Walking Dead?

Things with Gabi have being going really well. We got her to church!!! And then there was a baptism after and she just loved it!!! She even knew one of the YW!!! She will be getting baptized.

I never thought that being at the end of the mission would be so hard. It is more of a fight inside. You want to go home...but you want to stay. You want to give 110% (because you’ve given that your whole mission) but now you can’t because your body can’t keep up. You spend your whole mission going at the pace of other people and then you have to readjust to your own pace at the end. Sister Perrotti found out about how much back pain and how many migraines I’m getting, so she sent me to the doctor today....just got a few pain pills. And then it all goes back to knowing where you stand with the man in charge. Prayer. I’ve spent a lot of time doing that. Talking to Heavenly Father to just give me strength. It helped that my Elders gave me a blessing. I know that I’ll finish strong. We will see milagres...we just need to keep on trucking.

A lot didn’t really happen this week...sorry!

Love,
Sister Perez

Another huge Brazilian hotdog!

Morning runs to cool places

Eating pizza..like always

Seriously...eating pizza is what we do best

Chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side

"Why do you girls walk so fast"-says a stranger in the street

So week #4...DONE

I’ve started having crazy dreams where I run away to stay in the mission field. I already told Presidente about this, so he is fully prepared.

This week I also had my last interview. Weird! I cried like a baby. But at the same time talking about my mission and how it went helped me see that I have learned a lot of things and have grown a lot. I’ve changed a lot. But one thing I picked up on was that I was happy about how my mission went. President Perroti asked if I would have done things differently and I thought for a second and told him nope. Then he started talking to me about marriage and I was just like "President, I have a long time before that!!" He just laughed.

So right now we are focusing on 2 people. Gabi and Sergio. Our little light babies!! (I say light because they really got the Light of Christ in them). We marked a date with both of them! Dia 13 de Junho. Yup that is right...right before I go. But we are praying and fasting that they will make it to this date. Sergio has started the process de parando de fumar (sorry I can’t figure that out in English) and Gabi told us she wants to go on a mission!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!! Like these 2 are solid!!

This random guy asked us, in English, why we are always walking so fast. And I just told him it was a habit. Then I thought to myself, 'because I’ve got like 3 more weeks and I need to preach this gospel to every soul in this city and Christ is returning!' Then I remembered my Book of Mormon studies and how all the missionaries were always running for places to teach the gospel. Then when the signs of Christ’s birth came to pass they rushed the work even more. Then while they were waiting for the signs and began seeing a few signs foretelling of his death they rushed the calling of repentance even more! Then I realized that with all these signs...no one really even believed! It’s like the humble missionaries weren’t good enough for them and then all the signs where nothing. That’s how it is today. A lot of people don’t really know what it is to have true faith! It’s no longer good enough to get a spiritual confirmation and it isn’t good enough to see a milagre. Our faith is everything. And we can’t afford to let our faith weaken because in the last days, even some of the strongest will fall. One of our recent converts gave a class on Sunday and she quoted something that really stuck with me, "A fé não vem por sinais, mas os sinais seguem os que creem" (Faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those who believe.)

Stay faithful meu povo!

Sister Perez

FHE...I'm on a cookie craze

Novos Bairros!

Well, leaving those other bairros worked!!!!

There were and still are so many people waiting for us!!! It was so cool! Literally in one day we had like 6 lessons!!!

But our week just started off with a really crazy P-day (P-day = Monday, when missionaries do their laundry, shopping, cleaning and a few fun things). We spent it with Elders Schulze and Faughnan and they were just like you can’t waste p-days sleeping. So we had to hang out with them all day! ha We played foosball and basketball and then we had a big ole jam sesh (jam session w-the ukulele). Sister McPherson then was walking on the curb, fell off and sprained her ankle...shoot!!! But she said it didn’t hurt so we went to our FHE which was awesome!! It was with Gabi!! She really opened up with us! It was nice!

So back to this new bairro...The mom we found last week is sooooo golden!! She was so happy to have us over and she was really interested!! Her name is Kátia, btw!

Then we went looking for a few referencias...and I had no clue where the house was that we were looking for...so we stopped and tried this one house and out comes an older man. He had no clue either...we were about to leave but then asked him if we can talk to him...he said sure. We ended up talking about baptism and the Book of Mormon...he accepted baptism!!! like wut??? But now he is one of our promitidos!! And is marked for dia 30 of this month!! He is so special to us!! And Sunday when we stopped by he looked sooooooo different!!! The Gospel really changes people!!! And his name is Sérgio!

So this last transfer and this one, we became really good friends with Elder Schulze and Faughnan. Like we spent every P-day hanging out. Today was their last day in the mission. They had a baptism. And Elders Calk, Faughnan, and Norton and I all sang. It was cool. And sad. Faughnan told me that if I can, stay on the mission for forever. I only wish that could happen. It hasn’t fully hit me that I am coming to the end...but like Faughnan said, there is nothing better than a mission. And maybe I’ll go rouge and stay out here forever! hahaha!!

Preach the word to everyone! Milagres são reais!

Com amor,

Sister Perez

McPherson is really good at doing nail!

That time again... #cold

When you are really bad at fusball so you have to get creative...oh and that's Elder Schulze

Poor kid rolled her ankle...

Elder Faughnan and Schulze made the BEST cinnamon rolls ever!!

Mexican Paletas!!...dont mind the tights..its cold!

One of the elders was sick...so I went to work on making some chicken noodle soup...and after that they kept asking for more....

Having no clue where you are...yeah that happened to us a lot

Shouldn't ever leave elders in charge of getting the baptismal font filled because they will forget and it will over flow!

2nd week of the last transfer and some crazy things happened.

There is this mean dog that lives on one street and he literally tries to bite us every time we walk past him. One time he actually bit McPherson and I almost had to kick the crazy thing. Then he came up and lightly bit my ankle as I was making a contact (talking to someone at their door)... This dog clearly hates us...so we had to stop walking down that street.

When Sister McPherson got to me, I told her that she can’t read or study in English anymore....and the other day she went and did her personal study all in English, because she was just having a hard time. So during our 12 weeks training she looks at me like she had done something wrong. Then she says, “I studied in English...." and I just looked at her and replied "eu vi..sou sua mãe...I see everything." After that we just laughed and I told her that she really needs to forget English. Later in the week she started understanding a lot more!!!

The neighborhoods that we had been working in had been knocked down (worked by the missionaries) for the past 11 months and we decided to move out and start fresh. That wasn’t exactly easy, because it meant knocking a lot of new doors and going into the unknown. But we went into a new bairro that we had prayed about...and just went to town. A few people said we could come back but they would not let us in to share a message!!! Finally as we were just about to give up we ‘knock’ one last door...and this mom of twins comes out. Her boys run up and gave us both hugs and I’m just thinking "they probably think we are someone else..." and as we start talking to the mom she tells us how she had talked with a missionary at the bus station and didn’t have time to give her full address because she almost lost her bus. Two nights before we had gotten a referencia (referral) with her name, but the address wasn’t complete...so we were just like "yeah we will never find her"...BUT WE FOUND HER AND SHE IS SO GOLDEN!!!!!!" We are going back next week!!!

Bus station contacts are a bit hard because everyone is just not paying attention to you when you do try to talk to them...But as we were on our own doing contacts I went up to these two guys and just started talking to them. Only one talked and the other listened. I was holding the Book of Mormon and was wanting to give it out and so I asked the one who talked more if he would read it, and he was just like "no." Oh...that killed my heart a little, but then the quiet one looked at me and said, "you can take down my name and number, I’d like a visit" And I just looked at him and asked him to repeat himself. And then I ended up giving him the Book of Mormon and put our number in it and told him we will visit him. Sad thing he lives in the other ward...but then later he called me with a bunch of questions of the Book of Mormon!!! He had been reading it!!!! The other elders marked to meet with him!!! It was so cool that my little desire to hand out a Book of Mormon was answered!

The week was good....and God will always answer the righteous desires of your heart! I know that for a fact!!

Ficar forte, meu povo!!
Sister Perez

Hunting for Lemons (Elder Faughnan and Sister Mcpherson)

#selfiesunday

You should've seen the batch before #horrible...these came out perfect!

The Beginning of the End

Wow…to be honest I never thought I would finally be at this point...but here I am. I hate thinking about it. Like this place, Brasil, has stolen my heart! But I will say that it helps a lot being with a newbie (new missionary).

Being with McPherson has been a blast...and really exhausting! I’m still being strong in not giving in and speaking to her in English, and that is really hard! But in this last week, she really improved. She has the ability to pick stuff up really fast and so I push her. Last Monday night when we got to the bus station I told her she needed to do 15 contacts alone. I went with her for the first one and she did ok. Then I told her to go talk to some lady on her own. The look in her eyes was like, "don’t make me do this alone" but I made her go. She ended up talking with 14 other people all alone! One group of people even took a picture with her!! She surprised herself on Monday. At times, I do feel like she gets frustrated because I make it so hard and challenging for her. I even got nervous she would say something about it, asking me to be easier...but then after a few days she told me thanks for the push. I honestly don’t have a code of how to train...but I’m putting all my trust in the Lord and praying like crazy for guidance...because without Him, I am so lost!

She is making me so proud and I just love being a missionary!...and passing on this love to McPherson.

"There is joy guaranteed to the faithful"
-Elder Henry B. Eyring

Stay Strong meu povo!

Com Amor,
Sister Perez

All purty for a mission devotional!

The only American sisters in the whole mission! USA!

They learn the best when ya just throw them out there! My kid is a champ! #soproud

This cute little future missionary!

Good quality bonding time...aka language study

Endorphins make you happy...and we missionaries need to be happy!

She survived her first day of Insanity (that ShaunT workout video)

"excuse me, but have you heard about the Church?"

This little Saint is supposed to help you find your future spouse! 

So there is a little tank that collects all the fat that drains from the sink...it leaked today

And we had to clean all the fat out of it... #nasty

Poor kid had such a rough day with the language...she kept asking when we were going to get our pizza!