Week 38: Banishment 2.0

Hola todos! If you didn't read my email from last week, I have been transferred once again! I have left cold, bleak, middle of nowhere Utah for hot, desolate, also the middle of nowhere Aberdeen, Idaho. And where is Aberdeen, you might ask? It is right next to American Falls! And where is American Falls? 45 minutes or so west of Pocatello I think, idk. Even though I have only been here for a few days, here is what I already know about my new area: 

- There are a lot of potato farms. 

- A few beet farms too (no Shrute Beet Farms though). 

- No one actually lives here I think. 

- Just like Bear Lake, this is a bilingual area, meaning I get to teach people in both English and Spanish! But unlike Bear Lake, there is an actual Spanish branch here, not just a group, so that means there are a LOT more Spanish people. Some people actually call this area "Mexican Falls" instead of American Falls. 

- There's some family out here who started their own religion (cult) and I haven't met any of them yet but when I do I will let you guys know.

- We drive a small car and it makes me so happy!! I can actually do u-turns again.

- I live with members again and they super duper nice and we live in their huge basement. Like it's so big that there's a pool table, hockey table, and a sauna there. It's amazing yes I know. I'm pretty sure it was also built in the 70s or 80s because it's got a bunch of funky carpet and tiling and all the walls have wood paneling on them. Also they haven't been home the whole time we've been here so I feel like I'm just squatting in their home. 

Like I said last week, I was whitewashed into this area, meaning me and my companion are both new to li'l Aberdeen. Here are some neat things about my new comp, Sister Bernal: 

- She is from Peru! So English in not her first language so we talk to each other in Spanish all the time. 

- She's somehow really sassy and witty in both Spanish and English and I'm actually super jealous. 

- She's my first companion that also doesn't like county music #blessings.

Me and Sister Bernal found some pretty flowers

Some other random things I thought I'd let you know:

- When me and Sister Gutierrez were cleaning out our house we found this container full of coins in the closet so we went to the post office and bought a whole bunch of 1 cent stamps with them so if you ever get a letter from me that has 50 stamps on it that's why. 

- Before I left Garden City I was talking to one of the ladies there about how to get in contact with me and I was like "oh I put out a weekly email, and I also have a blog" and she told me she already found my blog so if you're reading this hi Sister Cluff. I miss you and your fam.  

- The other day for the first time my while mission I got sick from eating Mexican food?? Like me and Sister Bernal left out dinner appointment and got in the car and I was like "uh I don't feel good" so we went home and I was literally hunched over in bed crying because my stomach hurt so bad RIP. 

Saying goodbye

You know, I never wanted to whitewash an area on my mission, but here I am. It's been super tricky for me for some reason. Normally, the companion who has been in the area longest just shows you around and introduces you to everyone and tells you the plan for how things are gonna go, but now we just have to start from scratch. Even though the other sisters left lots of good notes and we have our area book full of people we can go teach, I still just feel confused about what to do and where to go. Everything I have done here so far has felt awkward and unproductive, and those are two things that I HATE feeling. I've had quite a few days on my mission (not just here, but in all my areas) where I've come home at the end of the day and said to myself "Did I even do anything important today? Did I make today worthwhile?" In my personal studies this week, I've been studying a lot about the nature of God. God didn't send us to this earth to fail. He loves us and He wants to help us out in any way we can, including with missionary work. But we need to trust Him and come unto Him first before anything can get done! In the King Follet sermon, Joseph Smith said, "when we understand the character of God, and know how to come to Him, he begins to unfold the heavens to us, and to tell us all about it. When we are ready to come to him, he is ready to come to us". Elder Holland has also said, when talking about the phrase "abide in me", that "in Spanish that familiar phrase is rendered “permaneced en mi.” Like the English verb “abide,” permanecer means “to remain, to stay,” but even gringos like me can hear the root cognate there of “permanence.” The sense of this then is “stay—but stay forever.” That is the call of the gospel message to Chileans and everyone else in the world. Come, but come to remain. Come with conviction and endurance. Come permanently, for your sake and the sake of all the generations who must follow you, and we will help each other be strong to the very end." Don't leave your Savior behind. Don't leave your Father in Heaven behind. They love you and will lift you up and help you to be strong. That is my challenge to all of you this week. I love you so much! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Peterson 

Preparing some mystery meat

A random Sister Ziegler

The members we live with have cats that don't have names so submit names to me

Week 37: I'd BEE HONOR'd

So, I have a secret I've been wanting to share with all of you: you know how I've been doing a lot of service? And how I've been helping a lot of young women work on their personal progress? And how I finished reading the Book of Mormon a few weeks ago? Well, I've been doing all these things so that I could earn my HONOR BEE for Young Women. After you are finished with Personal Progress (which I completed my senior year of high school) and earn the Young Womanhood Recognition, you can go on to earn your Honor Bee, which according to the Personal Progress booklet, "was historically given to young women who were willing to do more than was required". The Honor Bee requires you to read the entire Book of Mormon and to do 40 hours of service, including helping other Young Women with their Personal Progress. This transfer I noticed a lot of Young Women in our area were less active and thought "hey, this could really benefit both me and all of these girls, so I should help them out with this." I got the approval from a Young Women's president in our area and went straight to work. It was a little tricky at times (people don't want us to help them for some reason) but I can say that I successfully did it! 

My honor bee in all it's glory

Out of all the service I did, what was my favorite? Probably branding cattle. That's right, this week our ward mission leader asked if we could help him brand cattle, and we obviously said yes. I thought I was going to hate it and cry, but it surprisingly was a lot of fun! We got to help with all parts of it, including counting how many steers and heifers there were, giving them shots, and the actual branding. It was awesome. 

This week I'd like to talk about change. Change is hard. But, hard is also good. Elder Ellis of the 70 said "regardless of the issue, hard can be good for those who will move forward with faith and trust the Lord and His plan". During my whole Honor Bee process, the church announced that they were going to make a new program for the children and youth of the church and get rid of Boy Scouts, Personal Progress, Activity Days, Duty to God, etc. Even though this is a huge change, I know that it will be good and that the Lord has something even better and holier in store for His children. It may be hard, and even a little sad at times, but I trust in God and know that everything He does is for our benefit. 

Speaking of changes, we got transfer calls this week and both Sister Gutierrez and I are leaving Bear Lake and are both whitewashing us into new areas, meaning sending 2 new missionaries into an area and letting them start over from scratch. Our mission president has also decided to make our area an ELDERS area. So no more sisters in Bear Lake. I was a little shocked when I got the call. I didn't think I would ever whitewash or get replaced by elders. These past few days I've thought to myself "did my companion and I mess up and do something really wrong to get whitewashed out? and by elders instead of other sisters?" But, I know I just need to trust in the Lord that my efforts here were counted for, and His plan is grander than what we can even imagine. Okay I love all of you so much! Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Hermana Peterson 

Some dramatic pics of the tabernacle (also me and Sister Gutierrez matched!! How cute!)

Our friends Scotty and Jack

Look, I bought cool solar eclipse stamps. I still want all of you to send me your addresses. ​​​​

Week 36: El dia de la madre

This week was a constant battle of "hmm, should I write in my journal or should I sleep" and I'm sorry to tell y'all but sleep won every time. This email is gonna be a shorter one. 

Yesterday was such a happy happy day I got to Skype with my amazing fam?? We went to church in Laketown and visited all the widows and it made their days a whole lot better?? Also, since I'm Sister Gutierrez's trainer, I'm also considered her mom in the mission, so she wrote me a cute little card and made me breakfast for Mother's Day?? How precious. Moms are amazing. If you are by your mom right now go give her a hug. Also, go read this super cool essay about the coolest Mom of all. x

This week was pretty basic. We had exchanges. This morning we tried to go on a hike and we got very lost.  We also had interviews with our mission president. We talked a lot about pondering and about how our world moves so fast sometimes, and how we need to just sit and ponder and let the Spirit catch up to us. We also went and saw our friends, Jeff and Cindy, and turns out they are going to spend the entire summer in Florida?? They told us though that they want to get more involved in the church again when they get back in the fall though so that sounds really promising. 

Exchanges

Ok well I got nothing really else to say but a picture is worth 1000 words and I got a bunch of them so just look below. Be good. Be a friend. Do what Jesus would do. I love you guys so much! Have a wonderful week! 

- Hermana Peterson :) 

I got a cool Mexican backpack (ft. potato pins because Idaho)

Sister Gutierrez wanted me to sit on this fence and take pictures for some reason? (I kept falling off of it.)

Our hike

"Where the sidewalk ends" by Shel Silverstein

Sunset ft. our house 

Fam bam

Week 35: Mi corazón es café

Oh, and why is my heart brown, you might ask?? This week me and Sister Gutierrez made TAMALES together to go give to all the people in our area. We bought all the ingredients, borrowed various cooking items from some wonderful members, and then slaved away in our kitchen mixing the masa, soaking the hojas, and making two different types of fillings for our tamales (some with tinga and some with piña), and then letting them steam for a super long time. I actually don't lie to you guys; tamales are not my favorite food in the world but these ones we made were super yummy so I guess you can officially say I am Mexican now. 

 I told Sister Gutierrez we needed to take more pictures so here is us getting gas

Other neat things that happened this week:

- We actually ran out of hojas (corn husks) so we asked mama Vicky to bring us some and she did and her husband started to talk to me in English and she was all like "she can speak Spanish! Don't talk to her like that leave her alone!" It was funny. 

Tamales! 

- So we had to get new tires on our truck on Friday but we also had district meeting at the same time so we put our bikes in the truckbed, dropped our truck off at the tire place, and then rode our bikes to district meeting and it was actually so fun. 

Riding our bikes in Montpelier and stopping to get aggie ice cream (it wasn't as good as BYU creamery ice cream but it was still yummy) 

- This morning we rode our bikes to the beach and then flew kites. It was the most aesthetically pleasing thing I've done on my mission so far. 

 Flying our kites on the beach! (kachow)

- Did a service project where we helped clean up trash down by the boardwalk and I didn't think Garden City was a very dirty place until I went down there and there was trash like, everywhere. Heavenly Father gave us this beautiful earth and we need to take care of it you guys. 

I love trash 

- We have two investigators, Elizabeth and Janet, who are both kinda young and they came the the activity day girls activity and we helped them decorate cakes and it was so neat to see all the other little girls get excited that they had some new friends there with them.

Us with Janet and Elizabeth

Last night we got to watch this cool worldwide devotional from Elder Kearon about becoming less selfish and doing service for other people around us. It helped me reflect on my service as a missionary, and, before my mission, I was probably a li'l more selfish than I am now. Okay that is a lie. I was a lot more selfish than I am now. But, as we do service for others, our hearts will change and we will be able to turn outwards as Jesus Christ did. If you guys didn't watch it here is a link! I love you guys all so much. Have a good week and have fun chattin' to your fams or your missionaries this Sunday. 

Love, Hermana Peterson 

The truth is out there 

Look we matched!

We carved a watermelon with our friend Mariah

Our friend Joe enlisted us to paint his kitchen lol