we saw Lou again this week. it's tricky to come up with lessons that will be interesting for an 11 year-old with a short attention span! We're still working on that. We had her make a list of things she talks to her best friend about, and it was gloriously girly: boys, fashion, movies, games. We then had her make a list of things she talks to Heavenly Father about. We talked about how we can tell Him anything we want... and then she drew hearts, flowers, and rainbows all over her lists. Like I said... eleven. She's fun to teach, though.
afterwards, we had our shift at the visitor's center. the visitor's center is fun when people come in. It's not super busy, but it's getting better. That day, we had one visitor. His name is Martin... he's about 21 and lives just outside of Paris. He told us he was at the tattoo & piercing shop across the street (literally. the church/visitor's center are in the middle of babylon.) and the sign with the church's name on it caught his eye, so he came over to check it out. He smelled like cigarettes and looked like kind of a punk. I asked him if he would like a tour, and he said yes. I went through the paintings with him, explaining the joseph smith story. He listened intently and didn't act weird when I got to the First Vision part like some people do. When we teach the First Vision, we recite it in Joseph's own words ("i saw a pillar of light..."). In the MTC, they trained us over and over to never break eye contact while reciting the first vision. that was running through my head as I started reciting it to him, so I just looked at him and started going. It's kind of weird to just look at someone and talk for that long without looking away, but i did it. and the spirit came instantly. it's amazing how that happens. He accepted a Book of Mormon and gave us all of his information and told us he would like to meet with the missionaries. AH! so cool. We passed his number straightaway to the Elders who live in his area. I hope it will continue on.
Every Friday, our district and the chinese district go contacting together. We decided to try something new this week: we rolled a chalkboard from the church across the street to the Georges Pompidou. We wrote "what is your favorite book?" on it in four languages, then invited people to come write their responses. We got some... interesting responses. the Pompidou, which is a museum of modern art, is known for being very controversial. It was pretty successful, though. We handed out something like 9 Book of Mormons in an hour! Whenever someone came and wrote a response, we would tell them about our favorite book and offer a copy of it to them :) clever, eh? It really caught people's attention. Most of them turned away when they saw our tags, but we talked to quite a few people! Even the security guard at the Pompidou took a Book of Mormon! I love district contacting.
Yesterday was Stake Conference at the Palais des Congrès in Versailles, literally right next door to the Château de Versailles. My mission is so cool.
The meeting was so good- literally EVERY talk was about the temple! We are getting so excited for General Conference... people here are praying more than ever that we will have a temple soon in Paris. We don't know if it will be this conference or in twenty conferences that they'll make the announcement, but I have a feeling it will be very soon. Please pray for a temple! It's amazing to watch the members here and the faith they have. They are working and praying and hoping so hard. The day there is a temple here will be a very happy one.
I am so happy here. If you couldn't tell. Soeur Smith and I were talking this morning and we decided our companionship is like a good French cheese: it just gets better with time. (we REALLY love each other). I think the same goes for the mission: the more time that passes, the more I love it and the more I learn and the more I am sad that someday soon, this will have to end. I suppose it's good that it will end sometime: it helps me make every day sweet. But, in a place like Paris, that isn't so hard.
avec amour,
la parisienne.
pictures:
me & soeur smith with the chalkboard.
a cathedral on one side, the pompidou on the other. it was a little crazy.
contacting at the pompidou :)
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