Day 461

Of course I'd like an update on your people...

All of our people are gone! We had two progessing, one with a Baptismal date. Her parents forbid her from joining, or investigating, (Although she is 19, maybe we can talk some sense into her) and the other declined from having more visits.

Tell me about an interesting person you met recently.  Not necessarily someone you are teaching...

One Drunk guy in the park wanted to fight with me because I told him to not swear at me. haha. we got him calmed down alright and he decided that there was someone else he wanted to fight more.

How are your newly weds doing?

We're supposed to see them on Tuesday, but they haven't really been progressing. We want them to though!!

Is the weather changing?  It cant make up its mind here

Its been in that fifty and sixty degree range, it got up around 80 yesterday though

Are your ward members pretty good at fellowshipping?

They do alright, we're really trying to get them more involved in the work, I think when they meet the people that are coming to church, they'll fellowship them better.

Are you ever scared to talk to people?  or feel intimidated?

All the time, but it often works out for us when we overcome those feelings. Like the other day there were two big white guys in black t-shirts that we walked over to talk to, turned out we knew one of them, and we were able to set up an appointment. He didn't keep the appointment, but it was still good.

Do you ever have preachers confront you?

A little. Actually twice last week we had people confronting us about different doctrinal points. Not preachers, just passionate people that want to shove their thoughts about our faith down our throats. The second was nicer, he invited us to read the book of John, and we gladly accepted if he read three chapters out of the Book of Mormon.

What is the hardest part about being a trainer?

It's not too hard, sometimes I wonder who is training who, although there is a definite weight to it, knowing that everything you do will make a huge impact on this person's mission.

What is the best part about being the senior comp?

You usually get to drive the car. But we don't have one. ;)

Elder Bingham says hello as well, by the way all of you write so late at night, you and dad around midnight, and grandma, taking the cake at 12:50 AM.

Love you so much!

Elder Peterson

Day 454

Speaking of Dentist, I am going to see if I can get to Kenora, Brother Christiansen Will look at my teeth for free.. Now if only I can get over there. Although I've been keeping great care of my teeth and I would be obscenely mad if i had one. haha. This week was good, Everyone got sick except for Elder Bingham and I. Also we had three people say they would convert if we would reintroduce plural marriage.. I told them (None of them were married) that they couldn't even hold on to one, less two! and that once they all have wives (one each) then we could talk.

Thanks for all of your encouragement. You're the best kind of people.

What do you tell people about your magic underwear? (from above)

That's one I'm not really sure what to say anything about.. They'll say something like "You got your magic underwear on?" and I just laugh somewhat awkwardly and say: "haha yup..."

What is the big thing that is happening this week?

I don't know of any big things happening this week, did I say anything about a big thing? I'm just hoping that we can help these people that want to know, to act and get to know for themselves.

What amazing moment happened last week?

Larry And Georgina got married. They've kind of slacked on the commitment level, but we are still working with them.

Well we were kind of in a famine for lessons, but we finally were able to teach a man named Curtis, He's so prepared and I don't think he's quite realized that yet. He says that he believes what Joseph Smith saw one hundred percent, he actually got kind of emotional as we read through the first vision, I did as well.. That's never happened to me before. He's got a lot of opposition, but he is searching for the truth, and he's not willing to take anyone else's word for it. He told us that he wanted to focus on the Bible, so we explained how the Bible and the Book of Mormon are really the same great work.

What are transfers going to bring?

I wish I knew. I'm probably not going to stay in Brandon, that's my best guess.

Do you ever talk to youth about missions? (like pie)

I talk to youth whenever I can but we don't really have enough youth to have anything like pie. I think we only have 5-6 young men.

How are your people ( Charee, etc)

Our people are doing fairly well. Charee has been frusturating lately. She texted us that she was coming to church on Sunday, at eight oclock, and at ten oclock she wasn't there. So we have yet to find out why she didn't make it for a third week in a row. She's definitely prepared but she needs the fellowship, because her friends aren't very supportive.

You want an Analogy for the week? If the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Vehicle to getting us home safe, than the things we do daily to come closer to the savior is the Gas. We can get out and push if we want, and we can probably get some movement, but the movement we'll get is abysmally less than if we would just PUT GAS IN IT.

Love Elder Peterson

Day 447

Hello!

Thanks for all the wonderful emails that you sent me this week!

Today I'm doing well... I'm sitting here at the church just emailing.

Maybe I can think of a few things that you probably don't know about me.

1. Part of the cap on my front tooth chipped. It's not terrible, but it is noticable

2. I have a monster Zitt in the middle of my forehead, I think that my skin is trying to sprout a unicorn horn.

3. I weigh about 185 pounds. Just about exactly what my starting weight was

4. I routinely get asked about my magic underwear

5. I can walk on my hands and do one armed pushups

6. I want to do a backflip, but I'm too scared.

7. I really like the new mission president, It wouldn't surprise me if he got called as a general authority.

8. I expect and want to baptize someone, but I'm willing to keep working and be patient.

9. I eat pretty well, even when not at members houses. Elder Bingham and I buy all of our food together and have a variety of meals. We also have food storage, we only bought milk and syrup this week.

10. I love growing spiritually. It may seem like a no brainer, and an obvious statement from a missionary, but I am sometimes surprised how fulfilling it is to grow spiritually. Real changes happen, things that seemed big, now seem small. Lives are changed, simply because someone cares enough to accept the help that Christ gives, and put in their effort. I always thought of that as something that was too hard, it wasn't a desire in my heart, but as I've done so, I've gotten better. It was funny, when I came out, I don't know if I expected it, but I hoped that I would just become a different person. A dedicated servant of The Lord. And then I got out, and I was no different, I wanted to serve, but what I had to serve with was exactly the tools I had before. It's both a positive thing and a negative, because while it would be nice to have been able to zap into mega missionary mode, It would also mean that when I got home, I would be able to Zap out of it. So because the Lord requires us all to work diligently, persistently, and continually, it means that doesn't all just go away. in order to regress, we have to diligently, consistently, and persistently make wrong choices and ignore the feelings that we have to do the right things!

In other words, we can't make a train go from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, but neither can we stop it that fast. It is good news!

So that's what I've enjoyed, seeing that everyday is a new conversion, building a new testimony. Learning something about the Gospel everyday. It's a pattern I want to have for the rest of my life.

I feel like that's the message that we proclaim. Forget about your sins and misdeeds, start doing good things things. keep doing good things. Christ says "Give your life to me, and we'll make it great!" Faith comes in, just like that Believing Christ book, do we truly believe that Christ can do what he says he will do?

This week we had Elder Renlund of the Seventy come and speak to us. He had a conference talk "Latter Day Saints keep on trying" He was really good. He had a very practical outlook on how we can live the Gospel, and what it does for us. I have to say though, the way that President Craig teaches, he is a very powerful teacher about the real reason we do the things that we do. He always ties things back to basic principles and the spirit is always so strong. We've been talking about how to work better with members, (truthfully one of the hardest yet most rewarding parts of missionary work) I think the church is really moving forward and is very progressive in this work. It's so amazing to see them get involved and help this great work move forward.

I've rambled a lot. My mind has been really all over the place in the last week. I think maybe my brain is being rewired for something else. I'm not for sure though. almost like I'm getting a software update or something.

We planted a bunch of trees in the community, It's been a lot of fun, it was a really good opportunity to get out there and meet new people in a non confrontational way. All the missionaries paired off with people that weren't missionaries and it was successful. Charee hasn't been doing very well, She's dealing with a lot in her own life and her family so we are trying to be sensitive but still show her how this can help her through it.

Also a really nice experience this week was that I was praying before we went to Winnipeg to see Elder Renlund, we had been asked to fast to be receptive to spiritual truths, I had also prayed the night before that I would have the opportunity to help someone, I'm not sure why I prayed for that but when I got there, there was another missionary who I knew really well. We of course sat together and were talking. I found out that he was going through a hard time. I did some digging and found that he was a lot more emotionally distraught and worn out than he showed on the surface. I don't know if what I said made a big difference, but I do know that I felt a spiritual impression that he was the person I had prayed to be able to help, so I did my best. I thought what a tender mercy that I would be privileged to help someone that I cared about, and had in turn helped me before as well. We are called to invite all to come to Christ, that means non members, members and missionaries alike.

Do you often do service in whites and ties?  Why jeans?

I'm not sure why you said "Why Jeans?"

But most of the time if it is a planned service activity, we were jeans and t-shirts, depending on what it is and so on. Like if we are helping people move or going to get very dirty, we'll wear service clothes, if we are just volunteering at a food bank or something than we wear our regular missionary clothes.

Did you like the sushi?  Have you had it before?

I like sushi quite a bit, I had it once in Moose Jaw, it was pretty fun.

Where is Sister Wray going?

She's going to Winnipeg, so not too far. Our new Sister is really good, she works hard and is really enthusiastic.

It feels like its going faster, for you too?

Yeah. It's going faster. I remember how long it felt like it took to get through my own training, and this is taking almost no time at all.. we only have four more weeks of it and It's only felt like it's been a few weeks. :/

Love you all, Have a great week, The Church is True!

Love Elder Peterson

Day 440

I don't like this email, I thought he'd be later (like usual) ....so wrong!  but he was so sweet to me.

Oh snap! I was too early for you!!!

This week was a great week! Elder Bingham was able to set a baptismal date with one of our investigators named Charee! He glowed when she said yes! That's probably the highlight of my week. We've been meeting with her quite frequently and she has really been reading The Book of Mormon Consistently. It's really exciting to see that! because it reminds me of when I had started doing that! I was glad too that Elder Bingham was able to commit her! I think if we get her really involved with the ward, she'll stay consistent and stay strong. We'll probably meet with her again on friday!

We helped a lady move! We helped another guy move, we rode the bus a lot! We mowed a lawn in Jeans and White shirts and ties. We had a lot of people committed to come to church this week... and no one came :( Although these people that we committed haven't been willing to commit in the past, so the fact that they agreed to come is really impressive. Still sad that they didn't come.

I can't think of anything else we did.. We actually went to A sushi buffet because Sister Wray got transferred. It was really expensive, but the best part was I was dared to eat a small plate of Wasabi for fifteen dollars. So it only cost me three dollars and an upset stomach to eat there. And then! The Lady that we helped move took us to a chinese buffet, (a different one) and paid for that. So I had a week full of great chinese and japanese cuisine.

Love you so much!!

Elder Peterson

Ps. Remember to always believe in others because God always believes in you!