Negative Temps/First Baptism - 02/23/15 (Charleston, IL)

Dear Friends and Family,

Well this week was quite a chilly one! Most of the week consisted of negative or single degree temperatures, with wind that makes it even colder. Oh and about 7 inches of snow just as a bonus. Elder Phillips I were walking around all of Charleston in those conditions, I have never been so cold in my life! But All is well now, because though these conditions continue, we have the car this week!

This week we had exchanges, I went down to Mattoon with Elder Knapp and we tried contacting a ton of less actives. We are also going on Exchanges again this week with the Zone Leaders. Elder Phillips will be working down in Charleston with Elder Kettle, and I will be going up to Champaign to work in Mohamed with Elder Moore.

So Our teaching pool continues to grow and I want to take a minute and talk about some of our top progressing investigators. 

Colton - He is 17 years old, and has been investigating the church since November. He is a friend of the Stowell family who are active members and who's Dad is the Stake President. He had a baptismal date about a month ago, but got scared and dropped it. We have had some solid lessons with him the past few weeks and think we are ready to set a date with him maybe this week. 

Joe - We picked Joe up as an investigator the day I got to Charleston. He is a student at EIU and is a History and Religion major. He was studying for the Catholic Priesthood, but feels like the Catholic church isn't taking a lot of things seriously anymore. He loves Everything we talk to him about and even came to church on Sunday.  He has done so much study on Joseph Smith and the church, he even went and purchased his own Quad set of scriptures so he can have all of the books in one. 

Nancy Ann - Nancy is in her 50's and she has a son who is a member of the church and is getting married in the Temple in a  few months. She started investigating the church several months ago, and is being baptized on Friday.

Eric - We got a Phone call from a random number at 2:00am on Wednesday night and it was Eric who has met missionaries before. He just kept saying that he didn't feel very good and that he was ready to jump off a bridge.. We talked to him for about 30 minutes then made an appointment to stop by the next morning. When we had met with missionaries before he said his life was so great and he quit drinking for 2 years.. Anyways he relapsed super hard and that is when we got the call. He just wants to change and to not be a drunk anymore.

So I think that is all for this week, we are going to be working with our investigators and be trying to find new ones each day! Charleston is awesome and I think once I have the area down and the ward members down I am really going to love it here. Even though there is no food pantry, we do service each with at a soup stop at a Methodist Church where we serve fish to people. It is pretty great! 

Anyways, once again Thank You All for the prayers in my behalf. I miss you guys and think or you always. Have a great week, and we will talk again next week when I make another account of my dealings for the week. With Much love....

Elder Chase Peterson