Searching the Jungles

Hey there fam,

   This week was pretty dang good if i do say so myself. We have been exploring our area because my comp and i found on the area map that there are tons of little villages that need the good word of God.

    So thats what we have been doing this past week, searching in the jungles of Paraguay for people to teach. Fortunately, we have found several people that are really nice and want to listen but its hard becuase they only speak in Guarani: (a native language spoken be the villagers and old timers.  It's nothing like Spanish and it's learned only by memorization). 

    We were walking up a hill that leads to a little village about 2 hours away from the city and we were contacted by a man named Roberto. He told us that he had participated in the church for about 6 months and half, he had a baptismal date but. . . . he got into some trouble and went to prison for 2 years. Personally i think he killed somebody but thats just me. jaja he was really cool though and we set another baptismal date for the 30 of May. I guess we will see what happens.!!

     The other family that we found was absolutely great. The mans name his Sindolfo, yes its a weird name even for Paraguay. It was an interesting contact because he caught me taking a picture of his cow. jajaj sounds weird but youll see why when you look at the fotos... (unfortunately he couldn't get the photos to upload)  While I was taking the picture he yelled at me a told me to go over to him, I was kinda nervous for a bit but he was the nicest guy in the world and he just wanted me to get a better picture. 

      Im doing great here and I'll be hitting a year here in about a month! the time just flys.

      That's it for now but I hope you all have a great week!! love ya

Elder Petersen

"Another day"...

Family and Friends

Like most weeks we walked a lot for no good reason, then we would walk to our next lesson and they "weren't home" or "otro dia" (another day)... sometimes missionary work is hard! jaja

Cool thing about area is that there are about a thousand pigs! Still not sure why but there are! haha

 

It rained like crazy this week with a couple days of pure rain!! Rain = Missionaries worst enemy (besides Satan)!!

This email will be a short one because one of the sister missionaries needs to use a computer but everything is going great here in my area and my comp. is great as well!! 

     I love you all! have a good week!!

Elder Petersen

 

Letters between dad and Jeff:

Hello Jeff (Elder Petersen)

I hope you have had a good week. I hope that your new area and companion are good. Please tell us about both of these. We are fast coming up on Mother’s Day and are really excited to Skype with you. The first few months you were out seemed to go so slowly, but now it’s hard to believe you have been out ten months and soon it will be a year.

I wish you were here right now so that we could just talk and spend some time together. It is a little after 3:00AM and I am at the Payson Temple. I got a call about 1:00AM because the brethren assigned to security on the night shift never showed up. It’s pretty quiet, so I thought I would send you my next email. No I still do not like doing all-nighters, but it has been great to spend all this time at the Temple. Even though it is not dedicated, you really can feel the spirit here. There is so much excitement about the Temple. Within 36 hours of open house tickets becoming available, they ran out. They gave out 300,000 tickets in that time. I have been told that they intend to give out 100,000 more this week. There have already been some neat experiences where members and non-members have been touched by the Temple.

About the career thing for you. I have been thinking and started collecting job bulletins in a file folder for you. The job bulletins have all types of information about what the requirements are to get that job, education, training, experience, etc. That way you can read through them when you get home and see if any of them appeal to you. I know that you have been doing some growing, I saw quite a bit before you left and have seen a great deal more in your emails. So I am not 100% if your interests have changed, but for better or worse, I think you have the “public safety” gene in you. Sorry about that. I think you want to help people, I think you want to go to work every day and to some extent be able to do, see and experience different things. I think you would like to be able to get outside or work outside. I don’t think you really want to work in an office or a factory or something like that, unless I am wrong.

Sometime this winter Amanda and I are going to start working on seeing if we can get you into BYU, so that you can take advantage of the half tuition, you will still have to work some to put yourself through college, but why pay full price if you don’t have to.

I guess that’s all for now. I know that God loves you. He loves all his children more that we can imagine. I have am truly blessed that he sent you to our family.

I am so proud of you. I love you very much. Dad

Hey Dad,

I look up to you so much Dad. I saw that you always put family first and I've also seen how it effects the lives of those who dont. I would much rather have a happy family like we have. But I've also noticed that its going to be super hard. How did you do it? Honestly one of my biggest fears is having one of my kids fall and not being able to enter into the Celestial Kingdom with the rest of the family. Did you ever have these fears? What did you do have such a great family but still have such a great career. I know that there has probably been a few problems in your life but it sure looks like youve got it down! You have a great career and a great family. I am so blessed to have you as my Dad. I love you so much!!

Have a great week Dad. You deserve it!! I love you!!

Elder Petersen

 

Goodbye Villa Hayes, hello Santani!

Well family and friends,                                                          April 13, 2015

   This week was a rough one and a great one! I got changes and I left Villa Hayes! It was rough because I spent 6 months of my time in the mission serving the people there and just like that, I took a 3 hour bus ride to my new area! I can truly say that I love the people in the little town of Villa Hayes. It is a hard thing to learn to love the people you serve but it is even harder to leave them when you love them so much!

My Zone!

Burgos Family

Our branch President, he wife and 3 of their daughters

    I was called to serve in a town that sits about 3 hours away from the mission office called Santaní. My new companion is Chilean and his name is Elder Benavente. He is also my Zone leader so I’ll learn a lot this change!! I’m super excited to get to work with someone who has a lot of experience in the mission. 

    I’m going to send some fotos of the people that I grew to love in Villa Hayes and then I’ll send you one foto that sums up all you need to know about my new area!

Mario

    Last little story than I’m out… We contacted a guy who came to the street to talk us and all he was wearing was his jet black man thong!! #attractive ; )

fotos: my zone and a family that I helped reactivate

I asked Jeffrey if he needed anything in his next box.  At first he said no and then I got this:

Hey I actually thought about a couple of things that if you would be so kind, could send me in the next box!! 

The watch that dad gave me. I'm sure its in one of my boxes and my retainer!! I've got to get married somehow!!  

That boy cracks me up!!  : )

Conference Highlights

Hey there,                                                                                                       April 6, 2015

We actually didn’t get changes yet.  We will get them tomorrow morning after district meeting!!  I’m super excited but not, at the same time!!  I love my companion, my area and the people I serve with but its nice to change things up every once and a while!

To be completely honest not a whole lot happened this week but I’ll tell you the best parts!!

First of all, Conference and last of all . . . . . Conference!!

There were a lot of really great talks this conference and i learned so much!! 

Key points:

1: donate your fast offerings

2: get married

3: make babies (multiply)

4: get married first

5: real followers of Christ keep the Sabbath day holy

I learned tons more those are just my favorites!!

As I was listening to the Spanish translations of conference, the man translating the talk of Boyd K. Packer started to cough a little bit. Then he started to wheeze and gasp for air!  It skipped to the English translation for about 30 seconds than went back to the Spanish but it was a different man speaking!!  It truly sounded like the poor guy had a heart attack!! I hope he is alright!!

I hope you all loved listening to the living prophet and apostles of Jesus Christ, because I sure did!!

I will let you know how changes go this next week, but for now, Peace be with you!!

Love Elder Petersen