August 12, 2013

Oh my goodness.  This past week has been rather crazy.  So last week, Elder Jones and I had tracted into twk people that we thought were going to be...  well, the first one we thought was going to be agolden investigator.  When we knocked on M's door, she promptly expressed her interest in us coming back and we quickly set an appointment, and then was super happy about that.  J, the other person, we thought that he was going to get angry at us.  He is a devout member of the Church of Christ, and he invited us back because he enjoyed talking about religon, and the way that he said it, we thought he was going to immediately start bashing on our religon when we returned this past week.

 

So we stopped by M' house, and that conversation started off rather nicely.  We introduced ourselves, and talked a little about who we were.  Then M said that God places people in certain places for a reason, and she was excited to talk with us, which made us super happy and excited.  Then she proceeded to pull out this pamphlet that her church had printed, and started argueing that the Book of Mormon couldn't possible be true, because there is no DNA evidence of an Israelite migration from Jerusalem to the Americas.  And everything just went south from there.  We left and we are planning on going back, and explaining to M that were are not in Hillsboro to argue,but to invite others to come unto Christ, and if she wants to argues, then we will leave, but if she wants to talk and listen to our message, then we are more than happy to talk with her.

 

So next we went over and met J.  He on the other hand, was a very nice man.  He is a retired police man, and he was very polite.  We spent about 45 minutes talking about him and jsut getting to know him.  It was a very nice visit, and we set up a time that we can return and talk to him about the Book of Mormon. 

 

Wow, talk about not judging.  Lesson of the week.  Do not judge, you will always be wrong.  HAHA just kidding, but be carefull when you meet people.  Looks can be decieving.

 

Then, we were able to contact one of the referrals that we had recieved in the first week out.  It turns our that Sister S's daughter is nine, has not been baptized and really really wants to be.  Talk about a miracle!!!  We were able to teach K the first discussion, and commit her to bing baptized on the  7th of September!!.  Then on Sunday, while we were out tracting, we found two more people who invited us in, and we taught them the first discussion, commited them to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, and we have a return appointment this wednesday, and they want to feed us dinner.  WOW, they were super receptive, and really liked the message that we shared with them.  I am excited to see how this area will keep growing. 

August 5, 2013

Things this past week have been really slow.  We have done a lot of tracting and finding activities.  Unfortunately the area book is really hard to read especially since the last elders both had terrible hand writing, and they left no notes on when appointments were, or anything like that.  So the past couple days we have spent trying to call, knock on doors, do anything to set up appointments with the people that the elders were teaching. 

 

Hey so remember when I told you guys about the elder that tried to headbutt me?  He was one of the last 2 elders in the area that I am in now.  It is kinda weird.  He keeps reoccurring in the areas that I go to.  It is really strange.

 

We were able to make contact with one person that the last elders were teaching.  We taught him last night.  His name is D.  He drives trucks so his schedule is super crazy.  It was really kinda interesting how we got into contact with him.  We were coming in for the night, and just getting ready to put our bikes away when he called us.  That was the first time that some one has called us and told us that he wants us to teach him.  It was awesome.  Then when we went to go teach him, we were able to read Mosiah 4 with him, and talk a lot about church attendence.  He said that nothing would be holding him back, but you could tell that he was scared and that he didn't really want to go.  But the Spirit was strong when we were testifying about the importance of church attendance, so hopefully he will remember that and he will want to go to church.

 

Newsflash!!!

 

Tracting actually works.  While we were out tracting this past week,  both times, right before appointments, we have been able to find people who are willing to listen to us.  The first time was on Tuesday.  We were out right before dinner on the edge of our area, and it was going to be one of the last doors that we knocked, and a woman answered the door, and she said that she would be interested in listening and learning more about the Book of Mormon.  She said that she would be availible on Wednesday at 10, so we are headed back to teach M.  HAHA it was awesome.  Then on Saturday, we were going over to the bishop's house to meet with him, and we got there a little early, so we decided to go and knock on some doors.  This time, it was only a few houses in when a woman knocked on the door, and she said that no, they were not interested in converting, but her husband would love to talk to us.  Then her husband walked around the corner and said  "Yes, I would love to talk religon.  We are devout members of the Church of Christ."  And so we set up a time that we could come back.  Hopefully he is actually wanting to have an intelligent conversation, and not try to bash or bible thump with us.  But those are our tracting successes this week.  I am excited to see how this next week works out.

 

Love you

 

Elder Peterson 

July 30, 2013

Wow.  Things have just gone by so fast.  It has been so crazy.  In Molalla, I am not entirely sure if I can straighten out what all has happened.  I just remeber Saturday, and the excitement and stress of the transfer calls.  I am now Training!!! AAH.  I was totally tripping out!!  My new companion is Elder Jones.  I got transferred out of Molalla, and now I am on bike in the Beaver Creek ward in Hillsboro.  Talk about a transition.  Molalla, I covered aver 100 square miles of land, lived in a decently sized apartment, had a car and covered two wards.  Now in Hillsboro, I cover one ward, about 15 square miles, riding a bike, and live in a single room with the ward mission leader.  Important.  I am not complaining.  This is awesome.  I am so excited to go out and have this chance to help Elder Jones start his mission strong.  Kinda funny. So we went out for a run this morning, and since both of us are new to the area, we both proceeded quickly to get lost and ended up running all over the ward and trying to find the ward mission leaders home again.  We were fortunately able to get back on time so that we could clean up and get ready for studies and start on time.  It was super funny.  But when we looked in the missionary fridge, there was almost no edible food.  The last elders had left pretty much nothing for us, so we had a cup of jello and I had a small bowl of cottage cheese.  I am so glad that we are shopping today, because I am more than ready for real food.

 

Love Elder Peterson

 

Just remember,  Life is fun, but short.  Make the most of it.  Now is the time to prepare to meet God.

July 23, 2013

Wow,  I don't even know where to start.  Things are really kinda interesting.  So this past week, we were informed that we were going to be having the Spanish Missionaries coming with us to every dinner because the Spanish branch is really small and they cannot support 5 missionaries.  But at the same time, this means that we can all work closer together to find people.  This past week we received a referral from the Spanish missionaries, but the referral, a girl name F, is not returning any texts or calls.  She sounded like she was super strong and wanting to learn, but we haven't been able to contact her. Hopefully she is still interested.

But good new!!  We were out in Beavercreek on Saturday contacting people on a part member family list, and we stopped by the first family.  It turns out that family had moved or something, because the woman that answered the door was not the person we were trying to contact.  We didn't find that out until after we had shared a spiritual thought with her, and she seemed like she would be interested in learning more about the gospel.  

On Sunday, A. B. came home from the Brasilia Brazil mission, and he said that he wanted to come out to all of the appointments that we had, so now we have someone that we can rely on to go with us to our different lessons!!!

Then this Monday, we were asked to teach A's mom.  So we went over and taught her the first discussion, and she accepted a soft baptismal commitment!!!  A had been teaching her and she gave her mom a copy of the gospel principles book and her mom had been reading out of it.  She wrote down her questions and we were able to have a wonderful conversation about the importance of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then since it was P-day, we went out to Oregon city and watched 17 miracles as a district.  Oh my goodness, it was amazing.  I nearly cried watching it!  It was so good.

Love Elder Peterson

July 15, 2013

This past week was really good.  We started out by hiking Pechuck Lookout.  It was a good four hour hike up the Molalla River Corridor, and it was a blast!  It had a great view and it was really fun.  We then ran the way down, and that took about 45 minutes to run.  On Wednesday, I went on an exchange with Elder Crocket, my district leader.  For the first time, I left my area on an exchange.  I went over to Oregon City 3rd ward.  There we had some really great lessons.  We were definitely able to capitalize on some of the comforting scriptures in the Bible, and the Spirit was super strong while we were teaching.  It was a really great experience.  On Thursday we have been keeping really busy, so doing weekly planning has been a little hard to sit down and do all at one time.  We were able to go out and teach M, N, and about  4 other people.  It was an awesome day!!  But the highlights of the week were when we taught the S.'s.  They haven't come to church as a family the entire time I have been in Molalla, and we taught them about eternal families and being sealed in the temple.  The lesson got a little uncomfortable because apparently, that is a touchy subject for them. But the entire family committed to coming to church, and reading and praying as a family,  and they all came to church on Sunday!!!  Then that night, we were able to baptize E.  She had been coming to church for the past three years, and she was baptized yesterday.  We had a little scare though.  The font filler never showed up, so when we arrived at the church 30 minutes before the baptism, the font was empty.  And the font takes 1 and a half to 2 hours to fill!!.  The miracle happened when enough people showed up to move the service to the chapel, so we could keep filling the font for another 30 minutes, giving us enough time to fill the font enough.  But the service was awesome!!

Love Elder Peterson

July 9, 2013

Wow things are really going by fast.  This past week we were finally able to meet with one of our investigators.  His name is S.  He has recently started working at a berry cannery around town, so he has been working all sorts of crazy work times.  So unfortunately all of our previous attempts to contact him have fallen through.  But this past week, due to wonderful technology and texting, we were able to get a hold of him and set up a time to meet with him.  We met with him on Wednesday, and it was an awesome pick-me-up spiritually.  We taught him the law of tithing ( a little note:  the pamphlets are awesome, but teaching from them definitely is not the most effective way to bring the spirit in).  It was the first time that I have not used the  tithing  pamphlet to teach the lesson, and the spirit was so much stronger.  It was also a little bit of a touchy subject for him, especially since that was what had driven him away from the 7th day Adventist church that he had previously attended.  We asked him what he felt about the Book of Mormon after we had finished teaching the law of tithing.  He then told us that he had been slacking off on reading the Book of Mormon because of his busy schedule, but he had recently decided to bring it with him to work, so that during his break, he could read it, and then because he was alone most of the time during work, he would think about what he had read.  He told us about an experience that he had, and then he told us that he felt like the Book of Mormon is true.  We asked him what he thought the next step for him would be, and he said that it would be baptism, and we are setting a baptismal date with him tomorrow when we meet with him.

So yeah things are going awesome in the Molalla River ward, but not so much in the Canyon Creek ward.

Recently the Canyon Creek ward has slowly started to die.  Less and less people have been showing up to work, less-actives have been cancelling appointments, and our investigators are slowly disappearing.  So this past Fast Sunday, Elder Barlow and I bore our testimonies in church hoping that it would help to spark a couple referrals.  Then unexpectedly, the ward missionaries got up one at a time, and pretty much chastized the ward for not coming to church and not being supportive of missionary work.  But one thing that really stuck out to me was what one of the people that Elder Barlow and I have recently reactivated.  She got up and bore her testimony on why she came back to church and the joy she felt when she came back.  She then said that it hurt when people would make fun of the lack of attendance in the ward.  She said that she wanted to bring everyone with her to God because she knew it would make them happy and she wanted those people to experience that same joy.  Then Sister A got up and bore her testimony of church attendance.  She talked about an investigator we have been working with who cannot go to church because of her family but wants to desperately.  We are fortunate to only have our beds in that way of going to church, while others cannot because of restricted agency. 

We then got a referral from a member in Canyon Creek after church, which was awesome.  But sacrament meeting was really good in Canyon Creek.

Love 

Elder Peterson

Exercise your agency to your fullest capability.