C'est pas Grève

6.23.14

It's the month of invitation in Europe. Are you inviting? We had a speaker share an experience where he was able to share his beliefs with a coworker. That's awesome! And also the perfect opportunity to invite him to come and see and feel the importance of our faith. Are you inviting?

It's that time where I finish up my legality. I hope :) I had an appointment with them today, got my temporary VISA, and they'll send me a letter for a return appt soon. I hope. En tout cas, it's good they're getting on it because I was illegal yesterday! June 22, day I came to France. June 21, day Hannah went to college. Shoutout. Any other important dates this week? Probably a holiday. You never know here. 

Last Monday, Soeur Luthi wanted to get some new summer clothes. So we went to H&M, favorite of all European missionaries. Reminded me of good times with T Dawg. Shoutout. Anyhow, I'm trying really hard to endure to the end clothes-wise, because at this point I don't really want to wear anything I have. Wearing the same dresses for a year, well. It's not t shirts, you know? Anyhow, I did buy a skirt, commonly referred to as a pajama skirt. Super comfortable and light weight and missionary approved. Love it. 

I've been studying how to generate faith. Turns out, faith really is a decision! You decide, wow, this gospel sounds great. I think I want to believe in Jesus Christ. Then, once you believe, you have to do what he says. Contrary to my primary learning, you don't just wait for a magical desire to push you to repent and obey. You actively decide you want to follow Jesus Christ and you go out and use all of your backbone to do it. Faith is built by hearing and experiencing miracles, NOT seeing them. It makes sense that we are told to read the scriptures, come to church, and listen to the prophets, because they all tell us about miracles! It makes sense that we must pray and live the commandments, because then we experience and recognize miracles that are essential to us. Seeing miracles, however, doesn't really help. All throughout the New Testament, the disciples see Jesus do all these miracles, but it doesn't really build their faith because they don't need to act. That's the key. When you hear a miracle, you have to CHOOSE to believe it. When you experience a miracle, you have to CHOOSE to recognize it. When you see a miracle, you don't have to do anything. You know it happened. People who heard about Jesus' miracles came from far away to experience for themselves his love and mercy. That's one reason personal experiences are so powerful in teaching. Because the hearers have to choose to believe. 

The exchanges were good this week. We had to feed people something like 25 extra meals, and we barely survived. But did survive. I served with, Soeur Paulo the Portuguese. She's a little ball of stress, but she's fun. Every now and again I surprise her with little Portuguese phrases. We had a lesson with Frenzy, the Haitian, who moves his arms and body like he's rapping as he speaks. 

Then, Soeur Sarmiento and I ran around trying to find less actives. Little do you know, in complexes where there are buildings 1-10, building 7 is missing. I don't know if that's all apartment complexes or just that one. We also taught Malo (as in Marsh) together. He tries to impress us with his knowledge. Kind of like students trying to fake their way into giving a book report and history project. We know you don't know it. He finally admitted it was new when we got to Joseph Smith. 

We also met a jovial old man who lives by the church and takes care of alchoholics and drug addicts for his work. He is wonderful and delightful. Speaking of delightful, we also met Bako, a Malagash woman, who loved the idea of getting a BOM. 

with Sr Caldwell and Jeremy

Highlight number one of the week was my exchange with Soeur Caldwell. She is legit. Literally one of the coolest people. She is really driven, really solid missionary, and just really fun. She's got a thirst for knowledge and adventure that I really appreciate. I think it helped that all of our plans that day worked out too. It was a wonderful time. 

Highlight number 2 came when I was back with my companion and all the RDVs fixed and street lessons taught paid off and we got four new amis! Sonia is still doing really good. Her exams are today, so I hope she succeeds! She's really stressed about that and all the other problems in her life. Jeremy came back. He's also leaving again, getting baptized in Perpignan where his girlfriend lives, and then coming back to live and work up here. 

It's been a good week, and I just wanted to end with a little French factoid for y'all. (Gross.) There are these things called grèves. Ever heard of them? They're strikes and they happen all the time. We knew for a while there would be a train strike on June 11 and 12. They weren't sure which lines would be down, but they were forewarned, because all of France has to coordinate. Turns out, the grève keeps going until they get what they want. There just keeps being very severely limited trains. Which messes things up for exchanges, you can imagine. But somehow it all worked out. Miracle. Love.