Monday, January 26, 2015

Letter # 28

Dear Mum and Family,

It sounds like you have all really enjoyed your week from the sound of your great letters.  I hope that it continues to go well for you all. I am glad that you liked the story of our bike accident last week.  Scarlet (my bike) is doing great.  She is not hurt at all and is still running great. 

This last week was an amazing week because S***** was baptized on Saturday and confirmed a member of the church on Sunday.  She was really happy after the baptism on Saturday and said that she is really happy to be a part of this church.  I had the opportunity to confirm her on Sunday and that was a great experience for me.  When she asked me I was super excited to do that and to be a part of it.  She is such a great lady and I have really enjoyed teaching her and getting to know her and her family more.  She has been doing some missionary work with  her family because they are not members and she brought them to her baptism.  They seemed to really enjoy it and hopefully we will be able to start teaching them.  The ward has been fantastic to her.  They have really welcomed her into the ward and have really friend shipped her. On Sundays we hardly see her because the ward is always helping her out with everything which is amazing.  It is such a relief as a missionary when the ward helps the investigators that we bring to church.  This ward is an amazing ward!

Not a whole lot more has been going on this last week.  We spent a lot of time preparing S**** for her baptism and we have been spending a lot of time finding people in the rain and cold weather.  We haven't found really anyone that is super solid and wants to hear our message, but we have knocked on a few doors and the people have invited us back so hopefully when we go back this next week they will want to hear more.  Finding is really hard but I have really come to enjoy it.  It's funny seeing the different ways that people reject us because sometimes they are so ridiculous I just have to laugh when we are done talking with them. There are a lot of interesting people here in England and Wales.  Most of the people are really friendly and they love talking with us they just don't want to hear our message.  We have met a few people that we see quite often when we are out and about and they like visiting for a little bit.  It's always fun to meet new people and to be that example to them even though they aren't interested in the Gospel.

Tonight we will be getting the call to see if any of us will be moving to a different area.  I am 99% sure that I will be staying her for a couple of more transfers, but I am not quite sure if Elder Shaw will be leaving.  I think and hope that he stays for another transfer and he hopes he does too, but there is that chance that he could leave.  I guess we will find out tonight.  You don't have to worry about me moving again though because I am sure that I will still be here in Llanelli.  At least I hope that I will still be here.

It sounds like you are going to have a great time when Anna Stilger comes over to our house.  I think that you have some great plans and I hope that you have a lot of fun with her.  They are such a cool family and really friendly towards everyone. I am glad that I helped you meet a new friend mum.  Sometimes I think you have too many friends because you can't keep track of them, but I hope that you guys have a fun time together when she comes.

I have a great companion and I didn't need to take my trousers to get them fixed.  He is very OCD and he likes everything to be perfect.  So we get along quite well together.  So he said that he could fix them and he did a fantastic job.  So you don't need to worry about the Kater shop and getting them to pay for them.

Caden- It sounds like you are always keeping busy with work.  Every week it sounds like all you do is work. I hope that you are really enjoying it and that you are making a lot of money for me for when I get home because you owe me a lot for letting you sleep in my bed. I can't believe that you almost fell asleep in sacrament.  Maybe you should go to bed a little earlier than you have been. Then you won't be so tired and you can listen to the talks.  Haha

Favorite Sister Chelsey-It sounds like you are really enjoying church basketball and that you guys have a great team this year.  I really miss playing church basketball maybe when I get home you can play against me and you will probably be able to beat me because I will be old and fat.  It sounds like you are getting a lot of practice on your driving.  I hope that you haven't gotten in a crash yet.  I am sure that you won't get in a crash because I know that you are a better driver than you weird sister Lullabell.  I haven't driven anything other than a bike while I have been on my mission.  I have gotten use to driving on the other side of the road though so when I get home you will have to teach me how to drive on the right side of the road.  It is kind of weird at first, but after a while you get used to it.  
The pie here is actually really good.  They have a lot of different pies that you can eat.  They have a lot of meat pies that a lot of people usually eat for dinner and the fruit pies that they have are also really good.  I don't think that they are really any different than back home.  They just eat a lot more pie then we do back home.  I really enjoy eating them at least, but then again I really enjoy food so I don't think that surprises you that much.
We go to church Sundays at 10:00.  We are the only ward that goes to our church and they don't have sacrament meeting first like they do back home.  All of the churches that I have been to have sacrament at the end of church.  It’s  kind of different, but I have gotten used to it now.  I don't really drink a lot of pop like I did back home.  But I have had a couple of drinks and they are pretty good.  Some of them are better than the ones back home but some of them are so great.  They don't sell Root Beer here so that was sad when I found that out. 
The thing that I miss most about you is probably calling you Debra and making you laugh. HAHAHAHA 

Stovetop- It sounds like you have had a great week at school and that you wish you could stay a lot longer.  I bet you are not excited at all to leave High School because it is the best thing that has ever happened in your life.  Oh wait I bet your elbow being hurt has been the best thing ever because then you can get out of work.  So going to school is the second best thing that has ever happened to you. I bet when you go to the doctor they will tell mom that you are just faking it and that you are perfectly fine. 
I hope that you are doing your homework on your own and that you are not cheating from my binder again.  It sounds like you are having fun though in Mrs. Falslev's class with project reality because you are with your boyfriend.  Yeah I might be pretty far away, but I can still give you a hard time about your boyfriend.  And the funny thing is you can't make fun of me because I am on a mission.  HAHA Sorry I win you lose.


Poshest Posher that ever poshed aka Dad--That's crazy that the weather is like that at this time of the year.  I am really missing out on the nice warm weather.  I am sure that mom isn't really complaining about it much.  We are still having our nice cold welsh weather at the moment.  We haven't had a lot of rain lately, but it has been pretty chilly and the wind doesn't help a whole lot.  We haven't had any snow though so that is kind of weird.  Everyone we speak to says that it is only going to get worse so I have something to look forward to.  Apparently it gets a little colder and eventually it will snow a little so I guess I will see sooner or later.

Well I don't have much more to say, but before I go I would like to share a spiritual thought with you guys like usual. 
“As a gem cannot be polished without friction, neither can a man be perfected without trials."
I had the opportunity to give a talk on Sunday and I was able to talk about trials and how we need to accept our trials and out setback as a part of our mortal experience.  Some things that I learn as I was preparing the talk is that in Matthew it talks about how we need to take upon us the yoke of Christ.  Well a yoke is what they use to hook oxen together to pull a load of something.  Well when we take upon the yoke of Christ during our trials we are pulling that "load" with Christ next to us pulling also.  Now Christ is pulling most of that load, but we need to still do our part and pull as much as we can.  I know that through our trials our temptations we are becoming more like Christ and we are coming closer to him as we endure through those trials.  
If you get the chance sometime this week you should read the talk “Approaching the throne of God with Confidence."  It is from this last conference and it is a great talk.  
I hope that you all have a great week.  Thanks again for all that you do and for the great letters.
Love,
Elder Peterson

P.S. Mum
I think that dad is the poshest dad of them all, but you are the poshest mum of them all.
Last but not least there is a letter coming in the mail soon.  I will be sending it today so I hope you all get excited to go get the mail for the next couple of weeks. HAHA
Also I did get the letter with the snow and oatmeal you sent.  The oatmeal was good and the snow was fun just not cold
Hahaha

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Letter #27

Dear Mum and Family,

It sounds like you have all had a great week and that you have really enjoyed a little taste of British food. I really enjoyed the pictures of you guys and the food looked amazing. It looks like you had a lot of fun and a lot of food.  Maybe you can figure out how they do it all and you can make your own shop in Newton.  (The picture of the candy bars look really familiar.  I wonder where I have seen them before?  Oh maybe here in England/Wales!)

This last week has been really interesting and this next week is going to be really exciting. Apparently there was a tornado at the beginning of the week up in North of England I believe.  That is what a couple of our investigators told us anyway and I am pretty sure it is true because the wind was horrible last week.  We were told that it was supposed to reach between 70 and 100 mph which I am sure that it did.  It was raining quite a lot too which didn't help at all so it was pretty interesting.  It did also start snowing on Tuesday but because it is so wet here in England it didn't stick at all and it didn't rain for very long.  It eventually just turned back into rain.  Because of the super strong winds I was in my first bike wreck of the mission.  Luckily we are both okay so that is a great miracle.  So we were biking through a park on a bike path on our way home because the wind was so strong and we had to get in as fast as we could.  The wind pushed Elder Shaw off the bike path and when he tried to get back on the path he crashed.  I was just a little bit behind him and I had to throw my bike out from under me and to the side because I didn't have enough room to swerve and I didn't want to run over him.  Luckily I just rolled a little and got up perfectly fine and I ran to Elder Shaw to see if he was okay.  We both came out of it without a single cut or bruise which was a miracle.  We got back on our bikes and made it home just in time.  We were soaked all the way through.  No matter how much waterproof clothing we wore it wouldn't have helped at all.  It was a great experience and we have had a great laugh about it.

I am really excited for this week coming up because our investigator's baptism is this Saturday and it is really exciting.  We have finished teaching her all the lessons and she is doing great.  She is still doing her reading and praying every day and she is really growing closer to our Father in Heaven.  This week she will be interviewed for baptism and we are going to be doing some daily contact and answering any questions for her that she might have.  We also have planned to go over to her house and make her a meal so that will be a lot of fun.  We have set up the baptismal program and she is really excited about it and she can't wait to be a member of this church.  She is such a great lady and she has grown so much in the Gospel.  It is going to be amazing.  I can't wait until Saturday.

So flogged isn't really a British word it's just a missionary word.  It's kind of funny because if you ask some of the returned missionaries in our ward they will tell you some of the things that the missionaries would say.  The funny thing is that even different mission areas use different words.  So flogged pretty much means that we set up an appointment with someone and when we go they are not there because they have flogged us.  I don't know if that makes any sense so if it doesn't let me know and I will explain it better.

There are a lot of people who do speak Welsh or at least they know how to speak Welsh, but they usually just speak English.  So I haven't had a problem with meeting someone who only knows how to speak Welsh. I think that in the schools here they teach them how to speak both Welsh and English so I am sure that helps a lot. So there is really no need to learn how to speak Welsh.  Maybe I will ask a few members to teach me a little Welsh so that I can say some things.  It's kind of a confusing language, but I will try my best to get some things down.

So the pictures from the New Era are just away to help me decorate my planner.  So I like to put quotes with pictures and just pictures on them.  For example on the one I have now I put the picture of the Salt Lake temple.  On my last one I put a picture of the first vision with a scripture that I cut out of the Ensign.  I was just wondering if you guys would be able to send me a little bit of something like that from the New Era because I can get Ensigns really easy from the mission home it's just they don’t have the New Era and there are a lot more quotes and pictures that I think look better on the planners.  If you guys don't have time then you don't need to worry about it. I just thought that you might have some ideas on things that I can put on my planner so that it could be really nice and I can include you guys on my very artistic skill.  Haha.

I hope that you guys have a great week this next week. You will have to tell Case hi for me and when you go listen to Alex you will have to tell him hi and that he is going to be a great missionary. 

Caden-What's up little brother?  Yes you are still little to me because I don't think you will ever be bigger than I am. It sounds like you are still enjoying work and that everything is going good at the farm.  Hopefully you will be getting more calves soon so that you can have another girlfriend.  I hope that you are really enjoying work and that you are working hard.  

Chelsey-It sounds like you have had a great week this week.  I would have to guess that the best part of your week was when you got your braces off.  I bet you wish you could still have them on though. Haha.  Remember to always wear your retainer so you don't have to get your braces back on again.
It sounds like you had a lot of fun going to the Chippie this last week.  I hope that you enjoyed eating all of the great British food there.  I bet you really enjoy the chocolate.  I know that I really love the British Chocolate.  It is the best!  It sounds like you have done another great job making another blanket.  I bet it looks really great.  You can give it to me when I get home so I can stay warm.  
I can see the excitement that you are having right now because you don't have to go to school today.  I hope that mum works you really hard and that you get the house nice and clean.  And think if you keep it nice and clean then you won't have to clean it the next time that you are off from school. I hope that you have lots of fun because I know that I am going to have fun not cleaning the house today.  Haha

Lyndsey-It sounds like you have had a pretty interesting week and that you had a lot of fun faking your sickness. Yeah mom might not know that you were faking it, but I can tell from experience that you just wanted to get out of school. But don't worry I won't tell mom that you were faking.

Dad-That's kind of disappointing that the Colts didn't make it to the super bowl.  I thought it was going to be a hard game to win for the Colts, but I did have faith in them they just couldn't pull it off is what it sounds like.  At the same time I am glad that they didn't make it because I am not there to watch it so maybe it's for the best and when I get home they will definitely make it to the Super Bowl.  You will have to tell Kenny Jensen that I am cheering for the Seahawks thousands of miles away and because I am cheering for them outside of America the Seahawks have a better chance of winning. Haha
I read a quote the other day that I really liked. It says:  " Home teaching is missionary work to the members, Missionary work is Home teaching to the non-members." So by visiting the ward members you are doing missionary work whether you think you are or not.
Oh and  I won't tell mum that you are the poshest of them all.  Haha

Before I go I would like to end with a spiritual thought like I usually do. I have found a lot more quotes that I really like and I hope that you enjoy the one that I have for you today.

“Any dog inside a fence will bark and clamor to get out.  But once they are out, most dogs run around a while, sniff out the territory, then sit down by the fence. This is because they are focused on only getting out and never thought of what to do after they got out.  Many humans are the same way. We say “I can't wait to get out of High School." or “I just want out of this relationship."  Or “I’m just going to go through college as fast as I can."  In a missionary sense, we might say, "I can't wait to get home/ out of this area." or "Just wait until I get my new companion." But what are we doing now? Are we planning what to do and preparing our souls for the trials we'll encounter on the other side?  If not then are we any different than the dog."
- R. Dale Jeffery

On the mission I have learned so much about planning and the importance of it.  I hope that you guys get something from this quote and that it helps you realize that planning and making goals is very important because with those goals we can become closer to God if the goals that we set are focused on God and are things that will make us better Latter Day Saints. 
I hope that you all have a great week and that you have a fun time cleaning today.  And thank you for all the great letters that you sent I really enjoyed them all.
Love,
Elder Peterson


Monday, January 12, 2015

Letter #26

Dear Posh Mum and Family,

I just want to start off by saying that only in England does it rain sideways.  We have been doing a lot of finding and tracting in the rain this past week and we have had some hard times.  We have been finding people that seem interested, but we set up an appointment and they flog us and we are not able to teach them. #mission life. ( My companion and I say that a lot) Haha  We have had a great week though and a lot of great miracles on the bright side.  

We have been meeting with our investigator S**** a lot this last week.  She is really excited for her baptism and she will do anything so that she can make the date that she has agreed with on the 24 January.  The other day she asked us if she would have to give up smoking.  She is not a heavy smoker, but she does smoke a little.  We told her that we have a stop smoking program to help her stop and that we would bring it the next day and help her begin it.  Well the next day she called us up and said that she had to go to the hospital because she has been having some heart problems.  So we weren't able to meet with her and show her the stop smoking program which was okay because we would just show her the following day. Then at the end of the day we had a miracle happen.  She texted us and said that she hadn't been smoking for a full day and that she is going to quit.  It was awesome because all we had said was that she needed to stop and that we would show her how she could and without even starting the program she stopped.  The next time that we talked to her was on Saturday and she had quit on Thursday.  When we met with her she said that it was not a problem for her to quit and she said once we left she threw all of her cigarettes away and that she won't do it again.  She is still going strong to this day.  She came to church yesterday and said that she feels a lot better and that she is really glad to be giving it up.  My testimony has really been strengthened because I know that she has definitely been prepared at this time to hear the Gospel.  We have seen her testimony grow stronger and it is such a miracle to see the hand of God in His work.

I am really excited for this upcoming week for a couple of reasons.  I think the first reason is because we get to teach S***** a lot and to see her progress more in the Gospel.  The second reason is because on Friday the missionaries in this ward are in charge of a ward activity and it is going to be a lot of fun.  We are going to be doing a minute to win it night with the ward at the chapel.  We have some fun games set up and we are hoping that it will be a lot of fun for the ward. And for the last reason why I am excited for this week is because on Sunday the other missionaries that are in this ward are having a baptism.  It is going to be a great week and I am really excited to see what miracles it brings.

It sounds like you guys have got a hold of some nice British food.  I hope that you enjoy going out to eat with Dennis and that you enjoy the great fish and chips.  The picture that you sent of the chocolate is exactly the kind of chocolate that they have here in England.  It looks like I am not going to have to send any home to you now.  I can't wait to see the pictures of you guys eating some fish and chips this next week.  Just typing fish and chips is making me hungry.  Oh wait I am always hungry. Haha  One thing that you should try is the Galaxy Chocolate if they have any.  I think that is the best kind.  If not the Dairy milk is really close. 

We didn't really play any football with A**** last Monday we mostly played rugby and it was okay.  It would have been a lot better if we would have had more people playing with us.  I learned a little how to play rugby a little more and it was quite fun and confusing at first.  I started to get it down though and it was getting pretty fun at the end.  It was definitely some great exercise and we were exhausted at the end of the day. I will admit it was a lot more fun than soccer by far.

Caden-I can't wait to go skating again to see how much better you are.  I hope that school is going great for you and that you are really enjoying it and that you are learning a lot. I bet you are because you are a smart feller.  I also hope that you are enjoying working at the farm and that you are working hard.  I can just see you now chasing around all of the cows trying to get them in the holding pen.  Hahaha. 

Chelsey- It sounds like you have had a great week and that you are getting super excited to get your braces off finally.  I bet you are really not that excited and that you wish you could keep them on a little longer.   Ha Ha  I hope that school has been going good for you and that you are working hard and getting good grades.  I am sure that you are because you are very smart. The weather here is really different then the weather back home. There is no fog or no snow at all.  It has been raining pretty much all day ever day and it is getting kind of boring because all it does is rain. I have had pizza over here and it was pretty good.  It is like the pizza that we have back home.  There is a domino's pizza  and a pizza hut so it's pretty much like the pizza back home.  I ate it at the Stilgers house when I was in Sheldon.  That was the first time that I had pizza on the mission and I quite liked it.  I have been playing a little football with my new cleats and it has been kind of fun.  It has been really wet so we have been playing in a lot of rain lately so we get pretty wet and dirty.  It's pretty fun playing in the mud though.  You should try it sometime if mom lets you.  My new flat is pretty nice but it is pretty old.  A lot of flats here are old so I think that the rest of my mission I will be in older flats.  They are still pretty nice though.  I really like it. 

Lyndsey- Lyndsee ( I think that is right)
It sounds like you are seeing that my work is a great use to you even though you are cheating.  I hope that you are really enjoying that class and that you are getting good grades.  I am interested to know who you husband is for the  project reality.  Is it your  boyfriend?

Padre- I can't believe that the Colts have defeated the Broncos.  That is some really exciting news.  I hope that they can keep up the hard work and make it to the super bowl.  If the Patriots are as good as they usually are then that could be a pretty big challenge for the Colts, but I believe they can do it.  It sounds like there are going to be some interesting games going on.  It should be interesting to see who makes it. I am still enjoying the area except for the fact that it rains a lot here.  It is really weird to be in the middle of January and to have no snow and lots of rain. To make things worse it is super cold which makes it that much better. I really do like the area though and I have met a lot of amazing people.  The ward is amazing and they are so involved in missionary work.  When we bring investigators to church we don't even see them which is great.  The members just take them right where they need to be and they help them and answer all the questions for us.  That is the way it is supposed to be  because then they meet and make friends so when we leave the area they have people that they know and trust.  What an amazing ward! I hope that you have a great week this next week and that you enjoy watching the college football championship.

I was thinking of some goals that I wanted for this next year and now that I think about them more I don't really like them so I will do some thinking and I will come up with some for you next week. Sorry that it is taking so long but I want some good goals for this next year because it will be my black year which means it will be the only time of my mission that I am serving from January to December so I want to make them good.

I don't have my notebook with me today so I am not going to be able to share a quote with you guys this week.  I want to share something that I hope will be useful to you guys though.  It is on light and the light of Christ.  I don't know a lot about flowers and why they do something’s but if you watch flowers closely they turn towards the light.  For example if there was a flower in a box and the top of it was closed and three of the sides were closed.  The flower could only get its light from one side of the box and it would turn to the side so that it could capture that light so that it could grow.  If you turned the flower so that it wasn't facing the light it would eventually turn back in due time. We as children of our Father in Heaven need to do the same thing.  We need to be turned to the light of Christ and not towards the dark temptations of the adversary. And when we go through hard times and we are turned to the darkness we need to be just like that flower and turn back to the Light. I know that it is very important that we are turned towards Christ because then like that flower we can grow and become more like Christ. I  am so grateful for this Gospel and I know it is very important that we turn to the light of Christ and if we do we will be blessed.

I hope that you have a great week and thanks for the great letters that you sent.  I really enjoyed them all.  If there is anything that I can do for you guys I would be happy to help the best that I can.  Just remember we can always pray too for help.
Love,
Elder Peterson
 
Elder Shaw and Elder Peterson
 with their Christmas Stockings


Monday, January 5, 2015

Letter # 25

Dear Mum and Family,

From reading all of your letters it sounds like you have all had a great New Years and that you stayed up late and had a lot of fun.  We really didn't do a lot of partying because we had to be in at 6 for our safety.  I am sure a lot of people wouldn't have wanted to talk to us anyway because they were all busy with their families partying.  So I guess it was better for us to be in.  We were super tired so after we cleaned the flat and worked on our Area book a little we went to bed and slept right through the New Year.  It is kind of weird because it doesn't even feel like it is 2015 but I think that is because I am not home partying with you guys.  It is a lot of fun being here in England though so don’t think that I don't like it.

We met with S**** this last week and the lesson went really great.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she said that she understood it all.  She is super excited to be baptized and she wants to be baptized on the date that we have set and that is the 24 January.  In order to make this date we will have to teach her about 3 times a week and she has agreed with it so we will be seeing her quite often.  I can really tell that she has been prepared by the Lord to hear the Gospel at this time and it is really cool to see her testimony grow.

We have not talked with the priest who we met that goes to the Pentecostal church. We have thought about it and really he doesn't want to learn at all.  We invited him to our church and he said that he doesn't want to come and we think that he is trying to convert us which of course won't happen.  

Now that it is the New Year and everyone has slowed down in a way we should be teaching more people now.  We have talked to a few of our investigators and we have set up some appointments to meet with them soon.  I can't wait to do more teaching now rather than so much finding.  Finding is fun don't get me wrong but we have been doing so much of it that I think it is about time to do something different.  I am sure we will still be doing a lot of finding though.
Today we will be playing rugby with A**** who is that 14 year old boy who really loves sports.  I am excited to play because we will not be playing soccer which is a blessing.  I really am getting sick of playing it and hearing about it all the time.  We are going to be playing a little bit of rugby and maybe some American Football.  He knows quite a lot about American Football because of the past missionaries that have been here.  Every time we see him he is always telling me the latest news and asking lots of questions about it.  It's about time I find someone here in the UK that likes American Football!

I don't understand the Welsh language but I have been able to get use to the people and how fast they talk.  There are some people that still talk super-fast but I will have to agree with you Mom that Lyndsey has definitely prepared me.  When I get back I bet I will be the only one who understands Lyndsey because I would have had more practice than you all.  It is a different language though and I don't think that I will ever learn it.  I am sure that I will have some words that I will know by the time I leave Wales. Everything is going great here in the good old country of Wales.  I guess I could say that I have settled into the new area. I know my way around pretty well.  There are something’s that I don't quite know where they are, but it's crazy how fast you adjust to a new area and you get to know your way around.  It is a great area and I have really enjoyed meeting new people especially the ward members.  This is a great ward in this area they really care for the missionaries and for missionary work. I can't believe how much food they give us and how much they feed us.  We really don't buy a lot of food on P-day because the members feed us so well. 

It sounds like there have been a few changes in the ward since I have left and I really haven't been gone that long.  It sounds like they have been some great changes though and it sounds like there is such a great Bishopric still in the ward even though Dave has left.  I am sure Brother Austin will do a great job in his calling because he is such a great guy.  I can't wait to see how much it changes by the time I get back.  Who knows maybe I will be speaking in a totally different ward. (Not because you have moved to St. George or anywhere else of course)

Caden: It sounds like the skating rink is up and running and that you are really enjoying it.  I bet you go up there every day that mom lets you.  I bet you are getting really good and I hope that you are enjoying it.  It sounds like it is really cold too over there.  I hope that you have a great week. You will have to tell mom to let you go skating every day for me. 

Chelsey: It sounds like you really enjoyed your New Year Celebration. I can't believe that you stayed up until 3.  That is too late.  You should have gone to bed earlier because you are too young to be staying up that late.  It sounds like you had a fun time though.  I hope that you have caught up on your sleep so that you can go back to school and learn a lot of new things.  I hope that you have fun at school because I don't get to have fun at school anymore.

Lindsee: It sounds like you had a great New Year’s party and that you stayed up super late.  I think that you sleep so much because you don't go to bed early.  Maybe if you went to bed when you were supposed to you wouldn't be sleeping all of the time.  That is just a little word of advice from me.  I bet you are super excited to graduate from High School and to turn 18, but guess what I am 19!!!  Hahaha
Because we are so close to the sea we don't have any snow right now.  We do get quite a bit of rain and it rains almost every day.  Most of the people we talk to say that when it does snow it snows about the end of January or the beginning of February.  But who knows apparently they didn't get any snow last year so I could go without it this year. And when it does snow it doesn't last very long at all and the whole town shuts down so I kind of want to see that. 
I have not seen anyone here with gardens yet.  They usually call their front and back yards gardens so that is kind of different,  but they don't have any gardens where they are growing vegetables or anything like that. 
Their couches and their bed are like the ones back home.  I don't know why you ask all of these weird questions, because the things here in England are pretty much the same as in the states. But then again you are pretty weird so it doesn't surprise me that you are asking such weird questions.
I hope that you have a great week and that you enjoy going back to school!!! Hahaha

Dad: Caden told me that he has really enjoyed spending some time up at the ice rink this year.  You will have to go and play against him so that he can have a challenge when he plays.  I am sure he is really enjoying it and that he is getting good at it. Hopefully it doesn't warm up, so that it doesn't melt it because that is the worst.

Thank you for the great thoughts that you shared with me I really enjoyed it.  The thought that I wanted to share with you guys I actually found this morning in my studies.  I was reading from one of the Ensigns and it was a General Conference talks.  
I read one of the messages from Russell M Nielson about faith.  I think it was titled "Show your faith." Don't quote me on that though. 

In part of his talk he talks about how we need to have faith in the right things. He says: "We might ask ourselves, where is our faith? Is it in a team? Is it in a brand? Is it in a celebrity? Even the best teams fail. Celebrities can fade.  There is only one in whom faith is always safe, and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need to let your faith show."

So we need to have that faith in Jesus Christ.  I have done a lot of studying on Faith this past week and I have learned a lot of great things.  I have learned that faith centered on Jesus Christ equals salvation.  Faith is the first principle of the Gospel and it is one of the most important principles.  We need to have faith in Christ and we need to not be shy when people ask us about our faith or when our faith is tested.  President Monson Says: “Of course we will face fear, experience ridicule, and meet opposition. Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings smile of God's approval.... 
Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with faith have courage as well."

I hope that you all find the importance of faith and that when your faith is tested that you have courage to stand up for your beliefs.  I don't know about you but I would rather stand with God in the dark and hard times than to stand alone in the light at easy times.

I hope that you all have a great week and that you all enjoy going back to school. I will admit that I do miss going to school, but at the same time it is kind of nice to have a 2 year break.  I hope that you have all enjoyed your break.
Love,
Elder Peterson 

P. S. Mom I do think that you are a Posh Mom.  Also I don't know how I am going to send some pictures to you, but I will try and find out a way.