Catching up...

Note from Z: Somehow, I got behind...so here's a really long post in which I'm endeavoring to catch up on posting Elder Pehrson's emails...

September 24th

So a couple of months ago i spoke to the ward council about having a talent show that also had displays like a road show and so this last week they did it and it was a huge success! they all loved it and it was so much fun so here are a few pictures for you. These are sister Hardy's charcoal pictures, and they are beyond amazing she is so skilled and she has never taken any classes she just picked them up and started to draw and these are what she has done

some more art stuffs


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me and some funny kids who were following us arround and telling us about all the talents.

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and here is a crowd shot there were a ton of people there so it was fun

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this was an AMAZING cowboy swing dance act, and it wasn't just an "oh that cool" it was "oh my goodness did she just do a flippy-do twirly ma-thingy arround his neck while he was doing a jump-in-to-the-air-and-do-the-splits WOW!" sop apparently they met in a dance troop thing so it was super neat. 

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oh and here are the lundbergs who are in our ward, she makes jewelery stuff out of glass that she forges at her house in an oven thing (which i may or may not have some to send home...)

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September 25th

Hello! to all my fan base and loved ones and others who have shown some sort of interest.
i am telling you of transfer news, i've been transferred to the Glendale central district, interestingly enough it is also the district in which the new digital devices are being tested, so yes i will be testing the new iPad and iPhone so that will be interesting. My companion is Elder Shin he is from Virginia (but he does not have an accent (thank goodness)) and he is in fact KOREAN! that's right my companion is an Asian! well i will tell you the rest on Monday, until then I LOVE YOUI!

September 30th - From Manistee Ranch

Dear Family.
I have a firm testimony that God does answer prayers.

ok before i start i'm going to give you a brief over view of the last 5 days.

In the last 5 days...
i have laughed more then i have my entire life.
I have had more fun than i have my entire mission.
i have been able to use what i know to help people.
i have taught 18 lessons.
i have met the most prepared people that i have ever seen.
i have literly had people come up to us asking to join the church
i have had the scariest run in with a drunk lady (that was fun haha)
I've had members calling us to teach their friends.
I have felt thta i have been living my calling.
I have seen how experiance that i have had has been needed for this.
AND i have had an asian companion! (from virgina... but still!)
I have experienced the best five days of my whole mission so far.

ok phew wow that was exciting! Ok so starting at the top. We live in apartments (for the first time on my mission!), Elder Shin and i live with another companionship Elders Mcfarland and Crane, and ok putting us all together was the best thing that has happened since God invented the moon! 

Elder Mcfarland has been out for 3 transfers (4 and a half months) and the best way to describe him is that he IS a muscle, he is one of the funniest people that i have ever met he is from Georgia. 

Elder Crane has been out for 2 transfers (3 months) and he is from west jordan utah, he is the embodiment of quiet dignity he doesn't say much but what he does say is usually witty beyond belief. 

Elder Shin is from Virginia he has been out for 4 transfers (6 months) and he is in fact the son of a doctor and a nurse who are asian! his parents are from Korea, and if you have ever had a desire to laugh until your guts erupt and then start laughing at that, spend about 30 second with one of the best missionaries in the world, my companion Elder Shin! 

so those of you who like to do maths in your head i'm sorry but more then that you might have seen that an interesting fact of our apartment is that i have been out longer then the other three put together... weird... 

ok so now on to the important stuffs, manistee ranch (yeah like manitee but with a stee) is incredible, the majority of the ward consists of converts and the spirit of missionary work is living and burning here, thats all everyone talks about! its amazing! testimony meeting was missionary experience after missionary experience oh boy i tell you what i sure loved it! 

so our days consist of us going from teaching appointment to teaching appointment, we literally have to find time and make time to do finding activities because our schedule is so packed. ok so i don't know if i have told you this yet but i love Elder Shin so much i love being his companion, i love teaching with him! We would be walking up to an investigator and there would be this persons fiend there and Elder shin started talking to the investigator and i started talking to his friend and it was like peter and john or alma and almulek, Elder shin was setting up an appointment with the investigator and i was teaching the other person that what we do is help people develop faith in Jesus Christ and to better their life through Faith in the savior and living Gods commandments, and she replied well if anyone needs that i do, can i sit in in your lessons? and so we got her information and set up a lesson with her and our other investigator BAM WOOT! the church is true! 

and then we had a member call us and said so do you have a dinner on sat? we said well i think we do now. ans she said good because my sister will be here and she wants to join the church and she lives in our ward! i was all sorts of geeking out at this point. oh yeah!

and then this lady called us up and asked us to come teach her (they are calling us!) so we went over and it was in this super sketchy hotel (we had a member with us thank goodness) and it didn't turn out well at all she was beyond drunk telling us all about her abusive husband and then in the middle of talking to her the police show up (ok this officer was over this rougher area he didn't just have one gun he had two! it was neat) and then he tells her to never go back to her house or she will be arrested, so at this point Elder shin was leading out but he just went blank and had no idea what to do so after the officer left i got up and took control of the situation which was getting quite out of hand and i just told her what we were going to do (leave right now but call her tomorrow when she was sober) 

...and then we got back to the church and you'll never guess what happened! haha So Elder Shin had forgotten the phone in her room, so we went back and tried knocking but she was passed out and we could see the phone sitting on the tv so we went and spoke to the front desk, they told us there was nothing they could do. but we the other elders got a call the next morning saying that the phone was at the front office and so we went and got it, she had apparently got up and called the police back who called in an ambulance so she is in a mental hospital right now but we got the phone back. 

ok so speaking of the phone, this tech is nice, its super glitchy right now and they are updating it all the time, but we are literally the pioneers of this program anytime we have an idea we send it into the church office building and if they like it they make it happen so we're not given any "rules" really just the principals of obedience and that exactly what this program will take is the highest obedience because it would be so easy to go south with these things however already we have used them in teaching situations and they have brought the spirit like oi have never felt before. 

The planner/area book will be amazing when it is all figured out, its making all the tools right there in our hand at the click of a button and as Elder Shin always says "ancient chineese proverb says no hot spot no hope!" 

our phone acts as a hotspot for us with our ipads so that when we are at the apartment we can connect to the internet and to each others' devices so that we can plan together. one thing i love about this is that updating your area book which used to be such a chore and really annoying now its all right there and after a lesson happens in the day it will automagicaly pop up with a thing to report the lesson and right then you punch all the data into the records and bam! your area book is updated! 

so i'm still learning how to use it and i will be getting a lot better with it but already i can do things on the ipad that i never thought you could do, i'm using it by going back and forth between apps and it blows my mind at how efficient it makes everything. weekly planning was sweet this week, not only did we have a ton of things to plan for but we literally have every hour of everyday planned for for the entire week, we are no longer planning one day in advance in our daily planning we are planning two days in advance to make sure everything is ready to go 

ok so next week i'll have more details on what to tell you and how everything works but for now i'm so excited that i'm able to be a part of this testing program, there are only about 60 missionaries in the world so far who are doing this. I love you all keep up the good work!

October 7th

This is elder shin right after I told him that I too an an Asian ! Oh and yes he is laying o n a rug that we made hat is made from ugly ties that we found in a drawer in the kitchen

This week has been crazy with ups and downs. so by about Tuesday the juice that was left here and the momentum built by Elder Silcock (whom i replaced) ran dry and elder shin and i were like a pair of speed skaters who all of a sudden on a turn hit a patch of no ice and we slippe and fell hard. 

we both had this moment of "boot to the head" wow this is going to be a lot of hard work we can no longer afford to goof of or even plan one day in advance we have to be using all the time that we have to be planning out two three four days in advance or this work wont be able to happen, we are having 5 lessons a day and we have to coordinate the rides, the members who we are going to after who we will be with before, what are our back ups? on and on and on. 

so after a break down we hit the reset button and we have put ourselves into gear and its been hard but every second of the day we are busy we are doing something. if we finish something then we can't just relax we have to jump on a list of 20 other things we need to do. 

all in all i've actually loved it, its been against my natural tendency to be lazy but I've loved giving my all and seeing the reward. this has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. this next upcoming week should be a good one and i'll keep you posted with any new news. 

OK so i thought that you would enjoy this, this is a rug that we made out of duct tape and old ugly ties that were left behind. It now adorns the center of our room. oh the things you can do with one mans junk. Love you!