Ferraria Week 9

This week has been hard and a little frustrating, but it has also been good. We have been having problems with getting new investigators, so this week we really focused on finding some new people. Also we switched some focus on the areas we have. We have three main areas, Compo Comprido, Dona Fina, and Santa Angela. With Elder R Santos we focused more on Campo Comprido and Dona Fina, but now we are focusing more on Santa Angela than Compo Comprido. The problem with Santa Angela is that it is a long way away from the chapel, and so it takes some time to get there from Santa Angela so a lot of missionaries didn´t spend a lot of time there. We have been working there more this week, and have found some great people that we will begin to teach. 

I am still trying to learn more portugues but it is hard with Elder Armenta because we tend to speak a lot of english, and so I don´t learn more portugues. I will focus a lot more this week with that. 

The members here are great, and they always offer to help with anything. We have a list of the members here, and I don´t know if it is similar to the U.S., but there are a lot of members that are either less actives or we don´t know what they are. We will be working on that as well. 

The weather here has been weird, because it keeps getting cold then hot again. 

The area here is pretty big, and it good in general. The people are more open in this area than in other areas. It is generally safe I think. The unsafe part is Santa Angela, because it is pretty poor. Also I found out this week that most of our area is not actually in Curitiba; it is in Campo Largo, which is a different city. I thought that was interesting. 

The church is good here, and we don´t really have to do anything besides sit and listen. Sometimes we have to go to other meetings, but generally we don´t participate a whole lot. 

I also found out that this transfer is only five weeks, but Elder Armenta and I don´t think that we will be transered although it could happen. The time passes by so fast it is amazing. 

So I tried the chocolate chip cookie recipe with adding chocolate powder stuff instead of vanilla, and they were good. One is in a picture where I put two together to make a s`more. We made s´mores this week because I got a big bag of marshmallows from Easter, and I have wanted to make s´mores, so we heated the marshmallows in the microwave, then scooped it onto crackers and cookies with chocolate. That was fun. 

Anyways thank you all for the prayers, and for the emails that I get. I am very grateful for the support that I have here.

I will end with a scripture Alma 37:37

Alma is a cool book because in portugues Alma means soul so this is the book of the soul. Anyways this scripture talks about prayer, and the importance of always praying, and praying frequently. Heavenly Father is our actual father, and so he wants to hear from us. He sees everything that we do, but it is not the same as actually hearing us talk to him. When we do this he pours out blessings upon our lives, and in every aspect. I have really felt this here. We pray so much, because we really want help with our lives. We are still children to Heavenly Father, and so he will help us out.

I love you all so much

-- Elder Pettingil

Pictures:

Me and my companion

My bowl of mini-wheats from my package

Ingrown toenail

Crocs

New district

S'mores ingredients

Eating s'mores

Picture of what I am going to look like at the end of my mission, drawn by the daughter of a member who is taking the discussions and will get baptized soon