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."