8 Months and 20 Years!

(Hermana Ellsworth)

8 months down in mission life and 20 years down in real life (almost, tomorrow) But It is crazy how fast time flies and I am really grateful for all the blessings that I have seen here in my life.

I don't have a lot to write but I have some pictures :) I love the people here in Puerto Rico. The lord is working miracles. I will write a better email next week but I looooove you all :)

Pictures:

*Jeffrey has a baptismal date and is doing great things to move forward in his testimony :) He made us breakfast and gave us a birthday cake for our birthdays :) I love Jeffrey so much!

*Our group of recent converts for a family home evening with Hermano Toro who bought us a birthday cake for our birthdays :)

*Tortuga when he accepted a baptismal date

*Jeffrey and Joanna

*Talito, Miguel, Tortuga, and Miyito also got us a birthday cake for our birthdays :) )

Update Email

(Elder Petersen)
So this week has been a fairly interesting week this last Thursday my companion Elder Coupe was sick so we stayed in our house until around 12:00 that day which was very different from want I am used to. But he got better so we were able to get the things that we needed done done that day instead of having to reschedule. One of those things that had to get done that we were not able do was setting up the gym in one of the church buildings that my companion and I have jurisdiction over for our missions zone conference that transfer. Our Zone leaders had to fit 20 round tables, four rectangle tables, a piano, podium, and a chalk board into a half court gym. Which is where we had zone conference that Friday and everyone got chewed out by the mission president mainly about gossiping because apparently that had been a problem before I came out. Now I don't think that there is going to be much gossiping anymore because he told everyone that if they were caught gossiping that after three times they will be sent home. So that was fun but it was crowded there were 5 zones there in that gym 5/9 of the zones in our mission. I love all of you. Hope you all have a great week. Praying for those whom are in need of it.

I'm going to be a grandma!

(Sister Slade)

So transfers are this week. Sister Brown is staying and she is going to be training! In mission terms, Sister Brown is my daughter because I trained her and now because she's training, I'm going to be a grandma! I am going to Fayetteville and I'm going to be in another trio. My companions are going to be Sister Faleafa and Sister Pierce. I'm sad to be leaving Harrison. There are some really amazing people here and I know I've made some life long relationships.

This week I had the prompting to do something special for someone we're teaching named Alyssa. She's been having a hard time at work and doesn't really have any friends or family nearby to support her. So we heart attacked her door. Some of the hearts had our favorite scriptures and quotes that helped us in our hard times. She called us later that night almost in tears. She said that it had been a really hard day at work and the timing of the heart attack couldn't have been better. On Saturday we went to the Arkansas Grand Canyon with Alyssa and talked about the Book of Mormon for most of the drive. I'm sad that I won't get to see her keep progressing in the gospel.

A lot of other things happened this week, but not much worth writing about. I know that I was in Harrison for specific people and that I'm going to Fayetteville for specific people. The Lord loves all of his children and wants them to hear the gospel and feel his love. It's my job to do all I can to help others feel that love. I love being a missionary!

God is good.

Sister Slade

pictures:

 I got to hold a turtle!

Alyssa and sister brown at the Arkansas grand d canyon

 Me packing. :(

Me saying goodbye to a sister I got really close to

 Sister Brown holding a turtle. 2 seconds after this picture was taken it popped on her.

At the Arkansas Grand Canyon

Me saying goodbye to a family I really love

At service we found a ton of cow stuff

Only in Harrison

(Sister Slade)

This week was just crazy. Nothing too spiritual or monumental happened. The week was just a bunch of random stuff that would only happen in Harrison Arkansas.

We had a lesson with a schizophrenic man this week. He was convinced that he was given the mark of the beast while he was in the hospital last week and they put a microchip in his hand. But he has started taking his medication and is actually really interested in the gospel.

Who else isn't surprised that I went to the Urgent care again this week? I ended up having some type of infection that caused my lymph nodes to swell up so much that I couldn't swallow. They also put a lot of pressure on my ears and head. But it's ok! The doctor gave me an antibiotic and I'm all better now. Sister Brown's bad luck must be rubbing off on me.

This week Sister Brown ate 18 pancakes. If you remember a few months ago, my previous companion Sister Elkins ate 16 pancakes. A family in our ward has a running competition between missionaries on who can eat the most pancakes. I don't even attempt to compete.

So this week both sister Brown and I were asked to speak in church. The bishopric had some confusion on when ward and stake conference was and were short speakers. So on Thursday we were asked to speak, but didn't have time to write the talks until Sunday morning. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think both of our talks went pretty well.

This week was just crazy. Nothing too spiritual or monumental happened.

God is Good!

Sister Slade

Pictures!

Sister brown needed a "chocolate fix" and there was nothing else in the house

Sister Brown getting groceries after spraining her ankle

An old man in our ward that took us out to lunch

Sister Brown on pancake 12

Pancakes 15 and 16

Us at the urgent care

Sister brown after eating 18 pancakes

Us at service on tuesday

We had a book of Mormon study and craft night with someone we're teaching

At the pancake eating competition

Tender Mercies

(Hermana Ellsworth)

1 Nephi 8:8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. 

I just wanted to share a quick testimony of the Tender Mercies of the Lord :) Heavenly Father is always out there waiting to give us everything we need and sometimes all we need is something funny to happen that helps us remember that he loves us.

We are teaching some really cool people and we had 3 people come to church this week, Julio (Tortuga), Jeffrey, and Ramon. We also met some incredible people yesterday with a lot of amazing stories with how they came in contact with us. I know that Heavenly Father is preparing children to learn about his gospel and it is really hard to find them sometimes but I know that they are out there.

I don't have a ton to write but I really love the members here in Toa Baja :) Shout out to the Toro family that celebrated 40 years of marriage this week :)

Also shout out to my companion who is amazing and made breakfast :P

Miyito :)

Lesson with 3 of the recent converts :) #vensigueme

Week 6

(Elder Petersen)

So yesterday Sunday I got the privilege to be a part of three blessings of the sick and afflicted. I personally did the blessing of two of them if was a wonderful feeling that brought peace to my heart and to the hearts of the people whom we had blessed. One of the blessings that I was a part of brought such a strong feeling of the spirit into the room and you could feel the blessings take hold of the lady and replace the demons that had control over her beforehand. Over Thursday and Friday I had my first exchange of which they decided to put two greenies together to take care of one area by themselves. I think we did pretty well even though we did not do it as well as a more experienced companionship to be curtain. Today we had a zone sports day at a church building watching the Joseph Smith restoration movie. I had a great time we also played baseball and overall had a great time. Love you all have a great week.

Week Five email

(Elder Petersen)

So I am almost two weeks in the field of my mission last Monday I sent an email that even I felt was inadequate at best so this week's email I am determined to write a much better email about my week so to start of with the things that I did on Monday that I forgot to tell you about. First of all I went to a parade down in Westville this parade was such a great experience even though it happened on a P-Day. So during the parade we had six Elders in the parade because that was how many Elders are in our district and only our district of missionaries came along with the senior we could be better as missionaries which numbered at around five couples of senior missionaries although the sister's within our district were not the do to one of them being sick. On Wednesday I got to go to a District Council meeting with my district which was a lot of fun. We talked about how we could be better as missionaries through our T.H.E. principles which stands for Tone, Hands, and Eye's. This is because a lot of missionaries have trouble sounding like a robot with their voices all monotone and flat, yet all the while the hands are constantly moving for no good reason, and to top it off the eyes are never consistent in looking their "investigators" in the eyes. I do that to investigators because we aren't actually supposed to call the people who we are teaching investigators. Well me and my companion Elder Coupe have been teaching this one non-member family that is on date for different days the son (an almost eight years old kid) we are having a lot of trouble trying to get him baptized on the 14th (I'll nickname him John) this is because his father was apparently baptized into the church when he was a boy but we cannot find his records which means that John might be able to get baptized through the mission or he might be a child of record which means that he has to be baptized through the ward. So because we are in Utah and there are so many member baptisms a month they do a stake baptism day so John would not be able to be baptized on the 14th. His Mom who I will nickname Rebecca has a soft baptism date set for the 28th of this month but it is a soft date not because she doesn't want to get baptized but in order for her to be baptized on the 28th she will have to fix some stuff in her life that she is having trouble with beforehand. I am having a lot of fun out here in my mission I am in a biking area that has a lot of hills and it has been somewhat of a challenge to getting up those hills sometimes but overall it has been a lot of fun. I love you all and I hope you all have a great week because I know I will.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To be hit by Sister Slade

(Sister Slade)

Now I know what you're thinking, but let me explain. Yes there was a chicken in the road. Yes I was driving. No I didn't actually hit the chicken. We actually found out later that locals call them the magic chickens because they are always in the road, but none of them ever seem to get hit.

So yesterday we were pretty certain that we would have no one at church. Most of the people that usually come were sick or out of town. But we ended up having 5 people at church! One man that came was actually a walk in. He said that for a few weeks he's been prompted to come to our church. So he told his dad about it and his dad said he would support him. So they both came to church. And then three members brought nonmember family members or friends. It was wild. We also got a new person to teach out of it! It's amazing when the Lord does all the work but we get all the credit.

On Saturday Sister Brown sprained her ankle, so that was unfortunate. She is the most unlucky person I've ever met. In the last two weeks she's had kidney stones and a sprained ankle and has gotten super car sick. Pray for sister Brown. ;)

God is good!

Sister Slade

A nice hay field

Sister Brown's ankle

Service at share n care

A ward service project at the sharing kitchen

Service at share n care again

What this lady want?

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Week Four Email

(Elder Petersen)

I am very excited to announce that I have finally left the MTC as of last week and I have been given a trainer companion by the name of Elder Coupe. He is great I have been learning so much with him as my trainer so much so that I have realized that it is going to be a very tough time learning all of it. But I am persevering and am having a great time in my mission I managed to memorize the Joseph Smith's first vision within my first three days in my mission. I got to go to church on a fast Sunday which was an interesting experience. It has been a very interesting first week full of first experiences that has made my first week amazing. It has been a tough week and I have a biking mission which means that I am out of the house by ten thirty because of studying and on my bike for roughly five to fifty miles a day. Hours are hard to keep track of do to appointments and talking to people all day other than that I am having fun sorry for the short letter but I am at the end of my P-day so I have to cut this email at short.

Emergency Preparedness

(Hermana Ellsworth)

This week the big talk of the Island was the Tourmenta that was going to pass over the island. A tropical storm that could have taken out the lights of Puerto Rico and the water. As a mission rule we have to always be prepared to be without power and water for at least 4 days. When we went to the store to buy our normal groceries on Monday the store had nearly run out of bottled water and there was a line of 50 people waiting to get water so they could be prepared. The day before the storm was supposed to hit the gas stations had lines that were 4 blocks long. There were limits on how much water or gasoline people could buy. The stores were low on canned food as people rushed to the store to buy what they needed. I learned something in all of this, I was really grateful that when we went to the store we were already prepared for 4 days of gasoline, water to drink, water to bathe, and we had all the food storage that we needed in our mission apartment. There was an amazing sense of security because I was already prepared.

Now relating this spiritually. In the parable of the 10 Virgins only those who were prepared for the Bridegroom with oil in their lamps were able to enter. If we are not spiritually ready, with temple recommend in hand, when the Lord comes or when a trial hits we are going to be spiritually running to the gas station or store to frantically get what we need but will not have sufficient time to obtain it. Now is the time to be prepared with a testimony. If you have questions, GREAT!!! QUESTIONS ARE HOW THE RESTORATION STARTED. But now you need to look for answers.

(Also please be temporally prepared with food storage and emergency kits. :)  )

AND the Tropical Storm didn't even come to the island so ... we were prepared and stuck in our house all of Wednesday and it drizzled a little bit :)  

We are teaching the Cousin of Miyito and he gave us Avacados :) Tortuga (Turtle) is a very humble man and he came to church this week and told us that he has never felt such peace in his life before. I am really excited to see how he progresses and changes in the Gospel :)

Talito and Miguel are doing really well. Talito brought his family, grandchildren to church this week!!!

Hermana Carrasco is such an amazing companion and we got to visit the beach this morning with our zone. She is a spiritual giant and I have never seen so many people burst into tears with the strength of her testimony. I love her so much :)