Último Semana en México!

Hola!

It is so crazy to think that next time I talk to you all I will back in the great United States! I can not wait but I am also so sad to leave my new family here at the CCM. This week Hna Ramsey and I started to feel sick at the beginning of the week but we have been praying to stay healthy and it has not gotten very bad at all so we are very grateful for that! We ran out of soap in our casa for a couple days before they refilled it so we will blame our sickness on that haha!

We got to teach TRC again on Saturday and it went pretty good. We got to teach 2 different lessons, both of them are 18 year old members who are preparing to go on a mission right now so we were able to share some experiences with them that we have had here. The first girl we taught spoke at the speed of lightning but I was able to catch enough to kind of know how to answer and if I did not catch it usually Hna Ramsey did or vice versa. We taught relief society again this week, it was about obedience and diligence and it went really well. We were a little nervous because there is only 4 people to teach so if they do not comment we would be in big trouble but they all participated and it turned out great!

On Sunday we were able to watch a really cool video on Sunday night called "How Rare a Possession" If you can figure out how to watch it I would. It gives you a new perspective on the Book of Mormon and how grateful we should be for the knowledge we have from it.

On Monday I got like 6 letters and that totally made my day! Hna Ramsey walked in and saw a letter on her desk and got so excited and then saw that it was just from my mom and she got less excited (she was still excited but she just wished it was from her family). When Elder Seui walked in he said, "still no letter Hna?" and she said it was just from my mom and he pulled out another letter and gave it to her. She did get one finally from her sister! I was so happy for her!

Hermana Ramsey got convinced to do a duet with one of our Elders of Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. It is super pretty, they have been practicing during personal study in the mornings. They auditioned yesterday and they said they sounded great but it has to be in Spanish so they are going to try and find the words for them and they are probably going to perform on Sunday at one of the devotionals.

We got to teach Suceth a couple more times this week and it went pretty well. We have been teaching her about family home evening (noche de hogar) and encouraging her to be an example to her husband and to share what she is learning and feeling with her family. We invited her husband to come to 2 lessons this week and he did not come to either of them which was hard because we had planned as if he was there but I think he will be there when we teach her again on Saturday so hopefully he will have an open heart to hear what we have to say.

Like I said it is crazy that it has already been 6 weeks, after we finish emailing today we have to go pack and weigh our bags. I leave bright and early Monday morning (I think I will be leaving the CCM about 2 am!).

The last couple of days I have been reading in Joseph Smith History, I did not realize how much information was actually in there! I also started reading in the My Heritage book which is super good too. I encourage all of you to study JSH this week, I will attach some of my favorite verses from that here. Start your study with a prayer and I know you will be able to feel of the truthfulness of it!

JSH 1:

20-it seems as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom (satan will work against you as long as he knows you are fighting against his cause)

12-if any person needed wisdom from God, I did (how cool that he could recognize that and be that humble)

13-ask of God (if you ask any worthy question with an open heart and a desire to change he will answer)

16-(he used all his energy to call on God, he was fully committed)

17-Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description (they are definitely not earthly beings)

23-(he recognizes that God does not usually appear to 14 year old boys, he knows that he sounds a little crazy but he is just telling the truth)

24-all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise

25-yes it was true

33-God had a work for me to do

I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Peterson

Week 5

Hey everybody!! It is so crazy to think that I am almost out of here! Just to let you know, my next pday will be on Wednesday so make sure you send me all your emails before then! After that my pdays should be on Mondays once I am in Texas!

Thursday nights I always have a hard time falling asleep because I am thinking about what I want to tell you all! I feel like my thoughts are always scattered so sorry if stuff doesn't make sense sometimes! So on Saturdays we get to do TRC (sorry I don't know what that stands for). TRC is when you get to teach real people. So far we have gotten all members but it could be less actives or non members. We had a good experience in TRC this past week. The man we got to teach was super nice, he pretty much taught the lesson, he bore his testimony to us after us asking how the gospel has played a role in his life. It was really awesome, he told us about his mission too. The weirdest part is that we pretty much understood nothing he said, we could tell what he was talking about but that is about it so we just shared a scripture and encouraged him to pray about how he could come closer to Jesucristo. Even though we didn't understand him, we were feeling the spirit so strongly, all three of us were in tears by the end of the lesson. Hna Ramseys glasses kept fogging up so that was kind of funny haha!

On Sunday we had a class taught by President Tenorio, he is so funny. When he teaches it is a lot harder to fall asleep. He mixed in several stories and the only reason I will tell you them is because I am not staying in Mexico and the CCM is heavily guarded. He said "now I will tell you about the first time I got robbed, I say the first time because it has happened many times" and he also told us about "the first time I got kidnapped" pretty scary stuff but it is a testament that God was watching out for him. Both our teachers have 2 wallets and 2 phones so that if they get robbed they will have something to give to them without actually losing anything. It is also so funny to hear him speak because he doesn't know English very well so he always has to ask his counselors for words.

Of course you all want to know about Thanksgiving. It was pretty much a normal day here. In the morning one of our classes got canceled and they streamed the devotional from Provo which was great, Elder Anderson spoke along with his grandchildren. We got a "traditional" Thanksgiving meal for lunch. When we walked into the Comidor they had white tablecloths on and they had some flowers and then we had turkey, corn, mashed potatoes, rolls, etc. Costco came in clutch with the apple pie and ice cream! They also served "American Star" rootbeer which was pretty funny because that is totally not a Thanksgiving thing. Some people made root beer floats and one of the Latinos made it and then as he was eating it he asked us what it was haha I guess he was just copying what he saw us Americans do! Also one of our Elders had to explain what whip cream was and how to use it! I will attach a pic of our meal. It was one of the best things we have had even though it really still isn't that good. After the maestros left at 9 we had a "feast" during our daily planning session with our zone. We all had gone to the Tienda and gotten food and brought stuff we got in our packages to share. We only had a half hour but we all said one word of something we were grateful for and then ate! It was nice because we all are feeling homesick obviously but we really are like a family to each other and it is pretty much the second best place I'd want to have Thanksgiving. One kid even got Martinellis and so after we all said what we were grateful for he popped the bottle and it sprayed everywhere haha! We are not really supposed to eat in the classrooms so he shoved it in his mouth to try to not spill but it just went up his nose.

Something cool I have been thinking about this week is that some of the teachers here came to school here then the CCM before their missions and are now teachers!

My spiritual thought of the week is Mosiah 7:33. Elder Seui pointed out last night that the Lord is blessing us for doing things we should be doing anyways, He really doesn't have to but He does it anyways because He promised He would. We should be diligent and serve the Lord with everything we have because literally we are nothing without Him. He is the reason we even breathe or continue to live. Yo se que Jesucristo nos ama. Yo se que Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial. Yo se que el Evangelio es verdad y usted puede saber por su mismo si usted ora saber.

I will also attach some pics of our roomies we took at the devotional on Thursday and our district at our feast

Te ama mucho!!

Hermana Peterson

​

The Plague

So I was thinking about what I should tell you guys and maybe I should be a little more spiritual but I really love funny missionary emails so I'll start off funny and then give you some spiritual uplifting!

So this week the most "exciting" thing this week was that the entire CCM (Centro de Capacitacion Missional México for those of you who asked) had what we fondly are calling the plague. Also there is a cold going around so they told us to stop shaking hands haha! Anyways, the plague all started from the best meal we have had the whole time we have been here so that is kind of disappointing! Unfortunately it was also Friday night and also happened to be the week that the doctors are switching over so that was a tad problematic. The meal was bbq chicken sandwiches and it was the least sketchy chicken we have eaten in our whole time here. Saturday morning we heard that a bunch of people had been having issues with "the two headed dragon" as the elders fondly refer to it. My stomach had been hurting pretty badly but luckily nothing has come from it. As of Saturday morning 150 plus missionaries were trying to go to the enfermeria. Literally the entire CCM has been sick since, it's pretty bad. We now don't think everything was food poisoning though because there is also a stomach infection/virus thing going around. The doctor pretty much does the same thing for everyone, feels their stomach and then asks "shots or pills" which I don't think is very doctorly to do but it is pretty funny. One of our Sister Training Leaders got it right before she left and she said shot because she thought it meant just one but then the doctor turned to her companion and asked if she had ever given shots before and she said "she will be taking the pills" haha! The plague is our elders favorite thing to talk about, I don't know why they all feel the need to discuss it, one elder even mentioned it over the pulpit on Sunday because he said he didn't have time to prepare a talk because he spent all night on the bathroom floor! Luckily my companion and I have not gotten it completely, we just don't feel great after eating. Once you choose your shots or pills you get sentenced to a diet of saltines and gatorade type drink so the elders always make fun of people carrying them around.

Pretty much everyday here is the same so it is a little hard to figured our what I want to tell you all. I think I forgot to tell you all this but the first Sunday I was here I ate a grasshopper. It wasn't terrible but I would definitely not choose to eat it again. Hna Packard caught them and cooked them for us to try. Still no TLM people in the CCM. This week about 138 new missionaries came which is like double what came with us! I haven't seen any of the missionaries you all told me to look for, sorry! Our district leader is now our zone leader so we got a new district leader, zone leaders, and stl's this week. All the Latina's in our house are new so we went and welcomed them and gave away the heart balloons my mom sent me. Yay for regifting!! The food is kind of getting harder to eat because the first time around we were trying everything so it was exciting but now we know that it is not great so it's harder to eat especially when our stomachs are all rebelling. It's not that the food is terrible (ok, so some of it I really can't handle like there is these weird breakfast tamale type things wrapped in banana leaves and I want to puke every time I smell them- that's the worst thing here in my opinion) but it is cafeteria style so I'm trying not to judge too much and we eat last so even on Tuesdays when we get Costco pizza it is cold and there is only cheese left and it's not as good as it is in the states. This analogy pretty much sums up how we can describe each meal: when we went to the temple they gave us snacks on the way home and there was this chocolate thing and someone tasted it before the rest of us and said "imagine a crunch bar, now lower your standards....now do that one more time and that's what this tastes like" haha!!

This week I got called on to speak so that was terrifying. For anyone who doesn't know, in the CCM everyone has to have a talk prepared (in Spanish of course) and you don't know who is speaking until they call you up to the pulpit. It ended up alright but my hands were shaking so bad! We also had to teach relief society this week but thankfully that is in English. It went really well, we taught about Faith and Hope. Faith is a principle of action and power so you have to make goals and take action for your faith to be strengthened!

My compañera is going to the Mexico City North Mission which is where one of our maestras served so we had the coolest realization this week. When we teach "investigators" here it is usually just our teacher but they are so good at acting. They choose someone from their mission that they taught so they can react similar ways. Our investigator for the next couple of weeks (one of them) is named Suceth, she has twin daughters and a husband. I love teaching her so much because she is open and we can feel the spirit SO strongly when we teach her. I have never had more testimony strengthening experiences than when we are teaching her. This week she shared with us that her husband is abusing her and I just wanted to cry, it made me so sad. We know these stories are real and that is so hard to understand. When she first told us we were kind of stunned, we didn't know what to say to her in English let alone in Spanish. We continued on with our lesson as planned and let her know that we are here for her. We talked about it a lot afterwards and I have not stopped thinking about it since. I have studied so much for our next lesson with her. As missionaries we are not supposed to counsel her on what actions she should take and that is hard. We don't teach her again until Monday so we have been planning her lesson. We have already shared with her the message of the atonement but we are going to re emphasize the comfort it brings, we found some super powerful scriptures to share and if I have time I will add them at the end of this email. We are also sharing the message of prayer again but the main message we want to share with her is that of the Priesthood. In our last lesson we taught of the restauración so it flows perfectly into talking more in depth about the priesthood. We plan on asking her if she would like a priesthood blessing at then end of the lesson and I think that we will all be feeling the spirit so strongly and I think the blessing is just what she needs to bless her and give her guidance in making decisions about her life. We also plan on inviting her husband to attend the lessons with her so hopefully she will be open to that. I have never felt the spirit so strongly as when we are in her lessons or studying to teach her. My favorite resource for planning her lesson (other than the scriptures) has been True to the Faith. It is the coolest book! We also used it for planning our RS lesson and it was great. Anyways, the realization we had is that Hna Ramsey will probably meet the real Suceth while she is out in the field. I can not even describe how cool of an experience that would be to really meet her!! Hna Gomez was telling us where she is at now after we asked her and she showed us a picture on her phone and she wrote down what ward and stake she is in for Hna Ramsey. Hna Gomez said that she went to visit her a 4 months ago and unfortunately her husband is back in the picture. Suceth's husband never joined the church so Hna Ramsey is supposed to try and work on him! (this part is for my mom and gma mostly) Hna Gomez said she loved the Titensers so much, she was so sad to hear that she has cancer! It is kind of crazy what a small world it is, we also figured out this week that Hna Gomez (she is our morning teacher by the way) served with Elder Huxford's brother for almost their entire mission because he just got home 5 months ago and she got home 8 months ago, how crazy?!! I can't believe she hadn't made that connection before because she has a super hard time saying his name.

Alma 7:11-12

2 Nefi 33:3

2 Nefi 32:3

One of our devotionals this week was streamed from Provo and it was Elder Stevenson from the quorum of the twelve and he kept taking about his missions in Japan and I kept thinking of you dad! My favorite thing is that he talked about the Thanksgiving of the Restoration which is something I have been growing my testimony on so much in my time here. I am so grateful for it!!

Te ama mucho!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hermana Peterson

I'm in Mexico??!!

Hey everybody!!

Sorry about my email last week, my brain was so scattered and I was typing on a Spanish keyboard at the speed of light so if anything didn't make sense or was wrong that is why. Thank you all so much again for the letters, they are seriously the best part of my days!

I don't even know what to tell you all! I just wish you could be here and experience what it's like because I don't know how to fit it all and describe it in an email. Last P day and today we got to go to the Mexico City temple so I will attach some pictures from that. Getting outside the wall makes everything real, we really are living in the middle of Mexico!! Okay so all the partying, fireworks, and gunshots do too but seeing it is even stranger. I never could have imagined what it looks like here. Go look it up on google maps, it is crazy. The CCM is so safe though and it is beautiful and clean here so don't you worry! The temple is seriously the best it is right in the middle of the city and you would not know you were there until you hit the guarded gates which is kind of the same way with the CCM. We got to listen to the session in English, but everything we speak is in Spanish so that was a little tricky but it was fine. I felt the spirit especially strong today. When we were walking out I just wanted to yell EL EVANGELIO ES VERDAD!!!!! Because it's true and el templo is amazing!! We got to go to the Tienda on the temple grounds and I got some scripture cases for my Spanish scriptures for 50 pesos which answers your question mom, yes, everything is dirt cheap here. I think 50 pesos converts to just under $3. We get 120 pesos a week to spend here at the CCM and that is plenty to get whatever you need.

The language is coming very slowly still but it is coming. I felt pretty good now that I can answer our investigators questions that we didn't script answers for. I know it's not just me though, the Lord knows these people need answers and He provides a way. For anyone wanting to know one of the stupider things I said this week, we were practice teaching with our district and I was teaching one of our Elders to pray and told him to serar sus osos instead of ojos. I know the difference now in case anyone is wondering!! We got 2 new investigators this week and I love them both but I especially love teaching Suceth. I don't know why because I have a much harder time understanding her but I love teaching her so much!!

The concept of time here is so strange. It feels like we have been here forever and it also feels like we just got here yesterday all at the same time. We have been here for 3 weeks! That is seriously so crazy! Everyday we pretty much do the same things so that makes time feel weird too. Like I said last week, my district is the BEST!!! I seriously love them! The week started off pretty bad because one of the Elders was mad at me, I won't go into why because it doesn't matter but I still had a love for him, so weird! They can act pretty stupid most of the time but I really enjoy the 15 hours a day we spend together. It is so crazy but when we have to go home at night I am actually sad to leave them even if they have been a little annoying that day. Gym time is the best part of our days usually. We get an hour break from thinking! We usually end up playing volleyball outside. The inside court is always packed and it is usually the experienced players so we like to use the beach and outdoor courts.

This Sunday was emotionally insane, I can't even explain it. Me and Hna. Ramsey were both saying that we think we have felt every emotion possible here.

This week has been pretty rainy. It is like in the 60's I think so kind of cold. I did break out my jacket but that was mostly after I got soaked in the rain storm. It is really hard for stuff to dry here too, I think it's because our casa doesn't really have any air flow. It took my shoes like 3 days to dry.

I have a picture of what we ate for breakfast this morning. It is one of the not so great meals. We have it for breakfast at least once a week. It is another example of us having only a guess of what we are eating. It is tortilla chips with like enchilada sauce and cheese on them...not what I would consider a meal, especially breakfast. Cereal and nutella toast are always there so we never go hungry!

You should all go and study 2 Nefi 31, it talks about all the principles of the doctrine of Christ. It is great!

I love you all so much!! Have a great week!

Hermana Peterson

It's Finally P Day!!!!

It's finally here! She sent the first 5 sentences and then it got cut off. I had to wait almost 40 minutes for the rest of the email. Thought I was going to die! I was more excited than on Christmas morning for sure! Thank you to everyone who has written and supported her!

Christine

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Hola everyone!!!!! I have waited for this day for almost 11 days, I think it has been the longest wait of my life. Seriously though this is like better than Christmas. I am going to start off my email kind of bluntly but just keep reading to the end!! So this has already been THE hardest thing I have ever done! I could never in a million years imagined what this would feel like. I have never given my full heart, might and mind to something this much. In the words of E. Scoresby "Everyone tells you this is the best 2 years of your life but the first few days SUCK and everyone should know that!" It is so true but it is already getting better! Here are some helpful thoughts people have told me: When you doubt yourself and your abilities you are doubting God, His plan, and His abilities. 2 Nefi 33:3 describes how I've gotten through it, crying unto God. You were chosen to serve in Spanish because the Lord know it is the language you can best testify in.

The CCM is amazing and I know that I am supposed to be here and not in Provo, I honestly think it would have been a lot harder being closer to you guys. It is crazy, some of our maestros honestly don't know more than a tiny bit of English but they are all amazing. I am going to try and answer everyones questions but I don't have a ton of time so just ask me again if I don't answer. I am SO sorry I don't have time to respond to everyone individually!! The letters you all have sent are the BEST!!!! It is awesome to hear from you guys throughout the week. I am pretty much the only one in my district that gets mail and everyone is jealous. The first time we got mail I had no joke like 10 letters. THANK YOU!!!!

I have the best companion ever! She is the sweetest and is so patient with me, her name is Hermana Ramsey. H. Ramsey is from Tampa, Florida but went to UVU for 2 years on a softball scholarship before she came out here. She is headed to the Mexico City North Mission and everyone keeps joking with her that they are just going to open the gates and kick her out because we are pretty much in her mission.

When I got past security on Tue there was like 6 other sisters that I sat and talked with, in total there was about 50 missionaries on our flight. We took a picture together before our flight too. I will attach a couple of pictures but my mom may send more later. The flight was pretty bad because I was so anxious it seemed like an eternity, both people on either side of me had headphones in the whole flight. When we landed we got there 30 min early but just had to sit on the plane because the gate wasn't ready yet. Once we got there we went through customs where they checked our itineraries and passports. Next, we went to get our luggage, everyone had 3 bags to carry so it was kind of difficult but we just balanced our carry ons on top of out biggest bag and then our purses on the smaller one and made our way slowly to the next spot. When you get to the next spot you push a button and if its green you don't have to do anything but if it turns red they search all of your stuff. Of course I got red but the girl I was hanging with did too so that was good, they opened and went through all our suitcases and put them through xray machined as well. We then found all the other heard of youngins in dress clothes and checked in with them. There had been a few flights before us and a few flights after us with only a couple people on each of them so we waited for them and then hopped  on to some busses and got to the CCM. They described the CCM as just throwing a bby into the middle of a pool and hoping they can figure out how to swim and that couldn't be more true. Once we got to the airport literally everything has been in Spanish since. I am feeling pretty behind in the language because almost everyone else has had spanish before. I am catching on veryyyyy slowly but it's hard because even the simplest things like numbers and days of the week I don't know. The food has been pretty good and it is a mix of american and mexican food. The comidor is always a surprise, we pretty much never know what we are eating. For example, Elder LeFoll one morning got this croissant type thing that he thought had nutella in it and so he put sugar and syrup on it only to find out that inside was chicken and he had put syrup and salt on it. That basically sums up our eating experience haha. They always have toast and cereal every meal so thats a good fall back. All the workers don't know english but they are all super nice and we always say hola and gracias to them. I did find H. Ius and give her the package, we actually see her quite a bit. My district is amazing, I couldn't ask for more kind and loving people. There are 10 elders and then us 2 Hermanas. Our Sister Training Leaders are the nicest too. So our casa has about 8 rooms I think, our room has 4 Hnas in it, they are both nice. On our second real day we taught in all Español and that was so terrifying, it went so badly but we are getting better, we pretty much teach everyday and we just got two new investigators yesterday. One of the stupid spanish mistakes I have made was that I told our investigator that he could be forgiven of his pescados instead of pecados. Look it up and you will know how stupid I sounded haha!! We have to memorize so many things, it is pretty overwhelming because I am not even good at memorizing things in my own language. Literally all day everyday there is fireworks going off, all the time. This weekend when we were going to bed we could hear music from outside the wall, it was SO loud, we are not even really close to the wall and neither are the houses outside so it is crazy how loud it must have been. One night when the music started we were walking to devotional and we could see the house up on the hill and the lights were going crazy, the only time the music stopped until about 3 am was when they were shooting off fireworks. Sunday was awesome, it is a tiny bit of a break. Literally every second of the day is scheduled out for you and I barely even have time to write in my journal before lights out. I want to write so much more but do not really have time so I will try to get to more next week. All in all my week has been so long and hard but the spirit here is amazing and it is definitely where I am supposed to be even if it did not seem like it at first.

I love you all sooooo much!!!!!

Thanks for all of your support!!

Hermana Peterson