The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

ok so this week has been great and horrible!

great because we found a new family! who are excited to learn more and to join the church and i could go off about the chain of miracles that have happened and how happy i am about the work God has given us this week! 

So i want to take a second and let you all know that it is hot down here and its only going to get hotter! but thats ok we do our best and God knows the plan so i'm happy. 

this week was horrible because yet again here i am emailing you on MONDAY! its been a whole week! i don't like how fast time has been flying by it seems as though the only thing i have to mark my time is sitting here emailing you and then 2 seconds later here i am again! 

but i am here to report that every second that goes by and i am doing the best and most wonderful work in the world that i am loving it so much! i love being here i love teaching i love serving and i love seeing the change the God works in the hearts of these amazing people that he has blessed me with the opportunity of being the one through whom the spirit is able to testify of these eternal truths. oh boy this is the life! 

well i love you all so much keep up being the amazing rampaging-tiger-monkeys that you are i love you!
Elder Pehrson

Big Buddha

Note from Z: Emailing with Elder Pehrson is always an interesting experience. Each segment of his story is sent in a different email. So on a given Monday I get anywhere from one to seven emails. I usually just consolidate into one post for you all (complete with some slight editing on my part). Today I thought I'd just give you the gloriousness the way I receive it.
You're welcome.

Email #1:

i hope this is the right video...

Z IN RESPONSE:

Hi! How are things going? Are you still in the car? How's your relationship with your companion? What new things have you learned from the scriptures? What was your favorite conference talk and why? Cool video - just showing us your desk?

Email #2:

well hello beautiful! things are great!

yes, don't know how much longer i have a follow up with the dr next monday.

We're doing well l i think he is a great missionary and we are working a lot with him being a part of lessons but he doesn't have smooth transitions down yet he will 1 interrupt and talk over or he will not transition smoothly and have a long awkward pause but that's ok we're working together on all of this so we are happy.

well i just finished it again last week and i can again testify that moronis promise is true the book is true and God does tell us and he is there.

Elder Bednars haha mostly because this is the first time watching conference where i wasn't thinking what i could learn but what the people we're teaching need to hear and this talk we have already used with melony and deven and it has testified to them and helped them both a lot.

ok now what did you think of the video and my explanations of the pictures?

Z IN RESPONSE:

Well, yeah, it was a cool video, but it was pretty short. Did you just want to show us your desk? I haven't gotten your pictures yet.


Email #3
FAMILY! and FRIENDS! and perhaps PEOPLE I DON'T KNOW! hello!

so this week was great we finally got in with melony and then the member we were with invited her to dinner and she actually went! AND she came to church!!!!!!! and she is excited to learn more and to work towards baptism! woot! we have been trying to help her progress since last aug! so that was exciting! 

so it snowed there? that's funny its been in the upper 80s lower 90s down here but i tell you what when the sun goes down and the cool breezes come in and its too dark to recognize the boring dull colors of everything it is paradise down here! this is a place that mom would love, warm. 

ok so i wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! for sending that stuff down i didn't tell you this last week and it has been bugging me all week THANK YOU! i love it all and it means so much to me that you did that for me thank you! 

ok so in that video that i sent it shows a new backpack [note from z: I still don't think he's sent the right video] so that was CRAZY! this less active family that we've been working with a lot lately got that for me because they wanted to thank me for helping them out and i was blown away that they would do that for me! they work for the airforce so they got it at luke airforces comencary and its SUPER nice! its the most comfortable backpack i've ever worn and its funny because its actually quite large but it has straps to make it smaller because i don't need it to be so big but its the camo canvas that is indestructible and pretty much the coolest thing in the world! 

ok so now the Buddha .. it was two dollars at a yard sale and i had to get it! it is now Rudigard, holder of the globe of infinite wisdom. So of those who know me this thing is the bees knees, i love it so much and it makes my desk quite the attraction at our house if you can imagine.
so other then that no real news to report we are working hard and loving to work its not too hot yet and so that makes things nice indeed. I love you all thank you so much for the love and support that you give and keep being fly!

Love Elder Pehrson

P.S note to the best mum in the world; how many weeks until mothers day? :D


Email #4

Ooooh, okay, I'll resend it.

[sends exact same video]


Email #5

so this is elder loper! yay! he is 21 and he is brand spankin new to the mission and he is the funniest person in the world we love the guts out of him and the next one is my best district leader in the world oh man i love Elder Wade i just gave him a cupcake that a member gave us and he stuffed it in his mouth and spat out jusst for me "don't tell monkey" (i quote movies all the time and he is almost always the only one to get them) so there you go from the surprise house


Z's RESPONSE:

Elder, that's the same video. It's only a few seconds long. It shows the Buddha, but that's about it.

Email #6:

Poof!

[finally sends the right video]

Not transfered

so i am writing this letter to the sweet music of a giving Melinda Pehrson who by all accounts is amazing

end of story! 

oh man and now she is bowing and Kyle said WOW and i agree with him! that is all that can be said. 

This is Elder Meredith

so both Elder Meredith and i are staying so thats good news 

Me and Elder Jackson on our last day together

ok so great news i found out that Elder Jackson is going to be TRAINING! i'm so proud of him thats the coolest he is such an amazing missionary i love him and now he is going to be able to pass the torch on to another Elder who will then be able to be another great missionary. 

Thank you so much for sending all that stuff down it means a lot to me so thank you! 

So sat morning session we spent at the anderson family i LOVE them so much they are crazy they have six kids under14 so it was a ton of fun and then we went over to the marinars for afternoon, we went to priesthood at the church and then sunday morning we were at the riddles and i say this a lot but i love them! it was great they have a son preparing to go on a mission and he is super excited to go 

Elder Campbell, friend, trainer and now a new Assistant to the President!

and then for the afternooon session we tried to watch it at devens, he is the 17 year old who can't be baptised for another year because he is on probation, well ok so i'm frustrated in him and this is one of the reasons why 26 minutes in to the session he gets up and starts calling people and setting up for him to go over there, and we can hear the whole time he doesn't have a quite voice and then he comes in and tells us thathe has plans and that he has to go blah blah blah so we got kicked out so we went back over to the riddles.

 but he is struggling he comes to church but he just listens to his ipod the whole time and he wont listen to us but then when you ask him questions he sesponds as if this is a huge thing to him and every time we ask him if he is reading he says yes and we ask him what he read and without fail he will tell us the same thing over and over each time the same thing but don't worry we are still working with him and helping him along. 

Arizona Phoenix Mission is #1

well family i love you so much keep up the grand work you do i love you

Elder pEHRSON

Mission alignment news!

ok so i wanted to tell you all we have news of the mission boundary realignment!

The Arizona Phoenix mission is losing the Phoenix stake (irony eh?) and we are receiving the... FLAGSTAFF STAKE! the grand canyon is now in our mission! AND the reservations are back from the farmington new mexico mission!

oh my goodness! oh my goodness oh my GOODNESS! so to Kim Clark who if i remember right is going to be in the Tempe mission she might be serving in the phoenix stake, and on July 1 the missionaries from the flagstaff mission will become APM and the APM in Phoenix stake will go to the Tempe mission!

ok now thank you all for your Easter happy-ings i'm glad it was a great day for you folks, a sister in the zone leaders wards gave all of us new ties that we wore on Easter so that was nice. we went and shared a bunch of short messages with folks and oh my goodness EVERYONE gave us dessert so by the end of the day we were stuffed more then trophy wildabeast!

and this isn't transfer week that is next week, also the same family from the zone leaders ward is going up for conf so they are bringing up all my winter stuff and they were going to call you to sort that all out and see if they get back before Wednesday of next in the case that i am transferred next week.

The work here is good, we are working a lot with members and less actives so we're doing stuff so that's nice. i'm super excited to see how all the mission boundaries pan out. who goes where and the such but for now we have to keep working and focus on what we're doing.

oh man little munchkin is growing up so darn fast! she's going to be able to arm wrestle me before i get back! well that's not hard to do for anyone but you know what i'm saying! so today we went to Ross and i have no idea why i've never been there before! they have super nice shoes for way cheap! i got a new pair of church shoes and a pair of running shoes and if i would have got them at their respective stores i would have spent over 300 dollars(they had the original price tags on them) but they only were 60 so that made me very happy and now i have shoes that aren't falling apart!

well other then that i don't really have any breaking news but ask dad if he can get a hold of a map of the mission. with the new flagstaff stake the mission is almost 1/3 bigger then before! i'm so excited to see how it all work.

all in all i love you all dearly! happy Easter!
Love Elder Pehrson