Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Sister Baptisms!

Email sent Monday 24 October 2011

Happy October!

Sounds like y'all had another fun week. Glad state went well and Quinton could make some cash from doing somethign other than donating plasma. Silly kid. haha. Hope you had a good birthday mom! That makes me so sad to hear about Vernon. I thought of him the other day. He was such a nice man. I wish I had got to know him better. That's cool that you had regional brodcast and got to listen to Elder Bednar. What did he talk about?

You have known my release date for a long time. It's on that calendar I made for you last year. I believe that I will be flying out on Dec 14th and get home that same day. As far as I know that is still the plan. But now, you know, and I don't want to think about it anymore.

This week was a great week with a great ending! M... and C..., two sisters, entered the waters of baptism yesterday! They are so cute. M... is 16 and has two daughters and she knows that the gospel will help her to raise them the way God wants. The gospel really is going to change her life. She now has many examples to look up to and a big ward family to help her through the trials that lie ahead in life. Her sister C... is 13 and is loving young womens. C... is very shy but we have seen the gospel and the other young women help her to open up and develop more self-esteem and a brighter light in her eyes. A great door has just opened for these two girls. They come from a familiy life where they don't have much in the way of parents as examples to look up to, but they now have many people aware of them and ready to help them along the path to return to their Heavenly Father. The also have 2 younger sisters, 10 year-old twins, that we have been teaching, but the aunt is putting up a fight about their baptism. So maybe a little later on those two as well will be able to experience the blessings of the gospel.

This week, I encourage you all to study the Doctrine of Christ. This is found in many places in the scriptures, but you can focus on 2 Nephi 31 which lays it out perfectly telling us that baptism is the "door" that gets us on the path to heaven. For those of us who have been baptized, we have already opened that door. But now we are on the path. and "all is not done." Recieving the Holy Ghost, for men-recieving the priesthood and magnifying their office therein, and preparing for , recieving and keeping covenants made in the temple are all steps along that path that will lead us to the kingdom of God. If we are at a halt anywhere on that path, we must pick up our feet and start moving again. Analyze what is ahead, be proud of how far you have come, and make plans to move forward. Part of enduring to the end is helping others along the path. God's work and his glory is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Part of our baptismal covenant is that we will take upon the name of Christ and by so doing, represent him, do what he would do. We need to help others along the path as he did. Is God's work and glory our work and glory? If not, analyze your life and figure out what to do to fix it. I know that no greater joy comes, than by helping one soul return to God. The worth of souls is great (D&C 18) and we need to help each and everyone recognize their greatness and help them return to God. That is my invitation to each of you this week. Study the Doctrine of Christ. And write me an email or letter about what you learned. And better yet, apply what you learned, cuz if you don't apply it in your life, what good did it do you. "Be ye doers of the word not hearers only." -James 1:22

Well I love you all a lot and am so grateful for your prayers. Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Petersen

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email sent Monday 17 October 2011

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear mo--om, happy birthday to you!

I don't know how old you are turning, but I'm sure it's a good number. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and that everyone takes you out to do do something fun tomorrow. Sorry I can't send you a package or gift. I looked last p-day but was not able to find anything that seemed to work. I didn't have enough time to look for my liking, but I didn't forget it was your birthday. Thank you so much for being an awesome mom. Being out here I ahve realized a lot of the sacrifices that you and dad have made for us over that years and the example that you always gave to us. I am so grateful for everything that you have done to help us reach our potential and live our dreams. I really am grateful! I hope you ahve a great birthday!

That's fun that everyone is home for the weekend. We are having a sister's conference! The first one ever. All of the sisters int eh whole mission will be coming. I will get to see everybody again! I am excited!

This week was good. I realized the reality of the gift of tongues. This whole time in port isabel I haven't really found it very hard to understand anyone's spanish. I for the most part, understand all the words people say. But this week I went on exchanges in Brownsville, and I don't know what happened but that day, I felt like I was lost half of the time when people were speaking. It was so weird. And then I thought about it. God blesses us with gifts of the spirit to use them to help others and be able to bless teh lives of others. In port isabel with sister perkins, I NEED the gift of interpretation of tongues, cuz if I don't have it, then we would not understand what anyone is saying. So God gives it to me. But that day in Brownsville, I was with sister Ruano, and she is fluent in english and spanish and so I didn't need the gift to be able to teach. Sister Ruano had it under control. So I really saw the gift of interpretation of tongues come and go this week. It was an interesting experience. It makes me wonder that if I go home I will still be able to understand spanish. hmmm I don't know. I sure hope I still understand it. haha

We had 3 investigators get their interviews for baptism this week. Two of them will get baptized next sunday! The work is moving forward!

Well I have to go, but I hope you all have a great week. Keep reviewing general conference and find ways to apply it to your life.

Love,

Sister Petersen

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Great week in PI!

Email sent Tuesday 11 October 2011

wow you sent a long email this week! That was cool. :) I was glad to hear about all of the things going on. Thanks for the updates about Elder hales and everything else in life. I'm sorry to hear about Jana's dad. But so grateful we all should be to know of God's great plan for all of us and our families. We will see them again. That I know is true.

This week was probably the best week of my mission, numbers wise. The Lord really blessed us with being able to help a lot of people to come to church and accept the invitation to be baptized. We had about 14 or 15 people at church today, granted only 10 of them are over the age of 8, that is still a really good week at church. I would say. It was a miracle. The members were so willing to help us to get them rides and everything. Two people drove all the way down from Los Fresnos, 30 minutes, to pick them up and take them to church. the sacrifices people make here are incredible.

G... is still progressing great. We are teaching a couple of families and I love them all so much. Port Isabel is awesome. We just need to keep helping these people have the faith enough to enter the waters of baptism. it is awesome to see them grow from week to week as they make the gospel a part of their lives.

My pinkie is fine, I guess, It doesn't really "hurt" persay, it just feels a little wierd. It looks like it has a bump, and I'm pretty sure it didn't used to be like that. but it's fine I guess. There's nothing I can do about it really, so oh well.

Thanks for everything that you do!

love,

Sister Petersen

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Conference Weekend!

Email sent Monday 3 October 2011

Dear family,

What an amazing weekend we had, didn't we. You are right, it is different to finally be able to watch the saturday sessions of conference live, since cross country and track took up our lives for so many years. haha. But yes we were so blessed to be able to listen to all of the sessions of conference this weekend. We watched them at the church in Brownsville. Our investigator G... came to 4 of the sessions. We only met him 2 and a half weeks ago, but he is progressing so fast! He had an interview for his baptism this week, and now we just have to have president interview him and then wait on first presidency approval. The waiting will be the hard part.

But conference was so amazing. President Monson is so funny. "Hello" haha, I love how that is how he started his talk. Can you believe the Provo tabernacle is going to be a temple?! I feel really blessed to have lived in the only two cities in the world that have two temples each. Go South Jordan! We recieved a lot of great counsel from the leaders this weekend and I hope that each and every one of us takes the time to ponder the things we ahve learned and make specific plans on how we are going to apply those things into our lives. Conference does us NO good if we do not make what we learned a part of our lives. Take the time to sit down, and write some notes and make goals and plans of how to practice these things. I really loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk about how each of us matter to God. The worth of souls really is great in his sight. And not just all of us souls as a whole. But each and every individual one of us. He knows us and he knows what we are going through, our successes, our struggles, our happy times and our times of trial. He is aware, and we need to not forget that. I have seen that this week in the life of one of our investigators. God is there to answer whatever little prayer he says. Because what matters to us, matters to him because he loves us.

Do you all know what has happened to elder Robert D. Hales over the past months? He looks so different and was in a chair.

The talk about hte Book of Mormon was SO awesome! That was very bold. That is the kind of boldness we need to work on as missionaries. I can not sum up sufficiently all of the things I learned or liked from the conference, but I encourage you all to ponder those things you liked and take steps to apply them to your life.

I don't know if I will stay here in PI till the end of my mission. I hope so. I don't want to move. But I feel like one of us will be moved next transfer which is like Nov. 1st. But I don't know if it will be me or sister perkins. Who knows. But that would be sad if I had to start in a new area for my last 6 weeks. BUt whatever happens will be fine.

Well, that's all for now. Have a great week! I love you all and appreciate all that you do and your prayers and letters.

Love,

Sister Petersen