SNOW!
Hi Mom!
Yeah, don't worry, although my heart broke a little bit, I knew that you would send something or another or whatnot and something must've been up, so no worries!
Of course I'm praying for Monty, of course of course, I want that little stink to be there when I get back of course. I want him to get me at the airport, too.
We have some Thanksgiving plans, yes, but for the day after Thanksgiving. We're going to the house of the only real Americans in our ward, the Mathias family, and we're going the day after because Frère Mathias has some work deal that day and Jordan, their son, has Institute. Alors, the day after. But I'm excited for that.
So about investigators. We do, we have Anne-Charlotte, and we're making good progress for her. And we had Jeannine, and she and her famille had been being taught for about twenty years, but we may or may not have lost them this last week...But it's okay because after losing them we found MORE. Everything happens cuz God has a plan. Anyway, the names of our investigators are Jie Feng, from Chine, Jean-Yves from France, Anne-Charlotte from France, Tiago and his wife from Brésil, Vivianna from Cuba, and those are all I can think of. The most progressing are Anne-Charlotte and Jie, Tiago is good but not yet progressing, Jean-Yves we just found and have only taught once, Vivianna we re-picked up cuz she hadn't been taught for a while. Those are who we are really working with right now.
For fun, we play the guitar in the apartment after planning n stuff, we do a little jig while walking down the street when no one is there, we...go to NOZ, the thrift shop, and just kind of look around and the crazy junk, walk around and look at cool stuff, play ping-pong at the church, and sometimes go on little hikes. There're some cool churches and buildings we have plans to visit this next few p-days, so let's hope that yes.
Sunday we go to church around 8h45 because we live really close to the church, then we do church stuff, sometimes we teach the amis de l'Eglise class, sometimes someone else does, then we stay after for a little bit talking with membres, setting up Mangez-vous, asking if they can help us with RdVs, et chose comme ça. We used to sing in the choir to prepare for stake conference, and now Soeur Pelucchi has asked us to help her with a song for our upcoming fête de Noël. Then sometimes we have a lunch appt with membres, then we go out contacting or have other RdVs, and usually we have dinner appts, too. So it's about the same as any other day except we have church in the morning and lunch appts.
A lot of p-days we go to the mall because someone has to buy something, or go to the church and play ping-pong or badminton, or piano. We have some good plans for the next few p-days because they could be our last here in Gex.
And yes, it's very cold. I'll send some pictures of the snow snow snow snow SNOW. I've been wearing, in fact, my shirt, a sweater, a suit jacket, my coat, my scarf, gloves, pajama pants, and church pants. Lots and lots of layers because it's really really cold. But it will be getting colder. Yes. So today I'm gonna go get a hat or something, and I already bought another sweater last week, along with gloves. I love the cold though, because people are a lot nicer when you knock on their doors when they see that you are very cold.
Also that picture of Sam and Zach and Curtis is hilarious. I'm touched that you would do that for me! Loves.
So now the week. Crazy week, pretty neat.
It started on lundi when we didn't really do anything. After p-day we went out in Gex because we had a MgV that evening. We may have passed Tiago or something, I don't really remember. But that evening at chez Houdin, we had fondu, with chicken and oil and stuff, just like New Years eve last year, took me back for a second even though I only spent part of it with you guys. Still very tasty. Oh that's right, that morning we had helped a less active membre named Gilles Réa move a couch from his house to his mother's. And he was loud and crazy and mean and didn't like Jésus very much, and I'm guessing that's why he is less active. But his real anger was that he just wanted his kids back, who moved away along with his wife. When we finished, we left, and then he called us up because he needed more help, but we already had plans that day to practice with Soeur Pelucchi, so we said we come by the next morning, ONLY if we could have a leçon with him aftewards. He agreed. More on that later.
Then mardi. This day was nuts. We started out the morning at chez Gilles Réa, and gave him a little leçon and talked with him. We told him about how he needed to be humble, because even though his situation is pretty humbling, he is still a very prideful man. So that was that. More on him later, just wait. It gets good. Then we had a RdV with Vivianna, it went pretty well. Then this. We went to the Attobra's house that afternoon to tell that we wouldn't be able to make it to their house that evening, as we had planned. We went, Eduoard opened the door, was really surprised to see us, and then Jeannine came, and then they invited us in, even though we told them we were there just to say we couldn't make it later. So we taught Jeannine a little more, she was kind of sick that day, everyone in that house was kinda off that day. It was weird. And then it just got weirder. We finished the leçon avec une prière, and then asked her if she had heard of blessings for the sick. She kind of laughed and said no she hadn't, but then she just up and left. What. So we went to the front door, waited for her to come back down the stairs, and after a long time we decided we should leave because we had to get the car to the other elders. Then we left, and about half way down the street, Edouard comes out the door shouting at us telling us never to come back. He said we were the most disrespectful Elders he had ever met in twenty years, and never come back. Apparently Jeannine had gone upstairs to get Edouard to show us a book from his old church, and he thought we left because we didn't care. But that was that, and they weren't at church yesterday, so...But some of the membres found out and they're gonna go talk to him because they said he's been like this since he was first taught, so...We'll see. Then the rest of the evening we kind of moped around, went back to the apartment and thought of what to do. We had a RdV for that evening, but it fell through, but we still had the membre that was gonna come with us, so we decided to practice teaching him instead. It went really well, and that kind of lifted our spirits. Then that night we went knocking doors, and though it would be fun to start contacts off by asking people if they had a banjo or knew someone who had one. And apparently the neighborhood we started to knock, there is a man there who plays the banjo. What what. But we haven't knocked all the doors yet, so we'll find him. And then we asked this other lady if she knew the guy, and she said no, but she said she could advertise for us in the classifieds, so we told her to write "Mormon missionary looking for someone who plays the banjo." We'll see what comes out of that. So kind of rough day, but it was fun nonetheless. And it gets better, don't worry.
Now is mercredi. It snowed like nuts the night before. And this day we decided to got out and hit up some smaller villes out in the middle of nowhere. Took some really cool pictures, and knocked lots of doors. Now back to Gilles. He called us while we were out in Vesancy on top of a mountain knocking doors. And he called to say sorry. Sorry about how he acted, he's just in a rough time in his life. And after our RdV yesterday, he actually knelt down and prayed and said sorry for everything he's done. That was really neat, especially after the events of yesterday. We saw some fruits of our labors. Very cool. Then the rest of the day we knocked doors in smaller villes, found some neat people, but that was it. Then we had a MgV in Divonne that night, but it fell through. But we already had plans to be in Divonne, so we went. And we started knocking, but then the police came and told us that knocking is interdit in Divonne. They were kind of rude until they found out we weren't Temoin Jehovahs, and then said it was okay to leave cards, but not knock. Which is something we had heard before, but we may ignore in the future...Ha...anyway, we went back to the car, sat there and thought what to do what do to. So we said a prayer, and both felt like we should go to St. Genis, which was about thirty minutes away. But we both felt it, so we went. Then we tried to pass a bunch of old amis, but no one was there. Then, when walking back, we found JIE FENG. A little Chinoix man who speaks English. So we talked to him a little and he told us about how much he loves Jesus, and some young men like us had talked to him in Toronto before about Jesus and that's why he loves Him so much. So we set up a RdV to talk more about Jesus with him. Super neat. Then we found Jean-Yves also, out on the street, said he was interesting in ameliorating his life. Rock on. And that was that night. Very neat miracles.
Jeudi we went out to Chevry, and surprise surprise surprise we found JEAN-YVES at his house. Middle of the day, middle of nowhere, Jean-Yves. So we taught him. And he told us how they had been partying pretty hard last night, and he may have wrecked his car in the midst, and that was something about his life he would like to change. We said we can help you. Another RdV with him this coming week. Cool. Anyway, then we went to St. Genis to try to pass people again. And then we found Anna, the Spanish lady from the last week who asked for a Livre de Mormon in spanish, and we had the LdM in spanish with us! Neat, so we gave it to her. Just on the street, like that, we found her. Nice little surprise. Then that evening we had Anne-Charlotte, but we had trouble finding a membre to come. And then we called the bishop, very last person, and he was free! So we went and had a very neat RdV with him and Anne. Neat.
Vendredi was cool, too. Another small villes, Echenevex today. There we found a guy who was interested in the Livre de Mormon, again, middle of the day, middle of nowhere, neat guy. His name is Florent. We'll be following up with him. We've been hitting up these small villes because we've basically knocked every other door in the bigger villes. Then we passed la famille Serrano with some banana bread, gave it to them, and they asked us to pray for their kids, because one of them is less active and they're both looking for work to finance their studies. Then we went porting around in Gex, and that was about it. One of the sisters in the ward gave us really delicious food, too, that evening. Nice.
Samedi was our first RdV with Jie Feng! But again, before that it was one of those, look for people but no one his home days. BUT. This one guy we had tried to pass several times before was there today! And we taught him, he's cool. From Venezuela. Then we passed Jie, he wasn't there, but the he came running after us in the street saying Elders Elders! How did you find my house? Because it was really hard to find, and he was afraid we couldn't find it. But we found it, first try. Really neat. Had a nice RdV with him, starting him progressing, yes yes. Then that evening we ran into some people we had run into before, very very old people, and taught them in their house! The first time I've been let in porting and taught an actual lesson! We made the old man feel the Spirit, that's for sure. Good evening.
Then dimanche we had a MgV with the famille Caner, super cool, their son Pierre Jean who just finished his mission is like one of our best friends. I like them. I like the membres. Then we had another RdV with Jie, this time we brought Jordan Mathias, who also speaks Chinese because it was his mission language. Cool cool. Then we did some contacting, then we had a MgV with the famille Thia, from the isle de la réunion, down by Madagascar, I believe. And Soeur Thia asked me what I missied most from the States, and I said Panda Express, and they all shouted in joy because they love Panda too! Yes. They went to the US a time or two and ate at Panda Express and said they loved it. That just goes to show you. Cool fun little day. Also Elder Beyer and I taught the amis class about the Primitive Church and todays church and how they are EXACTLY THE SAME and that's why this church is true. Because we have all the same teaching, leaders, and power of God. Cool cool.
So it was a week kinda all over the place, but very fun and eventful. Lots of miracles.
I had been studying Hope this whole week during my studies, and I really got to put that into use. We were really down on our luck after losing the Attobras, but I tried to stay hopeful and faithful, and look at all the miracles we saw. God lives, he knows what's best for us, he puts us where he needs us, and he puts the people we need in our lives. He loves us. And I know that. Amen.
Love you buckets, famille et amis,
Love,
Elder Liechty
No comments:
Post a Comment