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!

Sister Peterson Week 31

Hi everyone!! 

I talked about a woman last week, the one who is getting baptized October 20th. Her name is Yagisan! Well, we have been having lessons with her everyday and she is doing good! She seems really excited every time she sees me on the video call! She says "ahhhh Peterson shimai?!?!". Haha. I feel super happy when we teach her!

Last night we went to a members house and had an AMAZING meal. You will see the picture below! It was funny, she kept saying it's good right? And taking pictures of us eating her food. It sounds weird, but it was cute and funny. 

Last Monday we had a sports activity with a bunch of missionaries and friends. For some reason I was SO GOOD at basketball. We were playing a little 4 v 4 game WITH ELDERS and I was making hoops like no other. I think after the mission I will work on becoming a professional because I can't waste this hidden talent of mine!

We got to do exchanges in Meito this week!! It is the area where our mission office is, so it was very fun to hang around there a bit. That also means I got to see President and Sister McConkie! They are my mission president's and truly some of the best humans I have ever met. 

Japan Tips!

- always assume people know more English than you think... you never know when you say something and people will understand... 

- the bread here js really fluffy and has a slightly different taste than America! It is yummy

- it is like impossible to find anything in bulk here unless you go to Costco. Another reason Japanese people are probably so skinny

- 大丈夫, daijyobu, (die-jyo-boo) means it's okay/alright. It is a very useful word!

hip hip hooray for Japan!

We also had zone conference which never fails to be amazing! One of my favorite parts was when a clip out of the Jesus TV show the Chosen was shared. It is a part after Jesus calls his apostles to serve missions. Little James (who has a walking problem) goes up to Jesus and asks why he was called. He feels less than everyone else who was called. "the others, they are so much more." Jesus tells him, "I love you, but I don't ever want to hear that again". This touched my heart because I can relate to Little James a lot especially right now. It is so so so easy to compare myself to others. There are more equipped people to train, to teach, to speak Japanese. "But those are not things the Father cares about". We are called to do hard things in life that we may not believe we can based off the apparent strengths we have. But we cannot see the potential that Heavenly Father sees in us. He gave this trial specifically for you, because He knows your heart can handle it. Because you have something to offer this specific situation needs!

I am trying my best right now to believe my own words, but I know deep down they are true!

I love you all and God loves you!

Make it a good week!!

<3 Sister Peterson

10/07/24

Boise State vs Utah State

Kefford put up a sign in his office that Rylee made about wanting to give her bunny away and he had someone who wanted him. On Saturday morning Kefford and Rylee loaded up the hutch and all of Bonnie's things and headed out to Emmett to take Bonnie to his new home. It was a little sad to see him go but it was also a bit of a relief, we have had him for. along time and with Rylee leading for college in a year we just figured now was the time to rehome Bonnie. His new owners have a farm with lots of animals and they have a lot of kids so Bonnie will feel the love once he gets adjusted to his new surroundings and home.

I was watching th eSaturday morning session of conference and when Kefford and Rylee got back they joined me for the last speakers. Rylee once again got ahold of my phone and bullied me by taking .5's of me, not flattering at all.

Nate White a member in our ward has season tickets to BSU games and he was not using the ones that night and offered them to us. The game was against Utah State and so we were very interested in going to watch the game. Kefford invited his cousin Coby and his girlfriend Gwen to go with us which was fun for Kefford to spend time with Coby. The game was good, Boise State won which was not a surprise to anyone and by the end of the third quarter I was bored, cold and just wanted to go home. We stayed a few minutes into the fourth quarter and then we all decided to head out. It was fun to go to the game and I always enjoy being with Kefford so it was a win of a night.

Ryker and Anna and Avynlea

 Anna was in the Provo area for a mission reunion with her friend and so Ryker was able to head down and spend some time with her. Dating long distance is hard but they have been able to make it work with FaceTime calls every day and seeing each other on the weekends as much as they can. 

It was fifth Sunday at church and the young Men and Young Women were combined for a lesson on how to teach with the Spirit by Brother Lyons. The kids had t break up into groups and Rylee got Leah and Avery Gremmert in her group along with a couple of Deacons and they snagged me to be the Leader in their group. During the lesson Leah got a hold of my phone and snapped some .5's of her, Rylee and Avery. Looks like it's not just Rylee who is obsessed with that particular iPhone feature.

Ryker sen t us a picture of his updated bulletin board decorated for Halloween. He said that some of the pictures had true tips for Midterms underneath while others had random facts like "one in every 3500 babies is born with a tooth" I like that he included his picture with all of the information ;)

Kefford and I got a text from Kris Gwilliams sending us this picture of Avynlea, her companion and a Japanese family and telling us that her companion is someone Macey knows from California. Such a small world.