Oct 18 2011

One of the nights we decided that we wanted to share a missionary message with our Bishop and his family. We headed over there for a dinner appointment and the whole time we ate, we shared some of the cool missionary experiences that we had had so far that week. We could tell that sharing those stories brought the spirit stronger into the room. Each Of the family members started to share some of the experiences that they had had that week as well. After dinner we moved into the living room and started to share a message about missionary work. We promised them that tonight the spirit was going to bring some of their friends to mind, and that those friends were the ones that were prepared to receive the gospel. After the message, we asked who came to mind? Ben, their 9 year old son was the first to raise his hand... "at school we had a reading assignment where if we completed a certain amount of book we could watch a movie and have a party. I'm the only one that finished. So I think its going to be just me and my teacher in the room tomorrow. I want to share a Book of Mormon with her!"... 9 years old!?!? The spirit just flooded into the room as he shared what the spirit brought to his mind. Next his younger brother, Josh, shared someone he wanted to share the gospel with too! Then one by one each of the kids were so excited to tell who they wanted to share the gospel with and exactly how they wanted to do it. I looked over at their parents and you could tell how proud, humbled, and grateful they were for their kids examples. The spirit was so strong in the room and Bishop stood up and said "Lets go into my office and write all of these names down" We went to the next room. As they wrote down each of their friends names and a goal next to them, they then set a goal on when they wanted to accomplish them. They all started to get so excited. We knelt down together as a family and told Heavenly Father their plans and asked for help.

It was one o the coolest experiences on my mission. I know that the Lord really does put people all around us that we can and should share the gospel with. All we have to do is open our mouths and find out who it is.

A little later in the week we were referred to a less active part member family. We stopped by to visit them and see if they were interested. Turned out they had a 19yr old son that has really been seeking the truth! We have been teaching him in some of the other members home and in one of our lessons we invited him to be baptized. He paused for a moment and then looked up "I have always wanted to be baptized. I would always ask my parents ever since I was 7yrs old." We set a date for him to be baptized a couple weeks later.

Last night we went over to some of the members home to have a cottage meeting with two of our investigators. We talked about the doctrine of Christ and picked out different doctrines from each verse. At the end of the lesson we asked them all to pause and think. We said the spirit is going to tell you something that you need to do to come close to Christ....After a good long paused we asked what they needed to do? "I need to quit smoking" one said (and we never talked about anything that had to do with the word of wisdom!) and the other set a date to be baptized!

I am so grateful for the spirit. I know that He will lift, and over come all the obstacles that our in our way. If we are worthy of the spirit he will do the heavy lifting in our lives.

We are having so many blessings every single day! I love this work! and I love all of you.

Elder Pearson

In the news...

Let the Holy spirit Guide - Oct 11 2011

Hey-Oh! Talk about an AMAZING week! I love the people here in Tennessee. I love being a missionary. I love being guided by the spirit. I love being a missionary, and yeah.. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! =D

To start off the week, we had Zone Leader Council on Tuesday. So Elder H and I were trying to decide what to train on. We had the impression to go for "obedience". We talked with President I about how we needed to change the culture of the mission to where exact obedience was each missionaries personal quest. How to do that is the tricky part.... After saying a prayer, we took all of our personal and companion study to try and come up with this training. But all we came up with was a couple scriptures. We headed over to the office and took a little bit more time to work on it. After praying one more time or help, all of a sudden all of it just flowed together! The Training went so good and the spirit was so strong.

A couple days later Elder H and I really needed to find some more people to teach. We fasted and prayed that we would be able to find people that were ready to receive the gospel now, and to know what price we needed to pay for that blessing. We planned a full day of tracting and headed off to work. And it was terrible! nobody was answering the door. And the ones that did just wanted to bash. That lasted for a couple hours. We decided we weren't in the place that we needed to be, so we went back to the car and prayed to know where to go. We started to head to a place that we felt might be pretty good. On the way there all of a sudden I said "turn right." (I got this impression that we needed to find a pink and black suburban..) We pulled into this apartment complex that we were at a couple days earlier, and sure enough there was a pink and black suburban in the parking lot!

"how do we know which one they live in?" ...I guess we'll just have to knock all of them again.

Just then we saw a girl under the car trying to fix it. We quickly pulled over, said a quick prayer saying "Heavenly Father, we know that we need to talk to her. We don't know what to say. Please grant us thy spirit and help us know what she needs to hear."

We got out and walked up to her and just started to talk. I sat down on the curb next to her and I just got the feeling to just keep talking with her. I asked her if she had ever been out to Utah before? She gave me a really surprised look and then said "no, But I'm actually thinking about moving there." oh yeah? how come? "well... this might sound a little weird but God just told me too...I never even knew that that town existed. And I don't know why he wants me there." Well this might sound a little weird too then... A few min ago, we prayed and asked God where we needed to go RIGHT NOW.. and your Pink and Black Suburban popped straight into my mind... maybe you could tell us why we are here?... Is there any question that you have been praying to God about lately? "No. Not that I can think of. But I don't mind talkin with you till we figure it out."

My testimony continues to grow on how close to this work our Heavenly Father really is! He will lead us in our life EXACTLY where we need to go IF we just do the things he has asked.

There are so many other things that I wish I could share. But it will have to wait till another time. I love the Gospel Of Jesus Christ. It has changed my life inside and out. I know that the Atonement of our Lord can take away any guilt and pain that we have, and fill us with joy and love that will flow throughout our souls, and cause our hearts to melt. I know Heavenly Father Loves us. I really do. He knows us by name. And I have felt that magnificent power in my life. I know that the Prophets and Apostles speak the mind, will, and voice of the Lord to all men today and they teach us the things that we must do to gain peace in this life, and eternal salvation in the life to come. The Book of Mormon is true. It is the word of God and it is the most precious thing that I possess. We have the Fullness of the Gospel. The Priesthood power, and continued revelation for our day. I know that families can be together forever. And I want to share all of the blessings that I have with everyone that I meet. I am thankful for each day that we have been given to share it with those who are seeking it in their lives. I love you all. And hope to hear from you soon.

Love Elder Pearson

In the news...

http://www.wate.com/story/15668639/knoxville-mormon-leader-explains-how-they-fit-christian-definition



Here's a link to a news story that ran on the local news in Knoxville today...

Oct 3 2011 SMASHING WEEK of gospel truth and doctrine

WOW! What a week! For those of you just tuning in, I'm Elder K-boppin Pearson, live on TKM Radio. JUST IN.. We had a SMASHING WEEK of gospel truth and doctrine for all y'uns out there.

For a little side note, the weather is to a cool 53 degrees, and all of the mountains are covered in a crisp, colorful spread of fall display. Perfect weather for kite flying and BAPTIZING! =D

At the first of the week, Brothers' Steward, and Mills; from the missionary board of education came to visit our mission for a leadership training. Talk about studs! They carried the spirit so strong and really represented Christ in all they said and did. One of the days, President and Sister Irion, Brother Mills, Brother Steward, Elder H, and I all gathered in the upper room of the mission home for a little study. We decided to read through 2Nephi 31, Which is one of the greatest chapters for learning about the doctrine of Christ. The coolest part was that each of us there had read this chapter over 100 times, and I learned a ton more that I never thought of before! The Doctrine of Christ teaches us what it is that we must do to gain Eternal Life. Things like learning to have FAITH in Jesus Christ and his atonement, enough to REPENT of our sins, and witnessing unto the Father that we will take upon ourselves the name of Christ by being BAPTIZED. Then receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost to help along the rest of the path. Nephi said...

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall ^afollow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no ^bhypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real ^cintent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are ^dwilling to take upon you the ^ename of Christ, by ^fbaptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the ^gbaptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the ^htongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.

In this chapter we learn what we MUST do to gain eternal life. Step by step. But this time the word "then" stuck out to me. After we are Baptized, THEN we must receive the Holy Ghost or it is good for nothing.... After receiving the Holy Ghost I knew we had to endure to the end, but what all does it intell? Again I saw the word "THEN". THEN ye can speak with the tongue of angles..... So is that another step? Speaking with the tongue of angles? Another commandment like receiving the Holy Ghost?

I then found a quote by President George Albert Smith in Preach My Gospel...

" That is your mission, my brethern and sisters of the Church, that is your responsibility. Freely you have received and our Heavenly Father will expect you freely to share with His other sons and daughters these glorious truths"

"We will attain our exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom only on the condition that we share with our Father's other children the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and observe the commandments that will enrich our lives here and hereafter"

Then it clicked! MISSIONARY WORK is part of enduring to the end. And just like keeping any other commandment, we will have the spirit with us more as we make it apart of our daily lives.

The next day we had a leadership training and it was a lot of fun. Elder H and I did a training on companionship study and making lesson plans. We put up a projector and did these cool simulations, and then everyone went and role-played. turned out to be pretty revelatory.

On Friday Elder H and I had a huge tender mercy moment. We were able to travel to one of our old areas for a district meeting. So the night before, we called Dotty to tell her the good news. We set up a lunch appointment with her after our meeting and decided that we would meet at this Chinese restaurant at 2:00. We drove down there and we couldn't find Dotty anywhere. we waited a couple min and decided that maybe she had gone to one of the other Chinese restaurants in town. (she didn't have a cell phone so we couldn't call and find out where she was.) we raced up the street and couldn't find her there. We went back to our original starting point and then remembered one more restaurant in town. SHe wasn't there either. Kept going back and forth to each one looking for her. We almost didn't have time to stay but we decided to check one more time. As we were driving we saw Dotty's truck pulled over in one of the parking lots and she was just crying!!!

We raced over and we were so excited to see each other. "I thought I missed you!" she said haha. One of the Greatest joys in this life is seeing someone you care about come into the church. But even greater is seeing them still enduring to the end. =D We told her we would come back when her and husband go to the temple to be sealed.

That was fo sho one of the highlights of my mission.

General conference was legit too! It seems to me that we are going to need to be ready to "Stand up for what we believe in, even if that means standing alone" and that we need to make sure we are worthy now, to be ready for when that time comes. All in all that was a awesome spiritual boost.

How blessed we are to have Prophets and Apostles on the earth today! THE CHURCH IS TRUE.
Love Elder Pearson

Mom, For today we have to write a newsletter, drive some missionaries to new apartments. We have a meeting with President, a staff meeting, a conference call, and then planning for zone leader council tomorrow.