11-05-12

November 5, 2012 "So, how do you like the pool?" "It's nice!" "Cool! Hop on in! You're gonna get baptized!"get baptized!" Hey there everyone! YEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Woo! Guess what? N totally got baptized!!! I forgot my cord today, so pictures will be next week it looks like, but I've got pictures, so no worries. I got to baptize her on Saturday and it was about the most cool ever. I've never seen her more smiley before and her mom and sister were super pumped about the baptism. I think one of the coolest things about the baptism was the closing song we had for it "Families Can be Together Forever". N's family had been less active for awhile before the senior couple came into town, and their family was so surprised and happy when the senior couple came by and wanted to help them become active again. It was a hard process, and that story will have to come on another day, but the family (Mom, daughter, 16 years old, son, 15 years old, N 9 years old and son, 7 years old) is doing way awesome now and has been so blessed. Like I was saying, we were singing the song and the words mentioned how if we learn the gospel and are worthy starting from our childhood years than we'll go to the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity. that hit me like a train when I realized that that whole family was still young, that they were becoming active (the brother passed the sacrament on Sunday) and preparing, right now, for the greatest blessings the Lord has in store. And me and Elder Treter and the senior missionaries got to play a part (and still play a part) in helping all of that come to pass. That's pretty cool. Another cool thing was the testimony meeting. Of everyone there I think her sister was most excited about her baptism. She said "You know, just seeing you getting baptized makes me want to get baptized again too! You've got an eternal friend now, sister, and he always will help you." She right now is studying to become a chef and she told us how before she begins to prepare and cook a meal she always says a prayer and asks for God's help to guide her hands and help her learn well. She said that everytime she does that she sees God's help and knows that He loves her. It's pretty cool to see the faith of the Russians here. I've seen that a ton on my mission, how people so simply and earnestly ask for help and love from God and find it as they go forward with faith. it's really easy to think "this thing is so simple, I don't need to ask for help, what's it really matter to Him anyways?" But her testimony helped me remember something really simple but true: what matters to us, no matter how big or small it may be, it is important also to God. He's so eager to help us in what we do in life, and He's always ready to guide us so long as we just ask! Pretty cool, huh? Anyways, enough about that for now. We have another baptism planned for Saturday so more news on that this next week. We had exchanges this past week too, which was fun and I got the chance to go across the Europe/ Asia border, so now I've not only been in America and Europe, but now Asia! Spiffy! Sean asked if we eat out much or if we eat any Italian/Chinese food. Well, we don't eat out much at all unless it's Zone Conference (and then it's either KFC or McD's, tasty!). Italian resturants are around, that I do know, but my guess is that they're pretty expensive, and I'm not sure that I've ever seen a Chinese food place. Then again, I make soem variety of pasta or pizza nearly every week, so we have some genuine Elder Peterson Italian food! Good stuff :) Looking like time is up. I'm always on the hunt for some nice music to listen too, so if you've got some good uplifting music I'm always up for it. I'm gotten a craving for cello music lately and always I love celtic music, so if you can find some of that or anything else cool for that matter, I'm always up for it. Also Russia has a lack of good mechanical pencils, and mine from the MTC have both broken, so that'd be nice too. Also, from Mom, I wanted to know if you had any particular kind/color/material of shawl you wanted me to look for. I've got good taste (I hope! :D) so no worries, burt if you've got some specific requests I'd love to hear 'em. Well, that's it for now. Thanks so much for everything! I love you lots :) With love -- Elder Peterson