TKM AHHH TRANSFER WEEK

Hey Family and friends!
How has your week been going? I hope that is has all gone well.
This has been a really cool and just all around crazy week. Elder Hoyt and I were trying to learn what all the things that we had to do for transfers and just running back and forth. To kinda start off the week, on Tuesday morning, Elder H and I went to the office and started to get all the finial office things ready for the new missionaries. We made some packets of information for them to fill out, and then drove a couple of the mission vehicles over to the car wash to get them all cleaned up. The alarm on the phone went off and we sprung into action and drove to the Air Port to pick up the new missionaries! (I didn't think I would be back to the air port before two years, so that was a weird feeling) So We got to the Air port about a half hour early and walked around a little bit looking for the gate that the missionaries would be coming out of and it brought back a ton of memories. We were suppose to be meeting President and Sister "I" there but they were no where in site and we could see some missionaries coming down the hall. There was just one problem... we were suppose to be picking up 5 new missionaries and we could only see 2...

After we greeted them and gave them hugs, we asked "So where are the lost tribes of your group?" They told us that the rest of them got left at the last airport because they tried to call their families again haha. We found all of their luggage and loaded them into a van and had the other assistance take them back to the mission home. President and Sister "I" waited with us at the airport for a little while and walked around the gift shops and took some goofey pictures. We ended up getting a call from the other missionaries that had been left behind. They borrowed someones phone to let us know that their flight was going to be delayed for a couple more hours. We drove back to the mission home and let the missionaries that we had take a little nap for a couple hours while we tried to decided what to do. We helped Sister "I" cook and prepare dinner, and afterwords we chilled on the back porch. It was the perfect temperature outside as we looked at the crisp yellow, orange, and red leaves dancing in the wind.

Around 7pm we received another text updating us that their flight was about to come in. We headed back to the Airport and got the other missionaries. They all looked completely wiped out so we took them back to the mission home for some dinner. We had an orientation meeting with them and a night devotional. The spirit that was felt was so strong and I'm really excited to see these new missionaries in action. They all went to bed, but unfortunately the night wasn't over for us yet. We headed back to the office to finish getting things ready for transfers and then went to the church to set everything up. We didn't leave the church till about 1 or 2 in the morning I think.

Wednesday morning we went to the mission home to have some breakfast at 7:00 and then walked over to the church with all of the new missionaries. Their eyes were huge as they looked around to see where they'd be for the next 2 years.

Around 9:00 we split up for a couple of different trainings. President "I" and I went into a room to train the new trainers and then Elder Hoyt and Sister "I" went into another room with the office staff to go over car usage and other cool stuff like that.

After that I conducted my first transfer meeting and I was a little nervous at first but ended up having a lot of fun with it.

Elder R and Elder R (the assistants that were training us) forgot to mention to us what we needed to do AFTER transfers happened. All of these people and the office staff came up to Elder H and I asking all sorts of questions that we had no idea how to answer. We ran over to Elder R and asked "what the heck do we say to them?!" and he smiled and said "that's up to you... you'll figure it out"........CRAP!

For the rest of the night Elder H and I drove around the mission dropping off bikes, beds, and missionaries that got left behind. We didn't get back to our apartment until 7:00pm and just passed out asleep, dead tired and in zombie mode.

And that's kinda how the rest of our week was until Saturday night.

As Elder H and I were planning for the next day, We both really still wanted to reach the "standard of excellence" that our mission had set. one of which was 7 new investigators a week. (which is sometime pretty hard to get.) The only problem... because we had been so busy the days before, we had only found one investigator so far this week and tomorrow was our last day.

We both got the impression to fast and pray. We knelt down together and decided that we wanted to fast for a family that we could find. A family that was prepared to receive the restored gospel. A family that would come to general conference and would be able to be baptized in the month of October. We wanted to fast to know what price we would have to pay to receive this blessing. After we prayed and started the fast, we both got the impression that we needed to get the standard of excellence still.

So Sunday afternoon we headed out and went tracting. We ended the night by finding 7 New Investigators!!!! Fasting is such an amazing blessing!!! =D

One of the girls that we met was named "BK". We saw her sitting outside on her porch and went up to her and started having a conversation. She mentioned to us that she was thinking about switching churches. We asked her if we could share a message about Jesus Christ with her. "So what is the difference between your church and others?" She asked.

Well like other Christians, We know that Jesus Christ is the son of God. That he is our Savior and Redeemer. We know that it is only through his grace and his Mercy that we can be saved. We believe that God revealed his gospel throughout time to his servant, the prophets. We believe that he is the same yesterday, today and forever and one of the things that separates us from any other church is that we believe that he has called a prophet and 12 apostles today."

That is so cool!!-she said haha. She then started to ask question after question wanting to know more.

I know that the Lord prepares his children all around us to receive his good news. We can have the blessing of being his hands in helping his work move forward. I know that my Lord Lives. I know that his Church is on the earth today and that he speaks through modern living prophets and apostles today. The Bible and The Book Of Mormon Are the mind, will, and Voice of the Lord to us. They can show us what it is that we must do to gain peace in this live and eternal salvation in the life to come. I love this gospel.

And I love all of you. cant wait to hear from you all.

Love Elder Pearson

OH SNAP.... WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!

OH SNAP.... WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!

Monday, September 12, 2011 8:57 AM

Hey family,

how have things been for you this week? We have had an amazing week. All of the members are really excited about things that are going on. To start off the week, Elder P and I decided to do a zone activity, and it turned out to be one of our best ones yet. We played ultimate dodge ball and mission impossible (real intense) Abi would love it.

Some cool news... Elder P and I were at a dinner appointment, and we were trying to get some small talk going with a family. I saw a box behind the couch that looked like it could hold a guitar, and asked "so do any of you play the guitar?" nope, its a banjo. Do you play any instruments? "I love trying to learn different ones." Sounds good, its yours.

So know I'm a true southerner and have my own BANJO haha =D

A couple days later, Elder P and I were out tracting one day and were having a lot of fun and talking to a lot of people. At the very end of the street a guy opened the door and said "HAHA...MORMONS.." He started out by telling us how much he respected us for our dedication, but that it was a shame that we were going to hell and worshiped the devil. For the next half hour he started spitting out all this anti that he got off the Internet. It was all crazy stuff about the temple, Moroni being an angle of light, Galatians 1- preaching another gospel, and a bunch of other crazy stuff. Elder P and I started laughing at one of the things that he said and we replied, "Sir, we've both been to the temple, and your claim is ridiculous". We ending by bearing a pretty bold testimony and that was pretty cool to feel the spirit on that for him.

But some cool news is we were about to have a lot of success in our area. For the last couple of weeks we have been teaching a girl named A. She came to institute with us and also came to the church. She is pretty open and hopefully things keep going well.

We also had a chance to talk with this less active/ part-member family. Ever since Elder P and I got to this area we have tried to visit this family at least once a week. But they would never open the door. The finally let us in and we had a chance to get to know them a little more. We asked the mom how she came in contact with the church? She told us that both of her parents were members and she was very active growing up. But that for the last 10yrs she has been pretty inactive and now her daughter doesn’t really know too much about the church.

We started to ask her what blessings she remembered having, from being raised in the church. She started to explain how much it meant to her, and the blessings that she had growing up. She then looked at her daughter, and paused for a moment. "I want my daughter to have those same blessing I had... And right now she doesn’t have them... We are ready to change that though"... (the spirit is so amazing to see it change someone’s heart!)

We started to share that we wanted to help her daughter prepare for baptism, and asked if that would be something they would want? They agreed with big smile on their face, and now we’re going to be meeting with them next week! =D

This week we also got a little taste of teaching like Elder Davies on his island (He's serving in Taiwan). A couple weeks back elder P and I tracted into a college student that came all the way from china. We left him the dvd "finding faith in Christ" and told him we'd be back. He ended up watching it a bunch of times and told us he was really touched by it and had a whole list of questions.

He asked "So it said that Jesus Christ was the son of God?..Who's God? Does he have a body? where does he live? It was a really fun lesson and we even taught him how to pray. He wants us to come back and teach him even more so thats good.

On Saturday during personal study I got a call from president Irion

"morning president, how are you doing today?"

Ahh Elder Pearson, just the guy I wanted to talk too.

"oh yeah? what can I help you with?"

Well I got some good news and some bad news and some more good news. Which order would you like them in?

"lets do that one, good, bad, good"

Well good news is that I want to have you and your companion over for dinner tomorrow.

(just then I knew what he was calling for. my heart started to pound, and my palms got all sweaty)

The bad news is that Elder P will no longer be your companion.

(on no, i really know whats going to happen)

The other good news is that the Lord and I are calling you to be assistant to the president.

He started to talk for about 5 more min but my mind was gone and didn't catch any of it! and Then he said "wait, I don’t know if you said you will do it?.. will you? haha

I nervously said yes, and then he continued to tell me that he was going to try something new and that I was going to be assistant with my son elder H and that he was going to call and tell him the news too. So now Elder H and I are getting trained for the next week to white wash the AP's area! I feel very under qualified. But I’m very excited for the chance to grow. =D

Sunday night we met up with President and had dinner at the mission home and then the assistance took us to the mission office to teach us some of the reports stuff.. I felt like I was in the first part of the MTC again, to where I was just being loaded with information and retaining none of it haha. Just like trying to take a drink out of a fire hose. We were doing numbers till about 1 or two in the morning and it was a crazy night. I don’t think that it’s really kicked in yet but haha maybe thats good.

I know that Heavenly Father knows best though and that this will help me grow. I’m excited to love the missionaries even more and to see what lies ahead. Hope you have a wonderful week!

Love , Elder Pearson

Sept. 6, 2011

tkm

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 10:48 AM

Hey y'all!!! How has your week been? This past week we have been having a lot of fun and getting some good work done too. We started off the week by having Zone Leader Council. Elder Phippen and I showed up a little early to help Sister Irion cook all of the food and help the AP's set everything up. For most of the meeting we went over all of the notes that we had when Elder Ballard came to Nashville and also when Elder Gonzales of the 70 came to see us a couple weeks ago. It was pointed out how most of the time when they talked to us about finding, it was always about how important it was for us to find through the members. The meeting went really well, and its exciting to see the mission coming back up and starting to have more and more success =D

Also this week we got a new ward mission leader! He's a pretty cool guy and I'm excited to be working with him. Half way through the week, one of the YSA members invited us to a party that she was having and a lot of her non-member friends were going to be there. (This family was a philipino family, and man, THEY KNOW HOW TO COOK AND HAVE A PARTY) they had like counter tops just full of food and all different kinds with names that I cant say but they all tasted way good. And the funniest part was watching them do karaoke, EVERYBODY sings. Not just the person with the mike, and they really get into it too. (the grandpa was the best though. He was super short and walked into the house wearing this hooded cloak and he took off his hood and HE LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE YODA (minus the green skin of course) I talked to him for most of the night even though I couldn't understand anything he was saying, But he's my right hand man for a karaoke night haha ;)

This week we also started to teach one of the member's nieces. Her name is Rebecca, and shes pretty cool. She is 23, had kind of a rough life with not much of a Christian background. WHen she was 17 she and her boyfriend got pregnant, and since then she has been wanting to have a better life which made her prefect for the gospel! She started to ask some questions to our old ward mission leader, Dino. He gave us a call and told us to hurry and come by and teach her. When we got there she asked us; "What happens when we die? And what’s this "spirit world" that he keeps talking about?"

We opened up the scriptures to a certain verse, had her read it and then we asked her her same question right back to her... She was able to find the answer for her self, and that made her pretty excited. She started to ask more and more questions and we started to teach the Plan of salvation to her. At the end of the lesson we went through and reviewed it with her. We asked Rebecca all the questions that she originally asked us, and a couple others to see what she understood. At one point she said "I’m not sure, tell me again" We then pause and told her to listen to what the spirit would tell her. She would take a min to think, and then all of a sudden we saw it all click. She re-taught us the whole Plan of Salvation! =D

I love being able to see the spirit work in others to help us learn. I think a lot of times we try to have the easy way out by asking someone to tell us the answer to a question that we have. But Heavenly Father wants us to take a min and rely on him. And to let the spirit teach us as we struggle to learn.

I love the gospel with all my heart. And I want to learn all that I can. I know that the Lord has answers to our prayers. He hears them and wants to bless us with everything we stand in need of. I hope to hear from you all soon.

Love Elder Pearson =D

PS. I just barely got hooked up with a new camera cord by one of the YSA members here. so now my camera is recharged! =D