Hey Family!

July 13, 2015

Hey Family!

P is for Petrea road!

Definitely keep sending me those family reunion pictures! They make my DAY. I'm so glad you all are having so much fun. And just curious, how tall is C. now?? He looks like he grew a foot!

It's been another fabulous week! :) Highlight of the week was exchanges on Thursday and Friday. Normally exchanges make me nervous-but this one was great! I got to stay in Centralia and our Sister Training Leader Sister Ewell came to the area for the day. It was interesting because every single appointment we had set up for the day called and cancelled--definitely a test of my faith and diligence. But we ended up having a fantastic day. We got to visit people we almost never get to see, and ended up finding a new investigator! God's plans are always the best plans :) Sister Ewell and I figured out we are pretty much the same person! I love her so much! She loves music, we even had a little primary song jam session :) It was the most relaxing day I've had in a long time, and I realized how grateful I am for my mission leaders. They always love us into doing a little better :) 

Exchange selfie!

I feel like all our investigators are doing so well! We were so blessed this week. The S.'s fed us this week, and H. and D. let us know that they are down to HALF the cigarettes that they were at last week!!! D. said it would take her 4 weeks to get to that point, but it happened in just 1! She said that ever since we all fasted on Sunday for them to quit smoking, the cigarettes have tasted NASTY! We are so proud of them for working towards their goals! AHHHHH I love them so much! Pray for H., he wants to get baptized so badly but needs to quit smoking and coffee first. When we talked about the Joseph Smith this week, we all were taking turns bearing our testimonies of the Restoration. It's amazing how far they have all come.

We had a really neat experience teaching B. this week. Her son S., was there for the lesson. He just got baptized in Fairview Heights ward a month or so ago. We asked him how he knew that the church was true, and he ended up bearing his testimony about the fact that families are forever for about 5 minutes, looking straight at his mom the whole time. I LOVE teaching with recent converts! The spirit was incredible. You could FEEL the truth of the gospel in that moment. The Spirit is so important in conversion.

Also, one of the 7 investigators we started teaching last week, A., committed to be baptized with her daughter! The miracle continues :)

I have an ever-increasing testimony of the importance of inviting everyone to hear the restored gospel. Sister Schow is an amazing example of a missionary who talks to EVERYONE. We offer the gospel to people on the street, Walmart cashiers, construction workers across from our apartment, families of investigators, people in parked cars, people that have the wrong number when they call us, literally EVERYONE. We get rejected a lot, but also Heavenly Father is trusting us more and more with prepared people in our path. At about 9:01 PM last night, we were headed into our apartment for the night, and we decided to talk to a young man who was sitting in his car. Maybe it was a little creepy, but it turns out that we were able to have a short lesson with him. His name was I., he knows a lot of LDS people, and he told us he's always wanted to have the missionary lessons but just has never gotten the chance! It's amazing to me that there are people out there, like I., ready and waiting for the message of the gospel.

This week I get to go to the temple on Thursday for my halfway mark! I am soooooooo excited! :) :)

 Have a fantastic week, I love you all!

Sister Petrie

Me and my awesome STL's, sister Ewell and Sister Sperry

Happy Independence Day!!

Well Hay there. :)

July 6, 2015

Hello Family!

Happy 4th of July! Hope it was a good one. It sounds like you are all having fun at the family reunions! I'm sad to not be seeing all you Petrie's, but this week I realized just how grateful I am to be a missionary, and especially to be in Centralia. The missionary work here is amazing!
This week was fantastic...I just kept realizing how much I love each of the people we're teaching! Like S. She is amazing. She's the P.'s daughter I told you about! She has two of the most beautiful children I've ever seen. She's getting baptized the 8th of August, and we are SO excited. Before our lesson with her this week, we prayed that we would really be able to help her, like really help her feel the spirit and Heavenly Father's love for her. Our prayer was answered the minute we walked in the door. We could tell she'd had a really bad day, just with some family issues she is struggling with. She opened up to us, cried it out, and we listened and loved her. We decided to all go out for ice cream for the lesson, and it was amazing! We really felt like friends, not just missionaries teaching another lesson. The spirit was so strong as we testified of how the Savior has helped us through everything. By the end we were all laughs and smiles, and the spirit of love was strong! Those moments mean everything to me.

We really had to use our faith this week...to find those prepared for the gospel! Do you want to hear a cool story?? We have a transfer goal to keep the amount of people we're teaching at least at 20 when we report our numbers every Sunday night. We started the week at about 23 but when we got to Thursday, we had had to stop teaching almost half of them. Friday morning we had 13 investigators. We prayed and prayed, asking the Lord to help us achieve our goal and find the people he wanted us to teach. We had about an hour and a half Friday morning of time with no lessons, so we just started walking outside our apartment. We talked to everyone we met, said prayers with strangers, passed out Book of Mormons, set return appointments and came back after an hour and a half with 6 new investigators. I have never had something like that happen before! We just thanked Heavenly Father, over and over for blessing us and consecrating our efforts. The second half of the story happened on Sunday night. It was 8pm, and we realized we still needed another new investigator to make our goal. We changed our plans, said a prayer, and went to contact Samantha, a former investigator. On the way there, Sister Schow (she is AWESOME) said, "there are two ladies on that porch over there." I said, "Do we need to stop?" She said 'YES!" and we pulled over. We talked to three awesome ladies, and one of them was completely interested, and became our new investigator!. My favorite part of this story is that we weren't just working with a bunch of numbers. Each one of the 7 was a child of our Heavenly Father who now has the opportunity to learn truth and change their lives. They are 7 wonderful souls that we probably never would have met if we hadn't made that goal. I love all of them!

Did I ever tell you about B. and D. D.? Their story is amazing. A long time ago, B. had his records removed from the church and completely turned away from the church. His life went a little crazy for about 10 years, but one day, they found a note from the sisters on their door, and B. realized how much he needed the gospel. He called the church, and Bishop sent me and Sister Brimley over to their house. We've been teaching him ever since, and yesterday, he was finally re-baptized into the church! The service was amazing. His testimony was so heartfelt, it strengthened MY testimony that the gospel is the only way to happiness. Here's a picture of us!

B. and D. after the baptism :)

The fourth of july was awesome :) :) We went to a carnival in centralia and got to watch fireworks with members that night! It was a fun day. Here's a sparkler picture!

Sparklers!

I love you all, and I love these people we're teaching! Have a fantastic week.

Sister Petrie

These are my favorite little girls in the whole world! (member family)

Halftime!

June 29, 2015

People I love!!

Centralia Bench!

This week, I hit my 9 month mark, which means I'm officially halfway through my mission. Realizing this on Wednesday led me to do a lot of pondering and praying, and possibly some deep breaths to keep me from having a panic attack. :) :) Not really, but I have noticed that it's easy for me to look back and stress out that I haven't changed enough, haven't worked hard enough, haven't loved enough, haven't achieved all my goals or done everything I've wanted to. 

Zone conference on Thursday answered a lot of my prayers. The spirit was so strong as our missionary leaders taught us about going back to the basics--we can know we are successful when we continually apply the basics of the gospel or of missionary work. There is power in simplicity! Then President Morgan stood up and talked to us about achieving our baptismal goal for the year--we are halfway through the year and a little behind. He said, "Elders and Sisters...it's halftime". Anyone who has played sports knows what you do at halftime-you take a minute, re-evaluate your progress, and if you are behind in score you recommit to be better, score points and win the game. It's my halftime, and as he talked I felt so much peace about our mission goals AND my personal goals! I've had a wonderful mission so far. I've grown so much! I'm ready for an excellent 2nd half, and I'm committed to do my best and not stress! What a BLESSING it is to be on a mission. I love this work!

N. and C. got baptized this week, and it was amazing. The program was amazing, and everything just went perfectly. The best part was actually the confirmation on Sunday, they were both so cute and happy, and gave each other a big hug right in front of the whole congregation :) It was also such a blessing to see H. and D. get emotional and so excited about their daughters' decisions to be baptized. You could tell they felt the spirit so strongly! I am so excited for the miracles we have yet to see in this family. :)

After the baptism! This is the S. family :)

One neat experience with D., this week before the baptism, we were teaching her and the girls more about prophets. We pulled out three conference ensigns to show them a picture of President Monson and his counselors, and gave them to D. and the girls. Neither of them had ever seen the prophet before. D. flipped open to the middle page with all the General Authorities' pictures, pointed to President Monson's picture, and gasped. She said, "Is this the prophet?" When we told her he was, she began to cry and said, "This man was in my dream last night." She didn't remember much of the dream, only that he has smiled at her in the dream, twice. Also, D. dreams in black & white, and the picture of the prophet she saw happened to be in black & white, out of an older ensign! Maybe it was just a coincidence, but I believe it was a little tender mercy from Heavenly Father to D., letting her know that her daughters were doing the right thing by being baptized, and that the church was the right thing for her family.

Also, a MIRACLE happened on Sunday! We've been trying to get S. L. to commit to baptism, ever since he told us he believes the Book of Mormon is true. He's been a little stubborn. Well, he came to church again this week, and after I got done playing organ prelude, I slipped into the pew next to him. He leaned over and whispered, "I just asked Bishop if he would baptize me on August 1st." What. We couldn't believe it!!!! We are SO happy. It's incredible that this is the same man that refused to read the Book of Mormon and ran missionaries out of his house just a year ago. The gospel changes hearts! This gospel is 100 percent true. I love S.!

It has been so neat to have a mini missionary this week. Her name is Sister Hacker, and she was such a blessing! She brought such a balance to our companionship and the spirit as well. We were able to really get a lot done with her! I hope she had a good experience. We love her a lot! 

Wonderful sister missionaries.
(Sister Hacker is in the middle of me and Sister Schow)

Have a blast at family reunions this week! I love you all!

Another Great Week!

June 22, 2015

Hello there!

We've had another great week. Just this morning. we set goals for this transfer---but first we studied hope. Check out this scripture! "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." -Romans 8: 24-25. With that in mind, we prayerfully set a goal of 5 baptisms this transfer in our area! It's a high goal, but we already have 3 people with baptism dates for this transfer and we HOPE for two more! Over and over in my mission I've seen the power of setting goals in faith and then watching the miracles unfold. Every now and then I'm tempted to think we need to be "realistic", in the sense that we have to limit ourselves based on what that world would think we can accomplish. But real hope lifts us above that! It "maketh an anchor" (Ether 12:4) and connects us heaven, to our Heavenly Father, who is a God of miracles! The reason for our hope is our Savior Jesus Christ, who performed the greatest miracle of all and made all things possible through his Atonement. I'm so grateful for Him! I really believe Heavenly Father wants us to hope for better things. He wants us to see the possibilities! It definitely wasn't "realistic" that S. went from refusing to read the Book of Mormon to attending church every week, or we got 4 referrals in one day after a week of praying for them, or that the S.'s--a whole family--is going to be baptized soon (something I've dreamed of my whole mission). I hope and know this transfer will be an great one.

This week was slightly crazy! Our phone was broken--just a blank white screen. We couldn't see who was calling or texting us, and we could only call certain people! Frustrating. BUT we finally got a new phone, so we are back at this! Also, it has rained for 10 days straight, and on Friday it flooded the whole city! We weren't allowed to drive, so all of Friday we had to stay inside and cancel all our appointments! I'm actually really grateful we had a couple of slow days this week, It gave me an opportunity to refocus on the work and feel the spirit a little more. President Benson says that the spirit often talks to us when we are not surrounded by stress or trying to make it to our next appointment on time. Quiet moments are so important!

Oh man, let me just talk about J. and L. for a little bit. They are the investigators that we literally just happened upon a couple weeks ago, and ended up cleaning up their whole yard with the ward. We talked about Joseph Smith and the Restoration this week, and at the end of the lesson we asked them if they believed this message could be true. L. said absolutely yes, and shared with us that they had just been talking about how they needed help with the yard as we walked up to their house. She said she thought it was a sign from God that they needed our message! I can't imagine how much harder this would have been if we hadn't offered to help them with their yard! I do remember feeling very prompted to ask her if we could help! Service seriously softens hearts, and God knows exactly what his people need. I LOVE J. and L.! They love each other and their 2 little kids so much, it's all I can do to keep from just dumping the whole gospel on them so they can know about eternal families, and temple marriage, and modern prophets and everything! They are just eating it up. BLESSINGS!

N. and C. (S. family) are getting baptized this week! Pray that they will be ready, that they will feel peace. I am so so so excited!

Also, we are getting a mini-missionary for the whole week! Oh man I just think back to my mini-mission and how nervous and excited I was for it, and how much I looked up to the sister missionaries! Now I AM one. What? sometimes I still can't get over the fact I'm a real-life missionary! haha It'll be great!

Sorry we did not do well at taking pictures this week...so we took a library selfie. :) 

Library selfie

I love you all! Have an amazing week.

Sister Petrie

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...