Chocolate Eggs

This last week was a blur.

We're teaching a lady who's high school friend invited her to church the day after prom, so they could wear their dresses. She's really nice and has a cute little girl.:) That's a plus. We're also teaching a 9-year-old who's so excited about learning.

Our ward had it's talent show last Friday and that was a "hoot" (as Sister Webb would say.) Sister Higgins insisted that we sing a modified version of Sisters from A White Christmas. Gotta love Sister Higgins. :) We didn't know what we were doing, but that's okay.

Sister Price took us out to lunch with Sister Bowen (aka our Grandma) and it was awesome. She took us to this cute little old school bakery... the Black Diamond Bakery. Apparently it's been around since like 1902 or something crazy like that. It was cute. The members here are just wayyyy too nice to us.

We did some service and raked/pulled out weeds in the rain on Saturday. I loved it. (That's not sarcasm. I actually did.)

Sister Webb is a champ. Somehow she manages to laugh in random moments. This week we were at a member's house and in the middle of her prayer she just started busting up and it was basically the most awkward thing ever. Hahaha. I love her! :)

Easter yesterday was great. It's pretty incredible how long the list can become when you finish the sentence "Because of Him..." I know that it is because of Jesus Christ that I can find peace in this life and eternal life with our Heavenly Father after I die. :) It's because of Him that I get this amazing opportunity to take 18 months of my life to try my best to follow His example and teach people about His Gospel and Church. Life is good because of Him. :)


https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/introduction?lang=eng

FOR ALL OF YOU BIBLE LOVERS (or who want to look into the Bible a little bit more or even understand it more or if you just want to watch sweet uplifting videos) Check out biblevideos.org  :) You can learn more about Christ's life and ministry through these awesome videos and there's even an app so you can watch them when you get a random minute! :)

So. I love you all.
Until next time I'll be doing it the Federal Way.

Much love,
Sister Pearson:)

#becauseofhim

Whoa. What a week it has been. Don't think I've ever had so many people flat out ignore me before. Haha! We thought this beautiful, warmer weather would bring out the best in people... 'tis not so. All is well though. :) Life is good.

We were able to go on a walk with Sister Higgins and

her kids last P-Day. That was nice. We have been trying to soak up this awesome weather because, unfortunately, it won't last very long (so we hear).

I can't believe I've been out 9 months already! It is crazy! What's even more crazy is that by the end of this transfer I will have spent 8 of them in Lake Sawyer ward. These people are my family. It will be so hard to leave.

Sister Webb is the best. We clicked right off the bat, so that's good. She's so eager to be obedient and do all she can to learn and improve. She's a champ. We have fun together. My iPod chord thing has been broken so we've been jammin' to a super old school seminary CD. It's pretty sweet.

So we went into a house and it was pretty awkward. They were on their way out to have dinner and I apparently said "Well, have a good dinner." 7,500 times. Haha. Sister Webb pointed it out and when I realized how many times I had said it I was cracking up. Sooo... have a good dinner!

Some man explained thoroughly all of his past life to us at his door step. He said "As a kid all I wanted was drugs, sex, and rock and roll... and that's what I got!" He proceeded to tell us that he hoped he would come back as a zombie so he could "get revenge on all the people that did him wrong." Definitely not cohesive to our beliefs, but it was an interesting point of view.

Sister Webb took a leap of faith and tried talking to someone at the door, but instead she ended up just laughing super hard and the kid was looking at us like we were crazy. It was hilarious. A for effort Sister Webb! ;)

Some kid was walking out of the forest and we tried striking up a conversation with him and he just said "I am going home to change my pants. I sat in dog poop." Upon further inspection. He had. Poor kid.

We were walking down a street and some too-cool-13-year-olds were biking past us. We said "Hey! How are you?!" and they looked at us and didn't say a word, just rolled on by. About 5 seconds later we hear a CRASH. We look back to see the wheel of one of their bikes completely fall off and the kid sprawled out on the floor. We were about to go over and help him, but thought he probably already felt humiliated enough. (Luckily he wasn't hurt.) I guess they should have said hi to us. No one recognizes the power we really have. ;) Haha! It was a priceless moment. We had to walk around the corner to laugh.

It is really crazy that half of my mission is already done. This time is probably the only time in my WHOLE life where I will be solely dedicated to serving the Lord... and it's flying by. Sometimes we don't see the results we want, but we just have to keep our head up and remember God has a plan and there is always something to learn. Luckily, we can anchor our faith in the Savior and know that through Him all things will eventually be made right. :) This week is a special week where we celebrate Christ's Resurrection. In honor of this, a new video and website was made yesterday and I am asking you all to look at it whether Christian or not. It left me with chills. I know that it is true. I know that Christ lives. And it is because of Him that we will live again. :) Take some time to contemplate what that means to you and what the true meaning of Easter really means to you. #becauseofhim

easter.mormon.org   <-----here it is :) I LOVE IT!!!!

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

I love you all!

Sister Pearson :)

P.S. I'm sorry for all of the Happy Birthday's that I've missed. Know that I love you too, but missions put you in a time warp and things just fly on by.

New Transfer (April 7)

Hello All! I hope your week has been good, my week has been pretty sweet. :)

I have my new companion and she is A W E S O M E ! I already love her to death! Her name is Sister Webb. She's from Cedar City Utah... I have a feeling ALL of my comps will be from Utah, but that's okay because that means I can see them when I get home. :) She has 11 brothers and sisters! Crazy, huh? It's a mixture of adopted, step, and half. She's a lot taller and skinnier than me, but loves to eat. :) Haha. She played soccer in High School. She's just turned 19 in February. Ummm. Yup. She's the best.

I'm so glad to have a new missionary because they teach me sooo much! We had a pretty sweet miracles this week with a lady who is interested in learning more. She's the sweetest lady. Apparently, she called our her car window at some Elders who were walking by and she asked where she could find a Book of Mormon. They eagerly gave her one and they got her info and sent it to us because she lives in our area. :) We had our first lesson with her on Sunday in between conference. It was great. She had gone to our church once before about 10 years ago with a high school friend (they wore their prom dresses to church the next day). We hope things will go well for her and she will be able to find answers. :)

God directs us to people to show them He loves them. About a month ago we knocked some doors before our dinner appointment. Met a nice lady who said we could drop by some other time. Not super interested, but nice enough. She had a Mormon friend growing up that gave her some advice that has really helped her try to work on having a relationship with her daughter (which has been difficult.) Her friend told her that she and her daughter knew each other before they came here to earth. They chose each other and knew there was something to learn from each other. That always helped this lady. Anyways... I felt like we should just stop by her house before we headed in for dinner and so we did. She answered her door completely distraught and bawling uncontrollably. I just hugged her. A complete stranger was literally bawling on my shoulder. Turns out her daughter came home completely high and intoxicated and passed out. She'd been sober from drugs for about two years, but with a new influence in her life she has gotten back into it. We were able to show her some of the church's resources and some uplifting videos. We also started to teach her a lesson, but she had to go. It was just incredible. There was no way we were lead there at that very moment by accident. God loves every one of His children. If they have to find that out by a random 19 year old missionary that they can hug on their door step, He will make it happen.

General Conference was the best. Listen to it. It strengthened my testimony of Christ and so much more! :) I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He did die for us and raise the third day. Resurrected so that we all may be too. Watch this sweet Bible Video about Christ. :) Straight from the King Jame's Version of the Bible.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/bible-videos?v=3415202587001

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,
Sister Pearson :)

UNTIL NEXT TIME, I'LL BE DOIN' IT THE FEDERAL WAY! <3

April Fools (April 1)

I'm boring and am going to have no April Fools pranks in this email. Sorry.

Well. Transfers are today... and I'm staying. It was funny because I was assuming I was leaving so I was getting pictures with people in the ward. Talk about a record. This will be my 6th transfer here in Lake Sawyer. I'm assuming, by the sounds of it, that it will probably be my last. Also, I'm training a brand new missionary. So it should be quite the adventure. Who knows who it will be! I'll find out later today. :) I will be sad to part from Sister Goble. We had a LOT of fun the past 12 weeks, but we gotta do what we gotta do. This transfer has a LOT in store too. General Conference, Mother's Day (which means a Skype home), my 9 and 10 months, Easter, and my birthday! Wowzers. Should be fun.

Some gangster guy walked up to our window when we were at a stop sign in our car and asked for our number. We told him, "Well we can only teach you about Jesus Christ." And proceeded to say something pretty inappropriate and we just told him "Sorry, we can only teach people." Then he called us squares and walked away. Haha! It was funny.

Last P-Day we had awesome weather so we were able to write our letters out on the dock. We also saw a double rainbow the other day which was cool. Don't think I've even seen one rainbow this whole time.

This past week we've been trying to help someone quit smoking and we made him a sign to put up on his dashboard and then we took away his lighters. He's a good sport putting up with us, but it's only because we love him. :) Haha.

We also got a bike hitch for our car and while we were in the Uhaul place we wrote a song. It's pretty sweet. Haha:)

We were able to attend the General Women's Broadcast last weekend and it was awesome. :) So great that it's 8 years old and up now. I can't wait to see General Conference this weekend. For those of you who don't know what that is... it's a world wide broadcast/conference where the Prophet and Apostles of our Church speak to us. They address different topics that the whole world is struggling with, so that we can have additional guidance and strength both temporary and spiritually. It happens every 6 months and is broadcasted all over the world. It's on BYUtv channel and also on lds.org. Imagine if Noah was on the earth today? How important would it be to listen to the words he had to say? That's how important it is for us to listen to what's said at General Conference. Someone with the same authority as Noah had is going to speak to us this weekend. I want to listen!

Well... sadly, I cannot remember any of the funny things that happened this week. I was bad about writing them down. Yeahhhh.

I don't know if I've already sent this video, but if so I'm sending it again. It's so good. :) When any of us feel like our burdens are to heavy to carry, whatever they may be, Christ can help. Listen to the Apostles' testimonies... http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=910937379001

Well. Talk to you all later!
Until next time, I'll be doing it the Federal Way.

Love,
Sister Pearson :)

White Feather. (March 24)

Helloooooooo everyone! Hope your Spring has been good this far. :)

The Elders in our District brought some poncakaes to District Meeting. (Don't know how to spell it... I think it's Samoan... not sure.) We were surprised to find out that they actually made them... and on top of that... they actually tasted good. Haha!

We got some more miles back for our car, so we don't have to ride our bikes in the pouring rain if we don't want to. That's a plus. But the weather has been a lot nicer, so we will probably just ride them anyways. :)

We went on exchanges this week. I went to Sister Heihl's area. It was interesting. It made me miss having apartments in my area. My first six weeks I was in an area with apartments, but ever since I've been in good old Lake Sawyer where there are NONE. We were knocking on a door in the second floor and heard this like Karate kick grunt thing and look back to see a man on the second floor of the apartments parallel to the one we were at. He was forcefully spitting over two sets of stairs. He was getting so into it; we were cracking up. Then we went to a member's house and I was holding their little Yorkie dog. And looked down at my scripture case and it was literally dripping dog slobber. I thought it was licking it or something so I moved it. Then I looked down and the dog was literally letting drool just pour out of it's mouth and was spitting all over my hand. It was the weirdest thing. My hand was soaked and I had to go wash it. The family said she had never done that before. I guess I'm special.

Someone so generously showed us a tattoo on their bum. She was telling us of her long name and mentioned that her middle name (or one of them at least) was White Feather. Her nephew then repeated her name forgetting to include White Feather. She said, "Well if you ever forget it..." *SLAPPED HER BUM* Then she just pulled half her pants down on the side and let us see the feather tattoo. An exquisite experience.

Sister Goble was delirious on Thursday morning and in her prayer she proceeded to give thanks that it was Sunday and we got to go to church.She was so genuine about it. It was hard to hold back the laughter. Ah, the exhausting life of a missionary. Ha! :)

Dave, the one who surprised his mom at church last week, surprised her again this week! :) He is awesome. He also got answers to his prayers and knows that the Book of Mormon is true (as well as the Bible)! It is so incredible to hear these people relate back their experiences. Dave even had an incredible dream about it. It was awesome. We are so happy for him. He wants a new life and he's getting it. He has come soooo far and it's such a privilege I have as a missionary to watch and help him change. These are the things we live for as missionaries. Christ's Gospel is one of change!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911104782001

Recently, we've had some people learning about the gospel that have addictions. I can't imagine how it might feel having to live with one, but I know that with God's help we all can be freed from them. If you are addicted to ANYTHING check out the Church's Addiction Recover Program and find a time to meet with them. They also have classes for the addicts spouse to attend.

Check out addictionrecovery.lds.org for help, meeting times, and success stories.

Whether it's alcohol, smoking, pornography, or over eating these meetings can help! Remember you are a child of God with an incredible value! You can overcome your addiction. The time to control your own life is now. :) 

Well.... I can't think of anything else to say. So I'll talk to you next Tuesday. Transfers are next week. We'll see what's in store. I really have no idea. Freaky. But exciting.

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

Love you all,
Sister Pearson :)

I Forgot to Wear Green (March 17)

Dang it. As soon as I walked into the library today I realized I'm not wearing any green. I'm a St. Patrick's Day dud. Oh well. Pretty sure no one will pinch me out here.

So we found the phone. The next day. It was neatly tucked away into Sister Goble's folded skirt. Yup.

The weather was a bit nicer this past week. There was actually sunshine to the point where you could feel the warmth of it on you. No, that doesn't happen often.

Embarrassing moment of this week: Sister Goble and I were making some copies in the church library before our meeting. In the meantime, we also began to break out in song. Naturally, I grabbed the stapler and started singing into it and just as I did that I turned around to see a head peering into the door laughing. It was our Zone Leaders (the two missionaries that are over a whole Kent area of missionaries). They proceeded to make fun of us for the rest of the night. I knew I shouldn't have picked up that stapler.

It's really funny when people try to hit on missionaries. A few days ago we were at a red light and there was this macho man truck next to us with two guys in it. They decided they wanted to rev their engine for us. We just laughed to ourselves and said "If only they saw our name tags." People are funny.

Our mission is starting a mission choir and we had our first practice on Saturday. It was pretty good. Sister Goble insisted that I sing the song I made for the people in charge because they were doing solo little audition things. We are trying to put piano music to it now.

This next piece will probably only make me laugh because it was most likely something that's only funny if you saw it, BUT I'm going to write it anyways. I have never laughed so hard for the past 8 months. We were leaving our house and the Carters (our neighbors) were outside. Their little boy is 2. We asked if he wanted a popsicle, of course he said yes. So we gave it to him. And their golden retriever apparently wanted one too because he basically attacked the little boy. But this little boy was determined. For the next 5 minutes the little boy held his popsicle in the air and frantically spun in circles as the dog spun around him trying to get it. He even tripped and continued to spin on the floor (all the while the popsicle was held up from ever touching the ground). He got to his feet again and continued. The dad simply laughed and said "Survival of the fittest!" What a dad. The little boy ran over to a chair and climbed over the arm rest all with one hand. He made it to safety and ate his popsicle finally, but it was the most funny scene ever. If only you could've seen it. Sister Goble and I were crying.

Lake Sawyer ward is seriously full of the most loving people. I'm so humbled by how much they always want to do for us. It's ridiculous. We had a member take us to dinner last week and another buy us boots and the list goes on and on. These people are God loving people and you can see it by the way they treat their brothers and sisters and I can feel it by the way they treat me. I'm so grateful for them.

Aside from some sad news that the two girls who were planning on being baptized this weekend actually won't be, we have had some other miracles unfold. There was something that a departing Elder said before he left that has always stuck with me. "God's work will be done regardless of us and what we do, it's simply are choice if we want to be a part of it or not." I am so grateful that I am a part of it. And we all can be. :) That's the best part. This Sunday we were surprised to see an investigator at church. He didn't tell us he was coming. His mom didn't know either and that was the sweetest part. He was sitting right behind her and "hushing" us so we wouldn't ruin the surprise.... well eventually she turned around and saw her son (as in adult son, he's 52 and she's in her 70's) sitting there. She of course, broke down in tears. It was beautiful.

Something unique about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is we believe that our Spirits existed before we came to earth. We lived with God as His spirit sons and daughters before we came here to earth. He created this Universe. And he created this earth for us specifically as a place where we could learn and grow. :) Here's another science-ish/religious video. ;)

http://www.mormonchannel.org/our-heavenly-fathers-plan?v=1834798902001

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

Much love,
Sister Pearson :)

Lakeside Cottage (March 10)

Tuesday we got a text that was something like this... "Lake Sawyer sisters will be moving this week or the beginning of next week. *Address* It's a cottage on the lake." WHAT?! Sister Goble and I were laughing so hard! A cottage on the lake?! Seriously?!? Yes. Seriously. We found out we were moving on Thursday. Packed that day and moved in Friday. A member in the neighboring ward bought out their neighbors house and they decided to rent it out to the Church for missionary use (they wouldn't have to worry about us having loud late night partie.) I feel so spoiled. It's the cutest place in the world. It's literally a whole house just to ourselves. You've got to see the pictures when they come. The lake is literally our backyard. It's beautiful. And every time I look out at it I am reminded of the love God has for us. Enough to create such beautiful things in this world! :) When I see these things it reminds me that there IS a God. Just like we read in the scriptures...

"All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." -Alma 30:44

Along with the things in the earth, WE are some of God's greatest creations!
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2738091800001

This week was basically a wonderful disaster. We decided we'd ride our bikes and of course it rained cats and dogs and was FREEZING. We could ring out every piece of clothing we were wearing. And then Sister Goble and I both ripped our skirts. And then to put the cherry on top... my tire popped. It was lovely. Couldn't have been better. (Actually it was pretty fun. We were just singing songs about our situation and cracking up.)

We celebrated Sister Gobles' 9 months and my 8 months (which is today) by going out to some Mexican restaurant which turned out to not be the best. Good old HD's El Tio Pepe's is still the best.

We made an angel food cake for Gweneth's 94 birthday... it ended up not looking too cute, but apparently it tasted good. All the old people liked it. :)

Yesterday, Pat received the Aaronic Priesthood. It was wonderful. He is awesome. :)

I also almost got bit by a dog yesterday. It ran away out of some guy's door who we were talking to and he said it wouldn't come back. Well I yelled it's name and acted really excited and it ran straight to me and the owner yelled "GRAB HIS COLLAR!" Instinctively I did. Not a good idea. He yelped and snapped at me. I still don't know how I dodged his quick bite... but I did. That was fun.

It NEVER stops raining now.

Yesterday (obviously it was an eventful day) some lady told us she wasn't wearing any underwear....

Also YESTERDAY, Sister Goble seemed to have misplaced the phone... and it's turned off. Soooo, we don't have one. We're going to go check the church after email time is over.

Oh, and.... YESTERDAY, we had dinner at the Young Women President's house with all the young women and found out that ALL of the girls 16 and up, which are about 10 girls are all thinking about serving missions! It was so cool.

We learned that in England they call couches settees. (Pronounced SET-TEAS.)

Life is good.

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

Love you all,

Sister Pearson :)

I LIKE TO MY RIDE MY BICYCLE I LIKE TO RIDE MY BIKE (March 3)

We have been humbled.

That's right Brothers and Sisters. Sister Pearson is officially a biker! ;P Bahaha!

We found out that our miles we can use for our car have been cut in half (they weren't even enough to begin with), so we are borrowing a couple bikes from some ladies in our ward. Neither of us have ridden bikes in forever so it has been interesting. We hope to get a little more fit and shed some of these missionary pounds though so we'll see. The hills are just lovely little things and we're realizing our planning has to be done a LOT differently. We found ourselves pedaling through the pitch black darkness with tiny flashlights rubberbanded to our handlebars for 15 miles last night... we ended up passing the house we were meaning to go to by a mile and a half and didn't want to turn around. Luckily, awesome Sister Higgins is always to the rescue and willing to help us out. I love her.

Of course, riding the bikes in skirts with mall-cop looking helmets just wouldn't be enough... we get super attractive neon yellow reflective vests for when we ride in the dark. Just to top off our super trendy look. You don't even know how ridiculous it feels. Luckily, looking ridiculous isn't foreign to me so I feel pretty good... even when people yell "NICE BIKES!" at us and laugh. Hahah! Or even when some random truck with a loudspeaker intercom announced "COOL KIDS ON THE BIKES!" as we rode by. It is more than great.... to be honest, aside from the excessive sweat I seriously love it. I feel like my mission has just begun! :) WOOHOO.

Funny thing is, the more disgusting and silly we look the more people come up to us. We were rode past some guy and were stopped at the cross walk when he came back and said "How are you two beautiful ladies doing?" ...must've been those neon vests. Don't know if he was intending to have a conversation about Christ, but we surely did. We'll see what happens with him. Nice guy.

We've had the opportunity to serve some people in our ward by cleaning their houses and their cars. Fun stuff. Someone also did some service for me! There is an Elder from this ward serving in Idaho right now and his mom is awesome and super good at family history. We dropped by and she had pictures of some of my ancestors from my dad's side... along with stories that I had NEVER heard before! It was awesome!

I also took a dinner break and wrote a song about Christ. It was my first song I've written in a longggg time. Maybe one or two of you will hear it when I get back.

No matter how long the days seem or how rough they may be, I am honored to be a missionary. I love the hope and joy people have when the feel the Spirit and know that Christ lives and His church has been restored. The hope that comes from knowing that God has a plan for our happiness is priceless. I am grateful to know it and share it. And I'm especially grateful to meet so many of God's children out here. Seriously, everyone I am able to teach out here and meet and talk to and be apart of their ward are so awesome! I may not be serving in a third world country, but when I realize the friendships I have made out here I wouldn't trade it for anything!

If we have questions about life or anything. The best solution is to ask God. There are SO many things competing for our attention nowadays it's hard to find answers and peace. Watch this video about a girl trying to find answers as she quotes the words from Joseph Smith's own personal account. This one is one of my new FAVORITES. You must watch it! :)

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages/topics/prayer?v=2505987918001

I hope everything is well with all of you reading this right now. :) 

Seriously if you have questions about anything, email me. It would make my day.

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

Love you all,

Sister Pearson :)

P.S. HAPPY MARCH!