I thought I got away from trains (Jacob-Lyon)

Well this week literally slipped away from us and I am not sure why it went so fast... Maybe because it was crazy!

We had Tuesday and Wednesday which were great but had a lot of fall throughs so we ended up just doing lots of passing of old amis and other awesome people. But then on Thursday we got up at 4h45 in the morning so we could get to the gare (train station) by 6h40 and hop on a 2 and a half hour train ride to Clermont Ferrand for district meeting ( I decided that we would be nice and take the pain for one of the meetings and they could do the other.) So we got there and then had lots of fun and learned lots of amazing things together! 

To summarize some of the principles learned:

Clermont Ferrand

-Amazing experiences do not come everyday and so preparation and strict obedience increase our ability to enjoy the power from these experiences (I think this is also very important taking small things in mind like a weekly church meetings or fireside.. donc preparons-nous (so let's prepare ourselves)!) We talked about this, taking in mind the amazing feelings and preparations we put into the coming of Elder Andersen.

- When we have these kind of experiences we feel the spirit especially strong and so we (like the people of Mosiah in Mosiah 5) have a desire to keep it like that and so covenants are required (or ACTION PLANS!) We need to make sure to continue at a high level of obedience and faith in order to always feel happy and the blessings of the gospel!!!! 

-Elder Andersen explained that if we, in the mornings, will get on our knees and plead with the Lord for the words to say we will see miracles and blessings. 

-We also reiterated the fact that we should not live our missions (or our lives for you normal people) without miracles. We have the right and should expect miracles but we need to want them and pray for them and then also look for them out and yearn all the time for these miracles

-We passed lots of ideas on how we can better put into action the plans we are making and succeed in this amazing work!

But then District meeting ended and I hopped back on the train ( but not with my companion because I did an exchange with the amazing Elder Marson (yeah he's british)). We did that exchange until the next morning when we hopped back to the train station around 11h30 and did the 5 hour tour (with a 45 minute lunch break in between vite fait (quickly)) and got back to Lyon around 5 to finish the night well... And so that was my week. 

So far we were hoping to have a couple baptisms (Peng, Fr Ung and a couple other amis) on July 5 (it is our mission wide baptism) but so far we are not thinking that it is going to work out because they are not quite ready.. But we are still having faith that the Lord will provide and if He thinks that it is necessary then it will be good. 

The awesome news is that Elder Andersen is coming back to Lyon for a vacation and he has decided to do a special sacrament meeting with all the wards in Lyon and then he will confirm all the new converts who are going to be baptised on Saturday!!! So cool. It is going to be such a blessing to have him here again and I am so excited to be able to take the sacrament with an apostle (although I don't know how much that changes things). 

But today was super fun. Apparently all the missionaries in Lyon every transfer get a fun Pday at President's house at the end of the transfer which is super cool. So we headed over and got to hang out with all the missionaries and President's family! We got to play basketball, volleyball, Bocci ball (very popular) and eat together. That was super fun!!!

Well I guess I will let you know what happens with transfers sometime! Je vous aime tous et je sais que cet oeuvre-ci est benis et que c'est l'oeuvre du Seigneur. (I love you all and I know that this work is blessed and that it is the work of the Lord.)  Je sais que si nous attendions des miracles, ils viendront!

(I know that if we wait for miracles, they will come!!) 

à bientôt!! (til next time!!)

Elder Pettingill (ainé) (the oldest)