Sister Avynlea Peterson: Week 64: Nagano, Nagoya; Companion: Sister Wentz

Jesus the Beloved Son and a Beloved Daughter?

It was another good and crazy week!!

️I spent almost all week in the BEST TRIO EVER in Matsumoto and the miracles never stopped!️

Let me just say, I kind of understand how someone might react to hearing the story of Joseph Smith for the first time. We went to lunch with an amazing Christian named Hiroko... she part of the unification church. This church is the reason Japanese people hate Christians (someone in this church killed Japan's prime minister or something) やばい！We had an amazing conversation about Jesus though! Then she started telling us about the beloved daughter who lives in South Korea. Very interesting. Very weird. I tried to hold back my laughter. We had a good talk though and bonded over loving Jesus which is never a bad thing.

I had a little taste of what it would be like to serve stateside and not gonna lie, it was nice! There is a couple who is literally from Boise Idaho who moved here 2 months ago for work. The husband was a member when he was a kid but stopped going to church in his teens. We went over and they served us an amazing dinner and then we had the greatest bible study ever. The Matsumoto sisters had told me they are hesitant to give the couple a Book of Mormon because they didn't know how the wife Shannon would react. We brought one that we had marked with our fav scriptures just in case and we ended up giving it to them and they were very grateful! We left that house feeling very spiritually uplifted and LOVING JESUS!

I had an amazing time being in a trio with Crockett 姉妹 and Terry 姉妹 and I am a little sad its over so soon! I feel like a new missionary after being with them. I just started my second to last transfer which means I have about 3ish months left. WHAT. I feel a lot of anticipation for the work and for Nagano area. My new companion is Sister Wentz and boy do I love her. She is definitely my most quiet companion but in a very good way. She is calm and ready to work and I just feel so excited and ready too!

Friday was transfer day and I had the bestest time seeing my friends and also the saddest time realizing that was probably the last time I will see a lot of them. Ahhhh. We will all reunite someday though!

The weather has been yucky but that hasn't stopped the work! Me and Wentz 姉妹 went out streeting yesterday in very windy cloudy weather and managed to pass out 2 Book of Mormons and get someone's contact info in about an hour. I hope this is telling me how the next 2 transfers will go because I am ready!

1 more thing! Nobue was able to come to church!! Saturday night we went to visit her with our member Noriko 姉妹 and it went sooo super well! They bonded over lots of things and they became good friends! Yayy! I love Nobue so much, she is so sweet and fun! She will get baptized soon, I can feel it! Idk if it will be during my time of being here, but she is making her way along!

During my studies I read D&C 88:86

This verse really stuck out to me during my personal study, and Im gonna break it down for you!

"Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free;"

Through the atonement, Jesus Christ set us free. He gave us liberty! We are free to choose and act how we want. To be able to make mistakes, learn from them, and grow.

"entangle not yourselves in sin,"

When we choose to sin, we are binding ourselves back up. Self sabotaging I guess. We are making room for satan in our lives. The only way satan can have power over us, is if we let him. Believe it or not, we are stronger than he is!

"but let your hands be clean, until the Lord comes."

Thanks to the atonement, we can free ourselves from these sins. We can be made clean and shake off satan's grasp on us. YAY THANK YOU JESUS!

Just remember God loves you and is very merciful!

I love you too!

Make it a good week!

<3 Sister Peterson

05/26/2025