Such a great week!!!!

Oiiiii!! :) 

So this week was so great!!! 

We met with Alex, Eliana and Nicollas and then also Maurício pretty much everyday to get them ready for baptism!! They were way excited!! We had so many good lessons with them and then they had their interviews on Saturday!!! Eliana said that she still hadn´t received an answer if she needs to get baptized or not.

Then on Saturday we had the baptism at 7:30. Everything worked out. The font filled up correctly. it was way good!! The only sad thing is that Eliana decided to not get baptized. The sadder thing is she didn´t come to the baptism either, I could tell that Alex and Nicollas were sad that she wasn´t there. But at the same time it was a good service and I saw the happiness on their faces. Maurício was also way happy for his baptism too!! Also the primary children sang and you could just feel the spirit so strong. It was wonderful!!! 

So we also had another lesson with Renata this week where we gave her these little cats we got for her. Each one is one of us sisters. I´ll send pictures. They are cute. 

Something so funny!! We got to lunch on Saturday and the lady who made us lunch made Mac and Cheese!!!! Ahh it was so good!!! It reminded me of home :) so good!!! 

Then this morning we decided to hike up this hill. There are 402 steps and its not just staight up steps. Theres like 5 or 6 and then a steep incline and then 7 and then more. There are portions where there are like 30 steps together and then a big incline. But it was fun and a good workout. The craziest thing is that people live there. The whole way up you see houses. imagine if you had to hike up this hill everyday. Everytime you had to go to the store or school. Interesting right???

Sooo, i read this talk this week about Faith and it´s way good!! Everyone should read it!!! It´s called "Faith - the choice is yours." By Bishop Richard C. Edgley in the November 2010 ensign. so the october 2010 conference. It is a way cool talk about faith :) 

well i love you all so much!!

Stay amazing!
Sister Peterson

Baptism and Buckets :)

Renata and her 5 sisters!

So this week was good!! And interesting. 

I don´t know if the family remembers my awkward tan lines on my arms...well I still have them and I think they might be getting worse. But now I have two tan lines. One where my shirts are on my arm and the ones from last summer. Oh it is way funny!! Haha, a lot of people point them out...awk hehe it´s a conversation starter to say the least! 

So something funny, we had a contact that gave us an address and marked an appointment with us, when we got there the next day it was a demolished house....it would have been easier if she just said she didn't want it. But oh well, makes for a funny story. 

So we are working with Maurício and he is on date for baptism this Sunday the 23rd!! And we had a couple lessons with him this week and then on Saturday he called saying he wanted to move his baptism to later. On Sunday we had a lesson with his right after church with 3 members, a return missionary, a young women, and another single adult women. The lesson was good and everyone bore their testimonies. After the lesson we had Maurício say the closing prayer and ask if he needed to get baptized this Sunday. We were all kneeling down and the spirit was so strong. We knelt in silence for about 2 minutes, the 2 girls were crying because the spirit was so strong and Maurício said he knew that he needs to get baptized. It was such an amazing experience!!!

Alex, Eliane, and Nicolas got home from their vacation on Friday and we had an appointment with them that day too. Eliane called us to reschedule for today Monday because there were a lot of people in her house. When my companion said oh then see you Monday, Eliane said, no, Sunday, at church!!! Ohhh it was so amazing!!! Alex and Nicolas came to all the meetings and then Eliane brought her little daughter Sofia for sacrament (we have sacrament last) and it was so amazing!!! We have this returned missionary Felipe who was waiting by the door to the chapel for Alex and Nicolas to enter. And then when they did he invited them to sit with his family!!! Ahhh I want one of him in all of my wards I serve in! But it was so amazing!! They are also having a joint FHE with them tonight. So hopefully everything goes well!! We are hoping they will be baptized this Sunday as well!!

Soaking Wet! (Good thing it wasn't a white shirt!)

Sooo Friday it finally rained. After almost a month of Hot Sun, it finally rained. And then it rained all day and it still is raining on and off. but it was so good!! I love rain. So we were walking home when it started raining on Friday and when we got there we were literally completely soaked. It reminded me of when we used to play in the rain with everyone :) it was so funnn!!

the bucketssssss :)

Sooo you probably are wondering while my title included buckets. Well so let´s start with Renata was wonderful this week!! Then we had her baptism on Saturday!! But remember how it started to rain on Friday?? so the chapel in Ponta da Praia kinda flooded. So the sisters there called us to help. We got there and we were un-flooding the chapel as we were filling up the baptismal fount with yes Buckets. It was kinda funny not gonna lie. 

Then Sister Menezes and I left to go pick up these little gifts we had ordered for Renata, which were about a 30 min walk away. In the rain. We got soaked even with our umbrellas. When we were almost there there was a little block of Carnival. So really loud music and people screaming, drinking, smoking and covered in foam. And this noise that sounds like a mix of gun shots, fireworks, and thunder that makes a lot of smoke. And there were so many people. The place we had to go was in the middle of this.....So, we had to go through. It was not good. And then Sister Menezes said this is a little bit of how Carnival will be. Oh boyyyy haha. But it´s all good. 

Anywho we got there and they weren´t done. so we returned and then the other sisters wanted to go back to the apartment to take a shower. But Sister Menezes and I were exhausted so we decided to stay. Good thing because we looked in the fount a little later and the water was low again. There´s something broken so it was draining slowly. So we started to fill it with our buckets again. 

Renata and her boyfriend Ricardo who baptized her!

BUT after all of this, we had a beautiful baptism. and Renata was so happy!! It was wonderful!!

This week we had so tough times, but at the same time I can see how the Lord showers (sometimes literally) blessings upon us everyday. I am so grateful for everything that I have and the support and love from my Family.

Lots of Love!!

Sister Amanda Peterson

Another week in the Beautiful Brazil!!

Oi people!! haha

So we had so funny things happen this week!!

Monday I bought all the ingredients to make cincinatti Chili and then we didnt have a pot big enough cause we left it at another apartment haha FAIL! But its all good ill make it sometimeee haha.

A phrase in English that all Brazilians know is The book is on the table. RANDOM RIGHT??? oh so funny everyone says this to me!! HAHA

Also as i continue to learn Portuguese I am learning the Brazilian ways. Speak what sounds prettier. BUt really. for example if you want to say in my prayers, the proper way is nas minhas orações. Butttt they say em minhas orações becasue its prettier haha. That´s literally the explination I got. Ha, i think it´s funny!!! Although its a bit difficult, I learn proper grammer when I study and then have to try to speak the grammer of the people when I talk. It really is getting better though. Everyone can understand me!!! AND IF (if is really important here hehe) i pay attention I can understand everything!! Until people start to talk about diseases or politics or something like that hahahah.

Oh so we were fasting the other day and we walked by this candy store and SIs. Rocha is like LETS buy candy!!! Um were fasting! haha but she wanted to buy something for another sister. So we walked in and there were like 5 different people talking to us, asking about our mission, the church. Oh it was so cool! Sometimes you have to do things that are a little different (walk into a candy stroe when you are fasting) to find the people you need to talk to!! it was a cool experience!

Sooo Renata is getting Baptized this Saturaday!! she is so awesome like literally. She was asking me what i missed and i said pretzels...i know random haha and shes like oh they sell soft pretzels in the shopping mall here!! We can´t go in (mission rules) but she went and bought us all soft pretzels!! It was the other sister´s first time trying it and oh it was wayyyy good!!! LOVE IT!! she´s a sweet heart, and she speaks English. PERFECT :)

We are working with some other people too, but they didn´t come to church on Sunday :/ so we are going to work more with them this week to try to get them to church!!! But you wouldn´t believe who we saw at Church!! Idk if you rememebr but I talked about a yound man named Alex who lived in the states for 5 years and when he returned here he went inactive. Welll, this last week we wer visiting his grandma and cousin and he kind of avoided us. But. i walked out of the relief society room and im like oh that guy looks familiar. I did a DOUBLE TAKE!! literally. He was standing there!! So i walked up to him and im like HI, you´re here??? ANd he´s like yeah casue he promised us like 2 sundays ago he would come but he didn´t. He ended up leaving 10 minutes before church ended but he stayed for almost the whole time!!! He also came on no sleep...like he got home at 7am and church is at 9. But, it was good!!!! Still in shock that he was there.

But yeah this week was good!!! Ohhhh, i ate the tail of an ox for lunch yesterday...they were like oh just eat it first and we will explain afterwards. Tudo bem ahaha and they explained afterwards and I still didnt understand. Cause i don´t know the word TAIL in portuguese. But they know a little of English and said Tail do boi. Which is and ox´s tail. YUM haha it actually was really good. Just weird haha.

And We met a cat that is older than me!! it´s 20 years old!!! haha I´ll send pictures if i can get it to work haha. it hasnt worked yet so we will see. If not next week!!1

Love you all!

Have an amazing week!!!

Something cool we learned. When we are obedient it brings the spirit. And the spirit will never leave someone sad. The spirit brings Happiness and comfort. So when we are obedient we are happy!!! Cool right???

Ha well stay amazing!

Muito Amor

Sister Amanda Peterson

3 months!!!

I tried Sugar cane juice!! I took a video He literally sticks the sugar cane in this machince that smashes it and the juice comes out. IT IS WAY GOOD! :) i like it, can you tell??? hehe :D

So this week marked my 3 month mark. January 30th exactly. CRAZY RIGHT??? but so exciting!! I also learned we have 13 transfers in my mission, not 12. :) I did some math, yayyyy

Funny thing, so you know the little mirror in the bathroom that opens and has a little closet?? that is called box. That´s what they call it here, becasue its a box. And when I didn´t understand they were like caixa!! Box, english why dont you understand?? haha was way funny!!!

Soooo this week we took the wrong onibus..from the time we took it to the time we got to our door was 2 hours...and we got to the last point and then the bus driver said he was going to return to our stop. But then he left and turned off the lights and shut the door. haha was WAY FUNNY!! Also so when I talk on the phone to other AMerican missionaries or with President I alwasy switch between english and portuguese. So I was on the phone in the Bus and there were these two guys sitting in front of me and I think I swtiched between the 2 languages like 10 times, they kept turning around and trying to understand what was going on. It was WAYYY funny!!!

So there is some sweet wall art here on the streets :) they are way talented!

So there was a lady Renata in church last Sunday. So we marked a day to meet with her. Her boyfriend is a member in São Paulo. So we figuered out she lives literally on the border of our area and Ponta da Praia, but she lives in the other area. So we called up the sisters there and had a joint lesson...with 5 sisters, Renata and her 10 cats. Ha it was hilarious!! BUt she accepted everything! She literally is elect. She stopped smoking and drinking coffee before we started teaching her!! And she understands everything!! She is getting baptized this saturdaythe 8th of Febuary!! I am so excited!!!! We continued teaching her with the 5 of us, and she loves it! So we are all going to the baptism on Saturday! It will be amazing!!

We are also teaching a family Alex, Eliane and Nicolas. Eliane and Nicolas came to church on Sunday but Alex was working. They have read the book of mormon. Nicolas has an answer and so does Alex, and they believe its true!! Eliane is still waiting for her answer but they are so amazing!!! They went our of town yesterday to visit their grandma and they dont come back until next week, but they brought their book of mormons and promised to read!! We will see when they get back!!!

sooo I found whipped cream at the store...$18.90 reais....SO EXPENSIVE!]

I taught the sisters Bula Bula becuase it was one of their birthdays! They sing it like EVERYDAY now!! haha and they also gave me a present yesterday and make me do bula bula hahaha. It was soo funny! I got a rubiz cube :) Because the other sisters have one and i always solve it :) 

SO some random things

I got called a blonde doll on Sunday..haha

We go through a tunnel twice a day to get to our area!! So i close my eyes and hold my breath. I was going to ask the bus driver to honk...but idk how to say that in Porutugese :) haha

So in Zone conference this week we talked about john 11. The story of Lazurus. We looked a it a little differently and I really like it. Mary and Martha did alll they could do they searched for Jesus, Brought him to the Tomb, and had Faith. Then when Christ asked them to move the stone, they were a bit hesitant. It was a simple thing, move the stone and then I will raise him from the dead. It is really interesting to think, "What are the stones in my life that are blocking the miracles of Christ?" we need to do ALLLL we can do, we need to give our 100% and then he WILL do the rest. I really am looking for the stones in my life that are blocking the miracles. As I strive to be better, I really see more miracles everyday!

Lots of love!! Have a wonderful week!!

Sister Amanda Peterson