Cha-cha-cha-cha-changes

Week Fifty-five!

We had cambios this week. I am now with Hermana Sutton from Mesa Arizona.  If you never thought there could be another person like me, think again because I’m pretty sure that we are clones.  Which means that we get into lots of trouble, (but the good kind).

I’m still in Tarapaca which I am so grateful for.  We are starting to work a lot more with Family History.  And this week in the Gospel Principles class we learned a bit more about why, we were talking about the millennium and it says that "There will be two great works for members of the Church during the Millennium: temple work and missionary work.  "Temple work involves the ordinances that are necessary for exaltation. These include baptism, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the temple ordinances—the endowment, temple marriage, and the sealing together of family units.  Many people have died without receiving these ordinances.  People on the earth must perform these ordinances for them.  This work is now being done in the temples of the Lord.  There is too much work to finish before the Millennium begins, so it will be completed during that time."

So in super simple terms we want to do as much as we can right now so that we can rest in the millennium, right?  But also because of all of the blessings that come from this work like getting to know our ancestors and striving to be worthy of the blessing of the temple.  These are all important things and I am so happy to have the opportunity to start putting a focus on them for these next few weeks.

Family Martel

hermana PETERs

Week Fifty-four!

When I first started my mission one of my teachers in the CCM asked my name, and of course I said "Hermana Peters" and she looked at me and smiled and said "Peter in Spanish is Pedro, like the great apostle, you have quite the name"

Those words ring back to me now as I study a bit more of the New Testament, Peter not only was an apostle of Jesus Christ, but after the Christ returned to dwell in the presence of his father, Peter was left in charge of the church, as a Prophet of the Lord. 

In Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk to New Mission Presidents in June of 2014, He shines a little more light on this prophet and the change that Peter had in his lifetime when he said "The great senior Apostle Peter is of particular interest to me. Here was a man who was no stranger to adversity- he was a man's man. How often had he steadied the rudder of his small fishing vessel during a threatening storm? How often had he bartered with shrewd merchants for the price of his fish? And yet, what do we see in this ‘rock’ of a man prior to the Resurrection? Among other things, we see fear! When he stepped out of his boat on the Sea of Galilee and walked on the water toward the Savior we see the beginnings of great courage and faith. "but when he say the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried saying Lord Save me" (Matthew 14:30)"

And not to mention that hour’s before the death of Jesus Christ he denied his relation to "Jesus of Nazareth". "Mark writes of Peter's denials and even says that Peter "began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak"(Mark 14:71) Peter later wept and agonized over that betrayal. With a Broken Heart he pleaded with God for forgiveness. How could he have been so weak? How could he have allowed fear to make him deny the man whom he knew was "the Christ the living son of God?"(Matthew 16:16)"

I think we all start out like this Peter, with fear of rejection, with fear of man. I have seen countless numbers of people who have had the fear of rejection sufficient to hide the gospel of Jesus Christ with their own families. But there is something bigger and greater than that, something that made Peter stronger, something that made him a leader. He was changed from the moment that he saw his Lord resurrected.

After the resurrection of Jesus Christ "From that Easter Sunday morning on, Peter was a new man. He had been born again. For the rest of his life, Peter faced threats, ridicule, hatred, and humiliation. But he did not back down. He feared no man. Nothing kept him from fulfilling his mission to raise his voice as a witness of his Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Maybe I still have fear. Maybe I’m still not as strong or fearless as the renewed Peter. But we can all make that change, and I know that through the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can all be made strong. That when we know that He is our Savior and Redeemer that we cannot have the fear, we won’t have the fear to say "I believe in Christ, He is my King" (Hymns #135). 

Every day of our lives we are faced with choices similar to what Peter had to make. Like Peter, we have the same question before us: What Kind of witness will I be?"

Peter is the greatest example we have of true courage and true change of heart. Taking something good and making it better, and then changing it into the best. So that he could be a great example not only to the people of his time, but all the generations after.

I hope one day I can feel worthy to have the names of two of the greatest men to walk the Earth over my heart, on my nametag, Jesus Christ, and PETERs.

I love you

Hermana Peters

Latinga

Week Fifty-three!

Well this week I received a nickname, I am the Latinga, because I’m the only white girl who speaks in Spanish and hangs out with the Latinas. It’s because I don’t have a lot of time left here in Peru, and I don’t really want to waste my time knowing people that I can get to know after the mission when we assist the same school, I would rather get to know people from all over the world.

And on that note I would like to talk about the book of Mormon. Why? Well first off because Joseph Smith said it was the keystone to our religion when he explained “Si quitamos el Libro de Mormón y las revelaciones, ¿dónde queda nuestra religión? No tenemos nada” (Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have nothing) so that is pretty important and it is so true.

Everyone is probably wondering why missionaries gain so much gospel knowledge on their mission and I can promise that it is because they read the book of Mormon. Something I have been able to see is that there is a lot of contention about the Book of Mormon, and as shared by one of my best friends the last week, in the 2nd book of Nephi, the 2nd chapter, and 11th verse says, "porque es preciso que haya una oposición en todas las cosas. ,..no se podría llevar a efecto la rectitud ni la iniquidad, ni tampoco la santidad ni la miseria, ni el bien ni el mal. De modo que todas las cosas necesariamente serían un solo conjunto;.." (For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, … righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad.)

As we have explained many times, there is much contention towards the church because there always needs to be opposition against something good, something from God.  And as said by Jeffrey R Holland in the General Conference of October 2009 "In light of that, it has always been significant to me that the Book of Mormon, one of the Lord’s powerful keystones in this counteroffensive against latter-day ills, begins with a great parable of life, an extended allegory of hope versus fear, of light versus darkness, of salvation versus destruction—"

In this time I have received something more than a testimony of the book of Mormon, I have gained a love for this book, I know that it is truly from God and is here to help us and we can, every person in the world, can know that too if they just choose to read it with a real desire to know.

And I know that I’m not the only one who knows, many prophets and apostles have said and shared their testimonies of this book, two of the greatest shared by Jeffrey R Holland when he said, 

"Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times—including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.” That phrase—taken from Moroni’s final lines of testimony, written 1,000 years after Lehi’s vision—is a dying man’s testimony of the only true way.

May I refer to a modern “last days” testimony? When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage to face what they knew would be an imminent martyrdom, Hyrum read these words to comfort the heart of his brother:

“Thou hast been faithful; wherefore … thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.

“And now I, Moroni, bid farewell … until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ.” 

A few short verses from the 12th chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the page from which he had read, marking it as part of the everlasting testimony for which these two brothers were about to die. I hold in my hand that book, the very copy from which Hyrum read, the same corner of the page turned down, still visible. Later, when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the Prophet turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.  Shortly thereafter pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators...  In this their greatest—and last—hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?

Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."

We all have this wonderful opportunity to know the truthfulness of this Book, we all can get closer to God through its divine power,

"For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so"

I testify that this book can bring the Salvation of man, that it was written by a prophet of God and that by the hand of God it was protected for more than 2000 years from the time it was beginning to be written to the time that God felt the world was ready and in need of these revelations. I know that this book is the keystone of our religion and that by its power we can know the Plan that God has for us in this life, we can find the comfort we need and we can truly know His ministries, I know it can change your life, and I know there are lots of you reading this blog who don’t know these blessings of the gospel, you have shared with me (or my mom) your love and concern and I hope you can feel the love I have for every one of you, you can give it a shot, just see of who it speaks of and what it teaches.

I love you all so much.

Hermana Peters

I don’t know what to write

Week Fifty-two!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

AND HAPPY ONE YEAR TO ME.

Whoa!  That’s weird.

This week was good.

Everything is going good.

I’m still alive.

My foot is fine Mom.

Hermanas Peters and Defina

A Real Woody Doll

I am a professional singer now.

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!