Thursday, January 20, 2011

She's 27!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and the news from home. I don{t miss the snow, just the snow days. I had some cakes for my birthday. One of them covered my face...as pushing people into their cakes is a tradition here. So yeah, I{ve got some pictures of that. I looked like a clown. The baby cried.

It{s pretty warm here still. I don{t think it{s going to get cold for me this winter. That{s ok with me. It was cold the other day. I heard it snowed for like 5 minutes in the middle of the night. But overall, it{s pretty awesome weather here in Guat. Hope you all feel healthier this week. Love, Hna Peterson

Monday, January 10, 2011

January 10, 2011...Happy Birthday, Merilee!!!!

Merilee,

Of course, the big event this week will be YOUR birthday...
in your email, tell us what your favorite birthday dinner/breakfast would be, and we will eat it in your honor...MMMMM! Happy Birthday!!! Hope you liked ( and got) your birthday packages! Love, YOur Mama

Not yet, but I{m hoping to get it in the next two months. Yeah! Happy Birthday to me! I would eat pizza or lasagne and brownies and icecream. Enjoy. Love, Hna Peterson


Thanks for the news. It was always nice to hear school was canceled. We don{t have snow days on the mission. We don{t have snow. But we did have a monsoon canceling of church one time, even though it was a beautiful day the next day. Sounds like the boys are doing well.

It{s going well out here. It{s roasting hot again outside. I{m sorry to hear you missed seeing Cookie.

This morning my water heater melted into the plug and we can{t get it out. I hate Guatemala sometimes. So we tried really hard to get it out and couldn{t. Luckily we didn{t get electrocuted.

We got a paint bucket and it had some paint in it. I put a bag over my hand to scoop it out and it ripped. So I had oobleck on my hand, it was green, and I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book. I couldn{t get it off. It was oil based. So my comp. brought out some oil and I used that to get it off my hand. We were ready to leave too. So she had to wait for me to wash my hands.

Yesterday we saw a pregnant dog climbing a hill. I said, [if that pregnant dog can do it, we can do it.[ So I climbed up, but Hna E. fell. There were also like 5 natives standing there watching, and another guy telling her to take the long way b-c she wouldn{t make it. She ended up getting a mud stain on the front of her white tshirt and hurting her arm. Oops, next time we{ll just take the long way. Love you! Love, Hna Peterson

Merilee,
I hope that this week you do something special for your birthday. You also can probably expect more miracles and increase your faith. It will be awesome. 27 is a great age.
I love you. Happy Birthday!

Sarah

Thanks Sarah Deane. I don{t know if I ever told you thank you for my Christmas package. But THANK YOU! I really am enjoying having new clothes to wear, my treats to eat, and the fantastic adorable stickers you sent me. Thanks. I will pray for more faith and miracles in my life. I already have seen a ton. Thanks for the birthday wishes! Love, Hna Peterson

Ps. We changed our district meeting from Wed. to Thurs. in honor of my birthday. It{s also another sister in our district{s birthday. We{re going to play a game like pin the tail on the donkey, but it{s called get the investigator to church. Hah.

The new Year in Guatemala

Grant, I loved your pictures Mr. Ease. I had a Christmas and New Year{s equal to...every other day of my mission. With a couple tamales thrown in here and there. We just taught a billion lessons. Or 50 to be exact. That{s our new mission goal. It used to be 30. Probably because we had 32 emergency changes last change. So Pres. is trying to get us working and to not have time for anything else. I think most of the emergency changes were for gossipers on the phone. So I{m pretty sure half the missionaries in our mission aren{t allowed to touch the telephone. Bah hah.

Super jealous you got to go to a dance, even if the dj was lame'o. I believe it. That happens a lot, but I{m sure you rocked the place, as I would have if I had attended. Also, next year, we will put the place in blazes with our dancing talent and Canute, Christian, Bonnie, and Josh face. The good times will possibly explode all other people to nothingness. And so it should be.

I also haven{t had money for about two weeks. But now...I have money. I will try to be better with my money, and leave it in the bank. In the bank my comp or landlady can{t steal from me. I{m pretty sure. My comp. now is American. She{s from California, she{s a 29 yr old lawyer, and she is half polynesian. If you didn{t hear on the phone call, Aiven{s her cousin. She said all the Aionos are her cousins. They{re all attractive and bad news she said. Funny. We have a lot of good times. Her mom{s from New Zealand. Her boyfriend{s serving in one of the other missions in Guate and they{re getting married next August.

She and I are having a blast. We{re completing our goals, first time ever, and working like crazy. I finally feel like we{re reaching our full missionary potential. Our district{s on fire right now. Very nice to see. Christmas was kind of boring and lame for us. We{ve been in our houses at 6 every night for the past two weeks and we have two more weeks like that. We have something called a Sitio going on right now. It{s a big drug bust month. For our safety, this whole month, we are doing the 6 o´clock thing. Very boring.

New Year{s Day seemed like more of a holiday than Christmas. Lots of stores were closed and there was hardly anyone in the street and at home. And I{m pretty sure school started today. Ha hah. So glad I{m not in school. And there were tons of fireworks on New Years and Christmas. That{s about it. No presents. I got my packages from Sarah and Mom, but not from Cookie. I hope I get it. I{m sure there was lots of cool stuff and candy in it. I know Guate has a bad rap about [losing[ things in the mail. Or people stealing from the mail. I hope that didn{t happen to my package. Or my letters.

I{m glad you had loads of fun but are probably supremely tired from your week of having fun.I know we all have our times for that. I{m getting a nice break b-c I{m with my American comp. But sometimes we talk into the night and then we{re tired. We haven{t done that lately though, b-c we{re so tired from our walking all day and working ourselves to death.

It{s soooooo nice to be with a normal crazy American. So nice to speak English and express myself. I feel like my spanish is pretty good. I understand more or less everything people say to me and I can express myself more or less. I need to keep studying, but I{m more comfortable. That means I{m going to have some kind of emotional storm or trial in the upcoming weeks, b-c I{m so happy right now. My comp. and I are pretty sure we{ll get split up in the next change. But it was a nice Christmas gift from Pres...and from our Heavenly Father. Thanks.

On to the next couple weeks and months. Weather{s still boiling hot, rainy cold every other day. Ridiculous. I cut my hair again. Or Hna Endicott, my comp. cut it. Oops. I{m not a triangle head anymore. But now it{s going to take forever to grow it out. Oh well, I{ve got another year. It{s like the shortness of when I was in high school. Yeah, no more haircuts, but it{s cuter than when I was triangle head.


I{m pretty sure my hair is easier and foxier right now. I{m not going to lie. Foxier now in the mission than before when I had it in a ponytail every day. But before the mission, when I did it, it was foxier than now. Therefore, I{m caging the fox and waiting until next spring to bring out the tiger. Hide your baby friends. Joke..Dallin Sims is still writing me and I{m going to see where that goes. And he{s totally worthwhile. I could wait another 6 months after my mission for him. If he{s even going to want to date me when he gets home. Probably not. I{m going to be 27 next week. I can always dream.

Why{s Cort{s hair brown? Girls are crazy. Do you still want to date her? I know you always had a soft spot for her, I{m glad you got to see her over break, but don{t forget about your eternal family goal. You{ve got to flirt to convert and break her up from her baby boyfriend first. Then you can move in for the kill.

I{m super jealous of your lasagne and enchiladas..and probably everything else you ate over break. I love tamales, but you can only so many. Right? Also, good luck hooking it up with Makaila. I always met one or two hotties at those dances, but nothing ever came of it. But she{s in Merilee{s ward and you guys hang out, so that should be a cinch. You{re the best. Don{t buy jeans any skinnier. Especially if they get super skinny at the feet. B-c that kind of pant is weird.

The church is true. Heavenly Father answers all our prayers. Love you! Love, Mer

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas in Guatemala with Merilee

Mom's idea of cleaning the Church as a family?...That sounds like an awesome Christmas if there ever was one. I would be totally down with cleaning the church next year for our Christmas service project for the ward. Someone has to do it, why not us? I think more service would be a good idea. This morning we totally helped a family build a stairway to their backyard and dig a septic hole. It involved moving lots of rocks and clay, but was very rewarding.

We don{t have money in our accounts yet, maybe Wednesday. I{ve still got my cough. Bleh. It{s ok if you didn{t go iceskating this year, we{re going next year and it{s going to be awesome. Yeah, our Christmas will be a party. I{m glad everyone played games and had a good time. It was nice to hear everyone and talk to everyone.

I called Sarah for about 15 min. too. That was nice. I can wait until Mother{s Day...and then my mission{ll be pretty much over...b-c September will come on rapido.

The church is true. Service is always a good idea. Love you! Love, Hna Peterson

Re: the Christmas family call, Yeah, the other microphone was way better. You got the day off for Christmas? We totally didn{t. We just worked like crazy all Christmas and Christmas Eve. We got 50 lessons, that was our goal for the Pres. for everyone this week. We were the only comp. to get it in our district. Our percentage of animo, which is like an equation to say how hard you worked was 111 percent. That{s more than 100 percent. That{s awesome! Anyway, we had a good, busy Christmas.

But we had to be inside by 6 pm, that was lamesauce. Everyone invited us to eat with them and we ended up lucking out and our neighbor gave us tamales to eat that night. Tamales are delicious. That and we drank a bunch of punch. It{s like wassail with coconut, apples, raisins, papaya, and pineapple chopped up and dropped in. It{s way good. I totally sugared out though. Not super awesome to be sugar bombarded when sugar makes you feel like crap. But yeah, I{m trying to cut back. Somehow.


We didn{t get to see a Christmas movie. But overall it was good. And I{ve got a gringa comp, so we talk in English. That{s the best Christmas gift ever. You{re the best. Keep working. Love, Hna Peterson

Grant, I totally realized life is way better with sleep. With my new comp I{ve been talking more and sleeping less, but I{ve been totally paying for it. I{m so tired. But it{s awesome to be out of the spanish box. I{m glad you all had a great time for Christmas. I can{t wait to see your skinny jeans. That{s funny you don{t care. I think it{s weird to see skinny jeans, but it{s the style, so maybe we all have to get used to it. All the little boys are HUGE! I can{t even believe it.

And guess what, Bonnie{s hair is totally longer than mine. Which is crazy. But mine{s way ugly right now, so I{m growing it out. You saw the pictures right? I mean, it{s not terrible, but it{s not my fav. I know, right, crazy I only have one more call until I come home. It{s so suerte Canute and I come home about the same time.

Yeah, service is so great to do. You feel so good after. Let{s plan some huge service projects for our whole family to do next Christmas. We{ll have a ton of people to help those people out. You{re the best. Love you! Love, Hna Peterson

Monday, December 20, 2010

Almost Christmas

Dad, Math is a nice thing to be good at. I{m glad you had a fun auction activity. We had a Christmas activity in the town square last week. We dressed up in our Israelite clothes and walked behind Mary, who rode a donkey, led by Joseph, to the mall. It was a nice reminder of what Christmas is all about. Afterwards, all the missionaries in my zone acted a silent scene of what happened in America with the signs of Jesus{ coming. I heard it went well, but we all felt kind of foolish doing it. It was really long and drawn out. It definitely could{ve used some work. The church is true.

MOM wrote: "Grant sat next to me while they were playing games and I was waiting to read scriptures and say family prayer. He said, "MOM, will you give me your sweater? I want your sweater.." I was wearing my Christmas sweater/ green, black with Christmas motifs and sequins, etc. Grant continued, " I want your sweater because I could win every ugly sweater contest I entered at BYU with that sweater...."

That{s really funny. Oh, sorry mom. Sweaters are great. And warm. I bought a black one this week. B-c it{s cold outside and I{ve had a deep cough for two weeks so I thought that would help me.

I got your packages. Thank you. I really appreciate the chocolate, the drink mixes, the vitamins, the stickers, and all the love you put into those boxes. You{re the best.

We had changes today. My comp is now Hna Endicott. My first North American comp. in the field. She{s really nice. I hope she wants to work hard. My last comp. wasted a lot of time in front of the mirror. I don{t know how, but we lost hours to her mirror time. I just want a comp. who wants to find and teach people. I hope having a NA comp. doesn{t hinder my spanish. I hope in one of the 12 messages I got from you there{s a phone number and time for me to call for Christmas. I have an hour to talk.

This week we had a manger scene activity in the center of Coban. We didn{t do much work this week or teach many lessons because of this activity. This week we{re going to work hard. I{m going to have a great 24 and 25 of December. I also got some new clothes from Sarah and some stickers. Bless her giant heart. I no longer feel like a bag lady when I dress myself.

The Lord answers all our prayers. I see miracles, personal miracles, in my life, every day. Love you, Merry Chrismas!

Grant,

Thanks for your indepth news. As usual, comprehensive and interesting. I surely hope our call goes well, as I know our phone su..is not the best. And well, I don{t know how well reception from Guate is. So yeah. I{ll call home and if they want me to call the computer from my phone, I can do that too, but tell them to have the number ready. I{ll call like 12. Maybe. I got a NA comp. Very cool. I hope. I just want to work. I don{t want another slacker comp. I{ve had a lot, I just want to bring people in by the busloads and the only way to do that is work. Hard work. I want to. Please.

The church is true. Heavenly Father loves us and answers our prayers- always. And Wow, I{m jealous of a Christmas at home. But here, we{re working hard. Or hardly working. I think my Christmas will be like every other day, b-c Christmas here is the 24th. But having a NA comp. will definitely change things. At least in our house. I{m a little relieved to not have to stay up until midnight the 24th. B-c that would be lame. I need my sleep. Especially with the phlegm cough I{ve had for 2 weeks. It{s disgusting. Yum.

You{re the best! CTR. Enjoy those cookies. I want me some delicious cakes and cookies. Here the sweets are...a little bit gross. Love you! Hna Peterson

Monday, December 13, 2010

Almost Christmas, Dec 13, 2010

Grant, Excellent. I{m glad you have a big tv. That will make up for my lack of tv. I had a dream I came home from my mission and could only remember the first half..prob. b-c I{ve only served the first half. Sarah was mad at me for not saying hi to her. We had a bake sale. It was a weird dream. They always are. I{m glad you got my letter. I finished another to you, but I won{t be sending it until next Monday.

HOpefully we can start this letter writing business for real. I{m seriously pleased you didn{t forget my advice and seriously displeased my car wouldn{t start for you. Lamesauce. Why is my car stupid? What did I ever do to deserve that curse? I don{t know. Boo to cars and boo to insurance for cars. What a pain in the apple.

Glad you{re writing a song for Bonnie. I want a song too. If you want to write me one. But I probably won{t be able to listen to it until September when I get home, so you{ve got some time. I sent the family a sweet Christmas package with something for everyone. The downside is I sent it Friday, so it{s going to get to MO prob. in January sometime so mom{ll have to mail everyone their gifts instead of handing them to them. Lame. But I think everyone will be pleased with the gifts.

Also, there are some pictures inside, one actually has pictures of my hair. Or two or three. I don{t remember. All with me have hair. Just how much. I saw a picture of me in Austria and my hair was really long and looked great. Why did I curse my self with short hair again? I knew better. Boooooo.


Good luck with finals. CTR. Don{t be preoccupied with girls. Tell mom I need to know the phone number to call Christmas. I need to know if it{s Sarah{s phone, mom{s phone, whoever{s, but I need the actual number and then I can plan when to call. But I need to know who to call.

Also, we have a manger scene in the city plaza this week, called the Pastorela. It{s going to be awesome we hope. Two weeks until the Pastorela, the guy planning told us he needed our suggestions for ideas. What? In two weeks you{re saying this is going to be ready? So pray for us.

Love you, Hna Peterson

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Dec 6, 2010

Thanks for writing Deane. I appreciate it. Yeah, I know your life isn´t exciting, but mine isn´t either, so we´re about even. And I think about how I should´ve written all my siblings more on their missions. That´s about it.

Yeah, funny that Christian had the same experience as we had with the Romneys...running into them on Thanksgiving. How ridiculous we were and well, sometimes are. Hah, boys. Sometimes I think about how weird it would be to be married. And I realize I´m still not ready for that. But the elders here are great. Sometimes I´m surprised at how demanding the sisters are. How embarrassing. I´m trying to be a good sister and be a good missionary. I´m glad you had lots of movies for Luke to watch, because otherwise your trip would´ve been a nightmare.

Greg brought games you didn´t like on purpose? He would. I´m glad you at least saw half of Alice in Wonderland. I liked it. You should see the other half. My comp and I have realized we´re missing about 800 quetzales together. That´s a lot of money. My emergency fund from my desk...so we´re pretty sure our neighbor, landlady is stealing from us. What can we do? Not much. Not take our money out of the bank. But how do we use it if we can only take money out once a month from the atms? YEAH, crappy. I put my valuables in my suitcase and locked it. I hope that will keep her out. Otherwise, I´m not going to have any money or any way to pay our bills.

We got to see the Christmas devotional yesterday. I remember times when I could´ve seen those specials and didn´t want to. Now it´s a little different. Now I want to see them. I saw it in spanish and got most of it.

Remember how Josh always did pushups? Yeah, well, I guess it continued on. But yeah, I´ve seen pictures and it´s weird, but I´m sure he´s popular with the ladies and I hope he´s being good. All our brothers are giants.

Christmas is going to be weird in Guatemala. But good weird I hope. You´re the best sister ever!

Yeah, my hair{s not looking so hot, but it{s got some time to grow. Mostly, it{s prob. better to have a short ponytail than a long one. Maybe, but you may call me triangle head. My hair{s cut straight into the awkward stages of hair. Love from your Sister missionary in the field...