...it was a cool week filled with awesomeness!

Josh's (Elder Petersen's) email on Monday: Went to Canyon De Chelly today with Bishop Logan. Got back late so I will have to email you Tomorrow night. Love you Mom! :)

Elder Petersen's email on Tuesday: oops :( sorry, got back late from Zone Conference, email tomorrow

Elder Petersen's email Wed: Hey Mom! Good afternoon :)

......an hour later on Wednesday:

Ya'at'eeh! Good week since I last wrote an email. Things have been looking up and we keep finding new people to teach! We had a remarkable week for door contacts. We mark down how many new people we talk to about the Gospel and this week we broke the record! We met 48 new people while on a good week we only talk to about 22 new people.We now have 8 new investigators to see. It was exiting because with all the finding we did we still managed to have just as many lessons and got even more done than usual. Overall a very successful week for missionary work here in Many Farms! Just another sign that God is hastening his work and now all we have to do is catch up and work hard. So on Monday we met with the really sweet 74 year old shima in the ward. She has been staying home on Sundays because her son was in an accident and cant walk for the time being. She has somehow managed to come to the last two church meetings and is going to be active in the ward pretty soon! We talked about having the faith that Heavenly Father would provide a way for her to make it to church and she really liked it. Tuesday we went finding and talked to a few new people who were interested so we will have to go back this week and follow up. Wednesday we went on exchanges and I stayed in many Farms with Elder Jones, our District Leader, while Elder Sorensen went to Lukachukia with Elder Manumaleuna, our Elder from Hawaii. The day was a good day with 6 new investigators, three of them we are going to see tonight! we went finding and teaching all over the place and it was insane how much work we got done. Thursday was a heavy Less Active day and all of the members we saw committed to being at church on Sunday. Friday was good at the end of the day. We saw one of the Recent Converts and his family who is investigating the church. They liked the "CPR" (Church, Pray, Read) lesson we gave and next time we see the family we are going to invite the Mom to be baptized. The Father is already a member who went on placement as a kid but does not remember allot so he is almost like an investigator. Saturday we were able to do some service work at a members home with some youth in the ward. After we weeded the yard we headed out for the day. Every appointment we had previously scheduled they were home which is very rare but awesome! definitely a good day! We saw the recent convert who use to be a youth Preacher at another church and he is truly converted to the Church of Jesus Christ for sure! He told us that he wants to tell everyone he taught to come to the LDS church instead! :D Sunday we shared the Ester Story with everyone we saw and gave out a copy of the story the church put on LDS.org. Good stuff, and we had positive feedback on the message. Monday we went hiking with Bishop and his family at Canyon De Shelly or Sheey or however you spell it. It kinda looks like Shelly but it is pronounced Shey. Cool hike though! It's the second time I have been there and it was good to have Bishop there. Yesterday, we had Zone Conference in Gallup, NM and that was really good. President and Sister Batt are Amazing teachers! Strong spirit in the meeting and there were some really helpful ideas for this area. We went shopping at Walmart after because we don't have one on the Reservation, so we bought tons of food and drove home late last night. Well, I hope I haven't forgotten anything, just know it was a cool week filled with awesomeness! Thank you for everything and I'm out... Peace!

So, Have you ever had one of those weeks where you're just like "Hey world! I'm ready to work hard!" and then life is like, "MuaHaha! That's what you think!" and then bites your companion in the leg?

Ya'at'eeh! So, Have you ever had one of those weeks where you're just like "Hey world! I'm ready to work hard!" and then life is like, "MuaHaha! That's what you think!" and then bites your companion in the leg? Well that sums up this week so.. anything I type after this is just for fun haha. So on Monday we went hiking. Tuesday we met with the woman that we gave a blessing for her stroke. We gave her a "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD and she has already watched it 4 times! And we also had a family home evening with our first counselor and his family. He gave a really good lesson from the Ensign about Jesus Christ being our anchor and we all read Helaman 5:12. After we had the lesson we all made paper boats and gave them anchors made of string and rocks, and put them in a bucket of water. Wednesday we went exploring out by Black Mesa. We found a Less active member whose kids go to the Chinle ward. She lives in the middle of nowhere basically so it was awesome driving around looking for new people. I have one the best most unique missions in the whole world and every other missionary should be jealous! That day we also found a road that follows the side of Black Mesa in Rough Rock with shear cliffs of to the side of the road. Pretty scary (picture included.) Thursday we went tracing with a member for an hour and everyone we knocked into knew the member, so that was funny. We had dinner with the coolest 74 year old Lady or "Shima" (What we call her in Navajo) and her son. She is an active member in the ward and can cook Fry Bread like no one else can here on the Rez! Good stuff :) Friday we were doing really good, had met 6 or 7 new people and then all of a sudden... Dogs! We were bringing in wood for one of our investigators and one of their dogs bit Elder Sorensen. He is lucky that he was lifting up his foot to take a step because instead of it biting his ankle it bit into his shoe. The dogs teeth went through his dress shoe and into the heel of his foot, leaving a scrape that was deep enough to bleed. Elder Sorensen taught that dog a lesson though because right after it released his shoe he kicked backwards as hard as he could and nailed the dog in the FACE! It ran away after that. We drove home and he cleaned out the cut quickly and we called Sister Batt the Mission Presidents wife and tried to tell her what had happened. We left Saturday to Farmington to the urgent care so that the bite could be checked for infection. It was not infected and they told him he is lucky. Our Truck had a leak in one of our tires so we drove to Farmington on our spare. By the time we got out of the urgent care it was too late to get the tire fixed so the vehicle coordinator gave us another truck. We stayed the night in Farmington with the Assistants to the President so that was cool! They do a ton for the Mission President and have their own assigned area too its cool to see that they have time to teach as well. They are really great missionaries too! Sunday Morning we drove back to Many Farms and went to church here. Everything worked out and it was almost fun haha. Definitely an interesting week but none the less great! Thank you for your emails and letters this week. Talk to you next Monday!

--Elder Petersen

General Conference is like Christmas for missionaries...... It’s like a spiritual pep talk right before the "Big Game."

Ya'at'eeh! From Dak'e' Halani'! Things are good in the Farm of Many this week and the missionary work is booming! We know of four less active members that watched General Conference and we are super exited for an investigator who watched all five sessions! General Conference is like Christmas for missionaries because with the missionary spirit it has a greater meaning with an added spirit. It’s like a spiritual pep talk right before the "Big Game." Makes me want to try my best and work even harder! On Monday we cleaned and did laundry then went on a hike out by the Lake here in Many Farms and that was fun. Tuesday we saw a really cool member out in Valley Store who is a military veteran in his 60's. He has some handicap issues and has a loss of memory but never the less he is awesome! His best quote is "I don't remember much, but I know the Church is true!" He remembers our names and knows we are missionaries and you can talk to him about spiritual stuff just fine but other than that he struggles to remember other stuff. He makes our day every time we see him so that was the highlight of Tuesday. Wednesday we met with a less active and his girlfriend who is investigating the church. They are really coming along and the girlfriend has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying. She told us that every time she prays it is not something she would normally say but she can feel an influence guiding her prayers. So we told her it was the spirit and she accepted that no problem. Pretty Cool! We also found a whole family of less active members out in Rough Rock so that was good. Thursday we had a helpful District Meeting and talked more about President Batt's Book of Mormon Vision. Friday we weekly planned and then didn't see many people. Saturday We enjoyed conference with the Investigator who watched all five. Sunday we watched Conference with a less active family in the Valley and they all told us there favorite part afterwards. They are working on getting active again and going to the temple. Everything worked out nicely this week and Elder Sorensen and I had fun. With all that said I love it here and I Love you guys! Stay cool and stay awesome! Till next week.. 

Ya'at'eeh! This week has been pretty good! We had a bunch of people tell us that our visits this week were exactly what they needed. We are using the Book of Mormon in everything now and it has made a big difference in the way people look at the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We always hold a copy of the Book of Mormon everywhere we go. Right as we meet someone we think of an appropriate scripture and are able to read it with them during the door contact. If they don't want to listen to what we have to say we offer giving them a copy and ask if we can visit with them after they read a few chapters. We have been keeping track of who we give copies to and we will follow up in a week or two to see if they have read it. And hey, if someone came to your house and offered you a free book, you would almost always say yes too! haha Especially if they said the book would change your life and improve the quality of your home and family. Everyone out here loves the idea of eternal families so now we just need to point them in the right direction to get there. This week was pretty usual and nothing was out of the ordinary so there is not much to report on. The wind has been pretty strong on and off for the past 2 weeks. It is like being in a dust cloud and getting in and out of the Truck is a work out! The missionary work here is continuing to get better and the people we meet with are progressing more and more! It's great to be out here in Good ol' Many Farms and see this ward flourish (or in other words "Blossom as the Rose" like it says in the scriptures!) Thanks for the emails and for the letters. I love you all and I will talk to you next Monday! Haagonee! (Bye)

I am staying in Many Farms for another transfer! That will make it 9 months in my first area at least!

Ya'at'eeh! Hey everyone! This week has been straight awesome (aside from being sick Wednesday) haha. We have done so much in the past week that needed to be done and we were able to find some cool new people who are very interested in the Gospel. On Monday we had a lesson with a Less active family that I have only met once before because of their busy schedule and by some miracle we were able to not only sit down and have a lesson but the husband talked allot more than last time and was interested. The wife wants to get back into church and started reading the Book of Mormon again! On Tuesday one of our lessons was with a man who is paralyzed from the waist down. He cant move on his own very much but he isn't letting that stop him. He has a motorized chair that he drives all over the place. He is really funny and a cool new investigator. We taught him how to pray and yesterday he says he has been praying all the time. Wednesday was another sick day but it was the day that the church and our trailers were being steam cleaned so we had to retreat to Bishop's house for the day. It was very kind of them to take us in like that at such short notice. We slept on the couch most of the day and watched Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration with Bishop and his family. On Thursday we taught five people and it was much more exiting than Wednesday haha. We had the chance to sit down with a less active Sister in the ward and introduce her to the book of Mormon and how to use it for personal revelation in her life. She had always had a copy but never knew why she needed to read it so it was great that we were able to show her the power in the Book of Mormon. Friday was pretty average without anything different of exiting. On Saturday a little 8 year old kid was baptized and we got to help out with his baptism. It went really well and the family is really exited for him! Sunday we had a lesson with an investigator who asked us if we could have the next lesson with her and her kids in the church building. We were super shocked because that is the missionary dream to have a lesson in the church or a members home and she is the one who asked us! She is a super prepared investigator and has been progressing really well. Can't wait to see what next week is like and it was great to hear from you guys in Mom's emails. Talk to you next Monday!

--P.S. I am staying in Many Farms for another transfer! That will make it 9 months in my first area at least! They might as well keep me here for the rest of my mission because I love it here! :) haha

Saturday was super windy...Elder Sorensen and I ate sand all day so we are good on fiber for our diet for a while haha!

Ya'at'eeh! This has been one of the busiest weeks of my mission! It has been a roller coaster of time and health but we still managed to have an astounding 21 lessons with some of the coolest people here in Many Farms! I had a stomach ache on Wednesday but that went away pretty quick. Saturday morning I had another stomach ache from most likely food poisoning that just about knocked me out for 2 hours. I'll admit I didn't have fun being sick but the fact that both times I got better in a matter of hours is a great miracle! The rest of the week was absolutely fantastic! Last Monday we were able to have Family Home Night at Bishops house and they invited an investigator to join. She had fun and we are hoping good things will come from it. Tuesday just about everyone we had planed to see was home and then we were able to have dinner with Bishop that evening. That is when we found out that President Batt and his wife met with the President of the Navajo Nation and told him that the Book of Mormon would change the Navajo Nation. He took it pretty well and it turns out that the he is a Less active member of the Church who was Baptized a long time ago. President was very bold with him and to hear about it from President during interviews on Wednesday it sounded really cool! Wednesday we had interviews with President Batt and it was great to talk to him. He had allot of helpful advice that was great for not only our area but with training as well. Very friendly and lovable guy and His wife is just as nice! We got to practice teaching with Sister Batt and that was a very spiritual experience as well! Before we left President and Sister Batt told us that we were the two most enthusiastic missionaries they had seen and that they love the way we teach! On Thursday we had an awesome District meeting and even though Elder Rushton was recovering from a cold he did a great job! He is a great motivator to the District and we definitely look up to him. So as you can see we were a little limited on time for proceliting  this week with all that was going on. That is why it is so cool that we were able to get so much done in the time that we had! Saturday was super windy and there was dust flying everywhere! The trailer was shaking and it was impossible to walk around. Elder Sorensen and I ate sand all day so we are good on fiber for our diet for a while haha! Yesterday Elder and Sister Anderson gave really good talks on member missionary work in Sacrament meeting and everyone was exited to be a missionary after. At the end of the day we totaled our numbers to call in and report and we couldn't believe all the good that has come out of this week. We were able to get so much done it was amazing! It was not only the most lessons we have ever had but almost half of them were with Investigators! Just another testimony builder that this is not our work and no mater what happens; God is going to accomplish what needs to happen here in Many Farms. In the end it all works out perfectly. Thank you for you emails and thank you for your updates in the letters you all send. Don’t stop smiling and I will talk to you next Monday!

This morning, Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly met with President Doyle Batt, Sister Batt, Elder Lin and Elder Nisimoto of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints regarding the growth and expansion of the LDS Church on the Navajo Nation.

 His very first tortilla. Came out pretty good! (dinner at Bishop Logan's house) 

 Dessert was hot pickles with hot Cheetos and hot Funyuns (dinner at Bishop Logan's house) 

 Dinner at Bishop Logans house :)

(about last week's picture) We slid off the road into the puddle lol all of that mud is clay and it is like driving on ice :P The mud tracks would have worked but they are not meant for clay so they were buried under the mud. Washed them off though and they are ready to go for the next time nature decides to hate us haha.

Things are about to take off and go crazy here and it is going to be amazing!

Ya'at'eeh! This week has been crazy good! Last Monday we were able to meet with a friend of a recent convert who is baptized but inactive. Him and his girlfriend were very receptive to the message and now they are reading the Book of Mormon! The recent convert is the one that got the priesthood a few weeks ago and he is doing really well. On Tuesday, we ended up finding a huge new family and all 7 of them want us to come back tomorrow! All of them basically gave their testimonies about God and what he has done for them and it was great to see and feel the spirit working on the lesson. Super prepared family and it is definitely inspiration that we found them. On Wednesday we had appointment central. We saw so many people it was crazy how we were able to do so much in one day. It was a blessing to be able to do so much to help build up Many Farms. Thursday, we went on exchanges so I stayed here with Elder Rushton our district leader, and Elder Sorensen went to Lucachukai with Elder Monumoleuna the Polynesian from HawaiiJ. We had 6 appointments fall through but we were still able to see three families so everything worked out. During our District meeting that morning we were told about a new teaching tactic that President Batt is implementing all across the Mission. President had a full on, no joke, spiritual vision where everyone in the New Mexico Farmington Mission was reading the Book of Mormon. So from this day forward we are going to get cases of Book of Mormons to hand out to everyone who will read it. President wants to flood this area with the Book that has been written specifically to the Laminates. Soooo… We are fulfilling the prophesy found all over in the book of Mormon when it says that the Nephites will cry from the dust and reach out to their brethren the Laminates, pleading for them to come unto Christ in the last days. This is a landmark for the work. The Lord is really starting to hasten the work here on the Reservation! Gives me the spirit chills just thinking about the fact that I am here at such a crucial time in God’s plan for his chosen people! Friday we were able to start implementing the Book of Mormon into every teaching opportunity. People’s reaction change when you tell them that you have a book that is written specifically to them that will change their life! On, Saturday we had a lesson with a less active family about the Book of Mormon and gave them a much needed introduction to the purpose of its message. Before this point they had no idea why they needed to read the book of Mormon or what was in it. After the lesson they were excited and wanted to share it with everyone. Their reaction was “Why have we never heard this? No one told us why we needed to read.” After that lesson I am fully sure that this is inspired and the right way to go about sharing the message of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of his church. So much power comes from the Book of Mormon that it is undeniable how true it really is. I have high hopes for this new missionary approach. On Sunday we were able to listen to a member from the high counsel and his wife. They both talked about hastening the work in Many Farms and it got me pumped up! Things are about to take off and go crazy here and it is going to be amazing! Pretty soon everyone is going to hear the message of the restoration and read the Book of Mormon! Well got to go..Thank you for everything and I love you guys! Peace out!



We got stuck in the mud 2 Saturdays ago