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!