Monday, November 12, 2012

Letter #9 (Highlands)

Hello from Highlands!

It's been a wonderful week so far. We have two sets of missionaries in the Highlands ward. I serve with Elder Willard, and we also have Elder Langi and Elder Whaley. We are on car share, which means we take turns using the car for a week at a time. Whenever we don't have the car we are on bikes. So I've biked quite a bit this last week, but this week we have the car. I actually don't mind biking all that much. I'm really glad I got the bike that I did though. If I had gotten a mountain bike like they tell missionaries to get, I would not enjoy it as much :P

We didn't find anyone new to teach this week, but we have a few solid investigators. Edgar and Krystle have been meeting with the missionaries for a while. They'll be getting married at the end of this month and then baptized Dec 1st. For a long time, Krystle didn't want to get baptized, but she recently had a change of heart. However, she wants it to be a surprise for Edgar, so she "sits in" on the lessons, but is really there to learn what Edgar already has. We do a lot of less active work in this ward. They don't have a great retention rate for new converts, so that's something we're working with them on. I heard from Elder Scott and Amadi yesterday, and they told me that a lot of our investigators who weren't really progressing before I left all have set baptismal dates. SO exciting! I won't be able to be a part of the teaching, but I should be able to attend their baptisms. And they also had some potential investigators before I left that are now solid ones. So it's really awesome.

Elder Willard is such an amazing missionary! He's been our for about 8 months, and loves the work. He really takes his responsibility to finish my training seriously, which I really appreciate. He's a really awesome guy too. We get along really well. Sure, we have our disagreements, but we're able to joke and laugh a lot of stuff off. I could tell from the very beginning that he would be someone I would work well with and get along great with. We've had some really good talks about life and the gospel. I'm very grateful for the chance I have to serve with and learn from him. This is going to be a great transfer!

In my Book of Mormon study this week, I've been reading in the very beginning. It stood out to me that, even with all the trials and tribulations that Lehi and his family had to go through in the wilderness, they always gave thanks to the Lord by praying and offering sacrifice whenever something good happened. In our zone training this last week we studied a talk on the topic of grace. It's so amazing to me what Christ did for us, and that we really can't do ANYTHING without him. There is nothing we can do in this life to be saved. But the things we do in this life to follow His example are more about LEARNING heaven than EARNING heaven. We will not want to abide there for eternity if we didn't live this life like what was asked of us by God.

Have a wonderful week, everyone! Thanks for the love and support.

Elder Petersen

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