Week 41:Fairmont Ward, Houston East Stake; Companion Elder Nelson

 Not a lot really happened this week, everyone was canceling or rescheduling. We were able to have a lesson with David and then Eric this past week though. Thankfully they didn't fall through. We also had Zone conference, which was awesome. It's been a while since I've seen Elder Frogley and some other good friends. But I'll start with the lessons.

     David is an interesting situation I won't get into here. Suffice it to say he's aware that he's not on the right path towards heaven. But it's okay! Because he's willing to make changes. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he really enjoyed it. He had some good questions about Heaven and he said he's willing to do the things necessary to receive a fullness of joy. Hopefully he stays that committed. We discussed the many blessings that come from following the Savior and we shared our testimonies which seemed to touch him.

     Eric is someone we've been trying to meet since I got to this area (about 2 months now?). He was in the process of marrying a member in the YSA ward. They finally got married and their busy lives have calmed down a bit, so we can meet with them more. He wants to be baptized so he can go through the temple with Jazmine (his wife). We think it's really cool that he isn't a member but he already knows that there's blessings that come from the Lord's church. We had dinner with them last night and then talked a little about the Priesthood and how it was restored. He's also pretty excited that he'll be able to give blessings to others and perform ordinances with the Priesthood.

     Those were the only lessons we had, but they were great. I'm glad we at least got to go to those two.

     We had Zone Conference on Thursday and like I said, I got to see Elder Frogley again! I also saw a lot of other good friends, it was the best Zone Conference I've gone to so far. In terms of catching up with other Missionaries. After ZC we stopped by Buc-ee's and I got a fourth of July shirt. After that the rest of the week was kind of boring. Except for when I broke my shoe and father's day.

     We went to a big park to try to talk to some people and ended up joining a game of soccer. I should've been more careful cause my shoe was already falling apart. But I played anyway and after about 10 minutes my shoe busted. I'll put a picture below, but man... I was pretty bummed. I've had the shoes for about 8 months and they were the only brown shoes I had. It was a good lesson of taking care of my belongings though. Things last longer when they're taken care of.

   

   For father's day we Elders sang with the primary during sacrament meeting. We sang A Child's Prayer. Apparently the children were horrendous, but everyone said we did good. Except for a couple youth that made fun of me 

I don't know why, but the Saldaña kids call me their favorite one minute and then call me a bad singer the next. I feel like the favorite missionary should be treated better...

Oh well.

     All in all, it was a slow week, but a good one. I'm excited for this next week, I'm hoping it'll be more eventful.

     I'll add this as a final story. Yesterday Elder Nelson and I were sitting in our car waiting for it to be time to go to Eric's apartment when this drunk woman stumbles by alongside the road. There was a ditch right in between her and us and I realized she was probably gonna fall into it. She got closer and guess what? She fell in. We were about to get out and help her, but she was okay and we decided it would probably be safer for us to stay away from a hysterical drunk woman. She got all muddy and a couple people gave her an interesting look as she stumbled on her way down the road. 

And people wonder why we don't drink.

     Anyway, I hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Peterson 

La Porte's mascot is the bulldog, that's why we took pictures by the painting. And it's a cool painting.

Pictures May 25- June 14

 

Week 40:Fairmont Ward, Houston East Stake; Companion Elder Nelson

Very fun week, lots of good lessons and just good families. I'll start with the Browns. Brother and Sister Brown are inactive members that have an 8-year-old son they want baptized. They had contacted the Elders Quorum President who contacted us and asked us to go over some time. We set up a time to meet with them and it was awesome. Their son's name is William and he's a funny kid. His first language is spanish, so he had to ask us to define some of the terms we used, but that's understandable. Most people who have spoken English their entire life have a difficult time with some of our language. We explained the restoration to Will and we were pleasantly surprised. His parents participated and helped explain some things to Will and he picked it up real quick. We came back a couple days later to teach him the Plan of Salvation and he was able to explain it back to us after we finished. At one point he referred to Heavenly Father as Legendary Father and I thought that was pretty funny. The family fed us some super good pizza and then we just talked and let Will show us his nerf gun collection for a bit (he has waaaayyy too many toy guns...). Will also has a list of every animal he's every seen in his journal. He's in the 300's and he just keeps adding more, it's honestly kind of a cool thing for a kid to be doing. Like I said, he's a clever little guy.

     Next is Marie and Lilia. WOW!!! We went over with Brother Ruiz and they told us they've been studying the Book of Mormon a lot. Then they proceeded to explain 1 Nephi to us and retell several of the stories and main points that are made in that book. They then told us about their own spiritual experiences they've had. It took a long time for them to finish, but it was really cool. They are diving deep into the Book of Mormon and we can all tell it is changing their lives, I'm very happy for them. 

     Carlos also had a super cool experience. A bit over a week ago we taught him the Plan of Salvation and invited him to read 2 Nephi 2. He read a bit over half of it and LOVED IT. He told us about how it completely changed his perspective of the story of Adam and Eve and how he know understands some things he never did before. We read the rest of the chapter with him and he was getting super excited. We invited him to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and he said he couldn't wait to start reading. We promised him that if he continues to pray and honestly seek answers, he will continue to receive revelations like he already has. I wish everyone had this honest desire to read the Book of Mormon, including myself. He loved the way everything was explained and he told us about how strongly he felt the spirit. We also invited him to come to church with us and he said he'll try to soon. Super excited for him.

     There's a family in our area that loves the missionaries. The Martinez family is Catholic, but they have a lot of LDS relatiives. They offered to take us to NASA and even payed for us! It was super fun, they are awesome people. NASA was also really cool. It was fun walking around these giant depictions of space and all the history of our space explorations. We ran into some missionaries from the Texas Houston South Mission and had a fun conversation with them for a bit. The Martinez family took a ton of pictures and even gave us both a wallet size picture of all of us there at NASA, they rock. Then, to top off the night, they took us to get pizza. We had a fun time talking about our families and about the Houston area. Before we left they invited us to come to their BBQ on Saturday. I love this family. The only downside to this situation is that they aren't interested in investigating the church at all. They've known a lot of missionaries and like I said they have LDS family. They are comfortable with their beliefs (Which is okay) but they still love us and want to hang out with us. The best.

     It has been a fun week with many blessings. I'm grateful for the success we've seen this week and I pray it will continue. I pray for all of you and I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Peterson