SOCHE SOCHEEEE - October 10



hi everyone! sorry this email is going to be SUPER short, buuuuut the work here is getting busier and busier each week! I`m so grateful for the opportunity to serve in Guatemala and I know that this gospel blesses families more than anything in the entire world! Everyone here is so open to listening to our message centered on happiness and that makes me soo happy!

All of our investigators are SO sweet and they`re progressing so much! The language continues to be a struggle but I LOVE the work and the amount of love that I have for the people!

Ugh I`m so sorry this is so short but I love all of you and I promise I`ll write more next week!

Love you and miss you everyday!
Hermana Pereira

She Put a Ring On It! - October 3








hi sweet friends! this week was full of blessings and miracles!

first of all, Mariela got married and baptized! It was such a special day for her and her family! We are extremely happy for her and her decision to come unto Christ! It`s seriously so wonderful to see the change in people through their conversion process. We are so so so blessed to be able to work with her and her sweet family. And we`re super excited to announce that her husband is getting baptized next week! We`re on cloud 9 with the progress of her family!

General Conference was super great this year... espeically the music... because that was the only thing I could completely understand! Haha the language is really coming quicky though! Anyway, we had some of our investigators come and they really enjoyed it! We have an investigator named Juli and she LOVED the conference. She`s super positive and excited to learn more about the gospel! 

In typical missionary news... I ate chicken noodle soup this week. Like literally CHICKEN noodle soup... like my bowl had the head, neck, liver and heart in it... Let`s just say I had 5 too many tortillas to get it all down hahhah. It was so funny though. I can`t say I love trying new foods, but it was a good experience hahah my companion only asked for ALL 4 FEET hahaahahah oh gosh I love my life here and the crazy things that happen everyday!! 

We had a conference with all of the hermanas this week and it was centered on happiness! It was SO great learning and meeting all the cute sister missionaries here and we had chocolate chip cookies which were a complete blessing!!

I continue to freeze my buns off when it rains but it`s been so fun especially with my cutie of a companion! I love the work SO much and It`s crazy that I`m celebrating 2 months tomorrow!! 16 more months to go! 

I know that this gospel brings complete and everlasting happiness! Continue being the energetic and joyful people that you all are! I love and miss you all! 

xoxo-
hermana pereiraaa:)

Freezing My Buns OFF - September 26





It´s so cold here but honestly, we´re so busy everyday that I don´t even think too much about it! BUT great news!! One of our super sweet investigators is getting married AND baptized on Saturday! Ahhh we couldn´t be more excited for her... and us because it´s our first baptism in Soche!! Yay!

Honestly though, so much happens in a week that I can´t even remeber the little things! I love and adore every single kid here, they make my heart so so full and happy!! I thin kI´ve met maybe 6 Diegos this week? Hahah but honestly it´s so fun meeting new people, contacting here is so fun too because the people are too nice to say no to 2 cute, yet soaking wet missionaries in the pouring rain! ;) 

Let´s see let´s seeeee... I miss everyone so so much! I think of so many of you people every single day, I just never have the time to express my love and appreciation for ALL of you in just one hour!! But just know, you´re always in my heart! 

OH! This Sunday was great!! Crazy crazy busy BUT a member of the 70 came and spoke in our ward... we´´re still not really sure why but it was so awesome! He pretty much just directed his talk to the missionaries so it was so great, it was like a little mini General Conference for Hermana Rosas and i!

We continue to love and adore the people here and we progress the work everyyy singggle dayyy! EXCEPT I´m not a fan of the dogs here... I mean yes, most of them are super cute and ugh so skinny, poor babies... but literally TWICE this week, we almost got eaten by dogs... hahah it was actually so funny! We screamed and then right after we were like "Okay... this is happening, just let it happen..." But luckily, we didn´t get bit, and the sweet pregnant women saved us. And in return we gave her a Book of Mormon so really, it was a win win! Hahah

well I absolutely LOVE my life here and yes, there are definitely hard days, but everything is SO worth it when you´re bringing people unto Christ! I know without a doubt that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. We as missionaries wear His name on our hearts because he died for us! Continue to be obedient and righteous daughters and sons of Heavenly Father! Ugh, I love every single one of you and I´m so so happy to have you in my life! 

Trust the Lord with alllll your heart and he will direct you on his straight and ETERNAL path! 

xoxo,
hermana pereiraaa :)

First Week in the Field - September 19



 Her pictures were sent that way!
hello my sweet and supportive friends & fam!

week 1 in the field was the hardest but best experience ever! so for the next 12 weeks (due to training), i`ll be up in the COLDEST and most DIFFICULT part of the mission called Soche, San Marcos, Guatemala! BUT I`m so so lucky to be here because I know that Heavenly Father has prepared his children here to hear my simple, yet powerful testimony of the Gospel! They recently opened up this part of the mission to the hermanas so both my companion and I are contacting a tonnnn and we`re making so many appointments with faithful and humble people! 

My companion is Hermana Rosas, she`s from México DF and she is probably thee sweetest girl I have ever met. She was converted into the gospel when she was 16 and she`s seriously never been happier! She`s such a sweetheart and she knows a LOT of English which is super helpful when I`m constantly asking her what everything means! All in all, I`m incredibly blessed to have her as my trainer!

Nothing too cool has happened in the past week beside the fact that I made it out here (finally!). I`m super close with the kids here and they all make fun of me because I`m whiter than all of them hahah! But they`re so sweet and I`m so thankful to be able to joke and play with the little niños!! :) 

I`ve witnessed so many miracles this week and I`m super excited to see what is in my near future here! I`m so so grateful for the opportunity to serve as a missionary in Guatemala and to help others come unto Christ!

Sorry for the short email but I hope some of my pictures make up for it! I love and miss you all and I love hearing about your happy moments that are going on in your life! 

xoxo,
hermana pereiraaa:)

Arrived in Retalhuleu, Guatemala - September 13



Hi, I just made it to Reu! I wish I could tell you all about it but I´m so so happy to be here and I´m extremely nervous and I´m just so full of 3000 emotions! Presidente and Hermana Goodman are the sweetest humans ever! I can´t wait to tell you all about my life here next Monday! Hermana Goodman told me that she put me with a Latina companion that knows English! I´m so so so so so excited!!! I wish I could talk to you more but I love you more and more everyday! Tell the family and everyone that I love them and that I´m here happily and safely!

With tons and tons of love, 
Hermana Pereira

Leaving the MTC - September 7

¡Holaaa!

It´s my last week in the CCM and I have a million feelings going through my head! I´m so so so excited to jump into the work and just meet all of the sweet, humble, and incredibly faithful people of Reu, but I´m so nervous! I´ve never been so happy in my life!!

This week was pretty good! Our investigators are progressing and it´s so wonderful to see their faith in Christ expand! Teaching here in the CCM gets me so excited to teach people in my mission, just the only problem is, is that I can´t turn to my companion and say "uhh como se dice..." hahah but it´s okay because the Spirit is there and the Spirit is always the teacher!! 

In other news, my companion got a blessing the other day and wow. The power of the priesthood is SO amazing. It´s so wonderful to see the miracles that come from being a worthy priesthood holder! I´m so grateful for the Priesthood and the Restoration of the Gospel!

This morning we had the opportunity to go to the temple! The temple is seriously my favorite place, you can always count on the Spirit to touch your heart! Today was the first day the session was in Spanish and it was SO difficult to understand BUT the gift of tongues is so real and definitely a blessing in our lives!

I know that this is the true and restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can and will receive happiness and so so so much joy in our lives! We are so blessed to be able to have prayer so accessible to us every second of the day! I challenge you all to pray and thank Heavenly Father for the countless blessings in your life! I know that by doing this, you will become a happier and more faithful follower of Christ! I´m so thankful for each and every one of you and all of the blessings that I´ve recieved from being here, preparing myself to teach the cute people of Guatemala! 

I´ll talk to all of you in a short 12 days! 

Con muchoooo amor, 
Hermana Pereira:)

ps. I love each and every one of you who take time out of your day to email me! You´re constantly in my heart!

One Month Down, 17 to go!!! - August 31


Wow! It´s so crazy how time works when you´re on a mission, I definitely feel like it´s been a century and a half since I left! This week was probably the second longest week here and I have no idea why, I guess the new missionaries really messed up my quick weeks!

We got new Latina roommates this week! They´re super sweet (when I understand what they´re saying lol). It´s been so awesome getting to speak Spanish as much as possible! I´m definitely learning to love and understand the language the longer I´m here!

Nothing too crazy happened this week... my district is still so great, we moved classrooms, and I still continue to eat ice cream every single day. Life is pretty great when you have the opportunity to eat chocolate everyday! ;) 

Our investigators are going great! Tomás is doing so great, we are still struggling with finding his need, BUT yesterday he told us that he wants to get baptized more and more each day! Both my companion and I are excited to progress with him! We got a new investigator this week, her name is Margarita! She´s Catholic and she wants to find the true church, but she struggles with obeying commandments. My comp and I have a pretty good idea what her wants and needs are and we are praying that we can commit her to baptism this week! Usually, Hermana Proctor and I are a lot better working with hermanas than we do hermanos!

Sundays are the absolute BEST here! They´re just super spiritual and we get to speak más inglés!! My companion and I had to give a Relief Society lesson on Knowledge, Light, and Truth! It went really really well considering we weren´t very prepared! Although, it was so great reminding ourselves how important the Light of Christ is in our lives! 

In other news, I continue to lose weight, which is always a plus BUT my rings aren´t fitting on my fingers anymore :( And it´s also weird considering that I eat ice cream everyday... but, I´m definitely not complaining about the lost pounds hahaha

Today has been a pretty good day so far! I´m bummed because the temple is closed today, so we all went out with our super cute yellow Mormon Helping Hands vests, and swept the dirt roads & did service for the church grounds!! My district and I kept saying "Gracias por la oportunidad para servir la gente de Guatemala" over, and over and over again, it was SO funny. We are all so comfortable with each other and I love them all SO much!! 

I´m so grateful to be a missionary and to be here learning a whole new language! I definitely have grown so much in the past month and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for me! I continue to pray for each and every one of you and I´m SO happy to see your supportive emails in my inbox! I wish I could reply to all of you! I seriously love being a missionary and all of the blessings that come with being an obedient follower of Christ! I challenge all of you to pray tonight and thank Heavenly Father for the thousands of blessings that he blesses each of you with every single day! I know that through prayer, you will feel so much peace and joy in your life! 

love you all! xoxo
hermana pereiraaa