Hermana Peters and her Zone - Sept. 29, 2014

Sept. 29, 2014
Hey Family :)

This week was great, full of so many tender mercies. One was on Wednesday. We got a phone call Monday night telling us that we had to go to San Jose on Wednesday to do my fingerprints, something for my visa. So we woke up at 4:30 Wed morning to catch the bus and were off. This we a huge blessing because i woke up that morning feeling so gross And if it was any other day i would have just worked through it, but instead i got to sleep in the bus for 4 hours longer :) and once i got to San Jose i felt great :) Heavenly Father knew i needed just a little nap to get my body feeling good again. He really does know us perfectly! When they got back, Hermana Holmes and I got to go to President´s house with 2 other sisters for lunch because Hermana Wilkinson invited us. It was so fun!!!!

Another tender mercy, which acutally i am going to call a miracle becasue it was, was with a family. We have been working with this family for about 3 weeks now or so and they are all super great. Victor and Gracy, the parents, and their three kids Dani, Kiani, and Victor:) They have been coming to church and learning so much, and Victor always has a lot of questions and a lot of concerns. He is one of those people that like to know things in his head before he gives it a chance in his heart. So getting him to recognize the spirit was kinda hard. But we finally got him and his whole family to pray together and after we asked how he felt and he didn´t say anything for a while and then looked up at us and said ¨Paz¨. (peace) Such a simple answer but i could not have been happier to hear that. So we explained to him that this is the spirit and that this is what he can have with him all the time if he will follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. As we brought up baptism he didn´t like that idea. He said he needed to learn a lot more, and then he will think about baptism. We told him that he doesn´t need to know everything in order to be baptized. This life is a time for men to prepare to meet God, a time to work and grow, and he doens´t need a perfect knowledge of the gospel to start on this path. But he just kept saying no and covering his face. We kinda just sat there for a while and then he looked at us, and started to explain the he has not had a job for 2 months now. That it is a miracle that their family is eating food everyday, and that if he doesn´t find work soon that they will be moving. So on top of wanting to know it all, we now knew that his real concern right now was to provide for his family. At this moment, my mouth opened and to be honest i am not exactly sure what came out. But right then there was something that he needed to hear, and i was the instrument for that to happen.  So the spirit and Victor had a little talk through me at that moment, and within 2 minutes, he accepted and committed to be baptized with his family on October 11. Missionary work is incredible. And so is the spirit. 

Also, our recent convert Karla, who got baptized last week is doing sooo good. She has started to read the Book of Mormon on her own and is so excited about it and loves to read. Every time we walk up to her house she hurry and grabs her Book of Mormon and tells us all the stuff she´s learning about Nefi and his family. This is incredible because before i havent seen this kind of desire inside her. She really had such a change of heart that week before her baptism and now she is golden. Ahh i just love her :) 

Okay also this week i had my first time doing divisions. They sister training leader came here and worked with me for one day and Hermana Holmes left and worked with her companion. I´ll be honest. I WAS SCARED OUT OF MY MIND. One because i was in charge of getting us around Santa Cruz, getting us to all the appointments, AND leading all the lessons, starting them, ending them and doing most of the middle too, with her adding in her testimony. So ya i was soooo scared. But i did it :) I was able to communicate with everyone i needed to, and learned so much from here about being a good missionary. And also i realized that i can do this.

I also got to listen to the women´s conference in English on Saturday and this weekend will be able to watch conference in English :):):) i know what a tender mercy. :) i´m sooooooooooooooooo excited to be able to listen to our prophet speak, and also to hear some english :) hehe

Well i love you all so much :) im out of time and have to run! But i hope you all have a wonderful conference weekend. Eat lots of food for me :) 

Random Facts:

1. People here have a really hard time saying Peters. Like a really hard time. Haha so know when i introduce myself i usually say ¨Soy Hermana Peters, comó Peter Pan.¨ which means i´m Hermana Peters, like Peter Pan. Haha then they laugh and usually say something about me flying, or how Peter Pan is my brother. Haha so a lot of people here call me Hermana Peter Pan. :)

2. Since everyone here has dark hair they don´t understand that hair gets darker when it gets wet. So many people have asked about our hair after rain storms.. haha

3. Oh mom you asked me my favorite food here and it´s changed. It´s now chocolate bananas. :):) mmmm. There is this little family here who makes them and it´s just a banana covered in chocolate but sooo good. Maybe because it´s cold. But i love them. Oh and this little bread store with the yummiest bread that has this cream filling. Ahh i´m probably going to get fat. :)

4. oh speaking of getting fat, starting this week we will be having a cook who cooks lunch for us. It´s a member of our ward and she owns this little resturant (wow i can´t spell) haha and her food is so good. So i am probably going to get fat now. Pray for me :)

5. Here in the mission we have a goal every week to get 140 LPEs which basically are talking to 140 new people, sharing a gospel principle, and inviting them to do something. Since we had so many lessons this week, and also one day in a bus and San Jose, on Saturday we only had 50 for the week. But me and Hermana Holmes weren´t going to let that stop of from reaching our goal. We started that day and were just talking to everyone, went to a bus stop inbetween appointments that had like 40 people there and screamed to all of them my testimony. So yes by the end of the day, we had talked to about 100 new people :)

Love you and will send more next week :)

Love,

Hermana Peters

My first baptism :)

This is Karla and she is incredible and i love her sooo much. She got baptized by her brother :)           And this is me filling the font!

 This is me and Hermana Holmes with Chino. He´s the one that always feeds us the weird food.. Haha but man he is the best and sooo funny! Also right before this a little girl, about 4 years old, did Hermana Holmes´and mine hair. She was adorable :)

This is my district :) Best people in the world :)

                                       

Never forget that i love you!!

This is the beach that isn't sand, it is sea shells.  Look at how blue the water is!!!  

                       

Hi Family :)

Wow this week was so good. I am learning so much here, it is unreal. First off as you saw, i had my first baptism. What an incredible experience to see someone go from knowing nothing about the gospel, to being in the font, getting baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was such a blessing. Plus we had an investigator family there at the baptize. That right there is a huge miracle. The baptisms are right after church. So these people had already been in church for 3 hours with their 3 kids. And then we were getting ready for the baptism and i remember that i forgot to tell them about the baptism. I ran out of the church and luckly that hadn´t left yet so i invited them to stay and watch. And they did!! This is amazing because the President of our branch said that 70% of investigators that go to a baptism, get baptized. I really hope they are part of the 70%. We are going to continue to work hard with them. 

So we were super happy for this baptism, but sad at the same time because we were supposed to have two yesterday. The other was supposed to be Fabiola. She was golden. Accepting the lessons, reading the book of mormon, praying, ahh and so prepared. But then two days before her baptism her husband showed up, who had left her a few month before. He wanted to get back together, and told her he didn´t want her to get baptized because he is very catholic. She told us all this in a text on Thursday, and that night, Friday, and Saturday we went by her house at least 5 times, hoping she´d be home because she was ignoring all our calls and text. Still today we haven´t heard from her...Not sure what will happen, but here i have learned that Heavenly Father´s hand is in all things. He knows all, and has a plan for everyone. So we don´t know what´s happening with Fabiola, but he does. And she now knows what the spirit it. She knows the truth. She has prayed and received an answer. So i hope that one day she will remember that. Whether that is tomorrow, or not for a few more years. I just hope she will not give this all up just because someone told her to. 

This week we spent quiet a bit of time searching for families. This branch is so close to being a ward. We just need a few more people at church and some priesthood holders. So families are what we need. Plus this gospel is all about families. :) Anyways, one night we were walking around, very wet and not knowing where to go. We stopped, prayed asking for direction and for someone to be placed in our path, and then kept walking. We started feeling hopeless, finding no one. And so we started walking to a less active families house and right before we got there i saw these two kids outside a house and i knew i had to talk to them. So i started talking. This is something i do a lot. I will see someone and just start talking, because i can do the little small talk of how are you, how´s your day been, we´re missionaries and such. And then Hermana Holmes is great at testifying a little and asking if we can share a message. So we did this. Even before Hermana Holmes asked if we could share a message their mom invited us in, got all their little chairs out and we were off. It wasn´t a full family, just a mom, 15 year old daughter, and 2 little kids. But we started teaching the Plan of Salvation, which is one i feel like I know pretty well. As i was about to share the part I usually do, i felt very strongly not to, to simple testify of the power if this plan. I thought of a quote that you sent me mom that says something about a simple testimony  can have a big effect or something like that... And so i did that. I testified about how this plan can change their lives. That God has a plan for their family and about the amazing opportunity we all have to be here. To learn and to grow. And that we don´t have to play a guessing game, God has a plan. For everyone. He is there, waiting and ready to help, all we have to do is ask. Ask for his help, his guidance and he will be right there. Okay ya i didn´t say all that just like that because my spanish is still not that good... Haha but those were my thoughts that i was trying to get across. The spirit was definetly there, helping me, but more importantly helping them. As i finished we sat there, and then i asked the 15 year old daughter how she was feeling. She started to tear up, saying that she had never felt this feeling before in her life, but she liked it. It was a good. Wow. Booom. Her mom also was feeling it, but the daughter, man you could see it in her eyes. And right then we knew she was ready and invited her to be baptized. She accepted and is preparing to be baptized in one month :) hopefully we can get the rest of the family too, but ahh what a blessing to have found her, someone so ready and willing. 

She made me think of the power the youth of this church have. Some of the strongest members in this branch here are the youth. There is a group of about 5 young men, all about 15 or 16. EVERY week they are at church, at every activity, and always studying the Book of Mormon, even when most of their families aren´t. It is such a testimony of the choosen generation. That Heavenly Father has really kept all of us for these latter days to be the strong ones. Especially now. 

Okay i´m almost out of time. But know that i love you all so much :) I am loving this opportunity to learn and to grow. It´s so hard. But like the good hard. Like a good workout. :) Haha I hope all is well at home, thank you all for updating me on your lives.. besides laura cameron and michael...;) haha 

RANDOM FACTS ABOUT SANTA CRUZ:

We are offically in the rainy season here and so everyday around 3 or 4 it starts to rain. But it is a down pour. AND the thunder is sooooooo loud. Like make you almost pee your pants loud... Haha

Oh one day this week the rain was crazy... Super hard. And we forgot umbrellas... So as we leave a lesson it was like jumping into a pool... Haha i just had to hold my breath and go because it isn´t warm rain here.. It´s cold. Which usually feels great, but that day i was already cold. Another day i remember my umbrella... Which was good, because it rained like all day. We walked through puddles that were like up to my knees.. Haha boo ya puddle jumping for days ;)

The lightening is crazy here. I love it :) haha there are many times when it´s not raining, or thundering, but there is lightening the lights up the whole sky. There have been a few nights that we walk home to the the light of the lightening.

The men here know 4 words in English.... ¨i love you baby¨ haha but is sounds more like... i luf yu bebe haha it cracks me up. We always just keep walking and say adiós. That´s the other thing... Here as you walk past people, many times they will just say adiós. Its like you walking down the street saying Goodbye to everyone you saw. At the beginning i thought it was way weird, but now i find myself doing it all the time.

I was going to write and say that i hadn´t gotten sunburnt yet but that changed today... haha

There is this spot right outside our church building that i like to call the splash zone. It is always covered by a TON of birds.... And sometimes they splash.... Hahaha one day i got splashed. ALL over my shoulder. Ya grosssss.

Another place here i call the death zone. Every Sunday morning there are like 30 vultures... i don´t know why.. But man sometimes i think to myself... I´m dead or something? Hahaha just kidding :)

Well that´s it for this week :) I´ll send more next week though :)

Have a wonderful week :)

Love,

Hermana Rachel Peters 

Blessings continue to come!! This picture was sent to Rachel's mom through a text on Sunday Sept. 21, 2014.  The sender is unknown, but loved!

Sept. 16, 2014

Hello to the best family in the world :)

I hope you all know that i love you all very much. I need to put that in the email right now so i don´t run out of time. But I just hope you know that everyday i´m out here I love you all more and more, because i see the gospel blessing so many families here, and it makes me 1 so very grateful for all of you and that i was raised in the gospel, and 2 soooo happy that we are a forever family. That we don´t have to worry about saying goodbye, or never seeing each other again. This gospel is incredible. And the message i share everyday makes me appreciate it more and more. And appreciate all of you mroe and more. That might not have made any sense because sometimes i don´t make sense... haha but, I LOVE YOU ALL :)

So this week here there were two holidays. One was dia de la niña, or kids day. Like mother´s day and father´s day. Yeah why don´t we celebrate that in America?? Who knows... Haha but that was fun to see all the little kids all day with their fun little gifts they were getting. :) Also yesterday was Independence Day here. I got to see a little bit from the window of a bus, haha because yesterday we also had a meeting with President Wilkinson in san jose, which is a 4 hour bus ride. I learned this week that Nicaragua is closer to me than san jose. Crazy huh? Anyways.... All the new missionaries that had been here for one month met together with our trainers too. It was so nice to have president talk to us because he is so inspiring. He helped everyone to realize that feelings of being alone, feelings of never being able to get the language, and basically any other feeling that anyone could have felt this past month was completely normal. Sometimes it´s nice to hear that you are normal. :) hehe. One things he kept saying was how Satan will try anything to get your mind away from the work and away from the people. So this was his advice...

Tell Satan to shut up.

haha so if any of you are having a hard day, doubting yourself and your strength and power as a child of God, and thinking this is too hard... tell Satan to shut up and keep working hard. :)

Okay i don´t have a lot more time... But this is a little clip of what i sent to president about an experience this week so here :)

So on Saturday we were supposed to have a baptism. This was the second time to fill the font for the young girl. She is only 13 but she has a huge spirit behind her and i love her so much! So anyways, the first time the baptism didn´t go through because she got sick in the hospital. Buton Saturday she just didn´t show up. About 20 minutes to we get a phone call saying that she was having doubts, and didn´t want to go get baptized anymore. Hermana Holmes and I ran to her house as fast as we could and we found her in the back corner, crying. She just kept saying ¨no quiero¨ and it broke my heart. We went into a room where we could be alone, and Hermana Holmes started talking to her. Telling her the importance of baptism, and the great choice she is making to be baptized. But then she stopped and totally switched what she was talking about to tell her how loved she was. And oh how true that is. One of the many fruits of being a missionary is feeling that love, the pure love of Christ, for all people. Especially those investigators. It´s amazing the love the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for all of us. Anyways, as we talked, and cried, she explained how she just didn´t feel ready, and wanted one more week to prepare. We explained to her that she was very ready for this, but that the only was to decide what she needed to do was to pray. So we all kneeled down and she said a very heartfelt prayer, which might have been the first time in a while. As she finished she just sat there for a second and said that she felt that she needed to wait. And it was crazy because that felt so right to me to. So although that was not what i wanted, i knew that was exactly what Heavenly Father wanted and knew that she needed. Hopefully we will be able to prepare her this week so that she will feel prepared to be baptized on Saturday.

Do you see crime in the streets?

No... not really. Lots of drunk people though haha

What are the people there like, what do they value and work for

Everyone here is soooo chill. Like just sit back and relax. They have like 2 hours from 12 to 2 that everything is shut down, and people all go home, eat and take a nap. Which sounds great but makes missionary work very hard. But they are great and i love them all :)

The area you are in seems like just a small town.  Are there a lot of people there, cars, animals?

yes tons of people, not a ton of cars, and animals all over. Dogs are like flies here. They are alllll over. And also horses, and chickens. Oh and this week i saw fireflies!!! Ahh they are the sickest coolest bug in the world. i wanted to catch on and keep it as my pet.

It gets dark early, so do people go to bed after dark or party or eat or what?

Yeah around 6 but people just use that time to chill. Sit on their porch and do nothing. That is what they always do here. 

What do you do in those dark hours while you are supposed to be working?

work. haha

What is your favorite new food there?

This little spiky fruit.. I forgot what its called but i will remember and tell you next week :)

When you arrived in your area, how did you know where you apt was?

Hermana Holmes knew :)

Was everything you needed in your apartment already?

Yeah mostly. We just had to go buy some food

I hope all is well and that you are all working hard and reading your scriptures :) I love you all so much!

Hermana Peters

Sept. 8, 2014

Hermana Holmes and Hermana Peters at the Beach!

Yes she did cut open the coconut, eat it and drink the juice!

First off, THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE!!!!

Okay best surprise ever!! I was not expecting that and was sooo happy to get something! Hermana Holmes had asked for mom´s phone number and i didn´t really know why, but wow that was just what i needed! So thank you! I was also able to get a few dear elders this week! We only get mail if someone in our district goes to San Jose which doesn´t happen very often. But this week 2 hermanas did and so we got mail! I don´t know how often they print dear elders but I didn´t receive any of your Annalee... But i did get one from you mom and the webbs :) so thank you to both! And thanks Grandma and Grandpa Peters for the letter!! I haven´t tried to send a letter yet because it´s like a 15 minute walk from our apartment to even send one.. But i will try soon!

So today for Pday we got to go to the beach as you saw by my pictures! It was THE BEST. This week was stressful as i´m sure all weeks will be for the next year and a half, so to go and listen to the waves crash, soak my feet in the ocean and just think about nothing was just what i needed. Plus it was so pretty. Ahhh this whole place is beautiful!! Honestly one day we all need to come here as a family okay? okay great :) Haha so the Tolmans who are the people that used to live by grandma and grandpa peters live like on the beach in the nicest house so we were able to go hang out with them for a bit and it was weird. Because 1. Everyone was speaking English.. and 2. The house was really nice. Like REALLY nice. Actually it´s probably normal for Utah, but here... holy. I felt like i was on vacation. 

ANYWAYS... On to the good stuff and the reason i´m here. :)

This week I had the amazing opportunity to be someone´s angel. It was probably one of the best feelings in the whole wide world. So here´s the story....

 There was this lady who was a reference so we went and stopped by one day and taught a little how to begin teaching with her and her husband and it all seemed to be going really well. We invited them to be baptized, and they accepted and then we told them they would have to get married and they were a little iffy... A few days later we wanted to go back and visit, it was part of our plans but it was pretty far away from the rest of our investigators. So for a second we thought about it, trying to decide what was the best use of our time, the lords time. We felt very strongly that we should stick with the plans we had made so we went. As we showed up to her house, she said that she was busy and couldn´t meet with us right then so then we just asked if there was anything that we could do to help her. Right then she started to cry. She began to say something which i didn´t really understand. A regular spanish speaker is already hard to understand, so through in some tears and i was pretty lost. Spanish + Tears = A lost Hermana Peters.  But i felt the spirit testifying that we were here for a reason and she needed us. I knew that whatever was wrong, whatever hard time she was having then, could be made better through the gospel.  That is the amazing thing about this gospel. It can help anyone with any sort of problem. All through the power of the Atonement. Anyways this lady had prayed that morning that God would send her some angels to help her. And then we arrived. How incredible? and what a testimony builder that God answers prayers and is helping all of his children. So went on to talk about her husband and how he was into all sorts of drugs and bad things and wasn´t a good man, but that he will be leaving in a few days and that she still wanted to be baptized. So we talked to her and she said she also wants us to teach her 8 children. WOW: long story short, we were able to talk to her and comfort her with the gospel :) they didn´t come to church yesterday, but hopefully they will come next week.

Also we found a new family which we have been praying really hard for. It was one of those moments where we walked past their house and felt very strongly to turn around and go back so we did. We met with this cute little family and were so excited but then we were worried because lots of people here aren´t married. Acutally most. And so we knew that we would have to work really hard not only to help them want this gospel in their lives and come to church and all that good stuff, but also to get married. So as we went back for the second visit we were just haveing a casual conversation and Hermana Holmes brought up marriage. And they said that  they were married!! phew... and then we asked for how long and they said 15 days!!!! That right there shows that God is really preparing people for us missionaries. 

I am loving my time here and learn more and more everyday. I know that if i give it my all, i will be blessed, and also the people here will be blessed. Spanish is such a rollar coaster, sometimes i feel good about it, and others it´s like i know nothing at all. But i know that i am being blessed and watched over and i´m grateful for the this trial. I´m grateful for the time i get to study a new language, to communicate with people that i normally wouldn´t be able to, and to give my all to my Heavenly Father.

 What do you eat?
Okay so normally here the missionaries have a cook for lunch and the other two meals you just eat on your own. But Hermana Holmes was getting really sick from the food, and the amount of food so she asked if when i came we could not have a cook. So we don´t. So we have pretty normal meals, they just taste a little different. Like cold cereal with powdered milk.. yum right? haha i acutally don´t mind it. And we have sandwiches a lot. Just normal stuff. But a few times we have eaten with members and i have told you about the weird ones.. haha but normally rice and beans. Just like everyone said. Haha
 Where do you get the food?
Little stores called Pulpurias. Just like a mini store :) they are cute.
What is your church schedule like?
9-12 but we leave around 7:30 to go get all our investigators and walk to church with them and then are there til like 1 or so just talking to people. Yesterday was my first fast sunday here and it wasn´t too bad. I was worried because we start on Saturday after lunch, and then finishSunday after church. And you know how i get those last few hours.... But i was fine! and i know it was a blessing from Heavenly Father and also because i was fasting for my investigators so i wasn´t thinking about myself.
Is there just one branch in the building?
Yep just one little branch.
 How does the branch  treat you and each other?
Sooo great! They are some of the nicest people i know! Me and Hermana Holmes are in charge of singing time in primary as of yesterday so i´m super excited to get to know all the kids better :) but yeah the people are constantly hugging and smiling and are great! And there are 2 gringo families and they are the sweetest! Always checking up on me :)
What have you taught and been taught this week?
 This week we taught a lot about the importance of being strong, because the power of the adversary is real. Especially with the new chapel starting this month and also us working for a stake. Yesterday we had lots of investigators at church and that was so cool, but then we realize that we are losing members. The people here are VERY chill and sometimes that means they just don´t understand that some things you do take effort, and are hard. So we are working very very hard with the members and also the less active members. Little by little we are going to make this branch one of the strongerst :) And i have been taught sooo much. Like in primary we talked about gratitude and aww this little kids who have hardly anything are so grateful for everything and that was such a good reminder to me to be grateful! And also that the Lord will help  you through anything. And whatever he asks of us, he will make a way possible for us to accomplish it.
1 Nephi 3:7
Ether 12:27
I love you allll sooo much. Thank you the emails and for the updates! Sounds like you all are doing great! :)
Love,
Hermana Peters

p.s.
almost forgot...

Haha remember how I told you i named our bugs here hoping they would be nice to me...? Okay well i guess we were a little too nice and they invited all there friend over one night. Or maybe they had babies.. who knows... Anyways... We come home one night to like 20 in our apartment... Yeah that was fun for two little white girls. Hahaha we were running around with this special bug spray that kills them because we don´t like to smash them. Their guts make a mess.... Haha anways the moral of this story...

Don´t name your bugs. Teach them who is boss from day one :)

Hahaha :)

Sept. 1, 2014

Okay so this week was harder. Days that i just wanted to stop and cry for a second. Learning a language is overwhelming. Especially being completely immersed in it allll the time. I sometimes feel like i´m learning nothing, like im almost getting worse. But whenver i take a step back and just breath, i realize that slowly i am getting better. And that the gift of tongues is real, and doesn´t mean that all of a sudden i am going to be able to speak perfect spanish, but that little by little i will get it. i have been able to understand a lot more of what is going on around me and help in lessons more and more everyday. I love it!!

So last week i forgot to tell you some things... On my first real day here, I contacted a bus. Yeah i stood in front of a bus full of about 80 people and i got up in front and yelled at the top of my lungs, ¨Hola Hermanas y Hermanos. Yo soy Hermana Peters (then hermana holmes introduced herself,) and then i went on to tell them that we were missionaries here to share a message. Hermana holmes then shared a little message and then we went around and talked to people. Soooo scary but so good for me.

On Tuesday we had a multi zone conference in San Jose which is about a four hour bus ride both ways. Yes lots of time in the bus. But the ride is BEAUTIFUL. i love it. At the zone conference i didn´t understand a ton, but a good amount since it was all in spanish... haha but after President came up and was talking to me and Hermana Holmes. He turned to me and was asking about how i was doing and such and then went on to tell me how impressed he was with our first interview and that that was the reason i´m in Santa Cruz. He said that he only sends the best missionaries their right now because we are pushing really hard and so close to getting a stake here. Who knows if he was just saying that he sends the best here to make me feel good, but i was very grateful for him and his confidence.

So last week we had like no rain, i was like wow everyone told me that the rain here was so bad and crazy, but i had like 2 that were just like Utah rains. But then this week we had some bigs ones. Like HUGE. Haha and you can tell when it´s about to rain because it gets way way hot and humid. Like i am dripping with sweat.. Actually that is pretty normal so i´m dripping with even more sweat. Haha and so when the rain hits, its just like ¨come at me rain¨ haha and its not warm rain like people told me. it´s cold so it feels wonderful. We try to remember umbrellas because it is like a downpor, but then at the same time they don´t really help because it rains like sideways sometimes. haha it´s crazy. And then after it is actually cold for a bit which is a weird feeling sometimes.

Yesterday we had dinner with some members and they told me that we´d be eating soup. I was so excited, it was right after a rainstorm so i was kinda cold. So we got there, they handed me the soup and it was just like a whole bunch of random vegetables, these banana things and some kind of meat. I turned to one of the missionaries there (since all six of us were there) and asked what it was. (This is the nice things because 4 of the 6 are gringos so you can ask stuff in English and the members dont understand what you´re saying. Me and hermana holmes use this a lot especially just like walking around. We can talk about anything because no one understands) so one of the elders said, you don´t want to know yet. Just try to keep it down. Hahahaha ya so i took my first bite and it was sooo chewy... like rubber, in my mouth, that made me want to gag. So that was fun. A huge bowl full of rubber meat that i ended up mostly just swallowing whole. Lets just say i´ve never prayed so hard while eating before... Haha but you know what? I ate it all. And after felt like i had just accomplished a marathon or something. Haha i guess i should just get used to this... And learn to love it. Oh and by the way it was cow stomach. Ya i had stomach inside of my stomach last night. GROOOSSS.

So like i said last week, the kids here have my heart. Like everyone here has my heart, but the kids. AHH they are the greatest. So many of them are just reaching and wanting the gospel. You can see it in their eyes. But their parents dont. Most people here are catholic, and their families are catholic, and everyone they know are catholics. So they dont really want to change. Also the people here are soo chill, just like go with the flow, sit around all day in their little rocking chair and they are happy. So its sometimes hard to get them to commit to things. But anyways the kids. There are these two (they are the ones in the picture i sent you mom and dad) Their names are Nicol and Justin and they are the cutest. Justin reminds me of Chanco off of Nacho Libre because just look at him. Haha he´s hilarious. Everyday they are out on their front porch and they wait and wait for us to walk by and they the run out and give us both at least 10 hugs. (The day we were in San Jose i guess Justin waited all day for us and we never came and that night was bawling because he didn´t get to see us that day... aww) And then they always beg for us to sing. They love the hymns and are i know that they feel the spirit as we sing. But their parents haven´t wanted to listen to us. They are nice, but just dont want to listen. So we´d always just say hi and sing loud so hopefully the parents heard too. Then this week we had a miracle and it was because of the rain. It was during a down poor and we were just walking around, enjoying the rain and then stopped and talked to them for a second, while we were just standing getting drenched. So i think they felt bad for us so they let us in!! And then we were able to have a lesson with their parents. Their dad is tough. He very strongly believes that his ways are the right ways, and his wife just agrees with anything he says. But we are going to keep working hard because this family needs the gospel and the church needs them.

This month in Santa Cruz they will begin to build a new chapel which is soo exciting. The work here is really growing soo fast. But also, Satan is working really hard on us. And it showed this week, mostly yesterday. Me and Hermana Holmes left our apartment at 7:30 and went out to get all of our investigators to church. NONE of them could come/had work/made up some kind of excuse. And as we were walking to one of investigators house, we were a road that has only like 2 houses on it, and is very dangerous at night because that is where all the drunk people hang out. But it was early in the morning, we didn´t think anything of it. As we are getting near the end we hear a scream and see a man walking towards us. He was sooo drunk, you could tell. Right as he saw us he started running towards us, he looks like a zombie with his arms us in the air, screaming. Probably one of the scariest things ever. We hurried off to one side, both praying in our hearts to know what to do. Right when he got about 1 foot in front of us, (us being up against the side of the road) he fell the other way and we were able to quickly run around him and run to the nearest place with people. He didn´t follow us or anything and but my heart stopped for a little bit and my legs felt like jello. We continued to try and get investigators and then went off to the church and were getting things ready for a baptism that we had. I thought okay we´ll be fine, we´ve got a baptism today. Then after sacrament meeting we got a text saying that she had fainted and was in the hospital. It was about then that i was just like STOP SATAN. It was hard. In the middle of all this i remember how dad told me that Sundays were hard for him, and i was feeling some of that too. It´s not really a day of rest here... But i took a step back, and realized that i was going to be fine. I am working hard, trying my best and that´s all you can do, (right tyler?) Do your best. So hard day, but i know that things happen, things don´t always go the way you plan, but Heavenly Father´s hand is in all things. I realized i am so blessed and that we are having success. We have about 17 investigators right now. Found all of them in the last 2 weeks. Plus we were able to find a family, which we have been praying for! So i am learning to work hard, give it my all, and then work a little bit harder. and then to be happy. To know that if i work my hardest, Heavenly Father will do the rest.

Well I hope all is well back home! Good luck with school and work and everything else that is going on! Remember that i love you.I pray for you all every day. Remember that Heavenly Father loves you, and that because of Christ and his atonement, we are never alone in this life. We never have to go through anything harder than we can handle. And he will be there every step of the way, no matter what. This gospel is amazing and  i feel so blessed to be able to share this glad message with everyone here. 

Philipians 4:13 :)

Love and miss you all!!

Hermana Peters

Missionaries serving in the branch

Hermana Peters and Fowler start their journey

San Jose Temple

A view from my Apartment

A Happy Anniversary note to Mom and Dad