Olá família e amigos!

What a busy week it has been! We had transfers and the conference with Elder Bednar on the same day. All the missionaries in our whole mission were here at our chapel by the temple and it was SO much fun! How great it is to be a missionary!!! I knew I would love it, but I could never have imagined I would love it THIS much!!! It was so great to see old companions or people from other districts. But best of all was the news received from my previous area! Sometimes its easy to wonder, puxa, did I even do anything of great importance in those past three transfers? And then you recieve word of the recent converts who are strong and the individulas you were teaching who are preparing for baptism! What an increddible feeling. I simply can´t describe it! I was absolutely elated to hear about Marcel (Zach Efron look-a-like) who has a baptismal date, and Maria (his grandma, adorable little old lady we taught) who was already baptised! It was just so great to hear such wonderful news! They had even written me letters and thanked me for my work and what I had done for each of them! It was difficult not to cry.

Sister Santos was transferred, not to our surprise. Close to Sorocaba where I had been serving before here. It was really REALLY hard for us three to say good bye. I absolutely loved our trio. But now we are re-figuring out how it is to work/teach in a dupla (gosh I can´t speak english) and it´s all good. The problem is that Sister Steibeigle and I are both American! And although her Portuguese is PERFECT and everyone thinks she is Brasilian, it´s way too easy for us to speak English together! What´s funny is when we speak its half Port/half english. Most of the time we dont even realize what language we´re speaking to each other. It´s actually pretty cool!!! Until we start speaking to a Brazilian in English cuz we think we´re speaking Portuguese! hahaha. Suffice it to say it was easier to keep my Portuguese up with a Brasilian comp....oh boy.....

I learned a ton from Elder Bednar. It was great to have an Apostle of the Lord here to speak with us. He talked so much about faith as a principle of action. We can´t just be objects and expect things to happen, but really need to do our part and prepare first. Then we can plead with the Lord and exercise our faith. I dont know I´m very bad at re-telling what I learned. He is so eloquent and very intelligent. I´d hate to try and quote him because it just wont be the same! But he taught us how to be better effective in our teaching as missionaries, what to do and what not to do. It was very enlightening and inspiring. I wish I could share everything I learned but there frankly isn´t time!

The work is going just great here. We really have to work hard to try not to think about our companion who is missing. :( We set a date with Felipe who is just an increddible young man. Every day he just amazes me. He has so many difficulties but is so strong! He came to church and loved it and was well accepted by the young men. I am SO excited for him! And feel so honored to be a part of his conversion. Flávia is also doing well. She has some doubts about some things that we are trying to clear up with her. But all in all its going well!

Okay well I have talked and talked and now my time is up! Thank you for all your love and support! Until next week!

Sempre,
Sister Peck