Pedro Juan road trip!

Family and Friends,

   Well as you have already read, I'm down to 8 months left in the mission!! I'm not liking that fact that i end is in sight!! Oh well, i guess I'm just going to have to work even harder.

   This week was pretty interesting for my companion and I. We had the awesome opportunity to take our 8 seater van up to my old area, Pedro Juan Caballero 4th Branch and do an Open House. We had a couple of miracles that happened to us along the way. First,  We were setting up for an Open House in my old area and out on the main road there was a car parked off the side of the road and a family trying to figure out what to do with there non-functioning car. A couple of us elders walked over and saw what we could do to help them out with their car. There was nothing wrong with it for as much as I could tell so we just pushed it off of the main road and invited them to come over and see the Open House while their car took a break. After a while of trying to convince them to come in they did just that. They came and stayed the whole time. When they left their car started up like nothing ever happened and they were on their way.

   It may not seam like such a huge miracle but it was to me and it showed me that God still is a God of miracles.

      The biggest problem that we had on our trip was that our clutch gave out going up one of the long hills. We got about half way up the hill and it gave out! So there was a little town on the side of this huge hill so we got out a pushed this dumb 8 seater van up and over this hill so that we could get it to coast down the other side. Man that thing is heavy and even worse going up hill. As it got going we found that it would be better to not stop it because we might not getting going again. We finally got it up and over the hill and we just had to take it slow all the way back to Asuncion which was about 5 more hours! we had a lot of people honk and us and flip us of because we were going about 35 to 40 mph in an 80 mph speed limit zone. But that's alright because we made it back!

     But before we came back, we were able to do a couple of things up there. One of them was go to the border between Paraguay and Brazil. We actually bought a couple of hammocks up there from a Brazilian man who had the thickest accent I have ever heard. He wanted 300 thousand guarani's for 2 of them, which isn't bad but I thought I could bid him down to 250 for both, so i gave it a shot in Portuguese, I did it!! jajaj i felt like a accomplished life!!

 

Boarder of Paraguay and Brazil

 

     So That was a lot of fun. Another thing that was pretty fun was getting to see all the old members and especially my convert Ignacio. Luckily i got to take a picture with them because it is probably going to be the last time a ever see them! After Saturday night we went to church Sunday morning in a group out in the middle of nowhere called Naranjahai which means sour orange. I don't you if you all remember me talking about it about a year ago but i love this place and i love the people out there. We have our church meetings outside with the chickens and cows. The only problem was that it was so hot. it was over 110 F° and 100% humidity. You best believe i was sweating like crazy. But it was really worth it!! I had a great time and learned a lot.

    I love this Gospel. I have seen it change my life as well as others when we live it. Stay strong to it and your life will be more pleasant!!

    I love you all!!

Elder Petersen

Lots and Lots of fotitos

Bathroom cleaning 101

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxa0pjl186m8k16/Ba%C3%B1o_Final_01.avi?dl=0

Office details

Hello Dad and Mom;

   I haven't written you in a while so i thought i ought to make it happen! These past couple of weeks have been really good. It has been pretty normal. All of the things that i thought were cool when i first got into the office are a part of the normal routine now. There is one cool thing that i get to do tomorrow though. I get to take the van up to Pedro Juan Caballero where i started the mission and do a Open House in two of the Chapels up there. If you remember right it is the city that is right on the border of Brazil. It will take about 7 hours to travel up there and 7 hours back. It should be a pretty fun road trip. I'm Excited to go but I'm also nervous too. We Will travel up on Friday morning and then do an open house in the Pedro Juan 1st branch and then on Saturday night we will have one in my old area, 4th Branch. We will stay the night on Friday and Saturday and then hit Sacrament up there and then travel back down after church.

  Before we head up there i have to give two baptismal interviews for some of the sisters in my district. We are a very "goal oriented" mission so we have set goals for our district as well. We base our progression by how many baptisms we get each month, how many of the recent converts came to church and what our attendance is like. Our goals for my district are 8 baptisms, 85% retention and 360 as an attendance. We had previously hit our goal for attendance so we pumped it up even more so that's great. We are so close to reaching our baptismal goal. We have 3 baptisms as of right now and we have 5 more secure baptismal dates coming up. I think that we can really do it. It would be great if we do because usually a baptismal goal for a district should be around 4 to 6, but my district works really hard and we are working towards 8. our retention is doing okay. we have 80% retention which is a lot better than the average for the mission. And we keep hitting our attendance goal so that's awesome as well.

  This whole numbers thing is a big part of my job as the Recorder here in the office. I have to find out all of the numbers (Baptisms, Retention %, Attendances and Contacts) of the whole mission. So I spend all day Monday figuring out where we stand as a mission. When i have them all figured out i have to send them to President and as well the the Area Seventy. Usually it takes about 9 to 10 hours to get them all figured out. Its a very tedious job but someone has to do it.

  Along with random P.J.C. trips, Planning district meetings, Housing, and Statistics i have to be a missionary at the same time. It hard to get out to work at 5 or 6 each day when I need to have numbers in or I have a housing assignment that needs to be completed but on thing that President always tells us is that being a missionary is our number one priority and an office elder second.

  Sorry i haven't told you a little bit more in depth about what i do here in the office until now but i wants really sure on what i was doing either. jajaja i hope this helped you understand a little bit more about what i do everyday.

  Each and every day my testimony of this gospel grows stronger and stronger. I love this Gospel and i know that everyone would love if they just knew about it!! so . . . lets get out there and share it!!

Thank you both for all of your support and everything that you have taught me. I love you guys!

Have GREAT week.

Love Elder Petersen

Trains and making a video

Photos:

I was dared to do the selfie!! it wasn't my choice I promise!! #dontjudgeme

This museum was in the center of Asunción and we went with the Craney´s, a senior couple, they payed for us to get in so we didn't say no!!

Pedro Juan Caballero 4th Branch

Dope train museum Titanic reenactment!!

              ¿¿Whats good??

Selfie on a dare

Being "saved" by his Companion

Back in Pedro Juan, his first area.   

hey mom!! yeah the office has a lot of weird assignments.! i have to make a video on how to clean your bathroom so that President can take it around the whole mission and show it to everyone!! 

He said if the video turns out good, he'll send us a copy.

 

Office audit and drunk people

Hola Familia y Amigos,

     To start out I'm doing really great! I'm loving this work and my testimony is growing every step I take. Lots of things happened this week that id like share I'm just going to have a hard time remembering them all! jaja 

     To get things started, I'm going to be heading up to my first area up in Pedro Juan Caballero. Ill be heading out tonight and I'll be traveling all night. Its about a 7 to 8 hour bus ride and we have to carry with us a laptop and a projector. Hopefully we don't get robbed. jaja we will see how it goes.

     We are in a very rich area here in Asuncion so we have a lot of English speakers. Yesterday we had an Open Chapel activity here and all of those English speakers came and we got to do a whole presentation in just English! it was pretty dope.

     Unfortunately I haven't been able to get out and work lately because there has been so many things that needed to get done like take missionaries to the terminal where all the buses are so that they can get back to their respective areas. And usually this all takes place in the night time and even in the early parts of the morning.

     This week we had a big wig from Argentina come up and audit us as an Office. Ouch, that was rough. jaja There is a lot of things that we need to change. He was a really good guy but he kind of dropped us some fat cane. But the cool thing about it all was that we took him to his hotel after the audit at about 10:30 and we drove by the office building of the President of Paraguay. It was lit up really nicely and it was heavily guarded but we managed to snag a few fotos!! whats good!!

     

Today we went to TGI Friadays which is always great. but we did have a little run in with the drunk crew. This guy was downing shots like I have never seen before. The same guy came over to our table and asked us to take a picture with them at their table and it seamed harmless so we went. As someone was taking the picture he tried to get me to hold a beer bottle. It was a really lame attempt to try to get a picture out there of missionaries holding a beer bottle. Well I told him that I don't drink and I wont be in the picture if the beer is going to be in it. After that him and his group of really ignorant people just started talking some dirty trash talk. It was sad to see how little they knew about the church as well as how much they thought they knew about the church.  Probably the saddest thing was that they didn't have ranch dressing to put of my salad!  jaja

     You know what, I forgot a lot of the thing that i had planned to write about! jaja oops!! I guess they will just have to wait until next time!!

     I love you all so much and i hope you all the most amazing weeks.

Elder Jeffrey Petersen

 My sweet ride!...#8seater