MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

SO yeahhh it was Christmas for me! I FINALLY GOT MY PACKAGE! It only delayed a couple months, but thank you everyone!!! I loved all of it!!!!!! IT really was a great Christmas for me :) yay for american candyyy tooo cause I got my christmas package from Jessie too!!! 2 Christmas packages on the same day...march 28th is the new Christmas for mee hahahah :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!! I can´t believe you are 17!!! You can drive on family trips now! yayyyyy

SO this week didn´t have a lot of crazy stories like normally. But we has 5 baptisms in the ward this week!!!! 2 were for the Elders, 2 were ours, and 1 was a little boy who was getting baptized!!! Yayyyy. We baptized Lyedson (whose birthday is the 5th, the day after mine, we are planing a joint bday party no big deal :) and ellison!!! They are the sons of less actives who are starting to come back to church!! I have pictures!!! But i will send them next week!!!!!

but yeppp this week was good!!! We are working with this family Keila and her daughters and they have come to church for the last 2 weeks!!! They are on date for baptism this weekend so we will see if everything works out!!!

I'M SO EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! its always like my favorite :) no big dealll!! haha but its gonna be awesome!! yayyyyyyyyyyy GET EXCITED!!! haha i hope everyone can get excited for general conference. I know sometimes it seems long, but the PROPHET and his APOSTLES are talking to US!!! to me and YOU!. How amazing is that!!! Go in with questions and you will receive soo much inpiration!!!!

Love you all!!!
Sister Peterson

It´s cooled down :DDDDDDD

Sister Dalton and I and this adorable cat :) 

Hiiiiii :D

So it´s true, the official first day of fall hit and it started to cool down. MIRACLES!!! It´s great though. It has also been raining a lot which is so great because i absolutely love the rain!! It´s a wonderful thingggg :) 

So this week. We have zone meeting which was good. We planned our acts for the talent show we had this week too!!! We also had zone conference with another zone and with president this week!! It was really good too. We did practices on how to ask truly inspired questions. It was a little difficult, but it was good. Then when Sister Cabral was talking she was telling us about making healthy food options. At the same time we here this crinkling behind us. Sister Dalton and I turn around and president is eating chocolate. IT WAS SO FUNNY. But the best part, he leans forward and whispers to us, "One chocolate per day, you´ll be happy always." with his accent and everything, oh it was sooo funny!! haha

Then on Friday we got kicked out of our house...well not literally it was almost 8 in the morning and the guy who is charge of all the housing in the mission came and wanted to paint so we have to leave for them to come inside. So we grabbed all of our stuff for weekly planning and studying and left. It was really interesting haha. But it was funny and I´m excited for all the painting and remodeling to be done in our apartment. 

The Cleaning Crew :D

We went early to the chapel on Saturday to help the elders clean the baptismal font/pool. It was interesting and funnn haha we made a game out of it and it was awesome!!! Then Julia was baptized on Sunday!!! It´s a girl that the elders have been working with!!! The mom is a member but the Dad isn´t. It was soo cool! And we sang for the baptism and it was just amazing. Then Elder Richards wanted to make cookies for the baptism. But we didn't have a cookie sheet or anything like it. So we had a bundt cake pan. So we just poured in the cookie batter (we didn't have any measuring spoons or cups so we just guessed) and cooked it. IT actually turned out really good and everyone loved it!!! We ended up calling it the Rich Petey Bolo Cookie. (Elder Richardson, Sister Peterson, Bolo means cake in Portuguese, and cookie haha) cool right??? I liked it :D

Also on Saturday we started our English class!! It was good and we are going to advertise for this next week!!! 

So we were working with Antonio and he is completely ready to be baptized but then he went out of town to São Paulo for 2 weeks. So hopefully when he gets back. 

We also started teaching this family Keila and her 3 children Karin, Yasmin, and Vitor. They are litterally so adorable!!!! They are just wonderful. And we were walking to their house yesterday and Yasmin and Vitor were playing on the street with their friends and when they saw us they started running to us yelling Sister Sister!!! Ahh it was so cute!! They are 7 and 9 haha ADORABLE!!!! 

But yep, this week was good!!!

I´m definitely learning to be stronger here on my mission. Sometimes people don´t accept us, or investigators don´t come to church, or it´s just hard. But I know that at the same time, the Lord is always mindful of me. I know he will always be there for me no matter what I do , and he just wants to help me :) Amazing right???? I love the scripture 2 Nephi 1:15. We can truly be eternally in the arms of Christ's love. THAT IS THE MOST AMAZING THING I`VE EVER HEARD!!! hehe i get excited sometimes :) 

well have a wonderful weekkkkk :D 

LOVES!

Sister Peterson

our pet david :) haha a bird flew into our apartment and it wouldn't leave for like 10 minutes haha

Another Wonderful Week in Brasil :D

Our group of sisters after helping do contacts in Ponta da Praia one day last transfer. 

So this week was way good!!!

We had a mission conference with one of the Area Seventy on Tuesday!! It was way cool and we learned a lot about how to be better missionaries!!

Our Ward mission leader is literally amazing. Like I can´t ven explain how amazing he is. He takes out the Elders or us every night and he picked up I think 15 people for church on Sunday!!! SO COOL RIGHT??? he is just wonderful!!! He is so helpful to the missionary work!

So this week we started working with José Carlos and he is the Dad of one of the young women in the ward. He promised to come to church if it wasn't raining so we prayed for no rain. And GUESS WHO WAS AT CHURCH??? he came late and when Sarah (his daughter) showed up I asked her where he was and she said he's coming later but she didn't seem convinced. He came for the 2nd hour and for sacrament!!! Right before Sacrament I saw Sarah and told her that her Dad is here!! She just looked at me with this surprised expression and said seriously??? MIRACLE it was great.

We also were visiting a family last week with the ward mission leader and the dad called us saying he wanted to learn more. So we went back and he liked our first lesson!! We are going to go back this week!! Yayyyy :)

We are working with some other people and we will see how they progress.

Saturday we went to the activity at the stake center for the Anneversary of Relief Society. It was way cool and i saw some of the ladies from Mongaguá!!! It was soo cool to see them!!! Saturday morning we went and did service at this house they are remodeling. They didn´t end up having a ton for us to do, so we sifted sand, and swept up the house. Then we had a water fight. Good thing because it was sooo hot!! haha it was fun! And we were helping out! Everyone wins :) 

Renata´s cat with my rubix cube!! CUTE RIGHT??? 

Some random things:

There was this stuffed animal dog we were playing with while we were waiting for lunch and Elder Pradera was making it dance famous dances that everyone knows. It was sooooo funny!!!!! 

I forgot a hairband the other day so I braided my hair and then used my ring as a hair band!! It worked surprisingly!!!

THERE WERE THE CUTEST LITTLE PUPPIES AT LUNCH ON SATURDAY!!! Literally like I just wanted to hold them forever!!! They were adorable!!!!

Renata visiting us at transfers :) it was greatt!!

There were about 13 investigators at church on Sunday!!!! yayayyyy and one family that is excited about the church!!! SO we are going to start working with them, or the elders, or both of us. We will see. It depends who doesn't have appointments who can go out with the ward mission leader. It´s all good!! I´m excited for this week :)

I hope you have a wonderful week, and look for opportunites to serve!! It´s an amazing thing because it puts a smile on someone else´s face, and you are also happy doing it!!!! Everyone is just happy :) 

Well I

hope you all have a wonderful week!!!! 

Loves!!

Sister Amanda Peterson

So transfers were this week...

Sister Dalton and I

AHHHHH YOU WOULDN`T BELIEVE WHO`S MY COMPANION!!!! Okay guess, no? Oh, I´ll just tell you. It´s Sister Dalton!!! Like my visiting teaching companion before the mish, and my companion in the CTM!!! Ahhhh it´s so cool!!! Other thing, The Lord and President must trust us a lot to put the two of us together who only have 4 months and are still learning Portuguese. It´s a good thing our Portuguese is wayyyyy better!!!!! yayyyy but yep sooo

We are in and area called Belas Artes and it´s in the same zone as Mongaguá, my first area!!! So it´s cool!!! This week has been good!!!! Last Monday we had Lunch with Renata and she cried when we were leaving cause out of the 5 of us, 2 were getting transferred. Then she showed up at transfers to say bye to us. She is such a sweetheart. I cried a little toooo. Then on Wednesday we had mission conference and it was way good!! I love conferences cause I just learn so much!!! 

Soo note the name of the street!!! :)

So here in Belas Artes we have an amazing Ward mission leader!! He goes out with us or the Elders practically every night. He picks up like 10 people for church every Sunday and does multiple trips. And he is just so amazing and helpful!! I love it!!!!!! 

Other thing, the Elders in my area are Elder Pradera and Elder Woodbury. It is Elder Pradera´s last transfer and Elder Woodbury went to school with me at BYU, so we are already like besties. And lunch is so funny!! Cause we have the members and then the 4 of us...3 Americans. And they just think we are hilarious!!! It's way good!!

So in church yesterday Elder Pradera came up to us during Relief Society and was like usually the teacher for gospel principles isn't here so you two need to teach cause they had to go look for their investigator. Sooo, we taught gospel principles. Two American sisters. HA, but it was really good!! And everyone liked it. We definitely had the Lord helping us with that lesson :) 

So this week was good!! I´m still just in shock that Sister Dalton is my companion, but it´s awesome!!!

Love you all! Have an amazing week. 

Our pet Charly!!! It´s hugeeeeee

Sister Peterson

Transferred again!!!

Our new investigators, they are really receptive. Mario was just waiting for the Book of Mormon

Hiii :)

So yep, I´m getting transferred again, we got the call last night. Sister Rocha is staying and I´m getting transferred. So I will figure out tomorrow where I´m getting transferred too. Should be fun!! I´m always excited for a new adventure!

This week was good! We are working with Jaine who is a less active and her husband Orlando isn´t a member. He doesn´t want to listen to us  but Jaine´s brother Israel and his girlfriend Vitoria want to. They already like the church but there´s a catch. Israel is 18 and vitoria is 15 and they have a baby who is i think 2 months old. So we will see want they want to do and how they feel about everything.

We had an amazing lesson with Renata. She was having trouble recognizing answers, so we all prayed right there to find an answer for her in our scriptures. We all opened our scriptures and read a verse to her and they all helped her and she was so excited and the spirit was so strong!!!

Alex was confirmed yesterday!! Eliana came to sacrament meeting but she was late so she missed the confirmation but it was still good!!! Mauricio is coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon and is strong!! Yayyy!!!

So funny things: i ordered a smoothie at McDonalds and smoothies aren't a normal thing here. So they guy was like aqui é sua smoothie but he pronounced it smoochie!! AHhhhhhh was soo funny!! I was just laughing so hard and no one understood why haha. Also there was this cruise in Santos this weekend so I got the chance to translate for a Russian who spoke a little English!! it was good!! and good practice tooo!!! Other than when I started I forgot some words in English...haha oops :) SOo also it was raining last week so it cooled down a bit!! Ahhh it was so nice. But then after it rains it gets really humid, so it´s a good and bad thing. haha but I´ve always loved rain so it´s all good!!!

this is a sweet family poster, i like it a lot!!

So this weekend and today and tomorrow is Carnival. Pretty much everything shuts down (we are lucky that this lan house is open so we can email) and everyone goes crazy, drinks, smokes, makes a lot of noise, and a mess. And there are these big parades and bands. ALLL night, so it´s kinda hard to sleep :/ But because of this started Thursday night we had to be in our apartment by 6 pm. cause carnival starts Saturday until Wednesday at noon. SO it´s interesting. But it´s good we are inside cause it´s a bit dangerous (donpt worry mommy we are all safe and cozy :)) but yeah it´s been interesting.

I saw this bumper sticker the other day it read, "Keep Cool, you are already late." hahahahha i thought it was hilarious!!!

And the quote of the week...drum roll please...

"No matter how short I think I fall in comparison to others, no matter how little value others see in me, Jesus felt I was worth the price He had to pay." - Adam C. Olson Liahona Sep 2012 cool right??? but it´s true, each and everyone of us are important and Christ died for us, for me, for you. If this amazing person thinks we are worth dying for, then we must be pretty important. :D

Well I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Sister Peterson