Port Arthur is awesome. There's no huge buildings cramping us in and the neighborhoods are spread out way better than in Broadway. I missed being able to breathe.
Except right now I can't. For some reason I'm sick again. If I get sick every time I transfer to a new area, I'm gonna be a very upset cheerful missionary (yes mom, I'm cheerful. Don't you say anything ).
We've been having a ton of appointments and teaching opportunities. It's been crazy. We went and taught a lady named Ashly about the Restoration and it went great. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she agreed to try it out. We had a member there with us, I guess she and Ashly are friends somehow. It was nice having a member there to share her own experiences, but sometimes she got a little carried away. To the point of even mentioning polygamy. I held my breath when she said it, but Ashly didn't seem to notice or care. It's not that I don't know how to explain the church's history with polygamy, I'd just rather not in our first lesson. But anyway, it went great and I'm excited to see her progress.
Last Wednesday we went to do service at a soup kitchen, which was really fun.
I got to hand the trays of food to people and see how grateful they were for a little food. Many different kinds of people came through, but I think only one person out of them all was a little rude. We were there for about 3 hours, and I loved every minute of it.
On Thursday the Beaumont and Houston East zones (I'm in Beaumont zone now) had a Christmas conference. It was awesome. We started with some words from President and Sister Larkin where they shared their testimonies of the Savior and then they turned the time over to us. We had a testimony meeting that lasted almost 2 hours. Partly because there's always a couple people who tell 15 minute stories but also because so many of us went up. About halfway through I finally decided to go up as well. I just shared a brief testimony on how the Savior lifts us through our trials. I shared D&C 122:7-8 and Jeremiah 31:18 (look em up). After testimonies we went into the cultural hall and ate a ham and potatoes lunch. It was very good, and there was also a chocolate fountain! One of the missionary's mom works for a company that makes pins, so they got all of us a newly designed mission pin. It was really nice, and I like the pin a lot. After the meal we had a talent show. Some of then were really cool while others weren't really talents (musical chairs??). It was all fun though. I got called up to participate in a comedic act, thankfully all I had to do was eat a croissant. Then we watched a slide show of pictures across the mission before grabbing mail and heading out. The whole thing was a ton of fun and I'm glad we got to do it.
The week has been wild, I've met a ton of new people and we teach several people a day. The past couple days have been a little rough, due to my sickness, but even then it's been great. It never ceases to amaze me how the spirit works in people. In this past week alone I've seen several people moved by the spirit to the point of tears. A couple people we teach have expressed excitement about the things we teach them and others have felt the promptings to contact us. The spirit really does pull us towards the Savior, it's our choice to follow it or not though. I've seen many people angry at us for simply trying to spread the light of Christ. I've taught people who are so drunk or drugged up that they don't even remember meeting with us. I've come to realize how easy it is to ignore the spirit and even drive it away. It is so important that we stay in tune with the spirit at all times. Constantly strive to follow its guidance and never let yourself do something that would cause it to back away from you.
I'll probably write a quick email on Christmas. Have a good week!
-Elder Peterson
1) my pins
2) no, i didn't actually fall in. There was a grate
3) weird duck thing
4) soup kitchen
5) lookout dog
