July 7, 2014

olaaaa familia!!! Thanks again for all the emails and love! I always love to hear about what is going on with you all! Things here in Brasil are awesome! I feel like I´m sort of getting into the hang of things here and I´m having so much fun!! This last week was really awesome! on Monday after emailing we didn't do too much, which was really nice because I needed to catch up on my sleep! We had a really awesome lesson that night with Aldenora. We had it at a member's house and did FHE with them. It was perfect! The members testimonies are so strong and really helped Aldenora. the cool thing is that Aldenora's daughter came to the lesson too. She really felt the spirit and commited to go to Young Women"s on Tuesday! Aldenora said something about how awful my Portuguese is and I felt really bad! My companions were supportive and told her I'd only been here a week, but I was feeling a little down. The message we shared with Aldenora that night was that God is always there to help us. Sometimes as I teach I think the lessons are for me as well because even though I preach this truth to people every day, I realized I'm not exercising my faith as much as I can! When things start to go a little sour I panic and forget that I have a loving Heavenly Father who wants me to be happy and he´s in charge of everything!! It was a very good reminder for me to practice what I preach :) Tuesday was really good! We ate a members home It was great! After lunch we walked and walked and walked some more in the sun until we found some people to teach. We found 3 new investigators and one is really really receptive! We also taught Diana, who the sisters have been teaching for quite a while. She´s understanding everything really well! Our lesson with her really helped her see she is getting things! After that lesson we went and saw Aldenora. We went over all the questions in the Baptismal interview and it was awesome! After that we went to mutual! Aldenora didn't come which was sad but we had a good time. The young women invited us on Sunday to come to their activity because they were going to visit the less active young women in the ward. It was cool to see that even in a different country mutual and the young women are the same! it was a ton of fun! Wednesday was so awesome! We had a conference to get to know the new Mission President and his wife! It was sooo great! They are amazing and a lot of fun! I´m really greatful I get to serve with them here! President and Sister Bonini are converts of 23 years. Sister Bonini showed us their first copy of the Book of Mormon! It was so cool! They started learning about the church because Sis Bonini saw an ad in the newspaper to order a Book of Mormon and she decided to order it. A while later some Sister's showed up and taught and baptized their family! They truly love the gospel and love missionary work and I know they are exactly what this mission needs! It was fun to see all my MTC friends again. It was a lot more enjoyable with a decent amount of sleep and a week's experience :) After the conference Sis Lugen, Sis Luna, and I headed back to our area. Our companions stayed for a special leadership meeting. The afternoon started out pretty slow but after a little while things picked up! We met some great potentials and then had a really powerful lesson with one of our newer investigators Francealda. She has 2 beautiful little boys and is a really sweet lady! She's willing to listen to the lessons and I know that will help her a lot! After that lesson we headed to Sister Luna's area. We stopped to pick up a member who had a referral for us. Our night with her was quite the adventure!! She took us to the house of this family she knows and I think she took us through some scariy streets and neighborhoods in Fortaleza!!!! I was fearing for my life! But we survived and had a good lesson with her friend! Thursday was awesome! Full of miracles like always! We found 2 new people to teach that are really sweet but we aren't sure if they are super interested...time will tell! We also visited Patricia. She's in the process of returning to church. She's really awesome! We had a cool experience with her that day. We talked with her about missionary work and at the end asked if she knows anyone who she can share the gospel with. She started off saying no but then mentioned a family she spends a lot of time with who recently lost the mom of the dad of the family. She taught then the plan of salvation and has been inviting them to church. She explained where they live and Sis Twitchell actually contacted them about 2 months ago! They were really promising but were always busy taking care of the husband's mom! Sadly she passed away but now they have more time and are ready to hear the gospel!! So Patricia is going to talk to them and set up an appointment for us! So cool!! After that we went and taught our investigator Hymudina (I still dont know how to spell names in Portuguese..its super hard haha!). It was cool because she now really understands our purpose in visiting her and I think she will really progress now! After that we went to pick up Aldenora for her baptismal interview. It went sooo well! President Bonini is amazing!! It was fun because we got to talk with Sis Bonini about their mission in Mozambique while Aldenora was being interviewed. Aldenora said that President gave her lots of good advice! After we took her back home we visited Marlene. She was baptized about a month ago and is the cutest, sweetest, thing! . She has such a strong spirit! Friday was great!! Even though I wasn't in the USA there were still tons of fireworks for Brasil's Wrld Cup game that day. It was here in Fortaleza! Sadly we didn't get to work much. The game started at 5 and we had to be in by 4. But we still got a little work done and had some awesome experiences!!! We ate lunch with a couple who were counselors to President Souza. They had their son there and also invited the senior couple who is serving here. The son started talking with President and Sister bonini. He found out where they are from and he asked if they new a missionary, Sister Dias. President said "Yes, that's the sister who taught our family.´´ The guy started to cry and said ´´That is the daughter of a family I taught and baptized on my mission.´´ HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!?!?!??! Seriously the spirit was so strong and it was just amazing to be there. It is such a testimony of the fruits of our labor as missionaries! We can never think that our missions were a waste of time! If we really work hard to teach people to be powerful members, we will have greater things happen than we can even imagine and our work will impact so many more people than we think! It was such a powerful experience!! After that we went and taught Aldenora. We had a nice visit with her and she was super excited for her baptism the next day! We literally had to run home to get back by 4 00. Our area is pretty big and the investigator who lives closest to us is a 45 minute walk if we are walking fast!! So we booked it home. At one point a guy stopped and offered us a ride, haha. I am sure we looked super ridiculous! It was such a blast though! The rest of the day was nice. We wrote letters and studied and listened to music and baked an apple pie to celebrate the 4th! It was the most American thing we could think of :) It was a great day. Saturday was awesome! In the morning we had to go fill up the font at the church. It has a leak so it took us almost 2 hours to fill and we also had to clean it out before we filled it! It was an adventure! After that we had our first appointment of the day with Graca. We then had a lesson with this really cool girl, Rosani. She has never really gone to church but she feels like now she wants to start. She was asking us how we receive answers to questions and why we go to church. She is someone who is genuinely seaching for the truth so it is awesome to teach her! After that we saw Francealda. She talked to us more about her difficulties that day and we talked about how we can receive strenth to make it through hard times. It was very powerful! My heart really aches for her. It was a good reminder to be careful who I choose to marry and make sure that he is someone who will make my life better, not worse!! After that lesson we picked up Aldenora and headed to her baptism!!! Her daughter came which was really special and important for Aldenora. The baptism was perfect!! Our Bishop spoke and everything he said was just what she needed to hear. I love the spirit that I feel at baptisms! Sunday was a good day! A little rough, but good! Besides, what's life without some hard days?? Boring!!! I really struggle with understanding the language in meetings. So church that day was hard and so was our correlation meeting in the evening! I go for a while thinking I'm starting to get stuff down and then I go to a meeting and feel like I can't understand anything! It's frustrating, but I know I have to remember I've only been here for 2 weeks and I need to be more patient!! BUT on a brighter note!! Aldenora was confirmed that day and it was great! She is just glowing and feels so happy! After our lunch we visited Francealda and had a great visit with her. She didn't come to church because her Aunt that lives with her was sick, but she is really starting to change. She loves having us visit and is studying the assignments we give her. I am excited to see the change that will happen in her life because of the gospel! After seeing her we stopped and saw Aldenora, hoping to teach her daughter, but she wasn't home. We then had a lesson with Elvira. Shes been taught for about 2 months now. She travels a ton so its hard to teach her. But yesterday we chose a baptismal date with her! She won't be traveling much this month so she will progress a lot from here on out! After seeing her we saw Aline. Shes a member but doesn't come very much. She's been sick for a while and we talked to her about Priesthood Blessings. She didn't know what they were! I am excited because she's going to get one tonight and I think it will be really really good for her! I do feel like I am understanding more and getting more into the routine of everything here! There are still things that I don't understand and that I struggle with, but I really am loving it here! Between the dirt and sweat, bugs and rice & beans, there is a people who are so full of joy and love! They are so optimistic and charitable! I am really greatful that I get to be here teaching them as well as learning from them! I love you all sooo much! I hope all is well back in the states!!! 3 days until my year mark! I cant even believe it...its going way too fast! :( thanks for all you guys do!! have an awesome week! Love you! Sister Pehrson