WHAT A WEEK!!

(From Jordan’s mom:  sorry for the late post!  This post is from last week - written October 12, 2015!  Sister Peterson had a hard time loading her pictures so included are just a few of beautiful Trondheim and others from her companions.  More to come this week along with her new email, but for now – enjoy last weeks email.)

In the words of my companion.....

“This week was actually not very interesting...

We only had four miracle lessons in one hour, a random lady came to the church to "get strength from God" and for the first time ever on our missions someone let us into her house when we knocked on it! AND we saw the Northern lights!!”

Just kidding........ THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!!!!!

WE SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY WERE INSANE!!!! A member Pelle texted us which was way nice and we ran outside! THEY WERE BLUE AND GREEN!! They were so pretty!!!

The next couple pictures are from Elder Gingrich up in Tromsø!!!  AMAZING!

We visited Lars and Evilena this week and we decided to watch the Joseph Smith movie with them. The hour long one is the best one!! OH MY GOSH the spirit was so strong!! It was so cool! Afterwards we all bore testimony about Joseph Smith and I know for me, every time I watch that movie my testimony is strengthened so much! I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God. I am so amazed that through all the challenges and trials that he was faced with that he still continued to follow what the Lord commanded him to do with faith. Joseph wouldn't have gone through everything he did if everything was made up and fake! This gospel and the Book of Mormon are true!

We visited a less active Elin and her sambor, Kenneth this week!! They are too cute!! They fed us the yummiest lasagna ever!!

Visited Majken this week. I love her baby!! It really kills me that I can't hold her.... and she gave us cookies!

We visited Bestamor and Bestafar again this week! Bestamor told Sister Sorensen she needed to cut her hair hahaha and Bestafar (Mangus) it was the cutest thing ever!!! We went into his room and he wasn't there... a little alarming because he is way sick and like confined to his bed, we assumd the best and thought maybe he was getting a bath and we would come back next week. On our way out we turn the corner and there he is!! In his wheelchair with an orange hanging out of his mouth! It was the cutest thing ever!!! He looked way good!

This week was full of water balloons! So to start Sister Allen thought she would be sly and throw a water balloon at me to get back at me for scaring her throughout the week, but she missed me and hit Sister Sorensen instead hahahah. THEN we were out trying to find a less active and out of nowhere someone throws a water balloon at us!!! What the heck!?

The amount of boller and ice cream that was fed to us this week from the elderly was insane.... seriously I never want to eat those things again!! The worst thing is you can't say no!!

We did another street stand this week! Dang people were not so nice... but! We did give out a Mormons Bok, to a little boy! haha him and his siblings came up to the table and asked if it was free and then took it and skipped off! It was really cute

At soccer on Saturday I scored a goal! That was a big accomplishment! I am still terrified of the Norwegians, but it is still way fun!

On Sunday I had to translate for this cute Chinese lady in church. She doesn't speak Norwegian, so I was translating from Norwegian to English to her! It was way fun and I am way surprised at how much I understood. (About 90%)

Mido came to church and he was dressed nice!!!

We were at MMK our Ward missionary leader thing, Myhren our church phantom walks into the room, and says that there is a random lady needing to talk to the missionaries. So me and my companions jump at the opportunity to go and talk to this women. Her name is Karolina. We greet her and she only speaks broken English and no Norsk. We start talking to her and she informs us that she is going to have an operation that next day and that she didn't know where else to go for strength but to God. We showed her around the church and she wanted to go into the chapel.

We continued talking to her and telling her about how God will help her and that everything will go according to His plan. We then ask if we can give her a Book of Mormon.

She agreed and we left her in the Chapel and RAN down the hallway frantically searching for a Bulgarian BOM while our MMK meeting was still going on. We look and look with no luck.

So we go and sprint to our apartment-- that's luckily across street.  Grab the BOM come back give it to her, Bare a solid testimony of the power that it has. We then exchange numbers and she leaves. IT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER!!

Then Sunday comes and we were short 4 lessons. Not cool because we've been struggling to reach all our goals and frankly we just wanted to hit this one. So we're about to leave church on Sunday and we stop to say a prayer and we invited some members to pray with us, Saying we're going to get these lessons with YOUR FAITH! So we go with a prayer in our hearts knowing that the Lord would help us bring people unto Christ. And within an hour we got the 4 other lessons we needed to make our goal! It was so awesome! The Lord really does amplify those He calls. Then one of our appointments cancelled due to a hangover....don't even get me started. Our backup plan was to go find a former investigator. We look up the address and head out. We make our way on the bus and 20 minutes later we're there. Søster Allen knocks on the door. No answer, so she rings the bell and no answer. Then I go to put a card in her door saying we'd been there when SHE ANSWERED! Her name is Inger and when Søster Allen introduced us Inger almost died. She was so happy to see us! She told us to come in and started talking with us! We didn't have a lot of time because we had to catch the bus, but we made a return appointment to come back!

Later I told Søster Sorensen how weird it was that someone was actually happy to see the Mormons haha and she said yeah I have to agree with that. That was the first time I have ever been let in except two other times that were by crazy people who didn't know exactly who we were.

It was so awesome to see the Lords hand in our work this week. I truly feel like he was there every step of the way even when we felt like we had no clue what we were doing!

I know that the Lord calls each of us for a reason and that as we focus on what He wants, nothing will go wrong. Just trust and rely on him and trust in the way that HE will lead you!

Jordan's Tidbits:

- never become too attached to a nametag... my favorite one that I have used every day for 13 months got lost somewhere in the streets of Trondheim.....

- When you get a prompting...follow it!!! We were on the bus and Sister Allen asked me if I had a card she could give to a man on the bus. I was so proud of her!! She followed him off the bus and walked him down and then gave it to him! As we were walking away Sister Allen goes I felt way good about that and then Sister Sorensen goes really? Cause I thought he was a perv... hahahahaha HOWEVER!!! Follow your promptings and Heavenly Father will bless you

- Next week Sister Sorensen and I start the Doctrine and Covenants challenge! So when missionaries get to the last 138 days of their mission they start from chapter 138 in the Doctrine and Covenants and read one chapter everyday backwards till chapter 1 and then that is the last day of their mission! We start this week!! SO CRAZY!!!

- I scared Sister Sorensen this week and she screamed so loud!! I thought she was going to have a heart attack! It's Oktober, so Tis the season to be scary!

- I LOVE FALL!!! It is the best time of the year!

Scripture of the week:

Alma 5 verse 26 and 27

*And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye are sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?

I chose this scripture because it really made me ponder and think.... If I have changed especially since being on my mission, can I still feel the change? Am I still continuing to change and become better? Am I using Christ to change or am I doing it on my own? Am I living my life everyday so that I can be clean and live with God? At the end of each day, would I feel embarrassed to face God? Am I constantly remembering the Lord and humbling myself?

These thoughts and questions really helped ponder who I am, who I have become, and who I want to be!

Åndelig Tanker:

- The gospel is simple, don't make it more complicated than it needs to be

- If you see someone you don't recognize at church, SAY HI!!!!! We need the members help! It is so important that they fellowship new people even if they aren't investigators!

- Food storage needs to be an important thing! You never know when it is going to come in handy! It is better to be over prepared than underprepared

- So one of my favorite talks from conference was about Ponderize! This is from the talk and the link is for the whole talk! "My second invitation is quite different from and much more important than the first. It is this: I invite you to “ponderize” one verse of scripture each week. The word ponderize is not found in the dictionary, but it has found a place in my heart. So what does it mean to ponderize? I like to say it’s a combination of 80 percent extended pondering and 20 percent memorization."

There are two simple steps:

First, choose a verse. Second, read or think of the verse several times each day and ponder the meaning of its words and key phrases throughout the week. Write down a verse of scripture each week and place it somewhere you will see it every day.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/my-heart-pondereth-them-continually?lang=eng

 

So I would love to invite you all to try and do this!!!

glad i dere!!! ha en fin uke!!!

xoxoxo

Søster Jordan Peterson

13 MONTHS...AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR FROM THE PROPHET!!

I can't believe I hit 13 months this week!! No way Jose!!! My time clock is ticking away and I am not sure how I feel about it.... bittersweet feelings that is for sure!!

So we met this man on the street and he wasn't interested, but called us and asked if we could come and answer questions at this panel type thing for school. So the sisters and two of the elders went and it was way cool! There was about 4 people there and it was way fun to have them ask us all sorts of questions and be able to talk to them and help them see that Mormons aren't so weird after all! At the end I had purposely left a Mormons Bok behind for them to keep and we are out the door walking down the gravel road when we hear *Mormons your bible!!!* We turn around and one of the boys is chasing us down waving our Book of Mormon and telling us that we forgot it. hahaha it was pretty funny. We were like dang it! They were supposed to keep it.... HOWEVER!! That was a miracle in disguise!! Later that day we were kontakting and we stopped this way awesome and super positive lady! She was so interested and sadly doesn't live in Trondheim, but wanted a Book of Mormon and was leaving that afternoon. Luckily we had a Book of Mormon to give her and it was all because the man had chased us down! So we ended up giving it away after all! The Lord works in mysterious ways my friends.

The STL's came to visit!! I got to see my best pals Søster House and Boud again!! Man I love those girls!! It was so fun to have them here and be able to do missionary work with them! Søster House and I got to go visit bestamor together (Inger the old lady who lives in a nursing home) and oh my gosh that lady has my heart!! She began to cry to us and next thing I know I am holding her hand and her head is against my chest while she is bawling to me and I started to tear up! She was hard to understand because crying and Norwegian don't go well together, but man she is the sweetest lady ever!! I just held her as she cried and it just broke my heart!! She even asked me if we were mad at her for crying!? She told us that we are so sweet and nice to her.  She makes missionary work so worth it. I am so grateful for all of the people I have been able to meet and for them changing my life and strengthening my testimony. While we were with her, I was able to see her through God's eyes and it was the coolest experience ever.Another miracle of the week!!

 

When the STL's were here Søster Boud, Sorensen and I stopped this Russian girl named Anna (Ann-ya) . We set up an appointment to meet her the next day, and we got her number but it didn't work because it wasn't Norwegian... so we were just going on faith. The next day we are running late due to the bus to meet her and I honestly didn't think she would show up. We get off the bus and she wasn't there.... but Sorensen goes I saw her!! She was here!! She was walking back across the bridge! So we immediately take off across the bridge to try to find her.

We end up in the middle of the city sentrum and there are people everywhere and our hopes of finding her were crushed. We decided to say a prayer to find her and then we kept walking. As soon as we turned the corner we saw her on the other side of the street!! So we took off running and talked to her!! It truly was a miracle that we found her because there is no way we would have found her!! We were in the middle of the city with people everywhere! We talked to her for a bit and then parted ways. After we parted, Sorensen called the elders who live a couple streets away asking them to literally run a book of Mormon to us so we can give it to her. Props of being in a trio we made a chain down the street and then were on our phones so we were within sight and sound so we could get the book faster from the elders hahaha. I had to keep watch and make sure Anna didn't leave the store she had gone into. Yes, we totally sound like creepers, but this was important!! We get the book and found her in the store and probably scared her because we kept coming out of nowhere, but we gave her the book and that is all that matters(: Heavenly Father does hear and answer our prayers and wants us to succeed!

While the STL's were here around midnight this loud banging kept going off!! Sorensen got out of bed and we all woke up and it literally sounded like we were being attacked and bombs were going off! The next morning Søster House said that she was convinced Russia was attacking!! Turns out it was just the college campus firing canons, but still......

I love the Sisters I serve with!  We work very hard, but also find time to keep things fun!

 P-day fun at the cathedral city!

 Sister Sorenson and I entered the MTC at the same time!!

We played soccer for sport on Saturday and oh man I AM SORE!!!! I haven't played soccer since first semester of college and it was for fun!! The people in the ward that came.... man were they scary and way good!!! I got very good at making sure I was not around them when they had the ball or trying to steal the ball from them. When they kicked it, I'm pretty sure they could take someone's head off

Jordan's Tidbits:

- It is now 5 months to sexy, not 6.......how do I do that when we have these yummy desserts!!! hahaha

- CONFERENCE IS AWESOME! We had to watch it at way different times because of the time difference and on different days than they were actually being aired, but it was amazing nonetheless to see apostles and the prophet of God speak and give us counsel

- Sister Allen, Sorensen, and I were the only ones at the church watching the women's conference because it was being broadcasted on Saturday even though it really was a week ago... we got the whole chapel to ourselves!! It was pretty koselig and nice! It was way weird though haha.

- We were not allowed to stay up late to watch conference.... bummer!

- Poor Sister Allen we love to scare her!! hahaha So we have a bunk bed and then a bed on the floor since we all have to sleep in the same room (mission rules). I am on the top bunk, Sorensen is on the bottom, and Allen is on the bed floor. So I hid under the bed and attempted to scare her and man is she jumpy!! It was pretty funny and messing with her gives me and Sorensen a good laugh!! BUT let me tell you..... my clothes after I came out from under the bed.... it looked like I had been attacked by a cat!! It was the most disgusting thing ever!!! The amount of dust, hair, and who knows what else that was on me was awful!

-Having fun trying to do my “Elsa braid!”

- FALL IS HERE!!! So what do we do to celebrate!? Go to Starbucks and get Pumpkin Hot chocolate of course!  Yes, we have a STARBUCKS!!  Hallelujah!

 

- One of the Elders in my district Elder Rasband, his great uncle is one of the new apostles!! So that is way cool!  My district is great!!

(listed in no particular order)  Elder Mitchell, Miller, Johnson, Sister Allen, Sorenson, Peterson, Elder Arnold, Rasband, Corrigan

Åndelig Tanker:

CONFERENCE WAS SO AMAZING!!!! If you weren't able to watch it, I would highly recommend going to lds.org and watching it!! If you did watch it, I would like to invite you to go back through your notes or go back and watch your favorite talk. Think about how you felt and the impressions you got while you watched chosen servants of the Lord speak to us. Put into action something you want to change or do! Something that was common among conference was *Keeping the Sabbath day holy, PREPARATION, importance of the Holy Ghost, and keeping the commandments and covenants we have made, and standing strong in these last days!!!* To me it sounds like the second coming is coming close. We live in a wicked world and we need to stand strong and be prepared more than ever!

- How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?

- When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation

- Instead of being thankful for things, focus on being thankful in our circumstances, whatever they may be!

- Why does God command us to be grateful? All of His commandments are given to make blessings available to us. Commandments are opportunities to exercise our agency and to receive blessings. Our loving Heavenly Father knows that choosing to develop a spirit of gratitude will bring us true joy and great happiness

 

ha en fin uke dere!!! glad i dere!!! thank you so much for your love, support, encouragement, letters, and emails throughout these last 13 months. They mean more to me than you know!!  Thanks mom for the package!!

xoxo

Søster Jordan Peterson

ps here is my address in case you want to send me a letter or something(;

Søster Jordan Peterson

Eirik Jarls Gate 4

7030 Trondheim

Norway

FALL HAS ARRIVED!!

FALL IS HERE!!! I love fall!!! I sure do miss American fall though! I love Trondheim!! This place describes Norway perfectly! This city is amazing!

Norway just has my heart!! I seriously love this place!! I don't even want to think about leaving this place.....

We had ZLT this week!! Which meant all of the missionaries in our zone got to come to Trondheim!! Which also meant I got to see my peeps and that there were 11 sisters staying in our apartment. Man was that a fun night!!! I got to see my last two companions and Sister House and Sister Boud!! It was the best thing ever!!! 

ZLT was all about member missionary work and I learned a lot!! It is so important to work and use members!! Without members we cannot do this. We need the members and we need to all work together. When we work with the members our work will improve and we will have better success!

So Thursday was so fun!!! We had the sisters here and we all took on Trondheim and went on contacting splits! Man oh man was it miracles on miracles!!! Seriously Heavenly Father does hear and answer prayers. We really needed some new investigators and I said a prayer on the bridge while we looked at the view and he totally came through!!

When we do our part, he will do his. We went and ate at McDonalds and had a ton of laughs and a grand ol time! While Sister Wadley and I were together two miracles happened right after another!! First we stopped a man and got his number and an appointment and then right after we stopped a girl and got her number and appointment!! Funny story.... I thought I had saved her number in my phone and after we started walking away it was gone! So I took off sprinting down the street yelling her name (Isabella) to get her number again!

 

I have the strongest testimony that when you put in your effort, do all you can, and have faith that the Lord will help you, HE WILL HELP YOU!!!!!

So during our big contact session with all the other sisters. Sister Sorensen met a girl named Irene and got an appointment with her and she is so prepared and positive!! I am so excited to meet with her again! She is from the Philippines and is really interested in the Book of Mormon.

Mido, we taught him this week and he came to church!! He is really starting to understand the purpose of God and Jesus Christ and of why we need the Book of Mormon. He really loved the hymns at church.

We visited the cutest old lady and man in the ward who live in a nursing home. We call them Bestamor and Bestafar. Bestafar had us give our spiritual thought and prayer twice because he couldn't remember that we did it already. Bestamor Ingrid is just the cutest thing ever!!!

 Sister Sorensen and Allen and I got stuck on bus for an hour and a half.... typical missionary move.... We had some great bonding time though!!!  These sisters are literally the most genuine people I have ever met. We are going to have lifelong friendships. I am so grateful to the Lord for putting them into my life. I don't know what I would do without them!

I am so grateful for my Mission President. Many people say that missionaries are called to their areas and assigned to their Mission President. I do not doubt that. I am so grateful and blessed to be with President and Sister Hill. They are amazing and remarkable people. I look up to them so much.

So we found a stash of approved church movies we are allowed to watch and went crazy!! So we have been having dinner and a movie the past couple of nights. Let me tell you, these church movies are HILARIOUS!!! We are dying laughing while we watch these! (Especially the ones about missionaries.) They are like spot on with the jokes! We usually take dinner at 8 and then we are in for the night because planning starts at 9 so for dinner and a movie we change into comfy clothes and then for planning just put skirts on over our sweat pants hahaha!

One of our investigators Maybritt literally lives up this forever long straight up hill!! We taught her the plan of salvation with this visual aid and the spirit was so strong and we all taught together and went off of one another so well!!

After visiting a less active Birgit who by the way is hilarious!! She was totally serenading us and singing and dancing to us! She was watching skal vi danse (Shall We Dance) when we came so afterwards, Sister Sorensen taught me how to waltz while we were walking home. Sister Allen was getting a great laugh from that!

(As we were walking out of Birgit's house I totally called her the wrong name and yelled bye Maybritt!! She is kinda old and so funny and was like IM BIRGIT!! hahaha uff da!! I was so embarrassed!! (And then at church I called her Maybritt again!!)

The cute Texan member (she is from Tyler, Texas.  Her husband is Norwegian and not a member) invited us over to her house and OH MY GOSH I about died!! American fall at its finest!! She also has the two cutest little boys and had made us homemade American cookies!! I just love Kristil!! She is so cute!! Made me miss home a lot though!

So I had to renew my visa so I can stay in Norway and it expires in October, but the earliest I could get an appointment was November...... hopefully that doesn't cause a problem...

There is a man here who is a “free spirit” and doesn't care what people think about him that dances around on rollerblades. I really liked the song he was dancing to, so I walked up to him and asked him what it was called…. hahaha He was a way happy dude!

Did another street stand this week!! Those are so fun!! You meet some interesting people that is for sure.

We had two investigators in church this week!!! That was way exciting and a huge answer to prayers!!! Mido and Lars are two of our investigators and Lars came with his wife who is a member and their cute baby!!

The *what are the odds game* has become quite the favor with us three while we are contacting and even at home!! That game is hilarious and definitely makes us step out of our comfort zone!

Sister Sorensen and I may have accidentally made Sister Allen throw up.... ooops!!! She lost to what are the odds and had to do the cinnamon challenge and she threw up!! Sister Sorensen and I were in the kitchen after we had videoed her and it had been awhile and we opened the bathroom door and Sister Allen was head first in the toilet throwing up.....

I FINISHED THE NEW TESTAMENT!!!! I started it from the beginning to end!!!

Due to the time difference with conference this weekend we (the missionaries) are going to stay up til midnight Sunday night to watch conference!!! PJ party!!! I am so excited!! It is so crazy to think that this time last year I was in the MTC watching conference!! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by! I am so so excited for conference this week and for the guidance and council from the prophet and his apostles!

Jordan's Tidbits:

- I can't believe this week it hits Oktober!!! NO WAY!!!!

-Some people have asked me what my apartment looks like.  So here are some pictures.  We live right across from the church!  That is awesome!

- So one of my companions Sister Allen says *hot poop* Sister Sorensen and I died when she said that!! She was so confused as to why we thought that phrase was so weird! Apparently she says it whenever something is cool or awesome or along those lines. We told her that it was not a normal phrase and she said oh... maybe it's just a family thing hahahaha

- Since there are three of us and it is fall, we were trying to find a former (investigator) and the neighborhood he lived in looked exactly like a Halloween neighborhood!! It was so cool!! So of course we had to do the Hocus Pocus walk down the street hahah man I love these girls!!!

- We called ourselves the Power Puff Girls and of course my blondness kicked in and on our board in our apartment I wrote *Powdered Puff Jenter* (jenter means girls) I didn't even notice that I had written it wrong until they started dying laughing.....

- I have converted Sister Sorensen to saying ya'll!!!!!

- Sister Sorensen judged Sister Allen and I for having certain things we need to sleep with every night hahaha

- Sister Allen taught me a phrase I had never heard before *YOMO* It means; YOU ONLY MISSION ONCE

- My companions are the best and so awesome and hilarious and I love them!

 

Random pics from the week:

 The cutest bicycle shop!

 Gotta love it!!

 11 girls sharing a bathroom!!  Yikes!!

 Love this town!!!

 Outside of the Art Museum

 Mailbox... hint hint... write me :)

 Forever Friends!!

Trondheim at night

Åndelig Tanker:

**Turn your heart to the Lord: Lift up your soul in prayer and explain to your Heavenly Father what you are feeling. Acknowledge your shortcomings. Pour out your heart and express your gratitude. Let him know of the trials you are facing. Plead with Him in Christ's name for strength and support. Ask that your ears may be opened, that you may hear His voice. Ask that your eyes may be opened, that you may see his light!**

*Even with the trials of life, because of the Savior's Atonement and His grace, righteous living will be rewarded with personal peace.

*Lift up your hearts in praise to God, let your rejoicings never cease. Though tribulations rage abroad, Christ says *In me ye shall have peace!*

*In Doctrine and Covenants section 82 verse 10, We are taught that if we do things the Lord's way, He is bound to bless us and we have claim to His promises; and if not His way, we have no promise!

INVITATION:

So General Conference is this weekend!! I would invite ALL of you reading this; members or non-members to check it out!!(: You can go to lds.org and watch it online or ask a Mormon and you can watch it at their house!! We are going to hear from the prophet and apostles!!! This is something you don't want to miss out on trust me!!!

ha en fin uke!!!

xoxo

Søster Jordan Peterson

check out my mission presidents wife’s blog: thehillsinnorway.com