April 21, 2014

Happy belated Easter! I hope your holiday was amazing...even though I didn't get to do one of our famous egg hunts I still had a amazing day and a wonderful week! Monday was a roller coaster for sure! We had a great preparation day! We went thrift shopping and then stopped at this flag store so Sister Martindale could look for a DC flag. The owner was so cool! His name is John and he was in the military. He lived in Zimbabwe, Germany, Japan...pretty much everywhere! When he lived in Zimbabwe he knew he missionaries very well and so he says he has a soft spot for Mormons :) he asked all about our missions and when he found out sister Egbert and I are going to Brasil he gave us these really cute pins. He is a awesome guy and we'll definitely go see him again! After dinner we visited a few people and we were just striking out. So we decided to see this lady who I haven't met yet. She and her family are from Iraq. We walked up to the house and one of the sisters came out and told us there was someone from another church there bit that we could still come in. We went up to the door and this woman was standing there and she asked what church we were from and how often we visit this family and all this stuff. She finally let us in and was like "well this is my husband pastor tony. Pastor tony was quite the peacher....he was incredibly defensive and kept asking is why we were there. We explained how we had met this lady and we just visit people to help them out in any way we can. Pastor tony then started interrogating us about our beliefs and called us blasphemers, anti-Christs, and a cult. We were really nice but we got out of there ASAP!! Two of the sisters followed us out and apologized and told us they would call us another time. It was definitely one of the most intense moments of my mission though! The night ended well because we met a lady who grew up in Turkey as a Muslim and is now learning about all religions so she can choose for herself what she wants to follow! She asked us to bring her a bible and we left her with a Book of Mormon! Tuesday was great! We had zone and district meetings which were both awesome. In zone meeting we talked about how NOW is the time for members and missionaries to work together and how we need to do all we can to make that happen. We talked about what a remarkable time this is and that people will look back on this time in awe! Then in district meeting we talked about Christ's last days on earth and then practice teaching about the atonement. It was really cool and powerful! After the meeting and lunch we met with Valerie to practice our Portuguese. We then Studied and did FB. After eating we tracted and it started SNOWING :( it was awful but a miracle did happen! So some ward members told us about their friends who used to live next door but then moved next to another ward member! They wanted us to just tract into them And see what happens. We did and at first the dad wasn't too interested but the kids all wanted us to come back so they agreed to let us come next Friday! It was so awesome! Then we were checking on another investigator and her neighbor had all these weird noises coming out of her apartment so naturally we were like "we should knock on her door!" Haha we did and this awesome lady named Pat answered the door and invited us back to teach her on Thursday! Wednesday was great and full of awkward moments as usual :) we went to check on this family and their daughters friend lives with them and she was having a study date with this guy but she invited us in and we talked with them for awhile. Super nice people, but it was just really an awkward visit! It made me a little scared for after my mission because I'm like super socially awkward around people my own age now hahaha. Oh well! After that we went to take a Korean Book of Mormon to this guy but his wife answered and wouldn't take it! That night we had dinner with some of my favorite ward members. They have 4 kids and they are just such a blast to be with! That nigh we had a member lesson with the ward members from Brasil. It was a ton of fun! Thursday was so great! We decided to eat lunch at Chick fil A and there was an adorable older lady working there. She told sister Martindale that she looks like a girl she was friends with in high school and then we got on the subject of family history. We had this awesome talk with her and exchanged contact info and she's super interested in doing family history now! After lunch we had our lesson. THe person went on a tangent about organized religion and was getting so mad at us for nothing! My first reaction was to be really offended and upset, but as the lesson went on my view changed. She is doing the best she can with what she has and she is trying to do good in the world! She just doesn't have all the answers yet so I can't get mad at her. It was a cool experience to see her in that way and it made me love her more! We then invited some of our friends who don't attend much, to church on Sunday. That night everyone was really busy and not home but we ended up getting to visit our new ward mission leader and his family. It was really awesome and they are great people! Friday after weekly planning we did some tracting and met an older lady named Diane who is a huge Romney fan! She loves our church and respects it a lot so that was cool. We left her with a Book of Mormon and she said she'd read it! After dinner we had a lesson with some members a and then checked on some of the people we are trying to teach. As we were walking to the car I saw a guy loading stuff into his car and I had this really strong feeling to talk to him. I have been setting so many goals lately to be bolder and to talk to everyone. But I was scared! I just prayed and started walking over and talking to him. His name is Pablo and he's such a sweet guy and was really excited about the Book of Mormon! He invited us to come teach him more next week!it was really great to have that experience and to see that if I trust in The Lord and follow promptings, he'll take care of everything! Saturday was soooooo great! We had been trying to contact Luis ALL WEEK with no luck! We tried him Saturday and he didn't answer the door. We checked on some other people in his neighborhood and were about to leave when we decided to check on one more lady near him. We were waking to her door and heard someone honking and looked over and saw Luis waving at us! We ran over and he told us what a busy week he's had at work but that he'd be there at church on Sunday! It was such a miracle because If we would have left, we never would have seen Luis!! God is so good! After that we went to check on someone else and on our way we saw these people talking on the street so we pulled over to talk to them. The couple was super nice but this woman that was with them was super rude to us and basically told us to get lost. It was discouraging but we kept tracting! We met a really sweet old lady and made her cry by sharing a scripture. After that we checked on brother Harris. He was raised in the church but doesn't really go anymore. Last time we visited him he was kind of uncomfortable. But this time he was so excited to see us! he's so sweet! He said he'd try to come to church the next day. After dinner we dropped a little Easter basket off for one of our ward members and then spent the rest of the night with the Stoupas. They are wonderful!! The daughters are so cute and just so...real. They are not ashamed of who they are and they are not apologetic about who they are! I love them! Maddie had a ton of questions about the plan of salvation and it was a really powerful lesson. Luis told us he'd be at church at 8:30 so we got there early to greet him. We waited and waited and waited and he didn't show. The Clark's came which was great but we were still bummed Luis wasn't there. Then during sacrament the elders texted us and told us he was sitting in the back!! It was the greatest feeling in the world to see him there in the back! Luis loved every part of church! Sunday school was a little different and cool because we did a Seder dinner. It was pretty cool! The elders told us Luis participated a lot in priesthood and seemed to love it! It was such an answer to prayer to have him there and it was the perfect Easter present! (Not that I didn't love yours mom!! :) ) after church we studied and then had dinner with some awesome members. We then took an Easter treat to the Clark's. I just love them!! After seeing them we did some tracting. That's either the worst or best thing to do on a holiday. Yesterday it was wonderful! Everyone was super nice and we gave quite a few people some book of Mormons. We dropped an Easter treat off for another family to finish the night off. I thought Easter would be kind of sad to be away from home, but it was amazing. Obviously I missed you guys, but feeling the joy of having Luis at church and talking to people about the gospel all day was seriously the best! I hope you guys have an awesome week! You are all the best and I love having such amazing people to write home to every week! Love you!!! Sister Pehrson

April 14, 2014

Family!!! This was such an amazing week!! It made me so so thankful to be serving here and to be a missionary! I love this work SO MUCH!!! so Monday was super hectic since we did the cherry blossoms,but it was super worth it! that evening we had dinner with our relief society president! she's such an amazing person. so I don't remember if I told you guys but we set up a member lesson with the woman in our ward. so that was coming up on Thursday and we asked our Relief society president if she had any advice for us or anything. she told us how awesome the lady really is and told us not to worry. I admire the relief society president so much!! she truly doesn't judge anyone and I think that is incredible. After dinner we had a lesson with a girl named Sloane. she's a senior this year and is friends with one of our ward members. Sloane went up to her and started asking her about the church and said that she had found the book of Mormon on her kindle, downloaded it and was now in Alma!!! how cool is that?! she is such a cool girl. she's a military kid so she's moved around pretty much everywhere and has met several church members through her life. her family is baptist, but she is loving the book of Mormon and wants to know more about our church. after that lesson we had correlation with the Bishop which went great! starting on Monday of this week I just had these feelings of things I want to change but I'm not sure how and since I knew my "halfway" point was approaching I was just wondering if I have really made that much progress or not and I was feeling a little bit down! Satan was definitely working on me, but Tuesday really helped me out with those feelings! We had zone training Tuesday morning and it was so amazing! we talked about the story of Abraham and Isaac. Elder Bednar talked about this in his conference talk so it was something I was wanting to study. we talked about how much of a sacrifice it was for Abraham to do what he did. we talked about true sacrifice and what the results are. I thought about my mission so far and how it's been so amazing, but that I can do so much better and be more than just mediocre. I've been having a lot of feelings of "what if I didn't do enough in my last area?" and "what if i could have been a better companion?" But I know that Heavenly Father needed me to have those experiences. He doesn't want me to regret any of the time I've spent and He accepts my efforts, as imperfect as they are! I've been really praying for His help to deal with feelings of inadequacy or failure and it's been helping a lot! But zone training really taught me a lot about what I still need to sacrifice. it's interesting because right now is a point in my mission where I can really fell myself changing. I have such a strong desire to become better every day and to make the most out of the next 9 months, and I'm excited to see all the adventures they hold! But the most exciting thing happened at zone training! Sister Kramer, who served in Leesburg after me, told me that Joshua was going to be baptized on Saturday!!! I'm not sure if you guys remember him but he was the hilarious African who wore the "cool story babe. now make me a sandwich" shirt! But i guess he started going to the singles ward over there and decided to get baptized!! It was so exciting!! after training we ate and then met with Valerie. We had a good visit and then we went on exchanges. me and sister martindale stayed in our area with sister kramer and sister egbert left. Sister kramer is so incredible!! she's so full of the spirit and is so loving and fun to work with. she is exactly who I needed to go on exchange with. we started off the exchange by reading an email sent to us by president that he sent to his son serving in Texas right now. it was all about practice and specifically practice teaching and truly being prepared each day. we realized that although we've been doing the practice teaching, it's been pretty meaningless and we've really just been doing it to fill time. So sister kraemer said she'd help us with that the next day. after that we ate and then went to see a less actrive family. Sister "M" was baptized when she was in her 40s with her kids were baptized. later on brother M got baptized but they haven't been to church in a long time. this was only my second time meeting with them and it was seriously one of the most spiritual lessons on my mission so far!! we talked about grace and about the temple. but we were talking about the temple and sister M told us that their son was in the first group of LDS people to get to go to the Kirtland temple and he got to pass the sacrament there! sister m also went and she cried as she told us how strong the spirit was when they sang the spirit of god. she said that she went to church 2 weeks ago with her grandkids and they sang the spirit of god and she just cried the whole time! she said she promised herself she would go back to church after conference and so we talked about how we could help her do that. we talked about the sacrament and how important it is because it allows us to get that extra strength from God to improve each week! after we said that, Brother M was like "we need to take the sacrament!!!" he told us that we need to be at their house at 8 30 on Sunday morning so that they really will go! oh my goodness it was the most exciting thing ever!!!! I was so scared that sister kramer had brought up the temple but it was exactly what they needed to hear. after the lesson in the car we talked about being bold in our inviting and how bringing up uncomfortable stuff is so important!! the rest of the night we mainly tracted with not much success but it was such a great day! at the end of the night I told sister Kramer how I'd been feeling about my last area and the time i spent there and she told me she has felt the same way about some of her past areas but that I just need to remember that i did impact peoples lives there and that all I can do is focus on now and becoming better every day! it was something I really needed to hear and I'm so grateful Heavenly Father sent Sister Kramer to tell me that!! Wednesday was another amazing day!! during comp study that morning we tried out some new ways of practice teaching and it went so much better than it had in the past. it's funny because i felt like we were doing so well just because I came from an area where practice teaching rarely happened! but I realized that we really weren't meeting our full potential here. just because this area is a million times better than my last, doesn't mean it can't be a million times better than it is now!! we then talked about all we learned on the exchange and set some goals on how to improve. mine were: 1. truly focus on right now and savor it! 2. Make things happen. Don't wait & don't hesitate! 3. Do the uncomfortable things. ALWAYS! I don't know if you guys read my blog or not but Sister Kramer is the one who told me about the talk "always in the middle". i read that on Wednesday morning and that talk encouraged me so much! I feel like I have all these changes I've been wanting to make but I felt a little stuck and overwhelmed. Now I see that I have 9 amazing months ahead of me to make whatever changes I need to want to make! And I still have years of progression after the mission as well!! it was so funny, as I shared some of these thoughts with sister martindale and sister kraemer i got all emotional, but it was like happy emotional! I was crying and I was like "I just love eternal progression!!'" then we all just busted up laughing! gotta love those hormones..haha. anyways after that we exchanged back and shared our thoughts and ideas with sister egbert. we then had FB and language study. then we did a whole bunch of tracting. we were walking up to this door with kind of a long driveway and then the UPS guy showed up and we were walking to the door the same time as him. it was like an awkward stand off and we were all just cracking up! after that we ate and then went and saw sister C. she had all of her Easter decorations up and there is a sign by her door that says peep, but it's written in cursive so it looks like poop. she was like "if you're wondering,the sign says peep, not poop!!" she's such a hoot! she had us blow up her inflatable bunny decorations, we talked about conference, and then we left. we stopped by the woman who let us use her bathroom last week, and we brought her family some cookies. they were so excited to see us, it was so cute!! after that we decided to check on this address from a sticky note i found in my bag. that person wasn't home but we knocked around them and met a girl from somewhere in Africa. she was excited to hear about the book of Mormon and said she'd let us know when we can come back over. it was cool to see why we were needed over there!! after that we had a member lesson with a younger couple in our ward. they are so awesome and it was one of the most spiritual member lessons I've ever had! we taught the plan of salvation and they committed to study in preach my gospel about that and let us know if anyone's name comes to their mind that we could teach. Thursday was so great! after studies and facebook we went and saw an investigator, Valerie. after that visit we knocked doors. it was the most beautiful day ever so tracting was really fun! Unfortunately no one we met was interested, but everyone was really kind so that was good. after that we checked on a ward member how was baptized about a year ago. she's from somewhere in Asia and she invited us to come over for tea some other day. after that we ate dinner and then went to check on some former investigators we had dinner with a couple weeks ago where we met that brasillian family. we decided to check on some of their neighbors we met last week and it turns out they were all outside on the porch of one of the neighbors houses. as we walked up we hear someone yell "IT'S THE THREE SISTERS!!!"it was Anna, the little brasillian girl! It was so cute. i guess she keeps asking her mom when we are going to come back. we talked to everyone for a while, mainly about our missions. Christine said she'll call us and have us for dinner soon. after that we went and checked on some other investigators. when we left their house we had about 20 minutes before we had a member lesson. sister martindale needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped by Safeway. we were looking for it and we passed these 3 guys using a coinstar and one of them looked at us and was like "dang, ya'll are pretty!!" Sister Martindale and I kept walking but sister egbert stopped and started talking to them. they gave us their address and told us to come over. one was like "we got a pool! ya'll can come swimmin with us! I won't let none of mah friends mess with you." they were sooo creepy! haha then one of them was like "my mom was a Jehovah's Witness once." they were a little intoxicated...then when we left they again told us to come over and see them and one guy was like "I'm not telling ya'll to come over just cause I'm single at Safeway or whateva. i really want to see you guys!" they were all in their 40s too which made it so much creepier! we decided we're going to give that address to the elders to check on haha!:) on Friday morning, the missionaries in Russia called us and asked if we could help teach Pedro again that afternoon. we called sister K, who is from brasil, and asked if we could do it at her house. sadly once we got to the house, the missionaries called and told us pedro had rescheduled at what would be 6 AM our time the next day. we were going to say no, but sister K said she'd help us teach him at that time and we could use her wifi! they called again and said it would be more like 7 30 so we decided to do it at the church since we had a meeting/breakfast there at 8. sister k fed us lunch and we had an amazing talk about missionary work and how it really is hastening. sister k is so excited about missionary work and she's always talking to her friends and family about the gospel, it's so amazing! she was like "i don't care if it's 3 A.M. if someone needs to hear the gospel, I'll teach them! I can't sleep if I know someone's missing out on hearing this." it made me think about if I feel that way and if I really have that anxiety for others to hear the gospel! after lunch we finished weekly planning and then did FB. then we had our interviews with President! I just love that man! He is so passionate, humble, and full of love. he talked about how important our studies and and how we need to be preparing to teach every day through our studies. i do study every day, but I know i can always make them more meaningful! He shared a quote by Joseph Smith, "A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation." Then he invited me to think about what I will sacrifice this transfer in order to produce the faith necessary to reach everyone the Lord has in store for me to reach. it's something I need to pray and ponder about so I know I am truly sacrificing. it was an amazing interview and made me so thankful to be in this mission! he also told me about this visa waiter whose been in the mission for a year and he got his visa on April fools day! president called him and it took him 5 minutes to convince him that he seriously got his visa. SO FUNNY! after that we headed straight to our lesson with Luis!!! we had a member come with us and it was such an amazing lesson. we taught the plan of salvation. he didn't get a chance to read the book of Mormon this week because he's been so busy with work. he said he's been asking everyone at work what they know about Mormons haha! our lesson with him was so intense though. the spirit was so strong! I've set a goal to be more bold and confident in my teaching so I invited Luis to be baptized in a pretty bold way! We invited him to be baptized on May 10th. he was pretty darn shocked! He was like "you don't sound like my teacher anymore! you sound like my superior now!" we all told him that he needs to know for himself if he should be baptized that day or not. i think he was excited but just really surprised! when we left he shook everyones hand but when he got to me he saluted me. hahah love that guy so much! after that we were supposed to have another lesson but the guy wasn't there. we stopped by a members to use their bathroom and they gave us some Georgetown cupcakes. it was glorious! Saturday was so amazing!! we woke up at 5 45 so we could work out and get ready in time for the lesson with Pedro at the church and then our breakfast and meeting. so we waited and waited and waited..and Pedro didn't show. i guess it's good to know that the same stuff that happens here happens in Russia too! anyways we ate and then the area 70 spoke to us! he talked about working with members and how we need to be really patient with them. he said "you have 18 months to serve, but you have eternity to reflect on it!" powerful!! after that we studied. it was a beautiful day so we studied out in the park and i got BURNT!! but it'll be a tan soon...i hope :) after that we met up with sister kramer and her comp so we could exchange and sister kramer and i could go to Joshua's baptism! it was amazing! Joshua was so surprised to see me! he was like "how was brazil!!" i told him I hadn't been yet. we asked him how he was feeling and he was like "I'm good! I like this jumpsuit. it's so comfy! I need to buy one!" hahah i love him! so one of the members in his ward plays for the redskins and is going to take Joshua shopping for a suit! the baptism was so amazing though. it was cook to see that tracting really works and that planted seeds do grow! even if they seem like they never will! after the baptism we exchanged back and checked on a referral who wasn't home. we knocked doors with no success. on our way back to the car we saw a ton of people around this car so we asked if we could help them out. the woman looked up and got super excited and we were like "shoot are we supposed to know her?!" haha but she explained that she's in the Oakton ward. so the lady, sister h, introdued us to her sons and their friends (who are our age and not active). she let us use her bathroom. she kept talking about her sons and how good It was for them to see us and when we were walking out she was like " go through the garage so they can see you again!" i think she wants us to flirt to convert...haha. after that we had quite a few unsuccessful visits but then we checked on that girl, Gelica who we met a few days before. we met her mom, Clarice. she's so sweet and has actually been taught by missionaries before!! they told us to come back in a few weeks and teach them so that was exciting! we were really bummed out though because we had a voicemail from the M's that night saying that brother M got sick and they couldn't come to church! :( but they promised to come in a few weeks when sister M gets back from a trip. Sunday was a great day! kind of disappointing at first because Luis and Sloane both didn't get to come to church :( we got a new ward mission leader so that is exciting! he's pretty young and is excited about the work so I'm really looking forward to how it'll change things in the area! after church we studied at the park for a bit but got way too hot! after dinner we did some tracting! we met some super amazing people! the first we met was Melanie. she's a kindergarten teacher and had 2 lds kids in her class a few years ago and their mom gave her a book about the history of the church and she is learning more about the church now. she was raised Jewish and the became christian at age 31. she and her husband are still looking for "the right church" for them. she feels like her friends can teach her what she needs to know but she was freaking out that we were girls!! she's only seen elders so she thinks it's amazing that girls do this too! we gave her our card and invited her to church and she was like "you don't have to be a member to go?! you can just come any time?" we were like "YES!!! anyone can come! please come!!" so they're probably gonna come next week!!! after that we met a super hilarious family from England. the son answered the door and he was about our age and is incredibly good looking! as soon as we heard his accent it seemed like we all lost our ability to speak and think clearly hahah. but he had a Mormon friend in high school but he never really told him much about the church. his name is rowan, and the family isn't religious but rowan accepted the book of Mormon and said he'd read it! his dad then came out and told us he's going to really make his son go to our church now. his dad was super hilarious but not too interested! we told them we'll stop back by and they seemed okay with it. the last really cool person was Mr. Murray. he is episcopalian but said their family doesn't go much. his daughters have LDS friends and he actually uses the churches family history website a lot! they told us we are welcome to come back and share more. it was a really successful tracting experience! we ended the night doorbell ditching a lady. we left her cookies and a note. she has cancer and we wanted it give her a little pick me up! this week was seriously so amazing! i can't believe my 9 months are up. it's gone fast for me, i don't know how it is for you guys though! probably torture ;) i love you all so much and hope you have a fabulous Easter! I'll be really missing dad's awesome Easter egg hunts! love you!! Love, Sister Pehrson

April 7, 2014

Hey fam!! sorry this is probably going to be pretty short...I'll try my best to get everything in though! the reason this is so late is cause we went to see the cherry blossoms today! it was not really fully bloomed but we got some really pretty pictures and there were a few gorgeous trees! anywho back to the rest of the week! so after emailing last week we went to a place called Neilson's frozen custard. it's owned by Mormon's so we got a discount! woot! then we went to a thrift store and just sat outside for awhile in the sun!! we had dinner that night with some members who have the craziest little daughter ever. she's so cute and so full of energy! she's probably the most enthusiastic little girl ever! it was fun eating with them. after that we stopped at an investigators house and ended up just setting up a time to come back. after that we knocked doors and met a world war two war veteran! he is 90 years old and was so cute!! Then we had correlation with the bishop which was awesome! Tuesday was another amazing day! we had district meeting and talked about working more with the members. we also talked about facebook and how to be more productive on there so I'm trying to come up with new ideas! If you guys have any ideas let me know! after the meeting lunch and studies we went and saw Valerie. that was an adventure as always! it's funny because she thinks we're not teaching her but she keeps asking us questions that lead us to talk about the gospel so she's really not helping her cause! but today she asked us what we thought about the role of women in society and so that was fun to talk about. after visiting Valerie we studied more, did facebook, and ate dinner. after dinner we visited a less active woman in our area. she lives with her 2 sons who are grown up and they are so interesting. After that we tracted and we met the nicest woman named lelani. sister martindale had to go to the bathroom really bad and lelani let us use her bathroom. she also let sister martindale play her piano and we just had an awesome talk with them. we didn't teach her and her family, but she invited us back for dinner which is pretty exciting! after that we went and checked on a former investigator who wasn't home. we kept knocking doors since it was like 8:30 and there was nothing else to do and surprisingly no one yelled at us and a couple people let us in! we had a ton of fun tracting and just made it a party! i love my comps! Wednesday was also great! after studies and facebook we ended up finding a new investigator! we thought we were checking on someone else but it was the wrong house. but it was obviously the right one because we met Tenne. she's from Sierra Leone and her husband used to investigate the church! she invited us back to give her a book of Mormon and teach her more! after that we went and saw sister koford. she is from brasil and helps us with our Portuguese once a week! she's so amazing! we were telling her about the Brasilian family we met last week and she told us to give them her contact info and she'll have them over for dinner and stuff !super exciting! we then did a whole ton of tracting! we were actually by an investigators home and a couple people we talked to said that our investigator had talked about us so that was pretty exciting!! after that both me and sister martindale needed to use the bathroom so we went to our investigators house. she wasn't home but her husband was and we kicked yet another man out of his house to use the bathroom! haha we are just on a roll lately! after that we felt like we needed to be somewhere else. on our way to the car we saw a girl who lives with one of our investigators. her name is Maddie. we ended up talking to her for like an hour and she invited us to a bunch of stuff, including the restaurant she works at and made plans for us to come see her there on Friday. Thursday was so full of miracles!! the first came in a text!! one of our YW told us about her friend who found the book of Mormon on her kindle and downloaded it and just started reading it! that day she asked the member if she could come to church with her!!! the second miracle was when the young women president called and told us a girl came to mutual last night who had been telling people at her school that she was going to be baptized Mormon and stuff so one of the young women asked her about it and she was like yeah i was meeting with the missionaries and I'm supposed to get baptized in Annandale but they stopped calling me. so i guess that a member in annandale was taking her to church but it was just too far away and she kinda fell under the radar. but we got her number and now we get to teach her so it's super exciting!!! that afternoon we talked with Valerie in Portuguese. she's an awesome lady!! after that we had dinner with the Brazilian family in our ward! the wife is helping me and sister Egbert sooo much!! after dinner we were checking on some people in a certain apartment complex and we all felt like we needed to go somewhere else. we prayed and decided to see the Stoupas. they are a really cute family of a mom, a 12 year old girl, and a 16 year old girl! the daughters are so interested and they are great friends with members so it's really fun to teach them! they said they would watch conference this weekend so that's exciting!! the other miracle that happened Thursday is that sister Egbert has a friend in Russia on his mission. he's a zone leader and he emailed sis E telling her that he has some sisters in his zone who are teaching a guy who speaks Portuguese and a little bit of English so he asked if we could do skype lessons to help the sisters over there teach him. we set up a lesson for Friday afternoon!! Friday we got to do the lesson on skype and it was soooo cool! Pedro is the mans name and he actually understood our Portuguese which was sooo exciting! i am so blessed to get to use so much Portuguese in my area right now! it was a real confidence booster knowing that he knew what we said and so we're going to be helping teaching him from here on out! after the lesson we had weekly planning which was awesome! then we went and ate at that restaurant where our friend Maddie works. she has so many questions and is a really awesome girl. after eating we went and had a lesson with Luis, the guy who was sooo excited about prophets! we took a member with us and Luis kept flirting with her and i guess she felt really uncomfortable but we thought it was pretty hilarious! but Luis is so hungry for the truth and so prepared! i am so grateful i get to teach him because the spirit is so strong when we have lessons with him! he's just SO prepared and he hangs on every word we say! it reminds me of why i came out on my mission! i love it! another cool thing happened at that lesson. so Luis rents out his basement to 2 girls from Rwanda. we met them and one of them was like what church are you from. we told her and she said she used to go there and she has read the book of Mormon! she moved here a while ago and has been too busy to go back but we gave her the address and invited her to call us and come to church here! miracle!! conference was soooo amazing! poor sister Egbert got food poisoning and was sick all day...i felt so bad she is such a trooper! Conference was seriously exactly what I needed! i never realized just how powerful conference is until my mission! one of the biggest and strongest impressions I got is just that I need to be more bold. To truly forsake the world (which is not easy an a FB missionary!!) and to really not care what other think! I felt so much peace and happiness and confidence as I listened and I know that those feelings only last if I do what is right!! As i sat reflecting on this I realized how amazing my life really is. i am so blessed to be a missionary! i' so blessed to be here in Vienna! i sometimes forget to enjoy this season of my life, but this weekend I just savored it! And i realized I need to do that more often! After Thursday, I've only got 9 months left to change the world here in VA!! crazy right?! i also loved conference on Sunday. i wish i could give you all the insight i received but I'll send it next week since I'm running out of time! a cool thing happened Sunday evening! we were out tracting and we met a guy whose house had flooded so we got to help him move a bunch of stuff and he ended up giving us a ton of artwork because he didn't have room for it anymore! he was so grateful for our help and it's always fun to find those random times to serve! anywho sorry this email is THE WORST! I feel like such a bad missionary because I hardly had time to write you! know that I am doing so well! I haven't hit the 9 month mid life crisis (yet) so don't worry about that! But I know it's gonna be another amazing week! you guys are the best and I can't imagine life without you! love you tons!! love, Sister Pehrson