Things Like That Don't Happen Everyday...Except When You're a Missionary.

So, Ernie, the man from the first street we tracted, we taught his wife and him another lesson. He's much more interested than his wife. He had a bunch of questions from his studies and he asked us to backup some of our doctrine with Bible references. We were able to do that and he wants to keep meeting. Here's the kicker. He's out of town until November. We asked if we could skype but he didn't like that idea. He said he wants to read the whole Book of Mormon by the time he meets with us again. I guess we'll just try to keep up with him by some phone calls. We're trying to do better at following up with investigators in between visits anyway so I guess it will give us good practice.

We got to help the Hammocks this week. I can't remember if I've written about them before. They are an older midget couple in the ward and are so cute. They raise their 10 year old grandson who has Downs syndrome; he's twice the size they are! They've been going through a lot of struggles recently and need some extra help. We've been before to dust, wash windows and clean out the fridge-all places she can't reach. This week we helped moved some furniture, open a ceiling vent and put away things on the closet's tallest shelf. Their whole house is normal size except for their toilets. Aw the bathroom was so cute. In her closet she had the cutest small shoes. And her car's my favorite...She has a pink zebra booster seat so she can drive.

Robin who finally started progressing, text-dropped us this week. Man, enough with the text dumping! We stopped by though to see if we could talk to her about her concerns in person. Her daughter opened the door and told us Robin has bronchitis. We asked if we could just come in and pray with her and she let us. Robin's big hangup is the Book of Mormon so after we prayed, I shared with her Alma 31:31 and asked her to pay attention to the power and the peace of the words. " 31 O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me." I think it really touched her because a few hours after we left she called to tell us thank you for coming by. Hopefully we can keep teaching her after all!

Thursday we had Zone Conference. It was great. This really is an awesome mission. The stakes are so on board with getting member missionary work going. I realized maybe part of the reason I'm here is to take some of this amazing training and ideas down to Argentina with me when I go. It was a great meeting with lots of great training. We did some role playing and I did it in Spanish with Elder Langford who is also waiting for a visa to go to Argentina and whose grandparents are in our home ward. I also got to see Hermana Howard which always boosts my spirits.

On Friday the 13th we went to the Relief Society activity. One of the sweet ladies in our ward, Heidi Wells, brought a deaf friend. Well lucky for us, Sister Hansen took 3 years of sign language. Just a couple days earlier, Sister McKinlay (the stellar member who always goes out teaching with us) mentioned that she had learned sign language to be able to interpret for a boy at church. She got a degree in it and then started translating as a career. So when Sister Wells called us to tell us she'd like to introduce us to her friend at "Fabulous Friday" we were able to tell her Sister McKinlay could interpret for her. The friend, Heather, was really impressed with how nice everyone was and how different the building felt to her. Sister Wells is going to set up a lesson to teach Heather in her home, so we're looking forward to that.

Saturday was the BEST DAY EVER! Why? Because we spent all day volunteering at the Special Olympics. I remember doing a big project on Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her work with the intellectually challenged in elementary which got me involved with Best Buddies in high school and college and I've always wanted to help with Special Olympics. The missionaries got involved because it was a softball tournament at a complex that a man in our ward owns. Seriously, it was so great! We started off as cheerleaders but at one of the games, the Elders were being boring announcers, so we took over to add a little pep! We gave the players nicknames and tried to get the small crowds pumped. One girl asked us how many coffees we had had that morning to be that chipper. We tried to tell her we had never had coffee but she didn't believe us. Then she asked me how old I was. I told her 19 and she accused me of lying about that too and I had to be way younger than that. I guess it's good to have a youthful face. I'll appreciate it when I'm older! We made friends with a pair of twins that go by Zack and Cody like the twins on the Disney Channel show. (See picture) One of the assistants, Elder Sorensen was asked to be the pitcher on a team called the heat. And the other assistant, Elder Rodgers was their announcer. They took a gold medal so Elder Sorensen got to participate in the awards ceremony. It was so cool! In case you didn't think it could get better, you're wrong. Hermana Howard was there too! I got to see her twice in one week! I loved every minute of it. We were there for 6 hours and it wasn't long enough!

Well there were some car problems and so Elder Hodges had to shuffle around different cars and we're the lucky ones to go without a car for a week, starting yesterday. I'm really happy about it! It'll be good prep for Argentina. The weather is absolutely perfect and I love the fresh air. Sister Hansen was really stressed out about it but I think it'll be just fine! I loved walking last night because we got to talk to so many more people we would have talked to otherwise.

I was just about to end this letter but I literally just experienced a miracle. Rewind with me to a couple weeks ago. Elder Coles and Elder Bromley met a girl named Nova near Carmel High School. She really wanted to meet with missionaries and learn more but didn't have a phone and is living with a friend so didn't feel comfortable giving out her friend's address. They set up an appointment for us to teach her the following day and we'd meet at the library. We went and waited and went searching for her but couldn't find her and had no way to contact her. Okay fast forward to yesterday. We were near Carmel High School so we decided to take a minute to walk around the building to see if Nova was possibly there since that's where the missionaries had met her before. I just felt that God was going to lead us to Nova. But we didn't find her yesterday. Fast forward again to 10 minutes ago. Some Elders walk into the computer lab (this library is inundated with missionaries on Mondays) and there's a girl who notices the white shirts, ties and tags and starts talking up a storm. I wasn't paying attention too much but heard her say she was supposed to meet with them at 3:30 and it immediately clicked in my head. I turned around and asked if she was Nova. Her eyes lit up and said she missed the appointment because she had to work and she's been looking for us since. She has a phone now so we exchanged numbers and we're going to teach her this week. Wow! Things like that don't happen. Oh wait, yeah, they do.

Un Especial Salud,

Hermana Pearson

Twins - Zack and Cody

Sisters at Special Olympics

Sister Pearson and Sister Hansen - Announcers Extraordinaire!

Zone Conference with Hermana Howard

If This Were A Movie

We did an exchange this week with the Sister Training Leaders. So since I stayed my area, I got to drive the car. It was pretty exciting with all the round-abouts or rotaries as the GPS calls them. I swear there's a round about at every intersection. The 4-way stops that don't have signs saying they're coming soon (see attached picture.) Haha. It'll probably be the only time I get to drive on my mission. President Collins didn't even bother to certify visa waiters to drive but President Cleveland did so that's the only reason I was allowed to anyway.

 

At the beginning of the week, we had a lesson with Elvira. We talked about the apostasy and shared Joseph Smith's experience. She said she was confused because she didn't know what was true so we told her knowledge would come as she continued to meet with us. It was a strong lesson. We set up a return appointment for 2 days later. Well she dropped us flat before we ever got to go back. To make matters worse, she made her daughter do it. In a text. I mean, come on. The whole world knows you shouldn't break up with someone in a text message, let alone a text message from another person. That's just low. I don't understand why people don't follow the social norms when it comes to missionaries. We're people too! They said they already know about Jesus and want us to go teach people that don't know Jesus. Quite the switch from "Mi casa es tu casa"

 

We visited the Hernandez's and they are just too caught up in the details. He's worried about how the Book of Mormon mentions chickens and horses and other animals that as far as he's concerned weren't brought to America until the 1500's. He also doesn't like that in Jerusalem quite quickly after Jesus died, we say there was apostasy but in America the people lived for 400 years in righteousness. To him, if Jesus taught the people in the middle east, they should have stayed stronger longer.

 

Remember how we saw the bug boys last week and they gave us a referral. Well it was a sweet referral! The lady has a Jesus fish over her door so we took that as a good sign. She welcomed us in right away and said she had just been talking to a Mormon yesterday. We told her we didn't think it was a coincidence. She didn't either but it seemed she felt that way because she felt the need to correct our ways (maybe, she was too nice to actually say so.) She let us talk for a bit but really, she started teaching us. She does a Bible study for the ladies in her neighborhood and I'm sure she is an amazing teacher. We have an appointment to go back and actually teach her this time! 

 

At district meeting, we focused on planning to reach goals so we were supposed to take 15 minutes to make a specific plan to meet a specific goal. Well, we were really worried this week on teaching enough lessons so we're talking about what to do and our phone rings. A guy we taught last month called to set up an appointment. We didn't go back for so long because he was going to be busy with a work project for a month. He said when it was over that he'd call. And he actually did! I felt like I was in the Best Two Years when the missionary prays: "Please bless that young man that he might call." And then the phone rings. It was cool! So if the movie plot follows, he should get baptized the day before I fly out. I might have talked about this guy before. His late mother and his brother are members and he's investigated the church before. Well since he's such an analytical person, our commitment to him was to reread the Book of Mormon, this time marking only the references to Christ and then everyday after reading write down how he FELT. He was really surprised with such a request but said he'd do it.

 

We met Robin again this week and took a member with us. We've been hesitant to bring someone before because I guess she had a negative experience in the past with a member but we really needed to to meet our member present goal. Well turns out the lady that came with us has the SAME life. They had so many connections, it seemed never ending. Both grew up baptist, left the baptist church for the same reason, divorced their first truck-driving husbands for the same reason, remarried and then those men died. That was only the basic stuff. They really made a connection and the member was able to so wonderfully tell of her testimony of the Book of Mormon and we could just see the progress in Robin immediately!

 

Another appointment we had, we were reluctant to take a member because what the man had said to us before, but again we did it to make our goal and it turned out great. We met with Jim Davis. His wife had a stroke 11 years ago and he has lovingly taken care of her ever since. When we got there he had these books for us that his father-in-law published about Indians- since we are in the wonderful state of Indiana and he has Indian blood. He had all these arrowheads on his wall and I told him how my dad majored in archaeology and had a bunch of arrowheads of his own. We we read with him in the Introduction of the Book of Mormon where it talks about the Lamanites being the principle ancestors of the Native Americans, he thought that was way cool. He had a Mormon friend back in the day who gave him a Book of Mormon and Jim read the whole thing (although he admits he forgot a lot). We shared the restoration and it was really powerful.

 

We stopped by Miss Mae's with the plan to read 3 Nephi 18, talk about church attendance and the Sabbath and see what we could do to get her back at church. Well before we got into the lesson she mentioned planning to go to the store to buy an ice cream cake for her granddaughter's birthday on her way to dinner on Sunday. I was a bit nervous to go ahead with the lesson plan because I didn't want to offend her but Sister Hansen went right ahead and sweet Miss Mae kinda chuckled about it and said how obviously God sent us to remind her that the little things matter and add up and that she wasn't gonna go to the store on Sunday after all. She was super cute about it.

 

We stopped by a referral from the Carmel Elders of a guy named Evan who has met with missionaries a couple times. It was really cool because I felt God really pick me up and use me as a tool. He used every bold, eloquent and charismatic bone in my body and magnified those abilities to engage Evan in conversation and we really had a great doorstep lesson with him. He's afraid to commit to even lessons because he knows eventually we'll ask him to make a leap of faith, but hopefully we helped him to see that right now all we want is for him to take one step.

 

Como siempre, envio mi amor a ustedes!

 

Hermana Pearson

Indianapolis Temple under construction!

Round-abouts everywhere

Team Reject

There's not nearly as much to talk about this week. Unfortunately it was rather slow and we had a lot of cancellations and rejections. But let's start with the good stuff first.

Back on my first day here, Sister Hansen said "Look at the map. Pick out a street." We started tracting it. Turns out it's a pretty long street. Well on our 2nd day of tracting it we met Ernie. His house was daunting and intimidating and we really didn't want to go up to it. But we're missionaries. Of course we did. We taught him the restoration and gave him of Book of Mormon and said we would visit his church if he went to ours (he goes to NorthView...along with every other person in Indiana. It's a HUGE church.) Well then he went out of town on business for a month and so we had to wait to meet with him. And we finally did this week. He came prepared with 2 pages of questions. He would read online and in the Book of Mormon on his lunch break. We taught a great lesson to him and his wife and they definitely want to learn more. But he's going out for another business trip. We think we may try to embrace the whole technology deal and see if we can teach his wife in person at their home while we skype him. We'll see.

A really great family in the ward signed up a while back to have missionaries come teach a lesson. Well that happened to be the night his sister was staying with them. So we taught her a lesson too. This ward is great when it comes to being involved with missionary work. I'm spoiled here. Well I guess really every ward should be like that. The sad truth is, they aren't.

We taught Justin another interesting lesson. We planned to teach plan of salvation but didn't get far because he doesn't believe that the past is set in stone. Sister Hansen asked him to say a prayer right then and ask if we lived with God before we came here. Before I knew what I was saying, I promised him that if he'd sit and listen after the prayer, he'd get his answer. And then I started to panic. I prayed fervently for God to answer him immediately. I felt like I had made too big of a promise. But I felt peace that Justin had gotten an answer. So we asked Him what he felt and he just said calm. But we talked about how that is how the spirit speaks to us. Especially him since he has anxiety, calmness is something so needed for him and so that's how God answers him. I told him I was scared I had made such a big promise but that God told me I needed to and told me He'd follow through. I felt really bad because Justin asked me if I get frustrated with him. I don't ever feel frustrated I just worry about how I can help him but I guess that came off as frustration to him. I explained that if I was frustrated at anyone, it was me for not teaching clearly enough.

On Wednesday, new Elders got double transferred into the ward. They have a very similar situation like what Sister Hansen and I had a transfer ago. They have no investigators and they're starting from scratch. We'll help them out though. We already have. The ward mission leader doesn't want us to teach single men anymore since we have 2 sets of missionaries so sadly we had to give up Justin. We stopped by his house to tell him we wouldn't be the ones to teach him anymore. Sometimes we feel like he doesn't make progress but I think that's mainly just because we really have to start from the basics. But he told me that I shouldn't be frustrated at my skills as a missionary because I had truly helped him. That meant a lot to me and makes me sad that we can't teach him anymore.

We were so sad because the Garcias definitely took a step back this week. They didn't read what we asked them to and they expressed concern over why the Bible doesn't mention the Book of Mormon. When we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, they said they don't need that because they already have the Spirit with them. We started preparing "homework" for them so they have reading assignments every day. We hope that can help them progress faster.

We met with the Hernandez family who have met with missionaries for years. We asked them what their intention was in having us over. Their answer blew us away. They like the friendship they get from the missionaries. The question made them think at least a little though, because they asked what our intention was. So we basically told them to teach them the truth so that they can get baptized. Maybe with a clearer purpose set, we can make progress with them.

We tried a lot of less actives. 90% of them have moved.

We had a tentative appointment scheduled with a referral, Todd, so we called to confirm. The lady that answered asked who we were so I said "missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." Then she said "We already have our church. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" So I simply started to say "Yes, I'm just looking for Todd, is this the right number?" But before I could get through any of it she repeated ''DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" So I just kept saying yes. She literally yelled the question 15 times, said "YOU GIRLS SHOULD BE SMART ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND." And then hung up. We got a little laugh out of that one!

We tried by a former investigator and when we got there she said "I was wondering when you missionaries would come back." Good sign, right? Wrong. She told us she had tried to read the Book of Mormon but she couldn't stomach it because it was of the devil. She spent a good 5 minutes explaining how evil it was. Weirdly enough she was a very sweet lady. She offered us water. She said she's a single mom that works and goes to school but she'd make time for us to do a Bible study if we'd come with open minds. She says she prays for the missionaries every day and probably always will that we will realize the error of our ways. She hopes we can find Jesus. She started to say she wishes us luck but then stopped herself and said she hopes that our missions will be difficult so we realize that we follow the devil. It was hard to listen to her deny the Book of Mormon. All we could say is we've prayed about it and know that it is true. We still asked for a referral though. And she even kind of gave us one. She said to talk to the neighbor across the street playing basketball. So we headed over and stopped in the driveway. The guy grabbed his basketball and literally ran away.

Sorry I wasn't able to write home yesterday. We did have a fun Labor Day BBQ though. The new Stake Presidency Counselor is in our ward and his family invited over 3 ward families, and all the missionaries in the ward. So it was fun to eat with President Cleveland. It's so nice to get to interact with him since most missionaries don't get much of a chance. No surprise, he talked sports with Elder Coles. That's what you get when your mission president is a coach. He said his favorite coaching job was his first one at a high school in California when he taught AP gov and econ. He's really cool. We all really love the Clevelands!

On our way to a less actives after dinner we saw the summer sales boys that are in our ward selling door to door. We talked to them for a minute and they gave us a referral of a lady they sold to. They said that one house they had been in, the man told them they have the hardest job in the word selling pest control door-to-door but then paused and said, No, those Mormons who try to sell religion have it harder. So then of course they told him they've already been there and done that!

I got an update from the Missionary Department on my visa. Pretty much all they said was it's not here. With the last transfer we got two more visa waiters. They'll be headed to Australia. Crazy.

Pues, Hasta Luego,

Hna Pearson

Wait. Is this Little Mexico or China Town?

First thing first. Sister Hansen and I are both staying in the Westfield ward, which I'm super excited about! If I'm not going to be in Argentina, I want to be in Carmel!

So Tuesday was a little rough because we had interviews with President Cleveland but he was way behind! The assistants set up interviews starting at 8:30 but told President to be there at 10. So not only did he start late, he got far behind. Our appointment was for 11:30. We were told to come 30 minutes late. We didn't leave until 6:00.

We have 4 more Spanish investigators!!! The Hernandez's, the Fernandez's. And then a Chinese guy named Jimmy.

The Hernandez's have been taught a lot but always by English missionaries. Maybe we can make progress with them if there's that connection with the language. For not being a Spanish missionary yet, I have pretty good Spanish, just saying. We took the Garcias to a member's home to teach this week and Bernardo told them that my Spanish is really good and that they always understand what I say. When we brought Blanca a cheesecake and card, she said my letter to her in Spanish was really good. Now if only I was actually fluent...

Anyway the Fernadez's are a miracle story! We found Elvira's name in the area book (we found a lot of Spanish people and decided to try them since, well I think it's pretty obvious.)
We stopped by the address only to find she didn't live there anymore. We asked if they knew where they moved to but they had no idea. So I tried calling. Can I just say speaking Spanish over the phone is no easy task! When I can't see lips move it's very hard to understand. Elvira seemed open to studying the Bible with us but said only the Bible not any other book. I tried to explain that we study from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon but I don't know how much she understood. We finally set up a time after struggling to understand each other. Well trying to get her new address was SOO difficult. I got the numbers just fine but couldn't for the life of me understand the street name and then she gave me the zip code and I thought she was trying to give me the house number again so I was just that much more confused! So I asked her to text it to me. She never did. So this week I called again. And this time she texted the address but told us not to waste our time on her if we wanted to study a different book than the Bible. When we went to her home she told us how her husband had met Mormons before and had our book. But she never did. We were going to do a lesson on the apostasy but I forgot my Spanish Scriptures and Sister Hansen forgot the visual aid we were going to use. So we decided we'd do a get to know you deal and share our favorite scriptures. Well as we shared our scriptures on trust, Elvira opened right up to us. She told us about all the trials of her daughter and things like that. We really connected and knew she'd let us come back. Then her daughter Elisabeth got home from work. She called her into the room to meet us. Immediately, there was a connection as we shared those scriptures again. She opened up too and told us of her abusive, alcoholic father who because of God has been sober for a year and a half. And about her recent divorce and battle against cancer. And she's only 24. We told her how we had tried so many different times to find them and that we were inspired to keep trying and we were in her path for a reason. She agreed. Even though we hadn't introduced really anything of our church, Sister Hansen felt she should share a scripture in Alma. We were both kind of nervous because of how adamant Elvira had been about no other book and without even an introduction of it we were worried how it'd be received. But they loved the scripture! Elisabeth took the English copy we had and said she loved reading so she'd start reading it. We were all crying because the Spirit was so strong and we knelt down in prayer. I asked if I could say it in Spanish and so I was thinking hard about what to say and how to say it so there were some pauses. Well something pretty common with the Hispanics we're teaching is that they will whisper their own prayer at the same time as you and since that's happened a lot I didn't think anything of it. Well I was half-way through my prayer, pausing to figure out how to say the next thing and Elvira turns her whispered prayer into a loud one and finished the prayer for us. It totally caught me off guard! It was such a cool experience and they recognized us right away as disciples of Christ which helped us build a strong relationship with them. I now understand the phrase, "Mi casa es tu casa" much better. She said she knew we were away from home and that if we ever needed anything her door was open and she'd be our mom. It was such a touching experience. We have an appointment for tomorrow and I hope it goes just as well!

Now that we teach Fernandez, Hernandez and Garcia we just need Rodriguez, Ramirez and Sanchez and we'll be set!

Jimmy has kind of an interesting background too. We had high sights for teaching this week. It was a solid start to the week and we had a bunch of lessons set up- 20! which considering we only had 5 the first week here, that's quite an accomplishment! We really have done some great work here. The difference in this area in just one transfer has been amazing! And we still have so much work to do! Well I swear half those lessons canceled on us. But we still managed to pull off our weekly goal. We had about an hour left on Sunday before we had to go in and we still needed a member present lesson and an other. So we stopped by our investigator who doesn't get out much, assuming he'd be home. Because he ALWAYS is. Well he wasn't. We didn't know how we'd fit in those last 2 lessons! But we remembered that there is a part member family on the same street. We stopped by there, they invited us in and let us teach a short lesson. So with 30 minutes to go, we set off to go find a referral to fit in one more lesson. The address we had was for an apartment building but didn't say which apartment so we knocked on the doors looking for her. The only guy who opened his door was Chinese and spoke very little English. We were going to not worry about him since it was hard to talk to him but we felt like we really needed to hit our goal. So we spoke really slow and with really short words and told him about the Book of Mormon. We prayed with him and it made him tear up. I don't think he completely grasped everything we said but he definitely felt it. He wants us to come back and give him a Chinese Book of Mormon.

It's so funny to us that we live in Carmel and always find the foreigners. We were walking down the street and started to talking to a guy but he was on business from Brazil. He recognized our church as the one with the guy and the trumpet on our buildings. He said he'd be interested to talk to missionaries when he's back in Brazil so we tried to get his information to send in a referral but he was too cautious of giving out personal info. So we gave him a mormon.org card and told him to look at the website in Portuguese and he could order a Book of Mormon. Well apparently he looked at it because the next day, the Carmel Elders got a referral to bring him a Book of Mormon. The Elders taught him a couple lessons and the man came to church yesterday. He committed to get baptized when he goes back to Brazil!

Well I've finished one transfer in Indy. It went by so fast! So I'm sure even if I wait for 6 months for my visa it won't feel like too long!

Mucho Amor Por Ustedes,
Hermana Pearson

The Campbell kids love us!

Sister Hansen that we visit

Some of our investigators B & B

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

This Perfect Little Place Called Carmel

We taught with Sister Cleveland this week. We broke her in! She's never been in lessons before. We had an appointment with a former investigator and couldn't find any members to come with us so since the Mission President is in our ward, we thought we'd ask his wife! She's so sweet and it's fun being close to them because we get to know them way more than a lot of the other missionaries get a chance to.

The lesson she came with us to was a man whose late mother and brother are members. He's read the Book of Mormon like three times but he's too analytical and feels the need for proof rather than going by faith. Since he's been taught by lots of other missionaries before he's very familiar with it all. He's especially interested in the articles of faith. As we left he gave us a paper with all 13 articles and his response/concern about each one. It's our homework I guess. We learn as missionaries to uncover investigators concerns and he literally handed them over to us. He might as well have put it on a silver platter! Sister Cleveland started crying at the end (it's her thing!) and bore a powerful testimony. She's the best!

On Wednesday I went on an exchange with Sister Cordner (She's the one who is my roommate so it didn't take up much travel time!) While we were studying, there was a knock at the door. It was her brother! He's a private pilot and happened to be in Indiana. Sister Cordner didn't even think he read her emails but when he realized she was in Carmel and so was she, he stopped by. The shock on her face was pretty funny! He asked if she could come to lunch so after we got permission from President Cleveland, we went out to eat. Sister Cordner was so brave and told him we could go but we'd have to teach him a lesson. I think that would be so hard for me when I knew very well that someone so close to me just wasn't interested in the message. She's a rock star.

We taught lessons to a couple...interesting people...And both their homes were infested with animals. You probably didn't think I could dislike dogs and cats more than I did. WRONG! In Indiana everybody and their dog, has a dog (pun intended). The biggest problem to me is the fact that owners never seem to care that their pet is literally climbing all over you. When I left I could feel pet hair in my throat. Well that side tangent rant is over. Anyway, funny story. One of the ladies we visited has a major Josh Groban obsession. Well apparently after we left she told the Carmel Sisters that she didn't like me at first because she thought Josh Groban and I would make a cute couple and that really upset her!

When Sister Hansen was in our area, they taught a man we met (with Sister Cleveland again) And apparently he told her that he thinks we're literal angels. He said when we first walked up to him, we came out of nowhere. Our eyes pierced his soul and we were glowing. He's convinced we have wings...

On Thursday both Sister Hansen and I were sick. We tried to get energy to leave or at least plan but we just slept the entire day. It was just a 24 hour bug and we were better by the next day. One of the perks of being close to the Mission Home and Mission Office is that all the adult missionaries take such good care of us! Sister Cleveland, Sister Bailey and Sister Hodges all made sure we were well taken care of. We're so spoiled here. This is the area everyone wants to be in-but not until the end of their mission because it's all downhill after Carmel.

Friday we had Zone Conference which took most of the day. We talked about using members in the work. That's definitely the new push here. President Cleveland wants us to start counting a new number which is lessons taught to investigators in members homes.

Saturday we taught Justin and he literally had an anxiety attack. We asked him about his feelings and he started getting shaky and sweaty and had to take a breather and drink water. He said he used to think he had no feelings but his therapist told him he does. When he was asked to think about how he feels, he just got scared and nervous. Luckily he stayed calm enough that nothing drastic happened.

We taught Bernardo and Blanca again. They are my favorite! They just get it! Bernardo is already highlighting el LdM(the Book of Mormon) and he told us that because it's the word of God that Joseph Smith had to be a prophet because he translated the book perfectly! We invited them to be baptized. Bernardo had objections because he's already been baptized but Blanca told him this is different because they have the priesthood like Jesus gave to his apostles. And Sister Hansen and I were just like nodding our heads-yeah, exactly. Blanca wants to learn more before she commits but they'll come around. Blanca couldn't come to church because she has commitments at her church for the next couple three weeks (that's a Hoosier term: couple three) but she'll come after that. And Bernardo was there Sunday! He sat by the Marty's who have taught with us before to help with the Spanish. We talked to him after and he said it was different but only because he's not used to it. He left for Texas today though to visit family so we won't see him for a couple three weeks.

So at the retirement apartments we've been at to visit a ward member, I guess we caused a huge fuss. One lady was so angry that we were allowed in that she was threatening to sue and everything. I guess management calmed her down but they added all these "No Trespassing" signs and sent out a newsletter instructing everyone to not let in the two girls. The member we visited was mad about it all and put up a fit that they can't stop her visitors from coming. We went in to management and explained things and so now we're allowed to come as long as we have a planned appointment. Haha who would think two girls would cause such chaos at an old folks home. What we realized is that old ladies really are just teenage girls with wrinkles!

Well, love you all. Hope all is well!
Con mucho amor,

Hermana Pearson

With the Campbell kids

Muchos Milagros

We started this last week out with a finding fast. Our area was just so dry and we knew we needed more people to teach. It didn't take long to start seeing the miracles.

We went to visit a less active, who is only less active because of health. She lives in a retirement community and at the door a lady was bringing groceries. We tried to help her but she didn't want us to so we just talked to her instead. She wasn't interested in a message from us but she said she'd tell the ladies in the lobby to listen to us. She proceeded to interrupt  a group of ten people saying "These girls have something to say" It sparked conversation about religion among all of them. We gave each of them a card with our number and one lady afterwards told us she didn't want to change religions but she did want to learn about Mormons. So we went back the next day and taught her. Wow, was she prepared. But here's the heartbreaking part...This less active lady well apparently she's in our ward but only by special permission. It's her son's ward so she attends Westfield even though she lives in Carmel, so all those wonderful ladies in her apartment building aren't ours to teach. We had to give not one, not two but four referrals to the other sisters. Even though we were so sad we wouldn't be able to teach them (old women are our favorite) we obediently gave up our investigator and trusted that God would give us others to teach in our own area.

So this week as part of my training I've had to watch videos about using family history in our approaches. I kinda felt like I should take that approach for the following week. At first I wasn't really looking forward to doing it that way. But I did it anyway and have loved it! Turns out people actually are interested in their geneaology! Who knew? Using that method was a miracle in and of itself because it's a great conversation starter and got us a few names and numbers of people who are willing to meet with the missionaries!

We went to an appointment with a former investigator who I guess was really close to baptism but apparently the missionaries took a member with them who scared her and so she stopped investigating and started going to a different church. We got to her door and no one answered. We called and she said she thought we were coming the next day. We rescheduled with her but didn't really know how to fill that time because we were hoping to stay in the area because it was close to our next lesson. We stepped outside and saw a man sitting out eating a Popsicle with a little girl. We started talking about family history, then tied it to the church and he said he'd like to learn more. Then the little girl said so would my mom. She lives over there, come talk to her. She was interested too. Then we thought we'd visit a ward member that we didn't know that lived just one street over. They don't live there anymore, but a Hispanic family does. She's just a little younger than me and when Sister Hansen asked if she's ever wondered why there are so many churches on the earth she was like yeah I always have. It sparked her interest but she said she's really busy working two jobs and taking English classes. We told her meeting with us would be great practice for her English so we're hoping to set up an appointment with her. We talked for a while and when we left I said a prayer in Spanish. It was cool. Spanish is super cool!

One morning we set out to contact a referral. The referral was just a simple one we had got when tracting. After people tell us they aren't interested we ask if they know anyone who might be. The guy said the next door neighbor maria might be, but that she speaks spanish so there might be a language barrier. Well I said that's okay I know some Spanish. This was our third time trying to get in contact with Maria. We stood at the door for a while and finally I decided to write a note on the Spanish Restoration pamphlet and leave it at the door. As I was writing this note a man came up. He spoke NO English. I asked if he lived there. He said yes, so I asked about Maria. He said Maria was his 13 year old daughter. So I told him his neighbor said they might be interested in our message and he said yeah, I've met with missionary compañeros before, but they moved away and stopped coming over. So after talking to him for a bit, we set up on appointment to see him at the end of the week. Sister Hansen and I were pretty nervous about how it would go since she knew no Spanish and he knew no English. We asked a couple from our ward to come with us. They're from Puerto Rico so we knew they'd be helpful to us! The lesson actually turned out great! He was very open to learning and he said he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I spoke in Spanish most of the time and would even translate for Sister Hansen and then the Marty's would talk to him if Jose had trouble understanding me. I understood most everything he said. It was SO COOL! Sister Hansen even could follow a little bit. We were originally thinking we'd give Jose to the Spanish Elders since Sister Hansen wouldn't be able to teach but the Zone Leaders said we could teach them and the Marty's said that my Spanish is "awesome." We prayed about it and I think we'll at least try to teach another lesson before we'd give up on him so easily.

Sister Hansen said before this transfer she was sure that no Hispanics lived in Indiana but I guess it's working out since we seem to be finding some who will listen to us too. We went back to teach Bernardo and were planning on asking if his wife wanted to join us but before we could say anything he said he was going to go get his wife. He asked us a specific question of something that confused him in the Bible. At first we didn't really understand what he was asking but Sister Hansen took them to Alma and read a few verses that answered it perfectly. They don't really doubt the Book of Mormon. Our next step is to try to help them understand the apostasy better so they'll see the need for just one church that has priesthood authority. We hope we can get them to come to church too. They said they'd try but for Blanca it takes too much time to drive there-she just goes to the church across the street. And Bernardo likes to go to a Spanish Sunday School so he can understand better. We were hoping they'd be at church but they weren't. We'll probably introduce them to the Marty's soon. Maybe that will help.

Even though they were at church we did have an unexpected investigator show up. The less active mom came with her 3 kids (which we were expecting) But she also brought her best friend that has been over for the Family Home Evening Lessons. That was a great surprise! Turned out he even knew a member from business school!

That helped us exceed our goals for investigators at church and along with the other miracles of the week our numbers were way more than we expected. We started this area with 0 investigators and only teaching 5 lessons to people at their doorstep who really had no intention of learning more. This week we have 8 investigators and taught 14 lessons and got a bunch of referrals and potentials too (and that doesn't even count the ones we had to give away.) And I'm getting to use Spanish in those lessons. What a blessing!

On Thursday we were planning on seeing an "investigator" after dinner (I use quotations because she's very old and we're not sure how much she retains. She remembers us-and boy does she love us. She says we can teach her but then her attention span is so short that we can't teach much) Well anyway while we were at dinner and Sister Merrill mentioned how she took Mary Jo to the hospital the day before. Sister Merrill, the Elders and Sister Hansen and I all went to visit her. When we got there the room was so cold and uninviting. The Elders gave her a blessing, we shared with her a scripture and sang a hymn to her. By the time we left the room was warm and friendly. It's amazing what the Spirit can do. As we contemplated everything that fell perfectly in to place. it was amazing to see how God really is in the details and he will prepare things way in advanced so that things will fall into place when the time comes. For example, the Merrills have the missionaries over every other Thursday and have for months. We almost didn't go to dinner but made it work. And that's just part of it.

Hermana Howard did an exchange with the Sister Training Leaders so she came to stay at our apartment! It was so fun to see her and catch up with her! She's sure making a killer missionary! We even got to do our language study together, which was so helpful! Studying a language by yourself just doesn't cut it.

This letter doesn't fully describe how truly amazing this week was. Everyday was wonderful. Everyday was a miracle. I guess the greatest part of all is the fact that I finally feel like I belong in Indiana. I had such a good attitude at first about being here and just wanted to forget about my visa until it comes. But everyday someone will ask me about it so it's hard to forget about. I was starting to feel disappointed and like I'd be so much better off in Salta. But it doesn't matter now. I know I'm supposed to be here so I can learn something and being here feels right. I'll be excited to get to Argentina when it's time but until then I just won't worry about it.

You know, I don't know if we even actually had more miracles this week than last or if our eyes have just been opened wider and our perception is clearer. I hope you all look at your days a little more closely and find little miracle everyday.

As my Argentinan mission president signs his letters:

Un Abrazo,
Hermana Pearson

My very own street!

Catching up with my MTC companion