Hey Everybody!

This last week was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!

We had another lesson with Austin, and it was a pretty typical lesson.  He sometimes tries to get off topic and talk about video games and what-not, but this week he didn't do that at all!  It was awesome, because then after the lesson he volunteered to give the prayer!!  It was the first time he's prayed in front of missionaries and it was so strong and just awesome!  The lesson we had with him was reading from Alma chapter 32, which is the one that talks all about faith being a seed and how faith isn't a perfect knowledge (We chose this because he had a question of why can't we just see Christ and know he's there) So yeah it was awesome, and he even invited his little brother Gage to sit in on the lesson!  Usually Gage just goes to the other room and plays video games, but this time he wanted to read with us!  It was just pretty much and awesome day!!

Last Friday we had our Christmas zone conference!  It was so cool and at first we talked about 8 gifts Heavenly Father has given us and it was an awesome training!  The gifts were:
1. Christ and the Atonement   John 3:16
2. The Gift of the Holy Ghost   1 Nephi 10: 17

3. The Plan of Happiness   Alma 12: 25 

4. Angels   Alma 13: 24

5. Agency   2 Nephi 2:  27

6. Assurance   D&C 84:88

7. The Temple   D&C 109: 22

8. Assurance that our offerings are acceptable    D&C 126

It was just like the BEST THING EVER!!!  It was great, got to see a lot of friends and it was all good!  Then as the WKM (Washington Kennewick Mission) Christmas tradition we watched Brave, the Pixar movie about the Scottish princess!  It was way good too!!

I hope you all have a merry Christmas!!
Love,
Elder Pickett 

Hey everybody!

So this is transfer week!  Elder Shuman will be going all the way over to the tri-cities!  He's going to a ward called Candy Mountain ward!  It's so cool!!  I am staying here and getting Elder Stucki to be my comp!  He's a great guy from Ogden area I believe!  I've served around him, but now I get to serve with him!  It's looking to be an exciting transfer!

So this week we had an awesome visit with a man who was in the army!  He is a member of the church but lost his faith due to some tragedies he saw in the war.  He was an awesome guy and has sincere desires to find his faith again, but it's hard for him to get past what he saw over in Iraq.  We have a return appt. with him in a couple of weeks and I am super excited to see this man again.

A cool experience we had this week was being able to help set up our Christmas lights!  We got to go up to the top roof and hang off the edge to put the lights into their places!  It was a pretty scary but really fun experience!

I hope you all have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Pickett

12-3-12

Hey everybody!

We have had a totally insane week!!  I'll start with the craziness and end with the good stuff!

So there is an apartment complex in our area that we do a ton of work in, it's called The Fisher's Mill.  Well on Friday we go there and see a cop driving around (which isn't too unusual) but when we turn the corner, there are 12 cop cars all lined up!  We walk past them and there are a bunch of cops chillin with their helmets on and big guns out!  So it turns out there was a lady hiding in her apartment, but they couldn’t just go get her because she had her kids in there or something!  So we get outa there for our dinner appointment, but as we're leaving this giant truck pulls around the corner, and turns out they needed to call in the swat team!  Well we had an appointment a couple hours later, and we go to the Mill and the situation is still going on!  It eventually got resolved after our appointment and all is good!

On Saturday we got called to help with a move, and the people who called said there was a non-member there who they wanted us to see.  To be honest we thought they may have just been baiting us into helping with the move, but we helped out anyway, it is kind of our job.  The lady moving in came over from Portland, and she had a friend who has been down on his luck and has been staying with her for a little bit, and he is SUUUUUPER interested in the gospel!!!  We taught him the Plan of Salvation last night and everything was awesome!  It was an amazing experience and we definitely felt the spirit!

I hope you all have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Pickett

11-27-12

Hey everybody!!

We had a wonderful spectacular Thanksgiving Day!!  It was super chill, and we only had 1 dinner (Which is rare for missionaries, last thanksgiving I had 3 dinners and a desert!)  It was overall a wonderful day!  The members who we live with had their 3 boys in town and 2 of the 3 stayed in the house, one is single and the other has a wife and 2 year old son, so we had a big full house for the week!  It was exciting, and a little like being home! 

We had an awesome week with the work too!  Lately me and my companion have stopped tracting as much, but this week we set that as our main goal (Because our teaching pool is kiddy sized, and we want Olympic sized pools) So we set off the week with an awesome 23 OYMs (we keep track of how many people we talk to, and call it an OYM) which is really high!  Especially since the week before we got about 30ish, so eventually at the end of the week we ended up with 84 of them!  It was a really awesome week and we got that goal!  We had a good amount of people tell us to come on back, so we're excited for the new teaching opportunities that we have, and definitely thankful for the blessings we saw from the hard work this week!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!"
Love,
Elder Pickett

P.S.  (Thanksgiving moment)  I’m grateful for all the support I've been able to receive while out here!  Thanks for the cards and letters, and candy too!

Hey everybody!

This week has been Wonderful!!!

Wednesday a member of the first quorum of the seventy came to the mission on a tour, and we had a Q&A conference with him!  It was so awesome!!  He asked us all questions at the beginning of the conference and then for about 5 hours went through every single one and answered them, but sometimes it came in a roundabout way that no one was expecting!  The first seventy that came here was a super tall big guy, (He played D-Line for BYU back in college) so I was expecting a big guy, but nope he was a shorter man but his spiritual stature was tremendous!  It was all around a great conference, and I got to see all the missionaries I disappeared on last transfer!

This week was a busy week!  We saw a lot of people but my favorite visit was with a part-member family!  They are the Agees, he is a member but she isn't.  He went less-active at about age 18 due to some circumstances and has never been back in a church since!  We had an awesome visit, and got to know them a little better, but then we shared a Mormon message called The Spirit of Thanksgiving!  I would recommend it to everyone during this awesome thanksgiving season!   It was overall a wonderful visit, and they really loved the lesson on thanksgiving! 

Wonderful things are happening in Washington!
Love,
Elder Pickett 

Hey everybody!

So this week was super awesome!!!

Last Sunday we got a call from a member who said her son’s friend had some questions and he wanted to ask the missionaries!  So we were super stoked to go meet this little guy and answer all his questions, and maybe get his whole family interested or something along those lines!  But turns out that it was the members son who had the questions!  So we were happy to help him out with some things!  His name is Ryan and he's 9 years old.  He has been having a rough time at school with the other kids and stuff like that, and he said that all the bad things that were happening were having a bad effect on his faith and that his faith was about as big as an inchworm!  So we talked a lot with him and had a super spiritual lesson with him, and at the end of it he said his faith was super big!  It was really an awesome experience!  Yesterday we got to have dinner with the family and at the end of it he hugged us and thanked us for the help!  It was a really awesome experience and I love that little guy!!

Tomorrow we are having a mission conference, and Elder Pieper of the presidency of the seventy will be there!  I am super excited for this conference!  Elder Pieper requested that all the missionaries read an article from an ensign in 2007 by Elder Bednar; it’s called "seek learning by faith".  It was a really amazing article!  And the first part is all about what faith is and it made me look at it in a new way!  I thought about how faith is a motor that moves us forward, but he brought up that it is also in the past and we can look back to see when our faith brought great things!  So it’s like a motor, which moves us forward and causes us to act, but also refuels itself because we can look back and get a greater boost of faith!  It was a really awesome article and I am super excited for our conference tomorrow!

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey everybody!!

So we had an awesome experience with a guy named Andrew this week!  We were chilling at the door to sacrament meeting, the missionaries are the greeters here, and Brother Marsden from the ward comes over to us with a man in a rain coat and jeans.  He introduces the man as Andrew and we invite him to sit with us through the meeting!  He accepts so we go sit with him and have a goooood sacrament meeting (He LOVED the testimonies given!!) We had 3 baby blessing so there was an abnormally large body of people there, and they ran out of sacrament cups!  So it was about 20 minutes of the sacrament being past, which is a pretty long time to sit quiet when you've never done that before, so I expected him to get restless and start asking questions, but nope he just read about 4 chapters in the Book of Mormon!  It was really awesome! So after the meeting we went and talked a little, and found out he isn't in our ward :(  But we are excited about him because he is definitely ready to hear the gospel!

That was good!  And last night was good too!  Elder Shuman and I were actually having a pretty bad night, our dinner cancelled on us so it was grilled cheese for dinner!  And we just had an abnormal amount of hecklers yell things at us, anyway we were feelin pretty low!  When we decided to go check on a guy named Matt, he is a member and is struggling with life right now.  Anyway we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon with him, and it turns out Jacob 2:8 doesn't lie!  The word of God really does heal the wounded soul!!  So yeah we had a really good night after that!  It was just a great experience and testimony builder!!

Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey everybody!!

I'd like to let you know that Halloween is the scheduled transfer day.... And I’m NOT getting transferred finally!! I'll be here until at least Dec. 12th... Hopefully!

So we have had some pretty cool experiences this week!! 

First we found mike.  Mike was a guy that Shuman and his old comp. talked to on the street somewhere about a month ago, and finally we got in with him this past Tuesday!  He is an awesome guy who doesn't really have any religious background, so he was totally cool with the Book of Mormon, and is really excited to read it!  We had an awesome lesson, and the spirit was definitely there!  It was really awesome to get to know him and teach him a little about Christ!

Another cool guy we met this week was Harry!  He is a great guy in his 50's and he really has a sweet spirit.  He has
really bad epilepsy, and a few years ago would have about 3-4 hundred seizures a year!!  Now he only has about 7-8!!  All because he had a device put in his chest that helps his brain not have seizures!  He also has probably the coolest dog in the world!  She can detect when he is going to have a seizure and warns him before it starts!  Plus she is waaaaaay nice and super fun to play with!

Well that was my week in a couple paragraphs, hope you have had a great week too!!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey Everybody!!

So I have some crazy news to tell ya! Next Wednesday is transfer week!!  Buuuuuut I am now serving in the Fairway Village and Fishers Landing wards in the Vancouver East stake!  I am with Elder Shuman, and I will be finishing up his training (his trainer got sick when he was 5 weeks out) so he I am going to be his new trainer! 

My new area is in the same stake as Camas!  So I'm actually going over to Andy and Carries home town for P-day today!!  That'll be way cool!

This past Sunday was the stake conference up here!  We got to go to the adult session because we had some people coming with us, and it was a really amazing meeting!  This stake is really set on family history and temple work!  So they set a goal to index (Make digital copies of handwritten records) 6 million names in the next year!  I guess that is a ton! But everyone in the room sustained the goal, and from everyone I’ve met they are all pretty excited about this awesome opportunity!  Sadly, as missionaries we don't really get to do that kind of thing, but hey it is actually a really good finding activity!  Yesterday we talked to a guy and he started talking about his old family history, so we started talking about this indexing challenge, and he totally would have been game if he hadn't been visiting his son for a couple days, he was from Reno, and so we learned that this is an awesome way that we can help people feel the Spirit, in an easy and non- invasive manner!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Pickett

11-15-12

Hello everybody!!

This week was just so amazing!!  I don’t know where to start, so I'll do it like a 5th grade essay!!  Into first!!

So this week we had a ton of miracles happen!  One was meeting William Wade, The other was how many investigators we had at church, and the last is Dick and Kathy Bigoni!!

So this past Tuesday we had dinner with the Wades, he is a member of the bishopric, and their 3 less-active grandchildren who live with them now!  So we go into dinner and it's a little bit awkward and quiet until brother wade starts talking and he says this,  "So the weather has been super nice, um, William here wants to take the discussions to be baptized,"  Then takes a bite of spaghetti. "Man this spagetti is good!  Did you do something different with it?"  It was the funniest thing I've ever heard, because the part about baptism was just like the most casual thing I've ever heard anyone say, and he didn't even let us react, just kept on going like he didn't say the GREATEST THING A MISSIONARY WANTS TO HEAR!  (My companions are really helping me come out my shell so yeah; I'm a little more animated than usual.)  So we shared a dinner thought and set up a day to meet with him again.  Thursday rolls around and it's me Elder La Rue, and Elder Ray (Exchanges) teaching Will at the kitchen table (His 2 sisters didn't want to sit in; they are not so app with church and God for now.)  He was starting Alma before we even taught him!  So that was awesome, and now he is just choosing between Oct. 27 or Nov. 3 to get baptized!!  It is really an awesome privilege to get to know him!

This week we made m mission record with, Drum roll please.......    6 Investigators at church!!! I was amazing trying to round them all up into gospel principles class!  Lucky we had 3 missionaries so it wasn't too hard!  It was an amazing sacrament meeting!  Elder Maybnes of the seventy came to the other side of the mission and talked about how amazing it is when missionaries bear their testimonies, so we decided to start the meetings off right with all 3 of us going up first!  It was an awesome experience and I don't think I'll go to a testimony meeting without getting up for the rest of my mission!!

So Dick and Kathy were a referral, Dick is a non-member and Kathy is less-active. Kathy wanted article of faith cards, because she goes to a bible study and the people there bash on Mormons all the time so she decided that she would hand those out so the people know exactly what we believe! We were expecting just lass-active apathy and laziness, but it turns out she is very active, in the gospel, but not in church attendance!  She studies a ton and loves the Gospel!  She just doesn’t come to church!!  He has a lot of questions but is verrrry open to the church and we're going to teach and baptize him!!

Well I hope you all have an amazing week!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Hello everybody!!

So we've had a crazy week this week!!!  Me and my companion Elder Davidson came home one day, and started planning the next day when suddenly... We get a call from our mission president!!!  I always carry the s=phone so I gave it to him jokingly saying, "It's for you."  Well turns out it wasn't a joke... and President Greer proceeds to tell him that he has a ticket for a plane on Friday!!!  Missionary headquarters saw all the health problems he was having, we were visiting doctors weekly, and decided that it was too much for him to handle out here.  So on Friday morning, we were both all packed up and the Hazel Dell area got shut down until the end of the month!  I am now serving in Woodland WA, a little dinky farm town 30 minutes north of my old area, with the zone leaders!  I am completely enjoying it because now I don't have to walk everywhere!  And I got to see a bunch of missionaries I haven’t seen in a while at General Conference, we went to a different stake.  Yeah, so hopefully at the end of these 3 weeks I am with them I get to go back to Hazel Dell, but there are no promises sadly :(

Last night we did a family home evening with some of our investigators, it was super awesome, we watched some I'm a Mormon videos for the lesson, and then played a game called Missionary Impossible!  It was a really fun game, and my companion Elder La Rue won, though he did have some help from me and my other companion, Elder Kendrick!

I have come to realize that I really love the smaller rural type towns more than the suburban areas. It feels like I went somewhere new, rather than just walking around Oceanside tracting.  I would probably not enjoy living in an area like that but it is cool to see different walks of life other than my own!

Well that is what my crazy week has been like! 
Love you all!!
Elder Pickett

10-2-12

Hellooooo!

I got the package, and it is reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally cool!  I am glad to have some new moccasins because I could stick my whole foot through the front of my old ones!  My companion really got a kick out of the whole camel thing for my hump day... And has been telling everyone since about how I just past my year mark when I say "about a year" to how long I’ve been out.  It's been pretty fun!

Today was awesome! We got to go to Portland (out of the mission) and go to the temple!!  It was super great!  I really love the Portland temple; I think it’s probably my 2nd favorite temple, after San Diego of course! 

This week was pretty cool!  No awesome break through with anyone, which was a bummer, but it was just a good solid week.  We saw a really cool lady, the one that has the baby doll, and she is great to visit with!  Her name is Trudie, and they live in a retirement home facility thing!  She is really funny, and even though she’s 60ish she is probably more energetic than most kids!  She has a lot of awesome stories about when she lived out in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, which are always funny, and how she ended up in the church is also a good one!

That quote about a study of the gospel changing us more than a study of behavior is by Elder Bednar, and its quoted somewhere in PMG, I forget, but yeah I really love that and it is super true!

Thanks for everything!!
Love,
Elder Pickett 

Hump Day

9/24/12

Hello everyone!

So this Friday is my year mark, and I am pretty not excited for it :(  it means that i only have one more year left , and it feels like i have only been here for a couple months!  Well it has been a great year, and I'm excited for the year to come!

I have learned so many things this past year it has been probably the most growing year i have ever had!  I have learned mostly of the saviour and his divine mission.  I know that he did all he did for us, and i know he really did it!  I have seen this through people while I've been out here, people who get baptized, people who investigate, and even people who are just plain old Christians and have no interest in finding more truth!  He is the most amazing person to ever live here, and i am happy i have the chance to know about him!

This past year has definitely been a roller coaster!  I have not had a companion for more than 1 transfer until this past Wednesday!  So i have had 8 companions, where most people i came out with have about 5 or 6,  i also have been tossed around the mission pretty well and have 5 areas, where some people i came out with are just starting their 3rd!!  It has truly been the best time of my life and i wouldn't trade it for any other!

This week was a pretty low level week, my companion got sick for the weekend, so i got a lot of studying done which was nice!  We went to the Rughs house this week, we are teaching their 9 and 11 ear old, and did a little bit of review of the restoration and the doctrine of Christ,  that was good and these kids are really sharp so they picked up on it pretty easily!  We are excited to be working with them, and we are planning on having the baptism before this month is over!

Thanks for all your prayers!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Sept 17, 2012

Hey everybody!

This week has been chalk full of surprises!  For the first time my whole mission i will have a companion for more than 1 transfer!  That is pretty cool and I'm excited to stay in this wonderful area!  We thought there were going to be a ton of changes this time around, because the mission is getting 25 new greenies, the most in mission history!  What really surprised us is les than half of our zone actually got transfered!  So that is pretty crazy to be expecting something, and some people even packing and getting ready, but then it turns out were all just staying in the same place!

There is a really awesome guy in th ward, his name is paul.  He has been less than active for a while, but he still is excited to see the missionaries whenever we go by his house,  he has a crazy set up with 2 TVs in his living room and 3 computers all hooked up to the TVs, its probably the best set up ive seen ever, but thats beside the point.  This man really likes to talk.  A lot.  But this last week we went by to visit and decided rather than talking a little at the beginning we would just jump right in to reading Helaman chapter 5, which was really a blessing because when we were done with that we talked a little and invited him to some institute classes, which I wish he got out to, im not sure but we'll see him tonight, and eventually he might come out to church again!  That would be really cool!

It is great to hear that everything is going well!  I will definitely pray for bishop this week!

Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey everybody!

This week we had a really awesome break through!  We have been working with less active family, really great people with 5 kids, and they haven't really had much motivation to come back to church or do anything for that matter.  But we had a really awesome experience with them, and they decided that it was time to come back!  It was cool because generally when we would come over the kids would go crazy and we wouldn't be able to talk much but this last week we go to talk and they opened up and really talked with us.  It was super cool!  They are gonna be coming to church alot more than they used to they say so I hope they keep to their word on that!

We had a really great visit with some other people too, I think I talk about them alot though.  They are 2 19 year olds with a 1 year old baby, he is a recent convert and she is recently reactivated.  They are doing great and we're helping them with finding the love they need for each other.  It has been a crazy time working with them because they are so much younger than we are but it is very rewarding to see people my age making such huge steps in the lives!

It would be awesome if you could get me some more moccasins mine have a fairly large hole in the toe area, I can fit my big toe out of the front :)  Other than that I’m fine with whatever you see fit to send!

Sorry about the weird time, the library shut my computer off before I could finish my letter!

Love,
Elder Pickett

8-27-12
Hey everybody!!!!!!

Cool story, 3 weeks ago at church a brother approached us about teaching his kids, 9 and 11, so they could get baptized!  We talked for a little bit and he told us he'd call that week.  So this whole week we are waiting for the call.... waiting.... and nothing.  So we go to church on Sunday, and I couldn't find him anywhere at all!  So we were kind of sad that he may have just forgotten us, or not wanting us to teach them at all!  Then we get a call Tuesday at about 440 while were waiting for a ride to dinner, and he says, "So what time are you coming over tonight?"  We hadn't set an appointment so I had no idea what he was talking about!  But it turns out our WML  (ward mission leader)  told him Tuesday nights were good, so brother Rugh, the one were teaching, took that as an appointment was set on Tuesday night and we should know about it.  Anyway that was a kind of awkward phone call but we got there at 630 ready to teach!  We had planned on teaching the restoration, but then showing the Restoration DVD to them because it tells Joseph Smiths story really good, but after 5 minutes the DVD stopped, and wouldn't go any further!  We ended up just teaching it on our own but it was a super good lesson, and they're getting baptized sometime mid-September!

 We had interviews last week and it was really great to be able to see the Mission President, and receive some council from him!  And we got to do a really cool role play where our zone leaders pretended to be people to tract into, and we went tracting that was cool

It sounds like everything is going good down there! It sounds like good things are happening!  And that professor’s name is Arenivar, that'll be a really good class, its super fun as well! 

Well I'm running out of time now!
Love you all!
Elder Pickett


8-20-12

Hello everybody!!

So the weather here is literally, nuts.  It doesn't know what to do or how to do it!  These past 2 weeks it has not been under 80 degrees, and it has spiked over 100 which is supposedly not supposed to happen as some people say.  But that’s not the weirdest thing...  Friday was one of those 100 days; luckily it is our planning/ meetings day so we stayed away from the heat, mostly.  Saturday we were going to do some service for one of the recent converts in the ward.  We woke up and it was kinda overcast, which was weird because the forecast was like 105, so we put on long sleeve shirts because it was not that hot, so we started walking to the service place, and the clouds start clearing up so it gets nice and warm.  So we roll up our sleeves and just keep going, when we get to the recent converts house, we change into our service clothes and get to work.  I was pulling weeds and clearing the ground on the side of the house, when the clouds again rolled back over the sun, I didn't think much of it so we just continued to work, eventually as we were about 3/4 done it starts raining, and it’s raining pretty hard!  This was a total surprise because weathermen said it wouldn’t do that until September!  So yeah we stopped working for about 15 minutes to grab some lunch, and when we came back out the sun was shining and it was about 80 degrees.... This place has some crazy weather.

The work here has been going super good!  We have nothing really super exciting to tell, but we just keep moving along, and pushing forward!  So I'll give you an outline of kinda what all my days look like!!  We wake up at 6:30 and do all our morning stuff, shower breakfast all that then we hit the books at 8:00!  I've been reading the New Testament lately and I’m getting through Luke right now.  After an hour we do comp study, and lately we got a hold of General Conference DvDs so we watch them after planning out our lessons for the day.  10:00 rolls around and we head out the door to go do some finding, we need more investigators, and usually get some tracting in,  we take an hour for lunch at noonish, but then head right back out!  We teach most of our lessons in the afternoon, which is weird because in other areas it was all at night!  So yeah that keeps us busy for most of the day, have dinner with families at 5, we get well fed every night!  We have an exchange just about every night as well, so he takes us around from 7-9!  Then we just go home, do a little planning and rest for the night!  So if you take that repeat it 7 times, and throw in some meetings, that’s pretty much my whole life right now! 

Oh cool story, I met the bishop of 7th ward, and his name is Bishop Pickett!!  That was cool, not sure if we're related but yeah he’s a good guy!

Sorry for the short E-mail, love you all!

Elder Pickett

Aug 13, 2012

Hey everybody!!

This week has been a really good week for us!  Kennedy got confirmed yesterday which was super cool!  But the really great thing was that 2 less-active families came!  One of them was the Alvsteads, I've never met them because they asked for no contact from the church for a while, but they ended up just coming back on their own which was great!  And the other family is the Rughs (Not sure how its spelled but sounds like Roo)  Brother Rugh approached us at the end of the meeting and asked if we could talk, he then told us that his kids weren't baptized and they were 9 and 11 and that we needed to teach them so they can get baptized!  That was awesome and I hope the kids getting baptized motivate the parents to get active again!

So I'm not sure if I already told this one but it’s awesome!  We went to the hospital a couple weeks ago because Kennedys grandpa was there, he needed to get a pacemaker put it because his blood pressure and pulse were starting to drop drastically so they called us up and asked us to give a blessing.  We go to the hospital and get to his room, give him a blessing, it was really good and left.  We went to Kennedys the next day to give some final things for her baptism and we got an update about her grandpa.  Turns out, the next morning he woke up, and was perfectly fine, and no longer needed a pacemaker or anything!  He was still week and has been riding around in a scooter for a couple weeks, but that was definitely an amazing miracle I was lucky to see!

That’s great to hear about the roof (Especially since I'm not the one putting it on) what are you putting on after the shingles are gone? 

My new companion is Elder Davidson; he is from Logan Utah and has been out about 3 months!  We are going to have a great transfer together, and we will get a lot of work done! 

This is going to be an awesome transfer!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Howdy everyone! 

This week has been really good!  Not weather-wise though, it broke 100 yesterday!  This was good if I didn't have to be in a suit all day because we had a baptism!  The girls name is Kennedy Ames and she is a really awesome girl!  Her mom found the church about 8 years ago, and her older sister was baptized when they first found them.  The mother can't get baptized because she has stomach cancer, and can’t come to church.  Though we are working on getting her baptized even though she can't come! 

So transfers are coming this week, and I am losing my companion :(  I am getting a new guy (only out 3 months) and I am "Greeny busting" him, which means I am his second companion so I have to show him the real ropes!  He was trained by Elder Florence, who was a roommate of mine in the MTC so I know that Elder Davidson had a really good trainer! 

I really liked my birthday presents and the shoes I got are the ones I came out with haha, I found them at a nice price and really liked the old ones so I had to get another pair! 

Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Elder Pickett

 Is that a real baby....





I don't think so.

So this week was a really good week!

So on my birthday, my comp got sick in the morning so he slept in and I just hung out in the basement and read this book that my member recommended, it's called the Peace Giver it’s really an amazing book and puts a new light on the atonement that I had never seen before! I would recommend it to everyone!

After he was feeling better we went to dinner, and that was great, they fried up some of the best potatoes I've had, and had some really delicious pork roast!  After that we went and visited a really cool family, the McKrackens!  They are both 19 years old and married with a baby!  She has been a member her whole life (not very active but still a member), but he wasn't until last November!  They're super cool, and our age so it's great to visit them and help them out when we can!  So that was the working day of my birthday (still no cake).  After we got home we were just chillin, and my comp has the phone, and he keeps getting texts so I’m thinking, that’s weird.  Then he randomly goes upstairs, and then comes back down holding to boxes, so I got my presents on my birthday!  We went upstairs and cooked those mini browny cake things, so I did get some cake on my birthday, so that was cool!

On Saturday, that was a recent convert whose family was moving to a different part of the area, so we volunteered and got signed up to help.  So we show up and they're all out back taking a quick smoke 'n coffee break before work, but when we showed up we all started on it, aaaaaaand 2 full U-hauls, and 7 hours later we finally got home!  I'm still exhausted!  The worst part was my allergies, or possibly a cold or something, had been annoying all Friday, and then it just got worse during the move, so I was helping out and feeling sick and stuff, but hey! It was tons of fun so yeah!

You haven't told me about the cheesesteak thing, where is it?  And is it better than Spiritos?

Well that was my week in a nutshell!
Have a good one,

Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey Everyone!

Trust me, I don't think I will ever forget my birthday week!  There is an awesome non-member family here who are always excited to see missionaries.  They were asked to feed the missionaries once 8 years ago, and never stopped!  We can go there just about any time, and they have 5 big bowls of candy out on the table for us and the neighbor kids.  They will be taking us out to McGraths fish house this Wednesday as a celebration of my graduation into the 20s, it should be a good outing! 

There is a 14 year old girl in our area who is named Kennedy, and she is getting baptized on the 4th of August!  It has been an awesome time meeting with her and finally setting a date for that to happen!  We are super excited for this to happen and now that it finally is we are really stoked for it!  She is an awesome girl and she is way excited to be baptized, and her mom wants to be baptized but we have to settle some things out first.  She has had a lot of health issues and we are trying to find out how to get her to church, or baptized without needing to go to church, because she literally cannot.  They are an all-around awesome family, and they are die-hard chargers fans who used to live down off of vista way!!

We had a mini missionary this week!  A 17 year old kid who came out with us Thursday and Friday from 8AM to 930PM, his name is Dylan and he is a really great guy!  We had a lot of fun going around and teaching people! 

Have a good week!
Love ya!
Elder Pickett

Hey everybody!

So Hazel Dell ward has an annual tradition of having a 4th of July breakfast on the morning of the fourth!  It was a smashing success with 160 people there!  It suddenly became less successful on Thursday morning when the strawberries took their revenge out on half of the ward!  Everybody got sick and had a bad day after 4th.  And at ward council we heard alot about it.  It was pretty funny because neither I nor my companion got sick so we had nothing to be mad about!

We had dinner with Sis Adams sister last night, and their family is super awesome! 

We had to go in on the fourth so we didn't get to see any cool shows, but buying mortars is legal here so everyone and their mother has their own private show which wasn't a terrible thing but we couldn’t see very well from our backyard haha

It’s pretty warm where I am, basically just a normal San Diego summer. Its temple p-day so it’s on Tuesday, and I got to go to the Portland temple, which was awesome!

There is an awesome opportunity we have this week to receive a "mini missionary" he is a 17 year old guy from Vancouver north stake!  We will hopefully be able to take him through all the aspects of missionary life such as teaching lessons to investigators, less actives, and even members!  He will be with us for 2 days, but he will go home and sleep there at nights which is pretty good since our beds are not of the best quality.  I wish I could have done this before my mission!  It's definitely an awesome opportunity for us and him! 

Sorry about the short E-mail today, I'll have awesome stories next week!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey!

So I am getting transferred this coming Wednesday! And I'm making a cross state trip to the western side of Vancouver!  It's gonna be awesome to see green everywhere and finally get out of the desert!  I'm super excited for my new companion, Elder Nawahine.  It's pronounced now- uh- he- neigh!  Cool little story, the missionary that returned home to Oceanside in April trained this guy, and he is from La Jolla!  So it’ll be 2 Cali boys trying to survive in the rain!  I've only met him a handful of times, but I'm sure we'll have a ton of fun, and get a bunch of work done!

This week was a really funny week.  We keep running into Seventh Day Adventists!  It's kind of funny how many we've ran into!  This one, Lee Murphy is probably the coolest 79 year old I've ever met.  We were walking down the road and saw him doing yard work while leaning on crutches.  So we offered to help, and he said "I thought you'd never ask!"  So we went down into his basement, which isn't finished yet; only the foundation is remade, and helped him remove some trees that were growing into the side of it.  It was a fun little project and afterward he invited us in for some juice!  We sat down and got to talking, and he was on crutches because he broke his leg 2 months ago falling out of a tree while he was up there trimming it with a chainsaw!  (This guy’s intense.)  We then had a really good lesson, and he said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray to ask if it's true!  I won't be able to see him again, but I hope he will find the truth in the message!

We had a fireside yesterday and it was so good!  We had 3 recent converts speak and share their testimonies, one of which was TJ, who was baptized the Saturday I came into the area.  We then sang our mission song which is super cool, and then President Greer (mission president) and President Andelin (stake president) talked. It was a super good meeting and the investigators there loved it! 

Well that is my week in a nutshell!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Subject: Your missionary had lunch at my house today!!
To:

P-day lunch at the Pierces!! It was a pleasure to have them in our home!!

We love the missionaries!!

Love Sister Pierce in Pasco

Who's putting his dish in the dish washer?

Hello!

So I sent you new mission address, so don't forget to let people know that it's not the same one!  Our new address will be: 8202 W. Quinault Ave. #D, Kennewick, Washington  99336

Secondly, Happy Birthday Mom!!!
Sorry to hear about your Bursitis.  Aw, manL  but at least it’s slowed the progress but not stopped the progress.

Thirdly,  this week was way good! But mostly yesterday was so cool!  As a zone, we have set a goal of 30 new investigators per week!  And yesterday as a zone we needed 9 of them!  So I and Ruetti went to our appointment with the Coaly family, where we got 5 new investigators!  Then as we were walking home we knocked on a potentials door, and got 2 more right there!  It was such a good day yesterday!!

The lesson with the Coaly's was probably the best of my mission!  It started off kind of weird (Especially since they won't call us Elder so I'm Brandon when I go over there)  but other than that, it was super awesome and the spirit was there super strong!  So we taught them, and as a family they are going to read the Book of Mormon!  It is going to be super cool going back there and teaching them again, I kinda hope I stay because I don't want to miss out on that!

That AJ Edwards story is so cool!  I sent you a link to the Mormon Message they made out of that talk, it is really such an awesome story! http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages-for-youth?lang=eng&start=1&end=12#2011-09-005-sanctify-yourselves
AJ Edwards is the bomb!

We are doing a Book of Mormon challenge, and as a mission we will finish the Book of Mormon on Dads B-day!  It has been a really awesome experience, and I'm in Helaman 7 now!  It'll be my second time through on my mission.  I know what you mean about its kind of a new book every time!  I love it so much, and after I finish reading, up next is the New Testament!!  Have a good week!

Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey everybody!!

  The ward is doing good, and the work is really picking up!  This week we had the best week for the area in about the past year or so!  This specific ward is very very small so it is hard to find people that haven't already been tracted out or anything, but we are definitely being blessed with people all the time! 

So there is this one investigator, Linda.  We haven't decided whether she's super golden, or just super crazy... She is probably more golden than crazy, but yeah the first visit we had with her she said she was deciding whether she was going to be Mormon or Christian, and she took us coming over as a sign that she's supposed to be Mormon, so she keeps telling us she's going to be Mormon now.  That is pretty cool to be blessed with a golden investigator.

Another cool thing that’s happening here is we are starting to have "cottage meetings."  Or mini firesides that members host where other members or investigators or less actives, or anyone can come and we will share a thought, and then have desert or something!  It's going to be awesome, and the Snake River ward (Matt's ward) do them every Sunday.  The cool thing is every gator that has gone to one of them, has been baptized! So we're hoping that this will help the work tremendously!

Don't forget to feed the missionaries!!
Love,
Elder Pickett

6-5-12

Hello,

So I just realized that last week was my 8 month birthday! Woo Hoo!  But yeah, it has pretty much been the shortest 8 months of my life! 

So this week we found an awesome guy, his wife and he are looking for a church, and they invited us to come see if we were the right church for them (and we are.)  So we are very excited to get to go see them tonight and hopefully help them find the truth in our message! We are going to be doing a lot of work for him service-wise because he has a giant pile of dirt out front of his house that needs to be moved into the back, and he has been doing it all alone!  So there is some hope brewing in Pasco, and it looks like it's going to be a wonderful transfer!

So we have been doing a ton of service this week!  It was really cool to be able to help a bunch of people out!

So yeah talking to people on the bike path, it has actually reduced the quantity of how many people we talk to, because you can tract alot of houses quickly, and walking the path is a game of chance depending on how many people are out that day.  So yeah, the quantity has gone down, but the quality has increased by alot.  I guess when people are out and about they are more willing to talk to people!

We have been finding some awesome new investigators!  Yesterday this one guy came to church with a friend, his name is DJ, and he really like church which was super cool!  Afterwards, we went to the families’ home for a smore party, and he was also there!  It was super cool to get to know him, and teach him a little bit at the party!  This week has been super good for our area, and things are always looking brighter!!

I miss you and love you all!
Elder Pickett!

Hello!!!!!

I'm so excited to hear that Sammy boy made it home safe and sound!  That is super exciting!!  Just make sure he’s not married before I get home okay?  So yeah I'm pretty much very excited for Sunday! It’ll be a blast! I'm not sure if you can tell by the plethora of exclamation points!  So yeah today we're going to play tennis with someone in ward, so it'll be a nice change of pace from basketball all the time!

So brother Wilstead has been not feeling too well this past week, and we only got to see him for about 5 minutes, which was pretty funny.  So we went over to his house and he answered the door and let us in.  Then he said well I’m going to go catch up on some sleep so feel free to stick around and just hang out for a bit, then he just left us in his living room. He's a pretty funny guy and is way fun to visit, even though he's like 50 years older than us.

So yeah talking to people on the bike path, it has actually reduced the quantity of how many people we talk to, because you can tract alot of houses quickly, and walking the path is a game of chance depending on how many people are out that day.  So yeah, the quantity has gone down, but the quality has increased by alot.  I guess when people are out and about they are more willing to talk to people!

So there is a family in the ward who actually moved out of the ward on Friday.  The day they moved out they invited their neighbors to come to church, and the neighbors said yes!  So they came and had a good time at church, so we're hoping that they turn into investigators and eventually join the church!  Did I mention it’s a family of 8?  That was super cool to see them all show up! 

Well I'll be seeing you on Sunday!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey everyone!

So this week we met a super cool lady named sister Ridgeley! She is awesome and is a drag racer!  Next time we go we are going to get to see her cars, and the last time she gave us zucchini bread, which was cool because the day before when we set up the appointment, we smelled and said it was good.  So she had a couple bags full waiting for us after we taught her!  It was super cool and I am way excited to go back! 

So at the beginning of the transfer we did a lot of tracting in this area! (Going door to door) but we have realized there’s a better way! So we go out behind our house where there is a little bike path right on the Columbia River, and we just walk that and talk to people.  It’s not as intrusive as knocking on someone’s door, and we have a pretty view!  It is pretty cool to switch things up every now and then!

We watched Elder Oaks' talk on Christ’s life in priesthood yesterday, it was really good and there was some great discussion afterwards.  It was a super good lesson, and it didn't feel like 20 hours long (Elder's quorum can get kinda long sometimes)

So I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Pickett

4-24-12

Brandon had mission temple day, so he p-day was on Tuesday.

Hey everyone!

So this week was super awesome!  There is a man here named brother Wilstead who hasn't been to church in a very long time, he's about 70 and doesn't go because he is super sad about his wife, who has Alzheimer’s or something.  Anyway, he just doesn’t have the motivation to get out of bed on Sundays and go to church.  This last week we visited with him twice and we have been going through the lessons with him, because Elder Fernquist hasn't had too much experience teaching, so we're getting him into the groove, and getting his skills up.  We taught him the restoration one night, and just talked about a scripture the second night.  The scripture thought, which is generally a minute or two long, turned into a half hour discussion and he was giving alot of feedback, which is uncanny for him.  Anyway, he came to church on Sunday!  It was a truly amazing miracle to see him walk into church!

So the weather here has been beautiful!  It has been sunshine and happy days the last little bit!  Except for the awesome thunderstorm last night (which still counts as beautiful weather because I didn't have to walk around in it!)  So it has been short sleeve shirts the past couple days, and I am loving it! 

Pasco is a really cool place, and I am excited to be able to work here!
Love,
Elder Pickett

4-16-12

Hey everybody!

This week, my companion and I definitely felt like Ammon!  We did service just about every day!!  IT was awesome to be able to get out of the white shirt and tie, and do some work for a while!  Although, it’s not nice remembering what a sunburn feels like though!  I got to drive a tractor!  We were doing farm work for a less active family, and they needed someone working the tractor so my companion and I took turns driving it. It was pretty cool.  We also painted trees, I’m not sure why but it supposedly helps them. 

That's super col that they're going on a cruise!  That’s really funny because me and my companion have alot of time to talk as we walk for miles and miles and miles (maybe exaggerated), and we were talking about cruises yesterday and he said they were pretty cool.


Our area is actually one of the smallest in the mission, so there is not so much work to be done, because almost all the houses have been knocked on within the past 6 months.  So we do a lot of work with less-actives, and trying to get them to come back to church!

Sorry for such a short letter today!
Elder Pickett

The First 6 Months

Hey everyone!!

So I'm in Pasco WA now, and I guess I am getting to know what real missionaries feel like! I'm walking now :( It's a pretty cool town, and we have an awesome view of the Columbia River from our house! I could literally throw a rock into the river from our balcony! The work here is pretty slow, and mostly we just do work with less-actives. The area is so small that one missionary who was here for 6 months tracked the entire area, twice. It is pretty crazy!

So my new companion basically is just a reincarnation of Kyle Gemmell, but 2 years older haha. He's a way rad guy and we have tons of fun walkin around together! He just finished training, so I am "Greeny busting" him, it's pretty cool to finally be with someone who is younger than me haha. So we had an awesome miracle happen the other day!

We were tracting, and kept getting rejected, as usual, and finally knocked on a house and a guy answered. I did the normal approach, introduce myself and let him know that were sharing a message of restored truth to prophets, and he asks us to share that message with him on the doorstep! We did so, and asked if we could come back sometime, and he said we could! This was awesome because Elder Fernquist hasn't had too much teaching time to investigators, and he did an awesome job! I'm really excited for this transfer, and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store!

Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey everybody!

So I just got here in Hermiston 6 weeks ago, and it turns out that I'm going back to Washington!! Or as they say it here, Warshington!!! I'm headed to Pasco, baptizing capital of our mission! I'm very excited to get there because I have heard the work is never slow so that will be an awesome experience! I sure am going to miss Oregon though, no sales tax and stuff like that was pretty nice! But I am excited to be going to the Tri-Cities (Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco).

We've seen some raccoons around here as well! We live on a pretty long dirt road, and every now and then coming home we see the coons having a party in the street! They live in some raspberry bushes off the side of the road and sometimes will be out in the street when we are coming in so it's way cool to be able to see them. Although they are just down the road, they really don't do much to mess with us, or our host families’ dogs. They have a half border-collie half black lab, and a full border collie. They are both exceptionally fat, and probably the coolest dogs in Oregon!

This week our car went into the shop on Monday, from damages previous to me coming here, and they had it until Thursday! This was basically the longest week of my life hahaha, we were lucky enough to be able to bunk with other missionaries who live in town for the week so we were only 2 miles out of our area. Luckily they're great guys and gave us rides every now and then! So yeah this week was great for exercise! So my area that I'm going into is a walking area, so I guess this last week was just training for the next 6 weeks, or longer.

Well I sure love yall lots!
Elder Pickett

Hey everybody!!

So Josie got baptized this Saturday, and is the first person I was able to teach and take them to baptism! It was super cool and my companion did the baptizing which was awesome! The Sunday was the weird fast Sunday yesterday, weird in the fact of placement, not that it was fast Sunday. Anyway, she got up and bore her testimony, and so did her 7 year old brother named Gator. Gator is possibly the coolest kid I know, and he is way excited to get baptized in a year or so. They are an awesome family, and we just need to get to teach the father!

So today was a really cool P-day, it was the "Olympics." We split the zone into 2 teams, white and black, and then we played a bunch of games and had alot of fun! The first event was soccer, and I got to play goalie, and I scored 1 point! My team eventually won that one! The next was a game called clean your room, where we just kinda threw clothes across the volleyball net, and whoever had the least clothes on their side won. My team won that one too! We then played volleyball, and my team lost that one :( then ultimate Frisbee, and again, loss for the white team. Then it was 8 1 on 1 competitions! The one that I competed in was really cool! We had to take tissues out of a tissue box one at a time. It was crazy but I eventually was able to win! Elder Gwynn (my companion) still says that I cheated, but it was an honest victory I promise!

It's really cool to hear that they're always making you do something just a little better and just a little harder! Keep up the good work!
Well transfers are next week so I will let you know what’s happening!
Love,
Elder Pickett

Hey everyone!

This last week was very crazy! We went on exchanges for Monday and Tuesday, then Thursday and Friday, so I feel as if I didn't do any work in my area at all! The first exchange I had was with Elder Facuri. He is a way cool elder in my district, and he is going home at the end of the transfer (so he's fairly trunky.) The bad thing is HE'S IN VISTA 8TH WARD!! So it kinda made me a little trunky that day because he was talking about all the stuff he's gonna do, and who he's gonna see and whatnot! So yeah, he's going to come visit our ward and talk to you so don't be weirded out when a random guy comes up and says, I know your son! We had a really good time together and taught a couple lessons, and it was cool seeing a missionary, who has had almost all the experience he will get, teach.

There is a family here that just had their house burn down just under a month ago. They lost their whole house sadly, and we just had a big service project at their house, which was way cool! We didn't actually do anything with the wreckage, but we helped put gates around it so no one would go in, and we helped clear the area around it of the stuff that was there, mostly wood. 50 or so members were there and it really helped them out with everything they are going through. A really neat thing was that they served us lunch, but they had the Josi's father cook all the meat so it was awesome to get him around a large group of members to see that we're not all that bad haha.

We have a baptism this weekend, and Josi definitely won't cancel! (The baptism we were supposed to have on Saturday canceled on us) So that is way exciting being able to see someone embrace the gospel!

So it is the last day of winter, but it certainly doesn't look like winter outside! Sunshine and clear skies is what I'm seeing right now, and I am very glad to be out of the depressing rain we've been having!

Well time is short here in Oregon!
Elder "B-Dawg" Pickett

Hey everyone!

That so funny that there have been raccoons in our backyard because we were just visiting a man last night who has had problems with raccoons and coyotes in his backyard! But he lives in the country so he just uses his .22 to solve the problems rather than cutting down the grass! I'm not endorsing the use of firearms in the city limits... but it works pretty well for him.

I'm not sure if I said so but we were going to have a baptism this Saturday which was totally exciting because it would've been my first one, but he actually left us a voicemail while we were walking in to the library today, and let us know that he has decided to not get baptized... which was a total downer because he is a really great guy and I know that being part of Christ's church could help him out so much!

Josi, the 10 year old is still on track to get baptized on the 24th, and she is super excited for that to happen! Finding her was definitely a miracle! Elder Gwynn was given a list of less actives to visit (before I got to Hermiston) and they randomly chose to go see the Goodrich's. They are a part member family and Sister Goodrich had been looking through her grandmothers old things, and found her Book of Mormon and was thinking a lot about church, so it was a sign to her that the missionaries showed up later that day and visited her!

Well time is short all the way up here in OR,
I hope you all have a great day!
Elder Pickett

Hey everyone!

That is a pretty funny picture! Does drafting off of a trike even help? Especially at 8 mph :P

I did receive the package, and I'm sad to say, we don't have an oven or any pots/pans/anything. we have a microwave (that barely works) and a hot plate (that can boil water but has trouble doing even that) so I'm not sure if the brownies will be baked, or the noodles feasted on, but thank you very much for all the other wonderful things that were in there!

That is a pretty good idea to be teaching the young men like they are doing! They just need to get out there and find (or they need referrals from the ward) but I'm sure as soon as they start doing those things it'll turn into a great area! I think it's crazy that 4 missionaries are covering 1 ward though; I'm not sure how they do it! It's not easy finding people to teach in 2 wards, let alone 1/2 of a ward!

We are teaching a 10 year old girl who is probably the coolest person I have ever met! She has read up to mosiah already and she just barely got a Book of Mormon a week ago! She is going to be baptized on the 24th of March, and she will be my 2nd baptism because we are having one on the 17th of March. His name is Rick, and he knows the Bible like the back of his hand! It is super cool meeting with him because we teach something and he says "oh yeah, in James chapter something verse something, it says the same thing so that makes sense." And it is pretty crazy talking to him because he just knows it so well!

Well that's all that I have to report this week, have a good one!
Love,
Elder Pickett

2-27-12

Hey everyone!

So my new area is just like my old area, except instead of a Fred Meyer, they have a Walmart... It's all farmland and not what anyone thinks Oregon looks like at all haha. My new companion is a way cool guy or a cool head if you will. His name is Elder Gwynn and he is a 6'3" bean pole! Our new area has a lot of work to be done in it so we are working hard on keeping up with the rest of our stake. Our stake president is very missionary focused, last year they set a baptismal goal of 1 a week, and they got 50 by the end of the year! At this point in the year they had 8 baptisms already. This year the goal is set for 60, so we'll need to do a lot more work to get there eventually! Today the stake has 1 baptism in it for the year of 2012, so it'll be pretty hard to get that goal of 60! Our wards are great! But not as great as home haha, we are getting fed well and plenty of referrals so I have no complaints.

So one cool thing, is there’s an elder in my district, Elder Facuri. He's the one in the 8th ward, and he's actually going home at the end of the transfer. So be on the watch for a new RM and make sure to say hello when you see him!

I am jealous that I don't get to go ride with you and see your progress! Keep on keeping on!

Well, it is time for me to be off soon!
Sincerely,
Elder Pickett!

Hey everyone!

So this last weekend we got transfer calls, and it turns out I'm leaving my greenie area, and becoming a real missionary! This transfer I'll be going to Hermiston Oregon with an Elder named Elder Gwynn. I'm excited to meet all the new people I get to meet in Hermiston, but I'm very sad to be leaving Ellensburg!

Tonight, we have dinner with a non-member family, and it's a pretty crazy story of how we came to meet them. We were actually out tracting in the middle of nowhere again (Most of my area is the middle of nowhere) and we knocked on a door, which an older man answered. The first thing he said was oh it’s you guys, come on in! Which was totally strange to us still because this kind of thing never happens while tracting. Anyway, it turns out that she was baptized 5 years ago and stopped going when they moved away from Tacoma. We had a lesson with them, and at the end they invited us out to have dinner with them, and we're going to be doing that tonight!

A big highlight of this week was being able to attend a baptism with Bryce, one of our investigators. He is a great guy and is progressing very well, there was a baptism in Selah this past Saturday, and we took him down there so that he could see one. The spirit was so strong there, and it really helped him with his fears about baptism. I sure hope that after I leave he will still progress and find the truth in the gospel.

In total, we have about 15 investigators, but everything is going to change completely. There is only going to be one companionship for the whole valley now, so the 3 of them (they will be a tri-panionship) will be covering 5 wards, so they will be very busy all the time now.

Well it has been a crazy week!

Love,

Elder Pickett