11/17 The Last and Most Beautiful Letter from the Mission

I just bought out Sarajevo when I was up there on my exchange! I have so many souvenirs I think I’m turning into a Muslim-so it’s cool... I like it! ha but #really!  It was a great exchange except for the fact it got cut short cause I worked this poor missionary so hard that she threw up because her body was not used to it. I felt like we really didn’t do a whole lot, but I felt so bad for her! Sister Chauncey said, "Sister Peterson your work and other missionary work is on a totally different playing field.., you contact everyone and their mom, and work hard and you don’t ever get tired... you’re not normal!" 

The other day I got really tired when we were at dinner with the senior couple. Sister Chauncey was like, "I’m writing this down in my journal and calling people it in to the mission to tell them Sister Peterson is finally tired!!" It was so funny!   I guess you know that’s when I’m hitting the end of my mission. 

When I say those words, I feel like someone just stabbed a knife in my heart.  I have never felt heartbroken before and now I know what it's like. The pain that you don’t know how you  can live without these crazy, weird  people in your life, who you have grown to love and occupy your thoughts 24/7. When you come on a mission you think the people need you so much but at the end you realize how much you truly needed them. You go out to teach them and you come back realizing how much they taught you. You got out to help them have a might change of heart but come back realizing you are the one who had the mightiest change of heart. That they have shaped you and opened a whole side of your heart you never knew you had. 

I have come to know full confidence that the scriptures are for our day and age and that they have the power to speak to us to lead us and guide us now more than ever. The scriptures are still being fulfilled through us now a days. The Lord is counting on us now to fulfill the scriptures until the day he will come in all is glory to embrace us, reaching out to us. I will be eternally grateful for that opportunity I had to serve him and to be used as a servant to the Balkan people and to embrace them and reach out my arms to hold them when they didn’t know what to do or where to turn. To give them hope that we can get through the hard times. That God does exist and Jesus Christ is our savior and one day it will be Christ arms holding them.  I stand by Mosiah as he said: 

Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God.17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. “

                                                                                                -Mosiah 2:16-17

 Through my service I truly feel selfish cause “The lord has opened the windows of heaven,” and poured me out a blessing!  When you serve,  you truly are the one that feels  more blessed.  We say we sacrifice two years of our life,  but it is no sacrifice at all.  

You realize that these have been the best years of your life , That you have had the best moments of your life here and have felt the most happiness here on the mission. That you 

not only made new friendships here but you have strengthened your relationship with your Savior, your Redeemer, even Jesus the Christ. I love saying Redeemer because I have truly felt his redeeming love  he has for me  and for all these children who need his light so much. 

This is his work .This gospel is true! God is our heavenly father who made us in his image and he sent his son, our chosen brother,  to come and “lead us, guide us walk beside us to help us find the way” so we return to our father and love ones once again.  I know that this is all possible though my Redeemer, Christ. Through trials and taking leaps of faith  I have grown to have a solid  unbreakable  testimony that this church is true and that the BOOK OF MORMON IS THE MOST TURE BOOK ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH  and the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together.  That a mission is the best thing I have ever done inmy life and that this is the lords work and nothing can stop  it but he wants to invite everyoneto partake in it. 

My eyes fill with tears as it all went by too fast.  My little kid dream of serving a missionhas been fulfilled  and it far exceeded my expectation.  But I know it is not the end, that now I truly know about how member missionary work is so important and can’t wait to go home and get to work and do what I love best “preaching the everlasting true gospel” I already have a referral=)

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сестра питерсон

Coming HOME!

Sister Brianne Peterson will come home this Week!
Her friends and family anxiously await her arrival!

11/11 Letter

 I just got my first visa on my mission today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW its really happened!!!!!!!!!!

We had so many amazing lessons this week with marija and then we mare cookies with leila and gave her an awesome lesson adn she said she wants to be baptized  and she will be at one day but in here cause of the life but .... well ok thats better then last week but we are still working on it. 

Then we read Alma 5 and she said she has had a might change of heart when she had a child and when she started meeting with us!  

 Its is great to serve with sister chancey again and im so excited we are having a blast!!  Then we sand in church she has a great voice!!   Well family i will tell so some great blessing that happen this week when i get home cause i have  no time to day cause of signing up for classes! so sorry! but i love my life we are u keep working hard!

Here's some more pictures from my mission:

Now on Instagram!

You can now follow Sister Brianne Peterson on Instagram! Follow the last three weeks of Brianne's mission @ LDSbanjaluka

11/3 Letter

Wow can we just say i have had the most crazy week of my life and the surprises and the traveling still have not stopped!!! I am starting to understand how dad feels!!! this week we have been going non stop waking up at 5  hitting 3 countries in 3 hours and well still trying to have lessons. 

On Monday we  traveled 4 hours  to Serbia to have a conference with a member of the seventy on wed. we we went to novi sad (a city in serbia) and did exchanges with the sister  on monday and  Tuesday. WE contacted all day and worked really hard it i finally got to work with a sister from my mtc group! it was way good to see us both work and what we have discover what works really well with these people. NOvi sad is cool but im happy i am serving in banja luka! It was way cool to see a different city and country and the different church building! so then on wed we had to drive 1 hour to get to beograd where we had the conference! it was to see just blown up buildings from the war but but then again there is a lot of buildings still blown up from the war that no one had touched. SO i was not that shocked to see it like that any more. 

It was great to hear from the 70 member and one this that really hit me hard was when he said. "the christ mission was 3 years but if we take away his last week of his mission the it would not have mattered." It hit me like a ton of bricks that i need to really give it my all up the the very last hour!  That the last week of my mission will be on one that will really count! THen after that all the missionaries going home  Which is 7 that out of the 40 that here missionaries there ( the other 40 were in Croatia and that's all the missionaries we have from our mission) gave a 30 sec testimony of there mission.  I cant believe it was my last Zone conference!  Then the 70 member called me out and said imagine yourself in san antonio texas talking to stake president and removing your name tag... shoot when he said that tears just stared rolling down my face!  Why did he have to call me out of y'all the people!  i had not though or really didn't know what was going to happen when i got home until he told us! that is the sadest thing ever! Im sorry i love you brother spendlove but if a see you and run the other away ...dont take it personally its nothing against you!=)  He said " if tears dont come down your face then you should really think about your mission again, good thing a river was streaming down my face!  But then after that he showed us a great video clip. THen we came home to Banja luka and were here for a day! we met with leila our investigator  and asked her to get baptized! we she i would be baptized if i lived somewhere else but here if your not Orthodox or Muslim your not accepted. I love the church but maybe in a few years  when im out of here!  I have been reading in Alma 5 talking about a mighty change of heart and so told her"  our plans are different from the lords plans he knows us better, trust in him he will help you know what to do but you have to trust.  He has not left you (the spirt was so strong) so i said what your feeling right now is the Holy ghost or his spirt to help you know the truth of all things.  and that we talked about the Holy spirit before baptism and after.

How god Jesus and the holy ghost are one in purpose but different people, like a candle the wax is solid like god who has a body of flesh and bone the same with the wick thats christ but the flame is the holy spirit you cant hols it cause its a gas but you can feel it, its warmth. The feeling that we are feeling now is the holy ghost! so will you please pray to know what you need to do!" she said yes ill pray and thanked us for asking her!!!! wow thats a first=) so we shall see and keep her in your prayers!  then the next day we went to Zagreb for leadership meeting  and came home a 8 at night! Then on Saturday we have 3 lessons and got 2 new investigators  and we had one investigator came to church! well thats all for now but i love you all and hope all is well!!

here is our instagram page so go and like it!!

LDSbanjaluka

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10/27 Letter

Well everyone i have passes the final test im totally ready for motherhood haha!!!!! why you may ask well..... on Wednesday while we were teaching the kids English my comp turns around and says i don't feel good! O Shoot!  then she just felt sick during the whole time and then we had to get one the bus sitting backwards..... aka no a good idea... then this old grandma was in front of us and i turn my head to find im poor companion throwing up on the bus!!!! I did know who to feel worst for,the grandma sitting in across from my comp in the splash zone or my comp who doesn't have a bag or anything .. i was going to give her my purse to use but then i thought..um better not with book of Mormons inside!   so the Little old grandma whips out a bag and hands it to me to help my comp( she is such a champ). if i would have seen this before my mission i would have thrown up with my comp but it didn't even effect me cause i was so worried about her and next thing you know im sitting there cleaning it up of the bus walls!  So missions prepares you for all things in life =) oh man but you should have seen this grandmas face haha. so That was an event to experience! then on Thursday we were taking it easy  cause she was still not feeling well after having food poisoning( everyone has to have it once on there mission ha)=) But we started to prepare for out big Halloween party here!!! they dont celebration and they also don't have any decorations here so i have gone ghetto status and have been using toilet paper  for streamers!!  Croatia had decorations but Bosnia is just Ghetto ha  but i love it so much! we were in charge of the whole party so we spent like 2 days buying thing making cakes and cupcakes! so our friends made cupcakes with us and then after  we had a great gospel conversation and they wants to know more! so we have two new investigators ! one of the girls loves how our church wants people to learn and no more about different religions and people and to continue learning cause in the  Orthodox church and don't talk to another churches cause they are sects, they don't even want you to hang out with them or you you need to be clean with holy water ( thats why everyone is Orthodox or Muslim and they live one two different sides of town, its like the musical west side story in Banja Luka , the rest of the cities are just Muslim in Bosnia !  so speaking of that we went to hang out and meet our friend  to see if she was more interested in the gospel well...... lets just say she is very orthodox and she said i love yall so much and i see you have the light of Christ and i love talking about Christ with yall.... so i bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon   about how because of it  i have more knowledge  of Christ my savior because of it i understand the bible better and the Jews better the promises from Abraham that are given to us all ..all gods children!   So when i tried to give her a book of mormon she said im sorry dont talk it personal but  if i take it i just have to BURN it. i dont even have a bible in my house cause we just listen to the priest read it and he tells us what to do!  i should not even been seen with and then called us sect about 5 times  but then said i love you adn if you want you have a place to stay when you come back cause i look more on the human heart then the out side! she is a great person and god was just saying dont wast your time she is not prepared ...now ha! i have been studying that a lot this week where  rejection is really ok cause  then you can find the prepared faster! the field is WHITE ready to harvest not YELLOW OR BROWN ..WHITE! so we will know the prepared, if we look at it that way as a missionary's we would be much happier=)  then The halloween party was great!! we had about 40 there our investigator leila brought her son who was so funny and while i was bobbing for apples he pushed my head in all the way in the water.. i he is cute 3 year old! we had face paint, cookies decorating,  played the mummy rapping game!  everyone had a blast!  bust the best part leila has not been to church cause she said her kids is crazy but want to come we took her up stairs to show her our church cause we have a two story building down stairs is english, up is church and she loved it! I said i know its not big but its full of light, and she said no.. its perfect you don't need anything big and i feel the light. She just love the organization of the church and it was cool how we were like its quiet but peaceful here and but then you do down stairs and there a huge party! i think it really made an impression. that we are small but the spirit is very big here.  Then the next day we had a great church attendance of 8!!!! i think that is like the best we have had! marija is just my best friend (the one who was baptized a month ago,mom when i look at her i see you!)  Then i did the translation into serbian in church for Sunday school for the first time! i was nervous but i liked doing it!  well so many more blesings happened but i have to leave cause we are going to serbia for elder dikes a 70 will be talking to us!  have a good week and know that i love you all so much!!! 

sestra peterson 

10/20 letter

This week was full of new experiences- some sad, some great. Since we are a walking mission, have don't have cars, my companion made me buy new shoes. My old ones had huge holes in them and it was raining like crazy, so my feet were just covered in mud ha. 

We went on an exchange with the Tuzla Sister and it was great! Mom- the sister I was on an exchange with knew all these VBS song and we just sang those all the time. 

The saddest thing happened as we were contacting. We contacted this lady and said, "What are the 3 most important things in your life?" She was  like, "I dont know so don't ask. Ask my daughter." Then she said, "My husband and my two of my children just died." We were shocked and so sad and she started crying. After a few mins of silence I said, "Well God has a plan of happiness and we would love to share it with you!" Then she went off saying how there is no happiness there is no God! I was shocked did not know what to do i wanted to run after her and say, "Wait its a plan where you can see your family and be happy!"  But on the street that might look a little scary. I still don't know why i had that experience and i felt bad about it the whole day  just i hear a talk by Holland about the same situation but but tracking and the guy said "Do you want to know where your family is?" Shoot, why did I not say that? I don't know but i really hope that woman will feel peace.  my comp at the time said, well not every experience can be a conference talk.  Maybe one day I will understand.

Then we met a woman who's daughter lives in  Melbourne, NJ so I got a contact for the NJ missionaries and maybe I will see her when I go to grandma and grandpa house!  

We had a great English class turn out!  We also did some more contacting and because the church has only been opened for 2 years in the country we just have great contacting stories!  e were talking to this girl and she asked us, "What church are you? Your not Muslim cause you have Jesus on your name tag- you must be pravoslav ..orthodox because your tag is in Cyrillic."  We said, "No we are a Christian church." The Lady asked, "Which one Catholic or Orthodox?" 

Imagine being in a place where no one has ever heard of the church they only know 3 religious groups!  Everything comes religion even the language! What language you speak determines were you are from and what your religion!  Banja Luka is a special place because  its in Bosnia but is under the federation of Serbia, like Texas is under the united stated but is the lone star  and could leave when ever ha.  And everything is 50 years behind the times here ha. its great to see people cut the grass with a sickle.  

The we had a great phone call with this lady we met on the street once and she would totally become an member but she lives like an hour away by car   so we has no way to get to church so we cant teach her! how lucky are we to have a place we  can go to church when others would like to but don't have the chance! How lucky are the people here to have the church in BL when others have no clue about it and there is nothing we can do about it! How blessed are we to sit back at home for 3 hours in a church where it is safe and we can feel the spirit so strong when we gather together when others cant have that but would love that. It really made me thing church is only 3 hours to help us and how we talk it for granite I love this work and the people cause they need it so bad! 

Well this week we found 9 investigators! so hope this week is just as good! 

love you lots and make it a great week! 

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