Lucky to be Alive

Well hello again everyone! Things are still going well out here in Morris and we are having a great time! 

Have a great week!

Elder Pickering

Just thought you would all like a throwback to how my old group emails so that you will always appreciate the little extra effort I have been putting in haha. 

So this week we started off with exchanges with our district leader.  So their area is about 2 and a half hours from our area, so it was quite the drive to do it, and we just blitzed the area when we were there. Which means rather than one companionship working in each area, you both just grind out the one area for the day but with a different companion.  So its pretty good in theory. What they did is both companions had separately planned out what they would do that day with us, and it turns out the person that I would exchange with just decided he wouldn't plan the day, and so we ended up with an entire day of tracting, with only studies and a dinner appointment to break that up. So it was a long haul that day, that is for sure. We got to meet lots of different people, and get rejected in more ways than you can even imagine, I am sure, that is just the life out here sometimes I guess, so that was our exchanges. We did the grind, and then were able to get back to our area to further the work there.  

One thing we have been able to pick up for service out in Morris is we are going to start working at this tiny little food shelf,and we go to the salvation army in town and we help sort things and move stuff around and just get to do a whole bunch of random things that gives us some good laughs sometimes. The other day we spent some time rearranging the furniture room because it was pretty bad.  So we turned one massive pile of furniture into rows that you could actually see the stuff and it was way better.  We could tell we did a good job because the couches were now accessible, and later on in the day we found this old guy just knocked out on the couches and he slept there for like 45 minutes, don't worry, picture will be included.

Here is another good laugh for you all.  So as I told you about the massive man eating bugs here in Morris, let that just sit in your mind during this story.  So as Elder Johnson and I walk around town to appointments or to find or whatever it may be, we find enjoyment in trying to meg each other. For those who may not know what that is, its where in soccer you kick the ball through another persons legs, its just like the ultimate destruction that you can give to your foe.  So as we walk around town we try kicking rocks, pine cones, or any object that you could send through the other person's legs. Now we were walking home after a large dinner and on the path Elder Johnson spies with his little eye an object that is just asking to be kicked through my legs. As we approach we realize its one of these dead bugs which are all over the place, and as he is in mid sentence trying to tell me this will be the ultimate meg, he makes contact, and this "dead bug" was actually two massive bugs that made a sound comparable to a tank rolling in over us, and they just came flying at us and we were out of there. Whether we ran faster than we had strength, or were given Usain Bolt skills for but a moment we don't  know, but we somehow came out alive. 

Now let me tell you about our good friend Leigh (Pronounced Lee)  So while we were on exchanges, I get t his call from the bishop of the English ward that we kinda cover and help out when we are able to.  He said someone just walked into church and said he wanted to be a member,so he gave us all the contact info and we got on it.  Now my boy Leigh is an 81 year old man who has had contact with members of the church his whole life, and the way he talks about the Book of Mormon and temples and his life experiences, you might think he was already a member.  So we have met with him a couple times now, and he loves to talk that is for sure.  And he even went to church on Sunday. However, he wasn't a fan of the kids making a bunch of noise or any irreverence, but we are working with him, he still expresses desires to become a member. We just will work on his patience with the niños.  But it was a good show to me that the little things and the examples that we show to someone, whether you ever see the outcome or not are good things.  Most of the members that invited him to church in his youth or gave him work or showed him charity are long passed away, but their efforts and example have made a lasting impression on his mind, so never cease to be an example.

Now the last story that I would like to end with has a good message behind it, it wasn't the highest point of my mission, but the lesson that it taught is invaluable and can hopefully help one of you one day.  So down here in Morris we meet in the city hall chambers to hold our church meetings, we have it rented out to use it every Sunday. We just have to pick up the key on Friday from the city hall, which is a different building, before they close for the weekend.  So  its just habit for us to get the key on Friday.  Now earlier in the week I had this thought that I should set an alarm or put it in the calendar as an extra reminder to get the key, and I thought to myself that is ridiculous, we will remember.  And I even thought to myself, if its really important for me to put in a reminder, I will remember tomorrow to put one in, so yeah I was being a bit naive in this. So next day rolls around and guess what popped into my head just at a random time? That is right, to put into the calendar to get the key.  And here is my mistake, I just told myself, If I have remembered two days in a row so far, no way I will forget on Friday.  Well Friday comes and goes, and we get to about 8 and we realize we never got the key... So we head over to the city hall, knock on that door and a guy shows up from behind us and asks what is up. He was working in there so we talked to him about getting the key, he said our best option was to go to the police department and see what they can do.  So we go there and they tell us to come back Sunday morning.  Now I cant tell you how bad I was feeling for ignoring this prompting and trying to rely on my human self and then having it come back to bite us.  Come Sunday morning we go back to the police department, and after lots of calls and lots of time, after we did all that we could do in our power, we came up short, there was no way for us to get the key, so we start calling and telling people that church will just have to be in someones home today. Then when we were on the way back home, heads held low, I had this thought to just go and check the place we hold church. So we did, we went over there not expecting much.  Then we saw a car, and in the room next to where we meet there was some Hispanics getting ready for a fiesta, so the front door was open, but the problem still lied in the city chambers door.  But we check, and it was unlocked, a miracle given to us from the Lord. Although as His servant I had fallen short earlier in the week, the Lord will not have His work or His plans stopped.  So after all we could do, and all the asking forgiveness, but then also going out and working to find a way, the Lord provided that His will be done.  Now it all worked out well in this case, thankfully it wasn't a situation of life or death, but never again will I put myself above any prompting I receive, no matter how silly it seems, and I urge every one of you to follow any impressions you ever feel. To quote Elder Eyring, 9 times out of 10, the first feeling or idea you get, will be right if you have the spirit with you, so never, doubt the promptings from the Lord.

So that is it for our week here in Morris, hope you enjoyed and see you next time!

Elder Pickering

Man Eating Bugs!

Ryan was there in "Spirit" for Gotti's baptism and by phone!!

Hey everyone!

Second week down here in Morris and things are still going well.  We officially got to be able to move into Morris so we don't have to make the hour drive back and forth from Alexandria anytime we go to Morris anymore.  So that is a plus and we get a new apartment, so new stuff and a clean place. The only downside being that the cupboards are all clean too as of right now.  The nice thing about the moving in was two of the senior Elder Missionaries from the office came to bring us all our stuff, and then after we went on to Pizza Ranch, which is like a pizza buffet and ate our weight in pizza. They are both awesome people. Elder Gadd goes home in just a few weeks here and that will be super sad. He and his wife have been here since my salmonella days and just are the nicest people you will ever meet, but I guess we need to share them with their grand kids again.

Church was good this week, we had about 15 people total this week including us.  There is this English family that lives real close to where we meet as a branch, the dad speaks some Spanish, so they thought they would come check it out for a week, so we appreciated having them there. And as anticipated, Elder Johnson got asked to give a talk, and after we ended, the surprise lesson was thrown on me, got to love being a missionary in a small branch, they really are awesome.

Also as a side note, there are like these just massive bugs here in Morris. (And I don't want to hear any complaining about yall out in other countries) For Minnesota these things are massive, we are just expecting that pretty soon they will be big enough that people are walking them around like dogs on leashes.

So the work in Morris is really going well. This week we worked on building up our pool of people to teach and start working with people, so we found some people, taught some lessons and got things started, so hopefully in the coming weeks, more on the people that we get to work with.

We also had zone conference this week which was good.  Given that we are literally so far away from everyone, it took a total of 3 hours driving both ways to even get there.  So we stayed the night up closer with the zone leaders just so we didn't have to hit a 6 hour driving day, zone conference is enough sitting as it is. So zone conference was good, we were really grateful to be inside during the 116 degree weather that we were having that day outside. That is just crazy to me, on my mission we have a temperature range of almost 200 degrees, always keeps you on your toes.  

One of the things that I really liked during zone conference was something our President shared in his training.  He talked about the atonement that our Savior went through, but gave it to us in a different light.  First think about any covenant that we make with our Heavenly Father, whether for ourselves or vicariously.  Now every covenant we make is made individually, its not done in a big batch, each person either does everything for themselves or one person for one person that has passed. Everything is individual in the covenants and designs of the church in that way.  Now we are going to think about the greatest vicarious ordinance that has ever been performed, that being the atonement of our Savior.  Our president explained, that if all other ordinances and actions performed are down individually, why would we think this was done any differently? Now take that as food for thought.  

Obviously there is not way that our human brains can imagine or figure out how that would work, how He individual suffered and paid for all of our sins and trails, but if its done like any other ordinance, why wouldn't the Savior have taken time to pay and take upon him your sins and trials, at one point in time in that garden.  That being said, just imagine when we get to reunite with our brother Jesus Christ once again, I can only imagine that the embrace as He pulls us in, having suffered for every single thing that you will deal with in your life, that will be a moment of the pure love of our Savior and God, and then, we might understand and be able to try and understand all he went through in that Garden.

Well I love you all, hope you have a great week and remember the love that our Savior has for you all!

Elder Pickering

Also the kid I was working with in Lakeville got baptized this week! Yay for Gotti!!

9 People to Church!!

Hey everyone, back again after a good week here in Minnesota, and this week some changes happened! 

So we had transfers come around, and my time came. After 6 months in Lakeville I am now off. I loved Lakeville though and am super grateful for all that I learned and the people I was able to work with and get to know! 

So know I am in an area very different from my first two. So in Minne and Lakeville I have pretty much seen missionaries for every single day of my mission, I have just been in busy populated areas and so that is what I have been in during my mission. However in this new area, I am about 2 hours from the nearest missionaries, and about 3 hours from the cities, so very very different. But they just started a little branch out here in Morris, Minnesota. So now I am out there with Elder Johnson, he is from Alaska and has been out on the mission the same time of me, so I am super grateful to have a missionary that has some experience under their belt. My whole mission I have been with super super young missionaries.  

So Morris is just this small little town of about 5,000 people, so we are expecting to talk to pretty much all of them here! It has a college campus on the town as well, so its a mix between long time Morris resident, college kids and then just the others.  There are a decent amount of Hispanics here, most of them work out here on the ranches, so we are going to work with the members to try and contact them. Speaking of the branch, I just love them! So we had at church 11 people total this week, and that is including us.  So 8 members, 1 non member and then the missionaries, so it is very small, but hey I have already learned all of their names, and they all have so much fire in them! That Sunday was only the 2nd sacrament meeting of this brand new branch, and a bunch of the members were telling us about people they have been talking to about the church, and they were all wanting some Books of Mormon to hand out to people when these situations come around, and as a missionary, that is just like the best thing ever to hear! 

So I don't have a whole lot specific to say this week, its been super crazy with trying to get the area all ready and going, so this Tuesday we officially move into our apartment in Morris and we can get going, and man am I excited! 

I also had to give a talk my first day here in the branch, they just threw me on the spot kind of, but its kind of expected as a missionary in a branch of so few people.  I talked about faith and the important role it plays in our life.  We often think of faith as just the first most simple aspect of the gospel. But there is so much more power to faith. It is through faith that Peter walked out on the water to Christ, it is through faith that many many people were healed in the scriptures, it is through faith that Ammon was able to defend the kings flocks, it is through faith that each of us are able to survive in the worldly storms that are so prevalent today.  That can be the foundation of our homes, the foundation of the storm shelter that we have. And if we chose to neglect that foundation, our building will crumble under the winds and pressure from the adversary and the world today.  So go back to the basics everyone, and make sure your faith is rock solid, so there is no way you can falter, that way you can look unto the Lord and push forward without looking back.

Love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Elder Pickering

PICTURES

 The last few weeks Ryan has been very generous with his picture taking.  He has shared many photos with us.  He has visited some unusual places in Minnesota like the largest candy store and some crazy yard with hundreds of antiques.  He has his usual plethora of animal pictures and even some of his companions and people.  So enjoy!!