Hey Dad!!
I am so glad that Pioneer Day went so well! You all are so awesome and I am sure that some big blessings are coming! When do Cody and Adam come in? I definitely want to look for them if they come in this week! That is also super exciting about the Grand Canyon and the early anniversary! I'm sure mom will be grateful for the break after such a big activity and so much hard work!
Well as far as the MTC is going it is crazy because I have one more week. I am sure you are probably excited to hear about the travel plans for next week and what not. I did get those last Friday and it was super exciting. I love the MTC but there is also such an excitement about going into the champ de mission (mission field)! I leave next Monday at 7:30 in the morning!! That is so exciting but hard at the same time! It is awesome because we get to France one day early but it is hard because it also means we don't get P-day to pack and get ready! So be prepared to get an email on Saturday because that will probably be when we get to fit in emails into our normal schedule! I will send a pic of my flight plan and it looks like I will have two layovers in Chicago and London! So that means I will have like 3 hours to talk to you from the payphones in Salt Lake and Chicago! So yeah. It is super exciting and it is still surreal that I am actually going!
Elder Nelson will not be going with us on the flight so it is going to be a sad moment this next Monday when we split ways and cry a little. Also I just got word that Soeur Everett will be leaving this Monday and will probably meet us! So that will be cool to see her.
As far as this week has been it has been great with both of our investigators having a baptismal date for this Saturday! Tomorrow is our last lecon with Jean and we have been teaching the commandments and he is just taking it in! He had this super cool experience where he had a dream and basically now really knows that the church is true! It was so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had been struggling with him on receiving an answer and then we shared with him a few scriptures on the fruits of the spirit and how he will probably not receive an extremely overwhelming answer but that it will come with more feelings of peace and comfort. After we showed him that he tried it out and when we followed up he had both received those feeling of comfort and peace and also had the awesome dream... (I guess the Lord knew what he needed and after he showed faith gave him the true desires of his heart!) We were able to share the awesome scripture of Ether 12:6 and show him that because he had faith he received the miracle! Such an amazing faith building experience that taught me just as much! Also Milenka came to church with us yesterday which means we can still plan for Saturday for her date!
Another awesome, but spiritual in another way, experience was that this last Saturday Elder Nelson and I went to do service that we have been doing every Saturday. The week before we had seen a picture of two Elders that were in front of the office for the cleaning sister (Sister Boekwag). We saw that picture and wanted to know how we could get on the wall. She said that it was almost impossible to get on the wall because they were great and the manager loved them. We had consistently been excited about whatever job we got and Sister Boekwag thought we were crazy because we were even excited about cleaning bathrooms. When we saw the picture we were like "I think we need to be on that wall". Haha so we asked her to create a cleaning course for next week that would be almost impossible to complete and that if we did it, could we get on the wall. She agreed (because she loves us) and said to be prepared. So last Saturday we went ready to work our hardest and even got there a little early. She told us we would first start off with Bathrooms. There are six bathrooms in the building and usually it takes us the whole time to finish them all. This time we finished them in 40 minutes!! She approved and said that we had done a great job especially for only 40 mins. We then were ready for the next job and she said "ok now go across to the other building and clean all of those bathrooms too." It was crazy! We were supposed to clean another set of bathrooms and we only had 35 minutes left! So we ran across and cleaned with all our energy! It is very hard to clean bathrooms (which included the sinks, mirrors, toilets, mopping, and drying) for long periods of time!! Well basically we did it and even had a minute to spare! They said we did an amazing job for so quickly and were astounded that we did all 12 in the time we had ( 1 hr 15 mins)! And now you will receive a picture next time of us in front of our picture! :)
Je sais que Le Livre de Mormon est vrai et a travers travail dur nous pouvons faire toute les chose que nous voulons faire. Je sais que si nous lisons Le Livre de Mormon chaque jours nous recevrons beucoup benedictions!! L'Eglise est reel et je suis reconnaisant pour notre prophet Thomas S. Monson. (I know that the Book of Mormon is true and by hard work we can do all the things we want to do. I know that if we read the Book of Mormon each day, we will receive a lot of blessings!! The Church is real and I am thankful for our prophet Thomas S. Monson.)
Je t'aime! (I love you!)
A la prochaine! (Until next time!)
Elder Pettingill!
Elder Pettingill!