Week 12: Faith leads to Miracles!

Frozen Leaves People!

This week was full of surprises and cool experiences! It started off pretty crumby...we still had to walk everywhere because we didn't have any K's {kilometers}. So our days consisted of walking to appointments, to the apartment, to the church...just back an forth all day! Good news! I broke in my new boots in like 2 days! We weren't teaching very many lessons...just walking! We were tired and our feet hurt so bad!! One night we were determined to have a lesson. I'm really not sure what we were thinking when we planned this but we ended up walking like 5 miles and we only gave ourselves an hour to do it...CRAZY US! We walked so fast and we were walking close to the bush {woods} so we sang primary songs {SO LOUD} so the cougars would be scared away! We may have scared some humans too...the whole neighborhood probably knows Follow the Prophet now... :) We ended up making it but had to teach fast that way we could walk back in time for curfew! We walked a total of 16+ K's that day!!! Walking and tracting was the start of our week...then on Friday we had a meeting so we had to use the car.  We went outside and it was {WELL} below 0*C and our car was dead!

Canada = Foggy Camera Lens

:( We tend to leave the light on at night because we are filling out reports and what not and we left it ON ALL NIGHT!!!! The one day we need our car and its dead. Luckily the members we live with took pity on us and came out into the cold and jumped our car for us! They were laughing at us so hard!!! I was praying all week that we would find someone to teach. It seemed like we were just walking around and not finding ANYONE! So frustrating! I also prayed to ask Heavenly Father if he was pleased with my missionary work up here...it took some time but we finally started to see some glimmers of success and then by the end of the week it was AWESOME!!! We found a young lady who said she would like for us to come back and teach her more about Jesus! SWEET!!! 1st one in a few weeks! Then on Saturday we met with this lady Diane who was baptized before but there aren't any records and we asked her to be re-baptized and she said YES!!! We're planning for January 2nd!!! She is awesome and we are so excited for her! I 

realized I haven't talked much about our investigators! The main people we teach are Wayne and Dorothy. Wayne is a recent convert was baptized in September and now passes the sacrament and is AMAZING and such a great example! Dorothy is his mum and she is 83 and the cutest old lady EVER! She looks alot like my Great Grandma Ruth :) Last week she got back from the hospital and she agreed to be baptized!!!! This week we thought it would be good for her to work towards a date so we set a date for January 30th and she was hesitant because she needs to recover but she said the sweetest thing, "I guess there are still miracles and I don't see why I can't have one" AWE!!!! Touched my heart! She is a "cry-er" just like me and you know when the spirit is strong and when she feels it! So we set a date with her too!

2 Baptism dates set all in one day!!!!! WE WERE SUPER BLESSED!!!! It's been amazing to see how the gospel changes people's lives and how it gives people hope. I can't wait for Dorothy's baptism!!!!! Hopefully I'll still be in Campbell River! On Sunday, the Montreal Temple was rededicated so there was no church and we got to attend a broadcast of one of the sessions. It was my first Re-dedication and it was very neat! We got to hear President Eyring and other members of Seventy speak and because it was in Montreal most of it was in

Roadtrip to Victoria

French! Cool! It was a great way to end the week. For missionaries Sunday is the end. Mondays are the beginning because it's our personal day :) haha Something else cool that I thought I'd share! Our mission has been challenged by President Burt to memorize the Restoration pamphlet and after that the rest of them! AHHH!!!!! That's some hardcore studying! However...it has been going so good!!! I'm amazed at how the spirit helps us learn so much faster! I've been able to memorize the whole first page and it helps so much in lessons! Before I was always worried about what to say or that I'd say something blasphemous, but this week I haven't been as worried! The words just come out of my mouth and I know it's true doctrine! SUPER SWEET!!! Hopefully by the end of my mission I'll have all 6 pamphlets memorized!!! 

Another random sidenote/story:

Do you remember the talk What Lack I yet? from General Conference? We've been challenged as missionaries to ask that in our prayers...What Lack I yet or How can I improve? This week I was told I needed to study better!! So I've been trying to read the Book of Mormon in all my spare time! and I've really come to LOVE it!!! Before the Book of Mormon didn't make much sense but one of my wonderful companions Sister Holbrook explained each story to me and IT'S AWESOME!!! Now I have the desire to read the scriptures all the time...while we were walking to an appointment I wanted my companions to tell me Book of Mormon stories and what not...BIG CHANGE FOR ME!!!! I LOVE the scriptures!!! They are such a great tool that we have in our lives and they can help us with everything!!! My testimony of the Book of Mormon has been strengthened and I made a goal to finish reading it by the end of Year. I'm in the middle of Alma (pg. 269) and there are 531 pages in the Book of Mormon so I have a lot to read but I want to start at the beginning in the new year!!! I'm so stoked!!! 

One thing I learned this week is to have faith through the hard times!!! While things may seem discouraging and you don't think it will get better just WAIT and KEEP YOUR HEAD HIGH! Heavenly Father loves us more than we can comprehend and he wants to bless us and he will never let us go through anything we can't handle! One thing I've learned from the Book of Mormon is that he always delivers his people out of bondage..we just have to have faith, keep praying, and do what's right. I know Heavenly Father is looking out for all of us and that we have crumby weeks so we can recognize the miracles when they come! I'm so excited that the work is picking up and that our investigators are progressing!!! God is great!!!

Till next week,

Sister Peterson