Not a bad week!

Hi,

It's a been a pretty decent week. We kept busy with various things, including doing service for some members by filling up and tying over 300 balloons for a party they were having (but thankfully, they had an air compressor to blow them up!). We also met some new people. On Saturday we met Robert, who is 45 and dying from liver problems due to alcoholism. We sat in his mother's old home in the REALLY run-down neighborhood of our area as he cried and cried to us. His life story is pretty sad. Moral of the story, don't drink or do drugs. We talked a lot about the Atonement and invited him to church- and miraculously he came! 

However, we weren't actually at church when Robert was there- we had planned on taking a returning less-active member to the singles branch. That was fun, I miss being in a singles ward, though some singles wards/branches can be pretty weird! 

Something that I've been learning the past few months is that we really can't do it all on our own. I can't do the area on my own, can't work through my weaknesses on my own, and can't finish my mission on my own. In a lot of what I studied this week, I kept receiving the message that we all need to trust more in our Heavenly Father and let go of what we can't control and give our burdens to Him and our Savior Jesus Christ. They love us so much and that love is always there, whether we feel that we deserve it or not. Yes, we need to develop self-reliance, but being self-reliant also means that we need to learn how to work with others and trust in God. 

I am feeling blessed though.... because some members just gave us a treadmill for our apartment this week! Woohoo!

Love, 

Sister Petersen

PS: We had a zone activity today, here's a picture of us. I'm back with Sister McCarty, I've missed her!

Spring is here!

Hey, 

It's 62 degrees outside- it may as well be summer! :) It's been really nice outside this week, I haven't even had to wear a coat the past several days! Which is good because we were on foot this week. 

We had a couple of lessons with our progressing investigator, Isaiah. He has committed to quit smoking so he can be baptized on April 18th. He's a very chill, big black guy in his early 30s, and we're excited for him if he can stop smoking. The ward has been amazing in fellow-shipping him and having him over for dinner all the time. 

We've had a couple of other lessons this week, but not with anyone super solid. We are also working with a recent convert and her family, and trying to teach her husband Will. He's really funny, but also hard to work with. He's coming to church though every week so we hope that the Spirit will finally sink into him deep enough to where he's finally like, "I get it now!" So stubborn!

The highlight of the week was that we got to go to the temple! Our temple day for our zone was on Wednesday, which also became our P-day. Didn't have much of a P-day because it's over an hour drive to get to Columbus, but it was so worth it. I love the temple, there are so many blessings to enjoy there. I'll be at the temple a ton after my mission for sure. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Pictures: some "sights" I saw when we were walking through town on Saturday. They have these beaver statues all over, they usually are brown and are standing on a tree stump, but the one I have a picture of is "Biking Beaver" at a local military memorial... I knew I had to take a picture of that one for Dad!

I'm not in Columbus anymore.......

    

New Address: 

3702-A E. Patterson Rd. 

Beavercreek, OH 45430

Hey everyone! 

I got transferred! Again! At 13 months I'm in my 5th area! Sister King and I got out doubled-out of Hilliard, and our area got shut down (there were a few areas that got closed because more missionaries are going home). That was my third time getting doubled transferred with my companion, and my second time shutting down an area. Man I can never have a normal transfer, haha. 

As I've moved westward across the mission, I wasn't surprised when I was assigned to my new area in the Dayton East Stake- Beavercreek! I figured it was about time for me to get "exiled" to Dayton, and now I'm at the very edge of the mission, the opposite end of where I started in Zanesville. It was really nice to be in the Columbus suburbs for the past 11 months, but it's good to have a change too. Our area consists of part of the town of Beavercreek, and parts of Riverside (the ghetto section of our area) and Dayton. It's a lot woodsier out here, it will be great when the leaves come back. We're close to the air force base in Dayton as well, so there's a lot of military families here. 

It's been a good change so far, after my last 2 areas being some of the hardest places to serve in the mission. We actually have multiple lessons in a day- it's weird! I haven't been this productive for a very long time!! We just put an investigator on-date, and we have a few others along with a few less-actives that we are consistently working with. It's great. 

It's also weird how I knew so many people from the mission before even coming to serve here. I met someone that was in my ward at BYU, who's about to go on a mission herself, and met the mother of a friend I had in my mission prep class there. Craziness. 

Oh, and my new companion is Sister Fox! She's been out a transfer longer than me, and has been what I need this transfer. I feel like a greenie again and realize I really don't know a whole lot! I feel pretty lost when we're in lessons sometimes, haha. She's from Springville UT, but is originally from Thousand Oaks, CA! She's 23 and went to UVU before her mission.

Also, this transfer is only 5 weeks, which means that I would get another week at home before starting school again in the fall. So I probably won't come home mid-transfer, and just ride it out until the end. In that case I will be home on August 14th (sorry Mom and Dad, don't book any vacations!!!).

And I promise I'll send pictures next week... haven't taken any....

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Winter Adventures

Hey everyone, 

So it may be March, but winter isn't over yet! On the first day of March yesterday, it snowed all day and church was canceled. Go figure. I also got sick AGAIN, Sister King and I must be passing illnesses back and forth now. 

On Monday night, Sister King parked in a really bad spot on the side of the road and our car got stuck. So at 8:30 pm, I knocked on some random person's door (but hey, that's what we do), and got this lady to help me push out the car, after using her shovel to dig out the wheels and pouring cat litter everywhere to create traction. Aaaaaand it was zero degrees outside.

The other day while walking around, I had my glove off for not even 5 seconds before my hand started going all numb and tingly, and it stung. Frostbite warning???? Thankfully that day was filled with service and other indoor activities! 

The other random story of the week was that when we dropped by a less-active family's house, their boxer jumped on us on the couch, and was so excited that he peed all over our coats that we were wearing. Lovely! But it gave me a good reason to finally try washing my down coat, haha! 

But anyways, blessings still abound! When we went outside today, I was like, IT'S SO WARM OUT HERE! Then we called the weather line on our phone and found out it was 28 degrees outside. But I took off my down coat anyways and wore my peacoat instead. So maybe spring IS coming, haha!

Transfers are this week, and we feel that big changes are coming. Have a great week!

Love, Sister Petersen