Cheer gifts, Heslop girls gifts, Cheer

Avynlea and some of her teammates choreographed and taught a dance to some of the boys on the Varsity Basketball team for them to perform at the Winter Sports assembly. She had a lot of fun doing it and I heard the boys did a good job performing at the assembly.

Paige, Katie, Avynlea, Hannah and Natalie

At lunch the cheerleaders had their Christmas party and Secret Santa gift exchange. 

Avynlea and Rylee really wanted to get the Heslop girls some best friends bracelets for Christmas. While we were at the Claires in Walmart Avy and I found some cute ones. We bought enough for the Heslop girls to each have one and then Rylee, Avy, Kenedy, Tyler and I all got one as well. Avynlea wrapped them up and then we took them over to their house to give them their gifts. They were so excited and loved the bracelets, they especially loved that we matched them. They are such cute girls and we really love them.

Hazel, Genni, Catherine and Emmaline

Avynlea looked cute cheering at the basketball game that night with her Christmas shirt and bow and pajama bottoms. The boys were playing Owyhee that night and I got a picture of Rylee in the Owyhee student section once I found her.

Rylee is in a red sweatshirt under the boy in the green hat.

This is the Christmas picture I designed for The Dance Connections instagram page, I think it turned out pretty cute.

 

Elder Peterson Week 67

The reason it was a long week is because nothing interesting happened. By that I mean that there weren't any conferences, we didn't go to TLC (I can't sneak in anymore ), and no interesting meetings. Besides Sacrament Meeting, I suppose.

     On Friday we had district council and one of the big things we talked about was getting members to lessons and having them extend invitations. We tried, that's all I'm gonna say. We tried. We will keep trying. But the idea is great. We missionaries switch out a lot, so it's good to get our friends introduced to members so they can know people other than us. There's a lot of people that lose interest once "their missionaries" are no longer in the area. Which kind of makes sense, honestly.

     OH!! So I lied, there was something interesting that happened. I don't know how I forgot about the Ward Christmas Party. It was Friday night. There was a lot of food and then a long list of performers, from the ward. Nothing professional. We had to go up several times. We practiced a skit this past week as well as some songs. The skit was absolutely cheesy, so I'm glad all I had to do in it was sing. The other songs we sang were super fun. Since our ward is technically split with a spanish ward they were all there as well. We sang Silent night in spanish and another song I can't remember. It was actually really fun and we did pretty good. I always get shoved into the bass section, so I'm getting a little better at it. Hopefully I'm good enough at singing now that my sisters won't laugh at me anymore...

     We've been having some great teaching, I'm just going to talk about Joseph. We have taught him the first 3 lessons and he came to church yesterday! It's great, except I don't think he's actually absorbing anything. I'm starting to fear that he's not grasping the importance of our message. He has been reading the Book of Mormon, and like I said, he came to church. But I don't think it's really sinking into his soul. Time will tell though. You want to know what didn't help? Yesterday we went to sunday school with him AND IT WAS A DISASTER!!! We chose the wrong class to join. They kept going on tangents about irrelevant information and the focus came off of Christ several times (Elder Gale and I had to remind them what it's all about several times). I think my least favorite part of that whole adventure is when someone pointed out Joseph and said "Who are you? Are you a new member or an investigator?" Two things, if there is someone new at church don't put them on the spot, it's awkward. Second, DON'T CALL PEOPLE INVESTIGATORS!! We are not supposed to do that, it makes them seem more like a number than a person interested in the church. This is why missionaries (should) refer to people we are teaching as friends. Because that's the goal, we want to get to know them and help them out.                                                                                    

     I'm pretty sure it just went right over his head, but still. That's a weird and annoying thing to do. 

     This past week I read the book of Revelation and it was awesome! There's so much good stuff in there. I particulary liked chapter 12, the one that talks about the war in heaven. It helped me realize something. Every person who has, does, or ever will live chose this plan. We fought for the Plan of Salvation. It's a good thing to remember that even the difficult people in our lives once stood with us and we all fought together. It was a nice wake up call for me, because I get frustrated with people really easily. It's also given me a lot of motivation to work harder because I need to help these people! They can't remember that fight and why they're here. I'm grateful I get the opportunity to help my brothers and sisters remember what we fought for and what we should still be fighting for. Satan is working very hard to keep us all separated and even convinces some of us to fight against each other (or against ourselves). Let's remember that we all fought togther before coming here and let's do our best to continue fighting together. Christ is our captain and if we follow Him, we cannot fail.

     NEXT WEEK IS CHRISTMAS!!! I'll probably write an email then. Have a good week. Sorry for the lack of photos.

-Elder Peterson

 This is all I've got, sorry 

Fierce Headshots, Gingerbread Houses and DC Christmas Lunch

Whitney and Dustin wanted to go to the Temple and asked if we would watch their kids for them. We had nothing going on that night so of course we had them bring them on over. It is actually a lot more fun watching these kids without any other cousins or their parents or grandparents around. I get to know more of them and we have a lot of fun. They wanted to play barbies so we had those out and then Sadie and Madison asked if I knew Cotten Eye Joe because they were wanting to learn it. I laughed because I just did that dance at the cheer competition and of course I knew it. I had fun teaching it to them and that is what we were doing when their parents showed up to pick them up. It was a fun night.

All of the girls at Fierce had their headshots taken and I thought Avynlea looked pretty cute. Not sure what I will do with them ever but we have them if we need them.

I am back in Young Womens, I was released from my  Sunday School calling and was put in as a class 14 Young Women specialist, I am also Girls Camp Director which should be fun. For Mutual this week the girls did Gingerbread Houses which was a lot of fun. The brought their own graham cracker house and the leaders supplied the candy. Rylee was not supposed to be here she is in the older group, they were doing Bob Ross Painting and when she got done she came over to help her friends with their houses.

Kinsey, Brynn, Leah and Rylee

Abby recommended a nail salon and I got really pretty red sparkle nails. Lisa Elder was telling me beforehand she went to the same place and Andrew, our nail guy, offered to do a snowflake. She declined and when he offered me the same I took the offer and am so glad I did because m nails looked so cute. I sent a picture to Lisa so she could see m snowflake and she said she loved it and wished she would have done it as well.

Cyndi took all of us employees of the Dance Connection out for a Christmas Lunch. Towards the end of the meal I had everyone gather for a picture that I could use on the DC social media page.

Myr, Cyndi, Brigitte, Hilly, Alisa and Elizabeth

 

Elder Peterson Week 66

 Things are going good in terms of teaching. We had a couple good lessons with Joseph, Paula, and Charlotte.

     We met with Joseph twice this week, though the first time was on an exchange, so Elder Colt wasn't here. Elder Gale and I talked with him about the Restoration and then Elder Colt and I taught him about the Plan of Salvation. We think he's comprehending things fine, but we aren't totally sure. He has been reading a little, so we're hopeful. He's been experiencing a lot of frustration towards others and he says that the scriptures and prayer have been helping him a lot.

     Paula has been awesome, though she is very talkative  I try to be understanding cause I don't think she gets company very often. Last time we met we were talking about the Restoration and she kept going off on tangents that really weren't related to the topic. I had to interrupt her a couple times to keep us moving on the right direction. The nice thing is that talkative people usually know they're talkative, so they don't seem to mind very much when you interrupt their tangents. She said she'd come to church at the end of our lesson, but she did not... which was sad...

     Charlotte was really cool. She has been referred to missionaries in the past, so when we went to her house she was really hesitant. She said she's been told about the Book of Mormon by past missionaries and she isn't interested in it. She viewed it as a separate thing entirely from the Bible, I felt like she didn't quite understand that the books support each other. I felt prompted to show her Galatians 5:22 and how it explains what the Spirit feels like. Then I pulled out the Book of Mormon and read Moroni 7:16 and showed her how it further explains how to understand the Spirit. She was kind of amazed and told us that no one had ever showed her how the books work together. She was very curious and agreed to read another two scriptures that do the same. James 1:5 and Moroni 10:4-5. It was a cool experience and I'm very grateful the Spirit was prompting us to go that route.

     It's too bad Paula didn't come to church, because we had a great Sacrament meeting. Elder Rascon (the Area Seventy) and President Harris (our Stake President) came to speak. President Harris shared a powerful testimony and then Elder Rascon made it even more powerful. Towards the end of his talk he had all of us missionaries come on the stage (there was 12 of us) and sing Called to Serve. He had the congregation join on the second verse and it was incredible how strong the Spirit was. I didn't like the attention on all of us, but it was cool to think that I'm playing a very important role in God's work right now. It's a huge honor and responsibility.

     Last night we did some caroling with some members from the ward and it was a ton of fun. Elder Frogley and Burton came too since it was in their area. There was a couple that actually asked about our church and asked to meet with those two sometime. They set up a time and we were all super excited. I don't like caroling, it's awkward and sometimes annoying. But it helped someone get in touch with missionaries, so I can't complain too much.

     We still do not have our 3rd companion yet. Hopefully we will on Thursday.

Have a good week!

-Elder Peterson

We held some birds this week and I also made good food. 

I made some amazing funeral potatoes (a little too much though...)

Shake It Up Cheer Competition

We had to send Rykers Christmas package early so that he would receive it in time for Christmas, I told everyone to write Ryker a letter to add to the package and I love that Rylee made this card. She is so good at art and I think it is so cute and I love the message she put inside for Ryker. I love that Rylee is recognizing the blessings we receive from Ryker serving a mission and that his experiences are a good example for her in thinking about wanting to serve a mission.

Today is Avynlea's last first cheer competition of the season. Usually the comps start early in the morning but this comp started in the afternoon which will make for a long afternoon and night. I took a picture of Avynlea before she left, she was planning on getting ready at the competition.

A little bit after Avynlea left Amy came over so we could make some posters for our girls. Natalie decided to only do sideline this year and not competition but she has been coaching at Heritage so we made a poster for her as well. Amy and I drove to the competition together and we made sure to bring our girls fatheads as well as the posters.

At the competition w3e got a picture of Paige and Avynlea, they held Natalie's fathead so she could be a part of the picture as well.

I love watching Avynlea compete! She has improved so much over the past 4 years and her facial expressions are the best to watch, she shines when she is on the mat!

Diana came to watch our girls cheer and her girl coach, it was fun to be together at the comp.

Our girls sat on the sideline to watch Heritage cheer because Coach Christinas daughter cheers for Heritage and we were supporting her but mostly we were supporting Natalie and their other coaches Chris and Carlee who cheered for Meridian. Paige got a picture of me holding up our We Love Coach Natalie sign and I love how cute and happy we look.

This competition had an extra award which was the parent participation award. Basically whoever had the best cheering section. This was something we could excel at and so us Meridian parents whooped and collared and cheered our little hearts out the entire competition, and it was long. The MC did an awesome job of entertaining and keeping the hope up. He really liked our group because we were so engaged and interacted with us a lot. Somehow at some point it was mentioned that the Meridian parents were going to come on the mat during a break and do Cotton Eye Joe. I was not up for that, I do not like being the center of any attention and being in front of all the other cheer parents was intimidating. Avynlea really wanted me to do it and gave me her puppy eyes and somehow I caved and ended up on the floor with other meridian moms and cheerleaders doing Cotton Eye Joe. I will admit it was fun and I am glad I did it but that was it, fun and done. He had parents come down later for another dance but I was out and happy to sit on the side and cheer on those who got out there. Us Meridian parents did end up winning grand champion for best cheering section, no surprise there, we were pretty awesome, so we were excited about that.

After the competition I got a picture with my cheerleader and then Amy and I wanted a picture with the MC, he really was all heart and did such a great job keeping everyone hyped up during this long competition. I didn't get home until about 11 so you can imagine how tired everyone was after this long da and he helped keep us all entertained.

Avynlea got a picture of the rats nest her hair was when she took it out after the comp, yikes.

The next morning we headed to Nyssa for Leah's baby blessing. Avynlea made the decision to sleep in a little more and do her makeup in the car which I thought was pretty funny.

 

Queens of Linder and a new calling for Bob and Alison

While I was shopping at Costco I found that Tyler's favorite muffins which have been out of stock for so long were back in stock. I added them to the basket and then took a picture to send to Kenedy letting her know we were ready for Tyler to come for Christmas. He was super excited and claimed I was a miracle worker, I am glad that something so simple could make him so happy! When I got home I put them in the freezer so that they would be available for Ty's visit.

I miss football season but I love basketball season because it is indoors and I am able to have a better view of my cheerleader.

Sunday morning I woke up with my bangs doing some funky things. I had to take a picture because I thought they were looking so funny.

Later that day after church was over we went over to the Meridian Temple because Bob and Alison were called into the Meridian Temple Presidency and they needed to be set apart. It was really cool to be in the waiting room with family and listen to the Temple President talk about why they called Bob and Alison to this calling. They love being at the Temple and serving and are there multiple times a week. It is a natural progression for them and I am excited that they will be able to continue in a more official capacity doing what they love. 

back row: Andrea, Kelsey, President Sainsbury, Kefford and Rylee

middle row: Kylie, Andrew, Abby, Vicki, Qiana, Brielle, Brit, Elizabeth, Sister Sainsbury, Avynlea, Trevor, Grandma June, Ellis, Whitney and Asher

front row: Amilia, Xander, Tavia, Sadie, Madison, Hazel, Alison and Bob

Alan, Karli and Taylor were also there they were just taking the picture and were not wanting to be in the picture. 

Karli also got. picture of Bob with his Temple keys learning to open the Temple gates for the first time with Alan helping him.

It was the end of the semester for Kenedy and the end of her student teaching. She got pictures with the two classes she got to be a student teacher in and she is now officially graduated and looking for a job. I am so proud of her for graduating with her bachelors, I think it is pretty cool that she completed and think she is a good example for her siblings.

Friday January 9th was the Queens of Linder game. This is a friendly rivalry game between Rocky Mountain Girls basketball and our girls basketball. Because Avynlea is in student council she was a part of planning this event and I loved watching her announce the half time competition games. She is a natural leader and so good at being in charge.