#itwasmom

Update for this week's transfer: I. AM. STAYING. For the 7th time now! Hahaha! :) 7 transfers in good ol' Lake Sawyer. The only holiday I'll miss here is the 4th of July. (Unfortunately... apparently they have great fireworks in our backyard.) By the time I leave here I will have been here for over half of my mission! Over 9 months! :) Crazy! Good thing the ward is the BEST! I love them.

Lately:

People have been asking us for bus money.

This lady keeps cursing us with her hands and running away from us like we're the devil.

We have been in the middle of really good conversations with a person and in a split second they run off and disappear with a "Gotta go!"

I have been falling. Once I just ate it in someone's house when I was trying to take off my shoes. Luckily the front door was there to catch my fall. The other time we were making our way to someone's hard-to-reach front porch.

The people we were teaching are dissing us. Feels really good to be walking and look up to make eye contact with an investigator in their car and they rush home in super speed so they can have time to get behind their door and not answer when we knock. Feelin' the love. :) Ahaha!

Well I've been out 10 months as of Saturday. It's flyin'. We went to Applebees to celebrate and a sweet family from our ward happened to be there and paid for our dinner. Good, good people.

I can't remember anything anymore... entertainment especially. Trying to tell Sister Webb that Pearl Harbor was one of the movies I could never watch again because it was so sad I told her "Titanic, My Sister's Keeper, and The Pearl of Great Price are movies I can't watch twice." I didn't even realize what I did. She let me know. Haha. :)

Of course this last Sunday was Mother's Day and I got to talk to my wonderful Mother and family! :) It was the best and way too short. 40 minutes feels like 5. If you have yet to see this video on Mother's Day you should: motherhood.mormon.org :) Mom's are the bomb. Think about what your mom (or someone who has been a mom to you) has done for you? What are you going to do to show your appreciation (not just on Mother's Day)? 

Sister Webb was not feeling good one morning and we got permission for her to take a nap... she insisted that I used the time to take a nap too because that doesn't happen to often. I just knocked out and had the best nap of my life and found out she, being the sick one, didn't even fall asleep. Embarrassing. Haha! I felt bad...

Well, the weather is supposed to be gnarly this week. In the 70's. Everyone's coming out of their caves and we get to talk to more people which is always fun. Hope all is well with everybody. Love you and talk to you soon!

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

Much love,

Sister Pearson :)

20 years old

..and I still feel like I'm 13.

This week has been a trial of our faith for sure. Well, the whole transfer has been really. But that's okay. :) It's in the rough times that we grow the most. Refiner's fire, refiner's fire.

We saw the sun this week! I got my first sunburn since last summer. Life is good!

We talked to some drunk old men, mowed someone's lawn, had interviews with President Eaton, and everyone ditched out on us for their appointments.

I love serving in Washington because it is so diverse. Seriously, it's like I'm serving my mission in India, China, Mexico, Russia, Africa, and the United States all combined. I love it. We started teaching English to a lady named Ling Houng. She's from Hong Kong. She's teaching us a little Chinese too, so I know 1-10 (only how to pronounce them actually.) They insist on feeding us dinner before we teach so we had kelp soup and some other lovely dishes. We also got a drink that we have yet to open up and taste. The dinner was super good (kelp will be a little hard to get used to) and I am getting better at using chop sticks.
Sister Morse took us out to Teriyaki and I got some more practice there too. I'll be a pro by the time I get back.

Funny story about our visit to the Houng's. It was super hot. Sister Webb and I were sweating. We were teaching her with some flash cards and stuff and Sister Webb asked for some water because she was so hot... the little girl brings us some mugs and pours us some water out of a pitcher. The next thing I know, Sister Webb is literally cracking up and I don't know why. I go to take a sip of my water and my glasses fog up. It was steaming hot water! That doesn't sound like a funny story, but we were dying! 

Some lady, who I think was Deaf (but I didn't get the chance to try my sign language out because it's a little hard to use your hands while you're riding a bike) totally shunned us or cursed us or something. It was a tad bit scary.

I got a bug in my nose.

For my birthday yesterday  a lady in the Ward we call Grandma Bowen made me a cake and we had dinner at a Filipino lady's house. She made the best egg rolls ever. Apparently my stomach didn't agree though; I woke up at 1 this morning with a killer stomach ache. With my flashlight I searched around the cottage for some tums. And then found a giant tube sock, scooped some rice in it, and made myself a heating pad. To make it short, I didn't go back to bed until like 4. Killer. A lovely cherry-on-top to my 20th birthday. Haha:)

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

 17 For our light ^aaffliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and ^beternal ^cweight of glory;
 18 While we look not at the things which are ^aseen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not ^bseen are ^ceternal.


We all have challenges. We have had hard times, we may currently be in hard times, and we've still got challenges to come, but with an eternal perspective they are a lot easier to manage. Sometimes we preoccupy our lives with THINGS. iPhones and cars and laptops. Music, television shows, sports, or clothes. None of that is eternal, but our Spirits are. We have to spend some time making them the way God wants.


I can't remember if I've used this video or not either, but I thought I'd put it in here. Many of you know that we, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are a temple going people. Thought you might want to learn a little more about why and what goes on in them. Pat, Sam, and a couple more recent converts were able to attend last week... as well as some returning members. We heard it was an incredible experience.
http://www.mormonchannel.org/introduction-to-the-church?v=2639016677001

Welp. Love you all,

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

Love,
Sister Pearson :)

Exciting

Hello everyone. Hope things are going well with you. They're pretty dandy in Washington.

We had exchanges this week. I went to another Sister's area. There were a couple funny experiences from those 24 hours. I was with Sister Judd. I went up to this lady and was talking to her and Sister Judd came up to talk with us. The lady had just said "Yeah, I have 4 kids." and Sister Judd pointed to her belly and said "And expecting a fifth?" The lady looked at her and slapped her belly and said "Oh, no. I'm just a little chubby." I DIED. I couldn't believe Sister Judd said that! I felt horrible, but we just laughed it off because Sister Judd was having a rough day. She later asked a lady if she could translate so her husband could understand. A little while later the husband was laughing because he can actually understand English and didn't need it translated.

That night I also witnessed something I haven't before. Clark Lake ward is a LOT more diverse than Lake Sawyer. There are a lot of apartments and with that brings a variety of people. There are many people from the Marshall Islands in their area and we taught a family from there that night. They are really open with their breast feeding. Let's just say that. I think the baby was like 2, but it was just... awkward. Lovely little lesson. Haha.

A little girl also was talking to us and just said "Sorry. We don't talk to Mormons." and walked away. Haven't had that happen before. Haha.

Little kids on the bus happily flipped us off. You should've seen their grins. It was hilarious. (It wasn't because we were missionaries; they were doing it to everyone.) They were probably like 8.

We did some service and sucked the insulation out of someone's attic. That was quite the job. Learnin' lots.

We had our first Missionary Devotional last night and it was incredible. The Gospel is true and is blessing people's lives all around the world. I've seen it and am witnessing it everyday. Life is good. :)

I don't know if I've sent this video already, but I don't think I have. The Savior truly wants to forgive. It doesn't matter how far you've strayed the Good Shepherd is always reaching out the the one. We are all important to Him. :) Watch this video about someone's struggle with addiction and how he overcame it with the Lord's help.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3446112587001

LOVE YOU ALL!

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

Sister Pearson :)