Hola Hola

Hola hola!

Mexico had it's independence day the 16th and the ward had a little party that we went to. Let's just say that is it so different from our ward parties! It was really cool. Everyone pulled out their long skirts and dresses and danced! Even the cute kids:) It was lots of twirling and swirling! I HAVE to learn how to dance before I leave and buy a sweet dress! 

We had a family home evening with some members and they have a little 3 year old, Manualito. He always will tell me, Guess what I have a girlfriend! and I ask oh really, who? and he says you! all creepy and cute! But he is such a funny kid. We were playing like a Mormom trivia game and his dad asked him, who died and suffered for your sins? He said all positive, David and Goliath! We just said... close. But it is amazing to see how much kids learn at such a young age, they are sponges for sure! 

This week, we decided that we needed to practice how to teach the trinity. I was role playing with my companion and I just kept getting frustrated not being able to say the words I wanted to say and it just sounded so confusing. So I decided to try again in a simple way. I started just saying how much God loves us and wants us to return to live with him. and at that moment it hit me that He really does love me so much and I started crying. I kept teaching and I said things I had never said before and it was just simple. But I realized that Heavenly Father truly wants us to return to live with Him, and He sent his Son to help us. But it really is all on us. We cant bring anyone with us to heaven and it all depends on what we do now on earth. We have these commmandments and we need to keep them to show God we are ready to obey his laws and we truly love Him too. At times it can be hard, but if we see the big picture, it is worth it! So keep up the hard work and press forward! God loves you so much and so do I:) 

Have a great week! love always, 

Hermana Peterson 

pics... The sisters let us try on their skirts and take a picture with them! 

This is Manualito :)

We finally climbed Tepozteca, a pyramid, that was a hard hike, but so worth it! 

Happy Mexican Independence Day

Buenas Tardes! 

I am still alive and feel great! I felt pretty crappy for about week, but I am finally back to normal. It for sure was rough with both of us feeling sick. But I got my Chari-bathroom bonding time in! FUN!! We were talking to this old man about the Bible and he just randomly said who wrote the Bible? We started to explain that it was written by prophets and apostles and he said no no no, i will tell you who wrote it! It was the Pope! We werent sure what to say to him... but i guess you learn new things every day right? ;)

Mauricio got baptized this week! That was the guy that had a coffee problem and his wife got baptized a few weeks ago. He had to have an interview with President Kusch and after President told me that Mauri is a very special man and will be a great asset to the ward. He was so happy to get baptized finally and it ended up being on his birthday! God sure does have His timing for everything. 

Allen who is 9 comes with us to church and the activities every week. He has been a great example for his mom and grandma. His mom told us that he has been saying he wants to serve a mission. So we talked to them both and we decided that he would get baptized on the 27th. His mom said said that it makes her happy that it is his decision and she will support him. I know he will help his whole family and one day they will all an eternal family.

I love you all very much! Have a great week and remember all your blessing:) 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Peterson 

pics.. Mauricio and his baptism.

I learned to make pinedas! and it was on Dad's birthday. cool right?

Parasite??

Good afternoon! 

Well this week has been fun. My companion started feeling sick and then slowly it ate at me as well. I had a horrible migraine and just couldnt do much. We went to a ward baptism and let's just say I was worthless. I will attach a picture my companion took during that day. haha it's so pretty;) But by the next morning, let's just say the bathroom become our very favorite place! We were screaming to use it and fighting over it, so maybe it would be better to have one comp sick at a time. So I did miss church for the first time on the mission, weird. But we called our President and told him all the symptons and he said we probably have a parasite. woooop! So we will be getting some medicine the missionaries like to call "the bomb" today. Cant wait! But I will let you know how that goes for sure! 

As for a little miracle we saw.. we have this investigator named Julia and she has a 9 year old son. Julia is amazing and loves to learn! At first, she was teh only one interested and her son was kind of just forced to listen to us. But once vacation ended, she had to go back to work and doesnt have much time to talk to us. So we continued to just pass by and say hi. Her son started going to the church activities and loved them and then we would bring him to church alone. It was cool to see him completely change! But the miracle part was they live with their grandma and she never wanted anything to do with us. Julia said she spoke really bad about us and just didnt like her taking the lessons. But over time, she warmed up to us! At this one point we couldnt pass by to get Allen and instead grandma took him to the activities and stayed! She now is taking the lessons with us and is excited to learn more. I have truly learned how much children can help their families. They can be so much closer to God and just be open to things we as adults dont give a chance to. 

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! Pray that I dont die;) JK I'm fine! Im in the Lord's hands! Love you all:)

Hermana Peterson

pics... bap=im dead

          waiting to eat with member=Hna Cortez is dead. 

Ivonne and Mauricio

HEYY! 

I have decided to tell you the long story of Ivonne and Mauricio this week. Ivonne and Mauri got married 2 weeks ago to be able to get baptized. They have been coming to the church for about a year now and finally got the money together to get married. They both had strong desires to get baptized and have big testimonies. We always have a pre-interview with our investigators before they have the interview with the district leader. As we interview Mauricio we found out he would have to talk to our President before he could get baptized. We also came to realize that he was still drinking coffee. He gave up alcohol before I got here and totally turned his life around, but just didnt agree with not giving up coffee. We reviewed why, read D&C 89 and told him if he wanted to get baptized, he needed to obey all the laws, now, not after. He was really upset and we said we could take the rest of his coffee out of his house if he wanted. He said dont you think you are being a little too pushy. We said no:) It's completely your decision, but we are trying to help you. We said we will say a prayer kneeling and after you can tell us what you want to do. After the pray he said, okay, you can take it. So we went to the kitchen and Ivonne gave us one under the sink and one in the closet and we left. (We might of watered a tree with it..) 

The next day Ivonne calls us crying and said that Mauri found out that she gave us the one in the closet as well and he didnt want to give both. She got mad at him and said you cant lie to the sisters and need to keep the commandments. She ran out of the house upset saying I dont know what you want to do, but with or without you I WILL get baptized this week. So we decided to go talk to him. When we went he wasnt there and we have to be home by 8pm, so we sent a member to go talk to him later. The member said he talked to him and everything was fine now. We were relieved. But when we went to their house with the District Leader, we could tell he was mad. He flipped on the leader, when he told him, he couldnt get baptized until he truly gave up coffee and still needed to talk to our President about other things. Mauri yelled at him and said if I dont get baptized Saturday, Im never getting baptized, and Im not talking to your President. So we just left him to calm down for awhile, not sure what was going to happen with him.

We were happy to see that he came to Ivonne's baptism. The baptism was so beautiful and spiritual! Ivonne is an amazing women and has changed so much to come closer to our Father. We had tacos after the baptism and I talked to Mauricio and asked how he was. He asid he was good and he is really happy for his wife, the baptism was very strong and peaceful. He said, can you send your mission president down as soon as possible? Im ready to talk to him. I want to get baptized! I asked how the coffee was, and he said he realized it didnt matter and he wanted to follow Christ more. He was completely changed and humbled. We have his baptism planned in 2 weeks.

It was a complete rollarcoaster ride this week with them. But it was amazing to see Ivonne's strength and testimony, as well to see Mauricio finally humble himself enough to come to realize what really matters. It's hard to see something so small stop people from doing the right thing, but they have agency. I know that when we put our faith in Christ, he will help us overcome anything and show us the way to go. 

¡Que tenga una buenísima semana! Les amo tanto:)

Hermana Peterson 

foto: Ivonne and her daughter before her baptism

Army of the Lord

Hola amigos! 

We were at lunch this last week and I was just eating my soup and the member just looks at me and says "Hey Hermana Peterson, do you have a lot of money?" I didnt answer first so she said like are you rich, thinking I didnt understand her. I said umm... no. My companion started laughing really hard and said dont lie! I asked her why and she said I can just tell by the way you eat your food. I asked her what that meant and she said you eat all fancy! and you also look like a doll. At that point I didnt know what to say. I just laughed and said I dont like to get dirty? But I thought I ate like everyone else...

This week we had people keep telling us that we are so different from other missionaries in other churches. We asked them why they thought that and they said it just feels different. When you talk to us, it doesnt feel like you're forcing or convincing us. You are just teaching and helping us. One man couldnt figure out the difference, and said I dont know what it is, but I just like crave for when you come and when it's about time, I get excited to know the sisters are coming! We explained that it was the Holy Ghost and that we are not teaching them anything, it is all the Spirit. How amazing it is that I get to work with the Spirit everyday to help people feel the love of God in their lives! What a priviledge I have to be a servant of the Lord and to know the truth and share it! :)

Yesterday, all of our appointments fell through so we were deciding where to go. I pulled out my agenda and started naming off people. I read all the names and then a small thought came to me to see Julia. I asked Hna Cortez and she said sure. We havent taught her for maybe 2 weeks because she works in Tepoztlan (my old area!) and is going to school as well and has a son. She wasnt able to go to church, so we just stopped by hoping she would be there. We saw her son and he said she wasnt home. Just as we were waiting there, she pulled up in a car! She asked is we here to teach and we said we just wanted to see how she was doing. She looked upset and we said if you have time, we would love to teach. She pulled out the chairs and sat us down all happily. She went on to explain that her and her son pray everyday and she found the Book of Mormon online to listen tp at work and has had the opportunity to talk about the gospel with a lot of her friends and she wants us to teach them as well! We had thought she stopped progressing and wasnt interested because she was so busy, but she was still reading and learning all by herself! It's amazing to find those people who just crave the gospel! I am sure God will help her with her job so she can come to church more. When we show our efforts, he always blesses us:) 

Well I hope you all have a great week and smile big! 

Love always,

Hermana Peterson

pics.. yes, when all the youth play soccer, I color with the kids:)

Changing Lives

Buenas tardes! 

This Saturday we had the baptism for Diana. She is the one with the boyfriend that is trying to stop drinking. Her baptism was so great though! My comp and I sang with our District leader and his companion "Ïm a child of God." and for some reason it sounded so amazing! The spirit was so strong at the baptism and we were all just so excited to see Diana take that step towards Christ. It is the best thing to watch your investigators grow. We had a lesson with her last week and her cousin was there and we asked her if she wanted to pray and she said I dont know how. At that moment, Diana took the iniative and taught her how. Hermana Cortez and I just looked at each other as if we were proud of our little daughter. haha But once people start teaching, they do learn more and feel more confident! I am positive she will continue to grow and be a great member of the church. 

When I was with my last companion, I needed hair conditioner and for some reason it is not too popular here. I was trying to find it and could only find shampoo/conditioner combo, Hna Marx said that this would work and gave me a bottle. She cut hair before the mission and I trusted her... I had been using that for about a month or more. Once day I read the directions and it said for body, so then I thought oh crap, it's soap. But a few days ago Hna Cortez asked if she could use it and I said sure. She then started laughing saying this is lotion! So I had been using lotion as hair conditioner for a month!! Man, it would really pay to learn spanish well;) But my hair is nice and soft on a high note! haha 

We did get to go hiking today for P-day up to a pyramid. It was really small and broken, but still... I stood on a pyramid! Cool right?? But the hike was really fun! It was so beautiful and we got lost a bunch of times and climbed mountains, but we lived. Being in the out doors is always a blessing and a reminder to me that God exist and loves us so much to give us the gorgeous nature we have.

Well love you all lots! Have a great week and smile big:) 

Hermana Peterson 

20 years old

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It is so weird that I am 20 now! woow. A tradition they have for birthdays here is that you take a bite of the cake and as you go to do it someone always pushes your face right into the cake! I got two cakes from members and both times my companion destroyed my face into that cake! I love how cake feels up my nose:) But it was a good day! We had a baptism! 

Vero was married last week to her boyfriend, who was a less-active. But once she was taught that she could have an eternal family, she wanted to get baptized so bad! She really has a strong testimony of the church and loves sharing it with everyone. So she got married and baptized the next week. We went to the baptismal font to fill it up and we couldnt drain it, so I literally went fishing for bugs to clean it all out in my dress! haha We then turned on the water and came back a few hours later assuming it would be all ready... But the church ran out of water! We tried everything we could think of after that. Our last option was there is a like well of water in the front of church, underground, so we had all the young men haul buckets of water into the font! It took like 100 trips. It was quite fun! I have never had an easy baptismal day. Satan really works hard on us. But in the end she was baptized and all she can talk about is going to the temple in one year to be sealed for eternity with her husband. 

There is a new convert of maybe 2 years and she is 19 and he whole family loves the church but the father won let the mother and kids go. The daughter got baptized after she was 18 and he couldnt do anything about it. She has 2 brothers who are 13 and 9. Them and the mother want to be baptized very bad, but the dad wont usually let them go to church at all. The 9 year old prays every night for his dad to allow him to be baptized. If anyone ever says a prayer without asking for his dad, he makes them redue it. He also decided that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon. So he reads it every night with his sister. One night his dad came in and yelled and was mad saying your not a mormon! He said, "No, I am not one yet, I still need my baptism." Im not exactly sure what he said to touch his father's heart, but his dad saw how bad his young son wanted to go to church and now allows them to go:) It is amazing the faith children have. If we all had the determination and faith of a child, so many more miracles would happen. I know this family will one day be sealed in the temple. It might not be soon, but it is in God's hands and timing. 

I love you all so much. Have a fantastic week and keep the faith! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Peterson