Hermana Rachel Ruth Peters

Happy Dec. 2nd
Hola Familia,

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? You better have all eaten extra for me :) We decided to have our own Thanksgiving lunch here so we went and bought a little chicken and some bread from my favorite bread place here :) we also made some mashed potatoes and ahh it was yummy. My favorite part though was that we all got our study tables (Hermana Holmes and me, and the other two sisters) and we made a little dinner table and were able to all sit around, eat and talk. This is something that doesn't exist here... And it might be because i live in one of the poorer parts. But no one here had a dinner table, most people just sit down on the ground or a little chair and eat. It is something that i took for granted before my mission, that's for sure, but really it was so nice to just sit and a table and talk with the other sister for a bit :)

Also, thank you mom for the package :) 25 days of Christmas has never been more exciting for me! Haha since time here is so crazy and i feel like I never have a free second, I wake up extra early to open my Christmas present for that day :) hehe so thank you mom! Like i said, you are the best! oh it isnt even the gifts. it is just like a nice little reminder everyday of my amazing team I've got at home backing me up. :)

So this week we had another baptism for the young women named Yenzel. Can i just say, she is one of the strongest and toughest people ive ever met. I have been amazed by the change i have seen in the girl the past few weeks. In the beginning when we were teaching her she was sooooooo shy. She never wanted to talk, and almost never left her house. She stopped going to school and i don't know if that was because of money of what.. But ya she was so quiet. But slowly she started opening up and we would have to explain things very simply for her, but i know that it clicked. Like i said last week, she just like sent us a text and was like, I want to get baptized! I asked her this week what was the thing that changed her mind. And she said she didn't know why. She said after she looked at her phone and thought, why did i just send that? haha but then she said she had such a peaceful feeling come over her, and she knew that it was the right thing to do. Her baptism was amazing, it started a little late because we couldn't find her.. haha but it was soo good. I did a little piano musical number too which felt sooo good to play the piano :) even if it was only a little keyboard. :)

After this baptism i was so happy and proud of her decision to be baptized and how this is going to change her life, and the life of her kids, and her kids kids, and wow it is just incredible. This baptism is also incredible because as a mission we had a goal to get 200 baptisms this month. We received a text Sunday night that said as a mission we had EXACTLY 200 baptism. Not one more, not one less. All i can say is that this work is not our own, but it the work of Heavenly Father.

We had our last Sunday in the Chapel on Sunday and it was so fun to see how excited everyone is to get this new one started! it will take about 8 months to build, so since i probably wont be here in 8 months, i am hoping at least one day i can come back to see it :)

Lets see... Some random facts:)

Here in Costa Rica it is officially summer :) yep all the kids have the summer break right now until like February or something like that. Weird right? But that means no more seminary.. Which is sad. But good too because we will be having more time to work!

People here aren't huge into Christmas.. But almost all of them have Christmas lights and they all blink. No one has just plan old lights. they alllll blink. haha

The month of December here doesn't bring snow, but wind. A whole bunch of really strong wind. Plus it isn't raining anymore so it is really dry. So i might be wearing my glasses for this whole month.. haha all the kids have now learned how to say 4 eyes in English now and that is what they yell at me. haha

Oh and here is a crazy story. We have these two investigators.. I think i might have mentioned them last week. But this week we were visiting with one of the members here and they told us how they are like in hiding or something, like under protection of the government. And that this past week something happened and they got moved. I don't know why they are under protection, or what happened, or where they went. Crazy right?

Hope you all have a wonderful week and remember that i love you :) we will be having transfers at the end of this week... i am praying that i get to stay here longer, but we will see what the Lord has planned for me next.

Keep all my investigators in your prayers. Satan is working very hard on all of them... But we are working harder :)

Well i love you all so much :)

Love,

Hermana Peters