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
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