Hey you guys! How goes it?

Things are going well here. There is a lot of snow on the sidewalks
and on the roads. But that's how it's gonna be for a couple more
months! I've gotten a couple emails from some people asking if I'm
okay because they saw a bunch of bad weather on the weather in New
York. We are fine! That's New York City that is struggling with all
that haha. New York City isn't in our mission haha. Anyways, we walked
around a lot at the beginning of the week Tracting and street
contacting. But when we realized that it was too cold and no one was
out walking around like we were, we decided to drive places rather
than trudge through the snow all day. Driving was fun. I am still
getting used to driving in the snow haha. My companion is from Utah
and sometimes gets a little antsy when I take a turn too fast or
something. But hey. I'm learning :)

The work here is going well. We taught a couple investigators this
week and a lot of less active members. The lessons all went well. The
people we teach are coming closer to Christ and it's a wonderful thing
to see. I love being a missionary and devoting all of my time and
efforts to help other people. It's such a blessing.

Transfers are coming up and Elder Rushton and I are weirded out about
how fast time flies when your on a mission. These 2 years really will
be quick! But in my district it's me and my companion and the zone
leaders (Elders Scott and Gibby). Elder Scott is going home in like 12
days and Elder Rushton is probably getting transferred. It's crazy to
think that Elder Gibby and I (the newest guys in the area) are gonna
be taking over this area soon. We will know the area better than our
new comps will. It's weird to think about. I'm excited and nervous all
at the same time. But I know the Lord will provide and He will guide
me.

This week I've been thinking a lot about faith. Faith is awesome.
Faith is an action word. You can't have faith without acting upon your
beliefs. In my personal study this week, I studied out of the Book of
Mormon in the Book of Alma. In Alma chapters 14 and 15 there are two
guys named Alma and Amulek. They go around teaching the people about
Christ and about the redemption which he would make for his people.
When they taught, some believed and most did not. Anyone who believed
was persecuted, hurt, and even killed! Alma and Amulek were put in
prison, mocked, spit upon, and much more. The whole time they were
being treated poorly, they believed in God. They believed that he had
a plan for them. One day when the wicked people came to mock them and
hurt them again, Alma was prompted to stand and they had the power to
break the chords with which they were bound and the wicked people ran
away because they were scared. The prison crumbled to the earth  and
smashed all of them. All of them except for Alma and Amulek. Alma and
Amulek were protected because they believed in God and knew that He
would deliver them. How many times in our lives do we struggle to see
beyond the wicked and understand that God has a plan for us? It's hard
to do. But I know that as we try to keep an eternal perspective and
trust in God and lean not unto our own understandings (Proverbs
3:5-6), we will be blessed. Faith is so vital in our lives. Blessings
come AFTER the trial of your faith. Remember that.

Anyways, that's it for this week! Thank you for all your prayers and
love and support! I wouldn't be able to be out here if it wasn't for
you guys and my Savior! You guys are the best! Thanks again! Until
next week.

Tofa Soifua!

Elder Peters

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Talofa lava!

How are you all doing? How was your week? I hope you had a great one!
I know there is a lot of sadness in Seattle right now because of the
Seahawks' loss yesterday. I didn't watch it but there are a lot of
Panthers fans here in Batavia for some reason. All the old guys were
walking up to me in church "offering their condolences". What? I can't
even watch the game and you're gonna make me talk smack?! It was fun.
I wore my Seahawks jersey during studies. My comp was making fun of
me. But I didn't care #HawkNation. But it's all good. Maybe I just
need to be home before the Lord blesses us with another Super Bowl ;)

It snowed a lot this week! Pretty much all week there were snowflakes
falling. Even when it was warmer than usual out, there were still a
couple of flurries. Early in the week, we were in the library looking
up service opportunities and it was snowing so hard that I couldn't
even look up when we were outside. It was nuts! The librarian kept
telling everyone, "they call this thundersnow." It was wild. But due
to the snow, there were a lot of service opportunities. We threw our
snow shovels in the back of the truck and shoveled a couple people's
driveways. It was cool. Last night it snowed and we currently have a
couple inches on the ground. The wind still cuts you like a knife and
chills you to the bone. It's beyond cold out there and it's gonna keep
getting colder.

This week it was hard not to get discouraged. The people we get to
visit are usually not there or cancel on us. It's rough. We taught a
guy this week who is super well versed in the Bible and he talks a
mile a minute but it's going well. He is studying the Book of Mormon
and is super interested in it.

It's hard to see any progress up here. But this week our prayers were
answered because George (the less active guy we have been teaching)
has been having us over to teach him and to help him with overcoming
his addiction. He's a great guy. But was cool and what answered our
prayers was what he said at the end. He was talking about how he is
going to be interviewed soon for the Aaronic Priesthood and how he has
his eyes set on the Temple because he is working hard on his family
history and he wants to take his family names to the Temple. But
anyways, he told us that we should be happy because we have been able
to help him with his struggles and that is success even though we
aren't baptizing. He is progressing and he is thankful for that.

Well, thanks for everything you guys! I hope all is well! Until next time!

Tofa soifua

Elder Peters

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Hey you guys!

How are you? How was your week? This week we saw a lot of success!
It's been a lot of work but I'm glad we are getting to teach a lot
more now.

This week I got to speak in Sacrament Meeting! It was my first talk on
my mission and Elder Scott's last talk on his mission! We both spoke
on the Holy Ghost. He spoke first and I was the concluding speaker.
That was a first. I was so nervous holy smokes. But when I got up
there, I was totally calm. I spoke and shared some cool experiences
that I have had with feeling the Spirit in my life and shared a couple
scriptures and before I knew it, I had spoken for 20 minutes! I had to
wrap up my talk before I had shared everything that I had prepared!
Pretty cool. And everyone loves saying "Talofa" when I get up to
speak.

The weather here is getting colder and colder. This morning it was -3
with windchill! So stinking cold. My companion and I and the zone
leaders skate to our cars. It's pretty fun.... Unless you fall of
course. It is supposed to snow quite a bit this week. So hopefully
there are lots of opportunities for service. We got to serve a lot
this week just like last week. The guy that had us helping him paint
last week had us over again and we did a lot. I learned how to install
a fridge and the water/ice maker and a stove! It's cool cuz I got to
serve while learning things that I can and will use in the future.

Three years ago, the 10th of January (yesterday), I lost my mentor, my
best friend, my Grandpa. He was such a great example of a true
follower of Christ. He showed everyone he met Christlike love and
served them the best he could. I know this is where he would want me
to be. He was the best Grandpa anyone could ever ask for. He raised
his family in a righteous home and always made sure that his kids
walked in righteousness. He sacrificed so much all the time for the
ones he loved and that's what I want to do. Thanks Grandpa. I love you
man.

There are some crazy things going on in the world right now. I just
heard that on New Years Eve there was a terrorist threat that was
stopped in Rochester! Just 20 miles away from Batavia! That's nuts!
But I know that the Lord will protect me. He always has, always will.

I have been reading in Mosiah lately (a book in the Book of Mormon). I
love how they plead with the Lord to protect them and ease their
burdens. The Lord helps them out according to their faith. That can be
applied to all of our lives. No matter where we are, we are always
going to have some kind of trial. But, with the help of the Lord, we
can see that those trials are given to us to help us grow and become
more like our Father in Heaven. We can also see His hand in our lives
everyday helping us and lifting us up.

I hope all is well back home. I love you all so much!

Elder Preston Peters



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Hey you guys!

How are you? I hope all of you are doing well. This week was fun!

We worked a lot and it snowed a lot. It looked like a blizzard outside
during our studies! It's so stinking cold here. It doesn't matter how
many layers I have on it seems like I can't ever get warm. It's super
cold. We went to an investigators house for New Years and that was
fun. But we had to go at 8 and we went to the zone leaders house to
have pina coladas and play games. but we were still in bed at 10:30. I
didn't even stay up to see the fireworks or anything. I was super
tired.

Elder Rushton got sick this week. He was throwing up and everything.
It was rough. But I helped him out. We went and got a Gatorade and he
felt better after. Then, the next day he felt a lot better!

We painted a house this week. We spent a lot of time doing service
this week. We helped paint, wash walls, move dry wall, replace
Windows, etc. we were super tired after. But it was all good cuz they
had country music playing and there was this guy that offered to take
us out to burgers next weekend! So there's that!

Yesterday we got to teach gospel doctrine. The lesson went real well.
We didn't have to teach till the end. We challenged everyone there to
take a Book of Mormon and pass it out during the week. They were
pretty enthusiastic about it too! So we will see how it goes. We are
working a lot with the members right now. The stake president told
them that his vision is for the missionaries to not have to tract
anymore! So they would be doing all the missionary work and we would
be there basically to teach. So sweet. But it's gonna take a lot of
work to get there but we can do all things through Christ who
strengthens us.

Today is zone p day so sorry my email is all over the place. We've
been ballin and ballin and ballin some more. Super fun. But now I am
out of time :( so I'll talk to you all next week! I'll be better next
week I promise!

Love you guys.

Elder Peters



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Hey you guys!

This week was pretty sweet. We had a lot happen and we were super
busy. I already had an email typed out but it froze or something and
it got deleted :( So, Im going to type out my email again to the best
of my recollection.

So, this week we did a lot of tracting and street contacting which is
hardly ever successful. People in New York are just kinda hard to talk
to especially in the winter when its cold out. They get all grumpy and
dont wanna talk to you. Which is kinda understandable because if i was
home, I dont think i would wanna talk to two younguns that approach my
door in big black coats. They must think we are salesmen. But we are
salesmen! WE ARE SELLING ETERNAL LIFE PEOPLE!!! Sheesh. I know. I
gotta keep my cool. I gotta be nice. And its nice to talk to people
that actually want to talk to us or are courteous enough to talk to us
about their religion or act like they care. It is way more fun talking
to them and have them tell us respectfully that they arent very
interested than someone who says, "Not interested" and slams the door.
But hey. I just gotta smile and go find someone else to talk to. Its
all good. I love the people here.

This Saturday, there was a baptism! Her name was Yasmeen. She is super
nice and has two little boys who are 6 and 2. The 2 year old is named
Oscar and he is so cool haha. No one was watching him after the
baptism and they found him over by the cookies having eaten a whole
row of oreos i swear haha. The baptismal service was pretty sweet.
President Francis and the Assistants came down because Elder Detlor
had been teaching her and just recently got transferred. The Spirit
was super strong. Everyone was crying. And I got to say the closing
prayer. We almost had more missionaries there than members haha. I
think we did actually.

This Sunday, I got to be part of the circle when Elder Rushton gave
the Aaronic Priesthood to a new deacon! It was way cool.

So this week I have been decorating our apartment with Christmas
lights and such. Our room has Christmas lights all around the ceiling
and it looks pretty cool at night. But the coolest thing i think is
our Christmas tree. We got our presents from family (thanks Mom and
Fam) and needed a tree to put them under so we went and tried to find
a tree at like Walmart and a couple other places. But, we didnt really
want to spend money so we went and found a pine tree and broke off a
couple branches for our tree. We threw our presents underneath and put
up some lights and it was pretty sweet. It made me think of one of my
old pickup lines: Girl you must be an interior decorator because when
you walked in the room, the room became beautiful ;) Okay well, our
apartment isnt that beautiful, but you gotta admit its pretty good for
a couple guys haha.

Oh and also, we made cookies and went caroling to our investigators.
It was pretty cool. I taught the other elders how to sing We Wish You
A Merry Christmas in Samoan but we didnt really get to sing to anyone
because by the time they had it down, it was the last house and the
person didnt answer :( oh well we will get another opportunity to sing
it this week. (Yes Mom. I said I made cookies. #MissionsChangeYou)

I miss and love you all. With it being a special time of year, I just
wanted to bear my testimony on the Savior. He is the light and the
life of the world. If you go to Him, He will guide and protect you. No
matter your past, present, or future life. He is there for you and
will always be there for you. He is always there for you. All you have
to do is reach out to Him and grab His hand that is already stretched
out toward you. He will lead the way.

I love you guys. Thanks for the love and support. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Elder Peters

Sent from my iPad

Hey you guys!

This week was a pretty good one! I had two meetings where we had to
drive for a while to get to. One in Pittsford and one in Palmyra.
Palmyra is the place where Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus
Christ if you didn't already know. The Palmyra meeting was super fun
cuz we got to go to the Palmyra temple!

You guys have all got to come here some day. It's such an awesome
place. I love getting to serve. It is pretty hard when you miss your
family and friends back home but it gets easier when you know that
they are behind you and they've got you're back. Thank you all for
that.

This week we had planned to go to the church history sites with Marge
but she was sick so that got cancelled. We went to pizza and wings
instead with the guy that was gonna drive us up there. The pizza was
huge and yummy and so were the wings! But I was kinda thinking they
were kinda spicy with the NY buffalo sauce on em. Then, George pipes
in and tells me that they aren't even spicy at all. I was telling
myself to man up and act like they're not even spicy. It was good.
Despite the fact that my burps smelt like buffalo sauce for the rest
of the day haha.

The work is hastening here in Batavia. Little by little. We are slowly
starting to meet new people. We are praying everyday that we see
success in our efforts and it's paying off! Prayer is such an amazing
thing that we have in our lives here on earth to help us. Don't take
it for granted. It's the best. I know that our Heavenly Father truly
does hear us and He cares about us and He answers our prayers.

This week was also our church Christmas party! And I got asked if I
wanted to play piano with Elder Detlor as he sang Silent Night. So
this whole week I stressed out about practicing and finally it all
payed off. I think someone video Taped the performance so I can
probably send it to you later mom haha. Oh! And the missionaries did
lots of things. I taught them how to sing We Wish You A Merry
Christmas in Samoan but they didn't feel comfortable singing that in
format of everyone so we sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing instead.
People acted like they liked which was nice of them haha.

Still no snow. It was 67 degrees today for cryin out loud! Weird
weather. But I've lived in "weird weather" all my life haha (Shoutout
to The Northwest and The Midwest). My comp keeps tryin to tell me that
the weather is weird here but I'm used to it.

Also, i am grateful for being able to grow up a country boy in Ozark
and then live in Seattle too because we often are going into country
areas and then city areas and I can relate well with both. It's pretty
cool.

Well, I think that's all for this week! Thank you for all of your
email and letters! It's the best feeling to get mail as a missionary.
I love and miss you all! Take care and have a great week! I'll talk to
you next week!

Love you all so much!

Elder Peters


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Hey y'all!

I lived in Missouri for 7 years so yes I can say "y'all". I miss you
so much! I hope you are all doing well. This week was totally rad. We
did a lot and taught some more lessons and did a lot of service. I
loved it.

We served this Lady in our branch this week by helping her hang up
lights on her house. Probably wasn't the safest service project I've
done before but it all worked out and I'm here emailing now so I guess
I made it. We got there and we took her neighbors 30 foot ladder
(that's how long it was when it was collapsed) and it fell on me and I
caught it (#buffstuff). But the tricky part was there were so many low
hanging telephone wires and we couldn't touch the wires because the
ladder was metal so we eventually found a safe place to lean the
ladder up against the house. But then she told us we had to take a
smaller ladder onto the roof of her porch so we could hang the lights
the way she wanted them so we did it. But the roof was slanted and the
ladder was kinda shaky but all is well because we got the job done and
the house looks extra pretty now.

This week we went to the big parade downtown called Christmas in the
City with Marge one of our investigators. We ate chili, cookies, and
drank hot cocoa, watched the big Christmas parade, went to tour a
house full of all these differently decorated Christmas trees. Despite
being cold, we had a fantastic time. We loved it. And we ran into so
many people we knew. Marge kept saying, "Ive been here all my life and
you've been here 3 weeks and you already know more people than me!" I
just shrugged every time she said that cuz I didn't know what to say
haha.

This coming week is so exciting because not only is it Christmas time,
but we get to go to Palmyra twice this week! Once Thursday and then
once Friday. Thursday we have a meeting for new missionaries to check
up on them and how we are doing. And then Friday we are taking one of
our investigators to all the sights! It's gonna be so cool. We are
going to see the Hill Cummorah, the Grandon Building (where the Book
of Mormon was first printed), and then we will go to the Smith Family
Farm and the Sacred Grove. I'm so excited for Marge to go there it's
gonna be so sick.

Both Joellen and Marge were sick this Sunday and couldn't come to
church which is a bummer but at the same time, I have to remember that
it's not in my time but in the Lords time. All I can do is trust in
Him and He will direct me in where to go, what to do, and what to say.

We got to share the Christmas video with people this week. We might
kinda look like drug dealers on the corner of the street wearing big
black coats. But if Salvation is a drug, then we are sellin that all
day everyday. So, some people aren't very open to talk into us but
that's okay. All I can do is my part. If any of you haven't seen it
yet, go check it out! christmas.mormon.org

Welp, that's all I've got for this week, I miss all of you and love
you even more! Have a great week! Happy Holidays!

Much Love,
   Elder Peters




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