April 8, 2010

Happy late Easter!!   

   thank you for the package and all of the goodies. it was almost as good as a cavanaughs egg...almost.  Did you find all of the eggs at Arches ha ha that would be funny if someone found one in a few months.  you would probably destroy the microbiotic soil or something ha.  

  

   i really enjoyed your letters this week.  i got many. let me recap.  mutual sounded really fun/funny ha ha i wish i could have seen it.  congratulations on the bed and carpet.  the flat screen tv reminds me of that one office where michel has his own tv and its a tiny flatscreen that he has to stand up to watch at his house.   ha ha anyways... is yours that small?  

  

   thank you for the song lyrics. aren't they awesome!! man it is just so cool to read now that i'm out here too ya know.  you now have a new mission if you choose to accept and you will.  ask delose conner for the lyrics to men of harlich.  you can google it but you won't be able to find all of the verses we sing.  ask him.  

   send me my mission home address in  singapore.  by the way how was amazing race.  i heard that they are going to singapore this week. tell me about it.  

   arches sounded like so much fun.  i wish i could have gone.  it is no surprise that you left the house late ha ha.  dad i have to tell you, your letters are funny.  i love your structure.  its very ordered ha ha.  don't change it. did you do the fiery furnace.  no one mentioned it.  oh well there is a ton of other stuff to do i suppose.  i'm going there after i get home by the way.  i love that place.  did the slacks and adams enjoy delicate arch.  it is so pretty.  one of my favorites for sure.  i loved all of those postcards!  ha ha it is just so pretty down there.  its so beautiful.   thats funny about the merry go round ha ha i miss those good old days when we would get spun around by dad.  i can't beleive jaynanne actually puked.  ha ha. she must be pretty weak sauce.  the police story was cool.  they tell us about our appearence so much here.  that is a really good lesson.  Double 'O' in the sunrise would have been amazing.  i'm so jealous!

   Conference was so nice!  i loved it so much.  i figured i probably sat in that big room for about 18 hours including all of the sessions and then the before time and the fireside and movie afterword.  i loved it though.  i learned so much and really felt the spirit.  i feel guilty for never sitting down and watching and taking notes on all five sessions before.  my new life goal is to do that better.  Families!!! that is what i got out of it.  saturday morning and throughout was all about families.  I don't know how much you watched/heard, but there was a strong family oriented message.  you have to hear it again.  i can't wait for the ensign.  M. Russell Ballard gave a great talk that you guys should definately read again, as well as Bradley D. Foster.  his was about, because mother told me so.  ha ha it was sweet.  there were so many good talks though.  dad during conference i laughed out loud when Uchtdorf talked about waiting in line at the grocery store.  ha ha that is you.  i had the same thoughts as you during priesthood session.  i think this everytime.  people all over the place are sitting listening to the words of the prophet and and basically singing in unison.  including me and you.  that is so cool. we were doing it at the same time just in different places.  the scriptures say that 'the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me'  I imagine us singing as a super prayer ha ha thats just me. 

   Elder Brown went home.  as i was reading my scriptures this morning i just couldn't stop crying.  

all else is well here.  i love the mtc.  i can say pretty good prayers in bahasa malayui. i think thats "malay" in malay.  ha ha.  and my vocabulary is increasing daily.  well i have a few minutes before my time expires but i don't know what else to say.  i can't wait to see thomas here.  hopefully i'll help him with his bags at the curb.  i'll be a host that week.  

   i hope things are going good at home.  don't worry about me down here.  just keep praying for me.  dad you can ride my motorcycle but you have to put some money into my account if you do.  is the newspaper route still in my name?  if so change that.  oh i have some pictures that i printed and will send home.  i don't have a big enough envelope so i have to go buy one.  they are just our district.  they're sweet.  ha ha oh man there is just so much to tell you.  i kind of feel like i am going to come home one of these weekends and just tell it all.  this is not really the case.  oh i learned a lot about our mission.  like i knew we can't wear our name tags in malaysia.  their government does not recognize the church.  every 90 days we have to go to the airport or somewhere and renew our visa on our passport.  we have to tell them each time that we are visiting friends. and we have to be in p-day clothes.  so every 90 days i have to fly to singapore.  cool huh.  its like the cia or something.  we're undercover.  and if they don't renew our "visa" ,its not really a visa, and they find out we're with the church then we have to stay in singapore for the rest of the mission.  oh and we can't call each other elder in public.  just our last names.  there's more i think.  its just kind of crazy.  i'm excited to sneak in to malaysia ha ha.  but seriously i can't wait to get out there and be forced to speak the language constantly.  it will be fun exciting nerve racking scary and new.  i can't wait!

i'll write another email next week.  i can't wait to here from you again.  have fun at home and stuff.. ha ha i love you.  tell everyone hi for me

Elder Petersen

April 1, 2010

hi.

       it sounds like things are going on like usual at home.  i do not miss school i can tell you that.  thats good for jaynanne and spencer on their grades.  this might sound weird but i miss helping jaynanne out with her homework. it was fun.  ha ha. tell spencer if anyone texts him and thinks its me that he can play along with it.  especially if its a girl.  if they don't know i'm on my mission then they're not that close to me ya know?  sounds like work is stressful dad. sorry.  good luck.  i miss grandpa.  thats good that he's in a better place.  it is better right?  i feel bad for him.  do you think he remembers me? ask him.  you said he's going downhill?  how so?  

   dad i am so jealous of you.  that is one of the things i miss most about home: running.  North Ogden is just so beautiful.  the mountains, the trees, the weather, the neighborhoods.  i miss that.  i want to run so bad, and not just around an indoor track ha ha.  

   dad i will take your advice on the talk thing.  we have to write a talk every week and on sunday the branch president randomly invites two missionaries up to share their talk.  so i will try to incorporate those things into my talks.  being zone leaders is going pretty good.  be basically have the routine down.  we know our duties and whatnot.  its easy.  we actually got new elders yesterday.  its fun meeting everybody.  that is one perk.  

    like i said last week i love my teachers.  they are just really cool.  they're all different.  i told you about brother leo and brother maynes.  we also have brother ross and sister hill.  they are also nice and all very good at the language.  

    ha ha.  oh man i do miss uncle brian.  that man is funny.  i wish i could have heard him talk about going to that fast and testimony meeting.  ha ha tell him hi.  when i get back we need to play some serious nine cards down.  so on the amazing race they're going to malaysia?! that is so awesome.  i'm jealous ha ha i can't wait to get out there.  you're going to have to tell me about it, where they go and stuff.  tell me what it looks like as well.  we talk about it all the time in class you know.  we talk about the people and the culture and the food and whatnot.  so i am so excited to go out there.

       ok well things are going really good here.  in class we have almost translated the whole first lesson on the restoration.  we have to start teaching in malay soon.  its exciting but its hard because i think of the sentence in english and then translate it in my head and then try to say it out loud.  it doesn't work out so well.  i can tell you that allah adalah bapa syurgawai kita yang penuh kasih, and that dia kasih kita.  kita adalah anak anak nya.  thats all for now.  i don't know if i got it right but i tried to say God is our heavenly father who is full of love, he loves all of us and we are all his children.  its coming along.  i told you previously about our awesome tie trades.  it has just been me and elder williams but we finally convinced elder tovar to join us.  ha ha he got way into it.  this last saturday i made some great trades.  we were told that silk ties bleed terribly in the humidity so i've been trading out some silk ties for polyester.  i traded that yellow tie you sent me with all of the pen marks for an awesome green one.  ha ha anyways.  

   this last sunday was our first fast sunday.  here at the mtc it is an enforced fast. there are no mealtimes planned and the cafeteria is basically shut down.  so it was easy but i'm used to eating so much food here so i was definitely hungry.  

   last night i filled out a census form!! i count!  ha ha i didn't think i'd be able to.  so thats good, i hope i helped utah's cause for another seat in congress.  

   this weekend i get to enjoy ten hours of general conference on hard plastic chairs. i can't wait. ha ha it should be good. long but good. 

       in class we had a lesson on the apostasy.  brother maynes told us to take a minute and write down where we would be if there was no restoration.  it was weird to think about.  we would be very different i think.  i don't think our family would be as close.  we wouldn't be as happy.  i sure wouldn't be here.  something would just be missing.  we then wrote down a testimony of the restoration and i just wanted to tell you how grateful i am for it.  the gospel has had a huge impact on my life.  it has completely shaped me.  i hope you guys all realize that.  it almost makes me cry to think about that as i sit here typing it. 

   earlier in the week we had to write down family traditions and stuff.  i'm thankful for these things:  i'm thankful we had family dinner every night.  i'm thankful we could sit around the dinner table and talk about school or work and the gospel.  i'm thankful for our birthday traditions.  i'm thankful for all of our family vacations and camping trips.  i know a lot of families don't do stuff like that.  i'm thankful for family home evening and sunday nights when we were all together.  i'm thankful for all of you guys, that i can play with and laugh with and cry with.  thank you mom and dad for supporting me and all of us kids whenever we pursue something. oh man you should see me right now.  i can't believe it but i'm crying.  I love you so much, i look forward to hearing from all of you this next week.

Elder Petersen