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| Selfie in the streets |
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| Amber waves of grain |
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| Field of dreams |
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| An actual clean river in Mexico |
Hey all!!!!!! So this week has been crazy awesome!!!!
So it
started off by taking a lot of pain medication to get through the days,
but my foot is a whole lot better! Just a little black and blue, and I'm
not taking any pain medication anymore. Its just annoying me now.
Other
than that, we're doing super awesome! Elder Hansen and I work together
great! We're working on unity in our lessons, and we're teaching good
lessons, finding a lot of people, and bringing a lot of people to
church! We're kicking but as comps, and the only problem that we've found
difficult to overcome here are the Menonitas!
Ok so the
Menonitas are colonies of people from Germany who settled here a
loooooong time ago in the past. They mainly speak German, some Spanish,
and some of them even speak English. Their culture is incredibly based
on God. Basically, think of white Amish people here in Mexico (but big
scary German people) and that's them. They have a strong faith in what
they believe, and they pressure all the other people in their community
to believe in the same thing. That's why, there's never been a Menonita
baptized here in Chihuahua. Because it's literally their way of life,
and any change means they become outcast from their society.
Me and my comp went and visited them this past Friday,
and guys, I litteraly left Mexico. We had to walk an hour to get to
their colonies (yes it was in my area) and we had to walk through corn
fields, potato fields and cross a river to get there. (THE RIVER WAS
ACTUALLY CLEAN!!!!) The first ever clean river I've seen in Mexico! (I
can see a few baptisms in there.... maybe) When we got there, there was
nice green grass, beautiful white man houses (like back at home) and
the first door we knocked on a little white boy with blond hair and blue
eyes pressed his face up against the glass! I wasn't in Mexico
anymore!!!!!! It was so weird.
We were rejected by 4 out of the 6
families we talked with (It was getting dark and we had to hitch hike
back into town). Their culture is interesting, they don't believe in
baby baptisms like the Catholics, but they 'baptize' in the same way as
the Catholics. The most important things in life to them, is God first,
then Work. and that's it.
Funny story now........ We saw this
one guy about our age working in the back of a barn, so we called out
to him and started walking to him. As we get closer, a little itty bitty
chihuahua comes out yipping and yapping at us trying to scare us off.
We laugh at it and keep walking, then charging from out behind the
neighbors barn comes the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life!!! It
literally looked like a BEAR!!!!! At this moment, it was every man for
himself, me and my comp split up running in different directions. I
happened to see the electric wire that was over the ground though, and I
jumped over it, but my comp didn't see it. He trips over this wire, and
breaks it and this wire goes flying in the air and wraps itself around
the Bear that was coming to eat us. The dog starts yipping and yapping
as if the world was ending, runs blindly into the wall of the barn, and
runs behind the barn yapping the whole time! The wire being trailed
behind him like a leash, and then finally the electric box it was
attached to falls off the barn, and is dragged behind - following the
dog.
I thought I was going to die. So did my comp. It was absolutely crazy!!! We then contacted the farmer kid, and left.
I
like to think of these Menonitas like the Lamanites of old! In Jacob
(In the book of Mormon), it talks about how every attempt to bring them
to the gospel was in vain.... However, when the Sons of Mosiah (later on
in the BOM) leave to go preach to the laminites, they were able to
bring thousands unto God! Sooooooo, I think its time that the Menonites
had a change in religion and culture ;)
Love you guys so much!!!! You all are always in my prayers, and I hope all goes well with you!!!!
Siempre Fuerte,
Elder Pettingill
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