E-mail January 23, 2012

Sorry guys, Apparently LDSMail is trying to update things and so the

browser I am now using doesnt support alot of the important features.

So, if this doesnt get to you, I am sorry.

So First off, investigators. We picked up a few that I dont think I

have mentioned before. We have a new kid named Latrelle. His dad is LA

but wants to get back into the swing of things. We set up a time to

meet and the dad told us that he doesnt want to waste our time since

he is hard to catch. He told us that Latrelle just wants to be

baptized, he has had all the discussions before and just needs to go

through the motions to prepare for baptism. It is something that

Latrelle wants, we asked, and so we are working towards Feb. 4th! We

now have another kid, he's 9 and is super open and wants to learn

about the church. He understands just about everything we throw at him

and he is bringing his family back into activity by working towards

baptism. Now for the funny stuff that went down...

We had a lesson with the Daley family. They are a family of 5 that

just showed up to church one day and said that they wanted to get

baptized. They have family a few generations back that were LDS and

dont understand why they ever fell away from the church. So they are

taking the lessons. Well, we go in to teach a lesson with the family

that is fellowshipping them. We get through most of the Restoration

and we bring up Baptism. We start to commit them and this is how the

conversation went...

Us: "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by

someone holding the proper priesthood authority?"

Daley Dad: "Well, I have a question first. I have had an issue with

this with some of the other churches that I have looked into. Does

your church have a stance on when dinosaurs roamed the Earth?"

... ... ... WHAT?! LOL. It was hilarious! But, of course we have to

respect the question and answer it as best we can.

Next, we had a lesson with a less active lady and her 6 year old

daughter. We sit down and get to know them a little better. We start

into the lesson and it is going well. She is asking questions and is

totally involved. Then the fellowship starts to answer a quesiton on

prophets. It all goes down hill from here... So, MLK day was this past

Monday, right? Well the fellowship trys to explain prophets to the

little girl by using MLK as an example. He then goes on to testify how

he knows that Martin Luther King was a prophet. Oh, it gets worse. The

less active lady then asks about the Catholic church and how they see

the Pope. Our fellowship obviously felt good preaching about MLK so he

decides to take this next question as well. "Well you see, the Pope is

the mouth of God. He speaks the things that God is telling him so that

the people in the world today can follow God's commandments. I only

know this because I kind of like the Catholic church."

YOU  CANT SAY THAT!! BLASPHEMY!! GET OUT OF HERE! AHHHHH!!!!!

We ended the lesson as quickly as possible and needless to say we will

NEVER use him as a fellowship again... for ANYONE. It was horrible.

BUT, Elder Carroll and I have never laughed so hard before! Oh my heck

that guy was a crack-job.

So now for the spiritual messagy stuff.

All this week there seems to be a theme to my life. Obedience. I got

Dad's letter to me and he talks a WHOLE lot about obedience. I listen

to a talk that was on the iPod you guys sent me by John Bytheway on

the 13th Article of Faith. What is the first part I listen to? He is

talking about obedience. I listened to another talk and they mention

the 12th Article of Faith, "We believe in being subject to kings,

presidents, rulers, and magistrates, IN OBEYING, honoring and

sustaining the law." Next was a talk by Dallin H. Oaks "Good, Better,

Best." I started to listen to that during my personal study hour one

day and I realized that listening to this talk was "Good" but there

are "Better" things I could be doing so I can become the "Best"

missionary I can be. I just dont get it... What was I doing wrong?? I

dont believe I was doing anything seriously wrong. There were/are a

few things I still need to work on to be completely obedient to the

mission rules and I realized that though we have seen much success

recently, we could still be seeing even greater blessings. If none of

that was enough to make me realize that obedience is key to everything

we do, I was listening to another talk this morning. From this past

priesthood session I learned alot and was reminded of the things that

hit me the first time I listened to Elder Jeffrey R. Hollands talk. He

said (and I am paraphrasing here), "In order to play in this game we

must live a higher moral standard than the rest of the team. We cannot

dribble out of bounds!  There are always bounds in which we must stay

and they are there for a reason... We must be repentant. We cannot be

hypocrites! We cannot tell others the rules of the game if we are not

following the rules ourselves. Every one of us can be forgiven through

the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am asking you to be active and clean

in the church. Some of you may need to get active and get clean. Do so

immediately! The powers of Satan are real! We need tens of thousands

more missionaries upon this Earth. Unbind your tongues and get quick

to the work!" There are rules that have been spoken to us in order to

keep us on the straight and narrow. We need to abide by these rules so

as to not jeopardize the salvation of our own souls. "Diligence brings

forth the fruits of our Savior!" There is no greater blessing than the

guidance and counsel we have been given by our church leaders and by

the Christ himself.

I have seen the fruits of obedience come forth in this area where I am

serving. In just 2 weeks we went from having 1 lesson a week to having

a minimum of 11. We have 5 people working towards a baptismal date. If

all goes well we will have had nearly 12 people baptized by mid

February. What a miracle that is! I wish I had the time to bring my

thoughts into a more organized letter, So i might have to do so in a

written letter home.

Please follow the standards the Lord has given us. Read the Sermon on

the Mount in 3 Nephi. This was the original law in which Moses was

given to share with his people. They rejected it because they saw it

as too daunting a law. They did not understand the exponential amount

of blessings that would come from it if they would simply obey.

I love all of you and I pray for you often. I know that as we obey the

commandments of the Lord, He will bless is in abundance. There is no

doubt in my mind. I have seen it work in my life and I ask all of you

to put forth the effort, show your faith to Him, and act as a disciple

of Christ who has been truly converted. "Be converted. Do not just do

things a converted person does." In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

~Elder Daniel Peterson

January 25, 2012

**This post has been edited a bit to keep a few private things... well, private!
Hey Mom!

Thank you so much for the letter. I think I already sent a response to this but I'm sorry to have worried you. I was fine, I was just having a hard time getting along with *my companion*. I had never questioned my being out here. My experience with him taught me that I can't always "advise" people to change. Sometimes I have to adapt to them.

Thanks for sending the package though. I had no idea how much I was missing music! OH! and we now have a keyboard in our apartment! Doesn't mean I always have time to play but we have one! Although, it isn't a full keyboard...pft! Worthless... ; p Joke! But yeah there is a lot of good stuff on the iPod. There is also some ummm..."P-day songs" on here. Haha, thanks for it though!

So this morning we got to go to the temple again. It was good. I don't know if you remember my last experience I wrote about but, it wasn't like that this time. Last time I cried in the middle of my prayer cause I received such a strong impression from The Holy Ghost. This time I prayed for a few different things so, I don't think I could have had that same kind of manifestation. But it was still a good session. Always is. I still wish we could go more often.

Sorry for not sending more pictures. We just have been busy so we don't have a whole lot of picture opportunity. Now, I know you are thinking "Quit making excuses!" But, I really haven't had much opportunity to do so. And there isn't a whole lot to take pictures of around here. But, I will try better, I promise. Oh, and tell Dad I found the videos and pictures he put on there. (On the iPod) That was a nice surprise.

Well, I am doing well. I have no complaints other than about things that don't matter because I don't have control over them. Like my writing... HORRIBLE! Haha, I know you think I write like a 5 year old so I had to make a comment about it. But, I miss you, I love you. Keep yourself busy and occupied and SAFE! Watch over Kates for me would ya? I know you will...**... I love you Mom.

~ Elder Daniel Peterson YMS

January 19, 2012- Two in One

**Again, a little bit of editing took place here. Sorry!

Hey Mom,

Everything it going great! We just got in for lunch and we have probably already ridden about 20 - 25 miles. Good stuff. But yeah, everything is good. Sorry to make you worry.

That's too bad to hear about Katie and Lanson. Is there still a chance I could write to him? Now will definitely be a hard time for him, especially since he is struggling with religion. I hope Katie is doing okay though. Dad told me she keeps talking about some Clayton kid? I don't know him and I haven't ever heard of any other Clayton besides the ones you know as well. Who knows...

So the family is reading huh? That's awesome! I'm glad me going on a mission hasn't gone to waste, as far as blessings for the family goes anyway. : P

Good for Ryan! Just the fact that he opened it is great! Great power comes from simply opening the cover of the Book of Mormon.

But, yes you were correct about the "I know" Daniel coming out. It's because it was like he was trying to tell me how to walk. "I've been doing these things for a while now." It was like he was telling me how to feel. It was just weird and unproductive. But it was a hard six weeks. Now it's good though, so no worries! The only thing you should worry about is if I will have enough money for new inner-tubes and patches all the time, haha. I have had 3 flat tires so far and on of them I got a flat with slime in my tire, which is supposed to clog the hole. Nope! The whole was too big this time. Stupid cactus needles. Other than that I'm all good. And don't really worry about that haha, there is a member here who is awesome about that kind of stuff.

I love you mom and the sacrifice you have made and are currently making for me. You have done more for me than I can even remember. But the main attributes of Christ that are a part of my personality are and can be attributed to you. There are many memories I have that I can share where I learned something from you. Thank you for raising me the way you did  so that I am able to make decisions with that thought in mind, "what would Jesus do?" My answer, as you taught me when I was 9 or 10, is "Choose the Right". Thank you for everything.

~ Elder Peterson, YMS



Hey Pa!

Thanks for the novel? I don't know if it was a short story or a novel orrr... who knows. But thanks for it! And thanks for sending all of this. It seems to be that everything I listen to, as far as talks go, have been on the 13th article of faith. So I still have all of those talks to listen to. Oh! and thanks for the family update. That was great to hear.

*...*So Chelci had to have an endoscopic surgery? That's Crazy! Yes, you did use it correctly, congratulations. But, Chelci had a bad experience in Gospel Essentials? What happened? Sister Weinberg will do a great job with that calling I'm sure.

It's been great to hear that Ryan is even opening the Book of Mormon. Speaking of, I have written him a couple times, has he gotten those letters? I know he won't respond but has he gotten those? *I hope him and Jordan are becoming close friends again.* (Sorry my handwriting just got crappier.)

Katie will be good after a couple weeks or so. She is a tough girl, smart as well. But, now is the time that she needs an arm around her most. She will go looking for someone to fill that void whether she wants to admit that's what she's doing or not. But you know Kates. She's your daughter. I just worry about her; sometimes more then I should. Ah, well. *...*

Thanks for the message Pa. It did help and I will definitely take all of that to heart. There was a lot of great things in there. Thank you for always bringing me back to the foundation of things. I love you and miss you.

~ Elder Daniel Peterson
YOUR Son.

January 16, 2012

Hey Family!

So this past week has been crazy awesome. We picked up 8 new investigators, taught 11 lessons and had 7 investigators at church on Sunday. We went from nothing to that in one week! How is any of that because of us? It's not! The Lord has prepared the people and has prepared a way for us to find them. It is incredible the things we have been a part of this last week.

This one lady, we know her as "anti-lady", stops us every time she sees us to talk with us and tries to tell us what we preach. According to her we believe that God came down to Earth and conceived Christ with Mary. What?! She's crazy. Well, this week we got a lesson out of it! Her and her friend were in a car and passed us, stopped us and she tried to do the same thing. Her friend tried to join in but as we taught she started to ask some genuine questions! The Anti-lady zoned out cause she couldn't argue with any of our teachings. When we did say something that she would normally "anti" us with, she would snap her head over toward us super quick and her eyes would get all big. We would keep talking and I guess we would refute her statement before it was ever said. So she zoned out again. So her friend would keep asking questions and at the end they asked if they could pray with us. We all held hands and she said "O Lord Jesus" every 2 seconds and Anti-Lady would say "Yes Lord" every time she agreed with something that was said. Weird! but hey, it counted as a lesson for us and we turned a bad situation into a good better one. Then we OYMed (Open Your Mouth) a guy as he was walking to work and rolling his joint. That was a different experience.

So this weeks thought is kind of a weird/different one. We get calls from Sister missionaries about once every 2 weeks to give a blessing. Well this time is was a blessing for a lady as well as on her house. Her young boy kept telling her that someone would just watch her through her window, but he couldn't ever describe this guy. So, we get to her house in a town called Guadalupe; the ghetto of where we are. The house is super small and super packed. We walk in, talk a little bit about how things will work and then ask her in which order she would like the blessings and by whom. She didn't have a preference on who so Elder Carroll volunteered me for the first blessing. At the time we didn't know which was first... turns out she wanted the blessing on the house first. New experience for me, right? What an experience it was! We knelt down to pray and you could already feel something. I started, "Our dear, kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we kneel before thee to ask a blessing upon this house that these grounds may be consecrated..." At that exact moment it felt as though 1,000 needles had been pricked into me. Elder Carroll later said he felt a depression come over him. At the end of the prayer all ungodly feelings ceased. The Spirit filled the room in such a profound manner. It made it a perfect environment to give a comfort blessing.

Prior to this experience I had never really believed in "evil spirits" having a temporal effect on our lives. But now I know that the power of the priesthood and the authority that comes with it is most assuredly the authority of God the Eternal Father.

Again, it is a weird story to tell and use as a spiritual experience, but it was something that affected me. Not in any sort of negative way but it let me become more aware of just how much Satan has a hand in this world. So please, do all you can to stay away from his influences. Read from the Book of Mormon every day. Read over the words of our modern day prophets and their apostles. Strengthen your testimony each and every day. Look for those missionary moments and try to have the Charity of Christ with you at all times. I say these things lovingly, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

~ Elder Peterson

January 12, 2012

Hey Kates!
How is everything? Work? School? My..."your" car? ;-P I know I always ask but I never know, haha. So what's going on? I heard you and Lanson are on a break. Sorry to hear that. "We were on a break!" LOL, name that quote. OH! and how is concert season going?

Anywho, I know I always ask for favors but do you think you could get Jovanna's, Emma's and Ashley's address for me? They're all in college now and I have no idea how to write them. Sorry to always ask! :|-( (mustache frown)

So yeah, this week has been awesome. On Sunday a family of 5 walked into church and said they wanted to get baptized! Then earlier on a member walked up and told us that he has a friend that wants to get baptized. That guy is on date for February 1st. Then on Tuesday we called a guy we had been trying to get a hold of for a heck-a-long time now, well he answered and told us to meet him on Wednesday (yesterday) and he is awesome. Mom and Dad bought this "mormon coffee" stuff called Pero. We gave that to the investigator that needed it and they loved it! We are meeting with them on Friday and they will pick a baptism date. We told them the 21st was when God told us they needed to be baptized, they wrote it down but said they would think about it. So we have a lot of work coming up and it looks like a few baptisms! The work is really moving along here.

But, I wanted to write you because I haven't heard from my best friend in awhile. You're slacking! Haha, I was just thinking about you and wanted to hear from you again. Oh, I hung up that Spiderman picture you sent me awhile ago. It looks great next to President Monson! haha j/k! It is hung up right above my desk though.

But yeah, let me know how everything is going with you. I miss you Booboo. Take care and I hope all is well with you. I love you lots!

Elder Peterson, YBB

Catching Up- January 9, 2012

We've gotten a little behind on this whole blogging thing so these next few (and by "few" I mean a lot!) posts will be catching everyone up! Ready? Ok, here we go!

Hey Mom!

Sorry I missed last week. Elder Carroll is awesome but now I feel obligated to follow certain rules. : p Like, I am not supposed to write letters except on P-days, which I didn't realize. I would always just write them whenever I had the time to do it. Now, I don't really have that time anymore. Which is great because this is how I expected missionary life to be; going, going, going all the time. So, again, sorry for not writing last week, but I am doing great. The work is finally picking up out here.

So, a little bit about Elder Carroll:
He played soccer for his community college up in **, where he's from. He has been out for 9 months. The time he has with me right now is his first time training and his first time as a DL (district leader). He is funny, super nice, but serious when he needs to be. He is a great Elder to have as a companion and would be a great friend outside of the mission as well.

These past two weeks were ok. Nothing exciting happened, except for me getting a new companion. We had presidents interviews with President Howes this past Wednesday. That went well... except for him telling me that never has he seen straight zero's come from an area before. I don't really like to talk about it because it gets me angry because there wasn't a whole lot I had control over. But this past week, ONE WEEK, with Elder Carroll as my companion and we had an average of 300% increase on all of our "key indicators". We had 5 lessons instead of 0. We now have 3 progressing investigators instead of 0. We also have 1 new investigator which hadn't happened nearly the entire 6 weeks before-hand. It amazes me at the difference you will see between two people. There are other factors that played into that, as I talked about in my email, but the person makes all the difference.

So now, things are going great! I love you Mom, I hope all is going well back home with you and everyone else. Do a temple session for me, I want to go so bad! Don't let Satan prevent you from going. I love you, take care.

Elder Peterson, YMS