September 24, 2012

Dear Family,

 

It has been a really good week for us here.  Carrie is still progressing towards the end of October to be baptized.  We are going to a baptism over in Davenport with her on Saturday where she will also be attending the general relief society broadcast with some members of the ward.  She was at church yesterday along with her 6 year old daughter and things are going swimmingly.  I haven't been here in the Rock Island ward for 9 months yet, but by the time I leave it will be 9 months.  I've been here for a total of 7 right now.  The mission prep class hasn't officially started yet, they had a meeting with all of the sons and parents after church last night and is starting up this week.  Sister McClellans son is attending, along with 4 or 5 other young men which is great.  We haven't had a missionary out of this ward in over a year now.  The class should be fun because we get to go in and role play with them to help them practice their teaching skills.  When we have gone on splits with some of these young men, they haven't been the best at relaying the message they are trying to, but when they share their testimonies it is a powerful thing.

 

We also met 2 new investigators this week.  Their names are Kossi and Koudzo. They actually aren't related, but they are both from Togo, Africa.  They speak french and pretty good english.  They were both former investigators and had copies of the BoM in french.  Kossi is a really nice guy and he really likes to talk.   Koudzo was a way sweet experience.  He has been living in the United States for 6 years now saving up to bring his wife and 6 kids to America.  He knows that the book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  We invited him to be baptized and he wants to wait for his family to be here.  He said he is going to have enough money by December which will be way sweet.  I'm not sure why missionaries stopped teaching him in the past, but we found him again and set a time that we can go over to his apartment every single week at the same time.  We gave our first "church presentation" this week.  We learned all about how to give them while at zone conference this past week.  You basically just teach the first lesson while going through different rooms of the church.  We did it with a part member family, the Neyens.  When we bore testimony of and related the experience of Joseph Smith the spirit was really strong.  We talked a little about temples and sister Neyens, who is the less-active member wife, bore a powerful testimony of how she misses the temple and wants to go back.  I think it will be a real turning point for them.  They were also at church last week which was sweet because it was the first time she has come in a really long time and the first time he has come ever for the whole block.

 

We got a different missionary in Rock Island this week.  Elder Brandley had to go home because a past neck injury wasn't really healing and was being too much of a burden so he went home to get it fixed and then hopefully will be coming back out.  They new elder is Elder Spain.  He has been out for 17 months and is a good missionary.  Very musically inclined.  At zone conference we talked a lot about the harvest and the laws of the harvest.  If you compare it to a corn field, we are to go out and pick the ripe corn that is ready to come off the stalk.  We don't hover around the ones that are almost ready or "getting there" but move on let the missionary's after us harvest those souls.  We also aren't supposed to be planting seeds.  The time for planting is past and our call is to harvest.  Planting seeds is just a natural by product that comes from us doing our work, but is not our goal as a missionary.  Just as you wouldn't see a farmer planting seeds during this season.  We also talked about the warning of not letting the ripe corn rot on the stalk because no one was their to pick it.  It was just a very good conference and motivated us even more to work harder for our mission goal of 400 baptisms for 2012.  The church is true!  Much love,

 

Elder Peterson

September 17, 2012

Dear Family,

 

You will be happy to know that I survived biking all week this week.  My legs were pretty super tired the first couple of days but it's getting better now.  Also our car went into the shop this morning for 2 weeks to get fixed so there will be no break.  I'll be able to rival Lance Armstrong by the end of these transfers.  haha.  It has been really nice weather for being outside lately.  The colors aren't changing too much yet, but at least it's green now since we have gotten some rain.  We spent a couple three hours outside on Saturday helping Brother Gillmore with his house again.  We still aren't finished with the project.  We just have one side of his house left to do and then we'll be done.  Probably 2-3 hours of work left.  His wife was super nice and gave all of us missionaries care packages full of groceries which is good since we don't really have a way of going to the grocery store at the moment. 

 

Sunday was just a phenomenal day.  We went back to see Carrie again.  We taught her the restoration and brought a member family along with us who fellowshipped her very well.  We set a baptismal date for her on October 27th.  She accepted and is excited for that day.  She also has an 11 year old son so we are working on having him sit in on the lessons and participate as well.  He really enjoyed primary on Sunday so that is good.  Also we set a baptismal date for that same day with Kelsie and Christine.  Even though they technically aren't in my teaching area anymore we were still able to be there for that meeting.  We all met after church along with our WML and made a plan of how we can allow them to receive permission from their grandparents by that day.  So as we go forward with faith I know that we will be able to baptize them on that day.  We also picked up a new investigator this week named Michelle.  We found her in an apartment complex and she is doing pretty good.  We arranged a member from the ward to come pick her up for church on Sunday but unfortunately she wasn't home when they got there.  Maybe next Sunday will turn out better for her.  On Sunday for choir practice we had more men than we have ever had.  The whole back row was filled up which has never happened before and we actually outnumbered the women about 2 to 1.  We are learning an arrangement of "He Sent His Son" which we will be singing in church in 2 weeks.

 

Interviews went well as usual this week. President Jergensen talked all about gathering scattered Israel and priesthood keys.  We went on a scripture chase mostly through the Doctrine and Covenants and learned a lot.  We also learned some proper etiquette from sister Jergensen.  This next week on Wednesday we have zone conference.  We are still looking for a ride to get over there.  I'm excited to go though I always love zone conferences.  I know one of the big emphasises (is that right?) is going to be on church tours.  We have a church tour scheduled for Friday night and already have a part member family committed to come to that event so now we can learn how to best proceed in giving the tour.  I've done some reading on how missionaries have done it in the past and it's really cool because you teach the restoration as you go from room to room and it works out really well.  It definitely would be a unique experience to serve in the same place for the whole duration of your mission.  I'll have spent 9 months in this area by the time I leave and i've already really grown to love all of these members.  It almost makes me sad to have to share them with another 2 missionaries now!  But i still get to see all of them at church on sundays so no worries.  Our ward has started a mission prep class this week and it'll be every other week for a couple of months.  The first class is this weekend and starts at 6 in the morning.  It should really show these young mens dedication that's for sure.  In the ensuing weeks it will be later, but because the bishop is teaching it and has meetings starting at 8:30 that week it has to be really early.

 

I love all of you!  Mom i did get your magazine letter.  Does anyone have an update on Braden?  i can't remember when he was going into the MTC.  The church is true!  the book is blue

 

Love, Elder Peterson

September 10, 2012

Hello Family!

This has been another great week.  We have interviews coming up on Thursday of this week which will be great.  We are also having district meeting on that day so it will be a very meeting filled day.  Then we have zone conference that next wednesday so we will get to see a lot of President and Sister Jergensen these next two weeks.  The weather has been good recently.  It's starting to cool down a little bit and has been breezy the last couple of days and it just feels nice.  Shortly here it will become suit coat weather again.  Peaches and cream corn is just like one of the varieties of corn.  It's a little sweeter and the kernels are kind of smaller.  It doesn't have to do with literal peaches or cream... that's just what it's called.  We did a service project this week for the Gillmore family.  We continued to side his house.  We started back sometime in May or June.  We are going to be finishing this Saturday.  The project got put on hold because Brother Gillmore broke both of his feet.  He is doing really well now and can walk around.  He can even wear tennis shoes now for some of the time.  Elder Taylor and I also dismantled his wheelchair ramp he had going up to his door on Saturday.  That same day we also did some service for a referral that two sister missionaries gave us from Bettendorf.  We went and met Carrie and put together a computer desk for her.  She works for a member in the Bettendorf ward and was really interested in the church. We gave her a book of mormon to read and set up a time to go back this week and teach her the first lesson.  I'm really excited to start teaching her.

I like that lesson idea about the origami bird.  One object lesson that we have started using that I remembered back from when I was at Utah State is about finding people to teach.  You get a small tupperware and fill it with uncooked rice and then put 4-5 small safety pins into it (closed so you don't hurt yourself.)  Then you have three phases.  First you have them close their eyes and don't tell them what they are looking for, just that it's not rice and you ask them to pull it out of the container.  So far none of them have been able to.  Then phase 2 is you tell them what it is, so you tell them they are looking for safety pins, and ask them to pull one out.  They still can't do it.  Then for phase 3 you tell them they can look in and pull them out.  For some reason the safety pins just feel exactly like the rice and so it's virtually improbable for them to pull one out with just rubbing the rice around in their hand and fingers.  The moral of the lesson though is that if we are blindly going through our days knowing that there are blessings(phase 1) or specifically people to teach the gospel in our homes(phase 2) we still won't be able to find them unless we keep our eyes open and really look for them(phase 3).  And when we are looking for them, they are easy to pull out.  Just a cool little lesson that's fun for kids as well.

Well i know that this church is true!

Love, Elder Peterson

September 3, 2012

Dear Family,

 

This has been a really good week.  I feel like my faith is always increased when i'm serving around new missionaries.  This week we have been studying PMG chapter 9 which is all about finding people to teach.  The first thing that it says in PMG is having the faith to find.  We have been doing some finding this week and have had good success.  We found this guy named Corey (who goes by c) and we talked to him for a while.  He is in to mixed martial arts and trains at a gym in our area.  He told us that he wanted us to come by his gym and teach all of the kids that he helps with their fighting skills and such.  We dropped by the gym and he wasn't in yet, but we were able to talk with the owner of the gym and he is interested in the gospel now as well.  Hopefully I can follow up with that story as it continues.  We also received 2 solid referrals from members in our ward.  One has been wanting to learn about the church for 6 months now, her friends had just never invited her.  So when we had a lesson with these members and invited them to give a friend a book of mormon with their simple testimony written in the front cover, they gave it to her.  Her name is Rosemary and we have started teaching her.  Just before I got here to the library, we were teaching a lady by the name of Sis Gilbert.  She is a less-active lady who was invited by the ward council to take the missionary lessons again and she agreed.  We taught her the restoration and the spirit was really strong as we taught her.  Plus it was good practice for Elder Taylor!  She also agreed to come to church on Sunday and she is bringing her friend Beverly.  When she comes to church it will be the first time in a long time. 

 

Yesterday we had a labor day taco feed with our ward.  It was fun, we had it at the same park that we did the memorial day picnic.  We also had a salsa contest (the chip dip not the dance) and had a lot of entries.  One of our recent converts one first prize and got to sign the hideous pig.  It's just this ceramic pig that the ward has that they let people sign when they win a competition of sorts.   Last time they did it was for a chilli contest.  On Saturday we had a lot of rain come down.  We were actually in a hurricane watch and had to text our zone leaders every hour on the hour so they knew that we were safe, but it wasn't that bad.  By the afternoon it had stopped raining and we were playing soccer with some investigators outside.  I guess it did get pretty bad in some parts of the mission though.  We needed the rain however so it was good to get it.  We've been starting to get fed a lot of corn again recently and it is really delicious!  The peaches and cream variety is my personal favorite.  We had a part member family come to church on Sunday.  The Neyens are their name.  We have taught them twice now.  She went to BYU idaho after she was baptized and really loved it there but then moved away and got married and fell away from the church.  We have started getting her husband interested.  They had met the missionaries before but he didn't like them and didn't want to meet with them because they had no sense of humor.  So when I and my companion came over, he at first didn't want to talk with us or anything and we were just talking with his wife, but after we cracked a couple of jokes he joined in with us and came to church on sunday.  They actually weren't able to attend our 1 o'clock block so we went with them to the 9 o'clock sacrament meeting with the Bettendorf ward that meets in our same building.  In 2 weeks they will be able to come at 1 though which will be good.

 

Well Elder Taylor got his bike in the mail today so now we can start biking around instead of just walking.  So now we can go farther and get places faster when we don't have the car.  Also when the other elders had the car on Saturday someone ran into the back of them because of the slick roads and got the corner of the bumper all bent out of shape and the light is broken.  So we will have to get those fixed and we will be without a car for even longer during that time.  Just more time to allow the Lord to make my weak things strong unto me.  I was reading in the general conference issue of the ensign recently about a talk that speaks on real growth.  That is something that we are implimenting in our ward and we are really trying to retain all of our members that have started coming back.  This church is true and i know that as we experience real growth in the church we will be the happiest we have ever been!

 

Love, Elder Peterson