January 28, 2019: I love to see the temple😍

Hello everyone :)

This week was a wild ride! We started off with an awesome zone conference focused on finding people to teach. It was a great to have a reminder of the basics. It says somewhere in Preach My Gospel, "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach!" That is truer than true! Our purpose as missionaries is to help others come unto Christ, it's a one by one thing, but first you have to find that one who is ready! One of the best ways to find is through members. We all have friends and family who need the message of the restored gospel. I encourage you all that if the missionaries come around asking for help, don't be afraid to introduce them to your friends! Sharing the gospel is something that we have all promised to do!

Right after Zone Conference we went on exchanges with some awesome Hermanas! Hermana Kilpack and Hermana Plowman. I got to be with Hermana Kilpack speaking Spanish for a day. It was great!

The Highlight of the week would have to be our temple trip with our recent convert Christina. We got to be with her for her first time doing baptisms for the dead. It was an amazing experience. The temple was so peaceful and the spirit was very strong. I am so happy for her and her father who have both made amazing progress to come in and to come back to the fold of God. They both shine with the light of Christ and I am so happy that I have been able to see them progress!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Sister Peterson :)

The Best Medicine🤧

Hello everyone😃 

It's been another week! I hope you all have had a great one! I know I sure did! Let's see what happened this week...

We went on exchanges with the Cornelius Hermanas and it was super fun! I got to be with Sister Teters for the day and we had a blast, she is such a great missionary!

We got to go on a hauntingly beautiful country drive searching for a new member of the ward, it was great.

We finally got around to decorating our ninja bread cookies that we made at Christmas! And I must say they look pretty snazy!

Besides that we were just hard at work looking for new people to teach and trying to stay in contact with those who we are teaching. It's been a little rough this week because everyone has been getting the flu! But despite having been sick all week Martin still came to church again!! He is doing great!

We had a first lesson with a man named Luigi this week. He is a sweet older man who has had a lot of exposure to the church. He is excited to read the Book of Mormon and knows that what we share will increase his happiness, just as he has seen in those he has known who have been members. He kept commenting throughout the lesson that what we share is "the best medicine that anyone could take!"

Spiritual Thought:

"Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them." -Jarom 1:11

This scripture really stuck out to me as I was studying about believing this week in my personal study.

Think about all the things that stress and bring you anxiety... Think about the things you fear... Think about your priorities and the things that daily call for your attention... Think about the trials you have faced and the things you have lost... Now imagine that the second coming of Jesus Christ happens tomorrow. How many of those things still matter?

Jarom teaches the people to believe in Christ as if he had already come. We need to believe in Christ as if he has already come again. How would your priorities shift, how would even your thoughts change if you believed in Christ as if He was already here?

I love you all! I love this gospel! I love my Savior!
Have a wonderful week everyone!

Sister Peterson ❤️

😃🔥☀️🌡️

Hello everyone! 

It's been another good week here in Oregon, it's actually been pretty warm and sunny the past couple of days! Forest Grove is popping with good things happening! The wonderful people we are working with are continuing to progress and are experiencing the joy that comes from living the gospel, and that is truly the greatest reward! 

I love being a missionary because I get to see first hand the difference that knowing God's plan makes in people's lives. 

Martin, who I talked about last week, who is kind of a blank stare emotionless kind of guy, expressed in a way almost like he couldn't believe it, that he just feels so happy whenever he comes into the church building or whenever he reads from the Book of Mormon. 

We went on exchanges this week, and it was great! I got to be with Sister Men and she is just such a great missionary! She has only been out for 3 weeks! WOW, it kind of made me feel old, but also gave me a boost of energy, so it is kind of paradoxical. 

Spiritual Thought: 

This week I came across one of my favorite scriptures that I had kind of forgotten about again! This scripture got me through my training and was our battle cry. This is Ammon and his brothers at the end of their missions reflecting on their experiences and the hard times and how they got through them... 

"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." 

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

-Sister Peterson

New year, fresh start!

Hello everyone! 

Quick updates from the week because I am running out of time. We had MLC this week and it was super inspiring as always, also a little intimidating because of how much I need to work on! We are never done growing people! There is always room for improvement and sometimes that need comes as a slap in the face from your mission presidents wife (not literally). Anyway I won't go into details because spoilers for zone conference, but I definitely got called to repentance. 

BUT as always repentance brings blessings! One of those blessings manifested in a new person we found to teach this week! His name is Martin and we met him on Christmas eve. He really wants to find forgiveness and peace from mistakes in his past and he knows that this is the way to find that peace. We had a church tour with him and he kept saying how he could feel the spirit and felt happy. He came to church yesterday and his whole demeanor had changed by the end. His heavy countenance had become light and he said he felt at home. 

He is now working towards being baptized and washed clean from his sins on February 23rd! 

Another amazing miracle was that CAROLE CAME TO CHURCH! Carole is a woman who the missionaries have been working with for a long time. She absolutely loves the Book of Mormon and can firmly say that she knows this church is true. She has the biggest heart and has raised her own children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren! Sadly all these responsibilities have kept her from doing anything for herself. But she is determined to change that with the new year. Some of her goals include coming to church (which she did!), and reading the Book of Mormon. We are just ecstatic for her!! 

It has been a week full of wonderful blessings, such a great start to the new year! Keep pressing forward everyone! The Lord is on your side! 

Love,

Sister Peterson

December 31, 2018: Happy New Year!!

Good morning everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, I know I did! It felt so good to see my family and be able to talk with them face to screen to screen to face❤️💻 I'm so grateful for technology!

This week has just flown by! Wow this year has just flown by! But it has been packed with so much goodness! I have learned so much about myself, about the world, and most importantly about God. I feel very blessed to have spent this year serving the Lord. It's like I've been in an incubator for spiritual growth, now I'm about to hatch my little egg🐣! Haha anyway...

Let's see what happened this week. Marino and Maya came to church AND brought some family members with them! Yay for progressing people!

It's been really rainy here in Forest Grove this week. But despite the weather we are still out and about finding as many people to talk to as possible! One lady who we met this week started out the conversation by practically screaming at us that if we were there to talk to her about God we could @#$&, and that she was really angry at Him for taking someone she loved. As the only thing fitting for the situation we said nothing as requested and offered her a hug. She broke down in our arms and opened up to us about her struggles. It was such a tender moment and as we listened and talked we were able to testify of God's love for her and of the plan of salvation. She invited us back to teach her more.

As we walked away from that interaction I could feel so strongly that God was mindful of her situation, that he knew she was in pain and needed to talk to someone. I am grateful that we were able to help comfort our sister and feel humbled that God uses such imperfect instruments to accomplish His work and serve His children.


Spiritual Thought:

I've been thinking about the word conversion and convert recently. It's the term by which we distinguish those who join the church and were not born into it. We use it with ourselves to talk about the depth of our testimony. It is even used by those on the street who know that we are there to invite them to change.

As I have been reading these most recent conference talks there have been a lot of references to conversion, with the change of the church curriculum the goal and promised blessing is "deep and lasting conversion." Many of the talks focused on taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ, and becoming new creatures in Christ.

It is that definition of conversion that has taken on great meaning to me. I think a lot about the purpose of life and how we are here to learn and to grow. Part of that growth is learning to put of the natural man and become as Jesus Christ. Becoming a new creature in him. Conversion is metamorphosis, from caterpillar into butterfly.

It is learning to see through his eyes and therefore seeing so much more than our narrow perspective allows. Ultimately the goal is to return to live with Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, but we will not return in our fallen state we need to be converted to be like them to live with them.

Moroni 7:48 says; "... Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart... that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may be purified even as he is pure."

I believe conversion is a longer than life process. We will not be perfect when we die, we will continue to learn after we have passed, but while in this life we should strive to become converted to the Lord.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!
Sister Peterson