Feb. 24,2015
Hello Family,

Gaby!

This week was really good, full of so many miracles. I will start off with Gaby... Man is this women amazing. And her baptism was incredible :) but let me back up a bit. This past week we were visiting and calling her everyday, making sure that she was okay. She had some of the craziest things happen to her and i know all of them were Satan trying to get her to give up. But one thing about Gaby is that she has faith strong enough to move mountains, and so i knew that nothing was going to get in between her and her baptism. So on Saturday we went to the church to fill of the font for her, and an hour before her baptism she walks in. We were both way surprised to we go walking up to her. i ask her how she is feeling and she burst into tears. You could see it in her teary eyes how hard this past week had been for her, and how relieved she was to finally be able to get baptized. And then she started to cry more, talking about how sad she is going to be when Hermana Perez and i have to leave. She told us that she has never had friends like us, and that she doesn't ever want to loose us. It was incredible to be able to testify to her that because of the choices she is making and will soon make to be baptized, this we wont ever have to say goodbye. That we will all be together in heaven one day. And from there the night just got even more amazing when she was able to get baptized. The spirit was soo strong and i was soo happy. When she got out of the font i ran back and she gave me the biggest best wet hug i have ever received :) i am soo happy for her and know without a doubt that she will be such a strong member of the church.

Also we had 4 investigators at the baptism, and my old branch president said that the investigators that go to a baptism service have a 90% chance of getting baptized. One of them, Lizbeth, already has a date to be baptized in March with her mom :) that is another miracle. Lizbeth is a young women, she is 14 years old and we have been visiting with her for like 2 weeks. She was listening to the missionaries like 4 or 5 months ago, but then stopped. But a member brought her to an activity a while ago and since we have been having lessons in the home of this member with her. She really wants to get baptized but didnt know if her mom and dad would let her. So we kept trying to get in contact with the mom but could never find her. Then yesterday the other sisters here were calling every number in their phone and just happened to call Lizbeths mom. So last night we were able to go over and have a family night with them. We left that family night not only with permission for lizbeth, but also with the same baptism date with her mom :):) so we will be working really hard with them both :)

Here is another miracle.... we went and visited this man this past week named Ronad. He was a reference from a member, and so we went to go visit him. We went in and started to talk, he told us all about his life, all these places he has visited, and the many people he has met and  then he tells us that he has already read
Jesus the Christ twice!!! okay i haven't even read that book!!! its HUGE!!! But i guess this member had given him that book to read because he had cancer and was going through chemo therapy. So at this point i was like, wow this guy is really smart, and obviously has had his fair share of trials with cancer. He has been doing chemo for a year now and just got cleared that the cancer is gone. :) So Then he starts telling us all these things he learned from the book and from his experience with chemo. He told us how before in his life everything was done out of his brain and he always like to know everything perfectly. He has a photogenic memory so is a very smart man. So before God was something he tried to figure out in his brain, and never anything more. But then he told us how when he got cancer, and was struggling, he learned that God is not something that we need to know perfectly in our brain, He is someone that we have the opportunity to know perfectly, in our hearts.  I was amazed by his faith. and basically i felt like i was sitting with an apostle  At the end he told us, "The past year was the hardest but best year of my life." i don't know very many people that would say that about their time in chemo... 

Oh i got my cedula this past week :):) it means that i am now TICA :) hehe not really, but it does mean that i am legal here! 

Also this week i was flipping through my study journal (thank you again mom for that) and i saw my mission call. i looked at the date and then i looked down and saw that it was the exact same date that day. It was such a sweet experience to think back on the processes of deciding to serve a mission and receiving my call. i know without a doubt that this is where i am supposed to be right now and am very grateful for every new day i have to serve my Heavenly Father.

I love you all so much!!! Thank you for everything :)

Love,

Hermana Peters

Lizbeth and her Mom

We helped paint a school on Saturday!

Feb. 17, 2015
Hello family,

How is everyone doing? Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day full of love :) Michael and Sarah looked super tuanis :) (a word here that means really cool, or great) and sounds like everyone else is great, at least i hope :) haha oh Tyler and Michael, a guy here in my new branch fixed my ipod, and put more music on it!! it sooo great to have music playing in our apartment again :)  

Well this week was a bit slow, but still good. I am trying to still learn this new area, and what i need to be doing to help the people here. Its very different here, and right now we don't have very many investigators.. but it has helped me learn how to talk with everyone. Literally everyone we pass in the streets we are talking to and asking if we can come visit them. I know that if we keep working hard we will find people to teach. Like this one family we found...

It was Thursday around 5 in the night, we had only had one lesson that day, and hadn't found any new investigators yet to teach in the week. i was starting to feel down, and then just thought to myself... well go find someone to teach. So i told myself the next person i saw, we were going to teach, no matter what. As we were walking a lady opened her front door right as we passed so i stopped and started to talk to her. I could tell she was stressed, probably really busy but kept talking to her, then asked if we could share more. She looked hesitant so i said Just 10 minutes, we only need ten minutes. so she let us in. We talked for a second more and then we sang for her and her kids, i am a child of God. The spirit was so strong and when we finished singing, i looked over and she was crying. Her daughter turned to her and asked her what was wrong and she said Nothing, I feel so much peace right now. it was amazing to me what a difference we made only by singing a hymn. We only talked a little bit longer, but after i felt so good because i knew that we were directed by the Lord to find this family, even if it was just to sing a hymn to help a stressed mom.

This weekend we have the baptism of Gaby. She is probably the most prepared person i have ever seen and i am so excited for her. But i have seen with her, that the fight is real, even when someone is prepared. She has been having some crazy things happening to her and every time we go visit her she tells us another crazy story. Sometimes i just want to tell Satan to stop. But i know that by these trials she will become so much stronger. Keep her in your prayers this week. 

Other than that nothing big happened this week. I am grateful for the time i have here and pray that i can live with no regrets. that i can work my hardest everyday, i am so grateful for a supportive family. I love being able to pull out our family picture and show it to people :) Everyone thinks Sarah is one of the oldest, that Annalee is me, and that mom looks way to young to have so many kids :) hahaha but they always say that i have a very beautiful family and its true :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and that they live every day with no regrets. I read the talk by President Uchtdorf this morning called Of Regrets and Resolutions and it helped me a ton to realize what is important. go read it :)

Well LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH :)

Love,

Hermana Peters

A great view of the city!

Check out this ride!

Hermana Perez and Peters :)

These are the girls I live with!

Anna!!!!!!!!!!

Feb. 10, 2015

Hello family,

Hope everyone is healthy and happy :) 

i don't have a lot of pictures, but here are the girls i live with :) they are the best!!! we went on a little hike yesterday... :)

I'm trying hard to not get sick from the cold and so far, so good. :) but i guess i should knock on wood right... ? haha

This past week has been great and i am learning so much here in Santo Domingo  One thing that i have noticed about this past week is the power of the gift of tongues.  My Spanish has been improving slowly the last 7 months, but i feel like it just took a huge jump. Multiple times this week people have commented about how amazed they are with the Spanish i know and can understand.  The other day i was talking to these two ladies on the street and hadn't mentioned anything about the time i had here. One of them turned to the other and said Wow this girl has really good Spanish. Then they turned to me and asked me how long i had been here in costa rica, learning Spanish. I told them 5 months here, and 7 months learning Spanish. Their jaws dropped, and they didn't believe me. haha also a man today on the bus told me that if it wasn't for my hair, he would have thought i had been speaking Spanish my whole life. All i can say is that i know this whole Spanish processes has been something i have worked soooo hard for and i know that i haven't been doing it alone. The gift of tongues is real everyone :)

Also today i had such a cool experience. i was in the bus on my way to a multi zone meeting and a man came and sat by me.  (the same guy complimented my Spanish.) We started to talk, he told me all about his life, his hardships, and trials. lets just say he has a crazy life story that i don't have time to tell. But at the end of it he told me that from the second i looked at him and said Hola, he could see something different in me, something different in my eyes. He told me that i need to talk to as many people as i can, because just by the way i am, i can change lives. WOW: I have thought so much about this, and the power i have not only as a missionary, but also as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the power and light that we all carry with us that is just waiting to shine. Shine your light :) 

At our conference today i learned so much. It was given by President Cordon because President Wilkinson is in Utah healing from a hip replacement. But i learned so much from Cordon and also Hermana Wilkinson. Hermana Wilkinson talked about how its not just enough to be a missionary, walking around with a plack. (i think thats how you spell that) now is the time for us to step it up as missionaries, to do all we can do. I am here on the Lords errand and this is His time. Also President Cordon talked a lot about faith. He said that lots of times missionaries get discouraged, and down hearted and are looking for answers on how to get motivated and have energy for the work and well the key is faith. 

Lets see what else can i tell you.? Ohh the branch here has English classes every tuesday night... guess who is the new teacher?... haha yep don't know how much i will help, but i will try.Everyone here tells me that i am Hermana Fowlers twin, with red hair :) haha i love being able to talk with people here about Hermana Fowler. And i hope to be able to be at least half the missionary that she was here.

 Mom here are answers to your questions :)

Do you have a washing machine for your clothes now? YES finally :) i can have clean clothes again :) 

Do you have a cook or do you make your own food? We make our own food.

Do you have a fridge or do you have to buy nonperishable for the week still? we have a fridge :) its little but it is a fridge haha

How is your new companion? she is so great. i am learning so much from her and i want to become more like her. she is so funny and full of the missionary spirit. i love her :) 

You are a greenie breaker, so we are told by the missionaries here – that’s what they call your second companion, someone who helps you move on and into missionary work.  So how is that going? haha i am working really hard to help her feel loved, and like she can do this.  I hope to continue to help her.

It is amazing the weather change.  What do you experience now with weather? honestly the weather here is perfect. i love it. it is cold in the night, but i love it. and in the day it is usually cool, its like fall here. you just need a light jacket, but can cuddle up in your blankets at night :)

Did you get the dear elders and letters from the mission home when you were transferred last week? i got 2 dear elders. 

 Do you get those things easier and more often now? not really.. haha

What cool new thing did you see or experience this week? Well i already shared a few... but lets see.. something cool that i am seeing is that i really can already feel so welcome into this new branch, and have why i am here. i know that my mission call was inspired from God, and also every single one of my areas and companions.

So we are working right now, preparing a women named Gaby, to be baptized in two weeks. I have never seen someone so prepared and ready to change. She is going to all the activities, doing all of the thing that we leave with her, and last night hosted the family night that the branch has for everyone in her house :) She is amazing and i feel so blessed to be a part of her conversion. 

Well i love you all soo much :) happy valentines day! haha 

Love,

Hermana 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

Hermana Perez and Peters

A small view of Santo Domingo

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.