Letter #56

Hello Mum and Fam,

From the sounds of it you have all had another exciting week and it's good that you are enjoying yourselves while I am not there.  I think that it's good to hear that. Because that means that I can stay here in England forever and you wouldn't want me to come home because you already know how to have fun.  I can't believe that you are already going to be starting school shopping again.  It seems like school just got out a couple weeks ago and that you shouldn't be going back for another 2 months.  I guess you all want to go back anyway so that's good.  It sounds like you all have different reasons though.  Some advice for you all…. Lyndsey make sure that you pay attention to your schooling and don't go on too many dates because you need to focus on school.  Caden same with you.  Focus on school and don't pay attention to the girls, they will take your money and it's not worth it.  Hang in there little man just one more year and then I will be home to save you.  It sounds like Chelsey is the only perfect one who wants to go to school to learn and get it over with. Work hard and enjoy going to Sky View because it is the best high school ever.  Mum and Dad don't get too relaxed even though you are getting older now that your youngest is almost a freshman. haha You can relax when dad retires soon and you move to St. George. haha

This past week was an amazing week.  We were really struggling with lessons and finding people to teach along with getting a hold of our investigators and teaching them this past week.  We were working pretty hard we just couldn't seem to get it done.  Finding was really frustrating us both but I think that my companion was getting more frustrated because he is still learning how to do it.  On Saturday night I had set a personal goal with myself to find someone to teach during our finding time on Sunday.  During my studies on Sunday morning and during church I was focused so much on that goal and I just kept on telling myself that we are going to work hard for that lesson.  I didn't care if either of us got sick of finding we were going to work until we found at least one person.  Looking back on this amazing experience that I am about to tell you I now realize the power of the Spirit and how if you prayerfully set meaningful goals then the Lord will direct you in accomplishing that goal.  We went straight out finding once we got back from church and had our lunch.  We started walking towards the park area and through the park towards a bridge that we usually go walking on.  (Before I go on I would like to let you know that at the beginning of this transfer I had told Elder Fullmer that we would find someone on this bridge before the end of this transfer.)  Continuing on….we started walking towards the bridge and I had told myself that we will just turn left before the bridge and head a different way, but I guess that God had a different plan.  I forgot that I had made the plan quite fast and we started toward the bridge instead of turning left.  Right before we got to the bridge I asked myself why we were going that way because we were going to go the other way.  I just pushed it aside and said oh well and went to the bridge anyway not know why. When we got to the bridge we usually turn right, but this time I turned left straight away which was odd.  The first person that I say was a man in a red shirt which was about 5 yards away from me and he was the one that I stopped.  He opened up to us right away and we started to get to know him a bit better.  His name is J***** and he is from Romania and has been in England for 8 years now.  When he lived in Romania he had met missionaries there and had been to our church a couple of times and has loved it. 

Then he moved here and didn't do much about it.  Come to find out, a couple of days ago he asked himself when he was going to see the missionaries again.  Well yesterday he said that he was at home and he had 2 choices.  He could sit and watch TV all day or he could go do something.  Obviously he decided to go do something.  He had never been to the park in his life and he really didn't know how to really get there, but that's where he decided to go with no real good reason to go other than to take a little walk.  Well we met him about 75 yards or so away from his car right after he had parked it.  I know for a fact that he was guided by the Spirit and looking back I know that I felt the Spirit guiding me to where he was. To shorten it a bit we taught him the restoration yesterday and he loved it.  He remembered most of it from the past missionaries in Romania so that made it easy.  He is coming to church on Sunday and we will be seeing him on Saturday. After the lesson he said that he felt like he was at home when he heard the lesson and when we gave him another copy of the Book of Mormon because his mum threw his other one away.  

I know that he is prepared to hear the gospel and I now have a stronger testimony of the Spirit and the power that his has.  I also know that the Lord is directing this work because if it was just me and my own will I would have gone the total opposite direction and we would have never found him.  So I accomplished two goals yesterday.  One was we got a lesson and two is we found someone on the bridge before the end of the transfer. 

We also taught J***** just barely actually and he is doing really well.  He knows what he has received is true and he really wants to get baptized as soon as he can.  Because he is trying to get work off still we had to push it back to the 29 of August and he really wants to make that date.  He was telling us today that he knows it's true he just wants to get the lessons down and get work off and he is ready.  I have really enjoyed teaching him these past weeks.

That amazing experience has taken a lot of my time up so you will have to ask me those questions next week so that I can answer them then.  I do want to share a thought with you though if you don't mind.  I guess you don't really have a choice because you are all probably still being lazy and sleeping in. Haha

I want to start it off with a scripture in Mosiah 4:19
For behold, are we not all beggars?  Do we not all depend upon the same being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

Elder Holland used this scripture as one of his topics in a couple of conferences ago and he talks about how we need to serve others.  I would like to share with you of how important it is to serve.  I would like to use a really cool analogy.  If you take a spoon and you look at your reflection in the concave side, or the side that you scoop food with, you will notice that your reflection is upside down.  If you were to flip it over to the back side you will notice that you reflection is right side up.  You can compare that with service.  If we are looking inward just like when we look at ourselves on the concave side.  If we just focus on ourselves and our own problems then our lives are like that reflection of ourselves.  Our lives are upside down, or they aren't going as well as they should be.  But if we look outward like when we look at the back of the spoon and we find those that need a helping hand and we serve them, then just like our reflection on that side our lives will be going right and everything will be well.  The scripture in Mosiah I have found is true.  Everyone is struggling in their own little ways and they are begging to god for that help.  Who knows maybe you are the tool that the Lord is going to use to help that person so that their prayers can be answered.

I know that as we all work to serve those around us and as we follow the spirit in doing so, the Lord will bless our lives as we bless the lives of other.
Thank you all for the wonderful letters and I hope that you all have a great week.
Love,
The Man
Elder Peterson
PS I put a couple of photos in drop box.  Not too many sorry.  
 The language on the badge is Welsh.  I finally received it after five weeks of waiting and I was so excited.