The church is true. The end.

Hey y'all!!!

What a week!! I will try to write as many details as I can!! Lots of lasts!! :(

We said goodbye to Kai on Tuesday. He started crying! I didn't think he actually cared about us! It was so sweet! The only problem is that the Fish family hasn't been back to church since Kai was confirmed....ughhhhhhh! AGENCY................we were afraid this would happen. The worst part is that Kai doesn't really have a choice. If his family doesn't come he doesn't either.

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Jaide is still the freaking best!!!!!!! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!! She  has been getting so much negative talk from meeting with us. She posted a picture of herself on instagram and you could see the Book of Mormon in the background I guess so everyone was making comments and asking if she was Mormon. She said, "I kind of am!" haha! Her grandparents also called her mom and told her mom to not let her learn anymore (they are Church of Christ). Jaide is withstanding all of it though!! She is truly amazing! One of the people who commented on instagram turned into a referral! Not our area, but still exciting! We were teaching her on the phone and she was getting choked up as she told us that nothing in her life has ever brought her lasting happiness and she is SO excited that she has finally found something that will last!! Jaide also came to mutual this week without us even inviting her!! And while she was there she got a priesthood blessing for a concussion she got a week or so ago and it was a super spiritual experience for her!

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Jessica. Yet again, AGENCY. We did get to meet with her. She is going through a really hard time and is turning away from God and everything really. We did get to meet with her and she committed to say 1 prayer outloud everyday but we haven't been able to contact her since and she didn't come to church :(  

Kacey is still on fire!!! She passed her baptismal interview with flying colors!! She is pumped for her baptism! We got the songs and everyone to participate in the baptism all figured out. Yesterday we got the jumpsuits and everything. Next task is cleaning the spiders out of the font.....good thing I'm leaving!! (: haha! Just kidding! I wish so badly that I could be hear for it!

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Savannah is doing great as well!! We texted her about mutual this week and she decided to come with us instead of the first baptist church! That is so huge y'all!!!!!! She even asked a member to pick her up without us saying anything!!! WAHOO!!!! She is so cute!! We taught her the word of wisdom this week and of course she was just as shocked as everyone about coffee and tea but she committed to live it! We asked her in our next lesson if she had prayed about it and she said she had! "I was going to athletics and I always pray before that class so I just decided to throw it in there!" We asked her if she received an answer and she said, "well I walked past the jug of tea so I guess so!" haha!! She is so cute! She told her friend that she couldn't drink it anymore and her friend said, "I don't know if you can drink anything at my house then!" We also watched the 20 minute restoration movie with her this week and she really connected with Joseph Smith and trying to find the truth! She said she knows it is true! We were warning her about some of the crazy things people say and we invited her to invite her best friend to come to church with her and she said, "well I think her parents would let her come as long as I'm coming. If I'm there they won't sacrifice her on a cross and cut her open." We chuckled  and then did a double take..."they don't really say that.....do they??!"  She just looked back at us and hesitated. OH MYYYYYYYY no wonder no one wants to talk to us! haha! If we really sacrificed people I think something would have come out by now folks. Lets be real.

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Juan, one of the members texted us asking to borrow our key to the church so that they could clean the church on Saturday and we said, "only if you give us a referral :)" (jokingly) and he texted us back his dads name and address (he is less active) and we just about died of laughter! But it turned out really good! We got to have dinner (Mexican tacos) with the Ayalas and we talked to him about his conversion story and how it has blessed his family.

Another highlight of the week was that we got to go to the temple with Patrick!!!!!!!!!! (new convert that went to Colorado to be baptized) It was so great!!! We had to get up at 4:30 (that part wasn't to great) and we drove to Clarendon and then from Clarendon to Lubbock. We were in the car for 7 hours that day. Patrick absolutely loved it though! We knew he would! He was just smiling ear to ear in the font! We didn't get to see him baptized the first time but we did get to see him this week! He got out of the font and we told him he could go change but he didn't want to leave so he stayed and watched us too!

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Also! Sister Allart is staying and will be training a brand new missionary!

I love all of these people to death!!!! I know how much the gospel has blessed my life and theirs. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the face of the earth. The most happiness lies here. Celestial kingdom here we come!!!!

See you soon!!!

READ AND PRAY EVERYDAY!!!

Hermana Peterson

My Heart Isn't Coming Home

Hey y'all!!

My time is running short and  while my body will be coming home in a short 9 days my heart will be staying here. Just thought I would warn y'all!  (:   There has been such a range of emotions the last little bit. There is no possible way to describe it.

We taught Kacey the word of wisdom on Monday night and she was weary about coffee because she really loves it but was more than willing to give it up for the gospel!! She has been seeing miracles! She hasn't had a cup since and she hasn't even had caffeine headaches!! She is amazing!! She is so pumped for her baptism! Her grandpa (in-law) is flying in to baptize her. The baptism will be on April 28th so it is only 3 days after I leave and it hurts my heart so much!!! We are thinking about figuring out a way that I could come back when she goes to the temple for baptisms. I will miss her sooooo much!!

Monday night I also taught Jesus about the Book of Mormon (solo espanol) and 2 of his roommates also came out to listen. That isn't intimidating at all! So it was me against 3 Hispanic men from all different countries (so all different accents). It was good though. I wasn't sure what exactly they were interested in at first....#sistermissionaryproblems But JR read the Book of Mormon! Dios said he did but I'm not too sure about it. Jesus didn't but he seems the most sincere out of all of them. Jesus even texted us saying we should talk to Eddy, one of their other roommates! So we taught Jesus, Eddy, and JR yesterday with Juan (a member). It was intense and I didn't catch a lot of the conversation but Juan was able to take control and I just testified! I'm not really sure what they will do once I go home because I am taking most of the Spanish sisters with me haha! Hopefully Juan is ready to be a missionary again!

Tuesday we saw Sister Hatcher in Clarendon for the last time :(

We also taught Jaide again on Tuesday!! She is my absolute favorite!!!! She is the sweetest human ever!! Tuesday we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and used sin pins on Brother Jaussi (don't have time to explain that now but ask me when I'm home (:  ) It was great! Repentance is amazing!! We also taught her over the phone last night and it was AMAZING!!! We taught her about prayer and scripture study and she got excited and asked if she could share an experience she had earlier in the day with prayer to which we of course said, "YES!!". Jaide is only 17 but she has been struggling with a smoking addiction. She said she is not proud of it and she is trying to quit. She hasn't smoked for 2 weeks (right when we met her! Coincidence....I think not!!). We haven't even mentioned the word of wisdom to her yet! She said that earlier that day she was in the car praying for help and strength. I don't think anyone else knows that she is going through this :( She said she just got an overwhelming answer and that the thought of a cigarette now sounds like the most disgusting thing ever. Jaide is amazing and she holds my heart!! We talked about baptism again and mentioned that we could move the date back, or forward and she freaked out! "FORWARD!! Y'all have been holding out on me!!" She is so cute! The earliest we could move it to is probably May 13th but she is sooooo excited! She said she was dancing and jumping up and down in her room! haha! We were too!!!! I seriously don't know how to describe those feelings! She thought that we would think of her differently after we knew about her struggles but of course we didn't and that meant so much to her!!

Savannah is still doing great!

On Saturday night we got permission to go to a play, "Relative Strangers", that Sister Jaussi, one of our members, was in and invited us to as a way to get seen by the people in Memphis! It was really good! We got to talk to lots of people from the first baptist church in Memphis and we got to talk to the members less active son so it was great!

Sunday we finally got in contact with Jessica. It was really sad! She is still interested in meeting but is just having an extremely hard time right now. She has been battling with depression and a bunch of family problems so her progress has declined but she is still here!

Anyways, that's all I can remember for now! I love y'all! I love my Texans! Have a great week!!

READ AND PRAY EVERYDAY!!!

Hermana Peterson

Next on the baptism by fire . . .

Hey y'all!!!

Another great and crazy week in the panhandle!! Jessica has been MIA.....we are so sad. Of course we will keep trying!! 

Tuesday on our way home from district meeting we ran into closed roads again! There was a fire near Clarendon, the next most prepared town is about to be baptized by fire (: haha! We had to take like an hour long detour so that means we were in the car for a total of like 5 hours on Tuesday...ew. But we did get to see the biggest cross in Texas in Groom, TX!

Tuesday evening we got to go see Kai and he is doing great. He got the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday!! 

We also saw Jaide again!!! She is SO SOLID!!!!! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she absolutely loved it! We followed up on her reading and like the idiots we are, forgot to follow up on her prayer to know if it was true. She said, "I also prayed about it like you asked!" and......drumroll please......" and I know it is where God needs me to be. I believe it's true!" She was filled with so much love and joy, it was truly amazing!!!!!! She then talked about how she is ashamed of her past life and we talked about how through the gospel we can receive a remission of sins and it is like it never existed and then we invited her to be baptized on May 20th and she accepted!!! She wasn't able to come to church yesterday because her family took a road trip to Dallas but she texted us saying that she would be there next week and every week after that!!! We are so excited for her!!  We also texted her to tell her about the Gospel Library app so that she could read on their drive to Dallas and she said she was already on chapter 12! and that was on like Friday!! Sam (the member that referred her) texted us and thanked us for bringing joy into her life and it was amazing!! We were on cloud 9! 

We have another new investigator named Savannah. She is 13 years old and she is also friends with one of our young men. We knocked into her family but she was the only one interested. We taught her three times this week and it went great! She came to church and loved it and she accepted the invitation to be baptized as well!! 

Kacey accepted the invitation to be baptized on April 29th!!!! Sadly that is only a couple days after I leave :( she is bummed and so am I!! She had us over for dinner and then we taught the law of chastity and she said "I just have one question that I've been thinking about, what exactly is the process for getting  baptized and who would baptize me?" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We tried to keep our cool lol! On the inside we were screaming for joy!! On the outside we only screamed a little haha! 

Church on Sunday was amazing!! The Hales came into town for departing interviews for Sister Timmins and I. Kai got confirmed a member of Christ's only true church. Patrick passed the sacrament for the first time. Kacey, Savannah, and Terrence all came to church!!!  We got to teach primary again this week! This week we taught the sunbeams that sharing the gospel is almost as cool as sharing your goldfish!! It was great!!  

I can't believe that my time is almost up! I love it here!! These people hold my heart!!

Love y'all!!

Have a great week!!

READ AND PRAY EVERYDAY!!

Hermana Peterson

Sister Allart biking and texting - no time to stop!

Burning letters from Sister Allart's ex-boyfriend :) Don't worry, we had permission!

Visitors Center in Childress Texas!