Pyramids

hey ya'll!

We just got back from climbing some sick pyramids at Xochicalco!! There are like 5 or more all together. It is really pretty and big! Oh and last week we went to a zoo... it had 5 animals!! (goats, monkeys, snakes, crocs, and a dog!) But the landscape was so pretty with huge trees and flowers. It only costs 10 pesos (less than a dollar) This week we were walking down the Street and there was a funeral with a crowd of people filling the Street singing. So what did we decide to do?? We walked up to people giving out families are eternal cards and telling them its okay! you will see them again!!  Not sure if that is illegal, but we got some appointments out of it:) We also had this group of maybe 12 year olds ask if they could take a picture with us! That's right... Im famous here:)

But we were a little lost, like always, and I asked these two men if they knew were a place was. After we contacted them and made an appointment to go back. I wasnt too convinced they were interested, but we went! One, Cloudio, is probably 65 or more. We talked to him and he is the coolest old man! He cant read, but really likes to learn and we committed him to go to church with us. We said we would meet him at 830 to show him were the church is.  He tried fighting us to meet us at 10am instead. We probably said 50 times "what time will we meet you?" We taught him the importance of church and it was a simple lesson. But he seemed humble and I still wasnt sure if he would go. SoSunday morning I called him and he was like, yes im getting ready! Meet you there!! We still didnt know... sadly we obviously dont have much faith in people. But when we got off the bus, he was standing there in his jeans and nice cowboy hat! We were so happy. He stayed for the 3 hours and was just a treat. I dont know how to explain, but he is so funny and cute! But I am realizing that anyone who has desires, can make the sacrifice to get to church. It is imposible and wrong to judge people and decide who is ready and not, so I need to stop. I am learning that it is always in the Lord's hands and Hna. Peterson really knows nothing and is just here to smile and invite! The rest is up to them and God. That is why it is so important to talk to everyone and not take the option away from anyone to listen to the góspel. Anyone could be ready and I dont know who is, so im going to talk to them all:)

I hope everyone can have a great week! Remember to read your scriptures, say your prayers, and always Hermana Peterson loves you! ¡Que tenga una bonita semana llena de gozo!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Peterson

Feliz día de los reyes!

Hola hola!

In Mexico, they celebrate Christmas and then on the Jan. 6th they celebrate "El Día de los Reyes Magos" (the wisemen). So the tradition goes that there are three wisemen, one from Africa who comes on an elephant, one from Arabic who comes on a camel, and one from Europe that comes on a horse, but they are all spirits. They bring the good children toys, three, one from each wiseman. But the kids have to clean their shoes (to show they are good) and put them under the christmas tree. They keep the tree on as a light to guide the wisemen to their house. They hid the toys throughout the house. They say that the constellation "Orion's belt" looks like the 3 wisemen coming closer to their house. Through the month of December, the 3 stars look like they are getting closer. But they only bring toys for the kids as representing the gift to baby Jesus. I think it is a pretty cool tradition and helps them remember Christ and focus on His birth more. They also have a big bread that they always buy on this day, rasca. It is filled with little babies! haha maybe 6 depending on the size. They have everyone cut their own piece and if you get the baby, you have to make everyone tamales for the Feb 2nd! And guess who gotthe baby... me and my companion! 

But as for good news, I officially am eye infection free!! :) Oh and my eyelashes grew a lot. Yay for no makeup! But my companion on the other hand is loosing crazy amounts of hair and we went to 3 doctors for her this week. One doctor came up to her, SMELT her head and said "yes, yes, I know what it is! Grease. so you must be stressed! How is your love life?" He then went on forever about her boyfriend, that she doesnt have! We didnt take his advice... But they still aren't sure what is happening. 

We have this one investigator, Yeni. She is our favorite though! She just has so many questions and is reading the Book of Mormon. She just love learning and wants to know everything. But she hadnt gone to church with us before, so we told her we were coming to her house and she was going with us if she liked it or not! She agreed:) We called her at 7am to make sure she was getting ready and told her we would come by in 30 minutes to go with her. We ended up being 30 minutes late and had to take a taxi. When we got to her house, her 7 year old son said my mom already left for church. We realized that we forgot our phone and she didnt know how to get there! So we just went on. As we were driving, I thought I saw Yeni, and the Taxi guy was like no, its not her, oh no it is!! (I thought he was joking, but he really did know her) So I rolled down the window and yelled YENI! she ran across the street and got in with us. We then went to the bus stop and off to church! It was a miracle we found her in the street. But I am really glad she was able to come with us. She seemed to enjoy it! 

We had this young girl have to get rebaptized because they lost her records. A lot of the members were talking about how they would love to have another baptism and be clean again. I then looked at them and said you get a mini baptism every week!! I think sometimes we forget how important the Sacrament really is. If we prepare to take the sacrament every week, we can fully feel the atonement working in ours lives. It is a gift from God to be cleaned every week and remember that we can improve ourselves and become better with the help of Christ. I love John 6:54 where it says "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." We will have eternal life, through participating in the scrament and renewing our covenants with God each and every week. We need to CTR! C: keep the Commandments T: Testify of Christ R: Remember Him always. When we apply the sacrament into our lives, we are changed:) 

I love you all very much and hope that you have a very wonderful week! 

pic... Rasca bread, lucky baby prize, and children of investigatores with their new skates from the wisemen! 

Happy New Year!

Hola familia y amigos! 

This week was a week full of crazy, weird things. First, I got sick and lost my voice. That was super fun talking to people all day, everyday when my voice was cracking and I sounded like a man. If people didnt understand me before, now they look at me like a crazy women! But as we were walking to an appointment, this man started walking towards us. He was wearing all black, shaggy clothes, hair in a mess, piercing, and a backpack. He yelled where are you guys from? We explained the United States and he looked so confused and asked if we spoke english. We said yes, and he then screamed speak to me in english. My companion looked scared to death and started speaking in english. He then asked what she said and got mad and threw his hands up and just left. Weird moment. We went to our appointment and entered the house and as we were talking to the 11 year old daughter, we heard the man scream "I want to learn about the Bible too!" The daughter lliterally ran... as did I! I wasnt going to be near the door if he came back. But my comp like froze and didnt move. The father came out and I still dont know what exactly happened but the man left. So we then went on to teach our lesson. The next day we were walking close to the same area and he said again I want to learn of the Bible! We were now in the middle of the street, very public, so I felt a lot more comfortable and gave him a pass a long card and invited him to church (didnt come). I think we are now best friends :) just kidding, I just hope we dont run into him again, he is very sketchy. 

We were in a class at church, talking about gifts from the Spirit and one of the converts started sharing her testimony. She said that she never finished school and didnt learn how to read. When the missionaries came by, they gave her the Book of Mormon and she didnt tell them she didnt know how to read. She started to study it with her husband and she just started reading! She said it was such a miracle and blessing. She had never shared that with anyone and I never realized it because she always reads with us and she is good. This family has almost nothing, but it is so amazing watching them grow. They need to walk far and then take a bus to get to church. They cant afford it, but they always come. They wont let other people take them because they say that they can sacrifice for Christ and always see the blessing. I really have learned that it doesnt matter if someone has nothing, but if they have a desire to follow Christ, God will help them and they can make it an hour to church. When we sacrifice, we are blessed so much! When we put God first, everything else will fall into place. 

I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys the snow:) Love you all!

Hermana Peterson

pics.. just taking the youth through the jungle:)

our favorite.. churros! 

our fraccionamiento (dont know how to say that in english) but our house.

He is the gift

HOLA HOLA! FELIZ NAVIDAD:)  

4 missionaries + 4 adults + 5 kids + 1 ford 5 passenger car = Mexico! Since our church is so far away, we cram in cars a lot and I honestly didnt know it was possible to fit so many people in a car! We also take a lot of buses everywhere because our area is pretty big and this week we got on one and like 10 minutes later my comp was like, "yeah, I dont know where we are! I think we have left our area and our zone.. woops." so we hopped right off and took a taxi back. Gosh, we get pretty lost!

Yesterday I had to give a talk at church. Every 4 weeks, the missionaries talk and it wasnt suppose to be our turn, but Bishop asked us to anyways. I woke up feeling horrible and ended up throwing up. FUN! Since there are 6 missionaries, one of them said they would give it for me. I felt too bad and said no, I can do it! As we got to church, I got a blessing right away. As we waited for people to come, I realized I didnt want to get up and throw up on all the audience! So Hna Ayala said she would do it for me. As I was sitting down, I just felt like I needed to do it. The Relief Society President passed by knowing my situation and whispered, "I know you have something to say that we need to hear" and

 walked away. So at that point, I told Hna Ayala I would do it. The bishop already announced that she was and I changed my mind as my comp was speaking, so when I got up everyone was alittle confused. But it was the first time in my life I didnt read my talk off the paper. I just started talking. I spoke about "He is the Gift" (the new video the church made). There were so many different ideas I just started saying that I didnt plan. I tried to help the members understand that WE first need to discover Christ in ourt lives and then accept him, and after we do that we will want to share Him with everyone. I  want to testify that I know that God loves every single one of us and that is why He sent His son. There truly is no greater gift than that! Through Christ we can clean and improve oursleves everyday and have the opportunity to live with our Father in Heaven again. I am so thankful for the Christmas season that we can remember Christ and share with all the love God has for us. I would like to comment that I felt great the whole time and I know that I was only able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. 

We had this less active member come up to us after church and just started crying thanking us for helping her come back. We only went to her house once, but I guess sometimes all it takes is a little love and reminder. I have loved working with less-active members and helping them come bcak to Christ. It is beautiful seeing someone remember and changing their life again. I really encourage you to visit and pass along "He is the Gift." It is a short but impacting video. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and always remember that Christ was our first and best gift.

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Love always,

Hermana Peterson

Pics.. We had our Mission christmas party and every district had to come up with a skit. My comp was Santa and I was an elf. (President and Sis Kusch) 

At the ward party, they had 5 Pinata and I went first. I literally was so far away from it and was hearing so many people screaming and only understood until my comp started telling me where to go in English. I hit it right on the top and shattered it:) Luckily there were 4 more!

Knocking Doors

Hola Hola! 

My companion and I were showing people pictures before the mission and they all say NOO!! That's not you! What did the mission do to you?? So I guess not wearing make up for 3 months isnt a good idea.. haha. But fun news, my eye infection came back! WOO! So I wont be wearing make up for a much longer time! But It's all good. Nothing I cant handle right? 

We were walking in the street and when we dont have anything to do we knock doors. Technically it's not apart of our mission, but it works when we have nothing to do! So we walked past this house that had pretty christmas decorations and their curtains were lace and gorgeous! I told my comp, lets knock here, it's pretty! She said fine, you talk then. So I started contacting a man and he was like "We are mormons too!! Come in!" They were new to the area and hadnt been able to find the church (because it's so far!) and have had desires to go back after a year and a half of not going. They are a young couple and we explained were the church was and set up another appointment. On Sunday they texted us and said they got in a little car accident on the way to church and wouldnt make it. We passed by after church and they were all good and we sat down to learn about them. She said that she started praying and reading her scriptures to know what to do and the next day we came! So she knew it was a sign she needed to go back to church. (I learned God speaks to me through pretty things, because I cant say I really had revelation to go there) But she then asked us a very weird questions, "can my husband and I get divorced and sealed in the temple?" We were super confused! WHAT?? She then went on to explain that they own a company and cant have two stores in different areas under the same name, so have to get divorced to do it, but they dont have any marriage problems and actually want to get sealed. Weird right? I then said, I am going to be frank with you, the family is the most important and you need to put it first. You cant have your son forever if you put your job first and get divorced, that's just not how God works. They are unsure what to do, but said they would work towards the temple and just put their trust in God. It was an interesting experience, but I know we will be able to help them a lot and I am so thankful that they had pretty lace curtains that attracted me:) 

We have this other family that is golden! They havent been able to go to church because they couldnt offord the gas nor the bus. So they had been praying and trying really hard to find a job. He finally did and is now selling internet from house to house. He said he is with 9 men and he was praying a lot and he was the first one to have a sell. He gained a strong testimony of prayer. His wife went on to say that she has felt a complete change in her home since we have come. She said I now feel that I have Christ in my life and it's beautiful. A member passed by their house and gave her testimony to them and brought them food. She said she never has people over, but this member helped so much! She didnt have any food to give her children and she felt so blessed to have God answer her prayers as well. Her girls then started eating an apple during our lesson and the dad said offer it to the missionaries and he took one and cut it in half and said sorry, this is all we have. I wanted to cry. He was giving us everything he had and was just so grateful for us. They have both been trying to stop smoking and the little girls always pray for their dad to stop. They are doing so well! I absolutely love seeing this family being change through Christ. They say they have a lot of problems and challenges, but feel so peaceful and happy all the time and they know it's because of the gospel:) 

I know this gospel changes lives. We cant just pass through the gospel, but let the gospel pass through us. When we are fully converted we can help others come unto Christ and partake of His goodness! Thanks for all the support and love! Have a great week and enjoy the holidays:) 

Love always,

Hermana Peterson 

pics.. just in our little jungle! and the last pic is the girls we live with. In our ward we have 6 missionaries from 5 countries! Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Hondorus, Columbia, and the USA!

Same Church as Christ

Hola Hola!

This week we had some really crazy, weird lessons. We went to this investigator named Jorge, who my comp had taught before. But he doesnt understand the apostasy and just has a lot of questions. He likes to talk though and so we thought the best thing to do would be to watch the Restoration video with him. We put it in and in the first 3 seconds when the leaves in the video fall he paused it to comment! He continued the video and then paused it about every 5 seconds! (not exaggerating) to tell us how it related to the life of Fransisco (who is fransissco!?!) or what he thought or some question. At first I was like how cool, I can literally hear his thoughts and I now know every single one of his doubts. But after 30 minutes of it, I was a Little annoyed with it. When it got to the first visión part, Hna Hellstern and I were just praying that he would make it through the whole visión. Which he almost did! Be he stopped it right before God says "Hear Him." We were like nooooo! But he asked a question like which church did Jospeh Smith attend? He went on to say how Jospeh didnt need to restore any church  and I said, your catholic right? Well do you think your church is the exact same as Christ set up His church? He thought for a second and said yes. I was like shaking and looked him in the eye and just said No. Where are your prophets, apostles, ordinances... I know with all my heart that the Church of Jesús Christ of Latter-day Saints is the exact same church that Christ set up. But you cant know this for yourself if you dont ask God. You need to ask with faith and that is why we are here! We dont want to fight with you and I cant feel the Spirit with this contention in the room, so our only invitation is for you to ask God sincerely. His attitude changed and I was on the urge of crying because I felt so sad he was just lost. He said he would pray, but he is so stuck in his ways and doesnt want to listen, I just hope that God can touch his heart and help him understand. Just so you know I have never flat out told someone they are wrong, but I felt it was needed and my companion looked so terrified when I said it. I still cant believe I did it.. But when you know the truth you just want to share it right?

But on a lighter note, we were eating at a member's house and she gave us hard taquitos and I wasnt sure how to eat it and used my spoon to cut it, as I did the taco went flying across the table! She looked at me and was like.. we eat with our hands here... My comp and I just laughed and I said Im sorry, this is why I need a Mexican comp so I can just follow her lead! I also had a person ask what my name means and I said Hijo de Pedro. She was like wow, that is amazing! What a beautiful name. You know that Christ told Peter that he was who the church would be founded on right? and look at you serving Christ! I was like thanks... Oh and my whistling comes in Handy here. I whistle down all the taxis and buses and people literally say I am a man. How sweet no? :) But we are still having a great adventure here in Mexico standing out as the White girls!

Que tengan una bonita semana!

Hermana Peterson

pic.. Merry Christmas from the Apuyeca sisters:)

I made tortillas

We had a FHE with investigatores to watch the christmas devotional and we told them we would bring the treats. We made root beer floats. They were really iffy about them, but loved it! Just sharing a Little culture:)

This talk I read this week and pretty much changed my life, highly suggest to read and study it! It came in Handy with Jorge.

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church

Ignorance has no fear

To start off I just want to say that I love my companion!! We have so much fun together and have the craziest stories only after one week. I would just like you to imagine what our lessons are like, they are so funny! A lot of people in the street call my comp Emma because they cant understand her accent when she says hermana and they think that's her name! At times we will be in lessons and people will ask things and I am just praying that Hna Hellstern understood them and I look at her and she looks just as lost. So yes, it's fun! But we were in a lesson and this family had a million questions. So we started teaching the restoration to help explain a lot of them. But as my comp started explaining Joseph Smith she said... Jose Smith resucito instead of restauro. Which means she told people that Joseph smith resurrected instead of restored the church. I was like NOOO! That lesson was super interesting. Those investigators think we are hilarious. We also have people all the time ask if we are lost. Oh and I unconsciously ate chile de arbol, which is like suicide! I just started screaming WOOOOO! WOW! I had no idea what to do! But everyone else found it pretty hilarious, my lips burned for a pretty long time. But I can actually eat a lot more spicy food now. :)

As for our thanksgiving, I would say it was such a different experience than I am use to. Just from that day I have a whole list of things I am grateful for, because we dont have them! I am grateful for light, toilet paper, warm water, our spanish, and bug spray. We havent had light for a week, warm water for 6 months, toilet paper for a few days (its not my turn to buy it), and my legs are covered with bug bites! But our thanksgiving meal was eggs and beans! Yummmm.

We found this Taxi driver, who is the nicest man. We went to visit him and his family and his house is legit! He has traveled everywhere and has things from Thailand, India, China, Africa... in his house. It's like the first house that I have seen that is so cool. But he use to work for Bimbo (bread company) and now is driving a taxi to get to know people. haha We just sat down with him and had a lesson about Faith. He was very receptive and actually came to church the next day! I dont know if I mentioned this but our church is an hour and a half away from our area! So it is a real sacfrice for people to come to church. But they sure do get a lot of blessings for that. My area is huge!!! It is one of the biggest in the mission, and it has everything! We have a lot of nice apartments to some of the poorest houses I have seen. But I already love it!

Well I hope you all have a great week!

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Peterson

pics.. for thanksgiving we ate corn flakes without milk bc we didnt have electricy. 

there is a Colorado street and our area has like a jungle that we pass through.