Hello Family! Well i didn't know you were having the carnival in the ward, but i guess elder nielsen and i had our own little carnival... that's what the picture is. They have a carousel in Story City and one night a couple of the member families in the branch were running it so they let us go for free and we got free popcorn. We didn't get a slide show of pictures though, that would have been fun to see. Did Blake at least ride his bike in the parade? It's been getting to be fall like weather here as well. It has even been a little chilly in the mornings when we were walking to help this nice old lady do some yard work yesterday. And on that note, as you might have guessed, the library was closed yesterday which is why i'm e-mailing you today instead. I think i'll have to start learning Russian or something so that you can't talk behind my back when i get home or in secret or anything. Then i could talk to Zach in Russian too. but that's a task for in a couple of years. That is cool though that dad can pray in Russian and that you keep improving by meeting with the tutor. Do you find the time to study it for those couple of hours every day? The football hype is starting up out here as well. I am only about 15 minutes away from Ames, which is where Iowa State is and they are big rivals with the University of Iowa and so i hear about it occassionally. Also high school football started which is kind of a big deal out here as well. But speaking of BYU football, i heard an interesting thing about Max Hall recently. So i didn't know this, but the Iowa Des Moines mission is where he served his mission. And while he was serving in Story City, he got sent home for getting into some trouble with some girls out here and inviting members daughters to bonfires and such. Some of the members still remember him being here and the lady who we did the yard work for actually has a book of mormon with his signature in it.
Well this week has seemed a lot more fun to me. I'm not so worried about actually knowing what i need to say from the scriptures anymore as much as i am just trying to listen to the person who i am teaching and trying to tell them what would best help them. I am gaining, and have gained, a lot of confidence in my teaching. And so because of that the stress level has gone down and the mission is much more enjoyable. It was enjoyable in the beginning too, but now i am just more in the swing of things i suppose. We had an investigator at church this last week which is a big deal since the work is moving pretty slow. Elder Nielsen and I also had the most lessons taught this last week with a total of 11 in Story City. We actually taught more, but they can only count so many less-actives or something so i'm not exactly sure how the total number gets determined. So the work is steadily moving upwards and onwards. This last sunday was really empty because of the holiday and so there were probably only like 20 people at church.
One of the lessons that we had with a member after dinner once this week really stood out to me and i want to share it with you. Even though i came up with the lesson and the basic outline, i still learned something that i didn't see coming. The lesson was based around patience. So we read Alma 34:41 which says something to the effect of: But that ye have patience and bear with those afflictions with a firm hope that ye shall one day have rest from all of your afflictions. (Each day or every two days i'm also trying to memorize a scripture, and that was one that i did.) So we talked about what the real meaning of patience is. When we are little and bugging our moms to leave church or the dentists office or something, we think that when they tell us to be patient that we just need to stop what we are doing and wait it out. But in this scripture, it couples patience with a firm hope. And hope is really the first step to having faith, which is an action word. So if we are truly being patient that we don't just stop what we are doing. We bear with our afflictions and keep doing good faithful actions until that day of when we rest from all afflictions. President Uchtdorf says this about patience: "patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!" This is exactly why Jesus Christ is our best example of patience. He does all He can to get us to be able to return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father again one day. He sticks with us and works, hopes, and exercises faith for us and bears our hardships with fortitude. I know that as we continue to develop Christlike attributes that we can accomplish so much more than we can ever imagine. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love, Elder Peterson
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