Man, I feel like a Woman.

CAN WE ALL JUST AGREE HOW AWESOME IT FEELS TO BE A SISTER IN THE CHURCH AND A WOMAN IN THE WORLD?!?!

~We deserve Donuts

Okie doke smokes. Tuesday morning we had interviews with President Smith and that's always fun. Then I had to train at District Meeting on contacting people/HTBT. It was funny because I'm not used to teaching solo haha so every time I said something I'd look at Sister Evensen to chime in. HAHA. She did, like a champ. 

We hunted down Tracy at her work because she has not been answering any texts or anything. When she saw us come in she just started crying. Tracy is probably one of the most solid people I have ever met on my mission and basically her boyfriend is an alcoholic and very abusive and he's anti-ing her hardcore. She's in a very sticky situation. But she assured us that it had nothing to do with us or her testimony of this gospel. She just needs to figure some stuff out because he won't even let her see us. It was heartbreaking. I've never left Pizza Hut sad until that day. 

~ Our cute Buddy Bella (: (:

Later that night, we had a few minutes before we left to go to the ward Relief Society activity. We decided to go find a recent convert of 4 years that we've never met before. As we were driving, we were both a little down because of all the events of the day, and then we couldn't find the address anywhere! Alex Boye did a cover of "Have I Done Any Good" and it came on in the car. We were kind of laughing trying to get pumped and this line pierced me, "Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?" Just then, I looked up and saw two older gentlemen, one in a wheelchair, who both looked homeless. I told Sister Evensen to pull over! Bruce and Charles were NOT interested to hear about the gospel and they made that known as soon as they saw us. But, as we talked with them, they invited us inside into the Rehab Center they were in front of.

The next day we went back to the facilit,y to talk to the activity director to volunteer in the week, where we met Antonica, a young mom from Jamaica, who recognized us because she's seen missionaries a lot back home on their bike! And while we were talking to Antonica, a woman rolled her chair to Sister Evensen and in a very hard to understand pleading voice she said, "Are you Mormon?" Sister Evensen said, "Yes, I am!" And the woman replied, "Me too." We didn't discover until later, that Debbie was the recent convert we were originally searching for!!!! She had a stroke shortly after her baptism and she's been in this rehabilitation center ever since.

How marvelous are the workings of God? I know I did my best to explain this story in words but it's impossible to explain how miraculous it was to meet Debbie. And her tender spirit is just hungering to be close to the Savior. Everyone we told this story to didn't realize the magnitude of what had happened, but we know it, and we know that God knows it. "To God each good work will be known."

~ DEBBIE!

Ok, ok, ok, I know that was heavy stuff but I can't control the miracles that we saw this week. This is a quick one. A few weeks ago I wrote about my bee sting story.  🐝 So on an exchange with Sister Whatcott, we went back to go see John, the old man with the bee cream. Well, his wife was not warm and fuzzy to say the least, and she turned us away. So we went across the street to knock some doors and the neighbor we went to was also quite uninterested. But right as she was shutting the door, Sister Whatcott asked if any of her neighbors had recently moved in, and she directed us to their other neighbor. When we went and knocked on the newly moved in neighbors, we woke Ashley up from a nap. She was pretty groggy but really nice. She told us we were more than welcome to come back it was just a bad time.

This initial contact with Ashley happened about a month ago. Wednesday, during our daily planning, we looked at our whiteboard of names and we both zeroed in on Ashley. When we went to her house later that day her husband Blake answered. He was so, so nice. He explained how he grew up Jehovah's Witness and he left that organization because he felt like he didn't really know God. He believes in God but he wants to know the God of justice AND mercy. He wants to know the God of commandments AND love. We had a really great conversation with him and we hope to teach their family very shortly. Send prayers because they are searchers of the truth. There is too many things that have led to them being found, God does not design coincidences!

~Sister Viola at Sister's Conf (:

Also we had a mission wide Sister's Conference on Friday, and I'm pretty sure President Smith saw that me and Sister Evensen are getting along way too well, so with transfers coming up next week, extra prayers are welcome to the #SaveSistersEvetersen companionship! HAHAHA

~A little piece of home (Cafe Rio Salads) 

                                   My soul cannot wait to hear the words of our prophets this week at General Conference. Friends, the true and living church of Jesus Christ is on the Earth today. I know it. And I know that God is working miracles through His servants to bring to pass His children's happiness. It's like when a loving parent fills your car with gas without you asking, or folds your laundry, or has your dinner ready on a plate when you are running in and out of the house, or gives you their gloves when you're at a soccer game in a blizzard. Yes my parents did all these things because they love me, and you don't realize it until you look back how much the Lord loves us and he is cheering us on every step of the way. (: I love you all so much!                                                                            SISTER  p e t e r s e n 

Don't let the fear of not being Slash, keep you from playing guitar

Short and sweet, just like my pinky toe. We did back-to-back exchanges this week. We went up to Atmore and then drove over to Semmes. It was way fun but truly exhausting. I've never felt more excited to come back to my own bed. Which isn't actually my bed.... but still. It gets the job done. 

ATMORE: We stopped and got some dinner at Subway and when we walked in the worker was like, "Those name tags look familiar." AHH. We flipped. Bethany turned out to be a less active member who has really been struggling. She bought us dinner and then sat down and joined us. It was really cool because we could talk very boldly and openly with her because we don't even know her. She is so amazing and we were so excited that we ran through her path that day!

SEMMES: My dad always threatened that we would have to live in a "double-wide down by the river" if he ever lost his job. Well I'll have you know, double-wide trailers are actually quite cozy. The Semmes sisters sleep in a trailer. In the middle of nowhere. On a farm. Needless to say, I will no longer be complaining about the weird smell in our study room. Whilst in Semmes, me and Sister Wall were walking and started talking to a lady sitting in her front yard. I asked her what she's looking for in a church and she said she just wants a church that's focused on families. We walked away because we didn't know how to help her. JUST KIDDING BECAUSE THE RESTORED GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST HAS THE PROMISED BLESSING THAT FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER THAT'S WHAT'S UP. Yeah Kristen and her family will be baptized in the near future, I guarantee it.

Other than that, we have been searching for the elect. We sadly did not reach our five goals, but the Lord is still helping us out. Please pray for our investigator Tracy, she was supposed to be baptized this week and she has a lot going on in her life. We love her so much and she is very prepared, Satan is just working his hardest. 

Last note, no pun intended. At Zone Conference last week President Smith asked us if we're happy with the person we're becoming. Then I had a vision for not only myself but all my brothers and sisters around me. Are they happy when they look into the future? Do they have hope? Not the way we do. They don't know their Savior to the full extent as we do. I read a talk that explained how Jesus Christ knew what he had to do before he preformed the atonement, but he had never actually experienced the true exacting exquisite pain of it. And his submissiveness to being our savior, being who our Heavenly Father appointed him to be, change the course of human existence through the eternities. In our primary program the children sang "Gethsemane." At the climax of the song, each little child sang powerfully, "The fight was won by Jesus." 

So if Jesus Christ can be a pivot point, why can't we. I decided I want to be someone that I am proud of becoming. I wear my glasses now, I'm applying to BYU, post-mish, and I'm picked up playing guitar. Who knows what the Lord has in store for every single person on this earth. But I do know we have the divine gift to choose which direction we go because of the beautiful gift of our great Redeemer's sacrifice.

Decisions determine destiny, choose your course and then run as fast as you can towards God.

-SISTER  p e t e r s e n 

ps. my nails are only blue because my bff Addy who's getting baptized in October painted them today. (:

Hide yo wife, hide yo kids, IRMA is here

My lovelies. How are you beautiful souls doing around the world?

IRMA- I'll cut to the chase and tell you what you really want to know, Hurricane Irma is not going to hit Fairhope, sadly.....but the East half of the mission is on total lock down! It's been so exciting here! Wow. Last Monday Elder Southway went on and on about how the hurricane was coming this way and we needed to be prepared, me and Sister Evensen were like "yeah yeah". Well the next day President Smith orders a mission wide conference call and he very strictly instructs us to get water cases, top our gas, and have a go bag ready if we needed to leave within a half hour. WHAT.

Now, I'm not your average Joe who goes into panic mode, but I'll tell you how foolish we felt not having any water and having to run to Walmart and all the water was completely SOLD OUT! WE HAD TO BUY RICH PEOPLE WATER (dasani). Lesson of the 10 Virgins I'm tellin ya. #calledtorepentance

-Sis E preppin for IRMA

Basically this week has been like the funnest week of my whole mission. Nobody is keeping their return apts because of hurricane prep but literally ANYBODY will talk to us if you use the word Irma in your approach. Blessings in disguise! We debated whether or not to make cardboard signs that say "REPENT NOW- IRMA IS HERE" and stand on the street corners preachin. 😉

Alright alright. Thursday we went back to my homeland of Fort Walton, what a celestial area, and we had Mission Leadership Council with President and Sister Smith. Whoa talk about some spiritual giants. I couldn't even soak in all their inspiration. Basically it's just this meeting where we talk about moving the work forward across the mission. It was AWESOME. But this is SO EMBARRASSING, I'm in this room with crazy good missionaries and we had to take a vote on what we thought needed improvement, and for the first option I WAS THE ONLY PERSON THAT RAISED MY HAND. HAHAHAHAHA Me and Sister Evensen could not stop laughing!!!

.

Straight from there I went and stayed the night in Mobile with Sister Polanco on an exchange. Dang straight Mobile was intense. HAHA. We went and proselyted all day in a town called Pritchard. (If you've ever seen that meme "hide yo kids, hide yo wife" that was made there) Met some AMAZING people! It was so awesome! Then we went back to Fairhope for Zone conference the next day.

-My Zone Sistas

At 8:30 at night me and Sister Evensen find out that because of the storm situation our neighboring zone would be combined with us.... what. So we had to train a whole bunch of missionaries, like 60 something. You can feel the power of other missionaries. I made a fool of myself multiple times but all is well. Moral of the story is, me and Sister Evensen are basically best buds with President because we laugh at all his jokes! HAHAHA, We're like his personal audience.

-President and his lackeys

Sunday rolls around and we go to this appointment, they don't answer. But while we're standing on his porch 3 police cars slowly round the corner to a house. 🚓 We both kind of agree that it's a little sketch, but we wear tags, we're fine. Next we walk over to their neighbor and this really creepy car with completely tinted windows rolls right next to us and stops.. Then this really drunk guy standing outside tells us that someone down the street just got shot! THE SPIRIT BASICALLY YELLED AT US TO GET OUTTA DODGE. We thank him and quickly make our way back to our car. I will neither confirm nor deny that Sister Evensen held my hand because she was so scared. Isn't that so cool that Heavenly Father kept us safe. (:

Tracy is in a tough situation so please please pray for her! And this coming week we're focusing on 5's. 5 BCDs, 5 Friends at Sacrament Mtg, 5 New Friends. (: Pray for 5's.

Well friends, I want you to know that God loves His children. Straight up. No if's, and's, or but's. Reach out and spread the love. Don't wait until a hurricane is on it's way to be your best self. We experienced a lot of miracles this week and if I wrote them all you'd have to get a life long subscription. Just know that God is working miracles here. We are messengers of truth. And like I've been saying since one year ago September, the Florida Tallahassee Mission has a big storm coming. 

I have just begun to fight.

SISTER  p e t e r s e n 

I say, that what you say, is what I SAY

Put it on the books, you heard it here first, miracles are straight going down in Bama. WARNING: Please properly secure your surroundings before continuing the following email, in the words of Mitchell Mosher, it's gonna get "lit."

Dumping tea like she's a Yankee

Tracy- What a wonderful human being. On Monday night we committed her to live the Word of Wisdom. I promised her I would run a mile every single day until she gets baptized. We went back on Wednesday and she confessed that she had been drinking the rest of her jug of sweet tea trying to finish it off. We were devastated. So one thing led to another and the spirit did it's thing, and we were standing in her kitchen cheering her on as she poured every last drop of the sweet tea down the drain!!!! SHE IS SUCH A MIRACLE!

I've ran 26.2 in the pouring rain, what's 1.3 more?

.....then I got super super sick on wednesday and thursday because there's actually a hurricane outside and we wanted to keep our promise about running so we still ran in the pouring rain...... don't try this one at home kids.

Later in the week we had exchanges with some sisters and it was SO FUN! I was like "okie doke Sister Whatcott, I have no idea what I'm doing so let's just go for it." And then MIRACLES! We happened to go to the library and while we were there, this guy walks straight past us, turns around, and then introduces himself! As we talk with him, we find out that he has been friends with all the missionaries that have come through this area for the past couple years or so. Turns out he's been kind of out of contact with them but he was so nice! And get this, his last name is "Moormen" LIKE WHAT. That's not even a joke. He ended up coming to our volleyball shin dig that night. Well it was good at first, but then we quickly got into a soft bible bash, LIKE WHAT. The Elders, just like walked away, HAHA. So me and Sister Evensen held our ground, invited, testified, showed charity, welcomed him to stay and play volleyball. It was crazy. But I felt like the spirit was actually able to be in that convo because we were standing in the church! MIRACLE.

(SAUCES)

So basically me and Sis E have the most unified companionship with the spirit and we were able to testify and back each other and it was beautiful. The next day at church our lesson was on witnesses and double edged swords. The gospel will pierce souls when the testimonies of two or three (spirit) witnesses bear it. Whenever I have no idea what to do, I look at my companion, we look up, and we say that what He says, is what we say. Because we're the ultimate Newsies, spreading the GOOD NEWS OF THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL.

SEIZE THE DAY, SEIZE THE MOMENT. And for all you humans in the world not living in Alabama.... Ezekiel 20:29, my heart goes out to ya.

It's a birthday present.... from ME

Welp. Nothing new for the new kids on the block. Oh except one small thing.... HAPPY 8 MONTHS TO ME AND SIS E         

 SISTER  p e t e r s e n