Hello!

(Hermana Ellsworth)

Hello Friends and Family!!! We have had an amazing week in Humacao as we prepare for the Christmas season :) Christmas is Puerto Rico is still very hot and sticky. But we are seeing some amazing miracles in Humacao. The Lord is always keeping his promises. We are still working hard on our boxing skills with Nelson and he is killing it on his Book of Mormon Reading. Jaileen is working on her Family history now.

One of the best experiences I had this week was listening to an 11 year old boy recieve how Heavenly Father let him know the Book of Mormon was true and that he needed to be baptized:) he couldn't fully describe the warm fuzzies and chills and love that you feel when you feel the spirit but he tried acting it out with hand motions as to what it is like to feel the spirit.  It was the most amazing thing. Him and his family have accepted the invitation to be a disciple of Christ through the waters of Baptism and I am very excited to continue working with them.

Sadly, Hermana Allred is leaving me this transfer but HERMANA HAHNE is coming to Puerto Rico! I love her so much and it will be so hard to let Hermana Allred go to Bayamon but Transfers are a great way to grow and trust in the Lord. The Lord needs me to be in Humacao and I AM SO PUMPED TO BE HERE!!!

We are still working hard and the best part of being a missionary is the friendships that you get to make that can change the eternities. I LOVE YOU ALL AND HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!!

ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY STINKING CUTE LITTLE SISTER AVERY!!!!!!

Dec 30 2019

(Elder Petersen)

Hey everyone so this week has been a hectic week for everyone it seems with family members ill and Christmas as well as for me two baptisms on Saturday. Now these baptisms took up so much of our week in order to arrange for and reserve buildings for those baptisms which happened to be on two separate buildings, two hours apart. In both baptisms the people being baptized truly wanted to be baptized one of which had been waiting forever to be baptized due to this and that getting in the way. But they both happened and were both confirmed yesterday at the same time in again two separate buildings, so because of that we were only able to make it to one of those confirmations, so we went to the one in which I was the one who confirmed. That was an amazing experience, one filled with the spirit and one that I will never forget. This converts name is Heather and after she was confirmed a member of the church she was so excited and happy that she was crying. These experiences and these moments in which I am able to bring so much joy to those around me is the reason that I am here on my mission. It is because I know that I can make a difference that I am out here serving those around. I love my savior, I love my God, and I am proud to be a missionary.

Have a great week every and a happy new year!

Does your music say whole fart?

(Sister Slade)

So my companion has a music book and the title looks like it would be pronounced "whole fart." So last night I asked her about it and it took her by surprise when I asked her if that's what it said. It was so funny.

For christmas we visited a lady named Cathy. She lives in a nursing home and calls us her granddaughters and we call her grandma. Apparently she takes the title very seriously because she told us that she added us to her will. Anyway, we made her a sock monkey and bought her a statue of Christ for christmas. When she opened the statue of Christ, she almost cried and pointed to the lamb that was part of it and said, "And there's me, the hundredth lamb." It was such a tender moment. I don't think I've ever really thought of that parable in that way. I've always thought of me being the one who needs to go out and find the lost sheep.

Another cool experience happened on Sunday. Someone we're teaching that has been coming to church for the last 3 months has been refusing to take the sacrament. She said on Sunday that she needs to make sure her heart is in the right place before she feels that she is ready to take the sacrament. It was a cool experience for me because it made me wonder how often I actually think about how prepared I am for the sacrament. Taking the sacrament should be a sacred experience and reminded me of that this week.

God is good!

Sister Slade

Pictures:

1. Sister Jelderks bought a squishmallow but the color she wanted was at the very bottom

2. Britney got me a chipotle gift card for Christmas so we got lunch today

3. The music book that is the inspiration for today's title

4-5. We deep cleaned the apartment and this is what the tops of our fans looked like

6-7. Gabe got me this puzzle for Christmas and we finished it in less than a day

8. Someone sent one of the other sisters a nativity for Christmas. it was made out of rubber ducks

9-12. We didn't have a dinner on Christmas eve so we made our own dinner with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, and rolls. It turned out really good.

13. I got my flight itinerary for when I go home. Not ok.

14-15. We did the 12 days of Christmas for a family

December 26th 2019

(Elder Petersen)

So this week we had a lot happening. On Tuesday we went to the temple to go through a session, by the time that we got to the temple and we were all checked in I realized that I had not put on a tie which didn't matter all too much at the temple but I felt stupid. So I went and bought some five dollar ties for me to wear. After that my week was pretty much normal until Friday when we had zone conference and frosted some cookies. We also during zone conference did a lot of Role-play's and games for the last zone conference before Christmas. Then we had Sunday which was when most of our wards did their Christmas programs and it was a day filled with the spirit just listening to the Christmas songs as they were sung to us. It really was just a special occasion filled with love and songs. After all that we had some member visits which were fun and interesting. And that was our week.

The Priester's plan of salvation VS the REAl plan of salvation

(Sister Slade)

This week we went to visit a lonely old lady that lives in a nursing home but so did her pastor. It was quite awkward. He kept telling us we were doomed forever because we believe in the Book of Mormon and then saying that it was just "food for thought." When we were talking about it later, sister Jelderks said Priester instead of pastor or priest. And that's where today's title comes from. It was actually a kind of sad experience. All I could do was bear my testimony about what I believed but he "was past feeling" and refused what I had to say.

We are teaching a single mother and her two kids and she doesn't have the resources to buy christmas for her kids. because of various situations the church is unable to do much to help her either. So sister Jelderks and i went to the store and bought some candy and a few toys for them. We also made them each a sock monkey. It was one of my favorite moments on my mission being able to hand Heather two big bags of things for her family. It wasn't much, but it meant a lot to her. Sometimes it makes me a little bit sad thinking about not being with my family for Christmas, but Christmas really is about the life of Christ and learning how to live his teachings. There is nowhere else I would rather be for Christmas than Fayetteville Arkansas serving Heavenly Father's children.

Merry Christmas everyone!

God is good!

Sister Slade

pictures

1. service at the library

2-3. Sister Jelderks got to help start a fire last night and it made her very happy

4. she thought there was a chair behind her. There wasn't

5. We had to rearrange for the new sisters coming in and she trapped herself with the bikes

6. She didn't realize that the chair went back that far

7. Service at the Restore. I just came back from Narnia ;)

8. The lock on our door was broken so I fixed it with a butter knife

9. We got a lot of packages of furniture for the new sisters and we played a game with one of the boxes

10-11 me with a cat

12. We found a unicorn horn and I had to try it on

Dec 21 2019

(Elder Petersen)

So this week was interesting we have been doing in our mission what is known as a Living Christmas Card. This is a way that our mission gets into homes that they would not normally be able to get into. What we do in these is sing a Christmas song and then after that we share the Christmas message out of Luke 2 about the Savior’s nativity. So we have been doing a lot of these the past few weeks and it has been pretty fun. This last week however we got to knocked a lot of formers doors in the hopes of finding new people to teach. In doing this we found two new people to reach which has been really nice. We have not had a lot of spiritual experiences this past week. One of the few though that we had was when one of the people that we are teaching was having her baptismal interview and as she was talking she was basically bearing her testimony on how we had helped her so much and how having the gospel in her life has helped her so much and changed her life in the better dramatically.

Psst... your nerdiness is peaking out, you might want to tuck it back in

(Sister Slade)

So many nerdy things happened this week that it wouldn't be worth my time to try to type them all out. Just know that both Sister Jelderks' and my inner nerd came out this week on several occasions.

We got transfer calls on Saturday. We're both staying. Yay! Both of us would have been very surprised if one of us were transferred. But a set of sisters is coming in to cover the YSA and we're sharing the apartment with them. So that will be interesting.

On Friday we had a lesson with someone we're teaching. She's super excited to be baptized, but told us that she isn't actually married to the man that she calls her husband and has a child with. So we told her that to be baptized she needs to change that. She told us that she really wants to be married and that she would talk to him that night. Well her boyfriend came home that night with flowers and a ring and proposed to her. I really think Heavenly Father has a sense of humor because the timing for that was perfect.

On Thursday night Sister Jelderks wanted to feel like a "real" missionary, so we biked to an appointment. It was only about 2 miles away and was a fairly nice day, so we didn't think anything could go wrong. On the way there though the chain on my bike slipped off and made me skid to a stop and Sister Jelderks almost crashed into me. We also didn't think though who we were going to visit. We were visiting a couple of old men who can talk for hours. So we biked back in the dark and the temperature had dropped as soon as the sun went down. It was about 28 degrees and we were not dressed for it. It was quite painful but overall it was a learning and growing experience.

God is good!

Sister Slade

pictures:

1. Us dusting bookshelves at the library

2. I found a little bow to put on my name tag

3-4 We made some sock monkeys for the office missionaries and some of them sent pictures with theirs back.

5. On exchanges we did service at the Restore and they had us put up christmas trees. One of them was 9 feet tall, 4 feet wide at the base and just beautiful in general so we had to take a picture with it.

6. Us at service at the farms

7-8. At gift wrapping for the animal shelter we found a dancing Jesus bobble head. I was really tempted to get it, but as corinthians 10:13 says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

9. I won a tic tac toe tournament at district council

10. We got a new vacuum because ours didn't suck and this is after one run through the apartment

11. I got this email last week. TOO SOON. NOT OKAY.

My Companion wants to kill me

(Sister Slade)

So in mission terms when you begin your mission, you are "born" and when you finish your mission, you "die." The other day Sister Jelderks looked at me and said, "I want to kill you." At this point it's very possible that she could be my last companion and "kill" me.

This week was so good! Nothing too exciting happened, but we did so much and worked so hard. On Thursday we did a lot of service, and it was all with books. It hurt my heart that I couldn't read them. We did service at the public library where our bishop works and got an arm workout dusting over 100 book shelves. Then we volunteered at the animal shelter's fundraiser of gift wrapping at barnes and noble. We were at the bookstore for 6 hours and all I could do was look at the spines and covers and start making a list of books to read when I get home. We did find one book that had 3000 get to know you questions and we went through some of them.

We got to see a lady that lives in a nursing home a couple of times this week. We had made some christmas decorations for her and her roommate and it made them so happy. We also took a young family with us that wanted to meet her and they all had so much fun. The youngest in the family who is two keeps asking, "Go see miss Cathy?" and Cathy keeps asking when the kids are going to come visit.

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday. I played a special musical number in it, played piano for the relief society's special musical number, and helped the young women in their 12 days of Christmas skit. Now the whole ward knows I'm musical.

I love being a missionary and seeing the light of Christ come into others' eyes. That is what this season is about; the Light of Christ and bringing it into the lives of others.

God is good!

Sister Slade

pictures:

1. Random picture of Sister Jelderks

2. One of the sock monkeys I made for Johana's little girl for her birthday

3. Picture of me wearing an elf hat

4. sister Jelderks and I at Barnes and Noble

5. At the library I looked over and Sister Jelderks was on the ground. It turns out she was fixing a shelf she accidentally broke

6. You see the 5 twin mattresses? All of them were in our apartment until tuesday when we enlisted a member's help in donating them to the Restore.

7. all but 4 of the sock monkeys i've made from left to right they are named Lola, Fred, Debbie, Hal, Norma, Kyle, Fred, Will, Susan, Ellen, and Zeke. (the other 4 were named Mira, Bob, Gon gon, and Al).

Baptism and Boxing

(Hermana Ellsworth)

This week was such an amazing week full of Miracles. Jaileen was baptized and is was such a wonderful experience. Jaileen is such a wonderful sweet spirit and has left a lot of things to accept the gospel in her life. She has started a new beginning here and I am so excited to keep teaching her and learning from her. I am very grateful that I have been apart of her life in this moment and in this time of my mission.

I am also learning how to do some boxing from our friend Nelson who is a spiritual Giant. We teach him how to be spiritually strong and he is helping us be physically strong through some amazing boxing drills for our exercise hour! WHOOT!! We ask him

Everything is going well in HUmacao though :) A wonderful people and a wonderful Companion. With some amazing people that we are teaching! ILOVE THIS AREA!!  This has been one of the most busy and rewarding times of my mission and it is all because the Lord cannot lie and keeps his promises. I love my Heavenly Father

December 12, 2019

(Elder Petersen)

Monday

               Well today was our P-Day so we went with our District and played some laser tag after that we bowled for about half an hour and then went home. Once our P-Day ended we knocked on a few doors of people that were formally taught.

Tuesday

               We had service today and then after that we did a lot of texting until dinner. Then we went by formers and member visits until we went home. One of our member visits was pretty cool actually because we met with them in an old church building of ours that was renovated into a bed and breakfast.

Wednesday

               Today we had District Council where we learned how best to use scriptures in our teaching. After that we knocked on a few formers doors had dinner with an awesome family, they were the Smiths and they fed us spaghetti.

Thursday

               Today we had Back to Basics meeting basically just to teach us what we should be teaching investigators, and the basic idea of this was to bring our teaching back to only the basic principles of the Doctrine. After that we went and knocked on a few formers doors.

Friday

               Today we Huddled with Elder Waldner and discussed the missionary work that we had both been doing in their stake. After that we visited a few people and then had our weekly planning where we discussed what we would be doing to help the people that we are teaching come closer to Christ.

Saturday

               Today we had a non-member lesson with Heather that went well. She is on date and she will be interviewed this week to prepare her for baptism.

Sunday

               Today we had meetings from 10:30 to 5pm after that we had dinner and knocked on a few more formers doors. Then we went to bed.

A WONDERFUL WEEK

(Hermana Ellsworth)

This week was full of so many miracles and tender mercies. We are teaching a woman named Jaileen who will be baptized this next Saturday and she has become one of my best friends here in Humacao :)  She Recently went to New York to visit the visitor center for the Temple :) She has such a strong testimony and is one of the sweetest people in the world. I LOVE JAILEEN!!

I also got to go down to Guayama last week to do an exchange with the amazing Hermana Blackhurst and that was such a fun experience because Guayama was my first area and we got to walk around with Luis that I got to teach one lesson to before I was transferred who was baptized!! 

I feel incredibly blessed to be serving a mission and being a missionary at this time and in Puerto Rico. I have never felt so close to my Heavenly Father and felt so much joy before and it just keeps getting better! Also look at this cool thing we found.

My companion is still just a wonderful human being and we are working on being exactly obedient in everything and it is flooding us with miracles. We had a very food filled thanksgiving and ate 4 meals in 4 hours... it was just painful... But my father decided to send me a picture of their scorpion turkey and i have no words.. #whoiscraig