8-25-14

Dear Family,

Oh my goodness! It sounds like there were a lot of things that happened this past week! Welcome to the family Emma Maree!!! That's super exciting :D

Goodness gracious! Okay, so not cool! I want to hear more of what that woman said about the near death experience! That's super awesome! And that was really cool that the White Mountains are a sacred place. Definitely true! And that's interesting that they said the Snowflake area is as well.

Well, not all that much happened to us this week. Sister Madsen and I got the plague so we were pretty much stuck in our apartment for most of the week. Then on Sunday right after we had dinner, we were walking back from the church. Sister Madsen had awful blisters from her shoes and then I happened to twist my ankle :/ how typical. I would love to say it was such an amazing story where I fell down and hurt myself in the process of saving some child from a mad driver in the middle of the street..... Yeah, no... I'm just a klutz and totally biffed it while walking on the sidewalk :/ Needless to say, it's not too badly hurt and feels better today. It didn't swell up too bad. My pride's only hurt a little :P And Bring it Cameron! We are totally having a race when I get home :D

All in all, there's not much to report this week. Just pray that Sister Madsen and I will have good health :) (It's crazy I haven't been ill or hurt at all until this transfer.) I'm glad that ya'll got to go up to the cabin and were able to get things fixed. I'm definitely missing it! Mom, I don't know why you can't send pictures. Did you click on the little paper clip image at the bottom of the emails that you send? That should allow you to attach files to the email. Anyways, sorry that this email is so short, but I love you all! Have a wonderful week :)

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen

8-11-14

Hello hello!!!

 

Great news! I've been moved to a new area :D AND I LOVE IT!!!! I have the best companion in the whole world! And it is so awesome! And I'm an all biking missionary XD Hahaha, so that's definitely been a change! We rode our bikes sixteen miles on Saturday, and let me tell you, I was super sore on Sunday! I think there are only about three to five companionships who are biking sisters, so... yeah, it's crazy hard, but I love it.

 

And news for mailing! So, the mission office can no longer forward mail to us, so here's my personal address :) 116 Hemingway Lane Roswell GA 30075. So yeah, all packages and mail and stuff need to go to my apartment. Sooo.... I'm kind of excited :D

 

The area here is super awesome. The people I've met so far are so great and super sassy! Haha, I love it so much! We went over to a woman's house who's less active and she taught us how to cook food and we taught her the gospel. I loved it, because she pretty much looks at a recipe and then makes it the Natalia way (her way ;) ) There are so many people here who are just blunt and sarcastic and super laid back and it's just so great! Definitely some getting used to, but it's awesome!

 

Biking all day is definitely a challenge, but we take plenty of breaks and I bought this awesome water bottle that keeps the water cold all day so I'm keeping hydrated! My companion is so awesome! Her name is Sister Madsen and she is such a sweetheart! She's super open and care free and just Loves people! She's so great at building relationships with people and we're getting a long so great. This transfer is going to be so awesome and I'm Super excited!

 

I hope that all is well! I hope that your song went great Mom and that you're able to get those stories written! You can do it! I believe in you :) Have fun at the cabin and don't get too stressed out :) I love you!

 

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen

8-4-14

Hello Family!!

 

Well, the news has arrived! I am heading out to Roswell on Wednesday! It's the Roswell ward in Roswell city! My new companion is going to be Sister Madsen and I am SO stoked! (She trained my MTC companion and I think they got along great! Also one of the sisters here trained Sister Madsen so I've been getting the lowdown on what she's like.)

 

Oh my goodness this last week has been so incredible! Tuesday was a super hard day. Probably one of the hardest that I had ever experienced out here. We just didn't know what to do, but Saturday was one of the most incredible days that we experienced that everything just turned out alright. Beverly is still on date and slowly progressing towards baptism! We taught her the Word of Wisdom on Saturday and it turned out fine. Actually, I have to tell you the story. Right after we said the prayer, she immediately started with, "I don't think I can get baptized in your church." My heart sank as well as everyone else's and then Sister Hooker responded, "How come?"

Her answer, "Well, I just don't think I am willing to give up my two cups of coffee and two cups of tea to join the Mormon church!"

 

Haha, luckily we had prepared earlier that morning to teach her about the Word of Wisdom so it was actually perfect timing! So we gave her plenty of explanations and testified and read scriptures. And essentially it came down to whether or not this revelation was from God and whether or not Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. Because if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith is a prophet. And if Joseph Smith is a prophet, then he received revelation from the Lord for our day. After the end of the lesson, she had softened up quite a bit and I ended up telling her that I was going to be leaving. She was sad about it, but as we were leaving she said, "Well, do you think you'll be able to be here for my baptism?" And that made me smile inside. I don't think I'll be able to, but I was glad to hear that she was still preparing herself for baptism.

 

Another miracle, We have another person on date!!!! This girl is the sister of one of the members we've been working with ever since I've been here. The member, Sister Gruber, never really had that strong of a testimony so we would often go to her house and try to help her see how the scriptures applied to her life and help her to understand better. Her husband is Super awesome! Way gung ho about missionary work and the Book of Mormon. He goes out with the Elders all the time. But Sister Gruber's sister was here and is staying at their house for the school year and she's not a member. We knew that she liked the church and was curious about it, but that was about it. Well, on saturday sister Hooker got the feeling that we needed to go and visit them that evening. So we text Sister Gruber to set up an appointment. Everything else fell through for the evening, but they said that we could come over. So when we get there, we were just planning on visiting with Sister Gruber, but everyone was there. We have a casual conversation and Sister Hooker gets impressed to ask Tayler if she was a member. We knew that she wasn't, but she felt impressed to ask. Tayler responded that she wasn't, but she wanted to get baptized and was wondering if we could teach her. Hahah, we were like... YEAH!!! So we start off with a prayer and immediately jump into the first lesson. We ask her to get baptized and she said yes and it was SO AWESOME!!! Her date is going to be August 23rd and we are so excited!

 

But the best part for me this week was Fast Sunday. Sister Gruber actually went up to bear her testimony. And that's saying something. She was a convert to the church when she was nine. She had never really known why she had joined the church, and she felt like she had never had a testimony. She'd never read the Book of Mormon all the way through, and had never bore her testimony before. But seeing her up there and bearing her testimony just filled me with so much joy. I felt so much joy and gratitude to be a part of this work. So many good things have happened here in Webb bridge that I had an opportunity to be a part of. I felt truly so blessed yesterday, and I knew that it was time for me to leave. Sunday just felt right. I was able to say goodbye to a bunch of the members and I was able to see Garnica there and she had brought her family to church. So many miracles happened, but the best was seeing Sister Gruber go up there and bear her testimony.

 

I am so excited for the future. I don't know what God has in store, but I can't wait to see. I hope that ya'll have a great week this week! I love you all so much! Take care!

 

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen