1 year!! 12 months!! #sixmonthstosexybegi​ns

There is no way I have been out for 1 year already!!!! I cannot believe it!! I still remember my first day in the MTC like it was yesterday! Time really does fly when you are on a mission. I won't lie, my first day at the MTC I was so overwhelmed and had no idea what I had just gotten myself into...... However now 12 months later, I can say, that was the best decision I have ever made and looking back at these past 12 months, the experiences, Challenges, Growth, knowledge that I have had, I wouldn't trade for anything in the world! I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to share the gospel and change people's lives as well as my own!! I know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and that he is always there for me. I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ and for what he has done for me so that I can return to my Heavenly Father again. Norway has forever changed my life and so has being a missionary. The people I have met have also forever changed my life and I can't imagine not have come on a mission and meeting them or learning and growing and becoming the person I am today. I know without a doubt that the work I am doing along with thousands of other missionaries is true!! Jesus Christ's exact church is once again on the earth. I am so grateful for the love and support I have received these past 12 months and words cannot express my appreciation and gratitude!

Well….my big winter coat has officially come out of hiding..... it is September and 45 degrees outside!! This is going to be a long winter...... I got 3 weeks of summer at least!

I am sad to say that the darkness is slowly getting worse every night.  Before I know it mørketid (winter darkness) will be here!

I love how people recognize that I am a missionary and that I am doing something good. It is the greatest feeling when people ask us to pray for them

Last Monday we watched How to Train Your dragon and Hercules!! It was the best day ever!!! We put comfy clothes on and wrapped up in our blankets! It was so fun! We started out How to Train Your dragon in Norwegian and then switched it back to English hahaha it was a little hard to understand......

We met with Bianca and she showed us her job! She runs a gambling and like mini Casino – so crazy!

We got a referral from another area and her name is Romina. We haven't been able to really get ahold of her and finally this week we got to meet with her!! Oh my gosh she is a gem!!! She is so solid and wants to get baptized! She is the cutest thing ever and so nice!! She kept feeding us and making sure we had enough to eat. We are so excited to keep meeting with her, the only problem is she has to wait 3 years to gain citizenship in Norway so she can't get baptized for 3 more years....... However we look forward to meeting with her and teaching her so that way when she can get baptized she will be ready!

We heart attacked Lill and Linda's doors this week! I love doing things for the members here!! It is so fun!

My companions are the best and made me a card and sign for my 1 year mark!  The sign says, "Happy One Year!"

So we had one day where we had literally not one appointment except for one with Jackson and it was at night so....... we contacted for 6 hours straight!!! Yes that is a long time! However we made it fun! We walked and contacted across the Tromso bridge that connects the two islands and then we banked and contacted on the other island. Man was I exhausted at the end of the day! However it is the best thing ever to go to bed at night knowing you did everything you could that day and worked your hardest! While we were contacting, we said so many prayers for Heavenly Father to help guide us to where we needed to show our faith we knelt down on the side of the road on a sidewalk and prayed! Yes we knelt down in public and prayed. I will admit we did laugh, but hey we are missionaries and we needed help!

I haven't always been a huge fan of contacting, but Sister Nielsen has really helped me learn to love it and have fun when I do it!! I have even gotten better about my fear of stopping guys between the ages of 18 and 30! She is so awesome and she is encouraging and such a great example and support for me! We literally stop everyone that walks past us on the street and don't let anyone get by!

Okay, so Sister Wadley makes the best enchiladas ever!!! They are something we have weekly!  I love them!

Companionship Inventory with these two has probably been one of my favorite things!!

While banking we met this lady who talked to us through her window and Sister Wadley shook her hand through the window hahahaha.  The sad thing is, Sister Nielsen and I thought it was totally normal until we realized after talking about it, that doing that is not normal.

One night while praying about our plans for the next day we all prayed then said what we thought we should do..... I was the only one who didn’t get the same answer and I just started laughing and said it must be falsk åpenbaring (false revelation), we can do your guys idea!! hahaha

Cedric is really coming along!!! His whole countenance has changed and he prays and reads and says he feels good!! He is so awesome!!! He is really trying to develop a belief in God and it is so cool to see how far he has come from the first time I met him!!

Fast Sunday was fantastic as always!! Except we went to visit Kelly after church and she put chocolate chip cookies in front of us on purpose!!! That was not nice and I just pushed them away so I didn't have to smell them or look at them.

On the way to Lill's I saw a man we met on the street get on the front of the bus, Sister Nielsen saw him too and told me to go talk to him.... What do I do? I walk up to the front of the bus and poke him and start talking to him. Yes I felt very awkward, but we got an appointment with him so it was worth it!

Lill invited us and the elders over for dinner and a game night!! Oh it was so fun!! It is a game they have in Norway and I don't even know how to explain it, but it was way fun and me and Elder Gingrich of course won! Sister Nielsen and I should have been on the same team because we are both competitive and we were getting really feisty.  Because it was fast Sunday the next day we went and got a kebab after and I wish America had kebabs!! They are so good!! Sister Nielsen must have been really tired because she was so funny and was embarrassing us in the store and kept telling the man how good he made her kebab hahaha

Man do I really dislike when people don't show up for appointments or cancel on us last minute......

Lill bore her testimony at Church on Sunday and that is HUGE!!! I was so proud of her and she did an amazing job!!! Also my friend Edel from Stavanger is still bearing her testimony every fast Sunday and I am so so proud of her!!!

I cannot believe it has already been 6 weeks!!! No way!!! On Sunday we have moves calls and I honestly have no idea if I am staying or leaving Tromsø.... I really hope I stay for one more transfer, but because I have already been here for 4, there is a big chance I am leaving.....

Jordan Tidbits:

- 6 months to sexy begins...... and so did the 10 kr pastries sale down the street......

- In the words of Elder Gingrich, “Whale Season has begun!!” As in the winter blubber on our bodies will now be coming out due to all the treats that comes with fall and winter hahaha!

- I thought a mission would help my competitiveness, but some things never change haha (thanks mom, I got that from you)

- Sister Wadley named her scarf noodle and we lost it so we were going around our small apartment yelling noodle where are you!?

- Sister Nielsen came to the realization at how weird a mission makes you this week and may or may not have had a breakdown because she thinks she is weird and she is going home in 3 months

- We are so exhausted and tired by the end of the day that we just laugh at everything and sometimes while we are praying and can't even finish the prayer so we have to start over....

- We love messing with each other and I love these Girls!!!

- Sister Crabtree’s District lunches are something I look forward to all week!!!

- We had a Pinterest hair night before going to bed one night and Sister Wadley is so good at doing my hair!!! She did it kinda like a great Gatsby hairdo (which a great Gatsby party is on my bucket list so if I ever have one or go to one I am doing my hair like that!)

Åndelig Tanker:

- When we involve the Lord in our climb and decide to make a new start in any area of life, we can reach heights we never dreamed possible

- Involve God along the way!

- God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs!

- Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.... For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye? We must learn to feel towards others as Jesus did!

- Some of us serve only those we enjoy being around and avoid all others. Jesus has commanded us to love and serve everyone. We must especially serve those we do not like or have been unkind to us, etc.... Mosiah 4:15-19

ha en fin uke dere!!!

IF YOU SEE MISSIONARIES TALK TO THEM OR SAY HI!!! Pretend that it is me!! BE NICE TO THEM!!!

xoxo

Søster Peterson

THE DARKNESS IS BACK

Okay so these past couple of weeks on P-day have been insane!!! So I apologize for the short emails and for those that I haven't been able to email back!  But I do have lots of pictures for this email :)

As you can see from my title, THE DARKNESS IS COMING BACK!!! I feel like it happened over night!! We were going to bed the other night and as we were laying there we go *oh my gosh... it is dark! It is actually dark right now!!** It was a very sad realization because now that the darkness is beginning to happen, it means winter isn't too far away.....

Mandag:

- went on a walk with Brenda and talked about the Plan of Salvation!!!

- met with Kelly! She said I was her best friend(: so glad she is back! She is a hoot!! We asked her if she would pray every day this week and she goes no, not every day!! haha it is a work in progress, but I love her!!(:

Tirsdag:

- Visited with Bianca and she is so good!! She is so cute and has tabs and scripture markers and everything. I love her!!!!

- We have been trying this whole transfer to find and visit a less active named Åshild. Well we had some time so we decided to go try again!  I wasn't paying attention so we missed the bus stop we needed and got off at the next one.... except the next one was like a mile down the road and to get back to where we needed to go we had to walk literally on the side of the freeway with no sidewalk..... Mom you would not have been very happy about that, but we didn't have a choice haha.

Åshild wasn't home, but hopefully we can get in contact with her soon! Since Åshild wasn't home we decided to go back to the guy’s house that lived close by who talked to us last time we went banking and he told us we could come back. Well we went back and he came to the door, I saw him through the glass and he walked away.... rude!!!!!!!

Onsdag:

WE FLEW TO BERGEN!!!!!! We had a general authority come to visit Norway!! Elder Johnson came so we had a two zone Conference in Bergen!! It was the West and the North zone!! It was so fun!! We took our P-day in Bergen with all the other missionaries and it was a blast!! We roamed the city and the senior couples did a BBQ with hotdogs for us! It was so fun to be back in Bergen again!! AND I finally got to see Sister Boud!!! I hadn't seen her since the MTC!!

 

HOUSE, ME, BOUD, AND FIRTH WERE ALL TOGETHER!!! IT WAS A GLORIOUS REUNION!!! Man I love those girls!! For proselyting time they split all the missionaries up with different companions and I was with Sister Boud!! Sister Boud, Elder Dalton, Elder Witbeck and I went to Else's a member who I visited a couple times when I was in Bergen to eat dinner! She made us Norwegian waffles!!! She is so cute and awesome!! She has some amazing insight too!! We gave a spiritual thought about the sacrament and her input was mind-blowing!! Something she said that I loved was: *every week we promise to take upon us the Lord's name and not use his name in vain. Many people think not using his name in vain is not swearing or having unclean language or thoughts, but really not taking the Lord's name in vain is not doing anything that would draw us away from the Lord and it includes our actions as well*.  She is so amazing!!

 

 

Some of us sisters slept at the Bergs house and that family is so awesome and cute!! Their house is like a Pinterest house too!!! They totally gave up their rooms for us and just had mattresses everywhere!! It was so nice of them!! She gave us American candy too!

Funny Story:  So at like three in the morning I heard a noise, but didn't think anything of it, then I heard scratching at our bedroom door and it was the cat and then it started to throw its body against the door!!! I just ignored it and went back to bed.... than the door opens and the cat comes in! Søster Wadley who is on the floor on a mattress flies up and goes guys... there is a cat on my bed! Søster Nielsen hates cats and jumps in the corner of her bed and is yelling at us to get it out! I am dying laughing -  scared to touch the cat, but it walks out by itself... than like 5 minutes later it is back at the door again!!! So I opened it and Søster Wadley and I were huddled on my bed under the sheets scared the cat was going to claw us and Sister Nielsen is freaking out!! Mind you this is all at three in the morning..... Luckily we get the cat out again and it doesn't bug us.... until I go to the bathroom and it corners me in a corner and I am just scared to death waiting for this cat to leave me alone so I can go back into the room! Good times I tell ya!!!

Torsdag:

Elder Johnson blew my mind!! It was an amazing Conference!! Seriously I felt like it was directed right at me! So many questions and prayers I have had especially from last transfer were answered! It was such an amazing experience and I learned so much!!

Fredag:

- Literally felt like I had jet lag all over again!! Bad thing about traveling is you don't get to catch up on the sleep you lost!!!

Lørdag:

- We went back to Gier's house and he was totally home and didn't open for us.... that was a total bummer....

- Met With AJ, and he is really coming along!!! He has been keeping the Reading Challenge we gave him and even could summarize for us what he read instead of making it up! AND he came to Church!! We are really proud of him!

- Met with Anita and brought up baptism...... she doesn't have any desire to change or be baptized and kinda wants to just be a free person and go to whatever church she wants, whenever she wants.... that was a total bummer because we really thought she was progressing!

Søndag:

The Primary Program was today and I had a total of 4 children which are all siblings take part in it.   I was the music leader and it was so fun!! Those kids are so cute!!!

We visited Linda tonight and her countenance was changed!! She was so happy and lit right up when we came inside!!!

So I love being in a trio!! These girls are so much fun and we work hard, but have so much fun at the same time!! This week I have been so exhausted and it was because we came to the realization that we literally work so hard!! We are out all day and are only are sitting down if we are eating or teaching someone. These two sisters have taught me so much and I am so grateful I get to be in a trio!!

Jordan's Tidbits:

·         We were cleaning the apartment and the vacuum has been having issues so we decided to try to see how to clean it out........ Oh my gosh!!! It was the grossest thing in the world!!!! I don't think that thing has ever been cleaned out before!!! It was disgusting!!!!

·         The taxi ride to the airport was quite the experience.  Our bus driver turned on blue glow lights and sang to us!!!

·         People for the love please send me pictures when you email me! Some of you are awesome at it! And some of you I haven't seen or gotten pictures in 12 months....... I love you and want to see you!

·         I am not a fan of stopping men between the ages of 18 and 35, but this week Søster Nielsen and Wadley have been helping me overcome that fear and it has gotten a lot better!

·         I got to see the Whitakers and the Allpins!!! I love them!!

Åndelig Tanker:

Let obedience come naturally, don't let it be a burden!

 
I had an awesome experience this week where I was able to see someone as God sees them! It was the coolest thing ever and I will never forget it(: We were talking to a man who was smoking and drinking and as I got to talking to him, my whole perception of him changed and I saw him as God sees and loves him! It was the coolest thing ever!! Never judge someone or assume. See them and treat them as God would and get to know them first!!

From Henry B Eyring:

When they brought the young man in he was suddenly given an amazing spiritual gift.  He saw, not the young man as he was, but instead he saw this amazing all-in-radiant-white valiant son of God.  He called it the "gift of seeing divine potential."  I have been working on that... trying to see everyone I meet as a person who kept his first estate and is a child of God with divine potential.  It doesn't always work but it has made me a lot less judgmental and a lot more interested in trying to get to know someone.

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

Xoxo

Søster Peterson

 

 

 

 

 

 

BED BUGS, TRIO, LOTS OF LAUGHS, THE MISSIONARY WORK IN TROMSø CONTINUES TO EXPERIENCE MIRACLES!!

**note from Mom
Søster Peterson travelled to Bergen this week, so she didn’t have time to send her “big” email on Monday as her PDay was today.  She still had very limited time, but was able to send out her email today, so here it is.

Okay so I don't have a lot of time, so sorry if this is short and rushed and I know I left out on details.  Next week will be better!

LIFE IS GOOD EVERYONE!

Okay so this week was crazy!!!! We got our new companion Søster Wadley and I love her!! I was a little nervous to be in a trio, but IT IS AWESOME!!!! Søster Nielsen and Wadley are hilarious and awesome missionaries! Søster Wadley is so cute! We all get along so well and work hard, but have so much fun together!

We have been waking up with bumps and bites all over us, so Søster Crabtree thought it might be bed bugs.......... so we have been checking our beds and washing all of our sheets..... So that is fun......

Lately on the street (3 times) someone has said *Hey Sisters* and kept walking!! THEY WERE AMERICAN!! and just walked by and said hey! LIKE HELLO!!! These people don't realize how uncommon that is for us!! But it is way cool that they said hi and recognized us

We were at a bus stop by Lill's waiting for the bus to come home and there was a man on the bench smoking and drinking. He made it very clear he did not want to talk to us about religion, so Søster Wadley, and Nielsen and I made small talk with each other. He randomly turned to us and told us his son had died four years ago and asked us to pray for him. The spirit was immediately so strong! It was awesome! We told him that he could see his son again and we asked him if we could meet with him and he said my house is right there stop by some time!! IT WAS CRAZY!!!! We have stopped by every day this week, but no luck, but then we found out we had been trying the wrong house! So we found the right one and will check again this week!

It was Søster Crabtree's birthday and she didn't even tell us! However we found out and surprised her with the Elders at the church and had ice cream and a little party for her(:

 

Anita is coming along! We are teaching her how to pray and at the end she goes *ha det Jesus* hahaha She came to church again this week!

Freshman initiation for the college in Tromsø was this week..... Of course it is right outside of our apartment so we basically got no sleep this week!! They got into groups and were tied together and had to take a shot from the 21 pubs in town.....

I have found that recently it is so cool how people recognize that I am a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ. So many people recently have asked us to pray for them and I feel so blessed and honored that they ask us to do that.

We were contacting home one night and we had stopped this man and we were talking to him and then there was this guy from across the street I made eye contact with and he kept looking at us and like stalling across the street and then he went into a store and came out and we were still talking to the man and I whisper, *Wadley; I gotta talk to him!!* she says *go!* So I ran away from my companions but I could still see them and basically chased after this man hahaha. He wasn't too positive, but hey you gotta listen to promptings when you get them!

So funny story… We were waiting at a bus stop to go find a formers house and Sister Nielsen was talking to a 21 year old guy and she totally fell backwards and ate it!!! It was the funniest thing ever!!! I was trying not to laugh, but when I saw Wadley laughing I lost it!! We could not control ourselves!! The guy tries not to laugh and goes *gikk det bra?* and then Sister Nielsen just gets up and tries to act like nothing happened and tells the guy she likes his shoes and he has good style which made Søster Wadley and I laugh even harder!!!  I just love these girls!  I love that we can laugh with each other!

Søster Wadley, Nielsen and I acted like cheerleaders for a night before bed and did cheers and my legs were legit bruised and black and blue! These girls are hilarious!!

Elder Hoopes’ birthday was on Sunday so we surprised him and for dinner and we made waffles!!!

Søster Nielsen, Wadley, Lill, and I sang in Church on Sunday! We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount! It was fun and Sister Nielsen and I even harmonized!

CEDRIC came back into town!!!! Oh my goodness he is awesome! He came to Sunday school and sacrament! We met with him and he prayed for the first time!!! Søster Wadley was talking to him during the lesson and he blurts out *I just prayed in my head*, we all look at him and our mouths are dropped! We said, “how do you feel!?!?” He said warm(: And just kept on with the lesson! Oh he is the coolest!! Than the next day he texted us and asked us to send him scriptures to read to help him and that he had left his Book of Mormon at the church and texted us and said *I'm coming to the church to get my book before I leave, there ain't no way I'm leaving without my Mormons Bok!!!* HE IS AWESOME!!!!! His favorite word to say is *chill* and he speaks nynorsk so he is way hard to understand haha

Met with a man we contacted on the street named Sonny. He prayed with us and in his prayer he said *please help me find the way because it is like a needle in a haystack:*

We got ice cream of course this week and we were about to get on a bus and food isn't allowed on bus, so Søster Nielsen threw her ice cream into her backpack without even thinking hahaha

 The Elders got sick this week.... they ate expired chicken (that was frozen, but still) poor guys!!

Being in a trio has its perks that's for sure!! We don't have to have someone in the church when we teach men and we can ride in a car with men!

Aj took us to his Soccer game and that was interesting...... It was so weird to drive in a car and the people here are way good at Soccer!

The “one more” attitude has really been pushing me and makes the biggest difference in my day! It is so cool and helps me push myself to be a little better and do a little more everyday.

Åndelig Tanker:

YOU WILL NEVER LOSE YOUR COURAGE UNLESS YOU CHOOSE TO!!!!

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

xoxox fra bergen!!!

Søster Peterson

CASPER COMES TO TEXAS!!!

**note from MOM:

Mentioned in Jordan's previous post, Casper (her investigator that got baptized last November from Stavanger) came to see us.  For anyone who ever questioned, "Do missionaries make a difference?"  The answer is YES!!!!!  How wonderful it is to see the "fruits of her labor".  So... For all of you who wondered how things went in TEXAS with Casper..... IT WAS FABULOUS!!

I will be honest, I was very nervous about how we would communicate, but I had no reason to be worried.  Casper was so wonderful and easy going!  He was very patient with all of us and we had a great time!  Paige knows ASL, and I was surprised how well she and Casper communicated.  Yes, many of the signs were different than Norwegian Sign Language - but they were able to figure things out.  She taught him new signs and he taught us some signs.  Casper really only spent two full days with us, and they went by WAY too fast!  But - we loved every minute he was here.

We picked him up from the airport on Monday night and headed straight for some Texas BBQ!!  After dinner Rick and the boys took Casper for a drive downtown so he could see the city lights at night.  Once they were home, we discovered Casper likes to play FIFA on the Xbox.  The boys were all about that!!!  In fact, they stayed up until 2:30 in the morning playing!!

 

Tuesday we fit in some time at Top Golf!  Casper did great and actually beat all of us!  Then we went to the park and he showed us his mad soccer skills!  He was very cute trying to help Cody learn new tricks.  Boy were we surprised when Caper whipped out some Parkour on the playground!!  That was awesome!  Yes, things got pretty warm, so the boys cooled of in the pool for a bit and had a good time throwing the football around.  Next it was time for the Rangers game.  We couldn't let Casper head back to Norway without seeing a Rangers game!  We had a great time and it wasn't even too hot!

Wednesday was a great day that started out at the Dallas Temple!  We followed that up with a trip to the LDS bookstore and Casper found a CTR ring that he liked!  Casper wanted to see more of Dallas so we headed down to Reunion Tower and went to the top!  I loved that!  I have lived in Dallas for many years and that was my first time up there.  It was great!  Grandma and Grandpa invited us all over to their house for a BBQ, so we were able to visit with them for awhile with Casper.  Since it was Wednesday the kids had Youth Night at the church.  We were playing Nukem.  Casper jumped right in!  I couldn't believe it!  He was so good at this game!  He is a great competitor and had a great time with the church kids.  Just to fit everything in we possibly could, Rick and Cody took Casper to the gym when we got home!  Cody said, "He is so strong!"  They had a great time working out and enjoying the hot tub afterwards. 

Unfortunately, our fun came to and end too soon and Casper had an early morning flight on Thursday morning.  Our family absolutely loved our visit with Casper!  He is an amazing person, a wonderful example, and so kind and genuine.  We feel a special bond with Casper and can't wait until we see him again!