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This past week has been a crazy one. We were just told that on Aug 20th, just 9 days before I go home, Elders Callister and Charrington of the Quorum of the 70, Bishop Burton, the Presiding Bishop of the church, and Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the 12, and their wives, are coming to speak to the mission. Also, 3 days later, another member of the quorum of the 70 is coming to tour the mission. We were way pumped to hear about all this.

Then Sunday night Elder L. Tom Perry, of the Quorum of the 12, came to Perry to give a patriotic devotional. It was not an LDS talk in any way, yet the spirit was there strong. He talked about the Pilgrims coming to America, then talked about the early settlers of Perry. It was first called Porter Springs, because Porter Rockwell started it. Then Elder Perry's ancestors came and it was changed to Perry. It was awesome.

They had a retired preacher from another faith give the opening prayer. So unaccountable. It was about 10 min long, and made no sense. He just tried preaching to us through prayer. The coolest part of the night was before and after though. We snatched some seats on the front row of folding chairs. Right by the door that Elder and Sister Perry walked though. As they walked by, Sister Perry stopped and pointed us out. We stood up and they walked to us. At this time the whole chapel and gym was silent. He shook our hands and asked us how many lessons we had set up for the week. He's big on every companionship teaching 20 a week. We told him we had 10 set up so far (a lot better than the area was a few weeks ago) and he said "Well that's half good enough"

Then he told us to get our ward mission leader to fill up the rest of the appointments. It just so happened that one of our ward mission leaders were sitting right next to us. So it was easy to pass the message on to him as Elder Perry walked away. After the devotional, Elder Waggoner and I stood at the door to shake people's hands and hold the door open for them, so we could get our faces out there. After the large masses had left, Elder and Sister Perry walked up again. He put his arm around my shoulder as we walked out of the church and to his car, and we had a good little chat. I explained we had 18 lessons the week before, and 16 ward mission leaders, so we'll be able to get 20 lessons taught hopefully. He's way down to earth and chill.

The next day was 4th of July!! Perry city was having a fun run. They had a 5K and Mile run. Waggoner did the 5K and I took the easy run. I'm way out of shape. I ended up in 12th place with a time of 7:38. Maybe I should have eaten breakfast?

We stayed up late Sunday night making t-shirts for the fun. We wore black shorts with white t-shirts. We drew a tie on it, and a tag so we could still be missionaries. The back said "I'm a Mormon" and then under it "Mormon.org" It's a big advertisement the church is doing. Gotta always be doing missionary work.

After the run, we got free breakfast, and headed home to prepare for the parade. We got most of the zone to the parade. We all decorated our bikes and planned on biking in the parade together. What we didn't plan on was biking right behind Elder Perry. It was sweet. Waggoner and I rode a tandem bike. It was definate crowd favorite. At the end of the parade, Elder Perry talked to the zone, and took a pic with us. Sweet day!

After that we worked hard and found people home during the day! Not so much luck during the evening though. So we just crashed a party and shot this guy's pellet gun with them. Then we went home and watched fireworks. White trash style of coarse. We took our chairs from inside, and cd player and took em outside to sit and watch fireworks with music. While drinking a DP. Awesome night.

The area is really turning around. We now have 4 investigators with a date for baptism. which is higher than the 0 we had at the beginning. And hopefully that'll just keep going up. We're teaching this hilarious 10 yr old kid, Dylan, who's trying to get us to bribe him to go to church, read, and pray. He wants to get baptized, but told us he'd do all the other stuff if we gave him $100. We told him he'd get blessing for doing it. And he said he wants "the blessings in Benjamins". Awesome kid.

We also started teaching this awesome lady Char. She's an older lady who grew up Catholic in Illinois. She's now interested in the church. Our 2nd time teaching her, we taught the Restoration. And it never fails, when we teach this lesson, and get to the first vision, something interrupts it. Whether a dog, doorbell, or phone. It's going to happen. Well we came up to the First Vision, we told her Joseph Smith went to a grove of trees to pray, and she interrupts "real quick, I have a story to tell you." Works every time. But this time was different. She told us about how she was at Costco and saw a painting. She said it touched her more strongly than any painting ever has. Even though she had no clue was the painting was or was about, she bought the $250 painting titled "The Grove". She showed us the painting of a grove of trees, and from studying it, she could pick out 3 separate sources of light in the air, to which she told us was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We told the first vision, the explanation of the painting. And with tears in her eyes, she agreed to work toward being baptized on July 30th. It was awesome! It feels soo great to be seeing success again. The area still has a ways to go, but it's getting there!

Heyy

This week's been SWEET!

Elder Waggoner is a stud! He is not from Texas like I thought. He's from Southern Illinois, but he's got the accent to fool anyone. I'm doing my best to pick it up. He'll probably be the one who will kill me off - but we'll see.

The area is pretty cool. We have a stake in Brigham and a stake in Perry. The area isn't very busy right now, oddly enough, even less busy than my last one. But we're working hard to fix that. We've already picked up several new investigators and a date for baptism.

This area has the Utah famous Maddox restaurant. Good food. I've been hearing about it my whole mission, and now I get it free once a week. Also, in our area is the only person I know that President Monson, the Prophet of the Church, has called an Anti-Christ. He's the guy responsible for the most famous anti-LDS movies and literature. There's a lot more he does, but I'll just leave it at we have been commanded from the First Presidency that if we knock his door we get sent home. Crazy stuff.

Anywho, Things are going along great. We've got someone we're teaching who is EXACTLY like Butters on South Park. It's hilarious. This is going to be a sweet area to finish up in. And Waggoner is gonna make sure I finish working hard.

Transfers

My last area as a missionary in the Utah Ogden Mission will be in Perry Utah. It's just South of Brigham City. So I will get to see the Brigham Temple go up, which will be sweet. Perry is in the Willard Bay Zone, which goes from basically North Ogden into Malad, Idaho. So it's pretty big.

I'll be serving with Elder Waggnor, who I haven't ever served around, but I hear he's a stud. I'm way pumped for this area and comp. The area next to us is where Ed Davis, a recent convert I started teaching in my first area, lives. So it'll be awesome to see him. He's doing well from what I hear. Going strong in the gospel. I'll have a car to end my mission with. And a gym close by. Gotta continue the 6 months to sexy.

It's sad to leave this area. Transfers are always hard when you've been working with people for so long. But I'll be close enough to come back for baptisms. And a wedding in August! An investigator, James, is getting married to his fiance so he can get baptized! That will be sweet to go to.

This Friday, [last Friday] we had Elder D. Todd Christoffersen come speak to the mission. It was mostly an open Q&A with an Apostle. We were told twice, by President Olsen and him, not to ask dumb questions about the 3 Nephites and stuff. We only had one idiot missionary ask a dumb question, which Elder Christoffersen basically told him so in the answer. It was sweet!  Also, at another time, while reading Preach My Gospel, he let out a big DUH. So it is now completely acceptable, lol.

After all that, we went to Chipotle for lunch. It was amazing! Still delicious after 21 months of not eatin it. I gotta go get ready for the move, but I love yall, and hope all is well.



Elder Pearson with his district June 2011



Mavs Won!

Elder Pearson playing "Scripture Jenga"

Not a spiritual title, but O so important. The Dallas Mavericks are this year's NBA champions! Dirk finally got a ring! So pumped!

Besides that, the work's been going along. Not too much to report. This Friday we're having Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles come to speak to the mission. So I'm pretty excited about that.

This week, Bohanan the Great and I were checking up on a referral. We knocked on the door and heard "Come on in."  I hate walking into peoples homes. It happens a lot. So we knocked again and got the exact same response. I tried yelling "are you home alone?" and just got "Come on in" again. After about 4 more "Come on in's" I assumed it was not an old lady telling us to come inside, but in fact an empty home with a parrot in the front room. We're gonna go back to further investigate, but it was pretty funny. We almost walked in.

Anyway, I gotta go play capture the flag with some people. Sending letters = loving a missionary.





To show how large the area is - and they are on bikes!


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Week 4 of 6 of the Transfer

These last 2 weeks have been crazy! Trying to do double the work, in double the area, with the same amount of time isn't the easiest. Luckily we have bikes. We just have to work on riding them a bit faster now, so it'll actually benefit us.

The new Providence stake is awesome!! They are so pumped to have missionaries that give them the time of day. One of our Ward Mission Leaders in the new stake is a Professor for one of the Ward Mission Leaders in the Logan stake.  Pretty funny stuff.

We've been doing a lot of Exchanges this week. That is when 2 companionships switch for a 24 hr period. So you get a new companion to be with for the day. We were on exchanges yesterday and had a sweet lesson. It was with Chap, who Bohanan and I have been trying to get a hold of for 3 months now. He just graduated H.S., so he's got a bit more time. The spirit was strong and even though it was our first lesson teaching together, Elder Mansell and I taught together pretty unified. It's been a while since I've had a lesson like that, which definitely has taken it's toll on me. But it was sweet just getting one great lesson in.

Snow on Memorial Day

I never thought I'd see snow at the end of May. But that's what I saw yesterday.


May 30, 2011

The mountains are white again, and the cold was there. Luckily, it's warmed up again and the snow down here is all melted.

We got a phone call on Thursday telling us we now cover the Providence stake as well. So our area has now doubled, making it one of the largest bike areas in the mission! Luckily, Bohanan's bike is going be here Thursday so we'll actually start getting work done. I'm pumped.

The area is similar to Kaysville. Too many girls, and very financially stable people. Oddly enough, so far, I like it. That makes it way different from Kaysville. I've had 2 former companions, Elders Henke and Houghton who have served in this stake before.

Since we have been working in this stake, we've taught a family from India. They were not interested, but I learned all about their beliefs. And we're going to start teaching 2 girls from Ethiopia. They seem way cool.

Besides that, we're just continuing to work.



One of our investigators, Breanna, drew this after we taught her about the Tree of Life.  Notice the Tree of Life has Dr. Pepper on it!



Elder Flake (on exchanges) Elder Pearson, Michelle (friend of Breanna)  and Breanna the investigator having fun after the lesson.



Still Cold And Wet In Utah



Elder Pearson holding a tarantula

Not gonna lie, I get pretty jealous when I hear about people swimming. My Alaskan companion is bundled up in his heavy jacket today!

This week's gone well, we haven't picked up anyone new to teach this week, but we're trying to help those we are teaching progress in the gospel. We're getting people to church finally! It's a huge obstacle with a lot of people. Most people want to get baptized without ever going to church. Still working hard and spreading the gospel.

We had a sweet dinner with a couple who spoke 4 different languages combined. It made me think of how many different languages the Book of Mormon is in, and how accessible it is to the world. In Mosiah 1:2 King Benjamin "caused that they should be taught in all the language of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding; and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers, which were delivered them by the hand of the Lord." These people had to learn a new language to be able to read the scriptures. I'd like to be able to say I would be able to do this, but that would be a hard thing to do. I'm so glad I've got it in my own language.



Playing with a squirrel - I guess he forgot it is rodent!