What. A. Week. Looking back at my planner (which is what I usually do in order to remember what actually happened) I'm realizing that this past week was definitely the busiest we've been. We are SO blessed! I am absolutely loving it, too. French is coming! That was the weirdest thing about our craaaaazy day yesterday. I could understand! And I even translated into English for one of our amis (investigators) who doesn't speak French :) Yep. Sr. Hafen says she's so proud of me. :)
Okay let me tell you why I'm saying we've been especially blessed this week. We have had a few lessons with Xhoana and keep praying for them to find a house because they can't be baptized until all of their material needs are taken care of. They have their legality stuff on November 7th, then the city will pay for something for them I think. And they already have so much faith! I would like to encourage us all to be more Christlike. And if you think you're pretty much already there, I would like to be lovingly bold and tell you, no. Work harder. This family! Oh my goodness! They eat once a day. They never complain. They pray and read the LdM (French acronym for Book of Mormon) and drink in the information like it's the water they need. Ardian, the husband, peeled an orange while waiting with us for the tram after church yesterday. He speaks no English or French. And do you know what he did? Do you know what this homeless, humble, kind man did? He offered his orange to us. I teared up right then and there because of the incredible example this family is to me! Even though it's impossible for them to find somewhere to sleep right now, I know God is blessing them with good weather. People tell us that this winter is supposed to be the coldest they've had in years, but it's been sunny and beautiful all week. Not even cold at night or in the mornings. And I know that that is a tender mercy for them from Heavenly Father.
Another miracle happened this week. Prayers WORK. Remember Mirjana? Yeah so she called us Friday night. SHE called US. Sr. Hafen told me that never once in all the years she's been taught has she called the missionaries. They have always called her. And when we didn't call her back right away, she called again. So we were able to see her the next day and we went over there and she told us she doesn't want to stop. She thought about it, and she decided that trying to figure out her problems by herself was pointless. She needed us more than ever at this time in her life, and she wants to continue to prepare to be baptized. She and her husband and Lyon. And they came to church. The whole family came to church! Second hour, Sr. Hafen and I were teaching two families about the Plan du Salut (Plan of Salvation). How cool is that?? We met with them again on Sunday night, and we set a new date. November 30th. Then we taught them the Restoration, and it just clicked for Mirjana. She never really understood before that this is God's true church on the earth right now, and she's been taught the retab countless of times. But when we taught her about the Apostasie, it clicked! And she almost jumped up she was so excited! I'm so happy for her and her family :)
We also had our last district meeting of the mutation (transfer) this week which means district picture!! Here we are!
Elder Piere (one of the other Elders) has a really good one; sorry mine is kinda crazy...It was so fun. I'll try to get the pictures from him so you can see! There was this awesome castle we saw that is right smack in the middle of Belfort (where we went for the meeting) that I didn't take any pictures of with my camera unfortunately. But it was so fun! Usually our meetings are in Mulhouse, but we had to go to Belfort for some reason. I don't know.
Some pictures I found on the internet of the Belfort Castle
There's literally almost too much this week to tell you everything. We taught a lot of lessons. Met a lot of awesome people. Maybe this week we'll be able to teach a French family that a family in the ward brought to church...:) Ah it's incredible how blessed the work here is! And the Elders in Mulhouse have a baptism the 8th of November. They met him in the street and now, 3 weeks later, he is already ready to be baptized. He is so kind and humble, but I know he will face a lot of opposition after this, so pray for him! His name is Patrick :)
Let's see...as far as food I've tried this week, I tried a tartelette citron one day--oh my goodness. It is so good.
Like, better than lemon maringue pie, and you guys know how much I love that. Also, and Mom this is more for you, but we had a mangezvous (dinner appointment) at a member's house and they had made lasagna with ham. And it was SO good...it made it kind of sweet...I don't know. It was weird. But I really really liked it :) So, maybe experiment a little? She just put ham in between the noodles instead of ground beef.
I love you all! Being a missionary is the best! Also, I've heard the best place to spend Christmas is in Mulhouse because of all the food and decorations (it's the Alsacian culture), so I'll make sure to take a lot of pictures!
à la prochaine (until next time),
Sœur Pettingill
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