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

A week of Learning

Dear Family and Friends,

So business as usual, I don't have much time, tis the story of my missionary life. I have received two packages here which just made me incredibly happy. I am writing this email using my new iPad keyboard and it works great! Thank you so much! and boy oh boy we now have a lot of goodies. Between mom's tim tams and Halloween candy and Stephanie's New Zealand treats I am good for probably the next 4 months. ha ha I also assure all of you, Mom, Dad, all my adoring fans and oh yeah my brother and sisters and family, that I read all the emails. we don't have the resources to print them off so i have to read them and respond all in the short time we get. But I love you all so much and appreciate every word you send. As much as I hate to admit it I am very home sick and would honestly on some rough days i feel  that I would rather just hitchhike home. But I am seeing daily the love of our Savior evident in my life and the life of those I visit and teach. I've struggled with some things on my mission, but i've seen each area of my struggle as a missionary answered through letters and emails, through general conference talks, through the comfort of the spirit as I simply keep doing what I need to be doing and so forth. There have been many times where I wallow in my own self pity of my situation of worries and the Lord tenderly inspires me to read a talk given by one of his apostles or prophets or read a scripture that hits the nail on the head. all I can do in those situations is just kneel and thank the Lord for His infinite love and mercy especially towards me who needs to learn and grow a lot on my mission. We had opportunities to serve a lot this week. I went on my first exchange and I was the one in my area which was scary because I needed to know where I was going and who we were seeing that whole day. And to be honest we went through every person on every list and then some and didn't have a single lesson, didn't get into anyone's home, but we talked with everyone on the street and didn't let a single person pass us by without talking with them. We had a Seventy come to a Zone training the first week of the mission, Elder Arnold and he said some things concerning that, that if we pass by anyone and don't open our mouths the answer is already "no". so we talked and walked all day and set up appointments for the rest of the week. It was a good day. We have been trying to meet with Robbie Gomez for the past two weeks but he keeps cancelling. yeah that is frustrating but we are trying our best. So the zone always plays basketball on Pdays (preparation days) and holidays and they found out I play so looks like I'll be playing some time soon ha ha. My testimony is growing each day and I feel I have so much to do yet to be the best missionary I can be and I'm having a hard time being patient because I want to be the best now so I don't have to wait till the end of my mission to be able to help these people the best I can. I am truly trying to love and serve everyone here. Jacky, I am so thankful you made me a Patterson recipe book so long ago because I am using it to bake brownies and cracker brittle for everyone we teach and are working with. Greg, some of my favourite places to eat out is Carls Jr. In n' out and ABC Chinese. maybe you remember some of those. Yes John I met a sister who served with you and she is in my ward, flipping awesome. I was getting really sick of people asking me "do you know so and so in Canada" and I'm like no it is a huge country. But this time I actually knew who they were talking about! We got permission to go to the ward Trunk or treat. And we also got permission to go with one of the service missionaries to help a lady out of our mission move. so we loaded two full, reclining couches, a recliner chair, three stools, and boxes of dishes and crap in one truck and boy were those couches heavy! They had so much metal in them I swear I almost broke my back. But because of this Elder and his guns we got a new couch in the apartment and we gave the other to the sisters. our place is looking flipping awesome, besides the bug problem, we kept bringing that up and they gave us more spray which we are using around the whole place now to try to stop them from coming in. But it is a four-plex so our apartment could very well be the only clean one and the rest are infested. but we are surviving. I've gotten so fed up with it I've started punching the cockroaches and Elder Cook get a hammer and smashes them. Yes John we are Hulk and Thor, and together no infestation that could drive away the spirit of our home will prevail, for we have the Lord on our side! ha ha I'll shoot yah another email with some pictures from our dinner at one house from the Cambodian Branch. I have so much to say but I am out of time! I Love you and pray for you everyday too! Take care and don't be hating on my bad grammar and punctuation. I have seriously no time! ha ha 

Love Elder Patterson

Oh and Bytheway

Dear family and friends,

 

This week has been crazy!! It took forever but we got our bikes fixed. Then we rode them once and Elder Cook got a flat. So yeah walking everywhere again. Thursday to Saturday we had like 7 appointments each day and they all got cancelled!!! We went finding people in our list of members and new move ins, less actives, and possible investigators but got nothing! People couldn't or wouldn't listen to us and we just prayed and prayed and nothing! There's this struggling investigator named Robbie Gomez who was in such a bad situation spiritually and temporally that he was going to end his life but our visits quite literally kept him going and our message gave him hope. But we try to meet with him again all throughout this week and he keeps putting it off and it's frustrating because I know the gospel will help him but it can't if he won't let us in. Ahhhh! And none of our people who said they'd come to church came. Everything fell through. I'm doing my best not to complain and to just patiently do my best but it's tough when you think you're giving your all. I just had to sit down and think at what I was doing and pray for forgiveness of anything that might not have been in harmony with my calling. Then I remembered late Saturday night that I was speaking the next morning in the Cambodian Branch. So I start pulling up things I feel would be of benefit for the members, and I find this interesting scripture on enduring to the end, it's D&C 58:2-4,

2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.

3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.

And as I read this and prepared the rest of my talk using a general conference talk, approaching the throne of God with confidence, from this last conference. I began to see an immediate reply to my prayer and as I read more and more of these scriptures I felt at peace and was comforted in knowing that I need to just keep going. So I did and I survived the week! Ha ha it was a humbling week to say the least. I wrote a little poem about my favourite scriptures to top it all off. I learned through those bad days at how serving others even when all I want to do is go home and drown my sorrows in a big bowl of ice cream, is the best. When we had nothing to do for the evening we asked our dinner appointment if they needed help with anything which they turned out they did. So I shovelled dirt for like 2 hours from a dirt pile, we drove it over and added more material to their horse stables. The blessings in this was that their father, who is not a member, went from not talking to us to being willing to give us rides and have us come over more often. That wouldn't have happened if we just ate and left. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows everything because I sure don't. It's hard to believe how much I've grown just being out for the short time I have been. I've met some wonderful people, and done some awesome things. For instance I have something to tell you that might make you a little jealous. So this elder right here has John Bytheway's number in his phone and keeps in contact with him every so often. Yeah he's my new bud! If you don't believe me I could give it to you and you could call him up. Ha ha it's so weird! But a crazy answer to prayer again. So that investigator Robbie Gomez, was at rock bottom, I don't want to go into details but he's done a lot of bad things and has and continues to have a lot of bad things happen to him. He was walking one day and saw a clip board on the ground and papers that had flown off into the busy street. He felt prompted to pick up every single paper, stopping traffic as he did so, and collected them all up. It looked to be a class attendance role from Brigham Young University, and there was no number on any of the papers. He looked at the clipboard which had a name on it... John Bytheway. Yeah so he called BYU and said I have Johns papers. So they met and John said he'd find someone in his area to help Robbie. At this point we had already came over once and gave Robbie a blessing when he didn't want to go on. But we got a text from our mission president with John Bytheway's number saying call him. So I did and I talked with John and now I keep in contact with him after every lesson we have with Robbie so he knows how he's doing. Yeah crazy! When Robbie progresses more I'm going to invite Brother Bytheway to on of our lessons.

I don't have much time as you know, but I'll send another email with pictures and my talk. I love you all, and my siblings, I know I don't get enough time to write you individual emails all the time, but I read every word and honestly tear up all the time. My companion is weirded out every Monday because of that. Haha I love you all so much and thank for you emails. I will find time to write a more personal email to you. Just give me some time! :) 

Love Elder Patterson

Ps you can send packages to my address its 2532 S Lake Park Circle #3 west valley city UT