Oct 11,2011

Mom, Dad, and  Family,

So, I’m still here! Elder Workman was transferred to Toulouse, and I am now with an Elder Williamson. It was hard to say goodbye to Elder Workman, but it is the Lord’s will, and we are all on the Lord’s errand. His companion is French, and is a great missionary. He is extremely blessed. I love Elder Williamson too, he is funny, and he actually speaks French. He is on his 5^th transfer. He is from South Carolina, and his dad is works for the FBI! Cool n’est-ce pas?

Well, I guess I’ll tell you a bit about our week! This week was CRAZY ! We were all over the place! Elder Workman decided to make trips to some cities outside Gap, and we did a lot of travelling.

Monday we had some fun with taking photos. I always wanted a picture with this sweet apple display thing in the middle of a round –about so I got it ha ha. We also visited the Catholic cathedral, it was cool. I always feel really eerie inside though….. We had a crazy experience with our investigator Michel too. He read the whole weekend, and prayed, and received an answer. However, he doesn’t really recognize it was an answer, he just said he felt bizarre. He didn’t say it was bad, but he felt vulnerable and weak… he doesn’t like to feel that way, very headstrong. Well duh, when we pray, it’s because we are weak and need help! He is giving us a break for a while, but I am hopeful that he will progress J As he walked away from us after we talked, he turned back around and asked us “Why!?! Why do I feel so good after talking with you, every time!” I just said, “ Ponder well about that” He smiled, and walked off.

We also met with the Family Rubino, we had a great lesson directed by the spirit! I love our lessons with them, they are so intense!

Tuesday, we travelled to a city called Briançon about an hour by bus away from Gap. We got a referral in the mail, and needed to contact him ASAP. Unfortunately he wasn’t there, but we did a little door to door, and headed back to Gap. It was a beautiful trip, and I love the mountains! We finally saw this lake everyone is telling us about, it is BEAUTIFUL! When you come, we need to make a little tour in the Alps ha ha!! You would love it!

Wednesday, we travelled to Sisteron again for our lesson with Michel Mutôt ( miracle Michel) We had a good appointment with him and did a good door to door. Then right on back to Gap in the afternoon.

Thursday, we travelled to Aix for District meeting! It was great, I included a photo of my district! After the meeting I did an exchange with Elder Meservy in Avignon while Elder Nicholes, our district leader went to Gap with Elder Workman. Avignon is a nice city, but there aren’t any mountains, I don’t like that. I would have to say that is my favorite part of Gap haha. We had a great exchange, and re-exchanged Friday afternoon. Do you see why I said we did a ton of travelling?!

Friday we got the unexpected call from President Murdock, and that is when I found out I’m staying in Gap J From now on we will get the call on Friday and transfer on Monday. (Like before with President Carter)

Saturday we did service again for the Martin Family! I didn’t really drive the tractor, I just got the photo ha ha. It was fun, we stacked wood again, while Mr. Martin split logs. When we got back, Elder Workman started packing!

Sunday was a great day! The best! We had 4 investigators at church! The Rubinos, who actually participated in a fast with us ;) Mr Lissy, and Michel (on account that Elder Workman is leaving, he considers us his Mormon friends and he is proud of it) The talks were great too! Jean-Pierre, one of our members, gave a talk about trials and overcoming them. He didn’t learn how to walk and talk until he was 17 years old because of his handicaps…. Today you wouldn’t even guess it. He is in a wheelchair, but can get up occasionally and stand. He has a young boy, but is in the middle of a divorce. Things are hard for him, but his attitude is great and his testimony strong! He inspired us all!

We took the sacrament to Robert Chahinian, and then also dropped off some milk at Mr. Sebbars place. He left his milk in the elevator at his apartment on accident and it walked off… He wasn’t very happy, in fact he called us Sunday morning and told us not to call him back because every time we call he has problems… so we thought we would do the Christ like thing and give a couple cartons. We dropped them off anonymously, but he knew it was us. Later he apologized because he snapped. He was very stressed out, with his family situation and all. It gave me warm fuzzies to serve him -- ha ha

And later we came back to the apartment so that Elder Workman could finish up packing! We had one last weekly planning, and it was hard. I hate saying goodbye to companions, you get so attached. We spent 3 months together!!!! Can you believe it? Monday morning, I got him on the train with all his bags, and he left me. I waited for a while by myself for my next bus,  then met my companion, Elder Williamson in Grenoble!

I have had a crazy week, and unfortunately I have to go!! 

I love you all, God be with you till we meet again!

Elder Dusty Petersen

Oct 2,2011

Bonjour Tout le Monde!

September ended, you can all wake up now ;) It is so weird that it is October already! On the 14th, I will hit my one year mark in France! Crazy! I

Dad I did receive both envelopes of photos! Thank you so much for thinking about me! It is nice to get photos in the mail, and I enjoy your little note :) Maybe you could make that little note a bit bigger though? ha ha You look great papa, you and momma look so good!!!! I haven't actually had the opportunity to watch the Priesthood session of conference yet, so I have know idea what you are talking about, but I love President Monson's personality too. The Saturday morning session made me laugh when he said, "Hello! Who should I call on to replace me?" ha ha

Speaking of Conference! Unfortunately, we didn't get to watch it in English like planned. We didn't run if from satellite at our church, we just hooked up the internet to a Giant TV that our Branch President bought. He is LOADED by the way. He bought a laptop and a brand new TV just for the General Conference (because we don't have the satellite hook up in Gap). Well to run two computers with internet didn't work to well, so we had to settle for the French version. It wasn't bad, I understood most of it, but Elder Workman wasn't too thrilled. Good thing it comes out in the Liahona ha ha.. P.S. in France the Ensign is called the Liahona. 

I loved all of the sessions I saw! I got to watched Saturday Morning through Sunday Morning. I followed President Utchdorf's counsel in the Liahona by preparing for the Conference. I asked some very specific questions, prayed fervently,  and was so thrilled to receive the answers! I have never really done that before.... It makes me wonder why I didn't ask questions before!!!! I have learned how much more I appreciate the counsel we receive at General Conference while being on my mission! I study the ensign from April all the time!

I had questions like: How can I become a better husband and father now? Sister Dalton answered that one ;)  How can I improve my Gospel Study? There were so many talks that answered this question! My favorite was probably Elder Richard G. Scott and his testimony about memorizing scriptures. SO TRUE!!! How can I best preach the Gospel? Elder L Tom Perry answered that one like a champ!!! And I also asked, What Christ like attributes do I want now, and in the future? I had listed Patience already because I have little ha ha, and Charity was added on after Elder Scott's talk. 

I also loved Elder Bednar's talk about "The spirit of Elijah". I have had a lot of questions about my Patriarchal Blessing, and I feel his talk was just for me!

Aside from the great General Conference, this last week was good! It wasn't a super good week for contacting, but our success isn't always measured by how many numbers we have ;) I'll start off with telling you that I bought some new shoes :) Mine were about dead. I put a lot of miles on those bad boys. I probably will throw them on every once and a while so that I can really consider them dead one day ha ha. My new pair are almost like the old, but a French brand. They are comfy, and that is the most important! I actually bought one pair, and they were TERRIBLE! I thought my feet were going to fall off after one day. Gratefully, the store let me exchange them :) The Lord takes care of His missionaries and their feet ha ha ;)

Oh yeah I didn't tell you, we were in the newspaper here in Gap too :) I'll send you a photo sometime!

Elder Workman had a really neat experience this last week. I'd say it was more of a MIRACLE! 

It all started on Saturday morning, on our way to Sisteron (a city that is an hour from Gap) to do work there. We are tired of working in Gap ha ha, spreading our wings a bit! Anyways, on the bus, we ended up sitting in front of a Jehovah's witness from Ireland. We had a great talk with him, and when we transferred onto the train, he invited us to sit by him again. He was really nice, and sincere. He asked a lot of deep doctrine questions though.... I hate that. I tried to just tell him what we teach people, but where it was in English, I got into some deep doctrine about the Millennium ha ha.

 I swear, all that the Jehovah's witnesses want to talk about is: the name of God (they think it is Jehovah), if the kingdom of God will be on earth, and what we think of the political crisis in these last days. In other words, they focus on all the things that aren't very important in other words. I'm a bit tired of talking with them, because they always read Revelations 22:18-19 and tell us the bible is all they need. It's ironic though, because they don't follow the counsel of John themselves. There are many scriptures that they have taken away from their version of the Bible. For example, they don't have Matt 17:21, or 18:11. They are just missing, (ex. 17: 19, 20, 22) Anyways, enough about my ranting ha ha. This guy, Jared, was really nice and receptive. We taught him that the Holy Ghost is indeed a personage of Spirit. He was touched.

But that wasn't the miracle! It happened after lunch in Sisteron. We had planned to go do some door to door outside the center villa, but I had a feeling we should do a little bit in center ville. We picked a small descending alley and took it. We found a door that was open and walked in. We tired the very top first, no one there. We tried the second door down, and a very drugged up man answered the door. The fumes were reeking from his apartment, and I asked him about it. It was then that he got a "deer in the headlights" look and started swaying back and forth in his door way. His legs were weak, and he didn't look good. I was scared. I felt something bad was happening. We urged him to go into his apartment to lie down and we would go get help, but he didn't respond. He turned around as if to follow our counsel, and then as I had pictured earlier in my head, he fell like a dead fish backwards into my arms! He lost all consciousness from what I could tell, and I just laid him on the floor.. I think he was having a seizure. I laid him down and looked into his eyes and saw just an empty void of darkness.... I thought he was dead. I am not very calm in these situations and was freaking out a bit. I told Elder Workman to go get help, but Elder Workman didn't know where to go, it was very dark in the stair well. It wasn't only a few more seconds and the man said "I'm fine' and slowly brought himself to stand, entered his apartment and locked the door... It was a very bizarre, and eerie experience. 

We thought we better find him some help still, so we knocked on the door on the floor below. What are the odds, the man is a Paramedic/ EMT guy. We checked on the man, but the man said it was rare, and he doesn't really know what happened. After checking on the man, he then invited us in to his apartment to drink some tea (don't worry it is approved tea) I was very very shaken by what happened and was reluctant to do so, but he insisted. It was then we become his friend, taught him the Restoration, and invited him to read the Book of Mormon. We will see him again on Wednesday.......The Lord works in mysterious ways eh???

Well I have no more time! I know this work is the Lord's, and  He will direct us to those who need the Gospel!!! I am a witness that it is true, I cannot deny it! I love you all and I can't wait to talk to you again!

Elder Petersen

P.S. not sure if the photos will work this time, sorry!

Sept 25-2011

This week went by super fast, just like every week. We had a lot of cool experiences, usually contacts we make in the street. I have been giving away a lot of Book of Mormons lately, people better read them ha ha. We were able to see Mr. Sebbar Monday, but he had too many things come up with this kids to be able to see him again this last week, we have a rendez-vous planned for tomorrow  and are going to call him to fix several others this week. He is just really stressed out lately, I know it will get better. We taught a man named Michel, I'm pretty sure I told you about him already. He is a 35 year old man, single with two boys. He loves his liberty, and is catholic at the base. However, the catholic church turns him off.... it's not like I haven't heard that one before! He says the priests aren't open to talk. He loves us, he tolds us he is proud to have two mormon friends ha ha. We have seen him three times now, every Wednesday. He wants to continue seeing us every Wednesday too, he loves the Book of Mormon and talking about it! He reads, and re-reads what we give him to understand better. He even told us, that his study of the Book of Mormon has helped him begin studying the bible the right way too. He is finding his faith again! It has been such a great experience teaching him. Elder Workman loves teaching him, he asked me the other day.. "Is it okay to have a favorite investigator?" ha ha. He is afraid of not loving all our investigators the same. It's good he has a favorite, it's always one of your first investigators that sets the tone for the rest of your mission. You want to help all your other investigators as much as you helped your favorite. That is just my point of view though. He told us he will come to general Conference this weekend too :) We taught Mr. Emmanuel Lissy this week too. Our recent convert, Jérôme was there so we taught the Word of Wisdom. Jérôme bore a strong testimony, and Mr. Lissy accepted the invitation to respect the W of W! He says he will do whatever he can to improve his health and relationship with God. He still says he is going to rest catholic, but the seed is growing ;) There was a funny moment in the lesson. Mr. Lissy told us that he thought coffee wasn't addictive.... I immediatley looked a Jérôme and he looked at me, and the expression on his face was priceless! He had the "Oh yes it is" look, and without hesitation picked up on the subject. Jérôme was drinking 3 liters of coffee each day... he thought he could quite at anytime and that it wasn't an addiction, but when he tried he slept all day for a week.... He found out he couldn't function without coffee. At first it was hard for him to quite, but now he has no problems with coffee, and he is never tired with the lack of coffee like before :) I promised him that with the companionship of the Holy Ghost, one day he would have no more problems.. oh how the Lord fulfills his servants promises! I have been thinking a lot lately about how I work, and teach the Gospel. Sometimes the people here don't listen, and it gets a bit frustrating. They put up a wall before we can even talk to them, and then when we try to share our message with them, they get mad because we "insist" too much. I can't blame them, with all the prosyliting that goes on from all the other churches, it can be probably annoying sometimes. For the most part, I don't get discouraged, but the other day I contacted a women and she frustrated me. She told me that the bible was all that she needed, and I guess that I just have been tired of hearing that phrase so I asked her if she really believed that the bible was perfect. She got all offended, and was like, " Are you really asking me if the word of God is perfect?" I tried to explain to her that men have changed a lot of things in the bible, just like Nephi said would happen in 1 Nephi 13. I realize now I insisted too much and the way I presented it was an attack to her faith.. the point I really wanted to make is that the Book of Mormon complements the bible, and brings us to a sure knowledge of docterine that isn't clear in the bible. Sometimes I feel like Alma," O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the ^atrump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people" I want for people to understand so badly because I know it is true! Situations like that one, are rare. I don't argue with people, I try to just leave them with my testimony and give them the choice. I know I can't attack their faith. I learn each and every day how to better show others that I respect their beliefs, and teach with love and Charity and the Spirit. I can't do anymore than accomplishing my missionary purpose.. Teach, testify, and invite. I know if I always have charity, I have accomplished my missionary purpose as well. Without Charity we are nothing. I did however, pray and fast to know what I should say and do to help others understand this principle in a better light... next morning I studied the bible and found scriptures that talk about double testimonies. ANSWER TO MY PRAYER!! St. John 8: 17-18, 31-32 is a great scripture to show that Jesus himself taught that we need two testimonies to know spiritual truths. In church we talked about how we need to B of M and Doctrine and Covenants, etc.. to completely understand Romans 8 as well. The Lord hears the cries of his servants and answers their prayers, I know that with all my heart! Ha, last night, we talked with a drunk couple. They asked us, "Do you want to get drunk with us tonight?", we resonded "nope" ha ha. Elder Workman got flipped off for the first time on Saturday too.... It was at point blank range too. We just laughed about it afterwards ha ha. It is sad, but to laugh it off seems to be a good remedy :) Hmmm... Well we are going to be getting new beds this week :) our mattresses are dead, I pretty much sleep in a whole ha ha. By the way my shoes are about dead too.... When it rains, my feet are soaked ha ha. The bottom is about to wear through.I think I'm going to look at some shoes today. The lest expsensive I have seen is about 69 Euros... I'll try my best to find the best quality that doesn't cost an arm and a leg ha ha. We will get to watch the general conference in english too :) COOL BEANS! Last monday I made cookies he he, I inluded a photo :) THey weren't too bad haha . I think that is such a blessing that you will be temple workers, I'm so proud of you!!!!! The Lord will make it possilbe that you have the strength to continue in all you have to do! I know you work work work!!!!I love you all!!! Ciao Ciao GROS BISOUS!!! Elder Dusty Petersen

Sept 19, 2011

Oh momma and Pappa! This week was a good week!!!! We were extremely blessed as well! It all started off with a great P-Day :) We ate at Mcdonalds, and I was able to buy a new razor blad/coil for my shaver. I also took advantage of a deal that was to die for. I have been looking for a better carry on bag that is cheep, and I found it! I felt like I was stealing it because it was only 30 euros! That is why I spent 60 euros, the razor/ carry on. I really hope I'm not making things hard for you financially... I always hesitate to buy anything because I don't want to stress you out... but I made a decision... I think it is a HUGE blessing that the temple called you to be ordinance workers!

Okay back to my week! We cleaned really really good Monday too, because President and Sister Murdock made a tour to all the apartments in our region to inspect/consecrate! Then we worked :) Tuesday was a super great day too! We engaged one of our investigators to baptism and he accepted! He is Muslim

and his name is Mr. Sebbar.

We set his date for the 23 October!!!!!! He literally asked us how he could be rid of his sins and be happy; we responded with the scriptures- Alma 7:11-16, and also in Alma 22:15 it was amazing!!! Wednesday we met with Michel and read Moroni 8. He loves the Book of Mormon, and told us he wants to meet with us every week! We also seen President and Sister Murdock! I love seeing them, it is a tender mercy! I feel they are my parents! You would love them so much. They loved our apartment (IT IS HUGE) and thought it was the best they have ever seen ;) They brought us some Book of Mormons from the bureau, and also a MINI DVD player! They are improving the training of missionaries in the mission field, and we can now watch training clips during our companionship studies! Every apartment will have one in the mission! It is great to use for listening to cd's too ha ha. Whoop Whoop! Today I think we will watch a church movie ha ha. We have the time! President bought us dinner too! We were crossing our fingers that he would ha ha! We told him there is a Dominos downstairs, and guess what he does. He pulls out his wallet and whips out a 100 euro bill and tells us to get WHATEVER we want, and whatever looks good! If I hadn't eaten pizza with him once already I would have thought it was a test, but he was completely serious. He is a great mission president. After they checked our apartment, he consecrated it to the Lord and His work. I have never heard a consecration prayer for an apartment to the Lord. It was amazing, I was very touched! He literally presented our apartment to the Lord and asked for Him to protect us, and guide us in the work. Definitely once in a lifetime experience! After all, it isn't every day that the Mission president comes to your apartment and consecrates it! I have been cooking a lot lately too, trying new things. We have been getting fresh vegetables from people we meet, so I use them :) The Martins gave us beans and tomatoes, and more jam ha ha. I love tomatoes!! I love zucchini too!!! The muslims got something right with the Ravioli too! ha ha. Then to end the week off with a bang, we went to Stake Conference in Marseille! We were able to hear President and Sr Murdock speak, but also a 70's!!! Elder Weidmann spoke to the stake. Of course it was in english, he had a translator! He had a great message about faith, and inviting. He engaged our stake to invite all our friends and family to come to church, and to learn about the Book of Mormon. It was great! He also gave a great definition of Faith. To have faith, is to have complete confidence that Jesus Christ can do all things, but sometimes will not. I believe that was a citation from Elder Bednar. It makes so much sense! I also read a scripture this morning that touched me! Mosiah 7:33. It illustrates this point as well I believe. He told us that the temple in Paris is a sure thing, and that it is one of the only temples to announced by the media before the Prophet ha ha. He will be announcing it in general conference!!! I'M SO THRILLED!!!! Oh what joy for the members of France! The process was very difficult to get the temple plans approved, and I will tell you in a letter how it played out! After, he held an hour meeting with the recent converts, and investigators too. Jérôme came with us and Sr tricoire, so we assisted with him to the meeting. It was such a great experience. He asked for testimonies simply! I remember him telling us that he did a mission tour as a general authority in the same mission that is son is currently serving, and was able to embrace him. He compared it to our Heavenly Father's love for us! Then at the end, he asked all the Elders(me, and about 5 others) to stand up and lead the group in the hymn, I am a Child of God. It was powerful, and an experience I will not forget. I wept afterwards because I felt my Heavenly Father's love so profoundly. We got a picture with Elder Weidmann :) I thought of you momma :)

The Lord knows what he is doing when he sends 19 year old men on missions ;) We become men! Well that's all I have :) The weather is turning south, it is looking more like fall/winter. It is freezing today, time to put back on the Long Sleeve.... wow time already! I love you all so much, and I pray for you all the time! Your son, and your missionary, Elder Dusty Petersen

September 12, 2011

Bonjour Mère et Père, I don't have a lot of time this week sorry, I replied to Mim Johnson and wrote her a nice email :) This week was really interesting! We did some sweet service for an older couple I may have mentioned a couple of months ago. We went into a neighboring valley and helped him arrange firewood! This man and his wife are craftsmen too!! They built their own cabin with their bear hands!! We taught a new investigator this week, his name is Michel. He is really cool, loves reading the Book of Mormon. We read with him on Wednesday and had a great experience! We read 1 Nephi 4, and encountered the conflict with Nephi and Laban. He had an interesting point of view. He was okay with the fact that Nephi killed Laban, because Laban had tried to kill Nephi after Nephi tried to give him the choice. What he couldn't get over was that Nephi told Zoram he would kill him if he didn't rest with them in the desert. We had a great lesson that was definitley inspired by the spirit! He edified us all, and I was taught that Zoram knew Nephi was a man of God, and that he CHOSE to follow Nephi because so. We also did a lengthy exchange this week with the elders from Avignon. Elder Nicholes (my second companion) is now my district leader. We had conflicts with the trains, so we ended up doing a two day exchange Gap is 3 hours away from everything, and if the trains are delayed it screws up everything. Right now there is construction with the tracks, so they take us by bus to a neighboring city then we get on the train... it takes so long! So we went to Aix en province Thursday for district meeting, I came back with Elder Nicholes. Friday we left Gap and went to Aix, and because there were problems on both sides( our train and Avignons) we just went straight back to Gap for the night. The next day we re-exchanged! I spent 12 hours total on train over the past 3 days, and spent over 100 euros in tickets ha ha. All is well though, no worries :) Satan sent one of his evil spiders to torment us again! Even worse Elder Workman missed when he went to smack with his flip flop. I was screaming like a little girl. He ended up stepping on it, and ended it's life. The conflict was finished ha ha. Makes me a little worried though, where there are two, there are more..... maybe the war has just begun! I love you all, got to go for now!! Ciao Ciao, GROS BISOUS!!! Elder Petersen