meeting every one. So many unique people. It's awesome.

Sooooo.... we haven't been having to much success with finding people who actually want to meet with us again.

Ha. Sweet, right? Yup. So we decided we'd tract (go door to door) for 8 hours on Saturday!!!! Woohooo! ;) I actually loved it. We went to a slightly more rural place and started knocking. From there we met some potential investigators and one actually wanted us to come back next Sunday so we're on for that. At the end of our road the most friendly guy was like "HEYYYYY! SISTERSSS! How are you doing?! Are you thirsty? Can I get you some water? So you're Sisters does that make me Brother?" He. Was. Awesome. So he got us some water. We actually caught him as he was unloading some trailer thing. He told us he sells stuff at the Farmer's Market somewhere and we were like wow cooooool. And he excitedly offers for us to sample. (assuming it was fruit or something) We were quick to accept the offer. It was not fruit. It was a Philipino "Papaya Salad" of some sort. His special recipe. It had like papaya noodle things and lime peels and tomato chunks and peppers and some sort of fish oil juice stuff all saturated in it. So he grabs a fork and wraps it around it and gives it to us. (of course my fork had the much larger bite on it) I turned around so I could fit the whole thing in my mouth and I almost DIED! It was horrific! I literally was gagging and thought I wasn't going to be able to handle it! Not only was it super spicy, but something about it was just awful. I turned around and tried to muster up a small grin... and probably a thumbs up. All the while making small eye contact with Sister Cox expressing my feelings of "I'm going to die." Of course he suggested we take the small bowl of it. We went to the apartment, took a couple pictures, and sadly had to dump it. Ahhh. Every day I am more grateful to be in Washington. I just don't think I could eat Papaya Salad one more time... one more bite of it for that matter.

Aside from the papaya salad, yesterday we were making a right turn (Sister Cox drives) and some impatient man behind us is on our tail. We literally couldn't go yet and he HIT OUR CAR! ...and then flipped us off. We motioned to pull over to the side to be safe and there he went. Speeding away into the distance. Luckily the car had no damage, but our day was made a little more interesting. Gotta love it. :)

During our tracting endeavors, we went to some apartments. I just think it's really funny when the person answers the door and immediately after we introduce ourselves he says sorry, sorry, sorry as they slowly inch the door shut on our faces. Sir, there's no need to be sorry just tell us to leave. Haha, people crack me up. :)

We have been trying to meet a lady, but haven't been able to catch her. However, her dad is there everytime. They are Hindu or Hindi (I don't know which term to use) and where formerly living in Fiji. It's amazing how praying with someone at their doorway can help them. We had seen him a couple times and this week we went back and he told us how much we had been helping him. We are getting him a Hindi Book of Mormon and meeting him next week. He's awesome.

So Junalyn is super excited for her baptism this Saturday. So am I! It's soooo amazing to see someone so ready! She was definitely someone God had been preparing. She will be the first person I have taught her entire time up to her baptism. :) Something I will never forget.

Life as a missionary is so strange. Time is definitely weird. I can't believe the first transfer will be happening on the 2nd. I don't know what it holds. I am terrified. Haha. :) But we will see. What I do know is with hard work, God will help. Prayer is real and we are ALL on our own timelines. What's my best won't be someone else's best. What's someone else's journey won't be mine. Luckily, God is the judge. :) What I am continuing to learn is there is ALWAYS hope. No matter what situation someone is in there is always more. More room to progress to have a better life, to be happier, to know more. I love that about life. God never wanted us to settle for anything. He always wants us to become more. That's something I love about the gospel. It's never about being complacent about where you are... it's about going and doing more and becoming more! :)

A couple weird things for everyone...

The clouds seem so close around you over here, you feel like you're in a snow globe.

Everyone picks black berries over here. Everyone. In fact the first person I ever approached on my own was picking black berries... too bad he didn't speak English.

It is SO diverse here! I love it. I have prayed with Muslims, Christians, Catholics, Buddists, Athiests and many more.

Welp, life keeps moving on. Before I know it, it will be 2 months. Time moves fast. I just keep trying to be a little better each day. :)

Until next time I'll be doin' it the Federal Way.

Love you all!

Sister Mikayla Pearson :)

Hey hey hey everyone!

This week has really flown by! It's creepy how slow the days go by... but how fast the week flies by! It really doesn't make sense. And on top of that I've had probably more sleep than ever before, but it feels like you NEVER sleep. Kinda horrible, but it's okay. :)

Hmmm... where to begin.

Well last Monday we went to an Empty Nesters gathering thing with mostly people from our ward. There are.... a lot of older people here. Like that little house gathering had more people in it than our ward gathering at home!  (Not really, but it was crazy) And everyone is hilarious.

We got to wash our car last Monday and I've never felt so normal in my life. It was fantastic. We did it at one of our "Ward Mom's" home and decided to wash her van as well... she was pretty excited about that. I also found out they have a guitar that no one uses there. Muahaha! I need to make a scheme to get my hands on it... it's not very nice, like it's one of those kinda baby practice ones, but I DO NOT CARE! My callouses are gone and it makes me sad. Although I haven't been able to play guitar i have a feeling I will be doing a lot of singing on my mission. Especially considering the mission president and everyone has been saying to use our talents out here. It's beena big emphasis. I will be singing at an upcoming baptism on the 31st, Don't know what yet, but we'll see.

We had only one exchange last week which was nice. I got to be with one of my former MTC buddies, so that was cool. It's interesting to hear how SUPER different each area is with missionary work and what works in the areas. In her area everyone is super into it and they have interested people everywhere like calling THEM! Bahaha! That does NOT happen here. People don't even answer their doors. Yesterday a lady spoke to us through the window. Like we're diseased or something. I was cracking up. :)

I went to my very first Zone conference and it was amazing. There are so many amazing missionaries here in the Federal Way Mission. And I am so blessed to have President Eaton and his wife as the head of it! They are the most loving, knowledgeable, yet down to earth people ever! They honestly just love you and you can feel it. Sister Eaton actually ended up doing a push up contest with one of the Elders there. In a dress. It was awesome.

What I learned most during the conference...

I need to stop letting what other people think of me define what I need to do or not do. Stop letting what other people think of me define how I think of myself. I need to make sure I ask myself what God thinks of me. Because, in the end... that's what matters. Even at the end of every day, that's what matters. At the end of every decision, that's what matters. It's funny how we get so caught up sometimes in other people's views of us, when they literally don't matter at all. So I am going to try to do what I can to make sure God can be proud of me.

Also, I know I've heard this one before, but I really loved it. Pray as if everything depends on God, but work as if everything depends on you.We are so quick to ask for things, for ways out, and for blessings... but we need to work for them. God has made us extremely capable individuals. He has blessed us with talents and with the chance to learn and grow. He expects us to use that. To do everything we can and only then Christ can make up the difference. I can't expect answers if I'm not willing to work in order to find them. God won't hand us anything without some effort on our part. And so everything depends on Him, but everything depends on us as well.

Interesting story of the week:

We get a voicemail from the old man telling us he had presents for us. Both Sister Cox and I were a little afraid as to what they would be. We get to him and he carefully hands us what he thinks is something, but what was really... nothing. And tells us to open it. We look at each other and then look at our empty hands and slowly "unwrap" the "gift." He said "Well do you like it?" Us, "Uhhh, well... what is it?" He proceeded to inform us that he had given us Red Text Bibles which apparently put all of Christ's words in red.... which is awesome... but we didn't have those. We had air. And confusion. And a little fright. ANYWHO, we were about to leave and so Sister Cox offered a prayer... which in the middle of he got up and announced "Yes, I need some more pills." Uhhh, hahahaha! We were both a little shocked a left. We don't know if we can see him too much longer.

We also got some horrific prepackaged sandwiches from a lady who let us into her home. They were like stuffed roll sandwhiches with the creepiest ingredients ever. They were supposed to be refrigerated, but hadn't been. We opened them when we got home and almost puked. To the garbage they went.

Sooo... I know God sent me to this area for a reason... well more than one probably, but I'm finding them out. One, He knew that by sending me here I would cherish every investigator that I have for the rest of my mission. No one wants to listen to us. Haha. No one answers their doors. And we spent hours tracting (going door to door) last week with 0 success basically. But we sat down for a few minutes afterwards on Saturday to wait for some other Sisters who were coming to pick something up... and we decided to call a few random people. And low and behold, they are people who actually set up appointments with us! Haha:) God does suffer us to be brought down low before He raises us up that's for sure. :) Ah, tender mercies of the Lord. Gotta love 'em.

Oh and one thing I wanted to comment on and I have been realizing since I've been here. Everyone who has come to accept Christ's Gospel and knows it as truth, who has become a member of this Church, is SO DIFFERENT. Their stories are incredibly diverse! We went to a New Member devotional and people went up and bore their testimonies or told how they were introduced and became part of the church and they are all so unique. Whether they were former Catholics from Germany, baptized at 8 into the church and fell away and came back, were Atheist, were looking for truth, were fine where they were, were Methodist ministers, were Jewish Bible scholars.... everyone is so different, YET they each came to find that this gospel is true for EACH of them. It is universal. It is the same in India and Ireland and Africa and California and Canada and England and Washington. It is not changed from one area to the next or interpreted differently by man in each congregation, it is from God. Only the true gospel of Christ could work so perfectly to help all of these completely unique individuals in all of their completely unique circumstances and trials. It's truly incredible. And I am so blessed to be a part of something so united in purpose, yet diverse in people.

Welp, I am learning and growing more than ever and I am honored to be a missionary. :)

Now for a couple more random things about the area:

I might have said this last time, but because the way the curbs are set up you can park your car halfway on the curb and halfway on the street. If I already said that one... it's still sweet.

Also, it doesn't matter which way your car is facing on either side of the street when it's parked. That's why it looks like a lot of the cars are kissing on the side of the road. ( I probably already said that one too)

I have come to find that no one pronounces all the syllables of the word "federal." They all say it FED-RULL. Fedral way. So I guess that's the way it goes.

Okie dokie folks. I love you all! Hope all is going well where ever you are.

Signing out the Fed'ral Way,

Sister Pearson ;)

Hey Everyone!

                         August 12, 2013

Well this week has been quite the adventure. This is mostly because of the two exchanges we had. So for those of you who don't know what exchanges are... let me explain.

Missionaries are always in companionships (aka there's two of them always together) well my companion is a leader so she has to check in on some of the other sisters here. So we basically just trade companions for 24 hours. Like wife swap, but companion swap instead.

Anywho, we had two this week. I realize that this is an amazing learning experience for me. I get to learn from the other missionaries and basically mold myself into the missionary I want to be... which will take some time, but it will come. Haha. :)

So Exchange #1 happened on Tuesday. I stayed in my area and Sister Hopkins from Utah came with me. She is such a sweet person. Although, I had no clue that she was 21 for the longest time... she looks so young! With her I had the opportunity to come across many amazing people.

We met the sweetest Phillipino woman in the parking lot of some apartments. She wants to make us lunch. She is a very strong Catholic and super active in her church. She basically told us her entire life and she  just had the sweetest spirit ever! You could tell her relationship with God has helped her through so much. From two rotten husbands to brain tumors and so much more. She is wonderful.

Sister Hopkins and I also had the amazing pleasure of cleaning some guys apartment. He is the dad of one of the girls in our ward. That was lovely. Single men's apartments are just gross because the next day we ended up cleaning the old man's apartment. I almost died from cleaning up so much rotten meat and so much more.

Welp, we then had another exchange on Thursday and I was with Sister Gobal (also from Utah). Who is very bold. Learned from her. Haha. :)

Besides that me and Sister Cox gave talks in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. Yup. And she forgot a part of it at the apartments which happen to be 15 minutes away and it was like 8:31 when we shot straight to the apartment and got back just in time. That was fun. Haha.

We have been blasting Anastasia's Journey to the Past.

On my Click Day (aka my one month mark) we got Subway to celebrate. My motto is every Subway day is a great day. It has held true. Because last Subway day was Alayna's baptism and then this Subway day on Saturday we got to teach Junalyn. Our super solid progressing investigator. As she learns and we teach her you can just feel the change happening in her life. Her desire to learn is amazing and the Spirit is there every time. She attended Alayna's baptism and she told us that it was so powerful. I love her.  

 

So I read a General Conference talk this morning titled Jesus Wants to Forgive. And it was really great. He really does! No matter where we are in life or what we've done Christ wants to forgive us as long as we want to change. God knew we would make mistakes so He sent His Son to help. His arms are always outstretched to us, but in order for us to feel and utilize His help, we need to reach up to Him. :) I know that we can be forgiven because Christ suffered for each one of our sins. And I see the hope His Gospel brings to the people who we teach when they realize their past mistakes don't have to pile up and create a burden. I am so grateful that He forgives us 70 X 7 times and even more than that!

SO for some reason every time I get on the computer my mind goes blank, but just know I love you all. Seriously and I can't believe it's been a whole month since I've been gone!

Love, Sister Pearson

Ello' Everybody!

First off, for those of you who have emailed me I am going to try to email you back, but I only have so long on the computer and more time to write letters so send me your physical addresses so I can write you back! :)

Soooo much has happened this week. It feels crazy.

The probably not so important but everyone wants to hear typa things:

Welp. We did the old man's laundry. We had to rewash like EVERYTHING. We found cigarrette butts in our washer. :) Yum. And Sister Cox made him a pork quesadilla on Tuesday. He proceeds to call it a KAS- a - dilla. "Well gee. I never had a KASADILLA before." I don't think I'll ever say it right again. We didn't bother getting the plate back. It's probably moldy by now.

One of the members made us Traditional Stacked Enchiladas which were pretty cool. They put an egg on top of it. It was pretty good. That particular member was formerly Jewish and is a Bible scholar. He joined the church in 2006 I think and it's super interesting to hear his conversion story. He said he started out trying to prove the Book of Mormon wrong, but realized he couldn't. Haha. :)

Sister Cox and I wanted to celebrate the 1st of August... for no other reason than it was the beginning of a new month. So we drove through McDonalds. She got a burger and I got an ice cream cone. (Thought of you mama).

We had our very first real rain since I've been here. :)

Experienced the first time someone in a towel answered the door too. A little awkward because she only answered because she thought we were her son knocking. Shame too because we could've had a sweet conversation. But she kinda just looked at me like "Uh, I'M IN A TOWEL!"

ONE OF THE BEST MOMENTS THIS WEEK WAS PROBABLY... I got Donald's geocache!!! I emailed my Mission President (which I found out later I probably shouldn't have done, but ignorance is bliss) and he had the missionaries in the area get it for me! Haha. :) To say the least it was awesome! Thanks Donald! I will do sooo much with what you put in there. ;) But literally it made me cry. Gave me the boost I needed for sure.

I also, had Subway which was delicious. I LOVE SUBWAY.

With the old man yesterday, we had the most awkward conversation ever. He looked at me and said "Oh Sister P (*cracks up because he thinks that's funny) look at you with your blonde hair and nice teeth! Sister Cox just look at her." We looked at each other and she said something like well gee thanks and he said "Oh Sister Cox you are beautiful too, you just don't know it. In fact, you remind me of my first wife. Oh was she beautiful. She spent a whole hour putting on her make up in the morning. I would go out to run around the lake and come back sweating. One time I went and got my robes off and went to take a shower, but she was doing her make-up and...." then the conversation turned very disturbing. Me and Sister Cox left cracking up and basically crying from horror. Ah, the things you hear as a missionary.

Okay, well that's about it for the random stories now for the good stuff.

So there's a family here who is a BIG help with the missionary work. Let's call them the Wall family. They have 3 kids. The son's girlfriend was one Sister Cox and her former companion had been teaching and I got the chance to teach a couple times as well and she was baptized this Saturday. :) It was such an amazing thing! This 20 year old girl was beaming like nothing you've ever seen before! It was beautiful. I actually had to sing with another member and that was okay, except for the fact that the Bishop so kindly asked me to bear my testimony right before so my mouth was soooo dry. Oh well. But, it's truly amazing knowing how much Alayna (that's her name) has grown during this whole process. She has made changes to her life that probably haven't been easy, but when you know that the gospel is true, your heart just wants to change! And making that first step, showing that she wants to follow God's plan and be baptized... it's just incredible to watch in a person. The Spirit was so strong there. It also makes me remember how important my baptism was. For me it was just something I did. Not until wayy later, like right now even do I realize how important it was. It's never to late to remember and to hold true to the promises you make. :)

On top of that a girl names Junalyn (the daughter in the Wall family's friend) is interested in the church. We taught her one lesson and she is set to be baptized on the 24th of this month... those dates change a lot, but fingers are crossed. She has been coming to church for quite some time actually so she's already shown she's committed. She is awesome. :) And she attended the baptism and said while she was in tears "That was powerful."

At the end of the baptism, someone asked if Sister Cox and I would give talks next Sunday. Yeeeehah. They are just putting me to work. Haha. :) It's funny. :)

Well, Sister Cox is a Sister Training Leader which means she has to go on exchanges with other sisters for 24 hours at a time. So she goes with one companion and I'll be with another. Which totally has been freaking me out because I'm still a baby missionary! I need my trainer! But apparently God is really trusting me. I'll have to just hold my breath and jump in. Two days of this week it will be me and another missionary who I don't even know and I have to continue and keep up the schedule while Sister Cox is gone. Ah, luckily God qualifies who He calls because I don't know what I'm doing. :P Haha. I heard a good quote on Sunday. "Change is mandatory. Misery is optional." I have chosen NOT to be miserable. I'll just be excited, lean on the Lord, and try my best. :)

TENDER MERCY:

So Sister Cox has already actually left me once... but only for a couple hours while she had to go to a meeting. So I had another Sister hear with me. We went to go find an investigator who I've met before a bunch of times and I totally knew where here apartment was... yeah, apparently not because that's when I accidentally knocked on the towel lady's door. So we walked around and I was clueless and I was just praying help me find Carrie... and low and behold Carrie pops up walking to her car and I was like CARRRIIEEEE and waved and she waved back. Ah, tender mercy.

So this week will be MIGHTY interesting with all the changes that are happening. Just pray for me. Things will be fine. :) Haha.

Until next time!
I'll be doing it the Federal Way!

Love,
Sister Pearson. :)