Mother's Day 2016

Hey there family and Friends,

Skyping yesterday was great! i got to talk and to see my family just about 3 weeks before i come home. It was great to see them all happy and healthy. But this email is for my Mom.

Im so grateful to my father in heaven that i was put into this wonderful family and to have the great Mother that i have today. I would not be the man i am today if it werent for her pushing me to become better and i most certainly wouldnt be serving and honorable fulltime mission if it wasnt for her. 

I owe everything i have to that beautiful women. And everything i am today is because of her influence that she has on me!!

I love you Mom.

Love Elder Petersens

June 3 @ 10:30am

Well Family and Friends,

   This will be one of the last times i write all of you. The title of this letter states the date and time that i will arrive in the airport! I'm not sure what to think! haha

   This week went really well! it rained once and its been freezing cold ever since! But its a nice change from the normal 100 degree temperature and 100& humidity. I like it a lot.

   Elder Starks and i have been running across a lot of really great people! We recently put a baptismal date with a 13 year old kid named Alexis. He is a really cool kid and he has come to church twice already! He seams to really wants to get baptized but it might be a struggle because his dad is a less active member who doesn't want anything to do with the church and because he is under age he might run into to trouble getting his dad to give him permission. Cross your fingers.

   Elder Starks and I are doing everything we can to help this ward grow and we are seeing a lot of success. I really cant complain one bit. I'm loving the area, My companion and the people here in Piquete Cue.

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

All I could do was shake her hand, I'm a idiot!

The most embarrassing thing just happened to me! so Elder Petersen is sitting in a cyber writing his humble letter to his family, while 7 college students (women) walk in and sit down next to me! One of them asks to get my number and i told her no! hahaha she asks me my name and i shake her hand! hahhahaha I'm such an Idiot! i think I'm going to leave early because they just asked me to take a selfie with them! Therefore this is going to be short email because i need to leave before it gets more weird!

love you guys!!!!

elder Petersen!!!

**That's it!  That's all we got this week!  

The start of the Finish...

Family and Friends,

As you can probably guess by the title today is the first day of the last change in my mission. My time here in Paraguay is coming to an end. Even though i never thought it would. haha The time as passed by very quickly but i sure am glad that i have had this chance to serve the Lord here is Paraguay.

This will be a shorter letter just because there isnt a whole ton to write about this week. But i sure do love you guys and i pray and hope that you all have a fantastic week.

Love Elder Petersen

Baptism of Osmar

Hey Family and Friends,

Let me just start out by letting you all know how much i love you guys. Thanks for all of your support here in the mission. I sure needed it. Jaja

Elder Starks and I had a baptism this Saturday and It was perfect. Osmar Delpuerto was baptized this Saturday and he invited about 30 people to attend, 8 of which being new investigators. Things are going great here in my area. All of the work that i have put into the beautiful country are finally paying off! 

We have an investigator that asked us what he needs to do to serve a mission. I cant wait for him to become a member of this church and serve a mission and grow up a little bit just like i had the opportunity to do. He is a great kid! his name is Matias Ramirez. He is 17 years old and he is one of the most prepared people for baptism that I have ever met! I cant wait to help him leave on a mission. If he goes on a mission it will be the second convert of mine that I helped get of a mission. Now that's not to brag, I know that I was put in their lives because the Lord wanted me to be there, sometimes I'm still not sure why it was me! 

Its hard to realize that i only have about a month and a half left here in Paraguay. I wish i could just take these people back with me! If you want to learn to love someone really quickly, lose yourself serving them. I love this people. I cant express the way i feel about them now being in there presence for about 2 years now. Some of them have come to be some of my best friends and it will be very hard to leave them behind. Jajaja i knew this day would come i just didn't think it would come so soon and be this hard.

Well I've got about 7 weeks left so i guess I've got to enjoy it while I have them.  

I love you all so much and i thank you again for all of your support and love.

have a great week!

General Conference

Hello family and Friends,

This week topped off a great month. Lots of Lots of good things are coming our way here in Piquete Cuè and i have a feeling that the month of April is going to be at least 4 times better. I cant wait. I don't have a whole lot of time today but I love you all and I'll write more this next week. 

I love you all!!

Elder Petersen

Chat time:

How is everything?

Everything is doing really well here. My companion is doing well also. He is picking up on the Spanish thing. But there is still a lot to teach him.

What was your best experience this week?  

Probably General Conference!! for sure!! its better than Christmas here in the mission!

We are going to have a baptisms or two in the upcoming weeks. That will be great.

That is awesome!  Tell me about them.  Their story.

Well one of them is named Osmar. Her is 10 years old and his family is less active but we found him and he would like to be baptized. The other one is Matias, he is 17 years old and his girlfriend is a member of a nearby ward. He has come to church 4 times and he wants to serve a mission. We told him that he would need to be baptized before he can go on a mission and he said he would have no problem with it. He will be baptized on the 16 of this month.

Oh, I sent your final box!  I hope you like it : ) 

You have never sent a box that i have not loved! so for all of the previous and the one future box, Thank you so much.

I'm glad.  Unless you tell me specific things, I just kinda guess at what you might need or use.  I sent some CTR rings for you to give the kids, and I actually found them in Spanish.  Did you ever think that I would tell you I sent you LAST box?  I didn't!  

I keep telling people that the first 3 months were SO LONG AND HORRIBLE but the middle went so fast.  Now the last 3 months are DRAGGING ALONG!  Probably not for you, but for us...

Jajaja Its cruising by for me! ive got less than two months left and i think that it will go by really fast becasue there are lots of things to do here so ill be pretty busy. But i never thought that i would get to this point in the mission. I never thought that it would come to an end. But sure enough, just like everyone said, it came and went super fast.

How are you feeling about that?  Are you ready to be wrapping things up or not?  Some missionaries are ready to roll when the time comes and others really don't want to leave.  I can tell you that your family is ready!  We want you to finish strong but when that day comes, we're ready.  I hope you are too.  

Hahaha yup! I'm getting to that point!! I am getting to that point where i feel like i have done all that was asked of me and more and its time for me to go. Haha its hitting me but I'm still kicking!!

No good deed...

Hey Family and Friends,

This week went very well. We are working hard to reach our goals and it looks to me like we are on the right track to getting them. We have several people getting ready to make covenants with God and they will all will be baptized this next month. Matias, Osmar, Alex and Vivian are all progressing very nicely and also all went to church yesterday so Elder Starks and I will be seeing some baptisms here soon.

Along with all of the good progress we have also had a lot of really good food. Being Semana Santa, Everyone cooks tons of food and they invite us to eat it with them. One day we had a double lunch and it just about killed my companion eating so much food. 

We also had a lesson with the nicest chiken you have ever met. hahah youll see in the fotos below.

Honestly other than that there is not a whole lot going on. Oh the weather has been great. and we also had the chance to go and do service for a member family in our area. We dug a whole so that they could bury their trash. jajaj but we hit a water line while doing it. So what was supposed to be a 30 minute project turned into a 2 hour project. jajaja just my luck.

Well thats it for this week. Have a good one.

Love Elder Petersen

Marcelo got his mission call!

To all of those who still careFamily and Friends,

To all of those who still care, 

Im just Kitten! Im pretty sure(64%) you guys still care about good old Elder Petersen. jajaja

This week was pretty normal for me! I've only got about 9 weeks left in the mission and that means that I have seen pretty much everything that Paraguay has to offer. Therefore this letter will be a short one. Sorry.

This week we had the opportunity to go out and teach tons of people. If you don't think that is cool than you probably don't want to become a missionary. jaja because that is what we do. 

I am currently reading in 3 Nephi when Christ comes to the Americas. Maybe one of the most powerful sections in the entire Book Of Mormon. If you havn't read it lately, i would strongly recommend it.

Probably one of the coolest things that happened this week was one of my Convets got his mission call to Argentina Rosario Mission. I wasnt there to see him open it up but he called me and put me on speaker phone so i could here the whole thing. It was so cool. One of the best experiences of my mission thus far.

Well, thats about it for this week Family and Friends. I hope you all have a great week. Read your Scriptures Please.

Love Elder Petersen

Mi converso Marcelo

Elder Toledo, Jeffrey, Marcelo and Elder Johnson

New Trainee

Hey Family and Friends,

This week has been a little weird. Jaja I received changes, Elder Pickering and I are not together anymore but we are both still in Piquete Cue. We spit the area. Elder Pickering is with Elder Johnson in one half of Piquete Cue and Me and my new son, Elder Starks, are in the other half. 

So now you know.. . . Im Training. Unfortunately he doesn't speak a lick of Spanish and neither one of us know the area. So I am white washing and training, its going to be interesting. I don't have a whole lot of time to write this time but i took some pictures. 

I love you all so much! have a great week!!

Elder Petersen

Disappointments and Miracles

Family and Friends,

   Well, if that's not the weirdest title i don't what it. hahaha  I remember when i was just starting out in the mission i felt like i was never going to finish my training but now im only a training's length away from home.  Im so nervous but so excited. 

   This week for me was great but sad at the same time. Mariela, our golden investigator finally went to church yesterday but didn't like it. To be honest, that it the first time i have ever had an investigator go to church and not like it. She explained why and it makes sense. She didn't really like that all of the people that got up to bare their testimonies said the same exact things. I can see how that wouldn't be the most entertaining thing in the world. 

She also said it was partially her children were running around all over the place. She left a little bit early from church and that made me wonder what went wrong. So we went over to her house after church to see went wrong and that it what she told us. At the beginning of the lesson she told us that she probably wasn't going to go back to church. After a lot of testifying and personal experiences she told us that she will give it another shot this next Sunday. That lesson was definitely led by the spirit.

   We also received a reference for a less active family called La Familia Miño. They are so dope! they have 5 little kids and two of them have physical problems. Some of the cutest kids in the world. We talked to them once and the father of the family seemed to be really rude at first but we cracked his shell wide open and he broke down. He told us that he had been having problems with his work. We felt that we should talk about the basic things like reading and praying as well as having your family home evenings. He asked me how i knew that they weren't doing those things. I told him straight up that usually the people that are doing these things are happier and better off in their families. He looked me in the eye and i honestly thought that he was going to kick me out of his house but he just started crying and told me that that is exactly what they were lacking. Once again, another lesson led by the Spirit. 

Yesterday at church we were waiting outside for some investigators to come and they walked around the corner, all seven of them in their white shirts and dark pants. It was soo great to see them come to church.

   On a more interesting note, I had a drunk guy come up to me and ask me if i had any money. I told him no and that i didn't have any money. hahaha  Now, that's not the interesting part because that happens on a weekly basis, but he then started to tear up and hand me money. hahaha he told me it wasn't much but that he wanted me to have it.  I have never had anyone offer me their money before. haha

   Other than that it was a pretty normal week. We climbed a water tower, taught tons of lessons, saw some disappointing things but as well witnessed miracles. Overall, it was a great week.

   Changes are this next week so ill probably have a new companion the next time i write you all. But ill let you next time.

   I love you all and i hope you have a wonderful week!! 

Love Elder Petersen

Fotos:

Lino (recently reactivated), My companion and I

A beautiful Paraguayan Sunset

Piquete Cue...Special change

Hey Everybody,

This week was dope. I got special changed out from being the traveling Elder to an area called Piquete Cue. 

Elder Pech and I got a call from President McMullin this past Wednesday telling us that we would be having special changes. We packed up our stuff and headed to the office. President called my companion into the office and took about an hour talking to him. He then called me in and told me that my companion would be going home.  Im still not sure why. He then opened up his change board and told me I would be going to Piquete Cue with Elder Pickering, and now I am here. 

Im loving it. We have a great area with lots of potential. We have two baptisms coimng up and im so excited to be a part of the work here in Piquete Cue. Its a good area, it just hasn't had missionaries in it that have given their all to the work. Im grateful for the opportunity to take what I have learn in the mission thus far and see what i can do in this area. Wish me Luck!!

I have only been in the area for a couple days but we have already put a baptismal date with a lady named Mariela. She is so nice and wants to know so much more about the church. Yesterday was our second visit and we left a lesson two pamphlet the first lesson. She read it twice and as we explained the lesson she already new what we were going to say next. She has an autistic son who is 14 years old and a crazy little daughter who is 2. I have never seen someone so prepared to recieve this Gospel in my entire mission. I hope she sticks with it and gets baptized. 

Im so excited to see what I can do in these last three months in my mission. I love this Gospel.  Its true! 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Petersen

Chatting:

So tell me about Elder Pickering.  I haven't heard of him before.  Where is he from?  So you have a photo with him and you?

He is from the salt lake valley! I forget what part but he goes to Jordan High School. He is really cool he just has been having a rough time in the choosing friends department and unfortunately his missionaries friends are kind of bringing him down. 

When you say his missionary friends, does that mean his comps or his friends from home that are serving elsewhere?  How long has he been out?

He has been out for a little less than I have, so about a year and 7 months.  His past companions. He just is bitter about the whole mission in general and its starting to take its tole just constantly hearing how sucky everything is. He even talks bad about the mission president. That's something that i don't take very lightly, but he is coming to his senses.

Oh boy, sounds like you've got your hands full, but I have NO doubt you can handle it.  Show him that it can be fun while working hard.  You have the potential to help him turn his whole mission around, but it is HIS choice.  Teach him to love and serve the people, without that he'll get nowhere.   Remember, in your famous words..."teach people not lessons."

So he's had a long time to have bad experiences and to build up this attitude.  I was hoping he was newer than that so that he could turn it around and have a positive mission.  So what are you doing to help him?

hahaha i don't know! Im just being a good example and working his butt of!! jajaja it seems to be working little by little. 

Does his seem to be receptive to you and your tactics? I hope you can help him change his thinking before he comes home.  He'll regret it if he doesn't.  He'll never get this opportunity again.  

Yeah I hope he is receptive!

Stitches out and lots of talking

How are you bud?

My week kinda sucked but i'm still a Child of God so that's something to look forward to! haha
I just haven't been able to sleep very well lately! Hopefully today will be different! Today i feel much better!! Oh i also got my stitches out this morning!!! woo hooo

How is your mouth?  Once it calms down you might sleep better.  Do you think its because of your new place or that you were in the office so long you got used to it. Now your out in the wild again. How is it?

Ah its great! I love it! I fell like a Jaguar that was in captivity for his first years of his life and now they have set me free to roam and hunt and baptize and such!

Well!  That is quite the description!  But your week was rough? Just because of sleep or something else?

No just sleep!! I don't know why but i seem to wake up at about 1 or 2 every night and go to the bathroom cuz i have to pee so bad! then i lay back down and i cant got to sleep until about 4 or 5! But last night was a lot better. Hopefully tonight will be better too!

Sounds like your dad! Except he's a lot older.  I think while you were in the office your sleep pattern got messed up bad and you're going to have to retrain your body to sleep again.  Too many all nighters and random early morning runs to the airport.

hahaha yeah i think you're right!! I think my body is mad at me for all of the lack of sleep that it has!!

Yes!  So what the most interesting experience this week.  Or interesting person you've met?

I met a man on the bus that was bringing flowers to his mom! It was a little bit awkward because i went and sat next to him and to strike up a conversation i asked him if the flowers were for his wife or girlfriend. Hahaha yeah . . . awkward!  after the awkwardness passed I told him who I was and what i was doing. He told me that he had a friend that was a member for all her life and that he knew a lot about the church already. Now, I know this is a little bold but i asked him why he didn't get baptized. He told me that he had had doubts about the Book of Mormon and he never found an answer. So i told the answer that he needed to hear and the Spirit let it sink in to his heart. He asked if we could come by and teach him this week. So that's what we will do!

That's my success story for this week! Out of the 150+ people that i talked to this week 1 seems to be promising. hahaha 

Wow, cool story!  And think of all of those seeds that were planted for next missionaries. 

The Rios family that Jeffrey came to love

Wisdom Teeth!!

Hello Family and Friends,

First of all, I will have to recommend not getting your wisdom teeth out in a third world country!! haha I don't think your supposed to feel it that much!! luckily it is over now and i never have to do it again! So having said that, I'm out for a day or two until i can talk normally again. And for my new assignment I'll be doing a lot of talking!

Wisdom teeth removed today!

Picking up Bro Fardos at the airport

This week i was pulled into Presidents office when he told me that i should make sure my trainee is ready to go by the end of this week!! That automatically means that he has plans for me somewhere else. A couple days later we found him and the Hermana McMulllin at the airport while taking a missionary there to be sent home early! He pulled me off to the side and told me of my new assignment. 

I will be the new Elder Viajante (Traveling Elder). This entails that my companion (Elder Pech) and I will not have an area nor the same schedule. My area is all of the mission! And my schedule will be Wake up at 4:30 and go out and contact those who generally will never see or talk to missionaries because they are also working. We will very rarely ever have lessons but we will have about 400 to 500 contacts in a week! Im so excited for this new opportunity that the Lord has entrusted me with. I'm ready to work my hardest these last four months of my mission.

Thank you for all of your support. It means a lot! Have a great week.

I love you.

Elder Petersen


Email conversation:

Are you okay?
yeah I'm fine no need to worry!!!! but I did get my wisdom teeth out like an hour ago!!! wooooo hooooo
I have to say, it makes me a little nervous that you had it done in Paraguay!  Did they knock you out first?  How are you doing?  I’m not sure why I was surprised…after the Patriarchal Blessing experience.  lol  You definitely don’t do things the conventional way do you?
hahaha no they didn't knock me out but it hurt like crazy!!! hahaha now im sitting here with a bag of ice on my face!!!
OH MY GOSH!!!!!  Are you kidding me?  Dude, what am I gonna do with you?  It couldn’t wait 4 months?  Did they numb you at all?  Are you taking anything for pain?

yeah they numbed me like freaking crazy!!!! haha but it felt like they took a jackhammer to my beautiful face!!!

Well at least you still have that beautiful face that I created!  : )  How is the pain now?

yeah I have some pain medication that will help a lot!! i also have brother fardos helping me out if i need anything!! he is down here picking up his daughter!!

I know he’s there, but is he a dentist?

haha no!! he offered to buy me a milkshake though!! i think that deserves credentials!! haha i also received a new assignment!

Extra Photos!

Finally, a trainee!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! this week has been a long one for me in the office but it has also been a really good on too!! It was a week of little to no sleep and lots of hard work! Im glad its over!! haha

first of all i have to tell you guys that i got a trainee!!!!!! I'm so excited! hahaha its been a long 8 months and im ready to leave! His name is Elder Rizzo. Hes American and he was my trainers, Elder Fielding, old companion. he has about 3 months less than me in mission and he was previously a zone leader. he seems to be picking up on things pretty quickly so im sure he will do a good job.

Elder Rizzo, my Trainee!

I also, this week, found out that i have Carpal Tunnel syndrome or something like that. It supposedly only happens to elderly people but i like to thinks its because i go hard when i type. Like i said, it has to do with typing. If you use you hands with the same function too much it makes your wrists hurt. So for the past 3 weeks or so my wrists have been hurting i didn't know why until i asked Hermana McMullin. Haha Who knew!!!  here is the definition of carpal tunnel syndrome. Chronic pain, numbness, or tingling in the hand, caused by compression of the median nerve in the wrist. It can be caused by repetitive bending and extension of the wrist, as in keyboarding. I don't like having old man hands.

Anyways, on to change week.

It was a long one! Monday night The assistants and I had to take the changes that president had recently finished and plan for them to make them happen both effectively and economically. That was one of the biggest logistics nightmares that i have ever dealt with here is the office. That is because the area seventy changed the way we do our changes. Before we all met together in Luque and President announced the changes, you found your companion and you headed off to your area. the change that was made prohibited large gatherings as missionaries. So, we needed to take that into account while planning for the changes. the way we did it included two giant loops (made with two 12 seater vans) going from city to city and picking up and dropping off missionaries in there perspective areas. 

 

We (the assistants and I) had to add the finishing touches to our master plan on Tuesday night so we didn't get to sleep before we had to start driving the loops at about 3 in the morning that we could get all the missionaries in their areas at a reasonable time on Wednesday. So, at this point I nor the assistants have gotten any sleep in the past 48 hours. Luckily for the assistants President prohibited them from driving anymore. Unfortunately for me, President did not realize that I had gone without sleep just has much as the assistants had, so I was the chauffeur for all of the missionaries that went home that night at hours 12:30, 4:30 and 6:30. Luckily I caught some sleep in between the hours 1:30 and 3:30. So in three days I received 2 maybe 3 hours of sleep. It was lots of work and I'm glad that I have been a part of the office staff to see how much time and effort the office staff put in to help this work press forward.

I have to say that I will not miss the sleepless nights though. hahaha

I have learned lots of lessons this week. One of the most important ones that I learned was the importance of scripture study. This week I haven't had the time to do my studies because of changes and I have come to realize that I don't recognize a difference in my day when I study the scripture but I sure do when I don't. I feel like I forgot something or something is missing. 

Please study the scriptures. It will help you each and everyday you do so. 

I love you all so much and i am so excited to hear back from you guys. Have a great week!!

Love Elder Petersen

 

**He said that he will most likely get send out of the office in 2 weeks due to a special change.  An Elder is set to go home so he will replace him in Emboscada!!

Accident : )

Hello Family and Friends,

This week is the end of my 14th change in the mission. I only have 3 left in my mission! This change has been a crazy one! I have been up to my knees in office work and missionary work but i have no reason to complain. I'm learning so much. 

I'd like to share a couple of thing about this week that were pretty interesting. One being that there is a giant dent in the back of the Van. we were going pretty fast and all of a sudden there was a wreck in front of us so i had to stop very suddenly and then a moto came and i guess didn't see me and smashed into the back of me! : ( A police officer was standing right there and he saw the whole thing. After get everything all cleaned up and talking to the guy that was driving the moto he brought me over and he said that there was two options. "One, we all go over to the station and fill out a report and take down your information. It will take a bunch of time that i know you don't have. or, I have talked to the motorist and he said that all of the damages would cost about 500$, You can give him 500$ right now and we can call it good." Jajaja I wasn't having any of that! i told him that we would go down to the station to fill out a report. he nor the motorist seemed to be very happy about the decision. jajaja

The boys talked Marcelo into shaving 1/2 of his face!

Office Elder planning the coming changes

Some other news, Elder Johnson, my beloved companion for 4 changes, was special changed out this morning. I took him up to his area at about 4 in the morning with the assistants. He made it out!! I am now companions with Elder Castillo from Ecuador for the next couple of days.

Also, this week we had a World-Wide Missionary training Conference this past Wednesday. It was really great! we got together with our zone and listened to several Apostles and General authorities teach us on how we can be better missionaries. It was great!! It is always amazing to hear the Apostles speak and to learn from them. I learned lots of things that i am excited to put into practice. 

Some other good news is that a recent convert (Marcelo) that i have been working with for a long time is going to be submitting his mission papers this month!  I'm so excited to help someone have the same experiences that i have had on my mission.

Well that's about it for this week as far as i can remember! I love you all and i hope that you have a great week!

Love Elder Petersen

Dear Dad

Hello Dad,

Thank you for the update on the family. To answer some of your questions, Im doing really well. Things are going really well here also. I am anxious to get back out to work but i think that within the next couple of days i will receive a new trainee to come in and take my place. I will find out tomorrow night! 

It sounds like things are going really well back home too and i am super grateful for that. How is work going for you? do you like it? What is new at work or what are some big projects that you're working on?

It sounds like we have a pretty busy month planned out for when i get home! It sounds like a lot of fun! Id rather be too busy than too bored. I'm excited to get back and have lots to do. I am even more excited to hand out with you. There have been so many times when i had wished that you were here so that i could have asked you questions on how you would do things. But i guess thats part of growing up! you've got to figure some things out on your own. I am really looking forward to spending lots of time with you so that i can learn as much as i can to prepare me for the real world. Its going to be great.

So i have a question. What do you think would be a good career choice for me? I need to find some different options so that i can test some of them out to see if i like them or not. I'm looking at Law enforcement, Firefighting, Navy, Coast Guard and Piloting. I have been spending a lot of time at the airport when taking missionaries to and from their perspective flights and i think that it would be a really cool job to have if it can work with the family schedule. I would also like to serve my country in a way too! I don't know what i want to do right now!! If you could help me out with some direction that would be great.

Thank you Dad for all that you have done to make this family an eternal one. Thank you for honoring your priesthood and loving Mom. I appreciate everything that you do.

I love you Dad. Have a good week!!

Love Elder Petersen

A surprise visitor in Utah

Best. Sunday. Ever!! We just got a knock on our door and when I opened it, there stood a young man holding a Ziploc bag with some beads and other items in it. He introduced himself as "Elder...I mean Adam Richardson. I served with your son, Elder Petersen, in the Paraguay Asuncion North mission. He sent me home with this package for you!!" Etc, etc, etc...what an amazing surprise!! What a beautiful, thoughtful, awesome surprise!!! Included in the bag was a 2 page, hand written, front and back letter!! I'm so glad I didn't kill that kid when he was 15: )

Elder Adam Richardson

Moving, driving and a near miss!

This week was pretty interesting. . . more or less. There is lots going on in the office and lots to do. For example, I'm spent all night night last night and most of this morning moving some sisters to a new house. I first had to negotiate a contract out with a crazy Asian lady to be able to get into the house then president wanted us to get them into the house as soon as possible so that happened this morning. We took about 6 trips in our 12 seater van to haul all of the things that they needed to live over to their new house. It took most of our p day but you got to do what you got to do. They are safe and sound in their brand new house.

Another big project that I have going on is a contract for a church out in a place called Santa Rosa. We a have a group of members out their that is growing like dandy lions so President asked me to make a new contract with the landlord of the house that we use for the church to put three separate air conditioning units in it so that the members out there don't die from the heat.

Let me just ask you a question. . .  have you ever tried to create a contract in a foreign language that is both legally valid as well as benefiting to both parties, that also includes a putting three new air conditioning units in it? hahaha yeah neither have I!  I have a couple of ideas that come to mind on what i can do to make it happen but it will be a rough one. i guess we will see how it goes.

Today while driving around a town called Luque we just about killed a man on his moto. Luckily we didn't hit him and it wasn't my fault. he ran the red light and came zooming past us and i didn't see him in time to stop so the both of us just kept going at normal speed which was about 40 mph each. It could have been very bad! Luckily the Lord has his eye on me!!

On the other side of the work load there is a less active member named Erik and his Mom Estela, who is not a member. We went to go contact his house because we received it as a reference and his mom came out and told us that Erik wasn't home but she would like to talk to us. Those are the best. When people want to talk to us!! Anyways, we sat and talked to her about Erik and how he was super faithful in going to church but one day he had an emotional breakdown went to a mental hospital but no one went to visit him while he was there. That made Estela mad and so she never went to church again but as well neither did Erik. He came in as we were leaving and he was so happy to see us. They both promised that they would come to church this Sunday and I believe that they will. We also have a lesson with them both today at 7! they are coming back to church!!

I love this Gospel. I love the Lord for making the man i am today! I promise you that i am not the same Jeffrey Petersen that left the airport a year and eight months ago. I believe its for the better. But I cant take the credit for this one. He has had a hand in everything i do here on my mission and everything that i have done. I'm grateful for His help and encouragement and all of yours as well.

Thank You

I Love you all. have a fantastic day today!

Custom made suit with Paraguayan Flag!

Service Project with the Zone!

Elder Petersen

Zoo day

Dear Family and Friends,

To be completely honest. . .  there was nothing spicy about this week. I'm sorry to let you all down. It was just a normal week here in the office. 

I did learn about some new computer program called OneNote its pretty cool, not that any of you would really know what that is!

I had the wonderful opportunity to practice my patience with numerous people this week and I feel as though I have grown ten times stronger in just this week!! Its been a tough one to say the least but I'm practicing finding the good in it all!!

And once you find out all the good things that life has to offer your faith in God will increase so much! From all of the trials i have had in the mission i can say that it has only strengthened my testimony in the Lord. 

I know he is there. He has to be!!

I hope that your weeks will be even better than they were last week! and if not, your doing something wrong!!

I love you all so much!

Love Elder Petersen

Puente Remanso river overflowing

At the Paraguayan Zoo

Stupid peppers and Crazy Elder!

Hey There,

This week was great for me. I'm so happy that i have the privilege to put the Saviors name on my chest each day and represent him in everything i do. A lot like other weeks in my mission, i have turly felt the mantle of being a missionary this week. Along with that, there were many strange things that happened this week. Lets get started

First of all last Saturday we had Elder Zarabia (Peru) make all of us a special Peruvian dish called Seviche. Its a mix of a bunch of things including lettuce, fried potatoes and raw fish. It was really good. Elder Jensen and I were in charge of cutting the peppers. I had no idea how hot those things were until i accidentally itched my eye with the juice from the peppers on my fingers. It was one of the most painful things i have ever felt. That little pepper wrecked my day. Stupid pepper.

A couple of very interesting things happened this week too. One of them was that i took one of my old companions (Elder Clark) to the airport. I took him at about 12 at night and didn't get back to the house until about 3 in the morning. That is the third companion of mine that has gone home. Elder Clark and I had a rough start but over time i learned to love him so much. I can honestly say that he has been the companion from which i have learned the most. I wish the best of luck for him back home. 

We also got called into president office the other day and he put us on somewhat a weird assignment. Elder Johnson and I were told to go immediately to a house here close by and to go retrieve an elder. So we headed out the door and before we left president stopped us and told us to make sure there are no sharp objects in the car when we go to get him. We found out later that this missionary had tried hurting his companion in his apartment just 5 minutes prior to receiving the assignment. I guess president trusted that the tallest companionship of the entire mission could handle it if anyone could. jajaja Well he was right. We entered into the house and it was a pretty heated situation and we grabbed the elder and once we got him into the car i had him laughing and all good. Needless to say, missionaries who try to kill their companions go home. RIP

Today for Pday we went to the only tourist attraction that Paraguay has to offer which would be the Zoo. It was pretty interesting. They had the biggest hippo i had ever seen in my life which isn't saying a lot because its not on a regular bases that i see hippos but i feel like it was bigger than most. We also got to see some Tigers, Lions, Pumas, Boa constrictors, Jaguars, Parrots, Anteaters and some other cool things. More than anything i remember the heat and sweating like crazy. Its super hot and humid here! you cant walk 2 steps without sweating. Eh its aight. 

Just so you know i will be home on this date exactly 5 months from now. I cant believe how fast its gone. I don't like it! I want to stay longer. But unfortunately i have already asked President and he told me no. ; ( 

I Love you all so very much and i want you all to make a new years resolution with me. Lets read the Book of Mormon all the way through in these next 5 months. And if your up for another challenge, I will be reading it twice through. So i hope you can do so and let me know how it goes. There is no better way to strengthen ones testimony than reading the Book of Mormon.

I pray that you all have a great week!

Love Elder Petersen