Monday, February 23, 2015

2-23-15

Dear Family,

That sounds like SOOO much fun :) Mom we will definitely have to go again the next time!! I'm glad to hear that things are going well back home! 

It is definitely cold! But thankfully we have a good heater in the car, and I've been staying warm :) Cyriacus came to church!! That was SO wonderful to see! I was so happy to see him there. He missed the Sacrament, but made it to the rest of the talks. We also had a lesson with him last week. Haha, when we tried to put him on date, he was like "Yes! Yes I want to follow the example of my Savior!" And we didn't even get to the part of baptism. But then Sister Roundy brought up baptism again and he said that he would have an answer after he went to our church. So we're going to meet with him again this week as soon as possible to find out what he thought. 

Well, I've got some interesting news for ya'll. I'm being Emergency transfered to Suwanee. I head out this Wednesday to be with Sister Davenport. I haven't heard anything about her, so I don't really know what to expect :P Her companion is having to go home due to some kind of disease with her heart (I didn't quite grab all of the details on that). But yeah... :) I'm a little bummed about it, but President came over to our apartment himself and told me that I was being sent over there. We're the only trio in the mission so it makes sense that one of us would have to go. However, I'm moving forward towards another adventure!! I'm excited to see what Suwanee is like. I know that it's further north, but other than that I have no idea. It's not as far as Dahlonega was, but it's in the same zone.

So off topic :P, in our study room, we're right next to a window. Since Spring is coming closer the birds are singing again outside. It's weird to think that it's been a year since I first came out. It just made me reflect a little bit. Everything in Georgia is the same. It's the same mission. The outside is the same. The seasons are still the same and the trees are the same. I'm still on the same mission, doing the exact same thing. But I'm not the same :P It's just kind of funny the difference of feelings that I have now. My worries and concerns are different than what they were before. I just feel a lot calmer inside and more at peace. I am sad to be leaving after such a short time, but I'm satisfied with how I've worked in this area. I've done a lot of clean up here (the area book was a mess, we had two of them and most of the records weren't in our area anymore). And I just feel so blessed by the Lord. I feel like each circumstance I'm going through is preparing me for the future. Having companions that were Emergency Transferred here, has prepared me a little for this transfer. What kind of an attitude that I want to have, and how I want to deal with this trial. It's going to be hard, but God is near and I am so grateful for that :) 

I hope that ya'll are having a good one! Have a blessed day :) I love you and I am so grateful for all that you do! Thanks for the letters. Thanks for the emails. Thanks for the stories and the pictures :) I appreciate them all so much! I miss ya'll! Take care :)

Just Believe,
Sister Petersen

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

2-18-15

Hello hello Fam!

Boy! It sounds like things are really crazy back home! I'm glad that things have been so good as well! Please send me a picture of that hummingbird and let me know how ANWA goes! I've always wanted to go to one of those! (And if you can get me an autograph of someone I would love it :P ) And you've been called as President! (I'm not surprised :) ) That's awesome! And that's so great that Renea has been able to help you get another name Dad!! Man! I seriously want to learn how to do that!

Alright! This week, it's been crazy, but it's been a good week :) Yeah I'm still in a threesome, transfers aren't until the beginning of March. When that hits one of my companions (Sister Roundy) will be going home. After that point I'll probably just stay with Sister Osburn. Let's see, we've got an investigator that we're working with which I'm Super stoked about! His name is Cyriacus and he's from Nigeria. He's super sincere, black, and awesome! I love his accent :) He's got a family still in Nigeria that he's working to get into the states (he has a five year old that he hasn't even met yet!) We're planning on teaching him tomorrow and putting him on date! Wish us luck! 

We've also had a lot of success getting in with more Less Actives in the area who are receptive to us, so that's been Really needed. We've got some return appointments and hopefully we'll be able to help them come back to church.

Also, our ward did this Crazy missionary blitz thing where there was just Sacrament meeting and then every family had two to three names of less actives or people on the ward list that we didn't know who they were and they were asked to go and find them for an hour and a half and see if they were still home. It seemed like a lot of people had a really good experience with that, which was so good to see! 

Haha, we still have an ant problem (Raid is our best friend :P ) I've had to sleep on the couch because they've been on the wall next to my bed. I'm planning on moving my bed over today and getting my sheets washed so I don't have to worry about it. Oh! And we ended up having to switch our car. The car we were driving had this crazy oil leak that was dripping out of the engine and we ended up losing all of our transmission fluid. Our car was smoking super badly, we had to go to the Pep Boys place and then call Elder Residori. But super miracle, because he couldn't get a tow truck there, we had to keep driving it to the mission office. We weren't sure if we were going to make it, but we kept praying and it ended up making it to the office. (It was crazy too because this silly train blocked our path so we ended up having to go the LONG way around in order to get to the office.)

Anyways, lots of stuff, but it was a good week. I hope that ya'll are having a great week too! I miss ya lots and lots! Have a blessed day :)

Just Believe,
Sister Petersen

Monday, February 2, 2015

2-2-15

Dear Fam,

I'm Sorry I'm Sorry I'm Sorry!! This week and last week have been insane, so I'm sorry that I haven't sent you my address! It's 7103 Dunleaf Arc Way. Norcross, GA 30093. 

Okay, I've got a lot to update you on. So last week on Friday, my companion Sister Summerhays ended up going home early due to her depression that was really affecting how she worked. She was really struggling badly, so she ended up talking to president and got a blessing and she felt like she really needed to go. I had a feeling that it was time for her to go too, she was just so exhausted and ready. It reminded me of when I had to go home for my back. It was just so hard to get out of bed and so exhausting to go to work. So, I'm grateful that she was able to go home and hopefully she's getting some help. She was out for about fifteen months, so she's officially done. Now, that being said, I have two new companions! Sister Roundy and Sister Osburn! And they are the best :D We are laughing every day and we're all super excited to get to work. Since I've only been in the area for about a week, we're whitewashing which is definitely intense and crazy, but it's a really good experience too :) We're kind of starting from ground zero.

Probably one of the biggest miracles right now is being able to have some good companions who want to work and who are obedient. Sister Osburn has been out for about five months now, and Sister Roundy has been out for seventeen months. Both of them like to work hard and with the three of us, so far we've been getting along well :) Haha, and when we have our initials in the right order, it looks like Sisters PRO. It's awesome :P 

It's kind of funny, all three of us have gotten the impression that we really need to work on helping the ward become more unified. Most of the missionaries are making goals for getting more baptisms and finding people to teach. While I was fasting on Sunday, I thought about fasting for that, but it didn't seem like the right thing to fast for, at least, not right now. And then we talked about what we want our goal to be and it really came down to the ward. It just got split in December and so it feels like everyone is still trying to adjust and get used to new callings and so forth. It's a REALLY small congregation, but really gung ho about missionary work. Except it feels like there's kind of a disconnect among the members in wanting to work together. It seems like a lot of the members' friends are in the other ward now, and so nobody really knows each other, and possibly don't know quite how to bridge the gap. So! We're planning on meeting with the Relief Society president on Tuesday and hopefully suggest some ideas on how we can help. At the moment, we've only got one progressing investigator who's part of a part member family. We're meeting with him tonight actually, I've never met him before, but his name is Scott and he seems like he's really interested in learning more. So we're going to be showing him the Restoration video and just find out where he's at with everything. 

We just figure, if the ward isn't unified, it's going to be impossible to retain new investigators. The Elders in our ward, are doing an awesome job at bringing more investigators and people into the ward, but I'm wondering how the fellowshipping is going among the members. I love it here though. There's a lot of great people in the ward, and there's a lot of potential! It'll probably take a while for things to get settled down and for people to make new connections, but we'll see how it goes. There's also a Relief Society get together this Thursday called Speed Friendshipping, so Hopefully that'll help with everything. 

Anyways, things over all are going really well. I'm loving the work, and I'm learning lots. It was hard to say goodbye to Sister Summerhays, but I love my new companions :) And I know she needed to go home too. The Gospel is true and the book is blue!! I'm glad that things are going well! I hope Andrew and Amy can get to feeling better! (I'd really like some pictures of those puppies by the way :P ) haha, I'm glad you've got chickens and that you're loving primary too!! Fog is awesome :D I love it, and of course I remember the fog in the pines!! How could I forget? That was so epic! 

Anyways, I love ya'll and I'm praying for you! I hope ya'll have a blessed week! Love you!

Just Believe,
Sister Petersen