Letter #17

Dear Mum and Family,

It sounds like it has been a really great week for you all.  My week has started off really great because first of all I really got mum fired up over last week’s email.  I was hoping that I would get her.  It’s good to know that I can give her a hard time over emails. I’m also glad that Real Salt Lake lost which is always great.  I would also like to tell you mum that spouse points are not a mission rule because it is not in the white handbook so I can change it to man cave points.  And I have so many points that just taking away ten points doesn't even put a dent in my points. Just having my shoes full of water is about 75 points and I have had that twice so far.  That doesn't count all the other points I have gotten for being soaked all the way through all my clothes.

Elder Farley is a really cool missionary.  He trained one of the missionaries from my group last transfer and he is really chill.  We have lot of fun together while we are doing missionary work.  He was serving in Wales before he came to Sheldon and he has been out for 18 months so he has been to a lot of other places.  I know he ran cross country in high school and that he really loves watching movies and spending lots of time with his family.  I am having a lot of fun being his companion and we are really doing some great work in Sheldon.

We have been doing a lot of tracking this last week and we really have had no luck at all which is pretty normal.  We did teach I*** this last week and we are trying to set up appointments so that we can meet with the other families and teach them also, but they are really busy and it is hard to get a hold of them.  We did get a referral though from another set of missionaries yesterday and apparently she is really interested. We have not met her yet, but we are going to try and see her tomorrow.  I think that was a tender mercy this last week because we have had no success and it has been kind of frustrating.

I**** is doing really well and I have really enjoyed teaching him.  I have no idea when he is going to be able to go to the temple, but he has been meeting with the Bishop and he is really excited to go so I am sure it will be soon.  He has really progressed and it is really cool to see his progression in the gospel.  


Lyndsey you’re asked if the cars here are like the ones in America….The cars are definitely not like the ones back home.  Because the roads are smaller here they drive smaller cars.  I do miss seeing the nice trucks back home that is for sure.  They do have lots of really nice cars though.  They have BMW's, Jaguars, Audi's, Mercedes Benz and some more nice ones that I can't quite think of right now.  They are definitely really cool cars.
You also asked what their gas stations are like and is gas cheaper….. The gas stations look like the ones back home and gas is really expensive compared to back home.  They buy gas by the liter over here instead of gallons, but it converts to a little more than $8 a gallon for back home.  It is really crazy how expensive it is over here.

I will have to take a picture of the church house and send it to you guys.  It is also really hard to take pictures of the hills over here because you really can't see them. It looks really flat when you look out our balcony, but I will send some pictures so you can see how flat it looks.

I am glad to hear that you studied the Atonement and that you learned a lot of great things about it.  That is definitely one of my favorite topics to study especially from Jesus the Christ because it goes pretty deep and I love learning about deep doctrine like most missionaries do.

Something that I want to share with you this week is about Joseph Smith.  I read this passage from Gordon B. Hinckley this morning and I thought I should share it with you guys. 
" Could Joseph Smith, I ask you, the young man reared in rural New York largely without schooling, have dictated in so short a time a volume so complex in its nature and yet so harmonious in its whole, with so large a cast of characters and so extensive in its scope? Could he of his own abilities have created the language, the thought, the moving inspiration that has caused millions over the earth to read and say, it is true?"
- President Gordon B. Hinckley

When I read this it really made me think of Joseph Smith and how uneducated he was yet he translated such a complex language.  I know that because he was so uneducated he couldn't have translated the Book of Mormon without the help of the Lord.  And that the Lord chose him for a reason to translate it.  I also like the part at the end when it says that so many people have read it and have prayed about it and have come to know that it is true.  It is really cool to see the change in people when they really just take that simple act and just read and pray about it and they come to know that it is true.  By just doing that they come to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he did see our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that everything about this church is true.  That is one of my favorite things to see in someone.  

I hope that you guys enjoy the wonderful thought from Gordon B. Hinckley and that you do see the great blessing of The Book of Mormon and how blessed we are to live in this time where we have The Book of Mormon.  
Thanks again for all of you letters and I hope that you have a great week.

Love, 
Elder Peterson 

P.S. Mum I will make sure that I open my Christmas Packages as soon as I get them.