May 1-31

 

Departure Notice

THE CHURCH OF

JESUS CHRIST

OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

                                                    

 

Texas Houston East Mission

19618 Atasca Oaks Dr.

Humble, TX  77346-2005

 

May 31, 2023

 

Dear Brother and Sister Peterson,

 

It’s hard to believe that it’s time to start preparing for Elder Peterson’s departure.  He will return home on Friday, July 28, 2023.  I will be ordering the airline tickets next week.  Could you please verify the following information?

1. The closest airport is: Boise, ID
2. Current Home address is: 5869 N Joy Ave., Meridian, ID
3. Parent E-mail for correspondence: keffordp@gmail.com and keffliz711@gmail.com
4. Current Stake President:  Mark a. Kropf, Meridian Idaho West Stake

After the airline ticket order is sent in, it could take up to a week or more to receive the final itineraries.  Parents are usually copied on those, so you may receive it as soon as I do.  When the itinerary arrives, I will send you a letter from President and Sister Larkin along with another copy of the itinerary.

 

Thank you,

 

Sister Robertson

Mission Office Secretary

281-361-8710

2012650@churchofjesuschrist.org

 

 

 

Week 89: Pine Trails ward, Summerwood stake, Companion Elder Green

Our friend Donald has been progressing so well, it has been awesome. He wants to get baptized, but since he is on parole the process takes a while longer, unfortunately. We're going to continue having studies with him, we're hoping that he'll be able to get baptized this year. We'll see. We had a lesson with him and his friend Ray yesterday. Ray is also progressing well, but he isn't so sure about baptism yet. He's in the same situation as Donald though, so he wouldn't be able to be baptized yet anyway. So we'll continue to help them develop their testimonies so when they are able to, they won't want to waste anymore time.

            We finally got a hold of Robyn on Sunday because she showed up to church. Here's the problem though, she is way too busy. So she says. I would like to make it clear that it is absolutely impossible to be too busy to keep commandments and follow Jesus Christ. You all know that, but you would be surprised by how many people don't understand that. Even among us! We had to explain to her that if she thinks she is too busy and won't be able to answer our calls, then we're going to stop reaching out for a while. I think it's a good thing this happened though. I don't believe that she was fully prepared for baptism. I'm afraid that she isn't developing a testimony and that she just likes having a bunch of good friends that will drive her around and help her with things. I don't know though, time will tell. I thought that we could find out by asking her, but she disappeared when church was over and we, as usual, can't get a hold of her. In case you are wondering, we also cannot contact her in person. She is almost always at the hospital and we can't get there. Besides, if she wanted to talk she would answer the phone. She said that she does see our calls. It's so frustrating and so sad. She's missing out on so many blessings and I don't think she even realizes that. 

            Elder Green and I had a funny spiritual experience yesterday. We decided to go to the top of our area, since we have never been up there yet. We found a neighborhood that looked pretty new and pretty nice. As we were taking a break in the car's AC, making some calls, I figured out that the car has it's own wifi. It only works right now because the car is new, so we get a short free trial with the wifi. Another Elder was quoting the movie Despicable Me the other day and for some reason that movie popped back into my head. I changed the name of the car's wifi to Vector, a character from that movie. 

Bear with me here.

We then got out and continued walking around the neighborhood. Then, I noticed a house that had a sign in the front yard. The sign said "Vector Security." I thought that it would be funny if that was some kind of sign from the spirit since I had that name on my mind. We were about to keep walking when I thought 'Only one way to find out.' We knocked on the door and a lady answered through the doorbell camera. She eventually opened the actual door and we talked with her for about 15 minutes. She ended up taking a copy of the Book of Mormon, really excited to read it, and we made an appointment to come back on Thursday to talk more about it and explain more about Joseph Smith and how Jesus Christ restored His church through that prophet. IT WAS AWESOME! We waked away and I went 'what just happened...' and we laughed as we got back to the car to head to a lesson. The Spirit works with us in strange ways, I guess. That's why you should never doubt a spiritual impression, no matter how strange it may seem. 

            On Saturday we got invited to go to the temple with some of our ward members for the Endowment of a convert in our area. We got permission from President and went with a couple other missionaries in the member's cars. It was so cool. I learned so much this time, just like every time. I get more and more every time I go. I feel so much joy as I learn more about the Gospel, I'm so excited to go again next week with the zone. I rode by Victor on the way there and he fell asleep on my shoulder on the way back, it was pretty funny. I also got a good picture of him after he destroyed me at rock, paper, scissors.

            It's been a good week, and exact obedience has proven to be the best way to be a missionary. The little things matter so much more than anyone thinks. It's hard to get yourself to do them sometimes, but we receive so many blessings from the Lord as we show him that we can be trusted. Not patting myself on the back, I'm just so grateful for the blessings that have been given to us. We have been having at least one lesson every day and it has been awesome. 

            Have a good week!

- Elder Peterson

- temple picture

- Victor after he destroyed me

- me being confused during our missionary coordination meeting 

- a dog begging Elder Simpson for food

- Gabriel Martinez and his family came up to see me. I met them a year ago in Pasadena. He also gave me a new Astros hat.

Week 88: Pine Trails ward, Summerwood stake, Companion Elder Green

   I quote that for the subject because I've been thinking about obedience a lot lately. There's too many people that think finding loopholes is fine or that  occasional disobedience is fine. It is forgivable, but if we are to become like Jesus Christ our very nature must change and we must become strictly obedient to every commandment. The world tells us that we are weird and abnormal when we do this, but God's people are a peculiar people. Exodus 19:5 "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine." Forget the flimsy trends of the world and put on the armor of God, walking with and as Jesus Christ. 

     We've had a very productive week, and I strongly believe that we had things to do because we've been tightening up on rules. Donald has been progressing very well and his friend has started joining in on lessons. Donald has committed to get baptized as well. Initially it was for the 3rd of June, but he's going to have some surgeries, so tonight we moved it to the 10th. They both came to church yesterday and loved it. Ray is pretty knowledgeable in the Bible, I was impressed with him during Sunday School. We also had our friend Danny show too. Which is awesome, because the guy is in a wheelchair (because he doesn't have feet anymore) and actually has an excuse that's almost valid. He came and loved it. It was great.

    We went out last night to do some finding and it turned into a strange night. We didn’t come across anyone who wanted to learn more about our message, but we did meet an old guy who seemed like he was going to bash us until he realized that we are christian. He also showed us the stitches on his hand from where a cat bit him. Hmm. 

     Then, later, we had this random guy on a go-kart pull up next to us as while we were walking and he started talking to us. 15 minutes later, we left. The dude was literally crazy. He was telling us that the bible we read from is wrong and that we need to get the bible that has a zipper. Some stuff about fish falling from the sky and that Jesus is 4 different races and that the United States actually has 100 states. Oh, and some stuff about bread made from corn. He said it’s all in the bible though. I asked where in the bible and he just kept rambling. It was actually pretty funny. These two dudes on horses trotted by while he was ranting and I just about pinched myself. I thought I must have been dreaming. Wacky stuff.

That's all I've got though... 

Y'all are awesome! Have a good week!

-Elder Peterson

Here's some pictures from our zoo trip today. Also a landfill that looks like a normal hill and really made me miss mountains.

Week 87: Pine Trails ward, Summerwood stake, Companion Elder Green

I did get a bag of Sour Patch Kids. It's a big bag. One of the Spanish missionaries gave it to me. Gracias.

             We've been teaching a really cool guy named Donald. His current living situation doesn't make it very easy to meet in person, so our lessons have been over the phone. He is a super cool guy though. He's got such a deep love for Jesus Christ and for learning about the gospel. He's been feasting on the Book of Mormon and has been taking lots of notes. We had a lesson yesterday that went great. He told us about how he loved watching our church on Zoom and can't wait to come in person. As we were starting I felt prompted to ask my mom if she would like to join the phone lesson and share her testimony. I knew she would be nervous, but she agreed anyway. We talked about the Plan of Salvation with Donald and then my mom shared her testimony at the end. It was AWESOME! I didn't even think about this when I felt prompted to ask her, but my sister had just gotten married and my mom had a lot of her family around. The Plan of Salvation is about families, so the Spirit knew that my mom would have special feelings about it right now. Her testimony brought the Spirit in such a strong way and Donald loved hearing it. That was the first time I've ever had two phones going in a lesson, but it worked so well . We're super excited about how that lesson went and we're grateful that my mom was willing to share her light.

            Speaking of mothers, happy Mother's Day to any moms out there! Our ward had a BBQ for all the mothers on Friday and it was super fun. All the men served their food and then a Mariachi band came and performed for a while. I don't think I've ever seen one in person, so I had a great time. It was strange, though, when one older woman asked them to play the baby shark song... oh well, it was funny. Our friend Robyn was able to come to the BBQ too. We talked with her yesterday after church and asked if she's been thinking about baptism. She said that she has and that she knows she needs to pick a date. So we scheduled her baptism for the 27th. We're praying that nothing comes up, because she doesn't seem to completely understand how great of a priority this should be and she tends to be a bit flakey .

            Mother's Day was great, I enjoyed talking to my mom. I also got to see a lot of my extended family that I haven't seen in a while. It was awesome. I would go on about how much I love my mom, but I already wrote her a letter with all that. And besides, there's not enough time to write all of it here. Suffice it to say, God knew that I needed (and still need) my mom. She's been the greatest influence in my life besides the Godhead. And I owe a lot of my knowledge about the Savior to her as well anyway. It's been very difficult to be away from her for this long, but I know I'm where she wants me to be. I love her and can't wait to see her in person again in a couple of months.

            It's been a great week, I hope y'all are doing well. Have a great week!

- Elder Peterson

That's me and mom down there.

Week 86: Pine Trails ward, Summerwood stake, Companion Elder Green

This past week has been awesome. Elder Green is down to work hard, so it's been a good busy week. It's getting hot too...

We've done a lot of finding to increase our teaching pool and it's been steadily improving. We met a guy named Chris last week who told us that we can come back to talk some more yesterday. The conversation led to prayer so we went with that. We talked about prayer and he confided that he doesn't really know how to pray. We shared some scriptures with him and I wrote an outline for him on a piece of paper. He also asked why are there so many churches in the world and we almost dropped dead from excitement. We challenged him to pray about it and try to think of an answer for himself and then we'll come by tonight to share what we know. He accepted and we are super excited to see him tonight.

On Saturday we did some service for a member in our ward. The whole district showed up (8 of us) and we tore down their garage so they can build an RV garage. I should have taken pictures, because we were there for at least 5 hours and we completely took it apart. It was super fun demo. Lots of brick smashing.

By the way, if you noticed the font change, it's because I copied some of that from my journal and the font has just stayed in Times New Roman. Oh well.

Honestly, I don't know what else to write, so I guess it's going to be another short one. I will share that I was studying about fasting yesterday and I learned some cool stuff, ya'll should take an opportunity to learn more about it. It made my fast yesterday much more meaningful and I feel very spiritually refreshed.

Sorry again for the short email, I hope ya'll have a great week. I'll have more to share next week for sure.

-Elder Peterson

That's our district leader with the Lego clone wars helmets.

Also, that's a terrible picture of that dirtbike. I was talking to the guy about it and I kid you not, for 5 minutes straight he was trying to convince me to ride it. That was probably the hardest "no" I've ever spoken. I was trying to explain that it's against our rules and that I don't want to risk anything happening to me or the bike. He was super persistent though. Man, I really wanted to ride it...