Shelby Peters	Dec 2 (2 days ago)
to me

I can't believe it's December.  It's still not too cold here, though. WAit I take that back.  it's super cold in the morning (my companion's a runner so we go running every morning) and it's pretty cold. 

haha you have no idea how worried we get when our investigators come to fast and testimony meeting... we try to have something always available that we can distract them with if we need to haha.  For example, we have a new investigator named Shanalle (she is a miracle.  She just called us one day without us knowing her or anything and just asked if she could learn more about the Mormon church.  Never in my life have I met someone with as great of faith as she has.  I'll write you a letter about her.  She is inspiring) but anyway, we were at church and in sunday school, the teacher asked us to stand one by one and mention a talent that we have.  this one guy stood up and said, "well I have the potential to become a god,so..." funny, right? NO! Shanalle just looked at us and said. "...okayyy....?" and we were like "gah!!!!!!!!!" but even despite that, she agreed to get baptized on the 22nd!  4 investigators and 3 baptisms coming up! Whoot!  I don't even know what I did to deserve this. This ward hadn't seen a baptism in a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time. That's so cool the missionaries in your ward have an investigator :)

I'm not surprised the boys are being stinkers.  haha it makes me laugh. I actually kinda miss it.

'Go Jerome!!! I hated Jerome so much when i was in high school, but now I have so much Jerome pride hahaha.  Did they do a fall play this year?  I was thinking about that a little while ago. 

 okay, i'm out of time, but I would like the purple fox jacket if that's okay. and maybe instead of the redfish one, you could send the purple hoodie i bought in pocatello. the one i complained about maranda pressuring me into buying... if you don't know what i'm talking about then just send the redfish one haha.

I'm so proud of Meagan!

okay i'm seriously out of time, but I love you! have a great week! thanks for everything!

 

Shelby Peters	Nov 18
to me

Okay, I don't even know where to start.... This week has been amazing!

I'll start by saying that I am NOT getting transferred and I am staying in the mount herman ysa ward :D  I am so grateful!!!!!!!!! I know we don't get fed much, but I am SO GRATEFUL I get to keep working with Chase and Joseph!!! Did I tell you about Joseph? He's our other new investigator that we got. We rely pretty much alone on member referrals to get new investigators because generally people only get interested in the church if their friends invite them.  All of the people Sister Larsen and I have found on our own have always backed out sooner or later.  But Chase and Joseph (Chase especially) are staying strong!! Unfortunately, we had to move Chase's baptism date again because he missed church again to go skiing with his friends.  We have only ourselves to blame for that, though, because we didn't explain to him that he had to come to church at least 3 times before he gets baptized.  When we told him that, he was like, (in his Virginian southern accent)  "Ah, if I woulda known that, I woulda told mah friends no way!"  That made me really happy :)  So his new date is for the 7th of December.  I'm so excited! I've attached a picture of him and Drew and Sis Larsen and I.  Drew is on the right by me and Chase is on the left by sis Larsen.  In our heads we're both thinking "AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" because they put their arms around our shoulders haha.

So Joseph is this guy we're working with who has a TON of questions about the church, but doesn't particularly want to join haha.  Right now he just wants to learn more about Mormons.  His friend Alysha invited him to church and she's been great fellowship for him.  I worry a little bit though cause sometimes I think he's more interested in Alysha than he is in our religion :( that happens a lot.  But we've had meetings without her there and he's still ready to learn lots.  He always makes us food which is WAY nice of him.. except last time he made fish and I couldn't have any :(  we all felt really bad haha.  We asked him if he was going to come to church and he said probably not, but we got to church yesterday and he was there!!! He did the same thing when we invited him to a baptism the Elders had.  he said he wasn't going to go, but we showed up and there he was!  I really think he's going to get baptized, but it might take a while.  I'm so grateful I have more time to work with him. 

Okay now for another amazing part of the week: Last Wednesday, the day after I emailed you asking about Jake, we went to see this girl Ashley Ricks who had given us a referral (her friend named Shelby haha).  First of all I need to let you know how much i LOVE the Ricks family.  I got Sister Ricks' autograph because she wrote a book called... dangit I can't remember what it's called, but I'm going to read it when I get back! It's about dragons.  You can actually buy the ebook online if you're super interested. Her full name is Patricia J Ricks.  Anyway I love her to death.  She is so spunky and down to earth.  They have 7 kids and the youngest two are adopted.  Ryan has down syndrome and he is the most adorable little thing I have ever seen in my life!!!! Nathan also has special needs, and he is the most friendly little guy I've ever met :)  Their family is really struggling right now and their house might get foreclosed because Brother Ricks can't find a job anywhere :( I wish there was more that we could do to help.  So we stopped by on Wednesday to find that the sister missionaries from their family ward were already there having ice cream, so we just had this big ice cream party haha. In passing, sister Ricks said, "So, all of the missionaries in the Philippines have been accounted for."  Then sis Larsen and I looked at each other and I started crying haha it was a very happy moment!

Now for the best part of the week!  On Friday we went to the church with all the missionaries in the surrounding zones for what was called a "mission tour."  We were asked to study covenants in order to prepare for the mission tour because Elder Shane M. Bowen of the seventy was going to come and teach us about covenants.  I learned so much!!!!!!!!!!! SO much!!! After he spoke to us and all the missionaries were eating lunch, one of the AP's came up to me and told me that I was chosen to be one of the six missionaries that Elder Bowen wanted to interview personally!  Six out of about 60 missionaries or so.  I was kind of nervous, but it was one of the best experiences of my life.  One of the reasons he chose me was because I'm a 19 year old missionary.  He asked me what I had learned and then he asked, "is there anything at all that you want to talk about?"  I thought for a while and then told him about my decision to serve a mission and about my experience with receiving my call.  I expressed how I had prayed to know if I was supposed to go to Colorado and that I had received an overwhelming answer that I was.  But even though I had that, I would still let myself get discouraged about it.  He interrupted me and told me that he KNEW I was supposed to be here. He said that he had seen the apostles assign mission calls and that it is such an amazing experience and it is through direct revelation that they assign those calls.  I guess I already knew that, but I was so amazing for a general authority to tell me that personally.  He told me a lot of other things that I needed to hear and I made sure to write them in my journal.  He told me I had a bright smile and bright eyes and he was impressed with my confidence.  Lastly, he assured me of how much my Savior loves me and made sure that I knew that for myself :)  The day after I met with him, I kept waiting for the feeling discouragement to arise in myself about serving stateside.  Not even once did that happen, nor has it happened since. Instead, the Spirit keeps testifying to me of why I DO need to be here.  It's amazing.  You would not believe how much I love this place and how honored I am to serve here.  I never want to leave.  My heart is here and that's where it should be for another 15 months. 

I love you so much!  I can't wait to hear from you soon :) I pray for you and the rest of the family all the time!

-Sister Shelby Peters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shelby Peters	Nov 12
to me

Coeur d'Alene sounds so wonderful.  And kinda cold.  Was it cold?  It hasn't been cold at all here.  Okay, I take that back... but it's never really cloudy.  Yesterday was really hot and today it probably going to be the same and I can't believe it!  But I would love it if you could send me some of my jackets.  The dressy ones I have are good for proscelyting, but i need some for service.  So maybe you cold send me  my red redfish lake one and my purple fox jacket?  That would be wonderful :)  Oh, could you also send me that blue fat curling iron?  No rush on anything. Thanks for sending those cds!! ps I highly doubt i will get transferred, but I won't find out until next monday.  So maybe in a few days if you send anything, start sending it to the mission address and they'll make sure it gets to me whether I'm transferred or not.  And then when I find out where I'll be, I'll let you know if I have a new address. :)  haha it's really crazy here in Colorado cause there's a lot of pot dispensaries and you'll see gas stations advertize their prices for how much you can get per gram and whatnot haha.  I don't really know why I thought to tell you that... but yeah.

Oh my goodness, that is so crazy about Dallin and Cassie!  I couldn't help but cry when I read that, not because I was worried, but because I know the Lord is watching over you all.

I emailed Sister Harris today and she emailed me back, so I will be keeping in touch with her and keep you updated on any adventures she has :)  Tell Sister Bautista she is also wonderful!! Thanks for keeping me updated on what's going on in the ward :)  It's been pretty exciting to have so many sisters in our mission here.  They're going to start opening new areas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully they will open up New Mexico for sisters in our mission because i want to go there so so so bad! And maybe we'll start getting Spanish sisters :D (I'm secretly hoping that I'll get switched to spanish speaking *cough* what?*)  

We went to the zoo again this week to do service and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is seriously the best thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Coolest zoo ever. We got to feed some giraffes and the zookeepers also let us go in the wallaby habitat and pet them :) 

We have another new investigator named Joseph.  He has a ton of questions and it's quite overwhelming haha.  But he's a great guy and I know that the Spirit will testify of these truths to him.  I'm a little worried about our investigator Chase because he was out of town this weekend and didn't come to church (which means we have to push his baptism date back another week) and he also hasn't texted us back at all since then... So keep praying for him.  I really hope i get to stay another transfer in this area so I can keep working with them.

My heart aches for Brother and Sister Perry.  I will continue to pray for them.  I did email him like dad suggested, but if you get the chance, let them know that I'm thinking of them and I'm grateful that they've supported me in all of my plays and for all of the home teaching they did for us.

I love you so much!

Oh yeah!!! and thanks SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for the package!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, I'm so grateful!  The treats were delicious and I'm still working on the cheeseball :D  And I'm so excited about the Christmas tree and window decorations you gave me!!!!!!!!!!! and nutella!!!!!! oh and the pillowcase!!!!!!! and sister larsen loves hers, too! I love everything so much! I picked the pillowcase with the fat penguins :)  I think you knew I would haha.  Thanks so much.  I really appreciate it.

I love you! I'll do my best to write a letter this week :)

-Shelby

ps write me about Jake if you find out anything