Anticipation is strong

Hey, everyone!

So, here we are at the tail end of another week, and on top of that, another transfer! These transfers seem to be going by even more quickly than before! I don't think I told you last week that we had gotten no new young elders this transfer. This is not too surprising - missionaries who come in right before Christmastime have an especially difficult time. On the other hand, there are actually five missionaries who are going home at this time as well - a few more than who were originally scheduled. Those leaving are Elders Garfield, Jarvis, DeSpain, Heimdal, and Stacey (whom I had trained). They will be able to go back home, and enjoy Christmas with the family. I too do kind of miss home with the holidays going on, but the season is still quite enjoyable. I never experienced a whole ton of homesickness while I was on the mission, though I do miss home. But, I have but two months left of my mission; I'll have plenty of time to think about home on the car ride back. As for the mission, I think my days in Data Services may be numbered. I still enjoy the zone, though I have been kind of interested in a bit of a change of scenery; therefore, I brought that little bit up with President Fenn in my most recent meeting with him, and he said he would see if it would be possible to get me assigned somewhere else for the final parts of my mission. I do not know for sure what all came of that, but I did get a moving notice again; therefore, there will be at least an apartment change for me, and potentially a companionship change as well (Elder Cole got one as well). As I will probably be leaving the zone, my next E-mail will likely come on Saturday, or sometime before Christmas (next Tuesday). Even if it does not come by then, don't worry too much - either I ate so much Christmas dinner that I have gone into a food coma for an indefinite amount of time, or my P-day was scheduled to be tomorrow, and i rescheduled so that I would not have two separate P-Days in a row. (If this situation does happen, it will most likely be the latter.)

As for the zone itself, the lights still have not been turned on for Saturdays, though we did have President McKnight (President Fenn's first counselor in the mission presidency) come through to check on things with us. Most likely, this will be of some consequence for us. The young elders had also gotten a missionary appreciation pizza party yesterday. There was a little bit of each type of pizza there, as is normally the case for such a happening, and there was also a nice little Christmas trivia sheet passed around. The original plan was to have the parents of the young elders send in some information so that there could be a trivia about the other young missionaries with whom we worked, but the notice was a bit short in getting out, and so that did not quite happen. However, it was an unfortunate situation which not much could be done about, so I forgive everyone involved. The pizza was still great, and it was nice being able to have a little fun with the other missionaries in the zone.

The pizza party was not the only such get-together which us young elders have had - last Sunday, President Fenn had provided for us all a chili dinner! This has been a bit of a tradition for President Fenn - whenever he has had such a calling, he would cook chili for those with whom he serves around Christmastime (some of you may remember last year when he had done this with us). There were four different types of chili there, including one of President Fenn's own recipes which incorporated chocolate. This was surprisingly delicious! After this special dinner, we all got together for a fireside at which President Fenn taught us about Christ's birth, and what we can learn from it, going off of descriptions from the Book of Mormon. It's amazing what this record clarifies about the birth of Christ, which clarification we otherwise would not have; it is with this knowledge that we have a much more full understanding about this than most of the rest of the world! Modern revelation has truly blessed this world!

I also was asked to give a Sunday school lesson in our young elder Sunday School class last Sunday. Now, I had tried working on this all week, and I got most (but not all) of it prepared on the last day of the week. This lesson was on a message shared by our mission president in our mission's newsletter, which message was titled "The Arms of Mercy". Essentially, it was a bit of what we can learn from the Book of Mormon about God's infinite mercy. (If you couldn't tell by now, President Fenn loves the Book of Mormon.) It is amazing what all we can learn about His mercy here, as there are so many stories of conversion within, including and especially the conversion of those who otherwise did not seem to be very likely to even consider joining with the Church of Christ, much less become the stalwart disciples which they eventually did turn out to become. In each such case, God had forgiven the sinner fully, and sanctified him to become something much greater than he otherwise would have been. We also learn about His mercy and service when He himself visited ancient America. He had ministered individually to each and every person who was afflicted among them, when he could simply have blessed the multitude with complete healing. I would invite you to take the challenge given in Moroni 10:3 (not to be confused with Moroni 10:4) when reading the Book of Mormon, in remembering "how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men".

One of the nicest things about being able to serve around Temple Square is that I am able to attend performances from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. Mostly this constitutes of the weekly performance of Music and the Spoken Word, though occasionally a concert will be put on. Yes, I had tried to get in to the choir's Christmas concert, but attendance of this concert was high demand; it always is, and I think it having Kristen Chenowith as a guest artist (she's a famed Broadway star; I'm sure, Mom, that you recognize that name, you've seen "Wicked") made it even more so. I was not able to get a ticket for this; I heard that they were all claimed within three minutes of their going available! Not even getting into the standby line early like I did was enough to get in; therefore, I had watched the concert being cast from the Conference Center into the Tabernacle. Honestly, that was good enough for me; even though I was not able to see it live, at least I was able to see it in the first place. Besides, I was also able to watch Music and the Spoken Word the next day, which was just about as good! Recordings of such concerts are made available a year after the performance, so I will have to wait to be able to relive the moment. But, it was a good moment, and a good way to spend the evening! I'll probably have to somehow get in to next year's! (No, Mom, I still don't think that the Wicked soundtrack would be mission-appropriate music.)

I have been receiving quite a few cards from home. I am currently in the process of writing cards to all those of you who have sent them, but I would also like to say right here in this E-mail - thanks so much for sending them out to me, and by so doing remembering me during your holiday season! It means a lot to me, to be able to hear back from you all, and it is part of what keeps me striving to do the best that I can as a missionary! Again, thanks so much for the cards!

Well, that is about all for my week (yes, I am aware that I had talked about it backwards; this was partly on accident, and partly on purpose). Thanks again for all the support that you give me! I hope that you all enjoy your Christmas season, and have a great week!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: Now that, in my E-mail I had talked to you a bit about a lesson I had given for Sunday School, I would like to talk about a different instruction which I had given for my district during my last district meeting. In short, I had talked to them about scripture study, and how to be more effective at doing so. In short, there are three steps to being more effective at scripture study; they are all based on receiving revelation from what is written down, as the Spirit is the true teacher when it comes to spiritual things. The first is to prepare spiritually to do so. Living the commandments and making yourself clean is important; it is also important to prepare an external spiritual environment, as one will have a difficult time receiving revelation in a noisy, cluttered, and casual environment. Removing unnecessary background noise, studying at an actual desk, and cleaning up the study area (because the Spirit does not dwell in unclean tabernacles, even in a physical sense - just note how meticulously cleaned the next temple you visit is) will help the Spirit be less restrained as you study. The next step is to determine how you want to study. Though all scripture is valuable, some is more so than others - you can study what you will, but the Book of Mormon is the scripture which was revealed for our day to gather scattered Israel - such should be read from every day, after which you can add to it what you will. It is also good to determine whether you will be reading through the scripture or studying a specific topic; neither of these is inherently bad, nor is any one always the appropriate path to go in studying the scriptures. Each has it's advantages; therefore, choose one for the type of learning you would like to do. The third step is to study the scriptures in a revelatory manner. This means you actively seek revelation from God as you read and study, using the concepts lain out in Moroni 10:4 and D&C 9:7-9. More specifically, you study what has been written down, and you ponder the writings in your mind; you then pray to the Lord for more guidance, especially if you have questions about what you have read which you cannot work out yourself. Once this is done, listen! President Nelson, in his first General Conference address as President of the Church, had said that, as we listen for such revelation, we should write down the impressions which we receive; that which we write down is revelation unto us, and is also worth studying over in the future. My challenge to you this day is to do both types of scripture study - reading through and topic study; one of these study sessions should be in the Book of Mormon. Follow through with each step, and hold on to what the Spirit tells you during each type of study. Doing this will turn "scripture study" into an engaging, revelatory experience of studying the scriptures, and you will get a lot more out of it than simply opening a book and reading it.

P.S. I almost completely forgot about the Elijah Choir's performance yesterday! We had a special Christmas program for our Monday morning devotional, as we won't be having such a devotional next Monday because Christmas eve. We had sung a nice medley of five different Christmas carols, with narrators from Sister Watkins' home ward. I enjoyed being able to sing for that, though it is likely going to be the last larger-scale choir performance I will be able to take part in before going home. Oh well - I will still have a performance every Monday morning still.