A Member Missionary

Hi everyone! Something that I realized I've never really said specifically how I serve in a YSA Branch! I've been here since the beginning on my mission. It's quite small- The average church attendance is around 16 people, and has dwindling Priesthood holders, because so many are leaving to school/moving. Winter is the lean season for the YSA. But it is amazing! I love the people here- they are all very unique and very much themselves.

A strange problem we have in our Area is that the Schaumburg YSA branch includes both the Schaumburg and Buffalo Grove stake, which is outside the mission. Most of our members live up there, and the less active members as well. But me and my companion are super excited, because one of the Bishopric's had lunch with some Zone Leaders in Bufflalo Grove, and they are in the process of asking their Mission President and for him to ask our President to contact us and combine our efforts in gathering all these YSA!  Also, there is something called the "1100 List". It's a list of ALL YSA's in our branch. This includes less actives and fully active members but who nest in their home wards. My whole mission so far has been seeking out these people and strengthening this branch as much as possible, all the while trying to find investigators! Member referrals are actually the best way to get a great new investigator- 2 out of 3 member referrals get baptismed. 1 out of 1000 of people that we missionaries find are baptized. This really shows the people of being a member missionary, and something that I am super passionate about. I want to share my testimony to all of you who are members how vital you are to missionary work. You are a way more powerful missionary. . An analogy that an Hermana told me and Sister Jardine that we now use and love all the time is this- Missionaries are the spiritual infrontry. We do all the grunt ground work like knocking doors, handing out Book of Mormon's. But members can be the spiritual ninjas. Yeah. You read that right. You are a spiritual ninja. You can be one by being an example, giving service, slipping a pass-along card in a library book, (I don't know about that last one, just trying to come up with more ideas) But the point is- as members you have such an impact. When a member comes with us to a lesson, a convert or not, the Spirit just blooms. Missionaries are the spiritual extreme! When an investigator talks with us it can be a lot more difficult to relate to. but with members it shows them not only that living by the standards we teach are possible, but are true.

I want to invite you all to read Elder's Oaks General Conference Talk, "Sharing The Restored Gospel". And to apply it. If you are not a member, still feel free to read it whether you're just curious or interested investigating the church. Don't ever feel like my letters are for members only! They are for you too!

I have more to say but I feel that this topic of member missionary work alone is just too important to include anymore and possibly distracting from it. I will mention our investigator Kay because all of you have been asking about him, which I love.

A few weeks ago me and Sister Jardine came with a different approach to help Kay by giving him "homework" when reading the Book of Mormon. (via insparation "The Power of Everyday Missionaries".)When we gave a paper with questions and steps on how to recieve answers he seemed very eager to use it. During the lesson he express ed questions that were really questions of the soul.
He asked: "Why do bad things happen to good people?
Does Good exist?
Is God dead? (He was tentative asking this one but was really concerned)
Is The Book of Mormon true?
What about all the other religious books?"
He asked about prayer. We brought up the point about how it's important to have real intent and not being repetitive  and he immediately applied  it to himself and even said how he believes he has been having a hard time avoiding being repetitive because of his previous practice praying with matras. He has such a strong desire to learn more, become better, and just to know the truth. He's excited to read the scripture we've given him to read and write answers to the questions provided.

We followed up on Kay's "homework" a while later. He has had it now for three weeks but says he has not found the time to do any of it. So we started his homework with him reading the introduction page of The Book of Mormon.  As usual Kay was very inquisitive which was great, but in his comments he often says "Its cool how in the mormon church....". It's almost like he's inspecting a exotic animal, but still with great respect. We all toke turns reading including Kay. Connor was very helpful in answering Kay's more random questions like how long it toke Christ to get to the Americas etc. He had a lot of great questions still though,  but again,  random. When we asked if he could give the closing prayer he asked one of us too saying how we're more of  the "experts". Sister Jardine gave a example prayer first, and then Kay did.  His prayer was different than normal which was great,  but other than that it seems like Kay has little to no progression. Because of this sadly we will no longer be teaching Kay. We will let him know he is always welcome to start investigating again if he sees baptism as a real possibility.

Transfers are coming up so my next letter might be late, but I'll try to write as soon as I can!

Love,

Sister Petty

Miracles 12/27/16-1/3/17

Happy New Year everyone!

Continuing about my Christmas, I felt very loved from friends and family from home and the lovely people here in the YSA Branch. I got packages I wasn't even expecting from my Grandma and my lovely Young Women's group! My video call home was great at the beginning- I got to briefly talk to my oldest sister who is serving a mission out in Florida before I was patched into my small remaining family of three. When she called on Skype me and my companion decided to confuse her for a second and have Sister Jardine answer the call. It was only a few seconds that it was just Sister Jardine and Sister Olivia Petty being a bit flustered. When I came into frame she started to get, uh, very emotional.  Her tenderness and loved touched me. I love her so much. I didn't talk to my other lovely sister who is serving, Sister Jane Petty, but I still received much love from her and I love her very much as well. She spent the first minute lovingly fussing over me and wondering how safe I've been. Whenever she brings up that one of her sister's serve in Chicago there is an immediate grimace. That made me laugh and I reassured her how I was perfectly safe and actually just in "Chicago Land", basically the suburbs. We laughed and told each other our successes and problems on our missions so far. When that call ended after 15 minutes and I contacted everyone back home it was great. It was welcomes and gladness but I got a bit chewed out for my lack of writing and sending photos! I love my parents and Anna, they are all so precious to me.

Me and Sister Jardine are thrilled! In the past as I've mentioned before, an investigator we have named Kay has often repeated things in lessons and is very analytical and seemed to make no progress. We were seriously considering to stop teaching him. But when we prayed about it we were told to wait and continue to pray. Out answer came from a gift Sister Jardine received for Christmas. It's an amazing book called "The Power of Everyday Missionaries." A part in it talked about an investigator very much like Kay. It said how they tried a different approach to help him grow by giving him "homework" when reading the Book of Mormon. They gave him a paper with questions and steps on how to receive answers and what to pray about. We altered it to Kay's needs and questions and when we gave it to him he seemed very eager to use it. During the lesson he expressed questions that were really questions of the soul. He asked about prayer. We brought up the point about how it's important to have real intent and not being repetitive  and he immediately applied  it to himself and even said how he believes he has been having a hard time avoiding being repetitive because of his previous practice praying with matras. He has such a strong desire to learn more, become better, and just to know the truth. He's excited to read the scripture we've given him to read and write answers to the questions provided. We've been very humbled by how we really needed to teach Kay in a way that he could learn and with the new found charity with him for the first time the Holy Spirit was really present in our lesson. We will meet with him tonight and see how this has hopefully helped him!

We also had a Christmas Eve miracle. On Christmas Eve when we tried to stop by a less-active who wasn't home. Before leaving the area I felt inspired we should knock on a certain door. A tall, burly Jamaican 19-old boy answered the door. He looked flustered, threw his head back and groaned a bit and laughed. He said "Ohh nooo. I don't go to church! Ahh. Alright, come in, come in." in his thick Jamaican accent. We were both surprised but eagerly came in. We learned his name was Terrence how amazing he really is. He's just graduated High School, and used to be a youth pastor but never was baptized in any church. He grow up learning from his Uncle who claimed himself to be a Prophet, but still what Terrence testified the truths he knew. Many where some Gospel truths. Although he was a youth pastor and was just going to be baptized in a church he didn't really fully believe in, his Uncle advised him not to, but to find the true church of God himself. He explained to us how he would go to a church, sit down, and simply pray and ask God if this was the right church. He didn't get an answer, knowing that that meant it was wrong, and moved on to the next church. After a long time doing this while growing up he stopped going altogether. He still desires so badly to be close to God.  We were blown away. He already knew how to recognize the Spirit. Sister Jardine really led the lesson very strongly with the Spirit and introduced The Book of Mormon which he eagerly took. The next time we met with him, which is a whole other story and miracle he committed to baptism and we left crying with joy for him. We are very worried for Terrence though- Satan is trying very, very hard to derail him from the right path he is heading on now and we have been fasting and praying so hard for him. 

-- 

Love, 
Sister Kate Petty

P.S Sorry for the photos being wonky! I've learned I have to send them in separate emails for others to see them next week! Also my Preparation day was today instead of Monday because we were able to go the Temple!

A Merry Christmas 12/19-27/16

12/19/16

Lately I've been receiving almost condolence like letters and I was puzzled to why. I'm aware I've been terrible with my weekly newsletters but even then I've updated my family much more frequently.

I didn't realize it was so bad until today.

I just counted up how many newsletter's and( if I counted correctly) I've sent out three. Three for the past two months I've been out, not mentioning the time I've spent in the MTC. Sorry everyone! Feel free to email me and ask for the previous three because I've also been bad at keeping track what I've sent to who.

 Anyways, thank you for all the prayers and love! I know Christmas will be great by being here and focusing on the Lord.  It will also be great with being with the Heatons on Christmas Eve. They're a funny older couple that serve in the YSA branch counsel that me and my companion spent Thanksgiving with. They gave me and my companion an amazing feast and gave us "nose cups".  When you tilt and drink from it, it gives the illusion you have a different nose, including some animal noses! They asked us as we were finishing eating if we wanted "to pick our noses" and that many Elders have in the past.They got a good reaction of horror out of me. 😅 

I swear I've become more gullible from taking everyone so sincerely out on my mission. They took pictures of me and my companion with those cups, mine giving me a tucan nose. (I'll send those later) We've been told we're doing the nativity scene in costume even with just the four of us! We'll see how that goes! 

(Here's how it went:

Christmas Day will also be great by eating dinner YSA Branch President's home. Him and his wife have been seriously phenomenal and so kind to us.  They are passionate about our small branch,  more than we are, which is quite the feat! They have even given us along with the rest of our small branch a bag of goodies a SACK of gifts. One of our favorite things we got from that were some adult coloring books.

A lot of people have been asking me for my address, not just my mission address but my actual apartment address. All packages have to be sent directly to the mission home and then they distribute it to prevent package theft and so they don't get lost. Also when addressing the package or letter don't use any nicknames or else it takes longer for them to figure it out who it goes to. ("Sister Kate Petty" is perfect). I still get letters fairly quickly and they usually foreword it to my apartment address if they don't hand it out at meetings. If you still want to send letters (and only letters) to my apartment, email me and ask for it at and I'll gladly tell you. Don't get me wrong- I LOVE letters. And because I love them so much and don't want them to get lost the mission address is the safest route. ALSO YOU PEOPLE ARE CRAZY! I CAN'T BELIEVE ALL THE LOVE I GET THROUGH THE MAIL!

Back to the present! 12/27/16

Christmas was great! I loved being out here serving the Lord and I felt so loved from everyone here and all of you back home! Sister Jardine as I mentioned before is a Christmas nut so it was so much fun to be with her enjoying this sacred time. I'll write more about that later!

A Special Note to YOU and my Pleasant Grove 9th Ward

Thank you to everyone and especially every single person in my homeward who has shown such a capacity of charity and love like the Saviors. In both small and big acts, both immeasurable in blessings. Thank you for generously taking care of my family back home in Utah, and my sisters across the states through extending your love to them through emails and mail. Thank you for donating money to cover some of the expenses of the mission to me and the two other Sister Pettys' out in the mission field. I'm astounded and at the same time not really surprised at this huge act of charity you have shown me and my family. I know this is not just an act for us, but to help progress the Lord's work. I promise you that Lord will bless you, and I promise that I am doing the best of my ability to help others receive the precious joy, peace, and love the gospel can bring not only in their lives but for all time to come.

 I know my sisters are doing the same as well. I have a testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that it is the only true church, (Read Ephesians 4:4-7) and the way to have eternal life with our Heavenly Father. Christmas is a time for family and growing close to Christ. As it says in the missionary purpose, I need to invite others to come unto Christ. I invite you. Please let yourself trust in God and you will find out his true and powerful love for you. I know I can fall into my Saviors arms and gain the ultimate sense of peace. That I will always be forgiven and loved.The same is true for you and for everyone. Keep trying. Keep moving forward. Not all answers are immediate or come in the way that we expect, but God does answer us. He loves us. God bless all of you and have a very Merry Christmas. I bear witness of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

-Sister Kate Petty

My Christmas Gift: Photos. I'll send more next time too!