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!