Week 8: Burnt-Leaf Smell

Hola everyone!!! So a quick little story before I start this blog. So out here in Blackfoot everyone gets rid of the leaves in their yard by raking them up into piles and then setting them on fire?? Everywhere we've gone I've just left that place smelling like burnt leaves, which isn't a very pretty smell to be completely honest. But it's all good, and hey, I guess that's one way to get rid of your leaves.

Look at how aesthetically pleasing this field and house are 

This week has been a good week! The sun was shining this whole week and it wasn't super windy, so it has been pretty warm! It got very chilly all of a sudden today though, so I'm just going to assume I'm not going to be warm again until April. Neat. Lots of people have been home this week, so we were able to have tons of lessons and fellowship tons of people! Something cool I also got to do was go on exchanges with the English sisters in our area, so it was nice to speak some English for a little while lol. Being a missionary is not about the place you get called to, it's about the people who are there, and let me just say, all these people out here are so amazing. Even though my Spanish isn't perfect and I can't communicate with our investigators perfectly, I'm so happy I get to be with them and be the person who gets to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Highlights from this week: 

• So the sister I went on exchanges with, Sister Miller, is from the Navajo reservation in Arizona and she was telling me all these stories about what life is like there and I honestly couldn't fall asleep because that place sounds scary as heck (also, skinwalkers?? totally real I believe it) 
• Also on exchanges we went proselyting at an old folks home and I just wanted to express how much I love crazy old people
• One lady who we went and taught thought I was TWELVE. it's okay though because she had lots of cats and her little kitten would climb up onto my shoulder and sit there which was the cutest thing ever 
• So this one family we teach apparently lives across the street from a witch??? We've gone over there so many times this week and I still haven't seen the witch out in her yard and I'm honestly very bummed about it 
• So since everyone out here basically lives on a farm we get free eggs from this less-active family and I got to meet them yesterday and they are just the coolest people ever. Also all their pets are named after Star Wars characters which is pretty cool 

I was mad when our investigator said i looked like i was 12 but honestly looking at this picture i see it (also, a puppy!) 

So quite a few of our investigators like the church, but feel like they don't want to get baptized and then fall away later, so we've had a lot of lessons about faith this week. One scripture that I've really liked and shared with a lot of people this week is Ether 12:6, which says "...I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith". Sometimes we just need to act with faith and trust that the Lord will make everything work out, even if something seems scary or hard. I've definitely seen that happen a LOT on my mission so far, but it's been amazing to see the blessings I've received from acting on my faith. I promise you guys that if you act on your faith, you will see blessings and see the hand of God in your lives. 

Just wanted to show y'all how cute my desk is

I hope everyone had a good week this past week. I love you all so much and I love being a missionary! 

-Hermana Peterson 

When I take pics like this i feel like I'm in an indie movie

Week 7: I Live on a Farm Now

Hola amigos y familia!! This has been the craziest of weeks this week! This was my last week in the MTC, and man was I sad to leave behind all my new friends. But it's okay, because being out in the field is awesome! 

My MTC district and our teacher Hermana Jolley (miss them so much)

So my time coming up to Pocatello was super fun. I rode on a bus with all the other missionaries coming up to Pocatello with me. I was a little worried that we all wouldn't get along, since they were all in a district together, but the bus ride was a blast and we are all friends now. So anyways. Pocatello. Pocatello is honestly kind of like Olathe, but a little smaller and with more Mormons; however, it is the biggest town in the entire mission. I am currently in Blackfoot, which is all farmland! I get to see cows and horses and sheep every single day, which is definitely a change of scenery for me. But it's still cool, especially at night, when you can see literally all the stars in the sky.  I'm sure when I got my call a lot of you were wondering "wow, who even lives in Idaho", and "wow, who even speaks Spanish and lives in Idaho), but that is not the case whatsoever!  Since it's all farmland out here, there are a TON of Spanish speaking people working on the farms, so there are plenty of people for us to teach out here! It's been a little hard to find people at home so far, since everyone is trying to finish up the harvest, and a lot of Latinos are going back down south for the winter, but there are still lot of people for us to visit and lots of people for us to teach the gospel to, so it's all good. 

My trainer is Hermana Gleason! She just finshed up her training, and is now training me. Other than the fact that she likes country music, she's pretty chill lol. She also was at BYU last year! We live in this member's really fancy garage, and they live right next to a farm, so when I get to study I hears cows mooing, it's pretty interesting. 

Me and my new comp!

Highlights from this week: 

- literally everyone in this mission is from Arizona what 

- to try and fellowship some people into the Spanish branch where we serve, we hold soccer games every Friday, and I discovered that I actually don't really like soccer at all. Also a lot of people who play are nonmembers and my district leader came up to me and was like "don't repeat anything they are saying it's all swear words" alright then 

- a legit gigantic tumbleweed blew across our lawn one day?? like one you would see out of a western movie or a cartoon, it was so weird 

-there are literally stray cats EVERYWHERE here and they are all so cute 

-all the people in the branch just assume that I don't speak Spanish for some reason? I mean I don't but they don't have to assume that how rude 

- my trainer made me extend a baptismal invitation to someone of the FIRST DAY I WAS THERE. yeah. that was pretty scary. But I did it and this is a golden family. I asked and even though they didn't say yes they will next time i know it 

It's no Kansas sunset but it will do.

That's about it for this week! I hope all of you guys are doing super well! Being a missionary is hard sometimes, but in the end, it's worth it. Love you! 

Hermana Peterson 

Me and Hermana Lundquist aka my favorite person on this planet

I found Soeur Turner like I told you guys I would

Me and SIster Bready; also my favorite on this planet

Week 6: Apostles Galore

Hola everyone! I hope you all had a really good week this week. In a few short days, I will be leaving the MTC and be heading up to Pocatello! Life in the MTC seriously moves by so fast, no one was joking when they said the weeks feel like days, I still lowkey feel like I just got here lol. I'm sad to leave behind Provo and all my new friends I've made here, but I'm excited to head into the field and see what the future has in store for me. 

This week has been such an exciting last week! On Tuesday, Elder Christofferson was here for devotional! He talked about the Book of Mormon. His talk was so simple, but still so powerful; no matter how many times we read the Book of Mormon in our lifetimes, God will always give us a confirmation that it is true, and it plays an essential part in our conversion and will be a constant companion for us throughout our lives. As I've spent more time studying the scriptures here in the MTC, I've been able to feel God's love He has for His children, and to realize what an amazing gift the scriptures are to us. I've noticed that here in the MTC, during General Conference, etc., that's there has been a BIG emphasis on the Book of Mormon, and I want to continue that  strong emphasis of it on my mission. I love the Book of Mormon so much; if you haven't already, I encourage you all to read it, study it's pages, and to pray to know if it is true. I 100% guarantee you will!!!

Ultimate squad ft. Hermana Perez 

Other than Elder Christofferson, the new MTC buildings, T3 and T4, were dedicated yesterday, so President Eyring and Elder Oaks were here as well! It was so cool to hear in the dedicatory prayer how we were promising to Heavenly Father that everything we do in these buildings is for HIM and for the purpose of spreading His gospel, and that we asked for help on how to best prepare ourselves to do that. I love missionary work so so so much and I'm so happy that at this time in my life, I have the amazing opportunity to be one! also me and my district were watching the dedication on a screen in the other room, and as soon as it ended we ran out of the room to try and spot the apostles, but they were sneaky and left out of the parking garage

chistes for this week: 

- on Sunday we had testimony meeting and after a few missionaries bore their testimonies in Spanish, the branch president stood up and told us we were supposed to bare our testimonies in our "native language", and after he said that this cute little elder from the Phillipines stood up and bore his testimony in Tagalog; i wish you guys could have seen the ranch president's face lol 

- I literally see my dear friend Soeur Turner every day and we still haven't taken a picture yet so if in my email next week there is a picture of us just know that i have failed as a person 

- i was pretending to be an investigator in class and we were talking about the word of wisdom, and I really wanted to say marijuana, but didn't know how, so I just said " la lechuga de diablo" (the devil's lettuce). Turns out it's the same word, who knew 

- Last night me and the other hermanas had a fiesta and ate muchos snacks and ironically watched a lot of those old seminary videos from the 80s and 90s; if you guys want a good laugh go and watch them 

Very blurry photo of us at the temple

That's about it for this week! I hope you guys all have a good week this week! I love the MTC and I love being a missionary! 

Hermana Peterson

My favorite Canadian

Week 5: Veinte años

Hola everyone! Yes, if you were able to read my subject line, it was my birthday this week and I am now 20 years old! I can already feel the surge of new, non-teenager adult responsibility and maturity come over my body. Thanks to everyone who sent emails, letters, and packages to me on my birthday; I have a very special place for all of you in my heart. On my birthday I was sung to about a bajillion times in Spanish, and my dear, sweet mom sent me a wonderful package full of birthday presents, so all the girls in my branch threw me a cute little  birthday party. Also my mom sent me a pumpkin bundt cake (best flavor AND best type of cake) for my entire district to share so basically I'm the coolest kid in my district now. The best present I got however, was for devotional, Bonnie L. Oscarson, General Young Women's President, came and spoke to us for devotional! She talked about how we all have divine mission calls because the Lord knows us perfectly and has a purpose for all of us, and how this is the one chance in our life to be valiant, consecrated missionaries, so we shouldn't waste it. Her talk was just what I needed to hear that day and has left me spiritually filled ever since. 

Other than that not much has happened this week, my Spanish has improved tremendously and I was able to teach the majority of our lesson to our investigator yesterday. I've been kind of scared to open my mouth in class and in lessons, but I was able to finally overcome that fear and just start speaking; the Gift of Tongues is very, very real. On a funny note however, I did accidentally say "perro" instead of "padre" when I was trying to say something about my dad so that was pretty embarrassing (père is the word for father in French and French is still slightly in the back of my mind). I was a little worried because my companion was sick this week and I had to miss class to stay with her, but another hermana in my district also was sick so we were able to go on splits and I got to go to class, so this girl's Spanish es muy bueno. Also none of us went to class yesterday morning (because we had to watch Elder Hales's funeral), so I ended up not missing any class.

We were supposed to teach a lesson but got a little distracted

 

some highlights from this week: 

• on Sunday the guy who was the executive producer of the new bible videos came and spoke to us and he's the coolest guy and my new hero 
• my whole district decided to play sand volleyball for exercise time and turns out all of us are kind of good at volleyball?? who knew. also I climbed a tree 
• since my companion was sick we had to go to the pharmacy to get her some medicine and it felt so good to be in the outside world finally wow
• we had Chikfila for dinner on Monday and I think my testimony increased 1000x
• Sister Oscarson told the choir that we could give MoTab a run for their money which I'm going to tell you right now, we totally could MTC Choir is the bomb 

So hey, all of the talks from General Conference are up online now! If you did not watch Conference last week, I STRONGLY urge you do to so. My favorite talks were President Uchtdorf's (from both the morning session and the women's session, Elder Holland's, Elder Callister's, President Eyring's, and President Nelson's, so if you were to go read/watch any of them, I would really suggest those. 

I love being a missionary and I love all of you so much; I hope you all have a wonderful week this week! Les quiero! 

Hermana Peterson 

Birthday cake

Preaching the gospel to the whole world

Spikeball champs

Week 4: Short and Sweet

Hola everyone!

I don't have a lot of time to write today, since today is General Conference and I don't get a real p-day today, so this email is going to be a little shorter than normal. I can't believe I'm half way done with my time in the MTC! Wow! This week has been really good. It's been a lot of learning, teaching, and being led by the spirit. Our "investigator", Diana, pretty much agreed to get baptized this week which was awesome. On Wednesday my district did our first English fast, and oh man was that muy dificil. Literally a whole day of speaking nothing but Spanish has probably been one of the hardest things I've had to do at the MTC so far, but I was very successful in speaking, conjugating, and translating in my head; not to brag but I feel very proud of myself. It was a good reminder to me that I am not learning Spanish for myself, but for those people who I will be teaching the gospel to.

If you were not planning on watching General Conference this weekend, I STRONGLY suggest you do so. General Conference is a time when we get to hear the words of and sustain our wonderful prophets and apostles. Today's sessions (and the Women's session) were absolutely fantastic, I urge you all to go and watch them if you haven't already. My favorite talk has definitely been President Uchtdorf's talk, where he said that we all hear the call of God, and how blessings will come to us when we make the pilgrimage back to our heavenly home. As a missionary, this talk really reflected the missionary purpose in my mind, to invite others to come unto Christ and, like it says in Moses 1:39, to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". It's my job as a missionary to help people heed to the call of the Lord and to lead them back into the arms of our Heavenly Parents.  As I've listened to the Lord and heeded this call in my own life, I have seen the blessings in my life and the blessings in the lives of people around me. I love this gospel, I love being a missionary, I love my Father in Heaven, and I love my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I love all of you so much and I hope everyone has a wonderful week this week!

-Hermana Peterson

Receiving a package from home

Watching General Conference at the MTC