Week 5 (Jacob-Nice)

Well this week went by extremely fast!

Highlights of the week included:

Exchange in St Raphael with Elder Ambursley! He is so cool and such a great example a great missionary! He is only a member since 3 years and his conversion story is incredible!

Exchange in Nice with Elder Coloma! He is French and came in from the MTC in Madrid at the same time as me. He got emergency transfered to replace Elder Leterme due to legality issues. So now we get him here for the rest of the Transfer!  So blessed to have him here! He is also an amazing missionary!

We had a cool experience Thursday night because we had a couple of member RDVs and basically we ended up hopping home very quickly and were in kind of a rush to get home. But then while only about 5 minutes away we decided to contact just one more man, and it turned out being a miracle and a super cool young student that is also very believing! We left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon and then basically fixed a RDV, swapped numbers, and headed in. It was just such an testimony that the Lord is preparing people all around us. I think that sometimes we get so focused on our present problems that we forget to stop and look at the opportunities that are presented. I love the new video on LDS.org talking about the mom and how she doesn't get the things on her list marked off. I thought of you Mom when I watched it. I think that the Lord prepares many opportunities for us throughout the day to serve and build others, sometimes we miss them; in the case of our exchange we luckily slowed down enough to realize that the Lord did not want us to be to the apartment on time in that moment but helping Thomas grow and come to back to the fold.

We had also a great district meeting on Thursday; this time we went to the one in Nice so next time we will head to the one in Antibes.

I guess the real treat for me was Stake Conference at the end of the week! It was incredible. The Stake President finally hit his time and so was replaced by another man from Marseille or Aix. That was very fun but the best was to see all the members of the ward in Toulon that were there! I got to see Fr. Monier, and also the Leger couple (who were less active when I got there but are now in full activity!) It was very fun and what I really remarked was the power that so many members have! It was impressive and breath taking! There were so many members that the building that had been rented out was completely full and so all the missionaries stood the entire conference. But it was alright. 

One of the things that I loved the most were the comments of the Area Seventy there.  He commented in every thing in the church there is a principle, a pattern, and a process. Specifically speaking of the calling of the Stake President he cited the 5th article of faith (the principle), different scriptures including the Old Testament (the pattern) and then the many steps that had just taken place the day before (the process).

I had my testimony strengthened many times this week!

Well I will leave you! This Friday is transfer calls so pray that I stay in Nice!

Love You!!

Elder Pettingill

Pday in Nice

 Exchanges

 Zone Leaders

Marseille Stake Conference