Is This Real Life?

Our first lesson of the week was with a guy our age named Zach. During exchanges, Sister Hansen met him on a trail by our house called the Monon. Sadly, he was in the other ward boundaries.  Well the sister training leaders had set up 2 appointments with him that fell through. They had a 3rd appointment scheduled and then found out that they had leadership meetings with the president. They were worried they wouldn't be able to reschedule so asked us to teach him. Before we even start the lesson, he said "I was really interested in all this so I read a lot of things online and I just think it's terrible that people killed that man and his brother." Then he said, "I already asked my friends what they would think if I became a Mormon and they all said it didn't matter cause I never would. They said it's too much like a cult but I don't think so. It's just like a big family that helps each other. I'm already thinking about being a Mormon, no matter what my friends think." We taught him the Restoration and he ate it up. When we taught about living prophets he put his hands up in the air and said "How have I lived my whole life not knowing about this prophet until now?" Near the end of the lesson he said well "I'd really like to come to church will you this week." So that's when we told him one of those living prophets, Jeffrey R. Holland was going to be in Indiana THIS WEEK. He got so excited and wanted to go so bad and starting making arrangements about how he could get there. He told us all about how it was God's plan that we met him right when the apostle was coming. He said he was starting to doubt God before he met the missionaries. The day he saw them he was supposed to meet a friend and he didn't know why but decided to go to the Monon a little early and that's when the missionaries started talking to him. Then he asked "so after I go to church with you guys, how long until I can get baptized?" He was so cool. His excitement was unreal. The whole day we just kept wondering is this kid for real? The sister's got a text late that night that said. "This book is magnificent. I can't stop reading. lol" He came to stake conference and loved Elder Holland. We're really sad we aren't the lucky ones that get to teach him. But he was great evidence to me that God prepares people. Some more than others but He prepares them nevertheless.

Bernardo was out of town this week but we went to visit Blanca by herself. Since we've taught Bernie more times than Blanca, we went back to the restoration for her and taught it more in depth since she only had the recap. She was so receptive and it made sense to her. She said that when we come we talk with such excitement and she just wants to feel the same. She feels like the church she goes to now is missing things. She likes our message and she prays every time before we come over and asks God to help her know if what we teach is true. We invited her to be baptized on September 21st. She won't commitment because she doesn't want to break our hearts if she doesn't go through with it but she says if she gets her answer she will. We invited her to come listen to Elder Holland and promised she could receive her answer there and she wanted so badly to come but she had already committed to a friend that she would help her at that time. When she said the closing prayer, it was the sweetest thing I have ever heard. Since it was in Spanish Sister Hansen and Sister Hodges (one of the senior missionaries that came with us) couldn't understand but they could feel the sincerity. By the end she was crying because she just wants to know the truth and follow Jesus Christ. We have high hopes for her and her husband because they accept the Book of Mormon  already. Things just need to click a little more for them. Sister Hansen and I are already planning what Spanish song we'll sing at their baptism ;)

So remember the family we're teaching the discussions to for Family Night? Well the mom told us yesterday that differences have been resolved enough to let the kids get baptized! We were honestly quite surprised since this issue has been going on for a while but we're SO excited!! We've been praying that the parents hearts will be soft and after 2 years it sounds like they've worked things out enough in just this last month we been teaching. What a miracle! We're going there again tonight and hopefully will get more details of the story!

Snake wrangling!

So fun part of the week: We stop by a potential investigator's house and she says she doesn't have time to talk because her cat let in a snake and she needs to catch it. So I said, "Do you want help?" Keep in mind every time we ask people if we can help them, they say NO. But of course she didn't want to actually catch the snake so she said, "Sure! Ever chased a snake before?" I told her that I hadn't but I could sure try. She had me grab some gloves out of the garage and showed me where it was. It wasn't even hard cause it was scared and wasn't moving. So I just picked it up and took it outside. No big deal. Well then since we were already in her house she let us sit down and teach her a lesson. We taught the restoration in 15 minutes and asked if we could come back. We set up an appointment for next week. So I played snake wrangler this week and we got a new investigator out of it!

This week we had a mission conference for Elder Switzer to train us. That in combination with stake conference with the ONE and ONLY Elder Holland was just what I needed to keep me excited about being  a missionary in Indiana. I've been out in Indy for over a month and it went by pretty quickly so I guess it won't be too bad waiting here for a few more months! If there was one place in all of America to be waiting it's right here where I am!

The Sunday session of Stake Conference had to be held on Butler's campus because so many people would be there to hear Elder Holland. Wow I have so much to say about Elder Holland but I just can't do him justice. He speaks with such power and emotion but he's also so humble. The thing that stuck out the most in his words, he said with all his might, the one thing we can NEVER do is think or say that God doesn't love us. You know how he gets when he grabs the pulpit and practically yells! He also talked about how if we don't get serious about life we'll reach an old age and realize that we wish more than anything that we could tell our grandchildren of our wonderful spiritual experiences. We don't want to live with regret so we have to get serious now. I really wish I could describe how amazing his talks were but I'm just not capable of that. He said so many things that I'll always remember. How lucky we are to have men like him leading us.

As always I love you! I hope all is well at home.

Mucho amor,
Hermana Pearson

Sister Hansen and her trainees (Mom and daughters)

My district and zone leaders

This is near where we live

Hermanas Keetch and Howard

Elder Coombs (Hi Jes!)

Emily Way

Butler Univeristy