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