Miracles, Miracles, Miracles!

Wonderful people out there in the world!

So I know that I usually put three different words as my title but
man, all I can say is that this week has been full of miracles.

In all honesty, two weeks ago was pretty rough. A lot of lessons
canceled and it was difficult to find people to teach. So all
throughout this week, we've been praying for miracles and been praying
that we could find the elect. Well, the Lord works in mysterious ways.
He worked through the Elders in Mount Pleasant for this first miracle.

Elder Carmon and I serve in a bilingual area, English in Spanish in
the Moroni Stake, and then we cover pretty much all the rest of
Sanpete county in Spanish. Well, the Elders in Mt. Pleasant suggested
that we go and tract a trailer park in their area. Now tracting really
doesn't work anywhere else in Utah cause either you'll run into a less
active or a Mormon Grandma that will let you in and never let you go.
But tracting in trailer parks works. For those of you who are not
familiar with Mission Language, when I say tract, I do not mean like
tracting down an animal to slaughter and eat for lunch. This means
that you go to a street or area and go down the street and knock every
door and look for, or "tract" down those that are ready to hear the
true message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. So clarification:
we're not hunting people down to eat them. That's just wrong.

Anyways, I got side tracted (haha I know that's not the right term but
I just that that it would fit in this tents. Haha again, cause you
hunt in the woods and camp in tents. Haha I love bad puns). But
anyways, after tracting this trailer park and getting chased but this
devilish looking dog, we eventually made it down to the end of the
trailer park. We knocked on the door and this Guatemalan lady,
probably about 25, opened the door and told us to come in cause it was
freezing outside. We did and met her boyfriend, Thomas. Her name is
Mary and she's talked to missionaries before but Thomas never did. So
we set up a lesson with her and Thomas and then later that week it
fell through but we rescheduled with them for this past Saturday. We
were on exchanges when that happened and so Elder Cruz and I went and
taught the lesson. Oh, it was so awesome. So we have some other
investigators, one of which is scheduled for baptism on the 30th of
January that we're teaching. Well it turns out that Mary is related to
them and then her uncle is the first counselor in the Branch
Presidency. And she's Catholic but she also has a little girl. And she
straight up told us: (in Spanish) "Yeah, my dad" (he's apparently
super Catholic) "says that she needs to be baptized cause she's
sinful. But she hasn't done anything wrong! Why does she need to be
baptized? I don't think she does." Oh yes, fireworks of excitement
where exploding in my brain. But the Lord is merciful and she
continued to tell about how she feels as though we should pray to God
and God only. Oh, thank you so much. This was a miracle within itself.
And then Thomas said, "Yeah, I'm Christian but me and Mary want to be
unified in our family with religion so if she wants to go to church
and read and pray and learn, then I will too." Oh yes. This is
awesome. They are really awesome and super ready.

Then, another miracle, we are teaching the cousin of Mary. Her name is
Sophie and she's on date for this month but she's a minor. So in order
to be baptized we have to receive permission from both parents. Her
mom is totally down for it, she's been in the lessons, but we have not
been able to meet with the dad because he gets home late every night.
So we've been scared for that. Turns out that the mom and dad both
decided that religion is their kids choice so if they want to be
baptized into a different church, they're all for it. So that was a
miracle.

And last one. Oh, this one was awesome. We have been teaching this
wonderful elderly lady, Juana. She's been being taught for a long time
and we've been inviting her to be baptized and she's kept on saying
that she needs to learn more. Finally, she decided that she wanted to
be baptized but first, she has to get a new kidney. I know, random,
right? But she's been super sick. That was about 3 weeks ago. So we
fasted and we've been praying for her to be able to receive that
kidney so that she could be baptized. We had a lesson with them
Thursday night but on the way over, we got a phone call from her
sister that said they couldn't meet with us because Juana got the call
that she could receive a new kidney! What?!! Oh, we were so excited.
Yes!

So that is my message for all of you: the Lord is blessing you
everyday. But sometimes it's hard to see His hand in your life. So
what I say, is open your eyes. I had to. And as soon as I did and
recognized the small things, the Lord started to bless me and Elder
Carmon with even more miracles. It is amazing! Just pray, and ask our
father, in the name of Jesus Christ, for Him to open your eyes so that
you will be able to see the miracles. Then get up off your knees and
started recognizing small miracles. For example: I can breathe. I can
see. I can walk. I can hear. These are all miracles. Then keep seeing
them and the Lord will bless you with more.

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and
it shall be opened unto you." (Matthew 7:7)

I love you all to death and so does our Heavenly Father,

--Elder Conner Pearson

1. I've never like enchiladas but this was amazing. I had seven. But I
regret nothing.
2. A picture of the Manti temple. I just have to throw that in there
cause it's absolutely beautiful.
3. It was Elder Carmons birthday! He's so old! Like 20.

Miracles (always), Everyone here is family, prayer works!

Hello to the home front!

Well I just had a great week, how about all of you? I sure hope you
have because why not make everything great? There's too many people
sad in the world. So smile and share that with them.

Man alive, what an awesome week. Yet again, filled with miracles.

Miracle #1 - The Miracle of Heladío

Last week this family we had dinner with this family who said that
their neighbors spoke Spanish. Well, alright, that's awesome! So we
went over and talked to these two guys Heladío and Alex. They were
pretty awesome. They had a guitar that was so out of tune, so out of
tune that I couldn't put it in tune. They liked us a lot and we set up
a return appointment. That appointment ended up falling through. So we
went back two days later, on Tuesday, to follow up with them. Alex
wasn't there but Heladío was and he let us in and man, he was so
excited. As soon as we came in he told us: "Look what I found in my
car!" It was a copy of the Book of Mormon. What in the? I was
thinking. And then he pulled out one of the phamplets that we hand out
to people and it was all marked up. Well, this is just getting better
and better! We asked him if we could come back the next day and review
that with him but we just ended up teaching the Restoration in 10
minutes to him, teaching him how to pray, inviting him to read the
Introduction of the Book of Mormon and then pray about it. He said he
would.
We came back the next day and had another lesson with him. It was
pretty awesome. First thing he asks us: "Who is Moroni? Was he
actually an angel?" Holy cow, this guy read more than just the intro.

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, the Book of Mormon
starts off with the introduction, then goes into testimonies of those
who saw the plates and then the testimony of Joseph Smith, who,
through the power of God translated the ancient record. Joseph was
taught by heavenly messengers, one of which was named Moroni.

Anyways, so we explained to Heladío who he was and then we asked him
if he prayed about it. "Yes," he says casually. "And I fell that it's
true."

Elder Carmon and I just looked at each other, surprised out of our
minds. But we weren't going to miss this opportunity.

"Well, Heladío, then will you be baptized?" Elder Carmon asked him.

"Sí."

Elder Carmon didn't know if he was serious. So he asked him again.
Elder Carmon still didn't believe it (he was dumbfounded) so he asked
him a third time. Again, he said yes. Third times a charm right? So he
is now on date for the end of February.

But WAIT. It doesn't stop there. It gets better.

Everybody out here is related to one another. In some way or another.
I don't really know how it works, but somehow it does and somehow
everybody has somebody's blood in them. We are teaching this one girl,
Sophie, and as we were knocking trailers in Mt. Pleasant and
outrunning vicious dogs, we met this family, Mary and Thomas. They're
related to Sophie and also to another member of the church. So they
know all about us. Cause I'm pressed on time, we had another really
good lesson with them and invited them to be baptized in March. They
accepted it and are excited and planning for it.

But WAIT. IT GETS EVEN BETTER.

Sophie. We've been teaching her, her mom, and her sister for the past
little while. It's been hard the past week and a half to meet with
them cause their mom had a baby and then two days after that she had
tooth surgery so she's been kinda out of it. That is really rough. I
feel really bad for her. But last week we invited Sophie to pray to
know if baptism was the right way for her to go (we already invited
her to be baptized on January 30th) but she wasn't too sure. So this
past week, Elder Carmon and I have been praying a lot for her to
receive an answer. And we went to her house and had a lesson with her
the other day. I'll never forget this. We were talking about baptism
and the Holy Ghost and we asked Sophie if she had prayed.

"Yeah, and I think that I got an answer."
"What is it?"
"Well, I prayed and I felt like it was right. And then I wouldn't be
too sure. So then I prayed again and I felt even stronger like it was
right."

That was such a sweet experience, it is such a sweet experience to be
able to watch people's faith grow. She accepted baptism for the 30th,
so that's pretty sweet.

The work is true. This church is true. I would not be out here, in
freezing cold Moroni, Utah, eating super spicy Mexican food that burns
my face off, learning Spanish, talking with new people everyday, if I
did not know this was true. Somebody told me this week that they
didn't feel as though in the Mormon Church that we received spiritual
enlightenment. I was able to testify that that is false and that I
have had witnesses from the Spirit tell me that this is true. And it's
so awesome when it does.

So, all of you wonderful people, I hope that you have a great week.
Remember, smile, read your scriptures pray, and I've said this before
but I'll say it again, God loves you and the book is blue.

Love yas!

--Elder Conner Pearson

1. Me eating this super gross lollipop with a cricket on the inside. I
don't know why I bought it but I did. And so I ate it all. I thought
the cricket was going to be juicy. They drained everything out of it
so it was just super flakey and tasted like grass. I suggest to all of
you that you don't waste your money on buying one of these.
2. Our newest companion, Elder Greene!
3. This awesome dog that followed us around for three hours as we
knocked trailers. We named him Chewey. And he's the best.

Transfers, holding fluffy animals, Miracles, Elder Ballard

Hello everybody!

And another week has come, yet again! This week was kind of sad. My

dad left me.

I need to define some mission terms: So when you go out into the

mission, your first companion is called your "Dad." So Elder Pardo

was/is my mission Dad. And every six weeks there are changes made.

Some missionaries move to different parts of the mission and others

stay. These are called transfers. And this past transfer, that

happened on Tuesday, Elder Pardo left me :( But it's alright cause my

new companion, Elder Carmon is hilarious. He looks Mexican but he's

not.

This is a quote from Elder Carmon:

"Man, Elder, I slept like a baby last night."

"Oh, really? That's good." I say.

"Yeah," he says, "I woke up every two hours, cried a little bit and

then fell back asleep."

Oh man, I was like laughing for two hours. And I was cracking up as I

was writing it. Anyways, Elder Carmon is great. So far, together,

we've held two strange fluffy animals, so that just means that the

future is bright of holding more strange, fully animals. One of them,

we are at dinner and Elder Carmon, was like: "What is that?" And the

girl was like: "Oh, that's my chinchilla!" Then she happily ran over

and brought back what looked like an extremely fluffy, oversized rat,

mixed with a lemur and raccoon. It was pretty darn adorable.

This week has been amazing with the mission language. The gift of

tongues, the gift of God to be able to speak in other languages, is so

true. I was kinda freaking out this week cause Elder Pardo, Mr. I'm

Fluent In Spanish, English, French, AND German, left and there goes

the ability to communicate. But the Lord has opened up our ears and

our mouths this week and we've made a couple new contacts and had some

great lessons in Spanish. One of them, okay, miracle time! This was

with our Peruvian shepherd friends, Orlando and his Catholic friend,

Ublado. Last week Ublado had questions for us about what was so

special about our church and we told him about the Apostasy and the

Priesthood power and he was kinda like "oh." Well, we taught him and

Orlando the first lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus

Christ and I was explaining the Book of Mormon and the importance of

it and praying about and asking God. I was in the middle of saying,

"And if you find out these things are true..." Then he finished it,

and this is translated, "then you have to act." GOLDEN. "Yes, that is

true," we said, "and how we do that is by making covenants with God

like baptism." We invited them to be baptized. They said they still

have to figure it out first, if it's true, and talk to their families,

but they would be. So that was pretty sweet.

We had the opportunity this week to hear from the Apostle M. Russell

Ballard. He came to our mission. He said a lot of awesome things, one

of which was to become "Master Teachers." Totally, let's do it! So

that's a companionship goal. The other thing that he said about

missionary work that I thought was pretty funny and so true at the

same time was: "If you can't die to get out of it [missionary work],

then you might as well get good at it!" So true. The work continues

beyond the grave. And why? Because the message we share is the most

important one if the world: Christ set up His church, it's back on the

earth, and only through it, can you, and me, and all of us return to

live with our Father in Heaven again. Do you want to be happy? Yes?

Forever? Yes? Then this is the way to go. Through Christ, you can have

that. That joy. Isn't that wonderful? And you can read all about how

to have this joy in this God given book, The Book of Mormon: Another

Testament. It's wonderful! And it is so true.

I hope you all have a good week this week and continue to smile.

Please. He world needs more of that.

Love yalls,

--Elder Conner Pearson

1. Bye dad :(

2. The bunny/raccoon/squirrel thingy on Elder Carmons shoulder

3. A squirish rat

4. A Family Tree - I had to take a picture by it. You all know how

much I love puns

5. An adorable dog our investigator has

Christmas Caroling! Miracle Cream, Answering questions, Animal Rescue

From December 29, 2015

Hello all you people!

Sorry this is on Tuesday, no, we are not being disobedient. We went to the temple today so today is our P-Day (the day we can write home).

Merry late Christmas!! Oh, Christmas was awesome. I love Christmas so much. On Tuesday, I went up to Mt. Pleasant for the day and spent it with this awesome missionary, Elder Pendergrass. It was pretty awesome - we went Christmas caroling. I love Christmas caroling, it just makes me so happy. I think that my favorite thing was that we Caroled at this persons house "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" and she looked so happy that we were caroling. Then as we were leaving, she said: "Happy Haunkaka!" Yeah, okay. 

So last Preparation Day we went sledding. That was pretty sweet. We went sledding down these snow packed streets. I found this hill that had a little bit of a dip in it. So I decided to sled down it and I hit the bump and I got pretty high in the air. Well, that was fun, I thought. So what did we decide to do? The smartest thing we could. Make the jump bigger, obviously. After we made it pretty tall, I, being the brave guy I am, decided to go down it. Well, I got pretty good height. A little too much, though. I ended up landing on my wrist and hurt it pretty bad. I had to go to the doctors, and I got X-rays and a sweet brace. Now, I'm good with being patient, somewhat, and I was up for waiting the three weeks until my wrist was completely healed, as the doctors said it would. But the problem was is that I had to play guitar for a town party on Christmas Eve. So we had ourselves a cunumdrum. What to do, what to do. So I decided to get a blessing and I was praying really hard that my wrist would heal. Well when I was on exchanges with Elder Pendergrass we went up to dinner literally on the side of the mountain and the people gave us presents. 

The first one, the mom said: "So, I don't know how you two feel about DoTerra Essential Oils," 

Oh, no. I think. Not one of these people (I don't believe in DoTerra Oils. I think it's a hippie fraud.) 

"But I have this cream, it's called Bone, Flesh, and Cartilage"

I gave myself a mental slap. Bone, Flesh, and Cartilage? This sounds like sauce that you put on people if you're a zombie. 

"And if you put it on a wound or a sprain, it will heal it very quickly. My daughter got burned really bad on her face and the doctors said that it would take a year to heal and I put this stuff on her burn and it healed in two weeks."

I just sat there for a second. I kind of felt as if Heavenly Father was saying to me: "Alright, you were stupid, and went off of a jump and hurt yourself. and you have faith that I will heal you by Thursday night. So you can use cut down your pride that Essential Oils are fake and try this, or its gonna take you the whole three weeks to heal."

"I want you to know that this gift is an answer to my prayer," I told her. I tried he stuff out. Other than the fact that it smelt like a sewer, holy cow, it actually worked! My wrist wasn't completely healed but it didn't hurt like at all and I was able to play guitar at the party. A miracle, for sure. 

And I need to repent. I guess Essential Oils works. I'm not converted to it yet, but I have a testimony of it. 

Oh! Another Christmas miracle! So a couple weeks ago, a member introduced us to their friends. As we looked in our teaching record it turned out that this family had been taught before but had been dropped for some reason. So yesterday we decided to go back and see what was up with them. They let us right in. Pretty much all of the moms family is LDS but her husbands family is seventh day Evangelist. Neither of them are members, however. It was pretty sweet. We sat down and the mom pretty much got straight to the point. She had questions that she has had for years but nobody has ever been able to answer them. So she wanted to ask us, see if we knew anything. And after about 15 years, she received her answers. The Lord was merciful to us and Elder Pardo and I were inspired as of what to say and how to answer her questions. She loved it! She was so happy we had answers! So happy, in fact, that she invited us over for dinner tonight! It's pretty sweet. 

Last thing: last night we saved a dog. We came home and were about to start planning, when we heard this like squealing coming from somewhere. We followed the sound. It sounded like it was coming from outside our window. So being the good samaritans we are, we ran outside and looked for the sound. We found a little puppy dog, stuck in the window well outside of our window. Well, what do we do? I ask. I don't know, Elder Pardo said. We decided to let it stay the night. His name is Mr. Charles and our landlord is going to find out whose dog it is today. 

The Lord is merciful, the Lord is kind, and the Lord always has time. Pray, talk to Him. He wants to hear you. He wants to answer you. And why? Cause He's our Heavenly Father and we are literally His children. So talk to Him. I promise you, He will answer back. 

Love you all, and have a fantastic week!

--Elder Pearson

1. Mr. Charles - the puppy we saved

2. I met Santa again! He's everywhere!

3. Elder Pendergrass and the Caroling car

4. I learned how to make home made tortillas!

Awesome Peruvians, Beanboozeld, y Elder Pardo se va

Happy New Year!

Wow, it's been like a year since I've talked to you all! Haha okay sorry, I know that was lame but please laugh with me. I had to use that one. 

Man, this week was crazy! We had a great lesson with our Peruvian friends, Orlando and Miguel. They both are shepherds and so they work with a whole bunch of other Peruvians. And they invited one of them! His name is like Ublado or something. I don't know. I can't remember it. I kept on saying it wrong. But Ublado is super Catholic and so he pretty much asked us: What's so special about your church? Why do you say Catholism is wrong? So Elder Pardo explained the Apostasy and then Ubaldo was like: Oh. That makes sense. And then he came to church on Sunday! And even better, Orlando brought another one of their shepherd guys to the church! It was awesome! I love this guy. He's not even a member and already doing missionary work!

Okay, story of the week. For New Years Eve we had a dinner with this awesome family. I love them so much. Anyways, after dinner, one of their sons, Owen, whose like 11 I think, asked if we all wanted to play a game. "What game?" I asked. "Beanboozeld." He answered. "Heck, yeah, I love that game!"

So for those of your whose don't know, it's pretty much like you get a whole bunch of jelly beans and you put them into groups of jelly beans that look the same. All he black ones together, all the orange ones together, and so forth. But the game comes in that some of them are normal and the others taste disgusting. Like skunk spray instead of black licorice (both of those are pretty gross) or grass clippings instead of lime. Anyways, so it got to my turn and I got to choose what flavor he got to try. Orange: barf or peach. 

"Barf, totally," I said. 

So Owen picked it up bravely and through it into his mouth. He took a bite and then smiled. 

"Peach," he said with a sigh of relief and a smile on his face. But then he took another bite. The smile of joy quickly left his face as he started to gag like a cat chocking on a hairball. One upchuck, two upchuck, and the third had the prize. He actually barfed. 

Oh man, it was so funny. Elder Pardo got up and shot to the other side of the room while Owens Dad straight up ran into the kitchen. Now this guy is a pretty big guy and he ran pretty fast over to the sink. "I think I'm going to throw up too." I started laughing. "Okay," the dad said again, "we are not gonna play that game again." That amendment stayed for about an hour and then we started playing it again. 

Okay, so sad news. Elder Pardo is getting transferred. :( Hes going down to Fillmore. On Tuesday I will get another new companion. It's still sad though. He's leaving :(

So we live in Moroni in Sanpete County. It's a cute little town and crazy little county. Cowboys everywhere. And turkeys. So, as Elder Pardo been saying goodbye to everyone, we wrote them a song to sing to them. And we thought that it was so good, that we found is guy with a recording studio and recorded the song. Afterwards, this guy was like: Play something. So I did. And then he got on the drums and we jammed. This guy was so good. My ears were ringing afterwards, but that's not important. It was wicked fun. 

But, hey, that's where the Lord needs him. The work moves on. As Joseph Smith said, the work will go on "boldly, nobly, till it has sounded in every ear, penetrated every continent." It is truly a blessing to be involved in the work of the Lord and you all can be too! Make it a goal to invite somebody to church this month. Then pray about one of your friends, since I know you all have some, to invite to church and then go for it. Pray for the strength to do it and do it. If you need help, talk to your local missionaries.

 Continue to be a blessing in everyone's lives,

--Elder Conner Pearson

1. A sludge hammer we found in our apartment ( I don't know how we never found it before)

2. Jamming with this awesome guy (and yes, he was just about to rock hard)

3. Sledding with the Zone (don't worry, I didn't break myself again)