February 16, 2015

XOXO LITTLE KISS, BIG HUG, LITTLE KISS. 

Well Happy Valentine's Day! I am sure glad people love me! So thanks Mom for the "everything" and Dad for the Selfie Pole...haha!  Now I can take even more beautiful selfies!

Wow...this week...was soooo cool. We have definitely been feeling the love.  And by love I mean the love from our Heavenly Father. He has blessed us a lot this week.

So first things first. We taught Octave this week. He is super cool. We explained the whole Restoration and he said it all makes sense. We gave him a soft baptismal invitation and he said yes as well!!!  I am expecting a lot of good things from him! :)

Second of all....we had two "pass-back" miracles that happened this week!!! Let me tell you about them...

So last week we were doing porting and we found a guy named Thomas and he told us to pass by the next week. Later on that week we found another dude named Jean-Paul and he told us the same thing. So...we first saw Thomas and he actually answered and let us in...haha, rare sight indeed!  But anyways...we had a nice rendez-vous with him. We explained the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He has  had a rough life full of cancer and a bad divorce but we were able to testify to him about God's love. He seemed really interested and he is going to give the Book of Mormon a try!

Then we passed by Jean-Paul. He was there as well and let us in (two for two)!  This is the real miracle....the first thing he talks about when we get in is baptism and how HE WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED!!! We were so surprised that he asked that because that is the first time that has happened to us on our missions! After our amazement we fixed him a date for March 14th, the same date as Michael! Jean-Paul later said that he was being taught by the missionaries 20 yrs ago and he had a baptismal date but then he moved and then lost contact with the church. So yeah...it was really a blessing to find this guy in a city full of people!

Other than that Michael is still kicking butt. He is ready and we have almost taught everything to him. The members are loving him! :) Hopefully these miracles keep coming!

I have been studying about the miracle of change through the Atonement. I can't tell you how much France, the people, the missionaries, and especially God, has changed me. While I am in the moment I don't realize it, but when I look back on how much I have lived through, I saw how my Father in Heaven has changed me. The following scripture has always touched me throughout my mission:

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall fine it." Matthew 16:25

When we give our lives in to the hands of the Lord and when we do everything we can to help others change, we will find that God is changing us far more than what we could do if we try to change ourselves.

Have a good week guys!!! Share the love! Love ya!!!! :))

Elder Evan Peterson

February 9, 2015

BONJOUR!

This week we ate out a lot. I have no idea why but I didn't gain weight. Hey, my prayers are coming true....haha. We went to an Asian Buffet with one of the member's sons here in Bourges. We had a good time and it was dang good! After every transfer it is a tradition to eat at this place so we are keeping the tradition going! We ate two Kebabs, which is pretty much just like a hamburger but with mysterious meat that nobody knows what it is. Then we went to get some Indian food which was dang good too...haha. I think we ate out a lot because we have been getting tired of eating just pasta and quiches.

We were able to find a super cool guy though. His name is Octave and he is a young Frenchman. He said that he has only been believing in God for about 3 years now and he told us how he found God. He went to South America and saw how much the people believed in God down there and that helped him to believe in God too. We had a super cool lesson with him. We were able to share with him the Book of Mormon. He really liked it and he said he would read it. We are going to see him this week.

We have been really focusing on Michael and we fixed another date with him for the 14th of March. I am sure this time will work. He said to us that he felt something during the Sacrement last week so we were able to explain that it was the Holy Ghost. He seems to be committed now. Sadly he is sick and he wasn't able to come this week to church, but he has been keeping all of his engagements and little by little he is receiving his own testimony which is cool.

All of our other amis are doing good, just progressing slowly. Slowly is better than nothing at all, so I will take it.

Have a good week guys! Keep on keeping on! Bisous.

Elder Evan Peterson

February 2, 2015

I AM STAYING!!! 4 TRANSFERS IN BOURGES!!!

This is a picture of the district, holding up the number of the transfer that we are in.  I am still District Leader for my 4th transfer in Bourges!

I am really excited to stay! I love Bourges and the work is going really well. :)  Hopefully we will get to see Michael get baptized!!!!

This week was really good though. We taught a lot and prayed with a lot of foreigners which was pretty cool!

We have been teaching Michael and we talked about his baptism. Sadly we had to cancel his date for the 14th because he wasn't feeling ready. He said we can fix one for March so that is what we'll do! :D He is a super cool guy though.

We had some pretty cool stuff that happened to us this week. First of all, IT SNOWED!!!!

It has almost been a year and half since I have seen snow. It was awesome! I know as soon as I get to Utah that I am going to be sick of it though...haha.

Second of all, we got a referral from the United States. He has the weirdest yet coolest name though. His name is Jose Emmanuel de Jesus Fresco. He is Catholic and we went over to his house to teach him. He is a super cool guy and he wants to know if the church is true. We taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to church. He said he would come. He lives on the other side of town so it would take  him an hour to walk to church because there are no buses on Sunday. You know what he did!?  He walked the whole hour to church and attend all three reunions!!! :D He seems to be a golden ami so let's hope it stays that way! :)

Third, while we were doing some porting we accidentally ported into an ami that we haven't been able to get a hold of for a while...haha. It was super weird but super cool. We weren't expecting that! :)

Other than that we had 3 amis come to church: Sylvie, Michael, and Jose Emmanuel de Jesus Fresco. Sadly two of our members got in a little fight during Priesthood meeting right in front of Jose and Michael. I don't think it affected them too much but it affected me. It is really sad to see when members of the Church of Jesus Christ, who should be examples, start acting like children in front of people that are new to the Church. We talked about it with the Branch President and these two members have been having an issue for a LONG time now. Next week is Branch Conference and so when the Stake President comes down I think he will sort them out hopefully. We will see what happens though.

Loving Bourges! Loving France! Love serving the Lord! :)

Have a good week! Love ya guys!!!

Elder Evan Peterson