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