Updates from Manitowoc

I have been slacking a litlle with Sister Peterson's letters.  So here are the last 3 weeks of letters from her. Enjoy!

June 29th

This week has been filled with such incredible miracles. The first one that comes to mind was our experience with the Martinez family this week! We were teaching their family about the Plan of Salvation, and reiterated the blessings that baptism brings. Then Sister Lyons turned to me and mouthed for me to invite them to baptism. Holy. My heart stopped. We had planned on asking Jennifer first, so I turned to her..and asked her if she would be baptized..and she said yes!! After she said yes..hm. Just. Imagine the BYU fans in Lavell Edwards Stadium after Taysom scores a touchdown. That was what was expressed in my head/heart/soul. "YEAHHHH!!!"  I was pretty excited. Then Sister Lyons asked Yulianna and Isabel if they would be baptized (because they are 9 and 8) and they said yes! We committed them to August 1st. We can't set a date for Jennifer until her divorce finalizes and she gets married to her fiancee Manuel, but they're planning on getting married this summer :) They're all so excited to be baptized. They didn't get to come to church this week, because Jenni was dealing with some health issues, so we went and visited them after church was over. Jaime, the little boy who reminds me of Luke, brought me a couple of little flowers he picked :) it was basically the most adorable thing ever. Then Giovanni (who's 2 years younger than Jaime) got mad cause he didn't think of that first, so he went out and brought me even more flowers! :) haha it was the most adorable thing. We gave Jaime his own copy of the Book of Mormon, and he came and sat next to me and asked me to help him start reading it. That was such an incredible experience. He was so sad when we had to go. He just wanted to keep reading. :) Jenni told us that she loves us, and that she loves when we come over. Jose the little 2 year old, started bawling when we left. Ah it was so cute and so sad! I just love that family so much. Can you tell? They've dominated this email so far. We've been meeting a lot with Xavier as well. He's having a hard time with developing a faith in God, but we know that he can if he continues to pray :) He wants to keep coming to church so that's great! :) We received a referral for a guy named Timmy, and when we knocked on his door, we were greeted by a boy who must have been around 8 or 9 years old. He didn't say anything to us, but he ran back to get his dad. We were very amused by the conversation that ensued. (We could hear it all from the door) "Dad there are two people at the door." "Who are they?" "I don't know, but they're meka" Meka is Hmong. It means white so that was pretty funny. Timmy didn't end up living there, but we did give the guy who actually lives there a card. So that was cool. :) We've actually had some pretty cool experiences while contacting and tracting this week. We've been lead by the spirit to so many people who've needed our message. We came across this woman who's brother in law had passed away two hours before. We were able to talk to her a little bit about faith, and the knowledge that we have that we can see our loved ones again, and she really appreciated it. But yeah. Wow I've been so blessed to have such an awesome trainer! Sister Lyons is just pretty much the greatest. Seriously she exercises so much patience with me. We visited Helen again yesterday! She had her window open, and a band was playing on the lawn for all of the residents at the nursing home. They started playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and Helen loves that song. She can't really draw enough breath to sing, but she mouthed the words. You could tell that it brought her a lot of joy to do that, and it was incredible to see her smile because of it. Agh this week has just been filled with so much love! It's hard sometimes for me to accept that I actually really love these people. That sounds weird. But really I've only been here for a couple of weeks now! How is it even possible to love all of these people I've been teaching already? The humidity actually hasn't been too bad so far. I've been pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I underestimated the power of the sun today. We went out for ice cream with the Elders in our district, and my arm is pretty burned. Whoops.  It's alright though. It's funny, cause my companion is actually from Oshkosh, and she's used to having it pretty cold, so she's been complaining about how hot it's been..but..I was raised in the desert basically so it's pretty average for me. I miss you guys so much! I pray for you all the time. :) It was the neatest thing, because when I went into interviews with my mission president this Tuesday and we were opening with prayer, he prayed for all of you. That was pretty special. Ah just so many blessings this past week. :) Anyway, here's a good scripture for ya. 2 Nephi 4:15. We've been reading the Book of Mormon with a member named Bonnie lately, and something we talked about today was the importance of writing for the benefit of posterity. I mean. How blessed are we to have the scriptures, because these amazing people took the time to write these spiritual things down? Maybe someday our posterity will receive blessings because of what we write. Sister Lyons and I have been trying to write as much as we can into our journals about our spiritual experiences. It's been a blessing. Anyway. I love you all so much. :) The church is true. The savior loves us. Through him we can find peace and joy. Hurrah for Israel! :) 

-Sister Peterson

July 6th

I know I say it every week but wow there have just been so many miracles that we've experienced this week. I feel so bad cause Sister Lyons got pretty sick. We didn't really go out as much as we normally do because she just didn't feel good at all :/ But she's doing a lot better now! So that's great :) How was your fourth of July? We didn't get to watch the fireworks cause they went off past curfew, but we got fed dinner twice! We ate dinner with a member family, and headed off to an appointment with a less active family not realizing that they intended to feed us! It's alright though. All the people here so far have been amazing cooks so it wasn't too much of a sacrifice. We've met with a lot of people this week who have been going through major trials lately. It's been very hard to watch them deal with such pain, but it's been incredible to watch them obtain peace and comfort through prayer. Prayer has been a prevalent focus in our work this week. We didn't get out much to visit with people this week sadly like I said, but we did have the amazing opportunity to invite the spirits into the homes of the people we did visit. One thing that an Elder said in our district meeting this week about prayer particularly stuck out to me. So I figured I'd share. :) He said something to the effect of, "The most supreme being in the entire universe is giving you his undivided attention...really it would make sense that you would speak to him with respect." We were able to work at the family history center this week, and I read about President Packer's passing. Wow. He will definitely be missed by all of us. What an incredible man. Well it was a blessing this week to meet with the Martinez family! Jennifer (the mom) reminds me so so much of you mom. :) And I already told you about Jaime being a lot like Luke right? I guess this week Jaime has been trying to read the book of mormon we gave him! Jenni told us that he threw a fit because his brother took it out of the drawer where he keeps it. :) It was cool to hear that the book means so much to him. We were very fortunate this week as well because we picked up two new investigators! We received a referral from Church Headquarters (you get those when someone in the area goes onto mormon.org and requests something) and we tried to go to this person's house and the address literally doesn't exist. It took us to an area we hadn't really tracted in yet though so we figured it was a sign, and started knocking on doors. No one really answered, and then we talked with some people sitting out on their porch. So even though the referral didn't end up working out, we got to talk to people who had a sincere desire to learn more about the gospel! So that was incredible. :) We have a return appointment with them this week. Oh mom! I forgot to tell you! I was doing some family history work, and I noticed in a document for Hannah Sophia Loveland Dustin that it says she's buried in the Bountiful Cemetery! ..I mean she's in an unmarked grave apparently, but I thought you would find that interesting. If you didn't already know. :) haha well I found this really cool scripture in my studies this morning that I figured I'd share. 1 Nephi 21: 15-16 in the footnote it links to Zechariah 13:6. I thought that Zechariah really gives that added perspective to verse 16. I cannot adequately express my love for my Savior.  This week I was looking through some talks to print off, and I found this cool talk by Neil A. Maxwell. He said something about the Savior that I thought was really awesome. "I testify that He is utterly incomparable in what He is, what He knows, what He has accomplished, and what He has experienced. Yet, movingly, He calls us His friends."  Isn't that incredible? He suffered for our sins. He died for us. The sacrifice he made for us is graven upon the palms of his hands. Nothing else can compare to what he did for us, and to what he accomplished and does now accomplish. "Yet, movingly, He calls us His friends." I'm so grateful for my Savior and His sacrifice for us. The power of faith in the Atonement has been manifested in so many ways this week, as we've helped people turn to Him in their times of trial. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be serving in Manitowoc and to be teaching these people. I cannot imagine any greater blessing than to be teaching the Lord's incredible children.

Hurrah for Israel! xD ha

-Sister Peterson

July 13

Hello from Manitowoc. I feel like it's just been getting progressively better and better. We were sad this week because the Martinez family didn't come to church again, so we're going to have to push back Isabel and Yulianna's baptism day :/ but it was a miracle Sunday because a couple of less active sisters came! We were so excited :) We went on exchanges this week! Tuesday and Wednesday I was with my Sister Training Leader Sister Kelley. :) We were able to contact so many people while she was here. I felt strongly impressed on Tuesday as we went out contacting that we needed to go visit a less active named Steve. We knocked on the door, and no one answered. So I was in the process of writing out a sticky note to leave on his door when he started to walk out! He didn't hear anyone at the door, and was just leaving for work. So we set up an appointment with him for later in the week. When Sister Lyons and I were able to visit with him later in the week, we were able to find out that he actually isn't a member of our church! He thought we were missionaries for a different church. So he's one of our new investigators! He said he wants to get baptized. Already! We just have to set a date. Ah but I'm so excited! :) We were able to bump into a less active named Xor while Sister Kelley was here, the ward didn't have her current address or anything, but she totally gave it to us, and said she doesn't come to church cause she doesn't really understand English. She speaks Hmong, so we just need to get someone who speaks Hmong to translate for her. :) I'm so excited to talk with her more, she's such a sweetheart. Then we were able to go out and contact someone Sister Kelley had met earlier the week before named Jorge. We found out after we had our discussion with him that he's technically in the Chilton branch boundaries, so we passed him on to the Chilton Elders, but the conversation we had was so spiritual. He only really speaks Spanish, and knows a little bit of English, so we had to work to get him to understand what we were teaching, but he totally did! He committed to August 22nd for his baptism date. Already. In the first discussion. As we were walking away, he said that he was very grateful that we came and taught him, because as we were talking to him, he said we brought a peace into his heart that he had never felt before. It was so incredible. Ah man. We were able to go to the farmers market on Saturday with the Martinez family, and it was so fun! Seriously. You have not lived until you've had a Hmong egg roll. So. Good. As we were walking in, Jaime looked up at me and asked, "Sister Peterson, will you hold my hand?" Ah! It was SO cute :) It's been crazy how much I've seen the spirit lead us to people who need to hear about the gospel this week. Yesterday we had the most amazing experience. We went to go visit Helen again, and I don't think she was doing so well. :( but we sang "How Great Thou Art" for her, and she got super emotional. After we finished, she turned to Sister Lyons and asked her what she will say when she's standing before our Savior. Sister Lyons said she would say, hello, and thank you. Helen then turned to me and asked me the same question. I told her that I wouldn't really have anything to say. There aren't words that can adequately express my appreciation and love for my Redeemer. Helen said she wouldn't have anything to say either. Helen loves the Savior. She has this picture of him up on her wall that she points out to us every time we come to visit her. If only more people had a faith in and love for the Savior like she does. So now I'm going to pass Helen's question on to all of you! What will you say when you're standing before the Savior? Think about it. :) I found a scripture today during personal study that I really loved. It's Alma 46:21. I love this scripture, because I've been thinking a lot about the chaos and immorality that is rampant in our world today. I think that we should all work towards being those worthy members of his church who are willing and able to make covenants with the Lord, and uphold his church. I'm grateful for the gospel and for the eternal happiness and perspective it brings me, and for the happiness it has brought all of these amazing people I've come into contact with. :) love you all! I hope that you've been having a great week. :) I'm so grateful for the updates. Hurrah for Israel!  

-Sister Peterson :) 

June 22, 2015

 I finally got out to Wisconsin!!! :D I feel so separated from the real world because literally everything out here is farmland. A bunch of stubborn old farmers with missing teeth. It's great I love it This is my first area! Manitowoc! My address is 3131 Southbrook Court #1104 Manitowoc, WI 54220 if you were wondering..or wanted it  My trainer's name is Sister Lyons! She's so patient with me. It's been a pretty hard week, not gonna lie. There are so so many rules! Our mission is pretty strict cause there's been a history of disobedience with missionaries here in Wisconsin I guess? So yeah. Bleh but I'm so blessed to be out here! I've already seen so many miracles! Sister Lyons keeps telling me that since I got here people have been opening up a lot more! I've already kinda adopted a little accent. Not even joking. She makes fun of me all the time. There's this place called Culver's here! It's like In N Out..but it's actually good! Apparently you aren't really living if you haven't eaten at Culvers. It's a huge thing here.. They grill the patties in butter. Clogged arteries aren't really my thing so I felt like I was gonna die when I finally ate it! It was SO GOOD though. They also serve fried cheese curds. FRIED. CHEESE. CURDS. We're going to a dairy in about an hour so I can actually eat some real cheese. I'm so excited. Well the interesting thing about this mission is that we as missionaries tract and everything, but really a huge focus is on the less actives. There are 300 people in our ward, and only around 100 show up every week. The sad thing is that the ward even covers a huge area! It contains Manitowoc, Two Rivers, and another town. These aren't small towns. And there are only 300 people in the ward? Some work definitely needs to be done! Like some of the Elders said in the MTC, "Some of these people just need a spirit sparta kick to the face!" A sister was telling me, the three main religions here are Catholic, Lutheran, and Green Bay Packer. People won't answer their doors on game days apparently. That's what I've been told. They'll scream at you and throw beer cans at you. That's another thing. A lot of people here struggle so much with smoking and alcohol. Our apartment smells like smoke. It's everywhere. but in all honesty, everyone here is so nice. Even when they tell you to go away, it doesn't sound mean. We go and serve at this place called Peter's Pantry. All the local grocery stores give up their stuff that has gone past it's "sell by date" to Peter's Pantry, and then we give all of that stuff to people who can't afford food. It's incredible. The people here are incredibly poor, but so loving. It gives you a lot of perspective. We got a referral from a missionary who used to serve in this area, and we went and visited the referred family, and holy moses. They are incredible! The Martinez family! They haven't been visited by the missionaries for 8 months. Ugh. Apparently they didn't really get any warning, The sisters just kinda stopped showing up. That was pretty frustrating to hear. That kinda goes along with the whole disobedience thing I mentioned earlier. Sister Lyons and I kinda have to clean up the mess that the previous sisters have left. It was a true blessing to find them though. The boyfriend speaks Spanish, and doesn't really speak very much English so he didn't really stick around for the discussion. We're hoping to bring in a member who speaks Spanish so that he can come and listen and understand with his family. We're going to meet with that family regularly now though. :) It was really just a blessing that they were so willing to have us come over! Yesterday we got one of our investigators named Xavier to come to church for the first time! He's this big black guy who is kinda hesitant about the church, but he had a good experience. :) He didn't want to take the sacrament, but when they passed around the water cups he turned to me and was like, "They serve mini water shots?" xD hahaha I thought you would think that was funny. We went and sang some hymns for a lady named Helen in the nursing home down the street on Sunday. She's 87! Oh but she's the sweetest. We sang All Creatures of our God and King for her, and she told us that when she stands before her maker, that she is going to ask him if he remembers when we sang that to her. We're working very hard to make sure that all of these people feel loved, but it all really comes down to making sure that they can develop the faith that is necessary to have strength in this life. It can get pretty discouraging, but we have seen many miracles this week, and we know that there are more to come! Oh I love you guys. I pray for you every night. I miss you so much, but I'm so blessed and grateful to be doing this work. My love for you guys, and the opportunity I have to live with all of you forever because of you and Dad and your faithfulness to the Lord and his gospel is what fuels me in wanting to help these people find that same joy through their own faithfulness.

I was reading this scripture earlier this week and I thought I'd share :) Luke 22: 50-51 This part of scripture may seem so insignificant when you're reading about the Atonement, but it's so special. The Savior had just atoned for all of our sins, and these people come to take him away to his death. One of the guards who comes to take him gets his ear cut off. Immediately, the Savior reaches out to him and heals him. Because he knew exactly what that man felt. He took the time to heal him. Because he cared about him. Applying that to us, he knows exactly what we go through. He loves us perfectly, and will never forget us. How incredible is that?!  Love you so much! Hurrah for Israel!

-Sister Peterson