Four months old, pace picks up

Hello everyone!

Wow, it seems like just a couple days ago when I last sent an E-mail to you guys. The pace is really picking up for my missionary service! Next thing I know, I will be packing up my bags to return home to the family! However, the days still do feel long. It's a funny occurrence, where the days are long but the weeks are short. However, from what I'm hearing, this is the standard for all missionaries. I feel like it will be especially like this when my final days of service come around.

Speaking of final days of service, we have quite a few missionaries who have finished theirs, and are ready to return home. I believe there were ten Young Elders who were finishing up - one who I talked to a bit earlier said this was his final day of service. I hope we can get new Young Elders to replace the ones who are leaving, we will need more to fill in the gaps made by the departing Elders.

We did get four new Young Elders this month - Elder Lindquist, Elder McDonald, Elder Mathews, and another one whose name escapes me. I am excited for them, and I hope that they are able to become comfortable out here in the field. The arrival of new Young Elders also signals one of our "favorite" events as Young Elders - Transfer Conference. So, that will happen next Tuesday. I do not think I will have to change much, as I am still new to the zone, but anything could happen. P-Day could definitely change, so if it does, then sorry in advance. I do think I will remain with Elder Garfield though, I don't think he is quite done training me for Contact Center. Also, Elders more often than not spend much more than a month in CC. So, I don't anticipate much changing this Tuesday, but P-Day might.

I have progressed quite a bit in CC. I am able to handle most basic issues on my own there, that meaning I don't have to ask other Elders there for help with most of the problems patrons call in for. The week itself has been busy - we have had a lot of problems with the servers for FamilySearch, resulting in a lot of calls and E-mails reporting that people are having trouble. So, the week has been quite busy. However, that meant that I had a lot of opportunities to interact with patrons on certain issues, and I have grown a lot from that. I anticipate myself becoming a lot more experienced in the months to come.

Pioneer Day is coming up. That means that we will be having a day full of activities coming up soon, just as we do during any other holiday. However, that is later, so I will cover that in my next E-mail. What did happen in celebration of the holiday this week was a special musical performance from the Choir. We sang a medley of six pioneer-related songs for the mission last Monday for the devotional. The whole thing came together quite well, and it was very good to be able to perform that with the rest of the choir! I am looking forward to the next thing like this that the Choir does!

Speaking of musical numbers, I finally performed in the double quartet/octet I have been talking about for a while. We performed for sacrament meetings for both Branches in the mission, and the Branch President of one of them (who is also in the Mission Presidency) was so moved that he asked us to perform again for Transfer Conference. This I look forward to quite a bit! I love making music, and this is a good way to do so out on the mission!

I also celebrated my companion's six-month mission anniversary with the rest of our district, as each companionship was celebrating a milestone of some sort. So, for Saturday, we went out to eat at Tucano's. It was a nice little trip downtown, and a nice break from the hustle of missionary life. Of course, it cannot be an every-day affair, given the prices at Tucano's, but every once in a while, it is worth the money! We all ate a bit more than we expected to, given the all-you-can-eat styling of the restaurant as well as the quality of the food. We all ate and ate and ate until we felt like we could not eat any more without experiencing some sort of medical issue! And every bite of it was delicious!

So, the week has been a good one. I am doing well out here, and I do predict I will continue to do so. If you can find the time, send an E-mail, I would love to hear from you guys! Thanks a lot for the support you give me. I will talk to you all again sometime next week. I cannot promise it will be on Friday again, thanks to Transfer Conference, but that could only mean that the next E-mail might get sent earlier. Either way, the E-mail will come, so just hold on. Alright, I will see you all next week!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen