First Week in the Field

Hello everyone!!! I'm in the field now! Its great being in the field but I definitely miss the CTM and my friends that spoke English haha. I miss my district a lot but I'm excited to hear about all the great things they are going to do! My new companions name is sister Enout and she is 27 years old but she is awesome, she is a very hard worker and she is very patient with me because she doesn't speak any English AT ALL! This week has been rough and we have used my dictionary A LOT. It is just me and her and we live in a nice little apartment so it kinda gets lonely when the only person I have to talk to doesn't know English but I do my best and it is helping me learn a lot of Portuguese. If you could all keep the plumbing system here in your prayers that would be great because yesterday my companion told me for the first time to make sure that I never flush any toilet paper or tissues down the toilet. Since that was the first time I ever heard that I have been flushing all sorts of paper down there all week. Apparently you can't do that here only in the CTM so hopefully all is well the next couple days hahah. My area is called Vila Virginia, it is the poorest area in my mission so there is a lot of poverty! There are a lot of hills so we get a good workout because wow do we walk a lot! I've got some nice blisters but I'm getting used to wrapping my feet in tape, haha no pain no gain, so its good! My ankle sometimes gets puffy but nothing like when it was at the CTM and it doesn't hurt at all so I think it will eventually go away! My area is great! It's a little sketchy and there are a lot of places we can't go at night and some places not even in the day, there are also a lot of scary things here but we avoid them and focus on our investigators! One of our investigators names is Felipe and he is amazing! Missionaries have taught him in the past and he would never commit to baptism but the first time I taught him I bore my testimony that the reason I left my family and came across the world was to tell him that he can be with his family forever and that God loves him, it was very simple because at the moment I have the vocabulary of a small child but he said YES to being baptized and I was so pumped. Since then he has been studying the Book of Mormon and I just really hope it all works out because he is amazing. He is pretty much raising his 2 younger brothers alone because his parents aren’t involved much but he has so much potential and I’m so excited for him! It was a really cool experience! I always have no problem bearing my testimony in lessons the words just fly out of my mouth, the gift of tounges is amazing!!! I didn’t get to watch general conference in English and the translators spoke soooooo fast so I had a good time staring at them making up my own words.....I’m not to good at reading lips hahah hopefully later I can somehow get them in English!! The members here are great, they always give us lunch and have the biggest hearts in the world! I’m still getting used to the whole kissing on the cheek thing but its growing on me hahah very interesting for sure......my district is amazing, they are the best. Only one speaks a little English but they are very nice and Christ like, I love them so much! I love everyone here so much! I am also teaching a bunch of our investigators and little kids English, it’s so fun!!!! They are very good students and study a lot. My companion wants me to teach English class to people in the ward after seminary on Tuesdays, I don’t know if I can but I’m going to do my best! We will see how that goes! There are a lot of scary things here and the mission is very hard but I have also learned so much. You just have to focus on the good and the people because they are so amazing!! Today I got to see sister Torres, she is a Brazilian that I was roommates with in the CTM and it was soooooo good. I’m convinced we were best friends in the premortal life! We have been best friends since the first day we met, she is HILARIOUS! I only got to see her because her companion had to go to the dentist and they had to travel through our area, so I won’t see her for a while but I was a little in the dumps yesterday because learning a launguage is not easy so this was a tender mercy from God, I know it, she cheered me up a lot!!! She speaks English pretty good. I will send pictures of her! I love you all and I hope your week was great!!

Love, sister Peine