picking Mangos

Dec 26, 2011

We had a tough week work wise-because of the holidays. Many people were not home. This week it was super hot, about 110 and then it started raining last night.
My birthday (Christmas)was wonderful and I got one of the best presents in the world...Being able to see and talk to my family! It was such a wonderful present. Today I told my companion that we were going to somewhere very nice to eat because we both save a lot of money here on mission and I wanted to eat something good for my birthday meal. We went to a Brazilian BBQ and ate LOTS of good meat. It was the best mean I have had in months. It was soooooo good it was worth every cent-yummmm.

Christmas was interesting yesterday, we went to different houses and got to see how different families celebrated Christmas. One family we visited didn't know what to do for Christmas because they used to be Jehova Whitness and so we showed them some things they could do to celebrate the Christmas spirit. They did that and thought it was cool. The mom in that family was our only investigator at church yesterday and she loved how we talked about Christ and families on Christmas.

I hope all is well and that you have a Happy New Year as well-I brought my camera but forgot the cord so maybe next week for pictures.

Dec 19

So I am still enchanted with the same companion and the same house. Last week we named the house the hole. It's not dumpy it is just like a black hole and it sucks everything in. I decided to keep sane by following Dads example and always doing something when I am home. So now in our house whenever I have an hour or so of free time I clean something. That is the best way I can manage my time and stay the happiest, it also helps me understand why dad is always wanting to work. Ha ha. My life has had a huge theme on doing things and acting on things ever since David Bednar came here and spoke to us.
Yesterday the bishop of our ward talked to the people about being idle, and he also told them if they wanted a better year that they would have to change something they were doing or fix it. It was a wonderful talk for me and I felt like it was an answer to some of my prayers.
We have also been having crazy weather;one minute it is 100 degrees and the next the humidity it starts raining and the humidity is so high it feels like you are swimming in the air because it is so thick. I should have some pictures of the rain to send when I bring my camera and cable.

Dec 5-12 letters

This week we had one of the biggest and most dangerous rivalry games in the world in my area at the soccer stadium. The team Flamingo was against Vasco my team here in Brazil. All of Brazil was watching it-they tied and I think that they tied on purpose so that less people would die after the game and the busses wouldn't get put on fire!
I am learning a lot of things and one of the main things I am learningis how real life learning works;it is different then school learning. I have discovered that you have to just do something about whatever your current problem is and the Lord will help you through it, after you make it through that you become a stronger person. At the same time it is much more complicated then comparing it to a muscle-which just works one way;you can't just help yourself, you also have to help others. My invite for everybody would be to help somebody else with something, if you do you will both be blessed.

I now have over 6 months here, transfers are next week and I will still be here with the same companion-it is my guess maybe another 3 months.

I will share some of what I have been studying about recently-I have been studying about laziness and really laziness is one of the worst things we can do in life, because we really have such a little amount of time and so many things to learn and do. When we are lazy it takes away our choice and literally dams us like a river so that we cannot progress anymore. When I study I can go many directions by thinking about different questions. I hope that when you study the scriptures you also look for answers. I have found that when I have questions and start studying I sometimes have more questions that come up before I get the answers but this is a good thing.

Jordan Mailing address

I couldn't even find this myself without a lot of looking up this AM but Jordans mailing address is just the mission home-which changed locations last summer. He can receive letters or packages there.
Elder Jordan Peterson
c/o Rio de Janeiro Mission
Rua Dois de Dezembro 78
Salas 703/704
Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
22220-040

His email is
peterson.jordan@myldsmail.net

November 28

This week was very normal, just work and work and a little more work. Thanksgiving looked pretty cool at home. I had forgot about it till it was over and that night somebody told me Happy Thanksgiving, but we do celebrate the holidays in the mission, we sing a Christmas song almost every morning, that is always fun. Note worthy wise there isn't a whole lot going on, sorry to let you all down. Today we made pancakes with vanilla and bananas and cinnamon added. Oh, I got 2 of my boxes- thanks very much it is sooooo nice to have my deodorant again, I finally smell like me again. I opened the small one the day I got it and I'll open the other the last day of the transfer most likely. here is this weeks picture of cashew fruit,(cashew on bottom)

Nov 21

Hey Fam,
It was nice hearing from everybody and seeing all the pictures and all of that. This week we had a opportunity of a life time; David Bednar came and talked with the missionaries in Rio, he did a different type of talk with us, he started by talking about silly traditions in the church that don't need to continue, and after that we went into a question and answer session with him. He never gave a talk but we just talked doctrine for 3 hours with him, this was such a wonderful experience because I had many questions answered that I had had in my head for a long time, and I also found out that I know a lot more then I thought I did. Because some of the silly traditions he talked about- I had already been talking about with the missionary's in our apartment for a long time before he came, and that made me feel good... Thanks Mom and Dad for teaching me to think for myself! That was the highlight of the week really. this week it was tough work wise, we were trying and trying to find new people to teach for the longest time-and had no results! That is a very hard and sad thing, but in church this week we where very blessed when we had members bring 3 new people that I had never seen at church before show up, definitely an answer to all our prayers. but not a whole lot more has been going on, just keep on learning and learning and learning.
Elder Peterson
This weeks picture is me with my 52 bananas and 5 apples and 5 guava, as of now we have 4 bananas and an apple left, and we bought that Wednesday! we like fruit in the house, haha and we now have a fridge too!

Nov 7-6 months in Encantado

So transfers are tomorrow... and I'm staying here again with the same comp... we are all trying to understand why our president is doing this... we have had missionaries in the same area now for at least 10 months. so I could be here forever... I don't know? But its all good I dont mind the situation, and I'm content with the area.

Today was my comps birthday and we surprised him... he thought we forgot about his birthday and was kind of mad, then we went over and made a cake without him knowing and surprised him with a b day party during lunch... it was crazy cool! We also baptized again this week. Our youth are very strong and a great support system for all the new youth getting baptized. also this week one of the missionary's in our apartment got kidney stones because of lack of water and abundance of sun and salt. He has been throwing up a lot lately, and in bed a lot as well in pain and has been to the hospital as well multiple times. Actually everybody in our apartment is staying(all 6 of us) we should have another baptism again this week of a older lady-she has quit smoking for over 3 months now and has finally accepted to get baptized and is so happy for this next week, it will be a wonderful day.

This week we had a cool thing that I had never worked on before. we got a call from the stake president and then he asked us all to come over and have a breakfast with him in the stake center, and talk about missionary work in the stake as well. So that's what we did. The breakfast was very good, and then he told us the stake mission plan and we told him our goals and they matched with his, then we told him all the things good and bad about our ward to help it grow, because it is one of the newest stakes in the world and probably one of the smallest as well. and one of the things we told him was nobody was doing visiting teaching and home teaching, the next day was Sunday so he had a meeting with just our ward and told the ward about the blessings of home and visiting teaching and hopefully planted a little desire into the members! That was all that happened that was really exciting this week. We also had lots of interviews to go to so we were on trains all week as well. but that's about it and I hope you all have the best of weeks this week and I will continue hoping and praying for all you all!

Oct 31-Encantado

This week was way good, we baptized again, and also our ward is growing so much. Our ward mission leader has a vision that he finally was able to present to the ward this week and they are all going to work on the plan together now. Sooo many good things are happening; and it was all because of a vision of a member. We had our ward primary program this week and it helped me realize the times when I was in primary as the oldest kid and 2 feet taller then the other kids- and it was very funny. This week I had a nightmare that Mushu was sleeping on my bed and there was nothing I could do about it to get her off. I woke up sad... also I saw a twin of Mushu this week... not nearly as cool but she looks like her twin. Our ward is so united right now. when I show the picture of this weeks baptism look how much support this kid has from the youth-even one of the youth baptize him, that's how it should be done. This week was just work as usual, still not a whole lot to talk about... which is why I have been getting better with pictures out here on the mission. because its hard to just talk about work and make it exciting. but its cool to always see the final peice of the finished project. so think when you see this weeks pic about the unity of the ward, the success of the work and the support system that is set up. That is a finished piece to my time in this area, and that is what we have been doing with a lot of help from others. have a wonderful week!

Oct 11-Encantado

(whoops Mom messed up and forgot to include this one first- so this is the oldest of the three I posted today-sorry)
lets see. over here in Rio something big just finished, Rock in Rio, it was way cool, there was some very big time bands there this year that would have been very cool to go see. In my aria on the last day Justin Bieber came and played at the soccer stadium and I walked past the 2 days he was playing during his concerts; the funny part is that when we usually pass by its a soccer game and there are big manly voices, but this time there was all 14 year old girls. so there was high pitch screams all over the place and whoever didn't bring ear plugs probably died from the sound.

Our ward is continuing to progress a lot. my comp and i had recently visited everybody on the ward list, we came to find out that the majority of inactives had moved and that lots of people were just in other wards now. So this week we showed that list to the ward Secretary and he was very happy and also said the activity rate of Encantado was about to be much higher. What my comp and I are putting in place will help this ward for generations. We had lunch this week with an unbaptized mom of a RM and after lunch we showed her a video of temples and she loved it and is going to start preparing to get baptized. Her son was sooo happy, and the bishop was happy about this as well and is going to help us make a goal with her this Thursday. such a great thing in this life!

Oct 24-Encantado

Hey this week was very normal. One cool thing that happened was we got DVD players to use, and all got to hear from our president, so that was nice. Good things always come when we do what he says. Its a very cool thing to watch happen. With thee dvd players we watch segments from this teaching program called the district which is a mission district somewhere in the states. The DVD filmed teaching of the missionaries and their investigators. What we are supposed to do is watch this film and see what areas we can use some help with in our own teaching-and we can use this during comp and personal study time in the morning. It is kind of a nice tool, I never thought it would do me any good, but the way president explained how to use it really helps us and its a very cool thing to have. I also understand we are about the get tablets instead of aria books to use, so that should be nice.

There really isn't to much more that has been going on. We had a crazy bus ride home the other night. Alot of favella people wanted to get on the bus and go to a soccer game but not pay the bus driver for the trip. Right before they broke out into a fight or killed the driver or what ever they were about to do to him-the cops came with these big guns and told them if they didnt pay they couldn't get on the bus. This story was almost on the news that night. but thats about it-or all I can think about at the moment. just teaching and all of that.

October 17-Encantado

this week was cool we are moving into summer. very different here. it just gets soo hot that it sucks up lots of water then the next day it rains and rains then its hot again. kind of weird... also we hit day light savings here. and things are very positive here, because I have been changing the way I look at a lot of things. and just changing these little things has made a very big difference in how I look at life.

This week has been good. We did baptize again, but also we have been having lots of spiritual experiences and being very blessed. To understand how we have been blessed, you have to see where we started at the beginning of our transfer. We made a goal and in this goal we wrote what we wanted, and how we would get it and how the Lord could help us with this goal. This week the seminary gave us a reference of a kid who just one day showed up and decided to go to church with out knowing anything about our church or even a friend in it. so we marked a day to visit him... turned out he lives on the same street as the church. and then my comp and I went to go visit his house and his parents were married(very rare thing in Brazil because it is about 400$ to marry) and they where inactive from another church and the mom had many questions about the missionaries and wanted to always know what our church is all about. that is a very elect and amazing situation. and all of this is because of how we have been keeping our part of the goal and also following our mission presidents vision the best we could. also I have been learning lots of things about the lessons we teach people and really looking into the why in everything. I have been finding out that everything in this life is about family. The more you study that the more you will learn. so that is just my thought for the week and hopefully my comp and i will have the opportunity to baptize this family in 2 or so weeks! also i was pondering the story of Enos in the BOM. everybody always thinks wow how could he have prayed all day. In my opinion he realized just how important and powerful his prayers really are, so with this new knowledge he decided to in depth pray for everybody and everything because he realized what his prayer would acutely do, and the power it actually had.

Lemon Hay? (Lemon Grass?) Healthy drink

Jordan says this is a really good healthy drink and said it was lemon hay.

Recent Letters Sept 26 and Oct 3

So transfers are today, and I am still here with the same comp and the same area. but its no big deal, because we have some great thoughts for this transfer and are going to put them into place and get results and help the ward to grow even more. it is so wonderful to read everything about what all is going on up there in the great white north! Thanksgiving is coming up and the next Holiday is my birthday and I will be 20. that is so weird to say, when I look back on my life I could never imagine saying im 20, because that would mean that I am an adult and have to make my own decisions. but I guess I have been doing that for quite some time now. things here are good. our zone pretty much stayed the same, besides 1 zone leader went to the ofice for his last transfer and one missionary got brought down to a junior and his comp left to go be senior in a different area.
Missionary work should be good this transfer. we have 2 brothers we will baptize this week or next, then we want to baptize her mom after. We found a full family as well with a mom dad and 7 year old son. they seem to just be really warm and friendly people and love the missionary's and we taught them Saturday for the first time, this family also has lots of family who live close by. and this could be a wonderful opportunity of bringing people to the gospel! General Conference is coming up as well and I am soo excited for it. because here as a missionary I have many opportunities to use the things the prophet is saying and apply that to everybody.
All together that is what is going on, and I hope this transfer goes as planned. I will keep all of you in my prayers, continue to tell me how things are going and I'll do what I can here in Brazil.



This week was cool. the first part of the week we decided we didn't have enough people to teach so we went looking. I like to get references, and my comp likes contacts. I decided to let him do contacts-as usual we got about nothing, which made me even more unimpressed with contacts then usual, but it makes my comp feel good being on his feet and waking all day so you can say that was cool if you like getting no where. Its not that I am mad or complaining... I just think its funny. and that is how we spent the first part of our week. the second part of the week was way cool. we did lots of stuff dealing with preparing for General Conference and that was soo amazing. I was enlightened by the talks and am very greatful for the experience I had. We were also able to have 6 investigators watching conference so that was good. I'll show you a picture of how the Americans ended up watching the whole conference in English, it is funny, but very nice at the same time because the room had AC and that was the first time in a long long time I had used AC. Also I met up with my old baptisms in Irajá it was way cool, they both have callings and one is getting married in January or February and I hope I can go to the wedding!

This week in my studies I studied the importance of priority's in life; this study brought me into deep reflection and I was able to prioritize my life... or at least for the moment. and I put all those priority's into goals. and then at General Conference, one of the 70 (speakers) talked about priority's as well and he talked about everything that I had just done but I took it a couple steps further with the goal making and all of that so that was very cool. That is how my week was and next week we should get a baptism so that should be good. My comp and I work good together because we are 2 very different people so we end up covering everything and things work out very smoothly because of our balance. I hope all is well up in the great white north!

Letters in August-Encantado

I am going to compile the news from Jordans last letters, they are all shorter and not too news worthy-but he did sent some new photos...

Hey this week we had transfers and things were crazy. We now have six elders living in our apartment and it is crowded. For example we have suitcases on floor because there is no room anywhere else. Our zone is really cool because we have 9 Americans and 1 Brazilian and that never happens-the Americans are the minority missionaries. We are all loving it though. In our apartment I am the only "regular" missonary. We have 2 zone leaders and a trainer and new missonary/trainee and 1 district leader-(my comp)and me. There isn't a whole lot to write about at the moment so I will send picutures.

Today is another crazy day-I have computer time and then we are going to make American Hamburgers and french fries and onion rings and then we are going to play soccer and order a 70 cm pizza and then go back to our area and have a family night. It will be fun. This was a good week after much work we got to see some fruits of our labor-we are supposed to have a baptism this week. We also had a great talk with a Baptism preacher who was way nice. He had some questions for us and we got to teach him some and I got to learn more about how their church works and some differences in doctrine. It was way cool and they have a great church.

Remember I love hearing from you all!!

7-25-11 letter Encantando 4

This week was quite the cool week, we almost had a baptism and she should be baptized this week, we are doing all we can, working, working, and I have decided that a South American mission is completely different from one in the United States. We got to watch a show called "The District" a couple weeks ago and if we were doing here, what the missionaries were doing there, it would be really weird. The way we talk to people here is different, I don't know how to explain it but Brazil is a different beast, and a really happy, upbeat culture.

We had a crazy, cool, cultural thing at "Festa Junina". It is a big party where everybody celebrates the North and brings out their inner hick. It would be like if we in Washington had a day to celebrate the deep South, and wore overalls, and straw hats and blacked out a couple teeth, and cooked some alligator on the BBQ. Just imagine the life of "Waterboy" and make a huge festival out of it! That is what we did on Saturday and it was really fun. Yesterday we went to a huge MG (Mormon gathering), it reminded me of my old MG's at my house. There was about 40 people in a little house and we ate food and had a great time and then we found out that the reason for the party was this guy wanted to propose to his girlfriend so that was way cool. It was the first time I had every seen anything like that so it was a blast.

I am thinking about buying a harmonica and learning to play it. I would like to play music and I can't really take a piano around with me-so I am going to try this and see how it goes. Well, those were the highlights of my week, and I am just living my life and geting better. I am finally finding out what goals would be good for me, because I have been thinking about them a lot and know what I want to get out of this mission. We will see how that goes for me, I am excited to continue learning and growing out here in Brazil.

Letter July 18-encantado 3

This week has been kind of a short week for missionary work, we had interviews and district meetings and things like that, but work has been going well and this week we are going to throw a twist of sacrifice on the work, and fast a couple days and pray harder and find some service to do. We are already doing everything else we can.
This week we have a little Festa Junina, that is when people in Rio have a day when they celebrante the people in the North and wear strange clothes and make crazy food and things like that. We are having one this Saturday at church and I am way stoked because we will get to meet a lot of new people and have a party. We are currently teaching some very quality people. Quality means that people are actually interested and want to know for themselves and are willing to study and pray. All the people we have are good in this sort of way.

This P-day I invited our district missionaries to have a fun day. This is because some people just sleep on P-day and that is BORING. I invited them to come over and we will have a rummy party (the card game) and also a potluck. We are making cake and others are bringing stuff as well so it should be a blast. Last P day we had rummy night with just the people in our apartment and I dominated everybody!!!

This area is wonderful, it is small, so we get less blisters on our feet. The people are nice, and the members enjoy us, so all together we are having a good time here. As for me, I can understand pretty much everything in Portuguese, and for the most part my talking is pretty good, it is just hard to conjugate the two types of past tense, but I am learning and getting a little better each day.

I also got some sort of sickness this week, it started with a headache and moved to body pain and I got dizzy and could feel a pulse in my head and have a little fever. The next day my body hurt but not as bad, and it just kept getting better, now I am almost better. Hope all is well, keep me posted.

Encantando-July 11, 2011

I hope all is well at Dworshak! It was wet and cold this week, I bought a coat because it was too cold, who would have ever thought I would need a coat in RIO? This has been a great week. We brought 4 people to church; someones friend, a mom and daughter, and another person. I am so excited for this week because I have lots of teaching and talking Portuguese. The mom and daughter are way cool and when we go there they always make us good food. They have prayed about the church and are very receptive to everything. We are having family night with them tonight and that should be wonderful too. The ward I am in is great. There are 5 ward missionaries and 3 of them really help us out, we are looking for more people to teach and that will be good.

Our apartment is wonderful, we make breakfast every day, we make pancakes, french toast, eggs maloco (my invention), and avacado-it is way different then the ones back home, you eat it sweet and it is the size of about 3 avacados. We cook a lot in our place. We have 3 Americans and 1 Brazilian living here and it is usually the other way around. Today is P-day and we are going to play some cards, it is crazy fun. We taught the Brazilian to say the cards names in English so we can all play in either language. My comp and I are doing good together. I am good with people and being organized and in some ways creative, and he is good at everything else. We get along well and usually end up talking about history and stuff like that. It is amazing how many facts I know, I don't remember how I learned most of them, but it is good. My old comp is still living in this place too and we are like twins; we always think the same things and say the same lines, it is soooo weird! His great grandpa made all the Browning guns, so we have decided that if we have time in the future we would go and re-make the good old Browning lever action shotgun! YES that would be a fun gun. I will send some pictures soon of me and my area and I am expecting pictures from Dworshak!

Jordans letter 7/4/2011-Encantando

Hey surprise, I got transfers again and a new companion again!! We are living in the same building still but have different companions and different areas. My new comp is named Elder Clegg and he is from PG Utah and he is a little trecky/dungeons and dragonish, I am having to learn how to have a conversation with him but all is well. We should do well and we get along well. My last area Iraja was shut down again. I have no idea why but it must have been shut for a reason so who knows....

We had something crazy happen the other day-we were out teaching in what we thought was a calm favella when all of a sudden EVERYBODY starts shooting around us at the police. We were pretty much at the top of the hill and everyone below us had a gun and was shooting. The mom of the family told us to come in and we got to teach about 3 families so that was great. So many good things and we were safe, but we will be careful next time when we walk up a hill!

We are about ready to start our area over again-it is a good area and we need to find out what we need to do here to help out. We have some ideas so we will see how they work out. So, I have had 3 transfers, 3 areas, and 3 American companions (in 3 months?). That is very rare for a missionary around here but I am fine and I am going to experience all of Rio! Today it is raining and the 4th of July. The 3 Americans in our apartment sang the national anthem and did the pledge of allegiance while the 1 Brazilian got to watch!! Ha ha. He will learn!

So I am wondering which places in Rio did Uncle Marcus serve?

Jordan's letter 6/27/2011

This has been a wonderful week; the last week of the transfer so it was good for that reason-my companion and I are probably staying here but we won't know until tonight for sure-but not everyone will be staying so that will be sad. We also did some very cool things this week. I wanted to include some pictures but couldn't find my cord. We are also changing the mission office location because of getting a new mission president so you will need to update that, I will send you that address later.
This week we ordered a 70 centimeter pizza (that is over 2 feet)!!! I had to put it diagonal to get it through the door and the best part is that it was free!! Well, so far it is free. I was going to pay for it with my gringo card and everyone was giving me their part of the money-but when the guy got here he didn't have his card swiper so he just gave it to us and said he would come back a different day...he hasn't done that yet. I could only eat a quarter of it.
Yesterday I had a chance to look at my hard drive and I couldn't find any pictures of me wake boarding and was wondering if Dad left those off so I wouldn't miss it or if there was just some other mistake? I thought that Dad was going to relax and not do any projects while I was gone but it looks like he just can't stop.
Like I said, we are getting a new mission president this week and I am a bit sad and also can't wait to meet the new one. We will probably have a big mission conference this week.
Our work has finally been coming together for us-this week we baptized the two girlfriends we have been teaching. One has been coming to church for a year but didn't want to be baptized because she was afraid of her step-mom and dads opinions but she couldn't fight with the spirit she felt so she got baptized. We also baptized another girl who had been coming to church for four months and almost decided to never come back before she prayed and felt the spirit. So pretty much without the spirit none of this would have ever happened, not one thing. We were just there to say a couple things and show them the path. They were both baptized Sunday and most of the ward stayed to see it. Until this point this was the coolest thing I have ever experienced out here; the strong feelings and little details have made it even more worthwhile. The funniest part is that my companion and I both knew they were going to say yes, I told my comp to bring our district leader with us to do the interview-and we did. After she said yes, we told her we had someone to give her the interview and she didn't know how we knew because she hadn't said yes yet. We explained to her that we had faith in her and felt she would say yes, cool stuff. Time is up, I hope you could follow my stories. More next week. I am out of time!

June 20, Letter

Time in the mission is going by so fast, it is way crazy. I think I need to live in the moment a little more, I am already trying to do that but I can always do better so I will make that a goal. Tell Megan and Ty happy birthday and I will try and baptize someone for their birthday present!! This week I was talking about the movie "Yes Man" with my companion. I decided that if everyone was a yes man that my job would be easier. I can imagine asking the questions..."Will you read the Book of Mormon, will you pray for a respons to know if it is true, will you be baptized, will you endure to the end". That sounds like a Golden member to me, but then the reason people are not yes men is also what makes life so interesting! The area is going good and we are teaching about a lesson each night here. We have really made a lot of progress and we have some good investigators. One we will baptize when he gets his marriage papers-that is a problem here because it is expensive to get married. We also are teaching two girlfriends of members and they are smart about their decisions. We are also teaching the husband of a member-we taught him last night for the first time. One challange in our area is that it is so big and you can only get from one place to another so fast, especially when you are walking, so there is a problem there. Transfers are coming up and this has been the fastest 6 weeks of my life. There are so many things to do and so little time to do it. I hope the president doesn't decide to close this area again, he has in the past, but who knows, he might leave it open because there is a new Mission President coming.

The language is coming well. I can understand about everything and I can speak fine as well, I just mess up conjugations and don't have a full vocab yet. Last week the president came to our zone and gave all of us a blessing and in mine it said that I would learn the language faster than humanly possible and I believe that is already happening. Today is going to be a fun p. day, I get to go to a big field and play soccer there. Everything is so packed here so that doens't happen very much.

Something that I have been doing here is they have this Brazillian herbal tea made from a certain grass here and I make that at night. I use honey or sugar in it. It is the only tea I have tried that I like. They also make a "Mormon Coffee" around here-which is a non-coffee drink of course. It is kind of like what Uncle John makes when we go hunting. I end up cooking stuff here more often then not. So keep on keeping on...Elder Peterson

June 13 letter

This week I will give you a little lowdown of how the living conditions are here in Brazil...but it isn't complaining, just information. As of this week, the end of my 3rd week in this transfer, I have blisters all over my feet, so walking many miles-which I do each day-sucks. I am still living out of my suitcases because the apartment I am staying in is really small and there are 4 of us staying here at the moment. We don't have room to put anything away in closets and my bed is on the floor with my sweatshirt as my pillow. All the walking we do is to referrals and either they are never in their house or the address they give us doesn't exist. We would call but our phone has no credit until the 17th so we can only receive calls and call other missionaries until then.

I enjoy the work, it is very fun and I am getting better and better at the language, and we are very close to baptizing someone, so we are praying and hoping it works out. Right now I am reading the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon, and I am understanding about everything because of the way I am reading. Every time the Lord is speaking I highlight all of the "I" or "me" or "Lord" or "God" and this makes it easier to understand-paying attention to who is saying what. My companion and I work hard, every day and all day, all we do is work and work, I love it. I am always doing something, when I am not I feel almost claustrophobic because everything is so close together here. Last night I was standing on a hill in Rio and I felt the openness and it was crazy I felt SO calm and I remembered how long it had been since I was that much in the open! The zone we are in right now is probably one of the most dangerous zones. We live in one dangerous zone and work in the other. It is kind of disappointing, it is not that dangerous. You hear gunshots often, sometimes daily depending on where you are, but you never see anything. The military does a good job keeping things under control. We are definitely protected because we are missionaries, and we are fine, but the members have no faith, everywhere we go they say we will die...It is ridiculous. I just go but I stay out of the really bad favellas around here, that is plain stupid to go there. The other 2 Brazilian missionaries we live with are awesome. They are way cool and full of love.

There is not too much going on here, just faith, work, and trying to baptize. That is all we really have time for, we have a lot of Family Home Evenings set up for this week so that should help everything go smoother. Love you all.

Letter from June 6, 2011

Todays letter had some photos so I thought I would include some of them in here along with the message. So....This week has been work, work, and more work with little results, but I wouldn't trade it for the world-we are sensing some serious potential coming up this coming week! We should have people to teach under our belts.

Our bishop here is one cool cat in my opinion, he has his ward run like a military unit, it is the most organized ward I have seen in my life! This guy read the manual and I am pretty sure that he has read mine more then I have as well. This past Sunday our ward mission leader hadn't done a whole lot with us and the bishop straightened that up and now we should be having a better experience with him. He told the EQPresident to give us a division with a member each day, then he went with us to elders quarum and helped set up those divisions for us. He first asked for volunteers and when that didn't work out He started calling on people and said, "You, I know for a fact you have time on this day and can go on a division with the missionaries..." He is really willing to help us out with whatever problems we have. He understands how the church works and uses the organization in a good way.

We might finally get a house to stay at soon, we found one yesterday and will probably look at it tomorrow, so I hope it works out. We taught an amazing lesson yesterday, the restoration is such an amazing thing and there are so many different ways to talk about it, I have been very bold lately when I talk with people. I never did that at home but if something is not right here I will point it out with straight up facts and all doctrine. I don't know, it was just very different then I use to do things, maybe because I do a different type of teaching here. I was pondering this concept this morning when I was doing my personal study and I came across 2 Nephi 1:26-27.

I read that and was kind of blown away and now I know that is was the right thing so I guess I am doing what I am supposed to do out here.

Letter 5/30/2011

So my new area is called Iraja, it is nice but at the moment we are living in a place called Ramos and I even got to work here a couple days. Ramos is a ghetto area...remember when the police invaded that place in November? That is where these missionaries are working and I got to work with them -I got to be in a famous area a couple days. My new area Iraja is an upper middle class with some favellas as well but it is a really big area.

We had a meeting with the bishop Saturday and he talked to us for a long time without letting us say anything. Everything he said was good though. Finally, I said, "do you want to hear our vision for the area?" and I boldly told him what we were going to do and what we expected out of this area. He was surprised because (1) I have only been out here over a month and (2) I was very direct with what I told him. I might not be able to speak perfectly but I can speak with power! That ended the meeting. The last two years they have tried to start this area up about 4 times so I know that the president is watching us and we are planning to do good work here.

My new companion is awesome, his name is Elder Robinson and he is from Twin Falls Idaho. He only has 6 months left. Our president usually puts 2nd transfer missionaries with some of the hardest workers in the mission and I think this guy is. I make our plans, because I am good at that and then he teaches me to be a good missionary, so we both help each other out a lot. I think once we start teaching in this area we will see great success here. It might take a bit to get going, our phone is dead, we are short on money and I don't want to use my cards much. We get our money soon though. We are getting getting a tour of what our area is and getting things going so that we can get up to full speed.

Love all of you!

Letter from 5/23/2011

Hey Fam, I had a cool week. Monday my companion got permission to go into the mall so he went on a shopping spree and bought lots of things. I got a nice pair of shorts and some food. The rest of the day we were looking after a guy in our district who got sick, he had the same thing as I did but for 3 days. He lost 20 lbs and he was skinnier than me to begin with. We had a great stake conference with one of the area presidents. Lots of powerful talks given.

I am getting transferred tomorrow, I think the president is putting sisters in here because they are in a dangerous favella area right now, probably like the ones you saw on Fast 5. I don't really care where I am, there is on area that gets up to 50 (which is 122 for us)and it is super humid as well, with no wind; but if I have to go there I will because I am supposed to. Today I am just going to chill and finish packing, and eat and visit some of the members.

Yesterday I fed a little monkey smaller and uglier than Mushu and I was also playing with a parrot. One thing that I think will be strange when I get home is that I will feel like I need rice and beans with everything. Another thing different out here is the way they season food. They only use salt, not even pepper, and sometimes some lime on chicken. Every night people put their BBQ's out on the street nad cook....it smells sooooo good! Sometimes we eat something called x tudo's; it's a hamburger with egg, bacon, and ham and they have fry sauce and stuff to add to it, they are really good. The other night my companion ate 3 of them plus 700 ml acie,(no idea there-might be a typo?)crazy business. Well, not too much going on, looking forward to the next transfer. Till later, thanks for the picture of Khas.(note, Mom was in the picture with the dog but no mention of that).

Week 3 RIO-Pão de Asucar

I had an amazing p day today... woke up at 6 went to one of our new missionaries physical therapies with him and then after this we went Pão de Asucar (sugar loaf) because we baptized this week and last week, and even better we got to go there in our real clothes!!! Oh yes! Well, jeans instead of shorts and we still needed our name tag, but it was still way cool. Because I was wearing my name tag I talked to a nice Utah Mormon family, it was soo cool, the mom use to live in Highland. Then after that we took a taxi and then we went to this market place, not the best. I got a real soccer Jersey off one of the new Brazilians in our house who plays professional soccer, pretty cool eh, he is way good at soccer! Then we went to McDonald's, doesn't sound too cool, but its not every day you get to eat a hamburger here in Brazil! Then we went back to our place and on our way here (where I am now) we got a guy who was a member that wanted his nephew to be baptized who was 22 and the nephew was down for it, what a awesome day eh?

We should move into a new apartment soon because the one we have now is horrible with mosquito's, my comp almost got elephantitis a couple transfers ago. and I have over 37 bites on just my right arm. I am a tasty person. Yesterday I got my hair cut just how I like it, #1 and #2 and the prez is OK with it, I am so happy! We had a baptism Wednesday, that was pretty cool. we found a family and they are probably going to get baptized, the best part is that they have a 15 year old girl and she is very popular and she loves the church like the rest of her family, but she also likes the American missionaries, so she is going to bring lots of friends to church next week, and then we will teach her friends family's too, pretty cool eh? That is how it is cool to be an American, it kind of sucks at times because today on p day everybody thinks I'm a tourist, and that I am rich, so there are at times problems with this; if only they knew I only got 120 reals every 2 weeks, equal to 48 bucks, not much for an American.

The new Brazilians are cool, one of them I already knew, he got transfered to the office because he has problems with his achilles tendon, and he has to go home at the end of this transfer, he is the professional soccer player, and he is awesome at teaching me things my other comp does not. We are both very peacuful people. The other Brazilian is cool too, he is a lil different, but oh well, he speaks good English from all his video games and TV, so that helps me a lot as well, because I am always learning new things and being able to speak more and more.

well I'll send you guys some pics of my day, hope all is well back home, and you all are jealous of me, have a wonderful day, and I cant wait to hear from all of you next week!

The SSSSSNAKE-Week 2 RIO

So my companion tells me that I am becoming the real deal Koli Poki (like in movie-other side of heaven). after all of last weeks experiences... there has been more!

We taught this girl and her name was Zulage and she is what we call on a mission a snake- in other words she is just after the missionaries... ask Ty abt it. She is 24 and has a kid. She has this story that was exactly like in the movie the pursuit of happiness, she had nothing in her house, not even a couch;just a sink, couple pieces of food, her clothes in one corner, and a mattress on the floor, and her 5 year old kid... but she really liked me, she would call me different times during the day, and always walk with me and many other things as well... in short, I got a baptism this week, even though my companion did pretty much all the work. 2 days ago I got sick, I almost threw up, and i was dizzy and my stomach hurt all day long. it was a not fun experience, plus every Irma (sister) had some different snake oil, or some different medicine for me to try that didn't work and everybody had their own opinion of what was wrong with me as well, what a fun day! yesterday was cool we had a huge tropical rain storm and our mission involves a lot of walking, especially because we have about 5 bucks left to our name for buses for the entire week, because our area is soooo big, and the president told us that we need to focus on this area that is the farthest away from us... so I will probably walk about at least 10 K a day now. Yesterday we had a cool little flash flood, especially when we are in the favela, because the steps to get down the hill were a waterfall, and that was our only way down. Also on our way home last night I almost got big by a dog; but I heard it coming so I turned around being ready to kick it up the throat and kill it. When it saw that I had no fear of it-it slowed down, but was still going for me, then I started going after it like I did when I was little and the cows were chasing me, and it left me alone... but my foot is always ready in Brazil to kill a little dog chasing me, because i don't want shots!! (Note: if they get bit they have to get painful rabies shots)

I am understandidng the accent finally and I can have conversations with the ward members, but teaching is still hard for me because you can't really always tell if the investigator understands what you are saying back to them. I'll send you guys some cool pics of me and my area... but i can only do 3 at a time so have patience, have a wonderful week.

Hhhheeeeeeyyyyyyyy Family Letter from RIO

I hope you guys are having a fun time! I found out that I can only do email letters with immediate family-so I need addresses...I have some cool pictures to show you all in next email and you can relay them to whoever-Robin and Savannah will want to see them for sure.

My trainer told me I have experienced about everything out here already. The buses (more dangerous then Mexico), cabs, kombi vans (the mystery machine from Scoobie doo), 100 mosquito bites, been shocked by the shower, walked 45 minutes to an appointment in hot weather just to turn around becuase they weren't home. I got to talk in church, where a lady was breastfeeding in the front row, not covered up, I walked in on a missionary in the shower, I slept in the baja with a bunch of trunky (ready to go home) Brazilians, saw turtles mating, got tackled by a Tongan, got hit in middle of street by drunk guy, got hit on while teaching a lesson, and I know there is more, it just isn't coming to my mind but I will think of it later....Getting green pranks (new missionary stuff)now and then, and witnessing an emergency transfer. All of this in less than 7 days, I wonder if next week will seem boring to me? It is all cool and looking back on these experiences makes me laugh now.

My trainer is Tongan, he is a very cool guy named Elder Tautaua and he is almost at his year mark here and has already baptized 90 people. Our area is Jacarepagua which means alligator and something else. It is kind of a middle class area, our ward is very cool and we get teaching referrals every time we sit down to talk to somebody, way cool. We have taught two very interesting lessons. One was to a lady who told us about a dream she had 20 years ago where her ancestors came to her and told her she needed to do something for them- The next was to a true lamanite descendant who told us a story that had been passed down in his family about an ancestor who saw a star come from the sky that was like Jesus, who did all these great things for the people. He was almost reciting 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. We gave him the book, and he was really excited about it but was going to Brasilia and not coming back to Rio for a long time.

My area is so cool, it is like taking an Urban nature walk if that makes any sense. I also found a good definition for favela...a Brazilian trailer park! In many ways it is similar to that, the people have nice TV's and sound systems and things, but they don't live in a nice area, but they are fine with that. All Brazillian people are on Hawaiian time, it must be a lamanite thing. You can make all the appointments you want but it is the same thing as if you show up unexpected, there is a 50 50 chance someone will be there. I can understand some people better than others; I can't understand old people or quiet little kids. Sometimes I understand everything and other times I can't put one sentance together, but I am learning and learning. I was a little shy when I first got here but found out that I was offending the Brazilians so I had to lighten up and things are much better now.

Brazilians are nothing like Americans, you can talk and talk and talk, it is just part of their culture. Even if they hate Mormons they will have a half hour discussion about how much they hate you, it is pretty different. I am already excited for winter (It is fall there now) and can't wait for a day of lots of rain, I will most likely run around like a little kid, and it won't make much difference anyway because I don't think I have been ever been dry since I got here.

One of my favorite things is teaching lessons or watching my companion teach. I love it when he teaches, he gives me a little part to talk about but he is so amazing as a teacher, I have no idea how he does it but in time I will probably learn, when I understand more and can speak better Portuguese. I am excited to be here and I am going to learn so much. I love you all and I will send pictures next time. It is nice to not be in the MTC or CTM anymore. It is time to share what I have learned.. Love, Jordan

Letter from 4-6-2011

Hi Family, This has been a cool week for me, there are many interesting things about Brazil. I just got back from the temple in Sau Paulo and it is a really beautiful place. All the wood there is Brazilian Mahogany, which is illegal now, but it looks soooo beautiful and the stained glass works on it are way cool as well. This is an interesting place. There are sky scrapers everywhere here, and it seems that if you are not in a sky scraper or a huge apartment building, you are in a middle class home (called a nice favela). They even have their own L.A. River here, but I think it is bit less santitary then the L.A. river. Friday I got to go to the center of the city. The place where I was at is the Brazilian equivalent to New York Times Square. The people were so friendly, completely different then the US. People would walk up to you, it was very cool. I think one of the things I love about this place is that everybody speaks Portugeuse. In the US the Chinese speak their languages, and latins speak theirs and so on, but here everybody is from everywhere and they still speak Portuguese, no matter what other languages they might also speak.

One of the Brazilians in our room is from Salvador Brazil, and he looks just like Obama. I will have to show you a photo when I can send pictures in a week or so. So now we know where Obama is really from, beacause he still has not showed his birth certificate, I believe; he is not a Muslim or Asian or whatever else.. he is definanately a Brazillian like my roommate. There are many cool things about this place, the food is much better here and I talk with the Brazilians as many times a day as I can. When they talk about something I don't know about, they explain it to me until I understand. My companion left yesterday for his mission, so I am once again back to 3, for the 3rd time in the MTC. I have now had 6 companions in the 8 weeks. Today is the start of my 9th week so that means I leave next Tuesday, April 12th, for Rio. There are a big group of Brazilians leaving to Rio with me. Elder Jones got his visa and there are 3 others waiting in Provo to go to Rio..I hope it works out for them.

I will write you a nice big letter when I get to Rio and have more time. I hope that my mission address was posted on Facebook so people can write to me. I hope grandma got my postmarked package. I will see you later, I love you all and will write again...have a wonderful day!..I still can't find the enter button on the keyboard.

Jordan's Letter 4-1-11 Brazil

Hey Family,
How are you doing? I am here in Brazil and I got to email you today because I missed my P-day. I will get one more email from here and then I will be in Rio. The computer keyboard is weird, the letters are the same but it is different. I can't find the return button, so it will be one long paragraph. (except I will edit that-Mom note).

It is my second day here and I get to learn so much about the language here. There are 6 of us in the room and 2 are "Brazileros" so I talk to them as much as possible. There are many different accents here, some I understand completely, some I have to pay close attention to, and others I only get about 1/3 of what they are saying. I am one of the best American Portugeuse speakers...but I sill have lots I need to work on. Today I get to go to the city and practice being a missionary, giving out information and sharing messages, I am so excited. I hope it goes well. Today is the hottest day we have had since I have been here, I hope I doen't turn red as a tomoto while I am out there. Brazil is very cool, it is like Mexico in many ways...they even have Montazuma's revenge, go figure! It even smells like Mexico here and it is so humid, I love it! When I get out of the shower here my skin doesn't turn into flakes like it did back in dry Provo. It is nice to be in this wonderful weather. I don't know how it will be in Rio because I will be in the sun for hours every day, but for now I love it. The MTC here is not in a beautiful part of the city;it is almost like we have a 5 star hotel in the middle of shanty town. I love it, I am looking forward to serving the people and will do whatever I can.

There is a different attitude here towards learning compared to Provo. In Provo you were almost forced to learn, here you can see which missionaries are lazy and which are more studious. It is more unorganized. Much of what I am learning here is a review of what I learned before but I keep practicing my Portuguese and ask whatever I can think about in the language, so that I can get something out of my classes. I am always finding ways to learn. I am now at the point where I can read my Preach my Gospel with only looking up a word here or there, that is really nice. I am greatful for the gift of tongues that I have been given. I was talking to one of my Brazillian roomies yesterday and he asked me how long I had spoken Portugese; he was amazed when I told him 8 weeks. I told him when you only have 9 weeks total to learn something and the Lord is helping you, many things are possible. We had a nice laugh, but this experience is so good for me because I am always having to step outside of my comfort zone.

I hope you have a wonderful day, I tried telling you everything and my thoughts are scattered, but I hope you will understand. Now it is time for me to go-I love you and I am doing my best to serve the Lord. tchau is good bye- I hope it was spelled right...Jordan

Addresses for Jordan

Jordan will be in the MTC in Brazil about 2 weeks. I have no idea how long it takes to send a letter there-and I don't have an address for the MTC yet. You can write him through dear elder for .98 cents and they will mail it out. This is his "permanant" mission home address in Rio. He will get there is a couple weeks. You can write him here. We will keep you updated when we get his actual addresses.
Elder Jordan Peterson
Brazil Rio de Janeiro Mission
Av. das Americas, 1.155, Salas 502/503
Barra da Tijuca
22631-000 Rio de Janeiro- RJ
Brazil

First Photo of Jordan in Brazil

I got this by email today, letting me know that our boy arrived safely-and look at his handsome smiling face-if you can see it-he is in the middle of the back row. So glad that he is there now! I know that he is too.

Jordans Finally going to Brazil!

Jordan called us Friday night-which was pretty exciting since he can only call on Mothers Day and Christmas-to let us know that his visa came through and he will be flying to Sao Paulo Brazil on Tuesday-he has two weeks left in the MTC and then on to RIO. He is pretty happy and it was so nice to hear his voice! I am going to shorten his last letter and not put the part about how he hasn't got his visa yet -although much of the letter is still about that-and how he will get to call us when he finds out or gets re-assigned.

...it is weird being one of the old guys in the mtc, it seems like Robo just got here, but when I was talking to him Wednesday I found out that he leave next Sunday and that made me sad that he got here and is leaving all before me. I hope that all is going well over there, lots of the new kids who are came in last week have been getting there visas... speaking of that, I was talking to one of the new kids who had come in and was talking about where he was from and he told me he lived north of Spokane, and I was telling them I had family who lived up there and he went to the same high school and everything as uncle Tim's kids! so I asked them if he new the Erickson family from Suncrest and he was in the same ward and everything as him! I actually had hung out with his brother quite a few times, it was Dustin's friend Preston's little brother! So we talked about Spokane and all of that and it was so cool how small of a world the MTC is.

Portuguese is going well, we taught the entire 1st lesson all in Portuguese again this week and it went very smooth, there is still A LOT I need to learn but when you have the spirit with you-you are able to say so much more in the language, and it makes you really appreciate everything that goes on here. I am getting so much help. I always feel that I never have enough time to learn, and I always wish I could learn faster. For example I wish I could read it and remember it always so that I can learn more things instead of always having to review and review. It's getting better, the more and more I try to (fala sua lingua) or speak my language. Lately I have been doing journal enties in Portuguese-that really helps with my verb conjugation and everything, so we will see how that helps me.

How are Travi and Am doin?... do they still live in the barn? or will I move out before them? Tell Jeisa, Asha and Alexia that I tell them hi and that I might send them a picture sooner then later. How are Khoas and Buffy? Keep me posted on Allison's driving, it makes me laugh. I was going to respond to your guyses letters but I forgot them so I will have to do that next week when I am more prepared. It is funny, I feel kind of like mom these days, I am excited to do my laundry, it is the only "me time" I get here. I get to reflect, think about what to write people back about in my letters, and other things like that, so here in the MTC I really look forward to my laundry time because it is such a pleasant thing to do and it is just so relaxing.

I love all of you guys and hope you are doing well, you are always in my prayers at the MTC as well (there is a lot of them here) I hope you keep on writing me and I am so excited to hear all about what is happening in you guyses lives. I hope I make it to Brazil before I die and I really want that VISA, so hopefully it will come today, because today is my month and 4 days mark, so anything is possible because visas are totally random!

Love you all

Elder Jordan Peterson

Jordans Letter Mar 18th

Hey, how are you all doing? We had two people leave yesterday to Brazil, Elder Lable and an Elder Jones. Hopefully I am next week, or the beginning of the week after. I now have two companions again, the first is Elder Lange from Seattle Washington, and the other is Elder Vincent from Utah. Elder Lange was already in a tri-panionship before and we get along well. He is very good at Portugeuse; he once memorized 100 verbs in half an hour. I use him as my walking dictionary which is really nice because he is always able to help me when I need a little more assistance then I can handle. Elder Vincent has a hard time in the MTC-this is the start of his 11th week and if he doesn't get his visa he can be here for 15 weeks total, which is more time then all the Asian speaking areas for MTC time. It is probably a good thing he is here for this long because he has a very hard time with the language and has dyslexia like me. I have been teaching him good ways to learn things and he says it is really helping him to understand, so it is good that I can help.

In the TRC which is where we practice teaching-we teach in Portugese only, it was a real struggle to come up on a word you don't know and then you don't know the words to describe it, but that only happened 3 or 4 time in the 45 minutes-if you look at it like that-the language is coming along well-especailly since I did not have my "walking text book" companion with me at the time and was leading the lesson quite a bit.

All is well here, I really am enjoying all the learning that goes on here! It is really cool, this place is a special place, even if I try to remember stuff back home it is very hard to do, so that means with no knowledge of what is going on on the outside world, I have lots of time to see what is going on around me. This place is good because I get to find out a lot about me and found that I have answers to everybody's questions. It was just a little hard at first, but it is coming more smoothly by the day and that is great.

Thanks Dad for sharing those stories with me. We luckily made it to everything on time with daylight savings changes. We just got some humidifiers in my room which is very nice because the MTC buildings have drier air then the outside on a dry winters day. That means you usually wake up with a nose full of bloody cement like substance, and it is harder to sleep. Now that we have the humidifiers it is a little better. I like to sit by the humidifier at night and smell the nice moist air. All the trees are budding outside and the blossoms are about ready to pop and that is going to be cool unless my visa comes first and then I will go to Brazil and watch the trees grow!

My time is running short, thanks for the package, have a wonderful day and tchaozino which is portugeuse for little goodbye. Love, Elder Peterson ;)

Jordans Letter Mar 11, 2011

Hey, how is everybody doing? Some really good news came about yesterday, Elder Lablue's (who filled out his electronic visa on the 7th of last month) visa came through, so maybe in about 2 weeks I will get mine as well. We will see, Carnival just ended so maybe my visa will come through a little faster now that the party is over and people are getting back to work! Spring is finally starting here in Provo and I can finally see why Dad likes all 4 seasons; the grass is starting to get green and it was 67 degrees last night, so we studied outside. It was wonderful. The flowers are starting to come out for the year, I think it is beautiful.

This week has been really cool in my studies. I have learned so much from my daily personal study, and it really makes my day. I feel like there is such a vast amount of knowledge that I am learning, and there is only more that can be learned, depending on how I look at everything, and it is just simply amazing! Today I started reading the Draper journal (pioneer ancestor) and I can't put it down, there are so many things that I have learned from it that I haven't read in church history or seen in movies. It is such a legacy and I think it is a wonderful read to know about my family expereinces in their own words....or maybe it is just something else to read in the MTC so I am really interested!

My companion and I get along so well, I am a little better at the language and he is a little better at the lessons, so when we study we are always helping each other get better. We had TRC yesterday and we were both getting more in tune with the spirit as we got more into the lesson and by the end we were having thoughts come into our heads like crazy-and there is still so much more to learn. I think my favorite scripture at the moment is in 3 Nephi 17, when Jesus tells the people to go and ponder the things that they learned and then he goes on to heal the people and work all those miracles. I really like it because it is a perfect example of Christ like attributes, and that is what I strive for on my mission. It sets a good example of those attributes I should have in my life. Speaking of my favorite scriptures, I thought you guys (family) were going to share your weekly TTIP scriptures with me from Monday night? I will be expecting those in the future.

I love you family and will see you all later, I hope all is well at home and that the weather starts getting better. Maybe you can email me some pictures of the Thunder Cloud Plum Trees when they bloom at home and when everything blooms, that is the coolest ever.

Love you all. Elder Peterson

Jordans letter Feb 25, 2011

Hey Family,
I thought I would just send a little letter about this week and all the wonderful things that have happened. It is so easy to feel the spirit here, I love it, and it just makes me happy. One of the coolest things in my opinion is the MTC choir. We just work ona song for the Tuesday BYU devotional and it might even be on the BYU channel, so maybe you could record the devotional and see me on a weekly basis! Our whole district has the smae goal, and that is to obey all the rules, that that is what we are striving to do. On Sunday when I was going over my personal goals and reflecting about the past week I realized that I am following all the rules to the best of my knowledge, and the results have been that I am finally learning to invite the spirit when I teach lessons and things like that. On Thursday in the TRC we were practicing speaking Portugeuse and I did so well. I was having a good talk with a guy about families, it was very basic and I probably didn't conjugate some of the verbs correctly but I could tell that the guy got the message of what I was saying.

Today is the coolest day because it is P-day (preparation day) and also temple day. I woke up to six inches of snow and did my personal study and we went to the temple. We decided to eat at the temple cafeteria instead of the MTC regular one, because we heard that it had good food there. It was amazing, I had some amazing soup and amazing mash potatoes and gravy. I think we will do that every Friday now!

Dad you need to not shovel. That is not good that you hurt yourself again, I could have done that for you before I left if you would have asked or Allison and Megan could learn to do a little pine handle backhoe work! Mom you mentioned that you talked to Sister McCorkel and she works here-I will keep my eye out for her and hopefully run into her sometime.

Tell Little C (Ciara) and Lyska that I need their addresses to write back. I don't have time to do it on the computer so I need home addresses if anyone writes me. Tell Savannah to write at dear elder or by hand because I don't have time to type back.

I hope all is well at home, I always keep you in my prayers. I love you guys and am glad for the support. Have a wonderful day and see you in a little less than 2 years.. Keep writing and packages are fun too because there is so much mystery to them. Have a wonderful day-hope this letter makes it even better.

Your son, Elder Jordan Matthew Peterson

P.S. Jordan's Visa is coming through-he will be heading to Brazil in 1-3 weeks!

Jordan's First Letter Home

Family!
I have missed all of you, and thanks Mom for the letter, I have a very short amount of time to write, so I will be fast. The MTC is such a good place and the spirit of the Lord is strong here. I am so grateful for this experience! Tell Allison that I am sorry I missed her birthday, but I did remember it. I don't understand how a missionary here in the MTC could not enjoy the work we do here; they probably were not wanting to learn. It has only been three days and I have learned so much about Portuguese! For example; I have learned how to pray, and I have learned to share my testimony, and I have learned much about grammar and such. From the first day our 2 teachers, Brother Oakozaki and Brother Brugh have only taught us in Portuguese. It is amazing how much I can catch on to when I don't even speak the language, by just paying attention. Here in the MTC it seems that we really live the law of consecration. I mean, we all pay the same amount for our missions and it all goes into a big melting pot so that missionaries who go to poor countries pay the same amount each month as those who go to really expensive countries to serve.

It seems that all we are doing is just learning. My mind feels like a sponge at the moment. My daily schedule goes something like this. I spend 1 hour a day doing personal study, and then I spend an hour with my companion studying, then I spend an hour studying Portuguese. Then I spend more hours with teachers as well, learning Portuguese. It is Saturday and my companion is going to get here sometime today, I am excited for that. I have been a tag along elder with two other elders from Washington, who are both going to Rio as well. It will be nice to have my own companion! We also have a sister in our group. She is a solo sister too, she doesn't have a companion, her name is Sister Black, she is a fun addition to the crew and lightens up our day.

Please keep me posted with how life is going. Writing to me on Dear Elder or hand written letters are the best because I only have a limited time to use the computer. I would rather not read my letters at that time, because I need it to write them.

If you can please send me a black or grey sweater with long sleeves. It is very cold here. I am so glad for the things that you have taught me, and I am forever grateful for the life experiences you all have given me. I am almost out of time now, please post my address of FB and have people write me, I am always open to letters. Love your son, Elder Jordan Peterson

Jordan is in the MTC-mission address

Well, it has finally happened. Jordan is at the MTC-(which stands for Missionary Training Center). Originally he was to report directly to the training center in Brazil but there has been a visa delay with his whole group-so last week they moved his destination to the Provo MTC. We will be notified when he is to move to Brazil-after his paperwork clears. He flew to Utah on Tuesday and Grandma Peterson picked him up at the airport. Uncle David and Aunt Tanja and Savannah took him to Cafe Rio for dinner and they had their last epic tapioca pudding night-until he returns. He reported in for duty Weds February 9th at noon. I called this morning to get his address. Here it is:

Elder Jordan Peterson
MTC Box 286-0411
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-0411

Another option is writing letters through www.dearelder.com To do this you go to the website and sign up for an account with your email address. Mail is delivered to the MTC for free on a daily basis. You will need his box number from above. They will also deliver mail to Brazil for .98 cents. This is just one option.

On a personal note-as his mother I am really excited for him. This will be a great learning and growing experience. It really doesn't seem so long ago that I was doing this myself! Times goes quickly. Onward and upward!