"Hilliard: Real People, Real Possibilities"

Oh hey.

So the big news of the week is that Sister McCarty and I got doubled-out, meaning that we were BOTH transferred out of Lewis Center. I was slightly surprised that I was leaving, but in the few days leading up to it, I knew I needed to go. However, we were disappointed that we wouldn't be in comfortable Lewis Center for Christmas, and that we would miss Laura coming to church on Sunday. We had never had ANYONE at church, until 3 days after we left. But we heard that Laura came with her 9 year old son, Jonathan, and we're hoping they get baptized at some point!

In the final days of Lewis Center, I had two flat tires, two days in a row. A member had patched up my tube the first time it happened, and gave it back to us the next morning. When we were out later that day, we had been out 15 minutes and my tire was flat again. Our ward mission leader and his wife picked us up since he has a truck, and we figured out that there was still the TINIEST splinter in my tire that had re-punctured the tube. The day had a better ending, as we made buckeyes with a less-active family and had a good lesson with Laura (which ended up being the last). 

I've been out for 10 months and I'm already in my fourth area. I was sent to Hilliard, another suburb of Columbus, on the west side. It looks like a mix of Westerville and the lower part of Lewis Center. I was kind of praying that I would be sent to the ghetto after serving in Lewis Center, but it was not meant to be (yet!). It's another car-sharing area and we get on bikes starting tomorrow. We currently have no investigators, which is not new to me, but there have been several baptisms here in the past several months, so there's hope. This ward is full of OSU medical and dental students and their young families, but also older people too (we actually have people to visit and give service to!!!!). My new companion is Sister King, who is the cousin of my trainer, the first Sister King. She's been out only a transfer longer than me, and is from Arizona/Utah. How crazy that I get two Sister Kings as companions....

The past week has been quite a whirlwind. I arrived in Hilliard sick (again) and exhausted, and it just felt like the weirdest transfer of my mission. What was incredible though is when we took a recent convert, Jo Ann (this super sweet old black lady, wonderful!) to the temple for her to do baptisms for the dead, guess who I saw? Steven! The Westerville sisters brought him to do baptisms for the first time as well! It was the coolest experience! After he did baptisms, he was just beaming and the Spirit just radiated from him! It's good to know that he and Tony are being stellar new members. 

Yesterday we had an all-day meeting with Elder Perkins from the 70, which is why P-day was switched to today. It was very inspiring and was everything I needed to hear. Of course it was also great to see half of the mission as well. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Pictures: All of our stuff lined up and ready to be transferred! Moving the bike was a pain, especially because our Hilliard member who took us home brought her kids and a recent convert, and no bike rack, so we really had to get creative. Also, I originally left behind the Christmas tree you sent me, BUT, the new Lewis Center sisters brought it to me at the big meeting yesterday, hooray!