Wednesday, August 28, 2013

P-day / Fun Pictures

  
What's with the shoe?

Look real close and one of the Elder's has his shoe inside of Cody's shoe. Cody wears a size 15 and the other Elder's shoe is definitely smaller of course. They had a good laugh with this one.
        


           P- Day Activity

          Let's go golfing!!!




They had a great time on the golf course. Elder Peterson's first time on the regular size golf course.
  


P-day coming to an end. The next activity is going to be Ultimate Frisbee






This is someones pet Raccoon

            Pretty Cool!!! 






Elder Peterson





Hanging out in the corn field. This goes to show you were there biking takes them, out in the middle of the farm lands.




Elder Schmidt




I spy with my little eye?


      
$600 Dollars ????
  Elder's new living quarters ha ha



First Baptism

To answer your question about food, yes there is plenty. August is already almost 3/4 of the way over. It is hard to believe  I have gotten this far already. I feel like I have gained ten more pounds in my legs because of how bulky they are getting. Well I will tell you of a few experiences I have had. First, we talked to a Jehovah Witness who explained his religion, I don't agree with it. Next my companion was almost in a fight. We were riding and a drunk guy stopped us and we had a good talk until we got to the trinity. He then got in my companions face and said that what he said is an oxymoron statement. So my comp said that we had an appointment, then hurried off.
Elder Peterson, Alli



First Baptism August 17, 2013
           
     "Come Follow Me"


Ali's Grandma, Ali, Elder Peterson, Elder Schmidt
2 Nephi 31:4-5; 12; 18; 20







I had an awesome experience while baptizing. The Spirit finally come over me fully. It did in the temple and I seemed to overlook it, but when I did it for someone else I felt overwhelmed and I look back and it now is coming back stronger.  Serving is so much fun.
Glad the baptism is done, because it is stressful. But it is well worth the wait, because of how happy and excited she is.



It is hard to believe that I'm going to be out two months here in a little bit, less than a week in fact, crazy. Also all letters are great to get. Always look forward to them and get excited about any mail I get.  

Love,

Elder Peterson

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Apartment

Kitchen Area (of course)


This page is to give you an idea as to why he loves his apartment so much. It is actually a pretty nice place, even though it is in the Ghetto's. 
A long day !!!



Looking down on the Elder's




 They always say riding bikes wears you out, here is the proof.









If it's not riding bikes for most of the day it's taking the stairs. We get our exercise from morning to night.






Kicking back from a long days work. How nice it is to relax!!


This gives you a full length look of what his apartment looks like





Ohio State here I come? 






 We better watch out Elder Peterson may end up heading back to Ohio to go to college. We shall see!!

His pillowcase does have BYU on it!








Elder Peterson converting to Ohio State ???





Hard Week!!

Extremely hard this week, not only because of Lisa's death, but we had a scare with bed bugs. Elder Steele got done with morning exercise and went upstairs to take a shower and the next thing we hear is a bunch of thuds and Elder Steele yell come quick. We all ran upstairs and Elder Steele with his shirt up and says I think we have bed bugs. So we called Sister Vellinga and she said to clean and spray, so that's what we did. Luckily no sign of bed bugs.
Getting ready for this baptism has also been a challenge. A lot of things to prepare for. This week has been absolutely crazy.
The funniest thing that happened was we went golfing. It was a ton of fun and the highlight of the week. We were planning a ultimate Frisbee game this coming Monday (13 Aug).
I also found out that the temple has a new video, I am so jealous. I am so excited to to see this new video.
Tell the young men a mission is not something to be taken lightly. It is extremely hard. But the experiences are priceless. Like getting to baptize my first investigator.
This experience is so rewarding. Including the people you meet, you learn to absolutely love them. I mean even though I'm in the Ghetto and people get shot everyday, there are nice people where ever they may be.
I have gained such a strong testimony and am loving my mission, I'm even dreading coming home, even though it's 22 months away. But the hardest is yet to come and that is leaving on the airplane to go home. It's hard for missionaries to go home, because they love it so much. I wish that we all could stay missionaries because it's so awesome.
Also this week we found sixteen dollars. My companion and I decided to share it and buy shakes. That's all I have tell next week.

Love, Elder Peterson

Transfer's? Winter? Ghetto?


12 July, Friday Kirtland Temlple

12 July, Friday, New Group of Missionaries touring Kirtland






It's great to get letter's, because it's funny how mail is you're life source to figuring out what's going on outside of the missionary world.  To answer Grandma's question, no I did not get to tour Kirtland fully. I only got to see part of it (here are a couple of pictures that I had taken while visiting Kirtland).








The funniest thing is that there is a street called Utah Street, so now I feel right at home ha ha. I am now on my fourth week which is absolutely crazy. If this keeps up I will need to start thinking about my coming home party. ha ha, but that is a scary thought. Only eight weeks with my companion, then transfers, (which stinks), because I have a great companion and love my apartment.

Can't wait for winter because my comp says that it's awesome because of how deep it is. Snowball fights here I come.

Spiritually speaking, our investigator Ali is ready for baptism. Our next investigator is Baptist but very open to learning. He took the Book of Mormon and is going to read it 30 minutes a day, along with another 30 minutes reading in the Bible. He is very open to learning more about Christ. The funny part is we found him by running into him on the sidewalk and he was asking what school do ya all go to? We then answered and said we don't to to a school, we're missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or the Mormons. He then said, "Mormons, how many wives do ya all have? That's how it all started.      
Well, can't wait to show you everything. The ghetto has a lot of stories, all I won't tell. But I will say that it is not safe to be out after 8:30 p.m.. But the people here are really nice, love it here (that's Cody for you, positive).  Can't believe a month and a half has already gone by, only one more July left then I go home. Can't believe it.

 Love Elder Peterson
                                                       
 Scripture he sent home:

 D&C 109:22 And we ask thee, Holy Farther, that [Cody] may go forth from this house armed with the power, and that thy name may be upon [him], and thy glory be round about [him], and thine angels have charge over [him];
                                                       

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Riding wet, awesome

Letter from July 30, 2013 (We were on Vacation)

Our hottest time weather wise was 114 degrees, but our average right now is 107 degrees. This week has been one of our coolest weeks of 90 degrees. Funny thing about it is it's only about 65 to 85 degrees, but with humidity it heats up really fast. When it got to 114 degrees the mission president text us all and said stay out of the heat and drink 8 oz. of water every 30 minutes. So we went outside and tracked to our farthest place and that was 42 miles round trip. After we got back to the apartment and changed our clothes and had to ring our shirts dry, well, tell they were damp. Fun times.

We do however have two new investigators, which is awesome. Daniel is one of our new investigators he is African/American (both of them are) he stopped us and asked if we were the people who believed in polygamy. Queasia is our second contact, and is curious about how we believe in Christ.


I also have to get used to riding a bike in the rain, you get drenched. My companion and I new it was going to rain and in about 30 minutes or so rain started and soon after that just an absolute down pour. Then your riding wet, which was awesome. This is the letter I am writing because of the rain. But we did get three new potential investigators which is helpful.

Missionary work is taxing on the body because I'm always tired. But I love what I do, so there's nothing to complain about. Jesus gave his all and more, then I too can give this my all.

I was surprised to get a letter from Grandpa Peterson. Thanks to everyone. I get a lot of questions that I need to answer and I only get p-day to answer, but I will try to write letters to everyone when I can.

Love Elder Peterson