Thanksgiving

We hosted thanksgiving this year in Idaho and it was such a fun week. In attendance we had Heather, Emily and her family, Joshua and his family, Andrew, Kenedy and her boyfriend Tyler and then obviously Kefford, Me, Avy and Rylee. Ashleigh was supposed to drive up with her family but Atticus got sick right before and after much deliberation decided not to come. It was so sad and we were all so disappointed but ultimately it was the right choice because one by one they all got sick and they would have had a rough time.

We played a lot of games, played with Joshuas kids a lot, they were very entertaining and ate lots of food. I love thanksgiving because I know I will ge to be with my family and we have a lot of fun.

Heather came first and she, Rylee and I tried to learn the game she gave me for my birthday The Princess Bride. After watching someone teach it on YouTube we thought we got the idea and played it. When Andrew came we got him to play it with us and he taught us the right way to play it. We actually did pretty good figuring it out on our own and Andrew more smoothes out the rough edges for us.

Kenedy and Kefford carved the turkey per tradition and we were able to get a somewhat decent picture of the two of them, one of them cooperates more then the other.

We squeezed all the adults around our table including Kenedy and Tyler. It was fun to eat dinner and then socialize.

I snapped this picture of Kenedy and Tyler reading a book together which I thought was so cute.

And then I got a picture of Joshua reading to his three kids, Leona, Amos and Fredrick, with Rylee reading in the background.

Avynlea danced with Leona, Amos and fredrick and we played more games and spent time on devices as well.

Tyler, Kenedy, Elizabeth and Emily playing Codenames

Kefford, Amos, Kenedy and Leona

Amos and Fredrick remembered my car shaped waffle iron and asked if I would make them some. Saturday morning I made them the car waffles and Kefford dyed some of the batter to make one that looked like Ryker's pickup.

Saturday night we took picture of all of us together before the kids went to bed because everyone was leaving the next day.

back row: Matt, Emily, Heather, Rylee, Joshua, Leona, Ben, Andrew, Tyler and Kenedy

front row: Kefford, Avynlea, Amos, Fredrick, Elizabeth, Mallory and Isabelle

That night Heather, Emily and I went to get permanent bracelets. We invited Mallory but she declined thinking it wouldn't be practical with her little kids pulling on her all day which I understood. 

We all got the same kind of chain but Heather and Emily got gold while I got silver, we also each got a birthstone charm. I love my bracelet and think it looks so pretty, I also love that it is low maintenance and I don't have to remember to put it one each day.

When we got Holme we all played a game together which was super fun. I love big group games and having fun together.

Inchirch the next day I got a picture of our matching bracelets because we did not get one the night before.

Joshua and his family plus Andrew left that morning and Emily and her family came to church with us and then left after Sacrament meeting. I sent her a picture of the cupcake Heather and I got in Relief Society and told her she should have stayed. 

Heather came with me while I taught my dance classes on Monday and the we went to Idaho Pizza Company for lunch. There was little bit of a struggle as to who was going to pay and ultimately I won, it was my treat. Later we went to pick up Rylee from school and then sadly I took Heather to the airport and she flew home, the last of our guests to leave. 

I gave Amos and Fredrick paint by stickers books for belated birthday gifts and Mallory and Joshua both sent me pictures of them working on them at home. They loved them and I was so happy to see them enjoying the gifts I got them.

 

Elder Peterson Week 64

  On Thanksgiving morning we went to this big thanksgiving service event where free meals were being handed out to people who need them. We went and the spanish sisters in the area showed up after a couple minutes too (Sister Williams is actually from Nyssa, so some of y'all might know her). We pulled apart turkeys for the first bit, and then we were loading to-go trays for people who couldn't come in person. Then we were helping people get their food in the cafeteria. It was a ton of fun and I got to meet a lot of interesting Louisiana natives . One sweet old lady gave me a little pilgrim pin for helping her get her food. Turns out she made it too. There's a picture of me wearing it down below. 

      It was a super fun thing to participate in. We were supposed to do more service at a soup kitchen the next day, but they didn't need our help...

     We also helped Brother Courville chop some wood. He had a tractor doing the hard work, so we pretty much just stood there and loaded it. Still fun though. He also took us to lunch after.

     On Wednesday we met with Daniel. We stood outside his garage and shared with him the Restoration. He listened very intently and made good comments. After we finished we invited him to read Moroni 10 and pray about it. He told us that he is catholic and a lot of what we shared goes against what he is taught. "But" he said, "I'm willing to try. Either my faith in the Catholic church will strengthen by finding out you're wrong, or I'll be converted and find greater truth." 

     We were amazed by this humility and told him that's exactly what we wanted to hear. We prayed with him and then went our way (after sharing our testimonies of course). It was such a great time, we hope he is as sincere as he seems.

     For Thanksgiving we went to the Aucoins' (pronounced oakwins). They had super good food, but I was amazed at the absence of mashed potatoes! I didn't notice that there wasn't any until later, but this was my first EVER Thanksgiving where I didn't have mashed potatoes. Sad. But the meal was still amazing, Brother Aucoin made some of the best brisket I've ever had, which almost made up for no potatoes.

     The rest of the day was kinda lame because we didn't want to bother anyone that was their family, so we just tried contacting people we thought might be lonely. With little success.

 I'm at IHOP and I'm hungry, so that's all I've got for now. Plus this list of things I'm grateful for:

-Jesus Christ and the Atonement

-My family

-My friends

-The people I get to meet

-The time I get to serve God

-Mashed Potatoes

-The Prophets and scriptures

-A safe place to stay

-Modern Technology (but not the annoying parts)

-My education

-The challenges that strengthen me

-Mashed Potaoes

-My knowledge of the Gospel

-The Gospel

-The Plan of Salvation

-Temples

-Basketball

-Other fun sports

-Dirtbikes

-MASHED POTATOES

-And many other things

Have a great week!

-Elder Peterson

Elder Peterson Week 63

  It's been a fun week. Elder Heronema is still stuck at home, so it's just been Elder Colt and I. Some good stuff has happened this week though.

     We got to go to the baptism of an awesome guy named Jessie. What's really cool is that Elder Colt was the one that found him a while back (Elder Colt has been in this area before). Elder Frogley and his companion have been teaching him and his baptism was super cool. He has a very strong testimony and the joy that's been on his face since then is contagious. He's so happy to be a member of the church. 

     We've been doing a lot of finding because we don't have all of our area's information yet, we're still waiting for some of it to come in. Yesterday we met a really nice guy named Daniel. He was on his driveway cleaning out his car from a recent hunting trip and we struck up a conversation. Eventually he said he'd be interested to hear the message we have to share. We are going back on Wednesday, so hopefully he'll remember . 

     6 to 9 has gotten pretty difficult lately because of how soon the sun goes down. It's already dark by 6 and apparently people in this area do not like people after dark. We pulled off the side of a road to look at our directions and it was taking a minute. I look out my window and see a guy coming out of his garage with a flashlight (about 50 yards away). At that moment we figured out where we were headed, so we started driving away. The man pointed his flashlight at our car as if we had something wrong, so we just kept going. Elder Colt says he's had that happen a lot and that people here really don't like cars pulled off to the side of the road. It was strange, but I suppose somewhat reasonable.

     We've been trying to find interesting things to do in our downtime and we created a little racetrack for rc cars. Don't worry, we didn't use any work hours to make it and we don't even use it that much. But it was fun. I'll put a picture of it, we are pretty proud of it 

     I've been reading the war chapters at the end of Alma this week and I forgot how much I love them. Helaman and Moroni are so cool. There's so many instances where they and their armies were preserved because of their faith in God. And I've always loved the exchange between Moroni and Pahoran that shows Moroni's zeal and desire to save his people and Pahoran's patience despite all the trouble he has been dealing with. Alma 48:16-17 is one of my favorite scriptures. I go back to that scripture constantly. 

     That's all I really have to report this week. Next week should be more interesting.

Have a great Thanksgiving! 

-Elder Peterson

Friendsgiving

A couple of weeks ago Diana sent a text to me and Amy suggesting we do a Friendsgiving with our girls. We loved that idea and made a plan to have it on November 19th , just before Thanksgiving. I volunteered to host and everyone put out what they were going to bring. Diana brought Ham and a dessert called Arroz con Leche, which is basically rice with milk, it took me a second to warm up to eating it but it was good, it had cinnamon and sugar in it. Amy brought, rolls, green bean casserole and spinach dip with bread. Amy also had Paige get some plates at the store but all she found were Christmas Plates. She dropped them off early and we would have used them but Avynlea and I were at the store later and found some Thanksgiving ones. I wanted my table to look like Thanksgiving so we went with the plates I bought. I also made funeral potatoes, Watergate salad and Juice. 

I didn't get a picture of it but I also printed out pictures of the 6 of us from the last four years and made a cute banner that hung in front of the windows in our dining room. I went to a craft fair and found some cute little place setting gifts that were chocolate and thanksgiving themed so I bought 6 of them to put on everyone's plate and I also made name cards for everyone to know where to sit. The entire presentation turned out so cute and I was super happy with it all. 

After a night filled with eating and talking and laughing it was time to end but we needed to get a picture of all of us first. We got ready and then Avynlea realized she was the only one without socks on and she didn't like it so we had to wait for her to get socks and cover up her feet.

I am super grateful for this group of women, for their friendship and loyalty throughout the past 4 years. Avynlea and I have truly been blessed with some great friends. 

Elizabeth, Amy and Diana

Avynlea, Paige and Natalie

 

Football State Championships vs Rigby

Avynlea's cheer coach posted picture of her from when they took their cheer pictures and I took a screenshot. 

The Football State championships was at the BSU stadium and it was really cool for Avynlea that she got to cheer on the blue turf. It was a really cold night and we dressed as warm as we could, I didn't start getting cold until the 4th quarter and that was my hands so I think I did pretty good. We loved being there and cheering for Meridian, the first three quarters we were in the lead and doing great but something happened in the 4th quarter, bad calls, an interception and our boys seemed to fall apart and we ended up losing 28-21. It was heartbreaking to watch these boys lose after having an undefeated season and playing so well for so long. Overall it was a tough loss but it was a fun experience until it wasn't. 

Natalie and Avynlea

Seniors!

back row l-r: Hannah, Paige, Avynlea, Natalie, Maddie, Katie and Hailey

front row l-r: Delanie, Roree, Andreya and Tessa

Paige, Avynlea, Natalie, Katie and Hailey

Natalie and Avynlea

Kefford and Elizabeth

Kefford, Avynlea and Elizabeth

Paige, Natalie and Avynlea

I got this picture of Paige, Natalie and Avynlea watching the awards ceremony. First up was Meridian to get their second place trophy and then Rigby got their first place award. 

 

Primary Program, Basketball Cheer, Fierce Cheer Headshots, Friends and Kenedy's Car Accident

Heather cleaned out her closet and she sent pictures of the things she was giving away. I took a bunch of items of her clothing one of them being this cute red and black plaid half jacket. I wore it on Sunday and took a picture of it and my hair because I really liked how I looked.

Sunday was also the Primary program which was the best sacrament meeting of the year, as always. I love the Primary Program and this year they had the youth involved and had them stand up during the last song to join in with the Primary. They stood where they were sitting and I think a lot of youth were self conscious about singing as I couldn't really hear their contribution, not really even my girls who were right next to me. The primary kids just did a good job of getting their voices heard. I did snap some pics of my girls as they were singing, I had the best view of them.

Basketball season has started and I got to go watch Avynlea cheer for the girls basketball team. It's always fun to watch Avynlea cheer.

We have a new competitive cheer gym in town called Fierce Cheer. Since they are new and are starting mid-season they are having a mid-season team and Avynlea really wanted to be a part of it. I know it was going to cost more money and take Avynlea away for more time but I wanted her to have a chance to have a good experience with cheer and I agreed to let her do it. She made the top team, Panthers, and they did headshots of all the girls to use for shoutouts and social media. 

Rylee sent me a picture from school of Porter dressed up like Goofy. It was dress up like a Disney character day and the kids loved Porters look.

Kenedy's Escape needed a lot of work done and it was not able to make trips to Utah anymore so Kenedy left it here and took Avynlea's car. Avynlea drove the Escape around town while Kefford searched for a new car for Kenedy. After months of searching he was able to find one in Portland and he drove up to Portland with his friend Damon Henry who was in town visiting and from Portland so he could get it and drive it here. Once acquired Avynlea drove it just until Kenedy came home for Thanksgiving and switched cars. Avynlea drove it to school and when she came out at lunch to drive to her friends house she saw that it had been hit pretty bad. The girl who parks next to her was not paying attention and pulled out too fast and sharp and hit the front part of Kenedy's car. Now it has to go to the shop and Kenedy will have to wait longer for her car.