Happy 4th! I hope that tomorrow is an amazing day and that you get to see some killer fireworks! Bastille day is in a couple of weeks so we'll just count those as a celebration of American independence. The elders in our district wanted to do a BBQ so we came to the mission home to grill hamburgers and the french equivalent of hot dogs! We played uno and frisbee and ate lots of cherbourg caramel. Elder Watson was still here so we got to talk with him for a little bit! One on one with a general authority is always cool!
It has been a really funny, long, crazy day. We got up this morning and ran out the door for our morning run. I am usually responsible for the keys and have been diligent in remembering them but for some reason I forgot them today. The door locks automatically and as soon as it did I cringed. Dang. Well we had left the window open so we went outside to try have Sr Gifford stand on my shoulders to get to the ledge of our window but that was a terrible failure:) We just ended up laughing for about 10 mins. After we calmed down a little bit we thought "mmm, ok, well we really do need to get in....we don't have a phone let alone their numbers, we don't have our navigos to get on a train to get to the mission home to get the spare keys and its 6:30 in the morning. Mmm, we'll just then we see this guy walking up the walkway. He looks like he's about 30 and probably about Dan Byers size. So we try to look as helpless and as beautiful as possible(not easy right after you rolled out of bed:) and we asked him if he had a ladder or knew some way we could get up to the window sill. He looks up at the window, sizes it up and then goes, "j'arrive." Sr Gifford and I just look at each other quizically as he walks into the building across from ours. He comes down about 3 mins later with this giant tool box, puts it directly under our window, jumps, grabs the window sill, pulls himself up the balcony fence thing, jumps over the fence into our apartlment and disappears inside. 30 seconds later he has the keys and says 'de rien. bonne journee' hahaha it was so funny and miraculous. We didn't even have to walk more then 15 feet and Heavenly Father sent someone to save us from our silly mistake. It was incredible. He sent spiderman. I love it! even the small things. He is ALWAYS aware of our needs. We made him cookies and took them over. He tried to bizou us but instead we gave him a Book of Mormon:) We hope he'll read it!
So, another really cool miracle! N called us and said that he went to church last week! He loved it and he is anxious to get baptized. He wanted to last week but Elder Birk said that he still had some stuff to learn. I love him so much! C is doing well. We went over yesterday and she is on track for her Book of Mormon reading! We just talked about parts that she liked and we did the same. She is going to the south of France for vacances for the next 3 weeks then to Normandy for the whole month of august so we won't see her for a bit but we are going to keep tabs on her. She said that her grandma has had the missionaries over and that she started taking the lessons too! Good news. There will be the support there that she needs! We are exited for her. She will get there, we're just along for the ride.
Met some REALLY amazing people this week that we have started to work with. There is this 10 year old named C who asks better questions than I have ever asked myself. He reminds me a lot of Josh, really intelligent but also really hilarious. His family was baptized about 3 years ago but have been less active for a while. He is going to get them back. He is reading the Book of Mormon and loving the stories. We also started teaching the fiancee of a recent convert named M. She got baptized last year and they are getting married in September. He grew up in Jersey! Small world yea? They are incredible people and so generous. They made us empanadas and gave us their secret recipe. I was full after 1 but they insisted we eat 3. We also met this really cool lady named L. Miracle finding story but not any time to tell it! We are meeting with her Monday and I'll update you next week.
Also, cool story from the week...Elder Watson from the 70 came and did a little conference with the missionaries in the Paris area. It's cool that President Staheli is friends with all these people! It was amazing. He talked a lot about the importance of personal scripture study. It's not a casual thing we do but something that we have to apply seriously in our lives. He quoted John A. Widstoe and now I can't find the quote online but it was something along the lines of, 'An effort must be put forth to learn the gospel, to comprehend it and to understand it. The gospel must be studied or else no test can be applied to it. That study must be wide. It is a great paradox that men and women will spend years intently studying the sciences or art or economics but when it comes the the scriptures, they expect a similar proficency to come without an equal effort. It is not perfunctory glances and occassional listening to sermons. It must be studied if we are to know the doctrine." I can't remember it all but it was powerful. It is essential to make gospel knowledge a lifelong pursuit. I want to know the scriptures like he does and be able to use them correctly. We went and taught a woman who has let her scripture study become less and less important in life and now her testimony is rocky. There is a direct relationship. When we are diligent in our studies, nobody can shake what we know. But the opposite is also true when we aren't diligent. So...let's be diligent. I love the scriptures so much and am excited to keep learning!
This is really late because we worked this morning, we didnt have time to write until now sorry!
What is a santon? Have i completely missed all french culture in not knowing what that is? darn it!
i love you! sr powers
be strong, never give up and endure to the end:)
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