"Don't be mean in '17!" 🌎✌️

Hey Everyone!

Hope you had a great week and a great New Years Day! What a wonderful opportunity we had to renew our covenants (a two-way promise between us and God) to begin the year! As we welcome in this new year, let's try to be more like the Savior this year. Each and every year we should become more and more like Him! He is our best role model. As we strive to be more like Him, we will be blessed more than we can know. 

Yesterday at church, there was a guy who gave a talk and he said that the slogan for the new year is "Don't Be Mean in '17!" I like that!

This week was a pretty successful week! We found some new people to teach and we are continuing to teach those who are working with. We taught Rock and Yvonne again this week and they are now preparing to be baptized on February 19th! So exciting for them and their family! I love those guys so much. 

On Wednesday we were on exchanges with the APs (assistants to the president). Elder Broadhead went to their area in Rochester with Elder Bell and Elder Larson came here with me. We had a super cool day! We taught some lessons but there were two that really stuck out to me. 

We first taught a less active member who has been offended and stays away from church because of the offense he's taken. Elder Broadhead and I have been working with him, trying to help him get over these things to no avail. But when Elder Larson and I went on Wednesday, we listened to him and then followed the Spirit and testified with power of the importance of the Sacrament. The Spirit softened his heart so much that he not only had a desire to attend church, but he also has a desire to meet with us more often so he could continue to grow his desire to attend again! 

Another lesson we had was with an investigator who has been struggling with a certain commandment. And because she doesn't feel like she can live that commandment, she felt devastated because she cannot be baptized just yet. She didn't want to meet with us a couple weeks ago but recently, we have been able to start meeting with her again. We went and brought some materials that we thought could help her. We testified with the Spirit and it was almost a night and day difference of where she was before the lesson to how she was after the lesson! The Spirit truly does testify of truth and softens peoples' heart when there is truth being shared. I love it! 

Keep this scripture in mind as you implement your New Years resolutions! Mosiah 3:19 says:

"19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

I love you all! Thank you so much for all you do. Your prayers are felt. Keep on keepin on! 

Much Love

Elder Peters 

1- Seneca Lake Seflie with the Geneva elders

2- Exchanging back with the APs at the Hill Cummorah Visitor's Center