Spiritual Push-Ups

     French Fact. They like when you're American. They like telling you that you are American. A lot of times people are like, "You're not from here, are you?" And then I get really offended and say that I am from France, as you can tell by my French accent. They laugh and say there is no way you are from France. Then, my comp usually hasn't said anything, so they ask if she's French. Then I get more offended. They laugh some more. And then I invite them to learn how to be happier. 

Auto Tamponantes in Chalon

     Last Monday was my half birthday. Woot Woot! Pretty much all of Chalon knows me at this point, so they had a week-long carnival in my honor! I could only go to it on Pday, but the efforts were appreciated comme meme. Really, I only liked the Auto Tamponantes (aka Bumper Cars) and this really long string candy that tasted kind of like Sour Patch Kids. Also, I decided I only like French shoes and children's books. So that's all I like to look at when my companion wants me to go shopping. But if you can find a sweet book about how to get rid of vampires, who's complaining? Not I, said the little red hen. I also hit my five month mark last week. Sisters Christensen and Jones made me a sign on my desk about it and figured I'd be upset so they bought me a chocolate eclair to make up for it. The challenge of the week was to have a Monster Day. That's when you walk really fast and work more hours than normal. Honestly, it felt like a normal day, but with less meal times. I think the only major difference was attitude. We decided to do it and we were amped up and ready to work hard. We were anticipating miracles and actively seeking them. We ended up having like six lessons in one day. Which is awesome. The only problem is keeping that attitude all the time. I think I do pretty well, but I just have to get my comp to want it too. Working on it. 

     Our mission is really stressing having conversations with people versus just contacting them. I like this. You never know what will happen. I told a guy that I liked his mustache a lot and I've been trying to grow one for years and can he teach me? He laughs and then I have to be really creative in tying it in to Jesus Christ. In our District Meeting this week, Elder Kunzler told us that it's really good when you let people feed you because it helps them to love you more. He told us about a contact he had, where some ladies made him sandwiches. So I tried it out this week and this guy ripped me off a piece of his hot dog. It was pretty good. Also, a lady called us "immable" which apparently means nice and polite, so we used it in the rest of our contacts that day because it was such a weird word. I would just say Are you immable? Or what is immable? Or what can we do to be more immable? You know who is immable? Jesus Christ. 

Making New Friends

     Here's a miracle. We have our family that really doesn't speak French and we planned a lesson with them. We had tried all the people we knew to get to teach with us but couldn't find anyone. All day I was praying that if it was God's will, He would help us find someone to teach with so that this family could understand. It came time and we still didn't have anyone. We went anyways and they weren't even home! I had the distinct thought that it was okay because there was someone else we needed to teach. We went porting in the area and found this sweet lady who had been given some books by some TJ's years ago and so that's all that she's had to learn religion because she can't read French very well, only Armenian. She was so cool and has an adorable family and wants her children to grow up righteous. Awesome. We told her not to worry because we can teach her and give her all the materials in her own language. Fulfilment of prophecy? I think yes. The next day, the other sisters were blitzing on their exchange, meaning the other equip came to Chalon so they could do double the work. Sister Carvahlo is from Portugal and so they were able to come with us, on the fly, to visit our Portuguese family, who were actually home! God knows and loves all His children. He knows what He's doing. On another note, we were able to find an old ami. She was only met with once and they didn't get her number. But we visited and they happened to be home. We had a Lecon 0 with her and Sister Packard briefly mentioned baptism and she jumped at it! She said that's what I need! I need to be baptized! Fixed a date for November 23. Our ami, Soufiane, who moved to Paris, called us. He told us the missionaries in Paris called and he saw them on the bus, but was too scared to talk to them. I freaked out, as per usual, and said, What! You need to go up to those missionaries and say Hi I want to be baptized! And tell whoever they're talking to that they should really listen to these guys. He laughed and agreed. Then he asked if he could still get married if he was baptized. Of course! And he asked if he had to marry other Mormons because he didn't know any. I explained temples and told him to go to church. He's still reading scriptures and doing better at not smoking, so I'm really proud of him. But he said he's too stressed trying to find a job right now to meet with the missionaries. So I may or may not bug him all the time. He'll come around eventually. 

Save a Sole lately?

     We had a killer Relief Society activity this week, given by Soeur Miller. It was about food storage and emergency preparedness. We got to talk about spiritual emergency preparedness, so I obviously related it to sports. (Don't worry, I've been doing the 30 day arm working and jump roping to prepare for all my "trials" aka about 40 hymn books). But I was able to bond with Soeur Hemy, who apparently played sports as a kid. And Soeur DuCoeur sat next to me and we kept sneaking candy. And Agathe is turning in her papers to serve a mission in April. That was a pretty good day. Sunday was a little more rough. Apparently the RS President flipped out in the middle of her lesson. We had two amis at church and we taught them with our DMP, his wife, and a recently activated member. It really was great until Frere Landre mentioned something about there being more than one God and then our ami, Lewis, was upset about it. Our other ami was totally oblivious. But now we have to do some damage control. We also finally got the member, Sheila, who we met at the bus stop to come to church with her daughter. And Sacrament meeting was super good. Our Branch President is awesome. He's super jolly. That's the only word I can use to describe him. We're finally starting to get the missionary work rolling here and more of the members involved. They are really awesome at fellow shipping them at church. And they are so happy when we get amis to come. Now we just have to help them forget about their past feuds between each other and it'll be perfect. Vive la France and les petites branches. Too much history. But we're working on it and I think it's getting slightly better. We did have a member randomly show up to a lesson. I guess they were friends and our ami knew that he was a member. Sweet. Also, we're probably going to a basketball game this week with a member and our amis, so psyched for that. 

     I guess I'll just leave you with the challenge to invite. If members here can give out BOMs and invited people to activities so can you. In fact, I think it's a lot easier for you. Figure something out. Invite a friend and the missionaries over for dinner. Invite them to the Halloween activity (because I know that they happen). Invite them to FHE. Make a game plan and go for it. Some really spiritual man once said that a missionary without goals is a tragedy. Well it's the same for members. If you aren't a member, invite yourself. I do it all the time. There's probably free food.