March 26, 2010

Hello everyone! Well I love P-day! Not just because we get to rest and check mail, but because we get to go to the temple! I love going so much! Today it was great to get out and off campus and walk up to the temple. When we were ready to leave, we discovered that it was a blizzard outside! So we walked back in a snow storm. It was fun though; we took pictures and just made the best of it! This week has been fine, nothing too eventful to report. Still learning Portuguese. Thank you Mom for sending the package!! We ate everything that night. It's not that they necessarily starve us here; it’s just so great to get care packages and have snacks! I don't need you to send jeans and t-shirts I have enough now thanks.

Also I'm glad Mayra's doing her missionary work. I have been thinking a lot about her!!! She's going to love it here and being a missionary!! I would LOVE to either hear from her or be able to write her but I dont have her address. Tell her to write me! Even if it is just a dearelder. I miss her! There’s an elder in my zone who reminds me a ton of Alex, too. lol. Also, the day I've been dreading has finally come. Sister Przybyla got her visa yesterday and flies out Tuesday which means I'm a solo sister now. Saaaaad!!!!!!!! So now my district is me and Elder Tatafu. Oh well, the Lord knows what is best. Guess I need to stay here a little longer. I don't care as much about that as much as I'm going to miss her terribly!!!!!!!!!!! Here's my problem, I don't know if you know but I tend to get attached easily. ;) I was afraid of that coming a on a mission....getting attached to companions and investigators, etc. So maybe this is the Lord trying to teach and prepare me. She and I are just like two peas in a pod. Pretty sure she set the bar pretty high for all my next comps. So yeah anyway that’s my sad (but good for her!) news of the week. I'm glad you've been in touch with Aaron at NID. I have only heard from Amy from there, maybe they wrote me in Brazil?? haha, So I thought about writing a letter to NID to see how everyone is doing. But yeah that’s my excuse when I don't get mail I say "Oh, they're just confused and thought I was in the Brazil MTC" :) Again I just love it here. I wish I could write about how much I'm learning and growing but it would take longer than the 13 minutes and 31 seconds I have. (I can't stand this ticking clock....)

I heard a quote recently from the Joseph Smith movie. He said "The Lord calls us in our weakness and qualifies us for His work." I love that! I feel so weak and inadequate at times. But I know that through faith and diligence He will help me and qualify me to help bring the gospel to the world! This is such an important thing that we're doing. Nothing beats the power that comes from 2200 missionaries singing "Called to Serve" in unison with such enthusiasm!! Whoohoo I can't wait to get to Brazil!!!!!!!!!

Eu sei que o evangelho e restaraudo. Tambem o Livro de Mormon e verdadiero. Testifico que as familias podem ser juntos para eternidade. Dues restarou o sacerdocio atraves de Jospeh Smith. Sei que Jesus Cristo e nosso Salvador e ele e o filho de Dues. Em nome de Jesus Cristo amem.

I printed some pictures so I'll try to get those sent out today. :) But I better go. Hope everyone is doing well. I love you all and appreciate your love, prayers, and support!! Take care and I'll talk to you next week! (Maybe, hopefully, from Brazil!!) :)

Sempre,

Sister Emily Peck

Boa Tarde, March 19, 2010

Boa tarde!! It's finally P-day! Hooray so excited! How on earth do I cram everything that has happened in one week in 26 minutes?!?! Suffice it to say it has been so awesome. I really do love it here. EFY meets freshman year minus dances and drama! AWESOME! Maybe you could also somehow post something that if anyone sends me an e-mail I need their mailing address to write them back since I can only e-mail family! Also DEARELDER.COM is soooo great!! It's like getting text messages only I can't respond! lol!!

There are actually a few things I wish I would have brought with me to the MTC. So for anyone reading this who hasn't gone on a mission yet, bring JEANS! and T-shirts. I don't have enough. You'll want them for service, P-day, etc. What else? I can't remember the other one, oh well. So apparently we can't upload pictures on the computers here. So I'll have to print out the ones I have taken and send them to you. Maybe somehow you can figure out how to get them on my blog so you can see my beautiful companion Sister Przybyla. I guess in the Brazil MTC they upload pics all the time so maybe when I get there, and of course in the field, that will be easier.

Speaking of Brazil I definitely had to re-apply for my visa so who knows how long I'll actually be here. They are comng faster. Two other elders received their's so they're gone and we are down to 4. Me and Sis P and Edler Banner and Elder Tatafu (hes awesome!!) Okay so I have a couple cool stories for you. So Elder Cook from the quorm of the twelve came to devotional this past Tuesday!! Pretty awesome. He of course gave an amazing talk. I was so grateful to be able to hear from an Apostle of the Lord my very first week here. I was also able to participate in the MTC choir here too. We performed at that devotional and it was a great experience. I was hoping the choir was going to be singing for General Conference but I guess not. :( We also watched Music and the Spoken word and guess who was their guest performing choir?? The collegiate singers!! I saw all my friends and instantly remembnered how it was to perform with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! We also had another devotional Sunday night with a Richard Heaton (ever heard of him?) Apparently he was the mission pres. of Spokane a while ago! but maybe that was before we moved there. Anyway his talk was INCREDDIBLE! About investigators. He had all the recent converts who were missionaries stand and had a few of them come up and share their conversion story/testimony. Amazing. In addition we sang the primary song "We'll Bring the World His Truth" which, okay, already brings me to tears but here in the MTC they change the words to "And we are NOW the Lord's missionaries" yeah I was basically weeping through the entire thing. The spirit is so strong here. I love this place. And I love this gospel. How thrilled I am to be a representative of the Lord and be able to wear his name right on my chest! Gosh I have so much I want to talk about. I love teaching and I love learning. Portuguese is beautiful (Spanish is better, haha) and I can't wait to get to Brazil and teach the Lord's children there about the restored gospel!!! Okay I probably better go!! Please keep in touch everyone!! I love you all and appreciate your support and prayers!!! You're in mine as well!

Ate logo!
Sister Peck

Emily's First Letter

Hi guys!!!

Wow they sure don't give us a lot of time to write so I'm going to hurry through this e-mail. My P-day's are Friday so thats when I'll be writing my e-mails. First of all I love it here!!! It has been nothing short of wonderful and I'm having the time of my life. Thank you both for all your help and letters and everything. You're both amazing and I love and miss you tremendously. This is, as I imagined it would be, EFY on steroids. haha! We always have things to do and I'm on such a spiritual high!! My companion is awesome!! Her name is Sister Przybyla (Prizz-bee-la) and she is from San Fransisco. She looks exactly like my old roommate Chantel!!! Even she thinks so. It's crazy! We get along great and complement each other very well. We're a lot the same but she's athletic and encourages me to be so and I'm helping her with her Portuguese. The language is coming along very well. The Spanish definitely helps a ton!! Although at times it gets a little confusing....but for the most part I'm a step ahead of everyone in my district. There are six of us and we're all waiting for our visas. Actually one Elder got his yesterday! He flies to Brazil on Tuesday. So here we all wait, day by day hoping that our visas come! Speaking of visas, I got called down to the travel office yesterday and was informed that my visa application was about to expire and so I had to re-apply online??? I asked her if that means I was a step behind or ahead and she didn't know. So that's weird....hmm oh well. I have seen both Heather Hawkins and Rebecca Hamilton since being here so that’s awesome!! It's so fun seeing familiar faces! There are so many people here from all around the world GOING all around the world. Embarrassing story, this would happen to me. Yesterday I said "Hello" in Chinese to a bunch of Japanese people!!!! AHHH!! They all laughed. So embarrassing. Oh and also you guys told me not to get any more books and things for my suitcases but let me just tell you that the first day I got here I got like 50 lbs just in books to take to Brazil with me. Awesome. ALSO! They have A MILLION Jody dresses here!!!!! Well, actually they're the same brand, the Adi, but yeah they definitely have them a lot of them. So both Sister P and I got one. We took pictures. When I have time next time I'll have to send pictures!!! Thanks for all your letters and love!!!

Send my letters to my companion's address here, cuz I don't know my MTC address off the top of my head:

BRA-FLO 0510
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UTAH 84604-1793

Also, DEAR ELDER is great!!! Please do it!!! MTC Box number is 185


P.S. IT IS SO DRY HERE!!!! Can you guys send my Cerve maybe?? I have like eczema on my hands and yeah it’s just real dry. THANKS!!!

Guys I love you sorry I can't write more!!!


P.S.S. I was made senior companion, if that means anything at all. And also no I don't think I need a popcorn popper mom, thanks though. haha. We get fed plenty here. Although I don't think I'm going to necessarily gain any weight because we seem to work out a lot too. We do like pilates and stuff in the morning plus both our class and dorm are on the FOURTH floor!!! So yeah we get a lot of exercise. Also there are plenty of sister missionaries here wearing dangly earrings!! haha. Also EVERYONE wears jeans. During P-day and service and stuff. Funny things you learn. It's snowing today, good thing I have clothes for Brazil?? lol. Well my testimony is growing tremendously day by day. There are only six of us in our district and any of us could leave any day depending on when we get our visa. One Elder speaks Tongan AND Samoan AND English and is now learning Portugueuse! He's my inspiration!! Okay I am going to go for real now. I'll try to write more later. Love you guys!! Thanks for everything! :)

-Sister Peck