All she needed was an invitaion to return...

Hey there Family and Friends,

  This week was absolutely great to be completely honest! My companion is great, the mission is great, my area is great everything is going great!!

  These past few weeks have been rough because we have been dealing more with the problems that we come across in the Rama (Branch) more than actually teaching and inviting other to come unto Christ! But my prayers have been answered and we were able to focus more on the work this week. So for that, I'm Happy.

   A couple weeks back we were able to find a menos activo family that hasn't been to church in 18 years, it turns out that all she needed was an invitation to come back and that's exactly what we gave her!  She has brought her whole family to church the past 4 Sundays!  We found that her children are not baptized but they want to be, so they both have a baptismal date for the 28th of this month! Also, we have another investigator who has been hard the get a hold of but has come to church for the past couple of months.  We set a baptismal date for the 21st of this month for her!! I'm really exited for each one of them!!

  As well this week, we had a District conference and President McMullin came with his wife and they spoke about marriage! it was great!! it just reassured the decision to marry in the temple!!

  Today we were in a collectivo (bus) and this lady contacted (talked) me and asked me to sit by her! At first I thought she just wanted a piece of an American boy (and that's not a bad assumption knowing the girls here) but it turned out to be a really needed contact! as we talked for a while she asked me to come to her house and preform an exorcism on her daughter!! hahah yeah it was a little bit of a weird question but I took down her number so that other missionaries in her area can go and teach her!! along with that, Elder Garcia and I taught a full on lesson today in a supermarket!! haha

  there isn't much more that that but I'll keep you updated for next week!!

  have a great week!!

Elder Jeff

Heat like Africa and a Miracle

Hey there,                                                                             March 9, 2015

First things first, I'm sitting next to this old German lady and she is getting sooooo mad at the computer! She is pounding on the keyboard and yelling in German!... it might be a good thing that  I don't understand her!! ; )

This week seemed to be one of the slowest weeks of my life! Due to stress and being hotter than the wilds of Africa. Each day just never seemed to end, but like always, the Man upstairs followed through and gave me the strength i needed to make it through!

We had a little miracle happen this week. We were walking to our next appointment and this guys moto died right in front of us, so we decided to take advantage and invite him into the Celestial Kingdom, haha!  We talked to him for a little bit and gave him a pamphlet then we said goodbye and his moto started up like nothing had happened. Now that may not sound like a miracle to most but after having everyone of your lessons fall through and walking around in 100 degree weather, it sure was a miracle to me!!

Along with that, our hard work payed off this week as our attendance increased by 20 people!! wooo hooo

I also grabbed a couple fotos of some eels that were caught in the Rio Paragauyo!! they are coming your way!!

I love you all. have a great week!!

Questions:

What has been the scariest/sketchiest time down there?  What has been the best experience?  Who has meant the most to you?

About the questions! One of them I'm not going to answer and the other: Honestly Pres. McMullin has taught me so much and as well Elder Calderon (assistant to the Pres) as well as Elder Fielding (my trainer)!! There are honestly too many experiences to count that have just been amazing!!

Buddy...you can't scare me!  You really don't need to protect me from the truth, but I appreciate you wanting to.  I know that you are protected and you're still alive so...tell me.
I want to know the best stuff too.

hahah I'll tell you when im home!!  But some of the best things have been seeing the change in myself, and in others!

Fair enough.  But can you tell me how you reacted in those tense situations?  What were your thoughts?  Also, tell me why pres and elder Calderon have done specifically to impact your life.

All three have helped me a ton!! more than anything, they have helped me grow up! Elder Fielding and I grew up together! ; )

Book of Mormon and a Tarantula

Well Family and Friends,                                       March 2, 3014

This week was just another week with good things and bad things, just like every other week! 

This week i finished the Book of Mormon which was great! This was the first time that i actually studied and read the Book of Mormon all the way through! It was amazing!! I learned so much that I'm going to have to reread it to remember it all! If you haven't read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it, than we are just hoping that this church is true and we don't really KNOW!! That might sound a little harsh but how can we know that this church is the true church without reading the KEYSTONE of Christs church??

We had the opportunity to do service and cut some more grass and trees with our machetes. As I was cutting I saw something scurry into the pile of bushes and luckily I found out what it was a snapped a couple of pics!! It was a tarantula! and of course i picked it up!! ; )

 

 

Elder Garcia from Uruguay

 

 

Probably the best thing that happened to me this week was that i had the special opportunity the bless a baby!! it was honestly so special! its great to be so close to something so perfect!! 

This church is true. 

I love you guys!! have a good week!!

love Jeff

 

 

Conversation while emailing:  

I asked if he had gotten the box we sent:

 

Yes, thank you soo much!! it actually might have saved my life! honestly mom i have to roll up my garments to have them fit! if you could send some garments a size smaller around the waist that would be great!!

 

Haha!  You getting skinny...Escalito?  What size do you have now?  

 

34 right now but I'm getting skinny!! it would be nice to have a size smaller if you could! and the shave stuff works great. if you want to send more that would be helpful! 

 

I'll send garments and shave stuff.  Are you hungry?  Are you eating okay?  

 

I'm always hungry!! ; )  the biggest thing that has helped me to lose some weight it that I'm eating healthier!!

 

Okay, cuz this momma doesn't have hungry kids!!!  : ).   

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

*********************************************************************

 

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