Sounds like it's getting hot in Utah!

Well there went another week and it sure did fly by! I'm never really sure where to begin these letters! Maybe I will start off by saying that I'm still alive and I'm not sure if it is as hot here as it is there! The way I'm hearing about it, it sounds like an oven! :) One of the blessings of serving in the West Indies is that now I will be adjusted to the heat! That is until my first winter! Well happy fourth of July to all! I can assure you all that we will be singing the National Anthem here on martinique! :) If we could play with fireworks, I'd probably go buy some ;) Oh well though, eat some good food for me! We had a pretty sweet experience this past week with our planning and we saw the blessings of planning by the spirit! One night we got in for our nightly planning and we started planning.

We had some set appointments during the day so we planned those in and we were working on setting our back-up plans when a couple of names came to mind. There was this lady that we had met a week earlier and it was clear that we needed to stop by her house. We didn't really think about it much because we had a set appointment and she was just the back-up plan. Well turns out that the fixed appointment fell through and we were left to our back up plan so we went to this lady's home and she opened up and let us in and she was having some issues in her family that day. It was a miracle the lord led us to her house because we not only taught her but she had us follow her to her daughters house where we met her and her boyfreind, who we ended up teaching! Then we went back a couple days later and guess what, we met 2 more people who we have now started teaching! The Lord truly did lead us in that one! Goodness, we would have never found all these people if it wasn't for that simple effective planning! It was a huge blessing to us! We were also blessed to set a baptismal date with another one of our investigators who told us that she is sure that this message is true but she has not yet been to church so we are going to keep working with her! President and Sister Mehr have pretty much finished their mission and it is going to be different with out them but it has been a huge blessing to have them around! I sure have learned a lot for them! We are excited for the mission split! I'm not sure it will change a whole lot for me personally but we will see what happens! That is about all for this week! I love you all! Have a fantastic week and happy fourth of July! :) AAAMMMERRICA! love elder peterson

From Elder Ehlert

Helping someone move

Elder Ehlert and Elder Peterson with President Bonbon Again. Good Reunion

Miracles

This week was a great one! The work here in Trinité is coming along and like you told me in my interview, it is about being persistent! I'm definitely realizing that and the Lord has been supporting me in my afflictions as I have been praying and supplicating him! The other day as we were blitzing our area, the zone leaders were with us and we split up and went finding in some specific places. Well as we were doing this blitz we had a pretty sweet miracle! As we were about to leave after spending about an hour and a half working in an apartment building we decided to pick one more door to contact and the spirit lead us right to the door and it ended up being a family that received us! What I found impressive was the fact that everyone was doing something when we got there but when we sat down they all gathered around the table and listened to what we had to share! The spirit was strong! We went back this weekend to see them and we had a member with us which was a blessing! They kept their engagement to read in the Book of Mormon and we had a good lesson even though there were a bunch of little kids running around screaming. The Lord has been blessing us families lately and that has been a tender mercy! There is another lady that we just started teaching that has two daughters that haven't been baptized! It is no wonder that we were lead to their house! Blessings and miracles are all around and we just have to be able to recognize them! A gift of the spirit I would say! We also went and played basketball with some youth in our area the other day and we met a really inspiring person. It was a teenage boy who has been in a wheelchair all his life but I will tell you what, that didn't stop him from playing basketball like a champ! The wheel chair was definitely not a limiter for him, he knew that he could set the bar for himself! He was so happy and truly loving life and it was truly inspiring to watch him play basketball! He even played 3 vs 3 with us! There are some truly amazing people out there! But yeah, those are just some of the blessing of this last week! We know that many more are in the making!

Happy late fathers day to all of them dads! I'm a pretty forgetful person! You're awesome dad! :) I sure do love you! And my two amazing grandpas! Happy birthday to Shauna this week! :) I sure do love you all! Have a fantastic week! You're in my thoughts and prayers! Elder Peterson

a Gecko

 BBQ for p-day with a member

District Hike

Ramesh Fighting Like a Lion

Dear family,

If there has been ever a time that I've felt like a new missionary, it is right now! haha I'm not sure I really know what I'm doing because everything that I have been trying to do in this area hasn't really been working out for us! But that is okay because I know it is the Lord's way of humbling me and showing me that it is not to be done my way but his way! A great example of that is Nephi and the ship that he built, it was after the Lord's way that it was made possible! So yeah, that is a lot of what I've been learning these past couple weeks as we have been working hard and staying motivated! We even went to far as to put a sign up on the boardwalk to try and talk to people! That was definitely scary at first, the people here don't have a very good image of "Mormons" so we are trying to get rid of that! :) We have the idea of taking a small tv into the park and playing I'm a Mormon videos and trying to give people a chance to change their minds! We sure have been having some interesting experiences! :)

A cool experience that I had this past week with a "Water tower Experience". Now President Mehr gave it that name because of an experience that he had but the best way I can describe it right now is basically an experience like that of Joseph smith in the Sacred Grove or even Enos and his "soul hungered"! It is an opportunity to seek out the Lord's revelation! So that is what we did! We went down to the beach and we just prayed and meditated and read the scriptures one night. It was great the comfort that came through the power of the scriptures as I sat there and asked the Lord questions. It is true that when we ask him specific questions, he will answer us specifically according to his will! I found comfort in know that the Lord has a work to be accomplished and as much as I wish that "I were an angel, to cry Repentance" as Alma says in Alma 29, that the Lord has asked me, Elder Peterson, to do all in my power and not in the power of an angel to bring his children unto him. He needs my testimony and I find that pretty dang awesome! We've got a lot of work to do! :)

I have to go though and I wish you all a very fantastic week, I send my love and prayers!! Thank you for your love, support and prayers! Elder Peterson

Slow Computer Day

Wow, what a week and what some crazy people that we are teaching right now! Like a said I think last week or a couple weeks ago, we are going through a pretty big finding process right now! President mehr called it the Pioneer work as we are working to establish the church out in Trinité where it is only a group and not a branch! I get the idea of what it was like for church members in the early stages of the church and as the church was founded! We run into our days equivalent of some "angry mobs!" But it is all good, they don't have any pitch forks or anything like that! :) But wow, it makes me thankful for the pioneers and what they did to make sure the church was growing! The Lord has truly been blessing us these past couple weeks as we have been striving to do our best, we still have things to work on but in the Lord's infinite goodness, he has been supporting us! There was a lady that we found probably my first week in this area and we were able to go teach her this past week and we had a great lesson on the Restoration and we extended an invitation to be baptized! What was a pretty huge blessing was the fact that it was really late at night and all of our plans fell through so we decided to give this lady a call and she said come on over! The Lord truly does have a plan for everything! We were blessed with opportunities to set baptismal dates with three people this past week which really helps the progression of our area, of which we are very grateful for! Our leaders have really been pushing us and trying to help us in any way that they can! Things are going great, we still have a lot of finding to do and a lot of work to do with the members! :)

A couple stories from the week: So there is this investigator who had formerly been taught by the sister missionaries but since he lives in our area we have taken over the teaching process. Only that the teaching process hasn't really started yet because he got on the internet and looked up the Church and yeah he found ex-mormon stuff and is kind of closed off. In the meantime we offered him with help with anything. Well he called us and told us that he needed help with something so we met him at our group building and basically he ended up asking us for fincancial advice on some pretty serious stuff! My companion and I just stared at each other and basically said, look we are young and we have no idea how to help you but we can refer you to the members who could help you out! :) It was pretty interesting! We are teaching a family also that loves the sabbath day and really would like us to explain why we have the sabbath day on Sunday! We are looking forward to addressing this question! :) My companion is a total champ as a fairly knew missionary! He is always so happy and I always tell him that he is just super giddy and wha Yeah there is more but you know how quickly time goes! I love you all and have a fantastic week! Happy late birthday to one of the best grandmas in the world! Love you Grandma weese! :) Hope that maddox was just so great! :) Love you all!

Pictures from Daniel Johnston

Zone Conference Week

Dear Family, Well it was zone conference week and I had the opportunity to go to Guadeloupe and have zone conference there! It was pretty sweet! I've always been on Guadeloupe for zone conférences so it was nice for a change to be able to sit back and enjoy the plane ride! :) Although, I'm getting pretty tired of getting on and off of planes! Never thought I would say that but the time came! But like is good and planes are still fun! It was super crazy to think that it was my last zone conference! I can remember sitting in my first zone conference and all of the missionaries that were going home bore their testimonies and I was sitting there thinking wow, they are so old and it is going to be forever before that is me. Crazy enough, here I am and that was me bearing my testimony! It was a very interesting experience for me! I have been very thankful for the progress that the Lord has allowed me to make throughout my mission and to see so many tender mercies! It is crazy to see that the Mehr's are going home now too! The Jersey thing that we did for them really touched their hearts and it was all so Worth it! They loved them! We sure do love the Mehr's! :)

So during zone conference we talked about things like bearing testimony often, the Atonement and what and investigator must know, feel, and do to progress towards eternal life! It was all so edifying and the spirit truly did correct me! Not even a couple days before our zone conference, Elder Rowley and I were in a lesson and I was telling someone how God doesn't need anyone of us to be God and stuff like that. Well in zone conference President Mehr got up and asked us that same question and how we felt about it. Right there, I just knew that God needs us all! We all play a huge part in the plan of salvation! If it wasn't for all of us, there would be no free agency! If there was no Christ, there would be no resurrection! It was one of the "ah ha" moments and I thought to myself, well I should have known better! It is pretty funny when stuff like that happens! Elder Rowley got up and gave a short little talk on our purpose and the importance of the restoration. For a missionary who hasn't been out very long, you never would have even thought that while he was talking! He bore powerful testimony and everyone felt the spirit! Elder Rowley is a champ missionary and I'm so impressed with how awesome of a missionary he is! Always so happy and in a positive attitude! Zone conference was awesome! I even got to eat a bokit and to drink dr. Pepper! My friends from st.martin brought me some mt. dew too! :)

Well that is about all for today! We got some work to do this week! Elder Perry will be missed! What a dedicated servant of the Lord! I love you all and my prayers are with you! :) Love Elder Peterson!