Hey Family and Everyone who maybe loves me!

Chayden, good luck man you are my Boy!!! You are going to tear it up in England! You are so lucky and this is the greatest time of your life! I can't wait till I return and you do too and we can go to Lake Powell and the big monster can eat you cause you get fat on your mission and we can wake skate the canal and pull a Mission Impossible after being returned missionaries on your mom, NANCY!

Well i am going to try and email different. I don't like the everyday thing it just isn't me and it is boring, I feel! But it has been an incredible week! So this recent convert in our ward brought us over lunch on P-day. She came over with another sister in the ward and they were both crying as they dropped off spaghetti and a salad! Elder Miller asked the question that now has us involved! "What is wrong sisters?" And boom we were involved. I guess the one recent convert whose boyfriend wasn't a member, they broke up we had taught him a couple of times and the other sister had just broken up with her boyfriend. I guess it is alot of Drama in the singles ward when it is so small! So Elder Miller is like, "Oh it is okay, you know what I used to do when girls broke my heart, I would just get in my car and go buy Ben and Jerry's and listen to Here comes Goodbye by Rascal Flatts or God Bless the Broken Road! It was so funny. Well the recent convert sister calls us later that week and says hey my ex was at work and saw the missionaries and called and told me! So we were in Sacrament Meeting and Elder Miller is sitting with Tara our investigator (WHO IS AMAZING I HOPE YOU ALL ARE PRAYING FOR HER) But we will get to her later) and next to the recent convert, well she hands him a tithing slip with her families address and her ex's address and then just starts crying. Everyone is like what did Elder Miller do and everyone after sacrament meeting is running up and comforting her it was so funny! But I hope all is well with her and with her ex! But is was epic!

We got a call from the Roxboro Branch asking if we would go and give a guy a blessing in the hospital who isn't a member and the UNC hospital is HUGE, but we went and it was good and hopefully he is doing better it was a sad deal young guy with a few kids! It is crazy how powerful the priesthood is and how his wife just wanted him to have a blessing then with her unshaken faith just trusted in the Lord! I think that's what it means to become as a little child to have complete faith in the fathers plan and just do all you can and not question. Just like I have submitted to Billy my whole life right BILL!

We went out tracting and got lost and ended up like 20 miles away from our apartment and ended up by these huge standing rocks it looked like Stone Hedge off of guitar hero! So we went and checked it out and it was some crazy indian stuff and had a bad spirit so we beat feet out of there!Thank goodness for the gift of the Holy Ghost!

Leadership Training was incredible! It was sad that I learned this now and not at day one of my mission, but I am so grateful for it! So basically what i gained from it was about the Doctrine of Christ! Which at first i thought was something scary and like new revelation President Cotterell was going to bring out, But i learned that it is just my purpose! It is found in preach my gospel in the first chapter under the Gospel of Jesus Christ and read the three scripture passages it has there it is amazing! I think on my mission I was more focused on trying to get people to join the club! So therefore I would talk of the benefits of the club and after this leadership training I learned that it is about Salvation, about Eternal life and that should be my pitch! Now I won't lie it is harder but the spiritual experiences that come from it are unimaginable! It is crazy how it changes you desires! We basically learned that we are to discern peoples problems remove all smoke screens and find the root of their problems and solve them with the Doctrine of Christ which entails of faith, reptentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end! It is crazy how the Lord trusts his missionaries cause with this new training model and less zone conferences the leadership of the mission is suppose to teach the rest of the missionaries it is crazy! The Lord has alot of trust in us but just be as a child! It has been crazy the spiritual experiences we have had with this!

Neker is the man that we helped move, he struggles with organized religion but has tremendous faith in Jesus Christ, he is a UNC ortho student and is from Peru and I love him and pray for him all the time! We met with him right after are first day of leadership training and what we learned that day was just what we needed! So we talked about the Book of Mormom and had an incredible lesson and at the end he said that if this is what it takes to know it is true he will read and pray! So we called him later this week to set up a reaturn appointment and he said he took the book to his priest and he told him not meet with us anymore! So that was sad but he said we could still stop by! So there is still HOPE!

Tara is such an incredible daughter of God and her Heavenly Father has done alot to prepare her to receive the restored Gospel! So we met with her this week and she came to dinner with us to a members house which was perfect and a recent convert of 1 1/2yrs was there! We had a great lesson and the spirit was so strong and we talked about funny stuff around the dinner table! She wants to be a midwife and I told her how Kelsi's sister Kami drank the placenta or how ever you spell it! But after that, during the lesson the spirit was way strong and everyone bore testimony to her and we invited her to be baptised and she committed to Sept 4th! We met with her again this week and taught her the plan of salvation, her father has passed away and it was neat to see her glow as we were able to give her hope as we shared the part about our fathers plan! Sunday at church she had a good time but is experiencing alot of opposition and has alot on her plate and is thinking about alot so pray for her! She is so ready and she knows it in her heart!

SO tuesday at leadership training we get a voicemail, that is like hi Elders I am interested in investigating the church if you could give me a call, so we called him and I was like, so Blake why are you interested in meeting with missionaries! Because this doesn't happen everyday ya know!!! He said that he is going to be a senior at UNC and that he needs some religion in the real world and stuff, and he set up Dinner! So we are freaking out and it was crazy we didn't know what to think! So we get with our exchange and are like we don't know what we are getting into but here is the code if we need to get out! So we go in and there is a Del Parson painting of Christ on the wall or as Elder Miller said wow there is the Mormon Christ! But we corrected him on that and told him that we beleive in the same Christ! But this home looked like a members home all the crafts and it was weird then his mom was cooking in the kitchen and was like Elders I'll be out in a second! Our exchange is like Elders these are members! So she comes out and I asked her if they are members and she was like no and told us this whole huge story and that her and her son have been praying and need this in their life, But her son first! So we have this amazing dinner (mom you must of been praying I would get fed good this week) and then we go have this spiritual lesson on the doctrine of Christ and invite him to be baptized right there on Sept the 11th and he committed he came to church he is the man, like he would be my best friend if I wasn't on my mission, he is so cool!

"Is she a Mission President's Wife?"

We had a great lesson with Janet and then set up a service opportunity to pass her off to the Elders in her ward! She is such an amazing lady I hope she takes part of the blessings her Father in Heaven has in store for her! She wants to own a ranch and said I could be a farm hand on it!

It has been an amazing week, I love you all and I hope you are all doing well this gospel is such a blessing it can solve all our problems! Tell Kenz and Drake and Sophie HI, and that I am glad she wakeboarded at Lake Powell and Kenz to! I love you all DEARLY!!!!!

Love,

Elder Taylor Petersen