Christmas Week - Part 2

Happy New Year everyone! (almost)

Christmas was pretty nice, I'm surprised I wasn't homesick being in a new random town the past couple weeks and whatnot. There was no specific instruction given for the morning, so we got to just hang out and open all of our packages. Thanks everyone for the cards and wishes! And yes Mom, the sweater and skirt fit perfectly, it was SO AWESOME to have new clothes! Members took care of us here, we received a ton of stuff from them too. The family we ate Christmas Eve dinner with gave us each a bag that was FULL of Ghiradelli and Toblerone chocolate. We stuck it all in the freezer, so our diet doesn't consist of just chocolate every day, haha. But oh my goodness, if I'm given apple or pumpkin pie one more time, I may die. Never thought I would be burned out on pumpkin pie especially, haha. 

For the rest of Christmas, we were invited to lunch at a non-member family's home who likes the missionaries, and we're going to see if we can teach them in a few weeks. Then we got to Skype home (it was SO nice!!!!!!! So much fun), and ate ANOTHER holiday dinner/meal (the third one in 2 days). The rest of the evening was spent taking treats (we cleaned out most of the cookies in our apartment, haha) to all the less-active families in our area. 

After our all-day mission Christmas devotional/party, P-day, Christmas Eve, then Christmas, it was a little depressing to go back to the regular grind of things! But we met a potential investigator's boyfriend (???), Chris, who took a Book of Mormon and is really interested to read it and find out more. Aside from that, not much has happened in the scheme of missionary work with the holidays and Sister King being sick all week. 

I was a *little* disappointed that there was no White Christmas, but perhaps there will be a White New Year? The temperatures just dropped in the past day or two, so it could totally snow. The sun is actually out though today, which is a miracle. I've never experienced so many dark and gloomy days in my entire life!!!

Have a great week!

Love, 

Sister Petersen]

Pictures: 

#1: All the missionaries that have served in Lewis Center this past year, with the Carter family. This was from last week at the Christmas Devotional.

#2: The cookies I decorated at our district activity last week. And yes, one of those is a Ninja-bread man. It's a real thing.

Christmas Week

The picture was taken by a ward member that loves the sister missionaries -- she has a front table with pictures of all the ones who have passed through her home.  Awesome!

 

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Hey everyone, 

It's finally Christmas this week! The great thing about that is that our mission-wide Christmas Devotional was yesterday in Dublin, and it was SO much fun to see everyone in the mission! We mostly listened to a ton of special musical numbers and performances, had a white elephant gift exchange, and a big fancy lunch that was organized by the Lewis Center ward. It was so awesome to see some of the ward members I left! Unfortunately I forgot my camera today but we took some pictures with the Carters of all the missionaries that have served in Lewis Center this past year, I'll send them next week. For the last hour of the schedule, we put on the musical devotional program and I sung in the choir (imagine that!). It felt awesome to be surrounded by such great "family" out here, since this is my first year not being home for Christmas!

Not too much else to report on in Hilliard- we were on bikes, and we're lucky to get the car on Christmas Eve, so we can visit a lot of people this week. I finally got over being sick, but then a day later Sister King got really sick, so not much has been done the past few days. It got really cold again last week, but now I'm questioning if a White Christmas is even possible- how depressing is that, since this is my one opportunity to experience that! But it's been REALLY dark and gloomy and I've only seen the sun twice in the past 2 weeks. 

Something funny though is that I've met a couple people here who know a lot about San Diego. One of the members we had dinner with, Brother Lewis, served in the Carlsbad Mission, but served in Scripps Ranch, Miramar, and Fallbrook (he knows the MacDonalds!). And I found the Lundberg's son, who is Brother Young in Hilliard. During ward council he was like, what- I lived in the Penasquitos 3rd ward! So that was cool.

Can't wait to Skype home in two days! Be on by 12:10 Pacific time!

Love, 

Sister Petersen

"Hilliard: Real People, Real Possibilities"

Oh hey.

So the big news of the week is that Sister McCarty and I got doubled-out, meaning that we were BOTH transferred out of Lewis Center. I was slightly surprised that I was leaving, but in the few days leading up to it, I knew I needed to go. However, we were disappointed that we wouldn't be in comfortable Lewis Center for Christmas, and that we would miss Laura coming to church on Sunday. We had never had ANYONE at church, until 3 days after we left. But we heard that Laura came with her 9 year old son, Jonathan, and we're hoping they get baptized at some point!

In the final days of Lewis Center, I had two flat tires, two days in a row. A member had patched up my tube the first time it happened, and gave it back to us the next morning. When we were out later that day, we had been out 15 minutes and my tire was flat again. Our ward mission leader and his wife picked us up since he has a truck, and we figured out that there was still the TINIEST splinter in my tire that had re-punctured the tube. The day had a better ending, as we made buckeyes with a less-active family and had a good lesson with Laura (which ended up being the last). 

I've been out for 10 months and I'm already in my fourth area. I was sent to Hilliard, another suburb of Columbus, on the west side. It looks like a mix of Westerville and the lower part of Lewis Center. I was kind of praying that I would be sent to the ghetto after serving in Lewis Center, but it was not meant to be (yet!). It's another car-sharing area and we get on bikes starting tomorrow. We currently have no investigators, which is not new to me, but there have been several baptisms here in the past several months, so there's hope. This ward is full of OSU medical and dental students and their young families, but also older people too (we actually have people to visit and give service to!!!!). My new companion is Sister King, who is the cousin of my trainer, the first Sister King. She's been out only a transfer longer than me, and is from Arizona/Utah. How crazy that I get two Sister Kings as companions....

The past week has been quite a whirlwind. I arrived in Hilliard sick (again) and exhausted, and it just felt like the weirdest transfer of my mission. What was incredible though is when we took a recent convert, Jo Ann (this super sweet old black lady, wonderful!) to the temple for her to do baptisms for the dead, guess who I saw? Steven! The Westerville sisters brought him to do baptisms for the first time as well! It was the coolest experience! After he did baptisms, he was just beaming and the Spirit just radiated from him! It's good to know that he and Tony are being stellar new members. 

Yesterday we had an all-day meeting with Elder Perkins from the 70, which is why P-day was switched to today. It was very inspiring and was everything I needed to hear. Of course it was also great to see half of the mission as well. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Pictures: All of our stuff lined up and ready to be transferred! Moving the bike was a pain, especially because our Hilliard member who took us home brought her kids and a recent convert, and no bike rack, so we really had to get creative. Also, I originally left behind the Christmas tree you sent me, BUT, the new Lewis Center sisters brought it to me at the big meeting yesterday, hooray!

Bikes..... adfjkl;jklafh!!!!!!!

Hey!

Mom and Dad, I can tell you actually remembered it was transfer week, hence why my inbox is almost empty today (not to guilt-trip you or anything, haha). HOWEVER, for some strange reason, we were actually told to go email today even though P-day isn't until Wednesday this week. 

Unfortunately, when we pulled our bikes out of the garage today that Tim and Linda are letting us use, my front tire was completely blown out, which makes no sense since it hasn't moved for over a week. We actually had places to go this afternoon so we didn't have time to figure it out, but I'm assuming I'll need to go get a new tire, who knows where. Words can't even describe how ticked off I was, I may have scared Sister McCarty a bit, haha. Luckily we pulled rides together instantly to move us around today for our various activities and appointments. 

Last week had its ups and downs- we had a great lesson with Laura, but most of the time people were pretty rude to us. Laura is so amazing that she committed to go to church this Sunday, when she seemed hesitant at first. She also told the member that we brought with us that she was having a bad day when we first knocked on her door, but she felt the Spirit and so she kept inviting us back. Incredible.

We had a humbling experience this morning. Our Relief Society president took us up to see a recent convert whose family has been struggling with various tragedies and situations. We sat down and filled out a food order for them and the ward leaders are finally seeing how bad their situation is. The ward is really wealthy, but there's that little corner of the area with the trailer park where this family lives. It was a year ago that Taylor, Hayley and I went to work at the bishop's storehouse, and it was cool to see how that is actually implemented in someone's lives that I know. The Church has really got it together.

We've spent more time with the members this week, going around to talk to them about the "He is the Gift" initiative, and committing them to "share the gift" by sharing the video and giving out the pass-along cards. We also went to the ward Christmas party the other night, which was fun. They did something different this year and had a "family dance party" for the last part. It was actually really successful and we met a few non-members as well. But when they played, "I'll be Home for Christmas," Sister McCarty and I looked at each other like, WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?

Good news is, we got a ton of emails regarding the Christmas season, and I will get to Skype you on Christmas!! Woohoo!

Love,

Sister Petersen

Thanksgiving Week

Hey everyone, 

Thanksgiving was actually pretty nice as a missionary! The day before we had our dinner appointment that was combined with a pie party with other ward members. On Thursday, it snowed a little in the morning so we headed out later (and what missionary goes tracting on Thanksgiving morning?!). We had our dinner in the afternoon at a member's home, and the food was really good though I'm not a Thanksgiving dinner person at all. Later they dropped us off at a former investigator's house for another get-together, and we didn't eat anything there but were sent home with 3 take-out boxes of food. The former investigator was AWESOME and talked to all her friends about who we are and what we did; we didn't have to do anything but show up! We did her dishes though (because there was a TON), and that amazed everyone there. We also did dishes at the Sorensens (the member family we ate with earlier), so it felt like we did a million dishes that day. But that's ok, it was a great day! Mo, the former investigator, drove us home afterwards in her friend's Mini Cooper. It was my first time riding in one, and I still really want one of those cars some day, haha. 

We did a lot of biking this week, and it wasn't as cold this week but still in the 30s and 40s. The weather is so weird, yesterday it was over 60 degrees and today it's back down to 37. But it's December now so I legitimately want snow, we're actually hoping it comes again this week!!

We had a specialized training this week about the "He is the Gift" Christmas initiative. If you haven't heard of it yet, go to christmas.mormon.org, and watch the video! It's really good! Also, for those who get the Ensign magazine, use those pass-along cards that are attached to this month's issue!! Sister McCarty and I got 250 of those, and the goal is to talk to 10 people every day about it. We hit our goal on Saturday from knocking doors, so that was a good start!

As a mission now, we are also doing 3 hours of family history each week. Sister McCarty and I went on Family Search and we were like, we have NO idea what we're doing..... (and I took two Sunday school family history classes at BYU.... how embarrassing...). So we're winging it. BUT, I found out that I've descended from several King Henry's of England, along with other royalty going back to Denmark, Normandy, Norway, Finland, and even Turkey in the first century (and that was just in one family line). It's cool stuff. 

In other good news, OSU beat Michigan on Saturday (go Bucks!). The bad news is that we had NOTHING to do that afternoon! However, before having nothing to do, we finally taught Lenn's again! Plan of Salvation.... good stuff.... we extended baptism and he said he was thinking of getting baptized soon. We just need to get him directed to being baptized in our church, and not by his current pastor haha. 

Lewis Center is quite the place. In search of things to do, we biked to the township hall as recommended by a member to ask for service opportunities in the community. The lady at the front desk said there were none around. What kind of town is this?!

Have a great week!

Sister Petersen

 

PS: We made gingerbread houses today at a district activity!

Impending Holiday Season

Hey,

This week was rather uneventful. It was freezing until Saturday, staying in the 20s and low 30s. And that windchill- dang!! But it didn't snow any more and now it's just really rainy. Today we actually went to the Columbus Zoo, since it's in Powell only 15 minutes away, and that was pretty fun. It was like a ghost town on a Monday in November! But we figured that it would be our best opportunity to go to the zoo at this point, since today it got into the 50s. It may be one of the best zoos in the nation, but still doesn't even compare to the world-famous San Diego Zoo! Every other one I go to seems super small in comparison! And it's weird for parts of the zoo to close during off-season, imagine that!

The bar is set pretty low for us in Lewis Center, it was the biggest deal that we had a member at a lesson with us, to teach Dan and Wes about prayer. That was the first member present lesson I've had in Lewis Center. We also taught Laura twice as well, which was a big deal because we've made it to the third lesson with her and I've never done that with someone I've found. I've only taught the Plan of Salvation about 3 times on my mission, so that lesson was kind of rough, haha. But Laura is incredible and is really serious about her gospel studying! She actually filled out all the questions at the back of the pamphlet and looked up the scriptures! I have never known an investigator who actually does that!! It will be a challenge to get her to church though, since she works at a flea market in west Columbus every weekend. But we really feel that if we get her to church she will be baptized, she said yes to our baptism extension this week. She is honestly such a miracle.

Our ridiculous story for the week is that we got locked out of our apartment. Our lock has been difficult to work with for a long time, but on Friday night we couldn't even get our key in all the way. Tim, the recent convert who lives by us, lubricated the door lock for us, but nothing worked. We found out the number for after-hours maintenance from him and his wife Linda, and waited in their apartment since it was 20 degrees outside. The maintenance guy showed up with a blowtorch, said our lock was frozen (even though it's been sticky for a long time), and started torching the door. It worked, and we got in our apartment close to 11 pm. That's officially the latest I have been out on my mission, haha. 

We had a cool moment on Saturday night. We were sitting in our car, hating life because we had nothing to do (I mean NOTHING, you can't/shouldn't even go tracting when it's later than 7 pm and dark), and Sister McCarty suggested we try seeing a family where the wife is less-active and struggling, because we hadn't seen them in a few weeks. It was our last hope before going in early. We got there exactly when the wife got home, and they welcomed us in and fed us dinner. Then they offered to take us with them to see "Fantasy of Lights," this Christmas light display up at Alum Creek that you drive through. They kept saying how glad they were that we came over, and the wife warmed up to us a lot more. The next day the husband left us a voicemail saying that he didn't know what prompting we had that caused us to drop by, but he was so glad that we followed it and told us to keep following those promptings. He said that we could come by anytime we felt like we should. That was really cool for us, and we knew that Heavenly Father was looking out for us as missionaries and also looking out for this family. 

This week isn't supposed to be too bad on our bikes, temperatures will be in the 40s and 50s, so I don't think we'll die (yet). We're also having Thanksgiving with a member family and were invited to a couple other parties/gatherings. So it should be good. It's a good thing we'll be biking that day, haha. 

Love you all!

Sister Petersen

Pictures from the zoo: The gorilla exhibit was definitely the best. They ran up against the glass and we got some great pictures. Had to take this one "Hear No Evil" haha. Also had lots of statue photo-ops.

IT'S SNOWING!!!

Hey everyone, 

So as you may have seen on the news, it's snowing here a ton already. There were snow flurries the past few days, but it didn't stick and accumulate until last night. We woke up this morning with quite the surprise! We were VERY lucky to get the car back yesterday right before it hit. Unfortunately, after a week of tracting every day and biking in freezing temperatures, I got totally sick yesterday, for the first time on my mission. This is probably going to be the longest winter of my life. 

The one highlight from the first half of the week we taught Laura, our new investigator from Mexico. For Sister McCarty and I, it was one of the most "Preach My Gospel" perfect lessons we've taught on our missions, and Laura totally felt the Spirit and wants to keep reading the Book of Mormon. We have another lesson with her tomorrow night.

The big news of the week is that STEVEN GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! I got to go back to Westerville and be there, and give the talk on baptism. No one in the ward knew I was coming, and Steven didn't either, so when he saw me he jumped!! Haha. After he was baptized, he bore a powerful testimony of the Spirit and the Book of Mormon. He's very spiritually in-tune, and he said how the Spirit was what brought him to church, and that the Spirit in the missionaries had a huge impact on him. He's definitely matured and grown in the gospel a lot since I first met him, the change was incredible. It was so rewarding to see him get baptized, especially since I was the missionary who taught him the most. Afterwards he thanked me for my patience in working with him and that of the missionaries he's met, he would never forget me. How tender!

Have a great week!

Love, Sister Petersen

Pictures:

#1: Steven's baptism!

#2: Us and the New Albany sisters, Sister McCarty and I look kind of similar to Sister Ogletree and Sister Russ, haha.

#3: Me with one of my favorite Westerville members

#4: Biking, cold, and not too happy....

#5: Messing around with giant stuffed animals at a dinner appointment with the kids

#6: Another day of biking... and it got colder....

 

 

Hump Dayyyyyy!!!! (Halfway Done!)

Hey everyone, 

Last week I reached my halfway point on my mission, and it was even on a Wednesday, haha. As I thought about my mission so far, I understand how some people can be really prideful about their missions, because you learn a lot and go through a lot! And if the winter here doesn't kill me off, I'm feeling pretty good about the rest of my mission!

I went on an exchange with one of the Sister Training Leaders this week in Worthington. It's been a while since I've seen lower-income housing, haha. We've been struggling with filling in our slow hours in Lewis Center, and the exchange didn't give me a lot of ideas. We just simply don't have any old people in Lewis Center to visit! And there's only one single lady in the entire ward! Anyways I'll stop complaining. However, the exchange helped me refocus a lot, because I've honestly felt very aimless since coming to Lewis Center. I've realized that I don't trust in the Lord enough and don't pay attention to what the Spirit tells me as much as I should. So when we're wondering, "What the heck are we supposed to do right now aside from tracting for 10 hours?!?" I need to be more willing to give in to the Lord's will of what we should be doing and where. 

Though President Daines told us to avoid tracting when we can, we just had to go back to tracting each day for a set amount of time, because right now it's all we have when we're not seeing members. However, we saw some miracles happen because of it. When we had a lesson fall through with Lenn's on Saturday, we were with Todd, a high school senior who came for the lesson. He was like, well should we go knock some doors? Sister McCarty and I were a little reluctant because it was Saturday morning and most people don't answer their doors, but we tracted for about an hour. Todd was inspired, because out of the 4 people we talked to, 2 of them were interested and we're coming back to teach them this week. 

We've also been teaching this one guy, Dan, who lives with his adult son Wes. Dan is a pretty good guy, and was a potential investigator, but when we saw him outside one day he agreed to learn more about the Book of Mormon. His son Wes though is one strange cookie. He'll bring up all these random topics and just go off, but he is reading the Book of Mormon to examine and research it for himself. So who knows, maybe he'll feel something!

Our crazy story of the week happened on Friday night at 8 pm. We had planned to go to Worthington Arms, the random trailer park way out in the corner of our area, to visit some less-actives. Bad idea. A minute after we left the car, we witnessed a drug deal. A few teenagers went up to a trailer, knocked on the window, a hand came out, and there was an exchange and the teenagers walked away. Then some other teenagers were making some comments as we walked by (we're pretty well known up there) and said some snarky things about Christians as they were smoking and who knows what else. We booked it out of there shortly after, cutting through people's yards so we could avoid them, haha.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures this week! We went to OSU today for a zone activity, and played soccer by the football stadium and then hung out at the institute building. And when we were out on campus, I had left my bag with my camera in the institute building. 

It's supposed to snow by the end of the week, but before then, it will be in the 20s and 30s. That should be quite the adventure since we're on bikes this week. No one instructs the missionaries on bike safety or what to do in bad weather, so we kind of just wing it and see how we feel about the situation. It will be an eventful winter.

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Great Week!

Hey everyone!

First of all, thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!! And Mom, that banner you made with all the notes on it from everyone was fantastic, I don't even know how much time that probably took to put together. It's hanging up in my bedroom and covers more than one wall because it's so long! I've been feeling very loved with all the mail and packages, and have been feeling very loved by the ward here as well. 

Someone posted my birthday on the Lewis Center ward's Facebook page, so the ward really reached out! After church yesterday we also had a great dinner with an awesome family, who made some of my favorite kinds of food and yellow cake/chocolate frosting for dessert because Sister McCarty texted them about my birthday, behind my back :D Speaking of Sister McCarty, she's awesome as well! She sticky-noted the whole apartment and decorated with balloons when I was in the shower. There were some funny notes, I attached some pictures. 

What was really cool about having a birthday during a mission is that I was not focused on myself. Lewis Center has taught me how to really love others and realize the worth of serving others, especially since we haven't been teaching anyone. Also, most new 21-year-olds go out to drink and party... and I went to church. It's great! It was probably the best birthday I've had in a couple years

Anyways, Halloween was this week, but Ohio... who does it think it is?! Each town here has a designated time set apart for trick-or-treating, and Lewis Center did it on Thursday, not Friday which was actually Halloween. Apparently Halloween on Friday would conflict with high school football (alright....) and in some areas, Halloween is moved to a Thursday whenever it falls on a Saturday (because you can't mess with OSU football) or Sunday (NFL). I didn't realize that we were living in Texas.

President Daines said that Halloween evening was a great time to contact people.... so after our dinner appt. we went out on our bikes. However, it was pitch black outside and there's no street lights in Ohio neighborhoods (seriously it's creepy), and we actually scared some people when we came up behind them on one of the bike/walking trails. We also got some snarky comments about bikes, as if they were part of our costume or something.... so no success that night, haha. 

With the work, we've had some small miracles happen here and there. On Halloween, the last day of the month and also the last day of the ward's month-long fast for missionary work, we were able to visit and talk to more people in a day than we have for a while. We actually have 3 investigator appointments set for this upcoming week, which is a really big deal for us. 

Love you all!!

Sister Petersen

PS: We went out for Mexican food the other night, and it was good but I know Dad probably would've said, "What are these grocery store tortillas? Stinking white-man Mexican food!" That's what you get for getting Mexican food in the Eastern US, haha.

Pictures: Sister McCarty got a Halloween package, don't you love our glasses? And Mom, thanks for buying out Trader Joe's!!! Pumpkin butter, pumpkin pancake mix, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin granola, pumpkin scones.... you are crazy but also the best!! I love it (pumpkin pancakes for dinner, say what?)! Mom and Dad, you are seriously the best missionary parents ever!!!!

 

Sticking Around in Lewis Center

Hello!

We just got our transfer calls, and Sister McCarty and I are staying together another transfer in Lewis Center! This is exciting because I've had a new companion every transfer so far, but I get to keep her for 2 transfers! We're hoping that something big happens here, because Sister McCarty will be here for 6 months and Lewis Center is a rough area to be in for a while. Hopefully we can come up with good ways to use our time here. 

There were a couple things that happened last week. We had interviews with President, and mine was super fast because I didn't have much to say, I've been feeling pretty good. We also went to the temple on Thursday which was SO NICE. The Columbus temple is the tiniest thing though, it's hard not to get claustrophobic, and with our zone it felt like the place was bursting at the seams, haha. 

We actually got a new investigator who actually has promise, which is the news of the century for us. It's Laura, a Mexican lady we tracted into and wants us to come back for a third time after giving her a Book of Mormon. We have an appointment set and we're excited to teach such a sweet, spiritual lady. With Lenn's, we haven't been able to contact him this week and he hasn't gotten back to us by phone either. But we'll try to see him this week. 

We've had some random days where we don't even feel like missionaries, though we are technically doing missionary things. We've done more service recently and spent all of Monday wearing jeans. And President Daines told us to avoid tracting as much as possible, so we're doing anything we can for the members because it's all we have. We went to the ward Trunk-or-treat on Friday and that was so much fun. Also, ward chili/soup cook-offs are really good. The cool thing was that a ton of people invited non-member friends, and told us about it too. 

It's a pretty comfortable life here in Lewis Center, when we're not caught in the rain on our bikes or being told to go away. This area is the closest thing I've come to being home on my mission, maybe it's because everyone's house smells more similar to ours... autumn candles for the win. Members also take care of us really well and we've had some great meals lately, along with going out to Panera Bread and California Pizza Kitchen. It's pretty sweet. We're trying our best not to turn into civilians, haha. 

ALSO, I was notified by Sister Malloy in Westerville that Steven, the Vietnamese guy I taught during my whole time there, is on-date for baptism for November 15th. It's kind of a big deal, hopefully he actually makes it there and decides to take that leap of faith.

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Pictures: Sister McCarty and I bought cheap animal headbands to wear at the Trunk-or-treat and and we also switched nametags, haha. 

Also, here's part of our area. And I decided to be like Dad and start taking bike pictures. Might as well!

 

 

Highway biking, grills on fire and crazy dogs!

Hey everyone!

This past week was rather ridiculous on our bikes. On Tuesday it down-poured like crazy and we didn't even make it out of our apartment complex. It rained periodically throughout the week, and Saturday was also freezing cold along with the rain, and I don't even own a rain jacket but apparently it's a good thing to have in Ohio. At the end of Saturday we collapsed on the floor and called it a day, haha.  

We have been tracting for a specific amount of time each day to find more people, because when our ward mission leader said that our teaching pool has become a "teaching puddle," that was a stab through the heart! Through knocking doors, we have found a few potentials and it's been great, but those were all in the one apartment complex in our area. Knocking the doors of big houses still isn't getting us anywhere, but we're not complaining. It's quite an experience sometimes. But with only teaching one or two actual lessons this whole transfer, my teaching skills have been going down the toilet, and my door approaches were getting even worse because I'm just seeing how long I can make it until the person shuts the door on us, haha. 

One of of my biking adventures this week was while I was on exchanges with one of the Sister Training Leaders. We biked to a member's house for dinner, and had to ride up State Route 23, which is this big busy road with fast drivers. I thought it was a piece of cake because there was actually a big enough shoulder lane for us, but after seeing a huge truck go by us at 70-80 mph, I started questioning my life decisions! All I know is that if I'm still supposed to be here and serve, I will be protected on my bike!

One night while leaving a dinner appointment, I realized that my socks were missing by the front door of the house. The member's dog ate them... or at least hid them somewhere, so I rode home sock-less, haha. And then as we biked down the street, Sister McCarty and I saw a grill that had flames shooting up out of it on someone's driveway!! And it was almost 8 o'clock at night. We knocked on the person's door, and the guy was like, "It was supposed to be simmering....". False.

Fall is officially the best season ever, I wish it was year-round. 

Love, Sister Petersen

My time cut short on the computer and it logged me off, but I also wanted to mention that we found these "dramatized" Church history CD's in our closet and we've been listening to them whenever we're in the apartment. They were recorded in the 70's and they're hilarious. But then again, it's all we have for entertainment so of course missionaries find it funny!

Pictures: we saw a great Kodak moment as we biked past a small lake one day. 

The Missionary Next Door

Hey everyone, 

Not a whole lot has happened this week, but we are trying something new with the members. We borrowed a copy of a talk called, "The Missionary Next Door" by a lady named Diana Hoelscher, which is about how simple and easy it can be to share the gospel. The missionaries take care of the spiritual conversion and the members take care of the social conversion. By simply inviting people to church activities, activities or occasions at their homes, or even church itself, non-members can be in a good place where missionaries can meet them. There's other suggestions as well, such as having gospel-related art in your home and knowing how to explain it to others in the form of a simple testimony, to give others the chance to feel the Spirit and learn more about our faith. It's really good and so we organized a hand-out that members can put on their fridge, and we are starting to teach members and help them more in their missionary work. We realize that working with the members is the key in this area, because this ward is missionary-minded and ready to go if we just give them a little push. If you can find the talk on YouTube or something, I REALLY recommend listening to it. It's really entertaining too. 

We taught one lesson this week, to an investigator named Lenn's (I can't remember if I've mentioned him or not)(also, he's black, hence the apostrophe in the name, haha). We went through the Restoration in more detail this time with him and we're using a new method of teaching with the pamphlet, where it's all question-based and we can find out what a person's religious background and knowledge is. It went pretty well and we're meeting with him again this week.

We also ran into one of our potential investigators while he was walking his dogs. We used the opportunity to teach him more, and he was interested in a Book of Mormon so we gave it to him on the spot. He's been interested in searching for the truth so we think that if he makes it a priority, he will read and find out for himself. He's a professional pool player and went out of town this week, but we're looking forward to meeting with him next week. 

Also, I finally bought my own bike. I called the mission office and it just so happened that there was one bike available that was a ladies' frame with a low bar. Some members in a different ward bought it for a sister who ended up going home early, so it was basically unused. It's a Schwinn and looks pretty classic, but still has gears and rides really smoothly and fast. It's likely I'll take it to a bike shop at some point to get better tires on it with a little more tread, but so far it's working out great. And thanks again Dad for sending me the headlight, it makes a humongous difference. I don't know what I would do without you! Also, I am sorry for shaming the family by owning a bike that was purchased from Wal-mart, haha. I am a little sad though that I will need to sell it to someone else before I come home, because there's no way I can ship that or fly it home. I would totally bring it with me to college otherwise. 

I hope everyone has a great week, I love you!

Sister Petersen

Pictures: 

#1: Tim and Linda, the recent converts who live in our apartment complex, own a tiny clown bike for some reason I don't know why. Of course we had to try it out.

#2: Us with our bikes, me with my new one and Sister McCarty is currently stuck with the clown bike because she had to give back the one she was borrowing from a member. Just kidding, she was able to borrow someone else's for the rest of the transfer. 

#3: Us in front of a true Ohioan barn that's in a random pocket of our area. Classic mission picture.

 

I will never eat steak again!!

Hey everyone!

This week has been really weird. Our work has not picked up in pace in any way, but somehow we've kept busy and had quite the eventful week. 

To start with, we were shown the new movie/documentary "Meet the Mormons" at a Specialized Training. It was REALLY good. Sister McCarty and I were a little doubtful because the trailer was kind of cheesy, but really, it was worth watching and very enjoyable. Mom and Dad, there's a segment at the end about a missionary mom... you will cry just as all the missionaries in Ohio did! 

The crazy and dramatic story of the week was from our dinner appointment on Tuesday. The family was having a family gathering/birthday dinner for their teenage son and we were invited. The story is really awkward and detailed but I'll keep it brief. Not too long after everyone began eating the dinner, the husband got a piece of steak stuck in his throat. Then he was choking/gagging/vomiting in front of everyone.... and I know I lost my appetite!! Sister McCarty and I had front-row seats at the kitchen table and we didn't know what to do. 20-30 minutes later, he was still gagging and grossing out everyone and we couldn't be like, "peace out everyone!" and leave (if only we had other appointments to go to like some lucky missionaries out there...). Then the PARAMEDICS came and shooed out the huge group of people that were just sitting in the living room and watching, and we were able to make our escape. Before going home, we saw him wheeled out on a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance, still gagging as they drove away. Very disgusting. I never want to eat steak again!!! But don't worry, he survived and was fine. 

We also have to give our bikes back to the members who lent them to us. Bummer. We're hesitant to buy bikes when it's getting cold and will probably start snowing next month. Because really, what kind of person can ride a bike in ice and snow? No one. 

We got to do some other service this week, including cleaning a basement and doing yard work. Then on Friday the weather got in the way and we weren't able to do much on bikes. It got cold this weekend, which is nice but also scary. 

General Conference was pretty good, and we watched all 4 sessions in the church building with some recent converts who drove us there. Since we didn't have the car to do other things in between sessions (our church building is way out of our area), it felt like we were living as "civilians" this weekend, but it was enjoyable. General Conference is always great. 

Other news includes obtaining Insanity from Tim and Linda, the recent converts who took us to Conference and live in our apartment complex. We started it this morning and are super excited to get into great shape. Hopefully our neighbors below us don't mind, we're doing a lot of jumping at 6 am :)

Pictures: we got Buckeye necklaces from a member! Also, we went to Cabela's this morning... I couldn't resist taking a picture with a fake rifle because missionaries are not allowed to go shooting :D

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Making New Friends in Lewis Center

Hey everyone,

To answer some questions, yes, we are back on the bikes this week. We share the ward with the elders, and there's some slight jealousy there because their area has more "normal" houses and apartments, while we have all the nice big new ones. We live in our apartment, and what's funny is that it's exactly like the Westerville apartment I was just in, so it feels like home!

We're realizing that the most effective finding we do may be in serving others. We've also been getting service opportunities from ward members so we can fill our unproductive hours. We've found a couple potential investigators while tracting, but sometimes tracting is kind of a joke here. It's really forced me to be bolder and more authoritative with my door approach, because since everyone's more established here, I have to look like I know what I'm talking about and be somewhat impressive. I've never been fearful on doorsteps, but it's still cool to see how much more experienced I feel after my time in Westerville. How nice.

My district here is awesome and I've been reunited with my MTC companion, Sister Mathis!! It's been fun. Sister McCarty and I are still having a blast together, it's nice to be companions with someone who is on the same page as you are. The ward members here are awesome and I absolutely love everyone I've been meeting. There's a couple non-member families that love the missionaries as well who are incredible; one of them includes a 21 year old YSA who goes to the institute at OSU sometimes, and her dad is from Ireland so he has a cool accent (we are not teaching them but they know a lot of members and we feel that their conversion process will be on their own terms). The other family is a lady with an adopted high-school daughter, but she's convinced that she'll die a Catholic (we'll see).

We had a neat experience with one of the members on Thursday. We were tracting on a warm afternoon and it just wasn't working. We were feeling not-so-great and planned to swing by Sister Prisbery's house for a restroom/water stop. As we headed back to the car, Sister Prisbery pulled up next to us and asked if we would like to come over and have some fruit and water. She didn't even know that we were about to head over. At her home, she told us that when she saw us, she saw us as the Lord's servants doing His work. Then she had this strong impression to invite us over right then, and turned back around to talk to us. It's cool to see how real the Spirit is.

Women's Conference was pretty good (but still wayyyy too much singing!!!) and I loved what President Uchtdorf said about discipleship, and that it's something that should lift us up and bring us joy, and not burden us. I loved that. If we're truly trying to follow Christ, we should feel good and enjoy our day-to-day lives.

Last night we went to a mission home open house and brought a couple recent converts with us. It was great because I saw a lot of mission friends, and also saw Sister Malloy. Her and her new companion Sister Corbett brought Tony and Kali, and it was so awesome to see Tony!! He was so excited that I was there and he told me that he received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday! It was so good to see that he's been doing really well.

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Petersen

(picture attached- Sister McCarty and I. Sorry I haven't taken any other pictures yet!!!)

Now Serving in Lewis Center

Hey everyone!

I was transferred to Lewis Center, which is funny because it's only 2 wards over from where I served in Westerville (but now I'm in the Columbus North Stake instead of the East)! Here's my address:

8855 Lake Ridge Dr.

Lewis Center, OH 43035

My companion is now Sister McCarty, who's been out for almost a year. She's crazy, and we have a blast together. She's from South Jordan, Utah and went to Utah State. It's funny how many companions I've been going through, but maybe that's a good thing, haha.

Also, what's funny is that I ended up in one of the car-sharing areas, so we started on bikes and then got the car yesterday at church. There's more of those roads with no bike lane/sidewalk/shoulder, and when it snows, we may just walk. Or die. However, it's been enjoyable so far, and it's great that I was on a bike for 2 months in Westerville, because biking here is a piece of cake- it's flatter here. And summer is over (hallejujah!!).

Lewis Center is in the wealthier center of the mission, and we're next to Powell, which is where people live in mansions. We go to church in Powell as well. Our entire area is newer upscale housing developments, and everyone's home looks like it's straight out of Pottery Barn. Needless to say, we are not currently teaching anyone, but that will change. It looks like I have my work cut out for me, but I'm feeling pretty determined that it will move forward.

It was a little hard to leave Westerville behind as I really loved the people there. But the ward here was very welcoming and I like everyone already. The ward is mainly comprised of younger families, and is pretty big. Talk about a noisy Sacrament Meeting, haha. Several moms at our dinner appointments have been like, don't ever have kids!!!! Don't need to tell me twice, haha. What's weird though, was seeing the Daines (mission president) at church, since the mission home is in the Powell ward.

On Friday night we were asked to come and help out at a church open house for the 15th anniversary of the Columbus Temple. There were way more missionaries there than needed, but we had fun. I got to talk to an elder that served in my spot in Zanesville after I left, and guess what??? Remember Cayenne, a member's home-nurse, and the first person I talked to about the gospel in Zanesville and asked if she wanted to learn more? She got BAPTIZED!! That was SO cool for me to hear, and she is the person I met during my first day in Zanesville, which was my first full day in the mission field. How awesome.

This week we want to focus on finding new investigators, specifically those who are prepared to receive the gospel. So far we've been doing a ton of service (weeding, painting, etc. that took up a whole Saturday). But being in a new area, I'm feeling that we can see the beginnings of some success this transfer.

Love you! I promise I'll send pictures next week!

Sister Petersen

PS: Polaris, which is this big mega-complex area including a mall, is in our area. Our ward boundaries has EVERYTHING. Everyone in Westerville would talk about it. Since there's no longer a rule in the mission about not being able to go to malls, Sister McCarty and I walked through it today and were just in awe. I didn't spend any money though, don't worry. haha.

I'm Getting Transferred!!!!

Hey everyone,

So after 5 months of being in wonderful Westerville, I am being transferred. It's a little bittersweet, I have had quite the experiences here. But I knew that I needed to go, I was packed up before transfer calls even came. I'll miss the people though for sure, I've gotten close to quite a few of the members here. 

My time ended perfectly here, with Tony being baptized on Saturday. It's kind of crazy how the baptism all came together. Beforehand, the elders were getting buckets of water and dumping it in the font so it will get filled in time. We were worried about ward member support/attendance, but to our amazement, the Relief Society room was PACKED- some people had to stand. Tony's excitement had built up all week, and when he arrived, we just jumped up and down. He's also been so grateful for the changes that have happened in his life, and it was just so cool to see that. He was baptized by his friend Ryan from high school football, who's in our ward. So tender!! His family came and were very supportive, and his dad talked to Ryan's dad, asking him a lot of doctrinal questions. Tony says that only time will tell if his parents will convert, but we're feeling that his dad will make it there someday. 

I thought the baptism was going to be some super-awesome-spiritual experience, but as the missionary, it was SO STRESSFUL. Interesting things happen when recent converts speak at baptisms and such, and the service ran kind of long. But others said it was beautiful, and another sister missionary that was there said that it was a very spiritual experience, which made Sis. Malloy and I feel relieved, since half the ward was there. Afterwards, we had massive headaches and wanted to take a nap. Personally, I feel like missionaries should have the rest of the day off after a baptism, but that's just me, haha. But don't worry, we still went out and worked for a while, then finally treated ourselves with dinner at Panera and ice cream. 

In other news this past week, I went to Mt. Vernon again for exchanges with Sis. Reed. Also, met an orange cat named Binx there that was like an Ohio version of our cat Mr. Jinx, haha (less hygienic, possibly missing some teeth... just kidding! But not really... haha). Also got bear-hugged by an investigator's husband there, against my will since we're not really supposed to hug others of the opposite gender. He smelled like marijuana... SO. GROSS. Back in Westerville, I made fried chicken for Terry while she was busy with some paperwork, haha. 

A couple miracles happened this week. On Monday, we found 4 new investigators in half an hour. Can't believe I haven't tracted those apartments before, that place is a goldmine. We got Steven to come back to church and I think he felt more comfortable there this time. We also started teaching Michael, who is a grandson of a less-active member. He's 18 and recently has felt the need to accept Christ in his life. We also started teaching this awesome older lady named Estalita. She's a riot. 

Overall, I'm thrilled that I'm leaving Westerville better than I found it. It took a long time to get there, but lately things have been happening. I'm excited to see where I go next. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Traveling Adventures (They got the car back!)

Hi everyone!

Exactly 2 months after I crashed the car, we got it back. Best 7-month-missionary-anniversary gift ever, haha. But in reality, we were supposed to get it two days sooner. We went to zone meeting on Wednesday expecting the Mt. Vernon elders to have brought it down, but one of them told us that they tried driving it that morning and it overheated. Then they put coolant into it, and it went straight through the car. So it went back to the shop. So ridiculous. So I was surprised when two days later we got to ride back to Mt. Vernon with our vehicle coordinator to pick it up. It's pretty sweet being able to go where we want, when we want now, and on our own schedule. I baked a ton, and we've been delivering no-bakes and homemade Twix bars to members to show our immense appreciation for what they've done for us. 

 Something that is going to be tried in our mission is car-sharing. Zone meeting was about getting bikes and how the cars were going to be divided up. Every other week, depending on the area you are in, you may switch from car to bike. Unfortunately, this goes through winter which is supposed to be rough again- so unless I'm in a huge rural area or called to be a Sister Training Leader, there's a 95% chance I'll freeze to death on the side of the road this winter, with a bike laying on the ground next to me. It was nice knowing all of you!!

I got to be out of Westerville a few times this week. Went to Mt. Vernon twice, once for an exchange with Sister Reed, then to go pick up the car. After having lunch at a member's house in Danville, a town in the Mt. Vernon ward, Sister Reed and I got stuck behind on Amish buggy on the road. We also saw where the Amish converts live. So cool. Then on Saturday, Sister Malloy and I went to a baptism for someone in a family she taught in Xenia/Beavercreek, which is east of Dayton. It was a pretty far distance to go, and we couldn't get a ride, but our mission president was going so we ended up hitching a ride with the Daines! It was pretty fun, and we got to know them more. 

Teaching Tony is still going great, and the baptism is still happening on Saturday. He invited us over for dinner again last night, and we had a delicious cook-out dinner with his family. He is seriously so awesome!! He and Kali are on fire with missionary work too, and Tony keeps telling us how everything has changed for the better for him. 

Funny story of the week. The sisters in New Albany were going through their phone contacts and asking people they didn't know if they wanted to meet with missionaries again. One guy, Derek, answered back yes, and they were so excited. But he lived in our area, so we took over the appointment to go meet him. His wife wasn't home, so he grabbed some chairs for us to sit on his porch. He was like, no worries I know how that is, I've served a mission. We asked where and how long, and he was in Sacramento for two years. I was thinking, wait is this guy a less-active member?? Sister Malloy was like, "Oh what church did you serve for?" and he was like, "Umm.... ours??" Then I asked what his last name was, and he is A WARD MISSIONARY. IN OUR WARD. In my defense, he and his wife are new to the ward this summer and he hasn't come to teaching appointments with us yet. However, he's definitely talked to us at church... I guess I just couldn't tell who he was in street clothes.... how embarrassing. When he got the text from the New Albany sisters, he was like, sweet! the sisters are coming by to visit! We all had a good laugh about that one!!

Have a great week everyone! Sorry, no pictures this week. 

Love,

Sister Petersen

The Sloopy Challenge

Hey everyone!

This past week caused us to really examine our plans and figure out what to do with spare time. Several big appointments fell through and we've done a lot of tracting. However, we've met a couple people that are interested to learn more. We've recently been discussing with our bishop and ward mission leader how to better work with the ward, because most of our finding has all come from our own efforts and that usually doesn't get anywhere. 

We're trying to work with an inactive member named Rose, who's afraid of people, driving, etc. Her son Gabe has been baptized, but her other 9 year old son, Draven, has not. We got them a ride to church, and after Sacrament Meeting, Draven came up to us and asked us when he could get baptized. It's going to be tricky to get past his father, but we'll do what we can. Draven's a good kid. After talking to Rose and her kids on Friday, I had so much love and charity for people, until we were riding our bikes on the sidewalk and some lady snapped at us, "You girls should REALLY be riding those on the road!" when we were on a busy road with no bike lane. Charity instantly flew out the window right then, haha. Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it, and not throw your bike at people!

Saturday was awesome. We went to a baptism for someone who Sis. Malloy taught when she was at OSU. He's 22 and homeless, and has been hopping trains for the past few years by choice. He gave up drugs and all kinds of stuff to be baptized, and members are helping him save up for a mission now. He is SO cool!! After his testimony at the baptism, he was like, "Can I just like, crowd-surf through all of you??" Converts are so cool, haha. 

After the baptism, we were already out of our area, so for lunch we joined the other OSU sisters and a couple converts for "the Sloopy challenge." At this diner on campus, Sloopy's, they serve 3 chocolate chip pancakes the size of dinner plates, covered in peanut butter and chocolate. The challenge is to be able to finish all of them. I seriously doubted I would finish, but I was so hungry that I actually ate it in less than 12 minutes, and now I rank second place for the sisters in the mission. It was probably one of the most disgusting things I have ever done, and I'm not even that big of a pancake person!

Saturday evening was spent at Tony's house with him, Kali, and his parents, who he wanted us to meet. His parents are so awesome, and his dad made us an Italian pizza from scratch that was possibly the best pizza I've ever had. Tony is still set to be baptized on the 13th, and all of us are so excited. He's the best!!!! 

We have a new investigator named Michael who we had a great lesson with. After we first met him, it was three weeks before we saw him next, because there was always some hold-up, whether it was on our end or his. But he is awesome! He's from Sierra Leone, and committed to read the Book of Mormon and come to church this week. 

Oh, and our car is fixed, the place is just waiting for the insurance check to arrive before we can pick it up. Also, I am SO excited that August is over, I am SO pumped for fall. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Pictures: Tony and us at his house, Kali and I with lobsters (oh yeah, I also tried lobster for the first time, not bad!), Sis Malloy and I at the end of a long day, and the Sloopy's challenge.

More pics, including one of our zone yesterday for our fun day (and after the fun day, I got to play an hour of volleyball with some of the missionaries and members!! It was so awesome!)

  2 Attached Images

Eventful Happenings

Hey everyone!

After 4 months of being in Westerville, I'm finally seeing things happen in the past 2 weeks. After being a missionary for over 6 months, I also finally get to see someone be baptized that I taught. Tony, the investigator who is literally a blessing to us, is dead set on being baptized September 13. We had another lesson with him and he came to church with his girlfriend Kali (recent convert who's 22 and now one of my friends!!) yesterday. He felt like a million bucks, and knows that this is what he wants. While everyone is a child of God, it's humbling for me to see that we as missionaries are here to find the people that are PREPARED. Even though I get to be involved in teaching him from the beginning to the end, I feel like I haven't even done anything for this, because he's just so ready. 

We went back last Monday night to teach our "African group" but only found Nancy at home. But we had a great first lesson with her, and then came back on Wednesday with the same member, Sis. Huffman, to teach the Plan of Salvation as well. She started reading the Book of Mormon and finds it all very interesting. She's 28, pregnant, and is currently just staying at home but is bored out of her mind, and misses being in Africa (Liberia). Yesterday Sis. Huffman had us, Nancy, and a member from the other ward who is from Ghana over for dinner. We watched the Restoration with them and set up another teaching appointment. I can't tell you what a relief it is to actually teach progressing investigators, I feel like I'm doing real missionary work for once. And I love Nancy, she's awesome. 

We've done a lot of tracting this week though, it's been like our fall-back plan. We met a couple of interesting people who we're going to come back and talk to. When we're not tracting or teaching, I feel like I'm dying from the heat. Summer was mild until this past week or so, and now it's really hot and humid. Bugs also appeared out of nowhere, when walking around a neighborhood we were constantly smacking ourselves all over because we were literally being eaten alive. After riding our bikes to a less-actives house in the heat and then sitting down in air conditioning, my body shut down and I fell asleep instantly, no matter how hard I tried to stay awake. How embarassing, haha. It's supposed to be even hotter this week and drowning in sweat is really losing its appeal by this point in being on bikes. Those car repair guys are a bunch of liars!

Sister Malloy and I are chugging along, and I'm amazed at what a great missionary she is, she's very dedicated and wayyyyy more spiritual than I am! If I want to be a consecrated missionary, as our mission president stressed this week at zone conference, I have a long way to go, haha. 

Random story. We were visiting a less-active's home on Saturday, the Finks. The wife is a member, and the husband, Joe, was baptized a long time ago but there's no record of it. Since he didn't stay involved with the Church, he felt like he was free to read even more additional "scripture" (aka false writings), and read to us for HALF AN HOUR from this book of Enoch that was apparently "revealed" to some guy in 1971 (we literally couldn't get out of there). Then he told us how the silver clouds in the sky were ships, and the star of Bethlehem was a mother-ship.... weird. Then he read us the name of our Heavenly Mother from that book of Enoch, and we KNEW it was false doctrine because that name will never be revealed to us on earth. It just goes to show that when you don't go to church, you start mixing with the philosophies of men. Stick with the true prophets and canonized scriptures!!!

Also, here's pictures of my district going to the Hoover Dam reservoir that's in between Westerville and New Albany. Very green, but also looks pretty flat in this area. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen