The Most Eventful Uneventful Week of My Mission

Sup y'all hope y'all are staying groovy. Let me explain the title a little bit. This week we did some things definitely out of the ordinary for us but also a lot of days it felt like we didn't do anything so it's kinda weird that I feel like I have things to share but also not really anything happened.

To start off Elder P got here. He is fitting in great here but I'm not sure he likes it all that much. He isn't quite as much of a sporty person as we are but that doesn't mean he isn't killing it in every sport that he plays. I've basically defined him as the most athletic unathletic person I've ever met. But we are getting along great, and its definitely fun to have things switched up a little bit.

On Tuesday we had a member ask us to come help destroy a shed she had in her backyard and I might go into demolition when I get home, it was a lot of fun.

We also had some super good lessons with L and I where we read the Book of Mormon with them. Something that I loved that they said was that "reading the Book of Mormon is like it goes along with everything we've learned in the Bible. And we always get a good feeling while reading it like I can't even explain." I love it because it's so true. The Book of Mormon is another testament that Christ is our Savior and the Holy Ghost will be there every time we read it. Another cool thing with them is that Lisa really needed a recliner because of her illnesses and we just so happen to have 2 so we were able to give them 1 which was such a cool opportunity to show our love for them and they were super grateful.

We also had stake conference this weekend and Lisa and Israel were able to attend over zoom! They loved it and they were bummed it was only an hour! They are super excited for General Conference this next week and if you guys have the opportunity, watch it! It's where we get to listen to the Prophet and Apostles of God talk about what we need right now. In other words, it's the coolest.

Finally we had a member randomly reach out to us today about advice for a friend who is really struggling. She told us that she actually was less active but wanted to come back and that her boyfriend isn't a member and she wants us to teach him! It was such a cool miracle because we have been pushing to work with part member families and Less active members to help them and their families receive the Gospel of Christ. 

Last thing is while playing Volleyball I got stung by a wasp which was really painful and it made my whole thigh swell up. So in honor of it we watched the video of Coyote Peterson purposely getting stung by the Japanese Giant Hornet and the executioner wasp both of which seemed much more painful. 

Other than those things pretty much nothing happened so it might seem like a lot but in the time of week it actually isn't. Love you all and I'm always praying for you. Stay brave, stay wild see ya on the next adventure.

-Elder Pettingill

-me standing over my conquered foe 

-Elder P and I 

-Elder C before he left for the airport

                                            

                                

RIP Elder C/transfers

Howdy y'all. Hope you guys are doing awesome! Sorry I didn't write anything last week but that's because I wanted to save some content for this week and really because nothing happened last week.

Ok so Elder C has finished his mission which means he's going home and when a missionary goes home it's called dying so yeah he's dead. 

Also we had transfers which kinda just messes everything up. Elder H is still here in the district but he was transferred to Semoran West so Elder J gets to finish his training which is great because they actually speak Spanish and though my Spanish is great it's not quite good enough to help him. And unfortunately Elder F was transferred as well. My new companion is Elder P who is from Utah. Don't know too much about him hopefully he's chill. 

Some things from the past couple of weeks:

Giant game of bang which took wayyy to long. (3 hours approximately)

We did service for a member who started teaching me the guitar! I can play a few hymns so far although it's not actually on a full guitar.

We played some more frisbee golf

And we brought cookies to I and L for L's birthday! We love how badly they want to get baptized. They are so awesome, their faith is so amazing!

That's about all, love you guys, stay strong!

Elder Pettingill

-Cool spot we found while disc golfing

-Our district

-Elder F leaving

Do I have to title these still?

This week was really good. I don't have a lot time so this will be short. The best thing that happened this week was that L and I accepted a date to be baptized! It was super awesome when we asked them because L had been praying that we would ask her! We are super excited and unfortunately they weren't able to go to church yesterday because Lisa was in the hospital so if y'all would be willing to put her in your prayers that would be greatly appreciated. 

Another thing that happened is we helped a member move a couch into their apartment but the next day they said they actually didn't have space for it so they gave it to us! Our apartment is now a super chill location and if we actually had space to work out it would probably be the best in the mission. 

Lastly we had the opportunity to go back to church this last Sunday which was awesome. We were finally able to meet a lot of members and the spirit was so comforting and peaceful. 

That's pretty much it for this week. Love you all and y'all are in my prayers. 

Elder Pettingill

-my dope companions

-Ghandi and I

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)

I don't even know what to call these anymore

Hello my wonderful fans! I hope you aren't looking to read anything super interesting or fun because my week was pretty much the opposite of those. Except of course to note that if I watch a church movie I will cry. Period. Every. time. Thanks Dad.
This week was actually pretty good regardless of what I might say. We are still teaching our wonderful family C and W and actually had a lunch at the church with them where we played kickball with them and their 3 children. So yeah we are pretty much in with them. We are also teaching another guy who loves talking with us which is awesome.
Then we also had a couple of services which on one I wish we had a picture because with only 3 missionaries and 3 weed whackers you'd be impressed what we can get done. We also had a division with the APs this week which meant we got to hang out with Elder L who I love. He is pretty awesome. Lots of sports as well and not much else happening. I guess the last noteworthy thing is that I just completed my first transfer which is low key crazy because it feels like I haven't been here long. I love you guys and I'm always praying for y'all.

-Elder Pettingill

I figured I'd make up for the lack of stuff in the email with pictures

Pictures
-and yet it's still less soda than I drank in Brazil
-that's right I'm an English Elder now bois
-I cant explain what happened just now I'm fine
-when my parents bought all of us Chipotle for my birthday a couple weeks ago
-After exercises with Elder L
-That one time we bought a ton of pizza a while ago

 

Independence Week

Alrighty folks, hope you all had a fantastic week. If you're still reading these I'm impressed because not much has happened these past weeks I feel like.

This week was actually really good. Starting off we got our new companion Elder F who is super legit. Crazy good at every sport so it's been a good time. We were also in the CTM together which is fun. As well as a welcome gift we helped this lady in our ward move. I wont go into detail about her but she definitely hoards things and it was an insane move for sure. Then we did service with another non-member family who dropped food off for us and we totally thought they were members! But when we found they weren't we immediately set up a time to come fix up their yard and started teaching them. They are a super awesome family and five pizzas is way too much for 8 missionaries but a welcome challenge.

Then along with the arrival of Elder F we added pickleball to this weeks games and began playing Secret Hitler. We are running out of games to play it's kind of ridiculous. Pickleball may be a grandpa sport(meaning its perfect for Elder D) but it's actually still really fun. Highly suggested but paddles are not worth the big bucks. (Simply mooch off someone who already owns them) Not really sure what else happened this week, the days have begun to blur together into an endless cycle and I've lost track of what day is which. (Literally I thought it was Wednesday on Friday this last week.)

Hope y'all are doing great. This time in quarantine, I've realized, is probably the best time I've had in coming closer to my Savior. The struggles and trials of pushed me closer to God in a way I didn't imagine. Use this time for the opportunity that it is. God knows how difficult this is and will bless us for our efforts.

-Elder Pettingill