Email sent Monday 16Aug2010
Hola familia,
Wow, I only have a tiny bit of time. You guys send a ton of long emails, and then I have to read them and it's hard and Ah! Ok so I feel like we need a new plan. But I don't know what else to do. So oh well I guess, my emails will just be short.
Conference tickets: she wants four for whatever sessions you can get, preferably sunday. I'll tell her that you don't know anything yet but will look. I don't think she's asked any other people. No one lives that close as we do. So just let me know.
Bedding: I used this random sheets that they had in our apartment, but don't worry last week I bought cute white ones blue and green polka-dots on them! Only $13. I love Walmart!
Ok other thing that I want...Is there any way you could get me a Liahona in spanish of the last general conference? That would be awesome!
That stinks about the CD. That is stupid. Well I still have the memory card, so I'll try to make another CD today at walmart. BUt I had no way of testing the other CD at the MTC it was just a chance I took. And I'll have no way of testing this one either, so we'll just wait and see i guess. But don't worry I still have the pictures.
Ok so this week was crazy, somewhat frustrating but also really great! So because of our double work last week with the mini-missionaries, we had TONS of appointments this week (not enough time to contact, but tons of appointments). But the problem was that basically every appointment fell through. No one would be there when we would show up. It was really frustrating because we felt like we were wasting a lot of time, but it got better, for as many as fell through we actually did pretty well at contacting and finding others to teach to make up for it. So this week our faith was tested a lot. We had to have faith that our investigators would follow through with their appointments and as well have faith that God would put others in our path to contact and teach.
We also had a First Companion Training this week! It was awesome. I got to see all the people who were in my district in the MTC! It was really good to see them all again and see how they've been doing in there different areas. Also President Trayner is amazing! He is doing great things with this mission. He is putting a huge emphasis on learning spanish and baptizing. Which is how it should be. And we need one to do the other. We have a Zone Conference Tu-F this week from 10-5 that is going to be crazy good. I am really looking forward to all the practice and knowledge we are going to gain about how to be better missionaries.
Ok funny things from this week: On Friday the 13th, we were knocking houses and we knocked one that had this fake skeleton with fake blood all over it laying on the ground outside in a pile of garbage and a black cat walked by...scary! But nothing happened. :)
About Texas: It is hot. All the time. I don't really notice the humidity anymore, except for at 6:30 in the morning when we first go outside to run, it feels humid, but after that it's just hot. It's always over 100 in the days, and as soon as it drops below, you know, because it feels so good!!! 97 degrees is like heaven. There are frogs everywhere in the mornings it'sfunny.
Where did our name "Petersen" come from? Everyone keeps asking me. Please find out so I have a response. Is it like Danish or what?
Ok so I saw my first cockroach! We had a baptism yesterday...actually two!!! Of two 9 year olds who are so cute that I had never taught yet because of the mini-missionaries last week. But it was awesome, but when I went into the closet to get the baptismal clothes out at the church, a cockroach was scurring away. Ah it was creepy.
But I have to go. So I love you all and I'll try to write more next week.
Love,
Hermana Petersen
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Another crazy week in Texas!
Email sent Monday 9 Aug 2010
Let's see where to begin. Monday was fun. We got to play basketball with some of the Elders. Brandy: do you know a like Kayla Hawkins or something. Cuz this elder (Elder Austin) comes up to me and asks me if I have a sister named Brandy, and I was like ya, and he said that that girl is his cousin and that you told her to tell him to look for me. So ya we are in the same zone. And he is TALL. And I played basketball with him. He's quite good...he will play for BYU when he get's home. funny.
Then came the Mini-missionaries. We picked them up after some miscommunication on Monday at 3:45pm. And we had them with us all week long till yesterday at 6:30pm. There were four of them for each of our companionships in our apartment. So that meant that there were 12 people in our apartment, except they didn't sleep there, they slept at member's houses, but the members would drop them off at 7:30 am and pick them up at 9:30 pm. So, basically, after only one week of being trained by my companion, I became a trainer because we had to split up. We were split up all week. I had two 16 year old companions all week. It was quite an experience for me. They were awesome and I loved working with them. But it was really hard to all of a sudden be the one who was expected to know what to do, especially when I couldn't even understand the people who were speaking to me in Spanish. It was so hard. I felt very inadequate to be in the position that I was in, but I just kept working anyway.
We had some great experiences. One is that we found an investigator on Monday, taught on Tuesday with siblings and cousins. Had another appointment on Thursday and taught the Plan of Salv/Restoration..BOM. This investigator then says, "I think I want to get baptized into your church." I knew this investigator was golden the first day we taught, was really looking for truth, and was already reading the bible and everything.
So even when I don't know what I am doing I know that the lord can guide me. It is the spirit that does the teaching. Some people are prepared and others are not. But the field is white. We are not here to plant seeds, but we are here to harvest. This week we will be focusing on finding and teaching those who are ready and helping them make and keep their committments to come unto Christ.
We had a lot of other really cool expeirences this week too, but I don't have time to tell them all. There has been a huge emphasis in this mission about setting baptismal dates. This is something that to me is somewhat scarey to do, especially when we are supposed to try to do it on the first or second lesson. But if we are not inviting people to change, we are denying them the opportunity to act. This is part of our Mission Zone "hulk-up." Our zone leaders invented a new word in spanish "hulkearse" which means we are hulking up when we set more baptismal dates. It is quite exciting.
Actually, mom, I haven't gotten to buy bedding yet. Last week with the mini-missionaries, the shopping trip was too crazy, but we will be doing it today. :)
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Go to the temple! Our ward here took a temple trip this week...8 hours to get to San Antonio. It is so easy for y'all.
Love,
Hermana Petersen
Let's see where to begin. Monday was fun. We got to play basketball with some of the Elders. Brandy: do you know a like Kayla Hawkins or something. Cuz this elder (Elder Austin) comes up to me and asks me if I have a sister named Brandy, and I was like ya, and he said that that girl is his cousin and that you told her to tell him to look for me. So ya we are in the same zone. And he is TALL. And I played basketball with him. He's quite good...he will play for BYU when he get's home. funny.
Then came the Mini-missionaries. We picked them up after some miscommunication on Monday at 3:45pm. And we had them with us all week long till yesterday at 6:30pm. There were four of them for each of our companionships in our apartment. So that meant that there were 12 people in our apartment, except they didn't sleep there, they slept at member's houses, but the members would drop them off at 7:30 am and pick them up at 9:30 pm. So, basically, after only one week of being trained by my companion, I became a trainer because we had to split up. We were split up all week. I had two 16 year old companions all week. It was quite an experience for me. They were awesome and I loved working with them. But it was really hard to all of a sudden be the one who was expected to know what to do, especially when I couldn't even understand the people who were speaking to me in Spanish. It was so hard. I felt very inadequate to be in the position that I was in, but I just kept working anyway.
We had some great experiences. One is that we found an investigator on Monday, taught on Tuesday with siblings and cousins. Had another appointment on Thursday and taught the Plan of Salv/Restoration..BOM. This investigator then says, "I think I want to get baptized into your church." I knew this investigator was golden the first day we taught, was really looking for truth, and was already reading the bible and everything.
So even when I don't know what I am doing I know that the lord can guide me. It is the spirit that does the teaching. Some people are prepared and others are not. But the field is white. We are not here to plant seeds, but we are here to harvest. This week we will be focusing on finding and teaching those who are ready and helping them make and keep their committments to come unto Christ.
We had a lot of other really cool expeirences this week too, but I don't have time to tell them all. There has been a huge emphasis in this mission about setting baptismal dates. This is something that to me is somewhat scarey to do, especially when we are supposed to try to do it on the first or second lesson. But if we are not inviting people to change, we are denying them the opportunity to act. This is part of our Mission Zone "hulk-up." Our zone leaders invented a new word in spanish "hulkearse" which means we are hulking up when we set more baptismal dates. It is quite exciting.
Actually, mom, I haven't gotten to buy bedding yet. Last week with the mini-missionaries, the shopping trip was too crazy, but we will be doing it today. :)
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Go to the temple! Our ward here took a temple trip this week...8 hours to get to San Antonio. It is so easy for y'all.
Love,
Hermana Petersen
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
So you are in Texas?!!!
Email sent Monday 2 Aug 2010
Hola familia!
Wow it has been a crazy week. I guess I'll just start at the begining. (Melinda has never flown before. She called from Dallas and said that the descent made her fell sick, but as soon as she got off the plane, she was OK.) The plane ride from Dallas to McAllen. Ah! It was not good for me. Well, the begining was fine, but then we ran into thunder storms. We started our decent into McAllen, but then the pilot said that because of the clouds we would have to come back up and fly around for about 9 minutes. Decents make me sick to my stomach. So then he went back up, and then we flew around for like 45 more minutes, going up and down and making a big figure 8 around the border of mexico, we even crossed the rio grande into Mexico and went out over the gulf coast. The clouds were beautiful and I really wanted to look at them more but I couldn't because it was just making me so sick. I had to try to just stare straight ahead so I didn't lose it. But don't worry, I didn't lose it...just almost. But as soon as we hit the ground the feeling went away and I was fine. But then the second we stepped off the plane of course the wave of humidity hits. We felt all sticky and wet, you know, weird humidityness. And it was raining! love the rain, so I was glad then didn't just drop me straight off into 100 degree weather. So taht was good.
Seriously the clouds here are so cool! I can't even describe them. Maybe the veiw from the sky for the first time in my life changed my perspective, but also, I've never seen skies like this in Utah. It is really pretty. And McAllen isn't anything like I expected it to be. It is actually pretty. There are lots of palm trees and green stuff. It's not just dessert. It really is nice. So anyway, the trayners (Mission president and wife) picked us up at the airport and took us all to the church and then to their house where we all ate an awesome dinner and then did some stuff and then the sisters stayed the night there. It was great. But then the next day, after they fed us all breakfast, one by one he called us into his office and assigned us our areas and companions. My companion was actually at the house helping prepare the food. Her name is Sister Smith. And our area is Mission East, which is the city of McAllen, but in the Mission zone. Confusing, but ya, we are very close to the mission home and the mission office. And we live in an apartment with two other sisters that serve in the area next to ours.
Ok so let's see. That very day, Tuesday, we went to work. The first thing we did was go knock doors. My first contact was a man named Jesus. Funny huh?! I thought so. My fist lesson was also that day, half in English half in Spanish, with our investigator Filip. And my first meal with a family was at the Herrera's, an old Spanish member couple...and guess what we ate?! COW TONGUE! Oh my gosh. Way to drop me into the wierd foods. I ate cow tongue. And I could not understand a word that they were saying...except the work "lengua de res" so ya. It actually wasn't that bad, but I would never eat it normally. Ah!\
Ok so let's see, what do we do. Tocamos muchas puertas-We knock a lot of doors. All the time. It is hot and wwell we have a car, so we drive to a spot and "parkear" (I love the Tex-mex down here) and then walk around and knock and talk to anyone and everyone who is outside. And sometimes it randomly starts raining. It's great.
The Sanchez family: they are a recent convert family of about a month. THey are so amazing! This weekend the mom, dad and the oldest daughter is going up to the temple (like 4 hours away) to do baptisms. THey are awesome. When we had a lesson this week we asked the youngest daughter to pray. It was so cute. In her prayer she said, "Thank you for the mess we made." It was awesome!
Church: We cover two wards, one Spanish at 9 and then our English starts at 11 in the same building. Yesterday rigth before english ward started, they asked me to lead the music in sacrament and teach the gospel principles class. Welcome to the mission I guess. Prepare a lesson on the spot. Ya that was fun. :)
Spanish is hard. I can understand the missionaries who speak it, but the people...not so much. It is really hard. But it will get better.
Yes I got the bike. It has one flat tire. But we'll fix it maybe. But I don't think I'll need it here at all. We are never over our miles.
I love you and I'll try to send a letter. Again here we only have 30 minutes of email time.
Love,
Sister Petersen
Hola familia!
Wow it has been a crazy week. I guess I'll just start at the begining. (Melinda has never flown before. She called from Dallas and said that the descent made her fell sick, but as soon as she got off the plane, she was OK.) The plane ride from Dallas to McAllen. Ah! It was not good for me. Well, the begining was fine, but then we ran into thunder storms. We started our decent into McAllen, but then the pilot said that because of the clouds we would have to come back up and fly around for about 9 minutes. Decents make me sick to my stomach. So then he went back up, and then we flew around for like 45 more minutes, going up and down and making a big figure 8 around the border of mexico, we even crossed the rio grande into Mexico and went out over the gulf coast. The clouds were beautiful and I really wanted to look at them more but I couldn't because it was just making me so sick. I had to try to just stare straight ahead so I didn't lose it. But don't worry, I didn't lose it...just almost. But as soon as we hit the ground the feeling went away and I was fine. But then the second we stepped off the plane of course the wave of humidity hits. We felt all sticky and wet, you know, weird humidityness. And it was raining! love the rain, so I was glad then didn't just drop me straight off into 100 degree weather. So taht was good.
Seriously the clouds here are so cool! I can't even describe them. Maybe the veiw from the sky for the first time in my life changed my perspective, but also, I've never seen skies like this in Utah. It is really pretty. And McAllen isn't anything like I expected it to be. It is actually pretty. There are lots of palm trees and green stuff. It's not just dessert. It really is nice. So anyway, the trayners (Mission president and wife) picked us up at the airport and took us all to the church and then to their house where we all ate an awesome dinner and then did some stuff and then the sisters stayed the night there. It was great. But then the next day, after they fed us all breakfast, one by one he called us into his office and assigned us our areas and companions. My companion was actually at the house helping prepare the food. Her name is Sister Smith. And our area is Mission East, which is the city of McAllen, but in the Mission zone. Confusing, but ya, we are very close to the mission home and the mission office. And we live in an apartment with two other sisters that serve in the area next to ours.
Ok so let's see. That very day, Tuesday, we went to work. The first thing we did was go knock doors. My first contact was a man named Jesus. Funny huh?! I thought so. My fist lesson was also that day, half in English half in Spanish, with our investigator Filip. And my first meal with a family was at the Herrera's, an old Spanish member couple...and guess what we ate?! COW TONGUE! Oh my gosh. Way to drop me into the wierd foods. I ate cow tongue. And I could not understand a word that they were saying...except the work "lengua de res" so ya. It actually wasn't that bad, but I would never eat it normally. Ah!\
Ok so let's see, what do we do. Tocamos muchas puertas-We knock a lot of doors. All the time. It is hot and wwell we have a car, so we drive to a spot and "parkear" (I love the Tex-mex down here) and then walk around and knock and talk to anyone and everyone who is outside. And sometimes it randomly starts raining. It's great.
The Sanchez family: they are a recent convert family of about a month. THey are so amazing! This weekend the mom, dad and the oldest daughter is going up to the temple (like 4 hours away) to do baptisms. THey are awesome. When we had a lesson this week we asked the youngest daughter to pray. It was so cute. In her prayer she said, "Thank you for the mess we made." It was awesome!
Church: We cover two wards, one Spanish at 9 and then our English starts at 11 in the same building. Yesterday rigth before english ward started, they asked me to lead the music in sacrament and teach the gospel principles class. Welcome to the mission I guess. Prepare a lesson on the spot. Ya that was fun. :)
Spanish is hard. I can understand the missionaries who speak it, but the people...not so much. It is really hard. But it will get better.
Yes I got the bike. It has one flat tire. But we'll fix it maybe. But I don't think I'll need it here at all. We are never over our miles.
I love you and I'll try to send a letter. Again here we only have 30 minutes of email time.
Love,
Sister Petersen
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
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
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!
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
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
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