NEWS
(INVESTIGATOR'S NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO MAINTAIN ANONYMITY)
JULY 29, 2013 - Hi everyone!
Well.. another week bites the dust! Geez time is FLYING already! I can't believe this is the last week of the transfer already!
I'm SO glad to hear all is well, and that the fam made it home safe from Europe (flying first class and all.. you spoiled bunch!) I sure hope Justine LOVED going to Europe for her first time! It's also AWESOME that Kristi got her Patriarchal blessing! Cherish that thing! It's the best thing ever. It will be such a guide in your life! Read it SO SO SO much! Study the daylights out of it. It will make more sense as time goes on, so keep reading it. :) Congrats sweet girl! Also... mom and dad. That diet sounds crazy.. Good luck with that! I guess it's working well though so that's good! ha. Does it change after the first two weeks or is it like that the whole time?
I got a little notice in the mail this morning about the package, but I won't be able to pick it up until tomorrow I guess.. But it's here. I'll make sure I find some time to write ati a thanks. She's so funny. There's actually a lady here in this ward that reminds me so much of her. (she's even from spain..) they're so much alike it's hilarious. They would be best friends.
You also asked about my companion. He's from a little town outside of Amsterdam called Alkmaar. He's a huge soccer guy. That's basically all he does. Plus he's super diligent at studying and loves math. He goes home August 26. Sadly that is half way through the next transfer, so no matter what, I'm getting a new companion in a week! AH! It's always a crazy feeling not knowing who you're going to be 24/7 with.. I sure hope I don't have to drag him around though.. Plus I realized.. (believe it or not mom) I can't stand living with people that are a total mess. I pretty much spent the whole transfer cleaning up after us both, and it's no fun. It's like you were trying to teach me something as a kid.. I'm so so sorry I made you always clean up after me.. It's no fun at all..
As far as how things are going here... It's been a slow week again. Still no amis (in either our equipe or the sister equipe here).. We're exhausted, and we feel like we're wrung this sector out dry of everyone, but there's more to come! I'm pretty sure I'll be here again next transfer, so we're going to have to get creative again.
I've been speaking a TON of Spanish I actually have found SO MANY people to teach in Spanish but our Spanish sisters are so busy that they literally just throw the people we find on a list of people to call later. I wouldn't be surprised if they opened another equipe of Spanish missionaries here... um.. please? can I do that? haha. They teach SO MUCH.. Although.. I have to admit, I LOVE speaking French. it's almost to the point of second nature to me now. I have an awful accent (american and Spanish mix) when I speak french, plus I still don't have the most amazingly dense vocabulary ever. But I can hold my own in pretty much all conversations. Although I will admit, I always have a huge headache at the end of the day.. Hopefully that little problem will go away soon..
We had a little exchange this week with some of the elders from the other Genève sector. I spent the day with Elder Teatuotoga (Tahitian). He is only on his 2nd transfer right now, so we were both SUPER young missionaries.. But I was in charge for the day because we were in our sector, and we went down to our favorite little villages (cartigny and Avuly) to do some porting (doors..) It was definitely the worst day of porting I've ever had.. We knocked about 115, and not 1 of those doors had a friendly character behind it. NOT 1. It really does beat ya up a little, but we got through it. It really is hard to go ALL day hearing people tell you that you're stupid. But you know.. you just smile anyway and say a little testimony to your companion and you survive. It's just so sad to hear people say over and over again, "J'ai pas besoin de Dieu" meaning "I don't need God". Wow.. If only the world knew how incredibly reliant we ALL are on God... I'm just SO grateful for my life that I have, and for this chance I have to be here in such a beautiful place, and all I have to worry about all day long is WHO I'm going to testify to about Eternal Families, Living Day Prophets, and the incredible love of our Savior. Really, when you think about it.. I've got it made right now. :)
Last night was super cool. We had a baptism for a Mongolian guy (for the English Sisters). It was such a touching baptism. he was baptized by his brother. It was such an amazing experience to see that Eternal Family become a possibility. So cool.
Then later last night we decided we wanted to get back to the apartment a little early to make all the phone calls to the other equipes, and to some potential rendez-vous for the week. On our way home we heard some really loud music coming out of that gorgeous church right next to our apartment that I sent you a picture of once. We decided to go check it out. And it was FULL of Africans I've never seen so many people in one church at once (in Europe). haha. But it was so cool. But holy smokes. We stayed in there for about 15 minutes just listening, and I've never heard such incredible singers in my entire life. My goodness. There was this one song that this man and woman sang together with the 5 back up singers, the guitar, and the piano. My word. I was crying. Then like half way, it just got SO loud, and EVERYONE in the chapel was singing at the top of their lungs the most beautiful singing I've ever heard. The song was called "Jesus mon Roi" (Jesus my king). I honestly loved it. It was more of a concert, and they don't necessarily have the fullness of the gospel. But what they do know is that somehow Christ is their savior, and they love him so much. So they're going to celebrate that with every fiber of their being. And it was so cool to see. Let's just have them all come learn the fullness of the gospel, and then let's all still get together and sing like that anyway. ok. good plan!
Ha. I love you all so much! I'll let ya know next Monday what the details are for next transfer.
Until then, Pray too much. Seriously. I've never in my life understood what it meant to pray without ceasing. Until now. Pray TOO MUCH! And let me know when you get to that point.. because no one I know has ever gotten to the point that they were praying TOO MUCH.
Love you all!
have a great week!
I'm SO glad to hear all is well, and that the fam made it home safe from Europe (flying first class and all.. you spoiled bunch!) I sure hope Justine LOVED going to Europe for her first time! It's also AWESOME that Kristi got her Patriarchal blessing! Cherish that thing! It's the best thing ever. It will be such a guide in your life! Read it SO SO SO much! Study the daylights out of it. It will make more sense as time goes on, so keep reading it. :) Congrats sweet girl! Also... mom and dad. That diet sounds crazy.. Good luck with that! I guess it's working well though so that's good! ha. Does it change after the first two weeks or is it like that the whole time?
I got a little notice in the mail this morning about the package, but I won't be able to pick it up until tomorrow I guess.. But it's here. I'll make sure I find some time to write ati a thanks. She's so funny. There's actually a lady here in this ward that reminds me so much of her. (she's even from spain..) they're so much alike it's hilarious. They would be best friends.
You also asked about my companion. He's from a little town outside of Amsterdam called Alkmaar. He's a huge soccer guy. That's basically all he does. Plus he's super diligent at studying and loves math. He goes home August 26. Sadly that is half way through the next transfer, so no matter what, I'm getting a new companion in a week! AH! It's always a crazy feeling not knowing who you're going to be 24/7 with.. I sure hope I don't have to drag him around though.. Plus I realized.. (believe it or not mom) I can't stand living with people that are a total mess. I pretty much spent the whole transfer cleaning up after us both, and it's no fun. It's like you were trying to teach me something as a kid.. I'm so so sorry I made you always clean up after me.. It's no fun at all..
As far as how things are going here... It's been a slow week again. Still no amis (in either our equipe or the sister equipe here).. We're exhausted, and we feel like we're wrung this sector out dry of everyone, but there's more to come! I'm pretty sure I'll be here again next transfer, so we're going to have to get creative again.
I've been speaking a TON of Spanish I actually have found SO MANY people to teach in Spanish but our Spanish sisters are so busy that they literally just throw the people we find on a list of people to call later. I wouldn't be surprised if they opened another equipe of Spanish missionaries here... um.. please? can I do that? haha. They teach SO MUCH.. Although.. I have to admit, I LOVE speaking French. it's almost to the point of second nature to me now. I have an awful accent (american and Spanish mix) when I speak french, plus I still don't have the most amazingly dense vocabulary ever. But I can hold my own in pretty much all conversations. Although I will admit, I always have a huge headache at the end of the day.. Hopefully that little problem will go away soon..
We had a little exchange this week with some of the elders from the other Genève sector. I spent the day with Elder Teatuotoga (Tahitian). He is only on his 2nd transfer right now, so we were both SUPER young missionaries.. But I was in charge for the day because we were in our sector, and we went down to our favorite little villages (cartigny and Avuly) to do some porting (doors..) It was definitely the worst day of porting I've ever had.. We knocked about 115, and not 1 of those doors had a friendly character behind it. NOT 1. It really does beat ya up a little, but we got through it. It really is hard to go ALL day hearing people tell you that you're stupid. But you know.. you just smile anyway and say a little testimony to your companion and you survive. It's just so sad to hear people say over and over again, "J'ai pas besoin de Dieu" meaning "I don't need God". Wow.. If only the world knew how incredibly reliant we ALL are on God... I'm just SO grateful for my life that I have, and for this chance I have to be here in such a beautiful place, and all I have to worry about all day long is WHO I'm going to testify to about Eternal Families, Living Day Prophets, and the incredible love of our Savior. Really, when you think about it.. I've got it made right now. :)
Last night was super cool. We had a baptism for a Mongolian guy (for the English Sisters). It was such a touching baptism. he was baptized by his brother. It was such an amazing experience to see that Eternal Family become a possibility. So cool.
Then later last night we decided we wanted to get back to the apartment a little early to make all the phone calls to the other equipes, and to some potential rendez-vous for the week. On our way home we heard some really loud music coming out of that gorgeous church right next to our apartment that I sent you a picture of once. We decided to go check it out. And it was FULL of Africans I've never seen so many people in one church at once (in Europe). haha. But it was so cool. But holy smokes. We stayed in there for about 15 minutes just listening, and I've never heard such incredible singers in my entire life. My goodness. There was this one song that this man and woman sang together with the 5 back up singers, the guitar, and the piano. My word. I was crying. Then like half way, it just got SO loud, and EVERYONE in the chapel was singing at the top of their lungs the most beautiful singing I've ever heard. The song was called "Jesus mon Roi" (Jesus my king). I honestly loved it. It was more of a concert, and they don't necessarily have the fullness of the gospel. But what they do know is that somehow Christ is their savior, and they love him so much. So they're going to celebrate that with every fiber of their being. And it was so cool to see. Let's just have them all come learn the fullness of the gospel, and then let's all still get together and sing like that anyway. ok. good plan!
Ha. I love you all so much! I'll let ya know next Monday what the details are for next transfer.
Until then, Pray too much. Seriously. I've never in my life understood what it meant to pray without ceasing. Until now. Pray TOO MUCH! And let me know when you get to that point.. because no one I know has ever gotten to the point that they were praying TOO MUCH.
Love you all!
have a great week!