Tarantulas

I love you guys!!!!!!

I love being a missionary!!!! I love the people here in Corrientes. I love our little branch. I seriously feel so blessed with the people that I get to work with and teach.

This week we found Rocio. She´s awesome. Her husband is a menos activo but when we found them he was like, "Just this week I was thinking about reactivating myself." SO great. They both came to sacrament meeting. 

We can't receive packages or padded envelopes right now so don´t send them to me!! Letters yes! Packages no. #argentinaprobs

Tarantulas. In all of my missionary experiences, I feel like I´ve been pretty calm. All the scary or weird things that happen, I don´t think I´ve ever really had a "freak out" haha. All I have to say is. There are tarantulas. Here in Corrientes. And last night we saw two. IN the middle of the road. And all kinds of other giant spiders and gross bugs. I just wanted to let you know that living here in Argentina hasn´t cured me of my fear of spiders. 

It kind of reminded me of the time when mom and I were hiking to the "Y" and we saw that Tarantula and ran the entire way down the mountain... 

Bueno.

I have a testimony of this church. I know God loves us.

Read the talk, "I will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee," By Pres. Monson. SOOOOO good. I think one of my favs. "...the stronger the wind, the stronger the tress."

I love you all!!!! I hope you have an awesome week. 

Hermana Peterson

Happy Pascua!!!

It sounds like you guys are super busy these days! I loved all your updates and emails. It´s super funny to hear your stories from different perspectives and details. Love you guys.

This week in Argentina was Semana Santa. It was super great. Every one was super nice to us this week and we found a lot of people and families because no one was working. Whoot. 

Thursday we had almuerzo con la Hermana Mariana and she was showing us how to make this super great food (I can´t remember the name). All I know is that you have to make it with Carne...  it´s almost impossible to find that in a Argentina, durante Semana Santa, during the siesta and a holiday. haha casi todos los kioscos were closed or didn´t have carne because people don´t eat meat this week haha 

Mormon Misioneras asking everyone where to find meat...Bueno. 

It felt like we walked everywhere looking for carne, but when we finally found a kiosco that had some, while were we waiting in line (with the rest of the carne eaters of the week) we found Alejandro! It´s cool to see how God guides us to find his hijos.

Because this week was Easter, we had a lot of opportunities to teach and talk about the resurrection de Jesucristo. It´s such blessing that because Jesucristo vencio la muerte we WILL be resurrected too! And we are going to have perfect bodies! So cool. 

I was reading the talk por Elder Nelson se llama Decisions for Eternity. It talks about our bodies and how cool they are and how we should treat them with respect. And I love how he talks about the relation between our bodies and spirits. "How we use our bodies affects our spirits." 

We don´t wear or want skimpy clothes, just like we don´t want skimpy testimonies. Our bodies reflect our spirits.

He also talks about how right now, we all have weaknesses and dificultades. But we can change, because of The Atonement of Jesus Christ. We can develop attributos that we persistanly strive towards. We don´t have to stay the same people we are now. We can improve and become better everyday. 

I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that He is our Redeemer. Which means that we will be resurrected with perfect bodies, free from the sickness and the imperfections that come from living here on Earth. We can repent. We can mejorar. We can become the people we want to become and have the attributes we want to develop because of our Savior Jesus Christ.   

LOVE YOU!!!!!

Hermana Peterson

Homeless

Ramon got baptized this week. He´s the cutest. He received the sacerdocio and is going to bless the sacrament next week in church and maybe go to the temple on Thursday! He´s awesome. 

This week was super weird. haha

 I got to hang with Hermana Howard for a day or two! She´s my companion from the MTC. SO MUCH FUN. Her companion had to do a surgery so my companion was with Hermana Hext in the hospital for a couple days. Hermana Howard went to the hospital in Resistencia for some stuff, so I went with her there and then we came back to my area to work and plan for the baptism of Ramon. Lots of traveling. Lots of Remises and Buses.

The bus system here will never cease to amaze me. 

Ha. My companion and I were kind of homeless Saturday and Sunday because the other Hermanas were staying in our apartment and we weren´t allowed to be there while Hermana Hext was recovering. So we lived in the Capilla during studies and slept in Armenia with other Hermanas. Basically this week was a lot of traveling, talking on the phone and stress. :)  

I´m so grateful for companions. I keep learning more and more what it means to be yoked with someone else. I always learned about teaching the gospel two by two for teaching purposes and all that, but I know that we have companions to support us, help us, dar consuelo, and carry some of the burden that we carry. This week when I was without my companion, I really gained a huge appreciation for the companionships in our lives. The companionship of the Holy Ghost, the companionship and help from our Heavenly Father, our Eternal Companions and our families. God never leaves us without the companionship of SOMEONE. We are never alone.

Love you guys so much!

Hermana Peterson

Pictures:

My area from the bridge and taxi.
Ramon's baptism

Fan the Flame

Bueno. The photo is from the window in our apartment. 

I had like 800 things to tell you and a million stories. And inspiration and thoughts and I just don´t even know where to start so hopefully something makes sense. 

General Conference was AMAZING. I watched two sessions in Spanish and two in English. All of it was super good. 

The members here are so cute. The church building that broadcasts Conference is pretty far away for a lot of the members de otras estacas and a lot of people walked all the way to the church. In between the morning and afternoon sessions of conference, the members all hung out drinking mate and sharing food. Ramon came and he was just loving it. He was smiling so hard. 

The talk by President Bednar made me laugh super hard at the beginning when he was talking about the truck and the milk. It sounded just like a conversation mom and dad would have... or have had? haha 

One night we were talking to this kid and he was asking about our missionary lives and all that and how everyday all day we are missionaries here. He´s like, "The thing is, you have to be smart. Religion isn´t your life." Ha! I love Elder Nelson's talk about how religion shouldn´t be a separate part of our life. It also reminded me of President Monson's talk when he listed all the things we do as members of the church. And the thing is, our religion SHOULD be our life. 

On our way to conference, this guys stopped us, "You guys are Mormons right?"  

Ya.  

He´s just like, "I believe you guys are in error.  

hahahaha oh man. 

He pulled out his bible and was telling us that we are wrong and was trying to convince us of something. This is the church of JESUS CHRIST. And we are missionaries that have testimonies and respuestas de Dios por medio la oracion. It´s kind of hard to prove that wrong. But this experience reminded me a lot of a talk by Pres. Holland called "Fan the Flame of your Faith."

Sometimes people have arguments that seem like they make sense; sometimes we have doubts or questions about the gospel. We just have to rely on the things that we DO know. Whenever I have had doubts or my testimony doesn´t seem super strong, I always rely on the the knowledge that I have that God loves me, and that the Book of Mormon is true. For other people, it could be something else like the power of prayer, or that we have a living prophet. Whatever it is, "Fan the Flame." 

I'm so grateful to be a missionary! I know this is the Church of Jesus Christ. 

Love you all!!!!!

Hermana Peterson