Sister Avynlea Peterson: Week 51: Toyama, Nagoya; Companion: Sister Macdonald

13 Ekis 1 Day 8 Hours 3 meaningful convos

Hello woohoo!

Zone Pday!! It was the best! We spent all day in Kanazawa, in our comfy clothes, playing games, and eating yummy food! We went to the third best melonpan shop in the world that sells melonpan with icecream!!. A very yummy sugar cookie type of bread! The owner wears this funky melon hat and has a bunch of hats for his customers to wear. We found great enjoyment in the hats!

This week me and MacDonald shimai were on our way to an eki when we met Sharon from Georgia! She is this 60 year old woman who is a luxury pet sitter. But on her free time, she travels the world! With no data! Buys a ticket to and from her destination, and figures everything else out when she arrives. She was so nice and so fun to talk to! She inspired me a lot and gave lots of great advice. She said that the reason she is able to travel the world for fun right now is because she worked hard for it her whole life. I think there is a lot of unreasonable pressure on younger people to figure out their life and reach these high goals. But we have our whole life woohoo. Unless you are 70, then you already have had your life and congratulations, you hopefully have great stories to share!

️ We got evicted from the nicest housing in the mission! Rahhhh. Senior missionaries are coming to Toyama which is very exciting! Unfortunately that means they get the house and we get the elders old apartment... at least we won't have to hike a whole mile uphill to church anymore! This week was a lot of packing and cleaning preparing for the new missionaries!

JJ and Paul got the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday! It was such a happy time!

ekis! Woop! Half our zone came to Toyama and we had the goal of finding at 13 train stations for about 30 min each! (With all of us, that equals 6 total hours for each eki). We rode a trolley to the furthest stop and made our way back to Toyama station. I cannot tell you how many people we talked to and how many more doors we knocked. All you missions that get crazy numbers, listen to this. We got a total of 3 meaningful contacts. (Meaningful contact is measured by how actually meaningful/memorable the conversation was) Basically 3 people let us talk past our general introduce. We were out there for 8 hours and meaningfully talked to 3 people! Ha! I am not even upset about it, I think that is pretty cool! We knocked on people's doors who have never even heard the name Jesus Christ. I feel lucky to be the first missionary that all those people got to meet! I hope someday when they see someone with a tag on, they will remember 2 americans in the freezing cold trying to share a happy message with them!

Philippians 4

7 "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

I love this scripture. Okay, I know this is not exactly correct, but when I first read this, this is how I interpreted it. There are so many things we do not understand. The love of God, why certain things happen, etc. BUT, when we keep our hearts and thoughts focused on Jesus Christ, everything will be okay. I do not know why I went finding for 8 hours and found no one new to teach. But God does. I found joy through the fact that I was doing the work of the Lord, that I am doing what I know needs to be done. There may be things you do not understand that happen in your life, but keeping your focus on Jesus Christ can help you understand these are the way things need to be. It will all work out.

God has got you because He loves you!

I love you too wooohoo

Make it a good week!!

<3 Sister Peterson

02/24/2025

p.s. thank you everyone who emails me! They mean more than you think and I love hearing from you all! Even if it is a 2 sentence email haha!