Week 4!

Well this was the fastest week ever! It's crazy how fast life moves out here! Unfortunately nothing much has happened, we've been trying to find some new people to teach but people love their Bible and nothing else down here! The week got better on Thursday when we went to teach the 3 boys that are on date and their whole family was there and we got their dad, their older brother and younger sister to commit to baptism as well! It's so awesome that we will be able to unite this family! Then on Friday we went to Florida and had a mission conference with Elder Montoya of the seventy and his wife his wife, they talked about teaching people not lessons overall it was a great time and the spirit was strong and I'd definitely go again regardless of the 2 hour car drive it takes to get there! Saturday was good as well, we went to the Pattersons (the family that is on date) and watch the video of Matthew 3:13-17(Jesus' baptism) the mom of the family is an inactive member but we got her to share her experience of being baptized and it made all of them so excited to be baptized! Sunday was our tracting day, unfortunately there weren't too many fruits from our labors, but we did find some people that said we could come back sometime, so that's something! And that was my week, love and miss you all!

-
Elder Petey

3rd Week!

This week was great! Tuesday we had interviews and then we watched the BYU devotional with President Nelson, it was a great devotional, if you guys haven't watched it I would recommend it. Wednesday was amazing! We had a church tour with Cleo (the guy who speaks swamp) when we showed up to the church brother brooks was there with his son and 3 boys, they were just finishing up a game of football. We started talking to them and the 3 kids were not members, but their mom is, brother brooks asked if they could join the tour and we said yes! Once Cleo got there and the tour started we went around showed them some of the rooms, when we came to the baptismal font and explained a little bit about baptism the 3 boys almost simultaneously all said " I wanna get baptized" me and elder Meredith were surprised to say the least, when we got to the chapel we went in and we asked all 4 of them on the tour along with brother brooks and his son to find a spot where you could ponder, pray, and feel the spirit, about 5 minutes in brother brooks suggested that we sing a song so brother brooks, his son, elder Meredith, and I all started to sing come follow me, the spirit was so strong!! We went to the sacrament table and explained the sacrament once we finished elder Meredith and I both looked at each other and decided we should invite them to be baptized, so we invited them for October 12th and the 3 boys said yes! We looked at Cleo and he said "little steps little steps" we explained a little more and he said he'd try to be ready by that date.
On Friday & Saturday we brought white shirts and ties to the 3 boys so that they could fit in at church, but other than that not too much happened
On Sunday elder Meredith and I gave talks, so that was cool I guess, the boys came to both hours of church and they loved it! We have a lesson with them tonight
Well that was my week, Foley is amazing!
Love and miss you all!
-Elder Petey

2nd Week in the field!

This week has been awesome, we found 7 new people to teach so we've been pretty busy! We met this guy named David at an apartment complex and we started talking to him about the book of Mormon, we also started to talk about prophets, we were going into how there have been lots of prophets, and god will continue to call more, while I'm explaining this David looks me dead in the eye and says "I am a prophet" and he wasn't kidding, I didn't know what to say I just looked to my companion, luckily he was able to spin it and start talking about spiritual gifts. David then started talking about one time a guy in the congregation of the church he goes to had leprosy and when David went over to him, put his hand on his shoulder and said "you will no longer have this disease and it will jump off your skin and never come back" apparently this was also the first confirmed case of leprosy in the United States as well... That's what he told us at least... We did a lot of tracting this week, trying to find a lot of people to start teaching! Not much else has happened this week, but I'm having a great time here in Foley and I love serving the lord
Love and miss you all!
-Elder Petey

I only have one picture this week... I'll try and get more in the coming weeks though!

Gabe’s Letter 9/9/19

Well I made it to Alabama! I got here on Tuesday and then we went to the mission home and met President and sister Allred, they are awesome! The next day was transfers and I saw sister (Kyla)Thompson! that was super cool to see her! I also met my companion, his name is Elder Meredith and he's from Rexburg, he's really cool and I can tell I'm learning a lot and I will learn even more. We are assigned to the Foley Alabama area, Foley is about 50 miles south of Mobile, it's a pretty small town, we also cover another small resort town Gulf shores, between the two there's one small ward. Even though it's a small ward our meal calendar is full... Completely!
So far all we have done is to get to know the ward and re-acquaint them with missionaries, they haven't had missionaries in their ward for about a month, it's been busy but Its going great!
We did meet one guy named Cleo he's really cool, however he speaks fluent swamp, so it was very hard to understand him but we think that we got the jist of it
This weekend was Mobile stake conference so we went to that Saturday night and Sunday morning and Elder Jack N Gerard was there and he spoke to us, so that was cool.
Well not much else happened, just a lot of work with members.
I love to get emails during the week, keep sending them! Love and miss you all!

Me and elder cleaver on my last day in the MTC 

Me and sister Thompson 

Me and my companion

My Area Foley, AL

Gabe’s Letter 8/27/19

This week has been even better, It started off with the temple and later that night on Tuesday ELDER DAVID A BEDNAR came it was awesome he talked about how we need to get out of the way of the spirit, it was awesome, I leave next Tuesday at 4:15 am and head to Bama so that's gonna be fun... But I'm super excited to get to Bama and serve, our district has only been getting closer over the past week, and it's gonna be awesome knowing that 3 elders from my district in the mtc will be in Bama with me. This week it's just been class, and study and trc, trc is awesome, it's basically where you and your companion go in a cubicle and teach a person based on what you learn about them from an email, it's great because you don't know if it's a member or not so it's cool to actually teach instead of doing some role play. And during my very very limited free time I've been reading Saints and its an awesome book about the restoration and the lives of the saints who came across the plains, it's awesome because its in gospel library too, I'd  recommend it to all of you.
Sorry it's short guys it's hard to come up with something when everything is a routine and not much happens
Well love and miss you guys! I can read emails throughout the week so send them! I love to read them
-Elder Peterson

Gabe’s Letter 8/20/19

First week in the MTC! it's been great so far! I got here Wednesday and I met my companion his name is Elder Whittier (no he is not wittier than me) but hes pretty cool he's from Utah just like the other 75% of the MTC, but he's great. My district is also very cool they're all from Utah besides a sister who is from burley Idaho and an Elder who is from Arizona, so that's cool. Thursday we met our branch presidency and teachers and our branch president is very cool he's got a Forrest Whittaker eye going on so that's awesome. Our teachers are also cool ones from Baltimore and went to Colorado on her mission and the other is from Utah and went to Texas on his mission they're both very knowledgeable and I can tell I'm learning from them it's great! Nothing much other than classes. The food here as you can expect is mediocre as best but it's OK because we get spiritually fed all the time so it's almost like real food. Sunday was probably the most spiritual day by far, we had sacrament meeting and elders quorum and then a couple of other meetings but it all came together at the devotional that night with Tad R callister giving a talk about disproving critics of the book of Mormon and it was very informational then we watched a talk from an MTC Christmas devotional in 2011 given by David a Bednar called "The Character of Christ" it was easily one of the best talks and you can only see it in the mtc which makes it even more special. Well that was my week it was long yet short haha I've come to the conclusion that time doesn't exist here in the mtc but that's alright  it's a good time! Anyways just so you guys know my pday is Tuesday here in the mtc so I can only respond to messages on Google hangouts and emails till 6:00 but I can read emails and messages any day of the week so send them on down I’d love to hear from you!
Love and miss you all!
Elder Peterson