Love like a sunset part I

It all began during personal studies.

Bradford and I receive an unexpected telephone call from an unknown number.

I answer 'hello! This is Sisters Petty and Bradford'

The caller: 'hi. This is Semisi, you left a card on my girlfriends door with your number on it.'

I didn't doubt it, whenever Sister Bradford and I tract and no one answers, we always leave our number. But what was ridiculously unusual was that someone was actually calling us because we left our number. I expected Semisi to ask us to not do that again or to question us why in the world we would do that. So the next statement caught me off guard, to say the least.

'My girlfriends name is Kathy. She wants to take the discussions.'

That was the first (and probably last) time that someone has actually reached out to us and asked to take the discussions. I was just 😮. We went over on Wednesday night, and to our surprise they had Mormon tabernacle choir playing in the background. Semisi told us that he's a member, he just hasn't been to church for a long time. He served a mission and was even sealed in the temple once upon a time.

Kathy told us that she took the discussions 10 years ago, but she wasn't ready for it then. She said that she doesn't take it lightly, to meet with us. She told us that she's ready this time. We shared a bit of the restoration with them, and at the end we invited them to read the Book of Mormon. They said that they were ALREADY IN 1 NEPHI 15. They've started reading the Book of Mormon before we even met with them!! To sketch you an idea of how miraculous this is, our most promising investigator, who we've been meeting with for about 3 months now, just read the first chapter. So I about cried when they said that they're ON CHAPTER 15.

It only gets better when they came to church. They're every missionary's dream. I'm so grateful that God put them in my path. They're such gems, I love Semisi and Kathy so much. I'm grateful to be here in Peoria and that I'm literally living a lifelong dream of mine, to serve a mission. This week definitely had its downs as well as its ups though, but I'll press on.

Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

-Sister Jane Petty
6833 West Bell Rd
Glendale, Arizona, 85308

These photographs are from a missionary initiative we tried last Saturday 'Pioneer Pie Day'... it actually went very well

Let us all press on

Hello muh doods,

Saturday I asked Sister Bradford to plan the day. Completely, all by herself. She did it, and she did well. Of course, she's my prodigy. We spent most of the day contacting former investigators. Just before dinner, we knocked on the door for a man named Richard who showed interest in the church 2 years ago.

His brother Pete answered. He was honestly shocked that we came at that moment. Why? Richard was on his deathbed. He was going to die any hour, and family members were coming in and out, saying their goodbyes. He's been battling cancer for a year at the age of 56. We said a prayer for him.

After that I said that we had a message about life after death, and we could share it in as little as 15-20 minutes. Pete said that we had 5 minutes. So I planted my feet firmly on the ground, and shared the truths of eternity, the reality of our pre-mortal life, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential sons and daughters of God have in the life to come. Pete said that he'll be telling this story for years to come. I believe that I will as well.

Teaching comes naturally. We've been taught this since we were born. The trick is to live the principles that we know are true. Knowing something and acting on that knowledge are two completely different things. The reason God wants us to know the plan of salvation is so we can know the great impact that our decisions have on eternity.

On the other hand though, I think it's important to know the forgiving and loving nature that God and Jesus Christ have. They want each of us to return to him, every last person on earth, and they're going to make it possible. It's not always easy, we'll face opposition always, but it's so possible. The only requirements are to have faith, to repent, to be baptized, and to endure to the end with the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Anyone can make the cut, and that's no accident.

Some news- Sister Bradford and I are going to have roommates now. I know one of them, she was in my last zone. We're stoked because this will be the first time that either of us have had roommates on the mission. I'm also going to be a sister training leader, or STL. That's kind of like being a district leader or a zone leader but for all the sisters in the area.

It'll be rad, I'm looking forward to it🐨

-Sister Jane Petty
6833 West Bell Rd
Glendale, Arizona, 85308

The finger painters of the zone

Peacocks just wander around here... I don't know why

The ward mission leader, brother zanzucchi 

We started teaching this woman who's native language is Urdu & Hindi🤙

I'm in a trio now

Summer days

Hellooo

Lemme tell you all about a young buck named nick fortunato. He's 21 years old and works at winco. His family were all baptized about three years ago. They stopped attending church very abruptly one day, and just as abruptly they came back a couple months ago. Nick is the only one in his family who's not a member, and we've been teaching him for about two months now. He's low key proud of the fact that he's gone through about 8 sets of missionaries.

But we're the last.

We've had two lessons with him this last week. In the first one, we insisted that he said the closing prayer (we've been unsuccessful in past attempts). He finally prayed! His mom said 'you guys don't understand. Nicks never prayed for missionaries before!' I was soo happy for this mini victory.

We didn't have much time to prepare for the second lesson. So I just said a quick prayer and felt prompted to check where he's at on his baptism goal. He's had most of the missionary discussions, he comes to church every week, the only thing that's stopping him is that he feels like he doesn't have a testimony. So I made him swear up and down that he'll read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Not gonna lie, I told him I'll smack him if he doesn't haha.

The church is still true, anyone can gain a testimony and grow it,

-Sister Jane Petty
6833 West Bell Rd
Glendale, Arizona, 85308

Quick story- we've tracted an entire apartment complex. We found 1 investigator and 6 referrals for the Spanish elders. This is the laundry room for said apartments.

For the Fourth of July we crashed our bishops barbecue and played with their chickens... this is what's fun as a missionary(;

Bradford introduced me to bomboza's. They're pretty good, almost as good as raspberry jam hahahah 

'To date, 16 men have been chosen by the Lord to be presidents of His church, restored in this dispensation-- this culminating dispensation in the history of the earth. I have personally known 10 of those 16 men. (That says more about my age then anything else. Lets just put it this way: I no longer buy green bananas. I could hide my own Easter eggs)' -Russell M. Nelson

Fences

Let's chat.

About Peoria.

And the many happenings here.

More specifically, about the many happenings in the Delgado home. It all began with Mardiselle Delgado. Mardiselle is an incredible woman in her mid to late thirties. She's had a wild life, with the climax being when her ex husband shot her in the head in 2012. She has two girls and four boys, ranging from ages 13-21. The fact of her survival helped her recognize Gods hand in her life, and lead her to repent and settle down.

She's been investigating the church on and off since 2014, when a couple of elders tracted into her. I believe missionaries in the past have dropped her (meaning stop teaching her) again and again because she never keeps the appointments she makes. But I figured her out. It's just the culture of the Delgados, to just come and go as the wind takes them. They live a life without planners, calendars, or alarms. They simply don't set appointments, so of course they don't keep them. They are, however, always eager to have the missionaries come back. So I've just decided to stop by once or twice a week, and share the missionary discussions as we go along.

I want to briefly cover the culture of their home once again. Family are constantly walking in and out, coming and going. Extended family, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, etc. It's quite distracting and difficult to keep track of who's who. But once again I've just accepted it as the culture of the Delgados, and always have my notebook ready to jot down names haha.

Harvey is the grandfather. A few weeks ago, the first time Bradford met the Delgados, I had a personal chat with Harvey. He told us that we're always welcome to come, and although he's always working on something, he listens every time we share a message. I asked him if, the next time we come around, he could gather up everyone in the family who's interested. After that it was great. He'd pull kids out of rooms, turn off the television, and say something like 'Having God in your life won't hurt you' or 'heaven and hell is real, and it's not just random where you go. It's your decision.' I've never appreciated anyone as much as when Harvey sets the stage for us that way.

After Harvey started doing that for us, more and more Delgados join us for our discussions. The distractions are still very present, but I'm hoping we'll teach the entire family by the time I leave hehe. As of the last time we went, we taught 5 of them. Mostly we teach the children, because Harvey essentially makes them listen, but they're full of questions and quite interested in the Book of Mormon. Their names are Luisa, Precious, Julie, and Jayline.

Julie is a ridiculously sassy 9 year old. The first time we taught her, I showed her what sin and repentance means with an object lesson. mardiselle made an offhand remark about how her children are bastards, and Julie turned to her, open mouth and wide eyed and said 'these women came to talk to you about GOD. And you're... sinning! You're a sin!' Bradford couldn't stop herself from laughing, but mardiselle wasn't amused hahah.

I won't tell you about everyone in the home, but I just want to share a bit about Precious. She's mardiselles youngest daughter at age 13, and she's AMAZING. When things get out of hand, she'll whip around and say 'you are so disrespectful! They're trying to explain something to you and you won't listen! Listen to them!' And then she'll turn back to us and implore that we teach on. Seriously, every time we come she asks about baptism (why? how? who?) even though we haven't taught much about it.

So that's life in the Delgado home. I want to end the on and off cycle of mardiselles by helping her become a progressing investigator, but it's all up to her and her agency.

Pray on,

-Sister Jane Petty
6833 West Bell Rd
Glendale, Arizona, 85308

As part of my discussion last week for district meeting, I had everyone (10 missionaries) put a tally next to how they found someone they baptized. PMF refers to Part Member Family. BUT THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD GIVE MISSIONARIES REFERRALS.

Family of the week! The colebrooks! They gave us a giant watermelon last night, and we gave it to the elders in our district. When I told them about it they literally ran to our vehicle... I've never seen them so giddy. 

I didn't go to the temple this week, this was taken when the flowers could still grow. As Harvey says, 'a little God won't hurt you!' 

Lisztomania

Good morning ☀️🌞😃

This week has been filled with blessings, always. We got to take Emily to the temple on Saturday night. I asked her what her favorite part was, and she said getting into the water (that was her favorite part during her baptism as well) I followed up with how was it compared to her own baptism? She said that it was better then her own baptism, since she was doing it for other people<3

If there's one thing that I could say to everyone, it's the assurance that Christ lives, that he knows and loves us. I sustain president Thomas S. Monson in his divine role as a prophet, seer and revelator. A sure fire way to strengthen your testimony is to share it with others. God Bless,
Jane

Emily told me that she wants to serve a mission(:

I was looking for a job and then I found a job, heaven knows I'm miserable now (post cleaning a hoarders house)

Sun setting

Goodbye president(:

On fire 🔥

Hello from Peoria, Arizona(:

This week has been AMAZING. I'm so so grateful for the blessings that Heavenly Father has showered us with. Yesterday at church a returning less active said the opening prayer for my class and in it she said 'Happy Father's Day Heavenly Father!' It was so cute I have never heard someone say happy Father's Day to God before.

Truth be told, this week didn't start off amazing. We had over half our appointments cancel on us. No one would talk to us or invite us in. Honestly, I'm used to all that at this point but I outrageously wanted Bradford to have a chance to invite someone to be baptized. Unfortunately, you can't do that if you don't see the people you want to invite hahha. We had district meeting (where you meet with the other missionaries in the stake) on Thursday morning (it's usually on Friday's but we changed it for reasons I'll get into shortly). I shared my concerns with my district leader and he looked at me and said 'maybe God needs you to go through the refiners fire'. I didn't say anything, but in my head I was like NOOOOOO. I feel like I've been there, done that. It bothered me, but district meeting turned around for the better when we had some stellar discussions.

So that night, we had a lesson with Jennifer at 6:15. Right after dinner, we received a text from her. I fully expected her to cancel with some lame excuse as is the pattern of this week, but you'll never guess what she said. She said that she was waiting for 6:15!! This sweet woman was literally waiting for us to come and teach about Jesus Christ. I was so touched, I cannot express how I felt. So we went to her house right away and shared a great lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we asked her to prepare to be baptized on July 15, which she eagerly accepted. YES!

The next day was Friday okay. That is the pattern, Friday's follow Thursday's. This Friday was very special though. Because we threw a huge, mission wide party for our mission president! President Griffin is returning home to Montana next week, as it is the end of his mission. It was stellar to see all the missionaries in the mission and to play games and compete in crazy events. President gave all the missionaries a hug goodbye, including the sisters. I'm going to miss him and Sister Griffin so stinkin much, but I'm looking forward to welcoming President and Sister Collins (more on them later).

At the end of the party, Sister Bradford and I exchanged with our sister training leaders. Sister Bradford was in charge of leading our area, meaning she'll have to navigate the streets and lead lessons without my help, since I was in a different area. In the duration of the exchange, we had two lessons for two investigators that Bradford hasn't met yet. I told her to put them on date for baptism. She said okay. I'd like to point out here that this was her 11TH DAY ON THE MISSION. Still very fresh. Still a baby. I didn't really expect her to do it, but, as the saying goes, I hoped for the best and expected the worst.

The next day, when we exchanged back, she didn't say anything about the lessons. I didn't ask, like I said, I expected the worst (wow I seem v pessimistic in this email). After, like, a HALF HOUR she finally told me how it went. THEY'RE BOTH ON DATE FOR BAPTISM 😮 I'm so stinking impressed and excited! I'm as happy as a clam muh doods. We are on fire, figuratively and borderline literally.

-Sister Jane Petty
6833 West Bell Rd
Glendale, Arizona, 85308

I know approximately 1/3. Not bad for only serving in two areas(;

We haven't been to relief society for awhile haha 

Birds birds birds 🐦