Elders Petersen, Smart and Pierre-Louis(AP)

THE SMITH'S I REPEAT THE SMITH'S>>>>>>>>No relation to Joseph!!!!!! BUT seriously this family better be in the prayers of all those who read this! MAKE IT KNOW TO ALL NATIONS KINDREDS AND TONGUES THAT ELDER PETE loves his family!!!! They are so prepared to receive the restored Gospel they don't even know it! They are such good people with an incredible family!!!!!! Bro. Smith is a stud Sis Smith asked some really good questions. She really searches it out for herself!!! This is a Family that 50,000 missionaries around the world pray to find and the Lord lead us to them. So me and Elder Smart got in an argument about biking, he said that he plans on NOT biking the rest of his mission and that he is a Zone Leader and doesn't need to. I was said, but Elder we can't just talk the talk we gotta walk the walk...so we rode bikes onto post! We get on post, we stop by a few families and we make some calls and all is good. We have some time but we were like, we will just go to our dinner early (if we were in cars we would have been late because we would have been on the other side of post) So we biked there, and there are 3 ladies, one of them is a member, and she said she was going to invite her other member friend to be their. So I see three, and I start thinking okay, I have a few minutes to figure whether or not they or both members or if only one is and which one is it. So we start throwing out questions, rapid fire!!!!! We figure it out, it is Sis Smith she lived next to Elders in Washington and they used to talk to them all the time and went to Church with them once. She tells the member that she would never become Mormon and she has a hold up with the Book of Mormon. Then Bro Smith the Stud he is; large in stature comes over and is way nice and talks to his wife and she wants something that the Westwoods have that you use to grow vines on. It is big and heavy and in alot of pieces so we help Bro. Smith. We invite him to meet with us, he accepts and we go over Thursday night, we just get to know them and have dinner with them! They made some KILLER Chicken and some way good cookies. This family is such good people, like they define what it means to be a Christian!!!!! We talk about the church and low and behold she thinks the Book of Mormon is a book Joseph Smith wrote. So we get the book and we give her the additional study in the back of the pamphlet. She studies it out and we go over on Sunday and had this incredible lesson and it seems like Bro. Smith knows it all to be true and he is just waiting on Sis Smith and Sis Smith kept making fun of me saying, I am going to beauty school, I really don't know why she would say that, we just have this awesome lesson, invite them to be baptised and the spirit was so strong. I felt it guiding me and all, but I felt more of Gods love for this family!!! Seriously, Bro Smith could be a Bishop or really an EQP and Sis Smith she would be great in Young Woman's or Relief Society like they are doers not observers. So we are meeting with them tonight and they are to pray and read the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 11 and tell us whether or not it is true, I am so nervous and so excited. They are already so happy and to think they could even be happier to even think they could receive more truth it will be incredible. This was all done because of members, EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY..

So we went on an exchange with the Cameron Elders.... Cameron is an area where Elder Smart served for 7 1/2 months. We go their trying to fire up their area and we biked alot and got alot of work done. I really never realized how vital basic people skills are in missionary work. I guess I am so grateful for outgoing parents. We had dinner with a member who was lost and then was found and his wife was baptised and they are working for the temple. Like he was wild, he used to be a Hells Angel and just found the Elders and changed his whole life and he talks so powerfully on putting off the Natural man. We found alot for the Cameron Elders it was a great exchange.


A woman from the singles Branch was supposed to be baptised, our Zone was supposed to have 6 baptisms this Saturday but everyone fell through. The one in the singles, the woman, believes it all and has a powerful testimony but the job that she works at isn't up to the standards of the Church and it was pretty cool because she recognized it by the influence of the Holy Ghost, ya know it was nothing we told her. We are just trying to invite her to build her faith and to quit but it is her only source of income. We continue to pray for her and help her.

So we go on an exchange with Elder Pierre-Louis this week, and like he is so funny but I kept giving him a hard time about bringing an I.D. so we can get on post and we meet at the church to exchange and I was said "do you have your 6 forms of ID" and he is like yeah, yeah, yeah. So we get in the car and we drive onto post and he left his license in Raleigh, it was crazy because all of our work is on post but it was neat, really taught me to trust in God and become better. Elder Piere-Louis helped me understand alot that sometimes we get so caught up in application and we forget our purpose to help people receive the Saviors mercy it was a great reminder for me!!!

I am pumped, I am on fire on this topic!!!!!!! Member missionary work!!!! I remember being a new missionary and Elder Croft always talking about trying to Crack the member code....well I think it has been cracked and the funny thing is, that it was in Preach My Gospel.....no crazy idea no "PROGRAM" it was in the Guide to missionary service Preach my Gospel. We had 4 companionship's come out with us and we blitzed 16 families in 2 hours!!!!!! The members taught the doctrine of missionary work by a brief scripture or testimony or Preach my Gospel and then extended the invitation to invite a non member friend to hear the missionary lessons in their home in 2 weeks and we left. We were in the members home for 20 minutes. Every member had goodies for whoever stopped by, they all willingly accepted. A brother kept saying what took so long for this invitation to come out? He said he felt like members of the church talk about the church alot but we don't know what to do or how to do it. We as missionaries ask for referrals and different things or who they felt were prepared and he said it was just an open invitation. He said this closes the deal and is incredible. With the 8 brethren that went out we gave them each 2 families to pray for and to follow up this week by Thursday and then we the full time missionaries were going to call the 8 brethren and follow up with them. Bro Burbank the acting Bishop, because the Bishop is deployed went out with us and had a wonderful experience inviting the saints to invite a nonmember to hear the lessons in their home by 2 weeks. He said he was very concerned for the follow up and he didn't want this great spiritual experience to be just an open invitation so we gave him his two families to follow up on and he said this is what I am talking about Elders this is the follow up! It is awesome the code has been cracked! And it was in the "good book" all along!!!!!!! That makes perfect sense it wasn't going to be found from some talk, it wasn't going to be found from anything else, or some idea I may have had it was in the book that was put together by the Lord and approved by the brethren!!!!!! That is the program, I am sticking too!!! I have had such incredible studies this week using the personal and companionship studies activities, they have been such a spiritual and revelatory experience for me! Still living the dream as a full-time missionary. I love this work! I love my Savior I know he directs this great work. I pray for you all!


Hope you all have a great week and know that I love you so much!!!!

Love, Elder Taylor Petersen