Thursday, April 28, 2011

April 25-Hoppy Easter!

For Easter, nobody did anything special really, b-c nobody celebrates holidays here. We had a couple parades in the streets, some carpets...or pine needles formed into religious figures, and lots of people left and traveled over the weekend. Most of our investigators. But I heard it´s more of a spring break than a celebration of Jesus Christ and his resurrection.

Neal, you look way skinny in those pictures you sent of your family. You should eat more. But that´s what happens when you exercise a lot. I´m pretty skinny right now too I guess.

How can you let Christian skip school on senior skip day? Jk. I know he´s a good kid and has prob. never really skipped a day of school in his life. Except the day I left for my mission. That´s what great brothers do, they make sacrifices for their sisters. Thanks Christian. And sorry about the crazy grass. Good luck with that. Does Sally know she can eat the seeds in her sunflower or press it in a memory book? Some ideas to pass along to Neal and Emily.

I don´t have changes, but my comp´s going to Argentina. I hope I don´t get a crazy comp. I guess we´re going to see. I hope she´s cool. There are lots of crazies out there, in and out of the mission. That´s true. Yeah, my mission pres. goes home in June. We´ve heard about the new pres, but not much.

I got a pedicure and the member who did it cut a little deep on my big toe. So she cut to bleed instead of just my dead skin. So that only really affected me for one or two days. But yeah, pulled muscles aren´t so hot. We were supposed to go to the capital yesterday night, but the ZLs told us an hour later than what the tickets were bought for.

So we got there at 1030 and our bus was there at 915. We waited until 12 b-c they kept telling us it was coming and well, yeah, the elders walked us home at 1 am.
This morning we slept in and I washed my laundry. We left my comp´s suitcases at the elder´s house. One more night in the house and one less night in the roach infested house in the cap. God loves us. Love you! Love, Hna Peterson

Thursday, April 21, 2011

April 18, 2011. Ehhh, What did you say?

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Cool the family´s planting berry bushes in the yard again. I hope they survive. I remember the blackberry bushes in our old house and I´ve always wanted them at the house we live in now. Or that they live in now. That´s one of my fondest memories at Aunt Mindy´s..or Mom´s old house too, the blackberry bushes. Berries are delicious. I know the goats always thought so.

This week we had a lot of crazy experiences. We always do. We had our zone conference too. We got to hear a great talk Elder Holland gave at the MTC in January. It got me thinking about how I can be a better missionary. I have 5 more months to help these people accept the gospel, but I also have the rest of my life to do so.

It´s hot here every day. All the roads are loaded with dust. We had a field trip with the relief society last week. We went to a place called the Monjas. It was a bunch of water tiers. It was beautiful and we mostly just bonded with the sisters in the ward all day. And today, one of them, named Mirian, gave us pedicures. The dead skin on my feet was epic. I´ve never had a pedicure before. So that was eye opening. I´ll probably get one of those every couple months in the states...b-c my feet feel awesome now.

I just hope they don´t go ugly again really fast, b-c that´s definitely something that could happen. We got a new fridge yesterday and we got to ride from the zone conference with our mission pres. in his truck. I´m pretty sure he was falling asleep on our drive and we talked to him to keep him awake. I understand his tiredness. But I know the Lord knows what we need and he would never let a mission president fall asleep at the wheel and die b-c he´s on the Lord´s errand and he´s doing all he can to keep the work moving. So I know that´s why we rode with him to our house.

I found out he´s a middle school teacher and when he goes home in 3 months he´s going to teach 5th graders how to be bilingual. That´s a cool story. He only applied one place and had one interview and got the job. His grandkids go there. They also started their mission with 4 grandkids and now they have 9.

We have mission changes next week. That´s going to be sad, b-c my trainee is leaving for Argentina and the sisters in the capital have tons of roaches...so we have to stay overnight two nights and I´m not super excited about that. What a nightmare. Ew. I hate cockroaches.

But the zone conference was amazing and we have lots of ideas about how to be better missionaries. We´re going to work with the members here and we´re going to try harder to meet specific needs.

Also, I´m all there with Canute on the thunder thighs, but I´m pretty sure I´ve toned my whole body. So when I get home, everyone´s going to think I was anorexic on my mission, but it´s a healthy anorexia, b-c I eat lots of beans and corn tortillas. I thought today about how sour cream would be nice.

Thanks for always thinking about us here on the mission. It´s nice to hear we´re not forgotten. I know we´re not, I feel your love in every letter and every box I get. Thank you so much Mom. And the rest of the family. Sorry scouts and nursery are hard to fill. I guess it´s semi understandable. Let me know how your shoulder is doing next week.

Funny story. This week we passed by a guy who was super old with his walker. So we said hello and he emphatically invited us in. Then he said he was going around the house to pee, but I didn´t hear that, so I kept looking over b-c he was just standing there. Luckily I didn´t see anything, but my comp. told me he said that later.

We also had to yell and repeat everything twice or three times. My comp. told him we were going to share a message with him and he said he liked the sound of that b-c nobody ever wanted to share anything with him. And then he said it was a miracle, seeing how his eggs didn´t work anymore. I didn´t hear that either, but my comp. told me later that night. We started singing I´m a child of God and my comp. wouldn´t stop laughing. I was like, what?

Then I got a little frustrated and leaned forward. I couldn´t help laughing a little b-c my comp. was dying. Then he motioned like he was going to elbow me in the face. I´m glad he didn´t. Then he leaned forward to stare my comp. right in the face. And finally, in the middle of the song, he got up, told us he was bored and walked away. Not even kidding.

I know our message is important, so I´m glad we share our message with every type of person. I hope that never happens again, our message is way too essential, but this time it was kinda funny. More crazy than anything, but it´d be a lie if I said I´d thought I could escape crazy people here in Guatemala, they´re everywhere. The church is true. Love you Mom! Love, Hna Peterson

Sunday, April 17, 2011

April 11, 2011 Congratulations, Bonnie!

Heyyyyyy, Why were you in Utah? Did you see Bon´s graduation? Very cool. She´s going to live with America then after all? I hope they worked everything out for that. So they can all be happy.

Along with Canute, I wonder what the states missionaries do too. We went to some awesome caves today. Very cool. At the mouth of the cave, we got a call. They said we had to go right then to the bus station. Then they said we could do it tonight. My comp. and I have to go tonight at 10 pm for her Argentina paperwork. So that´s going to be crazappy, b-c we prob. won´t sleep very well. The bus ride is like 10 hours. But stuff like that happens sometimes. And luckily, we get to finish out our pday in peace.

And was Conference not amazing? I mean, yeah, it´s always amazing, but this one was fantastic. And yes, we get to talk to our families in another month. Crazy, b-c it´s our last phone call until home in October. We had a baptism this week and have another in two weeks. I don´t know how, but here in Peten, people come to us. It´s so much easier that way. But it doesn´t always happen, it happens more here than in other places I´ve been though.

Thanks for the news. Oh, and if you haven´t sent that package from America yet, can you put some mascara...not waterproof and not Maybelline(the pink bottle) b-c I think I´m allergic to it, it makes my eyes itch...into the package. And some of those shoe inserts you sent me like 4 months ago? That would be awesome. And those knee highs. Hope your vacation was amazing! Love you! Love, Hna Peterson

April 4, 2011 Trip to Tikal

Tue, April 5, 2011 9:23:05 AM
Re: Next package
From:
Merilee Enid Peterson
To: Sheralyn Peterson
A tidy sum? Well then, I would like to see like 15 pairs of knee highs, if that´s possible. Black and brown pairs. B-c I only have like 6 pairs, and 4 of them are white. And they make me look like I´m 5 yrs old and stain really easily. But what other options do I have.

I got my Easter package. YAY! Thank you so much! I really appreciate all the time and love you put into sending us packages. It´s really nice to receive things from the people you love. I will use everything in there, especially that bug spray and chocolate. And the Pirate´s Diary.

I would also like to see some recent pictures of everyone, especially Cookie´s kids, America´s kids, and Bonnie. B-c Bonnie sent me like 10 pages of pictures, but most of them were a little dated and I know those kids look different. Neal´s always good about sending pictures and Sarah too. But recent pictures, so I can see how they look now. B-c I have older pictures...I know what they used to look like, when I was there.

I took a trip to Tikal with my Zone yesterday. It´s a cool place with lots of tall pyramids. I got some sweet pics and we walked a lot. It was hot. A 50 yr old tour guide asked me if I could have a boyfriend while I was on my mission, in the line for buying drinks. I said no. He persisted. Why are old men always so creepy? I am not desperate to go for 50, even 40, sometimes even 35, even if I wasn´t on a mission. Creeper.

On a different note, Conference was incredible. I heard the priesthood session was great too, but we didn´t get to see it. Sounds like maybe not just I had dating problems before the mission. Sounds like the boys out there got some cincho. Which means, they got reamed and told to start looking to get married.

Thank you so much Mom!

I love that my brothers all love Mr. Dierking. He´s a cool guy, even if I hated trig. Horrible class. We had a crazy storm this week, in which we decided to walk home even though it was raining really hard and super windy and there was lightening and thunder everywhere. We thought we were going to die. Luckily, we didn´t. It was only like 2 hours of crazy, but when we were almost home this lady invited us in. So we taught her a lesson. Turned out she didn´t want to change, but she wants her niece to listen to us.

We went home and changed our clothes. Then we went out again to work for another 2 hours. Weather´s so weird. Love you! Love, Hna Peterson

March 28, 2011

I would like to have some choc. chip cookies. Maybe in October. I´ve got a year in the mission. Conference and Easter are coming up. Very cool. They don´t really celebrate holidays here. Or maybe it´s just not the same. Either way, it´s different here. Keep cooking and perfect those cookies for when I get home. Bonnie might be living at home again. Woot. Love you mom! Love, Hna Peterson