Dear Family,
This week has been a week of highs and lows. The high was
definitely Amber's baptism on Saturday and confirmation on Sunday. The
low was that both Elder Dyer and I got food poisoning Sunday night so we
were down for the count from about 7 o'clock sunday night until when we
woke up this morning. We are feeling better today but still not 100%.
That doesn't stop us from going out and doing the work though. It does
explain why this e-mail is a day late though. No worries, we are doing
just fine.
So going back to the baptism. We had everything go wrong, but
everything turn out right. We got a call from Amber in the morning that
her daughter Hope had been sick and throwing up all night. We asked
her if she thought they would survive the car ride over and she said yes
so they came to the church and we gave Hope a priesthood blessing.
Within the next 5 minutes she was running around again as if she had
slept through the night like no big deal. That was a miracle! Then
there was another baptism in the building that morning. We had filled
up the font for them and watched their baptism and it was great, but
apparently the font was slowly draining so when it came time for Amber's
baptism the water level was fairly low. But after the third attempt
she was completely submerged and no problems there. Then we confirmed
her on Sunday and it was great. We unfortunately missed the Christmas
Devotional due to being ill, but i'm hoping to get a chance to watch it
on lds.org sometime this week perhaps.
I haven't had to wear my big russian coat yet this winter.
Yesterday it was in the 60's and today it's sunny and in the 50's.
Really odd, but i'll take it. It didn't shed feathers all over my
suitcoat last year, so i'm hoping it won't this year either. This
morning we had an appointment set up with a former investigator whos
name is Bev. We actually just ran into her on the street and started
talking with her and set up an appointment to go visit with her and she
told us her name and i thought to myself this name sounds familiar. It
turns out she was a former investigator. She is 83 years old and almost
joined the church a couple three years ago, but her son got in the
way. We had a really good lesson this morning that was definitely led
by the spirit. We invited her to be baptized and she said of course if
she comes to know that the book of mormon is true. We are meeting with
her again on Saturday.
We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday night. It was great.
We had a program first that our ward choir put on and they did a
wonderful job. They really brought the spirit in. Then we had dinner
and Santa came to visit and pass out candy canes and have the children
sit on his lap. A lot of the students who attend Des Moines University
who used to be part of the ward before it got split came to the party as
well. I didn't know any of them, but Elder Dyer had fun seeing them
again. You asked about the mission office address being in urbandale in
your last letter. So the office where all the mail goes is in
Urbandale which is only about 15 minutes from where we live. The
mission home is where President and Sister Jergensen live when they are
in town and where the missionaries stay their first and last night in
the mission. That is pretty much just up the street from us. So two
different places.
I also wanted to thank you for forwarding Braden's e-mails to me. I
really enjoy reading those! On a seperate note, my debit card
expired. So do i need to order a new one or is that something that you
can do from home or what not. I'm not really sure how to proceed with
that, but i need a new one. And i thought of something that i might
need for Christmas and that is a writing journal. My other is probably
going to be all filled up by the end of this week.
Here is a brief thought I had from my studies recently. I've been
studying about the light of Christ and how to connect it with the Holy
Ghost essentially. Here is something i've come up with. In the Bible
Dictionary it says, “The light of Christ should not be confused with the
personage of the Holy Ghost, for the light of Christ is not a personage
at all. Its influence is preliminary to and preparatory to one’s
receiving the Holy Ghost. The light of Christ will lead the honest soul
who ‘hearkeneth to the voice’ to find the true gospel and the true
Church and thereby receive the Holy Ghost”. True conversion is a
spiritual witness from the Holy Ghost. One thing i've been working on
is to personalize, in a sense, the way people feel the Holy Ghost and
the way I invite it into their lives so that it connects with them in
such a way to give them that true conversion. I know that it truly is
through the Holy Ghost that we become converted to this gospel. I'm so
greatful for the Holy Ghost in my life and for the conversion it has
brought to me. i know that this church is true!
Love, Elder Peterson
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