When it rains, it pours!

Sept 29, 2014

Well, this week wasn’t as entertaining as last week but a good week none the less.

We had a lot of rain which made working pretty hard, it seems like the whole world here vanishes when there is rain.

All of the streets here are dirt so whenever it rains, it turns into mud or rivers, either way, it makes working and contacting hard to do and it’s a bit of a struggle to stay on my feet on the very slippery roads.  The other night it was raining really hard and there was a river on the road outside of our house so we decided to go play in it. Haha!  It was pretty fun.  Our house also leaks like crazy so we had buckets, pots and cups lining the floor, after a while we kind of gave up on trying to keep it dry because it was impossible.

The street by their house

Raining INSIDE the house!

Water + Ball = Fun!

We also tried to make our own empanadas which actually turned out to be surprisingly good, so when I get back we can have a fiesta and I’ll make the empanadas.  Speaking of empanadas, we have a really good friend here in Pedro Juan that sells us the best empanadas you can buy. We honestly go into his shop once a day and he always hooks us up.  We told him that the day one of us leaves that we are going to have a competition on who can eat the most empanadas. It’s going to be a tough competition because my Comp. can put em down,  but I think I can out do him.

We also had two baptisms this week for the ward.  We got to help out with that on Wednesday night. We got everything ready and set to go, I made two cakes, we cleaned the font and set up chairs but only about 10 people came because of the rain but it was still really great because we only ate one of the cakes and we took the other one home.  #win!  All in all it was a good day though.

Well, that’s pretty much for this week.  We will be working hard and I’ll find another story for next week. Haha!

I love you all and miss you like crazy!!

love elder petersen

Phychic?

Sept. 22, 2014

Well this week was a bit interesting. : )  I’m doing great here in Pedro Juan Caballero (my area) I’ve got a couple stories to tell this week but ill save the best one for last. ; )

First of all, last Pday we had a zone activity.  Our zone leaders (elder Correa and elder Allulema) are super chill and they planned a barbeque for us. It was pretty awesome.  We always play soccer, Americans vs. Latinos, believe it or not, it’s actually very even, given the fact that I’m no help at all.  If I can’t use my hands, I’m out!

Next, it rained like crazy yesterday and all the streets here are dirt, so. . .that means mud, and lots of it!!  On multiple occasions I almost slipped and ate face, but I didn’t!  It must be those athletic genes that I received from the best parents in the world (that was a shout out).  My shoes were caked in mud and we were soaking wet.

We also have the best empanada shop in our area and we eat there every day, and that’s not a joke, besides Sundays of course, because that’s the Lord ’s Day. ; ) haha.  Something that’s funny about Paraguay is when we have lessons with members on Sundays, they always go to the store and buy soda for us and we’re not sure if we should partake of it or not.  It might be a bad thing, but we partake. haha oops.

We also went to a lesson at a member’s house and they invited a couple of girls over about 25 years old or so and they asked us to take a picture with them and if you remember one of my previous emails, it’s not the first time it’s happened. Haha!  It’s okay because I feel like a boss and it boosts my self-confidence a little bit but when I get back its going to plummet because everyone will look at me and never look back. haha  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Alright, now for the good story.  We just got into a house by contacting them and we were talking to this lady who told my fortune (Paraguayan psychic?).  She said that my wife is going to be a gold digger essentially!!   Haha   I just laughed but she seemed pretty serious!  But that’s not the best part… her husband came out and started talking to us about an accident he had a work.  He led up with a gigantic story that took about 20 minutes to tell.  This story was about how he got cut by a saw, then towards the end of his story he stood up and unbuckled his belt.  Now at this point I didn’t know where he was going with his story but then he started to unzip his zipper. Haha!  At that point I knew exactly where he was going… he undid his button and dropped em.   Luckily, he had some tighty whiteys on (which were more like tighty light brownys, because nothing in Paraguay stays white for very long) and he showed us his, massive . . . scar that he got from his encounter with a saw. it stretched from about his mid-thigh to his knee.  It was pretty crazy, mostly because I didn’t really understand him, and then he dropped his pants. Haha!!  ah Paraguay : )

P.S. the entire time he was telling us the story, the lady was gesturing that he drinks ALOT. haha

Oh man, the things you see in Paraguay.  We saw a family on a moto (motorcycle) the other day and there were 6 people on it and the only person wearing a helmet was the dad!  Not one of the 4 little kids. just the dad.

Anyways, I hope that story holds you over til next week. I love you guys and miss you more than you know.  I’m thankful for all the things that you taught me and the opportunity I have to use the things that I have learned to improve the lives of other.  Thank you so much.

Love elder petersen

Long, hard week...

That's it! Not much to tell except that I'm hoping next week will be better : )  No pictures again...no working camera, can't get to the store.  Simon says...

I love you!

Website Countdowns

Bird suicide and Fungus!

I can’t tell you how fast the times flies out here.  You know what they say, time flies when you’re doing the Lords work, haha jus kitten I just made that up, but its good right??

Anyways, this week was pretty great and pretty frustrating at the same time. We found a golden investigator, rather, he found us. We had just got home from Santa Clara and we get a call from this guy named Walter. i had never met him before or even heard of him, but he said that he wanted to talk with us. and it’s not every day that you have people contact you, so we were all in. he came and got us in his little white Mexi car, if you will, and he took us to his house. Strange right??. Wrong, it was awesome!! And he speaks English. hahahahah YES!! But anyways, we went to his apartment with him and his girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese. We sat down to talk to him for a while and he said that he needs to change his life but he needs someone to show him the right way. Then he said that he wants to get married to his girlfriend. So I was thinking, "so do you want us to start filling up the font right now??" like this guy is awesome. So we meet with him again a couple of days later and he said something very interesting. he said " I don’t know what it is but i feel like this the what i need to be doing, and i feel like god is trying to communicate with me" crazy right?? haha wrong again!! it’s not crazy, its the spirit!! so we told him that it was god trying to speak with him through the spirit. and he said "i believe that what your are saying is true"!! so we invited him to church and he said he would be there. hahah yeah . . . . he didn’t come!! it was kind of disappointing but there’s still hope.

This week was full of Paraguayan lifestyle for me and my comp. we helped a family move into another house using and moto (motorcycle attached to a trailer) to move all of the furniture. haha it was pretty amazing. we had and oven, a queen size mattress, a twin size mattress, chairs, and all of the framing for the two beds. haha and to get to the other house, elder fielding and i sat on top of it all. i think the scariest part of it all was that a girl was driving. haha!! it wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done. 

Jeffrey and Elder Fielding

Moving...Paraguayan style!

We also woke up to a bird flying around in our room yesterday. It startled me (i was scared, I’ll admit it) so i jumped out of bed and that scared the bird so it was flying around the room until it met our metal fan. hahahha its really not funny, but it was sooo funny!! After coming in contact with our fan he landed on my desk i just let it chill while i went to take a shower. And when I got back elder fielding said that it flew back into the fan and landed back on my desk. ahah crazy!! so we walked back into the room and the stupid thing flew back up and into the fan but this time he didn’t land so well. as if hitting the metal fan wasn’t enough, the poor little guy got shot into the brick wall and came to his final resting place on the ground where he lies to this very moment.

We also have had the opportunity to teach some kids English every Thursday night. and they asked us to teach them how to say the names of animals in English. it was going great until they asked us how to say burro in English, hahah and you know i had to do it. . . . . yeah i taught that a burro is a jackass. It was sooo flippin funny to here little kids say jackass. I’m so stupid. hahah

I’m living it up here in Paraguay and im starting to understand more and more every day. It gets a lot better when you can communicate with people. oh and i thought it was really cool seeing dead dogs everywhere but its like an everyday experience now. oh i almost forget, i just about got hit by a car the other day but its no big deal. haha and one last thing, i picked my first souvenir here in Paraguay, fungus. yeah it sucks. it feels like I’m walking on blisters all day long. And i can’t really do anything about it. It looks like something is just eating away at my feet, oh wait. . . it is!! hahah but I’m not bitter.

Well that’s about down here in Paraguay.  Just living life. i love you guys so much and I’m counting down the days until Christmas when i can see your beautiful faces again. i love you and miss you!!

love Elder Petersen