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
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