April Showers Bring May Flowers

So since it's Oregon and it loves to rain we've had a couple days of clouds and rain. It was like there was a fog covering grants pass for about 4 days in a row, and then a huge thunderstorm and more rain! Yay rain! 

Happy Mother's Day to all those amazing moms and mom figures out there. Thank you for being the amazing and divine women that you are. Thank you for showing me what it means to love and to care for other people. Thank you for teaching me and helping grow in to the person that I am today. I love you all! And my mom for being the only woman in the world who could raise me. 

This week went by so fast I can't believe it's Monday already! We got to go to the Oregon caves today which is down in cave junction, and It was so cool! We went on a tour and our guide made the best cave puns he said "hey I just met you, and this is cavy" it was really great because I love puns. But the whole time I was thinking how great it would be to make a horror movie in these caves, and if you know me super well you know I love making movies and horror films! It was so cool though and worth it to spend all day there. Also apparently there have been sightings of big foot here, sadly we didn't see him. Oh and also I got a cool smushed penny too which I was really excited for at says Oregon caves on it! 

We had so many lessons with M this past week! I forgot to meant that last week we came up with a clever yet annoying rhyme to text M every day to get him to quit smoking. It goes "don't take a smoke, eternal life ain't no joke." We thought it was really good, and guess what! He hasn't been smoking so obviously it worked! 

We had family home evening with the Johnston family and M! It was really good because their daughte Lizzy taught the lesson on testimonies. She talked about what we can bear our testimonies on and that its ok to write it down so you don't get nervous or forget. 

Then on Tuesday we had a lesson with him on the priesthood. It was so exciting because after he gets baptized he can receive the priesthood, so to be able to teach him about it was really cool. At the end of the lesson we asked him why only a worthy male can hold the priesthood and he said they need to be worthy to prove to God that we are capable of being responsible enough to act in gods name.  

We had another lesson with him on Thursday on eternal marriage and temples.  We asked him how he felt to know he could be with his daughter forever and he was really excited. It's moments like that which make me so happy because he is progressing so much and seeing his testimony grow every lesson is really amazing. We got to tell him about doing baptisms for the dead, and that's something he will get to do soon after his baptism as well!  

On Sunday we had wait for it... Another lesson with M! We went over the questions he will be asked before he is baptized to help get an understanding of what he knows to be true and what he's learned from us teaching him. I loved this lesson because he shared his testimony of everything! It really is so amazing to be able to teach him because he is so strong with his faith and To see him want to do everything that God has planned for him is the best thing ever! I'm so excited for May 21st because If you forgot that's when he is getting baptized and we are all super excited for him. 

So I've never had family home evening on a Friday before, until this past week! We had fhe with a part member family. The family are all members except for their 16 year old daughter. And we were invited over to give the fhe lesson, so we decided it needed to be on prayer and why we pray. We started by explaining that God always wants to hear from us just like our earthly parents. And then we talked about Joseph smith and how he prayed to get an answer about which church to join in 1820. And God answered his prayer just like he answers all of our prayers in his timing. When we pray we thank Heavenly Father for what we have and our blessings and we ask him for things that we need or to help others. Our prayers should be us having a good conversation with our father in heaven. I know that prayer works. It's not just you talking to yourself, but you are talking to someone who loves you so much that he would do anything to help if only we just ask. I know Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers no matter when or where we pray. He is always listening. We said a prayer with the family where we each said a part to the prayer, and this brought the spirit in so strong. We each contributed what we were thankful for and things we were in need of. It was really an amazing experience.  

Ok after our lesson we played this game called the 7 second challenge. It's an app I suggest you lol it up. So the daughter had it and basically you get a challenge and you have to accomplish it in 7 seconds. Sister Sowter and I were on a team and this was our first time playing and not to brag or anything but we ended up winning the entire game. But we had to Reenact the titanic, so sister Sowter gets on the ground and grabs my hands and I start saying don't let go jack! Then she dies and drifts away.   It was hilarious! Seriously a great game. 

It's "walk week" here in the Oregon, Eugene mission. Which means that whenever possible we need to leave our cars at home and walk wherever we need to go. So sister Sowter and I walked to a lesson that we had with S, and it was about a 40 minute walk. And on the way home we met this guy standing outside of a house next to a tailor that had branches and leaves it it, so we said hi and told him to have a nice day, and he calls to us and asks " what church are you from?" So we back it up and I told him we were from the " church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And then we had to be like "the Mormons" and then he got it and we talked to him a little about what we believe and that is Jesus Christ is our savior and this is his church. And we found out his name is Matt and he is legit straight out of Compton. He told us that he hasn't been to church since he was little, and he moved up here to run his own company of yard work. We invited him to come to church sometime and he accepted it. Then we asked him if he would ever be interested in having a lesson and he said YES! He was the most sincere person I've ever met on the streets! So remember those little free libraries that we put Books of Mormon in? Well on our way to Shannon's lesson sister Sowter out her last copy in and so when we were talking to Matt he was standing right next to the free library so she ran over to it and grabbed the copy of the Book of Mormon for him and he took it and said he was going to read it! We planned to meet with him on Saturday and he's really great! Walk week brings miracles! 

We met with L our lovely 82 year old on Tuesday and had another great lesson with her. We taught baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and ensuring to the end. Something that I've noticed with L is that every lesson since she's been reading from the Book of Mormon she's had less difficult questions and focuses more on wanting to know the truth. So during this lesson we got to talk about the Holy Ghost and how he is a comforter and a guide in this life as long as we let him in. And we told her that as she continues to read from the Book of Mormon she will feel the spirit testify the truth of our message to her. She's so cute and great and this is a huge testimony builder to me of the power of the Book of Mormon because before she was confused about which church has the truth and always had hard questions and wouldn't accept our answers, but since she started reading she's been listening more and relying on God to help her. The book is true! 

We had the best lesson with J on Friday! We read the talk "like a broken vessel" which I highly recommend everyone read. It's the October 2013 conference by elder Holland. And it's all about mental illness. We just had a really great discussion and the spirit was flooding the room. Jessica told us that God never leaves her. He is always there and he wants her to see herself as a divine being because we are. And it's hard. It's hard to know our true worth because the world puts us down. Others put us down. But to see yourself through gods eyes is one of the best blessings you can receive. J is very special to me, and sometimes when I am teaching or even talking to someone for a moment I can see them how Heavenly Father sees them. I can feel that complete love for them and I can see their worth. I understand the feelings of being worthless, but if you really desire and try to see yourself as God sees you then for a moment and maybe even longer you will understand that you are worth more than you can comprehend. 

Another miracle! We did our weekly gardening at M's house on Wednesday and I never knew I could enjoy gardening so much, but as a missionary you enjoy things you thought you would never enjoy! But we were getting ready to leave and we were saying goodbye to M, and as we were talking she asked us what time church was on Sunday so we told her 10 then she made sure she knew where it was and we were like what's going on here, and she told us that she might come to church on Sunday! Now she told us before that she didn't want to come because she wanted to be sure that we were a good and true church so to hear that she was thinking about coming on Sunday well I think I passed out a little bit. But we played it cool and freaked out when we got in the car. Service works! We've been able to get to know her more every time we meet with her and our relationship is getting stronger. She's so amazing I wish you all could meet her! when Sunday came she didn't come sadly enough, she wasn't feeling good this weekend so hopefully next week! 

I love all of you and remember who you are ️ have a fantastic week! 

Love, 

Sister Peterson