Mondongo!

Hey there family and family,

This week was a week of wonder!  In short, I ate something weird, little kids playing with machetes, rain and good hard work!

First of all, we had a service project with a part member family and we chopped up some trees and grass with our Machetes.  After that they fed us Mondongo. (yeah, I didn’t know what it was either) I asked them what it meant and she said that I’m not going to tell you because you won’t want to eat it. jaja  Dang It!!  I asked her to explain it to me and she said I won’t like that even more!  Finally she started to explain that "here is Paraguay we eat all parts of the cow". haha uh oh....!! She said that there is a part of the cow that holds all of the "caca"!! haha that’s where i figured out that i was eating cow intestine!! haha she was right...it would have been better if I wouldn’t have known what it was!! jaja

As we were eating the large intestine of a cow her son was playing with my machete. I got a foto!! ;)

This week was also really good for us, work wise as well!  We had 12 of our 13 recent converts in church yesterday and there were 16 more people in church this Sunday than there was last Sunday!!

I’m doing awesome here in Paraguay and I hope you are all doing great too!! I love and miss you!!

chau

Elder Petersen

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The following is Sarah's blog about what is going on right now.  I asked Jeffrey if he had any thoughts about it, his beautiful response is below:

http://alohahendricksons.blogspot.com/

 

"I hate being thousands of miles away when i could be helping back home. I hate that i have the priesthood to bless but i cant use it with the ones i love the most. I hate that there is a 50% chance of survival!

I love the fact that there is a 50% chance of her survival. I love the fact that Charlotte might have Downs Syndrome. I love the fact that My dad and Brother in law are worthy to hold the priesthood and give my sister a blessing. I love that all of this is in Gods hands. "His ways our not our ways"! I love the fact that all children are saved in Christ (D & C 50:41).  I love knowing that Sarah is just building Gods army on the other side!"

Well Family and Friends                                                 Feb. 16, 2015

This week was absolutely magical! First of all we had the opportunity to go fishing with our ward mission leader and some investigators which was awesome. We caught a Piranha!!!!!!!!!! hahah yeah!!! Along with our Piranha, we caught a weird fish that belongs in the ocean!

Work wise, we are always on the search for more people to teach so that's what we are trying to do right now! find and teach, teach and find!

Like always, we are fixing problems in the Rama but that's nothing new!! jaja

Everything is just going pretty good here in Paraguay. Its just crazy that i have 8 months in the mission!! its seriously flying by! which is good but as well its a little bit too fast!! i still have a lot of work to do here in Paraguay before i can leave and not a whole lot of time!!

I hope you all have a great week. keep up the good work all of you!! Jesus Loves You!

Elder Petersen

Machete, birds and snakes, oh my!

Hello family and friends,

Sorry about last week. I didnt have a whole lot of time to write. Hopefully this week will make up for the last! im sorry i suck at life sometimes. ; (

This week was all about service. jaja it was pretty great!!  First of all, we headed out about 45 minutes away from our house to cut grass with our newly bought macheties. jajaj yeah, I bought a machete!! We cut grass for about 2 hours and by the end, the backs of my calfs were bright red! (sunburned) hahah yeah, I'm super white now. ;( its aight

 

Jeffrey with his new Machete!

Just the coolest bird ever!!

Snake...dead or alive?

 After walking 45 minutes back, we went over to another members house to cut some more grass. We helped clean out a pile of roofing tiles that had been overgrown by grass and weeds and well... a giant ant hill. In the middle of this pile, we found 3 snakes, giant frog and a tarantula, 3 of which we caught and killed!  fo sho there are some pictures coming your way!!

We had 2 investigators come to church this week!! whoo hoo!!! it was awesome. Thats what makes it all worth it!! ; )

Ya know. . . other than that it was just a normal week but when these kind of things happen, its awesome!! im not sure how else to expalin it!! its just Phenominal!! ; )

I love you all so stinkin much you dont even know!! ; ) have a good week!!

Elder Petersen

Paraguayan Firetruck!

Well family i have 7 and 1/2 months in the mission now but it feels as though i just left. it is going super fast and I'm loving it here in the hottest country in the world! One of the things i miss the most is swimming but i sweat enough every day to fill an Olympic size swimming pool so i guess that's good!!

unfortunately i don't have a lot of time this week, sorry, i don't know where the time went!! haha oops 

This week was pretty normal and there is not a whole lot to write about! : (

We have a cemetery in our area and just so you know, they are the exact opposite from the ones in the USA! Seriously the bodies are above ground!! ; ( weird. and in the background there is a soccer field hahah like everywhere in Paraguay!! ; )

We also found some bomberos (firetrucks) so i snagged a few fotos of those!! ; )

Other than that, my week here was pretty normal, for the most part!

i love you guys soo much! have a good week!! 

love elder petersen

Great week!

Well Family and Friends,                                                           Jan 26, 2015

This week was one to remember!! A lot of crazy cool stuff happened!!

First of all we had the pleasant opportunity to talk with Testigos de Jehovah (Jehovah’s Witnesses).  Let me tell you that I would have been happy to talk to them about 3 months ago and tear them apart with scriptures from the bible, but over the past several months I found that it’s not worth it!  As he was trying his hardest to slam our religion with scriptures from the bible, I thought of scriptures to combat every one of his points!  But something that I learned here on the mission is that not everyone that is not of "our religion" is out to prove us wrong, it’s them trying the hardest they can to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

This week we also had Zone Conference! whoo hoo Zone conference is really awesome!  We learn so much in such a short period of time!  I was also given the opportunity to speak, I was super nervous! haha but it went really well!! ;)

Luckily for us, we had the opportunity to give 2 blessings this week, both of them were babies with health issues! 

Something a little bit scary but pretty cool as well happened two days ago when the skies turned black in a matter of minutes! The winds were blowing as if we were in the middle of a hurricane and the power lines above us started sparking and trees were falling all around us! Luckily we were close to the house so we chilled there for a little bit!! haha ; )

The best thing that happened this week happened in the capilla (chapel). Like always, I got to bless the sacrament and as I sat on the stand, 2 inactive families that we have been working with for about 3 months now, walk into the chapel!  I couldn’t help but smile!!

The first councilor on the branch presidency was conducting the meeting and as he announced the intermediate hymn he saw his inactive brother walk into the chapel. He stopped talking and started balling. He sat back down without finishing and the president of the branch finished announcing. He put his head in his lap and cried! 

It was one of the most powerful sacrament meetings I’ve ever been a part of!  My joy was full all because my brothers and sisters came back to the fold!!  This Sunday made all of the Sweating, walking, rejection and disappointment worth it!! I’m so glad to be a part of the great work and see the fruits of our labors!!

I love you all so much and i hope you had a great week!! PEACE OUT

Love Elder Petersen

New Companion!

Jan 19, 2015

My Goodness,

Family and friends, it is honestly so good to talk to you guys!! i hope you all had the best weeks of your lives because you deserve it!! ; )

Really though this week has been really great!! This week we had changes!! whoo hoo I am still in good old Villa Hayes but with another newbie, Elder Garcia!! ; ) He is super fun to be around and i love him a lot! i'm super excited to teach him and learn from him!! it'll be a good change!! i'm excited!!

Elder Garcia from Uruguay!

Right now we are working with a Miriam still, whose son died about a month ago! We need to teach her a lot this week but we can never find her! so for that reason, i think here baptismal date is going to fall. . . again!! :,( but when we do talk to her, she is super excited to be a member of this church! Honestly, talking with her and teaching her has developed my testimony a lot!!

Oh and my Comp. is a really good cook so i I've been eating really great!! haha YES! #win

Along with that, we had lamb shops the other day at a members house! its probably not that cool but it was a new experience for me!! haha!!

I honestly love you guys sooooo stinkin much and i hope you have an even better week than the last!! 

XOXOXOXO

Elder Petey

While "chatting" with Jeffrey today, here is some of our conversation:

Question...do you guys ever get to go exploring and see the sights in your area?
hahah im in Paraguay, there are no sights to see!! haha sorry but Paraguay is not a very touristy place!! ; (
What??  I hear the Chaco is kinda cool.  It was settled by German Mennonites after WW2 and they have giant anacondas there!
haha yeah there are only 6 elders in the Chaco and its the hardest area in the mission! its super hot and not a lot of members!
Haha sounds you're destined to go there.  You can wrestle an anaconda and you can take the heat !
hhahahah maybe in the future!!

**The Chaco is a very remote part of their mission where water is scarce and temperatures are HOT.  No sister missionaries are sent there.
Here is a blog link that tells more about it:

http://elderjonturley94.blogspot.com/