Small and Simple Things

oh hey fam!!

Hope life is good!!! I want to hear about your missionary experiences!!!

This week, two of our investigators were supposed to be baptized. But right after the interview and the night before the baptism she broke some commandments. And her daughter didn´t want to get baptized without her mom. She was too scared of the water. Satan BACK OFF. So annoying. But it reminded me of something that Pres. Holland said when he came to talk to us. He talked to us about how Satan tries extra hard during changes in our lives or in "pass offs." Whenever there is a break in the chain of our lives, this is when Satan tries super hard to get us. Most of the time it isn´t enough for us to just stop doing something bad, but we have to fill in with good. Whenever we are trying to do something good, or whenever we are trying to change, Satan is gonna be there. SO we have to be ready!! And prepare. By doing the small and simple things. CADA DIA. Alma 37:6. 

Also, now that she couldn´t get baptized, she´s embarrassed to come to church. Another lesson to learn. It´s so much harder to fix bad things than it is to just not do bad things. 

The food here. SO GOOD. The problem is that people literally feed us enough food for like, 12 people. They don't eat dinner here. We eat lunch with the members instead of dinner. But it´s probably best because some days, the members feed us so much food that I am literally full, like full full, for two days. Good thing I love the food or it would be so much harder! The bishop's wife makes us these fried potato tortillas and milk and rice with cinnamon and vanilla. HEAVEN. I haven´t really had anything weird yet. Just this dessert stuff that is a super sweet jello thing wrapped in cheese. Ya. It´s usually dessert that I get nervous for haha. A couple of my friends have had some horrible food haha but I´ve been super lucky. 

I´m learning a ton about opening my mouth and letting the spirit fill it. It´s so hard, but my Spanish is getting a lot better in lessons. Sometimes, I literally have no idea how I´m going to explain something because I don´t speak Spanish, but somehow it always works out alright. Pray for Johanna! I´m super excited about her ;)

Love you guys!!! 

Hermana Peterson

Cheetah Pants

Fam!!!

Life is great!

We live 6 hours away from the mission home in Resistencia and had to go there twice this week. So we wake up at 2 am, get on the bus, have meetings and get home again at 10 pm. Longest days ever! That´s also why I couldn´t write yesterday :) Next week, I will be writing on Tuesday as well.

Anyway. How is everyone doing? How is the missionary work going in Provo, Utah?? If you are looking for something to do to help the work along, go out with the missionaries! We are always looking for members to come to lessons with us! Investigators need friends in the wards and friends that are members!! Maybe it´s different in Utah because everyone is basically a member, but it would be cool to hear about your experiences with that!

HA! So it´s always hit or miss if we will have hot water or not. This week though, we didn´t have ANY water at all!! We had the hottest day of my entire life. I was so sweaty and all I could think about was how much I wanted to shower. Sometimes God is super funny. Ya. Literally no water. So we went to bed thinking that in the morning the water would start working again. The water stops working every once and a while and we usually just have to wait a few minutes....  nothing. We traveled all day because we had to go down to Resistencia. Another super hot day. Got back at 10. STILL NO WATER. OK. Not funny anymore. You guys. I can´t even explain to you how bad I needed to shower. And how bad I wanted to. Anyway. We had to wake up early the next morning and walk to a member's house to shower and then come back. O man. Argentina. 

We have an investigator that will hopefully get baptized this Saturday!!! So cool, especially because she can´t read.  It´s kind of hard to have people read the Book of Mormon when they literally can´t. But I felt prompted during a lesson to promise her that if she tried to read a verse out loud everyday, she would learn how to read AND gain a testimony. No joke, the next lesson we were reading a scripture and she was reading right a long with us. MIRACLE. 

Also, I have this favorite investigator. I´m not sure if we are allowed to have favorites, but I totally do. Adela. She´s like 60 probably. She's a star. She asks the perfect questions, studies and reads and has spandex cheetah print pants. And the other day she gave us so much food from her little tienda. Nicest lady ever.

The people here. Amazing. People always said that the people here would literally give you the shirt off their back. SO TRUE. The nicest, most humble people. Always offering us water, always giving us food, always taking care of us when I know they are struggling themselves.

I´m trying to be more like this.

I love you all

Hermana Peterson

Attacked

Fam!!!

It´s so good to hear from you! I feel so blessed and I´m so grateful for all your support and love :) Thanks to everyone that prays for me. I really can feel your love. Especially this Friday I could really feel the prayers of all of you so thanks to who ever was praying for me, haha. 

Happy Birthday Abby!!! On the 14th!!!! I´m sad I can´t be there!!! But have the best day ever!! I love you!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

I always have a million things to tell you so I´ll just start from the top and hopefully I can tell you everything!

We are teaching this family with 10 girls. TEN. And they are crazy. I honestly get a little nervous when ever we go over there. The first word that comes to mind is Attacked. Ya. Attacked. Every time we go over there I get attacked with little girls hugging me and kissing me and holding on to me, pulling on me and playing with my hair and touching my face. TEN OF THEM. I always have to make sure I don´t have anything I want or need in my bag, too, because basically all the contents of my bag are used or pulled out! I have like a million pictures on my camera from the girls taking pictures that I haven´t deleted yet that are hilarious, so maybe if I can figure out how to send pictures, I´ll send you a couple. haha

Everyone here drives motos or little mopeds. You usually see whole families of four or five squished on them. HILARIOUS. Also, everyone just hangs outside their house and drinks Mate all day long. And people always have music blasting. It´s like a constant party over here. 

The other day we were walking over to a menos activas casa to do service and while we were jumping over this river thing one of my feet landed in mud and sunk like super far down so my whole leg and shoe was covered in mud haha. When we got to the members house, I think they did more service than we did because she cleaned up my shoe for me and we just washed down a couple chairs. But hey, they came to church on Sunday. HOLLA. 

Also, they have this annoying dog that always wants to sit on my lap. And it licks me. Ew. And my companion is in love with it. So basically, every time the lady isn´t looking, I have to two hand shove it off my lap. I don´t understand why it keeps coming back to me. 

Also, my companion uses her middle finger for everything. So uncomfortable, haha. I have to try not to laugh sometimes when she is teaching and pointing or counting with her fingers. Obviously, a difference in culture. ha

A member made almuerzo for us one day and it was super hot outside and we didn´t want to walk all the way back to our house to eat it, so as we are passing the house of an investigator that we have taught like once, my companion walks in and asks if we can eat our feast in their house. AWKWARD. I can´t tell if it´s just my companion that´s like that or the culture yet. Probably a little of both. These people don´t have a lot! They set up a table for us, even got out a table cloth and chairs. Then my companion asks them for two plates and silverware and I felt so bad. It took them a super long time to find any and then clean them once they did. AND this whole time they are just so nice and giving and asking if they can get us anything. 

Anyway. Their drunk son came home while we were there and kept insisting that I play the guitar, HA. He kept handing it to me and finally I pulled out the one and only song I know on the guitar. Our Song by Taylor Swift. (siempre) I guess that was my worldly thing of the week. Singing Tay Swift for a drunk guy in English. 

I love you all! I hope life is going good in the estados unidos!

Meg

A Million Things...

Ok, so I literally have like a million things to tell you. And there is no way I will be able to tell you everything. Especially because this keyboard is crazy!

Ummm, first off. Did I tell you Elder Holland came and talked to us? SO COOL. That was in Washington on Saturday before I left. He shook hands with all of us and then talked to us about missionary work. AWESOME.

Then, I had the longest days of my life. We traveled from Monday morning at 7:30 am to Tuesday at 5 am. Slept and then woke up, got our companions and traveled another 5 hours to get to our area. Rough Stuff. But it was so cool because the airplane to get to Buenos Aires was at least 3/4 missionaries.

I´m in Clorinda. It´s super close to Paraguay. We are whitewashing the area (which means my companion & I are both new to the area) and we are the first girls in this area. On the bus ride over here, the other American girl was telling me about all the bugs and the stuff here in Clorinda and was like, "they sent us girls here because they must know that we can handle stuff like that." I think I accidentally laughed out loud because that brought back a ton of my camping experiences...  

Anyway, ya. That´s basically what it´s like. Camping. Haha for the first couple days we didn´t have hot water so we used this thing that heats up water and a bucket.  My companion showed me how to wash my clothes here. We just use the bucket for that, too.

My companion is from Peru and only speaks Spanish.  The only time I hear or speak English is when I see the three other missionaries that speak English at church. They are in different branches, though, so I only see them for like a couple of seconds. It´s so nice though. It's like a little treat- someone being able to understand what I´m saying.

I guess if someone was watching my companion & me communicating it would be pretty funny because we have to act out a ton of things to be able to figure out what the other person is trying to say. Good thing my companion is super patient, because she usually has to say things a hundred times before I understand, haha. Esta bien. It´s good for me. I'm learning fast. 

I'm the designated pianist at church. HA! I don´t really know where to start on this topic. Normally, I wouldn´t be super nervous if I didn´t really know a song very well, because in America people just keep singing the song if the pianist fumbles a little because they know how the song goes. Here... well, first lets just start with saying that... I don´t know how to say this. Basically, the sacrament hymn was a DISASTER and I had to try super hard not to laugh. The singing was all over the place and my companion who was the chorister struggles. haha. She finished and sat down while I still had a whole line left of the song to play! Awkward. But it´s fun. I love it.

Also, Coca Cola is never going out of business. They have signs and chairs and stores and stuff EVERYWHERE here. 

I had on my little paper to tell you how cold it was here because the first night I was FREEZING and I looked like a goon walking around with my long johns and tall socks and a million layers. But it´s actually SO HOT. SO HOT. And it´s winter. So ya. So hot. 

My favorite scripture for this week: Mosiah 24. I can´t remember the verse. Maybe 13-16. But it´s about how the Lord doesn´t take trials away, but He strengthens us. I know that´s true. He doesn't take away the bugs and spiders, but He make us able to endure them :)

I love you all!! Miss you!!

Hermana Peterson

Clorinda, Argentina