DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN!?!?!

So last Tuesday night, we were on a team up with one of the members in our ward. The Weather started to get really nasty, and it looked like we might have another tornado. We watched the clouds start to swirl around as the wind and the rain picked up. It was about 9:00 so we headed home and started to check up on some of the other areas to make sure that they were ok. About a half hour later, as we were sitting in our apartment, We heard these girls out side screaming. (It sounded like they were just playing in the rain and that they were screaming louder because the storm picked up...) Then the screams turned into bloody murder.... Elder Struthers and I looked outside towards the parking lot to see what the girls were screaming about.... one of the girls was under a car with her foot caught up in the tire rod. (We were like, "did that girl just get run over?") then the car started to ream its engine and run over her more!?!?! Elder Struthers and I ran back inside, "should we call the cops!?" then Struthers ran outside and started going towards the car, yelling "HEY IS EVERYTHING OK!?" Meanwhile I threw on my shoes, grabbed the phone and My pepper spray, We both ran out there as the car kept running over this girl on the ground and the other girl banging on the car window trying to make the driver stop. The Guy in the car saw us coming, took off and ran her over one more time on the way out!?! us and another neighbor asked the girls what happened? Do you know who that was?

The girls got off the ground kinda flipping out/ really scared and said " He was my best friend, He was just coming to get some money that we owed him, please please dont call the cops!"....(WHAT KIND OF BEST FRIEND RUNS YOU OVER WITH A CAR!?!?! ... TALK ABOUT TIME FOR SOME NEW FRIENDS.... All in favor, please manifest by the raise of the right hand.) The girls leg was all twisted and popped out of place and bleeding. We tried to calm them down but then the two girls jumped in their car and started to drive off because they said "I have I curfew, My parents will kill me if i dont get home!"

(GIRL- SHUT YOURE MOUTH! YOU JUST GOT RAN OVER BY A CAR!?!?)

And that is why we obey and live the Word of wisdom. =D Crazy way to start off the week eh?

But things did start to get more spiritual and happy later this week. We went over to see Brandi and Ray a couple times this week. (Brandi was baptized about a month ago and Ray is her Boyfriend that has been looking into the church) As we went over there we had a feeling to talk about the Doctrine of Christ. As we talked about how important it is to be baptized by water and by fire, we invited Ray to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be Baptized by someone holding the authority of God.... This past Saturday Ray was baptized a member of Christ's church!!!

It was a pretty interesting baptism. Ray is very scared of water. Ray also cant use one of his legs, and has to use a cane instead. So right as we were going into the water, I felt Ray stiffin up and almost try to get out of it. He gripped onto my arm as if his life depended on it haha. After a min or two, He was so happy that he made that decision. hahaha =D

One of the other things that was kinda cool was that we had been searching for justin this week because he still has been MIA and he still doesnt have the Holy Ghost. As we were driving around, I got a feeling to just go fill up with gas at this specific gas station. The funny thing was that it was a gas station that we wouldnt usually go too. As we pulled up, and started to fill up on gas, we got the phone out to try and make some phone calls to try and find out who knew where Justin was. Right as we did, Guess what?... A truck pulls up next to us and Justin is in the bed of the truck! He yells "PEARSON MAN!?! WHATS HAPPENIN?" haha we talked to him for a while and he told us that he wanted to come and get confirmed tomorrow but didn't know how to get a hold of us. (The Lord is so close to this work and its so cool to see how much he really cares! If we are obedient and our heart is in the right place, he will lead us to be right where we need to be at the right time.) Sadly justins friend woke up late and didn't bring him to church... :( ......NEXT WEEK!

Other good news? THE TALLEYS HAVE COME TO CHURCH AGAIN!!! two weeks in a row! and John is working to be baptized this saturday with his friend Dennis. there are so many blessing right now its so cool!

One other thing that had been on my mind for a while was the story of Christ and Peter walking on water. At the end of this week, Brad (one of my favorite member here) kinda had something that changed his life. His x- wife passed away from an over dose. which made it so he could have his kids with him full time. Its was of course still something hard for him, and we wanted to go over and see how he was doing. We started to talk about that story of Peter and Christ. Peter was able to walk on the water, BECAUSE he had his faith focused on the Savior. But as soon as he took his focus off of the Savior, He sunk.... All because his focused switched... We talked about how at the beginning, Peter knew that the waves (or the storms of life) were still there. THe Savior did make the waves go away, or make them any smaller. But all while Peter focused his view on the Savior, he was fine. He was able to make it through the storm. But like Peter, If we take our focus off of our Lord, we will sink into the storms of life.

Its not that Peter doubted that Jesus was the Christ, or that he could not make it through. But that he decided to focus on the problem instead of the solution.

We know the Christ is the way, the truth and the life. and that if we will look to him and focus our lives on him, we can make it through anything.

I know that this is true. I know that My Savior is there and that he wants to help us in any time of need. We have the gospel before us and all we have to do is immerse ourselves into it. We can know how, and be permitted to walk back to the presence of our Heavenly Home, if we just follow his will. I love each of you. and hope to hear from everyone of you soon! =D

Love Elder Pearson

TKM June 20, 2011

Elder Struthers, Bro. Burgin and Elder Pearson at Rose's home.

June 20, 2011

Hey-oh! HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!! Shout out to all y'all dads out there (Grandpa's too) ;D How is everyone doing back in Utah and everywhere else in the world!?!? We have been having some funny weather here in Tennessee.. Its always random. One min it will be all sunny and 90 degrees and then the next it will be pouring rain for 5 min and then go right back to sunshine Hahaha

Well last Monday Elder Struthers and I got another companion with us. His name in Brother Barret Burgan from Knoxville. He has been a lot of fun to have around. He is serving a "mini-mission" with us for 2 weeks to help him be more prepared for his real mission. Its fun to watch how excited he gets when we are at an investigators house teaching a lesson. =D

The whole week has just kinda blurred together and a lot has happened, but I am having a hard time thinking of a specific event or story to tell. Dennis Chess, Ray, Theressa and her two boys have all accepted to be baptized! So that's good. Now Dennis and Theressa just have to quit smoking...

I dont have a lot of time but I wanted to throw in some of the high lights of the week.

Love ya! Elder Pearson

Additional Tidbits....Elder Pearson has been serving in Rotherwood/Kingsport for 6 months and 4 companions. He asked how much money he had in his account and I jokingly asked if he was buying everyone lunch today..."I did buy my companions lunch lol. i found out I'm still staying in Rotherwood for another 7 weeks at least. in our Zone we have a lot of people. l think like 13 companionships.

I also received a copy of his companion, Elder Struthers' email - he gave a few more details of their week that you might enjoy....

June 20, 2011 – Elder Struthers

So this week was a fantastic week! Definitely one of the top ones I've had so far on my mission. On Monday we got our mini missionary like I was talking about Monday. His name is Barrett Burgin. He is really cool and already a great missionary. He knows the lessons really well and all that. He just goes off on tangents and wants to teach everything about our church at once. He is really working on eliminating the fluff and he is doing really well. He is a lot of fun to have around.

On Tuesday we went and saw Ray. We had a really good lesson on prayer and how to pray with real intent. The spirit was really strong and we committed him for baptism on the 25th. So this Saturday. It was really cool. He didn't come to church yesterday though! Which is ironic because he was our only investigator that came last week. On Wednesday we went and saw our investigator Dennis and taught the Plan of Salvation. We committed him for baptism on the 2nd of July knowing he still had to come to church twice and quit smoking before. He is excited for his baptism and knows its true. He is already to 2 Nephi 20 in his Book of Mormon reading.

So Ray and Dennis brought our committed investigators to five. The Lord really blessed us this week. While tracting this week we were able to get ten new investigators. By far my record for a week. They are legit ones too not just "'hey can we come back sometime?' 'Sure I'll listen if you're talking about Jesus'". But like sat down taught a whole lesson and got a specific return appointment. I'm really excited about it.

At church yesterday Theresa didn't come :( but her two sons did Jonathon and Brandon. So Theresa's date for this Saturday had to be dropped but her sons are still on at the moment. We had a total of 8 investigators at church. It was awesome! I'm really looking forward to what this week will bring.

Well that's about all the news I can think of at the moment. This week was definitely full of blessings!- Elder Struthers

June 13, 2011

Pepper Spray: 3.. missionaries: still 0...

Hey-o! This Is Elder K-Dobin Pearson! commin to ya live from the Kingsport library. Its a caloric 90 degrees outside with a light breeze. As far as your local news goes- Allandale Falls Mansion pool has just had its grand opening, all visitors are welcome. They be having a "modest is hottest" swimsuit competition on the 15th. That's all the news we have for ya now. Lets Take a look at the "Here's your sign award". Last time, on PEPPER SPRAY vs MISSIONARIES- the missionaries were having some bad luck at pulling out their "A"game. So this week Elder Pearson decided to bring in a secret weapon all the way from Canada; Elder Craig. As they were driving home Elder Craig saw the mace in the cup holder and asked "is this a push pop?" Definitely not. A couple seconds later I realized my throat was starting to burn. I looked over to see Elder Craig, Eyes BRIGHT red with tears running down his face and laughing. Then started to yell "Its starting to really burn!"

(Elder Craig sprayed it in the car, and the AC blew it right back in his face lol.) We pulled over into the Walgreen's and ran inside to the bathroom. Elder Craig couldn't open one of his eyes. When we got to the bathroom he tried to rinse his eyes out a little but not much was happening. He decided to take out his contacts, the only problem was that we didn't realize that he had some left over mace on his fingers. He starts to yell a little more, right as this guy came in to use the bathroom. (hahaha I can only imagine what he must have thought) =D

Anyways, As we walked out of Walgreen's I said "I knew I was going to like you" and we both busted up laughing- an hour later Elder Craig was good to go...till he tried to put his contacts in the next morning.... Pepper spray 3... missionaries 0.

Needless to say, Its been a good week. =D only one bad part- Justin still is MIA and hasn't been confirmed. His family got kicked out of their apartment and is now homeless on the streets again. Every now and then we can catch him on the phone, then they run out of money and the phone turns off or something. He keeps telling us that he wants to be confirmed. But we have an intense lesson ready for him whenever we see him next.

This week though Elder Struthers and I have been working with a family that we found off tracting. Teressa is a single mom, and has 3 kids that live at home. They came to church with us a couple weeks ago and have been praying to know if this is all true. Jonathan is her 11yr old son and is such a stud! we went to pick him up for church and he was waiting outside all dressed up reading the book of Mormon. =D We sat down with them and asked of they had felt that they received and answer yet? Teressa said "no, still not yet" So Struthers and I decided to have a lesson on "how to recognize the spirit". and end by watching the Restoration dvd. At the end of the movie we asked what they felt? as they described their feelings, we stopped and asked them what God was trying to teach them.... Teressa took a moment and then said "its true!" Her and her two sons accepted an invitation to be baptized on the 25th! =D

I have completely gained such an appreciation for the spirit on my mission! Without it we really cannot teach! That's why its so important to be obedient. Right after the lesson we got a call from President Griffin. He told us that for the next two weeks we are going to have a "miny missionary" serve with us! LEGIT. He is 17yrs old and is up from Knoxville. in about 2 hours we are going to pick him up and show him the ropes. =D TIME TO BAPTIZE

I have also been having some really cool experiences with my studies lately. Every time I have a thought pop into my mind I have been writing it down and making my own "book of revelation". Its cool to see what the spirit teaches you as you do it.. just sayin ;)

The mission has been the best choice I've ever made. I've never felt like this or learn as much as I know.. even though I'm just scratching the surface haha. I hope all is going well back at home, and I cant wait to hear back from you all (this means you too) ;)

Love Elder Pearson