March 25: Finding the spaniards

Gahhhh...sorry family for last week. I thought my email got sent....I guess
it didn't. woops. You'll be getting TWO emails then!! Oh, and I tried
sending in some pictures in the last email but I guess the files were too
big. In my last email it talks about the pictures.....sooooo I'll try to get
them to you next week. 

Well last week has been pretty tough. The work is moving kinda slow. So, as
a Spanish missionary I'm supposed to focus on teaching Spanish speaking
people. But the problem is....they are really hard to find in my area. They
are not in one little spot. They are scattered all over the place...and
there's not a lot of them. It's kind of a challenge to keep ourselves busy!
Almost every door in Ammon, Idaho has been knocked on about 500 times.
Almost everyone that we run into has talked to the missionaries before. It's
also pretty tough to learn the language because a lot of people in my area
are English speakers....so I've been teaching and talking more in English
than I have in my assigned language lol. 

But on the bright side, we recently have been focusing on the Salazar
family. The dad of the Salazar family was just recently baptized by some
previous missionaries in our area. The dad was baptized on Feb 9th...but
recently he hasn't been coming to church. We are going to their house
tonight to talk about the importance of coming to church...and at the same
time we are going to teach her daughter and the wife of the family. The
daughter and the wife haven't been baptized, but they are interested in the
missionary discussions. So hopefully that goes well tonight. Later this week
we are going to have a big church tour/ Easter egg hunt. It's going to be at
the building where our Spanish branch meets. I'm looking forward to that. It
will get a lot of investigators in our church building, and hopefully
they'll be able to feel the spirit of it. 

Well not much else has been going on. We just do LOTS of contacting through
neighborhoods. We knock on lots of doors just trying to find out where these
Spanish people are! we ask EVERYBODY we talk to if they know where some
Spanish people are. Getting referrals is the best way to finding these
people.

Well that's pretty much all that happened last week. This next week I gotta
keep my head up and get to work! See y'all next week!

Love, Elder Petitt

In the mission field!

    Hellloooo!!!! YES! I am now out in the grand state of Idaho. The
land of Potatoes!! Seriously...it is the land of potatoes. Last night I just
had a meal with a member who served us spaghetti with spaghetti/potato
sauce. Ahhhh, it feels great to be out in the field. Wow. SO! A lot has
happened. And no I didn't break or lose my glasses haha. There was a very
weird reflection in the glasses while someone was taking our picture, so I
just took them off. But just in case if I do bust or break my
glasses...could you send me my prescription??  

    The plane ride to Idaho took about 37 minutes. Shortest plane ride
ever. I tried talking to a guy on the plane, buuuut he wasn't interested in
our message of happiness. Hopefully I left a good impression on him though.
We finally landed and then we met our Mission President and his wife. They
are awesome. All the new missionaries ate dinner at his house, and then we
took a tour of Pocatello. It was nice to finally eat some other food besides
the MTC food =D. My new companion is Elder Chavarria. He speaks fluent
Spanish, which I am super grateful for!

    SO. I am serving in Ammon, Idaho. My companion and I are both
totally new to this area. The first day was pretty interesting...We found
that the area book hasn't been updated in forever...there was no list of the
leadership in the Spanish ward...we didn't know who the bishop was or
ANYTHING haha. My companion has only been out for about 5 1/2, and this is
his first time training a fresh new missionary. We do have one progressing
investigator...annnd two people with baptismal dates from the previous
Elders. We still have LOTS of work to do though. hahaha, we both don't
really know what we are doing, but it's a fun learning experience. The work
is going kinda slow, but once we get to know the members and more of the
people in the area, then the pace will start picking up. I'm just super
excited for what lies ahead in this area! The Spanish people are out
here...but they are kinda hidden. They are scattered all over the place.
We've been doing a lot of contacting...trying to get to know all of the
investigators and whatnot. 

    I really hope the gift of tongues starts kicking in because I still
can't understand anybody LOL! They talk so fast!!! I wish there was a slow
down button. But that's okay...Just gotta keep working hard. Faith + works =
Miracles. The one thing I have noticed about Idaho...is that the members
here are just super super nice. The members WORSHIP the missionaries. One
day my companion and I were walking and some random lady came out of her
house and stopped us. She told us that she was a member and she invited us
into her house. She had a bunch of people there helping her move stuff into
her new house (so yes, there were men present). Then she just asked us to
bless and dedicate her home...and she hooked us up with a free meal. It was
awesome! 

    Yesterday I was on the BYU Idaho campus. There was a huge event for
all these Spanish speakers. I got to hang out with all the other Spanish
speaking elders. It was kinda interesting being on the campus.....since all
of my friends go to BYU-I haha.
    Well, things are going well. I'm slowly learning about all the stuff
I need to do and become. I'm just really excited to be out here. Idaho
rocks. Being a Missionary rocks. Well I gotta get going...but Thank you so
much for supporting me while I'm on a mission. I love you Family! 


    OH, and I sent some pictures. As you will see in one of them....I am
setting on a throne made entirely out of cans. And there is another older
gentlemen setting on the throne of cans as well. That man is Brother
Monson...whose uncle is the Prophet of the Church. Yeah, Bro Monson is the
man. 

    To Erica: YO sister...Let me know what you are doing in your life! I
haven't heard from you in like...forever! SO send me an update on driving,
seminary, the terrible educational quality at Lebanon, and other fun stuff.
woot woot.  

MTC: Halfway

Hello Familia!   So yeah! I'm already at my half way point!  gahhh, I can't believe it. It's going by super quick. Annnnd I can't wait for Rachel Chapman to come in Today!! She's going to love this spiritual boot camp. It's great. The days last forever, but the weeks go by super fast...doesn't make any sense haha. I'm starting to get into the groove of things...I'm still way super tired every time I wake up, but you have to learn to just suck it up hahaha. It's good though. LOL Jon was right about the food... it's so good! It's hard not to stuff your face. But I haven't lost or gained any weight...so I think I'm doing pretty good =D. Oh! There's someone another district who was in the same efy as me! He's speaking Spanish and he's going to Salt Lake City for his mission!! He went to the Ohio efy back innnn 2010 i think? yeah haha way crazy.  

 

 Yesterday Craig Christense, of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke to us. He talked about prayer and how to find answers to prayers. SUPER good talk. Afterwards my district had a good discussion with Brother Monson about faith. Brother Monson is just one of the coolest guys ever...He's so smart! He can quote any scripture. I mean ANY scripture. Someday when I'm old and bald...I'm gonna be cool like him. We talked about faith...and the things that Jesus Christ did during His ministry. He went about healing the sick and the blind. We wear His names over our hearts...and when we are called on to bless people, we need to have that faith because we ARE representatives of Jesus Christ.  We have to have that faith. That's one thing I've been really focusing on this week...FAITH. I don't know if I have exercised this much faith before going into the MTC.  A scripture I keep reading is Ether 12:27. Kyle told me to read the verse before he left on his mission...and that scripture has really impacted my life since then. In the MTC I've really been learning on how to be humble and turn my weaknesses unto God. When you humble yourself, and then pray in faith...then he will turn your weaknesses into strengths. I've been letting myself go and I've been trying to let the Lord shape me into the person who he needs to be.

 

Well I gotta go but I got the package and I really appreciate it. Noth'n like more junk food to eat =D. I'm thinking about y'all and my friends back at home. Love ya!!

 

MTC: Week 3

Alright!! Week 2 done!! It's hard to believe that in just four more weeks
I'm going to be out in the mission field. I leave March 12th to go to the
grand state of Idaho! woot woot! I'm getting really nervous but really
excited. My Spanish is slowly improving...I still can't understand what's
happening half of the time, but I'm getting there! I feel bad for the people
that have to learn super duper hard languages like Japanese....makes me a
bit more grateful for Spanish haha.  I've been having more lessons with our
pretend investigators, just so we can practice teaching. I can say like 10
different words now! lol, but it's very good practice. Whenever we are in a
lesson, my companion would make me talk...i hate it, but it helps a lot.
We've been having some really spiritual experiences with our lessons too.
The best I can do is just bear my testimony in Spanish, but no matter how
bad your language is, if you have the spirit with you...then that makes all
the difference. Yesterday we had Gregory A. Schwitzer from the quorum of the
seventy talk to all the missionaries. Super good talk. He said one of the
most important things is to live a righteous life because that's what people
and investigators feel and see. They see the example of YOUR life and how
you live the Gospel....and if the people you are teaching are prepared by
the Lord to hear the gospel, then they will recognize that you are servants
of the Lord. They will see your example and want what you have. You can't
convert people unless you are converted...that really stood out to me in the
talk. 

My branch president is awesome....apparently he was super good friends with
President Eyring (not sure if I spelled his last name right). Annnnd he was
also mentored by him. I believe it because he is spiritually intense, but
way super nice. And speaking of spiritually intense stuff, we watched this
talk that was given in the MTC in December by Jeffery R. Holland. HOLY COW.
It was the most intense and powerful talk I have ever heard. I'm not sure if
you can look it up on lds.org, but it's called Missions are forever. So
yeah...this last week has been hard, but I have been learning so much. It's
great. It's such a privilege to be a part of this great work.

Ah! Rachel comes to the MTC next week! saweet! Yeah I have seen a lot of
people here at the MTC that I know. I had no idea that Jared Ware's sister
was here haha. We ran into each other and kinda freaked out. I also ran into
someone who was a DJ at the paint fight party in Utah. He plays drums too,
so we are really good friends now haha Crazy! and oh mwa goodness.....thank
you for buying the drum case set!! yeah, that's very good to have when I'm
traveling or when I'm playing shows =D I got my package full of clothes!
thanks a lot!!! haha yeah...i for sure didn't have a enough regular street
clothes. 

WElllll, that about wraps up my week. I could go on and on about what I'm
learning, but i only got 30 min to read all my emails and reply to my
familia haha. Hope all is well!! I love you guys!

Love, Elder Petitt