Friday, December 17, 2010

Re: You say it's your birthday!!!

Email sent Monday 13 December 2010

Feliz Cumpleanos a mi! Yup yesterday was my birthday. I have to say it is one of the stranges birthdays I have ever had. I was just another day. Only like five people I saw knew it was my birthday. My district leader, the three sisters I live with and this cute little old lady investigator we have. So it was pretty uneventful...except that I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting. Gotta love that. And the sisters made me this awesome thing. It's called a Pizookie. It is this giant cookie that you cook on a cookie sheet and then you cover it with brownie batter that you mixed (without the egg) and top it with ice cream! It was really good. But other than the Pizookie eating it was just another day on the mission. Ni modo. I got your letter last week. Thank you for that! I also got one from Grandma. Tell her thanks! And I got a package from Lynne. SHe's such a cutie. It has christmas stuff in it too so that's fun. I'll be waiting to open that till later. So who am I supposed to be giving to out of the cousins this year? Cuz I guess that was either nate or spence giving to me. Let me know so I can send them a card or money or something.

Ok so this week was crazy. Wednesday evening my companion started getting sick. Thursday morning she was worse. So she slept and I studied. By 1:30 she felt a little better so they told us we could try to go out and work. So we did for teh rest of the night. But by the end of the night she felt super bad again. We came back and found out that another sister we live with, Sister Villalobos also was sick and had been throwing up and stuff. So Friday, Sis. Zamora and Villa just slept and were sick and suffered and Sister Platt and I had to have weekly planning by ourselves and then we studied a lot and sister platt and I went out at night to some of my appointments. Saturday sister Zamora was still not very good so we only went out to the appointments we had scheduled and she was a trooper. Also Sister Platt got sick that day too. So basically this week everyone in my apartment, EXCEPT ME, got sick. I think I have a very strong immune system. I'm telling you, it is the peanut butter/chocolate diet that helps you out. No I'm just kidding I eat better than that, not much better, but better. But ya, I spent my birthday week with sick people. It was fun. Luckily they are all feeling better now.

My spanish is really improving. My favorite is when we go up to people and start talking and then they say , "No speak english" and we switch to spanish and they just stand there dumb-founded. It's great. Or even better then people who we go up to and start talking in spanish and they say, "No speak english" and we say, "Estaba hablando en espanol." And they get all confused, they thought they could play dumb but we speak both languages so it is great. Anyway, it is coming along. Little by little.

Ok to answer your questions:

-Cockroach boxes? No idea. If we were cleaner I think they would go away. I don't know. It grosses me out less and less every day. It's just becoming normal. You get home and smack a couple and then clean up. It's life in Laredo.

-Yes I brought my bike with me, no I have yet to ride it. It still has a flat tire from when I got it. Yes I need to fix it. That's something dad should have taught me before I left.

-One of the office elders drove me and a new greenie here from McAllen in the truck.

Sister Zamora's first name is Amorette and she is from San Jose California.

-I have no idea about the christmas phone call. Hopefully we find out this week and I'll let you know next week I guess.

-Packages: you can actually send them to my address here. If you like specify that I have to sign on delivery they will try to deliver it and if I'm not here, they will just leave a slip and I can go pick it up at the post office. The post office is in my area, so we can go there whenever. So then you don't have to go through the nelsons. By the way make sure the zip code you use is 78041.

-(This is the scary story she mentioned in her last email that she wasn't going to tell us.)The story about Nuevo Laredo is that this member lives down there during the week and one day he was going to school and driving and all of a sudden all of these big black trucks and suv's that were real nice started flying by him in his car. and he was like, oh crap. Because stuff like this happens all the time down there and if you are there when they start to fight or whatever you die. So he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the last truckcame back and stopped him and they surrounded him and they made him get out of teh car and he had a machine gun pointed at his head and they were doing who knows what. But he was telling us this story because at this time he felt this overwhelming feeling of peace come over him, that everyting was going to be all right. He knew that it was the Holy Ghost comforting him in this horrible situation. And because of that peaceful feeling he was able to stay calm and they ended up releasing him and leaving him there alone. He was protected because of the Holy Ghost. But that's how scary the streets are across the border. In some cities the church has been canceled. people do not leave their homes except to go to school and then they come right back. Seminary is canceled, mutual is canceled. It's not safe. They live in fear every day. It is sad. But don't worry on this side it is not bad. We are safe.

-That song about laredo I think I heard on the wedding planner, it's great, quinton reminded me of it last week too.

-That's so cool about Sister Smart. A member here told us about that. She said that Elizabeth Smart's companion got to come with her and has been by her side every day of the trial and everything. That is so awesome that the church let her do that. What a companion. That would be the hardest experience. I am sure they will change so many lives together when they go back to France. (I think it was a companion that had already come home that was with her every day.)

Well I hope you are all having a very good Christmas season. Thanks for writing some dad! Tell Quinton hi, I feel like he doesn't exist sometimes now. He doesn't write me much. :( I'm excited to talk to you soon. Tell casey hi. Oh also, other random things that I might want for christmas, tapes (blank ones or ones that you all or our cousins have talked on) I have a tape player. Stamps. That black shirt I have with cream chain-like things on it in my closet, There was somethign else but I don't remember right now.

Well thank you all for everything. See what you can do to serve people at this christmas time. Don't ask people what you can do to help them, just use your eyes, look and find something that needs to be done and do it. See how you feel. Spread the spirit of Christmas. I love you all.

Love,

Sister Petersen

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