I have it written in my planner that today is DREW'S BIG DAY! I was gonna send a card and then I knew he wouldn't even appreciate it, so I didn't! But give him LOTS AND LOTS of kisses from his Auntie, and I wish I was there for his 1st birthday! But I'll be home on or shortly after his 2nd!
Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mama tomorrow! I love you lots and wish I was home to celebrate your life with you!
So we have had QUITE the week and I have OH so much to tell you! It starts with Zone Conference in Roswell on Tuesday. Where we were told by president that skype will not be allowed again, because too many missionaries got trunky after skyping! SADDEST NEWS EVER! If anything skype helped me realize that I'm not that far away! So I was super upset about it and then I realized that next Christmas I will almost be home so it will be fine anyway. :/
But at Zone Conference is where I think I picked up my sore throat. I dunno why but after each conference I'm the lucky one who gets sick. So Thursday night my throat started to hurt and Friday was owie to swallow, and Saturday I sounded like a man, and yesterday was better except when I talked too much, and last night I had to sit kinda up so I could sleep, and today my throat feels constricted. But I don't have a runny nose, or a cough, just need a cough drop all day. But it hasn't kept me down at all this round, especially with how awesome Sister N is, we just go and do!
We found out from President also that in the next two transfers we will be getting about 50 new missionaries!!! Crazy right! And he said that it is now a possibility to be training two new missionaries at the same time! Scary! But since so many new missionaries are coming we are opening up new areas, new towns where missionaries haven't been before. So they are talking about Muleshoe, TX which is in our ward but about 30 minutes away (plus the time change). So Sister N and I went on Friday to check out a few places with a realtor to find an apartment for the elders who will be living there. We then went to visit the Bishop's family (they live out there on a dairy farm) and we got to see the Bishop's animal museum. He is a trophy hunter and has his office FULL of his prizes! I told his family that when y'all come to visit that Dad will love to see this! It was pretty cool!
We had the coolest week with our investigators. We had again 7 at church yesterday. I don't know what to tell you about how this happens! We had our goals set for the week to have FIVE baptismal dates set by the end of the week, and we only had 1 that we were expecting. That is W, he is married to a member and we have been teaching him for about a week and a half and he quit smoking and is just a great guy! He loves loves loves to tease us, and since Sister N and I are so gullible he does a good job. When I used the bathroom at their house this last time I came out and he told me I had TP on my shoe and I totally looked :( PLUS the FIRST time I ever get my skirt tucked into my slip after the bathroom was at THEIR house!! Classic Amanda, Classic!! Oh man) He also scared Sister N when she came out of the bathroom by hiding and jumping out at her. :) We have a good time! His two boys ages like six and four have crushes on the two of us, and it is hilarious!! They look away whenever we make eye contact!
Then we started teaching a student here named K right before the Christmas break and she went home, but she got back this week and we had our second lesson with her ever this week, and set a baptism date with her too! Her story is cool because she is Native American. But it is just like what Larry EchoHawk talked about in conference about how the Book of Mormon is for these people! It is cool teaching her too, because she doesn't come from a Christian background so all of this is new to her. She is super sweet, and kept saying how many thoughts were rushing through her head, and how much it meant to her that we are here to help her grow her relationship with Heavenly Father.
And then THEN! One of our new things that as a mission we are trying to do since conferences is going out and separate from tracking we are going to contact 10 people a day. So our second day of this, we go onto campus to pass out cards for free dvd's about Jesus. And there are lots of different ways to go on the sidewalks but we see these three guys coming one way and they are all talking and laughing so we figure it will be easy to talk to them so I point them out and say let's go contact them. So we walk up to them and one of them says "oh I'm a member of your church, what time does it start on Sundays?" Sister N and I look at each other and point to our tags, "you're a member of this church?" We were just surprised-- of all the people we run into!! Well, E comes to church yesterday and brings his girlfriend C. She wants to learn more about the church and yesterday was the perfect day for investigators to come. Sacrament was on missionary work, gospel principles was on authority, and RS was on baptism and the Holy Ghost! So we set up a lesson with her after church and during that lesson she says she has never been baptized because she has been waiting for it to be done correctly, and for it to feel right in her mind and her HEART and she knows now this is the right church!!! So she is preparing for baptism too!!!! We couldn't have planned for these miracles!
Then! This is the BEST story of all!!! A and E! We stopped by their house this past week when she was gone and E said he is just waiting for the ring to come back from being sized and he will propose ASAP! So this week ladies and gents! So last time we had a lesson with them they said that they wanted me to be their witness when they get married at the court house. Then it hit me later that the BISHOP can marry them for free!!! So yesterday I told A that and that they can be married and baptized in the same day!!! So during our lesson last night, we went over the specifics of who they want to baptize them etc. AND set the date for FEBRUARY 9TH!! A told me that she knows I have stayed here for a reason, for them!!! It brought tears to my eyes! They said that in a year when they get married in the temple they will have a big wedding ordeal, but when I had talked to the bishop about it earlier that day he said that we can still make this wedding a nice thing with help from the RS. So they are thinking like the ceremony at like 4 or 5 then a small dinner break and then the baptism right after that!!! I am just so in awe that Heavenly Father is letting me be a part of all of this!! E and A said that they will be sealed in a temple down here, but in April 2014 will want to come up to come to general conference and go through the SLC temple and they want to come with me to Taco Amigo and just to see me!! I told A not to get her hopes up, but I told her I will move heaven and earth to be at their sealing down here in a year! HOW EXCITING is all of this!!!?!!!! What miracles God brings about!!!
I love this place so much, and some days I think about how one day I WILL be transferred and how it is going to rip my heart out because this is now home. These people I love, and know so well! How blessed I am to know them and be a part of their lives! Missions are awesome! This is so great!
Also I am loving our New Mexico January. Maybe this is contributing to my sore throat but Thursday was bike day, and we prayed for a beautiful day, and that it was! It was picnic weather, and as we rode around on our bikes we didn't even wear jackets! Today is the first day it is chilly again. We didn't wear jackets until dark yesterday either! We had a lovely bike day, and I think I'm gonna buy a basket today to save my back from my backpack. We wore our boots so we could put our planners and my map down the boots, which Sister N actually mentioned was really fitting for the area after I said that we were like our own little bike gang. Buttercream Gang anyone?! :) But as we pulled out our planners she said that's where some people stow knives and the like, and since we found out that 2 of our investigators do "street activities" ie gangs (SAY WHAT?! Don't freak, Mom, we are COMPLETELY safe! Just surprising to me when I grew up in the bubble) but it was fun to ride bikes on such a beautiful day!
This is awesome, but I miss you all! Can't wait to see the finished house. Whenever I think of home I catch myself and say "that's not what it looks like anymore!!" How weird is life going to be! Can't wait for that excitement in a year! Love you all!
xoxoxo
Sister Peterson
Simba's mama
and a bear!!
"EVERYBODY'S GOT A WATER BUFFALO!!" veggie tales anyone!
Pumba
this is only a baby chunk of it all! cool right dad!!?
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