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| Sister Peterson with her zone leaders |
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| Sister Peterson and Sister Cazares |
September 14
Soooo this week has been crazy!! Not even
going to lie! :) I got my new trainee on
Wednesday! Her name is Hermana Cazares :) She is assigned Spanish speaking! So
it's different. :) When we meet with our new Spanish investigators, I just
kinda sit in the corner and pretend like I understand what they're talking
about. My mission president just let me know today that he wants us to do an
extra hour of comp study to study language in the mornings so that she can
teach me Spanish o_0 terrifying. She is literally one of the sweetest people
I've ever met. She's a convert to the church! It's been such a blessing to have
her as my companion. :) She is definitely an answered prayer. :) So crazy
thing. Don't freak out too much alright mom? We were pulling out of Kwik Trip,
and this dumb child of God turned right down the road, but was going way too
fast and almost rammed into the car, so Sister Cazeras yelled that we needed to
get out of the way, and I flipped the wheel and we went over the curb and hit a
pole. I didn't know what to do, so I backed the car up and drove down the road
and pulled over as soon as I could so we could take a look at the car and
figure out what to do. We got out of the car, and went to the front to check it
out.and there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car. There's a little
scratch at the front, but other than that there was nothing. We hit that pole
pretty dang hard. We were thinking there must have been some internal damage,
so we called Jenni (who used to be a mechanic) and asked her to look at it for
us. She checked it out, and said the car was perfectly fine. Ah it was pretty
embarrassing when she said that cause I just started bawling. That was such a
miracle. If Sister Cazares hadn't said anything, and if I hadn't pulled out of
the way of that car, it would have hit my side of the car and I could have been
pretty seriously hurt. That guy was going way too fast. Then the pole didn't
even cause any damage! God is truly mindful of us! We were so protected that
day. It was such a miracle. Jenni was pretty mad when we told her about that guy
pulling out though. She's so protective of us. She calls us her adopted teenage
daughters :) I'm so grateful to be so close with that family. They are the
best. :) I keep holding out hope that once I bring you guys out here to visit
them, that you and Jenni will become super good friends, and then you can
convince her to move out west ;) I'm so grateful for this gospel. I'm so
grateful for the opportunity to be teaching all of these people. I just love
them all so much. I hope that one day they can all experience that same joy
that I have come to experience because I have been baptized into the true
church of Jesus Christ. :) Alma 26:30-31 pretty much sums up how I feel about
the opportunity I have to teach these people. :) I hope you have a great week!
I'm praying for you :)
-Sister Peterson
..Hurrah for Israel!
September 21st
This week was.pretty long We got a lot done
though! At the beginning of the week we invited our investigator Sandy to
baptism. ..She said no. We asked her to set her own date to progress towards. She
still said no, but that she wants to keep meeting with us until she's ready, so
that's good. We've tried to place more of a focus lately on talking with
everyone we meet? This week we went tracting and we were going down the street,
and this guy was backing out of his driveway with the window down. So
naturally, we walked up to him and offered him a card. We started talking to
him. Then he let us know that he is a preacher. He started going off on a rant
about how me and Sister Cazares have been deceived and that we haven't been
saved, and that we should just "take our Mormon bible and toss it."
he basically tried to start a Bible bash with someone who's only read over the
Bible once or twice. That was probably what made it pretty easy for me to not
try to prove him wrong with scripture, but to tell him what I've come to know.
He seemed to get a little frustrated, cause he couldn't really argue with what
we told him about what we know about the church.because it's something we've
felt. :) It was pretty hard to exercise self control and keep our cool when he
began to talk trash on the church and Joseph Smith, but it was definitely a
tender mercy of the Lord that we were able to calmly explain our beliefs to
him. He actually invited us to come back again sometime in the future to
continue discussing our beliefs! So that's pretty cool. It was just. An
interesting experience to have. Just simply bearing testimony of what we believe.
:) The ward had a fundraiser for the refugees in Syria this past Saturday, and
it was a huge success. They were able to raise a lot of money, which was a
definite miracle. :) We got to help wash cars so that was pretty awesome. It's
always nice to have the excuse to wear pants. Sister Cazares and I have been
able to talk with a lot of people this week, and that has definitely been
another tender mercy we've seen. Sister Cazares is probably just one of the
best people I know. She's been through so much, and she's such a strong person
because of what she's gone through. :) I miss you guys! Have an amazing week. :) Mosiah 24:14
:)
-Sister Peterson :) Hurrah for
Israel!
September
28th
This week has definitely been a week full of
miracles. We've been super busy. I remembered earlier this week that we haven't
really gone tracting in a long time, and I wondered why. So I looked through my
planner at the past couple of weeks and realized that we really haven't had the
time! So that's definitely been a blessing. Especially because it's Packer
season now and it's not very fun tracting during a game. Mom seriously they're
obsessed. I know people joked about it before but seriously. It's scary how
obsessed these people are with the Packers haha I love it though so it's okay.
We had interviews with President Cutler this past week during district meeting.
It was such an amazing blessing to be able to talk to President about my
questions and concerns, because he was able to offer such an awesome insight!
He offered a lot of encouragement and words of advice which were very
desperately needed. It was kind of weird/awesome because he talked about stuff
that I was concerned about and struggling with that I didn't even mention. The
Spirit is pretty darn cool. :) At the end of the interview, he gave me a very
powerful blessing. It was just. Ah awesome! I love this gospel! It's so cool.
:) The spirit was so strong. That district meeting was pretty powerful too,
because the discussion centered entirely around Joseph Smith and the
Restoration. We had a testimony meeting and shared our testimonies of Joseph
Smith. I'm so grateful for him and for the sacrifices he made in his life so
that we could have the restored gospel. The Women's session was so amazing! Ah
I loved it so much. I kept thinking about you mom, and it made me cry a bit
cause I couldn't watch it with you. But I knew you were watching it too so that
made me feel a little bit better. :) One of the things that President Uchtdorf
said really stuck out to me. "Forever is composed of nows" he said.
That is so true. We need to be living each moment..in the moment. :) That's one
thing I've discovered as a missionary. The most effective teaching happens when
you are present with people. This week I've really been thinking about what I
would be missing out on if I hadn't gone on my mission. I've been able to meet
and teach all of these incredible people, because of my mission. We were
sitting with the Estradas this week, and I just teared up a little bit cause
I'm just so grateful for them. The Spirit in their home is incredible, and
Jenni is basically my substitute mom while I'm across the country far away from
my real mommy. I’m so excited for General conference! We're watching it with
the Estradas..and Xavier..at the Estrada's house on Saturday :) Should be
awesome. I love you mommy! I hope you guys have had an awesome week! If you
have time this week, read Alma 26. :) We taught about missionary work in Gospel
Principles this past week, and it's just an incredible chapter about missionary
work and the blessings that come from it. :)
-Sister Peterson :)
Hurrah for Israel!
October 5, 2015
We had the
awesome opportunity to go on exchanges earlier this week with our Sister
Training Leaders! I went up to Green Bay with Sister Kelley for a day, while
Hermana Cazares stayed here in Manitowoc with Sister Payne. It was kind of hard
to leave my trainee! She's pretty cool, so it was just. yeah it was weird.
Sister Kelley is really cool though. She's definitely a consecrated missionary,
that's for sure. :) I got to see Lambeau Field! ..for a quick second as we
drove by. I tried to take a picture, but I ended up mostly just getting Sister
Kelley's nose. It's a pretty funny picture, I'll have to send it. But it was
still cool! Those STL's live a pretty hardcore missionary life. It was cool to
experience it though. :) It was really cool this week to have lessons that
revolved around prophets in preparation for General Conference. It was
definitely an awesome reminder of how blessed we are to have prophets on the
Earth today. :) Conference answered a lot of the questions that I have, and
gave us needed insight for how best to help the people in this area. It was
inexpressibly hard to see President Monson struggling towards the end of his
talk, to see him using every ounce of strength he could to finish delivering
the powerful message that he had prepared for us. One thing he said that really
hit me was, "As we make Christ the center of our lives, our fears will be
replaced by the courage of our convictions." How true that is! Serving a
mission is scary! Telling people about the gospel and truth that you know, and
then witnessing them reject it at a hand is one of the most terrible things
I've ever had to go through. But I know this gospel is true. I know that my
Savior redeems, and loves, and that same love extends to every single person
that I will ever come into contact with. The pain we have to go through as
missionaries when we face those rejections is so worth it when at least one
door opens. When at least one person is willing to listen to the message that
we share. I know this gospel is true. I'm so grateful for it, and I'm so
grateful for all of these people that I have the opportunity to work with. I
love being a missionary :) Hurrah for Israel!
-Sister Peterson
