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

Robbery Photos + Christmas at Presidents house

The crime scene...

My Zip tie!

Survivors!

Police

Sergio, the man!

Christmas at Presidents home

Mom:  I keep telling dad that I’m not at all surprised that you got robbed, I’m only surprised that it happened in the office!  Did they ever find them?

Jeffrey:  jajaja No! we went down to the police station and made a report and we still havnt heard anything! jajaj Paraguay

Mom:  No surprise there!  During the whole thing, did you ever feel like you were really in danger?  Is it true that those guys are superstitious about messing with Gods people?  Or is that just something that people say to make the parents feel more comfortable.  haha 

Jeffrey:  jajaja well at first when he had the gun in my ribs I was a little nervous but after a couple seconds I realized that they were not going to hurt us. Actually its funny that you ask that too. Elder Johnson had asked him if he believed in Christ and he said "oh for sure"!! hahah so I asked him if he felt bad about robbing His church.

I know its probably not the best idea to taunt some guys with guns but we did it anyway!! jajajaja

Mom:  Bwaaaa!  Why an I not surprised!!  You’re such a knucklehead!  How long were they there?  Where were the other elders?  You’ve got to write this stuff down so that you will have a clear memory of it later.

Jeffrey:  yeah I wrote in my journal! the other elders were in the main office where the other guy was trying to break into the safe, they were there for about an hour!

Christmas 2015

1/4 of the landlord contracts that Jeffrey keeps up with

The thumb drive video that the office elders made for all of the missionaries for Christmas

Once upon a time, in a far off land way down South, there were a couple of missionaries that were working in the office one evening when all of a sudden, a couple of men knocked on the door and asked if they could use the restroom.  After Elder Johnson let them in, Elder Petersen showed them to the restroom and while he was unlocking the door, one of the men put a gun to his ribs and asked him where the safe was.  After zip tying the Elders to the chairs, the bad men used a blow torch to try to get into the safe, all the while asking the Elders to unlock it.  Elder Johnson pretended not to speak Spanish and Elder Petersen just kept saying he didn't know how to open it, but he did offer to give them a Book Of Mormon!  After a while, the bad men figured that they weren't going to get in to the safe so they cut the zip ties off, too the book that was offered, and left.  Then End!
Oh Paraguay!

Remaining in the office, but with a new perspective

Family and Friends,

As you all can tell from the title of this email, I didn't receive changes this week. That means that i will stay in the office for at least 2 more changes which is approximately 3 months. I cant tell you that im excited about it but i am happy that I am willing to do what the Lord asks of me. Luckily, I believe that it will pass quickly and I'll get out of the office with two good changes to go out and work hard. Ive got lots of things to keep me busy here in the office for the next three months. I guess I'll get to work.

This week almost everyone in the mission received changes (besides me). We as office staff were able to do a lot of the behind the scenes work to make sure that the 3 day project runs smoothly. Right from the start we had lots of problems. To go and receive the new missionaries that come in, we have to have a truck to go and get all of their luggage. Well he didn't show up so i had to arrange 4 different modes of transportation, 3 of them being taxi´s and the other being a little pickup truck from the presiding bishoprics office. When Elder Johnson and I and our fleet of taxi´s showed up we received a call from the assistants that the new missionaries had some problems with their flights. After begging the taxi drivers to wait every 15 minutes for an hour and a half, Elder Johnson and I went in the speed the process up. We had the opportunity to greet the new missionaries as they came through the gates which really cool! We gathered all of the luggage and took them to the office.

One of my favorite parts of the office is changes. It is also one of the most stressful. Monday night we didn't get home until about 2am, Tuesday we didn't get home until 2am, we got up at 3am Wednesday morning to be in Luque, didn't go to bed until 12 that night and got back up at 3am again to take the dead missionaries (the ones that are finished) to the airport. Overall, Not much sleep. 

Some more problems that we had consisted of the air conditioning not working in the office where all of the newbies were, we were one van short of what we normally have, we lost some very important documents, the printer broke and we were very late getting all of the dead missionaries on the plane. And lots more

But the good thing is that the new missionaries all got here safely and all of the old missionaries that went home all made it safely as well!

I love you all so much. and i cant wait to see you all in a short 5 and a half months!! stay true to this Gospel. It will help you out in whatever you're going through.

have a great week! I'll see some of you on Christmas morning!! 

Love Elder Petersen

 

 

Some local graffiti...

New perspective:

Ive just been thinking about the mission and how little time I have left, half of that time will be spent in the office!!  I think that i'm going to focus a lot on my district this change, maybe it will keep my mind off of all of the stress from the office!

 

New mattreses for the misionaries

Dear Dad,

This week was nothing special. A lot of office work. I put in over 100 baptismal records in this week and as well helped in a special change. I have been running around all over the country this past week trying to make sure that the mission runs smoothly. I have been in the office longer than anyone else in the office right now and so i know how things work. I have been helping a lot of the other elders to complete their jobs while doing mine as well. Its a lot of work. i did get a new assignment for the changes this time. I am in charge of all of the missionaries that will be heading home this change, which includes my trainer Elder Fielding and all of the sister missionaries that came with me into the mission. It is pretty weird to think that it has been exactly a year and a half. I never thought it would pass this fast. and now the sisters in my group and my trainer are leaving in less than a week.I'm going to be able to take them to the airport at about 4:30 in the morning. It'll be fun!

I'm very excited for these changes next week because i think that i might train and leave the office in a few weeks after that. I'm so excited, I really want to dig into the work and leave the mission working super hard. 

Well i that about it for me this week.

Hello Family and Friends,

   I hope you all had a wonderful week. I sure did. It wasn't anything special but it sure was better than last week. This week was full of running all over the country trying to make sure that the mission functions correctly. That's kind of my job.

   Well i corrected my mistake of ordering 20 beds that were way too small and i got new ones just yesterday Its pretty cool to see 20 beds stacked up on top of each other. jajaj but whats even better is the view from 20 mattresses high!! jajajaja

Elder Johnson on top of the pile

    I also have the opportunity to be the District leader of the most baptizing district in the mission so i had the chance to go and give a baptismal interview in an area called Zeballos Cuè. This area is right next to the river and this past week it rained very hard last week so all of the housing that were close to the river were under water. We had to take a little bit of a hike to get to this house where i would give the baptismal interview. In other words, We went into the jungle. It turns out that she wasn't at her house so will do it today at a Capilla Abierta.

    You know, that's about it for this week. I did take lots of fotos for you guys so i hope that makes up for the lack of words. jajaja 

    I know that this is the true church and if we live it, it becomes even more true. 

I love you all and i hope you have a great week this week

Love Elder Petersen

these pictures are of us stuck in traffic and bored as crap jaja

This is me talking on the phone with an angry landlord...its my life right now

Not my finest week...

Hey Everyone,

    Let me just start out by telling you all that this was NOT Elder Petersen's best week!! Lots of things happened this week but unfortunately next to none of them were good.

    First of all, I have made a sweet video for this years Christmas present, But it wont download correctly. Soo i need to convert it all over to a different program that will allow me to download it. As well, It needs to be done by Tuesday. Uh Oh

    Second off, We were taking some old furniture to a member who has had problems due to the recent storm that we had here. To get to her house we took a pretty muddy road to get there. Little did we i know that even while in the service of your fellow man, things will go wrong. We had everything unloaded and we went back to the car just to find that the tire was flat! Lucky me

     I also ordered new mattresses for the mission. so they came yesterday to drop them off and they were tiny. they were like something that you would get for a toddler. The only thing that President said was " well. . . Get it resolved "!!!

     I also broke a water pipe of a house that the mission rents out. I had to go fix that this morning. 

     Well the last and final Fail of the week was when Elder Johnson and I went to go pick up some boxes of Books of Mormon right before our zone conference. I was wearing my suit pants and I got a little cocky and i went for two boxes of Books of Mormon. The Hermana that was there told me not too but i did it anyways and as i was lifting these boxes, My suit pants ripped to the maximum. and by saying "to the maximum" i mean, beyond repair. 

    Well now you have a little taste of what my week was like. I hope yours was better. Jajaja one day ill look back on this week and smile. It just wont be today!! jajaja

I love you all so much and i hope you all have a wonderful week. Just keep your heads up and always remember that someone always has it worse than you!

Love Elder Petersen