I am just so Happy!

Daniel and Ricardo were baptized!!!  And I am trying to send photos but it is not working. :(  But it was so beautiful.  Daniel´s family came and it was their first time in the church.  The ward is so wonderful and the talks were perfect.  We had a hard time finding clothes to fit Daniel and Ricardo because Daniel is big and Ricardo is small, so we were running all over the place, but white pants just arent super common.  We finally found some clothes and when Daniel showed up at the chapel he announced he had found his own baptismal clothes.... I still dont know how he did it, but he came out with a white button up shirt and white pants!  Ricardo was a little drowned in his clothes, but he was washed clean of his sins just the same. :)  

Ezequiel went to "MTC for a day" and loved it.  He was surprised that in the hours of proselyting some people didnt want to accept his invitation.  He will be a great missionary and will hopefully be able to go in a year.  Super capo.

And Monica!!  Oh I love Monica.  She is a single mother who works odd jobs while she finished high school and tries to support her kids.  She is learning to seek first the kingdom of God, and this week when a job called and asked her to work Sunday she said no!!  She went to church on Sunday and loved it.  We made a trip to the temple with her as well and she loved the peace and powerful spirit.  She is prepareing for her baptism in May.

Another miracle.  After church yesterday we started talking to a member that brought his siblings to church with him.  We had a quick lesson with Nelson, 18, after church and he has been super prepared to receive the fulness of the restored gospel.  He told us when he was 16 he was listening to a lot of music and it didnt make him feel good, what he was listening to.  He looked up the lyrics online and then decided not to listen to that music anymore.  He said since then he has been looking for a change in his life.  His step-brother invited him to church and he accepted.  It was his second time.  He accepted a baptismal date and is now preparing to be baptized in May.

Nanci and her husband, Juan, are planning on getting married!  Nanci went with her daughters to church again and are praying as a family.

We are learning more about faith, obedience, and diligence.  As we give all we have to the Lord He does it all.  He is putting the people in our path and softening the hearts of the people.  I love seeing the Spirit guiding our words and actions.  Hermana Salinas is so great.  I am just happy.

And I love you all with all my heart.  Be strong and wise and humble and just give everything to your callings and serve the Lord with all your might. It is the only way to find what we are looking for.  Thanks for being so great.

LOVES

Hermana Peterson

                              Hermana Salinas, Ricardo, Daniel, Ezekiel y Hermana Peterson

Ezekiel y Daniel!

El Colectivo

So Hermana Salinas is from Paraguay and she is twenty.  She has ten months as a missionary and is SUPER CAPA.  I love working with her.  She is bold and full of love.  Morón is a big city (at least the bigest Ive been in here) and our area covers el centro.  The area isnt huge but there are a ton of people.  When we contact people in the street they almost never live here in Morón and if they do there is very little chance that theyll give us their address.  So we work with the members a full.  Hermana Salinas and I were talking about the contacts we were making and it was Thursday.  Only one day more before we should be finished with our key indicators.  We needed 35 contacts so we decided to do something we have always wanted to do- contact the whole colectivo.....

We set out on Friday and nervously boarded the colective, llena de gente.  We asked permission of the driver to make an annoucement and he complied.  "Hello, fellow passengers..." Hermana Salinas started us off.  We invited everyone to join us for church on Easter Sunday and to visit the church website to learn more about Jesus Christ and how He can help us find happiness.  We gave everyone a card and felt happy.  We were super excited afterwards and decided it wont be the last time.  We realized it isnt so hard afterall, and in fact it is quite fun.  It is the best feeling in the world to proclaim the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, without fear and hesitation.  With that act of faith Heavenly Father gave us many miracles.

We knocked a door this week, where some kids were playing outside.  We asked if we could talk with their mom and a woman came outside and told us she was leaving to go to a night course to finish high school.  There are lots of programs here to help people finish high school years after they dropped out.  She said we could pass by another day.  We went for the cita we had set with her and she let us in. Nanci, se llama.  We began talking and she looked so sad.  She hardly spoke and only gave short answers to our questions.  We only had a few minutes to talk with her and shared a little bit about how Christ could help her.  We said we would pass by again to meet the rest of her children and her husband.

The next day we went to her house and found all five of her children there, and everyone pulled up a chair to listen.  The oldest, Ludmila, is fifteen, and the youngest is three.  We explained how when we have sins we feel guilty and dirty but that through the power of repentance and baptism and the Atonement of Jesus christ we can be made completely clean.  They all decided it was something they need.  We invited them to church and they said they would go.

On Saturday night I called to see if they were prepared to go to church in the morning.  They said yes!  We called again in the morning and Ludmila had woken everyone up and they were almost ready to go in colectivo.  We couldnt believe it!  They went to all three hours of church.  We stopped by afterwards to see how they liked it and they said they had already been talking about it, and have decided to go again next Sunday!!  

And then there was Daniel.  He is also super capo.  He is twenty-four, works  going house to house cutting grass, etc.  His sense of humor is IGUALITO to Paul´s.  It gets me every time.  So if you can imagine Paul, but moreno, gordo, and speaking Spanish, that´s Daniel.  They call him Turco.  He was super committed to go to church, and we were waiting and waiting and he didnt come.  He and Ricardo (Coni) live in the same nieghborhood and will be baptized together this Saturday.  But Ricardo wasnt there either.  We knew something must have happened so we went to find out.  It turns out that on Saturday night Daniel was working and his shoes broke.  He didnt have others and didnt want to go to church with broken shoes.  Ricardo woke up to go to church but his transportation, his cousin, was sick and wasnt going.  They scambled everything together and made it to church for sacrament meeting.  It was a miracle!!  They will both be baptized by Ezequiel.  One month as a member and he has already brought three souls to Christ.

We found some incredible people this week.  The work is hastening on!  Our ward is awesome and I love it.  I am learning a ton from Hermana Salinas.  She is so frank and loving with people and everyone appreciates it.  In this world we need to hear the truth, and hear it clearly.  When it is said with love there is nothing that can stop it from making a difference.

We just had a great district activity and ate tacos again and played futbol.  I dominated, obviously. jaja.  We arent in Mexico but we still love eating tacos.  Pictures next week.

I love you all so much and I love seeing the pictures and hearing about everything that is going on in your lives.  You are beautiful people.  And I am so excited to speak Spanish with Heidi.  :)  I love you lots.

Hermanita Peterson

Moron 1B!

 I am now in Morón with la Hermana Salinas!  It was sad to say goodbye to Aldo Bonzi after nine months, but it was left in good hands. :)

This is an awesome ward and a wonderful city.  I arrived and Hermana Salinas, de Paraguay, filled me in with all the happenings of the area.  They were taking very good care of the area and it is alive and well.  Let me tell you about Ezequiel.  He is about 20 years old and was baptized a month ago.  He was living the rough life, partying, doing drugs, etc.  He had listened to the missionaries a few times previously.  A few months ago one of his sisters got married and was baptized with her husband.  Then one day Ezequiel decided he wanted to change.  He started listening to the Hermanas and fighting to change his life through the power of Jesus Christ.  It wasn't easy.  He had to go to his grandma´s house every weekend to avoid temptation and fell a few times.  But he did it!!  And he was baptized.  And now he is an incredible tool in the hands of God.  He shares the gospel with EVERYONE!!!  His friends from his neighborhood are curious and he invites them to learn more about Christ and they accept.  And he is bringing miracles to Morón.

On Thursday the colectivos were on paro and we couldnt get to many lessons, and we always try to finish our goals for the week on Friday, so we had a looot of work to do.  We arranged to visit some of the friends of Ezequiel and he agreed to accompany us.  That day we were literally going from lesson to lesson.  His friends are seeing how their friend is a new being, a being of light.  They believe in the promises of the scriptures, that baptism is the beginning of a new life, because they have a living testimony of it right before their eyes.  Daniel, 24, has stopped smoking and doing drugs and went to church yesterday with his two little sisters!!!!  We are hopeful that he will be prepared for baptism at the end of this month.  As were walking to a cita with Ezequiel he saw someone he knew and called him over. "Would you like to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ?" he asked.  His friend said yes and we took down his address.  So simple. So powerful.  Can you imagine how the world would be if every member had this same excitement and faith in sharing the gospel?

Then on Saturday Ezequiel baptized his little sister, Rocío.  She is eleven.  The ward came together and made pizzas afterwards.  It was, needless to say, and incredible week.

And HEIDI IS GOING TO CHILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i AM SO EXCITED.  What an amazing missionary she will be.  I can hardly believe it. :)

The Church is true. I love you all.

Hermana Peterson

Hermana Peterson, la Hermana Salinas y Rocio

Farewell Hermana Passos!

Rocio's baptism

Ezekiel y Rocio

Pizzas!

The Prophet's Voice

Never have I invited so many people to listen to the living prophet!!  It was a great experience this week to invite everyone to the Conference.  It was interesting because a lot of people stopped long enough for us to explain everything about the conference, when normally it is difficult to stop people in the street.  People like to know that God is still communicating with His children in such a direct way.  And we could feel it in the conference!  We have a real and true living prophet.  That puts a smile on my face. :)

I especially loved the story of the little boy in Buenos Aires who brought a whole family to the capilla abierta.  More miracles in Argentina!  We will be having a capilla abierta in a few weeks so hopefully we can get everyone all excited.  As missionaries we can do a lot, but without the members, we cant do anything.  We have some families in the ward that are sharing the gospel with their friends and the smiles on their faces as they share their experiences makes me so happy because I can see that they are feeling what we get to feel every day as we invite people to come closer to Christ.

We were in charge of the Young Men activity this week at mutual.  First we had everyone write down on a piece of paper where they were in their desire to serve a mission, with one being, "I don't want to go at all," and five being, "I'm super excited to serve the Lord!"  Four of them put five and two put two.  Then we looked at the example of a family of missionaries in the Book of Mormon, starting with Alma, padre.  We then went through Alma, hijo, and his three sons, Helaman, Shiblon, and Corianton.  We discussed their situations and how each one of them was eventually able to arrive at number five- "I'm super excited to serve the Lord!" regardless of where they started out.  The Young Men were honest and open with their concerns and hopes and we had a great little lesson.  We closed it out with having everyone think of someone they want to have the gospel.  Once everyone had someone in mind we did practices.  One of the Young Men leaders is a teacher in the CCM so he played the role of the Young Men while each of them played the role of their friend/ family member.  The Spirit was strong and they all committed to invite this person to come closer to Christ.  A few of them picked their dads, others picked their friends.  But everyone picked someone they love, and that is what makes the invitation so important.  And then we ate muffins filled with dulce de leche.

Hermana Passos sent pictures of my birthday surprise cake, made by Alba Veron, an angel that we have in our ward.  She accompanies EVERY time we call her if she isn't working.  She is incredible.  And her sisters and mom and daughter.  It is a beautiful family.  And the cake was delicious!

We have transfers this week, asi que vamos a ver que pasa.  I feel like I might be heading out of Aldo Bonzi, but we wont know until tomorrow night, and then transfers on Wednesday morning.  Come what may, I sure love Ciudad Evita!!

Miguel showed up to church last week in a white shirt and tie and was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood!  We talked with him this week and he said in awe with a smile on his face, "I just still cant believe I have this authority."  Next Sunday he will be passing the sacrament.

I love to hear about your own missionary experiences and Christ-like examples as you shower people with love.  Keep inviting and keep praying.  This is God´s work.  "This is real life" as Elder Holland said when he came to talk to us.  "This is as real life as life can get."  Bringing peace to weary souls.  I love you and am so grateful that Heavenly Father is looking after you.

LOVELOVELOVE!!

Hermana Peterson 

My Birthday surprise cake!

The greatly anticipated Nicolo!