Letter #82

Dear Mum and Family,

We have had transfers as you all know and a few things have changed. I am still in the wettest city in the UK so that's the same, but I have a new companion. Elder Vaitoa has moved to Nottingham and my new companion is Elder Lam from Hong Kong. He is a pretty cool guy and we get a long pretty well. He has been out just over a year now. 
Another change that has happened in the Swansea area is super exciting. Elder Shaw is on his last transfer and he has been moved to Swansea. So we are in the same District and we are having a blast together. Well I assume he is having a blast because I am. Haha. We see each other quite often and we have some fun talking about the good old days of serving in Llanelli together. 

This week has been a pretty hard week to be honest. Things just don't seem to be moving forward. We have lost some of our investigators because they don't want to learn and the people we have found during the past couple of weeks don't want to meet with us. It is pretty hard because I don't know what more I can do. Everything that I have been doing just doesn't seem to work. Hopefully we can see some miracles this next week because we are going to need them to help this area. 

Mum that's great that you had a wonderful experience at your meeting in Salt Lake. It sounds like it was a spiritual experience. I will make sure I take time to read the scripture that you shared. Maybe I will make a weekly thought on it. I am glad you are more excited to do family history because of it. Maybe you will get the family to start doing it.  It might be kind of hard though. 

D***** is doing pretty well. He was busy with school this past week so he wasn't able to meet with us but he said he has time this week to meet. I don't know when we will be seeing him yet but we will get a hold of him today to see when we can meet. He loves meeting with us and talking about religion because he is pretty religious. 

Weekly thought 
We have an investigator who is kind of struggling at the moment with the purpose to this life. We have been trying to help him understand it he just doesn't quite get it as simple as it may be. This past week I have taken the time to study the purpose to this life specifically what we are to do. I have learned some great things as I have studied that I would like to share with you this week. 
If we are to begin at the beginning of the Plan of Salvation we know that we lived with our Heavenly Father before this life. (D&C 93:29) We really wanted to be like our Heavenly Father and in order to do that we need to gain a body and come to the earth to learn. 
While on the earth you could say there is a gap between God and us and in order for us to return to God that gap needs to be filled. So how do we fill that gap?  Well we actually don't fill that gap because we can't. Jesus Christ was sent to this earth to fill that gap. Because it was filled we will all be resurrected and we will be able to be back in God's presence again. So you might now say the gap is filled so we don't have to do anything to live with God again. Sorry we are still required to do things. 
There are three things that are left to be determined.  What kind of body we plan on being resurrected into, how comfortable we will be in God's presence, and how long we plan to stay there. 

There are a set of requirement that we have to meet in order to have a perfect body and to live in God's presence forever. "Our Master lived a perfect, sinless life and therefore was free from the demands of justice." (Richard G. Scott)  Justice requires immediate perfection or when we fall it requires an immediate punishment. Because Christ took that punishment upon Himself he can set His own requirements that we can follow to help us to become perfect. He can help us to reach that goal. 
So what are the requirements that Christ has set for us to meet. We all know it.  We need to gain faith in Christ, we need to repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. This is what we call the gospel of Jesus Christ or as the Book of Mormon Prophet Nephi calls it the "doctrine of Christ". (2 Nephi 31:2)
The gospels of Jesus Christ transforms us into the type of person that will have a perfect body so that we can live with God again and be comfortable in His presence.  "If Christ did not require faith and repentance, then there would be no desire to change. If Jesus did not require covenants and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, then there would be no way to change. If Christ did not require endurance to the end then there would be no internalization of those changes over time." (Brad Wilcox)
We learn from Alma 40:26 that "no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of God..." but to be honest I don't think any unclean thing will want to dwell with God. I like to compare it to a person who has muddy shoes and clothes. If you were to invite them into a nice clean room that has pure white carpet, furniture, walls, etc. they would not feel comfortable in that room. If we don't apply the gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives we won't be able to change or transform into the type of person who would be comfortable in God's kingdom. 

We all have learned about the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout our lives. We have learned it through reading scripture, through attending church, by listening to the Prophet and Apostles of God and many other ways. I hope we now can realize the importance of these requirements that have been set by our Savior Jesus Christ so that we can return to live with Him again. So that we can feel comfortable in their presence when we stand before them. 
Have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Peterson

Elder Shaw says hi and he loves you and one day he will come visit. It may be a while though before he comes.