Letter #51

Hello Mum and Family

It sounds like you had an enjoyable 4th of July celebration.  I am sure that you enjoyed it even more this year than last year because you didn't have to put up with me and take care of me.  So I hope you enjoy all of the Holidays from now until next year because you won't be able to get rid of me when I get home. haha

Well I have got some very exciting news for you all this week.  Last night at about 8:30 we were outside just doing some finding like we usually do as missionaries and our phone started to ring.  So Elder Jarvis answered it and then gave it to me saying that it was the AP's.  It was Elder Swinemar and he said that President feels that I should train a new missionary this transfer.  I am so excited for the wonderful opportunity to train.  It is pretty cool because out of all of the Leadership positions President always says that training is the most important.  At the same time though it is probably the hardest I think because you determine the rest of the missionary’s mission and how well they start out. I am really excited though and it's going to be a lot of fun.  I have already started to think of some ways that I can pull a couple of pranks on him.  I am pretty positive that I will be staying here in Tamworth because I have only been here for one transfer.  It's going to be a great transfer.

So I had a pretty stressful adventure this past week that I thought I would share with you. We went and met the new Mission President on Wednesday and he is way cool.  He is definitely different than the Rasmussen's but he is going to be a great President.  I know that God has called him for a reason and I am excited to do the Lord's work under such a great guy.  So after the meeting we were going on exchange which is when we switch companions for a day just to learn and work with someone else.  I was going to Lichfield with Elder Joblot who is from France.  He is a way cool guy and has been out for about 6 weeks now.  So we were walking to the train station to catch a train to Lichfield and when we got there they had told us that all of the trains for the rest of the day were cancelled because something was wrong with the wires. The only problem with that was we had to go to Lichfield by bus and no missionary knew how to do that because they usually take the train.  So I am with a companion that can't speak very good English let alone understand it either. I am travelling to an area that I have only been to once oh yeah and it's the hottest day of the year.  It was about 90 degrees with who knows how much humidity in the air.  I honestly am sweating so much that I am literally drenched from all the walking in the heat.  So I start making some phone calls trying to find where we need to go and it got to the point where I had to ask the AP's.  They looked up a map on the internet and were guiding me on where I need to go and what buses I need to take.  Keep in mind we have no map so that didn't make it any easier.  Well we got on the first bus and went for about 20 minutes to another town and we got off there so we could catch another bus to Lichfield.  Well apparently all the buses to Lichfield were out of service for the day so we had to call the AP's again and get more directions.  They led us to another bus stop which took us back to Tamworth and then we caught another one there to Lichfield.  All of this took place from 4 o'clock when the meeting was over and we caught the bus to Lichfield at about 8:30 and got to Lichfield at about 9:30.  It was a crazy experience and I hope that I don't have to do something like that again.  It was probably one of the most stressful things I have had to do on the mission so far.  We made it safely though and you don't need to worry mum because I was in the sun for quite some time. I think I would have rather it rained.

So this past week was pretty eventful.  We did quite a lot of finding and not so much teaching this last week.  We couldn't seem to get any appointments set up with our investigators so we didn't do as much teaching as we would have liked to. We have actually found some really cool people that seem pretty interested and we just need to get a hold of them today and tomorrow to hopefully set up some time to meet with them again.  We did actually get a Less Active member to church this last week.  He had called us up on Thursday and neither of us had met him before so we didn't know who he was.  He is having some problems with his back so he wanted us to give him a blessing which we did and that was great experience.  We had a great talk with him about church and he said that he did want to come back he just couldn't seem to get himself to do it.  We told him that we would love to help him get there which we did.  He came and loved it so we will be seeing him again next week.  He is a great guy and apparently he was a really solid member before he went Less Active so it was cool to see him come back.

Well I don't want to keep you too much longer so I will share a spiritual thought with you. I told you last week that I would share something with you from Stake Conference that I really enjoyed.  They focused a lot on the Sabbath and preparing for Sunday throughout the week.  In Isaiah (I can't remember the chapter) it talks about the Sabbath being a delight.  Is it a delight to you? Do you enjoy going to church on Sunday and learning and feeling the Spirit?  Those are a couple of questions you can think about.  We really need to prepare throughout the week so that it can be a delight for us. The sacrament is the most sacred ordinance outside of the Temple.  So that just says how important it really should be to us.  So during the week we need to prepare spiritually and physically.  We need to read the scriptures throughout the week, we need to obey the commandment and try to be as worth as we can.  Yeah we will make mistakes throughout the week, but it is all about improvement.  Try to be better today than you were yesterday and be better tomorrow than you were today.  Something that they mentioned that I thought was interesting was how many people are on electronic devices or even doing things that aren't helping them focus on the meaning of the sacrament or even feeling the Spirit during that time.  Remember it is the most sacred ordinance outside of the temple. We really need to show respect and really try to feel the Spirit.  I know that as I have done things to improve my experience at church especially during the Sacrament I have really found the Sabbath to be a delight for me. So this week really ask yourself if it is a delight to you and if it isn't so much then prepare during the week so that when Sunday rolls around it is a great experience for you.  
I hope that you all have a great week and thanks for all of your great letters that you sent.
Love,
Elder Peterson