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
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!
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