January 13, 2014

Family!!!! I am soooo excited to hear the news that I have another niece on the way!! We need more Pehrson girls in this world! ;) Super excited for David and Tasha!! This week was a little bit cray cray...but it was fun! I definitely learned a lot as I always do... Yesterday after emailing we went coat shopping! since Tuesday was the coldest day it's been in 20 years (allegedly..) I needed a coat super bad! Found one at Burlington for 35 dolla!! Pretty good deal and I can use it at BYU I later on! On the way back to the area we got lost but we found T.C. Williams High School that's where Remember the Titans was based off of! We both freaked out and got out and took pictures! we then did our grocery shopping and baked like crazy. I decided to make splenda banana bread since I'm off sugar. IT turned out a little sketchy looking but tasted decent..you'll have to tell me what i did wrong, I'll send you a picture! We had FHE with La'vonne and Teya! it was good to have Teya back. she was at her grandmas all winter break. her mom was really proud of her because she found 5$ that day and turned it in instead of just keeping it! we watched a Mormon message about the restoration with them and talked about how we can all receive answers to our prayers no matter our age. we talked to Teya about having lessons with her and La'vonne told us she wants it to be just us and Teya so that Teya can make the decision to be baptized on her own! we set up a lesson for Thursday with her. Honestly I don't know how anyone related to La'vonne could not get baptized! she is so powerful!!! but we'll see what happens. Keep her in your prayers! Tuesday was super awesome! I had a really amazing personal study! the assistants sent out a text telling us to study D&C 121,122,123 and Hebrews 11. They are all pretty much my favorite now! 121-22 are when Joseph Smith was in jail and had been in terrible conditions for a pretty long time and he is basically asking the Lord why he is letting him suffer and he's at a very discouraging point in his life. The Lord reminds Joseph of the story of Job and tells Joseph that he doesn't have it as bad as Job did and showed Joseph the many blessings he had and comforted him with promises for the future. it was really comforting for me to read this because I have had many discouraging moments in my life--mostly on my mission where I've thought "why me?" or "why isn't the Lord doing something about this!" this verse really reminded me to look around and see what others are going through or have gone through and then to count my blessings because my trials have not been that severe at all! it's always nice to study things like that and start the day with a new perspective. we had zone training that morning and it was super amazing! they showed this video of a bunch of quotes and a few of them really stuck out to me. one was "being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity." i loved this, especially when applying it to missionary work. i feel like I often go about this work just hoping to meet people to teach, but I have these thoughts in my mind like "well, not many people will listen" or "no one will accept this in this area!" i am putting a limit on what the Lord can do! after hearing that quote and reading Hebrews 11, I realized I am lacking a lot of faith!! of course I have faith, but not enough to work miracles, and that's something I really want to develop here in the mission field. the other thing he said that struck me was "if you're not making someone's life better, you're wasting your time!" this is applicable for everyone, but I think it is especially true for me as a missionary. i have 18 full months to give my ALL to the Lord! Am I really doing so? as you can see, that day was a day of much self reflection and evaluation! i am obviously not perfect, but I have a good foundation to build on, and that matters a lot! I think that's one of the hardest parts of the mission to get used to...never being fully satisfied with what you're doing, yet still loving yourself and being positive! after the meeting we ate and i did my language study. I'm going through my Portuguese hymn book and figuring out what the songs are in English. it's fun! after that we did facebook. we came home and I cooked a pretty impressive meal of shrimp, rice, and veggies! it was pretty delicious! after dinner we saw a less active member. She was busy so she couldn't let us in, but at least she knows we love her! we then tried to see another less active member. Her husband answered the door and told us she was in bed so he told us he'd tell her we stopped by. he looked at our name tags and told sister Phelps he'd remember her name because he has cousins who are Phelps. she said "yeah, it's a cool last name." He was like "man you guys are cool missionaries" it was pretty entertaining. after that we went and saw some members and shared a message with them about social media. we ended the night attempting to visit Elizabeth from Ghana, but she didn't answer the door! Wednesday was a good day! we went to see our investigator Doni, but she wasn't at home. So we decided to try and see her at work. she was really happy to see us but she didn't let us set up a return appointment! after seeing Doni we decided to do some visits to some people on a list our RS president gave us. we visited the first family who hasn't been to church for awhile. they were really sweet! they have 3 cute little boys.we talked to the husband about his mission in Minnesota and we will definitely go see them again soon! after that we knocked doors with no luck! we then had dinner with the Bakers. brother baker served his mission in Japan and met his wife who is from Japan after his mission at BYU. they are a really cute couple. they are both ward missionaries! after dinner we went and taught Elizabeth (the ten year old). we had planned on teaching the restoration but sister Phelps felt inclined to teach the plan of salvation. I realized we're both on the same team and she should follow the spirit when she feels it! We also taught Elizabeth to pray and it went really well! she's such a sweet little girl! after that we went and taught our other Elizabeth! Ghana Elizabeth! she is a member of the new apostolic church. as we taught her the restoration, i realized that i am now at the point on my mission where I know the doctrine. i know what to teach, i know how to teach it! but the thing I need is love! if we just go through the motions, this work is meaningless!! I'm grateful for this realization I had. I've been praying to have more charity for those I teach and not to fall into the trap of being a robot missionary! Thursday was so wonderful! we had interviews! they are my favorite!! President Riggs asked us to set goals before our interviews so i worked on that during my personal study. after studies we headed to our interviews! My interview with President Riggs was SO amazing though!! I told him my concerns and he talked to me about how everyone struggles at times with being motivated and that during the atonement even Christ had to pray "more earnestly". he needed more motivation! he told me to pray more earnestly and he talked about Corianton- whose sins were much greater than my sin of lack of motivation and how after his father Alma counseled him he told him to return to the ministry he was called to! the same thing happened to Joseph Smith when he lost the 116 pages. he then laughed a little bit and said he enjoyed seeing the difference between interviews with Elders and Sisters. Sisters feel like they're not motivated enough! he told me that I am still in his "trust box" and I'm still in the Lord's trust box! that made me feel better! he then told me about this district who taught 137 lessons last week! there are four missionaries in that district! FOUR!! Blew my mind! but it also really motivated me and reminded me that I am serving during "the hastening" and I need to expect the miracles that will come because of this! President then told me "Sister, you're amazing and you're doing great things! your companion adores you! keep working hard and pray more earnestly. you'll continue to do great things!" I left feeling SO inspired and ready to conquer the world! I LOVE my mission president! :) we went home and finished our studies, did facebook and then it was time for dinner. we had dinner with the elders and our ward mission leader. we went to this Thai place that was pretty tasty! it was slightly awkward because the Elders aren't really good at making conversation so it was up to us and Brother Lindsay to make the conversation! luckily we were eventually able to get the Elders to talk and it was really funny because Elder Egly, who is from Germany, and he ordered something and asked for it to be REALLY spicy. he definitely regretted it! he was crying and sweating! it was entertaining! after dinner we had our first one-on-one lesson with Teya! it was sooo awesome!! she had a bad day at school so we helped her out with that and then we taught the restoration. sister Phelps has this awesome visual aid she uses called the apostasy cups. it really helps people see WHY there needed to be a restoration. the spirit was so strong during the lesson and Teya was able to ask all the questions she needed to! we talked a lot about baptism and why we invite her to be baptized. i think she'll feel less pressure now! Friday was probably the craziest day of my mission thus far! it started out pretty normal! we studied and then did weekly planning! I'm so thankful i don't have to dread comp inventory anymore! i used to think it was just my companion criticizing me but now I realize that it allows me to recognize weaknesses I don't see in myself and then to work on them! one of the biggest things I've learned is that people can and do change!! i was a little too judgmental before my mission and I just assumed if someone was a certain way they'd never change! that was very wrong of me. I've seen changes in myself that I never thought would happen...that i never thought needed to be changed! and I've seen my companions change in ways i never thought they would! so I'm grateful I'm learning this now and that I'm learning how to communicate with others. we set some really good goals and talked about ideas to improve our teaching and working with members. after planning we did FB. after FB we had dinner with a member. on our way home we called sister Riggs because sister Phelps has been having health issues. we then called them Mission Dr. he told sister Phelps to take 3 Advil and then to call him in the A.M. since we couldn't go back out, i was trying to find way to be productive still. we called sue, who will be at church on Sunday! then we called Elizabeth's mom who gave us permission to bring her to church on Sunday! i made a few more calls when sister Phelps face started turning bright red and her throat was closing up! we called sister Riggs and i got permission to drive sister Phelps to the ER. she had an awful sinus infection and had a bad reaction to the Advil she took. we got home at about 2 in the morning. I'm glad she wasn't dying or anything! definitely an adventure though. Saturday was basically a day to recover from Friday. i got up and cleaned and studied, and then studied and cleaned some more while my comp slept. When she woke up, she felt better so we got ready and headed to the Rosenberg's they are such an incredible family! they invited some recent converts over for dinner with us! after dinner we decided to go check on sister ketch. she had brother Calhoun over, who is a less active member due to his health! we had a really great visit with them and it was nice to see that brother Calhoun still has a very strong testimony. after that we went to see sister bryk but she wasn't able to visit with us! we did have a good visit with her husband though so that was good! it was good for me to realize Saturday that i can still be, and need to be productive when my comp isn't feeling well! Sunday was a really great day, as always! let me just tell you...the first Sunday in the mission field i was sooo excited to go to church and just relax...but Sundays as a missionary are NOT relaxing! you have to make sure every investigator at church is having a good time and then yo have to try to get something out of it yourself...so help the missionaries out and try and take their investigators under your wing at church! but Sunday was awesome! Elizabeth (the 10 yr old) came to church for the first time!!! SUPER EXCITING!! she is so shy, but hopefully church will help her open up a little! sacrament was amazing! it was all about obedience since D&C 130 : 20 and 21 is our new ward theme. my favorite talk was by brother pinkney. he can really captivate an audience! he talked about 3 scriptural shirt rippings! my favorite was captain Moroni's shirt ripping where he creates the title of liberty. he talked about how bishop is our captain moroni and we should obey his counsel. he also talked about picking and choosing which commandments to obey and how wrong that is. bishop spoke after that and told us all to think of one thing that we need to be more obedient in. it's a cool challenge he issued and he told us to pray about it for 30 days. then pray 30 more days. and at the end of 60 days spend the next 30 days thanking heavenly father for helping you be more obedient. it's something i really want to try! Sue showed up to church and told us she wants to come on a regular basis now, so that was exciting! Sunday school as about the law of chastity. lets just say the teacher was VERY bold! 3rd hour was combined and was more about obedience. we found out Saturday night that our WML brother Lindsay is moving to the mid singles ward so our new WML is brother Rosenberg. I'm sad to see brother Lindsay go! but he deserves to be happy and married! after church we had correlation and then came home and finished studies. someone had signed up to feed us but then taken their name off the list, but then decided to drop dinner off to us, but since they took their name off the list someone else signed up so we had 2 meals last night! we had to stick the one in the fridge. we went to sister May's house for dinner. she's a real sweetie! we had planned to tract after dinner but it was too dark to knock. we ended up seeing Kaira, who wasn't at church today. after that we saw sister Olsen. we told her we'd visited her son and she was pretty shocked! she was very happy, but surprised! it made me feel glad that we could help such a sweet lady's family! tonight i read a talk by Quentin L. cook where he quotes "what ere thou art, act well thy part." it really stuck out to me as I pondered some of the things I haven't done as well as i should on my mission. i think the lord gave me this companion to test me. he wanted to see who i would be with a sick companion. so far, I'm positive I've let him down! but as I read that quote I realized that I need to decide now who I am. I need to choose the type of missionary I am and be that person no matter who I'm serving with or where I'm serving! I'm grateful for this realization and I feel like it was one of those "turning points' of the mission where I'm really becoming someone. I don't want to be "Sister Phelps companion" or "Sister Stott's companion". I want to be remembered as Sister Pehrson and be the same person no matter who my comp is or where I'm at! this morning I studied a really awesome talk. it was about personal prayer and improving personal prayer. it was in the ensign awhile ago, but it's a really great one you guys should look up! it talked a lot about how prayer is not just asking god for what we want and telling him what he needs to do, but it's figuring out who he wants us to be and asking him how to become that way....it's by elder Pearson. I'll try to get the title to you but yeah it was amazing! I'm super excited for this upcoming week! I love you guys SO much and pray for you daily! let me know what I can do to help you guys out. Keep the ward missionaries in your prayers and do all you can to find people for them to teach, or to fellowship those they are already teaching. Remember that being a missionary is simply being a friend. that's one of the greatest things I've learned on my mission! Love you all! xoxoxoxoox

January 6, 2014

Wow!! I can't even believe 6 months is almost up! These last months have really gone fast (in retrospect) :). I love my mission SO SO much and I know that I am serving here in D.C. for a reason! This week was really great! On Monday we deep cleaned the apartment. It has been pretty messy since the day I got there but Sister B always wanted to do a bunch of stuff on P day, so it was nice to get everything all clean and fresh! I never believed it before, but the Spirit really is stronger in a clean house! Sorry for my room back home mom... :) After all of that we went and had family home evening with La'vonne! Teya was supposed to be there but she was at her Grandma's house. we shared a Mormon message as well as personal testimonies of the Book of Mormon. We encouraged La'vonne to keep reading and to stay strong! we then played a game called "book of Mormon scramble". it's hard to explain the rules, but you basically build your own crossword puzzle using letter tiles and if you use book of Mormon words, you get extra points! the funny thing is that none of us actually used book of Mormon words..haha. we had a great time though! it reminded me a bit of Quiddler...you'll have to look it up! Tuesday was such an awesome day! being the last day of the year, I was thinking about all that happened in my life in the last year! I've gone through some of the most difficult moments of my life, but I've also experienced joys I never imagined I'd experience! i am so thankful for the way my life has turned out so far! the mission is hard, but I wouldn't be this happy anywhere else! It was funny because the only reason sister Phelps and i realized it was new years eve was because a member told us. we had zone and district meetings in the morning. we talked about getting members to lessons. i was really dreading district meeting because i felt like the district would see our numbers for last week and think badly of me or think I'm not doing well taking over the area. thankfully i was just being paranoid. our district leader told us how our district had their best week yet and he said he knew that some of us (me and sister Phelps) probably felt discouraged by this week, but that we should just stay positive and keep working hard! it was something I needed to hear. it's funny because I feel like when I make a mistake or don't do my best, I feel hopeless. I teach people all the time that they are not their weaknesses, and that through Christ they can overcome any and all obstacles, yet I wasn't really believing this myself! it was a much needed reminder and helped me stay positive the rest of the week! the rest of the meeting we talked about diligence, church attendance, and inviting to baptism in ALL lessons. Sister Phelps and i were the only ones who didn't invite last week so we all committed to do better this week! after our meeting we did language study and then facebook. after that we went and checked on some potentials. one was home but was "busy" and the other wasn't home. we started knocking on doors! we talked to an older Methodist woman who was very friendly but definitely not interested. we stopped and saw a ward family and they ended up feeding us dinner which was sweet! we saw Doni, who is an investigator, for a few minutes but she'd just gotten off work and was tired. we then had a lesson with Elizabeth. she's from Ghana and is a former investigator. we tried to figure out all that she believes and tried to help her see how our beliefs are similar! she's hard to read. we had had to be in by 8 due to the holiday so we planned for about an hour and looked through all the former investigators and chose some to visit. we watched the restoration and i tried to teach sister Phelps how to do a sock bun! i love holidays as a missionary! they are memories i will definitely treasure for the rest of my life! it's just fun to look back and think of what we would be doing if we were home. but these moments out here are so irreplaceable and I love them!!! Wednesday was a great start to the new year! after studies, sister graney invited us over to make cookies with her, la'vonne, and 2 of her friends, jeff and tara. it was so fun and a really good opportunity to meet people! when we first got there it was just us la'vonne and sister graney. the night before we were texting la'vonne and told her to remember who she is and make good choices, etc. we were just teasing her because we knew she was going to sister graneys. well she told us that morning that she almost really needed that advice! she said that she had planned on going to sister graney's with teya, but then teya called and told her she wanted to stay in d.c. with her aunt and grandma. this is the first time teya has ever chosen someone else over la'vonne so it was really hard for her to take. she was feeling very sad and vulnerable and one of her ex's was trying to get her to go to a new years eve party with him. she knew if she went she would be tempted by many different things, but she also felt like she just wanted to get out and forget her worries. she prayed for the strength to make the right choice. she told the guy that her friend was expecting her to come over for the holiday and she'd be sad if she didn't come. Sister Graney was like "la'vonne, i will gladly be your "out" ANYTIME!" it was so cool and it made me so proud of la'vonne! it has to be so difficult to give up things that were such a big part of who you were for the gospel. I'm pretty used to making these sacrifices because I've done it many times in my life, but for La'vonne this requires giving up things she's been doing for years! it made me admire and respect la'vonne even more than I already do! she's amazing! so after awhile Jeff and Tara showed up. they are both great people. we gave them our facebook info. I'm so grateful we have facebook as missionaries because we probably wouldn't have easily gotten in contact with those two again! we headed to a ward family's home after that. we brought some clothes, shoes, and makeup for the daughter to try. it was fun and she was really grateful. as we left she told me "you guys are the best sisters we've had! you dress so cute and your nails are always done. it was so sweet! it's really hard to find the balance of being friends with and teaching people. but the friendship part is so very important! if people don't know we love them, they won't really care about what we have to say! i know i have a ton to still work on, but it made me feel good that I'm doing one thing right! after that we went and did FB. we then went and had dinner with a ward family. we had a great visit with them and then we went and had a family fun night with another family! they are awesome! we played apples to apples. I'm not sure if i told you about family fun nights but what they are is we get to go to a members home and play a game with them and their family and then we share a spiritual thought. the first time it can be just the member family, but the next time an investigator or less active member has to be there. it's a lot of fun and we're trying to get the ward to do these so that people can get to know us in a less intimidating way! i think they are really great missionary tools! Thursday was awesome. we had to do weekly planning that day because we had an exchange on Friday. we had a really great companionship inventory and it's good to know i can be open with my companion. after our weekly planning we went and did FB. i got to have a really great conversation with a person about his religious beliefs and background! definitely making progress there! we then had dinner with a ward family. they had their sister there who is not a member. we had some good conversation with her and invited them all to add us on FB. we then decided to check on our potential, who lives in the same area. he didn't answer so we just started knocking doors. it was dumping snow at this point and the second door we knocked was a woman i met at the stake Christmas program. she shared some encouraging thoughts with La'vonne and is a convert herself. she attends the Potomac mid singles ward. she lives with her mom and sister who are also converts! they dried our coats off for us and helped us warm up. when we left they thanked us for coming over and said it had been way too long since the missionaries knocked on their door! sometimes the members need just as much encouragement as investigators. tracting in the freezing snow is one memory I will always remember! :) Friday was crazy! we weren't sure if we'd have exchanges due to the bad weather. but as we were finishing our studies the other sisters called and told us we were still exchanging and i would be leaving and working with sister Billman in Fort Belvoir. I was excited because I've never left the area for an exchange before! so we packed, ate, did some facebook and then exchanged! i was honestly a little nervous but luckily like always i was just over thinking everything! sister billman and i had a really good talk and i told her some of my concerns. she told me that i should work on figuring out the "why" behind all i do as a missionary. do i get up at 6:30 because i know I'll get in trouble if i don't? do i knock doors because I have to? or do i do these things because I know it's what the Lord expects of me and I want to do His work? she also talked about having the faith to find. Am I expecting each person I contact to accept what I tell them or am I just filling time finding? this was all exactly what I needed to hear! Then she talked about being proactive. i told her how this is my first time leading an area and being the more experienced companion. it's been hard because I'm not a great self motivator! she explained that the Lord is allowing me to lead this area and to have these experiences because He wants me to become something. the other thing she mentioned is to not dwell on it when i screw up! so after our talk we went and knocked doors for awhile! Friday was definitely THE coldest day I've experienced on the mission thus far. i didn't actually get to see what the temperature was, but everything was covered in ice and it was seriously so painful! but we kept trekking on! we knocked doors with no success, but we had fun with it! we ate dinner and then went to see this less active woman. she's from Greece! We had a great lesson with her after that about prophets and then we headed out to do more tracting in the dark and dreary wilderness! we talked to tons of people and it was cool seeing all the backgrounds they came from. we talked to Muslims, Christians, Catholics. You name it and we probably talked to one! sadly none wanted to hear our message! we ended then night visiting a member. the husband has been a member for a little over a year and is from England. he is waiting on his visa so he can live here with his wife permanently! I'm glad I'm not waiting on a visa in that situation! it makes my visa situation seem pretty miniscule in comparison! it was fun going to another area and seeing that even the sister training leaders have struggles to find people. I've been feeling down about finding new people to teach in my area but it was good to see that the work just ebbs and flows and you have to be positive through it all! Saturday we did our studies and then exchanged back. exchanges make you grateful for your companion! sister billman is great, but sister Phelps and i have a special bond! I was excited to get back and improve the work in our area and implement all i learned into the work! we went and tried to visit an investigator, but he wasn't home. we knocked a few doors and then tried to see Makila and Kaira. no luck there either! we ended up seeing sister ketch. her neighbor Alan was visiting. he's in the military and his family is living in Georgia. we had a really great talk with them and then had dinner at the Pajuelo's. they are a great family! strange, but great. it's really cool because brother pajuelo is from Peru and is a convert to the church of about 5 years. his dad was recently diagnosed with cancer so brother pajuelo called his dad and asked if the missionaries could come give him a blessing. he agreed. they came and since then have begun teaching him! this would have been a great story, but it doesn't end there! at the next appointment his dad had, the doctors told him the cancer was gone!!! how amazing is that?! miracles still happen today! after that visit, we went and saw sister Thompson. we had a really awesome time with her and taught about setting goals. we shared some of Elder Uchtdorf's talk "the best time to plant a tree" and we all 3 set goals in 3 areas: physical, mental, and spiritual. I have been off sugar for over a week now so my physical goal was to not have sugar until February 14th. my mental goal was to not dwell on the past! and my spiritual goal is to finish the book of Mormon by the 1st of February! elder Uchtdorf talked a lot about recognizing the fact that we will fail at first as we strive to accomplish our goals. a lot of the times if i fail, i just give up! but this is a journey and as we make small improvements every day we will become the person heavenly father wants us to be and we want ourselves to be! it's funny because a lot of times when i am teaching, i find things in the lesson that I really need to hear! it's a good reminder that this mission is helping me become someone the Lord needs me to be. Sunday was wonderful! we had church at 11, so we got most of our studies in before church. teya came to church and so did our investigator regassa. there was a senior missionary couple in our ward and we were talking to them after and they asked me about my visa. a few times this past week people have seemed super upset after i tell them that I have been waiting on my visa for this long. it's funny because i think it upsets other people more than it upsets me! it made me realize how grateful I am for the time I've had here in D.C. I used to always identify myself as a "visa waiter" and i made sure all the members and everyone knew i was waiting on my visa. but now it just doesn't seem that important!! I'm grateful that the Lord has helped me see how important the work is, no matter where I am serving. it was fast Sunday so that meant testimony meeting! sister Orme bore her testimony and it was very entertaining! she's a sassy old lady! probably in her 70s. she talked about how awesome it is to have 3 sets of missionaries in the ward and she goes, "not to discriminate, but we especially love the sisters. they have been helping us with our daughter and they've made a big impact in her life!" it was really sweet! in relief society we talked about tender mercies. it was really awesome! it made me think about all I've experienced on my mission and just my life in general! they have been full of those mercies. this one woman was talking about a rough time she went through and her sister said "i can't fix it for you, but I can love you through it!" she talked about how that's what heavenly Father tells us during our trials in life. la'vonne told us she wants to find some moms in the ward who have raised teenagers. She would like to get some advice right now. it was cool that she recognizes where she can turn for help! after church we did language study and then had dinner at the reeders! we then went and saw some investigators, tony and Barbara. they told us the elders had just knocked on their door a few minutes earlier. they were getting ready to leave so we went to visit someone else and we saw the elder's bikes. we left them some encouraging sticky notes! we ended the night seeing Karia. her sister makila was home but was tired so we had a visit with kaira. she will be home for the next few months so we hope we can help her stay active! the work definitely picked up this week and I know that I just need to stay positive through all the ups and downs! it's been a ton of fun working with Sister Phelps. We are a lot alike and have a lot of great laughs and have a really good friendship, so it's fun serving with her! I hope you guys have a wonderful week and find some people for the missionaries to teach! member referrals are DA BEST! i love you all so so much and will talk to you in a week! love, Sister E Star :)

December 30, 2013

Family!!! It was so so great talking to you guys on Christmas! definitely the highlight of my week! it was good to have that reminder that I am where I need to be and that (no offense) I'm not missing too much besides your good company back at home! This week was so good! It was really hard..but it was really good! On Monday after emailing Sister Phelps and I did some thrift shopping! that was a blast! she's such a fun companion! as you know, we had dinner with Susan and Bob that night and we really enjoyed it! Bob was very inquisitive and was shocked to find out that sisters actually knock on doors and do that kind of missionary work! after dinner we went to have FHE with La'vonne. we were going to watch the movie 17 miracles with her (which we have permission to watch, in case you were worried :) ). The movie was too long to watch that night so we talked. Tuesday we had our meetings in the morning. We found out that our district is the youngest district in the whole mission! we have 3 missionaries in our district being trained. our district leader had to go home for about 6 months for surgery so he's technically older but he is still "young" in mission terms. he had us go around the room and say "what I wish I'd known at the beginning of my mission". there were some great ones! i think what i wish I'd known is that our companion is there to help us! that's something i really struggled with. after meetings we had companion and language study and then did facebook. then we had dinner with Asra and a family in the Ward! they love Sister Phelps! we got to share a story with them about the meaning of all the symbols of Christmas. It was a lot of fun! after that our district went caroling! it was such a blast! we saw some members as well as investigators. our district is a lot of fun! sister Phelps and i are the only sisters in our district. we knocked on one investigators door and this super buff shirtless guy answered the door and it was so funny because all the elders just automatically looked at us to see what we would do. the guy told us to wait there for a minute and put a shirt on and came back. It could have been worse, right? on Christmas morning sister Phelps and I opened presents under our "tree". we had 2 Christmas breakfasts and then got to skype you guys! that was a lot of fun! i was honestly anxious about it because i didn't want it to be awkward and i didn't want to cry too much! it was a great reminder that i am loved and it made me very grateful to be out here! i miss you guys and i know you miss me, but once i get home you'll be glad to have the improved Emily to spend time with! :) after skyping, our dinner appointment called and had us come and pick up our dinner because they had a family emergency. we came back to sister Graney's and watched "a little princess" and then ate and talked. They made us peanut butter soup and these rice ball things. it was DELICIOUS!!! it was fun to have a non traditional Christmas dinner! we left sister graneys' planning on visiting a ward family, but they cancelled on us and we couldn't drop in on anyone, so we went home and watched the district haha. it was a very fun Christmas! the day after Christmas i woke up feeling pretty gross, so i slept awhile and then we got up and did our studies. after studies we went and did facebook! we then came home and made dinner. then we went to La'vonne's for a make-up FHE and watched 17 miracles with her. i don't know if you guys have seen it, but it's a super powerful movie! we wanted her to know about the history of the church and about the pioneers. she really enjoyed it! at first, i was nervous because La'vonne kept sort of criticizing the miracles that were happening, but by the end of the movie her heart was really softened and she was just in awe at the sacrifices these people had to make. she was like "wow, you guys must be really proud to have people like that be a part of your history!" after the movie La'vonne was sharing with us this conversation she had with a friend from work and he was mocking a lot of her beliefs. it was cool because she said she wasn't even tempted to lower her standards for this person and that she was strong and proud of all of her beliefs. she is such a powerhouse! I'm so grateful she's a member! she's such a great example to me. Friday was really good! we had weekly planning during the afternoon and it was fun because we got to just talk and bond a lot. we then went and did facebook and then ate dinner. we went and saw Kyra and Mikyla after that. Kyra is the one who came to my apartment at Byu-i who knows my old FHE brother...small world! she's back for the winter semester and we are trying to teach her sister Mikyla, so we had a good visit with them! we then visited a ward member. that's going through some trails with her family right now and really needed a visit. She recently became active in the church again and it was cool to see how she is relying on the gospel during this difficult time! Friday I decided to give up sugar for this transfer. I am now on day 4 so wish me luck with that! so far I have turned down apple pie, and some Tampico orange juice. not too difficult yet... :) Saturday was a very good and productive day! we got up and went on a walk for our morning exercise, got ready and did some studies, and then went to Sarah and Casi's baptism! Casi is the one who gave up smoking to be baptized. her daughter Sarah is 9. it was a wonderful service! there were actually 3 convert baptisms that morning. that's 5 people I've seen be baptized in the last week! pretty incredible! talk about hastening the work!! Baptisms are really great because they remind us missionaries that there are prepared people out there! after the baptism we finished our studies and then had lunch with a ward member. after lunch we went and checked on one of our potential investigators. he was coming out of his home and he was very excited to see us! sadly, his dad passed away the night after we met him. it is kind of cool how heavenly father placed us in his life during this time though! i hope he recognizes this! he's pretty busy right now with the funeral and everything, but he still is interested in the gospel so that's really awesome! after seeing him we checked on a referral. she was definitely not receptive, but we met a man with a lot of potential on her street, so that was good! we then saw a sister in the ward! she got an electric bird feeder for Christmas. it has a remote on it so if there is a squirrel climbing on her feeder, she presses a button and it shocks the squirrel! every time we see her she complains about those squirrels, so she was very pleased with this gift...haha! she's such a funny lady. i love this person, but she is always complaining about relief society and church and uses a lot of excuses not to go. it made me really grateful for my faithful grandmas! they have plenty of excuses not to attend church, but they are so righteous and they just keep going! after dinner we saw Elizabeth, our 10 year old investigator. so her mom is inactive, and her grandma would be active but is really sick so she can't attend church. we were finally able to meet her grandma on Saturday night which was great! we made plans to get Elizabeth to church. i think church would help her out a lot so we'll see what happens there! we ended the night visiting another Ward family. they are a great family! The mom is a saint...she is always so giving and is always doing good things for others. her husband is not active but she and the kids still attend. i really admire her for that! Sunday was really awesome. sadly we were not expecting to have any investigators at church, but Sue surprised us by showing up! we are hoping to teach her more after the new year. sacrament meeting was really great. all the talks were about hope. the theme that really stuck out to me is that we don't have to go through anything alone! Christ is always there and he understands perfectly. that was something i really needed to hear! after church we came home and did our studies. i again had the reminder that i am not in this alone! i only need to reach out and ask for help and it'll be there. i had a good experience sort of brainstorming ways to improve the work in this area and how to be a better example to my companion. it's been difficult this transfer..i think heavenly father is laughing to himself watching me because last transfer i really felt like i was leading the area and that i was such an example to my old companion. We have to go above and beyond in order to be obedient. the alarm is now set at 6:15 so we can get up on time, and we have to be ready early so we can leave on time. but i know that if we obey, we'll be blessed! I got some really good ideas on what i can do better during my studies, and i was filled with a lot of hope! i also started reading the book of Mormon again. I've been studying other things lately but i decided i wanted to read through the book of Mormon again and it was really awesome! I just love that book. reading it brings me so much peace and true happiness! after studies we had dinner with a member. the wife is from japan so we ate with chopsticks. she made the Japanese version of chicken noodle soup. it was super good! we then went and saw the abbas' since they weren't at church yesterday. they have a sick bug going around the family but they expressed a lot of gratitude for the ward helping them out on Christmas. i was so grateful for the wards help! we kept asking and asking them to help out and they did a great job. I'm grateful for that! we then went and visited a less active family. they are going through some struggles right now, so hopefully our visit helped! on the way home we added up our key indicators for the week. even though the mission is not about numbers, we still count all of our lessons and everything. i was very discouraged to see that we only taught one lesson this week. it's really hard to take over an area because you are constantly worrying about if you're doing a good job and you don't want to let anyone down! sadly last transfer we were so focused on La'vonne that we didn't do much finding. this has made it hard for sister Phelps and i because we don't have many people to teach. I'm learning that each transfer needs to be a mixture of finding and teaching because if you don't find, the next missionaries really suffer! I know the Lord will help me through this transfer and that as long as I do my best and keep working hard, we'll see results. it may not be as quick as I'd like, but the good things will come! i am so grateful for you guys. for your love and support and the smiles you put on my faces! i hope you have a wonderful new year and I'll talk to you in 2014!! :) love, Sister Pehrson

December 23, 2013

FELIZ NATAL FAMILIA!!! man, I don't know what it was about this week but it feels like forever since we last talked! well..emailed :) this was a crazy week! a great one for sure! but also very insane... transfer week is always exhausting but I'm loving my new companion, sister Phelps and i know we'll have a great companionship!!! I'm glad you guys got my Christmas card. I hope you liked it! i had fun making it! so Monday night, we got to go to the temple with La'vonne and Teya. it was SO beautiful! we saw a concert with Jenny Oaks Baker which was really good. we also ran into quite a few ward members! La'vonne used to drive by the temple all the time and she could never figure out how to get to it, so it was fun for her to finally be able to see it! on our way there the gas light came on, and La'vonne realized she didn't have her purse. thanks to a 20$ bill and some McDonald's coupons and gift cards, we were able to get gas and food and head on home afterwards haha. it was quite an adventure! we talked to her a lot about the structure of the church and how prophets are called and things like that. she has the most amazing questions, so i love teaching her! Tuesday was a day of miracles!! Tuesday morning during studies I read a lot of the finding chapter of preach my gospel. we haven't been able to find new investigators lately so i decided to see what we could improve on. we had zone training that morning and President actually did a conference call with us! i guess our mission is doing really great on everything except finding. he encouraged us to have the faith to find. we were also told to go caroling! then we talked about the "culture" of our mission and what we need to keep and what needs changed. i left feeling so excited!! I'm learning so much about communication out here! when i got on FB on Tuesday, i had a message from Andresa!! we got to chat in Portuguese. it was incredible! she told me how grateful she is that Heavenly Father placed me in her path and all this sweet stuff. i will remember her and treasure my experiences with her for the rest of my life! talking to her really made my day!! after that we witnessed a true miracle!! we were only going to have time to visit one person before dinner. we chose a former investigator. as we got out of the car, this woman with a dog walked towards us. we started talking to her and it turns out she's the referral a member gave us! we had an amazing conversation with her and it was so incredible to see how Heavenly Father literally put her directly in our path! if we wouldn't have opened our mouths, we wouldn't have had this GOLDEN opportunity! we also had time to check on the former investigator! :) we then had dinner with the relief society president. we have created a policy that whenever we visit someone, before we get back in the car we have to knock on 2 doors. we hadn't been doing that and I thought about it as we headed back to the car. I tried to ignore the prompting and we had the car on and had just finished praying and I told Sister B we needed to go knock on the 2 doors. we sang a Christmas carol to one of the families and the other didn't want us to. I'm so grateful I followed that prompting and did what I really didn't want to do! we went to visit another woman and it was almost 8 and we were in a more wealthy area so we really didn't want to knock those 2 doors, but we knocked! the 1st house was a man who said he didn't want us to carol for him. the 2nd house was a darling old couple! their names are Tom and Elanor. We sang for them and they gave us hot chocolate and cookies. they both served in the Korean War, where Tom lost his legs. He met Elanor at the MASH hospital. they are Lutheran but they believe every religion is good. They were involved in a lot of charities when they were younger and they have actually visited a bishops storehouse in Maryland. they told us we are welcome to come by anytime and if we need somewhere to go on Christmas, we are welcome there. we sang joy to the word and had a prayer with them before we left. it was so incredible meeting them!! we came home and got a call that Sister B is being transferred!! i had very mixed emotions about this! I've loved serving with her. i was also afraid of getting a crazy companion! haha but i heard a great quote that i want to live by. "don't let your surroundings determine your effectiveness." we are all agents! we can blame the way we act on others, but in reality we have total control over how we act and we CAN make a big difference! the day before transfers is always crazy. it's never very productive, but Wednesday was pretty good. we went and helped a Sister in her wedding shop for a bit. She had Sister B pick out a veil to use in her future wedding and gave it to her as a gift! she is so sweet. i really love visiting with this Sister! she has such a strong testimony. she is an incredible woman. after that visit we went and saw an investigator who has been very distant lately. she told us that she doesn't want to get baptized right now, but she still wants to learn about the church, so there is still hope! i don't know if you guys got to watch the mormon message i posted Wednesday, but it was all about the atonement and how we don't need to hold things from the past against ourselves because the Atonement is meant to set us free from that pain and guilt. i felt like a lot of people needed to hear that so i shared that on facebook. after dinner we went to the church for La'vonnes baptismal interview. President B got stuck in traffic so he was about an hour late! La'vonne was worried, but it all worked out! la'vonne was so happy and I think the interview relieved much of her stress. we ended the night seeing a member family who sister b wanted to say bye to. the mom knitted us these really cute scarves for Christmas ! it was so sweet. Thursday we headed out to transfer meeting after studies. it's funny because you always kind of scope out all the sisters during the meeting and wonder who you'll be with!! transfer meeting was so incredible though. it reminded me of the fact that this season is the prefect time to share the gospel! so many people are prepared. there is a special spirit this time of year that makes sharing the gospel so much fun! since the departing missionaries left Tuesday, President Riggs chose some random missionaries to bear testimony. he chose a senior couple, the Carlisle's. they are AMAZING!! Sister Carlisle's testimony was especially incredible. she talked about their conversion process and what a righteous priesthood holder her husband is. she was sick for the first 10 weeks of their mission and he was so obedient and stayed with her the entire time. she said that whenever she needs a blessing, it doesn't matter what time it is, her husband will get in his white shirt and tie. she told us sisters to find a man like that! I would love to! i definitely have higher standards for who I date now, which i am sure we are all grateful for ;) when her husband bore testimony he said something really cool: "i will be a missionary for the rest of my life, with or without a badge." the name tag is one of my favorite parts of being a missionary, but i can still do this work without It! and i will! so my new comp, sister Phelps is great! she's from Syracuse, Utah. She's very social and fun! we headed to a young family in the ward who we visited last week. we challenged them to share their favorite scripture with someone last week. they told us they hadn't done that but they were doing different forms of missionary work. this week we challenged them to ask someone a question that would lead to a gospel discussion like "do you believe in god" or "do you go to church" so they all came up with their own question and told us they'd ask someone! after dinner we saw sister k. man i love that lady! then we went to our family fun night with la'vonne, Teya, sister G, and her roommate. it was so much fun! i don't know if i told you guys about family fun night. but it's a thing President Riggs came up with. so we can go to a ward members home and play a game with them, then share a spiritual message. at the end we ask "is there anyone you know who would enjoy a night like this?" this is the first we've done. it is ideal to have an investigator there, but you can do it just with a member family. we had la'vonne and teya there so it was really awesome. we played taboo and then i told this story that i got in a package from Norisah about 3 trees. you should ask her about it. it's an awesome story!! Friday was wonderful!! we did weekly planning and then went on facebook. there were a bunch of people setting up for the ward party at the church and these little boys came up to us and told us that they had asked their friend if he believed in god at school that day. it was so adorable and they were so excited to report to us what they'd done!! we then got to attend our ward Christmas party! it was such a blast. before it started we met with La'vonne to try on baptism jumpsuits. they seriously didn't have any in her size!! the one that fit looked straight out of the 70s. we all just busted up laughing when she walked out. she looked so beautiful though and she decided to lay her vanity aside for the day :) the ward party was very well attended!! la'vonne planned on doing a musical number for her baptism but she needed someone to accompany her. sister G's friend let us borrow her guitar so we practiced for that after the party. Saturday was so so great! i learned so much! since my last 2 baptisms have been after i left the area, i got to learn what it was like preparing for a baptism and being the missionaries in charge of a baptism. LOTS OF WORK! but lots of fun too!! before the baptism started, lavonne had all of us sisters plus sister graney and teya come into a room and pray with her. she cried and thanked us for what we've done for her. it was so humbling because she's the one who has really taught us so much and it there was a wonderful spirit in that room! i felt the spirit most strong when la'vonne was actually baptized. she looked so happy!! sister g had a reception for la'vonne after at her house. after all that, sister phelps and i got to work!! we met several potentials and ended the night seeing a less active member, sister b. i was nervous because I've only met her once. we had an amazing lesson though! she was on vacation for awhile, and left her Book of Mormon at home, but she told us she had begun reading it again and she felt really happy and excited to do so. we had planned on teaching her about repentance, and i really didn't want to for some reason, but i felt the spirit telling me to teach that, so we did. it went super well and at the end she told us how that's exactly what she needed to hear. it was good to know i was teaching what needed to be taught, even if it felt uncomfortable at first!! Sunday was another wonderful day! different ward members gave us over $45 in gift cards and then some hot chocolate and other gifts. it was so sweet! this ward is amazing. sister b and her husband both came to church, which was awesome!! la'vonne was confirmed which was incredible! she was honestly just glowing. it was kind of funny because a bunch of members came up to her and congratulated her and told her how they thought she was already a member! she's just amazing like that. during church sister A asked us to come help them set up their Christmas tree. we did that after ward correlation. They have never had a Christmas tree before, so they were SO excited! it was really humbling to witness that because I've been so blessed throughout my life to always have Christmas and always have more than enough at the holidays, so to see the ward members reaching out to people like that was so great! as we were leaving, she handed us 20 dollars and told us to buy ourselves a Christmas cake. we kept trying to give it back and she said "no, you are OUR sisters and we want you to have it." it made me feel so good to know that I am a little piece of string in someones quilt of life! :) it really is humbling to know how much these people appreciate the small, simple things we do for them! it inspires me to do this work for the rest of my life! we had "linner" with a ward member after that and we are going to start teaching someone in their home. the rest of the day was full of attempted visits with no luck! i honestly had no desire to tract, but i knew i needed to do it. i didn't want to knock those 2 doors, so I would knock 4! we didn't meet any potentials or anything, but i knew i was doing what i was supposed to be doing and that was a really incredible feeling! I'm so excited to talk to you guys on Wednesday. i miss you all so much, but am also so aware that I'm in the right place! i get more and more attached to this mission each day!! i don't know if I'm ready for my visa to come! i hope you all have a great week!! i will be looking forward to seeing your beautiful faces! love you so much! love, Sister Pehrson

December 16, 2013

It's interesting how when you have a really awesome week on the mission, Satan just throws a really crummy one at you! But in retrospect, this week was AWESOME! I have loved getting all of your letters and reading them each night. It means so much to me to know how many people still care about me! I'm gone but not forgotten ;) I hope your weeks went well!!! This week was COLD!!! Thanks to thrift stores, I am fully equipped with warm clothes. when we finished emailing on monday, this sister in our ward and her daughter took us thrifting! it was soo fun! I got some boots which i desperately needed, and a new skirt! it was nice to spend some time with members. we did our grocery shopping super crazy fast and then went and had dinner with one of the elders investigators! she is getting baptized on december 28. happy birthday davey!! :) she quit smoking a few weeks ago and is such an inspiration! she has a really rough life. she is a single mom and i can tell she wants male support but she's been through so much.... i told her about the mid singles ward in the area and she seemed pretty interested in that!i was in kind of a bummed out mood because my mtc companion got her visa and i had been thinking about everything that wasn't going my way and blah blah blah. hearing about these families i was so humbled and realized how easy i've had it! it really made me stop and think about how much more life is all about. it's so much bigger than all of us and yet i get so caught up in my own selfish desires! we ended the night having FHE with La'vonne and Teya. i love ending the nights with them! we taught them tithing and fast offerings and we played a game where we gave starbursts and had to figure out 10% of them to give back. it was fun and we had a great time! Tuesday was my 5 month mark if we're counting by the exact date. i'm not sure how that actually works, but whatever! i can't believe how fast 5 months has gone by! there have definitely been some slow days, but in reality it's all flown by! the day was a bit ca-razy! we woke up to beautiful snow falling!! but we got a text that informed us we couldn't use our cars. since we don't actually live in our area, this put us in a bit of a predicament! BUT, we did what we could! we scraped peoples cars for them, went and bought a pie for La'vonne for her birthday, and then decided to walk to the library. on our way there, we got a text saying we could use our cars until it got dark, but we had already walked about halfway to the library at this point! a few minutes later, a member pulled over and picked us up! she told us she'd seen tons of elders walking around, but we were the first sisters so she picked us up! she took us to the church where we practiced for our musical number the missionaries in our stake did for the stake christmas program on sunday. we came home and ate and to be completely honest, i was dreading going out to work. it was FREEZING and ICY and I was so TIRED! I could tell my companion wanted to be in too. I decided to be the leader and get us out of the apartment. so we walked and walked and walked and saw a member who informed us they are creating a byu california? is this true?? if so i want to go to there! haha. by the time we left her place, it was too late to visit anyone else! the boots i bought at the thrift store are cute but not comfy or waterproof. but i survived the trek when i was younger, so i knew i could make it back to our apartment!! i am glad that i experienced walking around in extreme weather and nobody bailed us out!! sister B and i had great talks and i just felt a lot of love for her. i know i'm here with her for a reason. i had a bit of a "i want my visa" pity party that morning, but throughout the day i noticed so many things that made me grateful to be serving here right now. i know i'll make it brazil. i need to be better about having patience and really, REALLY being 100% okay with serving here. Wednesday was yet another crazy day! In the morning between studies, we scraped ice off peoples cars. talk about a workout! it was a lot of fun. we finished studying and went and visited a sister in our ward who wasn't home but her granddaughter was. we had a really great visit with her and she has a lot of potential! we went and did facebook and i saw that BRANDON SCHAUERS IS LEAVING ON HIS MISSION! AHHH THAT MADE MY DAY! I am really excited for him!! after facebook we checked on a potential investigator who is leaving for a month so that was disappointing. we talked to some people on the street who weren't interested. i MADE myself talk to them. and it really wasn't scary! we then decided to go pick up sister k, a 78 yr old woman in our ward, and go see our 87 year old investigator. that was an adventure! Sister K was shocked by how much we pray. it was funny! i think it was a really good experience for her. he kept talking about how he doesn't go to church now because it's so cold. sister k is old too and she has plenty of excuses not to come to church. but she does come and I think coming to the lesson with us helped strengthen her testimony. we went out to diner with a sister in our ward and we had the coolest experience! as we talked to our waitress, i could tell she noticed something was different about us. in the middle of our dinner she came over and started talking to us about how she is a member of this church that she was raised in but is really searching for truth and wants to leave that church. well, the sister we were with used to be a member of the church this woman was talking about! she bore testimony to this woman and it was so powerful! we left our number and an invite to the Christmas lights on the table, not really sure if the woman would act on the invite. as we were in the parking lot, i heard someone yell "SISTERS!" i looked and saw our waitress. she yelled "thank you!" and was holding the pamphlet! talk about the Lord placing a prepared person in our path! that was truly the highlight of my day. We went and saw a family in the ward after that. side note...when we were visiting J that day we told him some members live down the street from him. he described them to us and told us how a few weeks ago they brought him dinner after he had surgery! he thought they were from his old baptist church but when he found out they were LDS, he was so grateful! it was amazing! I had a cool experience that night as we were driving. sister B gets super stressed out about driving and we were in a stressful driving situation and instead of getting annoyed, i calmly gave her directions. she was so grateful. i learned that the better we treat others, the more influence we have in their lives! if we want someone to change their behavior, we have to show them how to act! i realized that day more than ever that I am in control of every happiness i feel! i can choose happiness or grumpiness, laziness or diligence! i know i'm late to the party on this realization, but i'm glad i learned that! Thursday morning sister k called us and needed us to go by and help her set up her christmas tree! we did so and she treated us to lunch. she's a real hoot. she told us she felt really "bah humbug" but i think we helped her get in the holiday spirit! we then went to our last rehearsal for our performance. it was supposed to be one hour but ended up being 2. we then did Facebook! one of our investigators wanted us to come see her and she hasn't ben talking to us much so that made us really happy! we then stopped by a member families and shared a message with them! i love teaching little kids! it is so much fun! i love being called "sister missionary." it really makes my day! we then had dinner with a family. the mom is an RM and as we ate i thought of the type of member missionary i want to be and the things i want to do for the missionaries in my ward! the mission doesn't end after 18 months! we then had to take money to our zone leaders for mission t shirts! My companion ordered one but i know she doesn't have a lot of money so i paid for hers. instead of feeling annoyed, i felt really good!! our family is so temporally blessed and i want to share that blessing with others. we then had our lesson with La'vonne! it went so well! we taught the second half of the plan of salvation. it started out really rough. but i kept praying for the spirit to be there and it was like every doubt and question she had she answered for herself. it was pretty incredible! there is so much power in having a member present during lessons. I really want all of our lessons to be with members! Friday was such a busy day! we had our mission christmas conference! it was so amazing! the departing missionaries this transfer bore testimonies and it was so powerful! one elder told of a sister who had created this sculpture of the tree of life. she spend hours and hours on it and when she was done, she was very unhappy with how withered it looked. someone nearby said "it's okay, it's not done yet!" the elder talked about how none of us are done yet! not even RMS! he talked about how even when things don't work out and we aren't doing as well as we think we should be, it's okay because we're not done yet! president riggs spoke about a lot of cool things. one thing that really hit me was when he talked about setting goals. he said "you may not reach them in the first month. but you'll reach them in month 2. and even if you never reach them, if you're giving all you've got to give, you will witness a tremendous change and you'll never let yourself down! its funny because he was talking about goals, but that totally applies to my visa even if it never comes, if i give all i've got to give, i won't let anyone down and i'll love every minute of my service!! it was fun seeing all my mission friends at the conference! when i saw sister S i thought of all that i'm grateful for about her and what she taught me. my first 2 transfers were so hard but now i have the perspective that transfers do end and that new companions come so you gotta make the best of what you've got!! after the conference, we did service for sister e at her wedding dress shop! we then ate dinner and dropped off a secret santa gift for a ward member. we knocked on this great door that night! the man was from peru and his grandma was mormon! he says he wants to come to church and to learn more and i'm really excited for that. we then visited another family the and i'm really worried about them. i am realizing more and more how the only way to true happiness is service and charity! you have to focus on others! when i think about myself, i think about all my problems and i get discouraged. as i focus on others, i forget about myself and feel joy! it seems simple but it's actually hard to do. Saturday was great!!! we headed to Leesburg in the morning with La'vonne and teya for nicole's baptims! we got there early so i got to visit with a lot of the ward members that i've missed so much! seeing nicole get baptized was truly amazing! i was so happy! i'm still in disbelief that she's baptized to be honest! she got out of the water and with a big smile on her face she threw both hands in the air! it was so cute! on our way home we prepared la'vonne for her baptism interview. from the interview we went straight home and began helping her move! the elders could only help for like an hour so it was really just us and one other lady. it was intense! we finished barely at 7 and we had a 730 appointment. we hadn't had food for a long time and when we got in the car our appointment texted us and told us they were gonna feed us! it was so sweet and even though it was a small, temporal blessing i just had so much gratitude for that day and for the fact that Heavenly Father is aware of all our ridiculous needs! Sunday was such a great day! it was really exactly what i needed. As this week was a true roller coaster. I had just been really grumpy and irritable all week and didn't like it. we went to church and it was ward conference. bishop spoke and said something that really struck me. he said that when we have trials and burdens we often ask why when we should be asking "what am i to learn from this?" our stake president also talked about trials. to begin his talk he asked anyone who has been through or is going through a trial to stand. basically everyone in the room was standing! he encouraged us to remember that the Lord is doing what he knows is best for us and that he truly has the perspective to know what is right for us! that was encouraging to me! so last week the gospel principles teacher asked la'vonne to do part of the lesson! she did amazing! she's going to be a power house of a member! we came home and we needed to do weekly planning. i was dreading it. i told sister butts all that i was feeling. our numbers were so awful this week and i felt like i failed and was letting my heavenly father down. sister b went through our planners and went over all we actually did this week, and it was a lot and it was all good, it just didn't all reflect in our key indicators. i felt much better after that and apologized to her for being a grump. we talked about a lot of stuff and i told her how i have trouble letting people help me because i feel like i am being judged for my weakness. she said that i need to let her know when i'm struggling. even when i am homesick! she said that even though we come from very different home lives, i can still tell her when i'm struggling and she'll help. i know that we were meant to be companions! we had dinner at our bishops and then went to our stake music program. I am not trying to brag, our number was amazing! there were tons of non members there, so everyone clapped after the songs, but after we sang we got a standing ovation and people were crying and cheering. it was super powerful and one of the most spiritual experiences i've had singing! it was amazing! La'vonne came and afterwards we were talking to these members and told them la'vonnes getting baptized. turns out they are both converts and they encouraged her and helped her feel more excited! this week i have learned SO SO MUCH! i am really learning to be assertive here and to communicate with others in the way I need to. I am learning to be more bold, but not overbearing. i am leading my companionship which is scary but i learn a lot from it! La'vonne is going to take us to the temple and see the lights tonight which will be amazing! i hope your weeks are great! love you all so much! Sister Pehrson

December 9, 2013

It's been an amazing week here in Franconia! Lots of crazy stuff going on, but it's all part of the adventure right? It's so much fun serving here and I love it more every day!! I have loved reading my Christmas letters every day this month. I have felt so loved and it's just made my day!! On Monday when preparation day ended, we went and had dinner at the H’s home. Their kids shared their favorite scriptures with us and it was very sweet and fun. Their 5 year old drew us pictures! Sister B made them all balloon animals...yes she can make balloon animals haha! after that we saw Sister E. She was very busy but let us in and we shared a bit of President Monson's talk "We never walk alone" it was so good! we are really making progress with her and I hope she comes back to church soon. We then stopped by the P's. We got to share a spiritual message with Brother P, which was great since he's not super active. Then we tried to see the F’s, another less active family. Their door has a window on it so we knocked and saw someone peek out. then they turned on their super bright porch light and kept flicking it on and off so we left...interesting technique to get rid of us! We had FHE with L and T and watched “The Restoration” with them. it's really cool teaching L because she is so inquisitive. She asks REALLY hard questions and yet she's okay with us not having all the answers. She says she realizes that there are some things we won't have earthly answers for. She really identifies with Joseph Smith, which I think is pretty great! Tuesday morning we had studies and everything I studied made me so excited to just get out and work! But that had to wait cause we had district meetings! For some reason I had a lot of trouble that day comparing myself to other missionaries so that made the meetings really difficult. Satan really uses that against me! he also tries to make me feel sad and lonely and do the whole self-pity thing, but I am learning that the way to cure that is to focus on others. "Forget yourself and go to work!" right? so that's what I've really been working on and I feel like it's brought a lot more enthusiasm into the work and helped me get rid of Satan!! On Tuesday I found out that 2 of my MTC district missionaries got their visas! crazy right? I got on facebook for about an hour and did my missionary thing. it's so weird how used to it I am already! it's a great tool though. After that, we went and saw Sister K. she's in her late 70s and is so sassy! I love her so much! so it was really cool because when Elder Teh came, he talked to us about earning our referrals and not just begging for them. well I think we did that with sister k! she never talks about anyone we can teach, but since we've been visiting her quite a bit, she told us tuesday of her friend she wants us to go see who lives down the street from her! we were so excited!! from there we had dinner with a family in our ward who are just such great missionaries! they both served in Japan. actually, the husband was the wive's first zone leader..slightly awkward right? but they are truly great people! from there we went and checked on our 14 year old potential investigator. sadly she doesn't seem very interested at this time. we then saw the A’s'. they are still struggling quite a bit, but we made plans to take Sister A out with us to some lessons! Wednesday I went on exchanges! I always get sooo nervous for exchanges, and I have no idea why! they're always amazing! after our studies in the morning we had addiction recovery. it was all about receiving personal revelation and how important that is in our lives-as missionaries and as members! it really made me want to learn more about how i can better receive and act on promptings and revelation i receive. then we practiced for a musical number we're doing with a bunch of other missionaries in our stake. the entire time I was really dreading the exchange! so we exchanged and Sister B and I headed to the apartment. I talked to her about how I can help my companion more and then she taught me more about teaching repentance to investigators, members, and less active members. i learned a lot about asking questions and that's something I really want to implement in the work more. we then tried to contact our referral from Sister K, but she wasn't home. Then we tried to see a former investigator and ended up teaching her sister! then we talked to a man who was so darn stubborn! we tried to give him a book of mormon but he was like "I'll read it but I can promise you that i won't believe any thing in it.." it was pretty sad! we then had dinner with a family in our ward who have been members about 5 years. the husband is from peru! we taught our 10 year old investigator and realized that she really hasn't understood anything we've taught her yet, so we're going to have to go back and reteach a lot of stuff. Since she's not allowed to be baptized til she's 13, i think we have time for that! ;) We ended our night visiting L. We were supposed to teach T the gospel of christ, but she was at the young women activity. we had a wonderful talk with L though. she was praying to know if God really has a body, because that's something she struggles with understanding, and so as she prayed she remembered the story in the bible where jacob wrestles with God. so cool right?! the thing I loved about my exchange was that i learned so much just from Sister B’s example. she's getting ready to go home this transfer. She helped me realize that the only thing holding me back from being the missionary I want to be is myself! I have this idea of the person i want to be at the end of my mission, and I realized when talking to Sister B that that is totally possible and that the harder i work, the sooner I'll become that person! it was just great learning from her. Thursday was quite the adventure!! Sister B and I studied together and she told me that my meekness is a huge strenth and that it is a characteristic of Christ. I have often felt like my meekness holds me back out here and that I need to be bold and loud. but Sister B pointed out that I am not timid, i'm just calm. that made me feel really good and also made me want to improve and make sure that my meekness is never confused for apathy! when we exchanged back, we had launching leaders. it was our last one!! it was amazing though. we learn so much about being better leaders! Serving here, I've really had the opportunity to be a leader. My companion is a little shy and gets nervous talking to others, so I am usually the one to speak up and talk to people! it's scary but it's a lot of fun and I'm glad I'm learning all of this! after our meeting we went to Sister E's wedding dress shop. IT'S SO CUTE!! we got to do service for her there so that was so much fun!! as we left the shop, we realized that our car got towed! We had a lesson at 7 and there was no way we were getting our car back that night, so an older couple in our ward came and got us and took us to our lesson. the funny thing is that i wasn't stressed out at all about it. I just don't really get stressed and i've seen from my 2 companions that this is a huge blessing! i don't want to be one of those moms running around panicking all the time. I'm just glad that I could stay calm through that situation because it really helped my companion haha. our lesson that night went soo amazing! it was with L and T and it was on chastity. the spirit was so strong! we got home and finally had dinner...that day reminded me of the scripture where Christ tells the disciples not to worry about purse or scrip. because we had no food, no car and yet I was so happy! I wasn't worried about it at all. it was the strangest thing. Friday was great! we got our car back in the morning and then went to our zone conference. it was so great! Sister Riggs talked about having faith and how being faithful really means going above and beyond what we are asked to do. i have had many examples of this in my life and i want to do this in missionary work! then President Riggs talked about repentance and how important it is to teach this. my mind was pretty much blown! i learned that to repent daily means to take inventory of our day and then to change what needs changed and ask for strength. so i'm really going to work on teaching that and doing that! we went to check on our referral from sister k but she wasn't home. we then saw the A's. On Thursday, Brother A lost his job, but when we saw them Friday, they had both gotten hired again! talk about blessings! we did this really fun activity with them where we made christmas count down chains but on the strips of paper we wrote gifts we will give to Christ this season, like helping others feel good about themselves, or thinking positivelly. The things Sister A' wrote were so amazing and gospel centered and it made me realize how we really need to find friends for her because she has so much potential and it would be such a shame for her to fall away! We ended the night at Sister T's. we shared Alma 37:45&46 with her. these are some of my favorite scriptures! i was very slothful before my mission about reading scriptures, but now i've felt the joy that comes from scripture study and i don't want to miss out on that happiness again! On Saturday morning we took L to a baptism with us. There were actually 3 children getting baptized! the kids in this ward love us so much and it's so much fun! There are these 3 little girls in particular that are the relief society presidents daughters and they always draw pictures for us and things. Well we were sitting by them and one little girl asked me how old I am. I told her I'm 20 and she goes "20?! You should be getting married by now!" nothing like being humbled by a 7 year old! hahah it was so funny sister b and i were cracking up! L had a really wonderful experience. i think it made her feel more comfortable, but also nervous. She started crying and said she felt like a bride before her wedding day! we were talking with her about who she wants to baptize and confirm her and she couldn't decide between these two people so she's like "Okay, we're going to flip a coin. but we're going to pray first!" it was so funny! after studies that day, we went and saw P. She's an older woman who has a lot of health problems. she'd been progressing really well but then something happened. she didn't really want to let us in, but she did and so we're still working with her and trying to figure out how to help her! when we got to the car we had a voicemail. it was from N in Leesburg inviting me to her baptism this weekend! :D :D :D I am sooo excited! and L and T are going to come with us to it, so we have our ride set up and everything. It's so amazing! we then went and tried to visit some people but no one was answering so we street contacted! It was like 20 some degrees...I was FREEZING! But it went super well! i've just been praying for confidence and the Lord has truly filled my mouth! we were walking around Sister K's neighborhood and she saw us and gave us brownies and let us use her bathroom. I think we're her granddaughters now :) there are definitely perks to serving stateside! after dinner we saw L and T. we taught T the gospel of Jesus Christ. i've been really wanting to use more analogy's and involve investigators more in lessons and that nights lesson went super well in that aspect! we invited T to really pray about baptism and i know if she does, she'll get her answer! we then went and saw S..it was really sad. she has super bad paranoia. she thinks the government is after her and is following her and she said her phone is tapped and all this crazy stuff. I don't think we can really teach her anymore. Sunday was so great! we had ward council and bishop talked to us about receiving revelation for the people we serve. both L and T came to church as usual, and L had a really wonderful time! everyone was coming up and introducing themselves to her and she felt so good! she is progressing so well and so fast and she's going to be such a powerful member! S showed up at the end of church which was a shocker!! after church we talked to her and she kept saying she wanted to talk to this man she met who is her age. so she takes me and we go find him and he's the ward clerk and i guess last time just to be friendly he said "i hope to get to know you better!" well, i think she thought he was flirting or something because she asked him when she can get to know him better. It was so awkward and funny! it started dumping snow during church so when we went to head home we needed to scrape off our car. one of the members was like "sisters get in the car, i'll take care of it!" it was so small and seemingly insignificant, but it's so nice to be cared about and I just love the members of the wards. they make being away from home much easier and just make me feel so grateful to serve! we had invited L to come to ward choir with us, but it got cancelled. our ward does weekly missionary videos. there are 3 companionships in the ward, so we switch off each week. well we decided to invite L to be in our video this week! i'll forward it to you..it's pretty hilarious and it's so awesome that she was so willing to be in it! i am so excited for her baptism!! when we were doing the video, we got the message that we should stay in but if we need to be out, we need members to drive us. So L dropped us off at a members where we stayed for awhile. we talked to the member about her conversion and she was showing us pictures of all the missionaries who taught her. She said the name kyle N and up pops a picture of my FHE BROTHER FROM LAST WINTER SEMESTER!!! Small world right?!! it was soo wierd! we were talking about him and i brought up this “sassy” girl he baptized who came to visit him and she came to our apartment (at BYUI) for a few hours one day. well the member goes "oh yeah Kyra? she's in our ward!" she's at byui right now but will be back on christmas break. So i'll get to see her again! someone from my past life..hahah :) it's crazy how small this world is though! we spent the rest of the night cooking dinner, having a lesson, and watching the christmas devotional with L and T and Sister G. the lesson really couldn't have gone much better. i expected L to freak out about the no tea rule, but she was more concerned with coffee. as always though she told us she'd really try to live this and it wasn't a deal breaker or anything! she is so humble, patient, and faithful. i love the relationship we have with her and T! it's just fun! it's like i'm teaching my best friends! i wish every missionary could baptize someone like L. This week has beeen so wonderful for me. I've gained a lot of confidence in myself and I am able to form relationships with people much easier and not be so shy! i've been trying extra hard to have a positive attitude, and it has made a tremendous difference in me! every morning i wake up and i'm so full of energy and i'm just excited to go and see people! I know i am doing the Lord's work. and I am so humbled to be doing that! thank you guys for all you are doing. thanks for the prayers and the things you did to prepare me for serving. I am so grateful that i have a loving family to write home to each week! i hope your christmas season is going wonderful and that you guys realize that I'll be home around this time next year...i hit my 5 months this week...WHERE IS THE TIME GOING?! I can't wait to see you on the big screen in a few weeks! love you so much! love, Sister Pehrson

December 2, 2013

I just received your package and I am SO overwhelmed with gratitude for you guys. You don't know how much that means to me. There are so many missionaries out here whose families aren't very supportive, and I am just so grateful that you all support my decision to serve and that you keep me staying positive! I honestly could not do this without your support. so thank you thank you THANK YOU!! This was definitely the best week of my mission so far...I've had some of the most joyful, spiritual experiences of my life this week and I will treasure these memories for the rest of my life!!! After preparation day ended last week, we went and visited Sister E. Shes a less active member and she owns a shop here in Alexandria and works a lot so her life is very hectic. She was really busy and was having a really awful day and we shared a quick spiritual message with her and I think it really lifted her spirits! From there we went and tried to visit TONS of people, but no one was home. we ended up at S's! She let us in and told us how frustrated she is right now because her apartment management isn't helping her out with all the issues her apartment has because she is Chinese. That apartment complex is known for taking advantage of immigrants and people of different races so it was just so disappointing to hear this! She invited us to come back for dinner on Saturday. She asked us if we've ever eaten duck before, but with her accent it sounded like she said dog. she was like "have you had dog before? I haven't ever cooked it, but I'm going to make it for you!" I was freaking out and then she got the duck out of the fridge and I was just like " oh good.." haha!! as we were leaving she asked us where we live. we live about 15 minutes away from her and so she just hugged us and thanked us for coming just to visit her. it made me feel so good to make her feel cared about!! we ended the night having FHE with L and T! I just can't tell you enough how much I love those two...they are so full of joy and every time we go over there I leave with a big smile on my face. They are truly my friends and it's so much fun to teach them! On Tuesday we did studies and then for language study we went over to a woman named Angela. she's a member of a neighboring ward and she's from BRASIL!! She's a member of the church but her husband is not supportive of her membership so she doesn't come to church anymore. She had about 3 other Brasillians there and none of them spoke English!! It was amazing practice! I really understood a lot of what was said and I felt really confident. After that we went and saw Do. She's the sister of a ward member and she's living with them for awhile. We've been teaching her a bit but up to this point I think she had felt really pressured into listening to us. So we went and saw her and it was just us and her and it was such a great visit! we got to know her better and let her know that we really care about her and she realized that we are just normal people so she shouldn't feel pressured into anything! it was funny because last time we had challenged her to pray daily and her sister was like "yes. just focus on one thing and see if you get an answer" well, she thought she could only ask for one thing while praying! she was like "I've been really selfish this week. I actually prayed for 3 things the other night.." so we cleared that up for her!! we had dinner with the relief society president and then had a meeting with her and our ward mission leader. we ended the night visiting another family i love so much! we read the scriptures with them. it's really hard for them to understand the book of mormon, but they're making great progress. Thanksgiving Eve was a wonderful day as well! we had zone and district meetings and I really learned a lot there. we were reminded that there needs to be a sense of urgency in this work! you know i'm a laid back person, but since becoming a missionary I've been working 10X harder than before and I have never been happier! We are so exhausted at the end of the day, but it's just so rewarding and I know that I just need to keep trying harder!! it's been really great serving with my current companion because we respect each other and we both have a say in things and that our opinion really matter. we learn and grow together and that's something i really appreciate! we went and did facebook. I think there is potential there for someone to teach! we then went and had dinner with Sister B, and her daughter and daughters friend. we went to this place called the silver diner..it was sooo good! i had a banana nutella milkshake. to die for!! but the best part of the meal was talking to her daughter. she's in her junior year of college...exactly where I'd be if i weren't out here! this time of year, it's incredibly hard to be away from home. I am very lonely and I miss you guys a lot! but talking to sister b's daughter helped me recognize that i am exactly where I need to be! i am giving up the instant gratification of being with friends and family and dating and all that stuff, for a lifetime of irreplaceable experiences and an opportunity to build my testimony so i can raise strong children! the experiences i am having on my mission are teaching me things i could not learn anywhere else! I don't mean to sound like a snob or rude about her daughter not being on a mission. I'm just saying I'm where i am meant to be and it's wonderful to know that! as we ate, a waiter walked by and asked if we were all sisters. he got baptized 2 years ago. the b's were baptized 5 years ago. sister b was super mean to the missionaries at first, but now she's such an amazing member! after dinner we met the W's. they're probably in their 50s. great couple! then we had a lesson with E, our 10 year old investigator. i am learning a lot about teaching young people here! it's really fun and it helps me explain things more simply. we found out on Tuesday that we're not allowed to knock doors on Thanksgiving, so we had been trying all day to find places to go for Thanksgiving! as of Wednesday night we only had 3 solid places to visit!! This was probably the most unique thanksgiving I've ever had! after studies, we were sort of at a loss of what to do. we didn't want to just drop in on anyone so we called sister r and asked if we could come rake her leaves. so we did! then we headed to our first meal of the day at the D's! :) bother d told us his conversion story. they only have one child left at home so it was a pretty small gathering. for our spiritual thought we sang for the beauty of the earth. i played guitar. they loved it! it was so fun. from there we went back to the r's for our dinner! i thought of you guys and how great dad treats mom. dad is so patient and kind. I NEVER doubted the love you two have for each other. we were in their home for most of the evening. we were supposed to go see the A's, but they weren't home so we grabbed the ward list and decided to call the H's. we shared a spiritual thought with them and i wondered what one earth we'd do with the rest of our night as we left their home. we had a text from Lsaying we could come over! so we did! we sang for her and talked with her. My companion brought up baptism and L said she 100% decided that she and T are getting baptized!!!! I can't even explain the joy I felt in that moment. I just thought "This is why I'm here!!" This makes all the hard stuff worth it! The mission is not easy! I expected Thanksgiving to be full of fun times in members homes, but it didn't turn out that way. This experience showed me how the gospel and the work I'm doing now are the only way to lasting joy and peace. did i get to play games and have fun all day? no. was i with my family and loved ones? no. but this was definitely one of the best, most memorable thanksgivings EVER!! Friday did not start out very well. i felt very homesick. i really just wanted to be home and with my family. at first i just kept this to myself because i was kind of embarrassed that i felt this way, but then i to;ld my companion how I felt. it's kind of interesting because both my companions here in DC have not come from super warm, loving homes and they don't get home sick very often. sister b really helped me feel better and about an hour later i realized how irrational i had been! funny how those hormones work! so we did weekly planning and it went great! i really love being with Sister B because she's very genuine. apparently i have been offending her by not eating what she cooks, so we made a deal that I'll eat one thing she makes per day. you have to make these kind of sacrifices to be a unified companionship. I'm sure this will help me compromise in my marriage!! we then went on facebook! after that we went and helped L organize and pack for her move. we then went with her to a members home where she wants to rent out there basement. they are vegetarians so L can't cook meat in their home! but she's cool with it and is gonna move in there so i hope it works out wel1. L went and got us dinner and we took it to her place and watched finding faith in Christ. it was like a Friday night with friends, but in a super mormon/ religious way! it was a lot of fun and we answered lots of her questions and just strengthened our relationship with her! when we were out in public with her i laughed at how funny we must look and she goes "you know you guys are more than just missionaries to me. you're like my cool little sisters, with a big religious emphasis!" it was so sweet. i have loved being in Franconia and working on building friendships with my investigators! Saturday truly exceeded every expectation I had. I feel like it was almost indescribable, but I'll try my best to do it justice! I was really nervous that I'd miss Leesburg so much and not want to come back to Franconia. Luckily, that wasn't the case. Obviously I miss it a lot and it'll always hold a special place in my heart, but I've grown to love Franconia a lot! so Sister D drove sister s and i up to leesburg for the baptism. at transfers we literally swapped companions so we just did a mini exchange for the baptism. in typical mormon/brasillian fashion, it started late! Andresa looked so beautiful in white! she was so excited that i could come. it was really great seeing the members. Sister S said the ward really misses me, and that made me feel so great! we helped Andresa get ready and then the program began. i said the opening prayer, then Fielding's brother gave a talk in Portuguese about baptism. then Andresa's niece played "i am a child of god" on violin. that's when the water works began for both Andresa and I!! after the musical number, Sister W gave a beautiful talk on the gift of the holy ghost. She had Andresa come up to the stage and she wrapped her in a comforter, it was so cute. but then she just looked at Andresa and told her how incredibly happy she was and how this is truly one of the great days of her life, to see her baptized. as i listened to this talk and looked around me at all of Fielding's family, i was so overwhelmed at the magnitude of what was happening for this family. the strength of the Spirit i felt was indescribable and Andresa felt that so strongly! we then headed to the baptims. we skyped Andresa's mom so she could watch. I'm not sure I've experienced such immense happiness before. sister s and i just hugged and cried and it was like i could never experience more happiness than I did in that moment. I will treasure that memory forever...we then had a testimony by the ward mission leader and the bishop welcomed her into the ward. the program ended and we had to say goodbye. Andresa and I just hugged and cried and she thanked me over and over again. It really amazes me the love I develop for these people. it comes so quickly and easily! i will remember Andresa for the rest of my life! shes my first convert, and my first brasillian convert! :) i wish everyone could feel the joy i felt that day. i wish every family could be brought together the way the W's family were that day. Andresa was so prepared for the gospel, but it was still such an amazing experience to witness her life change because of and through the gospel. I really didn't want to leave! when we got back to Franconia we went and saw brother C. he is an older man. he is so sassy! i love him! we then went and had a lesson with L at a members home. we taught the gospel of Christ and i really don't think it could have gone much better. L is an incredible person. we rode to the appointment with her and when she was driving she cussed in front of us, so when she said the prayer in the lesson she asked the Lord for forgiveness for that. it was so funny! after that we had dinner at S's! I'm so glad I'm not on a mission in china cause they don't stop feeding you! the food was really great though! and i ate with chopsticks! we got to talk to sue a bit about who God is. we are just taking it as slow as possible with her. then we stopped by the A's for awhile. it's so sad because none of the members have reached out to them and they are really discouraged. we're trying our best to find members to help them!! Sunday was so great!! i wasn't too excited since it was fast Sunday, but it really exceeded my expectations! ;) we had testimony meeting and L got up and bore her testimony! It was wonderful! she is so brave and I just love her so much! she even went up and told bishop she's getting baptized. she's so excited.the lesson in relief society was really awesome. it was all about why life is so hard. many sisters shared their struggles and it made me realized that i shouldn't ever wish for my mission to end so that life can be "easy." life is never easy! the way to make it easy is to find joy in spite of all our trials. that just really hit me yesterday and reminded me to enjoy this season of my life as much as i can. we had lunch with the Bayouths after church. we then went and saw doni and the cumberlands! it's great because doni is recognizing that we visit her because we love her. D left the room for a bit and her sister just cried and told us how happy she is that D is now learning about the gospel because it's really strengthening their relationship. that made me so happy! we then had dinner at the D's. sister d is an amazing cook! she gave us a cute mini Christmas tree for our apartment. we ended the night having yet another lesson with L and T! it's been a L week! but i think she needed. we talked about obedience, prophets, 10 commandments, and the sabbath day. she took it so well! I'm just so amazed at how the spirit is working in her! on our way home, My companion expressed some concerns because she feels like she hasn't been feeling the spirit very much. i told her that as missionaries i think we can get stuck in ruts because we feel the spirit so much that it doesn't seem as special to us at times. i was kind of experiencing this before andresa's baptism and i was worried that after the baptism, nothing would compare to that spirit i felt. the complete opposite has happened though! i just feel renewed and more motivated to do this work because I've seen the results that can come of it! this truly has been a marvelous week. i wish you all could be here to experience it with me! but you're not and i know that heavenly father is taking care of us all while were' apart! i love you all so much and miss you tons, but i feel your love so strongly as well as heavenly fathers. hope your weeks are great! love you!! Sister Pehrson :)