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