01-14-13

Jan. 14,2013

"Elder Peterson! You're so much thinner! Don't they feed you in Orenburg?" "No, not really." "Ooooh....that's gonna change dearie!"

Hello everyone!

Man, let me tell you, it has been one really abnormal week of missionary work. First off, we spent most of our time left in Orenburg doing a super deep clean for Sisters Upshaw and Semyonova. We were able to get a couple of meetings in and get some fresh air, but really most of the time was spent doing area book work and making the apartment (as dingy as it kind of is) sparkle real nice. I had a pretty cool expereince though as we were at the train station. I've never really had any members or anyone come to say goodbye when I've gotten transfered (which makes sense since our trains usually leave at or around midnight everytime), but an investigator we'd been working a lot with wanted to come to the train station and see us off. We had a good talk, the three of us, and got to know each other a lot more (since most of the time we're with our ivnestigators we're there for elssons there's not always time to REALLY get to know each other). It was a great chance to just laugh and relax a bit before heaving suitcases filled with what seems like bricks onto the train. Even though she didn't get baptized before we left (and isn't too close to it even now, it seems), she told us before we left that the meeting we had and the communication between us had really helped her out these past few months and had helped her feel God's love. That was the coolest thing to hear! It's really was a heart warmer to know that the work we had done and all the prayers and efforts we'd put in to help her had really done what they were intended to do. So even though she's still on her path to God (aren't we all, anyways), we acted as good instruments to help her along. Cool stuff.

We would have gone straight to Saratov excpet for the fact that I needed to go on my very last visa trip to Kiev and back, so our train took us to Samara where, once again, I considered just how wonderful life would be without hauling around suitcases. I do have to give especially you, Mom and Dad, props for having me get bags that roll around on all 4 corners. That's been a life saver. And! The wheels have survived Russia, and achievment few missionaries can claim. So thank you :)

I had a super cool experience on the visa trip, by the way. As you may or may not know, we fly to Kiev and back in one day and take about 4 planes or so to do so. It's always a hassle, but one of the funnest things to do is to talk to the people that sit next to you on planes. Throughout my mission I've always had fun experiences on those planes, but none of which amounted to the coolness I had on this plane. I got on the plane going from Saratov to Moscow sat down next to a 40 year old woman (though, it was really weird, because she looked about 20 - come to find out she has a 14 year old son and that she's 40!). I like plane rides because you always have a good hour and a half or 2 hours just to talk and get to know the person. So, we got to know each other and it was about the coolest thing to see how the conversation worked out. I told her about how I'd studied Psychology before I came to Russia and how I was here as a volunteer for the Church teaching people about Christ. She's an accountant who lives in Ulyanovsk (yay!) going to pick up her son from a camp in Moscow and she has a particular knack or interest for learning Psychology so we had fun times talking about that.

The conversation really turned to God and faith though when she asked me how I liked Russia. Well, I told her what I tell everyone: I love Russia! It's got the best juice and there's nice people everywhere. She laughed a bit but told me that I couldn't really like Russia that much, it just meant that I'd never gone to Europe. I told her once again that I really do like Russia and began to explain more about what we do as missionaries. It was astonishing to see how she believed much of the same things we do and she really liked the idea of eternal families.

I told her something that I've been thinking a lot about but that I'd never really put into words before. I told her how logical faith in God really is; how in keeping the commandments and doing the things God asks we see, quite physically and really the love of God in our life and know for sure that He exists without having seen him. I've seen that in my life, and especially in the lives of those that accept the Gospel here in Russia. They act in faith on a little thing, and they receive blessing from God. She told me how that makes sense and how everytime in life when she had a problem in her family or with anything of a moral question she'd turn to the Bible for answers. She proceeded to, unknowingly, bear her testimony in saying "I know that God exists. I don't know how, I just do" and she explained the many times that God has anwered her prayers through thoughts and feelings and how He guides her. Of course, I gave her a Book of Mormon and explained it to her and the promise that's in Moroni about really knowing if it's true. It was incredible to make the promise to her that if she read and prayed about he Book of Mormon she'd come to know that it's true, the same way that she'd recognized the help of God in her life before. She wrote down my e-mail address (my civilian one) and said she'd e-mail. I'm not sure if she will or not, but keep your eyes out for that please :)

Not much time left (you got a big e-mail today!) but I had one last story for ya'll. In coming back here to Saratov I found out that our branch, the Volzhski branch meets in the the same building now as Zavodskoi. I got to see all of the members that I'd worked with for 6 months once again as I came to church this past Sunday. That was one of the happiest moments I think I've ever had on my mission; seeing so many of my old friends still doing well (and even better in lots of cases). I heard it more than once the members say "Oh Elder Peterson! We missed you so much! We all still talk about you!". I never thought I'd made any kind of impression like that on the members, but the experience just made me love them so much more and remember the wonderful things that really have happened in the course of my mission.

Alright, I've got to go now, but thanks so much :) Real quick, I got the Christmas packages! Thanks so much Mom and Dad and the Hershey Peterson clan! You really are the best and thanks for everything that you sent! I'm way psyched to hear that the reception will be in NM at the end of July! There's no way I'll miss that thing, so no worries there :) As for school, I don't think I'll be going to Summer session like I did before my mission, I'll need some time just to work and read Russian books before I get back into the school groove again, but I think entering in at Fall time will work out just great. I'd sure love to fix that fence, Dad, so go ahead and consider me hired I think. As for the whole grammar structure on "me and Elder So & So), in Russian you're forced to always say "we and Elder So and So), so I guess maybe that's just carried into my English in putting me before my companion since that's more or less how my brain translates it.

Alright, time to go for real now though. I love you lots! Have a great week!

With love

--

Elder Peterson 

01-07-13

January 7, 2013

"Peterson, you're a good guy...you need to get married! Look, I know this girl, real modest; doesn't drink or smoke. Tell you what, here's her address" "Nah...I'm good thanks. Happy New Year though!"

Merry Christmas everyone!

Bet you didn't even know that it was Christmas today! Gosh, get with the times! Today is Russia Christmas and the post office where we write home isn't open today, so I'm writing home from the senior missionary couple’s home for the last time.

And why is this the last time?

Well, let me tell you. It's a fun story too. So, you know maybe that we were on "lockdown" during New Years Eve and New Years day and so we had a lot of time to clean the apartment, rest up a bit and get caught up on our paperwork. So here I was, doing dishes and listening to Christmas music when a thought comes to my mind: "you're not gonna be here for long. I was a bit surprised, and I didn't really know what to make of it since I don't exactly have thoughts like that one everyday. I thought that maybe I was just tired, but it made me think what would happen if I left the area at the end of the cycle (in 3 weeks) what kind of things I'd need to get done and how I could help Elder Treter run the area once I was gone (if I were to leave). As it turns out, around that same bit of time, Elder Treter had been thinking a lot about Saratov. He said that he didn't want to ask the Lord for a transfer but that he really wanted to go to Saratov at some point in his mission. Come to find out that he had a feeling that he'd be going to Saratov soon. Kinda weird, right?

Fast forward to Friday night. I'm in bed actually writing in my journal (every day now since the 1st! Woo hoo!) and trying to rush since I only have a good 5 minutes until I need to go to bed when we got a call from the Zone Leaders with some interesting news: we received an emergency transfer! There were some problems going on for the sisters down in Oktyabrsky area in Saratov (neighbor area to Zavodskoy, my first and third area) and President asked us to switch places with them. So, this Wednesday will be me and Elder Treter's last day here in Orenburg because we're moving to Saratov! Incidentally almost exactly 1 year ago I go an emergency transfer with Elder Riko to pretty much the same area for pretty much the same reason. Funny how that works out. It's really sad to be leaving Orenburg...it's been a really great being here, but I've had a dream for a long time to go back to Saratov. And, I found out that even though I won't be serving in the Zavodskoy branch like last time my branch will be meeting in the same building and we'll all see each other often because of how the schedule works out. Pretty cool that I get to see some of my best Russian friends again!

This week has really been a cool one too. President Sartori came down this weekend with Sister Sartori and visited the branch. We had our interview and it was one of the best of my mission. For a long time I've been really bummed a bit, I guess, that I haven't gotten to know President and Sister Satori more personally.There's not really any time or opportunity to do so so, just how it works out, but President started out our interview it a really cool way. He told me that it was sad that we hadn't had a chance to get to know each other more, but he wanted to let me know that he loves me and that the Lord loves me. He told me that my whole mission he's always trusted me; that no matter what situation or place he put me in, he could always trust me to do what's right and to do good things and be a good influence. Gosh, that was the coolest thing ever. He told me also that when I became a trainer he thought about it a lot and asked himself "why didn't I make him a trainer earlier?"

He also asked me a question: what's your favorite part of missionary work. I started out by telling him about an experience I had right before I went out on my mission. I'm not sure if you remember it or not mom, but when I was home and packing my stuff up or my mission you came into my room and sat down with me for a second. You told me something interesting: "Brian, I just want you to know something. Your success as a missionary isn't measured in how many baptisms you get." I remember being a bit surprised because I had never thought of that being a measure of success before. I told you that day "It's ok Mom. I just want to help people change." Those aren't exact quotes, I'm sure, but that was th whole jist of the coversation. I told President that and told him that ever since the beginning that's been my goal on my mission, but how surprised I've been that my mission has changed me more that it's changed any other person I've helped as a missionary. In looking back I've seen the growth I've made and the careful work the Lord has done with me as I've gone forth and tried my best. One of the biggest reasons I want to go back to Saratov is because I felt like Saratov helped me so much...and now I want to go back and see how much I can really help out Saratov!

I can't tell you how much President's comment and his question really helped me out and helped me view my mission in a different way. Moreso now then ever before I've seen how the Lord's worked with me and how he's shaped me and is still shaping me. Pretty cool.

I've only got a couple of minutes left, so I'll wrap this up. It's now for sure from President (so you can make this more generally known now) that I'll be returning for sure July 8th, and that's definitely the right thing. So no worries. Sorry I wasn't able to stuff more into this letter, I got a little soaked up by reading mom and Sean's letter. More next week :)

I love you a lot. Thanks for being the best! Until next week (from Saratov again!)

With love

--

Elder Peterson

PPS. We had a cool experience, so I'm copying and pasting that section of my letter to President to ya'll so I don't forget to tal about it:

 Little miracles have been happening all over the place in our work. Like I mentioned earlier we found 1 this week who also became new. Earlier this week we met with the new investigator's brother.  He laughed at us coming an sneered a bit. Pretty cold meeting. But then, when we dropped by the second time on this wek our investigator couldn't meet with us but asked that we meet with his brother, the same one that laughed at us earlier. Come to find out that he is legitimately interested in God and that he liked our message. We're good friends now and he's making progress in reading the Book of Mormon. It's a real miracle to see that change happen so quickly in another person.

Alright, that's it. You're the best :) Thanks!





12-31-12

December 31, 2012

"Honey, the Americans are at the door!" "What?" "Americans! What do we say?" "Tell them we're busy!" "Um...sorry, we've got uh...guests coming!"

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Almost, at least. The biggest Russian holiday is rolling around the corner and, just like last year, we've been instructed to bunker in till the 2nd. Thankfully, we've got till 4PM today to buy foodstuffs, have a delicious lunch at the Chepurovs and slide in the new fallen snow before we're quartered inside for awhile. The post office is open today till 2, so I get to write home this year as opposed to last year (lucky us!). 

This past week has been a fun one, especially Tuesday night when our branch held the yearly Christmas activity/ talent show. It was so dang fun! That's probably been the best activity I've been at here in Russia and it had a great attendance too (48 people, 13 of which were little kids! Score!). I've got pictures and video to upload whenever I get the chance of the activity, so be looking forward to that sometime! For the first time too I got to see the long-time treasured Russian tradition of kids and Ded Moroz and Snegorochka (man, that looks so ugly in English! In Russian it's cool. Ded Moroz is Santa Clause and Snegorochka is his trusty helper elf). If you get the chance, look up the song on youtube or something, it's pretty fun.

The highlight of this week was most definitely Zone Conference. I actually haven't been intereviewed by President yet, which is ok because he's coming down to Orenburg this Saturday and Sunday and then we'll be able to have a good interview, so that's cool! It was a pretty emotion packed Zone Conference since we got to see the Christmas Devotional and a really cool talk givven by Elder Holland about Missionary Work (it's a lot like the talk which he gave at conference which, by the way, is still one of my favorite talks of all time). To add to that I found out that it'd be the last Zone Conference of a lot of my best friends in the mission, the majority of whom were that at the Zone Conference itself. It was really awesome hearing their testimonies and feeling the Spirit that shone so brightly and warmly in that room. Pretty awesome Zone Conference.

To answer your question, I haven't actually gotten the Christmas box yet, though I have a guess that it might be floating around somewhere in the mission. I'll work with the office to see if we can track it down :) Until then we've gotten lots of delicious candy and fun little gifts from members and the Sartori's to keep us occupied!

I have bought myself a new hat! It's all black and pretty cool looking and has super soft fur. I'll be shooting off pictures of those too when I get the shot. It's been funny. Like I had on Monday, I've still got a bit of a gnarly cough, so whenever I show off my new hat to the Russians and tell them how warm it is the majority of them give me a funny look and ask then why I'm sick. Little do they know that I bought the hat after my cold and thus the hat is held guiltless for any cold reaching my head before it's start of duty. Russians always have the most interesting ideas for how to get better. The majority of them avoid straight up medication, and prefer to go with the more herbal and natural medicines, such as placing a kind of mustard paper to your chest to relieve your coughing. Surprisingly enough, a lot of the "natural medication" works pretty well, though I'm still pretty greatful to a potential investigator who gave some really good medical advice and pills to rid this cold. Good stuff!

As for the work, one investigator has reset his baptismal date for the 19th of January, so we'll be working with him on making that. He's got a ton of knowledge on the Gospel and other religions and is loving reading the Book of Mormon. I hope he'll be able to make it to Church this next Sunday - he'd be able to translate for President Sartori really well. 

This'll have to do for this week. You're the best, and thanks for everything you do! Have a great new year and be sure to set reasonable new years goals (lots of Orenburg Russians have been saying that to us and each other lately). Have a great one! :)

With love

--

Elder Peterson

12-24-12

Dec. 24, 2012

С Рождеством!

Hey there everyone! :)

You know, everytime I write something out in Russian on the keyboard I think about the time that Brandon sent home his letter in half Portuguese (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). I think that's so dang cool that he achieved the level of learning the language that he didn't even notice he was typing in a different language, but I'm afraid I can't say that at least when it come to typing on the computer. Everytime I try to type something I have to stare at the keyboard and find where the Russian letters are! Ah well, when I study it farther I'll get the keyboard down :D

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!

My gosh, pretty dang cool, right? Christmas number two on the mission. It's been a week full of miracles this week, and one that especially is super spiffy. There's an investigator who for a long time now has investigated the Church but never really made a whole lot of progress in becoming a member of the Church. She knows a ton, reads Doctrine and Covenants already, but still hasn't been baptized. It's been a bit of a struggle too because when we first came here and met with her the senior missionary couple have been against us meeting her. They had already met a good number of times with her with the other Elders before us and they counted her as being just someone who'd investigate the church forever but never join. 

For the longest time, however, me and Elder Treter have prayed about and for her to know what to do, whether to stop meeting with her or keep goign to see if she can make some progress. Everytime we've done so we've gotten the answer that we should keep working with her and that things would work out. To avoid any trouble or doubt we'd been meeting with her without the missionary couple to help her out. Starting just a couple of weeks ago, things got rolling with her. She started praying with a lot more focus to find an answer and slowly but surely things have been working out.

We had district meeting on Friday and we reported on her status and progress in accepting the Church and the couple, as usual, weren't super excited that we were meeting with her. Nevertheless, we todl about how we had trouble getting member help for her lessons and they invited us to meet at their place with her (a miracle, considering how against it they had been in the past).

Before the lesson we sat down with the missionary couple and they asked us what theme we had planned to talk about with her. We told them that we wanted to talk with her about the Holy Ghost and recognizing answers from him as answers from God. Sister C mentioned that that was her favorite theme and the both said that they wanted us to direct the lesson and that they'd be there just as extras, just help whenever we turn to them and ask them questions. We said alright, and prepared for the lesson. The lesson began and, to my surprise, the C’s were talking the whole time! Well, really the C’s and our investigator, but me and Elder Treter weren't saying much at all. At first I was a little dissappointed that we couldn't get a word in, but I felt like I needed to felt them have their fill and talk. Lo and behold, they testified strongly of the Spirit and told about experiences in their life when God's help and answers came to them. It really touched our investigator and got her thinking about things. She was sick, so she requested a blessing (yeah, she already knew about blessings, tells you a bit how longs she's been investigating) and asked that Elder C be the one to give it. A wonderful blessing was given and she told us afterwards that she felt something in her heart, just a feeling that was big, overwhelming, but calming. We bore testimony that that was the Spirit testifying and helping her.

Then came the miracle. Elder Treter is still, usually, a little bit quieter on lessons, but this time it wasn't that way. He bore one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever felt in my life of God, His love and the fact that miracles and guidance from Him are real and come to us in life. I don't think I've ever cried so much on my mission as I did on that lesson. We were all in tears and the Spirit bore witness to us all of the truthfulness of Elder Treter's testimony. Our investigator then asked if she could talk more often to us and the C’s and she was commited to once again pray to God about baptism, and we promised her that she'd get an answer.

I can't really seem to describe just how awesome that experience really was. Me and Elder Treter have worked so hard to try and help her while we've been here and on this week, before we had that meeting with her, we had a special prayer for her and set specific goals and sacrifices so that she could have some progress and be baptised and so quickly we already saw an answer from Heavenly Father on our prayers and efforts. We have some really high hopes for her.

At this time of year, I really do remember the wonderful blessings that God has given all of us. Daily He provides for us, cares for us and blesses us. He helps every single one who seeks Him to find Him and recognize where and how to feel His love. I know that this church really is the Church of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior; and I know that it's thanks to his love, teaching and sacrifice that we are all here and have the opportunity to learn, grow and return back to God in love and glory.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas...because I sure am! God bless you, and eat some Christmas cookies for me, alright? :)

I love you!

--

Elder Peterson

12-17-12

December 17, 2012

"Kind of a sketchy train, isn't it?" *Knock Knock* "Excuse me...forgot my vodka" "...Yeah, pretty sketch"

Hey there family and friends!

Well, like I mentioned last week, I was got into Samara last Monday for Elder Treter's first visa trip! it was a pretty hackneyed operation and as such we took my first ever day train from Orenburg to Samara. When thing are ordered last minute (because of weird changes in schedule, issues etc...) we either end up getting, essentially, first class or the dirt cheap compartments. Well, going to Samara was pretty dang great since we had first class! It was just pretty boring: 8 hours or so just chilling on a train. It was pretyt obnoxious though because when we got to the compartment there was a plate with all sorts of tea, coffee and a single packet of hot cocoa on it. Well, seeing as how there was no sign and it was first class, we said to ourselves "selves! Let's share that hot cocoa packet!" and, with great joy, we did. Come to find out at the end of the ride something rather distressing. The conductor knocked on the door and asked "Um...hey, did you take anything from the tray?" "Well, yeah. A hot cocoa packet" "Oh, ok...That'll cost 300 Rubles! (about 10 dollars)" Of all the trickery! I didn't approve of that at all.

But I'd much rather pay the 300 rubles for the hot cocoa then ride on the last train we were on. The visa trip got messed up hard core because all the flights to Kiev got cancled on the day of the visa trip, so we were all grounded in Samara for an extra day. It was a pretty dang good day of work though, got lots of work done and helped out some other elders, so that was nice. Everything worked out in the end for the visa trippers, which was good, but they bought our tickets to Orenburg last minute too and this time we got the dirt cheap compartment. Suffice it to say, I got the best and the worst of trains in the same week. Still was way fun though since we were all together!

Speaking of being together, a first in the mission of Elder Peterson: a 3rd cycle with the same companion! Me and Elder Treter are gonna keep up the work here in Orenburg North for another 7 weeks! We've been working out recently a better way to do the work and I'm glad that we get to stay together for another long while to figure out how it'll work out.

I've got more info on calling home. We got permission to do it on the 24th, which will be better all the way around I think. That puts us at evening time my time. Elder Treter is gonna skype his family at 6:30 and so I'll be skyping you at about 7:15 or so, if that's alright with you! we'll be arranging all the little details this week, but we'll probably do it at the senior couples house so you'll get to meet them! If there's any kind of problem with that, let me know (and maybe be on at about the time I sent you the first e-mail today so we can do some real-time working out of the problem), because it can work on Christmas day too my time, just a little trickier to work out.

More about Orenburg! It finally snowed yesterday! It wasn't a lot lot, but sliding on ice and snow is a lot better then walking on half frozen dirt! They're predicting that more snow will come before New Years, so we're all hoping for it! One of our investigators is making some great progress in the Gospel, but unfortunately he missed Church this past week. We'll be having a couple of lessons with him this week though and so that's really good. He wants to teach me the language "Bashski" (I'm not sure what that is in English, guess I'll ask!).

Also, we had some pretty cool experiences in the past couple of days. One of the more popular methods of contacting now that it's getting below -20 is to go knocking in big apartment complexes. It's always a tricky thing to get into the complexes at times, since not everyone wants to open the main front door to a couple of Americans. So, one of the common methods is to just go into a door that's being opened by someone else. As we were looking for a place to knock we did so and, to my suprise, we were stopped but a 70 year old grandma door guard telling us that she knew we didn't live here. Well, we explained to her who we were and why we wanted to get in the door and she was just tickled pink to talk to us. We had a great conversation with her, prayed, gave her a Book of Mormon and set up a time to come back on another day and visit her and her friend!

A second fun little experience is that we were knocking down an apartment complex and had gotten down a few floors and just weren't having any luck. We prayed to know whether or not we should keep on going in that complex or move to a different one. We had a feeling to stay and keep knocking there. We kept going, with no success for another 20 minutes or so (and we only had 30 in all before we had to go to a meeting) when finally we knocked and found a man, who has a family, took a Liahona and asked us to come back next week. We left the building, went to our meeting and then prayed to know what to do. Elder Treter felt like we needed to go back to the building we were knocking at earlier. When we go to the main door, no one was leaving the complext and thus no one opened it like the first time we went there to knock. I prepared to go through the tedious process of trying to get in when, his neighbor, the man I called, let us in an wanted a Liahona too! We gave him and his wife a Liahona and a Book of Mormon and we have a return appointment on Wednesday.

Those are just little stories I guess, but in both instances I had, at least for a little bit, a doubt that we realyl did need to be there or that people would open up to us. But they did! Way cool! It's great to see that as me and Elder Treter have become more exact in what we ask and more prayerful in our word that the Lord's been opening the way for me and more to happen.

Anyways, it's time to go. Thanks for the letters and support! I haven't got the package yet, but I imagine it'll come soon. If there's anything you'd like me to do for ya'll or any questions, I'm open for it! Thanks so much :)

I love you!

--Elder Peterson

12-10-12

December 10, 2012

Spoiler alert!

Hey there family :)

[The first portion of Brian’s letter was personal stuff for family]

Also! Transfers are coming up soon. I'm hoping I stay in Orenburg, but we'll see what the Lord has in mind for this good Elder! Regardless, we've recieved word from the higher-ups that we should plan on our call being right on Christmas day.

   

Phew! I think that takes care of all the not particularly missionary related business and whatnot! On to to the letter! We've been really pushing and praying that we can have another person enter the waters of baptism before the end of this year in Orenburg and it looks like it's gonna happen. We were on exchanges this week when me and Elder Elwood met with a 17 (almost 18) year old teenager. The kid's got some brains, let me tell ya. He is fluent in 7 languages, including English, Russian and Polish and can read/translate about in about 25 different ones. Woah snap! Languages come to him quicker that I do to some delicious home-made buttermilk pancakes. He's deeply religious and wants to be baptized into the Church. Cool, right? We set a baptismal date for the 29th and, in the process of the meeting, found out that he lives in our area so we'll take the main responsibility of teaching and preparing him for baptism! We're still working really close our other investiagtors and have some high hopes they'll be able to make some great progress in the upcoming weeks!

In addition to all that cool stuff, our recent baptism is going to be receiving the Priesthood soon (msot likely this upcoming Sunday). He passed the interview just fine and is making some fine and dandy progress in helping his family come closer together through the gospel (they started doing some family scritpure study and we taught them about family prayer. So cool!). Another family is doing just great too and another member’s house is getting warmer and warmer each day what with the new insulation! Unforunately their car broke down, so they weren't able to make it to Church this Sunday, so we're all praying and hoping that they'll be able to fix it soon and be able to make it to Church again! 

I read this really cool talk this past week that I'll ahve to share with you all at some point. I forgot to bring it with me (else I'd share the title with you). If you google the phrase "harvesting with the Lord" there's a chance you'll find it. Either way, I'll share it with ya'll next week I think, time's nearly up. Thanks a bunch for your support, love and prayers. Also, thanks a bunch for getting stuff set up for me at college Mom. You really are the best! I love you lots and I hope you have a great week.

Я всех вас очен люблю! Удачи!

--

Старейшина Питерсон

12-03-12

December 3, 2012 "What's your name in English?" "El-der Pete-r-son!" "Donatello?" "Uh...sure! Ninja turtle!" Hey there everyone :) Gosh, we've been having the weirdest weather lately. This week on Tuesday or something in snowed a good bit (I don't have a ruler, so I don't knwo the height, a few inches though) and then, soon after the heavy snow, the weather warmed up a ton and for the past two days we've had mostly fog and some rain, oddly enough. So, the snows almost all melted and temperature wise it feels like Fall. Silly Orenburg, you're doing it wrong! I still have my hopes up for a nice, white Christmas and some ice sliding on sidewalk, but we'll see how it works out. Quick correction to last weeks letter too... it's not "Молодци" but rather "Молодцы". It's a small thing, I know, and most of you didn't notice it, but it bugged me most of the week (I figured it out right after I logged out, oh no!). Elder Peterson will work this next week on his spelling. Anyways, this was a really cool week. Every month our mission has something called "zone training" where for a few hours the zone gets together (i.e. a bunch of missionaries) and receives training from our fearless leaders! However, since Orenburg is a good night train away from the rest of the zone, our zone leaders came down this past week and gave some terrific training on how to do the work better and shared a really cool talk on desire. It was a wonderful answer to a lot of prayers lately and reminded me of some of the funny weaknesses I've got and that I'm working on. For example, for the past couple of weeks there have been times in talking to people where, quite frankly, I just had no idea what to say. Which is weird. I'm Elder Peterson! I've always got something to say about anything, especially when it's gospel related and it's what I've been doing for the past year and a half. But in the past couple of weeks, there were times where I just had nothing to say and whenever I tried to really express something it took 5 times the effort it should have and the Russian behind it just didn't really work well at all. It was really a discomforting feeling, and I'd been trying to figure out the answer to it. The answer began to come after service at a member’s home this past week (we've been doing insulation on their home). I asked Elder Treter to give the spiritual thought. He struggled a bit, and didn't know some of the words (which is pretty natural since he was relating Mormon's letter to Pahoran to answers to prayers) and so I'd fill in the blanks whenever he didn't have the sufficient vocab. Everytime when I'd try to explain more than he implied to put my own thoughts into the conversation, it came out awkward, whilst Elder Treter, slowly but clearly explained his spiritual thought. After the lesson, a member said to me "Man, he speaks better than you Peterson!". Not the greatest thing to hear, seeing as how I've been here longer, but it got me thinking and me and Elder Treter talked about it for a long time one day. Missionaries work in companionships for a lot of reasons, but one of the most crucial roles of a companionship , in my opinion, is there ability to work together in teaching people. One teaches, the other testifies then teaches which then the other can testify to and continue the lesson. A simple pattern, but it works like a charm. When I first started to train Elder Treter, most of the conversation was taken up by me, because I understood the language and the investigator. Elder Treter would always testify, and the lessons would go well, no lack of words at all. But lately we'd found that I'd speak most of the time, and not give as many chances to Elder Treter as he needed and as the Spirit prompted. In short, Elder Treter is growing up now! And our role is to work together, with both of us teaching and both of us testifying, working together in unity to help people accept the Gospel. As we began to implement that we saw quickly just how much the work improved and how much more got done. Pretty cool. I'm so grateful that God trusts us to do the work and helps up to learn His will and then be ready to fulfill it. It's always a nice reminder too that all the language development I've made has been thanks to God and that I really still do rely on Him to help me do this work in the Russian language. Real quick request for you, Mom and Dad. Do you remember the woman from Ulyanovsk who e-mailed you a couple of times? If you get the chance, can you tell her hi and thanks? Lately we've been applying, as a mission, an idea that she insitgated back in Ulyanovsk, that of handing out old Liahonas to people to help them learn about the Gospel. It's been helping us a ton in knocking, wherein if people get a free nice looking magazine they're a lot friendlier are more likely to let us come back than if we just go with a little brochure of the fully Book of Mormon. She taught me and Elder Lewis how to do it when we served there and it's helped our work out a lot. So if you could tell her that, that'd be great. Ask her too to say hi to the branch for me. Thanks a bunch :) Can I also say how much I love Christmas music? Mom and Dad sent me a cd last year filled with sweet Christmas music. I especially love to listen to the guitar songs. Reminds me a lot of you Dad. Way to go, by the way, on playing in Church! Well, it's time to go now. Thanks so much :) I hope you have a great week! With love -- Elder Peterson