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