Chivilcoy 1-4-15

  Hello family and friends! I hope you all had a great new years and are getting back into your normal routines with the holidays winding down. I had a great new years and am ready for this new year to work on the goals I have set to become a better missionary, person, and most importantly grow closer to my Heavenly Father! I hope you all were able to spend some time thinking about your goals and were able to make some great goals for this year! Put them some where you can see them everyday to help you remember them!

  My new area, Chivilcoy, is awesome! I love the campo! It is a lot more like home! Everyone here is so much nicer, it is cleaner, and smaller. Our area is huge and doesn´t even have a limit on two sides! We have to ride our bikes pretty far everyday but I have been loving it! It is a good workout everyday and I feel a lot better everyday now! Luckily my legs haven´t been too sore yet either but we will see next week! My new companion is also pretty awesome! He is from Bountiful, Utah and I even know right where he lives! He has some pretty close friends who I know so that was cool to find out! He has been a great example to me and I am looking forward to learning from him this transfer! He is the relief society president, (district leader), but we only have hermanas in our district so that is what we call him! There are 6 missionaries in our branch which is super awesome! Our branch consists of about 60 active members which is small but not too small. They are all super great and are so nice! None of them could believe yesterday that I only have 3 months in Argentina which was pretty funny! I have been really blessed to be able to speak as well as I can! The only challenging thing about the area is the success. The area I am in with Elder Groen only had two baptisms all of last year and one of them was with Elder Groen just two weeks ago. Although it is going to be difficult, I know we are going to be able to have success and we will have as many baptisms this transfer as this area did all of last year! That is a pretty ambitious goals, I know, but I also know as we rely on the Lord and let Him help us all things are possible! My challenge for this week is to whatever comes your way, learn to love it! We are all so blessed by our Heavenly Father but there are always going to be difficult times and challenges that come our way. If we learn to deal with our challenges with a positive attitude and even learn to love them we will notice our blessings more and just be more happy! I know that is what we all want in our lives and I can promise that as we face our difficult times in life with a positive attitude and learn to love them we will achieve that happiness! 

  I love you all so much and hope you all have a great week! Can´t wait to hear from you soon!

Elder Petersen