A Peck of Pickled Peppers...

hey guys you are awesome!!

     this week was a rush.  oh man i can't even remember what happened.  well your letters were great.  dad's was huge but it was great.  it cracked me up.  yeah send a package to the mission office.  if you send it soon i'll get it at the end of august.  i have a visa run then.  don't delay!  that is so cool that you went to elder thomas' homecoming.  how did you find out about it.  oh man i love that guy.  he is such a character.  he does have a huge constant smile.  did the wards go or something?  well that's sweet.  i wish i had his email. i'll get it.  i can't really reply to dad's whole letter.  hiking ben lomond reminded me of the time me and john and greg tackled big ben.  oh man that was so cool.  i can't believe we did it.  there was a lot of snow on the backside.  i think it was june.  i can relate.  that's cool that there was a stake fair.  that seems rare.  the story about the mile guy was awesome.  i got the chills just reading your description.  ha ha last year chariots of fire was approved and i watched it.  dang it was good too.  some elders here don't catch the excitement of running.  people here said transformers 3 was better than 1 or 2.  how was harry potter.  it seems like it would be cool.  although i do hate all of those movies.  they are terrible compared to the books.  but the last one could be good. 

     alright well i'll try to remember what happened this week.  thursday i met up with maughan and reeves.  friday we just tried to get everything situated.  we crammed three beds into one small room and three desks into another so that we'll all be in the same rooms.  that took some effort.  but it's worth it i'd say.  well here in our four companionships in KL we got four greenies.  they're all pretty alright.  we could have done a lot worse.  they are all pretty obedient.  that's a good thing i guess.  it's just that they automatically judge us all.  elder Land is dying in three weeks and he totally doesn't care about anything.  ha ha he is the most relaxed elder ever.  one of the greenies pulled out the white handbook on him and he ripped him apart.  don't worry we're not all apostate here.  it's just little things like saying people's last name only or where you sleep or things to do in public or if you leave the house late.  president clark said once, that in the mtc, they drill everybody so hard with the rules that almost every new elder thinks his first comp is apostate because he's not like the mtc's expectation.  he's trying to bridge that gap though.  he's been hitting the rules hard.  it's good.  this week we've been pretty obedient and it's been a really good week.  so can't complain.  but yeah reeves is really cool.  he's really quiet which is weird for a polynesian.  we get him talking though.  he is big into water polo so he is also ripped.  ha ha now people refer to him as the strong one. ha ha. a member was telling us how to say things in chinese and she said reeves you can say "i am strong" petersen you can say "i am tall" and then she stopped to think and said maughan you can say "i am..short"  and then she just started laughing really hard.  ha ha it was funny. 

he talks really soft.  and he has a cool accent.  so we don't know what he's saying most times.  ha  and he uses weird new zealand slang words.  he's taught us a few.  he's pretty good at teaching.  he is an eager learner and really wants to tract so we let him at it.

     on friday president clark was in town and he wanted to go on splits with us.  he didn't realize how far away we lived so he convinced us to bring him along.  of course they were late to the appointment.  every time president and the ap's come to a lesson it ends up going bad.  we were nervous that they would probably botch it but it went alright.  because it would take them so long to get back to where they were staying they left early too.  so actually they just had the pre-lesson dinner.  it was at our recent convert amy's.  she cooked awesome chinese vegetarian food.  everyone loved it.  so all in all it went good.  it was good to see president.  on sunday night we went back to that family's house.  it was the daughter's birthday and they were having a big dinner.  they invited us over.  it was a feast!  oh man so good.  it was lots of chicken curry,  sweet and sour prawn, and some random veggies.  and lots of watermelon.  oh man it was so good.  wow dang.  the shrimp was amazing.  seriously it would have been a fifty ringget plate for the amount she made.  it was incredible.  oh i'll tell you background on this family.  the mom and son were baptized in may.  the father and two daughters not yet baptized.  the father has been to the church regularly since march.  the daughters came to church both for the first time last sunday.  so good.  i think they'll all make it soon.  our branch president is a really great guy and he had a good chat with the mom and dad about joining the church and dealing with the relatives.  so yeah they're great.

     well that's really all i've got.  we've been teaching english class and at the end of last one we had everyone recite the peter piper tongue twister.  ha ha it was funny.  a few of them were pretty good.  we timed everyone.  at the end i destroyed the competition with a six second time.  that was cool.  with all of the new elders here it takes me back to when i first came out.  ah good times.  my perspective has really changed since then.  i don't think that right now i could be companions with my old self.  ha ha i'd drive me crazy.  hey just out of curiosity is there a missionary plaque up at the church for me.  if so is there a map of malaysia?  just thinking about that recently.  also what happened to the rest of the santasquoy talk?  sorry to confuse you with the transfer thing.  i'm in a threesome but technically maughan is the trainer.  this pretty much guarantees that in two weeks i'm gone.  there's three other threesomes.  6 elders going home with nobody replacing them.  i'll keep you posted.  right now i'm just kind of floating around.  alright well have a good week.  it's already august.  school's going to start soon.  ha ha good luck.  ok bye!

 
elder petersen