Peach Rings and Angel Wings

Hello Friends, Family, & Awesome Missionaries I haven't Met Yet,

     I can't tell you how many of the new missionaries have come up to me in the past few weeks and said "Sister Peterson! This is going to sound really creepy, but I read your blog! It's so cool to finally meet you!" I don't really know what to say...I never read blogs before my mission, so I didn't realize that people other than family read them... I really just assumed mine wasn't being read either!

ubahn station; our main from of transportation

     So to all of you who read my weekly emails and blogs, I promise you that I actually do do missionary work!!! Sister Motto and I have a lot of fun for sure, but we are getting stuff DONE! That's one of the things that I really enjoy about working with Sister Motto, is I really feel equally yolked. It's been very nice to have her help me in the work without completely taking over. It's not that I am doing all the work because I know the area, or her doing it all so she can take over, but it's both of us working together- it is a pretty nice arrangement we have :)

It is August and we are wearing scarves, tights, and jackets

Speaking of companion unity...

     I have had people tell me my entire mission how similar Sister Motto and I are, and throughout our time together it has almost been spooky at times how similar we are. We went on another exchange last week with the Passau Sisters, which put me in Passau with Sister Wunderli (more about that in a bit). Sister Wunderli and I were waiting in the Passau Bahnhof for the other sisters to get there, so I went into a store to buy some snacks for the train ride back to Munich. I saw some Peach Ring candies and remembered that Sister Motto likes Peach Rings; I bought some and hid them in my bag. The Sister's showed up and Sister Motto and I hopped on the train to go back home. We were hardly sitting down for 2 minutes, and Sister Motto gives me this big, proud grin and says ''I have a surprise for you!!' and pulls out a bag of Peach Rings. I started cracking up and pulled out my bag of Peach Rings.  

We had two delicious bags of Peach Rings for the train ride back :) 

Elder Bootcher was in Munich this week

     I have never really understood Austausches (missionary exchanges) before. I've always enjoyed them and I have always learned a lot, but I had never had a miracle experience on Tausch before. The one exception was working with Sister Henry again in Linz- I had really needed time with her as she was probably the only one who could have given me confidence about training again! But I have always considered that a blessing for me, more than a miracle of the moment. Well, when Sister Wunderli got transferred to Passau and we were made Sister Training Leader's at the same time, I knew that I would eventually do a tausch with her. Things were kind of rough our last transfer together and our companionship ended on a sticky note, so I was really nervous about working with her again. After praying a lot about it with Sister Motto, we felt really clearly that I was supposed to stay in Munich with Sister Wunderli. We tausched after Zone Training working together great but it was kind of weird and awkward. 

Members make me smile

     However, when we got home and made dinner, Sister Wunderli just acted like she had a lot to get off of her chest. She went off about how sorry she was for some of the difficult parts of our companionship; how much she learned in our time together, how much she loves me and how grateful she was that we got to work together again! At the end of the tausch, she told me how much she had learned from those 24 hours that we had gotten to work together again. But at the end of the tausch, I knew that it was I who had had a really humbling and very needed learning experience. My goal for the tausch was to forgive her-what ended up happening is both of us forgiving each other and walking away with an increased love and appreciation for each other. It is incredible to see how we have both changed. That is truly the power of forgiveness, not only to stop holding hard feelings, but to actually have an increase in love and appreciation for our Brother's and Sister's. 

Together Again

     I have been studying a lot about sowing and reaping; especially whether God predetermines who will be sowers and who will be reapers. I have concluded that I am both a sower and a reaper, but for these past few years (especially these 17 months on my mission) I have been a sower. I will reap and recognize the fruit of my labors, but maybe later down the road. But for now I am sowing and giving others the opportunity to reap the fruits of my efforts.

Perfect example of this:

     About a month ago, Sister Erdenetsogt and I tried to visit all of the members and commit them to pray to find 1 person each year to bring to church. We encouraged them to pray for an opportunity to share the gospel, pray for names, and then invite invite invite! 

     We went over to this one members house and had a really awesome conversation. She was super stoked to do it so we asked her to make a commitment and to follow up with us to share her experience. Well, she came up to me at church yesterday and was super excited!!  She said ''Sister Peterson, do you remember when you and your companion came to my house a bit ago and did the family mission plan with me? About working with one person to bring to church this year? Well, I have been praying, just like you said, and looking for opportunities, just like you said. And guess what? I was over at my in-laws the other day, and there was this lady who kept asking questions about the church and we talked for a few hours about the church and our teachings! It worked! How cool! So I went home, took a Book of Mormon and wrote my testimony in it! And guess what?...'' 

I was so happy, seeing her excitement to share the story with me, the miracle of it all, the joy of having a golden member referral.... that I didn't really HEAR what she said next. It took me a minute to realize that when she said after "guess what?" was ''so I gave the Book of Mormon to the Elders and told them to go visit her! And they will be teaching her! How cool is that?!!''  

She thanked me for the lesson and said she would continue to pray and have her family pray for opportunities as well, and walked away as happy as she could possibly be... 

leaving me staring after her and wondering, 

THE ELDERS???? What! 

Planning Day Game

What a beautiful neighborhood

     Well, I guess it all works out for a reason and it really should be the Elders who teach her friend, but oooh, I wanted to grab Elder Bellersen and Elder Nielson's ties, pull them real close and say ''your are WELCOME!''

     The life of a sower is rewarding in a very different way. I like to say that I might not be having too big of a party in this life, but I will be having a ball in the next life, watching the big movie of my life on a big screen and seeing the small influences that I left behind. 

Take my word for it, we are all sowers and we are all reapers, but just as important as sowing and reaping is enjoying the harvest of each growing season! 

Love to you all,

Sister Peterson

A picture from Mom's photo challenge

Last One, Fast One

*** Note from Mom: The reality that Sister Peterson's next transfer call will bring her home has definitely set in. She is so blessed to have been given Sister Natalie Motto as her final companion. I know Sister Motto is not only perfect for Sister Peterson, but this is an answer to my prayers as I did not want Kori's mission to end without an opportunity to serve with this amazing young woman. She is from Utah County and will return to BYU January 2015 when Kori returns. There is no better person prepared to help Sister Peterson end her mission strong and focused. If you would like to cyber meet Sister Motto, her blog can be followed here

I would so appreciate if Sister Peterson's final six weeks could be flooded with words or encouragement, strength, and your own testimony. Her address is: 

Kirche Jesu Christi

Sister Kori Lee Peterson

Alfred-Schmidstrasse 35

81379 Munchen

Deutschland

Thanks so much- now on to why you're really on this page!

Hello Friends & Family, 

 

All my swimmer friends and family should definitely recognize the title of this email. It is going to be my motto for the next several weeks! I might be headed in for the last swim, and I know it's going to be a fast one- but I'm going to give it all I've got! 

This week has been much needed for Sister E and I. As much as I love being in Munich and serving here, we have always kind of struggled finding new investigators here and finding people who actually have serious interest and will progress! We have seen a few miracle families and people, but its been kind of rough to get in contact with a lot of them lately.However, the past two weeks have been filled with miracles and we've seen many areas of our work finally starting to pick up! 

I was especially grateful for the blessing of serving in a companionship this week. Sister Erdenetsogt and I decided to go to a city that takes a while to get to on the S-bahn in an effort to visit a less active sister in our ward- unfortunately she wasn't home. We really had nothing else to do, so we headed back to the S-bahn station to go back into Munich.  

I was praying in my heart, explaining to Heavenly Father that we had planned to visit this lady but she wasn't home. As I shared my feelings about how much time in travel  it takes for us to get here and back, I asked Heavenly Father to please let us find SOMEONE so that our trip wasn't in vain. 

Well, we sat down to wait for the Bahn, and two people, a sweet lady and a very drunk man sit next to us. The man sees our name tags and immediately starts ridiculing us for believing in God and serving in Germany; he was not being very friendly and he just would not stop.  

The lady was sitting on the other side of the man, sending us sympathetic smiles whenever she can and when the S-bahn finally got there, we tried to sit down next to the lady to talk to her; but the man would have none of it and he followed us to sit next to her as well.  

I tried desperately to get a conversation going with her, but every time I did, the man would interrupt and start asking weird questions again. Finally, I just to give him my full attention and talk to him for a bit. The whole time I prayed (and prayed, prayed, PRAYED) that Sister Erdenetsogt would talk with the lady.  

We got off the S-bahn, and sister E not only talked to her, but got her number and address and set up an appointment! We visited her family a few days later, and they are so amazing! They are so ready and so open to the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I still cannot believe that none of this would have happened if we weren't working with a companions, if we weren't unified in our purpose, and if we hadn't gone to that city to contact the less active woman! There are many things I hope to keep alive in post-missionary life and this is one of them. Being unified in such a way that the Lord's work can be fulfilled; if not by my hands, than by the hands of someone I am trying to support. 

One a boat with Mathias

The Senior sisters in the office, Sister Sonomura and Holmgren, are going home this week, so we decided to invite them over for dinner after our apartment inspection. It was so much fun, but it felt so backwards! Normally we are the ones who are invited over, but this time we got to prepare for the missionaries. They even gave us a spiritual thought at the end of dinner which was so nice that I about died with excitement haha

King Ludwick's memorial on Starnberg Sea

One of our investigator families, the Göbs, have started to become some of our best friends.  We have visited them every week for about 2 months now, and we have really enjoyed going over. They heard Sister Erdenetsogt and I talk once about how we want to go to the Zoo so badly because we live right next to it, but that we don't want to pay ourselves so we haven't gone. A few weeks later, they arrived at church so excited and presented us with Zoo tickets! We have been trying to go week after week, but with other commitments, limited time, and bad weather it just never worked out.  

Well, it is extremely obvious at this point, be we knew we were getting limited on p-days before it was possible that we would be separated again when transfer calls came up, so we decided that we would go on Monday, rain or shine, no matter how much time we had, we were going!  

Just a little sad that it is raining

"I spy with my little eye..."

Well it definitely turned out being more rain than shine, but WE WENT! 

It was pouring rain the entire day, but being the determined little missionaries we are, we bundled ourselves up, grabbed our rain gear and left headed straight to the ZOO! 

It was still fun, there was no heat nor long lines; we got the whole zoo to ourselves! 

I just really want to touch him!

As we left, we saw some nicely dressed people in the distance. As we got closer we saw the name tags and realized they were missionaries too! 

One of these things isn't like the other...

 

"In the USA, there is a law against tying a giraffe to a light post"

The Kohler's and the AP's had decided to go to the Zoo as well. Ha, even though Munich is huge and there is a ton to do, I guess going to the Zoo on a rainy day is THE THING to do. 

As for transfers, we will be making a companionship swap with the Tübingen Sisters. Sister Erdenetsogt is going to work with Sister Pentz in Tübingen and Sister Motto is coming here with me!  Though I will miss Sister E and we both dreaded the thought that one of us was leaving, we were blessed to get to work together again! 

Aside from saying good-bye to Sister E, I am so excited to get to work with Sister Motto!!! 

It was definitely weird in church yesterday to see Sister E say her goodbye's to the members; it doesn't feel real yet. I already saw her say goodbye in Linz, now I have to do it all over again?  But we will still see each other at MLC, so this isn't my last goodbye :)

Making cinnamon rolls

Well, I think this is all for me today. I have one final request from everyone- that is simply that you all will please pray for me!  

Pray that I will be able to keep my wits about me and that I do not get distracted; that I will stay focused this last transfer! I want to give it my all!  

Sleepover with the Munchen III sisters

There are so many miracles in Munich waiting to happen, so much potential waiting to be discovered! I can feel it!! 

I know I only have 6 weeks left, but like we would always say on swim team, Last One, Fast One!

Love to you all,

Sister Peterson

 

Diligence is the Key

Dear Friends & Family,

Have you ever had a day where you have so much to do, and you are running around from place to place, yet get nothing done?  

My goodness, that was like our entire week! 

Be Happy

For some reason, we always had so much to do, so many people to call, places to be, yet our key indicators were some of the lowest I have ever had. Those are the weeks that I wish that service projects and smiling at strangers could count as key indicators. But it was really cool to see how the Lord blesses us because of our diligence, and not by the number of items we crossed off of our 'to do' lists.  

Sister Erdenetsogt and I were on our knees more than ever this week to know where to go, who to talk to, and what to do; and we were constantly talking to people, but nothing seemed to go through.  Sunday rolled around, and of all of our invites, not one person was planning on coming to church! 

We were a little discouraged, thinking 'Not ANOTHER week of no investigators at church!' 

I remember praying so hard, knowing that if I want the members to get excited about missionary work and helping us, then we have to first set an example and bring people to church to get them excited-  and I just plead that somebody would be there.  

We came to church, and saw one of our investigators, an 8 year old boy whose sisters got baptized a few years ago. He had decided to come to church for the first time in a very longggg time.  

He gave me a huge hug and made me promise to sit next to him in sacrament meeting- it seriously made my day!  

And then, later on in the day, I was running down the halls before Sunday School to find sister Erdenetsogt.  

I had run past a man a few times, and he had given me a funny smile each time I passed by. After the 4th time I passed him, he finally stopped me and asked to shake my hand. I probably squealed so loud as I finally made the connection as to who the man was- -he and his wife are less actives that sister Erdenetsogt and I have been visiting. They haven't been to church in 20 years, and there they were, right in front of my eyes! He was laughing pretty hard as I was having my little heart attack of excitement! 

She got a care package with TONS of sweets

It was cool to see how even though nothing that Sister Erdenetsogt and I had worked for had ended up working out, but we still saw miracles and blessings because of our diligence. It made me realize how important it is to never give up! We just never really know when the fruit of our labors will be ready to harvest- but if we give up, there is no way our harvest will ripen. 

Transfer day was this week, and it was nice to sit this one out with NO changes! It was really weird to pass by Hauptbahnhof (the Munich train station, which is always chock full of missionaries on transfer day!!) on a tram and realize that so many missionaries that I know and love were only a flight of stairs above me, getting new companions and going to new areas, and I was just on my way to get ice cream :) 

 

Our stake president has encouraged all of the missionaries in the Munich Zone to call a member a day, even if just to ask how they are doing (which is pretty weird in the German culture; if you are calling someone it usually means you have a question or need help.)  

Sister Erdenetsogt and I were trying to figure out how to make our phone calls less awkward, when she came up with an idea that probably only made it MORE awkward, but so much more fun!  

We have determined to sing a fun, upbeat hymn to the members that we call each night. It is funny to hear their reactions when they pick up the phone and hear the sisters singing on the other side; some laugh, some get super confused, and some just awkwardly say thanks and hang up. They are going to remember us for sure!

Eating lunch on our outside couch

After Thursday (transfer day) Sister Erdenetsogt and I were officially the Sister Training Leaders. It was kinda weird- we had a meeting on Saturday with the Zone Leaders and District Leaders in the Zone, and we were asked to talk about appropriate Elder-Sister relationships, and how the District Leader's can still support the sisters in their district without being awkward.  

We started out by asking for some examples of their concerns- I didn't realize that the Elders had so many!  

We got questions like 'How do I talk to a Sister so that I don't seem like I'm flirting?' and 'Am I allowed to give the Sisters compliments?'  

Man, I didn't realize that we were so scary!  We tried to answer the questions the best we could, but I think I just ended up scolding the Elders and telling them that Sisters and normal people too...

I came into the mission back when there was hardly 2 sisters per zone and when Elders still thought talking to sisters was socially destructive, so I think I am very passionate on this subject. 

In all honestly enough, as excited as I always was to be a Sister Training Leader, I wasn't too excited right after President called us, but I am feeling more confident and excited now.  

I don't know why, but I actually got kind of scared as I started thinking about all the other sisters in this zone who are better leaders, better teachers, and who have been STL before. Why me?  What do these sisters have to learn from me?''  

...and then I was flipping through my old missionary journal, and realized that those were my exact same thoughts in Freiburg when I found out that I would be training Sister Henry.  It was my 3rd transfer, I was still new, and there were so many other sisters who could have trained. Why me?  What did I have to teach, what example did I have to give? And yet, whenever I ask Sister Henry how she felt about how I trained her, she says she is super grateful that we just worked things out together.  

Yes, sometimes we were the silly blonde sisters who had NO IDEA what we were doing, but we saw so many miracles together, and we had fun!  

I have to say, even after 4 times of training, my very first time was probably my favorite because I felt like I was giving my best. I was so concerned about what I didn't know that I didn't take my responsibilities lightly at all. 

Utah Chamber Choir singing in St. Lukas Church

So, quatsch with not knowing everything! Quatsch with not feeling adequate! I am going to take this new calling the same way that I took training Sister Henry, I don't know anything, and I make a lot of mistakes, but I want to laugh and learn when i make mistakes, and not be embarrassed and ashamed because I cant be perfect. So onward and upward in Munich.

Cool Building

Love to you all,

Sister Peterson

Swim Team & Missionary Work

 Große Neuigkeiten aus Deutschland

     As my time on my mission is wrapping up, I am feeling more nervous about becoming trunk-y. I think I'm more worried about avoiding feeling trunk-y than I actually FEEL; regardless, it is a big worry for me!

     I want to make sure that I am working with an ever increasing fire and excitement, even to the very last minutes on my mission. But sometimes, the goals and things that we are expected to do are just too big:

       How are we supposed to talk to every single person we see?  

       How are we supposed to extend the baptismal invitation to total strangers on our first meeting?          

       How am I supposed to keep my thoughts and mind focused completely and 100% until I take my name tag off after my release?

How do I stay focused when I know my days are numbered. I want to avoid these thoughts, but sometimes it seems like that's too much, too scary! 

Dinnertime

In missionary work, and really in life, there are goals that we set or expectations we need to live up to that might seem too big; it happens to me all the time. But when it does, I remember something that my swim coach, Coach Mike, would say to me all the time..

As a swimmer, I naturally hate any sort of sport that is done on dry land. I really don't like running or jumping jacks, and I can't even start to explain my deep hatred for climbing stairs. But whenever we were asked to do something that seemed hard at first, Coach Mike would always say ''You can do ANYTHING for 30 seconds.''  

And its true. When put like that, anything can be endured for 30 seconds! And the amazing thing is that after 30 seconds, it gets easier. It gets easier to keep going, to muster up more energy, until I have been running up and down stairs for 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, more!!  

I might not think that I can succeed at talking to every single person I ever see, but I CAN talk to the person who is sitting next to me on the bus. I might have difficulty staying focused for 3 more months, but I can control my thoughts for the next 5 minutes until we get to our next appointment.  And then it gets easier, even exciting, to be diligent :)  

Thank you, Coach Mike!

And another transfer calls come and gone! (Sister Peterson has two more transfer calls left, the second transfer calling being the one that sends her home)

I feel like they keep coming faster and faster..eep!  

Well, Sister Erdenesogt and I are staying together for another 6 weeks! We are super excited!! The funny thing is that when Sister Erdenesogt first left me and went to Munich, we had only been together 9 weeks and she was the companion that I spent the shortest amount of time with. But after this upcoming transfer together, our total time together will be 21 weeks- that's about 6 months together! Crazy! By then, she will definitely be the companion that I spent the most time with. 

The Lord has continued to answer my weird prayers and requests. I remember praying to go to see Switzerland just once on my mission, and the Lord sent me to Freiburg. Then I asked to go to Austria for Christmas, and he sent me to Linz. Well, last year, I found out that for the July MLC, President Miles scheduled it for the 4th of July, and so all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders had a fun little 4th of July party in Munich.  I remember setting the goal that I would be STL for the 4th of July.  Just a silly goal, but I always teased about how I would be made STL in July.  Well, President called us Friday to tell us we would be the new STLs for the Munich Zone.  And this transfer happens to cover July! The Lord really does care about us; the big things and the little things- they all matter to Him if they matter to us!  

Remember last email I told you that I had the weirdest feelings that we might be put in a driit. My dreams were weird because sometimes I felt like it was going to be Sister Henry I served with again and sometimes it was Sister Pentz... even though it was in my dreams, it felt so real that I was super confused. Well, I understand now what the dream was about- Both Sister Pentz and Sister Henry are going to be STLS!!!! 
This is so cool to me- I will get to see ALL of my babies (well, except sister wunderli, but she is a step child) at Mission Leader Conference! Aww, I am the proudest mama in the history of the world :)

I had to give my very first talk while serving as a missionary in church yesterday. I have always served in big wards, so I have avoided it for 15 months. I started to boast about that fact (I thought it was pretty impressive!) to the other missionaries, and of course, that's when bishop called me and asked me to speak. It was very short notice, but I was able to whip something up and I felt good about it.  

Sister Miles and I

The Miles' with the Munich children

That is Until I showed up the next day at church and saw President and Sister Miles, who were also giving their going-away talks! (President and Sister Miles' mission service is complete and they will be returning home) Gulp!  But it went okay I think! Not too scary- I don't do very well with ''soap-box'' teaching so I kept forgetting that I wasn't allowed to ask the congregation interactive questions!  They got to sit and watch me teach about the spirit and use fish analogies to explain my jumbled thoughts.   The good thing about being a cute American blonde girl, is that even when you look dumb, the people think you still look sweet ;)

Slack Lining

Popsicle time

Such a fun day

Trying it alone

 Thanks for all of your prayers and support!  I love you all so much :)

Ciao!

Sister Peterson