My Mission: HUMP WEEK

March 16, 2015 HUMP DAY WEEK

I hit 1 year this week! It's super crazy to me that I've already been out that long! It was a good time for me to look at how much my mission has meant for me so far and it's worth more than anything in the world to me. I wouldn't trade my mission for anything. I've had quite a few struggles in my mission already, but I've had a lot of help to stay happy and to keep going. It's also been so cool to see the influence of the gospel on people. The change that you see in people when they learn about the gospel and feel the spirit is incredible. I also got an email from one of my friends this week who I haven't talked to in forever and he told me that he just got baptized!! That was so exciting for me!

On Tuesday we went to lunch with a family friend of Elder Johns who lives in the stake here. We had a really good lunch with them, one of them is a kid who is getting close to going on his mission and he was talking about some of his hesitations for going on a mission. A lot of his reasons were the same as how I felt and we were able to talk to him about it and help him understand what a mission is like a little better. That evening we went on a visit with a member to a less active family who was interesting. One older guy was absolutely wasted, and was asking our member what to do about his liver failing (The member is a doctor) And the member was like, "Well, you need to quit drinking to get any better." It was pretty funny, and led to a conversation about the Word of Wisdom. It was interesting to me because they really understood the reasoning behind most of the Word of Wisdom, but they still didn't believe in it. It got me to thinking about why we can't have coffee and tea, which is a big concern here. So I realized that alcohol and tobacco can be easily explained and you don't have to have much faith to believe that you shouldn't drink them. You can't show proof of coffee and tea being bad for you though, so to believe that you're not supposed to drink them requires more faith and it helps you grow stronger spiritually. I've also found that people who believe that God doesn't want them to drink or smoke usually drink and smoke. But when someone believes that God doesn't want them to drink coffee or tea those people don't drink coffee, tea, alcohol, or use tobacco. So you can see how there is more power when you have to use faith.

On Wednesday we had an organizing day mostly. We got a lot of stuff organized in our area so that we can do things more effectively. We also had correlation which was pretty good. Our ward mission leader really wants to do a lot in this ward, which is great.

On Thursday it was my year mark! We did a lot of tracting, in the morning we found a few people outside and talked to them. Then we went out with a member to visit a less active and after our visit the member took us surprise grocery shopping and bought us food for dinner!! He's so legit! We also gave a non member lady a blessing and she felt the spirit so strong that she wants to be baptized! she lives in the other missionaries area though, so they're going to teach her.

On Friday we drove all the way to Sevierville for district meeting. It was fun, but it took a ton of time. That evening we also visited a less active family with our ward mission leader and that was fun. The guy works at a place that makes sharpies so he gave us some, and he also wants to have us over for dinner soon.

On Saturday we did quite a bit of looking for less actives and tracting. It was pretty good we were able to teach someone. Then our dinner was really fun, the members who had us over are hilarious, so we were laughing the whole time.

On Sunday we went to church as usual and it was pretty good. A lot was focused on Christs life and we had lots of good discussion about him. After church we went out to home teach with some members and had a good time with that. It's always a good time when you can go do something with a member, even if nothing works out.

Love y'all,

Elder Jared Petersen