Monday we spent most of our preparation day just relaxing! It's
different here because they have tourist attractions and stuff but we can't do
anything because its too dangerous. A lot of people get robbed when they
are doing touristy stuff so its against the rules. Napping is always a nice
thing to do on "P" day, so I enjoyed that!! When p day ended we went to the
house of a family who was baptized recently. They have a 10 yr old daughter and
we are helping her do stuff to get her Faith in God award. We are memorizing
all the articles of faith with her and its a lot of fun! They are a super sweet
family so we had a nice visit with them. We then went to a family home evening
that a sister in the ward planned. She invited a lot of her family and friends. It was really cool!
Definitely the most organized family home evening I've seen here yet! It was a
lot of fun!
Tuesday morning I woke up feeling really sick. I
wasn't feeling great on Monday night but I wanted to just wait and see
how I felt in the morning. I ended up having to take some medicine
called leite de magnesium. It worked like a charm! That afternoon we went to our appointments. The fist visit one of the ladies was sick, so it wasn't the best visit. We talked to lots of people on the street that day and had a pretty good
amount of success! We taught a lady named Darlyene. Shes really really cool! Last
Sunday was her first time in church after 5 years. She was planning to go on a mission but some things happened and she stopped coming to church. But she really wants to come back now and is an
amazing person so we are excited to help her! We had a lesson in the
evening with a man named Luciano. We brought his son's primary
teacher with us so we could explain the blessings of primary. It
went really well! It was our last lesson of the night and when we left it
was raining. The member who was with us walked all the way home with us just to
make sure we'd be safe! He lives on the opposite side of town from us and had
to work early the next day so it was so nice of him to do that! I love the
members here!!
Wednesday was good! A little rough but thats life!! We
had zone and district meetings which were great. In the afternoon we had a
lesson with an investigator. We marked a date for baptism with him for August
3rd, which just so happens to be his birthday!! And we didn't even know that
before! He's
excited and it will be a great day for him! After that we taught a girl who we
met last week, PAMELA!! I got so excited when she told me her name! She's
really cool! She's 14 and really, really sweet. We then taught our investigator
Angelica. She has a baby due in September and has a lot of interest in the
church. We then had a lesson with a guy we met on Tuesday. The
member we brought lives next door to him so at least now he has a friend in the
church! After that we had a family home evening. A ward member invited us
on Sunday and we really had no idea what to expect. We planned on teaching
about missionary work since we thought it would just be he and his family.
Well, we got there and he had the lesson all planned. The Patriach of our stake was there along with a guy we didn't
know. It was a very simple and sweet family home evening! The family was
baptized about 3 years ago and they are still learning how everything works.
Funny story, the patriarch has a really great singing voice and he sings SUPER loud!
So all of us were singing normally and the patriarch wasjust
belting the hymns. It was so cute! It was cool because at the end of the
lesson we set up a lesson with the guy we didn't know. So now
we get to teach him! We ended the night contacting a referral we got from a
member. her name is Carolina. she is 17 and had a baby about 3 weeks ago. She's
really sweet and so we just set up a time to go back and teach her since it was
pretty late.
Thursday was great! We went to the church early in the
morning because one of our favorite ward member´s son passed away and we heard
the funeral would be that morning. Sadly we got there and it had ended. They do
things so differently here in Brazil!! But we were able to see the members and give them
our love and support. Afterwards we came home and studied for a bit and then
left for our interviews with Preisdent Bonini!! Before interviews we ate lunch
at Burger King and it's never tasted that good before! Or been that
expensive...seriously its like 40 reais for a meal. But the interview was nice!
President Bonini talked a lot about his vision for the mission and for every
missionary, so it was really cool! After the interview we went back to our area
and it was raining like I've never seen before! It was pretty cool! We taught a
member who would cme to church every week, but she always has to work on Sundays. After that we
taught an investigator, Rosalene. After that we taught a person who was baptized recently. She is trugling with different things in her life right now. Hopefully our visit helped.
Friday was sooo incredible! In the morning we went and
taught Carolina, the referral we got from a member. She is seriously GOLDEN!
And she's just super sweet, so I am really grateful I get to teach
her!! The lesson with her was unlike any other lesson I've taught in my
mission. She was listening so intently and she had tons of amazing questions!
After teaching her about Joseph Smith and how he was so confused about which
church was true she asked ´´So which church is true?´´ And then she
started asking all these questions about baptism and asked ´´What do I need to
do to be baptized?´´ It was just like the stories in the Ensign!!!! It
was so cool! She's so sweet and she really just wants the best for her new baby
son, so it's amazing to get to teach her! We marked a baptism day with her in
that lesson for the 3rd of August but she didn't come to church on sunday so
we have a new goal for the 10th of August. After that we taught our investigator Neto!
We brought some members with us and they helped so much !He is still apprehensive about baptism, but I think
that everything will work out and he will be baptized this sunday. We did a ton
of contacts that day with not much success. We visited the members whose son
passed away and had a really great visit with them. We sang some hymns and
talked about the plan of salvation! I'm so grateful I have knowledge of
that plan! They have a son on a mission right now. They were worried if they told him about his brother he
would want to come back home. It's a tough situation and one I dont want to
imagine! But we told we both would want to
know if something like that happened.
Saturday was another great day! We taught Carolina in the
morning and it was an equally amazing lesson as the one on Friday! She told us
ever since we started visiting her she has felt something different in her
life! It was so exciting! Afterwards we taught english class which is always
fun! The afternoon was pretty rough! Almost all of our appointments fell
through so we were just talking to everyone but no one seemed to want to
listen. We had a good lesson with our investigator Angelica and taught her
about the plan of salvation which was cool since she's having a baby
soon! I think it was extra special for her to hear about this plan when
she's about to bring a baby into the world! In the evening we knocked the door
of a house that Sister Downs had felt like she needed to knock on for weeks. We
met a really sweet family and we are going to go back and teach them later on
this week!
Sunday was good, but rough! Nobody came to church which was
so sad because we really really thought that they would! But people have their
agency...thats just life! We taught gospel principles and it was fun! My first
time teaching a class in Portuguese! I think it went pretty well! In the
afternoon we taught a girl who was baptized in 2009ish but stopped coming to church. She's
super cool and her husband is not a member and is a really sweet guy so we set
up a time to come back and teach the whole family next Sunday! They are a
really sweet couple and I feel like the husband will accept our message!
We also taught Darlyene and made some goals with she and her daughter to get
them started on the journey back to church! That evening we had
some meetings in the church and then went to teach a lady Wanderley. We found
her that afternoon because we were looking for the house of an investigator we
had planned to teach but both Sister Downs and I wrote the wrong address!!
But it turned out to be all right because we knocked the house next door and
met a lad that wanted to have some lessons. She was baptized about 10 yrs ago and stopped going to church. Honestly, I
think last night was the saddest lesson I've ever taught. We talked to her
about her story and history in the church and she said that she loved the
church but that she was always fighting feelings of unhappiness. Everyone said
to read the scriptures and pray but she never could shake the feeling of not
feeling completely happy. We asked her how she is now, if shes happy. She
just cried and cried and said no. I think she has depression but they dont
really diagnose people with that here, so its so hard! I felt at a loss for
words because I know the gospel has made me happy. She told us she will return to church eventually but
shes just not ready right now. It was the saddest thing! She doesn't want us to come and visit her but she appreciated us
stopping by. Agency is definitely the hardest part of a mission!!
So yeah, that was my week! I am loving my new area, loving my new companion!
Loving life! The language is still hard but I feel like I'm really learning
a ton! People can understand me most of the time. I'm going to start a count of
how many people tell me to wear sunscreen. I wear sunscreen every day
but I also sweat like crazy so I'm always a little red!
I hope you
all have an amazing week!
I love you so, so much!
Tchau!
Sister Pehrson
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