My Daughter!!

Hey everyone,

So, the day has come! I have a new daughter :) And the reason for the email today.  Her name is Hermana Jones and just got here from the Mexico MTC yesterday! She is awesome, and knows about as much Spanish as someone who was studying for six weeks in the MTC...oh wait, yup that's what she did. So, I am teaching her Spanish and trying to figure out how to work here in this area after only serving here for 6 weeks! But, I am so excited!!

It's definitely been a great week. My last companion, Hermana Giron, left to go up north to an English ward. There are so many Spanish missionaries in the mission that there isn't enough room in the Spanish wards. There are already 9 missionaries in our ward and at least 8 in each other one! But, there is still a ton of work to be done!

We are working a lot with the less active members in our area. They have slowly but surely started to come back to church! It was so exciting this week when we sat in the back waiting for some people to get there, and one by one all of the families we have been teaching recently came in to sacrament!! So exciting! Now, if we can only get the same success with our investigators too! But, miracles do happen, and they are everyday :)

This past week, we were going to visit Elizabeth and Rosario, but when we showed up to the house, both of them were gone and only the two kids were home. They are 11 and 10 and neither one was interested about learning about God or anything for that fact. But, as I began talking to them, they both came over and started listening, then their other 2 friends joined and by the time the lesson was over, there were 6 of them there! They kept saying how it was like school, but better because they actually thought it was interesting. haha We didn't want to go in because their mom wasn't there, so we just stood at the door. My companion went and made phone calls, so I was all on my own! But, it was so much fun! I love teaching kids because they have such a joy for knowledge. We ended up talking about stories in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I explained a lot about the Plan of Salvation and how we all lived with our Heavenly Father before coming to this life. By the time we left, they had learned how to pray and were really excited for us to come back so that we could teach them! Emmanuel came to church on Sunday too, and I'm not sure how he liked the classes, but we will find out this week. He said sacrament was a little boring, but I guess that's a little normal for kids to say when It's fast and testimony meeting. haha

Friday night I got the call saying that I was going to be training this transfer, and everyone had called it. I think I would have been more surprised if I hadn't been training! We went to a training meeting Saturday morning and then took time Sunday going around with Hermana Giron to say goodbye to everyone. She has been in the area for about 7 months, so she knows everyone! But, it was fun because then I got to see all of them too :) We packed her up and cleaned the room Monday morning before going to drop her off on the transfer train and head up to the mission office!

I'll have a lot more to say next week, but because we came to email for a bit today, I am anxious to get out to work with Hermana Jones! We have a busy day ahead of us!

You know that feeling you have when you have been studying for way too long and your eyes just start closing and you can't do anything about it? Well, that's what happens at about hour 2.5 in our studies...and we have 4 every morning! It's crazy how much time we spend sitting in our room studying, every morning! But, it's so great! I just have to keep getting up and moving around so that I don't fall asleep on the ground. But, there is a lot of work to be done to get ready to teach for the day. I can't just say, "let's teach this..." because then we have to make sure to practice it so she knows the words in Spanish! It's going to be great though! Two gringas (aka American's who try to speak Spanish...) walking down the street doing just that...trying to speak Spanish. :P Keep us in your prayers!

Well, I hope you all have a great week! Love you tons!

Hermana Jessica Peterson

19792 E 49th Ave

Denver, CO 80249

Mission Home Address:

Colorado Denver North Mission

Hermana Jessica Peterson

1250 Main St.

Broomfield, CO 80020