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...

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

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.

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