Hermana Rachel Ruth Peters

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