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Utah weather is bi-polar. We had a good 2 weeks of 15 degree average. A high of 20 and low of pretty darn cold. Then it jumped to 50 for a while. Now we're in a mini snow storm. There was no snow when I went into the temple, but when I stepped out the snow covered my feet. This is gonna be sweet, because we are having an air soft war with an investigator and his fellowship.

For anyone's information, airsoft is NOT against mission rules, or the white handbook, or the commandments. So it's all good.

The investigator is Weston Eames, and Gavin is his friend helping him get baptized. They are 11. Weston's sister, Danielle is 9 and also working on getting baptized. I realized I don't talk a lot about my investigators, so I'm gonna start with these guys. They are both studs. They were ready to be baptized before we started teaching them. Neither of their parents have gone to church since they've started meeting with us, but Weston and Danielle have gone every week they've been in town since like November. They've both born their testimonies in Testimony meeting, in front of the whole ward. They read out of the Book of Mormon almost daily, and are getting well known in the ward.

They've got all the statistics against them staying in the church, being kids with no family support, but I feel strongly they will remain active and love the gospel. They always look forward to seeing us every Tuesday night, and they are excited to have this war. We got permission from both their parents to shoot the junk out of them. But they seem pretty confident in beating us. Weston just went out and bought a new gun. So that's them.

In other news, I will be going to BYU Idaho on September 12 to start the Spring/Fall track. I love yall, keep all the support going.

Weekly Email

This week hasn't had too many exciting things. We've found more people to start teaching, and are continuing to work hard. Yesterday we set up a basketball game with some youth and had 2 non-members show up! Now we just need to contact the kids that invited them and see if we can't start teaching them.

I just got an email today asking me to share my testimony on my mission so far. So I'm going to do that on this email and have it take up the bulk of my email. The email asked for me to send a video with my testimony, but that would mean I would have to record myself talking, which aint gonna happen. Sorry.

But I am more than happy to share my testimony. My whole life I've planned on going on a mission. Not because I necessarily was excited to spend 2 years waking up at 6:30 every day just to get yelled at, but I planned on it because a Prophet of God has commanded it. I hadn't really done any missionary work before I came to Utah. The idea of inviting my friends to church or to meet with the missionaries was a scary one, and I didn't have the spirit of missionary work strong enough to overcome that fear.

When I came nearer to 19 years old, I started to become more serious about going on a mission. As I worked on my paperwork, the idea of serving a mission became more real to me, and honestly I was not looking forward to the next space in my life. Once again, doing all this out of a sense of duty, not because I had any personal desire to do it.

But once I entered the MTC, and then the mission field, my views of being a missionary have flipped completely around. A quote I love from President Hinckley is "What a glorious season it has been and now is. A new day has come in the work of the Almighty." Every single day, I get the chance to do the work of the Almighty. Every day I get to tell people of what I know to be true, through my testimony. I get to look someone in the eyes, tell them what makes me happy in this life, and what I know will continue to make me happy, and invite them to see how this knowledge will impact their lives. It's Awesome!

I've served in some very diverse areas. I've talked to just about every kind of person. I've talked to the poorest of the poor and homeless, to the very very wealthy. I've talked to White people, Hispanic people, I've even found a good amount of Black people in Utah. I've talked to people on every kind of drug, people who are drunk, past murders and adulterers. I've also talked to people who are trying their hardest to follow Christ, and hadn't found the path to follow yet. One thing that they all, and WE all have in common is a desire to feel loved. A need for our Savior.

No matter how someone is, or what level of pride they have, our Savior, Jesus Christ has suffered an unimaginable amount of pain and anguish for them so we would never be alone. He loves us all, so we need to love everyone. Being a missionary has brought me to the depths of humility and sorrow, and raised me to the heights of joy and love. I feel a desire for people's salvation who I've never met and wouldn't otherwise talk with them.

A scripture I have grown to love is Ether 12:6. It reads: "faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore dispute not because you see now, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." Making the decision to serve a full-time mission was a trial of my faith. Everything I knew and wanted told me that this would be the biggest waste of time and money, that I would be miserable the whole time. But because I went through that trial, I have a witness of that faith. I trusted President Monson and the Apostles when I turned in my papers. And because they are inspired men of God, and his servants, this has been the best 16 months of my life. I would not trade the experiences and knowledge that I've obtained for anything this world might have to offer. Seeing a soul saved in the waters of baptism, or watching a wayward child of God find the path to righteousness, has given me more joy than I would of thought possible.

I'm so glad I have this opportunity to be where I am. I encourage missionary work for anyone who trusts in the Lord. Whether serving a mission away from home, or inviting a friend at home, your love will grow and your testimony will flourish. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

This week

These past few days have been SWEET.

I'm not going to lie, I've been pretty frustrated with the lack of success we've had in the past. I didn't understand how the missionaries before us could spend all day every day at the gym and movie theater, and get 6 baptisms the last month, and Houghton and I have been working our tails off and didn't have anyone for January. But right when I was about to lose it, the success came.

We stopped by some members on Sunday, and one of their friends was over. We had an impromptu lesson and she told us she wants to be baptized! So we set a date for the 19th. Then we got a call about someone we've been teaching for a while. He's 11, and just waiting for his dad to get ready to baptize him. Apparently, the Dad and the Bishop had met and agreed to just let him get baptized now. So there is another one for the beginning of Feb! The next day, we went to a Family Home Evening with a family who invited their non-member friend. The friend told us she had talked to her mom and they decided she could get baptized! So we gotta get that set up. We can easily have 6 or 7 baptisms for February. I'm really excited.

Besides the area being awesome, not a lot has happened. I got a Christmas package this past week from home. It was an additional, surprise, package. I got a sweet Indiana Jones Fedora that I'm wearing around more and more. Not sure I'm allowed to, but it's my parents fault if I get yelled at. I also got a sweet Dallas Cowboys, Miles Austin Jersey. Still trying to figure when and how I can wear that.

Pics will come next week.

Transfers!

It's transfer time, and nothing is happening. Elder Houghton and I will be staying together in Kanesville.

This week has been pretty slow as far as missionary work goes, everyone is out of town/ with family/ too drunk to talk to us around New Years. So, no cool stories to share about that. Except, during sacrament meeting this Sunday, two of our investigators, Weston and Danielle, went up and bore their testimonies! They are 11 and 9. Never mind that they were both the exact same short testimonies, the point is they felt the impression to get in front of hundreds of people and let them know the church is true! If we could only get their parents to act like parents and take them to church it'd be great.

This isn't spiritual or anything, but I have decided I'm gonna go to BYU Idaho for my first year, and then take it from there. It feels like the right place to start out.

Since I don't have any long spiritual stuff, I'm gonna write down my rough draft of my Lame Excuse List. In Utah, there are so many members, that tracting is pretty useless. So we rely on the members to invite their friends to meet with us. It's much more effective. While serving in Kaysville, the good people had inspired me to put together a list of the absolute worst reasons for not talking to their friends about the church. All from active members of the church. Please know that these excuses are not all from Kaysville, nor are all people in this city like this. My list is in no particular order:


1. "We're good friends with them, and I don't want to put that on them" - Kaysville
2. "They're letting us store some stuff in their back yard, and I can't afford to lose that" - Kaysville
3. "Our Bishop is really missionary minded" - Kaysville
4. "Someone in our ward joined the church a few years ago" - Kaysville
5. "Our houses are on 1 acre plots, and it's harder to meet your next door neighbor" - West Haven
6. "I've only lived here a few years, haven't gotten the chance to know my neighbors yet" - Roy
7. "It's not my thing" - Clinton
8. "The sign says no soliciting" Then the Young Womens President's husband yelled at us some more and slammed the door in our faces (Yes, he went to church every week) - Kaysville
9. Didn't give an excuse, just walked out of the room after feeding us dinner.
10. "I don't want to alienate my friends" - Kaysville
11. "I think I'm a better teacher than you" - Kaysville
12. 2 strikes: 1. Floor mat said Go Away 2. He had a University of Utah shirt on - Kaysville
13. "We're in Utah, everyone is LDS" - Everywhere
14. "I wouldn't worry about him... He lives across the street from a church" - Kaysville
15. "Don't expect much, these kids are raised not to associate with non-members" Kaysville
16. "They moved in during the summer" - West Haven

That's my list for now. I'll continue to update it as people let me know why they can't share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with their friends and neighbors. Yall have a great week!

[Pictures from football game spoken of last week in letter - Ryan wanted all of us to know his team won!]



Elder Houghton trying to rush Elder Pearson



Whole crew playing football



I'm Dreaming of a Brown Christmas

Utah, who has "the world's greatest snow" had an ugly brown Christmas this year. Even Florida had a white Christmas this year. Needless to say, I'm disappointed in Utah.

But besides that, Christmas was Awesome! Elder Houghton and I visited a few families and played some football. I got to Skype home, after some stragegery and finding a plan B on the spot since our plan A Skype house failed. But it worked out. I got a lot of letters and packages, so for that, I thank you. During interviews, President told me I might be tied for the lead in package receiving in the mission. So for anyone who has contributed to that, I thank you. For anyone who hasn't contributed to that, there is still time :P

My Landlords, the Rogers are now checking up on the blog, and told me if I said anything else about the barn, I'll be sleeping out with the horses. So, I'll have to keep the barn jokes to a minimum. They did give me a SWEET Christmas present.

A home-made Dallas Cowboys quilt. Like I said, they are reading this, so I can't say too many good things about it, but it is pretty cool.

Our baptism on Christmas Eve did go through. It wasn't the smoothest baptism. (Aikyrea and her family showed up 30 min late, and we found out she's deathly afraid of water during the multiple attempts to baptize her) But it did go through, and she's a new member of Christ's church! :)




Elder Houghton, Aikyrea and Elder Pearson

 For the spiritual story of the week, I'm gonna use a story from the Denmark, Copenhagen Mission. This is a good one. There is a show out there called South Park. One of the creators of the show is an Ex-Communicated member of the church [mother's note - neither of the South Park creators is LDS - many of their friends growing up were LDS]. So a lot of the jokes are making fun of the LDS faith. There is one whole episode dedicated to making fun of Joseph Smith. Someone in Denmark watched this episode, was interested in the church, and got baptized! South Park helped convert someone! It's not really spiritual, I just thought it was a cool story. Well, that's all I have today, we're putting a big football game together today with a lot of youth. And when you have 19 wards, you have a lot of youth.

So Y'all have a happy holiday and a safe New Year!

Merry Christmas!



Former Elders Phelps and McCann who served in the Houston TX mission.  They took Elder Pearson and his companion out for dinner


This week has been crazy. Trying to get this baptism together, continue to find to have baptisms in the future, and still get lost every now and then. And apparently there's a big day on December 25th that's not helping with anything. But the work keeps moving along. We are getting more ward participation for Christmas Eve's baptism. I'm way excited for it.

We found the sweetest trailer park in the world. Chalk full of genuine Ogdenites. And I was really missing my first area too. We met a guy who was at least 450 pounds, about to lose his legs. A lady who's obviously on something who told us to watch out for the "dark people." Then she went inside because a 12 year old Hispanic girl was walking down the street. It was sweet!

So our area is all about the news here. Last week I talked about a plane crash a block from our dinner appointment. Well this week, a block from that there were a bunch of cop cars. There was a domestic disturbance. The husband went to jail for beating his wife. Later he got out, got drunk, and walked through the restraining order with a gun. Luckily she had a gun too, and wasn't drunk. He shot her in the arm, and she shot him to death. Happy ending I guess? Our area is sweet.

On a spiritual note, I heard about a sweet story. The Provo Tabernacle burned down this week. Everything in it was destroyed, except for one painting. A picture of Jesus Christ was burned everywhere except the part Christ is on. Here is the picture.




Remains from Provo Tabernacle


Yall have a Merry Christmas





Elder Pearson looking for love....



:P



The Texan missionaries serving in the Ogden, Utah Mission.

 It's been another week of greatness. This E-mail might be short. I'm in the Ogden Public Library, and the computers are slow and time is limited.

We are setting up a baptism for Christmas Eve. It's for Aikyrea. Her family got baptized a few years ago and now she's following their example. She'll also have her brother there, who she's seen once in the last year. So it's gonna be a great experience. Now we just have to convince people to remember Christ during Christmas and support her in this baptism, Which might be easier said than done, but we are working on it.

The family we live with are way cool. I enjoy working with their kids.

I got a call the other day from a former missionary in Lakewood ward, Elder McCann. He and Elder Phelps (also from Lakewood) are gonna take Houghton and I out to dinner tonight. I'm excited for that. That's all I got for today. The computer is kicking me off. Love yall