Effectual

Where do I begin?  This area is very different from the last.  We have a car, so that right there already changes everything!  We no longer spend the day on bus and train and foot, and we can get from appointment to appointment so speedy-fast!  I love my companions.  They are special people and I feel blessed to have this chance to serve with them.  I am learning many gems of wisdom from them and it has only been a week!  Change is always hard for me because I sure love to be comfy, but Heavenly Father always knows what we need much better than we do ourselves.  I'm being stretched.  The first few days I felt like I was fresh from the MTC all over again, never knowing what to say or what to do, but poco a poco, it comes.

Being in a trio is fun.  We laugh a lot.  Both of my companions are Mexican-American so I am learning more Spanish and cultural details from them.  We are a good team and we're learning to be better.

This email is all about me and not really about the work, but the fact is, we are in a bit of a lull and we're trying to find more investigators, and I'm still trying to put faces with names, because I feel like I met 200 people in the past six days.  There are so many humble people here.  It's not quite as scary to talk to people as it was before.  We get fed SO MUCH every day, and I'm in heaven.  I love Mexican food.  The Spanish-speaking population here is almost entirely Mexican, which is also different.  They love to feed the missionaries as a way to serve the Lord, and their hearts are full of love, and so, so are our stomachs.

elyssa, do you remember that scripture you sent to me last Spring?  Probably not, but it was Mosiah 7:18-19.  I love those two verses so much.  We shared them with a woman here and we've been studying them more since.  There is so much goodness and doctrine in those two, simple verses.  God wants us to lifts up our heads and be comforted and rejoice right in the midst of our struggles.  He wants us to accept His comfort, accept His joy.  He wants us to trust that He will deliver us, but that there is still a struggle to be made.  But not just any struggle- an effectual struggle.  It has a purpose, it has an end.  If we can just trust in Him and in His timing, He will deliver us.  Then in verse 33 it tells us that we are to serve with all diligence of mind.  President Fenn (may he rest in peace..in the Chicago West Mission as of today) was always stressing the importance of working through mental exertion and not physical force.  I think that in order for us to be delivered by our Almighty God we first have to trust in Him, be patient, and serve with all diligence of mind.

We meet our new mission president on Wednesday- President Woodbury!  How exciting.  

Have a blessed week.  I love you, family.  How lucky we are.

Hermana Peterson