Follow the Leader

Hey guys!

I don't know how else to put this - this transfer was a big one. There have been quite a few changes, including for myself. First off, there were 56 moving notices sent off to the young elders (just for a comparison, there are only about 70 elders in the mission). I was among this unlucky crowd, as was the entirety of my district. As for the transfer itself, there were some interesting things announced - there is now a new assignment for young elders in the mission, in which some of us have been called to essentially help with the training of new young elders. I am not entirely familiar with what exactly goes on there, but there are only two elders there right now, both of which are pretty experienced in the mission. There have been some new changes in the zone as well. We have lost two of our three district leaders - one of them (Elder Duran) returned home, and the other was moved to the aforementioned training assignment. So, we now have two new district leaders. One of them is a newer young elder, Elder Yeoman, who came in to the mission at the same time as Elder Stacey. The other one is, well, myself. I am still in the same zone, and I am still with my companion, Elder Beeson. The only changes for me were that I moved apartments, and I am now assigned as a District Leader. I now am in charge in helping out with any issues my district is dealing with, and help them so that they can all succeed. I will also be sending more pictures from now on - all District Leaders in the mission get iPhones to help serve in their calling.

As I said before, I did have to move this transfer. I wish I could say that my new apartment was just as nice as the first one. It is bigger (a 4-man apartment), which is convenient, as my entire district lives in the same apartment. However, it is not quite as new. It was not recently stocked with all sorts of new equipment like the previous one was. Also, it is quite messy and cluttered. I am not complaining, however - it will just take some work to tidy up so that it can be as nice as my last apartment. So, I plan on having the district work together to clean it up after I am done with my E-mails today. 

As a District Leader, I now have a couple of responsibilities regarding my calling. One of these is to attend a weekly leadership meeting with the other district leaders and the assistants to the president. This meeting is presided over by President Fenn, who spends the majority of the meeting answering questions on how we can perform in our callings more effectively. The questions range from how we can best set an example to our district, to helping out with certain types of issues. After this meeting, we are given a free lunch. This week, it was sandwiches with chips and water for a side. As we eat this lunch, we spend the hour after this leadership meeting in a "district leader correlation", in which we discuss how things are going in our districts and help each other find ideas to resolve any issues. After that, its back to work for us. I have been to my first one last Thursday, which was a new experience for me. I look forward to attending more in the future, however - it has been a great spiritual meeting together!

So, there was a temple trip yesterday, in which the young elders got to go to the Mt. Timpanogos temple. Unfortunately, my companion was quite ill. As a result, I stayed at the apartments with him. He slept for most of the day, which was pretty good for his health. When he got up, he was feeling a ton better than he was before. It is a shame that I was unable to attend the temple, but some circumstances are just beyond our control, and so we have just got to roll with the flow in this case. Anyway, I would like to attend the temple more often with my companion, and perhaps even with my district. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do that for a bit - the Salt Lake temple is currently closed... But, when it opens up again, I will try and find an opportunity for me to visit! Despite being unable to attend the temple with the other young elders, I was able to walk around temple square with Elder Beeson. After he finished a 6-hour nap, he was feeling much better. So, we walked around temple square a bit to take some pics to send home. Attached to these E-mails are some of the pics I took. These were taken around Temple Square.

So, all in all, this was a transfer which has brought with it a bunch of new changes (however, you can still expect my E-mail on the same Saturday as always). I will be learning the ins and outs of my new assignment, which I look forward to with quite a bit of anticipation, and a bit of anxiety, to be completely honest. I do believe, however, that if the Lord called me to do this, then he must believe that I can do it. So, I probably don't have much to be afraid of. Of course, this will not justify shirking my work, or not taking it seriously. I do look forward to seeing what my new assignment brings to me. I will let you know how everything goes. Thanks for the continued support. I will talk to you all again next week! Have a good one!

From,

Elder Bryce Petersen

Challenge: As I have mentioned earlier, as a DL, I now have an iPhone. However, there are certain things I can and cannot do with it. Of course, many of you back home have your own smartphones, or at least a computer of some sort (if you don't have a computer, then it is probably a bit tough to read this E-mail); you also have more things you can do with your smartphones than what we are permitted to do. Of course, this brings some unique challenges with it - in your pocket, you have the power to access a whole ton of either good or evil. Never before has mankind had so much access to such content and power. As a result, it is more important than ever to be as careful as possible. I must challenge each of you out there to be careful with the technology you use. It should be noted that I am not simply talking about just accessing inappropriate media, even though this too is extremely dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs. I am also warning you about spending too much time with technology, even if the media you access is not necessarily evil or bad. I know that I have sometimes spent way too much time using technology back home. This is a common problem in this day and age, when we can be so easily entertained by technology that we can spend hours doing so.  However, technology is not a bad thing in and of itself. Look at me - my entire mission is based around technology! Technology used for the correct things can be a blessing to your life, as well as the lives of many others. So, my challenge to you this week is not to abstain completely from technology, but to be careful with your technology usage, both in what content you access, and how much you use the resource we call the internet. Also, be sure to unplug a bit if you find yourself being one of the people who spends way too much time on technology. There is a big bright world out there - don't miss out!

Only one can "B Petersen"

 

Hey everyone!

I hope you have all had a great week, I know I have! So, right after I have finished my E-mails last Saturday, me and the rest of my district went bowling at Fat Cats. I had rented out a van the night before, and so I took it down. I found that the quickest way to get there would be to take the freeway, so I did that. There were no accidents which happened, but I was a bit on edge the whole time. I will probably have to practice more freeway driving when I get a chance... Anyway, we got to the bowling alley with no problems, and we were able to have a good time there. I found that the "free bowling for missionaries" deal which I may have talked about in my previous E-mail actually was not exclusive for weekdays - we were allowed to bowl for free that day as well! Of course, we still paid for the pizza we bought, which was fine with me - it made it feel a bit less like we were mooching off of the establishment. Anyway, you can see how my bowling game in the picture down below. I had not bowled in a while, so my game was quite lackluster - up until the end, at least. I still do not know how I had scored those three consecutive strikes in that last frame! But, that did happen. We were able to get halfway through a second game, until the hour which we got to bowl for free expired. That was alright with us - we only had rented the van we took down there for so long anyway. So, we took a non-freeway route home this time, as we had not planned a freeway route for the trip back. We were still able to make it back alright - the valley is well enough organized that anyone can find their way quite easily! 

Anyway, aside from bowling-related activities, zone work goes on. I am still working on the project of creating a training PowerPoint for new missionaries in the zone. Not only will it be used to train new Young Elders who will be working with us - both the mission and our staff leadership want to use the training modules we create to train other new missionaries in to the zone. I have been told that the training we are creating right now - a more fast-paced type of training which will be more effective for anyone who already knows how to use a computer - will be quite widely used here. This will even be used outside of the standard church headquarters - there are many church service missionaries doing this work who serve from home in taking calls and offering support for FamilySearch. It makes me feel more accomplished, to be able to work on a project which will help move this work forward more effectively than it has ever done before! It is also nice to be able to use my creative side in this zone, to be able to make something to assist in training others - to help people help people! 

So, I may have talked to you about having taken a vocational assessment test a while back. It had been a while since I had actually taken the test, and my results had still not come back to me, so I sent an E-mail to the person who had helped me out. She did have a busy holiday season, so I understand the delay, but she was then able to send this out to me. The final conclusion was that I sort of "broke" the test. I still don't quite know what I do and don't want in a job, so my answers brought forth some conflicting information. So, the advise I was given was to get more experience working in the real world, trying many new things, and find out what I do and don't like in a job. This answer makes sense to me - I have not done a whole ton of different types of work, and I could use a clearer picture of what type of work I would like to spend my life doing. So, when I have done this, I will probably take the test again. Then again, this sort of stuff is more after-mission advice, so I will probably give these results more thought when I come home from the mission, and continue to focus on the work while I am out here.

Some of you may know that a young adult fireside with Elder and Sister Uchtdorf took place last Sunday. I was not able to attend in person, but I was able to watch the broadcast in the Family History Library. There were some good stories and messages shared here. They had talked some about their life, mostly from when they were young adults themselves. Of course, as the discourse was intended for young single adults looking to get married sometime in the near future, not everything which was shared this night directly applies to me, but there were still some words said that night which I could apply to my own life, including in my service as a missionary. For more information about what was shared in the broadcast, I invite you to click the following link to a news release about the event: Elder and Sister Uchtdorf Encourage Young Adults to Trust in God

This week, we got more new young elders - 6, to be exact (there were actually 7, but one of them had to be sent back home due to medical issues). One of them is actually also named Elder Peterson (spelled with an -son, differing from my name). This is not the only time we have had elders with different names on this mission - when that happens, we refer to them by their first initial as well as their last name. So, despite the one-letter difference between our two names, I guess that from here on out, I will be known as "Elder B. Petersen". Anyway, as nice as it is to have new young elders on the mission, it does  bring with it some unique challenges. Specifically, the mission needed to make more room for a training apartment. As a result, some missionary companionships had to move out of some 4-man (2 bedroom) apartments to make room for training apartments. Me and my companion were some of the "lucky few" who had to move as a result. The move itself was quite stressful - for some reason, I could not focus on actually doing the work of moving, and so it took a bit longer than it probably should have. On the other hand, there were definitely some nice benefits for me from it. For one, the apartment we were moving in to was vacant beforehand. As a result, the people who manage the apartment complex in which we live had the apartment deep-cleaned, like they do to all the vacant apartment. Also, all the furniture in the apartment was in good repair, unlike in the last apartment. The mission housing coordinators also gave us a lot of brand new equipment, like pots and dishes. So, despite the stress of having to move halfway through the transfer, I feel that in the end, me and my companion have actually gotten the better end of the deal!

Thanks a ton for the continuing support. I appreciate all the messages from home, and just all of you reading my weekly E-mails. I'll catch you all next week. See you all then!

From,

Elder Bryce Petersen

Challenge: When one is serving a mission, it is easy to find ways to serve others - it is part of our job description. We help people find their deceased ancestors, as well as performing various other service projects for the community. In the normal rumble and tumble of life, however, it can be tough to find other opportunities to serve. It simply is not a part of the schedule of the average man or woman. Of course, participating in organized volunteer work is definitely a wholesome and satisfying pastime, and it is definitely worth considering if it can be fit in to a schedule. However, there are various ways to serve our fellow man every day, and most of these can be done without spending more than a few minutes of your time. One may think that, in a typical day, that they do not have many opportunities to lend a helping hand. It should be noted that many of these opportunities are around all of us every day, but they can easily pass us by if we are not looking out for them. If we can open our eyes to our surroundings, we will notice more readily certain situations in which our help can make someone's day (for example, an elderly lady struggling with a heavy load, or someone in the household rushing to get everything ready for an event). Not everyone who could use some help will ask for it, so it is our responsibility to ask if we can provide this assistance. So, my challenge to you is to be more attentive to your surroundings so that you can see opportunities to serve your fellow man. Pray to be able to see opportunities where you can serve, and if you make sure to keep your eyes open, you will notice them, and you will be able to make someone's day a little bit brighter.

I enjoy meetings

 

Hey everyone!

This has been a pretty good week out here on the mission. I know I probably say that a lot at the beginning of these E-mails, but then again, the mission in general has been pretty good! Anyway, you are probably wondering how the funeral for President Monson went, so I will start off with telling about that. I was able to attend that, but the day before, I was also able to attend his viewing. However, when I had passed the security checkpoint at the conference center, I had turned around to see that my companion was not there. As it turned out, he had brought his bag along, and so had to go somewhere to drop off his bag as he attended the viewing. So, it took me a while to reunite with him (as well as the rest of the district - they all decided to take their bags to the viewing too). So, after that, we had gone through a long but quick-moving line through the conference center, which eventually passed by President Monson's coffin. As I passed by, I had the distinct impression then that he truly was a prophet of God. I knew that he was before, but not with the same conviction as I now do. 

The funeral was also a somber experience. Luckily for me, I was able to attend this in person - the entire mission got tickets with which to attend, and the church campus closed down as well for this, so there were no zone conflicts with this. There were messages shared by President Monson's family, as well as members of the First Presidency. I am thankful to have been able to attend this meeting to remember the life of the prophet. It is an experience I will never forget. I was alive during the ministry of Gordon B. Hinckley, but I don't remember much of that - he passed away when I was still pretty young. As a result, President Monson will always be the prophet of my childhood years.

Anyway, after the viewing, I had other business to attend to before attending zone - specifically, I was asked to attend a new young elder training meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to prepare young elders who had arrived in the last two months for the two years ahead of them. As Elder Beeson had only come in last December, and I was his companion, we went over to this. You may remember me not saying anything about this when I trained Elder Stacey, and this was because this meeting was a newer change in the mission, which came in about three months ago. This meeting lasted for four hours, though there was a ten-minute break in between, and we got free lunch when it was over. The messages prepared for this meeting were shared by mission leadership: the assistants to the president, the young elder coordinators, the second counselor in the mission presidency, and of course President Fenn. I feel that this meeting went quite well, and I think that my companion, as well as myself, had learned some important information for service in the mission. Besides, the sandwiches at the end of this tasted pretty good!

This was not the only meeting which we attended this week - we also had our monthly young elder conference this week. At this conference, the birthdays for the month of January were announced - this included my own, as well as a couple other young elders (both of which also served in the data services zone with me). Aside from this, there were some messages shared which were somewhat similar to those shared in young elder conference. It was also similar in the fact that, at the end of it all, we got free lunch! I quite enjoy meetings such as this - it is always good to learn more about the gospel, including how to do better as a missionary! Besides, there is nothing quite like hearing President Fenn speak to us! 

There was also a Book of Mormon class which happened last Monday. This took us through the entirety of the book of Jacob. It is not a long book, though there is some good doctrinal insight in there. President Fenn, along with the rest of the Book of Mormon, understands this book quite well, and I have been truly enlightened at this class. Whenever I attend these classes, I remember that I do not understand the Book of Mormon as much as I sometimes think I do, and it reminds me to read up on the scriptures and gain more knowledge about them. Scripture study and doctrinal knowledge are essential, especially when you are a missionary - I guess that is part of the reason why we have had so many of these meetings. But, I am not complaining about attending meetings! 

I may have mentioned to you planning on celebrating my birthday Monday. However, I have not been able to do it then - again, I had a Book of Mormon class then, which takes precedence over bowling any day! Besides, I wouldn't have been able to get permission for this anyway - such is considered a P-Day activity. I am alright going on Saturday though - I am just happy to be able to celebrate my birthday. So, I will be going later today to do that. I will only be going with my district to this - I had invited some other people, but Elder Duran just now told me that they won't be able to come. But, just hanging out with the district will be good, especially since it is Elder Duran's last month on the mission - he will go home on the 23rd of this month. He has served well, and he will be missed. Who knows, I may be called to take his place as the district leader...

Finally, there is zone work. We have been working on pretty much the same stuff as we have normally been working on, but now, the more experienced missionaries in the zone (myself included) have a new project. You see, the training we have received in the zones has not been quite the best for us. Up to this point, they have not had training modules specifically for young elders. The modules we have received were created by senior missionaries, for senior missionaries. As a result, the training has not been efficient as it could be. So, the experienced young elders have been asked to create PowerPoint to train new young elders into the zone. The training PowerPoint I have been asked to create will train new young elders on how to handle cases regarding temple ordinance issues in FamilySearch. This is a nice challenge for me, and I hope that my work will be useful in training new young elders in to this zone, so that they can serve the best that they can.

Well, there is my week for you. I feel like it has been quite eventful, especially after looking over what I have typed out about it. I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week!

From,

Elder Bryce Petersen

P.S. I have attached a couple of pics from previous weeks to this E-mail. I hope you enjoy!

Challenge: The mission has been spoken to a lot regarding unity. This has been a subject in a few of our meetings, as it does seem that the mission has been having troubles with this. I have seen a bit of this myself, and things have been improving in that sense in the mission. So, how important is unity? Abraham Lincoln has said that "a house divided against itself cannot stand". This applies for any group of people, whether this be in temporal situations, the church, and even in the family. The concept is simple - when we work together, we will be able to accomplish so much more. On the flipside, if we are divided and work against each other, then we will degrade, and take steps backward. So, how can we become more unified? Becoming unified often does not just happen - it must be worked toward, with a conscious effort on the part of everyone involved. Unity first comes from the avoidance of things which can hinder this growth, such as complaining and arguing. Even thoughts of such should be controlled, if not avoided completely. Second, we must see things from other peoples' points of view. Walking a mile in the shoes of another will help us understand why they think the way they do, and will help us better understand their opinions. Also, make sure never to exclude anyone for any reason. Exclusion will make the victims feel less valued, and will stain feelings towards people on both ends of the alienation. Finally, in the place of complaining and arguing, we must build each other up, and help each other succeed. If everyone in the group succeeds, then so can the group itself. Of course, not everyone will agree with every decision made by the group as a whole, as we are all different. But, these differences are alright - we were made to be different, so that we can complement each other nicely. Building unity is necessary in any group effort, and will help make things more possible for any group.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Hello everyone!

Well, this week was very interesting. I can't say every part of it was good, but don't get me wrong - I am still enjoying serving the Lord here on my mission, and I do not have anything against the work itself. However, sometimes things come up which do tend to somber the mood a bit. But, such is life, and we must all learn to adapt to it all. But, then again, there was also some great good in this week, so this week hasn't been completely terrible! However, I want to be at a point where I could still serve faithfully even if everything went exactly the way I didn't want it to. I don't know if I am at that point or not - that has not yet happened to me. However, there is always room for improvement, so improve I will.

First off, I am sure you have all heard about the recent passing of our beloved prophet, President Monson. It is truly a sad experience, but I can't say that it was truly unexpected - he hadn't been doing well since April. But, it is good to know that he is with his beloved wife again - he had been missing her since her own passing. However, his is not the only death which has affected this mission - one of the other young elders' mom had also passed away earlier this week. I could not imagine the sorrow that would cause someone - to lose his mom while out on the Lord's errand... But, I do remember that death is just a part of life - a change from one state of being to the next. It is essential for us all to advance spiritually so that we may become perfected one day.

And yet, amid both of these tragedies which have impacted the mission, life goes on. I am still training my current companion in to the contact center - he has recently began helping people through online chats! He will also be able to work 110 cases soon - he will start next Monday! We are working more types of cases, and we have plans for getting trained on even more! I think that we are, so far, doing quite well on beating our boredom out of our zone - we have had some problems with that in the zone in the past, but with all these different types of cases to work, I don't think we will slow down any time soon. The next one we will be trained on, I think, will be cases relating to FamilySearch's historical records. Before we know it, we will become jacks of all trades! I am honestly quite excited for this - no more boredom in the zone!

Now, you are probably wondering how I spent my new year! Well, I hate to say it, but I "celebrated" the first of the new year by puking my guts out. The day before, I seemed to have caught a cold, and I had to stay home from passing the sacrament at an assisted living facility so that I wouldn't get any of the residents sick. That next day, I woke up and went straight to the couch. I soon had to ask Elder Duran for a garbage can for me to throw up in to. Soon after that, I was fine though - I had been stocking up on the only source of Vitamin C at my disposal - apple cider mix which had been sent over for the holidays (I probably would have been drinking some of that anyway, it is a good sick drink). I'm not the only one though - there are quite a few other people who have caught what I had as well. I did not go to zone most of the day yesterday because my companion had caught it as well. I guess it is just that time of the year... But, at least we are both better now.

Now, I am sending my E-mail out a bit later today than usual because of the usual reason - you guessed it, I was busy with a service project. This service project was something I had not done in a long while, not since I went to a place called Rowland Hall with my training companion! Specifically, the project was a family history workshop, an activity in which we help people get started with genealogical research. This specific project took place in a retirement home called Coventry, which is a half-hour drive from the apartments. The turnout wasn't that great - we only had three people show up to the workshop, two of which whom were already quite familiar with FamilySearch - but I was still able to help someone out there, and we all had a great time. I love this sort of service in the mission, it has been wonderful to go to places like this to serve. Speaking of which, it does seem that weekly assignments to serve at such a home keep getting put on hold - last week, it happened because I was sick. I will sadly have to do it again this week, on account of my having my monthly interview with President Fenn tomorrow. But, there will always be next week.

Well, that's my week for me. My 20th birthday is tomorrow, and because I did not have much time to celebrate it today, I will instead celebrate it on Monday with some bowling (there is a local place that lets missionaries bowl for free on weekdays) and pizza. I will let you know how that goes for me. I hope every one of you has a good week!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: Due to the new year, I have been talked to quite a bit this week on this particular subject: setting goals. Setting goals is like having a road map to life - without doing so, we are no more than wanderers. If we are to succeed, we are to set goals which will get us to the place we want to be. Now, there are a few major differences between a goal which can be accomplished and which will actually change your life, and a new-years resolution which is oftentimes forgotten within the week of it's creation. For example, goals are specific, which resolutions are vague (i.e. I will attend the gym three times a week vs. I will exercise more). It is a bit tough to stick to the latter, as there are not many guidelines to be stuck to. However, attending the gym three times a week tells us how we will "exercise more", as well as giving us a time frame in which we are to achieve such an action. Another notable difference between goals and resolutions is the act of writing goals down. This concept cannot be emphasized enough - a goal which is not written down is no more than a wish. Write down your goals, and put them where you will see them often, so that you will remember to work toward them. Finally, the goal must be done. The action must be taken. If there is no time to do such, try and make time. Do not focus on the entire goal at once - take it a step at a time (for example, if you want to become a world-renowned surgeon, the first thing to do would be to work for money to go to medical school). My goal to each of you is to make specific, achievable goals - not resolutions, goals - write them down, and then do them. Doing so will get you where you want to be in life, whether this be temporally or spiritually.