Do I know the Lord?

Week Fifty-one!

This week we had a beautiful meeting on Sunday. One story that was shared really hit me.

At the gate of death there was an angel asking all of the beings one question.  The first man approached and the angel asked, "Do you know the Lord?" and he responded "no, I didn’t really want to, I lived a bad life and no, I’m not really interested" The angel said pass through there is a place for you and people waiting. The next man came up and the angel asked "Do you know the Lord?" The man thought a minute "Yeah, I think so, I was a good man, I went to church I served a mission, yeah, I think so" And the angel said, "pass, there is a place for you and people waiting". A third man approached and the angel asked "Do you know the Lord?" The third man fell to his knees and began to weep and said "yes Lord, I know you"

This story really touched me this week, because I was thinking about how do we "know" people, a lot of the time. I know my family, I know my friends, and I know the people in my wards. But do I really know them?

This week I was thinking about some of the people that I have really grown to love in my life, and the people that had the greatest influence in my life.  And there are some people that are obvious, my parents, every bishop I have ever had, and my young women’s leaders.  But there were a couple names that came up.  Some that were a little weird, but that I feel truly had an influence on my life.

One is a man named Bamboo. I met Bamboo for the first time when I was in 6th grade and I didn’t really think about it, but you know, a few years later I went back to outdoor school as a counselor, and for 5 years, we hung out in the forest.  And maybe we didn’t spend every moment together like I did with some of the kids my age, but we shared stories and moments, and really tried to help each other improve in an uplifting way.  And my last time at Outdoor School, was also his last time because as a 40 year old man he was finally going back to school to finish his teaching degree, and yes we broke the rules and gave each other a giant bear hug because he was like another dad to me, and he said I was like a daughter to him.  And I think Bamboo is someone I really got to know in this life, maybe I don’t know his last name, and maybe I will never have the chance to see him again, but he really helped me to be a good teacher, some things that have helped me in my mission. 

And there were others who I have thought about in this time but all lead back to one point, we don’t have to be around someone all the time, or live with them, or know their life story to really know someone.  And it’s the same with Jesus Christ. We don’t need to see or meet Him to really know Him.  The most important is that we can apply his everlasting Atonement in our lives.  Because when we understand his Atonement we understand His love for us and that He knows us.  That we can have the comfort and peace and love in our lives constantly from Him and our Father.  The Atonement was suffered for YOU and me and for every person who has existed.

So strive to be like the 3rd man, who in the moment knew the love and voice of his Savior. 

I love you Guys,

Hermana Peters

Serve With All of Your Heart Might Mind and Strength

Week Fifty!

Well the New Year is here, (Yeah Hna Peters you’ve been saying that for like 3 weeks now).  But this year for the Youth the theme is serving the Lord with all of your heart might mind and strength and that’s a good one.  It’s something that can apply to all of us.  So point by point we will see how we can apply that to all of us.

Serve With All Your Heart: This last week the title of the lesson in all of the world for Relief Society and Priesthood was The Great Commandment: Love the Lord. Which is the perfect way of starting off the year. Because that is really how we can serve the Lord with all our heart. Is to love him. And as explained in The Teachings of President Ezra Taft Benson we can do that with Charity. We are always saying the only way we can be in the service of our God is if we are in the service of our fellow man. So when we apply the pure love of Christ in our lives is when we can truly begin to love one another and to love the Lord, and then when we Serve, or work we will be serving with all of our Heart to show him that we are not just obedient because it is the right thing to do, but we do it because we love the Lord.

Serve With All Your Might: For a lot of my life I always thought that serving with all my might was the same as with all my strength. But in the mission I have learned that Might is something a lot more spiritual. This week I cut open my foot. To continue to go out every day requires something a lot more than physical strength. It’s a lot of my might. I know that the people that we are helping right now are hurting a lot more spiritually than my foot hurts. And to have the might to serve the Lord is stepping out of the limits we put on ourselves to serve the Lord. And my might is the biggest miracle I have seen in the mission. I mean who thought that Hna Peters would talk to strangers. Well she is. I know I still fault a lot before I’m complete not a hermit but everyday I am pushing myself to new levels that I didn’t know I had, because I know that the Lord is on my side and I can am nothing without him.

Serve With All Your Mind: This one is one that we can always do better. When we serve with all our mind we are always thinking in Him and His sacrifice for us. And that we mentally are always looking for ways to serve Him and His people. In the mission we have a describing word, that is Trunkey, which is when a missionary has their mind in there house or when they are close to ending their mission, and yeah, maybe this Christmas we have all been a little Trunkey, and ending our first year in the mission so close to the holidays doesn’t help a lot, but these past two weeks we have been striving together to work together to serve with all of our mind. So that we can have the spirit with us to testify of the things that we know that are true and that is the greatest blessing we can have for serving with all of our mind.

Serve With All Your Strength: As I explained before, I always thought this was the same as might, in some ways it is. But also not, because this really is the physical aspect of it all. And after almost a year in the mission I can definitely feel the rewards of serving with all your strength. I’m going to be honest and say that I’m tired. I’m really, really tired. But it is so rewarding every time we make it to the top of the hill to knock on doors, we hurt and have lost a bit of our breath, but to knock on a door of someone who has been prepared by the Lord makes it all worth it. The human body is amazing, yeah we all have our physical limits, but if we do everything we can and the Lord knows that we have done so, He is very proud of us.

As the year goes on I hope that we can all learn how to apply these things in our life and that we can grow closer to the Lord as we do so.

Love, 

Hermana Peters

ITS 2015 MCFLY

Week Forty-nine!

Well I’m still waiting on my hoverboard, but I’m happy to know that this means that orange sport coats with leather sleeves and swag white Nikes are in style.

 I feel like because of Back to the Future I had all these expectations for this year, and it always seemed so far away, but here we are in 2015, and I feel normal.  Maybe that is a good thing, there is some pretty cool technology happening, like since when is there more than 6 iPhones? 

But I feel like if we had flying cars and dehydrated pizzas our world might be a little more prideful.

To get my crazy side out I would just like to touch on a topic that I have always loved so much, but always had a little doubt.

I would just like to say that, yes, I believe aliens exist.  This isn’t just coming out because Moses says he sees many worlds, and that they have been, are, and will always be people on other planets.  I have had the opportunity to speak with lots of different people in this past year some of them with reliable opinions, others not so much, but it has brought me to the conclusion that I believe, but I always had a doubt that followed that.

If there are other people on other worlds why do we only say Christ suffered for this world?

Well, talking with the husband of our pensionista he brought up a very good point.  That this world is for the strongest and the weakest of the followers meaning that Satan wants to tempt us, because it will be easy to tempt the weakest, and a huge reward to temp the strongest.  Meaning that we are the only of the worlds with hate, and war, and all things bad, and that is what is holding us back.

I still don’t know if they have visited our planet, but with the conclusion in this form, we can say because they are a peaceful people, they can dedicate to edifying sciences, and have more advanced technology to travel space, and if they have that technology, why would they come here?  Because it’s the world with war and hate?  No, because, it’s the world where the Christ suffered for us.

There are lots of reasons.  I’m not saying that now I am completely convinced that they visit us.  But my conclusion is in the works.

I’m not crazy.

I love you guys:)

It’s a Spaniard, lol, right now there is a traditional dance called Los Negritos, and he is one of the characters.  He’s like a clown basically.  He asked where I was from and he was like Oregon?  And I was like yeah, and he was like she’s from Oregano!

The New Year

Week Forty-eight!

Well a lot of things have been on my mind these last days.  I don’t really know what to think.  As the end of the year is coming I have been thinking about how long it has really been.  How much I have loved this year, it is one of the most beautiful that I have seen, not just because I am in a beautiful place but because of all the things that have happened.

I feel like my 2014 has been the type of year I have been waiting for, the type of year everyone hopes to have.  I was thinking about the New Year’s resolutions that people make.  And in my personal view one of the most common is, “Enjoy Life to the Fullest.”

This year I have really gotten to do that, but not only enjoy my life to the fullest, but also develop the attributes so that I can enjoy all of the rest of the years.  Maybe it won’t be as golden as this year, because maybe returning to Peru one day is only a dream right now.  Seeing all of these people that have changed my life for the better will only happen through Skype, but that is part of enjoying life.

So maybe our goal should be a little more specific this year, because yeah we assume that it all begins with us, but we need the little goals to show that, so here are my tips on how to enjoy life to the fullest…

1. Talk to people.  People won’t judge you if you just talk to them like a human being, and more than likely you can change their whole day around. Just ask them how they are, or make a joke about something happening, like with the weather. It can seriously change around a whole day.

2. Everything has a bright side. Even when everything seems really hard, we can always look to the words of Joseph Smith when he says " En cuanto a los peligros por los que se me requiere pasar, me parecen cosa pequeña, ya que la envidia y la ira del hombre han sido mi suerte común en todos los días de mi vida; y la razón me es un misterio, a no ser que desde antes de fundarse el mundo yo fuera ordenado para algún fin bueno o malo, como queráis llamarlo. Juzgad por vosotros mismos. Dios conoce todas estas cosas, si son buenas o malas. No obstante, suelo nadar en aguas profundas. Todo esto ha llegado a ser lo más natural para mí y, como Pablo, siento deseos de gloriarme en la tribulación, porque hasta hoy el Dios de mis padres me ha librado de todo ello, y de aquí en adelante me librará; pues he aquí, triunfaré de todos mis enemigos, porque el Señor Dios lo ha dicho." (Doctrine & Covenants 127:2)  (And as for the perils which I am called to pass through, they seem but a small thing to me, as the envy and wrath of man have been my common lot all the days of my life; and for what cause it seems mysterious, unless I was ordained from before the foundation of the world for some good end, or bad, as you may choose to call it. Judge ye for yourselves. God knoweth all these things, whether it be good or bad. But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in. It all has become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo, I shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God hath spoken it.)

3. Everything can be memorable- Make it so. I can remember a member who is an old man and was angry for like 3 seconds, and said he was never going to church again.  We were upset and a little frustrated because he was so stubborn, but we knew that he was going to forget it and be in church that next Sunday. And we knew because on the radio to his store Big Time Rush was playing. And we just smiled and knew it was a little comfort from God that everything would be okay.

So maybe you can apply these things this year. To find a more enjoyable life, and if you ever feel like it is too much, you can always turn to the Gospel, dedicate yourself to Prayer and Scripture Study to find the joy that God gives us.

Les Quiero Mucho

Prospero Año,

Hermana Peters

Èl Es La Dàdiva - The Power of the Message - #ComparteLaDàdiva

Week Forty-seven!

This week our mind has been deep in Christmas, not in a bad way, but with the opportunity to watch the video "Èl es La Dàdiva" with everyone, our focus has really been in Him.

But not just his birth, the gift that he was for us. I love the scripture that was chosen for this video it was so perfect and teaches us so many things from just one verse, "Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo que ha dado a su Hijo Unigénito, para que todo aquel que en él cree no se pierda, mas tenga vida terna." For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting.)  I love it because it really explains that Jesus Christ was a gift, because God is our loving Heavenly Father and desires that we can have the salvation.

And with that I have not just been thinking about his birth this year, but about his everlasting atonement, because that is really the gift that was given to us. That Jesus came to this earth so that he could bleed from every pore, suffering every pain and affliction that we can have in this life so that we could sin and feel pain and live, and not just live in this life, but have the opportunity of an eternal life as explained by Alma in the 7th chapter of the Book of Alma, "Y he aquí, nacerá de María, en Jerusalén, que es la tierra de nuestros antepasados, y siendo ella virgen, un vaso precioso y escogido, a quien se hará sombra y concebirá por el poder del Espíritu Santo, dará a luz un hijo, sí, aun el Hijo de Dios.  Y él saldrá, sufriendo dolores, aflicciones y tentaciones de todas clases; y esto para que se cumpla la palabra que dice: Tomará sobre sí los dolores y las enfermedades de su pueblo.  Y tomará sobre sí la muerte, para soltar las ligaduras de la muerte que sujetan a su pueblo; y sus enfermedades tomará él sobre sí, para que sus entrañas sean llenas de misericordia, según la carne, a fin de que según la carne sepa cómo socorrer a los de su pueblo, de acuerdo con las enfermedades de ellos."  (And behold , he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which  is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit, will give birth to a son, yea, even the Son of God. And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people, and this that the word he says is met.  And he will take upon him death, which he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and disease will take upon him, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, so that the flesh knows how to succor his people according to their infirmities.)  I love this scripture because it says He did all of that so that he could know how to comfort us in these times of difficultly and for us, all for YOU.  And how blessed are we when we accept this gift.   No one in this life will ever suffer everything that Jesus Christ did, and we can be eternally grateful for that gift.

Once Jeffery R. Holland said that the Atonement is central to our beliefs, whatever other belief we have is just a branch of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and that means that our minds and our hearts should always be focused in the grand sacrifice that he gave us. So that we can fully accept the gift this year.

The scene that I have attached to the video is my favorite, I almost cry every time it passes because it is just so beautiful.  And I love it because it is more than just what you can do with this gift this Christmas.  But it is a challenge, to accept Jesus Christ and his Atonement in your life forever. To know Him, to know the happiness that comes from knowing Him.

And this Christmas I can testify with all of my heart that I know that He lives, He lived a perfect life, He died on the cross for us, and three days later He was rose up to live again, to give us all a resurrection.  And that if we accept Him in our lives this Christmas season we can know an eternal happiness, His eternal Happiness. And this Christmas, yeah I will miss my family, but to be here in Perù testifying of this gift this Christmas is the greatest gift I could ask for.  I Love God our Eternal Father.  I Love His Son Jesus Christ and am grateful for his sacrifice for us, that all started with a virgin, giving birth in a small manger.

I Love you all,

Happy Christmas,

Love Hermana Peters

A Slow Week in Huánuco

Week Forty-six!

Well this week I had a little cold so it was a little bit slower.  We are getting ready for Christmas here in Huánuco, it’s starting to feel a bit more like Christmas with the rain coming.  This week was interesting because they had a reelection so we didn't have church last Sunday, which made this Sunday fast and testimony.

And I was thinking a lot about testimonies this week because we are working with some members who are still trying to find theirs.  Listening in this testimony meeting we think it begins with what is a testimony because a lot of times we feel the need to tell a story of a blessing we saw or thank the world for all of the good things they have but in the mission I have come to see that a few simple "I know’s” are good enough and that you don’t need big discussion’s because the spirit will fill them in on the rest and that sometimes the simplest testimonies are the most powerful and that is all we need.

We got in on the "El es el Dádiva¨ act that is a worldwide message and it is something beautiful that we have.  We have the opportunity to share this video with everyone we talk to and I was a little surprised because I thought it was like the other new bible videos that we have from the church but it isn't and I was a little taken aback at first.  Like why would we use this in a lesson?  But it gets the message across perfectly and every time we share the message the spirit is so strong.  We can testify to every person who is worried about this holiday season, or who is lost in the gifts and activities, that yeah this stuff is great but we have a better gift and that is why we are here, why we celebrate Christmas, to find the gift, to accept the gift and to share the gift.

Happy Almost Christmas,

Love 

Hermana Peters

The Cargo of Bishop

Week Forty-five!

I’m so happy here in Huanuco!  Now I’m here and I’m pretty sure I have a new role model and it’s our Bishop and I’m really surprised to say that because usually I`m acting bishop of the ward because here they don’t really understand their roles.  But our Bishop now does. Right now the ward is struggling and everyone is blaming our Bishop when really it is the fault of all of the Bishops before him.  All this week we focused on the members, and all had their problems, why isn’t this happening? the Bishop doesn’t help with this? look at these people why is the ward not helping? 

 

The answer to all of them (in the eyes of the people) was Bishop, so last night we went and talked to the Bishop and told him all of the preoccupations of all of the ward and he explained all of the things that we already know, that the councilors should help with interviews, that the presidents should be visiting people, that he’s not letting children go out on missions because they are not worthy.  He doesn’t give out money helps because the people haven’t paid tithing when they were working.

 

And he explained to us that we are having all of these complaints because all of the Bishops before just did everything themselves and he can’t because he works two jobs, studies and has his family and when he gives an assignment the people don’t do it.  He is really stressed out so we are looking for ways to help him with all of his tasks but he is an awesome guy and I really look up to him, and he started Hna Peter Parker, so yeah he’s pretty cool.

That’s all for this week,
Love
Hna Peters