August 27, 2012

Hello hello Family!

This week has been a busy one. I have now started the training process which has been fun. My boys name is Elder Jordan Taylor. He is from Riverton Utah. His family owns Taylor's bike shop if any of you know the name. We had a big group of new missionaries come out this last transfer. 18 new missionaries. Only those getting transferred and their companions come to the transfer meetings. The 2 new elders that came to rock island also are Elder Meservy and Elder Brandley. I actually came out with Elder Brandley. Elder Meservy was in the same zone so i served around him a little bit and they are both way sweet elders. I'm stoked for this new and upcoming transfer. We had our first district meeting on Saturday and got to know the new people in the district a little better. We got a new zone leader, Elder Holmes who i actually came out with as well so now there are 3 missionaries in my same "age" group in the district. We also have a new missionary from montana and one from texas. Today we are going over to the stake center and we are going to play dodgeball as a district and also some other games. This last week we spent a lot of our time moving the other missionaries into their apartment. We didn't close the deal until Friday morning so they actually stayed the night with us on that Thursday. Then we got everything situated and moved them in. We also spent a lot of time dividing up the area and telling them the work that is going on here and who they need to focus on and such. We met with the bishop and the ward mission leader and they are really supportive of the missionaries and they also give us referrals to go see all the time. Mostly less-active members to go strengthen. We have instituted a rescue program and out ward attendance has increased from about 140 each week to now 160 at least each week just since i've been here and i hope to see it continue to go up as well. We are now also in a car share so every other week we will be walking until we secure another bike in our area. It will be good for us. We got wet yesterday from a huge rainstorm. It was coming down good for the whole day. It was much needed though and we are greatful for that blessing. I found a scripture that i really liked in the Doctrine and Covenants this morning. It's section 11 verse 7. It says Seek not for riches but for wisdom; and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich. Then verse 8 is a good verse for us missionaries. It says Verily, verily, i say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be done unto you' and, if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation. It really just highlighted to me the importance of desire. It's when you desire to do good and to grow closer to God and to experience his blessings that we really make the most progress. The church is true!

Love, Elder Peterson
Also here is a pic of me and my new comp.

August 20, 2012

Dear Family,

Welp i had an e-mail typed up and ready to send to you but then the internet stopped working and wouldn't send it. So that is why it is a day late. Also I don't have much time now so i apologize in advance for the shorter e-mail that this is going to be. So on Saturday I got the call from President Jergensen for the official transfer doctrine. I will be training again and also be staying as the District Leader. Elder Craven will be going back to Geneseo. Also the other 2 companionships in my district will also be training so we will have 3 "greenies" in the district. Plus the 2 new elders coming into rock island so a big change up. The zone leaders told us that every single companionship in the zone is getting a new companion so the meeting on Thursday is going to be huge... especially with 18 new missionaries coming into the mission! We just heard this morning that the apartment for the rock island elders isn't going to be ready until Friday (hopefully) so they will be staying with us on Thursday evening. Then we will be moving them in on Friday. I'm excited to be training again and hopefully it works out this time! So you want to hear something funny? Ok here are some jokes. How many bishops does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the lightbulb has to be willing to change. Why didn't Noah go fishing very often? He only had 2 worms. What do you get when you mix LDS with LSD? a high priest.

We had stake conference this last weekend. President and Sister Jergensen were there along with the stake presidency obviously and then President Condie and his wife were there as well. He is the president of the Nauvoo temple. We were only able to attend the family session sunday morning because we couldn't find an investigator to go with to the adult session the night before. Kelsie and Christine were able to come on Sunday though and they even attended the new member/investigator meeting before the general session. Now we just need their grandmother to soften her heart and let them be baptized. Unfortunately they are going to fall under the other elders jurisdiction starting up here on Thursday so i'll only see them at church. They are still doing really well though. They started attending seminary on Monday and seem to really enjoy it.

It was a pretty slow week this last week. We taught in the home of a lot of members mostly. We are going around and teaching the doctrine of Christ using a towel that we fold up to look like a chicken. it works out really well (not so well trying to describe it over an e-mail) and the punch line is don't be a chicken, endure to the end. Then we give them some cool bookmarks we made with chapters in the bom where they can study the doctrine of christ. My favorite one is 2 nephi 31 incase any of you need some good reading this week ;) Well i have to go but i love all of you and will have a lot of updates for next weeks e-mail. the church is true!
Love, Elder Peterson

August 13, 2012

Dear Familia,

This has been a week of ups and downs. We did find a way sweet apartment for the new elders coming in on the 23rd. It is pretty close to downtown Rock Island and is really nice. We were definitely blessed into it. We sent in the paper work to our housing coordinator last week and should be finalizing today or tomorrow. We also have a member in our ward who owns a furniture shop so he is donating quite a bit of stuff for us to furnish the apartment with. The ward is really excited to have 4 missionaries back in the ward. A down is that our 2 investigators with a date can't be baptized then because their grandma is not giving them permission. One of them turns 18 in December so she will be able to baptized then but we are hoping that she can get baptized the same day as her step sister. We are praying for her grandmothers heart to soften. They aren't living with their parents because they are druggies pretty much. If only the grandmother could see that her daughter might not be doing so well, but her granddaughters are trying to become something great! Also the man and his fiancee are wanting to slow things down so we rescheduled our dinner for next week. Still at the bishops house though so that is good. We really do have an excellent bishop. We are also teaching our bishops neighbor who he invited over for dinner with us and we invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He is reading from the book of mormon every day and hopefully has a testimony by now if he has been praying as well. We are meeting with him on Wednesday this week. Other than that, school has started again so we are really busy in the evenings and on the weekends but not so much during the days. Today we played basketball with the guys who are out here selling Dish for the last time because they are all going back to BYU this week. We are starting a weekly basketball play on Friday nights at our church building though. The first one is this week and hopefully we have a good turnout. We have had a lot of people say they were going to come so we will see.

That is way sweet that you were able to have a baptism in the river! We have stake conference this weekend. We are inviting all of our investigators to go. We can't go to the adult session on Saturday night unless we go with an investigator and that is my favorite session. Hopefully we will be able to find someone. Also we are having a ward picnic on Labor day that we have been inviting people to. We are having a taco feed and a salsa contest. The chip dip, not the latin dance. I heard from Roberto this week. He is doing well and says hi. This week on Saturday i'll find out for sure what is going to happen. I already know for sure that my companion Elder Craven will be going back to Geneseo. Its pretty sure that i'll be staying here. That will make it at least 71/2 months that i spend in this area. That is just ok with me because this ward is great! The ward council has been inviting less-active and active members to take the discussions again with us so we are able to do a lot of teaching and the spirit is felt in great abundance here! The church is true!

Love, Elder B Lehi Peterson

August 6, 2012

Dear Family,

Hello their family!  This has been a good week.  Brittany i did get your picture puzzle that was sent from china... thank you so much!  Such a clever little device/idea.  I have indeed been surviving the drought.  We actually fasted as a mission yesterday for rain on top of whatever else we were fasting for.  I'm sure we will see the fruits of that effort in the upcoming weeks.  It was nice to see green grass in those pictures you sent Brittany.  Around here it's just a bunch of dead grass.  Unless people put out their sprinkler attachment on their hose and water their grass every day which not a whole lot of people do.  This last week has been a not so typical missionary week i guess you could say.  On Wednesday we were on exchanges with Davenport 2nd ward elders in our area then on Thursday we had district meeting in Davenport and then started exchanges with the Davenport 1st ward elders right after that in their area.  That is when i went to the pageant that night.  It was super sweet!  We got their around 6:30 at night.  We were supposed to be their by 6 because our ride was working security, but we got stuck waiting on this bridge that had swung out to let a barge through.  It was pretty cool just to see a whole bridge that was parallel with the river and then swung back and connected with both sides again once the boat was clear.  The pageant didn't start until about 8:30 though so we had some time to peruse through the city and do some of the activites that they have going on before the pageant.  One of the young men in our ward played the bagpipes in the pipe band their so we got to see him which was good since he had been gone for several weeks from church.  Then the pageant was excellent.  Definitely worth going to see again.  Plus after the pageant we talked to people and got some solid referrals for some other missionaries.  they were actually from Provo.  But i didn't see anyone i knew.  Elaine S. Dalton was their for the pageant, but i didn't go up and meet her.  Then we got back very early morning on Friday and stayed in Davenport and went on exchanges with the zone leaders there all day.  Now I'm back in Davenport because the Nauvoo trip counted for P-day so we are on exchanges again for the day.  But even with being gone a lot this week we still got some work done in our area.  We set 2 baptismal dates for the 25th of August!  They are super sweet and super solid.  It is awesome to see people so prepared.  Also at church we had a guy and his fiancee show up at church randomly and said they are looking for a church and want to join ours.  We went up and met them after sacrament meeting and we have a meeting for wednesday this week and also we are eating dinner with them and the bishop's family next sunday.  Miracles are happening!  And faith precedes the miracle!  This week i'll be spending some time looking for a new apartment because we are getting a second set of missionaries coming into the Rock Island ward this next transfer.  That will be great because the area we cover is huge!  They will be english speaking elders and it will be fun to have more missionaries on the illinois side of the river in the quad cities.

Even with the drought we are starting to see the corn stands pop up.  We bought a dozen the other day and it was way good.  The peaches and cream style too which is the best in my opinion.  The food pantry that we do volunteer service at always has people come in and drop off fresh vegetables that they have from their gardens that they just can't use so we take some home every week.  We have lots of tomatoes in our fridge right now and some cherries.  We will have to restock again tomorrow when we go there. 

I think it is interesting that the nauvoo pageant is the only pageant that is written and scripted by the first presidency of the church.  The pageant really is a missionary tool and testifies of pretty much every church principle.  It goes hand in hand with preach my gospel and my testimony of Joseph Smith has been strengthened by attending.  The church is true!  I love you all!

Elder Peterson