Happy Spring Break!

Hey!

Sounds like a good week! I'm glad everything's been going well (especially with March Madness :). With that, like the Olympics, we don't get too much news here in the Spanish Ward, although I don't know if that'd be different in an English Ward. Probably. Go Stanford, I guess!). Also, it's pretty cool about the Eagle project at the Co-op.

Another just random thing I was thinking about re: spelling and stuff, that was brought up by reading in my spanish-english dictionary the section about English pronunciation, is that the letter "e" has a really bizarre role in some words. For example, the word "Father". How would you pronounce that word differently if it was spelled "Fathr"? The "e" in "Father" really doesn't have a sound. The only difference I can think of is that if you ommitted the "e", I don't think my mind would "sound" the "th" (I guess the difference is between the "th" in "the" and "threat", if you get what I'm saying"). "E" is weird, man.

Wow, sorry, that was a super long tangent. Anyways, my week went pretty well. We got to go to the Temple, which was super cool, as always. Afterward, we went to the Deseret Book that's really close, and I got a scripture case, finally! Hopefully my scriptures won't fall apart now :). 

On Saturday, we had breakfast at the Stake President's house, which was a lot of fun--it's like a tradition thing, that we do the first saturday of each transfer. So anyway we had french toast, which I think that was the first time I'd had it in like all my mission, so that was pretty awesome. 

Sunday was probably the best day of the week. Aside from getting to go to church, we actually had someone come to church! He isn't technically an investigator yet, as we haven't taught him, but he was a referral from some other missionaries. We'd been trying to contact him for a while, without luck. We tried calling him on I think Friday, and he picked up, and asked for where the church was, and then he came to church! Yay! So that was really awesome. We really hope we can teach him some more and help him come into the church. 

Also on Sunday, one of our appointments cancelled, so we went looking for another investigator, who we hadn't been able to contact that week. He was home, we taught him, and he seems really great! He really has a desire to follow Christ, and we were actually able to set him with a baptismal date! That was great. So, this week was pretty good, and we're looking forward to an even better week next week. Really looking forward to General Conference, too, in a couple of weeks.

I'm glad Ward Conference went well; we had ward conference last week, and that was pretty great, too. Lots of translations with the Stake people talking, but it was good anyways. I got to see a bunch of people who I remembered from a past ward, including the High Councilor who's responsible for our ward (and actually also speaks spanish pretty well), so that was pretty cool.

Things are going pretty well with Spanish. Sometimes I mess up, or realize midway through a sentence that I don't actually know how to say what I'm trying to in Spanish, but things work out. I think I have had a couple of experiences dreaming in spanish, which is a little weird, and actually, according to my companion, I've been talking in my sleep in spanish a little bit, which is bizarre, because as far as I know, I haven't really had a problem with sleep-talking before. Must have something to do with my brain going crazy.

It's great that my brothers enjoyed the missionary crafted bookmarks. Here's the wonderful secret of laminating as a missionary: packing tape :) The only problem with the packing tape is that it loses the effect when the thing you're "laminating" is larger that the packing tape. But it works, ish.

Have a great week!

Love,

Peter

Someone's going to pinch me!

Hey!

Ack! I'm not wearing green! Someone's going to pinch me!. Maybe we'll stop home really quick so I can grab a green tie or something.

To answer your questions: I am.... still here, still serving with the same companion, for the next 6 weeks, at least. So that should be good, we'll be continuing to work with those that we've been teaching so far. It'll be great!

And other than rats, what kind of wildlife is there in Colorado? Um, the things that I've seen the most of have been: groundhogs and rabbits. There are tons of both of them, it's kind of insane. Aside from that, not a ton of out-of-the-ordinary things.

This week was pretty good, and pretty busy as well! Lots of service, which was good, and lots of teaching, which was also pretty awesome. 

On Tuesday, we helped a family (who if I'm understanding the situation correctly is related to a bunch of members of our ward, but goes to the local English Ward) to move, which was pretty great, because it was snowing pretty hard for like the whole time. But it was alright, because afterwards, they gave us some really good food! So that was pretty awesome! 

On Wednesday, we went up to my former area to do service at this place called Kidz Quiltz, which I think I've told you guys about before, and I actually finished the quilt that I was working on, which was exciting. I'll attach a picture so you can appreciate the majesty.  We like to serve there because basically it's the most entertaining service we have, and we have the miles for it, as long as we carpool occasionally with the other set of elders in the ward. We don't have a ton of local options for service, and the one that we do have bores my companion immensely, so we don't go there too often. To make the quilt, I cut out fabric, sewed together the fabric, put the like filling stuff in, sewed it all together, did the little tie thingies, all with a lot of help from others :). I don't know anything about quilting terms like binding, I just know what I did.

Another really cool thing on Wednesday, was that we got to teach a new investigator, who was a referral from a family in the ward, with that family. It's always the best when you can teach people with members that they're already familiar with helping--there's a support system built in, as I think it says in Preach my Gospel. 

On Thursday, we had a zone meeting, which was pretty awesome--we had seven trainings in total, one from each of the district leaders in the zone, from each of the zone leaders, and each of the sister training leaders. So that was a ton of training, which was great.

Sunday was a pretty cool day as well, even though none of our investigators were able to come to church (that seems to be a problem that we have here, is that we aren't able to really help those that we're teaching understand the importance of coming to church). 

On Sunday, though, we were able to teach with a couple of families that I think I mentioned last week. Both of those lessons went pretty well, and we got to know about their situations a little bit more, which was interesting. The first family apparently grew up believing in the Book of Mormon, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but doesn't have a testimony that the Church is true. I think we can help them with that :). The other one, we found out, is actually going to a different church, right now. But we're helping them to read the Book of Mormon, so they can find out for themselves that this is the true church.

But yeah, that was my week. Nothing new with transfers, only two out of the eight missionaries in the ward are leaving, so things are largely staying the same. We see the the other Elders every day, because we have dinner with them, and we see the sisters fairly regularly, whether at service, or at district meeting, or at church. 

I hope everything's going well for you guys. I love you lots.

Love,

Peter

Okay this member made us hats, it's supposed to be Mike Wazowski, and it's awesome.

It randomly died...

Hey!

It seems like everything is going really well, also many thanks for the reminder of Prairie Home Companion--it's funny the things that make you smile.

It sounds like, from all reports, that Footloose went really well--hopefully there will be opportunities for me to see clips or something when I get back :).

And, wow, that's super exciting that she got her call! I'm sure she'll do a great job, and really enjoy the MTC--it's a great place. Basically, it was pretty awesome... I can't think of anything in particular, but if they have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer as best I can, although it's probably a bit different now.

For me, this week was pretty good, although a little bit slower than in the past. We had quite a few cancellations, especially from investigators, which is disappointing and hard, but it's alright. 

We were, though, able to get in touch with some people that we hadn't been able to in the past, which was exciting. It's been really difficult to get in touch with that one family that came to church a couple of weeks ago, but we finally reached them, and set up an appointment with them for this week, so hopefully that'll go through. We were really worried for a while, because they hadn't been answering their phone, but when we dropped by last night, there didn't seem to be any problem, so hopefully all is well.

Another pretty great experience: on Thursday(?), we had dinner scheduled with a family, but they ended up passing us off to her Mom, who also lives in the ward. The cool thing was, though, that at dinner, some other relatives who are a part-member family, showed up, and we were able to talk to them, and actually set up an appointment for yesterday, which they kept! We'd been trying to get in touch with them for a while, so that was pretty great. They seem really awesome-- it's like, the Mom and her 10-year old son, her Boyfriend, and the the Mom's 16-year-old sister. They're awesome, and we can't wait to see them again.

It is pretty cool what can happen when we're just confident enough to talk. That's one thing that I'm really trying to improve on, is just getting over the fear of talking to people, especially in Spanish. I feel like once I can get comfortable just talking to people, I'll be a much more effective missionary. 

It's kind of crazy that this is the last week of the transfer, that it's possible that one of us could be gone next Monday. We'll see what happens! This transfer went by really quickly, actually. It seems like the further I get in my mission, the faster time seems to go by. Kinda bizarre!

Here's some pictures!

-So for district meeting we were asked to wear polka dots, but I didn't have any polka-dot ties, so I cut out some sticky notes. Yeah.

- Oh, the joys of apartment living! Seriously, it just randomly died under my bed. We don't know why or how, it just was there, dead one day.

Love,

Peter

If you can't stand temperatures below 20, I would recommend never living in Colorado.

Hey!

This week was pretty great, we've been doing a lot of good work, and it seems like these past few weeks have really just flown by.

So the biggest crazy thing this week was that we found quite a few new investigators, like 10, all of who were families that we'd run into earlier, and were following up with this week.

With one of the families, we had one of the craziest lessons I've been in. This was the family that came to church last week, who we met when we were looking for a less-active member. So, we had a really good plan for this family--we were really excited for them. We had another family in the ward all set up to come with us. So, that night, we went with the members to the investigators' house, and proceeded to teach a 2.5 hour lesson, all about the restoration. So, it turns out that the Dad had studied with a different church for a long time, like 4 years, and although he didn't join their church, it left a lot of leftover concerns, and a little bit of distrust for organized religion. 

We also met a couple of other families, including one kind of bizarre situation: Both the Mom and Dad were raised by Grandparents who were members, and apparently grew up thinking that they were church members, but weren't baptized for whatever reason. Their kids, though, are baptized, and their daughters are semi-active members of the local English ward. The parents go to church a couple times a year, and they have a Book of Mormon, but they don't know when the last time they read it was. Hopefully we'll be able to help them realize the blessings of being a member of the church for reals.

It sounds like the concert was pretty great, I wish I could have been there! Trinity Cathedral is so awesome. If you liked "Aurora," I would recommend (although probably you've already heard it) "On the Transmigration of Souls" by John Adams (The guys who wrote Nixon in China, not the founding father :)). It's his tribute to the 9/11 victims, and it's pretty dang awesome.

On Saturday, I went on exchanges with a missionary who was actually in the Mexico City MTC with me, although not in my district.

I feel like one big thing I'll be bringing back from my mission is a real appreciation for the fact that in Oregon, it rarely if ever gets below 30 :). If you can't stand temperatures below 20, I would recommend never living in Colorado.

Anyways, it was a pretty great week. I got the valentines' day package on saturday, and amazingly, the toblerone is still here. I'm trying to pace myself :).

Thank you all  for everything. I love you all!

Peter

Here are some pictures, too:

My companion & I at the Temple.

I'm confused why they had to ship all those "components" of the foam basketball to Mexico to be made.

March paper monster, pretty cool.

So basically that was a miracle

Hey!

It does seem like it was forever ago that we did the Drowsy Chaperone. Seriously, it's freaking me out.

And it's super exciting that the girls from my Sunday School class have put in/are working on their missionary applications!

So, this week went pretty well. We still didn't get up to the 20-lessons goal, but we did better than last week, and I feel like we've been doing a lot of good work. I'll just go through some major events of the week:

Tuesday we were able to see a pretty less-active family. They're super great--they have like seven kids, and the contrast between them is pretty great--The littler kids, which are a pair of 4-year-old(?) twin boys, and a seven(?)-year-old girl, have like literally infinite energy. Usually when we're there, they are sprinting around the house chasing each other. Then, the older kids are just super like sedate, but also pretty awesome. Anyways, we're trying to help them understand why it's important to come to church, and really get them that motivation to come.

Wednesday, we got to go to the Temple! It was super great, as always. We also met with a family of investigators that are pretty great. The problem is, there's something stopping them from coming to church, and we haven't really figured out what it is yet. So, hopefully we'll be able to help them with that.

Thursday was a pretty great day. We did service all the way up in my former area (we're allowed to go up there because it's part of our ward, and we wanted to kind of shake things up), so it was pretty fun to see some familiar sights and do some familiar service, up at this place we went to a couple of times called Kidz Quiltz. Also, we went looking for this one less-active member. He didn't live at the address given any more, but then we were actually able to talk to the people that did live there, and they let us in, and they came to church on Sunday! So basically that was a miracle right there.

Saturday, we went on exchanges, so I was with our district leader, in his area. That was pretty cool, to just see the way other missionaries work, and find things to learn from that. So, for "excercise" in the morning, we went to a park nearby their apartment, and threw this boomerang that the district leader somehow got. It was pretty dang fun, but the really interesting thing is: While we were throwing it, some guy who was walking his dog came up to us and asked if he could try--he ended up asking us why we were out so early, which led to us talking about how we were missionaries, and now he's a potential investigator. He's English speaking, so I probably won't ever see him again, but it was a really cool experience nonetheless.

Anyways, that was pretty much the week. Pretty great, and we're going to maybe have an even better week this week! The Spanish is still hard, but I feel like I'm improving--I feel like most of what's holding me back is just myself. I need to build self-confidence in myself so I can really have the confidence to just speak up when I need to. So still improving on that. But things are going well.

I love you all, and miss you.

Love,

Peter

It did rain on Sunday...

Hey! Happy President's Day to you as well!

It's great to hear that everything is going well in Oregon, that the snow's melted, and that things are getting back to as normal as is possible.

And, it sounds like the Olympics are going well, and that you're all having fun watching them--it's pretty bizarre over here, we really haven't heard anything about them. I guess the Spanish members aren't as interested in the Winter Olympics as I am :).

So, this week was pretty good. We weren't able to teach as much as last week, but we did some good work, and were able to find some new people to teach that hopefully we'll be able to follow up with this week.

Things were slowed down a little bit over the weekend by my companion suddenly falling ill, which made it so we couldn't do a ton of work either Saturday or Sunday. We were able to work for about an hour both days, although we were also able to make it to a service project on Saturday--it was the one, if you remember, where we go to retirement homes and sing songs to seniors, which was pretty great. On Sunday, we weren't even able to make it to church, which was sad, but it was okay, a couple of members were able to bring us the sacrament, which was very nice of them.

But so aside from the whole sickness thing, we were able to get quite a bit done. The family we're focusing the most on right now is really good friends of a family in the ward who introduced them to the church. They're super great, are really eager to learn more about the gospel, and are reading together in the Book of Mormon, which is super cool. There are two boys, ages 12 and 10, who we're also teaching, and then they also have a 4(?) year-old daughter, who's hilarious. The ten-year-old is super good at drawing, at least cartoon characters, so he's been drawing characters from Adventure Time and Regular Show for us. We're really trying to emphasize the importance of coming to church with them, because, while they've been super open and friendly (I mean, they had us over for dinner on Friday, for goodness' sake), they haven't been able to make it to church yet, and we really don't know why.

To find new people to teach, we've mostly been going through the area book, which is like the record of all the missionary work that's gone on in that area in the past five years or so, and identifying people who were at one time interested in the gospel, and then tracking them down. So far, it's brought at least some success--we were able to teach one former investigator last week, and set up appointments for this week with a few more.

Oh, and then yesterday, on P-day, we had our "zone p-day", which is the one P-day set apart of the transfer that we're allowed to hang out as a zone, because normally we aren't allowed to hang out with sisters on P-day, because stupid missionaries in the past have done stupid things, I guess. But so that was a lot of fun--we played soccer, kickball, ultimate, and just generally had a good time. It's kind of bizarre--I left this zone only like 9 weeks ago, and then came back 2 weeks ago, and there are so few missionaries that are still here. I think there are like 5 still here from when I was in the Zone last time, out of the something like 25 missionaries.

We have zone P-days at different places, depending on things like the weather. Normally, we'd have it in a church building, but yesterday, it was warm enough for us to have it at a park. It took us a while to get to from here, but it was a lot of fun. It's pretty crazy, although at times like these, you have to remember that two weeks ago, the temperature was below zero. Apparently winter extends like into April here, so that's something to look forward to.

It did rain on Sunday, which was, I think possibly the first time I've seen it rain while I've been here in Colorado. Bizarre.

Oh, I completely forgot, we had Zone Conference this Wednesday, which was great. The main focus of the training we got from President Toombs was making sure that everyone we teach has a correct understanding of who God really is. It was great--I think a lot of the time we just skim over that, but the knowledge of who God the Father is is so integral to our faith that we can't afford to let it slip by when we're teaching someone. It was a pretty great reminder. Sometimes it's good to just go back to the basics--that Heavenly Father loves us, and then everything else goes back to that.

Tomorrow we get to go to the Temple, so that should be really great. I'm looking forward to it, but maybe not the part where we have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to make it there on time. But it should be great!

Love,

Peter

There are, you know, snowplows

Hey, it's, as always, great to hear from you guys!

Wow. That's a lot of snow, especially for Oregon! I imagine things'll probably be closed for a little while longer... It's been fairly snowy in Colorado, but I don't think it's been as bad as it is in Oregon, esp. because there are, you know, snowplows :). Sounds pretty crazy.

I wouldn't say it's "tiring" to teach in Spanish, because mostly I haven't been doing a ton of teaching. My companion has mostly been covering that, and I've been putting in a few remarks--not to say that I haven't been teaching or anything, but I haven't been as active a participant in lessons as I was in English wards. I feel a little bit like I'm in training again, but it's obviously different in several ways. I feel like I should be able to get out of the like less-teaching shell within the next couple weeks, and then things should be pretty normal.

It was super cool to go to Church in Spanish! I can understand ~90% of what's being said, so the difference is mostly just cultural. One bizarre thing: We have like "backwards" church, where we have Priesthood/RS first, then Sunday School, and then Sacrament Meeting last. Probably Sacrament meeting was the most different--There were only two talks: one from a member of the ward, and one translated one from a high councilor. The first one went way long--it was the first time in a long time that I've seen a bishopric member get up to tell the speaker to wrap it up, and it also included a lot more um audience participation than any talk I've ever seen before. So that was kind of awesome.

This week has been pretty great! We've been able to teach a lot--more lessons in this week than I've taught my whole mission--I think we taught a total of 22 discussions. We mostly met with a lot of less active members, recent converts, and active members, but we also had the opportunity to teach a couple of investigators, one of which is a four-person family, who've committed to be baptized soon, which was really cool. We also did a lot of finding work, trying to find more people to teach. We mostly went through a bunch of former investigators and potential investigators, trying to set up times this week to meet with them. We had some success with that, and should have a lot of investigator lessons this week, which should be great.

It's been nice to be in a car--we've been able to get in between appointments and activities a lot quicker than we ever were on bikes, which is nice. The heating is also a big plus--when you step out of the car and you can feel your eyebrows freezing, it really makes you grateful to have the car :).

We've been doing some service too, at two different places. One is a thrift store called ARC, and the other place is this retirement home place, where we get together with a bunch of other missionaries and sing hymns and old songs (e.g. bicycle built for two) that I think are intended to remind the people of their childhoods or something like that.

All in all, it's been a pretty great week. The apartment is pretty tiny, but it works, and we don't spend too much time in it, anyways. The members have been super great to work with, and things are just going well.

I love you all. Thanks so much for the email, and the pictures, and the love.

Here's a picture that explains a reason I'm very happy for a car.

Love,

Peter