Letter #31

Hey ya'll!

Wow, this has been an awesome week! Wednesday was zone conference, which was, as always, so wonderful. It was President and Sister Summerhays's last zone conference with us, since they are leaving after next transfer, and that made the things they taught us even more special. President gave a training on the doctrine of Christ, focusing on repentance. We read and discussed 3 Nephi 27:13-22, and how everything that Christ did for us was by way of commandment from the Father, and that all we have to do is repent. I learned so much from that day about repentance, and it's such a wonderful gift that our Savior has given us. Even if we feel like we're doing everything that we need to be doing, we still all make mistakes every day, and repenting every day can relieve us when we feel weighed down by the things of the world, especially repenting for the little, seemingly harmless things. It's when we truly humble ourselves before God that we are able to give up our pride and let Him cleanse us of those little things that are keeping us from Him.

Saturday and Sunday was stake conference. Elder Cardon of the Seventy was at the conference. Wow, he is such a powerful speaker! The missionaries in the stake were invited to attend all the sessions of conference, so we got to go to the Priesthood leadership meeting, adult session, and general session. They were all really good meetings, and the Spirit was very strong. I learned a lot from his teachings about the Priesthood and following the counsel and advice of our leaders. In the general session, President Summerhays spoke about missionary work and how much we rely on the help of the members to find people to teach. He told the members of this stake that his hope for every missionary in the FTM is to never have to knock on another stranger's door ever again, because their time would be so filled with teaching appointments from member referrals. And we're starting to see some success from working with members.

Camille is our most recent investigator. She is renting a room from a member of the ward a few weeks ago and started asking them questions about where they go to church. She moved here from NY and is making a lot of huge changes to turn her life around. I can't described how everything happened, mostly because there are no words for the miracles that have taken place in her life, but we were able to teach her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. And by the way, she asked us if we would teach her; we did not approach her about it. At the end of our first lesson with her we invited her to be baptized. Her eyes got really big and she told us that had been talking with these members about that just a few days ago, and she said that yes, absolutely, she will work towards baptism. She is scheduled to get baptized on June 8th. We are so excited to keep teaching her, and she is so excited to keep learning and making changes, especially since she knows how good these changes are going to be for her.

There is also another couple that we're working with, Lance and Robin. Robin is a member, and pretty active, but Lance is not. However, he has heard the missionary discussions several times as grandchildren of his were taught in his home. We're going over this Friday to have dinner and a lesson. From a previous conversation we had with him a few weeks ago, it seems as if the only reason that he's not a member is because no missionary has very invited him to be baptized before. We're super excited to start teaching him.

We are really seeing miracle happen here in the Venice area. We're getting into doors that missionaries haven't been able to get into in years, if ever. The Lord is preparing His people and hastening His work. I know that as we engage ourselves in it, catch the wave, and bring a soul to Christ that we can find true joy and peace in this life and forever.

 

Elder Petersen

Letter #30

Dear family and friends,

 

This past week was a really hard week. We saw a lot of people, made a lot of phone calls, and did everything we knew how to find people that we could teach. And so far, we have no one new to add to our teaching pool. We did have a small miracle yesterday, though. We visited the High Priest group leader and his wife after church. We were able to leave the Savior's peace and blessing on the home, which hadn't been done with them before. And we got a referral from them, and they were very excited to tell us about this friend of theirs! We're starting to actually see excitement from ward members, and that is the absolute key to this work taking off. This transfer is almost over already, only a couple weeks left. It's the fastest transfer I've had so far. And it's weird, because it doesn't feel like a lot has happened so it seems like the time should be passing really slow.

 

I've been sick the past few days, so that's also been hard on us. I woke up Friday morning with a temperature of 101.2, a spliting headache, and feeling achey all over. I went ahead and ate breakfast and got ready for the day. I was bound and determined to have an awesome day and find someone to teach! But my body just couldn't do it, and we had to spend the day inside so I could rest and try to get better. My fever didn't go away till the next day, but then it came back later in the afternoon. I'm two days with no fever now, but I'm still completely out of energy and have no appetite. So that's my story for the week. Not very fun or entertaining, but that's what's been going on in my life.

 

On Wednesday we had a zone meeting. The training was about the story of the rich young ruler in Mark 10, who was instructed by Christ to sell all his earthly possessions and give to the poor. We talked about things that the Lord asks us to give up as missionaries, things that aren't bad, but that are keeping us from focusing all our attention on the Lord's work. And they aren't always things that we spend our time doing, but things we spend our time thinking about. It was a great time to reflect on what I spend my time doing and thinking about, and if it's all in line with my sacred calling.

 

This upcoming weekend is stake conference, and we will be having 2 general authorities in attendance. One of them is Elder Cardon, who came and spoke to the mission right before I came out, so all the missionaries older than me are pretty excited. And we also have Zone Conference this Wednesday. It's going to be a very week, full of the Spirit and many miracles, both large and small. Hope everyone else's week goes well for them!

Elder Petersen

Letter #29

Dear family and friends,

Another great week in Venice! Quick weather report. It's been sunny or partly cloudy most days, with a cool breeze (rarely over 80F) coming in off the Gulf. If it rains, it pours, but not for long, and we haven't had to bike in it...yet :P Very glad I'm here, as tolerable weather makes the work go smoother.

This transfer is already half way over. Crazy! Time is flying by! Days feel like weeks; weeks feel like days. We met with Angela twice this week. She can understand why we believe what we believe, and it makes sense to her. Except, since she's a VERY active Catholic, she has a hard time with the Apostasy. She is a SAHM and babysits another little boy, so she can't seem to find the time to read the Book of Mormon. Although she admits that she knows it's important if she's going to ever know if what we teach is true.

We have had a few great successes with some less-active members in the ward. We stopped by one brother's house this week. He told us that he hasn't been in a really long time, and since he lives with his parents, who are also not active, it makes it harder. But he told us he would definitely be at church on Sunday. And he was! And so many people went up to him and told them how glad they were to see him there.

We also were asked to go visit a part-member couple, which we did on Saturday. She is a member and is usually very active, but she is allergic to perfumes, and since most of this ward is old people, going to church and being around all the the old lady perfumes and old man colognes make her sick. Her husband is not a member but has had the missionary lessons several times while their grandkids were being taught. Anyways, they were very glad that we stopped by and we made a return appointment to have dinner and let us teach them the lessons.

I'm really excited for this coming week. We're starting to figure out which tactics work here and which ones don't. It's definitely not like any other place that either Elder Leavitt or I have served before. And since we were both new together to the area, it's taken time to figure this place out. We've really relied on the guidance of the Spirit to help us figure things out. People always comment on how missionaries always seem to figure locations and areas out in a matter of days and weeks, while they can live there for a few years and never get it. It's definitely the Spirit, as it helps us in our calling to spread the Gospel to all that will receive us, regardless of where they live.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

Elder Petersen

Letter #28

Dear family and friends,

What a wonderful week in Venice! As a follow-up to my explanation of the demographics here, I heard this joke this week: "All the old people live in Sarasota. All of their parents live in Venice." And it's so true. The average, and yes, AVERAGE, age in this area is 65. And that's even with the couple of fairly good-sized high schools and all the elementary schools in the area. But I can see why old people retire down here. Since it's right on the coast there's always a nice breeze coming in from off the Gulf. So it keeps a little warmer in the winter, and a little cooler in the summer.

This week has been a week of miracles! The sister missionaries that were here before us had a good-sized teaching pool, but a lot of them dropped off right before we got here. I guess the sisters were really hard on them and were a little too in their faces. But we've got in contact with few of them and things are picking up. We met one of them last night, a lady by the name of Teri. She's older and really good friends with several people in the ward. Last night, we taught her the plan of salvation with her friends from the ward. After the lesson we were able to talk with just her a little bit. She didn't talk really at all during the lesson, so it was a good chance to see what she thought about it. She told us that she has met with a lot of missionaries, but that she has never felt from them what she felt from us as we taught. She said she knew what we taught was true and that it just made so much sense to her. She's a big coffee drinker and knows that she will have to give that up if she wants to get baptized. She also knows that it's a huge decision to make and doesn't quite feel ready to make it yet. But she did say that she will be seeing a lot more of us and seems to be excited to keep learning.

Another miracle this week. There is a lady in the ward, Norma, who got baptized a few years ago. She lives with her daughter, Dolli, who is not a member. When Norma joined the Church, Dolli was extremely hostile towards the missionaries. Over time she has become friendly with the Church, but never would really learn more. We went over Friday to help her do some painting on the outside of her house. She then was willing to have a lesson. We talked about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She for the first time accepted a copy of the BoM, and she even came to Relief Society with her mom, neither of which she had done before. We are going back over tomorrow.

The third biggest miracle that happened this week happened with a less-active sister in the ward. When E Leavitt and I first got here, we were told by several people in the ward to go and see her. We stopped by several times. No body ever came to the door. We called her and nobody answered. And then Saturday morning, we get a call from this sister. She said that her life has been a downwards spiral ever since she stopped going to church and that she knew she needed to make some changes, and that they were going to be some very big changes. She told us that she would definitely be at church the next day. And she was, and she stayed the whole time! She has a teenage son who is not a member that she really wants to introduce us to.

When we first got to Venice, the sister missionaries had left us a note saying the the Venice ward had been hurt by elders in the past and wasn't excited to get elders again. The experience that I've had so far has been quite the opposite! Every member of the ward was so excited to have elders again, particularly the men of the ward. There is an excitement for missionary work in the ward that has been missing for a very long time, and the members are starting to become more involved as they see the power and influence of the Spirit in proclaiming the gospel. They're really starting to "catch the wave" :) And as much as they have needed elders in this ward to get the work moving, I have seen just how mindful the Lord is of my own personal needs because of the things I've learned and the people I've met just in my short time here so far.

Have a great week! Love you all.

Elder Petersen

Letter #27 (Venice)

Dear family and friends,

I'm going to have to keep it pretty short this week. Here in Venice, we email at the public library, so I have very limited computer time.

Venice is a quaint little town full of rich old people who don't want to hear about Jesus. But, a few miles east, and still in our area, is a little town called North Port. A lot of young families live there and already a lot is happening for us out there. The ward here is small, but really great. They have a few members that are really focused on missionary work. Everyone in the ward WANTS to do missionary work, but so few of them feel confident in doing it. So, along with the sister missionaries that we share the ward with, we will be working really hard to strengthen the already active members and their testimonies.

Elder Leavitt and I are getting along really well. He's a SUPER hard worker and wears me out! But we're getting a lot done, and it's always a good tired at the end of the day :)

We're teaching a girl named Angela. She's young, in her 20s, married (he's not interested in the gospel), and has two little girls. She's a VERY active Catholic, but wants to learn more about the Church. We had a really good lesson with her on the Book of Mormon. We've only met with her once, but I'm sure some more exciting stuff will happen with her. I'll keep you updated as the weeks go on. There is a lot of work to do with the less-active members of the ward here, so that, along with strengthening the active members, is probably going to be our biggest focus.

I'm really excited to be here in Venice. The weather is awesome, although really humid, but getting used to it. And good food too :)

Love you all, my time is up :P

Elder Petersen

Letter #26

Dear family and friends,

Well, transfer calls came Saturday morning. Elder Ellis is being transferred to serve in the office. I will be transferred to Venice North. We are being replaced by sister missionaries. I'm really nervous to leave Highlands. I've been here for 5 1/2 months now. I absolutely love the people here. But sisters will be awesome for this area; they'll be able to get a lot of stuff done that we weren't able to, especially with as many single women live here. It ruined Krystle's week when I told her I was leaving. I'm really sad that I won't be able to see her get baptized. They recently implemented the rule that we can't go back to old areas for baptisms. But I'm also still so excited for her. She's made a lot of changes just in the past week so that she will be ready, and she's also learned a lot in such a short amount of time. She's been meeting with the missionaries for MONTHS but now since she actually wants to learn, she's learning so fast. And it's so awesome to see :)

Laurie isn't getting baptized anymore. I guess meeting with us took up too much of her time and was interfering with her routine. But, we did a lot to help her increase her faith in Christ, so I don't feel bad about her dropping, even though it was sad to see.

So yeah, even though I'm sad to leave Highlands, I'm excited to go to Venice. I'm whitewashing with Elder Leavitt. Whitewashing means that both of us are new to the area. So it's going to be hard and crazy ridiculous, but so awesome! This has been a hard area for me, and I've really grown a lot from it. I just haven't seen a lot happen here with the people. But I'm going to take what I've learned with me to Venice, and I just KNOW that I'll be blessed to see the fruits of my labors there. But if not, I know that it will be okay, because I know that I will work hard and do all that I can to help the people there. 

I'm so grateful for this gospel and all that I have learned. I love my Savior and know that He is always there for every single one of us.

Have a great week!

Elder Petersen

Letter #25

Dear family and friends,

Yes, I know I didn't write last week. The previous week wasn't bad, it was just really mediocre and didn't seem worth writing about. But.

General Conference was amazing! As always. I was really impressed by the follow-up from the announcement last conference for the name change, and how so many speakers talked about the important of member missionary work. I also really enjoyed the emphasis that so many placed on the importance of family roles and relationships. My testimony of the sealing power and eternal families has definitely been strengthened by what was taught in this conference.

This past week went pretty slow. We stopped by Colleen's place the other night just to say hi, and we caught her getting ready to go somewhere. She seemed happy to see us and told us to give her a call this week to come over and see her and the kids. It was totally not the response we were expecting, but we're excited and hope to be able to start teaching her again. We weren't able to see Laurie at all, and she's still struggling with some things so she's not going to be able to get baptized this coming Sunday like we had planned. Ernie is doing well, but won't be able to get baptized until June at the earliest, is what it's looking like. But we've kept reading the Book of Mormon with him, and he really enjoys that.

And now for the biggest most wonderful awesomest news ever. 

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KRYSTLE IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!

We were over visiting with her and Edgard the other night, and we were talking about how answers come in different ways sometimes. She has always struggled finding her answer as to if this is the path that she needs to take. Then she made the comment that no matter how rough her week has been or how terrible her morning has been and how much she doesn't want to go to church, she always feels so much better when she just goes. And then she paused for a few seconds and said, "I guess that's the answer I've been looking for." And then she looked at me and said, "So I guess we can go ahead and schedule a baptism." I don't ever remember having a smile so big on my face before :D She pulled out her calendar and has decided that she wants to get baptized on the 21st of this month. SO ridiculously excited!

So, on a more personal note, thank you all who have been sending me packages. It's always great to get mail and packages. But I'm going to request that you cut back on the candy and chocolate. We seriously have enough to last us until next Easter, and this is including what we had left over from Christmas. Also, since mail comes in the middle of the day, packages are usually sitting out on the front porch during the hottest part of the day, and if there is chocolate contained therein, it's no good by the time we get home that night and take it inside. And that's just depressing.

Things are going good here. Transfers are this upcoming week so we'll see what happens with that. I'm so glad to be a part of this work though, and know that wherever I get sent, it's because the Lord needs me there.

Have a great week!

Elder Petersen