A Missionary's Work: Who's First

9/25/2017

Hey Guess who's back, back in black (or (a) white...Polo shirt). Its been a great week full of catching lizards, having a national protest day (where nothing actually happened), Cooked Bibingkang kanin (sweet sticky rice, mixed with coconut with a sweet sweet sugar mix and coconut on top, mmmmmmmmmmm!), and Went to a really big birthday party (they had lechon pig, cake, and crazy games for kids involving a blindfold and a stick {how many times does that actually go well, haha}). It was a fun week and we also went to family week here and its such a party and loads of fun! This week we got to meet Elder Schmutz  who is a great person who gave a talk to us missionaries. It was great! 

I was thinking about our focuses and priorities in life lately. The thing that kept coming up was Who we put first. Do we put God first or our work or our schooling or our family. Those are some hard things to prioritize because they all link and are important for us and others. But I think of the promise God gave us that if we put him first, he will give to our needs. He knows our needs and wants to give us blessings. but for him to help us and give those blessings he needs us to have faith, put him first, and follow him, then will he give us those blessings. 

It's true he loves us and knows our needs and has a plan for us and for him to help us in his plan we need to put him first. Sometimes its super hard but he gives us a way (1st Nephi 3;7). He loves us and has a great plan that's greater than us for us, if we put him first. love you all and I invite you to try to put him first.

well seeya'll next week and here's some pics

-- 

Elder Peterson 

remember stay Pogi, smile on, and laugh a little!

A Missionary's Work: Patience and Love

9/11/2017

Hey ya'll Its funner and hotter in the Philippines! We're loving it up, every minute of it. I'm just trying to more fully enjoy the mission, the people, culture, and the time. Its great! I can already think about the how fast it all goes, as far as I know one day I'm here in the Philippines the next, I'll be an old, hard nosed, wrestling coach like coach D (just joking... he's crazy too,hahaha! ;) ). But really I can't believe i'm 19 and serving tons of people in the Philippines. 

 

Anyway this week was awesome we had a combined baptism in the next area over, Rizal, its a bayan (like between a small city and a town). That was the highlight, to really see these people take their first step towards God is amazing, We are blessed to see absolute U-turns in peoples lives, like them. I love and am sooo up-lifted when I get to that. 

 

The part I'd love to share with you guys today is about Patience with love. This week wasn't like an unusual crazy hard on my patience, but I found that I was a little annoyed or not happy from something that was said or just not feeling it. And not to my companions fault but the wrong feelings from other situations made me feel not so great. I had suddenly thought about life as a race (a long long one, maybe like a marathon) that there are times we fall down from trials and hardships (like tripping or falling from fatigue in the race) and then sometimes we just take off sprinting not thinking about the distance. Of course you get tired really fast and probably won't make it if we continue like that. So that where patience comes in or "pacing yourself" in the race. When we're patient that's when we're also humble enough to continue to learn and grow. WE need to endure in patience but out of love really. If we have patience but not with love it will almost always just be a bomb waiting to blow, building till one can't take it any more. But if it's out of love you can let things go if you need to. I think of Christ. He patiently suffered his atonement in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross and through it all he loved them. His last words were "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" he could've said anything but ask forgiveness for those who hurt him. So try this week to live like the Savior and be patient with love. 

love ya all 

Elder Peterson 

remember stay Pogi, smile on, and laugh a little!

A Missionary's Work: A Long Hard Walk

9/18/17

Hey guys! hows it goin' out there? Its great here with water everywhere because its rainy season, yay! It's fun to go running in the rain going home for the day, though its not fun having soaking socks all the time. So that's why We Scouts are always prepared (haha), so I have an extra pair with me always ha. 

This week was fun and get to walk a ton and we are always laughing because my companion is a talkative guy,ha! He's actually really cool and a great guy (fyi- "a great guy" in guy talk means a lot, ha). Well I don't have a ton of time so I'll share something I've been learning. This week I have listened to this great song called, "The loneliest walk" by David Osmond (I think its Osmond anyway). So I highly recommend it! It's about how there are tons of hard things in this life and lots of them are unexpected or really heavy stuff. Which is true, life is just hard sometimes, like with family deaths, sicknesses, school (ha), just a lot of things as such. But the best part of the song is about this one person we all know who has walked those paths before and felt all our pains, hardships,and sufferings. So Because of his lonely walk to feel what every man and woman has felt, he can now stand with us and support us with his compassionate arms when things get to hard and rough for us. That's one of the biggest reasons of Jesus's Atonement so that he could feel and understand us better so that he would be willing to give mercy to us if we follow him. He loves us and is there for us. He's the one in the whole world who actually understands how we feel and cares for us. So that means we are never really alone. Well the song's better ha.

love ya'll !!!

Here's the song: https://soundcloud.com/davidosmond/4-loneliest-walk-1

A Missionary's Work: The Currant Bush

9/4/2017

Hey guys! this weeks been a great one! We had a branch Family Home Evening (FHE) which is pretty much every one here in the church came together and we shared a spiritual thought then had tons of super fun Filipino games then some food. Ya it was a blast! 

I still haven't coaxed the lil' monkey here to sit on my shoulder (I  probably just need some more candy, ha). But today Elder Anazario and I decided to stop being shy about talking to people so in the Jeepney (there is no comparison in America, except like a really long jeep as public transportation. holds like 20 plus people) we loudly talked over the road noises to them all. It was great! Whats better then facing your fears dead on?! (of course pumpkin pie!). 

So This week I read this article from our stake letter about a talk by Elder Brown. I highly highly recommend reading it! He shares an experience of pruning down a current fruit bush who had over grown and was yielding no fruit. He saw a small drop on the stump and thought of it saying to him, "why did you cut me down? I was making such growth and now I will be looked down upon." He, the gardener, then said, "I'm the gardener here and I know what I want you to be. Later you will look back and thank me." Years later he was about to be general in the military but was denied because he was Mormon. He then went to his tent and angrily shook his fist at heaven and murmured to God about after everything he has done to measure up to his commandments, that even that wasn't earned. Then he heard his own voice say, "I'm the gardener here and I know what I want you to be." He then prayed and ask forgiveness and now looks back and says thank you to God for loving him enough to cut him down. Now for me I look back at past failures all the time and analyze what I did wrong. You all know I love wrestling too. When I started wrestling in 6th grade my goal was to win state. As my senior year finished in my thoughts failed and reviewed in my head all my mistakes and what I should've done. After reading this talk I thought about all that would be different like what college, serving a mission, or maybe my future in college (like future Mrs. Peterson ;) ). All I know is maybe like the talk said He's the Gardener here and knows what he wants us to be. And like the current bush it's not necessarily like we want. I know He has a plan for us even when we don't yet or ever see it. 
Love You all!

Here's a link to a short 3 minute video about the story The Currant Bush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8xvw0cgw0