Be an Example

Group Email:

Hey everybody!

This week was a crazy one here in central Minneapolis.  So to start off, the weather pretty much went from being really really hot at the beginning of the week, to it getting cold and fall and winter like in the matter of a week.  So that has been an adventure, especially since my companion and I get to be on bikes full time now.  

So this week was also transfers, and I got lucky.  I get to stay with my companion another transfer in our same area and I am way happy about that.  We work well together and we still have work to do here!  So we had zone conference this week as well, so we got to carpool on down to a building in Saint Paul right by the temple. We had a combined zone conference, and those are always just a good time.  

The next event that happened was a cultural night that our ward had. Since all the members are just from all over and so they all got to share some things they do, and also the food from their countries. That part was especially good as you can imagine.  And that was a huge success because we had a lot of members and less actives show up!  So it was a good ward unity and time to get to know the people that we don't get to see or talk to a lot.  

And finally to end the week we had this thing called "Open street".  It is this community event where they close down a big street called "Nicollet" to cars, and anyone on that street, or that wants t, can set something up can on that street.  So it just so happens that this is the street that our church is on. So it is an amazing finding event every year.  So we had a combined English and Spanish sacrament early in the morning, then we got to work setting up for the open street and getting ready, and it was a huge success!  There were a total of about 14000 that walked the streets, and we just handed out free cold water, free balloons for the kids that said "I am a child of God", and then did face paint and gave dog treats to all the people that would want them for their dogs. My companion was doing face paint, so I just got to hand out balloons and dog treats and man are people funny. Some people just have a negative connotation towards our church.  Here are some good quotes for you all to enjoy,

-When handing out a water bottle "Sorry I am trying to quit"

-Offering dog treats "No my dog is fine, he doesn't want any treats" - happened so many times.

-"I don't want any of that Mormon water"

-"No you cant get your face painted here"

-"Ooooh you guys are the Mormons"

So there were a whole lot of interesting and negative people towards us.  But even though there were plenty of those, we had plenty of nice people, and lots of lessons and tours given of the church.  I got to give like 5 full restoration lessons in English and Spanish while I would talk to people, so it was a successful day. 

This just made me wonder why so many people negatively think the way they do of us.  So my challenge to you all this week is be an example.  So for those who are members, remember, our church is the church of Christ, we represent Him here.  So daily do what you can to be an example, no matter how small.  There will always be those that will think negatively, but if we can all reach out and just try and show Gods love to those who need to feel it, I think we can all help change our stereotype, even just a little.  So remember that this week and throughout all your lives, and have a great week this week everyone!

-Elder Pickering

Pictures

*Sketchily cleaning the baptismal font and mirror (Yes OHSA approved I'm sure)

*Me holding a baby snapping turtle

*And me, my companion, and our roommates pre transfer with some smoothies

I sure hope Angels were helping hold him up as well as the Elders.

The Gospel Brings Light

Another week down and Ryan just continues to improve both in his health and his ability to serve and teach.  At the same time he has been very honest about the challenges of the work and how hard it is to be a missionary at time.  Also, this past week I had to teach a lesson for a Relief Society activity on missionary work. I asked Ryan what helped him prepare before he left.  I found his answers enlightening and will include them as well as other random tidbits from various letters.

Hey Mom, I have had a pretty good week this week, but there wasn't really anything huge that happened.  So to give you an idea on how hard the Spanish work is here, my companion who has been here a year has only had 1 person that has gone more than 3 lessons with them before saying they aren't interested anymore.  And that is a person we are teaching right now.  So that is hard, that we will be putting in a ton of effort and probably see next to none of the actual outcome to our efforts, but I am gonna keep working hard.  Someone is out here and is waiting for me and I just need to find who they are.  

So the family that we gave the blessing to, he is still continuing to improve in his health and his liver swelling went down right after we did the blessing, so they could actually perform the surgery they needed to. And the family has been pretty good at coming to church since then so far!  Still not perfect, but doing more than they were doing before. They were offended in the church and at is why they have a hard time. That's something hard we see in less actives here. There are a lot of people that hold on to something from forever ago And its sad that it is still driving them.  

And of the finding and area book work we have done, we have one guy, Manuel who I found!  He is one of our most promising investigators as of right now.  He is pretty receptive to all that we are teaching, and I hope we can keep working with him.  Other than that, it is really hard following up and having them continue to want having more lessons or visits, it is very hard.  

The ward here is great.  I am slowly being able to communicate more and more with them and they are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.  They are mostly all converts and have their own stories and tattoos and wear chains and all those good things, but they are just the best people and that has probably been one of my favorite things on my mission so far, the members. And we usually get fed about 3 times a week!  The elders just aren't as popular as the sisters, who are almost double booked all the time haha. 

The fires there sound so crazy, man, I leave for 2 months and Utah goes and starts the house on fire, man.  

So what prepared me most on my mission, hmmm.

I think I could have done a lot better at preparing honestly, but here are the key things that I think every missionary could do to really feel prepared and feel well in their first weeks out here in the field.  Get used to making your own food and find some cheap yummy foods you wouldn't mind eating a fair bit when you have that in supply.  Know how to not spend all your money and budget and save through the month.  Practice putting yourself out there and talking to everyone, whether it is comfortable for you or not.  And really study the Book of Mormon.  That is the foundation of our church, and it is the most correct book that is here on this earth today.  So the more you immerse yourself, the more the Lord helps you know what you need to be doing, and kind of guides you to become the person you need to on your mission.  And before you leave, just enjoy the time that you have, you'll love those memories with the people that really matter to you in life, so head to their advice and hold close to them leading up to before you leave.  

Hopefully that is kind of helpful and you can pull and expound from those things!  And I hope things there keep going well and you all keep going through life and loving it.  I miss you guys, but like I have said, there is nothing I would rather be doing here than learning and growing here in Minnesota, but I love you all with all my heart!

Ryan

Time here really is flying by, and I can't believe it.   Each week goes by week so fast and it does not feel like it should be my first transfer already.  I should be staying here in central Minneapolis with my trainer, so that will be very nice.  I am excited for that we will be together for at least one more transfer.  We have done very very well together.  

My health is 100 percent now and is not an issue anymore.  I have loved the chance to be able to bike when the weather cooperates and it is a little crazy.  You really have to lock everything you care about up, wheels and handlebars and all, but it is great.  And we might be keeping our car, but we don't know for sure until transfers this week.  

So the work here is really slow and hard, and most Spanish missionaries will go home without even seeing a baptism or anything, so I am working hard and bound to beat the statistic, and I have no doubt that if I put in the work I can. I gave a training in district meeting this week, and did it on helping people keep commitments, so I think it went well and hopefully I can also take from what I learned in doing it to help out the people that I work with.  

Group Letter:

Hey Everyone!

So this week has been another great one out here in Minnesota. This week we had a bit of a little hot burst and so it has been nice and humid through all this week.  And now it is going to drop about 20 degrees in this week alone, and so that will be a bit of a shock. But fall is coming, so it is going to start looking beautiful here.  

So to start of this week, I had another exchange for the day, this one was with the zone leaders though, and it just so happens we live with each other too, so it made the exchange quite easy.  I had a really good time on the exchange though.  So I went with Elder Sherwood and worked in his English area.  So the first thing we did was went and filled some water containers for this older guy in his ward, and we got attacked by bees while doing that, so we both left there with some battle scars and that was an adventure.  We also got the chance to go read the Book of Mormon with someone that was just baptized a few weeks ago, and that was so cool to see.  I remember even seeing him on his baptism day, and he was so much different.  I got to see the light that he got to start having in his life and the change that it brought.  He is doing so well and reading the Book of Mormon, and that was just great to do.  We also visited another person they are teaching, that has a lot of medical issues, but he is trying so hard despite how hard his life has been, and he has the sweetest heart.  The gospel brings a light into peoples lives that just sparks change and makes their lives start turning around from whatever they came from.  That was a blessing to see during the exchange, and a good motivator.  

So this week in the Spanish area was a bit hard though,  we taught a couple lessons and other than that nothing crazy happened.  While we were walking by a park though this 15 year old kid came up and started talking to us and had a ton of questions and that was really cool.  We are gonna try teaching him again later, and maybe even start to teach his family, who knows, it was cool to see him make the effort, and even if it doesn't come to anything, it was a good experience. Other than that, transfers are this week and I am staying where I am at and with my companion.  So I am very excited to keep up the work here in Minneapolis and see what we can do.

Now Ill explain some of the pictures.  So you got 3 pictures of crazy stuff that we have found around in the city, and the dinosaurs are at someone's house, not a museum or anything.  People here are just crazy.  Then we have the last picture which is me and Elder Sherwood on our exchange, so enjoy the pictures!

It was a great week and i am excited to just keep it up, the Lord provides a way to do his work and all we have to do is ask and be willing to do it, so that is what I will do.

Have a good week everyone

-Elder Pickering

Planters of the Seed

Ryan had another busy week and was also able to go to the Temple on Saturday.  Because of that, his p-day was shortened and he didn't have much time to write.  I am always grateful for the words he is able to share with us.  Here are a few of his random thoughts:

The temple was really good, it is always nice to go and get out of the craziness that is the world for a while, and man it is such a small temple!  It's crazy.

We had soccer this week with the priesthood of the ward, and apparently all my years of soccer didn't go to waste. I did pretty well and scored some and the members were impressed.  Its funny, doing things like soccer with them or whatever is the best way to get their trust. That is when they give us the most of their referrals of people they know.  So hey, you gotta do what it takes to build that relation and be able to find more people to give the chance to hear the gospel.

It is so awesome to hear you have had a good time with Del and George (Ryan's Aunt and Uncle).  The more I have thought about it, the more grateful I am for the missionaries that met them and taught them.  We gave a referral to the English elders that in a way was similar to George and Del and I am grateful for the work those missionaries did, and that they were able to help them receive in the gospel and recognize the spirit and of this truth.  It still is kind of crazy to me that, that is the chance I have here, there will be people that look back and are thankful that some elder Pickering was an influence in theirs or their families lives. I am so happy to be able to have that chance every day and just do all that I can.  I am very grateful to be here and have the chance to serve, it is way hard, but the more I think about it, there isn't anywhere I would want to be right now, this is my home for the two years, and I am learning to love it in all of its craziness, and I am being well taken care of.  

(As his mother, I am so pleased that he has already come to know he is in the right place at the right time.  This will help him so much in the time to come.)

Group Email:

So this week was quite the week out here in Minnesota, but it was a lot of fun along with being productive. 

So first off, to start the week, my companion had a leadership meeting so I was in a trio with some English Elders for the day and that was quite the adventure.  It helped me really realize how much I am grateful for the call to be working  with the Hispanic people here.  Basically we did finding for most of the day, because that's what the elder in that area said they needed. So we did finding and tracting in the rain all day and didn't find a single person that was even remotely interested to listen to us. And we just had a lot of slammed doors on us as we were outside soaking, so that was an adventure.  

The next day we had the opportunity to give some service to a member of our ward who does so much for the missionaries here, so we wanted to give back.  Basically her dog was very very dirty and we gave it a haircut and a bath and I'll include the before and after pictures here. (The one where it looks like my companion is holding an Ewok is the before picture).  

We also got to help move out a hoarder this week and that was a very unique experience that made me really enjoy the simpleness and cleanliness of our little missionary apartment.  

And finally the last interesting crazy thing was we got to go to the Quincenera of a girl whose parents we are working with and very close to being able to be baptized.  That was a good time to work with them and help them and just show our support. 

Other than that the work for the most part here just keeps on going on.  It is hard work and we don't always see the success from our labors, but every little effort is not wasted.  The family we are working with got got taught by missionaries upwards of 4 years ago and the fruits of that labor are just barely about to come forth, so that is amazing.  And we just remember that each day.  That no matter how little it seems we were able to accomplish or little we were able to do for people, sometimes we are just the planters of the seed, and the real viewable fruits of the work will come later.  So remember that in every interaction daily. Maybe you are doing something that person needs right now and will see a better daily life from it, and maybe you are just planting a seed, either way the importance is so immense.  I am so grateful to be able to be out here and give what I have to serving the Lord, and I know there is no better thing that I could be dedicating my time to rather than furthering the work here in Minnesota.

-Elder Pickering

"Good Luck!!!!! The Whole Building is Hispanics!!"

It was another fantastic week for Ryan.  We were a little unsure how a holiday Monday p-day would work and since we didn't hear from him earlier in the day we assumed it was changed.  But thanks to a kind member, we received a photo of him at the Minnesota State Fair and realized his emails would come later in the day.  We are glad that he had the opportunity to experience some Minnesota culture and have some fun with other missionaries.  We were also glad to hear that he worked hard this week and had some faith promoting experiences.  It is cool to see his growth as a missionary so early on.

I will include some bits and pieces of various emails and of course his group one as well.

 So last week my companion asked me to look at our people with interest, in our area book, and there are a lot, because old missionaries here didn't follow up ever it seems.  But the person I felt we should reach out to we went and saw this week.  His name is Jose Manuel Torres, but he goes by Manuel.  He is a really nice guy and showed a genuine interest!  He accepted the Book of Mormon really well too.  He said he couldn't see why God wouldn't of had prophets in the Americas too, it all made sense.  So that was way cool to be able to find that person, and so far see something come from it!  We are going to try and meet with him twice a week, so hopefully it continues to go well!  Other than that, just a lot of closed doors, which is hard, but when they do open the door, usually we are able to have a really good interaction and at least bring a little bit of light to their lives.  And I am so glad to be working with Hispanics! 

 We went to the state fair pretty early this morning after our studies, and then spent most of our pday there and driving to and from.  There was so much food and fun stuff, and we would occasionally run into a member and they were so nice!  This one member was running the slingshot ride and gave us a free ride and the video of it!! Ill get that to you later when I can, but it was so much fun and we had  a blast and I'm sure you would've enjoyed it too.

Group Email:


So we had another full week here in Minnesota.  So for a lot of the week we did work in the farthest south part of our area.  Not many missionaries have been able to get down there since this area historically just hasn't had a car.  And we are losing our car on the 20th this month, so we thought we would go do the work we could there while we had a car and then give the area to the Hermanas who have a car.  But while we were down there was plenty of crazy things.  We saw a metal gorilla, a giant creation of the millennium falcon, and plenty of other weird things you'll all get pictures of here.  So we didn't have a whole lot of success down south in the time we were down there, but I did experience my first door slam which was an interesting experience.  So let me help you imagine this, we knock on the door, and my companion was going to let me do this door.  So I knock, and as soon as the door opens, literally in less than a blink of an eye, the door was closing and the lady was yelling at us.  She was not Hispanic.  So she said a variety of things we found funny.  She suggested we change our clothes, because "How do you expect to sneak up and trick anyone in those clothes??"  Also she claimed we were soliciting because we were selling Jesus even if we didn't charge money.  And the best part, she said good luck to us, "The whole building is Hispanic!"  And 95 percent of this happened while the door was closed.  And me and my companion just looked at each other and knew we were in the right place, we are the Spanish elders after all, and the whole building was here for us!  So that was quite the experience.

Other than that, we did have some good experiences this week.  We taught some new people that seemed to find a genuine interest in the things that we had to say, and when you find someone like that, that asks all the right questions and just understands what you are saying, it is such a blessing.  There is no way that can happen without the spirit reaching out to them and helping them understand.  The spirit is such an important part of our lives daily.  We also had the opportunity as the only Spanish Elders in our area, to give quite a few priesthood blessings, and those are always testimony builders and just help you feel God's love for His children.  And finally, we have been able to work with a lot of less active members, and even if it isn't getting them back to church right away, if you can bring the spirit into their lives in someway, they will remember those feelings and then build that desire themselves.  That is something that everyone can do, missionary or not, is to bring the spirit into someone's life and help them recognize that familiar and loving feeling that comes from the Gospel.  if you do that, you will understand a portion of the Love God has for everyone here on the earth.  

Well that's this week of crazy and spiritual in Minnesota, and I am sure I haven't even scratched the surface yet, so talk to you all next week with some more stories and good experiences.

Elder Pickering