Week 13 - But We Are Not Of Them Who Draw Back

"But we are not of them who draw back... but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." (Hebrews 10:39)

FAM

The rest of the scripture says "to perdition" and I've opted to leave that off. I read the talk "cast not away therefore your confidence" by Jeffrey Holland last week and this week and I pretty much just love it. It's great. 

This week we've been doing a lot of finding because we're still struggling to connect with amis or help the ones we have to progress. We've also been trying to track down a few old amis (and do work in their areas) just to have something to focus our finding around. 

Just going to do a super exciting run down of this week.

Monday: Bought scarves and hats and tights at H&M. So cozy this week. Then went porting in a new building, we met a super super old lady who ended up talking to us for about 45 minutes. We couldn't understand much of what she said and she couldn't understand us but somehow we were at her door for 45 minutes. She tried to give us 20 euros to take to a Cathedral (we think...) and called us sinners when we wouldn't take it. In like a crazy french grandmotherly way. Her name is Blanche and she watched us walk down the hall to port her neighbors. It was great. 

Tuesday: Went to a RDV with a member- Marie Agnes, she's AWESOME she's that member who has done everything and does everything and is also a social worker in a really tough neighborhood and she maybe weighs 100 pounds and she's just awesome. The RDV fell through and we were feeling really bad about wasting Marie-Agnes's time but she was so nice about it, when we were leaving to walk back to the tram she told us "tonight I will write in my journal that I did missionary work". She's an angel. 

That night we had our Soiree Familial and a bunch of people came! Like 15! Only two amis, they're both named Myridad and they're from Iran and Sr Hopkins and I see them on the bus all the time and its really awkward usually but they came and we made everyone make gratitude turkeys- "dindes des mains." It was really funny to see a bunch of adult French people make gratitude turkeys. We brought mashed potatoes and a salad for the "thanksgiving dinner" and the potatoes were dang good if I do say so myself. Mom taught me well. We also had some kind of pâté (I think it was duck or something, the kids wouldn't eat the potatoes but they would eat the pâté... France. 

Wednesday: Went porting in a real neighborhood, with houses! We got absolutely rejected and ignored but it was great! Felt super cool. We also met this really cool girl in centre ville! Had branch council that night and it was really inspiring to see how much the branch cares about everyone, we've been working with a recent convert (she joined the church in January so not super recent) and she's been struggling to get to church, she lives really far away and has had some personal issues recently but it was really beautiful to hear them just take over and figure out what to do-what they could do. 

Thursday: We went and visited another less active sister, super super nice, we're making French toast with her and her two cute little girls next week! 

Friday: Tried to track down some pass bys but mostly just spent the day planning and riding the bus and getting a little bit lost. It was great. 

Saturday: The girl we met on Wednesday showed up for our RDV!! We just met at a tram stop and talked on a bench. She came!!! Then we went and re passed by an old ami whose house we finally were able to find, we found out that she had just had a tragedy in her family and we were able to just pray with her and share a scripture and our testimonies about eternal families and it was really a beautiful moment. 

Sunday: Church, food, work, food, work, sleep. 

Spiritual lesson of the week - God knows what my abilities are and what Sr Hopkins' abilities are and His work is too important to let my weaknesses get in the way of that. In fact, He put us here to teach and He promises us that our efforts mean something even if they seem feeble. There is a plan for us to be able to do His work with our weaknesses and not just in spite of them. 

Love you guys so much! thanks for everything! you're AMAZING

soeur hansen