Elder Peterson Week 13

I have never been so full on Thanksgiving night...

On Thanksgiving day Elder Webb and I had 3 dinners to attend. It was awesome, we got all kinds of food and we got to meet the family of some people in our ward. The saddest part about the whole day was that I only got one slice of pumpkin pie... Now, I'm not being ungrateful. I have a lot of gratitude for these families that allowed us to sit with them and eat amazing food. I'm just a little disappointed in myself for not eating enough pie... 

SO WE BOUGHT PUMPKIN PIE! Now I get half of a whole pie to myself. I'm grateful I have the money to be able to buy a pie and that we thought of getting one. 

Out of the whole week, today was probably the most interesting. After the Ultimate Frisbee game that continues to infuriate me, cause I get very competitive :( and after shopping we all met at the church (as usual). We had a gingerbread house competition which was super fun. Elder Webb and I bought a kit and ours turned out perfect. The Zone Leaders made a temple out of graham crackers and frosting. The hermanas had a kit and the other sisters did the graham cracker thing as well. Elders Westover and Black... I can't even explain the mess they made. I'll put a picture below and you can try and figure it out yourselves. Needles to say, we had a lot of fun and ate a lot of sugar.

Now for the good part. Elder Webb and I were heading back to our car after getting turned down at yet another door when this guy stops us. He's sitting cross-legged on the concrete and messing around with a bike chain that he had curled up into a disc thing. He stops us and tells us that he wants to talk. 

     "You guys are the ones to talk to right? You're educated in 'the word,' right?" 

We just went along with it and said           "Yeah! What exactly would you like to talk about?"

He told us he wanted to learn. So we began by asking about his background. 

... 

This man. Mark, he said was name, is a very interesting man. 

Apparently, time itself began when he was born (he gave us the exact time and date). He said a lot of things. Such as: "I know I'm not God like I think I am." "The word supercalafragelistic (however you spell that) is in the dictionary because of me." "Australia's job is to make sure the Earth doesn't get invaded." "You watch this Christmas, when the planets align, it's gonna be something to behold *wink*"

He went on and on and on with the most random stuff I've ever heard. He kept calling us foot soldiers and kept telling us to teach him, but he wouldn't stop talking. After about 15 minutes of this we decided to just give him our number and dip (which took forever as well because he just kept going). I can't explain how confused I was after leaving that conversation, but boy was it interesting.

Oh Mark... The United States was not created by your hand. *sigh*

Anyway, I'll wrap this up. 

We just finished Thanksgiving week and we're entering the Christmas season. But! That doesn't mean you get to stop being thankful! Express your gratitude towards others and especially to your Father in Heaven. I can promise that as you take time to express your love and gratitude towards God, you will be able to see more blessings in your life. And I don't just mean that you'll receive more blessings (which you will), but you'll be able to recognize the ones you already have, with less effort. We each have been given so many blessings, so many things to be thankful for. As we express gratitude for these things, we'll train our eyes and hearts to find even more things to be grateful for. Try it!

I'm thankful for my family, my Heavenly Parents, my Savior, my knowledge and education, my friends, my calling, my freedom, my health, my talents, my testimony, my faith, my backpack, my country, and soooo much more. Especially you guys! 

Have a FANTASTIC week! 

-Elder Peterson

1) our awesome Christmas tree

2) Wendy and Evelyn (they fed us on Thanksgiving) 

3) Elder Webb doing... Something

4) the gingerbread houses. (ours is second from left) 

5) Elders Westover and Black created this monstrosity. That's all I have to say. 

6) I got to ride a bike on my exchange with Elder Dyer! I need to get my own bike... 

7) definitely not me falling asleep... Elder Webb played 2 Nephi 1:13-14 to wake me up. Hilarious. 

8) elephant. 

Thanksgiving Week

Ahh Thanksgiving Week, the time spent with loved ones, eating good food and being thankful. At least that is what it should be, but definitely not what my experience was. 

On Monday I started feeling a little under the weather but nothing too bad. We have been promising the Heslop girls a play date and set one up for that day since everyone was off from school. Rylee was doing her scheduled driving to get her permit and after I picked her up we hurried home where we found the girls with Avynlea starting to decorate sugar cookies. They had a lot of fun doing that and then once they were done decorating and eating cookies they played game with Avynlea and Rylee. Avy got out some of her Calico Critters so they could play with them and they all just had fun. After a couple of hours of fun we took them home and then came home to chill out.

Genni, Emmaline, Rylee, Hazel, Avynlea and Catherine

Tuesday I started to feel worse and by Wednesday I was coughing, had a runny nose which was also super congested and I had serious pressure and pain in my sinuses. We were supposed to leave that afternoon to spend Thanksgiving in Utah but I was so sick I did not want to travel and spread my germs. After doing a lot of crying I called my family to let them know what was going on. Kenedy was already there and I really wanted to be there as well. I told them that as of now we were not going to be able to make it but we would reevaluate the next morning and if I was feeling better we would drive down in the morning. After that I did a lot more crying and spent a lot of time feeling sick and sorry for myself.

Rylee had three drives to do with the instructor and on the last drive a parent had to come along. Kefford was working and was not able to and when I went that morning to take Rylee I told her instructor Lexoe that I was really sick and did I really have to go on the drive. She said I really had to and it was ok to be in the car with them even thought I was sick. I wore a mask as did Lexie and I brought along tissues and gatorade to help me get through the two hours of driving. I felt bad every time I had a coughing fit but she seemed cool with it and hopefully she didn't get sick.

Once we were done with the drive Rylee got her Permit and she is now officially a permitted driver, Heaven help us all.

After the drive we went back home and I went back to bed where I did more crying and more feeling sorry for myself. Thursday morning I knew we were not going to be able to go and I felt terrible. I was disappointed for myself and for my girls who were really excited to be with their Utah family. I let my family know and then I went back to bed. I was sad but not miserable sad, I had already come to terms with not being able to go and it was not ok but it was ok. Kefford took Rylee and Avynlea to his parents for Thanksgiving where they got to eat dinner with Bob and Alison, Kelseys family and also Trevors family. I am glad that they were able to have somewhere to go and they did bring me home some dinner which was nice.

Ryker called that morning and it was good to talk with him. He had a lot of appointments for dinners and was able to eat basically all day. Avynlea took a screen shot of the two of them while they were talking ad Ryker sent a picture of the Christmas tree in their apartment.

Friday morning I was finally feeling a bit better and Kefford and I woke up the girls nice and early to go do some Black Friday shopping. They each had a foster child name to get Christmas presents for and it was fun for them to think of others who are in need. Avynlea had a girl who was 14 and she got her a curling iron, crocs and a gift card to American Eagle. Rylee had a girl who was 8 and she bought her barbies, pajamas and a gift card to build-a-bear. All of the items we bought them were the ones they asked for which made it easy to pick stuff out.

 

Elder Peterson Week 12

 I really don't know how to start this one. Not for lack of stories, more so because I'm tired. 

     We had a Zone Conference last week and it was super fun. We learned a lot about involving members in missionary work. Also a lot about earning the trust of your ward members. We also had some companion unity training. We were given a topic and told not to show each other. Then one of us taught our topic to another companionship for 30 seconds.Then the other one taught their topic and tried to tie it into the other's. Then to finish it off the first companion had to extend an invitation that is based on both topics. Elder Webb had Jesus Christ's Divine Mission and I had The Gospel of Jesus Christ. So ours was very easy.

Later in the conference we got burgers and homemade mac and cheese for lunch. It was super good. Elder Jenks (one of the mission presidency counselors) is a very good cook.

     On Saturday we went over to Sister Aranza's to help her move some boxes. I think she has polio, or something like that where she can't move her legs. She gets around on an electric wheelchair thing. She wanted us to re-organize her storage so that she could get around in it. The last missionaries to help her made it worse, so she wanted us to fix it. It went by very quickly and it was a lot of fun. Whenever we got a box to fit where she wanted it she would go "Hot diggity!! You guys are so nifty!" At the end she told us it was time to go grocery shopping. I was very confused as she led us to her kitchen. Then she proceeded to throw cans of food and things of frozen meat into these grocery bags. She also gave us a ton of random boxed goods and some cereal. It was super sweet of her and when we were leaving she kept thanking us for our help. We quickly thanked her back for all the food she was giving us and she would just laugh and say "When missionaries help me out, I take 'em grocery shopping in my house." I'll put a picture of our "loot" (as Elder Webb calls it) below. This lady is amazing though (not just for giving us food). She calls her disability a blessing because she gets to help other people see that nothing can stop us if we try hard enough. She is an actual motivational speaker and she teaches people with disabilities to not give up. She also likes to go fishing and crabbing. Pretty cool.

     Yesterday was probably my favorite day of this past week. Church was awesome, as usual. But since everyone is gone for Thanksgiving, there was an even smaller congregation than usual. Elder Webb and I got to help with the sacrament, which took about 2 minutes. Monica came to church again and she brought the huge print Book of Mormon we had given her. She said she's been reading it, but not as much as she feels like she should. I told her that I'm sure everyone in the church can relate to that guilt, but also that we are super happy she's trying to read it. We went to her house later last night and read Alma 32 with her. We explained what Alma was talking about, comparing "the word" to a seed. She really liked it and she began to understand that as we put effort into studying the scriptures and as we follow Christ, our faith grows and we begin to feel the spirit stronger in our lives. I told her to not be so hard on herself for not reading a lot. I challenged her to read at least one verse every day (emphasizing at least) and I promised her that as she does this, as she gives place for the seed in her heart, her faith will grow and she will see so many blessings. She's still struggling to quit smoking, so I told her it would also give her strength and motivation to stop smoking. We talked about a ton of other stuff too, but I liked all that the most.

     One thing I've been trying to teach myself is that I cannot force people to keep their commitments. We've asked so many people to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and I think Monica might be the only one that actually does. It makes me sad, because if people would just take a little time to do this, everything else would be so much easier. I've caught myself thinking things like "Alright, how can I make sure they actually do it this time?" 

Everyone has their agency and no matter how hard I try, I cannot force anyone to keep their commitments. I've come to realize that as long as I do my part as a missionary, I can feel successful. It is up to every individual person to make the choice to turn to the Savior. When they do so, it is beyond exciting and it makes me want to give them a big high-five. But when they don't, all I can do is extend the invitation again, promise blessings, and share my testimony. (and help them understand why I'm extending it, if they don't know why)

     I'm gonna call everyone out now to wrap this up.

Monica has been reading the scriptures ever since we gave her the bigger copy. She tries to read it everyday and still feels that she could be doing more. This alone is awesome, but she also has several family members in hospitals and is constantly visiting them and friends to serve them. We should all take this as an example. We could all do better at reading the scriptures, myself obviously included. 

I challenge everyone that reads this to read their scriptures EVERYDAY. Even if it's just one verse, make time for the word of God. And for those who already read them everyday, ask yourself if you're giving enough room for the seed. Are you nourishing it well? Go and read Alma 32:40-43 and ask yourself if you've been diligent enough. (don't worry, I will do the same. I'm not gonna be a hypocrite here)

     Anyway, I hope y'all have a good Thanksgiving!!! 

                 -Elder Peterson

1) I made some potatoes and sausage for Sunday dinner and Elder Webb made some lemonade

2) We found a Fiesta shopping cart and decided to take it back to the store

3) This kid behind us in sacrament meeting kept kicking me. Funny kid. 

4) Our "Loot" from Sister Aranza, bless her soul

5) this dog literally climbed the fence to try and bite us. It was actually pretty impressive

6) Brush your teeth kids... 

Abigail Merle Brown

The night we got back from our Disney Day Ashleigh finally decided to go into labor! I was so excited that Abigail was finally going to make an entrance and that hopefully I would be able to see her. I was getting nervous that I would have to leave before I got to meet the reason I went in the first place. 

Emily was staying the night at Mom's because she was so tired after our Disney day that she didn't have it in her to drive to Ashleighs. We got the call in the middle of the night so Emily left to be with Atticus while his parents went to the hospital. 

In the morning mom and I met up with Emily and the big brother to be at Target and then we stopped at Costco to get a couple of items and then we ate pizza and ice cream at the food court. I had told Atticus a couple of days before that I would take him to get some ice cream and he did not let me forget that promise.

I got a bubble wand at Disney land and later that day I took Atticus into the backyard to play with the bubbles. 

After all day of trying to get the baby pushed out it was deemed necessary to have a c-section and finally little Abigail Merle was born. We were so excited to get a picture of the sweet baby and once again I was worried that I would not be able to meet her in person because with the covid restrictions I wasn't sure we were welcome in the hospital and I knew ashleigh would not get released before I had to leave.

 

The next morning we found out one visitor at a time was allowed in as long as we had our vaccination card and so Emily, Heather and I headed over to the hospital to meet our newest nice. We Brough Atticus so that Andrew Brown could take him out for lunch and to spend some time together. While he was gone I was able to go in first and see the little chunk. She did not appreciate being picked up and squared about it a little but but then she calmed down and she just studied me. I was amazed with how intent she was watching me and I loved the bonding time. I stayed for about 20 minutes and then I went out so that Emily and then Heather could go in.

That night I played outside with Atticus some more and then I gave him a bath because ehe was filthy from the trampoline. He enjoyed having me squirt him with the water bottle and I had fun playing with him and making him laugh.

The next morning I went with Heather to mail a package she was sending to Ryker and then we ran a couple of errands including stopping in at savors to get my Mom a walker because she has been having more trouble walking. She needs a hip replacement and has been waiting quite a while for one.

After all of our errands were done I headed over to the hospital to see Ashleigh and my niece one more time before I left that afternoon. She is just darling and I am so glad that I was able to see her before I had to leave not being able to would have been heartbreaking.

Sisters Disney Day 2021!

Because I was going to be in California a week after my birthday I asked Kefford if I could have a ticket to Disneyland for my birthday. He thought that was a great idea and I asked all of my sisters if they could go also. I thought it would be so fun to have a Sisters Disney Day! We were really hoping that Ashleigh wold have had her baby by then so she could go also but no such luck, as of the morning of our Disney Day, November 17th there was still no sign of baby. Erin didn't want to go and so it was just Stephanie, Heather, Emily and I who went and boy did we have fun!

When we got to the park and after we parked we discovered that they were not running the trams so we had to walk from the parking lot to the park which was a bit long but not too bad. We arrived before the rope drop which means we got into the park and could meander down Main Street but the entrance to all the lands was roped off so we waited about 20 minute before we could officially start our day of fun.

Once the rope dropped we scurried to Fantasyland so we could get in line for Peter Pans Flight. Once we got to it their was a pretty good line forming but it was only about a 25 minute wait and it was worth it to get this ride done with. It's a fun ride but its always a very long wait so it's best to do it first. I went on the ride with Heather and it was a lot of fun.

After that we headed over to AdventureLand and New Orleans Square where we did Thunder Mountain Railroad and Pirate's, and tried to do Haunted Mansion. The wait wasn't too long and we made it on the elevator and then right when the doors opened we couldn't get off because the ride was completely backed up. We waited and waited, I don't know how long but long enough that the lights turned on and we sat down on the floor because we were tired of standing. Finally they announced that they had to temporarily close the ride and the would scan our tickets o we could come back later in the day when the ride was fixed and get on without waiting.

We got off and headed over to Splash Mountain. I wasn't too Keen on getting my hair wet. The Pirate's ride already got my bangs wet and I didn't want any more moisture on my hair but Emily was super excited about doing it so we all went on. It was fun and we got wet but oh well, I was able to dry off pretty quickly despite the slightly overcast day. 

We got a picture with Santa and luckily Emily was there to be engaging and talk with Santa, talking with the characters is not often my thing.

We did the Jungle Cruise and this ride broke down while we were on it. One of the other boats stopped working and that caused the boat in front of us, ours and the boat behind us to also stop until they could get the one not working out of our way. Our guide was the best and kept us entertained throughout the entire process. I was sitting right next to him and I was a delight and interacted with him and made it even more fun ;). We definitely had the best guide because while we were stopped we could see the other boats and they were all just sitting there in bored silence so we lucked out for sure.

We were able to get passes to go on the new ride in Star Wars land and as it got nearer to our time we headed over to explore Star Wars Land. I like the Star Wars movies and I was expecting a lot out of the land but I have to say I was a bit under whelmed. It just was a little blah for me. We went on the Smugglers run ride and that was a lot of fun. We got to go inside the Millinium Falcon which was pretty cool and the ride was more interactive then I thought it would be. There were six of us on the ship and we all had different roles, Emily and Stephanie were the flyers, Heather and I were the shooters and the two behind us were something else, I don't know. I had fun pushing buttons and playing my role but I think Stephanie and Emily had the most fun. I would like to go back and try that role the next time we go.

Finally it was our time to ride the rise of the resistance ride and if walking through Star Wars land left me feeling under whelmed then this ride more then made up for it. It was so much fun, so interactive and I loved every minute of it. We were on a ship that got captured by the Empire and we were escorted off and led through a room that had an army of storm troopers and then we were taken outside and then back inside another area where we were put in a holding. As we were in there waiting we were rescued by the good guys and were taken to an escape vehicle where we were chased by the bad guys until we were finally safe. It was so much fun and we had a blast, hands down would do that one again and again.

After that ride we were done with rides, we got some diner and then we did a little bit of shopping. While we were shopping the fireworks and snow started so I stepped outside to enjoy some of the magic. It's hard to get on film how beautiful and magical it was. One thing you have to love Disney for is they do not hold back on the magic.

I had such a fun time with my sister sad am hoping we can make this Sisters Disney Day an annual thing with all of my sisters and sisters in law being able to come.