B.O.M.'s and Baptisms - 07/06/15 (Belleville, IL)

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that Everyone had a safe and Enjoyable 4th of July.. We had a nice one here in St Louis. We were planning on going to hang out at the East River front in East St Louis to watch Fire Works at The Arch from across the river. But we got word that they weren't having them there this year because of some re-modeling going on. Instead they had them at Forest Park, farther west into the city. We weren't able to do that. 

For our Fourth we spent the morning at the church in Fairview Heights, we had a big ward breakfast! We even brought the East St Louis Elders with us, since they never get fed or have any members to help them out. The branch down there are all mostly implants from other wards. Anyway, the breakfast was great! 

After the Breakfast we had a baptism! Our 12 year old investigator Logan Wilson got baptized! He has been waiting for so long and has been so ready. It was such a great opportunity to see him be baptized. I am also looking forward to see him get the priesthood next Sunday. Logan's Mom and sister are so humbled and excited to know that for the first time they are going to have the priesthood in their home! That will be such a great blessing for them! 

We spent the rest of the holiday with the Meinhart family! They are such a great family, and they make such a big difference for us as missionaries. We had a lot of good food, good company, and some pretty good Fireworks! 

This month all of the Districts in the zone have challenged each other to different competitions! This last week O'Fallon District challenged us (Waterloo District) to see who could pass out the most copies of The Book of Mormon. Elder Julian and I passed out 26 copies and picked up a lot of potential investigators from it, and two new investigators! In the end Waterloo beat O'Fallon 146 copies to about 60 copies! 

This last P-day we went with the East St Louis Elders and most of the Meinhart family to visit The St Louis Zoo! it was so much fun! It was also free so it made it that much better! Most of the animals were pretty active and lively. We got to see Elephants eat some grass, Sea Lions dance around, and a huge polar bear cannon ball into the water. It was a pretty epic day!

We've got a lot to do this week, and we are being challenged by the Edwardsville District to see who can get the most investigators this week. So hopefully we can use some of those potentials we got to contribute. Just gonna be working hard this week in the heat and humidity! Just gotta keep Elder Julian from getting too trunky. Everyone have a great week!

Church is true!

Elder Chase Peterson