Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Happy Thanksgiving back. 5 points
for the one who knows what movie that's from. Hint, the only movie I know SO
WELL that I can still quote it after 13 months in the field.
Ok, on to bigger and better things.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Are you all going to Embassy Suites? Where's the feast
being held this year? I'm so jealous. Well, not really. But I will miss you all
and think of you lots. Speaking of thinking of you, yesterday we had stake
conference (so good!) and President Poznanski spoke about the three keys to
missionary success and he said the first was the faith and humility of the
missionary, the second was how well the missionaries and members work together,
and the third was that members should keep in mind the missionaries' mothers,
who pray for them every day. That got some definite tears going. Thanks for all
your prayers :)
So, things I am thankful for:
MY FAMILY! The best in the world!
The fact that I will be staying in
Blois for Christmas! With Sister Williams! The Lord is too good to me.
The fact that our toilet is fixed!
My wonderful wonderful branch!
That the Lord answers prayers and
works miracles!
Ok, so. This week was ridiculous. We
slept over at a member's house til Wednesday, which was so fun. We stayed with
the Ferreira's, a little Portuguese couple, and they are adorable and so so
funny. And it was fun, I think Brother Ferreira secretly hoped our toilet would
never be fixed so we could just keep staying there. And Sister Ferreira works
for a boulangerie so every morning when we came downstairs she had an entire
pastry shop laid out for us. We also got to ride with them to and from Stake
Conference, which was even more fun. They just are so funny because Sister
Ferreira teases her husband mercilessly and he either just laughs or pretends
to not know what she's talking about. And he loves America, he just asks
us all kinds of questions about it. And he likes to practice his english...
"I want...aller en America!" haha.
Stake Conference was the BEST. It
was in Angers, which is a little over two hours away, so they do the adult
session in the morning and then everyone has lunch together, picnic style, and
then they do the general session and then everybody visits because they're so
excited to be with other Mormons! We left yesterday at 7:15 and got
back just before 7 at night. It was such a good conference, and it
was so fun because our little family that we're teaching was there! And they
loved it! More miracle stories about them later. Also it was fun because it's
our mission president's home stake and so he was excited to be there and
everyone was extra excited to see him. And we ate lunch with his family and
visited with him and he met and talking with our little family and came over to
us and exclaimed about what a beautiful family they were and said it was
dangerous, being in the best branch and teaching wonderful people, because we'd
never want to leave. I was like, President, don't even THINK about it. I'm not
going anywhere! haha. Also, side note, I could go on and on and on about how
beautiful France is. Driving through the French countryside yesterday was a
dream, with the sun coming up and turning the trees all bronze and gold, while
fog still wafted over the wide open fields and in between the little cottages
and barns and cathedrals. I'm in love. So very deeply in love! That reminds me
again, last p-day the Brouillets, a service missionary couple in the ward, took
us to see the Cheverny castle. It looks like Pemberly! Soeur Williams and I
linked arms and walked around the grounds talking in British accents. We're
Jane Austen nerds.
Ok so, miracles. This week has been
full of them! First of all, the response to our goal of 20 baptisms has been
incredible. Every time we talk to members they talk about it, and how they've
started talking to their friends and family and coworkers, thinking,
"maybe you're one of the 20!" Also the hearts of all our amis are
just melting like butter. The most incredible has been Maria. Maria is the
ninja mom I told you about, with the 17 and 3 month olds. I found out this week
that she's my age! Anyway, she's been having some cool experiences with prayer.
Last sunday her husband had been gone since Friday and she doesn't have a cell
phone so she had no way to find out where he was or when he was coming back.
She was all alone and prayed that Carole, a member of the branch, would come
over. She finished her prayer and up rolled Carole and her husband, who then
were able to get a hold of her husband. Thursday she was all alone again,
husband at work, elevator broken (they live on the 6th floor) and she needed to
go get groceries. She prayed that she would run into us so that we could call
someone to help her. Thursday morning we were walking to district meeting and
we hear our names being called, and there's Maria. She explained the problem,
we called a member who was there five minutes later to help. We wouldn't even
have been on that street except that we'd forgotten something so we were
behind. She told us all of this on Saturday, right after we'd read a story from
the Liahona together about a woman's conversion story. We read the story and
she kind of smiled and was like, that's wierd, that story really speaks to me.
She repeated this a couple times and then said, you know, ever since you've
talked about baptism I just can't get it out of my head. I feel like that word
is everywhere. I heard it at church, and in that story, and everytime I open
the scriptures. She looked at us and said, if I hear about baptism again
tomorrow at stake conference, I'm going to take that as my answer. I think I
need to be baptized. She and her husband will be getting baptized the 17th of
December. Also they've invited us over for Christmas!
I just can't get over it. I feel
like I was just watching Maria and it felt like the conversion stories you
always hear about, and I just thought about how very little it has to do with
what I do or say during the lessons. We're just there, we introduce the spirit,
and then the spirit touches hearts. It's been the same with our other amis.
Raphael was super interesting the first rendezvous, but more than a little
skeptical of some of our doctrine and of the Book of Mormon. We gave him a
section to read and when we saw him this week he had read it and then continued
and he loved it. As he talked we realized he's been pondering Joseph Smith all
week, and he said his only real question was whether his heart would be open
enough that the Lord could tell him that our Church was true and that he could
accept it.
Kevin and Alex are the same, the
spirit has just gone crazy in their lives. First of all, they love us to death.
This last week we made Kevin pancakes for his birthday (his request) and we
talked about the gospel and how things have changed for them since we've
started meeting with them. They talked about the spirit they've felt, Alex
marveled over the fact that she actually wanted to read scriptures and looked
forward to it, that they run home to be there in time to see us, that they feel
like they're more patient and optimistic, that they actually have a desire to
go to church every week, they're stopping smoking. This coming from a couple
who is tattooed and pierced and, when we first met them, very cynical about
life. I love them with all my heart. Sister Williams and I have just been
watching all these changes with open mouths and overflowing hearts. All the
Lord needed us to do was show a little faith in him.
I'm so so so in love with
everything. Missionary work, Blois, France, our branch, our amis, my companion,
my mission president and his wife, everybody in the whole world. I'm so excited
for this transfer! Christmas transfer! I love Christmas! I can't wait for the
Savior to come again!
Ps, our transfer motto this transfer
is "Oh come, let us adore him" We're so in Christmas mode, haha.
I love you all! Thank you for all
your prayers! I need to tell you more about the story of the 20 baptisms
thing... someday... It's legit.
Til next week! Happy Thanksgiving!
Have lots of fun without me! haha.
Soeur Larsen
No comments:
Post a Comment