Family!!!
I still can't believe how the weeks fly here! I feel like I was just emailing you guys yesterday! It's great! This was a really good week for finding people! After writing you guys on Tuesday we tracted and got two return appointments. one was with this guy who is probably in his 30s. He is Baptist but talked a lot with us about his experiences feeling the spirit and he seemed pretty interested in what we had to say. It was kind of funny because I think we were both so excited to be teaching someone that we kind of overloaded him with information, I felt bad. We visited a family in our ward that knows a friend of mine from College! It was funny she showed me a bunch of pictures of my friend when she was younger and she said she'd try to have us for dinner and invite my friend's mom that same night, but we'd have to get permission for that and I don't know if President would want that. Speaking of which, I'm not sure I'll be able to have lunch with anyone we know because my companion said President probably wouldn't allow that. Wednesday was a really long, great day! We had zone conference which was from 8 am to 4 pm. It was really great. Sister Riggs (President's Wife) talked a lot about distractions and temptations. She talked about how when we're aware of our weaknesses, distractions and temptations, we know how to handle them better. We will prepare ourselves for them so that we can overcome them. I have been praying a lot more for the things that I know I will struggle with throughout the day and it's been helping a ton. We got a new investigator on Wednesday too which was AWESOME! She's like 55 I think. She is the mom of a guy we scheduled an appointment with but is never home to teach. so we went to go see if he was home and this older woman answered the door. i wouldn't say she was friendly, but she wasn't mean either. she told us all about herself and her life. she is on welfare and has been very poor all her life. I'm really excited to teach her and I hope that her life will improve. After teaching her we headed to another family's home. Their house is a bed and breakfast! It's sooo cool! the wife does catering and weddings and so their backyard has this cute dance floor. It reminded me a bit of where Dave and Tasha got married. She sent us home with brownies and lemon bars...dang they were good! They are both very much into member missionary work and so we are really excited to work with them. Thursday we didn't find any investigators or potentials, but I really bonded with my companion. We tracted for FOREVER!! and walked a ton which felt really good. This one guy opened his door and was like "yeah, I'm a born-again Christian. we have nothing in common, so I can't talk to you." I was like "we're christian too!" and he was like" no you're not." and slammed the door. it made me laugh. On Friday we had weekly planning so after that we decided to tract around our dinner appointments house. on our way, we met a guy. we started talking to him and as soon as we brought up the church he said he wasn't interested. of course, as soon as i heard him say that i was ready to get out, but my companion kept at him. he said he didn't know if he believed in god because his mom is dead and his dad is sick with Alzheimer's. he asked what kind of God would let his dad, a good man, lose every thing i told him that even though we go through so much hardship in this life, we can have hope. maybe god is preparing him to help someone else who will go through the same trials he is facing. he softened and we really witnessed the Spirit touch him and a complete change in his demeanor. we tried to get a return appt. and all he said was you can give my your number but i won't call you. but I'm always home. I think we wil visit him again. We had dinner at Ruby Tuesdays with this lady in our ward and her mom. her mom is like 70 something and just got baptized like 5 years ago! it was fun being with them. The mom kept correcting her daughters driving..it made me laugh. On Saturday we had 2 appointments set up that fell through, but on our way back from the second one we ran into a guy and set up a time to come back and teach him a bit later. We went and tuaght him and it was so awesome! he didn't read the pamphlet we left him, but he had tons of questions for us and I felt like I could answer most of them. After that we went to this pizza buffet with the a family and the elders. The pizza was not very good but I had my first diet coke since being on the mission!! haha Then after that to visita girl. She is the sister of these 2 little boys (age 10 and 12) who just got baptized and their mom is a member as well. she told us last week she'd come to church this week. I thought it would be difficult to get her to come but she was like "yeah, i told you I'd come so I'll be there!". it was awesome! Their family is so dang cute. they are from Chile and the little boys have the cutest accents. Sunday was great! we had ward council in the morning and my companion and I had to speak in sacrament. I was pretty nervous but I think it went alright. the girl came to church and we didn't get to talk to her after, but a bunch of the girls her age came and took her to class so that was great. I got to talk with a couple and we set up an appointment for tonight and Friday! I GET TO TEACH IN PORTUGUESE!! I'm very nervous, but also really excited. I'm excited to teach in the language I was called to teach in! I also talked to a lady who is from Brasil. Brasillians are so nice! 3rd hour of church was a special combined lesson taught by a couple in the ward about administering to those with special needs. there are about 5 or 6 families in this ward with special needs children, so it was a really cool meeting. After church we had a ministering meeting at bishops where we go over like every name on the ward list and see who needs missionary visits and what not. we got a lot of names to go see! Our dinner calender is completely filled for this month...the members here are so great! This Friday, we get to go to the Washington nationals baseball game with the dc north and south missions! If you can watch it, you should cause they'll probably show us!! We only get to go because Saturday is the national day of service, so its like PR! I'm super excited though! I got quite a few letters from Grandma P this week! sounds like she is doing great. I hope everyone else is doing good as well! I don't remember if I told you this when I was in the MTC, but remember how I met the lead singer from the mighty Sequoyah? well he gave me and my companion cd's of hymns he recorded..oh my gosh!! I am obsessed. I will send it home so you guys can listen and burn copies of it. It's amazing! I can't think of much else to tell ya. Just know that I love you all so much and feel your prayers. I am doing great and am loving the work as hard as it is! It's crazy to think that a year ago I was starting my sophomore year of college, not planning to serve a mission at all! I'm so glad that I am here. It's beginning to cool off and feels a lot like home. It's so beautiful where we are. I know I'm here in Virginia for a reason, I'm just not sure what the reason is yet, but I'll find out I'm sure. I love you all and am so grateful for your support!!
Love, Sister Pehrson
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