Welcome Home Elder Peterson

Return with Honor

From Sister Janice Herrington:
Our mission is losing one of our finest missionaries, Elder Peterson. It's time for him to return to his family and friends after serving faithfully for two years!

Mission Home

From Brother Turner: 

We were so happy to get to spend a little reunion time with him before he left. You have a wonderful son. Thanks for sharing him with us.

Preparation Day on Martinique!

Before our hike to the waterfall, we stopped at a patisserie and stocked up on quiches, pain chocolate, and other delectable. We used the extra calories hiking straight up the hill!

Last Email?

Hmm, I'm not really sure how I feel about this email, part of me wants to just say, "see you in a couple days" but the more part of me wants to take this as a great opportunity to reflect on the past two years! So I will go ahead and do that. I would like to start with Moroni 7:48 "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." It has been a huge blessing for me to come on a mission and experience in my own personally way this, what Mormon explains and invites us all to do. There has been a purification and sanctification that has come thanks to my mission and thanks to the Atonement of Christ. I truly have gained a testimony of the Savior and I know that He does live and that the Atonement is real! I have seen so many wonderful tender mercies throughout my life and especially on my mission. I have seen the high moments and I have experienced the low ones. As Lehi said to his sons, "thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain". I can't even begin to explain how grateful I am for the past two years. It has been incredibly amazing. I never could have guessed that testifying to others about Christ and about the love he has for them would have been so joyful and such a blessing. I have found peace and comfort knowing that he does live and I love bearing my testimony of him. President Boyd K. Packer said, "A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it". I know personally that that is true. In the bearing of one's testimony, that testimony will grow. I have loved serving this wonderful people here. It has been a joy beyond measure! The Gospel is true, God lives and he has prepared the way for us! Well, I'm running out of time, so I will talk to you later. I love you all so very much. I'm indeed grateful for all of the love and support. May the Lord bless you and allow you to have such wonderful opportunities as I have had, if not better. I love you all and see you soon! :) The most amazing two years! Love Elder Peterson

The last Sunday in this beautiful Martinique branch!

The Tour De Yole

I'm not really sure why I put the Tour de yole in the subject line, I have nothing to say about it other than it just started and that you will have to look up what it is, it looks pretty intense!

This is my last whole week as a full-time missionary and I'm so looking forward to it! Meaning that I'm going to make the absolute best out of it! I'm excited to see the blessing and the miracles that will come! And of course the trials that come along with life! Ever since President Uchtdorf gave his talk on being thankful in all circumstances, I've really striven to look at all situations with an eternal outlook and I've been able to confront trials more positively! They definitely are still just as challenging at times to overcome but I have been thankful for an Eternal perspective on things!

We had a good week and we started it off really well! The first couple days of the week were super fruitful! The other days were a little bit more challenging but still just as great! I don't know what it is but Saturday's have been the trial of my mission! Maybe it is because I've been used to Saturday being the day off but as a missionary doing the Lord's work, there is never time off! :) I've had to do some attitude changing on my self throughout my mission on the success that we can have on Saturdays! they are starting to feel like any other day for me. I imagine that it is kind of like what they say in the scriptures that the Lord time is one eternal round. I've been so thankful for the time the Lord has granted me on my mission and for the fact that He gave me the opportunity to come here. The Atonement is real, and it really does work! I'm touched when I think of all of the hearts that have been healed through the Savior's sacrifice. I can't even imagine all of the people that have been affected by such a wonderful gift! I have really been experiencing lately the love the the Lord has for all of his children, no matter what their faith or beliefs are! We are all children of God and God is no respecter of persons! We are here to help each other be righteous, and to obtain eternal blessings through Eternal covenants! By living a life of righteousness! Obviously the doing and putting in to application is the challenging part but I'm at least thankful that I have acquired a knowledge through the holy spirit! My companion has been making so much progression with his French lately and it has been so great to see! He is going to really do great things in this area! That's about all though for this week!

Oh yeah, I love you all!! :) See you soon! Also, thanks for the prayers in my behalf and all those around me!

Brother Langrand went working with us!

 Chichi's!! They are basically Churros

 At our group with the members who come.

He Is Coming Home!!

Challenges

Of course in the last couple minutes of writing my email, I delete everything that I had just written! Well I will try and re-type everything back but in a much shorter condensed way! We had a good week! A couple weeks ago we went out and played some basketball with some youth after an appointment had fallen through! So yeah, there we were out playing in our proselyting clothes and we had a pretty good time! We got the youths contact information and we are looking forward to meeting up with them again to be able to share the gospel with them! We have some sweet investigators at the moment who we are working with! One of them being a guy named Pascal! Maybe I have told you a little bit about him but if not, Pascal is a very sincere person! There is just one challenge, that is getting him to find the will power to read in the Book of Mormon and to come to Church! That is one of our main focuses right now is getting him to come to church and to read! He always asks us super awesome questions but then when it comes down to keeping engagements, we see some struggles! My companion went and saw him this past week with a member while I was on a trade-off and I was proud of my companion because he went and had a great lesson with Pascal and the member was also very impressed with how the lesson went! We are working with two sisters at this moment and one of them ended up coming to Church this past Sunday and that was a great blessing! We are still working on getting a good amount of investigators and it is still an ongoing process! It is a process that never stops! :) Constantly looking for new people to teach! The Lord has been blessing us through our efforts and we still need to do a lot more focusing on finding through our members! Things are going good I just wanted to share something small that I've been learning in my studies! For a portion of my mission, I had the idea that God doesn't need us to be God but what I've learned is that that is not entirely true and this is why: We are God's children, one of the reason that he is a God in the first place is because of all of his creations! I read in 3 Nephi 19:29 and I learned that as God needed his son, the Son needs us. "that I may be glorified in the" The father was glorified in the son and the son is glorified in us, all of those who take upon us his name and live faithfully to his gospel! We are to let our light shine before men, that light being the light of Christ! I thought that was pretty cool! I love you all and have a fantastic week! :)

Tiny Garage

Doing some missionary work with Elder Belnaps recent convert!

Playing Soccer on the Beach