Since my email wasn't working last week, you get two emails at once! You lucky peoples...
Now, let's see if I can do this with a French keyboard. Last week I was able to change the language for the keyboard, but this week I can't figure out how. I might have to make this email a little shorter.
Tuesday, March 11 -
We had a district meeting for most of the day. I met a lot of new missionaries, but I don't remember any of their names. We had a lesson on receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon, then we split up and practiced teaching about the Book of Mormon. Soeur Johns and I taught Elder Wood, one of the zone leaders, and he said we did really well and that I spoke the language really well for a new missionary. Woot.
Then we went porting (knocking on doors) for the rest of the day. At the first door we went to, a teenager answered and glared at us and told us she wasn't interested. Then at the next door, a nice Catholic lady answered and talked to us for a while. She said she was really busy, but she took the Family: A Proclamation to the World we gave her and said she would read it.
Wednesday, March 12 -
In the morning we had an appointment with a woman named Carine Cornou. Her mom is a member of the church, as is her daughter, but she isn't. She actually requested to meet with us, so we were excited to meet with her and were sure she'd be there when we met her at her mom's house. But it was not so. We went to her mom's house and both her parents were there, but she was not, and her mom said she wouldn't be coming. So instead of teaching Carine, we ended up teaching her parents. Her dad isn't a member, so it worked out. We taught about finding happiness through prayer and asked them if they'd pray together, and they said they would.
We were supposed to have a RDV after that (rendez-vous = meeting) with Marie-Christine, who had been taught all of the lessons and went to church often. Soeur Johns and I were going to talk to her about baptism. We had a really good lesson planned, focusing on how the Lord would give her strength to do the things he asks. When we practiced the lesson, we felt the Spirit and we were so excited to teach her. But... she cancelled.
After that we went to an appartment to find people who we'd tried to call but who weren't answering their phones or had been busy. We knocked on one door, rang the doorbell, and even called them while we stood outside the door. We heard a baby crying and people moving around, but no one answered the door. I'm guessing they didn't want to talk to us. However, we did find another family we were looking for. We talked to the father and he was really funny. Apparently the last time Soeur Johns had talked to him he wouldn't tell her his name. He just said his name was Jesus. We found out this time that his name is Frederique, and we'll be meeting with him again today.
On the way back, we contacted a lady named Annelaure. She really likes cats and she's an artist. It was very interesting talking to her... she seemed like a fun, independent person who does whatever she feels like. She gave us her phone number, so we'll try to get a hold of her.
Thursday, March 13 -
Thursday was a pretty relaxed day. We did some contacting near our apartment and got pastries. I got a tart with caramel and walnuts, and it was pretty darn delicious.
We taught Jocelyne again, discussing a few conference talks about how Christ can give us light and hope in our lives, that he can support and guide us, because it seems like she's struggling to feel happy in her life. She liked it and I enjoyed talking to her, like I did last time.
Friday, March 14 -
We taught Annabelle on Friday morning. She's a very logical woman, she's had all of the lessons taught to her and she goes to church. We tried to ask her what she believes, what she feels, basically we just asked her to bear her testimony, but it was difficult. She doesn't really feel things, she says, she just thinks them. We tried to invite her to be baptized, but she wanted to know everything first. We tried to explain that she doesn't need to know everything, but she still wanted to try. We told her to pray and ask Heavenly Father if she's ready for baptism, and to give her confirmation to know if this is his church. I know that if she does so with a sincere desire to know, the Lord will give her an answer that is clear to her, that makes sense to her.
Then we watched the Joseph Smith Movie with Sophie, who almost cancelled our RDV because she was shopping. Sophie really likes shopping.
After that, Soeur Johns and I went to a RDV we'd made with a 17 year old girl named Marlene. When we got to her apartment, only her mom was there. So we started talking to her mom and found out her name was Chantal and that she's a practicing Catholic. Then Marlene came with a friend named Sarah. Then her dad came. So we ended up teaching the whole family about the Restoration. I was able to explain a large part of it, and I was proud of myself, cause French is hard. We asked them to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true and they said they would.
Saturday, March 15 -
We had another appointment with Tsengee, the woman I taught my first day. She tried to cancel a few times, but Soeur Johns wasn't having it. We set a time later than we'd planned that worked better for Tsengee, then we went and taught her about the Restoration. We had to teach very simply because she doesn't know French very well. We set a date for baptism with her and we'll meet with her more often to help her prepare. She's having a hard time in her life, raising a little boy alone, and it's hard for her to live somewhere where everyone speaks French and she doesn't speak French very well. We promised her that if she prayed, God would strengthen her and help her through the hard times in her life.
We were supposed to teach Maurisio after that, but he cancelled and we won't be seeing him again because he's going back to Mexico.
Soeur Johns and I picked up Sophie and went to a family in the ward that both Soeur Johns and Sophie really love. But before we went to see the Letorts, Sophie made us stop in a store and try some perfume. Like I said, she really loves shopping. The Letorts were kind and asked me a lot of questions and were patient with my French. They told me to make them some American chocolate chip cookies because they don't really have those here, and they love them. So I did, and they were pretty delicious. Soeur Johns is trying to lose weight, so their son Valentin gave her an exercise routine, and she wouldn't eat any cookies. I, however, had three. And a lot of cookie dough. Soeur Letort made delicious galettes for us - galettes are like dinner crepes - and they were really good. They had ham and butter and cheese and egg in them. Mmmm. French food is good. We shared a thought about prayer with them and they shared their testimonies and experiences from their lives and I learned a lot from them.
Sunday, March 16 -
During Relief Society on Sunday, I shared our little miracle for the week about how we met with Marlene's whole family instead of just Marlene, and I did pretty well considering it was in French. I was pulled out of Relief Society to translate for a girl who only spoke English. I was surprised at how much I understood and was able to translate for her.
After church we went to a member family's house to eat lunch with them and their non-member uncle and a non-member friend of one of the recent converts. It was a huge lunch: there were potatoes, sausages, green beans, salad, garbanzo beans and corn, and baguettes. We talked about the importance of going to church, after we ate.
When we went home we called every investigator on our phone who we didn't know, and a lot of people responded. We'll be meeting with the ones who are interested next week, and we deleted the ones who are no longer interested.
Oh, a fun thing that happened on I don't know what day - an old man came up to us on the way to the bus stop and gave us flowers. He spoke to us in English and told us he was German and the flowers were for some sort of German thing. I dunno. But it was awesomely random.
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| The flower from the German |
And that is my week. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Probably you didn't because you didn't get to try all of the delicious food I did or meet the amazing people I did. Sorry. :D
A bientot!
Soeur Williams
Pictures: My companion and I with our delectably wonderful pastries
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