August 12, 2013

Mom,

I know you would be real mad if I didn't write you a letter this week, because it is one of the best weeks of my life!

There are 4 elders in my current area, and the others found this guy 3 weeks ago. The gave him a date for baptism for last saturday. They had to meet with him pretty much every day so that they could teach him all the stuff, but he was willing. So Wednesday last week they are about to go into a lesson and ask him who he wants to baptize him and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost and everything. I made a joke and said that I was going to be baptizing thier investgiator even though I had only met him like twice. They just laughed and went into the lesson. Later that night I got a phone call from the senior companion, and he was asking me if I would baptize their investigator because he had prayed and received an answer that I was supposed to baptize him! I thought it was pretty funny, but of course I said yes. So my first baptism I didn't even do any of the teaching!

Other than that, I don't have much exciting things! I will hopefully have something really cool happen next week too!

Love,
Elder Petersen

July 29, 2013

Mom!

Well here goes all your answers!

There are about 7 active people in the group! mostly Women. You have to have 3 Active melchezidek priesthood holders. We have 0. The leader is a group leader, yes. It is not a missionary, but he is not active because of health problems. We meet in just a rented building like most of the cities in Bulgaria. We don't have all the meetings. We do sacrament meeting for about 30 minutes, then gospel doctrine. If we have any investigators come to church, then we also do a Gospel principles class. My role is to bless or pass the sacrament. Sometimes I even get to just sit in the congregation!

My investigators would be good, if we had any! We have just been doing street contacting every day, and it makes for long days, but if we just keep working hard, we will be blessed eventually! We do teach an english class, but we haven't got any people from it yet to investigate.

Sounds like dad is just getting everyone jobs at the Waukesha! That is really cool that he can get so many people jobs there! What a great papa I have!

I don't have to much else to report on, and I haven't really taken any pictures yet here, so I can't fill up the rest with that! But I will just say thanks for all you do for me and let all those people who ask about me know that I am doing great! :D

Love,
Elder Petersen

July 22, 2013

Mom,

The new area is great. We are working very hard every day, and we have started to see the success of our efforts. We at least have a couple of people now that we might be able to get to see! We will just keep looking for more and trying to follow the spirit to find those elect people! I have recently started changing the way I do my personal study. I got a big notebook, and have started writing down all my thoughts and ideas and everything! It has really helped me focus on my studies, and I have a greater desire to learn, and then help these people learn about the gospel!

Sounds like Mark is the man! He is a diligent worker, and he can do almost anything that he sets his mind to. I'm so happy to be part of our family. :)

Thanks for all your support mom! I love you so much! and tell dad too! :D

Love,
Elder Petersen

July 15, 2013

Mom!

So, probably what you want to hear about, I got transferred to Haskovo. That is on the other side of the country. It is about 70,000 people or something like this. We have about 10 active members in our Group. This is my first city with a group. my companion is Elder Greener, from Utah near Brigham city. he is way cool and he has been in Bulgaria for 9 months. We get along very well.

We have 1 investigator, and we just found out this Sunday that he knows English, and it turns out he is a pretty famous dancer in Haskovo. Some of the members I guess had seen him on TV. Hopefully we can get him to keep coming to church and to feel the spirit.

Haskovo is also one of the safest cities. There has only been 1 incident report ever. And that was maybe 7 weeks ago. Actually it happened to my companion. But everyone here seems very nice! We have a lot of people that just wave to us from food stands and benches and just wherever.

I am very excited to serve in Haskovo! It is a great city, and I have found a new energy to work! I don't know where it has come from, but I like it! Thanks for all that you do for me mom! I love you!

Love,
Elder Petersen

July 1, 2013

Mom,

This week was normal I guess. We had a big service project for one of the families in the branch. We went to their place again and we removed the floor from one of the rooms in their house. It was a lot of fun because I got to use a pick ax to just destroy the floor! and it was a room with a basement underneath it. All we had to do was rip it up and let it fall into the basement. Later we had to clean it all out, but it was pretty simple! We also got to see how the corn is growing that we planted 2 weeks ago! it has already popped through the ground!

The work is going well. We have some people to teach, but when it is really hard to get in contact with them, it is hard to teach them. Right now we are really working on some part member families and trying to get their non-member family members to get some interest in the church.

Recently there was a conference type thing from the brethren. they talked alot about missionary work and how it is going to be speeding up! It is really great, and you really should watch it! and share it with everyone!  http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng
Watch it.

I don't know what else to tell you! we are just working hard and trying to do everything we can to teach people the Gospel! I'm always tired, but it is a good tired. Thanks for all your support and all you do for me mom! i love you!

Love,
Elder Petersen

No more floor!

After i finished taking out the floor

June 24, 2013

Mom,

This week we had a zone leader training meeting again. We got to learn from the zone leaders about working with members. It was a lot of fun to see some more effective ways that we can help them become stronger members, and at the same time to find more people to teach! When the members get involved in the work, it really gets moving!

Also this week the district leader came and spent a day with me. We went on splits! That night we went to our investigator and talked with him about marriage. It turns out that if they just went to the city center building, that it would only cost them 12 lev to get married. And that is just for a blood test. He was pretty excited and we thought they might finally get married! But we went and saw them last night, and they had gotten in a big fight over it and now they have lost all hope of getting married. We are still hoping and praying for them, and something will work out!

We also met a really cool man today. He is a Bulgarian, but lives in Italy right now. We stopped him on the street to get him to sign up for English courses. He just wanted to talk about Christ though, and we didn't stop him! :) He pretty much told us his life story and that he wanted to meet with us and find out more about what we are doing. The next day we met with him and had a lesson about the plan of salvation. Everything was great, except the book of Mormon. A lot of people in the world think that the Bible is all that we need and anything else is just written by men and is not inspired. I wish I could just MAKE them know that the Book of Mormon is truly scripture and how great it is! I hope one day that he will pray to know for himself, but for now He has just promised to read it.

This next week we got invited to go work on the farm again! I'm excited to get to do some more manual labor! I'll be sure to take some pictures for you! I love you mom and thanks for all your support!

Love,
Elder Petersen

P.S. we made cookies :)

June 18, 2013

Mom,

Sounds like you are very busy with scouting stuff still. It is so great that there is such an inspired program to help young people be on a good moral path! We are so blessed to have such freedoms. When people complain about how bad America is, I just want to slap them upside the head. We are very blessed to live in such a place, and I wish all other countries could have such freedom!

I have my mouth open in all my pictures.... why not? i'm just so excited to be here that I can't keep it closed! :D

Zone leader training meeting was great! we spent half the time doing role plays and practicing teaching. I learned a lot and I'm hoping to just become a better and better teacher! I'm glad that we are lead by an inspired mission president, who has the vision of greatness, and never gives up on anyone! This truly is a great time to be a missionary!

It is very hot now. It was 36 degrees this morning! and it is just to keep getting hotter and hotter!

We had a branch activity last week. We called it American evening and we had food and games and stuff! I made root beer, and now I'm out of syrup! So send me LOTS more! :) but we played games like, 3 legged races, egg races (with the egg on a spoon in your mouth), and water balloon volleyball! with towels! it was a lot of fun and we had a great turn-up! The family of one of our members came, and the husband is really warming up to us now! maybe w will get to teach him! :D

Well I'll send some pictures to finish up this letter! Love you mommy!

Love,
Elder Petersen

P.S. these are just a small part of the people at the "American Evening"

This week we did service on this farm! it wa great fun!

After we worked on the farm. My other hand was even better! :D