Temple trips and Halloween masks

Happy (late) Easter everyone! 

The weather here in Kentucky has been so darn spankin' beautiful. :) 

I don't have a lot of time, but here are some of the updates from this past week. 

-On Tuesday we were able to go with sweet Brianna Trammell to the temple to do proxy baptisms, and it was her first time and she did "swimmingly" (ba doom ching). 

-We did some service for Christy Hammer and her father, and we were able to have a good conversation with her dad about our church and what we're all about. He told us that he would try to come to church "one of these days". THERE'S HOPE AFTER ALL. 

- We had a great meeting with some of the ward members this week on how we could hasten the work in the Tompkinsville Ward. We're trying to get the members pumped about missionary work, and so far it's kinda working... 

- On Friday we had "Movie Night" and there were 14 people... 14! It's the new record. We watched "Ephraim's Rescue" and the spirit was so strong. Luckily there were some investigators, and after the movie they had a lot of questions. Yay for church movies! :) 

- On Saturday we went out to lunch with Brianna and her great-grandpa and I ate my first catfish! It was pure southern deliciousness. (Here's the sad news...) Later that night we got transfer calls, and I'm being transferred to White House, TN. When we got the call, they said I was going from the "sticks" to the "STICKS". I'm definitely sad to leave this promised land, but am looking forward to the many adventures that await me! 

- Early Sunday morning we had a sunrise service and we had a pretty good turn-out. There were 36 people there and us three sisters did a musical performance of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and it was a great last performance. Later in Sacrament meeting I was asked to bare my testimony, and just looking out at all the marvelous people in our small little ward made me feel so grateful for being able to serve there. 

I sure hope everyone's week was just as wonderful as mine was. :) 

With all my love, 

--Sister Peterson

Pictures from this week :-)

Me, Dalton, and Riley Hull after our plan of salvation lesson

Long-johns and sippin melted chocolate...

Hello! 

What a great week! Here's a quick synopsis of our adventurous week. 

Monday- We had our study group down in Burkesville, TN! The numbers are kind of struggling seeing that we only had 9 people, but we're happy that we had those 9 people for sure. Brianna Trammell, a recent convert, went with us and we had a great study. Afterwards we were asked to go visit a neighbor of the lady whose house we were at, and boy was that interesting. When he answered the door we were hit by a wave of marijuana smoke and discovered that he was only in long-john bottoms and Doc, who was with us, said, "Woowee, now that's marijuana." Luckily he didn't hear, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and we hope that he reads it. 

Tuesday- After teaching Brianna and her grandpa, we took her with us to go sing with the old folks again. Every time we go we get asked to sing, and this time we sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and it was great. 

Wednesday- We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with Christy Hammer and we talked a lot about the Restoration and we were able to answer some of the main questions that she had. Later we were on the subject of fasting (somehow...) and she said, "what, you fast for 2 meals?! Why would you do that?" So we explained the blessings that she could get and she told us that she would fast with us this next fast-Sunday and if her baby sleeps through the night, she will be baptized. Challenge accepted. Later as our car was being fixed, we decided to go salvation seeking (aka. door knocking). Because both me and Sister Lamborn had done it before, we had Sister Trussell lead the discussions, and she did great! We were able to set 2 return appointments and we feel really good about both of them. One of them is a strong Baptist that at first seemed a bit hesitant to talk to us, was able to open up and tell us more about her job. We told her to call is if she ever needed help around the house and she seemed very excited about the offer, so cross your fingers!  

Thursday- We had a great lesson with the Hull family. :) We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and we were able to get them pretty pumped for the after-life. As we were talking about Baptism, Dalton looked at us and said, "wait, you get baptized when you're 8 and I'm 10. Why am I not baptized?" So we told him that he could once he felt like he understood everything and felt the desire to, and he surprised us further by telling us that he knew that it was true and that he had felt the spirit tell him so. :) 

Friday- We had our Trainer-Trainee meeting down in Nashville, and it didn't get cancelled this time... Man, it was such an amazing meeting and it got us all pumped to go out and do the work. During one of the trainings, one of the AP's talked about setting a vision for our investigators about how it will be once they're baptized and all three of us looked at each other and thought of Ronnie Hamilton. Ronnie is an investigator. His wife has been a member for most of her life and they come to church every week without fail, but Ronnie is having a hard time deciding whether to be baptized into our church or into the Church of Christ. We've been in a runt with him for a while, but since that meeting we feel a lot more prepared as to what to teach him. After the meeting we went to Chipotle with our driver, Sondra Davis and we talked all about what we had learned and she told us that she had learned a lot and is ready to teach some of her friends about the gospel. Woot! Woot! 

Saturday- Because we were unable to do our weekly planning on Friday due to the Trainer-Trainee meeting, we decided to have one on Saturday. So we packed up sandwiches and headed to Lafayette, TN and did our planning at a local park. After the 3 hours of planning we decided that we deserved the chocolate bunny that awaited us in the car, but discovered that the bunny had completely melted, but that didn't stop us! We ended up using a straw to drink it out of the bag... yep... boarder line crazy, maybe, but I can tell you that it was pure melted deliciousness. Later we were able to help Martha Hawthorne with her family history work. We helped her print out her late husbands card so that we could take it to the temple with us when we go on Tuesday. It was cool to see how excited she was, and the spirit was very strong. It makes me excited to do my family history work for sure... 

Sunday!- Always the most stressful, yet most relaxing day of the week. We were able to get Brianna Trammell to church to get her temple recommend to do baptisms, and later we went to visit with a sweet lady who has been less-active for a few years now. She lives with her husband and her 6 year old son in very tough circumstances, yet she is continually grateful for all that she has. Even though she hasn't been active for a while, she still has that sweet spirit that you find in those that are solid members. We invited her to come to church on Sunday, and we got a "maybe"! Later that evening we kidnapped Brianna again and took her around with us to all the teaching lessons that we had, and man, even though she is only 14 she was able to help us get 2 soft-baptism dates for 2 of our investigators. The first one was with Ms. Fay Bryant. Brianna told Fay that if she set a baptism date, that Heavenly Father would help her get over her fear of water, and Fay said yes to getting baptized on May 25th!!! Go Brianna! The second was with Phyllis... Now, you all know how stubborn Phyllis is.... yet Brianna was able to help her set another soft baptism date for the end of May... Like, what? We have been trying to do it for months and finally she decided to reset her date. Miracles happen! 

Well, I sure hope everyone's week was just as peachy keen as mine was. :) 

With all my love, 

--Sister Peterson

more from good ol' Tompkinsville

Hello family and loved ones! 

Another week flies by down here in southern paradise. It's amazing how fast missions seem to pass by... 

Here are the highlights of these past two weeks. :) 

-Last Tuesday when we went over to teach Riley and Dalton Hull, their dad came up to our car and said, "Would it be okay if we rescheduled?" Worried what he would have to say, he surprised us by saying, "Is it okay if both me and my wife, Kathy, start taking the discussions too? And please bring 2 more Book of Mormons." We were shocked (that seems to happen to us a lot). This man is the son of two solid members, but he left the church 6 years ago, and he had told me and Sister Dixon that it just wasn't for him... the fact that he is willing to take the lessons again (this will be the 3rd time) is a massive miracle. And here's where it get's better. Right as Sister Lamborn was backing me up, he ran back to the car and said, "And just so you know, it'll be a while till I get baptized, so you'll have to be patient with me while I figure some stuff out." Yep. The man said "till". 

-Last Wednesday we got a call late at night from a lady named Ella Curtis. She said that she really needed to talk to someone because her mom was back in the hospital. Her mom, Kathleen, has been fighting cancer for a while now. Even though she has had chemotherapy and radiation done multiple times, the cancer continues to grow. The doctor told Ella that Kathleen only had a few days to live. Panicking, she decided to pray. She told us that when she opened up to God, he told her to call us. I decided that President Eyring's talk, "Mountains to Climb" was the perfect talk for her. Me and her talked on the phone for a good hour and a half, and after a few good scriptures and a ton of tears, she was finally feeling a little better. Right before she hung up the phone she said, "Ya know, I really think that God wants me to be baptized into your church. I know that I've already been baptized into the Baptist church, but you guys are the only ones that have ever been there for me, and your visits always seem to lift me up." The spirit fills my heart, and I bore my testimony to her. This was only the second time that I had ever talked to her, but it is truly amazing what the Holy Ghost can do. 

-Last Thursday we packed up some lunches and Book of Mormon's and spent the day searching for less-actives living in Red Boiling Springs, TN. There we discovered that pretty much everyone's address on the ward list had to be updated, because mostly everyone had moved. We had one more person to find, but we had no luck. Totally bummed, we started to head back to town, but as we were leaving I made eye contact with a man working on his car at the end of the street. Because we're in the south where everyone knows everyone, we decided to ask him if he knew where this guy lived. He kindly told us that he lived down the street, but that he wouldn't be home, so we just talked to him instead. His name is Thorn Tree that Blossoms. Coolest name ever. He is a painter and a very opinionated Christian. We told him a little bit about what we believe, and he actually seemed interested! He told us that we could go teach him again some other time, but he asked us to only tell him what we truly believed and none of that "passed down through our fathers crap." Whatever that means. So one day this week we are going to head back down there and share our testimonies. 

(bear with me, this email is going to be long)

This week: 

Monday- we were invited over to this lady's house for dinner. No later when we arrived, we discovered that she had invited 3 more of her friends over. So basically it was us and 4 old ladies, and it was the best. We were able to talk to them about the basics of what we believe and showed them a video of Temple Square. They were all mesmerized, and we had a great lesson about temples. 

Tuesday- We went to the Senior Center and listened to old people sing gospel music. Truly made my week. We all sang "Amazing Grace", and boy could those ladies sing. Later that night we went over to Shelia Turner's and talked to her about the power of prayer. Her and her daughter, Kelci, are going through a tough time right now, and it makes me so grateful for the good relationship that I have with my mom (shout-out to you Momsy!) She told us that she has been feeling more of God's love and that she is grateful for the trial, even though it's hard. 

Wednesday- We had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders, and we committed Faye Bryant to a soft baptism date in May. She had been excommunicated a few years ago, and she is more than ready to come back. Every time we would come over, she would bear her testimony to us that she knew that this church was true, but for some reason she wasn't wanting to set up a baptism date. So finally, we asked her why. She told us that it was because she had a strong fear of water. It turns out that she has had a bad experience with almost drowning and that it has been something that she's been fighting for most of her life. We told her that we know that if she were to set a date that Heavenly Father would help to take that fear away. She definitely needs those prayers! 

Thursday- We found June! Me and Sister Dixon had taught her a few times, but she moved and changed her number. So basically it was nearly impossible to find her, but after we left an appointment Sister Trussell said, "Uh, there's some lady trying to flag us down." And it was her! I nearly jumped out of a moving car, and I ran to and embraced her. We talked to her for a bit on her front porch when her husband came out and asked if we would rather talk inside (in Spanish, might I add). We had a really good lesson with June, her husband and her son. Luckily Sister Lamborn knew some Spanish. His name is Israel, and he's from Mexico. He seemed very interested, and he asked if we could bring him a Book of Mormon in Spanish. June told us that this would be good for him, because he is having to learn English, and we told her it was good for us because we are trying to learn Spanish. It's definitely a win-win scenario. Later I had boogers wiped all over me at the Hammer's. They have 4 little kids that really like to brush my hair... It's a good thing that I have a lot of it. That night we did some service for Amanda Brown, and we got to talk to her boyfriend a little bit. Amanda later told us that he was very touched at the fact that we were always there helping and that he wanted to attend church next Sunday. Yay! Amanda's baby boy, Nathaniel, is now 7 lbs 11 oz. He's healthy and steadily growing. :) 

Friday- We had a trainer trainee meeting down in Nashville at 9 AM and because we live way out in the sticks, we had to wake up at 4:30 in order to get there on time. We woke up to 30mph winds, rain and lightning (I'm a huge baby and sure afraid of lightning/thunder), but that didn't stop us. 10 minutes before we had to leave, we got a call from the lady that was going to be our ride, and she told us that she was on her way to the hospital because her heart was freaking out. Worried about her and worried about what to do, we said a prayer and called the AP's. Luckily they were able to get us miles approved to drive there ourselves. After the 2 and a half hour drive to Nashville we thought to check our phone to see if anyone had texted us, and well, here's the sad part. The meeting had been cancelled due to weather. So there we were in the middle of Nashville soaking wet and about ready to cry, but we picked ourselves up and drove the 2 and a half hours back to good ol' Tompkinsville, Kentucky. Boy did we feel awful... So we decided to work our butts off the rest of the day to make up for the time lost, and we did! We got to visit all the people that we had hoped to visit, including Ms. Katherine Jackson. We were a little hesitant to see her, because we were so worried that she would just end up slamming her door in our face, but to our great surprise, she let us in. We started to see how she was, and if we noticed that both the picture of Christ and the large-print Book of Mormon were still on her coffee table. We asked if she still read it, and she said that she did, and that she loved to. 

 So, at this point we were all a little confused yet very relieved. So we asked what happened, and it turns out that she just needed more time to figure everything out. She told us that she would love to come back to church because she enjoyed it, but that she needed more time till she got baptized. We all told her that she could have as much time as she needed and that we were simply teaching her because we loved her and wanted her to be happy. That made her smile, and what made me so happy, was when she said, "Whenever you girls come, you lift me up! My depression just goes away!" We just smiled and told her that was the Holy Ghost telling her that what we were teaching her was true. She told us to come back soon, and that she would try to come to conference if time allowed. So basically, it was a HUGE MIRACLE. We had been worried for so long because we thought that she had been told anti-Mormon stuff, but in reality she was just wanting to take a step back.

Saturday and Sunday were conference days, and let me just say, CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING. This past week we had committed most of our investigators and members to write down the questions/concerns that they were having and to pray about them. We told them that they would be answered, and by golly, they sure were. One of the talks that really stood out to me was President Uchtdorf's on Sunday where he talked about keeping a positive outlook on life's trials. My favorite quote was, "... how much can life be wasted if we only look for the rainbow instead of thanking God for the rain." It reminded me that God is always there looking over us, and no matter how hard life's trials may be, our Savior has gone through it, and he is always there going through those trials with us. 

Well, sorry for bombarding you with missionary experiences. I love you all, and I hope that you enjoyed this past week just as much as I did. Keep keepin' on! And don't forget that we are all called to serve, so never turn down the opportunity to teach the gospel! 

With all my love, 

--Sister Peterson

 Also, we have a (NEIGH)bor that has asked us to groom her horses at least once a week. We are all okay with that. :) Pictured below is me with PJ and Holly