6-16-14

Hi Fam!

I love that quote mom! It's definitely true. Well, this week we had more success concerning investigators and exciting news. We've got an awesome golden contact that we're working with at the moment. Her name is Chastity and we're going to be meeting with her again this evening to teach the second lesson. The first lesson with her was rockin! She totally engaged in the conversation and she had her friend over so we gave them both a Book of Mormon and they both wanted to learn more. Chastity just soaked up the first lesson and even wanted to ask us for a return appointment. Sister Hooker and I were on Cloud Nine it was sooo awesome!!

We also have another family that we were working with, the Perry's, but we're going to have to refer them to the other missionaries. It was sad because their job was in our area and we taught them the first lesson. We tried to refer them to the other missionaries before, but they never called the family. So the family ended up calling us and wanted to have a sit down lesson with us. They were Golden! But, because they're not in our area, we still have to refer them to the other missionaries :( But that's okay, I hope that they can get baptized soon!!

All considering, life here in the mission is good. I'm still having my struggles, but Heavenly Father has been there the whole way. I can definitely see the hand of the Lord in this work. I'm excited to hear about any news for Anwa! Also, you didn't tell me about working in the homeless shelter! What were the details on that? I'm glad that you're still talking to Lee! Is she still friends but completely closed off to the gospel? I'm glad to hear that you gals are still talking. 

Hey, have you ever gone on a team up with the missionaries before? Since dad has his calling, I'm guessing he has, but have you mom? It's really cool! Haha, and since I'm a missionary I can totally advocate for it, but I bet the missionaries would love it if you could go with them, or even have one of the investigators their teaching come over to the house. It's crazy to have this new perspective on missionary work. Now that I am a missionary, it makes me want to be a better member missionary. Since the missionaries have to worry about miles, I want to be the kind of person that's willing to drive them to places and be like, I'm free for the night, where do you need to go and what can I do for you. I bet the missionaries would love that! The ward is being so awesome at getting the missionary bug going. More people are signing up to feed us and to go on team ups with us. It's insane what all is happening! 

And and!! We got one of our less actives to come to church!! We didn't even have to invite her! We just saw her sitting on the bench and we were both dumb struck to see her! It was a miracle. It was almost even more exciting than getting a baptism it was so cool. 

I hope that all is well back home! Have fun at the cabin and picking those apples :P Love you!

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen

6-9-14

Hi Fam!

Oh my goodness it sounds like there have been some fun things happening back home. Sorry it's been so hot, but I'm glad that the mornings and evenings have been great. It's been pretty warm and muggy around here. It's AWFUL when there isn't a breeze when we go tracting. It feels like the air is just Stagnant and you're walking in a sauna. I hope you guys can get some rain soon. I do have a subway in the area, and I have yet to use my card that I want to use, but I'm excited to use it :) Congratulations to Jason getting married! That's so fun :) I'm sure if you pointed her out to me, I'll probably recognize her. I'm glad that you got to sit down in a session. Man! I can't wait to go to the temple!! And that's awesome that the Seagull Bookstore is closer!

That's SO Exciting for Bobby and Bowen!! Congrats to them! Oh, that's so awesome! And Ryan got his papers in!! IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! Good! He's going to love it soooo much. It'll be hard, but he'll love it. I'm so stoked for him! When he finds out where he goes, will you send me his address? I'd love to write him some letters :)

This week truly has been better than other weeks. It's been tough, but I've been learning so much and God has been with me all the way. We've got some families and people that we're excited to start teaching this week. We've got the Ding family. They're from China. When we went tracting, they welcomed us into their home and let us share our message. They don't have much of a religious background and wanted to learn more. Their kids were so cute! They're named Tracy, Teddy, and Terry. The Dad's name is Jason and the wife is named Ping. (Awful name, Ping Ding, I feel so bad for her). 

And And!! We had another awesome miracle! So we had a referral from exchanges. Sister Hooker went to Johns Creek and found out about the Perry family. They work in our area, but their home is outside of it. So we were asked to just check in on them and see how they were doing. They said that'd they might be interesting in getting the lessons. They had friends who were l.d.s. and had been working with them for a while. We did so and told them that we could stop by every so often, but the other missionaries in Atlanta would have to teach them. Well... the other day they ended up calling us and told us they wanted us to come talk to them! And not just talk, but have a sit down lesson with them at their office! It was so awesome! I guess the other missionaries had never contacted them, so we're going to see them this week and start teaching them. It was super exciting! Sister Hooker and I were on cloud nine! We've also got a couple of other people that we tracted into this week, so we're hopeful that they'll turn out to be some awesome contacts.

Thank you for your prayers and your fasting. They truly have been helping out. Please don't stop, transfers are coming in about two and a half weeks, and I get the feeling that I might be leaving. It's also possible that I'll be staying for another six weeks, but I won't know until later :) I have no idea what to expect, but it's probably going to be a little rough. They're going to be June 25th, soooo if I happen to be a bit of an emotional wreck during that time, that'll be why. But, things are much better than what they were. Thank you for the letters. They really mean the world to me. It means a lot knowing that I have a family who's awesome and is there for me. So thank you.

 I hope that everyone is doing well! Keep up the good work and don't give up on the missionary efforts :) Have a great week!

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen

6-2-14

Hello hello! 

I hope that everyone is doing well this week! Things have definitely had their ups and downs this week :P But things are slowly moving forward. Time just always keeps on ticking away. Sister Hooker and I are trying to get more people to teach. We've been working with a woman named Beverly this week and we actually ended up teaming up with one of the members of our ward who got along really well with her. Which was awesome! We've been really needing someone to get with her to feel more love from the ward. She didn't end up going to church, but we're hopeful for next week. (Her husband has been having trouble, he's pretty much blind and almost all deaf. So she's been really struggling to try and take care of him. It's been really hard for her.)

Alot of what we've been doing is trying to get to know the ward better here. And it's been really cool. This ward has a lot of young families so it's been interesting trying to find fun activities for the kids to do while we try to also teach the adults. We did a fun little experiment with food coloring and 1% milk in a pie tin. You drop a drop of food coloring in the milk and then touch it with the tip of a q tip with dish soap on it and the color bursts out and hits the other colors. The kids loved it! And then we shared about how our testimonies do the same thing. And that the more we share it, the more seeds that are planted. 

Well this month of June we've had a mission fast to become more consecrated missionaries. The goal is to be more diligent and dedicated for the work. We had zone conference last week all about it. And I'm excited for the new President that's coming in. His name is President Benyen (I think that's how you spell it) they look like a really nice couple and I'm really excited to see what things will happen when they come! 

There have been a lot of little miracles that I've seen this week. So many times where we meet people that share something that we needed to hear. (Oh my goodness, last week we had a day filled with just biking and walking in the humid weather. We were trying to save on miles but it was ridiculous. We didn't go inside at all that day. It was such a blessing when we were able to go and visit the old bishop in the ward who let us in and talked with us. He normally wouldn't have done it because his wife isn't doing well, but he let us come in. It was such a blessing.)

But God is good and the work keeps moving forward. I'm learning so much and it's truly been such a blessing to be out here. I hope that everyone is doing great! Oh and the weather today has been gorgeous!! It hasn't been half as humid and there's been such a nice breeze. I think it's been in the eighties, but it's been soooo nice today and yesterday. Anyways, thanks for all that you do! Have a fantastic week!

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen

5-19-14

Hi Fam!

I hope all is well in the great AZ. I'm sorry to hear that not much work is being done in the temples. I hope that changes soon. It's such a blessing to be able to have so many temples in Arizona, and if people aren't going that's really sad. I know that as soon as I get home I want to go there as often as possible. I know it'll be difficult, but I definitely want to go through the Gilbert temple and the Mesa temple bunches and bunches of times! It's such a blessing having a temple so close to the house. Being here I can't go until the end of my mission or unless my zone gets at least 42 baptisms, so I hope more people can figure out how important that work is!!

This world really is getting tragically messed up. Things going on in Ukraine, our political leaders, media, everything. It's just sickening. I'm glad that ya'll were able to help out that couple. I'm sorry that it was so disgusting there, but I know that it probably really helped out that couple. Who knows what spiritual potential they had before this life and what they will become in the next :) 

I'll be honest, Transfers were hard. It was really difficult to say goodbye to my trainer and greet my new companion. Sister DeBry and I had gone through some rough patches but we became really good friends, and it was hard being in this area without her. But now I've got my new companion Sister Hooker and she is the bomb! She's really awesome! Haha, we're actually a lot alike personality wise. And both of us are striving to become self confident and appreciate ourselves more rather than believing that other people are naturally better than us. Haha, both of us have struggled with that a lot so it's nice to get her opinion of things. Her dad is also a therapist which is really interesting and he has quite a lot of good advice. Just that if you're not going to care about yourself than nobody else is going to want to care about you. (Sound familiar mom? :P) But it was good to get the reminder. Especially out here on the mission where there are so many new things happening constantly.

And with that book on the personalities, I agree with you. Haha, soap box time: It's true I am a sensitive type person. And it's also true that I have to take time to think things through. But I also know that I try very hard to be kind to people and I'm trying every day to be a good listener. I can bless God's people in different ways than other people can who are naturally louder and more authoritative. It's not a bad thing. God needs all of us in order to help out His kingdom. I am the way I am and I like myself the way I am. If people think that I'm slow or that I'm odd just because I don't always pipe up when others would, so what? So what if I take my time? So what if things affect me deeply? It just means that I pay attention to my emotions and I care about people. If I take my time to say something it just means that I care about what I'm going to say and I want it to be the right thing to say so that I can best help the person that I'm talking to. It doesn't mean that I'm perfect. And it certainly doesn't mean that I should do the same tasks that other people are naturally capable of doing. It just means that I'm different and that I like being me :) God has need for all kinds of missionaries. And He has a lot to teach me, which makes me really grateful that I decided to come out here :)

Anyways, end of soapbox :P . The work is moving forward. We've been striving to build up our teaching pool this week. One great thing about Sister Hooker and I is that we're both determined to go tracting two hours every day even if we both don't like it :) That way we can find more people to teach. And it was awesome! We found a random less active in the neighborhood that hadn't had their records moved into the ward. So we're planning on working with her and getting her records moved in. Also we had two people come to church this week!!! Beverly (pretty much our top investigator at the moment) and Naomi! Sister DeBry and I had ran into Naomi before when we were trying to contact Garnicka (a woman who was baptized in February but ended up stop coming to church :/ ) Naomi is Garnicka's cousin. So while Sister Hooker and I were trying to get in contact with Garnicka again to invite her to church, we ran into Naomi and ended up inviting her instead. We figured why not? And she CAME TO CHURCH!!!! It was Awesome!! She looked so great! (She and Garnicka share a home. They don't live in the best living conditions, and Naomi smokes, but she looked beautiful with her hair all styled and in her dress. It was amazing to see her there!) We did not expect her to come AT ALL. It was fantastic! So we're going to try and meet with her again this week to see how she liked it and hopefully try to teach the lessons with her. Who knows? But God was definitely blessing us with so many miracles this week.

Transfer weeks are hard. It's like your best friend gets taken from you who you're not going to see for months and then you're expected to take over the area with someone that you've never met before. Those first two days were rough. But Sister Hooker was awesome and we both managed to pull through to Sunday. Haha, they always say make it to Sunday. And it's so true! Once you can make it to Sunday everything just seems to improve. You have P-Day next and then you're a lot more comfortable with your companion and you feel much better about the changes. I am NOT excited for when I have to leave this area. Then I'll be taken right out of my comfort zone once more and placed with another brand new companion. Ah well, it makes me learn a lot. 

Anyways, I really have learned a lot this week. The mission really teaches you how to grow up. You can't rely on mom or dad anymore. You've got to take care of the area and act professional. You've got to be spiritually prepared for what happens and there are a lot of disappointments that you face. You're constantly thrust out of your comfort zone and you're constantly relearning things over and over again in different ways so that the message gets stuck in your head :P Probably the biggest lesson to learn is just how to love God, people, and yourself over and over again. How to let go of everything that you can't control (which is just about everything :P ) and allow God to take care of it. And that's a hard lesson to learn especially after coming from a life where you feel like it's yours. You make your own decisions and then when you come out here, you've got to turn to the Lord and trust in your leaders that they're making the right decisions for you. And that's very humbling :) Mornings are usually the hardest. I don't know why, but you start thinking about things and sometimes you realize just how long 18 months really is. And then over time you start to realize how short 18 months really is. (Time is so warped here hahaha) 

But it's incredible and it's wonderful. It's difficult and it's humbling, but it's teaching me sooooo much. I know there are going to be hard times, but those times are also when we have the greatest growth so I'm grateful for the hard times. I've learned a lot and I'm excited to see where things take me. I hope that ya'll are having a great day! Haha, have fun reading this super long letter! It makes up for last time's letter :P I love you all and I hope that you have so much fun this week! Have fun at the cabin! And I got your package!! Thank you so much!! Haha, right when I got it I immediately put one of the cds in our player and turned up it way loud. It was SO nice :) Thanks for all that you do! I love you!

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen

(P.S. Tell Grandma the weather has been fine here. I'm not up North where they've had some tornado warnings. Things are good in these here parts :P It's a little rainy, but other than that, the weather's good. No more blossoms, but it's SUPER green :) And the Magnolia flowers are blooming!!!!)

5-12-14

Hello hello!!

It was so nice to hear from you guys! I'm glad that everyone is doing well and all the grand kids are getting SO BIG!!!! It's CRAZY!!! Well, we found out this morning that Sister DeBry has been called to go to the Athens first ward to be a Sister Training Leader!! We exchange on Wednesday and she's going to be companions with one of her companions from the MTC, so she's stoked!! I'm so proud of her. She's really excited and still can't believe that she's leaving. My new companion is Sister Hooker. Sister DeBry said that she's a real sweet heart and a hard worker. She said that I'll really like her so we'll see how it goes!

Well, the work continues to move forward. A lot of our investigators that we've had in the past have now been dropped and so we're really on the hunt to find some more people to teach. But there are a lot of potentials that we're planning on looking into, so this week is going to be fun! :P 

I'm not quite sure what all to say. With transfers coming up I'm kind of nervous to see what happens, but I know that it'll be exactly what God wants it to be. I'm nervous to start working in this area with a new companion, but we've got a new ward mission leader and he's been doing awesome trying to get the ward motivated to come and help us out!

Anyways, this letter is probably going to be shorter this time around. The work keeps moving forward and I'm excited to see what happens. I know that there's still so much that I need to learn and see. It amazes me that it truly is all about being obedient, working hard, and loving the people. That's really all that it takes and you'll have a successful mission. Anyways I'm glad that you had fun at the cabin! Have the bestest best week ever!

Just Believe

Sister Petersen

5-5-14

Hello hello!!

Well! I'm super jealous that you're headed up to the cabin! But that's super exciting :) And we BETTER take a road trip up there right when I get home! I am SO Stoked for that!! 

This week went pretty well. There's not much that happened. A couple of people dropped us and we've just been on the run trying to hunt down more investigators and schedule appointments. So we pretty much ended up tracting quite a bit and meeting with less actives and members. BUT one of our investigators ended up coming to church for all three hours :D It was soooo awesome! She's a really sweet older lady and the other sisters had started meeting with her since January, so we've been working with her for quite a while. But she's been making her way through the Book of Mormon and we've taught a few times. So I'm pretty excited about it!

And Phone Call! We're planning on calling at 7:00 pm over here. Sorry it's not later, but that's the time that works out best for both of us and the people that we're going over to. I can try and get the Gashler's to text you the information so you'll know it :) Oh! And I have a HUGE favor. Transfers aren't this week, they're the next week and when Sister DeBry leaves I'm going to be pathetically short on good music. (Like I've been dying already.) I don't know if you guys would be willing to send me some more CDs, but music gets really old. Really Fast. I don't know if you want to send Motab or anything, but I really really would appreciate some more music. It mainly needs to be gospel centered. But I would really appreciate it! (I've been aching inside for some good Seussical or Wicked music, so if there's any way to find some music that's a musical that's about Jesus Christ or Joseph Smith or whatever that you can belt to. I would be sooooo happy. Not that I'm not already happy, haha I've just been craving for some music :P )

To answer Dad's questions: for P-days we usually end up just cleaning the apartment and emailing. The time for emailing varies, but I tend to be on at around 11:00. Soooo if we timed it right, we could be emailing at the same time and be able to talk back and forth. I can't message, but emailing is usually pretty quick. So if you wanted to try that next time that would be really fun :) Next week we'll probably be on more around 12:00 since we're emailing first this week. And yeah we do most of our shopping on p-days and sometimes members feed us in the evenings. In the past we've been going over to a less active and sharing a little spiritual thought, but she's been canceling on us quite a bit recently so i'm not quite sure what to think about that :/ Also recently we've been hanging out with the other sisters that are in our ward. And today we had Sister's day! So we went and hung out with the sister missionaries in our zone and had a yummy breakfast and a fun water balloon toss game/water balloon fight :)

It's crazy to think that I'm just about almost done being trained 0.0... and I have no idea what I'm going to do when I get a new companion. (We're pretty sure Sister DeBry is leaving. She's stayed here for three transfers already, and that's about the most a missionary usually stays in an area. Although Sister Stout has stayed in Webb Bridge for about four transfers. So... who knows? :) But usually a trainer doesn't stay with their trainee more than the first two transfers, at least, that's what everyone keeps telling me :)

And yes I did get the soap! I haven't started using it yet. (I'm considering just leaving it by my bed so I don't have to worry too much about bugs in the night. Maybe I'll just cut it in half so I can keep one there and use one in the bathroom :P I am NOT excited about the mosquitoes... Oh oh!! speaking about the quote you sent me about flowers, there are a Bazillion magnolia trees here!! So I'm Stoked to see their flowers! The buds are just starting to appear so I'm getting excited for the huge flowers to come :D 

Anyways, life is grand. I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that things are starting to warm up. (Although I'm sure you're not excited for the hundred degree weather :P ) Things are warming up around here as well. It hasn't gotten humid yet, but this week should be in the eighties with a lovely cool breeze. :P Haha, we'll see how Arizona heat compares to Georgia heat. I get the feeling that Georgia is just going to be dog gone worse since I'm going to have to be walking in the weather. Ah well :)

I hope that ya'll have a wonderful week! I'm excited to see and hear from you on Mother's day! I love you all!

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen

4-7-14

Hello my wonderful family :)

Oh my goodness Conference Weekend was fabulous! It was so nice being able to take a couple of days and just sit and be renewed by the Spirit. To answer Dad's questions what I've been studying in Preach my Gospel was the little section on listening (Whoever it was that spoke on the story about the car and the husband and wife who jumped out of it was really awesome!) I've also just been reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover and familiarizing myself with it so I can know more verses to share with investigators. And this time to spice things up I decided to go from back to front. So I started on the last chapter of Moroni and I'm going from chapter to chapter. A lot more stuff is sticking out to me as I'm going along :)

Those talks would be awesome to share! Karl wasn't able to watch Conference this weekend because he was driving up to Augusta to watch his boys. (Legally he can't attend a church down there because he's the only one that can watch his kids and if he gets a babysitter it has to be approved by his wife. And they're only allowed to go to a certain church, so he's honestly stuck in that when he goes there) Was he thinking about setting another baptism date?? He hasn't made any comments to us about that. But he has told us that most of his concerns about it are pretty much resolved. He's still listening to the Book of Mormon and he still hasn't gotten all of his questions answered, but he's still okay with getting baptized this weekend. 

The mission president told us not to share our personal addresses with our families just due to issues in getting mail sent and other things. So.... I'm sorry :( But I'm in Alpharetta :D It sounds like things have been a little crazy with all of the grandkids! Poor Melanie getting her hair stuck D: I hope that everyone is doing good! And yes please send one of those pictures from Audrey :) 

I'm sorry to hear that Dean Whiting passed away. I hope that everyone is doing okay over there. That's really incredible that he walked all that way in order to go to the funeral. That's really awesome. He must've been a really incredible and humble man. I hope that you and Dad are able to have a safe trip up to Oregon! Have fun listening to those CDs :) 

As for me, things are going good :) I'm still learning a whole bunch and realizing a lot of important things. General Conference was really just what I needed to hear. Having the spirit there and getting my questions that I had answered was really just what I needed. Hahaha, I've been learning a lot! Just the whole reason why I came out here in the first place. Why God wants me out here. Building my own relationship with the Lord. It's really been eye opening. Challenging? Absolutely, but really good. 

My focus on life is definitely changing for the better. It's been really humbling, but exactly what I've needed to go through. Haha, I've been trying for a long time to find the easy way out of things. The easy way to find happiness and the easy way to find blessings and strength in this life. But I'm figuring out (FINALLY) that there truly is no easy way with life. Haha, none of us technically are getting out of this alive. If we choose to follow the Lord, then He will bless us. We don't earn anything out of our own efforts. Honestly, everything comes from God and all of the small things we think we did on our own were truly because He was helping. If only more people realized that in this Country, who knows what would happen :) Of course that doesn't mean that we don't work for things. We definitely have to work for things. But it's by our reliance upon God and the hope that we have in Him that things work out for the better.

The only way that we are going to be strong, is by going through difficult things. That's the best way that we learn is by going through challenges. I loved that talk by Elder Bednar about the new truck :) But it's so true, the burdens that God has given us are what are going to carry us through to the end. We don't have to go through it alone. We don't have to add more than we can carry. We can rely upon the Lord when we go through our struggles and He will help us make it through. We are given challenges that often seem unbearable, but it's because they allow us to fall upon our knees and ask the Lord for help. When we do that, He'll give us the strength to keep moving forward. No matter what obstacles we may face, we can always put our trust in Him, because He has endured it ALL. We never need to be alone. We never need to believe that we're a burden because God knows our worth. He knows our potential and He wants us to reach it. Soooo.... yeah, I've been learning a lot the past couple of weeks :) 

 Oh and I hope that everyone had a fabulous April Fool's Day :D My companion loves to have an awesome April Fool's Day with her siblings, so she really wanted to pull a prank on the other sister missionaries in our Ward. Well, I got the idea to change our contact information on their phone so that the name said Tanner Tag. (He's a boy that one of the other sisters has a crush on that's back home :P ) So if we called them his name would pop up on the screen. Hehehe, well we managed to accomplish our mission before District Meeting. We both decided it would be best to wait until after the meeting was over and we were headed to lunch before we called. So we wait, and wait until we're in the car. Then we grab our phone and call them up. It rings and rings and then they answer. They're both laughing so hard and the sister who had the crush on Him said, "NO!!" It was sooooo great! Their initial reaction was like WHAT? NO WAY!!! And then they realized it was us, but it was sooooo fantastic haha!! Anyways, it was a silly form of entertainment, but it was great :D

I hope that everyone is doing great back home! I love you all sooo much and I'm so grateful for all that you do! Thank you for the letters and your love! Oh! And Mom would you mind sending me my colored pencils? I believe they're in one of the left drawers in my desk in my room. They're either in a plastic box with a black lid on them or they're in their original container. Just send all of the colored pencils that you find :) I'd really appreciate it! 

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! Thanks for everything, I love you!

Just Believe,

Sister Petersen