I got transferred?

Ok guys hope yall are good. Not a ton happened this week so I'll go over the good parts. 

So first off we had singing time with I. It was awesome. She loves music and Elder M is super good at playing the piano so we had the sisters that ward share with us come over and Elder M played the piano while we sang and it was awesome. Felt the spirit super hard which was wonderful.

Secondly a member brought us out to an all-you-can-eat buffet with the Sisters which was a ton of fun. And super good food there and they had just about everything. 

Other big thing that happened is that we haven't been able to have Ward Correlation which is where whoever is in charge of missionary work for the area meets with the missionaries and helps them help the members to do missionary work and helps them with what they need. But our Ward Mission Leader (the guy in charge) is moving so we haven't had it all since I've been here. But this last week another member hosted it who is in charge at least until a new ward mission leader is called. But since covid usually we do it over zoom but he doesn't like that so he had us over for dinner and correlation. But we already had a dinner for yesterday but he gave us super good ribs and sausage and rabbit! So of course we ate a ton because it was all so good. Now I had already had a ton of breakfast and lunch so that already had filled me but my companion had been fasting. I would say I ate about as much as him or more at the dinner so I ate a lot. Then we went to our other dinner. And my companion wasn't able to eat a lot so I felt super bad so I made sure to eat a TON which didn't help. But then they had dessert! And since I was trying to make them feel good, oh btw the dinner was also sooo good but I was stuffed but my companion totally wimped out. So I ate a ton of dessert when my companion had a little cuz he was full so I left being about to burst. But it was awesome because it was all super delicious. 

Ok last thing is that because of the ward split we will probably (I say probably because we find out tomorrow but it's highly likely) be taking over the Kissimmee area instead of Canoe Creek because we are now apart of that ward. But it's pretty legit because no Elders from our zone have been in that area because it used to not be part of our zone so it'll be like opening up a new area. So I was like half transferred because I wasn't moved at all and kept the same companion but we will be over a new ward and new area. We are really bummed because we were finally getting to know the area and members and they were all dope but I'm super excited (Elder M is less excited) for this new adventure.

I love you all and I hope you realize how much God loves you. He knows everything about you and knows everything that will happen to you. I promise that whatever He sends your way will turn out so much better than you can possibly imagine. This is the Lord's church and He has given us so much opportunity even though we mess up a LOT. It doesn't matter to Him because in reality this life is so short but if we turn to Him, He will wrap us in His love and show us what we never could have imagined ourselves. It's when we turn away from Him because of the things in our lives that our vision grows dim. It's like we are in a dark room and if we turn towards the light and move towards it it'll get brighter. But if we turn away from it and move farther we can hardly question why we can't see anything! Turn to Jesus Christ, He went through the atonement for YOU. If you were the only person He could've saved by making his sacrifice I promise you, I promise you He still would've gone through it. All the pain, all the misery, all the suffering, the cross, the humiliation. All of it. For you. I love y'all so much! Just remember that the worth of souls are great in the eyes of God and if we bring even one soul unto Him how great shall be our joy. Even if that soul is only us.

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Pettingill

-The Buffet with our dope members unfortunately the kids didnt want to be apart of the pic

-The Canoe Creek missionaries for the last time

-I'm not cutting my hair until someone says something about it so it's long enough to go in man bun rn:)

It's me Elder Beatty

 Ok guys how's it's going? Hope y'all had a great week because I did! Big things that happened this week:

First thing is related to our landlady. So in my last email I mentioned this lady who's letting us live in like this side house in her mansion who knows Elder Andersen. So my mom asked some questions and figured out some really cool things. These being that I (our landlady) was roommates with Sister Andersen's mother so they were best friends and wanted their children to get married. So later Sister Andersen's brother married Iris' daughter. So that's a lot of where she tied there, but the Andersen family loves her and has called her Aunt I growing up and while Elder Andersen was the Mission President in France, Iris sent all the missionaries stockings so my mom actually got a couple while she was there! And now after getting reassigned and some craziness between somehow I'm living with her which is so awesome! It's in the little things that we really see how much God has planned for us. So anyway the Andersen's didn't know we were living with her so they're super excited and they told I's daughter to call Elder Beatty and talk to him and tell him to "seal the deal" and in case y'all are confused I'm Elder Beatty apparently but when an apostle of the Lord says so, it is so. So now we are working to get this amazing lady baptized.

Second thing is we dropped Elder W off at the airport so he's back in Brazil! Super excited for him and it's a little weird to not be in a trio anymore. 

Third thing is that we had our ward get split this week so now we are really confused since Elder M and I are both new to the area and don't really know the members at all. 

Fourth thing is that we had zone conference this week which was so fun. I got to catch up with almost everyone which was super dope and I'm pretty much known as the camera guy now for the zone so my 2 years of digital art is really coming in handy.

Last thing is that we had a blasting fun pday together because everyone listened to me and instead of playing sports in the morning we did it in the afternoon and played games afterwards which mean pday went way smoother this week which was awesome. 

I love this gospel! Something that has helped me tremendously is the idea of sometimes just slowing down and breathing and focusing on the Savior and the spirit. I have felt so much love doing this and has really kept me going. If y'all are feeling overwhelmed or alone or sad or anything I promise doing this and just focusing on our savior will help. He loves us so much but sometimes we get too busy to let him in. 

Love y'all!

-Elder Beatty

-I! Shes so wonderful

-I sort of built the Coliseum from dominos

-district service

It's been a while

Alright guys what's up! I know it's been a while since I've written one of these (I wonder why ;) idk I guess iykyk) Anyway, we had transfers a bit ago so I'm in a new area called Canoe Creek and I'm in a trio because one of my companions Elder W is going back to Brazil on Thursday! Definitely stoked for him to get back although I'm not envious because Florida is amazing! I like to call it the rich Brazil because you get the same weather, a lot of the same types of people but you get all the luxuries of being inside the US like ac and cars. But my other companion is Elder M who is also a reassigned missionary and he's supposed to be going to Tahiti so hopefully he'll be able to before he ends his mission. Anyways I love these guys! I'm stoked to be in this area! I love the members here even if we have to share them with a couple sister missionaries who are actually pretty legit themselves since they make us cookies, so who can complain right? I saw something this week that I felt really defined me and it was cookie monster and he said "I'm always eating cookies because if I'm not then I'm just monster" and I felt that on a deep level.

So this week was spent getting to know the area and the members and unfortunately not a whole lot of teaching because we don't have a very big teaching pool but we are working on it and I can already tell God is blessing us with ideas. So give it a few weeks and we will have this area rolling in friends of the church. We also went on splits with our district leader so Elder M and I headed over there to hang with Elder G (who's dope but not the district leader) 

Oh another big fact is that instead of living in an apartment we live with this lady who has a literal mansion and she has this side little house thing that we live in. She is dope and she isn't even a member! Although she is 93 and has several children who are members and one of them married Elder Andersen's daughter! Like the Elder Andersen! So I guess he's teaching her about the gospel whenever he can. 

Also Elder M is super talented musically so he's been teaching me the guitar which I've wanted to learn for forever so I'm working on that. So hopefully I'll be able to play some by the end of the transfer. We also have a hackensack (not sure if that's actually how you spell it cuz it doesn't seem right but it's the little rice beanbag that you kick around) so I've been working to get super good with that. 

Today we are gonna go play basketball and do some bowling which is hype. Elder W and I wanted to go to a trampoline park but Elder M didn't want to so instead we are bowling:( 

Well I love you guys and I know this church is true. There are too many coincidences that I've seen and heard for it to be anything else. I know God is looking out for his children and will do everything he can to bless them. He's watching over you and as Veggie Tales puts it "God is bigger than the boogie man, he's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on tv! And he's watching over you and me!" Hope you're all doing great and I'm praying for you all.

-Elder Pettingill

-the mansion (it was hard to get the whole thing in one picture)

-dope sunset we had