Week 3 (Jacob-Nice)

Well this week went quickly as usual,

We had several exchanges and fun strikes by the several transportation unions in the area. 

1st I was with Elder Stutz and new missionary! He is great and obviously know why he was coming on a mission! He taught a beautiful lesson on the street to a man that stood there and only could listen! Very very awesome.

2nd I was with Elder Hansen in St Raphael; It is a amazing how focused the new missionaries are here in the mission! He is so awesome and has an awesome testimony!

3rd on Thursday there was an entire city black out as far as Buses and Trams... So basically we walked around and did what we could. Then luckily the trains were still working because we went to Beausoleil and ate at Donna's house. 

4th On sunday there was a baptism for a little girl in the ward that had turned 8 and somebody went to fill up the font but during the meeting we went out to find it overflowing!! Very fun!

Love you!!!

Elder Pettingill

Some questions he answered in email and in a letter he mailed home last week:

Why are you going to Switzerland this transfer? We are having Elder Kearon, one of the Area Seventy that is coming for the Zone Conference. So already everyone will be headed to Lyon and Bordeaux for two large zone conferences, but then afterward he will be holding a special mission leadership council with all the zone leaders in Geneva the day after Lyon. So basically Elder Davis and I get to go to that! That will be extremely fun! But it will kill our week because now we head to Lyon Wed, 29 Oct and will be coming back Sat, 1 Nov and that means no missionary work in Nice... So we will be teaching a lot from the phone!

How do you like McDonald's in France (he ate there with a member a few weeks ago)? It is just as yummy as in America, so I do enjoy eating it. The only problem is the food is smaller and more expensive so it is not always worth it.  It does bring me back home.  : )

Why did you get chosen to conduct the big zone conference for half of the mission?  Well I was really surprised that they would let me do it because I make a couple too many jokes sometimes.  But they had me do it so that was cool.  It was really easy.  Essentially the Assistants gave me all I needed to do and then told me to just choose a couple of people to do the tasks they hadn't been able to fill.  

Tell me more about Mission Leadership Council.  Usually President teaches and presents what he has to say to us.  Often there are about 25 missionaries there.  It often just lasts the morning until after noon.  There is usually a council part where President asks our thoughts and opinions.

What do you do as a zone leader other than exchanges? We obviously spend most of our time focusing on helping each member of the zone reach their greatest potential.  So we do a lot of things with the district leaders and often delegate any of the calling or details to them.  We present zone training, usually right after the Mission Leadership Council.  That is really the only presentation we give.  Actually, what I have found is that being a Zone Leader is easier than being a District Leader or anything else.  In Brive, I did almost as many exchanges as here, and here in Nice, I have a wonderful companion that shares the burden.  The only other perk is going to Mission Leadership Council which often takes a lot of our week (about 3 days.)

What are exchanges with the APs like? It is very interesting right now because one of the APs is actually younger than I am.  They are both really great missionaries and so obviously it is a pleasure to work with them.  The exchanges themselves are not that much different than others, other than that we are both very experienced missionaries.  Often it is an amazing opportunity to just teach and learn from each other.  Obviously they have, usually, some kind of suggestion from President for the zone or our secteur (area). And no, we never did find the lady that we accidentally deleted her contact.  

One suggestion he gave for doing missionary work:  We are waiting for an opportunity to see one of our amis at a member's house for family night.  I don't know if you ever have time, but I feel like the missionaries there must have people they are teaching that they would love to bring over but don't know if you are ever free.  So I guess when you are free, you could tell the missionaries they can come over with their investigators.  

From August Zone Conference