Monday, May 30, 2016

Letter #98

Dear Mum and Family,

Well the transfer calls came yesterday and I am staying here in Stourbridge for my lady transfer which isn't much of a surprise. Elder Stephenson will also be here. There were sisters here in Stourbridge to, but they lose their area down this transfer so Elder Stephenson and I are taking over the whole area. That is going to require a lot of work for us this week as we try to organize everything and figure out what we need to be doing. Good thing I like organizing things huh. Hopefully my OCD doesn't get to out of hand. Haha

Other than that not much has really changed. We have been having a great time. This week went pretty slow because the people we were suppose to be seeing this week didn't show up or they weren't in so we didn't see them. That was pretty disappointing. Oh well those weeks happen and there is much we can do about it. Just got to keep going and have faith that there will be people that we meet that want to hear. 

We had a couple of those experiences this past weekend when we did the family history stand. I didn't get any pictures on my Ipad because one of the Elders had a nice camera so he took a lot of photos and will get them out to us soon.  When I get them I will send them to you. 

Anyway we met some really awesome people that were interests in the gospel. Lots of people actually do family history over here so they know quite a bit. It's also crazy how many people we talked to and they already use the churches websites for family history. That's definitely a great way to help people know about the church. We actually taught some people about the gospel just beside they already do family history and they just wanted to know why we were so big into family history. To be honest I would rather talk to people about the gospel than family history because I know very little about family history. Haha

Well from the sounds of it you guys are having some fun camping. I bet you have some more trips all planned out for this summer now that school is out. I hope that the weather starts to dry up for you guys so that you don't have to be wet all the time. Haha. At least you get a bit of what it feels like to be in England. I think it is good for you guys to experience. At least you guys have a car so that you can stay dry when you travel.   So it can't be that bad. 

Well I don't have much more to say. Thanks for all your emails and the thoughts on the ponderizing scripture. I really enjoyed reading them. Here is my thought for the week on the scripture. 

Weekly Thought
I want to start of this weeks thought with a different scripture that has stuck out to me as I have been thinking a little bit about D&C 100. The scripture I want to share is found in D&C 88:81 which reads
"Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor."
Obviously this is talking about us as members of the church who have a testimony of the gospel and the truthfulness of Christ's church and how we need to help others to gain that same testimony. 
"Members who share the gospel experience joy and have the spirit of the Lord more abundantly. As we share the gospel, we appreciate how precious and meaningful it is to us, and feel a greater love for God and others." (PMG 84)
What a wonderful promise that is for us who share the gospel. I know it is easy to be scared to talk to others about the gospel. It can be awkward at times because we don't really know what to say, even though we want share the gospel with others. That's where D&C 100:5-6 comes in
"5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;
6 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say."
We have been commanded by God to "warn our neighbor" and he has given us a promise in D&C 100 that if we do "lift up our voices" then we will "not be confounded".  Things will come to our hearts and mind, through the Holy Ghost, of what we need to say to them. 
I love what President Spencer W. Kimball says about missionary work and not being scared to do it. He says
"If missionary work is indeed the Lord’s work, which it is, and if it is to go forth by His power, which it will, then why should we, as Latter-day Saints, fear or hesitate in taking the gospel to others?"
The Lord will do His own work, but he needs us as His instruments so that He can do His work. We just need to have faith that He will be there beside us as we talk about His gospel for all of us. We are all brothers and sisters of a loving Father in Heaven. 
Some of us have the gospel and are experiencing so much joy in our lives because of it. But there are lots of our eternal Brothers and Sisters that are experiencing sadness and sorrow for whatever reason. Maybe a loved one passed away and they think it's the end and they won't see them. Maybe they have an illness and need to know that God is there and does love them. Maybe they are confused and need guidance on a struggle they are going through at the moment. All of these things, and many others, can be helped with a testimony of the gospel and we have that power to help them. We have been give a wonderful gift, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and it will be with us as we teach others and it will guide us. 
I just want to share a quick story of member missionary work that I found in an ensign. 
"A beauty operator, a member, asked her new client if she would like to read a Church tract while waiting and placed it in her client’s hand. The answer was “No.” Then she offered a copy of the Book of Mormon and again the answer was “No.” Not giving up, the member picked up a Church magazine from another table as though it were a commercial magazine and gave that to her client to read. Quickly thumbing through the pages the client readily realized it was also Church material, but as she moved to lay it down, she noticed an article entitled, “Love at Home.” Having some serious troubles with her husband, she decided to read the article. Then during the rest of the visit a lengthy conversation developed around Mormon home life. The result was a visit arranged immediately with the missionaries. The husband wasn’t present at the first visit, but the wife gave him an ultimatum: “Listen to these missionaries or the children and I may leave.” He listened. They were baptized as a family. He is a high councilor today."
Sometimes we think that in order to share the gospel we need to go and knock on doors or talk to people in the street. But that's not the case. We are around different people all day long who are not members. There are always simple things we can do that will help them realize that the gospel can bless their lives. 
I know from experiences that when we spread the gospel the Lord doesn't leave us hanging. He truly does keep His side of the promise and does guide us. He wants us to teach others the gospel because he does want all of His children to return to Him. He wants us all to experience eternal life with our families and we as members of the church know how that is possible. Let us bless others with the testimonies that we have. 
I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for your thoughts this week. They were amazing. 
Love,
Elder Peterson
PS you need to send me another scripture to Ponderize this week. We can't miss a week. 

Monday, May 23, 2016

Letter #97

Dear Mum and Family,

Well it's been another great week here in Stourbridge.  I can't believe we are to another P-day and I am having to hurry and write you before you get too impatient with me. Haha. I am glad that I have been able to teach you one thing in two years and that is hopefully patience. 

Another thing that I hope to teach you is that it is not good to lie. I hope that because you and Caden lied to me that the weather keeps raining on you guys. That will be the curse for not telling the truth. Haha

Well like I said it's been great week. We have been doing a lot of work and trying to help the area to grow, which is normally what we Missionaries try to do in each area. We have been doing a lot of finding like usual, but have seen some cool miracles as we have been doing finding. 

On Thursday we had district meeting and then we had tracking planned for after. It was kind of rainy which put a damper on things since we have been enjoying some nice weather lately. But we decided to follow the plans anyway and go knock on some doors. Luckily it wasn't down pouring on us so we didn't get soaked. 
We had felt to go to a place near the chapel to do some knocking so we didn't ignore the prompting and that's where we went and we started knocking. Knocking these doors went pretty well because we talked to some really nice people. In the end they didn't want to learn more but they listened and talked a bit. We didn't get very far before we found someone who was interested. 

We knocked on the door and a younger bloke answered the door. He was home with his son while his wife was at work or something. Well he let us in to have a really quick
chat with him. We briefly got to know him and shared a bit about the Plan of Salvation. 
He doesn't have a strong belief in God, but he is open to learning. He has family that are members of the church in South England. He is pretty close to those family members so he knows a bit about the church. We have set a time to see him and his family tomorrow.  We are both excited for that. 

Well mum I thought that you would like to know that this next Saturday we are going to be having a big family history finding day. We are going to meet up with the other missionaries in this area and a few members and we are going to set up a stand in the city centre just outside our area. We are hopefully going to be getting people interested in family history. I will let you know how it goes once we do it. I hope it goes well because I don't know much about family history. We shall see. 

The mission is going pretty well. We have been witnessing lots of cool miracles and it seems, I am learning a lot everyday, which I am so grateful for. Even though I don't know much I hope that I can continue to learn more and more throughout my life. There is just too much there to learn.
The area is doing pretty well. We have gained a great relationship with the hem members. They really enjoy our company when we visit and are asking us to do service for them, which shows they trust us. At least we think that they trust us. Maybe they are just faking it. Haha

Elder Stephenson and I are having a great time together. We get a long really well, which is keeping the area going I think. When there is contention in a missionary companionship it seems to have an affect on the ward. I think that is so true. So this ward is doing well because we are getting along really well. It's been fun to serve with him.

This transfer is a 5 week transfer so this week is the last full week. We will get transfer calls on Sunday night to see what happens. We both think we will be staying together which would be great, but I guess we just have to wait to find out. 

We don't play any sports in this area which is pretty sad because I miss playing every week with the ward. There just isn't anyone in the ward that wants to play or that can play any sports so it just doesn't happen. That's okay though. I can be patient and wait to get back into playing sports. I still have no doubt that I will be able to beat everyone anyways. Haha

Well I hope that I answered all your questions in this email. I always seem to miss out a few, but that's probably because I am too lazy to read through your letter more than once. Haha. I will just share a weekly thought and I will just hope an angry email doesn't come from you shortly saying that I didn't answer all the questions. Haha

Weekly Thought 
Well as we all know the scripture for this week was D&C 64: 9-11. Again this eek I didn't think about it as much as I wanted to. I hope that a few thoughts that I share with you will be of benefit in some way. 
In D&C 64: 9-11 it states:
9 "Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
10 I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
11 And ye ought to say in your hearts--let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds."

As I was studying this morning I came across a scripture in D&C 82:1 which I think goes along really well with this scripture. 
".... inasmuch as you have forgiven one another your trespasses, even so I, the Lord, forgive you."
I was asked to give a talk in sacrament yesterday along with another missionary in this ward. The topics were focused around the parables given in Luke 15. The parables in those chapters include 
1. The parable of the lost sheep
2. The parable of the lost coin 
3. The parable of the prodigal son
Each is so powerful and has something important to learn from as we study them. As we understand so much about things we need to do about members, but also we learn so much about the atonement and that the savior is there to find us and to forgive us.
The one that I wanted to share a bit of because I think it goes well with the scripture in D&C 64 is the parable of the prodigal son. The parable is found in Luke 15: 11-32. I won't share it all, but I will pull a few things from it here and there. Maybe on your own time you can read it and learn more from it. 
It's starts off by saying that there as a man with two sons. The younger of the sons was a little rebellious and he wanted his father to give him "the portion of goods" that he would inherit after his father's death. In the Savior’s time to ask for your inheritance before the death of your father is a huge offence. He is a rejection of your family, rejecting the instructions and treatment your given as you were raised from your childhood, and rejecting your whole community. 
Well the father divided his inheritance unto the sons. The youngest decided to to gather all of his things and travel "into a far country" where he "wasted" his inheritance that he was given with "riotous living". 
The prodigal son had used up all his inheritance and then there came a great famine in the land and he needed a way to survive. So what did he do?  He went to a man who lived in that country and he was sent into " the fields to feed swine".  
As we learn in Leviticus 11:7, pigs are considered "unclean" so this goes to show how far the prodigal son had fallen. This would have been another sign of dishonor. It was during the time that he was feeding the swine and was surviving himself off the "husks" that the pigs were eating that he was humbled and "he came to himself" and decided to return to his home. 
We now turn to the father and this is the part that I wanted to get to because it really shows how we should forgive everyone no matter what they have done that may hurt us greatly. 
I want to share verse 20 of Luke 15 because it has so much power and love in it. 
"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."
In this verse the father saw his son before he got back to the home. This shows that the father was continually watching for the day that the son would return. He was patient and knew that one day he would return. When his son was coming he was ready and he ran to him and embraced him. 
It is interesting to know that those who had done the type of things that the prodigal had done would have been brought before the public and would have been considered worthless.  Everything he did was a great offence to everyone during the time of the savior, but the prodigal son was not treated in that way. He returned to his family and his father forgave him straight away. There was no hard feelings between the father and his son. 
There is so much to that we can learn and apply for this amazing and powerful parable. I just wanted to share it to show the forgiveness. Even though the father of the prodigal son wouldn't have had the Doctrine and Covenants, the Savior in this parable teaches that  of each of us "it is required to forgive all men".  
I know that as we don't hold grudges towards those who may have offended us and we freely forgive them as does the father in the parable of the prodigal son does, we too will be forgiven from our Father in Heaven. 
The atonement was paid for all men. We can all repent and we can all be forgiven. Let's not make it harder on those who are seeking forgiveness and let us freely forgive the straight away and leave the final judgment with our loving Savior and Heavenly Father. They are the only ones who truly understand our circumstances and what we are going through. 

Thanks for the wonderful scripture Lyndsey. I really enjoyed learning from it even though I wish I would have studied it a bit more. I hope to do better this week. 
I hope you all have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Peterson 

Monday, May 16, 2016





Elder Peterson Cleaning his Flat
May 2016






Elder Peterson's Dinner him and his companion made.
May 2016

Letter #96

Dear Mum and Family,

It sounds like a very eventful week for the Peterson family. Haha. There has been so much going on and it seems like the common theme this week was injuries. Haha. It has been funny to read the stories of everyone getting hurt.  Luckily no one is seriously injured which is a plus. I guess that will teach you not to do anything on Friday the 13th. Haha. I am glad that everyone is okay and from the sounds of it Doctor Chelsey is making sure everyone recovers from their injuries.   What would you all be doing without her?

It was good to hear that you were being very friendly to the Elders when you saw them. I can imagine how grateful they were for your wonderful service. I have never had anyone offer me a ride so they are so lucky to have members that see them and are willing to give them rides. I am always going to give missionaries rides throughout the rest of my life. 

We have had a very nice week with some great service opportunities. Something very crazy is there is an investigator named N****** who lives here in Stourbridge. The crazy thing is I taught her when I served in Sheldon and she has moved here and the sisters are teaching her. We did some service for her this past week and she was so happy to see me. She is a great lady. It was fun to see her again. 

We have had some other great service projects this past week that have been enjoyable. We also have also just been doing normal missionary work. Knocking on doors, visiting members, and teaching a few people here and there. I am really enjoying this area and best part is the weather has been super nice for us. Hasn't rained in quite a few days, which I won't complain about. It's been way warm too. Not to make you jealous or anything mother. Haha

Well I don't know what else to say.  That is really our week and it seems like it's the same every week so I don't want to bore you with the same things each week. 
I guess I will share my ponderizing scripture since no one else did, except for mum of course. I guess she is the only one that receives the blessings. Haha

Weekly thought
Well to be honest I haven't done as much ponderizing on the scripture this week that I have wanted to. I have been studying a lot of other things so I hope that a few things that I share with you will be of benefit to you in some way. 

The scripture was obviously Omni 1:1 which you have all read and know. Just for a reminder it says. 
"Behold, it came to pass that I, Omni, being commanded by my father, Jarom, that I should write somewhat upon these plates, to preserve our genealogy"
The first time I read it I thought about the last part talking about genealogy and the importance of them keeping records. As I looked at it more I focused a lot more on the part where Omni says that he is commanded by his father to write in the Book of Mormon. 
I then looked through the whole book of Omni, which is not long, and I read all the accounts of different people that wrote in this book. They didn't write much, but they were commanded to write in them for a reason. The more I think about it the more I realize how precious this amazing book of scripture is and how blessed we are to have it.  Just think of the Book of Mormon and how it has blessed your life.

The scripture are there for our benefit. They testify of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and what we need to do to become like him so we are ready for his second coming. It is getting closer each day. Obviously we don't know when it will be, but we need to "live today as if you will meet Jesus this evening, but plan your life as though you will live to be 100 years old. (Richard Neitzel Holzapfel)

So how can we prepare and be ready for the second coming of the Savior?
President Howard W. Hunter said
"We ought to have a Church full of women and men who know the scriptures thoroughly, who cross-reference and mark them, who develop lessons and talks from the Topical Guide, and who have mastered the maps, the Bible Dictionary, and the other helps that are contained in this wonderful set of standard works. There is obviously more there than we can master quickly. Certainly the scriptural field is “white already to harvest”
A scripture came to my mind on how we can study the scriptures. It's 2 Nephi 4:15

"And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children."

This scripture shows 3 ways that we need to read the scriptures. 
1. We need to delight in them
2. We need to ponder them
3. We need to write them into our lives or in other words apply them. 

As we search the scriptures diligently we will profit from them. (Mosiah 1:7). We just need to put in the time and effort which can be pretty hard. Everyone in the world is so busy with so many different things that need to be done. We have been blessed greatly though. How easy is it for us to access scriptures today?  It is way to easy. You don't have to carry around your triple combination everywhere in order to have your scriptures with you. Everyone has some sort of technological device where they can have easy access to the scriptures. 

As I have been studying the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, throughout my mission I have come to understand the importance of everything that is written for us to study and learn from. There were so many amazing prophets that went through so much so that we could have the scriptures today. I know that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are given to us by a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to read them, ponder them, and apply them to our lives. 

I have been greatly blessed as I have studied them each day and I know that you to can be blessed as you set aside time each day to study the scriptures.
I hope that it wasn't too long for you this week and that it made sense.
I hope that all goes well this week. Have a good one!!
Love,
Elder Peterson

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Monday, May 9, 2016

Letter #95

Hey Mum and family,

Well sorry the Skype ended at the wrong time yesterday. The internet crashed in the area where I was yesterday and we couldn't get it back until about 6:45. By that time I let Elder Stephenson Skype his family and I thought you wouldn't care much since you will be able to see me in a few months.  I guess this is another one of those times that can teach you patience. 

I hope that mum enjoyed her Mother's Day yesterday. I am sure she was treated well and that she wishes it could last the rest of the week. Haha. I have been slow on sending a letter, but it looks like I already wrote a card for you Haha.  I will send a letter to you soon since I always do. Hopefully I don't forget to do it with my old age. 

One thing that I can't believe is the length of your email Mum. Because we just talked only a few hours ago. I guess you always have to keep me doing  things like answering loads of questions. haha

We didn't really get any snow it was hail. It melted instantly because it is so wet so I don't know how much we really got. It wasn't enough to say it snowed.  No one was expecting that kind of weather so it was a shock to everyone.  There was also a lot of thunder and lightning which is crazy because that is the first time I have heard thunder since I have been in the UK. 
There were too many people that said hi so just tell every single person that you meet that I said hi. That will make it easier for us both, especially you so you don't have to remember everyone. We know how your memory is getting. 

I hope that I answered them all. If not I guess I am in big trouble.  I thought that I would share the spiritual thought since we didn't finish it yesterday. 

Weekly Thought 
So we started in Moroni 10 and we started to read in Verse 3, which states
"Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts."

At the end it says we need to ponder in our hearts how merciful the Lord has been to the children of men since Adam was alive. We need to think of how blessed we are from our Heavenly Father. When we realize how much we are dependent on God then we start to soften our heart and turn to our Heavenly Father. That prepares us to receive answers to any question that we might have. 

Verses 4 and 5 read. 
"4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
When we have humbled ourselves then we need to ask God questions that we have. When we ask Him with a sincere heart and with real intent, meaning that we will follow the answer that we receive, then our Heavenly Father will answer us through the power of the Holy Ghost. 
In Galations 5: 22 it talks about some of the feelings that the Spirit produces when we our prayers are answered. 

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

These are some of the things we will feel when the Holy Ghost is speaking to us. These are some of the feelings that we need to be looking for and recognizing in our lives.  

I love how it says in verse 23 of Galations 5 that "against such there is no law". This means that there is nothing that can stop the Spirit from doing his work for those who are obedient followers of the Savior Jesus Christ. That gives me so much comfort to know that when we do ask God anything we can know the truth by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

I know that we can receive answers to our prayers because I have received many answers in which I am so grateful for. Our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. He is there to help us through this life. There are many challenges that we face during this part of the Lords plan, but I know that we are not to walk it alone and we can't walk it alone. We need our Heavenly Fathers help if we are to return to Him one day. 

We are dependent on our Father in Heaven and I know that as we come to recognize more how he works with us individually we will find more peace in a life full of chaos. 
Thanks for the wonderful Skype yesterday. I hope that you guys have a great week. 
Love,
Elder Peterson  


Monday, May 2, 2016

Elder Peterson & Elder Stephenson
May 2, 2016

Letter #94

Dear Mum and Family,

Well I’m  now in Stourbridge which is in the Birmingham Stake which is the same stake as my very first area of Sheldon. I can't believe that I came into the mission and served in Birmingham Stake and now I will most likely be going home from the Birmingham stake. How crazy is that?

This is a great area though. The weather has been way crazy since I have gotten here. I left beautiful weather in Swansea and now we are experiencing everything from rain to sunshine to snow. The funny thing is that it really isn't cold which doesn't make sense while it is snowing. We have been wearing light jackets and have stayed really warm.  The weather is very interesting here in the UK. 

Elder Stephenson is my new companion and he is way cool. He has been out for 6 months now and is a fantastic missionary. He is from Colorado from a place called Grand Junction I believe it is. I could be wrong though. Haha. We get along so well though. We have quite a lot in common which is always nice in a companionship. We both have OCD so you can just imagine how nice our flat is. I will attach some pictures so you can see for yourself.  So yeah we are doing really well. 

The Stourbridge ward is crazy small. This Sunday I counted 30 total people at church and that is pretty much the ward. Not many people were out of town. It is definitely the smallest ward I have served in, but I really love it here. The members are so kind towards each other and missionaries so it's going to be a great couple transfers here. 

We have to do lots of tracking to find people in this area because the city centre is govern small and not the best place for finding. We had a really cool experience this past week tracking. We were going to visit a member and we went down a road that we thought would cut through to the street where the member lived. Well it didn't and while we were there we thought why not tract a few doors while we are here. 

So we knocked on the first door. A really nice guy answered and chatted for a short time on his step, but wasn't interested in meeting with us missionaries. So we went to the next door where another guy answered the door and invited us in. He has a lovely family and we were able to have a wonderful chat with them all for a little over an hour. They had so many questions that we were able to help them find answers to. It was a very great spiritual experience and we are so grateful for it. We are excited to hopefully see them again this next week. 

 I have a feeling that we are going to have some amazing experiences here in Stourbridge these next couple of months. It seems like a great area already with a lot of great potential. I am positive that we will have some great experience this coming week as well and if I remember them I will let you know. Most times the weeks go so fast that I forget about the experiences. Good thing I keep a journal though. Haha

Well I don't have much more to say to you guys. All is well. I hope you enjoy the thought I have for Mosiah 18:19. I am exited for the scripture this week. 

Weekly Thought 
I hope my thought isn't too long. I don't want you to fall asleep as you read it. 

As I have been thinking of this scripture in Mosiah 18:19 I have learned a lot about our responsibility as members. In this chapter Alma the eldest has been preaching to people about Jesus Christ and baptizing them after they have repented and have had that desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ. 
After he baptized them he called different priests to go around and to teach the people and to continue strengthening their testimonies. Thinking about that I linked it to Home and Visiting Teaching specifically, but really all callings in the church require us to help others in many ways. 
Different callings and responsibilities are to help everyone to strengthen their testimony of the gospel. Mosiah 18:19  talks about how the priests who were ordained to teach the things that the prophets have spell about. Isn't it interesting that we go over the first presidency message every time we visit someone we are assigned. That's why I think it goes well with home and visiting teaching. 
As I thought more about this scripture another scripture came to my mind. Moroni 7:8. Part of it says
"... If a man … giveth a gift … grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God."
I thought of this scripture and related it to not only how we fulfill our callings, but why we fulfill our callings. The why is so important because God knows our thoughts and our intents so it is so important that we do things in the church with the right intent. 
A Stake President once told me that there are 3 main reasons why we fulfill our callings in the church. 
1. We serve out of Fear
- Fear that we have to report to someone and be accountable. Fear that we will be judged for what we did or didn't do. And many different reasons. 
2. We serve out of sense of duty
- We do it because we know it's what we need to be doing. We know we have been called to do that responsibility for a reason and we know we are suppose to fulfill that calling. 
3. We serve because of love
- We do it because we truly love those whom we serve and want to help them in anyway possible. We also truly love the Lord and want to follow His example of service and we want to "serve our fellow beings" (Mosiah 2:17)
If we are to serve out of fear and/or duty we are still performing our responsibilities. We are doing the things that we are suppose to be doing. But when we serve out of love we are able to do what Mosiah 18:19 says more effectively. We are better able to help others more spiritually and physically. 
This is one of my favorite quotes.  
" People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
When we serve others because of charity we will be able to bless so many lives. Others will see that we care for them and want to help them. We will be able to enjoy the work and the callings that we are asked to do from the Lord. We will be able to feel the joy spoken of in D&C 18 when we help bring others unto Christ. 

I am grateful for the wonderful scripture that Caden had picked this last week to ponder about. There is always so much to share and I never have enough time to share it all with you. I am excited for the scripture this week. I hope you all are as excited as I am. 
Have an amazing week!!
Love,
Elder Peterson