Another transfer in Centralia!!!

June 15, 2015

Hope you are all doing well. We did get transfer calls this week, but I'll be staying another transfer here in Centralia! I may or may not have prayed for that to happen :-) I love it here and I love sister Schow! When they told us we were staying we both screamed! #neverwannaleave :)

I've been learning so much about the power of the spirit lately, and the power of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon challenge we are doing with the ward is inspired! Here's why :) The day we introduced the challenge, both our investigators H. and S. were at church--and both had been praying about reading the book of Mormon/being baptized. Afterwards, they both told us they would take the challenge. So far, they are in 2 Nephi! Then yesterday, H. told a member of the ward that he knows that there is a prophet on the earth today, and in our meeting this week, S. told us that he knows the Book of Mormon is TRUE the more he reads it, and that he is considering being baptized!! We were floored! At first in our meetings, S. refused to pick up the Book of Mormon and H. wasn't even participating in the lessons. Now, because of the spirit and power of the Book of Mormon, they are coming closer to Christ. The light in their lives because of this change is VISIBLE. You can see God's love, changing their hearts! If you have questions, doubts, concerns, or are feeling lost, READ the Book of Mormon. It is of God. I know it!

This week, I had a wonderful moment of testimony. We were teaching our investigator, B., who we've since had to stop teaching. He loves to talk with us, but he kept pulling out all kinds of anti-LDS articles and saying that THIS was the reason he disagreed with our religion. He said that the book of Mormon couldn't be true because of such-and-such, and so he couldn't join our church. When he was done, there was a pause, and Sister Schow looked over at me, and I knew that I needed to leave Him with my testimony. I had no idea what to say, but I opened my mouth and started to talk about Christ and how the Book of Mormon brought me closer to Him. I shared with him the feelings about my Savior that have grown so much in the past 8 1/2 months, and my testimony of the gospel that has come to mean everything to me. I talked for a full 5 minutes, and B. didn't break eye contact or interrupt me once. As I was talking, I felt that promise of "angels round about you" being fulfilled--literally I felt an army of heaven supporting my words and confirming my testimony! I know that that testimony was more for me than for anyone else, because it changed me! All y'all reading this, I hope you know that I KNOW this gospel is true. There is nothing else that can bring this fulness of joy I feel every day! It just is true, and that knowledge is available for all who are willing to test it!

Another miracle this week. Remember the P.'s? Well, because of R.'s example, his daughter has started investigating the church! We taught her the Restoration this week, and she committed to be baptized on the same day as her dad! I can't even express the joy I feel when we get to see FAMILIES, coming closer to Christ and each other by finding the restored gospel of Christ. We are blessed to be teaching 3 part-member families who are working towards baptism. What a blessing!!

Gotta go now, but I love you all!

Sister Petrie

Here is our last district meeting...a Luau party! :) We're nerds :)

Miracles Everyday!

June 8, 2015

So this morning I was reading Elder Neil L. Anderson's talk from this conference, "Thy Kingdom Come." In the notes section, he shares a really neat story! He shares about how he felt the hand of God in the preparation of his conference talk, when he realized that without reading his talk, they'd chosen to sing "Come O Thou King of Kings" as an intermediate hymn, right before he spoke! The theme of his talk and the theme of the song were exactly the same...the hand of the Lord is in even the general conference program! I just thought it was way neat that even an Apostle of the Lord is amazed at the Lord's tender mercies and his small miracles! Those are the type of miracles we get to see every day.

The "burn pile" after we cleaned up our new investigator's yard. It looks awesome!!

Ok, so do you remember the S.'s from last week? They were at church again yesterday! We found out this week something really neat about how we met them! Before we met them, both D. and H. (the parents) had been each praying separately to know what church they should take their family to. D.'s a member, and she was considering coming back to the LDS church. In fact, she knew exactly where it was located and drove past it all the time! So it was on her mind. H. felt a "call" to be a teacher in a church, but wasn't sure where. That's when Sister Brimley and I walked up and knocked on their door! They both took that as an answer to prayer, which is neat, because that day everything fell through and we felt completely led to them! We're not sure, but we're thinking H. is considering being baptized on the same day as his daughters :) :) Oh man, this work is so great!!

Also, we had a neat answer to prayer this week! We've been praying for more referrals all week. Then, on Sunday, we received THREE referrals from members, and then a lady, not a member, drove 45 minutes to show up at our church! What/?? hahaha I just can't help but smile at how good God is to us!

Brother P. decided to be baptized on August 1st!! He is such a good man. I really want to be here for the baptism...wouldn't it be neat to baptize someone with my last name? (almost :))

We just had a good, fun week :) Eating at Cracker Barrel with our missionary "grandparents" the M.'s, getting bags of groceries from ward members when we weren't feeling well, working 2 hours to clean up an investigators yard, having a photo shoot under a tunnel of trees, baking cookies at the Relief Society president's house, getting fed deer meat, going running in the mornings--life is just good! I love this ward, and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll stay another transfer! 

Cracker Barrel with the missionaries!
A random person ended up offering to pay for our meal.
How cool is that??

I love you all!

Sister Petrie

The M.'s told us to make a "funny" face and we both just look stressed...haha

The Fruit is sweet!

June 2, 2015

Family!

"And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience...by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet..." -Alma 32:42

Exchanges!  Love these ladies!

D. Todd Christofferson came to our mission yesterday, the THIRD time in my mission we've had a mission conference! It was incredible!! He is just a good good man. The way he spoke reminded us of the Savior, so gentle, so meek, but so powerful!! He IS an apostle of the Lord, I know this for sure!

One thing he said really stuck with me. As missionaries, so often we get caught up in being "busy". We go from lesson to lesson, to less-active, to tracting, to meetings, so often just being content with the activity itself. But as Elder Christofferson said, "You can have activity without accomplishment." He challenged us to not be content with being busy, but to work for the fruits of our labors. What is the whole goal of being a missionary? To bring people to Christ! I want to focus on that fruit, the conversion of those we teach.

That being said, we have seen so many incredible fruits this week! The S.'s came to church this week! We were so thrilled, the entire family was there, even H.! We were also able to set baptismal dates with N. and C. for June 27th! The spirit is really working on this family! Darlene even bore her testimony to the rest of her family about this being the true church. We are so so exited for them!

Also, our investigator S. was at church! N., his wife, is a member of the church. We LOVE N.!! She is a rock in her family and is bringing her husband and her grandchildren, and her daughter, into the church! S. has been very hesitant taking the lessons, and until now would not read the Book of Mormon. However, in our lesson this week, the spirit was working in his heart. He came to church on Sunday, and LOVED it! We presented a Book of Mormon challenge to the ward, and set a goal to read it as a ward by October General Conference. Afterwards, S. came up to us and said that he was going to take the challenge! Now, every night, N. is holding family scripture study with her grandkids and with S.!! We feel so so blessed.

This Book of Mormon challenge itself is a miracle! We saw the miracles it brought to our mission when we did it earlier this year, so we decided to challenge the ward to all read it together. I am soooooo excited about this! When we presented it to the ward, Bishop W. jumped up right afterward and totally ran with it! He spoke for a good 20 minutes to the ward about the importance of the Book of Mormon, and got the really excited about the challenge! It's just a testimony to me that this is exactly what our ward needs right now. We are teaching so many investigators that are ready to be baptized into the ward, and we need the ward to be strong to receive them! Oh man. Good things are coming for the Centralia ward!

I love you all. So much! The gospel is true.

Sister Petrie

Reunited with Sister Dahlberg!  She's hilarious!

Sister Biddle again! I just love her tooooo much!

Dorky glasses picture...

Blessed to be in Centralia!

May 25, 2015

Family!

We've had such an amazing week it's unreal. We feel very, VERY blessed!

Have I told you about the P's yet?

Sister P. is a member of the ward, recently moved in, and we just started teaching her husband, R.! I love R. He was ready to be baptized when we met him! He told us on Sunday after church, "I think I'm finding the thing that was missing in my life." Golden. God is truly leading us to prepared people! We were able to teach the Restoration to him this week, and it was one of the most powerful lessons I've been in! When we shared Joseph Smith's testimony of the First Vision, more than one of the people in the room were crying! It's so wonderful to see Sister P. so happy because she gets to share the truth with someone she loves so much. We love love teaching him.

Saturday was incredible! We had a mission "finding" day where the entire mission prayed to be led to those who were prepared for the gospel. We set a goal to find 2 new investigators that day, and were able to find 3! One of them was the father of a part-member family, the S's! We've been teaching his two teenage daughters, and we've been trying to teach him, but every time we would start a lesson he would disappear, even though we invited him to listen. But this time, between us praying our hearts out and the spirit working on him, something made him want to listen! It was perfect--The message we shared was about families being together forever through God's plan of happiness. When we were explaining the missionary work that happens in the spirit world, you could tell he felt something. He asked us about one of his dear friends who had recently passed away, who had not been baptized or taken the time to learn about Christ. We were able to testify that yes--he was now learning about the gospel in the spirit world, and he would be given the chance to accept it! I love the plain and precious truths of this gospel. They are what bring the joy to missionary work!

I'm out of time for now, got to go on exchanges with Sister Sperry!

Next Monday I won't be emailing either, P day is moved to Tuesday because of another mission conference we are having! I can hardly believe it, but Elder D Todd Christofferson is coming to the mission! We are seriously thrilled to have 2 apostles coming to the mission within just a couple months!


Sister Petrie

Also, J. from Danville got baptized this week.
There are no words to express how much I love them!

Hello!

Our district had a cook-off this week and we wore flowers!!

May 18, 2015

People I love,

I definitely have an ever-increasing testimony of being in the right place at the right time, if we let the spirit lead us! I've always believed that God gives us help when we ask for it. But I'm coming to feel that He is a micro-manager, He is in EVERY detail, His timing is perfect. If the Spirit leads us, we can begin to see that in our own lives!

When I look back at the companions I've had, I'm realizing that each companion and their different personalities were exactly what I needed at the time! I can already see so many reasons Sister Schow and I are together, at this time, in this area. She has helped me more than she knows, and the people here need her at this time in their lives!

There are so many times that I've seen God's hand in the details this week! Once was an afternoon when multiple appointments fell through and we had a couple hours of empty space...we kept working. We put a whole bunch of people we needed to visit in the GPS, and did our best to see them in an order best fit to their needs and our miles haha...We both had a lot of faith that we'd end up in the right place at the right time. Specifically, there was a woman we have been trying to get a hold of for AGES, but she had never answered her door, there had never been any sign that she wanted to talk to us at all! But we still felt inspired to plug in her address. She was the 3rd or 4th house we visited. As we pulled up to her house and got ready to get out of the car, we saw her walking outside, making a trip to the recycle bin to throw away a soda can! I don't think anyone could explain how on earth we caught her at the very minute she was outside, throwing away a soda can, but that's just how God works! We were able to talk to her, and she warmed up to us, and gave us her phone number so we could reach her and see her again!

Last night was another miracle! Again we had an appointment fall through, and we had an hour or so before we had to be in. We said a prayer, and specifically asked that we would be able to see someone that needed to see us that night! We had a name come to mind, and were on the way to see the family when I had the distinct impression to turn down a specific street to knock on the house of a potential investigator who we had tried dozens of times before. I followed the prompting, and I think scared Sister Schow a bit when I crossed 3 or 4 lanes of traffic all of a sudden to make the turn haha.... We knocked on the house, and a couple from Kenya, Africa (not our potential investigator) answered the door, let us in, and we were able to teach them about the Book of Mormon!

It's been an incredible week, we've been able to find 7 new investigators! That is an incredible blessing, since we've also had a lot of investigators drop us recently. I know the Lord works and blesses us according to our faith!

I hope these stories help you know how much God loves us, and how TRUE this gospel is! There are so many being prepared.

I love you all so much!

Sister Petrie

I ate 2 crickets this week at a member's house.
Apparently its a rite of passage or something?  Blech.

That's a cricket. :)  I ate it.

We are that we might have joy!!

Sister Petrie and Sister Schow

May 11, 2015

Dear people I love,

It was so so SO good to talk to you all yesterday. You helped me renew my excitement for the work, and helped me remember to smile and be happy!

This week has been crazy, but I have learned a lot. I love love Sister Schow SO much. It was definitely inspired for us to be companions. I've already have seen her insights and way of working bless my life. She is a terrific missionary.

This week I've felt so strongly that I need to learn to be happy. I've received that message from so many different sources this week, I know that Heavenly Father is trying to teach me something. I've realized that on my mission I've been spending most of my time stressed, running to appointments, worrying before lessons, doubting myself during lessons, being sad when things don't go as planned, and wishing things or myself was better/different, with a few moments each day feeling the joy of the gospel. But the Lord says, "Men are that they might have joy." -2 Nephi 2: 25. If we can't learn to be happy on this earth, despite trials, how can we expect to know how to feel perfect joy in heaven? I read through the blessings I was promised when I was set apart to be a missionary, and one of them was that despite some dark days, my mission would be one of JOY and laughter! It's normal to be sad, stressed, and disappointed sometimes. But to spend the majority of our time in that category is not part of Heavenly Father's plan for us!

Life is a pattern of ups and downs, but the very purpose and promise of the gospel is to find profound peace, no matter what happens. Only in this way can we truly love our lives, our missions, and ourselves. The Savior is the one who can take these burdens and help us feel the love and joy that he has. He is the light and life of the world. He loves us so much!

On Saturday, our investigator A. H. texted us and told us she didn't think the church was right for her family. She asked us not to come over anymore. That was one of the hardest things to happen on my mission so far! A. was going to be baptized in June, and she had felt the power of the spirit change her life. She KNEW this gospel was good! I love her so so SO much. But as I poured my heart out to Heavenly Father, asking for her to find the gospel again in the future, I felt that promised peace. Only the Savior could have brought that to my heart! I'm amazed at how I was able to move on and still feel that peace. I know God will work on her and her family although we as missionaries can't right now. They are in His hands.

I do love my mission, and I am ready to find more joy in this work. Thank you all for being such incredible examples to me! Remember to be happy and to find joy, despite hard things. God never did expect us to be perfect on this earth. He expects us to turn to Him.

Love you all SOOOO much. Thanks for the wonderful cheering team you all are!

Sister Petrie 

Reunited with Sister Biddle! And we matched!!! :)

Transfers are here!

ALL the sisters in the mission! It is probably the most awkward picture I've ever seen...
but I hope you feel the love we have for each other! :)

May 4, 2015

Hello hello hello, people I love!

This week has been one of the best in my mission. I don't have time to share all the incredible miracles and blessings we've seen, but I'll touch on a few!

First was mission conference on Saturday. What a blessing it was to be there with the ENTIRE mission, all in one room! I felt the spirit of missionary work so powerfully. Elder Quentin L Cook of the quorum of the twelve was there with us! The very first thing he did when he walked into the chapel was to line all of us up so he'd be able to shake all of our hands, one by one! Oh, I have so much love for that man!

Of course there were so many things I learned from him, but I think the highlight was hearing his special witness of the Savior. As he stood there and testified, the spirit bore witness to our hearts that He is our Savior. And that there are apostles and prophets that once again are on the earth, to guide and bless our lives. I can't express the depth to which I know this to be true!! Something that Elder Ulisses S Soares said really stuck with me as well. He encouraged us to meet our Savior while we were on our missions, to allow him to make an impression on our souls, never to be removed! I realized, looking back, that I have truly begun to meet the Savior on my mission. He has been walking beside me every day. He has never left my side. He has changed those I've taught, and He has changed me. I KNOW he lives. As one of the members, Sister Darnell, says, "You ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart!"

Transfer calls were later that day! I am staying here and getting Sister Schow! I'll miss Sister Brimley, but I met Sister Schow at mission conference and she seems amazing. We will have a great transfer!

I have to go now, not much time today! But I want to share this miracle quickly. Yesterday after church, we had a space in our schedule where we planned to contact investigators and others we desperately needed to see. But every person we tried to see wasn't home/we couldn't contact them! We knew that we needed to be somewhere else, and God did open doors! We felt really good about contacting a less-active woman, and neither of us knew who she was! They immediately let us in, and we were able to meet her husband and daughters, all non-members. She had a wonderful experience with missionaries before, and both her daughters want to learn about the gospel! I was amazed at Heavenly Father's hand...he placed us directly in the path of people who were prepared by Him. We are so excited to teach them!

I can't wait to call you guys on Mother's day! I have no details about that, so I'll have to have a member let you know what's going on.... :)

Love you all so much.

SIster Petrie