Deep Thoughts After Christmas

Espanol abajo

Well Christmas is officially over, the lights will start coming down, trees thrown out or packed up, decorations cleaned up, and the spirit of service and Christ that is prevalent this time of year, will diminish until we once again start to celebrate His birth in another 364 days.

Now something about that doesn't seem quite right... He came to this earth and gave His life to the service of those around Him, the fulfilling of His fathers will and then eventually gave His life as He suffered and died for us, and all we can do for Him is remember Him one season of the year?
So this year, while you are packing up and putting the decorations and gifts away, don't put the remembrance of Christ and His birth and life away as well, but rather treasure it up in your hearts and minds all the year long.

As you consider how to do this, read this scripture found in 2 Nephi 31:20
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

So throughout the entire year, and your entire lives, press forward, with a steadfastness that is found in Christ, and as you have that hope and love for God and your fellowman, let that work in you to the point that you have the desires to serve your neighbor which in turn is serving your God.
So Christmas may have ended, but the spirit of Christmas, or the love of God, can carry on inside of you all year around!

La navidad ya se acabo, empezaremos a sacar las luces, echar las arboles de navidad y limpiar las adornos de la navidad también, y con eso, es espíritu de servicio y Cristo va a retroceder en el mundo hasta el proximo ano.

Pero eso no me queda bien... El vino a la tierra y dio su vida en el servicio de los demás, en cumplir la voluntad de su padre, y en al fin, nos dio su vida. Y después todo que nos dio, todo que podemos hacer es recordarlo una vez por ano?

Entonces este ano, en vez de echar el espíritu de la navidad y los recordatorios de su vida en una caja con los demás adornos, sino guardarlo en su corazón y mente todo el ano.
Mientras que lo haga, lee este escritura que se encuentra en 2 Nefi 31:20
20 Por tanto, debéis seguir adelante con firmeza en Cristo, teniendo un fulgor perfecto de esperanza y amor por Dios y por todos los hombres. Por tanto, si marcháis adelante, deleitándoos en la palabra de Cristo, y perseveráis hasta el fin, he aquí, así dice el Padre: Tendréis la vida eterna.

Entonces, durante todo el ano y toda su vida, sigue adelante con firmeza que hay en Cristo, y cuando tenga esta esperanza y amor por Dios y su semejante, deja que estes sentimientos trabajan en usted hasta el punto que tengan las ganas de servir a su vecino que es igual de servir a Dios.
Entonces, se acabo la Navidad, pero el espíritu de Navidad, que es el amor De Dios puede morar dentro de usted todo el ano!

Merry Christmas

So because Ryan's p-day was on Christmas day, he didn't have much time to write an email.  That is a good sign that he was busy and spending time with good people.

We were able to talk with him and hear a little about his week.  They have been busy sharing the Christmas message with the people of Minnesota.  He was able to go to the temple with a new convert.  He had several meals throughout the week with different members so I know that he was well taken care and felt love.  Transfers were the week before and his good friend Elder Pugh joined him from Morris.  He is serving in the Spanish area and they share an apartment.

Ryan finds serving in a leadership position, tiring, a little bit stressful and yet a great opportunity for growth.

Thank you everyone that has supported him and shown him extra love at this time of year!!


Hey Everyone! So I've been busy today and so here is your wonderful email! Enjoy the pictures!! 

6 Months Left

Hey everybody! 

So this week wasn't all that exciting here, so its not going to be the most exciting email, but I do have at least one fun story and a cool experience, so that is all you need right?

So also side note, this week officially marked 6 months left in the mission, so if that is weird to anyone else, get on the bus.

So coming up this next week we will be having our Christmas zone conference, and as part of that, President Barney has us submit videos of us sharing our talents or singing or whatever it may be, to kind of have a more festive zone conference. So the idea that I came up with for our apartment was "Hot Pepper Hymns". We decided to sing joy to the world and after each verse we would take a good chomp of a hot pepper and then just see how it progressed.  Well it was quite the time, and it was quite a blast watching the other 3 just run around like they were literally dying for like 15 minutes after the video.  I have the video all put together, but its too big to try and send over email, so if you are interested in some quality content, you will have to let me know and I can get it to you.

So the other good thing this week was that I got to go on an exchange with the Spanish area that we live with in our apartment. So Elder Marchant and I went and squaded up in my old area and it is always fun to see old faces and to actually speak Spanish and feel just back at home.  One member ended up taking us to a Rodizio grill for lunch. If you don't know what that is, look it up, but pretty much I ate more meat and food than I probably ever have, to be honest, and the family just kept getting a kick when I would get more food and were hyping me up to eat more and more. So basically we went all in, like you should right.  I didn't even need to eat dinner that day, so that is just being a thrifty saver right here I'm pretty sure. 

So the coolest part of the night ended up being when we stopped by this one member and she decided to take us to her neighbors apartment to show us the nativity that she had set up. Well last year when I went caroling, we ran into this same apartment and I ended up working with the couple for the last few weeks before I left and then the missionaries after me called the husband once and he didn't answer so they dropped him.  So fast forward a year and here we are, I remind the lady of the whole story. I never got to know her as well because she would like cook during our lessons or wasn't as engaged, but I come to find out, that her husband ended up passing away just like a week or two after I had left the area. So no wonder the Elders who called him didn't get an answer... but it was super cool to be able to talk to her and kind of reassure her and build off that common ground of me knowing her husband and being able to connect in that way that she couldn't with a whole lot of people.  So the elders should be working with her from now on, so hope all goes well! A cool miracle, that is for sure though.

Well that is all I got for you today! Next pday will be Christmas and we will have transfers before that, so exciting things to come! 

Love you all

Elder Pickering

Also I got to finally meet my "personal trainer" Melvin in person, it was amazing

Melvin

A district meeting - aka gingerbread house building

Murals Round 2

Hey everyone!

So I hope you are all ready, because now that I am back in the cities with all the murals all over the place, you can expect all sorts of random pictures once again of me with some murals, so enjoy! 

So this week started off with MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) It was a good time, it is always fun to go and see people. It was super weird too because everyone there in the leadership was people that came out around the same time as me or will go home with me. So we all had a good time chatting it up since that is about the only time we get to converge from all sides of the mission.  

Otherwise the meeting was alright, its always hard to be stuck inside all day learning how to be a good missionary and whatnot, when you would rather be out and about doing it. And its also super funny to see how hard some people try and get on that AP grind, silly people.

One thing kind of fun this week was we got a random call from someone in Oklahoma that would be coming to Minneapolis and he told us to meet him up at the bus stop down town. So outside of missionary life it would be super sketch to just receive that and up and go, but that's the life here in the twin cities.  We got there and met him and found out he is a recent convert that will be living here for a little while which is cool. The crazy part is that he told us at any moment he could have a seizure right there. And we were waiting for his brother to come and meet up with us who just got out of jail for assault and it wasn't his first time haha. The mission always keeps things fun.

I got to go on exchanges with the Elders that are serving in Minnetonka here in the mission and that went well.  We ran into more Hispanics that day out in there area than I have run into since serving in this area. So that was super funny, but definitely a tender mercy for me to be able to use my Spanish.  Also its super funny to see how far out of the way some people will go to avoid confrontation or talking to us. Like if you don't want us to stop by or keep trying to talk to you, just let us know. Don't tell us through the door that you aren't home... again, silly people.

So some cool teaching moments this week.  We got to meet up with Jada, the referral we got from a couple weeks ago now, and it went super well! We brought a member as well and  it was great for fellow-shipping and then the spirit was real strong later on and I think she really has good potential to progress! We are hoping to see her at church real soon! We also visited this less active guy, we visit  him just about every week here to just see how he is doing and give him a lesson and whatnot. So his "like" girlfriend was there and sat in on the lesson and participated and expressed desires to want to be baptized! There will be some steps that for sure need to be taken first, but it should be a good time! 

Also there are a ton of Native Americans in our area we work with, and so its super fun playing the game now, Hispanic or Native American when trying to figure out how to start the conversation in Spanish or English. Thankfully when we go on the reservation, its pretty straight forward haha. 

Also I got to see my friend Victor who I worked with last year and helped him with his homework weekly! He is about to graduate and is setting up to go to college through the air force! Its so crazy to see him grow up, and we had a good heart to heart about how he needs the gospel in his life and so hopefully he can make some of those important decisions and steps before he heads out.

Well that is all I got for you today, have a great day! And make sure to go out and light the world!

Elder Pickering

Watch For Our Album

Hey everyone! Since this was such a  short time since last p-day I don't really have enough to put into an email! If you have any questions or want to hear about the week, shoot me an email!

So just enjoy this trendy album cover of me and my companion from the week. And a massive snow bear.

Elder Pickering

Happy Thanksgiving

Well hello everyone after a longer week here without a p-day! Hope you all have a great thanksgiving today! And Happy Birthday to my sister Alyssa!

So since it was such a long week, a lot has happened. I will do my best to try and not make this boring or rambling email though.

So starting off the week we had some finding time and found this lady named Cathy. She opened the door and was holding this dog, and so we talked up the dog and once that awkward barrier was broken of two random guys on the doorstep, we talked for quite a while! All stemming back to the normal and natural ways of missionary work.

Also fun little thing we do here. So we visit this one member who lives in this big building and he lives on floor 15... So we thought that every time we would go over there we would see how fast we can make it to his place.  We call it the 5S challenge, and so far the record to beat there is 1:29.99.  So we will see if we can improve from that! Its all about finding the little joys and reasons to laugh and smile day by day, Men are that they might have joy, and so that we do! 

We also had zone conference this last week. I got to conduct that as zone leader, so that was fun. It was weird to see lots of people again and so many faces that I didn't recognize after being out in the middle of nowhere for a while. After zone conference, we went out with a member and he took us to this super sick Japanese place that was all you can eat, and we all pretty much ate until we literally couldn't get any more in our bodies haha. We definitely got our moneys worth there.  

So something super fun that I got to do this week was going on an exchange with one of the district leaders, and it just so happens that they are the Spanish elders that we live with, and in the area that I served in for 6 months.  So I got to go home in a way and see all tons of familiar faces and help out pretty well there.  One of the things we got to do during that exchange is there was a baptism in our English ward of two kids, like 13 and 8, and I got asked to do one of the baptisms. So Elder Fletcher and I each did one of the baptisms and it was such a good experience. The only thing is that after, Elder Fletcher pulled the plug on the font, and there was a baptism scheduled for immediately after in the Spanish ward.  So after the first baptism we got all hands on deck in filling the font, which normally takes 3 and a half hours to fill.  So we got the water on at full, and then went to the janitor's closet and started filling buckets with the hose there.  The Spanish ward was super chill with it and was all hands in, the little girl even got to help fill her own font which she thought was such a cool experience. 

Also, later that night we got to go visit someone named Jaime who I taught in Lakeville. He has been living up here taking care of his mom, so me and him had a good heart to heart talking about how it wasn't just a coincidence that we ran into each other again and that was so fun.

Finally, we have been super blessed here lately.  There are blessings that come from us on this earth doing the right thing at the right place and doing all that we can in our efforts.  We were blessed to see that as we were giving our all, even if by our own strength or ways we didn't see any big miracles, but God provided the rest in miracles.  We had a super solid family we are teaching invite us to come over for Thanksgiving with them, and just an amazing referral drop into our hands out of nowhere.  So always keep on working hard. As faithful saints we can be assured that if we do all our part and try and be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing, we can expect miracles, and be able to rely on them! So keep that in mind!

Love you all! 

Have a great thanksgiving!

Elder Pickering

The Spanish Ward's turkey "futbol" bowl

Ryan's Zone

Returned Home

President and Sister Ocampos

Hey Everyone.
Back after another crazy week here in Minnesota.  Well we had transfers this last week and I have returned back to my first area where I spent 6 months already, although this time as zone leader so I am working with the English ward that covers the same area.  It is super weird being back in the same apartment, but this time being the zone leader rather than the Spanish missionaries here. But  it will be good.  I sure missed all the crazy that goes down here in the cities.  For example in my first couple days down here the crazy has been nonstop.  We were driving past a McDonalds here and saw this police drive up to it with his lights on and so we were watching as we were passing, and in one fluid motion the police officer gets out of his car and pulls his gun on all the people outside of the Mcdonalds.  We have no end to this story because we had to keep driving, but man that is the kind of crazy that you just miss out on being in Morris in the middle of nowhere.  

Also we got a self referral from this guy and we texted him and he wanted us to visit him like that moment, so we get up and go and get to know him. We learn he has been to jail multiple times and then when he was looking for something he lifted up his pillow and there was a big ol knife under it, you know "just in case, you never know when someone will try and rob you" so that was an adventure, but hey he might come to church this week!

So another fun time is the very first day of this transfer, before I could even unpack my stuff is I had exchanges with the zone leaders.  So I headed off to their area and worked with the YSA for a day, it was a good time, a bit of a culture shock after working with Hispanics for 16+ months and then next day going and doing work on the college campus, but its always a good time and it was good to jump into the deep water and start swimming.  Church also this week was a crazy opening into not only a ward, but a ward in the middle of the cities haha.  We had one guy speak on dinosaurs and how they prove the bible and were on the ark that Noah built and whatnot, and following him a member of the 70 who lives in the ward had the chance to speak, so quite the contrast.  I also had the chance (being volunteered by the sisters) to sing in the choir here as well, so it was just a full Sunday.

So I am super excited to see how this next while goes in a new area, I will miss Morris, but there will be plenty of miracles and blessings that come here. Thankfully Christ knows what we go through and can help qualify us for any situation and help us to not only make it through, but make our weaknesses strengths, and help us move forward with a new hope and lasting joy!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Pickering

Ryan loves President Barney

Ryan visited Pickerina's grave, the bunny that was named after him.

A warm welcome from a gracious host.