Sister Peterson Week 16

Hello everyone and helloooo rainy season! 

When it rains... IT POURS. I am not even exaggerating! Luckily it does not get very humid here in Matsumoto, so it definitely could be worse. I was not prepared for this rain though, that is for sure.

Remember that lady (Matsui Shimai) who hasn't been to church in like 40 years, but last time we visited her she said she would come to church? (This was a couple weeks ago) Well, her son wouldn't let her go to church. BUT yesterday we went to her house and brought her the sacrament. The spirit was so strong. I could not understand what she was saying, but she seemed super grateful.

You guys ny right hip is like killing me, super random, but if anyone has hip problems advice send it my way!! Might have to get hips of steel ifykyk haha.

On Saturday a member took us on this beautiful hike that had a great view! It was so pretty. It just made me so grateful for this beautiful earth God created for all of us. Something I think we all should appreciate a lil more!!

There is a choir here in Matsumoto that consists of about 30 people. They have a concert twice every year. Well guess what, I am a valued member of this choir. Not really, but I am part of it. We had a concert on Saturday!!!! I only sang half the songs haha because some were too fast for my Japanese skills, but it was fun. There was an old lady in the crowd who had her eyes closed the whole time and nodded her head with the music. I loved it. The right kind of music really does soothe the soul!

Japan tips!

- Last week I said I want to marry the 7/11s here... I want to marry the Familymarts too!

- Literally everyone eats rice with EVERYTHING. RICE IS EVERYWHERE.

-the gardens/yards here are no joke. Some of the most beautiful scenes of nature I have witnessed have been right in front of someone's house. I want to talk about this more in the future, but I am trying not to make this email 10 years long!

hehe

Me being a very visual person I have thought of what it feels like with my Japanese. You ready? It feels like I get pushed into water, drown a bit, struggle to get up. But right when I get up and find my balance, I take a couple steps of confidence then I get pushed right back into the water. Can anyone relate? Haha sounds brutal and honestly it is. God has not ceased to keep me humble. It's a journey that I am still trying to figure out. 

I got some really good advice from a missionary friend of mine I have made. She said:

"Something that helped me a lot was keeping my mind on Christ. Keeping Him at the center of my thoughts and as my why! Every time it got hard, I would remember Him and try to think of what Christ did when it was hard for him. He loved people, despite them hating Him. He went out and performed the Atonement, despite knowing how hard and painful it would be. He submitted to the Father's will, despite it being the hardest thing He ever had to do. Jesus Christ is so amazing!! Think of Him and I promise you will receive so much strength!"

So powerful. I am not going to add much because I want you to read this and think about it for yourself and how you can apply this into your life. Jesus Christ is our anchor, if we rely on Him, we will not be moved!

God loves you

I love you

Have a great week everyone! 

<3 Sister Peterson

*I am a gyoza (a japanese food) making expert

*okay I look stupid in the choir picture, but whatever

*I LOVE LIL KITTIES

Inside Out 2

 On Tuesday Rylee and I went to the theater to watch Inside Out 2. We went on Tuesday because tickets are $5 each and Rylee did not have work. Kefford had no interest in going so it was just the two of us and I had so much fun with her. I have really been loving being able to spend time with just Rylee and love being with her. She is a lot of fun to hang out with and I am going to miss her so much when she graduates. We both liked the movie, I liked that it had more of the origional emotions throughout the movie and loved the new emotions. Part of it felt a little too real for me when the character was dealing with anxiety and her middle of the night Anxiety thoughts really made me feel like I was watching a movie about me. It was a little too relatable, hahaha.

I have been really trying to keep my lemon tree alive and recently I had decided that it was a goner and I was about ready to give up on it because it looked dead. But when I was looking at it I saw some new green leaves coming out and that gave me hope that I did not in fact kill it. I downloaded a plant app that helps keep track of your plants and tells you when to water and stuff so I am hoping that will help me keep it alive and maybe even give it a chance to thrive. I had a dream last night that my lemon tree was so lush and it was producing really big lemons and it made me so happy, I was a little bummed when I woke up and realized it was a dream. 

Bodi came to church again with us and I had a sticker book that we all used after sacrament and during the speakers. We all got a page and "painted" the picture with stickers. Towards the end of the meeting they were asking for a treat and I had to give them each a smartie, I felt like I had a couple of toddlers again hahaha.

Sunday evening is Monday morning for Avynlea in Japan and she gets to call us because it is her P-day.I love the weekly calls we get to have with her but sometimes it is a little too much with everyone in the family chiming in and talking over each other. Rylee had the chat going on her phone and had Avynlea, Ryker and Kenedy position themselves in a way that made it look like Ryker's torso was Avynlea's and Kenedy's Legs were Avynlea's. It was pretty funny and creative. After a while of all of us on the call Avynlea sent me a message saying she was going to get off the group call and just call me so we could chat. I am glad she did and we had a good conversation. She is struggling in Japan with not knowing the language and feeling lost and homesick. I tried to encourage her the best I could, I know she is enjoying some of the experiences but feeling isolated from not knowing the language is hard and add on top of that missing home she is having a hard time. I just keep encouraging her and praying for her and hope that the language will click for her soon.

Sister Peterson Week 15

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! I am so very grateful for my Dad, my Grandpa, and all the other amazing people who get to celebrate today. I am also grateful for a loving, forgiving, sensitive Heavenly Father! 😊I will be honest, this week was pretty hard. But I was also able to witness so many miracle and have seen God's hand in this work so much! 🍓It is hard to see progress when learning a language because it feels like I am learning so slowly. But I have been able to pick out a few words I recognize when 3rd wheeling conversations haha. I believe that is God giving me breaths of air when it feels like I am drowning. Let me just say, learning a whole other language is very difficult and can be exhausting. Im trying to find ways to make it more fun, if you have any tips please send them my way!! 🎈On thursday our mission did a Book of Mormon finding day. A day where we find people only using the Book of Mormon. Last transfer they did this I think they handed out about 205ish as a whole mission. That's about 4 books a person. Me and Takahashi 姉妹 handed out 6! It was so fun. I handed out 1 English Book to a tourist family which made me real excited. Our mission as a whole handed out 278 books! So exciting!! 🙈That same day me and Takahashi 姉妹 were taking a break in a shaded area to practice my Japanese (i was feeling very discouraged) when a lady with earbuds in AND black tape over her ears came up to us looking amazed. I only understood what my companion translated for me, but she told me I had a presence of one of my ancestors, a man, around me and was supporting me. He never went on a mission and is very proud of me and helping me. I told my mom this story and we decided this crazy lady was talking about my Great Grandpa Lutes! He was never a member on earth, but my mom said he would enjoy ny personality which is very fun to hear. 😌The crazy lady also said I had saved someone before I came to Earth and I am supposed to save them again on Earth. 😅That was interesting. The last impactful thing that was translated to me was that I have the Spirit of a women AND a man. Ha. Not sure how I feel about that, but I think that's kinda fun... right? While she was talking I had tears streaming down my face bc even though this lady was an absolute crazy woman, she talked about things that I hold close to my heart. Things only Heavenly Father would really understand about me. Very odd experience, but I was reassured that Heavenly Father is always watching over me and supporting me. Even if He has to show it to me through crazy people. We tried to give her a Book of Mormon but she told us she already knows everything. Which I honestly do believe haha. ❤Japan Tips!!❤ -I would marry the 7/11s here if I could. The Melon Pan and Coolish are a MUST try. The snacks are so fun and yummy and mmmmm - 100 yen store is basically the dollar store but 1000000 times better. If the USA's dollar stores were the like 100 yen store, let me just say, the popularity scale would be right up there with Costco. Plus 100 yen is equal to about 60 cents. SCORE - Literally everyone here is short. In the USA I am an average height, but here... I am tall. It's funny when I talk to a women and her 2 kids and her head barely reaches my shoulders. If you ever feel too short... come to Japan ;) ❤️woop woop❤️ 1 Nephi 16:29 "And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things" I read this during my personal study this week and felt so grateful. Heavenly Father knew I needed this. He knows the desires of our hearts and how hard we are trying, sometimes with what feels like no success. I want to emphasize 2 main points. 1) We have heard that he loves effort. He can take our small efforts, small knowledge of a language, small understanding of the scriptures, small amounts of self confidence, and magnify them. Make it great! Trust Him. Ask Him. Rely on Him. 2) He has a plan for you. I believe that when you trust this simple sentence, you can go so far in life. Take risks and be patient. Let His plan fold out and trust He knows what is best for you. As I am slowly learning Japanese I have to keep reminding myself of this. Everything works out in the way He needs it to. Trust in that. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have a love so deep for us we can't even comprehend it! That is crazy! I love you all so much and please know that you are all in my prayers. Have an amazing week!! <3 Sister Peterson 06/17/24 *when I show people the Pic of little me with a potato, they are AMAZED at how big the potato is haha *I'm a professional tennis player now *I just love the kids here

Fathers Day

We have been sitting behind the Lyon's in church lately and this Sunday I was worried that we are too much of a distraction for their kids. Rylee took these pictures of Claire dangling her foot at us while we were singing the opening Hymn. She thought she was pretty funny with her leg hanging over the pew. 

Rylee thought it would be funny to take .5 pictures of us during church. The pictures are not really unflattering of me so I was ok with it but at a certain point she needed to stop because her giggles and picture taking were getting a little distracting, hahaha.

Kenedy left a small Fathers Day gift for Kefford when she went back to Utah and Rylee stuck it in the bag with the gift she got him for Fathers Day. Kenedy gave Kefford Beef Jerky, always a good gift, and Rylee gave him a mystery tiny fast food ball. Kefford likes watching tiny food videos on YouTube and when we saw the mystery ball at Hobby Lobby we thought it would be a fun gift for Kefford. It had tiny Fries, Tiny Tacos, a Tiny Smoothie, a Tiny Soda but not the Tiny Pizza pictured on the ball and the one we were kind of hoping would be in there. It was a fun day celebrating Father Kefford :)

Girls Camp 2024

This is my third and final year, for now, of being Camp Director. I probably would have asked to be done after last year but with this year being Stake Camp which makes my job loads easier and it being Rylee's last year I was good to do one more year. This year the stake had a total of 76 YCL's and while they like to have theCamp Directors come up with the campers and not the day before with the YCL's they needed us for our car seats so they said any Camp Director who could come up were able to. I was happy to go up with the YCL's the day before and I had Rylee, Leah Farris, Tayci Olsen, Brynn Givens and Ella Eaton in my car. 

 

back row: Casha and Kate

second row: Eliza, Tayci, Addi O., Allie, Erica, Layne, Lola, Katie, and Laura

third row: Rylee, Hazel, Adele, Kinsey B., Ella, Makenna, Rylee, Avery, Brynn, Alexa, Addie L., and Leah

kneeling: Elizabeth, Sophie, Claire, Makayla, Avery, Nora E., Nora L., Natalie, Kinsey E., Jessica, and Kirsten