Warhawk Museum

On Saturday Kefford, Avynlea, Rylee and I went to the Warhawk museum in Nampa to watch the air show. Before the show started we walked around the museum and looked at all the stuff they had. Rylee liked pretending to be an astronaut. 

This is a P-40 Warhawk

When the show finally started it was pretty cool to watch these small planes take off and fly around next to each other.

This F-22 was flown by a girl whose call name is Beowolf. She flew in from Utah did a couple of passes around and then flew off. 

 

Football vs Mountain View

 Football vs Mountain View and it was another Warrior Win! Avynlea and Paige did a great job holding up the Banner for the Football team and Avynlea and Paige along with Natalie are the best flag runners! I love watching my favorite cheerleader and love watching the Warriors win against Mountain View!

Avynlea, Natalie and Paige

Paige, Ntlie, Avynlea, Parker and Thacker

Elder Peterson Week 50

 This will be another rushed one, I'm sorry. It should be the last one I have to rush though.

     As most of you know, Elder Simpson and I have been filling in the last APs (assistant to president) spot. So we've been in a trio with Elder Chappell. This was the last week of the trio and it has been WILD. We've been doing a lot to help prepare for transfers and for the new missionaries coming in. I'll be honest, I do not remember a lot from the past week. This is because I'm very tired and it has gone by very fast. We have had some awesome lessons along with all the chaos. 

     We taught this one guy in the AP's area and it was such a cool experience. We got talking about prophets and about scripture and he had so many cool things to say. He believes and understands that there has to be a modern prophet otherwise Christ's church can't stand. There must be a leader with authority from God to direct the church and correct it where needed. I mean, look at how many epistles Paul had to write to keep the people from falling into apostasy. Even with his corrections (of which we have very few) the church was still corrupted over time and this led to the people turning their hearts from God. We had an awesome discussion about this and then we talked about Joseph Smith. He was nodding the whole time and adding his own thoughts. At one point he told us about how he had been searching for something more, that something in his heart was telling him there was something missing. He commented that this might be it. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he eagerly agreed to read it. 

     So even with all the running around and keeping track of transfer instructions and flight plans, we were able to slide in some awesome lessons. 

     Yesterday 3 of the 14 new missionaries came and we had fun with them. We picked them up from the airport around noon and got some stuff done with them. The plan was to pick up the rest of them around 6pm, but their flight got delayed. How delayed you ask? Well, we picked them up at 1:30 this morning. Whooo... It was still fun. Yesterday while we split up with the 3 Elders and did about an hour of finding. I took Elder Solano and wow, he impressed me. We pretty much taught this one guy the whole restoration and it was great. I did most of talking since, ya know, it's literally his first day in the field. First few hours at that. But he shared his testimony on a couple things and it reminded me of how powerful sincere testimonies can be. After being in the mission for a while you learn what things are usually best to say to people. But he testified boldly of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon. The guy we were talking to, George, was very moved. At first he had very little interest in learning about our church, but after a couple testimonies and explanations, he agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome!

     This morning at transfers (Elder Simpson and I are staying another one together) we did a lot to help the new missionaries get around and figure some things out. As technology Specialists we explained some things about their phones and how certain things work. I also got to see some past companions, again, which is always fun. Elder Chappell got his new companion and we were relieved of our "AP" duties. Hopefully we can catch up on our sleep a little. 

     The week has been good, things will start to die down again, which is good. We'll be able to focus more on our area and getting more people taught. I was reading Mormon 8 a lot this past week and I've loved it. Towards the end of the chapter he's talking to the world today and he gets a little frustrated. In verse 38 we get kinda roasted and he totally calls us out on not being better desciples of Christ. Remember, he saw our day and knows what we are doing. He has seen how wicked the world is and we are pretty much told to be better. It was good motivation for me and I recommend you all give it a good read (Chapter 8 of Mormon).

     I'm gonna end this here, I'm falling asleep and I've got to get to other things. I hope you all have a good week, I pray for ya!

-Elder Peterson

That dark picture in the car is 1 am this morning.

The umbrella pic is Elder Chappell walking out Sister Petersen, I thought it looked funny 

Red shirt is Elder Paulsen (my first trainer)

Grey and blue shirt is Elder Nelson and Morrow, my last comps

First Day of School

Before the school started Avynlea and Rylee went to a girl who does hair out of her home to get their hair cut. While doing Avynlea's haircut she was telling her about cheer and how she has struggled with her tumbling. This girls kids do tumbling and she had a tumble track in her garage so after she finished cutting their hair she had Avynlea get on her tumble track and helped her with some tips. 

In addition to having fresh hair cuts they wanted cute nails so they asked Brynn Givens if she would do their nails. Rylee came home with some cute flowers on her nails and Avynlea got a pretty French manicure.

Finally it was the first day of school and Avynlea is starting her last first day of High School ever. I can't believe she is a senior and as much as I don't want it to I know this year will fly by because I will be dreading her graduation. I am not ready for her to Graduate and leave for college... too much too soon. She is at Meridian High School and excited for her Senior year.

 

On instagram I put a picture of her first day of senior year and then I added a picture of her first day of Kindergarten and her Kindergarten school picture. How has the time gone by so fast!

Rylee is a Sophomore at Owyhee High School and is excited to not be a Freshman anymore. She is taking Yoga for her PE credit and is really excited about that class.

Football! Meridian vs eagle and Owyhee vs Madison

 First football games of the season and Rylee went with her friends to cheer on Owyhee while I went with Kenedy to cheer on Avynlea and Meridian. Rylee had a lot of fun being in the student section with her friends and loved even more that her team won their first game against Madison!

Rylee, Taylee and Naomi

Owyhee 13-7

Meridian was playing against Eagle and the theme was western. The cheerleaders ordered white cowboy hats they were going to decorate but they didn't have time so they just wore them plain. I liked that look better, I thought adding stuff to them would have looked really cheesy. 

Meridian Cheer Seniors

Tessa, Melanie, Madi, Katie, Roree, Hannah, Avynlea, Natalie, Paige and Dreya

Avynlea, Paige and Natalie will run the flags all season every time there is a touchdown made by our team. They are the perfect trio for the job and had a lot of fun running with the flags!

Elizabeth and Amy

Kenedy and Elizabeth

Avynlea, Kenedy and Elizabeth 

Avynlea, Natalie and Paige

Avynlea, Natalie, Katie and Paige

Avynlea and Paige are also the banner holders for the season. They hold up the banner for the football team to run through at all home games.

Katie, Hannah, Natalie, Avynlea and Parker

Elder Peterson Week 49

 This past week has been awesome, so many miracles as well as interesting changes. Let me start with the overall miracle.

     Last Sunday my dad told me that my family was fasting so that we'd be able to find more people to teach. The whole mission was also fasting for more faith to find. WELL IT WORKED. This past week we found several people to talk to and made many new friends. Last week Elder Chappell's companion went home early for school, so he joined us and we just kinda merged our areas and responsibilities for the rest of the transfer (last day is next Tuesday). He is an incredible missionary and I've already learned so much from him. One of the things I'm most impressed with, and this goes along with the miracle, is that he is VERY good at talking to people. He is very good at talking to everyone and making sure everyone knows who we are and what we do. This seriously played into helping us find more people, so I'm very grateful for that change.

      Now here's where things get even more interesting. See, Elder Simpson and I are the Technology Specialists (TSs). Elder Chappell is an Assistant to the President (AP). Because of this merge, we three are acting both as TSs and as APs. It has been really fun . 

     We've had many meetings and many errands to run. But we've also had some awesome lessons and finding sessions. I've had too many cool experiences to share them all, and I don't have a lot of time to keep writing right now, but I'll give a summary. By bearing pure testimony and by declaring the restored gospel, we have had many conversations. We've seen the Spirit working on people's hearts, turning them towards our message. And we've had many opportunities to show people that we truly are the Lord's servants. I've also been hearing of a lot of success among other missionaries and members. I'm reminded of Alma's declaration in Alma 29:

"14 But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi."

  Yeah, it's a little cheesy, but I mean it. Because of all the meetings I've gone to I've been able to see the mission statistics and wow... this has been a good week!

     We did exchanges with some Zone Leaders and I went to their area. Their Spanish area. Noooo English. I was very confused most of the time, but it was very fun. We mowed a Widow's lawn and she made us lunch  it was awesome. I also got to go to Spanish class with Hermano Pomeroy, which is always exciting. Besides being fluent in spanish, he is a doctrinal wizard and always lets us ask Gospel questions. I asked him about the Old Testament Tabernacle and he taught us A LOT about it. That was a very fun exchange.

     I don't know what else to talk about, I don't have a lot of time and everything else would take a while to explain . All in all, it's been a fantastic week full of many blessings from the Lord. 

    I hope you all have a great week. Read Alma 29! (Verses 9 and 10 are on my plaque )

-Elder Peterson

It was pouring and this member who fed us dinner walked us to our car with a beach umbrella