We attended the Gonzalo Branch for the last time already. We have one more Sunday but with a fireside in the far west of the country we can't go east for church and make it in time. Our Sundays in Gonzalo will be a fond memory and a great reminder of how blessed we are to be members of well organized wards with every program available to us. It takes a lot of people, and it certainly helps to have had experience, in order to offer Young Women activities, Relief Society enrichment meetings, Boy Scout camps, Priesthood quorum presidency meetings, Family History classes, Primary singing time, Seminary classes, Young Adult firesides, Ward dinners. In a little branch, with few people to share the load there are a lot of opportunities to serve. The youth are not only given a chance to participate, they may be the best qualified for many leadership roles. There are opportunities for all of us to participate wherever we live. Find a way to contribute. Serving is learning and has certainly been my best opportunity to improve my education and skills.
Here is Grandpa teaching the Priesthood class.
This is the Relief Society with the president giving the lesson.
Here you can see Primary on the right with the Sunday School class on the other side of the curtain. Distractions are inevitable but everyone seems to learn something and the children love to draw with the new pencils and crayons we brought. Some older than 12 like to come to Primary as well. The three hour block begins at 9:00 with Priesthood and Relief Society and Young Women and Primary. After an hour Primary continues along with one Sunday School class for everyone age 12 and over. Sacrament Meeting is last. The members arrive whenever. It is a bit of a challenge to welcome and find more places for children as they drift in over the two hours. Naturally they enjoy the activities more than the lessons so they tend to drift out occasionally also. No one is the least bit worried when small children walk out of the building. Some live very close by and there are no cars to worry about. It seems children in this community have a lot of freedom to roam. I would feel panic that young children were wandering around unsupervised but I decided that if their moms are comfortable, everything is OK. Last Sunday, we did have 58 people in Sacrament Meeting. I am so glad that the Jones' will go to Gonzalo and continue to give them some support and help. The Jones' are new and the husband is serving as the executive secretary to the Area Presidency. They will get involved and be wonderful. The wife is a piano teacher and the Primary children will love having singing time with someone who can sing on tune. She has already found a portable keyboard to take. We'll just hope there will be electricity for them more often than not.
This is Juleidys who just turned 17 and is the Primary President. How would you teenagers like the responsibility to be the Primary President, Sacrament Meeting chorister and give a talk in Sacrament Meeting every month? She is pretty amazing.We were honored last Monday night at the Family Home Evening. It was a pot luck dinner at the Harris' and there were three couples leaving. We gave our little talks and sang "Placentero nos es trabajar". It isn't in the English hymn book. We have sung it every time someone has left for a year and a half and it finally was our final time. This has been a wonderful experience for us and I think we have done a little good for others as well. I was nervous and so I wrote out a little talk. I didn't read it and probably didn't say many of these words but thought I would post what I had written:
It doesn’t seem so long ago that we came to our very first FHE with the senior couples and wondered if we could ever be comfortable with so many new responsibilities and the many differences involved in living here. We were in awe of the other couples and so happy to have a chance to have a peer group. In our last mission we loved spending time with the young missionaries but felt a lot more like parents or grandparents than fellow missionaries. We thank you for being such a great blessing to our 18 months here.
I’ve felt for the last 18 months that our experiences have been far more positive than difficult. I look forward to going home to our family but I will miss the wonderful and faithful people we have become acquainted with here in the DR. Our immediate boss Domingo Aybar is a wonderful man and has been the perfect leader. He is available and willing to help whenever we ask but never micromanages. He expects us to act like responsible adults and usually we do. We have had the opportunity to talk with most of the stake presidencies and bishops in this country. It is so comforting to me, when I often wonder what our world is coming to, to realize that we have strong, faithful priesthood leaders throughout the world. They have the help and support of at least as many faithful and resourceful women and the church is making progress and becoming stronger. The people of the Dominican Republic are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and take seriously their responsibilities as children of God. They are a happy people and always kind even to those of us who butcher their language. Relationships are important to them and they value their children and their families. I am grateful for the time I have spent in their beautiful country. It always amazes me how much we have in common with other members of the church even when our experiences, culture and languages are different. It is easy to feel like brothers and sisters. I hope I can always remember that and help my family members who have only lived in the United States to feel a kinship with people from far away places. We also had the chance to visit both Jamaica and Guyana. I found that speaking the same language does not guarantee that you can understand all English speakers but the same spirit and devotion to the gospel is evident with members everywhere.
It has been a privilege to work with The Perpetual Education Fund. PEF is a process to help young adults see the need for and to make the preparation they need to in order to become the leaders their families, the church and our world needs. The only real change is within an individual who chooses to use their own effort and make progress within their own life and serve others. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only answer to all of the problems in our world. Progress usually happens slowly but it is clearly visible in this country. The 30 years the gospel has been taught in this country has produced 19 stakes, 5 districts, this beautiful temple and thousands of Latter-day Saints. I find it amazingly impressive.
I see each of you serving and making a difference that will matter eternally. I appreciate your example and hope to continue to be your friend in the future. We might have to wait until the next life but then I hope we can all live on the same block (along with all of collective kids and grandkids of course) and have time to get to know each other well enough to be best friends forever.
This photo was taken that evening. It is blurry but we probably look better that way. The Francoms are in the photo with us. They are moving into our apartment this Friday.This morning we went to the beach for the last time. The Whitakers are the sea shell champions. Sister Whitaker has always loved shells but living in Utah has never had much opportunity to find them. She and her husband have collected many hundreds of pounds of shells and provided opportunity for members (and non-members) to make picture frames with the shells. They spend hours and hours collecting and cleaning and sorting and sharing with wards and branches all over. Here are the two of them this morning:
And here a a few photos I took at their apartment:
A bowl of small unbroken shells. It takes patience to sort through all that they bring home.
This is a LARGE pile in their second bedroom. They have washed out all of the sand, soaked them in bleach water and after we left they were going to spread them out all over their apartment to dry thoroughly. The amount of work it takes is considerable and the housekeeping can't help but suffer. But the results are beautiful and foster a wonderful appreciation for God's creations. They were kind enough to give us one of their big shells that they bought from a fisherman right out of the ocean, soaked them in straight bleach and then scrubbed them for hours to make them all shiny and beautiful.I invited Dad to write something to each of you. Here is his letter:
As we finish this mission we want each of you to know that we have a strong testimony of the importance of the Savior in our lives. Without the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ we could not receive forgiveness of our sins and we could not be resurrected. All our actions are accountable and there will be a decision (judgment) made on all our actions and works. If we have done well we have nothing to worry about, but if not, we have a problem. The beauty of the gospel is that we can repent or change who we are. And the Savior has said he will not remember our sins if we covenant with him to follow him and keep his commandments. We don’t have to be perfect; we only have to want to be perfect.
The Savior explained it best in the Doctrine and Covenants thus: (D&C 19:16-18)
“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—“
In all our activities we try to be good examples of love, patience, kindness, forgiveness, and helping others. If we have failed in any of these categories (and we have) we try to do better tomorrow. We have faith that the Savior will forget our mistakes as we make the effort to improve (repent).
We love each of you and pray for each of you daily. We know that our example may not be perfect but we are trying to serve others as we go on missions. We also want to serve each of you but not make you dependent on us. That is why we will be babysitting for each of you as you request it. We are happy to help.
With love,
Dad
We both love you a lot!See you soon,
Grandma and Grandpa Pettingill
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