December 7th 2015

My heart is so full of emotion as i come to realize that this will be my last time, emailing as a missionary. I wish there were words to express how i feel right now but there really aren't.

First off i need to tell you all about our huge grand miracle from this week, that brought tears to my eyes that it really happened. i dont know if you remember Dana, but i will tell you her story really quick. She is amazing. Okay so it all started with her boyfriend, who is a member of the chruch. They were dating for a while and then he left on his mission, but by him, his example and his words she started getting interested in the gospel. So after he left she started to investigate and for the Book of Mormon online and started to read it. For reading it her whole life changed, she used to not even believe in God, but by reading the Book of Mormon, and feeling the power of it she started to believe and then started to pray that she could find some missionaries. About 7 months ago she found the missionaries, they contacted us here, and ever since we have been teaching her. Every lesson we had the spirit was so strong as she told us that she knew everything was true, and wanted sooooo badly to get baptized but her mom said no. She´s 22 so she could easily get baptized but didnt want to go behind her mom´s back. So we have been fight for my whole time her to get her baptized, but nothing happened for a long time. But when i met her when i got her she told me that she was going to get baptized before i left.

Last week i got a message from her asking when i left and i told her and she was a bit upset because didnt believe that she´s be able to get baptized that fast. We talked to her and said everything is possible with God, just ask your mom. so she said okay. so we all prayed and prayed and prayed and then waited. On Tuesday we got a message from her that said "Guess who is getting baptized??;)" AHHHHHHHHHH Dana got baptized yesterday and was the happiest day of my life. I will tell you more about my week on Thursday :) because i want to share some thoughts i´ve had.

As i look back and reflect on my mission, i cannot help but just be soo full of gratitud for my Heavenly Father. I feel so very blessed for the day that i took time to pray and really see what Heavenly Father´s plan was for me, and that i followed what i felt and came out on the mission. And that every day since then i have seen my Heavenly Father continue to show me His plan for me. He really does have everything planned out PERFECTLY, and sometimes we think we know better, but His way is always better. Always better, yet sometimes harder. But the hard times are what makes us so much stronger. i really can now say that i am so grateful for every hard day in my mission. I am grateful for every sweaty day, when i was sweating so much that i thought it must be raining because i was so wet, and then could stop and think about the time Jesus sweat blood from every pore. I am grateful for every door that got slammed in my face, for every day i was called crazy, because from that i was able to understand a little bit more about how Christ felt being rejected and mocked. I am grateful for every fast i had, and the times when i felt so weak that i had to just completly put my strength on my spirit forgetting all about the natural man,  that i could think about the time Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days. I am grateful for every heavy backpack, that maybe at the time i complained, but then was able to think about the time Christ carried the cross on His back. I am grateful for every night that i feel to my knees, pleading for help, and sometimes wondering what more i lacked, wondering what i was doing wrong, and pleading like Jesus Christ, asking to please "if it´s possible take this cup from me" and then realizing that the Lord has a plan, that he wants me to grow. That really all these things were for me to understand who i am. i know that my Heavenly Father loves me, and that he is completely aware of everything i go through. I am so very grateful for this time i have had to really get to know my Heavenly Father, know who He is, and that He really loves each one of us so much. What a great blessing i have had to testify from the top of my lungs to the whole country that God loves them, and He wants the best for them. What a great blessing i have had to tell the world that God has a plan for them, and that He wants us to be happy. To tell everyone that i am the happiest person in the world, because i live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2 Nephi 4:34

I know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus live. I know and have felt so many times in my mission that He is hear with me. He already walked my path, and knows exactly what i need to do to get back to live with my Heavenly Father again. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that becasue of HIm and His sacrifice, all is possible. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is a book that changes lives. It has changed mine, and changed soo many more here too. I know that this is the only true church, i know that the gospel blesses families, and i cant wait to see it bless my family again. I know that i wasnt the best missionary in the whole wide world, that maybe i didnt baptized millions like Peter, Alma and Amulek, but i know that i did what my Heavenly Father wanted me to do.

2 Timothy 4:7, 17

Thank you all so much for your love and support these last 17. Thank you for your fasts and prayers. for you emails and letters. For letting me leave and grow to become who i needed to become. I am a changed person and know that it is all throught the Savior. I cannot wait to see you all soon!!!! VERY soon!!! :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!

Love and signing off for the last time,

Hermana Peters

November 30, 2015

Heeeelllllooooo family :) 

I hope you allll ate soooo much food on Thanksgiving :) because I did!! So ya I will just get straight to it. Here is Escazu there are a ton of gringos like I`ve already said, Our Bishop (who is gringo) planned a big Thanksgiving dinner and invited all of the families in our ward and also invited 2 other gringo families, so i basically felt like i was in the states again. They were playing football and everything!! Soo weird but it was nice to really celebrate Thanksgiving. And have REAL food. (ya mom i will be honest, I am soooooooo excited to eat your food again) So ya i got to have a real Thanksgiving dinner in Costa Rica. But wanna hear the coolest part??? Okay i am sure you all remember Noel Paysen, she was the Mormon that won the skeleton in the winter Olympics. Ya she was there!!!!! i ate Thanksgiving dinner with an Olympian!! :):) she`s soo cool and super humble. soo humble that I didn't even know that she was famous until she had left. So I don't have a picture... but it was cool to meet her :)

So onto the real good stuff. :) For the past month we have been visiting a cute couple, and their 6 year old daughter. They weren't progressing super fast, but we just went with them once a week because we could feel something special with them. So on Tuesday we went over to see them. We were talking a bit, had the opening prayer and then before we started to teach the lesson we had planned, we asked them if they had any questions that we could answer for them. Claudia said yes, her eyes got teary and started asking us why there is soo much wickedness in the world. i don't really know what is going on in the world right now, but sounds like a bunch of wars, and innocent children are dying. That is what effected her the most, is that young kids were dying. This is a question i think many people in the world have, but in this moment we were able to testify to her that even though there is a lot of things going on in the world, God still loves us, and has given us a way to live in the world and not be of the world, through the way we have our homes. I have seen from our home, that no matter what is going on outside, if we have a Christ centered home, we will never need to feel scared or worried. Also we taught her about the seconding coming, because everything that is happening in the world is telling us that we need to prepare now!! it was the perfect chance for us to ask them how they felt, if Christ was to come tomorrow, and in this moment they opened us to us. And told us they want to change. There process will be slower, they need to get married and she works on Sunday, but i know that one day they will be members of the church and will be able to feel the peace and joy that comes from the gospel.

Also this past week the Municipalidad, like the city council, had activities in the church all week so we set up a little table and with the other 4 missionaries we took turns being there and were able to talk to sooo many people, over 200 contacts. It was amazing. Also something cool this week was having Jennifer Lopez leave with us to go on visits and hear her testify about her conversion, and about how she overcame her doubts. I love her!!!

So everyone has been asking me how i feel, and well I feel sooo ready to have the best week of my life, I know that there are more people waiting for me this week and I am going to find them. I am sooo happy to be a missionary, and am going to work harder than I`ve ever worked this week.

I love you all!!!!!!

Have a wonderful week :)

Tell Michael i say hi if you talk to him :) I am sooo excited he is getting out to his mission now :)

Love,

Hermana Peters 

soo we had an amazing thanksgiving and silly me, i didnt take any pictures.. just this one... haha i will tell you all about it in my big email. but ya loca=crazy :) haha