Pictures March 1-31

 

Week 81: Williamson 1 ward, Orange stake, Companion Elder Gale

I have my companion scribing for me. I will not be proof reading this, so if there are any errors, know that it was not me. 

Where to start… It was a good week. We have been really busy trying to get things going in our area and in the zone. We spent a good amount of time introducing Elder Gale to the members. Last Thursday, after completing our mail–run we found out that the Beaumont Zone Leaders had more suprise mail for us. So we planned to meet them towards the top of our area at a specific time. We showed up a little bit late but they were not even there. And when we called and asked when they were going to be there, they said that they still have 45 minutes until they would arrive. So we said a prayer (because I was frustrated) and decided to go and contact sombody who was near the place that we had planned to meet. And it turned into a great lesson! Micah was his name. He had really good and genuine questions.Then his dad joined in the discussion and had more good questions. So that was a miracle. We eventually met up with the elders and got the mail and everything was figured out. 

Yesterday was a great day. There is a young man in our ward who has a non-member friend who has been coming to church for a while. Yesterday we caught him (his name is Ethan) and asked if he would like a Book of Mormon. I have talked with him plenty before and I didn't feel awkward asking and I'm pretty sure he did want one. When we asked, he was excited and said yes! So we gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a time to meet with him to explain it further on Wednesday. That alone made the day awesome, but then later that evening we had a really cool lesson with a guy named Ricky. Ricky has 7 very large pet spiders (tarantulas) and a 150 lbs Rottweiler? That was interesting and I don't really understand how he can sleep with 7 giant spiders next to his bed, but you do you Ricky. Anyway, the lesson was great. We talked about our relationship with God and that God is our loving father in heaven. We are literally his spirit children. He was pretty open to everyting that we were sharing and agreed to read from the Book of Mormon and was interested in meeting again. The best part of the lesson was when he asked why we were doing missionary work and we got to share our testimonies. The spirit was very strong and we all felt great at the end of it. 

A lot of other good things happened last week but I believe my scribe is getting bored (not actually though) and I’m getting bored.

I will end with a little piece of my study from Saturday. In Alma chapter 7, Alma counsels the people of Gideon to be temperate in all things (among other qualities he lists). And I got pondering about that. I found a quote by Elder Russel M. Nelson where he explains what it means to be temperate in all things. "Temperance suggests sobriety and self-restraint in action. It reminds one of covenants made. … Repeatedly, scriptures teach that we be ‘temperate in all things.' Temperance can protect each of us from the aftermath of excess” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1991, 81; or Ensign, Nov. 1991, 60). I found it very interesting and I started thinking about things that I can do to be more temperate and to make sure that I’m not doing anything in excess. 

Thats all I've got, I hope y'all have a great week.

-Elder Peterson

Side note, there is a strange road in our area that has a turn lane that goes both directions depending on what the light says.

Oh yeah, we had authentic German food on Thursday. I've had schnitzel and can testify that it is very good. (Now I just need to try schnitzel on a stick...)

Week 80: Williamson 1 ward, Orange stake, Companion Elder Nestripke

 I had an interesting week for sure. There were two days specifically that were just crazy. Because I was blind.

     So, last Thursday we were getting everything ready to do our mail run (we take all the Zone mail to the respective district leaders so they can distribute it within their districts). Elder Nestripke and I were outside waiting for President Ross. He takes us in his car so we save miles. I don't know if I've ever explained that before, though I'm sure all returned missionaries reading this know what I mean. Missionaries have a certain amount of miles alloted to them each month, so we appreciate the ride from President Ross. As we were waiting outside some wind blew dust in my eye and then started a huge mess. I could not get it out of my eye. After several minutes of blinking and flushing out my eye, we kind of just assumed that my eye had gotten scratched. It was still hurting, but no one could see anything in my eye. So, to keep myself from opening that eye (because it really hurt to do so) I wore an eye patch. It wasn't a cool one or anything, but I wore an eye patch for a couple hours.

     Later that night we had a lesson with Jon Ward again. I had taken off the eye patch and I got a blessing from President Ross and Elder Nestripke before going. My eye looked terrible, but I made it through the lesson. We talked about why we have the Book of Mormon. We explained that yes, a lot of the principles taught in the Book of Mormon can be found in the Bible (not all though), but, a huge reason for the Book of Mormon is that it is a keystone. If the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. If Joseph Smith was a prophet, then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's kingdom on the Earth. Simple as that. Jon had read a little bit of it, but he said he hasn't gotten an answer yet. The problem I see is that he isn't willing to change. I don't think he wants to know it is true. Because of that, he will not receive an answer. We have to be willing to submit to God's will before he gives us answers to our questions. That's the way it has always worked. So if someone doesn't want to know, they won't. 

     After that lesson my head hurt very bad and I still couldn't see very well. I pretty much went to bed right when we got home, in hopes that sleep would help.

     It didn't.

     The next day we went to a doctor and after peeling my eyelid off (or at least that's what it felt like) he found a tiny grain of sand on the back of my eyelid. It was stuck, so he had to use a needle to dislodge it and then he flushed out my eye. My eye feels just fine now, but it was sore for a day or two after that. The whole thing was a weird experience .

     Last night we had a huge bonfire. We had a pile of sticks, logs, boxes, etc. that had been growing all transfer. Last night I got to burn it! President Ross let me light it, which made me very happy. I haven't lit a fire in SO LONG. It was awesome, AND BIG. AH! I forgot how much I love fire...

So much!

     Today is transfer day and Elder Nestripke is in a new area. My new companion, Elder Gale, will probably get here after lunch. I'm really excited, I've served around him several times and we've been wanting to be companions for a while. He is a very hardworking and obedient missionary, so I'm excited to work with him. We are the Zone Leaders for the Orange Zone. He was just a Zone Leader, so luckily he already knows what to do. It's gonna be great. I am going to miss Elder Nestripke though, he's a great friend that I'm totally going to hangout with after all this.

     Anyway, I hope you're all doing well! Have a great week!

-Elder Peterson

Oh yeah, we stopped by the Gulf on the mail run and got a couple pictures. My eye really hurt in those pictures. You can totally tell how fake my smile is on the picture of just me 

Week 79: Williamson 1 ward, Orange stake, Companion Elder Nestripke

 I had two exchanges this past week.

   The first exchange was in my last area, I got to go back to Moss Bluff for a bit! I was a little disappointed though because the apartment was very messy. I take a little pride in my cleanliness. So going back to a place I just lived at and seeing it in a mess was weird. Other than that though, it was a great exchange. I got to be companions with the Elders who are finishing Elder Woodhouse's training (one of my last companions). We didn't do anything super interesting, but we did find a leak in their place. So that's getting fixed. I'm glad it didn't happen when I lived there .

     For the second exchange I stayed Vidor and Elder Wood came with me. This guy is 25 years old. A bit old for a missionary, but really interesting! Honestly I probably wouldn't have guessed he was that much older than me had he not said anything. He is still in his first transfer of training, so we are more experienced than each other in different ways . It was a fun exchange though, he is a really positive guy and he absolutely loves missionary work. He also helped me remember to pray a bit slower. He prays pretty slow, but it reminded me that I shouldn't rush prayers.

     We've been working really hard with the people we have, but none of them are keeping commitments very well. So we are also trying to find more people. Vidor is amazing in every aspect except for two (in my opinion). One, the work is pretty slow. Everyone is pretty spread out, we don't have any neighborhoods really. And two, there's still no mountains. But those aren't even big deals, we'll just continue to press forward and work hard. There's a lot of less active members that we minister to with members. I really enjoy doing that.

     I've been studying light a lot recently and I've learned a lot about it. It's interesting that Jesus Christ is our spiritual light and he is also the source of physical light. One big thing I've learned is that we must not EVER let anything come between us and Christ. This includes family. The first great commandment is to love God. Then, we must love our neighbors. As important as it is to love our families with everything we have, we cannot let even them keep us from Christ. This my very difficult for a lot of people, but God always makes everything work out in the end. The light of Christ is our source of life and spiritual energy. If we let anything disconnect us we will lose the safety and direction that comes from His light.

It's been a good week, I've learned a lot.

 I hope all ya'll have a great week!

     -Elder Peterson

President Ross took us to get frozen yogurt.

That house belongs to a member in our ward. I think it's really cool.

Week 78: Williamson 1 ward, Orange stake, Companion Elder Nestripke

Last week we went to a couple district councils to do Sister Larkin's object lesson for her. There's been some craziness with some missionaries having health challenges (so I've been told) so President and Sister Larkin have been busy in Kingwood and weren't able to come over to Orange. It was fun being at the District Councils, especially because I didn't have to do anything, I just listened and observed (Elder Nestripke did Sister Larkin's presentation). We were also supposed to have our interviews over zoom, but ours got postponed until the next day because of how busy they were.

I guess none of that was super interesting. I'm just trying to fill space 

On Saturday morning President Harris (the Stake President here) invited us to his home for a study. It was super cool, he is a very knowledgeable man. We talked about the premortal life and the fall of Adam and Eve. I learned a lot about our relationship with God and how perfect this plan really is (the Plan of Salvation). One thing I found super interesting is that this world is fashioned like wherever we were in the premortal life. I like it because it gives me a better picture of what it was like in our first probation.

After our study with him Elder Nestripke and I went to a recent converts home to help him paint his kitchen. We did two layers of primer and it took about 2½ hours. It was fun though, painting is something I enjoy because I can be really OCD about it. They also got us Sonic for lunch, so that was cool. I still have splatters of primer on my arms. I can't get them off .

Last night we shared a message about feeling the spirit and acting on impressions with a member family. I felt impressed to commit them to, for the next 24 hours, follow every single impression. No matter how strange it may sound. Realistically we should all being doing that 24/7, but it's hard. It was cool though because I shared my testimony and they all agreed to do it. I heard a quote recently that went somewhere along the lines of "Every good thought or idea is a prompting from God until proven otherwise." (Something like that). We talked about how often we doubt impressions and think they're just our own thoughts, but Moroni 7 teaches that if something invites us to do good, it is of God. We just take credit for those impressions too often .

Anyway, this church is true and God does still speak to us. I know that as we really try to follow all of our spiritual impressions, we will be instruments in God's hands to perform miracles and change lives. 

Have a great week!

-Elder Peterson

- Elder Nestripke got "trampled"

- Elder Frogley and I did a blitz and found puppies

- This is what the wasps look like over here. It's about as long as my thumb