April 22, 2009
"Weather" or not the missionaries like it, it’s been raining a ton here, and though strange, there has also been the normal cooling of temperatures here, I’ve been blessed to be placed here in Vit. da Conquista which has that nice tendency of all cities of higher altitudes that is, to stay a bit cooler, and indeed it does get pretty cool here (55-60 degrees maybe) , but no snow as of yet :p, disappointing, though seeing as I have nothing more than a suit jacket to protect me from such, I’m grateful for the cool but not freezing weather we have here.

Pass along my congrats to Sabrina

As it turns out I didn’t (purchase an instrument), it was kinda of a ridiculous price cause they didn’t really want to sell it, (it being one of the instruments they used in their show) but it was pretty cool to play it for a bit, one of the natives there taught me how to play (not sure if I already told you that, or the fact that one of the people selling stuff with them was a member of the church from... Ecuador if I remember correctly) but also we didn’t end up having time to head over there in-between appointments with investigators.

Speaking of investigators, we have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday, Grasiele who is 17 years old will be baptized, she’s been investigating the church for about two weeks now and is already finishing Alma in her reading of the book of Mormon. (now for the 2nd time, she read it once before we even talked with her) We also have a family (or at least the mom) who will be baptized in two weeks, she (the mom Iona) has been progressing in her reading of the Book of Mormon, and feels that the church is true, she just has some fears about the changes she has to make in her life, having been a strong Catholic all her life, but is willing to make them, tentatively at this point, but is continuing onward. Not to mention were pretty excited about all this, the area has been kind of slow as many people we come into contact with keep maybe the 1st commitment to read and pray to receive an answer, but afterwards, desist in continuing, decide not to go to church, or run from us because someone told them some crazy thing that "the Mormons" do. On that note there was a man this week who, until we explained to him a bit better the idea of baptism for the dead, thought we took dead bodies of people that hadn’t been baptized and literally baptized their corpse... simplicity and clarity in teaching is another one of those things so key here in the work that I’m learning to do better.
We're also working with an inactive woman we found in the area book, and now have two new promising investigators as a result, she lives with her mom at this point (once was married (the Daughter) but now is divorced) and is working towards coming back to church. in the midst of all this exciting news though we’ve had to leave Jamile's family a bit behind as they aren’t progressing, but at this point Jeane (Jamile's mom) has committed to go to church on Sunday and if she follows through with her commitment, we'll continue teaching, but if not, we'll have to leave her until she has the desire. It saddens me and makes me think that these feelings must be but a tiny bit of how God feels when we choose to let others or the things of the world take us away from Him.
Well, love you all, and know that God does too, and for this He has called a prophet in our day, to help and guide us through these last days before the coming of Christ, we have but to listen to, and act on his inspired direction. And this my testimony I leave with you all in the name of Jesus Christ, Amém.

Elder Jacob Pettit

Answering questions asked by family.
PS: Most days we have lunch in a member's house.
Most of our time tracting?... depends on the day, generally at the beginning of the week, yes, but afterwards we do a lot more teaching and following up with people.