February Will Soon Be Over

Isn't it crazy?! One month has already passed by again! It's insane.

Welp. I didn't document too many things this past week.

It's just great having a companion with a black belt. She loves to practice her kicks on me... all the time. Haha. And tackle me. Haha.

Um, we found a dog this week. We had him stored in a member's backyard and put up found dog flyers that we saw laying on the floor not too long after we put them up. Haha. But that's okay because the members took him to the shelter and the owners were already picking her up. :) She was a very nice, very smelly dog.

We are now teaching Selena's son who is about 52 years old. :) He realizes that he's not made the best decisions in his life and wants to change. His mom gave him the Book of Mormon and now he's reading it. :) That family is awesome.

Man I'm so lucky to be here and to know these people. We are teaching two 14 year old girls who are best friends that just so happen to have active LDS grandparents, but inactive parents. They are the sweetest girls ever and so fun. Tessa is preparing for baptism on the 15th of March. :) And this week was the first time we've been able to teach Audrey. It's incredible how much the Lord has been watching over and preparing these young ladies. They are so strong and have the sweetest spirits despite all of the hardships they've had in life. I'm blessed to be able to teach them and learn so much from them. They are also amazing little singers. We are waiting to hear a duet this next Wednesday. Tessa is in the school's play Shrek the Musical and she sings us some of her songs. Makes me miss my drama days. I love it.

It never stops raining now. People are telling me that it won't stop until June or something...? Uh. Yeah. We'll see I guess.

When things are difficult and it's hard to imagine being able to continue on, try to keep an eternal perspective. This life isn't the end. Watch how this kid was able to press on despite the devastating circumstances he was put it. Talk about faith.
http://www.mormonchannel.org/come-follow-me-the-plan-of-salvation?v=2034119581001 

Hope you all have had a great February! Time for March. :)

Until then I'll be doin' it the Federal Way.

Love,

Sister Pearson :)

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY ELDEST BROTHER DONALD WINFIELD PEARSON II OF CHICAGO! :)

Trial of Faith (Feb. 18)

Hellooooo everyone! I hope your past week has been good. :)

Last week was kind of insane for us over here in Lake Sawyer, but that's okay. Sister Goble and I say it's because Satan is mad that Pat was baptized. Haha.

Monday began with our car dying. We had to get our battery jumped. Then at like 10:00 PM our toilet exploded (it was clean water I might add) for no reason and flooded our entire bathroom all the way into our bedroom and into the living room. We were scooping buckets of water and chucking it into the shower. Then we took a bunch of rags and tried absorbing the water out of our carpets and ringing it out. We put up all the little fans we had and they were one 24/7 for days. It was ridiculous. Carpet cleaning people came a couple days later, but man what a lovely little task that was.

We had another Sister join us for a day while her companion was at a meeting. Sister Swaap. She's sweet. :) Sadly, we brought her to a neighborhood where she encountered her first anti.... and probably the most intense lady I've ever met. We were told passionately that "I'm sorry, but you girls are not going to heaven. You're going to hell and I will pray for you, etc." That's about how our week continued on. Person after person and day after day we were just attacked. One man let us in his house (his wife was home) and proceeded to tell us we were false prophets, anti-Christs, wolves in sheeps clothing, and that God didn't need us. Last night was the cherry on top. This lady printed out a hole document in trying to call us frauds and liars. She told us she was glad we believed we were Christians, but we weren't. Ah, the joys of people.... and those were only a few of them.

Funny thing about it, is that it only strengthens my testimony. I cannot deny the feelings I've felt and the experiences I've had. I cannot deny the happiness that has come into my life as I have followed Christ's restored gospel. Everyone has their opinions and views, that's great. We respect that. :) Respecting people's religious choices is part of our religion. So it's all good in Washington. :)

The rain is back. And hasn't left. It's raining ridiculously hard. Kind of annoying, but oh well.

So I'm staying in Lake Sawyer for my 5th transfer here. Setting the record for the longest time a Sister has been in this ward. This one seems pretty promising too. :) Sister Goble will still be my companion. :) We're excited to work together for another 6 weeks. We have a lot of fun. Don't think I will be staying here much longer after this one though, but we'll see what happens.

Happy Belated Valentine's to you all. We got a Valentine's Card.... one. From a 4 year old boy named Jordan. It had legos on it. Yeah baby.

If you're ever feeling down or not good enough or self critical remember...

WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD! and we are loved by Him. :)
http://www.mormonchannel.org/our-heavenly-fathers-plan?v=2008539265001

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

Love,
Sister Pearson :)

Happy 7 Months to Me :) (Feb. 10)

It snowed yesterday and the night before. I guess Washington freaks out when that happens and there are a bunch of crashes. I mean, it was big enough to cancel church apparently because they did. So yesterday was just really weird with no church. I so look forward to church so it was kind of sad... luckily the zone got together and did a little sacrament meeting which was good. :)

Also yesterday was AMAZING because Pat Cano was baptized! :) He is incredible and the Spirit was so strong in that room. He bore his sweet testimony and all of us felt it who were there. He is seriously the sweetest man around. Him and his wife are incredible. You wouldn't meet a sweeter couple in the world. I am so happy that I've had the privilege of teaching him and learning from him.

This week was pretty much freezing. Sister Goble and I rocked some sweatpants under the skirts.... in a way where no one could see of course... until we were asked to take off our boots in some of the houses... in that case we'd just roll them up so they couldn't see. Haha:)

The past two weeks we've really seen the anti-religious side of Washington. It's been a treat. Especially when we said hi and walked up to this man getting his mail and he looked at us for a moment and with a sudden rage in his eyes and voice said, "I'M NOT GOING TO TALK TO YOU BECAUSE I DON'T THINK YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!" It was quite lovely.

It is common for me to get dog drool on my in one way or another, but this week I had the privilege of getting 4-year-old human drool on my boots. It was precious.

We had a Zone Conference this week and Sister Goble and I sang ( I played guitar). Pretty sweet. My hands didn't go numb or anything. Haha!

The other day Sister Goble and I were freaked out. We were walking around in a stinking hurricane with all the wind blowing branches off the trees and we were knocking on doors of this one neighborhood that was kind of eery and we didn't know why. Then we realized that on every single porch or door or front yard there were these creepy-faced sun decorations. If we didn't see one right off the bat we just needed to look around a little closer and we'd realize that there it was--- another creepy sun. We finally got to a lady's door who answered and we asked her what was up with all of the sun images and she just creepily laughed and said "I'm sorry" and shut the door. It was weird.

Here's a really informative video that talks about my beliefs and the basic beliefs of all Mormons. :) 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/introduction-to-the-church?v=2639016663001

I

f you have any questions please let me know:) Or you can ask chat with a missionary on mormon.organd ask them anything.

I love you all! Let me know what's going on in your lives!

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

Love,
Sister Pearson :)

Can you believe it's February already?!

Ello Everyone!

To sum it up, the miracles of last week didn't continue on so much this week. Unfortunately, it was pretty rough this week. But that's okay. So goes life. Ups and downs. A boy we were teaching who believed the Gospel to be true and was super excited about it texted us and told us his parents won't allow him to learn anymore. :( So that was heart breaking. Seriously, it was the worst. If you could see the light in this boy's eyes as we taught him you would understand. He will get his chance though.

We went on exchanges. I went with Sister Wolfe in her area. That was pretty good. :)

Um, oh yeah. The Seahawks won last night. You should see this place. People are crazy over here. On Friday all the schools had Seahawks day so all the kids were all green and blue and then Saturday everyone answered their doors in jerseys. And then yesterday there were fireworks that sounded like bombs at every point the teams would score. All we needed to do was look up and the color of the firework would let us know who scored. Yup. So that was lovely.

Church yesterday was pretty amazing. I am loving church more and more on my mission. It's incredible. :) Sam bore his testimony about how he didn't even know God existed until he met the Moon family. And it was just the best thing ever. Pat is really excited for his baptism that's happening this Sunday.

Oh, something funny. We were teaching this probably 20 year old guy who was super excited to learn and then all the sudden he was just ignoring us. And finally last Sunday we called him and he called us back and told us he was sorry he kept ignoring us, but that his girlfriend was uncomfortable with him talking to us... because we're girls. Hahaha! Never thought that would happen. But now that we know we can meet him with her. :) Haha.

So from a few friends I have heard about my High School teacher Mr. McKean's passing. I'm sure many of you have heard already. But I just thought I'd say that I know we will see him again. That is part of the message we share with so many people out here. This life is but a moment. Death is part of God's plan for us because He wants us to return to Him. Sadly, we all have different times and some are taken sooner than we would like. I truly appreciated Mr. McKean's kindness and all of his efforts in teaching so many of us at Hesperia. His family is in my prayers and so many others. He will surely be missed. I will never forget that amazing man. We will all meet Mr. McKean again. :) Watch the link below.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911029403001

Love you all!

Until then I'll be doing it the Federal Way.

Love,
Sister Pearson:)

A Grand Ol' Week (January 27)

This past week has been wonderful! :) We are finally starting to see the miracles unfold here in the area... not to say we haven't had to truck through a bunch of denials and rejections, but there have been tons of blessings!

A former investigator who was learning in the beginning of last year told us that she had really been thinking about the Church a lot lately. She talked to all of her family to see what they thought (one of her original fears was the rejection she might face from her family) and they all were totally fine with it. :) And so we are beginning to teach her and her son. :) They are awesome.

Also, we went back to the Chinese family we met awhile ago and it turns out the mom isn't really that interested... she is super sweet though and gave us a book on Buddhism haha:) However, her son is Christian and has been attending a Christian high school over here. He was SO excited to learn more and we will be teaching him again. :) WUH-KUH-EE-CHEE-DOW-MUH? (Can I pray?) SHEE-SHEE. (Thank you) ... and I thought I was called to an English speaking mission. Hah!

One of the greatest miracles was meeting Courtlan. We got a referral to go see his sister who ended up not being home, but just as we were leaving the porch a car pulled up and dropped off a teenage boy. We talked to him and gave him a Book of Mormon and he was really interested in learning more. We had a return appointment and he is so excited! The Spirit was so strong in that lesson and he expressed how much he felt like Joseph Smith searching for the truth. :)

We also ran into some kids (for some reason we have a bunch of teenage guys we found this past week) who have hit a point in their life where they have a lot of doubt and don't know if God is really there or not. They agreed to listen to our message and at the end of the lesson one of them said the sweetest prayer. Ah! Hearing people pray for the first time is probably one of my favorite things as a missionary! :) It's incredible!

On top of that, Pat who is going to be baptized February 9th finally got his work schedule changed so he is able to attend church! Sunday was his first day and he was glowing! :) I'm so excited for him!

So basically, this transfer has been pretty awesome and we've still got a few weeks to go. One thing that I love about it is that both me and my companion are crazy. We literally are cracking up 90% of the time. Laughter is a must have on a mission... if I couldn't laugh I'd be completely depressed. I hope no one sees us in the car because they probably would think we were insane.

So on the 25th I hit 200 days out on the mission. Mission time is still super weird and I don't think I will EVER get used to it. Nope. Never.

Hmmm. Can't think of too much else to say.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is about change. Repentance. Becoming better than who we were. It's never to late to change. Christ's Atonement is always there, it's up to us if we use it or not. This is a video that someone showed us in a lesson at church yesterday and I really loved it.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages/topics/repentance?v=1795507066001

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

Love you all,
Sister Pearson:)

Alas, another week (January 21)

Goodness, the week has been long. And it is weird to think that a year from today I will be home in the good ol' High Desert. It is freaky to think I only have a year left!

The past week was pretty rough. Saturday we knocked on doors basically all day long only to find some pretty bitter people. But low and behold the very last door we knocked on as it was getting dark finally talked to us and we were able to go inside and have a lesson with them. Tender Mercies. That's all I gotta say. Those are the moments that make it all worth it. :)

So yeah, my companion got over her strep throat. I caught a small cold, but nothing to bad so that's good.... other than the fact that I can't breath.

The other day we were trying to find some lady's address. The correct number was on a mailbox, but it read underneath "Kent Wash." I immediately told Sister Goble, "Oh, well this must not be her. This is Kent Wash's house now I guess." She nicely pointed out my extreme blonde moment when she said "Uhh, Kent Washington Sister Pearson." Embarrassing.

So on top of the kiss I got from the old Jewish man several weeks ago, Sister Goble and I managed to also get kissed by on old Hindu man. It was hilarious. This man is the nicest guy ever and always so excited to see us. He points out and grabs our blonde hair because he thinks it's fake and he grabs our faces like we're little 5 year old girls. Then he grabbed our faces and kissed us on the cheek. We really aren't trying to break any rules. Things just happen. Haha!

The other day we got out of our car at about 10:30 in the morning. This man in little running tights runs by and stops at the corner and starts shouting out what sounded like a scrambled mess of words that made some sort of call. And then before you know it, random old men in weird outfits are appearing from every corner and coming out of the woods and all different streets. We asked what was going on and they said they were running to beer. There were little markers on the floor and they were on some sort of scavenger run to find beer. Apparently it's world wide...? All I know is that it was hilarious. I can replay the scene over and over in my head.

We got to help at another old folks home on Sunday and it was the sweetest. I just love old people. They all have Alzheimer's and it's just so sweet to hear the lady next to me say how much she loved all of us coming over and how she loves God. Ah! I love it.

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day. It seems heavenly Father is testing us at times. Nothing really great happens until we've already had not so enjoyable things happen first. Which makes sense. Satan doesn't want us to get to the good. He'll do anything in his power to make sure we don't ever get there. So here's a word of advice for all of us I suppose... KEEP GOING! :) Sometimes things are bad, but if we stay faithful and press forward God will bless us. So just keep going.

Today we were able to go to the Seattle Temple which was awesome. I believe it may be my only temple trip on my mission. We'll see. But yeah, that's why I haven't emailed until now. It was an all day thing.

If we have a faith in Christ we can make it out of hard situations. We don't need to fear.
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1289877050001

Love, 

Sister Pearson :)