Chance's Email 12/31/2008

Happy New Year fam!
Sorry last week was muy rapido but I just had 30 min. and I think next monday is my normal p day but we had a new years activity and played a lot today and today is our pday sorry for fault of info. today we heard some messages from pres and sister may. they were great. pres may always has some way of relating everyday things to the gospel, a lot of the times it has to do with being a basketball coach and some stories he has had. I don't know if i have already said this but he is like a chuck cutler speaker with basketball instead of football. after that we watched another movie. It was a movie about the life of president hinckley. I don't know if you guys have seen it but it's awesome. it's got some great quotes throughout the movie. one of my favorites was "do the things you are scared to do" something like that. It's always things that scare us that will help us grow and have experience. We sometimes just lack faith and courage to do them, so do it! For example, right now in my area my companion and i have basically started from zero. We had like 10 awesome investigators or more and this past month little by little they have manifested their problems and we have tried to help them and none of them have wanted to excercise enough faith to take the steps towards baptism. It has been really hard and we had to excercise lots of faith and stop teaching them cause we know there are others that are prepared to recieve the gospel and get baptized. I was a little scared to do it but we have left them that haven't progressed and we have been knocking lots of doors and finding some new people. sometimes we have to go back to the basics like this to progress more, like learning how to throw with your opposite hand or riding with the opposite foot forward on the wakeboard or waterski. I have also learned how to be more dependant on the Lord. I have seen lessons with the spirit and without and there is no comparison. if we don't teach with the spirit it's just a conversation. people are truly converted when they feel us teaching by the spirit and that's my main goal right now. That's so awesome that mitch spoke about that, I hope to learn how to teach by the spirit better. Well mom and dad, you aren't the only ones that were sick. The day after Christmas I got a head cold too, but i've been killing it with vitamins and water and today i can barely notice it. So kill it with water like you taught me dad. I think I lost a few kilos too because i couldn't eat a lot cause everything in our fridge is dairy so this past few days I think I have downed like 15 pb& j's. In a way I am thankful that I got this cold because it made me realize how thankful I should be for health. I told my companion "you should give thanks in your prayers tonight that you don't have a cold its horrible" and right after I said that I thought of someone blind or who doesn't have legs or who has some ridiculous sickness telling me "you should give thanks in your prayers tonight that you can walk, see, hear, eat, whatever it may be. but it helped me see my blessings a little more. you guys should make some time to read the talks of elder bednar again and elder wirthlin and pres monson about joy in the journey. they are amazing and will help you be happier. Today we played soccer with some latino missionaries and the gringos got thrashed. we were very humbled. the ball would get passed to me and by the time I could stop the ball someone stole it from me. Well thanks for all your prayers and support. I was so lucky to have a family anxioulsy awaiting my telephone call while other missionaries had trouble getting a hold of their families and are lucky if they get letters from their parents each week. I feel so blessed. I love you guys.
elder peterson