Obedience Brings Blessings, Exacting Obedience Brings Miracles

Hello everyone! Well this week was pretty awesome I must say! I think I say
that every week but awesome things happen every week! So actually a lot of
really good things happened this week and I don't have a lot of time to
write about everything so I am kind of going to focus on a few of the main
highlights. So welcome to the SADM Top 10 at 10am:

Number 10: Just kidding theres not ten.

Anyways so on Monday we had a zone activity at the Mission Home again. We
went and played some games in the house because it was raining way too
much. We played a game called Quiddler which is just like 5 Crowns but with
making words instead of runs. It was really fun and I absolutely destroyed
the other guys! By like hundreds of points! Thank you mother and giving me
your vocabulary genes! haha. We had a nice Braai and then watched the
Saratov Approach again. Nice day though.

Wednesday was interviews with the Mission President. Basically I spent the
day being the taxi for all the elders during the day. Finally around 5pmish
it was my turn. It was probably one of my favorite interviews I have had
with Pres Z my entire mission. We were talking about how I have enjoyed the
first half of my mission and what I want to accomplish in my second half.
He was asking about what was my next step and all these things. I told him
though that I wasn't worried about leadership and other things but the
thing I wanted to be sure of is that in every area that I serve in, I want
to make a real difference in the lives of the members and the people I
meet. I don't care about the other things but I want to know that I did
everything I could to really help everyone become converted to the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Of course the next question was, Well thats really good
Elder Peterson, but how are you going to do that? Insert epic stupor of
thought hahaha. I thought for a minute and told him kind of the obvious
things, I will work hard, try my hardest to be effective every hour of the
day, talk to everyone, things like that. We said yes that is all good and
what you need to do but there is something else. He then started to explain
about obedience. He said that he knew i was a very good missionary. I was
obedient, others had told him I was very good and he has never heard
anything bad. He said he knows I will have a successful, fantastic mission
if I stay where I am now but then he said something awesome. He started
explaining and basically telling me that if I were to increase my level of
obedience that the blessings of heaven would basically fall upon me and I
would have an even more incredible mission. I kind of didn't know what to
say. Here he had just told me that I was obedient and doing great and my
mission is going to be awesome. Then he is saying, if you find ways to be
even better your mission will be greater beyond anything you can imagine!
For some reason it hit me so hard! Then Bro Carter just sent around an
email this week that talks about obeying the commandments and obeying the
Thou shalts as well as the Thou shalt not's. So maybe I need to really look
at my mission and study the white handbook and really find where I can
improve and get these extra blessings from Heaven! It was really such an
awesome interview and it really set the tone for me and makes me want to
have my last year be 10X better than my first! There is a lot of work to be
done and it looks like I am in a position to do a lot of it!

We also talked a lot about the idea of me transferring from Toti town into
the Illovo township. I really really love this area and love the members
here so much. I want to stay but I have been in Toti for 6 months now and
the odds are I will be transferred in December. Illovo has just split off
into its own unit under Toti Ward and they want to make it into a branch
before the end of December. The missionaries there are good guys, bless
their hearts, but they are getting a little finished. haha. Illovo is in a
position to boom!! and I want to help it happen. So I have been emailing
President for weeks begging to go there and he has been ignoring my pleas
haha. I finally go to ask him in person and he just started shaking his
head. But I explained why and his mood changed. I have worked with both
members and the leadership in both. They all trust me and I am ready to
work. The area is set up like PJ and if I work there it would be so fun and
there could be lots of success happening. President actually agreed with
me!! But just to put the  nail in the coffin I have been talking to the
couples incharge of splitting wards and they are all onboard and making
plans to get me there. The Durban Stake President has been informed and
wants me there haha. All the members in Toti are calling and want me there.
Basically its kind of awesome. So hopefully I get to stay!

Thursday we did some more service at Bro Stephen's house. John Louie (JL)
the returned missionary invited a non member friend to help and we are now
working on him. I think he might have emailed you a pick mom I don't know.
But he is a super cool guy and should progress well. On Saturday we went
with JL, the friend whose name is Arnu, and Storm to the Bafana Bafana vs.
Sudan soccer game in Durban! We got permission to go and it was awesome!!
The 5 of us seriously lost our minds! We had those weird trumpet things
called Vuvuzelas and just went all out! We were trying to get on camera but
it didn't happen. We zoomed in on a part and we could tell it was us but no
one else would be able to see us unfortunately... It was fun though and
Arnu was happy to see us again! SA won by the way 2-1 and are qualified for
the AFCON Cup next year! This is the first time since 2008 so ya we were
there for this part of SA History!! But my lips hurt so bad from blowing
those things non stop for 2 hours! The drunk guys behind us actually asked
us to calm down we were so into the game hahaha. Oh good times.

Sunday we were able to have 2 baptisms!! Tokoso and Gogo Phungula were both
baptized! It was awesome because Storm was able to baptize Tokoso. He was
the one that gave us the referral way back when I first came to Toti and
has been helping us teach until now. It was awesome to see and Tokoso bore
a power testimony after! He was so excited and has been asking every week
since we meet him when he was going to be baptized haha. Such a good kid
and we are very excited for him. Gogo is a funny story. So she is the
mother to one of the members in the ward. She has another son who is a
bishop in a different ward in the stake. Basically everyone in her family
is a member but her. Well Gogo is 78 years old. She was a sangoma, which is
a traditional healer or witch doctor basically. Like her grandson was
telling us that she use to use serious drugs and get high and start to do
some funky things. Well the family has been working with her and praying
and fasting for years that she would join the church. They got her to stop
all the black magic things a while back and then it was a battle with a
drug called snuff. Finally after another long while she started to give
that up and come to church. She has been attending church for years. Like
so long that all the members here thought she was already a member. We have
been teaching her lately and she wanted to be baptized by the right
authority. She seriously used the word authority the first time we meet
her. Power. We taught her and she knew everything and my companion even
retaught in Zulu to make sure she really understood and she was absolutely
perfect. Well she was baptized by her grandson and it was perfect. We were
worried about her going backwards under the water and coming up but they
only had to do it once and it was perfect! It was funny, after they were
done they were in the bathrooms changing and I was out in the hall waiting.
When she came out she saw me, gave a huge smile and started to give a
little dance walking down the hall haha. A 78 year old Gogo that can barely
walk, doesn't speak much english, starts dancing and grooving down the
hall. I laughed so hard! She said she was so so happy and she could feel
she was clean. She bore the strongest testimony. It was in Zulu so I had
Alfred translate for me but it sounded so powerful. She was just the most
excited lady I have ever seen. After the service we were invited up to the
house for the family get together and had lunch with everyone. She just
introduced us to everyone as her missionaries. It was such a good
experience.

After church on sunday we had like 5 food appointments. It was outrageous.
But the best was in the evening we went to the Riese/Russell home for JL's
homecoming party. He was just telling stories and we had a good time. But
the cool thing, There was a camera crew here from SLC that was filming for
a new teaching ciriculum that is being introduced soon. Durban stake was
chosen to be the guinea pigs. The Riese family was asked to be in the film
so they have been working with the crew for a few days. Well they all came
over just to say goodbye and we got to meet them. It was cool because they
were some of the guys that had filmed the district, Legacy, Meet the
Mormons, Like all the church movies! We talked and they showed pics of them
being with like the characters and a bunch of famous people like Mitt
Romney and all the musicians and star sports players that are all mormon.
It was way cool! I took a pic with the guy and he said he would email it to
you mom. He also knows the apartment where Marissa lives. He is from PG.
Pretty cool though. Everyone was laughing though because one of the crew
was a Native American and they all wanted a picture with a Lamanite
hahahaha. The only time they will have one in their house haha. It was
pretty funny.

Its been a great week though! Seems like a lot of random things but lots of
good random things! We are just staying busy and doing all we can to get
some good people to teach! Just 15 more baptisms in Toti and I would be
happy ;) Its been a spirit filled week and I am looking forward to this one
coming! I hope it goes great for all of you as well! I love you all!

Elder Peterson

In a State of Lemuelism

Hi everyone!

So ya basically you probably know what scary thing I have been thinking
about lately... But I don't want to talk about it too much cause I don't
know how I feel about it honestly. Good and bad but we will focus on that
later. Let me tell you about this week!

Before I even begin I want everyone to know that I absolutely love my
companion Elder Merile! When you say Merile though its not how it looks.
When you get to the 'r' you have to make like a throaty H sound. Its hard
to explain and even to say so a lot of times I call him Elder Merls,
exactly how it looks. He is seriously the coolest guy in the world! You
could not ask for a better companion! I was telling dad, he has that
perfect combination of play hard, work harder! The best honestly.

Monday, P-day normal stuff, then had a family home evening with the Riese
family and watched the halloween party dance movies. I am still trying to
upload them but it takes a looooooong time! Some day you will see them all.

Tuesday wasn't very exciting cause we were getting some help from members
trying to target less actives that we could work on and going through
seeing who each auxiliary wanted us to focus on. The mission really wants
us to work closely with the wards and see what the bishops want help with
and being tools for them, not seperate things happening in one area. Good
advice buy yo less actives are hard! Funny story coming up soon about them.
We did some easy contacting around the town but nothing too exciting. We
finished at Sis Sue for dinner and played a ravishing game of Barbie Uno. I
got beat by a 94 year old Gogo... Self esteem destroyed haha!

Wednesday was kind of awesome. We were in a suburb called St Winnifreds
that is a totally rich part of town. We were looking for members there
cause there are some big families somewhere. We decided we might as well
knock some doors on our way. Obviously no one really let us in but we
talked to a lot of people and just had a fun time. We went to Innocents
house in the evening  and talked to him and his wife. He is still in the
same position waiting for some good news about a job. We read the BoM with
him and he still loves it and wants to be baptized. We talked to the mom
for a bit and she is looking seriously ready to pop! She has been pregnant
for I swear 2 years. But she is still just happy to see us and Innocent is
still teaching her when we leave. She speaks french though and a newly
returned missionary named John Louie served in a French speaking area of
the Caribbean so he is going to come help us teach her too.

Thursday was probably the best day of the week. We found a newly moved in
member that didn't know where the church was so we talked and told her and
everything and sure enough she made it on Sunday! We had Sis Duplessis
translate Innocents CV so that he can look for more jobs. We went to a park
that is in the middle of town kind of close to the beach so lots of people
move around there. We usually contact there so we went and started talking
to people. There was a guy painting so we went and started talking to him
about his paintings and soon started sharing about the Book of Mormon. We
started reading from it and letting him read it and soon we were teaching
him and a few other people that were selling random things. We asked if we
could return tomorrow with BoM's for everyone and they agreed! (skip to
tomorrow if you want to learn more quickly) We left and headed to Tokoso.
We talked and finished up all the commandments with him and just reviewed
everything we have been talking about. He is preparing to be baptized this
coming week so we have been talking a lot of things. It seems like he has
been waiting for so long and finally he is able to do it. He is such a
great kid and its awesome to see him ready to accept the gospel. His mom
and family even said they want to attend to see it. Hopefully they will
feel the spirit and want themselves to be baptized!     This is now where
the funny less active story comes in. We found a family called the Gumede
family that hasn't come for quite a while. We had visited briefly and were
returning for an appointment. As we pulled up we saw the gate was open and
the non member baba was outside. We parked out on the grass and said a
prayer. As we got out of the car and grabbed our bags, my companion says,
"hey this guy just closed the gate on us!" I turn and sure enough he had
locked us out! We walk over and start talking to him from outside and he
tells us that mom is sleeping and we should leave. We didn't want to fight
it out so we said alright and walked to the car. Well as soon as we get to
the car, the gate starts opening right back up. Eish haha. We just laughed.
Some people these days.

So friday now. So we went back to the park, with a billion BoM's. Probably
looked crazy walking around with them all but whatever. Sure enough they
were all there waiting for us and a new family was with them waiting as
well! We passed them out and they were so eager to get into it. We circled
up and started to read from the Introduction together. As we read they
would ask questions and someone else in the group would answer for us haha
it was awesome! We talked and explained and the spirit was there so strong!
They all said they wanted to read more and find out more about it. We
committed them to read from 2 Nephi 31 and they were reading before we had
even crossed the road! It was powerful! One of the best lessons in this
area for sure. They all wanted us to come back and share more so hopefully
we have some really good investigators here now! Saturday we had a game so
Friday we practice with the ward. We went and played and had a lot of youth
come and some investigators. Had a good time.

Saturday we played the game against Kwa Mashu. It ended up being a draw
4-4. But I want to make it known I played the first half and the score at
half time was 2-0 for us. I didn't pay second half and you see what
happened. Now I'm not saying anything but lets just think about that ;) It
was really fun though. Some good fellowshipping moments with investigators
so it was good. Soccer has been one of our best teaching opportunities.
After we got a call from Innocent that his wife was in the hospital! She
had finally popped! I knew it was gonna happen! We rushed to go find him
and went and visited her. And they have a lovely new son to join their
family! That makes 3 kids for him now. He was so so excited and it was fun
to see him that way. Work has been taking its toll on him so it was good to
see some joy in his eyes. He asked me to offer a prayer for the child and
we had a lovely moment in the labor ward of the hospital. It reminded me of
the day that E was born! Seems like yesterday!

Yesterday was crazy. The ward split this week so the other elders area
called Illovo split and is meeting that side now. So we were crazy trying
to help them get that side running and getting to our meeting and getting
investigators worked out and eish it was fun! But it turned out wonderful!
We had an attendance of 61 in Toti and Illovo had 65! Huge numbers for this
area! That side is growing to grow so fast I am telling you now. I would
love to get transferred there! I am going to tell President in interviews
on Wednesday. I have emailed him many times about it haha. After church we
had John Louie come with us and teach. It was really fun. We meet lots of
less actives and gave some gentle fire. Taught a few lessons and just had a
nice time. We went a little over board and didn't get done until past 9 so
that wasn't good. We fetched the other guys and got home about a quarter to
10... In and safe is 9 haha. But my favorite quote that I heard today,
comes from Sis Khetiwae. We were talking about Laman and Lemuel and how
they were disobedient and she says and I quote, "I was in a state of
Lemuelism before I learned about the gospel." We all laughed pretty good
but its so true! We are all in a state of Lemuelism before we choose for
ourselves to follow the gospel.

Its been a nice week! It might not sound like it but trust me it was! It
seriously flew by so fast! Me and Elder Merile are just kicking butt and
teaching people like no ones business.

But to the question about how I feel about reaching the " Hump Day"... I
really don't know what to say. I am so so happy I have actually made it
this far! I honestly didn't know if I would make it to this point. It
seemed like it would never come when I first got out here but now that I am
here, I realize just how fast time flies. Every older missionary says once
you hit the year, you might as well start packing cause it will be over
before you know it. I don't know if I like that or not. I am starting to
figure mission out, figuring out my way of teaching people and learning so
much. I can tell I have grown a lot in the gospel and even as me. I have
learned more about myself in the last year than in the 18 years leading up
to it! It really is such an awesome thing. I kind of can't explain it. And
I kind of don't want to admit that I am getting old on mission. Doesn't
seem right. But its a good thing. I am glad time is going by fast, it means
I am enjoying my mission and lots of good things are happening around me.
Obviously I miss you all so much and can't wait to be home and join back in
with the shenanigans but I still have a ways to go :) Mission is really fun
and I am really enjoying it! I just want to make the most of it while I
still have the time to be here! :) I am sure this is what every missionary
says because it really is such a weird thing haha.

Maybe next week I will have a few other thoughts since I will officially be
on the downhill side of things ;) I love you all so much and am so thankful
for the support you have given me each and every week for this last year.
It really helps so much knowing you are there cheering me on and your
prayers help so so much! and trust me, I have needed them!

One year down, one year to go! :)