Familia,
what is going on, the Lord loves his missionaries. We were honestly blessed and spared, we have been able to help alot of people this week. They have been really grateful as we run in with our Mormon helping hands! This Tornado has been really sad especially to all the people around us, but it was incredible to see how this is really bringing people closer together and helping them serve there brothers and sisters! Then they are truly serving God. But is has been a great week, sorry I am getting weak at writing letters, like I don't know, I get to talk to you in a week, I'll be home before you know it, we can just catch up in December, but yeah I will try.

I am not sure if I told you all, but this Saturday we are getting to go see Elder Richard G Scott of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles.
I was pondering last night, how crazy it is that I have the privilege to sit before another apostle and here him speak. I never thought I would have the opportunity to sit and listen to one, but now two. I was pondering why? Like why the North Carolina Raleigh Mission? Like from what I have heard from President Cotterells invitations the culture of the mission has changed, I felt last night it was because of our collective obedience to the commandments and the missionary standards is why we are so lucky. This week has been really good we have done alot of service and we're still able to get some missionary work done. We were able to go on an exchange with Elder Merrill, it was great he just asked alot of question that made us think more. He asked if he was to ask a companionship in our Zone what the plan is to baptize once a month would they know. It made us think and we have some doctrinal based plans to continue to apply what we are already doing and fix some areas where we are weak. We had the Baptism of Amanda Addie, it was a great spiritual experience. Her husband Bro. Addie was able to baptise his wife and his daughter. It was hectic for a second, the Bishop had called us that morning telling us we had to move the baptism because they had accidentally double booked and there was a dance going on that evening so the whites we planned on using were already used from a prior baptism and it was kinda stressful but then when Bro Addie was able to raise his arm to the square, the spirit chased out everything negative and the spirit of the Lord was present. The Bishop made that comment too, it was neat how powerful the priesthood is.

For our zone we really badly once again wanted to achieve the goal of 160 member present lessons. We were so close but still needed a few more and it was Sunday. We had only had 4 member presents that week and knew that the Lord saw fit for us to achieve the Standard of Excellence, even with all the chaos of the tornado. So we went to a referral and nothing, we said a prayer asking the Lord for a miracle and that we could find someone who would really need our message. We went to a part-member family we thought we could teach and nothing. While heading to try something else, I thought I saw a Less-Active family outside someones house, so I rolled down the window and yelled Bro Leach! He turned and it was him, I turned to Elder Smart and said there is our lesson, we jumped out of the car while it was moving and we ran to go see the Leach's they were at there friends Jen and Josh, they were having an Easter dinner and invited us in. The conversation around the table naturally went to the Gospel and we were able to teach a powerful spirit lead lesson, tears were shed and the spirit of the Lord was felt, she had recently lost her father and brother and needs the gospel more then ever, we are meeting with Jen and Josh this week again and were able to pass our goal of 160 and get 161 for the month of April! Incredible, it is like Elder Child's said, Miracles are planned and plans are inspired, do we have the faith to allow those planned miracles to happen? I love the work of the Lord, I love the feelings of the Holy Spirit and knowing and being confident that I am living in a way that I can and will be guided by it!

My companionship with Elder Smart has improved, it is hard like he talked about how he had troubles getting along with his father and he just doesn't like to be told what to do, or what he is doing is wrong or could be done better, he just kind of lives to his own set of rules but slowly but surely he is making some changes.

I love being on a mission, with all my heart. I Love the trials it brings and opportunity's to increase my faith, I love, like I said before nothing more then being lead by the Holy Ghost, I love that feeling it is incredible. I love when you know you are speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost because I know that I am not smart enough to say those things on my own.

We received this Media Referral, the Barrios family, and it is incredible they need this so much and we are trying so hard to present the Gospel in such a way that they see the need for it. We went back and taught our second lesson and Sister Barrios was like yeah, I want to be baptised so we just need to tell her how and why she would want to get there.

Pollyanna Keime is doing incredible and is in check to be baptised on the 7th of May, she is such a nice lady. She made us Easter egg baskets and fed us this incredible dinner. We were on an exchange with Elder Merrill while teaching her and asked her if she noticed the change that she had seen in herself and it was so neat to see her testify of the truths of the gospel and how they are helping her and those around her.

I Love this Gospel!! Know my family, that I love you and pray for you and want you all to just know that I am happy and love my mission. I appreciate all the help love and support!


Love and Respect,

Elder Taylor Petersen