Flu, "How Great Thou Art", and Cam's Success with the "Ladies"

Hello everyone!
Its a been a great week and its great to hear that everyone else had a
great week as well! I am glad the trips to Seattle were awesome and
that no one died doing prom! Such a fun fun thing! So lets get to it
this week! Its been very busy and quite hectic. Mostly the whole week
I had the flu so I was somewhat out of it all but I am slowly
recovering.

Monday was a very good P-Day! After emailing, we packed up and took
off to meet the Bethlehem Elders in Clarens. Clarens is a very small
but rich town in between the two of us. We went and played catch with
a rugby and cricket ball. We had a good time wandering around the
town. It is very old and classy looking. We went into an old blanket
shop that sells Lesotho Blankets. I think I might grab one this next
monday. But it was nice to talk and play around and not sit at the
boarding all day!

Tuesday was a day full of hard work. Me and Elder Nthengu decided that
we were going to be more consecrated and try to work harder. So we
took off early in the morning and tracted for like 3 hours before
lunch. We found tons of new investigators and had 4 actual lessons!
Heavenly Father definitely blessed us with success. We want to try and
follow the mission schedule better and so we are going to try and
leave earlier and get more teaching done. Hopefully we will be able to
see even more success in the area and find many more investigators.

Wednesday I started the day by going for a long drive with ELder Akal.
We have been driving and I have been able to do everything but
stopping on hills and going again is proving to be more difficult than
I first thought. But I am learning and I have been able to do it
pretty well. We went to the area and meet with Mama Susan to talk
about her baptism. Well she has the flu too. Was the baptism water
that cold? I can't remember if I told you or not, but after the
baptism on Sunday. We were singing How Great Thou Art. I was sitting
next to her when we were singing. After we closed she came up to me
and gave me a huge hug and said, Elder Peterson, I could understand
every word that you said and it made me so happy inside. I really
could have cried right then. We talked more about her baptism and she
is so excited to be confirmed and become a real member of the church.
So after seeing her, we went to Bro Sboniso to talk about his baptism
as well. Well he has the flu too. That water was way too cold
obviously! But we had a good time talking and he is excited to be
confirmed as well. We also went to Gogo Swatland's house and talked
with her. She is 81 years old and about as small and old as anyone
ever could get! Well the first thing she said when we went in is,
"What do I need to do to be baptized?" Guess who is on B-Date now?
haha she is such a funny lady and really just loves the church so
much! I am finding a lot of success with teaching old ladies...

Thursday I was way too sick. I slept until 8 am. Not too good. And
because I wasn't up meant that everyone else stayed asleep too! Not
too consecrated missionaries today... We had our DDM today and Elder
and Sister Bird came. They are the new couple missionary for this
area. They are from Ogden. We talked much about Family History and
tried to make a plan to set up a FH Center at the church. They also
made us some fantastic food! Split Pea Soup! Which normally would be
not so good but we have missed food like crazy! We had a good day in
the area and went to a referral family. We showed up and the young boy
was outside playing soccer so I joined in and played around for a bit.
My soccer skills are really second to none. I am a champion these
days.  It was fun to just play around but we went in and meet with him
and his mom. We had a good lesson and they seem to really enjoy the
message. Hopefully they will be able to progress.

Friday was the day to bunked again. We got ditched by 3 appointments
in a row. Rough day for sure. We went to a Less active family in the
evening named the Kiri Family. This is a family that missionaries
always talk about being great and we needed to go see them so we went.
This family is too crazy. They are great if you want to go over for
stories and talk about random things but once you say anything even
close to the gospel, they close down. So we talked for a while and
tried to ease into a lesson. It was going good... (This is where the
story of the week comes into play) We were talking and the one ladies
little girl comes into the room. She walks right up to the mother and
she just starts breast feeding her right in the middle of the lesson.
I was too disappointed! Hahah I have never seen that in my life and I
was so confused! My companion seemed like nothing was happening and I
just had to stare at the floor! Ehh I was too disappointed to
continue. It was rough haha.

Saturday we did a bunch of random stuff that kind of killed our day.
We started with 3 hours of service at Sis Pino's house. We gardened,
weeded, and cleaned the yard. We went home and showered and then had
to go to Branch COuncil Meeting. We showed up and everything was
chaos. It wasn't a meeting. It was the President giving fire to the
leaders nonstop. I finally just stepped in and tried to give some
encouragment to help them but eish it was too late. I don't think
anything productive happened at all. We left and went to Bro Sboniso.
We talked a lot about Family History and how he could prepare to go to
the temple with those names. It was great and we are seeing that FH is
great for keeping members active!

Sunday came again too fast! Me and Elder Kakaire woke up and made
african pancakes. They are delicious! We cruised to church and
everything was well. Bro Sboniso and Mama Susan were both confirmed
and it was such a great thing to watch! I have been very blessed to
see so much success in this area and to see so many people that I have
helped teach come into the church and be baptised. So after church
when we were leaving, a meeting got out of Presidents office and
everyone came out steaming! None even stayed to talk. They all
left...? No one knows. But we went to Ntate Moloi's house for FHE and
he said that he wasn't going to attend church any longer... We tried
to talk to him and find out why but all he said was he knows that this
church is true but not this branch. He won't be coming back...
Something is happening here and it is not good. We are going to do a
lot of member visits this week and see what is really going on in this
branch.

But everyone, this week has been good. I don't have a bunch of things
to share but it has been a great week to be a missionary. We have
worked hard and found much success in teaching the gospel. My
companion is still weird but we are still going and doing. We have
been trying to work harder and harder and we are really seeing the
fruits of our labors. Hopefully more great things will happen here in
Phuthaditjhaba. I love you all so much and I am so thankful for each
of you. Have a great week and I will talk to you next week!

Love Elder Peterson

P.S. This saturday is going to be transfers and I will see if I am
going somewhere new!! Should be good things to talk about!

Great Feed, "What does a duck say?"

Dumela!

Another week is gone and here I am again! Seems like not much happened this week and it cruised by! But everyone sounds well and had a nice time this week especially up at the temple! Sounds like a very nice day. Well my week hasn't been great but it hasn't been bad but its been a week!

Monday after emailing all of you was quite the good time. We went to Ntate K's house. If you remember he is the old old old man that really loves the deep doctrine and is a little confused sometimes. Well he invited us over to have a braai (BBQ) at his house. We cruised over and were just talking. We started talking about the bible and he brought out a bible I have never seen before in my life! He had an Apocrepha Bible that was printed in 1611. There are only 3 in the world and it is worth $2.7 billion USD! This thing is crazy!! It weighs 25 kg and looks like a book you would find buried in a cave somewhere! It contains a bunch of books that aren't in the bible and one of them even talks about Nephi. I don't know if this is the coolest or scariest thing I have ever seen. But it is definitely interesting.

Tuesday we had to travel to Bethlehem to have our ZTM (Zone Training Meeting). It was good to meet with the other missionaries and see how everyone was doing. They talked a lot about some problems that were happening in the mission and how they needed to get fixed. We wont discuss them though. And they introduced the new way they wanted us to find people. They want to use Family History. It makes sense because all the people here are very very into ancestors and worshipping them so it would interest them, but the problem is there are no centers or computers that the people can use to do their family history... So I don't really know how it is going to work here... But we will see. I also received the Christmas Card and Valentines Day card from the Cunningham Clan, the talks and recipes from mom, and letter #6 from Jacey! I love getting letters so keep them coming!

Wednesday was the most hectic day of the week! We were working to try and meet with our 3 investigators before their baptism interviews on thursday plus we had a full day of other lessons. Well we started out and we were cruising pretty good and were only behind about 15 mins. Well 4 o clock hit and we went to a family for a lunch appointment. We ate and left at about 5:20. We went to Sis P and talked. We decided that she wasn't quite ready for baptism. She wasn't too happy but she is ok. We left her at about 7. At 7:15 we were in a FHE and had a dinner there. After there we went to a birthday party for a member and got feed again! Usually we get feed about 2-3 times a week, we got feed 3 times in under 4 hours! It was fantastic!! But we meet with the ones we needed to to prepare them for their baptism interviews.

Thursday we went for the interviews for Mama S and Bro Sb. I was on exchange with Elder A this time. We went and everything went well. When we went to Mama S I sat outside and just stared at the mountain for like an hour. I was too bored. When we went to Bro Sb, I waited in the sitting room. Well I fell asleep on the couch and took a beautiful nap for about an hour. When they finally awoke me, we were talking about Swaziland and he showed us a video called 'Swaziland without a king' It was very umm interesting. Swazi seems kind of like the real africa you think of. Starving kids, civil wars, no water. Its africa there. You can watch that if you want but I wouldn't recommend it. Too Scary. After the interviews, Elders A and K went to Harrismith and me and Elder N went to a lesson with Sis P. She is from a part member family and is always at church. She is 9 and just wants to be baptized so we went to visit her. Well we were having a nice lesson and everything was good but then the power went out! It was dark so they got out some candles and we had a nice candle light lesson. We started our walk home, in the dark, and made it. Well upon coming inside, we didn't have a flashlight or candles or anything! We pretty much stumbled around in the dark until I found one. Finally at about 10 pm the power came back right in time to go to bed. Disappointing. (I'm guessing he says this is disappointing because they alway, always, sleep with their lights on for safety.)

Friday was a good day. We had our best lessons today. We meet with Sis P again. I was afraid she was going to be angry that I had told her we should wait for her baptism but she was very cool. We rescheduled her for the 6 April. We had a good lesson on prayer and on the importance of keeping the commandments. We just want to make sure that she is really committed and not just going to go inactive after a week. But she is still progressing nicely so all is well. We meet with Bro Nj today again and had another powerful lesson! We were talking about the Book of Mormon and went through the Intro with him. He was very happy with it and says that he feels the book is true but is still waiting for his answer. But he is progressing so so well and has been coming to church with Bro Sb. We are going to have his baptism on the 6 April as well we hope. But it was a very good day.

Saturday we started the day with some serious service! We did 2 hours of yard work at Sis Pr's house (The girl that was the first one I baptised). We cleaned like crazy and weeded for days! But I had a good time pushing Sis S (her 8 year old sister) around in the wheelbarrow. After service we got ready to go into the area. We went and got bunked by every single person. Every single one. We had zero lessons today. It was awful. But we did find a new house to rent! We went and looked at it and it is definitely an upgrade from what we are in now! But the couples have to come see it and see if we will take it or not but hopefully we can so we can get out of GoGo's house. We went to a FHE and had a nice lesson. After we were playing a game called 30 seconds. You have to describe a thing without saying what it is and your team has to guess it. well I was describing the work 'duck' I said, "Its an animal like a goose that says quack quack." The guess from elder K was 'Eagle' and from Elder A was 'Frog'. I just dropped the card and walked away. What????? It was too funny hahah!

Sunday was pretty good. We had a very normal church service. Ntate K talked about the sacrament in priesthood and went too deep. After we went to a couple of lessons with Sis N N and talked just short about the Restoration and then to Mama B to see her. Nothing out of the ordinary surprisingly.

Overall its been kind of a bad week for teaching and such but it has been pretty good. Nothing bad. Me and my companion don't really get along the best though. We don't fight or anything but we aren't good friends. He is too much into studying, talking about deep doctrine, and sharing bible quotes for me. I can't handle him sometimes. He does know his scriptures but he is almost too into them to be able to connect with people... Its interesting. But I am thinking I will be leaving in just like 2 weeks so hopefully it will be good!

I love you all very much and I am so so thankful for all the support I get from everyone! I hope you have a good week and I will talk to you next week!

Love Elder P

"Mission Impossible" Moment & the Gift of Tongues

Dumela!

Hello everyone and welcome to another week of reading the Elder Peterson email! I have a lot this week so I am just going to get to it! (I would like to apologize for not writing everyone last week. The internet was so slow and kept shutting off)

So last Monday after emailing all of you we took the day to just relax and have a nice day. We drove to Bethlehem to grab some mail and I received a letter from the ward. Dad I hope it wasn't you that made the mistake with Stacey R. When we came home I decided I wanted to make some delicious food. I made some fried chicken that I swear could beat KFC in every way! It was the most fantastic thing in the world! But really it was so great.

Tuesday was pretty cool. I got a call that I needed to learn to drive manual remember? So we went to drive in the morning. I started out good and killed it at the first stop. But I fired it back up and took off. I was doing so good so we even ventured out onto the road (real dangerous) but everything was fine and I only killed it one more time so whatever. I am a pro! We went into the area and meet with Sis T. She is the one from Zimbabwe that just moved here a while back. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and she was having a thousand questions. But each time she asked something, we knew exactly how to answer it, referring to the restoration of the gospel. It was a very powerful lesson and by the end of it, she said she felt that the book was true. We went to a family in the evening for FHE and I was volunteered to give the lesson. So you know that I read Matthew 7, Helaman 5 and made everyone sing "The wise man built his house upon the rock" It was awesome watching these missionaries try to sing and do the hand signs hahaha! But the little kids there really enjoyed it so it was nice.

Wednesday we were meeting with our 3 investigators who are preparing for baptism. Sis P, Bro Sb, and Mama S. We were going to Mama Susan's house first and we had made a plan to meet with Bro C there so he could translate. So we showed up and waited for him but he never showed. We called and he got stuck in Setsing so he couldn't come. So we started our lesson and let me tell you, there is such thing as the gift of tongues! She hasnt been able to speak english and we can't understand Sutu but somehow we were able to have a complete lesson, answer her questions, and talk about everything that we needed to without a translator. We were talking about the Plan of Salvation and she was crying when we told her about the after life and she would be able to see her mother again. It was a very powerful lesson and the spirit was so strong.

Thursday we went on exchanges. I was with Elder K which was great! This kid really is my favorite missionary and probably my best friend here! We went into the area and went to go meet with Mama E. She was there with Mama S. We were just talking some small things and got talking about how they were making traditional clothing out of recycled goods. They have been taking big bags and shredding them into strips and then taking the strips and weaving them together to form a kind of skirt. Sort of like a Hula Dancer skirt but Sutu style. So we had a nice time trying them on and dancing around like crazy people. Don't worry I will be sending pics home soon! We had a good time and our Mamas had a good time watching us dance.

Friday was too hectic. We had planned for like 6 appointments and even had 3 back ups. We got bunked by every single one of them. Every one. It was awful. We spent the whole day walking back and forth across town to their houses but never found anyone so it was rough. We started to walk home and made it to the boarding late at night. It was dark and these other elders had our keys so we called and told them to bring them. As we were waiting (this is where the story of the week begins) I really had to pee so bad. Like soooo bad! It was dark and there was no one coming so obviously I decided to pee in the street by the fence. Well right as I was just umm 'letting go' of course these guys come cruising the corner. I didn't care too much cause I had to go but when they pulled up and I finished and walked up to the car, thats when I saw the member with them... Awkward. But whatever, he was a younger guy, could have been worse.

Saturday was the 1 of March. Bad day to be in the area. At month end everyone gets paid and everyone gets drunk like crazy! Well we started the day and we had 3 fantastic lessons! 2 with younger potential priesthood holders and 1 with a girl who has been visiting and loving the church. We had great lessons and really it was a good day. Well it started getting towards evening and the drunks came out to play! We were walking down the road and one guy approached us and started talking to us so we gave him a pass along card to try and escape. He told us he tried to come to church and someone pulled him out by the belt so this drunk guy grabs my belt like right at the buckle and starts to demonstrate how they dragged him out! I was about to punch the guy square in the face but luckily my companion stopped me. I ripped his arm off and we just left. Could have beat that guy. We were walking down the main road and there is a big parking lot infront of the town hall. Well this is party central. As we walked by all you can hear is bottles clanking. The air is like hot and heavy with the smell of alcohol. But when you look at the ground, the green and clear bottles make a beautiful flowing sea of color as they roll! Such a majestic place. As we continued our journey, it got very very windy and the sand got kicked up. Do you remember on the newest Mission Impossible when he is in Dubai and the sandstorm hits? It was like that! And so we were cruising around in our shirts and the wind is blowing everywhere. I felt like Tom Cruise!

Well yesterday was Sunday again. Church was ok but not good. Sacrament meeting had some interesting moments. Everyone was getting up and it was ok but then Pres. T got up. He was talking (preaching) and all of a sudden he says and I quote, "God don't know." then he said something else and repeated, "God don't know." Seriously everyone was so confused! i am hoping it was a slip of tongue because that was very very bad. After church we went to the area and we meet with a girl who is the most prepared person to receive the gospel I have ever seen. Her name is Sis N N. She is about 22 and studying at the University here. She is searching for a relationship with God and wants to know about his gospel. She lost her mom in 2009 and she never knew her dad so she is really looking for someone for support. Luckily she has chosen God and not some other things. She came up to us on the street one day and asked us about church. We invited her and she came! So when we went yesterday we were just going to follow up and do some basic talking stuff. Well she totally opened up to us and told us basically her life story. It was very powerful and very emotional. She cried a lot and it was hard not to cry with her. But we talked about our Heavenly Father and how he loves us and how he has provided us with the restored gospel as a way to have that relationship with him and be able to return to him. She asked what she needed to do to be baptized. The way that her life has been and from what she has told us, she needs the gospel in her life and I know that it was God's plan to have her meet us on the street that day. We really hope to work with her and try to help her more.

This past week has been one of up and downs, but it has been one that has been full of very spiritual moments. I have felt the spirit more and more in my life and it really is such a blessing! There is nothing better than having that constant companionship and feeling that peace and joy everyday. Obviously every day isn't perfect but I feel each day is better than the one before. I hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to hearing from you all again next week! I love you!

Sahlagahoto!

Elder Peterson