So, just when I start to feel like I kind of understand the metro system or right when I know how to finally order food at boulongeries/bakeries (follow my companion and just say 'le meme chose' or 'the same thing' haha)... and just when Im starting to notice oh ya I do live in a giant city that sometimes smells bad and can get crowded with 10 million people... well then I start my second transfer here in Paris and become all enchanted with the city all over again!!! This week just made me realize all over again how grateful/lucky I am to a. be serving a mission and b. serving in Paris! This week transfers actually happened and we had several new changes. We lost most of the francophone elders from our district...but continue to keep things international with a British elder. We lost all of the chinese speaking elders (although they are still serving in our ward so we see them lots), but now all of the sudden our district feels very small. We also got a new roommate...and she speaks basically no english!!! Which is really good for me haha...although it keeps me constitantly humble with reminders of how little french I know. But we have been taking turns reading scriptures to each other to work on our accents haha...maybe someday we will actually see results from our efforts haha. Some things still stay the same.... such Soeur Pearce and I. We were talking with one elder and he was saying that week 4 is when the honeymoon stage always wears off for him and he starts to have problems with companions. Soeur Pearce and I have decided that we are still in the honeymoon stage our companionship haha... we've gotten to know each other pretty well and we will just say that President was inspired in putting us together. We are pretty much always on the same brainwave and have given up on speaking in complete sentances anymore.... an example of one of our conversations...
Soeur Pearce "what do you want to do tomorrow?"
Soeur Smith "I was thinking we could go to that one place that one person told us about"Soeur Pearce " ya...except I think that is where we saw that one guy exercising and it doesnt look that great"....
(we were trying to think of a good picnic spot haha)
Did anyone else catch how ambigious that conversation was??? We didnt even realize how funny we sounded till our roommate looked over at us and told us we were ridiculous haha...Anyways its making our second transfer together start off great because planning is easy...we just say a couple words and both of us know what the other one means...it also means that when one of the other says something blonde we never have explain ourselves to other....so our honeymoon stage is still going great!!!
And so is the work in Paris!! We are working with several people and have alot of potentials (so please keep those prayers coming). We recently found this single mom and her daughter in our area book who met with the missionaries and then became pretty flakey and weren't showing that much interest but when we called said we could totally come back. Well her daughter is adorable! And she is only five so Im sure she doesn't even remember the last time the missionaries came over...the mom is very catholic and we are not sure if she ready to make changes but we are hoping if we could get the little girl to primary she would start to see how church could benefit their family. We had a breakthrough with Lou this week...she has been making up excuses every Sunday for not coming to church...but this week she really opened up to us and we have a little better understanding of where is coming from. Basically it sounds like she has alot of pressure in her life to grow up and start taking care of herself...but she is only 11 and honestly just wants to be treated like a kid. Her grandma has been the one forcing the church on her and its just one more thing she is feeling pressure about (and we probably didn't help with trying to stress baptism) but she is also seeking for love and acceptance...which we all know is hard to find in the world today. As a result she acts out and is also always trying to be 'cool' for her friends. Well this week we tried to testify and stress how important church is and how the church can be a family that will never judge her and will always except her. Well come Sunday she did not come to church...but I think she is at least more open to the idea and seems to sincerely be interested in what we are saying rather than acting like 'deamon child' because meeting with us is something her grandma forced. So we will see. We also have been meeting with a member in our ward who we weren't exactly sure why we were meeting with...she isnt a recent convert or anything but the bishop asked us to teach her the lessons over again. Turns out she knows basically nothing!!! She didnt know we had a prophet, has never prayed about the Book of Mormon, and wasnt exactly sure why we called ourselves the one true church. Yes, we were also quite confused how she passed her baptisimal interview. But thats not important, the important thing is we are working with her to answer some questions. What amazes me is that she is still very active in the ward and obviously feels some sort of testimony despite all the holes in her knowledge. Its kind of a hard dilema trying to decide how much knowledge someone needs to be baptized, because obviously they can't know it all, and where to draw the line. Oh well... we are glad she didn't fall through the cracks and she is still active! We also had a cool experience with a 'couple' of rreferrals that we recieved. We recieved two refferals both named Marie, one came from Salt Lake City and one came from a missionary that went home a couple of transfers ago. Well we have been calling both Maries and struggling to get in contact with them. One finally agreed to come to church on Sunday and the great news for me is that she is American so I can talk with her! I got to talk with her for a little bit, and let me just put it this way, the gospel is going to help her so much!!! The great thing is her daughter is a member already (but in the states) so she has a really good impression of the church and I just know she is so ready for the gospel. Well later that day we were transferring our stuff from our old planners to our new ones and guess what (Im not sure how we didn't figure this out before) but they are the same Marie!!! So now we know...the Lord does not want her falling through the cracks!!! We are really excited for how we think the gospel could truly transform her life so I'll keep you posted. Anne Sophie is great as usual. We've decided to have her teach us the lessons this time around since she knew everything when we were teaching her the first time; and she is great! She bore a really sweet and powerful testimony to us the other night about how although she was not a bad person before she can just see the difference in herself from the gospel, and it was just so great because I know we have seen so much change in her and it was just so powerful to hear her testimony! We love her and Im so grateful I've gotten to know her!
This Sunday was really powerful. Three times a year we have a sacrament meeting dedicated to missionary work and this week was one of them. The Chinese twins that got baptized about a month ago bore their testimony and its was so beautiful! Of course I had to hear it translated from Chinese to French...but they are just so sweet and I just love them so much!! And then all 12 of us missionaries sang Called To Serve. We sang the first verse in English, then sang it again in Chinese, and then finished with it in French! The fun part is one elder was on the piano and did a really fun arrangement that Im not exactly sure was Sacrament meeting appropriate...but hey it got everyone really pumped on missionary work! haha We felt like quite the stars...everyone kept telling us how much they loved and it really reminded me of our special calling we have right now. That members really do look to us as different and as examples...made me wear my badge with just a little more pride (the good kind of pride though I promise ;) ) Soeur Pearce and I were also asked to go in an speak with the young women about being missionaries and I loved it...the young women are such amazing examples of living the gospel in difficult circumstances...I just felt like I was glowing from their presence! Anyways... I felt all repumped with missionary spirit and ready to make this transfer great!
Let's see other adventures we've had this week. I got to feel like a 'vrai missionnaire' this week as it rained during our district contacting activity...we sang hymns on a street corner and by the time we got home I think I resembled a drowned rat...the squishing in my shoes made me feel like a true missionary haha. We also got to visit my favorite part of the city, the 18th, and got into a 'discussion' with the TJ's ( Jehovahs Wittness). They stopped us and were like 'dont you ever wonder why we dedicate our lives and go out to share our message? Don't you think God is behind us?' I kinda wanted to say...no I've never wondered that...obviously I think God is with us haha...just kidding I know those are fighting words... I just thought it was ironic that he would ask missionaries from another church that question. He also asked us 'do people ever mistake you for us?' The snarky side of Soeur Pearce came out when she said afterwards ' I wanted to respond, ya thanks alot! because of you no one wants to talk to us!' haha...they really were generally nice...just ironic haha. We also got to see a preacher yelling in the streets...made me grateful that we generally don't use that type of contacting anymore haha. We also experienced an almost miracle! haha We got a referral from Salt Lake a few weeks ago and every time we've gone over to drop off a Book of Mormon we have had to stand outside the apartment building till someone goes in or out because we don't have the code. As we were walking to it this time we passed this little old lady who looked like a puff of wind could blow her over...and Soeur Pearce was like 'How heavy do you think her cart is?' (she was pushing a little grocery cart) I said I think its empty (in my defense it really did look empty!) So we kept walking. We kept walking till we got to the apartment building and then started to wait. After about 10 minutes I said a little prayer to myself that someone would show up...and all of the sudden guess who comes around the corner (well I guess it wasn't very sudden) but that same little old lady came bumbling up to us and asked us to punch in the code for her because her hands were shaking. So MIRACLE we know have the code for the apartment building...ALMOST MIRACLE we totally felt ashamed that we hadn't stopped to help her since it turns out she was going to help us in the end! As a result when we were walking back to the metro we passed another old lady and both of us about jump at the chance to help her with her groceries but when we offered she answered back in a very capable voice 'don't worry I've got it '...as we walked away Soeur Pearce just looked at me and said 'well she was a little more spry!' hahah Moral of the story...offer to help people even if you think they wont neccessarily need it...the worst they can say is no! But you could be turning down the chance for a miracle!
Well that pretty much sums up the week. This week we for P Day we went to the Louvre! Thanks to Soeur Pearce's Rick Steves book we were only in there for about 2 hours and saw the most essential things. I loved it though! One of the coolest parts was the building its self...we barely even touched everything in there I can't get over how huge it is! We also relived my Israel days and got Fallafal in the Jewish quarter of Paris (not going to lie...the Israeli ones were better...) but it was a cultural experience nevertheless! Honestly my favorite part of this week came right after we had an uplifting mangez-vous with a member and it was raining outside and Soeur Pearce and I were walking down this adorable little french street (the building had flowers and balconies...you know...the whole french works) and all the sudden I knew I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but walking in the rain through Paris France. Oops I just got all sentimental and cheesy...just more proof that I'm not quite over my honeymoon stage with Paris too!
Love you and miss you all!!
xoxo
This Sunday was really powerful. Three times a year we have a sacrament meeting dedicated to missionary work and this week was one of them. The Chinese twins that got baptized about a month ago bore their testimony and its was so beautiful! Of course I had to hear it translated from Chinese to French...but they are just so sweet and I just love them so much!! And then all 12 of us missionaries sang Called To Serve. We sang the first verse in English, then sang it again in Chinese, and then finished with it in French! The fun part is one elder was on the piano and did a really fun arrangement that Im not exactly sure was Sacrament meeting appropriate...but hey it got everyone really pumped on missionary work! haha We felt like quite the stars...everyone kept telling us how much they loved and it really reminded me of our special calling we have right now. That members really do look to us as different and as examples...made me wear my badge with just a little more pride (the good kind of pride though I promise ;) ) Soeur Pearce and I were also asked to go in an speak with the young women about being missionaries and I loved it...the young women are such amazing examples of living the gospel in difficult circumstances...I just felt like I was glowing from their presence! Anyways... I felt all repumped with missionary spirit and ready to make this transfer great!
Let's see other adventures we've had this week. I got to feel like a 'vrai missionnaire' this week as it rained during our district contacting activity...we sang hymns on a street corner and by the time we got home I think I resembled a drowned rat...the squishing in my shoes made me feel like a true missionary haha. We also got to visit my favorite part of the city, the 18th, and got into a 'discussion' with the TJ's ( Jehovahs Wittness). They stopped us and were like 'dont you ever wonder why we dedicate our lives and go out to share our message? Don't you think God is behind us?' I kinda wanted to say...no I've never wondered that...obviously I think God is with us haha...just kidding I know those are fighting words... I just thought it was ironic that he would ask missionaries from another church that question. He also asked us 'do people ever mistake you for us?' The snarky side of Soeur Pearce came out when she said afterwards ' I wanted to respond, ya thanks alot! because of you no one wants to talk to us!' haha...they really were generally nice...just ironic haha. We also got to see a preacher yelling in the streets...made me grateful that we generally don't use that type of contacting anymore haha. We also experienced an almost miracle! haha We got a referral from Salt Lake a few weeks ago and every time we've gone over to drop off a Book of Mormon we have had to stand outside the apartment building till someone goes in or out because we don't have the code. As we were walking to it this time we passed this little old lady who looked like a puff of wind could blow her over...and Soeur Pearce was like 'How heavy do you think her cart is?' (she was pushing a little grocery cart) I said I think its empty (in my defense it really did look empty!) So we kept walking. We kept walking till we got to the apartment building and then started to wait. After about 10 minutes I said a little prayer to myself that someone would show up...and all of the sudden guess who comes around the corner (well I guess it wasn't very sudden) but that same little old lady came bumbling up to us and asked us to punch in the code for her because her hands were shaking. So MIRACLE we know have the code for the apartment building...ALMOST MIRACLE we totally felt ashamed that we hadn't stopped to help her since it turns out she was going to help us in the end! As a result when we were walking back to the metro we passed another old lady and both of us about jump at the chance to help her with her groceries but when we offered she answered back in a very capable voice 'don't worry I've got it '...as we walked away Soeur Pearce just looked at me and said 'well she was a little more spry!' hahah Moral of the story...offer to help people even if you think they wont neccessarily need it...the worst they can say is no! But you could be turning down the chance for a miracle!
Well that pretty much sums up the week. This week we for P Day we went to the Louvre! Thanks to Soeur Pearce's Rick Steves book we were only in there for about 2 hours and saw the most essential things. I loved it though! One of the coolest parts was the building its self...we barely even touched everything in there I can't get over how huge it is! We also relived my Israel days and got Fallafal in the Jewish quarter of Paris (not going to lie...the Israeli ones were better...) but it was a cultural experience nevertheless! Honestly my favorite part of this week came right after we had an uplifting mangez-vous with a member and it was raining outside and Soeur Pearce and I were walking down this adorable little french street (the building had flowers and balconies...you know...the whole french works) and all the sudden I knew I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but walking in the rain through Paris France. Oops I just got all sentimental and cheesy...just more proof that I'm not quite over my honeymoon stage with Paris too!
Love you and miss you all!!
xoxo
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