Friends and Service

8/11: Every so often Mina will send me a text asking if her and Roen could meet me for brunch. I had Roen in my dance class for quite a few years until she aged out and I love that her and her Mom want to keep in touch. We went to brunch on a day Roen had off from school and it was really fun to visit and catch up. 

8/11: I finally did one of the dance camps for EDP and I had a small group of the cutest girls. Farrah (pink Leo) and Violet (blue Leo) I had in my classes last year so it was fun to see them again and have them in class. It was a 4 day camp and throughout the camp I taught them a dance to a song about ice cream. I told them that on the last day we would celebrate by me bringing in ice cream bars for them. I brought in some strawberry shortcake ones and put them win the freezer in the office. The freezer must not have been working right because when I pulled them out they were mush, ugh. The girls were good sports about it and either ate them right away or took them home to stick in the freezer.

8/13: Saturday was community cleanup service day. Our Ward decided to do cleanup at Owyhee High School, Star Middle and Pleasant Valley elementary but we could do clean up anywhere we wanted. We decided to do clean up at Meridian High School for Avynlea to get service credit for cheer. We did a lot of weeding and cleaning up of the flower beds. Jill Lilliankamp the Principal at Meridian was taking pictures and posted the bottom right photo of Avynlea and Rylee crediting Meridian Cheer which we thought was funny because it looks like both girls are cheerleaders and Rylee "doesn't even go here". 

8/15: Avynlea thought it was funny to take a picture of herself with this Dairy Days Trophy that Meridian High had. She even put her name on it the sneaky little minx.

Rylee was invited to go to Ellas birthday party, they did dinner and shopping and had a lot of fun.

Rylee and Ella

right picture...Tayci, Rylee, Saylor and Ella

 

Elder Peterson Week 48

 The game was awesome last week, the Astros did awesome. It was a chaotic mess getting there though. We took a bus to get there and about 4 to get home, plus 30 minutes of walking in a sketchy area. Houston City itself is a nightmare, I cannot understand how people can do anything there. Everything is so crowded, the traffic is weird, so are the people... I refuse to believe that there are actually people that prefer a busy city over quiet mountains. Anyway, the whole trip was an interesting experience that involved way to much complaining about being hungry (I'm beginning to understand how my dad feels on vacations). I enjoyed every part of the game though, we played the Red Sox and beat them 6 - 1. Very good game to watch.

Go Astros!

     On Thursday night we had a ward party to kick off the end of summer () and it was pretty cool. It was planned before I even got to the area, so I didn't have to help with any of the planning. It was also specifically so people could invite their friends to get to know the ward a little bit and see that we are (for the most part) normal people. The turn out was a little disappointing, but a couple nonmembers showed up and had a good time, so we call it a success. The stake has a 9-square that we borrowed for the event and that was awful. If you don't know what 9-square is, it's the same concept as 4-square, but there's 9 squares. And they're above you instead of on the ground. Typically (I wish I could say always) it's built out of pvc pipes and it's very simple to set up. Well, this one that we borrowed was made out of steel pipes and was not simple to set up at all. It took us 30 minutes to set it up and it didn't even have enough support pipes to be stable. You would think to put one on each corner... nope. It had one pipe in the middle of each side, it was not structurally sound at all. Thankfully no one got hurt and, like I said, everyone enjoyed the activity.

      As for the teaching, everything is about the same. We have two people we are trying to teach (Tawana and Samantha) and we are trying to find more people to teach. I'm excited for this week though, the whole mission fasted together for more faith to find people to teach. I expect to find some people this week. We saw Tawana yesterday and talked for about 20 seconds. She was busy, I guess, and didn't have time to talk. She just told us to text her later to find another time. As for Samantha... She is as talkative as ever. We stopped by her door yesterday and had a nice talk. We aren't allowed to go into her house since there is no male adult present, and she isn't comfortable with us bringing someone from the ward. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, how is she comfortable with two random 19-year-olds from out of state and not comfortable with her neighbor. And I mean next door neighbor, two doors over. Oh well, we spoke about it yesterday and it seems like she might be open to it soon. We got her in contact with the Bishop's wife and they've been talking a little bit over the phone. My hope is that we'll be able to bring them over with us sometime.

     I've been reading through the Bible lately and I came across Exodus 31 the other day and found it extremely relevant. Verses 13 through 17 make it very clear what the Sabbath is meant for. I've been wondering (and I've asked) what things are okay to do on the Sabbath and how strict should we be? Well, I found the answer to be very simple. In verse 17 the Lord says "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Two things I'd like to point out:

One, the first part of this verse "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever." What we do on the Sabbath shows our devotion to God. I've come to understand that there isn't really a specific list of do's and don'ts for the Sabbath. How we treat this day shows how seriously we take our discipleship. It is not a take to be taken casually. There are a couple things that we are specifically commanded not to do though.

Second, it is a day to rest and be refreshed. I take that to mean that we use this day to rest physically and refresh ourselves spiritually. I don't think most people take as much advantage of the Sabbath as they could, myself included. I mean, look at how hard the church leaders are pushing for a more gospel centered home. We should be immersed in the gospel always, but most especially on the Lord's day.

     I'll step off my high-horse before I start getting too preachy. I just wanted to share some interesting things I learned from my recent studies. I'm so very grateful for the scriptures and for all the resources God has given to us to learn from. I know that as we give more time to the gospel we will have happier lives. It's really that simple. Of course we will still experience hardships, but we will have eyes to see and ears to hear what blessings those hardships turn out to be.

     Keep praying, keep learning. I love you guys, have a good week!

-Elder Peterson

Rodeo Birthday Party

Avynlea has started her senior year of cheer and on this day was doing a stunt clinic with Weber State Cheer. It was a to of fun and Avynlea learned a lot from the Weber State Cheerleaders. They had additional partner stunting that we could sign our kids up for if wanted and I signed Avynlea up for a 30 minute partner stunting and she loved it. I wish I would have signed her up for additional time but the slots got filled up really fast. I didn't get any pictures from the partner stunting which was her favorite part but she had a great time learning and working with the Weber State Cheerleaders.

My neighbor Arin Lamb is pretty extra in life and everything she does. Today is her birthday and she was throwing herself a rodeo themed birthday party. She rented a barn and had it decked out with country sayings, barbecue, pictures of her as a cowgirl and she even rented a horse to come and take pictures with. We did line dancing, visited with each other and had a great time.

This was the most western themed dress I own and I really liked how it looked, wearing a dress to a party is always fun.

Arin and I teach Sunday school together and she took a picture with some of our girls who were there.

l-r: Eliza, Lola, Kaitlyn, Saylor, Rylee, Brynn, Addie, Arin and Scottie

Arin wanted a picture with all her Bainbridge girlfriends, we took the bottom picture and more friends showed up so we then took the top picture. 

bottom l-r: Kim Hansen, Echo and Emily Walker, Jeni Lindley, Elizabeth, Arin Lamb

top l-r: Angela Hooper, Katie Givens, Echo Walker, Kim Hansen, Emily Walker, Jessica Lewis, Emily young, Jeni Lindley, Elizabeth and Arin Lamb 

Arin has an obsession with Edward from Twilight and has this cardboard cutout of him she keeps in her garage. He was pulled out and brought along to use in her western themed decoration and as a photo prop. What a fun party, I loved having my girls there and had fun visiting with everyone and celebrating Arin.

 

Dixie Chicks Concert

 

Avynlea and I went over to the Hansen's to ask for Cheer Sponsorship and while we were there Sophie asked me if I was going to tonight. I didn't understand what she was talking about and Kim said the Dixie Chicks concert, was I going. I said I didn't know about it and she said she had some extra tickets if I wanted to go with my girls. Avynlea and Rylee were busy and I really didn't want to go but I kind felt like I had to if it was being offered so I said I would go. Kim picked me up and I went and had fun with the people who were there, mostly I sat and talked with Jeni Lindley and Keri Shoemaker. I am not a big fan of the Dixie Chicks, I think they politically need to mind their own business and they played one song called Army of One and on their background had Black Lives Matter video and other Left wing propaganda, it was uncomfortable. I knew two songs from back I their early days, Goodbye Earl and Ready to Run, other then that it was a boring concert to be at and one I will never be at again.

Tubing!

On Friday we went out to the farm to borrow their boat so we could go tubing. We have been wanting to go for a while and it was great to be able to go and have Tyler with us. It was extra nice for Kefford to have another guy around to help him with unloading and loading the boat. The weather was great and we had a lot of fun in and out of the water.

Avynlea and Kenedy

Rylee enjoyed relaxing on the boat when she wasn't tubing, she was the flag holder for a little bit and then when she wasn't on the water she was laying down resting.

Kenedy, Avynlea and Tyler

Kenedy and Avynlea got dumped which left just Ty to hang out not he tube while we got the girls.

Avynlea looked pretty cute hanging out in the water waiting for us to pick her up.

I took a turn on the tube with Avynlea and I didn't realize it while I was on the tube but while we were going really fast I was taking up a lot of the space on the tube. Avynlea had to throw her leg over me just to have space. Sorry Avy

Avynlea, Kenedy and Rylee

Ty's shirt got wet and he needed it dry to wear for the ride home so he held it up like a flag to air dry it. I thought it was pretty funny and didn't think it would work but by the time we were done boating and loading up his shirt was mostly dry.

 

Tie Dying with the Heslops

 On Wednesday I went to the library to pick up some books I had on hold. Normally I would use the self checkout without speaking to anyone and leave but I needed some help this time around. The lady who was helping me saw my card and asked if I was Elizabeth Fern, I thought it was a weird question but I said yes. Then she said that she has seen my name in the system many times and that she wanted to meet me because her name is also Elizabeth Fern. I thought that was so fun and what a funny coincidence that we have the same first and middle name. She said that she goes by Betty so that is a difference. I said we had to take a picture together and then proceeded to take a selfie with her. 

The girls were invited to go to Reno to stay the week with Tyler and his family bit Kefford and I did not feel good about the idea. The car they would be taking was not super reliable for long trips and we didn't like the idea of our three girls traveling to Reno by themselves. I suggested that Tyler come to us for the week so that we would get to know him better, that worked for everyone so plans were made. 

The second day he was here we had invited the Heslop girls over to tie dye shirts with us. Kenedy got a tie dye kit from Kylie when she graduated High School that never got used. We had the Heslops bring over shirts to tie dye and we got to work in the backyard. 

Tyler played a little bit of soccer with the girls when they got done with tie dying.

Rylee and Avynlea

left pic: Avynlea, Rylee and Catherine

right pic: Hazel, Emmaline and Avynlea

WE hd gloves for everyone and the girls and Tyler were doing good to help the Heslops but I noticed Genni struggling a little so I stepped in to help her. I didn't have any gloves on because I didn't think I would need them but ended up getting dye all over my hands.

After the tie dye we played a game of Disney Apples to Apples and the girls had a lot of fun playing that with us. 

Kenedy helped Catherine, Tyler helped Hazel, Avynlea helped Emmaline and Avynlea helped Genni.

We had a fun time being with the Heslop girls and they loved coming over and being with us for a few hours of fun and games.

Elder Peterson week 47

 I just sat down on a bench to write this email and found a 2 dollar bill underneath it. Cool.

     The reason I'm not emailing until now is pretty awesome. Somehow we and 10 other missionaries got permission to move our pday to today so we can go to the Astros game this afternoon. The Minute Maid Park is right outside our mission boundaries, so I'm still surprised this was approved. I mean, I guess NASA is further out of the mission, but it would be cruel not to let missionaries go there at least once. I never thought I'd be going to an Astros game while out here, but it was approved. 

(It's major league baseball for those who don't know)

     Anyway, last Friday was Zone Conference, which was pretty fun. I talked with Elder Paulsen for a bit (he's about to hit 18 months!) as well as some other missionaries I haven't seen in a while. We learned a lot about using Preach My Gospel more and how to apply what we learn from it. Preach My Gospel is such a useful tool for missionaries. If you are looking to go on a mission, get in that book asap and study it like crazy. I went through it a decent amount before coming out, but boy if I knew... 

But yeah, Zone conference was great.

     Nothing else really interesting has happened this past week (this area is REALLY slow). Elder Simpson wrecked his bike (hit a curb head on and did a flip, he's okay). I wrecked my bike (hit a tree root and just kinda jumped off). McDonald's gave me large fries when I payed for medium fries. Lots of great stuff.

     Oh yeah, the mission office changed too, I almost forgot that. Here's a section from President Larkin's email with some info:

Texas Houston East Mission

Attn: Missionary’s Full Name

19618 Atasca Oaks Dr.

Humble, TX 77346

 

Additionally, this address serves as the mission office and as a functioning ward building, therefore we could not receive mail prior to tomorrow as there was no one on site to receive it. 

Any package sent to the old office address will be received there for the next week to ten days and we will collect it there.  The US Postal Service will forward all packages from the old address to the new address for about six months.  It may be a bit challenging for other carriers such as UPS, FedEx and Amazon if packages are sent to the old address and don’t arrive in the next 7-10 days.  We apologize for any inconvenience.  Please know we have excellent relationships with the regular route drivers from these carriers and they have been aware of the pending change for several weeks and have been most helpful.

 We truly love your missionaries and are grateful for your sustaining support.

That's the end of it, but I'm too lazy to fix the font size  so I'll finish with tiny letters I guess.

     My favorite scripture this week is Alma 38:12

"Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness."

It's a powerful scripture with great advice, especially for missionaries. It was a good reminder for me to be bold in my efforts and to make sure I'm keeping my purpose in mind.  See if you can find a way to apply this scripture to yourself.  Nephi taught us that's what we're supposed to do 

     Well I gotta head to a baseball game, ya'll enjoy your day and I'll enjoy mine. 

     Email me if you've got any questions or concerns. Or don't,  I don't want to hear from you anyway...

 (jk, I do)

     -Elder Peterson