Hello! 5/29/17
A lot of miracles have been happpening! I wonder if you anyone of you think missionary's use that term to loosely, but the truth is I think people need to use it more- there's a lot of simple miracles in our everyday lives. This month of May our ward has been doing something called a ward fast. A family in the ward will fast for missionary work in this area for a day and at the end of the day they invite us or the Spanish Elders who we share the ward with to break the fast with them by eating dinner and we'll teach them a lesson. It's been a perfect way to get to know the people in this ward and it's brought a lot of blessings. I was lucky to give a talk on Sunday about missionary work. I count all of your prayers too.
Last week We did a surprise visit to an investigator, Arturo whose been hard to contact. He's actually around our age and was really close to baptism in the past but missionaries lost contact with him and we where able to find him. We went there to see if he was even interested anymore but we found out he was taking a some time trying to get his girlfriend, Arriell to warm up to us teaching her too! Arriell doesn't have any religous background so this is a whole new thing for her. She is so sweet and curious. It was amazing and the Spirit was there as we shared our tesimonies as Arriell asked some pretty bold questions that even surprised her that she said. A few days later Arriell was willing to meet with us again on her own because Arturo was at work and it was so great. She really opened up to us which was another miracle because she has bit of social anxiety. I feel connected with her in
a way with her questions and just love her for who she is. They've been gone on a trip for a week so all of this has been on pause but me and Sister Winkelman are so excited and feel so blessed.
Another miracle is Alicia. She was a former investigator, again around our age with three cute kids and a significant other. She met with the last sisters in the area quite a but hadn't come to church. When we went over she was so happy. She has a ton of faith and is such a tough women whose been through a lot. We set up an appointment but she wasn't home when we went. We came the next day and she apologized a ton and explained everything that's been happening. We just sat and listened to her for a good hour. Her youngest Thomas went to the ER last night because of a temperature and all these other crazy things. She shared though how she is ready to make this an important part of her life, and how what she knows about the gospel is almost too simple, too good to be true. She says she has always felt a part missing from her and that she is always drawn back to the gospel when she ever stops seeking it, how others teachings from her past church felt wrong, and how there were only small pieces of truth. We shared about the apostasy and how this gospel is full. We asked for an example of what was something she didn't feel was right about her previous church. She shared how it just feels wrong how they taught that if babies weren't baptized they'd be dammed. We shared some scriptures from Moroni 8 saying how that is false and she agreed strongly. As we talked about faith we shared Alma 32:34 and how it's like a seed. We shared how much God is aware of her right now. She teared up and said she felt how that was written just for her. She toke Thomas's temperature which was getting worse. We than asked what she knew about priesthood blessings and she accepted the idea of the Elders coming over and giving him a blessing. She and one of daughters also got one at her request. They were simple and beautiful. Alicia committed herself to come to church that sunday AND SHE CAME. It. Was. FANTASTIC.
Last week went got some decent tornado warnings one night. It's basically been raining here for two weeks straight with only three sunny days scattered. We arragned a back-up plan for saftey but mostly me and Sister Winkelman had fun watching the lightning light up the sky. A TON of trees got knocked down because of the winds although no tornado touched down.
On Monday evening when we studied a chapter in The Book Mormon with our recent convert, Judy, about the tree of life she made some amazing connections and comments that were simply just straight up personal revelation. We freaked out and congrataluated her which surprised her. She told us she thought that revelation had to be something like a dream or seeing angels. We excitedly explained how it can be simply learning and understanding truths of the gospel with the Holy Spirit, and that's the beauty of it; ANYONE can recieve personal revelation which helps them stay spirtiualy self-reliant. This blew her away and we kind of all just celebrated together. It might seen simple but it's moments like these when the Spirit is strong and you witness with your own eyes the amazing growth someone has that you really feel like a missionary. The first picture is us with Judy; Sister Winkelman's parents sent Judy a gift.
On Tuesday we had some car troubles. We went in the shop to replace our windshelid wipers which went quite smoothly and right on time for the daily storm. Later that night though as me and Sister Winkelman pulled up by the curb in our car I immdieately heard our front right tire starting to hiss at a crazy fast rate. We found a broken glass bottle and that a shard punctured it. There was one in our back tire but luckliy it didn't do any damage and we were in a good part of town.We tried to limp it to a shop a half hour away before closing hours and pulled over twice to fill it with air but to no avail. We ended up calling a Brother in our ward who came quickly and graciously showed us how to change a flat. (MTC training should include that!) It was actually a lot easier than I thought!
We brought the car in the shop the next morning with out donut wheel and they fixed everything up but found something else wrong with the car in the process. The next day we ended up in the shop for four hours waiting. It's still acting up, BUT we get a brand new car soon anyways because this car has gotten old enough to sell soon- a lot of the mission cars are being replaced right now because once they hit a certain milage the church re-sales it and gets new cars. We're just at the tail end of it.
Yesterday we helped a family move in from Florida who aren't members but has had a little contact with the church, the Palmers. They are great and the husband is a chiropractor and realigned our spines for free afterwards, which was super nice. We hope they become more interested and we can teach them!
We enjoyed a small town parade this morning with the Woods who are a family of recent converts close to their year mark who are fabulous.
I. Think that's it. Wow. Did I get everything? Meh. I'm doing a second email with just photos. Have a great week everyone and have charity and love for others!
- Sister Kate Petty
(The middle ones is the same day before we got a tornado warning that night and the weather changing within five minutes).
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