Letter from Elder Pettingill/Dad/Grandpa

I would like to take a moment with all my children and grandchildren to share my feelings about why we are on these missions. I would first like each of you to know that I know that God lives and is concerned about each of us. I know that we are here on earth to gain a body and be tested. The purpose is to help us learn who we are and what we want. With that understanding we can see why he doesn’t interfere more with our decisions. How can we learn if we always are getting help from the sidelines? Our choices here on earth cause us to make many mistakes but by suffering the consequences we learn what works and what doesn’t. God knew we would make mistakes and that is why he prepared someone (Jesus Christ) to atone or pay for our mistakes if we wanted to repent or change. Repentance is just changing our attitudes and behavior. We will become who we will become by the things we do and the things we think about. By our fruits, we will be able to recognize who we really are.

I would like to tell each of you that I know that it was necessary for someone to bring mercy to the table of justice to allow us to overcome our mistakes. Justice requires a consequence or penalty for broken law. We cannot understand clearly, perhaps, in this life all of the ramifications of justice but I am confident that God forsaw the difficulties we would confront in this mortal existence and prepared his first born son to provide the way for mercy to pay the price of sin IF we would follow Jesus Christ. It only works if we follow Christ because he only promised to pay for the sins of those who would come and follow his example in the best way they could. Following him requires obedience to certain requirements. (Read Articles of Faith 2, 3 and 4.)

So what does all this have to do with us being on a mission? We are trying to help God prepare the people for the return of His Son, Jesus Christ. We have much to do to get ready for him. One of the things we need to do is become more loving, charitable, and patient with each other. We need to try to build up instead of tear down. We need to have concern as much for others as ourselves. My favorite scripture is in Mosiah 3:19. It explains clearly how our bodies fight with our spirits for dominance. Mosiah taught that the natural man is an enemy of God. Our bodies want to satisfy the physical needs and desires and our spirits do not have much control unless we submit to the influence of the Holy Ghost. Submitting to the influence of the Holy Ghost is the battle because we don’t hear those promptings very easily. We have to be humble, prayerful and quiet. I know that God answers prayers if we will humble ourselves and pray for guidance and then be still and listen to the feelings we get. God speaks to our feelings as much as or more than to our intellect. This comes with practice and experience. But you have to learn to pay attention to your feelings.

I love each of you and pray for your success in this life (and the next) and I know that God will give each of us what we REALLY want. Because our choices show us what we really want.

Love,
Dad and Grandpa

Photos from Guyana

I made these photos to share with the Area PEF Committee and Brother Aybar. I thought you might like to see them also. The people in Guyana are ready for the blessing of the PEF program. It will make it possible for young people who have dreams to prepare themselves for good employment. A stable job and a reasonable income will allow them to raise strong families and become leaders in the Church and their communities. How blessed we are to be able to work with this wonderful program and such fine people who are anxiously engaged in doing good.
Love, Jeri

Adventure in Guyana

One of my strongest memories of Guyana is that the ocean and the rivers are brown. Apparently the soil is clay and the rivers carry the very fine particles to the ocean. They do not settle to the bottom but remain suspended and color the water brown. I am told that some rivers in the interior look like they are filled with Pepsi instead of water. This is the ocean at high tide as seen from the seawall in Georgetown. The city of Georgetown is at a lower elevation than the sea and everywhere we went the land is laced with trenches filled with dirty water, but in some places also beautiful water lilies. The trenches connect with canals and exchange water with the rivers. When the tide goes out, the water level drops in the river and they open the gates that let the water drain out of the land. When they need irrigation water they let the water in at high tide.

This is an unusually large and beautiful house. See the water lilies blooming in the trench in front of the house? The trenches are often basically open sewage but there are beautiful flowers as well. Here is a better view of the flowers:

Here is a lily pad just waiting for a frog. I didn't see any frogs but I heard them every evening. The frog songs in Guyana are wonderful. I wish I could have brought the sound with me. It is very high pitched but musical and pleasant to listen to. The people who live there are so used to the background noise they don't pay attention but I enjoyed it.

There are two districts in Guyana. One in Georgetown and the second is called Canje. Guyana is part of the West Indies Mission and the missionaries are baptising many new members. They are experiencing the challenges of rapid growth. They do have the blessing of many senior couples because the mission president has actively recruited them. The church needs so many more couples to shepherd new members and help them learn how to become the needed leaders in the struggling new branches. President Barrow is the Georgetown District President and the district has received approval to become the first stake in the next few months. President Barrow is wonderful and a very capable leader. I was very impressed with his willingness to shoulder additional responsibilities and do all he can to bring greater opportunities to his people. He is the chairman of the PEF Country Committee and that is the first group we met with. Here is President Barrow with two women on the committee. There are also several others who are not in this photo.

This is Grandpa teaching the leaders of the Georgetown District about the Perpetual Education Fund and their responsibilities to find, teach and support the youth. Everyone was very grateful to have this program available and look forward to the process of helping the youth dream, plan and achieve their goals. We held this training and also a fireside in both districts. Here are some of the youth participating in the firesides:

There is a large river between Georgetown and New Amsterdam where our friends the Bullocks live. Their area is in the Canje District. One must take a ferry to cross the river. Can you see how brown the water is? It turned out that we had entertainment on our trip. There is a man who is very creative in finding a way to be self reliant. During our trip he "ate fire" (very shocking and not something I would like to try) and then he also did a tightrope demonstration. This man was very skilled! He removed his cap, his shirt and then his pants while standing on the wire! He then put each item back on and never fell from the wire.

We thought he certainly earned a donation and gave him $100 in Guyanan dollars (which are worth much less than American dollars). In fact, since they don't use checks or credit cards, people must carry a lot of cash. It is as if, in our country, we had to pay for everything in cash and we didn't have any paper money worth more than $5.00. Grandpa's wallet looked very full. Elder Langford says people walk around with plastic grocery sacks full of money in order to go shopping or to go to the bank. Yes, robberies are common.

It was Carifest 2008 while we were in Guyana and we had a chance to see part of the displays. It is a big festival of all things Caribbean held every other year in a different country.

We had umbrellas both for the sun (it was very, very hot and humid) and for the rain (it poured buckets). We especially enjoyed the Amerindian exhibit of traditional and modern homes and crafts.

This is Chris trying on a feather headress and posing with a blowpipe.

I wanted to buy all of the little animals. They also had armadillos and other animals made from tiny seeds sewn tightly together together to form the shapes. Another area had lots of things for sale. We talked with a man who makes steel pan instruments. He really does start with a steel drum and heats and stretches the bottom inward. He tunes them with an electronic instrument that measures the wave lengths of the sound and identifies the notes. He makes and tunes it all with a short hammer that has a big head! He sells sets to schools and individuals and was happy to play for us. Very fun!
It was a great experience to be able to visit another country and become acquainted with such wonderful people. We are very blessed and grateful to be involved in sharing the miracle of the Perpetual Education Fund. This program helps young people in places where they need a hand to be able to build a future that will allow them to build strong families and serve as leaders in the church and their communities.

Love, Mom/Grandma/Friend