1-27-15
Fam,

Sounds like you all had a crazy week with poor Kara. She is in my prayers and i know that it was a miracle that she is still alive.

Kara wasn't the only miracle this week. Another one is named Jenny. Jenny is the sister to a recent convert here that we have been teaching off and on since i got here, so 5 months. She is a toughy... i´ll just say that. But we for some reason we never could drop her. We always felt the need to keep going and teaching her. At the beginning she told us that she likes to listen to us, but that she will NEVER go to church. She doesn't like church, never has, never will. But we kept trying. This last week her daughter got really sick. She wasn´t eating and in 2 days lost 7 pounds. Wainer (the brother who is a member) gave her a priesthood blessing, but made sure to tell the family that miracles come when we have faith. After a day or two she started getting better, which yes right there is a miracle of the priesthood. But the real miracle with with Jenny. She told us that Wainer started to give the blessing, and right then she felt something, something hot, and as if someone was inside of her, a feeling that she said she didn't know how to describe and was like nothing she has ever felt before. Then she told us that after the blessing she was sitting there, and she watched her daughter, (who has been coming to church with wainer) kneel down by her bed, and plead to her Father in Heaven to take away this sickness. A young girl with no strength in her body, but with faith big enough to be healed, and she was healed. Jenny talked about this for a long time, and we just sat and listened, and held back tears. After we talked about the incredible power of God, and that miracles really do happen. And then we talk a bit about faith, and the importance to act on our faith and then, like we have done sooo many times, invited her to church. She looked down for a bit, looked up and said ¨I will go. But just this once¨ i couldn't help but smile knowing that with God, this just once could turn into a lot more. But we knew we had to keep working hard. We kept going by, talking with her and making sure she was preparing for Sunday. We also felt the need to invite her to a baptism that the Elders had on Saturday at a river (since we don't have a font right now) I honestly didn't think she´d come but... SHE CAME!! It was so beautiful and i had the chance to speak at the baptism so i´m hoping that some of the words i said touched her heart.

So Sunday we had to go get her, convince her again to come with us, but she came to church! The impossible Jenny who said she would never come to church, came :):) i don't know if she really enjoyed it, but i know this is the first step of many more for her :)

Also Sunday as we were waiting for Jenny we got a text from Yulieth. We haven't been able to visit her or Tamara because the mom has gone crazy on us but her text said that she was coming to church. So she met up with us at Jenny´s house to all go together and i asked her how she convinced her mom to let her come to church. She said ¨Well i opened the door really quietly and tip toed out...¨ Wow you don't here of that everyday... a 15 year old teenager sneaking out of the house to go to church... I am amazed by her and to faith she has. i would love to see her all in white getting baptized.. but right now isn't her time.. but i am still praying and believing in miracles.

Well family, i hope all is well at home and that you are all surviving the cold. Dad i agree with you. Heavenly Father is just saving up the snow for when i get home and the we will probably get so much that we will all get snowed in and have to sit and play games together all day long :) hehe

Thank you all for the love and support. I know i say that almost every email but i really mean it. I have seen with so many missionaries, especially with Hermana Loza, how hard it is to be here without the support of a family. Hermana Loza parents do not support her being here and think that she is wasting time. I cant imagine that. So THANK YOU soooo much :)

Have a wonderful and safe week :)

Love,

Hermana Peters

i ate this... fish soup.. haha 

 i am at the house of a member in an area called Cacua. The trees are papaya trees and they all look like that. they are so pretty. not sure what the buckets are for.. With me is Chino, he is one of the funniest people i know :) haha and yes... and i ate it.. yuck

 and they dont take the meat off and put it in the soup all nicely. They bones, scales, everything is in the soup... 

the scales are chewy... double gross!

yes this is the fish i ate... not anything off little mermaid

Jan. 20, 2015
Show Satan who is Boss!

 Hello family,

How is everyone doing? I hope all is well :)

This week, not going to lie, was one of the harder weeks i have had here in the mission. To start, i got one of those gross things behind my ear again.... yeah gross right? Luckily it is going down and i dont think i will have to make Hermana Loza give me surgery... haha but it was a pain this week... Also...

Here in Santa Cruz they have a big party every year in January that lasts for a whole week. People from all over Costa Rica come to this party and everyone says it THE BEST. Well this week was the parties, and let me just tell you, for missionary work, it is not the best. No one was ever home, because everyone was always at the parties. Literally everyone. We would walk around the streets like little puppies just searching for anyone to talk to. Many times we would try to go talk to people at the parties, but then we realized that maybe its better to not, because almost everyone had drinks in their hands and were very drunk. It was hard to not have people to visit, and also to stop by investigator´s houses, only to find them sleeping off their hang over. 

But we pushed and pushed. And kept working hard. We had the baptism of Yulieth and Tamara to work for right?? This is what was keeping me going. 

On Wednesday we went to talk to their mom, and it went really well: We were able to let her talk about how she was feeling and in the end she said that if it was something they wanted, then she would let them, but that we needed to talk to their dad too. So the next day we were planning what we were going to tell him and everything when we received a text from the girls saying that their mom didnt want us to come over today, that she was feeling gross (oh by the way, the mom is pregnant) so we kept asking if their was any possible way and they said ¨No, when our mom says no, she means no, and if we ask again she will get mad¨. Great. So we tried again the next day. Nothing. The mom wouldnt even talk to us. 

So we prayed a lot, and tried to think of anything possible that we could do, but we werent allowed in the house, and the girl´s couldnt get baptized without the signiture of both parents. So the only other thing we could think of was a letter, with the baptism forms in the letter for the mom to sign. We dropped them off and then prayed and prayed. That night, as i was thinking about these girls, 2 people i love so much, i felt at peace. I knew that for right now i had done my part in their life. I was able to find them, to start teaching them, and to help them find the truth. They know this church is true and i know that they both are firm and strong in that. So for right now, maybe baptism isnt part of their plan right now, as much as i would like it to be. But i feel very blessed to have had a least the opportunity to help them find the truth. something i know they were both searching for before. 

so we didnt get to have this baptism, which is always hard, especially with the leaders calling asking what we did wrong.. But i know that this is just one of the parts of life. People have agency and we will keep working hard with them to keep them strong in their testimonies.

But with all this opposition, we were able to still see miracles, and this really is the beauty of this life and gospel, there will always be something that we can be grateful for, and miracles in every day. One day we felt very strongly to go visit an investigator and when we finally found her, she told us that one of her good friends had just died.. and so we were able to help her feel the spirit of hope again in her life. 

Also one day when i was feeling down, I asked Hermana Loza what i should do. and she said ¨Be more like Peter Pan,¨ which as you all know is basically my name here. I sat their for a second kinda confused and then she explained how Peter Pan can only fly if he has happy thoughts right? So the only way i can fly in my mission and throw this life, is by having happy thoughts :) that was a nice tender mercy from her and now whenever i hear all the little kids yelling Peter Pan, it is a reminder to me of what i need to be :)

Oh mom i gave your finger puppets to the kids this week in church. They loved them!! There werent a lot there this sunday (because of the parties) but next week i will bring them again. they all say Gracias :)

Random fact, i ate armadillo. Haha it kinda tasted like chicken. Wasnt too bad :) hehe and yesterday i was talking to a man in the street, he asked me how long i have been here and i said 5 months, then he asked me if i studied spanish before my mission. I laughed and said no not at all. He was amazed, and didnt believe me so i told him to ask my companion. So he did and she just smiled and said ¨Yep its true:)¨ then he was like wow you are so smart, and i said ¨No, I am just a testimony of the power of God, and that miracles can happen.¨ we then had a talked for a bit longer and then he left. But after i was thinking about the miracles i am seeing everyday, and everything going on in this mission. It really is a testimony of who is in charge. I know this work is not my work, that i am just an instruament in the Lord´s hand. And this week, hand in hand with my Savior, i am going to show Satan who is in charge, and i know that we will see miracles this week. 

I love you all sooo much! Everyone, show satan who is boss this week okay?

Love,

Hermana Peters

 This is the pet of one of our investigators.. a chipmunk.. haha 

Peter pan :) haha this is a little peter pan doll this boy had. He is the son of a less active member and is soo funny.

Jan. 13, 2015
Hello family,

First off thank you all for the birthday emails and for all the love. I am so proud of you for putting you Rachel on and doing what i do best ;) hehe looked like a ton of fun. But not as fun as my birthday in Costa Rica. hehe so not gonna lie, Friday night i gave myself a little pep talk, telling myself to not expect anything, that I am here to serve, and that is what i will do, because i didn't know if anyone was going to remember that it was my birthday.. So i woke up on Saturday, and started to exercise. i was a bit down because we have had a baptism planned for my birthday for a while now and the day before it fell through because the mom wouldn't give permission, and the dad felt better about waiting a least one more week.. But i knew that this was God´s will and felt at peace, just wishing that i could have had a baptism to celebrate my birthday. Then the other hermanas that live next to us brought me breakfast and sang me a crazy latina birthday song. haha i loved it and was happy to be remembered and the sadness left.:) Honestly that was all i needed just for someone to say happy birthday and remember me so i was happy and ready to go work that day. So we went out and visited a few people, Hermana Loza made sure to mention to everyone we talked to that it was my birthday.. haha then she was like ¨we need to go to Chorotega¨ i was kinda confused because in our plans the night before we didnt have chorotega until the night... but i was like okay. So we go to Chorotega and we go to one of the members house, and when i walked in there was a bunch of people, with birthday hats, balloons and they all started to scream ¨Happy Birthday¨ :) it was probably the best feeling in the world to have these people here that i love so much remember such a special day for me :)  Then they said they have a special surprise for me, President Wilkinson. I was like ¨What??¨ Then in walks Jenny, who is the brother of Wainer. She is one of the funniest people here. Hahaha so she had taken Wainers suit and pulled back her hair, and put make up all over her face and put on one of the missionary tags.. Hahaha i will send pictures. It was so funny. She then goes on to share a scripture with me. (this was a little miracle because she isnt a member... yet ;) haha and it was the one in Ether about God touching the stones. Then Wainer (who is a member and always helping us with whatever we need) said that everyone has their different gifts, and things that they have been blessed with. But that i was one of the precious stones touched by God, that they feel so blessed to have me in their lives. He went on and said so many sweet things about me and then all the missionaries and some of my investigators who were there said what they loved about me. They were some of the most sincere, real complement i have ever received and will cheerish them for the rest of my life. One of my investigators, Yulieth (Juliet) (who i will talk about again later) started to cry, talking about how grateful she was for me. I really am the luckiest person in the whole world to be here in Santa Cruz with such amazing people. 

So after all that we had a piñata and they said that it was my job to break it open which was harder than i thought.. haha but i did it and all the kids were so proud of me ;) then they bought out my cake and sang to me and i blew out my candles. Then all the kids started to yell ¨muerdalo¨ which i thought was ¨muerte¨which means kill... haha but i guess here tradition is that the birthday person takes the first bite of the cake.. so i go down to take a bite and then all the kids pushed my head into the cake.. Cake all over my face. But hey its better than eggs... ;) haha so yeah then after that we went out and visited more people and it was great. i had such a great big smile on my face all day and definitely was a birthday that i will remember for the rest of my life. :) i feel so blessed to have a wonderful companion who made sure that i had a wonderful birthday. Shes the best :)

So Yulieth and Tamara are 2 of our investigatros right now. (they were both at my birthday party) They are 2 youth here, 14 and 15 years old and they are amazing. We have been teaching them since September off and on. There was a time that they werent progressing so we had to stop visiting with them for a bit, but when Hermana Loza came, she was like lets go visit them. They are now preparing to be baptized this Saturday and are more prepared than anyone I've ever seen. :) they are 2 girls very close to my heart and i feel so honored to be a part of their lives. The trail that we have right now is that on Sunday the mom told them that she doesn't want them to get baptized (i know, the same thing happened last week with Yareth.) We have an appointment with them tonight so please everyone pray for them. I know that everything will happen the way Heavenly Father wants, but these girls have such a great desire to follow their Savior, and i want to do all i can to help them. 

Fun Fact for this week... Friday night we were visiting with a family who fed me Cow Liver. YUM....:/ not. i don't understand why people here eat EVERY part of the cow. Just eat the good part okay? hehe

Well i love you all sooo much. I am so grateful for my team at home that is the best support team i have ever had. Thank you all so much for all you do. I hope you all aren't too cold, and that all is well with everyone. 

Take Luck and Take Care :)

Love,Hermana Peters

Birthday morning surprize!
Also the first look at the apartment

 

blowing out birthday candles in morning

Birthday food

Surprise party for Hermana Peters

Jan. 6, 2015
Hello Family,

How is everyone doing? How is the year 2015 going to far? Hope all is well and that everyone is enjoying their new year. i know i am :)

This week was great and i feel so very blessed right now to be here in Costa Rica. :) It was kinda a slower week because everyone was still our partying, and not a lot of people were home Wednesday and Thursday for the New Year. So those days were a bit slower. ButWednesday night we decided we still wanted to celebrate this new year so we bought one of those floating lanterns and wrote all over it of things that we want to become this next year, and then sent it off into the sky right at 12:00. It was sweet :) 

Then Thursday we got a phone call that Hermana Loza needed to go to San Jose the next day for a meeting because she is in charge of the retention. But they said that i could stay here in Liberia with the sisters there. So i get there and walk in and its Hermana Larsen, my companion from the MTC!! Haha crazy right? So it was fun to spend the day with her and her companion. Her area is a lot nicer that our area, and i really enjoyed being able to get to know people there. She kept saying how impressed she was with how much Spanish i knew. I guess i have learned a bit since the MTC.. ;)  the only bad part about this was that we lost a day of work in our area... and we had already lostmonday night because i was sick... so we were a little stressed, but let me just tell ya, when you work hard, Heavenly Father will bless you. 

 So Saturday we worked really hard, and then sunday we went off to church, praying for investigators  we were walking to church there were a bunch a police men off on the side of the road and a man talking to them with 2 kids. i just kinda glanced over and then kept walking and then realized that it was Victor and his kids!!!! i went running over and hugged the kids and talked to Victor! He had just barley got back from Nicaragua a few days before, hes been there since his baptism working on getting his papers and stuff to become a citizen here in Costa Rica.  So i went running up and he yelled ¨Ahhh PETER PAN¨ hahaha then he started to joke that he was about to send all this cops out to find Peter Pan for him :) haha so we talked for a second, figured out where they were living and then went off to church. i was sooo happy to have found them and was basically skipping to church. We passed for 3 of our investigators and then went because we needed to be early so i could play the prelude music. so i was sitting there playing, so happy to have found Victor and also that we had a least three invesigators in the church. Then 2 more came in, then another, then another. By the end of the meeting, we had 9 investigators at church!! MIRACLES HAPPEN. :) i was sooo happy, and could really feel the love of heavenly father for all of these people :)

so ya Sunday was great! And i felt soo blessed, and knew that it was a little taste of fruit for my work, but i still know that i have a lot more work that i need to do. We are working right now really hard with 4 people, preparing them for baptism. One is hopefully this Saturday, he is the son of a member here, but lives with his mom. He is great :) so pray for him, and we are also working with 3 sisters that are adorable. i love teaching them because they really just soak in every word they say, and every time we leave i feel like i learned more than they did. They are amazing and are preparing to be baptized the 17th of January. 

Well family i need to go but i love you all so much! I got my christmas package and i was like a little girl opening it :) haha you are all the best!! i also got a bunch of letters so THANK YOU ALL :) I am the luckiest missionary ever :)

Have a wonderful and safe week :) Do something crazy on Saturday for me okay?

LOVE YOU,

Hermana Peters

Selfie in the Jungle

12-13-14     Loza and Peters