Bendiciones, Cuenta y Veras (3)

Hermana Cuevas made a little grateful jar when we started here together in Bragado.  Each day we write why we are grateful and then on Sunday night we read the notes and laugh and smile and remember all the beautiful blessings that the Lord gave us during the week. It is a great way to build unity.  Each day I am grateful that God gave me such a cute companion who helps me be my best self.  Can´t ask for more than that.

We taught like crazy this week!  Our district leader always says, "Work hard! Work smart! Teach like crazy!"  And that is what we did this week.  It was a blast.  I feel so full of gratitude, I cant express it.  Heavenly Father leads us to wonderful people.  And the best part is that familia Sosa is progressing well!!  Yesterday Alejandro and Josefina, 11, went to church!  Gabriela couldn´t go, but next week, sí.  We are passing by tonight and we are going to eat brownies and have a lovely little Noche de Hogar.  We always leave their home smiling ear to ear because they are so wonderful.

Each Saturday Hna Larralde gives us lunch.  I love eating with her and her two daughters, Erika y Sofia.  They are 22 and 17 years-old.  We are trying to help Sofia attend church and each week she is closer and closer.  She is now praying every day and reading the scriptures almost every day, and just these two little thngs gives me a great amount of joy.  

We had a Relief Society meeting this week about Visiting Teaching and it was so inspired.  That program is essential in the care of the sisters.  I love it.

I am happy.  I am excited for divisions this week, staying in Bragado with Hna Adams! It should be good.

It makes me so happy to hear the good news from home.  Thanks for the endless apoyo.  I love you all with my wholentire heart!!

Besos,

Hermana Peterson

con los caballos

la Sociedad de Socorro

cuteness

Tranfers!(2)

Hermana Cuevas is my new companion here in Bragado!! And I feel privileged to have such a wonderful soul as my companion.  We are both 22, happy, easy-going, and excited to work.  I am tall, she is short, Im from the United States and she´s from Honduras.  We go well together.

Hermana Cuevas learned to ride a bike this week and it was an extra challenge because the bike is much too big for her!  But she´s a sport and every time I look back to see if she´s still alive she has a giant smile on her lovely face.  Hasta ahora, todo bien.

And I have good news-  Mariana went to church!!!!  We have been having the hardest time getting people to church these past few weeks, and yesterday when we went to Mariana´s house before church she was ready and waiting!  It made me so happy.  She is eighteen and was a referral from a member.  Her mom passed away four years ago and she lives with her dad.  Her siblings are all older.  She loved church and was singing every song and participating in the classes.  She left content.  She said she feels good about her baptism the 6th of September.  I love Mariana.

And Cecilia gave the Relief Society lesson yesterday! Can you believe it? Three weeks as a member and already teaching Relief Society.  She is a rock.  She taught so naturally and shared experiences about Jaz and we were all touched.  It was a beautiful domingo.

We are teaching lots of great families, and helping some return to church that havent been in a while.  The weather is stupendous and the work is marching forward.

Have a great week!!! I love you all with all my heart!!

Hermana Peterson

Hermana Cuevas y yo esperando el colectivo

!la bici!

oooooh. :)

amo el campo

con Hna Millet

Sunshine

Daniela and Abel went to church yesterday!!!  Let me tell you about them.  Abel is un abuelo that was baptized several months ago.  He lives alone and is very kind and cooks well.  Daniela lives a few blocks away from him and they are friends.  Daniela is 20ish.  They met together with the Hermanas for months and after five months Daniela decided to be baptized.  She loves Hermana Cleveland and Hermana Morales with all her heart and it was hard for her when they were transferred.  Abel has had some health problems and hasn't been attending and little by little Daniela stopped going.  She is part of a service group and they started working a lot of Sundays.  We have been trying these past two months to gain more confidence with her and help her come back.  Last Monday we went to the chapel and played basketball (yeah, it was a joke, but I tried), and on Friday we had a lovely lunch with Daniela, Abel, and his brother, Oscar.  It appeared to be the perfect moment, and they all agreed to go on Sunday.  And they all kept their word!!  It was a beautiful sight to see them all seated there, letting their souls be strengthened and healed by the power of Jesus Christ.  Our souls need that nourishment each Sunday.  There isn't any other peace like the peace of the sacrament.

Heavenly Father is leading us to some of His lost sheep.  This week we found so many people that were baptized years ago.  As we went to referrals, looked for people in the ward list, just talking to people on the street.  It was incredible! God really puts people in our paths.  That´s why opening our mouths and inviting people is so important.  So we are excited to start working with more members.

We had a super fun Noche de Hogar with the brother of David and his family.  I may have written about them a while ago, they have four kids and are married.  We had a lesson with them weeks ago but then they told us they weren't interested.  We organized this noche de hogar and they accepted and it was a blast.  We hope that in the future they can have more desire to have the same blessings David and Cecilia are enjoying.  Poco a poquito.

We are teaching lots of wonderful people right now.  It's just a matter of getting them to church.  Everything is super tranquilo in campo and sometimes it makes it harder to have firm committents.  We have an amazing lesson and they want to read, pray, go to church, accepting everything, and then we can never find them home again.  But we are praying and planning and the Lord really leads us to more and more and more of His children in need.  The work moves forward.

I started my last missionary agenda today.  It makes me feel weird when I look at it.  Time flies so fast!!  We have transfers this week, so we´ll see what happens!  Dun Dun Dun.

It is a gorgeous day in Bragado.  The sun is so happy to shine down on us.

I love you all so much and I ope you have an uplifting week full of miracles.  God love you, don't forget it!!

LOVES y besos,

Hermana Peterson

I loved this week:)

I went to 9 de Julio this week with Hna Morales and Hna Redford and we had a great time. They are in a trio right now so their other companion, Hna Hale, was with my compañera in Bragado.  9 de Julio is an adorable town and the people are delightful.  We taught families and learned more about how to teach to the needs of the people and got to know one another, and I loved it.

God blessed us with amazing people this week.  We were looking for a reference from a member and the direction was strange, so we strated knocking doors and asking people.  We finally found what we though was it, knocked, and a woman answered.  She told us that it wasnt the house of the referral but that she was his sister. He was in the hospital because their other sister suffers from depression and had taken a bad turn.  We invited her to church and she was receptive.  We ended up entering and having a wonderful lesson with her.  Her name is Soledad and she is lovely.  She has a son who is eighteen and her pareja that she's been with for several years. She is also taking care of the children of her sister while she is in the hospital.  We went back the next day with Hermana Larralde, an angel of a woman.  They were able to understand one another and take strength from one another´s faith.  Soledad accepted a baptismal date and has a lot of hope in the new life she can have as she begins to attend church and invite God´s power into her life.

We also saw a miracle with familia Carrano, a family that was baptized in December.  They had been offended by something that happened and didn't want to go to church anymore.  The members and Branch President have been praying for months to try and help them.  We were finally able to have a lesson with them that we have been planing for weeks.  We talked about the example of Nefi when his brothers tried to kill him and tied with up with strong cords.  Even though it hurt and they were in the wrong, Nefi frankly forgives them all that they had done.  The family was prepared, and after months and months of visits and prayers and phone calls from members and missionaries alike, they all went to church yesterday.  It was a very happy miracle.

I love you all and I am happy for the good choices you are making.  We must always be anxiously engaged in a good cause and do many great things of our own free will.  We are agents unto ourselves! We are free!  Let us choose to do as Christ would do. It is the happiest choice we can choose.

"Smile! You are a child of God!"

Hermana Peterson

It just happened to be Hna Passos birthday the day of divisiones!

happy 20!

a little bit of campo travelling.

noche de hogar

the zone

Burritos!! Thank you, Hermana Alldredge.

!Hna Morales Hna Redford!

A beautiful activity in the branch.

To give us all a laugh

Jul 28 at 2:59 PM

More Sunshine

We did divisions this week with...Hermana Passos and Hermana Alley!!  I love them so much.  I stayed in Bragado with Hermana Alley and Hermana Millet went to 25 de Mayo with Hermana Passos.  Hermana Alley was with me for a weekend in Aldo Bonzi, if you remember, which you probably don't.  I was with her her first few days in Argentina and it was miserable for her because her feet were all sore and blistery from walking so much.  But this time we enjoyed it much more.  We have both changed so much and we learned together.  She has become a great missionary.

David and Cecilia are just the best people I know.  We love being with them, but more than anything, we love seeing their constant progress.  After the wedding and baptism they were both so happy.  We walked into their house on Tuesday and David, who had had a hard time reading the Book of Mormon because he doesnt like to read much, announced joyfully,  "Im in 2nd Nefi!"  And Cecilia is in the Isaiah chapters.  And they are so adorable!  

Remember Aldo and Patricia?  That were baptized a month ago?  We are visiting them each week and reviewing all of the lessons.  Recently we have had them teach us the lessons-  it is great because they can practice teaching and we can see better which principles they need to review.  We went and they taught us the Restoration-de diez.  Last night we went and they taught the Plan of Salvation and it was fun.  Aldo has never taught before and it was all over the place, but Patricia was always there to reel it back in.  What a great companionship. :)  They are sharing the gospel with everyone.  They are so converted and eager to help everyone else receive the same joy.  We hope to be able to meet some of their friends and neighbors this week.

We taught Cecilia and David how to do a Noche de Hogar this week.  We gave them the assignment of the game and they went and bought a board game- we didn't have time to play it with them, but they said they enjoyed it after we left. ja.  David said there was a prize for whoever won, and that it was something I wanted.  When there wasn't time for us to play the game he said, "Wait, Peterson, you were going to take this home whether you won or not," and he pulled out a huge bag of facturas!

Facturas are an Argentine pastry and they are SO DELICIOUS.  I was asking about what David does for work one day and Cecilia told me he makes facturas.  I got all excited, when she told me not the kind you eat, the business kind.  Oooh.  I was disappointed.  Una factura can also be a bill.  How boring.  So David bought us the yummy kind of facturas and we enjoyed them greatly.

We had a great meeting with President Robertson on Friday.  Lots of changes, as always with a new president.  And we are excited.  The Lord really knows what He is doing as He directs this work.  We move forward, learning to depend more on the guidance of the Spirit and to work with all of the members.  We are meeting a lot of the members that aren't attending and trying to help them return.  I love meeting more and more of God´s children.  Each one is special.

Hermana Millet is still an angel.  We love working together.  My English is getting better every day, so thank her for that. jaja.  It was really quite sad before.  I learn from her quiet and firm example as she works with diligence and love.  

I am happy.  I love Argentina.  I love being a missionary.  I love Jesus Christ and all that He did and does for me.  The Gospel is the Way.

I love you all!

Hasta luego,

Hermana Peterson