September 15, 2014

This week was awesome!! Well, really it didn´t seem all that great til the end of the week, but it all went well so that´s what matters!! I think one of the most interesting things about the mission is that there are days and weeks that are really, really rough and hard things happen, but you always just remember the good stuff! This week really was great, so I´m excited to tell ya all about it!

Monday night we had 2 Family Home Evenings. The first was with a member and we brought a recent convert with us. It was awesome! This member is always, always, ALWAYS helping us out! I want to be a member like him when I get back home! After that we had FHE with Darlyene. She had a friend there who wasn´t really talking with us all that much but when we were getting ready to leave she asked us where we live and if she could walk home with us. The whole way home she talked our ears off and really opened up to us so that was pretty awesome! It´s interesting how much people trust you as a missionary. I know I´ve learned a lot in the past months, but I´m still just a 21 year old. I am grateful for the people that are willing to trust us!

I don´t know what it is about Tuesdays lately, but the past couple of weeks Tuesdays have been rough! It started out great. We taught a lesson about the restoration. The person said she is just really confused because she was taught differently her whole life and now we´re here, telling her that the church we represent is actually the truth. But we talked about how she can receive an answer because she has never really gotten an answer to prayer. In the afternoon we taught a young man we met last week. he´s 13, but he´s a really thoughtful 13 year old! He has lots of questions about religion, He feels like he´s still too young to choose to decide just one church to attend. The lesson with him was pretty awesome! His Pentecostal cousin was there and was pretty cool. I learned one thing that day: Get comfortable when you ask a Pentecostal pray. His prayer was about 15 minutes long and he was talking really fast and shouting. Now keep in mind, I´m a missionary! I should enjoy praying! After that we taught Neto! Definitely the highlight of our day. On Sunday, after his baptism, we told him that he should write about his feelings and experience at his baptism. Today he shared with us what he wrote and it was so sweet! I´m so grateful I had the opportunity to teach him.

Wednesday we taught a family that we met a few weeks ago. We only met and taught the mom and son, but Wednesday we taught the dad too! It was really awesome because he´s definitely the leader of their family, so if he acts, the rest of them will act too. He said they´d come to church, but only the son ended up coming on Sunday, but we´ll keep trying with them! After that we taught Michelle. She has not been coming to church lately. She feels like everyone at church will judge her because she hasn´t been there in a while. So she doesn´t want to come back. It's a tough situation. Teaching her was really good because I felt so much love for her as we taught her.  I realized that she´s just a human with weaknesses just like the rest of us. It made me want to help her a lot more. that night we taught Alberto (our investigator who bore his testimony last week) with his wife. We taught him with some members and it was so awesome! In the middle of the lesson the member invited him to Family Home Evening this coming week and we didn´t even tell him to do that! Members are the best!

Thursday was amazing! We had the most incredible lesson with Florêncio in the morning. We really weren´t sure what we needed to teach him. He's reading the Book of Mormon and progressing super well. So we really had no idea what we´d teach. We got there and he provided the topic for our lesson! It was sooo cool because he found a page in the Portuguese version of the Book of Mormon that we didn´t even know existed! It´s the introduction to the guide to study the scriptures (they don't have topical guide, bible dictionary, etc. in the Portuguese scriptures. It´s all together and is called ´guia para estudar as escrituras´) and it has an example of how to study the scriptures. The example was for eternal marriage. We had shown him the temple and talked a bit about eternal marriage, But he found the definiton in the scripture study guide and when he was talking to us about what he read, he started to cry because he wants his family to be forever! It was so sweet! We know for sure that he has tons of potential, and we have to start teaching his wife too! Seriously coolest lesson ever! The other big news was that that night when I got home I got a phone call from Sister Evans, the Senior Sister in the mission. She works in the office. She first asked which airport I´d  be flying in to when i return home. I told her Hawaii... I hope you guys are okay with that? ;) She told me that President is giving everyone in my transfer the option of going home on the 15th of December or the 29th like it was planned. She told me everyone else was going home the 15th, so I jumped on the bandwagon and...I´LL BE HOME FOR  CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! December 15! Can you believe it? It´s so crazy. I can't believe ther eis only 3 months left on my mission! I feel like I just started! But yeah, I´m so excited to be home with you guys, but also grateful that I still have 3 whole months to be a missionary! :) The other weird thing about that phone call was that it was in english (Sister Evans doesn´t speak ANY portuguese, her husband was the 1st missionary here in Fortaleza!! How cool is that? ) Talking in english was so hard! It's different when we´re teaching english class because we don't have an actual conversation. But I had to really think and I wanted to respond to everything in Portuguese! ahh!

Friday was really good! In the afternoon, we taught Eduarda. She was taught by some Elders in São Paulo years ago and visited the church a lot, but is still not a member. We taught her about the restoration and it was a very interesting experience for me. Eduarda LOVES to talk! As a missionary after you´ve spent all day in the hot sun, you get REALLY tired. It can be a big temptation to just zone out when people are talking a lot. I tried my hardest to focus and she ended up telling us how she understands everything the Elders taught her except for Joseph Smith! So we were able to know exactly what she needed to be taught. It's funny how little things like listening make the biggest difference. In the evening we taught Ed. We met him a while ago and he has a cousin who is a member, but they were both really busy all month. This week we finally got it combined to have a lesson with them. It went well! Ed is still more curious about the church than actually having interest in being a member, but that can always change. And he has family in the church so that also makes a huge difference! Another highlight of Friday was eating pão de cóco at this bakery we really like. pão de cóco is one of the most delicious things ever! It's kind of like a roll but sweeter and it has coconut on top. Brasillian bakeries are definitely a win!

Saturday made the rest of our week all worth it. We really weren´t having luck teaching lots of people earlier in the week, But saturday everybody was in their house and we taught some really amazing people! In the morning we taught English class and it was a ton of fun. We taught about height and weight since its measured differently here. Everyone got upset when we did the weight because kilograms make it look like you weigh less than you do in pounds. For example, if you weigh 60 kg, you weigh about 120 pounds. So everyone was all upset and thinking they were fat after they did the math and found their weight in pounds, haha. I love teaching English! It's so much fun! In the afternoon, we taught Maria! It was the most awesome lesson with her! We brought a member with us and she was perfect for Maria. Maria is a little slow to understand, but once she understands, she really gets it. She asks a lot of questions too which is super nice for us! But we taught the plan of salvation and it went awesome. In the evening we were going to teach a family but we felt like we needed to stop by Florêncios house and see if his wife was home. She was and we got to teach her! It was such a blessing because before Florêncio was telling us that his wife thinks what he´s learning is weird and all this stuff, but we talked to her that night and taught her the first lesson and she was so sweet and really liked what we taught! I think before she didn´t trust us very much, but after that lesson she realized that we are trying to help them and she committed to come to church the next day.

Sunday was awesome because we had a bunch of people at church for their first time! Florêncio and his wife came, Alberto and his wife were there, and Eduardo. Eduardo is 12 and is just awesome. I gave my first talk in portuguese!! I was really nervous but I think it went well. The members said they liked it, but I´m not sure if they just said that because they like me or if it was really good. but I didn´t forget any words or say anything offensive, so I´ll count it as a blessing :) In the afternoon, the other sisters in our ward had a baptism. We passed by Maria´s house and invited her to come. We told her we´d pass by again and walk with her to the baptism. When we came back she wasn´t there so we assumed she didn´t want to go. But we got to the baptism and she was sitting there and she had her boyfriend with her! We set up a lesson to teach both of them next Saturday!

I feel like this week was a huge test of diligence for me. There were times where nobody was home and it was so hot and I just wanted to sleep! But we kept working and it wasn´t until the very end of the week that we saw the fruits of our labors. There are times on the mission where we won't see any fruits at all, but the important part is that we just keep on going. I am going to do my best to remember that 3 months is so short and I have to make the best of the time I have left to serve here!

I love you all soo much! I am so excited to see you in December, and am so grateful for the help you´ve given me as I´ve been here. A lot of times my family is what I think about when I am having a hard time getting motivated! I know the happiness our family has, and I want everybody to have it!

I hope you have an awesome week! Love you all to the moon and back!

Sister Pehrson

September 8, 2014

Ahhh I´m so excited to write you all about this week! Seriously, it was perfect! There was no throwing up during lessons, we had a baptism, and it was just awesome! :)

Monday: Once p day ended we knocked a few doors and met this guy who has a ton of potential! We´re gonna go back and teach him tomorrow night and I´m super excited! He knows a lot about religion but never studied ours, so I´m excited to see what will happen! After that we stopped and saw Tatiane. She visited the ward where Cristielen will be attending and found a house there. They will probably be moving in the next couple of weeks! Of course I´m sad to see them go, but I´m really excited that it will all work out so Cristielen can be baptized! After that we had family home evening with Igor. It was his 17th birthday and all he wanted to do was have family home evening with a bunch of his friends and us, the missionaries! There aren´t many 17 year olds in the world like Igor...that's for sure! After that we had one more family home evening with the family of Irmão Antoni and Neto! It was awesome because Antonio´s nephew gave the lesson and I think it helped him (the nephew) gain a stronger testimony so that was cool!

Tuesday was one of those days where you just walk. and walk. and walk and walk and walk....and don´t teach much! BUT the lessons we did have were awesome, so I will count my blessings! In the morning we taught a lesson with 2 ladies. One has been acting uniterested since her family started saying stuff about the church. But on this day she told us she's just been upset at her families reaciton to the church because she wants them to have the truth too. She said she's been trying to share what shes learning with them, but they won't accept it. It was good to hear that she still wants to be baptized and knows this is true. We talked to her about how she can be an example to her family through her actions. In the afternoon we taught a lesson with a person we have been teaching for quite a while. It was funny because we taught him about missionary work and how we should all preach the gospel. We asked him how his life has changed since we started teaching him and he said that before he littered a lot, but now he doesn't like to throw his garbage in the street. Haha! Good to know he´s learning something from us...Another funny story from a lesson this week is that we were trying to tell a man what he needs to wear UNDER his clothes for his baptism, but we didn't know the words in Portuguese. So Sister Downs used the word she thought was underwear but it turns out that there is a word for boxers and a word for little girls underwear.Sis Downs used the word for little girls underwear so he just started laughing at us. Oh the joys of speaking Portuguese.

Wednesday started out a lot like tuesday. We kept trying to visit people but weren't having much luck! But like always, a miracle happened and everything worked out amazingly! We knocked this door and a lady answered. Without even asking who we were she opened her door and let us in. Within the first few moments I just knew she was a special person! Her name is Net. She knows a few people that she works with who are members of the church, but she doesn´t know much about he church itself. So we taught her the Restoration and she told us how she knew God sent us because that morning she was listening to the radio and a pastor was talking about baptism. She felt like it was God reminding her that she needs to be baptized. So when we showed up that night inviting her to be baptized, she knew only God could have sent us! She is seriously amazing!! She has a really crazy schedule so we can't teach her a ton during the week, but she has set a baptism date of September 28 now so we will see what happens!!

Thursday was awesome! In the morning we taught Lucas who was baptized recently. It was an awesome lesson! We are helping him prep to be a missionary so we started a new thing where we leave a part of preach my gospel with him to study and the next time we come back, he will teach it to us! In the afternoon we taught a mom and a son we met the other day. They are really cool and receptive, but they aren´t the most willing to act, so we will see what happens! We marked a baptism date with them, but I´m not sure if it will happen when we planned because they didn't come to church Sunday. We also taught Neto that day and prepped him for his baptism interview! He was so excited to be baptized! That night we ended up visiting a lady in the Ward. It was really good because she shared some stories about her life and the struggles she's having right now. We set a goal for her to go the temple. I´m excited for when that will happen!!

Friday was seriously unlike ANY day I´ve had on my mission thus far...I went on exchanges to another area with one of the Sister Training Leaders. literally the whole day, ALL of our appointmentsts fell through. EVERYTHING!! It was ridiculous!! I´ve never had such terrible luck! We had a member with us who knows ALL the Sisters in this mission and is very blunt about who she likes and doesn´t like. I don´t think she liked me very much. The whole day I felt like the third wheel while she talked to the sister I was with. It was pretty miserable. I was feeling a little sad because this member didn´t seem to like me much and I was just thinking about how it's hard for me to really befriend the members here because of the language and culture barriers and everything. But we went to the last lesson of the night it was the only one not to fall through. We taught the restoration and it was SO powerful. I got to share the first vision and I felt the spirit so strongly as I taught about Joseph Smith´s experience. As we were leaving, the lady we taught told me that I have a special spirit of calmness about me that is unlike any other and she was so happy I shared it with her. It was, honestly, exactly what I needed to hear and be reminded of! I just need to be me and fulfill my calling and the rest doesn´t matter! There will be people who don´t like me, but if I change for every person that doesn´t like me, who would I be? So that was really cool to learn and see one of the gifts that God has given me and how it is helping someone here! Even though the rest of the day wasn´t the greatest, I at least learned a ton and had that spiritual experience!

Saturday was awesome! In the morning we taught english class which is always a ton of fun! Saturday was especially great. During the class, Neto was interviewed for his baptism and everything went perfect for him. So that was awewsome! In the afternoon we met up with our ward mission leader and planned stuff for the baptism. He is so awesome! He continues to learn about his calling as he goes. He has never served a mission or anything so this was all new to him. But he is so humble and teachable, so he's great to work with. He was doing everything possible to make this baptism great for Neto and I´m so glad we have him in our ward! In the evening we taught a family. We brought along a member and he was the perfect person to bring with us. Then we taught this lady and her family who we met in the street the other day. Their house is on top of another house, and they were all hanging out on the deck. It was so perfect because it was night time and their house doesn´t have lots of street lights nearby so the stars and the moon were sooo pretty! We taught the restoration and the whole time the entire family was just full of great questions. It was an amazing lesson!

Sunday was seriously the BEST!! Tiago, our investigator whose real name is florencio, (we found out we´ve been calling him the wrong name the last 2 months..not sure how we got Tiago haha!) came to church, as well as Alberto. Alberto bore his testimony haha! It was awesome! After church we had 2 awesome lessons and then had Neto´s baptism! I honestly think this was my favorite baptism on the mission. Maybe it's just because it was most recent, but really everything went so perfectly!! It was so awesome to see him in all white! His jumpsuit was huge and he looked like a little kid wearing his dads clothes, but it was one of the most beautiful things I´ve ever seen! He was so happy!! His Aunt, Grandma and Cousin were all there with him and TONS of ward members were there to support him too! The talks were amazing and I got to do a musical number! I was so nervous because I´ve never sang in public in Portuguese, but before I sang, I prayed that it would bring the spirit and when I finsihed, I looked up and Neto was crying! It was so sweet and I´m so happy he was able to feel the spirit so strong! The spirit was strong during the whole baptism and I just felt rejuvenated and ready to help more people change the way Neto did. It is such a good feeling when you are helping someone you love SO much grow closer to God! There really is no greater joy I´ve felt than this, and I want to fill my final months here with more experiences like yesterday!
Here is a picture from the Baptism:

 

This is our Ward Mission leader withNeto, his Aunt, Grandmother and Cousin

 This is Igor, Neto and Antonio

So that was my week. Our plan is to keep on doing the Lord´s work! I feel so blessed to be here and to be helping people out as well as learning so much myself!

Love you all!!!!

Sister Pehrson

September 1, 2014

Happy Monday to the best family in the whole wide world!!! 

I hope your week went great! Mine was full of adventures as always!! Some good, some not so good, but thats just life! :) 

Monday after p day ended we taught this family we met last week, Paulo and Cristina. they have a little girl who is 2 years old. Paulo is very well educated! He studied theology and stuff like that so he thought the story of Joseph Smith was pretty awesome. We left them with the challenge to read The Restoration pamphlet! After that we had family home evening with our investigators Alberto and Neto in the house of one of the ward members. They had invited a bunch of other members too! We talked about Christ and how he is our perfect example. We played gestures, we wrote our favorite thing that Christ did, like one of his miracles, on a piece of paper and one person had to read it and then act it out and then we had to guess. Well, I wrote out this really detailed description, and I still don´t write very well in Portguese. so our investigator Alberto chose my paper and he had to act it out. No one could guess what he did and he was not sure what to do based on what i wrote! haha i felt so bad. But it was fun! After that we had another family home evening with Darlyene and her family.  Shes come to church about 3 weeks in a row now, woohoo! she made  a ´´vitamina´´which is basically a milkshake. best thing EVER! 

 

On Tuesday morning we taught Neto! He has been reading in the Book of Mormon, but wasn't understanding a ton of what he was reading. so we read with him and helped him comprehend more of what he´s reading. We spent from 1:00 til 6:00 knocking doors and talking to people in the streets. We went to the very end of our area and discovered that we can see the beach!! ITS SO PRETTY!! We knocked almost every door on the street we chose and met some really awesome people. One of them is Ed, which here in brasil is pronounced edge. He is probbaly in his late 20s. He doesn't go to church but believes in God. We were talking with him for a long time and then he said, ´´Oh! i think my cousin goes to your church!´´ We asked his name and turns out his cousin goes to the other ward that attends in our chapel But we know him really well and he's aewsome! So that was so amazing and he said he'd visit the church with his cousin! So I'm excited to see what´ll happen with him! Later that night we taught Lucia. She's an awesome person! She works almost every Sunday so she isn´t able to come to church often, but she definitely has a testimony. We will follow up with her this week! It was a cool experience when we visit with her because it showed me the power of the spirit in teaching. We can't just teach whatever lesson we wanna teach. We have to teach what the spirit tells us to because thats what the person needs to hear! 

 

Wednesday we had district meeting in the morning! My new district leader is the same district leader I had in the CTM in Provo!! Elder Tenney! It's so much fun to be in the same zone as him. He is a great missonary! We have lots of awesome people in our zone and that  keeps me excited! In the afternoon we talked with a ton of people but nobody wanted to talk to us haha. The most difficult hours of the day here are between 1 and 4 because everyones napping. I don't know why we don't get to nap because we´re the ones who need it..but whatever ;) In the evening we taught Neto. Afterwards we had a meeting with a member of the Ward Council, the Bishop, and our Ward Mission Leader. The high council member created a plan with the stake presidency that he's been showing to all the ward mission leaders and bishops here. The plan is to help the missionaries work with members more closely. So he helped us all see how we can work together better. He had tons of good ideas for us to try out and he's going to help us with the work in our area. I'm excited to work with him and get the ward even more involved. We´re definitely blessed in this area because we ALWAYS have help of the members, but it can always improve! 

 

I´m not gonna lie, Thursday was just rough. There are just days on the mission where you feel like nothing is happening and nothing you are doing is helping anyone out. its completely illogical to feel this way, but there are just days like that. So Thursday was not my favorite day haha. but there was still good parts. the high lights of the day were that we saw the ocean again with sand and everything and we also taught this really cool family that the other sisters told us about. They don't have a religion or anything but they believe in God. We taught them the plan of salvation and will go back and teach them this week! The other part that was super sad about thursday is that we found out Cristielen cant be baptized in our ward. she doesn't live in our area. We knew that. But we thought it would be okay because she always spends the weekends with her Aunt, who lives in our ward. So we figured that since her support system in the church was in our ward, it would all work out. President Bonini felt like we would be best to attend the Ward in which she lives. I get it but it was still super sad! So we are working on getting things figured out with the Elder's in her area so she can be baptized over there.

 

Friday was awesome! We had a conference in the morning with Elder Mazzugari (not sure how to spell his name). but it was great! I always feel super inspired and ready to work even harder after transfers. It was cool because I went with a specific question in mind and he talked specifically about the question that I had. I love it when that happens! After that we went and taught Cleviane. She´s the girl who was baptized about 3 years ago. We talked about the Book of Mormon. She's really working to gain a testimony of it. Afterwards we taught Paulo and Cristina again! It was so awesome!! We talked about the Book of Mormon and they were both really excited to read it. Paulo said he really wants to know more about our church. He knows we wouldn't just leave our families and coutries for something we really didn't love and know is true. I thought that was pretty awesome! After that we went and told Tatiane, cristielens aunt, about the baptism change. Of course she was sad, but she ended up telling us that she is planning on moving and she thinks she might move to where Cristielen lives. So turns out that this really was a part of God´s plan and that one way or another Cristielen will for sure be baptized! I just want what's best for her! So we are just praying that all will work out and Tatiane will find a house over there. That was a really cool experience because really it was hard to be obedient and trust in President Bonini´s decision. But really if we are obedient and just trust in God, everything works out! After that we taught Neto! It was so cool because when we got there, Irmao Antonio was there with Neto. It turns out he had just decided to spend the day hanging out with Neto. It made me so happy that we have members here who help us with the work and who are really friends with the people we teach! I know that Neto will be so strong in the church after his baptism because he has tons of support from the members! 

 Saturday turned out way different than what I expected it to be. I woke up with a horrible stomach ache and had my first experience with South American Revenge! I can say I have officially served in Brasil now. I kept getting ready after that and I was still not feeling good at all. I laid down until our first lesson at 9. I didn't want to miss any appointments that day because we had tons of awesome people to teach! So we got to our first lesson and our investigator started telling us how her family isn't supporting her in her decision to join the church and she's thinking about giving up. It was super intense and the whole time I was sweating and starting to get light headed. I knew I was gonna throw up. I asked her if I could use her bathroom because I thought was feeling sick. I ran to the bathroom and threw up! haha definitely a first in my mission!! After that I washed my face off and cleaned up a bit and then we finished teaching her. I guess you could say it was a pretty sick lesson.. ha :) After that we had to teach English class. Then we came home and called Sis Bonini because Sister Downs was feeling sick too. She told us to stay inside until we felt better. She didn't throw up but she had the revenge issue. We think that we drank some juice that was made with water from the faucet when we were at a teaching appointment on Friday. Anyways, this "bug" knocked us out for the whole day! It was so sad because we literally had NINE APPOINTMENTS set up! :( But it will all work out. I am feeling much better now. I still can't eat very much but ´´this too, will pass´´.

 Sunday was great! Neto came to church but none of our other investigators came! We are still grateful that at least Neto was there. After church and lunch we taught a lady whose son was investigating the church for a while. We will go back and teach him later in the week. Then we went to teach Darlyene and she had a friend there who wasn't a member! We taught her the first lesson and it went great.  She doesnt live in our area (this always happens to us haha) but we are working on setting things up to get her taught in another area! Sunday evening is now reserved for weekly planning, so we spent the rest of our night planning! 

 I'm so excited for this week! Neto is set to be baptized Sunday, so please keep him in your prayers! He has worked so hard to prepare himself to be baptized.  I know he's ready, but he will definitely be tested this week!!  I love you all tons and am always praying for you!

Love,

Sister Pehrson

August 25, 2014

This week was so awesome for us! We taught the most lessons this week and found some really amazing people to teach! We had transfers today and me and Sis Downs will stay together for one more transfer! I´m really glad! I´ve learned a ton from her and I know I´ll learn even more these next 6 weeks!! On Monday when p day ended we taught this girl we met her a few weeks ago. Shes 13. We taught her and her mom and it was a good lesson! After that we had family home evening with Tatiane and her family, Cristielen, and the Sampaio family! It was awesome! We played memory and my team won. I learned that I'm still pretty competitive when it comes to games :) Afterwards we had another family home evening with a family in the ward and Neto. It was cool because after the lesson the member was talking with Neto and telling him how he served a mission 1 and a half years after joining the church. he showed Neto his old nametags and I think it made Neto more interested in serving a mission! It was sweet, he left their house with  a huge smile on his face, just super happy!!

 

Tuesday we taught Luiziane.  After that we visited Fabricio, another recent convert who isn't able to attend church much. We talked with him about the priesthood which was great! We then went and taught Neto with a member. It was Neto's 21st birthday that day so we brought him some cake! He was super happy. and he told us that ever since he received a blessing he hasn't had any temptations. So awesome! We taught him about the preisthood and how that is the power that was used to bless him and how after his baptism he can have that power and help people the same way he was helped. It was a great lesson. We then taught Francisco and Rizangela. they are doing really well! They are reading from the Book of Mormon and praying and they said if they knew the church was true they´d be baptized for sure. They are travelling the next 2 weekends so they won't be able to come to church, which is a bummer, but we´ll see what happens! We ended the night finding this really cool family! The girl's names all start with Rose haha. One of the daughters knows a member and has visited the church before! One of the sons is about 8 or 9 and I dont think he's ever seen Americans before because he couldnt stop staring at us. When his mom came into the room he was like ´´look mom! 2 Gringas!!!´ haha it was great! 

 

On Wednesday we worked in a part of our area that we have never worked in before. It's farther away than the other parts of our area but we need to start working there more because there are tons of people and they need to be taught too! We knocked on this one door and hesitated because it looked like an apartment complex or something. But this guy answered the door and told us it was a house. He told us he worked there. So we explained who we were and he told us hed always wanted to visit our church but he didn't think he was welcome and he didn't want to enter such a beautiful building with the clothes that he has. It was so sweet! We told him that he definitely can and should visit and got his address for the missionaries in his area!! We taught Neto later that night and it was great! He's still staying strong, and I think he will be baptized in 2 weeks as planned! 

 

Thursday we took a member to our lesson with Carolina and it went perfectly! She shared her conversion story with Carolina and her and Carolina just became friends instantly. It's good that she will have a friend to come to church with! In the afternoon we knocked this door and were teaching this family. The mom asked us if we would like to try a dessert. We said sure! I´m not sure what I ate, but it was not sitting right with me...I literally thought I was going to throw up!!! I think it was made with figs...seriously, traumatizing! That night I lost my planner which was really depressing because it has everything I need to know in it! But i still have Sis Downs who has all the info too so all is well! We had a lesson with Raimundo and Susana in the evening and it went well. It's just hard because he works a lot on sundays and he just doesn't understand the concept of why authority is important. So we will see what happens. We ended the night teaching this guy, Alberto. we met him on Wednesday night. He saw us in the street and asked if he could buy one of our pamphlets. We told him he didn't have to buy them. We gave him one and set up an appt with him.

 

Friday was an awesome day! In the morning we helped Lucas, a recent convert, make plans to serve a mission. We used the church website and wrote down all the stuff he will need to do and when he can do it. He promised us he will serve a mission! Afterwards we taught Claudiana. She is still doing really well and still wants to visit the church. We left her with the book of mormon to read, so we will see how that goes! In the afternoon we taught Cleviane again. She was baptized about 3 years ago but didnt understand a lot of what she was taught. So we watched The Restoration with her and talked more about the book of mormon with her and how it compliments the bible. She really has a lot of potential to be a strong member! Afterwards, we taught Neto. Great news,  he found a new job where he won't be working on Sundays! Then we passed by the house of another investigator and he told us he left his job and will not be working Sundays anymore so now he can visit the church! This is a really big challenge here so its awesome that the two of them can for sure come to church now! 

 

Saturday was great as well! We taught English class which is always a blast! This member brought us some candy they have here called paco quito and its almost like peanut butter! I will definitely be bringing some home with me for you all to try :) He also brought us this fruit called tamarina. It's the weirdest fruit ever...it has a shell like a peanut that you crack open, and the fruit is really chewy and sour like a sourpatch kid, and in the middle it has a big seed. I definitely tried some interesting food this week! In the afternoon we found a really cool family that we are going to go back and teach this week! We also taught Cristielen. she invited her family to church on Sunday which was awesome! I really believe that they will all be members some day. Later in the night we were going to an appointment and we were passing this house and I was thinking I wanted to talk to the person who lived there, but we were running late and so I didnt say anything. The appointment fell through and we were passing the house again so I told Sis Downs we should knock it. We met this guy, Joao. He's not religious but believes in God and prayer and the bible. We had a really powerful lesson with him. He has a ton of doubts because he's been let down by a lot of people in different churches, but he promised he'd pray to know if what we shared is true. As we were leaving Sis Downs told me she wanted to knock the door the first time we passed too! So we will see what happens, but Heavnely Father definitely wanted us to knock that door and meet Joao! 

 

Sunday was the best day ever!! wW had lots of people at church. Tiago came, Neto came, Alberto came, and Cristielen and her family visited as well! It can be a little stressful having lots of people at church, but everything worked out well! In the afternoon we taught Cristielen and talked about her baptismal interview and made plans for her baptism. There's a member here who has a guitar so I'm going to sing and play at her baptism! Later that day we met a really sweet mom and her son. The dad was at work so we didn't get to meet him. But we asked them if we could start our visit with a prayer and if they needed anything special that we could ask for. Turns out the husband went to the doctor the other day for something in his eye and the doctor told him he needed a biopsy, so they are really worrying about that. We prayed and had an amazing lesson with them. its interesting, we teach A LOT of people here, but there are certain people that you teach that you just feel something special when you´re with them. I felt that way with this family. The son is 10 and is so cute! They don't attend a church but he knows a ton about God and religion. I'm excited to teach them more!! 

 

I'm really happy to be staying in this area with Sister Downs! I feel like the last 6 weeks I'ive learned more about being a missionary than any other transfer! I'm excited to keep learning and meeting new amazing people here in Brasil! I hope you all are doing well! I miss you guys tons but I'm so happy to be here right now! Every day I have moments where I think about how blessed I am to be doing what I'm doing!

beijos!!!

amo voces!!

Sister Pehrson

August 18, 2014

BOM DIA FAMÍLIA!!! 

 

Greetings from Fortaleza :) This week was full of adventures...Good,(like finding new great people to teach!) and bad (like having cockroaches in my bedroom)! 

 

Monday was great as always! In the evening we taught a lady we met last week, but she wasn't willing to change so we won't be teaching her anymore. I think that's one of the hardest things as a missionary, especially here in Brasil. We have tons of people who will listen to our message, but only a few are really willing to sacrifice and change their lives. It's sad because I want everyone to have the happiness I do! But you just have to believe that everything will work out one day. After that we had FHE with Darlyene, who is returning to the church, and a family in our ward. The family has this little girl, Belinha, and shes the cutest toddler I've ever seen! I'll be sending you guys a picture of her. It's just impossible to describe her. During the lesson she had a cup of water and she would dip her hand in it and then rub the water on my legs and arms, like she was giving me a bath. Her sister gave the closing prayer and it was super long and Belinha kept saying ´´Amen´´ because she wanted it to end! It was so funny!

 

Tuesday we went to teach a lesson in the very end of our area. We got there and we ended up not being able to teach the guy because he was locked inside his house. haha. His mom had the keys and wouldn't be returning for a while so we just marked for a different day. Definitely the weirdest reason I've had for not teaching someone during my mission!But it turned out perfect because we checked on a member who hasn't been to church in quite a few years and ended up getting to teach her daughter! She had tons of questions and thought the story of Joseph Smith was really cool. She doesn't live in our area, but we gave her address to the Elders there, so now she´ll be taught! After that we taught a lady that always comes to English class but I never knew that she is a member of our chruch. She was baptized a few years ago but stopped coming. She has a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon, and after our visit she agreed to start reading it again, so we will see what happens! Afterwards we went to teach Neto and when we got there he was sitting by his grandma crying really hard. He had just found out that his 2 year old neice died :( It was so sad and he was really upset), but we had an incredibly spiritual lesson with him. he invited his whole family to come out and hear us talk about the plan of salvation. It was really great to be able to share my testimony of this plan with their family! Afterwards, we were passing by Anderson and Josy´s house and saw that they were in the middle of moving, so we ended up helping them out for the rest of our night! It was awesome because generally Brasillians won't let other people help them out. But it was perfect! Sadly they moved out of our area, But the Sisters in their new area will keep teaching them, so it will be great! 

 

Wednesday was good! In the morning we had District Meeting. In the afternoon we went and taught Tiago. He told us he had visited our church on Sunday! We were all confused and thinking he had visited the wrong church, but he described exactly how our church looks on the inside. He said that he got there about 10 minutes before the meeting started and he looked for us but we weren't there so he just left haha. We weren't there because we were waiting for Neto to finish getting ready! But he said he wants to visit the church even more now than he did before! So thats a plus! Afterwards we went to teach Neto. He was just acting really weird. It was sad because we had an awesome member with us who had experiences to share with him to help him but it didn't work out! The good thing is that we took the member with us to visit other investigators, Francisco and Rizangela. It was such an awesome lesson! They have been reading from the Book of Mormon but they weren't understanding a whole lot. So we taught them more about the book, read with them and told them how they can know if it's true or not! They are a really great couple. They have a lot of love for one another, which isn't super common in couples here in Brasil, so I'm super excited to keep teaching them! We ended the night finding a really awesome family! The mom's name is Senate. She has attended lots of different churches in her life but still hasn't found ´´the one´´. She feels like everybody teaches the same thing and there's a lot of hypocrisy in religion. But we taught the restoration and it was really powerful! We´re going to go back and teach them this week.

 

Thursday morning we found this awesome lady. She's been a little disillusioned by religion but she has a lot of faith in God. She has attended and studied lots of different churches, but never ours! We taught her the restoration and she thought it was pretty amazing. I feel like this week especially, I have seen a lot of people who ´´are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it´´. Every time I teach them the restoration I just get so excited because they don't have to search anymore! In the afternoon we were able to teach one of invetigators. We created a plan with him to help him quit drinking so we will see what happens! He told us he really wants to quit and is ready now. I sure hope so! We also chose a new date for his baptism so that made him more motivated as well. The good thing is that he really does want to quit, he just doesnt know how. So we´ll just keep working with him! In the evening we taught a man who was baptized in May. He received the Priesthood on Sunday and is pretty excited about it! We talked with him about the temple and how there will be a temple here soon and that we want to help him prepare to go there with his family. It's a little hard because he is super strong but his wife isn't doing very well right now, so we will just keep working with them until they are all strong and ready to get to the temple! 

 

Friday was a really, really good day! I was feeling a little down in the morning because I was just thinking about the fact that I have worked 13 months as a missionary now, sometimes I feel like I would be helping more people if I had stayed in the U.S. The language is still super hard for me and there are lessons where I feel like I'm not doing anything! I was talking to Sister Downs about this and she helped me a lot. She shared some verses from Ether 12 when Moroni was talking about our weaknesses. Everybody always talks about verse 27 but she showed me the verses before and after which really helped me out. Moroni was talking about how the Lord asked him to write the record of his people and he felt really inadequate. He was worried that people would read what he wrote and make fun of it because he wasn't good at writing. Sister Downs pointed out that it doesn't matter if I'm not speaking as well as I'd like to or if I don't feel like I'm doing any good or helping any one. What matters is that God sent me here and if I'm trying to do all I can and being obedient and just trying, then that's enough! There is always purpose in our struggling! I don´t know why Heavenly Father sent me here for only 6 months, knowing that I wouldnt speak the language very well in the start and maybe I will never speak like I want to! But I know that he sent me here and he sent me for a reason! I just have to be patient and keep on trying!! The rest of the day was awesome after that pep talk! :) It wasn't the most successful day because it was holiday here and almost all of our appointments fell through. But in the evening we taught a couple we met last week. We took the Patriarch that lives in our ward with us. The husband of the couple has a lot of interest, but a lot of doubts too. Especially about the Book of Mormon! But the Patriarch helped us out a lot. He knows the bible really well and was able to help the man overcome a lot of his doubts. 

 

Saturday was good! In the morning before English class we taught Carolina, a young mom. She is doing great! Her baby is sleeping more, so she will definitely be able to visit the church here pretty soon! After that we had English class! I am learning a lot about the patience that Heavenly Father has! Learning a new language is hard. We mess up time and time again and yet he still loves us! I am just trying to follow his example and not get upset at myself and others for our weaknesses! We taught Cristielen, who is the neice of a member that night and the lesson went really well! She is 9 years old and is really excited to learn about the gospel! She's really fun to teach!

 

Sunday was so great! Both Neto and Cristielen came to church! When church ended we were walking in the hallway and we saw Neto walking into a room with the Patriarch and another member. We asked what they were doing and Neto told us he was getting a blessing. The Patriarch gave him a blessing and it was perfect. Neto got really emotional and asked if he could give the patriarch a hug. It was so sweet!  It was good to see that he learned that he has people in the church who will help him out. We were talking with the member afterwards and he told us Neto had asked him for the blessing. We haven't taught him about blessings or ever talked about them before, So I'm not sure where he heard about them but I'm glad that he got that blessing because it was a really powerful spiritual experience for him! In the afternoon we taught Cristielen! She loved church and is going to invite her parents to come to church with her next week!

 

So that's my week for ya! The weeks just keep flying by and they are full of miracles and challenges but I love every minute of it! I'm sweatier than I've ever been in my life, but I'm also happier than I've ever been! :) I love you all so much!!!

Boa semana para voces!

tchau!

Sister Pehrson

August 11, 2014

This week was awesome!! A little intense and crazy, but awesome nonetheless!! 

On monday after we finished emailing we went and taught Neto! We taught him about the word of wisdom and we thought it would be a piece of cake!But he had a hard time accepting the whole no coffee thing. In the end he decided he could give it up! It was so funny that day when we taught him he was thanking us for our visits and he said he really likes our visits, and not just because we´re pretty. haha! He is awesome! Our night was really awesome too! We had a family home evening with a lady who works on Sunday's so she doesn't come to church much. We taught about temples. It's a little hard to motivate people here to be worthy of a temple recommend. The closest temple is in Recife.  Not everybody has the means to go there and the temple here probably won't be finished for another 5 years. So it's a little hard, but we are working on helping people reallly have a vision and desire to get to the temple! I remember before my mission when I heard they were building a temple here. I was super excited and thought it was really cool! But now i am so, so, SOOOO excited to have a temple here. These people need it!!! I hope I can come back for the dedication! After that lesson our other appointment fell through so we worked on setting up our appointments for the next day. Lots of our appts here fall through because people just forget, so it was good to be able to stop by and remind them that we´d be coming the next day!

 

Tuesday was super good! The family we ate lunch with has a son who is always visiting people with us and helping us out. On Monday he told us he had a surprise for us at our lunch. We were thinking it would be some sort of food, but when we got to their house for lunch we found Neto sitting there!! The son had invited Neto for lunch!! It was seriously the greatest thing ever!!! I'm definitely going to do stuff like that for the missionaries when I get home! After lunch we taught Neto. We decided we would give something up to help him with his decision! I chose soda! It's super hard because EVERYONE and their mother here gives us soda, but I´m 6 days without soda now and stayin strong :) And now I will really know how it is to quit something you really, really, really like!! It will definitely be good for me! After teaching Neto we taught Tiago. Lessons with him are so interesting. We literally dont teach! We read a few verses with him and he understands everything! He can never come to church because of his work. But he will visit some day! After that we taught this man and his wife who we met last week. they turned out to be pretty solid! They had really good questions and have a lot of interest in the gospel, so we will see what happens! After that we helped some people who were recently baptized learn about family history! It was really fun!

 

Wednesday was awesome! In the morning we taught Neto about fasting and tithing. Not only did he accept fasting as a commandment, but he's super excited to try it out! haha being a missionary makes me realize that I should be way more excited to do things like fasting! After lunch we taught Luiziane! She's super sweet. She was baptized recently and doing her best to stay strong in the gospel, and we are helping her out! Later that night we had the coolest lesson with a girl named Brenda. She was baptized when she was 8 but stopped going to church for awhile. The sisters here have been working with her to help her come back and right now she's doing super well! She's studying the scriptures and going to church and praying! She's so awesome! She's also preparing to receive her patriarchal blessing!! So we talked with her about that and it was really special. It was one of those lessons where youre teaching but you're also learning! 

 

Thursday was soo amazing! First we had our zone conference which was great! The assistant's shared a really inspiring message about developing Christ like attributes. They challenged us to choose one we want to work on and I felt like I should work on charity! I'm nice to people to their face a lot but sometimes I dont have the nicest thoughts about them and I don't go out of my way to serve others like the Savior did, so I'm going to work on developing this attribute and really following Christs example. I also started studying the new testament so I can see how the Savior showed his love for others so I can follow his example! After that President Bonini spoke and man was it powerful! I have no doubt that he is called of God! It was really cool! He talked about good families, better families, and the best families to teach and how if we want to teach the best families we have to be the best missionaires. The qualifications for the best missionary weren't what I thought they'd be. It was all about doing good and then inspiring others to do the same. I'm really excited to work on becoming the best missionary I can be and really implementing the things he talked about into my service! After the conference we taught Neto. We spent an hour talking to him about repentance and about God's love for him. The spirit was so strong!!

 

On Friday we spent all morning studying and trying to figure out what we could do to help our investigators. We went to our lesson and found the person very sad. We shared a few scriptures. I never saw that person more sad than I saw him that day. He gave us all the alochol he had in his house and we threw it out. He also told us that day he had lost his job, so he didn't have that to distract him anymore! That entire day I was so worried about him. It's interesting how as a missionary we don't just have our own lives to worry about but were constantly worried about what the people we are teaching are doing and their sadnesses become our sadnesses too! It's a weird feeling. The rest of our day was great! We were able to teach some awesome people who are really prepared to hear our message! The adventure of the day was that on Thursday night we didn't have water again. It's normal to not have it at night sometimes but we woke up on Friday and still didn't have it! We came home that night and expected to have it, but we still didn't have it!!! We finally got to shower on Saturday morning and it was the best feeling of my life!! I probably looked and smelled a lot like Mom and Dad did on trek :) 

 

Saturday was so awesome! We had english class and Neto came!! I was so, so, so happy! The bad part was that he was not feeling well at all. He was super dizzy and could hardly sit still. He looked soo miserable! But I'm happy we get to help him! In the afternoon we taught some awesome people! One is Maria, who is in her 50s. She has a church but she said she's never really felt anything there and that she's never had an answer to a prayer. I'm excited to teach her more! Also we taught Francisca, who has the fattest, cutest baby ever! His name is Mateus. One of the hardest rules as a missionary is that we can't hold little kids :(That night we had a really cool experience! We were standing near a bus stop and this lady asked us if we were waiting for the bus. We told her no and she looked disappointed and said she didn't want to wait there alone because it's dangerous there at night. We told her we would wait with her! We waited and waited and waited and her bus never came! But it was awesome because we got to teach her and she basically told us her whole life story. She's definitely prepared to hear the gospel! She doesn't live in our area, but the elders will teach her! It's cool to see how God works and places us in the paths of people we need to talk to! Nothing is ever coincidence! 

 

Sunday was good! Like most sunday mornings it started out a little stressful. We were doing our Sunday morning church round up and NO ONE was answering their doors!! We were a little bummed out and when we got to church Neto wasn't there. We quickly ran to his house and had to wake him up. We waited a bit and he got ready and came to church. And church definitely helped him out. After church we had lunch and it was our 3rd time in a row eating lasagna. the lasagna here is good, but super heavy! I couldnt eat it all so I had to hide some of it in my napkin. In the afternoon we were teaching a family who had a bunch of pet birds. Their cages were on the ceiling and I got pooped on during the lesson. Sacrifice brings blessings, right? :) That night we taught Manuele who was baptized a while ago. She has a boyfriend who isn't the greatest guy and she was asking us what she should do so we talked to her about personal revelation and it was a really good lesson. She was a little upset with us because we asked her what she would do if the Lord told her to leave her boyfriend, but in the end she said that she would do whatever god asked her to do! So we will see what happens! 

 

I love my companion! She's teaching me a ton and I love serving with her!

Keep Neto in your prayers this week!

I hope you all have an amaaazing week! Love you all so much and am so grateful to have a family like you!

amo voces!!! 

Sister Pehrson

July 28, 2014

 

Wow!! this week was so amazing! and soo fast! seriously..i thought that the last 6 months of my mission would be super slow, but they are going by faster than the beginning! its terrible and great all at the same time...but really there were tons of miracles this week and I'm so excited to tell you about them!!

 

Monday we spent most of our preparation day just relaxing! It's different here because they have tourist attractions and stuff but we can't do anything because its too dangerous. A lot of people get robbed when they are doing touristy stuff so its against the rules. Napping is always a nice thing to do on "P" day, so I enjoyed that!! When p day ended we went to the house of a family who was baptized recently. They have a 10 yr old daughter and we are helping her do stuff to get her Faith in God award. We are memorizing all the articles of faith with her and its a lot of fun! They are a super sweet family so we had a nice visit with them. We then went to a family home evening that a sister in the ward planned. She invited a lot of her family and friends. It was really cool! Definitely the most organized family home evening I've seen here yet! It was a lot of fun! 

 

Tuesday morning I woke up feeling really sick. I wasn't feeling great on Monday night but I wanted to just wait and see how I felt in the morning. I ended up having to take some medicine called leite de magnesium. It worked like a charm! That afternoon we went to our appointments. The fist visit one of the ladies was sick, so it wasn't the best visit. We talked to lots of people on the street that day and had a pretty good amount of success! We taught a lady named Darlyene. Shes really really cool! Last Sunday was her first time in church after 5 years. She was planning to go on a mission but some things happened and she stopped coming to church. But she really wants to come back now and is an amazing person so we are excited to help her!  We had a lesson in the evening with a man named Luciano. We brought his son's primary teacher with us so we could explain the blessings of primary. It went really well! It was our last lesson of the night and when we left it was raining. The member who was with us walked all the way home with us just to make sure we'd be safe! He lives on the opposite side of town from us and had to work early the next day so it was so nice of him to do that! I love the members here!! 

 

Wednesday was good! A little rough but thats life!! We had zone and district meetings which were great. In the afternoon we had a lesson with an investigator. We marked a date for baptism with him for August 3rd, which just so happens to be his birthday!! And we didn't even know that before! He's excited and it will be a great day for him! After that we taught a girl who we met last week, PAMELA!! I got so excited when she told me her name! She's really cool! She's 14 and really, really sweet.  We then taught our investigator Angelica. She has a baby due in September and has a lot of interest in the church. We then had a lesson with a guy we met on Tuesday. The member we brought lives next door to him so at least now he has a friend in the church! After that we had a family home evening. A ward member invited us on Sunday and we really had no idea what to expect. We planned on teaching about missionary work since we thought it would just be he and his family. Well, we got there and he had the lesson all planned. The Patriach of our stake was there along with a guy we didn't know. It was a very simple and sweet family home evening! The family was baptized about 3 years ago and they are still learning how everything works. Funny story, the patriarch has a really great singing voice and he sings SUPER loud! So all of us were singing normally and the patriarch wasjust belting the hymns. It was so cute! It was cool because at the end of the lesson we set up a lesson with the guy we didn't know. So now we get to teach him! We ended the night contacting a referral we got from a member. her name is Carolina. she is 17 and had a baby about 3 weeks ago. She's really sweet and so we just set up a time to go back and teach her since it was pretty late. 

 

Thursday was great! We went to the church early in the morning because one of our favorite ward member´s son passed away and we heard the funeral would be that morning. Sadly we got there and it had ended. They do things so differently here in Brazil!! But we were able to see the members and give them our love and support. Afterwards we came home and studied for a bit and then left for our interviews with Preisdent Bonini!! Before interviews we ate lunch at Burger King and it's never tasted that good before! Or been that expensive...seriously its like 40 reais for a meal. But the interview was nice! President Bonini talked a lot about his vision for the mission and for every missionary, so it was really cool! After the interview we went back to our area and it was raining like I've never seen before! It was pretty cool! We taught a member who would cme to church every week, but she always has to work on Sundays. After that we taught an investigator,  Rosalene. After that we taught a person who was baptized recently. She is trugling with different things in her life right now. Hopefully our visit helped.

 

Friday was sooo incredible! In the morning we went and taught Carolina, the referral we got from a member. She is seriously GOLDEN! And she's just super sweet, so I am really grateful I get to teach her!! The lesson with her was unlike any other lesson I've taught in my mission. She was listening so intently and she had tons of amazing questions! After teaching her about Joseph Smith and how he was so confused about which church was true she asked ´´So which church is true?´´  And then she started asking all these questions about baptism and asked ´´What do I need to do to be baptized?´´ It was just like the stories in the Ensign!!!!  It was so cool! She's so sweet and she really just wants the best for her new baby son, so it's amazing to get to teach her! We marked a baptism day with her in that lesson for the 3rd of August but she didn't come to church on sunday so we have a new goal for the 10th of August. After that we taught our investigator Neto! We brought some members with us and they helped so much !He is still apprehensive about baptism, but I think that everything will work out and he will be baptized this sunday. We did a ton of contacts that day with not much success. We visited the members whose son passed away and had a really great visit with them. We sang some hymns and talked about the plan of salvation! I'm so grateful I have knowledge of that plan! They have a son on a mission right now. They were worried if they told him about his brother he would want to come back home. It's a tough situation and one I dont want to imagine! But we told we both would want to know if something like that happened. 

 

Saturday was another great day! We taught Carolina in the morning and it was an equally amazing lesson as the one on Friday! She told us ever since we started visiting her she has felt something different in her life! It was so exciting! Afterwards we taught english class which is always fun! The afternoon was pretty rough! Almost all of our appointments fell through so we were just talking to everyone but no one seemed to want to listen. We had a good lesson with our investigator Angelica and taught her about the plan of salvation which was cool since she's having a baby soon! I think it was extra special for her to hear about this plan when she's about to bring a baby into the world! In the evening we knocked the door of a house that Sister Downs had felt like she needed to knock on for weeks. We met a really sweet family and we are going to go back and teach them later on this week! 

 

Sunday was good, but rough! Nobody came to church which was so sad because we really really thought that they would! But people have their agency...thats just life! We taught gospel principles and it was fun! My first time teaching a class in Portuguese! I think it went pretty well! In the afternoon we taught a girl who was baptized in 2009ish but stopped coming to church. She's super cool and her husband is not a member and is a really sweet guy so we set up a time to come back and teach the whole family next Sunday! They are a really sweet couple and I feel like the husband will accept our message! We also taught Darlyene and made some goals with she and her daughter to get them started on the journey back to church! That evening we had some meetings in the church and then went to teach a lady Wanderley. We found her that afternoon because we were looking for the house of an investigator we had planned to teach but both Sister Downs and I wrote the wrong address!! But it turned out to be all right because we knocked the house next door and met a lad that wanted to have some lessons. She was baptized about 10 yrs ago and stopped going to church. Honestly, I think last night was the saddest lesson I've ever taught. We talked to her about her story and history in the church and she said that she loved the church but that she was always fighting feelings of unhappiness. Everyone said to read the scriptures and pray but she never could shake the feeling of not feeling completely happy. We asked her how she is now, if shes happy. She just cried and cried and said no. I think she has depression but they dont really diagnose people with that here, so its so hard! I felt at a loss for words because I know the gospel has made me happy. She told us she will return to church eventually but shes just not ready right now. It was the saddest thing! She doesn't want us to come and visit her but she appreciated us stopping by. Agency is definitely the hardest part of a mission!! 

 

So yeah, that was my week! I am loving my new area, loving my new companion! Loving life! The language is still hard but I feel like I'm really learning a ton! People can understand me most of the time. I'm going to start a count of how many people tell me to wear sunscreen. I wear sunscreen every day but I also sweat like crazy so I'm always a little red! 

I hope you all have an amazing week!

I love you so, so much!

Tchau!

Sister Pehrson