Week full of Capueda, DnD, and a whole lot of work

Oi meus amigos!
This week was truly an interesting one. First of we got two new Elders in our house, Elder Durante and Elder Proença. So it meant a lot of time getting to know them. Elder Durante  and Elder Proença are really cool. They remind me a lot of people back home, namely my brother Josh. Also Elder Proença did Capueda before his mission which is like martial arts but also a dance. It's legit to watch so he has been teaching me and Elder Sly it. Also I talked about playing DnD before my mission and everyone thought it would be really interesting to play it here. And I'm not gonna lie I neevver, ever thought that I would play Pathfinder out here but here I am playing it.

The work has been rough here, most days we weren't able to teach so spent a lot of time contacting and walking. One thing I really learned this week is that success here in the mission doesn't come from numbers but from how hard you're working. If you're giving it all you have, you're successful and it doesn't matter what people say. If you know it and you know that God knows it, then that's all that matters.

One thing always helps me is the verse in Ether 12 which says that faith is believing in things you can't see and that answers come only after the trial of faith. Truly I know this Gospel is true, but no one ever said it was easy. It was never easy, because salvation isn't easy. It wasn't easy when Christ was praying to his father that if there was an easier way to give it, and it most certainly will not be any easier for us as latter day saints. One part of our mission is feeling some portion of the same pain he felt. I'm not saying we will feel anything close to what he felt but we will feel some token that will make us more grateful.

I love you all, and I pray for you all every day. Remember the atonement is real and it's not just there to wipe away our sins but it is there to comfort us in times of need. It is there for everything. I hope you're all doing great!

-Elder Pettingill

A week of a whole lot of walking

Hola meus amigos. This week was really awesome so let's start off with the crazy stuff. First off I went to Teresina to find out what I was allergic to but we were unable to schedule an appointment so we still don't know exactly what it is other than that if I use the hammock in our apartment it will be bad. Then on the way home we were riding in a bus but it broke down so instead of arriving at 12:30-1 in the morning, we got back at 4 but that is all good because I got to see the freaking stars! If you don't know I love the stars so much! My family always went camping so they're one of my favorite parts of nature but a lot of the time you can't see them clearly and it's not much different here in Brazil but we were about 2 hours away from "civilization" so we could see just about everything. The weirdest part was to see the Big Dipper on the wrong part of the sky but still it was awesome. Also we have started to finally have a lot of rain here. And when it rains in Brazil, you're guaranteed lightning and thunder and a frick ton of rain. None of the big bridges here broke but a couple smaller ones broke here because the river flooded. So pretty sick. Also in our city all of our investigators close to our house stopped wanting to talk to us so we moved to start walking to literally the farthest places in our areas which is usually about an hour or more of walking there. However we had one person walk up to while we were in the supermarket and he said he wants to be baptized but of course he lives in one of the farthest areas so we walked 2 and a half hours to teach him and it was really good. So now he's preparing to be baptized. However we also learned a much faster route so now it only takes about an hour and a half which is much better. Also this week we got transfers and I was transferred from my part of Floriano to the other part so it was rather exciting because it's not really a transfer at all. Same house but now I have the better bedroom and my companion is Elder Sly who I've lived with the entire time. We are getting two new missionaries here, Elder Durante (who is my brother in the mission) to replace Elder Maza (my other brother in the mission) and his son in the mission to replace Elder Bustamante, my pop, so it'll be quite the family here. To explain for those who don't understand, your trainer here in the mission is called your dad and if you have a second one it's called your mom. Then if you train someone they are your brother and anyone trained by the same person are brothers. So here in my house I will have my mom (Elder Sly) my brother (Elder Durante) and my nephew (the son of Elder Durante) so I'm excited. This week was awesome and sorry about the crazy long email. I pray for you guys always!

One awesome experience this week was yesterday we walked an hour to our area after our lunch with a member. But when we got there, the member that said he would work with us said he was doing visits to less actives so he couldn't come with us, and then all our appointments fell through and no one was there. Elder Bustamante and I were rather discouraged so we sat down and thought about what we needed to do. So we decided we would say a pray and afterwards started walking to one of our other areas. But as we were walking one of our investigators opened the door as we passed and asked for us to come in which was already a miracle. But then her brother arrived home and he was a reference from a member (pretty sure she just wants to date him tho) but we were able to teach them and it was super awesome. Now they are preparing to be baptized but also right after we entered their house it started pouring super badly outside with a lot of thunder really, really close by. So it was a grand blessing that we didn't have to also walk another 45 minutes in the pouring rain. I know this Church is true and that God truly has a plan for us. He gives us problems and difficulties to build us and our faith. But when we trust him, and trust his plan, things will always be alright.

-Elder Pettingill

Pictures from January Zone Conference

Todo suave na nave? (Is everything going well?)

Oi meus amigos!

This week I don't have that much time so you guys can enjoy a short email.
This week we had divisions with the assistant to the President Elder Cantero and it was super fun working with him. He does missionary work so much differently it was really cool and I started doing some of the stuff he does. Such as being supppper straight forward with people. Like you're breaking commandments and need to change. Then also the allergic reaction came back too and that's been super fun to deal with; pretty much I would wake up each morning in hives and take medicine and by night time they would all be gone. But all is well, it has only boosted my determination. I love the examples in the scriptures of the missionaries that say they suffered all manner of afflictions but murmured not. Not a ton of success numbers wise this week but I know we are trying our best. I love you guys, and hopefully I'll have more time next week and hopefully pictures.

I know this Church is true with every fiber of my being. I am absolutely in love with it and this is what happens when you really begin to live the Gospel of Christ. The love that you will feel, for others, but also from God is so powerful. The Book of Mormon is true and if you read it, really read it and study it you will fall in love with the stories, the people, and the messages and then you will begin to live them. The blessings of this Gospel are real and they will change your life.

-Elder Pettingill

 

Brazil does have animals

This week was a rough one but tons of fun. First off my companion is all good once again but he and Elder Maza had to go to the hospital in Teresina which meant that I and Elder Sly had all of Floriano to work in instead of splitting it which makes it a lot harder and a lot more walking. We also had Zone Conference on Wednesday which was fun and really encouraged me to use the Atonement in my life. The atonement of Jesus Christ is truly the most wonderful thing in the world. Through it we have the ability to truly become better and get closer to God. The Atonement means real change, one that makes us more like Christ and with the New Year change is something I've been focusing on a lot. As I help change others, I need to change as well. One quote I love but don't remember who it was from is "you can't lead someone else to a place you, yourself, are not" which is one hundred percent true. How can you help someone else repent if you yourself are not repenting. You just can't.

Also this week I had the opportunity to see more crazy wildlife than I ever have. The first I saw was a Gila Monster (a lizard about three feet long and extremely venomous, unfortunately I was unable to get a picture because he ran before I could) the second I saw was a duck but ducks here aren't ducks so I call them dodo chickens because they look like a mix between a duck, chicken, and a dodo bird and the last was a bunch of little tiny monkeys about the size of my hand. It was really fun to actually see some cool things and now all I'm hoping for is a 12 foot snake.

I hope you''re all doing well, I pray for you all!

-Elder Pettingill

Feliz Natal e um Feliz Ano Novo

Oi!
Finalmente uma P-day eu posso fazer as coisas eu preciso fazer! Então How is everyone? I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I have a lot to remember but Ill try and hit all the main points. First off we had Christmas Conference down in Teresina which was super fun. We all brought things we made and I brought some Cookie Brownies that I made. We played a bunch of games and had a blast. Then we continued working in our area until my trainer Elder Bustamante got super sick with an allergia that made it so we had to spend most of the day in our house. This was nice the first day but after that I just wanted to work. He is currently at the hospital in Teresina with the Companion of Elder Sly, the other American elder here in Floriano so we are in splits. Don't worry he isn't dying he's just in a lot of pain.

The week after Christmas conference we had Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve in the house of an investigator who loves us and so we played games and ate there until we had to return at 10:30 instead of the usual 9:00. Then Christmas where we opened our presents we got for each other and also the presents my mom sent with me. The non american Elders now love American candy because it's the best and we've been having a ton of fun with some nerf guns we got.

Finally we had New Years Eve which we spent watching fireworks from our building and stayed up til Midnight and had a little party by ourselves because we had to return at 6:00 in the afternoon that day. Where we were wasn't super big but I saw on some newscasts that they were having giant parties in other parts of Brazil. It was super weird being here for Christmas and New Years but still wonderful.

Some funny things that happened was first off on Christmas all the members gave us this gift basket with a ton of sweets in it and I mean giant. I would say probably like 20-30 pounds but we were at the top of a hill about 35-45 minutes away from our house. So I took the challenge to carry it home by myself and said that God will fortify me and give me strength if I have faith. I made it about 43 minutes until my arms were dead and I couldn't go any farther so all the other Elders said I didn't have faith which was a funny joke haha. Then a lot of our investigators dropped because of one reason or another but we continue to try with a smile on our faces (usually) We have one investigator that's doing super awesome and is preparing for baptism this Sunday. Also I am quasi fluente em português so I understand most of what people are talking about most of the time. That or I misunderstand them completely because I misunderstand a single word. It's a struggle but I love it. I love being here and I hope everyone is doing wonderful.

-Elder Pettingill

Semana dos milagres/meu primeiro baptismo!

Oi, esta semana foi bom demais!
This week was literally the best! When I say it was a week of miracles I mean it (semana dos milagres) Every. single. day. But for some funny moments to put us in the right mood this week my companion and the other two missionaries bought stuff that tastes and smells exactly like coffee but isn't. They tried to get me to drink it saying it was coffee but that it was ok here. I refused until they told me the truth, and the truth is it was pretty darn good. Another thing is that here in the mission I guess it's a big thing to play Magic: the Gathering which is like a mix of dungeons and dragons and like Pokemon I guess but anyways they taught me how to play it (sort of, it was all in Portuguese so I can't say if I'm playing it right) but now we play it every night before bed to take off the pressure!  Another thing is that apparently when it rains the streets become completely infested with giant toads, like alllll over the place, it's freaking crazy.

Now for the miracles, first off Tuesday:
Tuesday I had splits with my zone leaders which was super awesome, I went with Elder Petty so it was Elder Pettingill and Elder Petty the entire day which was sick, but it was insane how hard it was. Literally it was like the picture missionary day where every person we had to teach we couldn't and then every single person we talked to didn't want to hear more. Except for an espirtismo who I guess is a person who believes in speaking with nature spirits and mad juju and stuff (once again was explained to me in Portuguese) but anyways basically no one. So we tried every contact we had and tried every single door and nothing. So after a very, very long day and after exhausting everything we had, we decided to pray. We prayed for direction and help and then Elder Petty told me to follow the first thought that popped in my head. So I started walking and I knocked on a door and it opened! But they didn't want to talk so we moved on. Until we came to a street and I paused and my companion asked which way we should go. But I didn't know so he told me to just keep walking so I did and we came to a door and we knocked the person came out but he didn't want to hear our message either so we kept walking, and as we were walking there were a few people sitting on the side of the road in what seemed to be their early twenties playing on their phone and we allllmost walked past them, until I had a thought to go talk to them. So I did and they stopped, asked if we would share our message with them, and then we proceeded to have one of the best lessons I have taught. And I know that I was 100% led straight to them and now we are working with them to get them baptized.

Wednesday:
This was just a normal day with normal lessons, until a lot of our lessons started falling through so we had some extra time. And when this happened I remembered a contact we had made and were supposed to teach him but we had switched it for a couple of other people. So I told my companion let's go teach him, he seemed interested but my companion felt it was too far away and we probably should stick in the same area. I told him no and that we would go teach him because he was a lot closer than he thought. So he said fine and we started walking. He ended up living super close to where we already were and then we taught such a good lesson with him and he currently has a super big desire to be baptized and his date for baptism is the 22 of December! It was such a wonderful experience and super cool to see that God will guide everything we do and provide everything we need if we will listen to what He says.

Thursday:
We had splits again but this time we left our area to go to Picos, a neighboring area where we had splits with Elder Rivero and Elder Alves. Let me tell you they are so wonderful! They knew that I was new and they had come down to our area on Tuesday so I had already met them, but when we got there the first thing they did was take my missionary planner and put a cover on it which is something a lot of missionaries do but because I'm new and my pai (my trainer) didn't give me one I had just the normal one so they wanted to make sure I had a cover. Then I went with Elder Alves to teach a lesson in an area suppper far away. It took an hour and a half to walk there and when we got there Elder Alves told me he actually didn't know where the investigator lived and didn't have an address only the general area which as you can imagine makes it very hard to teach them. SO I pulled a trick out of Elder Petty's hat and said let's pray. Then I told him to follow his first instinct and we started walking and we taught another lesson with a wonderful person but nothing super special but afterwards we kept walking and boom! There is the investigator we were looking for. I know that the only way we could have found him was if God was guiding us because we walked to an area we probably wouldn't have gone, it was a backstreet and definitely not where we would have looked but here he was. So we taught him and he was super interested and we were able to set up a baptismal date with him! Then after that super awesome lesson we returned back home with another hour and a half walk where we finished up the day and then Elder Alves and Elder Rivero taught me how to play magic and then as a gift gave me a deck to use so that I could play! The love that they showed me so wonderful and I just want to show others that same kind of love.

Friday:
The miracle that happened today is that not a single one of our lessons fell through. Not a single one. Literally we were able to teach the entire day which is the only time its happened the entire time I've been here. We actually taught so much that we weren't able to contact the 10 people each missionary is supposed to contact each day which I honestly was ok with.

Saturday:
This was really cool because it was a follow up on my first miracle of the week. We hadn't gone back to teach the people from Tuesday because my companion didn't know them and we had a bunch of people in the same areas every day that we have been preparing for baptisms as well but I felt like we needed to go back to teach them, so he agreed but only as an alternative to our lesson we had. So I agreed but guess what our plan fell through so I reminded him that we needed to go teach them, even though it was quite the walk. But when we got there only one was there but they had another friend with them, so we started talking with them but the one we had already taught had to take a phone call, so we taught the friend about the Book of Mormon which he was super interested in and after about baptism which as a wonderful miracle once again he said yes that he would start preparing for baptism! Once again I know God guides us and if we have the faith to trust in his plan then he will show us something much better than we had planned.

Sunday:
Today was my first baptism! I baptized Maria Fermina which was such a wonderful experience and I was so happy that she was able to be baptized. She was then confirmed in Church right afterward! (For those who don't know we get baptized in full immersion which is where everything goes completely under the water because that is how Christ was baptized and after we receive the Holy Ghost which is where those with the proper authority lay their hands on your head and give you the gift of the Holy Ghost which means that we can always have the Holy Ghost and his guidance with us which is what being confirmed is) That was awesome and we had another investigator come to church so her baptism is planned for this Sunday!

I know that this work is God's work because I know that we are only having success because He guides us to the people He prepared so that He can teach them through the spirit and all I really have to do is do what He tells me and bring the spirit. I love this work and I know that God is helping me out, I know that this Gospel changes lives and it brings people closer to God. I know that Christ died so that we could live with God again but that He also lives so that he can comfort us when we are in need. I love hearing from you guys and I hope you know that God is looking out for you, and when you look for the miracles, you'll start to see them all over the place.

Elder Pettingill

Oiii this is Brazil

This week was crazy but awesome at the same time. So I lied a little when I said the weird reaction went away after the priesthood blessing. It went away but then came back in primarily my hands which swelled up like balloons and my feet. But I was determined to work regardless so after visiting the Brazilian hospital Tuesday morning (my companion forced me) and I bought some rather expensive drugs and received a rather painful shot in my bottom (for what I have no idea but apparently every time you go to the hospital you'll end up with a shot in the butt) and afterwards we got to work.

The work is going great but also not great. We have several people that we are working towards being baptized but they need to come to church. Our one awesome investigator Irmã Fermina who we had planned to be baptized this Sunday didn't pass her interview because she ended up drinking some coffee the day of. So we are going to reteach that lesson but she loves the gospel and loves learning. We also met with her grand-daughter and are working with her to be baptized as well. Had she come to church her baptism date would be this Sunday but alas it was not to be.

Something funny was we were working with this woman named Sheyla. She is awesome, and she is super accepting of the gospel and was super excited to be baptized. She said she would come to church and was super excited about it but it ended up being her friend's birthday so instead she felt like she needed to spend time with her and when we went to follow up about why she didn't come to church we found her drinking alcohol with her friends so clearly we have a pattern on what we need to focus on with these people.

This other woman we are working with was super funny as well, because she loooves our messages and looooves us as messengers from God. She was super accepting of everything we teach and wants to come to church with us(she couldn't this week because of other commitments) but when we asked to be baptized she said she wouldn't because there are already a lot of different religions in her house and she doesn't want to upset everyone. So we will continue working with her and hopefully after church we can change her mind.

I love this work, its so fun being here, but also so hard. I'm getting a lot better at understanding the people here and I'm working on my Portuguese. The members are super funny because they love saying sentences in English or asking me to tell them what a phrase in Portuguese means in English. The people are so loving and so kind and it kills me when people reject us because all I want to do is help them. There are so many wonderful things here and I'm trying my best. A scripture that really hit me this week was in Ether 1:6 where it says I am a disciple of Christ, the Son of God. That's all we are and that's all we can try to be. It doesn't matter as long as we are trying to be disciples of Christ whether we wear the name tag or not. Our status in life is not reflected in this statement because it doesn't matter whether we are rich or poor, popular or not, having success or having failures, in the midst of trials or on the calm waters. All that matters is that we are a Disciple of Christ.

I love you guys and pray for you, I love your emails and I don't care how often you send them. I just love hearing about how everyone is doing. Eu sei que meu salvador vive. E é o salvador do mundo. Pai dele se ama muito e as todas coisas fez por nós. Eu sei que este evangelho é o evangelho de Jesus Cristo e que ele está direcando

-Elder Pettingill

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!