The Homerun.

In the October 2012 General Conference, the Prophet Thomas S Monson declared, "Today I am pleased to announce that able, worthy young women who have the desire to serve may be recommended for missionary service beginning at age 19, instead of age 21."  This announcement forever changed my life.  I chose to embark in the service of God and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  When I first arrived in the MTC, February of 2013, I received a letter from my older brother Trevor and in it he just started to give me all this advice.  At the time, I felt like some of the advice he gave me seemed obvious and I had no idea why he felt the need to tell me.  The longer I served, the more I understood the wisdom of his advice and it became clear to me that missions were hard. My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end!  As hard as that may sound, I love it! I embrace it! I live it up to the HIGHEST EXTREME!  I find so. much. Joy. in my calling! :) It is SO worth it!  My experience as a missionary has been a whirlwind of craziness and I would not change it for the world.  I know I'm who I am today because I served a Mission...  Two weeks ago I hit my 18 month mark.  At the end of that day, I was laying on my bed and all the sudden I realized that I actually did it! I actually served 18 whole months as a missionary! I was so proud of myself! :) I was so happy.  It was like nothing else even mattered because I made it.  I was still alive. I was still standing! (well laying) and the greatest feeling came over me, that If I could do that, then I can do anything!  It occurred to me that it's not about how fast I got there and it's not about what's waiting on the other side.. It's the climb!  It's those small and simple choices I made everyday that helped me become more like my Father in Heaven.  I have a testimony that He knows me personally.  My relationship with Him is unique. it's special:) Only He and I understand it! we're best friends:) He knows me better than I know myself and He has a plan specifically for me!  I know He is there and I know He is very aware of me and my life!  I LOVE that He provided me a Savior to show how much He truly cares for me! The whole thing is just so humbling.  I scarce can take in His greatness!  And when I think about My Savior.. Oh man.  My heart is filled with deep gratitude.  I love Jesus Christ!  He is my Light.  He is the reason why I'm still Standing!  I know He is the Redeemer of the World and I know He loves me a lot!  He has helped me to BE STRONG and of a GOOD COURAGE! He has always ALWAYS been there for me and I trust Him with my life.  I find so much pleasure in my Knowledge of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and I served my mission for them.  Some of you commented this week that you're interested to see if I changed or stayed the same... I want you to know that I'm still an innocent!  I'm still me and only me, but like 2.0 ;)

I'm really excited to see you all! I love you very very much and I want to thank you for all the support and love you have shown towards me over these past several months!

ALRIGHTY! This is it. I can't believe it.  it's time. I love you! 

Five stars! Long Live Baby! WORK iT!!

Love Your Sister Missionary, Sister Jaynanne Petersen! :]  

Shake it Off!

First and Foremost, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

WOO WOO!!! that is just so exciting! :) 

Hope your birthday is just fabulous! :)  

Last week was so long and good and hard! Ya know.. the usual.  We had a Zone Conference with my Mission President and Wife, The Burt's and their two sons and it was SO. GOOD. Like dang. they remind me a lot of Utah.  We are having Elder Mayne's, Who is a General Authority, come on Saturday SO I am pretty stoked about that! On Wednesday I am driving with the Burt's to the Temple and my convert Merle (who got baptized a year ago yesterday) is getting endowed! SO that's gonna be awesome! :) :) Yeah.. Hopefully this will be a good week!

All You Can Eat!:)

So, I think at the end of May, there were these two elders in the Spanish area in this city named Surrey, who were out contacting it up on the streets!  One of them spotted this guy across the street and they ran over to talk to him. This man's name was JC (short for Juan Carlos) and I mean, he was nice and listened to them but wasn't looking for a church.  He told them that he is 99.9 percent sure that he was not going to convert to their church.  One of the Elders told him that they would work with that point one percent.  That softened his heart and he was baptized four weeks later in Spanish, into the Richmond 1st Ward! The Spirit was SO strong at the service! I'll never forget it.  I tell you this story because I absolutely love this man! He is one of my favorite people! He is so converted that it is not even funny.  He will always randomly text us and tell us How proud God is of us and how awesome we are for doing what we do and he is just the best!  He got his temp temple recommend on Sunday and he is going to do baptisms for the Dead with Maricel this Wednesday! Sniff.. So proud! :)  Well about four weeks ago, He calls us and wants to meet.  So we show up at the church and sit down with him and among other things, JC tells us that he wants to love his neighbors more and needs advice.  He happens to have REALLY REALLY REALLY bad road rage. like I mean it is really bad haha. So we suggested that he listens to different and softer music on the road. (he likes to BLAST heavy metal/rock music in his huge truck!)  He was very hesitant about the idea, but he said he would try it.  A week later, he comes to our scripture study, and when we asked him about listening to softer music, he said and I quote, "I felt like I was getting stabbed several times over!" Ha. lovely.  We told him to hang in there and Work iT!!  A week later we were having a pretty 'eh' day when we get a voicemail from JC.  I don't remember word for word, but he basically said, "Hi Sisters, JC Here.  I've got two good news. Not sure which one you want first.. the good news or the good news.  Ok. so first I called Malcom (our investigator who he is true friends with) and he said he is coming to church.  Second, I went to church at the one by the temple (Brookswood ward baby) and the temple was amazing! I walked all around it and there was a garbage can right there by it. So I went into my truck and I got all my heavy metal music and rock and one by one I threw away over 20 CD's.  Now All I have to listen to is 3 CD's of the Book of Mormon in Spanish! Well I hope that brightened your day! Have a Wonderful Capital letters, W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L day! God Bless. Talk to ya soon!"  OH. MY. HECK. We were dying!!!!!!!!!!! He has so much faith! He is just so amazing and he has no more road rage! just sayin! :) I've thought about the change of heart he had a lot and he truly shook off the natural man and became a Saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord.  It has been so cool to witness.  

As we know, the Natural Man is an enemy to God and has been since the Fall of Adam.  I studied about it in the Book of Mosiah this morning and it made me realize that it is so natural to get upset. It is so NATURAL to get annoyed and impatient and sad and frustrated!  It is natural to be disobedient.  I guess that is why we are a chosen people.. because we are trying to shake off the natural man and become as a child.. we try to choose the right and be submissive, meek, kind, humble, loving, patient, understanding, willing, obedient.... ya know, all that good stuff.  I know that when we do those things, Heavenly Father is just like so, so, so, dang proud of us because he knows it's not exactly natural for us to be that way right now.  He knows it takes effort and that is why when we are Christ-like and follow Him, He blesses us so dang much!  It's because He really is pleased!  He really is happy! So I challenge you guys to become the Saints he knows we can be and repent of anything you need too and then shake off the Natural man! Will you do that?! I promise that when you make those small and simple changes in your life, great things will come to pass!

Sister Haight, Gibb, me, Galbraith, Willmore.  They all went home last week! Sis Willmore was my MTC comp! We all came out the same day! :) these are my girls!

So Be strong and of a Good Courage and fight off the natural man Baby! I love you all SOOOOOO much! Thanks for all the support! WORK iT!! Five Stars! :)
Love Sister Petersen:]