Friday, July 23, 2010

Off to TEXAS in 2 1/2 days!!!!

Email sent Friday 23 July 2010

Howdy Y'all!!!

Thanks for all of your letters and...the PACKAGE! Yay, my music. Thank you. It came on Saturday, but I didn't get the notice from my District Leader until after the mail room closed so I couldn't get it till monday morning. But it's ok. Thanks for the paper and envelopes. That works great. Though I should have had you send that to Texas so I didn't have to pack it in my suitcase. But oh well. I haven't started packing yet so hopefully that will go well. I may be sending somethings home that I don't want to just look for that package to arrive. Also thank you for the pictures and stuff!

Let's see...Mom, your letter was so funny about the dear elder website and how they didn't have a Spanish option for "Elder." Mom that this because the Spanish word for "Elder" is "Elder." Funny. We laughed, not at you but with you. You say the same word, but just with a Spanish accent.

Ok so monday mornigh, we leave here at 5 in the AM. My comp. and I, and 3 Elders in my district leave with us to McAllen. But there are at least 14 in our travel group going to McAllen monday morning. Apparently there are supposed to be two other sisters, but I only know of one, so if there is another one, we will be surprised. We also have one elder in our district who is supposed to go to Spain, Elder McKinnon, but he doesn't ahve his visa so they reassigned him temporarily to Mesa, Arizona and our other two sisters leave for their missions in Iowa on Wednesday. We will be leaving before the older district in our zone that is supposed to go to Mexico. They have been here for 13 weeks now, and still don't have their visas. Poor Elders. Also, a bunch of Elders going to Brazil got temporarily reassigned and some are coming to McAllen Texas on Wednesday while they wait for their visas.

Ok the bike. So I guess I'll just wait till I get down there and see what I need to do. I will buy bedding too.

I shared the donuts with people in my district and zone. I introduced the Elders to the BEST donuts ever.

Mom: have fun in Portland. THat's cool that you just get to travel and have fun.

Dad: water skiiing huh? Nice. Yesterday some elders were talking about how people over 50 can't do anything, they just golf, and I was like, "that is so not true! My dad and mom are like 56-57 or somehting and they still go skiing and waterskiing all the time." My dad can do anything. He's awesome. And then the elder was like, "wow, well you're dad and mom are cool then." So good job dad. Way to stay young.

Brandy: I'll try to get you a letter in a sec.

Thanks for going to Brett's homecoming. I forgot to tell you you should go. I'm glad ya'll went and that he's doing good. You should also go to these weddings that are coming up if you get invitations for me. :)

Raja Bell is coming back! Yay! I liked him

Mom the daily writting does not have to end. YOu can just mail it instead. haha

Ok yes the dress code has changed. No nylons necessary and shorter skirts are ok! Yahoo!!!

Ok sorry time is short, but one thought for the week. What if we all treated our Book of Mormons the way we treat our cell phones? Think about that and try to make your Book of Mormon more important to you. Do you check it multiple times a day and go to it for answers?

Love you all!

Hermana Melinda Petersen

Friday, July 16, 2010

Something Special!!!

Email sent Friday 16 July 2010

Hi!!!!

GUESS WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!? We just went to the mail box to check for something special and...WE GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS TODAY!!! I leave a week from Monday!!! OUr flight is at 8:30 am on monday the 26th. and We fly to dallas and then to Mcallen and we will get there around 3:20. Oh my goodness!!! Isn't that crazy!!! I only have a week left of this place. Ahhh! Scarey.

Also in the mail this week I got...AN AWESOME PACKAGE!!! Oh my goodness do I love dunford donuts! Muchas gracias!!! My district loves you all for that too. And thanks for the shirts and socks too! Perfecto. I do hope my suitcases don't weigh too much too. But We'll see. Thanks so much.

About the music...I was hoping that You could send me that other music soon, cuz our district has to do a song in sacrament meeting this sunday and I wanted to maybe use some of my music. but we can sing a hymn if it doesn't get here in time.

So let's see...did Sis. Sigler's mom reply? what did she say? Korver is gone!!! :( What the?! I am not very happy about this. I leave and Utah goes crazy. What is the deal? That's too bad about Brian Higgins. I feel like our Youth Conferences are always doomed for injury. Every year someone ends up in the emergency room. One time Topher bit through his tongue. That was gross. An Elder in my district here hurt himself playing basketball and tore his ACL. He had surgery on it this week. So he's just in the health clinic all day everyday. I don't know how long it will be before he can start doing real missionary stuff again. Sad.

I try to write Quinton every week. But he only writes me like every other. But when we do write it's only like two or three lines. It is very short. Sad, but we just don't ahve time.

And Brandy, don't feel bad if I don't write you an email. THat just means that I am sending you a letter. Which is way better. If I sent you an email it would be crappy and short, but letters are way better, but I'll try to send you an email today.

Thanks for the funny's and emails. Elder Armstrong is going to like houston or sanantonio ?

So have they made a plaque for me yet? Y'all should take a picture of it and send it to me. :)

So they have these videos about missionary work that we watch that show us what it is really like. They are called "The District" but they just made a new series and released it, and we got to watch them, and it's kinda awesome because it's like a missionary reality tv show. It's pretty funny, but spiritual also, it get's us pumped to get out there.

This week has been really good. In our class and study's we ahve been focusing on la Expiacion, the atonement. It has been awesome. I would encourage you all to start a study of the Atonement as well. Study and find scriptures of how the atonement can bless your lives specifically and what Christ actually did for you. The scriptures are awesome.

This morning I was reading in Alma 60 and it is where Moroni and Helaman and their armies have been fighting the Lamanites and they need to be strengthened and so Moroni is writing an epistle to Pahoran to basically rebuke him and get him to send them more armies and support to defend their country. It is an awesome chapter. It can be aplied to us in our lives as well. In verse 7 he is saying, why are ya'll just sitting back while Satan and his hosts are spreading spiritual death among your brethern? vs. 8 says "ye ye might have sent armies unto them to have strengthened them." We can send support to those around us who are being attacked by Satan and his temptations. But sometimes we just sit back and watch "on our thrones" so to speak. vs 9 says " ye ahve withheld your provisions from them." Sometimes we have withheld, or not been willing to share, our testimonies with those who are beeing attacked by Satan. We can not do this. We must take a stand and send support to our bretheren. vs 30 Says "and behold I wait for assistance from you." They are waiting for us to help them. We need to go out and do that. So I challange ya'll to have FHE on Monday night and read this whole chapter and talk about ways you can send assistance. Do it. I promise our family will be strengthened and so will those that need our assistance.

I love you all! I am so excited to get out and fly (for the first time) to Texas!! Next week is going to be crazy busy packing and trying to cram as much gospel knowlege in as I can but it will be awesome.

Love,

Hermana Melinda Petersen

-Do it afraid

Friday, July 9, 2010

Como estan?

Email received Friday 9 July 2010

Hola familia,

Como estan? Estoy muy bien. Esta semana fue muy divertido. The fourth of July was awesome! Saturday was just a normal day except that while we were at gym outside on the fields we could hear Carrie Underwood practicing for the stadium of fire. THat was kinda funny. and then at 8:30 at night we had a special program all about the history of teh world and how it was prepared to bring forth the restoration of the gospel and how America played a big role in that. It was pretty cool. And then after.....they let us go outside and watch the fireworks that started at 10pm for the stadium of fire!!! It was so fun. And that was the latest I've stayed out in quite some time. I took some videos and pictures so sometime when I send my card home you'll have fun looking at that. Or mostly just listening to the videos cuz you can't see anyone's faces in the video cuz it's dark. But it was a really fun night to just hang out for 30 minutes with our district and have a taste of summer.

Yes mom, Wednesday was the first day that mail was delivered on my mission and I did not recieve a letter. My district leader Elder Dewey thought it was so funny. On thursday before he went and got the mail he siad to me, "Is the drought going to continue?" and was miaking fun of me and stuff. It was funny. All of the elders are sorta jealous that me and hermana sigler get more letters than all of tehm combined normally. :) haha. But don't worry on thrusday I got 3 dear elders

No you never told me about that oil leek here. That's crazy, but at leaste they did a better job cleaning it up than that BC or whatever in the gulf. That is crazy that they moved the wedding receptions at their expense.

And ARE YOU SERIOUS???? BOOZER is leaving for the BULLS??? What the? Where's the loyalty. I am very upset over this. This is horrible.

Yes mom, Hermana Sigler and I are getting along. We have differences but every companionship does. I just needed to comprimise and we are doing great. It's all about loving each other. When we pray for charity or the pure love of christ like Moroni tells us to in Moroni 7:48 the lord will bless us with it. So ya I'm learning a lot from Hermana Sigler and we are doing great.

You said Sister Sallsbury bore her testimony in Spanish. I don't know how I'm going to understand the language either. At our TRC this week our investigator just talked and talked sometimes and I got so lost. They speak so fast, and soft, and slur words together, it's going to be ruff when I get out there and hear natives speak. But I'll be able to do it evenutally.

Package: ok let's see, I really wnat my sheet music. That white folder I told you about and a copy of that red Hatch book, or at least the I Heard Him come and Love one another from that book, and possibly a copy of the his crhistmas ones the first noel and Angels we have heard on high. Also you could send copies of the actual hymns in my EFY book. That would be awesome. I love just being able to play the piano. And if I had more music I could do cool accompainiments instead of just hymn book versions. Also, I would like some safety pins. Just like 5-6 normal sized saftey pins. And dunford chocolate donuts if you feel so inclined.

Brandy: I'm going to try to write you a letter today.

Does Grandpa know Robert K Dellenbach? From rotary. He spoke to us at our devotional on tuesday night. (And I had to give the closing prayer...in front of the whole MTC cuz my Branch President asked me to like a week ago. It was scarey-and weird to pray in english again). I will probably send you my notes from last weeks devo by Sister Dalton.

My district is SO close! I love them all so much. We are awesome. It was sad though. We lost a member this week. Elder Paarish got his visa and so he flew to Spain on monday Elder McKinnon is still here waiting for his. But we miss Elder Paarish. He was such a funny Elder and always made us all laugh.

Also, I'm thinking of buying a new set of small scriptures, withthe book of mormon and the bible separate. I can get them both for a total of like55 dollars here. Do you think I should do it? My other scriptures are so marked, if people are going to have to read out of them, they will be weirded out by all my margin comments. Also if ya'll every wanted to send me a tape that ya'll have talked on that would be cool. I might buy a recorder.

How is my laptop. I am worried about it. :)

I taught the law of chastity for teh first time this week. That was weird. And hard

got to go bye

love you!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Hola!

Email sent Friday 2 July 2010

Alrgith lets answer your questions.. Man typying is hard when I'm not used to doing it all of the time.. and When tyou have a stupid keyboard that double periods everything.. Anyway, the Dear Elders.. They come to the MTC twice a day but my district leader only checks the mail once a day right before dinner around 6pm.. So If you do not send a Dear Elder before about 5 pm on Thursday night I will not get it before I right you an email on Friday.. ---again my enter key doesn't work. So frustrating.. We got to meet with the Trayners (the new Mission President and Wife who are at the MTC for training before heading to Texas) on Friday night after we had a special firesdie from Elder Oaks, which Elder Holland, Anderson, Cook, Nelson, Bednar and Scott also attended.. Apparently there was a sacrament meeting on sunday with all of the mission presidents and the whole first presidency and most of the quorum of the 12, but we didn't get to go to it., but that would have been so cool.. I never saw the prophet but he was here.. It was crazy all the special things that the MTC did for the whole mission presidents seminar thing.. The main building was off limits to missionaries and they brought in all of these flowers and tables to decorate the halls with lace table cloths and made everything a lot more pretty for the presidents.. They really got special treatment.. ----- Let's see , but ya we got meet with the Trayners and all of the other missionares here that are going to McAllen.. There are 13 of us that will leave on the same day I think.. We will be President Trayner's first new group, and his favorite I am sure.. -----That's crazy about all of the things that are going on in Texas right now! Tornadoes, flooding, hurricanes, evacuating missionaries.. Wow the Trayner's have their hands full I am sure.. I want to get down there.. Do you know what's going on with the oil spill? Someone said that it has hit corpus christi.. What's up with that? I need news from the outside world.. =----- Mom: you should look for stationary at Walmart, but if you can't find any, don't worry too much about it.. I can just buy some later, they have walmarts in Texas too.. You never told me that Elder Nelson spoke at Grandpa's funeral.. If I had known that I would have told him who I was and he would have known me.. -------TRC means Teaching Resource Center, maybe, I don't know I just made that up, but it is the place we go every Thursday to teach "investigators" who are people who come in from the real world and volunteer to act like investigators and be taught by the missionaries.. So this week at the TRC it was our first time teaching the First Lesson completly in Spanish.. But we were pretty prepared.. Because of our Semana de Poder, Power Week.. Hermana Sigler and I accomplished our goal! In six days we taught 35 thirty-minute lessons in Spanish.. It was crazy! We got pretty good at our spanish.. We felt a lot more prepared than I'm sure we would have been if we had only taught it like 5 or 6 times.. So this week was crazy and we were so tired by the end of last night.. 35 lessons.. WOW.. It was a lot, and 35 was our goal so I'm really glad we made it.. We had a couple of appointments fall through and had to quickly find new people to teach but we made it.. It was awesome.. -----Jon Nelson is no longer in my zone.. Aparently he was too smart for us.. :) He tested into the intermediate Spanish class.. Good for him.. I'll try to find him again though so we can take a picture.. ----I can't email you any pictures because 1)that would take way too much of my precious 30 minutes, and 2) I don't know if it would even work on these computers.. Probably would but it would take to long and my email would only be like 2 lines long.. But what you can do is use my scanner, and upload pictures I sent you onto my laptop and put them on the blog from there.. To use the scanner go into programs and find the hp solution center i think and click scan photo or somehting and do what it says.. -----YEs they have BYU brownies here occasionaly.. Not often enough but maybe once every two weeks.. ---Today we got to clean the temple.. It was reallly cool.. Us four sisters got to put away youth temple clothing and organize it by size and then put away all of the men's shoes behind the clothing counter, and then we completely cleaned one of the first aid rooms.. The lady also took us four sisters all over in the temple in the basement and first floor and we got to see all of the new stuff that they are doing and we got to see all of the temple presidencies offices and matrons offices and tons of stuff and the new chandeleer and things and the laundry room, which is huge!!! It was really cool.. But the elders had to clean lockers with rags q-tips and tooth pics........pretty sure us sisters lucked out!!! -----Other clothes that I may want, if you find other shirts that are cute with some cute floral prints or anything that would be awesome, as long as they are sorta loose, but cute, and dressy enough, also look out for a cute black skirt that is more full than the straight one that I have.. It would be nice to have two black skirts.. ----- Dad: you need to learn to use computers., it might be somehting you should try to do :) ------ I wanted to tell you about all of the other awesome talks that we heard this week, but I don't know if I have time.. On sunday in releif society we heard from Susan C.. Jones from the Young Women;s General Board.. She was an awesome teacher!!1 Also on Sunday night we heard from Stephen B.. Allen the Managing Director of the Missionary Dept and he showed us the new missionary dvd's that they just made and showed us all this new stuff about how Mormon..org is about to change.. It is going to be awesome. You all should check it out after it is launched on July 6th or something.. On Tuesday we heard from Elaine S.. Dalton! Another amazing talk! I may wriote you a letter about it.. ----Anyway all is well and I look forward to hearing from ya'll again soon.. ----Melinda