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."