Week 1 in Ohio

Hello!

HERE'S MY NEW ADDRESS: 

1201 Colony Dr. #42

Zanesville, OH 43701

(you can also send things to the mission home, letters from there will be forwarded to my current address)

So on Wednesday, we got up at 2:30 am to get to the travel office on time. A bunch of missionaries were loaded onto a huge bus, and then we were off to the Salt Lake airport. We were soooo tired, I honestly got 2 hours of sleep the night before. The first picture I attached is of Sister Mathis and I holding our boarding passes in the airport. Last day as companions :(

Our first flight was to Atlanta, which was fun. As we got off the plane, we could feel the sticky humidity of the South, and as we had descended, we could see a lot of mud, and a lot of trees that looked very different than what I was ever used to seeing. I also got to hear some Southern accents in the airport, while we waited to board, this one lady was like, "Where y'all going? Y'all look so nice!" 

The first flight was kind of long, but luckily I could sleep through half of it. The second flight was only an hour and a half, but though I tried to sleep, it just wasn't happening. When we landed in Columbus, we pulled ourselves together and went down to baggage claim, where we met President and Sister Nilsen there! They're awesome, I really like them! 

We drove past Columbus, and into Powell, where the mission home is. The APs who drove me and the other 7 sisters in our travel group, told us that Powell is in the top 10 cities in America with the highest average income per household- it's nice. The 15 new missionaries ate dinner at the mission home with the Nilsens, and then we were lectured for a while about certain rules/regulations/expectations/motivations, etc. We were falling asleep, and Sister Nilsen made us stand up a lot to wake up! We also had brief interviews, and then we could go to bed. The sisters stayed there, in the basement which had 3 or 4 bunkbeds and 5 regular beds, with more in another room. I had the best night of sleep that I've had in a while, because those MTC beds and pillows just weren't doing it for me! 

After breakfast the next morning, we piled in the vans and went to a church building that's right next to the Columbus Temple. That is the TINIEST temple I've ever seen! So cute though! In the church, us new missionaries went through orientation stuff on safety, finances, and health. We then were introduced to our trainers. My trainer/new companion is Sister King from Highland, UT. She's done 2 years at BYU and is studying history. We're getting along, and things are getting better, but at the beginning I felt like I had to be the one to really break the ice, because she doesn't talk quite as much when it's just the two of us. Things didn't click as instantly as it did with Sister Mathis and I. However, we're getting to know each other better, and like I said, we both get along fine. We have different interests and personalities, but we're both very neat and organized, so that's good enough! :D

We then sat through a big transfer meeting and saw a lot of other missionaries get transferred. We all get cars here, except for several pairs of elders who are not so lucky! What was really cool is that three Amish convert couples attended, and three individuals were called up to bear their testimony. It's really incredible, because they sacrificed a lot to become LDS, and many even get shunned from their communities. They also still were wearing the Amish garb and hairstyles with beards, apparently they like to still keep their culture. 

A member had given Sister King and her former companion a ride, so she took Sis. King and I to lunch, and then drove us out to our apartment in my first area. The day before, one of the AP's said, "Some of you will be in nice areas, and some of you... in not-so-nice areas." Well, I'm in a not-so-nice area. It's not super bad or poverty-ridden, but it's definitely not what I'm used to. It's the random town of Zanesville, which is the very far eastern part of the mission, almost an hour away from Columbus. Some areas are suburban, and then some parts go out into the boonies. It's hilly though, not flat. Also, it's very forest-y, lots of trees, and I expect that it will be a lot nicer looking in the late spring and summer. The architecture and homes here are very different than what I'm used to, very Northeastern styles. A lot of them looking like they're literally crumbling, most houses and buildings look really old and could use a fresh coat of paint. I haven't really taken pictures yet, but I will have to send some next week so you can have a better idea of what my area looks like, I think you'd find it really interesting. In one area, there's even cobblestone and brick streets, by these larger houses that look like they could be haunted. It's kind of cool. We've been told by various people to avoid the south side by Pine Street, because apparently there are heroin addicts and drug lords down there. Don't worry, we're safe! 

It's just Sister King and I in an apartment, on the north edge of town. It's not too tiny, and we have an upstairs loft with a piano in it! So it's kind of fun! The ward here is more spread out, and while the Great OCM is the most successful mission in Northeastern America, I'm not sure if that says anything for our area. It seems like the work is kind of slow here. The past several days I've been here has consisted of driving around, trying to visit part member families and less actives, but NO ONE IS EVER HOME. Or they don't answer the door. Our records really need to be updated, and since Sister King has only been here one transfer before me (six weeks), we're trying to get our footing. We were supposed to go teach someone who's trying to stop smoking, but she wasn't home and we couldn't get ahold of her, so that was canceled. Other plans were canceled too, or rather, they just didn't happen. Last night, we actually came home over an hour early just because there was nowhere to go, and after going to tons of houses, we didn't get to actually see anyone. We need more people to teach. 

Our normal days generally look like this: 6:30 exercise (there's jump ropes, weights, and other equipment left behind in the upstairs loft I've been using!), 7-8: shower/get ready/breakfast, 8-9: Personal Study, 9-10: Companionship study (we read aloud from the missionary handbook, Preach My Gospel, and the Book of Mormon), and half the time we do training together from 10-11 (I just do my training material stuff for the first 12 weeks of my mission). So I could be doing studies up to 3 hours in the morning. At that point, we'll just have lunch at about 11:30, and then go to see people (or drive around aimlessly just trying to find someone....). Every evening, somewhere from 5-6:30pm, we get fed by one of the members for dinner. The members really care about us here! It's been interesting to go into so many homes and see how people live. One family, the Gills, well the mother is from the Big Island, and actually remembers knowing Grandma and Grandpa Petersen when they served their mission in Hilo!!! Small world!

Church went quickly yesterday. We had a ward mission meeting, then the block meetings. I saw some guy wearing a kilt- guess he's straight from Scotland. One old guy in the ward asked me if I could sing Gaelic since I look Scottish- I told him that no, sadly I can't! The ward consists of some younger families, and then a lot of older couples with kids who moved out. Relief Society mainly consisted of women over 55 years old!

There's wildlife here for sure. We almost ran into two beavers crossing the road, and there's deer everywhere, just walking along the homes. 

Spiritual story of the week. We visited this member family, the Laulusas, who have a daughter that's Hayley's age, and got attacked by an auto-immune disease a year and a half ago. She lives almost like a vegetable, except she's alive and it's not a machine keeping her vitals up. The mother introduced the girl's nurse to the Book of Mormon, and she's made it into 2 Nephi. So after visiting for a long time in the daughter's room, we briefly discussed that. But then the mother liked to talk a lot and we'd get off track, and we got distracted by Emma (the daughter). It was heartbreaking to see though, because you could tell Sister Laulusa was really worn down. Then Emma's tutor arrived to work visually with her and keep her brain learning, so it got a little busy. Sister King didn't seem to be doing much at this point, and while we originally planned to teach Cayenne, the nurse, that day, it didn't seem like it would happen. I had the impression that Cayenne wanted to talk more about what she learned in the Book of Mormon, but was afraid or shy to bring it up. So I turned to her and asked how she felt about it, etc. She said that she felt lighter and happier after she read it, when her family usually considered her to be a grump. I explained that was probably the Spirit or Holy Ghost giving her those feelings, and asked if she wanted us to teach her so she could learn more. She said yes. That was a really cool moment. She came to church with the Laulusas to help with Emma, and we hope to start teaching her really soon. 

Now for a random story of the week: when we were visiting part member families and less actives, we came upon a house where the mother was sleeping before a late shift of work, so we asked the husband when we could come back. Right as we were about to leave, the husband falls out through the door and onto his face on the porch. I almost thought he had a seizure, heart attack, even died- but then a second later he breathed, and couple seconds later he woke up and got back up, saying he just got really lightheaded and passed out. We told him he should go lay down and get some water, and then left. It was a very freaky/horrifying/very awkward moment. 

Something else random: one of the member's homes we dropped by at does a lot of hunting, and there's a deer head mounted on the wall. The wife told us, "Yeah if you eat here, you'll probably be eating venison!!" I've seen a lot of people in camo too, haha. Oh, and the dinner we had yesterday at the Morgan's house was really good, kind of like what we would eat at our house for Sunday dinner, so that was awesome. 

Today's P-day (obviously). We went to Newark to have a "zone fun day," and played volleyball, dodgeball, and soccer together. Then some of us went to Taco Bell for a "taco party." Fun stuff. I like the missionaries here a lot, but it will take me a little longer to adjust to the area. I'm not stressed though at all, more like underwhelmed because it seems like we haven't done much yet! Anyways, I need to get off e-mail, so talk to you later! 

Oh, and I'm cold a lot- I've definitely been using that electric blanket! It's in the 20s today, but feels colder!

Sister Petersen

 

Sister Petersen & Sister Mathis at the Airport;  Sister Petersen in front of the Zanesville Water Tower outside her apartment

Leaving the MTC for Ohio!

Hey everyone, 

I leave TOMORROW for Ohio and I'm thrilled. We have to report to the travel office at 3:30 am and I don't know if we'll really sleep tonight.. Since tomorrow would be our P-day but we're in transit, we're using our time to prepare for departure for doing laundry and e-mailing. To be honest, I have LOVED the MTC!!! I really can't say anything negative about it, which surprised me. We have done a LOT of role-playing though, which most of the time drove us crazy. It is good practice for teaching though, even though we absolutely dread it. 

 Sorry to hear it's so warm there though.... I should be flying into lovely 45-ish degree weather tomorrow at 4:30pm.  I also got a package from Sister Petersen (the OTHER Sis. Petersen) and Sister Shoemaker today. That was awesome. And thank you to the Waldens for sending me some yummy treats too! :)


So Elder Holland came for Sunday Devotional!!! Actually, it was his son that spoke, who's the UVU president, but Elder Holland introduced his son as the speaker. He speaks here in 2 months, so life just isn't fair all the time. Still, it was pretty legit. My district sang in the MTC choir that night, and "Praise to the Man" was the finishing song. I actually got my face up on the big screen in the auditorium/gym (the devotionals are all recorded/taped) a couple of times, which was awesome! There were a few sisters later that night and the next morning who said to me, "I saw you on the big screen last night!!! And I love your shirt!" Haha. So basically, I was famous in the MTC for like 10 seconds. 

We had our last classes today and taught our last MTC lesson. Our "investigator" Jordanna is getting baptized! And we brought another "investigator" to baptism as well! When we had such success with Jordanna, I felt SO happy, so I can't wait to help REAL people now! Earlier this week I was a little nervous to go out into the field, but now I feel great about it, it's DEFINITELY time to get the heck out of this place! Our teachers here are really amazing though, and are so spiritually inspired in how they help us! In the first picture I attached, it's of the girls in my district with two of our teachers, Sister Westover and Sister Knudsen. All six of us did polka dot day :)

Last Thursday, we did "in-field orientation" which was an all-day ordeal for people departing the next week. We all met together, then did lots of breakout sessions. Most of the things I learned were already things I knew, except for how to fill out the missionary planner and doing the numbers. But guess who showed up and was my teacher for the last breakout session? Elder/J Tyler Christensen from "The District" videos!! The blonde guy who served in San Diego! He was pretty cool, and because The District is our training videos, he's kind of a celebrity around here. 

I got all the packages you sent me, so thank you!  With Valentine's Day, a lot of us got packages, and so we had a ton of food on our hands. Sister Hendrickson in my district gets packages everyday because she's from Provo, but the bulk of it is food! She even had Krispy Kremes delivered to the front desk the other day! She was like, 'Stop sending me food!!!!!" Haha.

Since P-Day last week, it got a lot harder to focus on things. My district would be full of energy one day, completely wiped out the next, and then just not able to focus during the next class. Bless our teachers for putting up with us. I really can't comprehend how people stay here for 9 or 12 weeks. That just sounds awful, to be honest. The past couple days I also started seeing the age and maturity gap emerge between me (and the sisters in the other district in our zone who are 20-23), and the 18 year old elders. Oh my gosh. That must have been pretty strong revelation for the prophet and apostles to feel that sending out 18 year old boys would be a good idea.

My district has gotten pretty close though, and we joke that we're going to have trainers in the mission field who whip us into shape. But then everyone's like, "except for Sister Petersen, she's always on top of everything already!" I do what I can :)

I'm tired a lot here, but it's good. I just often fall asleep during class and study time! Some of the elders told me it makes their day when they see me passed out at my desk. But don't worry, I don't sleep TOO much during the day (but we took a power nap on Sunday afternoon and loved it), and I've been getting better with that. I'm also totally healthy. I've seen blessings pour on down since I arrived here. 

Here's some pictures:

Week 1 in the MTC

Warning from Mom Petersen:  Letter is a little long (even after I trimmed it some), but we asked Whitney to give us her full impression of the MTC with all the details so that she could pass this information on to Taylor.  We are posting this to her blog and linking to facebook as well (as soon as I get it figured out), so read when you have the time!  You can send her an email at whitney.petersen@myldsmail.net.  Regular mission home address at bottom of letter.

Hey family! (and everyone else who sees this e-mail)

I FINALLY MADE IT TO P-DAY!!! It's been the longest week of my life. BUT, I love it here. Not enough that I want to stay longer than two weeks, but my time here has been great. Sorry Mom, but after you said goodbye to me, I just had to turn around and not look back at all. Instantly, once I went into campus, I had a big grin on my face and it was an incredible feeling when my name badge was put on. On your first day here, you have an orange dot on your nametag so everyone knows you're new... who knows how many people yelled out to me, "WELCOME TO THE MTC!!" After dinner, I was like, this is DEFINITELY coming off RIGHT NOW, haha. 

I was led by a sister going to Rome, Italy to my residence hall where I dropped everything and then went to my classroom. My district/class consists of 8 people, 4 sister and 4 elders, and we are all going to Columbus. My companion is Sister Mathis from Reno, Nevada, who is a sophomore at BYU-Idaho. By the way Taylor, she really loves it and other people here talk about BYU-I a lot too. What's crazy is that we're both redheads, and it blows people away when they see us walking around together. What's REALLY weird is that we both have two siblings, a brother and sister, both named Taylor and Hayley!! When I found that out, I was like, who are you?!?!?! 

I share a room with the three other sisters in my district, Sister Mathis, Sister Hendrickson, and Sister Mecham. We've all gotten along really well and we just travel as a pack of four all day, every day. It's fun.

Our teachers here are AMAZING. We spend around 9 hours a day in the same small classroom, either studying, receiving class instruction, teaching, or doing role-play... oh my gosh so much role play. I've also never spent so much time in my life just reading the scriptures. But what we learn is really powerful, and we try to break things up and keep it interesting, especially since half of us start losing focus and falling asleep. I was out for part of the lesson yesterday, and jolted awake when Sister Mathis dropped her pen on the floor!

On our first full day here, I had set the alarm for me and the three sisters I share a room with. Apparently, it was set to California time, so we woke up an hour late, but didn't realize it until we went to breakfast and the place was almost empty! So we missed an hour of study time, and the beginning of a workshop, but in the end it was okay because we really didn't miss that much. It was pretty funny though for a first-day-at-the-MTC story. 

The food here isn't too bad, pretty good for the most part actually (same as BYU food), but I haven't gone all crazy and have stuck to the healthier meals. Even still, after some meals we don't feel too great... not sure what those cafeteria people are doing back there! I haven't seen Megan there yet, but I think she worked a lunch shift today, which is unfortunate because it's our P-day and you can't go into the cafeteria if you're not in missionary clothes, so we grabbed a sack lunch instead on the other side of the building. She'll have to find me on Saturday or during another time. 

Sister Mathis and I are teaching two "investigators" here, Jordanna and Jamie. We're doing well with Jordanna and are leading here to baptism. Our teacher, who plays Jordanna, said we were powerful teachers. If you really try to invite the Spirit into a lesson, it will come and the investigators will respond to it. With Jamie, it was someone else that we taught in the TRC (Teaching Resource Center) and her family was half-atheist, so for the first lesson, Sister Mathis and I were all over the place while she asked us super hard questions. That day I finally got a little stressed out here. We researched the questions though and talked with our teachers that night to know what to do the next day when we taught again, and it went soooo much better the second time. 

On the second day we were here, Sister Mathis and I got called to be Sister Training Leaders, so tonight after a new district comes in, we have to go teach them some stuff regarding the MTC. Last night, we had a sister arrive from New Zealand (and she's going to CA, San Fernando!), Sister Smalley, so we picked her up and brought her with us to dinner, MTC choir, and devotional. There's people here from all over the world, it's pretty cool. 

Our branch presidency met with us the second night we were here, and we all explained why we were on a mission. It was a powerful and spiritual experience for all of us to bear testimony of that, and I know I'm supposed to be here. I won't lie though, the first night I laid in bed and thought, "is this my life now??!!? This mission is going to last forever!!" But that feeling has gone away, and I've only been stressed or discouraged for a few moments since I've been here, not very much. I'm also SO grateful to be going English-speaking, because I'm only here for two weeks and the learning/training process is so much easier. Everyone that's here for an eternity learning a language is super jealous of us. 

I fly to Ohio a week from today, and first we fly into Atlanta. We report to the travel office at 3:30 in the morning.... and then arrive in Ohio at 4:30 eastern time. Long day. We saw some sisters today who were going to fly into Atlanta today as well, but they had their flight canceled because of more ice storms there! They said that the storms were supposed to clear up this weekend though, so hopefully we won't face any set-backs. 

There's a rumor that Elder Holland may be here for Sunday devotional, I hope and pray it's true because that would make my MTC experience!! The other devotionals here have been pretty good, and the last Sunday one was by a managing director for the missionary department so that was cool. The Spirit is just so strong here all the time, they say it's like being in the temple, except you can raise your voices more and let's be honest, this place is a lot uglier than the temple, haha. 

To everyone reading this e-mail, I would LOVE to hear from you! And seriously, I will do whatever I can to write you back! 

Sister Whitney Petersen 

OHIO COLUMBUS MISSION

19 Clairedan Drive

Powell, OH 43065-8064