Letter #63

Hey everyone!

What a great week it's been! First off, I'll be transferring tomorrow. Sad day :( It's always hard when you leave an area that you've been in so long, when you get to know and love the people so much. But it is also exciting to be able to move to a new area and get to meet the people there and build similar relationships.

Donavan was baptized and confirmed this weekend, along with his younger brother, Devon. Their parents came to church for the confirmation, although they are not members. It was Testimony Meeting, and at the end, Donavan's dad got up to express his thanks for what the Church has done for his sons. Even though he doesn't believe the same as us, he loves the emphasis on missionary work, and can tell that Christ is the center of our religion, which he very much appreciates. Donavan and Devon have some awesome opportunities there to help their parents accept the gospel. They are both very excited for the priesthood and being able to do baptisms in the temple.

Overall, everything is doing just great! I have been learning so much, about the gospel, and about just life in general. Everything that they say about the mission preparing you for life and marriage is so true. Even though I'm not quite there yet, I can tell how my experiences here will help me in my future, be it professional, church, or family related.

Love you all, have a great week! I'll let you know my new address next week.

Elder Petersen

Letter #62

Hey everyone!

Hope you had a good week, because I sure did! Started off by spending Monday night through Wednesday morning in downtown Tampa. We spent the whole time walking around the streets talking to people and inviting them to learn more. Not a lot of the people we met actually live in Tampa, but we had a good time and some very fun conversations. It was a great way to get out there and let people know who we are and where they can find out more about what we believe. There are so many people out there who need this message. They need to know how to find the lasting inner peace that can come only through Christ.

It's crazy the changes that are happening in missionary work. It's a really exciting time. The "how" might be changing, but still the "what" and "why" are staying the same. We still preach the gospel, and we still do it so everyone can have an opportunity to repent and come unto Christ.

Mario and Emily were baptized and confirmed this weekend! I've been teaching them the longest since I've been in this area. I love that family so much, and to be able to see the changes that have occurred and the good that has come into their lives because of the gospel is one of the greatest things in the world. We have so many new members in this ward, and they're all doing so well. Some of them, along with some who have recently returned to the Church, have recently gone to the temple for the first time. The stake president came a couple weeks ago and did 6 (SIX!) first-time recommend interviews. He said that may have been a record for him in one ward. Watching people prepare for that and seeing the happiness that comes because of it is so wonderful. Great changes are happening in the lives of the Florida people. I'm so happy I get to labor in this part of the vineyard for a short time.

I've been re-reading last October's General Conference. The words of living prophets and apostles are important. We need to know what they are teaching us. They know what's going on in this world, and they know how to get through it. If we heed their messages, we will be blessed and be able to navigate through our troubles and obstacles with faith and hope. If it's been a while since you've read a recent General Conference talk, you should find the time this week to do it. It's gonna be great, I promise!

Love you all, hope you have a great week!

Elder Petersen

Letter #61

Hey everyone!

It's been an exciting week in the Florida Tampa Mission! I would have sent this on my new iPad mini, but I'm not used to it yet, and the keyboard is frustrating sometimes. That's right! We have iPads here now. We're one of only 30 missions in the world to have them right now, so it's exciting. It's a completely different way of doing things! We're completely paperless. Our daily planners and area books are all on our iPads, so we don't have to do hand-written paperwork anymore. And it helps us stay accountable for the work we do, since if we want it to count, it has to be entered electronically. We also have the Gospel Library, so I don't use my paper scriptures or Preach My Gospel anymore, even for my own studies. And we also have all our teaching material on there, so we use them when we teach people we can show them pictures and videos. We can teach people over video chats if we can't visit them in person. Essentially, all we carry around anymore are our iPads, a few pamphlets that overview what we teach that we can give to people, and a few free copies of the Book of Mormon. We've only had them a few days, but we're almost all transitioned from the old system and we can already tell that there is going to be a lot of good happening with this. It's allowing us to do a lot more in the same amount of time, so we're able to reach a lot more people and help them learn and understand the Gospel.

Let's see what else. Mario and Emily are getting baptized this week! We're super excited for them. The members here love that family and take such good care of them. We also had a new family move in. The husband, Michael, is not a member, but he came to church already knowing that he wants to get baptized. Which is awesome! There is something going on in Florida and we can't figure it out. But stuff like this is happening all over the mission. Peoples' hearts are softening to hear the truth, realizing that there's something else out there that they're missing out on and that's causing a void in their lives. And so without realizing it sometimes, they start searching for it. And when they hear the message about modern prophets and apostles, the hope of life after death, and eternal families, they soak it up like a sponge. And it's because it's true. The only true lasting peace and joy comes from Christ and living His Gospel and commandments. And it's the greatest thing to be able to see others make those changes in their lives.

Hope you all have a good week! Love you all

Elder Petersen

Letter #60

Dear family and friends,

It's been such an awesome week! Elder Putnam and I received a special invitation to attend the Mission Leadership Council on Wednesday. Two brethren from the Missionary Department were there and gave the training. It was so awesome! We learned so much about our purpose as missionaries, the importance of ordinances, and why we have people do certain things as we teach them and prepare them for baptism. And when I say we learned so much, I mean, we learned. So. Much. SO MUCH! It hurts my head right now to think about it all haha. We've also been doing a lot more street contacting. It's a lot of fun! Never really done much of it until now, but President Cusick has put a big emphasis on it. He wants us out and being seen in public, and the mission as a whole is really experiencing so awesome stuff because of it. And we have nice weather most days so people are actually out and in good moods so they don't mind us approaching them. Most of the time :P

Everything else is going well, too. Mario and Emily are reading a lot from the Book of Mormon, and coming to church, and loving it! Mario is loving being a part of the Elders Quorum, and Emily is making a lot of friends in Young Women. Emily's little brother, Giovanni, is also starting to come to church more, and actually liking it. He's come a few times in the past but was always bored. He's been involved a lot with the Young Men and their activities, which helps a lot. It gives him something to look forward to.

Rusty is going really good. He's working on overcoming some personal challenges so he can be ready to get baptized. He knows it's all true, but he also knows that making changes isn't easy.

I love the Lake Hamilton ward. The members here are so awesome! You can't not be involved in the work and not know it's the Lord's work. The Book of Mormon is so powerful! If you're not reading it, you need to be. Because really, it's only a 500 page book. You have time for that! And it will change your life for the better so much!

Love you all so much. Have a great week!

Elder Petersen

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