Sunday, June 30, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Family this week has gone by so fast and was prob the best week ever! Well I will start on my Birthday! I went out to the Gym with kat or sister orgil and and when i can back My room was decorated with a huge happy birthday sign and ton candy from the best Aunt in the world! Aunt Lori thank you so so much it was amazing and i felt like i was at home for my birthday! Then the day got better as i opened my box from you mom that was sitting in my closet for like 4 days! To see real liked wrapped presents with pink bows and zebra made my life!!!!!!! I opened a gift every hour to make my birthday really feel like it was the whole day ha. my comp almost ripped them open for me cause she could wait (lets say she is like NISSA in present way =) Nissa I loved the card from the kids and all the REAL pictures!!!! It made my day sooo much to had real pics of the family so thank you so MUCH!!!
Then the elders all gave me a card! And let my just tell you the Serbian birthday song is so fun! it crushes our American happy birthday song out of the water! Like you clap it can get faster and faster my teachers make fun of me cause i want to sing that song all the time hhahah they also laugh cause every other word from my mouth is (iznandenje)!
And Catlin gave me a birthday card to and Sarah i loved yours, i love love love it so much! My roomie was like how are you not crying right now cause on her birthday she cried like a baby, but i told her that i miss everyone and miss the party i would be sharing with Louise (happy birthday twin,
what did you do for it) but I am so grateful for the efforts everyone put into my birthday for making me not feel so far form home that all i am is so grateful for the family and friends that i
So Sunday we have a great RS meeting as in the talk the speaker talked about Bosnia... everyone talking about Bosnia now I'm sooo excited i want to go there so bad! But then after that everyone in choir so like 2000 people were in sacrament meeting together it was really cool, but then the choir man was like we don't know if everyone can sing cause there is so many of y'all so please understand. so After sacrament we all had to line up to WALK to the Marriott center to hear the prophet, oh but let me tell you there was NO WALKING BUT
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It was amazing as they entered the arena everyone stood for them and to hear the hush fall over the crowd! Then when our first song it was cool to see the apostle all turn to look at us and see me cause i ws front row! Ballard (I'm pretty sure it was him) turned to me and we look into each others eye for a solid 45 sec as i sang to him! i sang to loud that people in my zone across the room said i stole the show cause i was so into it and i didn't look at the conductor (clearly there were more important people in the room to look at hahaha)
Monday, our sweet Polish sister left and so did Catlin. I totally hunter her down to say good bye and she was just about to get in the shower to it was an interesting good bye but then i saw her
later again to really say good bye to her! I love her so much she is amazing! she was the travel leader but she was also really sick poor thing! She was a little stressed out. So about 30 min after i said good bye one of my polish roommates left her meds so i ran to see if the buss was still their and it was and guess who was on it... Catlin again ! she she jumped out of her seat and we said one last good bye! she is going to go great things over in France and i miss her alot! I know noone in the MTC now=( we were like eachother home and safety new here=/ But its nice to have only me and my comp with 4 other beds in the place and two closets to ourselves! Hayley tell Sarah Duffy that Lizzy is great and i miss her, she is sooo funny with all her little saying! We had as much of a party you can get her with the glow sticks!
when light out at 10:30 came we broke them so we were still following the rules hahaha and just laughing, it was a good last night memory!
Then the next day we had devo and guess who it was....... Janice Knapp perry!!!! she is so funny but her husband is a hoot!!!!!! HE WALKED UP TO HER AND JUST LAYED A HUGE KISS ON HER AND THEN SHE WAS LIKE/... " I SHOULDNT HAVE SAID THAT .. OR MAYBE I WILL SAY IT AGAIN" AND HE KISSED HER AGAIN AND THEN LIKE DID THE BREAKFAST CLUB FIT PUMP THING AHHA . HE IS LIKE 80 PEOPLE AND THEN HE STARTED DANCING TO THIS FAMILY SONG THEY WROTE! IT WAS ALL FUN UNTIL THE CLOSING NUMBER I WAS SO IMPACTED THAT MY CHEST STARTED TO BECOME SO HEAVY AS WE SANG ARMIES OF HELAMAN AND THE NEW SISTERS IN ZION! ONE BYE ONE WITH OUT INSTRUCTION THE GIRLS STOOD UP ONE BYE ONE AND THEN WHEN THE BOYS PART CAME ALL THE ELDERS STOOD UP AND MAN WAS IT POWERFUL! Ill write you the lyrics later!
Then the next day we had devo and guess who it was....... Janice Knapp perry!!!! she is so funny but her husband is a hoot!!!!!! HE WALKED UP TO HER AND JUST LAYED A HUGE KISS ON HER AND THEN SHE WAS LIKE/... " I SHOULDNT HAVE SAID THAT .. OR MAYBE I WILL SAY IT AGAIN" AND HE KISSED HER AGAIN AND THEN LIKE DID THE BREAKFAST CLUB FIT PUMP THING AHHA . HE IS LIKE 80 PEOPLE AND THEN HE STARTED DANCING TO THIS FAMILY SONG THEY WROTE! IT WAS ALL FUN UNTIL THE CLOSING NUMBER I WAS SO IMPACTED THAT MY CHEST STARTED TO BECOME SO HEAVY AS WE SANG ARMIES OF HELAMAN AND THE NEW SISTERS IN ZION! ONE BYE ONE WITH OUT INSTRUCTION THE GIRLS STOOD UP ONE BYE ONE AND THEN WHEN THE BOYS PART CAME ALL THE ELDERS STOOD UP AND MAN WAS IT POWERFUL! Ill write you the lyrics later!
Wednesday i count put down my Mormon kniga (BOM) even though i didn't know what it was saying! for a girl who could not read its amazing how much i love reading the Book of Mormon in Croatian, it only with the power of God that i am able to read it and like it even though i sound like a 5 year old. Then
The food was so great cause the new mission prez so we had like grilled veggies and stake, amazing pulled pork and chicken and like layered deserts that were fancy! love have new mission prez haha MTC stepping it up! and oh really fast guess what i convinced my comp to go to BYU I and live with me! so watch out and people who are living with me we might be speaking Croatian at lot to one another! It will bring her much
Love y'all and miss y'all! i have the best family and friends! Mom and dad i loved hearing about your anniversary!
123 Sestra Peterson
More Pics of the MTC!
Brianne is LOVING the MTC- and is having fun where ever she goes! Just look at these pics.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
I'm Getting the Language!
Bok!
wow has it already been a week! i feel just like just the other day i emailed y'all! And i just say god works miracles! I am staring to pick up on the language! i felt like i was so far behind and then it hit me that i have only been here 2 staring my 3 week and i can give lesson in Creation! not well but much better than before. I was having a really hard with with lessons as we were thrown into them, but i have learned to much and know how to grow and become stronger! first off I want you know to that i Love my MTC teachers (4) and have not fallen asleep since the first day! I am really considering becoming one because you see miracles happen ever day and you are that missionaries strength! Because of them i know i can do hard thing! PS i don't know how someone could fall asleep cause i feel like you miss out on so much! well back to my lesson. We got two "new investigators" their my teachers but me and my comp wanted to know how we can feel the spirit in out lessons cause it was not happening and well we were guided to make it more personal as we talked about our family. Blair I used the packet you gave me to show pictures, and let me tell you pictures and object lessons are amazing! we did the one where we build a church by the priesthood profits and Revelation! Kristina who is catholic totally understood it and cause she loves art she loved looking at the pic! My teacher is the best and got me the real Serbian plan of salvation plaque for the book store so I'm so excited to use it!
Um i would like you all to know i should have gotten an academy award for my amazing acting skills as on Saturday we had a lesson with the class in English and i was the investigator! they told me to pic a friend and truly try to act like her so i picked a special person! I told them i believe in god or a higher power but nothing really else. I told them i was more of a thinking and like scientific facts and that i just wanted to know more cause my friend (aka me) was going on her mission! they talked about prayer in god can be so powerful and about how the holy ghost can help to know what truth is. The spirit was so strong as you saw the investigator (me) come closer to Christ, and let me tell you i did not make it easy for them cause i was truly acting like this person. It was a nice refresher why we are serving as mission and how its about the spirit and not missionary in the room as people in my class cried cause they said they could see the investigators eyes being opened and coming to know god loves her and has a plan for her. they all asked if i have ever been on splits before cause it really felt like a real lesson! I loved the comment that the gospel is for everyone and is simple cause we have a loving and simple God.
Then we had a super Sunday! well it started off with lessons how the BOM (book of Mormon) has changed peoples lives and the all the sister were together after to watch the spoken word and they sang climb every Mt and can i just say it made my fave as memories flooded back to me, and also that i can do this! Then after that i started crying as they said two weeks a ago only the floor was filled so about 200 sisters and now the whole 18 m or gym was fill with seats on the floor and the bleachers! can you believe it! we all sang as sisters and Zion but they now changes to words which are ten time more powerful look them up i think i posted it to my fb a while ago! then ANN Cleag on the rs general board talked to us and like me just tell you that I want to be like that woman! she was happy energetic and has such a strong testimony! mom you are so much like her! its amazing how all my prayers have been answer through other people as i prayed for helping me know how to better invite the spirit in our lesson and she talked about how she gift of tongues is real and that she gave a talk as just going to read her talk but then something told her to throw them away she is did and bam she spoke great and fluent! So that gave me hope and i have not really used notes in my lesson and its worked! then we watch a video from elder Bednard talking about how sometimes the spirit is not this on the spot thing, but a lot of the time all you have to do is be a good girl and follow your heart and then after or a long time after you realized that was the spirit talking to you! he told a story how when he was on his mis she gave president Packard 20 in Germany on is travel home cause he just thought that he might get Hungary, but then later like 40 years later when he was made an elder he found out that on the train Packard and his wife were stop ed by the German police cause is wife had an extended visa and they were not taking those a the time so he gave the German the 20 elder Bernard gave him for food in side the passport next thing you know the money was gone and they were free to travel. when The Packard's got to the US this body guard was in shock and said how are u alive? with your wife pass port she would have been thrown off the train like all the other that had the extended 2 year? That 20 dollars saved SIS Packard's life all because a 20year old missionary was being a GOOD BOY and was just trying to be nice. Follow the commandment and do what right and the spirit will be with you that sometimes you wont even know it=)
Tuesday I was in the choir and they had a choir of 2000 people in it! about two weeks ago it was 500! and on wed we got 940 new missionaries in the MTC! we sang call to serve cause we are preforming it on the 23 for the Prophet!!!! i am getting chill just thinking about it! best birthday gift of life! SO LOOK FOR ME ON TV CAUSE I WILL BE SINGING IN THE CHOIR! Apparently is going to be life changing and know as like the biggest spiritual event of out time! its going to be bigger then conference and I'm singing it the choir for it! my dreams are coming true! SO anyway I want to tell you that as we were walking over to the Marriott center for the devo we saw a group of boys walking past us and said you are my hero's! Let me just say it melted my heart! The devo was amazing as elder Arnold of the seventy touched my life! He was teaching us how to become better missionaries and how we need not to look at people how they are, but what they can become. I testify you to this day that the thing that truly stuck out to me was that the 70 year old man starts weeping are he said " i know this book is true" It got me thinking, What 70 year old man would weep over a book especially if it was not true, but because it is true and has blessed his life 100 fold he stared crying. The looked and conviction and this man spoke with about this book told you it was true! this is not an ordinary book! Then the next thing that stuck out ot me was that when he was speaking to a group of 4000 to 18 and 21 year olds and the place was dead silent. when you have that many people in a room and at those ages its almost impossible to have the room so silent that you could hear if someone dropped a pen. Its a miracle ha and i love seeing them happen all day at the MTC. then i watched the Elder Holland Mormon message about testifying of the book of Mormon and the Bednard. Just think these man came from Harvard and became top professor doc and many other respected positions and for them to also weep over a book testifying it true you know its trues as you see it in there eyes! Not one Not two but many man could talk about all these prestigious books but they testify of this simple one that all ages could read cause it changes their life and it has changes mine as well! i went from not wanting to teach lesson cause i felt like i was failing to now loving them! I am truly falling in love with this work and the Croatian people as the other days we met someone who's parents are from their! at the devo some girls started talking about how they heard this mission that sound so cool called the Adriatic .... and then i turned around and told her north i was going their! everyone is so amazing at where I'm going and said they have friends who say its the most beautiful place one earth everywhere you go. We talked to Russian a little bit the other day cause they are very close but our language is not as hard sound. we had our first TRC or home teaching Croatian members and it when really well we talked about how to missionaries after the mission!
well times up but i love you all and miss y'all like crazy! ok time has been up for 30 min now haha yikes!I love my updates with the spurse!123 foreverSestra Peterson
Saturday, June 8, 2013
A LONG letter!
Hello Everyone!!!!!!!!
Oh how i missed y'all so much and have wanted to write all of y'all so badly because sooooo much has happened, i don't even know where to start!. I never thought i would be so happy to write an email in my life! So lets start off with how loved i feel as i get "dear elders" everyday! i set an new record for the mtc i bet because on Monday i received 12 letter for y'all! i felt bad cause I'm companion didn't get and so me, i was on top of the world!well my day starts off at 545 cause i wake up to go to gym classes they now offer for the girls! i did yoga, Sept class and KICKBOXING! then our zone or the other countries that we are sharing a hall with are so close as we eat every meal together, we played sand volleyball, kickball and we are going to play capture the tie soon! Its common to have district or just your country class to be like family (which ours is) but to have other countries in your hall feel like family us very uncommon! And they have said that have The mtc just looks so bright and colorful now that girl are here the prez said and the choir sounds better then ever haha! 900 new missionaries ones came yesterday! i saw my friend in her car and ran after her! she gave me the biggest hug, its was so amazing to see her! then later that night i totally had fun and told all the new comers to "leave now"! " run while you can" hahahaha!
so lets start off with Saturday! I started teaching an investigator lesson in Croatian!!! i knew nothing! is friend gave him a book of Mormon and he wanted to know more so we first told him that Bog volim ti ( god loves you) and that Jesus is the Christ! so after we talked about how the book of Mormon testifies of Christ and it goes hand in hand with the bible! me and my companion are so much alike but then we can be so different as i walked away wanted to kill myself cause i couldn't talk and she walked away" happy as a lark" (mom that was for u) she said i love the people i cant wait to teach them, cause our investigator was from Serbia! i Understood some of what he was saying which was great cause she cant, and she read a little better then me. so our next lesson we taught him was about prayer and how god is our father so we say dear heavenly father then we thank him and ask him for blessing and then say "in the name of Jesus Christ amen" Then we asked if he could pray to know if the book of Mormon is true! then he asked us how he would know if its true and we only have learned Croatian for like 3 day so was praying hard! I didn't know how to say anything about the Holy Ghost in Croatian!!!! so no joke we drew the triangle and put god at the top and Jesus at the bottom adn across was the Holy ghost and said this.. tri, jedan! we were playing like charades as i held up 3 fingers and then say jedan as i pointed to each finger trying to say they are three different people with one perpous! then he said what is it like and once again i new nothing except a word we learned today came back to me "tico" which means quiet and then i pointed to my heart and the word serca that i learned at come to me! he understood it! 4 words with actions makes the biggest difference! then over the next two day of teaching him was really hard as i murmured against the program cause i could not feel the spirit and the gift of toungs was not working! i tried really had to make a good lesson for him about the restoration and how Joseph Smith wants to know answer like everyone and he got his but nothing was working as i looked at my notes the whole time and tried to understand him, but not really cause i only heard Croatian 4 days people! i have so much i want to say but getting thrown into teaching when i did even know what lessons i should teach! So i was upset just know wanted to teach anymore because i though it was pointless like beating a dead horse! then we came back and my teacher told the class out of the clear blue that we need to be like peter how he jumped out of the and walked to the savior on water! it hit me like a ton of bricks as was not like peter! he had faith and TRUST as he got out of the boat not even thinking he could drown, I had faith in the gift of toungs, but i didnt trust myself with it so i got frusterated! i put my feet in the water one by one to test the water instead if trusting my myself and trusting my savior like peter! the after he comited to baptisim we found out it was one of my teachers we were teaching, which i knew, but he said When me and im companion did not look at our notes and just used like 3 words with actions he was learning and could tell we wanted him to know so badly what we were saying and to know the language! he and he learned and that was on the only day he felt the spirit. Funny to say that was the only day we didn't look at out notes and it worked! now looking back i have learned to much from that experience that have made me trust and got excited to teach again as i have to trust in the lord. my companion said something amazing to me she said that," that because we know the Gospel very indeepth we want to tell them so much, but the Gospel is simple so that why god put us here learning a language. because we need to learn how to be simple and like the spirit teach, and its so true! i then i said to her when she was having a hard day that out mission is for us to grow the most, that's why we are hear learning this! if i spoke English it would not be that much of a challenge and i would not grow that much, but because i am learning a new language for me is such a challenge and i have found out so many new things about me! after this experience the only Croatian missinaryEVER who is going to cali and he talked to us about how they don't know what Mormons are so its all going to be so new to them! He said they are very nice and very chill but I'm going to have to start BASIC and that you have to become their friend first or forget about it. It just got me wanted to serve again as i just opened in Matt 5 in the temple today and it talked about light and how through light we will bring souls to come unto Christ! They are loving people with a past and we can bring the light and hope they do not have to them! in the temple we got breakfast downstairs and my comp who Elyse is so much like you just stared talking to this man by himself. We both remembered him from earlier as he had a huge smile on his face saying hi to people.Because my comp is so friendly and loves hearing strangers stories we found out that this man was an achoholic how goes to meets every week and is 6 year sober!!!!!!!! can you believe it! repentance is key as " with god anything is possible" no matter how hard things are if we truly want things to change they will happen with your heart set on the lord! the way this man looked you would never have thought that a man who spent 90 days in jail is now in the temple! From being here the most valuable thing i have learned its that there are no consciences, everything happens for a reason.I for got to tell you but as i was struggling one day i prayed to God at night saying please help me with the language, i want to teach please help me believe in the gift of tongues then i woke up at 545 to go to the gym with the other Croatians but they all slept in so i used that time to read my scriptures. i never have had this happen to me but i just opened them to mark 16; 15-20 then i read Philippians 4 like you said mom and after that i kept reading colossians 1:10-11 3:20-24 and 4 :3-6. my prayers were truly answered and my rommies were supposed to sleep in so i could by myself in the mist of the night read and ponder to receive that communication with God. truly waking up early bring the spirit and makes you accomplish so much in a day. we do so much in a day here but the weeks go by so fast! I cant believe i have been here for a week! on Tuesday it was my comps birthday so we all decorated our door with hearts cause you know i love celebrating those holidays! we made her a paper crown she had to wear all day. She 21 party hard in the MTC with cookies and milk, my like #real talk smart cookies are amazing! her mom gave them to her! its amazing how in the MTC you share everything and have no porbem with it cause we are like family here. my polish roomies wear all my clothes already! we call it the sisterhood of the traveling skirt cause we are all different sizes and yet we all share skirts! sorry Elyse but everyone is so stylish here so your skirts don't belong anymore ... lets just say outdated hahah. I'm still a ratchet queen as mu back broke but we put it together with those silver ring holders and you cant even tell it was broken! I Broke in all my shoes so no more blisters!!!!!! the other day i tried out to sing for 4000 missionaries and made it with my song but they said its a little to hi so they want to use me but don't know where haha so if you could sent me touch my eyes i would love to sing it at a devo here.
Mom can you send me my gray skirt and my mac clear makeup spray socks please! well I'm already 30 min over time so i better go but i love y'all so so much and love getting the letters from all! i love my teachers and my Croatian group is the best we are already so close! we have 13 Croatians 7 girls and 6 boys you are the biggest mission group to ever come in to the Adriatic North and the biggest one with the most girls by the end of summer their will be about a 40 % increase in the missionaries there form us!
hope you like the pic and video love love Love y'all123 foreversesrta Peterson
oh Elyse write Kat for me in french and ill give it to her and mom can you right my comp telling her happy belated birthday she gets mail but she has not gotten a dear elder! PS Elyse i love the adofisons !
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Brianne's First Letter...
Dobra Dan!
Hello family and friends,
PS sorry for the spelling mistakes! I’m in a rush cause everything is about time here! I have never used a watch more in one day than my whole life!
Hello family and friends,
Well for some reason they didn’t reject me and I was let in, they more like shoved me in because I was late.. Surprise! I was an hour and a half late and like the last one to come in, my poor comp thought she was going to be left alone! I know it’s really early to say, and things might change, but I like the MTC! I almost feel like I’m at EFY in a way. When I got here I put on my nametag that Crazy looking because I was informed that I will be leaning two languages here! All in saying is that the big man has more faith in me than I thought! We are learning Croatian and Serbian! So I am learning the Latin alphabet the sriyilks alphabet "the like shapes the Russian use!" But what I didn’t realize is that by learning this, most of all Eastern Europe will able to somewhat understand us! So our zone, or missionaries in the same hallway that we do things with, are going to missions that require them to learn Czech, Serbian, Slovene, slovak, Croatian, Polish, Bulgarian, and Turkish! So if I ever wanted to go to these places I could get around! Out of the seven girls going to my mission my companion and I are the only ones living apart from the other five. We live with the polish sisters so I'm picking some of that language up as well! HAYLEY my polish sister that I’m living with is Sarah Duffy’s roommate and like best friend named Lizzy or" Sister Petherbridge" so she totally knows you!!!! I love my group I’m, with we all are so great and paired up perfectly with our comps! Each companionship has different personalities but, we are paired up with the same personality for our individual comp! Like I love mine to death, her name is Brandi Frampton ... aka the one I stalked on FB and wanted for a companion. She is a singer on iTunes! Look her up. She is an amazing country singer! We are to peas in a pod, she is soooo outgoing sometimes I have to tell her to focus... and here I thought I was the only one who had to be told to shut up ha-ha! She is no molly Mormon but has such a strong love for the gospel! The only difference between us is she is kind of like a hipster! The MTC really should watch for us.. They probably are thinking ... what did we get ourselves into!
The first day I was here and first person I ran into was Caitlin!!! It was so amazing to see her and Cami I gave her that hug for you and it brightened her day! So When I introduced myself I held up the hook em sign aka everyone loved it! Language was 4 hours with no standing up or anything so for like 5 mins I already started to fall asleep..Yikes! But out of the 4 hours things finally started to click the last hour cause it was like conjugating stuff! But man I do not know how I’m going to speak I can’t understand anything he is saying and tomorrow we have to teach in Croatian an investigator! Well silence is key ha-ha well that’s what its going to be for tomorrow! So I am still the same person The first day I got some bad blisters then the second day My bag broke I just bought and then I sat in grape jelly... just my luck! And PS I forgot socks... the one thing you told me to bring ha-ha! Well that all I have time for but I love and miss everyone so much! I loved all the letters yall left me! Send me pic please!
123 Sestra Peterson
AND also tell everyone to use Dear Elder cause I get it that day!
P-days are Friday.
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