October 12th, 2015 - THE END

All I Needed

I guess that time has come. After two years in France it is my turn to head home. I am so happy and so sad at the same time. I don't even know what to do...haha.

I remember being in the MTC in October. I was such a little kid. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, but I am so grateful to have made that decision to go on a mission because that is when I truly understood everything that I needed in life.

The mission was really a turning point for me. Before the mission I didn't really know God or why all of this is important but little by little God changed me. I remember seeing so many people give up their lives for the Gospel and I started to realize what the Gospel meant. I saw people's lives change through the Gospel and then I started to see that it was changing mine.

The most important thing that I learned on my mission was the immensity of our Heavenly Father's love for all of us. Everyday I felt his love for me and for His children and through that I found myself out here.

The truth is, is that all I needed was the Gospel. I thought I knew myself and I thought I knew the purpose of life before the mission but it turns out that I was wrong. When I gave up all that I had to God is when I found my life.

I am so grateful for the mission and how it has given me a purpose in this life. I am so grateful for all the people I have met and how they changed my life. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father who gave me this chance to come here to France to share the Gospel.

I know that all we need in life is the Gospel. It changes us and transforms us into something new. I know with all my heart that Jesus Christ did come to the earth to atone for the sins, sicknesses, and pains of all mankind. I know that God and His son, Jesus Christ, love us beyond our imaginations and that they know us personally. I know that this church is true and that God has restored the truth in these latter days. All of this is what we truly need in our lives and I came to know all of this with a surety thanks to these past 2 years. 

I am so excited to see everyone in 3 days! I love you all! Have a great week! See you soon! :D

Elder Evan Peterson

Went hiking with some non-members with us four missionaries! Super legit!

October 5th, 2015

"Honestly, Won't Someone Stop This Train?"


I can't believe that my time is almost up. I guess John Mayer put it best when he said, "Honestly, won't' someone stop this train?"  The mission goes by so fast, so freaking fast. I just remember a couple of days ago when I was back in Chartres and I had been out for a couple of months. Now I am 10 days away from home. I can't describe what I am feeling right now. I am so excited to see all my loved ones but I am so sad to leave. 

Anyways...I can save all the sad talk for next week.

This week was good though. We taught our amis, Pierre and Ghislaine. They were supposed to be baptised this week but they told us that they needed to reflect on it. They said they didn't want to feel like they were tied down by rules and commandments. During the whole rendez-vous we testified about how the commandments are there to help us come closer to God and His son Jesus Christ and how they are there to make us free not to be as barriers. We gave them the invitation to pray and ask God about it so hopefully that goes well. I know it will. It is all up to them though if they want an answer because God always fulfills His promises.

We had exchanges this week as well. We were here in St. Die with the zone leaders. It was a really good exchange as well. We were able to teach some people. I just love every time when people just take the time to listen to us and the moments when you can clearly testify to them.  That happened during our exchange this week. While we were porting we met a middle-aged man. He opened the door and he asked us who we were. We told him and then he said he wasn't believing and that it wasn't worth the pain but that didn't stop us from talking with him. After he said that we just had a nice conversation with him and little by little you could see his heart open. Finally we were able to testify about how he could come to know God. By the end he still didn't want to fix a rendez-vous but he opened up enough that he said he would try and pray and ask God if he was there. And you know what? That still made me so happy because by small things great things come to pass.

Well..that's about it. This will be my week of lasts and then I will be home so I will try to soak in all that I can this coming week. Have a great week guys! Love you! See ya soon! :D

Elder Evan Peterson

September 21st, 2015

Dying Testimony

Hey everyone!  This week was pretty good and very busy.

First off, we have been teaching Pierre and Ghislane. We were only able to see them once this week because they have been sick. We are going to have to push their baptismal date to the 10th of October because we won't have enough time to teach them everything before the 26th of September and because Ghislaine still smokes.  But they are progressing and they totally believe in everything, so it should be fine.

We also have been teaching this Algerian family. They are super cool. They don't really speak English but they really believe in the restored gospel. In fact, this Sunday they came to church with their friends that they brought and they live 30 minutes away from the church! We had about 10 amis at church this week which was freaking amazing! :D

This week we also had zone conference all the way in Paris. It was a good one but super weird knowing that it was my last zone conference. I was able to give my dying testimony with the others in my group. I first shared how my dream was to go to L.A. on a mission, convert Kobe Bryant, then return from my mission and find a wife, then have Kobe be called as a temple sealer and seal me and my wife in the L.A. temple...haha. Then I shared during my testimony the most important thing I learned on my mission, which is, in order to find your life you have to lose it. It was pretty sad sharing it. Some tears were shared. The mission has truly helped me to find my life and it has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

Later on in the zone conference, President Babin addressed us and when he got up there, the first thing that he said was, "Elder Peterson, I have a message for you that I received from somebody." I was super shocked and then he showed on his slideshow a picture of Kobe Bryant, reading the message which said, I am waiting for you Elder Peterson." Haha! I got a pretty good kick out of that one! :)

We also had something interesting happen to us. We had our car towed this Sunday...haha. But don't worry, the green machine is back safe and sound. We didn't realize that there was going to be a massive super market. We parked in our regular parking place but apparently they were going to use that parking, so we woke up on Sunday morning for church and to our surprise the car was gone. After church we got it back but it cost us 175 euros to get it. It was expensive but these things happen....haha.

Better go. Have a great week! Love ya! See ya soon! :)

Elder Evan Peterson

September 14, 2015

Exchanges for Days!

This week was so freaking busy....haha, but busy is good. We had a super fun time too!

So we had district meeting which happened to turn out really well. I gave a formation on sacrificing our time and will each day to God, so basically being consecrated. And then we went on exchanges with the Elders in Colmar. I was with Elder Karl, a guy in my group. It was cool going on exchanges with him because first of all, we are homies and second of all, we were in the same MTC district and here we are dying together in the same district! We had a ton of fun and saw some cool miracles. :)

While on our exchange, we took the car and went by this referral that we received. Well the dude wasn't interested so we started porting and the first door we knocked on let us in! It was this old lady that was super believing. We were able to talk to her about the plan of Salvation because her husband just barely died. She really like us but said she wasn't really interested and that she was too old for all that stuff but she made it clear that she prays everyday! And we made it clear that we will try passing by another time!

Later on that night we ate at a nice restaurant, just us four! :D

The next day we did another exchange with the second companionship of Elders in Strasbourg. We had a busy day up there and it was fun as well but I literally had the worst sleep I have had in my whole entire life! They live right by this church that would ring it's massive church bell every fifteen minutes and to top it all off they live right above a bar where drunk people would be screaming all night long. So I would sleep for five minutes and get woken up by all that stuff. Haha-ah France, you got to love it sometimes. But overall I had a good time.

Right after that we came home and taught all of our Amis. The two that are getting baptized on the 26th of September are still a go so that is good.

Later on during the week we had stake conference in Nancy and that took up all of our weekend. We had to sleep over at Nancy and there was 12 Elders in the apartment....haha. We all fit in and had a good "bros' night."

But that's about it. This next week we will be having zone conference in Paris on the 17th. It will be my last zone conference...where I will be giving my dying testimony with the others in my group. The time has come. :'(

Have a great week guys! Love ya!

Elder Evan Peterson

1.  Me in Strasbourg at night.
2. Us havin' a party at the restaurant. Left to right - Elder Schow (Elder Karl's Blue), Elder Cisneros (my comp), me, and Elder Karl.

September 7th, 2015

The Green Machine

The last week 1 that I will ever have has ended...pretty weird. But so far I am loving it! It is super tiny but really beautiful. It is surrounded by mountains (they are really hills but they like to call them mountains so I will go with it). And we have a super super bright green car! I like to call it the "Green Machine." Some call it the "little green apple," "the green hornet," "the green lantern," etc...haha. Everyone knows when the missionaries are in town because it is the only car that is so freaking green!

But anyways...We had a great week. We have been teaching our amis and visiting the members here. We actually have two Amis with a baptismal date for the 26th of September. They are an old French couple but they are super cool! Their names are Pierre and Ghislane. Ghislane has a smoking problem that she is trying to get rid of but the both of them truly believe that this is the restored church of Jesus Christ on the earth. So it is cool to see that!

We have been seeing the members too. There are about 15 to 20 members here. I really like branches though. I have been in branches pretty much my whole entire mission so I really enjoy it.

We have a Romanian family that we are teaching and this week we went to go teach them. They don't really speak any French but their oldest son translates for us. We had a really cool moment with them while we were teaching. They told us that a lot of people told them that they shouldn't be meeting with us because the Mormon religion is a sect and all that normal stuff people say when they don't really actually know who we truly are. Anyways....We were able to clear that stuff up and then the father asked me a question. He said, "Do you truly believe in God for yourself or do you believe because others told you to?" I then was able to give my whole testimony about how I came to know God and by the end the father smiled and said a loud "Amen!" Haha.  We invited them to truly study the Book of Mormon and pray about it and they said yes so we will see what happens! :)

That is pretty much what happened this week. I will keep you updated what happens here for the little time I have left on my mission. It is going to be an adventure though! :)

Love ya guys!

Elder Evan Peterson

1. The "Green Machine" and yours truly.
2. St.Dié at its finest.
3. My comp, Elder Cisneros and I. He is from Mexico! Jaja

August 31, 2015


St. Dié to Die

Well...Transfer news is here and the unexpected has happened. I am leaving Angers for my last transfer! I will be going to St. Dié, the smallest city in the mission, as District Leader! So I will be going to St. Dié to die!  Haha! I never knew that I would be doing a one an done in my mission but here we are! I am pretty sad to leave Angers though. I was so sure that I was going to stay here for the rest of my mission. But I am pretty excited to go to St. Dié!  It is going to be a new adventure right before I leave the mission field.

But let me tell you about these past couple of weeks. We had a really great couple of weeks! Sadly we weren't able to really see our Amis but we were able to find some new ones. We were able to see our Chinese ami, Li! He is doing super well! We actually were able to fix a baptismal date with him for the 27th of September. It was a really cool rdv. We just asked him how he felt about baptism and he said that he could be baptized in a month. So he pretty much just fixed it all by himself...haha. :)

We found a really cool black family that we will be seeing this week and we found this super cool black dude named Alberto. He contacted us on the tram a couple of days ago and we told him who we were. By the end of our conversation, we got his phone number and he told us that he would come to our church in a couple of weeks. Then he actually showed up this Sunday! He really loved church and by the end of it he wanted to pay tithing....haha. Pretty bizarre but cool. So he payed tithing and we will be seeing him this week. We had some pretty cool miracles happen these past weeks. :)

Other than that I just said goodbye to everyone. I bore my testimony during church and I was on the verge of tears but, luckily, I pulled through without shedding a single one. We were able to see the Traore family on Sunday night and by the end of our visit when I told Muhammed (their 10yr old boy) that I was going to leave he just started bawling. It was really sad to know that I won't see them anymore but it was nice to know that the gospel has touched their lives. I am really going to miss this place. I have seen God's hand in the work everyday while being here. He truly does love the people of France. Evan though I didn't see a baptism here I saw so many miracles here and I will be forever grateful for hem and how they changed me. Sharing the Gospel truly has changed me and I am sad that my time is almost up but I am looking forward to spending the rest of my time in St. Dié. :)

Have a great week guys! Love ya!
Elder Peterson

Me and the Traore family

Me and Samuel Regnier, a young adult from the ward that is going to be a missionary in Orem.

August 17, 2015

BE TRUE. BE YOU.

Well...this week has been super weird. I am not sure how but it just flew by so freaking fast. But it was a pretty good week with some ups and downs. I have been out for so long I think I have gotten used to it by now. But let's start off with what happened this week...

We had a Family Home Evening with the Cheve family and the Traore family! It was super fun and super cool. We talked about eternal families and how that is their goal after their baptism. After the spiritual thought and the food the Cheve family gave us a little musical presentation and then everybody started singing. It was a really spiritual moment. :)

Sadly, later on this week we found out some bad news about the Traore family. We found out that they won't be able to get baptized on the 22nd of August because, apparently, their Muslim family found out that they were going to get baptized and they weren't so happy with that. So the Traore's are in a little bit of a predicament and, and so far, the baptismal date is dropped. We told them that sometimes we just need to do what God wants us to do no matter our circumstances and the consequences. They said they will pray and ask God what they should do.

Honestly, I am not too surprised about the whole experience. I kind of figured that something like this would happen and it is just up to them to overcome this trial and do what is best in God's eyes. We will still be teaching them though so that is still good. :)

This week we have been all over the place. We went on exchanges on Thursday in Paris with the Assistants, then we ate Chipotle (which was so dang good) in Paris, then we woke up at 4 am the next day to catch our train to go to Rennes for our Zone Conference, then interviews with President Babin. They interviews went over so we missed our train to go back so then we had to sleep over at Nantes...haha. We finally got back home Saturday morning.

The Zone Conference was really good. The main theme was about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it is so important to explain that to our amis. Then at the end of the Zone Conference, Elder Madsen and I were able to give a training about how we should be ourselves and use the divine talents that God has given us to help others around us come unto Christ. The title of the training was "BE TRUE. BE YOU." That's why I used that as the title for the blog this week. It went really well. Sometimes as missionaries, we have a hard time on being ourselves and we often judge ourselves or others too harshly. So we talked a lot about that and how it is important to become what God wants you to become. It went really well. :) At first we did a little talent show which was super fun and then we finished it off strong with the spirit. :)

Well...That is about it for now!  I hope you have a great week! May God bless you!

Love ya! Bisous!

Elder Evan Peterson

Here are some pics:

1. Muhammad is jamming out on the guitar
2. A panoramic view of "La Defense" in Paris where we ate Chipotle.