New Companion Elder Bell

 

Transfers were today, I am staying in Claremont and Elder Thomsen went to Arcadia. My new companion is Elder Bell. I have also been called as the District Leader which means I get to teach district meeting every on Thursdays, and there will be 8 of us in the district.

Amber missed our appointment on Thursday, and we set up another time to meet with her on Wednesday, she also didn't make it to church. We were able to meet with Sean again, we taught her the plan of salvation, she understood it, but I think she just wants to know more about the Church rather that join it. Tuesday we had a pass of lesson with the Spanish ward sister missionaries. Which is a lesson where you pass an investigator of to another set of missionaries, in this case the investigator wanted to go to an English ward. Her name is Bianca, she is looking for a good Church, mostly for her son. She understands what we have taught, and we are meeting with her again on Tuesday. The biggest concern is that her husband is a Jehovah's Witness, and for some reason they don't like Mormons. So we are hoping to talk to him and find out if it is okay if we can teach her.

 On Friday we had a mission tour. A General Authority came and taught us. Elder Sitati  of the Seventy came. He is originally from Kenya. He focused mostly on our purpose as missionaries. It was most of the day, I learned a lot from it, and I study the notes I took and apply what I learned. 

I think that's about sums up my week. Thanks for the love and support.

Elder Peterson

New investigator

Since Wednesday not much has happened. We had interviews with our Mission President. He does this just to check up on us and see how we are doing.We had a lesson with a referral we got. Her name is Amber. She had a rough past and wants to turn it around. She has been living in a sober living home for women. The missionaries that found her said that she was ready to be baptized. So we were able to meet with her on Thursday. The rough thing is that she doesn't answer her phone so we can't really confirm with her. She always remembers though. We taught her the Restoration. Just talking with her brought up some concerns. We aren't sure if she is all there mentally. We were talking about Joseph Smith and she started talking about how she wouldn't ever do heroine. That's just an example. So we are going to keep teaching her and see what happens.

This weekend the LaVerne stake, the stake I am in, had there stake conference. Elder Risenmay of the Seventy was the presiding authority. He shared some of his missionary experiences. There was also a special meeting for investigators, recent converts, and less actives. Amber was able to make it, she enjoyed both meetings. On Saturday, one of the councilors in the stake president talked about increasing our testimony. He shared an experience he had. He had an opportunity to go to the Hill Cumorah. While he has there he wanted to make it more memorable. So he grabbed a small tree he felt the bark, then he shook it, a few leaves fell off. Feeling good he grabbed a bigger tree. It felt the same when he tried shaking it, but it didn't budge. He compared that to growing your testimony. There will be times where your testimony wavers like the first tree. As you continue to grow it will be the second tree unmovable. The entire stake conference was really good.

Thanks for the love and support

Elder Peterson.

The sweater fits, I like the pillow case and towel. The other missionaries have commented on them. 

small bike crash

Sorry you had to wait so long. 10 days, and it's also a long drive to the LA temple mostly because of traffic. Anyway it has been a good ten days. I enjoyed the temple enjoyed the new film I understand more now. I did not know Elder Page, we had only been out only four weeks. On Sunday we had memorial service for him. All the missionaries got together, it sounds like Elder Page had a powerful testimony of the Plan of Salvation. The service was recorded and sent to his mom.

These week and a half have been busy, we have been getting referrals and trying to contact them. I hoping that we will be able to teach them. We were able to get meet with an investigator we had not meet in a awhile, Mike, Though it seems that, not much is going to be happening with him, because his wife wants him to start going back to her church. So will see what happens. Hopefully we are able to meet with Sean this week. 

I got to bike in the rain on Wednesday, that was exciting.We left in the morning to an appointment. There was a lot of overcast, so I grabbed my rain coat. It sprinkled a little on the way there. One way back to the apartment to have lunch it poured. Elder Thomsen's jacket wasn't as rain proof as he thought. I got the sweater that day so that helped me stay warm on Wednesday. On Saturday I crashed my bike, I just got a few cuts an bruises. Not sure how it happened, the funny thing is, even though people saw me crash the only person who asked if I was okay, was Elder Thomsen.

Thanks for the love and support. Next week is a normal week so I we be emailing on Monday.

Elder Peterson

3 email in one week:-)

Last week was kind of interesting. Sean canceled her appointment, and rescheduled for two weeks from last Saturday which is kind of frustrating. We haven't been able to get a Bible in Arabic yet, but we run into Hanann (the Egyptian lady) every once in while and says hi. She doesn't seem interesting in taking the discussions right know.

It was interesting because we got a call from Spanish missionaries asking if Elder Thomsen could play the piano for a funeral for a lady that passed away in their ward. How they found out the he is really good at the piano, we don't know. So it was awkward because we didn't know the lady that passed way and we didn't really know anyone there because it is a Spanish ward  so everyone there only speaks Spanish or is bilingual. 

We also got a text from a former investigator who wanted to meet with us again. The only problem is the missionaries stopped teaching him because all he wants to do is Bible bash with the missionaries, Elder Thomsen was one of the missionaries that first contacted him so he knows what he is like. He brought his pastor on one of the lessons. We invited him to General Conference because we were going to be at the Stake Center watching it. He said he would try to come, then he backed out. 

I enjoyed General Conference, it was a good one this time, I was kind of surprised that they didn't announce a new temple this time. So Sunday we had dinner with a family they were the Felix family, when I told them I was from Hyrum they got excited. Turns out bro. Felix is from Mt. Sterling and Sis Felix grew in a small town by Tremonten. They moved to California because of work. Small world.

Thanks for the love and support

Elder Peterson

 

2nd email:

 

I don't know I how forgot about this, but next week we get to go to the temple again next Wednesday Oct 16, so preparation day has been moved to that day, so I won't be sending out an email in next Wednesday. Thought it might be a good idea to let you know.

Elder Peterson  

 

Sunday night after conference we always talk about what part of conference touched us.  This is Jake response:

 

3rd email:

 

I like Uchtorf's talk the same one as Rachel I also liked his Priesthood sessions about when you fall you get back up.