Monday, March 30, 2015

P-Day in Martinique

From Brother and Sister Turner:
Elder Turner and I have to go away for training for awhile and some of these missionaries probably won't be here when we get back because of transfers so we had a P-day together in the heart of Martinique. We first went to the River Alma. How appropriate is that! Then we went to a waterfall and then to a sweet members home. What a wonderful day!

The whole gang
Sisters Turner, Tenny and Riley
Elders Savard, Lewis and Pape
Riviere Alma

Doing Work

Basically yeah, Elder Lewis and I are seeing some great miracle and a lot of tender mercies from the Lord! We've been so thankful these past couple of weeks because of the many blessings that have been coming our way and the progression in the work! The progress that we have been making as a companionship has been incredible and it has been another huge blessing as we have really focused on our teaching skills and have worked on mastering that! I will tell you what though, there is always something new to learn and things that we must be applying! It is sweet! Now we are really going to be focusing on getting the member work going! With zone conference and everything like that, they have really been emphasizing the teachings that we must get the member involved or nothing will progress! President Mehr and Sister Mehr came to Martinique for the day this past week an they gave us some great ideas on how we can truly serve this people as it says in Mosiah 2:17! They reminded us that we have the right to the revelation for each one of the members here and that we need to go in prepared to teach them the pure doctrine of Christ! The Mehr's are incredible and I don't know how they keep all of the energy that they do because they are always booked with stuff to do! All of us missionaries sure do look up to them! Things are definitely going to be changing here on Martinique and we are going to do our best to keep up with the Lord as he hastens this work to build up his kingdom here on the Earth! As Elder Lewis and I have been working hard to get rid of any contention between the both of us, we have been seeing a great unity and we have been becoming great brothers! I have had amazing companions on my mission! Elder Lewis is so great at loving everyone and truly making everyone happy with his lovable attitude and it is great to be around! He motivates me so much more.

Well we were blessed with Irena and another investigator names Jean-Louis coming to church! That was Irena's second time and she loved it! It was a lot better than the first time because her son was super tired and we all know how that goes! Jean-Louis had a lot of questions about the Priesthood that we will be addressing this upcoming week! But other than that he enjoyed it! The Vestrice family made it back from their cruise and they didn't make it to church because they got a little sick but they are still progressing like crazy! They still call us very often to get us to come over and teach them and they are always prepared with super awesome questions! It is so awesome! We are praying for baptismal dates this upcoming week! :) We also went to a members house this past week and taught them about teaching pure doctrine and how when we teach pure doctrine in church meetings, that contention will not be among us as we fight with opinions! It was great! Blessings are coming and we are indeed grateful! Things are getting really busy as the mission is preparing to split!

I just want to say that I know repentance is such a blessing in our lives as we strive to become more and more like Christ and our Father in Heaven! It feels so good to know that you are on good terms with the Lord and it is great to learn from repentance! As I have repented along my mission I've seen the many blessing that come as God wants to forgive and wants us to achieve! I sure do love you all and Happy Easter! :) I know that Christ Lives!! Have a great week!

Love Elder Peterson

Friday, March 27, 2015

Mexican Dinner

Elder Lewis and Elder Petersen treated to a Mexican dinner with Brother and Sister Turner

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Zone Meeting

From Brother and Sister Turner:

We had a fabulous zone meeting the other day! Elder Cornish, the Area President told this story to some of our missionaries and they Sisters told us. It was about a young man who lived in a village. Life was hard. He only had a cow to help him and his family survive. One day, a wise man came to the village. The young man asked him to come to his pasture on the side of the mountain. He showed him the cow helped them surpvive but they needed something more for a better life. The wise man listented to him and then walked over to the cow and pushed him off the cliff! The cow died. The wise man said, "You will thank me for this one day", and then left. Several years later, the wise man came back and noticed a beautiful mansion where the pasture used to be. He asked who had built it. He was told it was the young man whose cow he had pushed over the cliff. When the young man had no other choice, he looked for a way to make his life better. In Zone Meeting, we discussed what our "cows" are. Things that hold us back. We listed many things like fear, laziness, lack of faith etc. Then the Sisters gave each companionship a "Cow". We wrote the things that are holding us back on the cow and then destroyed it! It was a lot of fun, but more than that, it is something we will always remember and apply!

Elders Lewis and Peterson
Elders Savard, Sejournet and Pape
The Sisters and Elder Roberts with the cows
A cow (that looks kind of like a pig)
Sisters Tenney and Riley

Monday, March 23, 2015

More Blessings

This past week was Zone Conference with Elder Cornish and his wife and it was awesome! The focus right now in our mission is achieving real growth by really getting the members trained and helping them fulfill their responsibilities as members! We talked about helping members teach their investigators and not "our" investigators! Meaning that we are here as "master teaches" helping members teach their investigators! They should be the members investigators because they will be staying here and will be able to keep an eye on them! It was great and he also told us that we are blessed with the calling of being "special witnesses of Christ" like the general authorities of the church because we are called to build up the church and to build God's kingdom! We also had a missionary leadership council where elder Cornish talked to us about our expectations and how our expectations need to be the Lord's expectations and not ours! It was great and we are excited to go put it all in action! :)

Well, that was a pretty awesome week as we just went to work in the service of the Lord! However, I never know were to start these emails because so much happened! One of the huge highlights is the Vestrice family! I mentioned the father in my email this past week but now the whole family is involved! Like I said this past week as well, he calls us almost every day to invite us over to teach the family! They came to a family home evening activity this past week at the Church and they loved it so much! They are progressing so much and we are thankful for the opportunity that we have to teach them! The members also did such a great job welcoming them as well and they felt the love of the members because of that! We have been working hard the past couple weeks to get the "escalator" area and things are definitely starting to fall into place! We don't have any baptismal dates at this moment but that is a our next step and we know the Lord will bless us in our efforts! Earlier in the week Elder Turner came with us and worked for the day and it was so great to have someone like him who is full of spiritual knowledge! The day that we spent together was amazing and we ended up seeing the Vestrice family! Elder Turner shared his testimony and it was so powerful. The Father explained that ever since he has been meeting with us, he has been seeing so many improvements in his life and he even shared the Book of Mormon with his co-workers!! We are teaching a girl who is about 18 years old and she is going to be a missionary one day! We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and she is interested in reading it. She has told us that she doesn't really have a testimony that God is really there so we promised that if she reads the Book of Mormon that she will receive a testimony! Yeah, there are so many other people that we are teaching right now that are like these two sets of investigators and we feel super blessed! Elder Lewis and I and working hard and every time we learn something that we are doing wrong or something we could be doing better, we work pretty quickly to correct ourselves! We know that we have nothing holding us back but ourselves so we are trying to get ourselves out of the way!

I send my love, prayers and gratitude! Have a fantastic week et je vous aime tous! :)


Monday, March 16, 2015

The Book of Mormon

I will tell you what, I never know where to begin. One week into one hour of typing? Yeah it is a good exercise for my mind as I go back through the week! :) Well I guess I'll start off by saying that my testimony has been really growing lately as I'm sincerely seeking to gain a better relationship with my father in heaven and also with my savior. It has been a humbling experience for me as I've noticed the weaknesses that I have. It is such a blessing to know that our father is patient with us and that through the Grace of Christ, we can all overcome sin and temptation, just like it says in Moroni 10:32-33. I've noticed that it is very easy to become impatient with one's self when overcoming weaknesses but I've really learned that God is full of mercy and he truly does want us to succeed! I was sitting in sacrament meeting just meditating when I opened the scriptures to 3 Néphi 22 and I came across verse 17. It really comforted me to know that the Lord is their to protect us and to give us our righteous heritage!

As to our week, our week was sweet and filled full of such sweet miracles! Elder Lewis, a long time ago, contacted this man that had explained that once he believed in Christ but that he was becoming a Jew because of contradictions in the Bible. Well this past week, we got an appointment with him and it was incredible because his wife and him both joined in on our lesson and they were loving it! Every day after that he called us to try and get us to come over and teach him but we were so busy that it just wasn't possible. Finally we got to see him on Saturday and we were blessed to have a member there with us. The member shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon and right after, he asked us if he could share his testimony. He went on explaining that the night before he was up reading the Book until 1 in the morning because he couldn't put it down. He explained that in reading, he couldn't deny that there was a Christ and that he came and was resurrected. In just three days he had finished 1 nephi and he understood everything almost perfectly! He then went on to explain that he came across a part where Christ is talking about Contention and how contention is of the devil and in his own words he said, "that broke me, I felt terrible for all the times that I was ever upset with my wife or my daughter." Then he knelt down and asked for forgiveness and went into his wife and asked for her forgiveness. It was almost incredible to see the change that was made in just three days. His eyes were full of the light of Christ and no one can deny that power. It was a testimony builder for me seeing that anyone who is truly sincere in seeking God's love, will find it! He came to church and we will be going to see him tonight! We are truly being blessed with investigators right now who truly are sincere and investigators who have committed themselves to reading the Book of Mormon!

Well looks like we have a new little baby boy to welcome into the family! Welcome to little Bracken! :) I'm glad that went well and that everyone was watched over! I can't wait to see him in person! :) so cute! I send my love and prayers as everyone goes about their days! Christ lives! :) love elder Peterson!


Monday, March 9, 2015

P-Day Basketball

From Brother and Sister Turner:


A P-day of basketball and just enjoying the beauty around us. Elder Pape, Sister Tenney, Elders

Roberts, Sims, Savard, Lewis, Sejournet and Peterson
Elders Rowley, Roberts, Sisters Riley, Tenney and Turner, Elders Sejournet and Lewis
Sister Riley found this conch shell. I think the occupant was still in there. But had been dead a while. Stinky! She left it on the beach.

Yay

Dear Family and Friends,

Things went awesome this past week! We have really been working hard to be "escalator missionaries" and that has been really paying off, thanks to the tender mercies of the Lord! Last week, a lot of our contacts became new investigators and we are thankful for that! We were really working hard towards finding those who had been prepared by the Lord! This week we have a lot of appointments set up and we are praying to have a lot of members at those lessons! Elder Lewis and I actually ended up taking a little time to plan and to set some inspiring goals and after we did that we saw sweet stuff happen. For example, we had set a goal to talk with everyone while we are out on the Streets traveling around. Well not 10 minutes after we had left the apartment, on the bus we met a lady and struck up a conversation with her and she basically ended up telling us that it was a miracle that she met us because she had been praying that she would have an opportunity to talk to us. She had also explained that she has really been desiring to grow closer to Christ. She talked about how recently she started going back to Church in her old religion and how she didn't feel at all in her place. Now she is looking for that which is right for her. We set an apointment up a couple days later and went over with member and had a great lesson with her! Her name is angelique and she is sweet! We taught Gerome again and we were blessed to have member there with us. We had a sweet lesson with him and he truly has been prepared! He understands things so well and we are looking forward to the progress he is going to be making! He set a goal to read the Book of Mormon before April 15 because he really wants to know if it is true! This last week we truly had a rise in the investigators that we have and we have been finding many wonderful people that we are looking to make progressing invesigators! Elder Lewis and I have really caught a great vision for our area and we are looking forward to what is in the process of happening for us! We are teaching a lady whose name is Martine and we have been having a difficult time getter her to Church. Well this past week we got a member there with us and he has been there before but he was able to really help us respond to her challenges. We got a good laugh out of the impression that he did of her to help her see how she responds when we invite her to Church! she got a good laugh as well! There are awesome members here!

We have been working a lot recently with our Branch and the Branch Mission plan. We want to set goals that will help Branch members fulfill their calling as member missionaries. We had a Branch Council this past week where we talked about ideas for setting families of the branch in groups and assigning them one or two baptisms throughout the year. The Branch Council members are to come prepared to our next meeting with ideas on how we can make our goals better! The Members here really want to see the progression of the Church and are working hard to make sure it happens! It is pretty great to see! We are going to start working more to see members in their homes and to help them make plans on how they are going to help the Church progress here! Missionary work is a blast! :)

Things are really going great! I wish everyone an amazing week and I send my prayers! Shauna, I'm looking forward to the big news this upcoming week and I pray that that all goes as planned! :) Happy birthday Ty!! Everyone is just growing up! And also Adam! Can't we all just stay Young!? I love you all and have a great week!!

Elder Peterson

Stick Bug
 A Giant Cruise Ship
 A Bird In Our Kitchen Eating Our Bananas

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Step by Step

From Brother Turner:
And, as Rudyard Kipling says, “The tumult and the shouting dies”, and what do we find? Our faithful and honorable missionaries wending their way up the hill (and there are a LOT of hills here), to continue spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

Missionaries over for Dinner

From Brother and Sister Turner:
Today we had all the missionaries over for dinner. We don't do that very often but we had something we had to discuss with all of them, so why not over food? We sure have a great bunch of missionaries!

Back Row: Elders Lewis, Sejournet, Pape, Turner, Peterson, Sims, and Roberts. Front Row: Elder Rowley, Sisters Riley, Turner and Tenney and Elder Savard
Making Faces
Helpers in the Kitchen
The "staying out of the way" ers in the living room.

Monday, March 2, 2015

A Loving Father

This morning, I took some time to reflect on my mission and I just felt so thankful, for everything that I have experienced! Whether that be the trials, the good times, the hard times, the great times. Either way, I'm very grateful for the experiences that I have had and the lessons that I have learned. I'm also grateful for the trials and afflictions that have allowed me to learn and grow so much. I have seen 2 Néphi 2:2 realized in my mission and throughout my life. There is something great about confronting trials face to face and to be able to overcome them with the help of a loving father in heaven. I've also reflected on the Savior and the importance of his atonement. I have been grateful for the grace and mercy that has helped me overcome many of my imperfections. I still have many imperfections but I pray that I will have the power to overcome them. I've seen how easy it is to become frustrated with one's self and sometimes I have been pretty impatient with myself. I truly desire to become converted unto the Lord and I'm really started to realize what that means. Like the apostle Peter, I wish to have a personal testimony of the Lord and Savior, revealed by the spirit.

We did have a great week and a couple nights ago, we taught that miracle contact that we had about a week ago! His name is Gerome and he is sweet. I don't know if I really explained much about him last week but he is about thirty and he was raised in a family that didn't practice religion and he has never been baptized. He just recently however has begun to study the bible and he has a desire to be baptized. We introduced him to the Book of Mormon during the last lesson that we had and he was loving it! We also taught him about the Restoration and he was understanding everything that we were teaching to him! It was such a blessing and he has been prepared by the hand of the Lord! I will keep you tuned in on how things go with him! We really have been running into people that truly have been prepared by the Lord! We are trying to work as hard as we can to keep up with the work of the Lord! Irena is doing well, however she didn't come to Church this past Sunday so that is something we will be working on this upcoming week and we are trying to constantly be following up with our investigators so that they are reminded of the things they need to be doing in order to progress! We had an investigator that came to a baptismal service this past weekend and we are looking forward to following up with her this upcoming week to see what she thought!

I went to Guadeloupe for the day on Friday to finish my legalization process! I'm now done for the rest of my mission! :) yay! We also had a missionary that is going to French Guyana to be trained with us for half the week because one of his planes made him late for his flight down to French Guyana! He got to hang out with us until today until we could get him another flight! We had a good time with a new missionary!

I also got the baby announcement for Casey's little boy! Congrats to the weese family! :) I send my love and prayers to you all! Have a great week and I thank you all for the emails and the letters! know that I think about you all very often! Sorry that I can't always respond but know that I love you all! :) Love Elder Peterson!

Irena