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Thursday, April 18, 2013

16 April 2013- Week 4



Dear Family,

I've been pretty sick all week, but I'm finally starting to get back to normal!  There's a Sister in my district who's been sick pretty much the whole time, but she was claiming it was just allergies.  But after everyone she hangs out with got sick this week with the EXACT same symptoms she had, I'm pretty sure she realized that she needs to quarantine herself...lol for any future missionaries, getting sick at the MTC is unavoidable!  You live in such tight quarters (especially now!), you spend all day in a small classroom, really don't get that much sleep, don't eat super healthy, and you are always surrounded by people.  And being a sick missionary is NOT fun.  My companion and I were giving a lesson the other day, and we weren't really getting anywhere, we were actually just getting really frustrated with our "investigator" and I pretty much stopped breathing and started having a coughing attack.  So we had to run out of the room so I could get water!  It was embarrassing, but it might've been a blessing in disguise, because we were able to compose ourselves and make a quick plan before going back in.  Our lesson went pretty good after that, the Spirit was there and all and we bore our testimonies of what we were saying.  This particular investigator is just really hard to teach because he plays the role of a 61 year old Catholic Priest who really just wants to learn about the Church.  It's hard to have people from two different faiths, both having a firm testimony of their religion, and trying to convert each other!  It's so hard not to just want to go in and Bible Bash!  But we're not the teachers, the Spirit is, so we're just hoping that he opens up his heart enough to realize that what he feels during the lessons is the Spirit testifying that we say is true.  But I'm super grateful for this practice, because most of the investigators out in the field are probably going to be a lot like this one!
So this week was finals week at BYU, and I'm guessing a lot of other colleges are going to be finishing up their semester soon as well.  So guess what that means?  The summer missionaries are starting to arrive!  This week has been SO CROWDED!  Ugh, I'm so glad that I'm leaving in two weeks, I do NOT want to be here when all of the summer missionaries arrive!  The lines in the cafeteria and for showers and for laundry have been awful.  Gotta love all the missionaries who are sacrificing their lives for 18 months-2years, but I'd love them a lot more if they weren't all in the MTC at the same time lol
Relief Society this Sunday was SO GOOD!  I don't know if y'all have ever heard of Mary Edmunds, she does Time out for Women a lot, and speaks at a lot of Relief Society type things, but she was our speaker.  She was hilarious, she was spiritual, and she made me so excited for missionary work!  She served 4 missions-isn't that crazy?  And that was back when Sisters served for 2 years.  I can't even imagine serving for 8 years out of my life.  A few of the spiritual things she said: -The trouble with most teachers is they think that THEY are the teacher.  Not true.  The Spirit is. -Nobody was foreordained to fail or be wicked.  We were all sent to Earth because we chose to be righteous.  Help people remember that. -All you can do is the best you can do.  Angels will move heaven to help us accomplish the things that we can't do.  Some of the funny things she said: -don't touch the Elders!  Under any circumstances, they are not to be touched!...but keep track of the ones you do want to touch for AFTER you get home teehee
So I was in the bathroom the other day, washing my face and brushing teeth and getting ready for bed and all, and talking to a bunch of other girls on the floor.  One of them said they I reminded them of someone from Miss Congeniality, and literally everyone in the bathroom turned and was like "She does!  She is so like her!"  I've never seen Miss Congeniality, and I won't get to for another 18 months, so I guess I won't know if that's a good or bad thing for a while.  They said I reminded them Miss Rhode Island or something, whoever won the pageant.  So if someone could tell me if that's a compliment or embarrassing that would be great lol
The German is slowly coming :/  I'm sure to me it seems really slow, when in reality I'm learning way faster than humanly possible!  It's just getting harder because we're getting more into grammar and logistics now.  We're also learning cases-which I guess we don't have in English-but German has 3 or 4 cases, so it's really hard.  Caveman German just isn't acceptable anymore, we're actually expected to be coherent...lol It's coming, and I can translate sentences just fine on paper, It's just not second nature to me as I'm writing yet.
I finally memorized "Our Purpose" and all of D&C (L&B auf Deutsch) in German!  But now I have to start memorizing the First Vision auf Deutsch...yikes.  My companion and I are trying to memorize hymn 74 (Come thou Fount of every blessing) just for fun.  We sing that hymn at least 3 times a day!
So just real fast before I log off, I thought I'd share a few scriptures, cause I am a missionary and all..
- 2 Nephi 32:9.  Pray for everything!  The Lord has promised us that if we pray, he will help us and give us strength, so why do we often hesitate before offering a prayer?
-D&C 80:3 There are things that just don't matter!  There isn't ONE right path for every choice.  But if we do start to go wayward and down a path we shouldn't, the Holy Ghost will always be there to move us back on track.
-D&C 11:12-14  What more can I say?  I love this scripture.  Seek to have the Spirit with you always, and how can you doubt that what you're doing is right if the Spirit is with you?

Thanks for your support!
-Sister Peterson

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