Well well well,
this week was one of those weeks I swear I just wrote emails. And yet, here I am again...trying to cram a week of miracles and experiences into a few words.
So here we go...
Since I officially hit my 15 months mark...I thought I'll just make this email simple by giving you our top 15 moments of the week:
1. Taking the bus for twenty minutes in the wrong direction into adorable french countryside.. Getting off. Discovering the bus didnt come for another hour going the other direction. Deciding to walk half run back the other direction, and have little angels carry our feet because we somehow got to our rendezvous with a member family on time.
Then they told us there was another bus that drops us off right at their street.
Oh well, because we were sweating they'll think we work hard right?
2.Having the daughter of a less active tell she wants to be a sister missionary one day.
3.Recieving mail from your younger brother about how much he loves his mission. Best mail ever.
4.So we have this new ami Rositta, she was being taught by other sisters close to Lille, but now because we are here we can teach her. Well, the trick is she doesn't want to be taught by other sisters, she likes her sisters. But one cut out picture of Jesus glued to colored paper later, and she and I are best friends. Thank you Heavenly Father for softening her heart.
5. Having Rositta tell us we were the rays of light in her life :)
6. Recieving a letter in the mail from Kedinnetse...its was tender.
7. The conversation we had with our neighbor. Let me explain. He is this adorable old man that leaves every morning at the same time to buy orange juice. Apparently, the elders would always say hi to him, but he would never say hi back. Well this week we were leaving our apartment, and he came out and said something to the effect of
Neighbor. "wlkdqmlkhqglkdhf????"
Me: pardon?
Neighbor: did the men leave?
Me: (assuming he's talking about the elders) yes, but they still live in Lille. see we are all missionaries and....
Neighbor:qqldkhfqkjdhfmqkdhf
Me: pardon?
Neighbor: I'm 84
Me: congratulations?
Neighbor: *nods, smiles, walks away muttering in old man french*
I was just stoked he talked with us.
8. Going from door to door getting rejected because its a holiday weekend and everyone is either gone on vacation, or here with their family and don't want to talk to us. After two hours of this, we get on the metro and this giant family who looks like they just came from the beach enters the metro. The dad takes on look at us and starts yelling "mormon" and speaking some crazy langauge. His teenage son intreprets for us- apparently they had met missionaries before and they wanted a book of mormon in slovakian (explains the crazy language). Meanwhile, apparently the dad is teaching everyone on the metro the resoration or something because all i hear is "*slovakian*joseph smith!!!*slovkian*".
We'll be dropping off that book as soon as possible!
9.Me being the spazziest trainer ever and somehow managing to get us locked out of our phone for 3 days...but don't worry. The elders finally figured it out...you know after we had spent three days passing by the church every few hours hoping there would be someone at the church to help us. (apparently pay phones these days only take credit cards!)
10. The lady I told you about last week that we contacted, cute young mom, called us back and we fixed a rendezvous for this coming week!
11. Being called by a previous investigator of the sisters 3 years ago, and being asked if animals will go to the celestial kingdom.
12. Going for a rendezvous with a member, but ending up talking to someone in the elevator and being able to give them a book of mormon and fix a rendezvous!
13.I have seen the sun for at least 5 days straight now...and I even have an official watch tan to prove it!
14. Having a less active open her door and say "Oh! Oh! What are you guys doing here!" Then she started crying with joy, while inviting us in. Apparently she has been really struggling and praying to Heavenly Father and telling him she can't bear her burdens alone. Her husband has forbidden her from coming to church, or having missionaries over when he is home. Therefore, since there have been no sisters in Lille she hasn't been able to see the missionaries, but she said "having sisters back in Lille is the answer to my prayers".
We'll just say the tears were flowing pretty freely in that rendezvous.
15. The opportunity I've had to be a missionary for our Lord Jesus Christ. What could be better!
Love you all! Have a great week!
Soeur Smith
Monday, May 28, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
May 21, 2012 "The Old Hardened Missionary"
Bonjour Bonjour.
Well this week has been an adventure as we've tried to get to know Lille. Its included lots of bus rides, reading maps, turning around, another bus ride, oops could've taken the metro right there, and turning around again. haha. But its all a part of the fun right?
I've been having lots of flashbacks this week to when I was trained. Its very strange to be the older companion with the stories. No wonder they say the mission is like mini life. I can just picture this is what getting old feels like- all of the sudden people look at you like you know stuff and you feel like kind of like 'hey no- I was just in your shoes five minutes ago, we are learning together'...but then there are moments you realize you have learned something and you actually do know what your doing.
For example: this week we had some pretty cool finding experiences (since that makes up for about 95 percent of what we do). So missionaries plan everything they do...we have TRANSFER planning to fix goals for the next 6 weeks. Then we have WEEKLY planning to decide what we are going to do that week to reach those goals. Then we have NIGHTLY planning, to figure out exactly what we are going to do the next day. We even have back up plans for when those plans fall through. THEN we have studies in the morning where we confirm what we are doing for the day. To boil it down...we know what we are supposed to be doing every minute of the day. Well two times this week, after we had done nightly planning, and I knelt down to pray, I've felt very specifically that we need to change where we were going to go to do finding to another place. I thought that was wierd, since I barely know the ville, that I would have such specific street in mind. So the first night, I kind of just shrugged it off. Well, then the next morning, this street would just not get off my mind. So I talked with Soeur McGhie and she was fine with changing our place to go contacting. When we got there, we met several people who were interested in just an hour. I was pumped. Well...later in the week, after planning, I knelt down to pray and I had the impression we needed to change not only the place, but the time of when we were going to do contacting. This time I did not hestiate at all to tell Soeur McGhie. When we got there the next morning, we met a really nice mom with her two little kids, and she was super excited to talk with us.
Part of growing old as a missionary is becoming a little hardened...ok maybe not hardened...realistic is probably a better word. I realize all these great contacts will probably not turn into 50 baptisms...but it doesn't stop me from being hopeful that one of these people are ready and that we can start teaching them this week. One of my goals when I started my mission was to really learn the language of the spirit and to know how the spirit speaks to me. This week I kind of had this moment of like 'woah, I have learned something, I knew the spirit was speaking with me'. Obviously I'm not perfect and have room to grow...but it was kind little tender mercy of the Lord to let me know how I've grown a little during the mission. Maybe I do know a thing or two?
One thing I expected about training, I thought my blue would be fascinated with France. Kind of like how I would stop Soeur Pearce in the street to look at a beautiful apartment building just because 'it was so french'. And she would just kind of chuckle, roll her eyes, and keep walking. Well, I guess I should have learned my lesson after working at Disney World for 4 months and still being able to cry in the firework show. You can guess who is grabbing her blue's arm and making her stop to appreciate a beautiful door. I guess I'm not really all the hardened after all...
guess that means I can start expecting those 50 baptisms. :)
Love you and miss you!
Have a great week!
Soeur Smith
Well this week has been an adventure as we've tried to get to know Lille. Its included lots of bus rides, reading maps, turning around, another bus ride, oops could've taken the metro right there, and turning around again. haha. But its all a part of the fun right?
I've been having lots of flashbacks this week to when I was trained. Its very strange to be the older companion with the stories. No wonder they say the mission is like mini life. I can just picture this is what getting old feels like- all of the sudden people look at you like you know stuff and you feel like kind of like 'hey no- I was just in your shoes five minutes ago, we are learning together'...but then there are moments you realize you have learned something and you actually do know what your doing.
For example: this week we had some pretty cool finding experiences (since that makes up for about 95 percent of what we do). So missionaries plan everything they do...we have TRANSFER planning to fix goals for the next 6 weeks. Then we have WEEKLY planning to decide what we are going to do that week to reach those goals. Then we have NIGHTLY planning, to figure out exactly what we are going to do the next day. We even have back up plans for when those plans fall through. THEN we have studies in the morning where we confirm what we are doing for the day. To boil it down...we know what we are supposed to be doing every minute of the day. Well two times this week, after we had done nightly planning, and I knelt down to pray, I've felt very specifically that we need to change where we were going to go to do finding to another place. I thought that was wierd, since I barely know the ville, that I would have such specific street in mind. So the first night, I kind of just shrugged it off. Well, then the next morning, this street would just not get off my mind. So I talked with Soeur McGhie and she was fine with changing our place to go contacting. When we got there, we met several people who were interested in just an hour. I was pumped. Well...later in the week, after planning, I knelt down to pray and I had the impression we needed to change not only the place, but the time of when we were going to do contacting. This time I did not hestiate at all to tell Soeur McGhie. When we got there the next morning, we met a really nice mom with her two little kids, and she was super excited to talk with us.
Part of growing old as a missionary is becoming a little hardened...ok maybe not hardened...realistic is probably a better word. I realize all these great contacts will probably not turn into 50 baptisms...but it doesn't stop me from being hopeful that one of these people are ready and that we can start teaching them this week. One of my goals when I started my mission was to really learn the language of the spirit and to know how the spirit speaks to me. This week I kind of had this moment of like 'woah, I have learned something, I knew the spirit was speaking with me'. Obviously I'm not perfect and have room to grow...but it was kind little tender mercy of the Lord to let me know how I've grown a little during the mission. Maybe I do know a thing or two?
One thing I expected about training, I thought my blue would be fascinated with France. Kind of like how I would stop Soeur Pearce in the street to look at a beautiful apartment building just because 'it was so french'. And she would just kind of chuckle, roll her eyes, and keep walking. Well, I guess I should have learned my lesson after working at Disney World for 4 months and still being able to cry in the firework show. You can guess who is grabbing her blue's arm and making her stop to appreciate a beautiful door. I guess I'm not really all the hardened after all...
guess that means I can start expecting those 50 baptisms. :)
Love you and miss you!
Have a great week!
Soeur Smith
May 14, 2012 "Blue Luck"
Oh Gosh.....
Well that about sums up my week. So Love you, miss you! Au revoir...
Dont worry. I'm kidding. I just feel like I don't really know where to start on describing this week. Started off with lots of tearful goodbyes and nastolgic 'last time I porte this street, last time I visit this less-active' and other obnoxious goodbye procceses in Brussels....
And now I'm in LILLE!
With my baby, SISTER MCGHIE!
AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHICH WAY IS UP! And I LOVE IT!
So this whole new adventure started with going to Paris to pick up my blue. We had a training Wednesday morning before getting our newbies that was from president and the assitants and was full of lots of words of wisdom like 'be a good example...right up to the bitter end you oldies' I think that was directed to me and the other two trainers that go home with me in August. Bitter end, meh, what do they know? I going to make this once sweet finale..
Then we had this awkward process in which the blues came and sat on one side of the room, and we sat on the other and they had a picture of each city and the trainer pop up on the projecter and the trainer stood up, and then president announced the blue and then they stood up and we awkwardly stood there on opposite sides of the room waving at each other. Ya, so once that bit of awkwardness was over I got to run over and give Soeur McGhie a big hug and tell her I know absolutely nothing about our ville. I think her eyes got a little bit bigger at that point haha. But she is awsome! She is from Seattle, Washington; speaks amazing french; super hard working, and I'm pretty sure jett-lag is catching up. Poor thing.
So after that we got to go to the Eiffel Tower for like five minutes, drag our suitcases across Paris to the Gare, and catch our train up to Lille. We got here, and the elders were waiting to escort us to our apartment. I was slightly terrified of what the apartment was going to be like, since we were stealing it from elders, but a recent convert revealed to me that they had been cleaning all week, so it was actually pretty nice when we walked in! Its on the bottom floor, so we have a nice little patch of grass we call our yard, and we don't have drag groceries up 6 flights of stairs. Life is wonderful!
So we got to our apartment, dropped our stuff, and headed right over to ward council. And this ward is amazing! They sat and asked about every investigator...of the elders (we are still working finding some of those) and then acted all excited about having sisters and gave us a list of less actives to visit! I'm just in shock...I think I've had dreams about this kind of ward council...yes I know I know, I'm a dork.
And now our days are filled with looking at the map, trying our best to be inspired, and then doing finding. And I keep telling Soeur McGhie that she has blue magic...we've been seeing all sorts of little miracles! Our first night porting, we had been knocking on doors for about a half-hour, and this lady opened the door and she said 'I knew you'd knock on my door, come in'. I was like, well I hope this is a good thing? But judging by her big grin, I guessed she was happy to have us knock on her door. Turns out she met the missionaries when she was in her 20s and really enjoyed talking with us. She wasn't interested at all in our message, but she just wanted to let us know there are people out there that support us and admire us. It was a nice little tender moment...but just a little seed planted I suppose. Then the next day we were contacting in one of the main squares of the city, and Soeur McGhie was like 'I'm going to go talk to that girl sitting on the stairs' and I was like 'ok go for it!' so she walks over and they start chatting...so I'm just thinking ok, look at her go miss independant! So I kept just trying to stop people and talk with them. Well after about 20 minutes, I look over, and they are still chatting! So I walk over...turns out that the girl is american, studying in France, dated a mormon for 3 years, loves church, but never went back because it was a nasty breakup. But she said ' you know church is like the gym, at first I'd rather stay at home in my pj's and watch tv, but after I just feel so much better'. We invited her to church, but turns out she is finishing up her time in France and headed to Paris to meet up with her family, but who knows! Maybe she well go back when she is back in the states! Or I could stalk her on facebook in three months and make sure she goes back...judge me. I'm a creep and desperate to save souls.
Anyways. My little blue is just a little piece of luck. Like last night after our phone calls home we decided to pass by some of the less-actives the ward council gave us. So we go to this house, and its a bussiness for guard dogs. aka pictures of terrifying dogs all over the door...just a missionaries favorite kind of door. But I was like, well we're here. Just as I was about to knock on the door, this lady across the street hung out the window and asked who were looking for. We told her, and she pointed us to the right house. Phew. The Lord really does protect his missionaries.
And now I'm living in this wierd state of deja-vu. Like yesterday at church, the two wards in our building were combined, there was a byu symphony who came and performed that weekend, and we had no idea who our ward was. Kind of reminds of my first Sunday in Paris when we had like 100 visitors, a new BYU study abroad group arrive, and we had no idea who our ward was. And how I got to say 'see you soon' at the end of my phone call...just like sister pearce last year. And how Soeur McGhie kind of looks at me and says 'now where are we going' and I see in her that look of 'Im in France and nothing is like what I expected and is this really what missionary work is like?' kind of look that I would give my trainer.
Oh gosh. We've got an adventure here in Lille waiting for us.
Love you and miss you!
Soeur Smith
Well that about sums up my week. So Love you, miss you! Au revoir...
Dont worry. I'm kidding. I just feel like I don't really know where to start on describing this week. Started off with lots of tearful goodbyes and nastolgic 'last time I porte this street, last time I visit this less-active' and other obnoxious goodbye procceses in Brussels....
And now I'm in LILLE!
With my baby, SISTER MCGHIE!
AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHICH WAY IS UP! And I LOVE IT!
So this whole new adventure started with going to Paris to pick up my blue. We had a training Wednesday morning before getting our newbies that was from president and the assitants and was full of lots of words of wisdom like 'be a good example...right up to the bitter end you oldies' I think that was directed to me and the other two trainers that go home with me in August. Bitter end, meh, what do they know? I going to make this once sweet finale..
Then we had this awkward process in which the blues came and sat on one side of the room, and we sat on the other and they had a picture of each city and the trainer pop up on the projecter and the trainer stood up, and then president announced the blue and then they stood up and we awkwardly stood there on opposite sides of the room waving at each other. Ya, so once that bit of awkwardness was over I got to run over and give Soeur McGhie a big hug and tell her I know absolutely nothing about our ville. I think her eyes got a little bit bigger at that point haha. But she is awsome! She is from Seattle, Washington; speaks amazing french; super hard working, and I'm pretty sure jett-lag is catching up. Poor thing.
So after that we got to go to the Eiffel Tower for like five minutes, drag our suitcases across Paris to the Gare, and catch our train up to Lille. We got here, and the elders were waiting to escort us to our apartment. I was slightly terrified of what the apartment was going to be like, since we were stealing it from elders, but a recent convert revealed to me that they had been cleaning all week, so it was actually pretty nice when we walked in! Its on the bottom floor, so we have a nice little patch of grass we call our yard, and we don't have drag groceries up 6 flights of stairs. Life is wonderful!
So we got to our apartment, dropped our stuff, and headed right over to ward council. And this ward is amazing! They sat and asked about every investigator...of the elders (we are still working finding some of those) and then acted all excited about having sisters and gave us a list of less actives to visit! I'm just in shock...I think I've had dreams about this kind of ward council...yes I know I know, I'm a dork.
And now our days are filled with looking at the map, trying our best to be inspired, and then doing finding. And I keep telling Soeur McGhie that she has blue magic...we've been seeing all sorts of little miracles! Our first night porting, we had been knocking on doors for about a half-hour, and this lady opened the door and she said 'I knew you'd knock on my door, come in'. I was like, well I hope this is a good thing? But judging by her big grin, I guessed she was happy to have us knock on her door. Turns out she met the missionaries when she was in her 20s and really enjoyed talking with us. She wasn't interested at all in our message, but she just wanted to let us know there are people out there that support us and admire us. It was a nice little tender moment...but just a little seed planted I suppose. Then the next day we were contacting in one of the main squares of the city, and Soeur McGhie was like 'I'm going to go talk to that girl sitting on the stairs' and I was like 'ok go for it!' so she walks over and they start chatting...so I'm just thinking ok, look at her go miss independant! So I kept just trying to stop people and talk with them. Well after about 20 minutes, I look over, and they are still chatting! So I walk over...turns out that the girl is american, studying in France, dated a mormon for 3 years, loves church, but never went back because it was a nasty breakup. But she said ' you know church is like the gym, at first I'd rather stay at home in my pj's and watch tv, but after I just feel so much better'. We invited her to church, but turns out she is finishing up her time in France and headed to Paris to meet up with her family, but who knows! Maybe she well go back when she is back in the states! Or I could stalk her on facebook in three months and make sure she goes back...judge me. I'm a creep and desperate to save souls.
Anyways. My little blue is just a little piece of luck. Like last night after our phone calls home we decided to pass by some of the less-actives the ward council gave us. So we go to this house, and its a bussiness for guard dogs. aka pictures of terrifying dogs all over the door...just a missionaries favorite kind of door. But I was like, well we're here. Just as I was about to knock on the door, this lady across the street hung out the window and asked who were looking for. We told her, and she pointed us to the right house. Phew. The Lord really does protect his missionaries.
And now I'm living in this wierd state of deja-vu. Like yesterday at church, the two wards in our building were combined, there was a byu symphony who came and performed that weekend, and we had no idea who our ward was. Kind of reminds of my first Sunday in Paris when we had like 100 visitors, a new BYU study abroad group arrive, and we had no idea who our ward was. And how I got to say 'see you soon' at the end of my phone call...just like sister pearce last year. And how Soeur McGhie kind of looks at me and says 'now where are we going' and I see in her that look of 'Im in France and nothing is like what I expected and is this really what missionary work is like?' kind of look that I would give my trainer.
Oh gosh. We've got an adventure here in Lille waiting for us.
Love you and miss you!
Soeur Smith
Friday, May 11, 2012
May 7, 2012 "I'm pregnant"
Bonjour Bonjour!
Well, before you all freak out at the subject-line....let me explain!
Here is a dictionary to help you understand missionaries
Born: where you start your mission.
ex. I was born in Paris
To Kill: to be the last companion of a missionary
ex. I killed Soeur Pearce and Soeur Cope
Frudge:An african drink that smells great and looks yummy. It even tastes great at first- but then leaves an awful aftertaste. In our mission we refer to investigators who seems golden at first, but then don't show up for rendez-vous or don't answer calls 'frudgy'. It can also be used when someone does not show up for their rendezvous.
Frudge:An african drink that smells great and looks yummy. It even tastes great at first- but then leaves an awful aftertaste. In our mission we refer to investigators who seems golden at first, but then don't show up for rendez-vous or don't answer calls 'frudgy'. It can also be used when someone does not show up for their rendezvous.
ex. We got frudged 8 times this week!
Mother/Father: trainer
ex. I am Soeur Pearce's daughter.
And on Wednesday I'm going to be a momma....or in other words I'm training!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I figure since my little baby is still wandering around the Provo MTC freaking out because she's flying to France tommorow, she has yet to be 'born', and therefore I'm pregnant.
Oh Gosh...mission humor.
Anyways-If you can't tell. Im kind of excited. I'll be training in a ville called Lille in the north of France. So yes I get to return to France, and yes the chances of me seeing the sun before the end of my mission just died. But that's ok because I'm super excited to be going to Lille! I've been there a few times for French legality stuff, and its adorable!
So here you go, the new address:
223 A05, Blvd. de Valmy
59650 Villeneuve d'Ascq
FRANCE
I don't really know how to sum up this week. It kind of felt like I had this giant band-aid on my heart and someone decided to come and rip it off little bit by little bit, rather than just all at once. Since I knew I was leaving I started my goodbyes on Tuesday. Then yesterday at church, we announced to the ward that the sisters would be leaving, and so all the ward members I love so very much decided to get up and poor salt into my poor little bleeding heart and bear their testimonies about how much they love the sisters. Don't worry, I let them all see how much it was killing me when I got up and bawled through my entire testimony. Im sure they were all so impressed when I couldn't even finish...my ending went something like 'in the name of your son, oh gosh, the son Jesus Christ, oh dang, in the name of Jesus Christ AMEN'....maybe they are excited to get more elders. They aren't so weepy.
You know I feel like the longer your on a mission, the more you realize how every cliché you've ever heard is so true. Like the fact that the mission reflects real life. You know, if you had told me that I would only have 3 villes in my mission, I would have told you Heavenly Father knows me better than that and knows I like moving around every few months. If you had told me that I would stay in Brussels for 5 transfers, I would you have told you your silly, no one ever does 5! But in the end the mission is exactly what you needed- like Heavenly Father actually knows even better than you know yourself what you need. Kind of like life. The mission is just so personal. I arrived in the mission field with four other sisters. Since then we've all had very different companions and served in different cities. Our missions have been very different. But even if I had stayed with one companion the whole time, our missions would be so different. Somehow Heavenly Father knows how to tailor our challenges and trials to our very needs. So kind of him. haha. But seriously- its like life. We all show up here, little babies with not a clue what's going on. And each one of us go through life encountering challenges and situations that are different from anyone else. And somehow, life is exactly what we need. Like at the end of your mission, in the end of life, we come before our Heavenly Father, and say "I tried! I promise I really tried". And I'm sure everyone's hope is that they hear some sort of response to the effect of "good job, Im so proud of you. You made it".
Ok I swear I'm not having dying thoughts- maybe this whole cycle of life thing (remember I'm giving birth on Wednesday) has made me feel all reflective and I attempted to be wise and now I don't even know what my point is. Oh gosh, its my testimony all over again. OK POINT IS- I love my mission. Looking back, its exactly what I've needed to grow and develop into the missionary I want to be. Therefore, I can deduct that Lille is going to be amazing and I CANT WAIT!
I also can't wait to talk to you on Sunday! Happy Mothers Day
I love you!
Soeur Smith
Sunday, May 6, 2012
April 30, 2012 "Grace"
Bonjour Bonjour,
Well this week has been kind of the same as all the weeks this transfer.
We walk. We talk to some people. We get rejected.
We take the metro. We talk to some people. We get rejected.
We knock on some doors. We talk to some people. We get rejected.
We call some people. We get rejected.
We call some people. We get rejected.
Thrilling. I know. I bet if I tell you that it was also raining on top of all that joy...you'd all drop what your doing, jump on the first plane to the promised land of Belgium, and join in all the wonder.
Well, this week I was inspired by an article in the April Ensign by Elder Bednar. It talks about the atonement and grace.I've kind of always wondered what that little word means-'grace'. I think I always thought it was some sort of equivalent of 'hope'. You know has members of the church, we always talk about how you have to work, not just depend on grace, to be saved. Somewhere in all the sunday school lessons, I started to assume that grace meant being lazy. Just sittin back and hoping we could be saved 'grace à' Jesus Christ.
Well then Elder Bednar decided to rock my world and put a little spin on things. He said that as he reads the scriptures, he replaces the word 'grace' with 'enabling power of the atonement'. Well this week I've been searching the scriptures for the word 'grace' so I could test his theory and understand exactly what all this means. What is grace? Is it even important? How does it help us?
Well then one day we came in for dinner. It was day that went something like this:
studies. finding. lunch. finding. dinner. *que giant rainstorm*. Finding.
We came in for dinner and I had this feeling of despair. I know as missionaries its kind of taboo to admit failure. But I was ready to do it. Just sit down, cry, eat all the chocolate the country of Belgium could provide, and admit that there is no one in our area prepared to accept the gospel. Well then, something popped in my mind from studying all this grace-bussiness. Its from the bible dictionary. Goes like this "It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means."
That's how I felt. I was trying with all my own means to find someone, who would listen to us. A few humble prayers later, we were out on the streets, and managed to give away three books of mormon and get some numbers that night.
I can honestly not tell you how I even got out the door. I had no energy and no desire to leave the apartment.
Oh I can honestly tell you, it was only by grace, that I was able to get out the door. The Lord help me to have strengh to do good works that I would not have been able to otherwise do.
So the conclusion I've come to. Grace is the exact opposite of being lazy. It is trying your hardest, working with all your own means, praying with all your heart, then working a little more. Then out of his tender love, the Lord sends you a sign of approvel. Some sort of sign that your on the right track. Just enough grace, power, and encouragement, to keep you going. Then you start all over again, working, but relying on grace to make up the difference.
Maybe NOW you want to come join in on all the fun here in Belgium? Its pretty wonderful, coming to understand the gospel, one rejection at a time.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Soeur Smith
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