Sunday, August 14, 2011

July 25, 2011

Canute,

Yep, Elder Ryan was totally in the MTC with me. Good times. This week{s been a good week. Hna Bernardez is amazing. She{s a hard worker and we{ve been trying to be good missonaries.

We{ve been running every morning. We{ve been teaching lots of people. We do have the two hour comp. study, so that{s kind of crazy. We have good structure in the program though, so it passes really fast. This area has a great need for lots of visits, so we{re pressing forward with lots of faith.

We{re trying to get our investigators to church more than once. We{re trying to get them to bond with the members. We get along well, so that helps. The people here are very special.

I heard about some hammocks. I know mom wants one. Mom, I heard we can get an American flag hammock, or a Costa Rica flag hammock. Or specific colors? I don{t know what you want, but they{re about 35 dollars each. So, let me know in the email I{ll get next week what you would like. And if you would like, if you haven{t sent me that package yet, please put in there some shoe inserts. I realized I could use some more of those in my last three months and they don{t have them here. We walk a lot. I copied my pics onto the zip today. The other zip, very small, didn{t fit many pics. The church is true. Love, Hna Peterson

May 25, 2011...a little out of order

Sheralyn Peterson
cookie Martin
Neal Peterson
14 More...

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Wednesday, May 25, 2011 11:58 AM
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I didn´t write yet this week b-c we didn´t have pday until today, Wednesday. We had our interviews, our last interviews with this President, then we had a zone conference. It was good, as they always are. Something I took from it was I need to be better about telling people, my family, investigators, members, less actives, that I love them, God loves them, and they can feel that love stronger when they´re doing what God wants them to do in their lives. So that´s something I learned.

In my interview, I´m pretty sure Pres. Torres was thinking about how he won´t be there to counsel me about marriage when I finish my mission, so he took some time to tell me during this interview. He told me I was a commodity, not to settle, and that I´d find someone special soon. But that didn´t mean I´d find someone on the mission. Thanks Pres. Then he told me I should find someone who was mission president material. He told me all sorts of stuff about marriage.

He said he knew he´d never talked to me like that before. When I told him I still had some time on the mission before I worried about that stuff, he kind of shook out of marriage counsel mode, and said, right, then went on about my investigators. Kind of funny.

Last Tuesday we stayed inside all day. It was because some druggies killed 27 workers of a drug plantation looking for the owner so they could get their money. Peten is in a time of sitio right now. That means everyone enters their house earlier than 8 every night. That means we enter the house at 7. For Zone conferences, they usually drive on the roads, but they couldn´t drive this time, they flew in a plane to get here, to stay off the roads.

So changes may just be internal, which means I prob. will be with my comp. another change, which is just fine with me. My comp. got bitten by a dog this week. It was a mute dog. It just walked up to her and bit her. She was like, ¨Hey, ow¨. And we were all like what just happened to you? And she told us that dog had just bitten her. I know it was a bad comp. thing to do, but I laughed. It was just so unexpected.

Thanks for sending me another package. I just got Cookie´s and Neal´s Easter packages. I think I will be eating this candy for the rest of my mission. Actually, I gave half to my comp, who already ate all of it. And we´ve been passing it out at church and stuff, so it prob. won´t last me. There was tons of candy though, so maybe it will. Thank you so much for the panty hose and mascara. The knee highs will definitly last my whole mission.

We took some pics at the zone conference, so I´ll try to put some on. Usually the computers don´t accept my type of camera, but if this one will, I´ll try to update you. I just sent the family a paper letter today. Love you! Love, Hna Peterson

Thursday, July 21, 2011

July 18, 2011 laughing from Honduras

Thursday, July 21, 2011 2:15 PM

Hey Elder Canute, you{re the best. I was wondering if you{d do me a favor and think about drawing the stuff that{s in Revelations 4. It{s not for anything in particular, but your artistic mind would be amazing to try and plot out where God lives. I{d like to get a better visual myself. If you ever have time. So yeah, maybe it will have to wait a little. Sorry your comp was so sick, that{s just like Grant and Christian huh? Well, kind of. I don{t think they got sick b-c of cake.

So I got my changes. My new hija is named Hna Bernardez. She{s from Honduras and she{s black. She{s hilarious. She laughs all the time, and I think this next 3 months is going to be the best 3 months of my mission. I{m pretty stoked. We got in last night and today we started the new study program... That means we are going to have 2 hours every day of comp. study. I thought it would be harder, but it actually makes comp. study really easy. Sweet thing is revelation.

For our time in the cap. we stayed with the mission nurse. We had some good times. There were 7 new sisters and we{re going to be with our newbies for 2 changes, that means I{m going to end in Poptun...that{ll be 9 months here, very nice.

My comp. stole another sister{s fancy planner while we were in the temple. So while my comp. was in the shower, the other sister looked in her bag, and what do you know, she found her fancy leather cover with El Salvador{s temple on the front. Wow. Double pecado stealing in the temple. But at least she got it back. My comp. also stole my favorite grey dress, which happened to be my the only article of clothing I liked. When I asked if she{d seen it she said no, but if it made me feel better, someone stole two of her skirts on the mission. No that doesn{t make me feel better.

Anyway, I cried the whole change conference, so I have no idea what I{m going to do when I actually go home. Hna Urizar went home, she was one of my fav. comps. So I cried about my other comp{s vice, and Hna U going home, and how I only have 3 more months to preach the gospel to all the world. So maybe for my final conference I will be ok and won{t cry at all. Doubt it.

But we{re going to be great. I thought about something Caryn told me a couple years ago, about never ever ever being an hermana, and a laughed a little while. B-c the mission is sure hard, but it{s so worthwhile.

First of all, I{m glad Grant{s trying to get indy into your (josh's) name again. I don{t know how well it{s going to grab, but surely something can and will be done. I am excited to hear about the reunion even if I{m not going.

I know about hard work and the importance of college too. I learned that somewhere in between McDonald{s and milking the goats. Glad you{re enjoying your time, I was pretty sure I had Canute last year and Christian this year, but Sarah told me I was confused, so I{d like a reminder, b-c in the next 3 months I need to buy something for whichever male in our family I have. Love you!!!, Hna Peterson

Sunday, July 17, 2011

july 11, 2011

Yeah, well, I{m eating again. So that{s cool. It{s raining pretty crazy recio right now, so that{s cool too. I didn{t bring my umbrella. Yeah, go ahead and sell her to Aunt Amy. I{ll buy a new car with the money when I get home. Just look for a good car for me too while you{re looking b-c I{m going to need one too. Or maybe I[ll look for one in TX. Or maybe I[ll tell Sarah to look for one for me. I was going to buy another car anyway. I miss pizza and cherries. We ate pupusas and threw water balloons for our 4th of July celebrations. They don{t celebrate anything here. Just Christmas, but really, not that either, they just do lots of noisy firecrackers. That{s not Christmas.
 
Yeah, tell Aunt Amy it{s fine. No hard feelings. I{m  on a mission, so I{m going to blessed right. Love, Hna Peterson
 
Tell Christian to get well soon.

Grant wrote: I have very unfortunate news. Your car is lying on it's deathbed.

Merilee replied: Aw man. I thought I{d get at least something for my car. Guess I should{ve sold it before my mission. Oh well, I guess now I have a testimony of spiritual instead of money blessings on my mission. But that{s ok, b-c we can{t take anything with us can we?


We saw a river and a castle today for pday. Very cool.

July 4, 2011 Merilee's rockin'

Thanks for the 4th of July email. We threw water balloons and ate pupusas for the 4th of July. Happy Birthday Tina and Jim. I{m glad you{ve all got the fencing and gardening bugs. Very nice. Well, bugs, not really, mostly the desires to finish all those projects before I get home. I{d like some apple crisp and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies when I get home. It rained today, so it{s not super hot. I{m all wet b-c as a district we played water balloon drench. Or something more official sounding if you can think of it.

Very cool Canute. Glad you got all that stuff figured out. We have our interviews Friday. We didn{t work much last week b-c my comp. gets migraines. Or she doesn{t drink enough water and it{s hot, so she won{t leave the house. That was rough. So I just read the Liahonas I have and prayed a lot.

We also had a service opportunity with that house of orphans, or abused children waiting to find out where they{re going to live b-c their parents abuse them. We broke rock and shoveled rock...with sledge hammers, shovels and pickaxes. We did it from like 930 to 2. We also ate, so we didn{t work the whole time, but yeah. I was super tired the next day and the day after. I worked hard. My comp. sat on the side. All the kids came and worked and the other 6 elders. They worked hard too. When we went home, she slept for a couple hours and we got in one lesson. So yeah, another productive day on the mission.

I just wish sometimes I could do more to find people. Maybe I{ll train the next change and we{ll get some stuff done. I don{t like being a slacker missionary, but if your comp. won{t leave the house, what can you do? Anyways, if we worked all the time we should be working, we{d get some baptisms. But yeah, right now, nothing. And my comp. doesn{t leave people with commitments. She just says maybe sometime if you want you can go to church. If you want. Pah. That is not a commitment.

Anyway, CTR. I told Grant I had a 6 pack and he said I beat him b-c he only has a 4 pack. I realized I still only have a 4 pack, but the bottom two are ever so close, I just had to tell the people I have 6. Very soon. I can feel it.


I{m hoping I never have to take another math class, but I probably will have to.
Grant,
Thanks for the confidence. We{re working hard during the day, I just get nervous for my stuff at night. I have no idea why she stole my tag, luckily I have 2 more, one from America, and my other from the MTC. Maybe she wants to tell people afterwards I gave it to her. She would do that.

But the good news is, I{ve got a six pack. I{ve never had a 6 pack before. It{s AWESOME. However, like I said, it may not last long after my mission. I{m just enjoying it while it lasts. And trying to hechar ganas a comer. I don{t know why, but eating{s been rough for me these last couple weeks. Cuesta. It should be easy, I{ve been doing it since birth. However, maybe it{s b-c I{m sick of eating the same stuff. If I go anorexic, I could prob. still live until the end of my mission. I hope, b-c I cannot handle any more eggs, beans, platanos, and ham sandwiches every single day.
Yeah, I woke up at 3 am the other morning, and sat there for 3 hours awake and at 4 I watched my comp. go through the stuff on my desk for money. I lock my suitcase with the rest of my money, but if I leave it in my agenda or whatever, it leaves in the night. Or sometimes during the day, when I{m in the bathroom or whatever. So I{ve started putting it in my bra, out of necessity. Yeah, lame.
She{s going home a change early though, that{s my one comfort, she only has 3 more weeks to steal from me. That{s a nice feeling. Just 3 more weeks. Drink all the Dr. Pepper you can without losing all the calcium in your bones.

Lots of love,

Hna Peterson

June 27, 2011...Hangin' in there

Thanks for the strength and pep talk mom. I know sometimes it{s hard to hear the rough times we have, but I know this time is a really good time to grow. I{ve felt really close to my Heavenly Father in the past couple weeks. That happens when we don{t feel like we can talk to anyone else about our trials or how we feel.

I know I can be a stronger person and I really appreciate that my Heavenly Father loves me enough to give me growing experiences. I know He listens to me. The greatest part is that I can hear him in my prayers. That makes me hopeful and gives me more desire to share what I have with the people I talk to every day. It{s rough, but I{ve only got 4 more months right? And if I{m poor now, well, I guess I should get used to it. The people here are really poor.

Thanks for the private letter. It{s nice to know people actually read when I write these ...

Mom wrote....Merilee, are you on?
Yeah, I{m on right now. I have another half hour actually. Well, I don{t know if I need anything really. I{ve got knee highs until I finish. I am working on loading pictures right now, but there are a trillion, so still there are only the Christmas pictures loading, b-c I have a million pics on my camera.

I should probably delete some of them. B-c it takes forever to load them.

Ummm, there really isn{t any news this week. I{ve started putting my money in my bra, but besides sweaty money, that{s not really news. I look forward to the next couple months b-c there are lots of people that need to change their lives and we{re here trying to help them do that.

We made rootbeer floats today. That was awesome. First time I{ve used that rootbeer stuff you sent me forever ago. Thanks. They were delicious.

Thanks for the confidence. We{re working hard during the day, I just get nervous for my stuff at night. I have no idea why she stole my tag, luckily I have 2 more, one from America, and my other from the MTC. Maybe she wants to tell people afterwards I gave it to her. She would do that.

But the good news is, I{ve got a six pack. I{ve never had a 6 pack before. It{s AWESOME. However, like I said, it may not last long after my mission. I{m just enjoying it while it lasts. And trying to hechar ganas a comer. I don{t know why, but eating{s been rough for me these last couple weeks. Cuesta. It should be easy, I{ve been doing it since birth. However, maybe it{s b-c I{m sick of eating the same stuff. If I go anorexic, I could prob. still live until the end of my mission. I hope, b-c I cannot handle any more eggs, beans, platanos, and ham sandwiches every single day.
Yeah, I woke up at 3 am the other morning, and sat there for 3 hours awake and at 4 I watched my comp. go through the stuff on my desk for money. I lock my suitcase with the rest of my money, but if I leave it in my agenda or whatever, it leaves in the night. Or sometimes during the day, when I{m in the bathroom or whatever. So I{ve started putting it in my bra, out of necessity. Yeah, lame.
She{s going home a change early though, that{s my one comfort, she only has 3 more weeks to steal from me. That{s a nice feeling. Just 3 more weeks.
Love you! Merilee

June 20, 2011..trouble in Dodge

Wow, I didn{t know Emily broke her arm. What happened? I{m glad you{ve been keeping busy. Do you think the projects will ever end? I{m sure every one of us is grateful we{re not there helping. Sorry. Just being honest. I know you{d really appreciate help.


Why do all the keyboards here suck? That´s my question. And why does the question mark only work sometimes? Weird. Ok, so I got Hna Cabrera as my comp. again. We were comps in Coban. She´s a picky person. Like the only girl in a family of boys who always got everything handed to her picky. But we´re eating different foods...like we´re cooking separate and we should be good. I´ve never done that before, but I imagine that means less rice. Excellent.



I had an interview with my President yesterday. My comp. stole 100 quetzales from me and my mission tag last week. In Coban, I lost 750 quetzales to her. That{s about the same as losing 750 dollars. We get along, we just have serious trust issues. Well, I do, I{m sure she trusts me. It{s hard to teach with someone who is hypocritically not trying to be like Jesus Christ.

My mission Pres. just listened to me, told me to be strong, and that the Lord told him I was the only person he could put her with. So this is her last change. She{s supposed to have two changes more, this and the next, but she{s going home at the end of this change. At least I won{t have her as a comp. again, I feel very paranoid all the time. I don{t like feeling paranoid or scarce on money, but that{s how I feel right now. But only a month more right?

And I cried a lot, b-c I don{t know how to help her, but he just said we{d let the Lord take care of her and to hide my stuff. And we never do district activities, we just stay home b-c she hates elders. So that{s kind of lame, but at the least, we get along and she walks fast. So outside the house we{re alright.t at the least. She told me Thursday if I told Pres. something about her, she would tear my hair out. Hypothetically of course. But yeah, she{s crazy sometimes. Other times, quite normal for a clepto.

Hope the gardening{s going well. CTR. Love, Hna Peterson