The One with Biking & Repenting

Week 61 (Oct 16th- 23rd 2017) & Week 62 (Oct 24th-30th 2017)

Calling others to repentance is the joy and duty of every missionary. Lesser known is that as often as we invite others to come unto Christ and repent, we are called to repentance too. The past few weeks I’ve been called to repent several times, and I absolutely love it. What an amazing blessing it is to recognize how we can be better and then repent and improve! The first I wish to detail in this epistle is while with our Sister Training Leaders last Tuesday.

I don’t know if you recall how occasionally in our mission we blitz. It’s basically exchanges, but instead both STLs go to the other sisters area and switch companions. Sister Staten (from my MTC squad) and Sister Sorensen came up from Lake Nona and spent the night here with us in Winter Garden and we started the day bright and early as per usual. The first half of the day I was with Sister Staten on bicycles and it was our quest to find the prepared. Herein is where the call comes.

While riding to an apartment complex we had planned to go to find and follow up on some people, I was leading the way with Sister Staten behind me. When we passed the first bus stop there was a scruffy young man that I flew past, but when I checked behind me a few seconds later I saw Sister Staten stopped and chatting with him. Call to repentance: talk to everyone.

We introduced ourselves and he asked if we were mormons, and we were surprised and said yes. Most people don’t know who we are right at the get go. We asked how he knew and he said, “I can feel it.” His name was Jonathanial, and he told us he was a prophet. Oh boy. After answering some of his questions about our beliefs, he was pleased to know that we agreed on several things. We gave him our card but the bus rolled up before we could get his number. Right before he got in the bus he shook my hand and cryptically told me that in the next few days I would be having dreams, and to stay strong in what I believe in and left. So I’ll keep you updated on if I have any trippy dreams or if he ever calls us.
(Side note: as members of the church we believe that there is only one living prophet that has the authority to direct God’s work on the earth, which is currently Thomas S. Monson. so that means we believe that the guy we contacted is not the prophet)

At lunch we met back at our apartment and switched and I was with Sister Sorensen for the rest of the day until dinner. And we had the car. Which was lovely. We also went about finding and talking to people. We all met back up at a Members house for dinner at the end of the day and it was grand. Blitzing is a good time.

I got to have an interview with our mission president, President Clark, this week. He asked me how I liked the area and I just absolutely gushed at how wonderful the people are, how amazing the Ward is and how missionary minded they are and how they help us out so much and he joked, “Well there’s your problem, it looks like we gotta get you out of there because you’re having too good of a time!” so that was basically the death sentence of my time here in Winter Garden. (Speaking of, transfers are next week so I’ll find out this Saturday what’s happening so stay tuned)

But I told President how I was having a hard time with dealing with the fact that my mission will be ending sooner rather than later, and he gave me some good counsel. I also shared with him something that I found in my personal study. I read President Utchdorf’s talk from October 2012 called “Of Regrets and Resolutions”. It’s about living a fulfilling life, but when I read it and applied it to my mission life, it was pretty impactful. Especially the following quote:
“Doesn’t it seem foolish to spoil sweet and joyful experiences because we are constantly anticipating the moment when they will end?”

Last Sunday we had the best Sunday of the year, Primary Program! There were so many people there! We had 5 Investigators! Gladys, Brandon and Jossette and two of their kids! It was fantastic. This week we didn’t have any Investigators make it there, but we did have Sister McEntire come! I think I mentioned her when I first came here, she’s a sweet elderly lady who hasn’t been able to come to church in 6 years due to her health. But after a weekend teeming of Ward member service helping her move from her trailer to another one in her park, she got the courage and the fellowship to get her there! It was fantastic.

Cool thing: anyone familiar with Sione Kelepi? Popular dancer on the internet and featured in the All About that Bass music video? Yeah, he’s in the singles ward in the stake I serve in. I’ve gotten to see him a couple of times, but this weekend we went down for a Baptism and I finally got to have a full on 15 min conversation with him afterward. So we’re basically besties now.

This Saturday is my birthday, and funnily enough my companion Sister Bullard and I have the same birthday! I’ll be tributing t-swift turning 22 and she’ll hit the double decade and be 20. Double party! We’ve got breakfast/brunch, lunchtime cake, and dinner already scheduled with some of our favorite members. So we’re all set. I hope you all get the chance to party this week as well.

-Sister Olivia Petty🙏🏻

Myself and Sister Staten while blitzing 10.17.17

Me and Sione 10.29.17

just a bunch of missionaries 10.14.17

The One with Paper & Pavement

Week 59 (Oct 3rd-9th 2017) and Week 60 (Oct 10th-16th 2017)

Ever since the recent hurricanes our opportunities for service have been booming. The past two weeks we and missionaries from several different zones got to assemble in a convention center in Orlando and unite to help put together meal boxes being sent to those in Puerto Rico as apart of the Feeding Children Everywhere initiative. It's been a blast! We have so much fun and love doing it. I always get excited to don my yellow Mormon helping hands shirt and live what we teach as representatives of Jesus Christ. I really feel closer to Heavenly Father as I serve; this is because of the truth we are taught by King Benjamin in Mosiah 2:17, "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

Often I reflect on how blessed and grateful I am to not only live in a time with the wonders of modern technology, but to be in a mission where I am able to utilize it as I serve. Frequently I have thought, "wow, I can't imagine doing this all on paper." or "What would we even do without having all of our area information with us at all times?" However for the past two weeks, I have had a taste.

The Area Book app that we use for our scheduling had always been buggy. There were many things it left to be desired and lots of fun "quirks" we got used to, but it got the job done. Recently we heard that Salt Lake had been developing a revamped version of the app that would update and fix a lot of things wrong with the original. We were ecstatic. Finally! All of those bizarre quirks would be fixed and the work would be hastened! Then Area Book 2.0 was released; and there was a disturbance in the missionary force. I will do my best to not dwell on this or be too negative, but I will say that it has completely and utterly destroyed my life and has actually kickstarted the end of the world. Let me explain.

Many very useful features were taken away and replaced with ones that actually make things much harder. I am one of the last groups of missionaries that got to have an apple iPad before the church changed over to samsung tablets, so within the next year there will be no iPads left. So the new app is geared to work and function much better on the tablets; which of course makes sense, but is a major bummer for the remaining iPad Missionaries. So basically they are waiting for us to die out. It's fine. I'm fine. It's just now a major pain to do anything with area book at all.

Such a pain in fact, that Sister Bullard and I actually switched over and started using our paper planners! It's that bad. It's been interesting to see how different our mission experience would be having to use all paper all the time. However we have had a grand time coloring our schedules to make them cute and easier to read. We feel very "old school".

Another thing that has us kicking it back to old school, we are on bikes again! That's right, Winter Garden is now on car share. We have the car every other week, and are hitting rubber to pavement the weeks in between. I knew that we couldn't get away being full car for very much longer; our mission is having several cars taken away and so almost every area is sharing a car now. I was pleasantly surprised when I came to Winter Garden to find out it was full car. It didn't really make sense for how small geographically our ward boundary is (relatively speaking, we still cover parts of three different cities), but I wasn't going to say anything.

So now we are blessed with the opportunity to work with a lot of different members to coordinate several rides throughout the week! HOORAY! How neat is it that they can have the opportunity to serve the Lords missionaries?! (I've been trying real hard to be positive about it, can you tell?) Honestly it's okay, we're not that bad off, it's just an adjustment getting used to figuring out rides and where and when we can bike and drive etc. So now I feel like a more legitimate missionary, helmet and pocket planner and all.

I really am okay with not driving as often, because I am actually not a fan of being the designated driver. I happen to end up in a lot of situations simply because I'm me. The other day we were driving from a missionary meeting and I noticed a little bird ahead of me in the road. I started getting closer and closer and the bird didn't move. Finally I was about to hit it when I slammed the brakes. I got an aggressive driving check on my tiwi mission driving record. I put on the emergency flashers and burst out of the car and rushed to the little birds side. He let me approach him and start to pick him up, but then he chirped real loud and flew at my ankles and tried to attack them and then darted away. So I still saved him in the end.

We had Zone Conference this week and it was quite well done. We got our shots and were immunized from illness and then received instruction from our leaders and were immunized from the adversary 👊🏻 Sister Bullard was asked to arrange a musical number only a few days before the conference, and so she made a crazy heroic push and put together an angelic arrangement of "Because I have Been Given Much" myself and several other missionaries sang her composition and it was lovely. What a talented companion I have.

Gladys returned from a family trip to Aruba with a virus and has been too sick to come to church or meet with us ☹️ So we went and dropped off some Gatorade and chocolates on her porch and brightened her day ☺️

We had a decent lesson with Brandon and Josette and were able to firmly reestablish our purpose as missionaries. We gave Josette her own copy of the Book of Mormon that a member had marked up with important verses. She was so excited! She had kept our commitment of reading Mosiah 2 and noting everything that King Benjamin counsels us to do in order to have a happy family, she highlighted each one in Brandon's copy! So she was excited to get her own. She's still apprehensive about our beliefs and hers, and our belief in a single prophet, but she's definitely softening.

This upcoming week is the 17th anniversary of the birth of my baby sister, Anna. I am so proud of her holding down the fort and helping to take care of business back at home after my other sisters and I all bailed on missions within 2 months of each other. What a champ. She's such a talented little bean and is endlessly witty and I cherish her so much. Happy Birthday, Anna!

-Sister Olivia Petty🇵🇷

Orlando Cares: Hope for Puerto Rico 10.13.17

Hope for Puerto Rico! 10.6.17

Myself and Bishop Damewood, the temple grounds keeper who used to be the Bishop in the Ward I'm serving in, he's great. 10.5.17

Back on Bikes 10.5.17

Us serving Sister Sharpe cleaning some mold 10.14.17

The One with Conference & Arepas

Week 58 (Sep 26-Oct 2 2017)


We live in a blessed dispensation after the Restoration with modern day revelation! General Conference blew me away. I rejoice that God, our Father in Heaven, has reached out to us, His children, today. What a miracle it is to be on earth at this time, the fullness of times. What a sacred charge is ours, to make these things known to our brothers and sisters, that they may also know and partake of these blessings! Wow.

The messages prepared for us were so fantastic! One of my favorites was from Elder Dallin H. Oaks in the Saturday morning session. I just imagine the world being like a volleyball court (bear with me), righteousness and the Gospel on one side and the adversary and things of the world on the other. It's like the ball was sailing over the net when BOOM! Elder Oaks spikes the ball with such brute force that flames come from the ball and it is driven into the ground like a meteor.

Now someone told me that they tend not to enjoy Elder Oaks' talks as much as they are usually blunt and pretty straightforward. Before my mission, I may have felt the same way. But as a missionary, we meet and talk to so many people that are so confused and blinded by the craftiness of men that they need someone to boldly tell them how it is plain and simple. That's why I love Elder Oaks talks. What a powerhouse.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Elder Robert D. Hales shortly after the Sunday morning session. My companion and I had just left the chapel and were alone in the mothers lounge (it has soft comfy chairs and is like a secret hangout in churches, don't tell anybody) when she saw the post announcing his death. We immediately got on our knees and offered a prayer of gratitude for him and the service he rendered to the Lord and to bless his family at this time. We are so grateful that Elder Neil L. Anderson was able to share a final conference message from him at the conclusion of this session of conference. It was a powerful ending note on one of the many recurring themes I noticed this conference on our reaction, attitude and choices during times of trial and adversity. Choose faith.

Another theme I noticed being emphasized (especially during women's session and throughout) was our worth to God, and how we should value and be kind to ourselves as His children. This made me think of an experience I had recently where I got to share 2 Nephi 26:33, where we learn that all are alike unto God. This led me to an important realization that I shared with Sister Bullard. "I have as much worth in the eyes of God as Beyoncé."

Thank you for sticking with me through that, missionaries just really love to geek out over conference, the scriptures, doctrine, etc. Now for your regularly scheduled weekly newsletter, live from Orlando, Florida.

As announced last week I am staying in Winter Garden for another 6 weeks! (My address is still 1240 Winter Garden Vineland Rd #F-3, Winter Garden, FL 34787. This transfer will end on November 7th, so maybe hold off on mail/send to mission office a week before that). I also received a brand new companion, Sister Bullard! She's from West Jordan, Utah (although she did spend the first 4 years of her life in Jacksonville, Florida which is neat) and she's been in the field for approximately a year. Until now she has only served in YSA wards, so this is her first family ward! She's blessed it's Winter Garden. I gotta say, whadda ward.

We had the Sarmento's invite Brandon & Josette over for the Sunday morning of conference! There were also two other member families there that they got to meet and get to know! It ended up being really hectic with a lot of little kids having a great time and their spastic dog; so I don't think they were able to actually catch most of the session 😕 but we're still glad that they came and got to know more Ward members and hopefully become more comfortable with them and in their homes. We'd love to try to set up a family home evening to invite them to soon!

We had a lunch appointment with Gladys this week that two of our members came to! She made us arepas and it was grand. Unfortunately, things got a little too crazy for us to be able to share our planned lesson; Gladys has a room that she maintains and keeps up for airbnb (a service people can use to arrange to stay in local people's guest rooms for cheaper than a hotel room) and her new tenant 'checked in' during lunch. It was so funny, Gladys went to get the door and show her tenant in and in walks this 90+ man and he says "five girls! Oh, I'm in trouble!"

Apparently he and his wife (married for 67 YEARS!) were visiting from a little further upstate and his wife slipped in a restaurant and broke her pelvis! She was staying in a rehab facility nearby so he is renting the room while she recovers. After Gladys showed him his room, she asked him if he would like to join us for our dessert of apple pie and ice cream, and he responded, "Is the pope catholic?!" 😂
For us I think the preferred version would be, "Is the Prophet mormon?!"

Read your scriptures everyday,

-Sister Olivia Petty 📺