Safety for the Sisters

Whats Goody Family and Friends,

    This week was alright. There is a lot of things that have been going down here in the office that fortunately or unfortunately, depending on which way you look at it, is a good thing. A lot of housing problems have been coming my way because a lot of the houses that we are renting are really old have molding problems. And mold can lead to a lot of health issues. So my job for the next couple of months is to get all of the missionaries into suitable houses. It will be a lot of work but it needs to be done and that's my job.

    Along with that, President and the area 70 are really worried about the security of our sister missionaries. So, another task that i have is to make sure that every sister missionary house has bars on the windows of their houses and some sort of self defense mechanism with them at all times. Its going to be a lot of money but the Church wants to best and most secure houses for our Sisters. This knowledge would give comfort and peace to all of those parents who are stressed and worried about sending their daughters on missions. The Church, at least down here in South America, is putting our number one priority to the safety of the sister missionaries. I would know because i´m in charge of it for our mission. I had a meeting with President McMullin yesterday about the very issue and he wants it all done no matter the cost.

    Another thing that i have been working on is moving out all of the houses that we are not living in anymore. We had a pretty fun experience with one the other day when we had to move out of a two story building with a very narrow and windy staircase. There wasn't enough room for the closets and the beds to go down the stairs so we had my homie come and help us gently lower the furniture off the side of the balcony. It was very interesting to see. hahah I snagged a few fotos. 

 

 

 

    On our way back from the move, we had to travel for about a half an hour at about 11 at night to get back home. Unfortunately we drove past a couple of corners where we saw several prostitutes. We did our very best to avoid them. After we were closer to home and in a better place for missionaries to be i thought a lot about it. I came to the conclusion that we are not working hard enough. Satan is working all day long and especially during the night when we aren't. I was thinking about all the time we spend sleeping while he is still working. It gave me a lot of amp to work harder than i have been. 

    I know that this is the true Gospel and that its really us against the world. We need to be strong and faithful. We will win. We just need to stay strong!! Satan aint got nottin on us!!

 

I love you all so very much!!

and Hermana McMullin went to the states and brought us back some candy!! woo hoo

Love Elder Petersen

A day in the Life...

Whats up family and friends,

    Well I hate to break it to you again but this week was just like any other. A lot of office work. We made it good though. Today, since nothing overly special happened this week, I will tell you a little bit about my schedule here in the office.

    We get up every morning and play some basketball and then Elder Vela teaches me how to stomp the yard. Jajaja If you don't know what I'm talking about go watch Stomp the Yard. Its super dope.

    After that we get all ready for the day, then if get the opportunity we sit down to study for as long as we can before having to be in the office at 10:00.

    What I do when I first get into the office is go over what I have to do and I find the most important ones and I try to get them done first. The hard part is figuring out which one is the most important. jaja  My days usually include working on renewing housing contracts, putting in Baptismal records and dealing with all the other little tasks that President has me do. I do this starting at 10:00 and we go until 5:00 almost every day. Luckily we have Maria that comes in and cooks us lunch that we don't have to spend too much time cooking for ourselves. she cooks some great food.  (I told him that I need a "Maria")

    We do our best to get out of the office at 5:00 but a lot of the time it is really hard because you can always find more and more work to do. But one thing that President always stresses is that we are first missionaries and second office Elders.

    If we get out on time we try and get several lessons in before it gets too late. If we are lucky we will find one or two.

    After working until about 9:00 or 9:30 we get to the house, eat something and get ourselves to bed so that we are ready to get up at 5:00 and play Basketball.

    Well if you didn't know about my Schedule before, now you know a little bit more.

  I gave my first district meeting this Wednesday and it went really well, I think.

    We also found a potential investigator while we were contacting the other day. We had a lesson with him that went really well. We asked him to be baptized on the 12 of September and he accepted the invitation. Now we just need him to prepare himself by praying and studying. We don't know a whole lot about him yet but he seams to be a pretty nice family man that could be a great addition to the ward we have here in Mburucuya. I pray everything goes well with him.

    I love you all so much and I hope that you have a great week!!

Love Elder Petersen

 I got some pictures of a building where we get our mail from. It looks a lot like Hogwarts from Harry Potter and the one room that has all of those little cubby holes looks like Greengots from Harry Potter as well. jaja

Photos:

#1  Elder Seguin fell asleep and we snatched a selfie with him 

#2  the middle foto is very common which is unfortunate but these people find walls to build on so that it is one less wall that they have to pay for!

#3 the horse and cart are very common for poor people here!

 

Mom:  I love those photos!  So interesting.  I wish all Americans could see them, to put into perspective how blessed we are.  I wish all teenagers here could be sent to some poor country for at least a month.  Our "poor" doesn't even compare!

Jeffrey:  not even close!! there are little children on the sides of the roads waiting for you to stop the car so that they can wash your car window for something worth less than a penny!! its very sad!!

Surprise Letters from Pres McMullin

Dear Brother and Sister Petersen,

 

   I would like to thank you for the sacrifice that you are making in your lives to support your son’s service here in the mission.  He has truly dedicated himself to the work and has helped out many other missionaries by being a great example.  He has played an important role in helping the people of Paraguay come to know their Savior Jesus Christ.

 

   In order to make missionary work possible, there is a need for missionaries to be called to serve in the office.  The work that is done by the office staff is of great importance and requires one who is humble, honest, dedicated and trustworthy.  Our mission could not function without the help and service given by these great missionaries.  Because of your son’s great qualities and his unselfish service, I would like to inform you that he has been called to serve in the office as the Recorder.

 

   We appreciate your son serving in the mission and we love him.  We will continue to take care of him like our own. 

 

   Warmest regards,

 

Dear Brother and Sister Petersen,

   It is with great pleasure that we inform you that your son, Elder Jeffrey David Petersen, has recently been called to serve as a District Leader in our mission.  He has worked very hard and has developed an excellent facility with his missionary responsibilities.  We are very proud of him for his faithful and diligent service.  He has been a great asset to the Lord’s work in Paraguay. 

   As a new leader in the mission, your son will be expected to lead from the front’ by setting and achieving his own high goals, as well as assisting other missionaries in doing the same.  We believe he is very prepared and capable of handling the task.  Please continue strengthening him through your prayers and encouraging letters.

   We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for sending this great young man to our mission.  He is blessing so many lives through his diligence, testimony, and loving spirit.  Thank you for preparing him so well.  We love your son dearly and send our love and warmest regards to you.

Kindest regards,

Scooby Dooby Doo!

Hello Family and Friends,

    This week for me was like unto no other. There were some pretty weird things that happened to me and the office crew this week and your about to get enlightened.  jaja

    First thing is first, we had changes this week. Changes for the mission is pretty simple, you go to a little place called Luque, meet up with your new companion and then go to your new area.  Now that might seam pretty simple, and it is for most people but, what the majority of the people don't realize is that there is a lot of planning and hard work that goes into events such as this. We hold an office staff meeting every week to plan out the week. This weeks planning meeting was 3 1/2 hours long. We needed to find the most efficient and the effective ways to get all of the missionaries to Luque and incorporate all of the new missionaries that just arrived, their trainers and all of the Missionaries that would finish their missions. So, I was put in charge of all the new missionaries that came in this change. It was a great experience for me because I was able to set the first example for them and show them around the mission. 

   After all of the newbies had their trainers and they were off to their respective areas I had the opportunity to take all of the missionaries that finished their missions to the airport to see them off. And luckily for me this was all on the right side of President and Sister McMullin.  (He loves his mission president and his wife)

   Just a little side note. I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with President and Sister McMullin during lunch and ask them several questions. Their responses were amazing. They are very neat people.

    Second of all,  I was made district leader over the biggest district in the mission. I have three companionship's of sisters and two of Elders in my district. There are good and bads to having mostly sisters. Good thing... we sing a ton better than any regular district. Bad thing... I had to just make a simple call to tell them that there will be a Zone activity on Monday and it turned out to be a half and hour conversation with each one of the sister companionship's!  I talked both the companionship's of elder in less then 10 minutes.

    Well, I had known for about 3 hours or so that I was a district leader and I got a call saying that I needed to give a baptismal interview for some of the elders. I was a little bit nervous at first but I got right into it and it was a really great interview. So the elders are going to have a baptism today. woo hoo!!

    Okay, last but certainly not least was that I got to go back to my old area in Villa Hayes and help have a Open Chapel activity. It was truly great to see every there once again. Luckily almost every one remembered me from when I was there almost 6 months ago. But the thing that caught me by surprise the most was to find one of the recent converts that I had worked for along time was pregnant. She is only 14 yrs old and got baptized about 10 months ago. I saw here kind of going down the wrong path and I tried to help her but she wouldn't listen. She had made some wrong decisions that ended up at being pregnant at age 14. When she saw me she just started to cry and all she said was sorry. She said "you told me so but I did it anyways."  All that I felt for her was pure love. It wasn't an "i told you so" feeling but one of, even though you may have made a mistake I love you and I want the best for you.

    Now if any of you know me and who I am, I am very much the person to get mad after someone does something that I told them not to do, but they do it anyways and they get hurt from doing so. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for ever being mad when all you may have needed was love. I've grown up a little bit on the mission and I cant wait to make it right for all of those times that I may have caused you to feel unimportant. And all of those times that I didn't show enough love.

   I know that this Gospel changes lives. I've seen it tons. I just havn't been very good at reporting it to you all. If you look around you will find some one that has been changed by this Gospel. I love you all so very much and I´m very happy that you´re in my life.

 Have a great week!

Love Elder Petersen

**Every change we have a different theme and you can probably guess what the theme is for this change and you can guess who i am!! ; )

This is a billboard that we swiped form Burger King!!  (They were going to throw it away and he asked if they could have it instead)

#whatsgood

And we had to improvise because we forgot the screen for the movie! yes, that is just white thing that we found and yes those are jumper cables holding it up!! jajaj #mcguyver

Dear Mom

 The work is going pretty good. there's is a lot to do with these upcoming changes. I have to teach the new missionaries that are coming in and show them around the mission. i also have to take the old ones home at all hours of the night. I honestly never knew how much planning and work goes into changes like i do now. We had a 3 hour planning meeting with the office staff discussing who is going to be where and when are they going to be there and how they are getting there. Its very confusing and even more so not having Elder Milton here to train me on things like this! I guess we will see how it goes!

From Mom:

So...I applied for a part time job!  It’s at D.R., the troubled boys home.  I don’t know if I’ll even get a response, but I’ve got to try to jump back into the working world somehow.  I’ve talked with dad for a long time (years) about getting a part time job or going to school or something but it just never felt like that right time, until now.  Fortunately, I can afford to be picky.  I will only work during the day while Becca is gone, no nights or weekends.  See, picky!  I’ve been very blessed to be able to stay home and raise you guys instead of being forced to put you in daycare and have a job I don’t like.  Of course, I could have had a job I loved and then I would have been a part time mom but that never felt right to me. 

I’m going to look for other jobs too.  I just really feel like the timing is right and I need to do something for me, my brain, my talents etc.  I was telling dad last night that I don’t even know what I’m good at, other then raising kids, cooking, cleaning, listening and such.  I don’t know if I can paint, write, ride a horse, etc. 

I know, right now you’re probably thinking I’ve fallen and hit my head (that’s the look dad gave me) but I just feel like its time for me to branch out.  I have watched my kids do brave things, spread their wings and fly, while I wait, watch, hope, pray and love and now, I think its okay for me to try too.  Does that makes sense?  I’m not going to do anything crazy and I’m not trying to “find myself” but I’ve felt that there is more life out there then I’ve allowed myself to explore.  Our family will always come first!

Anyway, dad filled you in on all of the weekly stuff so I thought I’d tell you my plan : ) 

I love you buddy.  I love this Gospel.  I love the safety and comfort it gives me in this crazy messed up world.  I love that my kids are growing up to be wonderful, thoughtful, hard working, loving, funny, committed humans!  It is such a blessing in my life to see that.  I love your dad and the friendship we have. 

I hope you have a wonderful week, full of service, learning and feeling the Spirit.

Love Mom

To Mom:

Mom,

That's the kind of answer I've been looking for every time I've asked you "what are you up to".  I love to hear that you want to do all these kinds of things. I'm super excited for you. I love that you want to do more and I'm completely behind you but you should never feel as though you haven't done enough. You have done more for me and my sisters than any one as ever thought about doing and I thank you so much for that.

So tell me a little bit more about your plans. What would you like to do? Is there any hobbies that you would like to do? How about any schooling? 

Well Mom I'm so glad that you told me about what you want to do for the rest of your life. its nice to know.

Landlord Probs!

Dear Dad,

My week went very well as well. Lots of angry landlord stuff and random projects that President wants me to do but other that not much has happened.

   I guess I can tell you about that though. We drove about an hour and a half to get a termination contract for a house signed so that we could get out of a house before we had to pay another  months rent on it. The thing is that we just had to call him about 15 minutes before we got there so that he would know. I asked another elder that went with me to call him because i was driving and I showed him which number to call but he called the wrong number. So the landlord didn't know that we were coming so he went back to his house. And after that he was bumbcrusty because we didn't call him so he didn't want to come back! So, during this week im sure President will ask me why we haven't ended that contract yet and technically it is my responsibility so i will have to tell him it was my fault! But that's the kind of stuff that happens on the daily around here.

  As well, President has given a couple of assignments this week that he his trusting me to get done. One includes making sure that all the sisters in the mission are safe and secure with bars on their windows and some sort of alarm system that they can carry on them and to have in the house. It has to be accessible so that if they are confronted by a stranger they can get someones attention and be a little more safe in the streets. As well, he wants to make their homes a little bit more secure as well. Do you have any advice?

  Another thing that i need to do is make Christmas gifts for the whole mission. Something like a pin or a DVD or something. That one will be interesting.

   This week we have found a lot of good potential investigators as well which will be really good, Hopefully!

Once again thank you for you email. I love you so much and i cant wait to see you guys again. Especially those early morning Saturday errands. I love you Dad. Have a great week!!

Elder Petersen

At TGI Fridays for a little bit of American food!

 *The little kid on the right is Pres. and Sis McMullin's son.  Hangin with the Elders!