Feb. 6, 2017
Tuesday!
so today was a great day! I got up at 6:15, or more like I was forced awake from elder Broshears alarm going off and him not waking up at all. So I decided to get up and get started with my day! I was able to do my super epic work out program that some incredible personally made just for me! And that hurt so good! And I made myself a smoothie as well, it wasn't my best one but I have to learn how to make small smoothies because I'm used to making some for mom! So it will take me a couple tries to get this right  Then we went and did service at a senior center that does meals on wheels. So pretty much we get to ride along with someone who drives us to the houses and then I would put what the person asked for in a basket and then elder Broshears would run it to the door.  It was really cool to see more of the town and some of the more outset houses in the middle of no where! Like really, middle of the forest! There was this little pull off on the road and you took this little dirt road through all these bushes and over this old wood bridge and then poof! There's this house! We were able to teach a couple people and this one guy we talked with was telling me about what the difference was between us, Baptists and catholics. So I asked him to explain what Baptist believe and he said "well it matters what Baptist you're talking about? If you're talking about southern Baptist or other Baptists types because they're all different!" Then he said that a ton of religions don't have a standard belief,  except the Mormons,  they all believe the same stuff! And I really just wanted to say,  "duh! One Lord, one faith, one baptism!" But that didn't happen!  Then we had a few minutes before dinner so we went tracking a little and we found Evelyn! She opened right up to us and was really into what we are sharing!  She ever asked if she could attend our Sunday services! She seems pretty solid! She asked us why there are so many different religions and if any have truth. So I explained how many of them have tried to teach Christ's gospel but they all were missing something. His power and authority and direction! It seemed to go well!  Then we went to dinner at the most incredible house ever!  I took a lot of pictures because it was so cool! The members name is brother Julian and he is a member but his wife isn't. But he is so incredible! He loves to talk to me! He showed me his library and his artifacts that he dug up and his hummingbirds and his view and all this golden retrievers, 4 of them,  and told me so many stories and we talked about life after death and had a really great time!  After we stopped by this famous light house! 
So today is Wednesday and it was a good day! It started off a little bumpy though. Like waking up and being tired and not wanting to get up but choosing that I wanted to get up and work out because I know it makes me feel better and makes my day better. Also I just felt annoyed with elder Broshears but I didn't want to feel that way so I decided to  change how I felt and so I started asking him about his life and trying to get to know him better. And this helped a ton! I feel like we really are just trying to still figure each other out, so that makes things a bit harder.  But as the day went on things got a lot better! So we do a lot of service here which i love so much because I met new people everyday! So today we did service at this food bank that is pretty cool! I could go into a lot of detail of what they do but just know that they don't have a limit on what people can take and how often. They tell the people to take what they NEED or what they can USE but they don't monitor what they take. And they are aloud to come 12 times in a year and they would like then to just come once a month but the offer to people that they can come as often as they need. The whole idea is that if someone losses there job for like 4 months they need to be able to be fed for those 4 months. This program helps them that way and helps them be fed in there time of need. Any way! I got the whole grand tour from the main lady and she is very nice and she explained how it all worked. And then I got to walk around pretty much this garage with shelves and fridges in it and help people get there foods! 
Then i met Carolee and Sherman! Carolee is a younger older lady that is going through a rough time right now and Sherman is here crazy Australian shepherd! He is famous around here missionary wize because of how crazy he is! It was pretty hard to really teach her anything with all the dogs but it was good for us to be there and good for her! 
Jan is a old lady how we will be baptizing next week!!!! She is a lot of fun and we had a good talk! Old people are so great and so inspiring and help me look at my life and see all three good! We were talking about how lds parents are raising there kids to see when someone needs help and acting on it! And I thought of all the times where mom had asked me or nudged me to help someone in need and how she was teaching me to be a better man!  I am very thankful for the manners and way of life I have been taught and brought up in!
Chelsea and Richy and also on date and they are a young couple! Like he is 23! That is stinking young for around here! And we sat down with them and read 1 nephi 1 and they don't really understand the language of it. And I was again thankful that I was "born of goodly parents" and taught from the book of Mormon so I was able to answer there questions and help them that way! 
Dinner and finding Jeanette! So elder Broshears asked me where I wanted to eat and pizza sounded good and there is only one place to get pizza here and that is at bedrocks! And so we went there and we were the only ones for a while and we sat and talked and even watched a basketball game  but after we sat there for a while some one came and sat behind us and so I asked her if this one team had a chance to win it and then everything changed!  She told me how she was a member and had gone through the temple and how her whole family is members but she's not attending church for reasons that are personal. I felt really bad and I kept talking with hey and found more out about her life. It was a super neat experience for me because I very easily could not have said anything but I opened my mouth and I was able to find someone in need and that has been forgot! 

Thursday While I was getting ready this morning I was thinking about how much I have changed since I was out here last. I thought about it and the only answer to how I am different is cognitive and  also by Heavenly Father's help! Think about it! Until cognitive I was broken and frail and having a hard time with everything! Now I'm teaching people, working out, learning and growing, and I'm becoming what I have dreamed of becoming! A disciple of Jesus Christ and having no limitations on me! I can speak comes to my mind through the spirit and I don't have to try and spit it out! I am a changed young man!

So today it rained so intake incredibly much! And not just any rain, it was coastal rain and it was so cold! It was raining sheets of rain and sometimes it was raining sideways! So that made today fun!
We had district meeting today and it went well! Haha we had the AP'S came to our meeting and they we a lot of fun to have there because our district is just 4 elders.... but it was nice to have more people there. One thought I had was while we were reading in John where Christ asks Peter of if he loved him. You will probably have to read John 21 to makes this all make sense. But how when Christ died and the apostles was Peter what they do now and he said that he was going to go fish. I applied that to missionaries going home and how if we don't apply what we learn here to our life at home. We can't just leave everything we learn here in Oregon, we need to apply it to our lives
We found this less advice family, the T family, and they are cool! The husband had been going through a lot and he is having a really hard time with chronic pain that he got from his surgery.  So earlier this week we stopped by and talked with him for a while and he told us about some stuff we is going through and then invited us back on Friday to talk with all of his family. After we talked for a while and then I asked if we could share a quick message and I scrambled to think of something to share but then I remembered that sharing the gospel is not about sharing some wrote script. It is about sharing what I know and things from my heart! So I thought of a scripture that I ran across in my studies this week. It is John 15:9-17. In these verses Christ is telling us that he would lay down his life for His friends and we are his friends. When I read that I was taken back for the love the Christ has for us. And then I thought about how Christ wants us to be His friends, not a servant that doesn't know what's going on. He wants us to be close to Him and come to him as a friend or brother! When I shared this brother Terrebrood looked at me and said "thank you! That is exactly what I needed to hear today. I have been having a hard week and this was very helpful to me and remembering how much Christ loves me!" Oh man that made me so happy! The fact that I was able to be a tool for the spirit to speak to this man's heart and he was able to feel something and hopefully act upon it!
Because Reedsport is a small town, the ward had a ward bowling night once a month! A lot of members come to it and it was fun to meet them! There was one member that was actually was younger and he is good at bowling and he was watching me bowl and said that I bowl a lot like he did. I would switch between curving the ball and then bowling straight. So he started telling me about how if I will do the same thing every time I will be more consistent and be able to hit more pins that way! It actually worked a bit better!

love you all!  have a great day!

Elder Peters