09-17-12

September 17, 2012

"Want some tea, boys?" "Sorry! We gotta go! Next time!" "This is next time! No! Stay! Drink tea!"

Hey there everyone!

Gosh, this week has been a good week for a lot of reasons. The past couple of weeks in general have been pretty dang rough, really, and it's felt like so much of the work we'd been doning wasn't going anywhere. My companion and I were musing one day while walking along the dusty empty roads of Marks if we'd end up walking more in these two years of our missions then all the years before our mission combined. Suffice it to say, we've walked a lot these past couple of weeks :)

In trying to fingure out just what exactly I needed to be doing better and how we could get the work rolling more in Marks, I ran across a talk that was given to us as part of district meeting this past week and it absolutely helped me a ton. It's a talk that Mom quoted in her talk at Mer's funeral (it was a super fantastic talk too, by the way) by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace is Sufficient". If you have the time, you should read it. Even if you've already heard it, it's still a really good thing to read it again. So awesome :) That gave me the support I needed to really do all the things I didn't want to do this past week and keep on going.

And, of course, it's not all gloomy here in Marks. Far from it! Fall has come and I love crunching through the leaves as we walk around. It's so pretty here, and the trees are all changing from green to those cool yellows, oranges and reds. Pretty darn cool. The weather is having a lot fo trouble in making up it's mind, not really knowing if it should be really warm or super chilly. It's pretty cool to think that this is the time of year when I came into Russia and that I get to witness Fall all over again. so cool!

In addition to the trees, our investigator has been making some really cool development in her gospel knowledge. She loves reading and re-reading the brochures we've given her on the Gospel and always has lots of good questions and she's already beginning to read the Book of Mormon again. She came to church yesterday, which was way awesome, though I wonder how much she heard...she's still got a bit of a hearing problem, though it's not nearly as bad as it seemed to be that first time when we taught her. Teaching her is always fun because I feel almost like I'm shouting but I'm shouting really cool things like how the Gospel helps us repent and come back to God and how there's a prophet on the earth today. Good things to shout, and the neighbors aren't bugged, so I figure it's all good :)

For the first time this week too I tried signboarding for the first time. We have out handy dandy big white board on which we wrote down "Have you thought about these questions? 1. Does God know me? 2. What does God expect from me?" It was really cool to see the responses we got from that signboard, ebcause nearly everyone believes that there's a God and that He knows them, but not many people had beofre thought about what maybe He asks of them. Got some good conversations and a few numbers from that little 45 minute escapade, and so we'll see how that goes and try it again this next week!

I had one question for my family, especially you Mom and Dad since you're so gospel knowledgeable, how to dsitinguish in the Bible and the Book of Mormon which things were done by God and which were done by Jesus Christ. I know that when it says "Lord" or "The Lord God" that it's almsot always Christ, but there are times where it just doesn't seem as clear of, like in 2 Nephi 7 which I read this morning, it almost sounds like it's Christ talking to himself through scripture. Does that question make sense? Anyways, I hope it does and it'd be cool to see what thoughts you've got on it :)

Anyways, my time's up. Thanks so much for being the awesome family and friends you are. I love you lots. :)

With love, as always

--

Elder Peterson

September 10.2012

09-09-12

"Peterson, why do you look so sad?" "All the watermelons...they're gone! No!"

Hey there! :)

Gosh, lots of stuff happened this past week. First off, everyone give a super big "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" to my companion Elder Strebe! It was funny this morning talking about it with my district leader. Elder Strebe is a good, healthy eater and has tactfully refused to eat any sweets (he generally graciously accepts the candy/brownie/delicious morsel of food and sneakily hands it over to me), but it made me wonder about what we can do to celebrate his birthday today if we can't eat cake. The solution: Putting candles in a loaf of whole wheat bread :) Yay! In addition I'll probably make a cake or brownies and celebrate Elder Strebe's birthday in my own way too!

Real quick, Mom and Dad that's probably the fastest I've ever gotten a package from ya'll. I mean, didn't you just send that a few weeks ago? Both packages were waiting for me at Zone Conference and I'm currently wearing the new shoes. Thanks so much for the insoles too! I feel like I walk on puffy clouds now as opposed to bricks. It's a very nice change :)

Zone Conference was a very cool experience. The main focus of it all was on being "always" missionaries. To explainw hat that means, we took a survey wherein we had a question given to us, for example, "Do you always wake up at or before 6:30?" and we then were given the general 5 options of: Never, seldom, sometimes, almost always and always. President Malm, when he came, decided to show a section of the statistics wherein he only showed the percentage of people who answered "always". Of course, for the waking up on time one we had something like "99%" of people saying always, but then there were other questions where it was  suprisingly low. Everything was taken from Preach My Gospel like the example of the question "Do you invite your investigators to be baptized on the first lesson?" and the percentage of "Always" was pretty low. This of course rose up questions like "Well, what if the situation isn't right or..." but the point of the conference was that if it's written in Preach My Gospel, then it's advice directly from God given to the Prophets and Apostles who gave the book.

It was interesting to think about, because I never thought of Preach My Gospel as a set of kind of "commandments" for missionaries, coupled with a promise that if we do these things we will accomplish all that the Lord has in mind for us. Just as when we always keep the commandments of God we are trusted by Him and blessed greatly, so too can we always keep mission rules and the guidance of Preach My Gospel and find that we're trusted more by God to do this work. Pretty cool.

We have a meeting with our investigator tonight, as she's now come back from the Ukraine, so I'm pretty excited about that! We actually bumped into her randomly on the street last night as we were on a way to a meeting. She said that she finished the Book of mormon and had written down questions about it. I was so gosh darn excited, as was she, and when I asked when we could me she said "Well hey! Let's go right now!" "Oh no, sorry, we can't right now! We've got a meeting. Can we meet tomorrow?" "Yeah sure! You can come by in the morning if you'd like! Anytime really!" So, we set up a meeting for tonight and it's gonna be awesome! Woo! 

Other than that, that's about what we've got going on here. I love you all a lot. Really. I came into Russia nearly exactly 1 year ago today (Wednesday will be the real celebration day, more brownies!) and it's amazing to see just how much I've learned and grown in that short bit of time. I've got lots more to go, and I'm so happy that just as I get to tell you about my life, a great number of you have told me about your life and the cool things that are happening. I love hearing from you, and I hope that I bring to you some of the joy that you bring me, especially my family. You're the best. :)

Alrighty now, you have a great one. Don't forget to eat some cake for my companion Elder Strebe!

With much love, as always

--

Elder Peterson

P.S. I've got only a bit of time, so I'm gonna print and read your talk for next week. Thanks for sending it Mom! :)

09-03-12

September 3, 2012

"Real cowboys don't live in Texas...they live in New Mexico!" -- President Gritchen

Hey there everyone!

Gosh, it's been a fun week! We had exchanges and for I think the 4th or 5th time on my mission I was on exchanges with Elder Anderson, one of my best friends on the mission. He's a couple of cycles older and we had a ballgame going out and doing good stuff. I had a pretty interesting experience though while we were working together. It was about 8:00 at night when we bumped into a guy on the street who had (coincidentally) told us "Go home Yankee!" the week before (as a joke, we found out today. Me and Elder Strebe nearly burst out laughing when we heard him say it). As we came to talk to him we found out he was a very nice man who knew the history of Marks (and history in general) really well. In trying to introduce him to the Book of Mormon and our message, he rejected it saying that our Church and the society that goes with it just can never work in Russia until it adapts itself to the culture. He told us that until we really figure out what's inside a Russian soul we will never succeed in our work, and to find out how a Russian live you must do what Russian does. In the end, our discussion didn't lead him to accepting anything we had, but me and Elder Anderson had an interesting conversation afterwards on how to understand a Russian.

In relation to that experience, let me tell you a story about what happened last night. We visited a rather rich former investigator the other night. When we came to his house we found that he was slightly drunk and pretty dang rude. Whenever he'd ask a question we'd try to answer but he'd then interrupt and tell us his opinion on what he thought we'd say and tell us we were wrong before we could even say a thing! We were about to leave when a friend of our investgator came in. She's a nurse and our rich ivnestigator had injured both of his feet, so she had come to apply some medicine and help him out. She got a bit interested in what we were saying, but said a common Russian saying that goes along the lines of "All of us hope on God, but we can only rely on ourselves". She proceeded to tell us how she has 3 jobs and that despite all of that she still didnt have enough money to buy her little boy a notebook for school. No matter what money she got she had to thorugh [throw] it into some kind of hole, whether it be paying for the apartment, food, etc... She teared up a bit in talking about it all, and Elder Strebe bore a sweet testimony on the power and love of God and that as we truly rely not on ourselves but on the grace and love of God, we are provided for. We taught her a little bit and gave her our number and she thanked us for the little lesson. The whole time the former investigator was swearing and making fun of it all, but it didn't matter for the conversation. Shortly after she left, we left too.

It's interesting to hear it almsot daily that we don't understand the people. Lot's of them say that to understand them we have to drink Vodka and sell your morality. So many people suffer from the effects of sin, not even really understanding what sin is or how it's messing up their lives. Families are torn apart, kids are taught young incorrect principles and it's a hard thing to find a really lasting happiness. Of course, not everyone's life is like that, but it's a widespread mentality at times it seems. It's moments though like with the nurse and with other investigators we've got that when they feel a slice of the love of God for them, there's a change, a hope in their lives that lights their lives, if even for just a little bit. It's true that I don't fully understand the Russian soul or what makes even the standard American tick, but it's a common and solid knowledge in me that everyone can feel the love of God and know that He exists, and that His existance can mean everything to us. 

Of course, that doesn't excuse me from being totally ignorant of the culture! I had a fun meeting with some members this past week wherein they gave us good tips on how to contact on the street better, finding that even the way we greeted people was a bit too old fashioned and overly formal. There's still lots to learn , and I'm glad that I've got such good friends everywhere that are helping me out. 

Zone conference is coming up this upcoming week and we've got a member of the 70 who is the second counselor in the Europe East area presidency, Elder Malm, coming out along with his wife. More news on how all that goes next week! :)

I'm not gonna lie, I cried when I found out that Mer died [Brian’s grandmother], but I was able to cover it up and look manly so no one really noticed I think :) I'm so glad that you were able to be there with her, Mom. You've cared so much for her and helped out tons and been a terrific daughter to my awesome grandma. I always remember those trips that just you and I took in going out to Mer and helping her out. Nothing could have been better than helping you that one last time last summer in going out to gather her things and prep the house for sale. So many floppy discs! Argh! I remember when we were cleaning up and we found a whole new cabinet full of discs and books to put away and we were just so exasperated from it all. Those were fun times :) Sean wrote me this week and told me about all the fun times we had in going there to El Paso. I remember when she had just at first gotten her computer and we were all awed as to how cool it was. I think we placed some kind of podracer game on it and just thought it was the best thing ever. I remember all the good times with Mer and her Pig stories book, which I absolutely love...gotta read those again when I come back home. A lot of time too, I find, when I'm trying to learn a new Russian word I remember Mer asking you words and what they meant and telling you cool facts. I bet Mer would have been a pro at learning Russian :) I remember on that last trip too having the blessed opportunity to give Mer a blessing. I don't remember what I said, but I remember the good feelings I had in blessing my grandma before going on my mission. I had a feeling that that'd be the last time I'd see Mer, and I'm glad that that was my "final act" with her before she crossed the veil. I know Mer and Daddyguy are together now, and it'll be a fun reunion afterwords in having Mer introduce him to me. 

I'm out of time now, but thanks for your everything. You all sure are the best :)

Be good now! With love

--

Elder Peterson

08-27-12

August 27, 2012

Miracle Marks

Hey there everyone!

Gosh,I had one of the coolest experiences on my mission this week I think. I'm not sure if I mentioned it a few weeks ago or not, but once upon a time we had a meeting set up with (the woman who nearly got baptized) and she said, at the last minute, that she couldn't make it but that we should go to the appointed meeting place anyways because she had some friends waiting there to hear about Christ. We got there and found 3 people. At first the most interested people were 2 of them, but by the second meeting they had lost interest and didn't want to hear anymore. On the second meeting, Baba (grandma) was also there again and had some good questions about our Church. When she found out that we were Mormons, she said that she'd heard of us and that we were no good. I showed her the Book of Mormon and the intro and, despite the fact that she's 82, began to read (without glasses!) the introdouction to the Book of Mormon. It was so cool to see how her opinion changed even as she read the Book. At first she said "What's with this Mormon guy! It doesn't say anything about him in the Bible." to, by the very end of the intro when she said "Oh my gosh. This book is about Christ, isn't it? I'm going to read it all!" During the past few weeks we didn't have any chance to see her or talk to her about the Book of Mormon.

One night, this past week, all of our meeting fell through and we were thinking about where to go and what to do. As we were walking we saw Baba sitting on a bench alone and so we of course went up to her and began talking to her. It was so incredible. She told us that she had read over 350 pages of the Book of Mormon (past Alma 40) and she told us that she knew the Book was true. She then proceeded to talk about the resurrection and how it all made sense how Alma explained it. She told us how the Book of Mormon explained so many things that were unclear in the Bible and how, despite the fact it was confusing at first, she knew the Book was about Christ and true. We set up a meeting for that week.

When we got there on the meeting she took us on a little tour of her apartment, and she began the tour by saying "Look at all the stuff God has blessed me with. Isn't it nice? Everything in this apartment is thanks to God and is a blessing from Him." By the meeting she had already read through 3 Nephi 18 and she showed us all the notes of the names of people in the Book of Mormon and descriptions of them so she never got confused about the people. As we started the lesson, we found something out that was a bit distressing. Baba is nearly fully deaf. Everything we tried to explain (whether it be us or our Russian member help) was misunderstood or just not heard by her. As time was coming to a close, we gave her a brochure on the Restoration and, for the 5th time, we asked her if we could pray with her. Though she hadn't understood or heard the request at any other time in the lesson, she looked at us after Elder Strebe asked and said "yes! Of course we can pray. I'll pray!" and then she offered a wonderful prayer. Baba then told us to "go out and tell everyone about that Book!". It was such a wonderful meeting! It really is a miracle to see how everything works out the way it needs too. Baba is in the Ukraine right now, but look forward to hearing her story and progress in the upcoming weeks :)

Another cool little story from Sunday. One of my favorites (if not my favorite) chapters from the Book of Mormon is Alma 24. It makes me cry pretty much every time. Anyways, in Sunday school we were talking about the army of Helaman and how they got to be so cool (aka how they became such an awesome army/ what attributes they had). In the discussion we talked, of course, how they were taught by their mothers. Our Branch President gave an interesting comment on how they focus on how their mothers had taught them the Gospel, but what about their fathers. He brought up the suggestion that perhaps the fathers of these 2060 young men were actually the sons of the fathers who had died in Alma 24. I'm not sure if that's how it is or not, but the imagery is a striking one, to think of how their mothers taught that God would always provide and protect them, and how their fathers sealed their testimony and knowledge of the Gospel the day they died. Pretty cool thought.

Thanks a bunch for writing Sister Simons. She's one of my best friends from college, and in fact I'd nearly always make my Sunday night dinners at her apartment. She's the best, so thank you so much for writing her :)

I'm sorry to hear about Mer, and I know that what'll happen will happen the way the Lord wants it too. I really wish I knew Mer better, but I know just how strong she is and how incredible of a mother, friend and member of the church she is. Anyone that raised anyone to be so awesome as my mom has to be one of the best. Thanks for the info, and I'll be keeping her in my prayers.

Dad, I never really could figure out how to do those 3D eye things. I'll have to figure it out after at some point to get more of the Gospel analogy behind it!

A member friend gave me a sweet Disney film in Russian. It says that it's the first Russian Disney film, so if that's true I don't think it's even available in English! Ah ha! So cool! It's called The Book of the Masters (for some reason it's not letting me type in Russian here or else I'd write down the Russian title). See if you can check it out on the internet and see if it's good! 

I think that about wraps it up for this week. You're the best, and thank you so much for all of your support, especially for the support from my family. Thanks :)

With love, as always :)

--

Elder Peterson

08-20-12

August 20, 2012

"The pig is your comrade, Elder Peterson!" "No! I want to eat it! Bacon!"

Hey there everyone! :)

It's been a crazy week (seems like I say that a lot, don't I) and its' had it's fills of ups and downs. The biggest down, unfortunately, was about the investigator we hoped would be baptized. We had prepared her for the baptismal interview and the day before the invterview we were having a lesson and pumping her up about baptism. She gave a very strong testimony about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the vitality of baptism for the remission of sins and was all ready for the interview. The next day however, she didn't answer the phone as we called to confirm the meeting, although we were sure everything would work out since we'd talked about the time and place for the interview the day before and sometimes she doesn't answer her phone because she's at her daughters house. As we waited at the appointed place and time, she came and told us that she couldn't meet right then because she had been invited to dinner. We said that that was ok, but asked when we could meet to have the interview (preferrably that day). She then told us to never call her again and that she no longer wanted to meet or pray with us ever again and to go away. We were both pretty baffled as she said that, and right after she said it she left, giving us only a second to say goodbye. She didn't show up at Church this Sunday, so it looks like it's not her time to be baptised yet. 

Some good news though! For this next cycle I'll be staying in Marks with Elder Strebe! Yay! I was pretty happy to hear that I don't need to pack and that I don't need to worry about getting to know a new area quite yet. It's been such a huge blessing to have Elder Strebe as my companion. As with anything in life, there's hard times, but it's always a lot easier to take on everything when you have a good friend with ya. We've got some great plans on working with the members and preparing and helping Marks to grow. Another bit of good news was that this week we had a culture night by going to a members house and learning how to make delivious soup and filled bread goods (pirozhki). There she chose to tell me that my fate would be that I would become a Journalist and marry a gypsy woman (the gypsy woman part becomes of my carefulness with money, apparently). Another bit of good news is that we've started to have members give talks in Church, with the first one happening this past Sunday. It went super well! It was cool to see how one member used scriptures and different teaching materials in his talks just like we always do, so already the members (or at least he) knows how to give a good talk. It's all gonna go uphill from here methinks :)

I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but for this next zone conference we have a member of the 70 whose's coming up (he's actually also the scond counselor in the Europe East area presidency! Spiffy, right?) and I was thinking about how cool that'll be. Every single zone conference there always seems to be something really cool or new that helps us to do missionary work. In looking at the past zone conference notes I took I realized there's a lot of things that I've been taught that I can still really do a lot better in the work. It always seems like I want a new arrow in missionary work when all I really need to do is have better aim and use the quiver I've already got. In any event, it's been cool to review over notes and apply old principles into new situations. Kinda like reading scriptures, applying old situations and using them in daily work.

By the way, I've been reading Daniel in the Old Testament lately, and it's a seriously cool book. I never realized that King Neb. actually became a righteous guy. Isn't that crazy? Pretty cool.

Alright, times up this week. I love you tons. Thanks for your prayers and your letters! :)

With love

--

Elder Peterson

08-13-12

August 13, 2012

"Watermelon...это...good!" "Good job Oleg!"

Hey there everyone!

Woah, it's pretty crazy to hear what all is going on with marriages and trips and stuff! That's way cool that Thomas is getting married. Who's the girl? Where'd they meet? Is Thomas already done in college? (What is he majoring in anyways?) Ya'll be safe in making trips, alright? :)

This has been a pretty great week! We set a baptismal date with one of our main investigators, and it sounds like it's gonna be happening on this Saturday! Yay! This week in teaching her has been incredible. After a bit of break in being able to reach her and teach her we had a rock solid lesson on Monday night wherein we discussed the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and it was awesome. She'd had no time to meet because the weather has been lousy and she's had guests come in and out a lot, but she spent a lot of time in the Book of Mormon and her testimony and spirituality simply grew a ton even just by reading it. When we first were teaching her she didn't understand a lot, but her faith was great and her desire to learn was huge (in fact, she had in the past quit smoking by praying really hard and asking for help from God). She bore powerful testimony of the blessings of the Atonement in her life and her surety that she can receive a full forgiveness of her sins. Pretty cool. She lives already by the Word of Wisdon, so that's a great blessing.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but every Sunday here in Marks the missionaries give talks during Sacrament. It was pretty tense at first, being really new in the branch and not really knowing anyones situation, along with trying to give a fully 15 minute good talk in Russian. But I really have learned a lot from preparing a talk every week for sacrament meeting. In preparing talks I've been able to delve so much into the scriptures, pulling refrences from all over the Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants and using them to help share the Gospel with members. It's reminded me just how much I love the scriptures and how much I like to tell stories. This past Sunday I talked about conversion and shared the stories of Paul and also the people of Anti-Nephi Lehi. Something that came to mind while me and Elder Strebe were preparing our talks was how people who share their testimony and give talks are given so much in return. The time spent in preperation is compensated by the Lord in spirtiual growth. A lot of the members here in Marks are shy to give talks in Church, so this upcoming month we're going to help them to give talks in Church and share their testimonies one with another. It's like why we share our testimonies of take turns giving the lessons in family home evening I think. If every week just one member of the family gave the lesson, how would others learn to teach? We learn as we try, and improve as we do it multiple times and thus we become a lot more able to be instruments in the Lords hands. Pretty cool process, huh? So, if your asked to talk in Church, no worries! :)

Not too much else to talk about from this side of the world, methinks. We find out about transfers on Friday, so we'll see where the wind blows in that respect.

Gosh, I just want to say how much I love you all. It's pretty cool how everyweek I get to write ya'll a letter and hear how the family is doing. Thank you so much for all you prayers and for everything you do. I love you lots :)

As usual, please be good. And eat your veggies!

With love

--

Elder Peterson

08-06-12

"Oh my gosh...this milk tastes like America!"

August 6, 2012

Hey there everyone!

Oh my gosh, can you believe I have another niece?! She's so darn cute too! And Brielle has gotten so big! The main picture that I show people on the street and on meetings is the one with her in a blue had and just smiling, she's gotta be only a few months old in that picture and now look at her! She's so big and smily! The same thing goes for Kaden and Brett too. I was writing my friend Rebekah today and wondering what it would be like to come back and have my nieces and nephews I barely know say my name and hug me. Pretty cool to have another addition in the family; one more awesome person to hug :)

This has been a pretty good week! I'm writing a bit late because the place where we usual e-mail back home had some issues with their internet. There was a possibility of even having us just write next week, but at the last moment we found out that their internet was back and running, so yay! On Monday we as a branch all got together and did a deep cleaning of the branch building. It's so weird. Because the work involved doing yard work and other cleaning we went over in "regular" clothes. When we're rushing to a meeting or activity and have no chance to seriously talk with people I still like to say "hi!" to them on the street. Even on a bad day, most people will at least say hi back to me, but I found that in regular clothes I looked at least partly Russian (or, at the very least, not like a missionary) and when I said hi to people, almost no one said hi back! Weird! Me and Elder Strebe had fun talking about it and wondering if people in America would say hi back if you said hi to them on the streets. We didn't know, but it's worth giving a shot! There's your homework for the week!

We had exchanges this week and for the first time I went to a place called Engels, a city that's connected by a bridge to Saratov. I worked with Elder Anderson, who is two cycles older than me and Elder Whittemore who is currently on his first cycle. It was a total blast! It was especially fun working with Elder Anderson since the last time I worked with him was when I was with Elder Rekow. We talked about how much we'd both grown and changed even in just the few months we hadn't worked together and it was incredible to see really how much stuff has changed. In working with Elder Whittemore I found he had the same concerns and worries as I did my first cycle. The same kind of thing happens when I talk to younger missionaries too. Fun to see how my view has changed over time and how my focuses and worries have morphed. Good stuff! Plus, we had tasty brownie milkshakes, so the exchange automatically was way good.

As it turned out, I did translate for President and Sister Sartori. I was pretty nervous at first since it's been something like 4 months since last time I really translated for anyone, and heck this is the President of the mission so you really have to do well, right? I learned a couple of things while translating. The first is that I know a lot more words that I thought and second that in your hard moments that Holy Ghost really does help. Translation went over really well for all three hours. I think the hardest to translate was sacrament meeting and sometimes people talk super complexly during testimonies and they don't give many breaks for you to really think about what their saying and translate super accurately. The best was when President and his wife testified and taught 3rd hour since they just paused after their thought and gave the few seconds for translating before going on. I was complimented by President on how much I've improved on the language, which was a really nice thing, though I've still got quite a bit to learn. Really though it's a miracle. Who'da thunk that a kid like me could learn Russian? Certainly wouldn't have said that when I was trying to survive in German class!

I think that wraps it up for this week. Transfers are coming up next week and there are 12 new Elders coming in (weird, it's been almost a year since I came into Russia. Wild!) and the word is going around the mission that there's going to be tons of changes. I'll go wherever I'm needed, though I certainly wouldn't mind staying another cycle or two here with Elder Strebe in Marks. It's been some seriously fun times, and time has rarely ever gone faster than it has in this past month.

A little note I wanted to add. I'm not sure who all checks out my blogs, but for any of those who do and have written me letters, would you mind telling my mom or me through facebook if you have not receieved a reply from your letter(s) yet? I'm curious as to how long it really takes for the Russian post to get my letters out and it'd be nice also to know if I've forgotten to write anyone back (so sorry if that's the case!!!). Thanks a bunch :)

I love you lots! It's always the best thing in the world to hear from you all. Everyone be sure to give a good hug to little Lily for me when you get the shot! :)

Thanks again! I love you :)

--

Elder Peterson