Transfers and new mailing address :)

*playing catch up on the blog for the last couple weeks - sorry about that :)

Ya'at'eeh!

All is good in the town of Kirtland! I can say that after a week of hard work, now I have some understanding of what it is like to start over in an area. White washing has been one of the hardest things I have done on my mission but it has also been the most rewarding week of my mission so far! (*I looked up what white washing meant - its when both missionaries are new to the area. usually only one missionary is transferred and one stays but this is when both are switched out) We have seen the Lords hand leading us to a great goal and we are exited! My new companion is Elder Cartwright and he is from Michigan. He is 21 years old! So I am being trained really haha. He has a great testimony and is very hard working so things should be great here! We have been finding a lot this past week and we have found some great potentials so things are looking good in the future! Things are calming down now that we have our bearings. Here in Kirtland the members feed us every night and some have even offered to feed us lunch too. This is going to take some getting used to since I have never been off the reservation. This small town feels ginormous in comparison and our home is 20 times bigger than where I was living before! It feels like I have walked into a whole different world. The ward is great, the people are great, the food is great! I feel I am going to like it here :). A spiritual experience we had this week was when we were finding three days ago. For a reason I did not yet fully understand I felt prompted to stop the truck and walk to a house. We only had 15 minutes until our next appointment but we were able to talk to a man outside of this home for a good 10 minutes and he was genuinely interested. He told us to come back this week and so it made me feel glad that I had listened to the spirit. It also seems like since we are both new to the area that the spirit has been working extra hard to get us going. Tons of great experiences have been falling into our laps so to speak and I feel it is because we need all the help we can get. Things are great, I love it here, and I look forward to this upcoming week! Thank you for your letters and emails and I will talk to you next Monday!

--Elder Petersen

*I love catching him online when we can chat back and forth. I asked him if he needed a bike now:

Elder Petersen:       The Mission has bikes that are donated by members and so if we
                                need one the mission office has plenty. Plus we have a truck and
                                a nice house because this used to be a sister missionaries area!
                                The members feed us every day too! We are living in paradise :)

Me:                         Compared to your camper I'm sure it is! Bet you took a
                                looooonnnnggg hot shower!

Elder Petersen:       We have an unlimited supply of hot water, heck yeah! haha and
                                the water here is drinkable

New Mailing address:

Elder Joshua Petersen

6 CR 6559

Kirtland, NM 87417

Ya'at'eeh!

    I survived Halloween! Our mission president asked us to be in at 6:00 pm during the holiday so that we would be safe. I'll admit I wasn't to happy about it but at least we were doing what was asked of us. I can see why it might be dangerous and maybe even bad to have missionaries out during Halloween.

    This week has been very good! I am amazed at the spiritual preparation that has been put in the lives of those we have come in contact with. God really is preparing the people here for the Gospel! We have been knocking on doors quite a bit and I have seen the hard work paying off. For this area it feels as if Less Active work is what we are sent here to do. Lots of members have fallen away and have stopped their conversion. Hopefully we will be able to help this ward with reactivation. We were teaching a great Investigator but this weekend they moved to Arizona so we will have to keep searching for another Investigator or two this week. I already love the work here in Kirtland and the members have been very supportive! Our ward mission leader has given us a lengthy list of people to visit and it has kept us busy. Elder Cartwright and I are getting along great and I love his commitment to the work! We were finding two days ago and we happened to meet a Youth Pastor for another church here in town. We talked for 30 minutes on his front porch and were able to bear our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith being a prophet of God. Although there were not any visible results from talking with him and his wife, we knew we did the right thing by not arguing or fighting. We hope that we were able to plant some seeds that a missionary can reap in the future. I feel that we are here in Kirtland for a very important reason and i hope that My companion and I will be able to complete that great purpose. I know that I am here for a good reason! Thank you for your emails this week. It's great to read about all the good that is happening at home as well. Talk to you next week!

--Elder Petersen