Pictures

The area was ENORMOUS!! I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day because we had walked so much!!
The church in Osasco! (the city where I did divisions)
I went on a division to another area of our mission. It was so much fun! Look at the different sizes of bananas!

Trio again!

A Sister who had been waiting in the states to receive her visa finally arrived! Sister Lori Lund is now with us as a part of my second trio on my mission! Lots of fun. She is a sweet girl from Samamish, WA and is basically a replica of Sister Steinbielge. Not in appearance necessarily but in everything they do. It´s pretty funny. Sister Lund and I had actually met before the mission! We were EFY counselors the same week two summers ago and chatted once or twice. Anyway the world is so small! It´s very fun to meet people because when people ask where we are from we say "By coincedence we are ALL from Washington!" Pretty rare I´d say! Her Portuguese is getting better by the day and we are helping her adjust to the new culture since we´ve "been there, done that". Too much fun!

I don´t know if I ever mentioned Novena. She is a lady who Sister Steinbeigle and I met one day a long time ago while making copies. We overheard her and a friend speaking English so, DUH, we decided to meet them. Turns out Novena is from New Zealand and her friend, Laura, from Scottland and both had married Brasilians. They have the most GORGEOUS accents. It was so different making a contact in English! Novena lives in our area and gave us her information and told us we could stop by any time. We have tried numerous times to find her at home but either the door man at the apartment building doesn´t like us and always lies (I think thats the case) or we really just don´t have any luck! One time we even saw her on the street and she askd why we had never come by! Well we just received a new "rule" in the mission that we need to be out the house by 10:30. I don´t know why sometimes its difficult for me to gain a testimony about things until something actually happens but on Saturday we left at 10:30 and passed in front of Novenas apartment complex. Sister Steinbeigle said "Do you think Novena is home? We´ve never tried her in the morning." Turns out it was a DIFFERENT doorman AND she was home! She invited us in and her husband was home too! It was perfect. They are the nicest, most beautiful and down to earth couple I have ever met! They have a beautiful 2 year old son and I just love everything about them! It just couldn´t have gone better because her husband Mario, who also speaks English, was brought up Catholic, like most Brasilians, but neither practice any religion at all right now. They were so open minded and willing and ready to listen to what we had to say. So I taught my very first lesson in English since the MTC! How different! It was so great. Plus it was perfect for Sister Lund since she has been teaching only in English for the past two months. . If Mario didn´t understand something we would just translate it into Portuguese! It was INCREDIBLE! The spirit was very strong. We only had a Portuguese Book of Mormon on us but Mario promised to read it. We will bring Novena, who also is excited to read, an English copy this week! Mario said a beautiful closing prayer asking for help to know if this is the path he should follow and thanking God for sending us to him. WOW! I don´t know why I am so excited for this little family but I am! I just think its amazing how the Lord works. If there had been two Brasilian sisters serving in this area for example right now they probably would have never even found Novena and her family! The Lord truly inspires his servants. The prophet to call us here to Brasil, our Mission President to call us to an area and with a certain companion, and to inspire him with changes that will help our mission like leaving at 10:30. I never fail to be amazed at how the Lord truly has his hand in all things. If we listen to our leaders and the counsel they give, we will never be lead astray. I love serving here! Transfers are next week and we are very anxoius to see what is going to happen!!!! Will I stay one more? Leave? Who knows! All I know is I am happy and love being a missionary. Happy week to everyone!

Até mais gente!

-Sister Peck

Paradise!‏

I think I´m finally starting to become Brasilian! I crave rice and beans, I shower 3 times a day, and I can predict the weather! When I first got here, everyone would look up at the sky into the hot sun and say "Vai chover." or "It´s gonna rain" What?? But I´m melting and there aren´t any clouds! And they would ask me "Can´t you feel the difference in the air? And the smell of the rain is so strong!" ???? Now I totally know. We can be melting in the hot sun, talking to someone on the street and then all of a sudden the air changes into instant humidity and duh "Vai chover!" I love it. The tropical rainstorms are pretty intense here. Plus I´ll take rain and humidity over just sun and humidity any day!!

It was just another week in paradise here as a servant of the Lord. We are teaching the coolest kid, Enrique, who reminds me a TON of my cousin Alex. He just giggles all the time! hahaha. He is like the Bizzaro Alex and just the Brasilian version! lol. He´s 16 and a lot of fun to teach. His baptismal date is marked for the 26th of this month. He has smoked for the past two years (yeah you can buy cigarettes and beer at any age here) so his goal is to be completely cigarette free by the 10th! Pray for him! We had kind of a cool experience this week with him too. Well two actually, one was that he hasn't been able to go to church yet because he worked on Sundays but he found a new job last week that only requires him to work Mon-Sat! What a blessing! We´re all very excited. He loves the YM activities but it´s important that he love the spiritual part as well! The other neat thing was recently our mission received new regulations regarding the baptizing of minors. It doesn´t really make much sense to baptize an 8 year old child all by himself, because who will take him to church/support him, etc. It really makes sense. The likelihood of him falling away is really high unless he has family support. Now we have to do everything that we can to get the entire family involved and see if we can´t teach everyone together. Enrique lives here in Sao Paulo with his sister as his family is in another state so we have permission to teach his sister, Fabricia, and her family. She seemed pretty skeptical at first but we taught a great 3rd lesson (or the gospel of Jesus Christ which is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost) then we sang Asombro Me Causa, um I forget what it´s called in English, but anyway the spirit was so strong! Fabricia gave the closing prayer and asked to know if this is the path she should follow too (!!!!) she was crying by the end. It was a wonderful experience for all of us.

I know that our mission president receives revelation for us. If it hadn´t been for our new "rules" I don´t know if I would have given much thought to teaching his sister too. It really confirmed my testimony that when we receive council from our leaders it is our obligation to follow! My mission president holds the keys and privileges to receive inspiration for us as missionaries here in Sao Paulo North. Just like a father can receive revelation for his children, a Bishop for his ward, the Prophet for the world! We meet many people here of different faiths who believe that any person can receive revelation for, well any other person! When we know that´s not correct. We do believe in modern revelation, when under the proper organization and authority as well as personal revelation. I am grateful to have leaders to guide and direct us. Who literally receive the will of the Lord and pass it along to us so that we can know what to do. Just like prophets in the Bible, we have a prophet on the Earth today! He is God´s mouthpiece and he tells us what our loving Heavenly Fathers wants us to know. Our problems and challenges are different than they were in Biblical times (Internet, pornography, infidelity, etc.) so we need the same guidance that the people had anciently in our days! What a blessing to have a modern prophet. We don´t worship him, but respect him as a special man called of God to be our leader. I know he is a Prophet because I have gained a personal testimony for myself. And we (as missionaries) invite all to do so as well! No one needs to believe in our words, but we can all know for ourselves through sincere prayer and by a witness of the Holy Ghost. And I even will close that in the name of Jesus Christ amen!

Wow I just kind of went on an authority rampage there for a minute. Not sure why but I am learning really how to be receptive to the Holy Ghost and when I thought enters my mind, I act. Without hesitation. I feel so blessed to be a part of this marvelous work and a wonder! I love my mission and love my Savior Jesus Christ. Hope everyone has uma semana maravillosa! Até logo gente! Tchau!



-Sister Peck

Clair´s baptism!

Each week we receive an e-mail from the mission with the statistics of how many baptisms there were last week. You can´t help but feel such pride and satisfaction knowing that at least one of those numbers was from your companionship! It is a wonderful feeling. Clair was baptized on Saturday! It was such a wonderful experience, couldn´t have gone better. Of all the people who came, I was most pleased to see that her daughter and grandaughter had come to support her!!!! Her entire family, as is usual, has been so against her decision to join the church and Clair was certain no one from her family would come even though she had invited everyone. Of course her family received a wonderful impression about the church and were very impressed with everything. They asked a lot of questions and seemed genuinely intrigued! Even if THEY`RE baptism isn´t tomorrow, hopefully now they be more open to the gospel. I love the scripture "By small and simple means, great things are brought to pass." Clair, a 73 year old woman, really was the first of her entire family to make this step and who knows where it will go from here! She has opened the door for miracles to occur in her family, both those who are living and those who have already passed. She is very excited about geneology work! Her enthusiasm just astounds me. For example Sunday morning was a big birthday party breakfast for her granddaughter but she had to tell her family she would be late as she would be receiving the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting and it was imperative that she be there! What faith! I am so impressed with her and her strong testimony. At her baptism, as soon as she came out of the water she burst into tears. So did Sister Steinbeigle and I. We ran and embraced her. She felt bad for getting us all wet, but truthfully it felt really good since it´s so dang hot here! Anyway everything went perfectly. I am so proud of her. Sister Steinbeigle and I sang a beautiful arrangement of Joseph Smiths´First Prayer to the tune of "Come Thou Fount" and that was realy a moving moment for all of us. I can´t take any credit for Clair´s baptism, really. She was already ready! We would just teach a principle and her spirit would instantly recognize it as truth and she would accept. I am mostly grateful for what CLAIR has taught ME. Patience, faith, the power of the Atonement and the desire to change, etc. She is a wonderful lady and I am so grateful to know her!

That was basically the highlight of my week if you couldn´t tell. We had many little daily miracles that happened this week that help remind me that the Lord is truly involved in this work. I feel like after all the miracles I shouldn´t be surprised any more, but I am always surprised! And always grateful. Pay attention and you will see them, all around you, every day and every moment!

It´s been very very very hot this past week so to pass the time as we walk in the street making contacts we are playing/singing memorizing games by! For example we´ve already memorized all the prophets, all 50 states, and the countries of South America. Our next goal is to memorize the 13 articles of faith in Portuguese and all the countries of the world! Sister Steinbeigle REALLY knows a song with ALL the countries of the world! Crazy right? Anyway its been really fun. I love my companion. I love my area. I have never been happier! Hope everyone is doing wondrefully! Have a super week!

Com amor,

Sister Peck

Brazil

New Sisters, They're so clean!!!

We did a service project and helped Paulinho clean his new office he is moving to! Do you know that song "Walk Like an Egyptian"? I always sing "Clean Like a Brasilian" :D They´re INTENSE when they clean! Not kidding!!

Paulinho has my nametag on. lol

Hello Brazil

Elder Dallon, Elder Banner, e Elder Lattin from the CTM!!!!! Milagre!

It's not an animal. ITS A FRUIT!!!!

Right place at the right time? Or part of the plan....

What a good week we had! First of all we were to find out that neither I nor Sister Steinbeigle was transferred. We both stayed here! It´s pretty rare to have two Americans together at all, let alone for this amount of time! At this rate, I´ll never speak perfect Portuguese! haha, just kidding but it looks like she might end up "dying" here, or in other words this may be her last area since she only has one transfer left after this! That will mean she will have had only TWO areas on her mission!!! (I guess three if you count Tennessee when she was waiting for her visa lol) But we are both content. We get along super well and love this place and the people so much that it´s not like we can complain!

One of the blessings about serving in this area is getting to host the new sisters for their first night in the mission field! I LOVE IT!!!! Last week our mission got one American and one Brasilian. It was pretty fun going in and out of Portuguese and English since we had to translate EVERYTHING for one or the other. We brought both of them to meet Paulinho and had them each teach a short principle. Then we did divisions and I went with Sister White. She is from California and is SO cool! We went and taught Clair and had a great lesson. Sister White really couldn´t understand anything that was going on so at the endIt I asked if she would like to bear her testimony. In her broken Portuguese she repeated "FÉ! TEM QUE TER FÉ!" Clair was like "I get it! i have to have faith!!" hahaha it was so cute! I was simply beaming with pride and excitement for Sister White. I think she must have gotten sick of me saying how excited I was for her to be begining her mission, how I remember my first day, blah blah blah. it was such a neat experience, for me anyway! I remember being in those shoes. not really being able to say much but still wanting to get my point across and she is right! We do need "FÉ!" :) It made me REALLY want to train someday badly!!!! I sure hope I get the opportunity to do so!

The next day, Wednesday, was transfers and we took the new girls to meet their trainers at the mission office. Sister White is being trained by Sister Santos!!!! HOW FUN IS THAT?! I am so excited for both of them!!! Should be a great experience. The best part came when Sister Steinbeigle and I were walking back home. We passed in front of the temple and who did we see walking around on the temple grounds but CLAIR and a member from our ward! He was giving her a tour! Of course we took advantage and went and spoke with her.She thought Eduardo, the member, had set it up but we told her it really just "right place at the right time." SHE corrected US and told us that it had to be part of the Lord´s plan. We told her that is exactly what it was and good for her for recognizing it. We went inside the waiting room and had an increddibly spiritual lesson with her. She even cried and bore a powerful testimony. I don´t even know how to describe how amazing it was. Definitely a highlight on my mission so far. We felt inspiried to move her baptismal date up to this Saturday! She accepted and will be baptized this coming Saturday!! I can´t wait!!!! She is one of my all time favorite people! She is going to invite her whole family too. Her faith amazes me. I love her!

In the middle of the lesson an Elder walked into the waiting room by accident and quietly excused himself when he realized we were teaching. It happened to be an Elder from my district from the CTM who is serving in another misison!!! After the lesson I went out and ran into the three of them who are serving in the other Sao Paulo mission!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!!! Again "right place at the right time"? Who knows? ;)

I gave a talk on Sunday in church too. My first REAL talk in Portuguese! I think it went alright. I felt pretty good about it. I talked about sacrifice and how it is required of all of us in different ways.

Other than that things are great as always here! Don´t get me wrong, we do have up days and we do have down days. I just don´t like to think about the downs (the blazing heat for example), only the things that make me happy! My progressing investigators, wonderful companion, two increddible and supportive wards, and basically just being in Brasil! Today, P-day, we explored one of the chiquest areas in all of Brasil, its called Morumbi. It´s in our zone and it was way fun! We went to boutques, a professional cake shop, scrapbooking stores, Starbucks and Subway! hahaha it was a blast! I LOVE IT HERE!!!! I hope everyone has a super week! Keep up the good missionary work! Beijos e abraços!

-Sister Peck

P.S. Check out the cool thunderstorm pictures!!!!