Learning Gratitude the Hard Way

Hello Friends & Family- 

     Well, just in case you have been living under a rock the past few weeks (or are like my mom), you may not have heard that I am currently living in the same country that can officially claim they are the world's soccer champions!! I'm sure you can imagine, it's a pretty big thing here-

German pride is everywhere!

     One thing you have to know about me is that I am awful at quoting movies and songs! I am also the biggest fan of exaggerating and paraphrasing! Hopefully that explains my biggest epiphany this week: there is supposedly a quote in some sort of movie or spoken by some sort of a famous actor that goes something along the lines of 'When we ask God for patience, He doesn't just give us patience, He gives us the opportunity and experiences that will teach us how to be patient.' And so it is with everything-humility, faith, diligence- we might think we are asking for a Christlike attribute, but what we often get is a refiners fire that forces us to develop that attribute- I never understood why people always say "Never pray for patience..." Well, now I understand, and for me the lesson came this week as Heavenly Father taught me about gratitude!  

     Last Monday, I had a huge panic attack. Did I say huge?... well, I mean to say HUGE!!! 

Actually, it was pretty embarrassing. We went home after emails, and all of my worries and stress and fears just kind of exploded. Sister Erdenetsogt got to see a real 'American' girl break down; which included me laying on the floor, crying while shoving peanut butter and crackers into my mouth, whining about my problems for a good hour or two! Honestly, she didn't know whether she should be serious or laugh! Before Monday, I hadn't really given myself a lot of time to think about what scared me. I hadn't really thought about my fears, my worries, and my concerns. This little breakdown really forced me to think about what was most important to me and all the promises Heavenly Father has given me to help me keep my heart open to all that I will need to go through.

     Luckily it was P-day so we were able to stay home for a bit until I calmed down, but I had decided to ask some of the Elders in my district if they could give me a comfort blessing the next day after district meeting. I was 100% sure that the blessing would solve all of my problems, tell me everything that I wanted to hear, and that life would be fine and dandy. Well, I hadn't told the Elder giving me the blessing what was wrong; I just told  him that I wanted one. I was totally confident that I would hear what I needed to hear (or at least what I THOUGHT I needed to hear.)  

     But to my disappointment, the blessing was really general and did not address, in even the slightest way, what my worries were. The rest of the day, I was really upset; I was even tempted to call the Elder and tell him that I needed another blessing. I had gotten some pretty cool promises and been told some cool things, but I was so focused on the fact that I hadn't heard what I wanted to hear that I wasn't grateful for what I had heard. I wasn't listening! 

     The next day during personal study, I was reading talks from last general conference, and of course President Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude was next. It was a big slap in the face of how I needed to be grateful first for what I have, then I can be given more. I made a list of all the things that I was promised in the blessing, and how those things would help me in my work. Then I made a list of all the things I was still worried about, and decided to leave it to the Lord, put my worries in a mental box, and place it at His feet. From there I went about and continued on my day.

Me and my girls at Mission Leadership Conference

Birthday celebration with the Munich missionaries and the Kohler family

     Well, that day we had another Austausch with the Sisters in Augsburg. Sister Smith came here to Munich to work with me, which was really cool, since she started out in Munich II, and so I got to see the way that she loves and teaches the same exact people that I love and teach. It was also cool because there have been lots of people that Sister Erdenetsogt and I have been trying to get into contact with, but who have never answered us, but we were able to get back into contact with some of them and even meet others. But the biggest gift and mercy came for me at the end of the Tausch when we were on the way back. Normally I don't really open up about super personal thoughts with people who are not my companion, especially people who I haven't really known a long time. But for some reason, I told Sister Smith almost everything about what was on my mind; why I am nervous to go back to Texas, my fears, the sense of security that I feel as a missionary and not wanting to lose that; feeling like I don't have enough time to do all the things I still want to do here in Munich, etc.

     The blessing came when she opened up a bit to me on how she felt about my worries and she shared some thoughts that could help me. Well, surprise- surprise, they were exactly the things I needed to hear and had been praying to hear ever since I had decided to ask for my blessing. Heavenly Father could have just been told the exact same things on Tuesday in my blessing; But instead, the Lord taught me to be grateful first and to remember the promises He has given me (and the miracles He has shown me),to have faith, and to press forward! After He allowed me to put my heart in the right place, then I could receive the comfort that I needed. 

This is what our kitchen looks like on Sunday's after we get done making gifts for our members and investigators

     We did get to celebrate Mongolian Independence Day on Friday with one of our investigator families, the Göb's. Lately, I feel like all that we are eating is German potato salad and Mongolian dumplings- it's good thing that they are both so delicious!!

Mongolian Independence Day celebrations

Thank you so much for your love, your support and your prayers,
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

Willkommen in Munchen

Mmmm, I can smell that Bayern pride already!

Surprisingly, as adamant as I was to never ever EVER go to Munich, I actually feel right at home here. Since day one, Sister Erdenetsogt and I have been able to jump right back into the groove of things, it feels really normal and comfortable to be here with her so far. I will say that it does feel a bit weird for ME to be the one who is following HER around everywhere; but I have absolutely no idea where we are or what I am doing yet in this new town! I am not complaining though, it is a fun change!

Back together again- the first time just seemed too short

Munich is HUGE, especially compared to my other areas; I have gone from quaint little Freiburg to a little bit larger Linz to a huge city with lots of missionaries. I've gotta get used to that!

For those of you who I didn't get to Skype with on Mothers day, I got a haircut! It was so impulsive, but I guess not really...I have been planning on cutting my hair ever since I came to Linz, I just didn't know how short I wanted to cut it. Well, after 7 months of debating, I finally decided it was unhealthy enough to get a cute little trim. One of our investigators in Linz is a hair-dresser, and we were over at her house on Wednesday to give one last lesson before I left. At the end, she asked if I wanted her to cut my hair before I left. Ja, freilich!!! Then she asked how long I wanted to keep it and then...

CHOP!!

Good-bye's- I am really going to miss her, it seems too soon

I about had a panic attack when I saw how much hair was on the floor. Sister Pentz took some pretty good pictures of my panicked faced. I think I am fine now, but it is pretty drastic! I've always felt that only older people wore their hair short, so I feel like I instantly got 10 years older just because of the haircut.

Matching Missionaries

Munich is a much different city than where I have been so far. First of all, it is a much more modern city with so much International influence. There are so many Americans in my new ward! Well, actually, in this entire area, which is pretty weird to me. I have never realized how much we American's stick out like sore thumbs. For my entire mission, I have heard a lot of English at church just because almost everyone in the world learns English at school. It is very likely to have two people from different countries communicating in English to each other. So it really wasn't weird to HEAR English being spoken, but it has been a little strange to watch the other American families in the ward, observing their mannerisms and hearing the phrases we say, it makes me laugh.

Dinnertime in Munich with an American family eating Japanese food- talk about International

I asked sister Erdenetsogt how obviously American I am, and she just laughed and told me I'm about as American as it gets. Oh, how I have missed working with international companions, they say the darndest things :P

A youth activity in Munich

We have been seeing miracle after miracle here in Munich! 
But I actually wanted to end with a miracle that Sister Pentz and I saw in Linz the day before I left. It started off a few weeks ago, when the Elders gave us a woman investigator of theirs. She only has time to meet at times where most men are at work, so the Elders could never find any one to joint teach with them. Since the Elders can't teach her alone, they asked us to teach her. Well, we have had a hard time getting in contact with her, so we decided to go by her house with a card and some cookies. Cookies and treats are definitely one of the tricks I have learned on my mission! It is hard to resist someone with a sweet Personal Touch, no matter how much they think they don't want to answer they door- really, who can resist a yummy treat?

We got to the address when we realized that we didn't know her last name, so we didn't know which doorbell to ring. We knew she is from Africa, so we looked for all of the African last names on the doorbell box. We found two; one of them didn't answer, and one said that we rang the wrong house! So much for that approach.
Then we decided to ring random people and ask them to open the door so that we could drop the cookies off on her doorstep and leave. Literally nobody was home except the African man we had rang before. But he let us in and asked how he could help, and then he saw that we were missionaries and asked what we believe, what we do, and offered to let us to come by another time and teach him. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and set up an appointment (for last Wednesday.) Well, we went by with a member, and he is so GOLDEN!  He had already started to read in the Book of Mormon, and he had so many amazing questions, like 'What happens with us after we die?'  'I have a hard time believing the perfect go to heaven and the bad go to hell, what happens with the rest of us?' and 'If God is the same forever, then why are there so many churches on the earth today?' 
It was so cool to hear every question and want to jump up and shout WE HAVE THE ANSWERS!  Man, it was so cool to see how God had prepared such an amazing person to accept the gospel, and how we just accidentally happened to meet him because we were dropping off some cookies to an investigator. Those moments help renew my excitement for finding :) 

I am going to miss this girl!

Hugs from Linz

 

The Didenhover's

Companion Selfie's

One more for the road

I was struggling to think of a spiritual thought to give a family on Mothers Day, and so I wrote down a lot of my favorite things about my mom and what I learned from her. I looked through the list and decided on a scripture that fit with the list
So in honor of all mom's today, I want to close with that scripture 
D&C 64:33  "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great."

Well, it is getting late, and I better go! I hope everyone has an amazing week :)

Tschüßie!

Sister Peterson