FLORIANO

Well I made it to the field! And how wonderful that has been. Let's start this off by saying they did not lie when they said it was going to be hot but it’s not as bad as I was expecting. Also some interesting things for those who don’t want to read the whole email (sorry, so much happened this week) but here in the mission we can only wear Chacos if we have an ingrown toenail or another reason (I’m very disappointed because they are ten times more comfortable than my other shoes.) Also I have yet to see anything too crazy here, but there are horses all over the place and lots of dogs too. People don’t have room for their horses so they just leave them outside their house. And all the dogs are usually really nice. I’ve only encountered one that actually barked at me. Something else is that for no reason that we could figure out my entire body broke out in hives yesterday (Sunday) so I slept a lot and that didn’t help. So today I asked Elder Sly to give me a blessing which he did but in Portugues. I didn’t really understand it but I knew without a doubt afterwards that I was going to be perfectly fine and it has only been a couple hours and it’s already getting better. God helps out his missionaries and he loves his children sooo much (that’s you guys!!) He constantly blesses us in ways we don’t see unless we look. This week was really hard at first. My feet hurt, I don’t really speak the language and it is super hot everywhere, but when I focus on the work and helping people, my problems don’t go away but I don’t notice them. I know that God is real, and that he is constantly looking out for his children. I know that he has a plan for each one of us. I have absolutely loved being here and I am so grateful for the opportunity.

Monday:
After my last email we had a super awesome rest of the day, some awesome devotionals, some bittersweet goodbyes, and then around 9:00 my district decided to shotgun soda altogether (the Elders, not the Sisters, that’s not allowed) but the entire floor got super hyped and we were super loud and the MTC President caught us, and for a second our whole district weren’t sure if we would get to finish our missions, long story short we do! It was actually super fun but probably not the smartest decision.

Tuesday:
We left the CTM about 3:30 in the morning where we took several flights down to Teresina and during our stop we were able to score some McDonald’s which was freaking delicious. (It’s different here for real) After we got to meet our mission president President Lago. He is super awesome from what ‘Ive heard, I don’t speak Portugues well enough to sit down and really get to know him but he seems super awesome. We had a wonderful dinner prepared by Sister Lago which was super good and then I had to say goodbye to my very first companion Elder Simper and most of the others in my district going to Teresina, Elder Handy and Sister Oliver. I also got to meet my new companion Elder Bustamante and found out I will be serving in the Floriano Zone which is according to some missionaries one of the hottest places in the Teresina Mission. So the heat can only get better from here. We didn’t leave the mission home because we had zone conference the next day so we stayed in a house that they have for missionaries visiting for zone conferences.

Wednesday:
Today was filled with a lot of waiting and a four-hour zone conference where they only spoke Portugues and let me tell you I dont speak Portugues that well. So I struggled to stay awake the entire time but I made it and I’m hoping my Portugues can continue to get a lot better. I made the goal to try and be fluent in Portugues by month 3 so I’ve got 5 more weeks and then by month 6 I want to be fluent in Spanish as well. One of the biggest things I’ve noticed is that if you put in the effort God will make up the difference. Coming out here I realized how little Portugues I knew but also how much. After zone conference we headed down to our zone and arrived around midnight.

Thursday:
I’m serving here in Floriano with my companion but we share a house with two other elders, Elder Sly, an American, and Elder Maza a Peruvian (Elder Bustamante is also Peruvian since I forgot to mention that.) The schedule just about every day is wake up at 6:30 exercise, do daily planning, do personal and companionship study and prepare for the day. Then we eat lunch with a member which is always super fun. Usually the food is pretty good and the drinks are always great. They have crazy fruit juices here that we always have that I love. Then afterwards we spend the rest of the day trying to find where in the world our investigators live because Brazil seems to have no way of organizing their streets by reason so it’s very difficult. It doesn’t help that the locals say they know but they really really don’t so they often send us the wrong direction. But today we were able to teach several lessons (none with who we had planned) but they were all awesome. I was super happy that I could sort of tell what was happening and even participate most of the time. We found one lady Irmã Fermina who we have a baptismal date for this next Sunday!

Friday:
Today was a lot better than yesterday. We were able to plan our route better now that we know the area a tiny bit better (we did a loooot of walking the day before) and so we were able to find some of the places we wanted to visit and were able to teach a super awesome lesson with a lady named Patricia. The thing is that in the MTC I didn’t like teaching because I felt like they made it too easy for us. Never having questions about what we were teaching and things like that but they weren’t. If anything, they made it harder than it actually is. I love the people, they are searching for the truth and when it’s presented in front of them they take it willingly most of the time. The hardest thing is to get people to keep commitments. When we are there its super easy for them, but it’s when we leave that its difficult.

Saturday: Today was awesome. We were able to continue to teach Irmã Fermina (Irmã is sister by the way) and she read the pamphlet we gave her and was super excited to learn more. Unfortunately, we had to cut off teaching with another lady Irmã Graça who is super catholic so she loves certain parts of the gospel but has a really hard time with others. We are teaching her one last time on Tuesday but if it doesn’t go well we will have to stop. Irmã Patrícia unfortunately didn’t read the Book of Mormon, but we reinvited her and reinvited her to church so that we can keep the baptismal date for this next Sunday. Then we went to a wedding that was happening at the church across from our house. It was super awesome to see the couple, who we met during proselytizing on Thursday, were getting married and I’m super excited for them.

Sunday:
Irmã Fermina came to church! So this week we will work with her to prepare her for baptism. Unfortunately Irmã Patricia didn't come which was really hard for us because we even walked to her house before Church and were going to go with her to Church but she wasn’t awake or something. I realized that this work isn’t easy. It wasn’t easy for Christ so why would it be any easier for us as his representatives. As much as I want to help people, they also have to want to help themselves so sometimes it’ll be easy and other times it’ll be really, really hard.

I know this Gospel is true! I love you all and love hearing from you guys!
-Elder Pettingill

AND it's over

Final week is done, pretty much just waiting for tonight when I leave. This week has been pretty bitter-sweet. I love my district and it's going to be super hard to say goodbye but I'm super excited to go out. We have had so many awesome experiences this week. Pday was a blast, we took all the money that our wonderful parents gave us to Mr. Cheneys, a local bakery for the missionaries, and had a cookie party which was awesome. Also an Elder in our room wanted to know if I could take his fat tie and try and make it skinny but I had never done that before but he said I could try with his tie. So I did and it came out really good, so now some other missionaries asked me to do the same. Basically I am just known as a pro at everything to do with clothes. Also the other Brazileiro in my room was a barber so he showed me how to shave with a straight-edge and not die. So I'm buying one out in the field and going to do that. We did a lot of teaching this week because you know got to prep for only Portuguese in like 24 hours for the next two years. I actually love teaching so much, it's probably my favorite part here which has been super fun. So last week I was working on Isaiah 58: 6-12 and I was able to fully memorize it which truly took so many hours of study and definitely know God helped me out with that. Portuguese is super fun to speak and I love the Brazilians.
It's super nice to feel like I can generally say everything I want, even though sometimes I have to change how I say it. Also another super funny thing from this week was that most of the Elders in my district shaved their heads super short which is just so funny to see since most of them had decently long hair before. I didn't do it though which most people have told me I was smart not to. I love it here, it's super awesome, the people are awesome, and I love everything about being out here. I have grown so much since being here. I love hearing from you guys and I love seeing pictures. Next time I email I'll be fluent in Portuguese (crossing my fingers/knocking on wood).
-Tchau,
Elder Pettingill

Final Week!

Beleza!

This week has been great, pretty much the same as usual but a whole lot of teaching. Pretty much everyday we have taught a couple of fifteen minute lessons and I can really say my Portugues is coming along. This week my companion got sick but thankfully I was able to avoid it and he's finally doing better. Some funny things from this week is that we teach our instructors and after we were done Elder Simper and Elder Davis in my district had a war on the whiteboard which was hilarious to watch. Honestly we have just laughed a lot together this past week. I love it here but I'm ready to leave. I love my Brazilian roommates, one of them is a black belt and me and him constantly make fun of each other and the other is crazy at rapping in Portuguese which is super fun to hear. I wish I could send the video we have of the rap because it's super funny because he pretty much just disses everyone in the room. Its funny because most of the Brazilians have taken it upon themselves to call me Elder Fubeca (bad missionary) as a joke, either that or they call me Elder Pretty girl because they can't pronounce Pettingill and they think its hilarious.

Some spiritual things this week is I'm trying to memorize a scripture everyday in Portuguese and it's super hard.  But right now I'm trying to memorize Isaiah 58:6-12 and if you read it in English then you might imagine it'd be hard to memorize it. You read it in Portuguese and now it's probably just about impossible. It's super fun though because I love a challenge. One experience I had was actually yesterday where we had splits again so I was with a Brazilian Elder for a couple of hours and I thought I knew Portuguese. But after talking with him I was feeling very down. I can literally talk with every other Brazilian but I just couldn't understand a thing he said half the time. Which made teaching very difficult. Afterwards we were teaching our other teacher and before I prayed to Heavenly Father to help me speak and say what I wanted to say, and while we were teaching I had no problem saying exactly what I wanted to and barely had to think at all. I know that God helps his missionaries and that He loves everyone very much. I know that He is watching out for all of you even when you don't realize it. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love hearing from you all!

Tchau,

Elder Pettingill

DIA DE BRUXAS

This week was super fast and pretty boring. Some highlights this week was me and Elder Wilkins decided to shave our legs for fun. So I shaved my legs, but he bailed on me after seeing that mine looked very feminine, but jokes on him because it is very hot and apparently it helps with the heat. Also Halloween (dia de bruxa) happened which was awesome because even though Brazil doesn't celebrate Halloween, we certainly celebrated it here. So we decorated our room and ate some candy that we had so it was a good day. Then we went proselytizing on Saturday which was awesome because out of everyone that went, me and my companion had the most contacts (5) and everyone else was lucky if they got 1. It was a really awesome experience to be able to talk with people, real people in only Portuguese. I had some super awesome experiences with the spirit this week, but I don't have enough time to write about it. I know that God loves his children and is watching out for us. He cares about his children, and he wants to help us out but sometimes he can't because we need to ask him. Eu sei que o Evangelho e verdadeira. Eu sei que Deus ama seus filhos. Eu sei que o Livro de Mormon e verdadeiro e ele contem a plenitude do evangelho.
-Love Elder Pettingill

He can't send pictures from the CTM, but here are some pictures that were posted on the CTM Faceboook page. He got a haircut!