Emails about the ACL

I have not had a flu shot

I love you

Elder Peterson

On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 3:16 PM,

I spoke to Sister Morby today and President Morby last night.  They said you were coming home and Pres Morby wanted me to get on making doctors appointments.  Sister Morby said you would come home on Monday and land at 1 p.m.  Right now, you have an appointment with Dr. Wells on Wed morning at 8:40, but if we get you back to Alpine by about 3 or so, they may try to squeeze you in on Monday afternoon.

We've moved Michael back upstairs so that you can have the bedroom on the main level.  I've also got a transport chair (like a wheelchair except it doesn't have large back wheels so you have to be pushed) for you. 

Have you had a flu shot?? If not, we'll take care of that, too. 

Wish you weren't hurt, but looking forward to seeing you. 

Love,
Mom

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Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 14:39:28 -0800

Subject: Re: Dr appt

Pres. Morby send in the info to salt lake this morning, and they will get back to him about what is going on with the surgery process.  He said that they are most likely going to send me back for surgery and recovery, and it would be covered by the church, but there is a small possibility that I would stay out in the field for the surgery and recovery process.

I quick all pain medications this morning, except for at night.

Love Elder Peterson

On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 1:34 PM,

Okay, I'm probably a little slow here.  You said you were "probably being sent home for surgery, not for sure yet" (You should see all the typos I'm making and correcting.  You'd know I was slow.)  So who decides for sure, and do you know when they'll decide and when it will be?

Oh, and in switching to over the counter meds, go with Tylenol or acetaminiphen (generic Tylenol).  Ibuprofen can cause problems with bleeding and they don't like people to have it in the 2 weeks or so before surgery if at all possible.

Love You!!

Rebekah

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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 13:28:05 -0800

Subject: Re: Dr appt

yeah, all of the info is going with me.  we are contacting the mri place to get a copy of the mri.  Pain is tolerable. I am on hydrocodone.  but they are suggesting starting to move to over the counter pain meds.  I am so excited for that .  I hate walking around in a cloud all day.

On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 1:19 PM, Rebekah Peterson

When will you know? Who decides and when would it be. If at all possible, you need to bring the MRI films and report with you for the doctor here. I love you. Is the pain under control?  Mom

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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 13:08:47 -0800
Subject: Re: Dr appt

tore my acl.  official.  probably going to be sent home for the surgery.  not for sure yet

On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 12:08 PM,

Please let us know the outcome of your appointment as soon as you can. Love you!  Mom

Transfer 9, Week 1 January 20, 2014

So many things have happened this past week.  On Monday, I found out that I was training, and met my new companion Elder Gray.  He is an amazing person, ready to get to work, and is really obedient.  All of which is really good.  I guess, the only bad thing that happened this week was that I hurt my knee.  But that doesn't really matter.

So miracles for this week:

So, obviously when I hurt my knee, I was told that I was no longer allowed to bike.  And the mission has no extra cars.  But Wednesday night, we got a call and we were told that the APs were coming to drop off a car for us.  I talked to President Morby about it later, and he said that he has no idea how things opened up, but somehow things worked out, and we were able to get a car.  The ironic thing was that I cannot drive because of my knee, and my companion didn't have driving privileges because he didn't send in his driving record. But its all good, we worked things and Elder Gray is now driving.

At the training meeting, the opening song was How Firm A Foundation.  I loved the part where it was talking about how the lord will help us to stand.  The Holy Ghost was super strong at that point.  Honestly, I cried every day up until that point, and the only comfort that I could find was in the scriptures and through prayer.  And only because the Holy Ghost was there.  He truly is a comforter.

On Friday, Y and D came with us to the Visitor's Center.  They had a great experience.  They had a lot of questions, and the Spirit was super strong.  Unfortunately, I was on drugs (because of his torn ACL) at the time, and wasn't able to feel it very much.  It is really kinda strange how much chemicals mess with being able to feel the Spirit.  The Lord had it right when he told us to stay away from all the word of wisdom stuff.

After going to the Visitor's Center, we went to get my MRI done.  It was really loud, but that doesn't matter.  The amazing part came after the MRI was over.  We were sitting down waiting for our ride to come pick us up, and one of the receptionists started closing up.  She told us that she had to wait for us to leave before she could leave, so she sat down and waited.  We were able to start up a conversation, and started talking to her about the Plan of Salvation and committed her to going to the Visitor's Center, and requesting missionaries at mormon.org.  It was really great!

On Saturday, X and Sister S were baptized.  That is a miracle, but another miracle happened as well.  So earlier in the week, the Spanish Missionaries called us and talked to us about their baptism that was happening two hours before ours.  We talked for a little bit, and we asked them to leave the font filled for our baptism.  That way we could drain it a little, then add hot water and make it warm again.  When we got to the baptism, the font was empty.  The Relief Society room was dark, and nothing was set up.  So we quickly started to set up things and got the font filling.  The miracle is that the font filled in only 1 hour.  Usually it takes 2 or more hours to get the font to fill up.  It was amazing.

Last miracle.  At dinner last night, we asked the P's if there was anyone that they knew that would be willing to listen to the missionary discussion's and they told us about one of the people on Sister P's visiting teaching route.  So we are going to stop by tomorrow and see if Sister R is willing to listen to us.  Hopefully we will be able to help her to come back to church.

So it has been a really good week so far.

Love 

Elder Peterson

Mom's Update

So the day after his letter on January 13th, David put up a Facebook status saying he thought he'd torn his ACL.  My heart just sank.  This mama's heart really wanted to be there, to help him ice it, get him in to be seen, ask the doctor the questions.

Bless his Mission Mom, she did it for me.  And over the next week or so, we found that it had indeed been completely torn, and he was going to have to come home for surgery.

It was a rough time for him.  It really was.  I think he was a bit bored, and a lot of the time, in a tremendous amount of pain.  But he worked hard.  I am so honored to be his mother.  Even when he felt completely down and out the first couple days after surgery, he did not give up.  I know at times he wanted to, but he didn't.

I think sometimes when the pain is overwhelming, we just have to keep breathing, one single breath at a time, and lean on someone who can help.  We have angels around us to bear us up, both those on this side of the veil and those on the other side.  And there is always One who knows our pain, deeply, intimately, and He is always there.

And it was so touching to watch as David leaned on Him and worked his way back out into the mission field, right on his target date and before a lot of others thought it was possible.

Transfer 8, Week 6 January 14th, 2014

So crazy things first.  I am training again.  I am still in Riverside, so I am not whitewash training.  But Elder Ogden has gotten transferred.  We were only together for 6 weeks, so it was a little bit of a shock.  We got along really well, and worked together really well.  Really we were doing a lot of things really well together, so we had been hoping that we would be left together for a little longer.

But, I have decided to get back into recording daily miracles.  It turns out that you can remember them better that way.  Huh, funny how that works.

So last monday, we got a call from the S family.  Sister S and her two oldest kids, X and A, had gotten their names removed from Church records about four years ago.  They have been working to get back to the point that they can be baptized, and they have finally been approved for baptism!!!!   So Sister S and X are getting baptized this Saturday, and A is getting baptized on the 31, on her birthday.  I am so excited for them!!!!

This past wednesday, we found two new investigators.  River Side seems to have a pattern for investigators that we find.  We taught them both about Joseph Smith, and they agreed for us to come back and teach them more.  E doesn't really seem interested.  She doesn't believe in organized religion, but A really seemed interested.

And then Sunday came.  We had 4 investigators come to church!  Y, D, A, and Y all came to church this past Sunday.  And they all stayed for all of it.  It was really good.

So this area has a lot of miracle happening, and it is also curing me of ever wanting to be stupid.  So good things are happening everywhere.

Oh, and my new Companion is Elder Gray from Heber Utah.  He moved there from Escondido California two years ago.  He is a great guy, and I am a lot less stressed than I was when I trained last time.

Love

Elder Peterson

Transfer 8, Week 6 January 6, 2014

So when the mission first started with Facebook and stuff, I was thinking about how it was going to work out.  Was it going to work, was it going to tank?  This past week, we were able to find a new investigator over Facebook.  It was super awesome.  The only way that we were able to do it was through working through the members of our ward.  One of our recent converts was talking to us on Facebook and she told us about one of her friends that was interested in the church.  We asked if Y (the friend) would mind if we friend-ed her on Facebook, and started talking to her.  Y is super interested, but she is living outside of our area.  So, this Saturday we are meeting with Y, teaching her about Joseph Smith, and then handing her off to the missionaries in the area boarding ours.

Facebook really does work.  It is amazing.  Soon we will be getting ipad mini's and our capabilities to do online missionary work will increase exponentially.  It is really amazing.  Personally, I would not be surprised if eventually there would be no more tracting, just online finding instead.  It is really weird to think about.  

We went on exchanges this past week.  I stayed in the area with Elder Reed, and Elder Ogden went with Elder Nielson to the Clackamas area.  My bike is super funny, I am not going to lie.  It clanks at every pedal, and shakes and has no shocks, but it works.  I am just hoping that the chain isn't going to break, or a pedal doesn't snap off or something.  I don't know but my bike is probably one of the most quirky bikes in all of the mission.  IT'S ALL MINE!

Love you all

Elder Peterson

Transfer 8, Week 4 December 30th, 2013

I feel like I start all of my emails like this, but this week has really been a crazy one.  It started out with Christmas.  Honestly, it was really strange talking to you guys.  Everyone talks about getting to call home and talk to family, but it is really weird.  Being able to call home, and then to realize that I only get to do it a couple more times.  And that is even more strange.

But it was good.  Things happen, and we move on.  But the really strange thing happened on Sunday.  We went over to contact a potential investigator on a state corrections facility.  We have tried to contact him before, but we needed to go through a background check.  One of the things needed was our social security #, but when I gave it to them, later, they called and told me that it was an invalid number.  I brushed it off at that point, and gave it to them again, plus the place where I was born.  Now when we went over today, the only person that had been able to pass the background check was the member that had gone with us.  My social was invalid, and Elder Ogden's paperwork had been lost. So we weren't able to go in and contact him.  

Brother R, the member, started joking around with us about it.  It was kinda funny really.  You see, he had lived in several different countries when he was growing up, and he would always joke around with the kids that he would be with that he was a man  without a country.  Then he said that he was truly honored that he could meet a man that really didn't have a country.  We all laughed at that.  But at the same time, it brought up a rather serious note.  But I am not worried.  I have gotten a drivers licence, taken out student loans, gotten jobs, and gone to college using the social security number my entire life.  

I talked later to President Morby about it, and he said that the office would start to work on figuring out what was going on.  So he asked that I send him my social, so I broke it up, and sent it to him in a text, then deleted it from the phone.  But another thing that he said was really interesting.  He said that we weren't going to be able to visit the P.I. while he was in the facility, and that maybe the Lord had a hand in preventing us from going to see this man.  President Morby said that only the members would be able to visit this man, and talk with him, but the missionaries would have to wait until he got out to be able to speak/teach this man.  We were able to get a Book Of Mormon through security with some scriptures to read for the guy.

Love Elder Peterson

Transfer 8, Week 3 December 23rd, 2013

We had zone conference this past week.  President Morby announced that we could start using Facebook for proselyting purposes.  It was super crazy.  I haven't been able to get on yet just because I forgot my password and stuff.  But I am not sure if I am going to like it or not.  A lot of missionaries are saying that it is feels like having a flashback of home for an hour every day.  That is definitely something that I don't want.   But there are boundaries as always.  We cannot talk to family or friends back home unless it is strictly mission stuff.  And I totally understand why.  I just hope that it doesn't become too distracting for my companion and I.  Also, we will be getting personal ipad minis to use through the mission.  It is super crazy.

But on a more serious note, this last sunday, we were out contacting, and we were finally able to get into the R home.  A, the oldest daughter has diaphragmatic flutters.  It is when the diaphragm muscles just shake uncontrollably, hitting the heart, stomach, and a bunch of other organs in the body.  It is super sad.  She cannot even move because of how bad it hurts.  She has had so many IV's that the doctors have blown out the veins in her arms, and they have had to put in a port on her chest.    It started two years ago.  She is only 14.  Her mom and her dad take turns going up to the hospital to take care of her.  And the hospital brought her home for the holidays.  She has no friends, because she cannot get out of bed.  The only time that she is not in pain, is when she is asleep.  When she wakes up, she is fine, until she starts moving and/or eating, then it starts up.  

When we got there, the ward had dropped off a christmas package for A and the family.  Inside the package was a bag of un-shelled nuts.  We sat there for a good 30 minutes just cracking the nuts for A, and then brought them in for her.  Just that small act brought such a smile to her face.  It must have been a super long time since she has gotten any visitors.  It was so sad to just see her there lying on the bed, not able to do anything because of the pain.   The really sad thing is that the doctors don't know anything to help cure it.  They have tried everything, and it doesn't help that only 3 people in the United States have this diagnosis, so they don't know anything about it.  It is super sad.

I gave a talk in sunday this past week.  It was supposed to be on missionary work, so I just talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how it applies for member missionary work.  It was good, I guess.  I mean it could always be better, but I think I did an okay job.

Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Love Elder Peterson.

Transfer 8, Week 2 December 16th, 2013

So this past week has been super crazy.  Like a lot more crazy than usual.  One of our investigators, A, has been going crazy and I swear, we spent 12 hours over there in the first 3 days of the week.  She is no longer going to be able to be baptized this weekend.  She has been smoking, but that isn't the biggest problem.  Whenever we ask her about it, she tells us that she is not smoking and hasn't smoked for the last couple days.  It is kinda frustrating.   M was the other investigator that was going to be baptized this week as well, but he has been on bedrest  for the past two weeks because he has some medical challenges.  Because of his them, he could get super sick from practically anything.  So he hasn't been able to meet with us or go to church.

But things are still continue to progress here in Riverside.  Something really cool happened.  We got a referral form the bishop in the Milwaukie ward about a less active in our area that wanted a blessing.  So we went over that night and met E.  She was in the army for 10 years, was medically discharged, is now a wild land firefighter.  She just had a miscarriage earlier in the month, and was feeling super depressed.   She has a ridiculously strong testimony of the Church, but she just felt like she had no purpose in the church, and like she could never fit in with the church again because of what she has gone through.  We were able to comfort her, and then she came to church the next Sunday.  

This area is amazing, there are teaching opportunities just coming out of the woodwork!!!

Love Elder Peterson

Transfer 8, Week 1 December 9, 2013

This past week was kinda crazy. We were able to get a lot done for the time that we had. But things kinda just blew up with one of our investigators. A and her boyfriend don't get along at all, and they called us over to talk and have a lesson. I feel like I just played at marriage counselor. It was super bad. I think that they will be breaking up, and A pretty much said that she was getting baptized just for M, her boyfriend. So our baptism that was happening next week is almost gone. We are going over this week to find out if she is still wanting to be baptized or not. Hopefully, she has gained a testimony during this time, and hasn't been blowing us off the entire time.

But on the good side of things, we found two new investigators. We were at Fed-Ex faxing off the baptismal records, and a lady came up to us while we were locking up our bikes and she asked us if we were missionaries. We told her yes, and we got into a conversation about her religious background. It turns out that she is extremely less active, and when we went over to teach her, her boyfriend was there too. E, the boyfriend, is a non-denominational christian, and is really interested in learning about the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately they both have some struggles medically. E just had his medication reduced, but A is really struggling. She has that, and a bunch of other problems as well.   I am not sure what to do about it, but E seemed pretty normal. We will be very careful.

Elder Odgen and I are getting along great. This area is going great. There is a lot happening. We really need a car. The area is rather big, and we just don't have enough time to teach everyone that we have been working with. But we have been working on maximizing time.

Love 

Elder Peterson

Transfer 7, Week 6 December 3, 2013

So this past week was pretty crazy.  Elder Jones and I are no longer companions.  This past week was transfers, and I am now in a new area called River Side, in Milwaukie Oregon.  I really don't like transfers as much as I thought I would.  I am always so worried about how things are going to be in my new area, what my new companion is going to be like, what is going to happen in my old area, and how my old companion is going to take everything.  Yeah, and a bunch of other things.  Lots of stress for two days.  

My new companion is Elder Ogden from Draper Utah.  He is super athletic, played football, basketball, and baseball as varsity sports in high school at Jordan High.  He is a pretty cool guy.  He has been out for 4 1/2 months, the same amount of time that Elder Jones has been. 

My new area is really hilly.  There are tons of super steep hills both to go up, and then to go down.  I am definitely going to get my cardio exercise in.  Wow!!  And the area is super big.  Maybe it just feels big because of the hills, but still, I was so tired yesterday.

I am super excited for this new area.

Love Elder Peterson

Transfer 7, Week 5, November 25th, 2013

So this past week was really kinda strange.  Elder Jones was "Dear John"ed and kinda went into a slump. It was rough, so we talked about that for a while.  Hopefully I was able to help him out with that.   We took the week a little slower than usual, so that way he wasn't overwhelmed.  I know that he can do the work, but trying to find that fine line between encouraging him to work, and overwhelming him and causing undue stress is tough.  So this past week was a little slower than the other weeks but it was still a good one.  We found 4 new investigators.  They are the grandkids of L.  She had been very impressed with the way that the church involves the youth and keeps them engaged, and she wanted that for her grandkids, so this past Tuesday, she brought them to our lesson with her.  We extended a baptismal invitation to L, but she turned it down for now.  I think later, she will see the need for another baptism, but for now, we will continue to teach her about the Plan of Salvation with her grand kids.

Things are continuing to improve in the Beaver Creek Area, even if my writing is not.

Love 

Elder Peterson

Transfer 7, Week 4 November 18th, 2013

N finally got baptized!!!  Elder jones and I are so excited.  It was as really interesting experience.  There is no way that she would have been able to be baptized without the Spirit of the Lord.  It was an amazing experience to be able to help her reach the waters of Baptism.  At the beginning of the 4 months here in Beaver Creek, president morby promised us that if we went through our area book, we would be able to have a baptism from a previous investigator, or someone that had been contacted previously in 9-12 weeks.  It took a little longer than that, but it still happened. 

N is someone that the missionaries had been teaching in Hawaii.  N had moved up to Oregon, and she had been living here for a couple years when the missionaries knocked on her door.  Then over the next 9 years, the missionaries had dropped her, and then resumed teaching, and dropped and resumed teaching.  It has gone back and forth some many times, but about 3 months before Elder Jones and I got to Beaver Creek, the missionaries had picked her up again.  They had taught her, and then slowly lost contact with her.  When we came to the area, N had been visiting family out of state.  She had been there for about a month and a half before she came back.  During that time, Elder Jones and I had been struggling to find people to teach.  We had heard the Lord's promise to us through President Morby, and decided to go through the area book.  We found N's name and decided to visit her.  She had been taught all of the discussions many times, but needed refreshing on a lot of them.  So we taught her, lost contact with her, found her again, and then found out that she had a smoking problem.  That took almost 6 weeks for her to finally overcome.  but she did, and decided to be baptized!!!!

But other than that, I went on exchanges with the Hillsboro Elders, Elder Alatini and Elder Lewis.  Their area is doing amazing.  They have filled the baptismal font almost every other week for the past 6 weeks.  it is amazing.  Elder Alatini is an amazing leader, really cares about the people he serves, and truly teaches with the spirit.  He is an amazing missionary.  Elder Lewis is a new missionary, and he took my place in Beaver Creek.  There, with Elder Jones, they had amazing success.  They found 4 new investigators!  We are going back to teach they families this week.

So Beaver Creek continues to move forward!!  it is amazing how the Lord prepares people for us to find!

 

Still no snow.  Just freezing cold rain.  I don't think it will ever snow here.  I miss it already.

 

Love Elder Peterson

Transfer 7, Week 3 November 11, 2013

So, we had a baptism planned for this past week.  N has been struggling with quitting smoking for more than two months.  She has tried several times to quit smoking, but alas, to no avail.  She had made it to a week without smoking, and we were ready for a baptism for this past Friday.  Unfortunately, she made a rather rash decision to play around with some e-cigs.  Her mother has e-cigs that are nicotine free, and her brother has some that have nicotine.  Char wanted to find out what part of her addiction was to smoking, so she took her mom's e-cigs, and was blowing through them.  Then she progressed to her brother's e-cigs.  She was blowing through them, and had been doing for a while.  Then she choked.  Unfortunately during the choking process, she had inhaled and in the process sucked some of the smoke in.  

On Tuesday, I had my 3 month interview with President Morby and talked with him about e-cigs.  At this point, Elder Jones and I did not know about N's lapse.  I asked him about e-cigs because N had asked if they were okay, and he said that as long as they didn't have nicotine in them, it was fine, but she might as well be sucking through a straw.  We then called N that night, and found out that she had relapsed the night before.  We went over the next day and talked with her about smoking, and she said that it had been an accident, what had happened, and from the way that she told us, it sounded like it truly was an accident, just extremely foolish.  So we are now having N's baptism on this Saturday, as long as she can stay away from smoking.  We are super excited for her to finally be baptized!!  She has been progressing so much, and this is truly the only thing holding her back.  She has been coming to church for the past month, and hasn't missed a day.  She has been participating in the Relief Society activities, and has really been progressing in her knowledge of the Gospel.  

Also on Tuesday night, we were able to get into contact with A again.  This is the first time in nearly a month that we have been able to see her.  We are so excited to be teaching her again, but she has been struggling with depression.  We felt prompted to show her Elder Holland's talk, a broken vessel, from General Conference.  She really enjoyed it.  We are going over this week, and teaching her the commandments with the idea that by her exercising her faith in the commandments that she will feel that the church is true starting with the commandment to read the scriptures.  I know that as soon as she starts to read the scriptures, that she will feel the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and want to be baptized.  She just needs to start.

Then on Thursday, we were able to take N to the temple visitor's center, and the Spirit there was so strong. I am so grateful that she was able to go.  It truly did strengthen her testimony.  Unfortunately, one of the members then started talking about proxy baptisms, something that we had not quite covered yet.  It is something that is covered in the new member discussions.  And it threw her for quite a loop.  Fortunately, we were able to explain in in a way that helped to reassure her that we weren't crazy, and this church is one that she wants to join.  But it was kinda scary.

Things are continuing to progress.  We found a new investigator this past week.  Her name is I.  She is Muslim, and mostly wants to learn about what we believe.  She also wants to share what she believes, so we  agreed to come over on this past Saturday with our ward mission leader.  I know that when she reads the Book of Mormon, it will touch her heart, and the Spirit will confirm the truthfulness of it to her.

The Beaver Creek Ward is really beginning to be excited about missionary work.  I know that this area has potential, and can do great things.

Love Elder Peterson

Transfer 7, Week 2 November 4th, 2013

So this past week has been really good in some ways, and not so awesome in others.  But it always seems to be like that.  Lehi preaches that there will be opposition in all things, and when someone is acting in direct opposition to the devil, he will see both sides very plainly.  Wow.  The positives skyrocket, and the negatives kinda just drag.  But it all depends on what you chose to focus on.  It is truly amazing what the Lord will do for his servants to lift them up about the smallest things.  

So about N.  She has been clean from smoking for 7 days now, and she has a date for this Friday.  Her parents are in town, and she is ready to go.  So our current game plan is just to keep her so busy that she simply does not have time to smoke between now and her baptism.  We are going over on Tuesday to teach her, then again on Wednesday to take her to the stake center and then again on Thursday to take her to the Visitor's center at the Portland Temple.  It will be awesome.  And then on Friday she is going to be baptized.  I am so excited for her.  She has progressed so much.  She is so much happier, and her parents, who are not members of the Church have noticed this as well.  They are so happy about the changes that they have seen in her.   We talked with her dad (she is living with her dad currently) and he is so grateful that she is having good people in her life, because it helps her to see the consequences of her actions, and it helps her to live as a better person.  At least that is the way that he put it.  But all around, N is so much more happy that she was while she was smoking.

But while there is positive, there will be negative.  One of the less active members of the ward is super apostate, he stopped going to church when he was 16 and just went super deep into anti material, so Elder Jones and I decided that we would hand him over to the ward and let the Elder's Quorum handle him.  K just takes up way too much energy just to sit and listen to, and we leave his house just ready to drop because of how tired we are after leaving his house.  

But on the other hand, we were able to contact a lot of potential investigators and teach them about Joseph Smith and the Restored Gospel.  One of them was super cool.  He was Catholic, and his brother was a non-denominational Christian.  So when we were talking, the brother would stop us and make sure that he understood what we were saying.  It was super awesome.  I have never had someone do that on my mission before.  We were able to make sure that they understood where we were coming from, and that they had an accurate representation of the Restoration.  Unfortunately we were not able to get a return appointment from Y and his brother, so we are going to give them some time to read the Book of Mormon and come back this week to see if we can continue to teach them about the Restored Gospel. 

Also, there was a less active member of the ward that moved in about two weeks ago that we tracted into.  Luckily I still remembered how to set up surround sound systems from college, and I was able to help him set up his.  Fortunately his was a super easy set up, cause if it had been any harder, it would have taken a lot longer to set up.

Then on Sunday, N came to church and S.  That is the most current investigators that we have had come to church at any one for as long as I can ever remember.  It was so awesome!  S enjoyed church, but had to leave after sacrament meeting, cause his son's braces started to come apart, and he needed to go to an orthodontist pretty quick.  This past week was really awesome!!!

We also helped to move a couple potential investigators from the Beaverton West Zone into our area.  We made sure that they had our phone number, and we will be going back over this week to see if they need any more help, and to see if they are interested in taking the discussions. 

Love

Elder Peterson

Transfer 7, Week 1 October 28st, 2013

This past week was amazing in so many different ways.  This past week was transfers, and Elder Jones and I are still together.  At the end of this Transfer, Elder Jones and I will have been together for 4 and 1/2 months.  Sometimes it feels like a really long time, and others it feels like time is just flying by.  

At the beginning of the week there was a lot of confusion.  Our old district leader, Elder Moore, got transferred.  So Elder Jones were at home during p-day cleaning and doing service while the other elders and sisters in the district were at the transfer meeting getting new comps.  So we decided to text one of the elders there, Elder Alatini, to find out who the new district leader was.  He replied back that Elder Peterson was the new district leader.  Normally that would be easy to figure out who the district leader was, but there is another Peterson (no relation) in the area next to us.  So we assumed that it was him.  

Then the next day, the Zone leaders came by to drop off a package of Elder Jones.  They asked if I knew who the district leader was, and I said that it was the other Elder Peterson.  They said that they had talked to him, and he said that it wasn't him, that it was actually me.  The ZLs said that they would call the Assistants to the President, and find out who was actually the district leader.  They called, then about lunch time called us back and told me that I was the new district leader.  To me it was completely a shock.  I would have thought that the other Elder Peterson would have done an amazing job, and I was lacking confidence in myself, but my first district meeting went well, so I am hoping that the Lord will continue to support me in this calling.

So after all of that confusion, the week went amazingly smooth.  We were able to stay busy all week long, from one appointment to another, from finding one investigator to finding another.  We ended up teaching 21 lessons this week, the most that I have ever taught in one week at a time.  At the same time, we were able to find 4 more people who were interested in hearing the gospel.  One of them, his name is N.  We tracted into him on Tuesday and we were able to get a return appointment for this past saturday.  We were able to talk with him for about an hour, and we shared parts of the plan of salvation and the restoration of the gospel.  It is so amazing how all of the different lessons just flow together when they need to.  We also shared how we were able to find out the truth of the book of mormon.  It was really amazing.  Bearing testimony is truly the easiest way to bring the spirit into a conversation with someone.

We also were able to get N's baptismal interview done that same Saturday!  She was able to meet with the Zone Leaders, and she passed!!!  She was so nervous before.  The only hang up was that the next day at Sacrament meeting, she didn't show up and when we called her later on in the day, she told us that she wanted to move the baptism back a week.  She said there were some family things she had to work out.

But anyways.  I hope that we are able to find out what is truly holding N back from baptism.  I am also hopeful that this area will continue to progress the way that is has this past week.

Thanks and Love

Elder Peterson

Transfer 6, Week 6, October 21st, 2013

Things are picking up!! It is awesome. We have set two more baptismal dates with investigators!!! We currently have three investigators with baptismal dates. 

The first one is N. She has been meeting with missionaries for about 5 years. We had committed her about a month ago to quit smoking, and she had been slowly cutting back on her smoking, but not really making any progress. Then two weeks ago, she cut back from a pack a day down to only cigarette! We were so excited and encouraged her to pray and ask Heavenly Father for help with quitting entirely. 

For the rest of the week, N went about every other day without smoking and then came to church that weekend. This week N has been completely clean from all tobacco and she is so much happier now than she used to be. I honestly think that when she attended General Conference, she really strengthened her testimony. She has a baptismal date for the 2 of November. 

Our other two investigators with baptismal dates are brother and sister. Their names are C and A. Their mom is less active and had been kinda scared off by missionaries in the past, but has recently warmed up to us. She has allowed us to come over every Monday evening to teach family home evening, during which we have taught the discussions and C and A have accepted baptismal dates for the 23 of November. The only challenge for them is now, church attendance. We are trying desperately to get them to come to church, and also for their mom to come with them to church. 

Sister Y has been less active for about 2 years now, and she still has a testimony of the Church, but we are not sure what is holding her back from attending church with us. Hopefully when we go over later on today, we will be able to resolve some of her concerns about attending church, and what has been holding her back.

Love

Elder Peterson

October 14th, 2013

This past week has been kinda crazy.  So Elder Jones and I have been struggling with teaching people and others keeping appointments.  I really needed to be able to teach.  It turns out that I am completely addicted to teaching people.  I have decided that I was going through teaching withdrawals.  This week definitely helped with that.  This past week Elder Jones and I were able to teach a lot more that we have in the past, and I went on an exchange with my District leader and we taught 8 lessons in one day!  I haven't taught that many in one week in 3 months!  It just felt so good to be able to go out and help that many people to come closer to Christ and to testify of what we know.  I know the word of wisdom prohibits addictive substances, but I think the Lord will let an addiction to missionary work slide a little.  ( I hope ).

One sacrament meeting, the stake president came.  President Lundgreen.  At the end of the meeting he got up and bore his testimony of the Holy Ghost.  One of the things that he said was so powerful.  He said that we can know that we are forgiven when we feel the Holy Ghost.  The spirit cannot dwell in unholy temples.  

No matter what happens, do not stop praying.  Prayer is our one connection of communication to God in this whole world.  And Satan knows this.  he will do anything that he can to keep you from praying.  Do not allow yourself to leave the church.  Our lives are so much better with it than without.  Without it, we will eventually lose ourselves in the world and maybe never find ourselves again.  

Never leave God.  He will never leave you.

Dont leave him

Love Elder Peterson