It hasn't been the easiest week but it has been a blessing and a privilege to be here in Goldsboro 2nd ward and serve in behalf of the Savior. I feel like I have grown this week and have become a better person and closer to my Savior. I am grateful for that and strive to continue to improve and become "even as He is".


Bro. Jorge and Sis Heidi are the Hispanic couple we are working with. We have found a sister in the Goldsboro 1st ward who served and was blessed to learn Spanish and has been helping us aid in the progression of Bro Jorge and Sis Heidi. There has been some concerns come up, they have a baptism scheduled for the 9Th of July and Bro Jorge is really excited for that and Sis Heidi is as well, but has some concerns and we have been trying with the Sis from the 1st ward to communicate with her and that has helped, but still it just seems as though something is missing with us not being able to speak Spanish.



This week I had the privilege to go on an exchange with a great Elder, Elder Forsey. We accomplished much good and saw miracles in the short period of time we spent together. We had a great companionship study, we talked about charity and how central it is to this work and how we could be so much better if we would just be charitable in all aspects of the work. That is probably why Sister Missionaries are so good at this work. He shared with me a scripture in 1 Peter I believe chapter 1. There is a pattern there of how we can obtain this gift. Reverence and Patience and Temperance and all those things help you to prepare for the greatest gifts of them all Charity. I shared with him how correcting missionaries is a form of charity. To aid each other in keeping one another in the right way. While on exchange I shared with him my concern with Bro Jorge and Heidi and that I wasn't sure what to do. I had been pleading with the Lord when he text us one night and said "how is it going with Bro Jorge and Sis Heidi? I told him and he said you know they are Hispanic missionaries and we have a Hispanic group, and we can teach them in Spanish. It just instantly felt right I talked about it with my companion and Sis Heidi is a Social Worker over 75 families in Wayne County all of which are Hispanic and all of which have at least five kids. I thought of the referrals the Sister could give the missionaries I thought of her enjoying Sacrament meeting because she could understand. It just felt right as I continued to pray about it. I asked Elder Barbano and Elder Forsey why they hadn't talked to us about this earlier. They said because they hadn't had a great missionary teach them about correcting missionaries as a form of Charity. Last night we passed off Bro and Sis Jorge and Heidi to the Mount Olive Elders where they will be attending from now on and be baptized on the 9th of July as we pray all goes as planned. It was really hard to pass off someone that you have invested so much time and energy into. We trust that it was what the Lord would have us do and many others will be blessed by our act of Charity.



So now we do not have a baptism planned for the month of July. It has been a tougher week with Elder Yankton. Not that we haven't gotten along. He just doesn't have much confidence and is very hard on himself. He gets frustrated and discouraged very easily. People make fun of him a lot and put him down like members and non-members. Like, a man we contacted was very rude and kept calling him big boy and fat boy and to ride off on his bike and it was just frustrating for me, I want to do something but I don't know what. I have really invested this week a lot of time and energy to trying to make sure he is happy and confident in himself and his calling as a representative of Jesus Christ. I feel like it has helped, he has slowly become a more powerful teacher and is more involved in planning. I struggle though on the same note because I get so caught up in trying to make him happy I forget to apply the things that we are learning and apply throughout the mission. Like inviting all to be baptized. I am working hard on being moderate and focusing on what is most important at that moment and most importantly relying on the Holy Spirit.



It has been hard to get exchanges in this ward. I know that it doesn't look like it with 9 member present lessons but 5 out of those 9 were with members from the 1st ward and the other 4 were from our ward with a couple people we snatched up real quick from the church while we were there. It seems like the brothers who are willing to go can't afford it and those who can don't have the time. We have been working through our ward mission leader and he said this Sunday that as of July he is going to be making assignments for exchanges. Hopefully that will help. It has been tough we have had to change our plans to schedule like an hour long bike ride to certain areas because we cannot get an exchange. We are excited to see what July brings and our Ward Mission Leader has seemed to find new excitement in his calling and we are grateful for that.



I am grateful for all you do and for this opportunity to serve the Lord. It is the least I can do after all he has done for me. Serve with all my Heart, Mind, Might, and Strength.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Love your BOY Elder PETER!

Love, Elder Petersen