She's A Witch!

 She's a witch... but not really. So, we had a service project where we were packing up this old lady's hoarder house! Let me tell you... it was rough! We found lots of interesting things! Including witch clothes... hopefully Halloween costumes 🤪 We also found a random wig and a drawer full of drugs and needles. While we were cleaning out her closet there were spiders ALL over!!! You all know how I feel about spiders... ahhhhhhh!!! They were crawling on my companion, so I screamed and she said, "Sister Peterson! You can't do that! Breathe!" Later in the same closet the lady came up to tell us what to pack and apparently there were spiders on me. My companion didn't say anything, but she had us leave the closet for a second and then said, "you're welcome." Thank goodness for great companions that make you not freak out in front of people 😂 We decided to make a game out of it after that, so we started naming all of the spiders and cockroaches that we found. We killed Timmy... oops. I hope you're proud, dad... I kept it together germophobia and all, and I killed the spiders! Kind of. 🙄

After that we got a call from this man that we are teaching. He is friends with a homeless man named Alex. When he called he said, "I think Alex is possessed and passed it to me..." we were like, uhhhhhh. We have no idea how to help! We told him we could see what we could do and sent him to the Elders! 😂 Sorry Elders. We think he might be schizophrenic... guess we'll figure that out later!

I also had Jamaican food for the first time this week!! Jerk pork is now my favorite thing ever! 20/10 recommend 👌

We went to teach a lesson and I heard a gunshot and the ice cream truck at the same time! 2 scary things! 😂 We got the heck out of there!

We went to dinner with a guy named DJerry who thought he was the funniest person ever. He had so many dad jokes. He looked at us and said, "which one is from Utah?" (Joking of course) until I slowly raised my hand and he almost fell out of the chair laughing. Then he made fun of me for getting a kids meal. I will never live this down... I got made fun of all night 😂

I got to do service at the bishops storehouse! It was so fun! You meet a lot of interesting people there... one of them told us how bikinis were invented? It was so funny. Email me if you want to know 🤗

Lastly, we called this lady yesterday and asked if she wanted to hear a message. She said she was good like 10 times and the phone cut out. We called her back and said we were sorry that the phone cut out and then she said, "the phone didn't cut out? I hung up on you!" It was sooooo funny! I DIED laughing and she hung up again. 

Spiritual thought: there was a car crash, so we had to take a random road and as we were driving I heard someone yell, "MORMONS" so we turned around and met this guy. He was obviously very high and was smoking and he said that he was sorry that we saw him like that and that he was a recent convert from Reno Nevada and wanted to come to church. It was crazy! I told him my brother was a missionary there! The connections we make are crazy, and Heavenly Father will always put us in the right place at the right time. He loves us and wants us to be happy! ❤ I hope you all have an amazing fourth of July and I would love to hear from you if I don't die tonight in crazy Florida celebrations! 😜 😂 Love you all!!

Pictures!

1) the one hill in Florida: trash hill 

2) pretty pond

3) my soul mate?

4 & 5) before church

6) finally ate Checkers!

7) coolest flowers ever!

8 & 9) car ride!

The Butterfly Whisperer

 Hello everyone!!! I hope you're all having the best day ever! Good news, my companion and I are really good friends now! She's the best! So, awkward thing... our toilet screams at us in the middle of the night (no one can fix it) it stops screaming when we flush it, but the problem is that I sleep through it because I'm so exhausted, so my companion has to take care of it every time and I never hear it. Oops! 😂

Now, for an explanation of the title and a quick side story: we were out on our bikes and we were talking to a lady on the sidewalk. A Jamaican dude walked past and he had the coolest neon shoes on, so I complimented them. Mistake!!! He smiled and walked a few steps then turned around and waved, so I waved back. Then he walked a few more steps and turned around and waved, and kept doing it over and over!!! It was SO awkward!!! I just kept waving and my companion was laughing so hard. After that we started talking to the butterfly whisperer... she was super old and had a bunch of mail stuffed down her shirt. We asked her how Jesus blessed her life and she said He has blessed me to be a butterfly whisperer. 🦋 She said that everywhere she goes she finds butterflies and she catches them and talks to them. She said her whole family passed away (so sad) and that He gave her butterflies instead. She then went into all this crazy stuff about talking with the butterflies and how she lost all her toes... it was wild. 😂

I saw a bunch of HUGE iguanas this week with giant spikes and black and white tails! They are seriously 4 feet long! It's insane!

Sadly, we had to kill Gary!!! He's no longer with us... RIP. 

So, funny story: we were teaching a lesson and the lady turns to us and goes, "you know who you remind me of? The sister wives! Have you seen that show?" I'm so offended!!!! Are the dress pants that bad?! 🤔😂

Anyways, this week we have heard a lot of weird depictions of Jesus. We have been giving people free pictures of Him and we had multiple people say, "this isn't what He looks like" awkward! One lady took Isaiah a little too seriously and told us that He looks like a dry root and that people turned their faces from Him because He was ugly... I think she needs to reread that chapter. 

I hit my one month this week!!! I celebrated by putting on my bucket hat and cat nightgown and had a dance party. It was awesome 👌. Also crazy thing, there was a fire at our apartment building this week!!! We were trying to get to a service project and couldn't get out because of all of the fire trucks!!! After that we went to a lesson and we had to do it outside. It started POURING rain in the first minute that we were there, so we said, "please come to church" and ran to the car. If only the rain had come during the fire lol. The great part about it is that the "please come to church" worked!! They were there on Sunday!! 

Last funny story and one of my personal favorites: We met this lady in the park and later found out that she was homeless and a little crazy, but super nice. We asked to pray with her and she sat down and said I need 5 minutes. We stood there watching her awkwardly, and then said "we gotta go, but we'll pray for you tonight" she shushed us while she was closing her eyes, so we walked away and she yelled after us, "WAIT, I want to pray!" So we did. As my companion said the prayer it was great, but after she ended, our friend went right into praying out loud. I closed my eyes again and realized that there was some Post Malone and Juicewrld playing at the neighbors house. I was so happy 😂 I've been deprived. As I was focused on that, she all of a sudden grabbed my arm and said, "thank you for the missionaries!" It scared me soooo bad! I jumped! It was hilarious.

I met my district and they are awesome! One of the elders and I have the same bag, so thanks mom 😂 so funny. We are going fishing and playing guitar with our whole district today and I am stoked! Also turns out I'm singing with my companion and another sister at zone conference TOMORROW 😅 yay... 

God loves us so much and is aware of all of us! Our friend broke the lock of her house with a weight just to get to church, so if that doesn't show you how important the gospel can be, then I don't know what will. She cried the whole time because she was so grateful to be there with us. 

I love you all!!! 

Florida: Sunny Place For Shady People

    Hello everyone! I made it to Florida! It was kind of a rough transition, but I'm doing great now! My apartment is super nice! I even have a dishwasher!! The first day I got here, we got in super late and President Pingree had me read and interpret a scripture. At that point I was basically asleep and I couldn't tell you what I said. Oops. 

The next day after I got picked up, my companion who is 22 and speaks Russian (she was originally called to Russia) was driving when an iguana ran into the road. She yelled "IGUANA!!!!" and we almost ran it over! Don't worry. The iguana is okay. 

Apparently when they were switching the SIM cards they lost ours. Thats really bad. We all got a prompting to go back to the church a couple hours later and we found it after 30 seconds! It was in the dirt! 

The next day we did a service project in the middle of the afternoon and it was sooooo hot, we picked up trash for hours, but I found a fancy mailbox and a lot of drugs, so that's cool. Don't worry. I threw all the drugs away. 🤪 

There are so many cool plants and creatures in Florida! I feel like I'm in the jungle! So, funny story. I pulled one of my shirts off the rack and dad... you were right. GINORMOUS COCKROACH!! We trapped him in a jar and named him Gary. I'll include pictures haha. 

Next funny story is that we were looking for a friend's apartment, so we were walking and saw these people in the same complex. They were throwing seashells at each other and karate chopping them. It smelled like weed sooooo bad. We asked them what they were doing and they told us that they were playing kung fu. You had to hit the seashell before it hit the ground. They then threw a seashell at my companion and she did it! Well done Sister King. We started talking to them and they wanted to show us their cool salamander thingy. She kindly moved all of her drugs off of the counter before we walked in. We went and looked at it and it was awesome!! Then it wasn't so awesome. She started lecturing us about how "young and beautiful" we were and that we shouldn't go into people's houses and how Florida is sketchy etc. Her quote that she said at least three times was Florida is a sunny place for shady people. Remember that!!! Awkward... then she said, "get out, I want to smoke my weed" so we all went outside while all three of them blew weed smoke in our faces and we talked about Christ. We said a prayer with them and they wanted to hold hands. They had all been playing in the dirt and smoking weed, so my germophobia was going insane, but you will all be proud to know that I held it in. I prayed that they could feel peace in their lives and when the prayer was over all they could say was wow... they were stunned! The spirit was so strong weed and all!! Later that night they texted and invited us over for dinner lol! Too bad we already ate a fancy dinner at a rich member's house! After we left the weed smokers we said another prayer with a lady that lived in the house that was supposed to be our friends' she added all the amens and praises in the middle and instead of us sharing a message with her, she tried to convert us to her church. So funny. Then as we were walking out of the complex we got cat called by a bunch of drunk 40 year olds in a pool. I don't know that we'll be visiting that complex anytime soon. So funny!! 

While we were riding our bikes my companion tried to give a guy a pass along card and she fell off her bike! She handed it to him and said Jesus loves you and then we drove away. It was hilarious. 

Spiritual thought: We were riding our bikes and met a guy that was smoking at a bus stop. He threw down his cigarette as soon as we walked up and we started talking to him. He said that he had had a rough life and he wanted to make some changes and come closer to Christ. You meet every person for a reason!! There are no coincidences!! Shortly after we had given him the address for church he said, "awesome, maybe I'll surprise you guys and come, and maybe I'll even meet my future someone there." 

If it gets him to church, then watch out ladies in your forties 'cause Keith is coming!! haha.

I also met a jamaican bobsledder/skydiver. He is sooo cool!! He is a recent convert and he got to bless the sacrament for the 1st time and I got to watch! It is amazing to see people coming closer to Christ and loving it!! I love you all and hope you have the best week ever! I'll try not to sweat to death here in the humidity!

 FLORIDA FORT LAUDERDALE MISSION

7951 SW 6th Street, Suite 110

Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33324-3211

 

20 Jun 2022

 

Dear Brother and Sister Peterson , 

 

Your daughter, Sister Kaysha Peterson has arrived safely in the Florida Ft. Lauderdale Mission and I am thrilled to have her.  She  is very much needed. There is a great work to be done in this marvelous part of the world. Your daughter will be an instrument in the hands of the Lord and a fellow servant with us and over 200 other faithful missionaries to accomplish His sacred and holy purposes.

I pledge to you that I will do all I can to build upon that which you have taught your daughter, and to reinforce the standards you have established for your family. Please know that I sustain you in your sacred parental role and never want to do anything that would detract from or interfere with that eternal relationship.

 

Missionary work is very hard and strenuous. Much will be expected from your missionary. I pray for your continued support and encouragement of your daughter as she begins this challenging and extraordinary experience. It will be a great blessing for her and to the work in our mission as you encourage her to be diligent in this great work in all of your weekly communications (emails, letters, video chats and calls). Should you have an emergency need to contact your daughter, I would appreciate your calling the Mission Office rather than calling your daughter directly.

 

I will do all I can to teach, build and mentor your daughter to realize the injunction, "O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve Him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the Last day," and that she will have many opportunities to "invite all to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him."

 

Our Mission Motto is "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of Him, to declare His word among His people, that they may have eveasting life.” (3 Nephi 5:13) Sister Pingree and I will do all we can to help your daughter catch the vision of missionary work by seeing through spiritual eyes of faith. We invite you to be companions with us to ensure that this happens.

 

Respectfully yours,

 

Timothy F. Pingree

Mission President

Last few days at the MTC and flying to Florida