Busy week in Brive (Jacob-Brive la Gaillarde)

I am so grateful to a missionary. I don't think I will ever be able to stop saying that! It is so wonderful to be able to go out everyday and just meet people become their friends and it brings so much joy when I do it diligently! I am also so grateful for the Savior. I have felt so much much of his support, love and peace this week. We had a really good week that was a crazy ride. We picked Elder Martinez up late Monday night and then got to work. 

Alain our engagé is doing really well. We were able to cover two really important and heavy subjects this week... Daily scriptures and prayer and the Word of Wisdom. You can imagine how much comfort we needed before those lecons. But in the end Alain now has a beautiful calendar with a reference of a scripture for everyday that he can use to remind himself and a stop smoking in 7 days plan that we started today. I love him. I have never met another man so humble and willing to go forward. He has literally felt the weight of the world and I love being able to explain the love the gospel of Christ.

To answer your questions:

Have you found some Spanish speakers to teach with Elder Martinez yet?

Yes we have found sooooo many Spanish speakers!! It is incredible how much Spanish people are attracted to our companionship and Tahitians to the other equipe right now! We haven't been able to teach someone yet but soon it is going to happen!

How was it saying goodbye to Elder Adamson? As far as saying goodbye to Elder Adamson, it was pretty quiet.. We tranquilly walked to the gare (train station), then a less active showed up and said goodbye and then with the other equipe we walked back and basically spent the rest of the day cooking with the less active and doing pday stuff. It was sad to let him go but it was good because I had Elder Martinez coming and I love him already so that was nice!

Have you started the Saturday sports day? We haven't started Saturday sports days but we are going to soon because it has been really nice and we are getting lots of sun!

It is beginning to be spring there yet? If spring means rain... No we had 3 months of straight rain and now it has been sunny and warm! We are even wearing short sleeves!

Who is the new district leader since Elder Moeller was transferred? As far as the district leader, we all thought it was going to be Elder Loera who was serving with Elder Hunt in Nice as District leader but I called him and he said that I was district leader.. So basically thanks for that story you sent me because I have been feeling very very stressed and overwhelmed but thank goodness for the spirit because that has helped me feel lot of peace. Elder Moeller is serving in Corsica but before that he was in Cannes and he actually trained Elder Martinez so that is a cool connection.

Who were the four Elders in your MTC room? In the MTC it was me and Elder Nelson and Elder Martinez and Elder Nye. As far as Spanish. apprendo mucho de Elder Martinez. Habla bueno. Hago mucho preguntas de espanol. Voila Its coming but he is getting headaches from switching so often beween 3 languages

Well I love you all!

Elder Pettingill

Some more questions I asked him through email:

What will you do as the District Leader? Not much really just collecting numbers organizing exchanges setting an example and making sure that all the missionaries are doing well.

Did President tell you himself? No I ended up calling the zone leaders and they confirmed it on Wednesday.

What else is new? Today our ami took us to to Turenne and the Collonges La Rouge so cool! That is why we are late writing. It was so beautiful!! A member offered to take us somewhere next week so get prepared for beautiful pictures.

Turenne

Collonges-La-Rouge (Collonges-the-Red)