Peter's Ponderings

And it came to pass in the second week of the fourth transfer we have 4 people on date!?!! Mission vehicles have a thing that tracks EVERYTHING. Acceleration, speeding, seat belts being buckled, aggressive driving and you need to log into using a card. I went on exchanges with Elder Fox in the first ward on Thursday and he got robbed a couple days before the exchange so he didn't have his card so I drove for the first time in 6 months! I drove a 2025 rav4 with 8k miles on it. Mission vehicles are really nice. They also get them straight from the factory in bulk for a good price then resell them at a certain amount of miles for a similar price as what they bought them. Anyways, the exchange went really well! We talked to many really cool elect people and it was just a really good day. I later found out that in my area Elder Howell and Elder Fonger stopped by some people formerly being taught and ended up putting 2 people on date for baptism! Then we stopped by them on Saturday and o...

And it came to pass in the first week of the fourth transfer I got a new companion. Elder Howell is an exceptional missionary and musician! I imagine there will be many duets and a lot of fun! We but Jane on date for baptism! We were about to stop teaching her because she wasn't progressing much and had refused baptism a lot in the last but she accepted this time so she's on date for the 21st! Other than that not much happened. The book is blue and church is true! Read the book and go to the church! And pray. Spiritual CPR. Church, Pray, Read. Do it! Stay alive spiritually! I love all y'all! And thus ended the first week of the fourth transfer. This is the only picture we have together

And it came to pass in the final week of the third transfer it snowed 7 inches. We were stuck inside again on Saturday and Sunday. So no church again. Our friends haven't had the opportunity to take the sacrament and next week is Stake Conference so it'll be another week with no sacrament. Fortunately for me, we were given permission to administer the sacrament again. Elder Pedersen is from Texas and this is the most snow he's ever been in. It was pretty fun to play in the snow with him and also really funny how amazed he was by it. We had a lot of fun throwing snow at each other. Also we played some chess!! I love chess. Needless to say.  Yesterday we had a really cool lesson with Lashonda! She was super excited and interested in the Book of Mormon app and also hearing modern day prophets so we set up the Gospel Library app on her phone and she also asked if there was a way to make a study plan so we set that up too! Been pretty busy today so no crazy spiritual thought. Bu...

  And it came to pass in the sixth week of the third transfer North Carolina shut down. Since last transfer was 5 weeks (so transfers didn't end up on Christmas) this transfer is 7 weeks. So normally it would be week 6 that comes out on a Wednesday but this transfer it'll be week 7 that Pday is on Wednesday, so my next email will be February 4. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders on Tuesday. We live in the same apartment complex and they told us Tuesday morning in the gym that we would be going on exchanges starting at lunch. I went to the  Goldsboro  1st ward and overall not too much happened. Thursday morning I woke up to a message from my mom informing me that the Governor declared a state of emergency due to dangerous weather coming from Saturday to Monday (more on that later). We had district council that morning then after we went and did service as a district. We covered some greens at a local golf course to help the grass survive the freezing rain (pretty s...

  And it came to pass in the fifth week of the third transfer I was sick. I wasn't terribly sick but I was sick. Because of it not too much happened. If stuff happened I was zoned out and I don't remember it, other than two things: interviews with President and Sister Stevens and a member took us out to Western Sizzlin and I ate gizzards and livers. Livers are not very good, gizzards are alright but still not amazing. I don't know exactly what a gizzard is but I know I saw them when we processed roosters so it's got something to do with chicken insides. Interviews were really good but scheduling them was a mess. Interviews were going to be on Thursday morning for some people which is when we usually do district council so we had to reschedule that. Then President got sick so they pushed everything back a day so we rescheduled district council again. Then President and Sister Stevens had a meeting pop up between the time scheduled for Elder Pedersen's interview and m...

  And it came to pass in the fourth week of the third transfer miracles are abounding! We see miracles every day! That's not new, what's new is I'm going to share a couple miracles we saw with our new members on Sunday. (new members are any converts in the last year) First, Dylan. He hasn't come to church since beforr Elder Pedersen got to  Goldsboro  which was October! And every time we stop by he's not home. He can only message over Wi-Fi and he doesn't have Wi-Fi at home so he's hard to contact. But we stopped by on Thursday and he was home and said he wanted to come to church! We were able to find someone to talk him to church and Dylan passed the sacrament! He also named a cat after me! So now there's a cat named Shadel wandering around somewhere. Second, Debra. She needs a ride to church as well but we couldn't find one. We gave her a call to let her know and she was sad and said that she had faith someone would be available and she already got...

  And it came to pass in the third week of the third transfer I got to go to the temple!! Happy New Year! It's already 2026!? This is my blackout year! Meaning I'm going to be a missionary for the whole year of 2026. And apparently in the south there's an old wives tale saying if you eat collards and black-eyed peas you'll get rich. So some members had us over and served us some along with some amazing southern food! Deep fried chicken, sweet potato casserole, and rice. Whatever they do to the rice out here it is amazing! I've been getting lots of good Southern cooking here in Goldsboro and lots of leftovers too! I went to the Temple on Friday!!!!!! One of our new members recently hit her year mark as a member so she was able to go through the temple and get endowed and we got permission to go with her! She also was sealed to her deceased husband which is so cool! It was so awesome to be in the temple again. It's been too long since I've been able to go. Upd...

And it came to pass in the second week of the third transfer David Morrison entered into the waters of baptism! One of the two people on date when I got here to  Goldsboro  was baptized yesterday! The other one might end up falling of date completely... But David was baptized and that was really cool! We accidentally but the first verse of the Spirit of God in the program twice but other than that it went really smooth! I gave a short talk on the Holy Ghost. On Saturday we talked to Mere! He's super cool. We were knocking a door in the projects and he walked by and Elder Pedersen said he recognized him, the he came back like 3 seconds later and said I know you! And we ended up talking and he really needed it and the power the Book of Mormon can bring him and he's the first person I've ended up hugging on a first contact. He's super cool!  Christmas was fun! We got breakfast and lunch and then we hung out with the district! It's never been warm enough to play pickleb...

  And it came to pass in the commencement of the third transfer I was transferred to Goldsboro second ward! New area! People speak English here! There are 2 people on date and the work moves really fast here. Basically if people don't come to church we stop teaching because there are so many people and we don't have time to keep teaching them if they can't keep that commitment. Kinda wild and a lot faster pace than  Siler . It's pretty fun to be somewhere so busy but also exhausting. And sadly there isn't much service and the service isn't nearly as interesting. However, the members are a lot more active in missionary work! And we get fed a lot more here than in  Siler . Elder Pedersen is amazing! He is my new companion. He's helping me be a better and more dedicated missionary and I'm very excited to be with him for 7 weeks! We also just get along really well. Too well actually. It's a problem sometimes. But it's a great and fun problem. The apa...

  And it came to pass in the latter end of the second transfer... I hit 100 days as a missionary today! I've listened to 2.5 volumes of Saints. I also read the entire Book of Mormon in a single day! All 9 chapters ;). I also finished the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ cover to cover, including the introduction and everything at the beginning. I started in the MTC and was at 1 Nephi 16 when I got to North Carolina and I found out they started a mission reading of the Book of Mormon 6 weeks prior to my arrival and they planned to be done by Christmas. I was very far behind but I started reading in my free time as well as my personal study time and quickly caught up and apparently went faster than I needed to. I love the Book of Mormon! Y'all should read it often! Random cool thing! There are Arabic missionaries now! First ones in the world and they are in California. If we run into Arabic people their job is pretty much to be on call and help us communicate wit...

  And it came to pass in the fourth week of the second transfer... Those of you who know me know that I like to be organized, thus why my email titles are organized but they are also a little bland. Next transfer I plan on making them a little more interesting. Transfers are a week from Thursday! So no email from me on Monday next week, that will be miracle Monday and this week is marathon week so Pday will be Wednesday. Normally there would we another week in the transfer but that would make transfers be on Christmas and no one wants that. Next transfer will be a extra week long to make up for it. This week was kinda hectic so for the first time I'm going to break it down day by day! Monday- Pday, pickleball, games with the district, nothing interesting. Tuesday- We did goat farm service and they have a bunch of gelato that isn't good enough to sell that we took home! When I say a bunch I mean we took home easily 10+ gallons of gelato. We're going to give a bunch of it to ...

  And it came to pass in the third week of the second transfer I processed roosters! For those of you unfamiliar with what it means to process roosters it's basically how you turn a rooster into chicken nuggets. If you don't want to know how it's done skip to the next paragraph. The process we did was a lot more humane than a factory. They just fully decapitate them. What we did is held them upside down to make them fall asleep, then while upside down in a cone thingy that holds them still we cut through the skin on the neck and cut the arteries and they bleed out. This is better because chickens are weird. Decapitation leaves them with a lot of blood and they are still kind of alive thus why they can run around for upwards of 20 minutes after decapitation. Draining them of blood fully kills them and they are calm almost they entire time. It was actually really surprising that the rooster was quiet the entire time! It just flinched a couple times as things were being cut. T...

And it came to pass in the second week of the second transfer nothing interesting happened. We went on exchanges. That was fun. I got to talk to some Hindus instead of Hispanics. The Hindus speak English more often than the Hispanics so it was a very nice change to actually be able to talk to people for a day. I learned how to repair small holes. So I stitched up the hole from when I got attacked by a dog a million years ago. And also I somehow got holes in both of my jeans. But now there are no more holes! Random thing, last Pday I found a Book of Mormon from 1997! And inside it says: Alma 39:17-19   17 ...Behold, I say unto you, is not a soul at this time as precious unto God as a soul will be at the time of his coming?    18 Is it not as necessary that the plan of redemption should be made known unto this people as well as unto their children?    19 Is it not as easy at this time for the Lord to send his angel to declare these glad tidings unto us as unto our...

  And it came to pass in the first week of the second transfer not much happened. I'm still in  Siler  City with Elder Walker. The Èlders next door got changed. Èlder Ord left to go to Raleigh, which has a Spanish ward! It's the only Spanish ward in the mission, the rest are all Branches. We also got 2 new Èlders to replace him so now they are a trio. And there is a service missionary here that goes out with them. He came home for medical reasons, but he's cleared to go back and hopes to return next month. However, for now he goes out with the now trio sometimes making them a quad. This is why it's hard for the members to feed us, there are six of us now. Also, the week before I got here it was the same situation except there was an AP blitz exchange going on at the same time so there was a member that ended up feeding seven missionaries! Speaking of Spanish Branches, out branch is an English branch but we translate it into Spanish because there are so many Spanish spea...