Tuesday was terrible. I threw up several times in the night and didn't get any sleep because of it. To put it into perspective, I had weighed myself Monday morning and Tuesday morning after the disastrous night, and the scale showed a 9-pound difference of weight. Sufficeth to say that the day was spent mostly sleeping and taking medicine. We did, however, go to a dinner appointment that we had contrary to my requests not to go-- I was forced into it and it was an awful experience. Never again want to repeat and 10/10 would not recommend.
I still felt awful the next day, but decided to give it my all, as we had many things planned. Being sick on a mission is not an easy task, especially on packed days. Anyway, the day ended with a dinner appointment at Monique's house with our new investigator, Jean-Marc, who was taught by the missionaries over 20 years ago. It went really well and we're excited to see where he progresses.
Thursday we did service for the British couple in our branch, the Banks. It was lovely as always and we were rewarded, yet again, by a vegan lunch. What a couple. While there, however, the wife told me that many people in the branch got sick on Tuesday morning, so it confirmed to me that somehow a virus was passed around at church.
The next day was probably the best day last week. We found a lot of new people, visited some in-actives who expressed interest in returning and had a wonderful dinner appointment with the Salas (the Swedish couple). I'll just attach pictures of the Swedish meal she made for us this time. It was so good! Great day to what had been a terrible week.
On Saturday we taught our investigator with a baptismal date, Tresor, the commandments and he accepted to live them to be baptized! Amazing, as this is always the part we are scared people will refuse to live. Another great miracle we had was that we visited an in-active member named Elise and had a great meeting with her and her two children. Elise is from Tahiti and decided to stop going to church when she left her husband for a woman. When we showed up, her partner wasn't there, but she was with her kids. We gave them a spiritual thought and sang a primary song with them. Elise started crying and said that she really is missing that warmth and over-all spirit that the church provided in hers and her children's lives. She then promised us that she'd go to church the next day and even the third Sunday of this month (when we have the branch meal) and make something for it. What a moment! She then invited us back over for a Crepe party next week. This woman is incredible.
Sunday was nice. Elise came to church with her son and Tresor came as well. 2nd hour was a bit of a mess, as the adults were all discussing the Sermon on the Mount for Sunday school. Eventually, a lot of the crowd just started bashing on other churches (i.e., the Catholic church and the pedophilia that they have going on at the moment), in which I don't think they realized that we had both Tresor (who used to be Catholic) and Elise (who baptized her children Catholic) in attendance. I could feel the bad tension in the room, so I waited to be called on to brighten the mood. When the teacher called on me, I decided to ask them to all sing a song together. I swear they think I'm crazy lol. The song was "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man," which is based on a parable that comes from the Sermon on the Mount. I gave a member my tablet to be able to play it on the piano, and then I stood in the front of the room and led with the accompanying hand gestures. It was funny, because so many of the members are converts and were never in primary themselves, so they didn't know the song. The hand gestures in French are also different than how we did them in America, so it was interesting to see how everyone did them. But the coolest thing was that I was able to see how happy it made people. There wasn't a smile-less face in this crowd that ranged from 30 year olds to 80 year olds. Primary songs aren't just for kids, folks. After we sang, I bore testimony about how important it is to build our testimonies on a firm foundation and to never lose sight of that, as this is one of the things that the Savior taught during his sermon. The class ended on such a positive note and not one criticism about anything else was mentioned. I think it's safe to say that both Elise and Tresor will be returning.
I'd like to really let you all know the importance of unity. As differing as all of our opinions may be, at the end of the day we're all still brothers and sisters. We may not always agree with each other, but we need to love each other! Sometimes we need to take a step back and go back into the basics of what we know/who we are. There is no need to over-complicate things in life, whether it be our familial, spiritual, communal, etc. situations. Simplicity is good and it's really what we should try to achieve. Go forward with love in all situations of life. Love for yourself, for others, and for God. These three things can take you anywhere! We need to unify ourselves in this World and go forward with faith and love. That's how we build personal testimonies, that's how we help others come unto Christ, and that's how we strengthen our relationship with God. One of the biggest commandments that God has given us is to love one another. Because I have a huge testimony of the power of primary songs, I'd like to leave you with some lyrics from one of my favorite primary songs. I invite you to read the lyrics and really understand what they mean. These songs aren't just pretty, they're super meaningful. If you ever get a moment, sing it with your family/friends/loved ones. I promise the Spirit will be felt so strongly when you do. If you decide to do this, feel free to email me how your experience was. I love hearing these types of stories!
As I have loved you,
Love one another.
This new commandment:
Love one another.
By this shall men know
Ye are my disciples;
If ye have love
One to another.
Have a great week! Love you all!
Elder Connor Anderson
No comments:
Post a Comment