More Pics from 12-17-15

December 27, 2015 NEW YEAR, NEW COMPANION, NEW AREA

Yessica, Eduardo, and little baby Mauro

Elder Tingy and I on Christmas morning.

My First Christmas Skype

Elder Soto and I goofing off

 Well I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and were able to enjoy the cold weather! Here it is super hot and getting hotter everyday! Today it is supposed to be about 93 without the humidity which makes it at least 100! No one has air-conditioning here and sometimes it is hotter inside peoples houses than in it outside, it´s terrible! Even though it is super hot, my Christmas was amazing! Although I got a few presents, it was so good to focus on giving this Christmas and seeing the joy that comes from giving. The best Christmas present that I did receive was the opportunity to talk to my family on skype! It was so awesome to be able to talk to them and see their smiling faces! It honestly was the fastest 40 minutes of my life but at least I was able to talk to them for that long. Another great opportunity I had this week was to be able to go to the temple! The temple here in Buenos Aires is almost exactly the same as the temple in Boise which is super cool! I hope you can all remember how important the temple is and be able to attend a little bit more this new year than you were able to this year. I know you will see the blessing for your efforts in making it to the temple.

 My new year comes with a new area and companion! I found out this morning that I am being transferred tomorrow to Chivilcoy! I don´t know much about Chivilcoy other than that it is campo (farmland), at least more than where I am now. It is the furthest area away from the mission office, four hours in a bus. I am not excited about the bus ride but I am super excited to be able to get to know a new are and lots of new people! I know I am needed in Chivilcoy and know that this transfer is going to be a great one! New area, new companion, new year, new goals! I have been starting to think of the goals I want to set for this upcoming year so that I can become a better missionary and person in general and even more strengthen my relationship with Heavenly Father. I hope you all have been starting to think of some new years resolutions for yourselves as well and this week are able to make some great goals for this upcoming year of 2016! That is my challenge for this week: Make at least one goal for this new year that will help you be a better person and more like Christ. Make sure that it a SMART goal and one that you are actually going to keep. That is why I am only asking you to make one, so that you are able to take some time on this goal and actually think about what you are lacking and how you can be better. Make specific goals that are attainable and ones where you are able to measure your success. If it is a good goal it won´t be easy. It will challenge you but that is good for you. I know as you take time thinking of your goal and your resolutions for this new year at least one good goal will come to mind. Write this goal down somewhere where you are able to see it everyday to help you remind you of it and be able to accomplish it! I know that you will all be able to accomplish your goals and it will bring you so much joy to be able to accomplish your goals. Remember, you can do hard things! 

 I want you all to know how much I miss and love you all! Especially during this time of year with all the holidays and celebrating. I have missed you all a lot but know I am exactly where I am supposed to be! I hope you all have a great week and a great new years! Can´t wait to hear all about them! Look forward to seeing some pictures of me on a bike next week with a sweet helmet on! Until next week!

Love, 

Elder Petersen

Christmas 2015!

Family and friends,

 Merry Christmas!! I hope you are all continuing to enjoy your Christmas seasons, the company of family, and the time off school. Most of all, I hope that you are remembering why we celebrate Christmas and the true meaning of Chrsitmas! I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ and for this time I have as a missionary to be one of His representatives. I hope that this year we can all carry the spirit of CHRISTmas with us past the Christmas season and remember our savior Jesus Christ all the time, not just when we celebrate His birth. I can promise you that as you do this and do your best to remember Him and try your best to be like Him you will be blessed beyond compare and be able to feel more of His love because He has so much of it for each and everyone of you! I found a quote I wanted to share with you all in a book I have been reading and it goes like this; "When you find yourself discontented because what you expected did not come to pass, you can easily become unhappy- not because of any external condition but because of your own preconceived notions. When you dispel that concept you will find that not only are you able to  be happy, but by becoming free of the false expectations that you previously deemed essential for your happiness, you also become liberated". At first I didn´t really understand what this was saying and it didn´t mean as much to me as it does now. After slowing down and taking time to comprehend what I was reading I found the true meaning of what this is saying, at least for me. Not everything is going to go our way. We are not going to breeze through life without any trials. Life is hard and often times things are going to happen that we don´t want and also thing that we want to happen aren´t going to come to pass. So what do we do when this happens? First off, we have to keep a positive attitude and always keep moving forward no matter what happens. Secondly, we can´t expect anything to be given to us. If we want things we have to work for them and do everything we can to make them happen. For me, this is what this quote is saying. We are obviosuly going to be sad when we don´t get what we want. We have to get over it and not expect anything from to be given to us and only work hard for what we want. The quote ends like this; "Remember happiness is not in obtaining what you want but wanting what you have". I thought this fit very well for this week of Christmas! Yes, I hope that you all get everything that you asked for for Christmas, but we have to remember what we already have is enough. We have so many blessings from Heavenly Father and we will receive even more as we focus on what we have already and sharing our blessings with people who are less fortunate than we are and trying to become more like Christ everyday! My invitation for this week is to enjoy this special time of your with your family and friends and to thank the Lord for all that you have and be content with what you have and what you get if you don´t get what you want! The second part of my invitation is to read Moroni 10;18 in the Book of Mormon that talks more about gifts. I know you will be blessed as you do these things and that is what I want for you all! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and know how much I love and miss you all! I am super excited to talk to family on Friday and hope you all make the most of the time that you all have with yours! Thanks for all that you have done for me and your examples to me! Until next week! Feliz Navidad!

Love, 

Elder Petersen

"White Christmas" 12.14.15

 I am very happy to tell you all that I am going to have a white Christmas here in Argentina, the best kind of Christmas´s! Although it is not the white Christmas I am used to, it is still pretty great! This white Christmas is because of all the white shirt´s and my white skin! Even though it is the hottest it has been since I have been here I am still pretty white haha You all know me though so that is not much of a surprise! I 

haven´t gotten sunburnt at all yet, so I am counting my blessings! Luckily my white shirts are still pretty white too! Washing all your clothes by hand is a lot harder to keep everything clean and looking nice but I am sure you can all imagine my ocd self spending lots of time scrubbing my clothes getting all the little spots out! Having this opportunity to wash all my clothes by hand has helped me realize how blessed I really am and how blessed we really are! I hope during this Christmas season we can all remember how blessed we really are and worry a little bit more about the presents that aren´t wrapped this year. I have enjoyed this Christmas season being able to help the people here in Argentina feel more of the love of Jesus Christ. I am so very grateful for this opportunity the Lord has given me to spend two short years of my life helping people have happiness for the rest of theirs! I have been focusing a lot these past couple weeks in doing everything I can to help the people here in any way that I can, even in the smallest of ways! I love seeing the increased joy not only that they have but also that I have as I focus all my time and work in serving others in any way possible. I know that as you serve others, not only this Christmas season, but all year you also will have this increased happiness in your lives! My challenge for this week is for all of you to go caroling! I miss being able to go caroling and sing Christmas song´s to neighbors and friends and see their smiles when they open their doors to carolers. No matter how bad your voice is or how much you dislike singing at least go caroling to one house this week! If you are really in the Christmas spirit, take some cookies with you and give them to the people! I promise you will be more happy this Christmas and it will not disappoint! Going along with this challenge during the month of December to be kind to everyone I want to share with you all a little quote I found. "Every good deed done to others creates a force of energy that perpetuates itself through time and eternity. We may never receive a word of gratitude or recognition for our efforts, but what we send out will come back to us in some form as naturally, as perfectly, and as inevitably as an echo to the sender. Perhaps not as we expect it or where, but sometime, somewhere, somehow, they will come back". I loved this quote and wanted to share it with you all to help you realize that it doesn´t matter what we get in return for being kind. The happiness we receive from just being kind will suffice! I had a really good friend teach me this lesson and it really helped me. We give gifts not to get one back but to demonstrate our love. I hope you can all demonstrate your love for other´s this Christmas just as hrist did his whole life! Know that I love and miss you all so much and hope you are all doing great! Until next week!

Love, 

Elder Petersen

Elder Tingey and Elder Petersen Goofing around. 

Jones´ baptism! 

My First Package

A picture Emanuel drew for me haha.

This is Emanuel! He is so awesome! He also thinks Elli is pretty cute haha I told him I would set them up! The problem he is pretty short..

Two Months in Argentina 12.7.15

Well I now have two months in Argentina and time has passed crazy fast!! I just found out the cyber is closing so I don´t have much time but I want to tell you all how much I love and miss you all and challenge you during this Christmas season to help at least one person feel more of the love that Christ has for them! I know you will be blessed as you do this! Sorry for such a short email! 

Love

Elder Petersen

Three Months Down 11.30.15

I guess Elder Petersen loves to receive "real" mail. Thanks Elda! 

Well fmaily and friends I have now been gone for over three months! My three months was on thanksgiving as well so it was a party here in Argentina for me! Although the food was not as good, I had a lot less of it, and I was not with all of you, my thanksgiving really was amazing! I hope you all know how thankful I am for you all and for all that you have done for me to get where I am at today! I also hope you all know how grateful I am for the wonderful gospel we have and for this time the Lord has given me to serve here in Argentina! I know that I was called here for many reasons and everyday I am finding out new reasons why I am here, even on the hard days! Heavenly Father has blessed me so very much during my time here! Especially with a love for the people here and the country and the ability to speak so well! Everyone here tells me how well I speak for the short time I have here which I always tell them is not because of me but because of the Lord! Everyday I learn something new and still have a long way to go but I absolutely love costellano!! I think I have been so successful because I focus on being simple and using what I know. That is also my challenge for this week, simplify things. We were challlenged by our Mission President to simplify the way we teach and I have seen the success from simplifying things in just one week! This week we had 14 new investigators which is a lot for only one week! 8 of them came from this Thursday, thanksgiving! It was a great day! I know as you simplify things in your lives and cut out the things that are unneccesary you will be blessed and have more joy in your lives! Sorry I don´t have a lot this week again! I love and miss you all and hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Petersen

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

Last Pic with Elder Jarvis before we went home.

Me with other "refuerzos" (new missionaries) that came with me. They are awesome!

My new companion, Elder Tingey!

Jones and Yemi!!

Dear family and friends,

 First of all, happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you all are enjoying your time off from school and continue to have a great week and a great holiday! I will not be havinbg Thanksgiving because they obviously do not celebrate that here so eat an extra plate of food for me! Especially some yams! I am going to miss those and mashed potatoes so eat lots of those! As you all know, Elder Núñez left me and went to a new area so I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Tingey and he is awesome! He is from Arizona and has a little over nine months in his mission. He did not know that he would be finishing my training (the first 12 weeks in the field we have a special training we have to do) and found out this week. He has never trained before but is an awesome missionary! I am super excited to learn from him these next 6 weeks! I am still in the same area which I am super excited about because I love Loma Hermosa and all the people here! We didn´t have a super successful week but that is okay! We ended the week really well and are going to have a great week this week! This past weekend we had stake conference and it was amazing! We had a member of the Quorum of the Seventy there and President and Hermana Robertson as well who all spoke. It was super good and I learned a lot! They challenged us to read the book of mormon before the next general conference in April. This is my challenge to you all as well. No matter where you are in your reading, start over and read it cover to cover before the next conference! I know you will be blessed as you do this with many blessings! I am going to be doing it with you and know you can all do it! Not a lot happened this week so I don´t have that much to write. The only thing I have to say is no matter how bad things get or how hard things are, keep moving forward! Things will always get better and there is always a bright side. Whatever you are going through right now in your lives, remember to have a positive attitude and keep looking for the blessings you have and all the good things in life and things will start to turn around. You will notice more blesings and be more happy! I guess I have two challenges this week.. Try everyday to recognize the blessings you have and to no matter how bad things are to focus on those good things. I know you all know how positive I have always been and how easy it is for me to be positive but I know you all will be blessed as you do this, no matter how hard it is! Sorry this email is so short, not a lot happened this week. I love and miss you all very much and hope to hear from you soon! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Petersen

Argentina Week 6 11.16.15

Family and friends,

 I had another amazing week here in Argentina and am still loving it here! I am so lucky the Lord has given me these two years to serve him and serve these amazing people here! I love each and every one of them and am so grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed me to have just a fraction of the love that he has for each and every one of them and all of us! Saturday we had Yesica´s baptism and it was amazing! Her husband was able to baptize her which was an amazing experience for him and her. I have loved seeing the change of heart in both of them and the joy they have from living the gospel of Jesus Christ and following His commandments. The joy I have from seeing investigators progress is far greater than I ever thought I would feel before my mission and I love seeing the happiness they have from strengthening their relationships with Heavenly Father. Yesterday was really weird! We had to go the mission office to take Elder Jarvis there because he leaves this week and I had to say goodbye to him. Ever since then we have been in a trio with Elder Núñez and Elder Vance, which is different but not bad! Last night I had my first transfer call and found out that.... I am staying here in Loma Hermosa!! I am so excited to stay here at leat one more transfer because this are is amazing and will always have a special place in my heart being my first. The bad news is that Elder Núñez is leaving me! He is going to be a zone leader in a different zone. I do not know who my new companion will be and I am a little nervous to find out but I know he will be great whoever it is and I will love him! I find out tomorrow so you will get to hear all about him next week! Earlier in the week I had tramites again to be able to live here legally basically. While there I had a prompting that I needed to talk with this girl. I didn´t do anything about it and really didn´t think much of it. About 20 minutes later I got the same prompting. I told the other missionaries that I was with that I was going to do it but after about 10 mintues I still had´nt. The feeling came so strong that I had to talk with her! I went and sat down next to her and just started talking! It turns out she is from France but is attending school here in Buenos Aires. She has been here for four months and loves it here just like I do! She asked what I was doing here and I was able to explain what we do as missionaries and stuff like that. Just as we started to talk about the gospel her name got called to get her paper so she could leave. I was super disappointed when this happened! I knew this was because I waited when I had the prompting. I didn´t want to feel this way again so I have decided that as soon as I get a prompting or a feeling to do something I am going to do it right away! That is my challenge for you all this week. If you get a prompting that you should do something, do it! And do it right away, don´t wait! I promise this will bless you in your lives and I would really like to hear about the experiences you have with this. If you have one please tell me about it next Monday or any other Monday! Weird thing of food from the week: Blood sausage! Actually, it was really good and I didn´t mind it! The food here is actually really good but I am not picky and like basically anything which helps! I haven´t spilled anything yet either which is also good! haha I hope you all are doing great and know how much I love and miss you all! Have a great week and we will talk next week! 

Love,Elder Petersen

Argentina Week 5

Well this week was full of lots of firsts! I will start at the beginning of the week. On Tuesday I had my first division which is where we switch companionsfor a day and learn from them. I went with Elder Vance in my area. He is in the same ward and we live in the same apartment so it wasn´t really much different. One thing I liked that he did that I have now done is carry around a book of mormon in my hand always when I am walking. I never did that before I just had them in my bag but I really like doing this! It makes it easier to contact which we have made more of a focus for this week. A contact is just walking up to someone and start talking to them about the gospel. It isn´t very easy but it is a great way to find investigators! I also had another division on Friday and this was my first division where I left my apratment and stayed at another apartment. This one was with the zone leader too. It went super well and I learned a ton from him! He told me how much better I am doing than him after his first month here and invited me to keep pushing forward. Just because I am doing so well, don´t get comfortable and always go the extra mile in everything. Knowing me you all already knew that was my plan and I don´t want to be anything but the best. There isn´t really a way to measure being the best missionary but as long as I feel like I am giving everything I have and doing everything I can is all that matters and that is what I have been trying to do and what I am going to continue to do! Wednesday I had my first wedding here! Yesica and Eduardo got married!! Yesica can now get baptized and is getting baptized this Saturday which I am super excited for!! Her new husband Eduardo is going to baptize er as well which is something incredible! I have seen such a change in them just from the short time I have known them, it is amazing! I had tramites Thursday which is where I become a legal citizen here in Argentina. I didn´t really know what was going on and just kinda did what I was told. I have to go back this week to finish it and I know everything will work out and be fine. Saturday was my first baptism!! Camila , who is 9 years old, was baptized. It was an amazing baptismal service and the spirit was so strong! She know has the holy ghost as a constant companion which is an amazing blessing and something that has helped me so much in my life! Yesterday I had to translate from spanish to english what was  being said during sacrament meeting to the two Nigerians here! It was very difficult but an incredible experience for me! It actually is weird teaching in english! I know that I nwas only able to do that and to speak and understand as well as I do through the power of Heavenly Father and the gift of tonues! I also had my first pizza delivered this week which was actually really good, but nothing like the states! The food is pretty good here though! I had my first asado which is like a barbaque and it was amazing!! I had my first weird food here, intestine, which was surprisingly super good! I also had my first factura this week which is like a pasrty dessert kind of thing they have here and that was also really good! Sorry this email is kind of all over the place! An hour and a half flies by when I am trying to email and I want to email as many of you as I can and answer all your questions so I do my best but sometimes I don´t make sense and I am very sorry for that! As of last week I have over a month here in Argentina! It is crazy how fast the time is going by! I am still loving it here and love being a missionary! I hope you are all doing great and know that you are all in my prayers! Love and miss you all! Until next week!

Elder Petersen

Argentina Week 4

Hello family and friends! I hope you all had a great halloween and also a great week! I learned that they do have halloween here but it definitely is not the same as back home! Only a few little kids were dressed up and no one really goes trick-or-treating. People just get together with their families and friends and have little parties which is kind of like home. It made me miss and think of you all and all our family parties and get togethers that are always so fun! I had another great week here in Argentina and had some cool experiences! Today, being the first day of the moth, we had to go to Billinghurst to the bank to take out our money for the month. We did not want to have to cook today so we decided to get something in the city and got McDonalds! It was the first time I have had mcdonalds in a long time! It definitely isn´t as good here as it is there and it is a lot different! It was wierd ordering in a different language and was pretty difficult but I did it! We had a cool experience there as well! Two workers there came and asked us if we would like to donate some money for a charity here and were definitely trying to flirt with us to make sure we would which was really weird! haha but we said we would if they would take a little card, which they did. We gave them 5 pesos and got to write our names on the little hand they put up on the window. When they were about to leave I felt like I should give them a book of mormon. I don´t ever bring anything when we go to Billinghurst because we have to take a train and a bus and we don´t really need anything but this time I brought my backpack with the book of mormon´s. I am so glad I did because I was able to give them both one for them to read! It was a very neat experience and I really hope they read it and feel of the peace and happiness that comes from reading. They are not in our area but hopefully they will talk to the sister missionaries who are in their area! I had another amazing experience yesterday! We were on our way to pick up an investigator who is 80 years old and can barely walk. It took us over an hour from when we picked him up to when we got to church. He is such an example to me and such an amazing man! This isn´t even the best part of the story! Walking to the bus stop two black guys stopped us and started asking us about churches here in english! They are from Nigeria and have been here four months and have been trying to find a church that they can go to where they can talk to someone in english because that is all they know. I was able to talk to them and they came with us to pick up our investigator and stayed with us and went to church! I figured out that they have been living with people who are of the traditional religion and sacrifice goats and cows all the time and do really weird stuff! These two guys hate being there because they juist feel terrible and are not happy. That morning they prayed so hard to be able to find the true church where they would be able to worship the way they would like and know. They are christians and we explained that we are too and they were so happy to hear that! Elder Jarvis, Elder Vance and I were able to teach them during priesthood and we had an amzing lesson! Elder Vance translated sacrament meeting for them and one of them wanted to bear his testimony so he did that for him as well! It was so amazing! It reminded me a lot of the story of the restoration and of Joseph Smith! I am so grateful Heavenly Father placed therm in my path and I was able to help them! I know this gospel will bring them happiness just like it has for me in my life! This gospelñ is true and I love you all! I hope you have a great week and know how much I love and miss you all! 

Love, 

Elder Petersen

Argentina Week 3

Well hello family and friends! Hope everyone is doing good and are enjoying the halloween season. I am not really sure if the have halloween here or not, but I guess I will find out. Today marks the two month mark for my mission! I cannot believe how fast time has gone! I feel like I was with you all not too long ago. With time going by so fast I have been making sure I make the most of every opportunity I have here and be the best missionary I can! The language is coming along really well! I get a little frustrated because I still don´t understand everything and can´t talk as well as I would like but I have to remember I have only been in Argentina three weeks! You all know how impatient I am but I am getting better! I just always have to remind myself that it is going to take time and for the short time I have learning the language I am doing really well! All the other missionaries here in my zone always tell me how much better I am than they were when they had the same amount of time as me. That is good to hear but it is still not good enough! This is where the patience comes in and I have to realize I have been so blessed to know what I already know and I know that as I rely on the Lord and work as hard as I can He will continue to bless me! Going along with this, we had divisions this week. This is where the four missionaries go out with four members in our ward and go on visits. I was so nervous to go out with someone from the ward and have to lead the lesson and do everything. I prayed so hard to be able to do well and not look stupid and guess what? It went amazing! We taught a less active, Juan Carlos Paz, who got baptized and has not been back to church since the day of his confirmation. I went with the Elder´s Quorum president Hermano Gomez and he is amazing! He was pretty straightfowrard with Juan and said you know you need to come to church and it solely depends on you. It was a good example to me of following the spirit to know when to be blunt and when to not be. I participated quite a bit and did well, at least I thought. At the end of the lesson we were asking for references from him and he said there was no one and exactly at this time a young man walked by and started talking to him. He shared some experiences he has had in his very difficult life and I was able to give him a plan of salvation pamphlet and bear my testimony to him. We now have an appointment with him tomorrow and I am super excited! I remembered to that Heavenly Father for this blessing and for his hand in my life! We often times only ask Him for things and forget to give thanks to Him after and I have been trying to be better at this! I had lots of first´s this week! I wore my coat for the first time because it was freezing cold here and then the next day was super hot! The weather here is crazy! I had my first phone conversation in Costellano with Eduardo, the future husband of Yesica, my very first investigator! It was only to confirm an appointment time but I was still super nervous but it went well! They are super nice and understanding about the language which is very nice! Eduardo´s younger brother, Gonzalo, is awesome and we talk soccer all the time! I am so gratefulr for FIFA so I can know a little bit about the soccer world haha! He loves when I talk in english and asks me to do it all the time, it´s pretty funny! I also gave my very first blessing yesterday! It was to a little girl Lucia Lagos who has been pretty sick recently. It was right after church and it was with all four of us elders. Elder Núñez asked here who she wanted to give her the blessing, she looked around at all of us, and chose me! I was so scared but I really wanted to do it! I talked really slow and had to correct a few things but it went really well! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to give priesthood blessings and bless the lives of others! I also got my first haircut! Sebastian, an investigator of the other missionaries, cut it for me and did a really good job! He has his own shop and it was almost like getting a haircut from mom back home but not quite as good obviously! I will send a picture! Overall it was an amazing week and I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to live in Argentina and to teach the people here about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I have already seen how it changes peoples lives, it really does and it is so amazing! All of you are in my prayers and I hope you know how much I love and miss you all! Until next week!

Love,

Elder Petersen

P.S. If you would like to send me a letter you can to this address:

Cartas:

C.C. No. 92
1702 Ciudadela
Buenos Aires
Argentina

Paquetes:

ALL Packages: La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos
de los Ultimos Dias
C.C. No. 92
1702 Ciudadela
Buenos Aires
Argentina

Argentina Week 2

Elder Hamilton and Elder Petersen at the MTC.

Elder Vance, Elder Jarvis,  Elder Petersen and his companion Elder Nunez.

AT the Cyber Cafe.......

Hello family and friends! I am sorry for my short email last week and hope to make up for it this week! To start off I want to talk about Argentina for  a little bit! I absolutely love it here!! It isn´t necesarilly the prettiest place and it doesn´t smell very good either but it´s perfect to me! It smells bad for lots of reasons. 1. Everyone smokes here! 2. Everyone puts their trash wherever they want to. 3. There is dog poop all over the place! Yes, there are stray dogs and just random dogs everyehere we go! They often run in little packs trying to find food or just lay down in the shade, but they usually leave us alone and we have no problems with them. I love the food here! We have milanesa a lot which is like chicken parmesean kind of but it is super good! I heard you get sick of it with how much we eat it here but we will see! They eat a ton of meat and bread here! I am going to get fat... Good thing we get to work out every morning or it would not be good! The members here are so generous and we always have meals! We have lunch here because that is their big meal here and sometimes we have dinners. Everyone after lunch takes their siestas so it is really hard to work from about 2-5 because everyone is asleep and no one is in the streets, it´s weird! Milk here is in bags which is a little weird to get used to but I still love it! How can you not love milk?! They also drink a lot of soda here! We always have soda or juice because we can´t really drink the water. It is kinda hard to get used to because I rarely had soda back home. My area is pretty far away from our apartment so we have to take a colectivo (bus) everyday to get to our area. The roads here are CRAZY! Motorcycles just weave inbetween traffic and everyone drives super fast until they have to slam on their brakes. I have already gotten used to it and am pretty comfortable walking on the bus while we are moving without holding on to anything! Which is a pretty big feat because the first few times I almost fell over! Although it is a lot different than the States and has been a little difficult to get used to, I love it here and there is no other place I would rather be!

  Now a little about my companion, Elder Núñez. He is from Peru and is 26 years old. He really is an amazing missionary and I am very lucky to have him as my first companion! He is a great example to me of charity, leadership, among many others! I hope to one day be as good of a misisonary as he is now! He also is a very good cook and has made lots of good meals and has taught me a little bit too. He is super funny and we are always laughing! It has been super good for my spanish to have him as my first companion!

  There are also two other Elders in our apartment with us, Elders Vance and Jarvis. Elder Jarvis is from Nampa so it has been super fun to talk about Idaho a little bit! Especially for him because this is his last transfer and he leaves in like four weeks! They are both super cool and I am so glad we share an apartment with them because it is nice to be able to talk in a little bit of english throughout the day!

  In just two weeks here Elder Núñez and I have three baptismal dates!! Yesica, Camila, and Selina. Yesica is amazing and understands so much already but she needed to get married before she could get baptized. Her boyfriend, Eduardo, is the son of a member in our ward but he is a less active. Because of Yesica´s interest in the church he also has started coming back to church and it is awesome! A miracle happened with them and getting married this week! We went with Yesica to the place to get the papers to be able to get married and they told here the only months they do that is in January or February. We were disappointed but waiting would be fine. She called Eduardo and decided to go back in. She came back out about ten minutes later and said that they could get married the first week of November!! We went back with her this morning to finalize and the date has been set for November 4th!!! This was so amazing! When we have faith in the Lord and sallign our will with His, He will provide for us! She is going to be baptized on the 7th of November and I couldn´t be more excited! We also have another baptism that day with Camila. Cami is 9 years old and is in a less active family. They all came to church yesterday for the first time in a long time and it was awesome! I sat with their family in church because Luisanna (Lu) who is 4 loves me! She doesn´t ever leave me alone and it is really hard to focus during lessons but we have a lot of fun! Hopefully Cami will be my first baptism because we are pretty close. Last lesson she gave me a little flower, it was super cute! As you can see I still love kids just as much as ever and love talking with the children here and getting to know them even though they laugh at my spanish haha! Our last is Selina. She is 15 and is the neice of an active member of our ward. He has a daughter who is the same age as Selina and they go to seminary together which is great! She has wanted to be baptized for a while now but her dad would not let her. He still has not for sure said yes but I think his heart is softening! I have seen so many miracles already and am so grateful for this time I have to be a representative of Jesus Christ! I hope you are all doing great! I love and miss you all! Until next week!

Love,

Elder Petersen

Argentina Week 1

Hello family and friends! Well I am finally in Argentina and I am loving it!! We will start with the flight.. The flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires is about ten hours and we flew during the middle of the night! I didn´t sleep at all and was really uncomfortable for most of the flight until I asked an Hermana in my district who had an aisle seat to switch me, that was very nice of her to switch me! I had a lot more leg room and it was a lot better! The flight was the first time I realized how fast they talk here! I was surrounded by Argentines! There was like over 50 missionaries on our flight to Argentina, it was awesome!! All of the other people on the plane kept laughing at us and talking about us. I could understand some of it but not all of it. What I did understand I just ignored. When we landed we were greeted right away by the AP´s and our mission president and his wife. They are awesome!! When we left the airport we went to the Argentina MTC to pick up the missionaries who are also in our mission. In total there were 15 of us! We went to the mission office and talked a little about the mision and then started working right away! We went and contacted in the plaza. I was with Elder Brockbank who is also a new missionary and we didn´t have very much success but we learned that we will be able to do this by watching other misisonaries who have been here for a while. The next day the whole mission got together because last transfer they read the book of mormon as a mission. They finished the whole book in just 41 days!! We had classes and lessons and other things for most of the day. I just wanted to find out who my companion would be and the area I would be working in for the next 12 weeks at least. I was so anxious! My companion´s name is Elder Núñez and he is from Peru!! He does speak english but we never really use english. It has been tough but this is what I asked for and the Lord gave me what I asked for! I know having a Latino companion will help me so much! I have seen improvement in my spanish in just this short little time! The area I am in is Caseros. I am in the district Loma Hermosa B and Elder Núñez is the district leader. Our ward is Loma Hermosa and I already love it! The people here have been so welcoming and kind to me! I have been a little frustrated because I can´t understand everything that they are saying and I can´t participate in lessons as much as I would like, but everyone has been super surprised when I tell them this is my first week here. That´s a good sign! Our area is very successful and we also have a lot of the members of our ward in our area. In our very first lesson we asked Yesica (Jessica) to be baptized and she accepted!! I was so excited and am so excited to see her get baptized! I don´t have much time today because of the holiday here today so I will tell you more and send pictures next week!! I love and miss you all but there is nowhere I ould rather be right now in my life than Argentina doing the Lord´s work! 

Love,

Elder Petersen

He Has Arrived!

Dear Family and Friends of Elder Adam Petersen,

We are writing to inform you that your missionary, Elder Petersen, has arrived safely in the Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission. We have enjoyed becoming acquainted with him and are excited to be serving together.

Thank you for the sacrifices you are making at home to have a missionary in the field. We know the Lord blesses and cares for the families of the missionaries.

Warmest regards,         

                            

President David P. Robertson and Hermana Julie Robertson

Ultima Semana en el CCM

Well I have completed my last full week in the MTC! I leave for Argentina in just a day and a half now and couldn't be more excited! Although I have never been to Argentina or know anyone there, I already love the people and culture! I feel like my Spanish is good here but I know as soon as I land in Argentina I will be in for a rude awakening! That's okay though because I know it will come with time. As I rely on and humble myself before the Lord he will bless and strengthen me. I hope you all were able to watch Elder Richard G. Scott's funeral on Monday of this week. I did not know he was a Mission President in Argentina! That was super cool to hear Elder Christopherson talk about his experiences with him in the mission field while serving in Argentina! One thing I learned from him is to never ask why we are going through something but to only ask what we can learn or what the Lord wants us to learn from our trials and hardships. This week Elder Lundell and I were able to listen to our very first lesson together in Spanish. Our teacher recorded it on his phone during the lesson without us knowing somehow. It was so funny to hear how bad we were at teaching in Spanish! We have come such a long way! It's amazing what we can do through the power of the Lord! Hopefully I will be able to send it home because our teacher is going to send it to us. Speaking of my teachers, I really have the two best teachers at the whole MTC! I am so grateful for their patience, diligence, hard work, and ability to follow and teach by the Spirit! We said goodbye to them yesterday and as we sang 'God Be With You Till We Meet Again' there was not a dry eye. We don't even know why we were crying! We are all so excited to finally get to our respective missions and couldn't be happier to start teaching real people and leave the MTC, but we are saying goodbye to the only things we have known during our time as Missionaries. Although it is a little bit scary, I couldn't be more ready or excited! I hope you have all been able to watch conference because it has been amazing! One quick shoutout to all the mothers reading this, present and future! Thank you for all your examples and your amazing ability to love and care for your children and for everyone! I am especially grateful for my mom and her example, guidance, and assistance in my life. Everyone please make sure to thank your mothers over these next few days for all that they have done for you! I would like to end with one more thought about weaknesses. Weaknesses are not sins. They are given to us by the Lord to bring us closer to him. He loves us so much and there is a purpose for every person we meet, trial we have, and blessing we receive. Remember to always rely on the Lord through all of those, in times of pain and in times of pleasure. In all our ways we need to acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths. I testify that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you and knows you all individually. He wants to hear from you and you can talk to him through prayer. I know as you do this you will feel His love and see His Hand in your lives! Anyway, I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of your examples to me! Next time you hear from me will be in 9 days and I will be in Argentina! Please keep me in your prayers this next week as I travel and struggle with the language! 

Con Amor,

Elder Petersen

Week 5

Family and friends,

 Today marks the one month mark for my mission! I have been at the MTC 31 days exactly and I am still loving it! The food has gotten a little old since it is the same thing pretty much everyday but I am grateful for what I have! Thank you to all those of you who have sent packages! I have more candy than you could ever want but I am saving it for our last night here when we have a fiesta with our district! Speaking of that, I have recieved my travel plans!! I leave in 9 days! Not this coming Monday but the next week! I fly to Atlanta and my flight leaves at 2:20 and then I will get to Atlanta at 7:50 Eastern time. After that my flight leaves at 10:00 from Atlanta and I get to Argentina at 9 in the morning. It is over a full 24 hours of travel because we report to the travel office at 8:30 here. Although that is not going to be fun at all, I am so excited to finally get to Argentina and start teaching and serving actual people! One thing this week that made me really excited for that was skype TRC! TRC is where we teach investigators who sometimes are members of the church and other times are real investigators. Our skype TRC was with a member who lives in Argentina! He had a Boca Jr's jersey on so I knew I would like him right away! I could understand pretty much everything he said which was super cool! Although I talk slow and pause sometimes in the middle of sentences to think, I know the people I have been teaching understand me because of the Holy Ghost. It is so cool to hear people (who actually speak real Spanish) tell you that they think your Spanish is perfect because they are being taught by the Spirit, not me.I am still so grateful for the gift of tongues and know it is not because of me but the power of the Lord! This week I tried to only talk in Spanish. It was really good at the beginning of the week and progressively got worse and worse but it did teach me what I can do to improve and showed me how much I actually know! It was a lot of fun to talk to people who don't know Spanish and try to explain in simple terms what we were trying to say because that is what we have to do in our lessons. I heard something this week that I absolutely loved! "5 words that are understood are better than 10,000 that are not". This hit me pretty hard! I realized that I need to focus on the basics and explain things simply so that my investigators will understand. Our teachers this week did a demo lesson for us so we could watch and learn what we can do to improve our teaching. I loved it so much! I have been so worried about my Spanish that I have forgotten how to properly teach! I need to again go back to the basics and focus on what I do know and slow down and teach by the spirit! It was a good reminder for me of how to teach and my lessons since then have been a lot better! I am so very grateful I have been blessed with a positive attitude because a lot of the missionaries in my District have been kinda down and hard on themselves this week but I haven't been stressed out at all and know that everything will be okay as I am obedient and work hard! The word for this in Spanish is tranquilo. It basically means chill, calm down, everything is going to be okay. I love this word and it has been very good for our District! We got a new District this week and one of the responsibilities of zone leaders are to welcome the new district and give them a tour. It was so fun to be able to do this and I hoped I gave the new missionaries some hope that they will be able to learn Spanish no matter how overwhelmed or worried they are right now! Anyway, I think that is all I have for this week! I love hearing from all of you so thank you for the e-mails and letters! I hope everything is going well for all of you! I love and miss you all!

Con amor,

Elder Petersen 

Semana Numero Cuatro

Hello all,

  It was another great week here at the MTC! I have now been here 24 days and leave for Argentina in 16 on the fifth of October, crazy right?! I am so excited to finally get to Argentina to start teaching and serving the people there even though I don't really now Spanish yet. The Spanish is definitely coming a long very quickly and I feel like I know so much and could get by being fully immersed but I know I will be in for a great shock when I really get there! I have been studying ahead of what we are learning in class because I felt like I wasn't learning much so I would go and try and learn it for myself and then if I had questions when my teacher actually taught the lesson I would figure it out. It has helped a lot and it is showing! We had to do a speaking assessment this week and when I was being evaluated the teacher said that I was progressing faster that most missionaries usually do and that I only had made a few mistakes. I was super excited to hear that but I know it is not because of me! The Lord is blessing me for my hard work and diligence with the language. I hope I can continue to progress at the rate I am progressing at now! This next week I am planning on only using Spanish from the time I wake up to the time I leave class which is at 9:30 Monday through Friday. I know it might sound crazy and is going to be really hard but I know it will help tremendously and it will surprise me how much I actually know! When I first got here I was told that the days will feel like weeks and the weeks will feel like days. I didn't understand that until this week. I can't really explain the feeling but days last forever and then I think about the last time I got to e-mail or take the sacrament and it feels like yesterday, it is crazy! I got my first haircut here and it actually looks really good! I was so nervous to get a haircut because my mom is the only person to ever cut my hair but they did a surprisingly good job but nothing compared to my moms! Another big thing that happened this week was last Sunday. They called a new District Leader so I was done with that but then Elder Lundell and I were called to be the Zone Leaders for our Branch! As Zone Leaders we are given a cell phone that calls only the front desk of the MTC but we have to have it just in case. The last Zone leaders happened to have an alarm on for 6 in the morning which woke us up early and of course I couldn't go back to sleep. I was mad at first but looking back it was funny and all in good fun! It has been such an amazing experiences getting to know the rest of our zone better! I love them all so much! District A in our zone leaves Monday and I have gotten pretty close with some of them so it is going to be hard to see them go but I am very excited for them! It is going to be so hard to say goodbye to our District. We have become like family over these past few weeks and each and every one of them has taught something I needed to learn and I appreciate their examples in my life! AS missionaries in the MTC you have the opportunity to do service twice a week. Our service is Monday and Thursday. It is always in the same building just different jobs. One of the workers in our Monday service building is from Westerville and we were actually born in the exact same hospital which is crazy! He is a huge Buckeye fan and gives me updates every week of the game which is awesome! We shut out Hawaii this week so that is pretty good I guess. O-H! With teaching so many lessons a week and even multiple in a day I have kind of gotten in a pattern of how I teach each lesson. When we were practice teaching with our District we were teaching about the Book of Mormon and after we finished we were getting feedback from the people we taught. A sister in our District went on to explain how We did a good job of teaching and testifying but not really relating how it pertains to us in our lives. We had the opportunity to re-practice and I opened up and shared what I really feel and some personal experiences in my life. She said after how it was perfect and that the spirit was so much stronger! It was a good reminder that we as missionaries teach people, not lessons. Another thing I learned this week is really amazing! The word for Gospel in Spanish is Evangelio. The root of this word is angel. This means that we as missionaries are angels teaching God's Gospel on the world today. We learn more about that in 2nd Nephi chapter 32, read it if you can, it is an amazing chapter! Also read the end of chapter 31. Or just read the whole thing since it is my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon! Overall it was another great week! Thank you so much to all those of you who have sent me letter, dearelders, packages and/or e-mails! It is so good to hear from all of you! Like Elder Hamilton said in his e-mail this week, it is like Christmas when we get letters here! Anyways, thank you all so much for everything you have done for me and for being such good examples! I love and miss you all and hope everything is going good for you!

Con amor, 

Elder Petersen 

Week Three

Hello all,
This week was full of up's and down's! I started this week off being sick, it sucked! We have an elder in our District, Elder Steadman, who we call doctor. He has all these medicines that he made me take and oils to put on my feet and throat. It didn't help at first but I got better after a couple days and am feeling fine now! I think I passed on the sickness to a few other Elders in our district because last night we gave three of them blessings. I had the opportunity to give one of the blessings. Being my first blessing I was very nervous but as I had my hands upon his head I felt the words come to me through the spirit. It was one of the most amazing experiences ever! I can't wait to be able to administer to the sick and afflicted when called upon throughout my life. Another exciting part of this week was for our Tuesday Night Devotional Bishop Causse of the presiding bishopric came and talked to us. His talk and his wife's talk were both amazing! They both talked about how our missions are going to be so hard but that we can do hard things! They shared experiences from their lives that were so cool! They also talked a lot about humility. I think we can all get better at that and that was my goal for this week. A low point this week was when an elder in our district received a letter from his mom about the passing away of his cousin. She passed away a few hours after birth. It was so sad but it was so great to remember why we are here, to share the message of the plan of salvation and that families can be together forever. Some of us got to share experiences from our lives that really helped him. We prayed and cried together, I love my District so much! Me and Elder Hamilton have different gym times so we can't play basketball together but I see him and Elder Bennett all the time! A cool story about gym time this week is that Danny Ainge's son is here and in my zone so I get to see him and play with him all the time! He is not as good as his dad but still super good! He is going to Utah State to play when he gets back and it was super fun to guard him and shut him down of course! Spanish is coming a long very well! We have kind of started to slow down which has tested my patience which I am trying really hard to work on! I just want to keep learning about stuff I don't know. I feel like we are just reviewing stuff I already know but it is very helpful for a lot of the other missionaries. We are teaching at least a lesson a day now, sometimes two or even three, it is hard but awesome! One lesson we had this week was with Gabriel who is really a member but is acting like an investigator to help us. This lesson he totally went out of character and talked about some of his problems in his life. It made me think how easy we really have it! After the death of his father and mother in law within a week his son was diagnosed with cancer. He told us he felt like a part of him was dying inside along with his son. He said how he prayed that he would be comforted and have the strength to comfort his family. When the doctor told him that his son was going to die he said he was happy. How could he be happy at a time like that? He was wondering the same thing but he knew it was because the love of Christ and Gabriel knew that because of the atonement Christ has felt the exact same pain he has. He knew everything would be fine. His son is doing great now and cancer free, amazing!  Gabriel, Elder Lundell and I were all in tears, the spirit was so strong. I am so grateful for good examples in my life like Gabriel and all of you for teaching me so much! In another one of our lessons we were teaching our teacher who was also pretending to be an investigator. We were teaching about Christ and talking about baptism because we were going to ask him to be baptized. Although he said no because he wasn't ready yet, we still left feeling great! We asked him to say the closing prayer and during the closing prayer he just started to cry because the spirit was so strong! We then had the opportunity to talk about listening to the spirit and how after our p[prayers we need to take time to be quiet and listen so we can have a conversation with Heavenly Father not just us talking to him. Overall it was a great week! I hope you all know how much I love and miss each and every one you! I love hearing from you and thank you to all of those of who have sent me letters, it's so nice to get actual letters which is really weird! Hope everything is going great for all of you!
Love,
Elder Petersen

This is my District at the Provo Temple last Sunday!