Hello Family!!
This week is going good. On monday our ward had a memorial day picnic barbeque activity that we went to. We had a lot of less actives show up and even a couple of non members. Really good turn out. We also played some soccer and football and bocci ball. My face is pretty sun burned but not too bad for being out in the sun for so long. I'm also working up a pretty good farmers tan from walking around outside so much. It's been really hot this last week. At the end of last week it was up in the mid 90's and with the humidity I was going through 2-3 shirts a day. Now it's back to about 80 and breezy and feels really good. Other than that we are kind of just making the rounds to all of the members so that Elder Ashton can say goodbye before he leaves to go home on Thursday. And on Thursday we are going to Iowa City for transfer meetings. This next transfer I will be staying as District Leader here in Rock Island/Moline and I will also be (drum roll please) training a greenie! I'm pretty excited.
President Jergensen had told me earlier that if I wanted to train, we would have to pick up some new investigators. Miraculously when I get my newbie, between Friday and Sunday we have 4 appointments set up with new investigators. So he will get practice right off the bat with teaching the first lesson. I remember I didn't teach the first lesson (outside of companionship study) until my second area about 4 months in. As for the rest of the district, we will be getting one new sister and everyone else is staying which i'm pretty excited about because our district is awesome.
I most likely won't be helping out with the pageant at all this year. With me training that pretty much guarantees i'll be here for another 3 months which wraps up the summer. We are about 2 hours away from Nauvoo right now, but maybe they'll bring us in for some reason. Last week while Elder Ashton was at his going home temple trip I spent the day in Iowa city with Elder Tall. It was pretty fun. We did a lot of service. We served lunch at an old people home and then dug out a garden for a really nice lady who fed us dinner. It was a lot of driving that day too.
In our ward lately they have been focusing on seminary the last couple of weeks because we had quite a few youth graduate this year. It just makes me thankful that one, i didn't have to take early morning seminary and two, for all the good things I learned during those four years. They are throwing a little party for all the graduates on Saturday that we'll probably stop in for a little bit to tell them our congratulations.
One thing that was said in District meeting this last week that i really enjoyed was about hope. In Preach my Gospel chapter 6 which is about all of the Christlike attributes it says this: When you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for your good. In the world, people associate hope with a certain sense of uncertaintly. Like i hope it doesn't rain today or i hope that the Oklahoma City Thunder win the NBA championship this year. But in the gospel when we have hope, we have confidence and assurance. It brings new meaning to the popular scripture of Alma 32:21 which says: And now as i said concerning faith. Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen which are true. That hope for things not seen yet true leaves no uncertainty. We have an assurance of things. Specifically with the atonement. We have to have a certain amount of hope and faith to know that it will work. And I testify to you that it does! This church is true. Until next week,
Love, Elder Peterson
May 21, 2012
Hello Family!
This week has been a good one. The weather has been superb. I'm surprised i haven't gotten sunburned at all. Especially on saturday this last week. We helped out the single adults with a service project at a retirement home kind of place. We put mulch around some plants in an area and then dug out some stumps and what not to flatten out an area so they could just make it a flat grassy area. This week at church a miracle happened. This lady, sister Spevak, came to church just out of the blue. She has been going through a LOT of rough stuff in her life and came back to church because she wanted something consistent and stable in her life. She joined the church in 93 but has been inactive for over a decade. During the second hour of church we just met with her and the bishop in his office and put forward a plan to bring her back into church. We are basically just starting over and are going to teach her all of the lessons again. So it's almost like we have a new investigator, except she has already been baptized.
We went on exchanges again this week. The other set of elders from davenport came over to the Rock Island area and we blitzed it. It was fun. I was with Elder Hansen. We went and visited a less active member named sister Wells. She had been praying for some sort of relief to come into her life that day and when we showed up on her door, we were the answer to her prayers. We were able to give her a blessing and help her with some of the struggles she was having. Plus she came to church as well on Sunday which was fantastic. Tomorrow my companion is going to Nauvoo for his going home temple trip so i'm going to be working in Iowa City for the day. Should be a fun day, but it will be an early start since we have to get there by 8. We also have our last district meeting for the transfer this week and we get transfer calls on Saturday. President Jergensen e-mailed the mission and told us that we will still be alotted an hour and a half of e-mail time on Monday instead of doing it on Wednesday like we had been doing it.
This week has been a good one. The weather has been superb. I'm surprised i haven't gotten sunburned at all. Especially on saturday this last week. We helped out the single adults with a service project at a retirement home kind of place. We put mulch around some plants in an area and then dug out some stumps and what not to flatten out an area so they could just make it a flat grassy area. This week at church a miracle happened. This lady, sister Spevak, came to church just out of the blue. She has been going through a LOT of rough stuff in her life and came back to church because she wanted something consistent and stable in her life. She joined the church in 93 but has been inactive for over a decade. During the second hour of church we just met with her and the bishop in his office and put forward a plan to bring her back into church. We are basically just starting over and are going to teach her all of the lessons again. So it's almost like we have a new investigator, except she has already been baptized.
We went on exchanges again this week. The other set of elders from davenport came over to the Rock Island area and we blitzed it. It was fun. I was with Elder Hansen. We went and visited a less active member named sister Wells. She had been praying for some sort of relief to come into her life that day and when we showed up on her door, we were the answer to her prayers. We were able to give her a blessing and help her with some of the struggles she was having. Plus she came to church as well on Sunday which was fantastic. Tomorrow my companion is going to Nauvoo for his going home temple trip so i'm going to be working in Iowa City for the day. Should be a fun day, but it will be an early start since we have to get there by 8. We also have our last district meeting for the transfer this week and we get transfer calls on Saturday. President Jergensen e-mailed the mission and told us that we will still be alotted an hour and a half of e-mail time on Monday instead of doing it on Wednesday like we had been doing it.
May 14, 2012
Hey family!
This week has been superb. It was so good to talk to you mom and
dad. it really gives you an extra spark to keep going strong. We had a
good mothers day. Church was swell. This last week we did a service
project for a part member family. We helped put siding up on his house
for a couple three hours. It was a learning experience, but it was
pretty easy. We also helped pick up his lawn. He had this trash can
back underneath a tree in the back of his backyard that smelled
terrible! I have no idea what it was full of but then water got in it
and it was just a mess. The mosquitos are coming out more and more now
here as well. And i've learned from our King's peak hike that those
little buggers really like my blood. I have a couple of bites right
now. You are still beating me though mom.
The district is doing good. We went on exchanges with our zone
leaders this last week. Elder Larson and i went to a more ghetto part
of the area and picked up a couple of potentials. We have meetings set
up to go teach Karibah, Shavandah, and Sherita and Johnny. This random
lady also pulled over and walked up to us and gave us 20 bucks for lunch
the next day. When she first stopped the car and got out I thought she
just wanted to talk with us or something, but she just gave us the
money and left. She did have a WWJD lanyard around her neck. That was a
definite up for the week. One down is that a less active family we
were just starting to meet with told us not to come over anymore and
that they were going to start searching out other churches :( We had a
giant luau (is that how you spell that?) at the church last weekend. We
had about 300 people come from all the surrounding area. About 80
people weren't members. We dug a hole and even roasted a pig in it. It
was super good!
I kind of started a district emphasis in my district focusing
around the christlike attributes which is chapter 6 in PMG. We've all
been studying that chapter for at least an hour through each week. We
have also had trainings in district meetings on the different
attributes. In PMG in the introduction to that chapter is says
something to the effect of some chapters tell us what to do like how to
teach and how to plan and such but by studying these attributes this
work becomes more than just what we do, it becomes who we are. And as
we strive to master these attributes, we gain more self control over the
natural man, and we become more like Jesus Christ, see more success,
and a whole lot of other benefits.
This last week I gave a training on Charity and love. I showed a
short clip off the movie "Special witnesses of Christ." It's a video
that has all the apostles and the prophet bear testimony about different
aspects of the Savior and such. Elder David B. Haight is in the video
and he said this about love: I don't have the quote on me (i thought i
did) but he said that when he was called to be an apostle by President
Kimball he knew that the lesson he was being taught was that the love
that the savior showed and hopes that we will achieve is necessary in
order to teach the gospel properly. And as we go out into the world and
bear our testimonies of Christ it will be the love that attracts
people. I have a testimony that a love for the people is needed in
order to teach the gospel properly. That is why when members refer
people for us to teach and they let us teach them in their home, the
love is greater. I'm so greatful for the advice that my dad gave me
before i left for my mission of starting to pray for a love of the
people even before I got out here. I have noticed the help that has come
from that and i can truly say i love the midwestern people. I also
love Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father and I know that they live and love
us as well.
Love, Elder Peterson
May 7, 2012
Hello familia
This has been a good week. It's still been raining a lot. Now not
so much, but the humidity is really starting to kick in. You could
probably cut it with a butter knife. I was also able to go to the
Nauvoo temple this last week which was fantastic! Such a good time and
well needed. We did a session in the morning and then we went down and
watched the youth and some other families in the baptistry. We have one
family who is working on going to the temple who was able to go and do
baptisms which was sweet. We also had a recent convert family come down
and tour the Nauvoo area and just feel the spirit that is there. We
drove down with our ward mission leader. We got to know him better and
were able to talk about missionary work a lot and other things as well.
We were also able to pick up 2 new investigators this week as well. We
received our zone emphasis this last week from our zone leaders and it
is all about finding. Kind of a "Where's Waldo" kind of deal. I feel
good about it.
Something that i found in my studies this last week is found in
Alma 37. In versus 40 and 41 it talks about the Liahona. He explains
that the spindles would point in the right direction when they were
faithful and doing the little things. But when they forgot to be
faithful and dilligent the spindles would stop working and the miracles
would cease. We all have our own spindles in our life that point us in
the directions of life. Mainly, the Holy Ghost. It's when we remember
to keep doing the little things that it keeps working for us and we are
lead to our land of promise so to speak. But when we forget to be
faithful it stops working for us. Luckily for us, if we do forget we
can always come back and begin again and the spindles will work again. I
have definitely felt an increase in the spirit as a missionary and i
attribute a lot of it because we are constantly doing the little things
every day. Effective scripture study, prayer, going to church,
listening to good music, relying on the spirit, repenting, etc. I
testify that as we remember to do these things we will feel an increase
in the spirit and he will lead us down the path of righteousness to one
day return to live with Christ and Heavenly Father in a fullness of joy.
Love, Elder Peterson
April 30, 2012
Dear Family,
This week has been good. It's been really rainy this week, and today is no exception. I'm getting a lot of use out of my raincoat. We have had good progress with the members this week. We had a couple of investigators at the church and the members did really good at reaching out to them and sitting with them. All of the priesthood gathered for the third hour since it was the fifth sunday and they went over the ward mission plan that is set up here. Hopefully more people are now inspired to find missionary opportunities in their lives.
My allergies actually haven't been too bad yet. The rain is helping with that i'm assuming. As for skyping on Mother's Day. We have a member that said we can come do it at their house on Sunday morning for me. We don't have church until 1 o'clock so that won't be an issue. So i can call whenever Sunday morning. Just let me know so i can set it up with them. I'm excited to talk again! It doesn't seem like Christmas was all that long ago. Time flies out here on the mission. This week we are also going to be getting a different car. The one we had "died" in the mission... exceeded the mile limit of 50000 for a mission vehicle this month. They don't tell us what we are going to get though.
The district is doing well. It's kind of fun to be the district leader and have an extra hour to prepare a training and really just study extra. Missionary work is really like a milking stool. It lays on three legs. Revelation through prayer, revelation through church attendance, and revelation through the book of mormon. Once they have experienced all three of these things that is when they are truly ready to be baptized. The church attendance one is definitely the hardest one for us in this area. We are doing better at getting investigators excited about coming to church though. And our church meetings really are great so that helps.
We are going to the temple on the 5th and i'm super excited about that. We have some recent converts going with us as well. The wife got hooked on cigarettes again after she was baptized... but we have been working with her and she has been going to an addiction recovery class and now she is ready to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead! That has got to be the best part of the mission. Seeing the people that you teach attend the temple. It really is a blessing. I hope everyone has a great week!
Love, Elder Peterson
This week has been good. It's been really rainy this week, and today is no exception. I'm getting a lot of use out of my raincoat. We have had good progress with the members this week. We had a couple of investigators at the church and the members did really good at reaching out to them and sitting with them. All of the priesthood gathered for the third hour since it was the fifth sunday and they went over the ward mission plan that is set up here. Hopefully more people are now inspired to find missionary opportunities in their lives.
My allergies actually haven't been too bad yet. The rain is helping with that i'm assuming. As for skyping on Mother's Day. We have a member that said we can come do it at their house on Sunday morning for me. We don't have church until 1 o'clock so that won't be an issue. So i can call whenever Sunday morning. Just let me know so i can set it up with them. I'm excited to talk again! It doesn't seem like Christmas was all that long ago. Time flies out here on the mission. This week we are also going to be getting a different car. The one we had "died" in the mission... exceeded the mile limit of 50000 for a mission vehicle this month. They don't tell us what we are going to get though.
The district is doing well. It's kind of fun to be the district leader and have an extra hour to prepare a training and really just study extra. Missionary work is really like a milking stool. It lays on three legs. Revelation through prayer, revelation through church attendance, and revelation through the book of mormon. Once they have experienced all three of these things that is when they are truly ready to be baptized. The church attendance one is definitely the hardest one for us in this area. We are doing better at getting investigators excited about coming to church though. And our church meetings really are great so that helps.
We are going to the temple on the 5th and i'm super excited about that. We have some recent converts going with us as well. The wife got hooked on cigarettes again after she was baptized... but we have been working with her and she has been going to an addiction recovery class and now she is ready to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead! That has got to be the best part of the mission. Seeing the people that you teach attend the temple. It really is a blessing. I hope everyone has a great week!
Love, Elder Peterson
April 23, 2012
Dear Family,
Thanks for the birthday wishes. Brittany- that
is my correct address yes. This last week was kind of a bummer week
for appointments. We only had one that didn't fall through for us. On
the brightside we were able to find quite a few potentials and we've
been training some of our ward missionaries on how to tract. It's good
to get to know these young men better. We did have a lot of member
lessons though so that was good.
Things are going well in the District. I
conducted our first meeting on Saturday. It was kind of strange being
the one conducting instead of just attending haha but it was good. We
set some baptismal goals and got to know each other better. We have 2
new elders and one new sister in our district. I have good feelings
about our district and we are already getting along swell. We had a
baptism in our ward yesterday. One of the families in our ward, the
Clarkes, had their son baptized so it was good to attend that. We had a
non-member there too which was good.
Other than that not a whole lot has been going
on. We had a pretty big thunderstorm here this last week. It took the
power out for a little while. The lightning was really lighting up the
sky and the rain was coming down hard. Lucky for us it was at night so
we didn't have to be out in it.
One thought that i've had this last week is
just about the importance of the Holy Ghost. With this week not doing
well with our scheduled appointment, it was a good thing we had made
inspired back up plans. Through following the Holy Ghost it led us to
people who are allowing us to come back and teach them. Hopefully good
things come from this. Also with the baptism it really showed the
difference between the power of the Holy Ghost and the gift of the Holy
Ghost to me. How blessed we are to have this gift in our lives and how
lucky we are to be able to share the power with other people.
April 19, 2012
Dear Family,
Things have been going great here this last week. I am staying with Elder Ashton and will be killing him off since he goes home on June 1st. I am also now going to be the district leader for our district so that should prove to be interesting. The zone leaders are going to come train me on how to do it well later this week, but i'm not too worried. It mostly just consists of calling and collecting the numbers at the end of the week :). This last week we have been getting in with quite a few of the members here. Recently President Jergensen reminded us that 75% of our time should be spent with the members seeking referrals and strengthening them. We still aren't quite up to that percentage yet here in Rock Island. We did eat dinner with a family, the Davidsons, who have never fed the missionaries before since they lived here which has been several years. They said it's because none of the other missionaries had ever really bothered to get to know them or ask if they could come over. You never know how striking up a conversation with a young man can effect you and their family i guess haha.
We had another ward missionary called this last week as well and he is 17. So we get lots of opportunities to work with some of the young men in the ward and encourage them to serve missions. All of their parents are super supportive as well and want us to take them with us everywhere pretty much, even if its just finding. (We aren't allowed to use the term tracting anymore. It has a negative connotation.) Also, I can't remember if I already told you this or not, but we are only using the Book of Mormon for this next transfer. This mission as a whole is doing this so all the missionaries are asked to leave their bibles at home... unless you have a quad obviously. Even in studies it's just the book of mormon and PMG. It has really been fun for me to have to find answers to every single question in the Book of Mormon instead of resorting to the bible for some of them. Our mission did this last year around this time and their was a huge jump in baptisms. I've already noticed a greater portion of the spirit with us. Especially being so close to a place that has a rich background and history with the book of mormon (Nauvoo).
My allergies are doing fine. I'm more stuffed up than anything right now. I haven't been sneezing a whole lot. I've been taking the allergy pill though so maybe that is helping i hope.
Recently I was reading in Helaman 5 about Nephi and Lehi. In the story where they get thrown into prison and then the lamanites come to kill them, but Nephi and Lehi are surrounded by fire and the lamanites are afraid to touch them for the fear that they themselves would die. This has always been one of my favorite stories, but I had never thought of it more than they were just literally surrounded by fire. A connection in my brain clicked this last time though. Fire is pretty constantly compared to the Holy Ghost. Nephi and Lehi were encircled about by the Holy Ghost as well as literal fire. Then later in the story when the cloud of darkness comes and surrounds all the people in the prison and they are overcome with fear, Nephi and Lehi are still surrounded with the Holy Ghost and aren't afraid, but they are talking with the angels in heaven. And eventually that fire is spread so that it encircles everybody in the prison and nobody is afraid, but a soft whisper of a voice is telling them all peace, peace be unto you because of your faith. Pertaining to member missionary work and life in general, if we have the Holy Ghost with us, first we will be protected from the cloud of darkness that will surely come, or is already here. And Second we can spread that fire/holy ghost with those around us who are trapped in the cloud of darkness. And if we feel like we are the ones trapped in that cloud and are too afraid to move, God tells us how to get out. He tells the people in the prison, and us, to repent. He might even have to tell us 3 times before we catch on. But when we do repent that fire is spread to encircle us and we feel of His love and we feel of that fire and the holy ghost burning within us. I have definitely seen the fruits of repentance in my own life and in the lives of others. Having the Holy Ghost with us is so important and such a blessing!! This church is true.
Love, Elder Peterson
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