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. 

August 10, 2015

"Don't touch the Butt" (Boat)

Hey guys!

Well...this week we went to La Rochelle on exchanges and there were a ton of boats. So I thought a lot about "Finding Nemo" while I was over there. 

We worked a lot with the Elders down there and it was really good. Hard work really does pay off.  There is a ton of tourists down in La Rochelle. It was pretty crazy because the city is relatively small!

This week was pretty good though. Sadly almost all of our amis were out of town. The Traore Family wasn't able to get baptized because the mom's mom got sick and went to the hospital so she made plans to go fly to Mali to see her. But it turns out that she wasn't able to go visit her because she didn't have enough money to fly down there. We were able to see them again and fix another baptismal date for the 22nd of August. They are doing really well though and they came to church! :)

Guess what? I got my itinerary for my flight home this week. That was a surprise, a really weird surprise.  Usually people don't get those until 3 weeks before they get home but I guess they decided to give it to me now...haha. I was kind of mad about it this week, but everything is fine now. That just means I need to work harder.

We were able to find two cool people this week. One of them was this young 17 yr old kid...Brandon, and an African guy...Joan. We met Brandon on exchanges and he said he really wants to know if God was there and so we gave him a tour of our church. He really liked it and he said he was super grateful to come to the church. The other dude we found was super legit. He is super believing and knows the Bible really well but was not agreeing with us. The cool thing about this guy was that he knew that God could answer him if he studied and asked if God really did restore his church. So we are going to teach him this week and he said he will try the experience. ;)

Other than that we have just been preparing for our Zone Conference that we will be having on the 14th! It should be fun! :) Love ya all! Have a great week!

Elder Evan Peterson

Me with the boats:

Elder Madsen and I with the Cheve family eating some pizza!

July 27, 2015

A Christlike Transfer

Hey guys! Well...this week I received a new comp, went up to Paris, and I got sick. It was fun, tiring but fun!

My comp is Elder Madsen! He is a cool dude and we are getting along really well. So during transfers, we went up to Paris and then we came back and that is when the sickness started to attack me. Then the next day we had mission council and I was so out of it. I was coughing and sneezing. It wasn't a pleasant experience but the mission council was good. They talked a lot about being diligent and being converted to the gospel and how those are the only ways that we can convert others. So this transfer we all are going to work on helping our missionaries to become converted and then helping others. It reminds me of the quote..."You can't convert someone above your own conversion."  Something like that...haha.

We made some plans for the Zone this week as well. We are planning to make this transfer a "Christlike" transfer, where the Spirit will be there so strongly everyday! We are planning on doing a service activity with all of the zone too so we are going to plan that more out as the week goes on.

Other than that we have just been teaching the Traores and all of the other old companionship's amis. Two of them are super cool. There is Li, who is Chinese, and Esperant, who is from the Ivory Coast. They are super cool and super legit! They both want to get baptized too! So we will see what happens!!! :D

Oh yeah! This week was Elder Madsen's Bday so we went out to eat some Asian food! I will send you some pics later! :D

Well...I am super tired and we still have a lot of stuff to do today but that is about it!!!

:D Talk to ya next week! Love ya!!!!

Elder Evan Peterson

July 20, 2015

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?....

Hey guys!!!

Well...transfers just happened...and I found myself to be the only Elder that is staying in Angers. The other 3 are leaving. Elder Bailey is going to Paris to finish his mission in only 3 weeks. The other elder companionship in Angers had to be closed down because we don't have enough missionaries. So it was pretty sad finding that out.

This week was pretty good though! We prepared a lot for the Fireside. It turned out to be really good!!! :) Super scary at first though...haha. We invited all of our amis and at least 15 of them said that they were coming but only 2 of them showed up. With the other companionships' amis we had a total of 5 amis at the Fireside. Then President and Soeur Babin showed up and some members came too. It wasn't at all as I had expected and at first I was a little discouraged but it became such a great Fireside. At first Elder Bailey and I shared a short message explaining the Restoration and then President and Soeur Babin started to answer questions. The spirit was so strong in there and people asked really good questions. By the end of it, I came out with a knowledge that: 1) Agency can sometimes be annoying and 2) God always does his work in his ways and that it always works out.  Even if there was just one person that showed up it still would have been great.

Other than that this week has really been us helping the Traore family (the Muslim family) for their baptism. It is really a miracle every time we go over there because they just get so excited about the Gospel and what it brings in their lives. We teach simple and that has reminded us how great and simple the Gospel is. This past week we taught them the Restoration and we watched the Restoration video and they loved it!   We asked their son Mohammed what he felt and he said, "I felt a lot." The whole family loves it. It is a great testimony builder. :)

Well...sorry this week is so short. We have to go. Love ya guys!!! See you next week!!! :D

Love,
Elder Evan Peterson

July 13, 2015

Three Secrets to Missionary Work...Members, Members and Members.

Hello everybody! It has been a long time. I am sorry I haven't given you any updates on the last couple of weeks. We have just been super busy on Pdays recently.

Today marks my 3 month mark until I go home and I just got my departure papers from the mission office. That really freaked me out, but I still have time! It is pretty weird finding out that my friends are coming back home from their missions and that others are getting married...haha.

Anyways..here's what happened these past couple of weeks!!!

So...first huge news. These past couple of weeks, us (the missionaries in Angers) and the ward, have been coming up with a missionary fireside. It is this Friday and President Babin, our mission president, is going to come down and address the members and all of their friends and our amis as well. It is going to be a question and response fireside where all of our amis and the friends of the members can ask questions about the church, missionaries, our doctrine, etc. It is going to be soo cool and we have been visiting a ton of members for it too! So far there has been a lot of members that have invited friends so I think it is going to be amazing! :D That is why I put the tile as "Three Secrets to Missionary Work...Members, Member, and Members."  It is soooo true. :) I am so excited for it!!!

I have to tell you about this super cool family we met too! So a couple of weeks ago Elder Bailey and I were waiting for a rendezvous outside of the Church, when out of the blue this African family shows up and says to us, "Hey are you guys pastors?" We told them no and they started to leave but then we quickly said, "But we are missionaries though." The family then asked us if we could go to their house and cast out some bad spirits and we said that we are here to share a message about Jesus Christ and that our message will help them with all of that. Funny thing too is that they were going to pay us to come over and pray with them....hahaha. Don't worry, we didn't take their money. Later on that week we visited them and it turns out that they are Muslims but they are so ready and willing to accept the Gospel. We have been teaching the whole family for the past couple of weeks: the mom, dad, and their 10 yr old son. They have accepted the Gospel and Jesus Christ so willingly and they have been seeing the blessings that come from it. So this past week we invited them to be baptized and they all said YES!!! SO COOL!!! We were so happy. That just goes to show you that anybody can be ready and that God prepares all of His children, whether they be of a different color or in a different religion. There is always someone ready for the Gospel. 

Well...that is pretty much the super big news! I am loving this place!!! :D God is really hastening his work and I am so grateful to be a part of it. I am really going to miss it when I leave, but I still have time to continue and work hard. :)

Hope you all have a great week!!! Love ya!!!

Elder Evan Peterson

Here's some pics:

1. Us eating some "Paul." Good pastry shop.
2. My cheesy face while eating Paul.  Haha..don't worry, that is hot chocolate not coffee.
3. Cool bush sculpture bird thingy.
4. Me at the Castle in Angers.

June 22, 2015

I GUESS IT FINALLY HAPPENED...AND GOLDEN STATE WON!!!

Well we finally got the ipads this past week! WHAO....haha!!! It has been really fun and it really changes up missionary work. At first Elder Bailey and I just felt so guilty for using something besides a computer everyday of the week, so that took some time to get used to.

We actually went to mission council and they gave them to us. And by "us" I mean only the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders!  I guess that is just one of the blessing of being a Zone Leader. :) All the other missionaries are going to get them soon though. We are just going to be the guinea pigs for the mission for now.

Here's how the past couple of weeks went...

We have been going through a finding cycle. Some of our amis dropped us or they just haven't been able to meet with us. We have been finding a lot of cool people though! We still have our regular amis, Jean-Yves and Isidore. They are still hanging in there.

We found this super cool buy named Phillip! We were with a member one night, coming back from a lesson when we decided that we were going to go porting near his house. He dropped us off near his house and we prayed and started to knock on doors. Then a couple of doors down we came across Phillip. He is a cool middle-aged French guy. When we knocked he said that he was really trying to find out who God was and if he was really believing in God so he let us in and we taught the Restoration. He loved it and he is willing to give it a try to find out if God really did restore His church on the earth. That was super cool.

Here is another awesome thing that happened this week. A couple of weeks ago a member, who is in this walking club in Angers, was walking with his walking club mates. One of the people asked him stuff about the church because she knew he was a member and he shared somethings about the church before. He was able to share some stuff but after that he wasn't able to invite her to meet the missionaries because they didn't have time. Then one day we decided to pray to know where to go porting and we felt that we should go around this walking club member's neighborhood. We did and we found the lady that asked him questions about the church! We were able to fix a rendez-vous with her. On top of that her husband wanted to know more as well! That goes to show you that sharing the gospel really does help and that even though you don't get the chance to have people meet the missionaries and come to church, God will always make sure there is a chance for those people you shared the gospel with.

Other than that we went on exchanges down in St. Nazaire and that pretty fun! :) And I have just been super excited that the Warriors won against the Cavaliers! If Kobe isn't going to win this year then LeBron isn't going to win either. haha

Anyways....

I hope you guys had a great week! Have a great one!

Love ya!
Elder Evan Peterson
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Here are some pics of me and old comp who is now serving in Angers and the other of me by the beach in my exchange in St. Nazaire!