Mouse in the House!

I hope y'all are doing great! This week has been a little better than the last!

Sadly, we found out that our only progressing investigator who we thought was moving in alone is actually moving in with some other guy so that was not the best news. She is still the most solid investigator we have though. She really wants to be baptized and is doing everything she has to except for living alone. It is hard to help her understand how that is possible because she is a single mom and is about to have another baby next month so she is currently not working.

My bike got here this week! Since mine had been on back order I had been borrowing one from Lubbock. It got here Tuesday and one of our district leaders put it together that night and we came to their apartment Wednesday to get it. When I tried it out I went to turn and somehow when you turn the handlebars it hits the pedals (no that is not supposed to happen) so I asked him what was wrong and he said he had no idea but it was really hard to put on and he had to take apart the whole brake system to get the front tire on (no you are not supposed to do that). I had to get the tires pumped up so I went to one of our members houses who knows about bikes and when he filled it up I asked him and he said the front wheel was on backwards. The Elder that put it together was so mad when he found out. So Brother Stromberg had to re-take apart the brakes Elder Wilkins took apart so that he could flip the wheel around. Luckily he knew what was wrong and was able to fix it really quick while he was on his lunch break and his wife even made us lunch! The members here are great! Since I now have my own bike with lights and everything we were able to bike all day which was kind of crazy. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though! Luckily the weather on Thursday was super nice! 

That night a member took us out to eat at a steak house and it was soooo good! I got a chicken fried steak that was literally bigger than my head!

We tried a bunch of people Friday but only one person let us in. We knocked on his door and were really confused and concerned when he let us in immediately because that doesn't happen. The first thing he said was "did they not warn you about me?" turns out he has met with missionaries before and he knows a lot of the members in that neighborhood. He is a Lutheran Minister and loves to talk about religion and hear what we have to say but not willing to change. 

Friday night it actually started to snow!! (remember how I said Thursday the weather was super nice? that's Texas for ya!) It got cold and flurried and snowed hard for a couple hours but nothing stuck. I thought for sure we would wake up to snow but we didn't.

Saturday night we got a text about a referral, as soon as Sister Acosta read the name I recognized it as one of the people we help out at Catholic Charities! We were super excited and we called him right up and set up an appointment. The appointment went alright but we had to teach at the door because there wasn't a woman there and he was having a hard time standing so we are hopefully coming back this week. He really likes to get off topic but I see some potential in him!

We got a new zone leader and he is from Australia so that is cool!

We have been trying to find new people to teach so we have been trying a bunch of formers and not many of them answered but we tried some of their neighbors and one of them said he was making lunch but that we could come back in half an hour (that doesn't ever happen!) We did and we were able to have a great lesson, I am excited to go back and see him again!

Luckily the mouse I referred to was not in our house but that of one of our investigators. We were sitting there teaching about the priesthood when I glanced up to see a mouse sitting in her kitchen, not scared one bit. I was terrified but of course I didn't say anything. It just scurried around the kitchen for the next few minutes. When we got out of the lesson I asked sister Acosta if she had seen what I saw and she said she did. Ewwwww! Sister Acosta then informed me that that was not the first mouse she had seen, apparently she sees them at one of the less active peoples house we visit but she didn't say anything so I wouldn't freak out. I guess I will just have to be careful where I step from now on!

Well, that about sums up my week! For those of you wondering, we have not gotten to watch the misisonary broadcast yet (we will at zone conference in 2 weeks) so we will not be making any schedule changes until then.

Thanks for all your love and support!

Hermana Peterson

Odessa is looking up!

Hey y'all!

Best news of the week is that yesterday we found out that our only progressing investigator (Taylor) that was moving will be only moving with him for a couple weeks until her place that is in our boundaries is ready!!! We are super pumped because that means she is SO ready for baptism. That really was the only big hurdle we had left with her was that she was living with someone so everyone pray that her housing situation here will work out! Also, one of our recent converts who is less active came to church this week!! We have been seeing her every week since I got here and she finally made it! Sister Acosta leaned over to me after the meeting had started to point them out to me and when I saw her and her three kids sitting on the bench I literally started to cry, it is the best feeling ever to be able to help people come unto Christ! 

Also, at church we received records for several new young families, one of them being a part member family who is totally up for taking lessons. She seemed totally comfortable at church and so we are not sure if she was being taught before but we are excited to get to know them! 

On Thursday we went to a care center to do some service. We normally go to the memory care facility and just talk to the people there. This week they asked me to play the piano while they made valentines cards. I ended up playing the piano for about an hour and a half and it probably sounded horrible but they all said it sounded great (and no one will remember it). This week we are planning on bringing a hymn book so that I actually know what I am playing! 

We got to "teach" someone new this week, we went to try and visit Roger and he wasn't there but his roommates invited us in and they had a friend there from out of town. He had visited with missionaries before but all he wanted to do was argue with us. It was a really interesting experience because we basically just continued to bear our testimony to him whenever he gave us 2 seconds to talk. It was hard but I liked being able to have that experience.

We got to go to the temple on Saturday!! It was so great! I love the way we can feel when we go to the temple and make those promises with Heavenly Father. The family we went with is super nice, I love them! You can tell by the pictures we tried to take what our daily struggle is here in Texas, that would be wind, wind, and more wind! On our way back we had to stop for a bathroom for one of their kids and when we walked out she grabbed on to him because he seriously couldn't walk because of how strong the winds were. Let's just say if I wasn't a missionary I would probably never wear a skirt here (;

This week when we were at the food bank doing service we came out and the elders saw a paper on their windshield and thought they got a ticket. Upon further inspection it was a way nice note from a return missionary who happened to see our cars. We got one too and it was so nice and she had some good scriptures written on there as well. She did call us elders though hahaha!

Hope you all had a grand week as well!

Love y'all!

Hermana Peterson

Crane or Bust!

So another uneventful week here in Odessa. Transfer calls came and our whole district will be here for another 6 weeks! We are also getting 2 new sisters added so that should be exciting!

We don't have a lot of time today because sister Acosta is pretty sick so we have to get home. I will just tell you about the most eventful part of our week. We have a city called Crane in our area and no one really goes out there because it is a tiny town where the few members there are less active and all the investigators have been dropped. Crane is about 40 minutes south of our house. We decided to go out there one day because we had a referral about half way there in a place called Pleasant Farms (I think) people kind of make fun of it cause they are not really sure what it belongs to and people say it is not a city so they just call it a "place" not a town haha. The referral didn't answer so we headed the rest of the day to Crane. We tried all the less actives and none of them answered or the address didn't exist or the house did not look like anyone still lived there so we made our way to the last place and there was someone sitting on the front porch. We asked for the person we were coming to see and he yelled to her that someone was here to see her. She came out, took one look at us and invited us in very happily! We were so excited! She has been a member for about 2 years and was so sad when they pulled the church and missionaries out of Crane. She is a truck driver and so she is not able to make it to church but she told us that she uses LDS.org to study which is awesome! She was super nice and she wants to be able to go to the temple. We are hoping to be able to make it down to Crane at least once a transfer to at least see her. It was an awesome experience to see how us showing up was an answer to her prayers!

Anyways, I encourage you all to go look up David Archuletta's "Little Prayer" song. One of the Elder's gave it to us and it is such a good song!!! I love it so much! I wouldn't be surprised if it was popular and you have all seen it already but go watch it again and really listen to the words.

Have an amazing week!

Read your scriptures EVERY day and the Lord can't help but to bless you!

Hermana Peterson

Almost done with Transfer 1

Hey y'all!

I feel like there is not much to update y'all on this week. It is crazy and exciting that this is the last week of my first transfer in the field! It still doesn't feel like I am a real life missionary!

We had a decent week, it is super nice that things are picking back up after the holidays! We are sad that our only progressing investigator is moving this week though :( she is only moving to Midland so she will still be in our zone and we can hear when she is finally able to get baptized. She is so ready if she will only find somewhere to live on her own! We have what will probably be our last lesson with her tonight. So while we are sad to lose her we did get 2 new investigators this week!! One of them is named Roger, he was a media referral (that means he requested materials online). We went to give him his bible and taught him the Restoration. He seems interested in learning more, we have an appointment with us this week and we are bringing a recent convert with us. Roger is from West Africa, he is here for school, he just finished and is now working. It is actually really nice because he just lives across the parking lot from us. Our other new investigator was a member referral. Our assistant ward mission leader used to live right next to him and he gave us his phone number because he is going through a hard time right now. We got the referral before Christmas but he has been out of town. We decided to text him to set up an appointment for this week and he told us he was going out of town that night but we could come over in an hour if we wanted. We were excited but he is single so we had to find someone to go with us. He then texted back that we could meet him at a coffee shop right by his work. It really was a miracle. He seems genuinely interested in learning more and finding out for himself if this is true. When he gets back into town we are so excited to teach him the Plan of Salvation because we know how much comfort he can receive from that message especially.

Like I said, not to many different things this week. This week Sister Acosta got some news though. On Thursday night we came out of a lesson to see that President Heap had called us, which is extremely unusual. She had had a hard time her first transfer with anxiety so we guessed he was maybe calling about that. When we got home we called him back and he told her that her brother had been trying to get a hold of her to let her know her dad had a small heart attack. Everything is fine and he is already home but of course it shook her up a bit. We really don't know anything other than that yet. I know she would appreciate prayers for him and her.

I had a cool experience when we were teaching Gaberial, who is the second investigator I was talking about. We went in planning to teach the Restoration and as we were talking I felt so strongly that we should start with the Plan of Salvation. I was nervous because that is not what we had planned for and I wasn't sure how Sis Acosta would act. I went down to reach for the pamphlet and the strong feeling changed to the Restoration. I was confused but I recognize now that if I hadn't had that initial feeling I may not have recognized that the spirit was guiding me. The lesson went very well and I can't wait to meet with him again!

Hope everyone's week went well!

Love you, love you!

Hermana Peterson

​The college right by our apartment building

Attachments area

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Happy new year! It is so crazy to think it is already 2017!

This week was still pretty slow since a lot of people were out of town or just busy with the holidays but this week will be better I am sure!

This week we had 2 great lessons. I taught my first "first" lesson. She seemed interested and we have another appointment for this week! We also committed our investigator Falisia to baptism!! I am so excited for her because she is so excited! She told us she wants to invite everyone to her baptism. The date we committed her to was January 28th so hopefully we will be able to help her be ready for that day! We got to meet with a less active this week who is doing pretty good and progressing to receive the priesthood and go to the temple but unfortunately he will be moving this month so we won't get to go with him. He is super strong and has a great testimony and understanding of the gospel. We are preparing another less active to go to the temple and she is super excited but having a really hard time with the word of wisdom so I am not sure how soon we will be able to go but she really does have a sincere desire to do so.

If you haven't already noticed, holidays on the mission are pretty different. For New Years Eve we went to dinner with a member and then came to the church to play games with the Elders because we were not aloud to go out after dark. That was fun to get to be with our district. We of course were in bed by 10:30 while the rest of the world was partying. I have never slept so good in my life as I have on the mission. I hit the pillow every night and don't move until morning. I don't think there were too many fireworks but like I said I was out cold! I forgot to tell you guys last week but did you know that dogs can snore?? I sure didn't but at ward correlation, our ward mission leaders dog literally snores just as loud as my dad!! Haha! I was laughing so hard when I saw that it was coming from the dog under the table!

Last night at our dinner appointment the members had invited their non member friends to dinner as well so we got the opportunity to talk with them which was cool. We shared the Because of Him video and the spirit was super strong.

We had a funny experience on Saturday, we were halfway in our car in the parking lot of our apartments when someone yells "hey sisters!" we turn around to see a large black man, covered in tattoos, sitting in a nice car and I was pretty confused, he then adds, "are you LDS missionaries?" of course we responded yes and he told us that he lives in Utah and has an apartment by ours for when he is here for work. He asked us where the chapel is and told us he had a son on a mission as well. Unfortunately, he wasn't at church yesterday but it was still a cool experience because if our day hadn't worked out the way it did he wouldn't have been driving through the parking lot at the exact moment we were getting in our car. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

We did our first bike day this week! My bike still isn't here because it got back ordered but our zone leaders brought another bike down for me to use since they won't be going back to Lubbock until next transfer. Bike day wasn't quite as bad as I expected but the combination of cold, wind, and a skirt are definitely not the funnest. We had a good time though and got where we needed to!

Hope y'all have a great week and recognize the Lord's hand in your life!

Hermana Peterson

"The standard of truth has been erected: no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth  boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."