Iguanas

I will start off by telling you all that we spent some time this week trying to kill Iguanas and it was a blast haha! The other day, we had four missionaries in total at our apartment and we found an iguana so we got all of the machete in hand and I got like in this bush just waiting to jump on this thing but Elder Ehlert ended up knocking it out of the tree so I had to jump out into the Banana field next to our apartment to chase after this thing and I was sprinting down this hill with my sword in had when I decided that I need to run around this corner but I forgot how steep the hill was and the second I started to slow down my feet flew out from under neath me and the first thing I knew was that I was on my butt sliding down this hill! It didn't feel all to great and the Iguana escaped us haha! It was pretty fun though!

Well that was a pretty awesome week and the weekend was amazing. I don't know where to begin really but I will just start explaining some things. Our teaching pool has been growing quiet a bit and we have been pretty happy to see that! We have been dropping all of the ancient investigators that we had and things seem to progressing. We are still having a hard time in the city of Capesterre but everywhere else seems to be improving quiet a bit! Sunday was awesome and we had two great experiences here in capesterre actually! So we had an appointment set up with our progressing investigator Jean and we invited our Branch President to come while we where at church and he agreed to be there. When it came time to go the the appointment we called President to remind him and he ended up having his daughter tell us he was to tired. Bitter and frustrated we both started the lesson and the spirit wasn't there very strong, about 15 minutes into the lesson President showed up. I felt awful for my unrighteous judgments and for even judging in the first place. I was instantly reminded of laman and lamuel and how quick they were to murmur. Anyways president joined us and we had an awesome lesson and we think he really helped our investigator. Then He invited us to go see our recent convert who is now less active. He hasn't been to church in 3 weeks now so we have been worried about him. We went over with president and we had a fantastic lesson and very spiritual. My respect for president has grown so much and the experience he shared really helped me build a relationship with him. It's really cool how the spirit can bring people together with such an profound love! It was great!

Happy Fathers day out there to all the fathers! I hope everyone has an amazing week and that all is going fantastic! I send my love and prayers to you all! Thanks again!!

love elder Peterson

This little message is from Elder Lewis...

So this week was a good week. Nothing really different than the norm happened; besides the fact that my companion achieved a record number of flat tires this week: 3! It doesn't seem like that much, but when you are on the side of a highway as it is pouring rain, it gets really old really fast. It is ok though, we have probably broken the world record for fastest tire change multiple times this week. But who cares right?! And as the subject line suggests, we hunt Iguanas. We have multiple trees around our house were they like to camp out, including a hollow, 50 ft Avocado tree. So when we spot one, we grab this 20 foot hooked piece or metal that we use to hook the Iguana and pull it down and then we run around scared out of our pants because the Iguanas (not small) run straight at you and then sprint for the Avocado tree. And that is where they hide. It is really awesomely fun. The time we get one, we will take a picture of it and the Iguana soup we will make out of it. ;) Well that is it folks for this week. Love you all and I hope you are having a great summer in where ever you may be; because I am having a great 2 year summer. :)

Elder Peterson, Elder Lewis and Elder Elhert

Mountains

Well that was the first week the bikes have killed me so much! It was great!! And we saw lots of success and lots of blessings! By the time it came time to go back to our apartment we were exhausted and could barely make it up that hill so that was a great feeling, definitely not in the moment, but afterwards! :) This week we saw lots of success with finding people but not with our progressing investigators. There is a little city called St. Marie that we have a lot of great investigators in and we went there twice this week and none of them were there! We did see Jan&alec however and they told us that there are going to Dominica for 3 weeks. So we are probably going to have to push back their baptismal date for a couple weeks. We will see what happens but I think all will turn out well and for the best! Our investigator Jean who lives right by the church has been progressing quiet a bit lately so that has been a huge blessing! We have been having a hard time with him understanding that this church is really the church of Jesus Christ! We know that once he understands that, he will make the steps necessary to be converted to the gospel. We are planning on seeing him a lot more this week and see if we can't help him out! Elder Ehlert has been great and his a great missionary! He is a funny elder so it is good to have a laugh every now and again! He works hard!

On thursday all of the Priesthood holders went on a hike and Elder Gamiette had a bunch of activities set up to strengthen everyone, it was a pretty fun hike! That is until everyone started swimming in the river and all the missionaries sat there and watched happily ;) ha Jokingly we thought it would be funny to ask Elder gamiette for permission but we didn't end up asking!

It was a good week and we are looking forward to this week and we are excited to see what we can make of it! Sounds like everything is going great back home and that everyone is enjoying life! Happy birthday to Grandma Weese this week :) I love you all so much and have an amazing week! Love elder peterson

Elder Peterson on a hike with all the Priesthood Holders

My New Companion

  Well we have gotten settled in here with a new companion and he is great, we have been getting a long great so far! Life is going great here, but unfortunately not a whole lot of stories for this week! Towards the first of this week I decided that most of our investigators are eternal investigators, so Elder Ehlert and I have been thinking about dropping most of our investigators in Capesterre and starting out fresh, and trying to maybe find some new places to work! Since Capesterre is a bike area, the city has been overworked I think and I don't think that the missionaries wanted to adventure off to much. So our plan is to start working up in the hills, it will be a good work out for us haha! We had our investigators Jan & Alec to church yesterday and that was such a huge blessing! She told us that she knows these things are true but that she is going to have a hard time leaving her church because she never really had any problems there and she has calling and things like that. So we are praying that things will fall into place with them! They are so nice and they always give us homemade ice cream when we come by :) We have met some really cool people this past week and we are really hoping things will pick up here, and we have faith that it will! That is really all for this week!

  Congrats to the two in the family who are graduating this week! That is awesome! Congrats to casey and heather as well! I love you all so much and I am so thankful for all your love and support! Have an awesome week!!

Love Elder Peterson

Subject lines are a waste

  This was honestly a fantastic week for me! I felt happy and great the whole week! So that has been a huge blessing I feel like. I made a goal to really be focused this week and it really payed off! I also had some really great studies which I think contributed to that! I love learning about Nephi and his example. I fill like it fits perfectly into my life right now. The way he confronts opposition is such an amazing example! I just read recently where Lehi is complaining because Nephi broke his bow and I think it is so cool when Nephi asks his father where he should go! Obviously nephi had a huge testimony of prayer and he knew that through prayer his father could be humbled again. I also think that Nephi stayed really humble through this whole experience as well!
  We were able to set a baptismal date with one of our investigators whose name is Jean! We still have some issues that we need to help him with. He wanted to set a date for next year but with the spirit, we were able to help him change his thoughts. We have a lot of investigators who really aren't progressing a whole lot and we have decided that is happening because we haven't been teaching towards are commitments. We did a little studying on that and we can already see the improvements in our teaching! I love this gospel! I actually just received a call that   I am getting a new companion tomorrow! That was a surprising call haha! There has been some problems with this recent transfer call and on of the missionaries wasn't able to get on this Island because of customs so Elder savage is going to st.rose and I am getting and elder from st marteen! Super crazy ha, I am a little stressed cause I feel like I don't really know this are that much but we will see! I am glad to hear adam's wedding was an success! Congrats again! It sounds like things are going great back home which I am happy to hear! I hope everyone has a great week and that all goes well for you! I am so so thankful for all of the love, support, and prayers in my behalf! I sincerely appreciate it! I love you all!! :) Love elder peterson!

My new friends

Written by Elder Savage (Elder Petersons companion)
Elder Peterson has this thing for frogs... it is hilarious and conveniently in our yard every night there are like fifty big old green frogs! haha So we catch them every once in a while;) so one night he caught one and it was just sitting on his lap and he was like get me another one! so i went and got one and gave it to him but it got away and jumped right into our house and somehow made its way behind our couch! But i didn't see this so we had no idea where it was... haha but luckily we found it and chased it down and got it out!! ;) haha it was great!!

Mothers Day Skype

Yay for Skypeing!! It was so good to see our Missionary and hear his voice. He's doing awesome and loving every minute of his mission!!

Transfers

Already a new transfer! They only seem to speed up as time goes by, and that one did not feel like six weeks at all! Six weeks here in the mission is a really short time it seems like because back home six weeks was a very long time! Just makes me want to cherish my time here and do all that I can to serve with all my heart, might, mind, and strength!

This week was another great one! I branch had a baptism and that was awesome to see a boy that was 9 years old be baptized! Elder savage and I set a baptismal date with a married couple that we are very excited about! They live a little ways away from the church and they don't have a car so it is going to be a challenge for them to find a church but we are going to work out a way! We invited them to the baptism on Saturday but they didn't end up making it. We can tell they don't really understand that when they receive a testimony of these things that it will change their lives. That is all part of the learning process though and we will help them figure it out! We found a couple of small towns in our area that haven't really ever been worked in and we found out why when we got to them, they are up giant hills! But my companion and I decided there were souls to be saved and that our bodies could take it ;) But I will tell you, I was dying the whole way up and by the time I got to the top I was soaking wet! It was a great experience and we met some really great people. It was a blessing! This transfer, Elder savage and I are doing a language fast for the whole transfer. So goodbye to the English! It is going to be a challenge but we both know that it will greatly improve our french so we are looking forward to it! The mission is great and I am so happy to be here and I love it!! There is so much to learn and I still have a long ways to go but I know that will all be worth it! This week I was reading the ensign of march 2008 and it was a special on Jesus Christ. There is a talk from Russell M. Nelson about faith and he talks about a lot of things but I loved just this little part, Blessings that flow from faith in Him are also revealed in the Book of Mormon. There we read: “Ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.” That is the “greatest of all the gifts of God.”
 
I hope that everyone has an amazing week! I send all my love and support!! And thanks again for all that everyone does for me! :) Love Elder Peterson!