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

Missionary Fireside with Elder Christofferson

Hey everyone!

So last night was really awesome! We are doing a mission choir, and performing in various missionary firesides. Yesterday was the first one, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson came! And I sat less than 2 yards behind him! I honestly just do choir for the social aspect (kind of like in the MTC), so I definitely dropped out on some of those higher notes- don't want to sound tone deaf in front of an apostle! Haha. A lot of us were able to shake his hand among a mob of people down in the pews before he left afterwards. Elder Christofferson talked a lot about baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and how the Atonement applies to everyone and ANYONE can change. It was good. 

The fireside was at the New Albany stake center building, which is where I went to church when I served in Westerville. So I saw EVERYONE from Westerville 1st! It was so much fun!! I felt pretty popular as people ran up to me and freaked out, haha. Both Steven and Tony, my converts from that area, were there too. Also, since I sat right behind Elder Christofferson, I was on screen for everyone sitting in the cultural hall and the overflow, so random people afterwards were telling me that they saw me, and "good job for not falling asleep up there!" 

Last night it was really snowing, and it was a heavy, wet snow, so it took us a while to get home to the opposite side of Columbus. But I'm happy it snowed, it was so ugly outside!

Not much else to say about the past several days, I was bedridden for a couple as I got my strength back after being sick. But I'm okay now! 

Love, 

Sister Petersen

Pictures: 

#1: Me with Sister Santillan!!!! One of my Westerville favorites, she lent us the Trek mountain bikes last summer. 

#2: Sister Santillan, Emmy (her daughter who just got back from her mission), and I 

#3: Sister McCarty and I! It was a joyous reunion

#4:  Sister King, Kali (Tony's girlfriend) and I

What a Way to End the Transfer

Hey everyone, 

The weather warmed up enough that the rest of the ice and snow melted, so we were able to go back out on bikes after a couple of days of walking (I slipped on ice about 20 times, but never fell!). A ward member also came by to fix my tire- he couldn't find anything wrong with it either, but after I put in some of that "slime" stuff that is supposed to seal any damage, and getting my tire blown up again, my bike has been fine. 

Still pretty slow work. We had interviews with President Daines on Thursday, and he asked me about taking out a set of missionaries in Hilliard because our area is so small and neither us nor the elders have enough work to do. Transfer calls came today, and to my surprise, our entire district is staying except for one sister. Which is weird, considering how President Daines likes to transfer people all the time. So Sister King and I will still be here another transfer. 

I have adjusted better to the ward though, and we both gave talks on Sunday. We both got pretty rave reviews too, apparently. That was good to get to know the members a little more. 

So yesterday after biking in the morning, I was feeling pretty achy and laid down for a while. A few hours later I felt pretty nauseous and then suddenly came down with some sort of 24 hour stomach flu, no idea where that came from. It was pretty bad and I have never been sick like that in my entire life, and it was terrible timing with transfers this week. So we called over a couple of priesthood holders in the ward late last night to give me a blessing, which worked! Faith and priesthood power are real! 

Though my fever and chills went away, I still have a massive headache and will probably go back to bed soon. Praying I survive!

Love, 

Sister Petersen 

Brrrrr!!!!!!

Hey everyone, 

So this week was a cold one! It snowed all night on Monday, so waking up on Tuesday was a great surprise! I was on exchanges that day, so one of my Sister Training Leaders, Sister Wagstaff, and I just walked around all day through the snow. Good thing, since I got a flat tire for the fourth time the night before, even after buying a new tube, and our air pump is broken. So it was okay that we couldn't bike. 

For the first time in my life, I shoveled a driveway. That was some good service for a member. Also for the first time in my life, I pushed a car out of the snow (our car). I've had someone push my car out of the snow and ice in Provo last year, but when Sister King tried to pull a U-ie on a country road and we went into the snow on the side, I got the opportunity to do so (thankfully some hunter guys pulled over in their trucks and helped me push the car, haha). 

Also, one night we went to Jeni's ice cream, since Sister King had never had it before (it's really good ice cream, look it up), and 10 degrees is officially the coldest weather I have ever eaten ice cream in. But then again, ice cream is good all year round, to be honest. 

The work is certainly slow when it's 8 degrees outside (and one day it was one degree!!). People are like, "it's cold, go stay warm!" and they shut the door. One "investigator" told us, "Not now, it's too cold, come back in the summer." What the?!?! If your wife is home, we can teach you inside!

But something else fun about the week is when we went to do service at a member's house and then ended up making bread with her. We were sent home with all this bread dough and a container full of home-ground whole wheat flour (I've missed that!!). We baked one of our loaves the other night, and it turned out to be amazing, I think it's the best whole wheat bread I've ever made! 

We actually taught two lessons this week, which is the news of the transfer as far as our missionary work has been going, haha. We had a good lesson with a recent convert, and we taught the first lesson to a less-active/part member family after they had us over for dinner. That went pretty well.  

Anyways, we give up the car again this week, and we'll see how I survive when temperatures go down again. Today is not bad at all, but overnight we're getting a ton of freezing rain. Should be exciting. And go Buckeyes! The digital billboards around town have been saying thing like, "Go Bucks! Pluck the Ducks!" And in Kroger today, there was a display advertising frozen duck meat, saying, "Roast some duck for the big game!" Haha. 

Love you all!

Sister Petersen

Pictures: 

#1: View outside our apartment/townhome. Our car is the white one on the left. 

#2: Ready to shovel some snow!

#3: The town of Hilliard (and its really cheesy slogan....)