Monday, February 13, 2012

a letter from Soeur Larsen.

Please note:: Lindsay has been sick the last few days and was feeling too "foggy" to write a big email for the blog this week... so I am posting the letter that sweet Soeur Larsen wrote to her family.  It is a wonderful letter!  These two Soeurs are SO very happy that they get to finish their missions together!  Please keep them in your prayers as they begin the final stretch of their time in France... 6 weeks to go!


Last transfer!

So, my last transfer officially begins this Wednesday. It would probably bother me less if it wasn't brought up by every member and every missionary that I ever talk to... haha. But hey, good news! So, President Poznanski told Sr. W and I that we were definitely not staying together for our last transfer, which made sense to us because we're both dying at the same time so they'd have to whitewash the ville again, which is hard on the branch. So we were mentally prepared for that and excited and nervous for a little change for the last transfer. I remember feeling so good one night after doing planning we were talking about the area and I thought, well whatever happens, I left Blois better than I found it. So anyway the anticipation was mounting all the way til Saturday, when we got the transfer email, when lo and behold... Sister Williams and I are staying together in Blois for another transfer. I don't have to leave my beloved branch and my best friend! I'm overjoyed! Which also means that I will have only served in 3 areas my entire mission... weird. Everyone is surprised, and it looks like when people kept telling us they would pray for both of us to stay in Blois, they weren't kidding. Be careful what you pray for!

The excitement of the transfer news seems to have gotten the best of Sr. W though, she's been sick ever since. Yesterday we even missed church, which was the oddest thing I have ever done. Our amis still got to church though, and according to the DMB they were well taken care of. We also got a bunch of phone calls from people checking up on Soeur Williams and offering advice, and the family who had invited us over to eat brought the meal to us instead. We have the best branch ever :) She's doing better now, don't worry.

Our amis are doing well, we invited Isabelle to get baptized last week and she said yes, so we're going to start working towards a date. She's just such a wonderful person and it's been such a miracle to teach her. She understands the gospel, everything makes sense to her, and while she was a little reluctant about a few things at first, she's been trying out the things we've asked her to do like praying differently and reading the Book of Mormon and she's opened up a lot. She feels like family already and she gets along great with the branch.

We also have several members who have invited us to come teach their friends this week, and we're so excited! That's the absolute best kind of missionary work to do! Woot! Haha.

Oh also this last week we did exchanges with the soeurs in Angers, which was super fun. I was with Soeurs Soares and Woodruff (who was in the MTC with me) and Soeur Williams was with Soeur Emilcy. It was fun to see a new area, and Angers has a super legit castle. Also we had a miracle! Tuesday night we were going to contact an American girl who had been referred by her friend. She had this super wierd address and we couldn't find it anywhere and no one we asked knew where it was. Finally, just before time to head home we found it, knocked on the door and an American girl opened the door and went, "the Mormon missionaries!" Oh sweet music to my ears. She was so excited! She even went, "Hold on, I'm talking to my boyfriend on Skype. He'll be so excited you guys found me!" Well, that's one I haven't heard before, I'll be honest. We were so thrown off to get such a joyful welcome! We got to know her and she talked about how she'd been basically raised Mormon, all her friends were Mormon and she used to go to church with them and FHE and everything. Too good! So, I was half hoping to get transferred to Angers so I could start teaching her with them, but no luck.  

I felt like I had a lot to say when I sat down, but it has fled my mind... Not a lot happened this week, outside of the usual... Tuesday and Wednesday we were on exchanges, and Friday we were inside because I was sick, and I was hoping that one day where I just forced myself to stay in bed would make everything all better. It worked, I feel great now, but I seem to have passed it. So yesterday I studied a lot, and Saturday I deep cleaned the apartment.  

Well I can tell you about my exciting studies! So one of the many great things about my companion is that she is a literature major, and she loves words. She has this giant dictionary and she taught me the fun of looking up words. Sometimes for studies she'll just take one verse and dissect it and look up all the words and just get all these new meanings out of it and it's crazy and super cool. So yesterday I did a lot of that, and did the same thing with my patriarchal blessing. It blew my mind! I got so many different meanings and a totally new understanding out of it and I would just recommend everyone to do it.

We did transfer planning on Saturday, and we have lots of good goals for this transfer to finish strong! We're doing an English fast this transfer, speaking only French together, soaking up my last 6 weeks of being surrounded by this beautiful language. Sad day. We've also been reading out loud together out of the Book of Mormon after reading something that said if you read the BOM out loud in a language you'll be fluent in it. I've been surprised how much it's helped, not only my French, but just our companionship and the Spirit in our apartment. I love that book, it's a powerful thing. I love how it has become the first thing I turn to when I need an answer or comfort or anything at all.

Well I hope you all have a super awesome week, Happy Valentine's Day!
I love you!
 
Soeur Larsen

2 comments:

  1. How great they get to stay together! We will keep our little soeur in our prayers!

    ReplyDelete