The end is only a new beginning!

August 10, 2015


As close as I am to going home it really doesn't feel like it's coming! Yes I'm excited to see my family, yes I know it is a necessary progressive step in my life, but no I am not ready to take of my badge and stop being a full time missionary! I know that the power is not in this little badge I wear every day over my heart that makes us easily identifiable servants of the Lord, but there is something comforting about having it on at all time. I'd be lying if I said I haven't been sleeping with it on lately...

This week was great other than the fact that we had to take Sister Coglianese to the airport this morning. Yesterday we sat by little girl Sage in church and she whimpered throughout the whole meeting out of her devastation that we're both leaving this week. We both promised to come back when she gets baptized:) One of her friends that comes to teach with us made us all friendship bracelets that Sage ordered we never take off as of midnight last night so we can be connected forever:) I feel SO blessed to have worked with such cute little girls, I feel like these past 2 months have prepared me a ton for being a mom one day. 

We started teaching a 10 yr old boy from a less active family over the weekend. He is brilliant and when we asked him why he wanted to be baptized he said very matter of factly "Because it's a commandment from God!" Why can't everyone understand things as clearly as kids do?? Sister Coglianese and I went on exchanges with Sister Armstrong on Wednesday (she is my kind of cousins!) and we taught a 9 year old recent convert whose mom is not a member. The mother had a very depressed, beaten down demeanor and looked like she had been through a lot do to bad decisions and she presented such a stark contrast to her bright, bubbly, happy daughter who is full of light. There is a very clear difference between those who are followers of christ and those who aren't. I think children automatically have that light but when we get older we must continue to grow it or we will lose it. No wonder Jesus tells us to become like little children!

It is such a blessing to be able to utilize temple square anytime we want to take people there because the spirit is so strong and the temple is so beautiful. We had the chance to take both Mike and Sage at 2 separate times this week and the weather was beautiful!!!

​Mike in the purple shirt!

​

As of this wednesday I will offically have been out 18 months. So what did I learn? well, before I go into specifics, one thing that has become more clear to me as I imagine myself trying to convey all that has transpired to my family and friends is that my mission is between me and the Lord. No one else will ever know in full the feelings I've felt, the miracles I've witnessed and the low points I've had throughout my mission. I am so grateful for God's omniscience. He has been there every single step of the way and I will always treasure my mission because of that. Luckily he will continue to be there if I continue to stay on the path His son paved for us in this life!

What I've Learned

I've learned that when you're a brand new missionary, a little nervous, and way too excited, it's very easy to mistakenly introduce yourself as "elder Pearson" when you're actually a sister.

I've learned that the gospel is true in every language and every culture, but every culture has it's differences and we need to try to understand the backgrounds others come from

I've learned that like President Monson says, we should never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved

I've learned that trials humble us and bring us to a point where the only person we can cry out to is our Father in Heaven

I've learned that people will typically talk very openly about their beliefs with you when you simply get to know them as a person and show them you care

I've learned that I really like to be right, but being right is not so important as keeping peace in any relationship :)

I've learned that I am happiest when I am swallowed up in the work of the Lord and constantly thinking about other people

I've learned, again, that the Book of Mormon is in fact the word of God and that Joseph Smith did not write it but merely translated it through the power of God

I've learned that when we simply ask God for something that we are in need of in the moment, he will respond, because he loves us (Matthew 7:7-11)

I've learned that packages and letters from home bring instant christmas-morning-type joy

I've learned that the most important things in life aren't things

I've learned that the atonement of Jesus Christ is not just for our sins, but it motivates us to do better, to be better, and to become like our Savior

I've learned to compromise and to enjoy doing what others enjoy simply because you love them

I've learned (through the examples of many returned missionaries) that I can still be a missionary when I get home!!!!

I've learned that without charity we really are nothing, and charity is not a developed skill, but a gift we can receive from Heaven if we ask for it unceasingly

I've learned that God knows and cares about the desires of our hearts, even the small ones

I've learned that families that are centered of Christ are healthier, happier, and the type of family I want to have

I've learned that the Lord has a plan for each of us if we will simply submit to His will and invite his spirit into our lives each and every day

My heart is overflowing with gratitude for this time in my life. I will never ever be able to try to repay the Lord for what he has given me, but I will certainly attempt. They say the second best thing in the world is dropping a missionary off, and the first best thing is getting them home again. I think seeing my family again will be the closest thing to what it will be like when we reunite after this life. Can't wait to see you all!!!!

Love,

Sister Pearson

Look at the balloons!

August 3, 2015



One of the highlights of this week was stopping by the Fruit Heights annual city celebration this Saturday and working the crowd! A lot of the people we teach were excited to see us there and we found a few people who want the missionaries to teach them! As we were talking to one girl that was interested, one of the less active people we are teaching came up and testified of how the missionary lessons have helped him get back to church to help her have a desire to learn! It was sweet.

We experienced so many miracles this week!!

1. We taught Brother Huang from China again and he prayed for the first time EVER in his life! It was one of the sweetest, most sincere prayers I have ever heard. We had left him with a restoration pamphlet that he studied and in his prayer he said "I feel really good when I read this book and I want to learn more and know more because this feeling is nice". Isn't that just the essence of the gospel? When we act in faith, we receive lasting peace and joy that doesn't come from worldly pleasures, but from the spirit of God.

2. We are teaching 2 people named Sage, one a less active 27 yr. old man and one a 9 year old girl who hasn't been baptized yet. BOTH came to church for the 2nd time in a row this sunday! Little sage also came with us to the baptism of her 8 yr old friend Ellie who has been helping us teach the missionary lessons to Sage. Then she got up in sacrament meeting and bore her testimony!

3. Mike, who hasn't come to church the past 2 weeks and cancelled the lesson we had set up this week, texted us saturday night and said that due to more family issues that came up, he wouldn't be able to make it to church the next day though he had committed to. Well, we began our fast that night and prayed for him and lo and behold he showed up and stayed for all 3 hours of church the next day! THAT was a miracle. Satan persuades us just to give up and block out spiritual things when bad things happen, but the savior leads us with light:) Mike chose to follow the light this weekend!

4. Amanda got baptized! the added miracle was that her husband, who hasn't really been around lately, said friday that he wasn't coming to the baptism and Amanda was distraught. Something changed and the next day he showed up! We sang the song "Oh My Father" to the tune of Come thou Fount and then shared a message about the plan of salvation and looked at her husband throughout the whole thing. He looked very touched and now we're just praying he will commit to taking the lessons because he works crazy hours, sometimes 75 hour weeks, and is hard to schedule with. He is open to learning though because his 5 year old keeps begging him to baptize him when he turns 8!

Here are pictures from the baptism:

​This was Ellie's baptism with Sage!! Sage is in the red dress She gave the Bishop th BIGGEST most wild handshake I have ever seen. She's kind of a character

​After Amanda got baptized! Sadly her husband left before we could get a picture with him in it;) But the tall one id his son who gives a good idea of how huge his dad is.

​Say hello to two of the most precious little boys God created. Trunell is the son of Amanda's cousin and Maurie (in the green shirt) is Amanda's 5 yr. old.

I'm so grateful for family. The gospel is what makes and keeps our families strong! I invite you to read and reread The Family A Proclamation to the World this week.

https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng 

Time goes fast but there is still some left to keep getting tired out in the work of the Lord! It is the best feeling. :)

Love,

Sister Pearson

Pictures!

​Say hello to Richard and Autumn. They often save us from starving on sunday afternoons because we never have time for lunch!

​This is the grandson of Mike, the man we are teaching. His name is Thomas and he reminds me of my nephew Will!

​Slacklining on P-Day! I haven't quite lost all my love for worldly hobbies;)

​We made "testimony gloves" at an elderly woman's house this week. She is good friends with Elder Oaks wife and they're going on a trip for the church to Brazil soon. She teaches kids the 5 basics of what to have a testimony of and then gives them these gloves! We made almost 300 combined with the efforts of neighborhood ladies on tuesday:)

Asian Bias

July 27, 2015



This week, I have rediscovered my intense love for the Asian culture.
We met a Chinese family at a ward function who were delighted when we
offered to come share more of our message about Jesus Christ. We
decided to take a young returned missionary name Julia who served in
Taiwan just in case there was a language barrier. That turned out to
be perfect because Brother Huang's 26 yr old nephew charly was there
and he and Julia hit it off! she is taking him to the singles ward
next week. Brother Huang thinks he is a nice person but wants to be
nicer like his mormon neighbors. He thinks he can't go to church
because he drinks coffee but he is willing to take more lessons. He
has the hugest smile in the world and is just a very happy person. He
was asking why we don't drink tea and coffee and his nephew piped in
and said in his thick accent "Unker, it has Caffeine! (pronounced
CafAYeen)". I felt like I was teaching Daniel Wang all over again,
they were so funny!
   The second best lesson this week was with Taylor, the adorable 9
yr. old we're teaching. We were going over the 10 commandments an when
we got to number 3 and talked about what it meantto not take the
Lord's name in vain, he looked at his 7 yr old sister Jenneca and said
"Um, Jenneca, sorry to bring you up in this but you REALLY need to
work on that one." I love children's honesty. They are evidence that
the gospel doesn't have to be complicated and it's really not. It is
simple and we choose to make it complex. All of us will be happier if
we simply choose to have faith, repent continually, be baptized,
receive the gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end. By those
steps we accept the atonement of Jesus Christ into our lives. We can
never earn salvation but we can definitely give our all to show Christ
we are grateful for what he did and that wee willing to follow the
commandments!
  Last quote I'd like to include is from an old man's talk in church
yesterday. "You are what you do, and you do what you choose. If you
don't like who you are then change what you do!"
  I invite all of you this week to choose one thing you want to change
and then make a plan to change it. Choose someone to hold you
accountable (along with asking God for his help) and I promise you
will be able to change and become even better!

Love,
Sister Pearson

P.S. It continues to be weird to not only have companions who don't
pressure me to eat things that are bad for me, but to be the only one
who isn't allergic to sweets and that has to take one for the team
sometimes when we feel we'll offend if we don't accept what people are
giving us!

Flying Solo

July 20, 2015


This week has been one of those weeks that, looking back, felt like a month! I guess transfers always throw off time when you stay in the same area just because getting a new companion makes everything feel different and new. We picked up our new companion, sister Coglianese, on tuesday and I got to say one last goodbye to Sister Aguilar and a bunch of others that I won't be able to say goodbye to later so that was a tender mercy. Sister Coglianese is an amazing sister, she has been being trained by Sister Aguilar and a Brazilian sister but is grateful to be with us since we're not sister training leaders and have a bit more of a regular routine. She is from Rexburg Idaho and super down-to-earth and nice. It's too bad she has been so sick this past weekend (long story short we had to make an ER run friday) because we get along really well and I'm excited to get to know her better. Sister Smith has had a hard couple of days- she is dairy and gluten intolerant and someone fed us meatballs that made her have a reaction last night so I went out with a member while she and sister Coglianese stayed home. Sister Coglianese doesn't eat sugary treats ever or they make her sick so I have become the designated treat person.... this feels so backwards, I'm always the healthiest one!!!! But really, I think Heavenly Father is looking down at me and laughing. It's actually a lot easier to be healthy when you're companions don't pressure you to eat whatever junk they're eating. POTATO CHIPS ARE NOT LUNCH. CHOCOLATE AND ICE CREAM ARE NOT BREAKFAST. And Sister Aguilar- ketchup on plain toast? Still trying to figure that one out... peruvians. ;)

   I don't mind being out with members and working but it is a lot better to have an actual missionary companion- splitting up as often as we do makes me extremely grateful for companions. Sister Coglianese and Sister Smith are both wonderful teachers. I've noticed more than ever week that as much as I have been trying to become more humble, I feel like I get more and more prideful, at least about my mission. I cannot count how many times different people that I barely know have started talking to us and one of the first things they've said is: "Wow it must be hard serving in Utah. What do you do here?" I have a testimony that the Lord will never send a missionary to a place that there is no missionary work to do. I understand why members get caught up in the mormon bubble- especially in this area there are a lot more members than non-members, in some places it's even 95% activity in the church, but what about the other 5%? Does God not love them too? Can he not perform miracles here because "most people" already have the gospel? Well, God didn't send us here for "most people", he sent us here to find the lost ones. And oh what joy we have felt as we have continually sought out those lost ones and seen lives change. I wouldn't trade my mission for anything, and I especially wouldn't trade WHERE I served my mission for anything.

So that's my bout of Utah pride for you, hope it wasn't too harsh. In order to reconcile, I should probably express my gratitude for the incredible members I do get to work with. No where else in the world can you find such a large amount of God-loving, charitable, willing to do anything for anyone anytime type of people. I've seen what true conversion looks like thanks to these incredible neighbors and stake and ward leaders.

   We were able to teach a lot of lessons this week and have a full schedule for next week as well which is always a huge blessing! We are teaching Mike again and he is opening up even more. sadly he didn't make it to church this week because his grandkids came but he accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover and has already started. He is such a sweet man and I really hope he is able to get the answer he is looking for. Or at least recognize the answer God is giving him. We switched our other stake with the elders so we now serve in the Kaysville east stake and the Fruit heights stake which border each other. It makes a lot more sense this way so we don't have to cross through areas to get to our other stake. We continued teaching a sweet mother the elders were helping prepare for baptism- she is getting baptized on August first. Her husband isn't really in the picture right now so she is basically a single mom raising her 5 year old boy. My heart aches to see how broken homes become when Fathers don't understand or carry out their role. They have some amazing neighbors in the ward with kids that the 5 yr old plays with and he came home one day and said to his mom: "Mommy, I want a family like Jason's family. I want brothers and sisters to play with and a daddy who comes home and eats dinner with us and plays with me. I'll even have quiet time like they do!" there is nothing that cuts the heart more than a 5 yr. old already recognizes the lack of togetherness in his own home. I know the Lord will bless them as they set the example for their dad and live the gospel.

  Well I have just been full of things to say this week... maybe I should get out more. Speaking of getting out more, I have a funny story about President and sister Spendlove. She was talking about how she knew he was the right one to marry and as she very emotionally said "I had just never met anyone like him, and haven't since then." President gently touched her knee and said "Oh Honey... you really need to get out more!" 

   They are perfect for each other. Mission presidents are the best! I'll leave it at that for this week:)

Love,

Sister Pearson

​Mis companeras! We called this "the adoption"

July 13, 2015

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2 Corinthians 5:17

This week we saw the hand of God in so many of the little details. Sister Salts finally got her visa on friday which is bittersweet for all of us, but her desire was to stay here at least a transfer and to witness a baptism And all of that happened right in time! We were a little nervous about Nick getting baptized this week because he went on vacation the week before and we weren't able to meet with him very much, but everything came together at the last minute and the Elder that interviewed him for his baptism said it was one of the most powerful interviews he has ever conducted. We haven't known Nick for very long, but over the past year after witnessing his son Boston's baptism, he has become a changed man and learned the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. His little family is now complete in a way and beginning a new journey to prepare to be sealed in the temple a year from now. As excited as Nick was for his baptism, his greatest desire from the beginning has been to get to the temple. I'm so excited for them! Everyone was crying during the service and the spirit was powerful. I'll include a picture at the bottom:)

We started teaching 2 adorable new kids this week, one named sage and the other Taylor. I haven't taught a ton of kids on my mission and it is always a new adventure. You really have to adapt to their attention spans and level of understanding so you don't confuse them and they enjoy the lessons. The first time I walked into 9-year old sage's house, she pointed her bow and arrow made out of tree branches at me and shouted "no one with pixie cuts is allowed in this house!" Which was ironic because her two neighborhood friends who came to join the lesson also had very short hair. She is very energetic and likes to talk over us so we figured out a system- we will teach for 15-20 minute and do a game for 10 every lesson. Taylor moved here from Washington to live with his grandparents who are active members in one of our wards. His mom is a member but not super involved so hopefully seeing her kids accept the gospel will make her want to change! I learned the power of childrens' examples through seeing how Nick and Lindsay were inspired by Boston. They feel strongly that Heavenly Father put Boston in their family to lead them back to following God.

Sister Smith and I will get another companion tomorrow named sister Coglieniese (pronounced call-ah-knees) from Idaho. She is waiting for a visa to Brazil but who knows how long that will take! Sister Aguilar has been training her in my old area in Rose Park and she is a very hard worker and super obedient. I've been so lucky to get amazing companions throughout my mission. The Lord has blessed me in too many ways to count! I read a great devotional from Elder Christofferson this week about the need for feeding our spirits daily. I couldn't find the written version but here is the link to the video: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-01-1000-give-us-this-day-our-daily-bread?lang=eng I love that he emphasizes the importance of looking ahead to the future but remembering to take things day by day. If we don't do that we'll never reach our end goals! So much of this life requires faith, patience, and trust if God if we want to be truly happy.

I've gotten really good at telling people I've been out just over a year when they ask. It doesn't feel like lying until they say "oh so you have about 6 months left?" Something like that....:) I am determined to work hard to the end, especially because school is causing me to lose a week:/ I can still remember so clearly being in the MTC... time flies, don't take it for granted!

Love, Sister Pearson

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Loving it in the Land of the Free!

July 6, 2015

Happy belated 4th of july! Also happy homecoming to D.J. Belnap!

I had a dream a couple of nights ago that I had to go home early but I was still a missionary because they hadn't released me yet. In the dream I was riding in a car with some friends and realized I didn't have my badge on. I immediately freaked out and started searching frantically while my friends looked at me like I was crazy and told me to calm down. Don't worry, I found a spare tag and put it on;) Needless to say I caught a glimpse of the pain all the recently returned missionaries are experiencing. Hang in there!

I hate most holidays as a missionary due to the lack of interest in meeting with us but I love holidays because they make for the most interesting personal studies in the morning! I read 1 Nephi 13 (in the Book of Mormon) which prophecies of Christopher columbus being wrought upon by the spirit and finding the americas. How could Nephi have known that all those years ago? He must have been a prophet of God! We went around singing the 3 patriotic hymns we have minus God Save the King to a bunch of widows and shut ins and shared different scriptures about freedom and liberty. I read a quote a while ago and I don't remember who said it but it was along the lines of "we need to stop worrying about human rights and worry more about human responsibilities". Amen to that! If we cared half as much about how we treated other people as we do about how others treat us this wold would be a happier and more peaceful place. It's sad to see the downturn in morality the world has Only the gospel can save us! Only through Christ's atonement can we change into the people God needs us to be to bring His children safely back to Him.

We started teaching the man I talked about last week who received the priesthood blessing. He is reading the book of mormon and came to church but just doesn't feel like he is getting answers. I know that he will, it just takes time and diligence! It's more typical that God's answers come as the slow sunrise in the morning rather than the quick flood of light that comes when you flip a switch. In the end, it's worth the wait and the faith it takes to get you to that point is necessary to endure to the end.

I dare you all to get as bad of a farmer tan as I got this week. Isn't the missionary life the best??? :)

Love,

Sister Pearson

Pretend there is a snazzy picture my flash drive wasn't working this week!