Week 7

Remember how I met an apostle last week. Well I did and it was amazing. I had the opportunity to hear from Richard G Scott of the quorum of the twelve apostles and let me tell you, that man is amazing. His message was simple, but he delivered it with so much power.


One thing that stuck with me was that missionary work is hard work. If you don~t go to bed exhausted you aren~t working hard enough.

He shared his testimony of Jesus Christ. As i reflected onthe things he said, I thought deeply about the attributes of Christ, Charity specifically. Christ was so selfless in everything He did. His love for people is apparent, but how could i ever be like that. I thought about it, our thoughts lead to actions. Yes i want to be like Christ, I want to do the things that He did and the things that, as a representative of Christ He would want me to do, but more than that I want to think like He did. I~ve been studying a lot about his life in the New Testament and the lives of his apostles after his death. That selflessness that he showed throughout his life is mirrored in the lives of his apostles. I am learning so much. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 13. My favorite verses are 11-13. Im going to work this week on having Christlike charity it is just one of many attributes that I lack, but I know I can attain.

This week i feel like my mind has been opened. Sometimes i get very discouraged especially with the language. I was praying to be able to speak this language, but when it came to understanding someone i was lost. I started praying to understand what i hear and I am not exaggerating when I say that literally almost instantaneously my brain started picking up sentence patterns and ways of remembering what people were saying to me. I~m not fluent yet, and it still takes a few moments to respong, but that occurence was just one more witness of many that builds my faith that HF is listening. I might be struggling, but as I do my best, He wil make up the rest. It was probably your prayers too!

I~m still loving it here. I think i~m almost ready to leave the CTM. i have two more weeks after this and its bye bye toilets that i can flush toilet paper down, food prepared for me, people who wash my sheets for me, and comfortable weather. Oh a lot of you keep asking me if i~m dying of heat. NOT AT ALL. it is usually rainy at least 4 days of the week and let me tell you, Brazil knows how to rain. When it is sunny it is hot but not so hot that i want to die. that all will probably change in 2 weeks but i~m totally up for summer for the next 16 months of my life. I am a little bit missing Autumn though, it is my favorite time when the leaves turn red and the air smells crisp and leaves crunch underneath your foot. best feelings ever. Enjoy it for me please. Also HAPPY HALLOWEEN THIS WEEK!!!

On Friday we went out to clean the street in front of the CTM. Sis. Moyle and I talked to a Brazillian worker for about twenty minutes. We brought up the gospel and then he started saying something about mormons sleeping in Curitiba, my vocab is limited so we listened and tried to talk to him some more. It is so cool how people here don~t mind talking about religion. It seem like it is something most americans are afraid of, but it is awesome, most people will listen to what we say.

I am lucky, Brazillians love God and like Americans, it seems like there are a lot of missionaries who don~t have that. im one blessed sister.

proud to wear the tag

Sister J. Peterson

eu amo brasil‏

I made my first big mistake with the language this week. I was eating lunch and talking to three Brazillian sisters. I asked one of them if she had a boyfriend at home, after she told me about her hunk, i turned to the other two and said, pointing from one to the other, Voces namarados? needless to say they shook there head and had big eyes then laughed. I essentially asked if they were dating eachother not if they had boyfriends.They thought it was funny and just laughed at me.

Today I was able to go to the temple. Sao Paulo Temple is probably my favorite temple ever. On the way there and back i rode in a van. Sis Moyle and I rode in the front next to the driver. I talked to him about a lot of different things mostly how terrified i am to drive on these roads, the driveres are crazy and the motorcyclists insane. he was, like most of the people here, so patient and willing to fill in the blanks of Portuguese I lack. He isn~t a member and i asked him if he had a Book of Mormon. He does, but he is catholic but the thing is it wasn~t awkward talking to him about the gospel. It was such a sweet experience!

Last Pday my district met with our old Teacher Irmã de Santana and had pastels. Afterward she came with sister moyle and me to get some lotion. All of a sudden one of the workers came up to me and started putting all of this lotion on my arm and asking, voce gosta? and then speaking portuguese really fast. I was laughing so hard and I didn~t know how to tell her that I didn~t want anymore lotion. After laughing at me for awhile, irmã de santana told the lady that i found what i was looking for. It was funny because i didn~t know how to tell her to stop and she just kept going on trying to help me. I walked out of the shop smelling like a rainbow popsicle.
Elder Richard G Scott is coming to the CTM friday, i~m way excited. We are also supposed to proselyte in São Paulo Friday but i don~t know if that will be postponed. I~m excited but scared, i~m not as confident in my language abilities as i~d like to be.
This week I have learned that Heavenly Father really hears and answers our prayers. He even hears and answers prayers given in broken, hardly intelligible Portuguese. This communication that we can have with God is amazing and it is crazy to think that most of the world isnt fully aware of this power.
A few weeks ago one other sister going to Maceio, Sister Porath, left the CTM for the mission field. Sister Moyle and I got a letter from her telling us about Maceio. Apparently she is the only American sister there right now. I only know of one other Brazillian sister missionary that has left for there recently. The letter got me so excited to go out into the mission field, i just have to speak the lingua first.
I started my sixth week yesterday, meaning i have a little less than 4 weeks before i have a brazillian companion and will need to speak Portuguese fluently. NeedlesAll i~m saying is if you remember, i~d appreciate your prayers!
I love what I~m doing. I love what Im learning. God is blessing me with knowledge and many humbling experiences, i~m pushing myself harder than i thought i could and i know that what i lack is being made up. I love you all so much.
Proud to wear the tag,
Sister Peterson
PS Happy Birthday Tomorrow Grandma! and Lindsey I totally got your letter yesterday I~m sending a letter today! my mom should have one for you at her house already.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM DIIIIIAAAAAAA‏

One of the Brazillian matainance workers here at the CTM greets the missionaries all the time with a long and drawn out: BOOOOOOOOOOOOM DIIIIIIAAAAAAAA! He is the most adorable Brazillian man. He doesn~t speak a word of English but you can tell in everything he does that he loves life. He is excited about fixing broken lights and cleaning up after messy 19-25 year olds and he is ALWAYS happy. Everytime i see this man my day gets a little brighter. I decided i want to live my life so that perhaps my attitude will help others. He came up to me earlier this week and said: Sister PAY TOR SON meu filho nome e PAYTORSON. He always gets so excited to see me.


Well this week has been just like the other weeks i get up at 629 am. Get dressed and ready and study all day till 900 when i get to go pig out on delicious cake and chocolate milk then go to bed at 1030. That is mostly my days here. We have devotionals on Sundays and Tuesdays and then other devotional type things not called devotionals on saturdays. They totally get me pumped.

One thing that I have come to realize is that God is extremely good at giving constructive criticism. He is suttle when perhaps a little nudge will get me to recognize what is going on and when that just wont do, well He knows how to get my attention. Im coming to realize that i~m a pretty prideful person most of the time and humility is sometimes a hard lesson to learn. All in all im learning things about myself in ways that i never thought i~d learn them.

We got some new Brazillians this past week and they have my mealtimes. I get to practice all the time now. It is fantastic. I learned that peanut butter is Amendoim. One Elder from Recife has about the same language ability in English as i do in Portuguese so we learn a lot from eachother. It still amazes me how patient these people are. In the states most people would just say: LEARN ENGLISH.

I~m running out of time today, i guess everything is mostly the same, but i love you all and i love what i do.

Jesus Cristo e nosso Salvador e Redentor. Atraves Sua Expiacao nos podemos tornar as pessoas melhor que nos pensamos possivel. O Evangelho de JEsus Cristo e verdadeiro.

proud to wear the tag,

Sister Peterson

Dear family and Friends,

 I am so grateful for those of you who sent me letters this week!  My concept of time is completely messed up here. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I am starting my fourth week tomorrow, meaning I am teaching some fake brazillian investigators after this week and then in two weeks Sister Moyle and I are proselyting out in sao paulo. Speaking real Portuguese, with real Brazillians that have never heard the gospel. We get to proselyte in Sao Paulo twice while in the CTM. This is such a great place to learn.

I never cease to be amazed at how fast the language is coming. I understand what i read for the most part, I can speak well with what i know, but when it comes to a Brazillian speaking at a normal pace i catch maybe every three words but by the time i translate it in my head they have already started on something else. I know it will come and i~m not too frustrated. well not often frustrated i guess would be better.

This past weekend was General Conference. I don~t know what it was but this was one of the best I have ever heard. They talked a lot about love and service. Dieter F Uchtdorf made a bunch of amazing points: he talked about how we all have a vast capacity to love others. That love should be our walk and our talk. We should strive to emulate the Savior in all things, but without love for our fellowman, we are nothing. one quote that really stuck out to me was: Though we are incomplete He loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. That message so simple and so true is why I am here. God loves us so much and unfortunately not everyone knows that. The strength i have recieved from Heavenly FAther has helped me to accomplish every single goal i have ever attempted.

President Thomas S. Monson talked about the importance of serving others. He talked about the benefits for us and for humanity because of service. It totally pumped me up, it is hard sometimes but I am trying so hard to find ways to serve the people here. I only get one day a week where i am outside of the CTM but in serving my companions and district i have found that our relationships have grown closer and i am much happier. President Monson said: you will never regret the kindness you extend to those around you. God put us here on this earth to help eachother. As we serve, we are literally God~s hands.

So family and friends this is my challenge to you. Find someone this week who perhaps is down or having a hard time and find some way to serve them. Little things even. I remember a quote from Henry B. Eyring i believe that said something like: Treat every person as kind as you would treat them if they were facing the hardest trial of there life. More often than not they will be. I know that as we strive to do kind things for others we are blessed and we genuinely bless the lives of others.

Sister Moyle and I have been having a lot of fun adventures this week. We have been sitting with the Brazillians this week, most of which left this morning to the mission field. They teach us a lot of funny things and we help them with there english so its a win win situation. I asked them if they get tired of people always asking them Como Vai? and De onde voce e? and cual missao? they thought that was funny.

I try so hard to strike up conversations with the brazilian workers here at the CTM but my vocabulary is still quite limited. like i said it is coming. i love you guys so much. i can~t even begin to relate to you how much you are in my thoughts and in my prayers. Sister Moyle and I talk about our families more often than not i talk about my neices and nephews. Like the day I taught Kalena Tudo Bam and she ran around the house yelling TUDO BANG. my compenieras loved that.

Send me pictures family unfortunately i was a fubeca and totally forgot to bring some. i love you all!

Proud to wear the tag,

Sister Peterson