CHRISTMAS FOI OTIMO!!!

Christmas was awesome!!!!!

But literally, last Tuesday I got to Skype my family, so I called and then all of a sudden someone added Jessica.......I TOTALLY THOUGHT I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO SEE HER BECAUSE I WAS SKYPING THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Anywho miracle time. So apparently Jess was helping on a move all day Monday and didn´t email so she didn´t get my email saying I couldn´t Skype on Christmas with her. Then on Tuesday morning she called mom to ask what time I was Skyping the next day and mom said, um she´s calling in about an hour.....So Jess got to Skype with me!!! Other miracle. We were trying to decide when to Skype and Sister Rolim said that I could go first, but I had a feeling I should go second...Jess was calling Mom while Sister Rolim was Skyping...so pretty much Jessie and I were supposed to see each other! LIFE IS SO GOOD :)

So then on Christmas we all got on buses from our different areas and headed to Santos for Mission Devotional Conference thing. :) It was way good!! And all in Português and I surprisingly understood pretty much everything!! Yayyyy 

Sister Dalton and Sister Peterson singing

my homemade bracelets from my brothers :) 

Then after the devotional part we were eating lunch and the background music was David Archuletta singing Christmas songs with MoTab!! Ahhh so beautiful, and so in English :) can I say wonderful too much?? WONDERFUL Then we had a bunch of performances and my district sang Near My God to Thee, and Testimony!! Then at the end Sister Dalton and I sang Silent Night/Noite Feliz some in English and some in português. It went way well!! Other than my voice cracked a little at the end and i smiled :) oh well!!!! But it was way good!! then we went back to our apartment and I FINALLY got to open my Christmas present that I have been hauling around for a month!! THANK YOU EVERYONE!!! I loved everything. All the homemade things and the treats and the recipes :) yayyyyyy thank you bunches!!!!

So things this week, I experience my first "summer rain" where it POURS for about 10-30 minutes and then streets are all crazy flooded. And it´s super windy, reminds me a bit of home :D

Marir came to church again!! And we have a baptism set for Saturday!! She had a problem with smoking so we´re praying she doesn´t start again, cause she believes it´s all true and wants to get baptized!!!! We have 2 new investigators!!! Elãne and Maria!! They are understanding a lot and like everything!! Elãne is so smart and when we were talking about the restoration she understood everything and the purpose for everything it was wonderful!!!! We also are teaching a boy William who is 15 and he has already gone to church for 2 months so we´re trying to set a date for baptism :)

Some funny things :) SOoo there are two words in português perigoso(dangerous) and preguisoso(lazy). So I didn´t notice the difference, so when Sister Rolim would say that is perigoso, I´m always like, How is that lazy?? ohhh It was so much better once I fixed that confusion :) Also the phrase agente means us(nos) (idk if it´s a gente or agente) but gente means people and when you conjugate nos it´s -amos in the present and agente is -a its sooo weird. I´m trying to get used to all the phrases they useeee. Oh and we are in a different city today to have p-day and it was interesting they have these gyms that look like a playground but it´s like outdoor gym equipment, sooo weird!!!! hahahhhh

well love you all!!!

Sister Amanda Peterson

Sister Rolim on the left, and Sis Dalton!! yaya

Ohhh Sis Dalton :) and yay for new friends!!

My district/zone yayyyyy

TAYLOR WOODBERRY!! sooo we were in a study group together at school this year!! Soooo we were practically like besties :) yay for SANTOS!

LOOK AT THIS SWEET MARSHMELLOW TWRILLY THING :) I loveee marshmellows...my companion has never had a smore, i needa change this

So christmas presents involved lots of chocolate!!!

NEW POTS AND PANS!!!! oiiiii sooooo good!

so this is my everyday suncreen faceee :) yay for being protected!!!!

these are pictures of the houses hereeeee, so different i know

It´s pouring righht nowww!!!

SO this week was way good!!!!!

i found a big tree branch thingy that fell off :)

First off, I want to talk about some strange things haha. So many people here have shirts or shorts that have american flags or england flags!! It is soo funny!! And everyone listens to American music. Like when we are on the bus that is all I hear!!! it´s so funny!!!!!! Other thing, everyday there is a huge line for the lottery, it is so weird!! Hahahah other thing, houses here are sooo different from the houses back home, every house has a big wall or gate around it and the front is ALWAYS locked. I will send a picture once I take one :) but it´s cool!!!!

So this week we had an investigator named Maria come to church with us!! it was so awesome!!!! We were going to have a family come also but the mom had an asthma attack and had to go to the hospital :/ But she is already getting better which is way good!!!!

WE ARE READY TO WORK - we had to put all the old investigators in order because our area is pretty big so to make better use of our time we visit the people who live near each other the same day!! yayyyy for being productive!

We are also teaching an inactive!! Gustavo, he´s 19 and has a ´wife` who is less-active, but they aren´t married. He is improving a lot though!! That is actually a big problem here!! There are so many families, that have 3, 5 kids and have been living together for years and call each other husband and wife, but they have never actually been married. It´s hard because they have to want to get baptized and then they have to want to get married also. It´s also crazy because so many people have children very very young. There are a ton of teens that have children and families!!! But it´s different because the mom and Dad always stay together and raise the family! It is just a way different culture here!!! 

So last night!!! We went to the stake center for the Christmas program!! I had planned to just play the piano for 1 song. I ended up singing in 2 groups, and playing the piano for 2 groups. Oh the joy of Christmas!! It was awesome though!!!

I am so excited for Christmas!! I love this season of joy and remembering the Savior. It is weird that it´s so hot for Christmas, but I love it here! Everything is different, but it is a good experience!

Love you all!!

.this one is our first set of roomies at the CTM!!

Sister Peterson

Sister Peterson & Elder Caleb!!!

part of my district in CTM and elder johnson and i saw some birds....ha

Me and Sister Dalton :)

MY CTM DISTRICT!! LOVE THEM

Santos friends from the CTM

First Week In the Field!!!! wowzers!!!

CTM District

Sooo I´m going to start with the last couple days in the CTM. On Saturday we did blessings for everyone in the District!! It was literally amazing :) loved it so much!!!! And we also all wrote letters to each other!! It was really touching!!! Then on Sunday all the sisters at the CTM got together and the ones leaving bore their testimonies (in Portuguese of course)!! It was so cool. I got to play the piano for "God be With you Till we Meet Again." I think because I was focusing on playing and it was in a different language I didn´t cry as much!! But it was awesome! I loved the CTM!!! We sang so much on Sunday!! Because we sang with the departing group (EFY medley in Portuguese and English, and I got to lead!!), the normal choir, we sang a special musical number ("Be still my soul") with just my district, and we sang Christmas carols at night!! We counted...about 30 songs. SOOO much my voice was shot afterwards!!! Orientation was all day but it was cool!! All in Portuguese!!! 10 hours of instruction in Portuguese was hard but way good!!! 

We had to be in the parking lot at 7 am to leave for Santos!!! The drive was sooo beautiful, mountains and SOOO green!!! 

Then in Santos we were at the house of President Cabral and we had a little orientation thing and lunch and snacks and such. President Cabral asked if I could play White Christmas on the piano for him, so I went and figured it out hahahahahah Then!!! he made Sister Dalton and I sing it in front of all the trainers that showed up!!! It was awesome but kind of nerve racking!! Haha so awesome!!! It was good :)

So the next day we had mission conference (all in Portuguese as well) for the whole day and it was way good!!! We talked a lot about the changes being made and about our areas and we had practices!!!

My companion is Sister Rolim!!!! She is from Curitiba originally but she has lived in Paraguay for the last 7 years so she speaks Spanish and Portuguese. She knows a little bit of English and I am helping her learn while she is helping me learn Portuguese!! It´s way good!!!

Our area is Mongaguá and the whole thing is beach!! It's way cool!! and Pretty too!! So we both we´re sent to this area as newbies. So we didn´t really know much. But we have been figuring things out!!! We found a lady named Maria who said we are an answer to her prayers!! And we also found a family Maria, Claudio, and their son Gabriel. They have 2 younger children as well and they seeem golden!! It is way exciting!!!

Church was yesterday and no one plays the piano!! So I was dubbed to play! I now wish that I had practiced the hymns when I was younger...I struggle a bit, but it´s better than nothing!!!!

We go running every morning near the beach (cause we can´t go on the sand) and its way pretty and breezy!!! I have a little bit of sunburn, but it doesn´t hurt and it´s not bad so it´s all good!!! yayyyyy We have to take the bus everyday because the area is really long and to get to where our investigators are would take more than an hour to walk!!! It´s crazy!!! 

It´s so different here!! But it is wayy good!!! Oh something way different, all the houses have gates in front so to ´knock doors´ we clap. It is so funny! But i´m getting used to it!!

Love you all!!!!

Sister Peterson

Sister Peterson has arrived!

President & Sister Cabral with Sister Peterson

Dear Brother & Sister Peterson,

We were so excited to welcome your beautiful daughter to our mission last Tuesday! We are so glad to have your daughter serving here in Santos. We will keep you updated periodically on how she is doing. We will do our best to take extra good care of her. We hope that you have a great Christmas and New Year's.

Here is some information about our mission:

We welcomed 17 new missionaries to the Brazil Santos Mission this past Tuesday -- 9 elders and 8 sisters! They received training, were interviewed by President Cabral and had dinner at the Mission House. Transfers were that evening and the missionaries met their trainers and took a bus out to their new areas. Sister Peterson will be trained by Sister Rolim. She has been assigned to serve in the Mongaguá Ward  of the Belas Artes zone. I attached some photos of your missionary.

We were very impressed with how dedicated and prepared this new group of missionaries is. We know that they will do a terrific job building up the kingdom of God here in Santos. We will do our best to take great care of them. We have our own missionaries son and youngest daughter who are serving in Tennesse Knoxville Mission and Panama, Panama City Misison, so we know how you are feeling.

If you want to follow the mission Facebook group, you must accept my invitation to our group (Missão Brasil Santos). I try to update it every time I'm with the missionaries with new photos. The p-day in our mission is on Mondays, so you should be getting your first email from your missionary then. If you wish to send letters or packages, the mailing address for the mission is:

Sister Peterson with trainer Sister Rolim

Amanda Jean Peterson
Missão Brasil Santos
Av. Dona Ana Costa, 414 - sala 24 - Gonzaga
Santos - SP - Brasil
11060-002


We are very blessed to be in Santos to help build up the Lord's kingdom. We thank you for sending us such prepared, worthy and dedicated missionary. We pray that your family will be blessed while you have a missionary serving full-time for the Lord.

I LEAVE IN 4 DAYS!!

Oi!

I can't believe I'm leaving the CTM in 4 days! I seriously feel like I just got here!! It has been an amazing expereince and I love all the people here that have helped me learn Portuguese and how to teach better!!! It is amazing to think that we can teach lessons and have conversations in Portuguese after just 6 weeks!!! I love it though. I am so excited to go out and serve!!!

So this week!!! Was a pretty basic week at the CTM, but the highlights were pretty great :)

So last p-day at night we all got together in the courtyard, sang christmas carols and counted down to light up the christmas lights :) It was so amazing!!! I love it SO MUCH!!!! So we have 2 fake investigators that we were teaching during the time here at the CTM and Gabriel got "baptized" yesterday and Diana got "baptized" on Sunday!! Yay we felt so good about it, it makes me so excited to go to the field and be able to teach people the joy of the gospel!!! Then BEST LESSON YET, we have TRC on Monday and that's where we teach a random "investigator" that we haven't met before and it's our first lesson with them. We had a guy Marcello and his wife who was a member just passed away, but we taught him and he understood everything we said, and we understood everything he said, and we just had an amazing

lesson!! The spirit was definitely guiding us because somehow we knew what to say the entire time!! Then afterwards, we invited him to be baptized and he said YES!!! Ohhh such a great feeling, because 1 the spirit was so strong and 2 I can't wait to do this for real in the field and see the joy that people can receive!! It's going to be amazing.

Soooo on Sunday, we I was practicing the piano for a song I was accompanying in devotional and then while we were playing 2 of our Brazilian Sister Friends came in to sing with us. Then Sister Gomes asked if I knew any other songs?? So I started playing "I'll find you there my friend," then she started singing in Portuguese!!! Ahh it was so exciting!! So we sang together, her in Portuguese and me in English and I sang harmony and it was way pretty!!! Then later that day at choir practice (where I was playing the piano) they were in the group that was singing!! Sooo, Sister Oliveria went up to Sister Degn (Presidents wife) and was like, they need to sing this tonight because we are leaving on Tuesday, and sister Degn says OKAY. I was sooo surprised, so between choir practice and the choir practice with everyone, we practiced and then we sang it for postlude!! Ah it went really well!!! ANDDDD people told me my voice sound like the girl from Tangled :) LIFE MADE!!! It was so exciting!!!

ALSO I've been working on pull ups since I got here and I did 3 on Tuesday!!! THE MOST I'VE DONE EVER!!! Soooo exciting i know  :)

Something I failed to mention a couple weeks ago is that everyone in Brazil does this finger snap thing, and I learned how to do it a couple weeks ago! It was so exciting! And it gets louder and better everyday!!! WAY GOOD!!!!

The temple this morning was amazing!! Sad that I won't be able to go for a while, I don't know the rules in my mission but the temple is about 45 min away from my mission so I may or may not be able to go within the next year and a half!!! I love it though, we all stood as a district together :) I'm gonna miss them all a lot they are amazing and they have made such a big difference on my life!! WE are all going to be in 

Utah after our missions, so REUNION!!! HURRAY!!!

Lots of Love, Muito Amor, Stay Cool

Sister Peterson :)

I can't believe it's been a MONTH!!!

Oh my gush, I've been here for a month. We looked at it and I've been set apart as a missionary for 1 month and 1 day!!!! CRAZY RIGHT???? It is so exciting though!! So like all my letters, this is going to be super choppy and not in order, but I'm just trying to go fast :)

 

Soooooo yesterday was a GREAT DAY! We had our usual morning and then when we went down to lunch it was THANKSGIVING!!! Like legit. Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, stuffing, corn, and ICE CREAM!!! Ahhh it was so amazing!! And then as a district we all went around and said what we were thankful for! Ahh it was so amaazing and it was a complete surprise which made it even better! And the entire cafteria was decorated too!!! Oh such a nice surprise :) Did I mention I love surprises!! Ahhhh so good :) ANDDD yesterday THEY PUT UP CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!! If I could do double caps I would!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! Christmas is so sooN!!!! :)

 

So We are singing Be Still my Soul as a district on our last Sunday!!! We have been practicing alot and it sounds way good!! I can't wait until we get to perform!!!!! Anddd this sunday I'm singing in a little group singing O Come O Come Emanuel!!! Ahh it's going to be so good!! i'm excited!!!!

 

So random things that make life amazing: We got a ton of candy last P-day cause we were going to have a candy feast for thanksgiving (since we did'nt know the real feast was happeneing) and so we have had candy all week :) haha good times! We were playing volleyball yesterday and I totally misjudged the ball and it hit me in the face and I bit my lip! Like a chunck came out. NASTY I know, but it's all good now. And it's a cool story!! Haha :) They had milk for breakfast one day this week so when we saw it Sister Dalton and I ran back up stairs and grabbed my Strawberry Nesquick!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH literally the highlight of my life right there :) Elder Buhler always brings his peanut butter to breakfast, so if I ever get sick of porridge and grilled cheese, I eat peanut butter. It's a nice substitue :) SOOOO Elder Coronados family sent us a PIZZA PARTY!!! I don't know how, but they did, so we get to have a pizza party today at 4!!! Ahh I'm so excited :) It's going to be so great!!!

 

So on tuesday we have our district meeting adn we decided to do this thing called roses buds and thorns! It was way cool!!!!! So we were talking about our week or stay at the MTC and for rose, you would say something good or miracles that had happened, and then for buds, something that you can work on and become better at, and thorns something that was hard. And you could do it in any order! It was way good!!! Because it was like a mini testimony and we got to say good and bad things and how to improve the bad things. It was awesome and I really appreciated everyone sharing their testimonys!!! It was amazing!!!

 

I absolutely love my district!!! And I can't believe i leave in a week and a half!!NEXT TUESDAY!! Ahhhh this is so crazy! But I am SOOO excited! It is going to be such an amazing experience!!! It already is :)

 

I love you all!!!!

 

Love

Sister Peterson

HALF WAYYY!!!!

Soooo, wednesday was the half way mark in the CTM here. Ahhh hI don't even know how to feel! It's so crazy!!!!

 

There was a bunch of cool things that happened this week!!!

 

So on Sunday I sewed (is that the past tense of sew????) a star onto the Tie!!! Ahh it's so cute!! I like it a lot, it took a while and a lot of concetration but we have a bunch of rest time on Sundays so it was good!! Everyone thought that it looked great! ALL THAT MATTERS :) So on Saturday Sister Dalton got sick and then on Sunday she couldn't stay hydrated so she got a blessing and then they had to take her to the hospital to get an IV for hydration. She went and came back and was all better!!! YAY for blessings :) The next day I got a nasty cough and with the help of cough syrup, some uber strong cough drops, a ton of prayers and a blessing, it's pretty much all gone!!! It's amazing!!!!

 

So Tuesday started as kind of a slow day and then at night we had this AMAZING devotional by Elder Holland. It was an old recorded one, but it was so good!!! And then after that we had a district meeting where we decided to have a testimony meeting. MOST TOUCHING testimony meeting I have ever been in. Every person in our district bore their testimony and the Spirit was so strong, everyone was crying, and it was just amazing. It was a moment where we all grew closer as a district!! We're a family :) Everyone is so loving and welcoming here I can't stand the love!! It's the greatest!

 

WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!! We got to go proselyting! (I HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO SPELL THAT WORD IN ENGLISH :D) Any who we took a bus for like 30-45 min and then Sister Dalton and I together handed out 8 book of Mormons!!!! Ahh we handed out 24 as a ddistrict! It was literally amazing! We spoke in Portuese the whole time, other than one irish guy we ran into, and it was literally amazing! We definitely felt the gift of tounges while talking to the people! They didn't believe we had only been here for 3 weeks!!!!!

 

Also on wednesday (such a good day) CALEB got here, I mean Elder Menendez. Ahh it was so exciting to see him!!!! He's way cool and then Sister Dalton and I got to do a little skit for them where we taught in English, THAT WAS WEIRD!!!! We havent taught a lesson in English, EVER!!! Ha, but it was awesome at the same time!!!!

 

So on Thurdsday we had to go to the Police Station to get our finger prints done and everything, it was supposed to take 2 hours, it took 5. But it was all good!! we saw other missionaries there which was way cool!!!1 It was awesome though, they had these cool fingerprint scanners, LIFE IS GOOD :) I am now brazilian.

 

Some cool things about the town, there are hobo villages, you see a small plot of grass and there are tents all set up, sosooo different than home! And there are soooo many motorcylces!!!! They all drive inbetween the cars and there are hundreeds of them!! So cooL!!!!! And THEY ALL WEAR HELMETS!!! Daddy would approve :) So pretty much they are maniac drivers, but are so aware of each other there are no accidents!!! yay for Brazilian drivers :)

 

Well, I'm running out of time!!!

 

LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!! YAY FOR BRASIL!!!

 

SIster Peterson

2nd Week, I can't believe it's going by so fast!!!

Hey all!!!

 

I can't believe I'm more than a third of the way through my CTM experience!!! I love it here so much!!! All the people are nice, the food is good. I actually really like the porridge we get for breakfast (never thought i would say that!!) and my teachers and district are so awesome!!!!!!

 

We didn't get any new people this week in our district so we will see if any more come next week. I heard that if they don't come next week then they won't come to the CTM in Brazil even if they get there VISA. It kinda makes sense. That after being in Provo for half the time to just stay!! Makes sense :)

 

So I know all my emails are uber random but it's cause we don't have a ton of time and anything that pops into my head I say! My bad!!! Hope it still all makes sense :)

 

A couple items of business (I've always wanted to write that in an email, check it off the bucket list :D):

It takes about 6-7 days for a letter to get here to the CTM but it takes up to 3 weeks for a letter to get back to the states! So if you don't get letters from me for a while, that is why! There's this thing called Mission Ties, honestly don't know much about it but some people like it. Mom and Dad can look into that!!! We ordered these SUPER LEGAL leather scripture cases that we get to pick up next p-day!! SOOOO EXCITED!!!! I have no idea how to upload pictures and people have tried and it doesn't work :/ So no pictures till I get to the field!!! You will get a lot then!!!

 

Alright so this week we accomplished a lot!! I memorized the Baptismal invitation, the first vision, and "our purpose" in Portuguese!! Wohoo! My Portuguese is getting so much better!! It definitely helps having Brazilian roommates and that no one will speak English to you even if they know it. We tried having an only Portuguese day yesterday as a district!! We got to lunch doing Way good, but then after that it was hard cause we were trying to tell stories and they are just not funny when it takes 10 minutes to explain them :)  Irmão Alvino wants to go to BYU and he knows a bunch of English, and we are working on teaching him 5 new words a day! He is so awesome and funny!!!

 

When teaching our Investigators we have gotten a LOT better at not reading our notes as much and being able to express our feelings about principles in Portuguese. It is so amazing!! I love it so much!!!!

 

So everyone here calls P-day, "P-day" just like back home. It is so funny because whenever we speak in English people are always like, "não entendo inglés" so whenever someone says p-day we say não entendo inglés right back to them! It is so funny and all the instructores always laugh at us. One of the Irmas called us monsters cause we kept saying it. And Irmão Alvino calls us Brazilians. So now we are his Brazilian Monsters :) I love my district so much! We all get along so well and get a lot done and we are still able to have fun!!!! We are like a little family :) -well big family cause there are 8 kids- but it like it a lot!!!

 

So this week we were given the Miracle Tie. It's this tie that has been here since the beginning of the summer and it's only for American districts and someone has to wear it everyday. They call it the Miracle tie because whenever someone has it, a miracle happens. It isn't really the tie, but it makes us look closer at the little miracles that are in our everyday life! It is so amazing!! Everyone knows I'm so clumsy. So Since day one I have spilled something on my shirt or skirt (or both) and since we got the Miracle Tie - 4 days ago - I haven't spilled at all!! MIRACLE!!! Just small miracles like that make all of us appreciate life so much more!

 

We got to go to the Temple again this morning!! Wow so beautiful and AMAZING!!! Definitely makes any day, the best day of the week!!!!!

 

If I forgot something I will say it next week!! It's hard to remember everything you want to say when you are pressed for time and my mind is boggling around. I think I'm going to start writing stuff down during the week to remember!!!!

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Think of me when you all stuff your faces with amazing Thanksgiving food!! I'm thankful for you all!!!!

 

Love, Sister Peterson!!!!

So I'm in BRAZIL!!!

Wow, so much has happened these last 9 days. I don't even know where to start. The plane ride was good, food wasn't the best but hey! They gave us 2 meals! Haven't had that in a while!!! But Sister Dalton and I traveled together which was way good cause the guy who picked us up from the airport doesn't speak English. But, we got to the CTM all safe and sound and we were the first ones to arrive that day! So we unpakced and walked around a little bit. It was seriously so much fun! Sister Dalton and I are companions which is AWESOME! We get a long way great and it's been a way good time. Since day 2 people onlytalk to us in Portuguese. Everyone at the CTM either knows portugese or is learning it, so we hear it all day every day!! It is so awesome!!!!

 

I love my district we have 4 Sisters and 4 Elders!!! 2 of the elders just arrived from the Provo MTC on Wednesday!!! So at the CTM they try to bring you into the Culture of Brasil, soooo we eat Brazilian food at every meal. We have some type of porridge, fruit, and a panini type thing for breakfast. ALWAYS rice and beans for lunch and dinner. And then sice we eat dinner kind of earlyand the biggest meal in Brazil is lunch, we have lanche at 9 o-clock. Thats snack in Portuegese. It's almost always some little bread thing, a banana, and this little amazing tasting Juice Box. Like it actually tastes like real fruit instead of that fake stuff we have back home!! It's sogreat!!!!!

 

So from either day 2 or 3 (i can't remember) we started teaching our "investigator", Diana, in only Portuguese. Kind of terrifying at first, but it went well!!! And it's been getting better everytime!!!! We just got our second "investigator" on wednesday!!! That was cool too! Gabriel is so much easier to teach and talk to. So the reason they are in quotes is because our investigators are also our intructors. So we just met our Instructor Monique for the first time yesterday but we had been teaching her as Diana for a week already!! And Irmao Alvino is Gabriel. He is the best! He started teaching us from day 2 and he is the best!! He just got home from his mission 5 months ago and we all laugh as he teaches us. We do a ton of studying here and learning the doctorine and the lanugage better!!! It really is a lot of work, but it is so worth it!!!

 

We started having gym time everyday this week and it is so much fun to just have 45 minutes to work out, run, or play volleyball (i alwasy play vball :)) It is a nice change from studying all day. I am learning a lot here which is amazing!!!

 

Today was our first P-day so we went to the Sao Paolo temple this morning!!! It is absolutely georgous!!! I love it so much!!! We get to go every week!!! And then after emailing today we are going out on the street to the different shops to get things we need or forgot to bring from home. They make these scripture cases here and I can't wait to  go get one and personalize it for me!!! It's going to be so cool looking!!! Ahhhh, so excited :)

 

Everyday I learn something new and my district helps a lot. Every is so nice and kind and fun to be around!! We all get a long amazingly and have fun and also get a lot done. I feel like both of those things are important because we always need a little bit of a break from studying all day!!

 

I have so many Brazilian friends here!!! We sit with them at lunch and play volleyball with them and see them in the Hallways. I love having little inside jokes with a bunch of people!! They all leave next tuesday, but we can make new friends then :) It will be so great!!!!!

 

So here at the Brazil CTM there are only between like 175 and 250 missionaries here at a time, sometimes a little more and some times a little less. So you see the same people alll the time!! It is way cool. Since we only have this many people we also all are in the Choir. I love it!!! On sundays and tuesday we all go to the auditoriom and have choir for 45 minutes. Then we have a 15 min break and then the devotional starts at 7 usually. During the devotional we sing the song we jsut learned. It's not perfect but it is a great way to bring the spirit to all our meetings. Speaking of, we pray all the time!! It's a great way to bring the spirit and help us always know what to prepare and helps us learn better!!!! The CTM is hard, but it is amazing at the same time! I love it here!!

 

Funny story time - so all the days mesh into each other here. So Sister Dalton and I were trying to find the room on our first day and we went down the wrong hall so we had to go back and go to the other hall to find our room. We had all our stuff at this time. And thennnn, later that day we were walking to our room and Sister Dalton says, "Remember when we went the wrong way??" and she starts laughing like it had been a week before or something, and I'm like, "Remember how that was this morning??" haha Literally the first day felt so long that we thought we had already been there for like a week!!! Anywho, it was probably funnier if you were there ;)

 

Have a great week!!

 

Muito Amor,

Sister Peterson

I made it!

Aileen and I made it to the CTM this morning!! Kind of crazy. The guy who picked us up speaks very little english. Barely any at all. Kind of crazy. But we got here safe and then we were able to get all settled in before anyone else got here. So we had a little free time and we were able to walk around the CTM. The outside and courtyards are sooooo pretty!!! I seriously love it! The peolpe are so nice and friendly and understanding when were not able to speak at all. I'll try to send pictures next week because we are only allowed to take pictures on p-days. So there are 4 sisters in my district and either 3 or 4 elders. One sister is arriving tomorrow morning and there may be another elder, I don't know. There were also 2 other missionaries that arrived with us who  had gotten their visas and were transefered here from Provo. They already know a little bit of Portuguese so that's cool!!! I also saw a guy that I met at school this year and I sat with him at lunch!!! It was way cool and way fun! The guy who has been helping us around is names Pacenha. (the nh is the nyeh in spanish, and the c is the one with the little curly on the bottem - pasengya) He is way funny and a lot of fun to be around!!!

P-day isn't until next Friday so I will talk to you again then!!!!

Love you lots!!!!

Sister Peterson