Bonjour dearest family!
I dont even really know where to start with this week. SO Ill start at the end. We had another record week of teaching. It felt so good! I dont say any of this to be bragging or boasting...can I be cheesy enough to quote Ammon and say I dont mean to be bragging in my own strength, but brag of the Lord and how much he has blessed us in our abilities to get into homes and soften peoples hearts. Honestly- three transfers in one place with one companion has just enabled us to get a good stride and really know how to be effective...its great!
This week we've had some...curious experiences. We had one lady confess her use of black magic to us...some strong testifiying of Jesus Christ I think cleared that up. Its just so sad when you can tell people are just searching anywhere and everywhere for the answers to their problems...and we tell that we have the answer...except our answer involves work. Unfortunately not everyone feels keen to accept that answer... ANYWAYS had some more ventures chasing buses and finding our way through dutch country...makes me feel like blue again because I have no idea what people are saying around me. We had a second lesson with a family...and well last week our lesson wasn't the best. We got lost and so were late to the lesson, and then had to keep it short because we had another rendezvous just after...and ya...so this week we were excited to have a good strong lesson with them. Well then we walk in, and the father, whose name is Picky..ya..tells us that he is Muslim and his wife is Christian and they've decided they dont need to change religions again. So we tried to clear up that we are Christian also and we just want to add to the goodness they already have blah blah blah...it ended with him reading an entire chapter of the Book of Mormon, very slowly, outloud...declaring that it teaches the same thing as the Bible and Koran..and him telling us he would pray to Allah to know if we are good...and him asking if we were allowed to explain to all of his Muslim friends what we believe. haha...yes we are now planning on starting the first muslim branch of the church. Just kdding...but what started as a very intimidating lesson I think ended pretty well. He even gave us oranges as we were leaving...and Soeur Murray has lovingly named them our Muslim Oranges...hopefully that means they bring good luck!
We had a pretty cool experience with finding this week. Soeur Murray and I decided we needed to some porting one night this week...and so we were keeping our eyes out for a good street during the week. Well we found one and decided we were going to try praying the night before to soften the hearts of the people on that street. President Posnanski also gave us the idea that before doing finding in an area we should go over to a member's home who lives in that area and just pray with them...so members are involved in missionary work and we get extra prayers! Well we tried all this and it was really cool- we didn't get into any homes but more people than usual were willing to talk to us and at least take reading material...yay for soft hearts!
Church was very entertaining this week. So we have this portugese ami...that can't speak english or french. His mom is a member and his sister has been our ami for awhile. He just moved in with his mom, and has been sitting in on our lessons and we have just been giving him reading material in portugese. Well he came to church this week, without his mom or sister! So we had to find someone to translate...luckily but not suprisingly we have a pretty decent portugese population in our ward who were willing to welcome him and translate for him. BUT that means ami class was pretty curious. We had amis there who speak english, french, dutch, and portugese. Class was pretty funny...we had people translating into dutch and portugese...and then a francophone elder and I were in charge of translating into french and english. The frustrating thing is the teacher switches between the two...so the Elder and I were literally trying to guess who would translate which sentance...and then sentances would come out like 'please read in le livre'...to many many langues for my brain haha.
And today I hit eleven months as a missionary- which means you all have to suffer through some of my serious reflections...well at least my attempts to be serious.Soeur Murray and I were discussing one night this week what we should eat for dinner. We decided being a missionary is kind of like being on Iron Chef (I think thats the show)...everynight we have several curious items in our fridge and cupboards...and we have to try and make something out of them. This game only gets more exciting towards the end of the week. Well I've decided that being an effective missionary is kind of the same. We have all these tools to find people- the area book, porting, members, talking to people throughout the day, etc.We have tools for teaching- the spirit, our scriptures, preach my gospel, etc. And you just look at your area and think...well lets make something good out of this! I have alot of imperfections and weaknesses...but I've decided this week that it is through obedience and consecration that the Lord really does manage to do some good with our work.
I found this quote this week by Elder Neal A. Maxwell. He says "consecration is the only currender which is also a victory". I've been thinking lately about how I love being so consecrated to this work...and how scary real life sounds because you have to start balancing real life things like a job, school, your clothes actually matching, listening to more than just MOTAB music,AND being consecrated. But this week we were talking to a member (Im sorry my reflections are coming from all over the place) and he asked us if we know why we love the people we serve so much on our missions? My answer...well ya you give your heart and soul to them! And he said yes...but then what happens...his answer...we being to feel a tiny piece of the Saviors love for those around us.
Sorry you have to sit through me ranting about how much I love my mission- you can skip to end if you want. But I only get to be THIS obnoxiously spiritual once in my life..I've just felt so blessed to feel the Saviors love for his children, members, non-members, muslim, and black magic users. To be able to have this experience...and to have so much time left (dont go counting the days yet mom!) Really, this time in life is so special.
Im just one lucky missionary!
Love you and miss you
Soeur Smith
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