1st letter from Bulgaria

Okay well, I am in a city called Plovdiv for my first transfer! I don't know our exact address but it is on Boulevard Bulgaria! I will have to find that out and let you know! My companion is Elder Walker and he hadsabout 4 weeks left in the mission, so he has started to die a little bit but we are still getting solid work hours in! I did not tract after I called you because there just wasn't enough time left! It was so crazy! I have been out a couple of times since then though. Mostly we survey people on the Glav (the main street) and that is pretty fun! I actually do understand about 85% of the words people say but I just need to put together the sentences they are saying faster! I like talking to little kids because they don't have a huge vocabulary! and they are fun to tease.
          Our new Mission President comes in this Friday and takes over on Saturday! He seems really cool though. Our church building, which is the only actual church building we have in Bulgaria, is on boulevard Mareetsa #138. I don't know if you will be able to find it! I have not actually taken out my camera yet so I will definitely do that tomorrow! I have seen so many stray dogs and cats, and a lot of Gypsy people taking things out of garbage cans and begging for money. We gave 37 Stoteenkee to a guy this morning. That’s about a quarter. Plovdiv has the biggest concentration of gypsies in the world they say! It’s so crazy! Also the food here is so good! I love Boneetsa and Keeslo Meelako which literarily means sour milk, but it is soooo good! I don't know how I lived without it before, and they have juice here that is sooooo good!
            We missed our flight from Frankfurt to Sofia because the air conditioning broke on our 747 when we were trying to take off from DC. It was soooo hot for 2 hours!! So half of the group flew to Vienna then to Sofia and the other half waited for 8 hours in Frankfurt then flew to Sofia! I got to go to Vienna! it was super awesome!
            I have an investigator whose name is Tony. She is so good! She asks questions about just about everything you can imagine! we were trying to  teach her about the restoration but she got it so fast and started asking questions about the plan of salvation, like about the pre earth life and after death, and she is actually reading the Book of Mormon. It is so weird that we only ever really teach people in the church and usually lessons are really really short, but our lessons with Tony are usually 2-3 hours! She asks so many questions! She also came to church this Sunday! She said she enjoyed it!  I’m so excited to teach her some more! Oh, she also is an English teacher so she speaks perfect English! :) In this cafe thing I am in, everybody is playing World of Warcraft. It is ridiculous!
            Well I think we are either going bowling or go-cart racing today! Maybe both, or chasing cats? We do that every day anyway though! Well I’m about out of time so I love you mom! Have an awesome week!

June 4th

Hey mom!
Yesterday was the craziest Sunday of my life! So, it was Fast Sunday as you know, and we have Sacrament Meeting at 8 am. At approximately 7:45 they asked me to be the District Leader for the rest of our stay here in the MTC! It’s pretty crazy! I get to pick up the mail now, and go to meetings and stuff! Then about 5 minutes later, they asked ME, out of about 1500 missionaries to say the opening prayer on Tuesday the 12th for the devotional! That is the one that is either an apostle or a member of the 70! Super cool, but I will not get to sing in the choir that week which is our last Tuesday here in the MTC so that sucks, but I will practice with them any way because I love singing.
          Also I don't know if I told you, but mail has a hard time making it to us while we are in Bulgaria, BUT our teachers have never had a problem getting and sending packages! They said that if you have to do a customs thing and declare how much it is worth you always just say about 80$ dollars. If it is more than that then it will get stopped and searched and then you have to pay over 200 dollars to get it through! Some things I want before I leave the MTC... spicy hot Cheeze Its! A chess set, flavored water packets, you know the ones you can dump into a water bottle? Thousands of those!
          Uhhh, it sounds like Karl is having a very good time with marching band! I met a guy who marched with the Blue Knights! He was really cool. I have met a lot of other people that were in marching band. Actually one of my roommates is a baritone player! He is kinda strange though. I have been wanting to play my trombone so bad! I want one of those p-bones! They are so cool!
           I’m so excited to go to Bulgaria! The food sounds amazing and so do the people! I don't remember if I told you but the zoos are crazy because nobody really cares so you can reach out and touch like the tigers and stuff! So crazy. Maren used to send me a dear elder every Sunday but I haven't heard from her in a little bit, but I wrote her again last week and I hope she writes back! I have heard from you and Dad and Kaitlin and Maren and Lisha and Sharolyn and Jensen.
          I’m pretty much the man around here now. I’m a beach volleyball champion that you would be proud of. We play against the Cantonese elders every gym period and it is so much fun! I wish we would have played more volleyball because I love it! We rock the Cantonese! :)
          There is a really big Tongan elder standing right next to me singing and he is soooooo good! Really cool. I’m struggling with finding things to say because my weeks have started to run together a little bit! It’s so crazy how fast time is flying! I’m going to write you my testimony in Bulgarian!

знам че книгата на мормон съдържа словото божие. знам че църктвата е истинна. аз вяра че можем жевот с небесен отец пак. ние сме негови деца. той обича вас. знам че джозеф смит е пророк на бог.

I don't know how well that will translate in Google translate, but you could try it! I may have spelled some things a little bit off! I will give you my translation!

I know that the Book of Mormon contains the word of God. I know the church is true. I believe that we may live with Heavenly Father again. We are his children. He loves us. I know that Joseph Smith  is a Prophet of God.

Well I need to go eat some lunch! I’ll let you go! I hope to hear from you soon! Your letters and everyone else’s are very welcome! Sorry I have not written back to your deal elders from last week but if you send more I will write back! :) I love you Mom and let everyone know the same for them! Especially Dad! He is THE MAN!

Love, Elder Petersen

Memorial Day

Mom!
The weeks go by so fast! We figured we only have 3 Sundays left! Then we will be headed to Bulgaria! (българия)! The computers here have a sweet program so I can change the keyboard to a Bulgarian keyboard! It is super fun to just play with! I am really excited to get a letter from Karl! Did they get the stamps I sent them? I want to hear all about marching band and stuff! Also I’m going to buy some more SD cards here so that will probably pop up on the debit card, just so you know. They are actually very cheap because we get like a 45% discount on everything in the book store and they give us 6 dollars every week on our access cards just for vending machines and buying stuff from the book store! This place is so amazing! Did you know it is one of the largest language facilities in the entire world? Super crazy!  Today we did not get to go to the Temple because of the holiday but in a way it was nice because I got to take a nap in the morning. I needed it!
          The work we have been doing is very mentally draining! Our teachers told us we are behind the other groups with actually speaking the language, but we are sooooo far ahead with the language rules! So once we actually get there we will learn quickly! Or that is the hope :) He told us a story and he said his companion had been out for a month, so he didn’t understand anything! He also told us that we won't feel fluent and comfortable until about 2 weeks before you come home! That is crazy! We should go on a trip back there because it is so amazing! And everything is really cheap! Also you can barter with everyone to buy anything! We should definitely go on a family trip back to Bulgaria and I will show you all the awesome places! :) Our teachers told us a story about a zoo in софия. (Sofia) apparently they don't really have fences or anything so you can pretty much touch the animals and they said it was really sketchy, but it sounds like it would be awesome! It is crazy to hear so many things about Bulgaria! They say they have the poorest people and some of the richest people in the world. There is not really a middle class, so they say we will see the nicest cars in the world there all the time, and little clunker junkers as well!
          You need to give Mark my e-mail address and tell him to write me! And, I want to know why I never heard ANYTHING about the MTC! I had to figure it out all by myself! But, I am pretty much a pro right now! I hope my Visa comes so that I don't have to wait in Virginia or something! But maybe they would send me to N.C. and Scott would train me! :) Wouldn't that be crazy? There is a place in Bulgaria called the river of rocks! You should look it up! It sounds really cool! I don't really know how to explain it so I won't even try.
           I have like 10 minutes left to type but I don't even know what to say! I’m getting a haircut tomorrow! That’s pretty exciting I guess... also tell people to send me mail! I didn't get any letters last week! Even if it is just a little dear elder! They come the same day and it is just nice to hear how people are doing :) I sent you some pictures today, they won't leave here until tomorrow but I have already put them in the mailbox! Well I gotta change my laundry and I can't think of anything else to say! If I do, I still have some time and I can write it later!  Anyway... I do have to go now. I love you Mom,have an awesome day! OH yeah we had elder Rasband, the President of the 70 come and talk to us! It was really very good!

Love, старейшина питърсън

Called to Serve

Elder Petersen & Elder (Devin) McOmber on the day Elder McOmber leaves the MTC for Samoa.
Wasn't it just yesterday that they were in my Webelos Den? They grow up way too fast! What great Missionaries they are gonna be.

LDS.org - New Era Article - Missionary Mail

Here is an article that I found about writing to a Missionary.

LDS.org - New Era Article - Missionary Mail

Monday, May 21, 2012

          So this Thursday was the marker for my half way point through the MTC! We played cards and had chips and dip. The last two weeks are when you get to host which is where you show the new Missionaries what to do and stuff. Devin is leaving this Wednesday and I am going to watch them and they are going to do the Hakka (I think that is how it is spelled) I have yet to receive anything from Steph but I want to see some of her sweet pictures~! I sent her and Karl a stamp each so they better send me letters! We have heard so much about Bulgaria! I’m never going to come home! :) Now that my companion is not the District Leader, he has made a noticeable change, and now we are late to classes regularly, because he take time doing stupid things like shaving his legs :(.

          I had a great inspiration last night. We were all in bed talking about how to show possession in Bulgarian, and then it all just made sense! It was so awesome! We got to see L. Tom Perry! He is so big! The only way we get to shake their hands is if we are one of the two people in the entire MTC who gets picked to say one of the prayers. So I probably will never get to! I don’t know if I am really supposed to pick a favorite speaker, but Elder Holland is so inspirational! I don't think you can watch the talks given in the MTC... but they are sooooo amazing! I love to listen to Elder Holland. We have been told that he is about due for a visit to the MTC, and that would be so awesome!

          Our mission is all of Bulgaria and part of Turkey! The Turkey part just opened!  There are 4 missionaries there I think. They had to learn Turkish in 12 days! They must have been really blessed by the gifts of the spirit! There are currently 48 missionaries in Bulgaria, and ten will leave when we get there, so I will probably eventually be a companion with someone I am with here in the MTC. Here in the MTC our district is 10, all Bulgarians; 4 sisters and 6 elders. Our Zone is like 30 missionaries; us, the Polish missionaries, and constantly changing English speaking missionaries. I won’t find out if my Visa went through until a couple weeks before I leave. There are some missionaries that were in our last Bulgarian group that are still states side because their Visas didn’t go through yet. One of the elders is Elder Sanstrom. He is in Virginia right now. It’s crazy how much we have heard about that elder. Kaitlin wrote me a letter about him because her friend knows him, and another one of our elders is somehow related to him. It’s so crazy!

          EVERY P-day we go to the temple, except it is going to be closed next week for some reason. We always have a temple walk on Sunday, but they have threatened to take it away because there have been people standing outside the MTC with crosses talking to us as we go by. It is really weird because they are not saying anything against us... it is very strange but we are not supposed to talk to them or anything, so we just sing hymns when we walk by. The stupid picture machine has not been working, so I couldn’t get pictures for you, but they should be here sometime this week! I need to write Scott, so I must go! All is well here, and I love you mom!

May 14, 2012

Wow! It seems like months ago that we went to the Consulate! They say the days are like weeks and the weeks are like days! This is so true here! It’s really hard to see so many groups leave that have gotten here after us! In two weeks we will have another group come into our District and they will leave with us! Elder Zelezniac from New Zealand left today! He was our first Zone Leader and he was such a good guy and he will be a great Polish missionary! I love getting mail but I only got one letter from Aubrey this week! It was very good to hear from her! I have enough time to write letters every day! So get people to send them! I think on my Facebook it says my mailbox number here in the MTC is #120 but it is actually #130. It’s not a big deal because the people in the mail room usually catch it but I don’t want to lose any more mail :). I have so many cool pictures! I took pictures of the fountain on the temple grounds under the water! My camera is so cool! I’ll have to print some today and send them home! Tell Karl and Steph to write me back! I’ll even send them stamps so all they have to do is put it in the mailbox! Tell them to expect some stamps this week to write me back! I had the worst afternoon of my life this week. We teach two investigators that are actually our teachers but it’s a very good role play experience, but we were teaching марин and he dropped us after that lesson on baptism by proper authority. When we got counseled on it our teacher told us he felt like we didn’t care at all about him and we didn’t care about what his needs were but that we just wanted to get our numbers for the week. It was so hard to hear that! My companion is no longer the District Leader but Elder Parkinson is! He is going to be very good but I am kind of concerned for how my companion will be now that he doesn’t have the responsibility of being District Leader! I’ll have to pull him through I guess! and by that I mean encourage and lift up! I’ll send you home a picture of my District for you to put on my blog. I can’t wait for Bulgaria so I can just send you the pictures through email, also I am going to buy SOOOO many ties! Our teachers all have super sweet ties from Bulgaria and I want to get a ton of them! Also I’m going to buy a purple suit! :) for when I come home. :) tell everyone on the blog to write me letters! It won't really be possible while I am in Bulgaria so they need to write me tons now! I am so hungry! After we did some sealings in the temple today we went to the gym and did some lifting and stuff. I had a 500M rowing race with Elder Parkinson and he beat me by like 2 strokes! I’ll get him next time! I’m about out of time but if you could I would like a pair of converse! I don’t know if I packed all of them up or not... the white ones with the black paint would be spectacular! Thanks Mom and you should be getting a thing in the mail this week for Mommies Day!

                                                                                                                                                                                                            LOVE, старешина питърсън