Monday night we had dinner with some really sweet older ladies in the ward. It's so nice to be able to go to members homes and feel of their love for us.
Tuesday we had a lesson with Tom and taught him about faith and repentance. It went really well! We saw Michael who we met last Monday and he said he was grateful that we stopped him to talk and is excited to meet with us
Wednesday we weekly planned and couldn't wait to get outside and find and teach people.
Thursday we had a lesson with Joni and Winnie and they are both going through a lot right now. We had planned to teach them the plan of salvation which is perfect for them at this time. Winnie lost her husband last February, and she finds comfort from talking to us and knowing she will see him again. As we taught them they were both so excited to learn and the spirit was so strong. At the end of the lesson sister Banner invited Winnie to be baptized and Winnie said she wants to learn more, but she said she would! They both committed to read from the Book of Mormon and to pray. Joni even told us that she had been reading every night before bed, but not recently and she feels the difference.
We had a lesson with the G. family later that night and talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Alley left halfway through but that's ok because she went to get ice cream with her new friend in the ward that she just met a couple days before at mutual. I can truly see the happiness that comes when members reach out to those who need a friend. It makes me want to reach out to everyone. All people want to feel wanted and welcome.
Friday we had a new missionary training and sister Banner killed it! Then we had district meeting and learned more about effective companionship study. Sister Banner and I decided to go tracting for the time before dinner and we met a couple women named Tammy and Lorie. They were outside at their yard sale and we OYMed them and talked about how much Christ has been a part in their lives and we talked about the restorations and Lorie wanted us to come back and her cousin Tammy said she would think about it, but as we were handing Lorie a pamphlet Tammy said she wanted one too. Seed planted!
Saturday we got a call from elder Danley in the office saying he was coming with a washer and dryer for us!! #blessed. We got to see the Danleys which is always a great :) later we went out to Lowell which is about 20 minutes from Springfield, and noticed they have something called a "blackberry jam" every year which is an outdoor market and music festival. Looked like fun and there were so many people out. We didn't go, but instead we went to visit a less active member named crystal. She had surgery on her knee a couple weeks ago and has been house bound. We just got to know her and she expressed how excited she was to go to church on Sunday and she can now bring her son to church after some court situation with her ex husband. She saw that as such a huge miracle because her children aren't members of the church and her son Travis is so excited to learn more and start coming! She's so amazing and has a strong testimony of what Christ can do for her and her family.
Sunday we called Joni in the morning and sang her happy birthday! She was grateful and she said she was about the leave for church, but she didn't come and we haven't heard from her about what happened. But we did a get a message from her this morning so no worries! The G. family came to church but had to leave early because Alley wasn't feeling well. Crystal and her son and husband were there and her son, Travis, came up to us and shook our hands and said " his I'm new here and you'll probably see me next week." So sweet! Then we got to gospel principles call and saw Jerrold! He had just gotten there, but he left after second hour. Church was so good! They had the mission moms speak about their missionaries and many talked about the blessings that come from having their kid on a mission. It was hard not to think about my family while they talked about Sister Banner and I agreed that we were both thinking of how much we love our families and are grateful the Lord is watching over them.
In relief society we had brother Crook, who works at the institute, come and teach us about "certain women" from the last general women's conference. It was so good because we broke down the word certain and he told us that we are all "certain women and to look at the things we do well because we have more positive things than negative. It was so good. After church we had dinner with the Rhees family and we talked about some less active members they wanted us to go visit.
When we left dinner we saw we had a missed call and we listened to our voicemail and it was from one of the people we were talking about and he said "we would like to set up a time to take the lessons" woo!! We called him and after a little phone tag he explained that his wife was baptized about a year ago and hasn't had all her new member lessons yet so this week we got to teach them from the beginning! We are so blessed. We met with Tom and had such an amazing lesson with him. Granted he didn't read his chapter but it was perfect for what we had to teach him. After a really bold and genuine conversation about keeping commitments we read 2 nephi 31 with him and he asked such good questions. I'm grateful we've built such a good relationship with him so we can be bold, but it always has to be with love or it's just rude. We explained more about why baptism is so Important especially with the authority of god. And he was paying attention that he was leaning forward to soak it all in. He said the closing prayer and we kneeled in the grass outside and he said the most genuine heartfelt prayer. He prayed to read his Book of Mormon before he doesn't anything else. He's so ready and he keeps telling us that he tells everyone this is the true church!
Today as we were shopping we got a call from a member in the ward, but we missed it and saw we had a voicemail and when we listened to it she told us that crystal wants her son Travis to get baptized and she has a lot of questions for us! I know the Lord is blessing us so much right now and I recognize that it is only Him who could place all of these miracles on our path. I'm so grateful for what's been happening lately. I've been blessed so much my whole mission. God is very aware of me and I've seen that. And it I haven't seen it right away I can always look back and see where his hands were. He is always there for us. We just need to seek Him.
I love you all! Remember the little things count.
Love,
Sister Peterson
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