Family Home Evenings, Laughter, and Christ's Grace

My friends, I'm officially walking in a new pair of shoes. At least,
they were new last week. My first pair lasted the first 11 months of
my mission. I'm very proud of them. Pictures of the passed-away pair
will come.

This week we had FOUR family home evenings, and learned about the
power of these. Brazilians do FHE like a party, almost. They invite
like half the ward and lots of neighbors, have a super-chique program
where the head of the family conducts, a thought, a lesson, hymns,
prayers, and games and treats afterward. It is FANTASTIC to invite
investigators to. Let's make US family home evenings like this
sometimes, too!

Baptism this week! WOOOT! A young man who will hopefully go on a
mission in just a year or so. It was truly a miracle and a blessing.

We laughed a lot this week, the three of us. We taught a 72-yr-old
little lady, Teresinha, who we met on the street, sitting on a pile of
concrete rods. We sat with her, chatted and taught, and ended with a
prayer. We then asked if she knew anyone who would listen to our
message. In her funny, frank way, she refused. "I won't tell you if
they'll accept or not," she said when we asked about a neighbor's
house. "Go knock on their door and you'll soon find out for
yourselves!" It was hilarious. I love frank people.

This week a got a letter from an incredible friend of mine (who's
coming to Brazil on her mission, too! GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!), and with
her letter she sent an AMAZING, powerful, simple talk on the grace of
Jesus Christ. I wanted to expound more on this to you all, but I'll
just send the link. Please read it, it is short and very very worth
your time:

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=13436&x=59&y=9

My favorite part:

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Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music
lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher. How many know what
I am talking about? Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn to
her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice! Does the
child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice
repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the
child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. It is how he takes
advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his
life at a higher level. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but
in seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve. And so she continues
to call for practice, practice, practice.

If the child sees Mom’s requirement of practice as being too
overbearing (“Gosh, Mom, why do I need to practice? None of the other
kids have to practice! I’m just going to be a professional baseball
player anyway!”), perhaps it is because he doesn’t yet see with mom’s
eyes. He doesn’t see how much better his life could be if he would
choose to live on a higher plane.

In the same way, because Jesus has paid justice, He can now turn to us
and say, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19), “Keep my commandments” (John
14:15). If we see His requirements as being way too much to ask
(“Gosh! None of the other Christians have to pay tithing! None of the
other Christians have to go on missions, serve in callings, and do
temple work!”), maybe it is because we do not yet see through Christ’s
eyes. We have not yet comprehended what He is trying to make of us.
------------------------------

The mission is the best choice I have ever made. I am so grateful to
be here. I am so grateful for all I am becoming. I am definitely
feeling God's grace with me, not at the end of the tunnel but every
step of the way.

Thank you all for your love, support, and friendship. Your letters are
keeping me going.

Much love,
Sister Petty

Três Americanas Doidas

This week was a doozy.

For the first time in my mission, at least that I can remember, we had a grand total of ZERO investigators at church. This is rough, my friends.

I am now in a TRIO again -- this time with Sister Taylor and Sister Davis, both Americans. We're speaking English like I haven't speaked in 11 months (btw, I hit 11 months on the 20th! QUE É ISSO?), and I quickly learned that I don't talk English good no longer. I talk a chopped up blend of two languages, it's amazing that the three of us understand each other.

I would like to bear my testimony of home and visiting teaching. As a missionary, I see lots and lots of members of the church, at lots and lots of different stages of belief. I see strong members, less active members, and completely inactive members. The more I have taught, served, cried with, and cried for struggling members, the more my testimony grows of the power of home and visiting teaching. So many of these people would be thriving and strong and happy if they were visited just once a month, reminded that they are loved and that they are children of God.

So please -- do your home and visiting teaching. You are truly changing lives.

This week will be a great one. We will put all our efforts into trying to work more with members, because there is POWER in you members! We missionaries simply can't do it alone! You know your city, your ward, your friends a lot better than we do. We are here to help you -- aproveitem.

I love my mission so so much. I woke up panting the other morning because I had a dream I was sitting outside the stake president's office, waiting to be interviewed and released as a missionary. I was filled with sickening dread to take off my name tag. I was SO happy when I woke up. I still have time to learn and grow and change! And to touch lives!

YES!

Over and out.

Sister Petty

Cardial Workout

Your heart goes through a lot on the mission.

One minute, you're crying with someone whose brother drowned yesterday, the next you're comforting a 13-year-old boy who's single mother is never there for him, and the next you're exploding with joy because a family decided to be baptized.

Alma 28:14 gets more and more true to me each day.

On Saturday, we went to the home of a woman who has been receiving the missionaries for a very, very long time. After a couple minutes of getting to know her, I asked, "So, what's stopped you from being baptized by now?" (The longer you're on the mission, the more blunt you get.) We discovered that she didn't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. So, in a final effort to help this pesquisadora eterna turn into a pesquisadora progredindo, we put her to a special challenge.

First, we wanted her to be at church the next day. "Sorry," she said, "That's impossible. I work all day tomorrow."
I looked into her eyes. "I will pray for a miracle."

Second, we challenged her to read the Book of Mormon EVERY. DAY. of the week, and to say a special pray EACH time, asking Heavenly Father if the book is true. She said she would. We promised her she would receive an answer if she did this and prayed with faith. We then challenged her to be baptized the next Sunday if she received this answer from God. She and her young daughter said they would.

This was the good part of the story. The best part was the next day at church -- she was there.

Miracles are real.

I'm loving the mission so much, my dear friends and family. The more I serve the more I want to serve. I am learning and growing so much. I'm starting to freak out a bit that the end is looming closer each day. I'm praying, like my dear friend and example Angela Bosselman once prayed, that before I get back the rule with change and I can stay for two full years. :-)

Little things about me are changing. I'm turning into a bit of a clean freak -- often the first thing I do when I get up is leftover dishes or sweep, and often the last thing I do at night is tidy up a bit. I've also become a complete fruit monster. The other day I bought two luscious, fantastically fresh mangos for 82 centavos...or about 45 cents. Yep. I'm in heaven.

Thank you all so much for your love, support, and letters. The mission is saving my soul, and affecting my future family more than I can possibly know. I am slowly but steadily becoming more the woman I know God wants me to be, and more deserving of the husband I will one day have.

Fiquem firmes e fortes. É isso aí, meus amigos.

Sister Petty

P.S. If you all want to learn Portuguese before I get back, that'd be cool. Because I think I've forgotten how to speak English.

Até o PÓ!

My friends -- I officially survived my first week in Petrolina.

It was a weird week, because we moved houses halfway through. Now we're in a much older, roomier house. It's very full of mosquitos, but feels much more home-y. And friends, what they say is true. It is HOT here. Not humid hot like Bahia. It is DRY. And dusty. And HOT. But it is fantastic! I'm so excited to work here!

Sunday was testimony meeting (an opportunity for anyone to get up and talk about their feelings about Christ, the church, etc.), and I got up to bear my testimony and introduce myself to my new ward.

"I've heard tell that missionary work here in Petrolina is different," I said to the full chapel of eager faces, in my comfortable but still American Portuguese. "I heard that here, the members don't help the missionaries. The missionaries help the members."

I'm now seeing that this is true.

I love the adventures and miracles I've already seen. The Church is true and changes lives.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Petty
P.S. Please look for farinha de mandioca. If it doesn't exist in the US, I will cry.