Tuesday, December 29, 2015

The 2 Weeks without P Day

Hello all,

So it has been a while since I have had the opportunity to write you all and tell you about what has gone down.  But honestly things have been pretty much the same, not going to lie...


This Christmas will be one to remember though. 

A week before Christmas we had the idea to go visit a member in the ward that we had not seen in a while.   We show up to her house and she just looks so sickly and tired, turns out she had a stroke.  So we are talking with her and she’s like yeah I have been fine blah, blah, blah, and at the end were like ‘what can we help you with?’ and she just starts bawling her eyes out.  She had a friend whose wife had died not even a month ago leaving behind 7 kids... and with the wife gone the husband has basically had to double his work schedule just to make ends meet.  So the chances of them having a Christmas was slim to none.  Now my companion and I know just how difficult it is to go Christmas shopping!  We did not have the opportunity to personally deliver the presents so we had the lady deliver them for us and she just calls us saying Thank you thank you so much Elders now whenever we go visit this family it’s just the best feeling ever watching them run around with the soccer balls and the dolls we had gotten them with just huge smiles on their faces.  It definitely makes Christmas better when you look to make some one else’s Christmas a good one!

Just some other highlights these past two weeks:

Bugs infested our apartment and my Companion had to the genius idea to smoke out the room to try and get rid of them since we didn’t have bug spray... let’s just say we slept across the hall in the other Elders room that night...

Us with the Bishopric of Barrio Barranqueras
We volunteered at a multi-religious gathering thingy.  I don’t know exactly.  But a bunch of churches just got together and shared some booths and stuff so that was kind of cool

Obviously we had Christmas, we made some Asado, played Volleyball and Skyped our Families

Hope all is well back home!
Next time I write you all it will be 2016!
with Love
Sunset over the Multi-religious fair
Elder Peters


Hey,

Yeah I don’t have really anything to say since we talked on Friday, everything is fine and we are surviving through some flooding here but all is well and all.  We have been bored out of our minds this Pday with it raining and the other Elders having doctors’ appointments today so we have just been chilling in our pension all day.  But all is well, we did eat some bad empanadas so there is an illness running through us right now and I think I got hit the hardest being the newer one here.  You hate to see it...

Speaking of the plaque… what Scripture did I put up? I don’t remember what it was and honestly I think it was just one I pulled randomly from the Book of Mormon... if they haven’t ordered my plaque yet I would love to change that hahaha.

It’s great to hear everyone else is doing great, hope all is well back home

Elder Peters


Elders of Barranqueras and Puerto Vilelas. 
Guess which one is my companion?

Cooking some Asado for Christmas

The volleyball squad on Christmas, 
if you look closely you can see my watch tan line, 
I have gotten at least a little color...

Monday, December 14, 2015

Heat waves with a chance of flooding

Hello all,

This week was another low key week here in Barranqueras and Puerto Vilelas. Nothing much new has gone down when we do the same thing day in and day out and update of our investigators.  We will most likely not be having a baptism this transfer do to various circumstances (mostly just drama), but as for now we are going to be starting from square one in finding people to teach and progress.

In other news, the weather has been super crazy, I have heard about all the flooding in Oregon and Washington, welcome to my life here in Chaco!  Saturday was a really nice 105 degrees all day long... scratch the nice... it was miserable... Especially when you’re in a white shirt and tie.  Then we wake up Sunday morning and it was dumping rain... and it’s still going today!  I know every week I say the same thing about the weather but it just keeps getting hotter and the rain just keeps getting harder!
When its 105 outside, you get Ice cream
my flavor of choice (frutilla salvaje;))

I have been getting a lot of questions about things like food, so here’s just a brief rundown of what I eat on a daily basis:
Bread
Milanesas (like a giant chicken nugget) (they’re my favorite)
Rice
Potatoes
Pasta (just spaghetti, only it tastes a thousand times better here)
Empanadas
Asado (Also a favorite, Argentine Barbeque)
Ñioques (I don’t know how its spelled or exactly what it is but it’s so bomb)
And all of this is topped with Mayonnaise... (gross I know...)

It all sounds unhealthy but I still continue to lose weight... I’ve lost about 15 pounds since being here and my belts have become my best friend since my pants are too big and now my shirts are looking a big baggy on me... I asked my ZL if it was normal to lose all this weight and all he said in reply was "welcome to the mission life"

But nothing new this week really, no exciting tales of heroism or near death experiences!  Just a lot of walking, dehydration, and now rain.  Hope all is well back home!  You won’t be hearing from me again until the 25th! (maybe) I will for sure be Skyping my family this day but I will also have an hour of writing time which probably won’t be until the 26th... It’s all up in the air at this point!!  Have a great 2 weeks! Expect a nice Christmas card next email!

With love
Elder Peters
#HaNacidoUnSalvador


Hope all is going well back home. It has been the same here as well with flooding and rain practically all day long. we might have to walk to some of our appointments tonight because usually the buses shut down once it starts flooding, so we will see, but everything is under water and the streets are abandoned. there is part of our area called capellini all the way out on the far end our area, and in this area there are just these small wooden houses (wooden houses mean you’re super poor) and they’re just under water, literally people stranded in their houses because of the flooding, but I’m curious to see it now because after 2 straight days of rain it could be completely under water now.  It started raining yesterday morning and church attendance dropped down to 44 people, usually there are about 115, which is the 2nd largest ward here.  What also is confusing is on Saturday it was about 105 degrees... 105!! I have gotten to the point where having the AC set to 75 degrees is a bit chilly for me! The weather has just been terrible and so inconsistent. But hey la vida la vida!

All of our scheduled baptisms have fallen apart for whatsoever reason whether it be, church attendance, permission issues, or other drama and such so we are mostly going to start from square one and find new people to teach! we do have some hopefuls but this transfer it might be kind of hard to get a baptism here, but if Elder Johnson and I are together for at least one more we will at least have about 2. It’s all up in the air as of this point so we will have to wait and see, but for now our dreams of a white Christmas have been shattered.

We don’t really remember much else that happened this week. We made banana bread (sorry mom) and some pan cakes with Dulce de leche también.

I have gotten a lot of letter from you guys yes. I don’t really know how long it takes but I just know when I do get them they come in groups of 2 or 3 from the Zone leaders.  So no sé but our ZL was saying it takes about 5 weeks which I think it’s actually been a bit faster.

In terms of the temple we do not get to go to any temples. missionaries used to be able to go to Buenos Aires before they fly home but so many missionaries had missed flights home they had to shut that down. The members do however go quite often I feel like, about once every 2 months to Paraguay. Its only about a 5-hour bus ride there so they all just make day trips to go with some names and stuff. There is also ward temple day in February and a recent convert family we talk with often is getting to get their endowments then! 

But all is well and I’m staying safe, hope all is well back home?

With love
Elder Peters

Monday, December 7, 2015

El hombre tortuga

Hello all,

Well this week hasn’t been exactly as exciting as the other weeks but still overall a good week.  We have had some progress in our work but for the most part we are not expecting any baptisms in our area this next week or even the week after but are still working hard and helping people progress every day.

Christmas is just around the corner and Chaco has gone all out decorating the streets, and when I say go all out I mean the lamp posts have a few lights but that’s about it.  Christmas here I have heard is just like 4th of July.  All the families come together and cook some asado and light off some fireworks.  So we get to look forward to some of that here when its pushing 100 degrees on Christmas day.

My new companion is the best, Elder Johnson of Spanish Fork Utah. Me and him have just clicked so far and we work so well together. We have similar tastes in sports and music and are always either finishing each other sentences or saying the same thing at the same time.  It’s a bromance in the making.

Nothing really new or exciting has gone down this week.  So nothing to really talk about.  The only thing out of the ordinary was a man dressed up as a turtle on our bus yelling and smacking his chest.  He came asking us why we were in Chaco if we were from the states and it was pretty hilarious.

But until next week
Elder Peters







Just some more scenery, this area is now completely flooded, it’s sad because all around there are houses and people walking in feet of water just trying to get to the road.



Hey fam

Things are still fine as ever here.  This week wasn’t as interesting, actually it was really slow.  We did not have a baptism and it seems like we might not have one for a while because of parental consent issues.  One mom doesn’t want her son to be baptized so that’s kind of a bummer.

BUT we are planning, as of right now, on having a white Christmas.  That is all of our investigators being baptized on the 26th of December, we have about 8 investigators on track for that day and we know probably for sure about 3 will be baptized that day.  So look forward to our Navidad Blanco photo in a few weeks... hopefully.  But Elder Johnson and I have just gotten along so well and we are literally the same people.  We are doing so much work here and its definitely some of the best this area has seen in months.

The language is coming along really well.  I’m starting to kind of understand but there’s still a few times I have no idea what is going on.  It’s been helpful being the M1, kind of, for a few days since my companion doesn’t know the area or our investigators so I have to take the reins, kind of, for now but I have definitely been learning more this week then I have since I have been here.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

The swift kick of a horse and the barrel of a shotgun

Hello all,

I hope all is going well back home for all of you.

Yesterday we had transfers and I’m still in Peurto Vilelas for right now but I do have a new companion. Elder Johnson of Spanish Fork Utah... yeah you hate to see it... But he is super awesome and we are going to do some great work together here. Things are going to be running a little differently with him at the helm and it sounds like he has had a lot of success with how he and his last companions did things so we hope to bring some life into this area and get the wheels rolling.

This next transfer we are for sure having 2 baptisms as well.  One maybe this weekend or the next and the following will be in about 2 weeks so we are super excited for that coming up. The first baptisms in our area in over a year.

This past week was a pretty interesting one to say the least... explaining the title of this email; yes, I was in fact kicked by a horse to start off.  It started off with Elder Jauregui and I walking down the road and some guy stopped us asking why we didn’t believe in Saints like the Catholics do.  Well he went on and on for a while and it lead to him talking about people in the United States worshiping Obama and all this weird stuff.  Not gonna lie the horse could not have come at a better moment.  But I was standing there trying to understand what was going on when all the sudden BAM! and I hit the ground.  I had no idea what had happened until I turned around and saw the horse had come up from behind and gotten me when I least expected it.  Everything is fine, I am fine I just got up and walked away and all I had a little bruise to show from it.  How lame is that? 

Next was a car chase and again with Elder Jauregui. We were standing on the street corner waiting for the bus when we look down the road and there were cop cars trying to pin this car on the road.  Well, all the cars had come towards us and whipped around the corner and we kind of had to jump back to not get hit.  But the only thing I was paying attention to was one of the cop cars with a women hanging out the window and a 12-gauge shotgun pointed at ME!  Like seriously the car is over there get that thing away from me. 

Chaco man... la vida la vida am I right?

Have a great week
Elder Peters

By the way the exclamation point on this computer doesn’t work.  If it did this email would be a lot more exciting...

No pictures again this week sorry. The cybers here are no bueno...



Sup fam,

So things have been pretty low key.  Transfers were yesterday and I have a new trainer but am still here in Puerto Vilelas.  Things are looking really good and we have a baptism for the coming weeks for a twelve-year-old boy who wakes up at 6 am every Sunday and is the first one to be at the chapel, he is so excited to be baptized and me and my new companion are going to try our best to get him ready this Saturday but at this point it might be next Saturday. The next is a 16-year-old girl who just moved in with some less active members about 3 weeks ago. We have been teaching her and she never seemed interested until 1 lesson when we watched the restoration video and every changed.  She got on her knees and was balling as she asked for an answer from God and now has such a strong testimony and wants to be baptized.  She attended church with her 16-year-old cousin, who is also working with us to be baptized the same day with her cousin. All three are so ready and we look forward to these next couple of weeks with them before their baptisms.

But other than that all was well this week, my new companion has a different style and it sounds like we are going to be visiting a lot of the less actives in our ward seeking references instead of contacting because apparently that’s the key in this mission for baptisms. He has 10 baptisms and only came from contacting, so we will see how that works out in our area. I’m super excited and things are going to be running at high speed from now on.
  
Elder Peters

Thursday, November 26, 2015

La Vida La Vida

Hello all,

This was a pretty low key week and not much to write about.

None of our investigators are really progressing still.  We do have 2 that are really loving the gospel but they still have a long way to progress before anything can really happen.  But that’s the life here in Resistencia! It’s one of the hardest areas of the mission and we are trying our best and we are doing a lot more then Elders in this Area have done in months!

We had divisions this week.  I got to work in Barranqueras with Elder Karmonov, Born in Russia but raised in Buenos Aires for the past 11 years.  He is such a great guy and is one of the best Elders I have met here.  He just oozes positivity and friendliness.  It was super fun we just had the best time working together.  It was a busy day but we really did some awesome work together!

Argentina has a new President as of yesterday!  We had another day locked in our apartments for safety reasons, so we spent all day sleeping and cleaning.  It was so fun... not... But at around 7 o’clock we just start hearing all this yelling and honking outside so we knew they must have just ended.  But no riot or anything which is what we were hoping to see.  But nothing, so much for being locked up in our apartments...

Other than that we had a pretty good week, nothing really from the same ol’ same ol’ day in day out teaching lessons and contacting houses!

Transfers are next Monday so on Sunday I’ll find out if I get transferred or not our I spend another 6 weeks with my trainer in Puerto Vilales!

Everyone have a good week!!
With love,
Elder Peters


Hello,

Really nothing new this week to update about.  The weather will be hot one day then cold and rainy the next...The language is still hard...

We did have my fist divisions this week so that was fun but I’ll write more about that in the other email!  Nice to see you finally got to meet Ryland after 3 years! I hope he is doing well but I have not heard from him yet.

I didn’t even realize it was thanksgiving until I read your email.  That’s awkward.  It hasn’t hit me yet that it’s almost December.  I officially have one month here in Argentina but it still feels like its September and I had just gotten to the MTC.  I’m pretty sure we will just eat hamburgers for dinner on Thursday so happy thanksgiving to me!

Argentina finally had the last leg of elections and finally has a new president.  I was asking one of the Elders from Buenos Aires (Elder Karmonov) about it and he said this could mean better relations with the US... which means... packages!!!  Looking foward to it!!!

Hope all else is going well back home!  Things are still just chugging along here.  My first transfer is already almost up so this Sunday I’ll find out if I get transferred or not.  I also think Pday next week is Tuesday so don’t freak out when you don’t hear from me Monday.

With love,

Elder Peters

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Welcome to the Jungle... and the hospital.

Another week in the books! I already have almost a month here in Argentina and it’s another Monday it’s hard to believe. Trying to soak up every moment because this time is just flying by.

This week the weather has been the craziest it has ever been. Early in the week it was hot, like really hot, pushing 100 hot.  The problem isn’t the temperature, however. I’ve gotten used to the heat but the problem was just how freaking humid it is down here. We leave the apartment in the morning and it feels like you just hit a brick wall of heat and you start walking and you don’t really notice until about 5 minutes in and you’re already soaking wet in sweat and you stay wet the rest of the day.  It’s absolutely disgusting.  Our Mission President told us to make sure to drink 8 glasses a day of water but we all probably sweat about 8 glasses in the morning along. I usually drink 1.5 liters in the morning and that gets me through until lunch where I just chug water the entire 4 hours we have to eat and study (we study in the afternoons, unlike the stateside missions, because of the siesta, where the cities shut down and everyone sleeps). But right now I’m in long sleeves, its dumping rain and we have had lighting and thunder storms all night long. The weather here can never just be consistent in a single week. The jungle life, am I right?

We also made a trip to the hospital because my companion might actually be allergic to dust and earth here so he had to get a vaccine. And now I realize why all the other missionaries say that this is not a place you want to get sick.  Mold on the ceilings, poor hygiene, the patient rooms are hardly any better, and there’s, of course, the dogs... everywhere.  I made friends with the dog under my chair in the waiting room.

And while on the topic of sickness, we had a service project this week! A member needed help putting in a concrete floor in his house, so we helped him and other members of the ward make concrete, and after they fed us asada (BBQ).  They make concrete by mashing bricks into smaller pieces then mixing it with waters and all these different powders and sands. Well first I had my hand smashed by a giant brick someone threw when I was reaching into the pile.  Then during lunch we ate the food, and it was not good at all. One of the things they had was blood sausage.  Well I didn’t know what it was, so of course I took some and when we were walking back to our pension for our study time my companion told me what it was.  All the stuff of the cow they don’t use in other stuff, including the blood and veins. It’s safe to say I was sick the rest of the day.  So I left that activity with a hurting, bleeding hand, and an upset stomach.

But other than that we had a pretty normal week. Had 2 investigators come to church this week so we hope they continue to progress!

Hope all is going well back home for you all!
Elder Peters


Making Concrete

The post lunch, asada, with some members.

Hermano Miguel, one of the greatest guys I have ever met.

Just some Argentine sunset for you all.

Hello,

Things here are pretty much the same.  It’s the same thing day in and day out.  We did have 2 investigators come to church this week so that was pretty exciting! but we are still a long ways from a baptism here. We might have a wedding though!  One of the investigators that came to church isn’t married to her boyfriend and they have 3 kids.  And so she is in the process of talking with her boyfriend about getting married so she can be baptized!  She seems really excited about the gospel it’s great! She lives on the very east edge of our area (about a 30 minute bus ride from our pension) and she took 2 buses with her 3 kids, the oldest being 4, to get to the chapel and she just loved it!  So she’s our only real investigator that we have hopes of having some progress, but for the most part, we are back at square one with finding people to teach.

Our ZLs finally decided we needed some divisions, so tomorrow I’m working in Barranqueras with one of the other Elders in our ward.  I’m pretty excited for it and its going to be so fun to maybe have some positive energy flowing. Our ZLs are just so awesome and since they live across the hall from us I’m over at their place most of the time!

Other than that…the weather has still been crazy, I’m still getting eaten alive by mosquito's, and the food is still good (for the most part, I’ll explain in the other email).

The language is coming slowly but surely, every day I try to learn about 20 new words, although it doesn’t happen every day. I have a good grasp on what I need to say but it’s the transition words (like although, however) that are really messing with me because there not really words I put a lot of thought to when speaking in English. So when I look for words to study they’re usually not the first ones to pop into my head. The other problem is that those types of words don’t have a single direct translation, it just depends on the context or what you are talking about. So it’s hard but the members here are so helpful at being patient when talking to me so I get a lot of practice with them, my companion doesn’t really let me talk with investigators, so talking to members is the best practice I get during the day.

Glad to hear everything is going well at home.  I told you so mom.  I’m already up to Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon in our Presidents challenge to read it in a month.  I’m reading it in English because the point of it is to increase our faith, so I don’t really get much out of reading it in Spanish and its takes 4x longer.

But things are still as good as ever!
Have a good week!

Elder Peters


There are a few people that have learned to speak a little English on their own or while on their missions so sometimes they talk at me in English while I respond back in Spanish so that helps me learn sentence structure and practice my vocabulary.  We don’t really do anything fun on Pdays, just write, clean, and sleep. We are all cutting our hair today, I really need it, and we might play ping pong at the chapel but we were like an hour late to Resistencia to do everything we needed to do.  I guess waiting by the door for an hour doesn’t really help speed things up.

Yes I get Chadd’s emails and it sounds like he is having a blast.  I write Austin more than anyone else because we are both the only 2 in poorer areas for our missions, everyone is living large so we don’t really relate to them as much.

Have a good week!






Tuesday, November 10, 2015

2 Months Down!

Time has just really flown by. 2 months already and only 22 more to go! and all the other missionaries just say it gets even faster after the first few months.

But there are really no big highlights this week..
We taught some lessons, clapped at some houses (since they don't have doors to knock), and walked around aimlessly a few times.

We do have some really awesome investigators that are really passionate about the gospel and want to be baptized but then on Sunday we get to the chapel and wait and none ever show up... So our goal this next week to is to really emphasize that we want them to come to church and progress more towards baptism!

One couple is just the best , they are our favorites because they just love having us over and love our messages. The last lesson we taught we sit down at their table and before we could say anything the husband is like "Can I say the opening prayer?!?!" and me and my companion just look at each other and say "Por Supeusto!!" They're awesome!

Another time we were doing a lot of contacting (clapping at the houses) and no one wanted anything to do with us and it got to the point we had given up and sat on the curb wondering what to do next since we had absolutely zero work to do at the time until 5 minutes later an old women wobbles by and of course we give the obvious "Hola!! Como esta?" like we do with everyone and she just says "hola" and keeps on wobbling, but a few steps later she stops and turns to us and asks "¿Son misionaries verdad? ¿por un iglesia en Resistencia?" and we stand up and start talking to her and she wants to hear about our church so we give her a book of Mormon and talk about the restoration a bit and she just wobbles over and hugs each of us and tries to kiss us on the cheek (my first experience as a missionary with the no hugging rule) and tells us we are welcome anytime she is home to come and teach her the lessons! So that was a positive this week out of a whole lot of negativity.

There have been a few ups and down this week, mostly downs, but I'm just trying my best to be obedient and patient with all that is going on! But at some points it was just been so hard, not going to lie, this is one of the hardest moments of my life. But patience has been such a big thing for me even though it has run low at times. But I do love it down here and look forward to the next 22 months!

With love,
Elder Peters

The Homie Elder Christansen heading home after 2 years

When it rains.  There are some parts we can't even walk
with our boots because it can get that deep.

The Zone

All has been well this past week. Nothing really new, still don't have any investigators coming to church which is kind of rough since some of them are so passionate about the gospel. But its really just day in and day out the same thing here! We have scheduled appointments, sometimes people forget and are busy (actually most of the time) so we just end up doing some contacting which can be some times even more rough. Especially on Sunday nights because that seems to be the family night where everyone goes out or stays in and watches a Boca or River game (they seem to play literally every Sunday night).

The food we eat here is the best, lots of milanesa and empanadas! A lot of rice as well! The best though is the asada (BBQ) a brother in the ward cooks for us every Saturday! I don't know what any of it is called but there's chicken, sausage, and some steak/ribs and it is the best. I also love the bread here, its all I eat at our apartment since I don't want to cook anything else! Things have really been flying by here. A wave of Elders just left today including one of our zone leaders and he was the coolest guy ever. And no we don't have pentinestas that do everything for us like some spoiled missionaries in Peru...

The poor here are different then the poor in the US. I never see people really working so I don't know if that has something to do with it but I also just think its because the area is poor that no one can really find a nice place to live. There are a few nicer houses with cars and garages and things like that but they are always gated off and clumped together into one area of town.

The weather here is always humid. One day it will be raining and floods everything. Then the next day it will be sunny and boiling hot.  I got kind of sunburned because one day it was raining in the morning then sunny in the afternoon so I didn't have time to put sunscreen on so all the members make fun of me for being red faced.

On Pdays there's not a lot to do but walk around Resistencia and write home. Other than that we sort of just clean our apartment and sleep. What's rough is if we need to buy something we have to leave right at 10 to get to Resistencia before everything closes for the siesta time. So we usually try writing during that time when everything is closed.

Other than that all is well, nothing new! We have a multi zone conference tomorrow here in Resistencia so hopefully I will see some familiar faces like Elder Sheehan!

With love,
Elder Peters