Mar 26, 2012 Toulouse

My dearest family!

The baptism went through!!!!! It went perfectly, well other than the fact that our member had to baptize him three times... his elbow came up once, and his leg the other time. The third time, Fr. Bouchet dunked him ha ha!

It feels like a dream; the last six weeks I mean. We met Lucien on the end of the first week and baptized him at the end ;) The Lord truly blessed us for all the work that missionaries have done in Bergerac. I feel like all the faith and  work I and Elder Willett did brought forth the blessings of baptism. Lucien will become a very strong member :) 

Well as I write from you, I am in a cyber café in Toulouse! That's right, I was transferred to TOULOUSE!!! My companion's name is Elder Puairau, he is Tahitian!!!!! COOL BEANS! He gave me a seashell necklace as a welcome token to the area :) I love Toulouse already!! It is SUPER huge though, and I'm going to have to contact young college kids now.... not used that. I'm used to oldies ha ha. 

About your questions... I can't really call the members in Gap, I sent an email, but they didn't respond. I think I want to pass by Bergerac, yes. The easiest way to do it though, is to take a plane from Toulouse and fly into Bordeaux, then take a train to Bergerac. You can call the mission office and ask them about that, they do it all the time, and it is cheaper than trains. Oh yeah since I'm at Toulouse and technically it was my original mission, we are definitely passing by here... Let me work on things at Gap, and I'll get back to you next week. 

I would love to get a job at Texas roadhouse if it is possible, but we'll see ;) That would be fun to work with Mckelle ha ha.Tell Carrie congrats from her cousin! Oh and my address is the old Toulouse Bureau:

Elder Dustin Shane Petersen
4, rue Alaric II Compans Caffarelli
31000 Toulouse

March 19 2012

Well my family, I love you all very much!!! I had a great week, and Lucien is going to baptized this week!!!!!! He chose the members to baptize him and confirm him, but that is just fine in my book! I'd prefer that actually! We saw Lucien almost every day this last week; whether it was service or meetings, or appointments ha ha! He is so well integrated! I feel like I'm on cloud 9!!! 

Funny story, we got chased by an angry man last night..... he couldn't beat us on a foot race though ;) He wasn't having a good day and just happened to take his anger out on two young men talking about God... poor guy.

We had a great week, learning so much, and my testimony is stronger than ever! We had Zone Conference this last week, and it I got my temple recommend renewed  :) It will last me until 90 days after I get home. I said goodbye to Elder Bowen too :( He should be giving you a shout out from me :) His homecoming is the 15 of April, you need to go! 

I got Alli's letter last week ;) She sent me some drawings, and a dollar bill... it made me smile and cry at the same time!  So sweet and I can't wait to play with her! I also got my Dead letter last week! (Two weeks ago) Simply just told me when I was ending my mission... weird! 

Ha ha funny experience, Lucien with talking with us one day in the street when a woman asked us about our message. We talked for a bit, then I turned to Lucien and asked him what he liked about the Bof M. He looked us and said, "I have no idea who these men are.. they know my name, but I don't know them" !! BAHAHA it made is laugh so hard! Wasn't expecting that at all! He is a real jokster!

Oh dad could you work on finding out how I can apply for a job at USU? You can probably ask Tad, but I think that would be perfect for me. That way I have a job awaiting me when I get back. Maybe like a cooking job, or a computer lab guy.... whatever you find, I'll do it ha ha!!!!

Well I love you all and I can't wait to talk to you again!!!!

PS we visited a castle today :) it was fun!

Mar 12, 2012

Well family, all is going super well!!! I'm on a spiritual high on my mission :) Lucien is doing amazing, and I'm excited for his baptism on the 24th!!! He has no problems with any of the commandments, and we are going to start reviewing everything with him :) The Lord has truly blessed us, and we are ever in his Debt!!! I don't have much else to say, other than I know the Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. My faith in the Lord is unshakable and I can never deny what I know to the be the truth. This Gospel is true, and it will roll unto all the ends of the earth until Christ comes and says, "The works is done"! Can you imagine that day... Oh happy and blessed day!!!

So you don't need to worry about buying me full price train tickets, I have what they call a "Carte 12/25" that gets me a major discount :) Just an FYI. Oh and dad, there is no money in my account.... I tried to take out money today, and it said that I had insufficient funds... Yeah, should take a look at that!  Oh and the music, You can also put all sacred instrumental arrangements of church hymns on my hardrive :) I forgot to tell you that :) NO WORDS.

I love you all and can't wait to see you all again!!!

March 5, 2012

picture of Lucien and I :) and then a picture of us with the streetboard at Sarlat!

Feb 27, 2012

Wow, what a week! It has been a week full of miracles and joy!! I love missionary work! Lucien accepted a baptismal date for the 17 or march, and we are going to help him get prepared! We also taught a lot of lessons!! More than I have in a while! However, there is always a little opposition with so many blessings. One mad catholic man yelled and at us, and said some pretty vulgar things about our church. I'm not even sure he knew who we were, he only asked if we were American. He told us he was catholic, and we needed to go home..... I almost lost my patience and told him how great and abominable the Catholic church is... but Elder Bonnett stopped me ;) He knew what I was going to do, love how the spirit warns our companions to help us out haha. It was ironic because the catholic cathedral was just to the right of us.

 

We gave Victoria and Flora Tudor( investigators) blessings this week :) Flora was sick, and we seen it as an opportunity to grow their faith. I love the priesthood, and the power and authority administer blessings! It is so overwhelming to be a tool in the Lord's hands to be the means of pronouncing blessings upon His Children. They felt the Saviors love through the blessings, and Flora even expressed that in a why, a little piece of her was healed inside :) Two days later, we seen them again, and the mother said that she could bend her pinky finger. She couldn't before the blessing because of arthritis. MIRACLES!!!

 

Got a new investigator this week, she was a hand full! She didn't understand that we pray to God... because we end in the name of Christ, she kept getting mad telling us that she would never pray to Jesus, because God is who blesses her... LADY, WE PRAY TO GOD TOO!!!! WE ARE ON THE SAME PAGE, WE DO NOT PRAY TO JESUS! Obviously our pages didn't match up for some reason. It was crazy! Lucien is pretty crazy too ha ha. He is really nice, but does not have a very big attention span.. mix that with some of our members that talk a lot, and it is a MESS! Elder Bonnett and I laughed quite a bit this week ha ha!!! We have so many funny experiences!!!

 

Did an exchange with Brive this week! There is a new missionary there, and his name is Elder Ashton. It is so weird to have done an exchange with a missionary in the same city where I was raised, and see at what point I was at the beginning of my mission! He is a sure heck lot happier than I was at the beginning ha ha. He understands almost nothing; typical! I remember the frustration! It was a good exchange we taught the Plan of Salvation very very simply :) Love the fact that I understand the doctrine so well now!!! Better and better very day!

 

Guess what, I found my umbrella this week too!!! It was still at the train station after all these weeks! However, on coming back to Bergerac the Lord presented me with a way to show my gratitude. There was a man in need, we talked, and I found out that he was homeless, and does not have any shelter. It was at the moment that I thought I have an umbrella I can give him... and even before I could second guess it, the phrase came into my head, "He that giveth not of his goods to the poor and needy shall be damned" and I thought of the scripture in Mosiah 4:16-30 

17 Perhaps thou shalt ^asay: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—

 18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

 26 And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may ^awalk guiltless before God—I would that ye should ^bimpart of your substance to the ^cpoor, every man according to that which he hath, such as ^dfeeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.

I gave him my umbrella, end of story :) I'll get another umbrella another day :)

 

Thank you so much for the package!! I LOVE THE SHIRT! IM GOING BANANAS FOR IT!!! ha ha I had a great Birthday! Oh dad, if you could send me my portable hardrive that would be great :) Could you place 2 gb of music on it as well ?  It has to all be classic or Tabernacle sacred music. President Murdock has spoken haha. Please make play lists so I can change between cd's or artists. I can change the music onto my ipod here on the computers at a cyber café! Well gotta go, LOVE YOU!!!!!

 

Ciao Ciao GROS BISOUS!!!

Feb 6,2012 Bergerac

Ma Famille,

I love you so much ! Have I told you that lately ? So guess what !?!? I SNOWED here in Bergerac yesterday ! Can you believe it?! I love the tender mercies of the Lord ! Church was cancelled however ! It snowed about 4-5 inches ! And it is still sticking to the ground today ! Needless to say, it has been very cold lately ha ha !

I'm so jealous that you had Emma's B-day without me ! Next year I'm the coordinator of her party and we're going to have a crêpe party ! We will go bowling too ! Ha ha. Speaking of parties and festivities, our Cowboy night for the youth was a hit ! Total success !!! We got some youth from Perigueux(neighboring city) to come with their youth leader, and the missionaries there brought an investigator as well:) Guillaume Bouchet came and had a great time as well !! He stayed the whole night ! Didn't dance though.

I taught all the youth (and some adults) how to do the bootin' scootin' boogy ! It was hilarious. At first it was a little rough, but they eventually got it down ! I was impressed ! We even had the Branch President's wife on the dance floor who has about 70 years on her ha ha !

We had interviews with President Murdock on Friday:) I had been looking forward to it all transfer because Elder Bowen moved into my zone ! I got to see him again ! I was so excited, we are such good friends:) I feel like he's the brother I never had ! I can see now why it is so special to have a mission companion ; you are brothers forever !

His ear looks great ! Healed up really well ! That will be a story that we both tell for a long time !

Mom, yes It's a girl in the Branch who asked me ! She is 18 years old. No, haven't bought any shoes... they are too expensive. 45-60 euros. I'll just wear the ones I have till the end of my mission:)

I wanted to send you an expert from my letter to my mission president as well, it's some good revelations!

  Another week come and gone! They go by so fast It was very cold this week, it even snowed yesterday! but we worked threw it ;) We are struggling to find new investigators, but I know that with our faith, prayers, and works, the Lord will lead us to those who are ready for the Gospel. 
  We were able to see Guillaume this week, but like I told you, he is still hard-hearted. I'm excited to share with him the scriptures you gave me :) I have a lot of faith that will help him repent and come to Christ! I pray that we will have the spirit with us; I know the Lord can change his heart! Oh, almost forgot! We were able to see Andrew Sunday night! After bearing a strong testimony, he accepted truly read the Book of Mormon! We are going to follow up tomorrow ;)
 Speaking of the Holy Ghost, I did what you suggested for our study this week. I found a lot of revelation in the chapters 4, 11 of 1Nephi. One thing that I learned or remarked is found in chapter 4, the verses 6-18. Nephi was lead by the spirit to do something hard. In his moment of doubt, the Holy Ghost not only taught him truth, but helped him remember why he must carry out the difficult task (vs. 14-17) 
  This can be very beneficial for our investigators, because they can realize that the Holy Ghost as lead them to work out their salvation. Then, they can have confidence that the Holy Ghost will give them courage to do that which is difficult on the path that leads to baptism; keeping the commandments and avoiding the Satan's temptations. He will do that by reminding them of why they are making the efforts in the first place; baptism for the remission of their sins and inherit eternal life!
  President, thanks for what you told me during interviews about becoming the best I can be. I have seen that my studies have been more meaningful since Friday, and my attitude towards opposition and trials has changed. The Lord knows our potential, and He loves us very much. Because He loves us, he wants us to reach our divine potential! I realize now that our trials are the small, or sometimes rather large stepping stones, that will help us day reach our divine potential :) I know that the Lord will never stop encouraging me ;)
  Our activity was a success!! Youth from Perigueux came and so did one of their investigators! Guillaume was there as well and stayed the whole night! It was a blast, and our goal to strengthen the youth was accomplished!
  My niece, Emma, turned 2 years old this Sunday :) She is a little girl now, wow time goes right on by!
Thanks President - Elder Petersen

Jan 30, 2012

Ma famille et mes amis!
  
  Well another week come and gone! Not much happening in Bergerac. Mme. Pillot accepted and rejected baptism in a manner of a few days. She accepted a date for the 18 February after an amazing rendez-vous, and the next morning she called us to tell us she wants to stop, and politely asked us to not call her anymore. Sadly, she caught wind of some anti-Mormon propaganda and it scared her off. Everyone has their free agency...however, it's sad to see them make the wrong choices. Satan has such a great hold of the hearts of men in this country!
  Bright side is that I'm happy:) It's hard to see people us their agency is such a terrible way, but I can't let that discourage me from working and exercising my for good ;) There is SO MUCH HOPE in missionary work!
  This mission home forwarded me a ton of letters this week! I got Christmas cards from Holly Hatch, Fr. Vital (Ward mission leader from Carcassonne), and the Rubino Family! I also got letters from Sister Hatch, Elder Deakin, Uncle Steve, and my convert Jérôme Corneloup! I was blessed so much this week! It was so good to see that I have roots here in France now! Jérôme is going strong in the church at Gap! Can't wait to see him again!
   It's rather cold here, winter finally hit! No snow though. Sad story, my top button on my pea coat popped off :( Another sad story, left my umbrella at the train station in a neighboring city :( Good thing a got a hood on my raincoat ;)
   I had exchanges with the Zone leaders on Tuesday, and the Elders at Perigueux on Thursday after district meeting. On Thursday I was with Elder Hamilton at Perigueux. I did something really stupid on exchange, and I must tell you. We visited a less active... but I forgot he was less active in the middle of the lesson. The conversation lead to baptism and well... I invited a less active to baptism! DOH!!!! Gratefully, he didn't really understand what was going on, so saved by the bell on that one. However, Elder Hamilton will never let me live it down... and I'm sure he is going to tell many missionaries about it....Credibility as a district leader... going, going... and gone! Ha ha, no I'm not really that worried about it  I'm sure laughing about it now!
   In the mission we are starting to focus on really working with the members to find people to teach. They are the key to missionary work and finding those who are ready for the Gospel! If you have any ideas on how to get the members excited about missionary work, let me know!
   This Saturday we are having an activity for the youth, "Cowboy night" where we will be playing games, and teaching them how to do the "Bootin' scoot boogy". Still need to work out some kinks with the sound and decorations, so pray for us!! This needs to be a success to strengthen our youth of the branch!

For everyone: 

  I do also have another question; Do you know of anyone that works in a laboratory for a cosmetic company? There is a girl in the branch that would like to do an internship in the U.S. and she asked me if I knew anyone.... do we know someone? Also I sent you my garments back; they are a size 30 and I wear 32. Could you exchange them please? Oh and about the "end"? i have been penciling a few things out, but it's not ready yet. I'll get back to you on that! Can I just say that I'm am stoked! I'm not excited to lug around my two years of luggage though...

For da Mamma:

 When is school registration? Are you on top of it? I bet you are ha ha!!! I'm sure that Tad will be contacting you soon! Tell him that I said bonjour :) I think it is really cool you get to do Curtis's temple work as well... I was always going to tell you to wait till I got home, but I realized that it was a selfish desire.

For everyone:  

 Well, I love you all, and I can't wait to hear from you again the next week :) Transfer calls are next week! Make some guesses of what is going to happen, that will spice things up a bit!