Another splendid week in Nashville!

Dearest family and friends,

 

This past week has been incredible! The weather was pretty bad for a few days, but on the 3rd and the 4th we were blessed with 80 degree weather with scattered clouds. Best. Days. Ever.

 

So, Monday... The YSA sisters were needing help moving from one appartment to another and once it was time for us to get back to work, we realized that we left our house keys at the sisters old place that was atleast an hour drive. The sisters were going to be late to a meeting, so we didn't ask them to come back. We thought to ask Donna to drive us to the old appartment, but the Sisters sadly had no spare key. So basically we were trapped outside our appartment in sweats and old t-shirts... For those that aren't missionaries, this isn't a huge deal, but for us it was really quite the pickle. We prayed for guidance, and God let us know that he wanted us to go and visit Donna. We ended up having a really good scripture read/lesson, so everything worked out okay.

 

Tuesday- We had originally planned to go visit some recent converts, but ended up running into Boboucaur and teaching him instead. Heavenly Father basically puts him in our path every time. We taught him all about the Word of Wisdom, and it's so interesting to see how his Muslim culture is fairly similar to ours. I mean, there's one God, right? So it only makes sense. :) Later that afternoon we taught a sweet lady named Connie Watkins. She had set her baptism date for July 19th, but sadly she hasn't been coming to church so we don't think that date will still work. The good news: She's reading her scriptures. Woo Hoo! We had dinner with the Richardsons and found out that they lived in the same subdivision as Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, and Carrie Underwood. So of course we had to drive by so that I could take creepy pictures of their houses. On our way home from dinner I decided to look at the pictures that I took, and well what do ya know, I ended up gettting not only Carrie Underwood's hockey player hubby in the photo, but CARRIE HERSELF. And we had no idea that they were even out! We saw a glimpse of the dog, but we definitely didn't expect to get a picture of the whole fam. On our way back from Connie's we got a phone call from the mission headquarters telling us about a referral named Andrew Brown and that we were to call him that night, so we called him after getting home and ended up having a wonderful, spirit filled conversation about how I came to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was God's true church restored back to the Earth. Both Andrew and I cried during the conversation, and he told us that he had grown up baptist, but after having a baby girl he kept getting the feeling that there was something more. We're planning on meeting with him some day this week. :)

 

Wednesday- On the bus ride back home we got stopped by a woman and she had asked us to pray for her husband. We had a good talk with her about our beliefs on eternal families and new beginnings. That night we had dinner with Lesley and Andy Gibson (aka. Zooey Deschanel and Fabio). He's been a member all of his life, met Lesley, got married after only 2 weeks of meeting her, she's now preggy, and they're the cutest couple ever (other than Mackenzie and Will of course). He's a singer/songwriter and she's a manager for a band called "Parmalee". It's crazy how that's the norm here...

 

 

Thursday- We helpe Roxa (a recent convert) pack up and get ready for a big move. Because she didn't have carpet, she had taped down rugs all over... great idea, but getting the tape residue, however, was not my cup of tea. However, I do now have some rocking calves from squatting for so many hours. Later we taught the sweetest guy named Eddie. He was a referal from the YSA sisters, and our first lesson with him went so well! We ended up setting a baptism date for him for July 19th! Huge miracle!

 

Friday- The 4th was CRAZY in Nashville. Everyone was here and the streets were packed. I guess it has to do with the fact that Nashville's been rated #2 for best fireworks in the Nation... Nbd. That night we watched some fireworks with the YSA sisters and having our own little version of a southern BBQ. :)

Saturday- We went to a Messianic Jewish church with Donna (which was very interesting). They keep all the Jewish traditions, yet they read from the Bible. It was cool to see a mix of both religions in one chapel. We taught Baboucaur a bit of the Plan of Salvation! We just really need to get him to church.

 

Sunday- The one main highlight was our lesson with Mark on Sunday night! Because he wasn't reading the pamphlets on his own, we just had to read it with him. It ended up being a good lesson besides the fact that he was smoking and drinking while we taught it... He came up to us this morning and told us that he read the scriptures that we told him to read! Woot!

 

Well, love you all to pieces...

 

--Sister Peterson.

 

Pictures. If you look really closely to the one with the dog in the front, you'll see Carrie. :)

 

The other beautiful house is Miranda and Blake's.

Fourth of July pics!

Sunflower walls and humidity.

Howdy y'all!

So not a lot of excitement happened here in Nashville, but we did
happen to find a magical wall covered in sunflowers.

Here were some of the miracles we came across this week. :)

- we were praying one morning that we would find people on the bus
that were ready to receive the gospel, and surprise, we did! We hopped
on the bus to head back home and Steve just so happened to be on our
bus! Steve had a baptism date a while ago, but got into some trouble,
ran away, and he had cut off all communication with us. He seemed
quite relieved to see us, and we were able to teach him a little
lesson about repentance. Heavenly Father is the best.

- We set a baptism date for Donna Robertson! Donna was baptized, but
then got her name removed 35 years ago after coming in contact with
some anti mormon material. She was walking through the dog park one
day, and she came in contact with 2 sister missionaries. She's been
retaking the lessons for 3 months now. We have been seeing her every
other day, and last night after having a super spiritual lesson about
the restoration, she agreed to set a date! She was always a little
dodgy about her baptism, but after telling her the exact date she
looked at us, thought for a second, then answered with a, "That sounds
good to me!" It was a complete change. And even though we haven't
known her for long, but she is a completely different person! It's
amazing to see how the Book of Mormon can change people! Keep her in
your prayers. :)

Sorry this email is super short! I love you all, and I promise that
next weeks will be much better. Everyone have a fun, safe Fourth of
July! Know that you're all in my prayers. :)

Sister Peterson

Pictures part II

After!

Pictures!

Radnor lake! This is our favorite hiking spot.

Pictures.

Took this beautiful selfie and thought y'all would approve. Gotta love
those stress zits... NOT

The church is true, and you best believe that book is blue!

Happy Monday!

 

This week has been so great! I don't have a lot of emailing time, so please excuse the short email!

 

I am absolutely loving it here! Everyone is so nice... they may not accept our message, but they won't hesitate with giving us water or lemonade!

 

This past week we have done a lot of door knocking and we have been trying to find wherever we go. Compared to last week, it has been less eventful, but we were, however,  able to meet up with Babucaur 3 times. Each time we were able to teach him more and more. He has so many great questions, and has an open mind. He's Muslim, so it's definitely different, yet he's able to point out the similarities. He's asked us to fast the 40 days with him for Ramadan, and we're really looking forward to it!

 

Speaking of fasting, yesterday both me and Sister Reaman have decided to fast once a week! As I was praying Sunday morning, I felt that would be the right thing to do to get us started in this area. We can't help but feel a little overwhelmed here, because of all the investigators in our area book that haven't been contacted a second time. We're planning on going through all the names, and praying for them individually to see if they still need to be taught.

 

Something cool that happened was that we ran into someone who is good friends with the Witherspoon family (yes, like Reese Witherspoon). He was in the movie, "Walk the Line" and has been acting most of his life. He was quite the talker, but sadly wasn't too interested.

 

So, Mark (our neighbor we magically ran into) has been meeting with us 4 times a week now, and we're planning on asking him to be baptized soon! It's so cool to see the changes within him these past 2 weeks that we've been teaching him. Remember to keep him in your prayers!

 

A little shoutout to Will and Mackenzie: CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Sure do love you both. :)

 

   Well, I sure love you guys a whole lot!

--Sister Peterson

 

 

Luke 18:27 "And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."

I absolutely LOVE being a missionary!

Happy Monday mi familia!

 

Can I just say that I love being a missionary for the LDS church? It's honestly the best. Sorry that I couldn't email last week. We had far too many things on our plate, and we sadly didn't have enough time to do much emailing.

 

I am loving it here in the Green Hills area! We are located on the outskirts of Nashville, and I have decided that this city is the largest small town ever. That sounds weird, but people here act as though they were living in a small town and it's fantastic! Mostly everyone is very friendly, and very open to talking about their religious beliefs. The ward is great, and we get a lot of help from the members. We have 12 members in our ward that are involved in the music business... it's crazy.

 

Because I didn't have much time to email last week, this one might be a little big, so prepare yourselves.

 

Last Wednesday we went downtown and tracted into 3 very sweet ladies who were all interested! Their names were Yolanda, Clarinda, and Mary. They all lived in an assisted living building, and they were so open to listening to what we had to say! That night we had dinner with the Denny family, and they live in a guest house that's in the backyard of a pretty good sized mansion. We found out while we were there that one of the members of the Black Keys and his wife will be moving into the bigger house in August. Challenge accepted.

 

Last Friday we got a surprise call from Freddie and Mark from my last area! They called us and asked if we would want to go out to lunch with them because they were in the area, and we just couldn't resist. We ended up going to this small restaurant that served the best southern style food. That night we were invited by Yolanda to attend one of her church services with her, and when we got there we discovered that it was a Pentecostal church. Boy was that interesting.

 

Last Sunday we had dinner with our mission president and his wife in the mission home, and it was so streange being back there. The last time I had been there was when I was a brand spankin new missionary out in the field. After that we went less active finding and sadly weveryone that we had tried to contact had moved. Feeling a bit frustrated, we said a prayer in hope to be guided to where we were needed, and Heavenly Father sent us to the parthenon downtown. As we were walking around trying to find someone to teach we happened to come across the YSA sisters as they were teaching these 2 guys named Josh and Logan, and we were asked to join in on their conversation. The YSA sisters couldn't stay much longer, so Sister Reaman and I ended up finishing up the lesson about the Book of Mormon. After we asked if they would take one, Josh told us that he already had one. He had met with some missionaries a few years ago, but lost contact with them when he moved to Nashville, but he told us that he would dust it off and read it when he had time. Logan, on the other hand, really wanted one so of course we obliged. Logan has been looking for the right church to go to. His parents raised him in a nondenominational church, but he felt like he was at a concert, and not a church.

 

Monday of this past week we had an awesome P-Day with the YSA sisters. We went shopping at the local goodwill, which was awesome, and I was finally able to unpack all of my clothes out of my suitcases. For dinner we went out with the Johnson's who work in the mission office and they took us to this groovy Mexican restaurant called Chuys. Right before we left, Greg Demaso came up to our table! Greg is someone that I had met in White House and he is a less active who so happened to be the manager of Chuys. We ended up talking for a bit, and he invited us to come back some day to teach him, he also  ended up giving us an awesome discount. After dinner Sister Reaman and I went less active finding, but with only enough time to teach one we decided to pray and ask God who we should see, and Chelsea McCord's name stuck out to both of us, so to Chelsea's we went! When we showed up to the address we saw a girl our age talking on her phone on the front porch. We felt a little awkward interrupting what seemed to be a very exciting conversation, but as we came up she turned around and asked who we were, so we asked her if Chelsea lived there. She informed us that Chelsea had moved a few weeks earlier (here's the crazy part). This girl looked exactly like someon that I was friends with in high school so I asked what her name was. When she said, "Cassidy" I practically had a heart attack... I exclaimed, "Cassidy Ford, is that you?!" It took her a minute and then her face cracked into a huge smile, "Tate Peterson?!" I had found my good friend Cassidy who had moved to Nashville for her music gig, and she just so happened to live in the house of the one less active that we were trying to find. As we were both freaking out about this crazy anomaly, her boyfriend, Noah,  came out to see what all the ruckus was about and he saw our name tags and said, "Oh hey, my older bro ran into some of you people last night at the parthenon!" I wish you could have seen our faces. We asked, "hold up, is your last name Rawlings?" That's when both him and Cassidy freaked out. What were the chances that we ould not only find Cassidy, but we found Josh's brother as well. Noah had heard of the Mormon church and he was a big fan of the "because of him" video (which he shared on facebook because he was so impressed). We had a very spiritual conversation about all that Jesus Christ has done for us, and Cassidy asked if we could come back. :) Solid miracle, right?!

 

At around 8:00PM on Wednesday night (aka. the hardest time for a missonary) we were trying to decide what to do, and we decided to go less active searching again. As we were driving to one of the addresses on the list, I saw a girl around my age walking by herself. After seeing her, I had the weirdest urge to go talk to her, so I asked Sister Reaman to stop so that we could go talk to this stranger. After introducing ourselves her eyes lit up and she told us, "I've been looking for you guys!" She currently studies religion at Vanderbelt, and for her class she has to attend different religious services, and the LDS church was next on her list. After giving her a quick synopsis of our beliefs, she asked if we had a Book of Mormon on us so that she could study through it. Right as we were walking away, she stopped us and said, "Wait, I forgot to ask! Would you guys be willing to talk about your beliefs in front of my religion class?" MIRACLE!

 

Saturday we had another one of those huge miracles! We had been tracting around Radnor Lake, and after being there for an hour we got in the car and asked God where we should go and we both got the answer that we needed to head home. We were both a little taken back by this, but we did as we were told and headed home. Once we got there we said another small prayer asking which appartment we needed to go to, and I got the answer that we needed to go up the stars and it was going to be the door on the right. That was probably the most discriptive answer I had ever gotten... When we knocked on the door no one answered, but we felt like we should just stay. It was a little awkward standing in front of some strangers door for 5 minutes, but we then saw this man walking up the stairs, saw us, and then asked who we were. After introducing ourselves, we got into a very deep religious conversation. Mark (the guy who we were talking to) didn't like what the world was doing to religion so he had decided to just not pursue it anymore. After talking to him for a bit about the basics of our church, and how we came to know that it was true, we handed him a Restoration pamphlet (because we were out of Book of Mormons) and asked if he would read it and he answered with a smile and an, "of course!" It was pretty great. :)

 

Needless to say, this is a mission that is filled with miracles!

I've come to know that there are tons of people out there just waiting to hear what we have to share! So, go out and spread it! The miracles will pour out.

 

I love you all and thank you for all the prayers!  

 

--Sister Peterson

 

Pictures:

Me and Sister R out getting sushi

Me at Radnor Lake!

Weekly update!

Happy Monday!

The amount of time that I have to email today is a bit pitiful, so this is going to be semi-short.

Here are the highlights!

-Thursday we had zone meeting! Later that night we had a great lesson with Kalie and Cyrell on keeping the sabbath day holy. I'm not really sure how much Kalie got out of it, but Cyrell seemed to really get into it.

-On Saturday the McKeans took us up to Tompkinsville so that I could be there while one of my past investigators got baptized. Even though it took 6 tries, Elijah was successfully dunked. It was so great to be able to see everyone there, and both Pam and Jim seemed to really enjoy the service.

-I'm being transferred to the Green Hills area in Nashville! It's funny because I remember passing through Nashville to get to White House 6 weeks ago, and thinking that it would be fun to serve there. Nashville here I come! Apparently a lot of famous country stars live in my area, so you might just be getting some cool photos of me with country singers in the near future.

If anyone would like to send me mail, just continue to send it to the mission office until further notice. :)

I LOVE YOU ALL, and I promise that next weeks email will be WAY better. 

Remember to serve!

With all my love, 

--Sister Peterson

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day! What a great day to thank all those that have
fought for our country. One thing that I love about the south is that
in every prayer they pray for those that serve for our country. It's a
tradition that I definitely want to carry on.

Wow, so I'm almost a third way done with my mission! Where does the time go?

Here are some of the fun things that are happening in good ol' Tennessee.

- On Tuesday we were able to meet Sister Pickering (a less active),
and her home nurse, Margaret. Margaret is originally from Scotland,
but she lived most of her life in England. So she has a beautiful
accent. When we asked Margaret if she had ever heard of the LDS
church, she looked at us like we were stupid and said, "of course I
do!" She told us that because a majority of her patients die in her
care, she wants to learn as much about every religion so that she can
know what they want to happen after their death. She asked us a lot of
questions, yet she knew so much! What really stuck out to her was
eternal life, so we ended up having a very in depth conversation
concerning what happens to us between death and the resurrection.
T'was very cool. Later we went with Sister Durham to do her visiting
teaching, and it was a great way for us to meet more of the less
actives in our ward. That night we met with Kalie and Cyrell and
talked to them a little bit more about the word of wisdom and we read
out of the Book of Mormon with them.

- Wednesday we went to get my passport, so that was pretty fun. Later
while tracting we met some potential investigators. One of them was
Ms. Mitchell. She's a sweet older lady that lives by herself and we
were able to talk to her briefly about what we do as missionaries and
she asked us to come back. The second potential was Becky. Oh Becky...
She lost her husband 3 years ago, and then 4 months ago she fell and
fractured her spine. Her life is rough. It was such a blessing to meet
her, because we were able to share a message that seemed to really
lift her mood. She asked us if we would come back in a week and we
happily agreed. That night we were invited by the McKean's to attend
their church service, and not gonna lie, we were kinda nervous. This
was going to be our first time ever attending another church on our
mission and we really didn't know what to expect. As we entered the
building, Pam decided to introduce us to every person in the building.
Almost every one of them gave us an odd look once they found out what
we were, yet they were very kind. Right before the meeting was going
to start a lady came in crying hysterically, and it turned out that
she had been "saved" on her way to the church and then out of no where
she started speaking gibberish, and Pam leaned over to us and said,
"that's what speaking in tongues sounds like". And then everyone in
the congregation lifted up their hands and started chanting, "praise
God... Praise God!" It was frightening to say the least.

- on Thursday we did some service for Sister Durham. Later we helped
Sister Kinney with her boutique down in Cross Plains, and then we did
some tracting with not very much luck. Later that evening both Sister
Talbert and I felt that we should visit the Becker family. It took us
both off guard, because both Sister and Brother Becker were solid
members. When we arrived, they told us that they had just found out
that their dog had heart cancer and that they only had a few days left
with her. It was heartbreaking, but we were able to read a talk given
by President Faust about hope and how much we needed it in our lives.
They were both very touched, and it was cool to see how the spirit
worked with us to know how to comfort them during this sad time.

- Friday we went on a walk with Pam McKean and we were able to ask her
what she thought about the Book of Mormon and she told us that she had
been reading and that she intends to pray about it. Yay! We had "tea
party" with the Worthington family on request of their 7 year old
daughter, and it was most definitely a party.

- Saturday was a service filled day for sure. We woke up an hour
earlier so that we could go out with the boy scouts to the Nashville
memorial cemetery to put flags up by the grave stones of the fallen
soldiers. They had a beautiful opening ceremony, and it was so cool
because instead of avoiding any mention of God, they centered it on
him. A soldier talked to us, and at the end of his speech he said a
prayer. The perks of serving in the Bible Belt :). For the rest of the
day we helped Freddie and Mark (our land lords) build a play set for
their grand kids and we also helped to dig a hole for all the mulch.
By the time we were done it was 7:00, and they offered to feed us
dinner. One of their sons and his girlfriend came by to meet and eat
with us, and what we thought would end up being a non-spiritual talk,
turned into a deep spiritual discussion. They asked us a lot of
questions about our basic beliefs. After talking with them for a
while, Freddie looked at us and told us that it was no mistake that we
were the ones that ended up living in the house. She told us that she
had been praying that the right people would move in, and the next day
our ward mission leader gave her a call. :)

- Sunday we gave talks in church. I talked about the influence of
music, and Sister Talbert talked about how we could remember our
savior. It was really fun, and it was a great way to introduce us to
all the people in the ward. That night we had dinner with the
Worthington's again, and we asked them to think of someone that they
could invite over to talk more about the church with, and as soon as
we asked, brother Worthington said that he knew exactly who to ask. It
was pretty awesome.


 Remember that guy (Rob) that we ran into while tracting that went to
Hawaii and who asked us to go over for that chit chat about our basic
beliefs? I forgot to mention that we saw him again at Jim and Pam's
church and there he invited us to attend their church's Memorial Day
picnic. We were there earlier today, and we had a very cool
conversation about life after death. Rob told us that while he was at
the Hawaii temple visitors center, he was told that we believed in
eternal marriage and he told us that he felt something after we was
told that (cough... Spirit... Cough). He also said that he noticed
that he noticed a "light" that we had, and he wanted to know what that
light was about, so he invited us to go over for dinner so that we
could "tell him everything from the beginning" and another person who
was around us during this whole ordeal asked if she could come as
well. So awesome, right?!


Well, I hope that each and every one of you had a great week, and an
even better Memorial Day. :)

With all my love,
--Sister Peterson




Me and Sister Talbert at the Nashville Memorial Cemetery

Trace Atkins and Honeysuckle

Hey family and friends!

Serving in White House is pretty much a full-time adventure, and I love it! There are the good times and the bad, but it's always a learning experience for sure.

Monday-After we put in a few loads of laundry in at the local laundromat, I asked if we could go to the library to email, but she said that she had a feeling that we should stay. I'm not gonna lie, I was feeling pretty stubborn, so I told her that it would be fine and that southern people could be trusted. She thought otherwise... So we stayed. While we were sitting and waiting, I saw an older lady struggle with getting a load out, so I offered my help and took it to her car. She saw a glimpse at my tag and said, "what church to you serve at?" After I replied, her eyes lit up and she said, "I'm a Mormon too!" She had just moved from Las Vegas and she had been really thinking of coming back (she left the church when she was 18), but she couldn't find one. So, we gave her our number, our church address, and the time that it started and she left with a huge smile on her face. It was way cool, and right after saying goodbye I knew that we were meant to stay here because we had to meet her. It was a very humbling experience, and I felt sad knowing that Satan was definitely there trying to tell me that we wouldn't have to stay there, but because Sister Talbert listened to the promptings of the spirit, we were able to meet this wonderful lady who has been searching for our church. So great!

Tuesday- A few weeks ago we got a referral for someone named Eric Washington... After receiving his name we had tried multiple times to go see him with no luck, but finally we met him! We taught him the first lesson and answered some of his questions concerning the Book of Mormon and he just lit up the whole time. We're meeting with him again next week, and we're going to ask him to be baptized! (Pray for us on that one...) Later we went out and taught some less actives with a lady in our ward. We were able to teach 5 less actives, and all of them were so appreciative of us and not one of them turned us away. One of the less actives that we taught lives in a house that looks like a boat... And she has a giant wooden rocking chair in her front yard. So obviously, I had to take a picture with it. That night we had such an amazing miracle! Our mission president has asked us to go tracting for 1 hour everyday... For me this is a newish thing seeing that in Tompkinsville we had TONS of investigators. I was a bit nervous for our first time around, but we had some great success! We ran into a lady who is a strong baptist, but she really wanted to learn more about what we believed and she was so kind to us (which is not usual with the baptists here). We plan to go visit her late this week. :) Later we started talking with an older couple about what we believed, and they told us that they had been searching for something like this. They said that they weren't too fond of the "talking in tongues" ordeal that happens in other churches. The guy then proceeded to tell us that he was the steel guitar player in Trace Atkins' band and asked if we were fans. We might have freaked out a little and asked if he could get us some autographed items, in which he agreed and told us that we would have to come back with a smile. :)

Wednesday- We went out with with the same lady that we did on Tuesday, and we did some visiting teaching with her! One of the ladies that we saw had a 3 year old son that reminded me a lot of Lola, and it freaked me out a bit. Later we taught the Blum family. They're recent converts, and because of Brother Blum's recent stroke they can hardly make it to church. They both have such sweet spirits. We just need him to get feeling better so they can make their way to church! :)

Thursday- Sister Talbert got super sick so I spent the majority of the day inside doing some person studies, which were incredible and well needed. Later that day though, we were able to do splits with some sisters in the ward. I went out with Sister Barnes, who is a return missionary, while Sister Talbert went with Sister Williams to get some rest. Sister Barnes and I went to Greenbrier to meet the members that lived there, and we were also able to get some tracting in. It was a very neat experience, and she was able to teach me a lot about what to expect and how to become a better "door-knocking missionary". It was so cool... usually when someone answers their door I say the usual, "Hi! We're missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...", and it just seemed too rehearsed, and when someone wouldn't seem to interested I would usually just say "Have a blessed day!" But Sister Barnes would ask them before they shut the door if they would mind saying a prayer with us. It made the people more interested, and the spirit was there every time. :)

Friday- Friday was a pretty boring day, not going to lie. We did do some "inspired tracting". We sectioned off our area and individually prayed as to where Heavenly Father needed us to go knocking. It was our first time, so we had some pretty big expectations, but we weren't that lucky. We did have an interesting encounter however... We were driving by this house and both me and Sister Talbert looked at each other and said, "we need to go to that house!" Nervously we knocked on their door, not knowing what to expect, but no one answered. Confused, we said a prayer, and soon after some guy came up behind us and asked what we needed. "Sister Talbert bravely told him that we had been prompted to stop at his house and asked if he needed anything. The guy's face was priceless. He looked mostly scared. After what seemed like an eternity, he said, "Uh... I think we're... Okay...?" It was pretty funny... now we're both just anxious to see if anything will come out of it.

Saturday- Pam McKean asked us to go on a walk with her, and we ended up having a very spiritually uplifting conversation. Usually when we teach the McKean's, we teach both of them, but this time was so great because we were able to spend this time focused on Pam's needs. We talked a lot about receiving personal revelation, and she proceeded to tell us that she had received a lot of personal revelation, but because her church doesn't believe in it, she wasn't able to talk to anyone about it. So she was pretty happy to find out that Heavenly Father means for us to continue having personal revelation, even today.

Sunday!- First off, Sunday was probably the most beautiful day that I've ever experienced on my mission. Secondly, the McKean's came to church! They had come in a little late, but we're just so happy that they came. Both Sister Talbert and I prayed that the spirit would be there and that the speakers would know what to say to help get the spirit there, and boy were our prayers answered. All three of the speakers did such a fantastic job, and the spirit was most definitely there. :) That night we tried do to some more inspired finding, and after some personal praying we both came back with the same street! It was truly incredible... We were lead to a street with a lot of very big, intimidating houses so we were a wee bit nervous. It was our 6th and final house, and this man comes to the door. He had a big smile on his face, and after we introduced ourselves, he lit up and told us that he had gone to Hawaii with his wife and that they had seen the temple and that they were curious as to what we believed. Instead of us asking him, he asked us if we could, "come back some time for dinner and a chit-chat." It was so stinking cool. He told us that with all the kids getting out of school that his schedule would be a bit full this next week, but he invited us over for a barbecue in two weeks, and that he would invite his Mormon friend too so that we wouldn't feel uncomfortable... Seriously, it was golden.

Well, sorry for the stinking long email! I love you all, and I hope that your weeks were just as good (if not better) as mine was! :) Thanks for all you do, and remember to keep keepin' on.

XOXO- Sister Peterson

Hola mi familia y mi amigos, feliz cinco de mayo!

Hola mi familia y mi amigos, feliz cinco de mayo!


So things here in White House have been kinda slow with us not knowing
the people here and not knowing really where we're going, but The Lord
has blessed us so much!

Tuesday- we had the opportunity to help out at the bishop's
storehouse, and just seeing all the people there that were willing to
help was so amazing. I've found that pretty much every person here is
nice... They may not believe the same way that we do, but they truly
love their savior and I have learned way more than I ever thought I
would from the people, and I hope to continue learning for the
duration of my mission. :)

Wednesday- not a lot of things happened on Wednesday, but we were able
to ride our bikes for the first time. I'm not going to lie, It was
pretty darn horrifying at first, but after a while it became a lot of
fun. While biking, I couldn't help but think of how grateful we should
be to even have bicycles. I would think of all those missionaries that
started off with nothing but their own two feet to take them where
they needed to go. After searching for new investigators in all the
different neighborhoods, we were able to see that at least 90% of the
people here are baptist, and apparently there is a class offered here
that supposedly teaches people what to do to get rid of the Mormon
missionaries... Challenge accepted. :)

Thursday- we moved! Because we lived on a highway out of town with a
part time car, our mission president thought it necessary to move...
and thank goodness. We definitely feel a lot safer riding on streets
instead of highways. We had some of the members and the elders in our
ward come and help us. And even though we hardly knew any of them,
they were more than willing to help. I love people.

Friday- we had such a successful day! This day was probably my
favorite of the week. We went out finding, and we happened upon a man
that had once been a member, but hasn't gone in years. It turned out
that he worked as a part-time custodian at the church, and he saw that
the only way that he could keep the job was to join. He told us that
he had gone to temple and had done all his home teaching, but that his
testimony had just lacked. After a good discussion and some service
for his sick wife, we were able to convince him to try coming to
church one more time to see how it was. He held back a little bit, but
luckily his wife was more than willing to come and try it out. Also, I
got free pie. It was a good day.

Saturday- we had an appointment with a less-active woman who hadn't
come to church in over 5 years. She had told us that she was raised in
the church, but that she seemed to only run off of her parents
testimonies and not her own. After a good discussion about the Book of
Mormon, she said, "ya know, even though I haven't been to church in
years, you missionaries never seem to give up on me... I feel like my
ancestors are trying to bring me back, and I think it's working." Both
me and Sister Talbert's hearts practically exploded with joy, and we
were able to set a return appointment :). Later that night we went to
go see a member, and it turned out that she was having all the YSAs
over for a dinner and lesson and she asked us to teach it. The lesson,
even though it wasn't well-planned, was awesome and the spirit was
definitely there. We discovered after the lesson that 2 of the people
in the room were less-actives and that this had been the first church
related activity that they had gone to in years. Coincidence? I think
not.

Sunday- the less active and his nonmember wife came to church! It was
perfect top, because all of the testimonies shared were so beautiful
and we could just see that they truly felt the spirit too. They
couldn't stay for class, but they said that they would definitely come
next week. MIRACLE! Later that night we went over to see a man whose
name was on the list that the elders that served here before us left.
It was kind of late, so we didn't really expect to go in, but to our
great surprise he let us in and said, "ya know why I let you in? I saw
your name tag." Now that doesn't usually happen... Turns out this guy
has been taking the lessons for 14 years and has had 34 sets of
missionaries in his home. He gave us food, talked about his religious
past (where he told us that he had defended our church multiple times
in his church), and he got his wife to drive us home. Coolest guy
ever.

I love you all a whole bunch, and don't forget to share the gospel. :)


--Sister P.


First day on the bike!