November 2, 2015
Hey Family,
Sooooo
this week has been pretty great. :) We started off the week celebrating
Giovanni's birthday with the Estrada family! It was so cute because they were
having a special family dinner for him, and we were the only people they
invited to have dinner with them on his birthday. :) Of course we got him
birthday presents! I got him a Donatello teenage mutant ninja turtle pack thing
and he opened it up right away. Our ward
had a Halloween Trunk or Treat Party this week, and it was such an awesome
opportunity to invite investigators and less actives. :) Two of our
investigators, and a less active member came and it was so fun. :) As
missionaries, we're not allowed to wear special costumes or really dress up for
Halloween, so Hermana Cazares and I decided to use what we had clothes wise,
and we just went as MIB..Missionaries in Black. Yeah we're dorky I know
but
here's a picture with us and Xavier and one of the kids in our ward who was
dressed as an ATM. It was a pretty awesome
experience. :) Other than that, it's been a good week. :) We were finally
able to teach one of our investigators the Restoration, and it went super
well!! She loved everything we taught her, and she said that in the future, if
she receives her answer from God, that she'll want to be baptized. :) So that
was pretty dang awesome. :) We went out and contacted a ton of the referrals
that we've received, and it's been such a blessing to see so many people
accepting the gospel in their lives. We had to teach Gospel Principles last
minute on Sunday, and it was hard to throw the lesson together, but in the end
I was really grateful we were able to teach it. The lesson we taught was about
the roles and responsibilities each member of a family has. Of course I got
emotional, cause it's super hard to be away from my own family. One of the
recent converts in our ward, Ruby, after I expressed how hard it was to be away
from my family, reminded me that even though I'm away from my eternal family,
that I still have a ward family here in Manitowoc. That was an amazing
reminder. I love this area, and I especially love these people. I'm so blessed
to be serving here. A scripture that I wanted to share this week is Alma
26:27-28. Even though I don't have such an enormous burden as Ammon to go and
preach the gospel to the mortal enemies of my people, it's not super easy being
a missionary sometimes, and in fact it's very easy to get discouraged. But I
like that it says that they have to rely on the mercies of God. Somedays, I get
down on my knees and just pray to God that he can get me through the day, and I
know he does, because there is no possible way that I could ever do this
without his strength. I'm so grateful to my God for allowing me to be here in
Manitowoc at this time, teaching these people with Hermana Cazares. :) We're a
little worried about Isabel and Yuliana's baptism, because we're not ultimately
sure if it will end up happening this week or next because of some scheduling
issues, but fingers crossed it'll be this week. We're praying very hard for it
to be a success. :) But I'll of course keep you all updated on how that goes. I
love you! I hope you have a great week. :) Thank you so much for your prayers
and for your emails and letters. They are definite strengths. :)
-Sister
Peterson
Hurrah
for Israel!
November
9, 2015
Hey Mom!! :D
It
was a good week this week. We had to push Yuliana and Isabel's baptism back a
week because of some scheduling conflicts, but it's all set to happen this
Saturday. For sure. Hopefully. Fingers crossed! :D I'm so excited for them. We
set a goal to make daily contact with them before the baptism, because Satan
always works his hardest on people right before and after their baptisms. So
we're trying to help them out as much as we can. :) We've been super blessed to
see a lot of the ward members have a desire to be active participants in
missionary work this week. Sheng, a girl in this ward who just submitted her
papers, has been making a concentrated effort to come with us to a lot of our lessons,
and that has been a definite blessing cause her testimony is so strong. The
Walker family asked if they could have the Estradas and us over the day before
the baptism for dinner and their final lesson so that was awesome. :) And
another sister, Sister Ramos, asked a couple of times if she could come to
lessons with us. :) This ward is so incredible. They are always so willing to
help us out, and they are so accepting of the people we are working hard to
bring into the ward. :) We were able to help someone move this week, and that
was pretty fun. Doing service as sisters is always awesome cause it's the one
opportunity we have to wear pants during the week so that was awesome. We heard
about the whole media frenzy surrounding the new section in the church
handbook. I think it's interesting that people are so quick to point the blame
at church leadership. This is not simply a church directed by the whims and
desires of men. This is the Lord's true church on the Earth. We are privileged
to have prophets and apostles on the Earth today who can direct the church
according to the Lord's will. I know that this new revelation we've received in
this new section of the handbook comes because it is the Lord's will. The
people here haven't been affected by it too much, because we're in the middle
of hick town and not very many people have cell phones or even know what a
mormon is except those guys in a white shirt and black pants who come and knock
on their doors every so often. So, it hasn't been much of a problem for us.
Thanfully. I am so grateful to be serving these people here in Wisconsin. I
know this church is true. I'm so grateful for it. I hope you have a great week!
I love you all!! :)
-Sister
Peterson
Hurrah
for Israel!
November
16, 2015
Hi
Family :)
Thank
you so much for your email this week. I definitely needed it. Like. More than
you know. Jenni reminds me every time we go to her house that I need to send
you more pictures. :) it's pretty funny. Speaking of the Estradas..Isabel and Yuliana
got baptized and confirmed this past week!! :D :D :D It was probably just the
best thing to ever happen. Hermana Cazares and I got to speak at the baptism,
and I was asked to speak about baptism. Of course I was an emotional wreck and
probably unintelligible the entire time, but I was so grateful they asked me to
speak. :) Of course Jenni brought enough food to feed a small army J It was great. She's
always feeding us. We pass around the meal calendar every Sunday, and this past
Sunday as we were passing it around there were some open spots for the coming
weeks, and she filled basically all of them up with their name. She's the best
human being. The baptisms and confirmations were the highlight of the week
hands down, but other than that..it's been a pretty good week. :) We made some
time to tract yesterday..which may or may not have been the best idea
considering that we went right after the Packers lost to the Lions so people
weren't necessarily the happiest..but still we were able to have some good
conversations with people. :) A member of the ward here, Sheng just barely
submitted her papers and got her temple recommend for her endowments!! We're so excited for her. It kinda made me
think back to when I was going through that same process of submitting my
papers. It's a scary time. I had no idea what to expect. No idea what I was
kind of getting myself into, but now that I've had these experiences, and
taught these people, I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be serving.
I've been sharing this scripture a lot lately, but it sums up how I feel
serving as a missionary. Alma 29:1-2 :) I hope you all have a great week :)
love you!!
-Sister
Peterson
Hurrah
for Israel!
November
23, 2015
Holy
Moses. This week was crazy. But super awesome. :) We FINALLY taught Xavier the
Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom!! :D :D We were a bit afraid to teach it
to him, because he struggles a lot with drinking tea, and we weren't sure if
his faith was quite strong enough for him to hear about that yet. But. We told
him, and when we did,.he looked like he was going to pass out. He was pretty
shocked. But. He committed to stop drinking it! Cold turkey. :) He said it's
worth it. That was probably one of the coolest things I've experienced on the
mission thus far. Just because it was definitely a make it or break it lesson,
and he exceeded our expectations. I'm so impressed with the progress that he's
made. The day after we had that lesson was kinda lame.cause I got really sick. Hermana Cazares wasn't feeling too well
either, so we had to cancel most of our appointments for the day. We did
venture out of the apartment once to help a less active lady who just barely
got home after being in a rehab center for her hip, and Hermana Cazares almost
passed out so that wasn't too good. We're feeling a lot better now thank
goodness. Then we had the amazing opportunity to go to mission tour! The
Appleton, Green Bay (our zone), and Wausau Zones came together to go through a
bunch of trainings from President and Sister Cutler and the assistants, and
Elder Schwitzer of the quorum of the seventy and his wife. :) Hermana Cazares
and I were pretty lucky because before the meeting, Elder Schwitzer had a
little bit of time to do some interviews with a few companionships and we both
had the opportunity to be interviewed by him! He gave us both a lot of inspired
insight that's definitely helped us know how to better help the people in our
area. I was so blessed, because before I went to the meeting, I had a few questions
that I wanted answers to, and I prayed to receive those answers, and Sister
Cutler answered almost every single question I had in the training that she
gave. I know that our leaders here are truly inspired, because everything that
was said at mission tour was exactly what I needed to hear. :) So yep mission
tour was awesome. Other than that, we cleaned a hoarders house, and we saw the
Estradas almost every day this week..but that's nothing new ;) I love them.
They came to church this past Sunday, and when we talked about temples in
Gospel Principles, Jenni said some pretty powerful things about how she wants
to be sealed in the temple someday to her family, and yeah it made me tear up a
little bit. I will admit. I know I know I'm a cry baby. Then in Relief Society
we were talking about being good examples for others, and she commented about
how she is thankful to have us over at her house often, because are good
examples for her children. I am just. I'm so grateful for the Estradas and for
the love that they express for us and for the church. Anyway. :) I'm so excited
for Thanksgiving this week. The holidays are just the best. It's pretty hard..I
will admit..to be away from you guys because I can't really imagine the
holidays being good without ya. But. There is so much to be thankful for. We've
been sharing Alma 26:36-37 with people this week in preparation for the
holiday, and we've been asking them what they're thankful for. It's interesting
to hear people's different responses, everyone is grateful for different
things. A couple of things I found myself sharing this week that I'm thankful
for were for 1. My Heavenly Father and my Savior and for everything they have
done for me, and for everything they have given me 2. My family. Definitely my
family. 3. The church and the opportunity I have to serve a mission and to be
able to try my best to help these people 4. My missionary companions who
have helped me through some pretty rough stuff 5. The mountains. I'm grateful
for the mountains out in good ol' Utah. I miss them so much. I'll never take
them for granted again.
Soooo....I'm
a missionary and I like to commit people to doing stuff right? Well..I'd like
to ask you all to find at least 5 things that you're grateful for. Every day. Not
just on Thanksgiving. Write them down at the end of the day. And I can promise
you that as you do that, it'll make the hard days good, and the good days
better. :) Because at the end of the day, you're looking for the positive. :) I
love you all. I'm so grateful for you. :) Thank you so much for your prayers
and your love. :) have a great week. :)
-Sister
Peterson
Hurrah
for Israel!
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