Faith vs. Logic (vit fait)

     Frenchie Factoid: So you know how in Brasil, people shake their hand and snap their fingers together really loud? I can't do that. But it's ok, because in France they do the same thing but without snapping! It's like the weak sauce version of Brasilian snapping. There's part one. Part two presented itself when I asked the other missionaries in this internet cafe what werid thing I could send you this week and Elder Schneider, bonifide Frenchman, said Why don't you just describe the situation right now? So here it is. Picture this: I'm sitting in an internet cafe run by several Muslim men with children apprentices. Sometimes they are tired and decide not to open this store until later, it really depends on how they're feeling. Today, they felt good. We are typing on a ridiculous keyboard where you have to press shift to type any kind of punctuation or number. Here's the best part- we get to listen to Another Sad Love Song and various other oldies that aren't my favorite but make me laugh. Buckle up your seatbelt, because it is about to get crazy up in here. Vive la France.

Quotes of the week. 

1. Me: You know what must have really stunk? The period of time between when the Bible was changed and the Book of Mormon was brought forth. Soeur Carter: Yeah, that's why they call it the Great Apostasy. 

2. Soeur Carter: Our problem is that people just don't realize that we are representatives of Jesus Christ. Me: Well Elders wear those classy suits. Soeur Carter: And we're just fumpy women!

3. Text from Emmanuel: May the parakeet, the sacred bird, fly always over your head.

4. Text from Tran: I don't know if I can go to church tomorrow. I get home at 030 and by the time I am done washing and drying my hair, its 200! (Bear in mind that he is an Asian man with short hair).

Emanuel

     It's been a good and crazy and magical week. O la la. Last Monday, my metro pass stopped working. Some little girl walked up to me and handed me her purse and hopped over the barrier and then held the exit open for me to go in. Okayyy. Needless to say, we walked to the Gare and figured out the problem. We did all necessary shopping in under 15 minutes. Then we went to Park Tete D'or. There we did a mixture of things, from regarding animals, to climbing on signs, to frisbee, to three-legged races, to three-legged frisbee, to frisbee slingshots. It was a good day. We spent the night with the Cholays, a couple that has come to church for a long time because they think it's true but don't want to be baptized. Then we had dinner at the Meyer's. They are wonderful. It is just Soeur Meyer and her son Emmanuel, but they are so great. Emmanuel played us some LOTR on his violin before we left and they spent the whole time correcting our French and telling me that I should pretend I want to work with cochin dindes instead of PT if I don't want to be the nurse's companion. 

     Tuesday was Jedi Council day. And by that I mean Leadership Council-like a more intensive Zone Conference. I also met Elder Dean and now understand the stories I hear. He talks kind of like a slangy basketball announcer all the time. That night Promise and Jean-Gide both told us that if they didn't want to be baptized and live the gospel they wouldn't meet with us. Solid. 

Elders Schneider and Johnson

    

      Wednesday, we spent all day going to an outer ville to meet with a family. En route, we were prepping a presentation for ZC and we started talking to a girl who asked us about exactly what we were en train to prepare. Then we took the wrong bus. We also got to meet with Pascale who is having a really rough time right now. But she was laughing with us by the end. She also thinks she's not ready for the temple and keeps putting it off. Shouldn't have told me that. Haha. She told me she didn't want a calling, so I told the Bishop and reminded her about it every time I saw her or called her. Now, it's temple and Patriarchal blessing focus. During Zone Training, we had Corse skyped in. We gave our presentation which went really well. We had an exchange with St Etienne soeurs and Valence this week. With St Etienne, we stayed in our sector. We visited a member, Soeur Yvars to update our member book on her and then the other equip showed up with a guy they found on the street, so we taught him together. Then we taught Tran, our Asian ami and English class. There was four missionaries and four amis, so it looked like really weird speed dating, but one-on-one conversations worked really well to help them all improve selon leurs besoins. I taught Karim the word awesome. On the train to Valence, I sewed my bag back together. I am not buying another one, so it's gotta last.

   




 In Valence, we tried to do service for Soeur Charrier, a dying old woman who apparently translated a lot of hymns for the church. But we walked right in to a blessing, shared a message, and left. We went to the Gare to change our clothes and saw Elder Castillo and Elder Taylor there, who were passing through. Small world. Then we ate lunch and met a member to go to another outer ville and teach an ami. It was a decent lesson and reinforced the importance of sharing stories about Jesus to highlight principles of the gospel. Joseph also made some really good cake for us. We had to wait 40 minutes for Sylvie to get home from work. I pulled an Elder Schneider and said, So you're praying? Je vous ecoute. And then I waited for him to pray. Haha. We missed our bus and the train, but we made it back to the Gare in Romans one minute before another train left. Then, my temporary comp realized she left her bag with all my clothes and sneakers in it at their house! Yikes! Luckily, I have backups. Call me an Eagle Scout. Here's a realization I had. Faith is contre logic. God asks us to do things that are completely illogical so that we have to exercise our faith. For example, throw your nets in again, look for a coin in that fish's mouth, and rub this dirt I just spit on in your eyeballs. Once we do those crazy things, that's when we see the miracles that confirm our faith. We catch too many fish for our boat, we find the coin to pay our taxes, and our sight is returned to us. That's what I got for ya this week. Go find your own miracles.