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