No Longer a Teenager!!!

Taylor and Elder Weston -Nice lights

Elder Petersen & Christensen at a Nativity in NC

I am 20 y'all! That is so crazy, I feel old, like I can finally be mature and make correct decisions because I am not a TEENAGER! What a week, Birthdays in the mission are weird, I won't lie! But wow, this Gospel has never been more true! I love Christmas, I love the spirit that this seasons contains. Some big changes in the Pinehurst ward this week! But it has been an eventful week with Sister Carla Cameron, Danielle, Deja and also with William Walters, it is awesome! It snowed! Just a good week to serve the Lord, ya know never again on my birthday except next year would i get to serve the Lord on my Birthday, what a great gift that has been for this period of my life! But here we go! I Love you Mom and Dad and Kenz and Drake and Sophie and even KELS.....pretty goofy Christmas card y'all sent, I loved it! Tell Kelsi I write her faithful every week, just like Old Faithful goes off every hour! OH, I have the coolest family and FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!

Mon-
So this older single woman in our ward, her mother died and she took a train to Florida; well she left her dog Bosco who she had never left before in her entire life and she was nervous about it, but who could she call......who could she trust..........THE ELDERS. So for 2 days we were on dog duty....well this dog freaked out that her mommy was gone and did some dirty work to that house! So I think Pinehurst might be short one member but we pray and hope not! But it actually went fairly well, she was grateful. We had dinner with the Kirks.......they remind me of Andrew and Courtney it was fun going out with them to dinner, they have a brand new baby and she was crying in the back seat so they made me sing songs to her.......BUT IT JUST MADE HER CRY HARDER! I guess it was some birth control for myself and Elder Christensen! But to be honest, I am so pumped to have a LITTLE PETE! But why am I talking about that, it is so far away!!!!!!!! Or is IT?????HAHAHA Just kidding!!! Later that night at dinner, Bro Kirk just being nice asked is their anything else y'all want. I said no, and they had free chips and Salsa.....like we had three baskets and had alot, Elder Christensen eats like a horse though. So Sis Kirk got there baby all ready to go, we get all bundled up and Elder Christensen was like I want another basket of Chips and some more salsa. Bro Kirk starts laughing as did I....but Elder Christensen was toally serious, but then I straightened him out, told him he needed to worry about his girlish figure and finally got him to leave. We went and tried to catch up with some potential investigators but not much success. Time is a delicacy here in Pinehurst and none if it is available to Mormon missionary's..

Tues-
Elder Miller went Zone Leader in Fayetteville and Elder Pierre-Louis my African American brother went Assistant to the President! GO MINICO SPARTANS!!!!!!!!!!! Get some Flavor in the office! We went out with Bro. Stovall he is 82 and still works as a realtor! We went to go see William Walter, we had a great lesson with him where I testified my heart out to him and just pleaded with him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, they are so prepared they just don't know it. His wife doesn't sit in but she is really smart and I am pretty confident she sits in the back room and listens. But he said he would and we could stop by to follow up with him! We biked around alot and finally got to go see Rod Anderson.......he was the man we met at the Chevy dealership and he talked to us, he told us his neighbors were Mormon and his nephew, I felt prompted to give him a new pass along card with an older couple asking what happens to their marriage after they die. But I chickened out. That night we went out with his neighbor who said his wife died a few weeks ago. So I knew I had to give him the card. So, we finally got to the doorstep, it was emotional. The spirit was so strong and he and I were crying and I told him of the plan of happiness that he could know where his wife is. But he said it was still to hard to meet with us, but that he would call his neighbors when he was ready. It was so sad and hard for me. But I did it for myself, I can do nothing except in the strength of the Lord, I can do all things! We went out with the Stake Presidents son, Jeremy Brock he is the man. We saw Sis. Cameron where we had a great lesson, we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she was like, really! Then she got a pen and paper out and said if the Lord commands it, I better write them down they must be important....so she did and she is awesome. We saw a less active woman.....that was interesting but it was a good night teaching!

Wed-
We had district meeting. We got a new Elder, Elder Ringamoto from Fiji by way of Hawaii by way of Provo! He is huge! District meeting was really good, it was on Faith to Find 2 new investigators each week. It was a really spiritual experience preparing for that! The Lord wants us to be successful....but it is just like Chaydo told me, how can we expect missionary work to be easy when the Savior had to go through the atonement! I miss Chaydo, we went to pizzahut afterwards and Elder Christensen has not limits when it comes to a buffet! He ate them out of house and home. I went on an exchange with Elder Weston to Laurinburg.....It was good, we did some tracting, I had a baptismal interview with a girl named Keri who was 29 days older then Sophie and had the same birthday as Kelsi! It was so neat, like I was just thinking of myself interviewing Sophie and the covenant she made when I baptised her! It was really emotional for me with all of that in my mind but it was really neat, her family coming back into activity and she was leading them!

Thurs-
The elders in Pembroke met with a young man who is going to UNC at Pembroke, that is from Smithfield, and he said he knew me, it was way cool. The Lord works in mysterious ways! In the North Carolina Raleigh mission 90% of the baptisms are part member families except in the Fayetteville West Stake! So we looked on our roster and their were 115 part member families. So we have alot of in house work to do and as President Cotterell said, get more bang for our buck! I just think in part member families the spouse protects their spouse way to much it is odd. I got 7 letters, Chaydo, Dealba, Patrick, (who is dating Alyssa) that is so cool, and mom I got 2 from you, and Monica and Tarha and Noel, so cool. We had a great lesson with the Cameron's in the Gilmore's home they are so awesome she is our teaching coordinator! But the spirit was present and Sister Cameron is ready! Elder Christensen really is trying hard just has no people skills at all, but he is trying and is obedient and that is all we can ask for!

Fri-
This lady said something that shook me up! We contacted her and she said she knows what we are all about her best friend in Washington is a member and she isn't interested, and I asked if we could come share a Christmas message with her and her kids and she politely declined. But as we walked away her son said mommy why were they here, and what she said to him shook my world, She said "they just were coming by to make sure we know Jesus." IT killed me, like our message is so much more than that, like how do I not convey that message to somebody, that I am here not to just help them know Jesus loves them but to let them feel that he loves them. Our message is so much more than that! Ladder Golf Tourney, I took 2nd, Sis Cameron came and loved it a brother approached her and said, hi I am Jared and she said I am Sister Cameron; so do I call you Bro. Jared and he said, no I apologize I am Bro Young! It was so cool!

Sat-
BIRTHDAY-----------WOWOW 20 years old that is crazy! A member invited us to a breakfast for the Kiwanis Club, it was good stuff, it was snowing, we biked everywhere. We met with the Walters, Bro Walters hadn't read the scriptures, but Sis Walters came out and was like "if I read in the book and pray I can know the message is true, and she was like really, and then she went off asking all these questions about the church, it was so cool, she was on fire. She said, "well, where do I read and I will read it to Bill and we'll both pray about it!" We told her page 429 and when we were leaving she said,"so 429 right" and I was confused, but then I got it!!! It was so neat, they are so prepared! We taught Sis Cameron; Bro Young came with us. After the lesson he was said, I see Sister Cameron in the temple like that is where she is going, it is awesome, she is so prepared! We taught her daughter Danielle, she has a cognitive learning disability and she kind of gets it! It is freezing cold, I seriously can't handle it but the warmth of our message warms me from the inside out!

Sun-
NOBODY AT CHURCH AGAIN, WE STRUCK OUT!!!!!!!! Elder Hervy said in his letter to me or Patrick said when he was AP that in the Pinehurst area, everyone was pessimistic about it. I always get sent to those areas, but I just keep reminding myself of the quote Chaydo told me in his letter. If I had Elder Miller we could tear it up! We could bring anything out! The Pot was stirred in the Pinehurst Ward, New Bishopric, new Relief Society president, a couple left on special assignment to preside over the Rockingham Branch, so it was funny everyone was really sad about the Relief Society president leaving, but the new one seems awesome and she has a daughter on a mission so that will help our case. We went to the nativity scene lighting, Sis Cameron came....it was awesome, we rode our bikes their in our cool reflective gear! The devotional was awesome! It made me think of what I remember of Christmas and to be honest, I don't remember what I got last year or the year before that! But I always love and look forward to and remember Christmas eve, I love the spirit that is in our home. I remember one year dad set up an extra chair for the Savior to be present, just the spirit that comes into our home that evening is amazing! I love this season. I love you all and can't wait to spend it with you in 2012 because I am getting an extension! So don't count on Dec 9th! IT would be the 14 anyways! You always come home 5 days after your reporting date! I love you all and Wish you all a Merry CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Love and Respect,

Elder Taylor Petersen