Letter #39

Dear Mum and Family,

It is good to hear that the Lord cares about Dad and that he is still answering our prayers.  Mum that must mean that we are both doing something right in our lives and you can't argue against that one because our prayers were answered so we are doing something right.  I really enjoyed looking at the new picture of the truck and I took a good long look at the picture that dad sent me.  It looks really nice and I can't wait to take it for a spin in about 16 months.  I hope that he doesn't have to get another new one that is a little bigger before I get home.  Who am I kidding hopefully he does get a bigger one before I get home.

The weather has actually still been pretty dang nice this past week.  It ended off a little cloudy during the weekend, but it has cleared up today and is a really nice weekend so far.  I am really enjoying all of the nice weather and I am really enjoying only wearing a white shirt and not having to wear a big coat. 

We still have just been doing a lot of finding this past week and we haven't had too much success.  We have managed to find one potential that is pretty solid, but he works a lot so it is really hard to find time to meet him.  He had a pretty hard time in his life.  His fiancé passed away not too long before they were going to get married so he has had some struggles.  We did teach him about the Restoration because we really felt that he could use that lesson before the Plan of Salvation lesson.  He took it really well and we are hopefully going to be seeing him this next week if he has some time.  Other than that we don't have any new investigators and we are just struggling through finding people.  It is hard but I don't think that mission is supposed to be easy because if it was then everyone would be doing it.

Easter went pretty well and no I didn't get any chocolate toys.  They are some toys that you can buy at the store though.  They are called kinder eggs and apparently, according to Elder Shaw, a few of the Elders that were here before me really liked buying them, but they didn't care to take them all with them so they just left them in the flat.   It is kind of annoying, but there really isn't anything that I can do about it.  I didn't get too much chocolate for Easter.  I think that only one member gave us a really big chocolate egg which was pretty interesting.  Back home everything is big chocolate bunnies, but over here they do make chocolate bunnies, but it is more common to see chocolate eggs.

I have no idea who the sister missionary is that you are talking about.  I can’t remember hearing her last name when I was serving in Sheldon.  I do have a sister missionary joke for you though.  Why do sister missionaries only serve for 18 months while Elder serve for 2 years?

Because Sisters spend the same amount of money in 18 months as elders do in 2 years.  HaHAHAHAHa that was a good one.  

I received your package and I really do appreciate all of the nice things that you put in it.  I liked the letter and the nice tie and I especially liked the comic book.  Everything that is in that book is totally true about missionaries.  It is so funny how true it actually is.

I really like the quote that you put on the end of your email mostly because I have related that scripture to football.  I hope that you enjoy the quote that I have for you this week. It comes from a really good talk called “Decisions determine destiny" by the Prophet.
He says: “There is no royal road to salvation and exaltation. There is not royal road to success in any endeavor. The "A" grade is the result of each theme, each quiz, each class, each examination, and each term paper.  So each heartfelt prayer, each church meeting attended, each worthy friend, each righteous decision, each act of service performed all precede that goal of eternal life."  

I really like this quote from Thomas S. Monson because it not only shows how hard we have to work in life to have success, but also how all of the decisions we make mean a lot to what we are to become.  

Sorry that I didn't type a long letter this week, but I have been chatting with mum and dad and also one of my favorite companions, Elder Shaw. I hope that you have a great week and thank you for all that you have done to help me to have a great experience and to serve the Lord to the best of my ability.
Love
Elder Peterson