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