Sister Peterson's Idaho Pocatello Mission Blog: Week 37: I'd BEE HONOR'd

So, I have a secret I've been wanting to share with all of you: you know how I've been doing a lot of service? And how I've been helping a lot of young women work on their personal progress? And how I finished reading the Book of Mormon a few weeks ago? Well, I've been doing all these things so that I could earn my HONOR BEE for Young Women. After you are finished with Personal Progress (which I completed my senior year of high school) and earn the Young Womanhood Recognition, you can go on to earn your Honor Bee, which according to the Personal Progress booklet, "was historically given to young women who were willing to do more than was required". The Honor Bee requires you to read the entire Book of Mormon and to do 40 hours of service, including helping other Young Women with their Personal Progress. This transfer I noticed a lot of Young Women in our area were less active and thought "hey, this could really benefit both me and all of these girls, so I should help them out with this." I got the approval from a Young Women's president in our area and went straight to work. It was a little tricky at times (people don't want us to help them for some reason) but I can say that I successfully did it!

My honor bee in all it's glory

Out of all the service I did, what was my favorite? Probably branding cattle. That's right, this week our ward mission leader asked if we could help him brand cattle, and we obviously said yes. I thought I was going to hate it and cry, but it surprisingly was a lot of fun! We got to help with all parts of it, including counting how many steers and heifers there were, giving them shots, and the actual branding. It was awesome.

This week I'd like to talk about change. Change is hard. But, hard is also good. Elder Ellis of the 70 said "regardless of the issue, hard can be good for those who will move forward with faith and trust the Lord and His plan". During my whole Honor Bee process, the church announced that they were going to make a new program for the children and youth of the church and get rid of Boy Scouts, Personal Progress, Activity Days, Duty to God, etc. Even though this is a huge change, I know that it will be good and that the Lord has something even better and holier in store for His children. It may be hard, and even a little sad at times, but I trust in God and know that everything He does is for our benefit.

Speaking of changes, we got transfer calls this week and both Sister Gutierrez and I are leaving Bear Lake and are both whitewashing us into new areas, meaning sending 2 new missionaries into an area and letting them start over from scratch. Our mission president has also decided to make our area an ELDERS area. So no more sisters in Bear Lake. I was a little shocked when I got the call. I didn't think I would ever whitewash or get replaced by elders. These past few days I've thought to myself "did my companion and I mess up and do something really wrong to get whitewashed out? and by elders instead of other sisters?" But, I know I just need to trust in the Lord that my efforts here were counted for, and His plan is grander than what we can even imagine. Okay I love all of you so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Hermana Peterson