Jessi's 1st Letter from Brazil

Oi Familia e Amigos!

I feel like I waited forever and now I am in the second largest city in the world sitting in a Cookie Shop writing my very first email home as a missionary. It is crazy that A week ago I was saying my goodbyes. This has been one of the longest/shortest weeks of my life. Being a missionary is amazing, but incredibly challenging and Im not even in the field yet!

My companion is Sister Moyle she is from Holladay Utah and is going to Maceio with me November 17th. Heavenly Father blessed me with an awesome companion. She is just enough like me that we relate well and just different enough so that we compliment each other well.

In my district there are 7 other elders, one more is in Provo waiting on his visa. They are typical 19 year old boys, imature but hilarious. They treat us sisters very well and provide entertainment so i cant complain. Apparently they do things like mattress jousting at night time. The sisters just sleep.

There are about 400 to 500 missionaries here. about 200 of them are Brazillians and less than 50 of the 500 are sisters. The MTC here is actually called the CTM (say tay emee) And it is amazing. I am surrounded by the brazillian culture. We try to sit with the Brazillians at at least one meal a day to work on our Portuguese. So far I can have very short conversations with them and then they end up laughing at me.

Yesterday, my class went to talk to the Brazillian class. We just asked them simple questions like how are you? where you from? what mission? how many people in your family? But i learned a lot. The Brazillians are so kind and patient. If they get annoyed or frustrated they don~t let us know it. They are always talking to us and telling us english words. One of the Brazillian Elders talked to meabout my family when I told him how many sobrinhos (neices andnephews) i had he was in shock. VINTE-SEIS? he said then told all of his companions around him. One of the Brazillians showed me a picture of his nephew. It was an awesome experience I cannot wait till i am fluent or till i can at least carry on a conversation. A lingua esta´beleza!

I study hard each day. I was getting very frustrated and stressed by the fourth day. Sometimes this preparation is very overwhelming and i was asking God why is it so Hard. Well that night we had a devotional and a talk by Elder Holland was shown. He said, The reason why this work is so hard is because Salvation was never a cheap experience. I felt chastised and comforted at the same time.

When I get stressed or frustrated I am forgetting the reason why I am here. I am here to help people come to the realization that We have a loving Heavenly Father and He has a plan for us. It seems like whenever I have a doubt or frustration, it is always addressed the same day. I see God blessing me almost hourly. He has the confidence in me, I just have to trust him and have hope that He will help me learn what i need learn and do what i need to do. It is so much easier that way.

 I love this work. I am so stoked to go to Maceio in two months. Everything in Brazil is beautiful, the vegetation, the language, the people, even the graffitied buildings and broken up sidewalks are gorgeous. I love it here. I know this is where I should be. Everything about this past week has shown me that Heavenly Father knows me so well.

Eu sei que a igreja de Jesus Cristo e verdadeiro. O livro de Mormon e a palavra de Deus. O Deus nosso amoroso Pai Celestial. E VERDADE!

Proud to wear the tag, Sister Peterson ps. I am only allowed to write emails to families so if my friends would like to write me my address is:

Sister Jessica Ruth Peterson
Box#48 District# 38-D
Brazil Maceio Missao
Rua Padre Antonio D´Angelo 121
Casa Verde
CEP 02156-040 Sao Paulo, SP
Brazil

What life is all about

As of 09/01/2009, my best friend Jessica Dawn Smith agreed to marry some Portuguese speaking hooligan. I just gotta say CONGRATULATIONS to that wonderful girl. Jessie you are totally my hero, Anthony is one lucky dude to have such a beautiful amazing strong and worthwhile fiance. Thank you Jessie for your awesome example to me. You are one of those people who never stopped loving me even when you had the opportunity and perhaps even an excuse to stop. I hope that I can become as selfless humble and driven as you lady. I'm bummed i'm not going to be around for the wedding but I'm so glad that you are doing it the right way girl. Good luck on all your upcoming adventures with your hubby, I'm so proud of you!


Also, one of the most influential people in my life over the past year got her mission call. Sister Nicole Dowdle will be serving in Taipei Taiwan for a period of 18 months. You are going to be a rockin missionary girl. You have one of the most firm foundations in anyone i've met. You always stand for what is right, you are one of those people that Heavenly Father placed specifically in my life for my betterment. I love you mija, you are my best friend, sister, and role model.


The adventures facing these two wonderful people make me so happy, I really admire these two people there actions exemplify a quote by Ezra Taft Benson:

"We must put God in the forefront of everything else in our lives. He must come first...When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives."

I see you both doing this daily, and I see the effects of it. I'm so proud of you both!

22 days till you can call me Irma

Things I will "miss" for the next 18 months:

Sleeping in past 6:30 AM.


adventures with bestfriends


















Running by myself, listening to my ipod.



minha familia

playing with this little boy...

and laughing with this little girl:

PEANUT BUTTER!







SNOWBOARDING










Hugging good lookin boys













Studly Men in general










Ripsticking & Longboarding



Cash, Michael Jackson, Marley, the Beatles, Sinatra and Jack Hody Johnson



School & the late night cram sessions that accompany it.

(this was taken at approximately 3 AM)


wearing sweats, jeans, and shorts most of the week.


ADVENTURES WITH ROOMMATES






















WINKING AT PEOPLE (semi-inappropriate on a mission)

going to the temple whenever i wanna

Possibly the english language


luxuries involving the American culture


playing all the time

autumn in Cache valley. all seasons in cache valley

=]I sure can't wait to start missing these things!

i am untitled

I sit here scraping the last globs of yoplait yogurt out its container while trying to think of a witty title for this, my blog that I rarely write. I was thinking of: Scraping for life at the bottom of my peach flavored yogurt container, but the connotation for that seems negative. I am anything but negative.

I am wakeful in my Utah State sweat pants and 15 year old wrestling hoodie that my brother used. I am sitting next to a window looking at my brother's "blonde" lawn turn green due to increase in rain and I am admiring the way the multi-shades-of-gray sky contrasts perfectly with pinetrees and other sorts of vegetation. Washington is everything beautiful to this mostly awake 21 year old.




I feel like...whoa i just started off three paragraphs with I...what would my english professors think? she's gettin rusty.maybe i am shhhh.... I feel content in this waiting period of life. I realize to have adventure you have to look for it and sometimes that means making adventure up. Whether that be building a blanket and pillow fort with 7&8 year old boys or running down a hypnotizing canal trail as rain drizzles slowly enough to build into puddles on your skin and you feel like you are all water and cloth as your shirt and shorts weigh down. but you keep running anyway because it feels good. Sometimes adventures involve getting lost into the concept of how the world works and how our minds and our hearts and our bodies combine to form this brilliantly structured being, perfectly suited for this world. The best adventures involve thinking outside yourself.




My hope, is that one day i will perfect the making of adventure. As Peter Pan said: "To live would be an awfully big adventure." and that is what i aim to do.

simplicity

This is what a 21 year old looks like...

I pride myself in the fact that if I wanted to, I could take all of my belongings, fit them into the back of my 2001 kia sephia (john wayne) and drive until my gas tank hit empty. I take pleasure in the fact that most of my hobbies require no money and that rice and beans are the staple of my diet. I love how quarters are critical and how they seem to be non existent due to the fact that every load of laundry wipes me out, quarterly speaking. I like living the simple life and finding happiness through my simplicity.


In Portuguese, Voce gostas minha bunda peluda means: Do you like my hairy butt?
A mozambiquan taught me this phrase on a drive home to Caldwell. Of all the things that I've learned to say in Portuguese, I only remember the things that probably won't help me very much as a missionary.

As far as life goes my life be like ooh ahh. i think in fact i capture the idea of that song. I have recently moved to Yelm Washington where I'm with my brother and his family. I basically get to hangout with my favorite two year old, an overly sassy three year old and the best 7 and 8 year old boys I've met. And my sister in law.

Life is simple for me right now i have approximately 36 days till i leave for Sao Paulo and I don't have much to stress about or much to say. I'm happy and i'm learning. I learn mostly from what I'm studying which with 36 days left is pretty much the gospel, but I get a lot of hands on experience with kids. Slowly, I've come to the conclusion that being a mom would pretty much be the raddest thing ever. I used to make fun of the girls in my church who only had one ambition in life and that was to be a mother. I admire these girls now. To be so with it at such a young age, man it took me nearly 21 years to figure it out.

I look at society and the future freaks me out, but then i think about it and realize...if everyone took parenting as seriously as they should, the world would be awesome. If everyone sought to be the best versions of themselves boom roasted i wouldn't dread the day when i hold this creature that i made in my hands and expect them to grow up functionally in the environment its been placed. I hate on the idea that family is not important in our society, it is the most fundamental and critically important thing possible.

I'll hop off that soap box for now. I'm just saying that I look forward to the day God tells me to start a family so I can experience the joy that comes from being completely and totally selfless. But until then, i'll work on the selfless part of me and be grateful for the selfish opportunities i have now.

That is me. Poor priceless and pleased to live such a wonderful life.

CALLED TO SERVE

Yesterday morning I called the post office at about eight o'clock in the morning. The post-woman eyed me as she realized I was the young lady who subsequently had been stalking her for the past three or four days at my apartment complex. She gave me my post, and i thanked her. I opened my call and it said:






Dear Sister Peterson,

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Brazil Maceio Mission.
All I have to say (and it's really not all I have to say) is that this call was the perfect call for me. I'm stoked and incredibly humbled that God would give me this calling. I cannot wait to meet the wonderful people of Maceio and share my simple testimony of the gospel with them. This is one thing in my life that brings me joy beyond anything else. I am very blessed to have it and I am very blessed to have this opportunity to serve.

At night a bunch of my friends came to dinner to celebrate. I feel blessed to have so many friends supporting me. It was a lot of fun. I'm gonna miss some of these wonderful people.

117 days till i enter the Sao Paulo Brazil MTC. Life is good.

SUMMER LOVE

Summer has this intriguing way of making me smile 24/7, making me break out into song (oooh oooh oooh HONEY!), and filling my soul with happiness. Amen sista, it's true, I've fallen HEAD OVER HEELS for Summer. I'm considering making this thing official, unfortunately by about september i'm longing for my other love, Fall. Although I know this is a short fling, i am so much in love with this summer thing that I must blog about it.


I am a quarterly blogger, i must admit, but hopefully i will have more time to dispel my about doings to those two or three faithful readers. Baha. love it!

I have recently moved to the beautiful city of Provo Utah and yes, it is a whole new universe here. It may take time to get used to the smiles and constant lds jargon in and out of class. My roommate overheard someone saying "Not only is that against the Word of Wisdom, but it is also against the honor code." I like BYU, it is different but i like that my religion is encorporated in my learning and it is something i am very grateful for.

I am rooming with one of my previous roommates, Nicole, and one of my lifelong biffles for riffles Lindsey. We like to have adventures they involve ripsticking, rollerblades, longboards, and peanut butter no bake bars. Lindsey constantly likes to ask, "are you ready to play, will you please play with me?" our apartment is GHETTO, but we love it. We all love eachother and life is GOOD.

I put my missionary papers in last Thursday. So within the next three weeks i should know where i'm going! EXCITING! I want nothing more than to serve my God in any way possible and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to do so by volunteering a year and a half of my life. I love my God and I know He loves me. That simple truth brings me happiness, pure simple and lasting happiness. I hope i can bring that happiness to others.

I must say i've got a lot to be thankful for. Love it.


"There's a five piece gospel band in the heart of every man." -Shake your Peace!