Happy Memorial Day🇺🇲

Happy Memorial Day! 

We got the opportunity this week to serve at the cemetery by helping to put flags on the Veterans’ graves. Some Veterans’ graves were clearly marked but others required following this confusing map to find their name. It was really a neat experience. I could have stayed there all day! It was just so peaceful and I loved looking at all the names and seeing all the "Together Forever"'s on the head stones. There is just such a special spirit in cemeteries! We also found two graves with temples on the head stones. It was a sweet little peace of home❤️

The main source of stress and focus of all our energy this week was trying to figure out Jolie's Baptism. First we were in the middle of planing the program and making sure it would be able to happen, then we ended up needing to push her baptism back until the end of June, simply due to health reasons. But she spiritually is doing great! She is so enthusiastic about this gospel, she has already been sharing it with everyone she comes in contact with! Her new date is June 23! 

We had transfer calls this weekend and we are both staying here in the Chapman Hill Ward!  

Spiritual Thought: Watch this video!! The music has been stuck in my head all week I don't know why! I guess someone out there needs to see it! 

Pictures: 

1. Sisters at the mission tour. 

2. District Pic! Always awkward always great! 

3. Wild grown strawberries found while weeding VS. Genetically altered steroid pumped strawberry! 

4. Selfie 

5. Grave #1

6. Grave #2 

7. Spiritual thought video🌎

We don't need to be the same to be one

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Peterson :) 

PS from the editor: We received this bonus picture in a text from a family in Oregon. It was Sister Johnson’s birthday.

Mission Tour😄

Hello Everyone! 

Another week has flown by, and again not much is popping to mind about what happened. I feel like I've reached maximum brain capacity and I need to start dumping useless imformaiton to make room. My math skills have already been dumped, and my spelling is on its way out, but that’s ok, it's making room for the more important knowledge such as memorizing scripture references and remembering the name of everyone we meet on a daily basis. 

Honestly I'd much rather get lost in this work than in any other pursuit so I'm OK with sacrificing a little sanity for this great cause! 

The big event of this week was the Mission Tour, with Elder Whiting from the quorum of the Seventy. A Mission Tour happens maybe two or three times in your mission... I think, I could be feeding you false information sorry. But as far as I know it's a semi rare occurrence and a few years ago President, then Elder, Nelson did the tour here (I think, again I could be completely wrong so these facts don't really matter but hey it makes it sound more exciting.) 

It was really an amazing spirit filled experience. Basically we got to sit with our notebooks and listen to a general authority speak for 6 hours! We got a little chastised it was awesome! Nothing horrible, we were re-encouraged to be a baptism focused mission. He talked about ministering and how basically that is what we as are missionaries, we just can't be called that because it would confuse people. He talked about letting this experience change the course of our missions by deciding now to forget yourself. He said this mission is not about you, it is about Jesus Christ who you have been called to represent. 

It really struck home with me, I have loved seeing my own growth on this mission, but I know I need to change my attitude and perspective. Right now I am giving over a year and a half to the Lord. My wants, my growth, my will doesn't matter right now. Everything I do, and why I do it needs to be for Him and because of Him.

 It's frustrating when the revelation you receive for how to change is basically flip a switch and forget yourself. Seems simple, but I know that the light switch of selfish desires and unselfish service is going to be something I will be constantly flipping back and forth, I hope I don't give myself a seizure! 

I also got the opportunity to be interviewed by him after the meeting. It was surprisingly casual yet also spirit filled. He asked me about my family and my interests and told me about his. He actually lives in Kaysville - small world! I could definitely feel his genuine love and concern, and as he made it a point to say it is not just his love he is bringing but he is here on behalf of the quorum of the twelve and they on behalf of Christ himself. 

Miracle of the week: A past investigator, Mark, got back in contact with us this week and wants to start the lessons again!! Sister Johnson has worked with him in the past and apparently his story was really sad. He was super prepared and was actually on date to be baptized and then his life got super busy, like 16 hour shift busy, and they were never able to reach him so they had to stop meeting with him. BUT he is back in the game and we have a lesson set up with him tonight! 

Funny story of the week: We decided to heart attack a couple people this week, and one of them was a less-active member. She lives on the second story of an apartment building. For some reason we thought it would be a great idea to do it it broad daylight so we were in the middle of putting the hearts on her door when her two little dogs started barking. All of a sudden the door opened right in our faces, and it was the member’s son. We literally threw the rest of the hearts at him and ran side by side down the stairs and then down the street, her dogs chasing after us knipping at our heels! I'm sure we looked redicuous, but we were laughing too hard to care! 

Overall it was a good week, I'm so glad to be serving here in the Chapman Hill Ward with Sister Johnson. I love you all and hope your week is splendid! 

-Sister Peterson :) 

Pictures: 

1. The Mission Tour, this is half of our mission. I am right in the middle right in between President Tateoka and Elder Whiting. 

2. A selfie with a quote from Elder Whiting on the Whiteboard.

3. The Tributes of the Gummy Bear Games! 

4. The Victors of the Gummy Bear Games! 

5. Heart attacking!! (not the heart attack fail, though we were still very on edge from that one.) 

Opposition = Growth

Hello All! 

Mother’s Day Skyping was so amazing! My stomach was in knots leading up to the event, it was fine during the Skype, and then after I just felt numb. I think I'm still in shock that next time I will see my family face to face will be in 7 months, and then only 3 until I'm home! LIFE IS CRAZY! 

I am honestly feeling very uninspired/unmotivated to write a group email this week... 

This week was just "Eh" I mean it wasn't bad, I could never complain about missionary work but it is well... work. I honestly don't know what to write about so I'm just rambling as I type... 

Jolie, the investigator who is on date to be baptized, has been sick all week! We have been unable to meet with her at all, and we are most likely going to have to push back her baptism date. 

It's crazy how when someone is ready and prepared the adversary will do everything in its power to stop them! When the adversary knows that their testimony is strong and they aren't going to get any ground there so they go after other things that are out of their personal control such as health, time, and resources. 

Despite the set backs we are still determined. All this push back does in my mind is strengthen my testimony that baptism is key and worth fighting for! All this opposition does is increases my desire to help her to get to baptism and make this sacred covenant with her Heavenly Father! 

The Book of Mormon is full of the theme of opposition in all things. What I have come to understand and accept is that opposition is key to our growth. Often times people wonder why bad things happen to good people, and that is a genuine question and concern. We are promised throughout the Bible and Book of Mormon that as we keep the commandments of God we will be blessed. It seems pretty cut and dry right? So then why would bad things happen to those who are keeping the commandments of God? 

I could go into many different answers and subtopics with this question, such as moral agency or what it means to be blessed but for today I want to focus my answer on this, we are on earth to grow and in order for that growth to happen God allows bad things to happen to us. 

Recently I was reading in Mosiah 23. This is about Alma, the prophet, and his people. All are righteously striving to follow God. They love and serve each other. They work hard and labor with each other. They teach one another about God, and he is in their hearts always. 

In the middle of this peaceful righteous living verses 21-22 say; 

"Nevertheles the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. Nevertheless - whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day." 

The chapter that follows tells how they were then put into bondage and heavy burdens were placed upon their backs, and if they prayed aloud they would be put to death. Throughout this terrible experience the people of Alma consistently turn to God. 

chapter 24 verse 15 says; 

"...And it came to pass that the burdens that were placed upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." 

I have come to learn that God doesn't give us trials willy nilly (that was fun to type). He always has a plan, whether we can see it or not, for our benefit and growth. Every trial we experience is to teach us something, and give us the opportunity to turn to God, as we do we are promised that he will strengthen us. 

I could go on and on about this topic but I'll stop here before I ramble on too long! Here is a short video that we recently got special access to in our mission (so it's pretty exciting) I think it goes along with the topic quite well. 

(Editor’s Note: sorry I couldn’t get the mp4 video to attach here, so I’m just adding a screen shot.)

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

-Sister Peterson :) 

"A Bible, a Bible? We have got a Bible!!" -2 Nephi 29:3 / everyone we talked to this week!

Good Morning everyone!!

Spring has sprung here in West Salem! Though the weather continues to be bipolar it is slowly making its way toward warmer and warmer weather! There are blossoms everywhere! It is just such a beautiful world! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father loves us, and shows His love through the colorful diverse world around us! This primary song keeps playing in my head as we walk around...

"Whenever I hear the song of a bird

or look at the blue, blue sky,

Whenever I feel the rain on my face

or the wind as it rushes by,

Whenever I thouch a velvet rose

or walk by our lilac tree,

I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world

Heavenly Father created for me." (Children’s Songbook #228)

This week we decided to step up our game and eliminate excuses for not talking to people. As missionaries our job is to talk to everyone we see! Sometimes that can lead to awkward situations so we just don't even try, but this week we tried to push past the awkwardness because we know the importance of our message!

Some awkward situations that are especially hard for me are...

1. When they are doing their job. (They are on the clock!!)

2. When they are exercising. (What kind of a person would stop someone from exercising?! They are in the zone! That just sounds evil!)

3. When they are on the phone (Interrupting people just doesn't seem like the Christ-like thing to do.)

These three are still pretty hard for me but we elimitated a lot of other little excuses this week by literally zigzaging the streets to talk to everyone, going up to people inside their garages, talking to construction workers while they are on the job, and continuing the conversation with people who refuse to give you their name.

This resulted in a lot of good! We found some people who we never would have met if we hadn't done these things. It also just feels good to know you are doing all you can on your end.

We also made an extra push to use the Book of Mormon in our finding situations. This also was really good, but of course there are a lot of people who are not prepared and all they really want to do is fight.

We ended up talking to a lot of people who just wanted to fight against the church, and specifically the Book of Mormon. Many of them would bring up the same scripture as the basis of their argument; Revelations 22:18-19

"18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

I know we should love all the scriptures but sometimes I just really wish this one was never written! With our understanding of this scripture, and the concept of continued revelation this scripture is easily explained. We know this scripture is talking specifically about the Book of Revelations. There are other scriptures throughout the Bible talking about not adding or subtracting "from this book". If you take each of these scriptures to mean there will be no more scripture, than we wouldn't have half of the Bible!!

Of couse we didn't try to explain any of this to those who brought up the argument because they wouldn't accept it even if they did give us a minute to explain. But it’s hard not to defend what you know to be true... I guess that's why I'm venting to you all.

There were many who just wanted to fight this week and though it in no way discouraged my testimony it did make me a little discouraged about being able to find people, but God is good and knew I needed to be reminded that He is preparing people so He introduced John to me.

John was found by the other sisters a few weeks ago, but he actually lives in our area so we get to teach him! He has had lots of Mormon friends and really loves to study the history of the church. Honestly he probably knows more about the history of the LDS church than I do...

When we met with him for the first time he explained how he was visiting Temple Square in Salt Lake, for fun, and he felt somthing so powerful and peaceful that he just couldn't explain. When he ran into the sisters a few weeks ago he was so excited and so ready to learn more.

As he said the prayer to end our lesson he told Heavenly Father that he felt something he couldn't explain but he also couldn't deny and asked to know if this was the path that he needed to be on. The spirit was so strong in that room, and I am so excited to be working with him!

Missionary work is called work for a reason! It's hard, and the success doesn't always come where you think it will, but I know as we prepare ourselves and then put ourselves out there, God will multiply our efforts and lead us to those who are ready to accept His Gospel.

One last miracle of the week! Jolie, our main investigator, who has such a strong testimony and is so ready and wanting to be baptized is on date for May 26th! She has a few bumps to get over before it can happen but I have complete confidence that she will make it!

Sorry my emails are always so long! There is just too much to talk about, and I just feel so much love for this gospel I have to share it!!

I love you all so much! I hope you have a wonderful week! Don't forget that you are a child of God!

-Sister Peterson

Pictures include...

A beautiful sunny pday emailing from the Church lawn!

The Chapman Hill sisters ;)

Exchanges!

Trying to look epic throwing the flowers in the wind... It looked cool from my perspective 😅