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