Bonjour dearest family!
Wow this week has been absolutely insane! This week was a record for number of lessons taught for my entire mission! And it felt SO good...wierd how once in a while things really do work out...people show up for thier lessons and keep their commitments...strange feeling...
We had a miracle week this week with Kedinnetse! So as you know she has been wanting to wait until she gets back to Africa to get baptized. Well this week we thought it might be a good idea to introduce to her a little thing we like to call personal revelation. We asked her to pray about it and decide when she should get baptized; here sooner, or there later- and we really emphasized recieving the Holy Ghost and how that could help her now. Well, the week was naturally long and dramatic with all forces of hell working against us...ok maybe a little extreme...but it certainly feels that way sometimes. Her boss told her she wasn't allowed to visit with us anymore and then made impossible for her to attend a baptism on Saturday...and so we were feeling kind of discouraged. Then she came to church on Sunday and a recent convert ran up and asked her 'so when are you getting baptized?' and Kedinnetse responded 'sooner than later'....ya we were freaking out! So after church we sat down for a lesson and asked her "so how are you feeling?" and she responds "I would like to get baptized at the beginning of Feburary!"...........YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! So after getting over initial shock and stopping my self from jumping up and down...we fixed a baptisimal date!!!! We are so happy and proud of her!!! And Im learning a lesson about waiting upon the Lord and understanding that we sometimes have to go through very dramatic weeks for everything to work out! (plus that makes my emails a little less dry for you, right?)
So over Christmas we had dinner with the Stake President and asked him if he felt that the missionary work had changed in Brussels when the Brussels mission was disolved and became a part of the Paris mission. And he said absolutley! I didnt know this...but Brussels was the highest baptizing country in Europe at one point...and this stake was the highest baptizing stake...but when the center of the mission was moved to Paris everything changed and Brussels started to feel like an afterthought to Paris. So we asked him what we could do get that fire going again...and he just said "success breads success"...well that only kind of helped us because we were like well great...how do we get that initial success going? Well to spare you from all the boring details that goes on behind the scenes of missions (fixing number goals and lame stuff like that) this week was a success for us, the zone, and the entire mission (I guess we've been focusing on numbers alot lately since its the beginning of the year and we had interviews and everything this week...) SO the point of this ramble...is that I love Brussels and we are so excited for how things are going here! The snowball is starting to role...
This week we had interviews and the Posnanskis have chosen Nehemiah 6:3 for our mission theme for the year. It says "we are doing a great work and cannot come down" (well it roughly says that). Anyways...slightly ironic because when the Posnanskis first became mission president they told us we needed to break down the walls between us and members...but this year we are focusing on building up a wall haha...not literally...but building up the work and refusing to lower our standards. It was inspiring...and this week we just felt that work being built up. Well as well this week a recent convert we teach with told us that she has a sore back.(just wait, I promise the two stories are related) The funny thing is that she is african...and I'll tell you from experience that africans always seems to be "mal au dos" (hurt back). Well she explained to us that its because Africa is a very dangerous place. Not because they have tigers, or malaria, or eat fish heads. But because they have trees. Yup, trees. And then the kids fall out of the trees. And then they are 'mal au dos' for the rest of their lives. Very dangerous place that Africa. So this week I've guess I've been thinking lots about how the world is a very dangerous place. We have to very careful to never fall off of walls or out of trees...figurtively and literally. I know my mission has made me want to be so much more firm in my standards...and to never 'come down from this great work'. Because...really...how lucky are we?! Why would we ever want to come down and be "mal au spirit' ? bad joke...I know...
Point being...be happy and proud of the gospel! Its so great...
Love you and miss you
Soeur Smith
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