Alright, last week was a long email. This one will not be that long, I am very tired from playing pickleball... I should have written this earlier.
Here goes...
This past week we had three blitzes. That's a lot, in case you don't know. On Tuesday we blitzed with Elder Alexander and Elder Livingston. Elder Alexander and I had a great time. Not a ton happened, but I was able to get to know him and we have a lot in common. I told him that he will probably be a zone leader at some point, since he will be among the most experienced when the new mission president comes in July. I think that freaked him out a bit . He's a great missionary.
On Thursday we had a day long blitz with the APs. Elder Frogley and I had a great day. We contacted a ton of people and we were able to catch up a bit. I can't completely tell if he enjoys being an assistant, but he is the man for the job. I am constantly impressed by how good of a missionary he has become. I like to think that I've become a good one as well. About 20 months ago he and I were just about to start training at the MTC. It has been a life changing year and a half, for both of us.
On Friday we did a day long blitz with the Elders in Welsh, Louisiana. Elder Shelley and I were able to find several people who are wanting to learn more. We also spent an hour helping a recent convert get his pickup running again. In a Walmart parking lot. It took a while, but we got him going. We then had a really cool study with him. He got baptized last December (I think) and he has already read the Book of Mormon 3 times and has started Doctrine and Covenants. He's past section 60 now. He has a really cool testimony and incredible faith.
We had a really cool experience on Saturday. We were walking away from one of our friends home (he wasn't home) and his neighbor waved at us. We had briefly spoken with him once, but he didn't seem to care too much about what we were doing and we were in the middle of a lesson with our friend. The friend was Micah. Anyway, we waved back and then kept walking. After a bit of walking I felt like we needed to go back and talk to him. I didn't really think that made a lot of sense, especially since we had already walked a good distance away. BUT, I've learned at this point that promptings don't have to make sense. Just do it. So we went back and knocked on his door. He didn't seem too surprised to see us come back and was really cool. We introduced ourselves further and talked a little about what we do. He said that he was busy at the moment, but interested. He told us to come get him the next time we meet with Micah. His name is Ryan. We said you betcha, and shook hands. We haven't met with Micah again yet, but I'm really excited too.
BUT WAIT, I'm not done with this story.
I also felt like it wouldn't hurt to stop by one of our recent online referalls on the way to a ward event. Brian, the referally, lived a little out of the way, but not bad. We had tried calling the number we got, 3 different times and we tried texting. We got nothing though. I was thinking we'd just go over and hear that he isn't actually interested and then go on with our night. We stopped by and he said we had accidently filled out the wrong ad! (twice, apparently (no such thing as coincidence...)) We started talking to him anyway, asking about what he does for work and what he was looking for that led to our ads. He said that he wants to study theology and was looking for something that could help. We talked about the Bible for a bit and how we both love it and enjoy learning more about it. At one point in the discussion he threw away the cigarette that he had been smoking and commented that he has been trying to stop smoking. We kept talking, but later Elder Gale brought up that comment and told him that what we do has helped countless people stop smoking. He was very interested and invited us to come back on Tuesday to tell him more. Good job Elder Gale for following that prompting!
The Spirit knows what he's doing. Trust him!
Anyway, that's all I've got energy for. I hope y'all have a great week!
- Elder Peterson
