April 21, 2014

Happy belated Easter! I hope your holiday was amazing...even though I didn't get to do one of our famous egg hunts I still had a amazing day and a wonderful week! Monday was a roller coaster for sure! We had a great preparation day! We went thrift shopping and then stopped at this flag store so Sister Martindale could look for a DC flag. The owner was so cool! His name is John and he was in the military. He lived in Zimbabwe, Germany, Japan...pretty much everywhere! When he lived in Zimbabwe he knew he missionaries very well and so he says he has a soft spot for Mormons :) he asked all about our missions and when he found out sister Egbert and I are going to Brasil he gave us these really cute pins. He is a awesome guy and we'll definitely go see him again! After dinner we visited a few people and we were just striking out. So we decided to see this lady who I haven't met yet. She and her family are from Iraq. We walked up to the house and one of the sisters came out and told us there was someone from another church there bit that we could still come in. We went up to the door and this woman was standing there and she asked what church we were from and how often we visit this family and all this stuff. She finally let us in and was like "well this is my husband pastor tony. Pastor tony was quite the peacher....he was incredibly defensive and kept asking is why we were there. We explained how we had met this lady and we just visit people to help them out in any way we can. Pastor tony then started interrogating us about our beliefs and called us blasphemers, anti-Christs, and a cult. We were really nice but we got out of there ASAP!! Two of the sisters followed us out and apologized and told us they would call us another time. It was definitely one of the most intense moments of my mission though! The night ended well because we met a lady who grew up in Turkey as a Muslim and is now learning about all religions so she can choose for herself what she wants to follow! She asked us to bring her a bible and we left her with a Book of Mormon! Tuesday was great! We had zone and district meetings which were both awesome. In zone meeting we talked about how NOW is the time for members and missionaries to work together and how we need to do all we can to make that happen. We talked about what a remarkable time this is and that people will look back on this time in awe! Then in district meeting we talked about Christ's last days on earth and then practice teaching about the atonement. It was really cool and powerful! After the meeting and lunch we met with Valerie to practice our Portuguese. We then Studied and did FB. After eating we tracted and it started SNOWING :( it was awful but a miracle did happen! So some ward members told us about their friends who used to live next door but then moved next to another ward member! They wanted us to just tract into them And see what happens. We did and at first the dad wasn't too interested but the kids all wanted us to come back so they agreed to let us come next Friday! It was so awesome! Then we were checking on another investigator and her neighbor had all these weird noises coming out of her apartment so naturally we were like "we should knock on her door!" Haha we did and this awesome lady named Pat answered the door and invited us back to teach her on Thursday! Wednesday was great and full of awkward moments as usual :) we went to check on this family and their daughters friend lives with them and she was having a study date with this guy but she invited us in and we talked with them for awhile. Super nice people, but it was just really an awkward visit! It made me a little scared for after my mission because I'm like super socially awkward around people my own age now hahaha. Oh well! After that we went to take a Korean Book of Mormon to this guy but his wife answered and wouldn't take it! That night we had dinner with some of my favorite ward members. They have 4 kids and they are just such a blast to be with! That nigh we had a member lesson with the ward members from Brasil. It was a ton of fun! Thursday was so great! We decided to eat lunch at Chick fil A and there was an adorable older lady working there. She told sister Martindale that she looks like a girl she was friends with in high school and then we got on the subject of family history. We had this awesome talk with her and exchanged contact info and she's super interested in doing family history now! After lunch we had our lesson. THe person went on a tangent about organized religion and was getting so mad at us for nothing! My first reaction was to be really offended and upset, but as the lesson went on my view changed. She is doing the best she can with what she has and she is trying to do good in the world! She just doesn't have all the answers yet so I can't get mad at her. It was a cool experience to see her in that way and it made me love her more! We then invited some of our friends who don't attend much, to church on Sunday. That night everyone was really busy and not home but we ended up getting to visit our new ward mission leader and his family. It was really awesome and they are great people! Friday after weekly planning we did some tracting and met an older lady named Diane who is a huge Romney fan! She loves our church and respects it a lot so that was cool. We left her with a Book of Mormon and she said she'd read it! After dinner we had a lesson with some members a and then checked on some of the people we are trying to teach. As we were walking to the car I saw a guy loading stuff into his car and I had this really strong feeling to talk to him. I have been setting so many goals lately to be bolder and to talk to everyone. But I was scared! I just prayed and started walking over and talking to him. His name is Pablo and he's such a sweet guy and was really excited about the Book of Mormon! He invited us to come teach him more next week!it was really great to have that experience and to see that if I trust in The Lord and follow promptings, he'll take care of everything! Saturday was soooooo great! We had been trying to contact Luis ALL WEEK with no luck! We tried him Saturday and he didn't answer the door. We checked on some other people in his neighborhood and were about to leave when we decided to check on one more lady near him. We were waking to her door and heard someone honking and looked over and saw Luis waving at us! We ran over and he told us what a busy week he's had at work but that he'd be there at church on Sunday! It was such a miracle because If we would have left, we never would have seen Luis!! God is so good! After that we went to check on someone else and on our way we saw these people talking on the street so we pulled over to talk to them. The couple was super nice but this woman that was with them was super rude to us and basically told us to get lost. It was discouraging but we kept tracting! We met a really sweet old lady and made her cry by sharing a scripture. After that we checked on brother Harris. He was raised in the church but doesn't really go anymore. Last time we visited him he was kind of uncomfortable. But this time he was so excited to see us! he's so sweet! He said he'd try to come to church the next day. After dinner we dropped a little Easter basket off for one of our ward members and then spent the rest of the night with the Stoupas. They are wonderful!! The daughters are so cute and just so...real. They are not ashamed of who they are and they are not apologetic about who they are! I love them! Maddie had a ton of questions about the plan of salvation and it was a really powerful lesson. Luis told us he'd be at church at 8:30 so we got there early to greet him. We waited and waited and waited and he didn't show. The Clark's came which was great but we were still bummed Luis wasn't there. Then during sacrament the elders texted us and told us he was sitting in the back!! It was the greatest feeling in the world to see him there in the back! Luis loved every part of church! Sunday school was a little different and cool because we did a Seder dinner. It was pretty cool! The elders told us Luis participated a lot in priesthood and seemed to love it! It was such an answer to prayer to have him there and it was the perfect Easter present! (Not that I didn't love yours mom!! :) ) after church we studied and then had dinner with some awesome members. We then took an Easter treat to the Clark's. I just love them!! After seeing them we did some tracting. That's either the worst or best thing to do on a holiday. Yesterday it was wonderful! Everyone was super nice and we gave quite a few people some book of Mormons. We dropped an Easter treat off for another family to finish the night off. I thought Easter would be kind of sad to be away from home, but it was amazing. Obviously I missed you guys, but feeling the joy of having Luis at church and talking to people about the gospel all day was seriously the best! I hope you guys have an awesome week! You are all the best and I love having such amazing people to write home to every week! Love you!!! Sister Pehrson

April 14, 2014

Family!!! This was such an amazing week!! It made me so so thankful to be serving here and to be a missionary! I love this work SO MUCH!!! so Monday was super hectic since we did the cherry blossoms,but it was super worth it! that evening we had dinner with our relief society president! she's such an amazing person. so I don't remember if I told you guys but we set up a member lesson with the woman in our ward. so that was coming up on Thursday and we asked our Relief society president if she had any advice for us or anything. she told us how awesome the lady really is and told us not to worry. I admire the relief society president so much!! she truly doesn't judge anyone and I think that is incredible. After dinner we had a lesson with a girl named Sloane. she's a senior this year and is friends with one of our ward members. Sloane went up to her and started asking her about the church and said that she had found the book of Mormon on her kindle, downloaded it and was now in Alma!!! how cool is that?! she is such a cool girl. she's a military kid so she's moved around pretty much everywhere and has met several church members through her life. her family is baptist, but she is loving the book of Mormon and wants to know more about our church. after that lesson we had correlation with the Bishop which went great! starting on Monday of this week I just had these feelings of things I want to change but I'm not sure how and since I knew my "halfway" point was approaching I was just wondering if I have really made that much progress or not and I was feeling a little bit down! Satan was definitely working on me, but Tuesday really helped me out with those feelings! We had zone training Tuesday morning and it was so amazing! we talked about the story of Abraham and Isaac. Elder Bednar talked about this in his conference talk so it was something I was wanting to study. we talked about how much of a sacrifice it was for Abraham to do what he did. we talked about true sacrifice and what the results are. I thought about my mission so far and how it's been so amazing, but that I can do so much better and be more than just mediocre. I've been having a lot of feelings of "what if I didn't do enough in my last area?" and "what if i could have been a better companion?" But I know that Heavenly Father needed me to have those experiences. He doesn't want me to regret any of the time I've spent and He accepts my efforts, as imperfect as they are! I've been really praying for His help to deal with feelings of inadequacy or failure and it's been helping a lot! But zone training really taught me a lot about what I still need to sacrifice. it's interesting because right now is a point in my mission where I can really fell myself changing. I have such a strong desire to become better every day and to make the most out of the next 9 months, and I'm excited to see all the adventures they hold! But the most exciting thing happened at zone training! Sister Kramer, who served in Leesburg after me, told me that Joshua was going to be baptized on Saturday!!! I'm not sure if you guys remember him but he was the hilarious African who wore the "cool story babe. now make me a sandwich" shirt! But i guess he started going to the singles ward over there and decided to get baptized!! It was so exciting!! after training we ate and then met with Valerie. We had a good visit and then we went on exchanges. me and sister martindale stayed in our area with sister kramer and sister egbert left. Sister kramer is so incredible!! she's so full of the spirit and is so loving and fun to work with. she is exactly who I needed to go on exchange with. we started off the exchange by reading an email sent to us by president that he sent to his son serving in Texas right now. it was all about practice and specifically practice teaching and truly being prepared each day. we realized that although we've been doing the practice teaching, it's been pretty meaningless and we've really just been doing it to fill time. So sister kraemer said she'd help us with that the next day. after that we ate and then went to see a less actrive family. Sister "M" was baptized when she was in her 40s with her kids were baptized. later on brother M got baptized but they haven't been to church in a long time. this was only my second time meeting with them and it was seriously one of the most spiritual lessons on my mission so far!! we talked about grace and about the temple. but we were talking about the temple and sister M told us that their son was in the first group of LDS people to get to go to the Kirtland temple and he got to pass the sacrament there! sister m also went and she cried as she told us how strong the spirit was when they sang the spirit of god. she said that she went to church 2 weeks ago with her grandkids and they sang the spirit of god and she just cried the whole time! she said she promised herself she would go back to church after conference and so we talked about how we could help her do that. we talked about the sacrament and how important it is because it allows us to get that extra strength from God to improve each week! after we said that, Brother M was like "we need to take the sacrament!!!" he told us that we need to be at their house at 8 30 on Sunday morning so that they really will go! oh my goodness it was the most exciting thing ever!!!! I was so scared that sister kramer had brought up the temple but it was exactly what they needed to hear. after the lesson in the car we talked about being bold in our inviting and how bringing up uncomfortable stuff is so important!! the rest of the night we mainly tracted with not much success but it was such a great day! at the end of the night I told sister Kramer how I'd been feeling about my last area and the time i spent there and she told me she has felt the same way about some of her past areas but that I just need to remember that i did impact peoples lives there and that all I can do is focus on now and becoming better every day! it was something I really needed to hear and I'm so grateful Heavenly Father sent Sister Kramer to tell me that!! Wednesday was another amazing day!! during comp study that morning we tried out some new ways of practice teaching and it went so much better than it had in the past. it's funny because i felt like we were doing so well just because I came from an area where practice teaching rarely happened! but I realized that we really weren't meeting our full potential here. just because this area is a million times better than my last, doesn't mean it can't be a million times better than it is now!! we then talked about all we learned on the exchange and set some goals on how to improve. mine were: 1. truly focus on right now and savor it! 2. Make things happen. Don't wait & don't hesitate! 3. Do the uncomfortable things. ALWAYS! I don't know if you guys read my blog or not but Sister Kramer is the one who told me about the talk "always in the middle". i read that on Wednesday morning and that talk encouraged me so much! I feel like I have all these changes I've been wanting to make but I felt a little stuck and overwhelmed. Now I see that I have 9 amazing months ahead of me to make whatever changes I need to want to make! And I still have years of progression after the mission as well!! it was so funny, as I shared some of these thoughts with sister martindale and sister kraemer i got all emotional, but it was like happy emotional! I was crying and I was like "I just love eternal progression!!'" then we all just busted up laughing! gotta love those hormones..haha. anyways after that we exchanged back and shared our thoughts and ideas with sister egbert. we then had FB and language study. then we did a whole bunch of tracting. we were walking up to this door with kind of a long driveway and then the UPS guy showed up and we were walking to the door the same time as him. it was like an awkward stand off and we were all just cracking up! after that we ate and then went and saw sister C. she had all of her Easter decorations up and there is a sign by her door that says peep, but it's written in cursive so it looks like poop. she was like "if you're wondering,the sign says peep, not poop!!" she's such a hoot! she had us blow up her inflatable bunny decorations, we talked about conference, and then we left. we stopped by the woman who let us use her bathroom last week, and we brought her family some cookies. they were so excited to see us, it was so cute!! after that we decided to check on this address from a sticky note i found in my bag. that person wasn't home but we knocked around them and met a girl from somewhere in Africa. she was excited to hear about the book of Mormon and said she'd let us know when we can come back over. it was cool to see why we were needed over there!! after that we had a member lesson with a younger couple in our ward. they are so awesome and it was one of the most spiritual member lessons I've ever had! we taught the plan of salvation and they committed to study in preach my gospel about that and let us know if anyone's name comes to their mind that we could teach. Thursday was so great! after studies and facebook we went and saw an investigator, Valerie. after that visit we knocked doors. it was the most beautiful day ever so tracting was really fun! Unfortunately no one we met was interested, but everyone was really kind so that was good. after that we checked on a ward member how was baptized about a year ago. she's from somewhere in Asia and she invited us to come over for tea some other day. after that we ate dinner and then went to check on some former investigators we had dinner with a couple weeks ago where we met that brasillian family. we decided to check on some of their neighbors we met last week and it turns out they were all outside on the porch of one of the neighbors houses. as we walked up we hear someone yell "IT'S THE THREE SISTERS!!!"it was Anna, the little brasillian girl! It was so cute. i guess she keeps asking her mom when we are going to come back. we talked to everyone for a while, mainly about our missions. Christine said she'll call us and have us for dinner soon. after that we went and checked on some other investigators. when we left their house we had about 20 minutes before we had a member lesson. sister martindale needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped by Safeway. we were looking for it and we passed these 3 guys using a coinstar and one of them looked at us and was like "dang, ya'll are pretty!!" Sister Martindale and I kept walking but sister egbert stopped and started talking to them. they gave us their address and told us to come over. one was like "we got a pool! ya'll can come swimmin with us! I won't let none of mah friends mess with you." they were sooo creepy! haha then one of them was like "my mom was a Jehovah's Witness once." they were a little intoxicated...then when we left they again told us to come over and see them and one guy was like "I'm not telling ya'll to come over just cause I'm single at Safeway or whateva. i really want to see you guys!" they were all in their 40s too which made it so much creepier! we decided we're going to give that address to the elders to check on haha!:) on Friday morning, the missionaries in Russia called us and asked if we could help teach Pedro again that afternoon. we called sister K, who is from brasil, and asked if we could do it at her house. sadly once we got to the house, the missionaries called and told us pedro had rescheduled at what would be 6 AM our time the next day. we were going to say no, but sister K said she'd help us teach him at that time and we could use her wifi! they called again and said it would be more like 7 30 so we decided to do it at the church since we had a meeting/breakfast there at 8. sister k fed us lunch and we had an amazing talk about missionary work and how it really is hastening. sister k is so excited about missionary work and she's always talking to her friends and family about the gospel, it's so amazing! she was like "i don't care if it's 3 A.M. if someone needs to hear the gospel, I'll teach them! I can't sleep if I know someone's missing out on hearing this." it made me think about if I feel that way and if I really have that anxiety for others to hear the gospel! after lunch we finished weekly planning and then did FB. then we had our interviews with President! I just love that man! He is so passionate, humble, and full of love. he talked about how important our studies and and how we need to be preparing to teach every day through our studies. i do study every day, but I know i can always make them more meaningful! He shared a quote by Joseph Smith, "A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation." Then he invited me to think about what I will sacrifice this transfer in order to produce the faith necessary to reach everyone the Lord has in store for me to reach. it's something I need to pray and ponder about so I know I am truly sacrificing. it was an amazing interview and made me so thankful to be in this mission! he also told me about this visa waiter whose been in the mission for a year and he got his visa on April fools day! president called him and it took him 5 minutes to convince him that he seriously got his visa. SO FUNNY! after that we headed straight to our lesson with Luis!!! we had a member come with us and it was such an amazing lesson. we taught the plan of salvation. he didn't get a chance to read the book of Mormon this week because he's been so busy with work. he said he's been asking everyone at work what they know about Mormons haha! our lesson with him was so intense though. the spirit was so strong! I've set a goal to be more bold and confident in my teaching so I invited Luis to be baptized in a pretty bold way! We invited him to be baptized on May 10th. he was pretty darn shocked! He was like "you don't sound like my teacher anymore! you sound like my superior now!" we all told him that he needs to know for himself if he should be baptized that day or not. i think he was excited but just really surprised! when we left he shook everyones hand but when he got to me he saluted me. hahah love that guy so much! after that we were supposed to have another lesson but the guy wasn't there. we stopped by a members to use their bathroom and they gave us some Georgetown cupcakes. it was glorious! Saturday was so amazing!! we woke up at 5 45 so we could work out and get ready in time for the lesson with Pedro at the church and then our breakfast and meeting. so we waited and waited and waited..and Pedro didn't show. i guess it's good to know that the same stuff that happens here happens in Russia too! anyways we ate and then the area 70 spoke to us! he talked about working with members and how we need to be really patient with them. he said "you have 18 months to serve, but you have eternity to reflect on it!" powerful!! after that we studied. it was a beautiful day so we studied out in the park and i got BURNT!! but it'll be a tan soon...i hope :) after that we met up with sister kramer and her comp so we could exchange and sister kramer and i could go to Joshua's baptism! it was amazing! Joshua was so surprised to see me! he was like "how was brazil!!" i told him I hadn't been yet. we asked him how he was feeling and he was like "I'm good! I like this jumpsuit. it's so comfy! I need to buy one!" hahah i love him! so one of the members in his ward plays for the redskins and is going to take Joshua shopping for a suit! the baptism was so amazing though. it was cook to see that tracting really works and that planted seeds do grow! even if they seem like they never will! after the baptism we exchanged back and checked on a referral who wasn't home. we knocked doors with no success. on our way back to the car we saw a ton of people around this car so we asked if we could help them out. the woman looked up and got super excited and we were like "shoot are we supposed to know her?!" haha but she explained that she's in the Oakton ward. so the lady, sister h, introdued us to her sons and their friends (who are our age and not active). she let us use her bathroom. she kept talking about her sons and how good It was for them to see us and when we were walking out she was like " go through the garage so they can see you again!" i think she wants us to flirt to convert...haha. after that we had quite a few unsuccessful visits but then we checked on that girl, Gelica who we met a few days before. we met her mom, Clarice. she's so sweet and has actually been taught by missionaries before!! they told us to come back in a few weeks and teach them so that was exciting! we were really bummed out though because we had a voicemail from the M's that night saying that brother M got sick and they couldn't come to church! :( but they promised to come in a few weeks when sister M gets back from a trip. Sunday was a great day! kind of disappointing at first because Luis and Sloane both didn't get to come to church :( we got a new ward mission leader so that is exciting! he's pretty young and is excited about the work so I'm really looking forward to how it'll change things in the area! after church we studied at the park for a bit but got way too hot! after dinner we did some tracting! we met some super amazing people! the first we met was Melanie. she's a kindergarten teacher and had 2 lds kids in her class a few years ago and their mom gave her a book about the history of the church and she is learning more about the church now. she was raised Jewish and the became christian at age 31. she and her husband are still looking for "the right church" for them. she feels like her friends can teach her what she needs to know but she was freaking out that we were girls!! she's only seen elders so she thinks it's amazing that girls do this too! we gave her our card and invited her to church and she was like "you don't have to be a member to go?! you can just come any time?" we were like "YES!!! anyone can come! please come!!" so they're probably gonna come next week!!! after that we met a super hilarious family from England. the son answered the door and he was about our age and is incredibly good looking! as soon as we heard his accent it seemed like we all lost our ability to speak and think clearly hahah. but he had a Mormon friend in high school but he never really told him much about the church. his name is rowan, and the family isn't religious but rowan accepted the book of Mormon and said he'd read it! his dad then came out and told us he's going to really make his son go to our church now. his dad was super hilarious but not too interested! we told them we'll stop back by and they seemed okay with it. the last really cool person was Mr. Murray. he is episcopalian but said their family doesn't go much. his daughters have LDS friends and he actually uses the churches family history website a lot! they told us we are welcome to come back and share more. it was a really successful tracting experience! we ended the night doorbell ditching a lady. we left her cookies and a note. she has cancer and we wanted it give her a little pick me up! this week was seriously so amazing! i can't believe my 9 months are up. it's gone fast for me, i don't know how it is for you guys though! probably torture ;) i love you all so much and hope you have a fabulous Easter! I'll be really missing dad's awesome Easter egg hunts! love you!! Love, Sister Pehrson

April 7, 2014

Hey fam!! sorry this is probably going to be pretty short...I'll try my best to get everything in though! the reason this is so late is cause we went to see the cherry blossoms today! it was not really fully bloomed but we got some really pretty pictures and there were a few gorgeous trees! anywho back to the rest of the week! so after emailing last week we went to a place called Neilson's frozen custard. it's owned by Mormon's so we got a discount! woot! then we went to a thrift store and just sat outside for awhile in the sun!! we had dinner that night with some members who have the craziest little daughter ever. she's so cute and so full of energy! she's probably the most enthusiastic little girl ever! it was fun eating with them. after that we stopped at an investigators house and ended up just setting up a time to come back. after that we knocked doors and met a world war two war veteran! he is 90 years old and was so cute!! Then we had correlation with the bishop which was awesome! Tuesday was another amazing day! we had district meeting and talked about working more with the members. we also talked about facebook and how to be more productive on there so I'm trying to come up with new ideas! If you guys have any ideas let me know! after the meeting lunch and studies we went and saw Valerie. that was an adventure as always! it's funny because she thinks we're not teaching her but she keeps asking us questions that lead us to talk about the gospel so she's really not helping her cause! but today she asked us what we thought about the role of women in society and so that was fun to talk about. after visiting Valerie we studied more, did facebook, and ate dinner. after dinner we visited a less active woman in our area. she lives with her 2 sons who are grown up and they are so interesting. After that we tracted and we met the nicest woman named lelani. sister martindale had to go to the bathroom really bad and lelani let us use her bathroom. she also let sister martindale play her piano and we just had an awesome talk with them. we didn't teach her and her family, but she invited us back for dinner which is pretty exciting! after that we went and checked on a former investigator who wasn't home. we kept knocking doors since it was like 8:30 and there was nothing else to do and surprisingly no one yelled at us and a couple people let us in! we had a ton of fun tracting and just made it a party! i love my comps! Wednesday was also great! after studies and facebook we ended up finding a new investigator! we thought we were checking on someone else but it was the wrong house. but it was obviously the right one because we met Tenne. she's from Sierra Leone and her husband used to investigate the church! she invited us back to give her a book of Mormon and teach her more! after that we went and saw sister koford. she is from brasil and helps us with our Portuguese once a week! she's so amazing! we were telling her about the Brasilian family we met last week and she told us to give them her contact info and she'll have them over for dinner and stuff !super exciting! we then did a whole ton of tracting! we were actually by an investigators home and a couple people we talked to said that our investigator had talked about us so that was pretty exciting!! after that both me and sister martindale needed to use the bathroom so we went to our investigators house. she wasn't home but her husband was and we kicked yet another man out of his house to use the bathroom! haha we are just on a roll lately! after that we felt like we needed to be somewhere else. on our way to the car we saw a girl who lives with one of our investigators. her name is Maddie. we ended up talking to her for like an hour and she invited us to a bunch of stuff, including the restaurant she works at and made plans for us to come see her there on Friday. Thursday was so full of miracles!! the first came in a text!! one of our YW told us about her friend who found the book of Mormon on her kindle and downloaded it and just started reading it! that day she asked the member if she could come to church with her!!! the second miracle was when the young women president called and told us a girl came to mutual last night who had been telling people at her school that she was going to be baptized Mormon and stuff so one of the young women asked her about it and she was like yeah i was meeting with the missionaries and I'm supposed to get baptized in Annandale but they stopped calling me. so i guess that a member in annandale was taking her to church but it was just too far away and she kinda fell under the radar. but we got her number and now we get to teach her so it's super exciting!!! that afternoon we talked with Valerie in Portuguese. she's an awesome lady!! after that we had dinner with the Brazilian family in our ward! the wife is helping me and sister Egbert sooo much!! after dinner we were checking on some people in a certain apartment complex and we all felt like we needed to go somewhere else. we prayed and decided to see the Stoupas. they are a really cute family of a mom, a 12 year old girl, and a 16 year old girl! the daughters are so interested and they are great friends with members so it's really fun to teach them! they said they would watch conference this weekend so that's exciting!! the other miracle that happened Thursday is that sister Egbert has a friend in Russia on his mission. he's a zone leader and he emailed sis E telling her that he has some sisters in his zone who are teaching a guy who speaks Portuguese and a little bit of English so he asked if we could do skype lessons to help the sisters over there teach him. we set up a lesson for Friday afternoon!! Friday we got to do the lesson on skype and it was soooo cool! Pedro is the mans name and he actually understood our Portuguese which was sooo exciting! i am so blessed to get to use so much Portuguese in my area right now! it was a real confidence booster knowing that he knew what we said and so we're going to be helping teaching him from here on out! after the lesson we had weekly planning which was awesome! then we went and ate at that restaurant where our friend Maddie works. she has so many questions and is a really awesome girl. after eating we went and had a lesson with Luis, the guy who was sooo excited about prophets! we took a member with us and Luis kept flirting with her and i guess she felt really uncomfortable but we thought it was pretty hilarious! but Luis is so hungry for the truth and so prepared! i am so grateful i get to teach him because the spirit is so strong when we have lessons with him! he's just SO prepared and he hangs on every word we say! it reminds me of why i came out on my mission! i love it! another cool thing happened at that lesson. so Luis rents out his basement to 2 girls from Rwanda. we met them and one of them was like what church are you from. we told her and she said she used to go there and she has read the book of Mormon! she moved here a while ago and has been too busy to go back but we gave her the address and invited her to call us and come to church here! miracle!! conference was soooo amazing! poor sister Egbert got food poisoning and was sick all day...i felt so bad she is such a trooper! Conference was seriously exactly what I needed! i never realized just how powerful conference is until my mission! one of the biggest and strongest impressions I got is just that I need to be more bold. To truly forsake the world (which is not easy an a FB missionary!!) and to really not care what other think! I felt so much peace and happiness and confidence as I listened and I know that those feelings only last if I do what is right!! As i sat reflecting on this I realized how amazing my life really is. i am so blessed to be a missionary! i' so blessed to be here in Vienna! i sometimes forget to enjoy this season of my life, but this weekend I just savored it! And i realized I need to do that more often! After Thursday, I've only got 9 months left to change the world here in VA!! crazy right?! i also loved conference on Sunday. i wish i could give you all the insight i received but I'll send it next week since I'm running out of time! a cool thing happened Sunday evening! we were out tracting and we met a guy whose house had flooded so we got to help him move a bunch of stuff and he ended up giving us a ton of artwork because he didn't have room for it anymore! he was so grateful for our help and it's always fun to find those random times to serve! anywho sorry this email is THE WORST! I feel like such a bad missionary because I hardly had time to write you! know that I am doing so well! I haven't hit the 9 month mid life crisis (yet) so don't worry about that! But I know it's gonna be another amazing week! you guys are the best and I can't imagine life without you! love you tons!! love, Sister Pehrson

March 31, 2014

Family!! K this was seriously one of the best weeks of my mission EVER!! I looove my new area and my new comps and Heavenly Father has blessed us with so many miracles this week!! So Monday after emailing you guys we did our shopping and we went to this target somewhere and it was in this shopping area that had all this cool stuff to do like a life size chess game and random pianos everywhere for people to play. It was fun so we played around there for awhile! we came home and wrote some letters and I unpacked. that night we ate with some members and since we are teaching the members the doctrines of the lessons we taught them the plan of salvation. we were teaching about the 3 kingdoms of glory and we asked them "what do we need to do to get to the celestial kingdom?" they have 4 kids and the daughters were like "pray, read your scriptures go to church, etc." and then the little boy who is probably 4 or 5 said "die." hahahha! we were laughing so hard! so after that we visited an investigator named Spike who is this really cute old man! he wants to go to the temple visitors center but he didn't have much time to talk so we had a really quick lesson with him. Then we went and met a ward member that is in the military and doesn't get out to church much. he's a super nice guy and we had a great visit with him! on Tuesday we had district meeting and our mission is doing what they call an "AR competition". an AR is when you talk to someone (either tracting or street contacting) and you share a message that they can accept or reject based on what you tell them, not just based on you. I'm not sure if that definition makes sense but whoever gets the most wins something. its like march madness and so we start out going against our district and then we compete at the zone level and then it goes to the whole mission level. so we were pretty pumped about that! after our studies and lunch that day we went and I got to meet Valerie. She is a "spiritual healer" from Rwanda. She's lived in Brasil, Denmark, and Paris as well so she helps me and sister Egbert with our Portuguese. she is really intimidating sometimes but she's also really sweet. that night we did a little tracting and then we had an appointment with some former investigators.They had never met sisters before so they were excited to have us there. they told us they were having their neighbors over as well for dinner so we were excited! we were even more excited to discover that their neighbors are from BRASIL!!!!! it was just the mom Silvana and her daughter Anna that came but we had such a great time. We talked and Anna taught us some little Brazilian games and cheers that little kids do and her mom talked about how shes read almost the entire book of mormon. we got their FB info and were able to add them on facebook so we can set up another appt with them. so it was pretty cool that we were able to make such a personal connection with them! when we got home we looked at our area book and found out that the husband is a former investigator so we're excited to see what is going to happen there!! Wednesday was super fun! we got to visit a member of our ward who is in a nursing home. her name is Lucille and she's so adorable! she told us the same stories over and over and we loved every minute of it. after visiting with her we tracted around our dinner appointments home. we met a lady who let us in and gave us water and told us her cousins are mormon and served missions so she likes to do stuff to help us. she's a scientist and doesn't really believe in God but she believes in grace. we had a cool visit with her! We ate with this family in the ward who have 4 boys under the age of 11. It was a mad house but it was so much fun!! we taught them about the book of mormon and the littlest boy was like "i know whats in the book of mormon...good stuff!" then a few minutes later he's like "hey..i know what else is in the book of mormon...better stuff!" haha it was so cute! so after them we had ANOTHER dinner because the second dinner at another members house and they were inviting a friend. well the friend didn't get to come but we had a great time with those members! i literally almost burst that night though, i was so full! Thursday was another awesome day! after our studies we had another language study with a nice lady. she shared with us some of her beliefs. some of them are similar and some are not. she believes in reincarnation and shes afraid of snakes because one "killed her in her past life." she's such a sweetie though and we love to visit her! after that we went and tracted around our dinner appointments home. this guy answered the door and i guess our beauty made him a little tongue tied because he was like "wow! how can I do?!" he turned out to be atheist and not interested but it made us smile. we ate with some members and it was their sons birthday so that was super fun! while i was there i saw one of my friends from college's wedding announcement on the fridge...talk about a small mormon world! after dinner we went and had a lesson with Ellen. she has a 16 yr old named Maddie who i didn't meet and then a 12 year old named Morgan who i met. They are an amazing family! Morgan is such a cutie! she's afraid of EVERYTHING! like she said she wants to live in Utah because that has the least amount of natural disasters and she was talking about how she wants to travel the world but she said she's "going to bring a Brita filter and like 6 water bottles" because the water is bad everywhere else. she's a hoot! but it was cool because she has been reading the book of mormon and she asked us about prophets so we got to explain how conference is coming up and talk about what exactly a prophet is and all that. Both she and her mom wanted to come to the women's conference but Maddie had a color guard competition. I'm excited to teach them more. they have lots of mormon friends and so they are really prepared to hear the gospel! after that we went and taught the Martinez family. They have a son who has the chubbiest cheeks ever, he's so cute! but we also talked to them about prophets and conference and hope to get them to come to it this weekend! on Friday we had weekly planning and it was sooo awesome. we do companionship inventory and it's cool because I feel like everything my companions tell me is genuine. what we do is we tell each other what their strengths are and then ask each other how we can improve. It's awesome because even when we share things we need to work on! That night we spent most of our time tracting with not much success. The cool thing is that here even when people reject us they reject us so nicely! it's awesome and it makes tracting much more enjoyable!! we met a lady named Becca who has been taught before and we're going to go back and do service for her. after that we went and tried to see this lady who is in the ward. we live right by the metro and she lives across the road on the other side of the metro. we parked at our house and walked over to the other side. in the metro station there are a lot of street performers and just tons of people. (side note: we wrote a cool song this morning that we are going to go sing there to try and find new investigators) but we weren't able to get into their apartment since it's like fort. knox but we met a cool lady outside named Elaine. she has cerebral palsy and she talked to us for almost an hour. she wasn't interested at first but she really softened as we just sat and listened to her! Saturday was the day of miracles!!! i don't know if you guys saw the weather this weekend but it was MISERABLE!! it was dumping rain all day long! :( we went and were putting stuff in our car before we went on FB and there was a lady out there who we talked to and she was like "Man i picked the worst day to move in!" we offered to help and she was like "really? are you serious? its so wet! are you sure!?' we assured her we wanted to help and she just hugged us and said thank you! she hardly had any stuff so we got to job done fast. while we were helping she was like "are you guys mormon?" we said yes and she was like "I KNEW IT !I JUST KNEW IT!" it was awesome and she told us she's going to invite us to her "eat, pray, love" party lol. after that we did FB and then we tracted in the pouring rain. only sister martindale was smart enough to bring an umbrella but she tried to share. we were still all soaked. we tracted for about 2 hours and no one was home or they just weren't interested. we headed back to the car but we knocked on all the doors as we passed them by. the last door we knocked on this hispanic man opened the door and invited us in after we said who we are. his name is Luis . hes a medic in the army and when he was in Afghanistan his wife took the kids and left him. he has had a really rough past couple of years but God has helped him get through it. now he is in the reserves and works at a hospital as a nurse. he also spent some time in Utah for training so he said he saw all the temples and lds churches over there. he also is from El Salvador and saw the temple there so after he told us that he was like "okay so tell me about your church!" we taught the first lesson and we started talking about prophets. we told him we have a prophet on the earth today. he started freaking out and was like "what?! how come no one has told me? what's his name???" we told him it is Thomas S. Monson and we read Mosiah 8:16-18 with him and he goes "that's what i think a prophet is!! so what does your prophet say? what's he like?" we told him conference was this weekend and that he could watch it with us. he got so excited and was like "YES!! I have to know what this man says!! I have to see what he's like!!" then when we shared the first vision he said he had chills and that he wanted to read the book of mormon and wants us to come back!! it was the coolest experience EVER!!! i have never met anyone so excited to hear about a prophet! most of the time i just hope that they'll feel neutral about it! this guy is so golden and it's so much fun to meet him! after that we went to dinner with the woman Krista from Whidbey Island (side note: she may be moving back there soon..i'll keep ya posted) and her daughter Chelsea. we had an awesome visit with them and ate at the tastiest place ever! it's called the sweet water tavern...mmm! but after that we went to the women's conference! it was such a cool experience! it was amazing to think of all of us women gathered together and how powerful we are! me and my companions couldn't stop crying, i don't know why!! I'm grateful i got to go and hear all the amazing messages though! Sunday was another great day! we had an investigator show up to church unexpectedly which is always exciting! after church we had lunch with some members and then did our studies. we then went and did more tracting! Sundays weather was way worse than Saturday but this time we were prepared! we had coats on and boots. no one was interested, but as we were tracting in this cul de sac one of the ladies we tracted into earlier sent her son after us to give us cookies. it was super sweet! we then visited some members who haven't gotten out to church much lately. they are really sweet and we talked to them about conference so they're going to watch that! i am loving my area and companions so so much! it's awesome being with another Portuguese speaker and it's awesome serving with 2 sisters who have really similar personalities and senses of humor! we have such a blast and this area is being set on fire! i love you all so much and hope you have a great week! love, Sister Pehrson

March 24, 2014

Hey family!!! I am loving Vienna so far! It's so much fun to be serving here and there is a ton of potential in this area so it's super exciting! It's also just nice to have a change! I'm excited for what the next 6 weeks will bring! So Monday after emailing we had a huge lunch/dinner with Sister Thompson! We came home and were about to do some quick grocery shopping when a ward member called and asked if we were on our way there for dinner...our phone had opened the text on its own so we never got the message that they were feeding us!!! Needless to say after the second meal I have never been so full in my life!!! From there we went and had a really amazing lesson with La'vonne and Teya. We talked about the temple and then got on a little tangent about finding out who you are. It was actually really cool because La'vonne said a lot of things that I felt I really needed to hear. She said that the only way we can know and love ourself is by knowing God. It was a really awesome lesson! Tuesday we had District Meeting in the morning and we did a really cool exercise where the missionary who is acting like the investigator thinks of a question of the soul (how can I find peace? does God love me? etc..) and they don't tell the missionary who is teaching the lesson, because the one teaching has to figure it out through the conversation and asking questions. it was kind of hard but it really helped me focus on the needs of who I'm teaching. after the meeting we picked up a package for Sister Phelps and then came home. Her knee was really hurting so she elevated her leg while we cleaned the apartment and organized stuff. After dinner we were going to check on Sister Bryk and then the Abbas'. We ended up just seeing the Abbas' and we had a really wonderful visit! We were talking to them about Pakistan (where they're from) and what it is like and then Asra the daughter took her scarf and showed us how to wear the middle eastern way! it was really fun. We read Mosiah 2 with them and talked about the commandments and why it's important for us to obey. Sister Abbas talked to us about how much she loves reading the Book of Mormon because it makes her so much stronger. I really noticed that as I read that day too. The words are so simple, but powerful! Every time I read I learn new things and I feel the Spirit so strong! It's cool because I've been able to see the influence of the Book of Mormon through those I teach. Most recently I've seen it in Sister Thompson. She was doing good, but reading the Book of Mormon has just set her on fire! She's so excited for church and she comes to every activity possible. She is constantly sharing stuff on her Facebook and sharing the gospel with the people she comes in contact with. It's so much fun to watch the Book of Mormon completely transform people and their lives!! That night we got the transfer calls and I had a lot of mixed feelings! I was super excited..but nervous too! On Wednesday we studied and did FB and then did a ton of packing!! I have accumulated a lot of stuff apparently...haha. after dinner we headed to mutual and I got to say goodbye to a lot of the ward members. I was shocked at how hard Teya took the news that I was leaving. As I was visiting with some members I started talking to a woman from a different ward. It turns out her sister is waiting on her visa and is serving in Jackson Mississippi right now. This woman talked about the challenges it has given her sister. as she was talking I thought to myself.."I don't really feel that way." I realized how truly happy I am to be here in D.C. My life would not be the same without the incredible people I've met here. I have still been immersed in a new culture! Many new cultures in fact!! And I have the opportunity of being a Facebook/iPad missionary! The list goes on and on of how blessed I am to be in this mission! Of course I have days where I wish I could be in Brasil, but I don't wake up every morning miserable because I'm a "visa waiter". I love my mission!! I wake up overjoyed that I get to serve the Lord (even at 6 30 am...)!! How could I ever complain about being a missionary?! It's truly impossible when I really think about it! I'm grateful that Heavenly Father taught me that lesson through that woman. After mutual we went to the ward mission leaders for correlation. Brother Rosenberg asked me what I learned from serving here. I told him I learned how important and powerful love is and how it truly motivates and changes people. It makes everything I do a million times easier! I think before I was too focused on all my "tasks" and just did them to check them off the list. Now I realize that nothing I am doing is worthwhile if it's done without love! I'm so grateful for all the lessons I learned in Franconia. I'm grateful I stuck it out with my companions here. I've grown to love them so much!! Thursday was great but sooo exhausting!! We had to go to a dr. appt. for Sister Phelps' knee first thing in the morning, so we packed up the car and headed out right away! she got a knee brace and will be all healed in a few weeks! From there we went and I say Goodbye to Sister Everly. She let me choose a veil from her shop to take with me and made me promise to send pictures when I get married! She is so sweet and was definitely so hard to say goodbye to. After that we went to transfers!! I was sooo anxious!! This was only my second time leaving an area on the mission!! Imagine my surprise when President announced I will be serving with Sister Egbert!!!! We are in a trio with Sister Martindale!! I was sooo excited! I must admit it really was hard to leave my companions in Franconia. But I am loving Vienna! It's way less city than Alexandria!! our dinner that first night was with a family in the ward who the wife is from Brasil and the dad served there! They had their non member brasillian friend there and we taught her the first lesson in Portuguese! She thought we were just practicing our portuguese...but it was amazing because when she left she told the member how much she loved the lesson and how she wanted to invite us to her home!! Later that night she again told the member in a text that she really loves us and wants to meet with us again! MIRACLE!!! The members are helping Sister Egbert and I with the language so it's cool that I have that opportunity here! On Friday we did studies in the morning and it was so nice to have someone to do language study with!!! sister egbert and i practice taught sister martindale in portuguese, it was really fun! after lunch we did our weekly planning. This area has only been open for one trasnfer so we get to do lots of tracting!! after facebook we went to a members home. she is the sister coordinator which is basically like the girl ward mission leader. we challenged their family to write their testimony in a book of mormon and hand it out to someone! we then ate and visited a sister that recently lost 2 family members so she's going through a rough time. After that we went and had a lesson with Remi, Ermi, and Sheila. Ermi recently started coming back to church. Her husband (Remi) and daughter (sheila) are investigating the church now! we had a really awesome lesson with them about the restoration. from there we went and checked on a few potential investigators. one was Paul. He's moving to Colorado to be closer to his son and to try to get back together with his wife. he's a really awesome guy! Saturday was so awesome. we studied in the morning and then went to the ward mission leaders house so I could meet him. He’s a really nice guy. we had a good visit with him and then did some tracting!! It was such a beautiful day and we tracted this street that's in the historic district of Vienna so the homes were gorgeous!! everyone was so nice!!! most of them rejected us but they did it in a really nice way so that was good! One lady we talked to wasn't interested but she loves family history so we told her we'll have a fireside on that soon and she became super interested all of a sudden! we also talked to a man named Paul for the last hour before dinner. he is super cool! He's in his 50s and has been studying religion his whole life. he had tons of questions for us and agreed to read the book of mormon. his wife is jewish and he said she'd kill him if he told her he was going to convert! but we'll see what happens! :) After dinner we went and visited a woman named Krista ( i think..). shes from Whidbey Island!!! she works for national geographic and has a daughter named chelsea who has down syndrome. she is so cute and sweet! they were busy but they invited us to dinner next week and chelsea got so excited! it was so sweet! i'm super excited to work with them! we ended the night doing some tracting and we met a guy who had read the book of mormon but wasn't interested...not sure how that's possible but that's what he said! ;) sunday we studied for a bit and then went to church which starts at 9. the ward is really small but so great! it's very home-y. it's also a really young ward, but the nice thing is that the members are here to stay. It's not a very transient ward which is a huge change from Franconia. during sacrament the little girl in front of us was drawing pictures of us and then at the top she wrote "feed my lambs, missionary!". it was so cute! After church we came home and studied and then went out and tracted! no one was really interested but we had a lot of fun! after that we went to a members home. their teenage daughter had her friend Maddie over so we had dessert and a little lesson. Maddie is dating a mormon and is best friends with one AND her dad is an inactive member! she's really a cool girl! we talked about school and got to know her more and then talked about prophets and general conference and how we get our mission calls. I'm not sure how much we'll teach her, but I know Heavenly Father has placed great people in her life for a reason!! serving here is so much fun! My companions are great examples to me. I am learning so much and having such a blast!! my companion sister martindale reminds me SO much of Tasha and sister egbert reminds me of pay pay! so how could I not be having fun?! :) thanks for all your prayers and encouragement. Serving a mission is definitely hard, but i know it is exactly what heavenly father needed me to experience! ihave learned a lot about patience and love and how to accept things i cannot control. I can see now how much i learned in the last 2 areas and how much it has prepared me for being here! I love you all so much! I miss you and hope that you have wonderful weeks!! eu amo voces!! Sister Pehrson

March 17, 2014

Familia!! Once again Sister Thompson saved the day and gave us a ride here so we could email! We don't have wifi in the apartment, so we still come to the church to email. This week has been so awesome! Monday we got to go to Arlington Cemetery which was so amazing! It turned out to be a really beautiful day and we got to see the changing of the guard and everything. We had our lesson with Teya that night. She didn't come to church on Sunday and we were bummed about that but we ended up having a really awesome lesson. It was nice because we got to focus on La'vonne for part of it and then on Teya for the other part! Teya has actually been reading the book of mormon on her own which is huge!! Tuesday was really awesome! we had zone training in the morning that was all about the things we an sacrifice to the Lord. There are a lot of things I can still sacrifice so I'm working on a list for that! we ate after the meeting and then went to work on the area book. when we did Facebook i was able to find a guy, Emilio, that we had talked to the other night. he messaged me and was like "you found me!" so that was pretty exciting! Who knew i'd become an even better facebook stalker on my mission?! after that we had dinner with a really cute family in our ward. I always love eating with them because their kids are so much fun! They always ask us the best questions. we had a great visit with them and then we saw sister ketch! we talked about the creation with her. it's amazing to think that out of all the amazing and beautiful creations God has made, we are the most magnificent!! after that we attempted to visit some other members with no luck. Wednesday was pretty uneventful! i came down with some sort of bug so i was in bed most of the day. we did get to do some area book work and tried to be somewhat effective, but thankfully staying in that day helped me feel better for the rest of the week. Thursday was super exciting!! we did weekly planning since we had sisters conference the next day. it was a little hard to focus since I have a feeling I might be transferred on Thursday. I guess it's just the "butterfly" in me, as mom would say! so after that we went and updated the progress record and got on facebook. i talked to Emilio some more. i invited him to church and he said he had band practice. i asked him if we could meet with him another time. he told me he'd be at the spot we met him at that night at 8. So we finished facebook, ate dinner, and then went to our lesson with Teya. once we got more into the lesson things really improved. we talked about fasting and how Teya can find answers through fasting. So, we set up the appt with Emilio for 8. we left Teya's at 8:30. I really wasn't expecting him to be there, but HE WAS!! He is one of the sweetest guys ever! Life has dealt him some pretty nasty cards and they've left their mark, but he still has faith. there is a really special light in his eyes and a softness about him when you get to know who he really is. he is seeking and he is soooo prepared! he accepted everything we talked about. he committed to read the book of mormon and to come to church! he has never eaten french toast so we're going to talk to some members and have a french toast breakfast with him! i'm grateful that heavenly father has given me new eyes. i love seeing people as who they can become, not who they are! so after our lesson with Emilio we stopped at La'vonnes and picked up crutches since Sister Phelps hurt her leg. we had a great talk with La'vonne about our expectations with Teya. That day was so amazing ! it really strengthened my testimony of talking to EVERYONE and not judging people. there are way too many people prepared to receive this gospel for me to be narrowing and limiting my vision! Friday was so awesome!! we had sisters conference which was so amazing!! it was pretty cool because all the talks ended up being on the same topic and they said they didn't plan it to be that way! they were all about having a good attitude and focusing on right now instead of the future or the past. i am so guilty of this! i feel like i get stuck thinking of the past and the future way too often! Our mission "counselor" spoke to us and he said some really cool things about this. he talked about how the past really doesn't exist--it's over! and the future doesn't exist either because it's all just what we imagine it to be. the only real thing is the moment we are in right now! Then President Riggs said something that really helped me see why we need to focus on right now. He said "Don't think about going home. It has changed! It will NEVER be the same!!" The home that I left behind is not the home I will go back to. that may sound really harsh but it's true! I used to really hate change. I still am not a huge fan, but I'm learning to love it! I think since I get attached so easily, it's hard for me. but i've seen throughout the mission how amazing change is! it brings so much growth and goodness! another thing we talked about was this thing called one word. it's from this motivational speaker. you chooose one word to define your goal for the year. so instead of setting like 80 goals you just focus on this one word. the way you choose the word is by looking in (what do I need to change? what do i struggle with) looking up (ask God) and looking out (how will i implement this change? what will i do?). so i'm still trying to figure my word out. I want to focus more on others, but at the same time, I want to not worry so much what others think! so if you guys know a word that would encompass all of that, let me know! :) I got to talk to sister butts and sister stott at the conference! i have been so blessed with my companions! seeing them helped me realize that i am going to miss sister phelps and wilcox when our time together ends. I truly love them and need to take advantage of my time with them!!! after the conference we worked on the area book and did FB. we had a good talk with Emilio. he has a really rough life so I'm excited to see how the gospel will help him! he had posted the night before on his FB that he is super grateful for his 3 new friends who really listen to him! that was super awesome!! after FB we ate dinner and then went to visit a less active member to remind her about stake conference. her dad was visiting and he was such a hoot! after that we went and saw some members and introduced them to sister wilcox. we talked to them about how the gospel blesses families. the mom is divorced but we talked about how the gospel helps families no matter what their makeup is! obviously the ideal situation is to have both mom and dad, but i've seen some super amazing single mom and dads who rely on the gospel and it helps their family so much! Saturday was great! after studies we worked on the area book and facebook. we talked with Emilio and things in his life were not going well that day. it's sad because I can see how much the gospel will help Emilio, but he's too afraid to come and see himself!! after teaching him we came home and had to get everything off of our shelves so an exterminator could come spray for roaches. gotta love VA.....after that we went to sister thompsons. on our way there i had a really cool experience. there was tons of traffic and we were stopped at a light. we saw a woman walking on the other side of the road who had just fallen over. we then saw someone pull over and run to help her! it really struck me seeing that because D.C. is full of people constantly rushed and overbooked. to see people take time out of their day to serve as the savior did was so great to witness and reminded me to always seek for those service opportunities! to contrast this beautiful scene, we watched a truck with major road rage whiz by another car while blaring on his horn. it showed me exactly the kind of person i want to be! both of these people will probably never see the people they interacted with again, but they both really impacted that person's day. I want to help people feel happy! so it was really cool to see that! we had a great lesson there and then went to stake conference! man our stake is massive! we have almost 60 missionaries in this stake too which is awesome!! all the talks were really inspiring and i learned a lot! the main focus was hastening the work so of course i loved that! :) Sunday was so awesome!! also a very exhausting day. honestly I think yesterday is the most tired i've ever been on my mission! i used to see the missionaries and they looked so tired and i was just like "why are you guys so tired?" but now I actually get it. I have never been so stinkin tired in my life!! its the best though :) anywho...we got up and studied a bit and then went to stake conference! and TEYA ACTUALLY CAME!!! she said she wasn't going to, but she did!! I sat by lav'onne and she told me she really doesn't want me to be transferred. part of me doesn't want to go, but i almost feel like i'm too comfortable here. we'll see what happens! Emilio didn't come, but he sure missed out!! i think that was the most amazing stake conference i've ever been to! it was broadcast from SLC so we heard talked by some general authorities including L. Tom Perry. our stake president gave a wonderful talk as well! he talked about how being tempted is not a sin. the choice that we make after being tempted is what makes it a sin or not. i feel like sometimes i beat myself up because these negative thoughts or temptations will come to my mind, but that's not in my control! the only thing in my control is what i do with them. so that really helped me change my way of thinking! the first speaker from SLC was elder carlson. he talked about self discipline and 5 steps we can take to develop more self discipline. he said something really cool too. he said that "we are not here for our bodies to control our spirits. we are here for our spirits to learn to control our bodies!" the second speaker was sister stephens, shes in the primary presidency. she talked about hastening the work of salvation and what that entails. then we heard from Paul V. Johnson. he talked about charity and that one really hit me! I have been focusing on charity a ton lately and it's made me so much happier to really focus on serving others and not being so darn impatient with peoples weaknesses. he told several stories about president monson and his life of service! then l. tom perry spoke about hastening the work of salvation as well! he talked about how we have so many missionaries that now we have to figure out what to do with them! he told members that it's not all the missionaries responsibility to do this work. the talks were all so powerful and i learned so much from them! after conference we went and saw Elizabeth! she's back visiting her grandma this weekend. turns out they moved to Leesburg, which makes me want to get her involved in the ward there even more!we got her new address and had an awesome visit with her. she kept hugging us and telling us she misses us! it was sweet! from there we had linner with some members. one of them had lost his job a few weeks ago and finances were really tight. they had the choice to pay tithing or important bills. they chose tithing! this week his boss recommended him for a new job with higher pay and better hours. they got several tax refunds and other money came up out of the blue as well! it was super cool! after our visit with them we went to a fireside at the church. it was a musical fieside by the mormon choir of D.C. a recent convert in the stake bore his testimony and it was so powerful! he talked about his journey of joining the church and he was just really emotional. it was cool to see how powerful the spirit is and how it truly humbles us! i think the spirit is the only thing that can make big, powerful men like this convert realize how truly small they are! he said something that really hit me though. he said "my testimony is a great story, but the most wonderful story you'll ever hear is your own testimony!" I loved that! so often we focus on other peoples strengths and wish to be like them, but we each have our own incredible story and testimony and we can change and help someone else with our stories! after the fireside sister phelps got a blessing from one of the elders since she hurt her knee and we have to go to the doctor for it tomorrow. it was his first time giving a blessing and it was so amazing! he was so nervous but the spirit just took over and it was cool to witness that! all in all this was just another incredible week! i love being out here on my mission. every day is a new adventure and i learn SO much! I love you guys and miss you tons, but I'm grateful for all that we are experiencing in our lives right now! Heavenly Father has blessed us all so much! Have an amazing week! Love you!!! Sister Pehrson

March 10, 2014

Family!! This week has been really awesome! I have definitely had a change of heart and Heavenly Father has just been watching out for me so much and I'm so grateful for all the lessons I have been able to learn! On Monday after we emailed Sister Thompson took us out to lunch and then we went and grocery shopped. We didn't have permission to drive, so that night we decided to walk and visit some people that live pretty close to us. On our way over, we decided to write stuff in the snow like "Mormon.org" and "God loves you!" stuff like that. It was super fun and while we were writing one message we looked back and saw someone writing by what we had already written. we decided to check it out on our way back. We got to the persons house and they weren't there and by that time we needed to head home since it was kind of a long walk. So we discovered on our way back that the person had drawn an arrow and a "like" thumbs up sign from facebook next to the www.mormon.org that we wrote in the snow!! it was so awesome! I wish we could have talked to him, but it was kind of dark and we weren't sure if they were writing nice things or not haha. But i am sure that somehow, some way, some missionaries will find him! The whole walking thing was actually really good for our companionship too. I feel like we bonded a lot! Tuesday we had district meetings and then we went on exchange. Sister Phelps left the area and me and Sister Wilcox stayed and worked with Sister Hills. Exchanges are always a little strange but they were extra weird in a trio! Sister Hills is super amazing though! she showed us this book called "adjusting to missionary life." I got it at the beginning of my mission and truthfully haven't picked it up since then. but I'm so grateful Sister Hills showed it to us. it has this little self assessment you can do and it has all these topics you can read about and has solutions to many problems I have faced or will face on the mission! part of me thought "really!? Where was this last week!!" but i am thankful i have that resource now! After that bit of training we went and did facebook. Sister Hills didn't get to send an email home the day before due to the storm so we had about 1 and 1/2 hours of facebook time. after dinner we checked on James, whose records our ward just received. he wasn't home but when we were walking to the car, we saw this little girl who was selling hot chocolate. we went and bought some and had a really great conversation with her parents. she realized fairly quickly that we were Mormon and although she said she really wasn't interested, it was a really awesome visit and I know some seeds were planted! from there we went and visited Sister Bryk! she comes to church every so often and has done so for most of her life. she is SO AMAZING! it was a really powerful visit! we all shared our favorite scriptures with her and she was really moved by what we shared. We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon every day this week. Well, first we asked her how her reading is going and she said she reads occasionally. so we asked her how often she thinks she can read it this week and she was like "every day!". it was so awesome!! we agreed to send her reminder texts every night. after that we went and saw some ward members. the mom is getting ready for surgery on Friday and even though she was really nervous, she has such a wonderful attitude about it! she had breast cancer in the past and they think they found a tumor on her uterus now so she's had a really rough go of it. her husband doesn't attend church much. she has all these problems of her own, but she is constantly serving other people! she's that lady who is always making meals for those in need and finding ways to help others! it blows my mind how amazing and Christlike she is when she is going through so much! she's such a great example! I have these moments on my mission where I just sit in amazement at the powerful and incredible people I get to meet out here! Wednesday was just as wonderful as Tuesday! we studied and then exchanged back. we were supposed to do some service for sister Everly that day but she was busy so we ate and then did some FB. after that we went and saw one of our ward members who doesn't get out to church much. we had a really great talk with her! normally she doesn't bring up the church at all but this time she brought it up over and over again so that was pretty cool! from there we visited sister ketch! we talked to her about repentance and how that is something we should do daily. we then had dinner with the relief society president. during our message, their oldest daughter who just turned 8 told us she isn't sure how to feel the spirit so we had a lesson on that !it was really sweet! we then tried to visit a few people with no luck. but we met a young guy named Emelio! he lives with his grandparents and is in a metal band. apparently his grandma is mormon. we told him we have facebook and asked if we could add him on there and he said yes! it was pretty awesome because if we didn't have FB, i don't think we could have connected with him ever. after that we went and had a lesson with a ward member. she has some struggles with smoking, but she has a really amazing testimony! she had a pretty rough day and we shared about the plan of salvation and i think that was pretty fitting for her. after that we had ward correlation which went awesome as always! Thursday was super exciting! because I am now an official ipad owner!!! yup you heard it right!! we spent most of the day in training. i am so excited to see how these will improve the work! there are a lot of awesome apps for us to use and it's just so exciting! we spent the afternoon finishing our studies. we had a really awesome companionship study and i felt like we were all on the same page for Teya's lesson that night. we had dinner with our ward mission leaders family. it was fun to talk to his kids and ask them about missionary work. it reminded me of when i was a teenager and the missionaries came over! we brought Maddie, his daughter to our lesson with Teya and it went WONDERFULLY!! we wanted to show her how the book of mormon will answer her questions. we wanted her to see how baptism would help her and why it was necessary. i feel like we definitely accomplished that! the spirit was so strong and Teya was more open with us than she has been in the past. we all testified of the power of the book of mormon and Maddie shared a very powerful testimony. she is the perfect person to bring to lessons with Teya! She pushes teya to be better! teya committed to read the book of mormon every day, so I'm really excited to see how it all turns out!! a lot of times lessons turn out way different than I expect them to. but the lesson with Teya tonight was exactly what we planned for and what needed to be taught! it was great! Friday was awesome! we studied and then began our weekly planning. we have to transfer all the information in our area book to the ipads so we spent a good chunk of time doing that. we finished weekly planning and set some really wonderful goals. Heavenly Father is so wonderful! he takes care of our problems when we do what He asks us to do!! thank goodness for Heavenly Father!! after doing FB we went home and ate and then were supposed to have a lesson with the Abbas but they weren't home. We ended up visiting some ward members. their son is a junior so we talked to him about practice teaching the missionary lessons with us and so we're going to start helping him with that! it's fun sharing with the members because they help this work so much! Saturday was great! after our morning studies we went and updated the area book and then used FB. we tried to visit a lady who peeked through her window and then didn't answer the door. then we visited a girl who was taught by the last sisters here and she's just going through a lot right now so she said she'd call when she's not busy. then we tried Ghana Elizabeth but she wasn't home! by then it was dinner time. we ate with Sister Thompson and it was wonderful as always! I've grown to really love and appreciate her so much recently! She is such an amazing example of someone who is always giving and thinking of others! she will be one of the first on my list of people for us to come back and visit after the mission! after a great visit with her we were able to see the Abbas'! i love them so much, especially Asra, the daughter! she has definitely shown me how powerful our words are! Sunday was so amazing! i learned so, so much! since I've been working on patience I decided to find a talk about it. i searched in the gospel library and found one by Joseph b. Wirthlin and it's called "patience, a key to happiness." it had so much amazing advice, not just for right now, but for after the mission too! the part that stuck out to me the most was about having patience with our Heavenly Father. he said "How incredible foolish to be impatient with him, the Father of our spirits, who knows everything and whose work and glory, through his Son, Jesus Christ, is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" Then he quoted Neal A. Maxwell who said "Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best--better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than his. Either way we are questioning the reality of God's omniscience." Man that hit me like a ton of bricks! it was kind of a chastening, but i really needed it! when i have been impatient in the past (with my visa, companions, etc.) I have really been questioning Heavenly Father's plan for me! I know he has a perfect plan for me!!! So why do I get impatient? I'm not sure, but I am working on it! it was such an awesome talk and you guys should all read it..especially if you struggle with patience like I do! so after studies we went to church and a lot of the talks and lessons had to do with patience so I think Heavenly Father was really trying to drill this into my thick head! :) after church we studied and then had dinner with some members. They invited some non member friends over and we had an awesome time. it was very laid back. the members had asked us not to teach a lesson or anything because they didn't want their friends to feel pressured. but it was cool because the friends ended up asking all about our missions and so we ended up being able to teach! after that we had ward correlation! we have the best ward mission leader! he always helps us see how we can improve and encourages us at the same time! today we get to go to Arlington cemetery which will be AWESOME! sister Thompson is taking us, go figure! I'm so grateful for all your prayers. they really do help! this is the last full week before transfers, so we will see what happens! I've been here 3 transfers now so I'm guessing I'll get the boot, but you never know! i hope your weeks are amazing! thanks for being you! Love, Sister Pehrson