So happy to be a missionary!

Hello Pearson Family,
I don´t have a whole lot of time, but I would just like to say that I am very excited to talk to you guys on Sunday and I´m going to try to talk less so we can have more questions back and forth. Let´s make it a good call. The next one, it´ll be Christmas, how nuts is that?

Anyway, as I wrote in the subject, my companion is by far my favorite that I have had yet. We can always joke around, but we work very hard, and have the same intentions which makes things so much easier. We don´t have very many people progressing amazingly right now, but we have a few potentials that just need to take initiative to know and they will be ready.

We had our Zone Conference this week and that is always really good. I have a friend in my district that is has become one of my best friends here. His name is Elder Patterson and is a hard worker but has my same sense of humor so we get along really well. It´s good to be able to talk to him, because there is really a lack of drive or motivation in our district. It just feels kind of blah, but what makes me happy is that it´s not like that in my companionship. Anyways apart from being able to talk and hang out with Elder Patterson, the conference is always a good booster. We were able to watch a devotional by Elder Holland that he gave in the MTC in January that was very powerful. Did he work with words in his career before? Because he is just a wordsmith. Anyway, he talked about the importance of giving ourselves to this work, of really seeing these investigators as people, seeing them as people and thinking about how this message and help them in their specific situation and then apply that message to them.

He also talked about how we have come on our mission, but that doesn´t mean that we just go home and have done our part. He gave the example of Peter, when after the death of Jesus he didn´t know what to do, so he told the disciples, ¨Let´s go fish.¨ After they had been fishing they saw the Savior now resurrected (? it looks different in spanish) Peter jumped out of the boat and swam to the shore to greet Jesus. When he got there, the Savior asked him ¨Peter, do you love me?¨ He responded yes. Jesus asked him again if he loved him, he said yes. Jesus then told him ¨Then feed my sheep.¨ Elder Holland related this to how we need to give up our ¨old life of fishing¨ and never leave this truth that we are teaching. He said we need to convert ourselves so thoroughly that we will be able to convert others here in our mission, and after stay converted for the rest of our lives.

While he did that much more eloquently than I did, it was a very good talk that really made me think. I´m grateful for living prophets and apostles of God who direct this church. I can´t imagine how people have comfort in the fact that just the Bible is the word of God (something I here everyday) because I for one would be completely lost with just the text of the Bible. God loves us enough to give us people to guide us in everything we do if we are willing to listen. This is another testimony to me of how true this is.

Anyways, I´m loving life, working hard, and trying to make you proud. Congrats Brad and Anne on graduating!

-Ben