First off can we just say this week was an explosion of love!! With Nicole having her baby, Kati get married and Jon and Sarah having their baby, I got an explosion of emails and love from everyone!! I'm sorry I'm not there for all these huge events but I love you all so much and CONGRATULATIONS!!!
So I was thinking we could start this week with a missionary fail moment. So once upon a time, Fatima was going to Morocco. She will be gone for two months which is a HUGE bummer because she is making so much progress BUT she does so much good work in Morocco so it'll be a good thing. Anyway, we were thinking of what we could do while she is gone to help her to keep progressing. We decided to make her a "Calendrier de Vacance" with specific chapters of the Book of Mormon or talks from online. Well, since Fatima only reads in Arabic...I've been studying a little bit of arabic this week haha. I would sit down and compare my english Book of Mormon with an Arabic version. I learned quickly what the different numbers were and so finding scriptures was a lot easier. I fill out the calender and at the bottom, there is a blank space. I thought to myself "Hmmm..I should put a scripture there. But what Scripture??....I KNOW!! Moroni 10:4".
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Obviously, this scripture was very easy to find because it was at the back of the Book of Mormon (or the front in Arabic). So I start the long tedious process of writing out a scripture in Arabic. Needless to say, it looked pretty legit. At the end of the scripture (literally as I'm finishing the last character) I think so smugly to myself "Fatima will be so touched." Almost as a response, I feel the spirit tell me "Maybe you should double check that scripture". I quickly look back to the scripture and realize "MINCE!! This isn't Moroni 10:4...this is chapter 9!!!....what a second...THIS ISN'T EVEN THE BOOK OF MORONI! IT'S ETHER!!....it's ok. I'm sure this scripture is good too." So I quickly pull out my english Book of Mormon. Imagine my worry when I turn to Ether 9 and none of the scriptures in that chapter are highlighted. THEN Imagine my dismay when I read Ether 9:4
And it came to pass that Jared was anointed king over the people, by the hand of wickedness; and he gave unto Akish his daughter to wife.
Fail. Yup...I'm sure "Fatima will be so touched" by that scripture. Hahaha. Pride comes before the fall n'est-ce pas?
Annabelle is progressing really well and is planning on coming to Conference!! We talked about prophets and a few of the commandments this week. She LOVED the conference ensigne we gave her--especially Soeur Dalton's talk "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father". She went on and on about it haha. She's so sweet and teachable. I've never met anyone so teachable in my life. When we taught the law of Chastity this week we asked her if she will commit to keeping the law of chastity and she said enthusiastically "I WILL BE PERFECT!!" We also started bringing Sr. Hamzic to a few of our lessons. Annabelle LOVES Sr. Hamzic. Everytime we are there now, (Whether or not Sr. Hamzic is there) she prays for Sr. Hamzic and thanks Heavenly Father for the touching things Sr. Hamzic said to her and the testimony she shared :). Happiness. Imgaine how thrilled Annabelle was when the next time Sr. Hamzic came, she brought a potted flower for her. It sits proudly on display in front of her front window.
Miracle of the week: Earlier this week I had been thinking about Annick. She is a recent convert in this ward. She had been an ami for 30 years and then one day decided she was going to get baptized :). (Fun insert, it was my mission president's wife, Soeur Poznanski who first found and taught her). Anyway, we don't meet with her a ton because she is pretty timid but I was thinking "Hey, with a new comp, I bet we could get another RDV with her". Sure enough, I'm getting on the bus and I see Annick is calling. I think to myself "SR Bitter, this is one call you can NOT ignore and call back later".
So I immediately pick up. She asks if we had called her. I think to myself "I had been wanting to call her...did I call her....?" I told her we hadn't but that I had been thinking about her a lot this week and that we would love to have a RDV with her and introduce my new companion. She said that would be no problem (!) and that we could have it after church on Sunday in one of the classrooms. We were planning our lesson for her and we thought that we should talk to her about Patriarchal Blessings and to prepare to receive hers.
We get into the RDV and we're just talking about her conversion story (and Sr. Barton is asking her questions about her experiences) and then suddenly she tells us "and then today during the Sacrament. A word just popped into my mind 'Patriarchal Blessing'". We told her that we had actually prepared that very thing to talk to her about. She was SO INCREDIBLY touched that we had received the same though as her. We started talking about Patriarchal Blessings and the personal guidance we receive from the Lord. "So it's like a letter from the Lord!" I sat back and thought about it and then realized...that is exactly what it is.
I can't even begin to describe our lessons with Annick. We don't have them often but when we do, there is a feeling beyond description. Soeur Barton and I were talking afterwards about how it is really a privilege to meet and know these people. We get to feel a little bit of the love that our Heavenly Father has for these people. Those moments make the weird encounters, the sore feet and the early mornings all worth it.
As always, our members are amazing! I can't even begin to describe. We get calls from them all the time asking us how they can help our amis. If they can have a specific amis number to help them move or telling them about their missionary experiences throughout the week. It's a beautiful thing and they uplift us as missionaries.
I love you all so much.
Jon & Sarah: Congratulations again! And that is super cool that you are looking for opportunities to share the Gospel and people to invite over with the Sister's. You're the kind of members that missionaries talk about and adore :)
Love love love you!
Soeur Bitter
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| Streets of Rennes |
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