Spring

Hey,

This is going to be the shortest email ever because I'm almost out of time and I don't have much to say! But this week was really good! We just walked around and contacted some people, didn't do too much teaching though. It was cold and rainy for a few days, but it's been really nice here and there too. 

We had Stake Conference yesterday, and it was a broadcast from Salt Lake City. Elder Andersen and Elder Hales talked about how much the Church has progressed in Northeast America in the last 50 years. We have over 20 missions and 9 temples with a few more coming! The Northeast is a great place to be. 

The pictures I attached are of some spring flowers- when trees bloom here, they actually have these huge flowers come off of them! I never saw anything like it until coming to Ohio, it's really pretty. The other picture is of Sister Fox and I walking around one afternoon with these leaves on our noses- if you peel back these certain leaves/seeds, you can stick it to anything haha. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

A Baptism!

Hey everyone, 

Isaiah got baptized on Saturday, then on Sunday was confirmed and also ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. Though really, this was the easiest baptism ever. Sister Fox and I literally just showed up, put him on-date for baptism, and were like, "this is your thing, you choose how you want this all done" because he's been taught by a few different missionaries and never made it all the way to baptism. Guess he was ready now! Everything went great with the baptism, and he's doing well. 

The other thing that happened this week is I went on companion exchanges to Springfield and stayed with Sister Bromley. Springfield is this old town half an hour away. It's full of these old Victorian houses that are literally crumbling, some of them were really cool! However, we saw some of the scariest people I have seen in my whole mission. Definitely some humbling circumstances there. 

Enjoy the baptism pictures! 

Love, 
Sister Petersen

 

Living in a Horror Film

Hey, 

This week was pretty eventful. We've had more service opportunities recently, including setting up for a wedding reception and then spending half of our Saturday moving a member's neighbors out of their house. The wife, Jennifer, was amazed at everything we and the elders did for them, and Sister Fox and I got to answer some of her questions and give a brief Restoration lesson as we were fed lunch. She wants to come to church and has sooo much potential... then we realized that she is moving to a house that is only a couple blocks outside of not just our ward boundaries, but mission boundaries... we don't know what will happen with that yet. 

Isaiah passed his baptismal interview and should be baptized on Saturday. Our fingers are crossed as he literally just quit smoking 2 days ago. We have also found two new investigators this week, which has not happened to me since I was in Westerville- that's a really long time! One of them is Nick, a father with two little girls who is going through a divorce. We came by on Tuesday to teach a first lesson in connection with the "Because He Lives" video that we introduced to him. He gave us a tour of his house, because it was built in 1906 and has a historical plaque on the front since it's one of the first homes in Beavercreek. It had 3 stories and was really cool! The staircase to the third floor was secretively hidden in what looked like a closet in a tiny room on the second floor. Fun stuff. 

The other new investigator is a older man named Joe. We had also given him a Because He Lives card, and had a return appt. We wanted to teach the Plan of Salvation because his wife passed away from cancer and he seemed receptive. We brought a recently returned missionary and he invited us in to sit down on the couch in his living room. Within the first two minutes, I noticed a bug on Sister Fox's shirt, and flicked it off. But I recognized it right away as a bed bug (other story, one of our other investigators, Robert, has a bed bug infestation so we had a member look up pictures of them for us so we could recognize them)(we haven't been over to Robert's in a while...). So then I looked behind her at the couch we were on.... AND THEY WERE EVERYWHERE. Bugs were ALL OVER the back couch cushions, and holy crap I got SO squeamish as Sister Fox obliviously went into the Plan of Salvation. Then Joe had to take a phone call, and while he was talking on the phone, I turned to Sister Fox and whispered, "BED BUGS.... LOOK BEHIND YOU." Then the both of us, along with the member we had, were all fidgeting and squirming as we found bed bugs crawling on US. Sister Fox tried to keep going and make the lesson brief, and Joe was surprisingly receptive and feeling the Spirit as bed bugs WERE CRAWLING ON HIM. He looked like a creepy crypt-keeper or something. It was weird. We were only in his house for about 20 minutes and felt bad about cutting things short, but we said we had to go. Outside his house we were lifting up our clothes and pulling bugs off of each other before getting into the member's car. Sister Fox and I immediately stripped down, threw our clothes in the washer, and took a shower when we got home and were majorly panicking. After that, we sat down to finally get around to our weekly planning, and Sister Fox found a bug on her arm and freaked out. I vacuumed the entire apartment as my companion was almost crying. 

The good news is, we (along with our apartment) are clean! We have not seen any more bed bugs. However, Sister Fox has bite marks up and down her body- I think I was only spared because I was wearing tights and my arms were covered with a cardigan. That is an experience I never want to have EVER AGAIN. I have had other things happen in lessons, such as children throwing their pet rats on my lap while teaching the First Vision, but this was absolutely repulsive. 

Anyways, here's my only picture for the week- Sister McCarty finished her mission and is home now- this is us the day before transfers. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Possums and General Conference

Hey everyone, 

Wasn't General Conference so good? If you haven't seen it, go to lds.org RIGHT NOW. I was amazed at how all the talks were just so spot-on, and answered questions that I came prepared with. Because of Conference, I feel more of a desire to understand the Savior and the Atonement more, and to recognize the Lord's hand in my life. There are many other things that stuck out to me, but it's too much for me to type out right now. General Conference weekend is always nice, and Sister Fox and I spent all four sessions at the church building (see attached picture for Conference selfie, haha). 

The miracle of the week is that Isaiah is back on date for baptism. The other week he had dropped us and didn't want to be involved with the church anymore, but later it turns out he just offended by something, and his desire to move forward has been restored again. Just goes to show that the adversary will always try to push us down because he doesn't want good things to happen in our lives, especially for Isaiah to join the church. We shared the talk, "Cast Not Away Therefore Thy Confidence" with him, by Jeffrey R. Holland. If you haven't read it, look it up. 

The funny thing from this week is that we played a prank on the elders for April Fool's Day. When walking along the side of the road the day before, we saw a dead possum completely intact. That evening, we ran into a member who told us prank stories from her mission, and Sister Fox wanted to run with one of those ideas.... so the next day when we got the car back, we picked up the possum and put in a box outside the elders' apartment, with a note that said "Take care of my baby" stuck on it! Oh my gosh that thing smelled SO BAD, Sister Fox was gagging as we drove with all the windows down! The funny thing is that a Restoration pamphlet flew into the box when we drove over, but to our surprise the elders didn't know it was us! They thought it was this one crazy lady or some anti-Mormon person, and told the Daines about it when our district leader was on the phone with President, hahaha! We broke the truth to them later, and now everyone in our district is making all these possum jokes. I attached pictures for your viewing pleasure. :D

If you just got totally grossed out, look at the picture of the golden-doodle puppy that I held at a member's house a couple weeks ago! The other picture is one of all the sisters in our zone, after zone meeting on Wednesday. 

Have a great week and review those Conference talks! We have definitely been blessed with modern-day prophets and apostles to lead and guide us today!

Love, 

Sister Petersen