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!