Elder Peterson Week 45

  I've been living in Kingwood, Texas for a week now. WOW, it is different. There are a ridiculous amount of trees here, it's literally nicknamed the livable forest. It is really cool though, there are a lot of green paths through out our area (our tiny tiny area, 5 square miles) that we ride on to get places. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it is a bike area, but if not now you know. Oh, and that's another thing. This is the worst time of the year to be biking. 100 degree heat and ridiculous humidity, we sweat A LOT. But I don't want to sound too complacent, I really enjoy this area. 

     Then there's the office job. As Technology Specialists (basically the I.T. of the mission) Elder Simpson and I spend a lot of time in the Mission Office solving technology related issues and keeping our mission's information updated. It's a lot of sitting down on a computer, but it beats biking in the heat all afternoon! Sometimes it gets a little boring, but if it gets too bad I'll put someone's stapler in jello or something, I'm not too worried. 

     As for the teaching in this area, it's pretty dismal. But that just means more work to do!! We currently have two people who we teach, Samantha and Tawana. They are interesting women...

     We've taught one lesson with Tawana and then on Saturday we washed Samantha's car (she is living alone and is currently on crutches, so we helped out). We've been biking around the area and I've seen a lot of cool things, again this place is just a forest with houses in it. Not exactly what I picture when I think of Texas. 

     That's pretty much all there is to write about for now... Oh yeah, I got asked to speak next Sunday.  New ward and I'm already giving a talk, pretty funny. I'll let you know how it goes next week. Until then, stay cool!

-Elder Peterson

There was a mini festival thing going on yesterday and they left behind some snow. I don't understand how or why, but I got to stand on snow for the first time in over a year, so that was great.

July Fun

Heather finally got to go on her school trip to Europe and she had a great time. Shows supposed to go in 2020 but covid shut that down really quick and after rescheduling and cancelling every year this was the year they got to go. While in London she took a picture in front of the Elizabeth Line sign and sent it to me.

Avynlea had Natalie spend the night at our house and they took advantage of the new patio furniture and the warmer weather and slept outside. 

Kefford got a fire pit for our patio and it is gas run. It is a little hard to get started and I need his help so I don't burn my face off. Rylee and I tried doing it on our own and it could have been disastrous. The starter has a hard time igniting and so when it is turned on all you can smell is gas. I thought it would be a smart idea to light the gas with our fire starter stick but all that did was make a big cloud of fire that scared us. WE will hav to leave it to Kefford to start from now on.

Mikell is pregnant with her 7th baby and wanted to do something fun for her kids to find out what the sex of the baby is. I volunteered to make a cake and after she dropped off the results I got to work. I originally said I would do it the next day but I had nothing else going on so I made the cake that day. As soon as it was done I sent her a text saying it was ready and we were coming over. I made a small heart shaped cake and with the left overs made cupcakes. You could see the color of the cupcakes so we kept those hidden until the heart cake was cut and the sex revealed.

Its a girl! She breaks the tie of three girls and three boys in their family pushing girls over onto the winning team! Some of the kids were excited, some indifferent and one...Jason was pretty upset about it. Hahaha 

Kefford, Rylee and I wanted to test out the cooking skills of our fire pit so we roasted marshmallows for s'mores. It worked pretty good and the treats were delicious.

It was about 9:00 at night and I was craving some ice cream. Rylee and I were the only ones home and when I asked her if she wanted to get some ice cream she was all for it. We headed over to Reeds dairy for a yummy treat and then took a selfie in the car. I don't normally eat treats that late and a couple of bites was all I needed to curb the craving so I put the rest in the freezer to eat later.

On Friday Avynlea and Rylee went over to Avery's new house to do some night swimming with her and her sister. They had fun eating snow cones and swimming in the pool with glow sticks.

 

Elder Peterson Week 44

  Much has happened, but I don't have very much time to write.

     The trio with Elders Nelson and Morrow was really fun. We had absolutely no lessons together, because everyone canceled, but we did other stuff that was fun and a good use of time. We did a lot of switching around between the two apartments we had and because of that we spent a lot of time packing clothes for the next day. It was weird, but fun. 

     On Friday we went to the Temple for Faith Meets Family. Basically, all the new members and returning members gather at the temple to do baptisms for the dead. We went with a YSA kid named Sergio. It was super fun and I loved being able to do baptisms again. It's been over a year since I've done that... There was a bunch of other missionaries there with their friends so I got to see some Elders I haven't seen in a while. Afterwards we stopped by In-N-Out (Nobody cared about my veto of that option) and got food. I did not plan on wasting my money on those mediocre burgers, but a guy there offered to pay for us, so I got some anyway... He insisted!! I then enjoyed the meal, because it was a blessing. Us three were crammed into the back of Sam's car (a YSA kid) because Jed was in shotgun. I fell asleep and then woke up to pins and needles in my legs. Fun. The temple trip was awesome though, I'm so glad I got to go.

     The transfer board came out on Sunday night and I saw that I was getting transferred to Kingwood, right next to the mission office (my apartment is 2 minutes walking distance from the office). On the transfer board there was two letters next to my name. SA. Special Assignment. I am now a Technology Specialist with my new companion Elder Simpson. Oh boy. I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing, but I know that we get some privileges. Hopefully this means President trusts me. I don't know yet. Tomorrow we'll be going into the office to see what special project President has for us to do. Oh yeah, it's a bike area too. I'm gonna be biking around Texas in August. YAAaaayyy....... I'll survive, don't worry, mom.

     I'm sorry this email was small, but I've been running around ALL DAY and barely had time to get to this tonight. I've got some good pictures from the past week though, so enjoy...

-Elder Peterson

A member bought us a ton of groceries, that was a huge blessing.

I got pictures with my two favorite families from Pasadena (Butlers and McCanns(guy with yellow shirt).

Elder Nelson was conked out on a small road trip.

 

Elder Peterson Week 43

 Brother Butler, our ward mission leader, came with us to our lesson with Marie and Lilia. We went over the Restoration with then and made sure they still understood why/how it happened. Marie has also been struggling with her desire to be baptized. She is having a very difficult time giving up coffee and tea. Brother Butler helped a ton though. He taught them very well and helped bring back Marie's desire to be baptized. We all bore testimonies and Marie was pretty emotional at the end of it all. After the lesson I think he was feeling reminiscent of his missionary days because he told us to hop in his car and we went and contacted some more people. We even set up another lesson for him to come to with us. 

      The great thing is that Marie and Lilia came to church on Sunday and they loved it. They came to Sunday school as well and made some interesting comments about the lesson. Very interesting comments.

     The other lesson we set up with Brother Butler was with Carlos. That lesson was also an amazing one. Carlos had been reading a little bit in the Book of Mormon and he asked us some great questions. We began teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End) and he followed very well. At the end of the lesson we asked him what the spirit is telling him he needs to do. He said he needs to be baptized. We told him that Heavenly Father communicates with us through the spirit and that he should continue seeking that counsel from God. We didn't give him a date to be baptized right then, but we invited him to keep doing things to help him be prepared, such as attending Sacrament meeting. His work is busy (he works at a refinery) so he said he'll try his best to make it one of these Sundays. Carlos is awesome and we are so excited for him. Every time we come we can see his excitement and desire to learn more. He's a great person, so I hope he sticks with it and continues to recognize the many blessings that come from following the Savior.

     Interesting news: I'm currently in a trio companionship! Elder Bengtzen has left the mission for his original assignment, Australia. Because he left in the middle of the transfer President Larkin just assigned his companion, Elder Morrow, to join Elder Nelson and I until the transfer ends (next week). On Sunday we had a complicated way of trading vehicles and companions that I won't get into. Basically, Elders Nelson and Morrow are my companions for the next week and we cover two areas. Fun stuff. We are switching where we stay the night between the two apartments depending on convenience, which has been interesting. It's also a little stressful how many people and how much ground we have to cover for the next week, but I'm not too worried. 

     Our 4th of July was pretty underwhelming, not gonna lie. Nothing interesting happened during the day, but we were fortunate to be invited to a party held by some people in the YSA ward (which we now cover). We are not allowed to handle fireworks, which stinks because some people brought a couple fireworks for us. We had to politely decline.  We still watched some fireworks though and definitely heard a lot. We were required to be in our apartments by 9pm, no exceptions, so we stayed as long as we could and then raced home. We got home at exactly 9 o'clock. We cut it very close. 

Our 4th might have been a little uneventful, but I still enjoyed the fact that it was independence day. It was also fun to see that a lot of Texans go big for the 4th.

     Anyway, I had a fun week with a lot of blessings. I hope this next week is just as good. Next time I write I might be in a new area, we'll see. Have a great week!

-Elder Peterson

Also, I did an exchange with Elder Bengtzen before he left, so we had a lot of fun together. He's the guy with the banjo down there.

4th of July

On the morning of the 4th of July Kefford made red, white and blue pancakes and I cut up some strawberries we had in the fridge for Breakfast. It was a low key kind of day which was nice to have after being on my toes for a week caring for Joshuas kids.

We were invited over to the Lindley for a potluck and fireworks fun and it was fun to go over that afternoon and hang out and visit with friends from the Ward. 

When the fireworks were getting ready to start the kids climbed up on the Lindley roof to be able to have a better view of the fireworks going off all around the valley. It made Jeni super nervous especially seeing them standing up there. Eventually the Lindleys had enough of the kids messing around on their roof and kicked them off before someone fell off. By this time the shows were about over and so we headed home.

Once we got home we hung out on the back patio for a little bit to enjoy my Fourth of July lights and Avynlea played with the .5 setting on my phone.

Kenedy had her own 4th of July fun with her Cousin Ben and boyfriend Tyler.

 

FSY

Avynlea and Rylee got to go to FSY this year and they had such a good time. Rylee really wanted to room with her friend Avery but because of where their birthdays fell they were in different age groups which meant they couldn't room together, Rylee in the younger and Avery I the older. I figured if Rylee could be in the oldest class for Young Womens that she could be in the older class for FSY and I moved her up. Now she and Avery can room together and have more fun. This also meant that Rylee would be in Avynlea's age group which was fun. They ended up in the same FSY group and their rooms were next door to each other. Avynlea, Rylee and Avery were the three amigas at FSY and they had so much fun and had good experiences. Avery is moving to a different ward and school in the fall and so she and Rylee really enjoyed having this time to be together.

 

Relaxing on the back patio and Fireworks at the farm

While I was in Utah Kefford put together our new patio furniture and got my outside lights hung up, the lights are smart lights and connect to the internet so I can manage them with my phone. They were not connecting like they should have been and so Kefford spent a lot of time adjusting and moving them around. We finally realized we needed to buy a wifi extender and put it in an outlet by the back door which made the lights start working perfectly

Saturday night, July 2, we went out to the farm for food and fireworks. It is always fun to get together with the extended Peterson family and I got to spend. a lot of time visiting with Tami and her girls. Rylee was babysitting that night so it ws just Kefford, Avynlea and I. We missed having Rylee with us but she was busy earning money which is good also. Avynlea went with Allie to ride the four-wheeler around and she came back with lots of scrapes and bruised on her legs. They were doing cookies and Avynlea slid off the back. She was more embarrassed about it than anything and I am glad she was ok.

My patio lights are able to be different colors and I was admiring the 4th of July colors later that night.

Kenedy sent these pictures of her and Tyler, the guy she is starting to date.