January 25th
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 1st
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 8th
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 15th
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 22nd
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 :)
