Another Update

 
I am once again sitting in a cookie shop (mr. Cheney cookies) smelling the baking of delicious cookies and feeling pretty incredulous. In exactly one week i~ll be on a jet plane to the one place ive only been dreaming of for the past 6 months. Excited, nervous, happy, sad, and ready. I will miss some of the amazing people that ive met here at the CTM but 9 weeks is enough. Perhaps my Portuguese is far from fluencia, but I had some experiences this week that give me faith that what i cant do Christ and the Spirit will make up for.


Friday night my whole district six 19 year old boys and me and sister Moyle hopped into a small van that dumped us off in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world. I only remember seeing this many people in movies. Its like New York but brazillian. We had two Book of Mormons and two shiny name tags bearing the name of the man who made this all possible and the names of our families. We had three hours to proselyte and let me tell you, some of the best three hours of my life.

The very first man we talked to was Josias. He was incredibly nice and recognized right away that we were new at the whole Portuguese thing. He talked slower for us and we understood a majority of what he said. We talked about the gospel with him, and it turned out he is very well versed in the bible, he knew all about the apostles in the new testament and a lot of our beliefs were similiar. We testified of the Book of Mormon and although he didnt have much time he was interested. He promised to read the book if we gave it to him. We left him smiling. Awesome experience.

The next guy we talked to talked really really fast in a strange accent. I caught like two things, sister moyle understood a little more. I knew that he thought the sao paulo temple was beautiful and he was sad. He kept talking and we didnt know what to say, but a thought popped into my mind, well a scripture Helaman 5:12 i had thought of that scripture earlier but only remembered that it was aobut building a foundation on Christ. I had him read it and he liked it. He said he believed every word of that scripture and took the BOM.

We talked to about 8 people in those three hours, but the last lady we talked to was the best out of all of them. I dont know her name and i probably will never see her again but out meeting was amazing. We stopped her and talked to her about God and she believed in the Bible and Jesus Christ. She had a family of two daughters. We asked her if she believed that she could be with her family forever. She said only as individuals, and then we told her about Eternal families. She listened intently and said, i didn~t know about this. So we told her about dispensations and the restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith. That through the power from God he translated book to lead us and guide us today. She looked at us interested but said, i didnt know this. I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it changed my life. She asked me how. I told her that because of the teachings of the prophets in the Book of Mormon and Christs teachings I am a better person. I told her that because of this Gospel I knew that I could be with my family forever and that eventhough she had never heard this message, it was the most important message she would hear. I told her that i came from the United States to Brazil because of the importance of this message. Sister Moyle bore her testimony to her, and I felt the most amazing feelings of the spirit. Everything we said was pure truth and this lady could sense it. She was interested in our message, but we didnt have a Book to give her. We gave her a number and she promised to call it. She told us that meeting us was a blessing.

That experience was amazing. I dont know how i said all of those things, but i know i said them. If she my words were unintelligible or if by some weakness of my own would have confused her, the spirit made up for it. It was amazing. I wish i could remember this ladies name, but she is in my prayers and I am so excited to share this amazing message with more of Gods children!

There were a lot of funny things that happened this week and while proselyting also. On Sunday our district leader Elder thomson from Randolph UT was giving our sunday school lesson about Christ. Our Branch President and one of teh CTM presidents was in the class with our district when E. Thomson started talking about the story when Jesus was twelve and stayed in the temple when his parents went away. This is what E. Thomson said: After awhile they realized that Jesus wasnt with them and Mary and Joseph were like, CRAP where is Jesus! This is just the way this kid talks, he is from A small town in Utah, but our Branch President just said: Really, is that what she said? Pretty funny.

We have one teacher who is also a zone leader named Irmão Da Luz. He is hilarious. His dream is to have a kawasaki ninja motorcycle and often does this impression of driving the motorcycle complete with noises and fist shaking at the other drivers. He has a few quotable phrases that he says often like: MY GOSH! (in a thick brazillian accent almost like nacho libre) YOU GUYS ARE SO SMART! or when we are in the middle of practicing lessons in portuguese he will say something like: HOLD ON WAIT HOLD ON. TODAY WAS YOU PDAY, WHY DONT YOU BRING ME ANY CANDY DANGIT! or HOW COME YOU GUYS NEVER BRING ME BEEF JERKY? he is kind of sincere when he says it so it is really funny. Although he is hilarious, he gives some of the most powerful lessons about the gospel, i learn so much from him and i will miss this funny brazillian man muito.

Ive thought about a few things ill miss in the CTM

Toilets that i can flush toilet paper down.
Having my sheets washed for me each week.
dryers
having all my food cooked for me.
Irmão DA LUZ and Ribeiro
two of the Elders from my distric that are not going to Maceio (e. Wiggins and E. Woodhouse)
My roommates Sister Degen and Sister Leitherer
Sister Moyle as my comp (but she is going to Maceió with me so maybe i~ll have her again)
All the sisters at the MTC
Sunday afternoon naps (ps david i totally can take naps on sundays you my friend were wrong)

Im so excited to start missing all these things.

i love you all and im so grateful for the emails and letters you have been sending!


Proud to wear the tag,



Sister Peterson