Welcome to the family

Hey everyone!


This has been an interesting week. The mission has finally received it's new Elders, and as I may have mentioned before, there are a lot of them - a grand total of twelve! The mission has not known a larger group in the time I have arrived, and it has not known a larger since November of 2015, I believe the date was. Therefore, there were quite a few people assigned to host them. The apartment hosts are as follows: Elders Young and Evans; Wolff and Buers; Hall and Norris; Gale and Sellers; Yeoman and Hollingsworth; and myself and Elder Black. The names of the new young elders we are hosting are elders Balls and Allison. I have attached a picture of me and Elder Black with them in this E-mail. They have been doing quite well so far. They are still getting adjusted, but then again, that is to be expected for them still being in their first week - they are doing pretty well so far. I look forward to seeing them go on to do great things here in the mission!

So, we have done with night zone this week what we have done last week - classes on Tuesday, and a service project on Thursday. Both of Tuesday's classes were given by the mission's developmental counselors. They were given on stress management and communication, both of which I believe to be valuable skills in this and any mission. The skills taught in such classes will be helpful to us all in fulfilling our missionary purpose. Anyway, for the service project Thursday, we did what we did last week - we helped do yard work for people who were not as able to do it themselves. I never thought I would be saying such a thing, but I really enjoyed doing yard work! It is great to be able to serve others in this manner, and it is amazing to see how much can get done if you put a couple dozen young elders on one project! Besides, a job where we actually get to see sunlight and breathe fresh air more often than in occasional breaks is a nice change of pace from the typical computer work.

Mission Conference also happened this week. Unfortunately, there was no young elder mission conference this time around. Instead, I got to attend senior mission conference (both sessions) because of my membership in the choir. As I may have mentioned before, Sister Watkins had written both the lyrics and the music for the song we performed, "Truth From Elijah" (the arrangement, however, was written by someone else). The speakers were actually not who you would expect them to be - rather, they were chosen from the senior missionaries serving in the mission. They were asked to share spiritual experiences they had on the mission, which were not few in number. I am certain that the Lord's hand is in this work, and he wants to help us out with it. Anyway, singing in the choir was awesome as well - being a member of it is a great experience!

We also had an apartment cleanliness inspection this week. I am sure some of you returned missionaries remember the Healeys. I did not even get the notification text about this until 41 minutes after it was sent, for reasons unfathomable to myself. As I mentioned to my mom in an E-mail to her, technology is amazing, but sometimes I want to throw the computer out of a window. Anyway, when we got there, they were waiting for us to give their inspection. To be honest, we did score well, though I missed a few spots which needed more attention. Others, I thought I had already gotten, though they had degraded a lot quicker than they should have. Either way, I feel the score was fair enough - we have been doing well, though there is room for improvement.

Well, that is about it for my E-mail today. Thanks for tuning in. I will write again next week. Have a good one!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: Elder (then President) Uchtdorf shared an interesting concept in his October 2013 General Conference address. In this, he had brought up that there is a lot which is required of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We give freewill offerings of our time and talents in many church callings, service opportunities, etc. for no pay. We also are expected to attend church meetings weekly, as well as General Conference. These, and many more, take up much of our time and energy. Truly, this is not a church of idleness. However, I don't think I would be satisfied if it were not that way. Though there are many blessings received through being active in the gospel which are only possible through the omnipotence and omniscience of God, we are still required to put in a bit of work for these blessings. The less dedicated we are to our beliefs, the less the Lord is able to consecrate our actions to us in the form of blessings. Of course, President Uchtdorf had gone on to share many blessings which come through being active members of the church - we are given opportunities to serve others, the great privilege of having the priesthood in our lives, the growth and learning which comes through dedicated church service - the list goes on. If you are in the church, please do not simply coast along, going wherever the current takes you - doing so is much like going the way of the man President Uchtdorf spoke of (in a different talk) who had wasted a magnificent cruise in his cabin living on powdered lemonade and canned beans. Going out and proactively enjoying the blessings of the gospel will allow the Lord to bless you with the fullest possible blessings which the gospel has to offer.