World Wide Support

Hey everyone!

     My mom tells me that there are now 50 people reading this. Wow! I'm amazed that I have so many people cheering me on from back home. I hope to not disappoint anyone, and I will try to send out individual emails to as many people as possible! Also, I know that this P-Day is a little later than anyone expected, but it was scheduled to be Tuesday, the same day that Transfer Conference happened, so there wasn't much I could do about that. Speaking of which, just the day before that happened (two days after my first general email), I did manage to find my journal. I have been trying to write in it, but it is going to be a habit I will try and get accustomed to. 

     Anyway, I mentioned that transfer conference did happen last Tuesday. This means that I have a new companion, Elder McElwain, a district leader. Also, I have finally been assigned a zone - B1 of the Family History Library. That floor is the one which holds and works with the records from countries that don't speak English, including most of Europe, Asia, etc. Working there will give me a couple good opportunities, including learning new languages. I have been working on learning Danish, and so far, I think I am doing alright.

     My assignment on this floor is mostly helping out patrons who need some more basic help with doing family research. This involves stuff like getting people started on genealogy, helping set up accounts for them, and finding a specialist for them when a problem is beyond my skill level. When there isn't currently a patron for me to help, I am spending my time either completing further training or working on my Danish. Occasionally, I will be assigned a more specialized task, such as sitting at the greeter desk on the floor, or guiding newcomers to the floor to whatever it is that they need, whether that is a missionary, a specialist, or a resource. 

     Some people have asked about my day-to-day schedule. Well, it is quite simple for the most part. I wake up every day at 6:00, and prepare for the day. At 7:30, me and Elder McElwain leave the apartment to go to the FHL to attend a prayer meeting. Then, I work until 12:00, at which point I return to the apartment for lunch. I return to the FHL at 1:30, then keep working there until 4:00, when I go back to the apartment for dinner. At 6:00, I return to work until 9:00, which is curfew in the apartment. 

     Of course, there are occasional anomalies to my schedule, special events which don't happen during the normal work day. For example, every Monday, we have a morning devotional in which missionaries give short testimonies and stories about themselves. Then, every Monday evening, we attend district meetings and discuss current events in the district. Tuesday is my current P-Day, for now anyway. This is the same as any other missionary P-Day, in which we do stuff we cannot do other days in the week, such as buy groceries. We also get every Saturday evening off, in the which we do not return to the FHL after dinner. Finally, every Wednesday is choir practice.

     I have joined the mission choir here (more properly known as The Elijah Choir), and it has been great so far! We sing a piece at every Monday morning devotional, and we are planning on performing at a mission Easter devotional coming soon. The choir director is a nice guy, and he is glad to have me in the choir. He even says he has a guitar he might have me play in some songs. I am not sure how this will go, but we both hope that it can happen. 

     Next week is General Conference, which I am excited for. In addition to the Priesthood session I plan on attending, I do hope that I can make it to at least one more session, in person anyways. Then again, there is a theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where they will stream the sessions. The viewing experience will be nicer there than in some other places around Temple Square where the broadcast is being streamed, so I will likely watch the other sessions there. I must sound like a broken record by now, but I really am excited to be able to attend General Conference right here in Salt Lake City. I believe this is a great blessing of serving here in Salt Lake City. I can hardly wait a full week for such an experience!

     I better wrap things up in this general email so that I can still have time to type out personal emails. This hour is almost not long enough! Either way, I promised I would leave you all with a weekly challenge, and this is it: prepare for General Conference, and watch it together with your families. Read up on some older talks from previous Conferences, and pray that you might feel the Spirit and gain understanding during the talks during this one. Finally, don't forget to prepare some snacks!

From, 

Elder Bryce Petersen

A nice refreshing drink...

3.18.17

Hello everyone!

Before I begin, I must clarify that this is in fact my mission email. I do not believe most missionaries use a Gmail account, but then again, most others are not serving in a mission as unique as this one. I have been given a more official email with a church website, but that is strictly for business purposes. If you must contact me, please use this email, or write me a letter using the address at the bottom of this letter. Anyway, without further ado, let us begin the letter itself.

Phew! If I could describe these first five days in one sentence, it felt like taking a nice, refreshing drink of water - from a fire hose! It has been generally pretty good, but I could hardly take it all in! The majority of this first week has been essentially orientation and training, which included tours of most of the facilities. I have not been assigned to a zone yet, that will happen Tuesday at Transfer Conference. I will let you know which zone I will be assigned to.

To start, I might as well confirm some of the rumors I have heard about this mission, most of which are actually true. To start, it has been said that I work in the presence of general authorities whom I would be able to meet. That is only half true. It is likely I will run into some of the brethren during my time here, but, needless to say, they are just as busy as I am, if not more so. So, unless they address me themselves, I wont be able to really make acquaintances with much of them. Still, it us truly a blessing to be able to serve in the midst of such people.

It has also been said that I would be able to attend General Conference in person. This is also only partly true. I can attend sessions of conference when that comes two weeks from now, but I will only be able to get free admittance for the Priesthood session. Aside from that, I would have to wake up early so I can wait in line like a gamer waiting for the midnight release of the next big video game (which, come to think about it, is an analogy quite similar to what I'm actually doing).

Finally, I have learned that I might be assigned to work in the Granite Mountain Vault, but if I do receive such an assignment, I will not be able to disclose much of it, as you may have guessed. Much of the stuff here is described as SPC, or Sacred, Private, and/or Confidential. I would even have to sign a waiver before serving there. So, I am warning you right now that my letters from such an assignment will likely not contain much information.

Now, onto some of the content relating directly to my first couple days on the mission. I started the week with a sacrament meeting held right in the chapel of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (or JSMB). After that, as I said, it has mostly been orientation and training. I have been taught quite a bit about FamilySearch, and how to use the website to do research on my family, or the families of patrons to the Family History Library. Disappointingly, however, most of my family tree has already been researched quite thoroughly. I was luckily able to find a couple names of distant relatives, however, so my research has not been entirely in vain. Still, I hope to be able to help others with their research with the knowledge I have obtained.

Though this mission is very much different than a proselyting assignment, this is still a full-time mission, and therefore my lifestyle is similar to that of most other missionaries. I have been assigned an apartment to live in, rather than having to seek one out myself. Me and my companion, Elder Hauswirth, who I will be leaving when I get transferred to my zone Tuesday, have been living with another companionship, which included our district leader, an Elder Dowd. To my knowledge, they keep the apartment open for any new elders who join the mission. I may or may not get moved to another two bedroom when I get assigned, though I kind of hope that I do. It would be kind of nice being able to establish myself in mine and my companion's own apartment, rather than trying to find a free spot in the fridge where the other companionship hasn't already filled up the shelf space.

This whole shopping for food thing is another new thing for me. I am given pretty much just enough to get by, meaning I have to learn to cook better. Luckily for me, I have been given multiple recipe books at the beginning of the mission, and Elder Hauswirth is a pretty good cook. I have prepared a couple meals myself, but I should learn all I can. My diet has been relatively simple, mostly dining on sandwiches for lunch and slightly nicer meals such as rice, chicken, and vegetables for dinner. When I get transferred into a more permanent apartment, however, I would like to gather some more ingredients such as flour and seasonings. I feel like I am going to become quite the cook before the end of the mission.

I couldn't possibly hope to cover everything from this first week in this letter, partly because I cannot remember a lot of things, as it seems I have forgotten the journal I was supposed to take. (Could you please mail that to me Mom?) Also, I am sure most people were intimidated by the wall of text I have created, which turns out to be a bit bigger than I originally anticipated it would be. If anyone wants to know anything else from the first week, please let me know, and I will try to get it all out to you.

In closing, I would like to try to send out one challenge each week to you, my friends back home. If you have not yet done any sort of family history work, I would advise you to start researching your ancestors. Most of you should be able to log in to FamilySearch with your LDS ID number and password, but if you cannot, that is fine, you do not need FamilySearch to start researching. I would advise using the following link https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Research_Process to learn about how to research your family, it is the same sort of stuff they teach us, the missionaries in the field. I hope you are all doing well back home, and I hope to hear from you guys on my next P-Day!

From,

Elder Bryce Petersen.

P.S. I do not know when my next P-Day is, it will probably change when I get assigned.

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Third Floor East Wing

15 East South Temple Street

Salt Lake City, Utah, 84150

And He's Off!!

From Penny:

This is Bryce's General email, I will be forwarding to all that are on his list.  If you want to email him, his address is

elderbrycepetersen@gmail.com

 and if you want to send him a snail mail, or package, I am sure he would love it... his address is at the end of his letter.

Thanks for all your love and support!! We are so excited for him!!

Bryce will be serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints in the Salt Lake City Church Headquarters Mission.  It is estimated that he will serve for 24 months.  He Starts on 3/13/17.  

We are so excited for him, and are so proud of him!!  

Thanks for all your support!