Monday, December 29, 2014

Letter #24

Dear Mum and Family,

From all of the emails that you guys sent it sounds like you have all had a great Christmas holiday and that you are going to have a fun New Years.  I too had a pretty great Christmas thousands of miles away.  As a missionary it didn't really feel like Christmas.  I have decided it is because of a few things.  I think the number one reason is because I am not home doing all of the things that we would be doing as a family. The second reason would be because there is no snow here.  It did snow on Saturday a little but it is so wet that nothing stuck.  It was still a great Christmas and I really enjoyed going over to the members house and also skyping you guys.  It was a lot of fun talking with you and hear all of you great voices.  It was also pretty funny to see Lyndsey in a sling.  Hahaha

You asked what church we went to on Christmas.  Well when we were tracting this last week we knocked on this guy’s door and invited him to look at the He is the Gift video.  He then invited us to come to his Christmas service at his church house.  So we went to a Pentecostal church.  It was kind of cool seeing what other people do at their churches and at the same time it was also kind of different.  They did a lot of singing and praying during it.  When they sing they use a lot of instruments like the guitars, piano, drums and a few other things which was really interesting. 
 It was a good experience because it really strengthened my testimony about our church being the only true church on the earth today.  I don't think that the guy was interested at all, but we are going to stop by some other time and see if we could start teaching him.

On a great note we had an awesome miracle yesterday.  After church we went to a member’s house and had a great meal.  You all know how much I like food so you all know how much I enjoyed that meal.  Anyways after the meal as we were walking to the car we received a text from one of our investigators named S****.  We haven't taught her since I have been here because she has been really busy with the holiday season.  We have been inviting here to church and she has come the past two weeks.  The text that she sent said that she felt really peaceful at church the past two Sundays and her faith in Christ has really been strengthened.  She then said that she really wants to get baptized.  That just made me and my companion super excited. I wish you guys could have seen the excitement that we had when we read her text.  It was such a miracle and we have really been blessed to find her and to be able to teach her.  She has only been taught the restoration so we still have quite a lot to teach.  We will probably be seeing her tomorrow which I am super excited for.  We have received such a great blessing.

Last Friday was pretty fun. We played soccer for a little while in the rain which made it more fun.  It was super wet and muddy so we definitely did not come home nice and clean.  It was still pretty fun though.  Like I told Dad and Caden I will not be coming home liking soccer any more than when I left so tell Lyndsey not to get her hopes up.

You asked about the 101 ways to help missionaries and where I found it.  Well I was looking at the pictures on drop box and there is was.  I thought that you put it on, but apparently you didn't so you will have to look at it.  It was a long list of ways to help missionaries and to do missionary work as members. You will have to look at it because it was really cool. 

Caden I hope that you are really enjoying working and making some money for me because you owe me when I get back because I am the oldest and you are supposed to pay the oldest siblings in the family. hahaha

Chelsey to answer the last question that you asked about what is the latest I have stayed up. We have to go to bed at 10:30 so that is the latest I have stayed up.  We are usually really tired at the end of our day so we usually go to be between 9:30 and 10:00 sometimes.  It is a really good time to go to bed so that we can get  a lot of sleep so that we can work hard the next day.

Lindsee the coolest thing about my area is that it is mostly country.  It makes it feel a lot more like home because of all of the open area and also because of all of the hills.  There are hills everywhere and when you drive past them and look there are always lots of sheep which also makes it feel more like home. 
I really don't know what the coolest thing about my new companion is.  We just get along really well and we have a lot of fun times together.  It was like we were best friends before we ever became companions.  He is really cool and a great missionary.

Thank you all for all of your great quotes and letters.  I really enjoyed reading them all.  I really don't have much to say because I emailed you on Friday and we haven't done a whole lot since. I just want to end by sharing a thought with you guys. It is kind of long but I hope that you enjoy it. It comes from Neal A. Maxwell.  He says: 
"It is extremely important for you to believe in yourselves not only for what you are now, but for what you have the power to become.  Trust in the Lord as He leads you along.  He has things for you to do that you won't know about now, but will be revealed later.  If you stay close to Him, you will have some great adventures. You will live in a time when instead of just talking about prophesies that will sometime be fulfilled, many of  them will actually be fulfilled. The Lord will unfold your future bit by bit. All the easy things that the church has had to do have been done, so you're going to live in a time of high adventure.  You were brought to earth because you can handle that time of adventure. And you will do well."
Even though this was given some time ago I think that it is still true today.  We all will have some great adventures while we are here on this earth today.  There are many things that are going to happen in this church because the second coming of the Savior is close and there are many things that need to be done before he comes.  I hope that we can stay close to the Lord and trust him so that we can help him in bringing those to the gospel that need to learn and by doing things that he wants us to do. 
I hope that you all have a great week and that you enjoy your New Year celebration. Make sure you all eat a lot of food for me because you know how much I love food. 
Love,
Elder Peterson

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