Happy New Year!

Tracting in the Rain

January 5, 2015

Family and Friends! I love you all.

It's been a good week. Tues and Wed were hard...I was sick again!!! :( I think I may have eaten something bad in the fridge...I need to start keeping track of how old my food is haha.

I am doing SO GOOD though!! I just kept getting excited this week that Sister Biddle and I are staying together and working in Covington.

I hope you all had a great new year! I made SO many goals! I might have overwhelmed my self a little haha...but I am excited. It's crazy to think that this whole year, I'll be on my mission! I love LOVE the thought of that. I'm excited to learn and grow from these wonderful people! One of my goals is to work on developing the Christlike attributes, one by one, over the course of the year! there are 9 attributes and 8 and a half transfers...so one per transfer!

I will highlight of few of the awesome things that happened this week.

GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS. We hadn't been able to get a hold of B all week! It's like she literally dropped off the face of the earth. Phone off, not home, nothing! We were worried she had just up and moved to Chicago! So we prayed a WHOLE lot that somehow, B. would call us so we could continue to teach her! Sure enough, Saturday morning, she called!! We were so happy! It's just something small, but It showed me that God cares enough about my prayers to help B. give us a call! Anyway, she set up an appointment with us, invited herself to church again, and showed up looking super spiffy and awesome! We took a picture :)

Miss B!

Testimony meeting. it was INCREDIBLE this sunday!! It was perfect for Bernice. Jasmine, her friend, who joined the church in July, stood up and bore her testimony about how that gospel had changed her and how she knew it was true! Then Sister Schendel, her fellowshipper, got up and did the same thing. Our new District Leader, Elder Odom, bore his testimony about his conversion story 2 years ago and Sister Biddle and I both bore testimony as well. It was just POWERFUL in the meeting because we were talking about Jesus Christ and his Atonement, and as our investigator's niece, little Z., puts it, "whenever I talk about God and Jesus, I feel the Holy Spirit!" I love how true this church is!

R. AND J.! This is the family we started teaching a couple weeks ago, and they are AMAZING! We met with them twice this week. How do I even describe their awesomeness? They are so so full of a desire to learn about God. Like it says in Mosiah 2:9, they've opened their ears, their hearts, and their minds to God's word, and the mysteries of God are being unfolded to their view! We read 1 Nephi 1 with them, and challenged them to read the 2nd chapter, they did, and came back with notes they had taken and questions they had, and ways they could apply it to their lives! I have a testimony of reading with investigators. The Book of Mormon is SO POWERFUL and it is so real! Both accepted the invitation to be baptized. We are so excited for them!

I also have a testimony of kneeling prayer. We had one with R. and J. and all 4 of their boys, J. (10), J. (8), J. (6), and J. (5) (they are SO CUTE) after both lessons. Kneeling in that family prayer, with R. praying, and all his little boys listening, there was NOTHING more powerful! I felt the spirit testify of the power of families. God loves that little family!!

I LOVE YOU ALL. I can't express the love. Remember how much God loves you!

Sister Petrie