I wish there was a river nearby

Okay a story from El Carmen that I forgot to mention and just can't not tell. The Saturday before I left, someone rang our doorbell. No one wanted to answer-so I did. I open the door and there are the Testigos de Jehova or the Jehovah's Witnesses. The poor girl had a look of terror on her face when she she saw my name tag. But I really admired her courage because she went right on ahead and invited me to their Easter service. She shared a passage from the Bible with me and I could tell she just wanted to get out of there as fast as she could. Well being a missionary, I couldn't let her go without inviting her to learn more about our religion. She said the invitation was mutual. Well Presidente has really been stressing how we have to ask referrals from everyone so I also asked her for a referral. She looked at me like I was so crazy! And basically told me that she was on her own search for people to teach. Haha

So Bella Vista is just a small branch and we meet in an old bakery. It's really quite charming.

We already had a baptism- Jose Luis and Maria Lujan. They are kid neighbors of a member family who brings them to church. When I first got here, my companion said that we had a for sure baptism...but we have to get permission from their mom. So we went over to their house all prepared to teach and share from the scriptures and she just said, "Yeah they can get baptized if they want." And it was easy as that.

What wasn't easy was preparing the baptimal ¨font¨. Really it's just a kiddie pool. But we had to drain all the water using buckets and clean it out and scrub it down. And it had to fill all night long. A river would be easier! But it was a success and so was the baptism! Their mom said she wasn't going to come but when we got to the chapel she was there with the kids waiting.

On Sunday when they got confirmed, the Spirit was so strong. And it just made me so grateful that I had the gift of the Holy Ghost my whole life to guide me while growing up and how Jose Luis and Lujan will have that guidance too. What a blessing!

Well I sure do love you all. Make sure ya'll watch conference!

Hermana Pearson

The quaint font in Bella Vista

Chaucitos El Carmen

Well last night was filled with quite a few tears, but here I am off to a new start in...Bella Vista, Tucumán. It`s another small pueblo like El Carmen. My new companion is Hermana Vargas a Peruvian ¿yes Amanda I'm super excited about that?  I traveled with Hermana Quispe for 8 or so hours to get here. It's super hot here still so I'm going on my 10th month of summer.

This last week was quite stellar which made it all the more hard to leave. Hermana Thompson and I super loved teaching Ismael and his little sister Malena. Ismael has already accepted to be baptized but of course we have to stay on top of things so when I invited him again to prepare to be baptized he was all ´´isn't that what I'm doing right now talking with the missionaries?´´ Aw it was so priceless. After church on Sunday, we stayed to watch the Joseph Smith movie with a couple of our investigators and all of the other hermanas too and with Oscar and Milton. It was so spiritual and it reminded me of why I am here doing what I'm doing.

We taught a lesson with Oscar to a girl who has a similar life story. She was talking about the loss of her mother and how she didn't really know if God listens to our prayers and Oscar bore the MOST powerful testimony I've ever heard in my life. When he said goodbye to me, he said now that both Hermana Gentry and I would be gone, he feels like a baby who has to take his first stops on his own and how he just doesn't
want to fall. It was so tender! It was hard to say goodbye but as Faca told me ¨Its not adios, its chaucitos.¨

This week we also went to look at a few apartments to move into because mold is growing in our pension in El Carmen, there are holes in the ceiling, the fridge is tempermental, the lights dont work, and we hardly ever have water. But all the apartments we looked at were no better or super small. I thought I escaped the chore of moving but my new companion says we have to move from the apartment here too because we have to share a bathroom with the whole building and a bunch of other things. Its just a small one room apartment and by one room I mean there are only 4 walls. We have mattresses on the floor which is next to our study table which is next to the counter which is next to the fridge.

So this week we heard the best excuse of why someone couldn't talk to us! We knocked on a door to contact a referral and the daughter told us her mom was brushing her teeth so we said perfect we can wait. And when she came out we talked for a bit and set up an appointment. She told to come at 5 or 6 because at 4 she'd be watching her soap opera! haha.

Well wish me luck in Bella Vista!
Hermana Pearson

What's your favorite part about church? The way you sing!

Okay, the sad truth, I already miss El Carmen and I haven't even left yet but I’m almost positive that I’ll get transferred. I’ve already been here almost 6 months. It’s just we have so many great investigators!

We’re teaching a younger guy, Ismael. He’s super receptive but we were worried he’d have problems being able to come to church. Well we passed by his house Sunday and he told us that he had already woken up and gone to work but his boss sent him home! Such a miracle! So he got ready real quick and we went to church. He liked it all. We had some really spiritual lessons and it was a really fun day at church too. He really liked it. When I asked what he liked the most...he said ¨The way you sing.¨ Yeah you could say those hymns are pretty powerful!

We called Axel to see if he’d be able to make it to church because he hadn’t answered our texts or calls. When he answered, I asked if he was going to come and he just answered. I’m already here in the same class I’ve been to before!

We’ve been working so hard and trying to talk to more people because of the conference we’ve had. It’s so tempting to pass people because we just have so many people we have to visit but we’ve been focusing on the urgency of it all so that we can still visit all our investigators AND find the people already prepared. We’ve talked a lot lately in the misión how to really have success we have to pray for missionary experiences and that we can find the elect of God who he’s already prepared. And how every missionary AND every member should be doing that. So if you aren’t…change!

Much Love,
Hermana Pearson

Sisters at March Zone Conference

That's what it's all about

We had the best Zone Conference with President Levrino. Milton had been to a few misión trainings before and asked us if he could go. Which meant Facundo and Osacar had to go too right? We called up the Zone Leaders to see if it would be okay and the Elder goes WAHOO! They felt like they should buy 3 extra lunches and didn't know why. It was really great to have the prospective missionaries there. They went out with the Zone Leaders and did contacts with them and left really excited to share the góspel!

Elder Ballard recently came to Argentina and Presidente Levrino conveyed his messages to us. Wow the Lord is really hastening His work. Each and everyone of us has been blessed to be born at this time. It’s because God has prepared us to be His tools in this great work. Yes, it’s demanding and rigourous and the Lord expects a lot of us but it’s because He’s prepared us so well. So go out and open your mouth! In the conference we talked a lot about how we have to talk to MORE people to be able to find more chosens. And so we’ve been trying to do just that. We stopped and talked to one of Milton’s friends in the street, Ismael. We gave him a pamphlet and everything and set up an appointment. The sad truth is that it’s often hard to go to all our appointments because there are just so many people that are willing to talk with us (or at least willing to say that they’re willing to talk to us.) Well by a miracle, we manage to find this man’s house and he had read the whole pamphlet and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. When we went back, he had read the part in the Book of Mormon that he said he would read. He is soaking it all up and is intrigued to learn more. He already accepted to be baptized. His challenge will be to get permission from his boss to come to church.

So a while back we got a text from an inactive, Gisel and she asked us if we were gringas and if we could teach her English, so we started up an English ‘’class.’’ I call it a ‘’class’’ because not many people come. Well this week, I kept thinking about sending a text to remind people about the class but I kept forgetting. Saturday morning rolled around and Gisel was the only one there. We barely taught anything before she started to tell us why she stopped going to church. We were able to share some scriptures that really touched her. She admitted that the English class was only partly because she wanted to learn English and a huge part was because she wanted to draw closer to the Church even if it was one hour a week learning English in the Church with the missionaries. It’s true. I always knew it wasn’t about teaching. It was always about her. God’s plan, God’s timing, God’s tender mercies are all about US.

Les Quiero MUCHO!!
Hermana Pearson

How Great Shall be Your Joy!

As a missionary, it is easy to compare yourself with other missionaries. Their letters are more spiritual or they have more faith, they teach with more power, they have more baptisms. And it’s easy to feel like you aren’t good enough. Well, yesterday in sacrament meeting, Oscar got up to bear his testimony. It was so heartfelt and so sweet and he talked about how much the góspel has changed him. From his drinking and smoking days to his missionarying and priesthood days. He said how the missionaries were his angels and I just felt like if I never help another soul in all of my existence all this would still be worth it.

This weekend was all the carnival parties and although we mostly avoided it we did see some cool costumes. Including Oscar’s. He performed his dance for us since we wouldn’t get to see any of the carnival  dances. It was super cool. It kills me how Argentine he is!

Okay, so we completely skipped autumn. It is rainy and cold now. In the mornings in our pension I’m already pulling out the thermals, scarves, gloves, hats and coats. Wish me luck for winter.

We are teaching a new couple, the wife is especially great. We taught her the restauration and everything she said was like check, check, check. LISTO! How she doesn’t believe in baby baptisms because baptism is to cleanse us from sins and babies dont have sins. How she doesn’t believe in Saints or any kind of idol because it is like adoring a chair leg. At the end of the lesson she prayed to have God help her change her way of thinking so it could be more like His. I can’t really convey how great she is in a letter. but we are really excited to teach her more.

Shout out to my sister Stacie and her husband Austin. Congratulations on the new TWINS! I’m already counting down the days to be able to see Bentley and Layla in person!

Con Amor,

Hermana Pearson

Oscar's ready for Carnival