How are you!?!?! Sounds the family reunion and vacation on the other side of the ocean went well!!! (Im secretly glad that Disneyland didnt work out...is that selfish? Its selfish...Ill make it up to you...Disneyland Paris next August? hahah I promise to be your personal translator) I can definately tell its vacation season by the amount of english I hear while walking around the city. Sometimes I wonder where all the Parisians went...then someone without deoderant and a baguette under their arm stands next to me on the metro and Im assured they still exsist.
This week has been a testimony to me that the Lord truly has a plan for everything and everyone. Let me explain. I've decided that missionaries are like wands. Yup you read right. Wands. You know, like in Harry Potter.( the french word is baguette, how good is that!!!) Anyways, you know how each wizard has to search for thier perfect wand that just *sparks* the right way. Each missionary is perhaps a different ingrediant in the wand. Like maybe Im a Unicorn Hair and Soeur Pearce was a Whomping Willow root. But now combined with Soeur Williams Im like a Unicorn Hair mixed with Phoenix feather. With each companionship your a different wand, searching for a different wizard or witch aka investigator. When the right missionaries meet with the right investigator, things just spark!
I don't remember how much Ive told you about Soeur Williams' foot situation...but Ill expand. About 9 weeks ago her ankle started to swell and get really stiff. A couple weeks after that she lost ability to move her toes. Since then she has been going through many tests at the hospital and has been told several times to STOP walking. But...thats not exactly an easy order for a missionary and she had a couple of progressing amies (investigators) that she had to keep meeting with. So she promptly took some IB Profin and kept working, taking breaks as much as possible. So when we found out we were going to be companions I knew that my time in the apartment was going to drastically increase.
Side Note. A missionaries happiness is directly related to how much your working. The more people you teach and find and oddly enough, worry about, the happier you are. Insert foot problem and its very difficult to keep up your level of happiness. But at the beginning of this transfer Soeur Williams and I were determined to make the best of it.
Thats where miracles happen. The Lord truly is aware of each of us and desires of our hearts. Somehow, despite our inablity to leave the apartment much, the Lord has provided people for us to teach, and therefore keeping level of satisfaction and happiness up.
First, enters Audrey. An american student studying music here in Paris. She happens to be in the same program as some BYU students who have been great missionaries and brought alot of their friends to church. But Audrey has been the only one consistant in coming back to church. She's had a book of Mormon for a few weeks now but due to her classes we haven't been able to meet with her. This week it finally worked out. Naturally all of her music program friends wanted to come to the lesson. Let me tell you Ive never been so intimidated in my life. In walk four music program students who after they sang our opening song I felt like clapping. Then while getting to know Audrey turns out she just graduated from Harvard...in biology. With a minor in music. Hm. As the lesson progressed Im pretty sure the students used many words I have no clue what the mean...let alone could I spell them for you. Thank goodness the gospel message is simple. The spirit in that lesson was so strong...yet Soeur Williams and I both walked out of that lesson feeling like we were not the missionaries for Audrey. We both felt like she is ready for the gospel, but we are just a stepping stone preparing her for the missionaries in the states that can teach her about the neccessity of faith rather than proof. We just weren't the "wand" for Audrey.
But, the Lord know who we are just right for. Like Zdravko. He continues to do well and is hilarious as ever. This week we had some very tender experiences as we discussed eternal families and the temple. The bishop interviewed him to see if he is ready for the priesthood and when he comes back from Bulgaria he will recieve it. One moment this week reassured me that we are truly the missionaries for Zdravko. We asked him this week if has felt a difference since being baptized and confirmed. He said 'yes, I feel protected' Naturally we were beaming as we asked if he has felt the spirit more. He told us " I have a hard time imagining the spirit, because you cant see it and whooshes in. But when I am around people who love me, like the Mormon Sisiters, I know I am protected and loved." We were both so happy that he knows we love him even though we have never verbalized it. Despite language barriers, we were the missionaries Zdravko needed at this time and now he knows the joy of the gospel and the 'protection' it brings into our lives.
The Lord also know how to position his 'wands' in the right place at the right time. This week Soeur Williams had EMG scheaduled for her foot. Basically that translates to be a torture sesson. They stick needles in you and intentionally shock you to test nerve activity. I had the 'pit of despair' scene from Princess Bride flashing through my head. But as she was being tortured the doctor started to ask her why she was in France. One thing led to another and she taught him basically the entire first lesson. Afterwards, she offered him a Book of Mormon and he said he couldn't accept it because it was so precious to her. But after she explained that she wanted to give it to him (aka we have like 50,000 in our apartment and WANT people to take them haha) he took it and said he would love to meet with us and talk with us more about it. Apparently she had the *spark* that he needed to be interested in the gospel. haha thats funny because he was electricuting her. alright...not that funny. Anyways, perhaps her ankle is swollen for a reason.
This week I know we have beens tools (wands?) in the Lords hands. This morning I was reading in Hebrews 13 and one verse stuck out to me. Verse 5 reads:
"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
I know I am often tempted to compare my french with another missionaries, or compare investigators, or numbers or whatever it is. But when I am 'content with such thing' that I have, then the Lord will never leave us or forsake us, and thats when the *spark* happens. I am so grateful for the many things the Lord has blessed me with. Such great companions, the opportunity to serve a mission, and a supportive family back home that I love so much!! He truly is aware of everything and blesses us in everyway...even if its with swollen ankles!
I love you and miss you!
Soeur Smith
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