Provo Missionary Training Center - First Week

First day at the MTC for our mission to Quito, Ecuador. There is construction going on and the snow was falling so it was a bit of a trick to park and get settled. There were several young missionaries to help us carry luggage into our room. We knew the drill so things went smoothly. We met lots of very nice people from all over the USA and going all over the world. There is only one single sister who said she would be working with PEF. Today was just orientation and getting supplies and getting organized. We had lots of homework to get ready to dive into Preach My Gospel tomorrow through Friday. The food is good in the cafeteria and it is so fun to see so many beautiful sisters and handsome elders who will be teaching the gospel all over the world. Things have got to get better even as they get worse in this old world. We look forward to getting acquainted with out peers as we learn and teach together. We checked with Travel and our visa has arrived in SLC. There will be no problems waiting for a visa. And...there is now wireless internet access in our rooms! Yea! I'm grateful to be here and look forward to our MTC experience and our mission in Ecuador.

We had a great second day. Taught the first discussion and learned about great teaching principles. Found out that the only couple with a Spanish surname are living in Boston where David E went on his mission, the husband is from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and the wife is from Ecuador. Another couple we met this afternoon will be in Santo Domingo, living in the "Casa" next to the temple and working in the Area Office. We need to talk tomorrow so I can tell her how wonderful it will be for them there. I wanted to whisper to her while we were listening to our teacher.

On Tuesday night there is always a devotional with a great speaker. Julie Beck (Relief Society General President) spoke to us. Of course it was wonderful. She told of growing up for five years in Brazil with her 10 brothers and sisters. (One of her brothers now lives in Melba.) They sold everything and moved to Brazil as if it would be forever. There was no set term for mission presidents then. It took two months to get a letter to the US and no one telephoned unless it was an emergency. She said they played missionary growing up because they always had 6 or 8 living with them and missionary work was their life. She said her father drew the line when they tried to baptize her 2 year old sister in the font in their backyard. She said that there were 2000 members and no church buildings and now there are over a million members and I don't know how many missions and temples and buildings. The growth has been incredible within her lifetime.

She told a story about her daughter's mother in law who was in the audience right in front of us. They are Oriental and were living in Korea and she was enthusiastic about missionary work. The full time missionaries asked her to talk to an investigating family cause they would not accept tithing. Sister Chin said she would be happy to help them understand. She told the couple, it is not just the 10% tithing you are expected to pay. There are also fast offerings and she explained that was and how it is used. She said you should consider donating to Humanitarian services as well and you must begin to save money so your sons can go on missions when they are 19. She told them it is not just the 10% but the Lord expects your whole heart and it is a privilege to give your all. They accepted tithing and baptism. I loved every minute of listening to Sister Beck and to hear all of the missionaries singing Called to Serve is worth the price of admission.

As we left the Devotional this evening the center of the complex is alight with Christmas lights in the trees. Christmas has arrived. It is beautiful.

We started our training Wednesday with a visit with an "investigator" in order to teach the first discussion. Volunteers come in and role play. Previously we had this experience where they came into our room but now there is a training center where little living rooms are set up and there is a video camera. A little more pressure but since I didn't have to watch our video I'm hoping no one else did either. Our investigator was a great actor or he really was a crusty old man who was realizing that he might have missed something very important because he didn't want to give up his coffee. He married a Mormon and his children went on missions but he never participated himself. He kept asking questions that did not fit into our agenda but I think we answered him and accomplished our purpose. He agreed to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and meet us at church on Sunday.
We talked more about how to teach and will have another similar experience tomorrow with the second lesson. It is a good experience and we are learning useful skills and how to work together in a teaching situation. That comes up often on a mission and in real life.

A new batch of missionaries came to the MTC today. We saw lots of suitcases and some less confident missionaries in the cafeteria. They continue to feed us well and we learned that there is ice cream every Wednesday to celebrate. It is a good day of the week. Two more days of working with Preach My Gospel.

Today at the MTC we continued our process of being taught and teaching others. We taught a volunteer again in the Training Resource Center. He told us he had lost his wife in the last week and his eyes leaked tears for 45 minutes. He was a great actor or maybe it really happened. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and it went pretty well. He agreed to meet with us again and asked us to come tomorrow to teach him more. It is fun to get to know more of our fellow missionaries. One couple told us that they spent 35 years of their marriage not going to church and here they are on a mission. Don't neglect those who are not interested. They might change their minds.

I had salmon for dinner. I don't get to do that very often. I lost my coat earlier today because someone else thought it was theirs. Fortunately it showed up again on the coat rack and I am no longer cold. We got an email from Brother Samuel Gomez, our boss, in Lima, Peru. He is aware that we are coming and hopefully someone will come to pick us up at the airport.

Today was our last day of training in Preach My Gospel. We learned about how to work with less actives and part member families and also with ward councils. It is a little sad to realize that these great couples that we are just getting acquainted with are leaving and we will never see them again...except for the ones that have Seminary and Institute training with us next week. And we will meet many wonderful people in Ecuador!

We came to Nancy's house at the end of the day. She is enjoying a dinner out and a volleyball game with a friend visiting from Idaho Falls. We will get to see her tomorrow. The girl's bedroom across the hall has a least one mouse in it so there has been lots of excitement to see if one has been caught yet. Not yet. (In fact, before we left for Ecuador it seemed that the mice had outsmarted the people so far.) I bought a 1 T external hard drive at Costco tonight. My smaller external hard drive has been making suspicious noises. I suspect that on sale at Costco is a better price than anything in Ecuador. Gotta keep the photos of the grandchildren safe. Here are some of the Evans children. We are grateful that Morgan always lets us use her bedroom when we visit.

Our next mission opportunity begins

Dear Family and Friends,

We have received our mission call and wanted to share the news with you. We have been called to serve in the Ecuador Quito Mission as Perpetual Education specialists in the Ecuador Perpetual Education Fund Country Office for 18 months. We are to report to the Provo MTC on November 29th, 2010.

We are excited and pleased to work with the PEF again. We have seen how this program can allow young adults to help themselves become prepared to serve their families and serve in the church and in their communities. We look forward to learning to love the people of Ecuador. This is the same mission that my brother David served in many years ago. Lewis is pleased that the altitude is high enough that he won't roast in tropical heat.

We are finishing some apartments renovations that Lewis has been working on. We need to pack our missionary bags and then move out of our apartment. We are fortunate that we can store our things in the basement of this apartment building. We will stay with Susan for the last couple of weeks so we can paint and rent out the apartment we have been living in. I think we will enjoy Thanksgiving day with the Idaho group and then spend the last couple of days with Nancy in Utah. We have had such a wonderful time visiting with all of our family since our last mission. It is time to go elsewhere and again serve our brothers and sisters who enjoy fewer opportunities that we do in this country. After a year and a half we will be anxious to return and be with you again.

Love, Jeri and Lewis Pettingill

Good bye, Dominican Republic

This month we have been aware that we were doing things for the last time. A mission seems like a long time at the beginning but looking back it appears to have rushed by very quickly.

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