October 17, 2011 "muzighakjgdqszchzh (no I didnt just hit random letters...thats dutch silly!)‏"

Well Bonjour à tous!

 

I'm not exactly sure how to describe this week. It started in Paris and ended in Bruxelles. Ya Im still wrapping my mind around it. I would describe the lengthy, messy process of leaving Paris...but I think I'll just leave it at... well, it was emotional.

So now Im here in the land of Belgium! To add onto my list of languages that I've encountered on my mission, lets add dutch and flemish! (yup there is a sign hanging above me right now that says...Overzicht van de hoofdrubeiken... go ahead.. google translate. Im in a library so Im assuming it has something to do with books...)

 

Remember in elementary school they would teach you that America is a melting pot?? Well they lied....Belgium is the current boiling soup of the world. I seriously don't even know how many languages I hear in one day. I wish I could say a dominant one was french, but its not. Its a little discouraging because I've gone from one very-American ward to the next. President Poznanski told me before I left Paris to 'forget I even know english, only function in french'...and I'm trying but it sure is hard when the Bishop, 2nd counselor, Relief Society President, Elders Quoram president, Primary Presidency, the Ward Mission Leader, and most of the youth and children are all american. Or at least not french speaking haha.

 

The ward is... curious. Im going to try not to be obnoxious and compare everything to Paris...but I need to in this circumstance to make my point. In Paris our Bishop anounced one Sunday that there were currently 27 different nationalities represented in our ward. Yet somehow it was a very high functioning ward. However, here there are countless nationalities and its a very divided ward. Its definately lacking unity. The Americans stick to themselves. Most are here because of jobs with NATO and so they live in American communities, with American schools and stores. The Belg are annoyed with all the Americans. The other countless nationalities have there own groups. Its very different. Seems kind of like a hostile environmen to bring amis into. SO before you think Im all discouraged and annoyed by all this... guess again! When Soeur Murray and I left church she asked me what I thought...and she was a little shocked when I said Im so excited for this ward. After being in Paris with Soeur Wiliams the work was a little slow because of uncontrolable circumstances, Im so excited to be here because we have SO much work to do, and I kind of feel like a brand new missionary and I seriously can't sleep at night because of the things we have to do and Im so excited for it all.

 

So I guess this is my really long way of telling you that I LOVE BRUSSELLS already. Our ward mission leader told us that the ward is ready to burst, it has alot of potential ( we have lots of amis in progress...still working on meeting all of them) but this ward needs entheusiastic missionaries...so I'm determined to give it all the entheusiasm I've got!!!

 

Donc, things are going great...really! I feel such love and excitement for the area already. I cant really express it through email...but I am 'très content'.  Ok random things you guys asked about. Apartment is tiny, but has a seperate bedroom and only two of us living there so it feels like a step up from Paris. We went around to meet our neighbors and explain who we are...we had some interesting run-ins haha but also got a rendezvous with one of our neighbors! SO yes mom I am safe and warm. Soeur Murray is great! She is from Mapleton, Utah and is an elementary school teacher...aka really patient and sweet. She helps me alot with french. We are determined to speak french all the time because we are not really immerssed it in here...and I can feel it helping already. Whitewashing has been an adventure...its definately resulted in lots of laughter and adventures. But its fun to discover the Ville together.

 

I wish I could tell you something about Brussells but I literally know nothing! I know that Grande Place is cool...we are going to go see it this afternoon. I know NATO is here. I know we live in a french neighborhood...but Im currently in a dutch library down the street so who knows how that works. (the guy at the front desk was very offended when we tried to speak french to him...) I don't really know where the ward/mission boundaries are. I think we share this area with the Dutch mission...when we asked about mission boundaries and we were kind of told 'dont worry about..go as far as public transportation lets you'. Our ward boundaries definately go into the dutch mission...as in when went to the Ward Mission leaders house last night Im pretty sure we left our mission...but stayed in the ward boundaries...ya its complicated. I just smile and nod lots... haha. So if you guys back home want to google things about Brussells and tell me about...that'd be great because Im just figuring it out one day at a time haha.

 

Well if this email seems totally scattered and all over the place, I think its because I'm still figuring out which way is up here in Brussells. But to sum it all up we have TONS of work...aka Im grinning from ear to ear.

 

Love you and miss you!!

Soeur Smith

October 10, 2011 "My quick tour around Europe"

Well I don't really know where to start for this week...so I guess I'll start in Spain!!!!!!!!
CHRIS!!! YOUR GOING TO SERVE IN MADRID!!!! HOLY COW!!!!I dont really know how to explain all of my feelings!!! I definately was crying and so overwhelmed with just pure emotion when I read your call!! Im so sad I don't get to be there to send you off...but I can't wait till you join me out here in the field AND on this side of the ocean!! Your going to be such an amazing missionary...I can't wait! Oh and everyone here in Paris that I've been annoying because of my excitment about your call says congrats :D

Then from Spain...I guess I'll move to Belgium...because that is where I am being transfered to this week!!!! I am leaving my dear Paris after 6 months and heading north for the winter to Brussels!!! Alot is changing in our mission. President Poznanski has started to put a real push on finding young, french families. He feels that sisters are going to be able to reach out to families in smaller villes better. Donc, ALL sisters are being taken out of Paris and elders are being taken out of smaller villes and put in the cities. So this transfer was insane and alot is changing. Almost everyone is either training or whitewashing (meaning you and your companion are both new to the area). So our mission kind of feels like we were thrown into a blender and pushed 'frappé!!! (and with four sisters moving out... that is just about what our apartment looks like as well!) And in all this craziness ... I'm headed to the land of frites and goufres!!!

But for right in this moment...I'm still chillin in Paris! We've had a crazy week. Two new amis (a chinese girl and a russian man...sound familiar??) Soeur Williams finally recieved a diagnosis AND treatment for her ankle!!!! (tenaonitis...was that really so hard to figure out??) I turned 22...birthday in Paris! When did I get so lucky?? Soeur Williams and I found out we are going to seperated (she is headed to Blois... dont ask how to say it...I just know its on the complete oppisite end of the mission than me!) AND we got to leave Paris with a bang.

Our concert that we have been planning for the entire transfer was last night and if I do say so myself...it went amazing! Seriously...we were rehearsing up untill the last moment and it sounded horrible. But we were blessed and somehow everything came together.Either angles came down and put magical earmuffs on everyone so we sounded good or they just sang for us because by the end of the night there was not a dry eye in the audience. The spirit was so strong and I think all the missionaries in our zone felt like we got to have a very satisfing and dramatic farewell to Paris.

Not that I would ever dream of being nostalgic and dramatic about leaving Paris- the work goes on even if you may or may not feel like your leaving a piece of your heart in a ville. People will probably forget my name by Sunday...but they played a key role in my mission and one day in heaven I'll be able to thank them in proper angel talk rather than stuttering french. And now Im off to a new ville to stress, laugh, and cry with new amis! Besides.. Paris has been here for awhile...I'll come back one day ;)

Love you and miss you!
Soeur Smith 

October 3, 2011 "Les Meilleurs Moments"

Bonjour everyone!!!
This week I've decided to sum up our crazy missionary lives into 'top 10 moments of the week'...so here we go

Les meilleurs moments de la semaine:

10. Exchange in Caen
Beautiful town in Northern France. Sun was shining and the town is so CHILL compared to Paris. Met a RECENT convert of 97 years old, and her dog made noises like it was dying the entire rendez vous.
Best part: when she started singing...and the sister I was with couldn't keep from laughing so I was left singing all on my own...all of those who have heard my singing voice knows that this was not the ideal situation....yup...Im sure the angels watching were having stomach pains from laughing.

9. Personal revelation rocks.
 Especially when it comes through the scriptures. Just saying I had some good moments with Jacob 4 this week...
we'll just saying Im trying to be more grateful for my many apparent weaknesses. Eventually it means Ill have many strengths...eventually.

8. Sitting next to an Elder during Sister Dalton's talk.
He literally wrote "Be my daughter's Moroni"
I know... Im tearing up its so adorable.
PS. Dad...thanks for being my Moroni

7. New Conferance Traditions:
From Soeur Williams: I enjoyed some fluffy apple pancakes Sunday morning
From Elder Dick, from England, we learned the importance of 'session sweeties'...we were well stocked for all the sessions

6. This world is very small.
Sunday night we were all coming back from Versailles (its the stake center) from watching Conferance. We had just seperated from the elders to take our seperate metros when our phone rang and their name appeared on the caller ID. Apparently, when they got on the metro three women had approached them and asked if they knew a 'Soeur Smith'! It was Grandma Beard's neighbor whose name escapes me right now, and her daughters Margaret, who is mom's friend from 6th grade, and her other daughter, whose name is also escaping me, who used to babysit me when I was little. So they borrowed the elders phone and wished me Happy Birthday! Even though they are kind of strangers...it felt like a small birthday wish from home!

5. Elder Uchtdorf's 'forget-me-not' talk to the relief society
Enough said.

4. Hanging out with Soeur Williams after a long hard day.
Background story: we were wallowing in self pity because people aren't lining up at the fonts for us. Then we went to a mangez-vous with a recent return missionary. She is a nanny for an American family in the ward. One child is deaf and we had fun making up our very own sign names. Then we discussed missionary work and she told us this analogy.
Before your mission your like a caterpillar. You are kinda of lazy and are just bumping around enjoying life.
During your mission your in a cacoon. Rigid rules and lifestyle don't leave much room for moving around. But its also the biggest growing period in your life.
Then you emerage, a beautiful butterfly, matured and ready to take on life.
I'll just say, it cheered us up, and ended with a lovely nighttime chat in PJs about how really missions (or life) never work out how your want them to. But thats ok.

3. Richard G. Scott's talk about 'packets of light' starting off conferance.
A. He is so tender
B. My new best friend are the scriptures....
C. Since when is conferance THIS good!?! I feel like I've been missing out all these years...or maybe they just decided to become amazing when I set apart as a missionary.
Thats probably it...

2. This week we got a call from Dr. Guglielmi
If you don't remember him...he was the doctor that took the book of mormon from Soeur Williams during one of her appointments.
He said he hasn't had a chance to read it, but he is determined to know for himself if its true or not, and we set a date to call him back in two weeks and hold him to that promise.

1. TEMPLE
Before all you debby-downers tell me that it was kinda only half announced because the plans are still in the work..well I dont want to hear it.
Yea- President Monson thinks he's hilarious pausing after Star Valley, Wyhoming. But- honestly as he spoke about Paris, France temple. Everyone in the room SCREAMED.
After, talking to one French elder, he said 'I imagine that was the same scream we all made when we read our mission calls'.
True.
So ya, obviously, we have alot of work to do to get the temple here. But its coming...I don't think I can describe what the means to me. Or Anne Sophie, or Lou, or Zdravko, or the many other faithful saints in France. or the saints who don't know they are saints yet. So we'll just leave it at...that was a very good moment.

Love you and miss you all!
Hope you have a good week

September 26,2011

Bonjour!

How are you? Sitting on pins and needles from waiting for Chris's call? I mean...not like Im anxious or anything. Thank goodness things in Paris are busy enough to keep my mind off of it....at least as much as possible.

To start the week off we had interviews with the president. It was so good! The zone leaders did a training about spiritual finding and being more committed to talking to EVERYONE. It was a really good training. Soeur Williams and I were so inspired we decided to do some contacting while waiting for our interview times. haha. We chose a random metro stop and got off. However it ended up being in a bussiness area; so we got on a bus and just rode around and talked to people who sat near us. Nothing come of it...till later (yup Im keeping you in suspense). Anyways, so we went back to the church for our interviews with President. They went really well- he talked to both of us about ways we can keep the work going despite our 'ankle situation'. We both have felt really inspired this week to find new ways we can do contacting and keep things going. He also asked how our companionship was going, and after listening to us gush and giggle he asked us if was possible to love each other too much...yup we are that obnoxious. Oops....

So, because of our inspiration from interviews we've been doing lots of contacting this week. We've tried different approaches...like the 'bus approach' or the 'RER approach' (thats a type of train), and 'the bench approach'. Basically, we find ways of just sitting places where lots of people come and go...so that we can contact without Soeur Williams having to walk. We've also been just doing small little bits of street contacting...and as soon as her ankle starts to hurt we stop. Its been working! The night of interviews we were on the metro and started to talking to a lady (ps when people have really cute kids with them...such an easy contact!) and turns out she had just come from the neighborhood we had been contacting in early that day. (ok suspense over...) Apparently we were meant to talk to her one way or another. We also talked to another lady who was actually a really awkward contact. But when we called her a couple days later she said she had been telling her family all about us...we are pretty excited!

But contacting always brings some interesting stories too...this week during district contacting, Soeur Williams contacted a guy who seemed very normal at the time. He had lost his phone so we had no way of contacting him, but we were pretty excited when he showed up at church. Well...we're pretty sure we smelled some suspcious things on his breath...we will just say he and another investigator kept amis sunday school class pretty exciting as they were the only ones commenting about the word of wisdom...and neither one of them have been taught it yet. The poor teacher did a very good job at tying in some random stories about racism and the creation to the lesson. Good.

This week one of the Elders' amie, Cheriff, from egypt made us all an egyptian dinner. Brought me back to my good 'ol Jerusalem days (minus the fact that we didn't actually eat much in Egypt because its all pretty sketchy...so at least now I know what all the meat at those buffets would have tasted like if we had eaten it. Ya...we were missing out for sure) Cheriff's catchphrase is 'Allahs, c'est fini!' haha I think thats Araçais (arabic + french...ya I tried ok)  We kind of use it for everything now. He's become pretty famous here in our little corner of Paris and we enjoyed getting to taste a little bit of his corner of the world.

This Sunday was our big activity that Soeur Williams and I have been planning for the ward. The idea for the activity was to challenge the members to 'set-a-date' in which they would introduce a friend to the missionaries. (ya not original I know...definately stole it from the thousands of missionaries that have challenged our family to do the same thing...but hey its worked a couple times for our family so I thought we could try it here) Anyways, we had different 'stations' that we had the membres rotate between. In the first one we had a recent convert panal, in which the recent converts described the role of members in the conversion process. Then we had a 'jeu de rôle' aka role play...in which we had the members act as non-members, while the members were themselves, and the members had to find ways to bring up the gospel in every day situations. Finally, we watched a conferance talk by Elder Nelson that talked about member missionary work and had a discussion about it. It went really well... at the end the Bishop gave the challenge to everyone to 'set a date' and become more committed to member missionary work. I'm not going to lie...I'm glad it went well...but I'm also kind of glad its over haha. Planning, delegating, and organizing elders (it literally took us 15 minutes to get them all in the same room) is exhausting. I am so grateful to say 'allahs, c'est fini' to the activity. (although we are hoping the results aren't over...)

Phew...but our organizing skills are still needed in Paris for the next concert. Soeur Williams and I have taken to bribing the elders to be on time to practices. Last week we made them brownies...which were apparently so good that Elder Dick was inspired to write a song about them. This week, we wanted to make chocolate chip cookies for them. But FYI french ovens are retarded...so when it came time for practice I had to annouce to them all that we were really sorry, but the cookies weren't working and so all we had for them was a giant bowl of cookie dough...as you can guess they were all ok with that haha. At the end of the night, we were looking for our bowl, when an elder came up with spoon in hand from scraping off the last bits of cookie dough and said 'umm I cleaned it for you..' haha...it was definately 'Allahs, c'est fini'.  Whatever gets them there on time....

The weather here continues to stay pretty nice...so Im enjoying the last warm days before the long, cold winter settles in. And with the sun shining, its hard not to just keep falling in love with this city more and more!

Love you and miss you!
Soeur Smith

September 19, 2011 "Missionary life is like a piece of French cheese"

Bonjour!!!
I can't believe its fall already and we are mentioning things like 'conferance' and 'cold weather'...I swear like only five minutes ago I was texting mom every night with new updates on my feelings about going on a mission...little did I know that a short year later I would be living in Paris and (attempting to) speak french! Time flies...so I guess I'll be seeing you lin like another five minutes haha...

Speaking of time...Im hitting 7 months this week! How the heck did that happen??? I swear Im still a newbie... haha But then at the same time, I talk to some of the blues and I am starting to feel a little old. They mention movies I've never even heard of, they know songs that I don't, and apparently the outside world kept going when I entered the MTC (Jimmer got drafted?? I can't believe you didn't write me about that one Chris...) This week I've started to notice JUST how wierd I really am...haha and its only the beginning...oh Shannon I'm going to need some serious shock therepy into the real world haha.

But luckily for me, I've decided that mission life is like french cheese. It just keeps getting better and better with time. This week we had a rendez-vous with Eva, who you probably don't remember, but she was my first rendez-vous ever in the mission field...and guess what!? This time I understood what she was saying. I realize I probably sound shocked every week in my email when I understand something in french...but we will just leave it at its been a struggle and its a serious miracle everytime I know what is going on around me. Our walk through her 'lovely' neighborhood seemed a little less smelly when I can understand what everyone is saying...

This week we also had some good experiences with contacting. This week for district contacting we decided to try something new. We literally kidnapped one of those chalkboards on wheels from the church and rolled it across the street into an open area in front of the Georges Pompidou...a big modern art museum. We then wrote on the board 'What is your favorite book?' and invited people walking by to write on the chalkboard their favorite book. Then when they asked why we were doing this...we would then introduce our favorite book... bah we are so sneaky I know! Anyways, it was interesting because the neighborhood around the church is probably not the best for contacting. A. there are lots of tourists B.its really artsy and attracts some intersting characters C. Did I mention that our church is in one of the main gay districts of Paris. Donc, it turned out pretty interesting haha. I definately contacted a couple 'couples' that I didn't realize they were couples until after we started talking...and Im pretty sure we talked to people from every country in europe and then some others. But overall we ended up handing out 10+ of our favorite book (if you haven't figured it out yet that is the Book of Mormon, no I didnt sit on the corner and hand out copies of Lord of the Rings...) Anyways, it was a fun activity...Soeur Williams and I are currently plotting how to get the chalkboard into the metro so we can try it out in a more promising neighborhood lol...

And Soeur Williams and I had another really good contact in the Visitor's Center. A young french man was standing in the tatoo shop across the street from the church, when he saw that our sign said 'Jesus Christ' on it and he came to investigate. It was amazing! I think he is generally intersted...there was no break in eye contact as Soeur Williams told the first vision. He then took a Book of Mormon, and gave of us all of his contact info. He even took a tour of the Young Adult center. We were like giddy by the time he left! Young + french + actually intersted = you struck gold!!! But he doesn't live in our area...so another one of those 'I hope something comes of it stories'...

This week we had Stake Conferance in Versailles. Yup...I feel pretty cool knowing there are a handful of people in the world that can say that. I also am still in love with the fact that our stake president's name is President Gaston.  The conferance was held in this beautiful building with really big, soft chairs....best stake conferance ever haha. But really...it was amazing.EVERY single talk was about the temple...which I'm not getting my hopes up...but ok I totally am...Soeur Williams and I are really praying that in a couple weeks we will be hearing a special announcement concerning the temple... that would truly be the best birthday present EVER!!! The spirit was spirit was so strong and I had another one of those 'Im so lucky to get to be a missionary here and now' moments....like I said...its just getting better and better with time.

Honestly...maybe I started off as one of those nice pristine pieces of white (cough american cough) looking pieces of cheese. The mold is the spirit...and slowly slowly is spreading and growing inside of me...until I become a nice stinky  blue missionary reeking of the spirit!!! Ok, maybe I took that one a little far...sometimes I can't help myself. Basically it comes down to the fact that I'm loving life, loving Paris, loving Soeur Williams, and missing and loving all of you!!!
Bonne semaine!!

xoxo
Soeur Smith

September 12, 2011 "Nous allons a la lune"

Bonjour!!
It sounds like fall and school and everything are getting underway at home! I can definately feel the difference here...Soeur Williams and I went to a museum today and we had it all to ourselves! Me and Soeur Williams + endless, uncrowded buildings of history = glorious!!! We even got to hang out with Napolean himself. Its been a good p-day so far....

This week has been full of bittersweet moments...and comme d'habitude there were some funny moments. Here are the highlights:

We had to say goodbye to Hana. I won't go into details...but we will just say chocolate was involved in the healing process...and Soeur Williams and I might have had some very serious daydreaming sessions about our trip to Tawain that will happenning one day... our lives have definately felt a little empty this week without our Hana.

BUT, I also get to see Lou Lou again! She is finally back from vacance!!! Again, Ill spare you from the gory details of how excited I was to see that girl; despite her hyper tendacies I really do love her! This week we started her on Personal Progress...we started with one of the goals to pray every morning and every night for three weeks ; you can imagine my excitement when we came three days later and she had been praying all on her own! Little does she know, that means so much more to me than all of the friendship bracelets she has made for me haha....

This week in district meeting, our district leader, Elder Walker drew a moon on a pillowcase. He told us to draw rocketships with the names of our amies on it, and when someone gets baptized we can draw a flag on the moon. The best part was the title of this lovely drawing was 'Nous allons à la lune' (we're going to the moon). Well after he could get over snickering...Elder Rako (he's french) informed us that in french to 'go to the moon' is an expression for getting high. Good. We are starting off the transfer with a goal to get all of our amies high. Gotta love those miscommunications...

Anne Sophie made me realize how fast this transfer is going to go. A couple weeks ago she had promised to make us a cake. I totally forgot about that until we asked her when is the next time we can meet with her. She looked at the calendar and said "Well next week is stake conferance, then the next week is the ward activity, then its general conferance, then its the missionary concert...so in a month and a half...I will bring you a cake!" haha after we reassured her that its fine and we definately don't need a cake...we decided to meet during the week...but internally I was freaking out about how fast this transfer is going by already...*deep breaths* alright...back to bussiness...

So a couple of weeks ago, I had a contact that I was pretty proud of. We were waiting for someone at the visitors center, but it was late and technically the visitors center was closed. But this man wandered in and started to look around...so I went up to him and started talking to him. Usually I'll start talking to someone and after beginning a tour Soeur Williams will come and save me. But this time...Soeur Williams decided to let me fly on my own...and I actually did it! I was pretty much flying on cloud 9 after because not only did he take a Book of Mormon, but when we were done with the tour he asked me if he could meet with us to learn more!!! Cool...I know. So, trying to repay our elders for all the refferals they've been giving us lately I passed his info to the elders so they could call and make an appointment. Well I guess miscommunications happened and they missed the appointment...and he showed up at the visitor's center again and just spoke with the missionaries there. I had only heard the one side of the story from the elders which was that a rendez-vous hadn't worked out. Well, imagine my suprise when after church I was talking to people afterwards and I looked over and there he was sitting in the congregation! I started talking to him and he said, not only that he had decided to come to church on his own, but he is almost done with the Book of Mormon!!!! (and I know he's not lying because he explained to me in great detail about how there are four different Nephis and how Moroni is Mormon's son) I practically dragged an elder over and screamed 'start teaching this man now'!!! (don't worry...thats only what was going on inside...I actually asked very nicely for the elders to come over and meet my 'friend' haha) Anyway, I'm pretty excited, so pray for my new friend Aviles.

And this week I finished the Book of Mormon. When I started reading this time, I had been thinking alot about how we promise everyone that the gospel blesses families. I know this to be true, but was kind of pondering exactly how reading a book about a people's wars and genelogy really helps a family become unified. So this time through, I've been highlighting words and verses that make specific referance to the family. Maybe everyone else is already aware of this, but I was amazed how much I found! The family really is a prominant theme throughout the Book of Mormon. Almost every story deals with familes and how it can bring us happiness when we have a common goal to follow Christ. I know this is old news, but I felt my testimony strengthened and again felt blessed to be part of a family that has this knowledge and is striving towards being together forever. I also felt an increased testimony of how important missionary work really is...I want all families in the world to know the peace and joy that comes from the gospel. And of course, I gained an increased testimony that the Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of our religion and should be the keystone of our families.

Alright, I'm sorry. Lately I feel like I haven't been able to get through a letter without getting extremely cheesy. But the point is that I love you all and miss you tons...and maybe once in awhile I get this slight urge to yell 'the church is true' from the rooftops...but settle for sending you overwhelmingly mushy emails...thanks for bearing with me, its very much appreciate.

xoxo
Soeur Smith

PS. French milestone reached this week: I understood the homeless man on the metro begging for money. I know...be impressed.

September 5, 2011 "Salesmen for our Father"

Ne-how-ma!!!!!
That's Chinese for hello and how are you?! This week we've had a little chinese influence in our life...and that Chinese influence is named Hana.

Hana is miracle (like all converts). About a month ago she was walking around Paris looking for a place to pray. She heard one of the Missionary Concerts in proccess and came in. She asked if this was a church...and to make a long story short the Chinese elders starting teaching her that night. Here's the twist...she is in Paris on vacation for two months. But in that time, she has given up smoking, decided not to get another tatoo, fallen in love with the Book of Mormon, and gotten baptized!!! Well this week the elders decided that she needed the sisters to teach her; she's had a difficult past and sisters just know how to give that tender love that sometimes people need :)

I think I can speak for the both of us when I say that Soeur Williams and I feel like some of the luckiest missionaries in the world to have been able to get to know Hana. She is honestly one of the most inspirational women I know. And one of the best missionaries I know! Everyday she has reported to us about some new boy that she has dumped by telling them that are literally wasting their time in dating her because now she "marry only mormon guy". She talks about how she has told all of her family and friends back home in Tawain about her new way of life and the love of "our father". She posts scriptures and quotes on Facebook multiple times a day. And how the first place she is going to go when she gets back in Tawain is the temple...then she gets really excited and jumps up and down as she says she can't wait to get "one of those special cards". I am humbled as she talks about how she reads the Book of Mormon for hours on end and how she needs to talk to "our Father" every day and every night. I love her stories about how before she knew "our Father" she would get very angry all of the time and was very cold to people. But now she cries all of the time and feels tender even towards the homeless people. Her english is limited. Kind of like Zdravko...but maybe the Lord puts language barriers there because it makes us sounds more childlike and only allows us to express our most simple of feelings. Hana has been our little ray of sunshine...every day we count the hours till we get to see her... and then I think its safe to say that all three of us walk away from the lessons feeling like we are on cloud 9. Im sorry...I know Im horrible at trying to sum up a person in an email...maybe I'll just quote her so you can get to know her a little better:

-(after teaching her about relief society) "I feel lucky to be Mormon women! Our father make us beautiful and smart. Smarter than men...but they don't know that!"
-"Today I listen to one song over and over again. That song is 'I am a child of God'. Today I go to super market and I singing and smiling, people think I crazy!"
-(after we gave her a card) "you can't buy this kind of love"
-"I think Alma is a lovely guy..." (after we told her in the scriptures you could find the personality of the kinds of guys you should date )
-"My friend wants me to send him painting of Paris.." she looks around the classroom and sees a painting of a scene from the Book of Mormon "maybe I send him picture of Our Father!!! Then he can learn about The Book!"

Dang it, I wish I could fly you all out here (or to Tawain) so you could have the priviledge of getting to know her! Last night we were talking about how we were all probably friends before this life. And we sat up in heaven and "spoke angel talk" and how we have been waiting all these years to see each other again in Paris. In that moment I had one of those wonderful spiritual confirmations that a mission is really where I'm supposed to be. Not that I've ever doubted it...its just nice to get confirmations once in awhile from 'Our Father' that your on the right track.

Since we've been teaching Hana we've been honorary chinese missionaries for the week. Hana helped us make a poster in Chinese for our ward activity we're planning. And we were invited to a chinese fête with all the chinese members in the ward. During the party I loved watching her running around hugging everyone, giving flowers to Ching-Ching (the older kind of Chinese grandmother in the ward), and seeing her force everyone to take seconds and thirds. It was difficult to picture her ever having a cold bone in her body. During our lesson the next night I decided to teach her the term 'social butterfly'...because thats what she is. Thats when she came up with this quote. She said:

"No I'm not! You guys are! You could sell house or car! Your like best sellsmen for Our Father, but instead of selling house or car, you sell God's story...FOR FREE!!!"

In that moment I felt so proud to wearing my missionary nametag. To be a salesman for Our Father. I thought back to a quote by C.S. Lewis....I don't remember it exactly but it is something to the effect that we have never talked to mere mortals. Every day I get to ride the metro, push through busy streets, and breath in the mystry smells of Paris with Our Father's children. I then think back to a training we had with President Staheli when he said that God could do all of the missionary work in France through one person or two. But he has allowed us to be a part of this great work.  I know Im getting gushy and sappy...but sometimes I feel guilty for complaining about vacance or our ankle situation...then I have those humbling moments when someone like Hana, whom I love and admire so much, turns around and says thank you for helping her...and you felt like didn't do anything. Then you know its really is a blessing to serve a mission.

Wa-I- Knee (I love you) and hope you all have a good first week of school!
Love,
jay-may (sister) smith