Elder Tyler Peterson

Hey guys!

What's up?  This week was actually really good I think!  And crazy! But hey, I'm crazy, so that makes it all better right? ;)  No really though, this week helped me out a ton!

We really had some adventures this week! So first off, there's this Christian church down here, Pentecostal I think, but they're crazy! In short, due to poor choices and a lack of following the Spirit, Elder Gómez and I saw this guy pray for half an hour, shouting and spitting and crazy stuff the whole time!  It was pretty rough, and I felt terrible, but I believe that it's strengthened my conviction to follow the promptings I get from now on with exactness :)

Second adventure! So ever since that first cockroach there have been TONS more (I'm a roach-smashing champ now! Pretty cool huh? ;)) But there's one creature that LOVES eating roaches, ya know what that is? If you guessed TARANTULAS, you nailed it! So yeah, we were doing weekly planning when we heard Elder Layton scream like a girl, so we went and looked, and there was a stinking tarantula in our living room!! If the cockroach was bad... this was way worse!! (It's like the type of creature I have to conquer keeps getting worse every week! If this rate keeps up, I'll end up being like a pro panther hunter or something crazy like that by the end of my mission! ;)) I was legitly scared to death, and we were gonna freeze it to death, but then the other Elders started playing pranks with a live tarantula! AAAHHH!!! Yep, I was happy when it was good and dead, that's all :)

Last adventure!  We missionaries teach the Gospel Principles class, and yesterday right before it started, Elder Gómez was like, "Hey you're teaching today."  Sooo... I ended up trying to teach Gospel Principles in Spanish to a bunch of adults. That wasn't the best! It wasn't that my spanish was terrible, or that I didn´t know what I was teaching, but the fact that my spanish wasn't super great combined with the fact that I felt super unprepared that made it pretty bad, Elder Gómez suffered for like ten minutes of this then taught most of it from there.  But I guess I did okay for being in México for only three weeks :)

Revamped my personal study and my exercise this week, and that really helped me a lot! :)  Doesn't take a lot to work up a sweat here ;) But I also really learned another huge lesson this week.  I've had this really wrong idea that the love for the people was some overwhelming love that you started to feel for everybody that just kind of came with the call, and I didn't feel like I was feeling it (big surprise there ;)) So I talked to Elder Gómez about it, and he said that it's a really hard thing to learn, and that probably the thing that brings it fastest is seeing ugly things happen in the lives of the people you serve.  So that day, and the days after, guess what started happening? Ugly stuff.  Within two hours of Elder Gómez saying that, we were walking on a street when these niños from a family we've been trying to reach were just crying next to their gate, and we found out that it was because they were super hungry, their mom was working, and they had nothing to eat.  So we ran and bought them some food, but I really wished we could have bought them more.  I've never seen children crying out of hunger like that in my life, and it really hit me hard.  But I really did feel love for them that I wasn't expecting before, and more stuff kept happening to people that was super rough, and at times I had no idea what to do.  But I thought about it, and I think I figured it out.  Just like how the Savior personally atoned for our sins, pains, and afflictions one by one, that's how love of the people works: one by one, serving each one as much as I can until I really love them (and then keep serving them :)), and they all add up and it grows into something that I can't ever fully comprehend nor ever forget.  This was absolutely crucial, and I'm so glad to have learned this lesson early, especially since it was tough, I think that'll help it stick :) (if that doesn't, I don't know what will!)

Yep, super good week! I love having Elder Gómez  as a companion!  We both legitimately are nutcases, and he really pushes me to work hard, so it's a party and a growing experience at the same time! :)  Just remember to love and serve as He would, one by one! Be good, take care, I love you all! :)

¡Nos vemos!

Elder Tyler Peterson

P.S. Crazy crazy crazy crazy factoid: within our ward boundaries we have about 700 members within our ward boundaries, and like 150 to 200 that are active.  WHAT?? Why? Down here in México, home teaching and visiting teaching are literally non-existent!  There's a reason why that pops up in D&C 20, and it's so sad to see what a lack of giving a few visits a month can do. So everybody do yours, that'd be great! :)

P.P.S. Pics! Me and a box of Oreos= Happy Elder Peterson :D (though frankly, they're not as good here :O) and the TARANTULA (it's dead in the photo, but my companion tells me that he's seen them 3 times bigger! OH MY HECK!!! Pray I don't die!)

So we've got Elder Gómez and a lizard he caught (just found out it's called a Toloque, it runs on two legs, and it has tiny teeth that it can try to bite you with, which I found out trying to get it out of our house! Yep, we're pretty smart guys ;) whoops, I meant Elders ;))

And the other one is the reason why I should be a pro photographer ( though being here makes taking beautiful pictures a cinch :))

Y'all are the best!

Elder Tyler Peterson