Day 335

This week was pretty rewarding, We were able to teach a good amount, we taught three other lessons, and two member present Lessons. That is a good week for Steinbach. The members here are so willing to go to appointments whether they are planned out a week in advance, or if we give them just a few hours notice. It is a great thing. Justin the Younger is doing fairly well, although he was texting us some questions the other day and I think he may have found some anti, I think that my companion and I handled the questions very well, He is pretty open, but I am afraid that he may be one to be easily swayed. So we just do what we can and then we pray. I'm glad to hear about the reactivations, It's a fantastic thing to see happen. I don't have a lot of pictures this week, but I'll see if I can send something. Last week we met with a Lady who flagged us down on the street, we taught her the first lesson, and she said that really her only friend is a Mormon lady that lives in Utah, her name is Katie. She was really open and receptive, and we are really hoping to help her as she is furthering her growth in the gospel. She is definitely prepared, and she wants to meet with us.

Today I was doing pullups, and I pulled up too hard I guess because the pullup bar came off, and I slammed into the ground, and then into the door behind me. I crumpled up pretty good on the floor, but I didn't really get hurt, so It was ok. Often I try to pray before I work out. (sounds funny I know, but I like doing it) and I was glad I did, because a lot more could have happened. It's all Kent's fault because he emailed me a while ago and told me that he did seventeen in a row all the way up and down, so I was trying for that. I got into a rhythm, and then my rhythm must have been too good. I fixed it up on the wall so it shouldn't happen again.

What do you like to hear about from home?

I don't really know what I like to hear about, I enjoyed hearing about my sold car, that was fun, and I don't think you told me about what happened with your interview with President Winegar.. 

When are transfers, any news?

No transfer news, this weekend though, it's crazy how fast transfers fly by!

Who did you get along with best (comps)?

Honestly I haven't had any issues with any of my companions, Everyone has been pretty easy to get along with. The only person that I've had a more serious disagreement with was my district leader one time. He was kind of micromanaging and running things like a control freak. So it all came to a climax one night, when he got upset and then we wrestled for a minute or so, then we went to bed and had a nice conversation about it the next day. After that our relationship really improved.

But I think the companion I related to the best had to be either Elder Allred or Elder Scott, or Elder Coleman. They were all nice guys and hard workers. I like Elder Mattie a lot as well, but I don't know if I would seek out an audience with him after the mission. Not to say the other one's weren't good as well, I just clicked with these three.

Have you done any dishes?

 No family history lessons :/

Where do you go to email?

We go to a place called Pat Porters, it's just like a rec center without the rec center part, they just have computers, a couple pool tables, and a gym.

Here is a picture of Elder Mattie playing with a doll house. ;)

Love you!

Day 328

(This email didn't come until Tuesday, we were sad, Canada has a long weekend once a month and since there isn't a church building in Steinbach, their usual place was closed.)


Well you got jipped. Yesterday was may long weekend and no one in town was open at all. So I get to Email today. This last week was a pretty good one, President Thomas came to our district meeting and did Interviews on Wednesday. It was a very positive experience, I got a good amount of one on one time with him and we talked about a lot of things. It was our last interview before the new mission president comes in so he was kind of saying goodbye. This last week right after interviews we had a lesson with an investigator named Justin. He said some pretty ignorant things about our church that he felt from reading the introduction. We didn't want to bash so we waited for him to run out of steam, and I think what we said made a difference. It was hard, and if I was graded on the information and smoothness that I gave to him, I would have probably failed, but we were able to give him something to think about. I'm glad to hear you got the mail that I sent, I wasn't sure if you would get it anytime soon. I hope that Dad liked the sketches that I sent, I think they were pretty decent. They are authentic native drawings so of course they are good.

(I commented on how deep his voice was on during the Mothers day call)

It even surprises me when I look at videos of me how deep my voice is. It doesn't sound that deep to me when I talk. I really enjoyed talking to all of you, although I don't know if it's because I'm a terrible person or not, but my brain shuts right down when I think about family history. My companion is going to teach me a little I think and then maybe I'll like it.

The people we are meeting with right now are a few native people, they are progressing.. kind of. Two people both named Justin, they are both lukewarm on the idea of the church, but they are willing to argue with us a little about our church. So that is nice. We teach a fillipina lady who enjoys (I think) our message and I like going over there. We helped a woman in the ward move some things out of her house that is divorcing her husband. I like her husband so I felt bad about it. Hands down one of the most awkward service projects of my mission. Other than that, the week went well, It seems like Weeks tend to either be service heavy, or missionary work heavy. This last week we did a lot of service.

Other than that, The pictures I sent were of Elder Stevens and I trying to look like that one picture of the guy and his wife and the pitchfork, the next is of me wrestling my companion on the couch and "Penguining" him (just a humiliating way of pinning someone down) and the other one is of the dishes we did after helping with a mothers day dinner.

(I'll post these on my fb page)

I Love you and I thank you for all that you do! Sorry for not breaking into a store and using their computer to email! Love You!

Elder Peterson

Day 321

OK, this is the last time I'm going to apologize, just know that I am perpetually sorry for being so late in getting this blog updated.  Its been a busy spring.

(Elder Peterson)

I really enjoyed talking to you as well! It was nice to see all of your bright and smiling faces! This week was a good week, we worked hard all the way to the end, and the end is were we saw most of the fruits of our labor. We really did put our foot down a little and just have lessons with these people that were being hard to pin down, I think they enjoyed it and we taught good principles. I included a few pictures, one of us moving a grand piano, and another of the steps to repentance that a member had on their wall. They were pretty inspiring. I especially enjoyed the part where we were all talking, because it didn't feel like anyone was being neglected. I've decided that Brent (Karl's youngest brother) is the child that looks closest to what a young Grandpa Peterson would. Grandma didn't talk much, neither did Kate. It always seems like we'll all be able to talk for a long time, and then the call goes so quickly! I liked seeing Dad, he looks good. You all have still been running everyday? Today I memorized a few of the commandment scriptures, They aren't too bad because you get pretty familiar with them growing up in the church. So I think I've got eight scripture masteries memorized and I'm working on number nine, or maybe it's number eight, I'm not sure.

How is Elder Matte?

He is good, I really enjoy serving with him, He reminds me a lot of Stuart Craig

Anything funny or amazing happen this week?

Whenever I am put on the spot I draw a blank.. :/ one thing that is funny is that I'll buy things, I don't even know how I stumble on these things, but we'll just be walking, on a Saturday and we'll see a yard sale, so we'll go and then somehow I'm drawn to whatever ridiculously good deal is at the sale and then I'll sell things to other missionaries for cost and my "finders fee" ;) . Probably won't sell my camera though, that was a pretty good deal. We stopped by a yard sale and I picked up some brand new headphones (beats by Dre. people from my age group love them) for like twenty bucks, since they are worth somewhere around a hundred dollars, I'll be able to sell them for a little more, probably around fifty. (mostly to missionaries that are going home soon. because missionaries don't use headphones.) so that's the little business side of my brain going.

One amazing thing was on Saturday when we managed to contact so many people in a short amount of time. We were able to talk to a guy named William outside his house for about forty minutes, we gave him a Book of Mormon and he seemed like he would read it, he said that he had read some before and then he lost the book and always intended to read the rest. I felt that we bore powerful testimony to him and we committed him to read it. The best feeling ever is when you're bearing testimony, and you know that the Holy Spirit is testifying of what you say.

 

Do missionaries do something special for their "year" - halfway mark?

Kind of, a lot of missionaries burn a tie at their six month, a shirt at their year, pants at their year and a half, and a suit at the end. But I thought that was dumb and I decided I wasn't going to do that. Haha.

It's hard to think that I've been out almost a year, It really doesn't seem like that long ago that I came out. The transfers fly by so fast it's almost scary.

Love Elder Peterson

Ps. I just sold my headphones for 45 dollars. Just saying.

Day 314

But this week was really good! This week was transfers so I took Elder Coleman to Winnipeg, oh did I tell you that I have the capacity to get mail every week? not that I expect anything, I am super terrible at sending letters. Anyway, I took Elder Coleman to transfers, I told him I knew how to get there and he was still super paranoid, he had the map out and it annoying because I said I knew how. So I pretended like I was lost and had no Idea were we were going or were we were. Elder stevens was in on it too so when He called Elder Stevens, He said he had no Idea how to get there from where we were. He got pretty worried that we were going to miss the meeting and all that jazz, the joke is on him though because I knew how. I told him I knew how about 3/4 of the way there and then he relaxed. So the beginning of our week was filled with saying goodbye to people an street contacting

After I got my new companion, Elder Mattie, we got back and played basketball like we always do on thursday evenings, We don't get a lot of proselyting during it, but we do get to run around and maybe show people that we aren't that weird.

Later in the week we got to help a guy named justin with planting his garden, he bought us lunch and wanted to know what we believe, he had heard lots and seems pretty interested. I don't know how open he is to converting, but if he continues to meet with us and read The Book of Mormon, he will figure it out.

then on Friday we got to go to a Steinbach event "The pick up and walk" we just put on yellow shirts and walk around during the morning and pick up garbage. It was fun, but they just put us in our own group so the proselyting aspect wasn't as good as I would have liked, but even so, we got out and served. Good deal.

Lastly, I've decided to memorize a scripture per day. It's pretty fun, but also pretty hard. I've gotten four memorized so far, and tomorrow is number five. I've decided to start with all the scripture mastery, and if I keep it up the rest of my mission, I'll have all those, and three hundred other scriptures memorized. Sounds impressive I know, but right now I've just got four. You and who ever else are welcome to join me in it since I'm not too far along now. If I spend a good hard fifteen minutes on it, it works out pretty well and I've pretty much got it down. Today I memorized Genesis 1:26-27

Really good week, the work is moving forward in steinbach, It's a good place and the people here are truly good. People seem to care about each other and are friendly, for the most part. Sometimes people want to bash but oh well.

Have a great week, stay out of trouble and remember who you are!

Love Elder Peterson

Day 307

Wow! that sounds like a lot of fun at the temple! I don't get to go very often, but I did have a lot of opportunity to go before I left so I just hope that others will be able to go. Some missionaries I know have only been one time getting their endowment, and one time in the MTC. So I hope they have the opportunity to go. I hope I get to go at least once though.

Bill L is engaged? wow. what a guy! 

Mom, I exercise and eat well. I drink tons of water! actually funny story, three days ago I did a calve workout on the stairs. I didn't feel like I worked too hard, but holy cow! yesterday I was so sore. I could hardly walk. Seriously my companion didn't want to walk next to me because he thought I looked like forest gump. I've never actually seen that movie, but I probably did look handicapped!

This week went well. Last week we street contacted into two young people, we gave them a card and they said they would call us. Everyone says that. I've seen little to no results with my street contacting. But your prayers must have worked. They called us back, we met them at the library and talked to them and gave them a Book of Mormon and told them the significance of it. Later on in the week we were able to go back and help them move. We didn't have a pickup truck because the member that was supposed to bring it wasn't able to at the last minute.. so I ended up carrying a small coffee table across the highway and about two blocks. That was the biggest thing they were moving so we were able to put the rest in the other elders car. Then we had a spiritual thought with them. They have a long way to go, but they are definitely interested in improving their lives and learning, and I'm going to do all I can to make sure they get there.

The other thing that happened, we went to another potential investigators house, they are phillipino.. first time it's ever happened. We got there, and were talking to the wife, and the husband came up and said "come downstairs!" so we went down and got roped into singing a few Karaoke songs.. That was the first time we were able to get in with them so I was really happy about it. They were really nice. We don't yet have a teaching appointment set up with them, but we are in contact and I hope things will work out.

Yesterday I passed my kidney stone, but I couldn't catch it. I really really wanted to save it. hopefully that's the only one, except part of me wants one more that I can save. It was pretty decently sized. not huge but bigger than I would have wanted to come out of my.. body. It was probably about this size. O It didn't really hurt to actually come out, I was surprised.

That's it for this week. I included some pictures that I took. Hope you like them.

Our new puppy, don't be fooled by those innocent eyes!

DAY 300

This Week was a good week for service but a pretty terrible week for Lessons and teaching. :/ bummer. We were able to go out to a guy named Marcell, and help him move a bunch of material in his shop. That was pretty fun, we helped in the community at the Steinbach arts council, and we basically just painted some props that were going to be used in a play (Anne of Green Gables) and we were able to go out to the Greens and do some work for them. That was my favorite because not only did we get to spend time with them (her husband is not a member) but I got to bounce on their trampoline and eat steak.

My health is good, I don't think I'm going to die. In addition to working out, I've been working on my flexibility and balance. I can almost touch my toes, I eat pretty well, I stay away from junky food and pop. I drink lots of water, and I sleep well. Just some of the physical blessings of my mission.

We've gone through our investigators and started weeding out those who are not really investigating, that are passive. We've been good about emphasizing The Book of Mormon, and they just don't get it. So instead of getting mad, we are just going to give them some quiet time. 

That's about it for this week. Some weeks you just have to plug on through. 

Glad to hear about Grandpa being the Auctioneer, that sounds like something that he would enjoy. I forgot about the Glasses story, that's a good one. I can just picture him telling it.

Well have a great week! stay out of trouble! See you in the funny paper!

Love Elder Peterson