Bonjour à tous!
Today, the great challenge is I am going to try to send pictures. Oh my gosh you have got to be joking me. After I wrot that sentence I plugged in the camera to send the photos and what do you know, I think I took Soeur Deleu's cord or something because it mysteriously doesn't fit in my camera. I am genuinely so sorry, I am a failure at sending pictures, seriously. And I feel guilty now because I was with Marie-Sylvie the other day and she told me how much it meant to get pictures from François when he was a missionary so I promised I would send some home this week and, failure! I will try next week. :)
The miracle story I will tell this week happened on Soeur Mejia's birthday which was Wednesday. After we had gone over to meet a member family we were out porting that night and not having any success, we were about to knock on a door and decided after that door we would take the bus to head back and try finding people closer to home. We knocked on the door, a french woman, about 60 answered. We told her who we were and she said that she believed in God but wasn't practicing in any church. She kept explaining herself and ultimately I thought she was upset with us and wanted us to leave. We said, "If this book, The Book of Mormon can help you come closer to Jesus Christ, does that interest you to learn more?" It honestly took me by surprise when she opend th door wide, said yes and invited us inside. So we sat down with she and her husband. Her husband is paralyzed on one side of his body and has a hard time expressing himself "oui et non" that's about it. He had an accident years ago that left him paralyzed. Anyways, we asked the couple if they both believed in God, the husband just started crying. His wife explained that whenever anyone talked about God he started to cry because he has so much faith in God, especially after his accident. We had a really amazing lesson the first time and set up another RDV. When we came back (Saturday night) we knocked on the door and Madame Rabin opens the door wide, gives us bisous and invites us in. She says, "I just have to ask you a question. Is the family important to you?" We told her that it's the center of our life and we sat down, prayed and started reading the family proclamation with her. She loved it. We asked her if she believed she could be with her family forever Her husband "oui oui oui" and she said, "I hope but I honestly am not really sure." She said more than anything she wants to have peace of mind here on earth and a peace and hope about what will happen to her family after she dies. It was so amazing because we had done some things in studies and practice teaching that we used exactly for the RDV. The spirit was so strong and it was amazing. We are going to see them again tomorrow night again and will teach them the restoration. Please pray for them, the family Rabin.
We got the transfer news on Saturday! Soeur Grewar is leaving and we are forming a trio again, Soeur Mejia, Soeur Deleu and I. It will be great, I am excited! This transfer has been interesting with a lot of new challenges and a lot of growing experiences and I know they will continue. I feel like I am learning a lot about simplifying, focusing on the things that matter most and the doctrine of Christ. When I say that's what I'm learning, I say that's what I want to focus on and be better in.
I love you all, please pray for our mission's goal which is to bring families to Christ for Christmas! The best Christmas present ever. :)
Love,
Soeur Chard
oh ps, I think I just told dad in his email, but I will be coming home in February. So, I will see you soon Schwester Chard. :)
Monday, December 3, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
I am thankful for you!
Hi family!
Happy Thanksgiving! A few days late. We all went to Tours and had Thanksgiving together, we also played football (american obviously). So funny, it was Soeur Deleu's and Soeur Mejia's first time playing football ever in their life. Soeur Deleu learned the "7 banana" trick, aka rush the quarterback. She was definitely one of the MVPs of the team. Soeur Grewar popped a blood vessel on her finger so she has partial use of her right. Aka I had to wash her hair for her two days ago. And Soeur Mejia, I think still at the end of the game thought we were playing by rugby rules. It was really fun. At the end, we were running for our train and got on the train. About five minutes later Elder Burgess turns to me and says, "what if we just got on the wrong train?" and come to find out we had. ha so we were in St. Pierre for about two hours before catching a correct train back to Angers. Overall, it was an awesome Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be grateful for.
On Friday we had our activity we had planned by the missionaries "faisons le tour du monde." All of us in the ward are from different places right now (USA, France, Peru, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) we had a spiritual message and then it was to celebrate the diversity of everyone but how the gospel is what has brought us together. It ended up being really good, some members brought their friends who were able to meet missionaries and meet members and learn a little more about the church, less-actives came and the members got to know each other better and were going out and meeting new people. So overall, it went really well. We were stressed right before (but it was still fun) and it ended up working out.
Oh, I wanted to tell the story of Nadege since I didn't really get the chance to last week because it was so amazing. She told us a little more last week when we went and visited her while Soeur Mejia and I were in Versailles for a couple of days. She was contacted by Soeur Horn and Soeur Jenkins during exchanges on the street at night just before they went home. Nadege said that usually she would just say "ça m'interesse pas" and not pay attention but that night for some reason she didnt. She had just seen the reportage on mormons a couple of nights before and the two missionaries approached her, and it was dark and they were both pretty new so their french was very broken but they just said, "we are missionaries" and then they pulled out a Book of Mormon. She said she couldnt really understand what they were saying too much but she saw their badges and she saw the book and just thought, "sure why not" so she set up a RDV for the next day. The next day, Soeur Horn and I went to go and teach her (right before the first session of conference). She said it was when we came that first lesson that she felt something different. She said she had always been a happy person but there was something different. I remember the first lesson she asked us what made us so happy because we were always smiling and she could see that we were really happy and she wanted that too. From the beginning she progressed so quickly, she came to church every week after that, we met her most days during the week. The second time after she went to church, we walked home with her and ended up having a really spiritual experience and invited her to prepare for baptism and she agreed. When Soeur Mejia and I were there with her that night she kept talking about how she knew there was support of members and she would be joining a new family, etc. etc. I wanted to make sure she had a testimony of the doctrine of the gospel so I asked her, "do you have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true?" She said, "Oh, yes, Soeur Chard, I will tell you how I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon." Our last lesson Soeur Horn and I taught her together was really emotional for her and basically we told her the importance of gaining her personally testimony of the Book of Mormon and invited her to really get on her knees and pray to know it was true. She said a couple of days later had been really difficult for her and she was in the bathroom just crying and just fell on her knees and prayed to know that the Book of Mormon was true. That day she started looking to move to a different apartment because there were some problems at home and Soeur Horn and Soeur Hurrell texted her to see if all was okay, she told them the problem and ultimately they were able to help her find a place to stay with one of the members. And there were experiences like that that for Nadege showed her that God was aware of her, loved her, and was showing her the correct path to grow closer to Him. It is people like Nadege that make all the hard days of a mission worth it because when you see the gospel change somebody's life like that you begin to understand more the incredible blessings that we all have because of the gospel and how much it brings us every day.
Have a great week everyone! Danielle, I am praying for you, you are prepared, I promise.
I love you!
Soeur Chard
Happy Thanksgiving! A few days late. We all went to Tours and had Thanksgiving together, we also played football (american obviously). So funny, it was Soeur Deleu's and Soeur Mejia's first time playing football ever in their life. Soeur Deleu learned the "7 banana" trick, aka rush the quarterback. She was definitely one of the MVPs of the team. Soeur Grewar popped a blood vessel on her finger so she has partial use of her right. Aka I had to wash her hair for her two days ago. And Soeur Mejia, I think still at the end of the game thought we were playing by rugby rules. It was really fun. At the end, we were running for our train and got on the train. About five minutes later Elder Burgess turns to me and says, "what if we just got on the wrong train?" and come to find out we had. ha so we were in St. Pierre for about two hours before catching a correct train back to Angers. Overall, it was an awesome Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be grateful for.
On Friday we had our activity we had planned by the missionaries "faisons le tour du monde." All of us in the ward are from different places right now (USA, France, Peru, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) we had a spiritual message and then it was to celebrate the diversity of everyone but how the gospel is what has brought us together. It ended up being really good, some members brought their friends who were able to meet missionaries and meet members and learn a little more about the church, less-actives came and the members got to know each other better and were going out and meeting new people. So overall, it went really well. We were stressed right before (but it was still fun) and it ended up working out.
Oh, I wanted to tell the story of Nadege since I didn't really get the chance to last week because it was so amazing. She told us a little more last week when we went and visited her while Soeur Mejia and I were in Versailles for a couple of days. She was contacted by Soeur Horn and Soeur Jenkins during exchanges on the street at night just before they went home. Nadege said that usually she would just say "ça m'interesse pas" and not pay attention but that night for some reason she didnt. She had just seen the reportage on mormons a couple of nights before and the two missionaries approached her, and it was dark and they were both pretty new so their french was very broken but they just said, "we are missionaries" and then they pulled out a Book of Mormon. She said she couldnt really understand what they were saying too much but she saw their badges and she saw the book and just thought, "sure why not" so she set up a RDV for the next day. The next day, Soeur Horn and I went to go and teach her (right before the first session of conference). She said it was when we came that first lesson that she felt something different. She said she had always been a happy person but there was something different. I remember the first lesson she asked us what made us so happy because we were always smiling and she could see that we were really happy and she wanted that too. From the beginning she progressed so quickly, she came to church every week after that, we met her most days during the week. The second time after she went to church, we walked home with her and ended up having a really spiritual experience and invited her to prepare for baptism and she agreed. When Soeur Mejia and I were there with her that night she kept talking about how she knew there was support of members and she would be joining a new family, etc. etc. I wanted to make sure she had a testimony of the doctrine of the gospel so I asked her, "do you have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true?" She said, "Oh, yes, Soeur Chard, I will tell you how I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon." Our last lesson Soeur Horn and I taught her together was really emotional for her and basically we told her the importance of gaining her personally testimony of the Book of Mormon and invited her to really get on her knees and pray to know it was true. She said a couple of days later had been really difficult for her and she was in the bathroom just crying and just fell on her knees and prayed to know that the Book of Mormon was true. That day she started looking to move to a different apartment because there were some problems at home and Soeur Horn and Soeur Hurrell texted her to see if all was okay, she told them the problem and ultimately they were able to help her find a place to stay with one of the members. And there were experiences like that that for Nadege showed her that God was aware of her, loved her, and was showing her the correct path to grow closer to Him. It is people like Nadege that make all the hard days of a mission worth it because when you see the gospel change somebody's life like that you begin to understand more the incredible blessings that we all have because of the gospel and how much it brings us every day.
Have a great week everyone! Danielle, I am praying for you, you are prepared, I promise.
I love you!
Soeur Chard
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Elder Anderson visits the mission
Hi!
There is so much to say this week and I wont even be able to say a quarter of it but I will try to hit some of it.
this wednesday i went back into paris to pick up my new comp. soeur Mejia! She's awesome, so I started her on the training program last week and she should be here for at least one transfer, if not more. It has been such an interesting experience now working with training two new soeurs before they go through the MTC. I have been thinking a lot about how missionaries can be the most prepared before they leave on their mission, especially now since they're cutting down the amount of time they will have in the MTC. the biggest thing I have found is preach my gospel. Anyone you know who has their mission call or is preparing to leave on a mission, encourage them to read through preach my gospel before they leave for the mtc. Not just the four lessons we teach but the entire book. It will help them know what to focus on in the MTC.
so, Rahel (angers) and Nadege's (versailles) baptism were this weekend and it was awesome! While I was in Paris for the end of the week I got to go and see nadege and she told me more about her conversion process and experience. and Rahel got baptized on Saturday. Both these women are two amazing people with so much faith.
Elder anderson is what I wanted to talk about the most because it was the most amazing thing I have ever heard on my mission. He is now one of my favorite apostles, probably because I will always feel a special connection to him. He served his mission in Paris and then was mission president in Bordeaux. Briefly what he said:
"We want you to know how proud we are of all you missionaries here in this mission. I know there's a lot of pressure on you. this is not Sao Paolo, Brazil. It's harder to bring families to the gospel here in this part of the world. It's hard if you have a sensitive soul and you hate rejection. You have been called of god here and you can do this. Baptisms is not the most important measuring stick of a mission. It's a good one, but it's not the only measuring tool. Please study faith and do not limit yourself. I promise you will be guided by the spirit."
"I need you missionaries to have enough faith that the effect you are having is much deeper than what you can see with your own eyes."
"for years we have been hearing 'a new day for france, a new day for france.' You are the light for these members here in France. You are the flame that helps them have hope for missionary work. When you see the progress of the church throughout the entire world, you stress less. God is really in control. the work is moving forward. the Lord promised He would establish a righteous line of peple in every single country. He is doing that here in France. There is a strong line of people and the church will not fall here either."
"You can't see your whole missionas baptismal goals. Please dont see your mission in those terms only. You are a witness of Christ here. Our biggest challenge in France here is holding onto our youth. You dont always have to be teaching someone off the street although that is also very important. Have part of your mission be to strengthen the conversion of these youth. Please look inside the church as your missionary work.
Don't just think of baptisms, think of strengthening the church of Jesus Christ. We need to find and strengthen true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow christ, memorize scriptures about His doctrine. Learn it, embrace it and teach it.
You all need to use repentance. There's something powerful that comes from having your sins washed away and becoming a new person.
Galations 5:22-23, the fruits of the spirit. Notice one of the fruits of the spirit is long-suffering. that means we have to learn how to endure difficult things.
Please see yourself as a disciple of Christ to EVERYONE. At the end he blessed us that we would find enormous satisfaction in our missionary service, regardless or independent of how many baptisms we saw on our mission. He blessed us we would feel deep inside us that we were accomplishing our missionary role. He challenged us to be a disciple of Christ to everyone. to strengthen the struggling bishop, the primary child, our companion, the person in the street, the eighteen-year-old boy who shoud be preparing to serve a mission.
It was the most amazing talk I have ever heard because everything he was saying were conclusions I had in a lot of ways personally come to and hearing him give a talk like that was a confirmation for me. He didnt come in and tell us to up the number of baptisms necessarily or that suddenly all French people are going to be interested to talk to us if we have enough faith, but instead it was helping us understand the importance of our calling. He said at one point that in a secular country we need not be afraid of speaking of Christ, we need to speak of Him everywhere.
It was so amazing and afterward so many ideas started coming to my mind of what we can do in Angers. It all comes back to the family, how to strengthen the family. We started talking about our ward mission plan for 2013 and as we were talking we thought that instead of focusing member missionary work outwards to their friends, we need to do what we can as missionaries to help them turn back inward to teaching the gospel to their families, and by doing that they will have opportunities to share their experiences with their friends as well.
I love you all and hope you have a great day!
Love,
Soeur Chard
There is so much to say this week and I wont even be able to say a quarter of it but I will try to hit some of it.
this wednesday i went back into paris to pick up my new comp. soeur Mejia! She's awesome, so I started her on the training program last week and she should be here for at least one transfer, if not more. It has been such an interesting experience now working with training two new soeurs before they go through the MTC. I have been thinking a lot about how missionaries can be the most prepared before they leave on their mission, especially now since they're cutting down the amount of time they will have in the MTC. the biggest thing I have found is preach my gospel. Anyone you know who has their mission call or is preparing to leave on a mission, encourage them to read through preach my gospel before they leave for the mtc. Not just the four lessons we teach but the entire book. It will help them know what to focus on in the MTC.
so, Rahel (angers) and Nadege's (versailles) baptism were this weekend and it was awesome! While I was in Paris for the end of the week I got to go and see nadege and she told me more about her conversion process and experience. and Rahel got baptized on Saturday. Both these women are two amazing people with so much faith.
Elder anderson is what I wanted to talk about the most because it was the most amazing thing I have ever heard on my mission. He is now one of my favorite apostles, probably because I will always feel a special connection to him. He served his mission in Paris and then was mission president in Bordeaux. Briefly what he said:
"We want you to know how proud we are of all you missionaries here in this mission. I know there's a lot of pressure on you. this is not Sao Paolo, Brazil. It's harder to bring families to the gospel here in this part of the world. It's hard if you have a sensitive soul and you hate rejection. You have been called of god here and you can do this. Baptisms is not the most important measuring stick of a mission. It's a good one, but it's not the only measuring tool. Please study faith and do not limit yourself. I promise you will be guided by the spirit."
"I need you missionaries to have enough faith that the effect you are having is much deeper than what you can see with your own eyes."
"for years we have been hearing 'a new day for france, a new day for france.' You are the light for these members here in France. You are the flame that helps them have hope for missionary work. When you see the progress of the church throughout the entire world, you stress less. God is really in control. the work is moving forward. the Lord promised He would establish a righteous line of peple in every single country. He is doing that here in France. There is a strong line of people and the church will not fall here either."
"You can't see your whole missionas baptismal goals. Please dont see your mission in those terms only. You are a witness of Christ here. Our biggest challenge in France here is holding onto our youth. You dont always have to be teaching someone off the street although that is also very important. Have part of your mission be to strengthen the conversion of these youth. Please look inside the church as your missionary work.
Don't just think of baptisms, think of strengthening the church of Jesus Christ. We need to find and strengthen true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow christ, memorize scriptures about His doctrine. Learn it, embrace it and teach it.
You all need to use repentance. There's something powerful that comes from having your sins washed away and becoming a new person.
Galations 5:22-23, the fruits of the spirit. Notice one of the fruits of the spirit is long-suffering. that means we have to learn how to endure difficult things.
Please see yourself as a disciple of Christ to EVERYONE. At the end he blessed us that we would find enormous satisfaction in our missionary service, regardless or independent of how many baptisms we saw on our mission. He blessed us we would feel deep inside us that we were accomplishing our missionary role. He challenged us to be a disciple of Christ to everyone. to strengthen the struggling bishop, the primary child, our companion, the person in the street, the eighteen-year-old boy who shoud be preparing to serve a mission.
It was the most amazing talk I have ever heard because everything he was saying were conclusions I had in a lot of ways personally come to and hearing him give a talk like that was a confirmation for me. He didnt come in and tell us to up the number of baptisms necessarily or that suddenly all French people are going to be interested to talk to us if we have enough faith, but instead it was helping us understand the importance of our calling. He said at one point that in a secular country we need not be afraid of speaking of Christ, we need to speak of Him everywhere.
It was so amazing and afterward so many ideas started coming to my mind of what we can do in Angers. It all comes back to the family, how to strengthen the family. We started talking about our ward mission plan for 2013 and as we were talking we thought that instead of focusing member missionary work outwards to their friends, we need to do what we can as missionaries to help them turn back inward to teaching the gospel to their families, and by doing that they will have opportunities to share their experiences with their friends as well.
I love you all and hope you have a great day!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Monday, November 12, 2012
The Language .. .AAhh!
Hi everyone!
First of all, I think I was physically sick when I heard the election results of the United States. It's so sad to me what is happening to our country.
The big news of the week is that I'm getting a new companion this week! The office called a few days ago and said that there is another visa waiter coming in who will be serving in Arizona spanish speaking mission. She is from Torcy (right outside of Paris). So I'm restarting the training program with her, I am going into Paris Wednesday to pick her up. Soeur Grewar is taking over the training program with Soeur Deleu and we are opening another companionship in the city. Honestly, I am super nervous. But it will all be good. Just pray for all of us please!
I think the biggest struggle for me this transfer has been the language. Which is really ironic and weird to me because I was not expecting that at all. I think just coming from training a blue who was just learning french to suddenly being immersed with a companion where we only speak french all the time has been a huge adjustment for me. It's also weird because although I'm now speaking french more or less all the time, I feel like it is getting worse. I'm super self-conscious about it and am now constantly doubting myself. It's also interesting because most of my mission people have been telling me I speak pretty well and I get to Angers and random people on the street are calling me out on my french. So, that does not really help with confidence boosting on the language.
We were teaching someone the other night, her name is Estelle and she had invited over her friend to listen. This friend had read the introduction of the BOM and had tons of questions about what was what. He asked a question at the beginning, I started answering and he stops me and says, "you have an accent that makes it difficult to understand you, you're from where?" I just had to swallow all my pride and seriously use all my courage to keep talking and trying to teach. After having so many comments about my language the last week I was so frustrated and I just didn't want to even try to speak french anymore. So I'm just trying to take it as a challenge, and am trying to dig in deeper so that I can improve. Whenever we have opposition in anything we can choose to accept things for the way they are or try to overcome them. Please pray for me to have the gift of tongues! This morning I made some good language goals and am going to change some of the things I am doing so that I can improve.
Estelle is a woman contacted by the elders and was passed to us. Long story short, we went in and decided first lesson needed to be Word of Wisdom. Pull out the Bible to read about the Word of Wisdom and how our bodies are gifts from God and she lights up a cigarette then and there. We read DandC 89 whild she is smoking. It was super bizarre experience. She said she wants to stop and currently smokes 30 a day and is now trying to decrease. We gave her a BOM and committed her to read it whenever she felt the desire to start smoking. Please pray for her.
Training in a three-some has been very interesting. a totally different experience than training Soeur Horn. Training Soeur Horn was so much fun, I knew the city, we had developed trust with the members already, I loved all the people we were teaching, we had vision and it was so fun. This is completely different because Soeur Deleu hasnt been through the MTC yet and is feeling like she doesnt know enough. And it's different because language is not a barrier in this situation. I tell Soeur Deleu though, she is one of the most optimistic people I have ever met, connects with people really well and is always wanting to improve. She's already great and will just keep getting better. I just am trying to figure out how to train this time because it's so different. It's an interesting challenge to try to balance the needs to two companions, and trying to understand the area and the people and the members and the people you're teaching and trying to teach and your own personal challenges and still just trying to have fun and not stress too much. It's a good challenge that I'm sure prepares you for life. Soeur Grewar and I were talking about the training program yesterday and feel like we need to make some adjustments for how we will do it. I'm excited to start over with the program again with another french visa-waiter, because I think I'm going to try to go about it a different way. Focusing more on faith in Jesus Christ and setting goals. And the more we can all grow faith in Christ that we will know what to say in lessons, to learn to trust your companion, that there's people prepared to find, that God helps us the way, the knowledge that comes as a missionary will come more quickly and confidence in our calls as missionaries also grows.
My companions are both awesome. Two of my very favorite companions on my mission. We have so much fun together and I feel so grateful we have met here so we can be friends forever.
My favorite thing I've studied on my mission is the "character of Christ, Atonement of Christ, and conversion to Christ" that dad sent me about six months ago. I dont know how many times I have read it. My most read things on my mission= the BOM, Preach My Gospel, the susan fulcher case study and that talk probably. haha Because I think the three points in that talk are the most valuable lessons I have learned, am continuing to learn and hope to continue to learn throughout my mission. Emphasis lately is on the Character of Christ. It's so good.
Rahel is getting baptized this weekend! Her mom just signed the form yesterday. She is sixteen and is originally from Ethiopia. I love to watch people change with the gospel of Christ in their lives. Nadege (the woman soeur horn and I started teaching) is also getting baptized next week! Because of her decision to be baptized, her uncle kicked her out of the house and she is now living with a member. She is amazing and I feel so blessed to have met her and take part in her teaching.
The last thing is that President and Soeur Poznanski asked that we all ask our families to pray for the goal we have set as a mission. The goal is that each companionship is able to find one family who is prepared for the gospel before Christmas to be baptized as a family. It's really cool because in preparation for Elder Anderson to come the mission set a goal for 78 baptisms by the time he came between the beginning of September to when he comes and as of yesterday there were 74 baptisms. Much more than ever before in our mission in that amount of time. So cool. So please pray for the mission and for the members and for families to be prepared to receive the gospel right now. Thank you!
I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Soeur Chard
First of all, I think I was physically sick when I heard the election results of the United States. It's so sad to me what is happening to our country.
The big news of the week is that I'm getting a new companion this week! The office called a few days ago and said that there is another visa waiter coming in who will be serving in Arizona spanish speaking mission. She is from Torcy (right outside of Paris). So I'm restarting the training program with her, I am going into Paris Wednesday to pick her up. Soeur Grewar is taking over the training program with Soeur Deleu and we are opening another companionship in the city. Honestly, I am super nervous. But it will all be good. Just pray for all of us please!
I think the biggest struggle for me this transfer has been the language. Which is really ironic and weird to me because I was not expecting that at all. I think just coming from training a blue who was just learning french to suddenly being immersed with a companion where we only speak french all the time has been a huge adjustment for me. It's also weird because although I'm now speaking french more or less all the time, I feel like it is getting worse. I'm super self-conscious about it and am now constantly doubting myself. It's also interesting because most of my mission people have been telling me I speak pretty well and I get to Angers and random people on the street are calling me out on my french. So, that does not really help with confidence boosting on the language.
We were teaching someone the other night, her name is Estelle and she had invited over her friend to listen. This friend had read the introduction of the BOM and had tons of questions about what was what. He asked a question at the beginning, I started answering and he stops me and says, "you have an accent that makes it difficult to understand you, you're from where?" I just had to swallow all my pride and seriously use all my courage to keep talking and trying to teach. After having so many comments about my language the last week I was so frustrated and I just didn't want to even try to speak french anymore. So I'm just trying to take it as a challenge, and am trying to dig in deeper so that I can improve. Whenever we have opposition in anything we can choose to accept things for the way they are or try to overcome them. Please pray for me to have the gift of tongues! This morning I made some good language goals and am going to change some of the things I am doing so that I can improve.
Estelle is a woman contacted by the elders and was passed to us. Long story short, we went in and decided first lesson needed to be Word of Wisdom. Pull out the Bible to read about the Word of Wisdom and how our bodies are gifts from God and she lights up a cigarette then and there. We read DandC 89 whild she is smoking. It was super bizarre experience. She said she wants to stop and currently smokes 30 a day and is now trying to decrease. We gave her a BOM and committed her to read it whenever she felt the desire to start smoking. Please pray for her.
Training in a three-some has been very interesting. a totally different experience than training Soeur Horn. Training Soeur Horn was so much fun, I knew the city, we had developed trust with the members already, I loved all the people we were teaching, we had vision and it was so fun. This is completely different because Soeur Deleu hasnt been through the MTC yet and is feeling like she doesnt know enough. And it's different because language is not a barrier in this situation. I tell Soeur Deleu though, she is one of the most optimistic people I have ever met, connects with people really well and is always wanting to improve. She's already great and will just keep getting better. I just am trying to figure out how to train this time because it's so different. It's an interesting challenge to try to balance the needs to two companions, and trying to understand the area and the people and the members and the people you're teaching and trying to teach and your own personal challenges and still just trying to have fun and not stress too much. It's a good challenge that I'm sure prepares you for life. Soeur Grewar and I were talking about the training program yesterday and feel like we need to make some adjustments for how we will do it. I'm excited to start over with the program again with another french visa-waiter, because I think I'm going to try to go about it a different way. Focusing more on faith in Jesus Christ and setting goals. And the more we can all grow faith in Christ that we will know what to say in lessons, to learn to trust your companion, that there's people prepared to find, that God helps us the way, the knowledge that comes as a missionary will come more quickly and confidence in our calls as missionaries also grows.
My companions are both awesome. Two of my very favorite companions on my mission. We have so much fun together and I feel so grateful we have met here so we can be friends forever.
My favorite thing I've studied on my mission is the "character of Christ, Atonement of Christ, and conversion to Christ" that dad sent me about six months ago. I dont know how many times I have read it. My most read things on my mission= the BOM, Preach My Gospel, the susan fulcher case study and that talk probably. haha Because I think the three points in that talk are the most valuable lessons I have learned, am continuing to learn and hope to continue to learn throughout my mission. Emphasis lately is on the Character of Christ. It's so good.
Rahel is getting baptized this weekend! Her mom just signed the form yesterday. She is sixteen and is originally from Ethiopia. I love to watch people change with the gospel of Christ in their lives. Nadege (the woman soeur horn and I started teaching) is also getting baptized next week! Because of her decision to be baptized, her uncle kicked her out of the house and she is now living with a member. She is amazing and I feel so blessed to have met her and take part in her teaching.
The last thing is that President and Soeur Poznanski asked that we all ask our families to pray for the goal we have set as a mission. The goal is that each companionship is able to find one family who is prepared for the gospel before Christmas to be baptized as a family. It's really cool because in preparation for Elder Anderson to come the mission set a goal for 78 baptisms by the time he came between the beginning of September to when he comes and as of yesterday there were 74 baptisms. Much more than ever before in our mission in that amount of time. So cool. So please pray for the mission and for the members and for families to be prepared to receive the gospel right now. Thank you!
I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Angers
Hi!
I can't believe Danielle gets her call this week!!!!! Let it be known that I predict the Eastern U.S. I cant believe also that I am going to find out a week later than anyone else! Maybe you could communicate to someone and have them call me to tell me the news during the week. Just an idea. :)
Last day in Versailles was amazing, on tuesday we had lots of RDVs with our amis and it was amazing to watch how these people want to change or want to change. Nadege is the one we really need prayers for, she wants to be baptized. she has been through so much in her life and is such a good woman. We taught her the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday night and she was just sobbing at the end, she has had a difficult family life. the amazing thing about her is in her trials she is turning to pray, the scriptures, now the BOM and God. Pray for her please!
Angers is great so far and I am so happy to be here! The very best part is because of my two companions. I LOVE both of them and couldnt ask for better. Soeur Horn and I were on our way to St. Merri to switch companions when the assistants called and said, "Soeur Chard, where are you? You are supposed to be here because you are doing the training program again." So, we hurried right over and come to find out we are doing the twelve week program again. This time though my blue is Soeur Deleu, french from Chartres. She's actually waiting for her visa so she can go to Temple Square visitor center. (I told her that I am for sure sending my family over to meet her as soon as she gets to the mission). she it's a completely different experience from training Soeur Horn because she's french so suddenly 24/7 everything is in french and doing the training program in french instead of english, and also because we are in a trio, very different and also because I didnt start in Angers before starting the training program so that's a lot of learning together and also because Soeur Deleu hasn't been to the MTC yet so it's totally starting from scratch.
But soeur deleu is my favorite ever. She is a little ball of sunshine and learns so fast and I seriously absolutely love her. My favorite is language study, and I help her with english, you learn how to speak english more correctly when you are actually teaching it. She's such a fast learner and is doing so well with the adjustment to missionary life.
Soeur Grewar is a convert of two years from australia and I absolutely love her as well. Her conversion story is amazing (her friend introduced her to the church about eight years ago), she's always been a really good girl with good values and has tons of faith, joined the church and said after she joined the church she studied three hours personally every day because she realized how much she had to learn to help her better understand the gospel. The friend who introduced her to the gospel is serving a mission right now in Japan and while she was working on her papers Soeur Grewar decided to serve a mission as well. Because she wants to be as prepared as possible to raise a strong family in the gospel and be as converted as possible to the gospel. She is so legit, super obedient and a really hard worker.
the three of us together have so much fun. Soeur Grewar is in her fourth so is still learning french and it's a blessing to have soeur deleu, it helps both of us a lot to always be speaking french now.
Yesterday at church was great. Emmanuelle got confirmed, it was a woman Soeur Grewar and Judd met two weeks ago and go baptized after eight days of lessons. It's my favorite asking new converts how they feel after they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Emmanuelle was so happy and it was so amazing being there with her. We are going to teach her about the temple tonight for FHE.
I hope everyone is doing well and praying for Mitt Romney! :) I feel like I need to wear an american flag shirt here because I am now the only American, I love it. I told my companions that we definitely have to celebrate Thanksgiving anyways.
Have an incredible week! I love you all!
Love,
Soeur Chard
I can't believe Danielle gets her call this week!!!!! Let it be known that I predict the Eastern U.S. I cant believe also that I am going to find out a week later than anyone else! Maybe you could communicate to someone and have them call me to tell me the news during the week. Just an idea. :)
Last day in Versailles was amazing, on tuesday we had lots of RDVs with our amis and it was amazing to watch how these people want to change or want to change. Nadege is the one we really need prayers for, she wants to be baptized. she has been through so much in her life and is such a good woman. We taught her the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday night and she was just sobbing at the end, she has had a difficult family life. the amazing thing about her is in her trials she is turning to pray, the scriptures, now the BOM and God. Pray for her please!
Angers is great so far and I am so happy to be here! The very best part is because of my two companions. I LOVE both of them and couldnt ask for better. Soeur Horn and I were on our way to St. Merri to switch companions when the assistants called and said, "Soeur Chard, where are you? You are supposed to be here because you are doing the training program again." So, we hurried right over and come to find out we are doing the twelve week program again. This time though my blue is Soeur Deleu, french from Chartres. She's actually waiting for her visa so she can go to Temple Square visitor center. (I told her that I am for sure sending my family over to meet her as soon as she gets to the mission). she it's a completely different experience from training Soeur Horn because she's french so suddenly 24/7 everything is in french and doing the training program in french instead of english, and also because we are in a trio, very different and also because I didnt start in Angers before starting the training program so that's a lot of learning together and also because Soeur Deleu hasn't been to the MTC yet so it's totally starting from scratch.
But soeur deleu is my favorite ever. She is a little ball of sunshine and learns so fast and I seriously absolutely love her. My favorite is language study, and I help her with english, you learn how to speak english more correctly when you are actually teaching it. She's such a fast learner and is doing so well with the adjustment to missionary life.
Soeur Grewar is a convert of two years from australia and I absolutely love her as well. Her conversion story is amazing (her friend introduced her to the church about eight years ago), she's always been a really good girl with good values and has tons of faith, joined the church and said after she joined the church she studied three hours personally every day because she realized how much she had to learn to help her better understand the gospel. The friend who introduced her to the gospel is serving a mission right now in Japan and while she was working on her papers Soeur Grewar decided to serve a mission as well. Because she wants to be as prepared as possible to raise a strong family in the gospel and be as converted as possible to the gospel. She is so legit, super obedient and a really hard worker.
the three of us together have so much fun. Soeur Grewar is in her fourth so is still learning french and it's a blessing to have soeur deleu, it helps both of us a lot to always be speaking french now.
Yesterday at church was great. Emmanuelle got confirmed, it was a woman Soeur Grewar and Judd met two weeks ago and go baptized after eight days of lessons. It's my favorite asking new converts how they feel after they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Emmanuelle was so happy and it was so amazing being there with her. We are going to teach her about the temple tonight for FHE.
I hope everyone is doing well and praying for Mitt Romney! :) I feel like I need to wear an american flag shirt here because I am now the only American, I love it. I told my companions that we definitely have to celebrate Thanksgiving anyways.
Have an incredible week! I love you all!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Monday, October 22, 2012
Seven on Sunday!!!
Hi family!
Sorry this is going to be fast because we are in a big hurry but yesterday was one of the best days of my mission for sure.
We had seven amis there at church. Way way way more than I have ever had at church at one time my entire mission. Here is the run-down of them:
1. Nadege. She's amazing, Soeur Horn and Soeur Jenkins found her during exchanges a couple of weeks ago and she is progressing so quickly. On the way home from church (she lives really close to us so we walk home with her) she broke down and started crying telling us some things she is going through. We talked to her for a while, super spiritual experience and ultimately she is preparing for baptism now. She's amazing.
2. Pema and her two kids, Champa and Tenzin. This family is Buddhist but she feels something special about Jesus Christ. Since we started meeting with her she has been praying to God and so have her two kids. She told us that last week she was offered a full job contract and she recognized that as a blessing from God. Her two kids went to primary, and came into sacrament with missionary plaques on. The intermediate hymn came around and Champa drags me up to the stand because she wanted to sing with the other primary kids so Champa and Tenzin sang "i hope they call me on a mission" it was awesome.
3. Maria Gomis (ask soeur dawson for her story) appeared after having disappeared for months. She showed up at church for the first time with the Ya Family. Last night we went over to teach her for the last time before I got transferred. She told us she believes this church is Christ's and she wants this for her family. She said she wants to come to church for entire time (she had to leave in the middle of sacrament meeting) and then wants to set a baptismal date.
4. Marianna Nop came to church for her first time going to a church in years. At the end of Sacrament Meeting she said, "I feel so good here, I'm so glad I came." She was awesome.
5. Bettina who we have been teaching since I first got her. We stopped teaching her when Soeur Horn got transferred in because she wasn't progressing. We walk in to church and Bettina is sitting in the relief society room I was so happy and she said, "I told you I would come, it's your last Sunday!" She fasted and prayed and is almost finished with the Book of Mormon and is prepraing to be baptized in December now when she is back with her family.
It was an amazing day. Soeur Horn and I also were able to sing/play together during sacrament meeting, Elder Gubbay and I gave our leaving testimonies because we are both leaving, and Nicole Alvine had her missionary farewell. It was such a good Sunday and we saw so many miracles. I really felt like it was a gift from Heavenly Father for my last Sunday here, it was amazing, everything just worked out perfectly and our amis progressed so much from coming to church.
I am excited to go to Angers! I'm really excited for my new companions. The visa waiter (Soeur Dreurer I think?) is awesome, I have met her before at STake Conference, she's waiting to go to Temple Square mission (by the way, that's where Nicole Alvine is going, and I told her I would send my family to go visit her, she has helped us so much, she's basically already a full-time missionary), and Soeur Grewer I have heard a little of her conversion story, she has a lot of faith, I am really excited to serve with her. Angers is supposed to be a great ward, it's the center of the stake up in the Angers area and it's actually the home ward of the Poznanski's!
Have a great week everyone, I am praying for Danielle and her mission call, she will be an awesome missionary.
I love you, have a great week!
Soeur Chard
Monday, October 15, 2012
Bonjour ma famille!
Bonjour ma famille!
Thank you so much for all of your emails today, they are always a highlight of my week. I can't wait to hear when and where Danielle is going on her mission. Best thing you can do and so amazing that she has been able to get everything in so fast. Not by chance. :)
This week was awesome. In brief:
Nadege Soeur Horn and Soeur Jenkins found during exchanges contacting. She's awesome, looking to make life changes and says that while others go to rely on their families or their friends, she feels it's important to rely on religion and God while she is going through this difficult time. We started teaching her and she reads the BOM, she prays and she has a serious appetite to learn as much as she can. She came to church for all three hours on Sunday and said she really loved it because unlike other churches, she loved that it was members sharing with each other and teaching each other instead of just being talked at the whole time (it was fast and testimony meeting). She asked us a few days ago when we came, "I see you both have so much light and joy. How do you have that?"
Sidestory, we contacted this family a couple weeks ago and were talking to them a little while and at the end of the contact (they said they werent interested in learning more) but she said, "i hope my daughter is like you when she is your age." and I asked her why and she said, "because you can see that you believe what you are teaching and I would rather have my daughter be doing something like that then going out clubbing." You just pray people like that keep getting contacted by missionaries (they told us they had been contacted by missionaries just a few weeks before) and will really feel the desire and understand that they can have that same light and truth for their own lives and their own families.
Pema is from Tibet and we found her sonnerie porting last week. Her english is broken, we teach her in english. She is Buddhist but she told us, "even though I'm Buddhist I feel some type of need and desire to learn more about Jesus Christ and who He is." Last week she told us that since we had been coming (three times) there was a different spirit in her home. She said she had been fighting so much with her husband and was thinking of divorce. Since we started coming she said she didnt fight anymore and there was more peace in her life. She prayed to God (Heavenly Father) for the first time that night with us and both of her children came and prayed with us as well.
The next time we went over to Pema's her friend, Ajour was there. Ajour is Christian and when we committed her to start reading BOM she said, "yes, absolutely. And I will testify that it is true when I know it is true." Please pray that we teach her again this week as well.
Elda is a woman who has been searching for the true church for years. She was contacted by the Assistants and they passed her over to us. We went over and taught her and immediately when we sat down she started attacking us with questions. I said, "before we keep going can we please start with a prayer?" She asked me to say it since I was "avoiding" her questions ha. Well, anyways, we talked about the Holy Ghost and how that will testify to her that the message of the Restoration is true. We asked her to begin reading the Book of Mormon before we came back. She said, "Absolutely not." She didnt want to blindly start getting into anything. We asked her how she ever is going to know if what we are teaching her is true if she won't try reading. Ultimately she said she would read 2 Nephi 2. She is super cool, because she has been searching. Please pray that we will be able to teach her again this week.
Fréderique is doing really well. She is already like a member of 10 years and it has only been a month. My favorite is when she will ask us questions about the gospel through text because she's studying on her own. She read the entire "gospel principles" book in a week and would like to possibly serve a mission. We had a lesson about genealogy and temple work last week and are hoping that she can prepare to go on the ward temple trip to do baptisms next month. Her sister Siliane is also doing well, she is still studying in the south of France.
Maria (Soeur Dawson and I taught her) also got back in contact with the member friend last week and said she wants to come to church this upcoming Sunday. Pray for her as well please!
I love you all and am so grateful for all of your support, prayers and influence in my life. I get the transfer email this Saturday, so we will see where I am going! ah! I am excited. I have absolutely loved Versailles and am also excited for a new ville.
I love you! Je vais vous envoyer les photos des que possible. Désolé! (have pops translate that one. :) )
Love,
Soeur Chard
Thank you so much for all of your emails today, they are always a highlight of my week. I can't wait to hear when and where Danielle is going on her mission. Best thing you can do and so amazing that she has been able to get everything in so fast. Not by chance. :)
This week was awesome. In brief:
Nadege Soeur Horn and Soeur Jenkins found during exchanges contacting. She's awesome, looking to make life changes and says that while others go to rely on their families or their friends, she feels it's important to rely on religion and God while she is going through this difficult time. We started teaching her and she reads the BOM, she prays and she has a serious appetite to learn as much as she can. She came to church for all three hours on Sunday and said she really loved it because unlike other churches, she loved that it was members sharing with each other and teaching each other instead of just being talked at the whole time (it was fast and testimony meeting). She asked us a few days ago when we came, "I see you both have so much light and joy. How do you have that?"
Sidestory, we contacted this family a couple weeks ago and were talking to them a little while and at the end of the contact (they said they werent interested in learning more) but she said, "i hope my daughter is like you when she is your age." and I asked her why and she said, "because you can see that you believe what you are teaching and I would rather have my daughter be doing something like that then going out clubbing." You just pray people like that keep getting contacted by missionaries (they told us they had been contacted by missionaries just a few weeks before) and will really feel the desire and understand that they can have that same light and truth for their own lives and their own families.
Pema is from Tibet and we found her sonnerie porting last week. Her english is broken, we teach her in english. She is Buddhist but she told us, "even though I'm Buddhist I feel some type of need and desire to learn more about Jesus Christ and who He is." Last week she told us that since we had been coming (three times) there was a different spirit in her home. She said she had been fighting so much with her husband and was thinking of divorce. Since we started coming she said she didnt fight anymore and there was more peace in her life. She prayed to God (Heavenly Father) for the first time that night with us and both of her children came and prayed with us as well.
The next time we went over to Pema's her friend, Ajour was there. Ajour is Christian and when we committed her to start reading BOM she said, "yes, absolutely. And I will testify that it is true when I know it is true." Please pray that we teach her again this week as well.
Elda is a woman who has been searching for the true church for years. She was contacted by the Assistants and they passed her over to us. We went over and taught her and immediately when we sat down she started attacking us with questions. I said, "before we keep going can we please start with a prayer?" She asked me to say it since I was "avoiding" her questions ha. Well, anyways, we talked about the Holy Ghost and how that will testify to her that the message of the Restoration is true. We asked her to begin reading the Book of Mormon before we came back. She said, "Absolutely not." She didnt want to blindly start getting into anything. We asked her how she ever is going to know if what we are teaching her is true if she won't try reading. Ultimately she said she would read 2 Nephi 2. She is super cool, because she has been searching. Please pray that we will be able to teach her again this week.
Fréderique is doing really well. She is already like a member of 10 years and it has only been a month. My favorite is when she will ask us questions about the gospel through text because she's studying on her own. She read the entire "gospel principles" book in a week and would like to possibly serve a mission. We had a lesson about genealogy and temple work last week and are hoping that she can prepare to go on the ward temple trip to do baptisms next month. Her sister Siliane is also doing well, she is still studying in the south of France.
Maria (Soeur Dawson and I taught her) also got back in contact with the member friend last week and said she wants to come to church this upcoming Sunday. Pray for her as well please!
I love you all and am so grateful for all of your support, prayers and influence in my life. I get the transfer email this Saturday, so we will see where I am going! ah! I am excited. I have absolutely loved Versailles and am also excited for a new ville.
I love you! Je vais vous envoyer les photos des que possible. Désolé! (have pops translate that one. :) )
Love,
Soeur Chard
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Download of Conference
Hello!
I have been dying to read emails today because I was wondering what you all thought of General Conference! So crazy and so exciting! I already wrote Danielle some of this but I think I'll just make it the subject of the email today.
Why do we go on missions:
1. To baptize people and bring them into membership of the church, and more importantly to help them learn to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and find joy, peace and happiness.
But when they announced the announcement in general conference, that wasnt the first thing that came to my mind honestly. I feel like it is so important for as many people as possible to serve missions because of the impact it will have on their marriage and on their children and in their service for the rest of their lives. In my opinion, the 1.5 or 2 years is really just the beginning, I don't feel like anyone ever really needs to "finish" their mission. When you go home, you just continue a bigger mission. Because the whole point of life is to constantly progress and help as many people around you to do the same.
I think the announcement is the most amazing thing ever. I was sitting in a room with about ten other missionaries and we were all so happy and there was such a special spirit that entire session. The Saturday morning session was one of my favorite conference sessions I have ever heard in my life.
The rest of the talks to me were confirmations of some of the reasons why they made this change in missionary service. Elder Cook talked about the increasing wickedness of the world and how the family is the base of everything. He said that it's no longer enough to take your families to church activities and call it good/ Your children need to know that you have faith in Jesus Christ, you need to teach them so they are converted to Jesus Christ and His gospel.
Then it was Sister Dibb's, one of my favorites. Soeur Horn and I have been wanting to get Versailles ward member t-shirts that say "im a mormon" to wear. I think it would help our proselyting efforts. ha. I loved how she talked about never be ashamed of who you are and what you stand for. Being doers and not just hearers/ Love the gospel and constantly dig deeper.
Elder Bowen and the entire talk about the Plan of Salvation, you feel how much hope the message really is that we bring to people. And Elder Nelson where any question or problem you could possibly think of he encouraged anyone not LDS watching conference to ask the missionaries.
My favorite was Elder Uchtdorf's all about the regrets at the end of a person's life:
1. Not spending time with the people who mattered most
2. They failed to become the person they were capable of becoming
3. They didn't allow themselves to be happier
That talk along with Elder Holland's and Elder Eyring's (probably my three favorites but I honestly LOVED every single one) helped me to think a lot about how I want to spend the last six months of my mission and what kind of person I want to be. So good.
I was so happy to hear about Danielle preparing to serve, when I read about all the preparation she has already done I just felt so much joy and felt so grateful to have a family that loves the gospel. I told Danielle I think she's a lot more prepared than I was when I left. She will be so good. :)
As I have the opportunity to meet and talk to more and more people, I feel even more and more blessed for the gospel and feel a stronger commitment and responsibility for the rest of my life to help as many people around me, now and in the future to have those blessings in their lives.
I love you all and pray for you! Thank you for all your love and support.
Love,
Soeur Chard
Monday, October 1, 2012
Can't wait for General Conference
Hi everyone!
It's the one week count-down until General Conference! aka without one shadow of a doubt it's better than the countdown for Christmas as a missionary... for me at least haha. It's so good.
This week was good. The best part for me was yesterday at church. Soeur Horn and I started this project to find the people who have been lost in the ward. Aka one day we were going through the ward repertoire and realized how many people we had never seen or heard of on the list so we started to try calling them up and soon realized just how many numbers were incorrect. So we started looking up these people online on white pages and started being able to find some of the missing information. The repertoire has 433 names on it and let's just say on a page of 35 people, 11 were correct as far as information goes. So we started realizing what a big project this was and we decided after talking with our mission leader (frere grenier is the best ever) that we were going to try to fix it. We were able to track down information for 76 members that were incorrect on the repertoire just from online stuff but after that we still had/have 130 people we could not find their information but who were on the ward list. Come to find out the last time the ward really really did an update of the ward list and cleaned it was thirty years ago, when dad was leaving the ward haha. So yesterday at church we had a special meeting with all the priesthood and relief society for member and missionary work together. Frere Grenier presented about moroni 6:4 how when we entered the waters of baptism our names were recorded so we would never be forgotten and would be nourished by the good word of God. Then I spoke and presented the project we were doing, basically with the help of elder quinn and elder argyle we have these little cards (confusing to explain) but basically it has the name of the person with the information that is on the repertoire and we asked the members to help by taking one of these cards and finding these "lost sheep" or "brebis perdus." At the end of church was the real test to see if after the members would come up (purely by volunteer we didnt assign them anyone) and participate in the project. We started with 120 cards. At the end we left the church with only 38 cards left. I thought it was a miracle. Multiple members came up after and said how excited they were about this and what an important work this is. Soeur Gerard came up and said she did this in another ward and because of it a family that had been less-active for years was sealed in the temple. I tell you with this project we have and are in the middle of doing there has also been a lot of opposition, but I guess that's how it is with anything that is worthwhile. At the same time we have been seeing miracles, and have continued to feel the help and guidance of Heavenly Father in what we are doing.
Have a fabulous week everyone! We are so blessed, I realize that more and more profoundly. Last night Soeur Horn and I were able to go to a member family's house for dinner, both the parents are converts and we started talking about the movie "17 Miracles" I told them how much it meant to me because it is my heritage and I realized how many sacrifices my ancestors made for the gospel. We started talking about how these parents are pioneers in the gospel for their children. They told us their conversion story and how much opposition they had faced in coming into the gospel. Now I look at the children they are raising in the gospel and I just want to cry it makes me so happy. The gospel truly blesses families, and I cant understand why anyone wouldnt want those blessings, it's a beautiful thing. The dad said, "I hope one day my grand-children will be able to say they are grateful that their grandparents (he and his wife) joined the church of Christ." I have so much grateful and admiration for the strong french members here, because being a member of the church here is definitely not in the culture. They are strong because they know with conviction the things they live and believe are true and am feel very grateful to be able to know and love them.
I love you!
Soeur Chard
It's the one week count-down until General Conference! aka without one shadow of a doubt it's better than the countdown for Christmas as a missionary... for me at least haha. It's so good.
This week was good. The best part for me was yesterday at church. Soeur Horn and I started this project to find the people who have been lost in the ward. Aka one day we were going through the ward repertoire and realized how many people we had never seen or heard of on the list so we started to try calling them up and soon realized just how many numbers were incorrect. So we started looking up these people online on white pages and started being able to find some of the missing information. The repertoire has 433 names on it and let's just say on a page of 35 people, 11 were correct as far as information goes. So we started realizing what a big project this was and we decided after talking with our mission leader (frere grenier is the best ever) that we were going to try to fix it. We were able to track down information for 76 members that were incorrect on the repertoire just from online stuff but after that we still had/have 130 people we could not find their information but who were on the ward list. Come to find out the last time the ward really really did an update of the ward list and cleaned it was thirty years ago, when dad was leaving the ward haha. So yesterday at church we had a special meeting with all the priesthood and relief society for member and missionary work together. Frere Grenier presented about moroni 6:4 how when we entered the waters of baptism our names were recorded so we would never be forgotten and would be nourished by the good word of God. Then I spoke and presented the project we were doing, basically with the help of elder quinn and elder argyle we have these little cards (confusing to explain) but basically it has the name of the person with the information that is on the repertoire and we asked the members to help by taking one of these cards and finding these "lost sheep" or "brebis perdus." At the end of church was the real test to see if after the members would come up (purely by volunteer we didnt assign them anyone) and participate in the project. We started with 120 cards. At the end we left the church with only 38 cards left. I thought it was a miracle. Multiple members came up after and said how excited they were about this and what an important work this is. Soeur Gerard came up and said she did this in another ward and because of it a family that had been less-active for years was sealed in the temple. I tell you with this project we have and are in the middle of doing there has also been a lot of opposition, but I guess that's how it is with anything that is worthwhile. At the same time we have been seeing miracles, and have continued to feel the help and guidance of Heavenly Father in what we are doing.
Have a fabulous week everyone! We are so blessed, I realize that more and more profoundly. Last night Soeur Horn and I were able to go to a member family's house for dinner, both the parents are converts and we started talking about the movie "17 Miracles" I told them how much it meant to me because it is my heritage and I realized how many sacrifices my ancestors made for the gospel. We started talking about how these parents are pioneers in the gospel for their children. They told us their conversion story and how much opposition they had faced in coming into the gospel. Now I look at the children they are raising in the gospel and I just want to cry it makes me so happy. The gospel truly blesses families, and I cant understand why anyone wouldnt want those blessings, it's a beautiful thing. The dad said, "I hope one day my grand-children will be able to say they are grateful that their grandparents (he and his wife) joined the church of Christ." I have so much grateful and admiration for the strong french members here, because being a member of the church here is definitely not in the culture. They are strong because they know with conviction the things they live and believe are true and am feel very grateful to be able to know and love them.
I love you!
Soeur Chard
Monday, September 17, 2012
Ah Les Missionnaires!
Hello Family!
Today I am spending pday with charlotte searle, I am excited, I think we are going to go to the champs elysees and just walk around and relax. Should be fun.
This week has been very interesting because it's been the worst of my mission as far as numbers but I feel like it was still successful.
Most interesting story of the week was when Soeur Horn and I tried to pass-by a less-active who has been in-active for the last ten years. We had visited a member family in the area and they suggested we tried to see her. So we sonnetted her and she opened the door because she thought it was her daughter coming home from school. She said, "ah les missionnaires! Venez." So we went in and come to find out it was the first time she had accepted missionaries in her house in eight years. She let us sit down and goes on to tell us her life story. It was one of the saddest things I have ever heard. She was a convert and almost her whole family got baptized but all fell away, she was the stalwart. Anyways, she ended up serving a mission. Here's the crazy part, I asked her where she served her mission and she says London. I ask her when and come to find out Boppy was her mission president! Carol Joly, does that tell you anything mom? Anyways, unfortunately didnt have a very good mission experience. Still stayed strong and then she got married in the temple and everything, stayed strong for twenty years. she told us the story of her falling away and seriously it completely broke my heart, it was so so sad. She said that now she believes in God again, in Heavenly Father but she's trying to figure out who Christ is for her. We read a verse from the Book of Mormon and she said she felt something again it was like remembering a lost friend. She accepted a BOM because she had thrown out all her other scriptures and said she would read. Her fifteen year old daughter came home in the middle and was really happy and surprised to see missionaries and said she wants to come back to church. Her youngest daughter who was nine had never prayed before in her life and at the end of our lesson we said a prayer together, it was the first time in this little girl's life she had done it. We are praying for Carole, she is so good and had been so strong for so many years, she said she's not ready to take missionary lessons right now but she said, "your visit was not in vain, thank you for coming."
Everyone in the ward is doing well, I absolutely love the members here and the other missionaries serving here right now, it will be hard to leave. Please keep praying for us this week. Every ami we had has disappeared, and we are literally starting at ground zero. In particular please pray that the members will have opportunities to share the gospel with their friends and will be able to feel the spirit and the joy that comes from missionary work.
I love you all, have a great week. Thank you for all of your love and prayers!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Today I am spending pday with charlotte searle, I am excited, I think we are going to go to the champs elysees and just walk around and relax. Should be fun.
This week has been very interesting because it's been the worst of my mission as far as numbers but I feel like it was still successful.
Most interesting story of the week was when Soeur Horn and I tried to pass-by a less-active who has been in-active for the last ten years. We had visited a member family in the area and they suggested we tried to see her. So we sonnetted her and she opened the door because she thought it was her daughter coming home from school. She said, "ah les missionnaires! Venez." So we went in and come to find out it was the first time she had accepted missionaries in her house in eight years. She let us sit down and goes on to tell us her life story. It was one of the saddest things I have ever heard. She was a convert and almost her whole family got baptized but all fell away, she was the stalwart. Anyways, she ended up serving a mission. Here's the crazy part, I asked her where she served her mission and she says London. I ask her when and come to find out Boppy was her mission president! Carol Joly, does that tell you anything mom? Anyways, unfortunately didnt have a very good mission experience. Still stayed strong and then she got married in the temple and everything, stayed strong for twenty years. she told us the story of her falling away and seriously it completely broke my heart, it was so so sad. She said that now she believes in God again, in Heavenly Father but she's trying to figure out who Christ is for her. We read a verse from the Book of Mormon and she said she felt something again it was like remembering a lost friend. She accepted a BOM because she had thrown out all her other scriptures and said she would read. Her fifteen year old daughter came home in the middle and was really happy and surprised to see missionaries and said she wants to come back to church. Her youngest daughter who was nine had never prayed before in her life and at the end of our lesson we said a prayer together, it was the first time in this little girl's life she had done it. We are praying for Carole, she is so good and had been so strong for so many years, she said she's not ready to take missionary lessons right now but she said, "your visit was not in vain, thank you for coming."
Everyone in the ward is doing well, I absolutely love the members here and the other missionaries serving here right now, it will be hard to leave. Please keep praying for us this week. Every ami we had has disappeared, and we are literally starting at ground zero. In particular please pray that the members will have opportunities to share the gospel with their friends and will be able to feel the spirit and the joy that comes from missionary work.
I love you all, have a great week. Thank you for all of your love and prayers!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Monday, September 10, 2012
It was a WHITE week in Paris
Hi family,
Siliane and Fréderique Doh are now official members of the church! It was the best weekend ever. We met with them almost every day leading up to their baptism (we had to finish teaching them all the commandments) and they accepted everything so well. I promise they were already living basically every commandment and now they just have the blessings that come from the gospel. The coolest part was when we taught them Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. That was the most difficult for them to keep because they both have (had) to work on Sunday. So what happened is last week Fréderique was almost not going to be able to go to church because of work. She said, "you know what, Im coming, I'll see you there. Pray for me please." So they both showed up last Sunday, we asked how they got to church because of work. They had had their doctor write a forge note saying they were sick so they could go to church. I said, "well, I think next lesson is going to be on honesty." but not so secretly we were really happy they were at church.
So they had committed to keeping the Sabbath Day Holy on Wednesday I think it was. Friday just before their baptismal interview we had a special lesson just about how they were going to take upon them the name of Christ the next day and what a beautiful blessing it was going to be, etc. Fréderique said she wanted to tell us a story. She went on to tell us that her employer had called and said she absolutely had to work on Saturday (the day of her baptism) and on Sunday because she has missed the last two weeks. she told them she wouldnt be there because she was going to church. They said in that case, dont bother coming into work again, you have lost your job. She said, okay, well Im not coming in on Saturday or Sunday, so sorry. So about a week ago Frederique told us she had started looking for a new job because she knew it was a commandment to come to church every sunday. A day after she lost her job because she had committed to come to church she got a call from one of the employers she had applied for a job for, and they offered her a job. She said, "I just want you to know that I am not going to work on Sundays." They said, "okay, is it because you are going to church?" She said, "yes." "okay that's great, you dont have to work on Sunday." It was such a testimony to Soeur Horn and I that as we act on faith in Christ without always knowing the outcome in advance, He will always provide for us. It was awesome. Their baptisms were beautiful, and the confirmations were awesome. And the most exciting part is that is was simply because a member invited them to come to church. At the baptism he bore his testimony and said for years he has felt he should talk to these two girls about the gospel but was always nervous too. He finally did it and three weeks later they are getting baptized. He testified of the incredible joy that has come into his life because he shared the gospel with someone else. In Fréderique's blessing of confirmation it talked all about how she is going to be helping advance the work of the Lord through her missionary work. Last Sunday she told Soeur Horn and I that she would maybe like to serve a mission. Isnt that crazy? Siliane just moved to the south of France Sunday night right after her confirmation. She said that she hates planes so much but she wants to come and she said she'll come and visit Soeur Horn and me in Utah and because she really wants to go to the temple in Salt Lake.
Everything else is going well here too. Soeur Horn and I did planning on Friday and came up with a six phase plan to accomplish the vision we want to see here. The vision is to help the Versailles Ward become a Preach My Gospel Ward and to "Gather Israel" (read the definition in bible dictionary... it's 'one who prevails with God') We really feel like we are being led and directed by the spirit to know what to do. We love every minute of it and are having so much fun doing it. It really is an act of faith because it is not necessarily normal missionary work whatsoever. It's focusing a lot less on finding methods like contacting and porting and a lot more on members. It's unlike anything I have done so far on my mission and honestly I dont have proof that it's the right thing to do and that it will be successful, but the thing that we do have to go off is that Soeur Horn and I both have the same vision and both keep receiving new inspiration that helps further our vision and we keep having huge support from the ward. Our mission leader asked us to come to ward council last week to present one of the projects we are doing. We presented everything and everyone started getting really excited about it. At the end the bishop said, "thank you sisters. You have our full support, please show us what we can do to help." He then asked us to present something on the 30th of september to the ward showing the members how to do missionary work. The awesome thing we have been noticing is that members are so ready and willing to help missionary work, you just have to show them how. We are now working really closely with the relief society to do one of our projects and it's so fun. So please pray for us, because when it all comes down to it, we are just kind of going on faith as far as what we actually know what we are doing.
I hope everyone has an amazing week! I love you so much!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Monday, September 3, 2012
NuSkin a la Francais!
Hi family!
This last week has been the best of my mission and I will tell you why:
1. Siliane and Frederique are both getting baptized this Saturday! Such an amazing story. Siliane was the one who came into church by herself and the member introduced me to her. I started talking to her and realized it was her first time talking to missionaries. We set up an appointment and she ended up bringing her twin sister Frederique. We have taught them for two and a half weeks. Basically they were so incredibly prepared before we started teaching them, the spirit was able to teach them so strongly and they are getting baptized this Saturday. the best part is that they way we found these girls was because a member they work with at Carrefour just mentioned they should try coming to church and see what they think. So this story has started a huge turn of events in Versailles.
That same week we met Siliane and Frederique, the Assistants gave Soeur Horn and I this case study about what this sister missionary did in a ward in Boston and it completely changed missionary work in the ward. They gave it to us and said, "try doing this in Versailles." So I read it, and basically it changed my life. Literally. I read it and almost every night since I have read it I go to bed thinking about all these things for missionary work and after being in bed for a couple hours I have to go write down all the thoughts that come into my mind in my journal for about an hour and then Im able to finally sleep without a problem. That same pattern has happened four times in the last week. And I know they are not my thoughts, it is straight up inspiration of the spirit.
So we had a sister training two weeks ago and the Assistants did it and they just mentioned something about the case study in saying they had received it from the Lyon mission (pres roney) and they had given it to Soeur Horn and I are now going to send it to all the zone leaders. After the training they started asking what Soeur Horn and my vision was for the ward. So we told them, that night we set the baptismal date with Frederique, two days later we set one with Siliane.
Then on Friday the elders called to ask if we could help two women move into the Le Vesinet area, they arent members, arent even investigators. We agreed and went over with all the other equipes in our district. WE FOUND THE NU SKIN DISTRIBUTOR. We were unloading boxes and I saw Nu Skin written on it so I asked if she uses Nu Skin and she told me she was a distributor. I was freaking out inside. The lady was super super stressed and was really not too interested in talking about Nu Skin at the moment but ultimately, this woman does not believe in God at all, and I can basically guarantee you had we contacted her in the street it would be "ça m'interesse pas" but we helped her move and at the end she said, "wow, I am so grateful to all of you, how can I repay you? I would love to give your church some of my old furniture, just let me get all my stuff moved in and I will give you a call." At the end the elders asked if they could dedicate her home with a priesthood blessing. She said yes that would be fine. The spirit was so powerful and the other woman (from new zealand who is also so awesome) was really touched, you could see it.
That night same thing, I woke up at night and had to write for an hour. Crazy stuff. Not my ideas. The next day at church the assistants (we've been talking about vision of the mission and of Versailles, etc.) we talked and Soeur Horn and I are helping them plan the mission training they're doing for the mission this transfer. It changes everything, it's so cool.
Basically, what started it for me is this case study. I am so absolutely obsessed about it, I talk about it to everybody. I am so thoroughly convinced that it is the key to success and with it we can baptize three times as many people in the mission. So Elder Gubbay one of the assistants has a brother Elder Gubbay who is assistant to President Roney right now in Lyon. This is what happened. President Roney gave every one of his missionaries this case study, asked them to read it four times and pray for inspiration from the Lord for their ville of what they need to do and then get to work. He told them the following week was going to be an "indear the members week." .... he told all his missionaries to go home and bake cookies. Go home bake cookies and go and visit all of the members in the ward. That week they had 38 referrals. Elder Gubbay told me that part of the story about three days ago and that's the night I woke up and realized that the mission is basically Nu skin.
Leaders to employees to distributors to consumers
Leaders to missionaries to members to investigators
It's the exact same set up, it can be the exact same set up and that's what can change a mission. So it's changing trainings from being focused on tactics of how to teach amis, how to porte, how to find and it is instead giving missionaries the tools to get their vision for the ward they are serving in and show the members the how of how to do missionary work.
Soeur Horn and I started working on this ward repetoire in the ward, updating information for the ward. We did one page of 35 names, using white pages online and we found that only 16 were correct, 6 had changed addresses and 11 were unfindable. The assistants had two of their last baptisms come from people who were already located on the repetoire but had incorrect information, the assistants happened to find those people by miracles. So now we have all the missionaries working to updating that. I talked to our ward mission leader the other day and he said, "well, this is really great, the bishop just wants to know if this is really missionary work?" I told him what we had done with it and why it's such an important missionary tool. HIs response was, "Remy and I are preparing a missionary presentation to present to the bishopric on the 30th of September. Will you prepare a presentation about member missionary work? The members want to help they just dont know how to do it." so good, so good.
So, already the ward has changed and it has only been three weeks really since we have all really been changing our strategy in our district. Yesterday in sacrament meeting basically every testimony was on missionary work and the Atonement and how this church is Christ's church on the earth today. After church multiple members came up to me and said, "soeur chard what's happening, missionary work has never been like this in this ward, what's changed?" I told them it's the members, it's the attitude. The assistants have been setting baptismal dates for every other week, I will just say this. That is not even close to what is average. And now it's carrying out so much further, we're trying to help every zone have what is happening in Versailles happen in their area. It's so fun.
Mom mentioned the reporters on Mitt Romney? Yes there's a lot going on with that. We had reporters film sacrament meeting and I'll send you the link. They are finally finally starting to get that we are normal. It's a good report. The elders you see are Elder Gubbay and Elder Saguibo. Two of the best elders ever, so so good. And from this report there's going to be another baptism next week! A woman who was on the media crew started researching everything about the church and emailed someone to see where the closest mormon church was to her in St Germain. Showed up to Versailles. Soeur Merer (elder gubbay's grandma and grandma connie's friend) introduced this woman to the elders. The elders went over there and this woman had written a whole proposition of why the church should accept her as a member and explaining her situation as a divorcee, her situation with tithing, etc. Basically they fixed a baptismal date with her for two weeks later. These people are just miracles that the Lord is sending us and it's happening for the entire district and it is so incredible. The mission goal that this conference is trying to help accomplish is to have 78 baptisms for the month of September. Something that has never happened but totally can. And Elder Anderson is coming to speak to the mission in November!
Soeur Horn, I absolutely love her, could not ask for a better companion. Seriously could not ask for a better person to work with. She's a hard worker, she offers awesome input and she trusts me, she will try new things and she understands the why behind everything. I absolutely love her and we have so much fun together. We had a RDV with Siliane and Frederique last night and Frederique said she's thinking about serving a mission after she gets baptized. So crazy cool.
I love you all and hope you have a fabulous week! Please pray for Siliane and Frederique this week! And pray for the mission to all see success.
Love,
Soeur Chard
This last week has been the best of my mission and I will tell you why:
1. Siliane and Frederique are both getting baptized this Saturday! Such an amazing story. Siliane was the one who came into church by herself and the member introduced me to her. I started talking to her and realized it was her first time talking to missionaries. We set up an appointment and she ended up bringing her twin sister Frederique. We have taught them for two and a half weeks. Basically they were so incredibly prepared before we started teaching them, the spirit was able to teach them so strongly and they are getting baptized this Saturday. the best part is that they way we found these girls was because a member they work with at Carrefour just mentioned they should try coming to church and see what they think. So this story has started a huge turn of events in Versailles.
That same week we met Siliane and Frederique, the Assistants gave Soeur Horn and I this case study about what this sister missionary did in a ward in Boston and it completely changed missionary work in the ward. They gave it to us and said, "try doing this in Versailles." So I read it, and basically it changed my life. Literally. I read it and almost every night since I have read it I go to bed thinking about all these things for missionary work and after being in bed for a couple hours I have to go write down all the thoughts that come into my mind in my journal for about an hour and then Im able to finally sleep without a problem. That same pattern has happened four times in the last week. And I know they are not my thoughts, it is straight up inspiration of the spirit.
So we had a sister training two weeks ago and the Assistants did it and they just mentioned something about the case study in saying they had received it from the Lyon mission (pres roney) and they had given it to Soeur Horn and I are now going to send it to all the zone leaders. After the training they started asking what Soeur Horn and my vision was for the ward. So we told them, that night we set the baptismal date with Frederique, two days later we set one with Siliane.
Then on Friday the elders called to ask if we could help two women move into the Le Vesinet area, they arent members, arent even investigators. We agreed and went over with all the other equipes in our district. WE FOUND THE NU SKIN DISTRIBUTOR. We were unloading boxes and I saw Nu Skin written on it so I asked if she uses Nu Skin and she told me she was a distributor. I was freaking out inside. The lady was super super stressed and was really not too interested in talking about Nu Skin at the moment but ultimately, this woman does not believe in God at all, and I can basically guarantee you had we contacted her in the street it would be "ça m'interesse pas" but we helped her move and at the end she said, "wow, I am so grateful to all of you, how can I repay you? I would love to give your church some of my old furniture, just let me get all my stuff moved in and I will give you a call." At the end the elders asked if they could dedicate her home with a priesthood blessing. She said yes that would be fine. The spirit was so powerful and the other woman (from new zealand who is also so awesome) was really touched, you could see it.
That night same thing, I woke up at night and had to write for an hour. Crazy stuff. Not my ideas. The next day at church the assistants (we've been talking about vision of the mission and of Versailles, etc.) we talked and Soeur Horn and I are helping them plan the mission training they're doing for the mission this transfer. It changes everything, it's so cool.
Basically, what started it for me is this case study. I am so absolutely obsessed about it, I talk about it to everybody. I am so thoroughly convinced that it is the key to success and with it we can baptize three times as many people in the mission. So Elder Gubbay one of the assistants has a brother Elder Gubbay who is assistant to President Roney right now in Lyon. This is what happened. President Roney gave every one of his missionaries this case study, asked them to read it four times and pray for inspiration from the Lord for their ville of what they need to do and then get to work. He told them the following week was going to be an "indear the members week." .... he told all his missionaries to go home and bake cookies. Go home bake cookies and go and visit all of the members in the ward. That week they had 38 referrals. Elder Gubbay told me that part of the story about three days ago and that's the night I woke up and realized that the mission is basically Nu skin.
Leaders to employees to distributors to consumers
Leaders to missionaries to members to investigators
It's the exact same set up, it can be the exact same set up and that's what can change a mission. So it's changing trainings from being focused on tactics of how to teach amis, how to porte, how to find and it is instead giving missionaries the tools to get their vision for the ward they are serving in and show the members the how of how to do missionary work.
Soeur Horn and I started working on this ward repetoire in the ward, updating information for the ward. We did one page of 35 names, using white pages online and we found that only 16 were correct, 6 had changed addresses and 11 were unfindable. The assistants had two of their last baptisms come from people who were already located on the repetoire but had incorrect information, the assistants happened to find those people by miracles. So now we have all the missionaries working to updating that. I talked to our ward mission leader the other day and he said, "well, this is really great, the bishop just wants to know if this is really missionary work?" I told him what we had done with it and why it's such an important missionary tool. HIs response was, "Remy and I are preparing a missionary presentation to present to the bishopric on the 30th of September. Will you prepare a presentation about member missionary work? The members want to help they just dont know how to do it." so good, so good.
So, already the ward has changed and it has only been three weeks really since we have all really been changing our strategy in our district. Yesterday in sacrament meeting basically every testimony was on missionary work and the Atonement and how this church is Christ's church on the earth today. After church multiple members came up to me and said, "soeur chard what's happening, missionary work has never been like this in this ward, what's changed?" I told them it's the members, it's the attitude. The assistants have been setting baptismal dates for every other week, I will just say this. That is not even close to what is average. And now it's carrying out so much further, we're trying to help every zone have what is happening in Versailles happen in their area. It's so fun.
Mom mentioned the reporters on Mitt Romney? Yes there's a lot going on with that. We had reporters film sacrament meeting and I'll send you the link. They are finally finally starting to get that we are normal. It's a good report. The elders you see are Elder Gubbay and Elder Saguibo. Two of the best elders ever, so so good. And from this report there's going to be another baptism next week! A woman who was on the media crew started researching everything about the church and emailed someone to see where the closest mormon church was to her in St Germain. Showed up to Versailles. Soeur Merer (elder gubbay's grandma and grandma connie's friend) introduced this woman to the elders. The elders went over there and this woman had written a whole proposition of why the church should accept her as a member and explaining her situation as a divorcee, her situation with tithing, etc. Basically they fixed a baptismal date with her for two weeks later. These people are just miracles that the Lord is sending us and it's happening for the entire district and it is so incredible. The mission goal that this conference is trying to help accomplish is to have 78 baptisms for the month of September. Something that has never happened but totally can. And Elder Anderson is coming to speak to the mission in November!
Soeur Horn, I absolutely love her, could not ask for a better companion. Seriously could not ask for a better person to work with. She's a hard worker, she offers awesome input and she trusts me, she will try new things and she understands the why behind everything. I absolutely love her and we have so much fun together. We had a RDV with Siliane and Frederique last night and Frederique said she's thinking about serving a mission after she gets baptized. So crazy cool.
I love you all and hope you have a fabulous week! Please pray for Siliane and Frederique this week! And pray for the mission to all see success.
Love,
Soeur Chard
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Soeur Searle Sighting
Hi Family!
I just saw Soeur Searle a few minutes ago doing emails! It's so fun to have a friend from home here too.
Let's see, this will probably be a shorter one but:
The miracle of the week is two girls named Siliane and Frederick. Last week when we were at church (when Alejandra didnt show up and we were devastated) we went to amis class and this girl was there who I thought was the elders ami because she was sitting next to the elders. Afterwards this girl (Siliane) was talking to Frere Ya and Frere Ya said, "well, I think the missionaries can answer this better." So he brings the girl over to me and walks away. So I start talking to the girl and realize that she has never met a missionary before. So she says, "I have heard a lot of crazy things about your church. I've heard you're a cult, Ive heard lot of things, but I dont believe it and I want to find out for myself. Is there someone who can tell me the difference between your church and other churches?" So ultimately we set up a lesson for later that week. When she came she brought her twin sister. It was Soeur Horn's favorte lesson she has taught on her mission. I know the gift of tongues is real! Soeur Horn did so well in that lesson. The spirit was so strong and they both committed to start reading the BOM, pray and come to church. I swear there is so much opposition against people coming to church. We have the hardest time getting people to church. Ultimately a half hour before church started Siliane texted us to say their boss had just called them in to work so unfortunately neither could come to church. But,they are great and we are seeing them again on Tuesday.
Alejandra, no one knows what happened to her. It is so so sad. But, I also know we have done everything we can do as missionaries, now we are just praying really hard for her and are turning it over to Heavenly Father's hands. But I know everything is going to work out, because she genuinely wants to do what is right and follow God's plan for her. Please pray for her specifically and that our investigators can start coming to church!
I just want to share something about faith because it's something I have been learning a lot about lately on my mission. What does it mean when it talks about missionaries strengthening their faith and what are we supposed to have faith in? So, do you have faith in people keeping commitments, faith people accept the gospel, faith in numbers, or what exactly. And I've been learning more and more that faith is not having faith in other people or in things but faith needs to be rooted in Christ. If we have faith in Christ we know that all things are possible in Christ, we have complete trust and confidence in Him even if we dont understand everything at a time. And then, how do you show your faith? It's by diligently seeking and working. I dont know if that makes any sense there, but it has been something I have been coming to understand more and it changes everything.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Soeur Chard
I just saw Soeur Searle a few minutes ago doing emails! It's so fun to have a friend from home here too.
Let's see, this will probably be a shorter one but:
The miracle of the week is two girls named Siliane and Frederick. Last week when we were at church (when Alejandra didnt show up and we were devastated) we went to amis class and this girl was there who I thought was the elders ami because she was sitting next to the elders. Afterwards this girl (Siliane) was talking to Frere Ya and Frere Ya said, "well, I think the missionaries can answer this better." So he brings the girl over to me and walks away. So I start talking to the girl and realize that she has never met a missionary before. So she says, "I have heard a lot of crazy things about your church. I've heard you're a cult, Ive heard lot of things, but I dont believe it and I want to find out for myself. Is there someone who can tell me the difference between your church and other churches?" So ultimately we set up a lesson for later that week. When she came she brought her twin sister. It was Soeur Horn's favorte lesson she has taught on her mission. I know the gift of tongues is real! Soeur Horn did so well in that lesson. The spirit was so strong and they both committed to start reading the BOM, pray and come to church. I swear there is so much opposition against people coming to church. We have the hardest time getting people to church. Ultimately a half hour before church started Siliane texted us to say their boss had just called them in to work so unfortunately neither could come to church. But,they are great and we are seeing them again on Tuesday.
Alejandra, no one knows what happened to her. It is so so sad. But, I also know we have done everything we can do as missionaries, now we are just praying really hard for her and are turning it over to Heavenly Father's hands. But I know everything is going to work out, because she genuinely wants to do what is right and follow God's plan for her. Please pray for her specifically and that our investigators can start coming to church!
I just want to share something about faith because it's something I have been learning a lot about lately on my mission. What does it mean when it talks about missionaries strengthening their faith and what are we supposed to have faith in? So, do you have faith in people keeping commitments, faith people accept the gospel, faith in numbers, or what exactly. And I've been learning more and more that faith is not having faith in other people or in things but faith needs to be rooted in Christ. If we have faith in Christ we know that all things are possible in Christ, we have complete trust and confidence in Him even if we dont understand everything at a time. And then, how do you show your faith? It's by diligently seeking and working. I dont know if that makes any sense there, but it has been something I have been coming to understand more and it changes everything.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Monday, August 13, 2012
It's my Birthday tomorrow!
Where to start:
Alejandra: bad for the moment. We had a RDV with her on Saturday. We were waiting for her by the bus stop and the bus passed and no one got off. So I called her and she answered and said, "I am so sorry, I was reading over again all those scriptures you gave me in the Book of Mormon and I didnt eve'n realize that I missed the stop, im on my way back." So it started off well. Then the RDV started and we had planned to talk about priesthood authority, and the sacrament to prepare her to come to church the next day and to help her understand more why getting baptized in this church is different from any other. So, we started talking, explained priesthood and she said, "yes, I get it. I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and I believe the Book of Mormon is true." Then she explained how she feels so confused because she feels so much joy when she comes to our lessons, but then she goes to her other church and she feels good too and her church has given her so much, etc. She asked if we could just cancel the baptismal date for now because she feels so confused and everything has happened so fast. She says she has been praying so so much and reading everything in the Book of Mormon and she just feels confused. The entire time she was saying this the thought to me was to be quiet and let Soeur Horn talk. So I was quiet. And Soeur Horn answered, "Alejandra, I am going to make you a promise. When you come to church tomorrow and you pray to know if this is the church of God that you need to join, you will receive an answer and you won't be confused anymore." At the end of the lesson we kneeled down the three of us and prayed she would receive an answer by going to church the next day. After the lesson, Soeur Horn and I immediately started fasting because we had just promised something really big and we needed all the help we could get. That night we literally called about ten or fifteen ward members to ask them to welcome her when she came to church the next day. We found spanish translators for every meeting. Never in my entire mission have I made so much effort for someone to come to church. The next mormning we wake up and have a text from Alejandra from 2:30 in the morning. She said how stressed she had felt about everything after the lesson and how she had been praying the entire day to know what to do. She said she felt she had got her answer, she felt peaceful about going to her other church and so she was going to follow her heart because she felt that was an answer to prayer. We were so devastated. Yep, we straight up cried. We sent her a text back and told her we respected her decision but we asked her to remember the promise we had given her the day before that God would answer her prayer by coming to church and she would no longer be confused. We told her that was still a promise. She never answered back and we havent heard from her since. It was so sad because we went to church and so so so many people all came up to meet our investigator that we had brought and we had to tell them she hadnt come. It was so sad. Then I look in the foyer and TJ Barden is walking into the hall. I do a double-take and suddenly the whole Barden Family is walking into the church! I just ran and gave Robin a big big hug. She asked me how I was doing and how our morning had been. ha I just got teary-eyed and told her not good. Anyways, it was a huge blessing to have the Barden's at church yesterday. I was able to talk to Robin for a while after Sacrament Meeting, ha we just cried together, it was so good. Im sure she will call you when she gets home to talk to you mom. :) And, please pray for Alejandra. We are gonig to try calling her tomorrow. It's to a point we have done all we can, and we need a lot of divine intervention because I dont know what else to do!
Maria: good. We saw her one last time before she left for the South of France now until September. We went in and her eight and nine-year-old boy came in to the lesson. The lesson before we had taught Maria the Plan of Salvation. So we pulled out the Plan of Salvation again and with Maria, we taught the Plan of Salvation to her kids. It was the most beautiful thing to watch a mom teach her kids the Plan of Salvation for the first time. At the end we committed the nine-year-old Clyde to baptism and the eight-year-old said he will think about it. We asked Clyde if he would like to start reading the BOM and he said yes. So we gave him Enos and then we asked him if he's ever prayed before. He said no. So we along with his mom taught him how to pray for the first time. It was the sweetest thing. Maria is now gone until September, she said she knows this is what she wants for her family and wants to get baptized when she gets back. We are trying to keep in touch with her every week by phone so we can give her scriptures to read with her kids while she is gone. Because, if I have learned one thing, Satan does not sleep! Ah so much can happen in-between everything.
Last Pday I saw the Crockett's.... dad's old mission president's daughter. The one he dated. haha She was freaking out when she realized I was Dan's daughter. And went on and on about Boppy and Grandma BB and everything and how much she loves mom etc. so funny.
Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Alejandra: bad for the moment. We had a RDV with her on Saturday. We were waiting for her by the bus stop and the bus passed and no one got off. So I called her and she answered and said, "I am so sorry, I was reading over again all those scriptures you gave me in the Book of Mormon and I didnt eve'n realize that I missed the stop, im on my way back." So it started off well. Then the RDV started and we had planned to talk about priesthood authority, and the sacrament to prepare her to come to church the next day and to help her understand more why getting baptized in this church is different from any other. So, we started talking, explained priesthood and she said, "yes, I get it. I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and I believe the Book of Mormon is true." Then she explained how she feels so confused because she feels so much joy when she comes to our lessons, but then she goes to her other church and she feels good too and her church has given her so much, etc. She asked if we could just cancel the baptismal date for now because she feels so confused and everything has happened so fast. She says she has been praying so so much and reading everything in the Book of Mormon and she just feels confused. The entire time she was saying this the thought to me was to be quiet and let Soeur Horn talk. So I was quiet. And Soeur Horn answered, "Alejandra, I am going to make you a promise. When you come to church tomorrow and you pray to know if this is the church of God that you need to join, you will receive an answer and you won't be confused anymore." At the end of the lesson we kneeled down the three of us and prayed she would receive an answer by going to church the next day. After the lesson, Soeur Horn and I immediately started fasting because we had just promised something really big and we needed all the help we could get. That night we literally called about ten or fifteen ward members to ask them to welcome her when she came to church the next day. We found spanish translators for every meeting. Never in my entire mission have I made so much effort for someone to come to church. The next mormning we wake up and have a text from Alejandra from 2:30 in the morning. She said how stressed she had felt about everything after the lesson and how she had been praying the entire day to know what to do. She said she felt she had got her answer, she felt peaceful about going to her other church and so she was going to follow her heart because she felt that was an answer to prayer. We were so devastated. Yep, we straight up cried. We sent her a text back and told her we respected her decision but we asked her to remember the promise we had given her the day before that God would answer her prayer by coming to church and she would no longer be confused. We told her that was still a promise. She never answered back and we havent heard from her since. It was so sad because we went to church and so so so many people all came up to meet our investigator that we had brought and we had to tell them she hadnt come. It was so sad. Then I look in the foyer and TJ Barden is walking into the hall. I do a double-take and suddenly the whole Barden Family is walking into the church! I just ran and gave Robin a big big hug. She asked me how I was doing and how our morning had been. ha I just got teary-eyed and told her not good. Anyways, it was a huge blessing to have the Barden's at church yesterday. I was able to talk to Robin for a while after Sacrament Meeting, ha we just cried together, it was so good. Im sure she will call you when she gets home to talk to you mom. :) And, please pray for Alejandra. We are gonig to try calling her tomorrow. It's to a point we have done all we can, and we need a lot of divine intervention because I dont know what else to do!
Maria: good. We saw her one last time before she left for the South of France now until September. We went in and her eight and nine-year-old boy came in to the lesson. The lesson before we had taught Maria the Plan of Salvation. So we pulled out the Plan of Salvation again and with Maria, we taught the Plan of Salvation to her kids. It was the most beautiful thing to watch a mom teach her kids the Plan of Salvation for the first time. At the end we committed the nine-year-old Clyde to baptism and the eight-year-old said he will think about it. We asked Clyde if he would like to start reading the BOM and he said yes. So we gave him Enos and then we asked him if he's ever prayed before. He said no. So we along with his mom taught him how to pray for the first time. It was the sweetest thing. Maria is now gone until September, she said she knows this is what she wants for her family and wants to get baptized when she gets back. We are trying to keep in touch with her every week by phone so we can give her scriptures to read with her kids while she is gone. Because, if I have learned one thing, Satan does not sleep! Ah so much can happen in-between everything.
Last Pday I saw the Crockett's.... dad's old mission president's daughter. The one he dated. haha She was freaking out when she realized I was Dan's daughter. And went on and on about Boppy and Grandma BB and everything and how much she loves mom etc. so funny.
Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Soeur Chard
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