Pioneer Day!

Hey y'all!

Not much to update you on in the last few days. On Saturday we had a branch party to celebrate pioneer day! We had breakfast and the kids swam. We invited a ton of people but unfortunately no one that we invited came. It was still a fun party though!

Brother McMahan came to church last week!! We were so excited! He really enjoyed it! He didn't make it yesterday though. They got their a/c fixed finally!! It is so much better! I don't know how he could live without it. They were dying!

When we were coming back from our interviews with President Hales we stopped at Chick Fil A for dinner and we ran into a member from my ward in Odessa! The Browns were there and they even paid for our dinner. It was definitely a tender mercy to see them there! I love Andrews but I also miss my people in Odessa!

Yesterday we went to the Grace Baptist Church Sunday night service again and we invited the pastor and his wife to the Saturday night session of stake conference! Hopefully they are able to make it! It is August 12th!

That is about all! I hope y'all have had a great week and see the hand of the Lord!

READ AND PRAY EVERYDAY!!!

Hermana Peterson

Temple Trip!

Hey y'all!

Late emails this week because we went to the temple! It was so good! I didn't realize how much I missed it until I went. I hadn't gotten to go since January. We got to ride up with Sister Smith and her daughter.

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On Tuesday this week I hit my 9 month mark!! It is so crazy! We had district meeting up in Odessa and in between here and Odessa there is a petting zoo and we were hoping the camels were out by the fence but they weren't :(  so no way cool picture but just imagine how cool it would have been (:

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One of the great members here, Sister McArthur, made us Cafe Rio this week and we were so excited!! I don't know why the rest of the world hasn't discovered it! She also helped me replace the tube in my  bike tire! She is the best! It was quite the process but I think we are back in business!

We helped with the bowling activity at the nursing home this week. Bill is actually starting to get better! He comes out of his room for lunch which he hasn't done in awhile! It is so good to see him up and moving!

On Tuesday we were up in Odessa and we got out of our meeting to see a missed call and a voicemail from brother McMahan. We were somewhat concerned because he never calls us. His voicemail said to call him right away so we did and he didn't answer. So we called Sue (his daughter) and she just told us to stop by the house on our way back. So of course we thought this was some emergency type thing. Nope! He just wanted to give us bananas.... he is hilarious! We were dying! haha!

Another funny thing that happened this week was we tried to go to the baptist bible study again but it turns out that it was a business meeting instead (branch council really) and they were describing that they needed a program to make sure that everyone got visited in their church, especially the ones who don't come as often or may need help. We were chuckling in the back, each sentence they used to describe this program that they needed better and better described visiting and home teaching! It just reminded me of how inspired our leaders are and how true the church we have is! I love this gospel and am so glad to have it in my life!

Love y'all!!

Hermana Peterson

READ AND PRAY EVERYDAY!!!

Rodeoing!

Hey y'all!

Not a whole lot happening in Andrews this past week. Everything is pretty much the same! We got to help out at another kids rodeo this week which is always nice! Being able to go to the rodeo was definitely a miracle because it was raining and we had nothing to do other than knock doors, so we were grateful we got to be inside!  It happens once a month and Lane Smith is in charge of it. We just run flags back and forth and tip barrels back up if they knock them over. 

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I got a flat tire on my bike :(   We went to Sister McArthur's to try and fix it. But it looks like I'll need a new tube.

Of course we celebrated 7/11 day in Odessa and in Andrews! We went to the Grace Baptist Church bible study this week. That was fun/interesting! Definitely something different to do! The pastor is really nice though and he said he has been talking to a lady at work about us, she is a member that is going to move down here soon! 

We had 44 people at church today! A record since I've been here! We got to sort baby clothes and make outfits at the Life Center this week so that was a fun new service project! 

The plaque is from our "lower neighbor". He is a nice guy, I guess they have been having a "kindness war" with him for a while now haha! 

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Bill's (from the nursing home) daughter-in-law brought him cornbread, beans, and homemade banana pudding for lunch this week and he shared it with us. It was so good! Banana pudding is definitely an Andrews thing!

We got to teach one lesson last night. Her name is Elda. She had requested a bible a while ago and we were finally able to meet with her again. Things probably won't go very far because she is very involved in her church.

That's about it for this week! Love y'all so much!!

Have a great week!

Hermana Peterson

READ AND PRAY EVERYDAY!!!!

Fourth of July!

Hey y'all!

This week seemed pretty uneventful but looking back there was several things! We had the 4th of July on Tuesday and Zone Conference on Thursday!

We made a flag fruit pizza because that was a tradition that Sis Koford had. 

We had a "normal proselyting" schedule until 6 but we knew no one would really be home or want to talk to us so we planned service for all day. We went and played patriotic songs at the nursing home and talked to everybody there. In the afternoon the city was having a party so we went and helped out there! We got to cut watermelon for the watermelon eating contest and we cleaned up after the pie eating contest. 

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Sis Koford got to film a newscaster participating in the pie eating contest for the news that night! We went back to the nursing home afterwards and passed out root beer floats and sang some more. Then 2 members invited us over so we went and had dinner with the McArthurs and had second dinner at the Youngs and watched everybody swim. We tried to watch fireworks from our balcony, unsuccessfully.

Zone conference was great! It was so good to finally meet the Hales! They seem like they are going to be awesome!

We moved a less active lady in with her less active parents on Wednesday. Her sister from Odessa came to help us luckily :)  I had actually already met her when I was down in Odessa even though she is in the other ward. I had helped her move her friend in!

We picked up pecans for a member who has bad health. Apparently pecans are a huge thing here in Texas!

Biggest news of the week was that I was sleep talking in Spanish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still don't know if I completely believe her but Sis Koford swears I was! I feel like that's a huge accomplishment! haha!!

Yesterday we did something kind of unusual. We went to the Grace Baptist Church's night service. Sis Koford had gone to other churches when she was in Childress. It was a great way to gain the trust of the people here and to help them recognize us as fellow Christians!

Hope y'all had a great fourth!

Have an amazing week!

Hermana Peterson

READ AND PRAY EVERYDAY!!!!

Gotta love Bro McMahan!

Service Week!

Hey y'all!

It has been a pretty normal week out here. Nothing too crazy! I had to say goodbye to Sister Christensen on Tuesday morning which was sad. 

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​ Sister Koford got here Tuesday night. We were on exchanges with the STLs and 2 other sisters all day until she arrived. We just did service all day because it was all 5 of us that were supposed to stay together. 

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​Sister Koford is cool! She is from Plain City, Utah (Ogden). She is 20 years old. She has been out for 10 1/2 months! She just came from Childress, TX which is by Oklahoma. On her second day here I took her to the church and she was just as shocked as I was at how small it was! I will attach a picture of our chapel/sunday school room/primary room (it's all the same room). 

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We got to teach singing time again this week. We also taught sunday school (we always do here). It was about eternal marriage which is a touchy subject because two out of the four people that were there are not married in the temple so that was fun! Next week we get to teach all of the married adults with children about the law of chastity, something seems backwards here (:

We are still trying to find more ways to do service. We found this "thrift store" called Operation Blessing. We went and helped them organize clothes. We picked up a bunch of garbage around town this week. We went to all the parks and the cemetery picking up garbage for service.

That is about it for this week. Hope y'alls week is great!

READ AND PRAY EVERYDAY

Hermana Peterson

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