Bonjour!
So at the beginning of this transfer I made a deal with Brussels. I said it was allowed to get cold on November 23rd (transfer day) and to snow on December 21st (the first day of winter) and today the sun is shining...So so far the deal is still on! I just need to keep praying for my luck to last...I didnt think commanding the skies would actually work. I guess my opinion has a little more wieght as a missionary...haha
This week has been full of miracles! To explain I need to give a little background. When President Poznanski became our mission president he started changing a few things in the mission. One of them was dinner hour. With President Staheli we were allowed to have dinner hour from 8 to 9 and then do planning from 9 to 9:30. Oh no, Im about to get into some dirty details about missionary life. The "missionary rule book" says that dinner is supposed to be over by 6, but your mission president can change any rules according to culture, etc. Our mission is so spread out that it takes a while to get home for dinner hour and then back out again, so it was more logical to have dinner hour at eight, then just stay in for the night. Following? Ok so President Poznanski changed that rule because from 6-9 is when families are home, so he told us to 'make a concerted effort' to finish dinner by 6 when possible so we can be out with the people at night.
Ok background info over. So after zone conferance, Soeur Murray and I did some reflecting about our dinner hours. We were generally done pretty early, but just how our rendezvous were working out, we would have lunch around two, so then have dinner at five seemed ridiculous, so we were fixing lots of rendezvous for nighttime and just coming home around 830 and eating. President Kapishka shared stories from his mission, where he made an effort to be knocking doors every night from 6-8, because that is when families are home, then fix rendezvous at 8. SO Soeur Murray and I decided to just experiment and see how it works. So instead of planning as many rendezvous as we could at night; we planned being out every night!
Im not going to lie. As a missionary, your planner becomes your life. Its kind of an obsession. To look through the week and see NOTHING planned everynight...its a bit terrifying. But as President Staheli once said "There is nothing more exciting than an empty planner, because then the Lord can direct your time". So Monday started off. We come in from Pday...it was dark and cold...and we had to go right back out to do finding. When our carbon monoxide alarm starts going off. After having a minor freak out...we think we figured out it was just the battery dying. But to make sure...we had to go to the store to buy a new one. It was looking like our 'concecrated finding' was ruined from day one. So we decided we were going to try our 'grocery store' contacting. Store Number One: After playing dumb and asking three different families where the batteries are and asking them to teach me the word for battery in french and trying to bring up the gospel...we decided we had lingered long enough and were starting to look creepy and should go to the next store. Store Number Two: repeat scene of number one. Bus Stop: me feeling frustrated that our entire night had gone towards buying a battery...so I just sat next to lady at the stop and started chatting. Result: she's seen the missionaries lots and always wondered who we were and took a Book of Mormon.
Miracle Number One: the Lord directs us where we need to be...even if its by a carbonmonoxide detector (ps..it was the battery..we are still alive!)
The rest of the week was full of other miracle moments. People really are home at that time...and although its cold out (which seems to make people close thier doors faster...rather than invite us in...) we had some amazing experiences! Wednesday night we went back to a home which we had knocked on the door about a week ago, and daughter was home and told us her mom would be interested if we could come back. But when we came back the mom just slammed the door in our faces. SO we took the bus to another neighborhood. We went from door to door for about an hour. It was getting late, and as a joke I said to Soeur Murray 'well its always the last house on the street, lets finish this street then go home'. Towards the end of the street, the second to last and third to last houses had no lights on....so with all of our missionary clichés running through our heads we skipped to last house on the street. The lady answered. She was muslim. BUT she told us her nieghbor would be interested.(that we had skipped) We ran to second to last house on the street. No answer. As one last attempt. We went to the third to last house on the street. She answered. Her name is Tom ( non native english speaker...chose and english name...they always choose boy names!). Tom let us in. She listened to our explanation of the Book of Mormon. She wants to know more. We are teaching her again this week!
IT IS ALWAYS THE LAST STREET ON THE HOUSE (or at least the last one of the night). Lessons Learned: dont skip houses, and dont go contacting until 845 because then the 'last house' will come alot faster. JUST KIDDING.
Miracle Number Two: Tom
I wish I had time to share so many more stories. But Im sure at this point shaking your head thinking 'oh Soeur Smith'... so I'll just share with you one more story. We went to teach a family this week that we've had good contact with, but the mom and dad are never home at the same time so we haven't been able to teach the family. We had a rendezvous fixed...but when we got to their house they weren't home. Rejected we went to pass by another ami. She wasnt home. Rejected encore, we felt like we should back and visit family number one again. We walked all the way back...again they weren't home. We left them a note PROMISING they would be blessed if they made the effort to be at church. Two hours later...we got a call. Jean-Claude (the dad) told us he was really sorry they had missed us and the promised they would be at church!
And they came! They came, and the part member family we've been working with came! And it was an amazing day at church. I dont know how to describe the joy that comes from seeing people come to church. We were beaming. It was amazing. This week I've just been feeling so grateful for the inspired leaders in the church and the amazing rite we have to personal revelation to apply the guidance they give us. Even if I tend to interpret thier guidance into spazzy plans like skipping to the last house and asking people for random words in french. I just have the faith the Lord is using my spazziness to put me in the path of people who are prepared for the gospel.
Oh and its a new transfer. And Im staying in Brussels for Christmas! Meaning this is Christmas transfer: donc in my books its christmas season, so Merry Christmas!
I love you.
Soeur Smith
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