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