EXCHANGE IN GOSIER

written by Elder Dayton:

This last Wednesday I went to a new area and the district leader came to my area for a 24 hour exchange. I was with Elder Peterson from Tremonton, Utah, who is about 8 weeks into his training, and we were in his area. He's in Gosier/Pointe-a-Pitre, which is basically the nicest and most highly caucasianly-populated beach town, and the most ghetto big city on the island in one area. And boy did we have an adventure!

They have a car, and his companion usually drives, but for the exchange, Elder Peterson was the designated driver. It was about 6:00 PM, and we were just leaving Gosier to go to another appointment. We were pulling out of a little alley-way, onto the one-way main road, which was a right turn. As we were pulling out, a car was passing, and Elder Peterson was slowly inching out to see if there were any more cars coming. And as he crept out, he went just a titch too far, and BAM! we hit the back-right wheel and fender of the other car... BUMMER! It was totally an accident. Elder Peterson's a really good driver, but he just made one simple mistake. I felt so bad for him! Especially since he's still so new on the mission, and he technically wasn't supposed to be the driver of the car!

The other guy was pretty mad, but we just followed all the standard procedures and filled out paperwork with the police. It was really intense at first because Elder Peterson doesn't speak French very well, so I had to calm the other driver down and handle all of the legal stuff with the police all by myself. But I'm proud to say that I was able to do it! :) And now everything is taken care of, and Elder Peterson is in the clear!

THANKSGIVING ON THE MISSION!

Well...unfortunately I had to eat ham for my thanksgiving dinner ha! These dang foreigners don't know that turkey is a much better meat! And plus they have no Idea what thanksgiving even is! It's a holiday only celebrated in U.S.A and Canada I guess! But luckily the mission gave all the zone leaders on each Island some money and we made ourselves a thanksgiving dinner! It was actually really good and we had a enough pie to feed an army! It was great! I enjoyed some pumpkin pie that turned out really well! So the whole mission on Monday had thanksgiving dinner! It's really weird to think that it is thanksgiving already! Soon to be Christmas! Just blows me away! I try not to think about time and all the things that are going on back home but sometimes I like to just to remember good times that I have had! It's fun when some memories come up and they just bring a smile to my face! For thanksgiving day we played football and that was pretty cool for us!

The past week has definitely had it's ups and downs but for the most part it was great! Like I have said before, it's hard to get people here to commit to things and Elder Pratt and I have been working hard to try and get the members to work with us! I think it's just hard for people here because they just don't have a lot! I can totally respect that and I understand peoples needs. We have still been trying to do what we can with the members! We do have a baptism this week that we are very excited about! They have one baptismal font here on this Island and that font is in my area so I won't be seeing any baptisms in the ocean or in some cool waterfall place unless I move to the other side of the Island! That is kind of a bummer haha But I know that's not what matters, it's that someone is making a change in their like and coming unto Christ and that is what we want! We hope to be seeing another baptism here in December but we aren't sure what to expect with this investigator so we will see what happens!

I have really learned a lot so far. Especially about faith and Christ's atonement. If we don't have faith in Christ how are we going to repent. There is a scripture I have come to love (Ether 12:27 and Moroni 8:26) I've really realized that faith is such an important thing in our lives and we always need to keep building our Faith upon the rock of Christ! Church is one way that helps us recharge our faith and I have really come to love coming to church! There are so many blessings that I can see from it now.

Well that has pretty much been the past week here in Guadeloupe! Still hot haha! But I'm beginning to realize that will never change ;) I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving and enjoy the turkey for me! Remember the things your thankful for and always give thanks for them to our Father in heaven! I love you all!! :) Love Elder Peterson!

FIRST TRANSFER IS OVER!

It is so crazy how fast the time flies by here! The past weeks are kind of a blur now! That was definitely the fastest six weeks I have ever had ha! It has been a great six weeks though! I have definitely seen a lot and learned a lot and I am looking forward for what is to come from it! I want to get the most that I can out of my mission and learn everything possible! It is weird to think that I got here six weeks ago and now I am already half way done with my training! We recieved our transfer calls the other day and I already new that I would be staying with my trainer because they usually like the same trainer to train for the whole 12 weeks. So I will still be in this same area for the next 6 weeks! Until new years eve! It is also weird to think that it is thanksgiving here soon! It definitely does not feel like it because I am use to the snow and the cool air! But oh well, it will be a fun change for a little while! Our next P-day our zone leaders said we could have a thanksgiving dinner so I am looking forward to that!

So the past week has been pretty busy but I am just starting to realize that is just part of the mission ha! We were expecting to be moved and have all of that done on tuesday but our new apartment wasnt going to be ready until thursday! So thurday we got all moved in and settled and that was nice to get done! Now we can really focus on working and getting everything done! Especially having a normal day without any interruptions! The week was good though! We got a really solid baptismal date set with one of our investigators! It is really awesome to see how fast people change from the first time we see them! She is already starting to teach the doctrine back to us! Ha It is pretty great! We had some baptismal dates set with a family but they havent been showing us that they are ready so we are going to push that back and see if we cant help them out and get things figured out! The French is coming a long but it is still a challenge! It is frustrating some times and I think to my self how much easier it would be to just be speaking english but then I realize that I was sent to this place for a reason! Even If I dont know that reason yet, I am going to do my very best to do everything I can here! That was pretty much the week for me.

I hope all is going well with everyone back home! It was pretty cool to see snow on the ground! It is weird to think how weather is so much different in other places of the world! Well everyone have an awesome week and enjoy thanksgiving!! :) I love you all very much!! Love Elder Peterson!!

FIRST ZONE CONFERENCE!

Well the past week has been really busy and all over the place. Sorry this letter is coming a day short. This place is weird! They have holidays like ever monday so all of the places that have internet are always closed! It is kind of a pain but it is something that we have to deal with! Oh well ha!

Zone conference was really great and it was super fun to see all the Elders that I came here with again! It was really great to see Elder Woodruff and see how he was doing!! He stayed at our apartment with us and we were able to catch up on things! It was fun! Everyone always tells me that where he is at is the so called promised land ha! I think that is just because a lot of Americans go on vacation there and they also have american food and stuff! But that is okay because we have bokits here and they are awesome! So is Orangina! Anyways, back to zone conference stuff! It went really well. They just gave us some good advice on how to make recent converts feel like they are needed. And of course they are always needed. But here it is sometimes a challenge to keep people coming to church. So we received some good advice on that. President Mehr blew our minds with some deep doctrine. That was pretty funny I thought. He gave us like 30 minutes and just said ask whatever you want. I could sit and listen to that stuff all day long. It just blows my mind.

The week was really busy. We have been trying to get our apartment ready so that we can move out and into another apartment. That has been a pain but we have been blessed with some mighty miracles still. We have set some really strong baptismal dates and we hope that all will go well with that. We know that if we stay exact obetient that the lord will bless us. That is what Elder Pratt and I have been striving for and we know that it will work out. We have been struggling with our study sessions cause we have just been so busy and President has really been stressing our studys. He told us that we have to do them every day and I totally agree with him. We can not be out teaching doctrine we do not know very well. So that is one thing we have been working on. All is going well though and we have faith that things will always get better!!

I enjoyed everyones emails and it is nice to hear that all is going well back home and that everyone is enjoying the cold :) I would be loving it!! It isnt that great when your clothes are constantly soaked ;) Have a great week everyone and I love you all so much!! Love Elder Peterson!!

I put the wrong gas in the car.....

   And another week has flown by again! The red soxs won!!! yay haha I really did not care who won the game because they are both my favorite teams! That is good either way I think! I was excited to hear there was snow on the ground! I dream about what it would be like if it snowed here! I would be pretty excited for something like that!! It will never happen though! I am slowly adjusting to this weather. Once you are sweating it is all fine and dandy!
   So one cool thing that happened this week, we received a member referral from one of the lady's in the ward, and it took us a very long time to come in contact with her! but finally this week we made contact and were able to have 2 lessons with her. The first lesson was awesome! she told us that she could feel something in her heart telling her that it was true! that was in the first lesson!! we felt prompted to ask her to be baptized, she told us that she wanted to pray about us and then she would know. about two days later we went back and she told us she did not pray because she did not really have the time. So we decided that it would be a good idea to have her pray right there with us and to really have a sincere desire to know if these things are true. The prayer was so beautiful and afterwards we asked her how she felt and she told us she knows that it is true!! she told us that she is going to talk with her family and we are going to set a baptismal date! What a blessing!!
   We had 7 investigators at church, which is also another great blessing! we were hoping for a family to come that we set baptismal dates with but unfortunately they have some problems going on right now and were not able to make it, but the blessing about this family is that we are really starting to see a change of heart. They have been difficult to work with because they do not really realize how important these things are! but we have had great faith for them and as we have continued to work with them, we can see a change coming! The lord works in mysterious ways but he always knows what he is doing!!
   To make a long story short, the other day we went to get gas. For some reason this gas station was a self serve(all the other ones, someone does it for you). So elder Pratt went and paid for the gas while I started filling the car up. I figured that the nozzle that was green is the diseal because that is how it is in America. Turns out it was not. so yeah I filled the car up with unleaded and we did not make it very far before the car started acting funny. Then it clicked in my head haha. I felt so stupid but luckily no damage was caused and we got everything fixed and put the right gas in. Not one of my smartest moments!
   Anyways, everyone have an awesome week!! I love you all more than anything and I am thankful for all of your love and support!!! Elder Peterson

Dear Family!

  Well I am not really sure how it is monday again. Time seems to only get faster and faster. I am always sweating so much! I will just be sitting there realaxing and I will be dripping haha! I really miss the cold now! So all of you better enjoy it for me! It will a blessing to come back to one day! ha
  The week was pretty great! A few days were kind of a struggle for me knowing what is going on back home. I really tried hard to hold back thoughts and things like that but sometimes it is just hard and there is not much you can do about it. I fasted that all would be well and that you all would be watched over!! The day I fasted was so peaceful and I was really comforted all day. I even saw blessings here in the mission! You have all been in my prayers and I hope that everything is going great now! I continue to pray for you all!! Elder Pratt likes to set our weekly goals really high so that we can push ourselves to work hard! I think it is something that really works and helps get things done! Somehow if we are ever behind, on sundays we catch back up and that is such a blessing!! Yesterday was a great day! I did a split with another elder that has been here for a little over 6 weeks so we were both really new and it was me getting us around in our area! this place is like a maze but somehow we made it to all of the places that we needed to go!! It was a challenge because the other elder and I don't know much French and I was leading all of the lessons. It went really well and I was suprised at how much French actually came to me when I did speak! The gift of tongues is so real and such a blessing! I would be in a lost world right now having no idea what to say! We have a member that we have been seeing for awhile now that brought 4 of her friends to church! That may not sound like a lot but for here in this mission, a member bringing even one person to church is sometimes rare! She is such a champ and we think they are going to be good ivestigators! It was a pretty good week! That is really all though!
  Well I hope all is going better back home! Hope everyone has a good halloween :) I will miss it! like I said, enjoy the cool weather! I will talk to you next week and you will be in my prayers!! I love you all!!! thanks for the pictures by the way! :) Love Elder Peterson!!

It's been a fast two months.

  Its weird too think that it has been two months already! as i look forward it seems like it is going to be a very long time but when I look back it already seems to be going pretty dang fast! hopefully i can type a good letter today! the dang keyboard is all sorts of messed up and all of the keys are in different places! dang french people. hope all is going all is going well back home! tell grandpa that he is a champ and I loved his advice! give em hell! he always cracks me up! let him know how much i love him!! my prayers are with you all!
  Sometimes it is definitely hard to understand what the lord has in store for us. ive realized that very quickly out here. When I got here I thought to myself, what am i doing here? but as ive realized that our father in heaven has better plans for us ive leared to cope with it! the past week was definitely a lot better than the first week. We stayed pretty busy! we did fall short of a couple of our goals which kind of sucked but good news is that somehow we managed to get 14 investigators to church!! that was awesome and definitely a blessing that we were thankful for!! we have some promising investigators but the people here are super lazy and don't commit to do anything. even if they start to believe it. its annoying but we are trying to work hard! we are also trying to get the members to work with us also but they are pretty lazy as well! i see how important it is for members to work with the missionaries! its so much more successful! i love reading the scriptures and i always try to find time for that because there is always something to learn!!
  the apartment we have right now is pretty nice. the bedroom is air conditioned so that is a blessing haha. we are moving to a different on the 5th of november and im not sure how that one is going to turn out! we will see! my companion is great and we get along well. he loves to work hard so that is great. the apartment we are moving too is in gosier up in the grand fonds kind of! im so thankful for all of your letter and all the pictures that everyone sends me :) im sorry im not able to write everyone back but when i start to get in the hang of things ill be able to find the time! i hope that everyone has a great week! i think about you all a lot and im going to buy stuff this week so that i can send letters home! my prayers are with all of you and always remember that our heavenly father loves us and wants the best for us! no matter how hard things get, he will always be there! i love you all more than anything!! :) love elder peterson