Bonjour!
Well its been another busy and adventureous week in Paris as a missionary! I dont think the saying that 'days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days' has ever been more true. It seems like so much happens every week and before I know it I'm sitting in front of the computer screen writing another email :)
Things with Anne Sophie have been going great! This week is crazy, exciting, bussy-ness as we get everything in order for the baptism. Anne Sophie is as exciting and more ready than ever...she doesn't need us! She is so ready and I am so excited for her baptism. This week we also have a new amie (investigator). Lou is an 11 year old granddaugter of a member in our ward... we finally got permission from her mom to start teaching her. She has been taking 'english lessons' from the missionaries forever; but now we finally get to teach her lessons that really matter! She seems really excited and wants to be baptized; but I know at that age the pressure to be what your friends want is very strong so hopefully she will sense the importance of our message. Part of me knows that by helping her along the way to baptism will promise her alot of lonely weekends in highschool...the other part of me knows what that is like and knows that is so worth it for the happiness the gospel brings! Pray for her that she will choose the gospel. Other than that we are getting a little worried about who will be our investigators once Anne Sophie is baptized so please pray that some of our potentials will work out and that we find the people the Lord has prepared for us here in Paris!
This week was also special because we had leadership training. Apparently it is not normal for everyone to go to leadership training but since this is President Staheli's second to last month it took more of the form of zone conferance. Except that 3 different zones got to come and so I got to see lots of friends from the MTC... so fun! I miss our little district-family...but it was good to see how everyone is handling the field. Leadership training was amazing. Of course I knew it was going to be because we got a little preview at mission council my first week in the field...but President Staheli is truly so inspired and just brings such a spirit of inspiration to the missionaries. He spoke about FOD; which stands for Foreign Object Damage.FOD are tiny pieces of dirt, metal, and miscilanious things that can get into a jet's engine and cause huge damage. These aren't huge pieces of things, but just tiny little objects. He talked about how commercial airlines in the US have a profit of about 4 billion dollars a year. But collectively airlines spend about 4.2 billion a year on FOD repair...meaning they could have double the profit if they could get rid of FOD. Well he compared that to our mission. Apparently baptisimal rates are about half right now compared to where we were last year. He said he doesn't think its because of any of us are disobedient or intentially not working hard...but just that we have let FOD get into our missionary lives. Obviously, this doesn't completely apply to me because I haven't been here for a year...but it was inspiriational to see what a difference being obedient to the little rules can make. It also made me determined to not let FOD even start in my missionary life. Part of me is very sad I won't get to have President Staheli as my mission president for much longer, but I am excited to see what the new president has to offer as well!
I had an another exciting first in the mission field this week.... exchanges! And it was a disaster... ok disaster is a little strong...but not far off! First of all I was feeling terrified because I was going to be responsible for getting me and another missionary to all the places we needed to be and to kind of guide all of our lessons. The missionary coming to stay with me is not new in the field so her french is decent...but she has never served in Paris so that was entirely on me! So the first few hours went great (other than district finding in which one of our elders told me I am 'the most awkward contacter he has ever seen'....thank you, thank you, I think that deserves some sort of award! It takes alot of effort to be THIS awkward alright...anyways) I was so proud of getting us to all the places we had to be that night and getting us home in one piece. Once we were home it was time to make phone calls to confirm all of our rendez-vous for the next day. So we get home...get all comfy in pjs...start to make dinner... and then call number one. I called a recent convert and ask her how she is doing... she says horrible and that she is having a crisis. What!? No one is allowed to have crisis while I am in charge! So we had to change back into our skirts run down to the church and meet with her. That went all fine and dandy and we were heading home... and naturally since we were the last ones in the building I THOUGHT I locked up. Well the next morning we get this panicked call from the Paris senior couple because the keys are missing and the church was left unlocked...once they found out we didnt have the keys they were now worried that someone other than a missionary has access to our building ( there may or may not be a lot of bums in the area that would love a free place to sleep) SOOOO since we didnt have the keys they proceed to call every single missionary in the THREE SURROUNDING ZONES to ask where the keys were. In the process I started to look through my purse and guess what I found.....yup...the keys. So one appologetic and embarassed phone call latter everyone in THREE SURROUNDING ZONES was now aware that no, a bum did not have the keys, and yes Soeur Smith is a space case. Perfect. haha. It wasn't really that bad... mostly just embarrassing that I can't be left without my trainer for 24 hours without sending everyone into a panic. Lets just say I almost cried with happiness when I was returned to Soeur Pearce.
This Sunday was a really great day in our ward as well because we had ward conferance. I love the Stake Presidency here! One- because the stake president is named President Gaston... like Beauty and the Beast... how perfect is that... and two because even with my limited understanding they are such powerful speakers. They really emphasized some amazing things... like the importance of parents being responsible for teaching their children, building a zion in our ward, and a quote from President Gaston that is something to the effect of "Agency is not doing what you want, but choosing freely to do what God wants for you to do". As well they also promised that France has never been closer to recieving a temple and it has nothing to do with legality issues...but the righteousness of the members. Such a great promise!
That brings me full circle to our P-day and you'll never believe what we were up to this week! Apparently it pays to have a companion with a Dad who has sweet hook-ups because we got to go to the French Open! ( thats tennis....haha) Anyways apparently its a really big deal.... and I only say apparently because Ive never followed tennis but here it is huge and the French Open is impossible to get tickets to! (Ive just been out of the loop all these years) Well I guess some BYU 'dignitaries' needed "translators" aka Sister Missionaries to help them buy metro tickets and guide them to the stadium... and so we got to go! So I went from knowing absolutely nothing about tennis...to watching literally the top players in the world (we saw Djokovic and Federer... look them up ;)) Anyways it was really fun and I felt quite high class :) I think I even got a little bit of a tan because it is becoming summer time in Paris! Makes me wonder what kind of sweet hook ups my dad could get us into...Psychiatric Association of France perhaps? Maybe we will just stick to tennis.... no offense haha
I love and miss you all! Your in my prayers!
Soeur Smith
Well its been another busy and adventureous week in Paris as a missionary! I dont think the saying that 'days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days' has ever been more true. It seems like so much happens every week and before I know it I'm sitting in front of the computer screen writing another email :)
Things with Anne Sophie have been going great! This week is crazy, exciting, bussy-ness as we get everything in order for the baptism. Anne Sophie is as exciting and more ready than ever...she doesn't need us! She is so ready and I am so excited for her baptism. This week we also have a new amie (investigator). Lou is an 11 year old granddaugter of a member in our ward... we finally got permission from her mom to start teaching her. She has been taking 'english lessons' from the missionaries forever; but now we finally get to teach her lessons that really matter! She seems really excited and wants to be baptized; but I know at that age the pressure to be what your friends want is very strong so hopefully she will sense the importance of our message. Part of me knows that by helping her along the way to baptism will promise her alot of lonely weekends in highschool...the other part of me knows what that is like and knows that is so worth it for the happiness the gospel brings! Pray for her that she will choose the gospel. Other than that we are getting a little worried about who will be our investigators once Anne Sophie is baptized so please pray that some of our potentials will work out and that we find the people the Lord has prepared for us here in Paris!
This week was also special because we had leadership training. Apparently it is not normal for everyone to go to leadership training but since this is President Staheli's second to last month it took more of the form of zone conferance. Except that 3 different zones got to come and so I got to see lots of friends from the MTC... so fun! I miss our little district-family...but it was good to see how everyone is handling the field. Leadership training was amazing. Of course I knew it was going to be because we got a little preview at mission council my first week in the field...but President Staheli is truly so inspired and just brings such a spirit of inspiration to the missionaries. He spoke about FOD; which stands for Foreign Object Damage.FOD are tiny pieces of dirt, metal, and miscilanious things that can get into a jet's engine and cause huge damage. These aren't huge pieces of things, but just tiny little objects. He talked about how commercial airlines in the US have a profit of about 4 billion dollars a year. But collectively airlines spend about 4.2 billion a year on FOD repair...meaning they could have double the profit if they could get rid of FOD. Well he compared that to our mission. Apparently baptisimal rates are about half right now compared to where we were last year. He said he doesn't think its because of any of us are disobedient or intentially not working hard...but just that we have let FOD get into our missionary lives. Obviously, this doesn't completely apply to me because I haven't been here for a year...but it was inspiriational to see what a difference being obedient to the little rules can make. It also made me determined to not let FOD even start in my missionary life. Part of me is very sad I won't get to have President Staheli as my mission president for much longer, but I am excited to see what the new president has to offer as well!
I had an another exciting first in the mission field this week.... exchanges! And it was a disaster... ok disaster is a little strong...but not far off! First of all I was feeling terrified because I was going to be responsible for getting me and another missionary to all the places we needed to be and to kind of guide all of our lessons. The missionary coming to stay with me is not new in the field so her french is decent...but she has never served in Paris so that was entirely on me! So the first few hours went great (other than district finding in which one of our elders told me I am 'the most awkward contacter he has ever seen'....thank you, thank you, I think that deserves some sort of award! It takes alot of effort to be THIS awkward alright...anyways) I was so proud of getting us to all the places we had to be that night and getting us home in one piece. Once we were home it was time to make phone calls to confirm all of our rendez-vous for the next day. So we get home...get all comfy in pjs...start to make dinner... and then call number one. I called a recent convert and ask her how she is doing... she says horrible and that she is having a crisis. What!? No one is allowed to have crisis while I am in charge! So we had to change back into our skirts run down to the church and meet with her. That went all fine and dandy and we were heading home... and naturally since we were the last ones in the building I THOUGHT I locked up. Well the next morning we get this panicked call from the Paris senior couple because the keys are missing and the church was left unlocked...once they found out we didnt have the keys they were now worried that someone other than a missionary has access to our building ( there may or may not be a lot of bums in the area that would love a free place to sleep) SOOOO since we didnt have the keys they proceed to call every single missionary in the THREE SURROUNDING ZONES to ask where the keys were. In the process I started to look through my purse and guess what I found.....yup...the keys. So one appologetic and embarassed phone call latter everyone in THREE SURROUNDING ZONES was now aware that no, a bum did not have the keys, and yes Soeur Smith is a space case. Perfect. haha. It wasn't really that bad... mostly just embarrassing that I can't be left without my trainer for 24 hours without sending everyone into a panic. Lets just say I almost cried with happiness when I was returned to Soeur Pearce.
This Sunday was a really great day in our ward as well because we had ward conferance. I love the Stake Presidency here! One- because the stake president is named President Gaston... like Beauty and the Beast... how perfect is that... and two because even with my limited understanding they are such powerful speakers. They really emphasized some amazing things... like the importance of parents being responsible for teaching their children, building a zion in our ward, and a quote from President Gaston that is something to the effect of "Agency is not doing what you want, but choosing freely to do what God wants for you to do". As well they also promised that France has never been closer to recieving a temple and it has nothing to do with legality issues...but the righteousness of the members. Such a great promise!
That brings me full circle to our P-day and you'll never believe what we were up to this week! Apparently it pays to have a companion with a Dad who has sweet hook-ups because we got to go to the French Open! ( thats tennis....haha) Anyways apparently its a really big deal.... and I only say apparently because Ive never followed tennis but here it is huge and the French Open is impossible to get tickets to! (Ive just been out of the loop all these years) Well I guess some BYU 'dignitaries' needed "translators" aka Sister Missionaries to help them buy metro tickets and guide them to the stadium... and so we got to go! So I went from knowing absolutely nothing about tennis...to watching literally the top players in the world (we saw Djokovic and Federer... look them up ;)) Anyways it was really fun and I felt quite high class :) I think I even got a little bit of a tan because it is becoming summer time in Paris! Makes me wonder what kind of sweet hook ups my dad could get us into...Psychiatric Association of France perhaps? Maybe we will just stick to tennis.... no offense haha
I love and miss you all! Your in my prayers!
Soeur Smith
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