June 29, 2015
Well family this week has been one week that i am never going to forget, for many reasons. 

First off we had our last meeting as the whole mission on Tuesday. It was INCREDIBLE: It started with President Wilkinson splitting the mission. He had sent all of our names to the 12 apostles to look over, and assign us to where we needed to be. So i could tell everyone was a little nervous, because no one knew if we would see a lot of changes. I was sitting by Hermana Fowler, both of us just praying like crazy that we wouldn't get separated... so he told us that he must have been pretty in tune with the spirit because there weren´t going to be any changes. Where we are is where we are going to stay. I was so happy and Hermana Fowler and I were almost in tears, knowing that we can still be together. After he and his wife talked to all of us. I don't have time to say everything i learned, i´d need days to tell you it all. But I will tell you that the spirit was so strong, testifying to all of us the we really do have a president who is called of God. 

At the very end, President Wilkinson and Hermana Wilkinson were standing together, just crying and said that now we will be saying our final goodbyes, but that they would like to do it with a hug. Right then i lost it, because i´ll be honest, i get to hug women all day here, but i have had this desire deep down in my heart for a dad hug. (dad i will never again take your hugs for granted) there is just something about being in the arms of someone who holds the priesthood. And President Wilkinson has been my dad for this time, so being able to go and give him a hug was the best thing ever. I first hugged Hermana Wilkinson, and cried in her shoulder. She said so many beautiful things to me, and all i could do was cry. Then President gave me a hug and after told me thanks. I tried to thank him through my tears, for being an instrument in the hands of God to form me and mold me into who i am today. All he said was "I didn't do anything, you came pre trained to this mission and are changing so many lives by your example" So it wasn´t a fun goodbye but at least i will see him again.

So onto the rest of my week. Man so much i want to say so little time. Well to start off with this past week we found 2 new families, that are amazing!! One of them is a husband and wife, well actually they aren´t married, but want to be. They have 3 kids, and are super open to the gospel. The other is a huge family and everyday we are teaching more. We started with 2 girls, and now are teaching the whole family, plus their grandma and aunt and uncle. and they ALL have a baptism date. Basically we are going to baptize the whole extended family :):) And yesterday they all came to church!! We had 11 investigators in church!!! i have never had that many investigators in church, i was like a little happy girl on Christmas, seeing them in the chapel :)  So next week i will tell you more about all of them, and get some pictures because these are families that i am always going to remember!!

Well i am out of time again, sorry! but i love you all sooooo much! thank you for everything :)

Love,

Hermana Peters

Oh and Happy Birthday Grandma Peters and Happy 4th of July everyone :) don´t worry i am still proud to be an american :)

a few friends.;)

the girls in my zone :)

last meeting together as the whole mission :(

Red head, white missionaries

This is the group I came into the mission field with - one year later!

My Mom and my Baby

Hermana Peters and companion, Hermana Gallegos :)

me and my comp :) twins right?

my best friends here in escazu :)

yesterday  we had lunch with one of the gringo families here.. look at their view from their house!! wow :)

June, 22, 2015

 This is a really rich part of my area. We have to use our id to get in.. haha

Oh and look how weird.. this tree has all of it`s roots out of the ground. 

my companion :) 

this was after my first leadership meeting. It was probably the best thing in the world world having Hermana Fowler right by my side the whole time! i love her! We talk every night and this next week i get to go on divisions with her!!! I AM SOOOO EXCITED :):)

With President Wilkinson y Hermana Wilkionson :)

During this picture president leaned over and said

"You`re going to UVU right?"

i said yes.

he said..

"Well i´ll see you there, my new job is the director of the institute at UVU"

BOOOOYAAAA :)

i love Juanita :)Such a special day for us and this family :) now they are back in the states and Juantia is in Nicaragua again.. But we had one final night together where we all went out to eat at PF Changs. Ya i felt like a princess of a missionary. I don't remember the last time i went to a sit down restaurant like that. It`s probably been at least a year.. haha so i loved it!! I already miss Juanita soooo much. 

Another fun fact... I got my ears pierced... haha :)

Here in Costa Rica you aren`t a real women if you don't have your ears pierced.. so i decided to become a women and get them pierced :) i really like them! haha and sorry you cant even see the actual piercing in this video. But here it is :) 

So this week i went on my first divisions as a Sister Training Leader. I was a little nervous, not really knowing what to do, but it ended up being soo good. I was with Hermana Nuñez, that has been known to be a little disobedient, and also really relaxed in the work, and that she has had bad experiences with the leaders in the past, so i decided the most important thing at the beginning is to gain her confidence. no better way to gain confidence than by eating a whole pizza together. So we went to lunch, ate a whole pizza, laughed a lot and then went to work. That day we found 6 new investigators, 5 of them accepting a baptism date in the first visit. It was incredible. And i loved being able to go see what other areas are like. This area was in the mountains, and really steep hills. So lets just say my calves still hurt. Haha but i really enjoyed everything!! 

Hey family,

So you have already heard a lot about me.. haha but ya i am loving my time here in Escazu. And i am really happy. :) I am now really starting to understand more about the saying.. You find yourself when you really forget yourself. Being here i am not just worried about my work, and what i am doing, but i get to take time to worry about others. To be able to call the sisters every night and just talk to them. It`s incredible.

Yesterday was stake conference. I got to have stake conference twice in the last 3 weeks because i had it in my old area, and now here. But i love being able to hear the leaders speak. They have so much power in their words, especially President Wilkinson. He challenged all of the investigators in the meeting to talk to their missionaries, and put a date to get baptized. One of our investigators, who already has a date, turned to us and said, write down everything he is saying, i need to remember this. It was amazing. 

We have a lot of people right now that are preparing to be baptized, and we are working really hard to have one more this month. We are working with a girl named Nubia, she`s 19 and i guess she has almost got baptized like 4 times. Like the font full and everything. So i have only gone with her like twice, and am praying really hard to understand why. She is pretty quite, and so it could just be that she`s scared, but hopefully we can figure out how to help her this next week. 

I know that God really does have a plan for every single one of his children. I am so grateful to be able to see everyday more of that plan for me, and others. I am so excited for Michael to get his call and to be able to start his work as a missionary. It`s the most amazing thing ever!!

Well i hope you all have a wonderful week!! LOVE YOU ALL!!

Love,

Hermana Peters

June 15, 2015
Well looks like you all had a lot of fun this past weekend! I´m glad you could all escape from your normal lives and just have a break :) everyone always needs a break every once in a while. 

This last week was crazy, but really good. REALLY REALLY good.  i am loving my new area! It`s WAY different, but different is good right? haha my first day here we went to the main city, which looks like i am back in the states... malls, walmart, pricemart, freeways (ya i forgot those things existed.. haha) and really nice houses. So my first impression was like "oh no... these people aren't going to want to listen to us.." but then when we got back to where we live i realized that it`s just like all of Costa Rica. Super rich, then five minutes away there are people living in tiny little houses. So then i felt better :) My companion, Hermana Gallegos is also great. She`s super chill, and way funny and we get along really well. i am learning a ton from her. 

So life as a Sister Training Leader is a lot busier than a normal missionary. Like this past week we were in charge of taking out the new sister missionaries the night before they got their trainers, and have them work with us for a few hours and sleep at our house. Also every night we have to ask the sisters about their day, and then report to the Zone Leaders. So we spend a lot of time on the phone. Also this past week we had a Leadership Conference which took a good chunk out of our day to work. But i love it. I was a little nervous at the beginning, not knowing exactly what to do.. but after the conference i realized the best thing i can do as a leader, is to leader by example, love them, and help them when they need help. We will be starting next week with divisions where i will go and spend a day in the area with one of the sisters and her companion will go with my companion. i am really excited for that, so see the other part of Costa Rica and get to know the sisters better :) also to be able to spend a whole day with Hermana Fowler :):):) hehe

Time for my miracle. Okay so you all know that the past few months have been pretty hard for me, especially with so many people getting so close to being baptized, and then having something happen. But by the end, my last few weeks there i had so many cool spiritual experiences, with people, and just feeling the love of my Heavenly Father, so maybe i didn't have very many baptisms, but because of that, i have grown more than every before in my life. I know that sometimes we have trails, not because we are doing something wrong, or because God wants to punish us, but because He knows that we are ready to grow. It just took me a little bit longer to realize that..

 Anyways... When i got here on Monday, my companion told me that they day before they had this lady come to church, saying she wanted to get baptized, and the Bishop gave her permission, so basically all we needed to do was teach her all the lessons in one week. Her name is Juanita, and she is a maid of one of the gringo families that is living here (ya escazu is full of gringos, yesterday at church i felt like i was in a ward in the states ) She has been working for this family for 4 years now, and never been interested in the church, but 2 weeks ago she had a dream, and she knew that she needed to get baptized. The thing is that this week she is going back to Nicaragua, and she wanted to do it before she left, so this week we spent a lot of time with her, teaching her everything she needed to learn, and on Saturday she got baptized :) 

I really felt like this was a little present from my Heavenly Father, because we didn't have to do anything, she was prepared, ready and we just filled the font for her :) I know that if we continue faithful, even when it is hard, we will receive blessings. Sometimes it`s not in the timing we want, but in His timing we will be able to gain so much more. 

I love this gospel and i feel so blessed to be a part of this amazing work. I hope you all have a wonderful week :)

Love,

Hermana Peters

PS. Sorry i forgot my camera..... a lot of pictures next week, i promise :)

June 8, 2015
Hello Family,

Before i send my email to tell you all about my week i just wanted to let you know that yesterday i received a call from President Wilkinson, asking me if i would accept the call to be a Sister Training Leader in Escazu. ( it`s like the Zone Leaders... Like i will be going to Divisions with all the sisters in my zone and calling them every night to see how their day was.)  Of course i accepted and today i am off to my new area, nervous but so excited for my new adventures to come :)

I LOVE YOU ALL :)

Hermana gallegos is my new companion. I will replace Hermana Holmes as a trainer and I am in the same zone as Herman Fowler.

Hermana Peters
Hello Family,

Well this past week was great! We worked really hard and had days full of miracles. Remember the family i told you about last week? well this week they came to a branch activity that we had, and it was amazing! they were so happy to be in the church, and they said they don't plan on leaving, that they want to stay and don't plan on leaving from this church!! I know of course that happens right when i get called to leave, but i am very excited for my companion to be able to help them get baptized. It was sooo hard leaving them, but i know that they will be in good hands. And that one day i will see them in heaven.

We had 2 days this week that were incredible because we felt sooo guided by the spirit. Lots of days we spend hours and hours trying to find people to teach. Knocking on a billion doors, but this week we had two days when we felt directed to specific houses, and in these houses they let us right in. I started playing this game with my companion, She would tell me left or right, and then give me a number, and i would count my steps. When we got to the number we would find the closest house and contact it. We had 5 new investigators that day, and all were found playing that game :) sometimes you just gotta have a little fun. :)

All the goodbyes were hard, especially because i got my phone call at like 2 in the afternoon yesterday, but President told me that i couldn't say anything until i got the actual call from my leaders, so i couldn't even tell my companion.so i was walking around all day, just waiting to get the call... But i was surprised to see her when i got the phone call.. she started to cry, and went on and on about how great i am.. and wrote me a big long note. 

But ya i dont have a lot of time because my companion wants to get going to our area. But i love you all so much and will make sure to send lots of pictures of my new area! 

Thank you for the prayers and love :)

Love Hermana Peters

June 1, 2015

Hello Family,

How is everyone doing? Ready for summer? :) 

Yesterday we had an incredible lesson,one that i think i will remember forever. Not because we taught the most amazing lesson, or because everything was perfect, but because i know that this family is one prepared from God. So let me back up a bit.

On Wednesday we were going to an appointment.. they weren´t home.So we went to our plan B.. they weren´t home either. So we did what we always do and looked for the house closest where we could tell people were home. So we started to talk to this old lady and her daughter, who is like 40. They did not seem interested at all and so i was completely shocked when they told us that we could share our message with them. The old lady brought us into the her house and as we see a young mom sitting on the couch. We started talking to her. She´s 20 years old and has 2 little girls. She lives with her boyfriend right now, but they want to get married. She told us that she has been wanting to go to a church for a while now, and that she would come with us on Sunday. And when we challenged her to be baptized she accepted without even hesitating. She was pretty quite throughout the whole lesson, but i could tell she was listening So we left that lesson feeling great. Her baby got sick and so she couldn´t come to church yesterday, so last night we went by to see her. Right when we got there she got all excited, got everything ready for us and we started to talkin. She told us she needed to tell us something, and i always get kinda nervous when that happens.. but we sat and listened. this is basically what she said...

 "Last time when you guys were here, talking to me i felt something so different. All my life i have been surrounded by people telling me what i needed to do in order to be accepted in this world. At 12 years old i started to doing drugs, and by 16 i was pregnant. And then you guys showed up, 2 girls my same age, that were telling me that my Heavenly Father loved me, and telling me to be good. i dont ever remember anyone ever telling me to be good. So i had this feeling and i dont know how to describe it, A feeliing i have never felt before, like something in my heart, that felt so goood, and yet at the same time i felt the need to cry. That´s why i hardly said anything, because i didnt want you guys to see my crying. Then yesterday i was reading the folleto that you gave me, and i started feeling the same thing as i read about a light a boy saw, that ended up being Jesus and God." 

Listening to her talk, testifying of something that she didnt even know yet, was such a testimony builder for me, especially about Joseph Smith. This mom has been tossed around all her life, looking for acceptance, and love, and she has now found it. We were able to testify to her that everything she had been feeling what the spirit, telling her that what she was hearing and reading is true. She told us that she moved here about a month ago, and has felt such a need to go to a church, but didnt know where to find one. just like the scripture in D&C 123:12 

"For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the sutlecraftiness of men.. who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it-" and now she is so happying, knowing that she has found it. 

Half way through the lesson, her boyfriend walked in, and well lets just say that he has the same thirst to change, and to have there family forever. They both have the goal to be baptized July 4 :)

So we left that lesson probably the happiest missionaries in the world. :) Hermana Gomez turned to me and said, "i know understand why I am here in Santo Domingo. This is the family that we have been praying for." Missionary work is the best and brings happiness that is everlasting and REAL:

Other than that our week we great. With lots and lots of rain, okay actually this is nothing, just still holding my breath, knowing that pretty soon i will be swimming from appointment to appointment. haha but we are working hard, and seeing miracles. This next week is Hermana Gomez´s last week of training,and i can tell she is soo excited to be finishing! I am excited for her too :)

Oh and on Tuesday we had interviews with President. I will be honest, i was a little scared to see what he was going to say because i hadn´t baptized in a while, but my whole interview he was just telling me how proud he is of me, and the work i am doing. I even brought up that we hadn´t been baptizing and he explained to me about how missionary work is not just us, if the members of this branch aren´t helping, and aren´t welcoming new people, heavenly father isn´t going to put more people in that church, which makes sense. At the end he said, "Hermana Peters, one day i would like to meet your parents, and have them tell me how i can raise a daughter just like you. I will be the happiest dad if my 3 daughters end up like you." i left feeling soo good :)

Well i love you all so much! Have a wonderful week :)

Love, Hermana Peters