Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Soeur Larsen: Part XLIX


Going out in a fiery flame of glory...

Hello! Family! I love you! How was your week? Mine was the BEST. As usual. Sorry to spend so much time bragging about my life.... I like to tell myself that it inspires others to enlist in the service of the Lord :) It does have it's benefits.

Last fast sunday we fasted to be filled with the spirit of our calling, after reading a talk on fasting by Elder Wirthlin. It's a good one, I'd recommend it. Anyway, it worked! I don't know why that still surprises me every time. This week we did SO MUCH teaching! It was the best! We basically just went from teaching appointment to teaching appointment all day every day, we didn't have any time to think of anything else. I think the Lord is just trying to be extra nice to us. And we had some cool little experiences where we found new amis! Hooray!

My favorite one was Saturday night, when we went to visit Alex. She apparently talks to everyone she knows about us, so we got there and she had a friend there and then she had another friend, Joy, on the way who wanted to see us. Joy RAN while pushing a stroller, to get from her apartment to Alex's to see us before we had to head home for the night. Apparently Alex had told them that there were two girls who visited her who had a magic book that has all the answers to every question you could ever have (we've taught her so well....) So her two friends just sat down and started asking us questions. It was so fun. It's so fun that we have a message that's so wonderful and brings so much joy and understanding to everyone who listens to it. Joy asked us about infant baptism because she has a baby daughter she's planning on baptizing, and it was wonderful to be able to tell her that her baby is pure and perfect in the eyes of God. Because he's a loving God! He loves human beings! Funny what a foreign idea that seems to be to people. We explained a little bit the plan of God, that this life is the hard part, the test, and that we live for the wonderful blessings in the next life! They were just drinking it up. We taught them about prayer and how to pray and Joy asked if He really listens to every prayer we offer. We told her he listens to every word and that he always answers. It's the best feeling in the world to teach the gospel to people who actually listen and who are hungry for the answers.

It was also funny because they asked us about the word of wisdom and we explained it and they were just in awe. They asked why we don't drink coffee and we said that among other things, it was so we could be in control of our bodies, not dependent on anything, and calm. She said she had remarked that we were almost wierdly calm. (Me, calm.... funny idea... aren't you guys so excited to meet the new me now?) Haha. We actually got a lot of comments this week about how angelically 'zen' we are. That's what we call the Spirit! You can have it too! I'm basically a walking commercial for the gift of the Holy Ghost these days.
I feel like I have so many stories to tell about these people but that just won't be the same until I'm there to tell them in person. Sorry.

Anyway it was a super good week. Saturday we got invited to a Vietnamese restaurant to celebrate the birthday of Helene, one of the members of the branch. It was so fun! And so wierd to be eating in a restaurant! I accidentally ordered what I thought were potstickers, that turned out to be made of some kind of fish. I have no idea what it was, but I'm absolutely certain I don't ever want to encounter it again... It's funny, I never encountered any seafood on my mission, until I got to Blois. And here, in my beloved ville, I've had enough to last me a lifetime. And now I can officially say that I do not like fish. I have experimented. Also I accidentally ordered an alcoholic ice cream sundae. Why don't they mark that kind of thing here?! France is such a dangerous place to eat out...  

Yesterday was branch conference so there were a bunch of stake people and a bunch of amis and there weren't enough chairs! That's the best possible problem to have! And we all ate together afterwards and it was so fun. The talks were so good, and when we stood up to sing the intermediate hymn I made the mistake of letting myself realize that I only had two more sundays in this branch, and I kind of lost it. But I recovered. Oh Blois, what have you done to me?

Well, there's my week in a nutshell. Doesn't it sound like fun? Tune in next week for more adventures! 

Lots of love, 
Soeur Larsen 

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