Elder Peterson Week 21

Here's the hook for this essay: Squirrels bite hard.

          But first, Jannet. I think you guys prayed too hard for her. She's doing much much better now. We haven't had a formal lesson with her in a long time, but she's figuring things out in her life. She plans on moving to her friends house, to get away from some toxic relationships, so hopefully we can meet with her a couple times before then. I know she's been enjoying meeting with us because she calls us A LOT. She also gave me her grandfather's tie clip, so maybe she's been enjoying me especially (). It's a small clip, but I like it. I might give it a good polish sometime. [photo below]

          Last week Elder Child and I went to talk to a guy named Dallas. It was incredible!! His "brother" (really good friend) came in as we started and then sat down to listen! They both asked awesome questions and loved what we were sharing. We taught them about the Restoration and about how you have to read and pray about the Book of Mormon yourself to find out if it is true. They took the invitation to heart and told us they would read and write down questions for us. We are meeting with them again tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited. His friend's name is Tristan by the way. A couple of great guys that couldn't believe we volunteered to go without girlfriends or wives for 2 years .

          Here's the part you've been waiting for. A friend of Derrick's, Mr. Adkins, asked us if we could help him move some dirt from the side of his pool. His pool was installed wrong, so he needed us to dig down to the bottom of it so he could fix some of the foundation. After a while we had finished digging and he began cutting things with a tool. We can't help with that, so we found entertainment by watching this squirrel dart in and out from under Mr. Adkin's tool shed. It wanted sunlight, but each time it came out we were there and it got scared. Then I had the bright idea to try and catch it. I sat next to the hole for a while, my hand hovering over the spot it would come out. Eventually it did come out, and I almost got it. It just barely squirmed back into the hole before I got a hold on it. We gave up for a while and helped him clean out the space between his fence and the shed. Then I noticed the squirrel was sitting  about 3 feet from the hole. Mr. Adkin's son (or friend, I couldn't tell) came up with me. We put our arms on the tree so it couldn't go up the tree and I was standing between it and it's hole. I slowly leaned down until my hand was a couple inches above it. Then I snatched it up before it could run. Now, I admit this was a dumb decision, but I figured I would be fine since I had work gloves on and I grabbed it by the neck. As soon as I stood up it bit my thumb HARD. I threw it down and then it tried to attack my leg, so I kicked it away. It ran away with red on its face. I realized it was blood and I seriously hoped it wasn't mine.

It was.

I looked down and my glove had a hole on my thumb that was getting pretty red. I pulled the glove off and saw that the squirrel had bitten pretty deep. I immediately rinsed it off with water and then put some hydrogen peroxide on it with bandaids. But Sister Simpson (mission nurse) suggested I go to an urgent care. So I did, and they said I was fine. Which I new. They said the squirrels very rarely actually have rabies and that I just need to take some antibiotics to prevent infection. 

So yeah, pretty dumb of me. But the fact remains: I CAUGHT THE SQUIRREL!!

My mother doesn't care about that detail...

         We recently had a good conversation about faith with some members last night. We talked about how faith without works really is dead. I was reading in a Book of Mormon study book and it talks about the brother of Jared. About how the Lord didn't give him the answer but instead let him figure it out. The brother of Jared made the stones and then asked the Lord to give them light. The book talks about how there's work with faith. Just like we can't expect to get a trophy before winning a race, we can't expect the Lord to give us blessings without doing everything we can to be prepared to obtain the blessings. And that's the key, we have to do everything we can to obtain the things we ask for, and then the Lord will provide what we can't accomplish on our own. God didn't tell Nephi how to get the plates from Laban, nor did He tell Ammon how to convert the king. Just like them, we have to put forth all of our effort before the Lord will jump in to fill in the rest.

          We haven't met with Ebony in a while, but I think we are soon. Dallas and his friend need some prayers so they can find for themselves that the Book of Mormon is true. Jannet is trying to move away from some abusive people. And Marcus needs to know that what we have to share with him can seriously change his life.

          Also, one thing I forgot to mention, Brother Fidler showed us his garage and some of his projects. They are AWESOME. Pictures below.

          Stay cool guys. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVYNLEA!!!!!!!! (tomorrow)

1) The Tie Clip

2) Cool college building 

3) Statue of liberty

4) Brother Fidler's license plate collection (51, try to figure out why)

5) project 1

6) project 2

7) still project 2

8) Elder Child and I

Districts Cheer Competition

 

For the District cheer competition I wanted to make a FatHead of Avynlea to wave around. I thought it would be fun if we had them for the entire team and I sent a message out to the Cheer Board to see if they would approve using some of the Cheer funds to pay for them. I researched and estimated that it would cost about $8 per cheerleader which I thought was not bad at all. I told them if approved I would take care of getting the supplies and making them. They gave me the go ahead and I let parents know that unless they sent me a different picture that I would use the pictures the cheerleaders had taken in the Fall. I started the process Tuesday night and was having a lot of issues with Resolution quality, it was stressing me out and I finally had to close my computer and go to bed  and deal with it in the morning.

Tuesday morning Rylee was saying the morning prayer for us and she asked if there was anything we wanted her to include in the pray. I told her to pray for my Mom who just had hip replacement surgery and then I said that the FatHeads have been stressing me out and I had a hard time sleeping the night before because I was stressed and so to pray for me to be able to get them done, that it will work out. So Rylee starts her pray and she blessed Grandma and then she says "Bless Mom and her FatHead that she will be able to sleep tonight". Hahaha, thanks Rylee :)

Her prayer worked and I was able to get the pictures uploaded and looking good and then I had them printed and I cut them all out and then attached them to foam core boards. I then cut them out again and attached them to a paint stick and I was done. They turned out so cute and I was super happy and excited!

The picture Natalie wanted me to use I was not able to blow up as big because the resolution was not as good so her head was a little but smaller then the others. It was funny seeing hers and Avynlea's together.

The Team competed in Sideline, Pom and Show, they placed 5th in Pom and made it to state with that routine but didn't place in the others. It was disappointing but not unexpected. They were only taught the Show routine two weeks ago and were not given enough time to really practice. Avynlea did great and performed well and stayed up in all her stunts and I am super proud of her. While I was waiting in line to get Avynlea a districts sweatshirt her coach saw me and came over to thank me for making the FatHeads, she said she really appreciated it and that she was going to give me a sponsors t-shirt as a thank you. I really appreciated her thanking me and felt appreciated.

Avynlea, Natalie, Paige and their Fatheads

Avynlea, Natalie, Paige and Allen 

Elder Peterson Week 20

This should be an interesting transfer... more on that later.

          Last Saturday Derrick took Elder Bowers and I out to lunch. We each got 3lbs of crawfish and boy was it good. He had to teach us how to eat them, but once we figured it out it was super good. The only unfortunate thing was how spicy they were. By the end of lunch my lips were numb and I couldn't taste much of anything. Still awesome though!

          Last week we also had social media training. It was very good and I actually learned a lot about every aspect of missionary work. We spoke with the social media specialists and they taught us a lot about chapel tours. I'm really excited to do some tours of the chapel, I feel like it will help our friends be less nervous about coming to church. They also talked to us about being "finishers," basically hard workers with no regrets. I liked their testimonies and there's a lot I can and will be improving on.

          I can't remember much else, but let's talk about today. I have a new comanion, Elder Child. What I'm excited about is that I'm training him! He's brand new and I have been trusted to begin his training. He is from American Fork, Utah and he seems like a hard worker, which is good. At the building where transfers takes place I saw all of my companions in one spot. I spoke with Elders Frogley, Paulsen, Webb, and Bowers at the same time with Elder Child next to me. It was pretty cool, I love seeing those guys. I will miss Elder Bowers, he's gonna be a good friend for a while, but he is also training somewhere north of here. Also, Elder Frogley is  a District Leader now, he's gonna do awesome, I'm excited for him. I can't really think of much else to say, maybe I should start writing these with my journal next to me.

          These are some people you guys should pray for:

-Ebony is meeting with us fairly frequently, but I'm not sure how well she understands everything. She wants to change her life for the better, so we are trying to get her to see how the Church will do that for her.

-Jean has been meeting with the missionaries for a while, he has a pretty traumatic past and he has some things he's struggling to accept (things like the after life, word of wisdom, etc.). 

-Marcus is kind of the same situation as Jean, he has a hard time accepting some of our beliefs, but he wants what is best for his life. He also smokes A LOT.

-Emanuel is finally reading (listening) to the Book of Mormon and he says he loves it. I just hope we'll be able to help him understand the importance of the restored church of Jesus Christ.

-Jannet is having an incredibly hard time right now. Her boyfriend is abusing her (she says) and the police apparently aren't helping her. She's trying to find a new place to live so she can get away from him, but no luck so far. She has a desire to learn more, but she's just having too hard of a time studying the scriptures and trusting our teachings.

          Those are the people I believe need the most prayer right now, so please try to add them to your prayers. As fellow children of God, they deserve all the blessings that come from membership in this church that we enjoy. All of them also live in poverty and have a hard time making a living, so every prayer counts. Thank you!

          The past transfer has taught me a lot about being a hard worker and a consecrated desciple of Christ. I know that as we show our love to God by serving and blessing His children (and our brothers and sisters) we will find just as many blessings, if not more. 

God lives, and He loves us. My testimony of this is unshakeable and firm. Every person deserves to know and understand this, which is why I am so grateful for my call. I love all of you guys and I pray for you constantly. Stay safe, stay strong.

-Elder Peterson

1) 3 lbs of crawfish

2) cake (my mom sent this on my birthday, I only just now made it. Happy birthday mom)

3) dog

4) Elder Bowers and I

5) Crawfish lunch (that's a potato in my mouth)

6) Elder Bowers "raddish"

7) I caught a duck at the park.

8) Cool Pic, I think

9) dog 2

10) Elder Bowers "packing" for transfers

11) Elder Bowers after kicking a chair.

Elder Peterson Week 19

This week had some pretty good lessons. We met a guy named Andrew who I believe was an online referral (clicked an ad). We taught him the Restoration and gave him the Book of Mormon to read. He said he's really excited to start because he loves learning. He also said he'd be blowing up our phones with questions, which would be great, but we haven't gotten any yet. 

          We also met with a guy named Daniel again. We've talked to him before, he just wasn't super ready for our message yet. But this time he was eating it up and asking great questions. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a couple pamphlets and invited him to read and pray. We should've met with him yesterday, but he keeps rescheduling. Hopefully we'll actually be able to meet him soon.

          Last Friday I joined Elder Gale in his area and Elder Fisher took my spot. Elder Gale and I ended up doing a lot of street contacting, though not a lot of people allowed us to speak to them. We talked to a couple good people but then had to finish the night off with finding old investigators by knocking on their doors. The next day we met at a breakfast place called the Feed Store and had a great breakfast. After ending our exchange Elder Bowers and I had no lessons, he and Elder Fisher stole them all. So we went out and tried to find new people to teach, with not much luck.

          Nothing super interesting yet, right? Yeah, listen to this. Last night Elder Bowers and I went to knock on a woman's door. She had spoken with missionaries about 2 years ago, so we wanted to see if she'd be interested in meeting with us sometime. She answered the door and boy, she was a character. The tone of her voice as we spoke was extremely rude, but what she was saying was nice enough. She told us about how her roomate, Alan, had some kind of disease and she wanted us to pray for him. She brought him out and had him introduce himself. She then told to put our hands on him. "What are you waiting for!? Put your hands on him!!" I set down my bag and then as I was standing back up she went on, "Hug him!! HE NEEDS IT!!" Elder Bowers and I each put an arm around him and then I prayed for him. Afterwards she was a lot nicer and she was talking a lot less... rudely. We got out of there and kind of chuckled to ourselves, it was very strange.

          Lately I've noticed how easy it has been to love people I've never met. If you know anything about me, that's a strange development. Even people who are in a way hostile to us. I'm finding that as a missionary I can view people almost how the Lord does. I often imagine the people we teach in baptismal clothing and it reminds me that they are children of God. Sometimes it's hard to want to talk to people, but once a conversation starts, the spirit warms my heart and it becomes so much easier to converse. I'm grateful for this blessing and I really hope that it will stick with me for a long time. 

          Thanks for reading, hopefully next week is more interesting. Pray on!

-Elder Peterson

Not many good pictures this week, sorry folks.

1) My mother's street

2) Cool spiderweb I noticed while studying

3) Moon.

Kenedy goes through the Temple

Abby Larson was getting married and asked me if I would do her hair for her big day. I was pretty nervous about doing her hair for such a big occasion but she wanted it really simple and I felt I could handle it. She just wanted it curled and down with a jewel piece attached in the back. I was able to do it and she said she loved it and she looked beautiful. I didn't take any pictures at my house but I had her mom send me some that she had of her in her wedding dress. Abby is beautiful inside and out and I am so happy for her.

About half a year ago Kenedy mentioned that she has been thinking about going through the Temple to receive her endowment. We talked a little bit about it and I showed my support for whatever she chose to do. In October we were all watching General Conference and during President Nelson's talk entitled " The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation" he said this..

"If I could speak to each man or woman who longs for marriage but has not yet found his or her eternal companion, I would urge you not to wait until marriage to be endowed in the house of the Lord. Begin now to learn and experience what it means to be armed with priesthood power."

Almost immediately Kenedy sent a text saying she felt President Nelson was talking to her. A short time later, maybe about a month later, she let us know that she called the Temple and scheduled a time to go through, January 15.

Because of Covid restrictions she was only allowed to invite 16 people and she sent word out to my family to see who might be able to come and once she knew about how many she then started inviting some of Kefford's family. She also wanted to have some of her good friends to attend and invited some of them.

Joshua and Mallory and their kids and Emily were the only ones able to come from my family. Obviously for most of them the distance was to great which was expected. Andrew had wanted to come and had planned on coming but he got sick with Covid last minute and couldn't make it and Matt was stick not feeling great from his run in with covid so he did not come with Emily. Because her husband and kids didn't come Emily was able to stay until Tuesday which I loved. It was so fun to have her around a bit longer, we went on walks, we shopped and she came to my dance class with me and helped with my classes, I loved it. Tuesday morning she came to the Temple to do initiatories with me and that was really fun. I love being with family in the Temple!

Joshua and Mallory and their kids arrived about noon on Friday and Emily got to our house a couple of hours later. We were so excited to see everyone, especially Amos, Fredrick and Leona, since we were not able to see any of them in November. 

Amos and Fred reading stories with Rylee

We all thought Leona would want to have nothing to do with us, basically we were strangers to her, but she must have felt the family love because she was perfectly fine with us picking her up, playing with her and loving on her. She is a tiny little thing which made it fun for Kefford to carry her on his shoulders and put her on the mantle, what a cute decoration she is.

Screen time for Kenedy and Fred and Avynlea and Amos 

I love that I see hearts in so many places. Today I went out in the backyard with the boys so they could play on the trampoline and with the little snow we had left and I saw the melting snow made a heart, I for sure felt the love.

Saturday night was Kenedy's endowment and those that attended with her were...

Kefford and Elizabeth, Bob and Alison, Joshua and Mallory, Emily, Mikell, Kelsey and Brit, Dustin and Whitney, Taylee (Kenedy's roommate), McKoy and Logan (High School friends). 

I was Kenedy's escort which I was really excited about and we needed to be there early. Kefford came early with us and was able to do some initiatories while he waited. 

Kenedy went through and did her initiators and when she was done we met with the Tempe Matrons assisant. She was super sweet and talked to Kenedy about the Temple and about the Temple Endowment. She encouraged her to ask questions and even had her open her packet to try her ceremonial clothing on and get a little more familiar with the contents.

Once we were done we went into the endowment room to wait for everyone to arrive. It was a really good session, I can't describe how special it was to be in there with Kenedy, to be sitting next to my daughter in this sacred place feeling gratitude to be her Mother. She is beautiful and special and I love her with all my heart.

One not so great moment happened during the session. I had a bit of a cough that typically has been showing up at night right as I am trying to go to sleep. I had cough drops with me just in case and was actually sucking on one when I felt a cough. I coughed hoping that would be it but of course it wasn't. I started having a coughing fit and could not for the life of me stop. I was praying to Heavenly Father and sucking the life out of that darn cough drop feeling mortified. I was trying to suppress it but that was making me shake and tears were leaking out and snot was dripping, luckily I was wearing a mask so nobody could see that. Finally after what felt like forever but was maybe only a couple of minutes I was able to get myself under control. Not my finest moment and I was super embarrassed by the entire situation but it happened now lets move on. I guess it could have been worse.

After we were done we came out and got some pictures with those that didn't leave immediately basically my family and Taylee, lol.

Kenedy and Taylee

Kefford, Elizabeth, Kenedy, Emily, Mallory and Joshua                    Elizabeth Kenedy, Emily and Mallory

Sunday Kefford was playing with some molding clay stuff we have and made a face with it, pretty talented guy!

 

Rexburg Cheer Competition

January 8 Alison and I drove to Rexburg because Avynlea and her cheer team left that morning for a cheer competition. I had fun riding with Alison, we had some good conversation and it was much needed one on one time with my Mother-in-law whom I love. The competition wasn't until later in the day and we had time to stop in Idaho Falls to visit with Sara and Trista. They were coming to the competition and while we were there they were working on making Meridian Cheer sweatshirts supporting Avynlea.

After a couple of hours we headed over to Rexburg and stopped in to see Kenedy. From Kenedy's place we went over to Madison High School for the Cheer Competition. Sara and Trista were already there and then right after it started Kenedy came with her roommate Taylee.

I always love watching Avynlea cheer and she is a really good cheerleader! She did a great job and her team did the best they could but the results were pretty disappointing and almost demoralizing for the team. They competed in Sideline and Pom and did not place at all. To be fair they were competing against only Eastern Idaho schools and they are notoriously the best so it would have been really hard to beat them. I am glad they were able to compete and I am extra glad I was able to go and watch them.

Avynlea is in the left back corner being stunted holding the gold Poms.

Avynlea, Natalie and Paige

Sara and Avynlea                                  Trista and Avynlea

Cheer Aunts!!

I was having Natalie take pictures for me and she took it upon herself to take some pictures of her own.

Kenedy and Avynlea

Sara, Alison, Trista, Avynlea, Kenedy and Elizabeth

I love my girl!

Alison and Avynlea