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