March 7, 2016

Overcoming Fears

Oh man, this week was awesome. Really just the latter half, but hey, I got to bike a lot, so no complaints.

 

Monday: "Ermilisa?!" We actually saw her!!! She was in town for a little bit. Her husband is basically dying out in New Orleans, long story. But we had a lesson and started painting her kitchen. We love painting. Good day.

 

Tuesday: "Stuff.." It was normal, we saw Ermilisa again!!! Yay! More painting. I got crazy and just started sanding tons of walls and painting. We got a lot done and she is very happy about it. Institute was the bomb too. I bore a testimony of difficulties I have been facing on my mission. People really liked it!

 

Wednesday: "More Biking!" I love biking. Not as much in a skirt, but it's okay, I am getting better at it. We tried to see people, tried to mow someone's lawn, but her lawn mower didn't work. We tried a member around the corner, but they happened to have been on their way home when we went over. Oh well! Later we went and saw said member. They committed to come to church on Sunday!!!! That is so awesome! (They did actually come to church!) I have been teaching them my whole mission, so that brought so much joy to my life.

 

Thursday: "Not National Pancake Day". After volunteering, we went to go get free pancakes with Taylor and Travis, except, they read it wrong. National Pancake day is tomorrow. Not the 3rd. You all better go get yourselves some free pancakes tomorrow. We saw Amanda and had a great lesson with her. Same with Sister Robertson. I love her! Her non-member husband made us some delicious spinach pie! He is really warming up to us weird Mormon girls!!!

 

Friday: "An Eventful Day". Well, it started out with lunch. I was minding my own business when I go to the bathroom and low and behold, there is a cockroach on the wall. A big one. After making girly noises, I got my more macho companion to come and kill it. We didn't know how though, and didn't want it turning on us. We called the elders. Our district leader finally answered and gave us the wise counsel of "Hit it and run!". We had other concerns, but after resolving them, we stayed on the line while Sister Hilton got on a chair with a shoe to hit it. I hid behind the bedroom door in case it was a palmetto bug. Those fly and bite. She hit it, thinking she had killed it. It was on the counter, but not quite dead. She proceeded to hit seven more times. We disposed of said cockroach in the dumpster, ending the story.

That afternoon, I overcame a large fear of tracting! It went well! Then, that night, another big hurdle! I invited someone to baptism for the first time on my mission! He said yes, and is going to try!

 

Saturday: "Just Sit and Listen" We did a lot of that. Ashley took us places while we taught the plan of salvation. That went well. Sister Knight talked forever, but it's okay, next week we are going there for dinner! (She is a great, authentic southern cook). That night we got caught in the middle of a huge fight between a baby daddy and his two baby mamas. It was pretty crazy. I don't think my companion has seen something like that.. It's okay though, because if he hadn't been there, things would have gotten physical. Missionaries to the rescue!!! We had dinner with the Freemans, my adopted family. They invited a nonmember! It was great!!!

 

Sunday: "Oh the Joy". Church was alright. The testimonies born really struck me. The spirit was powerful. Sadly, Taylor and Travis weren't there. She was having contractions and bad back pain. Don't worry, baby hasn't come yet! We went there after church and spent way longer than we should have, but it's okay. We needed to. We ended up teaching them all while eating cupcakes that we made for them. We went over the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the intention to invite her to baptism. She started talking about all of her concerns while we were there. She had already overcome them though...? We then invited her to pray about the date we had thought of. Travis was to become worthy of the priesthood by April 16th. That day, she texted us telling us that she actually had been praying and did want to be baptized, just we weren't supposed to tell Travis. He would get too crazy about it. She wants to quit smoking before the baby is born and be baptized when all her family is down here for the baby!!! How exciting??? That made my day. Two people I invited to baptism. I can't believe it.

 

The trick to overcoming my fear, was to pray in advance about a day. That seems obvious. When you do that, you know that God knows they can be ready by that day. It doesn't matter where they are now, because God has told us they can be ready. What a miracle. I am so grateful for this week and the many things I have learned! Thank you all for reading! Have a blessed week :)

-Sister Peterson

February 29, 2016

Tornado: The Sequel!!!

So, we got hit, again. This time it was in my ward boundaries, all over the place!!! I will tell more of the tale on the appropriate days :)

 

Monday: "Eh. Average Pday". It was a pretty average day. We had dinner with Marina, that was delicious. She was very open about her feelings toward the church and her son's mission. It has been very healthy for her and myself to show Christlike love towards each other. It helps us heal the wounds of the difficulties we have had with my conversion and her son's conversion.

 

Tuesday: "A Storm is Coming?" So, we went about our Tuesday as any average Tuesday. Get through district meeting and try not to cry because of how intense your DL is (I cried this week...). Have lunch, go volunteer at the Genealogy library. Well, we are walking in and the lady at the desk is talking on the phone about closing at three. Well, that's odd. Usually they don't close till later. Then she tells us a storm is supposed to come through. Well, we get storms all the time, so why is everything in the county shutting down? I thought it was weird that we saw so many buses on the street at 1pm. Well, we go about our volunteering. Saw some cool stuff on this really old guy's ancestry!!! He was so grateful for our help. We hear her on the phone again, storm isn't supposed to hit till 7. Well, on our way home, we decide, we can go out and teach before dinner. Institute got canceled on our way home...We went and we taught. The Stairs have solid plans to come to church! We were watching the weather while we were there. At this time, New Orleans was getting hit really hard. We saw that the storm would be headed straight to Pensacola. So, they drove us home (we walked there). Now a little shaken up, we go about our usual business. The Nicholson's come to get us and go to their house for dinner. It was yummy. Then we get a text that we need to be home immediately. Yay, now I don't have to awkwardly try to get out of there! So, we sat in the bedroom of our tiny apartment, therefore very close to the bathroom. We heard winds that were pretty scary go through our apartment complex, so we went to the bathroom to wait it out. Then they were gone. We went to a member's apartment to watch the weather with them. It was pretty cool. Outside our apartment complex was flooded and there were trees down all over the place!

 

Wednesday: "Lets Play 'Pick Up Sticks!'". All day was a big game of pick up sticks. We went to a neighborhood nearby and just helped anyone and everyone. We found a guy with a chainsaw and just followed him through out the neighborhood. These random people decided to go to Walmart and get us fried chicken and stuff to eat! How sweet! While we were eating, the mayor came by and talked to all of us. We are on his instagram now :) I will attach the picture. Then, we were dead tired and had appointments to get ready for, so we walked home. Yep, walked home from the tornado spot...

 

 

Thursday: "More Fences and Sticks"  Since our zone leader realized that our area  was more affected than he thought, we went out and helped all over the ward. Our member who was hit was glad to see us. His neighbor bought us pizza! Seriously, the scripture about taking no thought for food or drink could not be any more true. We spent all day doing that work for random people. They were all so humble and grateful to have us help. You all need to look up the aerial shots that were taken by a drone in Pensacola though! The damage is amazing and it will give you an idea of what we were up

against.

 

Friday: "Actual Missionary Work" So, all of our plans fell through, but I actually put my trust in God and He kept us busy! We took Ashley out to Starbucks to show her how Mormons do it. I have a lot of experience being from Seattle. She said we made her day right before she had to go to work. Man I love that kid! After that, we went and saw our new less active member. She is awesome! She has tons of questions, is super receptive, and wants to repent! You couldn't ask for more. A member bought us a giant, delicious pizza for dinner, and we had a lesson with an investigator and a member that night. She bought us ice cream afterwards too :)

 

Saturday: "Taylor and Travis". This day was all about them. We got special permission to go to their wedding out on Pensacola beach that morning. It was gorgeous!!! I am so glad they are married now! Then we came home and ate real fast as well as got ready to go to the baby shower right after. We didn't quite finish our present so we just went. They were so glad to see us because not too many people showed up :( She has nobody here in Pensacola so, we are doing all we can to bring her into the family of the ward. After that, we made cookies and finished their gift for the ward social. We went to that. It was soooo fun. There was a hilarious skit by some of the members. Taylor loved our gift. We made a "Roman's first Jesus Book". We took a small photo album and put pages in about Christ's life and left a space for a picture of Roman.

 

Sunday: "Restful Sabbath". I could not stay awake after church. Church itself was great. We taught gospel principles and I got to sit next to my favorite young woman in Relief Society (they combine every last Sunday of the month). After all of our studies and attempts at planning, we went to eat with the Tripp family. They are super cool! She is from Ecuador, so we had food from her country. It was a slow and easy day for us.

 

Man, this week has been crazy out here! I hope you all are doing well in your various parts of the country and world. We are just fine here in Pensacola :) Enjoy whatever pictures I can fit. I actually took quite a few this week.

-Sister Peterson 

February 22, 2016

Tornado!

This week's story could really be told through pictures, but I will still write some stuff.

I didn't really title any of my days either, so bare with me :)

 

Monday: We did stuff during the day. My stomach still was hurting a bit. We went to dinner with our recent convert, Ashley. After that, she took us to our next lesson. On the way we get a phone call, and Sister Hilton answers it. I looked at her while she was listening to the other end. Her eyes bulged out, which I had never seen. We were told to return home immediately because a tornado had touched down in our stake. We did and just tried to do some organizational stuff. We had no idea till the next morning that a tornado touched down a mile away from our house. I am so thankful that we were okay. We also were called to go and help in Century and Flomaton where there was a lot more damage.

 

Tuesday: I begged God to heal me so that I could go help people. I love doing hard labor and being outside. He did heal me. We crammed our whole district into our senior couple's suburban and drove up to help. It was amazing. We helped total strangers, even non members. I hope I never end up in a tornado!

 

Wednesday: Sister Hilton made me rest from being sick for a whole week. I don't like to do it, but it helped a lot. She's the bomb :)

 

Thursday: We volunteered at the bishop's storehouse again. I am loving working with our new members as well as helping our people. A lot of our less actives and other members need help from the bishop's store house. They are so humble and sweet. They are actually the ones who try to feed us the most. It is amazing how you can want to give so much when you have so much less than those around you. Amanda is one of those that I am very close to. Ironically, we have the same name :). She just keeps trying to give when she has almost nothing. She took us home with her and we had a lesson afterwards. Her baby son started crying when she dropped us off at home! I love those kids!

 

Friday: We worked! This is like the first day this week I feel like we actually went out and had lessons all day. It felt good. We picked up a new investigator! I feel so much of God's love for her. Though she doesn't see herself converting, I know that she can feel the power of the spirit and that it will work through her. She has the desire to learn and change and that's all she needs.

 

Saturday: We went up to Century to help with tornado relief all day. We had Ashley take us. It was awesome being up there. We helped completely random people that day. We even got done earlier than we thought we would. I also had a chance to sit down and have a real heart to heart with Ashley. Satan loves to work on recent converts. She is going through a hard time, but I know she is strong enough to handle it.

 

Sunday: Church was awesome. I really learned a lot. We also had a lot of changes in the ward leadership. I can't wait for ward council next week! It will be so much more effective! After all that, we had a powerful lesson with Jonathan. I have never born my testimony with that much passion in my life. He is going back to Ghana for two weeks, but he said that he will come back with a decision on baptism. He knows the church is true, but he wants to know that this is what God wants him to do. I just know he can receive the right answer through prayer. He is so in tune with the spirit.

 

That's this week. I am doing a lot better than I was. My goal is to become worthy of being an example to others. I have a lot of work to do, but I want to become a better missionary and disciple of Jesus Christ. Line upon line, precept upon precept, this will become possible. Love you all! Have a great week!

-Sister Peterson

 

 

 

PS: I saved a cat in a tree yesterday. It was awesome. I like climbing trees. See? I did it!

Saving the cat

February 15, 2016

Encounters with Vampires

Sorry, this email will probably be short. I had no time to write anything down this week!

 

So, nobody freak out, but I was in the ER twice this week. I have been having some pretty bad abdominal pain and no one can figure out what is wrong with me. I officially cannot stand the ER. It is not my favorite place, not even close. This email title comes from the fact that I have also come to the conclusion that nurses are vampires. I am definitely their favorite victim, because I have 'beautiful' veins. I also made the lady who was driving me around on the hospital bed laugh, because when I am tired and sick, I get pretty sarcastic.

 

Well, in between hospital visits, I drove almost to Tallahassee, which is about 3.5 hours away. No big deal. So, we didn't get much done this week. Miraculously, we hit one of our lesson goals. Also, this ward has taken such great care of me. Our bishop and his family remind me a lot of my own, and they claim me as one of their own haha. I stayed there a lot this weekend while Sister Hilton went on splits with their 18 year old daughter.

 

Church was really hard for me yesterday. I could hardly move around, I felt so weak. I received a powerful blessing from the elders. That really helped. Thankfully, all of our people are doing really well. Travis and Taylor are getting married on the 27th!!! I can't wait! Plus it means we get to go to Pensacola Beach... :) White Sand!

 

Through all of this, I have been reminded of a lesson I learned a couple years ago when I joined the church. These trials are all for our good. Every time we get hit so hard that we don't think we will make it through, God is preparing us to help someone else. He knows that is my greatest desire in life. All I have ever wanted to do is to help others. Through His great atonement, we can overcome all these trials, be made whole, and go and help others to do the same. I pray that you may all feel the atonement work through you life as you employ the gospel of Jesus Christ in your daily actions.

 

I love you all! Enjoy these super great pictures from the hardest week of my mission so far. I am still smiling :)

-Sister Peterson

 

The first is of me and the random noodle they leave in my arm at the ER

The second is me with some polar bears on our very very very slow walk home yesterday.

I was one with the polar bears.

February 8, 2016

I forgot to tell you we had a baptism!

​Hey everyone! This week was fantastic! We had a lot of blessings and I learned a ton!!!

 

Monday: "Does that Count As a Pday?". We were soooo busy. We spent our morning cleaning this lady's apartment - it was gross. But, I felt so much of God's love for her. Then we had a zone activity, playing volleyball. Then we emailed, at six... Then we had a lesson at seven. We got home just before nine. We were super tired...

 

Tuesday: "The Spirit of Baptism". This day just seemed to be all about baptism! We had a district meeting and talked a bit about it. While we were volunteering at the Genealogy center, I studied for institute tonight, which happened to be a lot about baptism. There was a talk I studied by Robert D. Hales in October of 2000 really hit home with me. That night we had institute and Ashley was there. That lesson was all for her.

 

Wednesday: "I got a new Trainer". We took Saige, a recentlyish returned missionary, to go contact a ton of referrals. She taught me a lot of things about missionary work that I had never learned before. I dubbed her my new trainer.

 

Thursday: "Never As You Plan". This day was nothing like we wrote down or planned for. I loved volunteering at the bishop's storehouse. I just felt so much love for the people I helped and was so happy to move stuff around and work hard. After that, we had a surprise lesson with Taylor and Travis. I love those two. Things are going much better for them now that they are trying to live the commandments.

 

Friday: "Blessed Following PMG". We were really following the guidelines in preach my gospel, and it works. Ashley had her baptismal interview. She was so ready!!! We met a lot of people that were going through some hard times. We also contacted a member referral that day and it was perfect! She is now an investigator and a pretty solid one at that.

 

Saturday: "A Soul Sister's Baptism". Ashley got baptized! It was awesome. I love her so much. Nothing beats watching someone walk out of the waters of baptism, perfectly clean. I sung with an elder "A Child's Prayer". People really want me to sing every sacrament now.. woops.

 

Sunday: "Let's Convert Ghana". This title comes from our lesson with Jonathan, who happens to be the pastor for the president in Ghana... This man wants to get baptized in our church. He is seriously considering it. Are we going to convert a whole country? And his church here in Pensacola? Us and our members think so... Also, Church was great. Another investigator is ready to quit smoking and work towards baptism. Things are hopping here! This never happens in Pensacola. Also, I learned a lot about fasting this week. I really feel that my fast has been worth it. Our second counselor said that fasting is for the blessings we could not receive otherwise. That is so true.

 

I love you all. I bear witness that Jesus is the Christ. He has indeed atoned for all of our sins. He loves each of us dearly and you can know that for yourself by taking the counsel from James 1:5. Love you all! Have a great week and share the gospel!

-Sister Peterson

 

February 1, 2016

Week or Month? You decide!

This week is insane. I keep asking Sister Hilton if she can believe that we did what we did last Monday. It feels like it was a month ago. It feels like she got here months ago. Where has the time gone? Time is so weird on the mission!!!

I didn't really write in my journal this week (for shame, I know.), so bare with me.

 

Monday: "Cleaning and New People". We cleaned the apartment. A lot. We also had dinner with a new family from one of the other wards. They are the bomb!!I love em. Plus, they both went to BYU so we all get along pretty well :). After that, we went to help a new young family move into our new area. They are super cool! Also another BYU person. I think we will get along just fine.

 

Tuesday: "Ready to Redeem" I learned a lot at district meeting. I am ready to change parts of my missionary work. It's pretty hard when you are trained by someone brand new who was trained by someone brand new. Things get lost... I also learned that I am pretty directly related to a family who joined the church in 1910 in Grundy County,Tennesee! They were super active and everything! Who knew?

 

Wednesday: "I'm Doing Better". Well, I was on exchange with Sister Willes. Her curse came with her. Everytime she goes on an exchange, nothing seems to work out that day. We spent hours trying to see people in our area. We walked a lot. We saw one person though and she was super bold with them. That was exactly what we needed! I learned a lot from her example. I also realized I am not as terrible a missionary as I thought I was.

 

Thursday: "Keep Working". We did a lot of that. I felt really good about that day. We had solid lessons with Ermilisa and Amanda. I really care for both of them. They are really progressing too!

 

Friday: "We Tried". Well, we drove a lot that day. I got pulled over by a cop on the freeway because apparently I was going too slow in the left lane. That scared me so much! Thankfully, I was still on time to my doctor's appointment. That afternoon, we drove around trying to see people and it just did not work out. We had a great dinner appointment though!

 

Saturday: "A Friday Redemption!" We were busy! We had lessons non stop. They were all pretty successful too. I am so grateful for days like this. They keep us going when we start to lose hope.

 

Sunday: "Non Stop". Truly a non stop day. We had members take us all over the area! What's great, is they really love the people we teach now and want to keep coming. My dream for this area is greater member involvement and it is finally happening!!! I also had coconut curry shrimp, which is probably one of my favorite foods. Good day.

 

That's the week. I want you all to know that I know that our Savior Jesus Christ does live and that He loves each of us dearly. My challenge to you this week is to pray for and look for opportunities to feel that love He has for others. It is amazing how deep and abiding His love is. Have a great week!

-Sister Peterson

Sister Hilton trying to cool cookies fast enought to take them to an appointment.

January 25, 2016

Strangest Week of My... How Long Have I been here?

This was the strangest week for a missionary. I mean, it could be stranger, but this ranks high. One thing I know is that we have been immensly blessed here in Pensacola. I don't understand why, but it has pushed me to become a better missionary so that we can take advantage of those additional blessings. The Lord has truly taken care of my spirit this week though. I couldn't ask for a better place or situation at this time.

 

Monday: "Puppies!" Nothing too exciting other than we went to this pet store and played with puppies with an investigator. It was awesome. I have pictures, but I forgot my camera cord this week. Muhahaha, you all have to wait to see the adorable puppy :)

 

Tuesday: "Progress". What a day. We were all over the place. A super solid investigator dropped us, but we had a great lesson with Ermilisa that day. She is doing so much better. I was super worried about her for a while there, but when her meds are all right, she will be doing a lot better. We also had a fun lesson at Taylor and Travis's. They are really progressing. I can see the spirit talking to her and he is really trying to become a better member of the church by kicking his bad habits.

 

Wednesday: "Knowledge is Power... And Interesting". So, we had district meeting and the giant worldwide training broadcast for missionaries this day. My whole morning and early afternoon were filled with the spirit and awesome training. I felt so edified and I learned a lot. I have a greater resolve to work harder and refine some of my skills. This will help us take care of the extra work in Pensacola. That afternoon, my STL came by and we drove for three hours to the other side of the mission for an appointment we had. That was fun! I love her. While we were staying with some other missionaries that night, I met one who knows the missionary who taught me! Her companion also had a couple classes with me at BYU! How crazy is that?

 

Thursday: "Longest, Most Spiritual Day of 5 Months". I don't know where to begin. I had a very helpful appointment in Bristol, and then we drove back for another three hours. First we had super good, authentic fried chicken. Man I love that stuff. I picked up my companion again and we got to our lesson with Ermilisa. That night we ended up feeling like we needed to go to the bishop's house. I needed a bathroom anyways and we were in that neighborhood. While we were there, I felt impressed to ask his wife if she was reading her scriptures. She wasn't, so I helped her out a bit. Then, he felt impressed to ask if either of us wanted a blessing. I knew I had to say yes. That blessing really helped me with exactly what I needed. God truly is aware of all of us and knows our struggles. That family has truly become like my own family.

 

Friday: Lemons Make SWEET Lemonade". We were super busy this day. Just incredibly. I had my interview with the mission president. He gave me some great counsel and guidance. He really gets it! We tried visiting a lot of people from our new area that day. We had a ton of success! We are now teaching this woman from Peru (shout out to Mila!). I am so excited to work with them. I really want to speak Spanish now.

 

Saturday: "Long Day". This was a long and busy day. Days with the car are quite valuable. We had lessons all day. So many that we had no choice but to go through the Little Caesars drive through for a late dinner on our way to our last appointment. It was a rough, but gratifying day.

 

Sunday: "The Strangest Sabbath". Just an odd day. We saw Jonathan again! Church was super full with the new ward! Relief society was packed! Taylor and Travis invited us for dinner. The craziest thing happened. She left the pan of chicken on the hot stove. Being glass, it exploded all over the kitchen. While cleaning it up, the chicken caught on fire! Things were crazy! I helped her clean up the kitchen and we basically just laughed about it all night. That was not our most productive teaching appointment.

 

With that, I will bid you all farewell for this week. It makes me sad every time, because I love you all so much. I know that Christ truly is our Savior and that He knows you and your struggles better than you do. He is there to make up the difference every time you fall short. He has done it for me more times than I care to share. He loves you. Have a great week, all of ya!

-Sister Peterson