Week 68: When You Are Honest You Have Nothing to Fear

Hey!

Well, I’m staying in Cattaraugus for another transfer! I’ll be getting a new companion. His name is Elder Bates and he is from Idaho. We served in the same district in N. Tonawanda as well as my 3rd district in W. Seneca. This will be our third time serving in the same area! I’m looking forward to working with him.

We had a pretty good week this week! We spent more time going through our area book and having been “pruning” to see who is actually interested in hearing the gospel. We made a lot of progress and it’s been nice to see who is really interested. We have also been trying to find new investigators to help build up our teaching pool while we’re out “pruning”.

We found two new investigators in the past two weeks! One is from Brazil and one is from Buffalo. They are both really in tune with the spirit and would like to learn more. The visit was really neat because one of her relatives that lives with her and asked for our identification and ministerial certificates signed by the prophet. I guess he wanted to make sure we weren’t impostors or something. It was a good lesson that when you are honest you have nothing to fear.

Another way we have been trying to find investigators is by being more spiritually minded and then being led by the Holy Ghost to those who are ready to hear the gospel. We’ve seen great success! The first time we tried this, we handed out six copies of the Book of Mormon! That is a lot in one day. We almost broke the record when I was on exchanges with Elder Detlor (we handed out 8 copies that day). We would have continued working but the sun was going down and one of the mission rules is to never go tracting at night. It’s much more dangerous and people are more on edge when they don’t know who is knocking on their door when it’s dark outside.

Our work with the branch is going well. We’ve had some problems with organization but we just got a new elders quorum presidency! I’m excited because without an elder quorum presidency it makes it very difficult to do home and visiting teaching effectively. It has made a big difference to receive new leadership in the branch. All that’s left is to get some leadership training done.

My spiritual thought for the week: I have been studying a lot about keeping the Sabbath day holy and how important it is for us to make a commitment to keep that day as sacred as possible. When I learn about the Sabbath I’m reminded of the talk I gave at my farewell. I’m grateful I saved it and have it with me. It’s a good reminder of what activities are appropriate for the Sabbath. “Is it good? Is it spiritually uplifting? Would Jesus do it?”

It makes me very sad that almost every member watches the Super Bowl these days. It’s disappointing. I’m grateful mom and dad raised me to know better.

I love and miss you all very much!

Love,
Elder Peterson