And The Rains Came Down And The Floods Came Up



Early Flooding in Logan.

The flooding has begun. We had a sacrament meeting stopped because half of the ward was being evacuated from their homes. The water went away fast, but apparently the water was up to waist deep on some streets. The snow is melting too fast, and the rivers are overflowing. But the work is moving forward. I feel bad, our apartment is uphill by the temple, so there's no threat of flooding for us, but a lot of people we're talking to are going through a lot.

In other news, Bohanan is getting beat up. We played basketball last Tuesday, and he got his first finger jam. Then yesterday, there was a fat bumble bee hiding in his jacket that stung him.



Elder Pearson labeled this photo Bears, Bees and Battlestar Galactica.  Apparently Elder Bohanan knows a lot about Bears and Battlestar Galactica...

 But he's still going strong. The flooding is slowing down a few things for the missionary work. We've had some sweet lessons though, and finally getting a hold of some people we haven't for a long while. So that's good.

We've got a lot of awesome investigators, they just have some things holding them back from being baptized right now. We're working on it though. Besides that, life is good. We've got some sweet missionaries around, and the weather is perfect.

Transfers



Elder Pearson acting cool - His new proselyting look

So I'll be serving with Elder Bohanan again. I'm only the 2nd missionary to serve with him longer than 6 weeks. The other one got to choose where he wanted to serve next and who with after doing that. But it'll be sweet. I'm loving it.

The District got bigger. The campus district was a 6 man district. This transfer, one of the areas is dissolving, and the other 4 missionaries are going into my district. Making it an 8 Elder and 2 Sister district. I've spent most of my mission in 4 Elder districts. But it'll be way sweet. I got campus in the district now!!

I got my release date, it's Aug 29. And I start school Sept 12. So I'll have some time to be home before school. Which will be nice to relax.

Not a lot has happened with the are. We had an investigator, Ray,  who was sent to the hospital for getting drunk, getting into a fight with another drunk, and getting thrown through a glass door. Now he moved out of state. But it's kinda nice, he argued a lot with us.

June 18ish we are having Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Quorum of the 12, come to speak to the mission. I'm way pumped for that.

Today's letter is gonna be a shorter one, but I got some sweet pics. That's all I got for today.



They were in trouble for their messy apartment - so they left this during inspection.  They passed



Elder Bohanan in the trunk - he likes to travel this way?

Cute duckling they found....

Sign in the Logan Temple Parking Lot

Still Snowing :)

Snow in May. Yehaw. The weather is so bi-polar. Yesterday was in the 60's. It's gone back down for today.

This last week, Bohanan and I have been finding a bunch of people to start teaching. I got a sweet package from home, with an awesome Dwight Schrute bobble head. And I got a sweet pic of Bohanan with him.

Elder Bohanan and Dwight Bobblehead.



Look for the resemblance.

I saw some people from home this week. We randomly contacted Rachel Jensen, which was cool. And had dinner at the Huffmans. Which was also sweet.




Elder Pearson and the Huffman Family

I gotta say, I liked seeing the Huffmans more though, because I got good food out of it too.

I had a cool insight while in the Temple. The purpose of the Atonement was for Jesus Christ to suffer and overcome all that the fall of Adam has brought us. He suffered for our sins, which were brought into the world when the fruit was eaten. He suffered and overcame death that was brought into the world when the fruit was eaten and Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden.

Something else that came into the world when the fall happened was thorns. "...cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee" (Genesis 3:17-18) This is something that's always gone over my head. But the only other time in the Bible that sticks out to me where thorns are mentioned is when Christ wore a crown of thorns while on the Cross. I don't think it was coincidence that he was made to wear a crown of thorns. I think it's a symbol of Christ's suffering everything that Adam and Eve brought into the world when the fall came about. Not really important, just thought it was kind of cool.

Cold Utah

So it's probably gonna snow today. Yay?

This week has been up and down. The biggest downside is we are no longer teaching the Meeks. Turns out they were just trying to scam the church to get drug and alcohol money. Luckily, we had a STUD fellowship, who also is just getting activated herself, figure it out pretty early on. So, not too much of a loss there.

On the good side, we had a sweet voicemail from a drunk guy a few days ago. He wanted to thanks us for all our "cultivating and renovating" and to tell us the Lord loves us. It was pretty epic.

We also had dinner with a couple who named their 2 kids Pear and Trip. Gotta love Utah.

Another sweet part of the week, last night, we had dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse. People walked around with swords with meat on them and had us try different kinds of meats. Like 15 different meats, including chicken heart (not a fan of) and lamb (really good). Def not the cheapest, so I'll probably never be there again, but it was really tasty and all you can eat.

I want to end with some scriptures. We're told to liken the scriptures unto ourselves. Here they are:


And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many reminders, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do no procrastinate the day of your letter writing until the end; for after these two years, which are given unto you to write Elder Pearson, behold, if you do not improve your time while in these two years, then cometh the night of the homecoming wherein there can be no letters written!

Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will write letters to Elder Pearson. Nay, ye cannot say this; for it will be too late!

A good friend cannot bring forth short letters, neither a corrupt friend bring forth long letters. Every friend that bringeth not forth long letters is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Wherefore, by their letters ye shall know them.

Not every one that writeth unto me: Elder, Elder, shall receive letters in return; but he or she that doeth the will of me who is serving in the Ogden Mission. Many will say unto me in that day: Elder, Elder, have I not sent a postcard unto you in thy name, and a gift at Christmas time? And then will I profess unto them: I hardly knew you; depart from me, ye that rarely write.

O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of Elder Pearson, for they set their packages aside, supposing they will soon find a stamp, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And their package shall perish. But to be learned is good if you send packages promptly.

Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every T.V. show, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to the couch, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your missionary that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the post office.

Moreover, when ye write letters, be not as the hypocrites, for they use big printing that their letters may appear unto Elder Pearson to be long. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou writtest letters, use very small print, and many long pages.

Lay not up for Elder Pearson packages upon the table, where moth and dust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal; But lay up for Elder Pearson packages in the post office, where neither moth nor dust corrupt, and where thieves do no break through or steal. For where your package/letter is, there will your stamp be also.

Yea, there shall be many which shall say: eat, drink, and don't write.

Therefore, whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him or her unto a wise man, who sends his or her package/letter by plane. And the rain descended, and the storms came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that airplane; and it fell not, for it was first class. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, who send their package by boat. And the rain descended, and the storms came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the boat; and it sunk. And great was the sinking of it.

And because my words shall hiss forth- many friends shall say: A letter! A letter! We have written a letter, and there cannot be any more letters written.

And finally, I cannot tell you all the ways whereby ye may send correspondences; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them.

But this much I can tell you, that you ye do not send some letters, and some packages, and some gifts, and some cookies, and some love, and remember, even unto the end of my mission, ye must perish! And now, o man, remember, and perish not!

Elder Pearson

Another Week in Utah

I hear there is a bit of a drought in Texas. Yall can have some of our rain. We ended up sandbagging this Saturday. It was fun. People from FEMA were there making sure it was all done right. Hopefully the neighborhood won't be flooded.

In missionary news, we ran into the coolest people ever! Angel and Michael. They're a non-member couple that just moved here from Nashville, Tennessee. Neither of them know anything about the church, except that members are good people. They have 3 little kids, and just gave up their 4th kid together for adoption. Their kid was adopted by members.

They've been in Utah since Jan, and love everyone they meet. A member told them that before they were allowed to go to church, they had to meet with missionaries, he had to quit smoking, and she had to quit drinking soda. Not even caffeinated soda, just Hawaiian Punch. None of which are close to true.

But anywho, Angel has spent the whole time looking for missionaries so she could go to church. We found her this week! She went to church with her 3 kids! Michael wasn't able to, but is planning on it. He told us as he walked us out at the end of the first lesson that if this is the church Angel wanted to convert to, he'd follow her in a heartbeat. The best part is our fellowship.

At the beginning of my time here, we ran into Amanda, who was so inactive she didn't know if she was a member or not. Now she's picking up Angel to go to church, and going to lessons to help fellowship and friendship them. I've never brought a whole non-member family into the gospel. I've tried several times, came close a time or two. But this is going to be my greatest, and possibly last chance to get a family of all non-members into the church. It's something I've wanted since the MTV.

Yall keep the Meeks family in your hearts.

Spring Break!

Spring break was one of the coldest weeks we've had for a while. Snowing all day every day this last week. We've now had so much snow, that if it warms up too fast, part of the area we cover will flood. There is a neighborhood that is in between 2 rivers and has a history of getting flooded. Of course, when we try helping people get ready for the almost sure flooding, they tell us they're gonna wait until it's closer to start preparing.
How close? When your basement is filled? Good thing we have prophets that tell us to be prepared.

Elder Bohanan and I are doing well. I now understand how my mom felt when she tried getting me ready for church/school every morning when I was 6.

We ran into someone who Elder Daly and I had stumbled across a while back. I wrote about her. She wanted to quit smoking and work to wards going to the temple. We just saw her and she hasn't smoked a single cigarette since that night! It's cool!

We also just saw someone at church who I barely remember seeing. Apparently, we told him to go to church, and he did! He hadn't gone for a long time. It was cool to see how getting lost or talking to random people actually leads to people Coming Unto Christ



Elder Miller (trained by Elder Pearson), Elder Pearson (trained by Elder Sebesta) and Elder Sebesta



Spring or Winter?

We had a few amazing days of spring. It got up to 68 degrees one day! We were able to go to the park and contact a lot of people. We played ultimate frisbee with some non-members, and got one of the members who we played with to invite them to meet with us later. It was cool.
Then the weekend came along, and it started snowing again... o well. General Conference was amazing. I went down to Salt Lake City all day Saturday. I watched the Saturday Morning Session at the Conference Center. The Afternoon Session in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle. And the Priesthood Session back in the Conference Center. I loved it. Soo many great talks. And about 5 talks either mentioned or were all about getting married asap. The most mentioned topic. Not good for missionaries. But besides that it was amazing.

Elder Pearson and Elder Larabee in the Conference Center

I ran into some friends from home during conference.  Erik and Jacob Petersen - it was fun to see them.



Erik Petersen, Elder Pearson and Jacob Petersen

My companion is awesome! I get to serve with Dwight Schrute. Every day of my life right now could be on TV.  And would get pretty good ratings.



Elder Bohanan

It's scary sometimes during lessons, but that's something I can't control. Just gotta love it all. The work is still moving forward.




Elder Bohanan and Elder Pearson

We had a 12 year old girl invite her friend to go to church and then meet with us at her home. Then during the lesson she asked her friend why she hasn't been baptized, and basically committed her to. It was awesome! She's gonna pray about it and we'll set a date for baptism during our next lesson.

We picked up 3 new investigators this week, and all 3 had 3 different members of the church invite us to meet with them. Funny how that works out huh?