Pictures April 1-30

 

Week 84: Williamson 1 ward, Orange stake, Companion Elder Gale

Alright, last week was a long email. This one will not be that long, I am very tired from playing pickleball... I should have written this earlier. 

Here goes...

This past week we had three blitzes. That's a lot, in case you don't know. On Tuesday we blitzed with Elder Alexander and Elder Livingston. Elder Alexander and I had a great time. Not a ton happened, but I was able to get to know him and we have a lot in common. I told him that he will probably be a zone leader at some point, since he will be among the most experienced when the new mission president comes in July. I think that freaked him out a bit . He's a great missionary.

On Thursday we had a day long blitz with the APs. Elder Frogley and I had a great day. We contacted a ton of people and we were able to catch up a bit. I can't completely tell if he enjoys being an assistant, but he is the man for the job. I am constantly impressed by how good of a missionary he has become. I like to think that I've become a good one as well. About 20 months ago he and I were just about to start training at the MTC. It has been a life changing year and a half, for both of us.

On Friday we did a day long blitz with the Elders in Welsh, Louisiana. Elder Shelley and I were able to find several people who are wanting to learn more. We also spent an hour helping a recent convert get his pickup running again. In a Walmart parking lot. It took a while, but we got him going. We then had a really cool study with him. He got baptized last December (I think) and he has already read the Book of Mormon 3 times and has started Doctrine and Covenants. He's past section 60 now. He has a really cool testimony and incredible faith. 

We had a really cool experience on Saturday. We were walking away from one of our friends home (he wasn't home) and his neighbor waved at us. We had briefly spoken with him once, but he didn't seem to care too much about what we were doing and we were in the middle of a lesson with our friend. The friend was Micah. Anyway, we waved back and then kept walking. After a bit of walking I felt like we needed to go back and talk to him. I didn't really think that made a lot of sense, especially since we had already walked a good distance away. BUT, I've learned at this point that promptings don't have to make sense. Just do it. So we went back and knocked on his door. He didn't seem too surprised to see us come back and was really cool. We introduced ourselves further and talked a little about what we do. He said that he was busy at the moment, but interested. He told us to come get him the next time we meet with Micah. His name is Ryan. We said you betcha, and shook hands. We haven't met with Micah again yet, but I'm really excited too.

BUT WAIT, I'm not done with this story.

I also felt like it wouldn't hurt to stop by one of our recent online referalls on the way to a ward event. Brian, the referally, lived a little out of the way, but not bad. We had tried calling the number we got, 3 different times and we tried texting. We got nothing though. I was thinking we'd just go over and hear that he isn't actually interested and then go on with our night. We stopped by and he said we had accidently filled out the wrong ad! (twice, apparently (no such thing as coincidence...)) We started talking to him anyway, asking about what he does for work and what he was looking for that led to our ads. He said that he wants to study theology and was looking for something that could help. We talked about the Bible for a bit and how we both love it and enjoy learning more about it. At one point in the discussion he threw away the cigarette that he had been smoking and commented that he has been trying to stop smoking. We kept talking, but later Elder Gale brought up that comment and told him that what we do has helped countless people stop smoking. He was very interested and invited us to come back on Tuesday to tell him more. Good job Elder Gale for following that prompting!

The Spirit knows what he's doing. Trust him!

Anyway, that's all I've got energy for. I hope y'all have a great week!

- Elder Peterson

Week 83: Williamson 1 ward, Orange stake, Companion Elder Gale

  This week we had a interesting lesson with our friend named Betty. We brought President Ross with us to the lesson and we taught her the Restoration. She has very very simple faith and seems to take everything on face value and doesn't ask any questions. So teaching her was difficult because of that. But we committed her to reading the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. We also set a follow up appointment for Saturday. Well, Saturday rolls around and she isn't home. So we go about our day finding. We have to stop by Walmart real quick to pick up some medicine and as we pull up we see Betty just getting in her car! I made brief eye contact with her but she didn't even seem phased. So needless to say she probably isn't interested.  

     We also had Zone Conference this week on Thursday. It was great! The main theme of it was transforming ourselves into a new creature through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Our mission president used the example of a transformer and how it has to go through different steps in a process to change from one creature to another. 

     I also went on an exchange with Elder Sorenson this week. He is such a great guy! He knows a lot about Harry Potter. A LOT. He likes talking about it. We had some cool contacts though, I was able to use some scriptures I read during my morning study.

     And then of course we had Easter on Sunday. It was relatively uneventful but good. We had Church and President Harris(the Stake president) spoke about the Atonement and the Resurrection. It's always impressive to listen to him speak because he knows SO much about the Gospel that the things he shares are always enlightening. Bishops wife, Sister Fawcett, also spoke and she shared a cool story about how because Jesus Christ rose from the tomb, we all can as well. Then we had lunch with some members and also had dinner with some members later that day. But for dinner the members invited their non-member friends to eat with us. Basically the entire discussion was about missionary work. So we will follow up and  see if they would be interested in learning more.

     Today we went fishing and I caught 3 sticks... nothing else. I got a bite from what looked like a small catfish, but he was too much of a coward to hang on.

     Oh also random thought. While we were talking to one of the guys we were teaching he was sharing a little about himself and he was like, "Yeah, I've got drug dealers all around me. One over there and one over there… I stabbed that one 5 times in the face with a deer antler. He was trying to kill me with a machete." He said it so nonchalantly as if it were a passing phrase I looked at Elder Gale and we were both obviously thinking, "Did he actually just say that?"

     Anyways, Everyone have a good week! Jesus Christ lives! And you can know that for yourself, as I know it for myself. Prayer and scripture study (and keeping the commandments)!

-Elder Peterson

Week 82: Williamson 1 ward, Orange stake, Companion Elder Gale

 For those who don't know (probably most of you), Vidor, Texas is a forest. Basically. Look it up on a map or something, you'll see. Anyway, all of these trees had some kind of council and decided that it would be hilarious to rain pollen all over the place and, in effect, punch me in the face. Last Thursday I had absolutely awful allergies, probably the worst I've ever had from pollen. I was sick and could not do very much. To make matters worse, I was on an exchange! Luckily, not very much was supposed to happen on that day, but I was still really annoyed at my uselessness. Oh well, I still did my best.

     Since Thursday I have been on a slow recovery. I still wasn't able to be outside for very long on Friday or Saturday. That's where the miracle came in. Thanks to General Conference, I wasn't expected to be as active as usual. I was able to rest AND be spiritually edified. Every time I go outside I can feel the pollen slowly making my nose congested. It's wonderful. But on a positive note, I feel much better today and I still had a great weekend. Did you watch General Conference? If not, you need to go watch it! It was great! I especially liked President Nelson's talk Sunday morning. I have been working on being a nicer person and saying uplifting things, so it was an added boost of motivation. 

     We were able to watch the first session on Saturday with some members in our ward (they invited a bunch of us over, picture below). The rest of Saturday was watched at the Ross's. We then watched the Sunday morning session with our friend Rosemary. It was great because she's already really good friends with the Ross's. She loved the talks and when we were talking later she was super grateful we invited her to watch with us. For the Sunday afternoon session we watched at the church with a recent convert named Mitchell. After the session we started talking with him about patriarchal blessings. He is super interested and excited to talk more about it with Bishop. 

     That's really all I have to share. Like I said, I was sick more most of last week, so nothing super crazy happened. Well, last night we had a fantastic 1½ hour lesson with Micah where he asked all kinds of genuine questions. He admitted that his only problem with things we believe is prophets. He has a really hard time believing that man is trustworthy or righteous enough to be that close to God. We have a plan though, he will see. With the amount of genuine interest and desire we see in him, he will come to know the truth. He just needs to take his sincerity to prayer and start asking God. We look forward to meeting with him again.

     Now that's all I have. Go watch General Conference if you haven't!!

-Elder Peterson 

We also had Mission Leadership Council. That picture below is us on our way home. I look annoyed because I was trying to drive in Texas traffic (there are some absolutely awful drivers down here) and they wanted pictures.