Back at You Again

The many missionaries the Vega Family hosted on Thanksgiving

Ryan's P-day wasn't until Thanksgiving Day this week.  And even though that was a long time to wait to hear from him, it was fun to be able to communicate with him on the Holiday.  He had a wonderful day thanks to the generosity of kind members, fun with the ward, visits with his investigators and yummy food.

I am so grateful to the wonderful people of Minnesota and all that they are doing to help my son grow and become the missionary and person he is meant to become.

Group Email:

Hey everyone. So its been a little while longer since you have all heard from me, but don't worry, I'm still alive here in Minnesota. And my next p-day will be weird too, it'll be on the 28th (To celebrate Alyssa's birthday) and to be able to go to the temple. So just a heads up for everyone. 

So since its been a longer week I'm not going to try and sum it up for all you, just give you like a story or so. So I have become my own practicing dog groomer here while on the mission. A lot of times the members have dogs, but don't have the time to clean them or whatnot, so for the second time on my mission I got to give a dog a haircut and a bath here. And something I have learned is giving baths to little dogs is a lot easier to maintain then big dogs, I know that's hard to believe. But that was something fun this week. And that family I cleaned the dog for, they got a bunny too, and they named it after me! But it is a girl, so its name is "Pickerina" which pretty much made my entire week. So I've left some sort of a mark here in Minneapolis. 

Later on in the week we had like a ward Thanksgiving party, and it went better than I could've expected. So a little after it had started, we got a text from one of the people we have a date for, saying her, and the other person we have a date for are on their way. They are both from El Salvador and when they got here, the table we had them sit at just so happened to have 2 more people from El Salvador as well, and they immediately just hit it off. Their kids were playing, they shared stories, were laughing and all happy together, and it was about as good as you can hope for as a missionary. Everyone welcomed and fellow-shipped them right in, and it was perfect. At the end of the night they had multiple Thanksgiving dinner invites, lots of new friends, and they thanked us for inviting them because they enjoyed it. So that was pretty much perfect for them at this time, and it was such a blessing to see, so hopefully following that, we will see continued growth in them now. 

So as my little invitation to you all this week, just be that welcoming person for someone else. If you see someone new or that may feel out of place, introduce yourself, get to know them, let them know this church is a place of family, because that is the kind of love you should feel here, and that's the kind of love that A and J felt when they came to the ward activity, and there is no better feeling then that. So keep up the good work and talk to everyone on the 28th!

-Elder Pickering

"Pickerina" the Bunny

Ryan wearing his Ohio State tie in honor of the Ohio State-Michigan Rivalry