tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35657181620663295502024-03-13T10:15:23.874-07:00My MissionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-23705042538540550962016-04-11T18:48:00.001-07:002016-04-11T18:48:49.119-07:00He's Home!! <div class="MsoPlainText">
Here's the last email home, it's a good one <3 ENJOY!</div>
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2 years, 45 pounds, 6 areas, 15 companions, and 2 mission president's have sure changed my life. I wouldn't give up my experiences from
my mission for anything, there is absolutely no better way I could have spent
the last 2 years of my life. It's been hard, I'm not going to lie, but the hard
times have taught me to turn to the Lord and rely on Him. I can truly say I
know He lives, He's there for me, and He loves me personally. I've felt it over
and over. It's not something I say just because it's catchy, it's something
that I've come to know for myself and it's changed my life. He's helped me
accomplish my goals.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He's put me in places and with people who I needed to be
with to accomplish what I wanted. One example is that I wanted to learn how to
get missionary work going more in a ward or branch, so he sent me to some areas
where the work was slow and I had to learn how to get things moving. There were
also things on His agenda that I can look back and see now. He wanted me to
have the right motivation to follow Him, not because someone else was watching,
but because I love God and I know that the plans He has for me are better than
the plans I have for myself. So He let me make my own choices and learn from
them. He also put me with and around other missionaries so that I could see
their choices and the effects and learn from them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the greatest things he's helped me to do is to
finish my mission strong. A while ago I made the decision that I was going to
sprint to the finish in my mission. I wasn't going to get close to the end and
just give up. I wanted other missionaries to look at and hear about what I did
at the end of my mission and take courage knowing that it is possible for them
to keep going right up until the end because I did it. I have to admit, I was
nervous I wouldn't be able to do it. Some of the greatest missionaries I know
got close to the end and I saw how hard it was for them and it made me wonder
if I would be able to do it. The key to it all though was consistent prayer, work
and focus and maybe a little bit of denial haha. It's absolutely not something
I accomplished myself, it's something The Lord accomplished through me.
"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I
will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can
do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land,
for which we will praise his name forever." Alma 26:12. That scripture now
has personal meaning to me and I can't explain how true it is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This week we had a dinner at the Martinez's home. They
cooked some good Mexican food and E Martinez was in heaven. Their grandpa
who is a member of the branch came to dinner along with his friend who had been
investigating the church. She really wants to know it before she makes any
serious commitments, which I think is great because she is actually trying to
learn it. She has been reading the Book of Mormon pretty diligently, she's in
Mosiah, and she's been praying about it and her answer has been to keep
reading. She believes the Book of Mormon could be true, but she wants to learn
more about it before she can really say. She had some questions about some
minor details and they were good questions that were hard to answer clearly. We
gave her the best answer we could and she mostly accepted it, but after
thinking for a second she recognized that it wasn't really that significant.
She recognized that the important parts now are the fundamentals and that the
details come later. It was a lot of fun to teach her because of her real intent
and I'm looking forward to hearing about how things with her continue to go.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We had dinner with a family where the mother is a member
and the father is Pentecostal. They're a great family. The father has been a little
reserved towards us because we've only started meeting with them within the
last month or 2 and he just doesn't seem to be sure about us yet. But he's
warmed up each time and this week he told us he was going to a revival. So I
asked what a revival was like since I haven't had the opportunity to go to one
and he asked if we wanted to come see. So I told him sure, and we went with
him. We're hoping that will help him to warm up to us more and that he'll
realize we aren't there just to force our religion on him. I also wanted to go
to a revival. Elder Martinez was definitely caught off guard and if you've been
to a Pentecostal church you'll know why. Their services are very eventful and
the congregation participates a lot. It was definitely good for him to have a
little more insight to another church though and it's always good to recognize
the spirit in other churches compared to our church. The members of that church
were also very friendly, as most Pentecostals I've met are. I'm looking forward
to hearing about that family too, I really hope he becomes more interested in
our church and decides to learn more.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I'm looking forward to seeing most of y'all this week! After this week if you
want to email me my email is <a href="mailto:jaredpeter@gmail.com">jaredpeter@gmail.com</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Love y'all!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Elder Jared Petersen<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-44864380530625659372016-03-07T21:03:00.003-08:002016-03-07T21:03:52.434-08:00January 25th <pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">We got so much snow this week! The snow has got me jonesin for
snowboarding. We got about 11 inches in 2 days and it shut everything
down. I was told it was the most snow since the blizzard of 93, and
people still talk about the blizzard of 93. The day before the snow
came I took E Martinez to Ingles and it was packed. We barely got
a parking spot and the bread section was almost wiped out. With all
the snow we were stuck for about 2 and a half days. The roads are
pretty dangerous when it snows here and the drivers are even worse.
Being snowed in has to be about the worst thing ever, it was so
boring! I couldn't even convince E Martinez to go build a snowman
with me.. We also had church cancelled because of the snow, I think
it's the first time in my life that church has been cancelled. But we
had a few good service opportunities with the snow, we got to help
people push their car out of the snow and shovel an older couples
driveway.
Before all the snow I went on an exchange with E Fifita. We had a
party. We also taught a really good lesson to a less active lady. We
read Lehi's vision with her from 1 Nephi 8 and we explained it as we
went and specifically pointed out different groups of people. The
important ones are those who wandered in the darkness, those who
followed the rod to the tree and then were ashamed when they were
mocked, and those who got to the tree and didn't care about the
mocking. We talked about which group of people we want to be and how
to accomplish that. We also talked to her about how Lehi saw that
Laman and Lemuel didn't come to the tree, so he could have assumed
they were lost causes, but he never gave up trying to help them and
convince them to do what's right. That was touching to her because she
has kids who she's tried to share the gospel with and they haven't
been interested in it and she worries about them. So we told her to
follow Lehi's example and never give up on them and she said she
would.
We had a missionary broadcast to all the missionaries in the world.
They announced we have 75,000 missionaries. That number will probably
jump in the next couple months with graduation. The whole meeting was
titled, 'Teach Repentance, Baptize Converts.' E Anderson started
off and I really liked what he said. He said that if we are ever
unsure of what to say, we should speak of Christ. And no matter how
much we talk about Christ, we cannot talk about Him too much. E
Bednar's part was also one of my favorites. He talked about the role
of the Holy Ghost in conversion. He said that without the Holy Ghost
we could not be successful as missionaries. He also talked about the
role we play compared to the role the Holy Ghost plays. And E Oaks
was my other favorite speaker. He talked about how crucial it is that
we share the gospel. He gave one of his own quotes from Preach My
Gospel about how we are not here to increase the membership of the
church or to persuade others to live better lives. Anyone can persuade
someone to live a better life. We are here to show people the one and
only path to live with God again. No one else can do that.
The day before the snow we had a big service day. We started off
helping a member replace her pipes, because they were plugged with
calcium build up. So I had to crawl up under her house, which is one
of my least favorite places in the world to be. But we got it done and
now her water is working for her. We also got to help our branch
mission leader split firewood. We've literally begged him to have us
over to split firewood for him, so we were super excited. Afterwards
he told us that was the first time he's asked missionaries or anyone
from the church to help him with anything. And he's been a member for
over 10 years. It was also the first time E Martinez has split
firewood in his life and then for dinner he had chili for the first
time in his life along with cornbread for the first time in his life
I'm pretty sure.</pre>
<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Love y'all,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Elder Jared Petersen</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-40390023783938233312016-01-22T09:46:00.000-08:002016-01-22T09:46:25.024-08:00January 18, 2016 Zone Conference/Stake ConferenceJanuary 18, 2016<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">We had our zone conference this week. There was a training about
explaining words that people might not be familiar with and afterwards
we had a role play. They give us a couple minutes to think about what
we'd say for the role play, and E Martinez and I thought we'd be
teaching each other. So after we'd prepared our own thoughts they told
us they wanted us to teach another companionship as a companionship,
so we had to completely change our plans on the spot. I highlighted a
few of the words we'd explain more and told E Martinez we'd just
switch off. It went really well, I did the first one so E Martinez
could see how to do it and he did his part perfectly. We were talking
about how it went afterwards and they said it was really good and only
had one or 2 small things that could be improved. When we told them we
thought we were teaching alone, so we only prepared with each other
for like 15 seconds, they couldn't believe it.
We also visited a less active lady and taught her the restoration. It
was one of the smoothest restoration lessons I've ever taught, E
Martinez is getting to be a really good teacher. We also talked to her
about some of her concerns. I asked how her scripture reading is going
and she said it's sporadic. So I told her that reading her scriptures
more consistently will make a difference and she said she would. We
also talked about her coming to church and she said she'd give herself
a stern talking to to get herself to church. I told her we could call
her Sunday morning and give her a reinforcement stern talking to and
she said that'd be good. She ended up being called in to work, so she
wasn't able to come. She was pretty upset about being called in, so I
think we'll see her at church pretty soon.
We visited a part member family and it was a ton of fun. They have 2
boys who are 9 and 11, and there's never a dull moment with them. When
we pulled up they were outside with their Grandpa. So we talked to
him, he told us he's a Reverend in the Pentecostal church. He's a
pretty nice guy and we talked with him about religion a bit. I think
he was surprised how much of what he believes is the same as what we
believe. I think he was also surprised about how much a couple of 19
and 20 year old guys could know about the scriptures and religion. So
we had a good conversation with him. After talking with him the 9 year
old boy wanted to show us how he rides his goat. We went to the edge
of the field and that little boy just walked right up to this goat
that's about as tall as he is and he grabs it and pulls it across the
field and hops on while the goat runs back across the field. He did it
probably over 15 times, it was hilarious because after a couple times
he decided to ride it backwards. We went up to the house after that
and the boys mom who is a member asked us, "How did y'all find us?"
Haha They live pretty far out there and our poor fusion definitely
wasn't made to drive on the roads that lead to their house. Their
address also doesn't show up on a GPS and the directory doesn't even
have a house number, it only has a street name of a street nearby. We
told her how a couple weeks ago at church the boys told us how to get
there. She told us that since we were able to find their house they'll
have to have us over for dinner. We're really looking forward to that.
We had Stake Conference this week. It was broadcast to over 100 Stakes
in the South. There was a story I thought was really cool. There's a
juvenile detention facility in Texas for 12-18 year olds. They have
their schooling in the facility and they have a football team that the
older boys can join if they're well behaved. This football team
travels to other schools to play high security football games. It's
like the high school version of The Longest Yard. The football team
had a record of 0 wins, 8 losses. They went to play against a
Christian school, and the coach there asked that half the audience sit
on the other side and cheer for the opposite team. He asked them to
learn the names and numbers of the boys on the other team and show
them support. They cheered for them and even boo'd at some of the refs
calls against them. The team played better than they ever had, scoring
I think 2 touch downs. After the game the two teams got together to
say a prayer and one of the boys from the juvenile facility asked to
offer it. In his prayer he said, "We didn't know there were so many
people in the world who cared about us." The coach of juvenile
detention team told the Christian coach, "You'll never know how much
you did for these boys tonight. You'll never know."
That was the coolest story to me. Something President Griffin talked
about in zone conference this week was what sets successful people
apart from unsuccessful people. He's obviously a business man, but he
has a great way of thing his business knowledge to the gospel. One of
the things he said is that successful people compliment, rather than
criticize. That's stuck with me, and I think that's why the story was
so cool to me. The majority of the world will tear others down, why
not be a rebel and lift people up?
In our priesthood meeting last night one man talked about how Jesus
was a revolutionary in many of the things he did. He didn't follow
what the general population did, and often had to stand up for the
things he did that were contrary to popular belief. Like when he and
his apostles picked corn to eat on the sabbath. He said that we should
all try follow Christ's example and be revolutionary in our sabbath
day observance. We should base it off of the sign we want to send to
God, rather than just following general traditions.
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-45965769340399399042016-01-22T09:41:00.004-08:002016-01-22T09:41:47.872-08:00January 11, 2016<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Last Sunday E Martinez was asked to give a talk, but we both
thought that his talk was next week. So this week he found out he was
speaking and pretty much gave his talk on the fly. He gave a good talk
though, he talked about the Book of Mormon and the role it's played in
his life. I was impressed how well he gave his talk on the fly. I
thought it was pretty funny that he's already had to do that a month
into his mission and I still haven't had to give a last minute talk.
President Soliai also spoke and I really liked what he had to say. He
talked a bit about the work in Brevard and gave a poem that I can
really relate to.
Father, where shall I work today? And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed me out a tiny spot and said, "Tend that for me."
I answered quickly, "Oh no, not that! Why no one would ever see
No matter how well my work was done,
Not that little place for me."
And the words He spoke, they were not stern
"Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee."
We did a lot of trying to find more people to teach. I took E
Martinez for his first time really tracting this week. We've gone to
knock on a few doors here and there, but it was his first time just
going up and down a street knocking on all the doors. It went alright
for tracting, an old lady told us how much she appreciated us
spreading the word and how nice we looked, but she wasn't interested
in talking with us because she said we're going to the same place
anyways. E Martinez was so surprised that she would say that to us
even though she's not a member. I told him that happens all the time
in he south, lots of people love us, they just don't think they need
what we have to offer.
There's a couple who we've been working with, J and T.
J is a member and T isn't yet, but they came last week and
stayed 1 hour and they came again this week and stayed 2 hours and
they plan to stay all 3 hours next week and come to church
consistently after that. The coolest thing with them is that one of
them is always pushing the other one along. Last week J got
T to come to church and was able to get her to agree to coming
every Sunday and this week J wanted to bail out after the first
hour, but T drug him to class and made him stick to the plan of
staying for 2 hours. Most of the time with people in situations like
theirs I've seen that one spouse will be trying and the other will
either not be trying or be antagonistic about it. I really like how
they both pick up each other's slack and work to do what they need to.
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-52255933758099920892016-01-22T09:36:00.001-08:002016-01-22T09:38:03.114-08:00January 4, 2016 It's gotten cold!<br />
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2016! It's gotten col</h2>
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<pre style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">January 4, 2016</pre>
<pre style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;"></pre>
<pre style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Happy New Years y'all! This has been a good week, we had 2
investigators at church and 2 less active members! It was great, we
have 3 more investigators who should start attending in the next
couple weeks! The area has been picking up, and I'm grateful for it.
I went on an exchange with E Schultz this week! We had a ton of
fun. We were visiting a part member family and me and E Schultz
were teasing each other and they said we had to know each other pretty
well. I think it's because E Schultz is a lot bigger than me so
they were surprised I would tease him haha.
We also had a ton of rain this week and it flooded so much that it
created a lake by our house. I literally mean a lake, I'll attach a
couple pictures for y'all. I couldn't believe it. E Martinez has
also been amazed by the amount of rain since he has lived in Arizona
most of his life.
We met with a family who is a gold mine currently. The mom is an
active member, her boyfriend is investigating and her son is
investigating and their daughter is a recent convert. And as if that
wasn't enough, they've invited a couple of their cousins who live
close by to investigate the church. So we had a lesson there and it
was real good. There's a young man who lives there who plays the
guitar and E Martinez plays it too, so they played guitar
together. It was really good because he hasn't had any interest in
talking to the missionaries, but we might have a foot in the door with
E Martinez playing guitar.
On Saturday night I had the thought/impression to stop by a lady's
house who is a recent convert. At the time I didn't think much of it,
but looking back it didn't make sense for us to visit her. She's a
single mother so we couldn't go inside since we didn't have a man with
us, it was cold (it's gotten cold lately) so she'd have to stand out
on the porch in the cold to talk to us, and we didn't have anything to
talk to her about except for inviting her to church. But we still went
over there and found out that her phone broke recently and she hasn't
been able to contact anyone to get a ride to church, so she told us
that and we were able to get her a ride. She was so grateful and said
that we were inspired to come visit her.
We've had super warm weather lately, like 60's and 70's and the season
has caught up with us! It's gotten down to the 30's during the day and
it made me realize I was taking our weather for granted. I'm kinda
hoping now that God has taught me to appreciate the warmth he'll send
it back haha.
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
<br style="line-height: 21.3px;" />
This is the lake<br />
It's still pretty flooded here, but this is closer to what it usually looks like.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-33907696600863863762016-01-22T09:29:00.000-08:002016-01-22T09:29:51.892-08:00December 28, 2016<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone! It was a really
fun week though. We had Christmas zone training meeting. We got some
news that I'm not too excited about, I'm not going to lie, but I'm
sure it'll help us as a mission. We aren't going to be having transfer
meetings any more. The way transfers will work now is on Tuesday you
get a phone call saying if you're going and where and who with, and on
Wednesday you leave. I guess it's the way the did it a long time ago,
like in Joseph Smith's time. It doesn't give us very much time to say
bye to people and to pack, but it's supposed to help us be more
effective with our time so it will help us more in sharing the gospel.
We also played dodgeball at the meeting, which was a lot of fun, and
we got to watch Big Hero 6.
On Christmas we got to skype our families! That was a lot of fun,
E Martinez had his first skype call and I had my last so we had
both ends of the spectrum. We went over to the Andersen's for
Christmas and to Skype and they're a great family. They've got 4 boys,
so there's never a dull moment. They all got remote controlled cars,
which is pretty much my favorite kind of toy, so it was fun to see
them having so much fun with them. They also took us to a lights show
that was really cool. They've got like a track laid out that you drive
on and tons of Christmas lights to look at. The first half the lights
are like funny little light up cartoons that move, and the second half
the lights go to Christmas music.
There's a family who we visit pretty often, there's one member and the
rest of them aren't members but they're Christian. We saw them a
couple times this week and they've always been friendly towards us,
but when it came to differences in beliefs the grandpa would always
tell us that he believes differently than us and that's just the way
it is and he'd usually talk about some of the things he's heard about
our beliefs that he doesn't agree with so much. He's not antagonistic
about it, he just wants to draw a line and make sure we don't cross
it. This week he acted a little differently though, we showed them A
Savior Is Born and he loved it. He told us how some people say we
believe in a different Jesus, and that through talking to us he's
found that simply isn't true. He also said that when it comes down to
it he feels that we have more beliefs in common than we have
differences. It was so cool to see how he's come to view the church
differently and even though he still does believe differently he
respects us and I'm sure he'd stand up for us. One of my favorite
things I've seen on my mission is when someone who isn't a member of
the church has enough respect for us to defend the church. I'm really
hoping that somewhere down the road he'll soften up towards the church
enough to be taught and baptized.
I gave a talk on Sunday. In a small branch like this everyone talks
pretty often, so the missionaries talk a lot. My talk was on service
and I talked a lot about how the greatest service you can do for
someone is to share your testimony of the gospel with them. Afterwards
everyone told me I did well. One lady told me that she was going to
share some of the things that I said with some of her friends. I told
her that is the best thing she could do with it.
Hope y'all have a Happy New Year!
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-56170120691423755932016-01-22T09:26:00.003-08:002016-01-22T09:26:46.666-08:00December 21, 2016<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">I got E Martinez this week! He's from Arizona. He's legit! He's a
convert to the church, he joined about 6 years ago along with his
family. It all started because his mom does cross fit and a neighbor
asked if she could join. Then while doing cross fit she brought up the
church and mutual and scouting. E Martinez's mom had some of her
son's go to scouts and Wednesday activities and after a while her
neighbor started inviting her to church. She told her about how it was
a great church and she'd love to see her there and eventually she came
to church, was taught by the missionaries and was baptized. The whole
family ended up getting baptized. I'm so grateful that lady was
willing to talk about the church and wasn't afraid to share what she
loves. If she hadn't, E Martinez's family would probably still not
know the happiness of the gospel. E Martinez decided to come on
his mission to set an example and to bless his family, both his future
family and his current family. He has 2 younger brothers who he hopes
will decide to serve missions because they see what a mission was for
him. So I'm really excited to teach E Martinez everything I've
learned about being a missionary.
The job of introducing a missionary to the south is pretty
entertaining. It reminded me of what was so strange when I first came
here. At first he talked about how green it is and I told him, just
wait till the summer. He talked about all the trees blocking your view
of everything. He noticed all the churches and we just randomly
started counting and within a couple seconds we spotted 6 or 7
churches. He has no idea what a Pentecostal, Methodist, Presbyterian,
Jehovah's Witness, or most any other denomination is, just like me at
first.
Love y'all,
E Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-10488973635075141642016-01-22T09:23:00.001-08:002016-01-22T09:23:15.393-08:00December 14, 2016<br />
<br />
Just a side note to Jared's letter: Missionary lingo is odd. They use funny terms that might be misunderstood if one is not serving a mission. Missionaries (at least in his mission) create relationship titles that don't make sense. I hope that clarifies this next part.<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">On Saturday I found out that I'll be having a baby this Wednesday!
That's missionary slang for training or for getting a brand new
missionary and teaching them how to be a missionary haha. I'm pretty
excited, new missionaries are a lot of fun. It also means that I'll
probably stay in Brevard until I die and my son will probably be the
one who kills me.
This week was really good, we met with more less active members this
week than any other week since I've got to Brevard. We also had a half
mission conference with E and S Zwick. That was really good,
they talked a lot about how we can reach our potential as
missionaries. E Zwick said "Never limit yourself by what you think
is your capacity." I like that a lot, we hold ourselves back more than
anyone else and when we can learn not to limit ourselves there is no
end to what we can achieve. The whole conference was really motivating
for me, by the end of it I just wanted to get out and teach everyone
about Jesus. So I guess that means it went just how it was supposed to
haha.
We went out with one of our members to visit some older single ladies
who are less active and this guy has a heart of gold. I can't even
explain how good this guy is, but he really loves like Jesus does.
Both of the ladies who we visited are going through hard things. One
of them has a sister who is dying of cancer and the other one lost a
daughter about a year ago and has home life problems. He related with
both of them so well, he told them both a story of how he's been
through or been close to similar trials and how he found help and got
through it by the grace of God. He was also so anxious to help them,
one of them said that she felt like when she came to church people
ignored her. So he told her, "The day I see you at church and don't
say good morning to you will be the day I stop coming to church." And
he meant it whole heartedly. He really is an example to me of showing
Christlike love.
I'll tell y'all about my kid next week!
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-80445516883580752452015-12-09T10:48:00.000-08:002015-12-09T10:48:02.400-08:00Dec 7, 2015 #ASaviorisBorn video<div style="text-align: center;">
HE GETS TO COME HOME IN 3 MONTHS!!!!!</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(I'm just a little excited ♥)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Letter:</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">This week we met with lots of less active members, a few of them we
met for with the first time this week. And then on Sunday when we were
at church a whole bunch of them showed up, it was so cool. There were
5 less active members and 2 investigators who came to church, they
made up over 10% of the congregation, because our usual attendance is
around 60 people at church. I'm accrediting it to the Christmas
season, it's such a great time of year for sharing the gospel.
We're handing out our cards for A Savior Is Born, and I hope y'all are
spreading the video too. In our district meeting Elder Fifita talked
to us about sharing our cards with everyone we talk to. It was really
good, it helped all of us focus more on sharing the video and talking
with everyone. We went out to lunch right after district meeting and
I'm pretty sure between the 10 missionaries there was a person or 2
who got more than one card.
One guy I gave a card to was just doing his job at Walmart pushing one
of those real long trains of shopping carts, around here they're
buggies, and he made sure to tell us Merry Christmas as we were
walking by and the thought came to my mind that I need to give that
man a card. So I just went up to him and told him that our church has
put out a video of children telling the biblical story of the birth of
Jesus Christ to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. The man
was almost brought to tears, he was so grateful. He told us how
wonderful it was that we are helping people remember the true meaning
of Christmas and how much he appreciates that. It really helped me to
see how hearts are softened around Christmas time, which really makes
it a great time to share the gospel.
As we've been sharing the A Savior Is Born video it's been so cool to
see it bring the spirit into people's hearts. We've been showing the
video to a lot of less actives who we visit and it's awesome how it
brings the spirit. For me right when the kids say, "And His name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Prince of
Peace..." I get chills every time. Then when we've shown them the
video and they've felt the spirit of it we've asked them to share that
video and several of them have names come to mind right away of
friends or family who they can share it with. It just shows again how
great this time of year is for missionary work.
I got to take Elder Fifita on an exchange here in Brevard, we had a
party. It was right after district meeting, and we gave away probably
7 cards in the one day. I ran out, it was great. We also had some
members take us out to dinner and they are some great people. The wife
is possibly the nicest lady I've ever met. One thing she does is every
time she sees a pregnant woman or a woman with a baby she will get her
name and address and make them a blanket. She is fearless in
approaching them and takes every chance she gets. She's even left our
table when we're out to eat so that she could talk to a pregnant
woman. We talked to them about the A Savior Is Born video and the
cards and when we were about to leave she took one and gave it to the
lady at the cash register.
Love y'all, watch and share A Savior Is Born with everyone!
Elder Jared Petersen
P.S. Please share it all over my Facebook, since I can't do that yet.
We should get Facebook soon though!</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-35265999192909239442015-12-09T10:43:00.002-08:002015-12-09T10:43:25.056-08:00Thanksgiving 2015<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Letter:</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">This week we had thanksgiving! We had 3 dinner appointments, it was
great. We were at meal appointments from noon until 9 o'clock at
night. I was thoroughly filled by the end of it all, people here make
food that's just too good.
We had some good missionary work too, although it was slowed down some
with people being preoccupied with thanksgiving. One of the people who
had us over for dinner was a family of mostly non members, they're
great people. We also visited several new people who are on the branch
roster and got appointments with them.
Last week the branch President asked us to check up on a lady in the
branch and when we went over they were cleaning their porch some so we
got to help out. One of hem said "Oh you don't need to be working in
your Sunday best." So we let her know that we were in our work clothes
and I think she was a little confused haha. They really appreciated
all our help, we got a ton of stuff cleaned up. I felt pretty
accomplished.
There are some less active members who we visited this week and had a
great lesson with them. We read from the Doctrine and Covenants with
them and they really enjoyed it. They were both feeling kinda sick and
asked us for blessings and so we gave them blessings and the spirit
was so strong. It was awesome, they really appreciated it.
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-60124952163518671892015-12-09T10:42:00.000-08:002015-12-09T10:42:17.558-08:00Nov 23, 2015 -- Zone Conference<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OF1AkmHVaws/VmhnKumjTnI/AAAAAAAABf8/vFW-IjmCJ2s/s1600/IMG_4436.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OF1AkmHVaws/VmhnKumjTnI/AAAAAAAABf8/vFW-IjmCJ2s/s320/IMG_4436.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zone</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1i0gBGwKcDk/VmhnKaEUPJI/AAAAAAAABf4/SBvEtyiSQSI/s1600/IMG_1783.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1i0gBGwKcDk/VmhnKaEUPJI/AAAAAAAABf4/SBvEtyiSQSI/s320/IMG_1783.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">District</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CCFon_pq_HA/VmhnLStUEAI/AAAAAAAABgA/CT3Dsw7wm54/s1600/IMG_4439.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CCFon_pq_HA/VmhnLStUEAI/AAAAAAAABgA/CT3Dsw7wm54/s320/IMG_4439.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Selfie with the President<br />Can you see him? (right beside the girl in the bright blue sweater)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Letter:</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">This week we had our zone conference, it was pretty good. We learned
about a Christmas initiative for sharing the gospel. Last year it was
#HeIsTheGift this year it's #ASaviorIsBorn. It's a cool video, we're
privileged as missionaries, so we got to see the video before any of
y'all can. But I'll tell you, it's a cool video and y'all need to
watch it on November 29th at Christmas.Mormon.org. I'm really excited
for it. President Griffin also handed to Book of Mormons to all of us
at the beginning of the meeting. During the meeting someone mentioned
likening the scriptures to ourselves and I just had a thought that I
want to read through the Book of Mormon and mark it all up with how
things liken unto me. Then President Griffin gets to talking about the
Book of Mormon's he gave us and how he wants us all to read through it
and liken it unto ourselves and mark it all up. It was so cool to me
that I'd had the thought to do that earlier in the meeting, so I
decided to take his invitation. It's been so cool to read it and write
on the side of the page how certain verses relate to me. I'm at 1
Nephi 14 already. After Zone Conference I got to go on exchange with
Elder Schultz! It was great to relive some glory days. We had a good
time.
We went to visit a less active guy in the branch who's wife is
investigating the church. She wasn't there when we got there and we
shared a video and talked to him and a couple of his friends about the
video. She got home while we were there and she was pretty torn up,
one of her friends had an 18 month old baby pass away. After she told
him about it she turned to us and said that it's a really good time
for us to be there and we might be able to answer her questions. She
asked why God would take away a baby from such a good family. I can
tell you, neither of us were prepared for that question when we went
in there. I thank God for the Spirit though, because as soon as she
asked that question I remembered the story from Alma 14. I told her
how there were 2 men in the Book of Mormon named Alma and Amulek. They
were going around teaching the people of a city the ways of God, and
many people listened to them and were converted to the Lord. But the
majority of the city were opposed to their preachings, and built a
fire and began to burn every person who claimed to believe what Alma
and Amulek had taught them. They made Alma and Amulek watch as they
burnt these people, man, woman and child. Amulek knew that Alma had
the power of God, and told Alma that he should use that power to save
these people. But the Spirit told Alma not to, and Alma explained to
Amulek that these people were being welcomed into the rest of the
Lord, and whatever things that are done wrongly against them will be
justified. Then I explained to her that this life is only a small part
of our existence, and that the baby who passed away was welcomed into
the rest of the Lord. We still feel the pain of losing that baby, but
we can know that baby is not in pain and is cared for by the Lord. She
was still upset about it, but I think it gave her some comfort and I'm
glad I was able to follow the Spirit and know what to share with her.
Another thing that was incredible to me this week was I met an older
couple and the man lived in Aberdeen, Idaho. I asked him if he knew
any Duffin's (They're my great Grandparents) at first he kinda said
no, but then he got to thinking a bit more and asked me if they're
potato farmers. I told them that they are and he said he helped build
a roof for a potato cellar for them! I know that's not a really big
deal, but it was so cool to me that someone all the way out here in
North Carolina has met some of my family.
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-52053984613993251652015-12-09T10:38:00.002-08:002015-12-09T10:38:45.311-08:00Nov 16, 2015<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XPegJ182ifc/VmhnKepzCNI/AAAAAAAABfw/BgLiZOSl7AM/s1600/IMG_4299.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XPegJ182ifc/VmhnKepzCNI/AAAAAAAABfw/BgLiZOSl7AM/s320/IMG_4299.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture from Transfers</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Letter:</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Since we had stake conference last week I hadn't got to meet the
members here for almost 2 weeks! It was kinda strange to be in an area
where I don't know the members, it showed me more of how much the
members matter in an area. I felt like I was in some kind of limbo
almost, just lost between areas, because the members are really the
thing that makes me feel tied to an area.
I found out something really cool about the members here. We taught
the lesson in priesthood and it was about bringing the gospel to the
world. We asked how many of the brothers had served missions and not a
single one raised their hands. So we asked how many were converts and
almost every single man there was a convert. They're all older, so we
asked how many had grandkids who've served missions and quite a few of
them raised their hands. It was cool to me to be in a room full of
first generation Mormons, and to hear a bit about the kind of change
there has been in their family because of their conversion. Our lesson
was also really good, there was a lot of participation and I got some
insight into many of their lives. I was also really glad that I had
the opportunity my first time meeting them to teach a lesson and
hopefully gain some trust because of the lesson we taught.
We also met a family this week who is less active, and hasn't been
visited by missionaries since they've moved here years ago. Our whole
mission has been searching out a group of people who we call the
suspicious. They're the people who are on the rosters, but no one
knows them. So these people were in the suspicious category. They were
really nice, they let us right in and talked to us like they'd been
meeting with missionaries for years. We talked mostly about football,
if anyone is going to serve a mission in the south I'd encourage them
to get to know about football. There's a small college here, and a
high school. The high school mascot is the blue devils, and they got
turf recently. They wanted to get blue turf, but since the college
football team uses the high school football field they couldn't do it
because Boise State has patented the idea of a college with a blue
football field. I thought that was cool, this is the only place I've
heard people talk about the Smurf Turf with envy. I'm looking forward
to meeting with the family more, they have a lot of potential. They
have 2 sons who we didn't meet, but they're like 14 and 17. The mom
told us that she'd been teasing them about having the missionaries
come over to help them get ready to serve a mission. So we'll see how
that goes, I hope we can get them thinking about missions and maybe
they'll decide to serve.
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-63368514877359861952015-12-09T10:35:00.002-08:002015-12-09T10:35:27.548-08:00Nov 9, 2015 Transferred to Brevard, North Carolina<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IRU44mjkMRY/VmhzKuFc7fI/AAAAAAAABgU/y-Nz-f-40FA/s1600/IMG_1284.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IRU44mjkMRY/VmhzKuFc7fI/AAAAAAAABgU/y-Nz-f-40FA/s320/IMG_1284.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here is the picture we received the week of transfers before we get the email to tell us where he is,
He usually sends us a hint. This was our "hint" this time.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VAnYkvl7uoE/VmhzKVD9hTI/AAAAAAAABgY/ekHu9658pQI/s1600/IMG_1088.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VAnYkvl7uoE/VmhzKVD9hTI/AAAAAAAABgY/ekHu9658pQI/s320/IMG_1088.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The two Jared's :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<pre style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Letter:</pre>
<pre style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">This week I got Elder Jared Smith (we have the same first name) and he introduced me to Brevard! It rains a lot here. Another cool thing is that The Hunger Games was filmed in part of our area! So we might get to go hiking to where it was filmed sometime. We have a little branch here. I've only met a few people, but the people I've met are incredibly nice people. The first member I met got us breakfast and then went with us to visit a less active lady. It was like he was trained, he told her several of his life experiences that built his testimony and also asked her to come to church. Afterwards he apologized to us for talking so much and I told him that he did great and was really helpful because he was building a friendship with her and he'll be here after we both leave,
so it's better for him to be friends with her than us. We had stake conference this weekend, so I didn't get to go to church and meet many members, but it was a good conference. It was my 3rd
stake conference this year. We rode with another member for that and he was a great guy. He sees things kinda like I do, so it was fun to talk to him. We talked about what works and what doesn't work when you're trying to help people come back to church and stuff. He also kinda evaluated the talks with us afterwards and asked us why they're emphasizing this, or if they should have mentioned that. He's a smart man, I hope I get to learn more from him. I'm also in a district with Elder Schultz! We're going to have a good time. Elder Titus just left, so if he would have stayed he would have been my district leader. I think President knew that we would have too much of a party if that happened though, so it's probably for the best. Our district is good though. In district meeting Elder Fifita talked to us about teaching people, not lessons, and he read part of
the story of Ammon to show how Ammon taught King Lamoni. I liked it, he talked about how it must have been awkward for him, but he listened to the spirit and was able to teach King Lamoni.
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-71962764975334392002015-12-09T10:18:00.002-08:002015-12-09T10:18:50.977-08:00Oct 26, 2015 Zone Meeting<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Letter from Elder Petersen:</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">This week we had Zone Meeting, and we had some great lessons. We've got transfer calls coming up on Halloween, so I could be going to another area next week. I'd like to stay, but that's usually an accurate indicator that I'm going to be leaving. </pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
President Griffin told us something in Zone meeting that I really liked. He told us the story of Matthew 20. There was a man who owned a vineyard and he needed to hire people to work for him. He had a 12 hour day of work ahead, so he found some men and told them that he'd
pay them 1 penny for a 12 hour day of work. They agreed and began to work. Throughout the day the man kept hiring. When there was 9 hours of work left, he hired more men on with the agreement to pay the whatever was right. And he hired men with 6 hours of work left, and
with 3 hours left with the agreement to pay them what was right. And he even hired men when there was only an hour left, telling them that he'd pay them whatsoever is right. So the day came to a finish and he gave each man a penny, from the man who worked the full 12 hours to
the man who worked only 1. So the men who had worked the full 12 hours began to complain, saying that it wasn't fair that the master gave them the same payment as the men who only worked one hour. But the master reminded him that he'd agreed to work the full day for 1 penny,
and that it was not wrong to give him the amount he'd agreed to work for. So the question that I ask at that point is, how is that fair? It kinda leaves a feeling to me that the master just outsmarted the man who worked and left him with an unequal payment. But in the story, the Master represents Jesus, so it has to be fair. One thing I was taught in Chatt is that every parable breaks down somewhere. There is a point where the parable can no longer apply, and sometimes the Savior used this to give some hidden meaning. The point where this parable breaks down is when you ask how that is truly fair, and you can't find the answer through the parable itself. You have to follow how it compares to life, and that's how you can see what makes it truly fair. So what makes it fair is that, in President Griffin's words, working in the vineyard is awesome. Doing the Lord's work gives us reward as we go. It's a privilege to work in the vineyard, and we are more blessed the longer we work in the vineyard. So if anyone is less privileged, it's the men who only got to work in the vineyard for one hour. So we should look at our responsibilities in the gospel as a privilege, rather than a burden. I think missionary work is a great example of that, missionaries are some of the hardest workers in the vineyard, but they always love their missions. </pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">We have a part member family in the branch who we had dinner with this week. The wife is a member and the husband doesn't want to get baptized. They both come to church every Sunday. I just talked with him about it without pushing him and he told me some things that really helped me understand him. He told me that he is a Catholic and doesn't want to change his religion and he likes coffee and an occasional beer. Usually I would have explained to someone why we don't drink coffee and alcohol if they told me something like that, but I didn't want to preach to him, I wanted to just talk. I asked him what some of the biggest differences he sees between Mormons and Catholics and the first thing he said was that for Mormons it's a lifestyle, not just a Sunday activity. I thought that was really nice, because I know he was completely sincere about it. It was cool how I got a different perspective on him when I just talked with him rather than tried to teach him something. I think some people have enough preachers in their life and they just need friends. We also got to talk and joke with him at church. We just talked about football, but he seemed more comfortable than I think I've ever seen him be in church. I'm thoroughly convinced that college football is a missionary tool. I might see if I can get President to see it that way too. We also met an inactive guy who was really cool. His girlfriend is pregnant, so one thing he told us was that he wants to get his life right with God so that he can raise his kid right. I told them that one of the focus groups for us is people who are expecting a baby or have recently had one, because if we can help them integrate the gospel in their life that will give the baby a life with less pain, more comfort, more love, more support, more direction, and just a better life. At the end of our visit with him he said that it's not often that you can say you love someone who you just met, but that he loves us to death and he really appreciated the feeling we brought to his home. I'm looking forward to working with him more. </pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">We met with the tough guy who we gave a blessing to a while ago and he had his cancer check up and came up cancer free. He attributes it to the blessing we gave him and he was super grateful. He told us how he made a promise with God a while ago after finding out that he had cancer that he would quit smoking (2 packs a day) if God would restore his health and take away the cancer. He went cold turkey that day and God blessed him to be free of cancer. I told him how inspiring it is to me that he made that promise with God and then trusted in Him enough to give up the cigarettes. Then I talked about how we believe strongly in making promises with God and we call some of them them covenants and explained what that means. I also told him a bit about the promises of baptism and how that promise is there to bless his life, just like the promise he made with God to quit smoking. He said that he's working towards it, he's very optimistic about increasing his spirituality.</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">
</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">We met with Shelly again, we had a great visit with her as usual. She's had some crazy things happen in her life, so I told her how when we try to do something to follow God more in our life, Satan has a "little beeper" go off and he does all he can to drive us away from that good decision. That clicked with her and I'm glad it did, because I'd hate to see her lose interest because situations in her life became difficult. She also saw an anti Mormon post on Twitter and stood up for the church because of her experience with us. We were so excited to hear about that. It's incredible to me how some of the people we meet who aren't even members, will take such a stand to defend the church. So we got to explain polygamy and a couple other things to her, which was good. We also just had a fun conversation and at the end she said she was very grateful that we came to visit because it helped her to unwind from all of the stress in her life recently. I love being able to help people like that. </pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">I'll have transfer news next week,
Love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-72793782055995367092015-12-09T10:00:00.002-08:002015-12-09T10:00:21.602-08:00Oct 12, 2015 Ambur's Wedding Letter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I5Fti6UjgwM/VmhoiLw_ODI/AAAAAAAABgE/OAs_eT_Ejjc/s1600/20151010_174637%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I5Fti6UjgwM/VmhoiLw_ODI/AAAAAAAABgE/OAs_eT_Ejjc/s320/20151010_174637%2B1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ambur & Andrew's Wedding Reception (Most of the Petersen cousins)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Jared's response to this picture was priceless!<br />"Yeah I saw something odd, I barely recognize half of them and there's a couple I don't even recognize. And I'm not talking to the ones who have been added to the family since I've been gone. And 2 other things, where the heck is Braden, and there's this kid in the pictures who's taller than everyone else, and has flippy hair like I did. He looks kinda like Briggs, but I know Briggs can't be that tall. Who is it? Haha Oh I almost forgot to mention, I love how I'm in there and I'm 2 times as big as everyone else hahaha. "</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;">
More from his letter on Oct 12:</div>
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<br /></div>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; text-align: start; white-space: normal;">We visited a guy who was baptized in 2007 and probably hasn't been visited since shortly after that. He was really nice, and welcoming. President Starkey asked him about his conversion story, and he talked about the incredible feelings he had at the time. He also brought up that those feelings are still in him, but they're buried. So I pulled out a Book of Mormon and handed it to him and said, "You know what this is? It's a shovel." He wants to meet with us more and he's
interested in getting back into church and helping his family learn more if they're willing. It was so cool to see how quickly his interest in the gospel came back. One of our investigators has been going through cancer recently, and he has a check up coming up soon. We visited him and his wife, and they just like to talk a lot. Sometimes they like to talk about the gospel, and sometimes they talk about everything else. It was an interesting visit, we were going back and forth a bit from the gospel and other topics and it was getting close to when we had to leave, so
we asked him if he'd like a blessing before we left. He said yes, and we gave him one of the most powerful blessings I've ever given. It wasn't like he was suddenly healed, or like I spoke incredibly
powerfully, in fact I got a little confused and mentioned his upcoming surgery that had actually already happened. The spirit still filled the room though, and when I finished this big strong man was choking on his tears while he thanked us. His wife only said, 'That was incredible.' And we both followed a prompting to talk about the priesthood more, without saying anything about it to each other. We told them how that feeling they had was the spirit and it was testifying to them about the power of the priesthood. The priesthood can only be explained so far by words, but the feelings it brings gives understanding that can't be expressed. We told them how they
could use that feeling to know about the truth of the gospel we preach. I thought of an analogy that really clicked with him. I told him that reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it can change his life, if he lets it. Reading the Book of Mormon, listening to the missionaries, and learning about the gospel is like having a car revved and ready to go, but a car doesn't move when it's revving. You have to drop the clutch and when you pray, with the intention to
follow whatever God tells you, is the moment your life will change. That is how you drop the clutch, and get the tires spinning. I could tell that he really got it, and his wife also followed what I was saying. So we asked them to do that, to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it and to pay attention to the feelings they had, because if they felt the same thing they did during the blessing that means God is telling them that what we teach is true, and that their lives can change. It was one of the most powerful lessons I've ever taught.
Love y'all,
</pre>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Elder Jared Petersen</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;"> </span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-16100466030425168352015-10-05T09:13:00.001-07:002015-10-05T09:14:12.575-07:00Sept 28, 2015 Letter from Marion, VA<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">I got E Langsmith this week. (From Alabama) I knew him in the beginning of my
mission so it's cool to be his comp now. It's also cool to see how
much we've both grown on our missions. I lost Elder Schultz this week,
but he went to a better place. He's with Elder Titus now, they're both
super tall and legit.
Yesterday at church someone slipped 10 bucks into both me and Elder
Langsmith's inside suit pockets. That was a great surprise. It was a
great welcoming for Elder Langsmith to the branch.
I'm also excited for conference, it's so cool that we get to hear from
our Prophet and the leadership of the church this weekend.
Sorry it's short this week, love y'all,
Elder Jared Petersen</span><br />
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;"></pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;">Favorites from my MOM letter:</pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;"></pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">"I'm excited for conference too! It seems like I get more excited for every general conference. I bore my testimony in church about how incredible it is that we have a prophet and we get to listen to him and the rest of the leadership of the church in conference. It's really such a great opportunity to find ways to become more committed to the gospel."</span></pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
</span></pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">"So at church someone slipped 10 bucks into both me and E Langsmiths suits. We have no idea how, they got it in the inside pocket, so someone was really smooth. They pulled a fast one on the branch magician haha." (He loves doing magic tricks for the youth and investigators and even finds a way to tie it into the lessons. Funny kid!)</span></pre>
<pre style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; white-space: normal;"></pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-87266101329959591352015-10-05T09:03:00.003-07:002015-10-05T09:14:25.589-07:00September 21, 2015 Marion, VA (Highlights/favorite part from MOM)<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">This week I'm pretty proud to tell y'all about a prank I pulled on our </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">mission president. We had dinner with a member on Friday and I did a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">couple magic tricks and related them to the gospel for the kids. One </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">of the kids got really excited and asked his mom if he could show me </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">his magic trick. I was ready to pretend to be entertained by his magic </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">trick, but then he blew my mind. He had this white powder and he put a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">little of it into water and the water instantly turned to slush! It</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">was crazy! Then they offered me a small bag of the white powder! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;"> We had a zone meeting the next day, and I plotted </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">out how I was going to prank President with it. It was like mission</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">impossible.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">First off, I had to figure out how I was going to avoid the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">consequences. I know that President always has a diet coke, so I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">stopped at a gas station on the way and got him a diet coke to replace</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">the one I was about to ruin. Second, I didn't want President to drink </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">this powder stuff, because it can't be good for you, so I brought a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">pin and poke holes in his straw so it wouldn't work and when his straw </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">wouldn't work he'd look in his drink to see what was up and then he'd </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">see it's slush. The hard part was that I couldn't plan how to get his </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">drink and put the stuff in it. So when we were in there before the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">meeting, President walked out for a minute and I made a beeline for </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">his drink. I grabbed it and took it out of the room and put the stuff </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">in it. It was like diffusing a bomb. I got it done pretty quick and on </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">my way back into the room I saw President just down the hallway. I</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">went in one door and he went in another, so we were both in the room </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">and I still had to get his drink back to it's original location. I was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">successful. I'm now considering a career in special forces. After I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">got his drink back I just had to sit back and watch and let the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">adrenaline wear off. There was about 10 seconds between when I put his </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">drink back and when he went to take a drink, but luckily I was able to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">start videoing just in time. As soon as he figured out what was up he </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">blamed the zone leaders for it, I didn't even take the fall for it.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">But then I gave him his replacement diet coke and he knew it was me, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">but I totally could have gone unknown if I wanted to. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">We also had transfer calls, and I found out that Elder Schultz is</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">going to be leaving. We figured he would, but we were both hoping he </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">might be able to stay. Transfer calls were really cool, we had stake </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">conference just before them and President was there for it, so he had </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">all the missionaries that were there sit in live for the transfer </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">call.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">My birthday was great, I got 55 emails on my birthday! It was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">fantastic. I really appreciated all the birthday wishes, and hearing </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">from some people who I haven't heard from much. (If you feel guilty</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">when you read that, it's ok, just repent and change haha) All y'all </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">made my birthday great though. We also had some awesome members feed </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">us lunch and dinner. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">members told them it was my birthday so they sang happy birthday and</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">brought out a desert. Then our waitress fed me some of my desert while </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">they sang happy birthday. It felt like breaking some kind of rule, I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">don't know if I should repent of that or not... It was a fun day </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">though, we also found a new person to teach on my birthday. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Zone meeting was really good, President showed us how much we've </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">improved as a mission in the last year and it's phenomenal. In some </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">categories we are leading the United States missions, which is pretty </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">incredible to me. I also learned a lot from our meeting, President </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">read from Luke chapter 5 to us, and explained it. The way he explains </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">scriptures is incredible to me, every time I've put in the effort to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">try to listen and learn from him I have. He explained how in Luke 5, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Simon Peter meets Jesus. Jesus was basically being chased by a crowd </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">of people who wanted Him to teach them, and he got to a sea. There </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">were a couple boats that had just came in after a long time of</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">unsuccessful fishing. Jesus walked onto one of these boats, it was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Simon Peter's, and asked him to push the boat out a little. With the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">boat pushed out a little Jesus could see the whole crowd and he </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">preached to them from the boat. After he preached he asked Simon Peter </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Segoe UI, Segoe UI Web Regular, Segoe UI Symbol, Helvetica Neue, BBAlpha Sans, S60 Sans, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">to push the boat out farther, presumably to fish, and Simon Peter was </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">reluctant because he had been fishing likely his whole life and knew </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">that it wasn't a good time to fish. He said that he'd do it </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">nevertheless, or even though he wasn't fond of the idea, and when they </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">put in the nets they were so full that the nets broke. This was a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">great blessing to Simon Peter. It was after they returned to shore </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">that Jesus asked them to follow him and be fishers of men. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">President talked about how it was when their nets were full, that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Christ asked them to leave the nets and follow him. He related that to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">us as missionaries, and it relates to anyone else also. He talked </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">about how each of us missionaries left our lives when our nets were </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">full. We all had so many blessings in our lives when we answered His</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">call to serve a mission. Most of us had a new freedom to do what we </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">want, opportunities to pursue a career or go to college, friends, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">family, people who we loved. We had lots of material things, nice</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">beds, nice phones, cars, video games, and whatever other things we </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">enjoyed. </span><span style="background-color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">And it was at this time when we felt like we had it made that </span><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Jesus called us to be fishers of men. It was when our nets were full </span><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">and we felt like we had it made that we were asked to leave it all and </span><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">serve the Lord. We weren't forced into it, and it wasn't easy for any </span><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">of us, but we had learned to trust God and we all loved him and wanted </span><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">to share the things that he's blessed us with</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;"> It made me think of a</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">time when some one, who isn't a member of the church, told me that the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">best advertisement the church has is the missionary force. I think </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">that's because the missionary program uses mostly 18 to 21 year olds </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">to tell people about what they consider the most important thing in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">the world, and the program is successful. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">So it's been a good week. I'm not really looking forward to sending </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">off Elder Schultz, we've had a great time together, but I'm sure I'll </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">have a great time with my next comp too. I'll let youns know about him </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">next week.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Love y'all,</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web Regular', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Helvetica Neue', 'BBAlpha Sans', 'S60 Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">Elder Jared Petersen</span><br />
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Mission President Prank Video (hope it works)</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzmdonwoQoAZlvwO7-BNQk8h8TDxjlPjWd_q_ARflxjjMApQHP-ODWpfyihfaa7h4I2wIbLAfurEb8Epx5cTw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-64188505949049346212015-09-17T13:08:00.001-07:002015-09-17T13:08:12.038-07:00HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER PETERSEN!!! (pictures)Wow, I just finished updating his blog for the past.... too many months =)<br />
He asked me if I was still going to keep up the blog, so since I didn't want to tell him no, I decided that I had better get on it. Now! So sorry that there are few pictures in the posts but I wanted to get the important stuff in, his letters. It is so amazing to read his letters from the beginning of his mission until now. (He has 6 months to go!) His mission truly has been the best thing that he ever could have done for his life! I'm so glad that he recognized it as well. He is such an amazing kid (adult), I am so proud to be his mom! His 20th birthday is today and I am missing him terribly. I just want to give him the biggest hug ever!<br />
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HaPpY BiRtHdAy to my wonderful son! I LOVE you SOOO much!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He still buys milk by the gallon.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OaunDFYLCWo/Vfsb_CoplXI/AAAAAAAABec/TQzxq66Ruvs/s1600/IMG_0639.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OaunDFYLCWo/Vfsb_CoplXI/AAAAAAAABec/TQzxq66Ruvs/s320/IMG_0639.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was one of his birthday ties in his package. I told him he should wait to open it...<br />This was the message along with the picture.<br />"I like this one. I know, I didn't wait...."<br />I figured he would open it :)</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-59687668734675263112015-09-17T12:35:00.001-07:002015-09-17T12:35:21.412-07:00September 7 & 14th LettersSeptember 7, 2015 Letter<br />
<br />
This week has been fun, I'm starting to like Marion more every day.<br />
Our meal calendar for the next 2 weeks really filled up, so it will be<br />
good to start having more meals with members. We've also had a lot<br />
more meals just this week, and they've been a lot of fun. I've done a<br />
ton of magic for people, mostly kids, at dinners. I like to tie my<br />
spiritual thought into a magic trick and it really sticks with them.<br />
We've also tried to contact a lot of less active members this week.<br />
We've found a few people who we'll be able to work with and help, so<br />
I'm looking forward to that. One less active lady who we visited<br />
recently came to church yesterday! It was cool to see her there, she<br />
was the first one to bear her testimony and I really liked it. When we<br />
visited her she was watching, 'The Theory of Everything.' And in her<br />
testimony she talked about watching it and how she had been inspired<br />
by the story. She has had some difficult health challenges, but when<br />
she saw what Steven Hawking does to overcome his challenges in that<br />
movie, it gave her hope and motivation to work past her challenges.<br />
And that's why she came to church.<br />
District meeting was good, me and Elder Schultz talked about keeping<br />
the Sabbath Day holy. There were some really cool comments, and I<br />
learned quite a bit. We talked about how there are so many ways that<br />
people around us aren't respecting the sabbath day and how it just<br />
makes it more important for members of the church to hold to their<br />
sabbath day observance.<br />
Love y'all,<br />
<br />
Elder Jared Petersen<br />
<br />
September 14th 2015 letter<br />
This week has been pretty great, we've finally started to see some<br />
results from the work we've been doing. We've had a lot of things that<br />
we've been working on for a while and they're finally starting to work<br />
out.<br />
One thing that we've seen some good results from is transferring our<br />
paper records onto our ipads digital records. That was a pain, but we<br />
finally finished transitioning to the area book on the ipads this week<br />
and we've been able to start trying to visit some of the people who's<br />
records we transferred. There have been a lot of people who've slipped<br />
through the cracks, so we've been trying to contact them and help<br />
them.<br />
We've had to have a lot of consistency, there's a couple houses that<br />
I've knocked on the door so many times I started having deja vu when<br />
we'd go there. I'm tired of knocking, so I think this week I'll try<br />
skipping the knocking part and just open the door and walk in.<br />
We had one lady though who we knocked on her door probably 10 times in<br />
the last 2 weeks, she has a friend who went on Mormon.org and put in<br />
her information. So we got the message and had been trying to contact<br />
her for a while and we finally got to meet her on Saturday. She was<br />
nice and was asking us for advice and direction in her life. So we<br />
were able to show her how she can find direction through the<br />
scriptures and the restored gospel. It was awesome.<br />
At church all the members wanted to fill me in on the Boise State BYU<br />
game. One of the young men told me that he thought of me while he<br />
watched it haha. They're mostly BYU fans and a lot of them know that<br />
I'm a Boise State fan, so they had to give me crap about it. I also<br />
have a Boise State pin that I wear on my suit, so I think some of them<br />
had to rub it in a little more because of that. It was all good<br />
though, the members are still pretty great here. I bet some of them<br />
are even going to start keeping track of Boise State to keep me<br />
updated, so that will be nice. College Football is a pretty big deal<br />
in the South, so when you have a team and can talk about football it's<br />
like you can speak their language haha.<br />
Love y'all,<br />
<br />
Elder Jared Petersen<br />
<br />
I'M FINALLY CAUGHT UP!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER PETERSEN!<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-32281494532644339232015-09-17T12:32:00.001-07:002015-09-17T12:32:41.084-07:00August 2015 Letters and PicturesAugust 3, 2015 -- transfer calls<br />
<br />
This week was pretty good, but this upcoming Saturday we find out about transfers, so I'll find out if I'll be blessed to stay in Maryville another 6 weeks. If you couldn't tell, I really want to, but the odds aren't very good so I've been getting pictures with people just in case I leave. There are so many great people in Maryville that it will be hard to get pictures with them all, but I'm going to do it if I leave.<br />
<div>
This week there was a guy visiting for work who take missionaries out to eat every chance he gets, so he took all of us out. It was a lot of fun, he showed us pictures of a lot of missionaries who he's fed and it's incredible. He travels a lot, so he schedules his flights for times when he knows lots of missionaries will be at the airport. It was so cool to hear about all he does for missionaries, and he has the best attitude about it. He told us how great all the missionaries who he's met are and how grateful he is to feed them. He even dedicated his instagram to pictures of feeding the missionaries.</div>
<div>
We also helped a recent convert move this week. His name is Steve, and he's the coolest guy. I didn't teach him, the other set of missionaries in Maryville did, but I've talked to him a lot through it all and it's awesome how much of a difference the gospel has made in his life. It seems like every time I see him he just gets happier and happier. I was glad to help him out, and he's also still in Maryville ward, so that's good. (The ward covers 567 square miles, so it's hard to move out.) </div>
<div>
We took one of our members, Brother Peterson, out this week and that was really good. I always say that he knows everything, and there's not an ounce of sarcasm in that statement. I don't know how one person can know so much, but he's also an awesome guy. We went to visit a lady who's working on coming to church more often and her mom who is not a member was there. Brother Peterson caught on to the fact that she wasn't a member before we even did, and he just started explaining the Book of Mormon to her. He did a great job explaining it to her, so hopefully she has enough interest in it now to read it and pray about it. She doesn't live here though, so we probably wont find out how that turns out. That's alright though.</div>
<div>
Yesterday our dinner was open, so one of my favorite families here invited us over. I was actually worried that I wouldn't have a chance to visit them and get a picture if I left, so I was really happy that I could, just in case. The dad of the family said that he thinks President will just forget that he put me here and I'll still be in Maryville a year from now, after I would have gone home. I told him I wouldn't even be mad haha. </div>
<div>
Love y'all,</div>
<div>
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
He's leaving Maryville after about 6 months. I have to say, I have greatly appreciated the members in Maryville they have been wonderful to my son! He is going to miss them terribly.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
August 10, 2015 -- Goodbye Maryville</div>
<div>
letter</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This week I found out that I'll be transferred out of Maryville on<br />
Wednesday. I guess I wasn't surprised to find out that I'm leaving,<br />
but I kinda didn't think it would happen. I'm going to miss Maryville,<br />
I was talking to one of the other missionaries and he asked if I was<br />
excited to go somewhere else. I told him that it doesn't get better<br />
than Maryville. The members here are so great, saying goodbye isn't<br />
fun, but I told several of them that I'll be back next year, so I'm<br />
already excited to come back and visit them.<br />
We started playing ultimate frisbee this week, we're hoping to use it<br />
to find people to teach and have fun doing it. It was pretty fun, it<br />
rained a little, so there wasn't a great turnout, almost everyone<br />
there was not a member so if they keep coming it wont be hard to get<br />
more members out.<br />
Someone who the other missionaries are working with had a wedding this<br />
week, so we got to go to that. We also helped set up for it. Wedding<br />
decorations take a long time, but it looked cool and they were happy<br />
that we helped decorate so it was worth it. The wedding was doctor who<br />
themed and they even had a blue old school telephone booth prop that<br />
they brought into the church and got married in front of. It was<br />
pretty legit. They had a dance after the wedding and the bride didn't<br />
know that missionaries can't dance, so she was calling us out in front<br />
of everyone to come dance and we just sat there and looked at her, I'm<br />
sure everyone was wondering what's wrong with us haha.<br />
Church was good, it seems weird to me that it was my last Sunday here.<br />
A lot of members were sad that I'm leaving, and some of them thought I<br />
was going home because I've been here so long. I really haven't been<br />
here extremely long, I've just had a lot of companions here which<br />
makes it seem like I've been here longer. I've had multiple people<br />
offer to have me stay with them before I even mentioned that I'm<br />
coming back, so that shows how great the members are.<br />
We also visited a recent convert in the hospital who had a stroke<br />
Saturday night. The other missionaries in Maryville taught and<br />
baptized him, but I've been here through it all and he's a good friend<br />
of mine. We gave him a blessing and things are really looking good for<br />
him. He was so sad to hear that I'm leaving, he just kept telling me<br />
about how much he appreciates me and how he knows that I'm doing good<br />
and I'll be successful in my next area. He is such a great guy, I'm so<br />
glad I got to be here through his conversion process.<br />
I'll let you know where I am next week,<br />
Love y'all,<br />
<br />
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
<div>
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August 17th 2015 -- Arrived in Marion, Virginia</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So I left Maryville this week, I wasn't excited to go, but I knew I<br />
needed to be somewhere else. I was blessed to be able to say goodbye<br />
to everyone in Maryville that I wanted to, I was so happy for that.<br />
At transfer meeting I asked President Griffin where I was going before<br />
the meeting and he gave me a few hints. He told me that it's the<br />
farthest area away, and that it's a very desirable area. It's an area<br />
that missionaries ask to go to. I knew which area it was as soon as he<br />
said it was the farthest away. My companion is Elder Schultz. He's...<br />
Drumroll... A tall guy from Utah! He's really cool though, we get<br />
along great. Marion is his first area, so he hasn't been in the<br />
mission for long, but he's a good missionary. I'm also back into a<br />
branch, although it's not at all like Chattanooga, which is the other<br />
branch I served in. It's fun to get used to being in a branch again,<br />
you really get to know members in a branch and the branches also<br />
depend on the missionaries more than most wards.<br />
This branch is really good, the Branch President especially impressed<br />
me. He has a set appointment where he goes out with the missionaries<br />
every Sunday after church until the end of the day. It's awesome how<br />
involved he is. Yesterday we went out with him and these members<br />
weren't home, but they had a ton of bags of trash all over their front<br />
porch, so President Starkey, the branch president, picked them all up<br />
with us and we threw them away. It was really gross and smelled awful,<br />
but it was cool that President Starkey wanted to serve them instead of<br />
just leaving since they weren't home.<br />
In our district meeting we talked a lot about obedience, it was<br />
interesting. I've definitely learned a lot about obedience on my<br />
mission. I used to view obedience as something you do to stay out of<br />
trouble mostly. But now I see that it's a way we can show that we love<br />
and trust God. I've also learned that he knows better than we do. So<br />
we can rely on our own knowledge and we're liable to fail, but God<br />
never fails so if we follow his commandments we'll always come out on<br />
top. Another thing that we talked about was a way you can use the<br />
scriptures to your advantage. If there's a blessing that you want you<br />
can look in the scriptures to find what commandment goes with that<br />
blessing and follow that commandment more in your life and the<br />
blessing will come.<br />
Love y'all,<br />
<br />
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
August 24, 2015 Letter</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I've started to get to know this area better, I still don't know where<br />
most everything is, but I know where some things area, so I'm making<br />
progress. I've also met most of the members now, there are a lot of<br />
great members here. So things are getting better. We haven't been<br />
working with a lot of people, there's a few people who have been<br />
investigating the church for a long time, and they're about the only<br />
people who we teach. So that's something we've been trying to work on.<br />
It's not like any of my other areas though, since Marion is so small<br />
everyone has met the missionaries and I've been told every street has<br />
been tracted and tracting has been ineffective. So we rely pretty<br />
heavily on the members to find people to teach. In my other areas I've<br />
known that working with the members is the best way to find people to<br />
teach, but the areas were big enough that when we didn't have members<br />
helping us we could just go out on our own. So it's a change and it's<br />
been kinda weird, but I think once we get some more momentum things<br />
will go really well. It's like something Elder Gerig said in district<br />
meeting, he was talking about how to get a weak pool of people to<br />
teach and the answer is by working without members. Like tracting. He<br />
said that the reason missionaries resort to tracting is because it's<br />
either immediate success or immediate failure. I thought that was<br />
really cool, sometimes missionaries act like tracting a lot shows more<br />
dedication, but really tracting doesn't take as much dedication as<br />
helping members be missionaries does. He also talked about how if<br />
working without members creates a weak teaching pool, working with<br />
members creates a strong teaching pool.<br />
I've already seen how much better the missionary work here is when we<br />
work with the members, and that's probably partially because the<br />
members are just great. We had lunch with an investigator who is an<br />
older lady and she loves to make us food, she makes good food too, and<br />
we invited a lady from the ward to come with us. We didn't tell her<br />
much about how we expected the visit to go, that was our bad, but the<br />
lady mentioned that she is going to be making sour kraut and our<br />
member jumped on the opportunity to build a friendship and asked if<br />
she could help and also learn how to make sour kraut. The member also<br />
invited her to come to church with her and offered to give her a ride.<br />
It was awesome, she should be able to come to church next Sunday.<br />
We also helped clean the church this week, and after cleaning the<br />
church a couple young men wanted to play basketball with us. Before we<br />
played they asked me if I did any sports and I told them I'm just a<br />
snowboarder. Then after playing basketball for a bit he said, "I<br />
thought you said you're just a snowboarder." I told him I am, and he<br />
said I'm a liar because I'm too good at basketball to just be a<br />
snowboarder hahaha. I guess all the basketball we played in Maryville<br />
payed off a little. Of course, it helps that my companion is 6'4 and<br />
actually did play basketball.<br />
Love y'all,<br />
<br />
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
August 31, 2015 letter</div>
<div>
This week was pretty eventful, we had a zone conference in Morristown,<br />
Tennessee, which was my first area. So it was cool to go back there<br />
over a year later and see everything and remember it. Morristown is<br />
also about 125 miles from Marion, so we stayed with the Elders in<br />
Bristol the night before and that was a party.<br />
Zone conference was alright. It would have been a lot better if we<br />
hadn't got Tiwi, I'm not gonna lie. Tiwi is what missionaries call the<br />
back boxes. It's what missionary nightmares are made of. Basically<br />
it's a box that is attached to your windshield and it has a gps in it.<br />
It records how you drive, and it yells at you if you drive over the<br />
speed limit, turn too fast, brake hard, accelerate quickly, or do<br />
anything else that it considers dangerous. The concept and reasoning<br />
behind it is actually really good, they figured that there are a lot<br />
of missionaries with little driving experience and too many<br />
missionaries are getting injured or even killed in car accidents. The<br />
church is also spending a lot of money on car accidents. So Tiwi is<br />
intended to give you guidance about how to be a safer driver and<br />
reduce dangerous driving. So overall it has a good purpose, I just<br />
don't like that it's in the car I drive, because it gets after you if<br />
you go 3 miles an hour over the speed limit and in a little town like<br />
Marion it doesn't know what most speed limits actually are.<br />
At zone conference Sister Griffin gave us a training that I liked. One<br />
of my favorite things she said was, "Don't be stupid." Those three<br />
words really go a long ways. She was actually quoting Elder Holland<br />
when she said that. She also shared some more of what Elder Holland<br />
said in a talk, I'm pretty sure it's called "Missionaries and the<br />
Atonement." And in it Elder Holland talks about the struggles of<br />
missionary work. A quote from that talk is,"Why isn't the only risk in<br />
missionary work that of pneumonia because of so much time spent in<br />
water baptizing?" He then went on to explain that things were never<br />
easy for Jesus Christ, so why should we expect any different? He talks<br />
about how missionary work has never been easy, it requires some effort<br />
from the depth of our souls. He also says, "When you struggle, when<br />
you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out, you stand with<br />
the best light that this world has ever seen." I really couldn't say<br />
it any better than that.<br />
At the Zone conference we also got our area books on our iPads. For<br />
those of you who don't know, area books are where missionaries keep<br />
records of everything, and they're usually not very organized, so<br />
they're hard to work with. So it's nice to have them on our iPads. Now<br />
we have to copy all the information from the paper copies to our<br />
iPads. That's a chore.<br />
We've tried to find a lot of less actives this week, and I can't say<br />
we've had a lot of success with that, but we did see some cool places.<br />
At one place I looked out and realized that my view was a perfect<br />
depiction of the south in all its glory. That's what the picture is.<br />
We also saw a lot more cool places, one of them is Saltville. It was<br />
the salt Capitol of the confederacy, whatever that means. It's a cool<br />
little old ghetto town, way out yonder in the hollers.<br />
In church we had a missionary Sunday, it was pretty cool. I got to<br />
speak about member missionary work, so I'm hoping I helped the members<br />
get a little more fired up to do missionary work. I told some stories<br />
from my mission about working with members, and I told them the story<br />
of Alma and Amulek in Alma chapter 5 and related that to missionaries<br />
and members working together. I also told them about an analogy<br />
President Griffin shared in a stake conference a while ago. He told us<br />
about these horses that are similar to Clydesdales. One of these<br />
horses alone can pull 2000 pounds, but when you yoke 2 of these horses<br />
together they can pull 14000 pounds. It's like members working with<br />
missionaries. One of them alone can do some work, but if you put them<br />
right alongside each other, working together, there's a lot more<br />
power.<br />
Love y'all,<br />
<br />
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-61077869978346286352015-09-17T12:12:00.002-07:002015-09-17T12:12:48.976-07:00July 2015 LettersJuly 6th Letter<br />
<br />
This week we had our transfers and I got Elder MacDonald. He's From<br />
south Jordan Utah. He's been out for 21 months. He's a good<br />
missionary, we've got some good plans put together, so if all goes<br />
well we'll see some great things happening.<br />
You may have heard Maryville Tennessee mentioned on the news this<br />
week. There was a train that was derailed and caught on fire. It had 9<br />
cars of highly toxic stuff on it, and 5000 people were evacuated in<br />
the middle of the night. One of our fantastic ward members called us<br />
at 4:30 in the morning, to ask if we were alright. Don't get worried<br />
for me (Mom), but we live pretty close to where the train wreck<br />
happened. The evacuation was a 2 mile radius and we're just outside<br />
the evacuation zone. Some members have even said that we should have<br />
been evacuated, but we're fine.<br />
We helped a family in the ward move this week. On Wednesday we did<br />
most of it. On Thursday we finished up. They lived inside the<br />
evacuation zone though, so we had to go into the evacuation zone to<br />
help finish the move. I was thinking we'd see the start of the<br />
apocalypse because of the toxic fumes, but so far that hasn't<br />
happened.<br />
Yesterday we visited another church, since the other missionaries in<br />
Maryville were invited to it by a cop who they met at a gas station.<br />
It was a Pentecostal church. They're the ones who speak in tongues,<br />
run up and down the isles, have a rock band and have super loud music,<br />
and other things like that. They were really nice people though, tons<br />
of people welcomed us. We even got a shout out from the pastor. He was<br />
like 'We'd like to welcome our visitors. We've got a few of the from<br />
the Mormon faith back there, thanks for joining us." And at the end he<br />
told his congregation to make sure we got at least 150 hand shakes. It<br />
was all pretty interesting, but I could definitely tell that I<br />
couldn't actually feel the spirit there. They talked a lot about the<br />
spirit, and most of what they said was true, but I couldn't feel it.<br />
They also got to talking about how praise makes sinners feel<br />
uncomfortable, but it really wasn't even like I wasn't comfortable. By<br />
the end of it I was just bored really. I wouldn't think someone would<br />
get bored in that church with their loud music and the pastor<br />
screaming at them, and with all the standing up and sitting down. It<br />
was a serious leg workout with all the standing up and sitting down.<br />
It really refreshed my knowledge that this church is unique though. My<br />
favorite thing about visiting other churches is being able to compare<br />
the feelings you get in this church to the feelings other churches<br />
have to offer. That's also why I'd encourage anyone to visit other<br />
churches and compare them to this church, because there's no better<br />
way to know the difference between them and to find out for yourself<br />
which is true.<br />
Love y'all<br />
Elder Jared Petersen<br />
<br />
July 13, 2015<br />
<br />
Yesterday Kenny came to church! Kenny is the preacher who we've been teaching. His sister who is a member of the ward gave a talk, so he came for it. He was only able to stay for about half an hour because he had to go preach, but it was so exciting to see him in church. Things with him have been going well, his sister and her husband told us that they've been trying to share the gospel with him for 30 to 40 years and he hasn't shown any interest until just recently. I'm so glad that I get to be here to see him decide to see if he can find truth in our church. He has said that he doesn't have any ties to a specific denomination, he is only following the truth that he can find. I'm excited to see him get an answer to his prayers and come to know for himself about the truth of this church.<br />
<div>
President Griffin came to our district meeting this week. He talked to us about what makes a missionary successful. In the beginning of his training he said, "Now I know that all of you graduated from high school." And everyone turned and looked at me. I lost it. I was laughing so hard that I almost fell out of my chair. President Griffin was like "Ok, I know about that and you basically graduated." Then he talked about how we all know that you can make it through high school without putting much effort into it, and how our missions can be the same way. If we don't work hard, our missions wont pause and wait for us to start working harder, the time that we spend slacking will pass us by and will be gone. He also taught that what makes missionaries successful varies and is individual. But one universal trait that sets successful missionaries apart from all the other missionaries is not so much just that they follow the rules and try to be a good missionary. The thing that sets them apart from the rest is that they do the things that the other missionaries don't want to do. Most every missionary wants to teach, baptize, convert and follow the Lord. But significantly fewer missionaries want to go tracting when they can't find people to teach by different methods. They aren't as eager to change themselves to be more humble, patient, diligent, obedient, and all around more like Christ. But if we want to be numbered among the great, we have to learn to submit our will to God's and do the things that we really don't want to do.</div>
<div>
Love y'all,</div>
<div>
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
July 20th letter</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We've had a good week. It's been really productive and it's looking<br />
like the work is still on the up and up. We went out with several<br />
members for lessons and it's really helped me to see how helpful it is<br />
to have members with us. I still firmly believe that member support is<br />
absolutely critical for missionaries. And I'm so grateful for this<br />
ward and how much they help us.<br />
Our zone training meeting was this week. It was really good. President<br />
shared a story that I thought was really cool. In the 1600's most of<br />
London was burnt down. There was a man named Sir Christopher Wren who<br />
had the task of rebuilding a cathedral. It was said that he would<br />
visit the building site and observe the construction, but he went<br />
unrecognized. On one occasion he asked the simple question, "What are<br />
you doing?" to 3 of the men assigned to lay the brick. The first<br />
responded, "I'm laying brick. The second responded, "I'm earning 3<br />
shillings an hour." and the third stood up, squared his shoulders and<br />
proudly said, "I am helping Sir Christopher Wren rebuild this great<br />
cathedral." After sharing this story with us, President said, "What<br />
are you doing? Are you putting in your time? Are you gaining<br />
blessings? Or are you helping to build The Kingdom of God, by helping<br />
others come unto Christ and enjoy the blessings of the gospel?"<br />
We saw President again at church on Sunday. He came to Maryville to<br />
speak. He started out talking about how when he first came to the<br />
mission he went to a gas station that is next to the mission office,<br />
so they're familiar with missionaries and have an idea of what goes on<br />
in the mission, and asked how to get to 'Mary-ville.' The lady looked<br />
at him for a second and said, "You're the new guy, aren't you?" He<br />
asked, "Is it that obvious?" And she responded, "Oh, hun, it's<br />
Maryville." (The southern proper way of pronouncing Maryville is more<br />
like Murvul) He also talked about the story from the Bible of Jesus<br />
feeding the 5000. In the story a boy has 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread<br />
and he brings it all to Jesus to give to everyone. The question he<br />
centered on was, 'Why did Jesus take both of the boys fish and all of<br />
his bread when he could have clearly done it either with only some<br />
fish and bread or without either, like he did for the children of<br />
Israel when he gave them Manna?' After that he talked about how it's<br />
to show us that sometimes Jesus asks us for everything we have. We may<br />
feel like if we give up everything to him, we won't be provided for,<br />
but we learn from the story that when we give him our all, he makes it<br />
better than we could possibly make it. He related it to a missionary<br />
who just came out to the mission field and left everything he had back<br />
at home. And as a result is molded into a man or woman much greater<br />
than they could have been without making that sacrifice.<br />
It was good to see President so much this week, as I'm sure you can<br />
tell, I learn a ton from him.<br />
Love y'all,<br />
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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July 28, 2015<br />
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Jared sent this to his sister in her letter:<br />
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So I just met this older German dude at the library. He's interesting, he was telling me that it would be better if I had gone to college and done a mission later in life. I was telling him that the skills I've learned on my mission will help me throughout my life. He was also asking why I do this and I told him that it's because I believe in it. He commented about how it's hot outside and so I told him about how all last summer I was riding a bike and I always told people that there's no way I'd be riding a bike in the heat if I didn't believe in what I was doing. He also talked about how the Bible is more than enough word of God, so I told him that I just appreciate having even more of the word of God. I also told him about how God uses prophets today to lead us just like he always has. He was saying that Christ is Alpha and Omega which is the beginning and the end so I told him that he's exactly right and that he leads his church today through the prophet. He also asked if it would be possible for me to change my mind about my religion and I told him hat it's possible, but I'm going to do everything I can to keep my faith. It was kinda fun, he was definitely trying to stump me and by the end he asked for my email and said that he'd like to take us to lunch and either I can convert him or he can convert me. It was actually the first time you could say I've Bible bashed on my whole mission haha. I can usually keep southerners from bashing with me, but Germans are more direct so I couldn't just let him tell me I'm wrong.<br />
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July 27th letter<br />
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This week has been pretty great. We talk to our neighbors across the hall from us (It's not an indoor hall) whenever we see them and the length of the conversation has varied from 'how are you?' To short introductions of my
new comps. They moved into the apartment that we helped a guy move out of a few months ago. So they've seen me with several different missionaries, and they refer to me as 'the constant one.' It's pretty funny. But anyways, the other night we were getting
home and she told us how she had this question and we'd probably think it was dumb, but she'd tried to google it several times and couldn't find anything and she wanted to know the answer so bad that she just decided to ask us. We told her not to worry, we
get dumb questions all the time. So she said "I've noticed that every time you leave, you drive, and you stand outside of the car while he backs up and then you get in. Why do you do that? Is it religious??" So once we stopped laughing we explained to her
our rule about backing. That lead to other questions and after a good while of questions and just chilling explaining our beliefs, we gave them a Book of Mormon and she said she was eager to read it, and we told them our church address and the time we meet
and she said she'll come next Sunday and bring her daughter so that she can be exposed to our church and have accurate knowledge about it. So that's really exciting.
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We also met with Kenny, we talked a lot about faith and some about real intent. He's still doing well.</div>
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We were doing some tracting and a guy opened the door and looked at me and said that he knew me. I couldn't for the life of me remember who he was, so I asked him how he knows me. He was an investigator who we tracted into when I was first
in Maryville. We taught him and incredible lesson about the restoration and at the end he prayed and asked God to show him the truth. We weren't able to meet with him after that for a while, and he told us he wasn't interested. He had moved, so the odds that
we'd knock on his door were next to nothing. It really showed me that God answered his prayer and gave him another chance. Unfortunately he said he wasn't interested in us coming back, but it was still really cool for me to see. </div>
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Love y'all,</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-66262576734439655352015-09-17T11:58:00.000-07:002015-09-17T11:58:11.054-07:00June 2015 LettersJune 1, 2015 Letter<br />
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We have some eternigators who teach us magic tricks, and I figured out a way to use a magic trick that they use to ask members for referrals. It worked incredibly well, the first family who we tried it on gave us 4 referrals. Another family gave us 1 referral, so just this week we've been able to get 5 referrals from this magic trick. We're hoping to see more success in using the magic trick to get referrals and hopefully someone will be baptized as a result.</div>
We also had our full mission conference to prepare us for ipads. Elder Zwick, a 70, and Elder Hemmingway, the director of proselyting, spoke with us. They gave us some great insight. I had an exchange with Elder Goldsberry afterwards and we went out with a member. He stopped for some kids selling koolaid in cups that were about the size of a ketchup container at wendy's. They were a dollar a cup. So we got 3 cups. We were hustled.</div>
We've been working with a preacher, and this week we some some great progress with him. Over the time that I've been here I've seen him become more receptive to the gospel, and this week he finally agreed to read from the Book of Mormon. That was so cool for me to see, because he's talked to lots of missionaries and from what I've heard missionaries get bible bashed by him. He knows the Bible very well, so it doesn't surprise me at all. I've just followed the spirit in talking to him, and I think that's the reason why I've been able to help him. </div>
Shannon, another investigator who we've been working with agreed to work towards being baptized on June 27th. We visited him with a member who told him about his conversion and it helped him a lot because he had gone through a lot of the same stuff. I'm excited to keep helping him.</div>
So one of the biggest things I've learned more about this week was to depend on the spirit. It makes me want to do what I can to always have the spirit with me. And I've learned that in order to have the spirit with you the strongest you need to search within yourself and figure out what you need to do. I've found that when I'm doing things because someone told me it's good, the spirit isn't as strong, but when I do something that I've learned for myself brings the spirit it's a much better feeling. And it's something that you have to learn for yourself. I love to explain to people that they don't need to believe me, but that if they want to know if what I tell them is true they need to pray about it and find out for themselves, and that's really how it is with anything in the gospel.</div>
Love y'all,</div>
Elder Jared Petersen<br />
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June 15th Letter<br />
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This week has been pretty good, we had a great lesson with Kenny (the preacher). We talked about the Book of Mormon, he's around 1 Nephi 18, and he had a ton of notes and questions. His Sister and her husband (who are members) were able to answer a lot of his questions and we were able to explain some things too. It's awesome to have members so closely involved, because I can know that their support wont fall when I leave. Kenny's wife was also there, she mostly just listens to our conversations and soaks it up and she was asking me who she could write to tell them about how I'm doing here. She's such a nice lady.<br />
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In our district meeting Elder Goldsberry read some verses in Alma chapter 8 and related it to member missionary work. It relates incredibly well to what I've seen. It starts out with Alma going to a new area (like transfers) and the people in that area don't want to hear anything from him (like tracting) So Alma has to move on and the Lord stops him and sends him back to the city. When Alma goes back to the city he finds Amuleck (a member) and Amuleck feeds him (dinner appointments) and then Alma and Amuleck go out to preach the gospel (like when we go visit people after dinner). When they go out the people already know Amuleck and he has a good reputation with the people (like members do) And they have much more success talking to people and teaching them the gospel because the people already knew Amuleck. I liked how well that shows the need we as missionaries have for members to help us. As missionaries we can try to do missionary work on our own and we often do, but it just doesn't work as well as when missionaries and members work together. Because of that one of my favorite things to do has become helping members find ways to do missionary work. They are usually super overwhelmed at the thought of sharing the gospel, but it's so cool to help calm their fears about it and help them see easy ways that they can share the gospel. A lot of people think that it's a game of all or nothing and if their friend or family member doesn't listen to them about the gospel then they've failed, but really all we can do is show them the choice that they can make and show them an example and we've accomplished all that we need to. If you try to do too much more than that then you're trying to take away their right to choose, which never works in the end.</div>
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Love y'all,</div>
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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Note from Jared:</div>
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I like the theme of testimonies, I think that's something that's really important to learn about. One thing that I've thought about quite a bit is how people come to believe in other churches. I've met so many people who have strong testimonies of Christ, but their testimony is based on teachings of another church. That's kinda helped me to realize that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints doesn't necessarily have a monopoly of the spirit. The spirit testifies of truth, and people in other churches have pieces of truth. The thing that we have exclusively is the complete truth. But it's like how building a testimony is related to building a house. You can't build a house all at once, you have to build it piece by piece, and you have to do it in some order. From the scriptures we learn that Christ must be our foundation, so he should be the first thing we learn about when we're trying to build a testimony. After that I imagine the walls and the floors and everything between the foundation and the roof are knowledge of things like the scriptures, the plan of salvation, the atonement, the prophet, and things like that. And then the roof is a knowledge that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the one and only church with the complete truth. But for some reason it seems people are too eager to put the roof on before building the rest of the house. Some people even build the house upside down because they start by trying to believe in the church before they believe in the Savior. And to me an upside down house is much less steadfast than even a house built on the sand.</div>
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June 29th Letter</div>
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We had transfer calls this week and I'll stay in Maryville again!<br />
Elder Byron will be transferred though, so I'm going to get my 5th<br />
companion in Maryville on Wednesday. One of the members asked me if I<br />
was ever going to leave and I told him I'd probably die here. I<br />
wouldn't even be mad, Maryville is great.<br />
We met with Kenny this week,Mir was good. We talked about the Book of<br />
Mormon and gave him a scripture from the Book of Mormon that he could<br />
use in a sermon that he's going to preach in a couple weeks. His<br />
sermon is about contrast, he's using Matthew chapter 5 so we gave him<br />
2Nephi 2:13.<br />
We put our car in the shop on Monday, and we got it back on Thursday.<br />
I decided that cars are better than iPads. It was so annoying to not<br />
be able to drive around our area and see people. We really weren't<br />
able to do much without our car, so I really appreciate it more now.<br />
Sunday night there was a family who had us over for dinner, they're<br />
one of my favorite families in the ward, and we had a great time<br />
talking to them about missionary work. They were super excited to find<br />
ways to share the gospel with their friends and people who they meet.<br />
One of the things we talked about at stuck out to me is that you don't<br />
have to make it a big deal when you bring up the gospel. We talked<br />
about how it would be really easy to talk to someone about a sport you<br />
really like and that you should try to talk about the gospel the same<br />
way. If we can show people that the gospel is something we love and<br />
that it's a part of who we are it makes it much less threatening for<br />
whoever you're talking to.<br />
Next week I'll tell you about my new companion!<br />
Love youns,<br />
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-5401974571606342982015-09-17T11:46:00.001-07:002015-09-17T11:46:32.120-07:00May letters 2015May 4th 2015 Letter<br />
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This week we got 3 new investigators. 2 of them are a couple and they're really cool. We taught them the restoration and really focused on the Book of Mormon. We told them all about how to relate it to yourself when you read and about how much we've both learned from it. I always realize a little more about how much of a difference the Book of Mormon has made in my life when I tell people about it. Especially when I'm talking to people who wont believe in Joseph Smith being a prophet. We talked to a like semi retired preacher the other day about it and I was told him something that I didn't even realize how profound it was until I thought back on it. He said that he was having a hard time believing in the church, he just couldn't make that leap. So I told him "We don't want you to make any leaps. Anyone would have a hard time making a leap like that. What we want to do is help you make steps. So the first step we want you to try is to read the Book of Mormon and see if you can grow closer to Christ, and improve your life through reading it." At that moment I realized that people can't go straight from where they are to where I am and I can't expect that from them because it's taken me almost 20 years to get to where I am. All I can do is encourage them to make small steps, and celebrate when they to. </div>
Our other new investigator is a young man about our age. A family in the ward has been fellowshipping him and helping him . They've been taking him to church and we just started teaching him. He came up to me yesterday and said "I talked to Bishop and he told me that I should talk to you guys about getting baptized. I'm thinking the 16th, what do you think?" You hear stories about this happening, but it is incredibly rare. Especially here in the South. So when he asked me about it I think it literally blew my mind, because my nose started bleeding right then and I had to leave before I could talk to him more about it. Elder Smith picked up the slack though, and we're going to be teaching him every chance we can to help him prepare.</div>
That experience strengthened my testimony of member missionary work so much. We, as missionaries, absolutely need members. Not just to feed us, and not just to give us rides. Missionaries need members to work with them in the work of salvation. President Griffin talked about that in Stake conference this last Saturday. He talked about how a certain type of horse can pull about 2000 pounds on its own. But when you get 2 of this type of horse together, they pull 7 times as much. That's exactly how it is with members as missionaries. We can both pull weight and make progress, but if we work together we can do so much more than we could individually. So I want to encourage all y'all to ask the missionaries what you can do for them and look for ways to introduce them to your friends and invite them to be taught. Ask the missionaries how to make it less awkward and how you can avoid offending your friends. We know that it's hard to do, but we can help you and any missionary should love to talk to you about how to do missionary work.</div>
Love y'all,<br />
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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May 11, 2015 Letter "Mother's Day" call</div>
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This week we got to skype home, as I'm sure y'all know. It was a lot of fun, it's always exciting for missionaries to skype their families. So that was one of the best parts of my week.</div>
The other best part of my week was our investigator, Tristin. We helped him figure out details for his baptism this week, and taught him some more. When we talked to him about who will do what, he was like "Elder Smith is going to baptize me and Elder Petersen is going to confirm me." It's really cool to me that he wants me to confirm him, he'll be the first person I confirm. We also talked to him about the commandments and when we went over the Word of Wisdom he wasn't excited to give up tea. He said everything else was easy to follow, but tea wasn't easy. We didn't have to explain it to him more or anything before he decided that he was going to do it even though he said he was used to drinking about a gallon of tea a day. That was incredible to me, and he's going strong with it. </div>
Love y'all,</div>
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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He skyped us from the Crawford's home.</div>
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May 18th 2015 Letter</div>
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This week we had Tristin's baptism! It was so great! I'm so glad that I got to be here to help him join the gospel. He's been my favorite person to work with in Tennessee. He made our job super easy because he was so ready. I also got the chance to confirm him and give him the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was great. This has been a huge weekend in his life, and I got to be there for all of it. It started with Graduation on Friday, and Elder Smith and I showed up for it. Then on Saturday he was baptized. Then on Sunday he was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I included a picture of all 3.</div>
We also had transfer calls this week. I'm staying in Maryville! I'm glad that I'm staying, but Elder Smith is being transferred out. It was a surprise since he's been here for 6 weeks and I've been here for 12 weeks. </div>
I also said bye to one of my favorite members in Maryville this week. His name is Reggie, he is the coolest guy. He grew up on the carnival, so he left to join the carnival for a while. He said that Me and Elder Smith are the coolest missionaries that he's talked to. </div>
I'll let youns know what happens at transfers next week,</div>
Love y'all,</div>
Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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May 26, 2015 Letter</div>
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This week I got a new companion, Elder Wadsworth. He's from Utah. Apparently it's somewhere in the Salt Lake valley. And he's tall, so the streak of every one of my companions being taller than me is still going. Elder Wadsworth is #9. Elder Smith went to Farragut, so he's still in the same zone. He really likes that area, so that's good.<div>
On Sunday I had the opportunity to ordain Tristin to the Priesthood. It was such an awesome experience, he's still going really strong in the gospel. I was also able to show him my priesthood lineage and show him how he's a part of it now. </div>
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For memorial day, the Bayle's took us on a hike to Abram falls. It was 14 miles, round trip. It was a really good hike, it reminded me of hiking back home. I'm definitely sore now though, I guess I haven't been on a good hike in a while. </div>
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Love y'all,</div>
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-14124872840144238972015-09-17T11:25:00.000-07:002015-09-17T11:25:14.691-07:00April 6 - 27th 2015 Conference & More in MaryvilleLetter April 6, 2015<br />
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Conference this week was fantastic! I love conference! My favorite talk was Elder Hollands, he is also probably my favorite speaker. He told a story about two brothers who decided to climb a canyon on their own with no climbing gear. They neared the top and found a ledge that they could not climb, and at that point they could not go back down. The older brother hoisted the younger over the ledge to safety, but after he did there was no way up for him. He decided that his only hope was to leap for the ledge and hope he caught it. He told his brother to go find a branch large enough to hold him, and when he figured his brother was far enough off that he wouldn't witness him falling to his death if he missed the jump he said a prayer and jumped. He surprisingly made it to the ledge and got his hands over it, but quickly discovered that there was nothing to hold on to. Just as he started to slide back down to certain death, he felt two hands tightly grasp his. His younger brother had anticipated his brothers foolish plan and waited so that he would be there to help him. I liked how in the story he told the Brother was right there to catch him, even though he didn't think he would be. I think that's a great way to look at our relationship with Christ. He will always be there, right when we need him. We may not think that he'll be there, but he will. We just need to turn to him and ask him for help. I also liked how in the story, if the brother hadn't been there to catch him, he would have certainly fallen to his death. It's a perfect demonstration of how much we really need Christ. The only thing I can't understand is that even though we are all in this situation, some of us will reject Christ and will pull away from him. If we need him in our lives so badly, why would we do that? Why do we think that we can do it on our own? We're all guilty of it.<br />
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We also had our transfer calls this week, Elder Johns will be transferred out of Maryville and I'll be getting a new companion. I'll have more about that next week.</div>
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Love y'all,</div>
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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(For more information about Conference visit lds.org and search General Conference)</div>
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April 13, 2015 Letter</div>
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We had transfers this week, and I got Elder D Smith! We were companions in the MTC so it's exciting that we get to serve together now. He told me that he can tell I've picked up some southern accent haha. Elder Johns asked me before transfers where I thought he would go and on a whim I told him Watauga ward. And now that's where he is! <div>
I've had a pretty good week, before transfers me and Elder Johns just went to people who he wanted to say bye to, so it was sorta uneventful, but good. Me and Elder Smith have had some good times already. The other day we found a guy who was atheist/agnostic and we talked to him for quite a while. He had a hard time with the concept of faith, because he felt faith was just an absence of reason. We explained a bit about faith to him, part of what we explained was that we simply can't comprehend everything as we are now, so that's where faith comes in. It's like if you go to the doctor and he tells you what's wrong with you and that you need surgery and you let him preform the surgery. You don't have a perfect understanding of what's wrong, if he's right, or if he can fix the problem, but you'll still let him perform the operation. Usually you'll also have him explain what's wrong, how he's going to fix it and any other details that you need to know in order to make your decision to let him do the surgery. That's like learning about the gospel. When you're listening to what the doctor says you're deciding whether or not you believe him and it's no different when you learn about the gospel. When you learn about the gospel and feel the spirit, that's how you'll know that it's true and you shouldn't let anything else convince you of it. By the end of our conversation we gave him a Book of Mormon and he agreed to read it without bias and to pay attention to how he feels when he reads it. It was awesome and I'm looking forward to seeing what his experience is. </div>
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Love y'all,</div>
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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Letter April 20, 2015</div>
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We've had a pretty great week this week. I think the highlight was this guy named Jack. He's an older guy who we tracted into. He welcomed us in and told us all about his son who died in Iraq. We also tried to slip in as much about the gospel as we could and at the end we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to church. He also told us all about how much he admired us and how we were such great young men to be doing what we do. We called him Sunday morning and reminded him about church and he came! It was exciting because it's so hard to get most people to come to church. He was late, but he went to Elders Quorum and he said he enjoyed it. He also came with us to dinner at a members house and we had a good lesson with him there. He said that he believes everything that we tell him and he told the members about how great we were. The only concern that he had was that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon and get it into his head! It was so cool how much he wanted to know about it for himself. That's really the best way to know about the Book of Mormon, and we really helped him understand that he should only believe it if God tells him that it's true.<div>
Love y'all,</div>
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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Letter April 27, 2015</div>
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This week has been pretty good, we've stayed pretty busy and we've got a lot done. Jack is one of our investigators, he's an older guy, and he came to church yesterday which was awesome! All we have to do is call him in the morning to help him wake up and he'll come to church. Church was pretty good, Jack had some good questions that we were able to answer later in the day when we went over to his house to teach him. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and it was pretty much the same as every lesson we teach him. We tell him all about it and he believes everything that we tell him. He said that he's learned more in the last 2 weeks of meeting with us than he has in his whole 66 years of life. He also was telling the member who we took with us all about how we were the best young men he's ever met and just talking us up like crazy. It's pretty cool to see that he thinks so much of us, but the best thing is seeing him learn more about the gospel and be humble enough to listen to us and want to learn. <div>
Love y'all,</div>
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Eder Jared Petersen</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3565718162066329550.post-74090634215464121022015-09-17T11:14:00.000-07:002015-09-17T11:14:10.359-07:00Letters March 23 & 30th 2015 - Maryville<br />
Letter March 23, 2015<br />
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This week has been a good week, I'm on the downhill slide now, but it doesn't feel that way. The whole concept of time is just skewed for me now haha.<br />
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On Tuesday we helped someone move. At the end of my mission I'll have probably moved over a hundred people. It's all fun though, I actually enjoy moving people. We also gave a lady in the ward a blessing, she's been real depressed and stuff and we've been able to help her feel better. It's interesting to me how quickly people start feeling better when we talk to them about the gospel. You can literally watch the hope come into their eyes if you pay attention. </div>
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On Wednesday we visited a retired preacher who knows the Bible inside and out. We learned a bit from him. It was cool to notice how the spirit tells you what's true and what's not, but I've found it to be really hard to notice. We also met a family who is less active and from Idaho! The wife is actually from Kuna, and I know their cousins. That was pretty cool.</div>
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On Thursday we did splits with the Ward Council. It was cool to talk with them and get to know some ward members better. I went with the dad of the young man who we took out and he told me about how his son talked and talked and talked about it and really liked it. I was so glad to hear that.</div>
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On Friday We had zone training, it was so good! There was a big focus on working with members and planning. We are getting Ipads in May, and everyone's excited about that but President told us "The Ipads aren't the silver bullet. The members are." I really liked how he pointed that out and I think there's a ton of untapped potential in the members of our church. We all need to just learn to do missionary work, and when members can do missionary work the results will be phenomenal. </div>
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On Saturday we took another young man out. The two that we took out this week are brothers. We had a good time with him and hopefully he enjoyed it as much as his brother. After we dropped him off we did a lot of tracting. It wasn't bad, one guy was willing to talk to us, but we almost got into a bible bash. I've gotten really good at avoiding bible bashing but it was hard to avoid it with him. His beef was Revelations 22:19. We explained to him how it was only pertaining to the book of Revelations because the bible wasn't compiled at the time. It was actually compiled about 500 years later. Another lady opened the door, kindly said she wasn't interested and we kept going. She then came back out and told us to knock on her basement door and teach her sons. We taught them a super solid lesson and they both really felt the spirit. We asked them to pray at the end and without us even asking them to they were asking God if it was all true and asking him to show them the truth. I was so excited for them.</div>
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On Sunday an investigator who we haven't been able to contact in forever just showed up to church. We were so surprised. The family who we had dinner with that night also came and just invited him to join us all for dinner! They're a great family. He came over to their house and we had some great conversation about the gospel. He really wants to do the right things which is awesome.</div>
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Love youns,</div>
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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Letter from March 30, 2015</div>
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This week has been fun, the transfer is getting close to the end which is weird. It seems like I haven't been here long at all. I still like it here though.<div>
On Tuesday we were able to go out with the Bishop here and get to know him a bit and also talk to a few people. We had a good time with him and he told us some helpful things about the ward, so it was really good. He also told us that he wants to try to go out with us weekly, which will be awesome.</div>
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On Wednesday we did some service for our Ward Mission Leader. He had some yard work that he needed done and me and Elder Johns got it all done really quick. It was fun to do some yard work for them, I kinda missed doing service during the winter.</div>
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On Thursday we did quite a bit of planning. I've learned a lot about how helpful planning is. A lot of people will just go out with no idea of what to do, and it just doesn't work out. We also took one of our young men out, it's been fun to get them involved. They've never gone out with the missionaries before and it's been good for them to get an idea of what it's like. </div>
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On Friday we had district meeting, it was pretty good. Half of our district is in another ward, so we only get to see them at district meetings. They're all a lot of fun though, we have a pretty great district. We also had a ward social which was good, I'm starting to really like the ward here.</div>
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On Saturday we helped move a few people. The other missionaries in our ward also baptized one of their investigators, he's a really good guy. President Griffin came to the baptism and it's always a good time when we get to see President Griffin. </div>
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On Sunday we had church and the missionaries taught priesthood lessons about family mission plans. It was pretty good, I think the biggest thing that stops people from doing missionary work is that they just don't know what to do. It's interesting to try to see their perspective. For me missionary work is almost all I know how to do now, it's weird, but for them it's the opposite. We kept telling them to just ask the missionaries about how they can share the gospel, because you can't just give a general 'This is what works and this is what doesn't.' That also shows how individual the gospel is. The gospel works differently for everyone, and we all have to figure out how the gospel should work in our lives.</div>
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Love youns,</div>
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Elder Jared Petersen</div>
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