July 23, 2012 "Preparing for baptism is like being pregnant"

Bonjour Bonjour. Miracle number one of the week: the sun is shining. And its actually lasted for 24 hours. Sometimes the sun shines and I get all happy inside, and then 10 minutes later its back to being gray and I'm back to scowling at the skies. But its actually been nice out for more than an hour....so I'm letting my guard down and I'm just rejoicing in the sun. This week was quite eventful. We got permission from President to have Tracy do a four-day mini mission with us. I have honestly forgotten what it's like to have the energy of 16 year old. Or maybe I've just forgotten what its like to have any sort of excess energy at all. haha. It was a great experience to introduce someone to missionary life. Even if she wasn't too keen on going running at 6:30, she was a trooper and was much happier in the morning than I generaly am. (no parents, if you were hoping that one of the lessons I've learned on my mission is how to be a morning person, that one never quite settled in) Tracy told us one day she wanted to try passing by her aunt's house. Her mom had told me about her aunt already and they had tried to share with her the gospel and she was never very open to it. But Tracy was very persistant so we finally agreed. When we first got there it was akward because her aunt's friend answered the door and thought we were jehovah's witness and told us to go away, but Tracy then said she was looking for her aunt. Her aunt let us in and we tried to keep it pretty casual, just talked about where we were from and ask about them. The aunt's friend, Jessica, told us she was believing but not practicing. We explained to here the Book of Mormon and a little what we believe, and afterwards she said "I'm actually really interested, how much does the book cost" oooh I love it when people ask that because then we can say its FREE! And the look on their faces are priceless...Anywho, Jessica ended up taking the book of mormon and saying she would come to church (you know after vacance, etc....) and we were able to fix a return appointment with Tracy's aunt! She was prepared this time... or the love of an aunt for her niece softened her heart a little Well then Day 2 of the mini mission hit and our dear little Tracy fell asleep in a rendezvous...luckily it was a less active member who thought it was hilarious. Made me feel a little better about being exhausted all the time haha. But my favorite experience with Tracy this week was while we were porting. We were going from door to door, and getting kindly rejected at each door. And when I say kindly, the people really were very nice. One man let us explain that we aren't polygimast (sp?), another old couple told us about how they had met with elders 30 years ago, another lady told me how about her vacation she is going on to Canada next month...all nice people. No one interested in the gospel. But after every single door Tracy would say "aren't we so blessed! we found a neighborhood full of people with open hearts!" Soeur McGhie and I just looked at church confused because no one had actually been open to learning more, but I soon realized it was us that needed to change perspective. Our little "Soeur Tracy Tessa" taught us that its ok to count those little seeds planted at open hearts. And we had another lovely experience contacting with a member this week. This week at ward council the bishop asked if we would be willing to go out and passby some less actives with the young women's president for the evening.We passed by a couple people we knew of and no one would let us in...so we decided to just pick a random name on the ward list. Well we ended up finding the apartment complex...but could not actually find the apartment building. While investigating one apartment building a lady came out of the door, our YW president asked her if she knew the family we were looking for. The lady said no, sorry, I'm not from here. Well then our YW president pulled out a pass-along card and asked if she could leave her our card anyways, and started to explain the restoration. It was awsome! We ended up talking to her for a few minutes, and while in the end she didn't give us her number she did say "thank you for talking with me, I really enjoyed it". Go member missionaries! And the elders had a baptism this week. Wahoo! And one of our amis decided to come. She even brought cookies for everyone afterwards. Afterwards the Relief Society president was talking with her about baptism. Solange, our ami, said "the baptism was so quick! just in the water and back out again!"...and then our relief society president explained "well its like giving birth, there are nine months of preparation before you go into labor. Preparing for baptism is like being pregnant, and being baptized is being born, quick compared to the preparation". I'm assuming she had easy labors....most people I talk to dont seem to refer to labor as "quick". haha Anyways, it was great for Solange to see a baptism and for her to feel the spirit of a baptismal service. We keep asking her when her's will be and she is very insistant on 'researching the whole book of mormon first". We're working on convincing her that preparation for baptism does not actually have to take as long as a pregnancy.... And this week we are going to start teaching a chinese girl, Grace, that the elders contacted on the metro. She is amazing! She came to church yesterday and everyone thought she was a member already. As my district leader put it, a christian chinese? How could you be more prepared by God? I really hope we can fix a baptismal date with her this week. And we finished of the week with some porting. The last door of the night was answered by this older man who threw open the door and said "vous cherchez quoi?!?" (what are you looking for?) I told him we were looking for someone who wants to learn about Christ. He softened and told us he was practicing catholic, then he looked at us and said "arent you a little young to be doing this?". Gave us some room to tell us a little bit about our missions. He told us a little bit about how has been a volunteer for Catholic church for 50 years and how his family has been clergy since the 15th century. Honestly, I didn't feel like telling him his family has been mistaken on doctrine for quite awhile, so I just said "you know, it is so nice to talk with someone who loves Christ and wants to serve him". (and the entire street had been athiest...so it really was a nice change) He asked when I went home, (since we had already explained how long missions are, etc). I got a little sad inside and told him next week. When I gave him our card he put it in his shirt pocket and told us he would cherish it. I don't know why I enjoyed talking to this old, catholic man so much, but our entire exchange just made me happy. I guess Tracy taught me to look for 'open hearts' in a new way. As we walked away from his house I couldn't help but think I have to keep practicing my french so when we meet up in the spirit world I can still teach him and 9 generations of catholic family the gospel. Good thing I've still got some time to keep practicing the french ;) Love you all, have a great week! Soeur Smith