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