Yay for fathers!
| Happy Fathers Day!! |
I love my father and am so thankful for him!! He is the hardest working and most selfless person I know. He is always looking for ways to help people and spread Christ's love. 
I love my Grandpa Bob who shows me what it is like to dedicate your life to Heavenly Father!
I love my Grandpa Jerry who I can feel right by my side spreading this gospel!
I ESPECIALLY LOVE MY LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER WHOSE LOVE I GET TO SHARE WITH EVERYONE! 
Also special congratulations to RYKER HE IS MARRIED NOW! I like cannot believe that, but I am so happy for him and my bestie new sister Anna! 
This week was busy and hard!
First thing, I was humbled yet again. I am no bueno at tennis. δΈζγγγͺγ. An eikaiwa friend invited us missionaries to go play with him and even though we were terrible, it was still really fun! Thank you Kenji!
We spent almost everyday this week at the Nagano train station with a nice sticker board that says "what are you interested in? Purpose of life, happiness, or life after death?" They would then put a sticker under what their answer was. We had a lot of really good contacts and spread a lot of happy things! We were out there in the rain, clouds, sun, everything. It was tiring but accomplishing! Please pray for our new friends Kaiya, Hitzuki, and Naomi!Actually, let me tell you about Kaiya. The elders stopped her and talked to her for a bit and she was really interested. After they were done talking, she left and was just hanging out a bit further down. They decided to go talk to her again, introduce us sisters to her, and we all became besties. She then spent the next 2 hours with us and got lunch with us! She is so amazing! 
Zone conference in Matsumoto!! It was an amazing zone conference and I wish all of you could have joined. We talked so much about the things we are able to do because of Jesus Christ (His enabling power) and how Jesus Christ is Joy. I loved it.
We all went to Matsumoto Castle after and had a splendid time. We walked by 2 ladies and to the other, one said "a school trip?" Haha mmm no just people trying to change everyone's lives After Zone conference we only had a bit of dendΕ time in Nagano and decided to visit Kameda! I love Kameda. I don't know what it is, but the love I have for this 60 something year old man is huge. Not because of anything specific, it's just natural. Idk how to explain. But we went to visit with him and share a scripture with him and it went really well. He told us how he has met people from other churches, but none of them have a light like we do! I LOVE KAMEDA!
The biggest thing I learned this week is that Jesus Christ = true Joy. For our survey, the most stickers were under happiness. It confused me so much. Are these people just not happy? Do they not know how to feel joy? After zone conference my answer came. They don't have lasting joy because they don't have Jesus Christ. What is this light that members of this church carry? It is the Joy of Jesus Christ. I love this gospel and I love the Joy it brings. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for this gospel my parents have taught me and the gospel that has been confirmed to me of its truth through the Spirit.God loves you and it is through Him and His son is where you find true Joy
I love you!
I love Kefford!
Make it another great week!
<3 Sister Peterson
06/16/2025
Tennis with Kenji
Dream team...
Nagano fam
Malshi and Aki!
Try to find Kaiya in there!
Remember last week where I said we didn't have much luck finding people to teach? Well, this week blessed us! This may not seem like a lot to other missions or even to other areas in our mission, but we found 4 new people! That is really good considering I am in Nagano! I have hope for these people and I pray that they will have the Spirit to want to learn more!
We visited a returning inactive member with Ezaki ε§ε¦Ή and let me just say, God never ceases to keep me humble. I have been studying and speaking Japanese for over a year now. I can get by pretty good and I understand the main ideas of most conversations. While we were talking to this lady, I legit understood 2% MAYBE. I don't know what it was but I was not picking up on what was going on. Plus I was fighting for my life to not fall asleep because that time of day should be designated nap time worldwide. It was a struggle, but we made it out. Oh and this lady loves drawing cartoon cats, so she gave us some stickers of her own drawings!
We do lots of finding obvi which means we get to meet interesting humans and have many interesting experiences. More commonly we have lots of experience with people telling us no. Here were some of my fav ways this week..
We visited the Jesus Freaks church! There were a good amount of people there and the lady was very happy to give us a tour. Let me just say, their church looks very fun. I mean, the pastor was wearing a flame suit with flame shoes. Idk what we were expecting, but they were all normal people. I think they were suspicious of us which is reasonable. We might go back again on Friday! We will see.
Ether 12:6
This is something I have seen over and over again on my mission. We hear all the time "God loves effort". Nothing could be more true. When we show him we are willing to work, we are willing to sacrifice things for Him, He will bless us. Most blessings do not come right away, that's where patience comes in. But He is always eager to bless us as long as we are eager to work for the blessings!
We have been doing a lot of real finding and looking for more people to teach. We talk to basically everyone we can, but have not had any luck. Wentz ε§ε¦Ή had the conversation last night of we truly do not know how many seeds we are planting or watering. It is hard to see progress when it isn't right in front of your face teaching someone, but I have faith my hard work isn't in vain.
The elders had a baptism! Yayyy! His name is Fredgie and he is the best. He looks like a real gangster in the picture, but he is a pretty goofy guy. It was a little stressful but overall a happy day. Us missionaries sang a Child's Prayer for it and I was a little nervous, but it ended up going well. 
While knocking apartments a lady let us come in, fed us food, and then we left. It was wild. She was Jehovah's Witness so I think she was excited to see other Jesus lovers. It was the most not Japan thing I have ever experienced, but it was great!
