"Well, YOU can take me to church...."

The first paragraph is Whitney's reaction to finding out her brother just got called to serve in the Argentina Bahia Blanca mission - priceless!

Dear family, 

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY GOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Taylor's going to Argentina!!! Can't even describe how I feel right now. That's so awesome. What a stud. Life sounds incredible and awesome and amazing back home, that's for sure!! You're all doing some good stuff! And Taylor, your mission is going to have huge impact on people, and it seems like it already is!! You've made a good choice. 

Couple of business items: here's my new address: 

4302 Executive Pkwy., Suite 223

Westerville, OH 43081

(since I transferred to Westerville, I haven't gotten any mail, and the elders in Zanesville checked my mail over there and I had nothing there as well. It's slightly depressing.... ) :)

ALSO: I get to Skype next weekend! I'll be at our ward mission leader's house for dinner at 5 pm on Sunday, which is 2 o'clock Pacific Time.

So, this week. It was a little rough- no one let us in, and despite all our efforts, no new investigators and no people at church. Everything was working against us this week. Half our lessons got canceled and working with the members here is difficult. We're trying to figure out how to mobilize them so they can go out with us, because we're getting tired of calling everyone in the ward directory for help, haha. Not sure what the deal is... any ideas? 

HOWEVER, Westerville is still cool. On Saturday night, we got to talk to an OSU student on the doorstep and had a great theological discussion. We also attended the baptism of someone that the elders in our ward taught, and I was the pianist for that. I was reminded of what my work is here- to bring souls to Christ and baptize. Also, there's a LOT of people here that are straight out of Africa, especially in our Columbus area. There was a family from Sierra Leone we were going to start teaching again, but they flaked out on us last second. I've also talked with people from Ghana and Liberia. 

Awkward story for the week: So we had a lesson set up with this 18 year old kid named Troy, but when we showed up, he wasn't home. However, these three older guys who knew his family were sitting in the garage smoking, and we started talking to them about what we do. Two of them got into a conversation with Sis. Balridge and I, and it wasn't long before the one guy talking to me stopped me and said how pretty I was for a redhead. I just went back into, "So Christ established his church on the earth..." but then he kept saying how cute I was, doing the work and whatever. Awkward. Meanwhile, I thought Sis. Baldridge was in the process of picking up the other guy as a new investigator, so I was enduring until her conversation was wrapping up. But then I heard how she kept saying, "No, as a missionary, I CAN'T DATE!" I also heard the guy say to her, "Well, YOU can take me to church," after she told him she would send missionaries in the area he lived to him. Eventually, as we tried to get out of there, one of them asked us, "So when are you going to become nuns??" and Sis. Balridge threw up her hands and yelled out, "WE ARE NUNS!!!!" We had a lot of laughs after that experience. 

Earlier this week, there was this CRAZY thunder/lighting storm. We actually headed in a little earlier than usual because it was wild, and there were a tornado warning and flash flood warning. It's been raining every day the past week, and I've had to continue wearing a coat as well, and tights... it's MAY, what the heck Ohio?! This place sure is interesting and quite opposite of California. 

Sooo sorry, but I forgot to take pictures this week and didn't bring my camera out with me! I promise I'll include some next time, because it's beautiful here!

Love, 

Sister Petersen