3/24/14 Letter

Hallo!!! 

Well this was full of fun filled adventures with traveling to Zagreb to pic up my new Companion. I know this might come as a shock to everyone but... i was at the police office helping another missionary with stuff then picked up some lunch, and 3 min before i entered the office i got a call saying, "Sister Peterson where are you? Your Comp is here are your not".... joj..NOT AGAIN!  They came 30 min early ...so technically i was not late but well story of my life! i totally guessed my new companion right from the bat so that was cool. 

Then we went contacting in the same place i did my first day and poor thing was so nervous. But I stopped her and said we have 10 min left and we are going to give away a book of Mormon, so who do u think is pondering the purpose of life? She said " that old guy looks nice?".. and i was like "Uh you know old men are really creepy lets try this high school girl." So we talked to her and bingo she was the lucky winner!! We had a gospel conversation and got her number and gave her a Book of Mormon! On the bus we gave a way another Book of Mormon coming to rijeka- to this mom. She was totally reading it and was so nice! Then when we got off the bus and the first person that talks to us is a Mormon from Utah who is a BYU professor. 

While we were talking, some drunk people stated yelling at us saying speak Croatian your in my country and making a whole seen at the bus station. I felt so bad cause her first ten minutes she got yelled at. I was like, "I promise his has never happened to me it's ok." 

Then some of the first members she met said they were leaving the church and then she looked down at her plate and saw the glasses and plates were all dirty... shoot I mean, well the good thing now is that things can only get better from here, and they did. It was Sunday night and we were just about to about to go home  when i thought about an English student lives over here where we were and we should go see her. I had no clue what building she lived in or her last name but we are going to try cause we have about 30 min left. As i was walking i was praying where does this person live.. so i went to his one building and i was like no its locked and I'm just not feeling it .. so I went to the other door and it was locked but I was like I need to ring the doorbell. So someone lets us in and we are about to start knocking on doors when the impression come to my mind. She has a hurt leg start at the bottom. so we start knocking on the bottom floor and it was the third door and i think i head a voice so i said lets try this door... AND GUESS WHO OPENS THE DOOR!! IT WAS THE FAMILY  WE WERE LOOKING FOR!! SO WE TALKED ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON and sang for them and they want us to come back tomorrow!  It was so great to end on a note like that! 

The Lord works miracles and Bednar says, "if we are a good boy or girl...then thoughts will just come to our minds aka the spirit."

Well that's all for now I'm so excited for this week an hope all is well back at home=) Have the faith ...keep the faith .. apply the faith=) that's what a gave a talk about on Sunday as me and my new comp also sang in church! 

 

s ljubavju,

sestra peterson

Another Letter From Over Seas to Brianne's Mother...

Sunday at a lovely service, a couple from Utah just happened to run into a Croatia woman coming to services, after the service they took your number to call when they return to the US.

Your daughter sang at the end. Her fellow missionary Sister Rankin was leaving for the north and both were emotional,  I sat in the back and gave them the sign END THE TEARS,   

her language skills are so admirable. at a dinner party a few weeks ago, one of the guests a local, Andre thought she was a native.  the words trip off her tongue.    

all the best,

ellen   
keep me in your prayers

A Special Message to Brianne's Mother From Over Seas...

To the mother of Brioni,

Since meeting your lovey daughter a few months ago, she has added  pleasure to my life, what exuberance. Since I am considerably older, consider me a surrogate mother and I do it with pleasure since I have never had any children.You would be so proud of her. God has blessed her with a spirit of great love and compassion. she is behaving herself,  love all her wonderful stories.

kindest regards, 

ELLEN Kamienowski, 
orginally from NYC but call Rijeka, my new home.

Wonderful sister "Ellen". 

 

Your words touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for your kind and loving words. I am glad you are getting to see what I know in my heart to be true. She is one of the most loving and beautiful children of God both inside and out. She is so excited to be among the people of Rjeka. Thank you for being so loving to her and for being a surrogate mother to her.she is so blessed to have you in her life at this time. Please give her a big hug from me.  And I  am sending you a big hug for you as well through this e-mail. 

 

Have a wonderful day.

 

Lovingly, 

 

Wendy Peterson

3/17/14 Letter

Elder Faznat called me and said, "SISTER PETERSON YOUR HAVING A BABY!!!"  I never thought I would hear that on my mission!! haha. (It means I'm going to be a trainer to a brand new missionary, which are called baby.)" I wasn't shocked cause President told me the day before i would be training one of the two sister coming from America.  

 

This week was the best week of filled with so many miracles and amazing things! i truly saw the Lord's hand in all things!  So to start us off I will talk about the amazing sisters conference! All the 30 sisters from from all the countries got together got together for a fun spiritual day! We all spent the night in the mission home cause its huge!! It has a tennis court and swimming pool (i wanted to jump in so bad)! Each of the sister training leaders prepared a lesson over like stress management, emotional things and the language of faith in all things! It was so awesome the spirit was so strong the who time!  Blair they talked about all the key indicators in your spent program but didn't think of the cool name SPENT!  After that we had free time- when we played nerts or peanuts. Others were singing on the piano or talking taking pictures. It was so fun just to be in the mission presidents house playing with his kids and to see president get in the games and sing with us!  I brought out the orange Texas jump suit to show president. haahah  It was so funny- and the next thing i know he puts on his BYU shirt from 25 years ago and comes walking down the stairs to show me! It was so great to see that funny side of him what people don't see. ahah He just wanted to be part of the girls sleepover and I'm a got the pic to prove it!!!  Then we had FHE with his family as his daughters taught it about James 1: 5 in the Bilble. They used the missionary tool to teach: ask inspired questions, testify, and promise. Prez Rowe talked about how we will use these tools now as missionaries to be the best mothers and to teach our children and prepare them for their mission. I truly saw how important FHE is and i cant wait to make that a priority in my house. I shared a comment about  in verse 6:
"But let him ^aask in ^bfaith, nothing ^cwavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."  

 

I talked about how i was in Cali with Elyse 2 years ago and how we went out to far and next thing u know we were both under the water a long time and i though to myself wow i really need some air soon. Then i got out from the waves but Elyse was not and i could not find her but just saw waves keep coming. If we have wavering faith... if we go where the waves are bigger than normal  then its a good chance that bigger waves will keep on crashing on top of us letting us not breath or blocking us from getting our answer. We have to stay next to the shore where there is peace where there is no waves no distractions in life  from getting our answer. We have to have absolute faith if we really want an answer.

 

So then the next day i punched on the punching bag they have in the house and President said i could buy one for the rijeka apt if i wanted to!!! It felt so good to use the punching bag again and i will buy one for the apt! Then I organized a football game, (i mean it's just in my blood). After, we had scripture study and then we talked about grace which I really need to hear about. After that we had a testimony meeting and man there was not a dry eye in the place. the spirit as so strong!!!!  It like youth girls camp testimony but on steroids!!  then we left and prez pulled me aside and said, "So how do u fell about training?" The rest is history. Sister conference came at the right time for everyone as all everyone felt like they were in a slump and just a block in the road-like at the low point of a wave and a sisters conference we talked about that and now everyone life the conference left with that fire in our bones again to work our hardest!   

 

Then we came back to an amazing lesson with Antonija and her family and her son received a blessing. He has to go to Germany to have his eye fixed or he will go blind in one eye-and antonija has no money.  Antonija has some of the strongest faith i have ever seen  and i had a feeling to tell her husband that there son can be healed if he has faith in all things. Her husband has been in on a few lessons but it has not been first on his mind. After we started talking about faith. I talked about Elyse how she has had a lot of problems with her leg but through blessings she has been able to recover every time. Then he started to cry as he said I have faith, from the first time i met you my home felt different. When antonija was in the hospital for 3 weeks, no one saw here, not even our parents, but then i called here and heard  y'all were there right next to her brought tears of joy to my face. Wow ok now i started crying cause the spirit was so Strong. I could see him understand and feel the Holy Ghost and wanting to come closer to Christ!  We asked him to get baptized and he said YES!!!!  ahhh Wow! Talk about the best moment of my life!!  Sometimes it truly takes hard trials to see that we need Christ help and what we can not walk this path alone! I WILL NEVER Forget THAT MOMENT! That's why i am here and its is bringing me the most joy then i ever had in my life!

Then we had another lesson with a less actives wife who is not a member and we talked about how the judgment and grace and mercy. It's not going to be a scary thing cause the the Lord will  be there pleading our case saying please use the atonement I died for you, use me! She loves weight training so i spoke and my mouth was fill with not my words but the Lords as grace is like lifting weights. He is our spotter. When we are bench pressing and we think we cant do it anymore Christ does not just lift up the bar for us cause then we all know will be mad at our self saying shoot i could have gotten that one last rep!  but he slowly helps us out  just giving us that little extra strength support so we can really feel like we accomplished it, that we gave it our all and got that last rep. When we repent its not going to be easy and its going to make u shake and soar  but u will become a better and stronger person because of it! Then she said, "Everything u said i felt it was true. I want to read the book of Mormon now and I will pray to know if it is true!"  It was so amazing and once again the spirit was so s strong!  

Well that's about all I have time for- I love my mission. I'm really so blessed to be here in this mission!

3/10/14 Letter

Uvijek Dobro Jutro!!!

Hallo!!! All girls raise your glasses (with sok) because yesterday was the Day of Women!!!  Its where girls get a rose! It's kinda of like Mother's Day but four ALL women.

Well this week is transfers so I'm nervous!! i love my companion but i think she is leaving cause she has been here for a long time-but we will see. I am understanding the language which is nice and its crazy how time is flying!!

We had a lesson with Blanka about the the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness. It's the plan that God has prepared for us for how we can return to live with him again. The plan answers where we are going after this life  what is our purpose here on this life. Blanca is an English student and man she just gets it!! wow I just love her as she just call us her little beautiful teachers haha!  I Love teaching the plan of happiness because it makes so muchsense!!!

This life is a time for us to be tested  to act on our faith to grow and over come obstacles and to lean on our savior who gave his all for us. And through him we can live with our family forever! That's what Antonia loved because she lost her baby girl (her son Filip's twin sister) after she was born.

 "If God truly loves us then he would want us to live with our family's forever and not just death do us part." Well, Antonia's family i just love that her boy friend is becoming more interested in the lessons!!! 

Then we talked with this one one girl in our building who  who plays the piano and studies voice like me! We were invited into her church and we sang together. Then she said, "Lets sing in church together and i will play." (I'm not pianist anymore cause they need my voice to sing haah) I was SO excited  and then we had the questions of the soul open on the table and she was said, "I would like to know the purpose of life and can this book really answer it?"

YES!  So we told her about it and she now has a Book of Mormon, and we are like best friends now. But then on Sunday she said she couldn't sing in church with us because the Catholic priest doesn't allow is to go to other churches. (I was thinking wow that's real Christ like.) I was like i am a missionary right now and i been to the Catholic church... with so many Churches on the earth today don't u want to know what ones for u? She said, "i have grown up a catholic and its like a sin to leave the church here."  

I was so sad to see the fear she had if she went to come sing and play the piano for us. so instead  we are just going to sing the song we practiced for an aktivnost on Friday cause we didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. On Tuesday we went to investigators house for her sons 4th birthday which was way fun! well that's about all here!!! God bless all!!!
xoxox Sestra peterson

3/3/14 Letter

Dobro dan! Nadem se da sve uredu. vi to mozemo! 

Well this week was full of parties and really trying to get the members involved with the English class students to have that member missionary work going. 

There are so many thoughts and growing experiences that happened i just don't know where to start!  

Well  i put together  a big fiesta party to as  i made tacos and it was a hit we had so many people in church!!!  and we got 2 new investigators from it! one was the NY Ellen who saw the time line of the book of Mormon and that it was so great! i said Ellen we would love to talk to you more about it cause it blessed my life and i you would find it so interesting!  Then on Sunday we had 3 investigators and two less actives there!!! The work is going forward!  Now we just have to build the members faith! 

We had a meeting and we wanted 16 baptisms here and the members said lets be real here... last year we had 7 and that was a miracle... and u want to have 16  to meet the size to become a stake by 2020? The American Branch President Wifte said, "If Rome can have a temple why not us?" 

Then one member said, "We are a small country and Rome is huge...here everyone is leaving to find work and soon we will only have 2 million people! Here we have tradition only 5 people know we are Mormons cause its not normal and you will get hated on here.. it's a big sacrifice unlike any other place."  

Its true... but if we have faith in Christ ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!! FAITH IS SO IMPORTANT, MEMBERS FAITH IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THE MISSIONARIES BECAUSE WE CANT do IT ALL ALONE. IF THE LORD WANTS TO HASTEN THIS WORK HE WILL PROVIDE A WAY!