Sister Peterson Week 35

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

We had a Halloween party for our Eikaiwa class and it was so much fun!!! We did the classic toilet paper funny challenge and introduced the Monster Mash to them! They all really enjoyed it!

A member named Sister Odani took us to the yummiest food place ever! Usually I am not a shrimp person, but the shrimp was SO GOOD! I don't think I will ever get over how good that food was!

On Saturday we had a combined zone conference and it made me SO HAPPY to see all my missionary friends! Unfortunatly it was the last time I will see some of them which makes me so sad! Especially my beloved mother, Takahashi 姉妹! But we will see each other again, I just know it! 

I am sorry, I am going to the zoo today, so I do not have time to write more!

When we were with Sister Odani, she shared this scripture with us...

1 Corinthians 10:13

13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

I know this is true. These past couple months have been really hard for me. I miss my home more than ever, I am tired and unmotivated, but I feel like slowly God has been pulling me out of the water. I still have really hard moments where I just want to give up, but then I remember the love that God has for all his children. Right now, I know that He is shaping me into the person that I need to be for my future and I am thankful for that.

I have to go, but I love you all and God does too!!

<3 Sister Peterson

11/04/2024

ps don't forget to wish Ryker and my mom a happy birthday this week!! Yayyy partyyyy

Sister Peterson Week 34

Hi everyone!!

On Tuesday we got told if we were transferring or not! Guess what?!? I get to stay in Gokiso!! I anticipate this will be my last transfer here because typically missionaries stay in 1 area for not much more than 3 transfers, but we will see what happens in the future!

On Tuesday we got to go to institute with our friend and did a Tae Kwondo activity! I swear I am going to come home as a Samurai Ninja. 

We also had a little Halloween party on Friday at institute too which was fun! I got my cheeks painted us pumpkins hehe.

We found some high schoolers playing volleyball in a park and joined them. It was really fun. Haha

The season is changing and outside is my perfect temperature! Where you can get away with a short sleeve or a long sleeve. It is so nice. Unfortunately with the season change comes exhaustion. I am so tired all the time, it's killing me. I promise I am going to bed and waking up on time!! I just cannot make it through the day without a 15 minute nap during lunchtime!

That is really all I have for you this week. We have been busy, everything is kind of blurring into one. This week we are going to do a Halloween party for our English class which I am excited about!

Okay the scripture I have been lovingg these past couple days is Alma 18:32

32 And Ammon said: Yea, and he looketh down upon all the children of men; and he knows all the thoughts and intents of the heart; for by his hand were they all created from the beginning.

I get to teach people everyday about God our loving Heavenly Father, and us being his children. I think it is so powerful to not only know that he created us, but because of that, he knows us perfectly. He is always watching over us and cheering us on. If nothing else gives you courage, please let that.

God loves you.

I love you!

Make it a good week!

<3 Sister Peterson

10/28/2024

Sister Peterson Week 33

Happy New week!

I absolutely died on Tuesday. I randomly got really sick and basically slept all day, but on Wednesday we had a lesson in the morning so by God's grace I was okay enough by then. My voice is still a little dead, but I don't have "the fevers" anymore!

Also I keep getting in trouble because I keep saying "like" when I am speaking Japanese. It's really bad. 2 different elders have already told me I should not do that. ITS A HARD HABIT TO BREAK! 

BAPTISM #3 WHATTTT WOOP WOOP!

Our friend Yagisan was baptized and it was amazing! Everything went super smoothly and she seemed very happy. My and my companion sang in the program while Elder Spillet played the violin and it is another miracle my voice did not crack during the song. Because remember, she is still recovering!

Last Pday we went to the Nagoya Castle and it was so cool! Unfortunatly we can't go in the big castle due to construction things, but there was this other building we went in with all the history and stuff in it. It was super cool! The artwork was beautiful!

Japan does not celebrate Halloween like we do in America, but everyone knows what it is and some people still decorate for it! Our ward threw a halloween party for the kids and it was so fun! We taught them how to say "trick or treat" and the way they all pronounce it is "tooricko treato" haha so cute!

Japan Tips!!

- For some reason, Shawn the Sheep and Lotso are kind of popular. You know, Lotso the bear from Toy Story.

- I was asked again what my blood type was, people love to know that information for some reason. They think it has to do with personalities.

- In front of a lot of restaurants or to show what food looks like, they have really real looking representations. It took me a long time to realize that it was fake food.

Thats all!

I recently have been loving the word Brave. I feel like it is such a powerful word. I think if we want to get anywhere in life we need to be brave. Take those first steps and be brave enough to keep going even if you cannot see the end goal. To be brave enough to choose to trust in something we cannot fully understand. Brave enough to say the words that seem scary to say.  As a missionary it is almost required to be brave very day. It is hard, but so important. 

I love you all!

God loves you!

Make it a good week!

BE BRAVE

<3 Sister Peterson

10/21/2024

Apple Picking

 Ryker and Anna came into town to be with us for the weekend because it was their fall break. I planned our Peterson Halloween Party for this weekend mostly because I knew they would be in town and I thought it would be fun for Ryker to see his family and be at the Halloween party for the first time in quite a while. They arrived on Thursday and on Friday we went apple picking. Rylee came home for lunch and she has a free period right after lunch so she went with us to pick apples. We went to an orchard in Emmett and we picked enough to fill two 5 gallon buckets. I wanted to dehydrate the apples and this seemed like a massive amount of apples which actually did not take long at all to pick. We spent maybe 10 minutes picking apples, it was very quick.

When we got back I started cutting and placing the apples in the dehydrator I have and after doing one batch I realized I was going to need more dehydrators to get through all of the apples we picked. I was able to get one from Arin Lamb and Kim Hansen, Whitney and Alison brought theirs over the next day for me to use which was also very helpful. With the added fleet of dehydrators I was able to get through all of the apples that weekend. Once dehydrated and packed in bags I realized I should have bought more apples. The apples shrink, obviously, in the dehydrator, I know better for next year and will make sure to get lots more apples.

Game of Tiaras with Rylee

While in my room I happened to spot an apple core on the floor lying next to the chair by my bed. I knew it didn't come from me and I knew it didn't come from Kefford which left Rylee as the culprit. This is actually the second apple core I have found randomly in my room and it better be the last. Rylee has been a room wanderer and on any given day I will find her chilling in a different bedroom. This day she must have been in mine and she left the proof with the apple core and the apple sticker I found on my bed. I can't imagine that she just chucked the apple core when she was done with it on to my floor. What probably happened was it dropped at some point and then when she left my room she forgot to pick up her apple core. 

The cute activity days girls dropped off a plate of decorated cookies for Kefford with a thank you note. They looked so cute and excited about their offering when I opened the door and luckily Kefford was home so he could see them and give them thanks. He put the sign up in his office at church which I thought was a sweet note to put on display.

Wednesday night RYlee and I skipped our Young Womens activity to go support Addie Lewis and some of Rylee's school friends in their High School production of "Game of Tiaras". From what I gather, because I have never seen the TV show, it is a play on Game of Thrones but with Disney Princesses. We were excited to go watch it and got seats in the middle pretty close to the front. We realized pretty quickly into watching the show that it was not that great and we were pretty bored throughout. We wanted to leave at intermission but Addie hadn't even appeared yet on stage and we did want to see and support her. Once Addie appeared and had her scenes we really wanted to leave but we were stuck in the middle because of our dumb seat choice and couldn't get out without being disruptive. This was a High School production but it was pretty bad and the acting was not so great. Addie played the part of the Little Mermaid and she had some innuendos within her part that made Rylee and I very uncomfortable. We were very happy to see the end of the play and to hurry out to the car and get home. I am glad I went with Rylee she is my best buddy and we had fun laughing about the play.

Sister Peterson Week 32

Hi!

This weekend we got to watch General Conference with our ward! We watched in Japanese and I was able to pick up on a lot of words, but totally missed the overall message. I will be "reviewing" and watching in English throughout the week! Yay I love Conference! 

This week was not very eventful, I am sorry. I will try and think of the exciting things.

 Yagisan is progressing really well towards baptism! Her baptism will be NEXT WEEK!!! AHHH! Right now we are figuring out how the baptism will work because she is in a wheelchair. We have a plan that will hopefully work. I will update everyone next week on what happens. I anticipate and really hope it will be a spirit filled experience!!

The weather is getting so nice! We did a lot of our studies outside in the fresh air. Luckily I am not suffocating by the humidity anymore! Riding bikes around used to be the worst thing ever, but I really enjoy it now. I am just a little nervous for when it gets cold. I think I actually might die. 

I know there were other fun things that happened this week, but I really cannot remember right now! Oops!

A couple things I missed from last week:

 I hit my 7 months!! Woah crazyyyy. It is weird to think that this time next year I WILL BE HOME!! This time last year I though the same thing but that I WOULD BE IN JAPAN! Well here I am. I know the time is going to go so fast, so I really have to be careful as to what I take for granted. For example:  the amazingly cheap ice cream you can find everywhere!

Basically I record music now. For real! After zone conference a handful of missionaries were recording music for a mission video and someone must have forgotten to send me the music in advance to practice or something... but I happily joined and surprised myself by my sight reading. Just don't tell the people in charge that I snuck my voice in there. 

Japan Tips

- in just about every apartment/house I have been to there is a little square in the top right corner of the bathroom door. It is like a piece of plastic that you cannot see through, but you can see light through. This makes it easy to tell if the light is on indicating someone is using the bathroom! I hope that made sense. I will attach a photo!

- 1$ equals roughly 150¥! I carry around bills that say 1000 and coins that say 100. Wild

- the water cups they give you at restaurants are TINY. I am talking like Dixie cup sizes!

- 面倒くさい- Mendokusai (pronounced men-dock-sigh) means "too much work" I love this word!

Happy Japanese

The current hot topic on my mind is how perfect God‘s timing is. I see it with the people I meet and looking back on my life, the way things have worked out. I had a lot of worries at the beginning of this transfer, but as it has played out, my testimony of the perfectness of God has immensely strengthened. My companion is one example. She is fearless and has such a huge desire to help everyone around her. If I was training a missionary that did not have this courage, I would be in the gutter for sure. I know God is perfect and so is His plan. Trust in Him even when it gets hard. I love you all! God loves you! 

Make it a good week!!

<3 Sister Peterson

10/14/24

Photos!

- I became a samurai in training!!!

- some firefighter asked if we wanted a picture in front of the firetrucks haha we were like okay!