Avocado Trees Are Real?! 🌳

 You know, I knew avocados came from somewhere, but I never imagined them actually on a tree and looking so weird! 😂 We went over to a member's house and she is OBSESSED with her avocado tree. She let us each pick one and it was so funny.

Florida has soooooo much wildlife!! I feel like I live in the jungle! I saw over 15 iguanas, this giant bird in the middle of the sidewalk, and I almost ran over a squirrel with nuts in its mouth... 😬 oops! All in the same bike ride.

Good news! I overcame my fear of talking to people in public! These were the weird interactions I got from the week... 

Me: Hello! Here's a free picture of Jesus!

Him: I'm trying to enjoy my day here please. RIP!!!! 😂

We saw our druggy friend Jovan yesterday and he told us that he got into some voodoo 😳 His eyes were yellow! Definitely staying away from him.

Funny thing: So, we are teaching this guy named Marcos and he speaks Portuguese and English. When the Portuguese sisters came over, we had them talk to him on the phone and he said, "can I get subtitles for that?" Apparently he didn't think their Portuguese was very good 😂 When we invited him to church he said he was scared to leave the house alone and go on the bus. Then he said, "I have a scooter? I could ride that to church?" The church is 11 miles away! It was adorable!! 😂

Elder Rundquist wore a fake mustache to district council and no one could take him seriously the entire time. The worst part was that there was a funeral going on, and he had to go, so he just wore a mask to cover it up 😂 No one even knew.

 

Lastly, we met this little 6 year old and he is soooooo cute! He told us that he loved pretty girls and Jesus! It was soooo cute 😂 We are teaching him and his mom this week!

Also, we saw creepy dude playing basketball! We keep running into him!!! Luckily he didn't see us because he was getting into a fight... awkward.

 

Miracle: my companion got a blessing and it was amazing! The spirit was so strong!! I am staying in this area another transfer which means that we get to go to the temple with Deion (our favorite Jamaican bobsledder/skydiver convert) and go to our other friend's baptism!!

 

Also some of the English sisters were put into a Portuguese music video because the Portuguese sisters didn't want to do it, so when it gets posted I will let y'all know!! Also, we had a dance party and I saw a Lamborghini and got really excited and the dude let me take a picture, so here it is! I've been teaching my companion all the car names 😂 I love you all! Email me if you need anything!

Stranded at a sketchy gas station!

 Wow... this week was so weird, but AMAZING at the same time! Last p-day we played basketball and I actually did good! Who am I?? Haha! I was the last Sister left with the Elders! I didn't beat them though... I'll keep practicing.

We had a lesson at Burger King with a Burger King worker we met outside sweeping and it was so cool! The spirit was really strong, surprisingly! 😂 At the end of the lesson he loved us so much that he took a picture with us and posted it on his Facebook! I'm famous now...

I saw the beach finally, kind of! I went to one of the canals! It was so cool!

So, funny story: We were teaching this guy named Willie. He's blind, so luckily he didn't see any of this, but he had me sit in a chair by him and there was a huge spider by my arm, so I freaked out and jumped off the chair (very stealthily) and waited until it jumped off the chair. My companion was over there dying because I was freaking out silently and she kept going with the lesson and I had to throw my voice so that he wouldn't notice, and then I snuck back onto the chair and he never even knew! While we were having this super spirit filled lesson there was a fight down the street. The cops were there and people were screaming at each other and across the street there was smooth jazz playing. I don't know how that lesson went so well lol.

Next on the list! We were in the car waiting for the other sisters (we car share) and these guys walked past. It was really dark outside, so they couldn't see us in the car. They started drawing on it and they were about to open the door when I freaked out and my phone turned on and they said a not missionary approved word and ran all the way down the street because they were so scared!!! Dang straight! 😂

We ran into creepy dude AGAIN. 😳 We had a lesson with a Russian lady and we had to go past him to get to her, so we went through the bushes and he didn't see us. On the way back though, he started yelling at us to see if we wanted some of his drugs. Then the worst part. We got in the car and he was Staring. Us. Down. Then MY COMPANION STILL MADE ME GET OUT AND BACK THE CAR UP!!!! I was like, "I'm gonna die. This is the end." So I hurried and ran out and backed the car and made it inside before he got up. Thank goodness for cross country 😂

It also rained a tonnnnnnn this week!

Lastly, the coolest miracle from my mission so far. INSANE! We dropped the sisters off at the church because they had a meeting and we took the car to our area to visit a family. On the way, we stopped to use the restroom at a sketchy gas station. When we got back to the car it was locked. We couldn't get back in and we were freaking out! The key wasn't anywhere! We made some calls and it turned out that the sisters still had the key with them at the church. 20 MINUTES AWAY! Cars aren't supposed to do that! We literally drove 20 minutes with no key. We were shook and we arranged for the elders to bring us the key after the meeting. We had an hour and a half and we noticed that one of our friends that we had never met lived nearby! We knew that this all happened for a reason because it was too crazy not to be God's hand. We went over and this lady just happened to be at the gate to let us in, so we got even more excited! Then we went to his house and the man that answered said that our friend had died and that he wasn't interested! Wuttttttttt. So we said a prayer and kept going. We had a feeling to turn around and this guy told us that the way we were headed was the owner of the complex's house and that she would have kicked us out. Crazy. Then we had a feeling to turn right and found this house. This lady was outside with two guys and we went up to talk to them. As we talked she basically told us to say a prayer with her and get out. After the prayer she started crying and telling us all that was going on in her life. She kept saying, "I don't know why I'm saying all of this to you" but she just kept going! We told her how we were led to her by God and she cried even more.  As we were talking she just looked at me and said, "Wow. You are really something special. You are just absorbing everything I'm saying and there's just something amazing about you." Now everyone who knows me knows that I hate talking in front of groups, but I looked straight into this lady's eyes and it was like the spirit shot through me! I opened my mouth and I don't know what I said, but it was directly from God. Not me. She bawled afterwards and said that she didn't care what church we were from because it's where she wants to be and that she had been waiting for us for months. One of the guys that was there said that he got a pass along card at a bus stop earlier that week and that he wanted to hear our message now. The lady kept saying that we came out of nowhere and we all agreed that we were meant to meet. My companion told me afterwards that she could tell that I had no idea what I was saying and that it was "straight spirit." God is so good. He puts us exactly where we need to be even if it takes a lot to get us there. We knew we were there for a reason and it was so amazing. Follow the spirit! He will lead you the right way!

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! 

It wasn't me!

 First off, I realized that I never updated. The singing went well for zone day, and the fourth of July was awesome!!! We ended the night watching fireworks off our balcony while listening to Madelyn Paige's "Come Unto Jesus" which is currently my favorite missionary song.

So... here's my awkward story for the week. We were doing our Facebook shift at the church where we just message people on the family history computers. I typed "Facebook" in Google and clicked on the first one that came up. Mistake!!! A bunch of pop-ups came up and the computer started screaming at me "SECURITY BREACH Contact this number before continuing... '' so we had to call Microsoft and it wouldn't turn off and it was soooooo embarrassing!!! 🤦‍♀️ The Microsoft dude barely spoke English, but we finally fixed it. 😂 

Next topic! We got a call on Wednesday saying that they needed help at the hoarder house again... round 2! This time I found a very sketchy book, more drugs, cockroaches,  spiders, and I carried 3 cremated bodies! Ahhhhhh!! 2 were her dogs and 1 was her husband. It was so weird! She handed them to me and said, "Be careful with these! They are fragile." and then I realized what they were 😳 scary...

You know what else is scary? Men. I am scared of them as you all know, and I think it's justified now. My companion has been trying to help me get over my fear, so she made me go up and talk to every guy that we saw and give them a pass along card that we call a "free picture of Jesus" so, I went up and asked this guy if he wanted one and he says no and then looks up and goes, "ooh, hello ladies... do you two have numbers or...?" We told him that we were missionaries and we didn't do that, but that we could share a message about Jesus, and he was like, "so what are we doing tonight? Dinner?" I don't know what he was thinking... We were both going to go on a date with him? This man was obviously homeless and very high (I could smell the weed radiating off of him) so we just started to leave and then he said, "ooh, you two are lookin nice. What are you 130 lbs each?" 1st off RUDE!!!!!! 2nd off EWW!!! So we just rode away. Later that day, we went back to the park to talk to people again and this guy waved us over. We got so excited because someone actually wanted to talk to us. Turns out it was the SAME DUDE!!!!! We tried to just ride past because he said something creepy again and then he tried to grab my companion's leg!!!! After that he looked at me with a super creepy look and tried to grab mine! My companion turned around and said, "DO NOT" (she could totally beat him up. She's ripped). THIS IS WHY I'M SCARED OF MEN! Anyways. We saw him again yesterday, and we just completely ignored him and he didn't try anything. 

Later that same day another old creepy dude said something that I probably shouldn't repeat, but to the effect of he thought that the elders were all married 😂 then he turned around and said, "you two are lookin nice!" I'm beginning to hate that phrase...

The next guy I tried to give a free picture of Jesus to yelled at me!!! He told me that that isn't what Jesus looks like and I'm breaking the 1st commandment (no graven images) it was awful! I'm never speaking to guys again. 

Until I did the next day... and I found someone awesome! He has gold teeth and we are teaching him today.

The next day we got honked at, flipped off, and yelled at. I feel like a real missionary now! Is this initiation?

Last story: there is a spider that lives in our steering wheel. He only comes out while my companion is driving. We decided to name him Diablo Diavla which means devil in Spanish and Russian. So his name is devil devil. 😈 😂 He came out and ran across the steering wheel while my companion was driving and I don't know how she didn't swerve! She was screaming and it was so funny! And scary. Anyways. We never got to kill him because he went back into the steering wheel. Oops.

Miracles: there was a baptism this week (we couldn't go) but the sisters said that a man came and started yelling trying to stop the baptism and all of a sudden our mission president walked in? He calmed everyone down, had the man leave, and the lady still got baptized. She has amazing faith. How the mission president knew to show up is beyond me. So cool! While they were at the baptism we found this guy that is super interested in the gospel, so that was a miracle!

We also talked to a Burger King worker that was sweeping outside and he is coming to church next week!

We also had someone ask if we were from Geico. Not quite...

Someone asked me if I was Latino too. I was so confused... maybe I am getting tan? Then later in the conversation he asked, "are you sure you aren't latino?" I must really look it. 😂

I also cut my finger while I was trying to cut an apple and it was kind of bad... I put a bandaid on it and prayed for the best and the next day it was almost healed!! Heavenly Father loves us so much and even helps with the little things. ❤️  I hope you all have the best week!! Love you all. 

She's A Witch!

 She's a witch... but not really. So, we had a service project where we were packing up this old lady's hoarder house! Let me tell you... it was rough! We found lots of interesting things! Including witch clothes... hopefully Halloween costumes 🤪 We also found a random wig and a drawer full of drugs and needles. While we were cleaning out her closet there were spiders ALL over!!! You all know how I feel about spiders... ahhhhhhh!!! They were crawling on my companion, so I screamed and she said, "Sister Peterson! You can't do that! Breathe!" Later in the same closet the lady came up to tell us what to pack and apparently there were spiders on me. My companion didn't say anything, but she had us leave the closet for a second and then said, "you're welcome." Thank goodness for great companions that make you not freak out in front of people 😂 We decided to make a game out of it after that, so we started naming all of the spiders and cockroaches that we found. We killed Timmy... oops. I hope you're proud, dad... I kept it together germophobia and all, and I killed the spiders! Kind of. 🙄

After that we got a call from this man that we are teaching. He is friends with a homeless man named Alex. When he called he said, "I think Alex is possessed and passed it to me..." we were like, uhhhhhh. We have no idea how to help! We told him we could see what we could do and sent him to the Elders! 😂 Sorry Elders. We think he might be schizophrenic... guess we'll figure that out later!

I also had Jamaican food for the first time this week!! Jerk pork is now my favorite thing ever! 20/10 recommend 👌

We went to teach a lesson and I heard a gunshot and the ice cream truck at the same time! 2 scary things! 😂 We got the heck out of there!

We went to dinner with a guy named DJerry who thought he was the funniest person ever. He had so many dad jokes. He looked at us and said, "which one is from Utah?" (Joking of course) until I slowly raised my hand and he almost fell out of the chair laughing. Then he made fun of me for getting a kids meal. I will never live this down... I got made fun of all night 😂

I got to do service at the bishops storehouse! It was so fun! You meet a lot of interesting people there... one of them told us how bikinis were invented? It was so funny. Email me if you want to know 🤗

Lastly, we called this lady yesterday and asked if she wanted to hear a message. She said she was good like 10 times and the phone cut out. We called her back and said we were sorry that the phone cut out and then she said, "the phone didn't cut out? I hung up on you!" It was sooooo funny! I DIED laughing and she hung up again. 

Spiritual thought: there was a car crash, so we had to take a random road and as we were driving I heard someone yell, "MORMONS" so we turned around and met this guy. He was obviously very high and was smoking and he said that he was sorry that we saw him like that and that he was a recent convert from Reno Nevada and wanted to come to church. It was crazy! I told him my brother was a missionary there! The connections we make are crazy, and Heavenly Father will always put us in the right place at the right time. He loves us and wants us to be happy! ❤ I hope you all have an amazing fourth of July and I would love to hear from you if I don't die tonight in crazy Florida celebrations! 😜 😂 Love you all!!

Pictures!

1) the one hill in Florida: trash hill 

2) pretty pond

3) my soul mate?

4 & 5) before church

6) finally ate Checkers!

7) coolest flowers ever!

8 & 9) car ride!