Letter #37

Hello Mum and Family,

It sounds like you are all excited to be going to St. George today.  From the letters that I read from ya all it sounds like some are a little more excited than others.  I am sure that you are all excited to go, but you all wish that I could be there to make it a real party in St. George. I hope that you all have a lot of fun down south and that you enjoy all of the nice weather.  I was just wondering if dad has been able to get a new truck to pull the trailer?  If not then I think you should cancel the trip until he gets one.

This last week has been a pretty crazy week with the Easter Initiative starting.  They do celebrate Easter here but it isn't as big as Christmas which is probably pretty obvious.  It makes it a lot harder for us because not a whole lot of people are receptive to talking to us about the initiative.  I have talked to a few people about it but it is a pretty big challenge to bring it up and to make it interesting so that people want to stop and listen to us when we stop them.  Hopefully we can see more success this next week with talking to people about it.  

We had the opportunity to teach R***** again this last week and it went really well.  The only part that didn't go so well was biking to her house.  It took us 45 minutes to bike to her house because it is uphill the whole way and we were dyeing by the time that we got there. It was probably the hardest bike ride I have every gone on in my life.  Getting the biking merit badge was nothing compared to this bike ride.  At least we made it though and the lesson went really well. We committed her to baptism on May 16 which was really exciting.  We put it off for a while because she is going to talk to her boyfriend in the states and see if he wants to baptize her or not.  If not then we will move it closer into April. So the lesson went really well and she is progressing quite well also.  She even came to church and she really enjoyed it.   Just so you know we made it back to the flat in just 15 minutes.  We were flying down that hill.  It was so much fun.

Another thing that happened that was really cool this last week was S**** was able to get a calling in the church.  She got some calling in the Relief Society and she was so excited about it. Right when she came out of the Bishops office she came to me and told me all about it and how excited she was about getting a calling.  I wish you could see how excited she was and how much she has progressed in the church.  She is amazing.

Well I am really excited for General Conference this next weekend.  We are going to be at the church house watching it and I am pretty sure that we will be watching the Sunday morning session live so I will be watching it the same time as you guys are.  I am really excited to see what the leaders of the church have to say to us that we can apply to our lives and become better from it.  I have been reading a lot of conference talks lately and I have really enjoyed rereading them and learning more from them.  It has also got me really excited for conference coming up.

Well before I go I would like to share a spiritual thought for all of you guys.  I am sure that I have shared this one with you before, but I think it is appropriate to share it again with you because it has to do with the Atonement and with Easter coming up I think it goes a long quite well.

“Throughout the joyous days of your life, when your cup of gladness runs over, remember His cup of bitterness which made it possible.  And when sore trials come upon you, remember Gethsemane."  Elder Russell M. Neilson

So as you guys are enjoying your fun vacation ( or Holiday as they call it here) in St. George remember the Atonement and how with it we are able to experience good times in our lives and we are able to enjoy life because 1) our Heavenly Father loves us enough to let His only Begotten Son go through what he did for us and 2) because Christ loves us enough to finish His Fathers will  and to go through all of the pain and sorrow so that we could not only experience joy, but also be forgiven of our short comings.
Jesus Christ did suffer on the cross for each and every one of us and not only did He die, but he also rose on the third day and broke the chains of death so that we too can be resurrected.  I know that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us as individuals and that He would do anything to help us return to live with Him and to live with our families again.  That is our goal in life and because of Jesus Christ that is a goal that we can all meet if we keep the commandments that we have been given and if we use the Atonement in our lives.  

I hope that you all have a great Easter and that you try to remember Jesus Christ as often as you can because that is what Easter is all about.  I hope ya all enjoy St. George and I hope you packed enough sunscreen for ya all.  (my southern accent because you are going south)

Love,
Elder Peterson