January 23, 2012

This week was crazy. we had a baptism this week and the capella (font?) ran out of water by the time the water got to my knee level, so we had a baptism on our knees and it was an unforgetable experience! We also just had a good week, we marked some family nights.

The only thing I am missing now is food, because I haven't eaten much of anything today, because today was just crazy. We started by going to the stadium of my team I cheer for aka Vasco, and we had fun there and took some pictures. We went to Ramos a town, and played soccer with the kids on the street who do nothing but play soccer. We only had one good Brazilian on our team as well, but we beat them 15 to 14 and they got realy mad that they lost to some gringos. The best part was that the last goal was scored by me from the half court. it looked sweet and was kind of a big "in your face" for them all, ha ha ha. but that was about all we did today. but my comp and I really need to go and eat because we haven't all day. We just ate a salgado, which is the size of a mexican taco... but nothing alike, and tryed to drink alot. but didnt get enouth for the 100 deg heat. transfers are next week so I'll know whats happoning next email. Our ward said that they would marry us if we get stuck again for another transfer in the same ward, but its posible that I'll stay, cuz my comp already has 9 months in this area. That's about it for this week.

Elder Peterson

January 16, 2012

This week was good, we have been getting blessed in our work and we had a baptism this week and marked another for next week. We have been teaching a lot more then usual, we had 6 family nights last week and things just went very good, but other then that not a whole lot has happened.

The weather at the moment is always as humid as can be, and at night it is anywhere between 85 and 92 when sleeping. Today I went shopping with a missionary who is going home in 2 weeks and we got some stuff together and he had a swell time.

Not too many new things are going on, we moved our focus area and are having a lot more success. It is realy weird, it is so hot that most people in the favellas just walk around in their underwear, and there is / was a lot of pregnant girls who walk around like that as well, and it is pretty nasty. I think that is about it, just sleep, eat, study, walk, and work!

Elder Peterson

January 9, 2012

Well the holidays were not very cool for a missionary, we just stayed on the road all day, and talked to last minute shoppers who were still on the road. New Years was worse because the biggest New Year party in the world is in Rio and it wasn't in my aria... so by 7 there was not 1 car driving in the street and nobody was on the road, this week was much better... we started off slow and then my comp got sick and had to stay home so we sent the bishop and the ward mission leader to go and teach and they did swell with the lesson they taught.

We should be having a baptism next week and I am sooooooo happy for Marcia- she loves the church and the Book of Mormon and knows its true and the members have been helping a lot to teach and help us with her, so that should be very good for us and the ward. We also have been marking (scheduling?) many family nights in our area and this has been helping the work a lot. We give people the invite to work and bring new people plus we bring our investigators and together we just have a big fun time and get a lot more teaching in, sometimes we get enough appointments marked that my comp and I go on divisions and we are both teaching at the same time! Not a whole lot more has been going on then that. just lots of work.
Elder Peterson

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.