Happy New Year from Co. Springs

Oh my! Oh my! It was SOOOO good to see all of your faces on Christmas day. It made my life! (I won't say my year because well, as you know, that's almost over) but it meant so much to me that we were able to Skype and see each other!! It was the best Christmas present that I could ever ask for! You all mean the world to me and I love you all so much! Baby Leah is getting so big, I can't even deal with that haha.

After we skyped, we watched Elf and laughed so hard because it is hilarious. And then we basically got to relax and eat lots of food (...ooops). We went to the Ricks house (member's in our ward) because they wanted us to drop by to give us a present. (more baby lips makes Sister Peterson a happy missionary haha) Everyone here is so great and spoils us so much. We also watched The Lizzie McGuire movie and sang along to the whole movie. #childhoodmemories. Christmas was an amazing day and I felt so much love that our Savior and our Father in Heaven has for the people around us.

My week has been pretty awesome. On, Saturday, we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and we focused solely on finding using the area book. We divided up all the names we could find between the two championships and went to see those people! We ended up handing out six copies of the Book of Mormon and talking with a lot of people. So we have a few potential investigators now. There was an older couple that we went caroling to last week that we stopped by and taught The message of the Restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon and she said "I have never actually sat down and read the BofM but this looks really interesting!" We left her with our number and she said she would call us. She also works with a member so she said that they have talked about the church before. There were three other people that said we could come back as well and talk with them more. So that is looking hopeful! We all maily focused on our faith because if we have that faith just that small particle of faith that Heavenly Father will put those people in our path that are prepared to hear our message, that we will find them. And I believe that to be true!

The craziest thing happened yesterday at church! I stood up after Sacrament meeting and turned around to this girl with her hand out saying "Hi I'm Kallie Stolk" (she was my roommate at BYU-I this past winter and she is from Colorado Springs! Her family lives in the High Forest ward in the Stake where I am currently serving) I basically freaked out and ran around the pew and we gave each other a huge bear hug!! It made my day!! Thanks for stalking me, Kal! I love you! This is my shout-out to you, girl ;)

I can't believe that 2014 is almost here... for New Years Eve we have to be in at 6pm. Party in the USA... haha we will probably just ring in the New Year, East Coast style so at 10 our time and then go to bed at 10:30. We are pretty wild as missionaries, I know hahaha. As we think about the New Year, what are some things that are most important to you in life? What are some of your goals? I know most people set goals to work out more/lose weight but as we reflect on 2013 we can think what we want to do better this New Year and what we want to work on. So, with the New Year approaching its really important to remember whats important in life. Like family, your testimony, temples, sharing the gospel with others and developing Christlike attributes just to name a few. I know that being on the Lord's errand for the past almost five months has really put into perspective what is truly important in life. So I would just invite you to think about what is important to you and if there is anything that you could do without, do without it! Start a new fresh year and know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is REAL and that it is for you and me. You are all so important to me and I couldn't have asked for a better family! I love you and miss you all soooo much. Have a safe and happy new year!!

xoxo

Sister Peterson

Week 18 aka Merry Christmas from Colorado Springs

OKAY I am soooo excited to talk to you all on Wednesday. That is going to truly be the best Christmas present that I could ask for on my mission (well, that and baptisms of course. Had to slip that in there haha) But seriously it is going to be wonderful talking to ya'll!!! It is currently really cold and snowy here and its only okay because tis the season, right? But any other time? Yeah...no. No snow please. Brrrrr! Little Leah is too cute in that sled. The pictures of her and everyone melt my heart! Oh! I loved the family Christmas letter and the picture of me and the big bear. Tried to convert him...that silly bear haha. Let me know when you all get my Christmas surprise in the mail

 

Last week was so much fun. I just love this time of the year. It seems that people's hearts are softened and they are more willing to talk about the Savior and his birth. Its nice to see that we have that much in common. Its the perfect opportunity to share the Gospel with the people around us just sayin... We have been reading Luke 2 without a lot of families and explaining the true meaning of Christmas and that if we take a step back and remember our Savior and all that He has done for us that we will find more peace in our lives and will be a little more happier.

 

So, this week we saw S and talked to him about prophets and watched The Restoration video with him and the Spirit was so strong and afterwards we asked him how he felt and he said that he didn't feel the same way as we did and that he didn't feel the Holy Ghost. It was such a bummer!!! But the Massey's are going out of town for the holidays for a few weeks so all decided to take a break from lessons until they get back. We want to see how he feels and if he notices a difference in his day to day life without us teaching him. We are still going to go over and visit him probably once a week to see how he is doing and give him that spiritual uplift so we will see how that goes.

 

A is doing really well. He told us that he wasn't going to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true because he believes that he already has the truth but we told him that if he wants to know the truth either way that he has to pray specifically to know if the Book of Mormon is true and he said he would so we are so excited to see what happens!! I think I mentioned it before but he doesn't live in our ward boundaries sadly so we told the Elders in his ward to go over and introduce themselves just so him and his daughter have more exposure to the Church and maybe they can even go to church with them!!

 

On Wednesday, we had a Christmas conference with two other zones in the area. President Fink (in the mission presidency) The AP's and President and Sister Anderson all spoke. It was a very uplifting day! They reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas and showed us a few Mormon Messages that were really cute. Between each video they had question up on the screen that they wanted us to write down and answer later. Some of the questions were "what is the true meaning of Christmas?" and "how will you serve Christ and others this year?" It really made me think how I am going to serve Christ and others this new year and how I want to try my hardest to bring others unto Christ because that is the source of my ultimate happiness.

 

On Friday we went caroling as a district to some of the Less-Actives in our ward and in a ward next to ours. It was so much fun to be able to bring the Spirit of Christmas to them. We gave them little presents with some cookies and the Joy to the World DVD. It just makes me so happy to serve others! We also went caroling on Saturday night with the elders in our ward and some of the youth. We basically went "carol-tracting" hahah and a really precious older couple let us come in and gave us chocolate (they obviously know the way to my heart) and the little grandma gave us a hug! She is a southern Baptist and said "sorry ya'll" but its really cool because she works with a member in our ward. It's awesome how there always seems to be those connections.

 

The Spirit of Christmas is SO strong on the mission and I am loving it!! Later today a member and her daughter are taking Sister Ercanbrack and I to get pedis!! #spoiled. I almost cried when they offered because my heels are pretty nasty from walking so much... sorry bout it. And then for Christmas Eve we are going to a less-active family's house to spend it with them and then the zone is meeting up at the church to do a secret Santa. On Christmas day we were invited to three different houses to celebrate with them so it is going to be a great day! So that's my plans for the next couple of days and I will talk to you on Christmas!!!!! I love you and miss you all sooo much! I pray for you always.

 

Happy birthday to Uncle Chris and cousin Susan this week!

 

Feliz Navidad yaaaaaaa'll! (proud family anyone?)

 

xoxo

Sister Peterson

 

 

Week 17 aka Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

FAMILY,

How is everyone doing? I hope that you are all having a fun time getting ready for Christmas jamming out to some Amy Grant.

We taught S about the importance of following the Prophet and we felt that it went really well. Now he just needs to accept a baptismal date. We have faith that it will happen soon!!!

This week, we taught A about family history. We were trying to find his adopted daughter's grandparents. We were able to find her birth parents but then had some trouble finding her grandparents. He has started to read the Book of Mormon and wants to meet more often to have Gospel discussions.

The Stake President's wife who is in our ward took us out to lunch and then spoiled us with See's Candies. She is so sweet spoiling us! Sooooo yummy.

Last week for P-day we went to this gymnastics gym and jumped around on trampolines. It was a ton of fun and hopefully got rid of a little bit of that mission weight if you know what I'm sayin.

On Saturday, we held a sister missionary class for the laurels in our ward and another ward. So, us and the other sisters in the ward next to us held this class and only one girl showed up but its okay because we are just getting started. We started off talking about why the four of us decided to serve missions and then what our purpose is as missionaries. She had a lot of good questions for us and at one point she said "I want to go on a mission!" It was AWESOME. We hope that as the word gets around more that more girls will come!

That's about it. I love being a sister missionary! What a great calling that I have!! Well, I love and miss everyone! I can't wait to talk to you all next week and see everyone's faces!!!

Happy Holidays!

Sister Peterson

SHOUT-OUTS!

Happy birthday to mama fresh on the 19th! Love youuu!

Week 16 aka Family, It's cold outside. (you know the tune)

How is everyone doing? Little Leah is getting so big! I can't handle it! The snow has arrived people!!! Apparently this is rare weather for Colorado Springs because usually it snows and then the sun comes out and melts it all in the same day. But we are so lucky to have the coldest days in the past three years. Take the sister out of Rexburg but can't take Rexburg out of the sister I guess... 

In other news... this past week was busy!

We taught S about the commandments and explained that there are more then just the ten commandments and we placed a special emphasis that baptism is commandment haha. And we invited him to be baptized again but he said not yet because he is waiting for two specific signs from God and we explained that it doesn't quite work like that. He came to church yesterday and always makes comments during Gospel Principles so we know that he is getting closer! Hopefully by the end of this year or the beginning of next year. Sister Massey made a really nice compliment to Sister Ercanbrack and I after our lesson with S. She said that we are a very powerful companionship and that we both bear very powerful testimonies. She told us to not take our time together for granted because it is rare to see in companionship. That was a HUGE blessing because all day we had been praying for unity in our companionship. The Lord really does bless us as we humble ourselves and seek to improve in His way. 

We also met with A again and talked with him about the Articles of Faith. He is starting to see the similarities in our beliefs and his beliefs. On Saturday we went to his house and helped him and his twenty year old daughter decorate for Christmas. It was so much fun to spend time with them and to feel the joy in serving others. We also made a gingerbread house with them which was a lot more stressful then any of us remember being. I started laughing at something someone had said and snorted SO loudly (thanks for the trait, Mom) hahaha. 

This past weekend the stake put on a two day event called the creche which is where people donate their nativities to put them on display. They had nativities from all over the world. They asked the missionaries in the stake to attend to be ushers and talk with people. On Saturday night as Sister Ercanbrack and I were walking around I felt impressed to talk to this older lady and as we got to talking we found out that she was visiting her daughter here and wasn't a member. We talked with her about the Christmas season and how nice it is to all be able to celebrate Him and all that He did for us despite our difference in beliefs. We felt prompted to give her a Book of Mormon as a gift to her from the Savior. She wanted out number so we went to grab a pen to write it down on a mormon.org card and when we got back she was already reading the introduction page! Sadly she lives in Ohio so I don't think that we will she that woman again but I definitely know that we planted a seed in her and I have faith that she will join the church some day. 

 

SHOUT-OUTS!

Wishing a happy birthday to Aunt Stephanie this week! 

Happy birthday to my mejor amiga, Hermana Infanzon! You light up my life. Have the best day ever! Te amo mucho!!! 

Family, I love you all and pray for you every night!! Always remember that "Jesus Christ is the reason for the season." Share the Gospel with someone this week!

xoxo

Sister Peterson 

Week 15 (aka Gobble Gobble Y'All)

Hey family! 

 

Tis the season to be fat... #stretchypants. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is on Thursday. Where does the time go?! And more importantly: baby girl, Leah is turning ONE!!! Give her lots of kisses and squishes from me!

 

My week has been fantastic. As you know, I got my baby on Wednesday! Her name is Sister Ercanbrack from Roosevelt, Utah and is 21. I've been taking her around to meet members in the ward so we have been very busy these past few days. We have been challenging the members to think of three things each day that they are grateful for and to write them down or discuss it as a family each night. I always tell people how my mom writes in a journal three things she is thankful for each night and that I am every one of them hahah kidding. But, Sister Ercanbrack and I have been doing that each day and we have already seen the joy that it brings to us. 

We met with A at the car shop to role-play to him because he is letting us practice our lessons on him but we are secretly teaching him at the same time...#missionarytactics. So, on Tuesday, Sister Mangisi and I taught him The Restoration and invited him to be baptized but he said that he couldn't do that because he didn't want to crucify Christ again by being baptized. But! He is letting us come back to teach him The Plan of Salvation so good things are going to come out of this! He is super nice and has been through a lot in his life so we really feel like we can help him out! 

Our "boyfriend" B, is going to call us next week for us to meet and have a real sit down lesson with him which is very exciting! The work is moving forward here in the Springs. We also now have the zone leaders in our ward so the ward is going to try their hardest to keep all of us busy!

Well, family I have to run now. But I just hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I love and miss you all!! Just remember how truly blessed we are to have this beautiful gospel so share it with someone this week! What are some things that you are thankful for?

xoxo

Sister Peterson

Week 13

Hey ya'll (everyone seems to say that around here and it is sort of sticking... sorry bout it) 

Last week and this week have been a whirlwind. A lot has been going on between meetings and appointments. The work is going forth here in the Springs! 

For the past few weeks, Sister Mangisi and I have really caught the Spirit of Elijah! Tomorrow, we are going with S. to the Family History Center to try and find some of his Chinese ancestors. We talked about the Temple and baptisms for the dead and he seemed pretty interested in doing that. So hopefully that will be a great benefit to him and will help him move along!

So we received some referrals from a family in the ward last week so on Saturday Sister Mangisi and I went tracting in that neighborhood and weren't having much luck. There were some older men that were landscaping outside of a member's home so I had this impression that we should go up and talk to them. It was the perfect opportunity! So we walked up to them and struck up a conversation and one of the first things that he said was "you aren't Jehovah's Witnesses are you?" We had a good laugh about that.. haha. And then we started talking about what we do on missions and we exchanged our business cards (ours was a mormon.org card with our number on the back. It's how we roll.) And he was so enthusiastic for us to call him back. Oh, by the way his name is B.. Pretty sweet, right? So we called him back yesterday and went over to the member's home where he was working again. We showed him our missionary handbook because he was curious about that and then we gave him a Restoration pamphlet and explained what was in it. He promised he would read it if he got to quiz us about something next time he sees us. Also, he calls us his girlfriends which is actually hilarious and slightly a bit awkward. Gotta love old people! I just feel like he is so prepared to hear this Gospel and I am so excited to see where this goes. It was just a great testimony builder to me to talk to EVERYONE. Because you literally never know who Heavenly Father is preparing. 

I also got to go to a "Train the Trainers meeting last Wednesday which was really neat. President Anderson talked about how that we are going to be trainers this next transfer because only we have the abilities and personalities to train these new missionaries. I am so excited to meet my greenie! 

I just wanted to share a few thoughts about the zone conference we had on Friday. It was all centered around love and that if we truly learn to love everyone then sharing the gospel will become so much more natural to us. It was a great reminder that I think we can all benefit from. If we truly love others and understand the Atonement then we will want to share that with everyone we come in contact with. 

This week is pretty busy!! We have a broadcast on Thursday night, our mission tour on friday where Elder Shayne B. Bowen of the Seventy is coming to speak to us. The sisters in my zone are going to be singing "I Stand All Amazed" there with a bunch of other zones in attendance. Wish us luck! And then there is a funeral for a senior couple who served a mission here a few years ago on Saturday. I was so sad to get that e-mail and even though I didn't know her, I still feel for her family because Colorado Springs was our mission together and that brings us close.

So, now you're all caught up on last week and this week. Busy, busy! And will most likely become even busier with the holidays coming up. I love you and miss everyone dearly!!! Just know that I am doing fabulous and I'm loving my mission. There is no place that I would rather be! The Atonement is real and through it, people CAN change. I have witnessed that first-hand. Stay warm, everyone! 

xoxo

Sister Peterson 

Week 12

Goodness it has been a fast week! There is so much to tell you all!

 

I don't have a lot of time and I am so sorry that this will be short but I am doing well! The Lord's work is moving forward here in the Springs. I just love it here! The mountains, the people, everything is just so perfect. Every day that I wake up, I am so grateful to be on a mission and there is no place that I would rather be.

 

This week flew by. We helped some of the elders move a non-member family and were able to tell them about the church. They were so sweet and grateful for us helping them and they want to have us over for dinner when they get more settled in. We are helping them put stuff away in their new house tomorrow so we are excited to see them and share more about the Gospel with them. 

So there is a family in our ward who owns their own car business and they called us to have Sister Mangisi come over to their car shop to talk with someone. So it was pretty legit that we had a lesson in a car shop. So we were sitting there while cars were being worked on and talked to him about family history because his daughter is adopted so they were having questions about her family. We were able to ask him about what he knows about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and he blew us away with all he knew! He is going through a really tough time at home right now and is such a humble guy. So we are excited to do family history with him this week at the family history center. 

We also worked with a less-active grandma and her daughter and with the help of the family history elders we were able to find names for her grandson to take to the temple in a few weeks. It was so cool because we found some names for C. and we are planning a youth temple trip! We definitely caught the Spirit of Elijah this week!

We are going to be starting a sister missionary class with our ward and another ward on Saturday. Missionary work is BOOMING and it is just so neat to see everyone catching the wave. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary! What a wonderful calling I have!

 

So I have some news to share....guess what?! I am going to be TRAINING a new missionary next transfer which is in a few weeks. I am so excited and humbled to be able to train my very own baby!

 

 

Shout outs!

 

Happy birthday, Crystal on Saturday! Thanks for the Halloween card, it was super funny. Love you, girl!

 

Sarah- I can't believe that your mission papers are in. I am sooo excited for you!! You are going to love it! Missions are the best thing ever :) You are going to do great!

 

I love and miss everyone! Don't forget to share the Gospel with someone this week!

 

xoxo

Sister Peterson