Tuesday, April 30, 2013


AMOR

Thank you for the wonderful package of joy, Mother! I love you so much, and I love how you put yourself into your packages- my companions loved all the fun treats.  And elyssa! I just got your letter and Jethro has now joined the collection of baby pictures that are plastering the door on our Residence.  My companion said she had never seen me so happy as when I stared at Jethro for ten minutes after I opened the package. Jaja.  So thank you, everyone who sends me love, in whatever form.  I sure feel it.
About the reassignment, we've heard that should happen on Wednesday, so stay tuned.  Dad, you asked more about it- honestly I don't know much more about it, but no, it's not permanent.  I 'll likely be there for one or two transfers, until my visa comes and then they'll ship me off to Argentina.  I might not even go Spanish speaking when I'm reassigned, just depends on the need.  A second mission call!!
Yesterday Hna Banfield had us practice our accents by speaking with pens clenched between our teeth.  She said when we speak English we use our whole jaw and not much of our tongue and lips and it's the opposite in Spanish.  We all sounded like goofballs but then when you take the pen out you feel like you can talk so fast. Kind of fun. :)
We had a wonderful experience yesterday.  Our teacher had us do some contacting here at the MTC.  We went outside and prayed that the Lord would direct us to someone who needed the message we had to share.  My companion and I prepared a brief message about the Comfort that Jesus Christ has to offer.  We started walking and I saw a girl that was in my Ward at BYU, and so we went up and joined her and her companion at their table, asking if they had a minuite for a little message.  So that we get practice with Spanish, one person gives the message while the other translates.  It was my turn to teach, so I began teaching.  My friend's companion started crying almost immediately after we started teaching and we all felt the Spirit so strongly.  After a minute two other Sisters from their district joined them and listened to the rest of the message, too.  After we finished they asked how we knew that that was exactly what they needed.  One of the Sisters had received news the week before of her dad having a heart attack and had just found out that morning that he may need to have open heart surgery.
There are no coincidences and Heavenly Father is so aware of each one of us.  He knew that Sister needed a little boost, a little comfort.  He knows our needs and He does all He can to help us see it.  He loves YOU!  I'm so grateful for the power of the love of God.
We got to hear from the new Young Women's General President this week and let me tell you- the Young Women are in excellent hands! It was an excellent talk and I liked her very much.  We get such awesome devotionals here all the time!!
Family, and friends, too, I love you with all I've got!  I'm grateful for this sacred time to serve my God and I know that when all is said and done I will be able to love you even more, which makes me very excited.  Thanks for your support.  Vaya con Dios.
Con THIS MUCH amor,
Hermana Peterson

Thursday, April 25, 2013


PUES,PUES,PUES...

Pues pues, pues, que tenemos aqui? This is a Spanglish phrase that one of our teachers told us and we like it a lot.  She said it's one her District came up with when she was in el CCM.  We've come up with some good ones ourselves, too.  Are we supuesto do that? Que en el mundo. Estas kidding me? Nuncamente.  And then Elder Wilhelm , at least once a day says, "Yo quiero llorar," with a thick castellano accent where ever it fits.  And at least ten times every day Elder Agle yells, "Castellano!"  Elder Agle and Elder Hellstern are going to Argentina as well and like to practice the "sh" as much as they can.  We have the craziest group in the MTC, I'm pretty sure.  It is always a party, even sometimes when maybe it isn't supuesto be. :)
Can you believe I've been a missionary for a full month?!!  Time is so strange here. Everyone describes it as the days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days. It is the truth.  So long and yet so short at the same time.  But every day is so full of learning and stretching!  I love it.
My new companera, Hna Tibbitts, is wonderful.  We are working well together and I'm opening up more.  She is so loving and fun.  She hasn't gotten her Peru visa yet, and we're all keeping our fingers crossed that it won't come until the end of our six weeks.  Oh! Exciting news.  I will likely get a reassignment because Argentina visas are backed up, which means I get to call you and tell you where I'm going!!! I will probably find out at the end of this week or beginning of next, so pick up your phone. :) Also, maybe email me your number just in case I forgot it.
TRC was awesome yesterday.  I love getting to have lessons with people who aren't my teacher or fellow missionary.  We had an awesome experience with our TRC volunteer and afterwards I was so happy and it made me so excited for when I am out of the MTC and teaching and meeting real people all the time.  I know the happiness is going to be incredible.  
Give Grandma Joycie a good squeeze from me and tell her I love her.  Heidi, I absolutely loved your letter.  I reread it over and over.  Thanks for everyone's love and prayers!  We definitely feel the prayers.
Me caen muy bien.
Hermana Peterson
p.s. I will be able to write a little more later today so stay tuned.


Friday, April 19, 2013

I MUST BE TROUBLE...

Another new companion! Hma Dahl got her visa this week and is off to Peru this morning.  Hma Craig, another sister in the District, got hers as well, so our District is shrinking.  I am sad to say goodbye to Hma Dahl.  She has been a wonderful companion and I have learned a lot with her.  She will finish her training in the Peru MTC (she was originally assigned to go there but the visa wasn't here until now).  My new companion will be Hermana Tibbitts, of Park City, Utah.  She is crazy and has no filter and we all love her a lot.  I know I will learn a lot with her as well and it will be a very different dynamic than when I was with Hma Dahl.  BUT, I don't even know how long I will be with her because she is also waiting for her visa to Peru, and will likely get it before our three weeks are up. So probably four companions in six weeks! Whewee!  We are going to miss our Peruvian hermanas so much!  Hma Dahl and I will see each other again though, that's for sure.  We'll hike a mountain or something. :)

Sunday was asombroso.  We got to hear from Elder Scott and he talked about prayer.  Prayer is so powerful and we have been studying about it frequently.  Last night in the TRC we practiced teaching about prayer and it strengthened my testimony.  Heavenly Father is always listening.  He always wants us to communicate with Him.  What an incredible blessing to be able to talk to our Maker whenever we want to! Blessings.  

We learned about the difference between por y para this week. It's a tricky bit of grammar and I don't think I'll truly get it for a while, but an activity we did to help was to make our own Title of Liberty for our mission.  It was a powerful experience for me and I want to share it with you.  I am here por mi Padre Celestial, por mi Salvador, Jesucristo, por la gente de Argentina, por mi familia (especially Jonah!), y por mi familia en el futuro.  I am here para share the love of God with everyone, to know my Savior, to become a true disciple of Christ, y claro, para invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo.

Sorry for the Spanglish.  Hopefully you get it. I love you all.  I've been writing my journal in Spanish because it's good practice, and I know in several months I'll read over it and laugh.  It is fun for me though and it will be neat to see my progression.  We had a fast from English one day this week and it was so helpful.  We've decided as a District to fast from English every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  It is good because it reminds us just how much we can't say and it gives us good motivation.  The best motivation is our investigator though.  I love teaching the investigators.  It is the time when I learn the most.

About Argentina visas, it is almost guaranteed that I will be temporarily reassigned.  We met with the Argentina Consul last week, which was lucky because we just got here- some people have to wait months.  Our visas are underway and if we get reassigned we will find out where we're going and what language we're speaking a day or two before take off.  I am muy animada for this.  I could go anywhere in the United States!  So I'll keep you all posted on that.

You are going to FINLAND!! I am so excited for you!!  I was so excited to hear that news.  Don't forget to send me pictures. ;)  And keep up all the great things you are doing, Mami.  I love your letters so.

I love you all so much and you're in my dreams frequently, which I appreciate.  Thanks for all the love and support. I couldn't ask for more.

Con amor,

Hermana Peterson
WEEK TWO

Hola



This has been another wonderful week.  I don't know where to begin!  Each day is so full that it feels like multiple days and we are always teaching, which is where we really learn how we are doing.  Mi companera y yo have troubles teaching pretty frequently.  We have had multiple lessons this week where we walk out and go, hmmmm, that didn't go the way we had planned, and that doesn't feel very good.  But we learn so much every time and we're really grateful for this training period where it's definitely okay if we mess up.  It is a hefty challenge to learn how to completely teach by the Spirit, and failing to do so results in a poor lesson.  So we are humbling ourselves and trying once again to fully trust that the Lord will guide us.  The marvelous part is that the Lord knows each of His children perfectly, so even if we don't have a clue what someone needs to hear or do, the Lord always does.  The other cool part is that when we stop worrying about ourselves and completely focus on the people we are teaching, that's when the Lord can really work through us.  It seems simple enough, right?! I am loving this process.  I am learning what it means to fully rely on my Savior and it is beautiful.  I am thinking about and asking questions about things I've never before thought of and I think my spirit is enjoying the feast.  These words I'm writing seem greatly inadequate to describe what I'm experiencing here, but it's the best I can do at the moment. :)

We got knew roommates yesterday!  Our old ones are off the preach the Gospel in Canada and these new ones are headed to Baltimore.  I love getting to meet so many missionaries.  It's quite fun to be standing in line or in the bathroom and to ask everyone where they are going.  The Gospel is being preached everywhere!  And we are ever more grateful to be learning Spanish, that is for sure.  So many crazy languages. Paul, I met some Finnish missionaries and that was fun.

Thanks for all the letters and birthday love! My goodness, what an incredible birthday I had here.  SO MUCH LOVE!  Really, thank you all, it was special.  Amy, Kristi, and Madi, those cookies are now all eaten.  I tried to share but I think only one person took a cookie, so the rest were consumed joyfully by me (no, not in one sitting).  I have the best friends and family.

My teachers are Hermana Banfield and Hermano Usevitch and they are such amazing teachers.  They set an example of teaching as the Lord directs so well and we feel the Spirit in every lesson, in every moment.  And our District is doing well right now with studying seriously and still having fun. My District sure loves to have fun.  I feel quite blessed to be with them.  There is always some funny drawing on the board and usually someone i telling a ridiculous story about who-knows-what and we laugh so much and it feels so good.  Hermana Dahl still cracks me up every day.  It's cool to study so intensely and then three minutes later be laughing really hard.  There is just a lot of goodness that goes on here.  We are happy.

My time is up! But hopefully I will get some more letters out today.  I'm excited to go to the temple today.  And eat more of the delicious bread Paul sent me because he is fabulous and gracious.  It is going to be a great day.  I know I'm forgetting to tell you all things I meant to tell you, I'll probably start making lists before I write so that doesn't happen. Anyways, I love you all so much. Thanks for all the thoughtful little notes of love and encouragement, they work. :)  Keep following the example of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  He loves you and He really will lead you by the hand,

All my love,

Hermana Peterson
I'M ABOUT TO GUSH

So prepare yourselves!!

Dear family,

I absolutely love the MTC.  This has been the most eventful week of my life.  The Spirit is so strong here!!!

I arrived and was shown to my classroom where I met my Distrito and companera.  My companion's name was (I'll explain this in a second) Hermana Hicken and we got along right from the start.  She is from Logan, Utah and she came ready to WORK!  She had only taken about two years of Spanish but you wouldn't have known it by how eager she was to use all she knew.  The second day a Brother was observing our class and at the end he had me and mi companera step outside with him.  He said he wanted to have us evaluated for an Intermediate class instead.  We were evaluated (I was so nervous and sweaty and I felt like I failed) but he said he would recommend me for the Intermediate class, but not Hermana Hicken.  We were sad.  It is crazy how fast we form strong bonds here.  I already loved the District.  So right after we taught our investigator, "Jorge," they called me down and gave me a new room, companion, and district.  Can you believe we taught a lesson the second day we were here all in Spanish?!! That's pretty cool, because no way could I have done that before coming into the MTC.

My new District, an Intermediate Spanish class, is also quite wonderful.  My new companera is Hermana Dahl and she is hilarious.  She makes us laugh all the time.  She comes up with the most original ways to express herself and they are always so funny.  One of my favorites was when she was telling us she needed to shave her legs and she said. "I could seriously cut a steak with my legs right now."  I laughed good and hard.  We work really well together.  Our first full day together she memorized the First Vision in Spanish.  She is so eager to learn Spanish and we are good about H.S.I- Habla Su Idioma.  We say as much as we can in Spanish, so basically we speak Spanglish, and it's fun.  She is from Montana and she loves being outside.  She's a snowboarder and in the past was a gymnast and get this- power lifter.  I love her.  We are teaching "Antonio" right now and we are learning so much together.  We've had about five lessons with him so far and some of them have been great and the Spirit has been there the whole time, but two days ago we gave one lesson and it was not so good.  We taught the lesson, but not the person.  So we learned a lot from that and our lesson yesterday was much better.  I can't believe how quickly we learn here.  The Lord helps us so much.  We always pray, testify, teach, and usually have class in all Spanish.  It is nice to have someone to learn with.  No matter where I am I can turn to her and ask her how to say something, or practice saying something, or discuss some principle.  It's the best!

I saw Maya multiple times before she left this week, and she was actually my Host Missionary when I first came in! So she got to take me to my room and that was such a fun blessing.  And she's off to Cape Verde!  I also ran into Paul once, which was fun as I gave him a big hug and all the missionaries around looked shocked.  I've been surprised how many people I know here from school.  It's nice to run into people I know all the time.

We are doing well.  My companion and I are happy every day and we are excited to do the Lord's work.  My teacher is AMAZING and I've never been in lessons like the ones she gives before.  She served in Peru and I love her accent.  I love it here!  The Spirit is so powerful and as a representative of Jesus Christ I feel His power and love like never before.  I am learning so much more about Him and His Gospel.  

I will try to send some pictures, of my first companion and my current Distrito.  I love them all.

I'm so glad to hear from you all. Thanks for the pictures, Papi. I loved them.  You are all looking fabulous, as usual.  My mailbox here at the MTC has changed to #219 so if you could change that on the blog that would be great! My projected leaving date is May 6.  Use DearElder- we love those!

Thank for all the birthday wishes, it's only 7:30AM and it's already been a great one.  Unfortunately I already have to go, but I love you all so much! Thanks for all the prayers and love- I can definitely feel them!

Be well,

Hermana Peterson


The first is my fist group. Second new district. Third, Hermana Dahl stricking a pose!