A Savior Is Born

December 21, 2015

Is this real?? I can't believe Christmas is really this week! I'm looking forward to seeing all of you over skype! :)

We've been focusing a lot on serving others this week. We've challenged all the members of the ward as well as all the missionaries in our zones to give a gift to Christ this Christmas! My gift to Christ is to help each person around us to feel loved, and to make this the best Christmas for somebody else. We've loved doing it, from a simple smile to a sincere compliment to delivering a plate of cookies and a Christmas card! Last night we stopped by a single sister in the ward who spends each Christmas and Thanksgiving alone, and felt prompted to offer to spend part of Christmas watching her favorite Christmas movie with her! (We're allowed to watch PG movies on Christmas--so excited! :)) It's just the warmest and best feeling to offer love and service, especially to those who might not normally receive it. It's interesting to think that those who got to give a gift to Christ at his birth were those who were humble and listening and willing to act--just shepherds and seeking wise men! I hope I can always be humble and waiting for the opportunity to give the most meaningful gifts.

This week was excellent. We had two great exchanges with the Union Sisters and the Lake St. Louis Sisters. I love them all! For whatever reason, I felt the spirit SO strongly on both exchanges. Blessings!

Union Sisters

D. and J. were at church! They are doing GREAT. It's amazing to see both of them just light up when they feel the spirit in their lives. Soon they will have that blessing always! It was also cool to see B. and J. L. just take D. and J. under their wing. It was like they were saying, "I was just where you are, being new in the church, I know what it's like, and I'll be your friend." YES.

We had such a neat lesson with A. this week! We listened to President Nelson's talk, "A Plea to My Sisters." It was just what we ALL needed. By the end, all 3 of us were crying haha. It was so good to remind each other that we are all SO needed in the work of the Lord, and that we are making an impact! I love A., more than I can say!

Love you all! Talk to you soon! Have a very great Christmas. :)

Sister Petrie

Our Goofy faces!

It's Christmas Time!

December 14, 2015

I love you all.

I don't have buckets of time today. We were able to spend some time with one of our recent converts, A., today. We made some rad gingerbread houses, I'll attach pictures! 

The Houses. Mine is in the middle.

This week was just fantastic. One highlight was our Christmas zone conference on Wednesday. There were three zones, so there were LOTS of missionaries! We got to give our training twice, It went well! We were really blessed with the spirit and unity in presenting the training, and I think the missionaries liked it! We also had a white elephant exchange with items out of our apartments! If you've ever heard any rumors about missionary apartments...they're all true haha. Needless to say there was a lot of unnecessary stuff getting exchanged around, but it was a lot of fun and we had a lot of good laughs. I loved the focus on the Savior at zone conference as well. Missionaries LOVE to testify of the Savior. I think it's because on our missions, He becomes so REAL to us, and we can't help but share :)

We were blessed to be able to find a lot of new investigators this week, all of which were referrals or part-member families! Blessings. We are so excited about the work here! We are working really hard to perfect our adherence to the missionary schedule with a challenge called "success breeds success". It's based on the principle that if we can successfully master our morning schedule, getting a full 30 min of exercise, full personal and comp study, we can be successful in our missionary work. And it WORKS. Sister Schow and I are becoming masters of the missionary schedule! And our week went so well as a result.

Our investigators are doing well! We love them all. We were able to have some great lessons this week. I just seriously love this area. So many people progressing towards baptism!

We also got to have stake conference this week with Elder Snow from the 1st quorum of the 70. It was amazing! I learned so much from everyone that spoke. The best part was the new member meeting with Elder Snow before stake conference. We were able to attend with A.! Everyone stood up and told their stories of how they came to be a member of the church, and the spirit was SO powerful when A. bore her testimony! She has struggled with different things in the church, but as she testified, I think she really felt her testimony confirmed. She was able to reflect on the blessings the gospel has brought to her life, and it was amazing to hear. We love Amber!

Hope you have a wonderful week preparing for Christmas! 

Sis. Schow and me and our houses :)

Christmas Challenge!

December 7, 2015

I LOVE my mission. I am so so so happy to be here! What a blessing to spend the Christmas season bringing people to Christ. How awesome was Elder Bednar's talk from the Christmas Devotional last night? Jesus Christ really is the "light of the world" that shines in the darkness. Right now we are passing out Christmas cards that link to the church's Christmas video, "A Savior is Born." We have been giving them to anyone and everyone, with an invitation to learn more about Jesus Christ. It has been super neat to see people's face light up when we talk to them. Two women in particular that we offered the video-card to thanked us sincerely for thinking of them, and walked away with huge smiles. We overheard one of them say to their kids as we were walking away, "Well wasn't that nice??" I love it. There's nothing hard or tricky about sharing the light we carry!

We had a great week, with some unexpected surprises! One was an exchange with our sisters in the Parkway ward at the beginning of the week. I got to spend the day on Tuesday in my area with Sister Hudson. She is so sweet and quiet, but such a bold missionary! She helped me receive revelation for my area. That's what exchanges are for! We also had Mission Leadership Conference on Friday. There are now 3 other sisters I came out with who are Sister Training Leaders, including Sister Dahlberg and Sister Furniss! It was neat to reflect on how much each of us has grown, and how much I love those sisters! It gave me a glimpse of what Heavenly Father must feel about us when he sees our growth and our potential.

Sister Schow was also sick all day Saturday! It's a good thing we had a boatload of planning to do. We planned the week, the transfer, the rest of the year, and our trainings for this upcoming zone conference. Oh yeah! This next week is going to be great and crazy busy!

Lots of good things happened this week! The ward Christmas party was on Friday night, and J. and D. both came, made a ton of friends, and loved it! They even got invited over to a member's home for FHE tonight! Everyone is really excited about them, and of course we are too. We were SO proud of J. as well! On Sunday, the whole family woke up late, but J. had committed to church, taken off work, and was so excited to go! He took his 5-year-old and came late, by himself, for the first time to church! He love classes, was asking questions, and wrote his name on the elders quorum role :) He even was asking what steps he needed to take to be worthy to receive the priesthood. So cool!!! We are amazed at how prepared him and D. are to receive the blessings of the gospel and be baptized.

T. got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday! YES YES YES YES! I was so excited. He even had a non-member friend there to watch him receive it. Next week he'll be blessing the sacrament! How amazing. He has come so far! :)

Mama asked what I would want for Christmas this year. I have a request! Maybe it's cheesy, but this year I want to challenge you family, and anyone else who wants to, to do a meaningful act of service for someone this month. Pray about it, do it, and then send me a letter or email about how it goes! Seriously, that would mean the world to me and would make my Christmas. If there's anything I've learned on my mission, it's that the best thing we can do in this life is to spread the light we carry. So spread your light! I hope you take this challenge :)

Sorry about no pictures this week. I will do better next week! I love you all so so so so much. Just keep being your great selves.

Sister Petrie

New Transfer!

November 30, 2015

We are so blessed. Let me just start there. The gospel, the mission, the people here...I'm overflowing right now!

We had a great week! Man. I don't even know where to begin! I guess with transfer calls! I thought I would be leaving this transfer, but I get to STAY here with Sister Schow! YES! We both screamed when we heard that! I love this area. And I am so happy I get to stay for 6 months! Sister Schow and I were just really starting to kick into gear, and I'm so happy I can stay to see all of these people who are starting to progress! All 5 sets of our sisters are staying as well, so really no big changes this transfer. It's great.

Thanksgiving was so wonderful. We got to spend it with the J. family, who have a thanksgiving tradition of having surprisingly intense nerf gun wars! I think they sent a picture to you. How fun. I loved being around a great family, the spirit was there so strongly in their home. 

Thanksgiving!
Right after that picture took, the dog got so scared of the camera, he ran into
a corner and barked at it for the next couple minutes...haha

So many good things are happening with our investigators! We started teaching D.'s husband J.! D. was the lady we found and cleaned for last week. We had 2 fantastic lessons with them! J. started really opening up, in fact halfway through the lesson he had us pause and asked if we could all go around and share a time we'd felt the Holy Ghost. He was so excited to share!! Then he told us he's been going through a spot in is life of not being close to the spirit, and he wants it back! So we invited him to be baptized. Both him and his wife know they want to be baptized, and both even agreed to a baptism date early next year!! AH. Yes. I can't even express how great it is to teach families. It's like teaching a team that can work together to achieve worthy goals. They support and encourage each other so much!

The C.'s came to church again! R., M., and P.. The spirit is really filling their lives with meaning, and it is wonderful to see.

We also set a baptism date with our investigator C. She is great to teach, because you can literally see the spirit light up her countenance. This gospel light is real, and it blesses lives!

We are praying for a baptism in our area before the end of the year. Our mission has a goal of 375 baptisms that we are striving to reach. I know we can do it! We have been fasting and praying and praying and fasting, and the miracles just haven't stopped!

I love you all so much!
Sister Petrie

Our district selfie!  I love those people!

Giving Thanks

November 23, 2015

I am SO grateful for so many things. It seems like a constant stream of little tender mercies is just flooding our way!

Sisters P-day!

For example! Last Monday we were at the post office mailing packages, we had 3 packages to send and 40 dollars in cash. It covered the first 2, but we didn't quite have enough to pay for the third. On our way out, a lady who worked there stopped us and asked us why we didn't send the last package. We told her we didn't have enough money, and she grabs the package, weighs it on her machine, and starts punching buttons. She looks over at us and says, "You got 8 dollars?" We had 9. She re-boxes the stuff, and as she sends us back in to send it, she recognizes our name tags! she says, "Ladies, remember that when you are on the Lord's errand, He always sends help. There will always be a ram in the bush." She is so cool. We shared our card with her and invited her to watch a video about Jesus Christ, and she was SO grateful! The spirit was really strong, and she ended up giving us both hugs before we left. I was so grateful for that experience. The spirit taught me that what she said was true, the Lord really is looking out for our well-being, and he NEVER fails us. He will always send someone or something to help us feel his love. How profound, there is always a ram in the bush. I've seen it happen over and over again.

I was so grateful to help a young struggling mother this week. With a working husband and three VERY busy little children, her house had gotten messy to the point of her being completely discouraged about it ever being clean! So we grabbed a couple members, a couple of trash bags, and cleaned her entire kitchen! it was amazing to see that kitchen totally transform. And even cooler to hear her comments while we worked. "I always feel happier around Mormons", "What time does your church start?" "I can't wait to quit smoking". it was awesome! now we are teaching her and her husband, and she wants to be baptized right after the new year! SO cool.

We had our last exchange this week! It was such a great one. I got to go with Sister Broadhead again to the YSA. She is seriously one of my favorite humans! she has red hair too...i think I just love people with red hair. :) She taught me so much about being bold, about loving being a missionary, and about really and truly impacting others for good. It was amazing.

I am so grateful for family history as well. I feel like that's one thing about the gospel I didn't fully understand or appreciate before my mission...and I still don't. but i love it so much more! A couple weeks ago, the neighboring city put on a family history event, run by members of the church! So we got to be there, and basically sat with non-members all day and helped them find their family on familysearch.org! that was amazing. We invited one of our former investigators, M., who showed up and had a blast! turns out she has a long lost 2nd cousin who is LDS! they connected with each other, and then this week that cousin actually came up to O'Fallon from Texas and brought M. to church!! She felt so welcomed and loved church. Family history is a great way to be a missionary, who knew!

Well family, have a happy happy Thanksgiving this week. I am so grateful for eternal things, like family, like the gospel, like Jesus Christ. We are so blessed. Have a great week!

The keystone at the Science center

Ice cream! Love these sisters

The Spirit is Real

November 16, 2015

I love you all so much. It's been another great week, with plenty of miracles and plenty of struggles! Whenever I look back on the week though, the good always trumps the bad, and I realize just how blessed I am to be serving in St Louis :) I love this place!!

Sister Van Orman

Where to start? We had such a crazy busy and amazing week. We had two more exchanges with Frontenac and Lake St. Louis sisters. I was with sister Van Ormen and sister Gordon--two amazing sisters. And they both have beautiful red hair. :) With Sister Gordon we were able to find 2 new investigators together! Sister Van Ormen and I had fun teaching an amazing Plan of Salvation lesson and giving impromptu service to a member referral who (turns out) has met with missionaries before in Texas, and is ready to learn again! How cool. Our area really is exploding with miracles, that's what I learned this week :) 

Lake St. Louis Sisters

I learned a lot about the spirit this week. We had a great relief society lesson about missionary work, and there were so many converts that got to tell their stories. What stood out to me is that every one of them were let to investigate the church by FIRST feeling the spirit! It wasn't the doctrine, or the church structure, or even the Book of Mormon that first led them to be curious about the church, but it was the amazing FEELING that they got when they interacted with members and missionaries. There is a light we carry, and others can see it! It was neat, because as our investigator T. describes how she met us and started investigating, she says she "felt something different." That's it! No magic sparks or fireworks, just a gentle and compelling nudge from the spirit to take the next step. We as missionaries see our investigators from the beginning to the end, but they usually only see the next step. I admire the faith of our investigators!! They trust the spirit, and the spirit is real! This work is amazing.

More experiences with the spirit this week--on Wednesday we saw the C. family. The grandparents got baptized this year and we are teaching the grand-kids. Due to various circumstances, the C.'s haven't been to church in probably over 6 months. Last week we had a powerful lesson with them, where we were bold and both R. and M. committed to church. When Sunday rolled around however, of course the opposition came! They were all dressed and ready to go, literally on their way to church, when their car broke down. Holy cow. Sometimes the efforts of the adversary are so obvious, he clearly didn't want them at church. They were discouraged and had to take the car to the dealership, so they didn't come to church. This week we taught them again, and brought a brother from the ward to give them a blessing. We talked, and the spirit was SO strong. The blessing was incredible, and afterwards R. says, "I know one thing. We are going to come to church!!" That's commitment! I think they finally understood how much they needed church and needed the sacrament. On Sunday, M. came to church with two of her grandchildren!! It was amazing to see them partake of that sacrament and renew their covenants. AH! It was amazing.

We have also been having REALLY powerful lessons with our investigator G., and we have been teaching them in B. and J.'s home. Which is amazing. B.'s testimony is one of the strongest I have ever seen. It's so great to have them to help G.

We had 4 investigators at church! That was a highlight and a blessing. T. and L. told us they would like to get baptized before Christmas, and they LOVE coming to our church! The spirit is really working on them.

I love this work!! I'm so grateful to be here. Please keep K., G., and R. in your prayers, they are all going through a lot right now.

Frontenac Sisters!

Exchange season!

November 9, 2015

What a great week. Lots has happened, and it's all so great. We are seeing a LOT of miracles in this area lately, and I am just LOVING it. This area has my heart, just like my other areas. There are wonderful people prepared for the gospel everywhere

Good things about this week! We had two exchanges this week. Those are always fun! I call these few weeks exchange season, cuz it seems like on exchanges we always see the best miracles. On my exchange with Sister Drake (she's been out for 2 weeks!! :)) we were able to start teaching S., a member's friend that we have been trying to teach FOREVER. She finally was ready to start learning, and BOY is she ready. She was the most excited I've ever seen someone about the Book of Mormon. She wants to start family home evening with her family. She's committed to come to church, and bring her cute little family of 4! She promised to read two chapters in the Book of Mormon WITH her husband. She is a seeker of truth. She loves the gospel! We are so excited to continue teaching her.

Exchange Selfie!

Sister Drake and I also were able to find a sweet lady together, Alexa. I think the coolest part was watching Sister Drake, over the course of the 30 minutes we taught her, become completely invested and excited about the work! She's been going through the new missionary struggles that everyone goes through, but she got SOOOO excited about A., she was reading the Book of Mormon to her, promising her blessings, bearing testimony, laughing and joking and just enjoying being confident while sharing the gospel. It was a sweet moment.

Wednesday we had a scare. Our investigator G. (the miracle find) has been really struggling with health issues. On Wednesday his friend told us he was REALLY sick, they didn't think he was going to make it. They rushed him to the hospital, and meanwhile we were praying hard and calling ward members to come give a priesthood blessing. We got to the hospital, and had to wait about 20 minutes while they were getting him stable. We were finally able to go back with a member of the bishopric and another brother. It was a little scary, he had a seizure while we were there, but we were able to talk to him, and he was able to get a priesthood blessing. G. is so humble, he just wants to to what's right, and he has such a desire to be baptized into the church. Everyone there was crying, I think. Pray for him! In his blessing, he was promised that if it was his desire, he would be healed :). What a neat moment. I just hope he can have the peace of mind from being baptized before he passes away.

Thursday I was able to go to Parkway, in the city with Sister Anderson. She is such a sweet sister. I've been working on being more bold in my invitations, and that's what Sister Anderson taught me!! She is an amazing sister. I love her.

Friday was crazy, our phone got left out in the pouring rain overnight on exchanges, so I came back to a dead phone... so we did the best we could. We went to Sister R.'s house to use her phone to make some calls, and it turns out she had felt prompted to make cupcakes that morning. So we ate cupcakes and chatted about the sisters in the ward, and it was a little blessing that made us feel better :).

K. is SO. CLOSE. to getting baptized. She just has a couple fears to overcome. SHE CAN DO IT. I love her so much! We read Enos with her, talked about faith, and it was perfect.

Our investigator T. came to church on Sunday! It was so fun to sit with her and explain everything that was going on, and she LOVED it. She said it was more personal than her other church, and she really enjoyed feeling noticed and loved. I do love that about the church, it is so focused on the individual and on families progressing together. I think she felt that spirit when she was there.

I love this work! And it's work :) phew! I'm exhausted sometimes. All the time. :) We love it though!

Love you all!

Sister Petrie

Happy November!

November 2, 2015

Dancin' in the Rain

I'm not sure where October went. It's hard to believe how fast time flies!

This week has been so great! We spent a lot of time giving trainings to our 2 zones, most of Wednesday and half of Thursday! Meetings are good, but I am excited to go and WORK this next week! We have a lot of exchanges coming up with the sisters, which I am so excited about! I love the sisters, it's so fun to work with them and to learn from them.

Our trainings went well this week! We actually trained on how to have better dinner manners when we eat with members hahaha. It was a fun subject, even though it was a little less spiritual than our other trainings have been! We had a few fun role plays, where we acted out "telestial", "terrestrial", and "celestial" dinner appointments! haha. It was super fun, we had Sister Morgan play the member and we were the missionaries. Our telestial dinner appointment was hilarious, we were pretty rude and I think we even surprised Sister Morgan a little bit! It got the point across though, our conduct around members really does affect the trust and confidence they have in us. We have a new baptism goal of 375 for the year as a mission, and President Morgan promised us we can reach that goal if we work effectively with the ward council. We will do it!!

The work is going well! Especially in our sisters areas. It's been neat, we've had a couple new sisters call us recently, struggling with different things. Then, in the next few days those same sisters were each able to commit an investigator to baptism! They were so excited to tell us. I love that our sisters success is our success. Basically their areas are our areas, and it's so fun.

Our investigator D. surprised us by showing up to the ward trunk-or-treat this Thursday and bringing 4 friends! No big deal! Then she told us that she loved our church and how friendly everyone was, and told us she wanted to start coming here! And we've only taught her one lesson! I love it. 

BYU Trunk at the Trunk or Treat

Also our investigator K. is doing FANTASTIC. For the first time, she prayed sincerely to know if the Book of Mormon is true! She is great, I really really love her.

And our investigators T. and L.! They want to be baptized.

Oh, and P. and T. are two girls we started teaching this week, granddaughters of a recent convert. They are so sweet, have been through a lot, and are so ready for the gospel! The member we brought to teach them was perfect, and he brought the spirit almost instantly!

Well I love you all! Have a great week.

Sister Petrie

Loving the Rain!

Sis. Schow too!

Back with Sis. Schow!

Transfer Meeting Ladies!

  October 26, 2015

Well I'm back at it with Sister Schow. She is an incredible companion! Already we are setting some great goals and seeing amazing miracles. It's cool--my weaknesses are her strengths. It's such a blessing that we can be so effective together! Great things are coming for this area.

Lots of meetings this week! Transfer meeting was great, there are 5 brand new sisters in our 2 zones! We are SOOOO excited to be their friends and help them with the work! Also, I got to see Sister Tilman from Danville!! So great :)

We also had mission leadership conference on Friday. That was neat! Got lots of great notes to help us plan the THREE trainings we have to give to our zones this next week. That will be an adventure! This is the season of meetings haha, which is good, but I'll be excited to just go out and WORK in our area!

Good things that happened this week! 1. Finding new investigators L. and T., who have been through a LOT in the last year, but told us they felt like God led us to them. (He did). 2. T's BAPTISM. Such a wonderful experience! The spirit was powerful, and a ton of youth showed up to support him! 2. T's confirmation! He was blessed with the desire to go on a mission. It's going to happen! 3. Getting Sonic with Sister Schow (just like old times!) 4. Getting an update about everyone in Centralia. I LOVE THAT AREA! 5. Teaching A., who family is ALL LDS and who we randomly found by asking everyone for referrals! 

T baptism!

T. Baptism!

And lots more. It's been a great week, and we are EXCITED for more great weeks ahead. 

Sorry to not have much time today!

Sister Petrie

O'fallon Youth!

Transfer time again!

October 19, 2015

Well, holy cow, time flies. This morning I dropped my wonderful companion off to go to the mission home, and she's flying home today! Soooooo bittersweet. Sister Hayden was an incredible companion. I'm still amazed at everything she taught me, and at the perfect timing of our companionship! I think I've grown more in the last 2 transfers than I have since the beginning of my mission. She's an amazing friend and has been there for me through everything! I'll miss her a lot, but she'll bless so many people back home! I feel like whether on or off the mission, life is just one constant quest to bless others with the gospel. #missionariesforlife. :)

Speaking of amazing companions. Transfer doctrine is in! :) aaaaaand my next companion in this area is........SISTER SCHOW! Who was also my last companion! Yep, I was just as surprised as you are. Out of 60 sisters in the mission, I get to be blessed with the same companion twice! That is super uncommon, so I know the Lord just has amazing plans for this area. That two transfers in Centralia were soooo successful and the Lord blessed us with so many FAMILIES to teach and baptize, I hope so much to see more miracles like that in this area! AH! Soooooo excited. What a blessing! Anyway I'll go pick her up Wednesday at transfer meeting and it will be amazing. AH.

This week has been incredible. Sister Hayden and I decided to put all distracting thoughts away and FOCUS, 100 percent on the work of the Lord. It was amazing to get lost in the work of the Lord. There were some neat things that happened, and just the feeling of being completely invested was amazing.

We got to teach T. a couple of times this week! He is doing soooo well. Yesterday we taught him and he talked about going on a mission! The other priests in the ward are totally making him a part of their quorum (ward miracles!) and he is just a completely different kid. Yesterday he walked into church with his suit and tie on, and he just glowed! You can tell he has the spirit with him more than he ever has before. His mom says, "T. is totally different. It's weird." hahaha I love how the gospel brings light into our lives!

We also got to teach G. this week! There is a man with so much faith. It blows my mind. He still is learning and trying to understand so much about the church, but he is so committed to changing his life and being baptized. Pray for him? We're going to help him quit smoking soon.

We also had a neat experience at the beginning of the week. We were driving to an appointment, and passed an apartment complex and as I looked over, I felt super clearly that we needed to just BE in that apartment complex, ASAP. So we scheduled an hour the next day to just go be in that complex. First we tried to visit a member in the complex to ask for a referral, but they weren't home. So we picked an apartment and knocked on it, and met D. We introduced ourselves and the spirit was especially strong as we bore testimony, so he invited us back on Friday. We went back, taught him the first lesson, and it was amazing! After we finished we asked him how he felt about it all. He told us that after he had invited us back to teach him he had felt really nervous, not knowing what he was getting himself into. But as he thought about it, he started to feel that God had led us specifically to him to help him with some things he was going through. (We were like, "um, yeah! yours was the first door we knocked on!!!!!) He said he felt a calm and a peace, and said he would be baptized when he knew more about it. So cool. The spirit is for real.

One more story! We got a referral this past week, and the story behind it was amazing! So the sisters Lake St. Louis have been teaching a part-member family, and Sister Hayden met them on exchanges. They told her that the other day, they had gotten a text from a random number saying something like, "Hey, do you want to go hang out at a casino tonight?" Instead of texting back, " sorry, You have the wrong humber" apparently they sent a cute picture of their family holding a sign that said, "sorry, but we're Mormon!" hahaha, not only hilarious, but it started a whole conversation with this teenage girl, A., on what we believe in the church! They kept texting back and forth, and A. was super interested! She is going to a different religious school right now and she says she is "not feeling it" there. So they invited her to their 11-year-old son's baptism, and she CAME, and was able to feel the spirit, and we were able to meet her there! We will likely start teaching her in their home this next couple of weeks. HOW AMAZING. Specifically I was thinking of you, family, and of your goal to find someone for the missionaries to teach before Dec 12th. I firmly believe that God honors our righteous goals, when we have the faith enough to DO something about it! Finding someone to teach is never what or who you expect, but all flesh is in His hands, and he DOES work it out. It's a real thing.

Well I love you all. Have an amazing week. Pray for me taking over this area!

Sister Petrie

The process of carving pumpkins

Finished product!

Hellloooo Family!

Selfie with Sister Hayden

October 12, 2015

Well first off, I guess congrats are in order!!! So happy for you, Alexander, and happy for Emily! You guys are adorable. Ah! My brother is getting married. Time definitely flies!

This may be a little short, sorry about that! This week has been great!

First of all, our investigator T., who is the brother of E., decided to get baptized this week! :) It has been a long time in coming, but he finally felt like this was the right thing to do! We set his date for October 24th. T. is 16, and he is a really fun kid. It's been incredible to see the difference in him from when we started teaching him. This weekend he went with the youth on a Nauvoo trip and came back completely glowing! The support and love he's received from the ward has been a miracle as well, he's found just the right people to look up to and hang around with. The gospel really changes lives!

I felt a powerful spirit this week when we taught the H. family. The parents are not active in the church and their kids are not members, and we got to teach the whole family of 6 the restoration! The spirit was AMAZING. I'm pretty sure I haven't felt anything like it! I just know this message is absolutely true. 100 percent.

Another miracle was J. L. coming to church!! Apparently on Saturday, she up and quit her job just so she could make it to church on Sundays with her family. It was such a wonderful moment to have B. and J. there together. J. has come so far so fast, and the spirit she carries with her is incredible. She is a woman of faith, and I look up to her and B. so much. I LOVE THAT FAMILY!

Well, pray for my dear companion, who goes home in a week! Also for me and for this area, we have a lot of good things coming. I love this work!

Sister Petrie

Happy October :)

October 6, 2015

It's been a good week. What an amazing General Conference we just had! It always seems like no matter my questions or concerns or struggle is, the speakers all seem to be talking directly to me! I know I felt the spirit so powerfully, especially testifying to me that these servants really are servants of the Lord, and not of man. They do what the Lord would have them do. That's how I am striving to be!

It's so hard to pick a favorite talk, but I do have to say I loved hearing the new apostles speak. They are so humble and ready to serve, and I almost felt like I related to them in a way when I was a brand new missionary. I also LOVED Henry B. Eyring's talk on the essential role of the Holy Ghost. I think we take it for granted sometimes, but it really is amazing that the spirit can confirm and teach us truth, as well as comfort and guide us. My goal is to always live in such a way that I can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

It was really neat to invite all of our investigators to watch conference this week! We had a cool experience with finding one of our investigators this week, K. We pulled up to the house of a former investigator, and when we got out of the car, he was right there so we told him that we were missionaries and explained what we were doing. He looked at us for a second, and then said, "I'll talk to you guys." So we spent the next 45 minutes in his driveway explaining the restoration of the gospel, and the spirit was really powerful. He said he hated that he was too busy to go to church lately, and he loved the way that church made him feel. We were able to testify that that feeling was the spirit, and invite him to take the lessons. He was all for it, and we're seeing him on Wednesday! Just another testimony that God will place us in the path of those who are prepared for the gospel.

It seemed like we had a whole lot of meetings this week. We had two Zone trainings that we had to be at and give trainings for. We trained on how we as a mission can improve our daily scripture study by studying the restored gospel by topic. I have such a testimony of how consistent and diligent gospel study can bring the spirit and the vision of missionary work more than almost anything else. If we study the word of God and have his spirit with us (which comes through obedience) , we will have the power of God unto the convincing of men.(D&C 11:21) Topic studies have been amazing, I have learned so much! It almost fits right into the challenge we had at conference to "ponderize" scriptures. So cool!

Here's a picture from this week, another car selfie :) I love Sister Hayden, she's like my other half now! We rely on each other a lot, and it's fun :)

Car Selfie with Sister Hayden

Love you all. Have a fantastic week, and enjoy those New England fall leaves for me!

Sister Petrie

General Conference Week!

September 28, 2015

It's been another terrific week. We got to do two exchanges this week, and I am starting to really love and appreciate exchanges! I love the sisters I get to serve, and they work so hard and do so much for the mission. Tuesday I got to be in O'Fallon with sister Broadhead, and then on Thursday I got to go to Frontenac with Sister Shontelle, one of the sisters I came out with! It was neat because Thursday marked a year in the mission for both of us, so we got to celebrate it together! I can hardly believe it's been a year. Time flies sooooo fast! I am so grateful I still have 6 months to learn and grow and just get better at being a missionary! I love this opportunity to serve.

We got to see a lot of neat miracles this week. The one I am most excited about is G.! He was able to come to church for the first time this Sunday, and he loved it. He has so much faith, and when we teach him the spirit is so strong. We love teaching him! He's seriously a miracle of my mission. Every time he sees us he comes up to us and grabs our hands and says "Thank you for all you do." He says he prays for us every day. He is sooooo sweet! He is so excited for his baptism, he talks about it all the time. There are so many people that need the gospel!

I am so excited for General Conference this weekend!! What a wonderful opportunity we have to listen to living prophets and apostles. As I sit here, I'm watching the funeral services for Elder Richard G. Scott, and I'm overwhelmed by the feeling that he truly was an apostle of the Lord! And whoever the 3 new apostles are, they are also called of the Lord! I know it. We are blessed to live in a time where we can be directed by a prophet. I hope all of you take the time to listen and apply their counsel....it's inspired. Seriously. This is Christ's church.

I feel like there was so much that happened this week. So many little miracles. There were at least 3 times that we were talking to someone and they told us they had been praying and God sent us as an answer to that prayer. What an honor it is to be a messenger for the Lord! Like Elder Nelson says, we are "epistles of the Lord", saying and doing whatever he would have us do and say. I think that there is nothing sweeter than to be able to be an answer to someone else's prayer! I feel very blessed.

Sorry, no pictures this week. I need to be better at that! Thank you for your prayers and support. I am so happy and doing so well, and as always am so grateful to be serving the Lord. I know he lives!

Sister Petrie

I Am a New Missionary!

September 21, 2015

I think this week has made a new missionary out of me. There are so many exciting things going on in this mission!

A member of the Seventy, Elder C Scott Grow, came and toured our mission this week! We had two mission conferences, one for the Illinois half of the mission, and the other for the Missouri half. Thursday morning we had a leadership conference with Elder Grow, and it was amazing! It seems like we as leaders are always trying to find complicated ways to motivate and inspire our missionaries, but Elder Grow made the answer so simple. Get them in the scriptures. Make the word of God part of who they are, and they will be converted, they will have the Spirit, they will work, they will see miracles, they will baptize. And it's starts with us leading by example! We all felt the urgency of refining our studies and getting the spirit, every day, every day, every day!

So that was Thursday. Friday's mission conference just multiplied that spirit by a million. Elder Grow and his wife spoke to us, and gave us some pretty intense chastening! The first thing Sister Grow said when she stood up to speak was, "Honestly, you guys aren't working very hard." Talk about a rebuke! The rest of the conference they continued to teach us about setting goals, about our vision and our purpose, and they did it with such love that all I felt after the conference was complete motivation to be better! They told us about a lot of changes that are going to be made in the ward level especially in the ward council that will allow us to do better missionary work. We are SO PUMPED. To say the least :) This mission conference could not have come at a better time to the mission. It was exactly what we needed, and Sister Hayden and I are sooooo excited to apply it in our area and to go on exchanges with our sisters and teach them what we are learning. I LOVE THIS WORK! We are literally all on God's rescue team, saving souls. If we have faith, we can save thousands. There is nothing better any of us could be doing.

So just a cool little follow-up story, that same evening Sister Hayden and I were heading to an appointment, and just filled with so much faith and desire to see miracles, always praying to be led to those who are ready to be baptized into the Lord's church. Our appointment was a no-show, so we went to a potential investigator down the street. We were praying in the car, and when we looked up we saw two men on their porch, and both of us were like "we need to talk to them." No questions, no doubts, total unity. I LOVED IT. Anyway we went and talked to B. and G., and ended up having a little lesson right there! G. was more quiet, but while Sister Hayden was talking to B., I asked him what he thought about meeting with us. He said, "I've been going through a really hard time. I need this." So we set an appointment and came and taught him the next day. The spirit was AMAZING as we testified of the Restoration, and he ended up in tears as he told us about his past experiences with the Spirit. We invited him to be baptized on the 24th of October and he accepted it! He texted us a little later after the lesson, and I want to quote the text, it was so cool. "I'm reading [the Book of Mormon] right now. Just sat down, it will be a good night. You girls have gave me hope. I'm very blessed to have met you. You gave me a reason to go on this journey. Thank you...also I have decided to quit drinking. I will do whatever you tell me to do so I can join your church. I really want to be baptized. Will you arrange it for me please. And I would like you to be there. You girls are awesome. God bless." I know 100 percent that there are people prepared to be baptized, who are searching for truth, but just don't know where to find it. I keep thinking what would have happened if we hadn't talked to Gary? I don't know. I just know that I feel an urgency to follow the spirit and invite ALL to come to Christ. 

Columbia, MO STLs hang out with us for a day!

We also had a neat miracle teaching E. this week, a referral from the S. family in our ward. We taught him the very first lesson and invited him to be baptized on the 17th of October, and he accepted! He is completely prepared to hear the gospel, he watched the Restoration DVD and knew the gospel was true. It was that simple for him! I love the converting power of the spirit. I feel so blessed to be teaching all of these wonderful people, and I love them all so so so much.

Have an amazing week! Thanks for your prayers and support

Sister Petrie

Ran out of gas on the way to Mission Leader Training

Families are FOREVER!

September 14, 2015

What a great first week of a new transfer. 

We spent the first few days in a tri-companionship (?) with one of our sisters, Sister Caruso! She was super sweet, it was a blast to hang out with her for a couple days. We got to see a lot of neat things happen together! We got to teach our investigator, C. It was a fantastic lesson. C. is 17, and I love her so much. One of my favorite things to teach people as a missionary is who God is and how much he loves them. Sooooo many people are missing this basic truth in their lives, and it's no wonder it's so hard to live in the world without the gospel. C. is feeling the spirit for the first time in her life, and she is changing so much! 

We also got to pick up G. H. as a new investigator, and it was AWESOME. She was super hesitant to talk to us at first, but as we testified of the gospel, the spirit was unmistakable in the room, and she was excited to read the Book of Mormon and have us come back for another lesson! She had been to so many different churches and was beginning to give up on finding the right one, and it was so wonderful to be able to share with her that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been restored on the earth, and that she can find all the truth there! I think the best part was that we brought S. A. with us (her son X. just got baptized) and she got to share her powerful testimony of the gospel. It's neat because she's felt those blessings of the gospel in her family so recently!

I LOVE this family!

Highlight of the week: G's baptism!!! SO so so so amazing. The coolest thing about the L. Family is that J. has several active members of the church in her family, and they all love each other so much. So G. getting baptized was a big deal to his family, and the room was FILLED with so many of the people that loved and supported him! Also, B. got to baptize him, and B. has only been a member for a couple months! It was amazing. The gospel brings families together, I have no doubt. Also, families are not meant to have endings :) They are forever and ever, and that love and loyalty just gets stronger. It's amazing. 

G's friends and family. This picture is my favorite, EVER.

Oh and we got a new bishop this week! Bishop P.. He is on FIRE for missionary work and we are so so SO excited to work with him and see some miracles coming up! YES!

I love you all, this gospel is true :)

How they showed up to the baptism :) :)

Giant Spider!

 September 7, 2015

It's a little crazy to think the transfer has ended! Transfer calls came in on Saturday, and both Sister Hayden and I are staying in the area!! We are pretty happy about that. It was pretty neat to be able to give transfer calls to our sisters as well. Some transfer calls are hard, some are exciting, but you just feel that each companionship in each area is inspired by Heavenly Father, and it's neat to be able to testify of that to the sisters. 

The classic name tag/St Louis Arch shot! :)

We are setting some awesome goals for next transfer! It will be Sister Hayden's last transfer, so we are expecting Heavenly Father to really bless and guide her in this area :) Can we just talk about how awesome goals are? I LOVE setting goals!! They stretch me and change me and help me rely on Christ and his Atonement.

It's been a great week. We've had some incredible miracles! Let's see if I can fit it all in this email.

We've been praying to be led to those who are prepared for the gospel (always) and on Tuesday, we got to start teaching a family, the H's! They had requested a Bible online, but when we went to deliver it, the let us right in and were happy to talk and talk about what we believed. We shared a Book of Mormon, and we're going back to see them tomorrow! I'm so excited about them.

Later that day we went to teach the L. family. We love them!! J. has been a member all her life, B. (the husband) got baptized right before I got here, and now we are teaching the 11 year old son, G.! He's getting baptized this Saturday :) We were able to have a really spirit-filled lesson. G. is so adorable, he calls us "my missionaries". He is so humble. I have loved teaching all of these younger kids! Anyway, short story. That night we had been joking around with B., he's a huge 6 foot tall biker and we found out he is terrified of spiders! So the whole night we were teasing him about his fear of spiders. Then, right after we say the closing prayer, this HUGE spider drops from the ceiling and hits the floor (you could hear the thud, it was seriously huge). Needless to say, all chaos breaks out. The kids are screaming, B. jumps up yelling and RUNS out of the room, J. is screaming, "Get me a boot! I need a boot!" The spider runs underneath the couch we're sitting on, so we're scrambling out of the way, tripping over each other. B. gets the courage to come and lift up the couch, the spider runs out, then J. and I team-killed it, she threw the boot and stunned it, and I smashed it with my shoe! (I've included a picture :))

Giant Spider

Hahaha anyway, so then we were all relieved and laughing hysterically and joking around, it was just one of those bonding experiences I'll always remember! Surviving giant spiders seriously brings people together. I LOVE the Little family, they are so special and the spirit in their home is incredible. We are all excited for G.'s baptism this weekend.

Another miracle is J. Oohhhhh man I am just so so so excited about her! I get chills thinking about her story. So originally, J. was a Bible referral for the sisters in this area. They dropped off a Bible and a Book of Mormon and she was DEFINITELY not interested, very closed off and unreceptive. While they were talking though, her Hispanic husband G. came out and started talking to the sisters, asking them if they could help him learn how to forgive. So they referred him to the Spanish Elders in the area, and they started teaching him. To make a long story short, this weekend we attended and did a musical number at G.'s baptism!! They day before, we went over to meet J. and answer any questions she had. Her attitude had COMPLETELY changed, she was humble and open. As we taught her about the Restoration and about the healing that comes from Jesus Christ's Atonement, the spirit was amazing. She cried as she told us about how the gospel in G.'s life had basically saved their marriage. Apparently it was really very rocky, and ever since the missionaries came he has been sending her cute little texts from work, buying her flowers, and just little acts of kindness. SO ADORABLE! Anyway she was there at his baptism, and while he was in the font, I watched her get the biggest smile on her face. It may take some time, but I definitely see her following his example in the near future! The gospel truly blesses families and brings them together. I love it!

One more awesome miracle was N. she is a young woman from Kenya who just walked into our sacrament meeting yesterday! She felt the spirit during fast and testimony meeting, and wants to learn more about the gospel. We'll go see her later this week. 

Hanging out by the arch! LOVE these sisters!

Anyway, sorry about the marathon email. I do love this area, I love these people, I love my sisters! I'm so grateful that God has blessed me with this opportunity. The gospel is absolutely true, and it is powerful and will change us!

Love you all!

Sister Petrie

Shoutout to my wonderful, amazing trainer who goes home TODAY :) Love you Sister Biddle!

Paint Louis! It's a 3 mile long wall of graffiti downtown

Fabulous week!

August 31, 2015

I don't have too much time today, we've decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and the fact that we're in the city and spend the day in St Louis!

It was a fabulous week. I've felt so much relief from stress this week. I've had moment after moment where I've felt over and over that this gospel really is true, and the Atonement really is real!

E. got baptized this week! It was so perfect, and like half of the ward showed up to the baptism! We also had 5 or 6 non-members/investigators there to feel the incredible spirit. I love E., she is the sweetest girl ever! She has a really special spirit, and I'm so grateful she had the chance to learn and accept the gospel. Her mom and brother will follow her, I'm sure!

E's baptism

Church was also fabulous, we got to watch all of our recent converts walk in the door, and one received a calling! These people's lives are really changing!

I also got to go on an exchange with a brand new missionary this week, Sister Favero. She is the sweetest human alive, and she reminded me SO much of myself just about a year ago! So excited and so diligent and full of faith. We had a great exchange, and got to set a baptism date with P.! I'm so excited about P., he is really wanting to change his life at this point. We taught him about the power of fasting to overcome addictions, and he was like, "alright. I'm doing that tonight!" Way to apply what he learns :)

Hope you all have a fantastic week, I love you all so much!

Sister Petrie

It's Been A Good Week!

August 24, 2015

It's been a good week! There are good things happening in the O'Fallon ward, and I am really starting to love the people here. 

Exchanges with Sister Lynch!

I'll just share a couple of personal miracles that really meant a lot to me this week.

First, one morning this week I had a really neat personal study where I studied Lesson 1, the Restoration! I felt the spirit so strongly as I studied and really saw how the Restoration fits in the big picture of everything, and also felt such a strong spirit that it was TRUE. So I prayed and asked Heavenly Father if it was ok, could he let us teach a restoration lesson today? We had a few semi-flaky appointments set up for that day, but just the right things went through and we were able to teach the Restoration...TWICE! :) It was a little miracle. Especially V's restoration lesson. She was so open and said she would be baptized when she knows the Book of Mormon is true! It was just a picture perfect lesson, with an amazing spirit, and I know it was a little reminder from Heavenly Father that this is true!

I also had a very needed tender mercy in my missionary work this week. It was right after another exchange we had this week, and I felt it hadn't gone very well. I realized I don't really know the area, and I felt a lot of stress and my inadequacies were really showing! Being a leader is hard sometimes, and the stress was really taking it's toll, and I felt like I just couldn't beat Satan! Sister Hayden asked me if I wanted a blessing, and I realized that was exactly what I needed. Brother R., one of the ward missionaries, gave me a blessing that afternoon, and it was one of the most powerful blessings I've ever received! It was as if the Savior himself was talking straight to me. Brother R. said exactly what I needed to hear, he even used some of the exact wording that has been going through my head to comfort and bless me. There was no possible way he could have done that, except that he truly holds the priesthood of God! Needless to say I was quite a mess by the end of that, but I also felt more peace than I have in a long time! Then on top of all that, when we were driving home for the evening, Sister Hayden felt prompted to check the mail. There were probably 5 or 6 letters (that NEVER happens!), all from my past companions, converts from my other areas, and of course from you, family <3. The letters were a reminder that I have made a difference, that I am loved, and that this year and a half is WORTH IT! Whoever is reading this, if you were one of the ones that sent a letter this week, THANK YOU, you were inspired by the spirit and you truly uplifted me this week!

I KNOW, I am 100 percent sure that this gospel is true true true. There is nothing sweeter than this work. There is nothing more powerful than Jesus Christ. He's my friend, the one person I never have to say goodbye to, the one person that will always be there, every day! He's never left any of us. I just know this is true!

I love you all, and have a great week!

Sister Petrie

Sister Gadi :) She is super cool.
Got to hang out with her while our companions went to the temple! 

Coconut Popsicle :) Have I mentioned how cool Sister Hayden is? :)