Dogs in Brazil!!!!!

Hey everyone!!!

So this week was great!! I forgot to say this 2 weeks ago but I had my first time proselyting! It was interesting..... we went to a really busy street in the middle of the city!! It was really hard because I really only knew how to say, "Hi we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," and a couple things about the book of mormon...and then I would just smile and say how I was an American and that I didn't know very much Portuguese yet. They were a lot nicer than I thought they were going to be!! They didn't want to give me their contact information but none the less they would listen and very nicely say thank you but not right now! Oh my, but my favorite part about the whole thing besides the people were their dogs!!! SO CUTE there are a lot of dogs here that I can't touch because they aren't safe but they told us we could pet the ones on leashes with the owner's consent. A lot of people in the city have dogs so you already know one of the first phrases I memorized was, "Can I pet your dog?" Haha, but then while I pet their dog I tell them about the book of mormon so really it is a win, win situation!! The first dog I saw was a golden retriever and after they told me I could pet it I got a little carried away and pretty much gave their dog a hug! I was so excited about it and how it looked like my dog Kya. I shed a small tear and I'm pretty sure they thought I was the weirdest American in the world as I gave their dog a hug but what can ya do haha. Oh yes last week a quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us and he spoke in ENGLISH is was amazing!!! The spirit was really strong and he taught about how missionary work is not about getting our baptism number up but creating true disciples of Christ. It was really good. Another funny thing that has been happening here is all of the Brazilians here think that I look like Hannah Montana which I don't understand at all but they all want to take pictures with me because of it, haha it's hilarious!! I am also for some reason known for braiding hair now so every night all the Brazilian sisters come to my room and I braid their hair and while I braid their hair they teach me how to say things that are around the room in Portuguese, its super helpful!! Oh yea, I have some advice for all the 8 year olds out there whose mom is forcing them to take piano lessons, hug them and tell them thank you and then don't ever quit because you will regret it when you get called to a mission where no one plays the piano or has very much musical talent and then you get asked to play in devotionals, sacrament, and choir!! Haha, thank you mom for making me take piano lessons. I am barley surviving with my simplified hymn book and you were right, I regret quitting piano. Haha I never ever thought those words would come out of my mouth! So today we got to go to the Campinas temple because the Sao Paulo one is closed for cleaning!! We had to drive quite aways and we got to see a lot more of Brazil and the country and wow it is BEAUTIFUL!! It was also raining which was a new experience for me!! I have never seen that much water fall from the sky before, Brazilian rain storms are crazy but the temple was beautiful and it was cool to see 2 Brazil temples!!! Alright so to wrap it up, this week I have been studying Christ like attributes because I think Christ is amazing and I want to be as much like him as I can, so I decided to pick one attribute to work on and I picked patience! I was thinking about how patient Christ has to be with us, like we can repent every week through the sacrament and become better which is amazing but sometimes, at least for me, we repeat the same mistakes over the next week. For example I still need to be more patient with my companion and server her more but even when we repeatedly mess up he still loves us and forgives us, not just one person, millions!! So if he can be patient with millions of people and love them perfectly I can be more patient with one! I challenge you all to pick a Christ like attribute and work on it this week!! I love you all and if you emailed me and I didn't email you back it was because I was working on this email but I am reading your emails and I love them so thank you!!! Love you all tons and have a great week!!!

Love, sister Peine