More Snow

Hey everyone, 

It's been another cold week! But with the 8 inches of snow that came on Saturday, it warmed up to 30 degrees and it felt balmy! So nice and pleasant, haha. What a contrast to the beginning of the week when we were trudging through snow in 9 degree weather at 8 o'clock at night! But don't worry, I haven't gotten frostbite yet.

We taught Chase again this week, and he's feeling good about being baptized. Unfortunately he didn't make it to church this week because he got the flu. Everyone and their dog is sick in Ohio- Sister King was consistently sick as well the second half of the week. Saved us from being in the deathly cold temperatures though for a while! 

We had another musical missionary fireside last night, which was good. I didn't participate in the choir this time, but enjoyed it a lot. Tony showed up to this one too, and it's always to great hearing how the Westerville ward and its recent converts are doing. 

This week we were invited to come see Bethany, a former investigator who is really complicated and I honestly can't figure her out. She's known for giving a lot of missionaries anti-Mormon stuff in the past, and studies religion and the Bible intensely. She was nice when we came and visited her, seemed like she just wanted company. But she handed us each a copy of Spencer W. Kimball's "Miracle of Forgiveness", apparently she keeps extra copies on hand.... she also gave us an in-depth biography of Emma Smith. Being the Women's Studies scholar I am, I couldn't resist digging through it! But don't worry, I have thoroughly checked the sources and it's actually a very legit account, not anti at all! I'll be bringing that book home with me for sure.

Well that's it for this week! 

Love, 

Sister Petersen 

Snowstorms

Hey everyone,

This week was a little ridiculous. We actually had some teaching appointments set up, and EVERYTHING fell through last minute. Our service project for some members canceled last minute too. Even our dinner appointments canceled! The only thing that didn't cancel was our Friday night dinner- I don't even know anymore, haha!

But it was also a good week too, in a weird way. Last Monday night, we contacted a former investigator we hadn't met before, Andrea. She invited us in, and after talking to us for a while about how she'd gone to our church before and read most of the Book of Mormon, she said she wanted to be taught again, from the beginning. And asked if her sons and husband could join in too. And go to church. I was like, "wait.... what" and kind of just stared at her while Sister King set up the appointment for two nights later. That's never happened on my mission before! Unfortunately, we showed up on Wednesday and a note on the door said that last minute plans came up and she had to reschedule. We're currently trying to contact her to do so, should be able to see her again this week.

Zone conference this week was pretty good. We were forced to "break the mold" and completely relearn how to contact and talk to people. My main door approach from the past year has now been thrown out, that was hard! But it's good. We emphasized accountability and made goals of things to accomplish the next day, then on Friday had a follow-up meeting where everyone in the zone stood up and reported what they did. We were able to tract like crazy in a brief amount of time on Thursday and talk to 10 people at the door- lucky considering it was so cold that no one wanted to talk to us!

Speaking of cold, it has been COLD. SO COLD. It is currently 8 degrees outside, and snowing. On Saturday, we got this freaky snowstorm with all this wind- I recorded it on my camera, but unfortunately LDS Mail won't let me attach videos. But we were "blessed": Sister King felt sick all weekend so we weren't out when the storm hit. Especially since we were on foot that day, we walked in the morning, then came in right before the insanity. Just walking to the grocery store this morning, it felt like my face was going to freeze off within 5 minutes. 

Yesterday, some members showed us this thing that aired on ABC Nightline (maybe it's called something else, some sort of nightly news show), on January 27, that's about sister missionaries! I highly recommend looking it up, it was actually done pretty accurately. The member was like, "well of course those missionaries are happy, they're serving in Florida!!!" (while it was single digit temps in Columbus, haha!). 

Anyways, should be a good week (fingers crossed!). Talk to you later!\

Love, 

Sister Petersen

I Made it a Year!

Hey everyone, 

I have officially made it a year through on my mission. How weird. And that morning after we left the apartment, I realized I forgot to put on my name tag. Classic. And thanks Mom for the package, I liked your party sign, it made me laugh. 

Chase, the 9 year old boy we're teaching, was at church again and apparently loves going to Primary. We taught him the Plan of Salvation, which was pretty rocky because I've barely taught that on my mission and it can be a hefty lesson if you're not careful. But he's been really receptive and we think he'll end up getting baptized, maybe next month. 

Until the weekend, this place was a frozen wasteland. I finally slipped and fell on ice, banging up the right side of my body. But then it was 50 degrees yesterday and it all melted... then today is 25, and after a brief warm-up on Wednesday it will be at 14 degrees on Thursday. This is literally the most up-down weather I've ever experienced. I also was told at church yesterday that Columbus OH has over 80% cloud cover during the winter. I've been taking double-doses of Vitamin D, to say the least.

 

This week we have zone conference and a few other things, so my next letter will probably be more eventful. Have a great week!\

Love, 

Sister Petersen

We had someone at church!

Hey,

The biggest news of the week is that we have a real, live, investigator! It's Chase, a 9 year old boy who is the son of less-active parents. His mom heard from a member of having their kid take the missionary discussions to decide whether they really want to be baptized or not, and she liked the idea. It's been put off for a while because of the holidays and other stuff going on, but we finally went over and taught the first lesson this week and it went really well. And then Chase and his mom came to church yesterday for all 3 hours. I haven't had an investigator at church since September, so it was like, wait I can't sleep through church anymore? (kidding!!!) But it would be pretty cool if we reactivated the family in the process. 

In other news, I went on exchanges this week to Riverside, which goes into downtown Columbus. It was just nice to be busy and learn from a different missionary, I had a blast with Sister Ure. In the morning we went running in the snow and ice- I was dying because I had the stomach flu the week before and it's been a while since I've gone on a long run! And running in snow is like running in sand, definitely more difficult. But it felt great. 

We've been in a nasty cycle of snow/freezing rain/snow flurries/more rain that later freezes over. It was an adventure just walking to the grocery store this morning! And today there is a windchill that's supposed to feel like zero degrees. Oh man. Only one more day left before we get the car back, haha. 

Have a great week!

Love, 

Sister Petersen