No Sir you do NOT have my permission to practice Polygamy!

This week:

We were on our way to an appointment when a tall bald man stopped us and asked "Are you visitors?". When he saw our name tags he immediately told us his mother had recently died that he is still grieving and he just wants to know where she is. Lucky for him, we had a Plan of Salvation pamphlet on hand so we gave him that and tried to comfort him. If the story ended there I probably wouldn't be writing this. Somehow after he rambled on about how he really thinks his mom is being transformed into a sperm and being born again through someone else and how the vatican is infiltrating the mormon church, we ended up on the topic of polygamy which he had been an activist for for 30 years of his life. And then came a question we aren't exactly trained for as missionaries: "So, do YOU think I should practice polygamy??" (going on before we have time to reply) "I mean, I only do things with my mother's blessing, and my mother gave me her blessing to practice polygamy before she died. Don't you think I ought to take her blessing??" We encouraged him to refer to the direction of our modern prophet and above all, to turn to God who could answer that question better than we could. Don't worry we also told him that we personally do not support and could not support him in making that decision. I love Salt Lake City.

Contacting miracles: 

Throughout this week I've tried to become a lot more observant as we walk and travel place to place and attempt to talk to everyone we pass. We pray for God to put people in our path and I know that he answers prayers and it wouldn't make sense to pray for something that we don't take every opportunity to make happen. All God asks for is our faith, and faith requires action. So Saturday we met Aldo at a gas station, an 18 year old hispanic guy who lives with his giant hispanic family and has a 9 month old son named Aldo (original, right?) If I hadn't gone up to him at the gas station, we wouldn't have been able to share the message of the restoration with him and begin teaching him last night. Just like it says in D&C 33- we must open our mouths or the gospel will not spread!

As we were leaving our apartment to deliver some easter goodies to some of the people we're teaching, I noticed a door to an apartment right under us was open and there was a young hispanic guy sitting inside staring at us (are you noticing a trend with these hispanic men? 4 out of the 6 people we're teaching meet these two criteria) long story short, we're going to teach him AND his hispanic roommate on thursday! It is so exciting to find new people and introduce them to this life changing gospel.

Well my time is up today, but I just want to leave you all with my testimony of Jesus Christ. I know that he lived, died, and rose again for me, for you, and for everyone who has ever lived or will ever live on this Earth. Truth is eternal, and Christ's sacrifice was part of the plan from before this world began. I KNOW this is true. We are so blessed to have such a loving Heavenly Father who created a perfect plan for us to get back to Him, and the way is through His perfect son, Jesus Christ. Love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Pearson

From Centerville to Salt Lake City!

Hello all. I am writing from the Family History Center in downtown SLC- crazy right? I am closer than I've ever been to 15% of the world's genealogical records... this is a geriatric disneyland. ;) Alright I'll admit I can already sense that I'm going to become obsessed with researching my ancestors after my mission. Family History is cool! (says the girl who gets excited to study for 3 hours every morning) but really, I do love studying. Exercising your mind with daily scripture study brings so much peace and fulfillment and meaning to life. Try it out, and see if you don't get addicted!

    So welcome to the melting pot that is my life. Everyday I meet someone from a new country. SIngapore, China, Zimbabwe, Guatemala... you name it. We are teaching a 21 year old from Uganda who is so ready to be baptized and even talks about going on a mission but just hasn't gotten the strong answer he's looking for yet. Another one that we're teaching was born in Guatemala and is the nicest person you'll ever meet. Luis has a really kind heart and loves the LDS community. He came to an ice cream social last night at one of our bishop's house and loved meeting all new people and didn't even mind the crazy man named Ted who got baptized 2 weeks ago and told Luis not to get scared, he might feel like he's going to drown if he gets baptized but it will all be okay. It's exciting to be in this new area where 50% of the people around aren't members of our church, so I have more opportunities everyday to bear my testimony and teach random people on the street.

   Sadly I have no more time to write, but in regard to this wonderful Easter Season I want you all to know that I know with all my heart that Christ truly was resurrected and that through believing on His name we can return to our Heavenly Father. He is the way, the truth and the life. We can come to know Him more by serving those around us and truly seeing everyone as a child of God. John 3:16 Jesus is the reason for this season!

Love,

Sister Pearson

Many Miracles, an uplifting Conference Weekend, and a Celebrity Crushin' Grandma

FIRST: I JUST got news that I'm getting transferred... only after 6 weeks in this area! Kind of rare but I know that my mission president is inspired. I really can't complain at all; though I'm sad to leave Sister Hornberger (my wonderful arkansan trainer) and Sister Callahan (or sister Callabama as I've nicknamed her), all of my wishes I made when we traveled to downtown Salt Lake have been answered. I'm going to the Pioneer Young Single Adults Stake! Everyone is  so excited for me, and I am heartbroken to leave the wonderful land of Centerville, but excited for this new chapter in mission life. I loved the missionaries in my YSA branch in Ohio so I can't wait to be one of them in a different part of the world. It will be fun to be able to talk to more people on the street who aren't already members (I can't begin to count how many "Hi I'm a missionary from the Church of..."s have been interrupted by "I'm a member.") and to be around people my age and get them excited about missionary work and spreading the gospel. God truly knows us and I pray that I can gain what he wants me to in this new area.

THIS WEEK: Alright, I know you've been waiting in suspense- the Grandmother with a major celebrity crush is NOT the sweet grandma we live with, just the mother of a woman we had dinner with this week. How did we discover this secret infatuation you may ask? I was minding my own business, listening to a beautiful harp medley played by Sister Ellis's talented 17 year old daughter in their front room, when Sister Hornberger nudges me to look at the Grandma's socks. Lo and behold, there they are, covering her feet in all their high school musical glory. Surrounded by fuzzy pink and blue striped sock-material staring up at me was a smiling Troy Bolton surrounded by a heart. Either Grandma is trying to please some grandchild who gave her those socks for Christmas or she was feeling a little wild at the D.I. (translation for ohio friends: Utah version of Goodwill). I love the random odd dinner experiences we so often encounter.

This week I've been thinking a lot about faith and how exactly faith and prayer work together, as the two are essential in life and especially missionary work. If I don't pray, I can't have the spirit, and if I don't have faith, it is pointless to pray. So here is my conclusion from this week: people cannot change people. No matter how many prayers we say, or how strong our faith is, or how many cookies we take someone or inspired messages we share, we cannot change them. The spirit is the only thing that has the power to convince people to change, and even then, people must accept that spirit into their hearts and lives as it influences them to come to Christ. Furthermore, there are always people somewhere who are ready for the gospel, and I have seen the blessings this week from taking our focus off of people who aren't progressing or showing that they want to change in order to make more room to find people that are ready to hear God's call. We found 3 new people to teach this week, and all of them seem a lot more ready to progress than anyone we taught before. It is amazing how much love you can feel for someone after just meeting them, but I've been so blessed to be able to feel that when I really try to see people as God sees them. I loved President Monson's talk sunday morning about loving everyone- it does not matter what people believe or how they choose to live; it is not our right to judge them, rather it is our responsibility to love them. Even when they don't love us! If this doesn't sound accurate, I invite you to study the life of the savior. 1 Nephi 19: 9 says: wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they aspit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving bkindness and his clong-suffering towards the children of men.

I love this scripture. I know that Savior's life was driven by love for all mankind, and ours should be too. I wish I could have the love and understanding that Christ did, but I have faith in following him even when I don't understand. I recently started reading the gospel of John and I can't get enough of it. Even in the first chapter of John it is clear that true followers of Christ recognize him almost immediately. Christ always had the glow of the Holy spirit around him, and only hard hearts could blind men to this fact. I pray every day that we can recognize people who are true followers and that they will recognize us as God's messengers. Christ is not on the Earth to minister to people right now, but we are, and each of us can be the answer to someone else's prayer everyday. Why would God send angels when he can send us?

Conference Center and loving it! 

CONFERENCE: We were super lucky and got to go to the Saturday morning session of conference as well as the Sunday afternoon session. Sadly, all of the non-members that were supposed to go with us Saturday morning cancelled last minute, but sunday we took a recent convert, a returned member and ehr daughter, and Rich, one of our favorites that we're teaching. We also watched priesthood session with Rich and his girlfriend Lori on Saturday night, and that was probably my favorite session. The power of the priesthood is the greatest thing on this Earth and there is such a difference between men who hold the priesthood and men who don't. If you don't know what conference is, I invite you to go to www.lds.org and watch it! There is a prophet on the Earth today and God continues to give him and his apostles the words we need to hear in this modern day that can be so hard to navigate. Elder Uchtdorf's talk on Gratitutde was my second favortie- how essential it is to just simply be grateful for what we do have!

Sadly my time is up, but I want you all to know that I know the Savior lives and is our friend and brother. If we live for him, we will be happy.

Love,

Sister Pearson

 Here I am with my cute companions Sister Callahan and Sister Hornberger

P.S. A cute little boy this week at a member family's house said really enjoyed our visit and said "So could you come back next friday? and the next and the next and the next? Prooooobably til I'm 65." Too bad I'm only a missionary for 18 months!