June 28, 2016 The Last One!!!

Hey everyone,

Well this time has finally come, I will be going home this week. It's such a bitter sweet feeling, that i can't believe is actually here. I have loved my mission so much, i can't even begin to express what it has done for my life, and who i would have been with out it, i just couldn't do it justice. This time i have had to serve my lord hasn't been the easiest 2 years of my life, or at time's the best. But i can tell that its the best 2 years for my life. I think i want to start out thanking all of my companions!! Elder Andrews who was my trainer, Elder Page, Elder Whitmarsh, Elder B( i don't know what to spell his name be cause its crazy french) Elder Drollinger, Elder Crook, Elder Bean!!, Elder Passey, Elder Cooley, And Elder Johnston. With out these guys my mission would have been so different, and because of there good influences and helping me become the person my father in heaven wants me to become. And these guys have become some of my best friends on the mission, and i am so very grateful for all they did.
I want y'all to know that i know that this church is the Church of Christ. That it has been reestablished onto the earth, once again for the salvation of man kind. And there our savior Jesus Christ, and his Atonement, we can over come anything, trials, hardships you name it threw him we can do anything. Threw my mission i have come to know what this gospel really is and what it really means. And they promises, that we are given in this church gives us so much hope to be able to go on and keep striving and enduring. And how important it is that we invite and are worthy of the Holy Ghost in our life's. With out that help i would not have become or be the person i am today, even though i am not perfect and have many weaknesses, i can be lead by the Holy Ghost and know what to do. And use the Atonement daily to overcome, these things. I love this gospel, and it has sent me on a journey that i will never end, and will continue my entire life. I love the people of Louisiana and i feel so terrible that only a select few got the chance to serve in the best mission in the world!! And i love the Hispanics that i have served with, i still might not have the best Spanish in the world or be where i want to be, but it has taught me about the atonement and becoming something new. And how progression doesn't only happen in this life,  but the next one as well.
But I will see yall in 2 days, and i love you guys and i hope you know that. I am excited to go home, but i really don't want to leave Louisiana it has become a home for me! But here we come i will see yall in 2 days!!!

Elder Peterson

Hey everyone!!

We had another great week and I am excited to tell y'all about it. But i want to say a happy late Fathers day to all of the Fathers! I hope that y'all had a great day and got everything that you wished for. This week was pretty crazy and everything in between, in the middle of the week i was on an exchange with one of our Zone leaders, and we got a call from our President, and he wanted to go and do our Go-home interviews.... so that was crazy. We have so many people going home with us that he doesn't have enough time to be able to interview everyone so he had to do some earlier before we go home! But I had a great interview and we had a really good talk about life and what i want to do in my life. 

This week I also had my very last ZTM, (Zone Training Meeting) It was pretty crazy, the zone leaders did a great job and i learned a ton, they kind of talk about the holy ghost, and becoming better threw his promptings. And they talked a little bit about the talk, What lack I Yet by Larry. R Lawrence. It was super good and I learned a ton about the things i need to do to continue to get better and applying the gospel in my life. I also had the opportunity to bear my testimony, for my last Zone Conference, and it was super weird because i really never thought that this day was going to come, and i still don't feel like i am going home, I think my companion is more trunky for me then i actually am.   

But a cool experience that we had this week, was we actually found our bishops family that he hadn't told us about and had actually forgot about. And when we first met them they did not want to hear a message or want anything to do with the church. But they really loved us and wanted us to keep coming back,and talk to them. So this time we brought over our bishop with us and he was able to talk to them and catch up on things. And right before we left we asked if we could share a message, and they said no, then our bishop and us started to explain our purpose and what we are here for and how we want to help people come closer to Christ, and it was so cool to see how the spirit was able to touch there hearts, and we were able to share a little message with them. And we are actually hoping the there daughter is more interested in them so we are going to start teaching her. Its amazing to me how the spirit work and if we are tools for him we can really do anything we put our mind to. But sorry i don't have much time left, and next week will be my last one!! I will be working hard and putting everything on the line this week to show my lord how much I love him. Thanks for all of y'alls support and everything you have sent me out here!! Love and miss y'all and i hope y'all continue to do the small things and continue to progress!!

Elder Peterson. 

June 12, 2016. Coming Estan?

Hey everyone!

I hope that everyone had a great week.This week we had an awesome week, and we also had a General Authority from the Seventy, come to out mission and talked to us. His name is Elder Kopischke. He is awesome, he came to our mission about a year ago and talked to us, and i have learned so much from him the both times he has come to our mission. 

But to start off the week, I went off on Exchanges again, and I got to go to a place called Chalmette. It was a really cool place and i had been there once before. We had a great time, i went with Elder Brown who was also being trained when i trained Elder Bean, so it was good to be able to get back with him, But we went out and we were able to find a couple of good people for them to teach, and go out and help so members with some translating and helping them. We taught a great lesson with a guy named Eduardo, he was a very nice guy and let us come in and we had a great lesson, we taught him about the restored gospel, and how the same church that Christ had established is on the earth again. And he really liked it and we were able to help him to feel the spirit and help him on his search. Then we got to go to Elder Kopischke, and it was awesome.First he started off saying that he had prepared a couple of things for us, but we were going to deiced what we were going to talk about. So he asked us what we wanted to learn, and some one asked how we can be able to magnify our calling. And that was almost what the entire meeting was about.  He started off by talking to us about who we were in the Pre-Mortal life. How each and every single person on the earth right now is one of the elect, and how we are a royal generation. And he kind of expounded on that a ton and it was super awesome. He also talked about our agency, and it was pretty interesting, because it was something i learned a while ago but i had kind of forgotten over time. But he was telling us when we got baptized, that at that point in out life's we used our agency to do good. And we don't have our agency to choose if we want to take it back, we have our mortal agency to choose good and evil daily but, when we choose to be baptized we said we would live the commandments, and do what we needed to do. 

He also talked about something I thought was really awesome. So he talked about a couple of principles that go together so we can be successful. But the first point is obedience and that as we are being obedient we are showing our faith, and as we are doing that and our faith is growing, we are becoming a more pure people, and as we become a more pure people we are realizing our faults and we start to repent of those things. And as we start to do these things, we will start to have a plan of what we need to do to achieve these things, and while are planning to do these things we are using our agency to do so. And  after that we have got to put in the work to make those plans happen, and we need to work hard and be diligent to be able to achieve those things. And then he opened it up to the brother Jared and what he did to be able to see the finger of the lord, and how he had never seen anyone with so much faith to be pushed threw the vial. But it was great and i learned so much from it. 

One more thing it was funny we were out tracking and contacting,and we found these people and they were real nice, so we went back to follow up with them, they weren't to interested, but come to find out they were our bishops Aunt and Uncle!! But we had a great week and i hope yall have a good coming week! Be safe and read!!

Elder Peterson

June 6, 2016. Buenos!

Hey everyone! 

This week has gone by pretty quick and i don't know where the time is going. I can't believe that I only have about 2 and a half weeks left or so. But we are working hard and have been seeing some awesome miracles lately! But I'm not getting trunky, I think i am more nervous to go home, then i was to come out on my mission! But this last week we had some great experiences.

Yesterday we had a great experience, so we had a lesson with a lady that they have been teaching for a couple of weeks and she wasn't really progressing. So we went in there with the intent to understand why she wasn't doing anything that we had been asking her, or why she didn't come to church. So we asked her why she had us over, and what she thought the purpose of our visits were. She told us she wanted to know more about god and try to understand more of the gospel. And she wasn't sure what the purpose for everything was. So we pulled out some scriptures and started to talk about this life and what are some of the purposes of this life. And then we explained to her the goals we have for her and what we hope can come of there lessons, and we started to talk about baptism and how it is a goal we had for her. She told us that she wasn't ready but wanted to keep learning. But it was awesome we just tried to go by the spirit as much as we could and answer the questions that she had for us. And during the lesson the spirit was so strong, and i could see simple things start to click in her head. 

But one thing i have been thinking a lot about lately is the holy ghost. And how important it is that we have him every day in our life. And what i need to do when i go home to be able to have that gift with me at all times. And also everything that i need to do when i get home, what i want to study, what i need to do with my time and just a bunch of stuff. But last week i was Ponderizing a scripture that is in 2 Nephi 32: 5 an d it says " For behold, I say unto you that if yee will enter in my the way, and receive the holy ghost. It will show unto you all things which yee should do." And as i have been thinking about these things and about what i need to do something kind of clicked. But as i was thinking i noticed that the scripture says that "It will show unto you"  and i had been thinking that the holy ghost would tell me that i need to go to school here, or i need to study this exact thing. But I need to use my agency to choose what i want to do, and that through the holy ghost, he will show me the positives and negatives of that decision. And it made things a lot easier for me. And it taught me the importance of the holy ghost in our life. I hope that yall can feel his presence in your life every day, so that when those decisions come up you can have him to show you what to do! 

I hope everyone has had a great week, and that you can sacrifice the little things in your life to have the spirit stronger in your life. I love and miss yall and will see you pretty soon! Always pray and have a good day!

Elder Peterson

June 1, 2016

Hey everyone!

How is it going?? I hope that y'all are all good. This week has been a little crazy, on Monday all of the library's were closed and we couldn't email, then yesterday we had our district meeting and had a packed day so we didn't have time to come back and email. But we had a good week and we had a ton happen.

To begin I had the opportunity to go on a exchanges with someone in the district, and so i went to a place called Kenner, and i was with an Elder named Elder Young. We had a really good time, we found some good people for them to follow up with. We had two really awesome lessons though, the first one we went to this less actives house and he has had the history to not like the missionary's very much, and has just tried to give them a hard time. But we went over and tried to talk to him. And at first when we tried to talk to him it was almost like trying to pull teeth. He wouldn't give us to much to work with or really even talk. So we just kept trying about everything we know, and after about 20 to 25 minutes he finally opened up to us and started to talk. After that we had a great discussion about the gospel and about the Holy Ghost, and how important it is that we have the Holy Ghost with us at all times, and why would should have it in out home. It was awesome to see how much he changed in that short little bit. And he invited the Elders in Kenner back when ever they wanted to. It really showed me how important the Holy Ghost is because we he had finally felt it, he opened up to us so much.
Another experience that we had is right after that was we went over to a part-member family's house to have dinner. And we got there and had dinner and started talking and started to teach a lesson. This guy had been taking the lessons for a pretty long time, and basically knew them forward and back. So we decided that we were going to talk about the Holy Ghost, and why it was so important, and how we can get the Holy Ghost. And we had a awesome lesson, as the Holy Ghost directed us we started to talk about baptism as well and how important this step in his life is, and it was even better because his wife is pregnant with there first child, and she really wants him to be able to baptize her when that time comes, so as we were teaching and testifying, she was doing it as well. And it was a great lesson, and he told us he wasn't sure if he was ready for it but we made him a promise that if he prayed with his family about that question he would receive a answer. So I am pretty excited to see what he has to say. But we had a great exchanges and got some great things done.

In Downtown, we have been trying to do as much finding as we can, because a lot of our people have been kind of shaky and not wanting to keep commitments or want to see us any more, so basically we have been finding and having some good experiences. While finding we found a lady and he husband that had just miscarried, and we got to talk a little bit about the plan of salvation and Moroni 8, it was pretty cool and they wanted us to come back and visit them. But we have also been trying to work and be as obedient has possible so i can go home with a great feeling about my mission. We have definitely been blessed for doing so. But i hope y'all are good and all is well. Have a good week and be safe!

Elder Peterson

May 23, 2016 - New Orleans life!

Hey everyone!!

I hope all y'all have a good week, I have my new address for the next 5 weeks so it is 6564 Fleur De Lis Dr, Apt6 New Orleans, La 70124. There it is, But this week we had a really good and crazy week. My companion Elder Johnston is a funny kid and we are having a good time out in New Orleans. But the first of the week i got all packed up and left then i have only been here for a little bit, but the past couple of days have been pretty crazy. It is also pretty crazy how much different Downtown New Orleans is from Metairie, it is literally just down the street but its about a 100% different!

One thing, we had one of the craziest storms that i have ever seen on my mission. Elder Johnston and I had just gotten in the house, and we started to cook some dinner, and while we were cooking, our house started to shake, and it sounded like a airplane was about to hit our house. We go outside to look and its dumping rain, and there is so much lightning that i almost thought it was mid-day. Almost every second there was lighting, it was the most I had ever seen, and the rain was crazy, and it went on until about 1 o'clock in the morning it was super crazy!!

But a couple of experiences that we had this week, We got a media referral from the church that had been on mormon.org and wanted a visit from us. So went over there, and it was probably one of the best ones i have ever had. We taught them about the Book of Mormon, and answered a lot of there questions they had about it, and it was a very spiritual experience, it was even better because we brought a member with us and he loved it, because of the spirit we felt in that lesson. Also another experience that we had, we were walking around Downtown, trying to talk to some people and do some tracking. And there was this guy that was just sitting on this bench not doing to much. So went over to him and introduced ourselves, and tried to talk to him, but he was only giving us one word answers, and didn't seem like he wanted to talk to us or knew what was even going on. But we kept talking to him and tried to get a conversation going, then we started to talk about the Gospel and started to talk to him about Jesus. And when we started to talk to him about that stuff he opened up a ton, he told us how much he loved to read and learn, and he was such a awesome guy, so we sat next to him and we sat on the curb and had a good talk with him and taught him a couple of thing. But while we were doing that i kind of looked around, while we were doing this it had started to rain out side, just a little bit, we were talking to this man who was smoking and looked a little run down, and every single person that drove by us just kind of started at us and laughed or gave us a weird look about what we were doing with this guy. And I guess i realized how awesome this work really is, I mean what normal people in this world would do that you know. And i realized how important each and everyone is to our father in Heaven and no matter who we are, where were are, or what we have, we all have divine potential and the lord loves each and everyone of us!!  I hope that yall had as good of a week as i did and i am loving it out here!! Have a good week and keep progressing in the gospel!

Elder Peterson

May 17, 2016 - Last Transfer!

Hey everyone!!

So we have transfers this week and, and i am getting transferred for my last one! I am a little bummed but i will be really close, i am only getting transferred over to Downtown New Orleans, so i am about 6 miles away from this area, and i am still in the same ward so that is cool. My companions name is Elder Johnston and we will start tomorrow so that is crazy!! But this week was good we had some good things happen.

But lately I have been thinking a ton about how fast these last 2 years have gone. i literally can't explain to y'all how fast it goes by, but by far this is the best decision i have ever made in my life. I can not even imagine what my life would be with out this experience, or how i would have been able to learn this things that i need to do in my life with out being able to serve the lord! I am eternally grateful for this opportunity and i hope that i did my best with the time he has given me. i know i still have 6 weeks but i am going to do all i can and my best to be able to find those who have been searching for his gospel! I would recommend a mission to anyone who is able to serve. I'm not going to say in has been the easiest 2 years of my life, or even he best at time, but it has been the best 2 years for my life by far! I hope that i can continue my life to be able to live in a way that if there are people that don't know Christ or feel like they don't that i can be that example for them so i can live as my savior did! Sorry like this sounds like my last email (because its not) but i have been so very grateful for the person i have become through the atonement, from 3 or 4 years ago, its crazy to reflect and see the changes i have made and the goals and desires to do now!

I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me these next couple of weeks, and also in my life. I hope all of you are doing great and well, and that you can fell the love of the savior every-single day, but because i can feel it so much every time i am in the service of my fellowmen! I love you all and i pray y'all have a great week!!

Elder Peterson