Hello Family!
I guess last weeks e-mail just wasn't forwarded on, but that's ok. I'll make up for it this week ;) So i got a new companion this week. His name is Elder Herrin. He is from South Jordan and we actually came out into the field at the same time. So we are both just over 6 months out. Pretty crazy to think that 6 months have gone by already. We are doing good in our area and he is fitting in well. We are hoping to set baptismal dates with 2 of our investigators this week. The weather is fantastic today. It feels like spring. It's about 60 degrees outside. It feels awesome. On Thursday i was in a car for a very long time. It takes about 5 hours to drive to Iowa City one way and i drove there and back. And then another half hour to a dinner appointment that we had that night. Transfer meeting was a good meeting though. We now have 2 greenies in my district. Elder Herrin is the District Leader. And the "oldest" missionary in the group has only been out 7 1/2 months so we have a really young district. It will be a hoot and a hollar though.
On Sunday this week we were asked to teach primary last minute. We taught one 9 year old boy named Austin about obtaining the brass plates. It was pretty fun. I'm not sure how the lesson went because we were just winging it but we got a main point of being obedient to the Lords commandments across to him. I found a scripture that has really helped me out this week. It's Moroni 9:6 "And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God." Not only does it give us modivation to continue doing the work, but it talks about whilst we are in our tabernacles of clay. Our tabernacles ,or bodies, are "clay" and we need to keep them soft in order for God to mold us into our divine selves. And we can stay soft and soft hearted by going out and serving others and doing the best we can to do missionary work. Whether it's in Iowa, Russia, or just within our own families.
I know that this church is true and that families are forever! I know that if we allow ourselves to be, God will mold us into our greatest potentials.
Love, Elder Peterson
January 23, 2012
Hey Fam!
Well my fate is that i'm staying here in Lenox and Elder Huston is getting transfered. My new companion is going to be the District Leader for our district. And yes we do meet together every week for a couple of hours. Originally President asked me to train for the next two transfers. But my branch mission leader called President Jergensen because they are friends and told him that we had been spending too much time at our appointments, which is true. We are only given 45 minutes for each appointment, including dinner appointments. We would spend like an hour and a half so we could eat dinner and teach a lesson, but that is breaking rules so now i'm not training anymore. It upset me. So President Jergensen said i'll probably train in 3 months. Spend one more transfer in Lenox, then go to a different area for one transfer and then train after that. But that is not for sure. So whatever, i'll try to smile at my BML still but he and i aren't getting along the best. And it's most of the missionaries too, not just me. I think he is so strict because Lenox kind of has a bad reputation and some stuff has gone down here where missionaries have either been emergency transferred, sent home, or just lazy. The work here is going good though. I'm glad i still get to stay for another transfer. We have officially finished tracting every single house in Lenox itself. We might start over now that i have a new companion coming now though... we'll see. I'll be leaving Lenox at 4 in the morning in order to get to transfer meeting on time. Our branch president is going to be driving us again.
The weather has been good. I haven't even had to wear the down coat yet. I probably will have to start to soon though. Especially since we can't spend as much time at appointments at night anymore. I've been fine just wearing my thermals lately though. I haven't heard any of those things about Rachael or Kallie so thanks for passing it along! That is some exciting news.
2 Nephi 4:15 And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children.
16 Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.
The scriptures are such a good tool for us to use in our lives daily. Let us always remember them and ponder the things that we read. When we take the time to think about what we read it sticks in our minds better, we find ourselves receiving personal revelation, and our souls begin to delight.
Love, Elder Peterson
Well my fate is that i'm staying here in Lenox and Elder Huston is getting transfered. My new companion is going to be the District Leader for our district. And yes we do meet together every week for a couple of hours. Originally President asked me to train for the next two transfers. But my branch mission leader called President Jergensen because they are friends and told him that we had been spending too much time at our appointments, which is true. We are only given 45 minutes for each appointment, including dinner appointments. We would spend like an hour and a half so we could eat dinner and teach a lesson, but that is breaking rules so now i'm not training anymore. It upset me. So President Jergensen said i'll probably train in 3 months. Spend one more transfer in Lenox, then go to a different area for one transfer and then train after that. But that is not for sure. So whatever, i'll try to smile at my BML still but he and i aren't getting along the best. And it's most of the missionaries too, not just me. I think he is so strict because Lenox kind of has a bad reputation and some stuff has gone down here where missionaries have either been emergency transferred, sent home, or just lazy. The work here is going good though. I'm glad i still get to stay for another transfer. We have officially finished tracting every single house in Lenox itself. We might start over now that i have a new companion coming now though... we'll see. I'll be leaving Lenox at 4 in the morning in order to get to transfer meeting on time. Our branch president is going to be driving us again.
The weather has been good. I haven't even had to wear the down coat yet. I probably will have to start to soon though. Especially since we can't spend as much time at appointments at night anymore. I've been fine just wearing my thermals lately though. I haven't heard any of those things about Rachael or Kallie so thanks for passing it along! That is some exciting news.
2 Nephi 4:15 And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children.
16 Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.
The scriptures are such a good tool for us to use in our lives daily. Let us always remember them and ponder the things that we read. When we take the time to think about what we read it sticks in our minds better, we find ourselves receiving personal revelation, and our souls begin to delight.
Love, Elder Peterson
January 16, 2012
Hello Family,
I'm glad to hear that my family all over the world has had good weeks! My week has been good too. The winter weather is finally settling in. It has been about 8 degrees lately and feels even colder with the wind and humidity here. The Russian fit coat is working wonders for me. We get transfer calls on Saturday. If i were to guess i would say i'm staying here, but stay tuned on next Wednesday to hear the verdict. The work is going great as well. We are still looking for new investigators, but the ones that we currently have we have made real progress with. We have also had a few referrals come in this last week. They didn't accept the message we had, but at least the members trust us enough to have us try! This week i've really been thinking about the good examples i've had in my life. Here in Iowa we don't have very big support groups. Especially in these little towns. You have to stand strong by yourself in a lot of cases and that's hard for people who are just starting to investigate. In 2 Nephi chapter 25:26 It talks about how we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ that our children may know to what source they look for a remission of sins. My parents have really shown me that Christ is the source of all we should do and they continue to do so as they serve in Russia. Thank you! I really am greatful to all of you for being good examples to me. Christ has never been more central to my life, and i have never been happier. This week while we were tracting on Saturday we came to a door and they seemed pretty interested and I gave him a book of Mormon. Then he took it and threw it at me and the spine hit me right above the eye. So it was kind of funny when i showed up to church the next day with a pretty good cut above my eye. I told them my companion beat me up, and they laughed. Hopefully that doesn't happen to you when you hand out a copy of the Book of Mormon. I know Brittany that you had a goal to do that, how has that been going? Well i love all of you and always enjoy hearing from you every week!
January 9, 2012
Hey family!
All is going well for me today and this week. The weather has stayed nice- 50's most days. It's been an interesting week for the work though. Sasha's husband Phillup wants to drop us because he thinks he can teach her the gospel without us. Which is absolutely false. So we are working through that issue right now. It also sounds like he might have been drunk when we talked to him on the phone. Just bad news all around. The good weather has really been a blessing. We have been able to focus on finding new investigators a lot lately. We are looking for more ideas of how we can do it. We've tracted, done a survey, done service at libraries and such, had a movie night, but none of them seem to be working for finding. We have been making good relationships with the community and the members though so that is good. All i need to do is be patient. Patience is more than just waiting for things to happen around you, it's going out and doing things and allowing things to happen in God's time.
Love, Elder Peterson
January 2, 2012
Dear Family,
Well parents i'm glad to hear that you got your internet hooked up. I've actually been helping out the library here in Lenox get their internet working too. I set up a new router and fixed 3 of the computers that wouldn't connect to it and the librarian said i'm not allowed to leave Lenox now incase they break again haha. It was great to talk on Christmas. I hope you survived New Years Eve alright. We didn't see too many parties going on here. But then again we were in bed by 10:30 so who knows what could have been happening throughout the night. We had a really low turnout at church on Sunday. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on righteous resolutions and a little bit about who i am. By the time we got to priesthood probably 62% of the brothers were asleep. It was kind of funny. We had prime rib at a members house for new years eve and that was really good. They bought a 19 pound prime rib and there were only 4 of us so needless to say there was no shortage of food.
It was kind of a slow week in Lenox. We had interviews with the President on Tuesday and then Wednesday we went on splits in Osceola and Thursday we were in Osceola most of the day again for district meeting so Lenox was ignored for half of the week. We still got some good work done though. We committed Sasha to be baptized on the 21 of January. The weather has been pretty weird lately. On Saturday it got up to 61 degrees which was way nice. And then it was snowing that night when we went home and freezing cold. Now it's staying pretty consistently freezing cold. It sounds like it was even warmer in Russia than it was here for 1 day.
Sorry that this is so short, but i spent most of my time reading dad's letter. It costs a dollar a page to print here so i wasn't about to do that. But I am alive and thriving. This church is true!!
Love, Elder Peterson
Well parents i'm glad to hear that you got your internet hooked up. I've actually been helping out the library here in Lenox get their internet working too. I set up a new router and fixed 3 of the computers that wouldn't connect to it and the librarian said i'm not allowed to leave Lenox now incase they break again haha. It was great to talk on Christmas. I hope you survived New Years Eve alright. We didn't see too many parties going on here. But then again we were in bed by 10:30 so who knows what could have been happening throughout the night. We had a really low turnout at church on Sunday. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on righteous resolutions and a little bit about who i am. By the time we got to priesthood probably 62% of the brothers were asleep. It was kind of funny. We had prime rib at a members house for new years eve and that was really good. They bought a 19 pound prime rib and there were only 4 of us so needless to say there was no shortage of food.
It was kind of a slow week in Lenox. We had interviews with the President on Tuesday and then Wednesday we went on splits in Osceola and Thursday we were in Osceola most of the day again for district meeting so Lenox was ignored for half of the week. We still got some good work done though. We committed Sasha to be baptized on the 21 of January. The weather has been pretty weird lately. On Saturday it got up to 61 degrees which was way nice. And then it was snowing that night when we went home and freezing cold. Now it's staying pretty consistently freezing cold. It sounds like it was even warmer in Russia than it was here for 1 day.
Sorry that this is so short, but i spent most of my time reading dad's letter. It costs a dollar a page to print here so i wasn't about to do that. But I am alive and thriving. This church is true!!
Love, Elder Peterson
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