This past week was a wild one. Or at least I think it was, it's hard to remember without my journal. The days kind of melt together in my head. Regardless, let me share my highlights.
Chronologically, I think the miracle happened first, so sit back and enjoy the story.
Elder Paulsen and I were doing our comp study when it just began to feel odd, like we needed to be doing something else. I brought this to his attention and he told me to pray about it. As I was praying I remembered this tree and bus stop that had seemed somewhat significant when I saw it a week ago. We came to the conclusion that we should go there. When we parked and then walked over to sit by this tree I was a little confused, no one was there and I didn't exactly know what to do next. I looked at Elder Paulsen and said "now what?" He nodded at two men across the busy road and suggested we go talk to them. We went over and asked if they needed help with anything, but the shook their heads and basically shooed us away. I was seriously confused at this point, but I knew that the spirit had prompted us to come to this intersection, so I reminded myself to have faith. Just then I saw a guy sitting at the bus stop across from the tree and I shrugged and said "what about him?" We approached this man who quite frankly looked pretty unapproachable. We started to have a conversation with him and I was astonished. After asking how his day had been, he responded by saying blessed. How so? I asked, and he began to testify of the Savior on the spot. Without even bringing up religion, this man, Isador, began talking about how important it is to trust in Christ, even bringing up the story of Moses and the Brass Serpent. We talked for a while and then Elder Paulsen got his number when he had to leave.
I can't even begin to express how amazing this was to me. I had been constantly telling myself to have faith in Christ, even if what I feel I'm supposed to do is confusing or beyond my understanding. Isador addressed this concern of mine perfectly and his testimony has strengthened mine greatly. There were a lot more little details, but for simplicity's sake, I've written it short.
Sometimes we don't understand the things we're supposed to do, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that we have faith in our all-knowing Heavenly Father, and we will always end up where we need to be. We're still trying to contact him, of course the number doesn't seem to work. But I'm sure we'll find him again.
After that incredible experience the rest of my week seems kind of lame in comparison (except conference). We had more appointments fall through and we've done a lot of street contacting. We actually gave a Book of Mormon to an awesome old guy named Michael. He kept telling us these wild conspiracy theories, so we had to keep relating things back to the gospel 
good times though.
good times though. Conference was amazing, of course. We watched it at the church on Saturday and then we were invited over to watch the Sunday sessions at a member's, the Alpers. They fed us breakfast and lunch, it was great. Then they had us sign a notebook that had a bunch of other Missionary's names.
Speaking of signing things... I had a brilliant idea. I bought these black 10 dollar knock-off crocs at Walmart and I'm having everyone in my District sign them. I'll put a picture below. I had Sister Lake put my name on the front of them, because her handwriting is way better than mine.
Anyway, that's all I've really got right now. I could tell the story of how I got a soccer ball to the shin, stomach, chest, and face (all at about 100 mph) but this is already long enough. I love you guys and I want you to know that I'm having a great time. There's no joy like that of bringing others to the knowledge of the Gospel. I've seen people literally light up at the news that they can be forgiven for all of their sins through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It's real, I know it is and I pray that all of you know too.
Until next time,
Elder Peterson
1) Houston sunsets are beautiful
2) Elder Westover holding Elder Prisbrey (the second r is silent. It sounds like Frisbee).
3) My incredible biscuits that Elder Paulsen complained about. But then he ate about 5 of them.
4) the "crocs." There will be a lot more signatures later.
