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

July 30, 2012

Dear Family,

Tell me something good!  We had a great week this last week.  Things are going well in both areas we are covering.  On Sunday we taught the third hour in Geneseo for the combined lesson since it was the third Sunday.  We hooked the branch president's laptop up to the projector and presented mormon.org to the branch.  It went over really well and the members had a lot of questions and were really impressed with all of the features that it contains and all the things you can do on there.  I definitely encourage everyone to check it out and make a profile too!  I have a profile up as well.  You can find me by searching for "Brent Iowa Des Moines Mission" and i should pop up.  We also had a good church session in Rock Island.  The combined lesson was all on missionary work.  Hopefully the ward is inspired.  We had a really good lesson with a member referral we got.  We taught a family and the aunt and the 2 sisters all agreed to be baptized!  It is really amazing the miracles we see... especially on the first lesson that we teach them.  They also came to church on Sunday and really liked it.  We are meeting with them again on Saturday to set a baptismal date with them.  On Thursday i get to go to Nauvoo for the pageant.  My companion has already gone, but one of the zone leaders here has not so we are going to go together and then my companion and his companion will work together that day since they have both gone already.  The member that we are riding down with is doing security so we will be there early and will get to spend some time in Nauvoo to explore the city and such.  I'm excited!  We did not do anything for pioneer day.  We did celebrate Christmas in July though and had a white elephant gift exchange as a district and then played sand volleyball together.  That was fun.  Our golf game went well.  These past 2 times that i've gone has been with people who have never played golf before so it has taken up the whole P-day.  We have also played basketball these last 2 weeks and have had more investigators present than members each time which is sweet!  Hopefully we can see some success from this and start to teach them.  They get along well with us and we are becoming good friends.  It's really inspiring to see the youth of the ward doing missionary work and getting their friends involved with the church.  It certainly is helping them with their decisions to serve missions themselves.  I did know that the olympics started this week.  Haven't seen any of it, but i've heard about some of it.  Brittany... i got the package that you sent with that family from Orem.  Thanks for the goodies :)  This church is so true! 

Love, Elder Peterson

July 23 2012

Dear Family,

I'm happy to hear that your minute to win it activity went well.  Also happy to hear that Blake got to go fishing this week.  Well we started off today playing sand volleyball as a district.  It was hot!  We played as early as we could in the morning, which was 10 o'clock because of studies, to try and beat the heat but it was still hot.  It was fun though.  We are also playing basketball later today with some investigators and also young men from the ward which will be fun.  I attached the picture of me at just the entrance to the world's biggest truck stop.  It definitely is huge.  The main building itself is enormous.  Did I already tell you that they had a movie theatre on the 3rd floor? I can't remember.  Also how do you like my new hair cut?   Golf was fun last week.  It took us all day to play 18 holes.  I got pretty sun burned, but it is a tan now on my arms and legs.  I had some aloe gel so it wasn't bad. I was good at keeping up on using it.  We might be going next week too if I can get some more free passes.  We'll go with the elders in my district if we go next week.

Sis Rose unfortunately did not come to church last week.  We did have a really open and good discussion with her this past week though.  We talked all about the Plan of Salvation.  She had a lot of questions and was surprised on how simple it seemed.  We taught from out of the pamphlets that the church produces and what really caught her off guard I guess is where it says all we need to do to get into the celestial kingdom.  The pamphlet words it very simply and is great for teaching.  She thought she was just for sure going to the terrestrial and now she actually has a hope for obtaining celestial glory and is a lot happier.  We did have 4 investigators at church last week though.  We are teaching 2 of them tonight and hopefully setting a baptismal date with both of them.  We also have bishop with the dinner tonight and he is having his non-member neighbor over as well.  He has been praying for people to invite to take the lessons (something we instituted with him) and now he is seeing the success from doing so.

Sounds like quite a few changes going on at home.  I'm so happy to hear that Connor Sharp got his call and is now serving in Canada.  That is way sweet! Is he speaking another language do you know?

Love, Elder Peterson

P.S. The church is true!  And thanks for sending out a box Brittany!  I'm picking it up tomorrow.



July 16, 2012

Hello Family!

Tell me something good.  President Jergensen gave a brief training at interviews a couple of weeks ago about this man who would go to a hospital and greet everyone by saying "tell me something good" instead of "How are you doing?" to the sick patients and so we are trying to incorporate that as a mission as well.  The heat is still beating down on us.  Luckily for us we do have air conditioning though.  The only downside to that is where we live it is with a bunch of Indian people and all of their curry smell and such get into the system and it makes our apartment smell like curry the whole time we are there.  I'm pretty sure we are the only white people in our building... it's easy to tell when you look at the mailbox. :)  They are very nice though and they like to play ping pong with me.  Currently we are in a drought here in Iowa... haven't had much rain at all this year.  So the corn is growing, but it's actually turning pretty brown along with most everyones lawns.  We keep praying for rain for the farmers sake if nothing else.  It's not quite corn eating season though, but i'm excited for it to get here because i remember how good it tasted last year when I was eating it.  Indeed it is quite a monumental week i suppose you could say with my one year mark being on Friday.  The time has definitely gone by so fast.  It's crazy to think back on what i've done and where i've been.  I have been taking time to reflect and improve as I continue to go forward.

This last week we spent the bulk of the week over in Geneseo.  Elder Smith got transferred and went down to Kirksville Missouri so we stayed in Geneseo so he could pack and say goodbye to the members and such.  On Thursday then we drove to Iowa City for transfer meeting.  It was a small transfer meeting.  Maybe 1/3 of how many missionaries are usually there.  But with only 5 new missionaries coming out there weren't too too many changes in the mission.  We did get a new zone leader this week.  It's kind of funny because he was serving in the Davenport 2nd ward when I first got here and he was my district leader and now he is back into the Davenport 1st ward to be our zone leader.  It's good to see him again he is a good elder.  It was also a different feeling being at a transfer meeting and not having the mystery of not knowing where you are going or who your new companion is going to be.  On the way back from Iowa City we stopped at the Iowa 80 which is the biggest truck stop in the world!  I got a picture, but look for it next week because i forgot my camera today.  It is really huge plus they were having their truck show thingy going on right now so we got to see a lot of colorfully painted semis and such.  Today for P Day we are going golfing again.  This time it's not free though.  However the place where we are going is only 22 dollars for 18 holes plus the cart and i've been saving this month so we could go.  We are going with a recent convert in the ward and also a young man.  Should be a scorcher again today so i'll have to drink lots of water.

We were driving around town the other day with nowhere specific to go really and I recieved an impression that we should go see Sis Rose.  She is a less-active in our ward who we had previously been trying for months and could not catch at home no matter what time we went.  She was on the other side of town, but we decided to go anyway.  When we drove up to her house she was outside with her friends having them move a couch into her garage.  So we were able to help with some lifting, and also we were finally able to have a lesson with her and schedule a return appointment for this upcoming wednesday morning.  I was so thankful to be in tune with the spirit to know that at that exact time, we needed to go there.   I am also grateful that I did not hesitate on the prompting, because who knows what would have happened if we did.  We were able to answer a question she had had pressing on her mind for the longest time and I know we can work with her to get her attending church again.  Another neat experience from this last week was when we went golfing last time, I had lost my name tag.  I looked for it all through the golf bag i had used, and even the other golf bags and called the course and they hadn't found it and i was praying that I could find it.  Then last night we went to pick up clubs again from our WML so we could use them for today and I looked in the place that I remember putting my tag and there it was.  I swear I looked there before for it and didn't find it.  It was not a coincidence, but rather an answer to prayer i'm sure of it.  It reminds me that if something is really important to us, it also becomes important to our Heavenly Father and he will help us with our righteous desires.

Love, Elder Peterson