2 letters Jan 27 & Feb 3

Letter from January 27 - "Cut your own firewood. It will warm you twice."

Hey.

Another great week has flown by, and as always i am filled with gratitude today for our savior Jesus Christ, and for His gospel. I have been thinking a lot about agency this past week, and what a beautiful gift that is. I am so thankful that the Lord loves us enough to let us "choose liberty and eternal life... or to choose captivity and death". As a little girl in our ward said as we were talking about this, "I choose ETERNAL LIFE!" i hope we all do. Thankfully, through Jesus Christ, we can all choose eternal life and happiness.

We read the talk "Waiting Upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done" by Elder Hales in Gospel Principles this week, and i was moved to tears. We have the most merciful Father in Heaven. it really hit me as we were studying this talk, that God already knows what choices we will make. He is all knowing, and all powerful. So the reason we have agency is to, really, prove to ourselves what choices we will make. As we make righteous choices, that is when our will and God's will are aligned and we receive power. My favorite line of the talk is one of the last.. He says:

"May we wait upon Him by PRESSING FORWARD in FAITH".

Waiting upon the Lord is not sitting around, waiting for Him to send us happiness, or an answer to our prayer, or help we are in need of. Waiting upon the Lord is using our agency to follow Christ in faith. Waiting = DOING. what a wonderful concept. I want to wait upon the Lord all the days of my life.

This talk, and the doctrine of agency, have been the theme of all of my experiences this week. Whether in lessons, at the Trail Center, or in my own personal life, i have had my testimony strengthened of Dad's classic saying "you have the choice to ACT or be ACTED UPON". I choose to press forward in faith, or to ACT.

While we were visiting with Walt this week, we talked a lot about the hope that comes from Christ. Hope in the future for both ourselves and for the world. I have seen that time and time again as i have turned towards Christ, interestingly enough, my HOPE has increased. Hope always comes as we turn our focus towards Christ. Walt struggles with the idea of hope, and sadly feels hopeless in all aspects of his life. As he turns to Christ and believes in Him, that is the only way that he will find hope. Because a "brightness of hope" only comes from Christ. Unfortunately, we have our agency to choose who we believe in.. and so it has been quite the process of finding that hope for Walt. But i have perfect hope that He will discover his own testimony of Christ, because Christ truly is our Savior.

Jonathan is progressing and is very in tune with spiritual things. He has been loving reading the Book of Mormon, and finds hope in it's pages. We have met with him twice, and will be meeting with him a third time tonight. I am so excited. I love teaching people who are wanting to learn and change. it is so fun. I know that the Lord sees Jonathan as his child, and i can feel the Lord's guiding hand each time we talk to him. He is so aware of Jonathan, and each of us. As we taught the Plan of Salvation this last week, once again my testimony of agency was strengthened, realizing that God really has a plan for us and wants us to choose to come back to Him. And thankfully He loves us so much that He has given us the step by step process to do so, found in the doctrine of Christ. Hopefully Jonathan will accept to be baptized tonight!

I am so thankful for the scriptures, and for our prophet and the apostles. I know that they are men of God and they really do receive revelation from God for us. We are so blessed, it is overwhelming! I hope we each use our agency righteously to keep God as our number one priority. As we do so, that is when we find true, lasting happiness. 

I love you all! i am so thankful for you!

Sister Peterson

Letter from February 3 - "Make the decision to do what Jesus Christ has asked us to do"

Family! Friends! Loved One's! Everyone in-between!

what a beautiful, snowy day it is in Omaha. Nebraska. The sun is shining, and it is beautifully cold. I never thought i would see the day when i was grateful for snow. But snow = warmer weather and less wind. Hallelujah!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Eddie! Love you so much! I've been thinking about you all week, and am so grateful for you! i have absolutely LOVED hearing about your family party/love notes/memories. You are such a great example to me, and i absolutely love you with all of my heart.

We have seen so many wonderful miracles this week, and i am so grateful to be a missionary!

I have very little time this week to e-mail, so it is going to be super short. sorry.

Miracles:

We met a less active we have been trying to get in touch with for over 3 months! SUCH  a miracle. the greatest part is that we had met her non-member fiance a few weeks ago, and he is so cool and willing to learn. ALSO, their 11 year old daughter is not a member, and we are now teaching her! i have always wanted to teach a family, and so i am so excited! the Lord is so good.

Bill is getting BAPTIZED this saturday! AH i could scream! He has slowly been giving up smoking, which is his main hurdle. He got a blessing this last week, so we are praying so hard that he can make it without smoking this week so he can get baptized. i have total faith that he can. the Lord can do all things! Saturday @ 12 :)

Our investigator Deborah, who i love so much, is doing great. her granddaughters were over at her house this week, and we were able to teach them how to pray! it was the sweetest experience. They each wanted to pray like 6 times ha and their prayers were so sincere and pure. i loved it, and am so grateful to have been there to hear their first prayers to our Heavenly Father. what a tender blessing.

Karla, who we re activated, is almost done with temple prep classes and will be going to the temple in like 2-3 weeks! AH! it is so amazing to see how far she has come. she honestly looks like a different person from when i first met her. She received a calling on sunday, is staying for all three hours of church, and is on her way to receive her endowment. what a beautiful blessing. the gospel changes us.. it is incredible to witness.

This last saturday Sister Cleverly, our director's wife, threw a "birthday brunch" for all of the February birthdays. it was COMPLETELY pink ha and there were hearts everywhere. i love valentines day.. and i think i ate enough for everyone that was there. it was totally fun and excessive. haha.

I love this work. i love the Savior. i am so thankful for him. I love the quote by Elder M. Russell Ballard in the subject line. following the Savior is a lot about our own personal decision to do so. i am so grateful for Him.

love you all! 

Sister Peterson