June 2, 2014

Oi familia!!!! I hope you've all had an amazing week and that you're not too worried about me leaving the country ;) I've obviously had a very exciting week in soo many ways!! So monday after emailing we shopped super fast and then went to the viva Vienna festival. Our investigator Morgan was dancing there and we got to watch her! Her mom Ellen was really shocked and so grateful that we had come! it was a ton of fun. After we watched her we went and ate some deep fried cookie dough because you can't go to something like that and not buy deep fried cookie dough! it was disgusting and delicious all at the same time.. haha. we saw tons of members and investigators there too so it was really fun! after that we went and had dinner with some members and it was about that time that i realized how fried i had gotten so they sent us on our way with a whole bottle of aloe.. haha i guess that was a good lesson to learn right before Brazil! That night we attempted to visit quite a few people with not much luck but we street contacted a lot and met some really awesome people! this one guy was out playing basketball with his son and when we were talking to them the dad explained to the son what we do as missionaries and told us how cool he thought it was. but then he pointed to the beer in his hand and told us he's not quite interested haha. Tuesday was obviously a really crazy day! we went to our district and zone meetings and everything was normal until the end. President walked over to the room we were in with our district and said "I need 2 missionaries." and then he pointed at me and sister Egbert! i had no idea what to think! he took us into the hall and said he'd talk to sister Egbert first. As they were in that room I had a million different things running through my mind! oOe of them was that one of us had gotten our visa but I didn't want to get my hopes up or anything! So then sister Egbert came out of the room and I was trying to read her face to see if I could tell what was going on but I got nothing! So President took me into the room and sat me down and told me he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that sister Egbert hadn't gotten her visa. the good news was that I got mine. I think I had about a million different thoughts running through my mind! Excited, yet sad that Sister Egbert didn't get hers! thrilled for a new adventure, and yet so sad that I have to leave the amazing place I've grown to love so much! Incredibly nervous and apprehensive about speaking a new language, experiencing a new culture, and leaving the country for the first time!! I was all over the place and still am! I asked President how to help sister Egbert and he said to just hold off on telling the ward and suggested some other ideas. He then told me how proud he is of me, which made me feel really great! It was weird walking out of the room because everyone was watching trying to see what was going on. Me and sister Egbert just hugged and cried for awhile. I always thought when I got my visa I'd be doing cartwheels and jumping for joy!! In some ways I am but it's also really hard knowing that i got mine and sweet sister Egbert didn't!! I feel like this next week will teach me a whole lot!! The mood of our day definitely changed after that. We went and did some stuff for sister Egbert's visa and she felt really discouraged. It's hard to cheer someone else up when you have what they want!! But I am really trying!! after lunch we went and saw a ward member. she is such a sweetie! she's the one who bought us the really amazing blender! she needed to borrow it so she could make pesto for the mutual activity that night. we helped her and it was so fun getting to know her! after that we did FB. We then went and ate dinner with the Kofords, the family from Brazil. Being in their home always makes me want to go to brasil so it was extra fun being there tonight and realizing that I'm finally going! After dinner we walked around in a huge rainstorm until it was time to have a lesson with one of our members. they are a really cute younger couple! at the end of the lesson the husband told us how much he loves having us in their home and it was really exciting!! After that we went to try this lady that a member told us about who they had given a book of Mormon to sort of randomly. we knocked and met a cute little Filipino family and they invited us to come back later in the week!! Wednesday was really great! we had our second half of zone conference in the morning which was awesome! it was all about boldly inviting and was an awesome reminder that if i really love the people, i can be as bold as i want! this zone conference made me realize again how much I'm going to miss this mission!! after the conference we went and mailed off stuff for sister Egbert's visa. after that we did FB and then went and saw a family in the ward. we talked to the mom and set up a time to come back and do a member lesson! during dinner I started sorting through my stuff and getting rid of lots of things! It's weird because I want to prepare, but a lot of stuff I still need to use so I can't sort and pack quite yet!! but I'll be sending some stuff home and I've already let sister Egbert sort through some of my clothes and things I don't want and I'll probably take that bag of stuff to district meeting so other sisters can look through it! but after dinner we went and had a member lesson with this family that just moved in. they probably have some of the craziest kids I've met on my mission! it was definitely an adventure to teach them haha. After that we met this amazingly prepared guy named Brandon! He talked to us for an hour just about life and God and it was so amazing!! Thursday was such a blast! we got to do service for our cute friend Louise in the morning. we pulled weeds and trimmed bushes while she told us lots of amazing stories! she then gave us another tour of her house and showed us pictures and then she and her husband ordered pizza for us. it was so sweet! and a really cool miracle happened! before that day, when her husband saw us he would kind of ignore us politely. but that day he completely opened up and pretty much told us his whole life story! it was so awesome and really strengthened my testimony of serving others! after that we rushed home and changed and then saw Valerie. we spent most of our time that day talking about the atonement and what it means for us. it was really amazing! we then did fb and then had dinner with some ward members! they are an awesome family! they were pretty shy at first but by the end they really opened up and gave us a ton of referrals! we went and checked on one right after dinner but they were busy and told us to try another time! we then went and saw Ellen had forgotten about our appointment but we just sat and talked with the girls for awhile. it was really nice! we then had correlation with the elders and our ward mission leader! Friday was great! definitely different than most days I've had on my mission so far! we did weekly planning and then while we were doing FB Jean Pierre called us and asked us to come do some service for him! we went over there at four and did service and when we finished he asked if he could show us some of his inventions! this guy really is a genius. it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen! we then shared with him about the plan of salvation and left him with a pamphlet to read. when we were getting ready to go his cute older Swiss couple showed up to see him! they were the cutest, funniest couple! their names are Otto and Audette. Otto is super sarcastic and audette is as sassy as an old lady can get! (think grandma Jane with a Swiss accent) they told us that all three of them met because they took an English class from Mormon missionaries years and years ago in Switzerland! how cool is that?! Jean Pierre told us he remembers audette teasing the elders a lot. when one of them said he was from Tennessee he asked if any of them knew where that was. Audette told him no, they only studied civilized societies! haha! they were so cute and fun to talk to. and Jean Pierre is opening up to us more and more! we told him i got my visa and he said "I will miss you vewy much when you go to Bwasil". he's the cutest! i love teaching him because even though he's older he still has a really open mind! Saturday was such an adventure! we got invited to Ermie's birthday lunch which was lots of fun! we then did a church tour! despite the many flyers we handed out, no one showed up. but it was cool because we invited a laurel who is graduating and preparing for a mission and so we got to know her really well! after that we went and met our neighbor for dinner! sister Egbert met him way before i got here and just talked to him one day when he was going through a hard time. he was really grateful that she listened to him and we've been good friends ever since. we always see him in the gym in the morning and so the other day he came up to sister Egbert and was like "I'm not going to convert, but I've always wanted to know more about Mormons! tell me more!" so he then invited us to ice cream which ended up being lunch. he took us to a sports bar which was a little awkward and we stuck out like sore thumbs haha but we weren't in the bar area so it was okay i think. so we had about a 2 hour meeting with him! this guy was so prepared. he brought paper and pen for taking notes and was just loaded with questions! It was one of the funnest lessons I've taught on my mission! he said he'd try to stop by our church soon! I'm super excited for what will happen with him! after that we realized that we were almost out of miles and it was the end of the month so we were going to start walking everywhere but then we remembered the elders have bikes and we could borrow those! so we did and it was an adventure!!! lets just say Vienna has seen more of me than it probably wanted to. there is NO modesty on bike! we biked over and had a great chat with Travis. we shared a scripture with him from Mosiah and we got him to pray at the end and it had to be the most amazing prayer I've ever heard on my mission! it was sooo funny and yet awesome! he was like "thank you for that scripture that the sisters shared from....(pause)..." then sister Egbert said "Mosiah" and then Travis was like "yeah i was gonna say like Almiah" haha and then he continued his prayer! he is so great! after that we stopped by 2 members homes and invited them to share their testimonies about missionary experiences they'd had recently! they both were really willing to do it and excited! Sunday i woke up with a very sore backside because those elders do not have comfy bike seats ! but besides that i felt like a million bucks! Church was wonderful! sadly no one we invited came but the meeting was so great! one of the members we invited to bear testimony did and then basically the whole rest of the testimony meeting was about missionary work and it got the ward REALLY excited! it was so cool! after church we studied a bit and then did some tracting! we met some really nice people and then a guy who answered the door in his towel. i still can't comprehend why people do that and then look at us like we're the weird ones! we then ate with a family and it was a ton of fun! the mom texted us before and was like "you need to convince my daughter to go on a mission." so we did our best and hopefully we're going to be taking her out on some splits with us in the near future! after that we took the ward mission leaders wife out with us and neither of the people we wanted to see with her were home. luckily she's an RM so she really understands ! my ward mission leader is soo amazing and his wife is too and its so fun serving in the ward with them! after that we decided to go see Alicia. I felt really impressed to go see her. we went and no one was home except for her step daughter, Mazie. Mazie is 19 and she let us come in and we had the most amazing, spirit filled lesson! She just opened up to us about everything and I think she realized how interested she is in the gospel! her dad is a member and her mom is not so it's hard for her to decide where to go. but we got a return appointment with her and everything so the future is looking really great for her!! I am loving my last days here in VA. I am trying to give it my all and to do all I possibly can here before I go!! some days I thought my visa would never come and I was actually really okay with that. but I am excited that I did get it and for the new adventures ahead of me! I know it won't be easy, but I know that it's all a part of God's great plan! He has so much in store for all of us if we're just willing to accept the things he offers! I love you guys sooooo much! You have helped me through a ton out here and I will be forever grateful for your constantly positive emails and letters and packages! you are the best! love you so much!! love, Sister Pehrson

May 5, 2014

This week has been soooo crazy and so miraculous! I loved every minute of it! so Monday after we emailed we did our grocery shopping and not much else! we had dinner that night with some members who have 4 adorable little boys and one girl on the way! we talked to them about their missions and learned a lot from them! after that we went to a lesson with this guy we met a few weeks back. His wife told us to stop coming over and that they weren't interested so that was sad! we then went to check on a few more people that we met a few weeks ago and as we were walking down the street in the pouring rain this guy opened his door and was like "hey! what are you guys doing out in this awful weather?!" we talked to him for awhile and the elders are going to go back and check on him soon! We ended the night having a member lesson. The members we taught live next to the lady we met last week who has the "lady of the night" living in her home and the mom told us not to go back there because she thinks it isn't very safe for us. so we'll take her advice! Tuesday was pretty insane!! We had district meeting in the morning and on our way home we decided to check on Luis. Miracle of miracles: he was home!! we had a lesson with him and he told us he finished the book of Mormon but he didn't feel the spirit at all when he read. that was discouraging to hear so we just spent a lot of time this week trying to figure out why that could be! we also decided to try and convince him to read it in Spanish and see if that makes any difference! but he was still super excited to see us and he wants to learn. He just has a lot of learning left to do! So after that we met with Valeria. our lessons with her have been getting better and better so that's really exciting! After that we finished studying and then headed to Kingstown which is right by Alexandria to have a lesson in Portuguese! these 2 ladies are named Yonanda and Tabitha. They are both from Sao Paulo and they are both so sweet! It was such an amazing opportunity to get to teach in Portuguese! It is scary and frustrating because I really can't fully express myself, but I still really loved it. We went to the Hills right after that for dinner. They are the Brazilian family we met a few weeks ago that we are trying to teach. I don't think they really knew what to expect but I think the lesson went pretty well. we had really awesome conversations and we shared the video because of Him and they really enjoyed it. Silvana, the wife, is a lot more interested than her husband but they are both awesome. We are really hoping to get her together with sister Koford, the Brazilian ward member, so that she will realize how her life could be with the gospel. That night we got the sad news that sister Martindale would be transferred on Thursday! It was pretty shocking because we didn't think president would leave 2 visa waiters together but it's great to have one more transfer to practice Portuguese together! Wednesday was even crazier than Tuesday! We spent a lot of time prepping Sister Martindale for her move. but we had an amazing miracle happen! we had another lesson with Pedro, our Portuguese speaking friend in Russia. so we went to sister Kofords and she helped us teach him and it was seriously so perfect! The lesson started off by him telling us he wants to be baptized! Then sister koford shared her conversion story with him and it helped him see that it really is possible for him to change. That was amazing! then we helped set up a room for Mormon prom which was fun. We stopped by the Stoupas that night so Sister Martindale could say bye. that night we got a call from one of the assistants telling us that me and sister Egbert needed to come to the mission home on Friday morning at 5 AM to pick up our third companion. He said that her companion was going home for health reasons so I was pretty positive it would be sister Wilcox! Thursday we went to transfers and it was an amazing meeting! There was 16 missionaries who went home and they all bore really powerful testimonies! there was tons of change done in our mission as well. Only like 60 missionaries weren't effected by the transfer. but they created 2 Spanish zones and a new Alexandria zone and got rid of the Arlington zone. President talked a lot about change and how we need to choose if we are going to let change teach us and strengthen us or not and that was something I really needed to hear! It was fun to be in a regular companionship with sister Egbert for a day! We helped a ward member move all her stuff into her kitchen so her house could be recarpeted and then we had a correlation with the ward mission leader! Friday we got up at 4 so we could go get our new companion by 5 at the mission home! as i expected it was sister Wilcox. it was sad to see sister Phelps go home but I am glad she will be getting all healed up! We found out that sister Wilcox will possibly only be staying with us for a couple days or maybe a week because the bishop in Franconia ward really wants to have sisters in that ward, so he's trying to call members to be sister Wilcox's temporary companions in franconia...so we will see what happens! it was nice. I felt very at peace about the change and I'd really been praying to feel that it was all right and that's exactly how i feel about it! We had weekly planning on Friday and then we had dinner at the Kofords! we had the coolest miracle happen there! so one of their neighbors kids just walked into the house and wanted to play and then her dad followed her in and was kind of like "sorry I'll get her out!" But sister Koford was like "no let her play and you can come talk with us!" The daughter has some special needs and so he's extra protective of her and just wanted to be there while she played. He was kind of hesitant to talk to us at first but he had all these awesome questions and he really opened up by the end. hHe asked us if we really don't drink alcohol and we ended up explaining the word of wisdom to him which was awesome! Sister Koford and him exchanged information so they can have play dates with their kids and then we gave him a mormon.org card! Sister Koford is such a great neighbor and great person so we are sure that from here on out he will be learning a lot more about the gospel! Saturday was another miraculous day! during lunch we got a call from the Russian missionaries asking us to help them teach Pedro in twenty minutes. So we rushed to the church and had a great lesson with him! We didn't actually teach very much that day but it was still fun! After that we took Sis Wilcox to go meet our ward mission leader. then we decided to check on Luis again! We had the best lesson EVER!!! We talked to him about the spirit and we were just asking him a lot of questions trying to figure out why he didn't feel the spirit when he read the book of Mormon. We were eventually able to figure out that he thought the book of Mormon and the bible were the same books trying to tell the same stories! We explained to him that they have one purpose but they are different stories and all that and he was like "oooooh! now i get it!" So we challenged him to read it again and he agreed!!!! We also talked about prayer because he says the lord's prayer and we were sharing with him that prayer can be a conversation with God and we can be open with him and at first he didn't want to try it out but he eventually said he would try it for this week! He also told us this cool experience he had when he was praying once. He was at a really low point in his life and he was praying and he said he just felt someone come and put their hand on his head and comfort him. When he opened his eyes no one was there! It was crazy and I felt the spirit so strong when he told us that! Luis is so prepared and I'm excited to see how his reading and praying goes this week! he is so funny because he has these nicknames for us based on how we teach. so sister Egbert is his teacher because she wagged her finger at him once. He calls me his heart because he said I'm bold and tell him what to do haha. And Sister Wilcox is his soul apparently hahhaa! he is such a hoot. I want you guys to meet him someday! So after that lesson Sister Thompson came up to Vienna and took us out to dinner. She had signed up to feed the sisters in Alexandria and so she decided to just feed us since there are none there! It was great to see her again! Then we went and checked out Mormon prom before it started. You wouldn't believe how intense this dance was! They went all out on the decorations. I'll send you some pictures! after that we went and saw the Clark's. we talked to the son and had a great visit. it's been a hard week for them because the anniversary of his dads death is this upcoming Saturday. we talked about the plan of salvation and about prayer. I love the Clark's and want to do all i can to help them come to church! Sunday was super awesome! Sadly Luis didn't come to church, but sister McLeod came!!! it was sooo exciting! she's been saying for awhile that she'd come but now she finally did!!! best day ever!! Sunday afternoon we checked on brother Harris, another one of our friends we have not seen out to church for a while. Then we had dinner at the Adams. they are such a fun family! Their daughter Adalina is the most hyper, cutest, child i have ever met!! she is just so happy all the time and she says the funniest things! She did a concert for us and she sang a bunch of primary songs. It was so adorable! Also they made us the best ice cream ever which was sugar free! they used coconut milk, strawberries, and dates to sweeten it! they are gluten free as well so if David ever needs recipes, i can ask them for some! they are good cooks! we then visited Ermie, our friend from the Philippines! she is such a sweet lady! we read from the book of Mormon with her. we then met two of the coolest African guys EVER! the first was named Michelle. he grew up in Cameroon and he didnt' have much time to talk but we get to teach him later this week! then we met Taure. he is really amazing! he grew up in the Muslim part of Africa but he converted to Christianity in his teens. he had a bunch of crazy dreams that led him to convert and he is just a really awesome guy! I'm so excited to see what happens with those two!! I am so excited to skype!! i love you all sooo much! love, Sister Pehrson

May 26, 2014

It is so good to be writing to you again!! this week was so amazing so I'm super excited to tell you all about it! :) Monday was so much fun! we went to a park near our house and just played around for an hour or so. They had a cool trail so we walked around and it was nice to just relax! it was great because you guys know how much i love nature! haha but once preparation day ended we tried a few people who weren't home and then we had a lesson with a family who was a referral from a ward member. They came to our ward members house and we had a bbq and FHE. It was definitely nerve wracking to teach a lesson in a members home to a referral but it went really amazing! We taught about the plan of salvation. the members have a big chalkboard in their backyard so we had the kids draw pictures on it for us! the friend, Ashley, and her husband talked to us a lot after. They are expecting their third baby and Ashley just kept talking about how much she loves the churches emphasis on families so we're excited to see what will happen with them in the future! The member texted us after and said it went perfect so we were very relieved! It's so much fun to work with the members and teach in their homes!! Tuesday was super great! We had zone and district meetings and we talked about following up with the members. We have been leaving them tons of commitments but it's been hard to follow up with them and see how they are actually doing on keeping their commitments! We got lots of good advice and are now working on doing a better job at our follow up!! After our meetings we went to the mission office so sister Egbert could get her finger print paper work. After that we went to do FB but ended up talking to our neighbor for a really long time. She's from Russia and is trying to learn English so we're trying to get some ward members who speak Russian to help her. She wants to learn about the church but her husband doesn't want her to. He seems to be softening up to us a lot though!! After that we went and ate dinner with a family and afterwards went to an appointment. We had such an amazing lesson with them!! We had challenged them to read out of preach my gospel and they told us that they hadn't done it. We talked about all the blessings that come from reading out of preach my gospel and they told us a lot of the concerns that they have and we just promised them that as they studied and prayed to God that they would find answers to all their questions. It was really powerful and they promised that they would study preach my gospel before the next time we come over, but if they don't we can study it with them. They are such a cute couple and kind of remind me of grandma and grandpa Brown so of course I love them! :) Wednesday was wonderful! After studies we had to go get fingerprints done for Sis Egbert and had a lot of little complications but we eventually got it all figured out! After that we went and did FB and then visited a ward member. she's in her 80s and is getting ready to move into a nursing home, so she needs some service done to get her house ready to sell. we had a really nice visit with her! her husband passed away about a year ago and he was kind of a big deal in the CIA. so you know that movie Argo that came out awhile ago? well he worked for the CIA when all that was happening and he was a graphic designer so he designed the logo for the fake film company that got the group into whatever country the people were in to rescue the Americans. I don't know if that made sense but i thought it was pretty cool! A huge miracle happened while we were there though! Her daughter was at her house that day and we got to meet her and we had a great conversation, so we're super excited to be able to visit with her now!! That night we had a lesson with one of our members. he works for the government and last weekend he was in Miami protecting Prince Harry...NBD (no big deal). haha! But right before we started the lesson one of their old friends showed up so we ended up having to leave. Then we went to check on Luis Chica but he wasn't home so we left him a note on his door. We were feeling pretty discouraged because of that and we only had like 20 minutes left before we needed to go home and we decided to go check on this lady we met last week named Sadia. she is SO amazing!!! She was really excited to see us again and had so many amazing questions! She's from Pakistan and is so prepared! After our visit she ended up inviting us to come back on Sunday! Thursday was so great! after studies we decided to go visit our investigator Ellen. she's the one with the 2 teenage daughters and she's going through a really hard time right now. We walked with her and her little chihuahua Jorge. We had a really nice visit with her and she opened up to us a lot. she told us it was her daughters birthday, so later that night we brought back some nail polish and a card and doorbell ditched it! After seeing Ellen we had our Portuguese practice with Valerie which is always exciting! after that we visited our friend Louise. she's in her 80s and we talked to her about coming back and doing some service. she is so cute! When we left she hugged us and gave us big wet sloppy grandma kisses and said "love you!" haha i think she has adopted us as her granddaughters. We went and had a lesson with one of our ward members who served his mission in Portugal that night and it was a lot of fun! He has 2 really cute kids with LOTS of energy so we had fun! We also found out he used to coach BYU rugby which is pretty cool! Friday was a really great day! We had weekly planning and then went and tried to visit our friends Ermie and sheila who couldn't meet with us until the next day. After that we saw the a family we haven't been able to get in contact with for awhile! We were starting to get pretty worried but we had a really great visit. The wife told us her embarrassing moment of the week which was that she went out to go sweep her porch and after a while she heard her neighbor yelling her name. She looked and her neighbor told her she had tucked her dress into her underwear hahaha! Then we talked about the book of Mormon. she said "believe it or not I've read the whole thing!" she had a bishop who challenged her to and she felt like he didn't think she would so she read it. she's such a hoot! we're trying to get her to read it again so we'll see what happens!! that night we did a lot of street contacting with not too much success until we met this super amazing girl! Her grandparents are serving a mission in New Zealand right now! she's really open and really wants us to come back and see her again so that was pretty cool! there's a memorial day festival called viva Vienna here in Vienna that's been going all weekend so we are going today and hope to see her there! Saturday was exhausting and soo amazing! in the morning we went to a stake activity called gifts of the heart. all the members donate old clothes and stuff and the whole stake center is basically transformed into a thrift store. then people in the community come and are able to get the stuff for free! it was a mad house!! there were so many people there and we had such a blast! after that we went to viva Vienna because some members were supposed to have a booth up but i guess it fell through so we walked around the outskirts instead and handed out some flyers for a church tour. We then went to one of our members houses whose daughter was having a birthday party. It was "frozen" theme and was definitely the funnest, most unique dinner appointment I've had on my mission! We got to the appt a little early so we walked around to try and talk to some people and met the kindest Chinese woman! She talked to us about a former sutdent she had who was Mormon and how if she hadn't been baptized Methodist she would have joined our church. She told us to send missionaries to her daughter who lives in another town near by who is going through a really hard time so we're excited to see what happens there!! After dinner we stopped and saw Ermie and Sheila. Ermie is a member and Sheila is her daughter in law who is not a member. Things were going awesome and then Sheila had to leave the room to take care of her son so we couldn't teach anymore! We're working on getting Sheila some friends in the ward. after that we went and saw Jean Pierre. we drove by and he was out in his yard so we threw on our service clothes and went to help him. by that time he was already getting ready to quit but he was so excited to see us! he said "i am really so impwessed with you girls!" (said in a french accent) he is so adorable and we are excited to help him out! i don't think he believed that we really wanted to help him until he saw us show up like that. it was really cool! we had an awesome talk with him too and he told us even more amazing things about his life! he has done some really cool things with some pretty amazing people so it's interesting to see that his life has ended up just like anyone else's. it makes me realize what things are truly important in life!! Sunday was another crazy exciting day! we had the McLeod's at church again!!!! this is week 3 of them coming!!! we are sooo excited! Church was really awesome and the couple that spoke invited four families to come hear them and one of them came so we got to meet them which was exciting! After church we went and handed out more flyers for the church tour and talked to some really great people! After that we headed to a lesson in a members home with an investigator that we found that is a long lost friend of theirs! the friend texted and told her she wouldn't be able to come until six but we had an appt at 630 with Sadia so we went and saw her real quick and had a great lesson! she told us she's starting her semester of school so she's not sure how much she can see us but she wants to keep learning. Her boyfriend came in the middle of our talk and he's from India. We had a really great lesson with them and the boyfriend had a lot of his questions answered which was exciting! After that we rushed back to our other lesson and it went so well! We again taught the plan of salvation and we had the kids draw it with sidewalk chalk on the driveway and they loved that. The investigator, Clarice, had tons of questions and really loved the lesson! after that we stopped by our investigator Alicia's house to check on her and had a nice lesson with her as well. I felt like an official missionary this week as my feet smelled horrible every night when i took my shoes off AND i had to use superglue to fix my shoe!! there's no better feeling than wearing out your shoes and coming home completely exhausted at the end of the night! i love you guys so so much and think about you lots and am grateful for all you sacrifice to help me be out here! It inspires me to keep working hard no matter what happens and reminds me of why I want to share the gospel with people! love love love you!!!! Sister Pehrson

May 19, 2014

Family!! Wow I can't believe it was just a week ago we were skyping! I hope you're all still doing great! This week was so awesome!! I got to meet an apostle and see lots of incredible miracles happen!! So last p day was a little different because we had a lesson! We taught Pedro in Russia over Skype! It was super great! We went to Sister Koford's and we taught him the word of wisdom. Sister Koford was raised in another faith so she grew up drinking coffee and so she was able to show Pedro that he can obey the word of wisdom! It was a really amazing lesson! After that she fed us lunch and then she told us about this grocery store we should try out. We ended up going to the wrong one. It was the same store just a sketchier version. It's an Asian market so the produce is really cheap and it was fun to see all the crazy foods they had! We really only had time to do our shopping and then we had dinner with a cute member family. We then did some tracting and met a really cool guy named Joe! His son goes to school in Utah so he knows lots about Mormons and was really excited to talk with us. We had parked our car and walked around this neighborhood talking to people and it all of a sudden began dumping rain! We couldn't find out car for like 30 minutes so we were drenched and it was so much fun!! After that we went and visited a member who doesn't come to church very much. She's pregnant and is a really cute lady. We had a nice visit and then went to bishops to have correlation. On Tuesday we had our regular meetings and they were all about working with members. When it was on that topic it made me and sister Egbert realize we need to do a better job at that so that's what we focused on more this week! After the meetings and some studies we went and saw Valerie. She read a book out loud to us so she could practice her English and she then suggested we bring a book to read in Portuguese next time! So we brought the Liahona with us the next time and read conference talks! It was really awesome because she isn't fond of us teaching her the gospel, she just wants to hear English and teach us Portuguese. But she made it so we can now share the gospel with her!! :) after that we headed to one of our ward members homes. She had called us earlier in the week telling us about a friend she wanted us to tract into. We went and talked to the member and suggested instead of us tracting into her she invites her friend to a family home evening. She really liked the idea because then it seems way more casual than just asking her friend to come over for a lesson. Family home evening is something that happens weekly so it's way more normal and less scary for people to come to! So she agreed to invite her friend and tell us how it goes! After that we did FB and then had dinner and a lesson with the Kofords. We drew the plan of salvation in chalk on their driveway with their kids. It was so much fun! We then had them teach us the lesson. Two of their daughters put our name tags on and taught us it was so cute! After that we had another member lesson with this really cute young couple in the ward! We hadn't talked to them much before that lesson but we realized how amazing and fun they are which is always great because now we have 2 more people we can bring out with us! At the end of the lesson the husband got kind of emotional and was like "I'm so glad you sisters came over and invited us to study out of preach my gospel. Thank you for preparing and teaching us. We needed this!" It was cool because I've never had a member react like that to a lesson and it made me realize that working with members is so important! So these members live in a lock out apartment complex so you can't get in without a code. Well one of our less active members also lives there so we decided to try and see her while we were there. We found her building and couldn't get in at first so we prayed and then this kid just walks up and is like "hey do you need let in?" We were like YES!!!!! it was sooo cool! Unfortunately the lady wasn't home so we went to go find out car in the parking garage and somehow got locked out of the garage. We didn't know how we would get back in to get our car so we prayed again and then sister Egbert walked up to this door that totally looked locked. It's the kind that locks from the inside but she just pulled on it and it opened!!!! It was really pretty miraculous! Wednesday was a really hard day but also amazing! No one was home and we were a little discouraged by that. Then we were driving and we were on a road that is under construction. I wasn't paying enough attention and didn't see a sign that said bump so we hit this bump pretty hard. After that our car started making weird noises like something was dying and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. So what did we do? WE PRAYED!! :) and as soon as we started driving again the car didn't make a peep! Heavenly Father is the best mechanic! The rest of our day was filled with little success until at the end of the night we prayed to meet someone prepared. We started taking to this guy and he wasn't interested at all no matter what we said. We kept looking and went around the corner and met a sweet lady named Sadia who told us she wants us to come back and see her! I think Heavenly Father wants me to learn that he does answer prayers! Thursday was soo great!! We saw Valerie and read the liahona with her. It's hilarious when Valerie reads to us because when she reads a lot of words in English correctly she gets so excited and she's like "I AM SO GOOD AT ENGLISH! LISTEN TO ME I AM SPEAKING LIKE BILL CLINTON! I AM SPEAKING LIKE BILL CLINTON! DO YOU HEAR ME??" Hahahha she is a hoot and a half! After that lesson we went and correlated with the member who invited her friend over for FHE. The friend said yes so we made plans for what we want to teach and how long and everything. The lesson is tonight so we are super excited!! After that we went and saw a ward member who just had a baby. We are going to start visiting her more regularly! From there we had dinner with some ward members, the Adams. They are so much fun! We had a really awesome time and at the end of our lesson sister Adams just burst into tears and told us how glad she is that we came and how grateful she is that we're good missionaries and all this stuff. It made sister Egbert and I cry because we look up to sister Adams a ton! It was really really special. After that we stopped by our investigator Jean Pierre's house. He's been taught by missionaries for awhile now. The missionaries in another ward were teaching him til they realized he's in our ward. so we took over. We had the coolest lesson that night though! He's a mad genius and so we had probably the weirdest, deepest lesson I've ever taught on my mission haha. But it was awesome because at the end he was like "I'm finally convinced to read the book! Everyone else just told me to read it and get baptized but now I really want to read it because of what you told me!" Haha it was sooo awesome! After that we taught our other investigator Alicia. Her husband is a member but doesn't come much due to work. Alicia is a tough egg to crack. She always changes the subject when we try to teach and talks about all the pictures she has on her wall and stuff. So we are trying to teach her in a members home! Friday was awesome! We did weekly planning and then visited with a recent convert in our ward. Her name is Chitra and she's an older Indian woman. She wears he same hat, windbreaker, and sunglasses every day! She is really sweet and we had a great visit with her. After that we ate and then went and talked to a really nice lady we meet last week NAMED PAM!!! Of course I love her because anyone named Pam is just destined to be amazing! She's such a nice lady though she Is pretty strong in her own faith she accepted the Book of Mormon and lives by Mormons so she's in a pretty good spot right now! After that we stopped and told her neighbors we had seen her so they could work their magic and then we went and met the smiths. They are ward members we haven't gotten to know well yet. They are geniuses and the dad is a filmmaker for cnn or something and has met the pope. He's got lots of stories...but he's sweet! Their son will be coming home from BYU soon and then going on a mission so when he gets home we're going to practice the preach my gospel lessons with him! Saturday was soooooo cool! I got to meet elder Ballard! We didn't get handshakes but we still had such an awesome time hearing from him! He is so powerful and shared soo many things that I felt I needed to hear. He talked a lot about simplicity and keeping our lessons simple. He also talked about being ourselves because people want to be around REAL people, not robots! It's funny because everything he said was like "oh ya no duh I should be doing that!" But I haven't been doing it so I need to! One thing is literally talking to everyone! I try to but there are still times when I pass by people because it would be awkward to talk to them or what ever. But he said that even on our p days we need to talk to the cashiers and different people we meet! So I am going to do better at that because that's how we find people! Hearing him speak just reminded me of why I'm out here and made me want to keep being better! I am so grateful to be on a mission and have opportunities like I did to meet elder Ballard. Because I wouldn't have had that if I wasn't out here! Thank goodness God had better plans for me than I had for myself :) so after the conference we had an appointment with Krista and Chelsea, the mom and the Down syndrome daughter. We were scared because we were super late due to traffic and we didn't even stop and eat or anything we just rushed to their house and at first Krista was kinda mad but she softened up and we had an incredible lesson! Then we had a member lesson with the relief society president and her family and also the kids of a member who just had a new baby. So we had 7 little boys we were teaching! They were soooo rambunctious and it was a blast! We taught them the Ten Commandments using this really cool way to remember with your hands. They loved it! Afterwards we talked with our relief society president for a bit. She's so amazing! She's a young mom of 3 kids and yet she serves every one around her and is so full of love! She's amazing! Sunday was awesome! The McLeod's came to church AGAIN!!! This is he third week in a row! I am so excited for them! Church was amazing and then we ate with some members and them had a lesson in Portuguese! It was in Centreville with sister Martindales investigator! It was so fun! His name is Rodrigo and he is so prepared. It's really cool that president gave us permission to teach anyone anywhere in Portuguese! Definitely a blessing! After that we came home and then visited a ward member. She's sweet. Then we met some really cool people who we will hopefully start teaching! So visa updates: sister Egbert was informed Saturday that she has to redo all her fingerprints because they are required to do new ones every six weeks! I am hoping that will not be the case for mine! Love you guys tons and tons! I am sooo grateful for you all and hope you have a fabulous week! Love, Sista Pehrson

April 28, 2014

Hey guys!! Is it just me or did is Monday come super fast!? This was the last week of the transfer and it seriously flew by! We are hoping to stay in this trio another transfer but we will see what happens! This week was so much fun and so full of miracles! Monday was so awesome! After emailing we went to Great Falls which is a National Park about 20 minutes away. It was so beautiful and so fun to be out enjoying nature! You know how I love nature haha :) I saw a GIANT copperhead snake, but I enjoyed every other part of the trip! I forgot my flats to wear with my skirt so I got to sport that lovely ensemble Monday evening to the post office and the grocery store... it was humbling haha! We tracted that night and everyone we talked to was so kind! We gave away 2 book of Mormons and met some really incredible people! Tuesday was another great day. We had zone and district meetings which are always great. We were supposed to have a Skype lesson, but it fell through so we went and met with Valerie for Portuguese practice. We really enjoyed our visit! After dinner we decided to check on this lady named Diana that an elder who used to serve here told us about. He only knew her name and that she lived by one of our ward members. So we went by that members house and tracted. We knocked one door and then the next door on the right had their door open and we thought "let's save it for last and do the house on the right." But then Sister Martindale felt like we needed to go to the open door. We did and Diana was there! Coolest thing ever! She's a really sweet old lady and we left her with a Book of Mormon and she said to come back another time. We decided to keep tracting so we knocked on her next door neighbors house. This lady came out and told us she saw us at Diana's and that we shouldn't go back because she rents out rooms in her house and right now and it may not be safe. We were really shocked and so we decided to go ask the ward member about it. We talked to him and he said that we should be fine going by in the day and just to pray about it and probably bring a member with us. But we all felt like we were really led to Diana so we will see what happens! That night we went to do a member lesson and had some time before so we knocked doors. It is a really nice neighborhood so we weren't expecting much but then we met this adorable old lady named Ada whose husband is a pastor for another church. They were so sweet and we will definitely be visiting them again! The members we taught are an older couple and at the end of the lesson the wife was like "I think I'd get baptized if I was taught by sisters!" Haha Wednesday we had lunch with our Brasillian ward member! Then we went and checked on this guy that some other sisters in our mission told us about. He is from Switzerland and is such a cool guy! He only has one hand and he was an engineer and has all these cool stories from world war 2. He is going to be really busy so he said not to visit him again until the fall but we'll probably try back in a couple weeks. After dinner we has an awesome lesson with our investigator Alicia. She is married to Ed who got baptized 2 years ago but isn't really active anymore. We've been trying to get in touch with her for weeks and then all of a sudden on Tuesday she texted us telling us to come over the next night. So we did and we had an amazing lesson! She's been through so much and it was a great reminder to me that everyone suffers at times and needs our love! On Thursday we were out tracting and we ran into this older lady who we met a few weeks ago tracting! We had sung a song for her and had a really good visit. She was out in her yard so we decided to help her pull weeds. After that she gave us a tour of her house and told us to come back soon! I think we have been adopted as grandkids :) we had dinner with a really cute family in the ward that night! They have 4 boys and 1 girl and they kept us very entertained. But after that we had a lesson with a Brasillian family we met awhile ago. We went to their house and they weren't there so we decided to wait awhile. The husband came home and told us that they were with friends so to try another time. It was a bummer but we will get them another time! We spent the rest of the evening at an apartment complex talking to everyone who walked past us! Friday was so awesome! After weekly planning the first person we saw was sister Clark. We had a good talk with her about prayer. After dinner we had such an amazing lesson with this family that a ward member referred us to. They have lived around Mormons for awhile now and have lots of Mormon friends. We were all a little nervous since the dad had been hesitant to let us come teach but the lesson was really incredible! The whole family had awesome questions and the spirit was so strong! We were able to clear up a lot of misconceptions they had too so that was awesome! They are so prepared and I'm sooo excited to see what happens with them in the future :) also another fun fact about Friday: both of my pinkie toe nails fell off! Oh The life of a sister.... Saturday was super great! We had a stake relief society meeting in the morning which was awesome! It was all about humanitarian work and it made me want to leave the country soo bad haha! But there is also tons we can do here to serve others so I'll work on that first :) after the conference and studies we went and saw Chelsea and Krista. Krista is from Whidbey Island! Her daughter Chelsea has Down Syndrome. They are the cutest family ever! Chelsea is going to a spring dance soon and she tried on her dress for us and kept twirling around. It was adorable! Krista is an awesome mom! They gave us a bunch of nail polish and flowers when we left, it was so sweet! After dinner we saw Brother McLeod. We shared the because of him video and it was really awesome! After that we brought cookies to a lady we met a few weeks ago and met her husband! They know tons of members and The Lord is really preparingthem. They just don't know it yet :) Rrom there we went and checked on some people we met a few weeks ago. We stopped by the British families house and the husband answered and said they just got home from the hospital and found out the wife has cancer, kidney failure, and blood clots. It was so sad. He said to just keep them in our prayers. Form there we went to invite Alicia to church but she wasn't home. As we were waking to the car we started talking to this guy named Jim. He told us his whole life story basically! He is from the Philippines and he had his own business until a big company bought it out and he lost his job. Right after that his wife divorced him. Then he was at Home Depot but he got a DUI and lost that job. Now he works at Walgreen's and is just really lonely. It's so sad! But I know we were led to him for a reason and we told him that and that we will help him! It's cool to see who god puts in our path every day! Sunday was great! We talked to Luis Wednesday but he didn't come to church :( church was still great though! After church we had a lesson with this family from West Africa. It turns out that the mom knows some members of our ward super well and she has come to church with them but they moved and she lost contact. Well they are back now so we have her their number! We had a great lesson with them and the daughter seems especially interested. After that we went and talked with a ton of people we met a few weeks ago. Their neighborhood was having a garden show so we walked through and talked to the people we had met before! It was so beautiful! After dinner we were checking on some people and met a lot of great people as we walked around the apartment complex. There were Chinese and Spanish speaking people so we have to give them to other missionaries but we are all on the same team so it's okay! We also had a great member lesson that night! We found out this morning that in a few weeks we are having a THREE MISSION conference and Elder Ballard is coming! I'm sooo excited! This mission is the best! Love you guys tons! Miss ya like crazy!! Love, Sister Pehrson

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