Rain Rain Go Away

This week has been so crazy! So many great things have happened. I'llstart with the S family. They are a family in our ward. They have
four daughters and the mom and dad are both young. The two older girls
have a different mom who didn't really teach them the gospel growingup and D (the mom) really wants her kids to gain testimonies for
themselves. The oldest is 14 next week! So D came to us on
Sunday and asked if we could share the missionary lessons with her
family on family nights and we were all for it. We taught theRestoration. All about the taking away of the priesthood and Joseph
Smith's restoring it back on the earth. It was really great to teach
about Joseph Smith because he was truly an amazing person. Since I had
been trying to pass off teaching the Restoration as my training the week
before I got to recite the first vision and teach about what JosephSmith did. The spirit in the room was so strong in this family's home
and as we taught Sister Sowter and I could feel the warm and peace. It
was amazing! One of the girls had a question and it was "how do you
know the church is true?" I told her I knew because I have felt theSpirit and that feeling doesn't happen all the time. Only when I am
doing what God wants me to do and where else would that amazing
feeling come from? I know because God always watches over me and I canfeel the Holy Ghost comfort me when I need him most. 

So we asked E,the 12 year old, how she knew the gospel was true. She said it's
because of the blessings she has seen in her life and the Holy Ghost
and the feeling she gets. She told us that she is thinking about going
on a mission and she had a really cool story about reading her
scriptures. She told us that she had a hard time reading anything and
she prayed to God and said if she read her scriptures every day would
he help her be able to read. So she did read and study her scriptures
and was able to become a great reader through the power of God and by
being diligent in her scripture study. It was a testimony to me thatGod will help us when we put forth the efforts. 

Sister Sowter had a really cool object lesson about the priesthood and made a pyramid with
all aspects of the church and when she took away the priesthood to
represent the fall everything came crashing down. It was a really goodway to represent how much we need the priesthood. On Sunday D
gave the lesson for Relief Society on Joseph Smith and is was amazing.
Her and her husband both served missions. She went to Spain and saidshe had a really hard time teaching. She taught 2 lessons the entire
time but what she did was amazing work and even though it's hard she
still touched a lot of lives which is something I need to rememberhere too. D shared with us her testimony of Joseph Smith and
when we were teaching it last Monday night she felt the spirit so
strong like when she was a missionary and every time Joseph Smith is
brought up. She also told us that after we left Monday that her oldest
daughter came up to her and said I've never felt that before. When I
heard that I was so happy that she was able to recognize the feelingof the Spirit and it was amazing to me that she was gaining her
testimony!

Also last  Monday during our pday my zone played Werewolf and it was
so much fun! It was the game I brought and everyone loved it and it
really bonded us so it was a good time!

We did a lot of finding last week which means going out and looking
for people who have been prepared by God to be taught. We went to finda man named C who the other sister missionaries found, but he
was in our area so they referred him to us. We had a lesson with him
last week but he wasn't home and we had a lesson this week but he
wasn't home again! So that night we were just hanging at home and we
got a text from a random number that said sorry I wasn't home I wentto the circus. And the next text said this is C. We were really
excited cause we gave his neighbor our number to give to him and he
actually texted us. Then he texted us saying "I would love to come to
church with you tomorrow, but I'm not sure where it is." And we were
freaking out like we can tell you!! So he ended up coming to church
and we found out he was baptized about seven years ago but he became
inactive. We were happy to see him at church and the elders will begin
to teach him some lessons so we can get him coming back to church
every week.

We also found a mom and her daughter who are inactive which means they
stopped coming to church. And we found them when we were looking for a
couple who the missionaries taught a couple years ago and they haven't
been visited in a while. But when we knocked on their door we foundout that they had moved and we found V and K who are members
and they told us they were thinking about coming to church on Sunday.
They were the nicest people in the world. It's amazing how much love I
have for people I just met. They told us it was not by accident that
we knocked on their door and we didn't think it was either. God
definitely has a plan and this was a part of it. We were so excited tosee them at church on Sunday and V also brought her boyfriend so
that's really exciting for everyone. I'm pumped to get to know them
more.We are teaching J who was baptized a couple months ago I'm not
sure if I have mentioned her before so I'm going to again. She's
amazing. I love her so much! She has a baby about six months old and a
12 year old daughter and I'm so sad that I can't hold her baby because
he is adorable. We get to teach her the new member lessons which means
make sure she understands more about the covenants she made with God
at her baptism. We are trying to make sure she reads her scriptures
every day and this past week we taught her about repentance. It made
me realize how hard we all are on ourselves even when we don't need to
be. I know I've had to learn how to forgive myself and it's so
important that we do because after we have done all that we can to be
forgiven we need to be able to forgive ourselves because God doesn't
want us to suffer anymore. He doesn't want us to be angry with
ourselves or hate ourselves. I loved this lesson so much because it
strengthens my testimony on gods love for me and the power and healing
of the atonement. God loves us all so much that he sent Jesus to take
away our sins If we let him. We have to act to be able to change. I
love my Heavenly Father and the love he has for me is way too great.
He doesn't want anyone to be sad which makes me so happy!

This mission so far has definitely been a trial and test of my ownfaith, but I always remember what I told E at family home evening

last week. The feelings of joy I get are from God. I know for fact
that I am never alone and when I feel sad I get on my knees and I pray
to my father in heaven. Everything I do is working in constant efforts
with him. Everything I have is because of him. I love where I am right
now. There is no one I would rather be and no place I would rather be.
I'm growing and learning so much on my mission and helping other
people come closer to their father in heaven.  Never give up! It's not
worth it because we all have come so far and have a loving savior to
take away our pains. And that's enough for me :)

I love you all with my whole heart! Have an Amazing week!

With the best love ever,

Sister Peterson

Scariest Moment Ever-Jenna