I guess Elder Petersen loves to receive "real" mail. Thanks Elda!
Love,
Elder Petersen
Monday, November 30, 2015
Three Months Down 11.30.15
Sunday, November 29, 2015
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
Monday, November 16, 2015
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
Monday, November 9, 2015
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
Monday, November 2, 2015
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
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