If you don't know, now ya know😎

What's up y'all?

This week was awesome! We had a lot of teaching appointments fall
through, but every week is awesome when you're a missionary!

The ward here is so sweet. There were a lot of people at church on
Sunday and they were all very welcoming (this was my first week
getting to meet the ward because last week was Stake Conference). It's
awesome. They are very involved in missionary work.

I had a bunch of spiritual experiences this week. But I would like to
share just a couple with you. The first one happened as follows:
We taught the Achievement Day Girls (8-11?) about the Word of Wisdom
(a health code from our Heavenly Father that our church follows).
Afterward, we had planned to go visit some people. We didn't really
feel 100% sure that that was what we should do with our time. So, I
suggested that we pray for guidance. We did, and we were prompted to
go visit a less active member. This member has been hard to get ahold
of for the longest time. We went and when we got there, we saw a guy
working on his car in the parking lot. We talked with him for a little
bit and then went up and knocked on her door. She answered! She told
us that she was getting ready to move so we were able to offer service
there. She also told us that her boyfriend was out working on the car.
She said, "he doesn't know this yet but he's gonna be Mormon." Haha so
we went down and started talking to him again. It was a cool
experience. It's cool to see that the Lord truly does guide His
servants and lead them to where they need to go.

Another experience I had this week came as we were contacting in East
Aurora. In the neighborhood we were in, there was a lady who Elder
Fielding knew that wasn't very interested. We thought it wouldn't be
very productive to go and knock on her door, but we did because we
felt like we needed to. Christine answered the door and was excited to
see us! We talked for a while, introduced myself, and then I felt
prompted to offer service. She had mentioned that she had just been
working in her yard. When i offered that, she got really happy and
said, "yes!" She then went on about how she had been struggling to
find help. She is friends with a member so we later found out that she
had prayed just before we came for help with her yard. And then we
showed up! It was cool to see/be able to be an answer to her prayer.
Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways for the happiness of His
children.

As missionaries, we teach the importance of The Book of Mormon as
another witness and testament of Jesus Christ. The Bible and The Book
of Mormon go hand in hand when testifying that Jesus is the Christ.
God loves and knows each and every one of us. He has given us this
great book to study. When we study, we receive spiritual guidance and
can feel the love of the Savior more and more. I can keep going on and
on about how The Book of Mormon helps me and how it is true and how I
know that it testifies of Christ. But, as for yourself, no matter how
hard I study, YOU won't know of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon
until YOU read it and go to the only source of truth. Our Father in
Heaven (through prayer). So, my challenge for you this week is to read
from The Book of Mormon (no matter how many times you have previously
read it), and to pray and ask God if it is true. I can testify that it
is. God has given it to us for this day and age. It can only help.

This week was awesome. I love being a missionary. Thanks so much for
your prayers and love and support. You all are the best and I love you
so much! Have a great week!

Elder Preston Peters

Sent from my iPad

Talons from Orchard Park!! 💦❄️☀️

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all had a great week! Shoutout to Grandma Fagan for her
birthday on Friday! Love you Grandma!

I'm loving Orchard Park! It is such a sweet place! Elder Fielding is
such a sweet companion! He's awesome. The members here are awesome. I
know a guy who might give us a tour of the Bills stadium on P-Day
sometime! I told him I would wear my Seahawks jersey in there and he
said good luck haha.

This weekend we had stake conference and the missionaries sang in a
missionary choir! It was awesome. We sang called to serve and the EFY
medley. It was awesome.

This week we had some awesome lessons. I'm still trying to get to know
everyone and the area and stuff but we were able to help a lot more
people come closer to Christ this week.

We taught a guy named Tristan and he is progressing pretty well. He
likes meeting with us and when we met with him this week, he was very
insightful in answering the questions we asked him. I was like, "YEAH!
You're right!" It was cool.

Anyways, this week was the best except for the fact that it snowed
yesterday. Yes. It snowed in May. I hope you all have a great week.
You're the best. Thanks for your prayers and support. I love you all!
Talk to you soon.

Elder Peters

Sent from my iPad

Happy late Mother's Day everyone! It was great talking to my Mom and
family yesterday! I just wanna give a quick shoutout to all the Moms
out there. Thank you for all you do for your kids, for your family,
for the world. You all are the best and I hope you had a wonderful
Mother's Day yesterday.

How are you guys?

This week was great! We went to the church history sites in Palmyra!
It was so fun.

This morning we got transfer calls! It was kinda cool. All the
missionaries called in for a conference call and President and the
Assistants to the President announced where everyone is going. I am
being transferred to Orchard Park! That is out near Buffalo. The
Buffalo Bills stadium is in my area! But don't worry I will always be
faithful to #HawkNation. I'll make sure to rock my Seahawks gear on
preparation day ;)

I'm kinda bummed because they are closing the Batavia country area and
the Batavia City elders are merging their area with ours so yeah.
Kinda bummed about that but it's all good. That's what the Lord
needed.

I'm going to miss Batavia and all the people here but I know the Lord
needs me in Orchard Park and He has prepared people for Elder Peters
to help :) and I know that Elder Stokes will be putting in work over
there in Bath.

I am all out of sorts right now haha. Batavia is all I've known so far
on my mission haha.

I was supposed to speak on Sunday on Mothers. I had an awesome talk
prepared and everything. When we got to the church, we were greeting
people and one of the Branch Presidency members came up to me and
asked me to say the closing prayer. I told him that I was speaking. I
had to repeat myself like 3 times cuz he is deaf. When he finally
understood the message, he said in the most stereotypical old man
voice, "since when?" "SINCE PRESIDENT PIERCE ASKED US TO." (Elder
Gibby was supposed to speak too). He told us that he and his wife were
going to speak. And get this. They didn't even speak about Mothers on
Mother's Day!!! I was kinda upset but i didn't let it get to me haha.

Anyways, thanks for everything you guys! I'll keep you updated on my
new area. It's gonna be awesome! Have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Peters

Sent from my iPad


Sent from my iPad

Shamu Splash 🐋💦💦💦💦

Greetings from New York!

Hey you guys! How are you all doing? I'm doing well. This week was awesome.

We were walking down the street one day in Batavia. We were going to a
house where we had made a solid contact before. On our way, we saw all
these kids outside hangin out. As we were walking by, one of them
called out to us, "hey! You wanna see us dance?" I said, "sure!" He
nodded to his friend to pull up some music on his phone. I felt like I
was in a little rap/dance off movie. As one of the other kids was
pulling up some music on his phone, the kid (I later found out that
his name was Nate) looked back at us and said, "what do y'all do?" We
said, "we are missionaries!" He looked confused and then one of the
other kids nudged him and said, "They talk about Jesus!" He turned
back to us and asked, "oh! Y'all talk about Jesus?!" We nodded and he
nodded. Then the music started. He had some moves! He was gettin jiggy
wit it! #WordToWillSmith okay maybe gettin jiggy wit it is a little
out dated. Gettin jiggy wit it is more for when you're talkin about my
Dad's disco dancin back in his day (with his Afro) ;) love you dad.
Anyways, he was pretty good! When he finished dancing, I pulled out
some pass along cards and they flocked around me. They all wanted
pictures of Jesus. So we gave them each two. They loved us. I told
them that with their parents permission, they could call the number on
the back and order a free Book of Mormon or on the other card, they
could order a free copy of Finding Faith in Christ (a sweet little
video). They got all excited and we left. As we were leaving, I
challenged them to dance off. The next day, we got a referral from
headquarters. They said some kid had called and wanted a Book of
Mormon and a DVD. It was the same kids! No one ever calls the number
on the back of the card! Haha. It was so sweet. When we went back,
Nate saw us walking up the street and he walked up to us with his
entourage (Chase, Anterico, Mario). They were all pointing at him and
saying, "he's ready for the dance off!" I totally forgot haha so I
changed the subject real quick. They're awesome and love talking to
us. We have to get permission from their parents to be able to teach
them though.

Another cool experience this week. We were walking down Main Street in
Batavia. We saw a guy who looked homeless and who we thought we had
talked to before. We hurried up to him and it turns out it wasn't
General Dan (the super crazy guy we know). Elder Stokes asked him how
he was liking the rain. The guy just startled stuttering and mumbling
on and on about the Cherokees, the Jews, and something else. I really
couldn't understand him. He would say, "uh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh
duh duh duh duh duh Cherokee uh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh 5
different launguages uh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh I'm Native
American uh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh and Jewish." He was like
as saliva machine gun. As we were talking to him, I slowly zipped up
my coat to protect myself from the flying spit. It was almost like
being in the splash zone at Sea World (I've never actually been there
but I'm pretty sure it was almost the equivalent of Shamu splashing
the crowd.) we offered him a Book of Mormon and he muttered something
about seeing a Book of Mormon in the Batavia landfill. We told him to
have a nice day and he just walked away. That was fun. Batavia is an
interesting place. Lots of interesting characters.

Anyways, that's it for this week. We did a lot of service and
teaching. The work is moving forward! I love you all and thank you for
all the love and support and prayers. Have a great week! Talk to you
soon.

Elder Peters


Sent from my iPad

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

Sent from my iPad

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


Sent from my iPad

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



Sent from my iPad