December 26, 2011 "Joyeux Noel!"

Joyeux Noël!!!!!

 

Well Im going to keep this email short and sweet, a. because the keys on this keyboard are lame and its difficult to type and b. I just talked to you a few hours ago!!!

 

Im trying to think of how to sum up this week. Everyone talks about how amazing Christmas is as a missionary, and generally I think Christmas is pretty amazing...so I wasn't sure how it could get much better. Then this week ended up a little frustrating. First, Brussels public transportation went on strike...which left us and all stressed-out Christmas shoppers walking...which meant, a. we had to cancel alot of rendezvous...an b. we were left to do finding in our highly muslim neighborhood. Then even on good days it seemed like everyone we had rendezvous with either ended up in the hospital ( I know I should have more sympathy...but after the third person it seeme a little ridiculous) or they had family over and didn't understand that we are ok with that...we can teach their family too. haha

 

But then Christmas Eve came, and we were eating dinner at a members house, and they put in Mr. Kruger's Christmas. Call me cheesy, but there is a scene where he is at Christ's birth and talking with Christ. He thanks him an calls him his best friend. And all the sudden, I felt that too. Christ is my best friend, and I cant even count the things he's done for me, or ever repay him. And all of the sudden I felt so full of missionary pride (the good kind) and Im so grateful for the opportunity to introduce Christ to people who don't know him yet. Even when it means long nights of going from door to door in Muslim neighborhoods.

 

So there you go. Judge me- my Christmas miracle didn't come through an investigator or contacting; it came through an old, cheesy church film...that made me remember the real purpose Im in Europe, attempting to mumble french, and going a year and a half without sleeping in. After that...the disappointments of the week seemed like such a small price to pay for being involved in this amazing work.

 

And thats it. My missionary Christmas...pretty simple. But not near as simple as the very first Christmas. I hope you all had time this week to reflect of our brother, our friend, our Savior.

 

I love you all!

Soeur Smith

December 19, 2011 "You're Absolutely Right"

Well....

 

Alright. So this week I'm feeling spazzy (whats new) and stressed about writing an email. The past week was crazy...the coming week will be crazy...and best of all...THIS SUNDAY IS CHRISTMAS!!! Ill try and organize my thoughts into some sort of email...

 

I'm feeling alot of pressure to make this week the CHRISTMAS experience of my life (thats alot of pressure on one little day)...but so far its turning out to be that way. This week was amazing.

 

I'll start off with Tom...who's real name is Kedenettse (Tom is her family name...but its easier for americans to say...but we finally had her teach us how to say her really name lol). She is amazing! We taught her the word of wisdom and law of chastity this week. When we came back later in the week she had given up coffee no problem, and called her boyfriend in Africa and told him they have to get married...and he said OK! (I will for sure be flying to Botswana for that wedding haha) I love investigators who WANT to keep commitments! My favorite part of our rendez vous are her prayers...that seems to be the best time to really see what investigators are understanding. She said things this week like "thank you God for sending the sisters and helping me feel like one of them" and "please help other people to understand that God comes first in life". She is just so good. When we first met her we thought she wasn't understanding things because she is very quiet...but she is just really thinking things over...and gets it! This week she told she's been thinking about what we talked about at church (spirit world) because her brother died and she wants to know what happened to him. Now she wants to go to the temple with his name. Im sorry if Im just oozing with random stories...but I feel like I can just see the light shining inside of her and its amazing. We love her.

 

I also had exchanges in Versailles this week. The houses are huge!!! (you know and there is that really big one where some dude named Louis the 16th lived or something or other....) ya it was my freak out over real houses on steriods. But ya..good exchange lol.

 

Random brain thought: So you all wrote about the gernande guy in Liege. I'll tell you what I've heard from the Liege missionaries. So sisters were serving in Liege until the middle of last transfer when a sister had to go home for health problems. So this transfer there are two elder equipes there. Well the day of the bombing was district meeting day...and the missionaries should have come out of thier meeting and gotten on the bus and would have been near the bombings right at that time. But there bus never came...they waited and waited...and just decided to go back into the church and eat lunch. Little did they know they were being protected. So there were no members, investigators, or missionaries near the event... It is a very sad thing (we don't even really know the extent of it..we just heard the missionaries side...and from talking to people on the metro) but I feel blessed and protected knowing that the missionaries were protected. Keep those people who were hurt and killed in your prayers (I hear there are some in the hospital?)

 

This week has also had its very funny moments. I have to start with explaining an inside joke. Last transfer there was a missionary here would say "your absolutely right" in a very funny way...and somehow its just got on in our district and when you have admit your wrong...you just say "your absolutely right". OK...so we have had a bet going with the elders of when it was going to snow. The elders guessed it would snow on December 16th and we guessed the 21st. Well the morning of the 16th I have to admit I ran to the window and saw....rain. BAHAHAH. For some reason or another we talked to the elders several time that day on the phone...and everytime we would tell them we were still winning because it hadn't snowed yet. So finally one elder said "I bet by 8:30pm it will be snowing". Well Soeur Murray and I were outside from about 6 to 8 and it was slushing...but you cannot call it snow. But the wind was blowing...and my umbrella broke...to the point where it could not be used. So here I was standing on the street corner, with a broken umbrella, soaking wet, when Soeur Murray told me to look up. And what did I see. SNOW. Then a little girl skipped past us singing "le niege! le niege!" It was just all too ironic. We were killing ourselves laughing when the phone rang at 8:27. It was the elders. All I could say was "your absolutely right".

 

Another funny moment(s) this week. Soeur Murray and I have been trying to take advantage of the Christmas spirit and have been calling everyone we can, old amis, less actives, etc. and asking if we can come over and share a Christmas message. Well I kid you not...almost every single "christmas rendezvous" has resulted in people telling us that in FACT Christ was not born in December, and so they don't understand why we were are talking about Christ's birth at Christmas time....ya! At first we would defend ourselves...saying things like "ya we know, he was born in April...but its tradition". But after a lady told us that's silly, her birthday is in May, she doesn't celebrate her birthday in October, we got a little sick of it. Now we just say "Your absolutely right...but we're going to share a message about Christ anyways". I mean really...I didn't think the meaning of Christmas was THAT lost.

 

But it is not lost for us! The miracles keep coming and I just feel so blessed to be a missionary right now! We had stake conferance a couple weeks ago and an area authority from Germany shared a story about just after the end of the Cold War. They had been in eastern Germany...and after the war his family moved to western Germany. There in the middle of the square of the town they moved was a giant picture of Karl Marx with a speach bubble that said "Sorry...it was just an idea". He spoke of how much damage trusting in the ideas of men can be; be we can be sure that the Prophet will never, ever say "Sorry...it was just an idea". I am so grateful for Christ's church. That I live in a time when it is on the earth, and I that I get to be a little part of sharing that with the world. I love my Savoir Jesus Christ and I am so grateful for this time of year to yet again reflect on Him and His wonderful life. When those confusing and tempting ideas of the world come along...I know I can look to the Light of the World and say "your absolutely right".

 

Joyeux Noël!!!!

Soeur Smith

 

December 11, 2011 "Christmas Devotional"

Joyeux Noël!!

Dont really know where to start for this week. I feel like we had alot of random moments...lets see...

Monday night we had a rendezvous with our part member family. The 15 year old is awsome...well not in an obvious way. She is really hyperactive and its hard to get her attention...but then she throws out questions like "if Jesus is so important, why does no one talk about him" (ya...thats why we are there!), "what is my purpose in life", "how does Heavenly Father answer my prayers?"... those are the kind of questions we dream about! Anyways...it was a good lesson.Things will be petite à petite with her...but I think once she realizes how key her questions are things will be good. Our night was slightly ruined afterwards however when all tram and metro drivers decided to go on strike and we waited in the cold until 10:45 at the tram stop until we found a very kind member to leave thier nice warm house and pick us up....I swear as an RM I will rescue the missionaries in anyway possible! We got our laughs however when Sister Murray got so cold she put her mittens on her feet...yes I documented it with pictures.

TUESDAY IN PARIS!!!! We returned to my old stomping grounds for Christmas zone conferance! It was so fun!!! Really more of a party than a zone conferance...after the spiritual message we finished the night with food and white elephant gifts! AND a stocking with presents from President and Sister Poznanski...including letters from Mom and Dad...thank you! I had to wipe away a few tears before heading back into the meeting...but I don't think I was the only one secretly sniffling not from a cold lol.
And while waiting for our train we might have snuck in a quick walk to Notre Dame which right now has a giant tree in front of it. It was absolutely beautiful. I love Brussels...but Paris is a world of its own.

Speaking of Christmas....HOLY COW THE BOX IS HUGE! Luckily I am serving in Brussels with some really nice elders and Sister Posnanski found a GIANT bag to help them carry it...so the box is officially back in Brussels! Don't worry I took pictures of it to document the journey!

I can tell this whole mission thing is really sinking into my brain. Every night I had some sort of wierd mission dream. My favorite was I dreamt it was the end of the world (I guess in 2012) and only 8000 people survived all the natural disasters...and I turned to my companion and I said 'This is great...it will take like no time at all to convert 8000 people'. Bahaha....you know what Im worried about....

Other than that things were pretty normal this week. Well normal for a mission. Staying true to the spirit of Brussels we kepts things pretty international this week. We attended a Dutch baptism. We taught the Rodrigez family again (I thought african-french accents were bad...spanish-french is for some reason so difficult for me!) Tom came to church (hurray!!) and said the prayer in Swetswana for sunday school. We went to a European Christmas Market and tried to contact people and remind them of the real meaning of Christmas...It was a good week overall.

Last night I had one of those 'being used as a tool in the Lord's hands' moments. We had planned on going to the Christmas devotional with a part-member family. We called them to tell them we were on the way to pick them up and they told us they weren't going to be able to make it. Disapointed, we decided since we were in the area, we would go to an excommunimated members home. She isn't a member, but her kids are. We got there and she was laying on the couch, sick. She had been sick for about a week, and said she had just finished reading her scriptures and praying, and then we knocked on the door. We read with them from the cartoon Book of Mormon, and her daughter asked if she could borrow the book for a week, and she promised she would read it in a week if she would be allowed to borrow it. It was really tender. We finished with singing a few Christmas songs, and the spirit was really strong. As we left, the mom said 'I think the spirit sent you here tonight'. We had our own Christmas devotional.

Its Christmas season, so naturally we've been showing everyone possible the 'Joy to the World' DVD. I was thinking this week about exactly how Christ brought joy to the world. That's an awful big responsibilty. I think if you looked around through the world's eyes you would say, its hard to find joy in the world. But that's just it, once we stop looking through the eyes of the world, and start accepting Christ in our life...we can't help but have joy! I know this paragraph is getting a little preachy- so I'll save you from my brain ramblings... and just finish with how grateful I am for this gospel and the joy it brings me. And I hope you all are feeling a little bit of seasonal joy!
If not...go read your scriptures! lol...but seriously.

Love you! Miss you!
Soeur Smith

December 4, 2011 "Alma and Abinidi"

Bonjour!

Sounds like Christmas is getting underway back home! Once there is a Christmas tree present you know things are serious... haha. So apparently here in Belgium the kids are double dipping in the Christmas goody jar....because St. Nicolas comes and visits them on the 6th of December with presents...and Père Noël comes on the 25th...and we have seen St. Nicolas roaming the streets this week...he is very....european??? I'll try and take a picture for you....

I feel like this week has been one of those that I'll look back at in my journal and think 'those are some pretty cliché missionary experiences right there'. If you want the shortened version of my week...you can skip down to the second to last paragraph. Thats the part where I learn my lesson. If you want the full-length version...well here ya go.

We started this week off with alot of hope. We planned on fixing five baptisimal dates this week! Monday starts off. So President gave us permission to have Pday all day long on Monday, instead of ending at 6, so that the elders could have the traditional 'turkey bowl' (I say its for the elders because really I couldn't care less...but alas I got roped into playing football...again.) But Jean-Claude and Claudine, the african family we've been working with could only meet on Monday nights. So naturally we sacrificed our all day Pday to go and meet with them. We were really excited because we were pretty sure they were ready to fix baptismal dates. Well, we got there. Taught a perfect restoration lesson, then their friend walks in. Asks what the Book of Mormon is. Restart. Meanwhile Claudine gets up and starts to make dinner. We teach him a scattered first lesson. Then get invited in for dinner.

Pause. So the whole time we've been in Brussels, when members ask to eat at their house, they ask what we don't like to eat. And I say fish.

Play. There were giant fish HEADS sitting on the table. So first they served us rice and vegetables, with sauce from the fish heads on it. So I thought I got out of actually eating the actual fish head, they just cooked it for the sauce. But then once we were done. She served me a nice big fish head. Its beady little eyeball stared at me the whole time. I was officially gagging. But I thought...well if they get baptized this is all worth it. So, just as we were finishing eating, Soeur Murray somehow turned the subject spiritual again and asked if they would prepare to be baptized. They said it was too soon......Its not a no right??? We were still pretty disappointed...and fish face was squirming around inside of me. Short pday, fish head, and no baptizimal date....

So we figure that's ok. Our part-member family will be ready to fix baptisimal dates. And we thought of this great idea that the dad could prepare to be worthy to baptize his daughters. We got there on Thursday night...things are great. The father said a beautiful prayer...he asked if he and his wife could one day prepare to be couple missionaries. My heart started pounding....litterally beating out of my chest. I knew it was time. I asked if we could start to teach his girls to get them ready for baptism, and if he would like to prepare to do the baptism.........he told me that would take a long time. Again not a flat out no....right?

Alright round three. Tom, our nanny miracle. We invite her to baptized. Another 'oh its too soon'. Ok understandable...she is taking this seriously and told us she needs to know if 'the book is true' first. I can respect that. Its not a flat out no...right?  She was finally going to be able to come to church this week. She texts us on Saturday night. Her boss (she is a live in nanny) has told her she isn't allowed to meet with us anymore and she can't come to church. We call her and tell her we can come over on Sunday and introduce the church to her boss. This is actually a happy story. Her boss was very nice and actually just nervous about having random people come to his home during the day when his kids were home, and worried about her safety. He told us that he and his wife and Tom will try to come to church next week and they will 'look at' the material we gave him aka the Book of Mormon. Tom meanwhile told us that 'she has been reading the book like crazy' and 'doesn't want to go to the other Christian churches her boss suggested, she wants to go to this one'. She's more ready than she knows....

I'm sure your reading this and thinking that the big lesson I need to learn is patience. The people we are teaching are ready...just I guess I've forgotten that the rest of the world doesn't run on a transfer scheadule and sometimes sticky miracles take more than 6 weeks to play out. I guess as missionaries we are just so immersed in praying and thinking about these people, I forget that a month to join a church is a fast transition....so I guess I need to stop being so demanding and expecting miracles to play out before 'transfer day'. So summary of the week: everyone is progressing. People are keeping their committments. And they were all sent into my life to teach me patience. I was reading about Abinidi and Alma this week and I was thinking how curious it is that Abinidi went out preaching to the people...and they killed him. Then Alma went out preaching to the exact same people, and they were willing to sacrifice everything- leave their country and meet in secret- just to hear the word of God. What changed? My conclusion is that everything happens on God's timing. Abinidi prepared the way for Alma. But Alma saw the fruits. Doesn't mean it was easy for Alma. He still had to sneak around, risk his life, do some major repenting, and work hard to teach people. But Abinidi had to pave the way. I guess that's how missionary work is. In some towns you get to be Alma- work hard and see your fruits. Sometimes your Abinidi...work hard and get majorly rejected. Both are neccessary. And both are Book of Mormon heros for me.

Other miracles this week. Sometimes we just have so many..... Cecilia Rodrigrez (the one who's sister refered her to us, and her 4 kids) came to church! And called her sister to get her there! And after being served an african fish meal a second time this week, an American family made us chicken enchildas on Sunday. Tender Mercies.

Love you! Miss you!
Soeur Smith

November 28, 2011 "Thanksgiving in Abundance"

Happy Thanksgiving à tous!

Well kinda...for my American family out there... haha. This week our ward went all out and I ate more turkey than I've ever desired...we had three different Thanksgiving dinners! I guess having a mostly American ward has its advantages...

This week I felt like I had one of those 'real missionary moments' of seeing people change and come unto Christ. I can't remember how much I've told you about the less-active, part-member family we've been working with. But basically they have been less active for 5+ years and so two of their three girls have not been baptized. The youngest just turned eleven... and is seriously the french version of Kaila. She and I are best friends. She teaches me all sorts of fun french words...anyways...when we first got here Soeur Murray saw their name on the ward list and felt like we needed to go pass by them. We stopped by several times, getting to know the family little by little...and finally worked our way up to a fixed rendezvous with them. Well last week was our rendezvous and it was very intresting...the dad told us he was not intrested at all in coming back, but if his family wanted to go he wouldn't stop them. The wife said she understood that, but she didn't want to have to deal with coming to church and then coming home to his anti attitude. Well then last week she came to church with their youngest daughter. This week we had another rendezvous...and it was amazing. He had completely changed...he expressed to us that he really wants to come back, but he wasn't sure that he could. We assured him that he can. By the end of the rendezvous that had promised to pray together as a family every day and he had asked for a priesthood blessing. Well this week he came to church...and the ward was amazing! Welcomed him and involved him immediately. It was so good. I feel so blessed to work with this family and to see the miracle and change that can happen in just one week!

We also had an amazing rendezvous with a refferal. This family was referred to us because the mom is the sister of a member of the ward. When we showed up at the house the mom and the four kids were very friendly and excited to see us. Apparently the mom had to been to church a few years back but because she lives a little out of the way, the missionaries never came by. We had an amazing rendezvous and told them the first vision story. Afterwards we asked what they thought, the 18 year old son told us that 'well its intersting...I think someone would have to know for themselves if its true'. He is exactly right! We gave him his own copy of the Book of Mormon and he just kept turning it over and over in his hands and flipping through the pages and telling us how excited he is to read it.

Soeur Murray and I have been talking alot this week about how it feels like in our mission we get so excited when just ANYone is interested in listening to us...then lots of times we end up baptizing people who are not completely ready, or are the only member of thier family and end up struggling. In the wards Ive served in, we then end up with these recent-convert, less-actives who don't have testimonies and are difficult to work with. I don't mean to diminish them at all...its just hard on the wards to support pages and pages of these less-actives. I think whitewashing has been a good experience for us because we've really had to listen to the spirit when trying to decide which amis are really progressing...and which just aren't ready to progress quite yet. Its hard on missionaries too- to pray for and prepare for and teach people who just aren't ready to progress and keep committments... because you learn to love these people you never want to give up on them. I guess the product of my whole ramble is that I have just felt so blessed this week to work with people who really have been prepared by the Lord and are ready to progress. You can feel the spirit with them and know they are taking your message seriously. These are the amis we're looking for...its just hard sometimes to have the faith to turn down a person is willing to have rendezvous with you...to go knock on doors or go contacting to find the one that will take you seriously. But its worth it.

Well that's my missionary wisdom for the week. I guess since I hit HALF WAY this week it has some legitamcy... but probably not because I still have so much more to learn and do here! Lots more people to trouve!

Love you and miss you!
Soeur Smith

November 21, 2011 "It's always, always, ALWAYS the last house on the street"

Bonjour!

 

So at the beginning of this transfer I made a deal with Brussels. I said it was allowed to get cold on November 23rd (transfer day) and to snow on December 21st (the first day of winter) and today the sun is shining...So so far the deal is still on! I just need to keep praying for my luck to last...I didnt think commanding the skies would actually work. I guess my opinion has a little more wieght as a missionary...haha

 

This week has been full of miracles! To explain I need to give a little background. When President Poznanski became our mission president he started changing a few things in the mission. One of them was dinner hour. With President Staheli we were allowed to have dinner hour from 8 to 9 and then do planning from 9 to 9:30. Oh no, Im about to get into some dirty details about missionary life. The "missionary rule book" says that dinner is supposed to be over by 6, but your mission president can change any rules according to culture, etc. Our mission is so spread out that it takes a while to get home for dinner hour and then back out again, so it was more logical to have dinner hour at eight, then just stay in for the night. Following? Ok so President Poznanski changed that rule because from 6-9 is when families are home, so he told us to 'make a concerted effort' to finish dinner by 6 when possible so we can be out with the people at night.

 

Ok background info over. So after zone conferance, Soeur Murray and I did some reflecting about our dinner hours. We were generally done pretty early, but just how our rendezvous were working out, we would have lunch around two, so then have dinner at five seemed ridiculous, so we were fixing lots of rendezvous for nighttime and just coming home around 830 and eating. President Kapishka shared stories from his mission, where he made an effort to be knocking doors every night from 6-8, because that is when families are home, then fix rendezvous at 8. SO Soeur Murray and I decided to just experiment and see how it works. So instead of planning as many rendezvous as we could at night; we planned being out every night!

 

Im not going to lie. As a missionary, your planner becomes your life. Its kind of an obsession. To look through the week and see NOTHING planned everynight...its a bit terrifying. But as President Staheli once said "There is nothing more exciting than an empty planner, because then the Lord can direct your time". So Monday started off. We come in from Pday...it was dark and cold...and we had to go right back out to do finding. When our carbon monoxide alarm starts going off. After having a minor freak out...we think we figured out it was just the battery dying. But to make sure...we had to go to the store to buy a new one. It was looking like our 'concecrated finding' was ruined from day one. So we decided we were going to try our 'grocery store' contacting. Store Number One: After playing dumb and asking three different families where the batteries are and asking them to teach me the word for battery in french and trying to bring up the gospel...we decided we had lingered long enough and were starting to look creepy and should go to the next store. Store Number Two: repeat scene of number one. Bus Stop: me feeling frustrated that our entire night had gone towards buying a battery...so I just sat next to lady at the stop and started chatting. Result: she's seen the missionaries lots and always wondered who we were and took a Book of Mormon.

Miracle Number One: the Lord directs us where we need to be...even if its by a carbonmonoxide detector (ps..it was the battery..we are still alive!)

 

The rest of the week was full of other miracle moments. People really are home at that time...and although its cold out (which seems to make people close thier doors faster...rather than invite us in...) we had some amazing experiences! Wednesday night we went back to a home which we had knocked on the door about a week ago, and daughter was home and told us her mom would be interested if we could come back. But when we came back the mom just slammed the door in our faces. SO we took the bus to another neighborhood. We went from door to door for about an hour. It was getting late, and as a joke I said to Soeur Murray 'well its always the last house on the street, lets finish this street then go home'. Towards the end of the street, the second to last and third to last houses had no lights on....so with all of our missionary clichés running through our heads we skipped to last house on the street. The lady answered. She was muslim. BUT she told us her nieghbor would be interested.(that we had skipped) We ran to second to last house on the street. No answer. As one last attempt. We went to the third to last house on the street. She answered. Her name is Tom ( non native english speaker...chose and english name...they always choose boy names!). Tom let us in. She listened to our explanation of the Book of Mormon. She wants to know more. We are teaching her again this week!

IT IS ALWAYS THE LAST STREET ON THE HOUSE (or at least the last one of the night). Lessons Learned: dont skip houses, and dont go contacting until 845 because then the 'last house' will come alot faster. JUST KIDDING.

Miracle Number Two: Tom

 

I wish I had time to share so many more stories. But Im sure at this point shaking your head thinking 'oh Soeur Smith'... so I'll just share with you one more story. We went to teach a family this week that we've had good contact with, but the mom and dad are never home at the same time so we haven't been able to teach the family. We had a rendezvous fixed...but when we got to their house they weren't home. Rejected we went to pass by another ami. She wasnt home. Rejected encore, we felt like we should back and visit family number one again. We walked all the way back...again they weren't home. We left them a note PROMISING they would be blessed if they made the effort to be at church. Two hours later...we got a call. Jean-Claude (the dad) told us he was really sorry they had missed us and the promised they would be at church!

 

And they came! They came, and the part member family we've been working with came! And it was an amazing day at church. I dont know how to describe the joy that comes from seeing people come to church. We were beaming. It was amazing. This week I've just been feeling so grateful for the inspired leaders in the church and the amazing rite we have to personal revelation to apply the guidance they give us. Even if I tend to interpret thier guidance into spazzy plans like skipping to the last house and asking people for random words in french. I just have the faith the Lord is using my spazziness to put me in the path of people who are prepared for the gospel.

 

Oh and its a new transfer. And Im staying in Brussels for Christmas! Meaning this is Christmas transfer: donc in my books its christmas season, so Merry Christmas!

I love you.

 

Soeur Smith

November 14, 2011 "Awkward contacts"

Bonjour Bonjour!

 

How is everyone? I hope its sunny there...because although yesterday was foggy and dreary, Brussels repented this morning and the sun is out again. Im not exactly sure how long this is going to last so Im pretty excited.

 

This week was awkward. Let me explain. It started off amazing with Zone Coneferance with Elder Kapishku (sp?)... he is the area President. He started off the conferance with asking us to write down a question or a worry that we had. He then promised that by the end of the day we would have the answer to our questions. Each one of us. Then he announced that he nothing planned that day and he was simply going to follow the spirit for the next 6 hours while teaching us. It was amazing. He then made us promise that if we got the answers to our questions we would then have to challenge our investigators to church the same way; challenge them to write down a question and promise them that they would get the answer. He wanted us to promise people that church is always, well can always be, a revelatory experience. I got my answers. So our theme this week has been challenging everyone we meet with to write down questions and be prepared for church.

 

Another activity he did, was during our lunch break we were to go into a room with our companions and really pray about what our area needed at this time. And then fix goals appropriately. Along with other goals, Soeur Murray and I have been coming up with some interesting contacting techniques. The first is what we like to call 'grocery story contacting'. Our Relief Society president actually came up with this one. She came up to us one Sunday, and almost as if pleading asked us to find solid families for our ward. She said maybe try in grocery stores around six pm because that is when parents, with solid jobs are getting off work and stopping at the store to pick up dinner. So we tried just walking into some grocery stores, asking some nice looking people where things are, and trying to tie that into the gospel. We'll just say it led to some awkward moments and we have yet to find our groove in this type of contacting haha.

 

Another one we came up with is to pray in the morning for what our 'theme' is for the day. Elder Kapishka really stressed that we are not the ones out there preparing people for the gospel, that is what the angels are doing. Our job is to actually find the people who have been already prepared. So we've been praying extra hard, and more specifically for the Lord to help us find the people who have been prepared and are ready to progress in the gospel. We have fixed themes for ourselves such as 'puffy coats' or 'red jackets' or even 'teenage boys'...and then if we see that during the day we have to contact those people no matter what. Well we've had some amazing experiences...we've have found some families that hopefully are ready to progress. BUT this has also led to awkward moments such as running off the tram for a lady in a puffy coat and awkwardly trying to invite teenage boys to church without feeling creepy. Its been good.

 

As well Soeur Murray and I have been trying to be better about just talking to people in general without hesitating. This led to one of my favorite contacts ever. And one of the most awkward. I was holding a Book of Mormon and Soeur Murray asked to see it. I handed it to her and she asked the guy sitting next to her in the metro if he was believing. He didn't say anything and just kept staring forward. So she tried again, asked if he had ever met missionaries. He just started shaking his head. She asked more questions (not even yes or no questions) and he just kept shaking his head. Finally she asked 'is my accent to strong for you to understand'...at this point he just decided to ignore that she even exsisted.Not even tell her that he's not interested or anything. It was sufficiantly awkward. But I was so proud of her!

 

I also had some awkward contact this week when we, for the first time this transfer, went to Saturday sports with other missionaries and investigators.I've been anti to this whole idea because a. it involves me playing football. B. it involves me playing football. But we gave in after enough peer pressure. Well just say me running straight into a very tall elder and almost breaking my nose qualifies as very awkward contact haha.

 

And this week we had a very uncomfortable feelings as we somehow ended up being fed THREE TIMES in one day. It was awful. AWFUL. The last rendez vous even had three courses. We just had rendez-vous with people and for some reason they felt like it was neccessary to feed us. All of them. By the last house we were dying. That gave us very uncomfortable feelings for about the next three days. Good.

 

But overall a very good week, I had a very missionary moment when we going from door to door, and it was late and cold and we got to the last house of the street and it a giant gate around the house and a security system. We walked past the house and started to head for the bus stop, when I turned and said to Soeur Murray 'its always the last house...' so we went back and rang the intercom. Shockingly they buzzed us in...so we leaped to the front door...ready to give our message...when turns out they speak dutch. We gave them a family proclamation in french and we will be passing them to the Netherlands mission. haha...

 

So what have I learned from this week? A mission is just one big awkward moment...embrace it! Carpe Diem.

Love you all!

 

Soeur Smith

 

PS OH YA Christmas. Ok so apparently Belgium has a wishy-washy mail system. So the best bet for me getting a package is to send to the mission home. They can then give it to me at our Mission Christmas conferance. I don't know exactly when this is...but probably early December, so you'll want to get sent soon so it can get to the mission home on time. Or you could risk it and try sending it to me here in Belgium. OR if you happen to be going to the states in the next little while, a family in our ward has offered to let missionaries' families send things to thier NATO mailbox...which means you don't have to pay international fees. The address for that is:

Dave Holloway

PSC 81 Box 119

APO AE 09724

 

Just put my name on the box somewhere I guess.

 

BUT here is the other trick. Transfers are next week. SO with the chance that I'm getting transfered...its probably just better not to send anything to that address till after Saturday. So best bet...if you want to send things this week. Mail it to the mission home :) THANKS!

November 7, 2011 "Little Rays of Sunshine"

Bonjour!!!

Well our Halloween costume ended up being... Belgium Waffle with a fork! Haha...you might thing its wierd.But here they give you these funny little forks to eat your waffles with...so naturally if your going to dress up as a waffle...you have to have the fork as well! Ill try and include pictures....

This week as been an adventure...as usual. Alot of our rendez-vous fell through which means we spent alot of time finding........yup that means more wheres waldo moments and some good ol street contacting. Im pretty sure Soeur Murray is getting a little sick of me being amazed that there are actual houses here in Brussels...she keeps telling me that I was in Paris for too long and that a yard is not a novelty. I can't imagine what I'm going to be like when I get sent to some tiny town where houses are not only exisistant...but seperated from each other! (Brusells kind of looks like San Francisco style houses...nice and schmooshed together). Anyways...

During our contacting this week I feel like we've talked to an unusual amount of aethisist. To be honest...I hate those contacts. It makes me so sad. I just can't even imagine a life where you think that this life is it...I guess that's why we are out here! Still..I'm starting to relate to those scriptures about not being able to bear the thought of one soul being lost...

Our church had an open house this week. It went over pretty well! The ward has been working on this for a couple months now. I guess a common complaint from non members is that they can just walk into any other church at anytime and see what it is all about. But our church has a gate and a fence and is only open for a couple hours on Sunday. So the ward came up with this idea to let people come and see what the church is all about. For it being the first time, it went really well! We didn't have as many non members as we hoped, but the members were great and alot of people came out! There was one lady who stayed the whole time...but she is also currently studying with the Jehovah's Witness so we will see how it works out...

We had a little miracle this week amoungst all of our cancelled rendez-vous. So one of our first weeks here Soeur Murray and I went and passed by a less active family's house. We didn't know anything about them, other than thier name on the ward list. When we passed by they told us they would love to have us over, but its not considered polite in Belgium to just stop by at peoples homes (sorry as missionaries I think we choose to kindly ignore that social normality...among most other social faux-pas haha) So we went home and tried to call them...but the number didn't work. Since then we've passed by and left a couple notes for birthdays and different things. Yesterday, we decided to stop by again. Just the mom was home and one of her daughters.We were able to get in and spent about an hour and a half talking with them. They even said they had been waiting for our call so we could come over.  It sounds like they have kind of just been forgotten by the ward and went inactive because of some misunderstandings of doctrine. We also found out that two of the three teenage girls are not baptized because they were too young when the family went inactive. The girl is adorable, and wants to come to Young Womens this week! We are pretty excited...we are hoping that all this family needs is a little love and guidance and they can start coming back to church.

So that family is our ray of sunshine...along with the real sun that has somehow miraculously stuck around! Fall is beautiful right now...lots of leaves changing colours and brisk air. But this morning is foggy and cold...so I'm scared that winter is just around the corner. We hear rumors that its supposed to get down to -20°c this winter...not too excited about that. Ah well...we just need to find lots of investigators so we can spend all day inside teaching.

Find, find, find. That seems to be the answer to all our problems. :)
 love and miss you all!
Soeur Smith

PS another ray of sunshine. We totally ended up walking in the flemmish countryside for an hour trying to find a member's home...Mom tell Sister Burgess to tell Evan that he is SO lucky. It is SO pretty...stopping to take pictures was necessary. He's going to love it!

October 31, 2011 "Miracles that Stick"

Happy Halloween!!

 

Although walking around today you could have fooled me...I have yet to see a jackolatern or a witch anywhere in brussels (although Im looking at some pretty crazy cobwebs on the ceiling of this library - it has yet to be determined whether those are for decoration or not...)

 

This week we've continued seeing some pretty amazing miracles. On Tuesday we were sitting at the bus stop and this lady sat down next to us and saw our books of Mormon and said 'I have also that book...I have to lots to say, can we talk?'...Right...soo cool! then her bus comes and we hand our card...and we have yet to hear from her. We met with Richard this week....it was interesting. He can't really get over the fact that the Book of Mormon is 'at the same level' as the Bible...so we'll see what happens with that one. We contintued to have some pass-by miracles...almost everytime we've gone to just spontaniously pass an old ami or a less active they have been home! (that never happened in Paris!) oh and they let us in... the real miracle!We are getting a little more used to Brussells...we still walk around with our heads in our map book...and get a little lost (silly Brussells...why does EVERY street need a french name and a dutch name...thats just complicated...) BUT I think we only had to back track up and down a street once this week...its a record for sure.

 

But Im not going to lie I've been getting a little frustrated with our miracles this week. Every time we have a really good contact or find a less active...and we go another week without having a true progressing ami, a quote from President Staheli keeps running through my head...he said 'a miracle isn't a miracle unless it sticks'. AKA Its great to have miracle contacts and lessons, but unless it turns into something...then really they aren't true miracles. So with that running through my head I would like introduce you to the Quenten family.

 

Brother Quenten is active in the ward and he has two daughters, who are 8 and 12, and a son who is 3. We were told by our DMP that their mom is struggling so it would be good to stop by sometime. So Sunday afternoon we went to visit them, and asked them for their conversion story. They were baptized in 2005, but Brother Quenten met the sister missionaries on the bus 3 years before that. He kept their card for two years, after going from church to church he found their card in the bottome of some drawer and gave the missionaries a call. Two elders came over and taught him, and he told them that they were crazy and the Book of Mormon could not be the same as the bible (sound familar?) ...but after they left he picked up one day and read it. A year later...he called the missionaries again and wanted to be baptized.

 

I can just picture all those missionaries along the way...just thinking their miracles weren't sticking...but now this family has been sealed in the temple and its dramatically changed their lives. I hate having the attitude of 'we're just planting seeds'...we were told in the MTC we are sent to baptize...not just plant seeds...So everytime we exhaust ourselves trying to teach someone, I can't help but think we're not doing everything, we need to do more than leave warm fuzzies all over Belgium and France. But sometimes that's all we can do...we work on the Lord's timeline not on 'transfers'. SO, to answer your question...no Richard is not leaping into the baptisimal font...but my new approach to things is 'on sais jamais'....

 

This week has been entertaining as well...we went porting for my first time (going door to door)...since it wasn't allowed in Paris this was my first experience. It turns out that its kind of like playing Where's Waldo. We ring the doorbell or the intercom, then we take two steps back and wait for someone to pop out of some window somewhere on the building. Then you awkwardly yell your message from the street. It gets pretty entertaining...you never know who's going to pop out of where haha. Also may result in a sore neck by the end of the night....

 

Two holidays this week...daylight savings and Halloween...yes daylight savings is a holiday because we got an extra hour of sleep...it was glorious. Halloween...my costume has yet to be determined...but there is a pretty good chance I'll be going to the FHE party as a gouffre or a Petite Prince character...got to live up being in Belgium while you can!

 

As always, I love you and miss you all! Your in my prayers!

 

Soeur Smith

 

October 24, 2011 "Hitting the Ground Running"

Bonjour (if you extra emphasize that RRRR at the end, then you'll sound belg ;))

 

I thought it would be appropriate to start of this week with a Harry Potter analogy. So, last week I apologize if my email sounded pretty scattered and crazy. I feel like I grabbed onto a portkey and was whirling around being pulled in every direction, but today I think I hit the ground when we came out of the metro and had the feeling like 'hey..I actually recognize this place!'...well then I was sent whirling when we had to talk to the nice man at the library and I could not understand his french. Dang it, when france decided to spread its language it should have spread its accent too!

 

Anyways, things here in Bruxelles have been pretty crazy and busy! I love whitewashing...we have an excuse to call everyone in the ward and say 'hey..we're new...can we come over?' ...works wonders. This week we've met with alot of members and its been really good. We've gotten more of a feel of how the ward functions and how the members actually feel about the unity in the ward. (apparently it used to be alot worse...I guess thats a good sign haha) Anyways, we've had a miracle week (although that's kind of starting to feel normal...I know...Im in a missionary bubble)

 

This week our DMP (ward mission leader) and his family came up with a plan with us to get the work going in this ward. We prayed every night at the same time and fasted one day this week for the work. But rather than pray that we can find those people who are ready, we've been praying that those who are ready will find us or the members. When we visit members homes we've been challenging them to join us. Its been an amazing experience. We've passed by several members/ old amis and have been able to get into homes that other missionaries haven't been able to in a few years. We've identified several part member families and hopefully will begin to start to teaching them this week.

 

Then on Sunday, we had probably the most obvious miracle. We were heading out of our apartment building and said hi to a man walking by. He stopped us and said 'do you have a message for me?' .......Ya......it took Soeur Murray and I about 30 seconds to stop gapping and say 'yes a matter of fact, would you like to come to church?' Imagine how we were even more shocked when he said yes! He told us he needed to go home and shower and then he would come...and he actually came! Despite awkward amis class with the type of lesson you dont want amis to be there for and the wierd english/french translations going on...he loved it! It was the primary program...and he said afterwards he really felt the spirit in our church and it was amazing to see children with such a strong belief in Christ! I was so grateful for the simple testimonies those children had offered. Anyway, our new friend Richard asked ever so politely if he would be allowed to come back next week AND bring his dad!!! Ya...Soeur Murray and I are still recovering from the shock.

 

We've had some adventures as well. Like the time we were trying to find a members home, got off the metro at number 200 on the street...she lives in the 700...that was a nice jog. And after she showed us the 'closer' bus to her home...that required wandering through some swampy woods and waiting for a bus to pop out of nowhere like the knightbus (haha cant stop with the Harry Potter). I got to go on exchanges in Liege with Soeur Woodward, we were in the MTC togther and it was SO fun! (understatement) And I got to see a little bit of the Belge countryside and try 'real' gouffres...apparently they are originally from Liege. And I hit 8 months! So crazy ...starting to feel like Ill always feel like Im a 'new' missionary. Then one day its over. I guess its like when my mom tells me she was 'just' in high school... I guess Im hitting the 'middle age' of my mission years...and it just keep getting better!

 

Well...I love you all. And apparently Tin Tin or something like that is originally a Belge thing ...(Steven Spielsburg was here this week for the permier...we tried to contact him...but you know those Hollywood guys...just not interested..jk jk) so watch that movie and maybe it will let you know what my little home in Brussels is like (maybe not...I honestly know nothing about it haha) Miss you!

 

à tante tôt!!

Soeur Smith

 

 

October 17, 2011 "muzighakjgdqszchzh (no I didnt just hit random letters...thats dutch silly!)‏"

Well Bonjour à tous!

 

I'm not exactly sure how to describe this week. It started in Paris and ended in Bruxelles. Ya Im still wrapping my mind around it. I would describe the lengthy, messy process of leaving Paris...but I think I'll just leave it at... well, it was emotional.

So now Im here in the land of Belgium! To add onto my list of languages that I've encountered on my mission, lets add dutch and flemish! (yup there is a sign hanging above me right now that says...Overzicht van de hoofdrubeiken... go ahead.. google translate. Im in a library so Im assuming it has something to do with books...)

 

Remember in elementary school they would teach you that America is a melting pot?? Well they lied....Belgium is the current boiling soup of the world. I seriously don't even know how many languages I hear in one day. I wish I could say a dominant one was french, but its not. Its a little discouraging because I've gone from one very-American ward to the next. President Poznanski told me before I left Paris to 'forget I even know english, only function in french'...and I'm trying but it sure is hard when the Bishop, 2nd counselor, Relief Society President, Elders Quoram president, Primary Presidency, the Ward Mission Leader, and most of the youth and children are all american. Or at least not french speaking haha.

 

The ward is... curious. Im going to try not to be obnoxious and compare everything to Paris...but I need to in this circumstance to make my point. In Paris our Bishop anounced one Sunday that there were currently 27 different nationalities represented in our ward. Yet somehow it was a very high functioning ward. However, here there are countless nationalities and its a very divided ward. Its definately lacking unity. The Americans stick to themselves. Most are here because of jobs with NATO and so they live in American communities, with American schools and stores. The Belg are annoyed with all the Americans. The other countless nationalities have there own groups. Its very different. Seems kind of like a hostile environmen to bring amis into. SO before you think Im all discouraged and annoyed by all this... guess again! When Soeur Murray and I left church she asked me what I thought...and she was a little shocked when I said Im so excited for this ward. After being in Paris with Soeur Wiliams the work was a little slow because of uncontrolable circumstances, Im so excited to be here because we have SO much work to do, and I kind of feel like a brand new missionary and I seriously can't sleep at night because of the things we have to do and Im so excited for it all.

 

So I guess this is my really long way of telling you that I LOVE BRUSSELLS already. Our ward mission leader told us that the ward is ready to burst, it has alot of potential ( we have lots of amis in progress...still working on meeting all of them) but this ward needs entheusiastic missionaries...so I'm determined to give it all the entheusiasm I've got!!!

 

Donc, things are going great...really! I feel such love and excitement for the area already. I cant really express it through email...but I am 'très content'.  Ok random things you guys asked about. Apartment is tiny, but has a seperate bedroom and only two of us living there so it feels like a step up from Paris. We went around to meet our neighbors and explain who we are...we had some interesting run-ins haha but also got a rendezvous with one of our neighbors! SO yes mom I am safe and warm. Soeur Murray is great! She is from Mapleton, Utah and is an elementary school teacher...aka really patient and sweet. She helps me alot with french. We are determined to speak french all the time because we are not really immerssed it in here...and I can feel it helping already. Whitewashing has been an adventure...its definately resulted in lots of laughter and adventures. But its fun to discover the Ville together.

 

I wish I could tell you something about Brussells but I literally know nothing! I know that Grande Place is cool...we are going to go see it this afternoon. I know NATO is here. I know we live in a french neighborhood...but Im currently in a dutch library down the street so who knows how that works. (the guy at the front desk was very offended when we tried to speak french to him...) I don't really know where the ward/mission boundaries are. I think we share this area with the Dutch mission...when we asked about mission boundaries and we were kind of told 'dont worry about..go as far as public transportation lets you'. Our ward boundaries definately go into the dutch mission...as in when went to the Ward Mission leaders house last night Im pretty sure we left our mission...but stayed in the ward boundaries...ya its complicated. I just smile and nod lots... haha. So if you guys back home want to google things about Brussells and tell me about...that'd be great because Im just figuring it out one day at a time haha.

 

Well if this email seems totally scattered and all over the place, I think its because I'm still figuring out which way is up here in Brussells. But to sum it all up we have TONS of work...aka Im grinning from ear to ear.

 

Love you and miss you!!

Soeur Smith

October 10, 2011 "My quick tour around Europe"

Well I don't really know where to start for this week...so I guess I'll start in Spain!!!!!!!!
CHRIS!!! YOUR GOING TO SERVE IN MADRID!!!! HOLY COW!!!!I dont really know how to explain all of my feelings!!! I definately was crying and so overwhelmed with just pure emotion when I read your call!! Im so sad I don't get to be there to send you off...but I can't wait till you join me out here in the field AND on this side of the ocean!! Your going to be such an amazing missionary...I can't wait! Oh and everyone here in Paris that I've been annoying because of my excitment about your call says congrats :D

Then from Spain...I guess I'll move to Belgium...because that is where I am being transfered to this week!!!! I am leaving my dear Paris after 6 months and heading north for the winter to Brussels!!! Alot is changing in our mission. President Poznanski has started to put a real push on finding young, french families. He feels that sisters are going to be able to reach out to families in smaller villes better. Donc, ALL sisters are being taken out of Paris and elders are being taken out of smaller villes and put in the cities. So this transfer was insane and alot is changing. Almost everyone is either training or whitewashing (meaning you and your companion are both new to the area). So our mission kind of feels like we were thrown into a blender and pushed 'frappé!!! (and with four sisters moving out... that is just about what our apartment looks like as well!) And in all this craziness ... I'm headed to the land of frites and goufres!!!

But for right in this moment...I'm still chillin in Paris! We've had a crazy week. Two new amis (a chinese girl and a russian man...sound familiar??) Soeur Williams finally recieved a diagnosis AND treatment for her ankle!!!! (tenaonitis...was that really so hard to figure out??) I turned 22...birthday in Paris! When did I get so lucky?? Soeur Williams and I found out we are going to seperated (she is headed to Blois... dont ask how to say it...I just know its on the complete oppisite end of the mission than me!) AND we got to leave Paris with a bang.

Our concert that we have been planning for the entire transfer was last night and if I do say so myself...it went amazing! Seriously...we were rehearsing up untill the last moment and it sounded horrible. But we were blessed and somehow everything came together.Either angles came down and put magical earmuffs on everyone so we sounded good or they just sang for us because by the end of the night there was not a dry eye in the audience. The spirit was so strong and I think all the missionaries in our zone felt like we got to have a very satisfing and dramatic farewell to Paris.

Not that I would ever dream of being nostalgic and dramatic about leaving Paris- the work goes on even if you may or may not feel like your leaving a piece of your heart in a ville. People will probably forget my name by Sunday...but they played a key role in my mission and one day in heaven I'll be able to thank them in proper angel talk rather than stuttering french. And now Im off to a new ville to stress, laugh, and cry with new amis! Besides.. Paris has been here for awhile...I'll come back one day ;)

Love you and miss you!
Soeur Smith 

October 3, 2011 "Les Meilleurs Moments"

Bonjour everyone!!!
This week I've decided to sum up our crazy missionary lives into 'top 10 moments of the week'...so here we go

Les meilleurs moments de la semaine:

10. Exchange in Caen
Beautiful town in Northern France. Sun was shining and the town is so CHILL compared to Paris. Met a RECENT convert of 97 years old, and her dog made noises like it was dying the entire rendez vous.
Best part: when she started singing...and the sister I was with couldn't keep from laughing so I was left singing all on my own...all of those who have heard my singing voice knows that this was not the ideal situation....yup...Im sure the angels watching were having stomach pains from laughing.

9. Personal revelation rocks.
 Especially when it comes through the scriptures. Just saying I had some good moments with Jacob 4 this week...
we'll just saying Im trying to be more grateful for my many apparent weaknesses. Eventually it means Ill have many strengths...eventually.

8. Sitting next to an Elder during Sister Dalton's talk.
He literally wrote "Be my daughter's Moroni"
I know... Im tearing up its so adorable.
PS. Dad...thanks for being my Moroni

7. New Conferance Traditions:
From Soeur Williams: I enjoyed some fluffy apple pancakes Sunday morning
From Elder Dick, from England, we learned the importance of 'session sweeties'...we were well stocked for all the sessions

6. This world is very small.
Sunday night we were all coming back from Versailles (its the stake center) from watching Conferance. We had just seperated from the elders to take our seperate metros when our phone rang and their name appeared on the caller ID. Apparently, when they got on the metro three women had approached them and asked if they knew a 'Soeur Smith'! It was Grandma Beard's neighbor whose name escapes me right now, and her daughters Margaret, who is mom's friend from 6th grade, and her other daughter, whose name is also escaping me, who used to babysit me when I was little. So they borrowed the elders phone and wished me Happy Birthday! Even though they are kind of strangers...it felt like a small birthday wish from home!

5. Elder Uchtdorf's 'forget-me-not' talk to the relief society
Enough said.

4. Hanging out with Soeur Williams after a long hard day.
Background story: we were wallowing in self pity because people aren't lining up at the fonts for us. Then we went to a mangez-vous with a recent return missionary. She is a nanny for an American family in the ward. One child is deaf and we had fun making up our very own sign names. Then we discussed missionary work and she told us this analogy.
Before your mission your like a caterpillar. You are kinda of lazy and are just bumping around enjoying life.
During your mission your in a cacoon. Rigid rules and lifestyle don't leave much room for moving around. But its also the biggest growing period in your life.
Then you emerage, a beautiful butterfly, matured and ready to take on life.
I'll just say, it cheered us up, and ended with a lovely nighttime chat in PJs about how really missions (or life) never work out how your want them to. But thats ok.

3. Richard G. Scott's talk about 'packets of light' starting off conferance.
A. He is so tender
B. My new best friend are the scriptures....
C. Since when is conferance THIS good!?! I feel like I've been missing out all these years...or maybe they just decided to become amazing when I set apart as a missionary.
Thats probably it...

2. This week we got a call from Dr. Guglielmi
If you don't remember him...he was the doctor that took the book of mormon from Soeur Williams during one of her appointments.
He said he hasn't had a chance to read it, but he is determined to know for himself if its true or not, and we set a date to call him back in two weeks and hold him to that promise.

1. TEMPLE
Before all you debby-downers tell me that it was kinda only half announced because the plans are still in the work..well I dont want to hear it.
Yea- President Monson thinks he's hilarious pausing after Star Valley, Wyhoming. But- honestly as he spoke about Paris, France temple. Everyone in the room SCREAMED.
After, talking to one French elder, he said 'I imagine that was the same scream we all made when we read our mission calls'.
True.
So ya, obviously, we have alot of work to do to get the temple here. But its coming...I don't think I can describe what the means to me. Or Anne Sophie, or Lou, or Zdravko, or the many other faithful saints in France. or the saints who don't know they are saints yet. So we'll just leave it at...that was a very good moment.

Love you and miss you all!
Hope you have a good week

September 26,2011

Bonjour!

How are you? Sitting on pins and needles from waiting for Chris's call? I mean...not like Im anxious or anything. Thank goodness things in Paris are busy enough to keep my mind off of it....at least as much as possible.

To start the week off we had interviews with the president. It was so good! The zone leaders did a training about spiritual finding and being more committed to talking to EVERYONE. It was a really good training. Soeur Williams and I were so inspired we decided to do some contacting while waiting for our interview times. haha. We chose a random metro stop and got off. However it ended up being in a bussiness area; so we got on a bus and just rode around and talked to people who sat near us. Nothing come of it...till later (yup Im keeping you in suspense). Anyways, so we went back to the church for our interviews with President. They went really well- he talked to both of us about ways we can keep the work going despite our 'ankle situation'. We both have felt really inspired this week to find new ways we can do contacting and keep things going. He also asked how our companionship was going, and after listening to us gush and giggle he asked us if was possible to love each other too much...yup we are that obnoxious. Oops....

So, because of our inspiration from interviews we've been doing lots of contacting this week. We've tried different approaches...like the 'bus approach' or the 'RER approach' (thats a type of train), and 'the bench approach'. Basically, we find ways of just sitting places where lots of people come and go...so that we can contact without Soeur Williams having to walk. We've also been just doing small little bits of street contacting...and as soon as her ankle starts to hurt we stop. Its been working! The night of interviews we were on the metro and started to talking to a lady (ps when people have really cute kids with them...such an easy contact!) and turns out she had just come from the neighborhood we had been contacting in early that day. (ok suspense over...) Apparently we were meant to talk to her one way or another. We also talked to another lady who was actually a really awkward contact. But when we called her a couple days later she said she had been telling her family all about us...we are pretty excited!

But contacting always brings some interesting stories too...this week during district contacting, Soeur Williams contacted a guy who seemed very normal at the time. He had lost his phone so we had no way of contacting him, but we were pretty excited when he showed up at church. Well...we're pretty sure we smelled some suspcious things on his breath...we will just say he and another investigator kept amis sunday school class pretty exciting as they were the only ones commenting about the word of wisdom...and neither one of them have been taught it yet. The poor teacher did a very good job at tying in some random stories about racism and the creation to the lesson. Good.

This week one of the Elders' amie, Cheriff, from egypt made us all an egyptian dinner. Brought me back to my good 'ol Jerusalem days (minus the fact that we didn't actually eat much in Egypt because its all pretty sketchy...so at least now I know what all the meat at those buffets would have tasted like if we had eaten it. Ya...we were missing out for sure) Cheriff's catchphrase is 'Allahs, c'est fini!' haha I think thats Araçais (arabic + french...ya I tried ok)  We kind of use it for everything now. He's become pretty famous here in our little corner of Paris and we enjoyed getting to taste a little bit of his corner of the world.

This Sunday was our big activity that Soeur Williams and I have been planning for the ward. The idea for the activity was to challenge the members to 'set-a-date' in which they would introduce a friend to the missionaries. (ya not original I know...definately stole it from the thousands of missionaries that have challenged our family to do the same thing...but hey its worked a couple times for our family so I thought we could try it here) Anyways, we had different 'stations' that we had the membres rotate between. In the first one we had a recent convert panal, in which the recent converts described the role of members in the conversion process. Then we had a 'jeu de rôle' aka role play...in which we had the members act as non-members, while the members were themselves, and the members had to find ways to bring up the gospel in every day situations. Finally, we watched a conferance talk by Elder Nelson that talked about member missionary work and had a discussion about it. It went really well... at the end the Bishop gave the challenge to everyone to 'set a date' and become more committed to member missionary work. I'm not going to lie...I'm glad it went well...but I'm also kind of glad its over haha. Planning, delegating, and organizing elders (it literally took us 15 minutes to get them all in the same room) is exhausting. I am so grateful to say 'allahs, c'est fini' to the activity. (although we are hoping the results aren't over...)

Phew...but our organizing skills are still needed in Paris for the next concert. Soeur Williams and I have taken to bribing the elders to be on time to practices. Last week we made them brownies...which were apparently so good that Elder Dick was inspired to write a song about them. This week, we wanted to make chocolate chip cookies for them. But FYI french ovens are retarded...so when it came time for practice I had to annouce to them all that we were really sorry, but the cookies weren't working and so all we had for them was a giant bowl of cookie dough...as you can guess they were all ok with that haha. At the end of the night, we were looking for our bowl, when an elder came up with spoon in hand from scraping off the last bits of cookie dough and said 'umm I cleaned it for you..' haha...it was definately 'Allahs, c'est fini'.  Whatever gets them there on time....

The weather here continues to stay pretty nice...so Im enjoying the last warm days before the long, cold winter settles in. And with the sun shining, its hard not to just keep falling in love with this city more and more!

Love you and miss you!
Soeur Smith

September 19, 2011 "Missionary life is like a piece of French cheese"

Bonjour!!!
I can't believe its fall already and we are mentioning things like 'conferance' and 'cold weather'...I swear like only five minutes ago I was texting mom every night with new updates on my feelings about going on a mission...little did I know that a short year later I would be living in Paris and (attempting to) speak french! Time flies...so I guess I'll be seeing you lin like another five minutes haha...

Speaking of time...Im hitting 7 months this week! How the heck did that happen??? I swear Im still a newbie... haha But then at the same time, I talk to some of the blues and I am starting to feel a little old. They mention movies I've never even heard of, they know songs that I don't, and apparently the outside world kept going when I entered the MTC (Jimmer got drafted?? I can't believe you didn't write me about that one Chris...) This week I've started to notice JUST how wierd I really am...haha and its only the beginning...oh Shannon I'm going to need some serious shock therepy into the real world haha.

But luckily for me, I've decided that mission life is like french cheese. It just keeps getting better and better with time. This week we had a rendez-vous with Eva, who you probably don't remember, but she was my first rendez-vous ever in the mission field...and guess what!? This time I understood what she was saying. I realize I probably sound shocked every week in my email when I understand something in french...but we will just leave it at its been a struggle and its a serious miracle everytime I know what is going on around me. Our walk through her 'lovely' neighborhood seemed a little less smelly when I can understand what everyone is saying...

This week we also had some good experiences with contacting. This week for district contacting we decided to try something new. We literally kidnapped one of those chalkboards on wheels from the church and rolled it across the street into an open area in front of the Georges Pompidou...a big modern art museum. We then wrote on the board 'What is your favorite book?' and invited people walking by to write on the chalkboard their favorite book. Then when they asked why we were doing this...we would then introduce our favorite book... bah we are so sneaky I know! Anyways, it was interesting because the neighborhood around the church is probably not the best for contacting. A. there are lots of tourists B.its really artsy and attracts some intersting characters C. Did I mention that our church is in one of the main gay districts of Paris. Donc, it turned out pretty interesting haha. I definately contacted a couple 'couples' that I didn't realize they were couples until after we started talking...and Im pretty sure we talked to people from every country in europe and then some others. But overall we ended up handing out 10+ of our favorite book (if you haven't figured it out yet that is the Book of Mormon, no I didnt sit on the corner and hand out copies of Lord of the Rings...) Anyways, it was a fun activity...Soeur Williams and I are currently plotting how to get the chalkboard into the metro so we can try it out in a more promising neighborhood lol...

And Soeur Williams and I had another really good contact in the Visitor's Center. A young french man was standing in the tatoo shop across the street from the church, when he saw that our sign said 'Jesus Christ' on it and he came to investigate. It was amazing! I think he is generally intersted...there was no break in eye contact as Soeur Williams told the first vision. He then took a Book of Mormon, and gave of us all of his contact info. He even took a tour of the Young Adult center. We were like giddy by the time he left! Young + french + actually intersted = you struck gold!!! But he doesn't live in our area...so another one of those 'I hope something comes of it stories'...

This week we had Stake Conferance in Versailles. Yup...I feel pretty cool knowing there are a handful of people in the world that can say that. I also am still in love with the fact that our stake president's name is President Gaston.  The conferance was held in this beautiful building with really big, soft chairs....best stake conferance ever haha. But really...it was amazing.EVERY single talk was about the temple...which I'm not getting my hopes up...but ok I totally am...Soeur Williams and I are really praying that in a couple weeks we will be hearing a special announcement concerning the temple... that would truly be the best birthday present EVER!!! The spirit was spirit was so strong and I had another one of those 'Im so lucky to get to be a missionary here and now' moments....like I said...its just getting better and better with time.

Honestly...maybe I started off as one of those nice pristine pieces of white (cough american cough) looking pieces of cheese. The mold is the spirit...and slowly slowly is spreading and growing inside of me...until I become a nice stinky  blue missionary reeking of the spirit!!! Ok, maybe I took that one a little far...sometimes I can't help myself. Basically it comes down to the fact that I'm loving life, loving Paris, loving Soeur Williams, and missing and loving all of you!!!
Bonne semaine!!

xoxo
Soeur Smith

September 12, 2011 "Nous allons a la lune"

Bonjour!!
It sounds like fall and school and everything are getting underway at home! I can definately feel the difference here...Soeur Williams and I went to a museum today and we had it all to ourselves! Me and Soeur Williams + endless, uncrowded buildings of history = glorious!!! We even got to hang out with Napolean himself. Its been a good p-day so far....

This week has been full of bittersweet moments...and comme d'habitude there were some funny moments. Here are the highlights:

We had to say goodbye to Hana. I won't go into details...but we will just say chocolate was involved in the healing process...and Soeur Williams and I might have had some very serious daydreaming sessions about our trip to Tawain that will happenning one day... our lives have definately felt a little empty this week without our Hana.

BUT, I also get to see Lou Lou again! She is finally back from vacance!!! Again, Ill spare you from the gory details of how excited I was to see that girl; despite her hyper tendacies I really do love her! This week we started her on Personal Progress...we started with one of the goals to pray every morning and every night for three weeks ; you can imagine my excitement when we came three days later and she had been praying all on her own! Little does she know, that means so much more to me than all of the friendship bracelets she has made for me haha....

This week in district meeting, our district leader, Elder Walker drew a moon on a pillowcase. He told us to draw rocketships with the names of our amies on it, and when someone gets baptized we can draw a flag on the moon. The best part was the title of this lovely drawing was 'Nous allons à la lune' (we're going to the moon). Well after he could get over snickering...Elder Rako (he's french) informed us that in french to 'go to the moon' is an expression for getting high. Good. We are starting off the transfer with a goal to get all of our amies high. Gotta love those miscommunications...

Anne Sophie made me realize how fast this transfer is going to go. A couple weeks ago she had promised to make us a cake. I totally forgot about that until we asked her when is the next time we can meet with her. She looked at the calendar and said "Well next week is stake conferance, then the next week is the ward activity, then its general conferance, then its the missionary concert...so in a month and a half...I will bring you a cake!" haha after we reassured her that its fine and we definately don't need a cake...we decided to meet during the week...but internally I was freaking out about how fast this transfer is going by already...*deep breaths* alright...back to bussiness...

So a couple of weeks ago, I had a contact that I was pretty proud of. We were waiting for someone at the visitors center, but it was late and technically the visitors center was closed. But this man wandered in and started to look around...so I went up to him and started talking to him. Usually I'll start talking to someone and after beginning a tour Soeur Williams will come and save me. But this time...Soeur Williams decided to let me fly on my own...and I actually did it! I was pretty much flying on cloud 9 after because not only did he take a Book of Mormon, but when we were done with the tour he asked me if he could meet with us to learn more!!! Cool...I know. So, trying to repay our elders for all the refferals they've been giving us lately I passed his info to the elders so they could call and make an appointment. Well I guess miscommunications happened and they missed the appointment...and he showed up at the visitor's center again and just spoke with the missionaries there. I had only heard the one side of the story from the elders which was that a rendez-vous hadn't worked out. Well, imagine my suprise when after church I was talking to people afterwards and I looked over and there he was sitting in the congregation! I started talking to him and he said, not only that he had decided to come to church on his own, but he is almost done with the Book of Mormon!!!! (and I know he's not lying because he explained to me in great detail about how there are four different Nephis and how Moroni is Mormon's son) I practically dragged an elder over and screamed 'start teaching this man now'!!! (don't worry...thats only what was going on inside...I actually asked very nicely for the elders to come over and meet my 'friend' haha) Anyway, I'm pretty excited, so pray for my new friend Aviles.

And this week I finished the Book of Mormon. When I started reading this time, I had been thinking alot about how we promise everyone that the gospel blesses families. I know this to be true, but was kind of pondering exactly how reading a book about a people's wars and genelogy really helps a family become unified. So this time through, I've been highlighting words and verses that make specific referance to the family. Maybe everyone else is already aware of this, but I was amazed how much I found! The family really is a prominant theme throughout the Book of Mormon. Almost every story deals with familes and how it can bring us happiness when we have a common goal to follow Christ. I know this is old news, but I felt my testimony strengthened and again felt blessed to be part of a family that has this knowledge and is striving towards being together forever. I also felt an increased testimony of how important missionary work really is...I want all families in the world to know the peace and joy that comes from the gospel. And of course, I gained an increased testimony that the Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of our religion and should be the keystone of our families.

Alright, I'm sorry. Lately I feel like I haven't been able to get through a letter without getting extremely cheesy. But the point is that I love you all and miss you tons...and maybe once in awhile I get this slight urge to yell 'the church is true' from the rooftops...but settle for sending you overwhelmingly mushy emails...thanks for bearing with me, its very much appreciate.

xoxo
Soeur Smith

PS. French milestone reached this week: I understood the homeless man on the metro begging for money. I know...be impressed.

September 5, 2011 "Salesmen for our Father"

Ne-how-ma!!!!!
That's Chinese for hello and how are you?! This week we've had a little chinese influence in our life...and that Chinese influence is named Hana.

Hana is miracle (like all converts). About a month ago she was walking around Paris looking for a place to pray. She heard one of the Missionary Concerts in proccess and came in. She asked if this was a church...and to make a long story short the Chinese elders starting teaching her that night. Here's the twist...she is in Paris on vacation for two months. But in that time, she has given up smoking, decided not to get another tatoo, fallen in love with the Book of Mormon, and gotten baptized!!! Well this week the elders decided that she needed the sisters to teach her; she's had a difficult past and sisters just know how to give that tender love that sometimes people need :)

I think I can speak for the both of us when I say that Soeur Williams and I feel like some of the luckiest missionaries in the world to have been able to get to know Hana. She is honestly one of the most inspirational women I know. And one of the best missionaries I know! Everyday she has reported to us about some new boy that she has dumped by telling them that are literally wasting their time in dating her because now she "marry only mormon guy". She talks about how she has told all of her family and friends back home in Tawain about her new way of life and the love of "our father". She posts scriptures and quotes on Facebook multiple times a day. And how the first place she is going to go when she gets back in Tawain is the temple...then she gets really excited and jumps up and down as she says she can't wait to get "one of those special cards". I am humbled as she talks about how she reads the Book of Mormon for hours on end and how she needs to talk to "our Father" every day and every night. I love her stories about how before she knew "our Father" she would get very angry all of the time and was very cold to people. But now she cries all of the time and feels tender even towards the homeless people. Her english is limited. Kind of like Zdravko...but maybe the Lord puts language barriers there because it makes us sounds more childlike and only allows us to express our most simple of feelings. Hana has been our little ray of sunshine...every day we count the hours till we get to see her... and then I think its safe to say that all three of us walk away from the lessons feeling like we are on cloud 9. Im sorry...I know Im horrible at trying to sum up a person in an email...maybe I'll just quote her so you can get to know her a little better:

-(after teaching her about relief society) "I feel lucky to be Mormon women! Our father make us beautiful and smart. Smarter than men...but they don't know that!"
-"Today I listen to one song over and over again. That song is 'I am a child of God'. Today I go to super market and I singing and smiling, people think I crazy!"
-(after we gave her a card) "you can't buy this kind of love"
-"I think Alma is a lovely guy..." (after we told her in the scriptures you could find the personality of the kinds of guys you should date )
-"My friend wants me to send him painting of Paris.." she looks around the classroom and sees a painting of a scene from the Book of Mormon "maybe I send him picture of Our Father!!! Then he can learn about The Book!"

Dang it, I wish I could fly you all out here (or to Tawain) so you could have the priviledge of getting to know her! Last night we were talking about how we were all probably friends before this life. And we sat up in heaven and "spoke angel talk" and how we have been waiting all these years to see each other again in Paris. In that moment I had one of those wonderful spiritual confirmations that a mission is really where I'm supposed to be. Not that I've ever doubted it...its just nice to get confirmations once in awhile from 'Our Father' that your on the right track.

Since we've been teaching Hana we've been honorary chinese missionaries for the week. Hana helped us make a poster in Chinese for our ward activity we're planning. And we were invited to a chinese fête with all the chinese members in the ward. During the party I loved watching her running around hugging everyone, giving flowers to Ching-Ching (the older kind of Chinese grandmother in the ward), and seeing her force everyone to take seconds and thirds. It was difficult to picture her ever having a cold bone in her body. During our lesson the next night I decided to teach her the term 'social butterfly'...because thats what she is. Thats when she came up with this quote. She said:

"No I'm not! You guys are! You could sell house or car! Your like best sellsmen for Our Father, but instead of selling house or car, you sell God's story...FOR FREE!!!"

In that moment I felt so proud to wearing my missionary nametag. To be a salesman for Our Father. I thought back to a quote by C.S. Lewis....I don't remember it exactly but it is something to the effect that we have never talked to mere mortals. Every day I get to ride the metro, push through busy streets, and breath in the mystry smells of Paris with Our Father's children. I then think back to a training we had with President Staheli when he said that God could do all of the missionary work in France through one person or two. But he has allowed us to be a part of this great work.  I know Im getting gushy and sappy...but sometimes I feel guilty for complaining about vacance or our ankle situation...then I have those humbling moments when someone like Hana, whom I love and admire so much, turns around and says thank you for helping her...and you felt like didn't do anything. Then you know its really is a blessing to serve a mission.

Wa-I- Knee (I love you) and hope you all have a good first week of school!
Love,
jay-may (sister) smith

August 29, 2011 "One-third"

Bonjour! Bonjour!

How is everyone? As usual this week seemed pretty normal and hoh-hum, but I look back and realize there is always something to report. Transfer email came out...and I get a fourth transfer in Paris!! With Soeur Williams!!! Yes I get to stay with my beloved gimpy (that is my nickname for her)...she may not walk as much as others but I sure love her! We will just say there was some squeeling and joyful screeches in the internet café when we read the transfer email. In fact...pretty much our entire zone stayed the same so Im expecting that this transfer will kind of just feel like a long extension of the last one...well you know except better and busier because dreadful vacances are starting to end!!!

This week we also had our second exchanges of the transfer...there are an odd number of sister-villes so to make sure everyone got to do an exchange an equipe from northern France came down and stayed in our apartment and we worked with three equipes in Paris for the day. I worked with a sister who was in Paris before...so its was good to ask her about some of the people we've never been able to contact and stuff. It was also very wierd to go through the metros with someone who walks at normal pace (thats not a complaint...remember I called her my BELOVED gimpy) just I felt a little whimpy for having a hard time keeping up. Well president knew what he was doing when he kept Soeur Williams and I together - Gimpy and Whimpy...we make a good team :)

This week in english class we taught our students the names of countries in English. We then had everyone say where they were born...it was pretty cool to see that we had every continent represented ( well minus Antartica...but really why does that one count anyways?) Sometimes I still have thoughts cross my mind like ' How did I, girl from small town Canada, end up in Paris teaching an english class to people from all over the world.' And yes I may or may not have taken advantage of  having a captive audience and bragged about how pretty my home is ( and I figured if I drew a map of Canada and showed them how far away Vancouver is from Montréal maybe they would stop asking me why I have an english accent and not a Québécois accent). This Sunday we had another 'missionary concert' and it was cool to see how three months ago our chapel was basically empty for the first concert...and this time it was overflowing! We already have had a couple of baptism/amis in the Paris area come from the concerts ...pretty cool to see how the Lord uses peoples talents to bring them the gospel. 

Soeur Williams and I have been experiencing our own little miracles. This week we have recieved FIVE refferals (I know I know...all of you who served your missions in South America are laughing because thats like nothing to you...but in France that means something!) One of the referrals, named Marcellina, came into the visitor's center on Wednesday night and we gave her a tour and explained the Book of Mormon. Oddly enough, as we were talking with her tons of people decided to wander into the visitor's center just then, so I left Soeur Williams to keep talking with Marcellina while I talked to the other people. When I came back they were watching a clip by Elder Uchtdorf in Russian (she is from Poland and can understand Russian). We finished talking with her and set an appointment for this week and then she left. Soeur Williams then ran back over the kiosk and told me that she had explained to Marcellina that we believed in a modern prophet and she had wanted to see the prophet. Unfortunately, Soeur Pearce and I discovered that showing people President Monson's clip isnt the best because its more a history of the Book of Mormon rather than a testimony. So Soeur Williams had just clicked on a random clip and had no idea what she had just shown Marcellina because it had been in Russian. Well we watched it in English and turns out it was perfect! She is very believing and Elder Uchtdorf's testimony was all about Christ and His role in our lives. Tender mercies...tender mercies.

Anne Sophie continues to do well. This week we were reviewing the gospel and we asked her to repeat the five points of the gospel (faith, repentance, baptisim, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end) Well she got stuck on baptism so I did a hand motion to show someone being baptized and she guessed 'going to bed?'. Haha I wish sleeping was a principle of the gospel! She was also very cute as she thought we had finished the 'new member lessons', she asked if it was alright if we kept meeting and if when we have someone she could come teach with us...Ill understate how excited I was that she wanted to teach with us by just saying that we were ok with that idea. I wonder if amies every know how much we truly care for them, love them, pray for them...stress over them...and get ridiculously excited for them when they show growth in the gospel...hmmm. If only they knew...but then there are moments when I know it goes both ways... A couple of weeks ago I was appologizing to Anne Sophie for my horrible voice messages I leave her, and she said 'its ok, I always know its you' and I replyed 'oh because of my horrible french' and she said 'no...because I know your voice.'
 Tender n'est-ce pas??

Oh and I almost forgot. Mom- congratulations you made it a third of the way there!!! haha This week I hit my six month mark! Pretty crazy...I don't really remember life before the mission...and I can't really picture a life after the mission. I wish I had some wisdom to share from thus far in the mish. But I think longer and longer Im a missionary I kind of just realize how many faults I have (trust me... the list goes on and on) and how much wisdom I lack. But Ive also kind of realized that that's ok! Im trying my hardest...and the Lord truly makes up the rest (like inspiring women to walk into church, sending five referrals our way, and giving me a companion that thinks Im funny when I get stir crazy in the apartment). I dont really know how to sum up what Ive learned in the past six months...so I just won't. Just trust me when I say I know now more than ever how important the gospel is. How it really is the only way to feel true happiness. I know that this is Christ's restored church and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. For now, Ill just keep you guys in suspense and save all of my wisdom until my homecoming ;)

Love you tons
Soeur Smith

August 22, 2011

Bonjour!!!!

Well this week I feel like Im starting to feel like mom. Im kind of ready for the entire world to go back to school and work. Im ready for normal scheadules. Im ready to start hearing french on the metros again, rather than just about every unrecognizable language and LOTS of english. I am ready for the vacance to be over. But only a couple more weeks and I think we'll be there so I'll keep my complaining to a minimum. Naturally, we as missionaries try our best to ignore vacance and keep things going. So this week was full of lots of member visits, zone conferance, and doctor visits.

First off- member visits. Well last Monday was Soeur Williams' birthday (22 wahoo!) and it was so good! We went to Sacré Coeur...which is one of the most famous churches in Paris and little did we know it was a Catholic holiday on Monday so the crowds were less to be desired...but other than that the day just worked out perfectly. It was one of those days were the weather is perfect, the metro pulls up just as you walk in every time, and magically you find a cheap ice cream stand rather than one of the over priced ones. But the best part was at the end of the day we had an appointment with a member that was amazing. We have been trying to work hard during vacance to just get to know the members that have stuck around. This has led for some really cool experiences when we get to hear  amazing conversion stories.( your right dad- that really is where the gold is!) This lady was especially powerful-honestly I want to take her to all of our teaching appointments because her conversion story is beautiful. She shared with us some of the very difficult things that have happened in her life...and she said that when those events happened rather than asking God 'why me' she chose to ask him 'what is the purpose behind this?'. She found the sister missionaries in the metro in 1994, apparently that year the Pope came to visit France, so there had been alot of religious people out and about Paris. But she said when she saw the sisters and thier nametags she knew something was different about them and she had to ask. Well they talked with her and invited her to church, but it took her a couple months to get to church. But she said as soon as she walked into the building she could see a light in the members and she knew she had found the truth. I thought this story was a beautiful example of never giving up on people (Im sure after she didnt show up the missionaries didn't give their encounter in the metro much thought) and of the power of members. I don't think members know how much they mean to us. I mean, I hear in their prayers every week at church or in their homes 'please bless the missionaries', but I hope they know when we go home we are praying 'please bless the members'...because without them our work is MUCH more difficult.

Which reminds me of Zone Conferance. Which of course was amazing. One of the best parts was I actually understood what the heck was going on! This is huge improvement from last zone conferance where I was guessing most of the time. But one thing President Poznanski emphasized was 'yes- every member a missionary, but also every missionary a member' He really wants us to get to know our wards and feel like we are a part of the ward. We talked about many different ways to do that and it made me grateful that we've had the opportunity this summer to get to know many members à cause de the dreaded vacance. Blessings in disguise, blessings in disguise.  (although a huge part of me is ready for the 'blessing of vacance' to be over! haha) Also, President Poznanski said that when he was in the MTC being trained with all the mission presidents the brethern said that they want mission presidents to try and move missionaries around as little as possible. They really want missionaries to feel 'at home' when they go into in area and get settled for a while...which gives me hope that maybe Ill be staying in Paris for one more transfer !!! On verra...

We also had a funny moment at a members home this week. We had a mangez-vous with this cute couple in our ward. He is Croatian and she is German, and they are both converts. So we asked them for thier conversion stories. Well turns out his conversion story is intertwined with how he met his current wife (this is a second marriage for both of them)....but the best part was watching them during the story. He would describe trying to date her and she would make this cute giggly noise (mind you they are probably both in their 60's if not older), but then at the end he looked at her and said 'Love is alot of work...' then turned and looked at us 'so you have alot of work a head of you!' hahaha...we both set that bit of advice aside for the post-mish life haha.

And finally- the doctor's. So this week Soeur Williams had a 'bone scan' which is terrifying process where they give you a scary radioactive potion to drink (literally radioactive- she was told to stay away from children); then you sit in the waiting room for two hours while the potion spreads (enter us telling each other the plot of every book the other one hasn't read) and then she was 'scanned' and they could tell where the problem is according to how the potion spread. Well results came back- everything normal! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...but the good knews is the Poznanskis found a new doctor for her so hopefully this week when we meet with him we will finally actually get some answers!!!!

Oh- and to sum up the week there was a baptism in the ward! This girl is from Tawain and she is in Paris for vacation for a couple months. But she was wandering around looking for a place to pray one night and she heard one of the missionary concerts going on...so she walked in and asked if this is a church. Obviously the answer was yes and the chinese elders starting teaching her that night. She is adorable! She was supposed to get baptized two weeks from now but moved it up because she couldn't wait. The cutest part was after she was baptized (while standing in the font) she turned to everyone and said "thank you for being here, I know its been a short time, but in my heart and in my mind it has been a very long time I've been waiting for this day"...so tender. I really am so grateful to be a missionary and to be apart of moments like that...when the long search inside of people's minds and hearts are finally answered.

I love you and miss you all!!
xoxo
Soeur Smith