Deux Missions Françaises : Week ? (Jacob-Montpellier)

Well we are now here in the cybercafe a little later than normal because we had a couple lessons earlier on and so we had to move our schedule around. Today was an interesting one because with Soldes everything is on sale. So we spent a large part of the the early afternoon wandering around different malls in Montpellier. It was super fun but I realized that I am never going to be a big shopper.... as much as the French culture is intrigued by spending much time (and surprisingly large amounts of money considering the "sales"). I guess I have just been pounded with too many principles of self-reliance and money management... I still think to the video with Steve Martin that says.. If you dont have money for it.. DONT BUY IT!

But as far as this week.. It was a pretty good week. We decided that taking dinner was really putting a dent in our days because of the travel to and from the apartment so we decided to just bring something with us or buy something to supplement. That allowed us to truly maximize our time and seek the most miracles we could! And it worked! Because this week was a finding week we had set a goal to find as many new friends as possible!

Ludivine is a young college student here in Montpellier who currently was attending a Christian assemblee and we were able to talk to her on the tram on Tuesday where we spoke of the Book of Mormon! She was pretty happy when we just gave her a copy, but she was ready to buy one. We had an incredible lesson yesterday at a member's house. She had been planning to be rebaptized with her family in the next year or so, but she is going to pray to see if Heavenly Father wants her to take that step a little sooner. She is coming to the church tomorrow after zone conference to help clean up dishes and then we are going to teach her!

Laurent- Later Tuesday night we spent the night in a neighborhood outside of center ville. We had planned to find a certain amount of new amis and were one away from our goal.. We ported around and found out that porting is great from 6 to 8 pm. We talked to a lot of nice people, none of whom were interested in the Gospel but very nice people. It was almost 8 pm and we had not found any people to teach. The very last house on the road, we rang the doorbell and then saw a woman outside smoking on the front porch. We did not want to scare her because we were slightly hidden behind a hedge. Well we started to walk away when the husband came out and we ran back to talk to him. He was super cool and very very nice. We quickly explained the Book of Mormon and what we were doing in France. He accepted a copy, we left him with a prayer and rdv for this week, and we ran to get our tram back home.

On Friday we had several appointments set throughout the day. It turned out that all our RDVs fell through and so we spent essentially the entire day in a large open area talking to people on the road. We were not finding many fruits from the long hours of trying. We decided to just have energy and excitement until the end and we were happy. There were no miracles. Simply we worked, we were rejected, and we were happy.

We taught a very cool hypnotherapist this week who basically lives the Gospel but without Heavenly Father. He very open and already read 40 pages of the Book of Mormon. His name is Steve.

We saw Rossil tonight after a week or so because of vacation, He is doing very well. Please pray for him because this Wednesday he will know if he can do a training which will allow for him to come on Sundays and then be baptised on the 24th or 31st of January. He is excited for the baptism and does not seemed to be phased by any opposition, even from friends and family!

Well I guess other exciting news is that there is stomach flu going around so Sr Povar (the mission nurse) canceled and restricted any exchanges. So Elder Thompson and I got to be together for the whole week, and next week.

Tomorrow we have zone conference/interviews with President so I am excited. I need to use them to the fullest since this will be either last or second to last before my "dying" interview.

Well I love you!!!

Elder Pettingill

P.S. You asked a couple questions in you letter that I got this week. What is the ward like? Well it is full of a mix of people. It is ward of about 95 a week at church which is great. We just got a new DMP who is Brother Clark the American, very exciting! There are not as many young adults as I had thought, because it is a very student centered town! There is only one ward, and it is a part of the Stake of Toulouse. Other surrounding wards include Bezier, Nimes, Carcassonne, and Perpignan (our zone). There are 6 missionaries here, Elder Adamson and Elder Peterson, and Sister Wolfe and Sister Shields. We do a lot of taking the trams and buses. Mostly trams which is the perfect place to talk to people. We also often walk a lot at night when the transportation slows down.The neighborhood where I live is GREAT! It is safe and secure, we have great neighbors and the sisters are teaching someone down the street! We tried to pass Anne-Charlotte (a friend's exchange student who now lives in Montpellier) but couldnt find her name on the sonnerie (doorbell). We are going to try again and ask the neighbors if they know her!

Love you!!!