Kylie's letter 6/25/12

Kylie Peterson kylie.peterson@myldsmail.net	9:03 AM (12 hours ago)
to me, Matt, Brice, Dani, Mason, Kenidee

So..... I have a little problem,

I dont want to come home. I want to stay here in Brazil. Missions are the best.

This week has been so insanely busy but so good. I havent even had time for myslef. Literally our day even p-days are filled with doing things for the mission. Creating random activities for the members, and menos ativos, and investigators. I feel like I am finally working with all my heart might mind and strength and I couldnt be happier.

We are receiving another pair of sisters today so that will help the work a lot!
So this week -

Michele - misericóridia. This woman is amazing. She is soooo ready to be baptized. Her testimony is so strong and it has been so cool to watch her begin as being scared to even touch the book of mormon to recognizing it as the word of God. Before she was a member of the universal chruch of brazil and they preach that the book of mormon and the church of jesus christ is of the devil and a cult etc. Her husband was a inactive member and she threw away all of his chruch books. And then a few years later we show up at her door and ask her to read a verse. She told us yesterday that when we first asked her to read it she got super scared to ever touch and read. After we started teaching her she started gettings uper curious and devoured everything we gave to her. Midway through our lessons she started having doubts. SHe prayed to God to reveal to her that this really was His word. SHe opened up the book of mormon to Alma 32:28- which confirmed her testimony. And she is keeping all the commitments we give her. She is fasting, and keeping the sabbath day holy, and she is even keeping the law of chasity. Right now she is living with her "husband" who isnt her husband legally. THey lived together for 4 years and have a beatiful litle family of three daughters. He needs to get divorced from a previous relationship before they can get married. And she knows they are living in prostitution and so she decided to keep the law of chasity and her poor husband asked us/begged us to hurry the process along as best we could. Also antoher miracle. Henrique - her husband was inactive and smoked and drank. We have been working with him, and he hasnt smoked or drank for the past 4 days! THey just need to get MARRRIED!!!!

With the new sisters arriving we will be changing our areas and only working in the areas distantes. These neighborhoods are super duper poor and not very well educated. THe government here is really good and gives EVERYTHING to the people. Which I dont think is a very good idea. Because the more you do for people the less they do for themselves. Evidence of these neighborhoods with cute perfect little houses trashed by people that dont really know how to take good care of things. I have never gotten so frustrated in lessons before. We are down to the basics. How to pray, what sin is, who is Jesus Christ etc. I taught one man how to pray about 8 times and he couldnt remember the 4 steps (first start with heavenly father, second thank thee, third, we ask thee, foruth end in the name of Jesus Christ) His little kids understood and were all on top of it. These people are very simple. And we  are determined to find the elect here. And the work will really get going now that the new sisters are coming. THey will stay and work downtown and we will spend our days in these far away places. Which by the way is absolutley gorgoes to ride our bikes to these places. It is just stretches of long farms with lots of random palm trees, cows, and mountains in the distance, and the occasional tropical bird. The sunsets are amazing!

I really am so happy!

Best wishes for the week - Ill try to be better with details on what happened, the days are just going by sooo fast. This tranfer feels like it was 6 days instead of 6 weeks.

Love you all!

ky

Kylie's letter 6/18/2012

Minha linda família,

I am so happy! This week was a week filled with amazing lessons and lots of the spirit. I am loving the work! It is so good to work with all your heart might, mind, and strength and see the fruits of your efforts. We marked 4 more baptismal dates this week. We have started working in an area way faraway from the center of town. These distant places have never seen missionaries because the missionaries always walked, but now we have Bikes!!! And so the work is continuing and spreading. We are hitting this little neighborhood called Santa Catarina. It is a small little town, where an American, white, blond, and blue eyes girls calls a lot of attention. Everyone acts so funny when I say that I am from the United States - like it is some huge privilege to have me step inside their house.  We ride our bikes to this neighborhood several times a day as we work around lunch appointments and appointments in downtown. It is the perfect work out every day! I forgot how addicted I am to exercise and bike riding. It makes it even better to have a gorgeous Brazilian background.

This week was another holiday called Quadril or something and everyone dresses up like farmers and they have dances and rodeos and fun things like that. So there was a lot of parties and music and lots of beer and drunk people all week. We walked through the fair type thing and looked at the HUGE bulls and cows. And took some fun pictures and ate some delicious Brazilian food.

But this week:

We had conference of our branch and I played the piano--and will be playing the piano for the branch. One thing I am learning from this experience. If you start to learn something finish learning it or don't even bother to start at all. Mom always said I would regret not learning the piano. And she was never right until now. I want to help this little branch feel the spirit through the hymns but it is awfully hard when they have to sing the same hymns every Sunday. (How great thou art, sweet hour of pray, Come unto Christ ) We bought a simplified version of the hymns so hopefully things will start looking better. Mason, Keni and Jens. Don't quit! Keep learning the piano. At least the hymns. The little kids here are all amazed that I play and sit on the front row and watch me play. A lot of them have never seen a keyboard before until they come to church. It is so cute. And really good that they sit quietly.

Estefani got baptized this week! Remember him, he was in Minas. And he baptized this last week!!! Yay! I was so happy to hear that. He will make such a good member. And another girl I taught there got baptized this week as well.

I haven't been getting a lot of sleep. Sister Cunha and I stay up really late talking. She is so great, and I am loving and learning so much working with her. She is a little fireball of a missionary and I can only hope to become a missionary like her. But we are loving the work, and teaching everyone everywhere.

Thanks for the b-day wishes everyone and my b-day was great. The Reeses bars were absolutely wonderful!!!! I almost ate the whole thing by myself. My birthday started with fasting and was filled with lots of lessons and lots of work, and ended with those heavenly Reeses bars and ended with going to bed early! It was a great day. The next day we had district meeting in another city and had to wake up at 4 am. But it was a wonderful day and I am so happy that you guys had fun too on my special day. It has been a great 22 years and I am looking forward for the rest 80 and some odd....

Love you all so much!!!

Muitas felicidades e amor!

ky

Kylie's letter June 11, 2012

Oí meus Queridos!

 

So- this week.

 

We have had several baptisms here in Quissamã. Whoohoo! A daughter of a recent convert we taught was baptized. As well as an eldery man I contacted in the street. He is adorable and just really old. He loves to help people and he is already sharing the gospel with his families and friends. He announced his baptism over the radio. I don't think he really understands in depth what we taught him but he feels the spirit and he loves to help people. His name is Aleixo and he lives alone with his dog. Rambo. He knows what a prophet is and he has given Book of Mormons to his family members. He told them that this book can change your life. He is adorable. He bore his testimony yesterday and just said "In the name of Jesus Christ" and sat down.  He was so proud of himself. I hope that in the afterlife everything makes sense to him.

 

We have also been teaching an eleitíssima! (super duper elect). We found her trying to reactive her husband. We taught her and left her with a BOM and a pamphlet about the restoration. She read the pamphlet twice and was already in 1 Ne 4 when we came back the next day to teach her. She also had looked around at the church website. She has had so many questions but is accepting everything and liking everything. She told us that she is feeling closer to God with everything we are teaching her. Her name is Michele and her Husband is Enrique. He wants to come back and is trying to overcome some addictions. They both came to church yesterday and it was a really great experience. The only problem is that Enrique has to get divorced from his past wife and then he can marry Michele. She wants to marry so badly. They have been waiting 2 years for this divorce. The government here is super slow because they don't have a judge. But she is so ready to be baptized. They have such an adorable family. I love teaching golden investigators! It makes missionary work seem so easy! Just this marriage thing is in our way!

 

Also this week the temple of Manaus was dedicated. We got to watch the cultural celebration the day before and the actual dedication. It was soooo good. At the cultural celebration I was about ready to die from wanting to get up and dance with all of them. Gee Whiz! I really miss some good music and dancing...not that MOTAB is all that bad. But we could use some variety here. And the dedication was wonderful! Pres Uctdorf did it and I felt the spirit so strongly! I love temples. Go visit them if you haven't for a while. Take advantage of having a temple so close. The people in Manaus had a 7 day trip to go to the temple. The cultural celebration showed the trial and sacrifice it was to get the temple. But now they have it!! It was so good!

 

But life is good and the gospel is true. I am happy. And I love helping people be happy through spreading the good news of the gospel. Enjoy these summer days while they last. And thanks for the birthday wishes. I have my package all ready to be opened this wed. 

 

Love you all so much! All the best this week!

 

Cant believe I am almost 22.

 

Loves, beijos, e abraços!

 

ky

Kylie's letter 6/4/2012

Ta bom vamos la, 

My email was deleted again, but I have another little bit so I will type really really fast. Okay - these computers are so dumb!

 

So my area is Quissamã, Rio de JAneiro! Whoohooo! It is the farthest south in the mission and it is the smallest town I have been in in Brazil thus far. There aren't any supermarkets just little fruit shops, general good stores, and bakeries and the such. It is such a cute little town. the bairros are separated - neighborhoods- are separated by big farms--thus the bikes. And we both have a bike, the pics that I sent were when the assistants were doing a division with us and so I carted around Sister Cunha all day, my legs were dead after but it was a great work out. By the way I loooooooooooove bikes. It is the stress release I have been needing for the last 9 months and I get to ride the bikes everyday all day it is so wonderful. I love love love it. But Quissama is very small and everyone knows everyone, and everyone identifies us as the girls that use the helmets. We are the only people in Brazil that use them, and we get made fun of all the time. But whatever, safety first right!? right! The people here are really poor and humble and not very well educated there are a ton of people that don't know how to read or write, and it also makes it a lot more common that these people don't understand me. Which has been super frustrating to have come from several places that everyone understood me, and then here where they don't even think I am speaking Portuguese. But it is good- sister cunha is helping me lose my accent. I am determined to teach better and to speak better after these next two transfers with sister cunha. I am pretty sure I will stay here with her until she leaves - she has this transfer and one more. 

Sister Cunha is a little Brazilian powerhouse. She is from Manaus in the amazons and she is 4,9 and the best missionary in the mission field--hands down. She really has a gift of making friends with people and teaching people and not lessons, she is an amazing teacher, and teaching next to her makes me really see all the room I have to improve, but I am learning so much from her. She is great. And she talks a lot. Last night we stayed up past 1 in the morning talking...whoops! Yay for p-day. But we work all day and we work really hard. We teach the minimum of 8 lessons per day. Which is such a change from the last 6 months of my mission. I am loving working really hard, and the lord is showing me all of my weaknesses, and so hopefully they will become strengths here pretty soon. 

Love you all way to much!

beijos