November 17, 2014

THANKSGIVING TO GOD

This is my new Transfer 9 planner. Because it is almost Thanksgiving I put in 2 Cor. 9:11. I am really Thankful for God this week! :)

The start off of transfer 9 has been great! This week we saw a lot of miracles!!! :)

Let's start off with Tuesday. So we taught our ami, Madame Le Bon again and she is doing really well. She read and prayed but isn't praying to know if these things are true. That will come though. Anyways, during porting that night we were able to find a guy named Olivier. We asked if we could pray with him and he was really excited to pray with us. We prayed and we shared the Restoration. He believes in God but thinks that religion doesn't matter. Overall, he is a cool dude. He works for the military and he does yoga. Sadly, he told us that he is going to have to do military detention until December 9th, so we won't be able to see him until then.

Later on this week we found another guy whose name is Bruno. He is a 7th Day Adventist. We contacted him and prayed with him and then set up another rendez-vous. We went over to his house and taught him about Joseph Smith. He agreed with everything we said so we are planning on giving him a baptismal invite this next week.

Other than that we are still teaching Stany, Michael, Sylvie, and Madame Le Bon.  They are all progressing really well. We have been really blessed this week. Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve to be this blessed but I am not complaining...haha :) I am loving the work, and I am super excited for the Cook Conference! :)

Did you hear that Elder Shaver and I have some fans out here in Bourges? Here is some pics of us with our BIGGEST FANS that we have. I swear they love us so much.

Hope you guys have had a great week!!! Love you all!!! 

Elder Evan Peterson

November 10, 2014

FIRST TIME FRISKED!!!

Another transfer is over...It is so crazy how time just goes by faster and faster. I am now in transfer 9 and Elder Shaver and I are staying together! Elder Shaver has been one of my favorite comps so I am looking forward to this transfer! This next transfer will only be a 4 week one instead 6 so it will go by even quicker! Also on the 20th of November, Elder Cook, one of the Twelve Apostles, will be coming to our mission!!! I am super excited!!! :)

We had a great start to our week. We were able to teach our amis and they are doing well. I still don't feel like we have had that golden ami yet but we are still trying to find one.

We taught Madame Le Bon again this week and she read this time!  However, she didn't pray, so we testified that she needs to pray to find out if God is there.

We also taught Michael and gave him a Book of Mormon. He is a very nice guy and agreed to do everything we invited him to do.

We had a cool and funny experience this week. I will start off with the cool one.

So while we were doing some contacting, Elder Shaver and I contacted this one dude. At first he didn't seem interested but he said something about losing a family member and then I replied that God created a plan about how we can live with them again and that we would like to share this message with him. He then said he had 15 minutes for us to talk with him so we gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and then he asked us how we know that God is there. We were then able to share our testimonies and gave him a Book of Mormon. We said that he could know that God is there through this book. He is a very serious man and asked a lot of difficult questions but it was so amazing how we were able to share out testimonies with him. We tried to get his name and his phone number but he said that he would read the Book of Mormon and said he would call us which I really hope he does.

Now for the funny story...haha. So while Elder Shaver and I were doing some porting we were just minding our own business and asking people if they wanted to pray with us. After a couple of houses down, we looked back and saw some people on a phone and pointing at us. We were just like "Oh that's weird. Maybe they're calling the police? No...they wouldn't do that...we just asked them to pray." Well a couple of minutes later a car pulls up to us and 4 men get out saying that they were the police...haha. They asked what we were doing and we told them everything and as you can see with the title of this week, we were frisked!!!  They said that porting is against the law (which it totally isn't) and they told us to go back home. We agreed and then they left. After that we just took the car and drove somewhere else to do more porting....haha. Super weird experience and a pointless one too. I mean all we were doing was asking people to pray but I am proud to say that I have been stopped and frisked by the police for the first time on my mission!

Anyways...I had a good week! I hope you all did as well!!! :) 

Love you guys!

Elder Evan Peterson

November 3, 2014

HALLOWEEN PARTY...SUCCESS!

Hey guys!  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

This week was really good. Well as you can see with the picture, Elder Shaver an I put together a little Halloween party for the branch and their friends. I have to say it was quite a success. :) 

Elder Shaver and I tried to do a soup diet (you just eat soup for the whole week)! So let me just say when you eat liquid it stays that way...haha. Never doing that again. Anyways...

Well first off this week we had exchanges again. This time we were in Tours. It was really fun and I learned a lot from it. When we got back from exchanges we taught Madame Le Bon again. This lesson went 100x better than all of the other lessons. We were more in control and she listened. She still wants to know if there is a God and I just told her even if she just has a desire than she can know and she will know if she reads and prays. She said she would read and pray more. By the end of the lesson she even offered a prayer before we left. It was really cool to see her show her faith and ask God her questions.

We also taught a guy name Michael. He is kind of believing and kind of not. He just doesn't know if God is really out there. Elder Shaver, on his exchange, knocked on his door and prayed with him. We went over there and taught the restoration and invited him to pray and ask God if he is there. He said he would!

Other than that this week we were able to pray with some people and we were able to teach this cool young thug that we found last week on Sunday. His name is Stany and he is 22 yrs. old. We taught him the restoration this week and he asked us how we found out how these things are true. So we told him and then he said that he really wants an experience like that to really know if God is there. So we told him how he can do it and it seems like he is really excited. He seems like a golden ami. Heavenly Father has blessed us a lot here. We have seen a lot of cool miracles this week!

For Halloween our whole zone did a finding activity where we went "finding" in Tours. So we all went there and we were able to teach a total of 34 lessons that day as a zone!!! We also went on exchanges with others in my zone. I was put together with Elder Jouffray who is in my group. It was fun! Here is a self pic of us....

After the finding activity we went back to Bourges for our Halloween party that Elder Shaver and I put together. It was sooo fun....haha. We talked a lot and did bobbing for apples. I love the branch here so much. Here is a picture of some of the Branch at the Halloween Party...

Anyways...that is my week! I am so grateful for this Gospel and my mission. It really has changed my life so much. I can't describe how much I love it out here serving the people of France.  

I hope you guys have a great week!  Love you!!!! :)))

Elder Evan Peterson

October 27, 2014

Like a Praying Mantis

I shall call him Mufasa.

Hey guys!!!

Well this week I had to do a lot of praying just like my little friend Mufasa. I almost killed him with a lawn mower while we were helping one of the members over here cut her lawn.

This week was the best of times and the worst of times. Overall a lot of praying and we saw a lot of miracles! Here is a cool miracle....this Tuesday, I wasn't really having the best day possible. I was kind of sad and upset just about life. Later on Tuesday night during porting, the second door that we knocked on happened to be a great blessing for me. It was this nice black lady and we told her that we were there to pray with her and her family. She decided to let us in and we were able to pray and teach them the Restoration. They really enjoyed it and we were able to get their phone number. We will be seeing them later on this week. It was really amazing to see that God knew I was having a hard time and so he blessed me right then and there.

Later on that week we had our exchanges with the zone leaders. We saw a lot of miracles too! During my exchange we were able to pray with 3 people and get there phone numbers!!!

Later on we had district meeting and everyone waited for me to finish my legality. The legality place took soooo long, but everything worked out. I am officially legal again!!!! Whooo!!!

We received a call this week from one of our amis, Madame Lebon. She was concerned about our Church and how she felt like if she continued with us she was going to lose her culture. That was sad to hear her say that. We asked her if we could talk to her in person and she said we could. We went over there and we discussed it with her and told her that we aren't here to change things but to add things. Then we told her that she just needs to continue and try it to find out if it is true. She agreed with us and she ended up coming to church this Sunday which was great!!!:)

I feel like the Lord just gave me a lot of blessings this week to lift me up a little higher and to be a little better. It's funny how things work out like that with Him. This morning I read a scripture which really touched me. It was Isaiah 48:10..."Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."

Our Heavenly Father calls upon us in our weaknesses and in our trials. Through Him we can become something and do things that we wouldn't have been able to ever imagine if it wasn't for Him reaching out to us during these trials. While in the mist of trials the best way to get yourself out of them is to help others.

I hope you guys have had a great week because I know I have had a great one!!!

Love you all!!! :)))

Elder Evan Peterson

Here is a picture of me and the package I received for Halloween! Thanks mom!!!

October 20th, 2014

La Bible Devoilee and a lot of Miracles!!!

Hey everybody!!!

As you can tell this week we saw a lot of miracles and the Bible was unveiled!!! :) First off, we were able to find 4 new amis!!! Bourges is just rocking it right now!

This week we had Zone Conference and interviews which was so good!  I love President Babin and his wife. I asked them how I can help my district in more ways and they gave me some good responses so hopefully I can help them more!

This week we worked hard and were able to find 4 people. One of them was really legit. Her name is Madame Lorz. She is French. We actually contacted her on Saturday and fixed a rendez-vous for later on that day. We taught her the Restoration and then invied her to read, pray, and to go to church the next day. She accepted all of them and she kept all of them as well!!! She seemed to like church a lot and she said she would come next week.

We are still teaching Madame Lebon and she is still talking a lot...haha, but she is progressing in the right direction! She did talk about this book called "La Bible Devoilee" which basically means "The Bible Unveiled." Pretty random, but then like an
hour later a Canadian Jehovah Witness tried getting in an argument about the bible. Coincidence? I think not...haha. Elder Shaver was pretty shaken up though about his Canadian brother was being so rude to us, but he was from Quebec so he wasn't too hurt. Oh Canada.

So, we go over to this one ladies house every week and eat with her and her two children. Another one we go over to eat with is Emilio. They are super funny.

I've been on exchanges so far with Elder Oviatt and Elder Smith (not my old companion).

Anyways, just Canadians and super awesome miracles this week!!! One of the best weeks on my mission. But time is just flying by...it scares me...

I hope you guys have had a great week!!!! Love you!!! :)))

Elder Evan Peterson

October 13th, 2014

"OH WE'RE HALF WAY THERE, OH LIVIN' ON A PRAYER"

Hey everyone!!!

October 13th! A year from today I will be finished with my mission!!! It is crazy to think how fast time goes by!!!

Well this week we had a pretty good week! First we had District Meeting and it was really good to see everyone in my district. We had delicious Raclette and if you don't know what that is than you better look it up because it is soooo good!!! :)

Elder Shaver and I found 2 new amis too!!! Their names are Madame Lebon and Paula. We found Madame Lebon while contacting and we talked for a while about prayer and other random stuff because she talks SO MUCH!!! haha But we finally shared the Restoration and then we went over to her house later on this week and we taught her about the Book of Mormon. During the rendez-vous we shared about prayer and we were able to pray with her by the end of it. It was so amazing how strong the spirit was in there afterwards. She was so quiet and after the prayer she just sat there for a little bit and just soaked it all in. Hopefully she realized that that was the spirit. She isn't really too believing though but she is willing to try so that it good.

Okay now for our other ami, Paula. She is from French Guinea. We shared with her the Plan of Salvation in the road and then we later went to her house and shared it more fully. She is VERY believing and she understood all of it. She even beared her testimony about during this difficult life we need to have faith and trust in the Lord. We set up another rendez-vous with her for this week!

So overall the work is progressing a lot in Bourges! I am so excited to see what happens here because this place has a lot of potential! It reminds me when I was in my blue ville and how I saw so many miracle there.

This Sunday I was able to present myself in front of the branch. This branch is dang awesome! It is like a huge family and just so loving. I have been to a lot of the member houses so far, so I am getting to know a lot of them. We even had raclette with a member here!! Oh baby!!! So gooood! :))

Here is a pic of Elder Shaver and I, oh Canadians-

Well I hope you all had a great week! Remember that God is always there for all of us and that he "will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."

Love you all!!! Until next week!!! :))))

Elder Evan Peterson

October 6th, 2014

LOOKS WHO'S BACK!!!

Hey guys! That's right!!! We have a car here in Bourges! But the big miracle about this car is that it is automatic!!!! :) Bourges is a nice old little city. It is a very beautiful place. My comp is Elder Shaver and he is from Canada. haha It is weird to think that out of all of my comps only 1 of them was from Utah. Shaver and I are getting along great so I am excited to see what happens this transfer! :)

Well anyways, the first week in Bourges was dang good!!!! Elder Shaver and I have started off the week great! We are pretty much starting at ground zero but we have seen a lot of miracles this week.

During many hours of contacting we were able to teach and pray with 2 people this week! We contacted this lady named Noah and talked for a while how God is always there for us and she shared some stories about how God has helped her. We then prayed and after the prayer we were able to get her phone number! We also taught a guy names Gilles about the Restoration and we were able to pray with him and set up another rendez-vous!

Other than that we had a great spiritual time watching General Conference. This conference was so good! It answered a lot of questions that I have had. It is amazing how General Conference gives us a spiritual boost for 6 months and that how a lot of talks are so related.

We were able to eat dinner and watch the Sunday morning session with Branch President Rivet and his family. That was a great moment to seal off this great week!

Well I hope you guys have had a great week and that next week will be great for you too! Stay strong and Keep the Faith!!! Love you!!!!

Elder Evan Peterson

Here is a cat, Bisous-