Elder Pearson Missionary Moment

So, a funny thing happened to my companion and I as we were riding home for the evening last night. We were riding our bikes and I was going pretty fast, not paying too much attention to the grass along side of me. Well, all the sudden I see a squirrel sitting on the end of the grass. Not thinking much of it, I forged ahead. Well, suddenly as I'm passing this squirrel I look and it jumps towards me, trying to eat my leg or something. Well, I tap my brakes a little bit to confuse it and it flies head first into my front tire. It bounces off, lands on its back and squirms for a few moments, gets up, sees my companion behind me riding full speed ahead and decides it's not brave enough for the second attack. It's truly a testimony that opponents of the church are everywhere!!

Here you go it's about a page long. Hope it works!!



It made me think a lot about how symbolic bike riding is. As you may know missionaries ride a lot of bikes and we have a lot of fun doing it. Well… most of the time. I remember a time when bike riding was very difficult for me. I was out of shape, my joints were hurting, and it was HOT. I simply did not want to ride a bike anymore. It's still hot, but other than that things have changed. However, while on a bike I've learned a lot about life. Let me share a few of the many lessons of bike riding with you.


First: there are many hills in life. Now, before you say "Elder Pearson, you're in Florida, there are no hills" let me explain. In my first area, Spring Hill, there was this monster hill, the largest hill in the mission. My companion and I would have to ride up this hill two to three times a day. Needless to say we would do anything to avoid the ride up. We would huff and puff and think that there could be nothing worse. One day as we were riding back home after going up this hill the thought occurred to me. While every hill has an upward slope, every hill has a downward slope that assists you in the work. While we all have slow periods in our lives that we feel like we're going uphill there is always relief knowing that there is a downward slope to every hill.



Second: Opposition can be your best friend. Often times there is a rather heavy sea breeze coming from the east or west in my current area. There are times when the simple thought of hopping on a bike hurts my body because of the wind. One day as we were planning our route, knowing that there was a hard westerly wind I decided that I was going to take this opposition and turn it around. We rode with our backs toward the wind and we fly down the roads. By the time we were riding back the wind had changed and we flew coming home. Let opposition help you and you'll do wonders.



Last: Sometimes you need shelter from the storm. As many of you know there are many storms in Florida. Well, when we're riding bikes storms can be a dangerous occurrence. The wind is irregular, the roads are wet, and you cannot see a thing many times. When storms get this bad there is only one thing to do: Take cover. At first I thought this was a bda thing then I realized that there are many storms in life and we need to take cover when things get bad. Trials can be overwhelming, but there is shelter from the storm.



I want to thank ya'll for everything that you do. Keep up the good work.

The Church is True!