Go Buckeyes!

Hey family, 

Ward conference sounded great, and I'm so proud of you for teaching the gospel to so many people! Members really do everything, let's be honest here!

We haven't gotten together with Ron and Suzan this week, Suzan got a new job, and has been having to take care of her mother who's having a ton of health problems (one thing I've learned again in Zanesville that I knew before was that HEALTH IS SO IMPORTANT! People are lazy with themselves and it causes serious physical and mental damage! I've seen this with soooo many people, this just isn't a health/fitness-oriented sort of area. And blessings of the Word of Wisdom are SO real). With Cayenne, we're finally going over this week, things have settled down at the Laulusa's home so we can come over and teach her. But apparently she's been reading her Book of Mormon before falling asleep because she's been unhappy and stressed recently! 

Monday night and Tuesday were goners because Sister King didn't feel well and may or may not have gotten food poisoning from old food in our kitchen. Wednesday though was better, and our district meeting was awesome. We named our district "Spice Weasels", and our district leader found a hiking stick while out on P-day, and carved it and such, then brought it to our meeting and named it "The Spicy Stick of Weaselhood." Missionaries are professional, but we are also really weird, haha. 

On Wednesday night we drove to Columbus to be at OSU for two whole days. I was with Sister Stoker, who's only been out for one more transfer than me (so she's technically not even done with her training! She really knew her stuff at OSU though). There's 5 sets of missionaries at OSU, three pairs of sisters and two pairs of elders. Sister King and I were split up into different apartments with different companions. I was in a fun apartment that usually consists of 4 sisters, but with all the exchanges going on, there was 6 of us, and then 7 the next night which was pretty fun. I got to see how other missionaries work and go about their day, and that was really beneficial. 

We went to a zone training in Powell for their zone that first morning, and it was really good!! It was all about door approaches and working with members. That afternoon, we went back to the institute building that's just a block away from campus, and then Sis. Stoker and I went out street contacting. For a few hours that day, we were just out on campus, stopping people like, "Sorry to bother you... can we give you a card really quick?" And then ask about their religious background and dive into our purpose for being there. It was SO MUCH FUN, I really enjoyed street contacting. We got 7 numbers in just 2 hours that day. And for that day, I could really feel the Spirit work through me. Sis. Stoker also told me that I had a crazy amount of confidence in walking up to people, more than she ever had as a campus missionary. I really haven't been fearful in approaching people for most of the time!

I also got to be in a lesson or two while being there, which was important because I've done practically no teaching in Zanesville. We taught this Hindu guy who asked some really good questions about repentance and forgiveness. 

Friday was the first day of spring, and it actually got up to 66 degrees!!! I didn't wear a coat!! We did more street contacting, but we were getting blown off by everybody. Late that afternoon, after we sat down for a bit to regroup, we decided to go another half hour and put in a ton of effort. We didn't get any numbers, but the people we came in contact with were very nice and talked to us quite a bit with enthusiasm! So that was a blessing. 

OSU is a huge campus, I attached a couple pictures of it. Also, there's Brutus the Buckeye and me as well, in the Union student building. It was fun being in a college atmosphere, but also super weird as a missionary. With the warm day on Friday, people were out everywhere, playing frisbee, going shirtless, and just doing whatever. I was definitely an outsider! Also, when we walked to Subway for dinner with a YSA member later, we were going through all these parties and bars where people were getting totally drunk. We really tried to be careful while walking past this one house across from the institute that was just out of control. I'm glad I go to BYU!

We're doing exchanges again tonight with Sister Burton and Sister Pollock, and we're not looking forward to it simply because we were gone half of last week and ultimately got nothing done in Zanesville! And we don't want to pack up again and go sleep on the floor after last week's transfers, haha. So I'll be in Newark tonight and tomorrow! It should be good though, I love our Sister Training Leaders. 

Well I'm about out of time, but enjoy the pictures! 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

OSU Training

Whitney would love to hear from you!  She checks email on Mondays at whitney.petersen@myldsmail.net, or you can write her at:

 

1201 Colony Dr. #42

Zanesville, OH 43701

 

Real mail is like gold while she is serving out in the countryside!

Hey everyone,

It's been an interesting week. It started off with a mission-wide conference call on Monday night, where everyone was chastised by the Nilsens (the Mission President). Our goal for the year was to get 600 baptisms, because the past two years we've gotten at least 500. And right now we're falling behind, and many people's numbers for everything else have been low too. I was definitely called to repentance for several things that night!

However, the first half of the week was super rough. We had an open schedule again and were trying to figure out how to fill it. We visited this less-active sister in the ward a few times who's pretty close to death. It was hard for me to go see her because it was in this care center where lots of people suffered, and it disturbs me on a very deep, personal level to see someone wasting away and dying. It was definitely an opportunity for me to get over myself.

Fortunately though, we actually caught some people at home that we've been trying to track down for forever! I saw a less-active family who are probably hoarders as well, a recent convert who's becoming less-active due to work and is on the run from her abusive ex-husband so she tends to grab her gun when people come over unannounced. She was also preparing to move out because of the drug dealers next door. On Saturday we saw this 57 year old guy that lived way out on this hill on 23 acres of land, with junked cars everywhere and a decaying house (he now just lives in a motor home outside). He had gone through two wives who both divorced him over the years, and we could tell he was just lonely. He really talked our ears off about everything and anything!

Personally, a lot of things turned around for me when we went to OSU on Friday for new missionary training. It's always fun to travel out of Zanesville and see new things! We had our training at the OSU Institute building, and it was awesome to see my friends from my MTC district (I attached a picture of us).  The new missionaries went through a few sessions together, and we did some street contacting on campus. However, it was spring break so me and one of the OSU sisters only got to talk to a few people. It was fun though and I learned a lot. On the way back from street contacting, we ran into President Nilsen and he talked to me about what he said to us earlier that morning, about changing our short-term memory to include the mission and let go of homesickness and everything we left behind of our old lives. It was something I needed to hear. Basically the Nilsens are awesome and it will be sad to see them go in July.

Another great thing about going to OSU that day was being in A CITY!!! We drove through some interesting areas, good and bad, but it actually felt so much more comforting to me to be in an area with more people! Sure, Zanesville has suburbs and some urban-ish areas, but then going out into the country just induces a feeling of loneliness... it's kind of weird, maybe that's just me. So I'm pretty psyched to go back this week, Sister King and I are doing exchanges with some of the OSU sisters for both Thursday and Friday, and I'm excited to be back in Columbus and work with new people.

People in the ward here have been joking with me about several things. First off, apparently I'm not much of a hugger, when it comes to hugging everyone. Women in the ward will be like, getting used to all this hugging?? Haha. Another thing is that people will say that I don't have that "missionary stomach" that can stretch like crazy to cram down more food. We were taken out to Denny's this week by a member family (I know how much you guys like Denny's haha), and I was painfully stuffed afterwards. Sister King was like, "don't even talk, I ate twice as much as you and I could eat more! But don't worry, you'll get the missionary stomach." Yeah no thanks, haha. And that one old guy in the ward keeps telling people that I can sing Gaelic (???).

The mission has the highs and the lows. Suzan didn't come to church yesterday, and she HAD to if she was going to stay on date. So she's off-date now, and after calling and texting her several times, she still hasn't gotten back to us. We don't know what came up, but we were pretty discouraged at church yesterday, not going to lie! I was about ready to chuck the hymnbook across the chapel when the closing hymn was "There is Sunshine in my Soul"! But don't worry, I'm positive and cheerful when I encounter other people, haha.

I tried to take a few more pictures this week. I included the one of my MTC district at training, a sunset on a highway outside of Zanesville (as you can see, lots of trees here!), and a few houses and streets to give you an idea of a couple areas here. The fancier looking ones are in the historic district, a lot of those places look pretty cool and that's where the brick roads are. Oh, and there's a picture of Sister Burton and I from last week... we like the same exact granola, both worked at a BYU creamery, and apparently like the same mints as well!

Love

 

Sister Petersen

Week 3 in Z-ville

Hey family, 

 

We haven't done any planned service yet, but I think we're supposed to do a couple hours a week, and then find unplanned opportunities. Not sure what's going on with that. On Tuesday, the only thing we did that day was go to our dinner appointment because Sister King still didn't feel well (!!) that day. The Edwards had the nicest house I've been in since coming out here.  We had some fun discussions with their family, and got into really deep doctrinal stuff, and theories about the Book of Mormon. When we got to the question of if there are 2 Hill Cumorahs or not, I thought that was just going too far, haha. 

You probably saw some pictures of me posted on the Great OCM page, from Zone Conference on Wednesday. It was really awesome! Even though we've been having to get up at 5:30 for these trainings, since we're the furthest out and have to allow travel time, I've been absolutely loving them. It's a really nice change to be with a lot of missionaries and just other people in general. When you're with one companion and there isn't a lot going on, it can be lonely sometimes. We received some awesome counsel from our mission leaders and President and Sister Nilsen. I was super pumped up again to go to work. Our zone conference consisted roughly of half of the mission, and it was a blast. 

We had exchanges starting that night with our Sister Training Leaders, Sister Pollock and Sister Burton (note to Evan Magnusson at BYU: I FOUND SISTER BURTON! We were instant best friends when we figured out we knew the same people). Because of zone conference and a meeting we had at the ward mission leader's home, we didn't actually do anything that night for exchanges specifically, but it was fun with the other sisters staying the night at our apartment. Also great fun to exercise with them the next morning.

On Thursday for exchanges, I went out with Sister Burton. This girl and I really hit it off, it was awesome spending time with her and I learned a lot from working with her. (The one picture I attached is of me and her, it's kind of far away, but hey you can see some of our apartment!) We went to an apartment complex with some potential investigators, but none of them were home, so I was like, let's knock on the doors of their neighbors! I noticed this guy leaving an apartment that had a woman and baby inside, and knew we should go there. We found this woman in her 20s named Shaylee, who said she was actually looking for a new church, and had recently started praying. Basically, it was no accident we arrived there. We planned to return that afternoon and teach her more. I called her later though, and she said she had been talking with her mom and they were just going to go back to their old church. We had warned her before leaving that Satan would work on her, and there it was! We plan to get back in contact with her this week and remind her of that. As soon as I met her, I had this huge desire to help her and I know the gospel could bless her immensely. So we'll see. 

That afternoon, all four of us went to see Mike Smith, who I told Sister King we HAD to go visit this week. He's been investigating the church and attending for almost 2 years now, and has progressed but there's no baptism date. I felt like Nacho Libre, wondering, "Why have you not been bap-TIZED?!" Since no one seemed to be encouraging him to actually commit, I felt like he needed to become a priority again. Sister Pollock was actually one of his favorite missionaries, so it was really powerful to have her there, and at the end of our visit, she was like, you know what you need to do, it's WHEN you do it, and left him with the commitment of finding the answer of when. We need to follow-up with him. 

The exchanges was a good experience, and in evaluations, I was told that I'm the kind of person that energizes others, and was really gung-ho and fearless about talking to people and going to knock doors. I do want to do more finding and tracting, but Sister King and I haven't. After pouring through our area book and teaching records, I've realized that for the most part, we really need new people and we're wasting a ton of time. Any ideas for finding people that aren't straight out of Preach My Gospel?

Sunday was Stake Conference, which was an hour away in New Albany. That was weird to have to drive so far. It was good though, and actually all the missionaries in the stake had to sing Redeemer of Israel. That was actually kind of fun, though I'm not the choir type, and towards the end of the program, the presiding 70 called us up to do it again, haha. 

Yesterday we visited Charlotte Lavendar, a less-active. She's this old black lady who I instantly loved, and she cracks me up!! In her opening prayer she was like, "Bless these little ladies that come to see me!" in her accent and I just loved it. We read the Book of Mormon with her and visited. Last night after our dinner appointment we visited a woman named Roberta in a nursing home. She reminds me so much of Betty, like an adopted grandmother!! She's wonderful and she looks forward to us coming. 

I'm almost out of time, so I'll end here.

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Week 2 ......Let's Get This Going!

Hey everyone, 

It's been a rather up-and-down week here. It started off great, with an awesome P-day. Then on Wednesday I believe (I forgot my journal, so I'm trying to remember everything), we met with Ron and Suzan, two investigators who are just GOLDEN. Suzan reads the Gospel Principles book in her spare time, and wants to get sealed in the temple really badly. Her and Ron were actually tracted into, which is amazing. Ron got run over by a tractor two years ago, and has gone through a ton of replacement surgeries, and just got out of hip replacement last week. Since they were finally home and settled in, we could meet with them and taught the Plan of Salvation (they loved it). I just absolutely LOVED these people, they're incredible. Suzan is dead-set on quitting smoking, because she knows that's what she'll have to do to be baptized, and her and Ron are making major lifestyle changes so they can be around for their grandkids. 

To answer some of your questions, there are two wards in Zanesville, we're in the 2nd ward. We actually share it with a set of elders, so it's impressive that we'll all get fed by different members each night. Sister King has been out for 10 months.

Last Thursday was Sisters Specialized Training, with the 94 sisters who are now in the mission. It was AWESOME. We all met together for a while, then went through various break-out groups. Sis. King and I carpooled with the sisters in Zanesville 1st ward (I love them, and one of them was actually in my MTC district), and we had to get up earlier that morning and skip exercise because we're an hour away from Powell. The training was very uplifting and just what I needed. It was also great to see other people I knew. We got back in Z-ville a little after 4, and the lady we were supposed to meet with again (who wasn't there last weekend) was nowhere to be found again, so we crossed her off our list of investigators. Our appt. with Ron and Suzan fell through, it had been a busy day for them so we just postponed it a little, and then dinner appt. fell through too. So that was a bummer. 

What next happened is that Sis. King came down sick, and we spent two full days stuck in our apartment. It drove me crazy. I did a ton of reading, watched most of the videos in our apartment on our portable DVD player, and decided I couldn't take another nap. There's just not much to do as a missionary when you have free time! On Friday, we did go to breakfast at the Check's, a family in our ward with young kids. After leaving that fiasco, I was like, no way in heck am I having kids! (The same thought came to mind after eating dinner at the bishop's house last night, who has 8 kids, haha) Otherwise though, we were home all day and didn't see anyone. 

Thankfully, we got to go to church yesterday, which could have almost been canceled due to the amount of snow we got. What's different about church buildings here is that there's areas to hang up coats and take off boots! I've never been in a church building like that before, even at BYU because we met on campus! (Everyone here laughs at my California-ness, but at the same time, everyone is so excited to have a missionary that's NOT from Utah!! Apparently there's a little tension sometimes between Ohio-natives and the Utah implants in the ward!)

Random tid-bits for the week: as the AP's told us right after landing in Columbus, people here are sick obsessed with OSU. Very true. There's OSU stuff all over the place. I'm also getting to know the members here a lot more, and I really like them. When we pulled up to the ward mission leader's home for a meeting on Wednesday, his grown son who lives nearby was firing off a gun! Their family also owns a cow, a horse (maybe more livestock though), and chickens. When we ate dinner there, there was a carton of raw milk on the table. Sis. King and I were also given a carton of fresh farm eggs from a different family last Sunday. I have never had fresh eggs before, we'll see how I like them. When we drove to Powell for training, we passed the Longaberger building, which is a company that apparently makes baskets. So I got to see the world's largest basket (woohoo!). That's the only picture I took this week, so I attached it to the email. 

The ward was good yesterday, good testimony meeting. I got up and introduced myself briefly when there was a break. We were supposed to teach Gospel Principles, but combined with Gospel Doctrine since only 3 people showed up (church attendance was smaller with the snow yesterday). Roads can be bad here, since there isn't a lot of snow-plowing going on right away, and a lot of people live in places with steep hills and skinny roads. Why people constructed the town like that, I have no idea. When ice and snow is a factor, it's kind of a death trap. 

Also, thank you THANK YOU to those who sent me mail this week. I really appreciated it.

Earlier in the week I couldn't stop being cold, but I think I'm now getting over it a little! So hooray for not being freezing! With the snow outside and temperatures in the 20s, it feels great today! I'm actually just wearing my peacoat today instead of my huge down coat that I wore most of last week.  So that's good. 

I'm anxious to lose myself in this work and really set goals and plans that we can make HAPPEN!!! Wish me luck! 

Sister Petersen