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