Busy Busy Week 16!!!

Hi everyone!! How are you doing? How was your week?! I am doing really good and I had an amazing busy week!!

On Tuesday after District counsel, we had exchanges with the District Leader!! I went with District Leader Dummer and we did a ton of work! I learned a ton from him and I loved it!

On Wednesday we did our studies with the District Leaders, then drove home to Reading! We had time to do a little bit of work before packing and driving to Broomall!! We stayed the night there with 4 other elders, and it was really nice being able to meet new missionaries and talk about their backgrounds before the mission!!

Then on Thursday we had the Priesthood Restoration Site Trip!
Okay so most missions have one day where you do something fun and different! Some missions tour the big city, some go to local museums or landmarks, and mine goes to the Priesthood Restoration Site! So on Wednesday, all of the new missionaries in my mission and their trainers got to go and visit!! The priesthood restoration site is a significant place for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, located in Harmony Pennsylvania! This site has a visitors center, statues, and a pathway for people to walk through the forest! In this forest, we believe the same Priesthood that Jesus Christ and his Apostles had was restored to the Earth for the purpose of restoring the church of Jesus Christ. We were able to go through the visitors center, look at the statues, and walk through the forest. There is a very very peaceful feeling in the grove that was amazing to experience!

This site is also where Joseph Smith translated over 2/3 of the Book of Mormon, and there are replica houses built on the original foundations where the houses were. Joseph Smith translated the plates and read aloud, as Oliver Cowdry wrote down the words on paper. After breaks and meals, Joseph would begin Translating again without hesitation and he would be exactly where he left off. It was amazing to see the houses and the land around them. They looked very different inside, with tools and items that we don’t even use today hahaha.

After the site, we went to the bank of the Susquehanna river! It was so incredible to see this, because it was in this river where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry baptized each other by the authority of the Aaronic Priesthood!!

After learning about the river and the significance of it, we had a testimony meeting there on the bank. About 30 missionaries gave their testimonies, including me, bore their testimonies about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, the Bible, God’s love for each of his children, Repentance, and many other wonderful gospel topics. It was a very very powerful scene. The bank of the river was a very sacred place, and the Spirit was almost tangible. Many people gave testimony that the Spirit was there and that they could feel God’s love for them.

On the drive home from the Priesthood Restoration Site, I had the opportunity to talk with Elder Brown, my MTC Companion!! He is doing well in Camden New Jersey! He was able to tell me his struggles with his trainer, along with all that he has learned from his mission so far! We are only 4ish months in the mission, but we both have been told so much about our spiritual growth!

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were very busy because of the time we took to go on this trip. We worked very very hard to try and make up lessons and visits that we missed because of Exchanges and the Priesthood Restoration Site! But I am not going to be able to tell you everything, so I have picked a few cool stories from our busy busy days.

On Saturday we took a young man named Alex Inhof out with us!! He is a super cool super tall 14 year old in our ward! He was super brave, knocking on doors with us and trying to introduce us in Spanish! We had a lot of fun with him, and even saw a Hebrew Jewish Israelite crying repentance in a parking lot. That kinda freaked Alex out because the man was dressed in a white robe with a staff and a hood, and he was walking right towards us when we were getting in our car.

Sunday was our Stake Conference, which is when the entire Stake meets together. (Wards are about as big as city or town or sometimes bigger. A Stake is a group of wards that are close to each other sometimes as big as a county or bigger!) Because we have so many people in our stake, we couldn’t use a church building, so we had Stake Conference in the Muhlenburg High School Auditorium!! This was a very strange and new experience for me, and guess what? THEY TOOK OUR BISHOP!! Hahaha our bishop was called to be the Stake President! It was a little sad for our Spanish Ward, but he is an amazing leader and will love all of the people in the Stake now!

Later that afternoon, Hermana Inhof fed us some incredible mexican “Gorditas” which means like ” little chunky things!” Haha they were really really good and they gave us a lot of energy for our activity! We took glitter glue and rocks, and had a big group of kids make Prayer Rocks!! You put a prayer rock on your pillow in the morning, and then if you forget to pray before going to bed, well you’ll find out when you hit your head on a sparkly rock! And then you will be reminded to pray! The activity was great and afterwards we had a really short lesson with the kids, but it was powerful. Almost every little kid shared what they learned, and we have some pretty cool pictures. Oh my goodness I love them. Over the last two months we have spent a lot of time with them, and they have grown to love us too. By age, their names are Marieli, Lidianali, Jazede, Janaya, Elena, Llantoni, Lloño, and Kylie! Some are baptized, some are not, and we are doing all we can to teach them so that they can have the best life ahead of them.

I had an incredible week guys. I know many of you will not read this whole email, and that is okay hahaha! But I want you to know that I have a testimony that this Church is true. I have seen miracles in my work as a missionary, and I know that God wouldn’t support me if I wasn’t doing his will. I also want to give you my testimony that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet. That he truly did translate the Book of Mormon by the power of God. I invite all of you to watch a 25 minute video called “Days of Harmony!” It is a video that explains the Priesthood Restoration Site much better than I did! I know that if you read the Book of Mormon and pray with real intent, a sincere heart, and a contrite spirit, God will tell you of its truth by the power of the Holy Ghost. And I give my testimony in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all and would love to answer any questions you have! Please email me anytime and check out ElderPetty.com if you want to see my old pictures and emails!

-Elder Petty