Hermana Rachel Ruth Peters

Feb. 3, 2015
Hello wonderful family,

Well i will just get straight to the big news. I got transfered. I am now in Santo Domingo, which was the area of Hermana Fowler. Crazy right?? haha so i got to see her which was probably the happiest day of my life :) haha my new companion is Hermana Perez and she just finished her training a few weeks ago. She is amazing and i know that i will learn so much from her.

Santo Domingo is a whole new world for me. Here we are only 30 minutes from San Jose, and it is freezing!!! Okay not freezing like utah, just like cool, but for me right now, i am freezing. haha here they have real stores, like pricemart which is basically like walmart. Also they have McDonald´s, Burger King, Subway, EVERYTHING. haha annnnddddd.... HOT WATER. haha yes this morning i took a hot shower for the first time in 5 months. i was like a little girl on Christmas :) we live in apartment that is alot smaller than my other one, which was kinda surprising but i guess its hard to find houses here too. Haha last night i slept with a blanket... actually 2.. haha and i was so happy. it felt good to be able to cuddle up in my blankets and sleep, i never have liked sleeping in the hot, so that is a tender mercy of this area. It is a big city, so no more dirt roads, with dust in my face. Also the people here have money. Not like a ton,but just normal. I have only met one member that we ate with last night, but i am excited to keep meeting more. Here is a branch too, with a lot of recent converts, just like Santa Cruz :) so hopefully i can help this little branch grow too :) that's about all i know about Santo Domingo, but i will tell you all more next week.

So yes, I am very excited to start working here in Santo Domingo and to see what the Lord has planned for me here. But i was really hard saying goodbye to my branch and investigators in Santa Cruz. I got the phone call Sunday at 5 so i had a lot of time to go and say goodbye to people, but didn't have enough. I went and saw Yulieth and Tamara, miracle that there mom wasn't home. They both just cried and cried. Then i went to like 3 of the member families that were close by and said goodbye to them. Ahh they are just the greatest people, they all just started looking for things to give me. They kept saying, please don't ever forget us. :( it was so hard. and then before i knew it, it was 930 and i had to go back to my apartment. Lots of people didn't believe me that i was really leaving... It was not fun. But i know that they are all in good hands with Hermana Loza.

So then that night i spent packing getting ready to leave. Only took me two hours which is crazy right? i packed up my whole life in 2 hours.. haha lots changes on the mission ;) Then we left in the morning for San Jose, had a long bus ride, without seats because we couldn't buy our tickets early, so we had to stand the whole time. fun right? but that's okay. Usually i just want to sleep on the bus, but this time i had a lot on my mind and it was a nice time to just sit and think. Leaving this area really made me think about the kind of missionary i am, and if i was really able to help these people here. if i was able to leave them better than i found them. I thought about it for a long time, 4 hours to be exact.. :) haha it was great for me to really see that i am helping people here, although i have a lot i need to work on. The Lord is helping me because he knows my weaknesses, and also knows my potential.

Anyways my last week in Santa Cruz was tough because we lost 2 days of work. Hermana Loza had another meeting in San Jose, and she had to prepare everything for it the day before, so that wasn't fun. And then on Saturday we had a big branch activity that we planned. I was so excited for it and we spent almost all day Saturday getting ready, and then we had like 20 people show up which was very disappointing... but it still was really fun and successful with those who did come :) So i wish i could have spent a bit more time the past week visiting with the people, but that's okay. Everything happens for a reason right?

Random Fact.. there is a zoo here. Cool right? but guess what... they don't allow gringos. Like seriously, gringos aren't allowed in the zoo.

Well i love you all so much. :) and i hope you all have a wonderful week :)

Love,

Hermana Peters