The One with a Trio

Week 39 (May 16th-22nd) & Week 40 (May 23rd-29th)


The call was received while Sister McCullough and I were jumping a car. I would remain in Lake Crescent while Sister McCullough was northbound for Bunnell, to be nestled between Daytona and St. Augustine. If it were any other setting, we probably would have cried. She and I had hoped we could have one more transfer here together. We made a really good team. Wether it was jump starting a less active members car or bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon, we would dive right in and get to work. I am so grateful for the time Heavenly Father gave me to be her companion, she is truly one of the best.

In fact, Sister McCullough was so good that they had to send two new sisters to replace her. That's right. Two. I am now in a trio with Sister Evans and Sister Hill! They have both been out on their missions for about 14 months; they were actually MTC companions! Sister Hill hails from Farmington, Utah and Sister Evans is from a tiny little town called Brownsville, Oregon. So far it's been a riot.

The first day we were all together we had dinner at a members home. When we pulled up it started pouring rain, and so we made a mad dash for the door. To prepare herself, Sister Evans took off her glasses so they wouldn't get soaked. When we ran up the driveway there was a lake-like puddle, and in order to avoid it we had to scrape by the bushes. After we got in the house, Sister Evans said the bush must have had some thorns because her skin was super agitated. It stopped raining and when we went back out to look at the bush we realized there was a cactus in front of it. Sister Evans is as blind as a bat without her glasses.

The next day we were out knocking doors and this uninterested lady was super nice and told us that there was this lemon on her tree that was just perfect for picking and that we could take it on our way out. So we go to check it out and there is this GARGANTUAN LEMON the size of a softball hanging off this tiny tree! All the other fruit on the tree was small and green and randomly this one lemon is yellow and tumorous. When they give you lemons, I guess.

We have a new investigator named Matt who studied with a few church members a couple years ago and he is so awesome. He's very prepared at this time in his life to receive the gospel in its fullness. His job currently prevents him from coming to church, but he's trying to work it out with a manager. He always has the best most insightful questions and he is willing to pray and study to find answers between our visits. We are super excited to continue teaching him.

I don't have a lot of mental energy to write today, it's been a tiring week. But hopefully a surplus of photos makes up for it.

Go forth and do good,

-Sister Olivia Petty 🍋

Sister McCullough and I grabbing a drink after service 5.16.17

Bowling for P-day 5.22.17

Sister Hill, Sister Evans and I at Jeremiah's 5.24.17

Us with the GARGANTUAN LEMON 5.25.17

Sister Evans and I with Mailee 5.27.17

Sister Evans and I with Mailee 5.27.17

Us at the Athay's 5.27.17

The One with Chalking

Week 38 (May 9th-15th)


The teaching pool here in Lake Crescent is dwindling rapidly. Sister McCullough and I have next to no one to teach so we spend most of our days desperately knocking doors. We've had to get creative. So this week we got a hold of some chalk and went to the park and found a nice shady spot and got to work. We drew the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalk and left a pamphlet on the nearby bench with our information. Gotta find more ways to spread the word! On an unrelated note, if anyone has any stories or ideas for finding those to teach, I'm very open to suggestions.

Later in the week the miniature drought here in Florida found some relief with a healthy downpour. It was also a day that Sister McCullough and I were on foot. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we trekked through the monsoon. A small lake began to form in my shoes as we walked. I had previously washed my shoes a few weeks before with some dish soap that I thought I had rinsed out completely. What I didn't know was that the soap had seeped deeper into the sole than I originally thought. So every step I took   suds overflowed out of my shoes. At least my feet and shoes were clean when we got home.

The week was pretty rough, faced with an unusual amount of rejection and unexpected turns. Speaking of, the woman we were teaching that moved her baptism date up two weeks, Le Thanh, will no longer be baptized on that date or perhaps at all. I don't have more details available on that at this time, but please keep her in your prayers. Add us in there too, please.

A definite highlight of the week was calling and talking to my beautiful family on Mothers Day! I even got to talk to both of my missionary sisters, Kate and Jane! That was definitely a treat that I was not expecting and am grateful for. I love my family and am so thankful for their love and support. I am especially grateful for my sweet Mother and her example to me. Without her, I wouldn't have known that I could grow up to be a Sister Missionary, just like her. She has the most powerful and unwavering testimony that remains rock solid through any and all trials and tribulations that have come her way, which have not been few. She has truly built her foundation on Christ, as Helaman admonished his sons to do in Helaman 5:12;

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Honor your mothers,

-Sister Olivia Petty 🌂

Part of our Plan of Salvation chalk art 5.12.17

Us with some of our youth 5.10.17

Even when it gets hard 5.11.17

Look up and drink! 5.13.17

A fat toad 5.11.17

The One with Ice Cream

Week 37 (May 2nd-8th)


This week opened with a throwback to Belleview feat. my beloved first companion and trainer, Sister Phelps. She is now my Sister Training Leader and we got to go on exchanges and spend the day in her new area together and it was splendid! Mostly because I was with her again; we didn't find much success and got lost several times, just like old times! We started the day in the hot, humid warehouse of a small community donation center sorting through boxes of miscellaneous donations to see what was decent enough to sell in the adjoining thrift store.

If you have ever gone to D.I. or goodwill and thought "Wow, who would donate this and why?" just think, that was the stuff the employees/volunteers deemed sellable. Imagine all the stuff that didn't make it to the shelves and you will have a newfound appreciation for the blessed individuals that are tasked to go through what is essentially donated boxes of trash. Granted, as there almost always is when thrifting, there were a few genuine finds. I felt like a steampunk archeologist.

The exchange ended with dinner at a small british woman's equally petite apartment. She was a riot. Sister Phelps and I thoroughly enjoyed being together again, it was a day very well spent.

While I was gone Sister McCullough stayed here in Lake Crescent with our other STL, Sister Larsen. They met with Le Thanh and went over a calendar timeline for her baptism. While they were looking at it, Le Thanh asks, "Can I move my date up?" The Sisters were so shocked and they said something like "Okay! When do you want it?!" She answered "Either the 20th or the 27th (of May)." The Sisters said that we'd pray about it and then she folded her arms and bowed her head and waited for them right then and there. After the prayer, she looked at the calendar and said definitively, "The 20th." SHE MOVED HER OWN BAPTISM DATE UP TWO WEEKS! Sister McCullough and I are overjoyed! We're so excited for Le Thanh, she is so prepared.

Sister McCullough and I were asked to give a training on companionship unity during our weekly district meeting. Thanks to prayerful preparation, it was a smashing success. Afterward we went to the local burger restaurant and met up with a senior missionary couple, Elder & Sister Corder, who are currently serving in Daytona. They were in Orlando for the monthly senior missionary temple trip and they decided to treat us to ice cream. I love them. I love everyone and anyone who treats me to ice cream.

Speaking of, members are so nice to missionaries. We went to a food truck night taking place next to our apartment building, there were vendors and live music (if you are from Pleasant Grove, it's pretty much the Promenade) and so we decided to have a look around and introduce ourselves to people. As we were doing so, a young mother approached us and said she was a member in the ward next to ours and she offered to buy us food from any one of the trucks. We were so surprised and grateful!

Someone asked us once if we can tell if someone is a member of the church. I immediately told them yes, and they asked how and I said that members come up to you no matter where you are and are overjoyed and start geeking out because you're a missionary. It's so nice. Members treat missionaries so well, primary children look to us like super heroes and mothers treat us like their own. I'm so humbled to be so loved by faithful saints who love the Lord and His work as much as I do.

We try to pay it forward and serve our members as well. On Wednesday it was our recent convert Heather's Birthday and so we brought her a cake with candles and had party hats and bubbles in tow. It meant so much to her and we were so happy to celebrate with her!


Remember to take your vitamins,

-Sister Olivia Petty🍦

Jeremiah's courtesy of Elder & Sister Corder 5.4.17

Heather, her husband Jason, myself and Sister McCullough on Heathers birthday 5.3.17

A normal Florida thing 5.4.17

Us at a Members home for dinner 5.5.17

The One with The Turtle and Baskin Robbins

Week 36 (Apr 25th- May 1st)


One of my all time favorite things about serving in Florida is the wildlife. From the tiniest tadpoles to the sandhill cranes that are taller than me, the sunshine state has all creatures of our God and King. The entirety of my mission thus far my main goal (aside from teaching repentance and baptizing converts) has been to see at least one alligator. I have had so many near misses, and have been bitterly disappointed; but on Thursday I finally saw one.

We were biking home from a dinner appointment and while passing one of the ponds I noticed in the distance a V line behind a floating object in the water. I stopped and dismounted. "IS THAT AN ALLIGATOR?!" I called after Sister McCullough. She stopped a few hundred feet ahead and looked where I was pointing. We paused and watched. The floating object was definitely moving. "You bet it is!" She called back. Then we just sat there and watched it for a few minutes. Nothing really happened next, it was kind of anticlimactic. I was hoping it would go ashore so I could take a photo but alas. the ride continued.

We then turned a corner and there on the curbside sat a perfectly majestic turtle. I got so excited I crashed my bicycle. After I had desperately scrambled out from under my bike, I rushed to the curb and admired in awe this shelled wonder. I had my companion take a photograph to commemorate the moment. Turtles are much cooler than alligators, obviously.

I've had so many stories to tell since my arrival in the Lake Crescent Ward that I haven't  had the chance to actually talk about the work. Apparently it's much slower than usual for this area, but that's what we're here to fix. One of our investigators that we were working closely with, Hector, was on date in June shortly after he graduated high school. He's quite the character and has been a unique challenge to work with. Teenagers, am I right? We thought we finally had a major breakthrough with him last week when he finally kept his commitments; but then a few days later he texted us and said he was feeling unsure wether or not he was ready to commit and wanted to take a break from the lessons for a while. Getting dumped wasn't something I thought I'd have to worry about at this point of my life but here we are. Keep him in your prayers, he'll come around.

We are teaching the sweetest lady, and she is preparing for baptism in June! Her name is Le Thanh (Lay-thawn). She was born in Vietnam but she grew up in Germany and so her accent is pretty neat. She has the most tender testimony of the Gospel and missionary work. She came to Sacrament meeting yesterday and to a baptism later in the evening! It was great for her to be there to see what it was going to be like and feel the Spirit. It helped us gauge what else we need to do to help her be ready.

It's getting warmer and I have no human idea how I'm supposed to survive the summer. We're going to have to be put back on full car or I'm going to have to go coastal because I don't think I can ride up and down Tiny Road all summer with thE ONLY HILLS IN FLORIDA. I've been bathing in sunscreen so I haven't had any bad burns yet, but I did develop an awesome watch burn line. Most sisters have a watch tan line, but since I don't tan this is the closest I'll get. I'm kind of excited about it.

My poor sweet companion Sister McCullough has been through the ringer the past two weeks. Remember last week when she threw up in some guys yard? This week after all the missionaries in our zone did our weekly community service at Second Harvest in Orlando, we all went to Baskin-Robbins for some ice cream before we got back to work. No one is quite sure how it happened, but I guess Sister Allison had set her chocolate shake on the ground for a second and then as Sister McCullough went to sit in her chair, it somehow fell over on top of the shake. So there was this crash and I look over and my companion is dazed on the floor drenched in ice cream. For reasons unknown there was a spare skirt in the trunk of the car that fit her so after Sister Stubbs helped her clean up everything was good as new. Blessings.

Work hard and be nice to people,

-Sister Olivia Petty 🐢

TURTLE 4.27.17

Service at Second Harvest with Elder Creer, Elder Bigler, and Sister Stubbs 4.26.17

Car share squad after temple service 4.26.17

Collapsing from exhaustion after Zone Conference 4.25.17

The One with Vomit and The Sting

Week 35 (Apr 18th-24th)


Temple grounds are lovely, no matter where you are. Sometimes that's because where there's a temple there are missionaries who are never very far. Such is the case with the Orlando Florida temple, nestled in the middle of the Florida Orlando Mission. I am blessed to now be in an area where not only do I get to see the temple often, but get to do temple service every other week. At temple service we help the grounds keeper for a few hours doing various jobs around the grounds. On Tuesday we raked and bagged leaves along the perimeter hedges. I would disappear into the bush like a fairy tale elf and stay between the hedge and the fence most of the time. It was kind of magical.

There was one point where the roll of trash bags we were using fell into someone else's yard through the gate part of the fence. Looking down, it didn't seem far; so I climbed the gate and jumped into the yard to retrieve the bags. Looking up, it seemed farther than it did before. The cement wall below the metal frame gate part of the fence was about 5 feet, and I'm about 5"3. I tried valiantly but with no avail to hoist myself up and climb out. I attracted the attention of many of my fellow missionaries, and finally Sister Parish (4"11) hopped down and helped me out. She is much more fit than I am. As I sit typing this she is playing basketball with other missionaries. Bless Sister Parish.

Unfortunately that wasn't the most exciting thing that happened during those two hours; I also earned my first wasp sting. One of the Elders was poking me with a rake through the hedge (in good humor), and when I went to grab it I felt a sharp pain in my finger. At first it felt like a needle prick. Then it felt like the needle was being driven into my skin and when I snapped my hand back I caught the glimpse of a wasp hanging off of my work glove. I resurfaced from the hedge very audibly exclaiming, "ow, ow, OW!" I got some ice and ibuprofen and all was made well. Good to know I'm not deathly allergic to stings 👍🏻

It was just a week of adventure. On Thursday we were walking from our dinner appointment to a less active members home and Sister McCullough says, "Oh Sister, I do not feel good at all, I feel like I'm going to hurl." I reassured her we were almost to our destination and we could use the bathroom there. A few minutes later she leans over and vomits in someone's yard. It was great.
(We had our less active drive us home, she felt better later in the evening, don't worry.)

We caught a break later in the week on Saturday when we were invited to a graduation party barbecue at a sweet less active Sisters home. We've been over there a lot recently because she wants to be active again, and we are happy to help. and it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that her house is a mansion in a gated area with homes of major league sports players and is absolutely breathtaking. Not one bit. The party ended up being a small get together, which we were not expecting. It was so nice of her to invite us among a few close family and friends. The member we had with us brought her kids to play with the less actives kids and it went so well. The kids and the moms were really hitting it off and chatting for a while, it gave us the chance to sit down and breathe for a second. by the pool. what.

Missions are crazy and don't make sense and day to day I'm caught in situations where I frequently ask myself, "How did I get here?" and I love it. I would say I love every minute; but there are some minutes where it gets real humid and my bike seat is exceedingly uncomfortable or something or someone falls through. I don't love those minutes, but I'm grateful for them. I'm grateful for every minute of my missionary service. I'm grateful for the sacred charge I hold to spread the gospel to all the world, and for my part of the world to be here in Windermere/Winter Garden. I encourage each of you to reflect on the tender mercies and blessings that Heavenly Father has blessed you with, and like Moroni exhorts "that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts."


Be good and watch for cyclists,

-Sister Olivia Petty🐝

Myself, the Lake Reams Sisters we car share with (Stubbs & Allison), and Sister McCullough after temple service (note bandaged wasp sting and not so swollen hand) 4.18.17

Dinner with the Holley's 4.19.17

Relaxing poolside 4.22.17