Frigid Florida

well, ah, the plane landed and when I got out, there was a dude, looked like a cop, standing there with my name out.... Hahaha jk it was President Smith. 

We Made It!  The Tally District and President Smith

I am in FORT WALTON BEACH!!!!!!! woot woot. yeah it's basically a blast over here. Tuesday night we flew in and we met the Smiths. Then the next morning we all broke off to our areas with our trainers. My trainer's name is Sister Ramadhar. She's super nice. She has been out for 11 months and she is from Trinidad. Yeah the craziest thing though, she actually got called to Vancouver Canada and then they changed her mission to Tallahassee because of her visa, so basically I get to serve with a sister that could've been companions with Jaynanne hahah.

Ok Florida is FREEZING!!!! It's nice in the afternoons but during the morning and at night it is bitter cold. Me and Sister Evensen are both being trained in the Fort Walton area so bless the Lord on high I get to see her usually every other day if not more. Which is awesome because she is so awesome and I love her to death. 

President and Sister Smith, Mollie

The people down here are way awesome and they feed us a lot. Haha just normal food nothing too fancy. We are right next to two Air Force Bases so there's a lot of military families. There's a lot of work to do down here and I am eager to help God's children here.

Yeah not much has really happened.. Just waking up everyday and sharing the good word of God. Every couple of mornings we play tennis with the Elders down the street and that's pretty rad. 

I'm super stoked to be here and to be a missionary

God Speed kiddos.

DCK

-Sister Petersen

Those MTC Days, Where have they gone, Where did they go???

Wowza my time here in the MTC has come to an end. I cannot believe I am leaving for the field. That's straight crazy sauce. I love it here. The only other place I would rather be is Tallahassee.

ok first off, me and sister e completed a little experiment with the Orange Juice and we have concluded after straight chugging it for a meal that it does nothing to your system. Feel free to drink it, all you future MTCers.

So, ok, story time with Sista P, duh duh dun duh duh dun dun...! So last Wednesday the 11th, me and sister E were like "hey let's host next week because it's our last week" and I wanted to be Emma's host when she came in. So we went and asked if we could host and they gave us all these reasons why we couldn't, some of the reasons were legit so we dutifully accepted the defeat of our hosting quest. Not five minutes later after moping my sadness to Sis E,

we were walking down the sidewalk to pick up a package and there was a host name tag laying on the ground!!!!! Fate?? Destiny?? A Horse?? Who can say? So I quickly picked up that tag and the scheming began. We decided we would make a copy of the name tag so me and Sis E could both host and we wouldn't have to break any companion rules, next thing we know we turned the corner and A SECOND host tag was laying on the ground!!!!! I could not believe the manna that had been delivered from the sky!!!!!

This was the creation of our perfect hosting plan. (But really Heavenly Father knew all along this was going to happen)

Wednesday the 18th, 6:13 am, *beep *beep *beep (imagine the 24 theme song playing) I spring out of bed and me and Sista E get our morning crunches done, then I quickly get dressed and I am ready for the day. Also Sister E put sticky notes all over my mirror because she really is the sweetest comp in the world gosh I love her. We tuck away our stolen host tags and set off for the adventure of the MTC lifetime. When we get to lunch, all the assigned hosts were leaving to go help the new recruits, so after forcing Sista E to eat faster, we ran outside, stopping at the bathroom to stick on our fake credentials. Disguised as hosts, we got out there at 12:25, twenty minutes before Emma's reporting time. Of course there was no way to know which direction they would point the Hansen vehicle and we didn't want to get assigned as hosts to the wrong missionary... so we waited in the middle of the two lines where the cars split. Both of us cheerfully greeted incoming missionaries that we knew and it was very exciting to see their beaming faces. I loved standing there watching God's soldiers file in. It was chilling. SO COOL.

After a while of standing there, this older gentleman came over and got after us. He told us that as hosts we were not allowed to wait for a specific car. Reluctantly we chose to go to the right, where other hosts were waiting. My friend Elder Hansen from USU was also standing there hosting and he is over six feet tall. We told him what we were up to and he was our watch out for Emma's Ford Focus. We spotted the Hansen's car and as I was getting ready to sprint to the other side to make sure I could greet her, we saw the usher point them in our direction. I was able to jump the line and open Emma's car door greeting her into the Missionary Training Center. 

Sisters Emma Hansen & Mollie Petersen

Sista Emma 

Sometimes things don't work out how we want them to, sometimes we are given trials that we do not understand, but the Lord knows the little things that matter to us. He knows that I would give anything in the world to be Emma's Host as she entered this sacred ground. He is so very mindful of the things we are going through. He knows the righteous desires of our hearts and He knows what will be the greatest blessing for us. I promise this. 

The MTC has been the best weeks of my life. My district is my family. My companion is my best friend. I have been so blessed with the valiant spirits here and I don't know what I would do without all these fellow missionaries in my life. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. Missions are for everyone, it's the whole reason we are here, to build the kingdom of God on Earth. You're mission might not be serving as a full-time missionary but all of us need to do our part, the Lord is counting on us to bring to pass his great and Marvelous work.

I love you all. 

"Destination Celestial Kingdom. DCK." - Elder Batman Starnes

Love, your soon to be southern soul, Sister Petersen (:

what really happens in the MTC

P-Day is Laundry Day

Xoxo, Gospel Girl

Exciting at first...

Ok this week was probably the most incredible week of my life. The MTC is such a beautiful place. I love it here. When we got our travel itineraries yesterday it was way sad haha. 

My whole district tells me I look like Emma Stone and I mean hey, I'm not complaining.. haha

Ok so Sunday is the best day ever. Hands down awesome. We couldn't watch Character of Christ last week because it was broken or something so we ended up watching some Nauvoo temple movie it was really old and super funny! hahaha. 

Prayers were for sure answered this week! I prayed that me and Sis E could start enjoying the mtc more and that morning we were making knock knock jokes for hours and it was SOOOOO funny!!! hahaha.

The FL-Tal group

I hope this doesn't sound cocky.. earlier this week me and Sis E were really worried about our teaching and about if we were doing good enough and we both felt like we needed to try harder and work better. Well we've been working with our class a lot and doing role plays and I feel pretty confident seeing the progress in other companionships. Me and Sis E make an earnest effort always to be on task but still make the mtc a blast and I have for sure seen the bennefits of that in our teaching and studying. God sent us here that we can have joy. The MTC is designed for us to learn and be trained for the field, but that doesn't mean we can't have the best time of our lives while we're here!!!

So Tuesday was one of the best days of my life. Besides a couple killer rounds of 4 square, we had such a good day. Ps I'm pretty dece at 4Square... yeah but the competitive Elders in my Zone leave monday so I'm way bummed that it won't be as fun to play.

Tickets to Ride!

Tuesday night we had a devotional. We were sitting in the choir seats and ps the choir is awesome. So when the meeting was getting ready to start we were being led in I love to see the Temple, when we started singing the spirit in the room completely shifted and everyone could feel the power of the song. Because the MTC presidency is being changed it was a special meeting. Suddenly as we were singing, everyone started standing up and Elder Neil L. Anderson walked in onto the stage. We sang very proudly but the spirit was so overwhelming. The choir sang Nearer My God to Thee and the power of the missionaries was almost unbearable. The rest of the meeting was good and Elder Anderson's words were very powerful but that's not even the best part yet.... We were sitting on the third row because we were in the choir and as the meeting ended Elder Anderson started shaking hands around the crowd. He made his way towards us and all the sisters by me kept whispering about how bad they wanted to shake his hand. I thought to myself that I didn't need to shake his hand to know he's a servant of God. He shook the front row, and then the second, and as we was walking away I said a prayer and I just said "please can I just look into his eyes" and in that moment Elder Anderson turned back to us looked me in the eyes and told us how beautiful the choir sang. I felt like I was looking into the eyes of the Savior. I know that the Apostles are special witnesses of Jesus Christ. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. There have been too many miracles and blessings in my life to disregard that. This gospel is such a beautiful gift from God. He loves us so much and I am forever grateful that I could stand as a witness to Elder Anderson's testimony of Christ.

"I love you more than anything and every time
I see Sister Mordue, it's like my Mom is just
here, loving me.  I love you Mom."

Sunday night during devotional we were shown a bunch of pictures on a slide show with the MTCs worldwide. I know that this is something so much bigger than myself. "Behold I will bring to pass a great and marvelous work among the children of men" God's missionary work is truly marvelous. 

Haha ps the sound is perfect in the shower room for some quality concerts. Me and Sis E usually end the night harmonizing with our toothbrushes. Quality. Every night that I am getting ready for bed I can't believe how fast the day went. It's straight crazy. Maybe it's because I fall asleep sometimes in class...hahahahaha. what are ya gonna do..?? 

My district is seriously so awesome. They are my best friends. It makes me so sad that only half of us are going to Tally because they are the best. We have so many inside jokes and we can never take anything seriously haha. It's so awesome just being surrounded by goodness. I love how genuinely good the missionaries here are. You know I wish everyone could just spend one week in the MTC and see how truly blessed they are. Don't take anything for granted, life is way too short for that.

I love you all so much! I love reading your letters throughout the week! It helps me remember who I am and who I want to be while I am out here. Don't let Satan get you down. He just doesn't want you to know how awesome and powerful you are.

Hey hey hey well I'll see you all here next week. Same time. Same place. (:(:(: I love you!

love the remarkable and totally humble, Sister Petersen

Mom note - Kimberly Mordue worked with me in the Ogden Temple.  She and her husband were called to the Texas, Lubbock Mission.  She arrived a week after Mollie.

eat. pray. love. that's all we do here.

well GOOD MORNING from the MTC!!! What a crazy couple of days aye? so the first day we got here once I got my luggage to my room and stuff I met my companion Sister Evensen!!!!! She is such an angel. seriously she is so sweet and way kind to everyone. Also she knows so many people here at the MTC haha. 

I've seen a couple of kids I went to high school with so that makes it not as weird being here haha. (Zeke Grillo and Joseph Marriot came in the same day as me, but Aaron Dixon and Casey Bond have been here for awhile. I haven't seen Casey yet but I am determined to find him before he heads out soon. Oh and I ran into Elder Hansen from my ping pong class at USU hahaha) I love seeing people I know because it reminds me that we're all just normal kids ha.

So I met Sister Evensen and we walked to our first class where we met with our district. We were all pretty quiet at first but it's getting kind of fun now. Half of our district is going to Florida, some Tallahassee and some Tampa, the two sisters sharing a room with us Sister Alder from St. George on the left and Sister Frye from Parker,CO on the right, are going to Tampa. And then the other half of our district is going to Louisiana, and then we have a random elder going to Chicago hahaha. It's way fun. I don't know any of them very well but we've had some good chats about the last airbender and Psych. oh good ol' Gus. My zone leaders and sisters are SO AWESOME!!!!! really they are way great. The sisters are headed to the Philidelphia visitor sites and on of the Elders is going to Zimbabwe or something. 

Ok so we met our district and then we met with the mission president and stuff. and my comp is way awesome and she's related to him and his wife so we got a picture with them after. yeah basically my sister is kind of a big deal. just saying. Haha.

The food here is awesome! It's not too bad. and lot's too eat. Better watch myself before I go to the south. Yikes. OH I MET SISTER HART! she's the gal I've been friends with on Social media that's going to my mission!!! she is so sweet. Gosh I love her. Every time I see her it reminds me that there is light and the end of this dark mtc tunnel. lololol florida could not come soon enough (;

I really do like it here, it's just kind of hard to go all day long in classes and stuff. But it's all good. Me and my comp memorized our purpose yesterday because we're that good. lol. Oh yeah my companion's brother served with Jarron Burnham in Montana. I think she said they're good friends. 

Yeah my comp is pretty chill. She's from Alpine and graduated from Lone Peak. She's been going to BYU this year and she got her call SIX WEEKS AGO!! isn't that crazy sauce?!?! Yeah but she is so cute and loving. 

I really love being a missionary. Wearing Christ's name on my chest is so powerful. You can feel the spirit all the time here and dad's right, the mtc is like Hogwarts with a special magical safety dome protecting all of us. My teachers are pretty cool. Sister Ditto just got back from Can Van mish. haha she's way cool and this other Elder in my district is from Vancouver Washington. Yeah when I found that out I knew heavenly father was just giving me temporary angels while mine are in North Ogden. 

Provo Temple

The first day we were here we did a group teaching thing where we all just passed around a microphone and there was an investigator at the front of the room. Not gonna lie this fake investigator thing is kind of hard for me to take seriously and I feel like I am totally detracting from the spirit.....yeah gotta work on taking it for reals haha. But anyway this first day the lady that was playing the investigator told us she was from the south raised Baptist and then later in her life her mom and two daughters joined the church but she didn't want anything to do with it. And then her one daughter died and she just wants to love Jesus and stuff. So I wasn't really planning on saying anything at first because I was just paying attention to what other missionaries were saying and a lot of them were going on tangents about their own personal experiences and I was like 'UH uh BUMP ALL DIS! GIVE ME THE MIC" haha jk it just came to me. And I told Jackie that as Representatives of Jesus Christ we were there to share with her the message of eternal families and Christ's real true gospel that he restored through Joseph Smith, and Jackie got really emotional. The spirit was way strong in the room even if it was a set up haha. This experience with Jackie got me so pumped to go teach my Jesus Loving family in the South!!!!

Another quick couple of things.... Yesterday one of our teachers told us that since we are set apart as representatives of Christ we are apostles with lowercase "a's". She was quoting someone but I don't remember. But that was super powerful and it totally shifted my focus on the sacred nature of my calling. I love representing the savior and I hope I can serve him to the best of my ability.

That's about how my days have been going. It's hard getting through classes and lessons and I have a lot of respect for any missionary that has to be here more than 3 weeks. I can't imagine. hahaha. props to you. It's hard to stay awake even when I do get enough sleep. But I love it here. I hope I do everything I can to be prepared to hit the field.

Oh yeah ps. We got iPads for the mtc and I can read my emails during free time and stuff whenever I want throughout the week but I can only write emails and letters on Pday which is kind of a tossup. So I can read all week but I can't reply unless it's Friday. So yeah, if you're dying to tell me something or even if you just want to tell me a lame joke feel free the next few weeks because I love reading your emails. It gives me the boost and perspective of why I'm here, to share the blessings that I've been given in my life with all of God's children in the South that I can touch.

I love you all very much. Please send me everyone's emails. Like Jaymie and Brooke and stuff because I am a ditz and I don't have anyone's. 

I love you and the Lord loves you. God Speed kiddos.

Love your Sister Petersen (:

And So It Begins...

January 4, 2017

Mollie decided long ago she wanted to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Today, she began that mission.  Mollie graduated from WHS in May 2016.  She immediately started college at Utah State University in the Summer Semester.   She received her mission call September 8, 2016.  She has been called to serve in the Florida, Tallahassee Mission. She finished her Associates Degree in December 2016.  She worked very hard to complete her degree before leaving for her mission. She entered the MTC in Provo, Utah January 4, 2017.  She will be there until January 24, 2017.  She is eager and ready to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in the Florida, Tallahassee Mission!!  

September 24, 2016 Salt Lake Temple

Here is her first email home... Jan 4, 2017

One Hour Down. Only like 750,000 to go...

Hey hey hey! I hope you're enjoying that CD lol. I made it safe and all is well! My companion's name is Sister Evensen and crazy thing I follow her on instagram hahaha

Last Selfie in the car at the MTC

Everything is good and I'm a little lost but I'm very excited to get started. I love you all! Don't have too much fun without me!

Carry on. God speed.

Love, Sister Petersen

ps. mom will you please send me a list of everyone's emails I forgot all of them lololol

Followed by this email from Sister Annette C. Burgess, MTC Matron, related to Sis Evensen:

It was certainly exciting this afternoon to meet 

Sister Evensen and Sister Petersen!!!  

What darling sister missionaries!!

Hope you enjoy this photo taken after  "Welcome Meeting" -- about 30 minutes ago!

Love, Sister Burgess