Snowy present on Christmas Day

We were able to Skype with Rob on December 25th for Christmas. It was great to see his face and hear his voice. The Connection was a bit poor toward the end but it was still great to see him. He is doing great and wishes to send you all his love this Christmas season. Here is the letter he sent us on his PDay.

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week has been crazy! Good crazy! I feel a lot has changed this
past week that will help me throughout my whole mission. First of all
I loved hearing from you too this Christmas, Sorry for the bad
connection but that was probably the Lord telling me I had enough.
haha and yes this snow we've gotten has been the worst for everyone
here, they're all complaining, but I love it! I know it was part of my
Christmas gift from Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for all the
many gifts you gave! I really appreciate it. So
transfers are this Tuesday and looks like Elder Cook and I are staying
in the same area still! That is a blessing because we had so much work
to do. We have two weddings we are planning, two baptisms and a
crap-ton of other things. We made thank you card with candies in them
to all the people we teach and serve with here and boy is that a lot
of people!

Lets see, Christmas here was the best! All day Pday! I woke up and
looked out the window, and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the
apricot tree! No It SNOWED!!! We got like a whole inch of snow!!! I
was so happy to have a white Christmas this year because it had not
snowed yet. So after we studied in the morning I ran outside in my
shorts and bare feet and ran through the snow and threw some snowballs
at the Spanish sister's apartment next door. We then had a snowball
fight as soon as they came out.The sisters didn't get very many presents to
open so we invited them over, we opened our door, they sat outside and
we gave them blankets and they helped us open our gifts. We Skyped with our families,
then after I then cleaned up the apartment and we went over to our
dinner appointment with the Taggarts. Mike and Mckenzie, their 5 year
old son and 2 year old daughter are awesome! He's a going to school to
be a doctor and she is a photographer. I was so excited about the snow
that I asked the two kids if they wanted to play in the snow after
dinner. So we did! haha They were so cute! But silly me, I forgot my
gloves so yes my hands froze too! We then got a ride home, and the
sisters were there again, so BAM another snowball fight ensued! We
made a snowman then destroyed him sadly, and we went inside. Whew!
What a day!

This week has been a great spiritually growing week due to rough
circumstances here, but through my studies and through the spirit that
has been felt all week I've felt a change in me and others have even
pointed that out. I've been able to focus more on the work and teach
through the Spirit. I love it here and am not too sad about calling
home. I was scared that I would think about it for too long but i'm
doing fine.  I am blessed to have such a wonderful family and to have seen you this
Christmas! It is already almost 2015!!! What the Hay!? Just think, in
the blink of an eye BAM! it will be mothers day! :) I hope you have a
wonderful week and don't worry about me too much. I love you very much
and wish I could've told you that in person but alas it was not so, so
I LOVE YOU!

Love Elder Patterson

The Spanish Sisters that live in the building across from them. This is a picture of them during their snowball fight on Christmas Day.

What I learned in Seminary.

Hello! Family and Friends,

Well this week was eventful in many different ways. I feel kind of at
a loss at what to do. Theres a point when so many things go wrong i
tend to question if i need to keep moving forward with faith or if
there is something I am lacking that i need to change. Well I'll just
let you know what happened this week, and it may not be in perfect
order but hey whatever.  I feel like I am turning into Mom out here. I'll explain. So to
capture our attention in seminary Mom would show us videos from all
over the place, Mormon messages, seminary resources, general
conference clips, just everything. She would then beautifully bear her
testimony about the video and the spirit that it brings and i was just
to tired in the morning to realize the importance of them. Some of
them were pretty cheesy, some of them boring, some of them thought
provoking and such but now im the one watching and sharing these
cheesy videos and crying my face off while I try to bear my testimony
which has been hidden for so long. I don't think they are all cheesy
anymore. This new "He is the Gift" video i've memorized and don't even
have to watch it anymore to know what happens, but its given me the
opportunity to think about what each word and phrase means and how I
really wouldnt be here if it werent for Jesus Christ. I don't even
think I can express myself as to how i am growing to know who He
really is and how insignificant I am but how incomprehensible His love
is for me, to care enough to die for me. I am trying to emulate Him
and work on attaining more Christ-like attributes. It is really tough
though. And I am just coming to a realization right now as I write
this. Hear me out. So our Mission President asked us for our upcoming
interviews to pick on attribute to work on and to discuss. I chose
Hope. Mostly because I am so easily disheartened when so
many crappy things pile up here on a mission. I sacrifice my time and
life to have people slam their doors in my face, figuratively and
literally. Well I have a feeling as I have searched and prayed to have
hope that the events of this week which I will tell you will probably
make sense, in that Heavenly Father is giving me more opportunities to
hope. We have had a hard time finding investigators and we finally had
four. All four of them were dropped this week. We have barely anyone
to teach. One we haven't taught him in months. One of them got
evicted and didn't tell us where they were going. One of them who had a date to be
baptized this week dropped us and told us she wasn't ready, even
though she said that she believed what we taught her. All our other
lessons with returning members and others keep getting rescheduled and
moved and cancelled and AHHHHH! We had a Christmas party this week
which didn't go as well as I thought. First mistake was for the center
piece of each table they piled glitter on the tables... yeah and this
is a mormon family event... with crazy kids. I spent more time picking
glitter out of my food and off my body than I did eating. I met a few
of the people who I didn't recognize but they all left as soon as the
food was done and the program started. We went that night to visit our
scheduled appointments who were not home. none of them. The people we
invited to come to the party didn't come. I stayed afterward and
cleaned up all the glitter and tons of food on the floor. it was
gross. But I've seen little things at each point where I didn't want
to carry on anymore that sustained me and my hope throughout this
week. After the Christmas party and cancelled appointments, we met a
single sister and her daughter who want to meet twice a week and learn
about the book of mormon. Cha-Ching! Thats our job! then earlier this
week I got a postcard from an old friend in high school, which made me
smile. I watched a man I taught from the first day I got here be
baptized this weekend and participated in his confirmation. He bore
his testimony afterwards but can't pronounce my name so yeah that was
funny and just great to hear. Yeah and now I am reading emails from those
whom I love so dearly and it warms my heart to hear how you are all
doing back home. I miss you very much but look how time has flown by.
Soon it will be Christmas then BAM mothers day, then BAM Christmas
again, then BAM mothers day, then BAM im home! haha I can't wait but I
do love it here. I've really come to love this quote by President
James E. Faust... "Hope is the anchor of our souls... Hope is trust in
Gods' promises, faith that if we act now, the desired blessings will
be fulfilled in the future." I've put that on my little white board in
our apartment and memorized it and it has been a strength to me. I've
pray for you all every night and can feel your prayers for me being
answered here. I love you and can't wait to see you soon!

Love Elder Patterson

American Thanksgiving.

Dear Friends and Family,

Now this week was Thanksgiving, and first of all, Its way to close to Christmas down here. I much rather have it when us good ol' Canadians have it. Second, I definitely made up for not having any food last year with my surgery. We ate four meals! Wait let me back up a bit. So Elder Cook has been sick for the last week and a half, throwing up and not having enough energy to do anything. I've been doing fine which, and this experience is really letting me work on patience and charity. I have had to stay in with him a lot, but have been throughout the week able to schedule times for someone to be here with him while I go out with another to teach as many visits as possible. So I've been doing all the teaching this week, I've been taking the lead and learning more that way. I've been doing my best to serve my companion and others more which has been a great blessing to me. We had the whole Thursday (Thanksgiving) off and so we relaxed and then went to a lunch at noon at the stake center with one of the senior couple's family, turkey dinner #1, then went across to the other side of the stake center to another family dinner with another senior couple, turkey dinner #2, by this time I had gotten a referral and met a lot of new people. Then we got a ride to our dinner appointment which was at a members house, who is currently going through a divorce, which is sad but it was very awkward there with them yelling and stuff, but the food was amazing, turkey dinner #3. Then we got a ride to our service missionary's home, Elder and Sister Smith, who are awesome! We then ate again and played guitar and hung out till 9:00. Turkey dinner #4. I couldn't move. It hurt to breathe. But it was so good! haha lets see. okay mom I made some cookies this week for our families but had to throw the batter and all the cookies away because they were crap. I do not know what happened. I followed grandpa's cookie recipe to the T and did all it said, i put them in the oven and took them out and they had expanded to fluffy pancakes. seriously I was so mad I had wasted all my ingredients. Was it the non convection stove? Was I supposed to cook them for longer? Was I supposed to mix the eggs in a separate container then put them in? Is that recipe right? I don't know but i'm not making cookies anytime soon in the future without you. Anyways. Let's see, elder Cook is from Mantika California. He's always cold. He's bundled up all the time. It's funny but he's a wonderful companion who helps me a lot. He's taught me many things and we work fairly well together. This area is cool. Ummm we are working with a lot of returning members, or less active members. We have a baptism this week in the branch. His name is Pheach Phin. He's a wonderful man who wants to do everything possible to be baptized and become better than he is. We've had to have a translator to all our lessons because his English isn't very good. But it's getting better. This week is also the ward Christmas party. We have also started is new Christmas initiative called "He is the Gift" which is awesome! There is a magical video and website (Christmas.mormon.org) and we have pass along cards and the church has bought out YouTube on the 7th of dec. and they're advertising on time square and much more. It's exciting that the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve released this and I love sharing the video and everything with everybody. Please share the video though the Internet to family and friends so they to can be reminded of he true meaning of Christmas. I've watched the video like a hundred times And I still love it and won't ever get sick of it. Our mission choir director is the one who wrote he music for it. It's super good! I didn't know the all blacks jersey was for Christmas so I opened it. Can you believe it's December already?! Time has been flying by! I hope and pray that it fly's by but I am, enjoying it here. I know this is where I need to be. I thank you all for your prayers and emails and letters and stuff. It means a lot!  :) I love ya'll!

Love Elder Patterson

He shall prepare a way.

Dear family and friends,

Okay so this week has been pretty darn cool. I don't know why, it just was good! It snows here too but it’s really depressing. I wake up and see it snowing and there is like
barely a centimeter of snow on the ground and I dance around the
apartment for a minute cuz I'm so happy. I go shower and get dressed
and by the time I get back to looking out the window it’s all melted
and warm outside. :( I miss the snow. We got ourselves a new reclining couch and lazy
boy to rest in! Sadly we don't have much time to sit down in them. But
when I do it feels great! We got the couches and stuff from a sister
who was moving and just wanted to get rid of them, and I also got some
book ends that are brass busts of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.
Pretty snazzy I must say. Now yes I think I am pretty good for
packages for a long while. I loved everything you sent and so thankful
you did. I almost died when I heard there was no Ketchup chips. But I’m
okay now. The only thing I would ask to be sent for Christmas is
letters with your testimonies and whatnot. I enjoy going to the mailbox and seeing something other
than flyers. haha Well this weekend Elder Cook got pretty sick and was
throwing up all day and night so we spent a lot of time in our place.
We were able to organize a few times where we could go on splits so that I could
get out and teach a lesson or two but not much happened. I was actually really
grateful for the extra time I had to study. I started studying the
Institute manual "the Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles" SO
GOOD! I love that book. I read like 9 chapters and studied the
scripture references in the New Testament and have learned so much
about our Savior. My prayers have become more meaningful and
purposeful. I have realized the infinite blessings I have been
afforded in my life. I now see life in a more eternal perspective and
my spiritual eyes have been opened to see and understand more of what
I am actually teaching and inviting people to do. I can't even express
my thoughts right now as to my love for the Savior and what he's done
for me in my life so i can be here right now. I was born into a
wonderful family and raised and nurtured throughout my life in the
gospel. I have been baptized a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of
Latter-Day Saints, I have received a marvelous patriarchal blessing
from my Grandfather, I have been given opportunity and responsibility
as I have been ordained to different Priesthood callings and have been
watched and continuously blessed throughout my life in so many ways
that I may experience joy and peace from overcoming my trials and
weaknesses which I am so thankful for. My weaknesses have taught me
many things and shown me how to cherish and love the joys and
blessings we have waiting for us in eternities if we do our part and
use the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. Sin is real, and it
weighs us all down at times, but that weight can be lifted and we can
return to our Heavenly Father as perfect exalted beings and live in
His presence with our families for Eternity. He gives us the
opportunity to learn and grow to become like Him, perfect. Perfection
is hard to imagine but is achievable because the Lord Commands it. He
does not give us any commandment save he shall prepare a way for us to
accomplish the thing which he commands. It is truly humbling, knowing
our Father loves us so much, and that he has prepared a way for us to
become like Him someday. We are here now on this earth because this is
the next part of the plan he's established for us to become perfect
and sinless like Him. I love the Lord with all my heart and am so
thankful for you Mom and Dad and teaching me of Him, whose suffered
for me, who has and continues to comfort me, who answers my prayers
and who loves me. I love you all back home and thank you for the
emails, letters, and packages. I also feel
the strength of your prayers on my behalf and thank you for them! You
are in my prayers too!

Love Elder Patterson

Heartfelt Gratitude

Dear family and friends,

You all mention the cold there and ask how I am doing here with the cold. Don’t worry one bit. These Americans are sissies when it comes to the cold. They talk about how ridiculously freezing it is outside and then I ask what temperature it is. They say 30 degrees and
I'm thinking, that’s just barely below zero! They don't know what cold
is here. It snowed once so far and it was maybe half a centimeter,
which melted before 10:00am. haha so yeah I'm surviving. I have been
getting to bed on time but still have a hard time waking up. I've
skipped exercising the past couple days to try to rest a bit more. Now
I am a little sick, and can feel my throat hurting and stuff. But I'm
fine. I got my flu shot like two weeks ago which I can't remember if I
told you about that yet. This week was better, and Elder Cook and I
are just getting organized and getting members to help us and to push
this work along further than we ever could. Our work with the Ward
Mission Leader and Bishop are continuing and going well. We in our
area have the worst stats for less active members. There are
approximately 800+ members in our like eight block radius area, and
approximately 150 are active. Yeah so we have about 650 families and
individuals to work with. So talk about being overwhelmed and stressed
when it comes to missionary work. I know I was kind of in that frame
of mind when I got my call that they don't need missionaries in Utah,
but they do. It’s really sad to see how much these people struggle in
the "land of the Mormons." I can't even count how many families and
people we are working with that are divorced, depressed, and suicidal,
addicted to drugs and alcohol, evicted, homeless, illegally living
here and so on. Each day I spend here I gain a new appreciation for
the temple and the importance of the covenants made there. It makes me
strive to prepare to make such covenants so as to never go through
what these people are going through. But it also makes me want to stay
here as long as possible to help these people gain or regain the
blessings the Lord has in store for them. Baptism is important, but to
be honest the majority of people here have been baptized. Too much
effort was put into baptism and then left, as if there weren't
anything else after it. Retention is just as important if not more
than the actual baptism. Yes it is an important ordinance in which we
covenant to obey all of Gods commandments, take upon us the name of
Christ and always remember Him, but if we don't continually strive
with the end in mind then that effort was in vain. We must endure to
the end, or better yet, we must endure to the end-ownment. I know I
have taken so much of my life for granted, so many of the blessings
and covenants I’ve made with the Lord I have overlooked, but no longer
will I remain in a state of ignorance. I know where I stand and I know
where I will never stand again, and that is the state of sin and
disobedience I lived in the past. I am so thankful for our Saviors
atonement which allows us to truly repent and be forgiven of all sin
and come unto Him and receives that peace and rest He offers. I've seen
that in my life and in the life of those I am working with. It is such
a blessing that our Heavenly Father sent His Son to atone for all of
us. I love this gospel which offers us such peace and love knowing our
Heavenly Father has a plan for us and will help us each day to return
to Him if we do our best. My prayers have been continually answered
here as I struggle with homesickness and actual sickness. I know that
Christ lives and loves us. He is the one who carves my heart into a
smoother stone, the one who gives me strength when I am too weak to
move on, the one who calms the raging storm inside my soul, the one
who offers saving grace when I fall to my knees in prayer. He is
everything I need and want. I look forward to the day I see Him and
wash His feet with my tears of thankfulness for all the blessings He's
bestowed upon me. I want to be able to tell Him I did my best, and
thank Him for the grace and help He gave for me to become the man I
hope to become someday. I love you all so much. Mom and Dad, I am so
grateful for you and your example to me. I wish nothing more than to
someday have a loving family such as the one you raised. You
sacrificed your lives for us to rear us in the love and truths of the
gospel. I am so thankful for that. I don't remember those times when I
got a new toy, or those days you spoiled us at a mall or theme park. I
don't remember the times we didn't get along, or the times you'd
lovingly chastise us for our behavior. But I do remember the love
centered family home evenings, the games, treats and scriptures. I
remember the morning scripture reading, the Christmas nativity
reenactment, the loving pep talks, the blessings from dad, my baptism
from my brother, the love of my sisters. I am so grateful to be a part
of our family, I don't care if I am the last and I didn't get to grow
up with my siblings, because I have eternities to continue to love
them and be with them. I am so grateful for your strength in dealing
with me and my disobedience over the many years I lived at home. I
have made many mistakes in my life and have felt nothings but love
from you. I feel the same love when I think of our Savior. You might
have thought at times that your actions and words did not penetrate my
heart or did not make any difference. You may have though that I
wasn't listening or paying attention, but I was. Even though at the
times you might have felt the lack of need to continue on in a
discussion or testimony you were bearing to me, or the example you
were setting would go unnoticed, you still continued on with the hope
that someday we would be making our own choices and that hopefully our
testimonies and faith had grown to such a degree to hold our own in
such a distracting and fallen world. I know it took some time but I
now know what you have done and been doing for me my whole life. I
hope to continue that in my own family someday. I am so thankful for
you Mom and Dad. I love you with all my heart!

Love Elder Patterson

(PS my companion and I did not get transferred so we are staying here
till Dec.30)

Weak things become strong.

Dear friends and family,

First of all, I love you so much! I miss you guys so much, especially
when I have a bad day or when I start to feel like I’m not
making any difference here, when I really have a hard time focusing on my real
reason for being here, or what I can do I f I strive to always have the
spirit with me. I have come to love the scripture Ether 12:27, because I truly have
many weaknesses, more than I like to admit. I truly believe that
Christ, through His atonement, I can overcome these weaknesses, and I
look forward to the day when I can look back on my mission and see how
I’ve overcome my trials and burdens that I am dealing with here. I
apologize because this week’s email is on Tuesday because we went to
the Jordan River Temple this morning and so the rest of the day is
off. I have truly been humbled this past week. I felt for a long time
like I was doing alright, like I knew what I was talking about. My companion and I have learned this week that if we want something to change, whether it be a circumstance or the attitude of others, then we need to learn to humble ourselves and see each circumstance as a learning
experience. I pray each night and thank Heavenly Father that I may be
a missionary for Him at this time and place, but I also pray for
trials and experiences for me to grow to my full potential. I want to
come away from this mission having learned and changed my life for the
better so I can truly, one day, feel comfortable being in the presence
of my Savior, being able to say, "I used your atonement in my life,
Thank you, for everything. I taught your gospel, I opened my mouth to
every soul that passed by in an attempt to bring them closer to you. I
am sorry for all the wrong I did, for all I caused you to suffer for,
but I know you did it out of love. I could have only achieved what I
have in my life and became who I was because of you. I not only had
the ability to wish for an eternal family, but I had the opportunity
to have a family tied with the true bonds of love you have for all of
us, those bonds that death cannot break, that time could not rust or
corrode. Thank you, I love you." I truly love all of you back home, I
wish I could be there but I know I am helping other families come
together through the atonement of Christ. I am doing well, my
companion is freezing but it hasn't even hit zero degrees yet. I love
it here. I love these people. Please keep me in your prayers for I
need every bit of support I can get. Take care of the missionaries
back home as you wish the members here will take care of me. I think of all ya'll every day. I
pray for you every night. I wish I could be home but I know in my
heart this is the place to be. I know when I do come home, my love for
all ya'll will have grown exponentially as I serve our Savior. Thank
you for all the emails. I read every word and cherish them. Take care.
Till next week...

Love Elder Patterson