Elder Peterson: You Are Hereby Called To Serve in the....ENGLAND BIRMINGHAM MISSION: Letter #14

Dear Mum and Family, October 27, 2014

First of all thank you guys for all the great letters that you have sent. I really enjoyed reading them all and hearing about the great last week that you guys had.
I just thought I would let you know that I am really enjoying it out here in England and I will not be coming home until my two years are up. I was always taught in football to not regret anything and to never quit. I know that if I was to come home early then I would really regret that and I don't want to quit anything that I have started.

Mom I was definitely surprised too when I arrived in the ward and saw how small it was. It is definitely a ward which was just split before I got here so it was a little bigger at the time. There are a lot of less active members in the ward though. I was talking to Sister S***** son S***** yesterday at church. He just returned from his mission not too long ago which I am sure you know about. He said that there will be some areas on your mission where the main focus won't be finding investigators and teaching new people. He said that this ward is definitely one of those places. He said he doesn't expect us to get any baptisms in the area and he said that he mostly expects us to bring back less actives. Of course we have been looking for more new people, but we have been working with a lot of less actives trying to bring them back.

That is not the I*** that we are teaching that you guys met. He was in the Bishopric until he got released just yesterday. He is such a great guy and I really enjoy talking with him and his great wife. He actually asked me and my companion and the two other Elders to speak on Sunday. He asked us on Friday to speak and he said that we could choose whatever topic we wanted to. I used the same topic that I did at my farewell I just changed it up a lot. I really enjoyed giving the talk and the funny thing was I wasn't even nervous. I gave a 10 minute talk and I had to cut it a little short. I probably could have gone another 10 minutes easily. I think that it was a great talk mostly because I could definitely feel the spirit working through me to help me say the things that I needed to.

I had a great birthday in England. We went to a zone meeting that day which we spent most of our day at. It was at the Stake Center which takes about two hours to get to by bus. How lucky are you guys to have the Stake Center so close to you. They sang happy birthday to me there. Of course we learned a lot of great things and it was great time. We went to a Chippie and had some fish and chips which were great. We went to one of our investigators house after and they made a great meal and a great cake for me. I will send you some pictures of it. It was a lot of fun and that was pretty much my day. I really enjoyed the letters that you guys sent and I haven't bought anything yet, but I will let you know when I do.
Everything has been going pretty good with my Companion and I. We are getting along which is good. I really enjoyed the letter that I got from Jim. It was good to hear from them.

Chelsey I don't know if we are going to do anything fun on Halloween or not because not a lot of people celebrate it in England. Maybe we will go to a Halloween party at the church house, but I don't know.

Caden It sounds like you have had a really crazy week at work this last week. I bet it was fun getting that cow out of the pit. I remember those times and how fun they were. I bet you are really working a lot more now that football is over. I am glad you are making a lot of money for me for when I get home. You definitely need to pay me back for using my bed while I am gone. I expect that money when I get back in two years.

Lindsee, it sounds like you had a great time at Grandma Crossley’s house this last week while the rest of the family was in St. George. I don't believe you though when you told me that Austrial burnt the cookies because that sounds exactly what you and Mackayla would have done. So I am pretty sure you just lied to me. Maybe you should read 2 Nephi 9:34 and change the word "he" to she.

Dad I do talk with Elder Andrus at zone meetings. We just had one last week and it was really good to talk with him and a few other missionaries that I know from the MTC. We learn a lot of great things at zone meeting too which is always really great. There are some really great missionaries in my zone and I enjoy talking with them all.

We stopped by the two people that we talked to last week, but they were not home so hopefully we can get a hold of them this next week and hopefully teach them.
We are going to the S***** house again today to play some more games. They invited us over for dinner yesterday and it was a great meal. Sister S**** even asked us to wash some of the dishes for her. Since I did a lot of that back home I did really well. Bishop really likes food so we definitely had a lot of food and it was great. I am sure that they will have food when we go over today. It should be a lot of fun.

Thank you for the thought that you sent I really enjoyed it. The thought that I have for you guys this week is on charity and how much Christ loves us. It's from John 15: 13-14
13. Greater love hath no man than this that a man layeth down his life for his friends.
14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.
I really love that scripture because it just shows how much Christ really loves us. He says that we are his friends and his has laid down his life so that we as his friends can return back to him some day. All we need to do is keep the commandments that he has given us. Even though that sounds easy sometimes it really isn't. We just need to try our hardest every day and do the best we can. I know that if we do then we will be able to live with our great Savior again someday.

Thank you for the great letters and I hope that you guys all have a great week.
Love,
Elder Peterson