September 15th, Week 19

Changes....Kinda



Dear friends and family,

I apologize but this letter might be shorter (probably will be shorter) than most of my other ones. We don't have too much time today since we are needing to pack and get everything ready for transfers.

This week kind of came and went pretty quickly.


Hermana Dickson and I have been both been pretty sick off and on. It's like we took turns feeling ill this past week. We tried to go out though and persevere so that we can show up to our lessons. But all of our lessons with investigators fell through. We ended up spending a lot of time with less actives and recent converts. A lot more than usual. But it is all good because I know I felt the spirit during those lessons and I know they did too. We have been trying to help members invite their friends to a ward activity we will be having soon. We help them by giving them an invitation to it and then having them role play/practice with us how they would invite their friends to come. It's been really successful and we've already seen them think about people they could invite.


And yeah. Then on Friday we had the musical fireside practice and it was good. The songs are really coming along. And now that it's almost here it's very scary because we are cutting it so close. But we are all excited! :) at least I know I am!

So, transfers are this week and the week before transfers is usually pretty long so I'm surprised and pleased that it wasn't as draggy. On Saturday, I received a phone call that I'm training a new missionary! I kind of already knew about it since president has been telling me ever since last transfer. But I didn't want to jinx it so that's why I didn't say much about it. But anyways... So, in mission terms, I will be getting a daughter! :) There are two Spanish sisters coming in and I don't know which one I'll be getting but I'm excited for this opportunity! The other sister that's training as well is MY mom (trainer) Hermana Lewis. So I will be a sister and she will be a grandma and a mom again! Haha, mission posterity... I still don't understand it so if you're confused right now then you're not alone. Anyway... It's kinda weird to be training since I've only been out for four months. President has asked us to speak only Spanish to our new missionary so I know that will be a challenge for me but I'm excited for this grand opportunity!!! :) I hope it'll help me have a little more patience and a lot more confidence. We had a training meeting yesterday with our mission president and the future of the mission is on our shoulders. It's kind of a scary thought at first but I am up for the challenge. I think it helps that I just finished getting trained not too long ago because I already know which tactics can be helpful and which ones can't be. So we will see what happens.

I'm sad to leave Hermana Dickson because she truly has been a great companion. I feel like I've gained a new lifelong friend I never thought I would have. She's an awesome missionary and I'm excited to see what happens with her! She's been a great example to me and I know I am going to apply the things she taught me in the short time we have been together. I love this work and I'm so excited to be a part of it! Change can be hard but it's part of life and I love that the mission teaches us that.

Oh, speaking of which... I will be staying in the Buenaventura Ward BUT will be sharing the Ogden area with the elders!!! I am so excited! It's one of the most dangerous areas in the mission and they haven't had sisters there since the beginning of last year so I am so pumped! The only thing with sharing an area with elders is that we will have to do daily and weekly planning with them. But HEY as long as I get to be in Ogden. Also, our area in Riverdale will be covered by Elders now annnnd Hermana Dickson is going to Roy! :D She is so excited for that as well! I am sad to say goodbye but I know she will be great over there!

I love you all and love all the support and letters I get! :)
Have a great week!!!


-Hermana Pecjak

September 8th, Week 18

It's A Great Day To Be In The Utah Ogden Mission

Dear Family and friends,

How have y'all been? It's been a good week in the Utah Ogden Mission, even though I've been a little ill.

So let's see what I can recap for this week...

So, we've been doing a lot of finding lately and we haven't seen much success in that. We just feel like the way we've been trying to find hasn't been effective so we have new ideas for this week. Transfers are next week so we will see if I get to stay or leave the area. Yikes!

We had another musical fireside practice and it actually turned out to be a LOT better than the last one. We are really trying to work hard and have everything happen. We only have two or three practices left but we can already see that the Lord is on our side since we basically have two out of three choir songs learned already. Who would've thought that a random group of  70-80 missionaries would be able to pull that off?

Our Ward is known for their parties and they rang true this last weekend. There were three parties!! We only got to go to two of them though because of lessons and such. It was actually a lot of fun. We went to a quinceañera on Friday and 4 year old's birthday party on Saturday. It was fun!! We got to talk to the members and get to know them and the friends they brought a lot more. All in all, I love being in the Spanish program.

Yesterday, those of us that are in charge of organizing the musical fireside got to go to the mission home and teach President Jaggi's daughters MacKenzie and Emma the songs for the musical fireside since they're gonna be in it too. They are so talented!!! They learned really fast, we only took a little under an hour doing that so that was fun. :) Sister Jaggi is such a mission mom: she asked each of us before we left if we needed anything like money or food hahaha. She's great, I love her! I love the Jaggis!!! It's like having a family here in the mission. Josh, President's 10-year old son, was showing his Lego stuff and Mackenzie showed us her book. It really feels like they are just our little siblings.

I got to go on exchanges with Hermana Harris this last week. A little background info on her.... She was called as an English missionary, went to the Provo mtc for 12 days, on her last day in the mtc she finds out she's gonna be a Spanish missionary, and she's learning Spanish as she goes along. She's only been out for five weeks and she's learned a lot of Spanish. In a way, I wish I could know about the same amount of Spanish she knows because she knows the simpler Spanish so everyone can understand her. And simplicity is power as a missionary so I wish I could have that. She really has the gift of tongues and that just proves even more to me that Heavenly Father helps us all along the way. Anyway, we were walking the streets of Ogden (I wanted her to have that experience) and we saw Celia (one of the members we recently reactivated) walking home from work with her husband. We ask them if we could have a lesson with them and they agreed. Carlos, her husband, is never there when we do lessons with Celia. But he was there that time! It was so cool. I asked hermana Harris to share her testimony at the end and they were so impressed! Carlos told her she was valiant for learning the language in such a short time! It was awesome :)


The other day, hermana Dickson and I were really thirsty so we stopped by a members house to see if they would give us some water. They told us to come in and sit down and join them for their meal (it's a Hispanic thing). Anyway, Hermana Dickson and I were talking about how we have been wanting to color our hair. Hermana Mercado gave us the name of the lady she goes to and told us she does it for pretty inexpensive prices. We were excited and said "okay we will go to her on P-Day". Wellllll, HermanO Mercado, HermanA Mercado's husband told his wife "well, why can't we just pay for them? They don't have money!" So, we got our hurr did for FREE today. I don't know if I like it yet, it'll take some getting used to... What do y'all think???

Last night we had a zone Family Home Evening and the Jaggis were there. We got to watch the movie "The Best Two Years" and it was so good! It was a celebration for hitting our goal of having 23 baptisms last month. I love that our zone likes to get together if really shows we like to be unified :)


That's about all that happened this week! Hope y'all have a great week! I'll let you know what's going on for transfers next week!

Love you all!!!

Hermana Pecjak

September 1st, Week 17

Come What May And Love It


When Things Don't Go As planned

Hello, everyone! I hope you've had a great week! Thanks for your responses! In the mission, we do something called feedback, so if you want to let me know what you think of the emails (i.e. How I can improve) please do! Also, if you want to know more about specific things let me know too. I just kinda sit down and type whatever I remember so if any of you have specific questions that'll help me a lot!

This week was very interesting. We had our first musical fireside practice! Woot woot! That was really fun :) but also kinda stressful. We got to teach the choir their song and hopefully we are a little more organized. We had a meeting yesterday and I brought up how we need to be more organized for this week's practice. Elder Wangsgaard and I are the only ones that will be here on our missions still for the firesides next year. So we naturally have already come up with a few ideas. We have plans to do a fireside that revolves around the Plan of Salvation and Missionary work. It's gonna be sweeeeeeet. We are both huge music geeks so we have a lot of ideas already. We basically already have the Christmas fireside figured out too. But that's a whole other bridge to cross... The elders are so sweet though! They bought us sisters ice cream because they said they wanted to help us be less stressed. It was a nice act of kindness and they will be blessed for it.

Also, our apartment flooded! A pipe broke in the wall or something like that. We received a phone call in the middle of the fireside practice so I got excused to leave and we drove all the way back to our apartment which was about 7 miles and then allll the way back. We've been living off of our suitcases ever since. But it's all good, hopefully this week everything will be fixed.

Our district leader got emergency transferred. So we had to say goodbye to Elder Bigham. Elder Melchor (his trainee) was really sad about that but sometimes emergency transfers happen. Our district gained Elder Juarez and he's a bit shy but I think our district will help him come out of his shell a little more. We still have former district members hang out with us on P-Days. This district is the best. We are all best friends. It'll be sad to leave this group one day :(

I never realized how much I appreciate Hermana Dickson until this last week. She really is a great companion. We have great unity. Our communication is super good and we just have a ton of fun together. We have to be in bed by 10:30 but we don't fall asleep until later than that because we end up just talking and talking and losing track of time. That could explain why we both felt crummy on Sunday but now we are fine! So that's good :) I am super grateful for her and her example. I've been lucky to have two obedient companions back-to-back. Hermana Dickson helps me want to be a better missionary every day so I find that to be a good quality. She's just a great example on someone who's obedient, trustworthy, kind, selfless, and caring. I feel like she really cares about me, I never thought her and I would get along since our interests are so opposite but little by little I feel like we are finding things in common and also teaching each other new things to like. For example, she's gotten me into drinking herbal tea every night before bed. And I got her into liking coke and chick-fil-A. One night last week we didn't have dinner so we were hungry when we got home at 9 and so we baked brownies and warmed up some tea. It was pretty cool.

We had this really cool lesson with a guy named Juan. We met him a couple weeks ago but we never found him home. We found him again by contacting someone else in the trailer park and he was like "Hermanas porque no me han visitado?" Like, why haven't you visited me? But we totally did. Haha but anyways we set an appointment and he was there and we had a great lesson. The spirit was super strong. He started crying when he was telling us about his son in jail. He loves his
family more than anything so right now he feels like his family is incomplete with his son being gone. Next time we see him we are going to talk about the Plan of Salvation because we feel that'll help him more. He needs support and he told us he wants us to be his and his wife's friends. He's a really good guy, we are blessed to be working with him. Hopefully he progresses and has the chance to come to church!

We got to go to the temple on Saturday! Last Sunday, we found out a recent convert named Oscar Ramirez was going to the temple for the first time. They invited us to go so we got to go and it was super special. We asked our mission president for permission and he was totally for it. So, we went and I loved it! I love the Ogden temple. I want to get married inside of it haha :) it was super special being inside the temple and seeing a lot of our Ward members there. I felt truly happy seeing them there. The people that I call home. I love this Ward, it's gonna be hard to leave it :(

Last night, we had a family home evening with the DeLeon family, a family that got baptized almost two years ago. They are a super great family :) their kids are 3 years old and 5 years old. They were there the whole time for the lesson and were not even that rowdy. It was a treat to be able to be with them.

We played soccer and bowling with some elders today, it was really fun! :)

Things didn't really go as planned this week but it's all good. We ended up having yet another great week and I can't wait to see what this week has in store for us!
Love you all!

Love, Hermana Pecjak

August 18th, Week 15

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink

Hello, everybody! I hope everyone of you had a fabulous week. I know I did! But it seems to be that way every week as a missionary. 

Something I've been teaching myself is to be more grateful. So, I decided to set aside a journal specifically for things I'm grateful for. Every day I write five things that I was grateful for that day and that has changed my perspective on everything!!! I love it. You guys should try it sometime. It makes me a happier person when I can sit down and reflect on all the blessings Heavenly Father has given me. Sometimes, especially in this world we live in, it's hard to think about positive things. We are quick to have a "poor me" kinda attitude. Imagine how sad that makes Heavenly Father when we do that! He's given us everything, we just gotta look around. Sure, life is hard. No one said it was going to be the contrary. Every day is a learning experience and I firmly believe that if we go a day without learning something new, then we are missing out on opportunities to learn and grow. It all starts with the attitude. So, as a representative of Jesus Christ, I invite everyone reading this to write down one thing they're grateful for every single day. Notice how it changes your perspective and view on life. 

Perspective is something I've learned a lot about this week. It was reiterated many times, and I'm so thankful for that. There's a song from the movie The Prince of Egypt called "Through Heaven's Eyes". When I was a kid, I didn't think much of the song outside of its catchy beat and tune. But now, as I seriously pondered the lyrics, it brought a whole new meaning to my life and to my ministry as a missionary. The song is all about having an eternal perspective. If we don't look at our lives through heaven's eyes then we will think things differently. We will think someone is more valuable than another person because of the stuff that they have. Or don't have, for that matter. I don't know, that song just really touched me this week and I felt like I needed to share that. 

This last week, in district meeting, we set a goal of having 8 new investigators. That meant each companionship would need to find 2 new investigators. It was fun getting out and being pumped about missionary work after that because I'm not gonna lie, sometimes we need a push of motivation after days of rejection. We met our goal and so, to celebrate, we are going to have carne asada tacos after district meeting this week! Also, we've been trying to start this thing where we wear pink on Wednesdays, so our whole district wore pink last week. #DistrictUnity 

We got to see the elders in our district a few times last week because of different meeting and things of that sort but we also celebrated Elder Lewis' birthday at a place called Rancherito's. He put his birthday candles in a burrito. As Spanish missionaries, we gotta celebrate the right way, you know? Haha it was really funny.

We also got to celebrate the birthday of two other elders in our zone, Elder Wood and Elder Blaylock. Their birthday is on the same day so we had a surprise birthday lunch for them and they were actually surprised. That's awesome because we were afraid their companions would accidentally tell or they would've seen the phone or something (24/7 companion, whatcha gonna do). But luckily they didn't. 

After the lunch, we drove straight to the devotional with an apostle of the lord. We got to shake his hand before the meeting and it was truly powerful. I could feel his power when I shook his hand. It was amazing. It strengthened my testimony a ton about how we can have prophets in this day. I approached the meeting with three questions written down in my journal that I had had. They were all answered! Which only confirmed more to me that he is an inspired man of God. It was definitely something I'll never forget. Next month we have another apostle coming to our mission as well, so we shall see what happens with that. 

Something cool I learned yesterday on exchanges is that some people can be really mean. Like, okay. I get it. It can be inconvenient to have two young missionaries knocking on your door on your only day off from work. But, we have a message that we share. We devote 18 months to 2 years of our lives to share it because we know it can help others. I just wish some people would give us a shot and not cuss us out or banish us from their neighborhood. Sometimes I think about how in the Savior's Second Coming, when He is judging everyone one-by-one, there will be a huge screen showing people the times He sent missionaries to preach about His gospel. And showing them the times they rejected them or didn't even bother to open the door and hear what they had to say. We find people all the time that tell us "Well all churches talk about God and that's what's important." But wouldn't it be the best thing to know that we have the same exact church that Jesus Christ established when He was on the earth?? To know that God loves us so much, He doesn't want us to be confused about all these churches that are on the earth? He wants us to know of one church, one true church. Something Elder Ballard said to us is that Jesus Christ is the author of simplicity, and Lucifer is the author of complexity. That really made me think. I don't know, maybe I'm just going off on a tangent right now. 

Yesterday, I tried for the first time MENUDO. It's soup with cow stomach and intestines in it. I tried it because the member we were eating with took us to a restaurant and she asked me if I tried it before and I said no. So she put all the meat from the soup on top of the rice I ordered and made me eat it. So I tried it because... Why not! Haha, it was interesting. But now I can cross that off my list of things to do here on my mission. 

But anyways. Yeah, I had a great week! Some days are harder than others but hard days make me work harder and learn more about myself and about others. 

Love you all! 

Hermana Pecjak

August 11th, Week 14

Gerardo's Birthday


Hey everybody! This week has been awesome! It was my first week with my new companion Hermana Dickson! She is from Puerto Rico so she talks really fast, haha. But she is awesome. I have already learned a lot from her and she has learned a bit from me I think because she is not accustomed to all these new mission rules. She came from Layton and the Layton zone used to be in the Salt Lake City mission but now it is a part of ours because of the mission split. So, their rules were a little bit different than ours so I had to show her the ropes a bit with that.

Last night, we were invited to do an FHE with the Jaggi family at the mission home. They asked us to invite any recent converts, investigators, and less-actives that we are working with. We invited everyone we could but the only one that to go was Gerardo. And it was his birthday! We heart-attacked his door and he thought that was so funny. And he loved the FHE. I had to translate it for him a little because half of it was in English and he doesn't speak that much English but he loved that he got to spend his birthday with us because he usually doesn't get to spend it with anybody. So, that was really cool. 

This Saturday, we are expecting a visit from Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He is coming to speak to our mission. I am kind of anxious to see what he is going to say to us. We have been asked to study a few things in preparation for it and one of the things we have been asked to study is Alma chapter 5 in the Book of Mormon. It's a really intense chapter. I call it a slap in the face haha so I am super anxious to see what he will be telling us. 

Something else that was really interesting that happened this week was that I started asking questions before I do personal study. Questions that I wanted specifically answered. And so my first day of trying that out I asked "What scripture can I read that will help benefit someone we know?" I have been reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish and I was in 2 Nefi 9 and that whole chapter is really good. It talks about the Plan of Salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ. A lot of good things. But I couldn't decide who that would benefit. Later on that day, we had dinner at the Bishop's house. Before we left, he told us that we should teach this one sister in our ward something from 2 Nefi. I automatically thought of the chapter I had studied that morning. And before he could look up the exact chapter he was thinking of, I said "Chapter 9?" and he said "YES! That's the one I was thinking of". So, that was pretty cool to see how the Spirit works in funny ways sometimes. :)

Oh! So our car has had some difficulties this past week, poor thing. We had a flat tire two days in a row. It was pretty sad. We have one of the nicer cars too in the mission. So, on Friday night, my companion and I get a phone call from the English elders that cover Riverdale (the same area we do) and they asked us what we thought of trading cars for a day. We were kind of in shock but I said that it was okay. I always thought their car looked cooler than ours on the outside. So, the next morning we met up with them and traded cars. I didn't like their car. But that is not why I am telling this part of our week. I am sharing this experience of trading cars because as we were driving through an intersection we heard a loud thump on the passenger side of the car. My companion and I didn't know what the sound was. I was scared because it wasn't our car and I thought someone had thrown something at the car. So, I park to the side and have my companion check to see what it was. The silver part of the tire thing fell out! What the heck??? Hahaha so my companion had to grab it really quickly and I didn't know those things could be easily put back on the tire. But I parked somewhere else, somewhere that was still close by. And lo and behold, it was a church parking lot. Classic Utah. We got out of the car and were just laughing. Then, all of a sudden, a bishop from one of the Riverdale wards comes out and helps us. It was just a funny experience. 

So, yeah. That's all I have for this week. Hope you all enjoyed this! 

August 4th, Week 13

All I do is LEARN! What a blessing. I feel like Heavenly Father has helped me realize that one of our purposes is in life is to learn because that's basically all I've been doing every day.

We had a good week this week! Every single week we see blessings, so I'm not complaining!

We were in a trio for 24 hours (meaning Hermana Lewis and I were accompanied by another sister missionary). It was the weirdest thing. We were with Hermana Hernandez and we are all so different with our ideas but we also have a lot of similarities. It was also strange having to discuss who gets to use the bathroom first etc. But it was fun because we got to go on splits in our area and Hermana Hernandez and I found some potential investigators!!! :)

We also got to teach Erika and Alex three days in a row! (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!) Our ward mission leader is awesome!!! He's helped us out so much already. He has started up a volleyball activity for investigators and members to come and we are doing it every other Friday. So last Friday was our first one and we invited Erika and her son Alex to come. Alex was super excited to go but Erika was hesitant. She invited her husband Raul and other son Jeremy to go too so they could go as a family. We had them follow us there and when we got there there was barely anyone there. After a few minutes though, more people started to show up and it actually ended up being super fun! Hermana Lewis and I had to leave early because we had to be home at 9:00pm (missionary guidelines). So, we left Erika, Alex, Raul, and Jeremy there and we found out from the bishop that they stayed until they finished playing at 10:00. That means they stayed over an hour after we left. That's a miracle!!! They loved it, they told us it was super fun and they enjoyed meeting more ward members.

But, the icing on the cake this week was Church on Sunday. We had a lesson with Erika and Alex (Raul was there too for the first time) on Saturday and Erika told us she had a lot of doubts and confusion regarding the church. We invited her to come to church with us the next day to see if that helped her. Hermana Lewis and I were praying and fasting for Erika to get the answers she needed to take away her doubts and confusion. And, boy, were our prayers answered! She went to church with us the next day. In sacrament meeting, it was testimony meeting so people got to get up and share their testimonies or the things about the church they know to be true. And pretty much everyone that got up said something to the effect of, "If you are investigating the church, I invite you to pray like how Joseph Smith did because I used to be catholic because that's how I was raised but here I am now". And that touched Erika so much she started crying. But that's not all. We decided to have a lesson with her and the bishop after sacrament meeting right in the chapel. The spirit was so strong and the bishop answered a lot of her questions. And after that we had Relief Society class with all the women and the class was about Joseph Smith. It was perfect! The teacher asked me to stand up and recite the First Vision while everyone had their eyes closed. It was super cool because the whole time I could just feel the power in what I was saying. Half the room was crying and I think I at one point had the feeling to cry too. It was just an awesome church experience for everyone but especially for Erika. Alex and Jeremy loved it too. I hope they can continue to progress.

On Saturday, we went to Paulina's baptism. She just turned 8 and the rest of her family was baptized last year. She is such a cute little girl. And I think her family's testimony got a little bit stronger since right before they left their house for a baptism, their car didn't want to start at all and then they got pulled over by cops and yeah. A lot happened to them on the way to her baptism so that just shows that sometimes when we are trying to do something good, like baptism, and the adversary doesn't want us to do it so he pulls out all the necessary tricks to get people to stop. It was a pleasure being invited to the baptism though! :) Paulina is super adorable and her and I are practically best friends, haha.

All in all, it was a good week. We lost some potential investigators though and that kinda hit me hard. We have been trying to get an appointment with them for a while and they were all usually very nice. But the other day when we showed up for an appointment they had finally set with us, they had someone else answer the door and tell us they weren't interested and that we should leave them alone. I don't know why, but that rejection hurt me a little bit. It didn't hit me personally but I was just thinking how sad I was for them because they wouldn't even give us a chance to share the message we got. I set aside eighteen months of my life to share this gospel to others because I know it can bring everyone happiness if they allow it. So, that just kinda struck me a little bit and kinda confused me because they were super nice to us. We get all kinds of rejections every single day, but for some reason that one just made me sad. I guess I'm now realizing how happy the church has made my family and me that I just want every family to know about it too.

Okay, so let me tell a funny story. Last transfer, someone made this thing called "If Our Zone Was Still In High School". So, there were funny ones like "cheerleader", "surfer dude", "student body president", etc. Any guesses as to what mine was? Haha. For me, they put "Spanish club president, always hangs out with the Hispanic kids" hahahahahaha I thought it was hilarious. They added the "always hangs out with the Hispanic kids" part because apparently I always talk to the Hispanic missionaries, especially the ones in our zone. I can't help that I'm a Spanish missionary and just naturally gravitate towards the Hispanics hahaha. Plus, the elders in our Spanish distric are super funny and they are like my brothers. Plus, they don't make me feel so short so that's a plus haha. But yeah, I just wanted to share that because I thought it was kinda funny. I'm really sad that pretty much half our district is being transferred to another area. It's gonna be soooo different. But change is a part of life and I know we will all see each other again in mission meetings and conferences.

Hermana Lewis is being transferred to Layton and I am getting Hermana Dickson who's from Puerto Rico. I'm excited but sad. It's a weird feeling. But I am the senior companion so I get to take the lead so to speak even though Hermana Dickson has been out in her mission longer. She actually just finished training Hermana Reynolds in Layton so she and Lewis are basically switching places. But yeah we (senior companions)had a conference call this morning with President Jaggi and it was cool to discuss our responsibilities. Our president is really trying to help us be the best leaders and senior companions have a leadership role. I never really looked at it at way but I guess this is my first leadership calling in the mission. :)

I hope everyone had a great week! I love getting responses from people for these emails because I never know if people actually read them or just put them off to the side and not read them. Thanks for your continual support! :)

Love,
Hermana Pecjak

July 28th, Week 12

Three Months Down!!


Hello, family and friends! Another week has gone by and I am almost at
my three months mark (tomorrow, the 29th). I love what I've been
learning and the experiences that I've had.

Last week, we had zone conference. It was my first zone conference
ever and I actually enjoyed it. We learned a lot and it was very
spiritual. I got to see our leaders in action and I can tell that we
are going to be led by great people in the future in regards to the
church and the world. So, that as very cool.

We also had our first meeting for the musical fireside. Sister Sarlls,
Elder Mott, Sister Jaggi, and I have been brainstorming and we already
have the dates picked out and a theme. I got to be the one that called
to reserve buildings we would be using so that's been a great learning
experience for me in regards to speaking on the phone in a formal way.
I'm excited to see what will come out of this experience for me. The
best part is that we will invite everybody to come so a lot of
non-members will get to see and hear and it's just going to be really
fun. :)

We also got to walk as a mission in the Pioneer Day parade. Utah takes
Pioneer Day to a whole new level. There were so many stores and
businesses closed that day. It was insane. It was cool getting to walk
in it though. We felt like celebrities. I loved getting to meet other
missionaries as well in our mission since our mission is half the size
than when I came out.

I got to go on exchanges this week with Hermana Gammon. I love her!
She's such a great missionary and person! She always gives good advice
and she also used to be one of the missionaries in charge of the other
musical firesides so she gave me tips on that as well. Her and I were
tracting in this one trailer park and we found two new investigators.
They're both19 and we had a
Spanglish lesson with them because that's how they were talking to us.
They seemed super interested and I liked getting the chance to explain
things to them in a way that I would explain to my friends back athome that don't know the church at all. I felt like I was talking to
another friend. They liked that we are their age yet we are so
committed to the gospel. They can't go to church this Sunday because
they're going on vacation but they said they would be willing to have
us come back for another lesson. So, we hope to see them progress! :)

On Sunday, we had a fireside for all the Spanish missionaries and
their ward's bishopric and councils. So basically all the leaders from
each Spanish ward or branch. Our mission president gave a talk
completely in Spanish. It was so cool!!!!! I love that he's so
dedicated to helping the Spanish program missionaries just as much as
the English program missionaries. He really wants to help us out and
help strengthen our wards. So, hearing him read his talk in Spanish,
when he has never spoken Spanish before in his life, was super
awesome. I'm excited to see what he and Sister Jaggi have planned for
our mission over the next few years. I'm feeling optimistic about all
of it. They're great leaders and now that our mission is a lot smaller
(the farthest area from the mission office is 20 minutes away from the
office) they have plans to have us meet and congregate as a mission
more often. We get to meet with an apostle in a couple weeks. I was
mistakenly informed last time that the apostle was just meeting our
mission but he was here for a fireside for anyone that wanted to come
and so we didn't get to go because we didn't have any investigators
that could go. BUT THIS TIME FOR SURE there's an apostle meeting with
our mission. They won't tell us who it is. We also received
information that our mission plans on getting Facebook soon. So, we
will see what happens with that. It's been about five months since
they took Facebook out temporarily. I assume we will get trainings on
how to use Facebook as missionaries.

I finish my training this week. WOO-HOO!!!!! I'm so excited!!! And I
can start driving now. I am not driving today but my companion wants
me to start tomorrow so yay!!!! Hopefully I'll be okay since it's been
a while since I've driven.


I hope you all had a great week! Love you all!!! :)

-Hermana Pecjak