Week 8 - Animal Kingdom

This week has been a great one! it started out on Tuesday with us volunteering at the animal shelter, they don't have us do anything besides take dogs out so we can play with them and let them be outside for a while, it's really fun and it helps out the workers so they don't have to take time out of their work day doing other things to take the dogs out. Then on Wednesday we went to Daphne for district council, after that we went to the church for mutual and Ana(the boys little sister) had her baptismal interview, it was awesome! Thursday was super boring, we had service at the library and then we had weekly planning which took a fat amount of time to do after that we had dinner at a members and we went and visited some less actives which is always an awesome time! Friday was a good day, it started out with some service at The Salvation Army which is always a good time because we get to see all the weird stuff that people bring in. later that day was the ward trunk or treat, as people were getting there we got word of a tornado touching down in Mobile and a couple of funnel clouds were in Foley so we had all of it inside, but it was still fun to help out at. Saturday was by far the best day of all! Ana got baptized!! it was the best turn out we've had at a baptism this whole time! Elder Meredith baptized her and I had the opportunity to give her the Holy Ghost, it was just an awesome experience! Sunday was great as well! sacrament meeting went well and then in Elders Quorum Tay was given the Aaronic Priesthood! hes such a great guy! Unfortunately he's heading home to Las Vegas today, he was only staying here with his dad for a few months, but he says hes coming back in February, I doubt I'll be here but hopefully I'll be able to see him again!
Well that was my week! hopefully you guys had a great week and will have a great week!!
-Elder Peterson

I only have a few pictures...
1. Ana's baptism
2. A frog we caught in our apartment

Week 7

Hey guys! This week was super quick but it was awesome. The week started out with pday being on Tuesday because of transfers so that messed up my mental calendar, Wednesday we taught the 3 younger boys about the priesthood and then the 2 that are old enough for the priesthood were interviewed! Then Thursday elder Meredith had a doctors appointment at 8:00am an hour from our house, so that wasn't fun, we had to get up earlier than 6:30 and 6:30 is already pushing it for me haha, Friday sucked because there was a tropical storm coming through and it rained all day and our zone leaders dropped an exchange on us so we started to plan for an exchange really quick and when the zone leaders got here we got word from our mission president to stay indoors as the tropical storm passed through, so now there were going to be 4 elders in an apartment for at least 12 hours. It all got better Saturday morning when we went to the church to prepare for Tays baptism, we filled the font, he was baptized, the other elders left, it was good (I wasn't too happy with the other elders, but I love them nonetheless)
Sunday was good, Tay and his 3 bothers and one of his younger sisters came to church they were only 45 minutes late, luckily our program is pretty fluid so Tay was confirmed before the meeting was over. During the second hour the 2 boys (Ryan and CJ) that were interviewed for the priesthood received it! I had the opportunity to give Ryan the priesthood and ordained him to a deacon it was a super cool experience and Tay will be getting the priesthood next week!
 Anyways that was my week, regardless of some hiccups it was was great, I hope you all had a great week as well, and I hope you have a great week!

Love you all
-Elder Petey

I only have one picture sorry... It's a good one, and no we are not forcing him to be baptized, he just doesn't have a very expressive face.

Week 6 / Transfers

Transfers! Newsflash I'm going to be in this area for at least another 6 weeks and then I'll be done with training! But that's far enough away. This week was one of my favorite weeks for sure, we had cj, Ryan, and rylins baptism and it went great! We had 2 kids from the ward witness the baptism overall it was an amazing experience, both for elder Meredith and I but also for the boys and the ward members in attendance. Sunday they were confirmed and I was able to confirm one of them, it was my first time confirming someone so I was a tad nervous but it went great! Earlier that week we went on exchanges with some elders in our district and it was super cool, I was companions for a day with Elder Adair who is leaving tomorrow because his two years are up, it was great to talk to one of the most experienced missionaries and learn from him. Then we had follow up trainers meeting which is where the trainers and the trainees meet together with the mission president and talk about how the transfer had gone and what we had learned, it was an amazing time and I learned a lot. We get fed every night for dinner except for Monday nights so that's awesome! We mainly have been focusing our efforts on the 3 boys who got baptized and their two siblings who are getting baptized this weekend, but after they get baptized we're gonna be stopping by just a little less so that we can focus on finding some more people to teach. I'll attach a picture from the baptism and some pictures from last week's zone activity! Well that was my week hopefully you all had a great week and will have a great week!

-Elder Petey



1. The boys baptism

2. The beach with the zone pt 1

3. The beach with the zone pt 2

Week 5!

Wow another week has gone by and it was amazing! Nothing has happened besides teaching the 3 boys that are on date for the 12th and the their older brother and younger sister that are on date for the 19th! They're very receptive and excited for their baptism and I'm so happy for them! We've also been teaching this super old guy Norman who is hilarious but he's hesitant to leave his Methodist church but he's coming along.
Conference was absolutely amazing! We went to the church to set up the projector and satellite and we just ended up staying there, but the 5 kids that are on date came and they really liked it, not much else has happened besides conference and lessons. However we do have a zone activity where we will be playing beach volleyball down on the part of the gulf that is in my area so that's gonna be super fun! I don't if I'll get pictures in time for me to send them with the email but I'll include them next week.
Sorry my emails are short but no need in taking up too much of your time, hope you all have a great week!
Love you all!
-Elder Petey

Gabe loves to get email! 

peterson.gabriel@missionary.org