Eu vou morrer de calor!

Hiiii all

Um the title of this translates to, I will die of heat!!! The other day it was either 39 degrees or 43, Idk different people said different things...but i know that 39 degrees Celcius is 102 degrees Fahrenheit (i never knew how to spell that word) So in other words, deadly hot, I literally felt like i was going to fall over every second. But I´m still alive :) yayyyyy ahah

So my new area is Embaré, it´s a neighborhood in Santos. So the wards here are a little different. Here, every ward has their own building. I think it´s because people don´t have as much transportation here. But it´s a bit weird for me. BUT MIRACLE!!! Our chapel has air conditioning!!! Ohhhh, it was wonderful! Anywho, there area I´m in is where President Cabral lives!!! Yay! SO his daughters are in our ward! And my new ward is so awesome! There were like 3 different people who came up to us after church and were like, oh if you need a member for a lesson just call us the day before and we will be there!! They are so awesome! 

Sooo, we were living at this apartment with 3 other sisters that isn't in our area but is right next to it. But then we got moved so now we have to take the bus like 40 minutes everyday to get to our area, a bit difficult, but its good. We are learning the best routes and best buses to take. 

We are working with this family A couple and their two kids and they are way cool!! We have our second lesson with them today! SO we will see how that goes :) We are also working with an inactive Alex. He is 17 and lived in the Utah for 5 years. He was active there but when he moved back he didn´t really like going to church here, so he hasn´t gone for a year and a half. So we are working with him!! It´s great :) 

MIRACLE!!!

Everyone says I speak Portuguese really well and that it seems like I have been here for way longer than 3 months!!! But it´s way awesome!! I´m so excited :)

SO I figured out the most wonderful thing. GENERAL CONFERENCE IS SOON!!!! Ahhhhh so many good things about general conference

1. GENERAL CONFERENCE is always wonderful

2. I will speak Portuguese way better 

3. My birthday is the same week :)

4. It will start to be a bit colder!!! YAYAYAYAY

SO pretty much it´s just going to be a wonderful time of life :D

Love you all lots!!!! 

Sister Amanda Peterson

p.s. how many hymns are there in the English hymnal?? cause there are 204 in Portuguese

Sooooo, I´m getting transfered

Hiiii alll!1!!

Quote time! :

This is what we used to grill :) LEGIT RIGHT????/

"The Lord´s greatest mentors have shown me that spiritual staying power comes from working past the point when others would have taken a rest." - President Henry B. Eyring

So this last p-day we had a p-day with our district and we grilled brazilian style1!! it was awesome!1! :) And I did some of the grilling, thanks Daddy for teaching me! They were all surprised that a Sister could grill :) What up!!! haha 

 

Our last p-day together as a district, wass a blast!!

So this last week we also got a call to look for a new house. Rumor was that we we´re going to stay and we were also going to get a set of elders, so we found this new apartment right across from the church...idk if they are going to rent it or not cause we aren´t staying...

But we also had interviews with President Cabral this week!!1 It was way good, he likes to practice his English so my interview was in English. It was great!1 We just talked technical stuff first and then just talked it was good to get his views on things. He is an awesome Mission President!

I tried Pastel for the first time, talk about amazing!!! Ahhh look it up :) it´s wonderful!!! Andddd I made cookies! But I didn´t have all the right ingredients and the recipe I had was a bit weird...I didn´t like them a lot but everyone else loved them and ate a bunch! It all worked out!!! So Thursday night we had noite de amizade with some people from our ward and the friends that they brought!1 IT WENT SO WELL!!! We read parts of the Book of Mormon and then had testimonies, ate cookies and played the game "big booty" but I changed they name to 'cookies" hahahaha it was way fun1!!!

BUT, we got home and...wait for it...we had no electricity... It turns out the elders before us thought they paid for the month of November but it wasn´t paid for in the system. We had already paid December and January so we were confused. But it was kind of funny! We got to plan and write in our journals by candle light :)  So this is our candle light planning haha such a funny experience

I MADE FRENCH TOAST! BEST BREAKFAST YET! the syrup didn´t have brown sugar though but it was so good!! Thanks mom for sending me with black walnut extract!!!  

So I wanted to make syrup right?? So I went to the store to buy brown sugar;;;18 reais!!! thats like 9 dollars. RIDICULOUS! soooo i just used normal sugar haha, but i made french toast and Sister Rolim has never had it before so that was a good experience!!!! yayyyyy

 

I gave a talk on Sunday!!! It went way well and everyone understood me! There was a story that I used but I could only find it in English, so I spent an hour with 2 diferent dictionaries and reading every line to my companion until I finally got it translated. It was worth it!! :)

Something funny, we were visiting an in-active yesterday and her daughter had on a t-shirt that was in english "butterfly sweet fligth" i think its funny that a lot of things here are in English. It´s even funnier when it is spelled wrong :) also I learned that there are about 800 in-actives in my area...we have like 150 that attend sacrament. That´s a lotttttttt.

But we got the call last night that we are both getting transfered. We think they are going to put 4 elders here. But that´s okay!! Kinda weird becasuse I´m only half way through my training, but it´s all good!!! The Lord knows what he´s doing! :D

Well I love you all11!! stay strong and always walk with the Lord!!

Love,
Sister Amanda Peterson

sooo I got a new name tag!YAY!!! So my new name tag is spelled wrong HaHAHAHA now its a keepsake :0

 

This was this HUGE snail that I found, literally half as big as my hand :) wayyyy cooll!1 I was gonna pick it up but sister Rolim said that I could get sick..I decided to play it safe :)

So I think this sign in the most funniest thing ever!1! If this was in the united States I think people would be offended. But this is on the busses here. If you don´t understand, look at the first picture on the left :D

 

This is the center of Mongaguá!!! Then there's where everyone lives which is the other direction!! But it´s right on the water!1

They have this park during the summer and all the names of the rides are in English!!! But this is the ferris wheel, we can´t ride it but the picture is cool!!1

SUCH A GOOD WEEK!!!

So I want to start off this week with a quote

"The Lord´s way is not to sit at the side of the stream and wait for the water to pass before we cross. It is to come together, roll up our sleeves, go to work, and build a bridge or a boat to cross the waters of our challenges."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Wow. This says it all. Let´s never give up. Let´s never sit and wait. Let´s do the best we can. Let´s overcome our challenges and weaknesses. 

So this week we had our first baptism!!! Willian is 15 and was really excited to be baptized. It was amazing to see the change in him as his date got closer. He went from jsut joking around to being serious about this covenant. His Mom could tell this too!! It was so amazing. The baptism was amazing and had the spirit so strong and then he was confirmed on Sunday!!! I made some treats for the baptism and it was a success :) 

Elãne and Maria are still progressing, Maria is trying to stop smoking. André is reading the Book of Mormon and feels that it is the word of God. This is so amazing because we don´t have the power to convert others, but the Holy Ghost can soften they´re hearts. 

So we learned we are allowed to watch Disney animated films on P-days so we watched Wreck it Ralph!!! Ahh i love that movie so much!! 

MIRACLE! So we had a training with President Cabral this week and afterwards we were leaving to catch the bus back home. As we were walking to the bus stop we were about 100 yards away and the bus went by (it only comes every 45 min...) and I'm like this one?? and pointed to it and the Elders said yepppp. And the driver stopped at the bus stop cause he saw me gesture to the bus!! Then we ran to the bus. These people here are way nice!!!! 

We also had a training with the Ward on Sunday about the ward mission plan and the members helping us. After wards we received a reference, a young women volunteered to go out with us for a day and an Irmã in our ward drove us around all night to her references and she taught with us. Talk about fast reactions. It was amazing to see that the members are excited to help and show us their friends!!! It was wonderful!!!

Lots of Love!!

Stay Strong!

Sister Amanda Peterson

Happy New Years!!!!

So this is the rain I was talking about!

Oiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

So to start off I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year´s!!! It was so hard to sleep new years eve because everyone was setting off fireworks but it reminded me of home so it was wayyy good!!!!

There is this AMAZING quote that I kind of live by here and it´s good for EVERYONE! I heard this in the CTM "People don´t care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Dr. Peterson   Not gonna lie, I have no clue who Dr. Peterson is, but he has a SWEET last name :) and he has inspired words!! It is so true! You can know everything but if people don´t feel that you care about them, they don´t want to listen!!!

So more Brasil life:

-Here is Mongaguá on every street has a bar and a church...kinda ironic i think haha

-People have cell phones, but on almost every cell phone is a radio too!! So a lot of times people use the radio function for people who are near to them. -It was really weird the first time I saw it!!!

-So there are these Soap Operas that everyone watches and it is hilarious because, not trying to be rude, but the actors are pretty horrible (is that too strong of a word??) but really haha its funny!!!

-So in Church we only use the piano for Sacrament meeting(I always play...não bom) so during relief society it is soooo funny, we always start REALLY low and we just sing so low I feel like I´m singing bass sometimes...hilarious :)

soo there were people herding cows on the street...not much more to say about that haha STRANGE

-Here in Brasil they always have a realllly really small breakfast, and HUGE lunch and a small dinner. It is so different and my body is trying to be accostamed to it.But you know how after you eat a lot you just want to sleep. This is não bom because right after lunch is when we are walking and teaching and its hot, haha but I´m getting more used to it!!!

so there was this HUGE bug next to our kitchen sink and when Sister Rolim saw it she screamed and ran out of the kitchen....i killed it with my flip flop. Oh the many uses of shoes :)

-SOoo here in Brasil they don´[t use dryers. SO we have to hang up all our clothes to dry. This morning I was literally sweating when I finished. (mom is probably laughing at this right nowwww) Oh, the blessings of a dryer. I will never forget this amazing blessing in my life :)

-So it is really how here, like it was 36 C one day which is in the 90s but we are outside all day walking and its just hot and humid. BUT ALL THIS WEEK IT RAINED!!! Blessing :) It was so much cooler, we were soaked for a couple of days, but you know what, it was worth it!!!

FUNNY STORY!!

So they have these metal trash things outside of every house and they are usually in the middle of the sidewalk at like chest level, and people put their trash here and a truck comes around and empties them. So here some people have these connected to their house. So one day SIster Rolim was tired and so she was looking down when she was walking and walked straight into one and it hit the bridge of her nose!!! Ahhh it was so funny! (I can say it was funny cause she laughed tooo) but ohhhhhh hilarious!

So our Investigators!! Maria is out of town this week!! BUt she will be coming back and I hope that she has kept strong in not smoking!! William is getting baptized Saturday! That´s a big yay!! And his younger siblings all have Book of Mormons now and are reading too! And we are teaching a lady named Elãne and she just loved the Plan of Salvation! It was wonderful to see her eyes light up when we talked about Eternal Families!! It was wonderful!!!! yayyyyy We also are teaching Claudio and an other lady Vera and they both traded their coffee for a cevada (idk what it is but its not coffee and it tastes kinda similar) soooo we have coffee in our apartment......we need to throw it out haha :)

So some more miracles :)

One day we have ravioli and this meet thing for lunch and salad. I don´t know if you noticed but we didn´t have RICE AND BEANS!!!

There was so much water in so little time!!!

Don´t get me wrong, rice and beans are wonderful, but I kind of like a change sometimes, so to not have it once every couple weeks...DEFINTIELY and MIRACLE!!!

I learned this week that I am the first American Sister that the ward Mongaguá has EVER had!!! Crazy right??? that´s why everyone looks at me weird :) haha

So I would like to depart with two things

God is So Good to me - even though I have tough times and its hot and we get rejected, I can still see the hand of God in my life! It is so amazing how much he does for each one of us!

And Jacob 6:12 - go read this!!! it is wonderful and simple council :)

Love you all!!

Sister Amanda Peterson

ps sorry this is like way long

pss a little girl asked me how long of a drive it is from Chicago to Mongaguá, people have guesses???