I have my companion scribing for me. I will not be proof reading this, so if there are any errors, know that it was not me.
Where to start… It was a good week. We have been really busy trying to get things going in our area and in the zone. We spent a good amount of time introducing Elder Gale to the members. Last Thursday, after completing our mail–run we found out that the Beaumont Zone Leaders had more suprise mail for us. So we planned to meet them towards the top of our area at a specific time. We showed up a little bit late but they were not even there. And when we called and asked when they were going to be there, they said that they still have 45 minutes until they would arrive. So we said a prayer (because I was frustrated) and decided to go and contact sombody who was near the place that we had planned to meet. And it turned into a great lesson! Micah was his name. He had really good and genuine questions.Then his dad joined in the discussion and had more good questions. So that was a miracle. We eventually met up with the elders and got the mail and everything was figured out.
Yesterday was a great day. There is a young man in our ward who has a non-member friend who has been coming to church for a while. Yesterday we caught him (his name is Ethan) and asked if he would like a Book of Mormon. I have talked with him plenty before and I didn't feel awkward asking and I'm pretty sure he did want one. When we asked, he was excited and said yes! So we gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a time to meet with him to explain it further on Wednesday. That alone made the day awesome, but then later that evening we had a really cool lesson with a guy named Ricky. Ricky has 7 very large pet spiders (tarantulas) and a 150 lbs Rottweiler? That was interesting and I don't really understand how he can sleep with 7 giant spiders next to his bed, but you do you Ricky. Anyway, the lesson was great. We talked about our relationship with God and that God is our loving father in heaven. We are literally his spirit children. He was pretty open to everyting that we were sharing and agreed to read from the Book of Mormon and was interested in meeting again. The best part of the lesson was when he asked why we were doing missionary work and we got to share our testimonies. The spirit was very strong and we all felt great at the end of it.
A lot of other good things happened last week but I believe my scribe is getting bored (not actually though) and I’m getting bored.
I will end with a little piece of my study from Saturday. In Alma chapter 7, Alma counsels the people of Gideon to be temperate in all things (among other qualities he lists). And I got pondering about that. I found a quote by Elder Russel M. Nelson where he explains what it means to be temperate in all things. "Temperance suggests sobriety and self-restraint in action. It reminds one of covenants made. … Repeatedly, scriptures teach that we be ‘temperate in all things.' Temperance can protect each of us from the aftermath of excess” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1991, 81; or Ensign, Nov. 1991, 60). I found it very interesting and I started thinking about things that I can do to be more temperate and to make sure that I’m not doing anything in excess.
Thats all I've got, I hope y'all have a great week.
-Elder Peterson
Side note, there is a strange road in our area that has a turn lane that goes both directions depending on what the light says.
Oh yeah, we had authentic German food on Thursday. I've had schnitzel and can testify that it is very good. (Now I just need to try schnitzel on a stick...)
