Hi!
Today has been crazy because at 6:31 our district leader called to tell us district meeting was being switched to tomorrow so we quickly changed our pday until today! its been a crazy day because we went to go grocery shopping and then waited in line for 45 minutes until they closed down the grocery store because the cash registers arent working. So, I guess we are skrimping on food the rest of the week! haha no we should be fine.
This last weekend we had two more mini missionaries come. It was such a blessing in my life and I absolutely loved it. President sent his daughter Marie and then another girl in the ward to be with us so we did splits for the whole weekend. I was with Marie who I already absolutely loved and it only got better being companions with her for the weekend. I told her how these last two transfers have been the hardest of my mission, ultimately she suggested us talking to her mom after church and getting her advice on what to do. I did and it was the best thing ever, she gave me such good advice and it was exactly what I needed to hear and I felt so much better.
After church Marie and I went out because we had two RDVs that were fixed, and I even called and confirmed with the people and they said all was good for the RDVs. Ultimately, they both fell through (oh man!) so.... about six hours of contacting was the result. We went out and people were being pretty nice and would talk to us for a little while but no numbers, no set RDVs and no addresses. After a few hours Marie says, "missions are hard!" haha. Then we keep going and a few minutes later she says, "can I just say, missions are hard!" and we kept going and after a little longer she said, "what are we doing wrong! We are doing everything my dad tells us to do and nothing is happening." haha. a little longer passes, Marie: "okay, this is not stopping me from deciding to go on a mission but I just hope that I dont serve in France." hahaha. (dont worry the story ends well). We took the metro to Ruel-Malmaison and I heard someone say, "Soeur Chard!" I looked back and it was some of the office elders. So we went over to talk to them and Marie said, "what are we doing wrong! It's not working!" Ultimately they gave comfort and words of wisdom, etc etc. We were taking the metro home and last person we contacted gave us their number. Went home and tried to call the person, it was a bad number.
So the next day we had two RDVs and they both went well; Bettina, the one who got her answer she needs to be baptized is like a different person. There's a new light in her eyes, she has so much more confidence and she is so much more open. We did a FHE night with the Babin Family and Bettina and it was on following the prophet, so good. And we went contacting and we fixed four RDVs for Thursday together! So Marie's answer for what we were doing wrong: you just have to persevere and keep doing what you know is the right thing to do, even if you don't see the results right away, just keep doing it for the Lord. Anyways though, being with Marie was a tender mercy for me for this weekend, it was exactly what I needed and gave me the push to keep going with lots of optimism. I said that never in my entire life have I felt as much opposition from basically every side as I have this transfer. But, I know my testimony is growing stronger, I know I am changing and becoming bolder, and I know Heavenly Father is helping me in so many ways and that I'm not alone.
My testimony of fasting has increased dramatically. Really an example of how after the trial of your faith the blessings and answer to our prayers come. We faster for Bettina, and the week after she had her two spiritual experiences and received the confirmation she needs to be baptized. Well this past Sunday we fasted for Alejandra because she has gone MIA and we have absolutely no idea what happened to her. So we fasted that we would be able to find out what happened with her and get back in contact with her, because we absolutely know that we met her for a reason.
So just today on our way to do emails, (we have been calling this girl for two and a half weeks now and havent seen her for over a month) we received a text from Alejandra. "hi girls i am so sorry i havent been answering your calls! I have been in spain and every time you call or i call it charges my phone. It was really last minute and so that's why I didnt have a chance to tell you that I was going to be gone. I get home this Friday and I am going to call you as soon as the plane touches the ground." It was definitely an answer to our fast and prayers.
All is good, the church is true! Because God loves us the priesthood and the fulness of the gospel was restored through a prophet Joseph Smith and we are so incredibly blessed to have the fulness of the gospel in our lives because it brings a fulness of joy and blesses and changes lives.
Thank you for all your love and support and prayers! Birthday shout out for Hezzy! Going legal on July 10th! I have a letter coming in the mail!
Love you!
Soeur Chard
Hi everyone!
That is so crazy that you went to Bobby Cannon's homecoming yesterday! I think I told about ten missionaries who went home with him to tell him hi from me, I only saw him my very first day in the mission field and then we never served anywhere near each other. But, anyone who knows him told me he was one of the best missionaries ever. It's so crazy that he is home!
This weekend was a weekend of lot of miracles:
1. We met with two people this week (one we contacted on the street, one we contacted on the bus) and they both said they would be baptized when they gained their own testimony this was the true church. Both live out of our area actually so we are passing them but both were really cool RDVs.
2. A couple weeks ago we were in Trappes actually dropping off a BOM at a members house so they could give it to a friend. We had received a headquarter referral from the mission home at the beginning of the transfer and tried passing by this girls house multiple times and she was never home. So we had basically given up on her for a while. Well we were on our way to this members house and I stopped two random people to ask them for directions. They gave me directiosn and started walking away to get in their car. I walked away and Soeur Dawson said, "I sware that has got to be Paola. We need to go talk to her." (that's the referral, we had never seen or talked to this girl in our life). So at that point the car was pulling out of their parking place so we went and knocked on the window. They rolled it down and Soeur Dawson said "is your name paola by chance?" She looked at us really weirdly and said yes. Soeur Dawson "are you from venezuela and do you live in this apartment building just across the street by chance?" (this was in spanish because paola doesnt speak french or english). She said yes she did and she just looked at us really weirdly like who are you people? Soeur Dawson explained who we were and that someone had referred her. She was still really taken aback and said the connection she has to someone whos a member to the church is pretty distant but ultimately the guy who was with her (the one who had given us directions in french) convinced her that we had been looking for her so she might as well set up at time for a RDV because we had been searching for her. So we came back on Saturday night for our scheduled RDV. We were both nervous because Soeur Dawson said she feels much more comfortable in english or french and I speak no spanish whatsoever. So we prayed a lot before going into the RDV. Ultimately we decided taht I would speak in english and Soeur Dawson would translate whatever I said into spanish and taht's how we would teach the lesson. We went up to her apartment and her sister Victoria happened to be there too. Victoria has a little baby and speaks some english too! Ultimately, Victoria said she believes in God but has been searching for something to help her know what church is truly God's church. During the RDV I know that it was the spirit teaching the lesson. Because what I was saying is not necessarily what I would have normally said. And every other sentence was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how our message is an opportunity for each of us to accept the Atonement into our own lives. At the end of the RDV, Paola started talking about how so many things have been happening in her life and the last three days she has been in a depression. She said that she knows she is in France for a reason, she started crying. We invited both of the girls to come to church the next day and they agreed! They came and had a really good experience and we have a RDV scheduled with them on Wednesday again. It was such a miracle though because the headquarter phone number for Paola was incorrect and the door number address was also incorrect. So we had been knocking on the wrong door, had left the BOM in the wrong mailbox and had been calling the wrong number, but "happened" to meet her on the street that day. Now, I just need to work on learning a little bit of spanish. :)
3. We were on the train this week and sat across from this guy who looked gangster. Soeur Dawson asked him how you say something in french, and we started talking to him. Ultimately we started talking about who we are and we invited him to come to church with us the next day. He agreed and he came for all three hours! He loved it he said. He told one of the elders at church that the day before he met us he prayed that God would lead him to the right path and the next day he met us so he took it as a sign from God. We set up a RDV with him on Saturday. The thing is though, he sent us a text late last night and told us that he talked to some friends after church and they told him that the mormons are crazy and he shouldnt listen to us, etc. So he sent us a text saying he didnt want to meet with us anymore. So, we are going to call him tonight and talk to him about the importance of going to the source, asking God and not basing everything on the opinion of man.
4. During exchanges a few weeks ago I was with Soeur Didier and we contacted someone in the metro station in Paris. Her name is Sandrine and we ended up talking to her for 45 minutes. IN the end she said it wasnt coincidence we met her because she had been sitting in the metro station and just felt the need to change seats for no reason and then a few minutes later we walked up and contacted her. So, we gave her number to the elders because she doesnt live in our area. I talked to the elders a couple days ago and they said they met with her last week and after the RDV she took them to sushi where they talked about the gospel for another two hours. They said that they're meeting with her two times a week now and that she's amazing.
5. We have been teaching Bettina, this lady from Guadelupe since I have been in Versailles, the missionaries have been teaching her since February. We have been frustrated because we have tried teaching everything we know to teach and have been trying to figure out how we can better integrate her, etc. A couple weeks ago we decided we needed to fast for her that she could have a spiritual experience and know how important it was to Heavenly Father that she gets baptized. That Thursday we had meant to call our mission leader and ask him to teach the sunday school class on the role of the Holy Ghost. We had forgotten to do it on Thursday so showed up on Sunday to amis class and Frere Grenier said, "the lesson today is on the role of the Holy Ghost." Soeur Dawson looked at me and said, "did you call him?" No, I didnt. It was a miracle. After amis class Bettina said she understood so much better who the Holy Ghost was. Then we had our RDV on Friday at the Babin family's house. The lesson was on recognizing the Holy Ghost. At the end of the lesson we asked if she would heed the impressions that she receives from the Holy Ghost. She responded, "yes, the Holy Ghost already told me I need to get baptized." We were shocked. We asked her when she knew that (because the week before we asked her for times she had felt the Holy Ghost and she couldn't come up with any) she told two experiences taht happened to her when she felt the Holy Ghost, one reading a conference talk, the other was during a sacrament talk at church. Then she said when she was in amis class on sunday and the lesson was on the Holy Ghost she felt something strange and knew that she needed to be baptized. We told her that was the Holy Ghost. She said she knew she needed to be baptized and was still scared to do so but knew it was what God wants for her but for some reason she feels like she needs to wait until she goes hoem to Guadelupe in December and is with her family. As she was talking she started crying. (she never shows any emotion in our RDVs) and she said that she knew at that moment that the reason she needs to wait until December is so that she can be an example for the rest of her family in being baptized. It was so cool. And it really strengthened my testimony that this work is not our own. It wasnt anything that Soeur Dawson or I did to help her receive that confirmation, it was ultimately just between herself and God. We are just so blessed to literally be the instruments in God's hands to help people develop their own personal relationship with God But we are just the instruments in God's hands to allow the spirit to work through these people who are already prepared for the gospel. I realize more and more how important it is to stop relying on our own abilities or to think that we have control of things and instead when we can put our full faith, confidence and trust in God and understand that this is truly His work, He is able to work so much better through us as missionaries.
Thank you so much for all your prayers and for all of your support and for all of your love. I love you!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Hi family!
This weekend we had a mini missionary with us, Aileen Christensen. She has been staying with the Poznanski's for a few weeks before she is going to study abroad in England. It was so good to have her with us. She is twenty and her mom was the mission companion of Soeur Poznanski! Anyways, this girl is awesome and we had a lot of really cool experiences. Last night before we went out to go porting, we prayed that we would be able to teach a lesson, because our two RDVs we had set up had fallen through. So we prayed and last night almost every person that we talked to was open and was excited to talk to us. We ended up getting in and teaching a lesson to this woman, Rosette who has been taught by missionaries before actually. It was so cool to have Aileen with us to and her testimony was so strong and powerful about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith as a prophet.
We started teaching a woman this week, Emilie, who is a referral from a woman in the ward. It's so cool because we went over there and she had already started reading the Book of Mormon and highlighting it. She said she still had a difficult time praying and couldnt find the words. Ultimately at the end of our first lesson she prayed for the first time with us! It was really cool.
I wrote a longer email to mom and dad but please pray for Soeur Dawson and I, these last couple weeks have been some of the most difficult of my mission for me.
Sorry, this is shorter! But I hope everyone has a great week and keep doing good things! I love you!
Soeur Chard
Hi family!
This week was great! There were a lot of highs and a lot of lows this week, quite crazy. But in the end, that's all part of the experience so it was good. Two highlights of the week: 1. The Teixeira Conference was so great. I was sitting waiting for it to start and suddenly someone came up behind me and gave me a huge hug and it was Filomena! Both she and Elder Teixeira did such a great job. The funniest part was when Sister Teixeira was giving her part, and she was talking about how we need to eat well and she said, "look at president Poznanski, he has gained about 8 kilos since he's been president, he doesnt look the same as when I first met him. You dont want to gain 8 kilos." Yeah, everyone was kind of awkwardly laughing, probably some damage control from Soeur Poznanski after that one. haha
Elder Teixeira talked a lot about the importance of being a missionary in every aspect of the word and breaking cultural barriers; He talked about when he went to Sao Paolo to be mission pres, he saw the mission average for lessons taught was 6 or 7 and in his first zone conference he told the missionaries he was changing the standard of excellence to 21 lessons a week. About three weeks went by and Elder Sullivan mailed him and got 21 lessons and apparently never had a week after that on his mission he didnt teach 21 lessons. Ultimately this elder was district leader and his whole district started teaching 21 a week, then when he was zone leader his whole zone started teaching 21, etc. It was a crazy cool story. He talked a little bit about breaking cultural barriers as well, how we need to identify if people are being held back because they dont understand the doctrine or if it is because of cultural things holding them back. That's something Soeur Dawson and I have been trying to work on, is how to break down cultural walls. Anyways, it was such a great conference, zone conferences are definitely one of my favorite things. It was so much fun too seeing the Teixeira family, they were so nice. And one of my favorite parts, an elder and sister sang "The Prayer" you know by Andrei Bodicelli and I got to accompany them, and it was so good. They have the most amazing voices, they both want to sing professionally after mission. They sang for the special musical number and then were asked to do an encore and sing it again at the end. It was beautiful.
This week we also had a rendez-vous with Jehovah Witnesses, first and last. It was so exhausting spiritually and mentally. At the end we left it well, told them how great it is to see other people living their faith and sharing it with other people. Im grateful for the Book of Mormon so that everything isnt just based on different interpretations of the Bible.
The other awesome thing this week was our lesson with Alejandra. We invited her to the church to have a picnic slash a lesson. This was going to be really our first real lesson with her, last time it was really just listening to her and figuring out where she was at and explaining a little who we were as missionaries. So, we got all the stuff ready for dinner, Soeur Dawson made special chicken for the sandwiches, etc. etc. we tried to dress so that we looked as normal as possible, (not black skirts to the floor) and we went to meet her at the church. She had eight exams that week and for some reason still made time to take a train and a bus so she could have a rendez-vous with us. We were honestly wondering how she had so much motivation to make time out of her busy schedule to meet with us before she really even knows anything. So to start off the lesson we just asked her what she knew about our church, she said "really nothing honestly."
So, we had planned to share the Joseph Smith story and just focus on his experience. At the end she said, "I wish I was like Joseph Smith and could receive answers from God." She said for so long in her life she has always heard about people saying God speaks to them and she was always frustrated because she never had any experience when she felt like God has spoken to her. One night she was watching something on TV and it was about children in Africa and all the tragedies there. She was so frustrated because that's her whole desire to help people in Africa but she just feels stuck and doesnt know how to help or how to move forward in her life. She said that night she went into her room so frustrated and then she saw her Bible. She opened it up to a random page and read the scripture that says "for everything there is a time and a season." she said she felt something really strongly and she said, "it was really weird because I even started to cry because fo the feeling." she called her dad because she was so excited and said, "God just spoke to me!" She said she wants more direction in her life and to learn how God spekas to her. We told her that she could, we told her about the Book of Mormon and she said she wanted to start that night reading. It was a really good lesson, keep praying for her!
I love you all!
Love,
Soeur Alyssa Chard
Hi family!
This week has been so good. Honestly, now the transfers just keeping better and better. Soeur Dawson said she has never been so happy on her mission as she is this transfer and I feel the same way. We love it and we love each other so much. Yesterday we went over to one of the J.A. (YSA) houses and Nicole said, "wow, I can really tell that you gel so well, you can feel it;" We think the same way, we are often thinking the same things, it is just so good and we love it. It is so fulfilling. It's still hard but it's hard because we are constantly strategizing and trying new things, it's so fun.
I want to tell a story about a new ami we met with for the first time on Tuesday. We contacted her a few weeks ago (last one of the night) and she ended up being a student from Venezuela but speaks english really well, wants to move to New York and is in Paris studying right now. She is twenty. We had a really good conversation and were all three friends really fast. So we told her we are missionaries and are here to help people strengthen their faith in Christ, would she be interested in meeting with us again? She said sure why not. So she offered to meet us in Starbucks because she cant meet at her house since she lives with a family.
When we walked away Soeur Dawson started crying because this girl is like her twin. Soeur Dawson is from Venezuela as well, lived in the Caribbean (as did this girl...her name is Alejandra), she was contacted by the missionaries in the street and her first lesson with the missionaries happened to be in a Starbucks.
So we went for our lesson and we brought a member who is from Mexico who is also a student here in Paris with us. We went to the Starbucks and Alejandra was there waiting for us. We talked and found out more about her history and her life. And she is Soeur Dawson's twin. LIterally, she is an only child, her parents were divorced when she was young, she grew up with her father, went through a period of time when she and her dad werent talking, she was engaged and broke it off right before the wedding. All the same things have happened to Soeur Dawson.
We asked her what her passions are, she said she has seen the hand of God in her life. Her passions are modeling and helping other people. If I had more time I would go more into detail about the modeling, but it's not sketchy at all. This girl is so good and so pure, you can tell. Alejandra said she has goals but she's in a place in her life where she doesnt really know what the future is going to bring. Anyways, Soeur Dawson, Karen, me and Alejandra all have connections with serving people in Africa. We told Alejandra that although we all have different backgrounds, in a lot of ways we all have similar goals. we all have passions that we want to be able to use throughout our life to help other people. WE told her that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what gives us direction and helps us know how to accomplish those goals. Honestly, we dont really remember everything we said exactly but it was really cool. We invited her to start taking the lessons and she said, "yes of course!" So we are meeting her again tomorrow. Please pray for her that she will be touched by the gospel! :)
Otherwise, we are now working a lot with teh J.A. the J.A. in this ward are amazing. Theres a lot of them and they are super strong and really social. So we have started meeting with two or so J.A. a week to discuss what we can do to help them as missionary work and it is so cool to see how Heavenly Father is inspiring us as missionaries and them as young adults. Last night we met with two J.A., both recent converts and both who are preparing to go on missions (girls). We realized there's no type of mission prep here and there are so many J.A. who potentially may want to serve missions but dont even really know what to expect. We still have to talk to our mission leader etc. but we want to do a mission prep type of thing night for our ward. We are excited about it!
I love you all, sorry I dont have time to write personal emails today, we have to run to catch a bus right no! I love you and hope you have a fabulous week!
love,
Soeur Chard
Hello Family!
Well, as I mentioned to mom on Saturday, I am staying in Versailles! Soeur Turney is going home on Wednesday and Soeur Dawson is coming down to Versailles with me!
Honestly, this last transfer has been so absolutely incredible in so many ways. It has been such a happy transfer for me and Soeur Turney and I have seen so many miracles. It feels like every single time we have gone out contacting or knocking doors we find someone who is amazing and so prepared to listen to us. It doesnt always mean we get to teach them another lesson but for example we were contacting the other day and met a woman who is from Vietnam. She told us that she is Buddhist but that she also has a very strong belief in God and in Jesus Christ. She ended up crying on the street while she was telling us two experiences she had in her life so that she knows that God is there and that He knows and cares about her personally. It ends up that her husband met with missionaries years ago, she wasnt interested in meeting with us again now but she recognized the Book of Mormon and accepted one when we gave her one. We have been meeting incredible people like that almost every day this transfer, it has honestly been incredible.
As far as people we are teaching, we have hit a gold mine in these two apartment buildings fairly close to our house. We spent a lot of time porting both the building and are now working with four or five families we have found there. We have seen so many miracles there. One family we found a couple weeks ago, years ago the man met missionaries and pulled out a dusty Book of Mormon from another room. The wife had also been contacted by missionaries years ago. The husband came to church yesterday and ended up staying all three hours! We will see what happens, but they are amazing. Another woman named Marie-Claire we met in the same apartment building a few weeks ago and have been able to teach her three times. She wouldnt take a Book of Mormon when we met her at the door, but she said she was interested in our message because we said it was about Christ. As we have taught her the first few lessons it has been amazing to see her progress. She started out so skeptical, and watching her beginning to take steps to find out for herself if the message we are telling her is true has been so amazing to see. We're nervous though because she said she would come to church yesterday, and at the last minute said she couldnt because her husband wouldnt let her. We are supposed to have a lesson with her tonight and she didnt answer when we tried to call, so we are really hoping we will be able to see her tonight!
I am really nervous for this upcoming transfer though. The most nervous I have ever been going into a new transfer. Because first of all, I have a feeling we are going to be lost all the time. I still do not know my way around well at all. In Caen I could just carry around the map but in Versailles the map book is about 20 pounds aka impossible to carry around! And we have a lot of new people to work with, we have a lot of work right now which is so exciting but also such a big responsibility. It's a big ward so I feel like I dont know the ward as well as I would like to, I just feel very very inadequate in almost every single way. Soeur Turney has been so good. I was sitting at dinner last night and she said, "how are you doing?" Me: "honestly, I am so nervous. I dont know if I can do it." Soeur Turney just said, "just love. Love the people we are teaching, love Soeur Dawson and love the Lord and everything else will work out." So Im just trying to do that. And praying a lot.
I love you all so much, be nice to mom on Mothers Day!
Love
Soeur Chard
