People in Texas really love Texas!

Email sent Monday 30 August 2010

Hey y'all,

Wow another week down here in the Sunshine state. I'm going to call it that because that's all the weather ever is...is SUN...and more SUN...and more HEAT. But Actually this week we did have a few days that were a little bit cooler...and we actually were cold in our car once because it was less that 100 degrees outside. I never thought it could happen.

Brent wrote me a letter about where the name Petersen comes from: it is from Copenhagen Denmark when my great great grandpa came from there to utah. So tell Brent thanks so much, I'll write him too, don't worry. Yes please keep sending me quintons and make sure I send mine to him. Sometimes we write each other, sometimes not.

Ok so people here in Texas are obsessed with the state. It really is like it is it's one country. Every house, ok not every but most, have like texas flag decorations or giant stepping stones the shape of texas witht the lone star, or giant cowboy boots with teh lone star as flower pots, or whatever you name it, they have it. I even saw a like a ford truck that was a "Texas edition." No lie. It's super funny. And I love the tex-mex that is spoken here. It is funny. Our zone leader in the middle of a district meeting last week said in the middle of a jumbled english/spanish comment, "A veces we tenemos que cut them off." Basically, ya, and it's not just the missionaries it is everyone that speaks a little of both in mid sentence people switch. It's funny.

A boy got baptized this week when he turned 8. I love his family! They are continually progressing and sharing the gospel with their extended family and everything.

While tracting this week we knocked into a Hindu lady. It was really intersting. She let us in and she was from India so her house was all decorated cool. And we talked about what she believed and she even showed us her prayer room, which was more of a coat closet, but it was super cool. She had tons of stuff and idols and stuff in there. But we had no idea how to teach her because her beliefs were so different we couldn't find much common ground. So that is a section in PMG we will be studying soon.

We played soccer again today. It was really fun, but super hot again. Sweaty! Gross.

This week really was hard though. We worked really hard but basically none of our investigators are progressing and we should've had a ton at church because we worked so hard and had a ton committed to come and we did everything we could to get them there but only one (who is amazing but her mom won't let her get baptized) came. It was frustrating. Sometimes we just want to make people do what's right...but then we realize that's bad. That's Satan's plan. And we have to respect people's agency. So we'll do our part and that's all we can do.

This week we had a talent show in our English ward. It was super funny. We have a very talented ward. The young women danced to Thriller. The bishopric and the high priest did an awesome beach boys number, the bishops wife and the young womens leader learned to clog in the last month and performed, and there was even an appearance by kiss. Ward talent shows. Love it!

Thanks so much, I love you all!

Sister Petersen