Rain, Rain, Go away... (Katie-Lux)

Hey wonderful people that I just LOVE:

WHAAAAAAAAT!!! I can't believe it. So. Funny story...Sr. Henson and I were making guesses about where Daniel is going on his mission and we each did a stateside and a foreign guess. My guesses were New York, NY and Chile. Sr. Henson guessed Mesa, AZ and Mexico. HAHA! Do you see the connections yet? Austin is going to NY, Kevin is going to Mexico and Jessica is going to Chile. I guess Daniel gets to go to Mesa!! :) But seriously that's way cool. I've been dying ALL week waiting to know!! And then it's not opened yet. Lame. But if there's one thing I'm learning on my mission it's patience. So I think I'll be okay waiting a little while longer.

So this week...it was good. It was a good, good week. There were no incredible miracles, no off-the-chart numbers, no brand-new families to start teaching....but it was so good. So many tender mercies, and so many wonderful, spiritual moments. Our bathroom is officially FIXED. It took the guy several giant equipment changes and lots of sweat and hours, but he FIXED it. And he was French. Which means his French was beautiful. Tender mercy in of itself :) Seriously though, we learned a valuable lesson on Monday. So many people had told us that no, they are probably going to come and check it out then set up another rdv for the next week because that is how it goes here. EVERYONE said that. So, of course, we were a little skeptical that he would come and fix it right then. We weren't doubtful--we had faith that he could fix it, but we were a little skeptical.

Lesson learned: We need to have faith to override our skepticism.

It also rained a LOT this week. At one point during the week, we had to go to Metz (yep, across the border!) to check out some stuff for Sr. Henson's year legality, and it just rained and rained and rained and we were SOAKED. But it's all good. We both managed to have colds last week, but we are good and healthy now! I never really liked the rain...and I still don't. So I haven't changed at all when it comes to that. 

Here's a little tender mercy experience for you all: It's the end of the day. We're tired. We're in the middle of planning when we have to check the times for a train that we're taking for a rdv that we have the next day. There are tons of this little train times sheets, each one is for a different destination and we needed a specific one for where we were going. We COULD NOT find it. We looked everywhere. We got frustrated and just gave up. As we kneeled down to pray, I noticed something poking out from under Sr Henson's chair--the train times!! We then just sat there, amazed at the analogy with what had just happened. It really wasn't that big of a deal, they were just times. It was an inconvenience, that's all. But there are other times in life that we're just tired. Things just aren't working out, and sometimes we just CAN'T do it by ourselves. And it isn't until we humble ourselves and kneel in prayer to our Heavenly Father that everything becomes clear. We find our answer. We find the solution to our problem. And we more clearly see the hand of God in our lives.

I love being a missionary :)

Just something I really want to add because I think it is SO funny has to do with French. There is a word in french, "ouais" (pronounced "way"), that means "yeah". It's just a casual, conversational word that I LOVE. And so does Sr. Henson. And a habit that we have is, when a french person is talking and says something we agree with, we say "ouais". Except for NOW, Sr. Henson has gotten into this habit a leeeetle too much, and often during the week she responded to something I said--in english, mind you--with "ouais". Each time I would DIE laughing!! It's such a funny habit...poor girl. It's probably just for my entertainment :)

Love you all with all my heart!

Soeur Pettingill

Also, from a separate email:

Me and Soeur Henson decided (because neither of us really like Valentine's Day) to over-celebrate vday!! So we sent valentines to every sister in our mission. Handwritten, homemade valentines. And also to our pres :) It came out to be 66 valentines that we sent!! It was a lot but we did it while the plumber was fixing our toilet. So it was a good use of our time! :) So now I love Valentine,s Day. Also, 1 John 4 and 3 Nephi 17. BEST CHAPTERS on Valentine's day! I encourage you to go and read them :)

pics: this week we found this can of veal dumplings (except it was in luxembourgish, so we didn't know what they were until we opened it) and they seriously smelled like dog food! So gross! So we just cut up a bunch of other veggies and added more seasoning and voila! Luxembourgish food :)

the other one is this storm coming in...it was so cool looking. So i took a picture, naturally :)