Young Women in the US and in the DR

Nancy and Morgan are going off to camp with the Young Women on June 30th. I have had a chance to be involved in their camp experience this year. Each ward in their stake was asked to represent a foreign country and come to camp prepared to share something of that country. Nancy suggested to me that their Utah YW write letters to YW here in the Dominican Republic so they could share information and perhaps begin a correspondence. Nancy sent 23 letters written by the YW in their ward. I found 23 YW here in the DR who wrote letters in return. There have been some mishaps. Two letters sent to Cotuí and San Francisco de Marcorís reached the Young Women and I spoke with each of them on the phone but their return letters have not yet reached me. There is no regular mail delivery service here in this country. The church has it's own system but apparently we didn't use it correctly. Cindy (Cotuí) and Maria (San Francisco) now have Nancy's email address and perhaps they will connect with their pen pals in American Fork. I do know that Nancy has lots of letters that have reached her along with some souvenier type stuff to display in their cabins at camp. The beauty of this exchange has been the sharing of favorite Young Women Values and testimonies as well as favorite foods and leisure activities. The girls here were so happy to learn about real girls their own ages in a country far away and find that they had many things in common. The girls in both countries wrote of love for their families and the importance of their friends and the faith they have in Jesus Christ and the security of knowing we have a prophet who can guide us in the choices we make in our lives. The girls in Utah definitely had more exotic Mutual activities (I'm still guessing what human foosball is and I didn't even try to describe an activity called "Where's Waldo") but both groups loved having fun at Mutual with friends who supported them in their efforts to live good lives. The girls from Utah stapled a photo to their letters so it would be more personal. Here are a few of the photos I took here and sent to Utah.

This is the group of girls that attended the Nizao Branch the first day I visited. Their names are: Loly, Sonyara, Yacairi, Milinia, Stefani, Maileisy, Marlene and Sarali.

More girls wanted to particpate.

I took a photo of Kiari the next time we visited.

I suspect the Mutual activities of the Nizao branch are more simple than some of the activities in the American Fork ward but I'm sure they accomplish the same purpose.

They told me that they do have activities almost every week. Perhaps they sometimes meet in this cool gazebo in the center of town or they could always go to the beach! It is never too cold here.

I don't know if there is a beach with sand nearby but the ocean is very close to their town. I didn't get to go and see because we had another meeting to attend both Sundays.


Hopefully we can go back again and see more. We did arrive a bit early and I took these photos of houses all on the same street that the church is on. There is quite a variety of houses here on the same street in Nizao. No CC&R's or California cookie-cutter subdivisions here.

Before we leave Nizao I wanted to show you the little boys who burst out of the building when the meetings were over. I wanted a photo of the building and they wanted their picture taken and everyone had to see it on the camera. Made me feel right at home. Aren't they cute!

And here is a photo of a beautiful little girl. Someday soon she will be a Young Woman too.

Young Women from our own ward, the Piantini Ward, participated in the letter writing project. Our Young Women's president used to visit her grandmother in New Jersey every summer when she was a child so she speaks English well. She has been a big help and has emailed Nancy. Our ward only has five Young Women. Sister Lin Briceño wishes she had more. Here are photos of a couple of them. Each of the letters from the Piantini Ward were written in English with the help of a couple of other members who are also bilingual. The girls wanted to be sure that their American friends could understand them well.

Sister Briceño also arranged for me to go to another ward in our stake. The Quisqueya Ward only has five girls as well but they were eager to receive and write letters too. Here are a couple of photos from their Mutual activity. In our stake, Independencia, it seems that Mutual is on Thursday nights. I translated the Utah letters into Spanish so the girls could read them. Nancy used a fill in the blanks format and that helped the girls here to know what to write about too. I'm so glad she included a place for a testimony, favorite scripture and favorite YW value. The girls enjoyed reading those entries and discussed their favorites as well.

Sister Briceño came as well as two of the girls from our ward. They are sisters and one has her hand on her sister´s shoulder in front of her. One girl had to leave before we took this photo but you can see Lin Briceño, Carolina before the sisters Natalia and Beatriz, another Carolina, Patricia, Angela de la Rosa who wrote a letter to Morgan, Sister Pilades Martinez, the YW president and Madeline, the first counselor.

Thank you Nancy and Morgan for the opportunity to get acquainted with some wonderful Young Women and learn a bit more about the Dominican Republic as well. Please let us know about your experiences at camp.

Montecristi, Dominican Republic

Last weekend we went to Montecristi which is about as far away as we can get in this country. We left Santo Domingo on the Duarte Highway and went to the end. It is a nice big highway between Santo Domingo and Santiago (the second largest city in the country) and then it gets smaller and smaller and peters out in a small unpaved residential street and just ends. The end of Montecristi is the end of the road.

This cute little girl is playing in front of the open door of her house. Her Mom was watching and came out when I took her photo from the car. I smiled and waved and so did she.

Montecristi is an old city. Columbus was here more than once and for a time Montecristi was an important city. There are several very old buildings but they were not made of stone so they do not date back to the beginning. There is definitely a sense of history here though. This building looked like it had historical interest but many are old wooden buildings that remind me of downtown Melba. They may be old, but torn down and replaced would be an improvement.

The reason we were here was to train the District President and Branch Presidents about the Perpetual Education Fund. And to hold a fireside with the Young Adults to tell them about the opportunity to get help in planning their future; choosing a career and finding out what is needed to prepare for that career and obtaining a loan to pay for schooling, if needed. The three branches are quite a distance from each other. The District President lives in Dajabon so he gathered up the people from his area and they all came to Montecristi. Grandpa is a good teacher and everyone learned a lot and was excited about the opportunities that might be in reach. Here are two photos of the Young Adults looking up scriptures to identify the guiding principles of the PEF program. The District President is in the back with the blue notebook. The people are so friendly and patient with my Spanish. It is a pleasure to get acquainted with them.

We also drove down San Fernando Road to the beach. There was a narrow dirt road right by the shore and we drove down to see what was there. It was about a mile long with houses facing the ocean. One big nice house had a sculpture in front. I think the sculpture must have been a homemade project. But how fun it is to live on the beach with your own sculpture in front of your gate? The rest of the houses ranged from tiny cottages to shacks to large block houses. They are just a narrow dirt road away from the water. One of the members told us that they have much less severe storms in Montecristi than in other parts of the island. I hope they move further inland if there is a big storm.

Grandpa picked up some shells for me. We enjoyed our trip to Montecristi. The only thing we did not like was the mosquitoes. I still have angry red blotches. I guess I am alergic to the bites. But they don't itch any more and all is well. One of the houses along the beach had cows in the front yard. They were happily munching the grass. I didn't know some cows have floppy ears.

When we drove down San Fernando Road to see the ocean we found another end of the road experience. I'm glad we were driving during the daytime:

“People are the most important things; families are the most important people.”

I like this quote. We are away from our family. We are working with people and helping them to improve their lives. We look forward to returning to be with our family again. Meanwhile, email and photos and phone calls keep us close.

We love you,

Grandma P

Jamaica and Presidents who respect the Church

We went to Jamaica for three days to hold firesides and teach priesthood leaders about the Perpetual Education Fund along with Brother Aybar and Pedro Encarnacion (the manager of the Employment Center). This is the chapel in Mandeville, near the center of the country. It is a beautiful little town with many very attractive homes near the chapel. Apparently it is favored by rich people who build their retirement homes here. The chapel is nestled in a green meadow with beautiful flowers planted on the church grounds. We attended a priesthood training meeting during a District Conference here. Fortunately a member who is a taxi driver took us around. Driving on the left side of the road is a bit disconcerting.


Upon our arrival we learned that scheduling visits is more complicated than we had realized. Brother Aybar received approval for our dates and one of the Jamaican priesthood leaders who is a church employee agreed to schedule our meetings. But...it turned out that the Family History couple went to Jamaica on the same three days with the same priesthood leaders as their target audience. Also there was a two day District Conference planned that we did not know about. We have since talked with the Area presidency and they will request that everyone calendar their visits with the Executive Secretary in the future so we will not overlap. We did not get to visit with all four districts but we were able to spend time in Mandeville and Kingston. Those leaders now have a better appreciation for the program and their important role in helping it to bless the lives of their young adults. We also had a great fireside where many of the young adults learned about the program and the leaders saw first hand how they could hold a similar fireside in other places. Our visit was probably more pleasant than trying to get to every corner of the country but we missed Montego Bay and Linstead. We will have another opportunity to visit later this year perhaps. We learned that in Jamaica everything is very expensive, the economy and crime rate are bad but the people are delightful; not easy to understand but enthusiastic and friendly. Most of the priesthood leaders are eligible for the PEF fund--under 30 years old. The District President in Mandeville may be over 30 but his three very little boys were involved in all of the meetings. Growing up in the church means spending lots of time at church with their parents. The active members are very active indeed because there are more callings than members. This is a photo of four of the cute young adults who attended the fireside at the Constant Spring chapel in Kingston.

I learned about a new fruit; the Jamaican apple. This man is selling them at the side of the road. It is softer than the apples we know, the texture is kind of like a pear. It is less sweet than our red apples but I liked it. Grandpa wasn't so sure. We also tried Jamaican Jerk chicken at Island Grill. They have a grapefruit soda called Ting that I liked a lot. We also tried "festival", a fried corn meal and flour bread and "bammies" made from yucca. Bammies weren't my favorite but fried bread is always good, right?

We enjoyed a special Family Home Evening in the home of President and Sister Mask this month. The Area Presidency will be reorganized in July so he told us a few things about his experiences and his heritage. He said they were "sweating bullets" before the meeting held at the temple site with the President of this country. Mixing politics and the temple is not the usual procedure to be sure. He said they felt that this meeting was something that the Lord wanted to take place and had the approval of Elder Bednar who told him that good things will come of this. Apparently there are some very positive things happening as a result of that meeting. President Leonel Fernandez told President Mask that the church has a new friend. He was reelected so it will be a good thing to have the president of the country be a friend to the church.

Elder Mask also told us about his Grandpa Gonzalez. His Grandpa lived in Cuidad Juarez in Mexico and Elder Mask spent a lot of time with him when he was a child. I don't know if he also lived in Mexico or near the border in El Paso, Texas. Grandpa Gonzalez was the first native born Mexican to serve a full time mission for the church in the early 1900's. He was married with a small baby when he was called and had doubts about going but his wife insisted that he go cheerfully and confidently. Elder Mask told us about an experience he had on his mission:

Elder Gonzalez and his companion were stopped by the federal militia and told they couldn't preach about Jesus Christ. Elder Gonzalez insisted that they could because they were representatives of His church. The soldiers accused them of being revolutionaries, or Mormons which was worse. The soldiers told them they were to be shot immediately and lined them up. Then Elder Gonzales remembered what he had read that morning in the Book of Mormon. He said, "You can't shoot me because I have not yet delivered an important message to the president." The officer hesitated and ended up taking them into Mexico City to see the president of Mexico who received them. The president of Mexico accepted a Book of Mormon and talked with them for two hours. At the end of that time he asked Elder Gonzalez where he was from. The president pressed for details of exactly which little town and learned that his father had been the beloved teacher of the president when he was a boy. They talked together for two more hours. When they were leaving the president asked what he could do to be helpful in their work. Elder Gonzalez again remembered the Book of Mormon and asked for a letter giving permission for them to teach. An official letter was given to him and they were allowed to teach without interference. Unfortunately that president was assinated not very long afterwards and all of the missionaries were driven out of Mexico for years.

Isn't that a great story! Remember to read the Book of Mormon and remember to use what you read.

We had a special and unusual meeting on Thursday afternoon, May 8. All of the missionaries, church leaders and members who could come were invited to go to the temple grounds for a meeting with the president of the Dominican Republic. This is a photo of Presidente Leonel Fernandez Reyes that I took as he was speaking to us. I was able to recognize him easily as his picture is on billboards and posters and signs everywhere.

The meeting was impressive. He had a special chair to sit in and there was a man guarding his chair until he came. He had a military general in full uniform with lots of ribbons to accompany him. There were many policemen and we entered through a security gate and they looked into our bags and purses. There were three very large tent roofs set up in the parking lot and hundreds of white plastic chairs with fabric covers placed underneath for us to sit in. We all gathered about an hour before the president arrived. There was an elevated platform with long tables for the President and a few of his people and the Area Presidency and a visiting member of the 70's and their wives. A counselor in the Area Presidency welcomed us all and read a letter saying that the church does not support any political party or candidate but encourages all members to vote and and participate in the political process. There is an election this month in which this man is running for reelection. But according to my understanding of what went on there was remarkably little political rhetoric.

The first speaker was President Lee (who is our landlord) the second counselor in the Area Presidency. He spoke for about 10 minutes on the importance of the family. It sounded like a Sacrament Meeting talk with scriptures and a clear message that the family is important because we are children of our Heavenly Father and His plan is based on families. He ended by bearing his testimony.

President Leonel began his talk by saying he also wanted to bear his testimony. I gave him points for that. He knew enough about Mormons to know that would get their attention. He talked about the importance of God and moral teachings and freedom and love of their country. He said that he first noticed Mormon missionaries when there was a young man from England and his companion from the United States. But he said he learned that there are many missionaries from the Dominican Republic as well and all of them are good people and making a welcome contribution to their society. He said that he was aware of the temple and impressed by its beauty. He said that Elder Mask had told him that the church built temples in the finest and most beautiful manner possible because they were built to honor Jesus Christ. He said he appreciated the Mormons and their contributions to the country. It seemed like a good talk and I only noticed one point where he mentioned the election. It seemed to me like the whole affair was filled with respect and appreciation. We should have more of that demonstrated by the political leaders in our country.

Traveling and Teaching

We have had an interesting and fun month traveling and teaching. Because of the challenges of driving here, we get a hotel if the drive home takes longer than an hour of darkness. Most hotels make us glad to get home but we have stayed at the Mariott Courtyard in Santiago and felt very pampered indeed. Usually we try to have a training meeting before a fireside. If the location is far from Santo Domingo we try to pack in as much as we can. That way we can train the Priesthood leaders and the Employment/PEF Specialists and also meet with the Young Adults for which the program was created. We have every weekend booked until half way through July and a lot of week nights as well.

We are impressed with the spirituality maturity of so many of the members here. The Church has only been here for 30 years and there are 18 stakes plus 7 districts in 3 missions in the Dominican Republic. The gospel has been in the Canary Islands for about the same amount of time and there is not yet one stake. Most of the people who live in this country are believers in Jesus Christ and not ashamed of it. I am amazed at the signs on the cars and busses and hand painted everywhere proclaiming their love for Jesus Christ. In our country we would seldom be so open about our religious beliefs. This sign on an overpass reminds drivers to "love thy neighbor as thyself" to avoid accidents.

We are teaching the Priesthood leaders how to "seek" out the youth who are ambitious, worthy and needy, "train" them in principles of self-sufficiency and "sustain" them as they struggle to go to school, work, attend institute, care for their families and serve in the church. There are (or will be) employment specialists in every stake and district who provide the same type of services as the employment office in Boise, for example. These specialists also now have the responsibility to contact every PEF participant every month and record those contacts along with helpful information about the students in the worldwide computer system online. It works great--when everyone understands how, has access to a computer with internet and carries out their job perfectly. Since no one is perfect we will have plenty to occupy our time while we are here. And we have the rest of the Caribbean to get more involved with too. We have the help of some other CES missionaries in Jamaica and in Trinidad and Tobago that we are training by email and phone. Haiti is a challenge because we can't talk with people who speak only French or Creole and there are no senior missionaries. We will open Guyana (they speak English) as soon as the finance people can make arrangments with a bank in that country to accept the payments. Puerto Rico will probably be next. It is exciting.

This woman is Nora Cruz. She is a judge and she wears these robes when she sits on the bench. I wish I was taller and you could see the purple puffy ball on the top of her hat that matches the stripes on her cuffs. We had an appointment with her in her office in the courthouse to train her in her PEF responsibilities because she is the District employment specialist. She is a sharp lady and so humble and anxious to help others. She bore her testimony to us that the Lord blesses her family when she spends time serving others. She also teaches the Career Workshop which we took in Boise before we came on our mission. It is a great course and everyone who wants to get employment or improve their employment or learn more about their talents and interests should take it. It is open to non-members as well. The PEF applicants take that course and another one called Planning for Success before they complete their application for a loan.

Another thing we are doing is meeting with the returning missionaries to teach them about PEF so they know that they can go to school and become prepared to get a good job that will support their future families and still allow them time to serve as leaders in the church and community. In developing countries where church membership is growing quickly it is very challenging to find people who have the time to serve in leadership positions. There is no retirement system here and most people must work as long as they live. It is difficult to find people who can serve as workers in the temple or are able to serve as senior missionaries.

We met a brand new couple last night while doing our laundry at the "Casa de Huespeds" (guest house) at the temple. They had been here for only 18 hours and found upon arrival that their mission has been completely changed. They left the MTC thinking that they would be on a proselyting mission in the West Mission. When they got here they were told they would be office missionaries in the East Mission. They seemed to be reeling a bit from more than lack of sleep...but they will be just fine. It seems we always want to know the path ahead of us but apparently the Lord doesn't always think that is important. We just keep moving forward, as wisely as we know how, but trusting that the Lord who can see everything will eventually get us to where we most want to go.

Meanwhile, life here and now is pretty great. We went to Puerto Plata and discovered it is a lovely resort town with a beautiful beach. We look forward to an opportunity to go back.

Are you ready for Conference?

We are very excited to have the opportunity to learn from conference today and tomorrow. We are able to view (or more likely just listen to) it in our home in English through the internet and we look forward to hearing from our new prophet, President Monson and all of the General Authorities. It is available here in all of the Stake buildings, but in Spanish of course. I noticed a church news item that said there would be a solemn assembly to sustain President Monson and his counselors. We all get to participate in that.

I took these photos of a plant with fern like fronds in front of the chapel in Villa Mella in the north part of Santo Domingo. Look how the fronds begin all tightly curled up and how they slowly uncurl to take their place in the ranks of the circles of fronds all around the plant.
I think we are all in the process of uncurling, reaching out and stretching ourselves. I hope we will take advantage of light and understanding from a source more reliable than what we usually have available to view on television. You can watch general conference on both Saturday and Sunday. Or anyday afterwards on the internet.

Sometimes we may feel out of step with the world--cars and motorcycles may be able to rush past us, the Metro can zoom by unobstructed overhead. But the important thing is our direction. We all need to head for what we really want, even if we can go somewhere else much faster and impress others with our mode of travel. We all want to go home. Let's contribute to a happy home here and now and remember we all have a loving Father who wants to welcome us back to our eternal home.

Love, Jeri/Mom/Stepmom/Grandma/Friend

Home and Friends

I have gotten positive feedback on the blog format so I will continue. We are beginning to feel at home here. I was asked about our apartment so I will include some photos of our home so you can see what it looks like. We are very excited that Emily and Susan are planning to visit us. Everyone is invited.

This is the dining "room", the space was obviously intended to be a balcony but it is enclosed now and part of the living room which is a good thing. The windows slide open and you almost get an outdoors experience. The only problem is that sitting down I can't see out of the windows but I can if I stand up. The ocean is to the left. They are building a new building beyond the longer wall. It is not very beautiful yet.



The living room has our two couches and coffee table. We placed the table in the corner because we need the space every morning for our "2 mile walk" DVD. We place the laptop on the dining room table and do our "walk" right here. The front door is out of sight on the right. I'm standing in the dining room to take the photo. We saw paintings in front of a house on one of our trips and stopped to ask about them. We talked to the three children and the Mom who showed us quite a few paintings. The one on the left was still wet so we came back a couple of days later to pick them up and met the man who painted them. They seem like a very nice family. The paintings are "folk art" type and depict rural life here in the Dominican Republic. You can see them more closely below.




Here is our kitchen. If you walk past the stove you are in the living room. I am standing in front of the refrigerator to take the photo of the sink. The long counter and the refrigerator face each other with maybe three feet between. I'm glad I am not cooking for lots of people but it works for us. We need to invite people over for a meal but we haven't done so yet. You can see the drinking water in 5 gallons bottles. Just tip and pour, s-l-o-w-l-y or you need to mop up the floor.

Here you can see where the second bathroom is--right in the living room. If you approach the kitchen and go right you enter the bedroom. There are three closets in the bedroom. We have all of our suitcases and the broom and mop and bucket in one and Lewis has his clothes in the second. I have a walk in closet that juts out into the room to the right of the computer table.

The bedroom is large and also has an air conditioner. We haven't used it much yet because we get nice breezes but I'm sure we will. We hang out here with the computers a lot. The bathroom has a tub with a shower. The water heater is only five gallons and you turn it on and off with a switch. The trick is remembering at the right time. The toilet and sink are not fancy but work just like at home. Life is good.

We have contacted all of the English speaking Perpetual Education Fund participants in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and a few other places for the second month. One girl has emailed back a couple of times. She emailed us this story, "Hello Elder & Sister Pettingill, Thank you guys for keeping me on my toes. I don't remember the exact month that I paid the money. But I did pay $500. Which I faxed the receipt to Sis. Frazer. My problem or weakness is procrastination and you know what the scriptures say about that. I keep saying that I will go tomorrow to the bank, then I keeping pushing it to another day. Till the month passes. However, I promise to be a lot more stronger and make it my responsibilty to pay monthly. My best friend works at Scotia Bank as a teller, so I plan to give him the money monthly to put to the PEF Account and he will then give me the receipt, so I can fax it to Sis. Frazer. Elder Pettingill, remember I told you I was at a family "Fun Day" at Church yesterday? It was fun! However when my husband and I were driving home, we met in an accident. We were on the highway and a van drove off the side walk and collided with us. I thought Lord, this is it. I am coming home. I thought I was going to die. My life flashed right before my eyes. Then I thought of Alma 5. I got married November 2007 and I said to my husband, if we had died in this car accident,this would have been it for our marriage and our love. But I thank Heavenly Father that He has spared our lives.We are coming to the Santo Domingo Temple to be sealed this year and to receive our endowments. We are both o.k but our car is badly damaged, however the offender has acknowledged that he was wrong and his insurance will fix our car. We really have a lot to be grateful for. I will pay some money today and fax the receipt to Sis. Frazer. School is great! I love learning! It's Fun! Hey! I was called to be the "Young Women President" for my branch. That is also going great too. It's just a bit challenging to get all the girls to be excited about their "PERSONAL PROGRESS". But hey," The Lord Gives Us No Commandment Unless He Has Prepared Away for Us to accomplish it".
Until Then! Take Care! Jesus is the Christ, He Lives and is mindful of each of us.
Love, Sis. Chrissie-Ann ..."

Chrissie-Ann sent us this photo of her and her husband. If I saw this photo I would think it was for a rap music video or something foreign to me. Now I'm learning that this photo is of a young couple married in Jamaica last November and eagerly awaiting their opportunity to come to the temple and be sealed. I'm not sure that most Young Women presidents would have that same facial expression in a photo but this one certainly has a testimony. She asked for a photo of us so I sent her one.

This is our friend and boss, Domingo Aybar. I like him very much. He is kind and cheerful and a great example of leadership and teaching skills. He has been a Bishop and a Stake President. He has a wife and three children and has earned his Master's Degree. He is employed by the church as the Area Welfare Manager and has responsibility for all of the Caribbean Area. He does a fair amount of traveling and teaches an Institute class every Thursday night. When you work for the church and have responsibility to train Priesthood leaders your job never ends-and he is the Bishop again in his ward. I'm sure his wife understands the frustrations of several of you with small children and busy husbands. Oh, my favorite part is that he speaks English very well. And his Spanish is clearly pronounced so I can understand almost all of that as well. He is a very fine man. Lewis said that he was reading a sales/finance book on the plane to Haiti. He has been infected with the American drive to invest and plan for the future and has a business with two locations selling motorcycles. He tells us that his wife is OK with him selling motorcycles but he can't ride one because they are too dangerous. I agree with her. He told us that is it almost impossible for an "older person" (someone in their 40's) to get a good job in the Dominican Republic and there is no such thing as a pension. I guess everyone who works for the church hopes to keep their job for a long, long time. Planning for the future is a good idea for all of us.

Lewis came home from the store with this bunch of sunflowers. He saw them and thought of Leiann. I'm sure someone was selling flowers to stopped cars at an intersection. You can buy a lot without ever entering a store. He insisted that I take a photo immediately and include it. What a good idea!--and they only cost $3.00. The only "vase" I could come up with was an empty 5 gallon water bottle.

Here are closer views of our paintings. There really are flowers in the trees here. I've seen people hang their laundry on stair railings and fences and bushes here in the city. I'm sure there are many people who still do laundry in the rivers. In fact we did see a group of people washing clothes and taking baths in swimming suits. Little kids were naked and having a great time splashing in the water. In the city they splash in blow up plastic wading pools like we do-only they don't have a yard. We ran over the hose one child was using driving by. It was a tiny narrow street with no other options. His Dad seemed to think that was perfectly normal. There are often things that surprise me here--like the time a pig ran across the street when we were driving out in the country, and the way they pile 6 passengers plus the driver into a taxi that was built to hold five people. There are no seat belt laws here for passengers or rights for pedestrians.
People here use their transportation efficiently. The more the merrier. We have always felt that way about our family and friends. Hope you are able to get together when the opportunity arises. We think of you often and love it when we get emails. Encourage the kids to write and ask us a question.

We are in charge of Family Home Evening in two weeks. Hope we think of something fun to do with just boring old adults.

Love to all of you,
The Pettingills