Family,
HIGHS:
We met with an investagator named Lucy who the Elders before us had been teaching. She is from Peru and is just an incredibly lovely person. She had us over to her apartment for tea and we got to know her and talked about the Book of Mormon. She is so sincerely searching the gospel. She had such intelligent questions about it and said that at this point she just feels like she needs to profoundly understand the why behind what we are teaching. We talked about the Word of Wisdom, and she still isn't totally sold, but she said she understands it. AND she came to church on Sunday!
Yannick and Helene and their family. They have been the miracle of my hard week. We went to teach them on a particularly rainy and cold and unsuccessful day and the second we walked into their apartment I was just filled with peace and comfort. They have been taking the discussions for almost a year and know that it is true. They just have to get married and then they want to be baptized. We read Alma 32 with them about cultivating and nourishing your faith. We had a really good discussion with them about what faith is and what it has brought them. At one point Soeur Pymm asked, "What does this gospel feel like to you? What has it brought you?" Helene just looked up at us and said "It feels like liberation." I loved that description so much. I am just edified by them every time I am with their family. The whole time I was there I was just overwhelmed. That is the only way to describe it. When we left I started crying and I was like what is my problem, and then I realized why: their house felt like 1920 Yale Ave. Their little apartment on the top floor of this building in Rennes France felt exactly like my home in Salt Lake. I realized I hadn't felt that feeling since August 22nd when I left. I was hit by this overwhelming sense of homesickness, but also an overwhelming sense of love and thankfulness. I love that this is what the gospel does for families, and how lucky am I to come from a family where it feels like this? They said they want to come to church but Helene is always so worried about her boys behaving in Sacrament meeting. We told her that it is a good thing that there are two sister missionaries because now she has two babysitters. So Sunday they came! Pymm and I watched Liyanick and Ilan the whole time and they were so adorable. The best is when I gave Ilan my mini hymn book and he would open it during the hymns and just belt out random notes.
One day we were out porting (Editor's Note: I assume this is a Franglais term for the typical missionary door-to-door routine) and had had about 100 doors slammed in our faces. We went to anopther batiment and tried to get in, but here you can't get into the buildings unless someone buzzes you in. We were about to just call it good for the day when I said we just needed to try for one more hour. Right after I said that we started walking down the street when this little boy comes biking towards us screaming "Excusez moi! EXCUSEZ MOI! Do you need to get into that building? I have a key." He hops off his bike lets us in and then bikes away. Soeur Pymm looked at me and said "Third Nephite anybody? There has to be someone we are supposed to teach in this building. So we walked to the very top floor and started at the corner door. We knocked and no one answered but Souer Pymm said to wait. Right as we were about to leave we heard someone at the door. A teenage girl answered and we gave our spiel and I was getting ready to have her say "I'm not interested." Instead she said "I want to hear more; come in." She is sixteen and from the Congo, but has been living in France since she was little. She said she always wants to talk about religion with people but no one her age is interested in it. She had a million questions and it was my most powerful teaching experience yet on my mission. We had answers to her questions! It was the coolest feeling. At one point she said "I believe you. I feel sad for you that you are going to try to tell people this and they won't believe you. But I do." After our lesson we set up another one for Saturday.
Hearing music on the metro. Sometimes Pymm and I will just stop and take in the beauty of a Coldplay song. It is the little things.
Roasted veggies and cheese and baguettes. NO MORE MTC FOOOOD!
LOWS:
Being new in Rennes means sometimes we feel very very lost. We haven't gotten to know members very well yet, the Elders do their own thing, and somedays we feel like lost puppies just wandering around with people staring at us. While I know I have told you about some great lessons we taught, that counts for about three hours of a seven-day week. Which doesn't make them any less great, it just means that there are lots of hours filled with walking and freezing and knocking. On one day we were in a rather sketchy area to teach someone the Elders taught. We had a rather scary experience with a guy who started yelling at us and trying to get us to come into his apartment and poking our badges, and we were definitely being protected and watched over because the elevator opened and we hopped in and away to safety. In that same building we were looking at mailboxes and Pymm was on the other side, when I could tell that someone was behind me. I turned around and there was an old Arab guy and he started waving his hands around my face and speaking a different language and it was like Harry Potter speaking Parseltongue. Not even kidding. I ran over to Pymm and the tears just came. We sat outside and I just cried and I was so overwhelmed and was thinking WHAT AM I DOING HERE. It is funny now, but in the moment I just felt kind of alone. And don't worry, Mom and Dad: we are going to steer clear of that neighborhood from now on. I guess this sums up the lows, and is just to say that it has been hard, but Naomi sent me this scripture today and it is perfect:
Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy bretheren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give you success.
I feel like there were more than a few times this week when my heart was depressed and there was nothing I wanted more than to turn back. To turn back to what was easy and safe and comfortable. But I know despite the crazy and hard things, the good things, like being able to share this with people, makes it worth it. And I am comforted by the Lord. I know that even when I felt alone and scared this week I was being watched over. One night, when I was especially discouraged, I came home and opened to this scripture is Psalms:
Wait on the Lord: Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, one the Lord.
So I will wait and keep on working and take the advice of what I hear from people every day "Bonne courage." Which means good luck, but literal translation is good courage. I need to remind myself everyday to take good courage. Thank you so much for your emails and love and prayers. I love you all so much and sometimes what gets me through the day is knowing that I am the luckiest girl in the world, that at the end of all this I have 1920 Yale and my family waiting for me. Today we were supposed to go to Mt Saint Michel with some members, but they got sick so Pymm and I decided we are going to the gare and try to go to St. Malo. An adventure, yay! I hope you are all doing well. Love you and miss you all!
Olivia
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