Tuesday, July 9, 2013

We'll Sing and We'll Shout!!


Family and Friends!

This week has been awesome. I LOVE being in Iowa! i havent gotten sick of it yet, and am so grateful to be here. Thank you for your continual prayers in my behalf! i feel them every day, so thank you!

Happy Anniversary of 30 years to the best parents!! – [Parent’s note: August 6th is the real day but Lauren knew we were celebrating this week with a little get away] 30?! oh my goodness that is so crazy and awesome. that is such an accomplishment and such an amazing blessing. thank you for setting a practically perfect example to me of how a marriage should be/work. I love you both and couldn’t have asked for better parents. i love you. so much. too much.

What an exciting week! the work is hastening on and i love being a missionary. it amazes me every night how no matter how the day went, i can still go to bed with a smile on my face. The Lord truly strengthens us more than i can even comprehend. 

Some of the highlights:

- A woman in our ward has been having us paint her basement the past week. We have probably painted for a good 7 hours straight on cement wall. haha. it has been so fun and my arm is exhausted. but it is definitely nice to be in a cool basement compared to the outside heat!

- We had an awesome experience on tuesday. It was 8:45 pm and didnt want to head home early, so we prayed to know what we should do for the next 15 minutes. I prayed that we would be able to see a miracle. After we prayed i had the impression to walk down the street towards an old referrals house. As we were walking, there was a woman outside planting in her garden. we went up to her and started talking with her and she instantly opened up to us how she has a ton of LDS friends and she has had the elders over several times. i got so excited and asked her if we could come back and teach her more. she said that we could and so we went back this week and saw her again. she is awesome and we are PRAYING that she continues wanting to meet with us! miracles happen! it was such a great reminder that when we are exactly obedient, the Lord blesses us. it would have been so easy to justify going in early, but because we didnt the Lord helped us. small and simple things. i love it.

- Sister Palmer and i gave the training at District Meeting on wednesday and it went awesome. i was so proud of her - she gets super nervous talking, but she gave her "part" perfectly and just like we practiced. the Lord is strengthening her open her mouth and in turn we are being strengthened as a companionship. it is wonderful.

- on wednesday we went and saw the Tillmans. we had a great lesson with them, and then asked if they could drive us to our next appointment to save on miles. Sister Tillman agreed, and oh my goodness. we got lost in the corn fields. haha. we were driving down gravel roads, in a storm, for an hour trying to find our dinner appointment. so. we were an hour late to dinner. haha. but, the Lord works in mysterious ways because through getting lost we were able to grow closer to sister tillman and teach her more. it was awesome. downer: we totally thought she would be at church but she didnt show. that agency. man. she'll be there next week though!

- Thursday was the 4th! we had interviews with president weston and it was the best part of the week. ah. he is so incredible i love him. he sits me down and with his bold way says "is the work you are doing in your area ready to be the example for the rest of the mission? Because you have been sent there to do so." it was a great knuckle sandwich that i needed. ha. he promised that every less active member we are working with, if they are brought back to church, there will be a baptism because of it. big promise. and i know the Lord will provide. there is so much work to do and it is stressful! but so exciting as well. 

After interviews we had a ward party out at one of the members farms which was awesome. i got to talk with this muslim man that was there for a good 45 minutes. we talked about the similarities of islam and mormonism, which was super fascinating to me. i committed him to reading the book of mormon. he is awesome, and it was a perfect 4th of july. preaching the gospel. it was 80 degrees, we were out in a bunch of corn fields, and eating pulled pork sandwiches, so i was in heaven! :)

- After interviews with President, i had such a renewed desire to have members at every lesson that we taught. So, sister palmer and i have been trying really hard to accomplish that goal and man have we seen the miracles! nothing huge has happened, but just having members at lessons makes SUCH a difference. i am a believer in member work! haha it is so powerful. 

I think that's about it... i can't remember anything else i had planned so i'll just end there! ha. I had a member ask me how i know that the church is true after i bore my testimony to him, and i realized that i need to testify with more explanation more often. And so i told him that i KNOW this is the Lord's church because i have read the book of mormon, prayed, and received a confirmation from the holy ghost that it is true. i have fasted. i have prayed. and i have felt of the Lord's love more fully in my life because of my willingness to follow Him. 

This IS Christ's church. if it wasnt i would be on a plane home. but it IS. and so i will spend every day preaching His word, His way. 

1 Thessalonians 2, 2 Timothy 1:7-8.

Love you all! Hoorah for Israel! :)

Sister Peterson

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