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!