Baptism!

 (Elder Petersen)

Hello Everyone!

So this week has been great, just this last Saturday we had a baptism! Her name is Khloe, she is an 11 year old girl who loves gravity falls. It was an amazing experience to be able to help teach her and to watch as she learned about Jesus Christ. We were able to teach her and watch as the light of Jesus Christ started to shine not only within her eyes but in the eyes of her mom as well who is a returning member. This last week also hosted the opportunity to be able to watch the lamb of God production that just came out in theaters, that movie was amazing to see. Later that week Utah lowered the eligible age to be able to receive the Covid vaccine to 16 and above. So we were able after we heard the news to schedule an appointment to get the first of two of our Covid shots that Friday. I was fine after I received the shot, but Elder Quiton my companion the next day was practically comatose because of being hit by not only the shot but also because allergy season arrived. Other than those not much else happened this week. Have a great week y'all!

Sincerely,

Elder Petersen

My weekly...ish

 (Elder Petersen)

Hey everyone sorry for the long time between emails this time around! So over the past couple of weeks there has been some pretty interesting changes for me. We had transfers this last Wednesday but nothing changed with me or my companion. Elder Quiton and I are still going strong as companions, we are currently each others record breaking longest companions. Some that did change however is our area that we cover, so last email our area was Richmond Utah but know we cover an additional stake which tripled our area size geographically, and almost doubled the number of wards that we now cover. As of today we cover 22 full wards with a geographical area that covers everything East and west up to the mountains not crossing into Idaho but stretching on the western side of the area down to right next to Logan. I will put a picture of it down below. So that is fun and we also got a car! Other then that I am teaching an eleven year old girl who is preparing herself to be baptized on the 27th of this month. Sorry for the boring email I just don't know what y'all want to hear so let me know what yall want to hear about and then next email I'll write about that!

A Short Update

 (Elder Petersen)

Hey Everyone just wanted to give y'all a fast update. In the last couple of weeks our mission has gone through a few changes, in one of those changes our mission lost a few cars ours being one of them. We are teaching Khloe and McKinley they are both young girls in the age range of 11 to 13. We are teaching them separately and both are wanting to be baptized. Sorry for such a short email, I'll try and get a better one out next week.

Transfers

 (Elder Petersen)

So as a brief rundown of this last week we had Thanksgiving in which we as missionaries spent the day working and in meetings, but the fun part about the day way we got a turkey dinner that our mission gave us because we could not meet up or go to people's homes like we would do before COVID-19. After dinner though we got to watch as a mission the movie 'The Fighting Preacher' I really enjoyed the movie and would completely recommend yall watching it if you have the chance. The other biggish thing that happened this week was we got Transfer news last night and although alot happened in our mission nothing changed with me so I still have Elder Quiton as my companion in Richmond Utah!

And that's my week hope y'all have been doing well!

Sincerely

Elder Petersen

Update

 (Elder Petersen)

Alright everyone so I know it's been a while so I will try and bring y'all up to date. So last time I wrote I was up in Franklin with Elder Dawson since then I have moved down to Richmond UT with a missionary named Elder Hager. He is an awesome missionary and very hard working! In the couple of weeks that we were companions I learned that he loves to fish, he would if he could fish every day and every hour of each. Unfortunately for him however we were only able to get to a place that he could fish once and that was the Logan River. In his time in Richmond he had managed to find a pair of Waiders so that he could go fly fishing. So because of that when we got to the Logan River on our P-Day (Mondays) he started fly fishing up the river. While he did that I sat on the bank and entertained myself while he slowly walked up the river. And this went on for a couple of hours as he slowly walked up the river and I followed him along the bank. This lasted until he past an inlet to the river and continued on past where I could follow him before we realized that I couldn't follow. And this continued on me watching him walk slowly farther away until it was time for us to leave and he started heading back. The funny thing is that was our last P-Day together because the next day we got a call from the Assistants telling us that Elder Hager was getting transferred out to Preston as the District leader their my district leader in fact... And I got my new companion Elder Bedah that day. He got there and unpacked, then 6 days later we get a call from the Assistants to the President telling us that Elder Bedah was getting transferred again down to Willard. So last Monday I drove for four hours to not only drop him of in Willard but also to drive up to Garland to grab my new companion who's name is Elder Quiton who just so happens to love cooking and baking just as much as I do so we have eaten really well since we became companions. Also since we became companions we have found 2 new people to teach, one of them is a 9 year old named Emma who wants to be baptized and is already ready to be baptized. The others name is Jace who is not as ready as Emma but is a pretty close second. We have not had a chance to have a first lesson yet with either of them but we have a lot of hope for both of them!

September 15th 2020

 (Elder Petersen)

Hey Everyone it's been a while since I last wrote sorry about that. So in the past couple of weeks I have been doing a lot of the same things that I have talked about in my previous emails. The first and foremost thing that we have been doing is calling people, we still haven't been able to go to members homes so any messages that we share have been primarily over technology. The biggest change in my life since I last wrote though is that we had transfers last Wednesday and I got a new companion, his name in Elder Dawson and he is from South Carolina (and hates the cold for some odd reason 😂😂). My days overall have been really good trying to keep busy when everybody else is busy 😅. So for clarification on that last comment in this are which is Franklin Idaho for any who didn't know moat of the people here either farm, hunt or is someway involved with the school district. Which is why as much as we are try to keep busy and meet with as many people as possible we are struggling a little bit. But we are powering through it and becoming better missionaries and better people for all the work that we are doing. Love y'all hope you have an an amazing week and I will talk to y'all later!

August 11, 2020

 (Elder Petersen)

Hey Y'all hope everyone is doing well!

So there have been a few interesting things that have happened in the last few weeks the first of which happened was Wednesday the 29th of July. In which I moved from Providence Utah to Franklin Idaho. My new companions name is Elder Haacke he is from Amarillo TX he is pretty great. We live in a pretty nice apartment with awesome landlords whose names are the Tondini family. Other then transfers the past few weeks have been pretty boring but this upcoming week is going to be pretty hectic because we are having zone conference on Wednesday as well as service tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. So our week is super packed until Saturday and Sunday hit but hopefully throughout the week we will be able to set up as many appointments as we can to fill up those days so that we will be able to have a gloriously filled week in which we won't have to worry about being bored. But it is getting a bit late for me so I am going to end this here and I will talk to y'all later!

July 28th, 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey y'all how ya been? So this week has been interesting the main focus on that being that yesterday Sunday we got transfer news that will take place Wednesday. I will tell you for all of you who have served missions and or are currently serving missions yall would understand how stressful transfer news night can be. But for those who have not yet had the opportunity to serve a mission for whatever reason they are stressful. This is because when you add approaching those days you are in almost constant thought on what is going to happen. I bring this up because as of this Wednesday I will officially be in my as I will be referring to it my third area. Because even though I will have now moved around the mission four times now I have served in only three different areas. My new area is going to be Franklin Idaho which means that I am going back to serve in the state of Idaho. I am super excited for this so I will talk to y'all more about it next week when I know more about what the area looks like.

July 13, 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey y'all what's up?

So the past couple of weeks have been a little interesting so to start off we are teaching a husband and wife couple who are inactive, inactive to the point where they really don't know really anything about the church. We have been teaching them with the wife sister who is a missionary right now in South Carolina and this past Wednesday we had a lesson with them and went over the word of wisdom with them. In that lesson the spirit was so strong that as we talked Ryan who is the husband started to cry. In that moment he realized that he could change and become a better person then he once was, he realized that the atonement truly was the only way for him to be able to live with his Heavenly Father again. This was probably the highlight of my week being able to see the change in the lives of those people who we teach whether member or nonmember. It is such a powerful experience to be able to help people make these changes in their lives one that I truly love. Other than that highlight of my week due to reassignments to our mission we are having another transfer this Wednesday although I have not been transferred nor has my companion Elder Bedah the mission is being changed up quite a bit. I really hope y'all are enjoying my emails even though with most of them there could have been a lot of improvement, I do know that I am not the best at writing and I do have trouble trying to think up stuff that you would like to hear about. So please let me know if there is something that you would like me to write about. So this last week I was experimenting and I made some raspberry rolls that turned out really good hear are some pictures! We also had zone conference so hear is one of our zone pictures.

July 8th 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hello everyone how's life?

So not much has happened since last email except that we did in fact have transfers this last Wednesday, I stayed in Providence with my Companion Elder Bedah. We had zone conference this last Thursday in person which was really nice due to the fact that we previously had not been able to meet in any large group of missionaries in the past. So it was really nice to catch up with some friends that I had not seen in person or otherwise for the past three months. Other than that we honestly did not have very much going on just calling lots and lots of people to set up as many member appointments as possible so not much has happened.

June 24th 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey everyone how's life been?

So the past couple of weeks have been really interesting. So it started out Wednesday the 10th when I got emergency transferred down from Malad to Providence Utah where I have now been living for the past two weeks. I got down here and found out as I looked at our schedule for the next couple of weeks that we had nothing there absolutely nothing so, my new companion Elder Bedah and I spent the next couple of days calling as many people as we could to set up times in which we could meet with them and share a message. So doing this started to fill up our nights so that we were actually semi busy every day. But the really interesting and stressful part about the last couple of weeks was that we had a transfer last Wednesday in which we had to drive a missionary down to Ogden so that he could get to his new area. But even though that was supposed to be one of our regularly scheduled transfer days it didn't end up being that way because most of the Missionaries that we are getting whether by reassignment from another mission or through reassignment at the MTC most of them were going to arrive on this next Wednesday. Those two transfers were probably the most stressed out that I have been in a while. It has been a nice couple of weeks however being back in Providence Utah due to it being my first area of my mission and being able to talk to and get tk know again some of the amazing members in this area. But that has honestly been the highlight of the past couple of weeks. Now I honestly after these past couple of months really am not sure what to write about anymore so if y'all that are taking the time out of their days to read my bad emails want to hear about anything specific about my days or Missionary work right now email me and tell me please.

Love your brain dead missionary (because all he does is call people for 12 hours a day)

Elder Petersen

June 10th 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey Y'all what's. So this last week a lot has happened ranging from a transfer board last Monday to breakfast at and area 70s home.

To start out as I just said we got a transfer roster Monday and had transfers Wednesday due to an influx of reassigned Missionaries into our mission. Nothing changed on my end however I an still up here in Malad Idaho with my companion Elder Davis. On Wednesday we got a call from the Assistants to the President telling us that we were getting our truck back Thursday which was really nice. Then we had a few uneventful stress filled days with meetings and setting up meetings. On Sunday however we got a call from an area 70 named Elder Hess who lives in our area asking us if we would like to come over to his house the next morning (this morning) and have breakfast with him, because of COVID-19 and all that we are still in isolation so we were uncertain if we could accept his offer so we told him that and just don't worry about it I'll get you permission which I'd how we ended up having breakfast with an area 70 this morning.

We also went on a hick during P-Day today it was an amazing hike with beautiful scenery. Enjoy these pictures!

So that has been my week this week hope yours have been going well.

June 3rd 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey y'all what's up!

We just got a transfer roster today two weeks before our normal transfer because of the amount of missionaries that were resigned to this mission after there missions got closed. So this week we a getting 29 new missionaries into our mission. Just from these Missionaries coming into our mission our mission president President Hobbins created 2 brand new zones. But in other news from this week we tried to be as busy as we possibly could which resulted in us having 15 appointments alone this last Thursday which was really nice until we tried confirming with them to see if we were still good to share our message. What sucked about that was that 8 out of those 15 canceled on us😭. I hope all of your missionary efforts are going well and not as sucky as that day but other then that day our week has been awesome. Hope yours goes great! Love y'all!

May 29 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey how are you all doing this week? It has been a pretty good week this last week. And this next week is looking to be pretty good as well. We are finally getting to the point where we are actually busy in the course of a week and it is going to be nice knowing that we are going to be able to do something in the next couple of weeks. One thing that I am excited for is that our district leader just challenged us to set up as a district 250 appointments for this next week. In a district of four sets of missionaries that might be thought of as an extremely hoped for and far reaching goal but I know that we can do it. And one thing that I love is a challenge. I hope y'all are challenging yourselves to become better member Missionaries even at this time where we can't get out as much as we may like. I know that missionary work is possible, I know that it is hard sometimes not being able to see your friends in person. But one thing that I truly do know is that God loves each and every one of us each individually. He knows us so he will never give up on us and he will never give us a challenge that we cannot overcome. That is one thing that I do know. I hope y'all have a great week! Love y'all.

May 20th 2020

(Elder Petersen)

How are y'all doing this week?

I've been doing well this week although it has been I bit boring I have managed to bring some bit of entertainment into my life through baking this last week I have made bread, bagels as well a different things in cooking. I hope that y'all are finding things that you can do to help break up the monotony of life right now when you are stuck in doors with little variety to spice up your lives. If nothing else you can pick up your scriptures and read about the Striping warriors or read about Jesus Christ healing the leaper. I love this gospel, I love God and the one thing that has kept me sane these last few months is the fact that God loves me no matter what I do. And I can promise you that he loves you to and he will always be there looking out for you. I love y'all and I hope you have a great week!

May 13 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey y'all what's up?

So this last week we had our first district council in person for about 6 weeks and it was so much fun! I had honestly forgotten how much that I had missed going to missionary meetings in person and how much more fun they were. In anticipation of that and the fact that we had, had transfers the day after and we were saying goodbye for at least a little while two of the Missionaries in our district because they got transferred out I made cinnamon rolls to say goodbye to those Missionaries as they went off to their new areas. Our new district leader is awesome his name is Elder Wakatsuki. Other than district council last Tuesday and transfers that happened Wednesday all is going well, albeit a tad boring still. Sorry the letter is so short but I hope these pictures make up for it!

Bread

(Elder Petersen)

So this week we was a pretty good week being, we just got transfer news yesterday and I am staying up here in Malad with my companion Elder Davis, we are still under quarantine so it has been pretty boring so to keep the monotony down I have been baking so that I don't have to eat the same things everyday and can do something during the day. So this week I made bread dough, which I have since turned into pizza crusts bread loaves and cinnamon rolls. I apologize for how short my emails typically are lately but I'll try to make them better in the future.

April 28 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey Everyone how are y'all doing this week? Well this week for me has been pretty darn good for us. To start out this week their was not a lot going on so because of that and because I wanted to the work moving I challenged my District of which I am only a member of it, not to mention a district of only four compionships to set up appointments with members. A goal of not 20, not 50, but 100 appointments in a single day. And we did it!! My companion and I setting up a grand total of 38 appointments. We work hard that day calling close to 150 people that day alone. That was definitely the highlight of my week being able to as a District set up all of those appointments up. Setting up those appointments on Thursday led to us being able to have 12 appointments as a companionship yesterday being extremely busy all day. Other than those experiences it has been a pretty dull week. I hope I'll have a better letter next week!!!

Baptism

(Elder Petersen)
So this week was really awesome because our investigator Francis was Baptized this last Saturday in a pretty different baptism at least for me. The first thing that was different was there were only ten people at the Baptism. It was different as well because while there were only 10 people at the Baptism itself, we were able to video call other people into the ordinance so that they could participate in the Baptism. It was a very special time with her fiancé performing the baptism and the confirmation being able to confirm her a member of the Church. And while that was the highlight of our week, we also had our zone conference last Friday and learned a lot about how we can be affective and productive while we are quarantined and in self isolation.

April 14 2020

(Elder Petersen)

So this week was a lot of the same thing as previous weeks since we were quarantined but something that made this week more interesting and exciting was us having two lessons this week with a non-member named Francis. We have been teaching her for about two months now and she just went through her baptismal interview yesterday and passed. Her baptismal date is for this Saturday so this week is going to be a pretty good week.

One experience that I have had this week was making making pizza from scratch dough and everything. We don't even have a bread mixer so I had fun kneading the dough by myself. It has been interesting being quarantined and having to do all of our missionary work over technology.