Week 38:Fairmont Ward, Houston East Stake; Companion Elder Nelson

  This past week we met with Marie and Lilia again and it was awesome! Brother and Sister McCann came with us and we went over the baptism interview questions with them. Marie was accepting all of it to the point of immediately agreeing to stop drinking coffee and stop smoking. It was awesome!!! Lilia still hasn't figured out if being baptized is right for her or not (it is) but shes still praying about it. You know what's even more awesome? They came to church last Sunday!! And they loved it!!! It was so cool, these ladies are so committed to following the Savior, it's such a blessing to be a part of their journey.

     Later that night we stopped by to give Marie a large print copy of the Book of Mormon and she said a prayer before we left. She said some awesome things and this part really touched me. She said: "God, I can't promise I'll do this quickly and I can't promise I'll do it perfectly. But I promise that I'll give it all I've got." She then proceeded to pray for Elder Mangan and I, her "missionary friends."

     I'm so excited for them, she is planning on being baptized on the 11th of June and we are all excited for it. Please keep praying for her, it's seriously working 

     The other day we went to help a lady named Linda Dula move some boxes and get a little more settled in her new home. She's a nonmember and we had also talked to her about doing a Bible study as well. 

We didn't have a Bible study.

She used our labor for an hour and then basically told us she wasn't interested. I was honestly pretty annoyed. We had planned on sharing a quick message after helping her out a bit and she just wouldn't let us! She used us to move her boxes! 

So rude.

I don't think we'll be going over for "Bible studies" anymore.

     Pretty much the whole day yesterday and this morning was a blitz with Elder Bengtzen. Elders Mangan and Barben were transferring out of the area (they're out now, I've got a new companion, keep reading), so those two were driving around saying goodbye to people while Elder Bengtzen (the new District Leader) and I drove around and did MISSIONARY WORK. It was awesome, I love the guy. This morning we drove to a Cavender's Boot Store and Elder Bengtzen drooled over these $800 gator skin boots, it was fun. Oh yeah, he also bought a $250 banjo, but apparently that's not weird.

Yes it is, Elder Bengtzen. Yes it is.

But he's excited to have it, so who am I to judge 

     Elder Mangan got transfered to Woodville Texas and I got Elder Nelson out of Beaumont Texas. He's been out one transfer longer than me, so we're pretty even. He's from Gilbert Arizona and he's actually a pretty cool guy. I'm excited.

     We had an awesome lesson today with a guy named Carlos. We taught him the plan of salvation and he loved it. Elder Nelson is a great teacher and we taught very well together. I'm excited for this transfer, I'm expecting lot of miracles! Thank you for all your prayers! 

I love ya'll and I pray for you. Be strong, steadfast and immovable! 

-Elder Peterson

Oh yeah, Elder Bengtzen also bought a $50 rope. 

That picture of me looking really happy is from Sunday. Not gonna lie, I can't remember the context. Sorry 

Pictures May 11-24

 

Week 37:Fairmont Ward, Houston East Stake; Companion Elder Mangan

This past week was a little slow to start with. We had a couple appointments fall through and no one really wanted to meet. I didn't let it affect me too much though, we kept plowing ahead. Eventually it did start to get better, but not until Saturday really. But I wasn't even in the area on Saturday.

     Elder Rivers and Elder Chappel, our Zone Leaders, wanted to do a little 12 hour exchange. We drove over to the Broadway Chapel (my first area) and met them there while they were in Spanish class, which we joined. It was fun, the teacher (I have no idea how to spell his name) is a very smart man, both with Spanish and Doctrine. We got to ask him some questions and his answers were very insightful. After the class we began our exchange and I was staying in Broadway Spanish with Elder Rivers. 

     The day was great, except I only understood every 10th word people said, so it was hard to follow what was going on. It was fine though, Elder Rivers is a great missionary and I could tell he's a great teacher. Towards the end of the day we headed over to the house of someone his ward for a fiesta. It was awesome, they were making suuuuper good tacos. It was kind of awkward though, because people would ask me questions or try talking to me and I would just go "uuuuhhhh... no hablo Español, lo siento." Then they'd look at me kind of funny, no doubt wondering why Elder Chappel had been replaced by an English only Elder, and then walk away. It was also kinda funny though, so I didn't mind. That was the end of the exchange though, after that we drove back to Pasadena and exchanged back.

     Yesterday we met with Marie and Lilia again and they accepted our invitation to be baptized! Marie kept expressing that she's ready and that she knows it's the next step for her. Lilia was a little hesitant though. She told us about how she had tried joining another church a while back and the ostracized her for the stuff she liked to do, such reading Harry Potter. I assured her that the Relief Society organization is incredible and that she will feel love and belonging within it, and also that liking Harry Potter isn't that weird. I told her that many of my relatives love Harry Potter, which got her super excited 

      Later in the day (actually right after that, I think) we went to Sister Saldana's house to teach her friend the Restoration. It was fantastic! Lauran had many awesome questions and she loved what we shared with her. She accepted our invitation to continue reading the Book of Mormon (she's already at 2 Nephi ) and to pray about the things we shared. She's been having a really hard time though, so I want to ask all of you to keep Lauran (and Marie and Lilia) in your prayers. 

     That's about it for the week... transfer day is next Tuesday! This one went by pretty quick, which is nice.

     Thank you, have a great week!

- Elder Peterson 

Pictures:

There's some potatoes from Idaho, I saw a fish in the water, I forgot to mention that a member of our ward is a bee keeper and he let me hold some bees . Also Elder Bengtzen holding a scared dog and then there's a cool picture of the shore I got.