Hi Everyone!
The day before may and finally it's a nice sunny day after about two weeks of rain! It's fabulous. This week has been a really good week, so many things happened.
First, we went to palace of versailles on saturday after emails, a couple on a business tripi from Florida came up to us,they were LDS. At the end of the conversation while we were walking home I said, "Whoa, Soeur Turney. I just realized how long it has been since I have had a social interaction with an American couple." American culture, and American LDS culture is so so so so different. It was crazy weird. But so great to see them!
So there was an awesome miracle that happened on Monday. Our first week of the transfer we contacted this woman on the train. She said she was interested in seeing us again so we got her address and phone number. When we tried calling the number it was a bad number. So we tried passing by her apartment a couple times, her cousin answered both times and said she was out of town and had no idea when she would be back. So a couple weeks ago we found a woman porting who said we could come back and teach her. She we went back, the woman wasnt home so we decided to try the train woman (Margaret) one more time. We knocked on the door and she answered! Her reaction: "you found me! I am so happy! Come in come in, I have to leave for work in a few minutes but come in!" Well, let's just say that reaction does not happen every day, it was awesome! She said she realized she had given us a wrong number and thought there was no way to find her. So we walked in, and basically her story is that her cousin in New Caledonia is LDS and her best friend is LDS. Her parents didnt want her to learn more about the church but recently said she could learn about whatever religion she wanted. She said she has a lot of questions and she cant find answers to them, and she was hoping we could help her find answers. We asked her what she was expecting from our lessons, she said, "I just want to learn everything. I dont even know where to start. I want to know the origins of your religion, everything." We said, PERFECT. So we gave her a Book of Mormon, her reaction: "Im going to start reading this immediately, I cant wait." So we set another lesson with her for yesterday. Well, when we went over yesterday night, the cousin answered and said that Margaret unexpectedly moved back to New Caledonia this week because her dad is really sick. We were sad! But, she has a Book of Mormon now and Im sure she will have contact with the church again. Ive realized so much so far on my mission that it takes a lot of small and simple experiences that help people ultimately receive the gospel, it's so cool to be able to be small parts in some peoples process.
We had exchanges with Blois this week. I went up to Blois and did an exchange with Soeur Didier. She is from the south of France and she is so amazing. I told her if I can be like her by the end of my mission that would be incredible. She is so good, she goes home next transfer. At the end of the day we were talking about what she has learned on her mission and she just said, "love yourself, be patient with yourself and forgive yourself and others, love the gospel, love the Lord, rely on the Lord." It's so true. Patience, forgiveness and love and three big things I am continuing to learn every day I think. ha funny story, we went to go teach a lesson at the church in Blois, it was this guy named Cedric. Cedric got there before the members who were coming to teach with us got there. So we were waiting outside with him since we couldnt teach him alone. He was not completely sober. Suddenly he looked at me and said, "I dont know how to say this. But I love you. I love you so much. Im sorry." Soeur Didier and I just kind of looked at each other, and at that moment the member came. And that is how that RDV started. Very potentially awkward.
On Saturday we had a baptism! His name is Amoury and he is nine-years-old. He comes from a family of seven kids I think it is? They are all homeschooled, (saint mother). They had been inactive for years because it was hard with all their kids to come to church. Elder Teixera when he was in Versailles last year passed by one or two inactives homes and invited them back to church. The Moulin family was one of them. We have been teaching Amoury because he is nine and not eight. It has been such a cool experience to go over there because their two girls would always come and listen. One is six the other is like eleven. And we would always teach with Soeur Moulin. It was such a cool experience to watch Soeur Moulin teaching her children the principles of the gospel and that we got to be a little part of it too. And at the baptism I accompanied oneof their girls on the flute, reminded me of Danielle! The spirit was so strong during the baptism and confirmation and I was just reminded again how much joy and happiness the gospel really brings to the lives of families.
On Saturday night we had a YSA activity, and it was so cool! We had the YSA go on splits with the missionaries and go contacting, porting or trajet (train) contacting. I went with Pres. Poznanski's daughter Marie and another girl named Jessica and we went trajet contacting. Before when we were walking to the train station they were both scared and nervous. After the first person, they got so into it, it was so cool! Marie gave out a Book of Mormon to someone we met, we got the number of another person, Jessica talked to someone all about the role of a prophet and how that helps families today, they were so so good. And at the end, they ended up saying they loved it and they were so excited about missionary work. Another one of the companionships was with a girl named Nichole who just got her mission call to the Temple Square mission actually, she is amazing. They got four numbers porting and the next day at church Nichole said, "Soeur Chard, I love porting. Just call me when you're going porting and Im there." Perfect, she's coming with us to teach tonight... and we'll probably porte after.
I think that's about all for today! Mom said to tell more about people we are teaching, Bethina the one who wants to be baptized. She wants to be baptized but there's so much that goes into that. Law of Chastity is what we are trying to help her with right now, she hasn't told her boyfriend in Guadeloupe she's taking the lessons yet so we are trying to help her with that. Marie-Claire is a woman we met porting a couple weeks ago, we taught her for the first time two weeks ago and are supposed to teach her tonight. The first time we met her she said she already had a Bible and didnt need another book, but heard we had a message about Jesus Christ and so she was interested. Tonight we are trying to teach a lesson about the role of prophets, how God has spoken to us through prophets from the very beginning and that He continues to speak through prophets today and how that is a blessing for families.
Marie is someone we found porting a couple weeks ago, she was so sweet and has basically had every bad thing that could possibly happen to a person happen. We taught her twice, when we introduced the Book of Mormon to her she said it was too much for her to handle right now. I meet people on my mission though who are such good people and who want to do good things, everyone is just in different circumstances and are prepared at different times and that's okay. Rita we are going to teach tonight, she is evangelical and doesnt have a problem with the Book of Mormon, but we are trying to help her understand priesthood authority and the "why" of the gospel. We are starting over with the Plan of Salvation tonight, where we come from and the gift of agency we each have.
Well, that's all for now! Love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love
Soeur Chard
The day before may and finally it's a nice sunny day after about two weeks of rain! It's fabulous. This week has been a really good week, so many things happened.
First, we went to palace of versailles on saturday after emails, a couple on a business tripi from Florida came up to us,they were LDS. At the end of the conversation while we were walking home I said, "Whoa, Soeur Turney. I just realized how long it has been since I have had a social interaction with an American couple." American culture, and American LDS culture is so so so so different. It was crazy weird. But so great to see them!
So there was an awesome miracle that happened on Monday. Our first week of the transfer we contacted this woman on the train. She said she was interested in seeing us again so we got her address and phone number. When we tried calling the number it was a bad number. So we tried passing by her apartment a couple times, her cousin answered both times and said she was out of town and had no idea when she would be back. So a couple weeks ago we found a woman porting who said we could come back and teach her. She we went back, the woman wasnt home so we decided to try the train woman (Margaret) one more time. We knocked on the door and she answered! Her reaction: "you found me! I am so happy! Come in come in, I have to leave for work in a few minutes but come in!" Well, let's just say that reaction does not happen every day, it was awesome! She said she realized she had given us a wrong number and thought there was no way to find her. So we walked in, and basically her story is that her cousin in New Caledonia is LDS and her best friend is LDS. Her parents didnt want her to learn more about the church but recently said she could learn about whatever religion she wanted. She said she has a lot of questions and she cant find answers to them, and she was hoping we could help her find answers. We asked her what she was expecting from our lessons, she said, "I just want to learn everything. I dont even know where to start. I want to know the origins of your religion, everything." We said, PERFECT. So we gave her a Book of Mormon, her reaction: "Im going to start reading this immediately, I cant wait." So we set another lesson with her for yesterday. Well, when we went over yesterday night, the cousin answered and said that Margaret unexpectedly moved back to New Caledonia this week because her dad is really sick. We were sad! But, she has a Book of Mormon now and Im sure she will have contact with the church again. Ive realized so much so far on my mission that it takes a lot of small and simple experiences that help people ultimately receive the gospel, it's so cool to be able to be small parts in some peoples process.
We had exchanges with Blois this week. I went up to Blois and did an exchange with Soeur Didier. She is from the south of France and she is so amazing. I told her if I can be like her by the end of my mission that would be incredible. She is so good, she goes home next transfer. At the end of the day we were talking about what she has learned on her mission and she just said, "love yourself, be patient with yourself and forgive yourself and others, love the gospel, love the Lord, rely on the Lord." It's so true. Patience, forgiveness and love and three big things I am continuing to learn every day I think. ha funny story, we went to go teach a lesson at the church in Blois, it was this guy named Cedric. Cedric got there before the members who were coming to teach with us got there. So we were waiting outside with him since we couldnt teach him alone. He was not completely sober. Suddenly he looked at me and said, "I dont know how to say this. But I love you. I love you so much. Im sorry." Soeur Didier and I just kind of looked at each other, and at that moment the member came. And that is how that RDV started. Very potentially awkward.
On Saturday we had a baptism! His name is Amoury and he is nine-years-old. He comes from a family of seven kids I think it is? They are all homeschooled, (saint mother). They had been inactive for years because it was hard with all their kids to come to church. Elder Teixera when he was in Versailles last year passed by one or two inactives homes and invited them back to church. The Moulin family was one of them. We have been teaching Amoury because he is nine and not eight. It has been such a cool experience to go over there because their two girls would always come and listen. One is six the other is like eleven. And we would always teach with Soeur Moulin. It was such a cool experience to watch Soeur Moulin teaching her children the principles of the gospel and that we got to be a little part of it too. And at the baptism I accompanied oneof their girls on the flute, reminded me of Danielle! The spirit was so strong during the baptism and confirmation and I was just reminded again how much joy and happiness the gospel really brings to the lives of families.
On Saturday night we had a YSA activity, and it was so cool! We had the YSA go on splits with the missionaries and go contacting, porting or trajet (train) contacting. I went with Pres. Poznanski's daughter Marie and another girl named Jessica and we went trajet contacting. Before when we were walking to the train station they were both scared and nervous. After the first person, they got so into it, it was so cool! Marie gave out a Book of Mormon to someone we met, we got the number of another person, Jessica talked to someone all about the role of a prophet and how that helps families today, they were so so good. And at the end, they ended up saying they loved it and they were so excited about missionary work. Another one of the companionships was with a girl named Nichole who just got her mission call to the Temple Square mission actually, she is amazing. They got four numbers porting and the next day at church Nichole said, "Soeur Chard, I love porting. Just call me when you're going porting and Im there." Perfect, she's coming with us to teach tonight... and we'll probably porte after.
I think that's about all for today! Mom said to tell more about people we are teaching, Bethina the one who wants to be baptized. She wants to be baptized but there's so much that goes into that. Law of Chastity is what we are trying to help her with right now, she hasn't told her boyfriend in Guadeloupe she's taking the lessons yet so we are trying to help her with that. Marie-Claire is a woman we met porting a couple weeks ago, we taught her for the first time two weeks ago and are supposed to teach her tonight. The first time we met her she said she already had a Bible and didnt need another book, but heard we had a message about Jesus Christ and so she was interested. Tonight we are trying to teach a lesson about the role of prophets, how God has spoken to us through prophets from the very beginning and that He continues to speak through prophets today and how that is a blessing for families.
Marie is someone we found porting a couple weeks ago, she was so sweet and has basically had every bad thing that could possibly happen to a person happen. We taught her twice, when we introduced the Book of Mormon to her she said it was too much for her to handle right now. I meet people on my mission though who are such good people and who want to do good things, everyone is just in different circumstances and are prepared at different times and that's okay. Rita we are going to teach tonight, she is evangelical and doesnt have a problem with the Book of Mormon, but we are trying to help her understand priesthood authority and the "why" of the gospel. We are starting over with the Plan of Salvation tonight, where we come from and the gift of agency we each have.
Well, that's all for now! Love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love
Soeur Chard
No comments:
Post a Comment