August 9, 2013 Letter from Sister Pehrson

Ola Familia!!! Can you believe it's already Sexta-Feira (Friday)? The saying "the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days" is so true. I really can't believe I'm emailing you right now! I feel like every week feels like it's been the best week ever and has reached the maximum potential of greatness, but then the next week comes along and is even better! I think a lot of that has to do with my amazing companion, wonderful district, and constant love from my Heavenly Father. Thanks for the packages and letters this week, especially when I got like 9 dear elders on Monday and my district was so jealous, but then 8 of them were full of jokes from a friend! love that girl, it made my day :) I did get Aunt K' package as well so thank her for me!! The language is coming along still, slowly but surely. We're learning a lot more conjucations now and learning to have better grammar. It's really hard and confusing, but it's amazing to see how much I've already learned. We worked with this district the other day who has only been here a week and hearing their portguese was such a confidence booster! It's nice to know that I am actually progressing because sometimes it doesn't feel that way. The MTC is such an amazing place and learning a language here has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life! Speaking of language, it was so funny the other night we did a lesson where our whole district taught our teacher. We would say one sentence each and go around the room. But then the teacher switched it and each person would only speak when he would make eye contact with you. He could cut you off mid sentence, by looking at a different person. (hopefully that made sense?) So we were doing that and talking about Faith in Jesus Christ. This Elder in another district told us he was practicing a door aproach in front of his class with his teacher and asked if he could give her a massage instead of message hahha. Learning a language is too fun. I try to write these emails chronologically but it always ends up a jumbled mess so just know that I only have so much time and that's my excuse for my awful grammar! We had two really great devotionals this week. The first was on Sunday by a woman who apparently is like a celebrity in the mormon world, i didn't know about her but she plays the violin amazingly. She went to Juliard for violin and so she played a lot of songs and talked to us about spiritual gifts. I think it will be amazing to see how the spiritual gifts Heavenly Father has blessed me with with help me and my invesigators on my mission. One spiritual gift i have been praying for is the gift of tongues so I can get Portuguese. I know I have been given a portion of this gift here in the MTC because there is no way I could speak this much without the help of that. Also I think I've been blessed with an increase in focus and a true desire to learn. Every day is so exhausting and at the end I look back on what I did and I feel so proud and accomplished and am so happy to be doing the Lord's work. The devotional on Tuesday was was on scripture study and he gave us a ton of tips on good things to do during our scripture study.I'm really excited for the newest edition of scriptures to come out..I'm interested to see what they look like! I finished the book of mormon last week so now i've been doing more focused studies and it's been so awesome to really study certain topics. I try to focus them on what my investigators needs are. This week we're teaching 2 law of chastity lessons so i read about virtue, charity, and purity. it was a great study and has really helped me to focus on my investigators and how I can help them. I've also been studying about charity and how I can have an increase in my charity. I think I remember mom and I having a talk about how that was something I struggle with someimes. Well I've been studying and praying for opportunities to have more charity and that opportunity came in the form of Sister. She has some foot problems and her district left wednesday so she came to my companion and told her she would be in our companionship now. So we were going to be a trio. This was kind of hard for me because me and my companion seriously have such a great companionship. We are both able to completely open up to one another and we teach really well off each other, so when I heard this I really had a bad attitude. But I prayed that night that I would be able to love this Sister, and I really started to. She was so nice and she fit in really well. But then during class the zone leaders came in and told us our President felt she should be in the other district. So apparently we passed that test? My companion and I talked about it after and it's funny because we were both praying for that opportunity and sure enough, it came!! The Provo Temple has been under construction since we've gotten here, but it opens next week and on our last p day we get to go! I am so excited! Speaking of temples, it's the final countdown isn't it? How is all the wedding stuff going? My teacher is getting married to a girl from Rio and we get to meet her next week! She doesn't speak any English at all, so that'll be interesting. So this Sunday I got a calling to be sacrament greeter! It's fun because I just get to talk to everyone as they come to church. our branch is so amazing and I love every single district in our branch! Also it was so cool on Sunday, we had fast sunday. it was really, really hard. Definitely the longest I've ever fasted! But we had testimony meeting in english and this one elder got up and was like "okay, I need you to put your hand on your heart and lean over to the left" so we all did and he was like "now you can say that your heart was touched and you were moved by my testimony." he's this big samaon guy and he's hilarious. but on a spiritual note, that was one of the most amazing testimony meetings i've been to. I was thinking before it started "yeah, I'll go up during one of the awkward silences." well there weren't any. people were literally running to the pulpit. it was so cool for me to see so many of my peers have such amazing testimonies and have such a desire to share it. I know I'm in the right place, at the right time, doing the right things! it's the best. Sunday nights we get to watch a movie. The choices are usually talks from different general authorities, the testament, or oher church movies. This week they played the new Joseph Smith movie. wow. That man is so incredible. It was cool because during personal study that day i'd read D& C 135 which is john taylor's testimony of joseph smith. I highly recommend watching the joseph smith movie. just warning you mom, you will cry. My companion and I had this box of tissues and 2 elders just laughed at us. rude! Also another cool thing that happened Sunday- an Elder from the band The Mighty Sequoiyah gave me and my companion a cd he made with him singing hymns. I am excited to listen to that! Monday we got new investigators which are other missionaries in our class acting as someone they know who is not a member of our church. it is really cool teaching them and we also get to act out as investigators. it's a really cool experience and makes you really think about the person you are being. Tuesday we learned more about the culture of Brasil so that was really fun and always makes us excited. Our teacher is from Brasil so he has lots of advice for us! He told us not to worry about snakes too much, just to keep our houses spotless because of spiders and cockroaches and all that fun stuff! We talked about truly loving our investigators and teaching to their needs. Even in the MTC where we are teaching teachers, I feel so much love for them. I love them because they help me really appreciate what I have and help me to not take that for granted. Wednesday was such a fun day because we got to host the new missionaries!! This is where between 12 and 2 the missionaries families and shuttles drop them off and we take them to their classes and help them get settled in. It was so much fun and I loved being able to share my excitement of being in the MTC with these new missionaries. It made me a little sad to watch the families crying and saying goodbye to their missionaries, but overall it was such a fun experience and we get to do it next week too so I'm super excited for that! There is this elder in our building who has classes on the other side of the compus. One day I made eye contact with him while he was walking out and he just pointed at me and now every time he sees me he does that! So my companion and I talked to him and he is from Utah and knows som people I know back home! small world right! He still points at me every time we see him, i dont get it. In companion study we studied luke 24:13-32. its about when the Savior comes after his resurrection and walks with his apostles but they dont recognize him at first. It made me think about how awesome this mission is because I have an opportunity to get to know my Savior and Heavenly Father so much better than I have before. Thursday we had a lesson with and we brought 2 other Sister to act as relief society members and talked about ward families. When I was teaching, I thought of all the wards I've been in and all the people who have touched my life and been placed in my life to help me in addition to my family. I feel like my companion is definitely one of these people. We always have these great talks and I learn so much from her. I am going to miss her a ton when we get reassigned but i know we will be life long friends! Thanks to you all for your dear elders, letters and emails. Tashas especially make me laugh! I am so excited for Tasha and Davids new journey and I can't wait to hear all about the wedding. Hearing from you all makes me so happy and makes me feel so loved. I think I feel more loved here than I would if I was at home with you all! ;) next email you get from me we will find out where I'll be serving until I get my visa! I dont know about you but I am way excited! Thanks for all the love and for helping me get to this point. I probably haven't even told you half of what happens every week, there is just way too much but know that i am in the right place and that I am loving life and loving this work. I know that I am doing Heavenly Fathers work and he is blessing all of us for it. I love, love, love you all so much! Please keep writing, it really does make me so happy! Love your favorite missionary, Sister Pehrson