Letter #59

Dear family and friends,

I'm going to keep it short and sweet this week, not a lot to tell about, and not much time left to write anyways.

Everyone that we've been working with is doing awesome! We've seen some awesome miracles with people progressing in the gospel. There is so much power in prayer and the scriptures!

We had a mission-wide conference with Elder Kopischke of the Seventy on Saturday. It's always an awesome experience to have a General Authority of the Church speak. He talked about the higher law of obedience, not just being obedient to the rules and commandments, but being obedient to the promptings that come from the Holy Ghost. That's the hardest to do sometimes, because those promptings come in such a quiet, subtle way that it can be hard to distinguish between your own thoughts, which may or may not be such a good idea all the time, and the promptings of the Holy Ghost. So, like Nephi, you just go and do.

We also had a regional Stake Conference broadcast with Elder Nelson presiding. All the speakers talked a lot about the importance of obeying the commandments, the one most frequently mentioned to keep the Sabbath Day holy. It really is such an important commandment. When you don't observe the Sabbath, life just gets hectic and crazy and there's not enough time to do anything. But when your priorities are in order, and you keep this commandment, the Lord blesses you with the wisdom and ability to think clearly and make your way through life, much like He does when we pay our tithing. You want a happy life? Keep the commandments. They're not just God's laws. They're His instruction manual to us on how to navigate this life and make it back to His presence. The adversary is sly and cunning, but if we keep the commandments we can easily perceive when he's trying to lead us away.

Which leads me back to the scriptures and prayer. If we do those two things faithfully, everything else falls into line like it needs to. But be patient with yourself; you're not perfect yet. Just keep trying and doing what's right.

Love you all!

Elder Petersen

Letter #58

Dear family and friends,

Well, transfer calls were this week. Elder Putnam and I will be staying together in Lake Hamilton! We're excited; we've been getting some good work done and have so much yet to do here. So, with Christmas coming up, please send all mail and packages directly to my apartment. The mission office has requested this as they usually get very overloaded this time of year. So as a reminder, my address is

Elder Jarom Petersen

921 E. Main St

Haines City, FL 33844

And I've thought a little bit more about what I want. So if music and ties isn't what you want to get me and you're still out of ideas, Target, Walmart, Subway, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's gift cards are also acceptable :) We go to those places a lot...

This week was awesome! Richard was confirmed yesterday. Awesome! He's doing really well.

Felicity is getting baptized this Saturday! SO excited! She's been coming to church every week for a while and she always enjoys it. She loves studying the words of modern prophets. She reads any book she can get her hands on that's published by the Church. Her hunger for knowledge is so cool :) As much as I love learning, it's even more rewarding to watch someone else learn, especially when it's something as important as the gospel.

We've been getting so many referrals the past couple of weeks, most of them being from Church headquarters, which is rare. I think we've gotten more HQ referrals the past two weeks than I have my entire mission put together. But they've all been so positive, which is also rare! One of them was two teenage boys, Donovan and Devin, whose grandparents are members over in the Orlando mission. We went over and the first question they asked was "When can we get baptized?" Uh, what?! Not used to that question! So awesome! We have been seeing so many miracles here. The ward is really being blessed. This area has typically been mostly old, retired people. Well, within the past month we've had two young families move from Utah that have tripled our youth and primary programs. And they're HUGE helps in the missionary work. And we're meeting so many younger people who are sincerely interested in listening to our message. And with the Christmas season here, peoples' hearts are being softened as they reflect on the birth, life, and mission of the Savior.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting on that as well the past week, and especially yesterday with the Christmas Devotional. That's always my favorite part of Christmas. Really, the season doesn't start for me until the Devotional. It's always a special time to spread the gospel message. It's really the one time of year that the Spirit of Christ just permeates everything. Even as people get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season, doing shopping and finishing up school and work projects before the end of the year, they still recognize that there's something special about this time of year.

As many of you know, I've always loved the church hymns, and I didn't think I could love them any more. But I do. The past few months I've caught myself as I sing in church actually paying attention to the words I'm singing. As my understanding and appreciation for the scriptures and the Atonement have grown, my understanding behind the sacred words of the hymns has grown as well. They really do teach the gospel in a simple and beautiful way. So next time you're singing in church, think about the words you're singing and let them have personal meaning to you. You'll learn so much and your faith will increase. And you will greater understand our purpose in going to church. It's not to socialize, it's to worship the Lord. And music is one of the greatest ways we can do that.

I love you all. Hope you have a great week and merry Christmas season!

Elder Petersen

Letter #57

Dear family and friends,

What a great week! Richard got baptized on Sunday (yesterday). It was a great service. He's such a funny guy and is so happy to finally be baptized.

Thanksgiving was awesome! We had dinner with a part-member family with a ton of their friends there.

The work is really picking up here. We have been so busy the past couple of weeks and it's only getting busier. SO great!

So, for Christmas, ties and music are always appreciated. I know, I'm a difficult person to shop for. I even have a hard time with it haha. So, I don't know. I'll love whatever I get. Just make it good :)

Love you guys! Thanks for all the love and support you give. Have a great week!

Elder Petersen

Letter #56

Dear family and friends,

It's been such a good week! Richard is getting baptized on Saturday. He met with missionaries a lot many years ago and has finally decided that it is time for him. He's a funny old guy, and he wants the Lord in his life and in his heart.

Mario, Felicity's husband, has decided that he wants to be baptized with his wife! SO awesome! Felicity could just do it now, but she wants to wait for Mario. He's going to take a little bit more work to help him understand, but I have faith in the converting power of the Spirit. We had a great lesson with them this week and we re-taught the Restoration after showing them the baptismal font. The Spirit was so strong and Mario said he was ready. This week was our ward Primary program, which was so good, and they loved it too. They participate in all the classes and volunteer to help with activities. They're just so awesome. December will be a good month for them :)

This area is growing so well. It's exciting to see the members catch the spirit of Hastening the Work. It's true, the Lord is hastening His work, and He blesses those who anxiously engage themselves in it. He is preparing people every day to hear the message of His restored gospel. The whole FTM is experiencing the miracles. I'm so grateful that I'm able to serve the Lord and labor in this spot of ground in the vineyard. The things I learn, the miracles I witness every day. God lives, He loves each and every one of us, He has a plan for our happiness, and that plan is following Christ and being instruments in doing His work. "For what could I write more than my fathers have written? For have not they revealed the plan of salvation? I say unto you, Yea; and this sufficeth me." I've been re-reading and studying General Conference, and I would hope you would all do the same. It is the words of living prophets and apostles, and they teach us the way.

I love you all so much; have a great week!

Elder Petersen

Letter #55

Dear family and friends,

Well, the Acostas are getting baptized! At least the mom, Felicity, is. Mario, the dad, told us last night that he will be at church next week and he will have made his decision by then. It was so awesome last night to have that discussion with them. Felicity has been coming to church for a while now and has made several friends. She hasn't had very many positive experiences lately with her other church. We taught them about baptism and those covenants and the gift of the Holy Ghost last night. And after a long talk about the Book of Mormon and how she likes church and Elder Putnam and I sharing experiences about how the church and the priesthood has blessed our lives and how it will bless their family (I shared a story about how I wasn't sure if I was ready to leave home and go to college when I did), she finally said, "Well, I'm ready to go to college." And we just sat there for a couple minutes in silence, Elder Putnam and I wondering if we really heard what we thought we did. And so I asked her what she meant. And she went on about how she's ready to make this church her home and she knows it's the place that God wants her. And then she accepted the invitation to be baptized on Dec 14th! Such a good end to the week!

I think that's pretty much all I have to say. We've been working with them for so long. It was a great lesson to me in patience and relying on the Lord's time.

Actually, I just remembered one other thing. We started teaching Kathy this week. Her niece used to be a member of this ward and referred us to her. Kathy is later in her years and has been to a lot of churches. But she's never found the one where she could find her niche and call home. After meeting with her earlier this week, we set up a time to come back and invited her to church. She accepted. Well, she called the day of our appointment and said she was sick. Past experience has taught me that we just lost her. Well, not so much. She called us Sunday morning about 45 min before church started and asked if it was too late for her to come. She has poor vision and can't drive, but a couple of phone calls and we had a ride for her. We talked with her after church and she was beaming from ear to ear! She was so excited that she made it and is eager to have us over this week to teach her more.

We also started teaching Richard this week. He's met with missionaries before and been going to church a lot for many years. He came up to us last week and told us he's ready to get baptized. We are seeing him again tomorrow.

So, this week has been wonderful. Definitely feel overwhelmed at times with my many responsibilities as a missionary. But I find great strength as I study the words found in the scriptures and the words of our living prophets. I love my Savior; this truly is His work.

Love you all so much
Elder Petersen

Letter #54

Hey everyone!

Well, it's been a great week! We have a lot of really great stuff going on, a lot of new people we are teaching. One lady that we are teaching, Noemi, has agreed to be baptized at the end of this month! We're so excited for her. She was being taught in Tampa and then just moved here. She's been taught everything, and so we are helping her to keep all her commitments and come to church so she can be prepared. We've seen a lot of miracles as we work hard. We have so much work to do and there is no time to sit around and do nothing. We're so busy with teaching investigators and less-actives. This is going to be a great week!

Elder Petersen

Letter #53

Dear family and friends,

To start off, my new companion is Elder Putnam. He's from Bountiful, UT. He's great and super hard working. We've gotten so much stuff done and have the rest of this transfer pretty much all mapped out as to what we're going to do. There's a lot of work to be done here in Lake Hamilton. It's no small task. But we are hastening the work of salvation. I was reading the allegory of the olive tree this morning in my studies. Possibly my favorite chapter right now in the Book of Mormon. Something that really stuck out to me as I read was how the Lord of the vineyard emphasized over and over again that his servants who worked diligently would share in the reward of the fruit that would be gathered. The other big thing I noticed was that the Lord of the vineyard did a lot of things that didn't always make perfect sense to the servant, but he reminded his servant that he did it "for mine own purpose." It really got me thinking about everything that the Lord does, and has done, since the very beginning that most of the time we don't understand. But when the end comes, we will understand the purposes and the wisdom of the Lord.

This week has been really good. The Acostas are doing really well. We had an awesome lesson with them last night. We read 2 Ne 32 with them, and the mom was asking some awesome questions about baptism and the sacrament. This is possibly the best lesson we've ever had with them. It's so clear that she wants so bad for it to be true. She loves the idea of eternal families, and talks about it every time we go over. Last night she had a huge smile on her face as she was talking about the whole family being dressed in white and being "tied together forever." Really, her only struggle is getting used to our church services. Because she picks up stuff so fast and she's learned so much, and when she has questions she so readily accepts our answers. The Spirit was so strong in our lesson last night with them. The dad might take a little longer to come around, but he loves the Book of Mormon and how easy it is to understand in comparison to the Bible. So things are going super good with them.

Well, I'm way excited for this coming week. We're going to get so much stuff done, this area isn't even going to know what hit it! Love you guys, hope you have a great week.

Elder Petersen