December 25, 2018 Christmas Skype

December 17, 2018 The Lord is My Light

Good morning my lovely people! 

Another transfer has come and gone! I am staying here in Forest Grove and Sister Alvey will be leaving us to go spend her LAST transfer in the Salem YSA Ward (a subtle introduction back into the world, hehe.) Sister Anderson will be my new companion. 

The transfer ended on a great note! Christina got baptized! It was such a great experience for everyone! It was amazing how peaceful I felt leading up to the baptism, most of the time I am really stressing and anxious but I felt perfectly at peace leading up to and as she entered into the waters of baptism. It was a beautiful experience. Christina's father, who is a member, has also made wonderful changes and was able to baptize her. With tears in his eyes after the baptism he expressed his gratitude for our help and how happy he felt knowing he and his family were back on the right path.

2 Nephi 31:18 says, 

"And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive."

As our prophet, Russell M. Nelson, often reminds us there is nothing so sweet and rewarding as being on the Covenant Path! I would add that helping others onto, or back onto, the path is just as sweet if not sweeter because you are serving as Christ would serve and helping your family home❤️ Being a missionary is by far the hardest and most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life and I am excited to see what adventures and miracles this coming transfer holds! 

We also had our Christmas talent show this past week and it was full of fun and laughs. It felt like the closest thing we could get to quality family time, and that is so needed durring this holiday season. We did a skit as a District acting out the story of Ammon and King Lamoni it was pretty great. I played the piano and sang a hymn that I arranged, it was super nerve racking but also really fun.

I hope you all have a great week and know that God loves you! 

Love,

Sister Peterson :) 

December 10, 2018 The Spirit of God🔥

Hello everyone! 

This week has been packed full of the spirit! We have been seeing miracles happening left and right, this area has been so blessed and so prepared! Christina is still on track to be baptized this Saturday, there was a little hiccup but with prayer and fasting it will all play out the way that God intends.

We met two prepared and willing people this week, Leon and Adam, who have both committed to be baptized! Marino and Maya his girlfriend continue to progress. They both came to church again this week! After watching the Restoration movie with Marino this week we invited him to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, we followed up the next day and he said he knew it was true! I know that success isn't determined by numbers or anything but it sure does feel good to be able to see the fruits of ours and so many other missionaries labors coming in for the harvest!

The mission tour with Elder Cook was such an amazingly powerful spiritual experience and one that I will strive to remember and look to throughout my life! I know that Jesus Christ lives and leads His work, I am so grateful that He has once again called a prophet and apostles to bear witness of Him and direct us in gathering Israel! 

We sang The Spirit of God at the conclusion of the Mission Tour. I want to invite you to read through the lyrics, I'll just include the first verse, and think about the blessings that have come into your life because of your knowledge of this restored gosepl...

1.The Spirit of God like a fire is burning!

The latter-day glory begins to come forth;

The visions and blessings of old are returning,

And angels are coming to visit the earth.

We’ll sing and we’ll shout with the armies of heaven,

Hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb!

Let glory to them in the highest be given,

Henceforth and forever, Amen and amen!

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week🙌🙏

Sister Peterson

December 3, 2018: More rain. More Christmas. More awesomeness!

Hello Everyone!! Here is a little update on the week! 

Marino continues to amaze us! We had a lesson this week and we read from Alma 36 with him and Maya and in this appointment Marino set a date for baptism! It isn't till May because of things he needs to overcome but I know this will truly bless his life! Then fast forward to Saturday when we called to make sure he knew it was stake conference. We followed up with his reading and Maya was next to him and talking to us as well about what they had read in the Book of Mormon! Then on Sunday stake conference started at 10 and they were late but we knew they were on their way. We get this text about 10:45 saying that they were there so we went out to grab them. We ended up running around the whole outside of the building and then saw them. During Stake Conference one of the speakers referenced to Alma 36 and the story and they both recognized that we had just read that with them this week! Then the Stake President issued an invitation to all who could hear his voice to invite someone to come to the special sacrament meeting on December 23rd. After we went and introduced them to President Brown since he is in our ward and they told him that they had someone in mind to invite to church on that day!! Wow the people amaze me!!

We had a cool experience with kicking off Light the World on Thursday. The missionaries in our building and district were able to invite their wards to come and start thinking of ideas on how to participate in each week of December. We had an Open House at the church building and a room dedicated to each week of the initiative. In each room we had an activity and the video for that week playing on a TV. So now what are each of you going to do to Light the World this Christmas season?

One of the days this week we had a funny experience. We went to Verboort which is a little town that we cover and it is predominatly Catholic. So much so that there is one block in it and it goes all the way around the Catholic School and the Church building. Well as soon as we parked our car and about to get out to walk it started pouring!! I mean the heavens pretty much opened the rain flood. But we still got out and walked and it was really windy as well. It was fun!

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

Sister Peterson

(Anna’s eye is a little swollen from a mosquito bite.)