Bonjour!!!
How are you!!?? Hopefully that is a chorus of 'greats' I hear from across the ocean! I hope so, because as usual this week turned out great for us!
Yes I said 'turned out' because its been a bit of rollercoaster ( if you guys get sick of my analogies let me know...but this week missionary work is a rollercoaster so go with me...) The ankle situation and vacance contiune to slow down our numbers (I swear thats not me complaining it just fits into the story later) but the work always keeps going! I kind of want to get to my really great story...so I'll just bullet point the other stuff that happened this week.
- We had a goodbye picnic for Elder Jaquier, one of the chinese elders, last P day in front of the eiffel tower (he is doing this wierd half transfer thing so he left in middle of the transfer) It was kind of fun having flashbacks to my first picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower and thinking of how far Ive come. I loved watching our 'blue' Soeur Ingrham freak out over it. Ahhh I promise I still I get excited about it...its was just so fun to watch someone's face the first time they saw it...magical to say the least :)
-We had district meeting with the Chinese elders this week and it was so good. Elder Gubbay said something I really liked. We were role-playing (yes missionaries have very well planned attacks for when people reject our message) and we were talking about how to describe to people that our religion really is different; because naturally everyone claims they have the 'authority' and 'the truth'. He said something to the effect of that we don't really need the Book of Mormon or the Bible; our church has all the keys to run on modern revelation alone. However, our loving Heavenly Father has given us scriptures so that we may know for ourselves, that we may read and pray individually to know the truth. And once you know the Book of Mormon is true, then you know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and you know we have the restored gospel. It is so simple and beautiful!
- I went to Brussels again for exchanges!! Except this time I was with a 'blue' francophone! You can imagine my terror... a full 24 hours in french...and Im supposed to be the 'older, knowledgable' companion. Hmmmm....but it went suprisingly well! I survived...turns out I can kind of speak french!!! (or I was put with a really nice francophone who told me she understood me) We had our share of adventures in Belgium; getting lost, contacting, and meeting a wonderful women at a members house who has survived tragedies in her home country of Rwanda! But of course...it felt so nice to come back to Soeur Williams. Sometimes I think exchanges are mainly just so you can learn to appreciate and miss your companion ( you know 'cause you don't miss something till its gone...just like I bet you guys are currently realizing how much you miss me... jk jk)
- Soeur Williams and I have really been trying to work with members, or at least the ones not on vacance, this month. And I have to say there is nothing like running through the streets of Paris, climbing 5 flights of stairs, knocking on a random persons door to find out we climbed the wrong 5 flight of stairs, going back down the stairs, climbing the next 5 flights of stairs, and then entering a members home to find pictures of Christ hanging everywhere, hearing their amazing conversion story, reading scriptures with them and hearing about their missionary efforts to get you loving your ward! Just for example....
OK...bussiness over. Story time. So like I said... our numbers have been leaving something to be desired for. This past week has been a rough and I think Satan is taking advantage of our struggles to make us question our abilities as missionaries. I mean, I knew a mission would be hard. I just thought the hardship would come from the work, not lack thereof. So needless to say I've been praying ALOT. Soeur Williams and I can't really do alot of contacting because of her ankle, and so we've been praying that we would be able to find SOMEONE, either on the metro or through a referel or something, that we could start teaching. Well, Saturday night after a long week my prayer included some sort of plea of 'please help someone to show up at church tomorrow that we can start teaching'. Ok yes... maybe it was a little demanding, but I really felt like it was our last hope this week. So there I was at the beginning of my rollercoaster...you know where your waiting for the rollercoaster to start going fast and get to the good stuff. So Sunday morning comes around, and normally we attend Relief Soceity (church is backwards here- relief society, Sunday school, then Sacrament Meeting), but two weeks ago we had been asked to teaching Sharing Time in Primary. (this is the part where the rollar-coaster is building up to the big drop) It accidently went over time, so as we came out of the primary room and saw some missionaries who are normally in the investigators class, we asked what they were doing they told me that there were NO investigators at church this week. You can imagine my disappointment, even Anne Sophie hadn't come! (Oops there was the big drop). So we were standing there talking to the elders, when all of the sudden three women walked in from the street. (If I havent described it before, our church has a big outside courtyard, its pretty legit). One is an amie of ours and she walked straight into Sunday school. Soeur Williams and I each starting talking to the other two. The one I started talking to is named Alvyne (pronounced like Alvin and the chimpmunks haha). She said she walks around in this neighborhood all the time and has never noticed the church; but today she was walking around and looked into the courtyard and felt like she should come in. Voilà, I started talking to her about our church, and basically gave her the first lesson AND she wanted to stay for sacrament meeting. I look over and Soeur Williams was guiding the other lady into the church so I just followed. So, there we are sitting in Sacrament meeting, somehow with three investigators! Afterwards, we met with Alvyne and had an amazing lesson and set another rendez-vous for this week. Afterwards, I find out from Soeur Williams that the other lady, Paulette, also was just randomly walking past the church and had a feeling to come in- AT THE SAME MOMENT as Alyvne; Soeur Williams convinced her to stay for sacrament meeting and afterwards she agreed to meet with us later this week as well. (this is the part on the rollercoaster where I'm doing loop-to-loops, corkscrews, and all the other great stuff!!!) It was truly a miracle. Honestly I would have been happy with one person showing up...but the Lord not only answers our prayers...but answers them in ways we could never even imagine. (Anne Sophie even showed up) Soeur Williams and I were on cloud nine for the rest of the day and as you can imagine my prayers that night were full of gratitude.
I don't know how to describe how much my testimony grew that the Lord is truly aware of each one of us. For me, the rollercoaster is a suprise, every jerk and turn is new. But the Lord created the tracks and knows where we are headed. If we hadn't been asked two weeks ago to teach primary, then we wouldn't have been running late, and wouldn't have been standing in the courtyard to talk to Alvyne and Paulette. The tracks were laid, we just had to bumble along in our little car, and trust that we were heading in the right direction. So right now I'm kind of at the top of the rollercoaster, you know the part where you can look out over the entire theme park and are feel satisfied that's its been a really good day. I'm sure this week will be full of ups and downs. Actually, Im sure this next year will be full of ups and downs, and then my mission will come to an abrupt stop! So for now, Ill just enjoy the ride!
I love you all and your in my prayers!
Soeur Smith
How are you!!?? Hopefully that is a chorus of 'greats' I hear from across the ocean! I hope so, because as usual this week turned out great for us!
Yes I said 'turned out' because its been a bit of rollercoaster ( if you guys get sick of my analogies let me know...but this week missionary work is a rollercoaster so go with me...) The ankle situation and vacance contiune to slow down our numbers (I swear thats not me complaining it just fits into the story later) but the work always keeps going! I kind of want to get to my really great story...so I'll just bullet point the other stuff that happened this week.
- We had a goodbye picnic for Elder Jaquier, one of the chinese elders, last P day in front of the eiffel tower (he is doing this wierd half transfer thing so he left in middle of the transfer) It was kind of fun having flashbacks to my first picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower and thinking of how far Ive come. I loved watching our 'blue' Soeur Ingrham freak out over it. Ahhh I promise I still I get excited about it...its was just so fun to watch someone's face the first time they saw it...magical to say the least :)
-We had district meeting with the Chinese elders this week and it was so good. Elder Gubbay said something I really liked. We were role-playing (yes missionaries have very well planned attacks for when people reject our message) and we were talking about how to describe to people that our religion really is different; because naturally everyone claims they have the 'authority' and 'the truth'. He said something to the effect of that we don't really need the Book of Mormon or the Bible; our church has all the keys to run on modern revelation alone. However, our loving Heavenly Father has given us scriptures so that we may know for ourselves, that we may read and pray individually to know the truth. And once you know the Book of Mormon is true, then you know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and you know we have the restored gospel. It is so simple and beautiful!
- I went to Brussels again for exchanges!! Except this time I was with a 'blue' francophone! You can imagine my terror... a full 24 hours in french...and Im supposed to be the 'older, knowledgable' companion. Hmmmm....but it went suprisingly well! I survived...turns out I can kind of speak french!!! (or I was put with a really nice francophone who told me she understood me) We had our share of adventures in Belgium; getting lost, contacting, and meeting a wonderful women at a members house who has survived tragedies in her home country of Rwanda! But of course...it felt so nice to come back to Soeur Williams. Sometimes I think exchanges are mainly just so you can learn to appreciate and miss your companion ( you know 'cause you don't miss something till its gone...just like I bet you guys are currently realizing how much you miss me... jk jk)
- Soeur Williams and I have really been trying to work with members, or at least the ones not on vacance, this month. And I have to say there is nothing like running through the streets of Paris, climbing 5 flights of stairs, knocking on a random persons door to find out we climbed the wrong 5 flight of stairs, going back down the stairs, climbing the next 5 flights of stairs, and then entering a members home to find pictures of Christ hanging everywhere, hearing their amazing conversion story, reading scriptures with them and hearing about their missionary efforts to get you loving your ward! Just for example....
OK...bussiness over. Story time. So like I said... our numbers have been leaving something to be desired for. This past week has been a rough and I think Satan is taking advantage of our struggles to make us question our abilities as missionaries. I mean, I knew a mission would be hard. I just thought the hardship would come from the work, not lack thereof. So needless to say I've been praying ALOT. Soeur Williams and I can't really do alot of contacting because of her ankle, and so we've been praying that we would be able to find SOMEONE, either on the metro or through a referel or something, that we could start teaching. Well, Saturday night after a long week my prayer included some sort of plea of 'please help someone to show up at church tomorrow that we can start teaching'. Ok yes... maybe it was a little demanding, but I really felt like it was our last hope this week. So there I was at the beginning of my rollercoaster...you know where your waiting for the rollercoaster to start going fast and get to the good stuff. So Sunday morning comes around, and normally we attend Relief Soceity (church is backwards here- relief society, Sunday school, then Sacrament Meeting), but two weeks ago we had been asked to teaching Sharing Time in Primary. (this is the part where the rollar-coaster is building up to the big drop) It accidently went over time, so as we came out of the primary room and saw some missionaries who are normally in the investigators class, we asked what they were doing they told me that there were NO investigators at church this week. You can imagine my disappointment, even Anne Sophie hadn't come! (Oops there was the big drop). So we were standing there talking to the elders, when all of the sudden three women walked in from the street. (If I havent described it before, our church has a big outside courtyard, its pretty legit). One is an amie of ours and she walked straight into Sunday school. Soeur Williams and I each starting talking to the other two. The one I started talking to is named Alvyne (pronounced like Alvin and the chimpmunks haha). She said she walks around in this neighborhood all the time and has never noticed the church; but today she was walking around and looked into the courtyard and felt like she should come in. Voilà, I started talking to her about our church, and basically gave her the first lesson AND she wanted to stay for sacrament meeting. I look over and Soeur Williams was guiding the other lady into the church so I just followed. So, there we are sitting in Sacrament meeting, somehow with three investigators! Afterwards, we met with Alvyne and had an amazing lesson and set another rendez-vous for this week. Afterwards, I find out from Soeur Williams that the other lady, Paulette, also was just randomly walking past the church and had a feeling to come in- AT THE SAME MOMENT as Alyvne; Soeur Williams convinced her to stay for sacrament meeting and afterwards she agreed to meet with us later this week as well. (this is the part on the rollercoaster where I'm doing loop-to-loops, corkscrews, and all the other great stuff!!!) It was truly a miracle. Honestly I would have been happy with one person showing up...but the Lord not only answers our prayers...but answers them in ways we could never even imagine. (Anne Sophie even showed up) Soeur Williams and I were on cloud nine for the rest of the day and as you can imagine my prayers that night were full of gratitude.
I don't know how to describe how much my testimony grew that the Lord is truly aware of each one of us. For me, the rollercoaster is a suprise, every jerk and turn is new. But the Lord created the tracks and knows where we are headed. If we hadn't been asked two weeks ago to teach primary, then we wouldn't have been running late, and wouldn't have been standing in the courtyard to talk to Alvyne and Paulette. The tracks were laid, we just had to bumble along in our little car, and trust that we were heading in the right direction. So right now I'm kind of at the top of the rollercoaster, you know the part where you can look out over the entire theme park and are feel satisfied that's its been a really good day. I'm sure this week will be full of ups and downs. Actually, Im sure this next year will be full of ups and downs, and then my mission will come to an abrupt stop! So for now, Ill just enjoy the ride!
I love you all and your in my prayers!
Soeur Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment