July 1, 2013

OH my goooooodddnesss!!!

how good was that broadcast???? ya no worries i only got to watch Elder perry's talk and it was in french sooo naturally we took time out of P day today to come and watch the full thing! i can't believe how inspired that broadcast was.... you have no idea how this news will change the work here in france.... the people here are exactly what they said, "not exactly open to let strangers into their home" but have no fear we have the BEST WARD in the world here in St. Etienne... they have already fixed a handful of RDV's with us before that anouncement even came.  I have two RDV's with different families in the ward with their non-member friends.  This ward has the missionary spirit and it has been sooo great to work with them!

Ok so this week...

So we still don't have a stove or an oven... so we have been eating cereal and yogurt and salads for the past week! but like i said, best ward ever, they have fed us and taken care of us.  But who knows the words for fridge installation electricity table and gas gage in french... not sister mod but you better believe i do now! this week has been baptism by fire and its been AWESOME! seriously its been quite the game of cherades? don't know if that's how you spell it but its been a lot of acting out what we are trying to say! my companion doesn't speak very much french but she is so sweet and has a strong testimony and that is all you need! she bears her testimony everytime she feels prompted to and it is broken and incorrect but sooo powerful! i love working with her! my french has skyrocketed this week being forced to speak it and answer the phone which is soooo hard! french over the phone is hard to understand when you don't speak french:) but ya all the members are impressed by my french and i am like its not me its HIm and i point to the sky and they laugh and say... we know:) 

So wednesday we had a lesson with the fernandes family.  The dad is excommunicated and his new wife is not a member and all three of his kids were just baptized... they just recieve the gift of the holy ghost yesterday and it was soooo great! still haven't been to a baptism but our mission president sent out a charge for 50 baptisms in the month of july... we are determined to be one of them! so anyways we had a follow up lesson with that family which is fun because i have never made it past the 2nd lesson really now i am past that and teaching commandments and stuff! haha once again huge learning curve! they are sooo great though! one of the little girls is an artist and she is really good and we just found out the next temple trip is right after her birthday so she can go and she is soooo stoked! oh they are the cutest kids ever!!! then we had english class and only gabi showed up... he is an autistic boy in the ward and seriously he will make you cry! he is the epidmy of the light of christ! you know his spirit is half in heaven and half here! he always comes bounding up to us and says LES SOEURS LES SOEURS! ahhhh he is sooo great! so we called the Relief society president to set up a rdv with her and she is like ya come over tonight i am so excited to meet you! so we go over she makes us dinner she has two little girls and a brand new baby and she is like how can i help you! we have this family that we are working with and it would be awesome to set up another time so you can teach them and all this stuff i am like YOU ARE AMAZING! she gave us people to visit and we were on our way! i am like what just happend? we didn't not have a functioning unit in perpignan and to be honest with you all now it was extremely difficult coming from utah where the wards support themselves and you have maybe a handful of less actives to 200 less actives and no one fulfilling their calling.  It was hard to have that as my first area i thought all the wards in france were in dyer need of help just to support themselves.  I thought to myself "how am i supposed to bring amis to church if i don't feel like it is a good environment for them?" and the broadcast nailed in on the head when they said "you have to support and edify those who are already apart of your unit before you can invite others to be apart" its soooo true and this ward is already there!

Then on thursday we street boarded with the elders... can i just say its soooo fun to work in a city with elders! there is sooo much more you can do as an equipe of elders and equipe of sisters! we visit the single women in the ward and they visit the single men and we work together its soooo great! a street board is where you have some sort of mormon add and you put it up in a square and contact people and answer people's questions as they come up to you.  its sooo great! i am not afraid of contacting anymore at all! in fact my companion told me this week that i am an inspiration to her... if i can brag for just a minute because i have had to work soooo hard to conquer this fear.  She told me this because she said when i contact people on the street i am normal and confident and i can love and get people to love me and be comfortable with me super fast.  She is like i will look over at you and you will be in a deep conversation with someone on the street that you met 5 minutes ago and they are telling you all about their lives.  She is like its insane how many quality conversations you get on the street! but the lord is blessing me tremendously! we received so many people's numbers this week and set up so many rdv's this week we are trying to find time to find people when usually our whole days are filled with finding.  just yesterday we set up 2 rdv's with people that we met on the street and we only contacted 25 people the whole day! we were fasting that day for miracles and we saw them in abundance!

Saturday we had scheduled a miracle into our planner! and we said at 4 we will find someone to teach! so we were in the most enchanting little town outside the city visiting a family who wasn't home to we found another name on the list that lived there and trucked over to her house.  wellll come to find out she is the ex wife of our ward mission leader... hahah ya we had no idea but we went in and were getting to know her and she is like ya ya i have faith ya i love alma 32 because that's what we shared with her and just asked her to continue to grow her faith and all that good stuff. and she is like ya i live in sin and i live with my boyfriend but ya this church is so great... we were like what? as we taught her she has a super strong testimony of this church and we were like what the heck? and we don't know the ward so for all we know she was active we didn't know? so we are like will we see you at church tomorrow and she is like ya probably? we were like ok cool! haha guess who came to church the next day? soeur sala! miracle the ward was like what the heck how did you know to visit her she hasn't been here in a while? we were like she was the only one that lived in the town we were in? haha and we visted her at 4 o clock saturday afternoon:) miracle! ahhh man i could go on and on with all the miracles that happened here! the lord is helping us sooo much  here its crazy! the next city to be translated will be this one i promise you! anyways my thought for all of you from the broadcast:

My thoughts from the broadcast are this... the Lord is hastening his work and soooo many of us have headed the call.  So many of our family members have served missions, my dear boyfriend has served a mission, our colleagues and acquaintances have served missions.  The plaque doesn't come off when you get released as a full time missionary.  The plaque should be imprinted into your heart for time and all eternity.  I love that quote from Joseph smith that talks about how the church will go forward despite all odds.  The Lord has called every single one of you to be a missionary at this epic time in his work.  You are all capable of heading this call even in Utah where everyone is mormon... there are people out there that need a boast and there are still people even in Utah:) who haven't heard the gospel! get on your knees and pray for missionary oppurtunities and when they present themselves because i know they will be ready and willing to act! "wishing will not make it so, the Lord expects are actions" ~ president Monson please everyone who is reading this, this gospel is a blessing and the ONLY true church on the earth! when you are scared to open your mouth to share it think, "do they need Jesus christ in their life" the answer is always yes!! support the missionaries! have them over for a brief spiritual thought and ask them how you can help them in their efforts! invite friends over often who may need a boast from the missionaries! look for ways to serve always! love you all! this church is sooo true and jesus christ is the savior and redeemer of the world! He is hastening his work now because the people of this world need it more than ever before! help Him in His effort!

Have a good week! 

Sister Mod