Wednesday, September 14, 2011

September 12, 2011 "Nous allons a la lune"

Bonjour!!
It sounds like fall and school and everything are getting underway at home! I can definately feel the difference here...Soeur Williams and I went to a museum today and we had it all to ourselves! Me and Soeur Williams + endless, uncrowded buildings of history = glorious!!! We even got to hang out with Napolean himself. Its been a good p-day so far....

This week has been full of bittersweet moments...and comme d'habitude there were some funny moments. Here are the highlights:

We had to say goodbye to Hana. I won't go into details...but we will just say chocolate was involved in the healing process...and Soeur Williams and I might have had some very serious daydreaming sessions about our trip to Tawain that will happenning one day... our lives have definately felt a little empty this week without our Hana.

BUT, I also get to see Lou Lou again! She is finally back from vacance!!! Again, Ill spare you from the gory details of how excited I was to see that girl; despite her hyper tendacies I really do love her! This week we started her on Personal Progress...we started with one of the goals to pray every morning and every night for three weeks ; you can imagine my excitement when we came three days later and she had been praying all on her own! Little does she know, that means so much more to me than all of the friendship bracelets she has made for me haha....

This week in district meeting, our district leader, Elder Walker drew a moon on a pillowcase. He told us to draw rocketships with the names of our amies on it, and when someone gets baptized we can draw a flag on the moon. The best part was the title of this lovely drawing was 'Nous allons à la lune' (we're going to the moon). Well after he could get over snickering...Elder Rako (he's french) informed us that in french to 'go to the moon' is an expression for getting high. Good. We are starting off the transfer with a goal to get all of our amies high. Gotta love those miscommunications...

Anne Sophie made me realize how fast this transfer is going to go. A couple weeks ago she had promised to make us a cake. I totally forgot about that until we asked her when is the next time we can meet with her. She looked at the calendar and said "Well next week is stake conferance, then the next week is the ward activity, then its general conferance, then its the missionary concert...so in a month and a half...I will bring you a cake!" haha after we reassured her that its fine and we definately don't need a cake...we decided to meet during the week...but internally I was freaking out about how fast this transfer is going by already...*deep breaths* alright...back to bussiness...

So a couple of weeks ago, I had a contact that I was pretty proud of. We were waiting for someone at the visitors center, but it was late and technically the visitors center was closed. But this man wandered in and started to look around...so I went up to him and started talking to him. Usually I'll start talking to someone and after beginning a tour Soeur Williams will come and save me. But this time...Soeur Williams decided to let me fly on my own...and I actually did it! I was pretty much flying on cloud 9 after because not only did he take a Book of Mormon, but when we were done with the tour he asked me if he could meet with us to learn more!!! Cool...I know. So, trying to repay our elders for all the refferals they've been giving us lately I passed his info to the elders so they could call and make an appointment. Well I guess miscommunications happened and they missed the appointment...and he showed up at the visitor's center again and just spoke with the missionaries there. I had only heard the one side of the story from the elders which was that a rendez-vous hadn't worked out. Well, imagine my suprise when after church I was talking to people afterwards and I looked over and there he was sitting in the congregation! I started talking to him and he said, not only that he had decided to come to church on his own, but he is almost done with the Book of Mormon!!!! (and I know he's not lying because he explained to me in great detail about how there are four different Nephis and how Moroni is Mormon's son) I practically dragged an elder over and screamed 'start teaching this man now'!!! (don't worry...thats only what was going on inside...I actually asked very nicely for the elders to come over and meet my 'friend' haha) Anyway, I'm pretty excited, so pray for my new friend Aviles.

And this week I finished the Book of Mormon. When I started reading this time, I had been thinking alot about how we promise everyone that the gospel blesses families. I know this to be true, but was kind of pondering exactly how reading a book about a people's wars and genelogy really helps a family become unified. So this time through, I've been highlighting words and verses that make specific referance to the family. Maybe everyone else is already aware of this, but I was amazed how much I found! The family really is a prominant theme throughout the Book of Mormon. Almost every story deals with familes and how it can bring us happiness when we have a common goal to follow Christ. I know this is old news, but I felt my testimony strengthened and again felt blessed to be part of a family that has this knowledge and is striving towards being together forever. I also felt an increased testimony of how important missionary work really is...I want all families in the world to know the peace and joy that comes from the gospel. And of course, I gained an increased testimony that the Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of our religion and should be the keystone of our families.

Alright, I'm sorry. Lately I feel like I haven't been able to get through a letter without getting extremely cheesy. But the point is that I love you all and miss you tons...and maybe once in awhile I get this slight urge to yell 'the church is true' from the rooftops...but settle for sending you overwhelmingly mushy emails...thanks for bearing with me, its very much appreciate.

xoxo
Soeur Smith

PS. French milestone reached this week: I understood the homeless man on the metro begging for money. I know...be impressed.

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