The Lord Loves Us & Knows Us

Oi!

The Lord loves us and he knows what we need.  That's all I can say about this week.

We taught a lesson on Monday to a teacher in the TE and it was the first lesson we taught in portugues not to one of our teachers.  I won't go into details, but it was horrible, really really horrible, and none of us were very happy when we got out of it.  That being said, Irmao Johansen got to watch us have a companionship inventory for about 40 minutes, just trying to figure out what had gone wrong, what we can work on, and how we can improve ourselves, and we all felt a whole lot better about how we decided to approach lessons from now on.

Since then, our teaching has been wonderful - amazing, really.  We taught a couple of English lessons in the TE and both times we were able to feel the spirit so strongly and be able to testify of the things that we know and really be able to teach for the needs of the people.  We were also told that we did things that the teachers had never seen before in the TE, for example, handing a Book of Mormon to an investagator at the beginning of the lesson and telling him it was his and asking him to use it during the lesson. Also we gave a very good door approach where we didn't begin "We're missionaries...".  Also, another blessing of this week was being able to go to the TRC, where they have people volunteer to be taught by the missionaries, and this time we were speaking portugues.  We taught two men, and one of them was dressed in his army fatigues (I think that's what the camo's called) and we talked to them and they both said music was really important to them, so when we were planning for our lesson Sis Ogletree had the idea that we should sing a hymn.  We taught most of the lesson, and then we said we wanted to sing for them, and we had a hymn picked out, but the man in camo asked if we could sing a particular song, and he opened to Lead Kindly Light (in portugues, of course).  The rest of our lesson was good, but I could tell that song meant so much to him and you could really feel the Spirit in the room after the song.  It's such an amazing feeling to be able to use our talents to bless the lives of others, and that God inspires us with ways that we can bless lives.  It was really wonderful.

Then, last night, we had the chance to teach three Elders who were pretending to be missionaries and their teacher was watching.  The lesson went really well - it's amazing how much the First Vision can bring the Spirit - and it was probably the best lesson in portugues we've taught so far.  After the lesson, their teacher told me that my portugues was "muitor melhor" which didn't make sense to me for a minutes until I realized that he was the same person who had listened to me teach my second week here to compare us to the pilot program.  It made me feel really good.

Portugues has grown in leaps and bounds this week, and I know that that is due in part to the speaker we had visit us on Tuesday.  Elder Richard G. Scott spoke to us, and it was the best experience I have had at the MTC.  When he walked into the room, I could feel his love for every individual there, and his desire for us to know what he knows.  At one point he asked who was learning another language to raise their hands.  We did, and he looked out over us and raised his hand and said, "I invoke my apostolic authority and bless you with the gift of tongues."  It gave me chills, and even now writing about it, I feel like I did when he said it.  It is one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had in my life.  This church is true.  I want everyone to know that I had the opportunity to hear a man who speaks on behalf of God and had him bless me in my life and in my struggles and that I have grown and understood so much more of this beautiful language since I was blessed.  The priesthood power is real, it changes lives and it blesses us so much, and to all of you worthy men who hold it, I am eternally greatful.  I know the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us, and I know that I have a purpose here at the MTC and on the mission I will serve, because God loves all His children and he wants them to know what they can be, He wants to bless them with immortality and eternal life, and that is my purpose, too, to spread the word and move His work forward.

I love you all!!!

Sister Petersen