Spring Time!

That was a super quick week! I don't really know where to even begin! We have been blessed with some really great investigators that are progressing really well and we have been working pretty hard with them! We have been trying to increase our teaching pool because we have decided that when people start getting baptized, which they will :) the people we will have to teach will decrease. So the goal for us this coming week is to bridge that gap so that we have a lot of people that we can go see. We want to really try and get our members involved into our work too and so far that has been working great! The success there has been increasing ever since I got here! So that is good news! We have a baptism coming up here this coming Saturday that we are really excited for! It's a huge blessing to be able to baptize and be a part of people's conversions! There is one investigator that we have that we have been working with for awhile now that we have been having a pretty hard time with. He comes to church every Sunday and continues to meet with us but the problem is he has a hard time accepting doctrine that we share. These experiences that we have had with him show me how powerful the scriptures are. I say that because when we share scriptures that contain points of doctrine, he has a very hard time arguing against it. He still has a little bit of a problem accepting that the book of Mormon is scriptures or inspired of God. He is a great guy though and we love him. We hope that we can help him find his purpose in life!
I've been reading the Book of Mormon in French this whole transfer and I've been surprised at how much I do understand in it. My verbal vocabulary has been a little discouraging however. I find myself understanding what people are saying but then when I say something it doesn't even make sense. I need to apply the language more and I know that will come around! Life has been going great though and things are going well! We have been having a lot of success and I'm super grateful for that! I shouldn't even be complaining about my French, there is a sister that was called english side and when she got here, President Mehr sent her to French side without knowing any French!! But she has been doing awesome!
Thanks for all of the emails and all the love and support! I hope everything is going well back home and that the warm weather is coming around for everyone! I send my love and prayers!! :) Have an amazing week!!
Love Elder Peterson

Les Saintes

Yesterday Elder Peterson took a tour boat to some little small Island called Les Saintes and he said that it was super awesome!

Dur

Well here we are again sending emails! People weren't kidding when they told me that time goes quick when you are serving the lord! And now that I'm seeing that it makes me want to work a lot harder and not waste the lords time! The past week was definitely a good one and it was a great way to start off the transfer! We have begun with a great pace and we are only hoping to build on it and keep it going! Isabelle's baptism went great and we are super excited and happy for her! She has a new glow about her now and you can just tell that she is filled with the spirit! This past week we received a good amount of Member Referrals which is a huge blessing! All of them are awesome investigators and have tons of potential! Friday morning we starting calling some of our investigators to confirm our appointments with them, and one of them told us he had a question so we said alright what is that? He says, "Can I get baptized tomorrow?" Elder Galati and I both looked at each other and thought, what? How often does this happen? Considering we have only been teaching him for a week! Unfortunately we had to tell him he has to wait a week ha :) but he agreed and is being baptized this coming Saturday! That just goes to show how the Lord really does prepare his children. It's just a challenge trying to find them sometimes! So we had an awesome week and we are very thankful for that! I've also really realized the power of the scriptures! The other day we were teaching an investigator about the Book of Mormon and why it is important. He has always had troubles seeing the doctrine but I realized that was because we weren't really using scriptures to explain the doctrine! Well the other day we decided to have a bunch of scriptures on hand and inspired questions and the lesson ended up going great! It just shows the power of the scriptures!

This transfer I have vowed to myself that I will only study in French to help improve my speaking skills. At first, for me, that seemed like something nearly impossible but as I have stayed true to my word I have really been able to tell the difference! I understand a lot more French than I thought I did and it is such a blessing! It is all about the faith that we have in the Lord and I'm beginning to see that! I always think of the story when Peter walks out on the water and begins to sink and the lord says to him, "Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" I find it that as children of God we find our selves taking little steps out into the water and we begin to become "scared" and lose our faith. My goal is to keep my faith built up and trust in my savior Jesus Christ and I know that I will be able to handle the things that are placed in front of me!

I'm so thankful for all of you and all the love and support you give me! :) I send all my love and hope that everyone has an amazing week!! :) I send my support and prayers for you all! Love Elder Peterson!

Elder Peterson and Isabelle

Staying another transfer!

Well, Clairson is now a member off the church! The baptism was great and we had another kid that is in the branch baptise him who is about the same age! So that was super cool! Now the next step for him is a mission! :) If him and his sister go on a mission that will be awesome for this branch here! But we will see what happens! That is all in the lords hands! I'm pretty sure that his sister is for sure going on a mission! His whole family is awesome! Now it is just him and his sister that are members! We just barely started teaching the mom and she came to church this past sunday to see clairson get confirmed!! That was super sweet! We are yet to meet the father but we are hoping soon that we can and maybe start having the lessons with him! That picture is of their family, without the dad! I gave clairson the shirt and pants so he could be dressed like us and that made him pretty happy! I love making people happy and see them find joy. Especially in the gospel!!:)

We got our transfer calls and Elder Galati and I are staying together! We are excited and I am happy to be able to stay! That way I can continue working with the people that we have! That will make like five or so months here by the end of this next transfer! Time goes quickly here! Oh and the other five missionaries that were in the MTC with me were so close to all being together on the same Island but One of them that is here right now is leaving on wednesday to a different Island! That will make five of us together now! I love seeing them! It's like a group of brothers ha! We have another baptism this wednesday that we are pretty excited about! It is a lady that we have been seeing ever since I got here and now she has chosen to be baptised! Such a blessing! I'm so thankful for all these blessings that we have been receiving lately! I need to work hard to show my gratitude for all these things!

But anyways. I hope Elder kay is doing better and that his injury is healing well! I've been thinking about him and the great example he has been for me! I love him! I hope that everyone has a great week and I send all my love and prayers! :) Thanks for all the love and support!! Love Elder Peterson!

Miracles!

Well we had a miracle this week! The other night we were teaching a family of investigators which consists of a mom, daughter and son. The daughter has been a member now for about 3 years. When I first arrived here on Guadeloupe we went and saw the Daughter because she was inactive and after that one visit she has been coming to church ever since and now she is wanting to go on a mission. Well anyways, when she started coming back to church, we noticed that her brother was coming with her and we started to teach him and the lessons were always great and he was progressing really well. That was until we would try and set a baptismal date. He would always tell us, "when I receive an answer then yes I will!" So we were kind of at a hault, but the other night we were teaching them all together and as we were leaving he chased us out the door and stopped us. He asked us when he could get baptized. He told us that he was ready! Elder Galati and I just looked at each other in amazement! That was such a blessing for us! We have been really trying to work hard for baptisms here and this is really the pay off. What a blessing and we are super excited! He is getting baptized this coming saturday! The week was great! We had a little problem because these dang frenchies love to go on strike so we had to scramble to get some gas before all the gas stations closed but we got all that taken care of and out of the way! Now we just hope we can survive on the gas that we do have until the strike is over! We have been teaching a big group of Haitians that are really intelligent. The lessons go well if we can keep it on track but they ask a lot of questions that get us away from the main goal and lesson so it has been a little challenge but we are figuring out how to work with that! This week we are going to try and set some baptismal dates but we will see what happens!

This week we also went home teaching with one of the members and that was cool because he called us and said hey I need some help! So I think it's a good thing to help the members out and get a strong base to build off of!

Sounds like all is going pretty great back home! That's what I like to hear and what I really look forward too :) I appreciate all the love and support I receive! To bad to hear that mitch broke his wrist! How did he do that playing basketball? He must of fell on it? That's to bad. "The Kay family, always known for most injuries!" haha But hope that the surgery goes well for him! I will be thinking and praying for him! But anyways! Time to go so have a great week and I love you all!!

Love Elder Peterson!

Chouette

Well tell congrats to my hoser brother, I knew he wouldn't last long. Haha freaking dur! But that's super cool! I'm happy for him! Hope she is pretty legit. She has some shoes to fill ;) haha All I want when I get back is a dirtbike or something like that ha! Oh and I received a whole bunch of christmas cards this past week and the package from the weese family! I really really appreciate all the love and support that everyone has been giving me! I love you all! :) thank you so so much!! Oh and I got a letter from some of the leaders of our ward and Brad's note was pretty funny I found! It said, "This mission stuff is a lot funner than getting smoked by an old man in a race huh?" I had a good laugh with that! Just tell him wait till I get back! haha

The week was super great! We had an awesome zone conference and it was fun to have everyone together! I love when the Mission President is here! There is a cool feeling about it! We all predict that he will become an apostle some day because he speaks with a lot of power! and he is a genius when it comes to doctrinal stuff! Zone conference we talked about the atonement and why it is important that we stress baptism! Anyone can repent and be forgiven for their sins but to have the sins taken away we need to be baptized for "the remission of sins!" It is a covenant we make with our father in heaven to obey his commandments and do the things he has asked of us! So that was pretty cool stuff. Also in my personal studies I have been learning a lot about the atonement and Jesus Christ. It's really cool how much we can learn from the bible and the Book of Mormon together! Just go read Mosiah 15: 1-3. You'll know what I'm talking about!

We didn't have the chance to see a lot of our investigators this past week which was kind of a bummer but we are praying that this week will go really well! We are praying for baptisms here and we know that the lord will deliver as long as we keep our end of the bargain! Today we went to point de chateau with all the missionaries of Guadeloupe and that was pretty sweet to watch the sunrise and all of the sweetness! But anyways I send all my love and thanks to all of you! I pray that everyone with have a great week and have the spirit to be with them! I'm so grateful for all of you and all you do for me! I love you!! Love Elder Peterson!

IT'S STARTING TO GET HOT AGAIN.

Well here we are, almost 5 months in, and it definitely doesn't feel like it has been that long. Maybe 2 months haha! But I'm not keeping track, I'm just enjoying the time I do have here because I have noticed that it is going to go by way fast! Life is going really well here! As the days go by I start to get more into the habit of doing things so it's becoming a lot easier for me. Not easier but more of something that I know how to do haha! I love it though. I'm starting to learn ways of working that are more successful than others which is pretty nice! I'm no longer really a blue which means the new guy ha!

The week was good for us here! We have a big group of really good investigators that are progressing really well! We had a few baptismal dates set but we had to cancel a lot because we weren't seeing the progression from the investigators but we know they will make it to baptism sometime soon in the future. We need to work really hard for them and do everything that we can to help them receive a testimony of these things. We are praying that all continues to go well for them! We have been a little nervous to go into Point-A-Pitre this past week because it's carnival season here and these people party a little to hard, and crazy partying! I don't know if I told you last week but we drove right into the middle of it and it was like a giant parade and all the people were just like staring at us like, what are these two white kids doing here haha! It was kind of sketchy but pretty cool experience! But that is all I really have to say about this week! We are just trying to work hard and try and help our investigators get to where they need to be! We will see what happens!

This week is zone conference and we are excited for that! It's always super cool to have our mission President here! But I hope everyone has a super great week and I send all my love and thanks to everyone :) Thank for all the love and support! I really appreciate you all! Have a very great week! :)
Love Elder Peterson!