Jordan in Rio

Thursday, March 31, 2011

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

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

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.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

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

Friday, March 18, 2011

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 ;)

Friday, March 11, 2011

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