Class and Thunderstorms

What’s up my people!

This week went by pretty quick. The days are long but short at the same time somehow.  We are in class pretty much all day besides an hour for gym and for meals of course. 

Finally started getting into the nitty gritty of Spanish, although most of the things they’re teaching me I already know, but I’m able to help out the other missionaries in my district which I’m grateful for. 

Elder Roberts ate another moth for 300 pesos (about $15)

We got to go to the temple today! It was super cool. It’s the biggest temple outside the US and it had a lot of Aztec/Native American designs in it and it was awesome. Also got to buy some pretty cool ties and a backpack at a store near the temple grounds. We also got to walk through the visitors center on the grounds which was really cool too, and just driving through the city to and from there was interesting seeing the different traffic laws and safety regulations (or lack of) that they have here, like people zigzagging through cars while pushing someone on a wheelchair. 

It’s interesting to see how similar here is to the states, but how different it is at the same time. They’re all just the same types of people, including the occasional person with bright blue dyed hair and just kids walking with their parents to school. Just kinda surreal, since I’ve never been out of the states before. Really broadens my perspective. 

Something interesting most non-Spanish speakers might not know, the names Peter, James, and John in Spanish get translated to Pedro, Santiago, and Juan, which I thought you guys might find entertaining. 

Also just re-realized this week how awesome both my parents are. They love and support me unconditionally, and I just feel like one of the luckiest kids in the world. But don’t worry, I’m not realizing this because I’m super homesick or anything haha. 

One thought from this week: I think a lot of people try and over complicate the gospel too much. Going through the baptismal invitations and requirements and the lessons we are supposed to teach once we get out in the field, I realized how simple and beautiful the gospel really is. It’s pretty straight forward, and even in the missionary purpose (I hav it memorized in Spanish so it might not be an exact translation): Invite others to come unto Christ through receiving his restored gospel through (1) faith in Christ (2) repentance (3) baptism (4) gift of the Holy Ghost and (5) enduring to the end. That, along with the two great commandments to love God and to love thy neighbor as thyself, I think if we could just implement those things into your life, it would be a lot easier and better. Obviously those things can be done in many ways, but it still just struck me how amazingly simple the gospel really is when we get down to it, and that we can all agree that living for just yourself does not bring happiness. 

Had some crazy thunderstorms this week, definitely heavier than anything we’ve had in Prosser, but still not bad for here I guess. 

Also one of the elders in our district brought face mask stuff, which we all did as a district and was pretty fun. 

I’m attaching a bunch of pictures, but I’m using an iPad so let me know if they turn out funky. Some of them include:

Lays are named differently here, but we still get apples from Washington!

Pictures from the temple and temple visitors center

I started taking tally of all the sneezes (estornudos) our district does, and now it’s become a competition (more=bad)

Views of parts of the city

Pic with one of our teachers, Hermano Barajas, who was in the same mission as Anthony Moyer and Eli Martineau and at the same time, for those of you who know them. It was fun to find that connection. 

Love you guys!

Hasta luego,

-Elder Peters