Realities of a Mission

I  just had the most amazing chocolate tart from the bakery across the street from the church.... haha I'm going to turn into Bobby Cannon and talk about all the amazing patisseries we have here. :)

These last two weeks have been the hardest of my mission so far.  I have been so frustrated, just in a lot of ways it has been hard.  As you know from last week it seemed like almost all  of our amis or people we were teaching were having/are having a lot of problems, or dropped us. We've really just been in this slump lately.  The most difficult thing for me so far on a mission has been hearing stories and just seeing missionaries so discouraged and just wanting to be done with their missions and their excitement about missionary work just completely gone.  So that's been the hardest thing for me, just not letting myself get discouraged.

I feel like I learned one of the most important lessons of my life.  That the first priority is your companion.  Because how can you possibly teach a message of joy and happiness... the Gospel of Jesus Christ if you and your companion don't feel the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ in your own lives... regardless if you are teaching a lot of people or if it's just the two of you walking around the streets of Caen day after day.  So I've been so obsessed with how we can be more effective but I've been focused I think on the wrong goal.  I’ve been focused on how to help these other people we need to find feel God's love when really my goal should be how can I help first of all Soeur Cope feel God's love.  Success is measured in so many different ways on a mission.  Some people see a lot of miracles with the people they teach, other people are learning things on their mission and will watch how their serving a mission will bless the lives of the future families they will be raising. 

Anyways, I don't know if any of that makes any sense.  But, since Saturday night things have been so much better.  Most importantly it's finding joy in the journey, we're happy and we're trying and we're working.

Have a great week and know that I love you!

Soeur Chard