May 27, 2019

Sorry for the late email today's been crazy. This week was packed with all kinds of stuff. Tuesday we had interviews, it was sad the last time we are having interviews from President Bekker. If you know our mission president was called an area 70 it was announced in general conference we are stoked for them. 

Wednesday we did service at Pearl Harbor! We only do our service in the USS Missouri. Sadly we don't go on tours but we did sweep around the ship that was pretty cool. Friday we had Zone conference I saw Elder Gates! for those that don't know me and Elder Gates went to high school together but graduated different years. It was a Super cool experience it helped me realize the importance of having fellowship with investigator's how we can be better missionaries. It was on Thursday we found two new people named Kasey and Rances. They are really interested and have never heard of it before. As we were in the middle of teaching them a member walked by turns out it was their aunt. It blew my mind that their extended family are members but yet they have never heard of Joseph Smith. It taught me the importance of teaching the gospel to all our family, your cousin that's not a member is in need of the gospel. 

Saturday was Amazing we had Amanda and Elizabeth's baptism! We've seen so many miracles here in Wahiawa, We've only taught them for three weeks and in our first lesson they asked if they could be baptized. Ther service was great, it wasn't ran by kids like I thought it was but still was an amazing spiritual experience. For the other missionaries out their, never lose hope there are miracles waiting to happen. 

When we left the baptism there was a freaking forest fire! it was pretty far from us but turns out it's been going on for weeks now. I was hoping the whole forest fire thing would be done when I left Spanish Fork. Hope everyone had a great week. Stay safe and spread the gospel to your family. Aloha

Elder Peterson

1.Amanda and Lizzys Baptism

2. Me and Elder Gates

3. Forest fire

4. Me and my comp at Pearl Harbor

May 20, 2019 3 Months!!!

It's crazy to think 3 months ago today I left to the MTC. It's weird because it's felt like 3 months but at the same time it feels like it wasn't that long ago. Things are going great here in Wahiawa. We have a baptism this week for Amanda and Elizabeth. It's crazy we've been teaching them since the beginning of May. They already have the baptism program figured out, what makes me laugh is half the program is going to be ran by kids so we'll see how that goes. Our next investigator's that have a baptism date isn't clear until September so unless we have another miracle investigator, Wahiawa wont have baptism while I'm here. 

Not too much happened this week. Thursday half our appointments canceled but we did get to teach this member. We taught young military couple Brittney and Jamey. The lesson before we taught the Plan of Salvation it blew their mind that there are 3 different glories. Fun fact in 1 Corinthians 15:41 it speaks about the 3 different glories. Jamey and Brittany agree to come to church and but sadly they didn't show. I don't know if its like that at other missions but we always have some agree to come to church, we'll message the day before and they say there still coming, but the morning of we'll message with no response and they don't show. We did teach a less active family the Restoration. It's one of the those cases were the parents haven't gone to church in so long the kids barely know the basic principles. It's kinda like we teaching new people but they are members. 

Friday we went over a less active members house and had a great lesson with him. He struggles to come to church because of some mental issues so we offered to help in anyway we could. The next morning I wake up and see my phone I have 4 messages from the member, the messages were links to songs he sent us at 4 am. he's a bit of a night owl. 

Saturday we caught up with some high schoolers we've shared a few messages with. We caught them right before they were going to play some basketball. My companion the baller he is asked if we could join. We played basketball for good minute. We may have not taught a lesson to them but we did plant the seed for future missionaries. 

Hope everyone is doing great. My favorite scripture this week is Ether 12:27, If we humble ourselves before God he can make our weaknesses become strengths. I love and miss you all. Aloha

Elder Peterson

May 13, 2019

Things have been going great in Wahiawa. We had Baptism for Austin and Ryan! They've been taught for more than a year, their parents are member's its just they didn't want them to be baptized when they are 8 because they wanted them to make the choice for themselves. It's an interesting way of going about it. The Baptism was great, It really is one of the greatest moments having someone your teaching making covenants with God. 

Rest of the week was great. Wednesday I had an exchange with Elder Clawson. It was the first time I took over my area! The exchange was great, Elder Clawson is a super cool Elder. Most of the appointments fell through that day but we did teach Lee Ann. Lee Ann is moving to North Carolina this month and decided that she wants to be baptized in North Carolina. Hopefully she will be in an area with one of you MTC sisters. She's ready to be baptized, we're just helping her until she's in North Carolina. 

Thursday we came across two teenage girls, Leila and Loha. At first they were like oh were Atheist but the more we talked they they told us they believed in God. They really enjoyed our message they asked us when the next time we could visit, which is crazy because it's usually the other way around. We've teaching this older Catholic woman named Betty Bruce. We always try to teach about the gospel but every time she tells us to watch a dude named Sid Roth, some catholic pastor. Interesting lady that wants to convert us but good luck with that. 

Nothing much happened the other days except for the Baptism Saturday. Sunday was Mother's day! Hope all the mom's had an amazing Mother's day. We went over to a member's house to eat dinner. Member invited two investigators we are teaching the plan was to baptize them on the 25th. We'll that was the plan. She walks in drinking green tea which the rule is to get baptized you have to be following the Word of Wisdom for 3 weeks to get baptized, to make things worse is the member who's fellowshipping them say's drinking green tea isn't against the Word of Wisdom. Our next lesson with them going to be interesting.

Hope everyone is doing great. All the missionaries out their, make sure your investigators have a reasonable date to be baptized and are following the commandments. I love and miss you all. Stay radical! Aloha. 

Elder Peterson 

May 6, 2019

It's been a wild week. This Tuesday nothing really happened after our Pday ended. Wednesday I had an exchange with our Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Vance in Mililani. It was great, during our finding time we were trying to get in contact with this specific person. Well the address in the area book app was off we had to walk clear down the street. No problem for us missionaries, we walked down a few blocks it felt like longer than it really was. We get to the door and we can hear children singing, we thought oh this great they are home, we were probably knocking on their door a for a solid 5 minutes and no one answered, we could even hear the kids saying someone's at the door but its all good we did find 2 new people for zone leaders to teach. 

Thursday was great. We went over to a ward missionaries an hour before we took him with us to a lesson just to make sure he's still good to go. Turned out it was his brother's Faita's birthday. Faita is an older guy and of course we had to give him a present what greater gift we could give him than take him finding with us. We took him to probably one of the most ghetto streets with us he wasn't too concerned he knew a lot of people their. We didn't find anyone with him but he did get a taste of what we do everyday. We took Faita back home and took his brother Papu with us to a lesson with to a person named Dallas. Dallas actually works with our Ward Mission Leader in the Military he's been asking him tons of questions about our church. We went over there and taught him the Restoration lesson, It blew his mind that we have a living prophet on the earth today. We gave him The Book of Mormon he asked us to give him a scripture that would blow him away. We asked him to read Moroni 10 and ask God if The Book of Mormon is true. We met with our Ward Mission Leader the next day he told us that Dallas called him immediately after the lesson. He told him he loved what we taught him he plans on reading the Book of Mormon when he gets time read it.

Friday was good. We came across some older lady that needed to move a couch into her house. I'm 90% positive that she found this couch somewhere on the street, It's a common thing finding couches nobody wants on the side of the road. We took the couch in her house and left the old one on the street for who ever wants a old white couch we shared with her The Book of Mormon. She loved our help and said she would read but she does not like Joseph Smith Bible translations. As we know a lot of plain and precious truths were removed from the Bible by Creeds and some translation error's, you'll find most religions believe that the Bible as it is know is the most correct book but hopefully she'll still be open to our message.

Saturday was great. We did finally got in contact with some people we haven't talked to in weeks. Small miracles.

Sunday was amazing. We have 2 new people with a Baptism date, We got the Kellum baptism interview done, I got bit by a dog and went to the ER, then we finished with some accounting. Before Sacrament started a member wanted us to have a lesson with her friends. Her friend is a mom with two kids, Liam who is 5, and Elizabeth who is 7 turning 8 this month, and of course the mom Amanda. We taught the normal first lesson the Restoration and the mom and her kid asked what's the soonest they could be baptized. This blew our minds, it turns out she's been coming to church since September and knows that this is the true church. When we finish we gave Amanda and Elizabeth both a Book of Mormon, Liam the 5 year old looks at the Book and say's "This book is non-fiction" it blew our minds even more, I've never knew a 5 year old would even know the words non-fiction and most importantly know The Book of Mormon is non-fiction. 

We headed over the the Kellum's house the two kids that are getting baptized is Austin and Ryan. The mom and dad are members, the only reason they haven't been baptized is because they want them to choose baptism not because everyone else is getting baptized. Their baptism is next week they are ready to go. Seeing some you are teaching get baptized is really one of the best experiences. 

You're probably wondering about the dog bite. We walked to a investigator's house to see if their home and of course they're not. As I'm walking away this pit bull jumps out of the shadows, no barking or any warning and bites my ankle. It bit a hole in my shoe, left a few good cuts and it gave me a big gash. We ran back to the pad, had the zone leaders
come help. Called Sister Missionary over all the medical stuff she told us to head to ER to make sure it's not anything serious. We get over there they clean it out they said its not bad, it didn't damage any muscle so I'm good to walk but it went through some of the tissue in my foot. I'm doing good now, I just walk with a limp and they have me on antibiotics to make sure I don't get an infection. 

That's it for this week, it's been pretty wild, a lot miracles happened. I hope everyone is doing great and for the missionaries out, watch out for sneaky pit bulls. Aloha.