IIIII'm Stayin' alive, Stayin' alive!!!!!

What's up everyone?!?

How are you guys doing? I hope all is well. Hope you all had a great week.

My week was good. But I was sick as many of you know haha. I went to
the hospital for a little bit on Monday. That was fun. All the doctors
kept thinking that Elder and Sister Workman (the mission nurse) were
my parents haha. It was a fun experience. Didn't think I would've had
to go to the hospital on my mission...

So, this week, to prevent my health from getting worse, I was advised
(more like commanded) to stay in our apartment until I got better.
Which ended up working out! And despite how much I wanted to get out
and get to work, I was able to get my health in order before I went
out and worked. It has been such a great miracle to see how fast I
have healed! I have never healed this fast. Never! Thank you so much
for the prayers and the concern. You all are the best.

On Thursday night, I was set free! I felt like I could fly and I
wanted to talk to everyone. So that's what we did! We went around the
streets of Batavia talking to everyone even though it was getting
pretty dark. I was so ready to do some missionary work you have no
idea. We were walking down Main Street and I saw this guy. He looked
kinda scary and stuff and was blastin some music on his phone. I felt
like I needed to talk to him but didn't because as we passed him, we
said hi and he kinda nodded and three bicycles came flying by in
between us. He kinda looked down and kept walking. Feeling mad at
myself for not talking to him more, we kept walking. It was getting
late and it would've been easy to jump in the truck and go home
because 1-I was getting kinda tired from walking around (cuz I had
been cooped up in the apartment all week) and 2-it was getting close
to our missionary bed time (yes we have bed time haha). But, I felt
like we should walk down another block. So, we did. We didn't see
anyone, but doing that gave us just the right timing that on the way
back to the truck, we ran into the guy again! He asked us where Topps
(a local grocery store) is. I pointed him in the direction, but then I
said, "actually, we will walk with you" so we did. We walked and
talked about the Book of Mormon. He was very nice and said he would
definitely give it a read! We got his number and have been trying to
keep in touch with him. But just think if we would've gone home after
the first attempt. We would've never gotten a chance to talk to him
and he might never have had the opportunity to check out the Book of
Mormon!!! That was a sweet experience.

Anyways, that's it for this week! I love you all and thank you so much
for the prayers and the support. This week, as Phil Collins would say,
"you'll be in my heart."

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Peters

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Talofa Everybody!

How are you guys doing? I hope all is well with you. I love and miss you all.

WE HAD OUR FIRST BAPTISM YESTERDAY!!! What an amazing experience! Lexi
was baptized after church yesterday. Lots of people came, Elder Stokes
played piano and I conducted the music. We were so stressed with
everything because we have a lot of responsibilities in this branch.
We were scrambled and everything seemed to be coming up at once. The
water was cold, the other elders weren't feeling too well so they
weren't there to say the opening prayer and play the piano, and
yeah...there were lots of things that were happening that we were
stressin about haha. But, nonetheless, the baptismal service was
awesome and the Spirit was there. Even though Lexi started swimming
around in the font after she was baptized haha. She gave us fair
warning a long time ago haha.

We also did a lot of finding this week. We knocked on lots of doors
and talked to people on the street (if they didn't cross the street or
go way off of the path to avoid an encounter with us). As always,
there were some funny experiences with that. With one house, we were
walking toward it when the door swung open. I said, "Hello!" All
friendly and such, and all I saw was a white smile in a dark shadow
before the door was slammed harder than it was swung open. In the same
tone, "Goodbye!" I wish I had a video of some of these encounters.
Another time, we were talking to this lady about how we were
missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

"Most people call us Mormons. Have you ever heard of Mormons before?"

"Oh yes. I've heard lots of things. I know about you guys."

"Oh awesome! What have you heard?"

"Oh...uh...I've heard...yeah I just know about you guys."

Yeah she didn't know much about us nor was she very interested but
hey. At least we tried. Maybe she would actually like to learn about
us in the future :)

Being a missionary is honestly such a blessing. It's not easy, don't
get me wrong. It is hands down THE hardest thing I have ever done in
my life. But the rewards that come from it (helping people, making
people happy, seeing their eyes light up, seeing them crack a smile,
etc.) make it worth it. The Lord does not ask us to do easy things.
But He asks us to be diligent in following Him and He will bless us
more than we can comprehend. "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I
say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (D&C 82:10)

In my personal study this week, I found a cool scripture. It's Helaman
12:3, "And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people
with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and
with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they
will not remember him." This week, my health hasn't been too good.
Some of you know of my condition. I have been sick with it in the
past. But this week I have seen the onset of another breakout. But,
trusting in the Lord and knowing that He has given me this trial to
remember Him and to grow, I am comforted. I know your praying for me
but plz pray extra for me this week :)

Your prayers are felt. They make me strong everyday. I love you all
and thank you so much for the love and support.  I wouldn't be able to
do this without you guys. Have a great week!

Elder Peters


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Presto Da Besto Teaching the Resto!

Resto stands for the Restoration. We taught the Restoration a lot this week.

Greetings Family and Friends!

How goes it? Things here are going so well!

There were a lot of cool things that happened this week. We found a
couple more people to teach which is always good. We were able to help
a guy who looks like Mr. T (no joke. Haircut and everything). He's
great. He's a less active but we are working on getting him back to
church. Luckily, he's not moving too far.

I also got to go on exchanges this week. That was fun. I went with
Elder Gibby (my zone leader and also one of the members of my
district) to the zone leaders area which is 4 x 2 miles. Super small
compared to my area! My area is the third largest in the mission! I
get to do lots of driving haha. But it was cool to get to go with
Elder Gibby. I learned a lot from him on our exchange. He is such a
great worker. We got yelled at a couple times and stuff but hey. All
is well. #OnToTheNextOne During the exchange, we went to a less active
member's apartment. She no longer lives there but the guy we got to
talk to was super interesting. He was legit out of his mind (there are
a lot of people that are literally insane here). He kept telling us as
he talked a mile an hour about how he is nuts and scared of people. "I
HATE THE WORLD" he kept saying the whole time. We got him to laugh and
stuff too. I seriously don't think he has ever talked to anyone ever
that long. It was cool to be able to talk to him and help him build
confidence in talking to people. Even though I was kinda scared of
what he might say next the whole time. There is absolutely no telling
what might slip out of someone's mouth here it's so weird. He ranted
about how much he hates a certain presidential candidate and Elder
Gibby got lectured on how he should not vote for that person. It was
fun. Then, he started talking about music. He's really into rock n
roll and told us that he hates the new kind of music. We asked him if
he liked Justin Bieber or One Direction. He got very enthused about
that subject. "I HATE JUSTIN BIEBER! HES GOT NO TALENT!!! AND ONE
DIRECTION?!?! WHAT DIRECTION?!?! THAT DIRECTION!!! THEY CAN GO TO..."
(He pointed at the ground and said the h word haha). He was so funny.
It's fun the people you get to meet on your mission.

This week we had a super cool experience! We had a specialized
training up in Fayette at the Peter Whitmer Farm on Thursday (which is
186 years ago on Wednesday from when the church was organized). The
church was organized in that same place that we had a meeting 186 days
ago on April 6th!!! What a great experience. We (the Rochester West
Zone) were there with the Palmyra North Zone. It was so cool. All the
sisters gave the elders a tour of the log home and the visitors
center. Such a cool experience to be in a place where a church was
organized that now has 16,000,000+ members worldwide. It's brought
light and truth to all those who have joined and will continue to
shine forth as a standard to the nations. What a great opportunity I
have to serve a mission around such sacred sites. I would recommend
that all of you come check out these sites someday! (Of course after I
go home) such a great spirit here.

I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth after
many years of apostasy. The Lord has restored His gospel through His
prophet and servant Joseph Smith. Through that restoration, the Lord
has poured out blessings on blessings for all of us. He loves us and
restored His gospel so that we can grow and return to live with Him
and our Father in Heaven.

I love you all! Thanks for the prayers, love, and support. You guys
are the best. Have a great week and share the love!

Much Love,
Elder Peters



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