December 21st

It's been an interesting week. :) I'm finally finally getting over my cold so I haven't been as out of it lately and that has definitely been a blessing. :) It's been a week full of miracles!!! We went on exchanges this past week which was probably the most crazy insane and fun thing ever. Our schedule was so jam packed. o_0 Sister Kelley and Sister Hanson joined me here in Fond Du Lac for the day and we saw so many people. It was awesome. It was definitely a blessing to go on exchanges one last time with Sister Kelley before she heads home! She has been my STL almost my entire mission, and was the first one I went on exchanges with. I love her to death, and I'm going to miss her so much. She is such an amazing example to me. :) We've been recently trying to get everything sorted out for Lori's baptism this week! :D She's getting baptized Saturday. She is so amazing, even though she got shots in her back this past week that make doing everything extremely painful, she came to church so that she can be more prepared for her baptism. :) She just has so much faith. I'll have to share more of her story in my next email..with some pics from the baptism! :) We're praying super hard that everything will work out. the crazy thing is that the Elders also have a baptism going on Saturday, so we have to co plan with them and yep. it's been interesting. :) But we're so super excited. We had the amazing opportunity to be invited over to a members home this past week for her Christmas party. She invited a bunch of her non member friends, and a lot of them had a ton of questions for us. :) Every person we were able to talk to accepted a card with a link to the A Savior is Born video on it, (and our phone numbers as well) so that was definitely a blessing/miracle. Ah we're so super excited for Christmas! Our day is pretty booked out..we're going to Catholic mass in the morning with a member so that should be a party xD haha and we have so many members that want us over. I'm so blessed to be serving in this area with these amazing people. Even though it's hard to be away from you guys at this time, it makes it a little easier to be able to be with people I know actually genuinely care. :) The verse I wanted to share this week is John 3:5. God gave us the ultimate and the greatest gift of all; His son. If you haven't yet, I would encourage you to go on christmas.mormon.org and watch the new video they put out, "A Savior is Born." It is powerful, and beautiful. :) Have a very Merry Christmas!! I love you!! :)

-Sister Peterson

Hurrah for Israel!

Fond du Lac

December 7

Hello Family,

This week has been probably one of the longest weeks of my life. Saying goodbye to the people in Manitowoc was rough. It was so hard, because every time I would drive away from someone's house after saying goodbye, I couldn't help but cry because it hurt me so deeply. But, I know that transfers happen for a reason, and that the Lord has a plan for me and my mission. :) One huge miracle this week is that..Xavier committed to a baptism date!! :D :D :D We never really got the chance to extend a date to him while I was serving in Manitowoc, because he almost dropped us like 4 times..but the sisters set a date with him finally! Hopefully President Cutler will let me go back for the baptism. :) Fingers crossed. :)  I met my new comp, Sister Jenson on Tuesday. :) she's super nice. She's been out for three months, and she's from Idaho! funny how all of my companions so far have been from Idaho. The ward here in Fond Du Lac is super nice. The people are sooo missionary minded. We had about 5 different families ask if we could come over and watch the devotional with them last night :) I love you guys. I'm so grateful to be serving out here in Wisconsin. :) Have a great week!

-Sister Peterson

Hurrah for Israel!

December 14

Family!!! :)
This week was pretty crazy busy. We've had back to back appointments basically all week. On top of it all, I've picked up a pretty nasty cold so that's not super fun. The hardest thing this week has been to pull myself out of bed and work hard even though my body is being dumb and sick but it's been worth it. :) The transition here has been a little…strange, there's a lot to get used to, but it's been awesome. First thing last Monday, we went to a German Christmas..thing...I'm not sure what it's technically called, but it was basically just a bunch of vendors who had their stuff set up inside of a heated tent. :) It was awesome. We handed out a bunch of cards, and a book of mormon!! People were so open to talking with us. It was super cool. my favorite part of it was this German vendor who was selling his carvings. They were sooooo gorgeous. He hand carved all of it! I wish I could have taken a picture to send of all of it. I couldn't even believe it. We're super blessed to work really closely with the Elders here in Fond Du Lac, and earlier this week I was kind of just struggling and needed some guidance as to what the Lord's will is for me here. So I asked if they could give me a blessing, and Elder Godfrey gave it for me. He told me that as long as I work hard, and do my best, the Lord will take care of the rest. It was super duper cool. Another cool thing happened this week! So we were tracting, and I felt really strongly impressed to knock on this one door. We tried knocking and they weren't home. So we kept walking to the next house, and I noticed this letter that was stamped and addressed on the ground! I picked it up to check the address, and that little bit of time it took for me to bend down, pick it up, and look at it set just the right timing for us to be there when the lady who wasn't home..drove up! So we asked her if she knew where the house was that was on the letter, and we talked with her for a little bit. She was super open and receptive and everything, and we were able to give her a card with a link to the new Christmas video on it. :) It was awesome. Then we had our ward's Christmas party this past week, and it went super well. A lot of our investigators came, and they even served funeral potatoes! So that's always a plus. :) It's been a pretty good week this week. I'm extremely blessed to be serving here in Fond Du Lac. :)

-Sister Peterson

Hurrah for Israel! :) 

Leaving Manitowoc

A new area

November 30th

Hello all,

Soooo..this week has been..interesting. I'm being transferred! We got a transfer text Wednesday with a list of all the missionaries who were leaving the zone..and my name was on it. That was kind of a shock! We just found out today where I'm going..Fond Du Lac! Wherever the heck that is :) My comp Hermana Cazares is training here in Manitowoc. I know she'll be a great trainer. :) It was one of the hardest things I've ever experienced going over to the Estradas and telling them I'm being transferred. All of the kids started bawling. Isabel held on to me and kept saying, "Don't leave me"  ah It was so hard. Then Jenni started crying and I lost it. It feels almost like I'm leaving my family again. I'm going to miss them so much. I'm very grateful that I can leave them with a missionary I trust though. Bishop made me say the closing prayer for the last hour of church and of course I bawled like a baby. I'm going to miss these people so much. When thinking about transfers and what scripture I could share, I was thinking about the story in the Book of Mormon about when King Lamoni's father is taught the gospel.. He asks about Ammon, and why he didn't come with the missionaries to teach him. Aaron says in Alma 21:4, "Behold, the Spirit of the Lord has called him another way; he has gone to the land of Ishmael, to teach the people of Lamoni." That's kinda my perspective on transfers. The Spirit of the Lord calls you another way. You know? It's really hard to leave, but I know that this is what the Lord wants me to do. One of my good friends this past week in an email said in regards to fulfilling the Lord's will,"When he says "jump" ask "how high?" on the way up." I love it. Other than transfers this past week we had Thanksgiving over at the Estradas. She fed us so. Much. Food. She made cranberry salsa for heaven's sakes. So good. We've been talking with one our neighbors lately, and her name is Tracy. Her son plays basketball for UW Manitowoc, and she introduced us to him. He's 6'6". Holy Moses. She's the sweetest human being though. She had us over for pizza yesterday, and we had about an hour long discussion about life and the role that God plays in it. It was pretty dang cool. She kind of clears up all of the rumors about us that circulate around the apartment complex  so that's pretty nice. She's got our back so she defended our name :)  Anyway. Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. I don't think I'd be able to do this without you guys. I love you!! :) Have a great week! 

Hurrah For Israel!

-Sister Peterson