Mini Missionary and Me - 06/29/15 (Belleville, IL)

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a great week here in the Missouri St Louis mission! As a mission we are a little behind our projected goal for 453 baptisms in the year 2015. But This week I feel like we really picked up a lot of the slack. O'Fallon zone had several baptisms just over this past weekend, and we are having one this weekend! 

We had a great week here in the Belleville area! Tuesday we got to go up to O'fallon and pick up our Mini Missionary! Most of the missionaries in the zone came, along with a few sets from St Louis. We had a "mini transfer meeting" where all the mini's got to stand up and say who they where and what ward they were from and where they would be going! There we were united with our mini. His name was Jared Meldrom, he lives in a small town called New Baden which is north of us in The Shiloh ward. Jared got to spend the week with us here in Belleville and we had a good time! It was a great experience getting to show Jared what missionary life is like.. I think he was surprised, and wasn't exactly what he thought it would be. 

We had a great experience Wednesday, we went to contact a referral and they didn't answer. We had a few minutes before we needed to leave for our dinner appointment so we decided to take Jared tracting! The Very First house we knock on, this lady comes out and lets us teach her about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. She told us that she actually has a cousin who is a member in the O'fallon ward. She invited us back and was very grateful for us knocking on our door!

Our Mini was very lucky that it just so happened that the first door we knock on we pick them up as an investigator! haha!

Monday we were supposed to go to the zoo, but we weren't able to because we ran out of time. After emailing we had to drive over to Scott Air Force base because Elder Julian left his bag in the Visitor Control center. We drove in and picked it up no problem. But they were doing road construction on the exit gate and there was no way to leave. We go back in and ask them how we can get out. the guy came out, looked at the construction and said, "oh... shoot... well, I don't know." Long story short We had to take like 20 minutes and get passes issued to get on base. Which is not a big deal for Elder Julian and I because we do that multiple times a week. But we had the East St Louis Elders with us and they had never been there before. So Elder Dorland goes up and they are working on his pass, and half way through they inform him that his drivers license is expired! They said "Sorry.. We can't get you on base." so we were all literally just stuck there!! So Elder Dorland and Elder Reynolds had to walk down the road to a store, Elder Julian and I had to drive on and through the base, down to the Belleville gate, go all the way around and back up to the Shiloh gate just to pick them up! It was the biggest pain and it killed our miles!! 

Well, that is about all I have to report for this week, I need to go ahead and wrap up now since we are hopefully going to St Louis zoo today. I hope everyone has a great week! I am so grateful for these past 9 months I have had to be out here on a mission. The experiences and testimony I have gained is something I will never forget or ever forsake.. I love this church and this gospel! I love my savior Jesus Christ! It is because of him that we have everything.. I love and miss you all.

Until next week,

Elder Chase Peterson