Sand Dunes And Exchanges

This last P Day we went out to the Sand Dunes which was a lot of fun! This was a good week, nothing super exciting happened. We had a few exchanges and just more work! Not a ton to write home about, so I'll just leave you these pictures! 

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Pettit

Eric Weddle, Tom Brady, Shakira, And Jesus Christ!

We had Zone Conference this week and got to have a special guest - Eric Weddle, the NFL safety who came out of retirement last year in the playoffs and became a Super Bowl champ! That was super cool, he spoke to us all for about an hour and shared a lot of awesome experiences he has had as a member of the church in the NFL, and how his faith has blessed him.

One of the APs (Elder Oligschlaeger, who is pictured in the pajama Polaroid) is a huge Tom Brady fan. He told me and some other missionaries a few weeks ago about his plan to get Tom Brady to take the missionary lessons. He knew we'd have Eric Weddle coming to zone conference soon, and Eric knows Tom. So this week, Elder O talked to Eric Weddle about how Tom Brady just isn't happy at this point in his life, despite all his success - similar to the emptiness Eric felt before he joined the church at Utah. So Elder O challenged Eric Weddle to write his testimony in a Book of Mormon and send it to Tom Brady. Eric said absolutely he will do it, and he said "I'll text Tom and say, 'I'm sending you a package, please take this seriously.' Pray for Tom Brady that his heart will be softened everyone! Haha

We've had a great week here in Calexico. We were able to get a few more inactive members to church on Sunday. We also had a few miracle lessons, two of which happened last night. In one of them, we were finally able to get into the house of a woman named Stephanie. We got in and her husband and two other family members joined us. One of the daughters name was Shakira, so cool haha. 

We had planned on teaching them the Restoration, but it just didn't seem right, so I switched to just introducing the Book of Mormon and explaining how it and the Bible both testify of Christ. We read part of 3 Nefi 11 together, then we watched the new Book of Mormon Video for that chapter. We explained that although we can't feel the marks in Jesus' hands like the people in the video did, we can know Christ by reading the Book of Mormon. It was an awesome lesson with an awesome family. 

If you guys haven't seen it already, go search YouTube for "3 Nephi 11:1-17 Book of Mormon". We used it in another lesson this week with a member father and his two non member daughters, and it made the dad cry. 

Love you guys, have a great week

Elder Pettit

He Lives And Loves Me To The End!

Hey everyone!

We have been calling lots of members and trying to set up lessons. We set up a lesson with an less active man, and we planned to review the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him. We chatted for a bit to get to know him and he told us about his conversion and about some things that are keeping him from coming back to church. My companion called an audible and changed the lesson plan to share a story from the Bible where Jesus did not condemn the sinner, only the sin, and invited the person to change. It was a similar situation as this brother was in. I was horrified that we were going to offend him and make things worse, but it turned out really well, and we invited him to church on Sunday.

Saturday night, I find out I am speaking in church on Sunday, so I prepared a few thoughts and scriptures. I was also going to play the piano in sacrament meeting beccause there is nobody in the ward that can play. I've been practicing to learn a few more hymns, but I played the ones I know best this first week. As I was speaking I noticed that the less active member we had a lesson with had shown up! My companion went and sat by him.

I played the hymn "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" for the closing song. My companion told me later that as I was playing, the brother he was sitting with wasn't singing, but he was reading the words in English (The songs are sung in Spanish). He told my companion, "The words to this song are phenomenal!", and he began to sing. After the song, he told my companion, "I wish I could play the piano." Small as our ward is, everyone welcomed him back with hugs and handshakes, and it was just awesome to see.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Pettit

      I know that my Redeemer lives.

      What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

      He lives, he lives, who once was dead.

      He lives, my ever-living Head.

      He lives to bless me with his love.

      He lives to plead for me above.

      He lives my hungry soul to feed.

      He lives to bless in time of need.

     

      He lives to grant me rich supply.

      He lives to guide me with his eye.

      He lives to comfort me when faint.

      He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.

      He lives to silence all my fears.

      He lives to wipe away my tears.

      He lives to calm my troubled heart.

      He lives all blessings to impart.

     

      He lives, my kind, wise heav’nly Friend.

      He lives and loves me to the end.

      He lives, and while he lives, I’ll sing.

      He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

      He lives and grants me daily breath.

      He lives, and I shall conquer death.

      He lives my mansion to prepare.

      He lives to bring me safely there.

     

     

      He lives! All glory to his name!

      He lives, my Savior, still the same.

      Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

      “I know that my Redeemer lives!”

      He lives! All glory to his name!

      He lives, my Savior, still the same.

      Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

      “I know that my Redeemer lives!”

Week One In Calexico

Well, this last week flew! We have been pretty busy. There is a lot of clean up to do here in just about every way. The apartment and the area book were both a big mess. We have been grinding to make this apartment super clean and organized, cleaning stuff that I think has legit been there for over a decade, including a pee-stained bedsheet that was pinned to the wall of our study room, signed by all the previous Elders that lived here. In the trash!!

We have been spending lots of time calling and visiting all of the people in our teaching pool to find out who is actually interested and who should not be in the teaching pool. So it's been a grind of a week, but it's been good. 

Calexico ward is interesting. It's both English and Spanish, and most of the active members and ward council members are implants from El Centro, the town north of Calexico. Our ward council meeting consisted of two main conversation topics. The first was what to do about a 29 year old leaky fridge in the church building. Bishop wanted to take a look at it and try to fix it while everyone else wanted to just replace it. After that 15 minute debate, we then talked about starting a ward activity night to bring back inactive members and get friends to the church. 

We all agreed it'd be best to have food at the activity, and someone listed some suggestions, including toastadas. One of the Mexican counselors who doesn't like to speak Spanish said pretty forcefully, "I HATE toastadas!" It was a funny meeting for sure. As the discussion went on, the ward clerk, a nice old black man, kept repeating, "Make a plan, execute it." I'll never forget that ward council haha!

It was a good first week, lots of work to do here. Elder Harmer, the missionary whose training I am finishing, is very coachable and wants to learn everything he can. So this has been awesome so far.

Well, I hope everyone is having a good week. Let me know if there is anything exciting going on for yall!

Love you all

Elder Pettit 

Back To The Valley!

Transfers came today!

I left South Bay, my area that I've had for the last 3 transfers. My new area is Calexico, which is in the Imperial Valley, just south of where I started my mission! It feels so weird to be back! I'm right on the border again. This transfer I will be follow up training Elder Harmer, he is from Ohio. I will also be district leading now instead of zone leading. This will likely be my final area, I just have 3 transfers left.

We had some final lessons with some of my favorite members and friends we were teaching in South Bay this week, it's always sad to say goodbye! I have loved my mission so much. Getting transfered is always the worst though, it feels like Day 1 all over again, especially when you go back to where you started!

I know there's more work to do here, I'm excited to get to it! 

Love you all

Elder Pettit