Week 26: I Love To See The Temple...I'm Going There Tuesday!!!

YES I AM BEING TRANSFERRED!!!

Packing for Transfers

I am going to be serving in Langley!!!! Specifically the Brookswood ward!!! You seriously walk out of church and the temple is RIGHT THERE!!!! I am so stoked!!!!! My new companion is Sister Hawke! We were in a trio towards the end our our MTC time!!!  I love her so much! We are going to have a blast!!! When the assistants called us to tell us our news....and they said where I was going and with who...I JUMPED UP AND DOWN AND SCREAMED!!! haha then I said "Oh sorry elder....that may not be appropriate but I'm so excited!!! hahaha  Elder/Sister communication is always a bit awkward :) hahahaha Anywho....so yeah I'm leaving the island.....it's the best place in Canada so I'm not sure how I feel about it!!! I'm excited to see what the Mainland is all about though! I have to admit I am super stoked to be in a CITY and be around all the hustle and bustle again!!! #imissvegas.

From what I've heard this ward I'm going to is SUPER GREAT and that I'll be well taken care of just like Campbell River ward except bigger!!!

So....transfers are exciting but our week was exciting too! Here's just a few snipits of what we did! Monday was P-day and we chilled and got all dressed up and went to the beach and took photos!!!! I LOVED the photos of my name tag in the sand with the driftwood...ugh....so awesome! Diane gave us these super cute necklaces (it's like oragami owl but canadian version) and they have a canadian flag and a jewel that says forever in my heart and then "sister" in the background!  I LOVE IT!!! So we took some pics with those!!! Later that night we went to Diane's to watch the Restoration movie with Lisa Marie an investigator whom I love so much!! Well....everything {seriously everything} went wrong. We couldn't get the DVD player to work/connect so we tried a different tv and as soon as Diane went to go look behind it it jumped off the mantle took a ginormous leap of faith 5 ft and crashed to the floor.....and it so conveniently landed on Diane's foot and broke her toe....SATAN REALLY DIDN'T WANT LISA MARIE TO WATCH THAT MOVIE HAHAH. So we we're pretty sure the flat screen broke but we 

Lisa Marie

turned it on and by the grace of Heavenly Father WE WERE ABLE TO WATCH THE MOVIE!!! So we were watching it and then it starts skipping....so we had to suffer through an hour of skipping DVD....it tested my patience!!! I thought our night was ruined...spirit gone...ugh I was so upset when we watched the movie...but there was nothing I could change about the situation. Then on Sunday Lisa Marie shared in Relief Society how she watched a movie with us and it really left her with a good message and helped her out!!  NOT ALL WAS LOST!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! Tuesday we had exchanges with our awesome Sister Training Leaders!! I went with Sister Ritchie from Newport Beach, CA...she's pretty much AMAZING!!! We had a blast!! We had tons of spiritual experiences and tons of fun times!! It's a good thing we weren't companions because we literally talked all day non-stop....hahahah She is now on a ferry with Sister Christensen going home :( That night we ate at a members house and had a turkey dinner! LOVE!! Well they had a friend there that they have been trying to talk to about the gospel for 8 years...well he usually gets up and leaves as soon as

we get there. Well this time...he stayed!!!!! And even listened to our spiritual message!!! It was SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!! Wednesday we had district meeting in Courtenay...our last one together :( I got roped into playing the piano...I kept it such a good secret for 6 months and then it comes out!!! Man!!! hahaha so I played and I'm pretty sure I disgraced the art of piano playing :) I need to start up again! After the meeting we took a little detour and found COSTCO!!! So we had to go in and go to the food court. Well let me tell you....it was like walking into the Vegas Costco back in the 90's....legit. IT'S NOTHING LIKE THE ONES IN THE STATES!!! The food court didn't even have BERRY SMOOTHIES!!! What the heck Costco?!?!? So I settled for pizza and an ice cream! I just told the people outside that I was a missionary and I had a costco card back home and they could look it up hahah and they let us in! SO fun!!!

Dorothy

On our way home we went contacting on Miracle Beach and we found TONS OF SAND DOLLARS!!! I am so dumb and didn't even think they were living things so I was like "i FOUND A BLACK ONE!!!!" wow...blonde moment! They are so pretty though!!!! I love the beach!!! I'll miss it a ton!!! As we drove into town we met with some investigators who live on our area border and had a great lesson with them!! He has been investigating the church for 10+ years and he said the missionaries always show up when he is going through a bad time...and BEHOLD WE SHOWED UP AT THE RIGHT TIME!!! Heavenly Father loves him so much!!!! Wednesday night was AWESOME!!! We had a super good lesson with Dorothy!! She said that she felt like her life was changing. She said she has started acting different and then tapped the Book of Mormon and said I think it's because of this book.....JAW HITS THE FLOOR!!!!!!!!! WHAT!?! Then she said one of these days I may go down to that church....WHAT!?!? Then....she said she had been thinking about baptism and how she can be immersed in the water post-surgery and everything.....WHAT!?!?  She really has

Necklaces Diane made us

started progressing!!! She's a gem! I'm so glad she has figured this out for herself and isn't just taking what the missionaries are telling her. THEN... I told her I was singing in church on Sunday and she said well I might come but I'll be too tired.....TO BE CONTINUED...... WEDNESDAY WAS ALSO BO'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!! Love ya brother! Wish I could have been there for your birthday!!! 19....wow....you are so old. Thursday was a blur...always is! :)

Friday we had a lesson with Marilyn and she said she is sticking with the Bible and she has gotten her answer...she said she will still read the Book of Mormon. We love her so much!! She helped us and pushed us to know our bible better!! I started packing on Friday because I felt like I was leaving Campbell River for transfers....let me tell you I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF!!!!!!!!!! 6 months in one place is a great way to accumulate tons of knick knacks!!! Saturday was pretty much torture as we waited for Transfer calls!!! Then we got them and I started

The Knowles (the family we lived with)

packing like a mad woman!!! Sunday I sang in church...I think Diane posted a video on my Facebook Page hahahaha I was so nervous and trying not to cry because it was my last Sunday!!! WELL GUYS... DOROTHY CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!! She looked so pretty in her church clothes and it was so great to see her there at church FINALLY after 6 months of trying!!!!! WOOWHOO!!!!! Sunday consisted of us finishing packing and getting ready to leave!! Campbell River is being "Blue Washed" so they are getting a good set of Elders!!! It will be GREAT!! 

I have loved it there so much and it's like home!!!! I love the members to pieces and I can't wait to go back!!!!!

Today has been emotional and eventful too! We drove to Nanaimo super early so Sister Christensen could catch the ferry over! I am staying in Nanaimo until tomorrow when I go to Brookswood via Ferry!!! Super fun!!! Before we sent the Sister off this morning we danced in the parking lot of the church and had a super fun time!!!! I'll have to send home the video it's Classic!!! Now I'm just hanging out with Hermana Wilson in Nanaimo!!! I'm a fake sister training leader for a day!! Let me tell you I am SO GLAD I am not a STL!! SUPER STRESSFUL especially at transfer time!!! Whew...I'm getting tired!!! That's all for now!!! 

Super fun week and I'm so happy for my new transfer news!!!!!!!

Talk to ya later! Love you all to Canada and back :)

Love,

Sister Peterson

Week 25: Another Week Gone By

This week was GRRRRREAT {say it like the frosted flake commercials!!} We had some really great visits and lessons this week! I am just surprised at how this area has blossomed since I got here 6 months ago!!! I can't even believe it's the same

Diane & I (our recent convert)

Campbell River! The only thing that convinces me otherwise is the crazy bi-polar weather!! Transfers are coming up this next week though...DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!!!!!!! I find out Saturday if I will be leaving or staying another 6 weeks!!

It could really go either way! I've been making preparations and warning people earlier that way we both have time to mourn! I REALLY don't want to leave Campbell River! I love the people we are working with and I love this ward so much! All 35-40 of em!! My mission president came up to me at a meeting recently and said "Sister Peterson how long have you been up there? I said almost 6 months! He said 6 months huh....do you know there are other areas in this mission?!?!?" hahahahah It was so funny!!! He always drops little hints to keep you thinking about transfer assignments hahaha Anyway back to this week! Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting over the phone and I had to give a training! I love doing training and teaching! It keeps me in practice for when I return home and go on to grad school :) My training was on the Blessings of Change! I've been really working hard lately on

Lisa Marie (one of our investigators)

accepting change and working on changing my nature to become the missionary I need to be. IT'S HARD!!!! But this training helped me out a lot as I prepared for it! Later we taught Steve our new investigator the Word of Wisdom! It was so great!! We were able to bring Diane {our recent convert} along and she talked to him about quitting smoking and what worked for her. I loved that out of all the tricks the one she emphasized the most was prayer and scripture study! It's so true!! God will help people so much more than patches and gum will! It was a neat lesson!! Steve has such a strong desire to be baptized and to align his life with God's will! He is so prepared for the gospel!! He loves the Book of Mormon and knows that it can bring him personal revelation that he needs! It was cool to hear his testimony in one of our lessons this week! He's progressing and it's awesome!!! Wednesday night we met with a family in the ward that has young kids! We LOVE them!!! Little kids are so cute! We were talking about how Nephi and Lehi the Second were named after Nephi and Lehi the first in the Book of Mormon and how they had to live up to that name. It was

YESSSSS!!!!!!

perfect because the little boy in the family is named after his Dad. So this little boy piped up and said "so I'm named after Bush?" We all looked at each other and I said uh....is he talking about the past President of the USA? hahah His dad said No he would have no clue! hahah So we were trying to figure out what he was trying to say....he eventually said my name means bush so I'm a bush...HAHHAH HIM AND HIS DAD'S NAME IS BRUCE!! When it clicked we all just laughed and laughed!!! Little kids are so simple!!! hahah Anyway we said that no he doesn't have to live up to the example of a bush...then we talked about how when he's baptized he will be an example of Jesus Christ and bear his name..It was great! haha Thursday went so fast we seriously had no time!! We planned all morning in our apartment and by 2 o'clock we were SO READY to get out of thehouse!!! We were busy all day which was good! We had a really good lesson with Wayne and Dorothy about Repentance. We used the Article in the Ensign The New Testaments Message of Repentance. It was a great message!  Friday was fun! We GOT SO SOAKED!!!!!!!!! But I finally got smart and

Seriously....pure deliciousness.

wore my super cute rain boots so we played in the puddles which made us feel like children again :) I'm sure people thought we were crazy :) We had a really good sit down with this lady we met a while ago and she told us she is a JW {Jehovah's Witness}!! She was so nice!! We talked about some of the doctrines that are different and similar in our religions and it was really good! She talked about how the Jehovah's Witness religion started up and it was quite interesting. We got to share the Restoration with her and her only hang up was the Book of Mormon which is usually everyone's hang up!! It was nice to learn about the religion from someone who lives it instead of just hearing things as you go door to door. 

Saturday is walking day!! We were lucky and didn't have much rain!! We had a great lesson with Steve in the morning about the Book of Mormon and how it's blessed our lives. I shared with him my go-to scripture which is Mosiah 24:13-15. I LOVE it so
much!!! A few years ago up at school when church really wasn't a priority for me I was just attending these Book of Mormon reading groups to socialize with friends and stuff. Well we started reading Mosiah 24 and we read these verses and they REALLY HIT ME!!! I wasn't even going through something BIG

Our Fireside

but at the time it seemed big and the message in these verses stuck with me and gave me tons of comfort!!! I have always referred back to them when I'm going through a hard time or when someone else needs some help. I know that the Savior does ease our burdens and that God does visit us in all our afflictions. When we were having lunch we smelled a camp fire...I ran to the window and the family we live with were making SMORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy and I was talking about how I hadn't had a smore in a long time just earlier that morning!!! So they made us one!!! Mmmm...it was so good!!! Later in the day we were tracting and we were talking to another really nice Jehovah's Witness lady and all the sudden I felt super sick! I almost blacked out!!!! I can't really remember what the lady was talking about but I cut her off mid sentence and said "Can I come in and sit down? I know that's weird but I'm feeling very ill." She was so nice and took me in even though she just met me 30 min ago!! It was kinda scary! I didn't recover from it as fast as I wanted so we called the mission nurse and she sent me straight home!! As much as my body needs sleep and loves sleep...I hated that I had to

Valentine's Day Package!

stay in and take a nap!!! hahaha As a missionary it's the worst feeling to know that you're resting when you're supposed to be working. I chose to go to the lessons we had scheduled for that night  and I'm so glad I was feeling better because they were SO AWESOME!!!!  Sunday was good!!! I taught in Gospel Principles about our Heavenly Family and how we are all children of God! Then later that night we put on a Missionary Fireside and our theme was No Effort is Wasted. We had a really good turn out and had a lot of fun! We talked about how our efforts to reach out to others are never in vain and that we don't know what God has planned! We also role played some scenarios where we could introduce the gospel in regular conversation! The members had so much fun and we did too! Overall it was quite an eventful week! This next week is going to be so fun because we are going on exchanges today and tomorrow with our lovely Sister Training Leaders and then it's Sister Christensen's last week as a missionary so we're going to work so hard and make it the best ever!!!

p.s. thanks for the package family :) I LOVE the hand sanitizer I use it like 20 times a day and A big thanks for the mini sweet tarts!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE THE BEST!!!!!!! Canada needs to get with the program and start selling them! :)

Love you have a great week!!!

Sister Peterson

Week 24: L.O.V.E & Neon Babylon

This week was a short one because P-day was just on Tuesday haha but I'll try to scrounge up some good stories ;) HAHHA JOKES!! This week was AWESOME!!!! I LOVED it!

Snapshot of typical BC Canada weather

We'll start with Wednesday...we had another lesson with Marilynn and we talked more about the Bible and the Book of Mormon and how they support each other! She's still having a hard time accepting that there could be another religious text besides the bible. I'm REALLY grateful for the 2 hours I have each morning to study!! I've learned so much about the Bible and I feel like I can really explain myself to the Bible Bashers which is comforting! It's crazy because people will fight us and fight us about the Book of Mormon, but all they have to do is PRAY to ask God if it's true, but they don't want to do that because...what if it is true? Change is super scary sometimes but if it's from God we have nothing to fear!! Thursday I had to go back to the Ortho office and get my retainers done!! SUCH A BLESSING I DON'T HAVE TO WEAR THAT TORTURE DEVICE ALL DAY LONG!!!!!!!!! haha I LOVE my new ones though :) They are clear and a lot less dorky I guess! Thursday we had a lesson with some other investigators and it was interesting. We just felt a weird spirit about the lesson the whole time. I'm not sure if they want to know if it's true or if they are just gathering information to use against us or something. Our words kept being used against us and twisted and so it was not a pleasant lesson. It's hard to teach

My V-day Breakfast from Sis. Christensen

people when they are just curious...they really need to have an open heart so the spirit can dwell and help them receive the message we bring. Friday we got to go on another ROAD TRIP!!! Whoop whoop! We had to leave so early and it was POURING, so we barely made it! Good thing too because President Burt and Sister Burt were there!! They are so great and I love them so much! Our whole meeting was about CHANGE!! There were some BIG changes made to our mission so it was a good meeting! I got a lot out of it! Friday night our ward had a Valentines Dance! We went and we had 3 investigators come! It was great!! We were able to talk with them and help them mingle with the ward!!! I ate WAY TO MANY goodies though...ugh!!!! We couldn't dance there because we are missionaries, but we went home and did some line dances and things in our apartment!!! hahah It was fun! Saturday we took after the Pioneers and walked and walked and walked....holy cow...I'm surprised my shoes don't have holes yet! It was a great day though because we had a MIRACLE!!!!!!! Like the craziest miracle yet to date!!!!

Get your popcorn or chips and get ready for this:

So Friday night before the Valentines Dance Bishop gave us the number of a guy who had called the church and left a message just saying he wanted to get involved in the church. SWEET! So we gave him a call...he was super excited about meeting up and we scheduled our lesson for the next day...Saturday. So we had no idea who this guy was...was he less active?  A former investigator?...No clue! So we start talking to him and we said, "So what do you know about our church and why are you interested?" He said, "Well I know that the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and told him where to find the gold plates and that he deciphered them through the power of God...."

**JAW DROPS.....*DING DING DING DING* CORRECT ANSWER!!!

We were speechless!!!!!! He said that he attended institute when he was younger and used to date a Mormon girl and all this stuff, but he never did the "Baptism Thing!" So we refreshed his memory of the Restoration and talked about all that good stuff and then asked him if he wanted to be baptized. He said yeah that's kinda what he was hoping for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So he's being baptized in March!!!! SERIOUSLY A MIRACLE OUT OF THIN AIR!!!!!!!!! Heavenly Father is so good!! We talk all the time about how missionaries are planting seeds, well guys NEWS FLASH we just harvested a good one!!!!! Harvesting is the best!!!! hahaha He also said he wanted to come to church and before our lesson he had actually gone and bought new church clothes for the next day!!!! CRAZY AWESOME! Sunday was great because we had 3 investigators at church including Steven our new miracle investigator! Church was different because we had a Western US and BC Canada Broadcast where Elder Renlund spoke and some other General Authorities! IT WAS SO GOOD! Sunday night we watched the cheesiest Lovey-dovey movie you can watch on your mission....Legacy with an older lady in the ward and it was sweet! She really liked it!

Funny Doorstep Moment:

Sister Foote! Love Her!

Lady: "...and where are you from? 

Me: I'm from Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Lady: WHAT?!?!? Who's from "Vegas"?!?

 I explained that I didn't actually live in the Neon Babylon part of Vegas and that I lived on the outskirts, but she was still weirdly shocked... hahaha She thought I was a heathen or something! I need to start a new hashtag or Campaign "Las Vegas Mormon" apparently it's unheard of. #isurvivedvegas #risingaboveneonbabylon #imavegasmormon

So our week was super good!!!!! 

Hope everyone had a fun Valentines day :)

XOXOXOXOXO

Sister Peterson

Week 23: Skirts & Sledgehammers

This week has been busy and we've had lots of cool experiences!!! Tuesday was my 5 months mark!!! In mission years I'm 20!!! {each month is 5 years} Sister Holbrook made that up and passed it on hahaha We had a really good day and visited with a less active who sells herbs!! She did a test on me for some problems I'm having and

gave me Kelp to take everyday...like a lot everyday!!! Hahah I was like AHH I DON'T WANT TO TURN INTO A MERMAID!!!! Hopefully it will start working soon!! 
Later we went to go visit another Less Active lady and we drove by the house and I just got this weird feeling...I thought in my mind....I hope she didn't pass away...she was older and had been not feeling well a few days before so we dropped off a card. Well we called and her husband said she has passed away Saturday :( It was so sad! She was so sweet! She had a hard time remembering, and so sometimes we would visit and she would ask 2 or 3 times where we were from BUT she could always feel the spirit and she loved hearing about the gospel. A few days earlier we had dropped off a card and her husband said she got it before she died! I know she is in a much better place and she is probably so happy!!!! I'm going to miss her! Wednesday we saw our biggest MIRACLE!!! It was a terribly dreary and wet day TERRIBLE FOR TRACTING!!! So we made the best of our time and hit the stores to find people! While we were in Walmart Sister Christensen commented on this guys hat and we started a conversation about native art and such. We asked him where he was from he said Alert Bay (super north and an hour ferry ride east) He then said his name was Arthur. Immediately I

remembered that we had a media referral (someone who looks at Mormon.org who had requested a Book of Mormon and he was from Alert Bay and his name was Arthur! It's not that big, so I asked if it was him! He said no but it was HIS COUSIN!!!!! Wowza! Because we are in Campbell River our area doesn't go up that north so we have been trying for months to get a Book of Mormon to this guy! Well our new friend said he was catching the ferry over tonight and he would take the Book of Mormon and give it to his cousin Arthur!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!!!!!!!! It was so cool! When we were leaving he gave us a BIG hug!! We couldn't escape it or even turn it into an awkward handshake situation...BUT Natives give the best hugs I found out!! Haha He said IS THIS ODD OR IS THIS GOD? My new favorite saying! Everything happens for a reason!!! It's never just a coincidence! Heavenly Father's hand is always in the details! 

Thursday I had to go to the Orthodontist....it's been like 10 years since I've sat in an ortho chair! My retainer cracked so I needed to make a new one! It was weird to be "in the real world" and have to worry about "real world things" hahaha #missionlife They were SUPER SURPRISED that I'd had my retainer since 7th grade! hahah they said it was in such good shape and they were proud of me! BUT because it cracked my tooth moved so they said I had to wear my retainer for A WHOLE WEEK then they would make me a new one....I WAS SO MAD!!!! I have a terrible lisp now and I can't even say MISSIONARIES right and i say that like 5000000 times a day!!! Uh...I sound so dumb! I can't wait till Thursday when they make me a new one and I can go back to wearing it just a night! Friday was good! We had a lesson with Marilyn again and all the questions she was asking could be found easily in the Book of Mormon! We have been telling her to read and pray but this time we hammered it in! We said she needed to find out for herself from God. Contrary to popular belief...not everything is found within the pages of the Bible! Why? Because God planned to reach out and call another prophet just like in days of old so we would

need other scriptures to clarify things and give us new direction from God. That's why we use the Bible and the Book of Mormon side by side!!! As I've studied the Restoration I've found that what once was confusing and a source of a lot of doubt in my mind has now become so logical and valid!!! I LOVE the restoration and I'm so grateful for it! God would never leave us without direction if we were ready to receive it and I'm glad we have prophets to lead us today just like in the old days! Anyway...back to Marilyn! She needs to read and pray to know if it's true and that's only going to come from personal revelation from God. Not from the internet {worst place to go for info hahah} , not from friends, not from JUST the bible, but directly from GOD!!!! We are hoping next week that she will have had an experience with the Book of Mormon and we can continue teaching her all the other gospel messages we as missionaries have to share!!!

Friday night we had a member visit with one of the YSA girls in our ward and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! I've realized since I've been a missionary I have only hung around old people...not that I don't love their wisdom and yummy food and such BUT I really miss YSA age people! We had such a great time at Tim Hortons (Canada "Starbucks" basically).  Saturday was another miracle! We were just walking along and we were really confused as to where we should go and just after we got done praying and we were going to go somewhere new we walked passed this lady's house...Linda. She was ripping out a handicap ramp in her front yard. We asked if we could help and at first she laughed and said no because we were in skirts...well we showed her! We started helping and all we had was a hammer, a crowbar and a shovel!!! We did good work!!!

We didn't get it all finished so we said we would stop by on Monday which was a holiday up here and help out more. So yesterday we called Bishop and asked him if we could borrow some tools....so I used a SLEDGE HAMMER AND A POWER SAW!!!! I felt so mighty and awesome! hahahahah It was so fun to do service!! I know as a missionary I'm "serving" but for some reason I don't see that as this kind of service. I felt like I had really helped her and I felt so good and happy afterwards!!! Sunday was really good too! The missionary committee in the ward did a special fast for the less actives and part members in the ward and it was SO GOOD! I have grown to love fasting and the spirit that comes from that simple sacrifice once a month. SO many blessings too :) We are pretty sure I'm being transferred in March so this was going to be my last fast Sunday in the Campbell River Ward....so I got up and bore my testimony! The last time I had gotten up was my first Sunday here. It was really cool to see how I've changed because of the people in this ward and the experiences I've had here. If I do get transferred I'm going to miss it here! It's all I know mission-wise so far! :( crazy I've spent 1/3 of my mission in this little place though! I <3 Campbell River!! Today was good! We are emailing late because we went to get fabric and Diane our Recent Convert helped us make skirts!! They turned out pretty good!! So mom you can be proud I worked on my sewing skills and dad you can be proud I used power tools this weekend :) hahaha Overall it was SUCH A GOOD WEEK! We didn't teach much but we had so many good experiences that made it worth it! 

Bye for Now!

Love,

Sister Peterson

Week 22: Let us compare my mission to that of a roller coaster....

The mission is probably the most roller coaster-like experience I'll ever have!!! Or at least it seems that way! One week (last week) you'll have tons of MIRACLES and you find people to teach and everything in the world is RIGHT!! Then you have another week (this week) where all you're plans fall through and you feel like you didn't do very much. Don't get me wrong mission life is still good...it's just UP AND DOWN! Consistency is rare :) hahaha As my wonderful Mission President says,

"Your mission is preparing you for the rest of your life"...so I better get used to this way of life eh? So here's my play by play for this week (see that sports reference dad :) Monday I got to meet the cutest little dog!! These members in our ward got a new little Maltese/Yorkie/All kind of small dog mix and her name is Coco Chanel :) hahaha As missionaries we aren't supposed to hold children (elders might drop them..hehe jk) It's just a rule and so holding little Coco was so fun!! She was like a little baby! I love her! Tuesday we had a lesson with Trevor that fell through but we had a member with us so we decided to go visit a less active lady who was sick and leave her a note. We went on a few adventures that afternoon and I had a ton of fun :) I love the Sisters in the ward up here! They all remind me of my mom and some of the women I look up to back home :) Tuesday night we went to a French Feast at a members home! Their daughter had to cook a 5 course French meal for a school project and they were so awesome and they invited us!! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! We had this amazing cheese spread, chicken to die for, yummy french onion soup, and

creme brulee for dessert! YUM!!! No snails though...I was thrilled!!!  We had planned to teach two of our new families that night but both of them cancelled :( Sad day since we were planning on asking them to be baptized! It just wasn't the right timing apparently! Hopefully this week we can meet with them! Wednesday we had a few lessons and we got a new investigator so that was exciting! That night we went with Bishop to home teach Diane, our recent convert, and it was so fun! It's cool to see how she is growing in the gospel! After the lesson we stayed and helped her continue to sew little nightgowns for her grand-babies! I'm getting better at reading patterns mum! I may be a pro by the time I get home :) Thursday in a nutshell...uneventful...we ate...we slept..we planned, we tracted...probably met a crazy person and woke up again  Friday :) haha So Friday we met with Marilyn (She's the one I talked to 3-4 months ago who called us.) We had a really good lesson with her! She's so close on her search for the truth! She says her expectations for a church and names things off in the bible that are SO TRUE  and we're like HELLO...OVER

HERE...restored gospel!!!! It's so cool to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church!! I grew up saying it in my testimony because everyone else did...come on people we all know the classic "I know this church is true" line. Now I can really say I KNOW THIS CHURCH IS TRUE! I see the evidence of the Restoration every day. Some days when people bash us and doubt starts to creep in it's cool how I can prove the gospel to myself and how I can always find something that builds my testimony. Friday night we had a ward activity the Spaghetti Western...where we ate spaghetti and all manner of carbs and watched a Western movie! There were 30 people packed into a small home hahaha It was tons of fun! Diane brought some of her clients and friends and there were less actives and lots of people! We couldn't stay for the movie obviously but as I was leaving I saw that it they chose a western movie with Tom Selleck. hahaha anyway apparently he comes and visits Campbell River often because he has a house (probably a mansion) here...I just remember him from Friends...but all the Sisters in the ward were like YES! When they saw it was one of his movies HAHAHAHAH Since all of our members were being cowboys for the

night we had to hit the stores and try to find people! We had some really good conversations and talked to lots of people! Saturday was good! We found a little mexican place (like mexican subway)....it was okay...nothing like good ole-Faustos back home!!! I survived though. We tracted a ton and we got to meet with Wayne and Dorothy! We shared the talk His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox from a old BYU Devotional. In the talk it compares Jesus Christ and his grace to a mom paying for piano lessons! It was perfect because Dorothy let me play her piano again and I even brought my own hymnbook so I could actually play! I'm getting better considering I only get like 20 seconds of practice a week :) 

"Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher. Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn to her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice! Does the child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. It is how he takes advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his life at a higher level. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but in seeing her gift used seeing her child improve. And so she continues to call for practice, practice, practice. If the child sees Mom’s requirement of practice as being too overbearing (“Gosh, Mom, why do I need to practice? None of the other kids have to practice! I’m just going to be a professional baseball player anyway!”), perhaps it is because he doesn’t yet see with Mom’s eyes. He doesn’t see how much better his life could be if he would choose to live on a higher plane."

Sunday was SO GOOD!!! Diane brought her friend to church! Seriously the BEST RECENT CONVERT!!! She loves sharing the gospel and it's so fun to see! It was cool to see her explain things to her friends, show her around, and all that jazz!  In the afternoon we did some beach contacting and we were looking for starfish and people! We flipped over so many rocks but didn't see any starfish :( sad day! We did find this cute little 2 year old boy and his grandma and he walked over to me grabbed my hand and started running across the rocky beach saying "come here!!! See!!" I was like who is this kid! hahah he was running straight for the water!! He was so cute :) We had dinner with the family we live with which is always THE BEST! and we shared the story of Nephi and the ship and made paper boats :) super fun! THAT WAS MY WEEK! Some uneventful days and some good days, but we had a fun time all in all!!! 

Tomorrow is my 5 month mission birthday!! Whoop Whoop!

Hope everyone is doing well!!!

Love ya,

Sister Peterson

Week 21: More Miracles and More Shenanigans :)

This week started out GREAT! We had lots of lessons planned and we taught a lot of new people and we ended the week with 5 NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!! Unheard of in these parts of the woods {literally}! It was so cool! We are now teaching 4 families WHAT A BLESSING!!! It's been cool to see how the first 2 transfers we seriously had like 1 person to teach but these last 2 transfers have exploded and we've been finding people like crazy! I hope they continue to take the discussions we are meeting with all of them again this week :) YAY!  Wednesday was the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast! IT WAS SO GOOD! It was cool to hear Apostles like Elder Bednar, Elder Oaks, and Elder Andersen address just the missionaries. I took like 6 pages of notes! One of my favorite parts is when one of the Apostles said he considers himself equal with the missionaries in spreading the gospel and trying to follow Jesus Christ...I was like WOW!!!! It was a great broadcast and I think it really helped missionaries to focus on teaching repentance and baptizing converts...not just baptizing to be in the newsletter or to get the numbers. It was really good! This week we have been doing something super cool in most of our lessons!!! In Chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel {should be everyone's Family Home Evening Manual by the way :)} it talks about how the Book of Mormon answers the Questions of the Soul. We've been going to appointments and as a group picking a question of the soul and then opening up to a random chapter in the Book of Mormon and then reading it and trying to get the answer to our question. IT'S BEEN SO LEGIT!!! I, of little faith, get nervous every time that we'll open up to a war chapter and we'll be trying to answer how do we gain happiness in this life? hahaha but every time we have been able to answer our questions. I think it's an excellent way to study the Book of Mormon. 

Here's how to do it: 

1) Before you study just think of a question you have 

2) Then after reading that chapter try to apply it to your life and see how it connects. 

Heavenly Father answers our prayers not just through thoughts and feelings but through the scriptures as well. I think the scriptures are one thing that are hard for people sometimes. We slack off and we don't read...just pray occasionally or something...but we can get super awesome personal revelation from just reading a verse or a chapter a day. I'VE SEEN IT!!! I promise that reading your scriptures will help you answer those questions you have and bring a ton more blessings as well!  Saturday we were trying hard to set something up so we wouldn't have to knock doors all day, but we weren't having much luck! Then in the middle of lunch we get a call from an investigator Doug and he said he wanted to meet up! SWEET!!! We scheduled it for that day!!! It seriously amazes me how the miracles just roll in when you're in a tough spot. Sunday was SO GOOD!!! Our investigators didn't come to church and for the first time ieeks we sat ALL ALONE!! It was really weird! But that might be a good thing because we had a super awkward moment in sacrament meeting! LOL So up here they tend to sing all the verses because the meetings run short and the songs just sound better when you sing all the verses...well out of my whole 5 months being here I didn't know that...so we are singing the intermediate hymn and after the last verse Sister Christensen and I sit down....well everyone keeps singing and is still standing...and staring at us!!! OH THE EMBARRASSMENT!!!!!!!!! We always sit right in the front too so ALL 40 PEOPLE SAW US!!! I couldn't stop laughing...you could hear people laughing amidst the singing and it was just great haha. Even Bishop couldn't hold his tune! Uh...anyway we had to sit through 2 MORE AGONIZING VERSES...we got in trouble for not watching the chorister...hahaha In Sunday School the teacher brought up a really neat "idea" or "concept". We talked about the Great and Spacious building and Lehi's vision and how everyone has super nice things  (and according to my dad's Sunday school lesson many years ago they all have helicopter pads too :)) So all these prideful people are standing on their fancy balconies leaning over and scoffing at the people trying to hold to the rod and reach the tree and partake of the fruit (see 1 Nephi 8) and then...{this is the cool part guys}....the teacher said BEHIND THEM THE MISSIONARIES ARE KNOCKING AT THEIR DOOR.....HOLY SMOKES... Just try to envision that...super cool right?!? I want a painting of that...one side Lehi's vision...and on the other side the missionaries! I never thought of it like that before and I LOVE IT!  We had a super good week :) Before I wasn't really sure why I was staying here another transfer...but I'm starting to see lots of miracles come from it and people are starting to come out of the woodwork and it's cool that I get to be apart of it!

Funny Moments from this week:

We were tracting and we kept getting super lame excuses for not wanting to talk to us...but this excuse was....well....you decide... We were knocking at this door and there was no answer but we could hear this little girl saying there's someone at the door to her mom/dad. As we were about to put the card in the door it opened...this guy was like What do you want? We said who we were and he was like well it's not a good time I was just in the middle of going to the bathroom....WHY DID YOU EVEN OPEN THE DOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness we were DYING laughing for a long time TMI man....you meet the strangest people and experience the weirdest things on your mission. 

Cool Stories from this week:

So I recently found out from my super awesome Family History Loving Mother that I have a lot of relatives that served IN THIS MISSION! One of them baptized one of the first members in a town just south of here! I'm on the hunt to talk to all the old people in this community to figure out some more information! Apparently there are Gillingwaters (mom's side) in my mission area as well so I'm going to look through all the phone books!! haha Should be fun :)

Things are going really good!

Thank you for all the prayers and emails :)

I really like hearing from everyone!

Hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Sister Peterson

Week 20: Lots of Lessons and Transfers

Sister Foote @ Zone Meeting

This week ZOOMED by guys!!! At the beginning of the week we had 4 LESSONS IN ONE DAY!!! That may not seem like a lot to some other returned missionaries reading this but HOLY MOSES that was a GOOD DAY FOR US!!! We taught our New Investigator Trevor! He requested a Book of Mormon online! He's super cool! He is 70 and is just curious about different religions! I may have said this last week...maybe not but when we met with him we asked him if he'd read the Book of Mormon at all he said YES! SCORE! I asked him how far he had gotten he said he read ALL THE CHAPTER HEADINGS FOR THE WHOLE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!!!!!!! DOUBLE SCORE!!! It was so cool!! We are meeting with him again tomorrow!! He LOVES hockey so we are trying to find a member that loves it too so they can be best buds! We have been doing a lot more teaching and less finding which is SO GOOD!!! I love teaching...it makes me feel more productive. Unlike other missionaries, I like tracting but I'll totally take teaching over knocking doors!! Later in the week, we had a lesson with Marilyn! She's a miracle!!! So while we were emailing last week we got a call from a random number and it was this lady (Marilyn) that I had talked too 3 months ago just down from the church. Sister Ricks at the time was on the phone so I just chatted with her as she was walking her dog and gave her our phone number on a mormon.org card if she was ever interested. WELL HOLY COW SHE CALLED!!!! 3 MONTHS LATER!! It was SOOOO cool! I felt so awesome! Not to be vain or anything...but to see that a little seed that I myself had planted...turned into something was REALLY COOL!!! Anywho...she said she just wanted to talk about our beliefs but she wanted to meet with the "Elders" {old people of the church} and not us young vibrant missionaries! Haha So we set everything up for her to meet us at the church. Usually missionaries lead lessons but she sat us down and just started telling us her amazing life story and how she's been on this spiritual journey for a while. She said that she just likes meeting with

Cooking Steak!

people to hear their side of their religion and tries not to make any assumptions. So we talked to her about EVERYTHING!!! She had so many questions for us!! We talked for an hour and a half and just answered questions and talked about the Restoration. At the end, I was like, WOW... pretty sure my jaw hit the ground! It was so good! I'm grateful for all the knowledgeable people in our ward!!! I think she started to warm up to us young missionaries too :) We're going to teach her again this week! After this lesson, our Thursday was going pretty good! We decided to do some finding in the north part of Campbell River and we pulled over on the side of road for like 30 minutes to do some paperwork. Well I went to go turn the Subaru back on and IT WOULDN'T EVEN TURN OVER!!! It had completely died!!! It was the middle of the day so we didn't even have any lights on that could of made it die...we were worried because we had a dinner appointment in an hour, a meeting, and then we had to drive to Nanaimo!!!!!! We got out of the car and called a few people and finally the member we live with said he could leave work and come rescue us!!! YAY!!! While we were waiting a member drove by and we waved our hands high like we were stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean or something...and she saw us!! She turned around and let us sit in her warm car until we got saved! She said she never drives down that road, but just happened to go back to work that way!! MIRACLE!!!! Anyway....we got our car jumped and made it to our dinner appointment on time, to our meeting, and then drove straight to Nanaimo with NO STOPS so it didn't die again! We made it there okay though! Phew! It was a beautiful clear night to drive though! The roads were perfect and I could see TONS OF STARS as I was driving :) so peaceful and lovely! The next day we had Zone Meeting where we learned about teaching Repentance and Teaching to Convert NOT to Baptize! IT was SO GOOD! After the meeting we got our car looked at and the guy said our battery was basically useless! So we had to wait for them to fix it so we got to spend some time in the BIG city :) 

Dinner of  Champions

On our way back we scheduled a lesson on the borders of our area with Finley and Robin! They have been investigating the church for a long time and I just love them! We had such a good lesson and we left with our arms full!!! They gave us a slow cooker {SCORE!!!} Deer meat to make stew in our new slow cooker!!! Salmon!!!! Yum!! Bacon, soda, and some Triscuits Hahahah they just kept giving us things!!! We are going to eat the stew tonight so hopefully it tastes good :) I've never cooked Deer meat before! #canadalife

Later that night, we had a lesson with Dorothy who we haven't been able to meet with in a long time! We decided to just have a neutral lesson so we would figure out where she's at and stuff. We talked about Peter and being converted to Jesus Christ and how Peter said he was converted but when the time came he denied Jesus Christ. We talked about how it's important to not just desire...but to act! It was a really good discussion! Read the Talk Full Conversion Leads to Happiness or something...by Elder Scott. At the end we invited Dorothy to church and she said she didn't want to join the Mormon church :( This was hard to hear especially since she was supposed to be baptized this month! I love her so much and she is AMAZING, but she's had a very hard life! I admire her so much :) On Saturday we usually walk to save K's and to meet people on the street! Well that ended quickly...my eye has been having problems for about a month now and so we decided I better go to the doctor! So we spent our walking day in a walk in clinic in Walmart! I felt so bad that I ruined our day, but that didn't last long because we found this super awesome lady in Walmart and we gave her our number! We talked to like 15 people in there about the fact that we're missionaries! I also talked to this lady for about 30 minutes about Vegas and all of her adventures there while we were waiting for our prescriptions to be filled! Haha it was a good day! Saturday was also TRANSFER CALLS!!!! IT WAS BASICALLY TORTURE!!! Everyone said I would probably go so I was planning on that...but 10:30 rolled around and we didn't get a call...to be honest I was a little bummed :( I wanted to experience a new area and different things. BUT! I came to the conclusion that God needs me here for some reason this transfer. At the end of this transfer I will have spent 1/3 of my mission in Campbell River! I LOVE CAMPBELL RIVER!!! The people are so nice and we are starting to see the work pick up! I'm going to try to make this my best transfer yet and work my hardest even though I've been here for a long time. I am grateful that I didn't have to cancel the appointments we have this week with our new investigators due to transfers, and that Sister Christensen and I get to keep working on things here. Starting over would be really hard!

That's about all that happened this week...Things are going good!

Hope you all are doing good too :)

Love,

Sister Peterson

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Ahhhhh! I totally forgot so for the brave souls who want to continue reading, I have a couple of funny stories:

So, one day this week we were walking through the woods and we decided to turn right instead of going left to go down the main path...well we ended up going down this FOREVER long path that took us through mud, up hills, we were definitely NOT DRESSED for this adventure...bad day to wear my fav pencil skirt guys :( !!!! We hiked for like 15 min and we didn't know if we should go back or not but I decided we should just keep going! We eventually made it back to the main clearing...turns out it's just a loop...anyway we got to see some things we hadn't before! Like super pretty trees, the other side of the river :) Hahah

 So about 3 weeks ago when it snowed really bad we were tracting and when we got back to the car I realized I didn't have my pencil...my favorite green pencil...that writes perfectly and has never failed. I was DEVASTATED when I couldn't find it! We had somewhere to be but Sister Christensen said we could go back and look for it on all the streets we had tracted later. This made me happy because I didn't want anyone to take it or run over it. Well we forgot to go back...I ended up buying new pencils and all was well again. Then a few days ago we were walking down one of the streets we had tracted the day I lost my pencil. We were just chatting about this Jehovah's Witness lady we had just talked with and I stop dead in my tracts and exclaim MY PENCIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My poor green pencil looked like it had been run over about 232928365986 times!! Oh it broke my heart!!! Sister Christensen was laughing so hard and snapped some pics of my last moments with my pencil. I was thrilled I found it but it was too far gone to ever be used again!! It was a sad day on Gemsbok Rd....Look at the pictures...they'll break your heart! I love you green pencil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!