Felicidades

We had a wonderful talk with Ryan today.  He was really upbeat and seems to have hit his stride with being a missionary.   You could tell he was genuinely happy and so grateful for this opportunity to serve the people.  He is loving speaking and teaching in Spanish, the wonderful Hispanic culture and deepening his understanding of the Gospel.  He had a fun service in the morning helping "replant" a prairie.  He taught several lessons throughout the week.  And of course was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend the wedding of a wonderful couple that he has grown to love.   He has felt Heavenly Father's love for him and is recognizing the blessings that are coming in this process.  I continually look forward to seeing what each new week brings.  It is going to be great!

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Hey everyone! 

So it has been a super rainy, fun, and good week over here in Lakeville,  Minnesota.  So to start out, we are on the last week of the transfer/ month here, and we noticed that as a district we were quite a bit behind on our new people found and being taught numbers. So Elder Hulse and I have made it our goal to find 8 people from last Thursday until this next Thursday to make up the at least what would divide out to be our part of catching up the goal.  So that is quite a bit of people for us here, We are lucky in some weeks to even, get one person that listens to us or will set up a time that we can come back.  But so far we are about half way through that week timeline, and we have found 4 new people! We went out right after that district council and found 2 people right of the bat, which was a super cool miracle.  So we just have been out working hard and have really seen God's hand in helping us hit that goal of 8 people before Thursday, so we will keep up the grind and see what we can do! 

Also we have been super blessed with lessons as of late.  We have had so many more opportunities to get into peoples houses and actually have a lesson, or talk to people and just use our Spanish and improve our teaching.  And missionary work is so much more fun and a lot easier when you are working with people you can get to know and teach rather than just stuck on the knocking door grind all the time. 

Also, we had the chance to go to a wedding of a family that I worked with in Minneapolis! Lets just say its about time for this family, I love them so much and was so happy to see them take this step in their lives. So we got to go up and support them during that pachanga, ate some good food, and I got unofficially put in as the official photographer of the wedding, so that was an adventure and a great time.  Now their baptism is on the 9th and I am super stoked for them!

Well that is my week here in Minnesota, hope you all have a great week and are doing great!

Elder Pickering

De Nada Tortuga

Hey everyone! So its been a little bit since I talked to you all, my mom did a great job at updating you all of whats been going on here in Minnesota, so now that leaves me with a big standard of emails haha. 

So this was a pretty short week here for me, since we had p-day on Wednesday so we could go to the Twins game, its only been a few days since my last p-day.  The game was super fun, as my mom said we got to take the big van to the game and parking in the city was an adventure.  

Now for this story, I want you all to imagine like your pinky finger for example, okay.  So when parking this van in the parking garage, the clearance between the ceiling and the van at some parts was literally so close that I could not have fit my pinky finger in between, but lo and behold, no scratches and we made it in!

Then the next day we had zone conference, and as a part of this zone conference our mission has been preparing for a race. Since our mission has a history of packing tons of pounds on to the missionaries, our president thought it would be fun to give motivation to be exercising through the winter and get ready for this race.  Now it was way hot and humid, so a complete contrast of the last few months, but we got to run around this lake and it was pretty. I ended up coming in third place, and our zone took all 3 podium spots, so we represented well.  

Then that evening as we were driving after dinner, we saw this massive turtle making its way into the road, so I decided to be Bear Grylls and get up and personal with that thing, and snatch it out of the road and save its life.  It turned out it was a big ol snapping turtle, and after scratching me pretty good and snapping at my companion, I returned it to the wilderness and saved its life. (There is a video of this and of a ward talent show we had, if you want those videos, contact my wonderful mother, thanks mom!)

So next thing of interest that happened, was we had a branch talent show this weekend.  We had tons of people show up, and we all had a great time with some great food.  For the missionaries "talent" we did this skit where my hands were the "hands" of Elder Hulse and we just showed everyone what its like to get ready as a missionary in this way, so that was a lot of fun, and we got the branch really laughing on that!.

And finally for a little miracle this week, before the Twins game on Wednesday while we were out doing our pros time in the morning, we ended up knocking into this lady named Nancy.  Her son was in a super bad car crash just recently and the car was destroyed, but her son walked away unharmed.  And her cousin, who apparently is a member, told her that she would find all her answers on why God did this in the Libro de Mormon. So this day that we found her, she was going to go out and try to find herself a book anyways, and it just so happened that we came by her house giving out free ones that day. So we will see how that goes, definitely a cool show on how things work out and God plans where and when we need to go places, super cool.  

So hope you all had a great week and enjoyed this maybe record breaking email length! (not including my moms) But love you all and keep doing great things!

Elder Pickering 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game . . .

Hello everyone, 

First off, right here from the beginning, I need to clarify that this is not Ryan speaking. This is his mother.   Ryan had somewhat of a crazy week and a different P day so he was unable to get a group email out to everyone. Since I just had the opportunity to talk to him on Mother's Day,  I told him that I could send out a quick update for him. And since he doesn't like to type all that much I'm sure he didn't mind that at all.

 You may be wondering why his P-day was changed this past week. Well many of his fellow missionaries had the opportunity to go to a Minnesota Twins baseball game. Since the game was on Wednesday, the Mission President changed his P-day. I don't think Ryan has mentioned in the past that he took a special driving course and has become the designated driver of the mission 12 passenger Van. So when they have big meetings or places they need to be Ryan is the lucky one to haul everyone around. So he picked up a bunch of missionaries and they went to the game. He feels very lucky to be in a mission where he has lots of contact with many missionaries. And it was a nice break for them to go to this activity. He enjoyed typical baseball fair fair of hot dogs and nachos, the 70 degree weather which he feels is too hot after their cold winter, and the Twins won the game 8 to 7 which is always a plus.  They ended the day eating at a Korean restaurant enjoying the camaraderie of all the missionaries.

According to Ryan, the missionary work is starting to pick up. It was a long and cold winter without much visible success. Ryan spends most of his days tracting and that is difficult missionary work. But with the weather turning warmer more people are out and more friendly over all.  He said that he has the most interesting experiences tracting.    They are planting a lot of seeds. Boy are they planting a lot. It's hard to keep going when you don't see immediate results but he gets up every day and he does it which makes me proud.

A little while back they came across a lady while they were tracting who was very distraught. After having a conversation with her on the porch she invited them in. She was having a lot of difficulty in her life and was quite upset. So the Elders offered to say a prayer with her which she accepted. It was a sweet experience and an opportunity for them to share Heavenly Father's love for her. She was touched and felt the spirit. I don't know what will come of this experience but I am sure that this is where Heavenly Father needed them to be at this time.

One thing that Ryan and his companion do every week is volunteer at a food pantry like place.  People in the community that have temporal needs come here for help. Not only with food but other things as well. Since many of them are Hispanic, Ryan translates and works directly with the people. He shared a neat experience where he had a prayer answered with one particular individual. She really needed a job and asked him to pray for her to find ope. He promised that he would and he did pray for her. The following week she showed up and let everyone know that she found a job thanks to the Elder's prayer.   Ryan said that it was really cool to see a direct answer to his prayer that helped change somebody's life.

Ryan is also keeping busy serving in the branch. I asked him if he ever has to fill in or help out and on that particular Sunday he told me that he said the opening prayer, lead the music, and helped with the sacrament. I think that is so neat that he has so many opportunities to serve and do things that might be a little bit out of his comfort zone. I'm particularly thinking of him leading the music for Sacrament Meeting which is something that I never imagined him doing. It's awesome that he can grow in many different ways.

When I was face-timing him on Mother's Day he was busy making brownies.  {In case he hasn't let any one know he has become quite the chef on his mission. He has his own Chef's knife thanks to his Grammy and he has perfected many recipes.)  I asked him what he was doing and he said they were making treats for a new family that was moving in the next day. They were going to help them move in and hopefully build some relationships with them. It's a part member family and the son has been learning the discussions and hopes to be baptized. Ryan is cautiously optimistic that there will be an opportunity to do some teaching with this family (father and son) in the future.

Ryan was also excited to talk about a family he worked with back in Minneapolis. He grew to love this family but they were not able to get baptized because of their marital situation. Or should I say lack of marriage. Anyway,  they worked with them for quite a while and really grew to love this family and encouraged them to keep working towards their goal of entering the waters of baptism. Well Ryan received word that things were finally happening and at the end of this month they will be getting married and baptized on the same day. Ryan will have the opportunity to go back to Minneapolis to be there for this great event. He is so joyful knowing that this family is ready to take the next step and that he gets to play a small part in that process.

Other than that, Ryan is just plugging on every day.   He often expresses to us how difficult and challenging it is to be a missionary. But at the same time you can see that he is happy and growing, and finding new ways to serve and become a better person.   He has learned and accomplished so much so far and still has time to have many more experiences.

Thank you all for the support and prayers you offer him. I know he feels it and he appreciates every one of you.

Take care and a you can look forward to another riveting email next week from Elder Pickering himself. 

Latin Festivities

Ryan had a positive week this past week which is always good to hear.  It is fun see him embrace the Latin culture and find joy in celebrating with the people and sharing his message with others.

He said that he had a really great first contact with a woman this week.  They were tracting (as usual) and came across a lady that was quite distraught.  They visited with her for a few minutes and asked if they could say a prayer with her.  She willing accepted and it was a beautiful experience.  The lady was able to feel God's love for her through the Spirit and it touched her.  She agreed to a follow up appointment for later on which unfortunately she did not keep for whatever the reason.  Who knows what will happen next.  The Elders may not get to teach her in the immediate future but it did not discount the fact that they were where they needed to be at the time to help bless this lady's life.  She felt God's love and someday that may impact her in a way that she will be ready to learn more.  In the meantime, it was a sweet tender mercy for all that was involved.

Group Email:

Well I'm back after another week here!  It was a pretty good week in Minnesota.  We got the chance to celebrate two fun things this week with Dia de los Ninos as well as Cinco de Mayo!  For the Dia de los Ninos (day of the children), the branch got a ton of pinatas, pizza and tres leches, and let the kids play and play.  It was probably the most simple party to put on ever for the branch, just buy some pizzas and then let the kids just do their thing and play as they would anyways.  We also had Cinco de Mayo yesterday, and so for that, we got to got to this Cinco de Mayo festivity over in St. Paul on Saturday.  We were able to have a booth there and talk to a ton of people and share the word.  We handed out balloons that said "I am a child of God", had people to surveys that will hopefully lead to some referrals, and also did some face painting.  It was a fun time there, we got plenty of sun and got to meet a huge variety of people.  The most part of the people there ended up not even being Hispanic, but we still had lots of good opportunities, as well as lots of other people and their religions there trying to "school us", so that is always interesting.  Whenever people try and put us down, or catch us in our words, or throw us off guard, they always end up tripping over their own words or contradicting themselves.  This gospel is the complete truth and knowledge restored again on the earth. We have the power of God here in our church to bless our lives and help direct it, and so whenever someone tries to attack that or go against it, it never works out for them, they are always chasing strings and going for whatever they can. But in the end the spirit will only reside and testify of the true church, and we are blessed with that gift in our lives.

Elder Pickering