I DID THE WAVE AT CHURCH

Hello all!

This week has basically had it all. We've had incredibly spiritual lessons, lessons that fell through, doors slammed in our face, tears shed out of frustration and out of joy, and just some amazing miracles!

One of the funniest moments came from an extremely awkward door approach. For those who I haven't told, I'm currently training a brand new missionary, or a golden as we call them in the PPM, and this was her first time she has ever taken the lead with a door approach. As I'm sure many of you have heard, the church has just released a new Easter video called Because He Lives. If you haven't watched this video yet I would strongly encourage you to do so. It's an amazing
reminder of all the Savior has done for us and how we can show our gratitude for His great sacrifice. So we were approaching this door with the plan on showing the video to whoever opened the door. A cute old man opened the door and Sister Shaffer started introducing
the video, she was doing a great job, and this man out of nowhere yelled "I CANT GET INVOLVED WITH JEHOVAHS WITTNESSES," threw some pebbles at us, and slammed the door. While we didn't get the chance to show it here, I've also seen miracles come from showing this video. One woman in particular looked so uncomfortable as I bore my testimony
and asked to show her the video. But as she watched her countenance changed completely and she asked for cards to show her friends and family. I am so incredibly grateful for the Savior and this Easter season that we have to focus on all that He has given to us all! :)

The highlight of the week was definitely Saturday night, the women's session of General conference. Before the session started our stake had a celebration to honor all of the women who made covenants in 2014. With the logistics of my ward with many of the Africans and
their humble circumstances we weren't sure if many of our women would
be able to attend. But us Sister Missionaries and the relief society
worked together and planned out rides for many of the members. We ended up having 42 members of our Ward at this celebration! Which actually ended up being the highest attending ward and that was nothing short of a miracle! All night my heart was so full of love for these amazing, covenant women who I'm so privileged to serve.

We also have a new Ward Mission Leader who I am so excited to work with! I have so greatly looked up to this family since my first week here. He and his wife taught the combined third hour lesson yesterday
at church and it was all about spreading the gospel. He started by leading all those there in the wave. Let me say that again - we did THE WAVE at CHURCH. Hahahah, it was so wonderful! He wanted to make a
point in the fact that everyone needs to be working together in order for our ward and Heavenly Father's kingdom to prosper. The whole time we focused on the ripple effect. And what that means is that we first focus on our own testimonies. We grow and learn and individually become converted. As we're doing that, the next ripple is the family
unit. We strengthen our families and set goals together to become better. We then branch out to the community and share the gospel with those around us. And sharing the gospel can be so easy! It's as easy as sharing a gospel message on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or
inviting a friend to your home to watch general conference.

Heavenly Father's work is hastening and we all have a part in it. We all add so much!! As we approach general conference this weekend I would like to encourage everyone to go with an open heart asking Heavenly Father how we can share his message with the world. I know
that as we all set this as a goal we will truly be able to aide the work in His vineyard. I love you all so much more than I could describe and I'm so grateful to be here in Philadelphia sharing the
good news of Christ's gospel and I know that He lives! I know that this message is true and that sharing it brings more joy than you can imagine!

So much love,
Sister Rachel Petrick

#BecauseHeLives

I ate a Philly Cheesesteak!

Hello!

Friends and family, brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, I am so happy to share with you all the exciting news that I had my very first Philly Cheesesteak this week. And it was incredible. My mouth was so happy. :)

But in all seriousness, this was an incredible week! We didn't teach quite as much because I had extra meetings because I was called to train a brand new missionary! We picked Sister Shaffer up on Wednesday and she is awesome! She's so excited about the work and is really such a great example to me. And lucky me, I'm now the senior companion and the designated driver. I get to drive in Philly! It's seriously so stressful but I love it. Everyone drives crazy so if I do something dumb I just fit right in. It's awesome! I'll definitely be bringing some new driving habits back to Utah.

Crazy cool story time: does everyone remember my last McDonald's story? The one where we were getting yelled at and we compared it to Abinadi? Good. So. One of our Sister Training Leaders met this guy named Eric when she was going to the temple. He came up to talk to her
because he recognized the badge. This man was part of the family who was sitting near us when the angry man was yelling. He told her how impressed he was with us and especially Sister Reed and said that he would go and visit the Philly Temple site soon! It's not very often that you get to see the outcome of the stands that you take, but this time we were able to recognize our Alma. :)

We also just had some amazing changes to our ward. We had a new bishopric called last week and we have a new Ward Mission Leader. This is a man who I've really looked up to since I first got here and I'm really looking forward to working with him more. We had dinner with
him and his family last night and we were able to talk a lot about how the missionary work in P1 will be moving forward and I'm extremely excited about all of the changes being made. We're going to reevaluate our priorities and work on retaining and strengthening members. The idea is that we cause a ripple effect throughout the ward. We strengthen our testimonies and then the unity and Spirit found in the home and from there we'll identify ways that the ward members, as families, can branch out to help those inactive members in the community. I know that the Lord is hastening His work. I look at the work going on in this ward and I know that Heavenly Father has His hand in all that is being done. Serving here and with all of these amazing people I've come to know so strongly that Heavenly Father knows and loves each and every one of His children. As it says in Alma 27:37 He is mindful of each and every one of you. He knows you by name. He knows your trials and your weaknesses and He knows what you need and exactly how to help you.


I love you all so much!
Sister Petrick

Sister Reed, Sister Shaffer, Sister Petrick

I GET TO STAY IN THE PROMISED LAND!

Ya Tua!!

So I do have some exciting news this week! We got transfer calls on Friday and unfortunately, Trifecta is coming to an end. (long story, but that's what a ward member called our companionship so we go with it) Sister Ririe will be transferred to a new area, Sister Reed and I will be staying in Havertown! I will probably have to drive in Philly.
Pray for me please.

We were able to teach so many amazing lessons this week! We have so many people who we're teaching that are making changes in their lives so that they can better rely on the spirit. Some of the choices haven't been the best, but as they make these choices they're learning
more about how the Spirit directs them personally and it's been so incredible to see! It's also been teaching me so much about how the Spirit communicates with me. I've always known of moments when I've felt the Spirit, but feeling the Spirit and relying on the Spirit are i completely different things. Relying on the Spirit can be so hard. It requires patience, love, and obedience, but the reward is pure joy!!
I'm still learning bit by bit how to rely on that Spirit but I know that as we come to know how the Spirit communicates with us we'll be able to better rely on him and the Savior as they direct our paths. :)

I was also mistaken for a gypsy this week, it was awesome. Hahahah. We
were walking down the streets in Philly, and I'm convinced that this was because I was wearing my pink flowy skirt, and we said hello to this man on the side of the street. (The streets of Philly are full of
psychos, be careful kids, don't talk to strangers unless the Spirit directs you to) He looked at us after we said hello and said "Look at the pigeons gypsies, look at the pigeons. Bless the pigeons, gypsies,
the pigeons....." We started walking away and this man followed us. He followed us all the way into an African store owned by one of our investigators and she kicked him out. Hahahah, it was hilarious.

There's not a lot to report. Life is good, the Church is SO true, I love being a missionary. The Lord is hastening His work and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. I also have a request! Could everyone
please send me your favorite scripture? Thank you and I love you all!
:)

So much love,
Sister Rachel Petrick

Hello!

Hello everyone!!

This week was a bit of a slower week. We had a snow day and both of my companions got sick this week so we spent a lot of time inside. I was going a little bit crazy with all the time we were spending inside, but it all worked out. Everyone is healthy and happy and we were able to see miracles!

The main miracle I wanted to mention happened last night. We had stopped by the house of a member who we haven't seen in a long time, but she wasn't home. So we stayed and visited with her family. As we were leaving the house one of my companions felt like we needed to walk up the street. We don't know anyone else in this part of the city because it's the Elders' area, but we decided to do it. As we were walking a couple of men rushed past us. We said hello but they just hurried away. We walked up and around the corner and didn't see anyone around so we decided to go back to the car. As we were walking back one of the men came out of his house and called to us. We went up and said hello and he asked who we were and what we wanted. We started telling him that we were missionaries and we were talking about what we do when we realized that he didn't speak very good English at all. He wasn't understanding a lot. So we told him that we taught people about Jesus and his face completely lit up. He got so excited! He said that he loves Jesus and wanted us to come and teach him and his brothers. We gave him the number for the Spanish missionaries and got his information. As we were saying goodbye he said "I didn't know who you were, but when I saw you I felt good. I'm glad you walked by again." We had no idea why we felt prompted to walk up this street, but as we said goodbye to this man I knew that it was for this man. We didn't even say anything and he knew that he wanted to talk to us. He didn't know why, but I know that the Holy Ghost was nudging him to call out to us.

Moments like these make me so happy and grateful to be serving a mission. Every day I try so hard to listen to the things that the Spirit is directing me to do, and that can be really hard. I'm up in my head a lot and I over think things and don't always notice when the Spirit is talking to me but Heavenly Father knows that. And He knows that I'm trying. I know that when we're trying to do the things that the Spirit tells us then Heavenly Father will lead us to the people who He needs us to meet. He will put them in our paths as long as we're trying our hardest to do His work.

I get transfer calls later this week so I will let you all know what's happening next Monday. I love and miss you all so much. Thank you for all of your support, it means so much! :)

Love,

Sister Rachel Petrick

That time we go yelled at in McDonalds...

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! I love reading all of the email updates from everyone. Sorry if I don't answer you all, I promise I read and love each and every email that I get!

This week was definitely a great one! I guess I'll start with where my subject line came from. We went to McDonald's this week to use Facebook for the last time (I'll be off of Facebook for about 3 or so months while we get retrained on the new iPads, which I'll be getting tomorrow).  Our wifi wasn't working so instead of actually getting on Facebook we started talking to this old man, Chris. Chris was the sweetest thing and we started telling him about the temple and he was getting super excited. Then someone from across the restaurant called over to him and said "They're the Mormons, Chris. Like I'm Mormon." We got really excited about talking to this man so we started to go over to him and he immediately told us to stop and not come closer. We were really confused and Sister Reed started walking over again just because we didn't know what was happening and this man started just yelling at us and he was directing it all mainly toward Sister Reed because she was trying to talk to him. He got really angry and stormed off. Chris told us afterward that he had been really angry with the church since his mother died. His mother was a member and no one ever came to visit her when she got sick so he was really bitter. As I was talking to Chris Sister Reed went and apologized to a family who was sitting near the other man and talked to them for a little bit. She came back over and sort of apologized to us for it all and said that as much as she wanted to turn around and walk away the spirit told her to stand there. She said she felt a lot like Abinadi at that moment. I told her not to apologize because even though we don't know who, I was sure that the Alma was there listening. So there's that fun story! 

This week we also had a day that was almost entirely dedicated to service and it's probably one of my favorite days of the mission so far. It's been pretty cold here in Pennsylvania lately so my ward organized a donation drive for blankets, space heaters, coats, and any other warmth providing item. We handed TONS of things out at church last week and then loaded our car with everything left over. We spent a day this week driving to the houses of members who we knew didn't have heat or didn't have coats and we were able to provide so much for so many people. It was amazing to see everyone's face light up as they opened the door and saw the blankets in our arms. It has been such a humbling experience to be serving the people in this ward. I am so grateful for this opportunity and for the testimony that I've gained of service.

We also had in INCREDIBLE lesson with our investigators Martha and Presider this week. I don't know how much I've said about these girls, but I truly love them so so much and they've grown so much in the two months that I've known them. We decided that we wanted to have a lesson all about the Savior and strengthening our faith in Him. We talked about all He did when He was on the earth and watched the Bible video called For God so Loved the Earth. We then talked about the Atonement and how everything the Savior ever did was for us. How it was all for Martha and Presider because He loves them and we read in 3 Nephi 11 when Christ appears in the Americas. We asked the girls how they would feel if what we read happened to them and they both talked about how excited they would be and how much they would love to know the Savior. As we taught this lesson I know that these girls felt the Holy Ghost testify to them that the Savior loves them. I know because I felt that witness myself. I'm so grateful for my Savior and I know that He suffered and died for me and because he suffered for me only He knows how to help me through my struggles. I know that He lives! I know that He strengthens each and every one of us. And I know that He loves us more than we can possibly comprehend. I love being a missionary and I love sharing what I've come to know with the people of Philadelphia. :)

So much love,

Sister Rachel Petrick 

The video is my adorable African grandma, sister Boyoue. Enjoy. :)

And then me and Davidson and me and Lilly, who is probably the cutest little girl I've ever seen in my life. 

Davidson and Rachel

Lily and Rachel

-- 

Sister Rachel Petrick
700 Darby Road #201

Havertown, PA 19083