Hey Everyone!

Merry Christmas!

This week has been a very strange week, the work up here is basically a roller coaster, you never know if you'll be able to teach anyone in a week. We are working with Candy and David more, and they are both progressing very well. She is a non-member who says she wants to be baptized eventually, and he is a less active member who rebelled when he was young, but wants to come back. They are both progressing very well, and this friday they said it's okay if the bishop came with us for our appointment.

Dad may have jazzed your progression up a little, but I bet you are moving along faster than you think you are! It's so exciting to hear about every thing that you do, it really makes me not worry about you cuz I know you are in good hands while I'm gone.

Thats awesome that Alex is heading out to the field today! I can't wait to hear all about his adventures in the mission.

I got the package, and funny thing is, I already bought a giant jar of marshmallow fluff so I am doing good in that area.

Well sorry for the short E-mail today, we are in such a rush today because we need to be down in Yakima in just a minute.

I love you all,
Elder Pickett

Hey Everyone!

This week has been a very strange week, the work up here is basically a roller coaster, you never know if you'll be able to teach anyone in a week. We are working with Candy and David more, and they are both progressing very well. She is a non-member who says she wants to be baptized eventually, and he is a less active member who rebelled when he was young, but wants to come back. They are both progressing very well, and this friday they said it's okay if the bishop came with us for our appointment.

Dad may have jazzed your progression up a little, but I bet you are moving along faster than you think you are! It's so exciting to hear about every thing that you do, it really makes me not worry about you cuz I know you are in good hands while I'm gone.

Thats awesome that Alex is heading out to the field today! I can't wait to hear all about his adventures in the mission.

I got the package, and funny thing is, I already bought a giant jar of marshmallow fluff so I am doing good in that area.

Well sorry for the short E-mail today, we are in such a rush today because we need to be down in Yakima in just a minute.

I love you all,
Elder Pickett

Hey everyone!

That is really amazing how far you are progressing! It just makes me sad to know that I'm not going to be there to see it happen. It sounded like the trike was really helping your improvement move along quickly, so make sure you get that up and running ASAP!

That is fantastic that Spencer and Nikki will be down, I can't wait to see you all! One thing I need to know is when you will be ready to skype though, because I will be at my WML's (ward mission leader) house after church at 10 o'clock, until noon thirty. So hopefully we can get our time in there. Is your sunday only sacrament meeting this year? Ours is and thats a new thing that I haven't really heard of.

We had our 1st ward christmas party on the third, and our 3rd ward party is the 17th. The gym here is quite tiny, so we will have to take turns sitting and eating at the third ward party because there are so many people in the congregation!

So we had a record breaking week this week, with a total of 10 lessons. Sadly, the man named Clay I was talking about 2 weeks ago isn't doing so well and we were asked to not come back. On the bright side we tracted a lady named Annette, and we taught her 2 lessons this week, and will be returning for more in the week to come. Things are looking up in elensburg.

Oh, the weather is pretty awesome. Fog, everywhere. The frost from the night looks like it snowed, when it really didn't. Super cold. Awesome. At least the tree's are beautiful when they are all frosted up.

Anyway, I'll talk to you all next week,
Elder Pickett

Hey everyone!

This week has been great, super quick because of the change of P-days, but still great nonetheless.

This week we had a hard time getting in with people, so we like to call it our "Ammon style mission" week. Our mission president asked us to do more service especially since the season, so we have been doing a lot of service. We worked at a food bank for a couple hours, which was awesome because we got to walk around and do "grocery shopping" as the people there call it. We go around and let them know what they get, and it is just awesome being able to talk to them and meet new people who are so humble.

We are trying to get the ward more into doing missionary work, they are very closed off from it. Except one 14 year old boy who is basically an inspiration to me. He has handed out 3 BoMs to his friends since we have gotten here, and keeps coming and asking for more. His name is Justin, and he lived in Carlsbad until he was 10, then his family moved up here because his Dad found a dentistry practice up in Ellensburg. The whole family is awesome, and the priest age boy Kyle is helping us to get to teach one of his friends. They are just a great family all around, and i hope the ward see's their example.

Well it is time to get going now, we have to rush off to Yakima.

Love you all,
Elder Pickett

Hey everyone!
This week has been the busiest week of my whole 2 month mission so far, we came into the area and it was pretty dead, but we've been working and we finally made it to 8 lessons in a week. Which is not very much but it's great to see us go up to that from our 3 lesson starting week.

Thanksgiving was a crazy day, we had one dinner at one o'clock, pie at three with a different family, and another dinner at seven, so that was a busy but fun day!

So tomorrow is transfers! Me and Elder Gibson are staying up on the island (Thats what we call it because our town is half an hour away from anyone else.) but Elder McCleve is leaving, which is sad because Elder Gibson trained him in the other Ellensburg ward just before he got assigned to train me. He's a great missionary and i hope his replacement, Elder Pixton, is just as good.

I'm not sure if i said before that is is snowing, but last week we got a good couple of inches, but now it's all sunshine and happiness up here somehow. The members keep telling us the snow is coming though, so we'll see how that works out.

One family we are working with, I think i mentioned them already, is the Firkins. They are an elderly couple that have been inactive for a couple years now. They are awesome people and so much fun to visit! We had visited them a couple times and felt like they were kind of stand-offish but we found out in our second visit that he had been offended some time ago, so we talked a little about how through the atonement we can not only be forgiven, but also learn to forgive, he took that very well, and now they are starting to be reactivated! I love seeing the miracles God works for us out here!

I hope you all have a great week!
Sincerely,
Elder Brandon Scott Pickett

Hey Everyone! 11-22-11

That's great to hear that Brianna is getting baptized! And that Alex is getting out there into the MTC, it's funny that he is going in as Jacob is getting out!

Keep it up mom! We are gonna do a century when I get home, okay?

So the work here is really starting to pick up! We have a part member family that we have been teaching, the Richins, brother Richin is a member and has been inactive for quite a while, but is slowly coming back to activity. His fiancée, Candy, is not a member, but is progressing very quickly in the Gospel. She has been to a couple baptisms and has felt the spirit a lot! She is going to read and pray about the BoM before this Sunday, and she said if she received an answer she would accept a date to be baptized which is great!

Another man we were just referred to is Brother Clay Worley, he is an awesome dude, and told us that he already knows the BoM is true! That was a crazy experience because we went through the restoration, and he didn't talk much or ask many questions, and at the end we invited him to read and pray about the BoM, all he said was "Don't need to, Already know it's true." So Elder Gibson and I had no idea what to say and he continued to say, "As soon as I get this smoking and drinking thing cleared up, I know I'll land in your church."

That was great to hear because we have not had much success so far, so that little lift has got us going at full speed again.

The YSA branch here had 2 baptisms on Saturday, and our ward has an 8 year old baptism this Saturday. So there has been a good boost of member help in the valley.

P-days will be changed to Mondays starting December 5^th. It's a worldwide missionary department change. Everyone is doing it. And it is at the same time :)

My companion is great. I’m his third "child" (third elder he has trained) and my "older brother" is in the same district as Elder Gibson and me. In this mission, when you train the person he becomes your son. So I have 2 brothers, and a couple nephews, which is cool.

I'd like to just take this last paragraph to let everyone know that I am very thankful for them and their support I have received! I am especially grateful for my mother and the awesome example of pushing forward she is!

I love you all,
Elder Brandon Scott Pickett

Hey everyone!

It's great to hear that Johnny made it back safe and sound!

It's also great to know that even without me pushing you, you're still getting stronger :P Keep up the good work! By the time I get back you'd better be running marathons or something!

The work out here is going great, we are slowly getting a good amount of investigators. Yesterday we taught 2 lessons, which was just about our weekly average so far. We also have 4 lessons scheduled for Thursday, and one later tonight, Craziness!

Last night though, we had an investigator that I was very excited for, because he had read the Book of Mormon and was a bible scholar, tell us that he would not pray about it and it was a non-negotiable subject, so that was a pretty hard blow. We just need to keep pushing along though, the Lord has promised that there will be many prepared to hear his gospel, and we just need to find them.

You'd be surprised at how much I have opened up already though, as you knew before my mission talking to people I didn't know was terrifying to me. It's still scary, but I can do it pretty easily now.

I love the E-mails I get from Elder Huyett, they only make me want to work harder so that I can find as much happiness as he feels.

Well it has been a good week, and I’m looking forward to the week to come.
Love you all,
Elder Brandon Scott Pickett

Hey everyone

That is so cool that you made it all the way to the top!! Up next is Sheridan right? You should do your old 2 mile course, and work your way up to how you rode back in the olden days! That's great that the pedal works out good for you!

In preach my gospel, it says that we should teach the lessons in order to build the faith of the members, so we like to go through the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson quickly for them. It's very interesting because I never knew exactly what it was, but once I came out here it was kind of a shock to know how simple it actually was. The entire Gospel of Jesus Christ can be summed up to being faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end! That was a new concept for me when I got into the MTC, and only 1 person has known that since I have got out (he was a PMG missionary so he cheated.)

The investigator I have been talking about, Ann has been canceling all of our appointments which is never a good sign. She has been known to be an eternigator (eternal investigator) in the past, but we thought that she finally was taking it all seriously. :( In other news, we had an area change and now cover the first ward instead of Cle Ellum, and we were able to place 2 BoM's whilst tracting this week. The work is really starting to pick up, and the members trust us enough that we got 4 referrals this week! We have only been able to contact one, but we are seeing her tonight! We had a lesson last night with a guy named Teague? It’s like league but with a T, we don't know how to spell it. Anyways, he is very into religion and knows the bible very well, he is having doubts about praying about the BoM but he is going to read it and study it all out which is cool.

If you didn't know, send the package you're putting together by USPS, they cannot forward FedEx or UPS to our apartment.

Have a nice week!
Love,
Elder Brandon Scott Pickett

Hey everybody!

It is freezing up here, every morning when we wake up it's about 25 degrees, but luckily we don’t leave the apartment until noon, when it’s about 50 degrees. According to the broadcasts, the first snow is going to happen tonight!

That’s awesome that Robert is getting a job!

I wish I could've done that for the Halloweens I was home haha, but oh well that sounds like a lot of fun!

That’s an awesome story! Who's elder Bowens new companion?

My companion reminds me of Spencer sometimes. He's awesome.

We've been working really hard up here, and we got one investigator, named Ann, to read and pray about the BoM. When she finds out it's true she says she'll get baptized so we are going to try to put her on date tomorrow!

We've just been tracting a lot. There are about 12 churches in town, so everyone is Christian and everyone goes to different churches. But it’s great to hear about people's faiths and how it has made them the people they are today.

For Halloween, we got to go in at 6 o'clock and do weekly planning.... woohoo!

Have a good week everyone!
Elder Pickett

Hey everyone!

So Ellensburg is a farm town in a valley up in the mountains somewhere, it's where Central Washington University is, so there are a lot of college kids up here. We cover the biggest area in the mission, but most of it isn’t inhabited. We cover 2 wards, the Ellensburg 3rd and the Cle Ellum branch, which are 21 miles apart from each other so that is a very long drive for the small amount of miles we get each month. My companion is awesome, he's pretty short but he's a hard working dude.

The missionaries before us really liked to just hang out with the investigators, so we are having a hard time finding people who really want to have a lesson, rather than just sitting around and chatting.

I have done all the firsts you have mention, and tracting is actually really fun! We set a goal to talk to at least 12 people a day and have 84 at the end of the week. Cle Ellum is tiny, and my first door approach I said,” Hi, how are you”, then the guy shut the door. Our first lesson was to an older lady, she's turning 79 soon. She's a Native American named Ann, and she seems very excited to get a BoM that she could actually read. We had to get her a large text because she can't see very well. My first street approach was to a guy named CJ, he's going to CWU and we had to refer him to the other elders because he was in the 2nd ward.

Cle Ellum hasn't been actively proselyted for over 2 years so we are going to go start tapping into the potential it has. Which is also hard to do because of the mile shortage that we have.

Well keep up the hard work mom! Tell everyone I said hello. You should send me pictures when you start riding your trike!

Love, Elder Pickett

Hey!

So I'm going to the Northernmost point of the mission. It's a town called Ellensberg, and it sound like a fantastic place! So I get to see the first snow of everyone in the mission. My trainer is named Elder Gibson. From the sound of thing, he is a really good guy. We will have a car, and hopefully, our own apartment. Although staying with members sound cool too.

Robby's generation will probably all have iPads when they come here. I might even have one toward the end of my mission.

Well it's time to get ready for bed now, I love you all.

love,

E. Pickett

Dear Elder Pickett's family,

I am sure you are surprised to receive this e-mail from a stranger. I was able to take some pictures of Elder Pickett at the MTC and thought you might like seeing them.

Thank you very much for sending such a wonderful elder!!

Regards,

Junichi

Hey everyone! OCTOBER 17

I leave tomorrow morning so I will be able to call you at about 9 o’clock your time I believe, probably before that. So be ready at any time!!

This last week has been great, I got a letter from the Penrods on the 15th that they sent on the 2nd so that was super crazy, I hope my letters don't take that long to send!!

Half of our district is gone now, they went to the West Indies mission, and they were super cool people! I haven't got my quilt yet, and Spencer says he sent my some stuff too so I hope I get it all today, or else I’m not sure what happens to it.

I don’t know the address of the mission home yet so i don’t know where to send packages.

That is awesome that Sam is doing so well, could you send me his address so I can write him today? I'll be on later tonight so I can get it.

I don't get the ensign so I won't be able to read that issue, we'll see if I can get it once I’m out in the field.

It’s great that you are riding your trike!! Keep it up! I wanna cruise the coast highway when I get back home!! And keep workin hard at the CC! No slacking just because I’m gone…okay ;)

Well I’d best be off now. We waited for an hour and a half to get into initiatories and missed breakfast, so we need to go get some food!

Love,
Elder Pickett

Hi, Oct 10

That's awesome that you got your bike!!! And I know you'll be fine and you'll be tearin up the coast highway before I get back home. I didn't see Amy at all the first week I was here, but over the past three days I saw her once each day hahaha.

Thats an awesome story! My companion went inactive at about 12 when his parents divorced, but his friends got him to start going again, and now he's out on a mission!

Its great that your still progressing, pretty soon you won't need the cane at all eh? :P But how's the challenge center?

So my companion had his dad send him 5 ghost peppers, which are the hottest pepper on earth, and I ate one last night! It was the craziest thing ever, it made all of us cry and it cleaned out our distreict leaders sinus' pretty well... Gross!

I forgot a laundry bag! so I just use one of the left over pillow cases :)

When I talk about districts and all that, its pretty much 3 classrooms are grouped together in a zone, and every individual classroom is a district, our zone leaders just left so we got new ones, and they are actually younger than us! We are now the oldest district in our zone!!

Elder Hollands talk was great! I loved how he was so blunt with everyone!

Kevin can join my scooter gang when I get back I guess!

That is awesome that they would make that sacrifice to help others who are in need!

Teaching is great! Our teachers have investigator profiles that they act as and we go teach them!!


Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey!                                                                                                  October 3

That is so awesome about Alex!!! yeah I hope Kevin goes somewhere awesome like that.

Conference was awesome! And I didnt even fall asleep! The missionaries talks were fantastic, you should watch Holland's from priesthood session.

Tell robby to suck it up and stop being sick, and yes I am going to be in the choir.

The spirit here is fantastic!  That's my new favorite word now, it is used just about every day in my journal :)

I just got back from the temple, we had to wake up at 5:30!!!!  Which actually wasn't too horrible now, but a week ago I would have died at the thought.

So we have roleplay lessons where we go to teach an "investigator" who is really just the teacher, and me and Elder Grant bombed, we got so nervous and just didn't know what to say, but the teacher let us start over and we nailed it from there!  It was great just knowing that if we just take a deep breath, we can actually do this!

My room is the coolest, the other companionship in it is Elder Florence, and Elder Belliston, they are both about my same height, but they are total bean poles! But they are great. 

Well I have 20 minutes left so if you are monitoring the computer just hit me back!

Love,
Elder Pickett

His first letter.

Hey Mom and family!

I’m here at the MTC, as you know, and I had some extra time so I decided to write a letter. I’m writing on the 29^th of September so I’ve only completed one real day here, and it was a long day!! I hope everything went smoothly on the plane and you got home safe and sound.

My companion is named Elder Grant, and he is a cool guy. He grew up in rural Utah and looks the part too! Waking up at 6:30 is not as hard as it seems, especially when one of the roommate’s alarm clock sounds like a crow with a megaphone. Our teacher is a very cool guy named Brother Bacon and he is super excited about teaching us.

The food here is very good, and every now and then it is ice cream night. And it so happened that this was one night, and it is Creamery ice cream! The showers are nice, and always hot. The bathroom we have is way funny, because it was converted into a boy’s bathroom from a girl’s bathroom.

General Conference is this weekend, and I’m not exactly sure about what’s going to happen but all I know is that we have a meal between sessions, so the Pickett tradition will continue even in the MTC. The days feel like weeks, and I’ve heard “the weeks feel like days”, so I’m excited for that to kick in!

Well I gotta get going to classes and dinner. I miss you all but I know coming was the right decision.

Love,

Elder Brandon Scott Pickett

Going to the MTC.

The MTC has changed the way you drop off your missionary. When Ryan and Spencer left for they missions, we got to the MTC, and had a short meeting, followed by the missionary going out one door and the family going out another. For Brandon, we drove up to a curb, there were other missionaries waiting to help him with his luggage, He gave me a kiss good-bye, and walked away. I thing the missionary with his luggage told him to not look back.