Letter #58

Hello Mum and Fam,

I don't know why you had to chew me out for changing the start of my letter for a week.  I thought it was getting old for you guys to see the same thing so I started to switch it up a bit.  I guess I better keep it the same from now on though. haha
It sounds like there are some great things happening back in the home ward of Newton.  I am sure that the members are just as great as they were when I left and that they are doing amazing things together.  I have started to get use to the really small wards that they have here in England so I don't know what is going to happen when I get back.  Because the wards over here are small it's like it's just a small family which is a pretty cool feeling.  I am really enjoying this area and being around the great members that live here.

This past week has been a pretty great week.  We do a lot of biking in this area and for a few months I have always wanted to buy an odometer to see how many miles we bike each day.  The most we biked in one day this last week was 20 miles and the least was 13 miles so I would have to say that we do a good amount of biking.  That's not even counting the walking that we do.  Because we have bikes though we don't do too much walking.  This is such a big area so it's nice to have bikes.

Well it was transfer week also this last week and nothing changed with my companion and I which isn't a surprise to be honest.  I am sure that in 6 weeks I will be moving but until then I am going to continue to work hard and to make this area the best that I can before I do leave it.  I was looking at the stats from this last transfer and the past ones and you can definitely see the change.  I know that the Lord has guided us to help many people and to do great things in this area.  I have made it a goal to leave each of my areas better than I have found it.  It is kind of hard to do that it some areas but I know that as we work hard and follow the Spirit then we will be able to do great things.

We taught J******  just a couple of hours ago and he is doing really well.  He talked to his boss and she said that once he gets baptized he can have every other Sunday off. Of course it's kind of hard for him to get every Sunday off at the moment because he is a chef but he is doing his best and he knows that God has helped him a lot.  He said today that he is going to be asking his boss this week for a day off so that he can have his baptism.  He still has to have his baptismal interview which I am not worried about because we have gone through the questions with him and he understood them and answered them really well.  I love meeting with him each week and seeing the progress that he is making.  He is doing really well.

We have done a good amount of tracting this past week which was alright.  I personally would rather do more street contacting and talking to people in Town Centre, but we haven't had much success doing that lately so we tried a little bit of tracting.  We did find a young family that said we could come back this next week and talk with them so hopefully we are able to find them in and to teach them.  I think that it would be way cool to see a family get baptized into the ward.  The ward really needs it because the young families keep moving out.  We will see how it goes this next week I guess.

Well I don't want to keep you too long but before I go it's my favorite time of the letter.  Spiritual thought time!!
As I was thinking of what to share today I thought about a talk that I read a while ago and the many great things that I learned from it.  I thought that I would share just a little bit from it and what I learned from just a piece of the talk.
We live in an instantaneous world.  With all of the great technology that we have in today’s world it has made us be great and do great things instantly.  We see great people that are very successful in their lives and we want to be like them, but we don't really see small simple things that they have done to get there.  We see great athletes, but we don't think of the daily training that they do that has helped them get to be a champion. We even look at the General Authorities and the great people that they are, but we don't see simple things that they do every day that has helped them to become great spiritual people.  Prophets past and present have asked us to do small and simple things like reading and praying daily.  Sometimes we don't do this simple things because we don't see dramatic consequences if we miss just one or two days.  It's like when we miss one day of brushing our teeth.  If we just miss one day all of our teeth are not going to decay and fall out just because we missed one day.  "Most of the consequences, positive and negative, will come later, over time.  But they will come." So we need to start doing the simple things right now. ”A year from now you will either be glad you started today or you will wish you had."  I know that as we do the simple things we will draw closer to God and we will be able to understand more of our purpose here on earth.

I hope that you all have a great week this week.  Sorry the letter was kind of long but I am sure that it will help mum keep busy as she reads it over and over again.  So you could say that I have done you all a great favor. haha I had to get you back mum.
Love,
Elder Peterson