Monday, March 28, 2016

Shoutout to Kansas for the email subject.

Greetings from a rainy day in Batavia.
How was your week? I hope you had a great Easter and I hope you all
spent some quality time with family. Such a great time of year to
reflect on the great love that our Savior has for us. He took
responsibility for our sins to make it possible for us to all return
to live with Him and our Heavenly Father again. What a great
sacrifice. "Greater love hath no man than this" our Savior loves us.
We are able to see that every day.
This week was cool. We had my first zone meeting in the mission! And,
as district leader, I had the privilege of standing up in front of all
the older missionaries and giving a district report. I stood up and
said, "The Batavia District is doing well." Then I sang a little for
them. "Batavia!๐ŸŽถ" (to the tune of the Activia jingle). they all
laughed but IM not sure if it was laughing with me or at me. ah well.
The weather was warm yesterday and it was a beautiful, enjoyable day.
But the rest of the week was kinda stinky weather. I wasn't too
satisfied with the weather. But, I am still excited for it to warm up.
George and the Lehmann families both had us over yesterday for Easter.
They made it easier not to miss home on a holiday like this. They are
great people.
Who else is excited for General Conference this weekend?!?!
๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผ what a joy. for those of you who dont know what
General Conference is, it is a time where the prophet speaks to us
along with many other general authorities in the church. Everyone can
watch and feel of the Spirit that comes when the prophet speaks. I am
so excited. It's almost like the Super Bowl for missionaries. What a
great time.
Anyways, that's it for this week! I love you all! Thanks so much for
all the love and support. Your prayers are felt everyday. I love you
guys. Have a great week.

Elder Peters



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Monday, March 21, 2016

Greetings Yo!

What's up guys? How was your week? I hope it went well.

Well, we all know what time of the year it is...MARCH MADNESS!!! So,
you already know that I filled out a bracket. A guy in the ward
printed some brackets out for us and I made the rest of the elders in
my district fill out brackets. We get updates every once in a while
from that guy and I have been scoring the brackets and writing the
scores on a big white board that we have in my free time. I am killin
it right now haha. But that's to be expected. After all, I am Presto
Da Besto. Jk that's really conceited haha. Anyways, that's fun. I love
March Madness.

This week was awesome! We taught a lot of lessons and have a baptism
coming up in a couple weeks! This is gonna be so awesome. We talked to
Lexi at church today and she is so excited to be baptized. She keeps
saying that she wants to swim around in the font... I feel like I
might have to be like a lifeguard at the community pool, "No running,
no yelling, no splashing, NO SWIMMING!" I'm excited for her to make
this big step in her life. She is awesome. But for real. Baptism is
awesome and can help us all demonstrate our love for the Savior by
following His example.

Also this week, we saw a lot of tender mercies. I love writing in my
journal everyday because I am able to reflect on the day and realize
the many ways that the Lord has blessed me. Whether it be in big ways,
or small ways. He is always there to bless and to lift me up.
Something that I would like to challenge you all to do this week is
every day before you go to bed, jot down a couple tender mercies that
you saw in your life that day and thank God for them. When we give
thanks, God knows that we appreciate and cherish the things He gives
us. It's important that we recognize the tender mercies in our lives
because they are so prevalent and they will lift us up in times of
struggle knowing that God loves us and has blessed us. I love
reflecting on my day and seeing the many things the Lord has blessed
me with. It's really quite amazing.

Well that's all for this week guys! Thanks so so so much for
everything your prayers and support have definitely helped me and
continue to help me. Thanks for everything! I love you all! Have a
great week.

Elder Peters


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Monday, March 14, 2016

Easter is right around the corner!!! There is a sweet video that us
missionaries are showing to people. Take some time and check it out
real quick. followhim.mormon.org
It's a great video that talks about the importance of this time of the
year. It's really great. Check it out!

Hey Guys!

How are ya? I hope everyone is well. Miss you guys

The work here is going great! We are working hard and more and more
people are coming out of hibernation and walking the streets!
Therefore, we have more time to track them down and talk to them. Okay
that sounds creepy like we are stalking people. Some people are really
scared of us and will like cross the street or walk 20 feet off of the
sidewalk to avoid talking to us haha. One day we should like start
running towards them and see what they do haha. I'm pretty sure people
here dress up as the missionaries for Halloween cuz we must be in
their nightmares.

This week we had President Francis come to our branch and speak with
us and the rest of the branch on how we can be better
member-missionaries. There is a new motivation to share the gospel in
this branch so I am excited to see what comes of this. President
Francis is awesome. In his Sacrament talk, he had planned something to
speak on but the Branch President got up and announced to the whole
branch that they are stopping the treatments for his wife (she is
battling cancer for like the 4th or 5th time). She wanted him to
announce that. Anyways, President Francis got up and spoke on enduring
to the end rather than what he had planned because the Spirit told him
to talk about that. He spoke to them, the Merrills (an elderly couple
in the mission who just had a granddaughter pass away back home), and
a few others in particular at the beginning. But what he said during
his talk was really profound. He talked about he is ending his mission
coming up soon and that what he has learned can apply in life to a lot
of different situations. He said that the gospel teaches us to endure
to the end. "Instead of enduring to the end, let us enjoy to the end."
It's so true. In life, we can't hide from the trials and tribulations
that come our way. We won't grow if we do that. We should embrace our
trials and know that they are from God not for the punishment of man
but for the betterment. They're here to help us grow not to break us
down.

Anyways, that's it for this week! Hope all is well! Love you all! Have
a great week!

Elder Preston Peters


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Monday, March 7, 2016

Hey you guys!

How was everyone else's week? I heard my Mom and Jake got in an
accident this week! Cmon guys! I know I made it through one but you
can't always do what Presto Da Besto does haha. You gotta take care of
yourselves while I'm gone!  Mine week was great! We were so busy and
got a lot accomplished. Talked to lots of people and got yelled at a
couple times but hey. It's all for a good cause #PersecutedForTheLord
๐Ÿ˜Ž

This week we had stake conference which is where all of the smaller
congregations (wards and branches) come together to hear from the
stake presidency. For those of you who don't know, Federal Way has its
own stake. There are lots of wards in the surrounding areas. Lots of
opportunities for you all to go to church back home. Just sayin ๐Ÿ˜‡ but
anyways, we had stake conference this week and we learned a lot from
our stake presidency. We learned about temples, repentance, and much
more. But one of the main things that stood out to me was a quote by
one of the stake presidency members President Tishner. He said, "The
home is where the gospel needs to be taught." I was fortunate to have
two amazing parents who love me and care for me and want the best for
me every minute of every day. I know all parents do that but my
opinion is a little biased ;) growing up, my parents would always
incorporate the church in our lives (even if sometimes we didn't want
it #MotherKnowsBest๐Ÿ‘ธ).I want to let you know that the gospel truly
does bless families. I've seen it on my life and the life of those
near and dear to me.The gospel is all about families and being able to
live with your family forever! Pretty cool huh? Anyways, stake
conference was cool. We also had the opportunity to sing in the
missionary choir! We started out the stake conference by marching down
the middle isle all the way to the stand while singing our theme song
Called to Serve. It was pretty cool but kinda weird cuz I don't
usually sing and walk at the same time haha. Plus, everyone was
staring at us the whole time. But who cares?u belted it out and we
rocked it. Fun experience.

This week we had a lot of success. We did a lot of finding and
contacting this week. We talked to bunches of people but to no avail.
It was a bummer but it's all good #OnToTheNextOne. One time we were
Tracting (knocking on doors) in Elba (a small town) and passing out
cards to Mormon.org. Then this guy pulled up as we had just walked out
of his driveway. He didn't look to happy so as we were walking up the
next driveway to knock the next door, we heard this big "HEY! Don't
put (explicit word) in my door! Stay off my property you (more
explicit words)!" I swear I jumped when he said HEY! But I played it
off, waved, and kept walking haha. It's all good cuz I know the Lords
got my back.

Okay so now fora funny experience. I can't end my weekly email on a
bad note like that haha. This week we went to Lexis grandparents house
to teach a lesson. When we got there, we had just finished teaching
George all the way in Attica. So you all know me (I had to pee), I
asked to use the restroom and while I was washing my hands after using
it, I heard little feet running up and down the hall by the bathroom
door. "Grandma, Grandma! Who's in the bathroom?!" She said, "One of
the missionaries." To which Caleb responded, "the black one?" She
said, "Caleb! Don't say that. He's not black." "Yeah he is!" Then I
jumped out of the bathroom and scared him, "I'm not black!" He hid
behind the couch and as I walked towards the table to teach Lexi, he
scurried into the bathroom. It was pretty funny. It reminded me of
when us kids were little and we would ask Mom why dad was "black"
haha. Good times good times.

Well, I miss you all! I love hearing from you! Thanks for all the
emails, the prayers, and the support. You guys are the best. Have a
great week and keep up the good work. Love you all!

Elder Peters

P.s. You guys should go to church this week! I'm sure the Peters
family would love to have some people to sit by them ;)

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