Bonjour!!!
Well... apparently the adversary thought I was a little too perky in my email last week because this week ended up to be a bit more of a challenge. Soeur Pearce and I realized that after Anne Sophie was baptized we were moving into the 'finding' part of missionary work...so as we started off the week we were quite excited because we had alot of potential new amies and appointments set up. I was so excited to find that 'one' that is the reason I came on a mission...or have some miracle stories to share....
Especially since this week in our District Meeting our Zone Leaders did some training with us. They prayed about it and decided that this transfer our zone really needs to work on talking to people. They talked about how really finding people, and contacting people, is just like making friends. It doesn't need to be wierd and awkward (ok lets be honest its still pretty wierd and awkward) but we can make it less so by approaching it with 'friendship' in mind...because once your friends with the person your talking to on the metro...isn't natural to want to then move onto the most important and wonderful thing in life..the gospel!? They talked about how we were all called to serve here in Paris, at this time in this transfer to find our 'friend'. We may not be here to convert the entire city...but there is our one 'friend' waiting to hear specifically from each one of us. So after being all pumped and ready to go Soeur Pearce and I headed into the roughest week so far...
I won't give you numbers but we will just say that we ended up getting ditched or cancelled on more times than we actually met with anyone...promising phone numbers called back and said they weren't interested...even recent converts decided they didnt need this missionaries this week. On top of this...the 'friends' we were making ended up usually being a little ...adventerous? Like the time a guy approached us while we were voluntering at the Croix-Rouge (Red Cross) and told us he wants to repent of his sins and come to church. We took down his number and had the elders call him. Well apparently he has QUITE some sins to repent of because when they met up with him he was in the middle of drug bust and apparently didn't currently have the time to meet with them. Or wait...there was the Christian from Egypt that we passed to the elders...but he doesn't want to meet with the elders...rather he would like to "meet with JUST Soeur Pearce, drink a Cola and talk about Joseph Smith"...sorry but that sounds like a date to me. Ah and there was the one guy we contacted on the metro a few weeks ago who turned out to be Muslim so we just invited him to English classes. Well he's been coming for a couple weeks now and this week we read the Family Proc with our class for pronunciation practice...afterwards I asked if anyone had any questions and he raised his hand and asked if I was married...I tried to quickly explain that as missionaries we arent married but we can get married after our missions (there is a common misconception here that we are nuns) and then changed the subject. Well then after class he came up to me and said "Soeur Smith may I ask another question" I was like uh sure...and ready for this? He said "I was wondering if we could arrange a marriage after your mission?" Well it took me all of about .000000002 of a second to say No! haha So don't worry mom even I do become an old unmarryable RM I still have some options open. But honestly... I really would like to know if that marriage proposal as ever worked for anyone??? Oh and ready for my favorite 'friend' of the week? This guy was sitting across from us in the metro totally 'plaqueing' us aka reading our nametags with a curious look on his face...when he leaned over and asked 'when are the dernier jours' (latter days)...so Soeur Pearce tried to explain...but this guy was not interested...he grabbed her arm and started literally yelling at us about authority and how Christ's authority was lost on the earth after the apostles died (uh duh...if only he would actually listen to us...) anyways...obviously we were not ok with him grabbing onto Soeur Pearce so we decided to get off the metro right then and he yelled after us and called us 'les filles du diable'....yup we are daughters of the devil. GOOD...apparently we need to work on our friend making skills.
Alright Im done being pesimistic. We, as always, actually did have a good week...or at least one full of laughter. Lou continues to do well...she is not neccessarily progressing through the lessons quickly but I really think we have earned her trust and love as she asked us if we would meet with her for 2 hours in a row, didn't want us to leave at the end of her lesson, and READ HER SCRIPTURES on her own this week :) Anne Sophie also continues to just change and grow! Soeur Pearce and I were talking about how amazing it is to see people change with the gospel and just want to be better. Anne Sophie told us how she now finds herself looking for ways to serve people like give up her seat on the metro and help her roommates. This week she made us brownies! Its just cute to see that as people come closer to Christ they really do search for little ways to serve, the brownies don't really matter to us or mean much, if only she knew that honestly the greatest thing she could do for us is just go to church, but just the fact that she wants to do something for us just speaks volumes. We also had a suprise investigator come to church. We have been calling this lady for weeks...one of the elders contacted her during district finding my first week here...and she has been avoiding our calls. Well she called us at 11pm on Sat. and told us she was coming to church. Well she came and she loved it! At the end of the sacrament meeting I asked if she had any questions and she said her only question is 'if she could come back next week'. I love her already! Please pray that she is ready for the gospel because she definately has a strong catholic background that could be challenging. Also I feel like our missionary Sunday did wonders with the ward because people are really more willing to talk to people and have friends in mind and more willing to work with us..its been great.
This week we also had an adventurous mangez-vous. It was with Lou's grandmother. On our way there Soeur Pearce and I had this exact conversation
Well... apparently the adversary thought I was a little too perky in my email last week because this week ended up to be a bit more of a challenge. Soeur Pearce and I realized that after Anne Sophie was baptized we were moving into the 'finding' part of missionary work...so as we started off the week we were quite excited because we had alot of potential new amies and appointments set up. I was so excited to find that 'one' that is the reason I came on a mission...or have some miracle stories to share....
Especially since this week in our District Meeting our Zone Leaders did some training with us. They prayed about it and decided that this transfer our zone really needs to work on talking to people. They talked about how really finding people, and contacting people, is just like making friends. It doesn't need to be wierd and awkward (ok lets be honest its still pretty wierd and awkward) but we can make it less so by approaching it with 'friendship' in mind...because once your friends with the person your talking to on the metro...isn't natural to want to then move onto the most important and wonderful thing in life..the gospel!? They talked about how we were all called to serve here in Paris, at this time in this transfer to find our 'friend'. We may not be here to convert the entire city...but there is our one 'friend' waiting to hear specifically from each one of us. So after being all pumped and ready to go Soeur Pearce and I headed into the roughest week so far...
I won't give you numbers but we will just say that we ended up getting ditched or cancelled on more times than we actually met with anyone...promising phone numbers called back and said they weren't interested...even recent converts decided they didnt need this missionaries this week. On top of this...the 'friends' we were making ended up usually being a little ...adventerous? Like the time a guy approached us while we were voluntering at the Croix-Rouge (Red Cross) and told us he wants to repent of his sins and come to church. We took down his number and had the elders call him. Well apparently he has QUITE some sins to repent of because when they met up with him he was in the middle of drug bust and apparently didn't currently have the time to meet with them. Or wait...there was the Christian from Egypt that we passed to the elders...but he doesn't want to meet with the elders...rather he would like to "meet with JUST Soeur Pearce, drink a Cola and talk about Joseph Smith"...sorry but that sounds like a date to me. Ah and there was the one guy we contacted on the metro a few weeks ago who turned out to be Muslim so we just invited him to English classes. Well he's been coming for a couple weeks now and this week we read the Family Proc with our class for pronunciation practice...afterwards I asked if anyone had any questions and he raised his hand and asked if I was married...I tried to quickly explain that as missionaries we arent married but we can get married after our missions (there is a common misconception here that we are nuns) and then changed the subject. Well then after class he came up to me and said "Soeur Smith may I ask another question" I was like uh sure...and ready for this? He said "I was wondering if we could arrange a marriage after your mission?" Well it took me all of about .000000002 of a second to say No! haha So don't worry mom even I do become an old unmarryable RM I still have some options open. But honestly... I really would like to know if that marriage proposal as ever worked for anyone??? Oh and ready for my favorite 'friend' of the week? This guy was sitting across from us in the metro totally 'plaqueing' us aka reading our nametags with a curious look on his face...when he leaned over and asked 'when are the dernier jours' (latter days)...so Soeur Pearce tried to explain...but this guy was not interested...he grabbed her arm and started literally yelling at us about authority and how Christ's authority was lost on the earth after the apostles died (uh duh...if only he would actually listen to us...) anyways...obviously we were not ok with him grabbing onto Soeur Pearce so we decided to get off the metro right then and he yelled after us and called us 'les filles du diable'....yup we are daughters of the devil. GOOD...apparently we need to work on our friend making skills.
Alright Im done being pesimistic. We, as always, actually did have a good week...or at least one full of laughter. Lou continues to do well...she is not neccessarily progressing through the lessons quickly but I really think we have earned her trust and love as she asked us if we would meet with her for 2 hours in a row, didn't want us to leave at the end of her lesson, and READ HER SCRIPTURES on her own this week :) Anne Sophie also continues to just change and grow! Soeur Pearce and I were talking about how amazing it is to see people change with the gospel and just want to be better. Anne Sophie told us how she now finds herself looking for ways to serve people like give up her seat on the metro and help her roommates. This week she made us brownies! Its just cute to see that as people come closer to Christ they really do search for little ways to serve, the brownies don't really matter to us or mean much, if only she knew that honestly the greatest thing she could do for us is just go to church, but just the fact that she wants to do something for us just speaks volumes. We also had a suprise investigator come to church. We have been calling this lady for weeks...one of the elders contacted her during district finding my first week here...and she has been avoiding our calls. Well she called us at 11pm on Sat. and told us she was coming to church. Well she came and she loved it! At the end of the sacrament meeting I asked if she had any questions and she said her only question is 'if she could come back next week'. I love her already! Please pray that she is ready for the gospel because she definately has a strong catholic background that could be challenging. Also I feel like our missionary Sunday did wonders with the ward because people are really more willing to talk to people and have friends in mind and more willing to work with us..its been great.
This week we also had an adventurous mangez-vous. It was with Lou's grandmother. On our way there Soeur Pearce and I had this exact conversation
SS "I think as a companionship we should have a goal to make this mangez vous as short as possible" (it had been a long day)
SP "Alright...who is going to pretend to be sick?"
SS " you know what we need"
SP "Puking Pastles"
Yes its true...we are kindred spirits...she just read my mind and automatically knew I was reffering to Harry PotterSP "Puking Pastles"
Anyways...when we got there we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The first course came out. Don't ask me what it was...the only word I understood was fish and I had no desire to ask questions beyond that. The next course...which we thought was the main course was a quiche...it was decent-no complaints. Oops till the actual main dish came....in which Lou's grandmother literally put a 3 inch high MOUNTAIN of rice on my plate with a mystery meat sauce. I thought I was going to puke just looking at how much food there was on my plate. Soeur Pearce got out of it by saying 'oh im not actually that hungry' . After I about I had half way finished my plate and everyone else was finished... the host told me I didn't need to finish. Phew...I was exhausted. Then came desert. Another quiche? With eggs...and coconut? Im sure somewhere in the world that recipe can go right...but not here. And since I hadn't finished my dinner she gave me a small piece...while poor Soeur Pearce got to make up the difference. haha...I think Im still digesting that food haha....
We also have matching freak outs. This week because of our disappointing turn of events we both had our moments to freak out and wonder what the heck we were doing wrong and why people aren't flocking to font! Soeur Pearce had to remind me that it is irrational to expect yourself to be the 'perfect missionary' and I had to remind her that sometimes appointments just fall through, not because we are horrible missionaries, but because that is part of finding those who are ready. Well it reminded me of this talk by Elder Holland that he gave in the MTC awhile ago...He said
We also have matching freak outs. This week because of our disappointing turn of events we both had our moments to freak out and wonder what the heck we were doing wrong and why people aren't flocking to font! Soeur Pearce had to remind me that it is irrational to expect yourself to be the 'perfect missionary' and I had to remind her that sometimes appointments just fall through, not because we are horrible missionaries, but because that is part of finding those who are ready. Well it reminded me of this talk by Elder Holland that he gave in the MTC awhile ago...He said
"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.
If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.
The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
Sorry that was a giant quote. But I think it sums up our week...it wasn't really THAT bad of a week- you are probably thinking we are pretty whiney for complaining about getting ditched a few times...but it was enough to make us question our missionary abilities and wonder what we can do better. So Elder Holland...consider my heart-pricked...and of course there always things we can change and work on, but if this little price is the price I need to pay to 'stand with the best life this world has ever known' then I will gladly do it. And maybe in the process we can learn to pick our friends better....
Love you and miss you all!
Soeur Smith
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