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


Saturday, November 7, 2015

The Horses and the Dogs

Well my first complete week here in Argentina and it has been fast! these 2 years are going to fly by so quickly.

Work in our area has finally picked up and we have a lot more investigators and even some baptismal dates, we need to get them prepared for baptism (getting baptisms is hard here because the requirements down here are kind of strict since there have been issues in the past). But we are optimistic about a few who have just been so excited and happy every since we visited them and gave them a Book of Mormon to read! But more to come as things progress!  Other then that things have been low key around here.  We just walk around in the heat all day.

Just a few highlights and some fun facts about things around here:
  1. There are dogs every where.  Like every where.  Just herds of dogs.
  2. Almost got run over by a stampede of horses waiting for the bus (yes horses... there's just as many of them as there are dogs)
  3. It's completely normal to see a Mercedes Benz stuck behind the horse drawn carriage down the road.
  4. One day it could be in the 90´s then the next day be in the 50's and dumping rain.  You just never know.
  5. Boca (one of the big soccer teams here, the other being River) won some sort of championship so there were fireworks and celebrations all last night.  Which meant no sleep.
  6. I don't think Halloween is a thing here.  I didn't see anything out of the ordinary on the 31st.
  7. They have a subway in Resistencia! And its a lot harder than you think ordering in Spanish.

We also had stake conference this past week so we all got to meet in Resistencia and I got to meet a whole bunch of great new people and missionaries! We have a Zone conference here in Barrancarous this next week, so we will be having missionaries coming from as far as 3 hours away stay with us for a night so we can meet together on Wednesday.  It's good stuff I'm super excited!

That is all for this week! I still don't understand any Spanish as well, so that's pretty cool as well.

With Love,
Elder Peters

No pics this week, the library here is the only place that I can upload pictures but its closed today because its apparently a holiday... weird... but next week hopefully there will be pictures of us tracking in the flooding water in our boots and all that fun stuff.



Hello,

Things have been pretty chill here.  Nice to see the Ducks are at least doing well and it's nice to hear about the Timbers because there is a boy in our ward that loves the Timbers and Diego Valeri so I have something to talk with him about now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

I'm glad Chadd got to talk with Alex (its not Christen Press though) and I hope he chewed her out for not going to prom with us.

Sadly, Hermana Beecher is heading home early due to an issue with her leg and leaves tomorrow, so we never really got to talk too much (although she does know Kate McDonald and I know how much mom loves Kate).  The language is coming slowly. I still can't understand very well but I get the general idea of the conversation most of the time.  My companion is getting really frustrated though so that has led to some issues but I'm trying my best to improve more and more everyday.

On P-days we actually have 2 hours for email so We usually come in at around 6 or 7 your time and write for an hour then come back at around 10 or 11 your time and use the last hour.

Other than that things are going well here, I am starting to be more appreciative of the life I had before the mission and actually feel kind of bad leaving the house in nice clothes with a nice bag and all, we definitely stand out a lot from the people we teach.

Since I've been here we have had 17 new investigators and 6 fechas de bautizmo! The problem we have is getting them to church 3 weeks in a row before they can be baptized (just one of the rules they have, they have problems with enduring to the end and people just being baptized just to make the missionaries happy then never going to church again) and its hard because from our area we work in you have to take 2 buses to get to the church and some families just can't afford that every Sunday or have health problems that forbid them from attending.  But we are optimistic about a few. A 30 year old couple who have said "ever since you brought the book of Mormon into our lives things have just been so much better and we are so happy!" and also a 13 year old boy who actually approached us and asked to be taught.  Then a single women who said the same thing the couple said about the Book of Mormon! so we are trying but we still have a bit before anything big happens.

We had stake conference this week but I didn't understand anything so I have no inspiring words to share.  I did get a shout out though because me and my companion helped one of the speakers write her talk.  The family is so nice, we go to their house every Monday for FHE and Sundays for dinner and they're great.

That's really all for this week!
Hope all is well back home
Sending love,
Elder Peters