Letter # 93

Dear Mum and Family,

Well the transfer calls have come and some exciting things are
happening here in the Earth's Best Mission. I am debating on whether I
should tell you what has happened or if I should just tell you next
week. I am sure you all don't really mind that much if you were to
wait until next week right?  I remember mum said she was working on
patience so this would really be good for her. Haha
  
Well I better tell you what is going to be happening because I can
already tell that some of you are getting a little anxious and you are
only a paragraph in my letter. So I am leaving Swansea and I think
it's safe to assume that the area I am going will be my last area. I
will be moving to Coventry.  I will be with a missionary named Elder
Stevenson. I know nothing about him so it is going to be fun to get to
know him and the area better. I am pretty excited to work hard and
hopefully do some great things as I work and serve in that area.

Well it has been another great week here in Swansea and it has been
way exciting for the ward again. I was able to do another baptism
interview for the sisters and there investigator was baptized this
Sunday. She has a lot of great friends which are a great help to her.
There will also be another baptism this coming Friday which I think
will be the end of the all, the planned baptisms. It has been a great
experience these last few weeks. I cant wait to hear how it goes for
Swansea the next few transfers.

Well to answer your question about family history. The main thing that
I use the booklet for and my pedigree chart is to stop people on the
street and have something to show them to get the interested in family
history. The church is doing s really big push with missionaries using
family history a lot more and if you can get the young men t catch the
vision it will greatly help them on their missions. It is definitely a
great way to find people to teach the gospel because they may not be
interested in the gospel, but lots of people love their families and
are interested to find more. So you start to teach them about family
history and the. Eventually you get to the plan of salvation and you
start teaching them the gospel.

Also after someone is baptized you focus a lot on getting them to the
temple and doing baptisms for the dead. We also focus on getting the
new members to find their own names to take to the temple. Well I
don't think it is appropriate for us as missionaries to be asking
members to be filling out their family history booklet if we haven't
done it ourselves so that is why I have been filling it out. It is
great to use as an example too.
I hope that answers your question about the family history booklet. I
don't have it all complete yet but it is really close. Thanks for the
information so that I can finish it up a bit more.

Well I don't know what else to say. It was fun to serve in Swansea and
to see many miracles. This will be my last time emailing you from
Swansea area.  After this email you will be receiving them from good
old Coventry.

Well here is my thought from the scripture we ponderized this past
week. Thanks for all your thoughts on the scripture. I am excited to
learn from Mosiah this week. I hope you enjoy the thought

Weekly Thought

I have been thinking a lot about the ponderizing scripture this week
and have learned a lot from it. I have focused a lot on the whole
verse, but there was something that really stuck out to me that I
studied and thought about a little more.   The scripture was 4 Nephi
1:2 which says:

"And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year, the people were all
converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites
and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among
them, and every man did deal justly one with another."

The part that I want to share my thought on is focused on the word
"converted" and what it means to be truly converted.

It's interesting to think that membership in the church, a testimony,
and conversion are not the same. I know that I personally think about
them as being the same thing sometimes.

A testimony comes to those who want to know the truth and the Holy
Ghost testifies of it which gives us a witness of the truth. Having
that testimony pushes us to repent and to keep the commandments.

Conversion comes from us repenting and obeying the commandments which
is us acting on our testimony.

Membership in the church comes from us being converted and wanting to
be apart of God's kingdom on the earth and wanting to help others
become converted.

It's a process.
1.  Gain testimony of the gospel
2. Become converted by repenting and following the commandments
3. Make covenants with God which makes you apart of His church.

I love how their conversion brought many things that we need to be
striving for today. As it says in 4 Nephi 1:16 "surely there could not
be a happier people among all, the people who had been created by the
hand of God." This happiness was obtained because of the "love of God
which did dwell in the hearts of the people."( 4 Nephi 1: 15)  They
followed the first great commandment which is to love God. When that
commandment is followed then everything else falls into place.  That's
why the people did deal justly with each other and there was no
contention in the land.

Dallin H. Oaks said this is the type of people that we need to work
towards become like. He said
“In those brilliant generations that followed the appearance of the
resurrected Christ in the New World, ‘there were no contentions and
disputations among [the people], and every man did deal justly one
with another’ (4 Nephi 1:2). Fourth Nephi records: ‘Surely there could
not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by
the hand of God’ (1:16). We should be striving to regain that
condition. As modern revelation declares: ‘Zion must increase in
beauty, and in holiness’ (D&C 82:14)”

The way we do so is starting with our own conversion.  As we work to
become "converted" then we will be able to also have the love of God
dwelling in our hearts which will lead to a happier people.

Thanks for your thoughts in your emails. I hope that you all have a
great week. Thanks for all you do!!

Love,
Elder Peterson

P.S. I'm just kidding...I'm not being transferred to Conventry.  I'm really going to Stourbridge England.  I just wanted Dad to win the guess. hahahaha