July 21, 2014

Hello!!!

Yet another monday has arrived! :) I am super excited to tell you all about my new area!

So the first day was a little rough for me... the house we have here isn't quite as nice as my last apartment. It doesn't have closets and desks and stuff to organize with, so I just felt a little overwhelmed with the newness of everything. Eventually I figured it all out and have my own little system of organization now! Who knew I'd ever be wanting to be organized?! I realized that so many people live with way less than I have! And after a week in this house, it really feels like home for me! I'm happy to be learning these lessons and getting a new perspective in my life. Monday night we taught a lesson to girl. We had a family home evening with her and a family in our ward. Together we are trying to help her out. The family we taught her with, familia Sampaio, have a son on a mission and they are on fire to do missionary work so we love working with them!

Tuesday was awesome! We did weekly planning in the morning which was nice because I got to hear all about the area and the people here, etc.... We set some goals as a companionship which made me super excited for the transfer! Sister Downs is awesome and I know we will have an amazing transfer together. After that we had a lesson with our investigator. He's 20 years old and he is genuinely seeking for truth and is amazing to teach! We taught him with our ward mission leader, Mateus. Matues is he's 22 and is thinking about serving a mission himself.  We are working really hard with him to help him see the benefits of serving a mission and hopefully inspire him to go! We also had the opportunity to teach an older lady named Margarita, (which actually means Daisy in Portuguese!) After that we went and saw a ward member who is probably in her 80s or 90s. She asked Sister Downs the past Sunday if we could come and have a family home evening with her. She had big plans for us to watch a church movie and discuss it, and then to have testimony meeting, and then to eat cake. We told her we didn't have time for the movie but we could certainly share our testimonies and eat some cake. She had her grandson there and his mom over too. It was really amazing! The grandson went with us afterward to teach someone but they weren't home. He's 16 and is always going on visits with us and when he goes with us he learns the names and addresses of the people we teach and then goes and visits them on his own! He's so awesome!! That day I had a nasty fall in the street. I was walking and there was a chain that was pretty low so I decided to step over it. My first foot made it but my second caught on the chain and down I went...it was really embarrassing but it was also really funny!

Wednesday we had Zone and District meetings! All the missionaries in my zone are super nice and welcoming! I'm excited to get to know them better! We then visited Luisiani. She is about 15 and was recently baptized. She loves the missionaries!! Shes really fun to teach. Every time we visit her she has a little letter she wrote for us haha. After seeing her we went searching for a referral. The problem is that we didn't have an address. We talked to the lady who lives in the 1st house on the street. She didn't know the guy we were searching for but we got to teach her! She moved to this house about 5 years ago and before she moved, her son was taking the lessons from the missionaries. She said he was interested in being baptized but when they moved, he lost contact with the church and hasn't been back since! We set up a time to see them this coming week! After that we went looking for new investigators. We found a really cool family! They were all standing outside because someone had just gotten robbed. The police were all there and so we asked them what had just happened. They told us and then we explained who we are and we were able to teach them! The grandma had tons of questions and the mom of the family was listening really intently, so they definitely have potential! That night I also tried din-din. Its a brasillian popsicle type of thing. They mix the popsicle ingredients and then put it in a little plastic baggy and then freeze it. it was pretty delicious!

Thursday we had a meeting in the morning with the primary president, who just happens to be the Bishop's wife, and they just so happen to be our next door neighbors! haha. We talked with her about some of the recently baptized kids in primary and how we can help. That afternoon we taught a lady, Zilma. She's preparing to go to the temple. She's been a member for about a year and hopes to go in August!! After that we picked up Luisiani and went to an appoint with Lucas. He was baptized recently and we talked to him about general conference. Luisiani stayed with us til about 4, so she basically tracted with us for 3 hours! She's so awesome! That evening we visited  a teenage girl named Brenda. Shes a really amazing person! Her mom passed away about 3 years ago and her dad is living in another city, So she lives with her aunt. She has a really rough life, but shes always smiling! We helped her with some personal progress stuff that day. We knocked on doors and didn't have much success. It's hard because here people will talk to us because were Americans and they think its cool, but they don't have a lot of interest in the church, so we really have to search to find the people who really want to learn!

Friday was great! In the morning I studied some really cool stuff that helped me realize how I can more fully fulfill my purpose here and how I can overcome my fears of speaking the language. I read a quote by President Hinckley talking about recent converts and then the manual I was reading talked about how my experience of living in a new country, speaking a new language with new people can help me have empathy for people who were recently baptized. I thought that was pretty amazing and it helped me see that even though this is hard, there is always always, ALWAYS a purpose in our trials. I read some stuff that helped me see how I can study the language better and it was just really good. Then in comp study Sister Downs told me that my portuguese is really a miracle because she didn't speak at all when she got into the mission and that I'm doing really well. I felt a lot better about everything after that! The rest of my day was super awesome! I felt the spirit so strong when I taught! Before, I was so nervous that it was keeping me from feeling the spirit, but now I can really teach people and communicate what I am feeling to them. It's amazing to see how powerful the spirit is because without it, I literally can't teach people here! That day we taught a family we had met Wednesday night. the son is 15 and has tons of interest but his mom said he can't learn. It was seriously so depressing!!! I dont know if I've felt that sad about not being able to teach someone before. I could just see how prepared this boy is! But the good news is that we teach an english class here and his mom said he can go to it. So the seed was planted, I just need to have more faith! We then visited a family who was baptized in December. We are going to help their daughter with the Faith in God program! That night we taught them how they can study the scriptures as a family. It was really cool! We then went and taught the family we met Wednesday night, but sadly they didn't have very much interest. They were more excited to have Americans in their house than anything else. But there was a new guy there who is 18 and he actually has a lot of interest in learning. He lives in another area so different missionaries will teach him, but it was still good to see that there was a reason we were led to talk to them.

Saturday I got to teach my first English class!! It was so much fun! We teach with 2 other American Elders. We taught about telling time and numbers. At the end of each class we practice singing in English and the students sang a song called The Great Pretender by Queen. It was pretty entertaining! In the afternoon we taught a man named Marcio. He's a neighbor of a member and we taught him in the member's home! His wife left him recently with his 2 sons so he really needs help right now. This member is super awesome and helped him see how the gopsel will help him out! We will teach him in 2 weeks because he has to travel for a bit but when he gets back he wants to meet again! That evening we had a Relief Society activity about missionary work and then we went and visited Larisa. She has a strong testimony. We are helping her with her personal progress. She's super sweet and we helped her plan a family home evening lesson so we are going back tonight and shes going to teach it to us and her family!

Sunday was great! The ward here is awesome. We had our investigator, Neto attend church today for the 2nd time. We also had a lady come to church who has not ben coming for 5 years, but that day she decided to return! It was really cool to see. We taught our investigator Luceane in the afternoon. Shes really cool! Her aunt is Mormon, so growing up she always saw the book of mormon but she never went to church or learned about the gospel. Now we are teaching her and she's really prepared! We left her with the book of mormon and she's super excited to read it so we will see what happens! That evening we had meetings in the church and one of the members who is 28 is trying to decided if she wants to serve a mission or stay home and keep dating the guy she's with right now. She received her patriarchal blessing that night and when we saw her she came running up and crying and said she will serve a mission! It was so cool!!

I am so happy to be in this area! It's a great ward and I have an amazing companion! I love you all tons and tons and hope your weeks are amazing!!

xoxo

Sister Pehrson

July 14, 2014

This week was awesome!!! Bittersweet because I got transferred! but I know there are great things ahead for me! Monday night we got invited to go to family home evening with the bishop. We brought Aldenora with us and it was wonderful! We are trying to help her make new friends, so having that family home evening was really good for her. The other sisters had an investigator there too and there was a ward member so it was a lot of fun! Tuesday was a good day! A little rough since Brasil had a game but we still got to teach one lesson! We taught our investigator Francealda. She didn't read the chapter we asked her to because she didn't remember what it was, but she read the intro to the Book of Mormon and a few other parts, so it's still awesome! She has a strong desire to learn and is really starting to change. Wednesday was awesome! In the morning we had zone and district meetings which were great! After lunch we had to drop Sister Lugen off at the Mission Office to do some visa stuff. While she did that we had a lesson with our investigators Elvira and Clara. We basically ran from the office to our appointment, so when I got there I was SOOO sweaty!!! I was really embarrassed, it's probably the sweatiest I've ever been on my mission haha! But the lesson was great! We taught about the Lord's Law of Chastity. After that we had another appointment with an investigator who the other sisters in our ward have been teaching a little. Her sister is leaving in a week or so on a mission. It was a good lesson and she will continue learning from the other sisters serving in our ward! After that lesson we had a lesson with our investigator Eylla. She is super awesome! She is engaged and we haven't met her fiance yet, but we really want to teach him too! They have a super strong relationship which really isn't common here in Brasil! Eylla said that her fiance wanted to date her for a whole year before she ever considered dating him, but once she really got to know him she liked him. It would be awesome if they joined the church because we need strong couples like them here in Brasil! After that we stopped and saw Hymudinha. We talked with her about agency. She is understanding better the more that we teach her but we still have to teach very simply, sort of like we are teaching a child. After that we saw Aldenora! We went over some of the vocabulary we use in church to help her understand more! She is still super strong and doing awesome! Thursday was good! A little rough in the afternoon but it all worked out! We walked and walked FOREVER and no one was home!!!! We were finally able to see Marlene, who was baptized in May. The sun was so hot that day and Marlene's apartment was nice and dark with a little breeze. We were all struggling to stay awake. I really don't think I've ever been that tired before in a lesson!! After seeing her we saw Francealda! She's doing really well. We read a little from the Book of Mormon and it was great! Her husband's Aunt, Maria Teresa, was there too. She lives with them and is pretty old and doesn't hear very well. At the end of the lesson I asked if we could pray. This is how the conversation turned out: me: ´´podemos orar?´´(can we pray?) maria teresa: ´´sim! chorar.´´ (yes, cry!) missionaries: ´´nao maria, ORAR.´´ (no, maria, pray.) It took us about 2 minutes for her to finally understand haha! She is a cutie. After that lesson we saw Thais and Aldenora. We talked about agency and responsibility. Thais is 16 and is a really good girl. We are trying to help Thais see the purpose of why we are here on earth. She understands what we teach and always loves what we share, but she also loves her friends that have different standards and its hard for her to change when she is hanging out with them. We´ll see what happens! I hope she can choose what is best for her! After that we took Aldenora to a lesson with us! It was awesome and she was able to share her feelings about her baptism and share her testimony. We then had a meeting with our ward mission leader and afterwards had a little party for one of the Elders birthday's! The Bishop's wife made a ridiculous amount of food and we had a blast! Friday afternoon was worse than Thursday teaching wise, but thanks to my awesome companions we had a blast! We were only able to teach 3 people but that's better than no one! Days like that day help me realize how important it is to have a positive attitude. Friday could have been miserable but we just all talked and laughed and enjoyed the moment! If we let the things around us determine our mood and our happiness, we will never be happy! But if we choose to be joyful and have fun we will have true happiness and life will be way more fun! Saturday was awesome! Especially for a day with a cup game. We taught one of our investigators, Sandra. We were thinking she wasn't super interested, but she was just really busy. We had a good lesson with her and then tried to see Francealda. When we stopped by, Maria Teresa told us that Francealda was in the hospital with her youngest son! So we went back to our apartment during the World Cup and after it ended we checked on Francealda again. Thankfully she was at home and her son is doing better! Sunday was crazy!! We talked to Thais earlier in the week and asked if we could wake her up for church on Sunday because whenever her mom tries to wake her up she doesn't! But when we went to go wake her up Aldenora told us she had been out until 5 in the morning so it would be pointless to have her come to church because she wouldn't have a good experience! So we went and picked up 2 other investigators and headed to church! We had lots of the people we are teaching come to church, which was awesome! Afterwards we taught our friend, Priscilla. She was baptized in March but stopped coming to church for a bit. Now she's coming back! The lesson with her was super cool. She asked us about the atonement. She hears the word a lot in church but didn't actually know what it meant. When we explained to her that Jesus suffered all the pains that all of us have she couldn't stop crying and she was just in shock that he would do that for us! It was really powerful for me because I grew up with this knowledge! It's definitely still amazing to me, but to see her reaction was so powerful! I am grateful I get to teach people the gospel because it reminds me of how blessed I am to have the knowledge that I do!! After that lesson we were able to see a few more people and then we had to come back home for transfer calls. We found out Sister Twitchell and I would leave the area and Sister Lugen would stay! So that brings us to today and where I'm at now! I'm serving here in Jardim Guanabara with Sister Downs! Shes an american too! She's been here for about 8 months but served in Denver North while waiting for her visa! I'm excited for the adventures that I'll have here and for all I will learn!! Portuguese is still pretty rough, but I do feel like I'm improving! It's weird because sometimes I feel like I can understand and speak just fine, but other times I'm just completely lost!! I love you all sooo much and hope your week is great! tchau! Sister Pehrson

July 7, 2014

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

June 30, 2014

I am so excited to be writing you guys right now! I had to wait almost 2 weeks to write! it was torture! okay it wasn´t that horrible, but i really did miss writing you guys! So much has happened! I don´t even know where to begin! but I´ll do my best to give you a good update! The rest of my ttime at the Brazil CTM was great! I am so grateful that I got to go and learn more of the language there. I think it helped me a lot not just with the language but spiritually as well and helped me remember what my purpose really is as a missionary!! On June 24 I woke up bright and early at 1:50 am so I could get ready and finish packing and be in the CTM parking lot at 3am to catch my bus to the airport. There was an elder from my district coming to the mission with me. So we traveled together and I felt better getting lost with someone rather than just by myself, haha! Our flight left Sao Pualo at 6:15 and landed in Salvador, Brasil at around 8am. We waited there for 2 hours until our next flight left to Fortaleza at 10:30. We got to Fortaleza at 12:45 and President Souza and Sister Souza picked us up and took us to their house for lunch. We ate with the assistants in the mission. I really wasn´t hungry at all which was sad because the food was really good! I´m still not realy hungry. I think it's all the changes and the heat! So hopefully my appetite will return. Who knows! Anyways I came into the mission at SUCH a weird time. President and Sister Souza are finished serving and as i write, they are home now. I had 3 days with them as my Mission President and now I have a new one! So it was a little weird, but they were still super sweet and welcoming even though they knew that they were leaving soon. I spent most of the day in training, learning about different health stuff and then having an interview with President Souza. Then I got to meet my companions! Yep another trio...for now. Transfers are in 2 weeks and they are thinking I´ll probably leave. Not sure though! My companions are Sister Twitchell who was in the mtc in provo with me for 2 weeks until she got her visa, and Sister Lugen who is being trained by Sis Twitchell right now and shes from Paraguay! Shes such a sweetie! We live with 2 other sisters. One american from Pensylvania and a sister from Argentina! We put some of my stufff away and then got to work! We serve in the same ward where the Mission President lives and it's pretty big. There are four other elders in the ward and a senior couple! Our section of the area has a lot of apartment complexes that you have to know someone to get into so we do a lot of walking, Which i expected to do here so thats great! We visited a girl who has been taught the first lesson. We ended up getting to teach her whole family! After that we visited a family in the ward. It was a good visit! After that we came home and the sisters we live with made me a cake for my birthday! We ate dinner and planned and then I took my first shower here which was cold!!! It felt really good and really bad at the same time, haha. My birthday was great! I dont think I´ll ever have a birthday like this one ever again. We had a conference with the whole mission since President Souza is leaving. It was a really nice gift for me because I got to see all my friends from my Distrcit in the Provo MTC!!!! First I got to see Sister Allen!! ahh, i am so so grateful for her! She is the sweetest! She just hugged me and helped me feel so much better about all the changes and reminded me that I am where I'm supposed to be! She is the best!!! I´m so grateful I get to be with her again here in Fortaleza! She's actually in my zone so its really awesome! The conference was really great! It was weird because I don't know President Souza, but I can just tell what an amazing President hes been! Everyone was so sad! The conference taught me a lot and there were plenty of things I needed to hear in all the talks! The meeting started at 9am and ended at 7pm!!! We got home just in time to do our nightly planning. Thursday was my first ´´real day´´ in Brasil! It was intense and amazing! Sis Twitchell is a sister training leader and so is the other sister we live with so they went on exchanges and me and Sister Lugen worked with the sister from Argentina that we live with. We ate lunch with a member at a restaraunt that they own. I have to admit that my first meal here was terrible....I ate liver and it was so awful. haha! but I suffered through... We didn't get to teach much that day. The schools here take a break for the World Cup and tons of people are traveling. But we got a few awesome lessons in! At the end of the night we bought these things called pasteles....serioulsy one of the most delicious things I've EVER eaten! I cant decide if the water I drank was better or the pastel... its important to drink a ton of water here in the morning before we leave the house because once we leave we usually dont get more water. When we got home we looked at my legs and discovered I had a GIANT heat rash! It didn´t hurt but it looked horrible! Luckily with some medicine and a few days of adapting my legs are back to normal. Friday was great! My first day working in my area with both my companions. It was fun and we all got to know each other better! I am happy to report that the lunch we ate that day was really delicious! I am a lot less worried now. Brasil is such an interesting place. There are parts of Fortaleza that are so beautiful and the buildings are super fancy, and then you turn the corner and there's are dirt streets...its strange, but i love it! During the afternoon we didnt have much success. No one was home! We met a really cool girl named Naomi who we taught and got a return appointment with! In the evening we taught a few more families. I am struggling with the language but I´ve noticed that when I just open my mouth and don't worry about what I'm saying things go so much better and people can feel my testimony. It's hard because there are times where I really want to say something but i have no idea how! And the things I say are so simple and not really what I want to say! but in time I will have it all down! back in DC I felt like I had a lot of things figured out and was capable of doing lots! Here is a whole other story! EVERYTHING I do i need the Lords help with! I know in DC I needed His help just as much, but I didnt recognize that. I'm grateful for the time I have now to figure this out and to learn what it means to truly rely on the Lord! Saturday was my first experience with a World Cup game!! When Brasil is playing, we arent allowed to go out and proselyte until the game is finished. We ate with some members and left just as the game was starting and the streets were seriously empty! It was a little creepy! During the games we just stay in the apartment and do whatever we want, so I took a nap. I have a cold that I tihink I got from my MTC companion, so the sleep was really great! When I woke up it was CRAZY! People were running through the streets screaming and honking their horns and shooting off fireworks! It was nuts!! The worst part is that this Friday there is a game that Brasil is playing in and its here in Fortaleza....I dont think we will get much done that day! The rest of our Saturday was pretty rough because of the Cup! Tons of people weren't home because they went to parties for the Cup, and if the were home they were leaving their house to go to a party! Ridiculous haha. Finally at the very end of the night after all our plans had fallen through, we were able to see a member who we had lunch with the next day. She really opened up to us because she's struggling with a lot of things right now and it was awesome because we were able to know exactly what we need to share with her the next day! Sunday was quite eventful! Church starts at 9 here so at 7 45 we started our trek to pick up an investigator for church. The ward was super shocked to have another sister! All the members are awesome! Here we have relief society first, then sunday school, then sacrament meeting. One perk of being in this ward is that it's the same ward the Mission President is in, so we got to meet the new President, President Bonini and his wife! They are super sweet and I'm excited to know them better! After church we went to our lunch with the member and taught a really great lesson! Yesterday was the hottest its been since i got here and i was DYING! The nice thing about Fortaleza.... there's always a breeze, so even though its super hot, I'm not about to keel over and die (usually) ;) We taught a lot of lessons and then had a meeting with our ward mission leader! it was great!! I am coming into a mission at a really hard time. A lot of the missionaries are wondering what changes will take place with the new President. They are hestitant about the new rules he will make and different things like that. I feel like I was meant to be here to help the other missionaries know that he really is called to be our President! So we will see how that goes! I also feel like all the member work I did in DC really is helping me here. The missionaries here don't know how to talk with the members. We all eat lunch together at a member's and usually the msisionaries just talk with each other and the member's talk to their family. Today in comp study, my companions said they want to talk more with the member's so its cool that I had all that experience in DC so now I can help them out! It's weird because I feel like a new missionary again but at the same time I know how to teach, I just don't know how to say what I want to and I dont know my area well or anything...its such a weird feeling! But I'm really enjoying it! Just taking it one day at a time. This morning I killed my first spider in the shower so I'm making progress every day! :) I'm SO sweaty all the time and i just love it! I feel very blessed to be here. There is a new rule the church created that President Riggs told me about when I left. Missionaries who have been serving for half their mission in a reassignment now have to choose at that point if they want to stay in the US mission or if they want to keep trying for their visas. They are encouraging the Sisters to stay in the US. I feel like this is a huge sign that Heavenly Father really wanted me here in Brasil! Also, they aren't calling any more Americans to Brasil until they figure out the Visa issues! CRAZY! Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of us. If I've learned anything on my mission it's that! I love you guys soo much! I hope youre not worried about me or anything because I am doing fine! I know in a month or so I'll be all settled in. eu amo voces!!!! Beijos!! Sister Pehrson

June 19, 2014

ahhhhh family!!! There is so much to tell you and I only get 45 minutes of emailing here, so I'll try my best to fit everything in and answer all of your questions!! Brazil is so amazing!!!! I can't even believe I am here! I am loving it sooo much! It was really hard to leave DC but once I saw Sao Paulo and got to meet more Brasillians, i just feel so blessed to be here!! I had amazing experiences before leaving DC and I will forever be grateful for serving there!!! Tuesday was super weird because president Riggs and Sister Riggs came and picked me up and drove me to the airport. We had great talks and then when they tried to check me in at the airport, the people said my flight had been delayed until 2 in the morning and it wasn't even for sure that it would leave at 2, so they said they could rebook me for the next day. I was disappointed at first but then I realized that Heavenly Father needed missionaries in Vienna that night so me and sister Egbert got back together and did work! We saw a few investigators and had a grand ol' time haha. The next morning President picked me up and off we went!! I expected that day to be crazy, but it turned out way crazier than I could have imagined!! I went from DC to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Detroit, and Detroit to Sao Paulo. People kept saying weird things when they looked at my visa, but they all eventually let me through. All was well until I tried to get on my last plane from Detroit to Sao Paulo. There was a paper stapled to my passport that the missionaries in DC said was my Visa. I assumed was my Visa so when the lady in Detroit asked to see my Visa I showed her that. All the employees are looking at it and I am the only one still waiting at the gate. That is when this lady told me I didn't have my visa!!! i didn't know what to do or think or anything! I just started to cry because I was so confused and I thought about the fact that I had no where to go that night and all of this craziness was running through my head. The employees felt really bad and kept telling me to stop crying. Then one of them let me use his phone, so I called the church office and explained the situation and the girl says "Look on all the pages in your passport because they usually don't put it right on the first page" so I looked and there was my Visa!! I ran to the people and got on my flight 10 minutes before we took off....close one right! They ended up upgrading me to first class (i think because they felt so bad for me) and so I had a pretty great flight! My steward guy was actually an Returned Missionary who served in Curitiba! haha! That experience taught me a whole lot about if I really have trust in Heavenly Father or not. I was so upset when I thought I didn't have my visa!! I had so many questions and doubts and so it was a really good learning experience for me and helped me see that I need to learn to really trust in the Lord!! I left Detroit at 8 pm and got to Brazil at 8 am. Brazil really is one big party right now!! The airport was crazy busy with World Cup traffic and there was a Mariachi Band playing and all these Brazilians were singing and passing around tequila....at 8 AM! I got to the CTM Thursday morning and the guy who drove me there left me standing alone with my bags in the lobby. All of a sudden 5 or 6 Brasilleras (female brazilains) ran up and started hugging me and kissing me and welcoming me to the CTM! The people here are so amazing and charitable and i love them sooo much!! I had a little time to change clothes and then I met up with my district. I'm in a trio w sister Sanchez who is from CA and served in TX for 11 months and also sister Openshaw who is from CA and served in OH for one year! She was companions in Ohio with Sister Allen, my sweet MTC comp!!! Sis Sanchez will go to Londrina, Brazil and Sister Openshaw will serve in Rio. They are great and we really love each other! We have 2 elders who are also in our district. One will go to Fortaleza with me!! That night was the first World Cup game and the city was just crazy! Every few minutes we'd hear horns and cheering and screaming and music! haha its a blast! I have been learning sooo much Portuguese! It's awesome being in our district because we all want to learn really badly and we are strict about only speaking Portuguese. It's helping so much and we also have the opportunity to be around other missionaries who speak the language so it's soo much easier to learn! We live with 3 other Brasilleras and they are the sweetest girls! ahh I love them so much! Its actually a lot of fun being the minority...its a first for me and I really love it! :) something cool about the CTM is that we get to leave a lot. So Saturday we did what we call proselitismo. Its when we go out with one of our instructors and street contact! We went to this street by a huge theater and it was so much fun! we gave out 6 copies of the livro de mormon and only one person said they didn't want to talk with us!! Brasillians are so nice!! it's almost shocking that so many people want to talk with us haha!! Sunday was awesome! We had an interview with one of the members of our Branch Presidency. He is really great and did the whole interview in Portuguese! We are the only Americans in our branch so that's a lot of fun! I actually understood the talks too which made me happy! It was really cool to hear the talks that were given because almost all the speakers were converts. one girl was baptized 2 yrs ago and is now on her mission which is just so amazing to see! These missionaries have some of the strongest testimonies I've ever heard! I love them! After church we had a meeting for the new Americans in the CTM. It basically answered all my questions I've ever had about Brazil!! That night we had an awesome devotional. It was given in the MTC in Provo last week. It was Quinten L. Cook and it was so powerful! I feel like its a huge blessing to be in the CTM again because not only am I learning the language but I really get to refocus on my purpose as a missionary and I just love it! Yesterday we had an awesome devotional from a Stake pPresident here in Brazil and it was just super powerful! I was again reminded of the love my Heavenly Father has for me and how blessed I am to serve two missions!Its the best! Today we got a bunch of new Americans and I know some of them! One was my visiting teacher at BYUI and the other was in the mtc with me in Provo! its great! to sum up my feelings and thoughts this week I decided to create a list of what I like and don't like about Brasil!! Likes: • The people!! we have a lot of Hispanic people here in the CTM too. It's seriously the best! all the sisters are just constantly hugging you and talking to you and smiling at you! I've never felt so loved (besides by you mom!! =) ) • The food!!! seriously AMAZING!!!! • Guarana. enough said. • The weather! Sao Paulo has really beautiful weather! I think Fortaleza will be super super hot but I'll love it :) • The Temple! I got to go to the sao paulo temple this morning! beautiful experience! • The language! • The crazy parties people have! • How happy everyone is Dislikes: • Cockroaches the size of the palm of my hand...... FYI I leave the CTM next week! crazy right?! I love you all so much!! I'm sorry this is so short but I do love you all and hope you are not worried about me or anything! I am loving life and loving Brasil!! Thanks for all you guys do and for all the prayers! LOVE YOU! ate logo! Sister Pehrson

June 9, 2014

Família! That's right! I am about to depart the U.S. for the next 7 months! It really isn't sinking in yet to be honest! I'll think about it a little and start freaking out but I've been so busy this week I haven't really thought of it a ton! I feel like I'm in a super weird dream! As soon as the members found out I am leaving they all wanted to feed me a bunch of American food! They are the sweetest! But really, this week has been so amazing! The perfect way to end my time here in VA! Monday was super fun!! We did the usual shopping and cleaning and then went to these beautiful botanical gardens! It was so much fun! Right after that we went to a ward family we have been working with and found out the husband was sick so that's why they didn't go to church Sunday. But they've been reading out of Preach My Gospel like we challenged them to so that was so exciting to hear! After that we went to visit another Ward member. His mom was visiting Texas. It was a ton of fun talking to them all! After that we decided to go check on a referral we got from the ward. It was the coolest family ever! They know tons of Mormons and are so amazing! We had a really awesome visit with them and the dad's heart has been softened a lot this year so I've excited to see what'll happen! Tuesday was wonderful! We had zone and district meetings and then had a lesson with Valerie. I told her I was leaving and she was pretty shocked! She told us she'd wait until Thursday to cry about it...she is so funny. She had a meeting with a publisher that day and is getting a book published. So maybe she really will be on Oprah someday! I hope so! After that we did FB and dinner and then we went to a member lesson but they weren't home. So we were walking around talking to people and met this older guy who was a little bit insane. It was really sad because he is so negative and has such a sad outlook on life. He thinks that everyone is out to get him. Sadly he wasn't very receptive but hopefully we at least made him feel better in some way! After that we went to a lesson with the singles ward sisters who are teaching a Brasillian! Her name is Caroline and she is a hoot! We brought a Returned Missionary who served in Brasil with us. It was so fun to teach her and made me really scared and excited for Brasil at the same time! :) Caroline has a crush on the member we brought and at the end she asked if we wanted food. We were like "oh we better get going" but she was like no you guys need to eat because brasillians will get offended if you don't eat their food. So we expected her to bring chips or something but she brings out a huge platter of sandwiches and cookies and every food imaginable! Then she brings out a cake that she had decorated that said "thanks for coming!" Haha it was the best thing ever! And then at the end she gave us chocolate and gave the member a gift bag with a teddy bear, chocolate, and a card. She is so cute! Wednesday was awesome! In the afternoon we went and picked up my flight itinerary. They also showed me all my paperwork so I now know what a visa actually looks like haha! But I am not allowed to have it all until tomorrow. After getting all that we met up with our sister training leaders and went on exchange. It was a really awesome exchange! I went to the sister training leaders area and sis Egbert stayed in Vienna. We taught lots of interesting people but my favorite person was this lady named Stacey and her son Adam. Stacey has a friend who is a member of the church and she went to church with her on Sunday. She really loved it and signed up to feed the sisters! So we came over and she cooked dinner for us and we had the most amazing spirit filled lesson! It was so great! She grew up not going to church at all. Her step family went to the Catholic Church and she asked her mom if she could go and her mom said no. That sparked a desire in her to attend church. When she went to college she dated a Lutheran and then joined that church but hasn't been back to that or really any other church since then. She has a 10 yr old boy Adam who is the sweetest thing ever! He loves his mom so so much. She is worried that Adam won't like church and their time together is so precious but she wants to get them both involved in church. She has an amazing relationship with God and knows she needs to go to church, she's just scared of committing. We taught her about Joseph Smith and how she was a lot like him because they are both truth seekers. She's really excited to learn more and she is so prepared! She's a very private person and it was amazing to see her just completely open up to us! I love being a missionary!!! Thursday was awesome! We exchanged back and then met up with Valerie. Our visit ended on a good note! She has been one of the most unique people I've taught on my mission...that's for sure! We had dinner with a family in our ward who had the newest members of our ward living with them while they moved in! It was fun to meet them and they will be a very powerful addition to Vienna ward! I'm super excited! After that we went and had a lesson with another family in our ward! We ended the night visiting brother Beck. He hasn't been to church in quite a while. We talked to him about family history since he's an expert and we're trying to get a class set up for that. He has amazing stories and it was very fun to visit with him! Friday was great! We weekly planned and saw our investigator Mazie. We visited her at Chipotle where she works. We walked in and a member from another ward paid for our food! It was so nice! We had a good visit with her. We then did a bunch of service for Jean Pierre and had a great lesson! He showed us even more of the stuff he's invented and worked on. He has made parts for drones and he created one of the first recording device for military planes. The one he created was being tested when the Russians shot down a Korean airline plane. They were denying it all but then the recording device Jean Pierre had invented recorded the Russian people telling one of their pilots to shoot down that plane! How crazy is that!? He kept telling us how "very Impressed" he is with us. :) After seeing him we tried to see Sadia who wasn't home. Saturday was sooo amazing!! We'd been trying to see Ellen all week and sent her a text Friday night just checking on her and telling her we love her. She texted us the next morning and invited us to come over and do service for her. We did and she sat outside and talked to us and we got to teach her a lot! She was so grateful and afterwards texted us telling us she knows god sent us because we've been coming exactly when she needed it! She is being prepared more and more and a lot of the rumors she's heard are being cleared up!! :D It's the best! After that we saw the Clark's. Oh how I will miss them! I truly hope Brasil has some hilarious people because I'll just miss that too much if they don't! This guy rode by on his bike and he was just average size and Travis was like "there goes that crazy giraffe man again! He's so huge! Wouldn't wanna run into him in a dark alley!" Teresa was like "he's not that tall Travis.." They always sit on these plastic chairs on their porch and they now have 2 more chairs set up for me and sister Egbert. I feel like one of the cool kids :) after dinner we went and took cookies to the new family in the ward and then found the house of someone we met at another persons house the other day. They weren't home but it was still so exciting! Sunday was amazing! We had an interesting gospel principles class...one investigator talked about cow poop and evolution the whole time...it was an adventure! After church we had lunch and a lesson with some members and then right after another lunch and another lesson with another ward family! Me and sister Egbert were about to die. It was great though! We then went and said bye to the McLeod's and then saw Ermie and Sheila. We saw some other ward members and then saw Alicia and Ed. It was one of the best most exhausting days of my mission! As far as my flight goes I fly out tomorrow. I will email you once I get there. I'm excited for the new adventure, but sad to say goodbye to Virginia. I have no doubt whatsoever that this was part of God's plan for me. I needed to serve here to learn many lessons. I now need to go to Brasil to learn other lessons and to teach those who need me there. Heavenly Father has blessed me so so much and I am excited to learn Portuguese and learn to exercise my faith in him even more! Love you all tons and will talk to you next week from Brasil! :):):):):) Eu amo vocês muito! Viva Brasil! Tchau! Irmã Pehrson

June 2, 2014

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