Week 36:Fairmont Ward, Houston East Stake; Companion Elder Mangan

It's only been a couple days since my last email, so this one isn't going to be that long. Cool stuff happened since Thursday though.

     On Thursday we went to the temple with the Houston East Zone, there was about 40 of us (probably less than that) and it was awesome. I haven't been since October (I think) so it was well needed. After going through we took way too many pictures, as always, and then stopped by some fast food on the way home. It was a fun trip and I'm glad we got to do it.

     On Friday we had our interviews with President Larkin. It was another well needed thing, his words of counsel and motivation are powerful. He told me that I'm doing a good job and that meant a lot to me. I've been having a difficult time lately, so his support is very appreciated.

     That evening we had another discussion with Norma and Bern. It was great! We taught them the Restoration and explained the coming of the Book of Mormon and its significance/importance. They asked questions and payed attention very well. We all felt the spirit as it testified of the truth of our words. 

     Yesterday we did a blitz with Elders Bengtzen (pronounced Benson) and Barben and it was awesome. We went to the beach and split up, Elder Bengtzen and I took off. There was a lot of people there and we had several good discussions with people. We even had a lady come up and start talking to us in Spanish-English and with the little spanish we knew we understood that they were from Honduras and they're looking for a Church. It was awesome, we got their info and sent it to some Spanish missionaries from the Texas Houston South mission (they didn't live in our mission ). The rest of the night with Elder Bengtzen was awesome, the guy is a very bold missionary. At one point he knocked on a door and immediately started "arguing" with a guy about whether or not baptism was necessary. I was struggling not to laugh as it got somewhat heated. I intervened at one point to try and cool things down, but it didn't work. Eventually Elder Bengtzen realized he was not getting to the guy and that he was just getting angry, so he bore his testimony, shook his hand, and walked away. I followed after wishing the man a blessed day, I was laughing so hard inside. We had a good discussion about it afterwards and I learned how passionate he truly is about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Very inspiring. But also I learned, once again, how ineffective bashing is 

I love the guy, he's gonna do some amazing things.

     I apologize for the pretty lame email, today has been very busy and I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and think about things to write. 

     If you ever have any kind of questions (except chemistry questions), feel free to write me an email!

     Have a great week!

-Elder Peterson

That picture of Elder Bengtzen cracks me up. He drank a redbull before the temple trip and he was going crazy all day  

Also, that cat is messed up. I feel bad, but also don't...

Week 35:Fairmont Ward, Houston East Stake; Companion Elder Mangan

 (Our pday was moved from Monday to today so we can go to the temple, that's why I didn't write the other day)

  Just about everyday someone warns us that we're gonna die soon. "You think it's hot? Just wait until late summer." Sounds exciting. And it is getting HOT. not just hot, but humid as well, which makes it worse. Now, I don't sweat much, I never have. But last week I experienced sweat literally dripping off my face for probably the first time ever  We were helping a sweet nonmember lady named Sandee with her jungle of a backyard.

    I can't remember (and I don't care to check) if I talked about her yard in my last email, but it was baaaad. She has several health conditions (one of them being she's old) that prevent her from being able to take care of her yard. After 3 days of service (not full days, maybe 2 hours each. 6 total) we had cut all the weeds down from a couple feet to a couple inches with weed wackers. It was hard work and again, it was HOT. But we were eventually able to finish the job and her gratitude made it all worth it. We were also able to share the message of the Restoration with her and she's interested in taking lessons! We offered her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read 3 Nephi 11, which she gladly agreed to do. I'm excited to see where it goes, I hope/pray she'll keep her commitment to read.

     In case y'all missed it, Mother's Day was last Sunday. It was a great day, except for in sacrament meeting where the kids were talking about why they love their mothers and I started to REALLY miss my mother... 

But it's okay! I'm sure she's happy to have my nonsense out of the house for two years. But I'll be back next year to bug her again 

     Anyway, Mother's Day was great. Like I said, sacrament meeting had a program for the mothers in the ward and it was awesome. And then after church Elder Mangan and I got to call our mothers for a bit. Not gonna lie, it wasn't really THAT special since we are able to call once a week anyway. But it was still nice and I got to interrupt my mom's after-church nap 

(Before you get mad at me, mom, in my defense it looked like you were napping. I don't know if you actually were or not).

     I know that for having a week and a half to write about, that's not very much, but not a lot of interesting things happened this past week. So I apologize if this email wasn't entertaining enough, but I'll be writing another one in 4 days! So that one should be even worse! 

      I'll end with something I've learned this past week. When it comes to missionary work you have to forget yourself. I'm not out here for me, or for my parents. I'm here to serve God and help His lost children find the truth and find joy through the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sure, I'm going to grow (and have grown) from my service, but it's not about me. I see a lot of missionaries who complain about the work being too difficult and too uncomfortable. What I've learned is that's exactly how God wants it to be. The most effective growth is never in the comfort zone. How do you strengthen muscles? By breaking them down! (Basically). Missionary work is meant to be difficult so that in the process of helping others grow, we do as well. But the focus shouldn't primarily be on ourselves. 

    

     The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's living church upon the earth. This work is true and it will continue until God's purposes have been completed. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and it is true, I have no doubt about this. I promise to all of those who struggle with their testimonies of the Church that from prayerfully studying the Book of Mormon, you can and will come to understand the truth of what I say. 

     I am so privileged to be a part of this great work and I am grateful for every opportunity I have to share my testimony. I am determined to serve God with all my heart, might, mind, and strength and I invite all you who haven't found this determination to do so. Search the scriptures, talk to God, it will come.

     Pray on!

-Elder Peterson

Pictures May 3-10

 

Week 34:Fairmont Ward, Houston East Stake; Companion Elder Mangan

As you can probably gather from the email subject, things are starting to get going a bit!

This past week Elder Mangan and I were at the Butler's home for dinner. Their a young couple with a hilarious 8 month-old son. We had a good meal and we talked about missionary work for a while. After the meal we were walking down their sidewalk and we saw a nice looking couple sitting on their driveway talking. We walked up and asked them if we could share a Bible verse with them. The woman, Norma, said we could. I wanted to share James 2:17, but I gave a little context first. I told them it's one of my favorite scriptures concerning faith and we started talking about what faith means. I then shared the scripture:

"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

They loved it and we kept talking about faith for a while, it was awesome. We then explained who we are and what we as missionaries do. We asked them if we could come another time to talk a little more, and they agreed. I gave them a pamphlet that had our number on it, got there number, and said goodbye. 

It was such an awesome conversation and they were so nice, they even gave us some soda before we left

As we continued down the street we came across 8 (give or take) kids playing some basketball. They approached us and asked if we had guns. Then they asked if we were police. We told them who we are and they just kinda went "oh! Cool..." Then we started playing basketball with them  It was pretty fun, they had their hoop lowered a bit, so I was able to dunk (barely) and they were loving it. They had some pretty good shots themselves though. After about 15 minutes of playing with them we told them we should go. They were a little disappointed, but we all had fun.

Elder Mangan and I decided to do a little walking around on the beach a couple days ago, and it was pretty cool. The beach is only about 15 minutes from our apartment, so it wasn't a hard decision. There wasn't a lot of people, so we weren't able to talk to anyone, but we got a couple good pictures (down below). The beach is kinda funny, you've got 30 feet of sand until water, the waves are very small, and in the distance you can see oil drills (or some kind of oil machines). Fun! Unfortunately I didn't get the oil drills in the pictures, so you'll just have to believe me.

We found a guy who missionaries in the past couldn't get a hold of and had a great talk. We caught him outside trimming his bushes with scissors () and asked him about his experiences with missionaries in the past. He didn't answer that question, instead he told us that he has a ton of weird questions () and asked if we would listen. We told him we'd hear one and they come back another time for some others. He basically asked if we existed before the world was created. I said yes and he went "Really? Cause I haven't seen that anywhere in the Bible." I refrained from rolling my eyes and then read Proverbs 8:22-26 with him. He read it over about 5 times before finally admitting that it does confirm. It was a good conversation though, he didn't try to bash us or anything, so that was good. We scheduled another time to meet and then wished him a blessed day.

This week has been great, we've been finding more people and setting up more lessons. You really get out what you put in. We've been out everyday as much as we can trying to get lessons, and it's starting to pay off. One struggle I've been having is finding peace. If you know me you've come to understand that I like my personal quiet time and I get frustrated with people pretty quickly (something I'm really working on). Because of this I really enjoy little breaks throughout the day where I can read some scriptures, pray, and do some pondering. These are 3 things that have been extremely refreshing for me. I've come to understand that studying the scriptures prayerfully and with lots of pondering brings a lot of peace. Jesus Christ truly is the Prince of Peace and as we study his life and his words, we can become a happier, more peaceful people. I strive to emulate that calm peacefulness that Christ had when he taught people. A scripture I heard recently shows that the Lord is not heard in loudness, but in the quiet stillness.

"11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

   12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice" (1 kings 19:11-12).

I know that as we seek moments in our lives where we can quietly ponder the words of Christ, we will receive much peace and many revelations.

I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Peterson

The only one I have to comment on is the one with words. I found that scripture in my personal study and found it very applicable to missionary work. The picture may be a bit cheesy, but I like it.

Pictures April 26-May 2

 

Week 33:Fairmont Ward, Houston East Stake; Companion Elder Mangan

How's the weather over there? We've got 70s with 75-95% humidity pretty consistently. It's alright though, I'm getting used to it (not really).

Last week Elder Mangan and I met with a woman named Audra Rodriguez. She was referred to our Bishop by a guy at a car dealership and Bishop Dinsdale referred her to us. We sat down to get to know her for a minute and has a super great discussion. She said she believes that Jesus Christ is real, but she doesn't know much about him. We shared a couple scriptures and basically told her we can help her learn. She also expressed concern with scriptures and how it's hard for her to understand them. We can help with that too! We asked her to read 3 Nephi 11:10-12 (I think) to get a good start on who the Savior is. We are super excited to meet with her again and learn about Christ together. 

We also did a lot of service this past week. We (and other Elders) helped a lady do some yard work in her jungle of a backyard. We had to clear out her yard and then we just took a couple weed wackers and made it look waaaay better. We and some other Elders also helped a woman in our ward, Sister Lerdo, clean out her garage. It was pretty gross, it smelled not too great and there were more roaches than I've probably ever seen, along with other bugs I can't identify. It was a good time though, we cleared out a ton of junk. In this part of Texas you can throw your garbage on the grass space between the curb and the sidewalk and it will get picked up. No can or bag even needed (makes the streets smell awful sometimes). So we threw all the trash on this little section by the curb and filled it up very quickly. After being there for a couple hours we told her we had to go, but that we'd love to help finish up some other day. Hopefully she lets us help again!

In missions where phones or ipads are used we have an app called areabook. All the files and information that used to go on the physical areabooks (those 5 pound binders the missionaries used to lug around) is now digital and way easier to use. Unfortunately, with technology comes new problems. Like your areabook not recognizing you're in a new area and failing to sync, or instead of sending someone's information to the correct missionaries it will send it to no where (this is rare though). In our case, we have no area. Since Elder Mangan and I are technically opening an area, the app has to draw new boundaries, give us stewardship in the ward, give us the teaching records of people in our area, etc. Areabook I'd being stubborn and has decided to take its sweet time with the process, so we have been basically starting from scratch. Eventually (Hopefully within the week) it will update and then everything will be fine, but until then we are pretty much using the spirit to guide us. The situation isn't as bad as I make it seem, but it's slightly annoying. The Great news is that we've been able to meet with people anyway, which is a tender mercy for me because I really enjoy talking about the Gospel with people. 

So even though this past week has been a bit hectic (I forgot to mention we moved into our own apartment finally), the work of the Lord continues.

Hurrah for Israel!

If any of you have any questions or I forgot to write about something you are curious about, feel free to email me!

I hope y'all have a great week! 

-Elder Peterson

 1. A chicken from a BBQ place.

2. We had a leak last week. Luckily it got fixed very quickly.

3. A nice, classic Texan sign.

4. The missionaries on the left in this picture are from the Texas Houston SOUTH Mission. It was funny to see them at that bowling alley, so we got a picture.

Pictures April 13-25