P-day email

January 26, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad, and all others who come in contact with this email,

Although Elder Cook was sick the first half of last week we were able to get back to work on Thursday and do a lot of good and stay super busy! We are experimenting with new ways to plan more effectively and use the Lords time and resources given to us more efficiently. Elder Cook is better now and I am still pressing forward and staying healthy, except for this morning and last night were the worst! I woke up at 3 am with a fever and chills and could not even go back to sleep, so I put on a sweater and laid in bed till our alarms went off. I got up to turn it off and almost passed out because my head hurt so much! So I asked Elder Cook to include me in his morning prayers and I also prayed that I may get better. I couldn't get out of bed till 8:00 and then showered, took some medication, and ate some food. I kept praying that I may remain healthy because we have already lost a lot of opportunities to teach through Elder Cook's sickness that I didn't want to get sick. And so I had a 4 minute personal study and we then had companion study where we did our routine. We also discussed our lessons tonight and planned them all out, including a FHE on the Atonement and the why of Sacrament. I then got a call from Florence Cook, who we just got married and are working with them to stop drinking. She called and broke down that she drank again last night and so did her husband. So I talked with her on the phone for a minute, helped calm her down and told her to read her scriptures and Elder Cook and I will pray and then be right over. So thats what we did! (she lives down the street form us) We left the door open while we talked with her because her husband was not home. She wanted to be better, to be an anchor for her family but fell again into temptation. Addiction is a slippery slope and has serious consequences, but I can testify and did testify to Florence that the Atonement is real and that I have seen it work miracles in my life. We shared a few scriptures that we are planning to share tonight about the Atonement and invited her and her family to come. She accepted and we said a kneeling prayer. That is why I don't have much time to write anything else because I spent email time doing that, which is fine by me. We are going bowling today for a Pday activity! Im very excited especially since I am feeling better now, I still feel weak but I can push through and do the things the Lord has asked me because I know He will help me, He has in the past and will continue to do so as I live obediently to His commandments. I love this Gospel and will serve my Savior for eternity! He has offered to me uncountable and inexpressible blessings in this life and the life to come. I am growing to a greater degree of disciple here and wish to give my all here and even more after my mission. I am tired of relying on myself because I have made many mistake doing so. I will give everything to the Lord and he will make so much more out of me and my life than I ever could! 

Love Elder Patterson

Our thoughts dictate our actions

January 19, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 Thank you for all the inspired words you sent me this week. Those talks and quotes you've sent, especially the one dad sent by Elder Scott, I read this week and It had a huge influence on me. That article about prayer He talks about is amazing and It's helped me. It was so great to see this new addition to the family this last week! I love hearing that the boys remember me.  I treasure memories spent in our family home evenings, holiday traditions, going to church, reading and watching spiritually uplifting things on Sundays... the list goes on! I love you very much and thank YOU for your example to me.  I feel like my testimony is growing at such an incredible rate that my vocabulary and my ability to express myself is lacking far behind as to my spiritual growth. I love to read the scriptures and I have so much to read and learn, so much to do and work on, it sometimes becomes overwhelming being surrounded by so much good! I wish I could spend all day reading and studying, but that would be selfish of me and to not share the gospel is not going to help me progress, or anyone! We need to bear our testimonies, convert ourselves, and bring others to the same beautiful knowledge that we have of our loving, Redeeming Savior and His restored gospel on the earth today! Here is an excerpt of my letter to the Mission President of some things I've learned this week in my studies...

This week was a rough week. The beginning of the week was full of cancellations and no shows. We found a family who's been searching for the gospel for a long time and have been doing research into different churches and told us that this is the church they chose. I was so happy to see their little family excited when we taught them the restoration! It was an amazing feeling. We set up a return appointment this week and they weren't home. I was sad but knew that we would see them again soon. Elder Cook got a throat sickness and has been having a rough time these past few days. We've been able to organize a few splits so I can go teach but we had a tough time getting two members to help us with that. Elder Cook has been getting rest and we've been using our time as wisely as we can, organizing and studying, doing service for others. Since I've been able to recognize my feelings and realize how they affect me, I am much more able to remain positive amidst trials. I've also been doing a lot of reading on setting goals based on my heart's desires, and learning how through faith, prayer, and obedience, those desires can come to be. I've been reading and pondering what brother Bayer spoke to us the other day, and connecting my studies on faith, obedience and fulfilling ones' hearts innermost desires to our thoughts and how they influence us for good and for bad. Every thought, even the idle or passing thoughts, leave and imprint on our souls. I read in Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." and to add to that I placed this verse in Luke 12;34 right after it, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  My thoughts reflect the desires of my heart. My thoughts also reflect what I treasure most. So I've taken much thought as to what I am thinking about. I realized how easily it is to become distracted and aloof to many things in life. Idleness is far away from Godliness. I've done some reading and have adopted a way to become more in control of my thoughts, which affect so much else in my life. 1) I need to train myself to be conscious of my thoughts, 2) learn to scrutinize my thoughts to determine if they add to or detract from my faith, 3) If a thought detracts from my faith, replace it with a thought that is based on faith, such as reminding myself of the Lord's goodness, thinking of His willingness to help me, recalling His numerous promises in the scriptures that if I ask in faith He will bless me, or recalling the countless times He has answered me and blessed me in the past.

I also realized how important our righteous and faithful thoughts can improve our outcome and hope for a brighter future. I read Ether 12 again today and got much insight out of it. Now when I set goals I will try to create a mental picture of the thing for which I am striving and repeatedly bring that picture to mind. Before I can with my physical eyes see my desires accomplished I must first see my goals and desires with an "eye of faith." (Ether 12:19) In a very literal sense, desired ends must be created spiritually in the mind before they can be realized. I've always been told that I would serve a mission, not if, but when. I know if I want to get as much out of my mission as I can, I will replace doubt with faith and picture the man God sees me as becoming. If I want to bless the lives of many people here as a full-time missionary, I will see them as for who they are and what they will become if I put my faith in God, for I am here to bless other's lives with the testimony, gifts and talents our Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I again do not want to attribute my thought process to limiting myself of always setting myself up for perfection, because I know I can't yet hit that, I won't for a long time, but I know if I do my best to have a positive, faithful outlook on life both on and off a mission, then God will bless me and those placed in my path. 

I also received a Christmas Gift form one of the awesome guys we are teaching named Paul. It was a book called, It's Better To Look Up! life experiences told from the pulpit. Its a bunch of awesome stories from the recent years of General Conference and I was able to read that and study many things this week due to us being stranded in our apartment again. I loved it! If you can get a copy at the church book store you should. 

 I love you all and hope you get better! GET BETTER NOW!!! OKAY!?!? I can't be worrying about you here so just stop being sick. There now here are some pictures of our Pday activity at the stake center. 

Grateful for blessings

January 12, 2015

Dear family and friends,

 I copied your emails off and read them while we went out to the store
so I read them but I will do my best to answer your questions. So this
area is fairly small, about a square mile, but we have about 400
inactive members we are trying to see. Basically everyone we talk to
on the street is a member who has not come for a multitude of reasons
and excuses, like offences in church and drug and alcohol abuse. There
is a lot of poverty here, more so than I've ever seen in my life. The
sisters that are next door are moving out soon because of how
dangerous our neighbourhood is. Now that I think about it I probably
should not have told Mom that. But we're good. I feel more protected
wearing this name tag and my church clothes any ways. Its been raining
here a lot and quite warm. I'm still wearing my short sleeved shirts.
Thank you also for those "open when" letters you gave me. luckily I have not needed
to open all of them, but they were inspired and have blessed me when I
really needed it. So this week took forever for some reason, and I
think it is because I've been having troubles sleeping. I keep waking
up in the night like four or five times for no reason. Its really been
bumming me out so if it persists I will call someone to figure what's
wrong with me. Hard to imagine something being wrong with me. haha
Just kidding. So this family we are working with that have two kids,
were living together for 9 years, and drinking and tearing their
family apart, got married this weekend! There is no more alcohol in
their lives and they are happy and truly learning. We've seen them
when they first moved in down the street from us. We helped them and
they stank of beer and were saying and doing weird things. But now the
spirit is in their home and they are properly married and preparing
for baptism. It was awesome! I had never had to set up a wedding
before in my life. But now we're pros! haha Sadly Andy, the father,
slipped back and drank at the wedding when we weren't watching, so I
had to tell him he could not be baptized this weekend. That was hard!
My heart was full as we did our best to invite the spirit into their
home. We actually got there and they were fighting and the kids were
playing on the TV, and it felt very unsettling there. The kids got
onto YouTube and searched meet the Mormons, and were searching some
things when Andy said "Stop, play that one!" and it was the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir! We sat there and listened to two songs and
everything quieted down, the conflict was resolved and the spirit was
there to talk about the blessings of living the word of wisdom. 

Okay next is a miracle that I am still floored by. So weeks ago
we gave a blessing to an older Cambodian sister who had lost her
vision. She asked me if I would give her the blessing, and in so doing
I said that she would receive her sight again. I felt hesitant saying
it but was pushed to do so. Nothing came of it for a long time and I
kind of forgot about it till yesterday when our service missionaries
told us that they visited her this week and she is receiving her sight
back! I don't even know what to say. I have given many blessings here
since I was first in the MTC and now in the field, and God has
manifested His power to me yet again and I feel even more humble to
hold His Priesthood power and serve Him. Oh I got a new tie from an
Inner City missionary who helped us organize the marriage of Andy and
Florence. And I bought a volleyball today and got Cafe Rio. And I got
that new wood watch resized and I've made everyone here jealous so
there is a lot of repenting they have to do. haha I love the Atonement
of Christ! It has changed me so much! I love it here! I can't wait to
email you next week! Keep sending me your love!

Love Elder Patterson :)

The Prayer of the heart.

January 5, 2015

Dear family and friends, 

 We're going to be going to Deseret Industries and Cafe Rio today! YAY! Greg better be jealous! I got a tie from a really cool service missionary, Elder Williams, who works in the Branch and it was from his mission in the Czech Republic, the ties that were in then were Wembly, and Greg ties. He gave me a Greg tie which is cool because I think Dad, that you have another son named Greg. Not sure but you should check up on that. :) So some of my goals this year is to work on prayer. These are what I wrote down in a district meeting couple weeks ago.

 -To kneel at my bed at the end of everyday, and feel like I've done everything possible to please my Heavenly Father

-To give up my will, my dreams, my wishes, my hopes to the Lord, and trust in Him to make more out of my life than I ever could

-To pray everyday for the gift of discernment so I can recognize evil influences in my life and turn straight away from them, and also to use that gift to bless the lives of others in my teaching opportunities

-Never say an insincere prayer

-set personal and mission related goals in the name of Christ. If I pray for the accomplishment of my goals, if I end in the name of Christ, then those goals should reflect what the Savior would do.

I really appreciate your prayers for me because I always feel love and happiness as I pray for you and somewhere down the line I know that is because He is answering our prayers. 

We've been assigned the unassigned home teaching list of families and individuals which in this ward is about 450 people. We had a month of perfection this December and we got lots of help from other missionaries but only got 237 visits. Wow was this a busy month of reporting and visiting. We've found 26 people who want return visits, we've found 83 families that have moved. So Elder Cooks gift of computer and data skills has really blessed this ward with his ability to help organize and report these things. We're asking President Swain, who is a really awesome man, if we can get another companionship here in this ward because there is so much to do! We would love sisters to come actually because there are a lot of single sisters here in our area that keep getting stolen from us by our senior couples, which is all right but frustrating sometimes. As long as they are being helped, that's all I care about. I love you very much and appreciate your patience with me and my interesting emails that go all over the place. I know too that this church is true! The Atonement is so important and is crucial for us to return to our Heavenly Father. If you have time you should read the talk, His Grace is Sufficient, by Brad Wilcox. Its good! :) 

Love Elder Patterson