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