November 25, 2013

This has been one of the longest, most exhausting, BEST weeks of my mission!! I love serving in Franconia!! Super different from Leesburg, but it's wonderful! When last p day ended, my companion and I went to visit one of the less active members of our ward who owns a wedding dress shop! We're going to be doing service for her starting next week and I'm super excited!! From there we headed to a part member family in the ward. The husband is getting baptized on Saturday. Our meeting with them was great but we found out that the Taliban came to a family members home in Pakistan and started fighting with his family. 2 people were killed, none of his family though. His brother is a big leader in the Shi'ite government...it's crazy!! From there we went and had FHE with our investigators. A mom and her 13 year old daughter. OH MY GOSH, I love them so much! they are just so fun... Tuesday was wonderful! I had a really great personal study. I was reading in 3 Nephi when Christ comes and he counsels the people to basically just deal with being persecuted because the prophets were all persecuted as well. He tells them (us) that they are made to be the salt of the earth and to be a light unto the world. It helped me recognize that as a member of the church, I'm meant to be different! And as a missionary, I'm REALLY meant to be REALLY different!! So this really helps me get over my fear of talking to everyone and being bold!! We had district and zone meetings Tuesday AM. We did a practice teach with another missionary and I thought that the lesson went really well. I truly do love serving with my companion! We met with our 87 year old investigator that afternoon! He is soo cute! He can't come to church much because of his health, but he tries! From there we went and did facebook!! I was finishing up the clean up process most of the week ! I'm sure you guys saw some of my posts. It's definitely weird being on there, but I'm kind of used to it now and I'm just excited for what a great tool it'll be! We had dinner with a member whose sister is living with her and we are teaching the sister. so we taught her and it went really well! she is still very hesitant, but i know that she'll get more into it as time goes on. The member gave me the number of a Brazillian woman who is in another ward but isn't super active, so we're going to start teaching her!! I am super excited. I am so blessed to have the chance to use my portuguese still!! Wednesday morning we went and visited another investigator. She's in her 60s and is very sick, but she is just the sweetest woman ever! She has a pug named Jezabelle who is like her baby. She told us that day that since she didn't have kids, we are really her children. She's such a wonderful woman and once she starts feeling better she'll be baptized! We spend most of the afternoon and evening tracting with hardly any luck! The one man who let us in just told us stories of some other mormon missionaries he'd met with earlier in his life. After seeing him we went and saw an older woman from China! She was raised in communist China, so it's very different teaching her. We take things very slow. she invited us back for a dinner and a lesson saturday! We then went and visited a woman in the ward who recently started attedning church again! We're trying to get her to the temple. She's super awesome!! Thursday was really great! We did weekly planning this day because a General Authority, Elder Teh was coming Friday. We had a great companionship meting and I really appreciate how honest my companion is and how she really wants me to be a better missionary. One thing I am now working on is being more excited and involved in lessons. I get really nervous around new people and it's been hard to be myself! So i've been really working on being cheerful and being ME and it's working quite well! I feel much happier when I do this! So we went and did facebook for one hour and the hard thing about facebook is that you're focused on yourself. The rest of the time, we are focused on others. So when I'm on facebook and I think all about me and my life and my family, I get a little sad!! But when I focus on others, I'm so happy and I love life! It's been hard adjusting to that and getting the right mindset for WHY I'm on facebook. It's hard to continue to focus on others on facebook, but I know it's possible and I'm excited for all the potential that comes from using facebook as a missionary!! After dinner we had a lesson with the investigator that is getting baptized Saturday. We read the Book of Mormon with them. They converted from the Muslim faith, and it's hard for them to understand the Book of Mormon, so we just go over there and read with them a lot. They are so sweet.. We then went and visited a lady that joined the church 3 years ago and her husband isn't a member, but is super friendly towards the church. When we got there she told us we probabbly didn't want to come in because everyone was so grumpy. Her husband invited us in though. We had a great visit and got to know them better. She texted us later and said "I'm sorry i was so grumpy. Maybe your visit was to remind me to be happy and to feel the Spirit." It was really sweet and it felt so good to know we could help her feel better! There is so much about the mission that I feel I don't quite cherish enough, that I know I'm going to miss. I am trying so hard to savor every moment!! Friday was EXACTLY what I needed...we had Elder Teh, of the Seventy, visit our mission. there is so much that I got out of it, but the biggest was at the end when he said his closing testimony. He talked about how we are all exactly where we are needed and how we can never doubt that because this is where we're called. I couldn't help but think "Well, I'm not actually called here so what am I supposed to do!" Almost as if reading my mind, he then said that he knows some of us are here on reassignment. he said "Never think that the Lord has forgotten you. Don't you think He knew about visa issues when he called you?" He told us we are meant to be here for now and we are to grow where we're planted. I came to that meeting with the question "how can I wait more patiently and trust the Lord and his timing?" on my mind. WOW did I get my answer! In that moment I felt, probably more than ever before, how very aware Heavenly Father is of me and of all of us. He has not forgotten me! He knows where I am and he wants me to give my all while I'm here, so that's what I'm going to do! It was such a priviledge to hear from Elder Teh and I am so grateful for everything that I learned!! On Friday I got to start posting on my facebook as a missionary! It was a lot of fun and I really hope that people ask me questions about it! From there we went and visited a ward member, who we're eating with on Thanksgiving. She's an extreme couponer and gave us cereal along with about 30 coupons! After our dinner we headed to visit another ard member. Then we went and saw a potential investigator. He's a young single dad. He's very laid back and is just awesome. After that we went and visited this sister in the ward who we wanted to come with us to a lesson the next day. Friday was really great for our companionship,it's a real blessing serving with my new companion! Saturday was great! We went and did a ward leaf raking activity and 2 of our investigators came! It was so much fun. We had a meeting right after, so we raked in our skirts, quite an adventure! :) Our meeting was amazing. One of the senior couples taught. The wife taught most of it and it was amazing!!! It was interesting because both Elder Teh and this couple really emphasized how our mission is our story. We decide how it will go! It made me think about how none of us are victim to circumstance. you can say "oh my companion is this way so i'm going to be this way." Or my area is this way, therefore I have to act this way. but those are just excuses! This mission is what I want it to be!! After the meeting I got a package from Grandma Jane! She sent me a nice warm sweater! Then we went to one of the Elders investigators daughter’s birthday parties! It was really fun. My companion made balloon animals for the kids. She rocks! We decided on Saturday that we were going to give up sweets! Well the ones we have in our apartment..we can't control what the members give us at their homes haha! Could I have asked for a more perfect comp? :) We went and visited our 10 year old investigator after that. Her mom and Grandma are inactive members. We taught her the plan of salvation. there was a gorgeous sunset that evening and so on our dinner break we went and took a bunch of pictures! I'm grateful my companion appreciates nature as much as I do! After dinner we saw a member family, and then a less active woman. We then went to check on a potential investigator. There were no parking spots by her house, So we had to park about 15 minutes away. It was 40 degrees and the wind was blowing LIKE CRAZY so we had to park and walk over. On the way back, I began singing a hymn. I didn't care if anyone was listening. I just sang! My companion sang with me! As we walked that short walk, in some mildly cold weather, in skirts, I felt like I caught a bit of a glimpse of the pioneers' lives. Singing hymns just brought me such encouragement and I knew that what I was doing was more important than anything hard I have to go through to do it! This is MY story. I choose how it ends!! I want to be remembered as the crazy sister who sang hymns in the freezing weather when she could be at home in sweats watching netflix! this is how life should be! It's hard, but it brings so much happiness! Sunday was wonderful!! We had Ward Council and I got asked to say opening prayer, which was pretty intimidating! This ward is soo different than Leesburg, but they are incredibly missionary minded and they are wonderful! They really want to help in any way possible so we're really going to try and utilize that. 2 investigators came to Sacrament Meeting and Relief Society was so great! It was all about putting our trust in the Lord and mvoing forward in faith in regards to missionary work. There was one quote shared that really inspired me: "You can never fail when you are doing your best when doing the Lords work!" I often feel really unqualified for this, but I was sent to DC for a reason and I need to do my best and learn and grow so I can help who I've been sent to help! I left church feeling very inspired. We went to choir after church which was a lot of fun! I felt right at home and I felt like this really is my family for now! :) We had 2 lessons fall through that afternoon and it seemed like everyone we tried to visit wasn't home. We ended up visiting a former investigator who wasn't home , but her sister told us to come back! We walked back towards our car to visit a member and there was a guy outside smoking. My natural instinct was to just walk by and say. “hi” because why would someone who smokes want the gospel? I ended up stopping and walking over and introducing msyelf and asking him if he knows his neighbor (who is a member). It felt so effortless and I realized I need to stop walking by people and stereotyping! So i'm not sure if anything will come of that visit, but it sure taught me a lesson! We went and visited his neighbor. She is a hoot! She's an older woman. Her husband died about the same time Grandpa Brown did. She's very lonely but she's also very independent, so she won't admit it. She shared a lot of wonderful stuff with us and we had a long talk with her about marriage! We had dinner and a lesson with L and T at a ward members home and it went AMAZINGLY!!! They are on date to be baptized the 21st of December! One thing I am learning here is to really have friendships with our investigators and to let the gospel conversations flow naturally. I felt so much love as I taught them and I was barely scared at all! In ward council, Bishop told us that we can actually pray to develop friendships with people. I was planning on doing this with my companion, but our friendship is really developing so naturally and I'm just so happy to serve with her! She's an amazing person and I learn a lot from her, but she learns from me too and we just work so great together! This morning, we got to go over to the ward members home who has a forge in his backyard and he made these amazing necklaces. It took a really long time and that's why I'm emailing so late, but it was cool to watch. I love you guys so much and hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving! I will miss you but I am in such an awesome place right now and I know I'll have a wonderful holiday! I'm so excited for this Saturday. We have our ride set up and everything so I'll send lots of pictures from the baptism. I have a feeling it's going to be one of the best days of my life! I love you all so much! Keep up all the good work! Love, Sister Pehrson!

November 18, 2013

Greetings from my new area!! Wow is this place different from where I came from...but different doesn't necissarily mean bad right? ...I hope not! haha it's been really crazy adjusting to a new companion and to a new area..but I'm really excited for the opportunities I will have here!! After dinner Tuesday night we attempted to visit a bunch of people with no luck. we ended up at a ward members home and visited with them for awhile. Really great family! So we got home that night and waited for transfer calls and that was when I found out that I would leave Leesburg! My companion and I were both completely shocked!! We definitely thought it was her leaving.. Wednesday was my last day in my first area :( We did morning studies and then went and got a winter coat, since I had been borrowing one from a ward member. I was able to find a super cute one for 15 bucks at the thrift store! BOOYA! Then we had a lesson with A. It was so hard to say goodbye, even though I'm pretty sure it was more of a "see ya later." she told me how grateful she is for my dedication and how she couldn't have done this without me. and yet the whole time she told me this, I thought the same about her. Waiting for my visa is HARD! but knowing, without a shadow of a doubt why I am reassigned has helped tremendously. I don't think it's a coincidence that I was transferred as soon as A had been taught everything!! I will definitely come back for her baptism though! So after the lesson we saw some ward members and said goodbye. one ward member who helped us out with M. She let us know how wonderful M is doing now. She said when M went into rehab she posted a picture of a cocoon on her FB. she said that she was entering into her cocoon and would be off FB for awhile. when she got out of rehab, she posted a picture of a monarch butterfly emerging from a cocoon and said that this represented her in her journey and that she was ready to fly. a few days later, she was on the phone with the ward member and started freaking out and told her that a Monarch Butterfly had just landed on her porch! It's November...butterflies aren't even out anymore!! M was so happy and just said she knew that God is helping her. Pretty cool how Heavenly Father really lets us know of His love for us and how he knows what we need!! It was so hard saying goodbye to my friends in that area, but it was a great last day I spent there. Thursday was just INSANE!It is sooo weird coming into a new area. I have no clue what is going on. but it's an adventure, that is for sure! I am sure that my new companion and I will have a wonderful companionship. she's from Utah...my 2nd Utah companion! I have a feeling the work here will be much different. We had dinner at a members home whose husband was recently baptized! We had a lesson with her and her sister who seems some what interested in the gospel! We also visited a less active member who has been coming back to church recently. she's a really awesome lady and we are going to work with her a lot. Friday I realized how I am in an entirely different universe over here. It's really awesome though and I love it. We had a meeting that morning so I got to meet my new zone! They are awesome. We had a great weekly planning session and an awesome companionship inventory where each of us explained what we want the companionship to be like. I can definitely see why Heavenly Father assigned me to be with this companion. She's very patient and kind. I will help her recognize her strengths and build upon them. She told me she loves how calm and peaceful I am because it allows everyone to feel peace. i thought that was sweet. we had dinner with a ward member who literally owns the FATTEST daschounds I have EVER SEEN! Not even an exaggeration. they are MASSIVE....haha. then we met our ward mission leader who is super awesome and WAY more involved than my last one. it's cool! we made a lot of attempts to visit people that night with no luck. The low light of my evening was about 8 pm. we went to check on this guy who has only met with missionaries once. Well we knocked, and waited, went to knock again, but the door has a window in it and all of a sudden I see bare legs, and then a big fat belly, so I turn around and go "IS HE NAKED!"? SMy companion says "yes, yes I think he is." he peeked through the window,then walked away. I just started booking it and my companion goes "I think he's getting dressed..." But I didn't wait to find out!!!! NOT WHAT I WANTED TO SEE!!! so disturbing. I'm definitely the more dominant companion...which I am not used to! But it'll be a good experience. Saturday morning we got a knock on the door and the Jehovah Wittnesses decided to pay us a visit...when they saw our tags they just walked away haha! We spent our day visiting many people! Lots of unanswered doors, but we talked to one older woman who the sisters here have been working with for a bit. she's a real character and we left her with some book of mormon reading assignments. we talked to quite a few people on the streets with not much luck, but everyone was civil! we had dinner with a young family from Utah. They are super sweet and their kids are hilarious. the 10 year old is 10 going on 30. it was a really fun dinner. after that we visited a woman whose husband is investigating the church. she was baptized a while back and was actually muslim before she joined the church! talk about a rough life. she and her husband are both attorneys but are waiting on citizenship so they work at gas stations for awful bosses who treat them like dirt. makes me so mad....we read the scriptures with them and it was wonderful! after that we visited a sweet old asian woman. she had lots of questions for us, like if women in the church were equal to men. we told her to watch this years general conference. we ended the night visiting a family in the ward who the dad is inactive. we had a great visit with them. The father has a metal shop where he makes these amazing swords and knives. Sundays as a missionary are CA-RAZYYYY. but great! I met a lot of people at church. this ward is so much bigger than my old ward. it's a litle intimidating. it's great though! Gospel principles was really entertaining. it was about honesty and this lady kept bringing up situations where you'd have to lie. the teacher was struggling to keep control of the class. gave me a nice laugh though! A lady we taught Thursday surprised us by showing up to church!! after church we had a lesson fall through, so we went and saw an inactive member. she doesn't speak english but her daughter does, and her daughter is going to come to church Sunday! she was super interested! we talked to a few people on the street who were semi receptive, but nothing solid. then we went to the assistant ward mission leaders house because they do this thing where they have one of the sets of missionaries in the ward film a little movie for the ward each week. i'm debating forwarding it to you..it's slighlty embarrassing though haha! there are 3 sets of missionaries in this ward! 2 sets of elders and 1 set of sisters!!! after dinner we had an appointment with a Muslim woman who is studying about our church. it's amazing how much more culture I am experiencing here! This morning at walmart it was crazy because EVERYONE here is a different color! I got my groceries from Laquinta and Shameeka..haha and this guy was like " if you don't mind me sayin, you look real nice today!" only here would missionaries get hit on. ;) I am excited to serve with my new companion. i'm sure it'll be awesome! we are trying to find a ride from a member to A's baptism, because we aren't allowed to drive ourselves there. so fingers crossed I can go!!!! I am hoping things are going well for her still. it's crazy how attatched I get to different areas! I feel like there are lots of things here that are really preparing me for Brasil, so that's a good thing! But yeah, there’s the weekly update! I miss you guys like CRAZY! for real... but I know that I am doing the right thing by being here. I love you all so so much and am grateful for your support!! Love, Sister Pehrson

November 12, 2013

Man it throws me off when I don't get to write on Monday..but I am glad that I get to now! Hope all is going well.. I am so glad to hear everyone is safe and happy! :) I would say healthy but WHAT THE HECK CELIAC DISEASE?!!! ahhh poor Davey...you eat everything! haha but hey you can probably get some recipes from Chris and Jaci right? anyways good luck to you with that! This week has been great!!! It was very busy and there was just a lot of random goings on. On Monday we did a zone activity and we went and hiked on some civil war trails. It was so much fun! We ended up getting super lost though. So we took this trail that led into a neighborhood and then we had to walk on this really busy main road to get back to our cars. I can only imagine what people were thinking as they drove by. There were 14 of us missionaries in our P day clothes with name tags on, trekking down the street! I got a good laugh out of it. It was a gorgeous hike as well. After the hike we had dinner with a young couple in our ward. Apparently the husband served his mission in San Diego when the district was being filmed so he knows all the missionaries on there!! unfortunately, during our hike, Sister Stott had a fall and basically couldn't walk on Monday night, so we couldn't do any work! Tuesday was a great day for learning. My comp's ankle was acting up really bad. I prayed LIKE CRAZY. I tried to be a good help to her. We had zone and district meetings that morning which were both awesome! The zone meeting was about our morning exercise and studies and they shared a quote by Elder Holland that was really profound. He said that the way that our morning studies go is how our life will go. I have loved mornings on the mission. it's super hard to get up early, but I feel so great when I work out and when I study, I feel even better! I feel so ready for the day! In District Meeting we talked about asking inspired questions. I feel like I get stuck in teaching mode sometimes and don't ask enough questions. so that's something I want to work on! After our meetings we met up for exchanges! I was with Sister O for the night. It was so awesome to serve with her that day. I was able to express to her a lot of the concerns I've been having lately and she just told me that they were 100% understandable and that I just needed to keep a good attitude and control what I can, which is mainly my attitude. She told me that often on her mission she just thanks Heavenly Father that her eternal companion won't be a girl..hahah! So we headed out that afternoon and did some finding! We talked to a man who is an Ammonist, which is sort of a native american religion and he said he's been through the war in Vietnam and based on those experiences, he feels that he has evidence there is no God. He's read the book of mormon and done lots of studying of other religions. it was very sad talking to him. right after that we met his neighbor who is a Messianic Jew. He was AMAZING!!! seriously. he shared many of his beliefs with us and really wants to know more about our faith. he has read the book of mormon and believes it is the word of God. he has a son in law who is LDS and so he really wants to find out if the things he's heard are true or false. he has studied many religions and he says based on his studies he knows there must be a god. he also served in the Israeli military for a few years. really amazing guy and it's cool how he had very similar experiences as his neighbor and they both have such different views on life. It is pretty cool to see how your attitude and the way you view things really makes a big difference in your life! Thursday was such a roller coaster...I had such an awesome exchange and I felt so motivated. I got back together with my companion and we went and visited our investigator who is a double amputee who was so happy to see us! she told us that she really didn't want to go to her therapy that day, but that she did and she was able to walk with her prosthetic legs! she talked about how she owes it all to God. She has such an amazing attitude. after that we visited D, a less active member of our ward. She was one of the highlights of my day. she's been out of work since March and has been relying on her kids for financial support so she's just been really struggling because she hates asking for help. in her nightly prayer, she expressed concerns with Heavenly Father about not having the money for groceries this month and asked for his help. the next morning she opened her door to take the trash out and she found a card from her visiting teacher with a 50$ gift card to a grocery store. WOW...amazing right?!?!? So then she told us that at her daughters baby shower, her daughter told her that she needs to get back into church. her daughter isn't even a member of our church!! So D literally had her clothes out for Sunday...(spoiler alert, she didn't come to church :( Still a powerful experience though!!) her telling us that story really helped me realize how important it is that we fulfill our callings, especially home and visiting teaching because those people need our help and we need to follow the promptings that we receive. after visiting with her, we did some tracting. we talked to an atheist guy and he said "i'm happy how i am" i said "you don't think you could be any happier?!" and he said "not really." sad that people don't realize their potential!!! tracting went so well because on exchanges sister o gave me some advice and told me that when the spirit is present in our lessons, it doesn't matter what we say, as long as the person we talk to hears what they need to through the spirit! so that helped me and seriously ever since then I have been super confident in all my teaching and talking to random strangers! tracting is way more fun this way!!! We had a great lesson with N on Wednesday night. this girl from the young womens who isn't exactly cookie cutter mormon came and she and N just get along so great and it was awesome having her there and helping her realize the testimony that she does have. we were also able to get N to pick out a baptismal date which will be the 23rd of this month!!!! Thursday was another roller coaster for sure. satan sure works hard on me out here, that's for sure. the day started out great. we found out earlier in the week that we had apartment inspections, so we had to take a few hours out of our work to clean. it bugged me a little, because I felt like we were wasting time, but i just decided to drop it. we got a call while we were cleaning and found out that my companion will be a sister training leader, which means we will not be companions this next transfer. after we cleaned we had a visit with our investigator L. it went really well because we were actually focused and were able to share a scripture and stuff so it was awesome. then we met with a woman the elders taught who will be baptized this week to tell her what to wear under her baptismal clothes haha! it was funny. that night we went to young women in excellence with N. it was awesome. it was all about our relationship with Christ and how he truly knows us. Friday i went on another exchange while my companion attended a leadership meeting. it was so much fun! i went to centreville and worked with with a sister who came in the same transfer as i did. we bonded a lot because we have experienced so many of the same things so it was alot of fun. we visited this lady who was getting baptized the next day along with her 11 year old daughter. apparently the daughter had this dream awhile back that heavenly father was telling her she's on the right path and that she needed to be baptized. pretty cool!! when we got off exchanges we went and visited this lady that the elders told us to go visit. i've never been in a more smoke filled apartment!! we had planned a lesson with Joshua at the but that fell through, sadly. we had a great lesson with A that night about faith. i am even more amazed every time i see her at how much she learns and progresses. we invited her to a baptism the following day which she was very excited for. Saturday we did weekly planning and then went to visit a man we had met tracting earlier in the week. we got to teach him about the restoration and he said he really wants to know if it's true. we tried to track down J to get him to the baptism but we had no luck. We then went to the baptism. The lady has been an investigator for YEARS...so when we talked to her before she was like "i'm not that excited....i've been baptized before." but after she got out of the water she was like "this is the most pleasant baptism i've ever had..the water was warm!" hahah. and when she bore her testimony she talked about how happy she was and how she expected this to just be another baptims, but it had turned out way better than she expected. A was there and really enjoyed the baptism as well so that was awesome! Sunday was such a wonderful day! J didn't come to church, but N and A did! after sacrament, A told us she was coming to both sunday school and relief society! she never does that so we were super excited. it was ward conference today, and i had to attend a meeting during sunday school, but i got to be with her in relief society. it was the stake that taught and it was about the priesthood, so i just told her it was something we'll teach her more about after he baptism. she seemed to enjoy it though! it's interesting how many times in the past few weeks i've had lessons on the priesthood...makes me realized there's lots to learn. in sacrament the stake president spoke and he talked a lot about adversity and he said that "often times the Lord provides instruction, not explanation." i know for me i get the "why me" attitude a lot, so realizing that I have everything I NEED to learn and to get through my trials helped me recognize not to ask why. after church we had dinner at a members home that i really enjoy! it was really fun and good to be with them on a more casual level. we learned a lot about their family and it made me even more grateful that i've been able to teach A and bring that family even more closer together! after dinner, we attended a fireside where 2 rm's that play for the redskins spoke. it was really cool because they both made the decision as young kids to serve missions and never waivered in that decision. N and her sister attended the fireside but it was really centered on serving missions, so i don't know how much they got out of it. the players names are tevita stevens and brian keel. if you want to look them up! :) tevita is also single sooo.....i'm keeping that in mind for a few years down the road! yesterday was a great preparation day! we went and got pedicures and then had dinner at the patriarch's house. he is an awesome person and so is his wife. i love being in their home. we were finally able to track down J! he didn't drink at all during the parties he went to this weekend so we were happy to hear that and will be teaching him the word of wisdom later this week. This morning we learned all about facebook proselyting. i am getting on facebook today and starting to clean up my old account and make it a missionary account, so you guys don't need to go on my account anymore (til i go to brasil.) I don't have tons of details still.. but the main thing is to remind you guys that i'm doing this as a missionary, not to socialize with you. if you have people that you want me to teach online, you can have them add me and you can tell me missionary-related stuff over facebook, but besides that i can't communicate with you guys on there. we can still be friends though!! :) i am really excited to see what being a facebook missionary is like. also nervous! But yeah so we're starting that this week. i can also start updating my blog....i'll keep you posted when i have more details on all of this! transfers are thursday! we're almost positive my companion will be the one to go, but its not set in stone. we will definitely both be getting new companions though. besides that not much to update ya on. I love you all soooo very much and wish you the best this week!! love, Sister Pehrson

November 4, 2013

It's been another awesome week here in VA! I am loving serving in the DC south mission and I am having so many opportunities that I know will help me in my service in Brasil!! On Monday after we emailed, we went to a members home and she gave us haircuts! Their house is amazing! it is the house that the husband grew up in and it's this cute little log cabin with a bunch of barns and gorgeous fields around it. She is a really cool lady too. She met her husband at work when he was not a member and they dated on and off a bunch until he brought up marriage and she said she wouldn't marry a non member so he took the lessons and got baptized and a week later they were married! I love cool stories like that! We had dinner at our Patriarch's home on Monday night. It is so cool to be in a Patriach's home and recognize that they are normal people too! They have an awesome spirit in their home and it was so nice to spend time with them! After that we visited a ward member who is getting ready to move. She is kind of a hoarder, so it's going to be a huge job and wemade plans to help her to do some organizing before her move. Tuesday was wonderful! We had zone and district meetings in the morning. zone meeting was all about getting members to our lessons. apparently 4% of investigators who are taught in their own homes get baptized, but 25% of investigators taught in members homes get baptized! pretty darn cool, right? district meeting was about how to begin teaching. We did a practice teach which I felt like I did awful in and so I was feeling kind of down, but then we went to our investigators house and I taught the restoration and it went really awesome. I was scared at first, but I just prayed and put it all in the Lord's hands and I felt so calm and happy! it was a very focused lesson as well, which usually they are not, so it was really great. That evening, we had our lesson with J at a ward members home. I was sooo nervous that he wouldn't show up!! But he did!!! Funniest thing ever: the ward member whose home we were in, have these 2 tiny dogs...like maybe 9 pounds each, and they are super yappy, but they're harmless. so J walks in and they bark at him and he freaks out! He sat down and one came up to him and he basically jumped on top of my companion and was like holding on to her for dear life. The lesson went so great though!! I am so happy we are having lessons in a member's home now. They are so much more focused and J learns way more. Also, we didn't want to risk going to teach him in his home and being stuck alone with him and his weird guy friends again haha. But the lesson went really awesome. we taught the restoration and watched the restoration movie. it was so cool because I felt the spirit so strongly telling me that this is true, that Joseph really did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I love receiving that witness! I think it's one that we as members need to feel over and over again! After dinner, we worked on visiting some less active members in the goose creek ward. we met one who is married to a man from Afghanistan. she is a convert and hasn't been to church in a long time, but she was so happy to see us. she said her son in law is really interested in hearing about the gospel as well so we're really excited about that! On Wednesday we started the day by helping the member who is moving get ready for her move. she's moving the 14th of this month and has loads of stuff so it's a really big job! after that, we went to D's, a less active member of our ward. we talked to her about how our every day decisions effect us eternally! it was a great lesson as always. after visitng her, we were planning on visiting one of the less active women we tried to visit last week, but her husband said they were too busy to have us come by, but then she ran into bishop at the store and he told her what we had told him, and she told bishop she actually would like us to visit, just not when her husband was home. We're going to start visiting her when her family isn't there because she wants some connection to the church still, but she also loves her husband and doesn't want to mess that up! it's super sad! that night we went to N's house for her birthday! we met her dad, who is a very active member of the Jewish church, and he is just the nicest guy ever! he's been really opening up to us lately as well and he has a book of mormon in hungarian, so we will see what happens! Thursday was so much fun!! We are not allowed to proselyte on Halloween, so we spent the day studying, doing weekly planning, cooking for the zone activity, and going to addiction recovery which was super awesome. it was all about seeking forgiveness and being humble. After that we went to this gourmet burger place called melt...oh my gosh, best burgers ever. you should google it. so the rest of the day we cooked and studied and then headed to one of the goose creek missionaries investigators house because he offered us his home theater to watch movies in! so we spend the night watching Monsters University and Megamind. it was so fun! also, don't worry, we were allowed to watch movies for the holiday haha. I think we get to watch movies on New years as well! On Friday we had launching leaders, which is such an awesome class. it was all about standing up and overcoming fear. we also talked a lot about how our missions are not about numbers, but are about the person we become. After launching leaders, we had our lesson with J. Brother C is the perfect person to help J out. You wouldn't think so, since Brother Cis in his 60s and J is 26, but they are so funny together! they tease each other and just get along amazingly. it's been really cool to see how big of a difference it's made teaching in the member's home. he said he's received his answer and wants to be baptized the 16th of November! After our lesson, we went to the young women presidents house to talk to her about N. she is an awesome person and I am excited to be an RM like her someday!! The best part of friday was that it was 80 degrees!!!!!! it was amazing! it's much colder today, but apparently november here is going to be pretty mild so that's good to know. On Saturday we went to visit a L's mom who is 93 years old! she is very hard of hearing and she had her wood stove on so it was seriously a million degrees in there. and it was already a super nice day outside, so we were melting...sadly i think that may be a glimpse of the weather in Brasil! haha she was talking about how much everything has changed and how we need to make sure our friends are true friends. she had lots of words of wisdom and it was fun getting to know her. she was really happy to have visitors. after that we walked over to L's. I'm not sure who was more happy to see us, L or her mom! but it was funny because L said "things always come in 3's. this morning I had a Jehova witness come over, now you're here. who is next?" not even 10 minutes later a woman from the baptist church came by and brought L a meal! it was crazy!! after that we headed to see P. she has had a really rough week work and family wise, but I think our visit really helped a lot. we read Alma 14:9-11 with her and talked about how the book of mormon can help her with her problmes and we can be comforted in the fact that when we make good choices, we will be rewarded. we spend the rest of the night doing less active visits. one guy was super friendly and the other guy was pretty mean. I got my wonderful package from my family that night so thanks so much for that! it was super sweet! :) Sunday was an amazing day. J graced us with his presence at church which made us super happy. one of the members of our ward got his endowments yesterday and then was sealed to his wife and new baby girl, so yesterday he got to bless the baby. it was so amazing to watch and it was just such a sweet experience. I am excited for when Davey and Tasha can bless their new baby!! it will be amazing! it was also super cool because one of the less active members the Elders have been working with got up and bore his testimony. he has had it really rough. he has a law degree and an MBA in finance, and has help very prestigious titles in places he's worked, but is currently working at a really crummy grocery store. he was baptized in 2011 and shortly after was diagnosed with bladder cancer. he said he's been using his health as an excuse to not attend church, but that he isn't going to do that anymore. he talked about 2 people who have really helped him in his process of joining the church, and one of them was my friend Anna's dad! he said " I swear that man has wings." it was so sweet! no wonder anna is so awesome! :) gospel principles was crazy yesterday....this woman that the Elders are teaching was talking about dinosaurs and then one guy brought up evolution and it was just the weirdest conversation haha. the teacher was finally able to reign things in. After church, this lady who has been investigating the church for years got her baptismal interview and she will be baptized this saturday! A is going to attend so it'll be so awesome! we had dinner at one of our favorite ward members house. after dinner we had a lesson with A. when we got there, we were asked us if we'd eaten at that family's house. we told him yes and he said did you wash your hands? we said no. he said well they have mrsa. we immediately washed our hands!!! So hopefully nothing bad comes of that. Our lesson was so wonderful. she is so excited for her baptism and kept saying "i'm so ready!" we told her more about the gift of the holy ghost so that made her even more excited for her baptism! she told us that she will never forget us. she is an amazing person and I'll never forget her! My VA Brasillian :) The countdown for her baptism is 26 days!!! I doubt I'll be sent to Brasil in that short of time, hopefully not anyways! it's weird to be hoping not to get my visa, but i just really want to be at her baptism! If my visa came on December 2nd that would be perfect :) haha. I haven't found any new info out about the FB missionary work. i will keep ya posted, but they're kind of just slowly integrating us into it, so we'll see what happens! i'm excited for it though. thanks for the letters and the package this week! I must tell you i gave most of the sweets to the elders, because we get sooooo many sweets here! but the elders really liked them so you made someone happy haha. I really appreciated the thankful leaves. that was such a cute idea and I am SO thankful to have a family like you guys supporting me! I don't think I could do this without your support. it's really hard some days, but it is so, so worth it! some days when I miss certain things, I just think "I'll be sick of that after I get to have it for a few weeks when I get home" so if you ever miss me, just think "i'll be sick of her after she's back for a few weeks!" ;) love you all soo so much. one thing that you can do to help the missionaries back home is to have lessons at our house when you can. also ask them if you can pray for their investigators by name. it brings miracles! I'm sure you guys are already doing great, but those are just some things that I have seen that help a lot. also inviting non members to church parties and events. even firesides! we have a cool one coming up about the internet and internet safety. one of the ward members is going to stalk one of the kids' in the wards facebook and show how easy it is for them to find out confidential information about them! i kind of hope I get to go because it would be cool to see! we'll see though. anyways, love ya lots and hope you all have an amazing week ! you're always in my prayers! love, Sister Pehrson

October 28, 2013

What an awesome week it's been here in Virginia!! I have felt so much gratitude for being a missionary this week and being able to witness little miracles that happen every day! I've never been happier than I am now on my mission and I know that this kind of happiness doesn't come from anywhere else! On Monday after we emailed, we went thrifting, which was so fun! I got a really cute dress which will work for here and for Brasil!! I also got some sweaters cause it's getting chilly here, but it's supposed to be like 70 all this week so that'll be really nice!! We had dinner and family home evening with a family in the ward and it was so awesome! They are such a cute family and we played this game where we spinned the bottle and then the 2 people that the ends of the bottle pointed to said something they loved about the other person. it was really cute! their little boy who is about 2 kept trying to crawl all over me and it was so awkward because we're not supposed to hold kids so I just kind of awkwardly sat there haha. then we went to a teaching appointment. it started out really rough. she was just complaining about all this stuff and wouldn't even sit down and was trying to reschedule with us so I just said can we leave a short message with you before we go? of course she said yes and we shared 2 scriptures with her that compared the attitudes of Laman and Lemuel and Nephi. we talked about the difference it makes to have a positive attitude. I understand she has it really rough, but we just really wanted her to see how she could find little things to be grateful for every day. It was cool as we shared the message with her the spirit in the room completely changed and she said the closing prayer and just cried and cried and thanked heavenly father for sending us there and talked about how we always brighten her day. This woman isn't exactly a warm and fuzzy type of lady either so it was so touching to hear her say these things. It was good for us to see that our visits really do make a difference. I got some really adorable pictures of Cash and Colli on Monday night so I was so happy about that!! Tuesday was so awesome! BIG NEWS: OUR MISSION IS GOING ON FACEBOOK!!!! We don't have lots of details, I'm sure we'll get them tomorrow, but yeah, pretty insane! After our studies, we went and knocked some doors for a while. We met a really grumpy old lady, which it always shocks me when grandmas are mean, but then we met this lady who didn't actually live at the house she was at, but we're going to check back with her sometime this week because she was really promising. Then we had dinner with a really cute family in our ward. the husband was talking about how mad Brasil is at the US for spying on them, so who knows when my visa will get here now haha. It pretty much changes every day how I feel about that..lol. So we started doing the work for the other wards less active sisters tuesday night. It was an adventure!! We met one lady, who was really sweet. she was like "oh! you're the lady missionaries!!" She said she is "totally inactive", but would love to have us for dinner! then we tried this other ladies house and her husband answered and asked where we were from. we told him the church and he said "please don't ever come back here again." and slammed the door on us! the good thing is, i've gotten a lot better at dealing with rejection. i also feel a lot more confident when we try to find people now. i feel like i've just learned so much since I started my mission and I can be more confident and be myself. it was really funny at the end of the day we went to the mailbox to check the mail, and the elders were there on their bikes. well the one elder tried to move over and he fell off his bike into the bushes....good thing he had his helmet on! :) On Wednesday, we did service for one of our investigators. It's so mentally exhausting helping her because she's doing EVERYTHING and then her husband and daughter just sit there watching tv...it's a really sad situation. we had dinner at a family in our wards house who have ELEVEN CHILDREN...it was funnny though because the mom was the only one home! she was like "I think this is the first time I've eaten alone with the missionaries..." but we had a really good visit with her and helped her come up with some ideas on how to share the gospel with her friends. After that we went to our lesson with another person. It was the plan of salvation lesson and i was realy nervous because I was supposed to teach most of it, but I've never taught that in english before. but things got crazy as they always do in that house and the lesson turned into the little brother, bringing up all this random information. But the beginning of the lesson was really sweet because her brother, who is 10, was teaching his sister how to pray, so that was just a really sweet moment to watch!! Thursday was the halfway mark of the transfer! I feel like this transfer and this month have just flown by!! we had interviews with both President and our zone leaders. they were really awesome. one of the zone leaders asked me if i could give myself advice, what would it be. i said "be confident in the Lord, not in myself." he told me to take my own advice, so I've been focusing this week on working on my confidence in the Lord. then in my interview with President he talked about how missionary work is hastening. he talked about how the Lord is micro managing my life and if I truly give myself to him, my life will be so good and I can be so much happier! that's another thing I really want to work on. President is just such a great guy. he exudes love. it was an awesome interview with him.after that we had a lesson with 2 other ladies, who I love so much!! then we had the most amazing lesson with a nice woman who is a less active member of our ward!! So remember how on Tuesday we met the woman who said she was "totally inactive"?? turns out that is she is the ex-daughter-in-law, who she is still on really good terms with. This woman’s grand daughter, who is 11, called her and was whispering and said" hey my mom is in the shower and i just had to call you and tell you this exciting news! the sister missionaires came over and my mom told them they could come back! she didn't know I was downstairs listening but I heard the whole thing and I'm so excited!!" So yeah, strange "coincidence" right? I'm really excited to see what happens with that. She is such an amazing person and it would be awesome if we could teach her granddaughter. we had dinner with a ward member who is a caterer so it was amazing!! then we went with the elders and visited some less active members of our ward. i had a minor heart attack because as we walked up to one house, there was this GIANT black snake on the porch and the elders ran over and were like "guys, it's fake." so the lady at the house was like yeah our neighbors always throw that over here as a joke. well they fooled me! haha. on friday we had sisters conference, which was like a mission conference, just with all the sisters of our mission. it was amazing!! Sister Riggs gave an incredible talk on our relationship to the priesthood. I learned a ton about differentiating the Power of the Priestood and priesthood holders. another member of the mission presidency's wives spoke about being a good companion so of course I learned a ton from that. She talked all about how we are all so different and we never really know what is truly going on in someone elses mind of life so to take things as they ought to have been said or intended. i've learned on my mission that i get offended so easily...i need to work on seeing the best in others and in not taking offense so quickly. so when we got back from the mission conference, we went to the library to do progress records. I sat by the most interesting man...as soon as i sat down he satrted telling me how he was so mad because he was telling his friends about some revelation he received and he said they started telling him he is a prophet and he doesnt like labels? then he asked if the elders were from Ohio...he was a goofball. we had a lesson on friday night which went AMAZINGLY!! I love lessons with her soooo much. we read the family a proclamation to the world in portuguese and she talked about how much her relationship with her husband has improved since we began teaching her and she is so excited to get baptized. she said "this is a very important time of my life that I'll never forget." Love her!! so then we had a lesson with another man we have had a hard time getting an appointment to teach. since he hasn't been coming to church, we decided to bring a member with us to meet him and offer him a ride. so this couple who is in their upper 50s came with us. Our investigator is this 26 year old from the Congo..so we get there and he had friends over. he takes us all into his bedroom where there are 3 other guys, in thier 20s, so it's us, this older couple, and these 3 guys in this bedroom. i just had to laugh at how weird it was. one of the guys was pretty drunk so that made things a little interesting. i'm just glad the members were there because that could have been a bad situation! one of the other friends there committed to come to church and is now investigating the church, so that turned out good! on saturday we did service at a home from 8-12. it was our last time with her which was sad. she is going to a center to help her quit smoking so I'm excited for her new changes in life. After service we went to a member of the wards house who is from Brazil!! it was really fun. she is really sweet and has been a great friend to one of our investigators. She was an exchange student in idaho and got baptized then, how cool is that? after lunch we headed to our appointment with another woman. it was sad because she was really upset when we got there because she realized how she's being taken advantage of by her son. she is in her 50s and has lots of health problems, including arthritis, but she walks everywhere. she walks to work and to the grocery store and everything, and her son never will take her anywhere even though he has a car! it's frustrating. it was sad. but in her prayer she said "god, thanks for sending these ladies. they mean a lot. i know they don't think they do, but they mean a lot." she is so sweet. after that we had the ward halloween party! it was so much fun. we swtiched name tags with the Elders, that was our costume. everyone got a kick out of that. there were lots of cross dressing jokes made haha. i also wore yellow orange and white so i looked like a candy corn! One couple came and their son was dressed as a pirate. it was so cute. We also met this new member of our ward who served a mission in Portugal and speaks portuguese so now hopefully one of our investigators can have another friend in the ward! we trunk-or-treated and got SO much candy...way more than the elders! haha :) there were lots of non members at the party too so it was an awesome activity. Sunday was such a great day!! a ward member picked up our guy investigator and for the first time he actually came to church! we were sooo excited!! He was wearing a shirt that said "cool story babe, now go make me a sandwich." i about died laughing when I saw him wearing that to church. he told us he was going to wear a suit! lol you just never know what to expect on the mission. it was the primary program so it was so awesome. i loved hearing the primary kids sing the primary songs. they are so beautiful and simple but show the true simplicity of the gospel! I love sundays on my mission because I don't feel so far from home!! any news on the visa? i think if i don't get it before the transfer, I'll stay in here and my comp will be transferred. we'll see though! I love it here so much and I would love to be here for the baptism. we'll see what happens. Well i love you guys so much and thanks for the mail and everything this week! love, Sister Pehrson

October 21, 2013

Thanks so much for your emails this week! They always make my day :) It was another awesome week here! On Tuesday morning we had zone training, which is where our zone leaders report what they learned at their meeting with the mission president. It was all about how we are a new zone and we are going to be different than the other zones. I've noticed a lot of times on my mission, especially in the beginning, where I have felt weird or uncomfortable because I know people are judging me or looking at me weird because of the dress I'm wearing and my name tag. We talked about how Christ was mocked and judged when He was on the earth, and that's just something we have to go through as part of our missions! It was really cool though because I realized that it doesn't matter what everyone else is thinking, as long as I am doing what Heavenly Father wants me to do! It was a good reminder to me to not worry what everyone else is thinking, but to be different, because that's what's going to make people want to talk to us! We also talked a lot about inviting people to be baptized in the first lesson and always bringing up baptism. I've learned that when you don't bring it up right away, it gets confusing when you do a baptismal invite later. But when the people you are teaching know that that's what you're going to invite them to do eventually, they don't get freaked out by it! I always thought it would be really scary inviting people to be baptized, but it's always the best part of the lesson and people are much more receptive if we do it right away. We had a lesson with L and D on Tuesday as well. D was only there for about 10 minutes so we just had a long talk with L and we brought up baptism but she said we'll talk about it later. I think the real reason we are there is to get her son back to church. After dinner we decided to go visit our investigator J who didn't come to church last Sunday. So apparently he went to his moms church cause he had to interpret her sermon, (he speaks french, swahili and english) so he ended up missing church. But he told us that he only had 2 more pages of the Book of Mormon left to read! We invited him to be baptized on November 9 and he said he would! it was very unexpected but it was really cool! On wednesday we did some service for M, who is trying to get everything packed up by this saturday for her big move...she is so overwhelmed and i feel so sorry for her, but I know that this move will be a really good thing to her. She got a phone call while we were there and she was like "Sorry I gotta go, my sweet mormon sisters are here helping me!" she's such a cute lady. We had dinner at one of our favorite ward members home that night. It's funny because we always do what we call "member invitations" where we share a thought and then challenge them to do something whether it's inviting a non member to something or reading the scriptures more, but I feel like the members are always feeling guilt tripped by us! they always tell us all the stuff they haven't been doing and how they know they need to be better and I think some of them just think we are perfect. If only they knew how many mistakes we make every day and how far from perfect we are!! it helps me to recognize what the members expect of me and helps me realized how i can do better! i'm realizing more and more how my mission is preparing me for the rest of my life. the habits i am developing will bless my life and my future families lives so much! it's awesome. So after dinner we had a meeting with the goose creek ward mission leader and we will be doing some work over in that area from now on. I think things are going to be a lot busier around here now! After the meeting we had a lesson with N. it was about temples, which was really intimidating seeing as it was our second actual lesson with her, but it went really well. the spirit was very strong and we got her really excited to go to the visitors center the next day. Their dog Nino jumped on my and started trying to eat my nametag and one of the little boys said "I told you, Nino loves eating Mormon's stuff!" hahaha I love that little family. On Thursday we had a class called launching leaders. One of the senior missionaries in our mission was one of the founders of franklin and covey and he does this leadership course with us and it's so awesome!! we watched this seminar and this speaker talked about these 2 salesman who went to south africa to sell shoes. the first one wrote home saying "this is a failure, no one here wears shoes." the 2nd salesman wrote home: "this is the most amazing opportunity!! no one here has shoes yet!" when you compare this to missionary work, you have to have a good attitude always. you have to believe that you will be a success because if you're negative, you'll discourage others and hinder the work. the speaker talked a lot about believing in your cause as well. I know I am guilty of looking or talking to a person and thinking "They're not going to accept this! " I am limiting my own potential and the potential of others!! So something I am really trying to work on is being more enthusiastic when we're out talking to people and being more confident as well! so the youth of our ward had a temple trip on thursday so we rode with one of the leaders to the temple. but before the temple, sister S and I grabbed some dinner at Mcdonalds and we were eating it at the church and this guy told us that his daughter was like "missionaries can eat fast food??" lol. it's so funny because before my mission, I was the exact same way. I never pictured missionaries going out and shopping at Walmart and doing all the stuff normal people do, so now when I do all that stuff I just laugh to myself because it feels so weird doing it as a missionary! so the visitors center with N was SO AWESOME!! There's this really cool art exhibit up which you can actually read about in the church news on lds.org, a woman from our Stake here did all the art work there and it's all about the life of Christ as a child. and what the artist calls the "in between moments" like Joseph looking at Mary right after he found out she was the mother of Christ. N absolutley loved that because her mom is an artist and she really enjoys art as well. It was so beautiful... It's hard to describe how amazing these paintings were, but I loved them so much and it was awesome looking at them with N and talking to her more about Christ. Then we watched a movie about eternal families which she really liked. she's really close to her family and I think she is starting to recognize how the gospel can help her be with them forever. Then we watched a book of mormon movie. I felt the spirit so strongly as we went through and taught her more about the gospel. The more i share the gospel, the more I love it. It is a perfect gospel! we are not, but the gospel is. Thursday was an interesting day! We had another lesson with L and D. L had just heard some bad news about a friend so literally the entire time we were there she had "wind beneath my wings" by Gladys Knight on repeat..apparently that's what she does when she's sad...haha i would be happy to never hear that song again!! but we saw her son while we were there and invited him to church on sunday. then we had our correlation at the ward mission leaders house! it was a good meeting and we are going to set up exchanges with some of the young women and relief society members! we had a lesson with A which was so awesome. I found out that I am apparently not going to get my visa until December because she chose November 30 for her baptism date. A bunch of her husband’s family is coming for thanksgiving so she wanted them all there! it's weird now because i'm actually worried that my visa will come!!! i want to be at her baptism really badly, but i know whatever happens is exactly what needs to happen! I am just so grateful that I have been able to see the gospel improve her life. I would be sad to miss her baptism, but really seeing that change that I have seen in her is enough for me! We talked more about the baptismal covenant. We have been sharing mosiah 18:8-9 with members this week and talking about the promises we make at baptism. When i was 8, I don’t think I fully realized those promises I was making. It's cool to read in Mosiah and see what those promises are and kind of do a check on how well we are living those promises!! On Saturday we were heading to the library and we saw 2 of our investigators on the street holding "free hugs" signs. they saw us and called us and told us to come back , but we just said we were too busy because we didn't want to explain how we can only hug girls ha ha. so then we were driving to our appointment with J (which we rescheduled like 80 times this week!!) and we saw him walking down the road so we called and rescheduled AGAIN for later that night. we talked to him about church attendance since he hasn't been coming to church. so we started reading Moroni 6 with him and we had him start reading, and he couldn't actually read which confused us since he told us on Tuesday he only had 2 pages of the book of mormon left to read. So we are hoping he's just one of those people who can't read out loud because we really don't think he'd flat out lie to us. We are going to get him a book of mormon in french though because he said that would be better for him. Sunday was a really great day! we had set up a ride for J but he didn't show up to church. A was at church like she always is! :) We got to teach relief society yesterday since it was on missionary work. it was really awesome! we used Elder Ballards challenge to reach out to one person between now and christmas. I talked about when a friend had the lessons at our hourse and it made me realize waht an impact that had on me! I'm sure back then you guys probably didn't think it affected me very much, but I'm so grateful I was able to see that change in him, it was a really cool experience! I want my future family to have experiences like this as well! We had dinner at the ward members home who is neighbors with melanie, and she had invited M and her husband to dinner with us all. it was a really cool experience. we shared a spiritual thought with them about the atonement. I had read Alma 7:11-13 earlier that day and I had noticed something different. it says in verse 13 that the Spirit knows all things, but Christ chose to atone for us and our sins so he would know exactly how to understand us and help us. it's amazing how much the knowledge that someone truly, 100 percent understands you and can help you can truly change your life! This next week we are going to really try and focus on finding new people to teach. We need to get out and do more tracting because we haven't done as much as we should have been doing these last few weeks, so look forward to some good door-knocking stories next week! :) one of the sisters in the ward gave me a bunch of sweaters yesterday, and a coat, so don't worry about sending warm stuff! I am just going to return all that to her whenever i get my visa or leave this area. Things here are going so great and I'm excited for how these next 3 weeks of the transfer will go! time is flying...I love you all so much and am so grateful to have you in my life! I don't know if I could do this without your support. Keep us in your prayers, Love you so much!! love, Sister Pehrson

October 15, 2013

These are pictures of the Washington DC Temple, Sister Pehrson and her companion at the Temple, a "Snake" she mentions in this blog and groundhogs that she finds very cute. I didn't realize that people actually celebrated the columbus day holiday, but everyone was off work and school yesterday so welcome to the east coast I guess! This week has been SO INCREDIBLE! I am so excited to tell you all about it. On Monday night after P day ended, we headed over to an investigator's house. She lives in government housing and had a big inspection so she needed help changing her shower curtain and her curtains in her living room. Her house is not fun to be in..she opened the dishwasher and tons of bugs started crawling out. Then my companion got to change the shower curtain which hadn't been changed in four years. Then my companion changed the curtains in the living room and the whole time she did that all these bugs were flying out of them! I just talked to the investigator while my companion did that. hahaha I am a very supportive companion ;) We tried to teach her a little but she was very busy so we set up a time to come back later in the week. After that, we headed to go track down our investigator. He is from the Congo and is VERY hard to get in contact with. We were able to talk to him and he told us he's been reading the Book of Mormon almost daily and comparing it to the bible and he says "wow, they're so similar!" and we're like "yeah, we know!!" so he told us he wanted to meet later in the week and that he wanted to come to church. It's so funny because whenever we meet with him, we try to shake his hand at the end, but he always hugs us! And we just kind of stand there super awkwardly with our hands by our sides and wait til the hug is over haha. On Tuesday we woke up to finding these 2 giant centipede looking bugs in our apartment!! They were disgusting, but I guess that's just a taste of what I'll have in Brasil! We had zone and district meetings and we are in a new zone and district. Our new district is much smaller, there are only 3 companionships. It's a really fun district thought. We talked a lot about finding new people to teach because we haven't been very good about that lately, so we needed to focus on that. We had dinner with our Bishop on tuesday and his son just got reassigned to Knoxville, Tennessee while he waits for his visa! Their 6 year old daughter, prayed for us to get our visas. it was really cute. Wednesday was so awesome! The mission is putting us through the addiction recovery classes so we can help our investigators with addictions, so we had that wednesday morning. it was really cool because i think it relates to so much more than addiction. We talked about humility and forgiveness which are 2 things I am not very good at. After the meeting we had an appointment with one of the less active members of our ward. it's been really hard planning for her lessons lately because she already recognized that she needs to come to church, she just won't come. so we taught her about faith and how it leads to action and we strongly challenged her to come to church. It went so well and she said she would see if one of the members would get her a ride. I felt really confident during that lesson and the spirit was very strong! After that we had a lesson with another investigator. we invited a ward member to come with us so we got there and waited...and waited...and waited.. so we called and rescheduled with him. it was a bummer because I know the ward member was super excited to teach with us but it didn't work out. After that we headed to the a ward family and they made Brasillian food...it was so delicious! The brasillain dessert was the best though...We had a lesson after and it went really well. Our investigaro said she wants to see a baptism before she gets baptized, so we are going to try to get that set up soon. She said she knows she is super close but we weren't able to pick a day with her so we were kind of bummed about that. After that we went to see another investigator. It is really hard to teach her because there is never enough focus to actually teach her anything. So we realized we needed to try a new way of teaching her, like maybe at a members house or something. Thursday was my 3 month-iversary as a missionary!!! It was fun thinking back on my first day in the MTC and how much has changed since then and how different the mission is than what I expected! It's so much better... these have been the hardest 3 months of my life, but I've never felt more happy with where I am in life. We did a district fast on Thursday to find new investigators. It was pouring down rain all morning, but cleared up a bit so we decided to walk to our appointment...we did a little door knocking before the appointment, which is way better when it's raining because people have more sympathy on you !! But no one really was receptive. So we go to our appointment and at first the lady told us we could only have a short lesson because her caretaker was leaving soon. So we just talked to them for awhile and in the middle of our conversation, a guy came in. and It turns out he was baptized a few years ago but had some bad experiences with members in the ward he was in. So he is not active. He's never been to our ward and said he would try it out! the ladies didn't seem phased, they just told him to try our ward so that was really nice! As soon as we started walking home from that appointment, it started DUMPING rain...we had to hurry home and completely change EVERYTHING because we were so soaked. I wonder what it'll be like in Brasil haha. I doubt I'll have a dryer in my apartment for when that happens!!! After that we went to our lesson which ended up him being on the phone while we sat their awkwardly for like 30 minutes until he told us he needed to reschedule. We went to mutual with our investigator that night and it went amazing!! the young women leaders in this ward are so incredible and i know they're making a big impact on her. this week the activity is a temple trip, so we get to take her to the visitors center! I'm sooo excited!! Friday was another really great day. During my studies I found this really beautiful scripture in D&andC 88:41-46 or 47. It's all about the creation and i think you guys will like it. We had weekly planning. We talked about how much things have improved. Then we had a guy cancelled our appointment with him again. and then we ran around trying to visit people with no luck. We had a couple answer their door and we had a good visit with them about missionary work until things got awkward because they started having this big argument in front of us and neither of them would drop it. so we're just sitting on the couch, not sure what to do...moral of the story: don't get in an argument with your husband or wife when the missionaries are there. it's uncomfortable for everyone... On Saturday we walked out of the house to find a giant SNAKE on our porch!!! it was a fake snake, a little gift from the elders. Yes, I did have a minor heart attack. Sadly, I think there is a possibility of a real snake outside my door in brasil..haha. We had lunch at a members home who served her mission in England! It was cool to talk to her about how her mission has helped her. After that we had an appointment. she was super sick so we couldn't stay for long. She is a really hard one to get focused lessons with, so if you have any advice on that, let me know! We had dinner at a ward family. Everyone in the ward is afraid of the man, but I can talk to him really well and he just cracks me up. He calls his laptop his mistress..he's just crazy. We had a really good dinner with them and he gave us some names to take to the temple, which we did yesterday! My Companion got a migraine so we spend the rest of the night at home so that was kind of a bummer. Sunday was seriously one of the best days of my mission so far. On saturday night as we were falling asleep, and an invetigator called us and told us he wanted to come to church so we got his ride all figured out sunday morning. After ward council, we talked to the member who was going to pick him up, but apparently he said that someone else from a different church had picked him up? I don't know but we were super bummed out!! right before sacrament meeting started, the young women president came over and asked us to teach all the young women. Since se had an investigator, she said we could just teach her one of the lessons if we wanted. We decided to teach the restoration to the young women. I was very nervous...teaching is something i am still learning and I just get so nervous before I teach! especially since I was teaching the young women. I'm still learning so much about the gospel that i often feel inadequate, but i wanted this lesson to be so spiritual and for our investigator She is really starting to learn the doctrines. the lesson went great and the girls all participated, but the best part was teaching about Joseph Smith and the first vision. As I told her about Joseph Smith seeking the truth and then seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, she was mesmerized. As I taught her, the spirit reminded me of my own testimony of this event, and i was reminded what a miracle it was and how that event changed my life as well as my whole families' lives! Nicole told us she really relates to Joseph Smith and she wants to know if this church is true,. It is so humbling being able to teach someone as young as she is who is seeking to know the truth. teaching the young women reminded me of how much i've grown since that time and it was one of the most spiritual experiences i've had on my mission so far. After church we had a meeting with all the presidencies and the bishopric where we go over the ward list and they find people for us to go visit. they decided i need to teach a class on how to communicate with one of the ward members because everyone else is scared to talk to him haha. We had dinner with a family in the ward who have an autistic son. i admire them so much! they are very young, but are some of the most patient people i have ever met. Sunday night we had a lesson with an investigator. I wasn't sure how it would go because we wanted to do a question and answer type lesson with her so we could figure out what else she needs to know. You can see how i would be nervous, seeing as i have a very limited knowledge of portuguese and the gospel!! We also had planned on selecting a date for baptism. I expected that to be like pulling teeth. but after a little talking she piped up and said "I want to be baptized on december 24, on our one year anniversary, but i realized you might not be there and I want you both at my baptism." We told her how transfers are November 14 so this week she is choosing either November 2 or 9!!! I AM SO EXCITED!! Her baptism is really happening! We spent the rest of the lesson making plans for the program and everything. I was prompted to share with her about my own baptism. I remember how happy i was that day and I remember feeling better than I've ever felt before. It made me realized how all these events in my life that seemed small have led me to where I am today and have led me to help others improve their lives and gain testimonies. It's so incredible to see what grwoth she is experiencing and I am so humbled to be a part of this work. Our investigator said that I am like her angel, but she is really mine because she's helping me recognize what really matters and why I am here in VA. Yesterday was another really amazing day! we got up at 5:15 so we could go to the temple! WOW the DC temple is probably the most beautiful one i've ever been in or to! i had such a great time being there and it brought so much peace that i really needed. later that day we had to drive the elders in our district to go shopping because none of them have a car, so we had 4 elders crammed in our backseat and i've never been in a more crazy car. They help us to laugh and to have fun with this work so it's a real blessing to be around them sometimes!! we got a call from this other wards ward mission leader who told us he wants to work with us because they don't have sisters in their ward, so i think the work here is going to really pick up a lot in these next few weeks! it's been so cool to see how much this area has grown and changed since we first arrived. I am falling in love with VA and everyone here. I've had a lot of times this week where i've felt like this really is MY mission, not just my reassignment. I miss you guys so much but i'm having the time of my life out here. I love you all so much and hope your week is amazing!!!eu amo voces!! love, Sister Pehrson