The One with Yeshie and The Palominos

Week 27 (Feb 21st-27th)


Things are shaking up in Pleasant Hill! We got transfer calls on Saturday, the news Sister Stevenson and I will be here together for another six weeks, but our dearest Sister Angelo in the North area will be leaving us for Palm Bay 😢 She is going to do amazing work over there, there are people who need her angelic presence more than we. She's been doing much better, although she's sad to leave the ward she's been serving in for the first 7 months of her mission(!). Sister Lamborn will be staying and receiving a brand new baby missionary to train! Even though things in my area aren't changing, missionary work here won't be the same.

Things are looking up in Poinciana! Sister Stevenson and I have had the best week we've had in a while. It wasn't without its moments, but there were far more good times, and when they happened they lasted. Thursday night had one of the best times of not just the week, but the transfer. That's the night we met Yeshie.

Yeshie is a senior in high school that is so ready and so eager to learn. Sister Stevenson had actually met her once before, but hadn't followed up since. I had been putting her name in our schedule for a few weeks, but we ended up never having time. Until Thursday, when we knocked on her door and asked if she would be interested in learning more. She said yeah, go. As in, go ahead, teach me now. Sister Stevenson and I were caught off guard for a moment, and then we taught her the Restoration. She was so interested, she asked if she could have a copy of the Book of Mormon! When we went back on Friday night she asked if it was okay if she could call us her sisters ☺️💕

We also had dinner at Bishop Palomino's house this week, which was a riot. The four Palomino kids span from ages 1-8 and they are truly the gems of Pleasant Hill. Sometimes during Sacrament meeting, Clarissa, the youngest, will wander to her father on the stand and get up into his lap. Once she looked to the congregation and said loudly "Hi Mom!" before Bishop had the chance to cover her mouth.

After dinner on Thursday Sister Palomino told us that Vanessa, 4 years old, had told her recently that she wanted to drink alcohol. When we asked Vanessa why she said, "because I've never had wine before!"
I told her, "You don't want to drink wine. Do you know who drinks wine?" when she asked who, I replied "Satan. Satan drinks wine." She grew wide eyed and ran off while Sister Palomino just about died laughing.

Later when Sister Stevenson pointed out that Jesus drank wine, I told her it was a good thing that Vanessa didn't bring that up otherwise I would have had to whip out D&C 89 and then I'd be Bible bashing with a four year old.

Be wise,

-Sister Olivia Petty🍷

Cutting brownies at Give Kids the World with the Spanish Elders and the Zone Leaders 2.22.17

Pleasant Hill North & South 2.26.17

The One with the Poinciana Plague

Week 26 (Feb 14th-20th)

All four Pleasant Hill Sister Missionaries are alive and accounted for. It's been a bumpy ride this week, but with faith and lots of prayers and blessings, Sister Stevenson, Sister Angelo, Sister Lamborn and I made it. We're all pretty worn out but we have had great support. On Thursday Sister Angelo was hospitalized after collapsing, and was back in on Friday but she's doing alright and being taken care of.

Aside from that unfortunately both she and Sister Stevenson are suffering from the Poinciana Plague which is a nasty cold virus around here that I've never seen before. It's brutal. Sister Lamborn and I have been teaming up often and all four of us have been helping each other out. We are a super quad.

On Saturday night we went to our favorite members house and all of us received blessings. I'm so grateful for the power of the priesthood.

Even though it was a slow teaching week for aforementioned reasons, Sister Stevenson and I were blessed by an investigator of solid gold who is beyond prepared for the Gospel. Her name is Kerryann and she was an online Bible & Book of Mormon referral. So when we set up a time to go see her we got to know her a little bit and she told us that she's been to our church a few times before where she is from in Jamaica and has had a few lessons with missionaries before, but not much. She said that the feeling that she has when she is in our church is unlike any other she has ever had. She wants to be baptized! We are overjoyed! We'll be seeing her again this week and talking to her more about what she needs to do to prepare and then hopefully we can put her on date!

After the end of a tough night, Sister Stevenson and I were just about to end the day feeling miserable but then there was a tender mercy on our back window. A small frog. We then spent about a half hour catching and re-catching this poor traumatized creature. It was cute and sticky and could scale walls but it couldn't evade us. We realized after we went back inside how much better we felt after such a small and simple thing and we were grateful that Heavenly Father loves us enough to send a small, sticky frog.

Our sweet district leader Elder Bone heard that we were having a tough time and he surprised us with Ben and jerrys ice cream! Everyone is so nice and even when things are hard I never feel alone or abandoned. God has helped us and has made sure we are cared for.

Thank you for the love & prayers, keep sending them,

-Sister Olivia Petty🍧

Sister Stevenson and I treating ourselves after a good lesson 2.16.17

Me in front of "Ol' Elmer" at Give Kids the World 2.15.17

Me with a green dog 2.18.17

The One with Master Jedi

Week 24 (Jan 31st- Feb 6th) & Week 25 (Feb 7th-13th)



Good times and bad, ups and downs were to be had the past two weeks in Poinciana. Still we carry on. Nevertheless, thank you for any & all prayers on our behalf, because we did have some very inspired progress.

It was late on a Tuesday night and Sister Stevenson and I had just finished teaching a less active member; and we had about 20 minutes to spare before it was time to head home. While we were trying to decide what should be done I had a seemingly obvious idea to pray about it. After we closed we both felt that we should knock on the third floor of the apartment building (there was no fourth floor, otherwise I'm sure it would have been that). Behind the first door we knocked was Julie, young mother who just moved in two months ago. We had an awesome conversation and talked a little bit about the restoration and prayed with her and her two little sons. Afterward we were both just elated. Neither of us have ever really felt strongly or specifically led by the Spirit like that on our missions thus far, and for both of us to at the same time and have the same answer was so amazing. We felt so good that on our way home we stopped by Don Pepe's for the best horchata there is to treat ourselves.

Last week we had exchanges and I got to try my hand at leading out the area with Sister Reid! A lot of our appointments fell through but we were able to finally meet with one of our most solid investigators, Agnes. She's also a young mother of two tweens and she hails from Puerto Rico (as do a majority of the people around here) and has the cutest accent and the most dazzling green eyes. Unfortunately, it was my first time meeting her and so here she was expecting to see Sister Stevenson and Sister Lamborn, and out of the car come two blondes and she was a little confused at first; but it ended up working out great. We had an awesome lesson and she agreed to be baptized once she knows it's true. We're overjoyed for her! She's so funny, before we left she said, "You guys are bringing me to the light side, you're like master jedi and I'm like your paddowan."

We also had Zone Conference last week and it was a good time. It was a little unusual at first now that I'm in a different cluster of zones, there were a lot of new faces. However there were a few familiar ones as well! I got to see Sister Phelps AND Sister Padgett! I was so so happy to see them both. Sister Phelps is still a stellar sister training leader in Olympia and Sister Padgett is training! That blows my mind; I can't really imagine training at this point of my mission, but if anyone can do it Sister Padgett can.

Remember when I said one of my very favorite things about Florida is the little lizards? Well I finally managed to catch one! It only took me 5 months. Those guys are speedy. One was stuck between my window and the mesh screen, so we helped get him out. I only got to hold him in my hands for a few seconds once we got outside, but it was so worth it.

Sister Stevenson and I have been learning and growing a lot the last two weeks and unfortunately that is rarely comfortable, but most always a blessing. I have small realizations everyday of reasons why I had to wait two years before I was ready to serve my mission, and why I am here now. The first being the people, missionary, member, or non member, a lot of which I would never have had the opportunity to meet and serve around if I had gone on my mission when I originally intended. I've been reminded of 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. As President Utchdorf said: "Consider the experience of Paul, who pleaded with the Lord multiple times for relief from a personal trial--what he called “a thorn in the flesh.” But that was not God’s will. Eventually, Paul realized that his trial was a blessing, and he thanked God for not answering his prayers the way he had hoped."

I know that God hears each and every one of our prayers, and that He cherishes our words to Him and that He takes our pleas into His heart. I also know that Heavenly Father knows more than I do; everything, in fact. So I have learned time and time again to put my trust in Him and in His plan for me and those around me, because He truly knows best and He will not forget me. He will never forget us.

I also know that I am doing the Lord's work and that this message Sister Stevenson and I bring to all those around us is true: Christ is our Savior and He lives! And His gospel that He established while He was here has been restored and is on the earth today! How amazing is that?


Keep on keeping on,

-Sister Olivia Petty 🦎

Sister Stevenson, Sister Angelo, and Sister Lamborn looking studious as they write their emails home 2.13.17

Me with the lizard 2.13.17

Sister Phelps and I, Sister Padgett and I at Zone Conference! 1.31.17

The One with a Nasty One and Extra Crispy Fries

Week 23 (Jan 24th-30th)


History was made and there was a cheer heard round the world Wednesday when it was announced that Missionaries would now have two additional hours of free time on Preparation Day! This doesn't necessarily mean I'll get more done, although that was the hope, but it does mean that I get a longer nap each Monday 😌
The worldwide missionary broadcast was absolutely stellar, however I did find it hard to focus during the first half because I knew there were big announcements coming during the second. All of us Florida Orlando missionaries are pretty stoked about the day to day schedule changes that have been made; as it provides much more flexibility and truthfully, reflects a lot of what we were already actually doing. We're excited to use our time productively and get more done with the Lord's time.

Last Monday I finally got to use one of my amazing Christmas gifts (thanks family), at a family home evening we were invited to. We played bean boozled. The game with the disgusting jelly belly's? yeah, that one. We were teaching an 8 year old who is preparing for baptism, Leah, and we thought she'd love it and she did. Many theatric reactions were had. After she had had two bad ones, Leah was apprehensive about spinning the wheel again. It was then that I told her that she had two options: She could spin the wheel and take her chances, or she could ask me for a good one. We then said that sometimes the adversary tricks us into thinking something might be good, but that we can receive guidance when we pray and ask Heavenly Father. We shared 3 Nephi 18: 15, 20-21 and challenged them to have family prayer every day. It was a priceless lesson. ...I just don't know how we're going to follow it up this week.

Friday was insane even though we didn't teach anyone. It started with our weekly community service at the Give Kids the World Village, which is very cool by the way. It's apart of the Make A Wish program, and Wish children that choose to go to Disney World stay there during their visit. And it's like a mini park on its own. Look it up. It's magical. And I get to serve there weekly. It's almost as awesome as my service in my last area; hat looming with sweet old ladies.
The only thing I don't like about it is the television we are subjected to in the break room we go to for lunch. It can't be muted or turned off and I realized that I have absolutely adored being off the grid and tuned out from the news. So we do our very best to ignore it but occasionally we overhear things. However there was a story that we found amusing. Apparently there was some fast food employees in Orlando that were selling pot through the drive thru window when people rolled up and ordered "a nasty one with extra crispy fries". Florida is a fun place.

Later we got a ride to Belleview for Chloe's baptism! What a magnificent blessing! Huge shout out to the Fronk's for driving us. I was so touched to be apart of it and be there to see her enter the waters of baptism. It was definitely an experience that I will treasure. Her face when she saw me completely melted my heart. I was so overjoyed to see everyone again! I miss it there so much. Correction: I miss them all so much. It was amazing!

Then on our way home, Brother Fronk got a call that a member in our ward, Brother Mejia, got into a car accident, and so we stopped by the hospital so he could assist in giving him a blessing. We got in way after curfew, but we were so glad to be there to help Sister Mejia and play with her 2 year old daughter. Brother Mejia is doing much better than he should be for how serious the collision was. No broken bones or blood vessels, but he is concussed. Pray for their cute family, we love them so much. They fed us dinner last Sunday, and it was a great time. They are in the North Sisters area, but we're going to be praying for them and looking for opportunities to serve them.

Speaking of the North Sisters, they are the best. Sister Lamborn and Sister Angelo are a riot and we roll with them frequently. Sister Lamborn was actually Sister Stevenson's trainer & last companion; so she moved up an area, in the same ward. That almost never happens. But it's been a tender mercy for Sister Stevenson especially. I love having another set of Sisters in the ward, it's a great time.

All is well in Poinciana, slow going with very few lessons, but well. Include us in your prayers this week as we try to knuckle down and get some solid investigators.

Tune in next week,

-Sister Olivia Petty 🍟

Sister Stevenson, myself, Sister Lamborn and Sister Angelo at the Wetherbee Chapel after the Missionary Broadcast on 1.25.17

Sister Lamborn and I 1.25.17

At Chloe's baptism with Sister Carter and her new companion, Sister Knapp, Amy and the girls 1.27.17