Monday, August 15, 2016

Yo yo yo!

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great week. My week was good!

The weather here has been super humid lately. We were Tracting the
other day and I went to grab a Mormon.orgout of my shirt pocket. I
pulled it out and went to put it into the door when I noticed that it
was soaked! We've been super sweaty here because of the humidity haha.

On Saturday, we gave Tristan a church tour! He is pretty excited to
get baptized. We taught the Word of Wisdom to him and he said that he
already lives it! It was a bummer she he didn't show up on Sunday. He
just needs to come to church for Sacrament meeting and keep meeting
with us and he should be ready! He's awesome.

The first Bills preseason game happened the other day. There were some
streets that were shut down because of it haha. So cool how close we
are to the stadium. It's a great conversation starter, "is that the
Bills game?" One day we were doing some Tracting and a guy came out
before we could get to the door and said, "no thanks. Bills game on."
That's all he said before he shut the door. Too bad they lost.

The work is going well here in Orchard Park! Things are starting to
pick up and we are working hard to continue to find and teach more
people. I love being a missionary. It's the hardest thing I have ever
done but it is also the most rewarding.

I love you all! Thank you for everything! You are the best. Have a great week!

Tofa Soifua
Elder Peters


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Monday, August 8, 2016


He's the Gardner here!🌳🌱🌲

Hey You Guys!

How goes it? I hope all is well with you!

This week was great! On Tuesday, Elder Fielding and I drove up to the
Amherst building (Buffalo Stake Center) and met up with the other
missionaries that were being transferred. Elder Fielding met up with
his new companion Elder Fauga and we headed up to Lewiston. It was sad
seeing him go but I know he will do great things up there in Lewiston.
I, along with some other missionaries, hopped in what we like to call
the Millenium Falcon (it's the big silver mission van) and drove out
to Rochester with the assistants to the president. When we got to
Rochester, the meeting where I would meet my new companion wasn't till
the next day so we made arrangements where I would stay with Rochester
Spanish for the day and then ride out with the other trainers in the
Rochester area to our meeting the next day. I got to be with Elders
Broadhead and Vizcaino! They are way fun! I came into the mission
field with Elder Broadhead so that was fun.

When we got to the meeting, President Evans announced the
companionships and who would be training who and I was assigned to
train Elder Gardner! He's super cool! He's a baller too! He's from
Kaysville, Utah and was ready to work!

Once we got back to OP and got situated, we hit the streets and
started talking to people! He is rockin. It's been great.

On Thursday, we took a young man from the ward named Clayton with us
to visit some potentials and tract a little bit. At first, we were all
bummed out that no one was answering. If people do answer hear, it's
usually, "oh I'm Catholic. We're all set here!" (Side note: We
actually ran in to a Catholic lady the other day and when we told her
where we were from, she said, "I was baptized Catholic, I was married
Catholic, and I'm gonna die a Catholic!" Everyone is Catholic here!)
But, we kept pushing forward. Soon enough, we knocked on a guys house
and he said he was interested! We gave him a copy of the Book of
Mormon and said we would come back to see what he thought about it.
When we were walking away, Clayton looked at us and said, "that was my
principal!" Haha. The next door we knocked, a guy answered and we had
a good talk. He told us that he served a mission for his church in New
Zealand! Then he asked what we thought about the Trinity. I told him
that we believe in God the Father and in His Son Jesus Christ and in
the Holy Ghost. Three separate beings that are one in purpose. We were
bracing ourselves to be bashed because that happens a lot here but it
didn't happen! He just nodded his head and said okay. We asked if we
could come back soon and teach him and he said we could! This
experience was just what we needed. We were not seeing much success
but we didn't give up. Then, the Lord blessed us to be able to come
into contact with these people. It was great! And to have Clayton
there with us. What a blessing!

This week was great! Elder Gardner is adapting really well in the
mission field! He is a fast learner! It's been great working with him.
We are going to continue to work hard and we are going to exercise our
faith that we can see miracles happen here in this part of the Lords
vineyard!

I love you all! I'm praying for you. Hope you have a great week! Talk
to you soon

Elder Peters

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48365159-6499-49BA-A028-DEBC87144C49

Monday, August 1, 2016

I'm a Grandpa!!!!❤️


Hey You Guys!

How are you doing? I hope you're doing well! You're in my prayers!

Okay so to explain the title, in our mission when someone trains a new
missionary we like to think of it like a father and son relationship.
So, when Elder Rushton (shoutout to him for finishing his honorable
full-time mission! Hoes going home!) trained me, I was his "son". Then
I trained Elder Stokes and he became my "son" and Elder Rushton's
grandson. Does that make sense? Haha. Anyways, I was given the
assignment this week to train a new missionary this upcoming transfer.
I don't know what his name will be, but I will tomorrow! But, Elder
Stokes will also be training! So that makes me a grandpa! Haha fun
times.

This week was great! We saw many miracles. Our district has really
been pushing to get some new investigators and we have recently been
seeing "the fruits" of our labors. As a district, we have 5 people
with a baptismal date!!! The Zone Leaders were blown away when I was
reporting our numbers last night. The Lord truly has blessed our
efforts! We can't don't this work without Him!

One miracle we saw this week was when we taught Tristan. Last time we
met, we left 2 Nephi 32 with him. So, we talked about that chapter
with him this time and how it is super important to pray to know the
truth. When we do so, we can gain a spiritual witness of the truth of
all things through the Holy Ghost. He seemed to understand that. We
then read in the precious chapter (2 Nephi 31) and talked about the
importance of following the Savior. The Savior's invitation to all of
us is' "Come, Follow Me". Chapter 31 of Nephi tells us, "if the Lamb
of God, he being holy, should have need of being baptized by water, to
fulfill all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being
unholy, to be baptized, yea, every water!" Our job here on earth is to
follow the Savior's example and to "prepare to meet God" (Alma 34:32).
When we taught Tristan this, we felt prompted to ask him if he were to
find these things to be true if he would be baptized (he said he would
before). He said yes. We then invited him to prepare to be baptized on
September 3rd. He said that he would try but we testified to him that
if he does the things we leave him and if he prays with a sincere
heart, he will be able to know for himself that the things we've told
him are true. We promised him. He then committed to be baptized on
that date! I am so excited for him! We are going to keep working with
him!

I am excited for my new companion to come but I am also sad to see
Elder a fielding go. He is going to Lewiston with Elder Fauga! Elder
Fauga is the only other Samoan missionary in this mission haha. It's
cool that Elder Fielding gets to serve with both of us in a row haha.
But it's cool cuz Elder Fauga is from Salt Lake City and Uncle Sam was
his bishop before he left on his mission! Haha it's a small world!

Anyways, I hope all is well! Things are going well here all due to
your love, support and prayers. Thank you al, so much for all you do!
I will talk to you soon!

Elder Peters

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