The picture for the week is a sunrise one morning. I looked
up from studies, and had to take a picture. Heavenly Father has blessed us with
such beautiful creations! Enjoy them and be grateful for them!
So, to address everyone's concerns first: all is well in
Liège, and you all know more of what happened in Paris than I do. Friday night,
with the hostages, we got a message from President Babin asking all missionaries
to go home, unless they had a rendez-vous scheduled. Soeur Clawson and I had
already planned to do weekly planning that night, and we got that message while
sitting at our desks. We've been asked to be careful, to avoid certain
cartiers, and to avoid places of protest. Honestly, the missionaries in Beligum
have had like no worries.
In other news, this week has had its fill of ups and downs.
Wednesday, we went and saw Enza to follow up on how she felt at church. She
said she loved it and everyone was so nice and she felt the spirit...BUT she
wants to remain Catholic. She talked about how she doesn't have the energy to
learn a new religion right now. We are going to continue to meet with her for a
few more weeks, but if she stops progressing, we will have to drop her.
Thursday, we went and saw a moins-actif, and I had the lead
for the first time in a lesson. It went really well, we talked about les buts
pour la nouvelle année [I assume something about goals for the New Year]. We
read Mosiah 2:23-24 and talked about spiritual goals. She seemed super excited
to work toward attending the temple again this year! Yay!
We also had an awkward rendez-vous with an old amie we found
in the area book. First of all, I got my first attempted bisous ( kiss on the
cheek) by a man. I literally panicked and didn't know what to do! Luckily,
Soeur Clawson saved me, and we shook hands, and all was well. Then, the lesson
was okay but didn't really go anywhere.
 |
| Potato quality cathedral to make Kylee incredibly jealous... [Whether that was her plans or not is yet to be seen.] |
Friday was awesome. We had an integration lesson in the
morning, our favorite moins-active around noon, and then a great rendez-vous in
the early evening. Our rendez-vous that evening was with Gwen. She was seeing
the missionaries and then disappeared for about three months. We got back in
contact with her about two weeks ago and had a really good leçon, and then we
came back and saw her this last week. We were talking about repentance, and she
looks up and asks us when she can be baptized. Neither of us really knew what
to do but, we got a date set, and now we are working really hard to get her to
come to church.
Saturday there was a baptism for the Zone Leaders in Liège
1! We invited Gwen and one of our less actives. Neither showed (although Gwen
didn't totally ditch us; she texted us about two hours after the baptism asking
what time it was supposed to start)... but it was an awesome baptism. I loved
it because my understanding of French has been improving, so I was able to
understand pretty much all of the talks, and they were awesome. Also, the
member who did the baptism is a convert that will be serving a mini-mission in
the near future, and then hopefully going on a legit mission not too long
after. We also had dinner at a member's house that night, and I had some legit
African food. Holy poop, I was in heaven.
This week at a district meeting, Soeur Clawson and I were
part of an object lesson. The lesson was about the importance of working in
unity with your collegue. We were wrapped up like this and then told to run
opposite directions. Also, we didn't have on shoes, and we were on hardwood
floor... so yeah, I almost did a face plant, but some Elders caught us and
stood us upright again... scary and awkward all at the same time.
My studies this week have been kind of centered on the
importance of the enabling power of the atonement. Lately, I have been dragging
myself down by thinking of all the things I need to improve on. Maybe I missed
an opportunity to talk to someone on the bus, or I didn't say something that I
thought I should say in a lesson, or I had a bad thought about how cold I was.
At the end of the day, I would go though these things and I would think I will
do better tomorrow, and then the next day it's the same thing. It really
brought me down!
Then, one morning I read "The Sacrament--A Renewal for
the Soul by Cheryl A Esplin, and she tells a story about a lady who was doing
the exact same thing to herself. She realized that she needed to use the
enabling power of the atonement and notice the good things she does in a day.
So, I tried that. I remembered those moments when we caught the bus right on
time or when I was able to say what I wanted to in a lesson. Immediately, I
started to feel better. I was starting to see the Lord's hand in my life again.
It was awesome.
I have also been working a lot on the language and having
faith in the gift of tongues, and my French has improved so much this week! I
had a full half hour conversation with a lady on the bus the other day.
I know that we are always being blessed and lead by the
spirit even if we don't always notice it, and when we do notice it, we are so
much more happy! Trust in the Lord and in His plan for you!
Sending love and prayers from Liège!
[And as always, contact the Mormon missionaries or your
local Chisholm child if you want to learn more about our church and what we
believe.
And as always, have a lovely week, folks.]
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