February 22, 2016 - Very special baptism and a wedding!

Venegas family baptism!

David with Zone leader on Zone leader's bday at Applebee's

Jorge and Yadira Venegas at Applebee's right after their wedding :)

Service project - they moved a pile of rocks from one side to the other so that a house could be built there.

Giant hole in the ground on the way to the Menonites

David and Octavio Marqez

Marquez family

Jorge Venegas at work

This week literally flew by!!!!!!    A lot of this week was just getting everything ready for baptisms again on Saturday, and most everything went great!

This week, we only went to the Menonites once.  Only had time for that.  On our way there though (we have to walk for an hour to get there) we found a GIANT HOLE in the ground!!!!   I'm not talking about a ten foot hole, but like a giant mine!!!! It was probably at least 75 feet deep, and about 100 feet wide!  All man made, with a lot of water at the bottom.  I wouldn't have been surprised if I had gone down there and swam another fifteen feet to the bottom of that pool!  It was awesome, and we still don't know why it was there, or what they used it for.

The German is coming along too! I'm learning it, slowly but surely!  It'll be a while until I can teach in German too, especially since I found out I'm learning higher German, and the Menonites speak lower German (I'm told there's only slight differences).

Everything else is going great!  The investigators are learning, most of them excited about what they're learning, and we`re not having too many problems!  One really cool experience is that I gave a Book of Mormon to an investigator, and found out two days later that she was already in 2 Nephi 14!  She and her family are really coming far!

We got the Mom and Dad married in the family Venegas!  Everything went smoothly and then I took them to Applebees after!!!  I was with the Zone Leader, and it was his birthday too, so it kinda worked out perfectly.  The menus here in Mexico are different! I had a burger that was put between 2 tortillas! It was soooo good!  Jorge and Yadira loved the restaurant too, they had never been there before, and love it now!

The whole family got baptized this week!  This family is incredibly special, and are basically my family too now!  They asked me to baptize all of them, and the Mom also wanted me to confirm her.   They told me later after the baptism, that it was the way that I taught and the way that I approached them that really got them interested in the gospel, and how they came to know it was true.  That definitely didn't help out with my humility, but this family is always going to have a special place in my heart!

This next week we have one baptism lined up for Wednesday!  A fifteen year old girl, named Alejandra! Shes super excited, and the rest of her family are coming along in the teaching!

Oh! Forgot to tell you guys that there is not a single vaccination of Tetanus here in Cuauhtehmoc!  It didn't bother me to much (I was told that it was going to be a really long needle, and a LOT of medication), until I asked the lady what tetanus did to you. I didn't understand her at first, but I understood what she was doing. She was saying that tetanus slowly constricts your nerves until you die.  What more scared me was how she showed me, and the sounds she was making.  It wasn`t pretty.  BUT good news is, is that I'm not dead!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Haha so that's it for this week! No new injuries!  Feeling great and happy! Love working in the vineyard of our Lord!

Oh, I also need to give a special shout out to my cousin Clifford Pettingill! He finished his misison, and now is off to other things.... Can't say bigger and better, cause there's nothing better than being on a mission!!!!! :D

Siempre Fuerte,

Elder Pettingill

February 15, 2016 - It's only Tetanus... no big deal...

Baptism of Jesus Gil and his son

Valentines treats sent by Mom... what's left of them anyway!

Feliz dia de Amistad y Amor!!!!

This week has been another crazy week of Misionarying!!!  So, first off, as a zone we all played Ultimate Frisbee, which was great! I've missed being able to run around and get super tired and sore, (usually I just walk around and get tired and sore).  That was this last Monday, and that basically started off a week of getting everything ready for a ton of baptism on Saturday.  This whole week was basically going from one place to another, marrying people who needed to get married (they only need to get married if they are living together and aren't already married to their spouse) and fixing problems here and there that came up.

The baptisms were great. The family that was from my and my comps area was a dad and his son, who wanted to get baptized.  The dad is Jesus Gil, and he's had nervous system problems since he was about 26.  It was difficult to get him baptized. I ended up carrying him (really heavy) in and out of the baptismal font to get baptized. We had a teeny tiny chair in the font to get him baptized, and it took two of us to baptize him without drowning him.  The baptism of the son went great, and the rest of the zone was baptizing the rest of the day! I also baptized two of the people in one of the hermanas areas.  It was a perfect day. Everything went great!  Its days like those when you know that the next day is going to be a super difficult day. Which it turned out to be.

On Sunday when we went around in the morning to wake everyone up and make sure they were going to church, I really had to go to the bathroom.  The nice thing about my area, is that there are a lot of abandoned homes, and so when you really got to go, you can just go!  Well, so I went into an abandoned house, and on the way out, I didn't see the nail that was sticking straight up out of the ground, and it kinda went through my shoe and my foot.....  Not all the way through!  It wasn't too bad, but had to go get stuff done so I just kinda forgot about it and kept on working. 

Well after we got most of the people sent off to church, we went to the people who had to go get the Holy Ghost confirmed onto them, and they weren't even ready...  Then their land lord showed up, and blocked us from leaving their apartment with his truck.  I had already been having kinda a bad day, and well to put it lightly, I don't think this man ever expected to see an angry gringo speak Spanish before.  I wasn't too mad, I was just speaking really fast (we were really late) and was annoyed at all the little things that Satan was throwing in our path.

After we finally were on our way to the church, I didn't think anything else could go wrong at this point!  I was so wrong, there was soo much traffic, and then the car broke down in the middle of the street. My comp and I pushed the car about a block, then we all hopped into a taxi, and finally got there! The day was just beginning. 

Everything at this point had calmed down a bit, so I went to call my Mission President for permission to go get a tetanus shot, but he didn't answer so I just left a message. By then word had gotten to the other missionaries that a nail went through my foot, and the hermanas started going on about how I was going to die the next day if I didn't get that shot (not dramatic at all). So we went to all the hospitals looking for a tetanus shot, most of them weren't open, the others didn't have it.  I was told to come back on Monday, and that I had three days until anything bad happened. 

Then I went today!  And, apparently the tetanus shot isn't something that's been distributed here in Cuauhtemoc in a while!!  I seriously doubt it though so I'm going to try a couple other hospitals today to see.  

Ive got three days left to live!!! WOOO!  Haha na, jk guys, don't worry!  They said that if I couldn't find it, I should be fine with washing it with soap and water.

So I know this was a rather long story.....  But the moral is that there are good days, and there are bad days.  There's opposition to all things, how could we learn to enjoy the good, if we never knew what the bad was? 

Love you guys!!!

Siempre Fuerte,

Elder Pettingill

February 8, 2016 - An awesome family and 4 evil dogs

David, Elder Hansen, and the Veniges family

Beware of Dog!

Mi familia y amigos!  Buenas tardes! Espero que todos están bien con ustedes!!!!

 

This week has been another crazy awesome week here in Chihuahua Mexico! A lot is the same as always, but there's always exciting stuff going on down here!

 

So this week we had a LOT of meetings and I got sick.....  So we didn't get to work as much as we wanted too, but, we still got a lot of people progressing so its all good!  Today we also changed our house to a new one because we were getting a lot of mold in the last one... Our old house always had a TON of humidity in it, and was always freezing cold!  No me gusto!

 

So the family Veniges are really progressing a lot!  Always excited to learn more, and always excited to see us!  We're basically part of their family, which is awesome!  We just need to find more families like them now!  We'll see what happens this week!

 

Visited the Menonites again this week.... Not going well, but keep the prayers coming!  Always an adventure going over there though....  This time I was surrounded by 4 evil dogs!  I was pounding on the door to get the old Menonite lady to open it and let us in.  It was a close call.  I'm officially convinced that I have a curse, and my curse is that all dogs wish to eat me.  Though its all good!  I've become an expert in using my bag as a shield, and a club!  Ive had to sew it back together twice now though, so we'll see how much longer it lasts....

 

Also I'm learning a whole lot more about repentance, and baptism, and right now am trying to change up my teaching routine.  We'll see how that goes, but I can tell you that its pretty difficult to get out of a rut when your in it!

 

Keep being awesome my friends!!!!

Elder Pettingill

February 1, 2016 - A truck full of investigators!

Die hard Broncos fan!

A new bike??

Hey guys another week in the mission has passed!!!!!   This past week has been an incredible week of good lessons, of learning and of finding people!

So this past week during my study session in the morning, I came to the conclusion that there are way to many things that I want to study, and not enough time....  So I'm dedicating myself to finishing Jesus the Christ before I start any other book, and also doing my typical studying in the morning to improve my teaching habits!

Other than that, I had no time to go and visit the Menonites this week.  We`re meeting a whole lot of people who are ready and elected to listen to the gospel!  We`re going from lesson to lesson, teaching in the bus, teaching in the streets, and helping people come unto Christ in every moment and in every place!  Its great!

Honestly there's nothing better than a mission!  In contrast to the important things you can do in life, nothing is more important than serving and helping other Children of our Father come unto Christ.  Having a job, winning the lottery, or coming up with the best chili at the local fair has no importance.  The only thing that matters is if we are prepared for the eternities after this life, because this time has been given to us to prepare and show to our Father that we are ready to do all that he has commanded.

In other news, me and my comp have a lot more work than we can handle alone!  We're working really hard with the members here, and we brought a whole crowd of investigators to church in the back of one truck this week!   My comp has the pics, and I'll get it from him for you guys, but it was pretty awesome!  Though we were 30 minutes late to church and kinda of made an entrance with all of these people.........

  

Keep strong!  I hope you all are doing great and working to become a Disciple of Christ in every moment!  

Also hope you all enjoy the SUPER BOWL this next week!  I won't..... But I'll eat a plate of wings that night in memoria!!!!  Also hope you guys like my new bike!

Siempre Fuerte,
Elder Pettingill