Greetings from the Petersen missionary

Email sent Monday 27 September 2010

So let's see, how about my week, it was a week of miracles. We had a miracle baptism this week! So there is this 16 year old girl Ge... that I have been teaching ever since I got here, and the other sisters actually found her in May and she had a baptismal date set for June, but...her mom wouldn't let her get baptized. This girl is awesome! She is more of a member than most members.... Ge... has been getting her own rides to church every week since June, and goes to mutual willingly every week sometimes walking there...and it's way further away than our church is from our house. And randomly without anyone telling her to do it or anything, she quit swim team so that she could go to early morning seminary. AND SHE WASN'T EVEN A MEMBER! She's as legit as they come. But she just couldn't get baptized because she had to have her mom's permission. We hadn't even met her mom till like the beginning of September. So when Sister Morrill got here, her and I started talking about how we need to figure out a way to talk to her mom and meet with her or something so that genesis could get baptized. We started talking to Ge... about talking to her mom about letting her get baptized and we were praying for the ability to talk with her ourselves, but she was just never home, always working or spending 2 random weeks in Mexico. But on Sunday, while we were over teaching Ge... her mom, came home from the store and started bringing groceries in. Of course we jumped up to go help her and get to know her better. We then asked her if there would be a time that we could meet with her to talk to her about the things that Ge... has been learning and doing the past 4 months. She said sure so we set up the time for Tuesday.

We were super nervous for Tuesday, but we were sure that with the Lord on our side there would be no way this day wouldn't end without permission for Ge... to be baptized. We had a 2 hour lesson with her mom. TWO HOURS! It was so long. But we finally got all of her doubts out of her. Basically it came down to the fact that she thought that as soon as Ge... got baptized she would be sent off on a mission somewhere. Don't worry we cleared that up. So after two hours of spiritually draining conversation, she said that she would talk to Ge... that night and if it was really what she wanted to do, she would let her.

We got a call from Ge... later that night with the news! She had said yes! We immediately drove over to her house and gave her and her mom hugs and set up the baptism for Saturday. We had it on Saturday so that her mom would be able to come and see her baptized. It was the most amazing baptism. And i'm so glad that her mom was able to come and see it and hope that some day her heart too will be softened to accept the gospel that has brought her daughter so much happiness.

We had a bunch of other crazy miracles this week too, but I just don'thave time to write about all of them. We are still basically only finding troubled youth. I don't know why sister Morrill and I attract them, we just do. Pretty much every investigator we have is under the age of 21 and has been locked up before, or should have been. But that is why there is repentance. I am learning so much about that as I try to help them use the Atonement in their lives and come unto their savior.

I love you all and am definitely praying for you!

Con amor,

Hermana Petersen