Hello Family et amis!
We recovered from our hard week, and started it off well with a day in the park with our besties, Marjana and Donald. Something about those two always puts life into perspective. We watched French people try to play baseball (funny), played Amercian football together (even funnier), and heard their life story. That night we went to FHE at the Chaston couple's house, and they had everyone go around in a circle and say all of the tender mercies they had seen recently, or how they saw the hand of God in their life that week. I thought that was such a beautiful idea, and it just filled my soul to hear all of the people around the table talking about the tender mercies of God. A few tender mercies we saw this week:
— A while ago we ported into a woman who let us in and then told us that she was actually a member, but hadn't been to church for over 20 years. This week we went back and shared the story in Luke about the woman being healed by Christ. She looked at us after we shared the story and said, "So has this happened to you? Have you ever had anything hard happen and been healed by Christ?" Sometimes I think people think we are little robot missionaries who have never been through anything hard. As soon as I opened up and told her about some experiences, everything changed and she opened up completely and we were able to have a really great discussion. It made me realize what a beautiful thing it is that sometimes we go through hard things, and we don't know why, but then later down the road they help us to help other people.
— We had interviews with Pres and Soeur Poznanski this week. They are some of the most wonderful people. We have been pretty stressed out lately, and it seems like everything we have started in this little ville is starting to fade, or people are starting to drop off the face of the earth. This week they sat both of us down together and said "Do you realize that everything you have done in the past two transfers did not exist here before?" My perspective has since shifted so much. Everything we do in life can add to the bettering of something or someone. Even when sometimes we can't see tangible outcomes of our efforts. It makes me think of one of my favorite Anne Frank quotes:
"How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
So true! It has changed every day for me, to just try to bring light to others. We don't need to wait a single moment.
— Sushi night with Anna! We went over to her apartment and watched the sushi making extraordinaire go to work. It was so fun. Sushi has become one of my favorite things since I have been in France (I know, bizarre. I am in France and I like sushi more than pastries.). As we sat at the table talking and laughing and making sushi, I thought "This didn't exist two months ago. And now we have a best friend who has brought us light and we have brought her light and now we are all making sushi together." Tender mercy. That night we were running really late, and got home super late so we were speed walking home, and this group of guys yells after us "Pourquoi est-ce que vous avez beaucoup d'energie?!" Ha! Our new fave phrase.
— We contacted a girl a while ago who had just moved to France and was living in a foyer (government housing), so didn't have an exact address and had no phone. We told her we would come find her. As we got on the bus that day, the Elder's ami Solomon got on and asked us what we were doing. We told him, and it just so happened that he lived in the same foyer and said he would come along and help us. The next hour that ensued was one of the most hilarious of my life. First off, he had us get off at the wrong bus stop and it was POURRRRING rain. So we ran through the rain and eventually made it to the foyer, where Solomon was like our body guard, going from door to door asking for the girl we were looking for, using not the most tactful word choices in his limited French (Just a snippet of one of my favorite conversations:
"Have you seen that girl? The fat one from the Congo?"
"There is someone here from AFRICA, but not from the Congo"
"The Congo IS in Africa!" )
We went up and down the stairs, after getting a million different directions from everyone, and then back down the stairs and back up the stairs. We never found her, but I haven't laughed that real or that hard in such a long time. Solomon's got our back.
I hope you have a great week full of lots of tender mercies. Just look for them, they're there.
I love you!
Olivia
No comments:
Post a Comment