July 7, 2014 (more cement pictures)

here's some more pictures from laying cememnt in big lake!

June 30, 2014 pouring and laying cement

we poured some cement for a member in Big lake! here are the pictures!

June 30, 2014 weekly update (learning Russian)

How is everyone! My week was good. Homer is great! Its really pretty here, and its not hot at all, which is a blessing. The ward seems pretty sweet, which is exciting too! I haven't gotten to work with Active Members in like 5 months, since we had none in our area in Big Lake. So doing new vision lessons again is exciting! The bishop is excited to work with us too! The past missionaries haven't really worked hard at all, so I'm coming in all guns blazing. Activate manager mode: now! haha. I've really been a driving force for some shake ups, and we are already seeing some blessings. Sometimes I think Elder Webster feels I'm running over him, but...well..JC or no, I'm here to work and I'm here to bring souls to the Lord! So sorry buddy! One thing the bishop said that I really liked was that the mission effort is like being a farmer. We have to be involved in all phases of the work. HE siad this right after he said he wanted us to door knock at some points. He said he hvae to be involved in all parts of the harvest, and that includes planting seeds, watering newly grown ones, and harvesting ripe ones. I really liked that! There are russian villages down here, so I've started learning russian, and get to order russian name tags! I'm getting a nice collection of language tags. All I need are tongan, tagalog, and hmong and I'll have the full set! Well hope youa re all well, love yall!! Elder Pawson

June 23, 2014 weekly update: transferred to Homer

Transfer Week! I got transferred!! I'll be serving in Homer, AK. I'm pretty excited. It's right on the tip of the Kenai peninsula. Right on the ocean. Lots of Halibad fishing too! Should be a good time. I'll be serving with Elder Webster. He's pretty cool. My last day at the bird center was saturday, how sad! I wasn't able to get Rhett on my hand, he was sassy, but we had to move the Great Horned Owls, and I took the female, Skuya, and moved her. Wow what a big bird! She weighs almost 4 pounds. She gave me no problems though, which surprised the other handlers. They say I am a natural and they are really sad I am leaving. I wish there was one in Homer! Hope you are all well! miss you all a ton!! love elder pawson

June 9, 2014 zone conference picture

here is the pic from zone conference. look how tired i am ahaha

June 9, 2014 40 day fast

Wow. what a week. I told you last week I was going to be in a choir at a funeral, what an experience! Sister Samantha Lierly died on her mission in the Washington Vancouver mission. Her funeral was at the stake center and there was a lot of people there! There were also a lot of missionaries there, too. They came from all over.. Anchorage, Soldotna, Chugiak, and of course, Wasilla. It was such a spiritual experience. So back up a few weeks. Elder Bratt showed me this talk called, "40 Day Fast." It talks about a missionary who fasted and prayed to know what he could do better, then made a list of the things he was doing that was keeping him from feeling the spirit. Then you fast from those things for 40 days. By the end, you are out of the habit of doing them. Well I started almost 40 days ago now, actually, and wow, I have noticed a difference. Well I could definitaly tell in this funeral. Every little thing nearly brought me to tears. it was pretty intense. We helped a member clear some land the other day, thats what the pictures are from. Sister Hewitt is the sister in the pictures, and Elder Hamilton is in them too. Yesterday we had a cool experience with a returning less active. We went for a walk with her and her dog, and after the walk she took us to her neighbors and introduced us. We were totally rejected but it was still cool to see her try! Well I hope all is well! Love you all! Elder Pawson

June 2, 2014 weekly update, what happens when you don't text in and missionary choir at a funeral

well this week was pretty boring. kind of. Every night we are supposed to text our district leader that we are in, and they text the zone leaders when their district is in, who text the aps when the zone is in, and they tell president that everyone is home and safe. Well one night I left the phone in the car,and forgot. I was trained b y Elder Springer, who was a district leader, so I never really got in the habit of texting in, so I forget a lot. But Elder Kratz is my DL and he apparently cares alot, cause he called 5 times, and then the zone leaders called a few times, and at about 1030 decided that they needed to come check on us. So they drove like 40 minutes to get to our cabin to see if we were fine, which of course we ewere. It was pretty funny though. A sister Missionary who was serving in washington, but who lives in the Willow ward, died last week. She had a root canal done in January, and it gave her problems for months. Sometimes her jaw would lock up, so last week she went in to have it extracted. The surgery went well and she was getting ready to be discharged. She was talking on the phone with her companion and said, "I'm not feeling well," then the phone dropped to the ground and she was gone. It sounds like something out of a movie huh. Well today is the funeral, and that is why we are emailing a little early. The funeral is at 1 and Presient Metcalf, the stake president has asked for a missionary choir. So we are getting there at 11 to practice before the funeral. It's pretty sad. Yesterday we did a district tract for the sisters in the Settler's Bay ward. It was raining pretty hard but it was still fun. I got pretty soaked but it was all good. Found a few potential investigators for them. We had an investigator named Jenny Jensen. Her neighbor had cursed us out one time we were over there because of our driving. I would like to point out that by this point I had lost my driving priveleges for over a month, and Elder Stovall was driving then, and he drives like a grandma, so we aren't sujre what he is talking about. But Jennys husband was really mean to us too so we stopped going over there. But last night, Jennys dad called. He is a member int he memory lake ward. He said that jenny missed us coming over. Her husband didn't care for us, but jenny liked us so we are going to go over there and restablish contact again! Its good because we are running out of people to teach! Every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we come to the library and feed lunches to little kids. Well, any kid under 18 really. but its really cool, we have been doing a lot of community service and the people notice. A lot of people recognise us either from the bird center or the library or the food pantry. Now we just need to get them to let us teach them! But one lady, Kamisha, recognised us while we were tracting and asked us to come back! Pretty awesome. Well I typed alot to make up for the lack of pics again. Forgot to take some. But i will try this week.. Hope you are all well, love ya Elder Pawson