Let another fabulous week begin

Hey family!! Just another fabulous week in my life as a sister missionary! It's really the life.

Yesterday for Memorial day we helped a lady plan for her son's wedding reception that will be at her home. It's cool because I want to see if the event planning life is the life for me. I am liking it a lot but maybe not so much the wedding events. Don't want to deal with any bridezillas ya dig? The elders were also working in the yard while we were being such women talking about weddings haha #typical. Then we went to a bbq at the William's (our "mission parents") house where there was food, football and fun! Totally schooled the elders in football, nbd. You taught me well, dad! I am trying to ignore the soreness as I type...

A. is getting baptized on Saturday!!! That girl is so solid and we are way excited for her! So we are just going to be seeing her as much as we can and making plans for her special day :)

As you know and everyone knows since I talk about it every five seconds.. I am GOING TO THE TEMPLE ON THURSDAY! Clearly I am stoked. I have been praying and thinking a lot about Gma this past week before I go and just hoping that she is just as excited as I am. It's going to be a wonderful day so think of her and me that day!!

Found a few new investigators and had a really great conversation with a family outside on their porch the other day. I know that as we have the Spirit with us and that we are bold, that we can't go wrong! When we bare a sincere and honest testimony, people can't argue with that. So be bold and remember it's the truth so don't be afraid to share your testimony. When you write me back, tell me about the experiences that you've had with bearing your testimony! Doooo itttt! 

Am. received her temple recommend on Sunday and we are going to the family history center on Saturday to find her a family name to take. We are hoping to go to the temple with her sometime next week!

Zone conference was so insightful last week. Sister Clawson and I also won the celestial award for the cleanest car also, not a big deal! ;) haha.Check out these totally rad pictures from zone conference....

Totes presh! I'm their fave :)

I love you, I miss you, you are the best!! Stay safe and keep being the bombdiggity. 

XOXO
Sister Peterson

The Good Life!

Hey famjam!

It's been another great week here in good ole Puebs! I never want to leave, it's so awesome here!

A. has a date to be baptized on May 31st and is super ready!

We are currently working on finding family names for Am. to take to the temple soon! She is so excited and wants to go as soon as possible. We found out that her grandma who was a member married a non-member so there is work to be done there! How cool would that be if Am. could go in a year to seal her grandparents together?! Ah, it's so amazing :)

There's some drama going on with S. so we're not sure what is going to happen with him as of now. Poor guy :( 

We did a ton of service this week, it was so awesome! On Thursday we went to the food bank to put together boxes of food for people that don't have much. A member introduced us to a couple there named R. and T. She later came over to us and said "I had just met them but felt like I needed to introduce them to you. I was so scared but I just followed the spirit!" We swapped numbers and are hoping to go over soon to help them around the house. Its really neat to see members following the spirit and talking to others about the gospel. Like I have said before, I have really gained a testimony of member missionary work. It really does have the most success!

I can't wait to go to the temple on the 29th! I got the itinerary in the mail the other day. I am so excited! 

Y'all rock! Stay strong in the gospel!!

Smoochies,

Sister Peterson

9 Months....Say What?!

It was so good to see you all yesterday! Y'all are looking good in my neighborhood haha ;) It made my life to be able to talk and hear how good everyone is doing. I can't believe how big baby Leah is getting!! It's unreal! Her singing (screaming) "let it go" was hilarious haha. 

A. came up to us at family home evening last week and said "Guess what? I have decided to be baptized" WOOHOOO!!! SO exciting!!! So we are looking at her baptism in two weeks. She is having some family drama but she notices how happy the gospel makes her. Its so neat to see how happiness can lead people to finding the truth. Especially working with the young single adults where they start to go their own way in life and don't know what will really make them happy in life, its good to see them find that true happiness that the gospel provides. It happened with Amber and its happening with A. and S. now! 

Am. was confirmed yesterday and it was so special. When she sat down I asked her how she felt and she had the biggest smile on her face. Last night she texted us and asked when we could go to the temple together. She is so excited to go to the temple, it is so cute!! 

So I am going on my temple jubilee on may 29th!! I am so pumped to go to the Denver

​temple.

I love you and I miss you!!! Can't believe its been 9 months already. It is going by so fast for me and it just makes me want to soak it up that much more!! I love being a missionary and helping people find their way back to the church or just find it for the first time. It truly has been the best experience of my life and I know that true happiness is and can be found in living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Stay safe and share the gospel!!

xoxo

Sister Peterson 

Is It Mother's Day Yet?

Yesterday was probably the best day on my mission so far because A GOT BAPTIZED!! It was wonderful and the spirit was SO strong! Her friend, Dariyon baptized her! He was baptized three years ago in high school so that's where they know each other from. Her mom, sister, niece, younger brother and her brother's friend were all there. It was so great that they came out to support her. Sister Clawson and I had the biggest smiles on all night because we knew that she was doing the right thing! This is where true joy comes from! I am so happy for her and can't wait to see all the wonderful things she will continue to do with her life. She is so sweet, she spoiled Sister Clawson and I with a bunch of gifts on her special day, she is just the greatest!! #pureclass Now, we are planning on going to the temple with A for her first time soon!!! She is just so happy and seeing her happy made all of us know that we are doing the right thing and that true joy comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh yeah this is so cool! So we found out that A's grandma that passed away a few years ago went to the same ward that Amber is going to now! It is such a small world and its so cool to see how the Lord works.

So a family in one of the wards took a bunch of us out to Little Caesars on Tuesday. There were some ysa guys in their ward there so we started talking to them and this is what happened:

me: "Are you a member?"

him: "A member of what?

me: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Were you baptized?"

him: "No"

me: "Well do you want to be?"

him: "Yes!"

....basically the coolest conversation ever. Turns out his name is S and he's a foster kid that lives with a family in one of the wards. He wants to be baptized so he got permission from the couple he lives with and also his case worker. We taught him the first lesson on Thursday and are going back tomorrow to teach him the second lesson. He's so prepared and is looking to be baptized on the 17th!! It was so crazy how it all happened but I know that it was a miracle!!

We are still meeting with A.l and she is super solid. She came to church again yesterday, the CES Fireside and Amber's baptism. She loves the church and the fact that everyone is very welcoming. Good things to come!

Hope you all got to watch the CES Fireside last night. I liked that he talked about how we spend too much of our time on technology and not on people and building relationships. I know I have been guilty of that before but being on my mission has totally helped with that and not having a smartphone...that totally helps too. He really is hip haha. 

I am grateful to be on a mission now to not have to worry about all of the things that I used to. It is really nice to not be "in the world" on a mission, its actually super legit! It gives me time to really think about what I want in life and how I can be more like our Savior each and every day.

Happy birthday to my mommy today!! I love you! You are the greatest mom in the world. I can't wait to skype on Mother's day :)

See your faces on Sunday!!!

Sister Peterson

May The Fourth Be With You

I just have to start out by saying that we had a HUGE miracle on Thursday. It was the first time we had seen A in three weeks and I just flat out asked her if she had been thinking about baptism and she looked at us and said "I have. I want to get baptized" Boom! Just like that. It hit us so strongly that Sister Clawson and I started tearing up. The Spirit was so strong and I am so happy for her because I know how much this will bless her life. So this week is going to be a busy one with planning for her baptism. She asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. I am so excited!!! :) She came to church on Sunday and everyone was so nice and welcoming to her so its going to be a full house at her baptism. She told us that she was going to tell her mom last night at dinner so we will find out how that went. I told her about when mom told grandma and she said that mom is so cool for being so bold and honest. Way to go, ma!! 

A member in one of the wards brought her friend, A.l to church yesterday and we gave her a copy of the BofM. She is coming to family home evening tonight so we are hoping to teach her soon! I love member missionary work because that is where the most success comes from! 

I had my last interview with President Anderson on Tuesday because he goes home in July :( He is the greatest ever and has taught me a lot about how important missionary work truly is and  how the work is being hastened more then ever before. He is a convert to the church and it took him seven years to join so he really gets the whole "eternal investigator" thing haha. He told me that I will be staying in Pueblo one more transfer with Sister Clawson to finish up her training so that way she will get the whole 12 weeks of the training program. We are both really excited to have more time together because we have become really good friends, love that sister! 

We also when to Raton, New Mexico on Saturday! What an interesting day... The three of us kinda got attacked by two dogs. Poor Chelsea, the member who came with us got pulled by her skirt by those evil dogs! #thefearisreal. Don't worry though because we are all alive and well!!! Thank goodness! Also, dad I need to learn more Spanish for the next time that I go down there. I was pulling out the only words I knew which isn't very many haha. 

I just wanted to let you all know that I know this church is true and as we live the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we WILL be happier and that is a promise. Thank you for all of your prayers, love and support. It means the world to me! I love being a missionary and bringing the world His truth!! I am so excited to skype soon for Mother's day! Get ready ;) I love you and I miss you all!! 

P.S. Oh guess what, mom! We taught seminary on Thursday morning because Sister Peterson (the other one!) is the seminary teacher and she was out of town. Proud? :)

Stay strong!
Sister Peterson

8 Months!!!!

Ahh can I just say that I love that mom, dad, Hailey and Jenna went to the temple to do work together! That makes me so happy!! I am so excited to go through the temple for grandma next month :) :)

This week was great! Tuesday was a really neat day. Sister Clawson and I were going around visiting the ysa on our list trying to clean up the records (basically what we do all day errey day) and finding out that a lot of the ysa have moved. Of course we don't pass up any opportunity to talk to anyone so we were able to talk with everyone on that street, love me some good weather! We gave out three copies of the Book of Mormon in about thirty minutes. We really were blessed to see many miracles that day because we were willing to open our mouths and share the Gospel. I want to share a really cool experience, so we met a really cool older mountain man named B who was really excited to read the Book of Mormon. He kept talking about how much he loves Mitt Romney and always wondered "what the Mormons believe in" Well, B we are happy to tell you! He's way cool so we are planning on going back to see him soon. I gave him 3rd Nephi 11 to read when Christ came to the Americas and read some verses with him on his front porch. Its just so amazing to meet just really awesome people that are willing to learn more. We had just met him but we already loved him because sharing the Gospel with him brought us so much happiness. 

So cool!! I just started talking to a guy next to me at the computer and we got to talking and I found out that he grew up in the church and is a YSA! Sister Bush and I actually ran into him last transfer back in February when we were going to visit someone in his apartment complex. He was just pulling out of the parking lot and talked to us a little bit before we drove off. He remembered me and told me and the other elders that are here too that we can come back and talk to him more. We gave him a BofM and he said that he would read and pray about it because he never did that before. That just strengthened my testimony of talking to EVERYONE because you really do never know what could come of it! 

Oh yeah! I forgot to tell y'all last week but you NEED to listen to "Life is like a football game" by Troy Dunn. He's basically like a John Bytheway speaker and its soooo good and hilarious. Look it up!! 

Random but hilarious: An 80 year old woman whom I love wore a red and black boa to church yesterday. Oh that's just Pueblo for ya...

I am doing well and loving my mission!! Have a happy Easter Sunday and remember what its all about! I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ that has helped to heal me through the power of the Atonement. We should all remember what he did for us and what he continues to do for us each day. I love you and miss you all so much! Have a safe week and share the Gospel with someone :) 

xoxo
Sister Peterson

Charity Never Faileth

What a wonderful weekend! General Conference always gives me that boost that I really need. I loved everything that was said. Its always cool to pick out the main themes in each of the talks and I noticed that a lot of the talks had to do with loving people! It may seem like a small thing or "yeah, yeah I do that" but its so much more then just saying you love someone. As President Uchtdorf has put it "In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time." That can go for any relationship and any person. If we truly understand how much our Heavenly Father and the Savior loves us then we will want to be better for them and we will want to love them by giving them our time. 

Okay so I obviously loved M. Russell Ballard's challenge for everyone to obtain a copy of Preach My Gospel and to study it with your missionary which is me, lucky you :) I thought that was the coolest thing. I already told Mom and Lauren to start to study Chapter 6: Christlike Attributes because we can always be working on developing them. And once we start to we will naturally want to share the gospel with others around us because we start to love them as we see them through God's eyes. I know that we can't fully comprehend how much they love us and those around us but that as we try to be more like Christ, that we can tap into that love just a little bit. 

This week was cool because we met a ton of less active ysa that the sisters who opened this area 8 months ago had never even met. Its just good to let them know that "hey, I'm here and I care about you." So we just invited them to all of the activities that we have going on during the week and got their contact information. Our prayers were answered in a few ways last week. A few people called and texted us because they were going through hard times and they just wanted a visit from the sister missionaries. Those times really humble me knowing that I CAN make a difference in someone's life and that we are all here to strengthen and uplift and that "charity never faileth". 

A's birthday was on Wednesday so we surprised her at work only to find out that she got the night off but we did get to meet her sister! Her sister actually called A for us and A said that we could go over to her mom's house that she just moved back into a little while ago. So we went over there and pretty much met the whole family! Her devout Catholic great grandma asked if I was religious and I said "Oh yes I am!!" and then she told me to pray for her, it was funny. They were pretty nice to us but the whole thing was pretty funny because they don't really know that A has been meeting with us. She told her brother and one of her sisters a few weeks ago which was huge!! Right now she is just trying to pray to see what day she wants to be baptized. She said that she likes the month of April and wants her friend (who introduced us to her who is leaving for his mission at the end of the month) to baptize her. So it is going to happen soon!! Sadly she wasn't able to come to Conference because she works all day Saturdays and Sunday she was at the hospital with her great grandma and the library. We will just have o watch it with her then :) I'm totally fine with that! 

I know this church is true! And you do too, so go share it with someone this week :) And like Elder Ballard taught us, I will follow-up with that!! haha. I love and miss y'all so much!! Stay strong!

Oh yeah so we are moving in with the Peterson's (oddly enough) on the 16th of this month so my new address will be:

2 Portmarnock Pl

Pueblo, CO 81001

XOXO
Sister Peterson 

Pictures:

On the "red carpet" for fhe! We were the hostesses so we got roses! 

We pranked the zone leaders for April fools day. We blocked their truck in and wrote "Just Married" on the back with window marker haha