December 25, 2014
Merry Christmas family and friends. This is Evan's mom. Here is some things I learned during our Skype today:
The missionaries got to sleep in until 9am today and will also get to on New Year's Day too which he was super excited about. Pdays they still wake up at 6:30am. They ate dinner at Soeur Zotecki's home. She has a daughter that lives in Chile. Another daughter just got off her mission in Lyons, France. She lives at home along with another sibling. Soeur Zotecki made them a Turkey dinner with stuffing and rice. For dessert they had cake with poppy seeds. They skyped from her home too. She babysits for a living. They are from Ecuador. Her husband passed away 4 months after he was baptised.
His mission president, President Babin, gave the missionaries a motto to live by while on their mission: "Treat everyday as if it were the first day of your mission."
Here's a picture he took of the Christmas Tree I sent:
December 22, 2014
COMMUNIST WONDERLAND
We found some Communists for Christmas!
Bonjour à tous et à toutes!!! Joyeux Noël!!!! :)
This week has been really really good! So first things first. This week we taught Michael again and he is doing great. He is still kind of quiet but we actually invited him to be baptized on January 31st. He said that that is too early but he said that we can fix an actual date the next rendez-vous!!! That was really cool to hear from him so that is what we are going to be doing this next week!
Actually, right before the rendez-vous with Michael we found another guy! We got to Michael's house 15 minutes early so we decided to do some porting around his house. We went down this road that we already ported and we almost didn't knock on the doors down this road but we felt like we should. So we did it and to our surprise the first door that opened up let us in. He actually started speaking to us in English and we were super surprised by how well he spoke English. He told us that while he was growing up, he had an American family that lived with his family in France so that is how he spoke English. We talked for a bit about America and his family. He told us that we could just sing to him because his wife was handicapped but we asked if we could sing to them both. He said that was fine so we went upstairs and sang to them both. He felt the spirit so strong and we prayed with him after that. It was so nice to share the spirit of Christmas in his home. We left and fixed another rendez-vous for later on during the week. We went over there again and we shared with him the Book of Mormon and a little message about Jesus Christ. He was really happy and he even wanted us to sign the Book of Mormon. We will be seeing him again next week! :)
Other than that, this week we had lessons with Sylvie, Bruno, Samson, Marc-Antoine, and Stany. They are doing good. During the rendez-vous with Bruno we answered his theory about how he thought the Book of Mormon was false (it is a long story on about why he thought it was wrong). I studied a lot this week to prove him wrong and we went in there and I did...which was the wrong thing to do. Even though he gave up his theory he just came up with another thing. I realized that I really just wanted to prove him wrong rather then helping him feel his own response that the Book of Mormon is right. This week Elder Nez and I are going to help him see how important the Book of Mormon is and how he needs to just read and pray with real intent.
During our rendez-vous with Samson we just talked about Baptism again. He said he believes that the Book of Mormon is true but he just says that he doesn't need to be baptized because every religion it true. We tried to explain to him authority and about how God has re-established his church again and that there is a fullness of the Gospel. We told him to pray about it some more and to continue to read the Book of Mormon.
This week we had a Christmas Zone Conference where Elder Teixeira and his wife came down to speak to us. It was really good and very inspiring. He just told us that we need to pray more and invite people. That has really helped us this week.
We actually have another cool miracle that happened this week. So after the conference Elder Nez and I felt like we needed to step up our game and pray more during proselyting. During porting we prayed before to know where to go and then we felt like we should go to this one road close to our apartment. While we were porting we came across a certain house that I felt like we should knock on. So we did but nobody answered. We waited a couple of minutes and knocked on it again but there was still no answer. We prayed again and then Elder Nez felt like we should go down a small side road. Then we started to port that road and the first door that opened to us let us in. We were able to sing and pray with them and they even gave us some hot chocolate! :) Sadly they weren't interested to hear more of our message but after that it was time to head home. As we were walking home we came across that same house. I really felt the spirit tell me to knock on their door again. I almost didn't but I'm glad I listened to the Spirit because right when I did, a young French family with two little girls answered! They said they were just about to leave but that we could sing and pray with them. We did and then they said that they would love to hear our message about Jesus Christ and how this was the first time they have ever heard about us. We fixed a renedez-vous with them for this Tuesday. They seemed so excited and now I am so excited! haha :) Christmas Miracles man! D&C 28:15
I hope you guys have a Holly Jolly Christmas. I am so grateful to be here for Christmas. Sadly it is my last time so I am going to make it worth while! :)
Love you and bisous,
Elder Evan Peterson
December 15, 2014
SANTA BABY!!!
Hey there everyone! Here is a selfie...haha.
Santa gave me a new comp this week. His name is Elder Nez and he is a real Lamanite! He is from Utah and is an American Indian. He is a pretty chill dude.
Well this week was interesting. We had a lot of good lessons this week so that was dang good. While we were contacting this week we were able to find 2 new people. One was a black lady that we set up a rendez-vous with. Her name is Maureen. We talked to her about Jesus Christ and his birth and then we prayed with her. She seems really legit so we will see what happens. The other person was...interesting. We prayed with him and set up another rendez-vous with him but later on that week he called us and said he didn't want to see us. I asked him why and he just wouldn't tell us...so hopefully he calls back and wants to learn more.
During contacting we found Estelle Le Bon. We talked to her for a little bit and she said that she might come back after Christmas and New Year's. That was pretty nice to hear so we will still keep trying with her.
Speaking about amis, Bruno tried to drop us too. He said he just can't believe that Adam's fall was a part of God's plan. He isn't really reading the Book of Mormon with the right spirit as well. Honestly, I wasn't expecting him to try to drop us but we were able to save it. We just said to him that he needs to hear the whole message before he says no. He agreed with that so we are going to pray and see how we can help him.
That same day of the rendez-vous with Bruno we had our Christmas Party as a Branch. We invited Bruno and he came! It was really cool! :) He and this other member (single female member) were getting along REALLY well. And when I say REALLY well I mean REALLY well..haha! So maybe that was a good thing to invite him to the party? Future wife?? We will see how it goes with him.
Here is a picture of the Christmas Party.
Other than that we were able to see, pretty much, all of our amis! They are doing really good. We are planning to invite them to baptism again so hopefully it all goes well. :)
Singing has been going soooo well! All we do is sing and pray with people and share a message about Jesus. We are going to see a lot of people from that next week.
I hope you guys have a great week.
Love ya!!! :)))
Elder Evan Peterson
December 8, 2014
LIFE IS A HIGHWAY!!!
Transfer 10 has finally begun!
Well this week was very interesting. First off (as you can see from the picture), Elder Shaver and I had a nice little 2 day road trip!!! Whoa!!! I am not going to lie...it was super tiring but fun at the same time.
The mission told us that another companionship needed a car so we took our car to the companionship in Quimper, which was a 6 hour drive, and then we slept over at their apartment. Don't ask me why but the next day we took the Quimper missionaries' car and drove their car to the Elders at Cholet, which actually needed a car in the first place. We basically backtracked a lot but I just do what I am told so that is what we did...haha.
Elder Shaver and I bought some road trip snacks and guess what I got!?
Oh yeah!!! My favorite....Dr. Pepper!!!
Other than the road trip which took up 1/3 of our week we had our last district meeting of the transfer. Her is the picture of my district:
Well...Elder Shaver is leaving Bourges and going to Strasbourg. I am going to miss that Canadian. We had such a great time in Bourges. My new comp is Elder Nez (Nez in French i actually "Nose" haha...so I'm going to have fun with that). He is in the same group as Elder Shaver and he is from Utah. I don't know him at all though but I am excited to find out what happens!!!
This week we didn't really see any other of our amis besides Michael. He is doing good though. He still doesn't speak that much but he is still reading and praying. Sadly, Madame Legon dropped us. She sent us a text saying she doesn't want to see us anymore. It was really sad. We tried calling her to see what was going on but she didn't answer. We texted her and asked her what was going on and that we were there for her. She finally responded and said that we could help her. Se we just responded back and testified about God's love for her and if she ever needed help we would always be there.
Anyways, this week has been really good in the sense of Christmas Finding! We have actually been Christmas Caroling just like what we did last year during Christmas. Let me tell you that singing works...haha. We were let in so many times and we prayed with like half of the people's homes we were let into. They all gave us either goodies or some hot chocolate! It is a really great way on how we can share the gift of Christ to people and the French people love caroling because they have never seen it done here in France. :)
We found one guy last night and his name is Marc. We sang to him and his little daughter and we taught him the Restoration. It was so cool! He seems like a cool dude and we will be seeing him soon.
So overall this week was interesting because we saw a lot of miracles and found more people but we weren't able to see any of our actual amis. But I loved the week anyways. I am so grateful for God and what things he has in store for every one of his children especially for the people of France. I hope you all had a good week and that you have spread that CHRISTmas cheer!
Love you all!! Bisoux!! :)))
Elder Evan Peterson
December 1, 2014
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
This is the district and our amazing Thanksgiving lunch!!! It was so dang good!!!
Well this week has been super good. :)
We were able to find another black Lady! She is super cool. Her name is Leontine. We prayed with her and fixed another rendez-vous for later on that week. We went over there and we taught her the Restoration. She understood everything we said and it went great. We gave her a soft baptismal invite and she accepted too! She was super willing to read and find out for herself if these things are true.
Other than that we taught Stany which went super well. He is a cool guy. He really liked the Plan of Salvation and he is still reading and praying so I know he will find his answer.
We taught Samson as well. He read so much since last time. And he told us everything he read in like perfect detail. We asked him if he felt that the Book of Mormon is true and he said yes. Then Elder Shaver and I felt that we should ask him to be baptized, so we did. Samson said he had been baptized a lot and he didn't see a reason why he had to be baptized again. We explained why and he understood but still didn't see why he should. We told him to just pray and ask God if he should be baptized again.
This Sunday, Bruno showed up to church. He was participating the whole time and everybody thought that he was a member who was visiting...haha. I am excited to see what happens with him. He is a super cool guy!
Other than that we had a great Thanksgiving at a member's house and we have just been continuing to teach our amis. Work is really progressing here and I am loving it so much! The Lord really does look after each and every one of us.
The end of the transfer is this coming week so we'll find out if one of us is leaving. I am pretty sure Elder Shaver is going but we will find out this Saturday!
I hope you all have a great week!!!
Love you all!!!
Elder Evan Peterson
November 24, 2014
IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS
Hey everybody! This week was soooo good. Let me just say one thing....I love Nigerians!!!! :)
First off this week we had a great time at the Cook Conference... :) It was so amazing to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. He knew his stuff and he knew God and his Son, Jesus Christ. It was so cool to see the whole mission all together.
Other than that we have had such a great week. We have truly been blessed here in Bourges. I know for a fact that I don't deserve these many blessings but I am so grateful for them. This week we found 4 people and three of them were Nigerian! I love Nigerians. They are such a believing people and they are so open.
The first one is Victoria. We prayed with her on the street and set up another rendez-vous for later on that week. We then went over and taught her the Restoration. She has been in France for about a year and it is just her and her little baby boy. She seems super cool.
We found a Nigerian family too. Their names are Samson and Estelle and they have a little baby as well. We prayed with them and fixed another rendez-vous for the next day. We went over there and they fed us and gave us drinks which was super nice. Samson told us the whole story of Adam and Eve....haha. It was funny, but we got to teach them the Restoration and they said they would pray and read. :)
We found a 19 year old black dude named Donald. I forgot where he comes from but he seems super legit. We taught him the Restoration and we gave him a soft baptismal invite and he accepted! :) So things are looking really good for Bourges.
Other than that we have still been meeting with all of our other amis once a week. I wish they could meet more often but I will just have to accept the fact that I can't get everything I want...haha. They are all progressing slowly but that is better than nothing! :)
I got two packages this week too! Thanks mom and dad. I really enjoyed them! Here are some pics:
I wear it everyday Dad. Thanks so much!
This week at church Madame Le Bon and Sylvie showed up. During a rendez-vous with Madame Le Bon she told us that she continues to meet with us because it makes her happy and that our message is positive. It is totally true. Our Father in Heaven wants all of us to be happy and that it is only through Him and his Son that we can have that true happiness. That is why he gave us a plan to return back to him and that plan is the Plan of Happiness. I have been so blessed and I have never been so happy to help change peoples lives. Those experiences are truly rewarding experiences that I am never going to forget.
Well I hope that you had a great week just as I did.
Love you all !!!!
Elder Evan Peterson
