11/14/2015

Mom,

The mission has truly been a blessing in my life. The Lord is shaping me. One of my favorite words to study in the scriptures is voluntad, in english it would be will. In verse 11 of section 31 it says go your way withersoever I will. The Lord gives Thomas in D&C 31 a lot of instructions in this section but the key always has been do the will of the Lord. Because if we do His will like it says, just after, it will be given us by the comforter, or we shall have the spirit to be with us. And if we have the spirit with us, neither Satan nor hell itself may stand against us. Though we pass through afflictions or ridicule or mockings we will have that ever reassuring feeling that God is pleased with us, that we are on His errand, doing His work, that we are His sheep. It also says pray always. It means we should pray always, non stop, without fainting. Our eye should be single to the glory of God. Apart from all that ,what I like most about that section is verse 3, "lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come." This does not only apply to missionaries. As missionaries we have interviews with the stake president before we start our mission.  You said President Harris' pre-mission speech was great to Cody. I don't think it is too far stretched to believe that we had a similar interview with our Heavenly Father before coming down to earth, and that he spoke similar words, "lift your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission has come". The gospel is happiness. The plan of salvation is a plan of happiness. The atonement is almost always coupled with happiness and joy in the scriptures. How can we not rejoice knowing what we know. That is why missionary work is the best work ever. That is why we as latter day saints should be the happiest people ever. We should be examples of Christlike love, because we truly understand, even if in only the least degree, what the atonement means. Those are my thoughts on section 31. 

Other than that, this week we traveled a ton. We went to Santo Domingo Monday and left Tuesday to go to Guaranda. From there we came back to Quito for the night and left Thursday afternoon to Baños. We stayed that night in Ambato and I went to visit some old converts and people I used to teach. Then yesterday we came back from Baños and went to visit that family we are teaching and then went to bed. Today we did a little shopping and laundry. Tonight we have stake conference. Next week will also be a busy week! 

Love you guys. I love the gospel with all my heart! I love the Savior and am so eternally grateful for His atonement. Have a great week!

Elder Peterson  

11/072015

Hey mom! 

How is the family? I didn't hear from anyone this week so I hope everything is OK. Please let me know that everyone is OK. This week has been pretty busy. Tuesday we had the leaders meeting in the mission which was good. Wednesday we started interviews. Every three months president interviews all the missionaries so we travel to the different zones and my companion and I train while president interviews. So we have been pretty busy with that. Wed we were in Los Chillos. Thursday in Ambato! I got to see my old zone. I miss Ambato a lot. And Friday we were in our zone here in Quito. Today we have been taking care of a lot of emergency changes and things, so we haven't done much. 

We are teaching a family right now that is super good! It was kind of a miracle that we found them. We were going to contact their house but because of where it was at, we almost didn't. But we talked to the wife who told us they were busy and then we left. A half an hour later we were contacting up the hill and she came and found us and asked us to come back and teach her and her husband. So we went back and taught them. They are awesome! So willing to accept the gospel. It makes me so happy to see them happy. Since we have been teaching, they have both received an answer that it is true and their lives have already changed a lot. 

Anyway, this week we are going to be traveling a lot. We might not even come back to Quito until Saturday. So we should stay pretty busy. How is everything over there? Hope to hear from you guys!

Love,

Elder Peterson

10/31/2015

Hi Mom,

I have seen a lot of missionaries go home. It is very hard. I'm sure it will be hard for me. I don't like to think about it. Well this week we have traveled a lot. President had to go to Peru for a mission president seminar for the week. He just got back yesterday I think. So we have been holding down the fort. We did divisions on Thursday here in Quito and on Friday in Santo Domingo. It was my first time in Santo Domingo. It reminded me of Tena but bigger. So that was good. This week we are going to be traveling a lot as well. We have the leaders council on Tuesday and then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday President will be doing interviews in a few zones. While he is doing that we will be training by districts about a few things. Should be fun.

Me and my companion want to eat healthier and start working out better. I need easy ideas for healthy breakfast and lunches as soon as you could write me something. I think we are going to go shopping today. 

I love you! Have a great week!

Elder Peterson

10/24/15

Mom,

I'm sorry that I worried you guys a lot. I didn't mean to. Well, I'm not sure I can cover all that has happened in these last few weeks in one letter so I will have to just sum it up. First, is Cody excited? 

Well in these last few weeks lots has happened. During my last few days in Ambato, we rescued a less-active family and baptized the youngest daughter who was not a member. We also had a lot of families that could progress and hopefully they will be able to get baptized in the future. Our zone was doing really good. It was a really good zone with really good missionaries. My new responsibilities are basically to verify the mission and how it is doing, update the information of the mission., do divisions with the zone leaders and anyone else we feel needs it. Meet with President about the mission and plans for the future. Train the whole mission during zone conferences and interviews, and train the zone leaders in the leadership meetings. Also to Train the new missionaries, and a whole lot of other things. We are always pretty busy. 

This week we received five new missionaries and we also sent off the missionaries who were finishing their missions. So I was in a lot of testimony meetings. There is something that it says in the mission manual that I love, "the missionary leaders should remember that they can learn a lot from the missionaries they serve", I have come to understand that statement better this week. The new missionaries that came were really good missionaries that had a real purpose in being here. I don't remember if I told you but we had to send a lot of disobedient missionaries home recently which was very sad. Three of them were in my last zone. But anyway, listening to the testimonies of these new missionaries reminded me of when I started the mission. You come to the mission with your trust placed 100% in God. I have seen that after the missionary learns how to speak the language and how to teach and everything, he stops putting his confidence in the Lord and just falls into the routine of doing whatever. I talked to my last zone about that and I saw it again in these new missionaries. We were waiting outside of the house of the secretary (where the new missionaries were going to spend the night) and my companion and I showed up and they were contacting somebody there and asked us for a Book of Mormon so we ran up to our house to get a Book of Mormon. Then the new missionary (an American) was going to present it. He looked at me because he wanted me to do it. But I would never rob him of that learning experience so I just looked at him until he realized I wanted him to present it. He took a deep breath and with the little Spanish he knew just bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it would bless and change the life of that person and of his family. I thought that when he looked at me that if I presented it I was going to rob him of a learning experience but it seems I would have been robbing myself of one. Our testimony is the most powerful instrument we have as missionaries as long as it is accompanied by the spirit and shared with love. I  have learned a lot these last few weeks. The mission has changed my life. The Atonement has changed my heart. The church is true. God loves His children. Jesus Christ lives and through Him we may be perfected. 

I love you so much! Have a great week!

Elder Peterson

P.S. Don't tell everybody about my new assignment. I would prefer that everyone doesn't know.

also could I take out a little bit of money I am going to need to buy some new white long sleeve shirts because I will have to use my suits a lot more.

10/19/15

Dad and Mom, 

Well, it's been an interesting couple of days. I won't have time to write today. My pday is now on Saturday's so we will talk more on Saturday. I have been reassigned to the offices. For some reason you guys seem really worried about me, but I am fine. We have just been really busy. I am the assistant to the president right now. Um, yeah, I will tell you more about that later, I guess. I love you all so much! Thank you for everything. Oh my companion is Elder Valenzuela.  We were companions about a year ago, so that cool. Say hi to all my brothers and tell them I will write on Saturday!

Love,

Elder Peterson

Loose Yourself in the Lord

Hey guys,

I don't have a lot of time to write. This has been one of the craziest weeks of my mission. I have also learned a lot. Most of my letters have been rushed lately. Hopefully next week will be better. This week I've seen things that I didn't think I'd ever see. It's been really crazy.

For now I will just say that I owe everything I have to the mission. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I had a spiritual experience that I would like to share. Sunday night as I knelt down to pray I felt overwhelmed, stressed out, frustrated and even angry. I started to pray expressing my feelings to my Heavenly Father and asking for peace and forgiveness for my mistakes of the day. My thoughts were very confused and just all over the place. Then a voice inside my head said, "Stop worrying about yourself". I knew it must of come from the Spirit because I was only thinking about myself. So, for the next few minutes, I poured out my heart in prayer for those who truly are struggling. Those who are lost and who may have even lost hope. I prayed for everyone I could think of including the missionaries in my zone. As I did, the peace that I was so desperately seeking began to wash over me. For me, it gave new meaning to the words of the Savior, "He who looseth his life shall find it." 

 

I look back on who I was 4 years ago, 2 years ago, even a few months ago and it is hard to imagine that I ever was who I was. I am forever indebted to my Savior. I know that it is only because and through His atonement that I have been able to become what I have.

I know Christ lives. He loves us. We are guided by living prophets and apostles. We are a part of the most glorious work that has ever existed: the immortality and eternal life of man. I love you all so much. Have a great week!

 

Elder Peterson

9/28/15

This week was fun! We did divisions Tuesday and Wednesday and that was interesting, I was with Elder Thomas from Virginia and with Elder Lira from Bolivia. We have been working really hard. Hopefully we will start seeing a lot of success this week. We taught a really cool family yesterday. They seem like they have been prepared. Today we ate Dominos! They put a Dominos pizza here...real pizza! That was awesome! Well that's about it.

Love you, have a great week!

Elder Peterson