First Week In Logan

Logan is sweet! My apartment has a perfect view out of our window looking at the Logan temple.

 We share the apartment with 2 other missionaries, Elder Lunt, and Elwise. My companion, Elder Mocke, is a STUD! He's been out 7 weeks now. He's by far the hardest worker I've had, and I've had a few pretty hard working comps. He's from South Africa, just an hour from Johannesburg. His dad is running the MTC there, so he got a pretty good preparation growing up.

The work is great. The mix of a great and prepared area, and Mocke's South African accent, give us plenty to do. We'll teach in 1 day more that I taught in a week in Kaysville. There is also a lot of diversity in the area. In our zone, we have missionaries from South Africa, Micronesia, Australia, Canada, Argentina, and 3 from Texas! We are teaching someone who only can read in Arabic, someone who is from Japan, and some Mexicans. And we had dinner with a family from India who converted and moved to America.

Oh, and I'm surrounded by Utahns. This is definitely a foreign mission. We are only covering 1 stake!  It's sweet. Only like 8 wards!

Logan Temple, February 2011

We had Stake Conference this weekend. It was in the Logan Tabernacle. And I was informed when I got there we were speaking in it. With President Olsen. I wasn't too nervous, until the conference started, and Presidend leans over to us and tells us almost every Latter-day prophet has spoken in that tabernacle. But it worked out well. We got a few laughs and got everyone pumped for missionary work.

After it ended, a man came up to me and introduced himself. I had a little joke that said something positive about Utah State, which is in Logan. This man was the head of Admissions and Scholarships at Utah State. He told me he could get me in and paying in-state tuition if I wanted. I'll probably stay with Idaho for now, but it was pretty cool.

Before I came to the area, Elder Mocke had tracted out a street with a 4-plex apartment on it. One of the doors was slammed on his face. At the beginning of last week, we were walking down that street and saw a couple, Amanda and Josh, standing outside. We only later found out that it was the same guy who had slammed the door on Mocke's face.

We set up a lesson with Amanda, the girlfriend. We have now taught her twice. She's Golden! The only problem, is she doesn't know if she's a member or not. She had met with missionaries before, got baptized, and never went to church after because the missionaries she got to know left the area. She doesn't remember getting confirmed, and if she never went to church after her baptism, there is a good chance it never happened, which means she'd have to get baptized all over again. Either way, she's excited to learn.  It's way sweet teaching her.



Elder Pearson (in his Indiana Jones hat) and Elder Johnson



Superbowl Weekend

Elder Pearson finds a cool front door while tracting.

This week has been great! We attended a ward we hadn't been to this week. To our surprise, a non-member went up and bore what testimony he had so far. He said "I can't say I know the church is true, cause I don't yet. but I've been reading the Book of Mormon and trying to find out. He started laughing when we popped up after Sacrament meeting to set up a lesson. His wife, who is a member, encouraged him to set it up, and we are meeting with him next Sunday!

This week I am going to talk about 2 investigators we have because next week is transfers and I've got a feeling I might be getting kicked out of West Haven, because it'll be Elder Houghton's last transfer and I think President will make him Sr. again his last one.

The first is Francis. She's pretty golden. She's 14 and has great attendance in seminary this year. She went to General Conference and has a testimony of the Prophet. And she knows most of what we teach her. She's getting baptized Feb 19th. The next investigator is taking a little more effort and energy.

His name is Shane. If I gave y'all his last name and you could goggle his name and come across a lot of police reports... a lot. He's an ordained minister who's been locked up most of his life. He's been involved in identity theft, is known and respected by all the gangs around here, though not a member of any, and has seen and used a lot of drugs in his life. He just came across a video on goggle of one if his best friends being shot to death by some narcotics officers, and has decided he wants to change his life fast, before he dies.

He doesn't think he has too much time left, but wants to be baptized. He went to church last week, and wants to be accepted by a ward family. It was his first time going to a LDS church in 30 years. It was also the first time in any church for quite a while. He is going to need approval from the First Presidency to be baptized, but he is willing to put in the effort. He's a stud.

It's Cold



Elder Pearson in his Indiana Jones hat.

So I'm writing from the Logan Tabernacle today. Bro Ninalga, the sweetest member ever, drove from Layton to West Haven to pick Elder Houghton and I up, then took us to Logan.

This morning I went through my 5th temple as I attended a session in the Logan Temple. That temple is SWEET! But Man Logan is cold! It's 13 degrees out with a non-stop strong wind that makes it no fun up here. It just makes me appreciate what my family went through when they helped get this city going and it was nothing but cold.

The week has been good. Working hard and getting people ready for baptism. We also had a fun dinner at one of our Bishop's homes. His 5 year old daughter answered the door in a wedding dress and a necklace, and spent the whole dinner smiling and waving at us. They teach these kids at a young age to marry return missionaries.

Right now we have 5 people getting baptized in Feb. So things have really turned around. Two of them are the Eames for Feb 12th. I talked about them last week. This week I want to talk about Kelton. He's a stud. He's 19. He's living with 2 friends who are members, who brought him to church one day. There he met some people in the ward and agreed to meet with us. It's only gotten better from there.

Elder Houghton had planned on inviting him to be baptized on the 26th of Feb for our 1st lesson. But during the lesson we both forgot what day we planned on. So stalling, I pulled out the phone and checked the calender. It was between the 26th or the 19th. The 19th felt better, so that's what we committed him for and when we did he just laughed and said it was perfect. That was the only Saturday he had off. He hadn't had one off for months and didn't know the next one he had off.

It also happens to be the day before his birthday. So he's been pumped about it ever since. He reads, goes to church, and loves meeting with us (I think). It's been sweet meeting with him and seeing him excited for it all. That's the investigator for the week. Getting baptized on Feb 19th.