Letter #41

Dear family and friends,

It was a great week in Venice! Not anything too eventful, but just good. Robbie, one of the kids who came to church last week, is super interested. We had a really good lesson with him this week. His grandma and aunt are both members of the ward so that has been a help to him. He also has a friend, Daltyn, who's a member of the ward. He's less active, but since Robbie has shown interest, Daltyn is wanting to come back to church too. The only hang up with Robbie is his parents, since he's not 18 yet. He doesn't know how to tell his parents that he is interested, but he wants the gospel so bad. We have been praying for him and for his parents a lot.

We worked with a lot of less-active members of the ward this week. It's hard to help people get over the obstacles that are keeping them from coming to church. And most of them are because they don't feel worthy to come because it's been so long and there's something in their life that isn't in harmony with the Savior's teachings. One of the most important thing we can do for people is help them feel the power of the atonement and the strength that comes from taking the sacrament each week. That is, after all, the focus and the purpose of meeting as fellow-saints, is to remember Christ as we take the sacrament.

This upcoming week should be good. We've had 3 weeks in a row where we've been busy. We have zone conference tomorrow. I'm excited about that; conferences are always good. We went to a Tampa Rays baseball game on Saturday night. Some of the missionaries sang the national anthem. We got to stay all through the 7th inning, and then had to go because we had a bit of a drive. But it was overall pretty fun. Although not that I care much for baseball or the Rays in particular. But getting together with and seeing friends from the mission was great.

Oh my goodness I almost forgot! I got a phone call Saturday late morning from the elders in Lakeland. Ernie finally got baptized! And then I was able to give him call and talk with him some on Sunday afternoon. I'm so proud of him and the long way that he has come.

Well, that's just about it for this week. Love you all!

Elder Petersen

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