Thanks for the memories

Hello everyone!

First and foremost, I just want to say that, for this month, you can still expect my E-mails every Saturday. My P-Day has not changed, so there is no need for you at home to make too many drastic changes to your schedule! Aside from this, there have been no other changes for my everyday life - not my apartment, my zone, or my companion. Our mission president was a lot more conservative with the changes he made this transfer (something which may or may not be just for this transfer), so there is not a lot in the mission which has changed - the only change at all in my zone is that my district leader is now training one of the new young elders. That said, there have been changes in the exercise program - I now have not one, but two new fellow coordinators, Elders K. Young (as with some other missionaries in the mission, his first initial is included to differentiate him from another Elder Young on the mission) and Vandenhazel. I look forward to meeting with them, and working with them to get this program running smoothly. So, I am spending another transfer here, which will be my sixth transfer in this zone. This means I will have been here for half of a year! Again, there are no huge changes, so there is nothing to worry about on that front.

As I am sure you all know, Thanksgiving has been this month. This is always a special time of the year, but this is especially so in the mission - this is because everything shuts down for the holiday for a couple of days. So, during this time, we have been doing a couple of other things to keep us busy. The day before Thanksgiving, things closed down at 5:00 P.M., so we did not have a night zone. Instead, all the young elders got together for a movie. President Fenn was also here, so before we began, we had a Q&A together - we ask him a question, and he would give his best answer. The questions asked were about gospel- and mission-related topics. This was awesome, better than your average fireside if you ask me! Anyway, after this, we watched our movie, "17 Miracles", together. I have watched it before, but it was still a great, moving movie. I would recommend giving it a view for those of you who have not!

On the day of Thanksgiving, we did our morning exercise a bit earlier than usual - 9:00 A.M. instead of the usual 6:45 A.M. The new coordinators were also there, and I think they are doing well - Elder K. Young has a lot of new exercises for us all, so we have been working with those as well as the stuff we had before. After exercise, we helped to set up a tables and chairs for a mission Thanksgiving dinner at the stake center where we had exercised. We then had an opportunity to go back to our apartments and work on getting them clean/studying the scriptures before the dinner. The dinner itself was excellent! The food was provided by missionaries (including young elders) who were either asked or had volunteered to provide food. I had not been asked, but I had spent some (not all, of course) of my day before this dinner making a loaf of challah bread, so I made a last-minute decision to donate that. It was good for us all to meet together over a bunch of good food! There is nothing quite like a good Thanksgiving dinner!

The next day, the young elders in the mission went on a hike through a park in the city. I had accidentally forgotten my water bottle for this activity, but most of the hike was in the shade, so it was okay. We had hiked about a total of four miles round trip, so it was a pretty good exercise. After this was done, me and Elder Argyle went out to get our shopping done, due to a service project which would be happening the next day (which would be today). On the way back from this, I found that I had to deal with noticeably more traffic than before. I was a bit confused at first, before I realized that this would be the day the lights at Temple Square turned on. So, me and Elder Argyle had decided we would walk through Temple Square a bit to see the sights. I have walked through the place a lot in our mission work, but we had never really taken the time to stop and smell the roses. While walking about, I had actually gotten stopped a couple times and asked questions about the place. I do not serve in the Temple Square mission, so I was not able to answer much, though I could point people in the general correct direction or refer them to the Temple Square sister missionaries. The lights were spectacular this year, and though the place was extremely crowded, it was still a nice experience to go take a nice little walk through!

Finally, there is today. Today was relatively less eventful, because a lot of the young elders (those who do not have Saturday as their P-Day) had to return to zone today. However, it was P-Day for me and Elder Argyle, so we did not go in this day. Earlier, I mentioned going shopping yesterday to accommodate for a service project. This service project took place at the Deseret Industries store on Welfare Square. There were several of us there, and I, as a driver, was assigned to drive one group of us there. For some reason, some of us had thought we would be getting there using the freeway, but the assistants to the president were able to plan a route which does not use that road, which was a nice relief. At Deseret Book, we did volunteer work to help out wherever they needed us at the store. Me and Elder Argyle helped with sorting donated clothes and putting price tags on products. Soon after that, we went home, ate a quick lunch, and came here to the library to do our P-Day E-mails. Later today, we will be going to another movie, "Savior of the World".

And there is my week in a nutshell. This was a very interesting week, I must say. I hope you have all had a great Thanksgiving, and I also hope you are all prepared for all the Christmas-related stuff coming right your way. Okay, I will see you guys next week. Have a good one!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: The schedules which we had received for our "days off" were very specific - they even included that we should spend the mornings studying our scriptures, even though it is what we do every week. Scripture study is important for missionaries, but they are also quite important for anyone else. Studying the scriptures does to the spirit what food does to the body - it nourishes, strengthens, and energizes. However, just like feeding ourselves, this must happen every day, or we will spiritually starve. This must not be limited to simply study with your family, though that is important too - limiting your scripture study to just what you read with your family is like eating breakfast every morning, and not eating so much as a crumb the rest of the day. Personal study is one of the greatest habits one can develop. It is essential for a missionary to do his job, and, again, it is equally important for anyone else. If you have not developed a habit of personal or group scripture study, I would advise you to begin doing so today. Do not say that tomorrow will be the day - saying tomorrow will be just as easy the next day as it is today, and doing so will become a tough habit to break. Only a chapter a day will make a good start - finding five minutes will be easy. Then, when you find yourself consistently reading this one chapter, you can go on and read another, and begin looking more deeply. Soon, you will find yourself "feasting upon the words of Christ" (2 Nephi 32:3), and you will have guidance in your lives.