Hermana Rachel Ruth Peters

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