Chance's Email 9/29/2008

Fam!

ok so we had 2 baptisms yesterday! they were great! they were two women that we have been teaching for a long time now. remember the family that i cooked pancakes for? it was them and because of the activity last sunday they commited to be baptized and they did yesterday! it went perfectly and i baptized the mom and my companion the daughter. i believe the other daughter who is really hard hearted will be baptized in the near future. it was so cool and yesterday we had an activity where we go and talk to people in the feria(which is a thing like in mexico where we bought our t shirts and ponchos) and we talk to everyone and invited them to the church to watch the testaments that was projected on a wall outside. and they came with us and they daughter was contacting people with us all night and wants to be a missionary! its so cool. their lives have changed so much, they were hard core evangelists and they wanted to be baptized in a river haha but we talked to them and convinced them to the baptismal font. as for my companion and me things really are getting better. thank you so much for your prayers i have no doubt that they are helping. it looks like we will be together for another transfer but you never know. if we are i will go through the refiners fire and learn a lot and be strengthened a lot as well. its a bittersweet companionship cause i am learning so much but its really hard haha. im learning how to be more patient, unselfish and loving. he is my district leader and i have heard a quote that the best leaders are first the best followers so i have decided to just follow him even though sometimes its very very hard. im getting way excited for general conference. dad and marcus hit up some wingers or hidden valley or fridays for me after the priesthood sesh. pig out and enjoy it ha ha. oh ya. i can vote here, besides mccain, who should i vote for? tell me all the people and i'll fill out the ballot but i need to do it fast. ok one last spiritual slash learning experience. as we were eating with a famliy in the ward one day, they had some visitors over and they were an older couple who arent members. well we were talking and i was like "o i like your sweater" to the man and, without missing a beat he unzipped it, took it off, and gave it to me. what???? and i was at a loss for words i was like ummmmmm. and he was serious, he sat back down and continued eating. if you reject a gift here it's like really disrespectful so i didn't know what to do. my comp helped me out a little and we said that i would never be able to wear it cause we always have missinary clothes on and with time we convinced him and without offending him i gave it back to him. but what an example. all the chilenos are this way and give everything they have to others they are such and example. i gotta go i love you so much!
elder peterson

Chance's Email & Pictures 9/22/08

FAMILY!

how's it goin? first of all so sorry for last week i don't know what happened but i sent it on monday. sometimes because so many misssionaries write its a delay. but i will always write you guys. dad that is so cool about the ryder cup! i can just imagine all those people running and yelling and stuff and booing its hilarious. i wish i could've been there ha ha. that's cool about that one golfer and his story. marcus that stinks about the dew tour but hey at least you got to go right? i heard you are probably gonna get a 4.0! that's so awesome keep it up and stick it out till the end! it's so hard to do but it's so awesome!

my mission president is so awesome. sometimes it's hard to get advice from him cause he always says "your learning a lot and follow the spirit" things i already know but i need tips sometimes. but ya he is way personal and is always doing things for the missionaries. we had an activity last night for just our ward and he came on our invitation and spoke. it was way spiritual and he did awesome. after it ended two of our investigators (the ones i cooked the pancakes for) came up and said he touched them big time and they wanted to talk to him. we talked and basically committed them to baptism this sunday! the mom is ready but the daughter still has problems with the word of wisdom. they are hard core evangelists and it has been so hard for us to commit them. but im pretty sure they are gonna get baptized this sunday!

i wasnt able to view londons pictures i think im on a studid computer today so i'll try to view them next week, maybe try sending them again. ok i'm a little short on time cause i had technical difficulties, but i want to tell you about the baptism we had last week. so this woman that we baptized is 28 and has 5 kids ages 8 and under. she lives alone because the fathers, yes fathers, are stupid and selfish. she used to smoke, drink, do drugs, and sleep around. we would see her in the street smoking wearing hardly anything and she wanted nothing to do with us. well one day she just had such a hard day. she is poor as poor and has to take care of all 5 kids and just everything crashed down this day. we shared a lesson with her and let her know that the gospel was her haven and she needs to accept it. we were really strong with her and she finally committed to try and change. we have been teaching her for a couple weeks and the change has been incredible. one of the fathers has tried to get her to break the law of chastity like she used to before we taught her and she refused! she also left her cigarrettes and alcohol and drugs like it was nothing! she is so strong and just needed to get set on the right path. she is so happy now, although she still has way tough trials she is happy and laughs and has the help of god. when she was baptized we had a blind man in the ward perform it. i went into the water to help because he is blind and he had some problems with the prayer. when he got it down we made the first attempt. the water level was really low and she didn't get all the way under. i recognized that i would need to help a lot! we did it a second time and still no go. the third time i just took control and held her under until i saw that she was completely under and then lifted her up. on top of everything the water was freezing! but it was a success. although it was crazy it was awesome! she later said that she was freezing but the third time she felt warm and peaceful. it was so cool.

ok i gotta go. london i wrote you a letter and i'm sending it today. sorry i didn't write one today. that's so cool that you felt so good after church. i know that heavenly father answers our prayers in many different ways. im glad you have some good friends there to help you out. stay strong! i love you guys so much.

elder peterson

London's Trip to Guilin

After 31/2 long weeks teaching English in Zhongshan, London and her new found friends decided a vacation was in order. They stuffed their backpacks with only the essentials (money, swimsuit, toothbrush) and begun their adventure to Guilin. The sleeper bus they took to Guilin was, she'd say, "scary beyond all reason," but nonetheless was an adventure in and of itself. Good thing London doesn't have some of my germ phobias or she'd have been a real mess...oh, wait, she does. Germs aside, it became down right funny to think anyone could dare nod-off atop a 2 1/2' x 5' middle bunk bed with 2" rails to hold you in place while the bus driver is pretending he's on Lagoon's Wild Mouse ride!

Fortunately London and her friends survived the sleeper bus and did I mention the bus which led to the sleeper bus which held the lady with the baby who's crotch had been cut out of his one piece outfit? I believe the baby's name was I. P. Freely. It was a shocking yet memorable moment for young, naive London and her American friends. Their trip started off with a bang and never slowed down. She has many pictures you'll have to see sometime but I included just a few, some of which were taken at the mud caves where they just couldn't seem to stay clean. They also rode scooters and took a ride down a river in a bamboo boat which London said was incredibly picturesque. The mountains in the picture above reminded London of something in a Dr. Seuss book. She had the best meal yet in China on this trip which included some cheese pizza and delicious noodles and an apple crumble which was divine.

London is making the most of this sweet & sour adventure and is now back hard at work teaching her darling but naughty children how to say "hello" instead of "herro." We wish you well Sweetie!

P.S. London loves to get emails!! londylou@comcast.net

Mission Pics

Captain Chance

A look at Chance's room
A view of the smoggy city
He can see the Hipodrome from his window and can see the horse races

Chance's Email 9/14/2008

hey fam!
i am so sorry i am short on time again today! i am trying to respond to all your questions and comments but there is only so much i can do with the time i have. sorry it was so short last week and probably short this week too. dad sorry i didn't respond to lots of your feedback and advice. dad, thanks for the awesome letter you sent me last week it really inspired me and i loved what you said about our big brother Jesus and his atonement and becoming friends with him. thanks a lot. and thanks for the sports updates. wow, i can't believe how great the cougs are doin!

holy cow the package was amazing and im so glad i got it! the thing i loved the most is probably my fruity pebbles... as fred would say " yabadabadoo" my sense of humor is getting cheesier by the month sorry. but i loved them and also i loved the reeses and just getting american candy. i am craving a little bit of twizzlers and sweedish fish for some ideas for the next package but don't feel like you have to send me one every month cause i know they are expensive. as for the peanut butter i gave some of it to one of my first converts and her family. the first baptism i did if you remember. they loved it! thought youd like to hear that. oh yeah, and this convert.. elizabeth, she has been called as the second counselor in the primary and is so strong! she is such an awesome person.

so i saw taylor and he is in my zone! i believe there are like 8 zones and he happened to be in mine! i see him every week and he is being a stud. he has a tough area and is opening it and beginnig from 0 so its been tough but he is a stud. i am soooooooooooo glad you got my memory card ok. the other one works just fine so ill try to do more videos for you guys. im glad you liked my letter marcus i am so tight on time and i wish i could write you all every week personally but right now its hard. london im gonna do everything in my power to send you a letter next week. i need the address to send it to so if you could send that to me that would be great. marcus i'll try to find you a pajama to send to you sometime but the packages are outrageous to send from here so i don't know what i'll do but i wanna buy one for ya. they are nice and warm.

i sure hope we get mccain as the next pres...all i have heard is obama obama here. you wouldn't believe how much people here read about the states. they know more about u.s. politics than i do. im so glad your young single adult class is awesome! i really knew it would be.
i'm getting fat believe it or not. i really don't believe you guys can imagine me fat but ive got a little gut funny huh? london thats so killer about your day you had! i remember when dad and i rented scooters and toured thailand. it was awesome.

i talked to my pres about some problems i had in my weekly letter and when we had a meeting he called me personally into his office and talked to me. he is so awesome for doing that and he helped me so much. he called my comp in also and we had a talk with the three of us and it was what i needed. he is such a stud and i hope to have our relationship continue to grow.

marcus advice on preach my gospel. there is only so much you can do with it at home so just get acquianted with it and read it the whole way through and get to know the doctrine. study the book of mormon a lot and get to understand the principles of the gospel. but most importantly gain a strong testimony . the best way to do that is by bearing it. as for my spanish i am understanding so much more. not 100 percent yet but i understand a ton and i feel like i can communicate with the people. i really have been so blessed and i don't give thanks to the Lord enough. something i learned is so many times we ask the Lord for things for so long and when we finally get them we are so happy and don't give thanks. we need to be like the 1 leper and always give thanks for what we have. marcus your talk was awesome i loved reading it along with the articles dad gave me! i loved remembering el pozo and how many blessings we truly have. we are so blessed and i am so thankful for you guys.we had a baptism yesterday that was just awesome. i am out of time but ill tell you about it next week. it was a great experience. send my love to everyone. i love you all!

elder peterson