Watch For The Dog

From rain dripping on our backs to sweat back to rain again. This weather is crazy! But everyone says that spring is coming so I'm excited for that! P and L's and A and S are all doing great! Their testimonies are getting stronger every day. 

Last Monday we walked on campus all night and had some really good conversations with people.

Tuesday we had a missionary leadership council where we were trained by the leaders of our mission on how to be better leaders. They changed the way that they do these meetings now. Instead of us learning and taking information back to teach our zones on Friday we are being trained on how to work more effectively as the leaders in the mission. It was so good and really Inspired me to want to work harder and be better to uplift those in my zone. They focused a lot on how the leaders of the mission set the tone for their missionaries and we need to make sure we are doing our best and working hard so we can be good examples and also for the other missionaries to see that they can be influenced for the best. 

So last Saturday we called this guy named A to meet with us on Wednesday and he said he would be there, but whenever we tried to set something up before he didn't show up, so Wednesday rolls around and we call him to make sure he can still meet, but he doesn't answer, so we leave him a message telling him we will wait at the church for him. before his lesson we go on campus to find people, and it was a couple minutes after the time we gave him that we got a call from sister whitmer who works at the institute telling us that A was there! We ran back to the church and there he was! P came to our lesson with him and it was so good. We taught him the restoration and then he committed to baptism on June 25!! 

Thursday morning we had the best lesson with K who we met last Sunday. He told us that he read the introduction to the Book of Mormon all the way to the testimony of Joseph smith, and then he prayed and asked god to show him where He wants him to be. He asked God to lead him down the path that's right for him. We had such a spirit-filled lesson as we taught him the restoration and  again committed him to be baptized and he said yes and we prayed about a date and invited him to work towards June 4. He accepted and knows that god will lead him and prepare him! Ever since we met him we see him ALL THE TIME on campus and it makes us so happy because he's such a good person! 

Friday we had district meeting and President and sister Russell came to our meeting! Since my district has been studying the Christ like attributes this week we decided to focus on patients. We had a good talk about how all the attributes link together, and we need them all so they can work hand in hand. We talked about not only enduring, but enduring well. It's about our attitude on things when they happen that show our patients. It was a really good talk! We talked about finding people to teach and what we can do to make sure they actually want to learn when we come back. Really stating our purpose and helping people understand why we are there helps! We also talked about not asking people if we can share our message, but to just start sharing. I agree with that! 

After district meeting we were driving to campus and felt like we needed to pull over to talk to someone, so we did and they guy was way nice but not too interested and we kept walking and ran in to this guy named D. He told us he believes in Christ but he hasn't been to church in a while. We talked to him about strengthening that faith he has and how having that foundation in Christ will help and bless him in all aspects of life. We shared the Book of Mormon with him and he said he would read it! I find it amazing that god places us where we need to be so we can find people we are meant to meet. If we didn't feel the promoting to pull over and talk to that first guy who wasn't too Interested we would have never met D! God is so amazing with his timing. 

We were supposed to have a lesson with N, but he got stuck in Seattle, but the crazy thing is when we got to the church Friday night he rode up on his bike and we got to talk to him! He told us every time he got stressed on his trip back from Seattle he would stop and read he Book of Mormon! He's amazing but unfortunately we found out he is 32 so we have to pass him off :( I cried a little when we found out, but he will be great in the 3rd ward!

Saturday we planned for our upcoming week and went to contact people and invite them to church! Unfortunately no one was home! 

Sunday was super good! It was fast Sunday so we got to listen to everyone's testimonies during sacrament meeting. I bore my testimony on prayer and how we can ask god anything, and I quoted the new youth music sing "ask of god" and afterwards everyone kept tells me they thought I was going to start singing and they were pumped! No! But I do love the theme of that song because it talks about how god will be there for us through all things. All we need to do is reach out and talk to him. 

N came to church, and he told us the best news!! He told us that he finished the Book of Mormon Saturday night! THE WHOLE THING!! I think we freaked out about it more than him. We were just so proud! Then we had to tell him that he needed to be taught by the 3rd ward elders and he understood. In gospel principles we talked about the covenants we make at baptism, and mostly how we take upon the name of Christ and chose to be an example at all times. Then in relief society we focused on ways that we can come closer to Christ. 

We OYMed on campus for a couple hours after church and met this really sweet girl named A. She believes in Christ, so we gave her a Book of Mormon snd she said she would bring her sister to meet with us when she's in town in a couple weeks!! We went home to break our fast, and then we went back on campus and met this guy who doesn't believe in god,  and we had such a good conversation with him about how much God loves him and wants him to know that. We gave him a pamphlet and he told us maybe one day he would want to know more. It's so sad when you see people who want god in their life, but later in the future rather than now. And that's been a lot of people we meet lately. 

We decided to go contact with girl, but she wasn't home so we started knocking on the doors in her apartment complex. No one was super interested although this one girl paused her FaceTime to talk with us! We were about to head to the church and sync since it was almost 9, and as we were walking down the stairs I heard a dog bark below us, and I felt like we needed to knock on the door that this dog lived at cause I thought I saw a woman walk by earlier with her dog and I thought it was her, so we were walking away from the complex,  I told sister Wilson that we needed to knock on the door with the dog outside on the porch and she turned right back around! We knocked and this guy opened up and his dog also ran to the door, and instead of using it as an excuse he came outside to talk to us! He already knew we were missionaries and had friends that are members of the church. He  told us his name is J and when sister Wilson heard that she said "oh coolio!" And we were like bet you've never heard that before! We make friends real fast here in the ysa. He told us he moved here six months ago and he works for the army. When he was in Nevada he was a youth pastor at his church and we had the best conversation with him about Christ. He has the strongest faith in Christ and in god! We told him about the restoration and said that just like Joseph smith the best way to learn truth is to ask god! He brought up a concern about the Book of Mormon which he's talked about with his friend before. And we explained that the Book of Mormon isn't meant to replace the Bible, but add to the witness that Jesus Christ is our savior. He told us he's never read it before, but that he should before he comes to any conclusions about it. He asked us for a copy, but We just gave away our last copy before we knocked on his door, so embarrassingly we ran to our car to grab him a Book and when we came back he was still outside waiting for us! We marked 3 nephi 11 and the Introduction for him to read, and he's going home to be with his family for Mother's Day. So we are going to meet with him when he gets back! It was such a miracle! Every day is full of miracles we just need to keep our eyes and hearts open to see them. 

I love you all and thank you so much for the support you always send to me. Have a fantastic week! 

Love, 

Sister Peterson