Bonjour Bonjour!
Sorry to be writing a day late and to give you a scare (mom)...Soeur McGhie had to go do her legality in Paris and so we had to do our emails today. But I got to take Soeur McGhie back to my old stomping grounds...you know, my humble birthplace of Paris. She enjoyed staring at the strange metal tower surrounded by lots of Americans...
anywho...its good thing we are writing are a day late because it gave us time for our 'miracles' to ...you know...become miracles.
So this week we've been doing lots and lots of finding. Shocker. And we've been having some pretty good luck... in the moment. People will stop and talk with us, they'll even give us thier numbers, some will even fix rendezvous right then and there with us. But then they never answer the phone or don't show up for the rendezvous.
There were two that were particularly disappointing. We contacted this lady, Brik, and her friend and we talked about prophets, and they were super excited and we fixed a rendezvous with them for Saturday. We were super pumped.
Well Saturday came and went, and she didn't come to the rendezvous or answer her phone.The metro was having trouble that day so we tried to convince ourselves that she just couldn't get there and that her phone was out of battery. Its like every time I get cut off in traffic...I try to imagine the person is driving to the hospital for an emergancy and that's why they are being a silly driver. Got to give people the benefit of the doubt, ya know?
Well, earlier in the week I contacted this girl on the metro, Claire, who actually had studied in California, so she knew a little bit about the church, and accepted an invitation to a ward activity Saturday night. Well the activity happened to be a rock concert (yup that's how they do things in France)...so when she didn't show up you can imagine what kind of wierd looks we were getting from members as we stood in the foyer, looking hopefully out at the road, and trying to not nod our heads to the worldly music blasting from the gym.
So, naturally Sunday was kind of sad. Another week of no amis at church, another week of feeling like all our efforts didn't really show for anything. Just when I feel like I hear about miracles all throughout the mission...I start to feel like our little well of miracles is running a little dry.
So Monday, we got to go to Paris. But coming on the train ride back, all I could think about is how we really need to find people to teach. Like, really.
So that night we were making calls- called all the people we've contacted in the past week and half. Honestly...not one single person answered. Not even one answered to yell at us and tell us not to call anymore. Guess we don't get that consideration anymore. So... as we started to get ready for bed the phone rang....
It was Brik! She really had had something happen on Saturday and was wondering if she could see us this week and fixed something for Wednesday. I think I jumped and leaped around that apartment until 10:30 when we went to bed. But then...around 10:45....the phone rang again! So I jump out of bed, try to speak french half asleep and with my retainer in...its Claire! She also appologized for Saturday and wants to see us next Monday!!!!
So it was pretty difficult to fall asleep last night...the thought I had running through my head over and over again was "the contacts of today are the miracles of tomorow (or next week...)". Cheesy I know, but hey, Im in France....life is about as cheesy as it can get!
Love you all!
Soeur Smith
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
June 18, 2012 "The first of the lasts"
Well....
here it comes. The dramatic ending. THE LAST TRANSFER.
So since training Soeur McGhie, I've been very obnoxious about celebrating all her first-milestones as a missionary. You know- first pasterie, first zone conferance, first rendezvous with someone smoking in your face, first time having a crazy person yell at you on the metro, first time being called a Jehovah's Wittness, first time someone tells you about thier dream when Jesus visted them- you know, all the normal things like that.Well this week was a momenteus first for her...first time with her name on the transfer email.
And my last.
Bah. So this is my first time I get to have momenteus freakout on my mission. OK I wish it was this first...but starting my very last planner spured all sorts of emotions I wasn't expecting. And while I normally favor the 'rip of the band-aid' style goodbyes...somehow I feel like saying goodbye to a mission is a much more gory, painful process. So I appologize now for whatever sappy and overdramatic emotional carnage slips into my emails over the next six weeks.
So all gory-emotions aside- this week has been another typical rollercoster. We showed up at Rositta's appartment on Tuesday and she wasn't there. The thing with Rositta though, is that she is an older lady with lots of health problems, including diabites and lots of other medical stuff I don't understand in french. She never leaves her house, her nurses and nurmeous other people come to her house to help her out. So when she isn't there...it can only mean one thing. She is in the hospital. So after much help from the ward (calling french hospitals still scare me) we were finally able to track her down and visit her. I guess she had complications with her diabites, she is doing fine, but for now her baptismal date is postponed until she can come to churcha again.
So that was disappointing- but we had really good rendezvous with a lady we contacted a couple of weeks ago. We've taught her once before and we had given her a Book of Mormon. In our rendezvous this week, the first thing she said when she sat down was 'so, I started reading...and I like it!'. I love hearing that! Its like seeing the sun in northen France. We taught the Joseph Smith story, and after we had finished she said "so once I pray and know, I'm going need to join this church!". Oh its so wonderful when people put that together themselves! She still has alot of worries about the church, and her husband still thinks we are a cult...but I just love it when you start to see the light and people and they see that the gospel JUST MAKES SENSE.
And this week we got to work with a young women in our ward. Her family are all recent converts of about two years. Her mom is now the relief society president, and her dad is in the bishopric. They are basically just an amazing family. Well this weekend she asked if she could hang out with us- well on the way to a rendezvous we were getting out of the metro and walking down the stairs, and she turned to us and said "oh how I want to be like you, I just want to have a nametag with Christ's name on it".
Oh gosh. You cannot say things like to emotional, dying missionaries. So the rage of emotions that suddenly tried to leak out of my eyes were bottled by saying "Yes Tracy, keep that goal, you CAN be like us". Not the most inspirational thing that's ever come out of my mouth...but I was fighting from becoming a blubbering puddle in the middle of the metro.
So really, this week was a typical missionary week. Some ups, some downs. But also a little bit of realization that my time to be a full-time missionary actually has a time limit. But we won't talk about that for another six weeks.
Love you all!
Soeur Smith
here it comes. The dramatic ending. THE LAST TRANSFER.
So since training Soeur McGhie, I've been very obnoxious about celebrating all her first-milestones as a missionary. You know- first pasterie, first zone conferance, first rendezvous with someone smoking in your face, first time having a crazy person yell at you on the metro, first time being called a Jehovah's Wittness, first time someone tells you about thier dream when Jesus visted them- you know, all the normal things like that.Well this week was a momenteus first for her...first time with her name on the transfer email.
And my last.
Bah. So this is my first time I get to have momenteus freakout on my mission. OK I wish it was this first...but starting my very last planner spured all sorts of emotions I wasn't expecting. And while I normally favor the 'rip of the band-aid' style goodbyes...somehow I feel like saying goodbye to a mission is a much more gory, painful process. So I appologize now for whatever sappy and overdramatic emotional carnage slips into my emails over the next six weeks.
So all gory-emotions aside- this week has been another typical rollercoster. We showed up at Rositta's appartment on Tuesday and she wasn't there. The thing with Rositta though, is that she is an older lady with lots of health problems, including diabites and lots of other medical stuff I don't understand in french. She never leaves her house, her nurses and nurmeous other people come to her house to help her out. So when she isn't there...it can only mean one thing. She is in the hospital. So after much help from the ward (calling french hospitals still scare me) we were finally able to track her down and visit her. I guess she had complications with her diabites, she is doing fine, but for now her baptismal date is postponed until she can come to churcha again.
So that was disappointing- but we had really good rendezvous with a lady we contacted a couple of weeks ago. We've taught her once before and we had given her a Book of Mormon. In our rendezvous this week, the first thing she said when she sat down was 'so, I started reading...and I like it!'. I love hearing that! Its like seeing the sun in northen France. We taught the Joseph Smith story, and after we had finished she said "so once I pray and know, I'm going need to join this church!". Oh its so wonderful when people put that together themselves! She still has alot of worries about the church, and her husband still thinks we are a cult...but I just love it when you start to see the light and people and they see that the gospel JUST MAKES SENSE.
And this week we got to work with a young women in our ward. Her family are all recent converts of about two years. Her mom is now the relief society president, and her dad is in the bishopric. They are basically just an amazing family. Well this weekend she asked if she could hang out with us- well on the way to a rendezvous we were getting out of the metro and walking down the stairs, and she turned to us and said "oh how I want to be like you, I just want to have a nametag with Christ's name on it".
Oh gosh. You cannot say things like to emotional, dying missionaries. So the rage of emotions that suddenly tried to leak out of my eyes were bottled by saying "Yes Tracy, keep that goal, you CAN be like us". Not the most inspirational thing that's ever come out of my mouth...but I was fighting from becoming a blubbering puddle in the middle of the metro.
So really, this week was a typical missionary week. Some ups, some downs. But also a little bit of realization that my time to be a full-time missionary actually has a time limit. But we won't talk about that for another six weeks.
Love you all!
Soeur Smith
June 11, 2012 "deja vu"
Well this week I've been going through a wierd déjà vu....Strange how life goes in circles.
This week we had exchanges and I did exchanges in a ville called Nogent...which is right next to Paris. So guess what we got to do? Visitor Center shift! I know that probably means nothing to all you back home...but I spent many hours in that little visitor's center my first 6 months in Paris. Therefore I was having all sorts of wierd flashbacks! Especially when the Paris elders walked in and told me that ZDRAVKO IS BACK in Paris and doing well! I was kind of hopeing his bouncing curls would make thier way into the visitor's center but the elders killed that hope when they told me he shaved his head...alors...I'll have to wait another time to run into him.
It was very strange being back in Paris. Even the sound of the metros sent me into all sorts of memories. I know I'm wierd. And with X-amount of time left I have a feeling Im going to become more and more sentimental. Also this week, Soeur McGhie and I were invited mission council. Again, that probably means nothing to you, but I attended mission council like my third day in the field...its just wierd seeing everything twice- once from the 'blue I have no idea which way is up' perspective...to the 'I'm the sister all the elders look at and say "its so wierd your dying, I remember when you were born". Oh gosh...yes I feel like a grandma.
So inbetween all my freakouts about age and feeling like I'm living in some sort of wierd time warp...we fixed a baptisimal date! True to all mission traditions, all the miracles always happen during week 5 and 6 of the transfer. Rositta, our amie passed to us by the other sisters, fixed a date for June 30th!!! Apparently there are supposed to be 4 baptisms that day between the two wards here in Lille, so we are super excited and hoping that will help the ward get excited about the missionary work! Anyways, Rositta is awsome. She's really struggled with quitting coffee, but this week she just quit on her own and was super excited to finally fix a date!
I'm not going to lie, this week was kind of a crazy one, between exchanges, mission council, taking trains out to see members in super cute little french towns, and stake conferance, I felt like we were barely in our area. But looking back just over this past 5 weeks, especially this week with fixing a baptisimal date, I just feel like saying "and thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things"1 Nephi 16:29. Its truly by the little prayers and little bits of faith we can muster, that miracles happen, one little bit at a time! How great it is to be a missionary and be able to see the hand of the Lord in my life so clearly!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Soeur Smith
This week we had exchanges and I did exchanges in a ville called Nogent...which is right next to Paris. So guess what we got to do? Visitor Center shift! I know that probably means nothing to all you back home...but I spent many hours in that little visitor's center my first 6 months in Paris. Therefore I was having all sorts of wierd flashbacks! Especially when the Paris elders walked in and told me that ZDRAVKO IS BACK in Paris and doing well! I was kind of hopeing his bouncing curls would make thier way into the visitor's center but the elders killed that hope when they told me he shaved his head...alors...I'll have to wait another time to run into him.
It was very strange being back in Paris. Even the sound of the metros sent me into all sorts of memories. I know I'm wierd. And with X-amount of time left I have a feeling Im going to become more and more sentimental. Also this week, Soeur McGhie and I were invited mission council. Again, that probably means nothing to you, but I attended mission council like my third day in the field...its just wierd seeing everything twice- once from the 'blue I have no idea which way is up' perspective...to the 'I'm the sister all the elders look at and say "its so wierd your dying, I remember when you were born". Oh gosh...yes I feel like a grandma.
So inbetween all my freakouts about age and feeling like I'm living in some sort of wierd time warp...we fixed a baptisimal date! True to all mission traditions, all the miracles always happen during week 5 and 6 of the transfer. Rositta, our amie passed to us by the other sisters, fixed a date for June 30th!!! Apparently there are supposed to be 4 baptisms that day between the two wards here in Lille, so we are super excited and hoping that will help the ward get excited about the missionary work! Anyways, Rositta is awsome. She's really struggled with quitting coffee, but this week she just quit on her own and was super excited to finally fix a date!
I'm not going to lie, this week was kind of a crazy one, between exchanges, mission council, taking trains out to see members in super cute little french towns, and stake conferance, I felt like we were barely in our area. But looking back just over this past 5 weeks, especially this week with fixing a baptisimal date, I just feel like saying "and thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things"1 Nephi 16:29. Its truly by the little prayers and little bits of faith we can muster, that miracles happen, one little bit at a time! How great it is to be a missionary and be able to see the hand of the Lord in my life so clearly!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Soeur Smith
June 4, 2012 "ma puce"
Bonjour Bonjour,
Well this week has been a crazy week...as usual. Somehow I feel like every week has some sort of build-up, climax, and happy ending...maybe weeks in normal life work like that too...we just never take the time to report to our families what happened in the past week haha.
Well this week the climax was zone conferance. We had zone conferance with Elder Teixiera, of the seventy, and his wife. Naturally, going into a zone conferance with a general authority you expect something great. And we got what we were expecting!
Elder Teixiera started out with two stories.
The first was about a flea. He told us fleas are magnificant animals. You see, fleas know how to do one thing very well. They know how to jump. And no matter what situation they find themselves in...they jump. Their brains are programed to jump. So, let's say you take a flea, and you put it in a jar. Then you hold the jar very close to your ear. What are you going to hear?
*ping*.
What would that noise be? That's right, the flea jumped, and hit its poor little head on the lid of the jar. Now, you would think as small as the little flea's brain is, maybe they would just keep jumping and hitting their head. BUT fleas will suprise you. No, they don't stop jumping...they just jump a little lower. Therefore, they continue to fulfill their one purpose in life, jumping, without hitting and hurting their poor little heads. The magnificant thing is, even if you remove the lid of the jar, the flea will continue to jump within the jar, completely captured by its own will.
The second story was about an elephant. Elder Teixiera had traveled to India and seen domistacated elephants. But how do you domesticate an elephant? Apparently, when elephants are very young, their owners will take them and chain them with a metal chain around their ankels to metal stake in the ground. The baby elephants will pull and tug and attempt to get away...they will hurt themselves...they will cry...and eventually...they give up. They stay very close to their little stakes. As the elephant grows, he learns that if feels something around his ankle, to stay put and avoid injury. And thus, you can go to India and see grown elephants tied to whimpy sticks with whimpy little ropes.The elephant could choose to just kick out his foot and run off- but again is tied down by past experience and choice.
So how do missionaries relate to the smallest of animals and the largest of animals. You see...we also do many things that hurt. We fix goals...only to report zeros to our leaders after a week of really trying. We contact thousands of people, only to be rejected over and over again. We fix rendezvous...only to be stood up. We study a language...only to be told we can't be understand. I could go on and on...we'll just leave it with the fact that being a missionary hurts.
So sometimes we choose to jump a little lower. We fix lower goals. We talk to less people. The less we try, the less we can get hurt. Elder Teixiera's message was that there are no limits on the Lord...we just need to jump as high as we can...and even when it hurts, the Lord will provide miralces. We just have to have the faith to jump.
So leaving zone conferance, we were just 'jumping' to get to our areas. So here we are ready to change the way missionary work is done in Lille. When we hit the lid preatty hard. The lady we contacted a couple weeks ago that fixed a rendezvous with us, canceled and was rude about it. Another person we found and had started teaching, dropped us. Out of faith, one morning we decided to contact a certain amount of people before lunch...we'll just say it was more people than we normally contact in one day. One by one, every single contact rejected us. Until...the very last person gave us a phone number. I know I should have been excited...it just seemed like such a little thing, a phone number, after all the great blessings promised in zone conferance if we would just keep jumping.
One other thing mentioned in zone conferance...perservance. President Poznanski reminded us, it would still take lots of work and disappointment. Still lots of jumping and hitting our heads. Well come Sunday, I was tired. I won't lie. I wanted to go back to jumping just a little bit less. Especially when our ami called us right before church and told she wouldn't be able to come.
Well church came and went. We talked with lots of members and had a good day, and Soeur McGhie and I were ready to go home and break our fast. Just as our lunch was coming out of the oven...we got a call from the elders. They were still at the church and this lady had shown up asking for Sister Smith. I spoke with her on the phone, and remembered she was someone we had contacted on Monday night. She was fed up with other religions and was open to learning about ours despite all the horrible things she had heard about us. She had told us that she would come to church, she even knew where it was. But she refused to give us a phone number or an address-so I thought it would be a miracle if we every heard from her again. We'll just say when she wasn't at church I wasn't to shocked. Well... she showed up at the church 3 hours after meetings and only could remember my name, because its the same as Joseph Smith's. You better believe we left our lunch and ran to the church. We had an amazing rendez-vous, she's excited to read the book of mormon, and we are seeing her again on Wednesday.
So at the end of this week, my head is feeling a little bruised and broken...but I also have a whole new testimony in the quote "shoot for the moon, if you miss you'll land in the stars"...or however it goes. In other words...we'll keep jumping.
I love you and miss you.
à la semaine prochain!
Soeur Smith
Well this week has been a crazy week...as usual. Somehow I feel like every week has some sort of build-up, climax, and happy ending...maybe weeks in normal life work like that too...we just never take the time to report to our families what happened in the past week haha.
Well this week the climax was zone conferance. We had zone conferance with Elder Teixiera, of the seventy, and his wife. Naturally, going into a zone conferance with a general authority you expect something great. And we got what we were expecting!
Elder Teixiera started out with two stories.
The first was about a flea. He told us fleas are magnificant animals. You see, fleas know how to do one thing very well. They know how to jump. And no matter what situation they find themselves in...they jump. Their brains are programed to jump. So, let's say you take a flea, and you put it in a jar. Then you hold the jar very close to your ear. What are you going to hear?
*ping*.
What would that noise be? That's right, the flea jumped, and hit its poor little head on the lid of the jar. Now, you would think as small as the little flea's brain is, maybe they would just keep jumping and hitting their head. BUT fleas will suprise you. No, they don't stop jumping...they just jump a little lower. Therefore, they continue to fulfill their one purpose in life, jumping, without hitting and hurting their poor little heads. The magnificant thing is, even if you remove the lid of the jar, the flea will continue to jump within the jar, completely captured by its own will.
The second story was about an elephant. Elder Teixiera had traveled to India and seen domistacated elephants. But how do you domesticate an elephant? Apparently, when elephants are very young, their owners will take them and chain them with a metal chain around their ankels to metal stake in the ground. The baby elephants will pull and tug and attempt to get away...they will hurt themselves...they will cry...and eventually...they give up. They stay very close to their little stakes. As the elephant grows, he learns that if feels something around his ankle, to stay put and avoid injury. And thus, you can go to India and see grown elephants tied to whimpy sticks with whimpy little ropes.The elephant could choose to just kick out his foot and run off- but again is tied down by past experience and choice.
So how do missionaries relate to the smallest of animals and the largest of animals. You see...we also do many things that hurt. We fix goals...only to report zeros to our leaders after a week of really trying. We contact thousands of people, only to be rejected over and over again. We fix rendezvous...only to be stood up. We study a language...only to be told we can't be understand. I could go on and on...we'll just leave it with the fact that being a missionary hurts.
So sometimes we choose to jump a little lower. We fix lower goals. We talk to less people. The less we try, the less we can get hurt. Elder Teixiera's message was that there are no limits on the Lord...we just need to jump as high as we can...and even when it hurts, the Lord will provide miralces. We just have to have the faith to jump.
So leaving zone conferance, we were just 'jumping' to get to our areas. So here we are ready to change the way missionary work is done in Lille. When we hit the lid preatty hard. The lady we contacted a couple weeks ago that fixed a rendezvous with us, canceled and was rude about it. Another person we found and had started teaching, dropped us. Out of faith, one morning we decided to contact a certain amount of people before lunch...we'll just say it was more people than we normally contact in one day. One by one, every single contact rejected us. Until...the very last person gave us a phone number. I know I should have been excited...it just seemed like such a little thing, a phone number, after all the great blessings promised in zone conferance if we would just keep jumping.
One other thing mentioned in zone conferance...perservance. President Poznanski reminded us, it would still take lots of work and disappointment. Still lots of jumping and hitting our heads. Well come Sunday, I was tired. I won't lie. I wanted to go back to jumping just a little bit less. Especially when our ami called us right before church and told she wouldn't be able to come.
Well church came and went. We talked with lots of members and had a good day, and Soeur McGhie and I were ready to go home and break our fast. Just as our lunch was coming out of the oven...we got a call from the elders. They were still at the church and this lady had shown up asking for Sister Smith. I spoke with her on the phone, and remembered she was someone we had contacted on Monday night. She was fed up with other religions and was open to learning about ours despite all the horrible things she had heard about us. She had told us that she would come to church, she even knew where it was. But she refused to give us a phone number or an address-so I thought it would be a miracle if we every heard from her again. We'll just say when she wasn't at church I wasn't to shocked. Well... she showed up at the church 3 hours after meetings and only could remember my name, because its the same as Joseph Smith's. You better believe we left our lunch and ran to the church. We had an amazing rendez-vous, she's excited to read the book of mormon, and we are seeing her again on Wednesday.
So at the end of this week, my head is feeling a little bruised and broken...but I also have a whole new testimony in the quote "shoot for the moon, if you miss you'll land in the stars"...or however it goes. In other words...we'll keep jumping.
I love you and miss you.
à la semaine prochain!
Soeur Smith
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