Deus é fiel‏

hey family!
So this week will be short again...sorry.
This week we worked so hard but unfortunately it was a lot of legwork and not a lot of teaching. appointments falling through and a lot of frustration...but it is interesting how the Lord tries your patience. i learned how to not be so stressed when nothing is going right. To find happiness and reasons to be excited even when you are tired and YOU doesnt want to do anything. I love how the Lord will literally try us in EVERYTHING (Abraham 3:25) We worked hard and yesterday we were incredibly blessed. 9 people visited church!
Lucimar and Cicero again were their with their grandson anderson. We are trying to ehlp them prepare for marriage and baptism. They want so bad to be baptized but the other part is a little more tricky. They love the church. Lucimar even made the sacrament bread. She told us taht she has always been looking for a church that she can be active and have a calling, she found the right place!
The Sisters in the other ward gave us a reference from there contacts. We tried to find it but couldnt. i knocked on a door and a young woman directed me to the contact. i invited her to church she accepted and i told her we'd pass on our way. I passed at 230ish before church and she was washing clothes, she said after she was done she would go. the thought crossed my mind, "yeah ive heard that one before" after relief society i look behind me and there she is, Cherlane. How amazing is that? She really liked the church adn we will teach her tuesday.
This week I was lovingly burned by the scriptures. Amazing how the Lord speaks directly to us and explains to us how we must be better throught the scriptures. So many examples I cannot begin to explain but if you wanna be a better person read Richard G Scotts conference talk on faith and character. it will blow your mind. It was exactly what i needed to get excited for the afternoon filled with appointments, distances to walk, and the ridiculously hot maceio sun. it got me through the week and filled myheart with desire to be better.
I see how, as i follow the spirit and what i am learning in the scripture, I am progressing, Weaknesses before now are not a problem. The gospel brings a change in us. a continuous change for the better. i see how living it breathing is loving it changes me. it is a lengthly list of constant choices that make me more like my Savior and more willing to do what He asks of me. When I arrived here i noted the slogan in everyplace, businesses, car repair shops, churches: Deus é fiel. God is true or faithful. I never really reflected on it that much but as I study the atonement of Christ I understand a little bit more about this phrase and how i too can be "fiel" as I strive to make thousands of tiny small choices. Man I am so glad I have a perfect example to look up to!
I love you family thats the truth.
Proud to wear the tag,


Sister Peterson

Nordeste, eu te amo‏

Minha amada família!
How is everyone? I got a lot of emails this week, if i dont have time to respond this week just wait for next week.
Another week flew by in the best mission in the world! WHOOOOOOEY. We are working so hard and we are focusing on using more the members here. Let me tell you it is a blast.
This week we found an amazing family. We were making visits with a member and she stopped to talk to one of the little boys she tutors. We took the chance to make a contact with his grandma Lucimar. She accepted our visit. We taught the first lesson to her and her 8 yr old Grandson, Anderson. She said that Sunday her and her husband were walking and wondering...of all these churches, which one is the true church? Tuesday they met us. She also told us about how she had a dream and saw one of the chapels with the plaque: A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias a few months back. Even before she had heard or seen this church. She finally saw this exact chapel a few weeks ago, everywhere she walked and went she always tried to pay attention as not to miss it. Wow.
We taught her husband Cicero Sunday, he loved it and the whole family showed up to church, EARLY and by themselves. In sacrament S. Lima gave Anderson a notecard to draw on...sacrament was always difficult for me as a child...but instead of drawing he started to write. When he was done i read what that incredibly intelligent eight year old wrote. To sides of a notecard about the war in heaven and our relationship with God as his children and how Satan tried to take all the glory for himself and how Anderson wants to always be a child of God and not a bandito that follows satan. HE IS EIGHT YEARS OLD! The whole family loved it. Lucimar said that in all the churches she has visited, she has never felt such a peace. I am really excited to continue to work with this family! They are amazing!
This was an answer to a prayer. The Lord is merciful and loving with me. Even when I am not the perfect missionary that I must be, he lets me have these faith strengthening experiences.
Sunday Beto received the Aaronic Priesthood. Him and Katia are planning on going to do baptisms in the temple this weekend. A few weeks back 12 year old Oscar also received the Priesthood. It is such an amazing feeling to see the progress of my recent converts. Maybe I dont have much to do with that progress but I love seeing these miracles. Thayrone made a bunch of visits with us. He is amazing I hope to have half the faith that young man has someday. Cristiane is taking temple prep classes and Flavia and her whole family are going every week. I see a difference each week that the gospel brings to these families...I am one blessed missionary to be able to see these differences.
I read a lot about prayer this week. An opportunity to make our will the Lords will and how Nephi prayed continualmente for his people. I have been lovingly burned. I recognize that we must take advantage of that special time to pray each morning and night and make it a time where I really pour out my heart and change myself.

So My time is coming to an end here on the mission. I am aware of it, but it doesnt seem so real. I get excited to see you my beloved family, but my heart is very attached to this place, these people, and this culture. I love northeast brasil with all of my heart might mind and strength. i love my Heavenly Father for giving me this amazing opportunity to learn from them and to love them. I am a better person because of it. I love this opportunity to teach these people about the one thing that makes me a better person, the gospel of Christ, His life and His example.

Proud to wear the tag,

Sister Peterson

Happy NEW YEAR!‏

Hey family!

So I am staying here with lima at least six more weeks! whooey! I might even finish off my mission here...we'll see...

As I was making my goals for this year i took a look at what I had written for last year. I sat and reflected upon what 2010 means to me. It was a year of incredible growth. Many challenging experiences-the whole sink or swim feeling-that have lead me to re-realize that Heavenly Father knows EXACTLY what He is doing.

I had forgotten that one of my goals was to learn to love. First how to love God with everything I have and then my family and then other people. I dont know how it changed. I didnt realize it when it happened. I think I always had a loving personality/nature....but my mission sure taught me how much i needed to better myself. I feel that this past year I have learned what it means to love people. It is more than to have a kind feeling towards another person and it is more than saying "te amo". It is a continuous process that is shown through action. Yes saying it is important...but words last seconds and are good to express something momentary...but what sticks in my mind and my heart is an example that was given or an act that changed my thought process and made me want to be better. All of my leaders and all of the people that I most admire-here and at home-express a deep and profound love for others through their example and through who they are. This year I have felt a change of heart. I am still very imperfect but one thing that these brasys have taught me is how to love and how to show it. Truly our example can shine light into lives filled with darkness and difficulty. 3 Nephi 12:16 Let your light so shine...

I started making goals: Spiritual, physical, intellectual, and goals to better my character. My mission has taught me a lot about the importance of goal setting but even better how to plan and carry out them to reach these goals. I am excited about the future and all that it brings...goals strengthen my faith in God because I know when I do my part he will do the rest.
Working during the holidays is rough here. But we found a family really amazing last night. Elizabete the wife was so welcoming to us. She loved the lesson and we felt the Spirit very strong. I was thinking of how much we teach. How often I teach the same principles and the same lessons...but it never is teh same. Every person has a different type of knowledge a different level of understanding. I love being able to meet someone and know exactly what I need to teach after talking to them for five minutes. Knowing which part of God's plan they are needing to understand in that moment. You would think that teaching the same thing over and over and over again would get old. And i must admit when I am not trying hard to listen to the Spirit...when its 90% me talking and not the Spirit it does get old...But I realize that there is something I can learn each time. Why do we go to church every sunday...the gospel doesn't change....but how is it that we can learn something new even after hearing the same lesson or reading the same scripture after the thousandth time? Because although the gospel does not change...we do. Thank goodness for that.
I am so grateful for the gift of repentance and for faith. For baptism and for the Spirit's active role in my life. I am grateful for a loving and PATIENT God that is their to help me Endure to the End. Who loves my rebellious spirit and knows exactly what experiences I need to change that about myself. I recognize that every difficult experience in the last year has brought me one step closer to God. I have learned that instead of wanting to call my sister or my bestfriend to talk about the challenges that im facing and my fears and my hopes and dreams, the first person I want to talk to is my Heavenly Father. I have learned to go to him first with all my desires and my disappointments and I have seen him lift me up and I have seen him chastise me and I have literally felt his love embrace me...I know God lives and that he loves me. He loves us.
Proud to be his servant, his daughter, and to wear this tag,
Sister Peterson