You Have Really Pretty Feet

Sorry for slacking last week on the email!! Last p-day was crazy!!

I found out that when I ate the Haitian food in Coral Springs 3 months ago, I ate OX-TAIL!!!! So that's fun.

Dean and Darlie from Wellington got baptized!!! Happiest day of my life!! 

I was on the bus listening to all the Spanish and I heard someone say "hey!" In English. I got pretty excited and when I looked, it was an old man. He said, "you know; you have really pretty feet." 😂 What do you say to that?? 

Later that day we walked the streets with my ukulele and sang to people!! It was so fun! They all started recording us, so if any of y'all see me on Youtube... that's why. 😂 

Then we had a very... interesting experience. We heard someone outside our door talking on the phone and we didn't think too much about it until he started yelling and then we all got quiet. He was drunk and his girlfriend and him were breaking up. It was pretty sad because he was drunk to the point that all he could think of to say was "but I love you" and some lovely swear words included of course. It was like a TV show, so we were all standing at the door listening. Then he blew his nose into the phone and we all absolutely lost it!!! 😂😂😂 

We had a scary bus experience as well!! We were sitting there and I was talking to this cute lady. I complimented her gloves in español and she handed them to me!! I tried to give them back and she just kept saying "no, yours!" Then as I was distracted with that, a car pulled out in front of the bus and we almost hit them!! There was a man in a wheelchair in front of us and he flew out!! Luckily he caught himself, but it was scary!! 

The Elders we ward share with were having a baptism for these 2 twin girls and they were CRAZY!! So hyper. 😂 We got there and the font was about to overflow, so we had to stop it and mop a little! We tried writing the girls' names with chalk and apparently it wasn't good enough... the primary president redid it haha!

Miracles: People's hearts open at Christmas time!! It was so cool!!

This man walked into the baptism just in time and it turned out that he was walking on the street and decided to come in!! He only spoke English, so I got to teach in English and it was soooo freeing! A miracle for me! It was the most powerful lesson of my life and we all agreed that it was no coincidence! There was so much that led to that point. The store he was going to was closed, his Google maps wasn't working, a lady opened the door at just the right moment to let him in... it was insane!! SO COOL!! 

Fernando, our recent convert went missing!!! We searched for him for a while because he didn't show up to the temple and wasn't answering the phone, but turns out he was in the hospital, and he made it to sacrament meeting!!! Christmas miracle!!

I ran into 2 of the YSA this week!! One at the temple and one at a Christmas party!! So fun!! 

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and I love you all!! I pray for you all the time!! ❤️🎄🙏🥳🎶

I'm Going to Be Famous in Bolivia

 Hahaha! This week was tons of fun and miracles! Miami Christmas hits different. Let me just tell ya! The people go crazy with their lights and I LOVE IT!!! ❤️  I am missing the snow though! ❄️ We got to sing in the stake choir and they went all out for it! They had stage lights and decorations and even little costumes and Santa came! It was so much fun and brought a lot of miracles, which I will write in the miracle section of my email. 

As for the title though... I'm going to be famous in Bolivia!! We were sitting in sacrament meeting when these 2 ladies walked in in super fancy hot pink matching dresses! We went and talked to them after, and they told us they were from Bolivia! It was a mom and her daughter. They asked where we were from and when it got to me, I expected the usual reaction of "la fábrica" saying I'm from the factory of Utah. 😂 But instead they FREAKED OUT!! I was so confused until they told me that one of "their Elders" that taught them was from Utah!! After that they took TONS of pictures with me and said they were going to show them to that Elder hahaha. They wanted to see if we knew each other. I think Utah is a little bigger than they think... 😂 We taught relief society and they filmed the ENTIRE lesson!!! It was an hour long!!!! When the daughter's arm got tired, she handed the phone to her mom. And let me just tell you, she got ALL the angles. After relief society they took a whole photo shoot. It was pretty funny. They asked us to share a message with them at their hotel this Wednesday and we said we would. They kept bringing up Utah and how they wanted to visit and told me I was always welcome in Bolivia because they were going to show the pictures of me to everyone there. 😂 Later, we called their Elders in Bolivia to see what they wanted us to teach because it was so close to her baptism. They didn't know who they were at first... then one of them said, "oh!! We have her contact! My old companion taught her, but he got emergency transferred out because she declared her love for him..." 😳 SO AWKWARD!!!! Little does she know, he won't be there when she gets back... Anyways, that was the most interesting part of my week. Hope you all enjoyed haha!

Miracles: One of the people that we taught this week spoke some English and it was the most freeing experience of my life to be able to teach again!!! I can say my testimony and half a prayer in Spanish and that's about it, lol!

SO COOL!! We were practicing for the choir and this lady walked in and started crying as she listened! We talked to her and it turns out she was driving past and something told her to walk in. She talked about how she's been missing God so much in her life and the singing was exactly what she needed and that it was a gift from God.

I can testify that God knows exactly what we need, even when we don't. It's NEVER too late to go to Him. He is there waiting with open arms. He understands and He loves us. You've never gone too far. The spirit will help you know what you need to do. Just like the spirit told her that she should come in, the spirit will guide you to know what you need to do! God is waiting, but we have to reach out to Him sometimes too! 

I love you all!! ❤️❤️❤️

Tom and I Have Beef... Literally

 So, my first week of Spanish was soooo confusing, but also amazing!! If any of y'all have seen the movie McFarland USA, that is what my area looks like. I LOVE IT!!! There are chickens and cats running around everywhere! The people are so nice even though they tease me A LOT! "Poor Gringa!" But for real, they do it out of love. Some of the members tried to make me feel better about my Spanish reading by reading a scripture in English and it was so funny! They kept calling each other Tarzan. 😂 

So, as I mentioned above, there are so many cats!! 14 live in front of my house! I took out some beef from my leftovers and tried to give it to Tom (a cute little kitten) and he scratched me! I'm never feeding Tom again lol! 

Hispanic culture goes ALL OUT with Christmas decorations!! I'll put pictures! 

I had to stand in front of everyone and introduce myself at church in Spanish and say a prayer. SOOOOOO AWKWARDDDDD, it was definitely in Spanglish, but I'm alive!

We went to Calle Oche for p-day today and apparently that is PitBull's favorite street!! I got a picture with him 🤪 and some chickens. 🐔 

Also, funny story. Our carbon monoxide alarm went off this morning at 5:50. 😑 We called 911 and the firefighters came and said, "there's no smoke" and we were like, yeah... and before we could mention the carbon monoxide, they looked at us like we were stupid and just walked back out!! Rude! We called President (after 6:30) and we are just changing the battery 🤦‍♀️ RIP.

Miracle: God is helping me read in Spanish. That is the only thing that I can really do to help in lessons, and I'm surprisingly okay at it. Heavenly Father is definitely helping me. Gift of tongues is real!!! I love you all ❤️🥲

HERMANA?!

 So... I'm not going to make you wait until the end of the email to hear transfer news because I am freaking out. My companion and I totally thought we were staying together and we weren't panicked at all... until we got a call from Sister Pingree. She told us she needed to talk to us each separately. The door is thin, so we could hear each other's calls lol. I heard her tell Sister Jensen that she was training, so I thought that I would probably be training as well, but in another area. When I got the phone, these are the words I heard, "Well Sister Peterson, your dream is coming true... you're going Spanish in Miami." WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HECK. I am sooooooo excited, but also terrified!! The gift of tongues better be real because imma need it!! So, sorry everyone. No more soap operas from the YSA in your mailbox haha. Just new stories about downtown Miami 🥳😂 I'm sure it will be a wild time. 

So now for the week. I hit my 6 months!! The sisters came into my room right at 6:30 am with lots of balloons 🎈 and it was adorable! 

Thanksgiving was so fun!!! We started with district council and we made our district little turkey cups and filled them with pudding, oreos, and gummy worms! Then we went to a member's house and had a FEAST!!!!! The entire time we sat across from this man named Jose and he was talking about his ducks that come and visit him every day. Turns out that he feeds 50 ducks every single day and they fly onto his driveway at 5 pm sharp. Haha!! 🦆🦆🦆

Funny stories: We biked to FHE, so our bikes were in a dark room in the church. Apparently they weren't hidden enough... someone put chairs on our bike seats and switched our helmets lol. 😂 

There was a big spider right above my face when I laid in my bed and I couldn't sleep like that, so I sat there with a paper towel for like 10 minutes straight staring at the spider while my companion was laughing at me. 😂 I finally just sent it and I got it!!! Then I looked at the paper towel and I thought it was still alive, so I screamed and threw it across the room!!! One of the other sisters ran in and asked if everything was okay! We're fine... hehe. 

A new Christmas album came out on gospel library... let's just say it's very entertaining lol! We ran into our zone leaders and told them to look up one of the songs. Next thing we know, we got a video of the elders blasting it on their speaker and "stretching" (aka dancing) hahahaha!! 

It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. 

Miracles: We have been teaching this girl named Maggie for FOREVER and she has reallyyyyyyyy bad anxiety. She finally started praying and reading the Book of Mormon and she can feel the power from God and she is getting extra strength from that. It's been so cool to watch the change in her!! 

We have a member in our branch that wants to go on a mission, but his dad doesn't like the church. Apparently he got his patriarchal blessing and when his dad heard it, he told him that what he was doing in the church was good and he should continue! I guess all he could do was hug him! Soooooo cool!! 

We went over to the Boggess' house on Thanksgiving and their rich Jewish friends were there. We were scared because we weren't sure if we should share a message or not (they were scary) and then President Boggess said, "Sisters! You have a message for us, don't you?" We were like okay it's game time. So we shared a fire message and they told the Boggesses afterwards that they really felt something!!! 

Lastly, I just want to end by saying that as Christmas comes around I've been thinking a lot about being Christlike. He really is our perfect example and he knows our situations and hearts better than anyone else. Trust that he will help you! He is there. He loves you. ❤️  Annnnddddd so do I!! I hope you all have the best week ever and don't forget that you're not alone.