NEWS
(INVESTIGATOR'S NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO MAINTAIN ANONYMITY)
AUGUST 5, 2013 - Goodbye Elder Dieduksman!
First.. Transfers!! Elder Dieduksman is gone. I'm going to be with Elder Leau. He's from New Caledonia. He speaks like no English. So i'll learn a ton of french.. (sorry.. email sent by itself.. weird). All I've heard about him is that he's an INCREDIBLE cook. That could be either a really good thing, or a really bad thing. I might just get my mission weight right now.. I have no way to weigh myself, but I'm pretty sure I've stayed exactly the same.. I am walking a TON. I'm staying here in Saleve though, and I'm VERY excited for this next transfer.. and this is why..
This last week was FULL of miracles.. Woah. Poor Elder Dieduksman had to leave right when it got exciting.
Basically we went from absolutely NOTHING to a TON of potential. (by a ton of potential I mean 2 families to teach, plus 2 less actives that have huge potential of coming back).
We found both families in MIRACULOUS ways. First.. we were at the bus stop one day just chatting with some people, and their little daughter looked at us and said, "Hey, I know you!" (in french) she then went on to say that we were at her Grandmas house. We were so confused. But upon further inspection, we found out that the woman we were talking to was the daughter of another family that we had had a rendez-vous with the first week of the transfer. They live in a little town WAY far away from where we were. We set up rendezvous with them and it went SO well. We taught the Restoration with one of the awesome members here, and they are super enthusiastic to read the BOM. wahoo!! Elder Leau and I will keep teaching them hopefully! It's a Brazillian family of 4. :)
Second was a family we found on the street in the beautiful little town of Carouge just close to our appartment. We contacted them like any other street contact, and they gave us their address and said to stop by some time. We went for like 2 weeks straight and they were never there. Once their son was there, and he said to come back the next morning at 10.. again, they werent there. But we got the father's number one of the times we stopped by, so we gave him a call. He told us that he didn't have time to meet with us but that he'd love to come to our church. (we've been told that SO many times.. just ask me how many of those people ACTUALLY come to church)... turns out.... They didn't come to church. ha. we didn't think anything of it honestly. it happens all the time. (this was all about a week ago.) well.. this last saturday, Elder Dieduksman and I were in the apartment so he could pack his things on saturday instead of Sunday, but I got an impression that we just needed to get out of the apartment. It was nearing the our curfew, so we didn't have much time, I just wanted to go out for like 30 minutes. I decided we'd head over to accassias to a little park where these three men usually sat every night to drink some beer. They once had told us to stop by and they'd listen to us, so we figured we'd go try that. haha. Well, they weren't at the park.. BUT.. this family was!!! The father (named Iranilton) told us right then and there that He would love to come to church, but he has to work tomorrow during our church meeting, but he said, come to my house in the morning and we'll talk. So we gave him a shot. .. This is what we showed up to...
He let us in, we went to the kitchen where he had set up these two chairs facing one chair across the little table. On the table was a Book of Mormon in French, another in Portuguese, a Bible, and one of our Restoration brochures. It was so perfectly set up. The thing was. We had never given him any of those things.... (truthfully, I still don't know where he got them)... We had an incredible rendezvous. We're meeting with him every sunday from here on. We talked all about baptism in the first lesson, and he literally said, "yeah, I see myself getting baptised in the near future, but I just have a few questions first" HAHA! My goodness. The Lord has played such a huge role in preparing this amazing man to meet us. He is so genuine and sincere about meeting with us. He just really does have a CRAZY work schedule. He reminds me so much of Joseph smith. He told us that he had been looking in to MANY different churches, but he never got baptised in any of them because he wants to make sure he chooses the right one. he's just not sure which one it is for him and his family. He said he had studied with MANY different churches. even the JW's (side note.. they have a bad reputation of making people un-teachable) All he said was that he didn't feel like they were right for him, and more specifically he didn't like what they believed about Families.. HAHA Just wait until he Hears what we have to say about Families! COME ON! that's what our entire church is centered on! That and Jesus Christ of course! Geez.. I just love this family. I'm SO excited for this next transfer! :)
Bring it on!
Last story...
Last night I went with Elder Dieduksman to eat dinner with our DMP (ward mission leader).His wife comes from some really poor middle eastern country. (in fact her entire family is hindu except her).. but she made an authentic dish from her come country. (i'm not exactly sure which country it was..).. but... that was Definitely the most disgusting thing I've eaten in a really long time.. For starters.. They gave us mint Syrop before and during our meal (syrop is basically liquid flavoring you mix with water and it makes a juice-type thing. some of them are REALLY good. But the mint one tastes EXCACTLY like mouth-wash.) So.. after having my pre-meal mouth wash, we sat down to eat this weird egg-plant fish dish with rice.. I mean.. It doesn't sound so bad.. But woah.. It was awful. So squishy, and it had such a weird flavor. yumm.... haha. But hey.. My plate was clean at the end of that meal. I just washed it down by drinking mouth wash.. which you think would get rid of the flavor.. nope. just gives you a stomach ache. haha. So BOOM. Missionary status. That's what we do. we eat werid things. i'm finally a missionary. haha. Oh.. but then we had french pasteries for dessert and we all lived happily ever after. :)
I love you all! I'm optimistic for this next transfer! I've learned a ton about missionary work already. And I've learned a ton about myself, and my savior. This is a once in a lifetime experience that I am making the most of. But you're all right. Missions are as much for the missionary as they are for the investigators. And this mission is exactly what the Lord thinks is perfect for me. And I'm taking it, and running with it.
I love you! I'll send pictures next week. (it's transfer day, so I'm with the zone leaders at the Gare (train station) waiting for my companion, and I don't have my little converter for the pictures.)
I love hearing from you! Stay happy! Pray too much!
à la prochaine!
Bisou!
This last week was FULL of miracles.. Woah. Poor Elder Dieduksman had to leave right when it got exciting.
Basically we went from absolutely NOTHING to a TON of potential. (by a ton of potential I mean 2 families to teach, plus 2 less actives that have huge potential of coming back).
We found both families in MIRACULOUS ways. First.. we were at the bus stop one day just chatting with some people, and their little daughter looked at us and said, "Hey, I know you!" (in french) she then went on to say that we were at her Grandmas house. We were so confused. But upon further inspection, we found out that the woman we were talking to was the daughter of another family that we had had a rendez-vous with the first week of the transfer. They live in a little town WAY far away from where we were. We set up rendezvous with them and it went SO well. We taught the Restoration with one of the awesome members here, and they are super enthusiastic to read the BOM. wahoo!! Elder Leau and I will keep teaching them hopefully! It's a Brazillian family of 4. :)
Second was a family we found on the street in the beautiful little town of Carouge just close to our appartment. We contacted them like any other street contact, and they gave us their address and said to stop by some time. We went for like 2 weeks straight and they were never there. Once their son was there, and he said to come back the next morning at 10.. again, they werent there. But we got the father's number one of the times we stopped by, so we gave him a call. He told us that he didn't have time to meet with us but that he'd love to come to our church. (we've been told that SO many times.. just ask me how many of those people ACTUALLY come to church)... turns out.... They didn't come to church. ha. we didn't think anything of it honestly. it happens all the time. (this was all about a week ago.) well.. this last saturday, Elder Dieduksman and I were in the apartment so he could pack his things on saturday instead of Sunday, but I got an impression that we just needed to get out of the apartment. It was nearing the our curfew, so we didn't have much time, I just wanted to go out for like 30 minutes. I decided we'd head over to accassias to a little park where these three men usually sat every night to drink some beer. They once had told us to stop by and they'd listen to us, so we figured we'd go try that. haha. Well, they weren't at the park.. BUT.. this family was!!! The father (named Iranilton) told us right then and there that He would love to come to church, but he has to work tomorrow during our church meeting, but he said, come to my house in the morning and we'll talk. So we gave him a shot. .. This is what we showed up to...
He let us in, we went to the kitchen where he had set up these two chairs facing one chair across the little table. On the table was a Book of Mormon in French, another in Portuguese, a Bible, and one of our Restoration brochures. It was so perfectly set up. The thing was. We had never given him any of those things.... (truthfully, I still don't know where he got them)... We had an incredible rendezvous. We're meeting with him every sunday from here on. We talked all about baptism in the first lesson, and he literally said, "yeah, I see myself getting baptised in the near future, but I just have a few questions first" HAHA! My goodness. The Lord has played such a huge role in preparing this amazing man to meet us. He is so genuine and sincere about meeting with us. He just really does have a CRAZY work schedule. He reminds me so much of Joseph smith. He told us that he had been looking in to MANY different churches, but he never got baptised in any of them because he wants to make sure he chooses the right one. he's just not sure which one it is for him and his family. He said he had studied with MANY different churches. even the JW's (side note.. they have a bad reputation of making people un-teachable) All he said was that he didn't feel like they were right for him, and more specifically he didn't like what they believed about Families.. HAHA Just wait until he Hears what we have to say about Families! COME ON! that's what our entire church is centered on! That and Jesus Christ of course! Geez.. I just love this family. I'm SO excited for this next transfer! :)
Bring it on!
Last story...
Last night I went with Elder Dieduksman to eat dinner with our DMP (ward mission leader).His wife comes from some really poor middle eastern country. (in fact her entire family is hindu except her).. but she made an authentic dish from her come country. (i'm not exactly sure which country it was..).. but... that was Definitely the most disgusting thing I've eaten in a really long time.. For starters.. They gave us mint Syrop before and during our meal (syrop is basically liquid flavoring you mix with water and it makes a juice-type thing. some of them are REALLY good. But the mint one tastes EXCACTLY like mouth-wash.) So.. after having my pre-meal mouth wash, we sat down to eat this weird egg-plant fish dish with rice.. I mean.. It doesn't sound so bad.. But woah.. It was awful. So squishy, and it had such a weird flavor. yumm.... haha. But hey.. My plate was clean at the end of that meal. I just washed it down by drinking mouth wash.. which you think would get rid of the flavor.. nope. just gives you a stomach ache. haha. So BOOM. Missionary status. That's what we do. we eat werid things. i'm finally a missionary. haha. Oh.. but then we had french pasteries for dessert and we all lived happily ever after. :)
I love you all! I'm optimistic for this next transfer! I've learned a ton about missionary work already. And I've learned a ton about myself, and my savior. This is a once in a lifetime experience that I am making the most of. But you're all right. Missions are as much for the missionary as they are for the investigators. And this mission is exactly what the Lord thinks is perfect for me. And I'm taking it, and running with it.
I love you! I'll send pictures next week. (it's transfer day, so I'm with the zone leaders at the Gare (train station) waiting for my companion, and I don't have my little converter for the pictures.)
I love hearing from you! Stay happy! Pray too much!
à la prochaine!
Bisou!