Chance's Email 7/13/2009

Familia!
Gloria got baptized! I love that lady she is so awesome...the baptismal service was great also! A lot of the ladies stayed after church for her baptism and showed lots of love and support. the bishops family is so key in our ward, without that family this ward would be a disaster. They always accompany us to appointments and give us lunch and lots of other things. Thank you for your letters, they were awesome and i felt great reading them. I love hearing about the family, even if they aren't doing too great. But right now, as mom said, we can celebrate adam! i sent my letter to him like 6 months ago and it never got there so it's in the little package i sent last week. speaking of mom...yesterday we were knocking doors and it was a little tedious and hard, when the josh groban "dont give up" song (an all-time mom fav) came into my head and we began singing it really loud and it helped! our spirits were higher.. thanks josh, your so dandy. This week i learned something i will never forget. It was hard for me to accept the fact that praise is more powerful than criticizing. Well i testify that IT IS. it took some work to teach me it but criticizing does almost absolutely nothing! When missionaries arent doing what they are supposed to or not working effectively, breathing down their back about it doesnt help. i think about my past zone leaders and my favorites and WHY they were my favorites, it is because they loved me and praised me when i was down and up. We had a bad week in our area and i was expecting the assistant to call and say "What are you guys doing with your time????" but when he called and didn't say anything about the bad, completely ignored it, and talked about the good, I WAS SO MOTIVATED! he has called before and criticized and i thought about the difference in how i felt then, and how i felt last night and what a huge difference there was. i know that this applies to every other relationship too. i am going to remember that always. Today i bought a new suit finally! and your never gonna guess how much it cost....ok so if i remember right, my suits in the states were like 150 or 200 for a good one right? well as i went to the mall, there was a 50% discount and i snagged one that was really cool for 55 bucks! yes you heard me. Right now we are going to cook the cookies you guys sent me, with diego and his family. it's gonna be a good time. Well it's nice and cold here but i've got a nice coat so it's all good, i'm also sporting a scarf, something i never understood before the mission, i find they are pretty classy. well i love you guys and i'll see you next week

Elder Peterson
ps tell chad i got his email and thanks!