Hi family!
This week was really good. We had interviews with the Poznanski's, and for sure it was my favorite interviews and so inspired. I honestly felt like President Poznanski was answering my prayers like it was Heavenly Father talking directly through him. I was so thankful for it. He said so many things that comforted me and helped me understand better my purpose. He said something to the effect of, "Soeur Chard, Heavenly Father is putting you through a refiner's fire on your mission because He's molding you for a purpose for work you need to do later." One thing that Soeur Poznanski and President Poznanski both said to me in my interviews that has really stuck with me: "you are relying too much on your own abilities, you need to rely on the Atonement more."
So the next day we had planned to go porte in Vaucresson. I am always a person who has to know exactly where we are going, when, and then we stick to the schedule. I kept remembering what the Poznanski's told me and made the decision that I was just going to try to follow the spirit and not be too concerned about what I thought we should be doing. (Soeur Dawson is very good at doing that, following the spirit.) So before we walked out the door I said, "wait, Soeur Dawson. Tell me who you think we are going to meet who will be interested." She stopped and then she said, "we are going to meet someone kind of like you. She kind of looks like you, she'll have a big smile and it will seem like she doesn't really belong." Then we prayed and left.
We headed over to Vaucresson and it takes about an hour and twenty minutes with trajet to get over there. We got over to the apartment building we were going to porte because a member lives there and we had felt the spirit strongly last time we had been there so we wanted to go back. We realized when we got there we only had twenty minutes before we had to head back home, unless we taught a lesson we could stay for forty minutes. So we prayed, and then walked in to start porting. We got inside and just felt weird. We went to knock the first door and didnt feel good so we walked down a level and went to go knock another door. I was about the knock on the door and I looked at Soeur Dawson and said, "how do you feel?" She said, "weird." So we walked out of the building. At this point we now had about ten minutes left before we had to head back home for the night. We felt like we should start walking back to the train station. We were walking and I looked across the street where there were a bunch of nice, gated houses. (usually dont target those ones. :) ). But I said, "Let's go knock those ones." At this point we now had zero minutes left before we had to leave to be home on time. We started walking down the street and Soeur Dawson stopped in front of a house and said, "let's do this one." So we sonneted and this girl who is about my age who kind of looks like me with a huge smile came outside. We started speaking in french and then she said, "Wait, do you go to Paris International School by chance?" This girl graduated in 2010 from Paris International School and her mom is Irish and her dad is British. I told her I went to FIS, etc. etc. We asked her if she was religious, she said she believed in God didn't really know about Christ and was open to learning more. So we got her number and are trying to fix something this week. She was the one person we talked to in Vaucresson that night but it was such an example to me that when I was finally willing to stop trying to control things so much, that's when we were able to be led by the spirit. It was awesome.
I am excited for Soeur Dawson to come home and meet all of you, she knows so much about our family, what we do, so much about each of you. She says she already feels like she'll be calling mom and dad mom and pops. So, basically you are possibly about to have a fourth Chard girl. :)
I know that the gospel blesses families and I know as we put our faith in the Atonement of Christ we can do anything the Lord asks us to do. And I know without the Atonement of Christ, we are so limited in our capacities. I know God loves us and He knows us and He knows already every choice we are going to make and He still always makes it possible for each of us to return back to Him. I know challenges are given to us to help us learn and grow and that they are all for a purpose. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Following the Spirit
Monday, July 9, 2012
Singing in the Rain
Hi!
So this week, wild. These two transfers have just been crazy. Crazy hard hard hard. Finally Soeur Dawson and I identified as we have from the last transfer or so that we felt like we had lost our personalities in a big way and we were taking ourselves so seriously. The last zone conference was all about how to start teaching 21 lessons a week (the mission average right now is about 7). The big push was to talk to EVERYONE. If you arent talking to someone, there is a problem. And it was good, there have been miracles in the mission thanks to this zone conference and it was definitely inspired. For Soeur Dawson and I though we started taking ourselves so seriously and were becoming missionaries where it just seems like you are trying to stay afloat. We got tons of phone numbers (we had 42 numbers we were trying to contact at one point) but not a lot happening as far as work went. The more focused we became on the physical, "talk to everyone" the less it became about the actual people and the more it came about just doing things to do it. The more keeping rules was just out of guilt and obligation. Everything was just getting worse and worse, studies we were only studying strictly for our amis and we have taught so many first lessons these last two transfers, so studies started becoming just really routine. In brief, we were both really struggling to make things work.
So, what happened is that a few days ago for language study Soeur Dawson turned on a movie about the Atonement in french to watch. I was studying something else but ended up going over and sitting next to her and watching with her. I just started crying so hard watching the Atonement and everything Christ went through and how even He was rejected by so many people. And how He atoned for the very people who rejected Him too. And I looked at how He reacted in the face of opposition and how calm and at peace He was. And I realized again how through the Atonement, all of us can be healed and I realized what that meant a little bit more for each of us. And my thought was, "I dont know how I could ever repay Christ for what He did for me." Then it was our lunch break, and I laid down on my bed for a few minutes. I was drifting into sleep and suddenly I heard someone in the apartment upstairs playing the piano and it was a song I have played before. Suddenly the thought just came into my mind, "you need to go play the piano and Soeur Dawson needs to sing and you need to bear your testimony of Jesus Christ through music." So, I woke up and told Soeur Dawson. (Soeur Dawson is an amazing singer). She said, "okay, let's go immediately." So we started walking. One woman we contacted a few weeks ago named Pamela came to my mind, because I remember she had a piano in her house. She had told us she was too busy to have another lesson after the first but had said if I ever wanted to play the piano we could come over. We went over and she happened to be home. We ended up singing/playing "Come thou Fount" and then "I know that my Redeemer Lives." The spirit was strong and the lady put everything away and just sat down and listened. She said she's been going through a difficult time and she felt so much peace when she heard the music. She asked for the address again of our church and said she's going to try to come in a few weeks when she's able to again.
Later that night we were at home finishing our weekly planning. We were both just feeling so mellow and like I said like we have been taking ourselves so seriously, the joy has been lost from the work and it has made it so difficult. It was pouring rain outside and we looked outside and Soeur Dawson said, "that would be so fun to be out in the rain." I said, "Let's go." So we went running outside in the pouring rain for five minutes and we just got completely soaked and we really laughed for the first time in a long time and it was so good. We came back that night and we went over to Soeur Any, a member in the ward who's entire family is in the Cote d'Ivoire in the war and she is here alone in France. We went and sang for her and then ported some of her building. And we just took time to really talk to each other and we laughed and it was so good.
So what I have been learning is first of all, how to measure true success. Sometimes we can all get caught up on something that seems to be the "true measure of success." Maybe that's reaching 21 lessons. Which starts off as a good goal, but as you become so focused on the destination, you lost the joy in the journey. It was to the point we would have really good things and lots of miracles happening, and we were losing sight of them because we never felt like we were measuring up. And I'm learning to make what the Lord want what you want. Something interesting in stake conference taht was said about a month ago that stuck with me was something that Brother Jones said. He had just been called as a new bishop and he went and asked other Bishops for their advice. Their advice was to listen to the Holy Ghost. They said there will always be so many opinions and so much advice thrown at you from so many people and they are all important things to listen to, but in the end, the most important counsel and advice you will be able to receive is from direction from the Holy Ghost. Those promptings will never lead you astray. I am learning how important and how true that is.
Have a fabulous week!
Love,
Soeur Chard
So this week, wild. These two transfers have just been crazy. Crazy hard hard hard. Finally Soeur Dawson and I identified as we have from the last transfer or so that we felt like we had lost our personalities in a big way and we were taking ourselves so seriously. The last zone conference was all about how to start teaching 21 lessons a week (the mission average right now is about 7). The big push was to talk to EVERYONE. If you arent talking to someone, there is a problem. And it was good, there have been miracles in the mission thanks to this zone conference and it was definitely inspired. For Soeur Dawson and I though we started taking ourselves so seriously and were becoming missionaries where it just seems like you are trying to stay afloat. We got tons of phone numbers (we had 42 numbers we were trying to contact at one point) but not a lot happening as far as work went. The more focused we became on the physical, "talk to everyone" the less it became about the actual people and the more it came about just doing things to do it. The more keeping rules was just out of guilt and obligation. Everything was just getting worse and worse, studies we were only studying strictly for our amis and we have taught so many first lessons these last two transfers, so studies started becoming just really routine. In brief, we were both really struggling to make things work.
So, what happened is that a few days ago for language study Soeur Dawson turned on a movie about the Atonement in french to watch. I was studying something else but ended up going over and sitting next to her and watching with her. I just started crying so hard watching the Atonement and everything Christ went through and how even He was rejected by so many people. And how He atoned for the very people who rejected Him too. And I looked at how He reacted in the face of opposition and how calm and at peace He was. And I realized again how through the Atonement, all of us can be healed and I realized what that meant a little bit more for each of us. And my thought was, "I dont know how I could ever repay Christ for what He did for me." Then it was our lunch break, and I laid down on my bed for a few minutes. I was drifting into sleep and suddenly I heard someone in the apartment upstairs playing the piano and it was a song I have played before. Suddenly the thought just came into my mind, "you need to go play the piano and Soeur Dawson needs to sing and you need to bear your testimony of Jesus Christ through music." So, I woke up and told Soeur Dawson. (Soeur Dawson is an amazing singer). She said, "okay, let's go immediately." So we started walking. One woman we contacted a few weeks ago named Pamela came to my mind, because I remember she had a piano in her house. She had told us she was too busy to have another lesson after the first but had said if I ever wanted to play the piano we could come over. We went over and she happened to be home. We ended up singing/playing "Come thou Fount" and then "I know that my Redeemer Lives." The spirit was strong and the lady put everything away and just sat down and listened. She said she's been going through a difficult time and she felt so much peace when she heard the music. She asked for the address again of our church and said she's going to try to come in a few weeks when she's able to again.
Later that night we were at home finishing our weekly planning. We were both just feeling so mellow and like I said like we have been taking ourselves so seriously, the joy has been lost from the work and it has made it so difficult. It was pouring rain outside and we looked outside and Soeur Dawson said, "that would be so fun to be out in the rain." I said, "Let's go." So we went running outside in the pouring rain for five minutes and we just got completely soaked and we really laughed for the first time in a long time and it was so good. We came back that night and we went over to Soeur Any, a member in the ward who's entire family is in the Cote d'Ivoire in the war and she is here alone in France. We went and sang for her and then ported some of her building. And we just took time to really talk to each other and we laughed and it was so good.
So what I have been learning is first of all, how to measure true success. Sometimes we can all get caught up on something that seems to be the "true measure of success." Maybe that's reaching 21 lessons. Which starts off as a good goal, but as you become so focused on the destination, you lost the joy in the journey. It was to the point we would have really good things and lots of miracles happening, and we were losing sight of them because we never felt like we were measuring up. And I'm learning to make what the Lord want what you want. Something interesting in stake conference taht was said about a month ago that stuck with me was something that Brother Jones said. He had just been called as a new bishop and he went and asked other Bishops for their advice. Their advice was to listen to the Holy Ghost. They said there will always be so many opinions and so much advice thrown at you from so many people and they are all important things to listen to, but in the end, the most important counsel and advice you will be able to receive is from direction from the Holy Ghost. Those promptings will never lead you astray. I am learning how important and how true that is.
Have a fabulous week!
Love,
Soeur Chard
Pday Switcheroo
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
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
Monday, June 25, 2012
Good Week!
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
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
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Pray!
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
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
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Loving June
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
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
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