Sister Emma Petty Charleston West Virginia

  HAPPY EASTER YALL!!  I hope you had the greatest Easter season, and that you remembered the true reason of the holiday: Jesus Christ :) I forgot how much I loved Easter, but I am so grateful that I was able to celebrate it this year and remember my Savior and all He has done for me :) We had 10 people at church yesterday!! Not 10 people we are teaching, 10 people total. That was kind of sad at first, but then it turned out to be super cool! I realized that Jesus Christ is a personal Savior. He doesn't care if every seat is filled, He cares about the people in the seats! His Atonement is infinite and individual. He died not for a number, but for you specifically. He is YOUR Savior :) It made me think of Elder Uchtdorf's talk this last conference  "Our Heartfelt All". It talks about how we can dedicate ourselves to the Savior, and I really really liked it. One quote was " When we look at our lives and see a hundred things to do, we feel overwhelmed. When we see o...

  HELLO AMAZING PEOPLE! I am just so happy that I get to talk to you all today :) Let me tell you about my week!! On Monday, I ate bobcat! From the side of the road! The elders found it and cooked it :) Roadkill is actually SUPER delicious!! Who knew, right?? On an unrelated note- I was sick half the week. Kind of came out of nowhere. Even though we were sick for a little bit, I was just so happy to be here in West Virginia! I JUST LOVE MY MISSION! Every day my love grows. Love for the people here, for the work, for all of you back home, and for the Savior :) One thing I'm learning, though, is to let that love be a light and not a weight!  I was talking to my mission president this week and I was telling him about all the people and things I loved, and as I listed them off I just expressed all the worries I had about them. I couldn't focus on the wonderful things happening because I was so nervous about what could go wrong! How I might mess something up, or not do something ri...

  Hey hey everybody!! Guess what! I'VE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR JESUS CHRIST FOR 6 WHOLE MONTHS! And let me tell you, it has been the happiest 6 months of my entire life :) You know why?? Definitely not because of the earthly success we get everyday. This week we had SO. MUCH. REJECTION. This lady went out of her way to scream at us and tell us to take our gospel and never come back. She screamed the whole time we walked down the road, "Go! Get! Keep walking!". We also had a man sick all of his like ten dogs on us. They chased us the whole way to our car, nipping at our heels the whole time. I saw my life flash before my eyes, hahaha. But even though there are some people who REALLY don't like us, I know this gospel is worth sharing. I know it brings so much peace and joy, and I love the people in West Virginia too much to not share it with them! I got really sad realizing that my mission is a third of the way over, but then I realized something! I am not giving 18 month...

  Hey hey everyone! Hope yall are having a GREAT day and that you do something fun with it!! This week was an absolute party for us! We had our friend Richard get baptized and that was sooo cool! He's the funniest person, and has taught me so much about wood and frog butts and bunch of other random things, hahaha. But for real, his testimony is so inspiring! He is going through a lot in his life right now, but somehow adding in the commandments hasn't made his life harder. It's actually given him more strength to deal with the hard!! That's something I studied this week, how taking upon us the yoke of Christ helps to LIFT us. Isn't that so cool? In the Hymn "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" it talks all about this!! (It's #29 if you were wondering) I listened to that this week and was just shocked to see that whenever we give what small amount we have to Christ, He gives us so much more than we could ever get on our own. I'm so grateful for Jesus and...

  Hey everyone! Fun fact, this is the third weekly email I have written today, and every single one of them has deleted. So if this one doesn't work I'm giving up, hahaha. But this week has been super good! We got to do a lot of knocking, with varying levels of success. The ones that don't work out are usually pretty exciting, though! We had a fully nude man come to the door and say "I'm neked! Fixin to take a bath! Come back later." It might be a little awkward to come back another time, but hey! I can be awkward for Jesus :) We met some other people while knocking who were SUPER interested! One lady had actually read the Book of Mormon before and she LOVED it! She literally jumped for joy, hahaha. Her and her sister came to church with us yesterday and it was an absolute party!! They brought a 2 year old with them, and there are definitely not that many kids in our branch... so people weren't quite sure how to respond to a little boy running up and down ...

  You like that my titles have nothing to do with my emails?? Ya, me too, haha. But great day in the morning, y'all!! I hope this week was fan-flipping-tastic!! It sure was for me :) I am definitely getting used to life here in Peterstown West Virginia!! I finally (this morning) finished unpacking!! My companions were shocked when I continued to pull sweaters and books out of my suitcase, but what can I say? I'm just a packing WIZARD! (Actually, Sister Knoll and I are really just good at jumping on suitcases to make things fit, haha) But anyway! We've met a bunch of super cool people this week! One guy we met is named "Smooth", or at least that's what he said his name was... He told us that the only thing keeping him alive was weed and moonshine! I tried to argue that it was really Jesus keeping him going every day, but he didn't agree with that answer. Oh well. He's still really nice, he even offered us some of his homemade moonshine, but we passed th...

  I'm so sorry, but here's pictures from Peterstown!! 1) my cute comps Sister Smith and Sister Humphreys 2) here they are again but this time with flowers! 3) the horse REALLY likes Sister Humphreys! 4) I really like the horse :) 5) Sister Humphreys cut my hair! 6) I milked a cow! 7) the "west virginia owl" its a deer butt with owl eyes :) And here's my address! So go ahead and send letters now, haha.  3371 Seneca Trail S. Peterstown, WV 24963

  Hi hi everybody!! I hope that you are all doing great :) And I hope you are ready for a TON of pictures at the end of this email, hahaha I just want to start this email by telling you a story... When I first got my call my brother told me that I would be serving in a place with more cows than people. I thought that would be AWFUL and it was honestly my biggest nightmare (because I really really love people!) He had to be joking, right? Wrong. I found my biggest nightmare, it is Peterstown West Virginia.  I'm just kidding! (Mostly, haha) I'm actually so happy to be here, but it is a crazy small town!! Like, literal boonies!! We have one stoplight in my entire area, the nearest Walmart is half an hour away, and the church is actually a house with exactly six pews. But guess what? I absolutely LOVE it. Very different from Buckhannon, but I love it in a very different way :) Oh, also! We live inside a statefarm :) Just thought you would want to know that, haha. This week was a R...