Nothing says service like shoveling a little manure

May 2

It's been a great week! :) It was Sister Stosich's birthday on Tuesday so of course it was an awesome day full of festivities :) We had district meeting out in West Bend, then we went out to the Arndt's house to do some service..(scooped manure haha) so it was an awesome day. Huge miracle this week was that we were finally able to contact a media referral we've been trying to contact for at least..2 months?  She's super nice and open so we're really excited to start teaching her! :) The only part of this week that wasn't necessarily the best was that Aaron dropped us :( He said that he just can't get past the fact that Joseph Smith was the one who was called to be a prophet to restore the church. 

He told us he doesn't want to string us along and make us believe that he's going to convert. He did thank us for reactivating his desire to come close to God, he said he hadn't touched his bible for about 3 years until we started coming over. So. I guess that's good. Hopefully he'll come around someday? We'll keep praying for him.  Yesterday was one of the most spiritual testimony meetings I've ever been a part of. It was so amazing. The spirit was so strong. I love this ward, I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to be a part of that meeting. :) It's been an awesome week. Love you guys!

Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson

May 9

This week has been so great! :) Starting off on monday, we went fishing with the Schmidts for a p day activity. :) Sister Stosich took some pics of it, so I'll send them to ya next week :)  We didn't catch anything but it was still fun. Tuesday we had interviews and district meeting. This is the last time I'll be having interviews with President Cutler, as he's going home at the end of June. It was so good to talk with him. He looks so tired and worn out, but he just keeps moving forward. He truly cares about us so much. He asked me right off the bat how I was doing, and I don't know why but that like...broke a dam inside of my eyeballs or something haha I just started bawling! It was so embarrassing but it was good. He gave me a lot of advice and needed encouragement. :) I'm so grateful for President and Sister Cutler and everything they do for us. Later that day, we saw Angela (a media referral) and we taught her the restoration! :) She loved it. It was seriously such a great lesson. :) We're super excited to meet with her again tomorrow. :) A huge miracle this week was that we were finally able to get in to see a less active family we've been trying to work with for forever, the Ferreras. Alex is a recent convert, and the father of the family and hasn't been willing to meet with us for a while, but he was there for our discussion with them on Tuesday and got really involved. He said that this is something he wants for him and his family. :) He was there for the next appointment and participated, but didn't come to church yesterday, and didn't come down the stairs for our lesson with them yesterday. We're a little apprehensive because we want to help him as much as we can, so we're hoping he'll keep having a desire to be involved continually. Wednesday we went on exchanges and we learned a ton from our Sister Training Leaders. :) Later in the week we were able to see an older member of the ward who is in the hospice clinic of the hospital. Needless to say, she's not doing super well :( but she was so glad to see us! We came and sang for her, and she sang with us. The spirit was so strong! We were all bawling. It was so cool to be able to feel that spirit in the room. We're hoping to see her a lot more in the next couple of weeks. It was such a blessing to be able to talk to you guys yesterday.  We've been talking a lot about temples this week, and it's really led me to appreciate how blessed I am to be a part of an eternal family. My mission president always says, "eternal life is family life" and it is so true! I wouldn't be happy in the eternities if I didn't have my family. It's so nice as a missionary to have people to support you even if they're hundreds of miles away. I thank our Heavenly Father everyday for my family and for the opportunity I have to be with them for forever. :) I love this gospel! I love these people! I'm so blessed to be able to serve a mission and to help these people achieve eternal life..which is family life. Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson :) 

May 16

IM SO EXCITED FOR JOSH I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S GOING TO SERVE A MISSION THAT'S SO CRAZY!! GUATEMALA!! :D ..I'm just a little bit excited can ya tell?

I can't even believe that he has his call already... time goes by so fast!

It's been a really good week this week :) Sister Stosich and I have really been trying to strengthen our finding efforts lately, especially this week. It's been hard to motivate ourselves to go out and find just because people are sometimes kind of mean, and they don't make it easy..but missionary work never has been easy. And the thing is,..It won't get easier. But that's okay! Because..it's worth it. Really when times get rough, I have to remember why I came on a mission. I came out here to help God's children find relief from their transgressions, to find strength, true strength that the world can't provide, and help them to know and feel at least a fraction of the infinite love Heavenly Father has for them. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve, and that has been magnified even more (if that's possible) after hearing that Josh just got his mission call to serve in Guatemala :) I know that he's going to be an amazing missionary because of the person that he is. :) I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve, and it is such a tender mercy that I get to serve at the same time as my brother. The opportunity to serve has changed my life. I love this gospel, I love these people. I'm so grateful for my Savior who has sacrificed so much so that we can be forgiven of our sins. Hurrah for Israel!! 

-Sister Peterson :) 

The power of the adversary is real

April 11th

Hey mom!!  

This week has been so great :) I'm not getting transferred! :D ha yay! Sister Stosich and I will be together for another transfer.  Our entire district is staying the same actually, so that'll be interesting. This week we did a lot of service for less actives and part member families who needed help with moving, and with cleaning and it was great to be able to help  The biggest miracle we saw this week though, was what happened with our investigator Priscilla.  She's been taught for a really long time, and so she's been taught all of the discussions numerous times. She lives with her boyfriend, and has a bit of a smoking problem, and so we were stuck for a really long time not knowing how to help her progress. Her boyfriend just went back to jail..so that's been a struggle for her. So this week, we came and went over the baptismal interview questions with her, to see what she didn't know, and what she struggled with. We asked her all the questions, and she told us she doesn't really have much of a testimony of Joseph Smith. We told her to pray about it again, and search for an answer, and that we would come the next time prepared with a lesson catered towards that. Later on in the week, we got a call from her. She told us that she had prayed about Joseph Smith, and if the church was true, and she opened up the Book of Mormon and read something about having a solid foundation and then she opened up the Bible and read something similar, and she knew that was her answer. Then yesterday, she texted us and told us that her mom had the pastor of her church come and talk with Priscilla. The pastor told her that our church is a "troubled" church. Priscilla then proceeded to tell him that it's the only true church, and talked to him about Joseph Smith :D isn't that so cool???? :) We were really excited :) We've seen a lot of miracles this week, and I'm so excited for this next transfer :) I'm so grateful to be serving here! Hurrah for Israel! Have an awesome week :) 

-Sister Peterson 

April 18th

Hey mommy:)

It's been so so nice outside lately. Seriously Sister Stosich and I have been loving it! the nice weather gets people out of their houses and out on the street so that's always a plus. :) People are much nicer when they don't have a door to slam in your face hahaha. We met the most interesting guy this week. His name is Aaron, and he's 6'5"!!! ... haha we rang his doorbell once, and it was pretty loud, so we figured that was good enough. Right? We were halfway down his stairs when I had this suuuuper strong impression to turn around and ring it again. So I did! And it woke him up from his nap! :D haha but he was nice to us so that was good. He took a copy of the book of mormon, and we're meeting with him later this week!  woohoooo :) Jenni's baptism was changed to being this weekend instead, so we're super excited for that:) can't wait to head back to Manitowoc again and see everybody! :) So..the craziest thing happened this week. Get ready for a long story. Alright? xD haha So remember what I told you about Priscilla and her powerful answer about the church and Joseph Smith? Well this week we definitely came to realize that the adversary is alive and well, and that Priscilla is definitely one of his targets. She cuts hair at the salon in Walmart for her job, so she was cutting this guy's hair, his name is Duane, and he asked her about her religious beliefs. She told him she was investigating the mormon church, and he immediately went into a huge anti mormon rant, telling her she was being led astray, that mormons are misguided, and gave her a DVD about 8 people who left the church talking about why they left the church. He also told her that his wife is a member of our church. As it turns out, she is very very active and she's a member of the relief society presidency! Priscilla told us all about what had happened, and our ward mission leader thought it would be best if we had Duane's wife, Sister Schneider, come with us to see Priscilla. We brought her over, and the discussion went really well. A couple of days later, Priscilla called to tell us that Duane sent a lady from his church to Priscilla's work to talk with her. Priscilla told her that she had been thinking about the discussion she had with Duane, and that she was comfortable where she is at with our church. That she knows this is where she belongs. The lady then asked if Priscilla wanted to do a bible study with her. Priscilla informed her she is already doing a bible study with us. Then the lady told her if she ever wanted to do one with her to just let her know. Then Priscilla said, "If I ever want to do a bible study with you I'll let Sister Schneider know, and she can tell her husband." haha :) She still hasn't watched the DVD yet, which is good. We're trying our best to steer her away from watching that..at all. Sorry that story was so long, but I just thought it was interesting how quick and powerful Satan can really be. I'm so grateful that she stood her ground against that :) ah. Yeah she's pretty cool. :) It's been a good week :) I'm so grateful to be serving these people:) Have a great week! Hurrah for Israel! :)

-Sister Peterson

April 25th

Hey Mom! :) 

It's been a crazy week. :) A great week, but a crazy one. for sure. :) I had to give a training during district meeting about how the book of mormon answers the questions of the soul.. it wasn't too bad of a train wreck so that's always good right? :) hahaha we went out and contacted a ton of less actives and referrals this week, and it all went pretty successfully. Everyone we went out and contacted was super nice and receptive. A huge miracle this week is that a missionary from this ward came home this week! Her name is Emily and she's super cool and came to some discussions with us.  She came with us to see our new investigator Aaron! He's the 6'5" guy I told ya about last week? Yeah we came in, and right off the bat, he had like 4 questions about what he read in 1 Nephi chapter 1. haha it was crazy. He has so many questions. He has a really strong passion for the bible, so he's having a hard time accepting another book of scripture, but he sincerely wants to know if it's true. He's super cool! He said he takes the Book of Mormon to work with him, and reads it when he has free time. So cool right? haha he's awesome. We've been trying to make an effort to see him every other day lately so we can answer his questions. :) So that's been a miracle. :) Another miracle was that Priscilla came to church! :D We were so excited about that. :) Well. I think that's all I really have to report this week. Sister Stosich and I are doing well, lately we've been seeing so many miracles and blessings and I think that's mostly just because we've been trying a lot more lately to be more diligent. :) I'm so grateful for these people! I love Fond Du Lac :) Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson 

Chicken heads and such

Feb 29^th

Hey mom!! :) 

This week has been aaaammaaaazzzinnng  I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Stosich :) she's basically just the best human being. Her coming here is definitely an answered prayer. I'm so excited to start working with her in helping this area and these people :) It was really hard to say goodbye to Elder Borgholthaus and Elder Godfrey because they are both changing zones, so I probably won't see them for a little while,. This week has been full of goodbyes and hellos. We met with a lot of less actives, and saw a LOT of miracles. The biggest one was that Kelly came to all three hours of church this week, AND helped us teach gospel principles :) it was so super amazing. She bore her testimony, and the spirit was so strong. She hasn't been to all three hours of church for about a year. So it was awesome to have her there. :) We went out and contacted less actives for 6 HOURS with the Warrens on Saturday, cause we were out of miles and there were a lot of people we wanted to see:) We only got in 3 solid lessons with people that day, but it was still awesome:) Oh..maybe I should mention.. Tuesday...I chopped off a rooster's head. I'm not joking.  hahahahaa I really did! The Arndt's (members who have a farm) invited us out to help them "bump off" some of their chickens and they had me and Sister Jenson help them! I didn't get any pictures unfortunately, but Sister Jenson got a video. I'll have to show you guys one day. :)  the sad thing was, the head didn't come off with the first cut of the axe, so I had to do it over. like. 5 time, horrible! And you're supposed to jump back right as you chop because the blood squirts everywhere, but I was focused on trying to get it's dumb head off so my nice dress was splattered with blood. It was really fun to try and explain that to the less active member we went out to dinner with right afterwards. :) but yes. It's been a good week. hahaha I'll definitely send pictures next week of me and my new comp and things. :) ah. well. I love you guys! I'm prayin for ya :) Hurrah for Israel! 

-Sister Peterson

March 7th

Mommmy!! :) :) :)

Hey thank you for the long update today:) you know how you said it's been super warm in Utah lately? It's been crazy warm here too..like..right now it's 67 degrees. ..o_0 crazy. But it's been nice, cause everyone is outside where we can talk to them :) haha this week has been amazing:) The biggest miracle we saw this week I think though was that we invited our investigator, Lynn, to be baptized and she accepted! :) She wants us to teach her foster children as well so that they can be baptized. :) We were quite enlightened earlier this week when we went to dinner with some members, and the father of the family asked us how the work is going. We told him that we've been trying to find new people to teach, but that it's been hard. Then he asked us how we felt about tracting, and if we expected any miracles while tracting. We both were pretty honest with him, and told him we didn't really expect any. He told us something that really stuck with me. He said something to the effect of, "If you don't hope to see any miracles while you tract, then you won't. Hope is faith, and if you don't have any faith, then you won't be successful in the work." that kind of helped motivate us in the work I think..so we went tracting a lot this week and had some interesting experiences xD haha our mission has a goal of teaching 4,000 people about the first vision before Easter, so we've been trying diligently to help the mission in this goal. We taught a girl named Vanessa who is a worker at Subway, the first vision while we were paying for our food :) haha it was awesome. Sister Stosich and I hit our 9 month mark this week! :) so of course we celebrated with frozen yogurt ;) it was awesome. :) personal miracle this week was that yesterday, my old ward mission leader from the Manitowoc ward, Brother Kleiber and his wife came to the Fond Du Lac ward for church!! :D His sister and her family are members here, so they were visiting. It was so super cool to see them. I legit had a heart attack when they walked in. Sister Stosich can attest. :)  it's been a really good week. :) I'm so grateful to be serving here in this ward. I love these people, I'm so so blessed. :) Love you all! have an awesome week! Hurrah for Israel! :) 

-Sister Peterson

March 14^th

Hey mom!! :D 

We had a very interesting week this week. I'm not quite sure if I can sum it up into words. We had zone conference this week, and it was really long, but we learned a whole lot:) It's always good to hear from President and Sister Cutler. They have so much love for us missionaries, and they're such good examples for us. We saw a lot of miracles while we were contacting this week, and it was kinda funny cause we literally..no jokes..contacted 6 Angie's in one day. 6. haha I swear everyone and their dog is named Angie.  

Yesterday was really super cool, cause Sister Stosich had the awesome idea to bring brownies to a less active member we've been trying to get into contact with, and so..we finally did:) the Elders came with us and brought them ice cream. I think they were a bit overwhelmed having 4 missionaries just pop in on them and bring them food, but it was awesome:) we had an awesome discussion with them..which was something I was definitely not expecting. I guess I just need to have more faith right? ;) haha okay okay I think that's all the serious miracles we saw this week. Now here's a semi-funny story. For your general amusement ;)

We were going to go see our investigator April right? We had just barely parked in the parking lot of her apartment complex and finished our prayer before getting out of the car, then this hispanic dude came up to my door and started talking to us in spanish! i don't know what he wanted he was talking wayyyy fast. He didn't know any english, but im pretty sure he was drunk so he probably wouldn't have made any sense anyway. I tried to speak in broken spanish to him and it didn't work so well, but I told him we were missionaries and he understood so that's what matters right? It was kinda funny trying to communicate with this random dude who came up to our car. His friend was in this truck near by and said (in spanish), "hey does the jueda (white girl) know spanish? and the dude was like, "yeah she does!" and i was like what no I don't!  haha his name was Jose. but yeah. it was interesting, yeah. It's been an interesting week. :) I love you guys! You're always in my prayers:) Next week's email will be much more detailed and will hopefully make more sense. :)

Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson :) 

March 21

Hey!! :D 

this week was. Quite the week. :)

We were so busy! We had our ward Easter activty on Saturday, and we spent a majority of the week going around and handing out flyers to less actives and investigators :) haha it was awesome. I think it's safe to say that more non members and less active members were there than actual active members.  Sister Stosich had to dress up and act as Mary the mother of James, and I had to be Mary Magdalene for a part of the activity. It was pretty cool, and I had the opportunity to bear my testimony of the Savior at the end of it, which was super cool:) we were glad it was a success. Yesterday I had to give a talk on the Plan of Salvation. I decided to write it about how the Plan of Salvation was made possible through the Savior. I was so super nervous, and I pulled a Josh and wrote my talk while I was sitting up on the stand. It was cool cause I wanted to read the lyrics to "I Stand All Amazed" during my talk, and right as I was thinking about putting it in the bishop announced that we would be singing "I Stand All Amazed" ..what are the odds?  I have no idea what I said, but I hope that something I said helped someone else. I was grateful for the opportunity I had to speak..after it was over and done with of course ;) haha well. i'm sorry, this update is a bit short. I hope you all have an amazing Easter, and that you take the time to think about the significance of it. It's been a very spiritual experience for me as I prepare for Easter to think about the Savior and his endless and perfect love for all of us. If you haven't already, you should totally watch the new Easter video. :)followhim.mormon.org And if you have some extra time..loook up the Easter video from last year as well. It's definitely my favorite Easter video the church has put out. Here's the link: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-04-1010-he-lives-celebrate-easter-because-jesus-christ-lives?lang=eng   Have a great week you guys! Love you so much:) Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson

March 28

Hey mom!! :D

Interesting week:) We have eaten so much candy and chocolate this week it's ridiculous. We both woke up this morning with headaches.. withdrawals?  not complaining though. Easter is a good excuse to pig out on junk food ;) 

We had an awesome Easter, we went caroling! yeah you read that right. Caroling. It was fun, people weren't super nice, but it was still fun. :) We saw a lot of miracles this week! The biggest miracles were probably that one of our investigators who moved to Texas about 2ish months ago moved back, and wants us to teach her again! :) ha and we set a baptism date with our investigator Lynn for her to work towards:) Lynn is so cool. She always has the best questions, and she really likes what we've been teaching her. She has a couple of hangups for sure, but we're excited to keep working with her and helping her progress :) Lori, our recent convert, taught the lesson in Gospel Principles this week!! :D and she did an amazing job. It was about the Atonement, and it was so powerful and insightful. I'm so impressed by her and by her spiritual strength. She's amazing. :) those are really the only interesting things I can think of that happened this week. It's been a good week though :) I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve here in Fond Du Lac. I love these people:) Have a great week errybody! Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson 

April 4

Hey mom :) 

This week has been amazing!! :D there's so much that's happened.. I guess I'll just have to start from the beginning:)

Monday was a good day.. P day..always awesome:) haha 

Tuesday we had district meeting! :) It was a testimony meeting..the spirit in that room was so strong as my fellow missionaries testified. There is little in this world that is more sacred than hearing pure unadulterated testimony. Especially from seemingly inexperienced 19-20 year olds. The spiritual maturity in these missionaries around me is astounding, it really makes me want to work to step up my game a bit :) It was a huge miracle to be present for that meeting:) After district meeting we went to the Arndt's farm and pet their guard llama..yes you heard me right guard llama, and fed one of their brand new baby goats:) haha it was awesome:) then we drove up to Neenah for exchanges!! :)

Wednesday I spent the day with my amazing Sister Training Leader, Sister Quist. We spent almost the entire day doing a religious survey and talking with college students across the street from campus. :) it was awesome. Driving around, we went to contact a less active in Appleton, and we drove past Donald Trump doing a political thing? I guess? Interesting….there were a lot of protesters there. Sister Quist is amazing, we didn't get a pic this week but we'll get one at zone training tomorrow and I'll have to send it next week:) 

Thursday we were out of miles so we set up our appointments for the week, weekly planned, and had an AWESOME comp inventory. Guys, I have the best companion ever. She's so cool:)

Friday was a crazy busy day, but we were able to have awesome discussions with less actives so that was awesome:)

Saturday we said goodbye to the Sabels..they're moving!! :( It was really last minute, they didn't tell us until recently..so that was kinda lame. But...we got to watch conference!! :D I loved conference. Every talk was just. Ah. So great:)

Sunday was great cause of conference as well. :) We got to watch it with a lady named Georgene who just moved back into the ward. She's amazing!! :) ah it was so cool watching conference with her. I don't think I can pick a favorite talk from conference, that's too hard, but I think one of my favorite quotes was from President Monson's, "May we choose the harder right, over the easier wrong." :) I'm so grateful this week especially for inspired leaders who give us council and guidance that we can apply to our lives, to make us better. :) I love this gospel, I love these people that I'm able to serve/serve with and I'm so blessed. I love you guys!! I hope you have an amazing week:) Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson 

 

Fond du Lac Rocks!

 The coolest kids in town haha Elder Higgins, me, Sister Jenson, Elder Godfrey, Elder Dold, Elder Borgholthaus

January 25^th

Hey mommy :) 

Interesting week.  I'm not quite sure how to sum it up. We saw the Lennop’s on Monday, for FHE and we talked about overcoming giants. It was quite the experience. We used the sling that Uncle Joe sent for an object lesson, and it went really well. :) We saw the Lennop’s a couple of times this past week, and we were blessed to be able to teach them about the Atonement as well. Their friend Paradasia has been sitting in on some of our FHE's with them, and she was there for that lesson.  Sister Jenson did a cool cross object lesson for it, and the girls wanted us to give it to Para, so we did. She loved it! Tuesday we had interviews with President Cutler. I always love having interviews with him, because he always has such awesome advice and insights for us missionaries.  He and Sister Cutler love us so much, and they make sure we know. Then Wednesday, we got to watch a worldwide missionary broadcast!  We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Bednar, Elder Oaks, Elder Andersen, Sister Oscarson, Brother Waddell, and Brother L Whitney Clayton :) It was incredible. The theme was teaching repentance, and baptizing converts. I love that. One thing that Elder Andersen said that really stuck with me was, "Repentance is a change off attitude. Many people don't know how to repent. You must guide them." How amazing is that? That is our responsibility as missionaries, is to teach people how to repent so that they can ultimately come closer to the Savior. I'm so grateful that we have leaders who love us so much, and who are so willing to give us such inspired counsel.  Well, this email is going to be a bit short because I don't have much time this week, but I love you guys! :) I hope you have an awesome week :) Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson

Feb 1^st

Hey mom!!

It's been a good week. :) It snowed quite a bit on Monday, but we were lucky cause it snowed late at night when we didn't have to be out and working. We're really apprehensive though because this Tuesday we're supposed to anticipate 15-30 inches of snow, or so everyone's been telling us. It should be an interesting experience! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures. On Monday we were finally able to get in to see a less active family that we've been trying to see for a long time… Our appointments kept falling through but we finally got in!!  They're super awesome. :)  Tuesday we were able to drive to West Bend for district meeting.  We talked about the importance of church attendance, and teaching others about the importance of the sacrament. That proved to be very helpful later in the week when we were meeting with a less active and trying to encourage her to come to church.  Since it was Elder Higgins' birthday earlier last week, we provided district lunch and Sister Jenson made chicken wings and I made Gouda Alfredo and it was awesome. :)  This week we've made a special effort to get to know the members better and establish better relationships with them. So we had a bunch of appointments where we would practice the discussions and share spiritual thoughts and it was so great.  The members here are so super cool. Then we went with the ward and the youth to this thing called Loaves and Fishes, where different churches switch off volunteering and handing out food to people. There was this lady that came up to the desk and was like..muttering under her breath? And Sister Arndt was like, what did you say? And the lady said, "I hate your church." And Sister Arndt asked why? and the lady said, "Because you always serve the worst food." ..it was silent for a bit. Then Brother Arndt smiled and said, "Well thank you!" hahahahahaha it was so funny. Go Brother Arndt! We were able to sit and talk with some of the people who came for food, and there was this sweet older lady who was sitting by herself that we got to talk to. Her name was Roberta.  She talked a lot to us about hope. She wants us to come back and visit with her again some time this week, and we're super excited to talk to her more. She's a sweetheart. Then Thursday, we had an awesome bible study, and afterwards Elder Borgholthaus gave me a blessing.  He talked a lot about how I need to have more courage and how I need to be bold, and one thing he said really stuck out to me and I made sure to write it down. He said, "You can never be too bold with someone if you love them." I thought that was so profound. I've always been so afraid to be open and bold with people, because I'm always afraid that I'm going to offend them, but really when you're bold with people in telling them what they can do to improve and be happier, you're doing it because you love them. It's a true expression of love. So. yeah I really appreciated that :) We met with this AWESOME less active lady named Cynthia this week who doesn't come to church just cause of her work schedule but she's amazing. She has a bit of a mouse problem so she put us and the Schmidts to work in setting traps. :) It was pretty funny. She's almost as afraid of mice as you are mom ;) Church was sooooo awesome yesterday. There were sooo many people there, a couple of families had to sit in the overflow. We really need a bigger building. It's getting a bit cramped. Then we got to teach a guy named John the Plan of Salvation at the Ferguson's house when we came over for dinner.  It was a good discussion..he's just not ready really to accept it. It answered a lot of his questions, but he just doesn't have a very good relationship with God right now he says. Psh. Hopefully what we taught him will help him in the future though right? All in all It's been a good week. I'm so grateful to be serving in this area :) Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson

Feb 8^th

Hey mom :)

We've been pretty busy. Unfortunately, we didn't have any appointments during the super bowl and we couldn't tract, so we had to get creative with our time. It was pretty funny to hear all of our neighbors freaking out about the game though.  It snowed quite a bit! Not as much as we thought though. Thankfully :) We saw our investigator Priscilla 3 times this week! We kept coming over to help her clean her house, but each time one of her kids was sick, so we couldn't clean, but we'd stay and talk with her for a bit.  Her boyfriend just barely got out of jail, and while we were talking with her Thursday, she looked at me and whispered.."Sister Peterson..ask Rob if he's going to come to church on Sunday."  haha so I did! I turned around and was like, "Hey Rob are we going to be able to see ya at church on Sunday?" and he was like, "Yeah I was plannin on it!" :D It was so awesome! They didn't end up showing up unfortunately, cause her kids got super sick sunday morning so they had to stay home..:( But it was still cool. :) We visited with a less active this week named Sister Graves. She's super deaf, so you literally have to shout everything you say to get the message across, but she's super cool. :) She's from Ogden!! :) The biggest miracle we saw this week though was when we went out contacting Formers, and we stopped by a girl named Kim's house. Kim has literally gone through heck and back. She's had a really rough life, and has been going through a lot recently. But we were able to come and offer some counsel and comfort, and we're going over to see her again later today! It I'm so grateful to be serving the Lord, and hopefully helping his precious children come closer to Him. :) Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson

Feb 15^th

Hey mom!! :)

This week has been..crazy. :) Good crazy. But. crazy. :) I'll just go through the week..chronologically. forgive me if this email doesn't make any sense, I have a bit of a head cold and I'm still trying to find my brain. So hang in there with me :) haha

Monday, we were able to have dinner with a member family and it was awesome, the parents spent about an hour telling us the story of how they met :) The dad of the family doesn't really come much to church. I'm not sure why but it was quite miraculous because he ended up being at church this week! :D awesome. 

Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting!! It was so awesome and spiritual. We have some pretty awesome Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders who gave amazing trainings. One thing that stuck out to me in particular about what was taught was the emphasis they all placed on having sacred studies in the mornings. As missionaries, we have two hours set aside for studies in the mornings. One for personal, then the other for companion. :) They told us our time for personal study is our personal appointment in our day with the Lord. I thought that was really cool. It made that time a lot more sacred for me.  Wednesday we went out and contacted some former investigators :) we met this lady named Angelina who was super cool, and told us the Elders just "stopped showing up and never came back" ..what? why does that happen so often? She said she's semi open to meeting with us? We'll see where that goes :) then we went to Taco Bell for dinner. That ended up being awesome because other than the fact that Taco Bell is delicious, we ended up bumping into a less active member there named John! He and his girlfriend sat and talked with us for about an hour. He was raised in the church, served a mission and everything, but he said his testimony was never really super strong. It was a bit disheartening to hear his reasons for not coming back to church, but we're helping them move later today! I hope we can help them in some way come closer to God? Two of our teenage investigators came to mutual!! :D So that was an awesome miracle. :)

Thursday we FINALLY got to see Lori :) Which was amazing. :) She's kinda dropped off the radar for a bit cause her asthma has been so bad :( It was so good to see her though :) that was the biggest miracle we saw Thursday.

Friday we went to go see Kelly (a less active member), and we brought Brother Feustel with us. We had a really spiritual discussion, and he invited her to come to church..and SHE DID! SHE CAME! :D it was so awesome :) she asked later if she can come with us sometime while we teach so she can bear her testimony to someone :) isn't that cool???? Afterwards, he brought us to his great uncle's house, and we shared a message :) At the end of the day, we got a call from a member who wanted us to teach her friend! So we went over the next day, Saturday, taught her a brief lesson, and she came to church! :D her name is Rose.  She really liked church, and we're going to be meeting with her regularly from now on. Ah it's been a great week. :) Even though I've been super under the weather it's been amazing to see how much the work is progressing here :) I love Fond Du Lac :) Have a great week! I love ya! Hurrah for Israel! :)

-Sister Peterson :) 

Feb 22^nd

Mom!! :D

So I'm gonna apologize in advance. Today is a crazy day because of transfers so my email might be a bit short. My companion Sister Jenson is being transferred to a new area. I'm getting my new companion Wednesday. Her name is Sister Stosich. :) We saw a lot of miracles this week, we received 7 referrals, and taught a dude with dreds the Plan of Salvation :)  and he came to church! :) His name is Ramone. We're excited to keep meeting with him. We took demo rides of these electric animals at the mall cause one of our investigators is the manager of the booth that runs them, and it was probably the coolest thing I've ever done :) Sister Jenson, Elder Godfrey, and Elder Borgholthaus are leaving our district, so we had an awesome last district meeting together on Tuesday. We went on exchanges this week, and I was able to spend the day with my amazing Sister Training Leader, Sister Dunlap :) She is such an amazing example to me of kindness and patience, and it was a blessing to be able to spend the day teaching with her. That's kind of a general summary of this week. I'll definitely send a more detailed email next week :) I promise! I love you guys! Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson :)