Photos, Stories, and Baby Steps🌇

Hello everyone!! This week everything feels like a blur. Good thing we actually took some photos! I'll do my best to explain and recap the week through the photos because other than that my brain is fried!! 

Photos & stories... 

1. The beautiful cutting board made for me by Jared an investigator! 

2. first time I used it! (I can be healthy sometimes!) 

Speaking of this investigator turns out he likes theater haha, I never would have guessed! When he asked us to tell him our favorite artist and he said he would listen to them, I gave him Dear Evan Hansen. I know not exactly a missionary thing to do but he liked it! And told us he really wanted to see Wicked so we made the agreement to all go together when we are off our missions. 

3. On a more missionary minded note, we got to have a good Facebook lesson with him and ended by bombarding him with pictures of Jesus and Children that we found in the church building. 

4. It was sister Unferdorfers birthday this week!! She is 20! Eek so old 😆 so much love from all the branch members. LIttle fact about sister U. She loves milk! A lot of member know this as well, so we got a lot of gifts from the members.... 

5. And of course goodies breakfast (remember when I said I could be healthy sometimes...) Jared and his mom are so awesome they were getting girl scout cookies and said they would buy us each a box! Sadly they got the date mixed up so no cookies but that didn't stop us from buying girl scout cookie cereal at the store mwahaha! 

6. The great tape heist. OK so it was someone's birthday and we wanted to heart attack them BUT we ran out of tape!! So we texted a member and they said we could break into their house and take their tape. So it's late at night and it's a very small town, and we are not very sneaky. Luckily we got in and out without anyone noticing, but then we couldn't figure out how to lock the door behind us!! It was fun. Feels so weird being in someone's home without them there... 

7.heart attacking!! That same night! 

8.more heart attacking!! This was a bit of a different one. Funny old less active member. His yard though is a different story. It's piled with junk taller than me, and there are no trespassing, beware of dog, turn back signs everywhere! Don't worry though he wasn't home haha, you can always tell when he is out and about because of his very destinctive truck. 

9."Crazy Man's" truck. 

10.The creepy house we found one day that says "Zion" on the door. We took it as a sign and so we climbed up the very rotten stairs at the front and knocked, when no one answered we slide a Pamphlet in the door... Weeks later it's still there, and very water damaged!

11. trying to ant proof our cereal! They are getting bolder and bolder every day! They are in our toothbrushes, beds, on our hands, even on a book of Mormon that we were giving out! 

12. To top it off is the Spiritual thought and the miracle of "Mac the Mormon". We met Mac a couple weeks ago on the street as he was going to get pizza. We explained who we were and he told us that he was baptized Mormon. His sister recently became active again but he hadn't really thought much of it. The next time we bumped into him he tells us that he had reconnected with his sister and we gave him a Book of Mormon. Our third coinsidental meeting we were on exchanges so I wasn't there but he said that he had been reading some and liked it. We finally were able to get his number! Now we have been texting and having gospel discussions with him over text! He is already in second Nephi and is realizing that our meetings were planed by God. He is so on fire! But wants to start back slow, with baby steps, meaning no church yet. But that's OK. We sent him the scripture 2 Nephi 28:30 and told him that baby steps are how God works! 

"For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more... "

The attached gif is part of a short video that I can't attach, but here is the link. 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-11-0002-start-small-start-today?lang=eng

Have a fantastic week! Remember you are so loved and so valuable!

💛Sister Anna Peterson :) 

Happy Birthday to Mom 🎁

Editor's Note: A very nice sister in Vernonia sent me these two birthday song videos today as a birthday gift surprise.  Also, Anna sent me the recording of her singing in a group in her P-day email this week as her birthday gift to me.  I'm feeling very loved! It makes my momma heart happy to hear Anna singing and laughing. 🎶 😃

Recorded in Vernonia:

Barbie Birthday Song


Giggly Birthday Song


Recorded in December 2017:


"After seminary, while I was cleaning up the room, these five missionaries were practicing this beautiful song. I videoed it so you can enjoy it."


Choose Him Again

My week in a nutshell... 🥜

Hello fam! 

Haha! I just realized that I don't actually know what "in a nutshell" means or where it came from... Anyone got answers for me?? 

It's been a crazy week and I'm getting sick 😵 so it's going to be a short email today sorry. 

We have been in high stress mode since Tuesday with the baptism coming up on Saturday and then having to be canceled and also transfer calls keeping us in suspence and those kind of fun things. Its just thrown off the whole week. 

BUT!! We have also grown so much this week through the struggles. I have felt my Heavenly Father watching over me through this whole thing. We had been wanting to get blessings from our branch president for a couple weeks now but they just kept getting put off... Put off for the perfect moment! At the height of all the stress we took the time to get them and that blessing seriously carried me. 

We sang in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and I took a video during practice just for you mom ;) 

Oh and transfers!... *drum roll*... We are both staying in Vernonia!! (which was completely unexpected!)

💙Spiritual Thought!! 

My spiritual thought today come from the Book of Mormon (my favorite book). It's in 4 Nephi 1:17, 20, 35-39. 

This is a time of peace in the Book of Mormon. Christ has appered to the people. He taught and healed them. When he left there was no contention or division among them. In verse 17 it describes how even the names Lamanites and Nephites weren't used anymore...

"There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God." 

In this time of perfect peace there were no labels used. Whether self-imposed or forced onto another they were done away with. The only title that mattered was Child of God! 

Sadly only 3 verses later a small group deside to break off and separate themselves...

"And he kept it eighty and four years, and there was still peace in the land, save it were a small part of the people who had revolted from the church and taken upon them the name of Lamanites; therefore there began to be Lamanites again in the land." 

In the whole history of the Book of Mormon there are only eighty four years with no labels! There is still peace, at the moment, but there is again division and only a few verses later there is war and hate. 

We live in a very divided world today. How can we keep ourselves from falling into this trap of labels? I think it's important not to put labels on yourself as well as others. (my opinion is also backed up by an apostle in the Oaks and Ballard Face2Face.) Just remember we are all children of God and that is all that should matter! 

Love you all so much!! Have a great week!! 

💛Sister Peterson 

Pics! 

1. Collecting t-shirts of my areas :) 

2. Hanging out Last P-day with a family in our branch 

3. (sister Unferdorfer has a milk problem haha) we finished the branch presidents milk while he was gone and left this note for him... 

4 & 5. Weekly planning can be hard sometimes and sometimes you just need to document it...

6 & 7. Beautiful poem and picture sent to me by my family for Christmas!! 

(I'll send the video in a different email) 

🎶And now, a special musical number composed by the branch presidents wife and preformed by the branch presidents daughter and the sister missionaries of Vernonia!!  

Be Still My Soul/Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Hope it works, this is for you mom!

💛Sister Peterson 

STORY TIME!

Hello everyone :)

I have been sitting here for probably 10 minutes just staring at the wall trying to remember what happened this week!

I was able to pull together a few memories from my very very scattered mind. So gather around children, it's story time!

We go over once a week to read out of the Bible with an older Less-active lady in our branch. She has, in the past, been pretty against reading the Book of Mormon and insists we read from the Bible. Which we do. This last time we went over she had recently fallen and broken her shoulder. We knew this before going over and expected her to be in an even worse mood. BUT she wasn't! There was something different about her, she had a glow about her, it was so interesting. She wasn't feeling good physically. She had a broken shoulder!! But she told us how she was outside in the middle of the night when she fell and couldn't get up. She prayed, and then someone walked by and helped her! That simple prayer made her feel her Heavenly Father's love and brightened her whole countenance. She let us read from the Book of Mormon with her after that :)

We met Burt when we were following up with a potential investigator. They are room mates. Burt answered the door and we started talking about what he knew about Mormons. He told us he passed the temple in Portland a lot. It's not usually our door approach to start talking about the temple and eternal families but it just kind of flowed. We introduced the book of Mormon and he said he would read it! It was a really cool, spirit lead, experience.

We have an addiction recovery class on Thursdays. We are asked to go, and invite a lot of people. It's been pretty tiny so far, even though we invite a lot of people. Well before class we has dinner with one of the individuals we had been inviting. We didn't talk much about it, just normal dinner conversation, and a casual reminder at the end. Well she showed up! Half way through, right at the point I thought she definitely wasn't going to make it. She told us how our spirits were telling hers that it was time for her to come. Such a sweet powerful experience.

David! We had another lesson with David this week. We taught the Plan of Salvation very very simply. He may have different beliefs but he is still willing to learn and listen. And even if he isn't ready to accept he is still learning to feel the spirit and the spirit is the real teacher. At the end of our lesson he prayed with our pattern of prayer so that was a big step! 

Jared is still going strong! He is reading the Book of Mormon everyday and he has been looking at the media on LDS.org and found the "Finding Faith in Christ" movie. He watched it by himself and now wants us to come over and watch it with him and his mom! That is what we are doing tonight! 

So I didn't really take any pictures this week... But we did take a few videos for some reason... So I'll send those! 

Spiritual Thought!! 

Ether 12:27

 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

It's our responsibility to... 

1. Seek the Lord's help and with Him examine and overcome weaknesses.

2. Be a source of positivity and hope for others. Your responsibility is to point out others strengths, and ignore their weaknesses.

Love you all!! Hope your week is wonderful!! 

💛Sister Anna Peterson 

 Video 1.  When the sun comes out in Oregon...

We were waiting for our dinner appointment...

This is our kind of carpool karaoke...

Carpool karaoke #1

Carpool karaoke #2

For your viewing pleasure ;]

If the video doesn't work I had way to much fun making these gifs hehe

🌱Change and Growth

Happy new year + a week!

Sorry I didn't have time for a group email last week! We had to drive into the city to go grocery shopping and things got a little crazy! But we have no plans to leave little Vernonia today so I have plenty of time to catch you up on the last two weeks!

First of all I want to say a thank you to our dearly departed Prophet Thomas S. Monson! He was an amazing man and selfless servant of the Lord. When Sister Unferdorfer and I heard about his death all we could think was that he is reunited with his wife Frances who he loved and missed so much! ❤️

I'll just start with a couple of teaching stories... 

We have been teaching another young person. His name is Moses and he is getting baptized on the 20th! He is so sweet and sincere, and ready for baptism!

Another person we have been teaching has a lot of interesting "interpretations". For example he believes what Joseph Smith saw in the first vision was a hologram of a future version of himself... We need to clarify a few things, but he is a sincere person who is open to learn. 

We got to watch Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration (the hour long movie) with Jared and his mom! It was great! After watching it we had a good discussion and Jared himself answered most of his mom's questions it was so cool! Now she is reading the Book of Mormon! 

On P-day we had a good discussion and handed out a Book of Mormon in Walmart. You never know where or when someone might be ready to hear the gospel and you just have to be open and ready to do your part and share it! 

We had exchanges this week and both sets of sisters stayed in Vernonia. It's a tiny town for two sets of missionaries. Let's just say there were a couple of repeat conversations that happened.... But we also had a lot of great finding experience and miracles! It really got me pumped for the work here in Vernonia again!

On exchanges we saw a large group of people in a yard as we were walking home. They were still down the block and We wernt sure whether we should go talk to them or avoid them. Sister Williams left it up to me. After thinking about what was making me want to go around them, fear of large groups, I decided not to be controlled by fear and just go talk to them. (I've started telling myself when knocking on doors or approaching people "what's the worst that could happen? They can say no!?") As we got closer you could see they were having a party and most of them saw us and went inside. Only two people from the big group were still outside. One of them has a Mormon friend he likes to talk religion with and told us that he has been wanting to read the book of Mormon. After a long day of handing out all of our materials a Book of Mormon was all we had left! It was a cool experience that wouldn't have happened if we had given into fear. Now not giving in to fear is different from not listening to common sense or the spirit telling you to be careful. You still need to be listening to that still small voice in every situation. 

One more story from exchanges... 

We saw this lady in her driveway and desided to go talk to her. It was raining and we are far away. All we could see is long hair and pink flowery pajama pants. As we got closer and started to talk she turned around and is actually a he with a very big beard! I almost burst out laughing it was so hard to keep it together! He was an interesting, sassy, "you ladies are on fleek today!" *z finger snap* person, not interested but we gave him a pamphlet for his daughter. 

We have also been volunteering at the food bank and library. It's fun service and a great way to get into the community. Plus sometimes we just get to sit and organize or cut out something which is actually really relaxing, haha! 

🌱Spiritual Thought! 

Alma 32:28

"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."

This scripture reminds me of this picture... (attached below). 

When we water and nourish and allow the seed to grow in our hearts, change is a natural outcome of that growth. As we read the Book of Mormon and ponder the words of God we will grow and our souls will be "enlarged". 

There is a quote (from someone) that says (something to the effect of) "Come as you are but don't expect to stay as you are." 

 Change can be scary but it is interconnected with growth, and we are here on this earth to learn and grow. As we go to God with our imperfections and weaknesses He can turn them to strengths. 

Change and growth, though in the moment is uncomfortable, is for your benefit and one day you will look back and see how far you have come and the thought of what you have been through will be a happy memory. 

I know that as you search the scripture and seek to learn more about what God knows you can become, you might feel discouraged by how often you fall short of that potential, but with God's help, line upon line, you can grow into something more beautiful than you could even imagine.  

Don't be afraid of change! Change is a sign that you are growing, and the way to stimulate that growth is by diligently watering the seed of your faith in Christ. 

💛Love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

-Sister Anna Peterson :) 

(Editor's note: Anna included the following list of pictures, but didn't include #1, and skipped a #2 altogether.... But we're just happy for any pictures, right?)

1. Spiritual thought scripture 

3. Drawing of us sisters by a young girl in our branch :) 

4. Vernonia in the sunset! 

5. P-day morning Pic (realized I didn't have many pictures of myself to share...)

6. Enjoying the rainy weather! 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Try this link to see a video of Anna puddle jumping: Splash!

Happy New Year! 🎉

Editor's Note: Although Anna wrote me a little email yesterday, apparently she did not write a big group email.  So instead of an email, I'll post some pictures that were sent to me from a family in their ward.
New Year's Eve 2018! 

January 1, 2018
Doing laundry at a member's home because the machine at their apartment is broken.