Lows Don't Last Forever

Hey guys hope everyone is staying safe with the fires and the hurricane. And I guess if you're really bored you can go ahead and read this. This week was actually really fun and was just about as opposite as last week as you can get. Now most trials don't disappear quite so suddenly but I thank Heavenly Father for showing me just how fast he can do it. 

This week our investigator Lisa invited her husband to join the call with us because meeting with us has helped her so much. Well he loves us as well now and we had some amazing lessons with them this week. They are working on getting their daughter and son in the call as well! 

Also thank you to my mom for the clutch by sending me Bang! (for those who don't know it is an old west game involving shooting everyone) over Amazon. We have immensely enjoyed a new game here and just to spice it up we all talk in western accents to give us some amazing laughs. In fact most days we will just talk in the accent for random stuff. Then on Friday we had zone conference which was awesome but also Elder C got a package he was supposed to have gotten for his birthday last week but didn't. Inside held a variety of gifts but the one that had the most impact was the balloons that his mom placed inside. So yes that night we spent an hour and half making balloon animals and jokes and it truly was one of the best nights of my mission. 

I loved this week because it shows that when you're working hard and everything seems to just be going wrong, sometimes you just need to keep going until it starts going right. But in those times we also need to be looking for little ways to improve. Something I loved this week was about the people of Ammon. The courage for them to willingly surrender their sins to the Lord was incredible but the fact that they would rather die than pick up those sins again is so cool. Sometimes we have things we want and we know it isn't what God wants but when we are willing to surrender those things to the Lord, he will bless us. Remember Mosiah 2:22 "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you." God wants us to keep his commandments so he can bless us. And if we are willing to show our commitment like the people of Ammon amazing blessings will follow. As always I'm praying for Y'all and I hope you're doing well

-Elder Pettingill

Pics

-my flower I made out of balloons (sorry it's the only pic I got)

This Week Just Kinda Sucked

 Well guys not much happened honestly. I hope y'all are doing well. As y'all can tell, this week wasn't the best but that is ok because in life sometimes you've got some low points but as you keep a positive outlook everything will go ok. But some major down points this week were that our "golden" investigator who was super awesome disappeared off the face of the Earth. We've tried texting, we've tried calling, we've tried knocking on his door. Nothing. So that was probably the biggest low point. Other than that we just haven't been able to teach as often this week so it was just really slow. However, today we had a fun time as a district where we played kickball and ultimate frisbee so that was a nice way to get this hopefully better week started. 

Also something from the Book of Mormon that I really liked was in 2 Nephi 8: 9 "Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?" I really like this because sometimes we forget where we came from and so it's easy to think about this time on Earth as everything. But what I realized reading this was we fought a war in heaven man. We backed up Jesus when so many of our brothers and sisters wanted to take the easy way out but we aren't here for the easy way and nothing can stop us here either. So if you're worried about sharing the gospel or this life ain't going too hot, remember that you backed the Lord and he's gonna back you. Thanks y'all hopefully see ya next week. But honestly who knows the world could end by then.

-Elder Pettingill

The "How to get a missionary from another church" book

Alright fellas this week was pretty uneventful other than we picked up Elder H. For the pranks that happened, yes he believed I was Brazilian for the first few days until I finally decided to tell him I wasn't; yes we gave him the backing vest and yes he is still wearing it thinking that he needs to until he gets "certified" which isn't a thing. To all my friends currently serving a mission, if your trainer has you doing something that doesn't make sense, it's probably because you don't have to actually do that. We also convinced him that certain words in Spanish meant other things and got him to say some pretty funny things. (I will not repeat the things that he said so don't ask). Elder H is from Montana which is sweet because that's where Sister H (friend from home) is and he lived super close to her (about an hour away from where she is currently at).

Other cool things that happened. We were teaching this guy P (he's literally the best) and as a fun introduction for lessons with Elder H, we helped P to decide to be baptized, so he's now working towards baptism on the 30th! Also, as Elder H's first lesson he had the wonderful encounter with a woman from another church seeking advice about how she can be a good missionary. Honestly the first time I've come across this but we taught a short lesson about faith and had a prayer but we've planned for the next time we meet with her to introduce Preach my Gospel which is like everything that we as missionaries teach. So we are about 95% sure that if she looks into that and starts reading it she will definitely make a better missionary and who knows maybe get baptized. Last thing is that I had the wonderful opportunity to teach M (friend from home) today which was super fun. I love this Gospel and I love being able to teach and help so many people, especially ones I care about. Love you all!

-Elder Pettingill

Me? A Father?

Sup guys, as my title refers to i am now training. For those who don't understand in the mission when you first enter the mission field you pretty much don't know a lot so you have to be trained by another missionary or two. Your trainer(s) are considered your dad(s) and if you're the trainer then you get a son. Well it finally happened, Elder F and I get to train a new guy which means we lost Elder D but I think I need to mention that my child has no idea what he's getting into. Pranks will be pulled and I will update you all on what we get him on. Currently he thinks I'm Brazilian so we will see how long I can pull that off for.

This week was another great week. We got to do a ton of service which included one day where we did 8 hours of service where we literally got rid of a jungle(a literal jungle) in her backyard. Then afterwards we got to check out the member's guns (mom please don't post any pictures of us with guns on FB) not much else happened though.

However I was talking with my mom this week about a mindset shift I've been trying to work on. That's the idea that we aren't in "quarantine" but that this is the new normal. Because a lot of the time we use quarantine as an excuse, an excuse to not work as hard or not do the things we know we should be doing. But when we realize this is the new normal it gives us the ability to use the time that we have to improve ourselves more. I feel like this time is one we can improve ourselves so much if we look for it. Thanks everyone and I'm praying for y'all.

-Elder Pettingill

$2 Shirts and a Hurricane

 Sup peeps, hope y'all are chillin still. This week was pretty legit. Let's start off with the fact that we went to Walmart and found some XXL $2 shirts so now my district all chills around in these shirts (peep the pic below) also y'all remember the refrigerator filled with sodas? Yeah so we didn't finished but we bough 150 more cans but I started to feel bad about all the sodas I was drinking so I've slowly gone from drinking 3 to only drinking 1 which I think is pretty good. And as the title states we had a hurricane here. Now as exciting as that sounds it actually only meant that we didn't get our excercise time and had to cancel some services. And we didn't even get to see any storms.

Now my friends from BYU can attest that if you spend enough time with me I will probably try and teach you a backflip. And if you spend enough time with me you probably will learn one. So I'm now helping about half my district learn backflips which has been fun. Also Elder Jones got golf clubs from his parents so we went golfing which was super fun. 

Not much else to add but this week I started reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. So I read the chapter first in Portuguese so I know what it says then I reread it in Spanish so I understand most of it. And then I reread it Italian where I don't understand it but because I've read it twice already I understand a lot of it. So by the time I'm done I will probably be fluent in all of those languages. We also had zone conference in person which was so great!

Not much else to add other than that our investigators are doing great and we had a goal this week of a new investigator and found this awesome lady that we are working with now.

Love y'all and I'm praying for you all.

-Elder Pettingill

Pics

-our big shirts

-us at the golfing range

-us at zone conference

Jack of All Trades

Well I'm pretty sure I'm going to come back being a pro at everything. This week we had the opportunity to do lots of service but let's start off with the beginning of the week. So on Tuesday we went to a gynecologist's office for Elder D where he found out he has shingles. (Just another proof that he's old enough to be my grandpa.) Then we had exchanges with our district leader (who is always over here) so I got to go hang out with Elder J and Elder F on Thursday while the Conway boys went and did service and got sweet food. Was I jealous, very much so. Did we do anything? No. Then Friday we did service again for that same family where we built a fence. We haven't finished it but we got to use a bunch of power tools which was awesome. I could probably build my own house now.

Our family we are teaching is still doing awesome and so is our other investigator. This week actually passed super quickly because we were pretty busy.

Honestly I don't have a lot else but something I loved from a talk by Elder Uchtdorf "remember that discipleship is not about doing things perfectly; it’s about doing things intentionally." Often times we feel like we should have been able to do things better but when we try our best God will make up the rest.

I'm praying for y'all 

--Elder Pettingill

-the fence

-The whole fence

-a blister I got from handstand walking

-the soda I drank this week. (In a fun little pattern for y'all)