Why watch grass grow when you can stare at the sun?

Ok so this week has been crazy fun! it started with our district getting together on p-day to play so some risk WHICH WAS SO MUCH FUN! i won haha! 

and then on tue we had weekly planning (weird i know its usualy on thursday) 

and then wed we went on exchanges and Elder Jones took over the area for the first time and he did great! he knows what he need to work on and he is willing to get to a point where it'll be comfortable to take the lead. 

then on thursday we had interviews with pres Taylor which ends up being an almost all day thing and that was such an amazing experience the spirit was so strong and we were able to learn so much and my interview with Pres Taylor was the Beest he is such an inspired man and 

AND! 

get this after the meeting he said something to me in spanish and i knew he was asking me to take something to his car 

so i said si 

and he asked me what he said 

and i said Uhhh i dunno 

and elder jones said 'my acorn is missing, did you take my acorn' 

and you know what pres Taylor said?!?! "squeek squeekin squeek squeekin' 

and we all busted up laughing so hard it was great and then we found that that is his favorite movie and his favorite line is 'umm i just got turned into a cow... can i go home now?' oh man priceless! 

and then district meeting on friday was great! it was super fun 

and then sat was a normal day 

Sunday We had a lesson with one of our families and it was Elder Jones' very first official lesson that he has given but he did super well it was great! 

and then that brings us back to the now and if i were to continue i would be talking about the future and that would just be plain silly! well i love you all so much! keep it real and don't get too hot in this season!

Love Elder Pehrson



ps Elder Jones was in the middle of sneezing when we took this and for some reason we didn't take another one... this was our hike this morning with bro dawson

Catfish are not as good looking as I am

Well ok then! so this week has been a good week! 

the only complaint is that even though now that its not as hot because of the humidity, it HUMID! which is gross and yucky and i smell really bad all day long! Thats ok though it comes with the call i guess. 

Elder Jones and i are doing quite well, we get along great and we are both learning a TON! and that too is a good thing we finally were able to have a lesson with our investigator marge so that was Elder Jones first Lesson with in the mission field and it went well marge is being marge she loves us and loves us coming over but she is catholic and always will be even if she hasn't been to a catholic church in the last 40 years and she disagrees with a lot of their stuff that is who is is and she can't change blah but thats ok we are helping her and she needs the gospel so bad in her life. 

So because we haven't had people to teach we have been doing the lessons with members as our thought after we eat with them and thats been fun. we are still on lesson one the restoration but today is the day we are starting lesson 2 the plan of salvation so i'm super excited to be working with elder Jones on these we have been doing practice teaching in our comp studies every day and that has helped so much for both of us. 

It blows me out of the water at how prepared Elder Jones is he is going to be such a great missionary and he will pass me by in no time, i respect him so much for how hard he works on everything. Best of all though is he understands almost every single one of my movie quotes! and he too is an Avatar fan! WOOT! but he likes to hold over my head all the movies i haven't seen yet haha its ok he will learn quickly that it is very nice to be away from the world and not be tied down by whats going on at this instant everywhere at once.

 Elder Jones has this amazing spiritual gift of being able to understand the needs of the people he is teaching we will be doing practice teaching and i will be trying to stump him with a deeper problem that i have and without fail he knows exactly what my problem is haha all he needs now is practice on how to handle situations but he is learning very fast. 

so here is a picture of us being cool this was right after or perhaps during weekly planning i can't quite remember. 

right now what i am struggling with is i feel like we are spinning our wheels we are trying to work and get things done but at the end of the day we find ourselves saying well we rode arround a lot but NO ONE WAS HOME and we didn't actually get ANYTHING done. 

This is a trial i understand but it gets hard when its 4pm and all you have is this huge list of people to go see and you know that it would take a miracle for anyone to answer the door or to even be home. 

the problem we are facing is our ward at it low point is at 80% activity and so that 20% are people who have had a lot of people try to contact them in the last 15 years and they don't want to talk to us. But i do know that if we keep working and are obedient then the Lord will bless us thats how he works and right now is a time for personal growth and for planting seeds. even though i have that knowledge it still gets rough in the middle of the day and nothing has happened and it looks like nothing will. 

Any whom on a better light I LOVE THIS WARD! they are great and are doing their best to be unified in the work of salvation and they are catching the wave! the problem we see is the main bulk of our ward are married med students so who do they know? other students. but what other group of people would get married before med school? no one but mormons 

so we have had a TON of referrals from them but if they are single they go straight to the singles ward which is great this is all Gods work but at times its hard. 

so my 2nd or 3rd week here we met with the bishop and we went over a ton of stuff with him and at that time we asked him (like is says in PMG) are we a blessing or a burden because we feel we are a burden and he said that he would agree BUT! Elder Jones and i had dinner with him on sat and then we met with him again yesterday and he told us flat out that he feels we are a blessing to him and his ward, he fully trusts us and he really likes us a lot he said that if he had someone he was working on that he was saving for the right companionship he would give them to us but he doesn't have anyone...

 but thats ok! its still the spirit of unity that is there and now that we have that from the bishop it has spread like wildfire to the rest of the ward and we can see it like night and day its been so neat to see the change that has taken place in this ward I LOVE IT! 

so district meeting was super good this week we had the hardys come and speak to us about how us inviting people to make changes, to repent and to come unto Christ has helped them (she is the most recent convert in the area she was baptised about a year and a half ago and the people before her were at the beginning of 2011 and they had moved out (i have the district leader binder so i can see all of this info)) and it went super well, i don't know what it is but i actualy realy love holding district meeting and its very fun to plan and prepare it all. 

the best part of being district leader has been being able to serve the Elders in my district, i do nightly call ins and just to talk to them about their day and to uplift them and to give them motivation and try and give them energy to push through! 

i love serving others! 

any whom i have to go now but i love you all so so so much! thank you for all the help you've given me, it means so much to me!

love
Elder Pehrson
PS i loved loved loved the letter i got from mums class! that was super neat! (i'm still trying to give away the frogs from last time haha!)

Story of my life this week

Well things here have been fun! this week i was on two exchanges, one with an elder in my district and the other with the zone leaders both of which were super fun and i learned so much from them, i am so blessed to have an amazing district where we all get along and we all like each other its been so much fun being with this district! 

Yay new camera!

My first district meeting last friday went super well it was actually very fun and i loved it a ton its not scary at all and the Spirit is there so strong and the meeting flowed perfectly and we were able to talk about all the stuff that we needed to go over sadly at the end we ran out of time so we couldn't do our re-practice but other than that it went without a hitch! 

I got a package from home this week and there was a note from mums primary class and they wrote some inspiring notes to me and i almost started crying! i could just feel the love of those kids and to feel of their own testimony of the savior it was grand! 

Watch tan :)

so this morning we as a zone met at Thunderbird park by the Phoenix temple and we hiked the hill there and we had a testimony meeting on top over looking the temple and we could see all of our areas that the 29 of us are serving in (i could also see the 83rd and deervalley building which was my first area and we could see all the way out to surprise. the spirit was so strong to be up there overlooking our places of stewardship and to see the temple in the midst of it all, it was a very stirring experience. 

Wielding the spatula of POWER!

i don't know if i have anything else to report but i love you all so much and thank you for your love and prayers i do feel of them and i sure do need them!

Love Elder Pehrson

A picture text from John

A couple good missionaries. We are happy to have them in our home.

Elder Jones has hit the ground running and Elder Pehrson is a good

example of hard working.

Warm regards, 

John L.

Elder Roo gets a Trainee!

Ok so most of you know already but my new companion is Elder Danial Jones and he is from the... wait for it... ok i'll just make you guess. :D 

so this past week has been super fun not much has happened as far as investigators go but we're working with a bunch of members and they have given us a bunch of referrals which none have showed any actual interest but thats ok seeds have been planted and we are learning which is a good thing, 

ok so i love my companion he is awesome and he is super funny he has almost the same humor as i do (ah yes, twice the forehead slapping!) he graduated high school oh about a month ago. three weeks from today he was on a date (weird...) and he wants to go into astrophysics... heehee 

Finally someone who can have a truly interesting and intelligible conversation with! haha nah but he is super smart and super prepared for his mission: he knows the sticks, he knows PMG, he is willing and ready to learn how to apply all that he knows, so thats a great quality about him. his greatest spiritual gift that i've seen so far that will help him tons on his mission is one of the most impressive memories that i've ever witnessed he does not cannot will not forget anything! 

so we are struggling most right now with finding time to do everything that we need to do! we even get an extra hour of comp study but with all the doctrine and teaching skills we have to go over its NOT ENOUGH! but thats ok we live and learn. 

so this last friday was the first friday of the month so it was zone meeting so i haven't actually had a district meeting yet but i planned and made assignments this morning for our meeting this friday and its super nice because every month we get a mission action plan with a list of things that pres Taylor wants for us to go over and so it tells us right there exactly what to do for each discrict meeting and we are given the tools to do it all the district leaders have to do is to put it all together and run the meeting so i'm not too overly worried so we will see how it goes and my opinion after this friday haha. 

ok so i'm thinking you've forgotten about me not telling you about where Elder Jones is by now right? no? ok well i guess i'll tell you. right. so he is from the Glorious Sandy Utah! but his family recently moved to South Jordan Utah so my companions keep getting closer and closer to home what next - Kyle is going to be my companion :D that would be super fun. 

This coming week we are going to be making a focus on the 8 fundamentals of PMG with a focus on using the gospel of Jesus Christ in all of our teachings so i'm excited to be working with my new companion and the Fun adventures that await is in the coming week and months, lets just say that we will be slaying dragons daily! (my personal goal i made in my planner for recognizing miracles that happen each day and i set a daily goal of how many dragons we will slay or how many miracles we will recognize that day). 

so at our 4th of july breakfast we had about 150 people there which sound like a lot but not really but thats ok we still had a number of non members there and also a less active sister who has 4 baptism age kids at home and she hasn't had any contact with the church for many years and she has asked us to come and to share a message in her home (sweet!) and she would like us over for dinner sometime (double sweet!). 

ok well folks thats about all from my end oh and i bet mum was in heaven with Glenn beck we have a member of our ward who went up to visit family and to go to that she was originally going to stop by and drop off birthday presents and fathers day stuff but with the crazy busy p-day last week i wasn't able to go to the right store to get what i'm getting for you guys so sorry about that... any whom i love you all! keep up the fight!

Love Elder Pehrson

NEWS of Great Amazingness!

So official report from mission home to us was that sat it was a record setting 121 degrees (must be said like Edna mode would say it) that was a... hot day to say the least but fear not! i drink a ton of water so i will not stay cool but i will stay hydrated but boy do i have stories to tell you about this heat, it doesn't matter how much you drink you sweat so much that if you don't get water at EVERY house you visit you will get dangerously dehydrated and it blows me away at how much the sun drains you of energy but thats ok we do this while we're young for a reason haha, 

bloody nose from the heat/ so much for drinking water.

so not much to report other than we've been getting a ton of referrals from our ward members which has been so exciting! we had a fast on thursday and i want to testify to you of the amazing power of fasting with purpose and with prayer and having the Faith that God will provide for what is best for his children.

That day we received two referrals from members and we had a Potential investigator call us and say that they want to start meeting with us again and then one of our families we were about to give them the 'your not progressing' talk called us and said that they want us over for dinner and a lesson BLAM! it was so amazing to see how the lord works to get er done!

oh also i implore all those within the sound of my voice or rather sight of my words or whatever go to the new lds.org tab http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/a-new-vision?cid=HPL1P01W01031&lang=eng and go through all the videos and learn about how the first presidency has given to us to be able to be examples in leading out this wonderful work and in being the powerful saints that he wants us to be.

so this morning we were out on our daily jog (which today wasn't as hot because some clouds rolled in and dropped the temp by bringing in the humidity raising it from 12% to almost 46% yuck gross you all know how much i sweat normally but humidity is disgusting) and we see our next door neighbor moving in and i say hey!... lets go see if they need any help

so we went and helped them at first they were not very open but we didn't care we just started grabbing boxes and so they opened up quite a bit and we spent the next few hours helping them move in and then we went to their old house and helped them with a bunch of couches and bigger things they were super glad to have us help them there would be no way that they could have done it with out help so that was a blessing

the dad made a comment he said that he had prayed for angels to help them so that they could get it all done hehe well ask and ye shall receive right?

so we are going back for dinner woot! i'm getting quite good at having people invite us to dinner haha but the worst part was how much liqueur that they had and let me tell you it was gross and to top it all off i was helping him move a keg (yes he had an entire keg of beer of his home beer fountain) of beer and the nozzle hit a door frame and poured out the most disgusting smelling liquid all down the front of me making me almost throw up because of the smell so for about two hours i smelt of strong beer bleh. 

well ok now you all are wondering about the 'news' i have ok here it is:

sat night pres Taylor called us and he has given me the assignment to be a trainer and then this morning he called again (Whilst i still having the stench of a heavy wine bibber) and gave me the assignment of being the now district leader! so we will see how that goes i'm super excited and i'm so grateful for this opportunity to have a new avenue to serve others and to be a blessing in the life of members and of other missionaries and i am deeply humbled that God would want me to serve in these capacities. i would greatly like for some helpful advice however. as usual i love you all so much and i do feel of your love and prayers! keep doing the Lords will and stay cool (hehe because i wont) love you!




Insert from Zena: I got to find out the news before everyone else via this email here:

do you want to here the CRAZY news before anyone else?

ok ok ok so sat we got a phone call from pres taylor who asked me if i would be a trainer and i said yes of course and after that my mind was blown to the extreme 

and so on monday i went to a trainer orientation meeting which i have to say of all the meetings i've ever been in that was the most inspiring and get this tomorrow we will have a total of 209 missionaries in our mission and of those 170 have been out less than a year and of those 120 have been out since the new year! 

pres Taylor was crying when he told us that we would be setting the culture of our mission that it would be us who set the stage for the onslaught of this miraculous wave of Gods set apart servants WOW and he called me to be a trainer! 

ok so then to top it off this morning after all the stuff which i'll write about we get ANOTHER phone call where pres Taylor has assigned me to be the now district leader so i am going over d&C 121 over and over and over and i will do my best and i have so much to learn but i'm so excited for this new opportunity to serve and help not only investigators come closer to Christ i now am called to help other missionaries to better love and help those under their stewardship!