So Saturday afternoon, Soeur Mangum and I are about an hour early for our RDV. We decide that we should probably take advantage of this moment to eat some lunch. We left the apartment at 10:00 and we wouldn't be eating until 6. After wandering around Centreville for about 5 minutes, we discover that our only options are kabobs or pizza hut. We decide to go for the pizza hut. We go in and we order a medium sized pizza (which happened to be half off that day. Only 5 euros) and sit down. In about 5 minutes, the man brings out fine china, warmed silverware, soda and our deep dish pizza in a stone pan. What! Where are we?? I felt like I was in Brick Oven. We felt really fancy eating our 5 euro deep dish pizza with utensils....so naturally we did the classiest thing we could think of---we took out our cameras and snapped a bunch of pictures. :)
Now the miracles. Week six is the last week of the transfer and it is always FULL of those cherry on top moments where you really do see all your hard work coming together.
Church was amazing this last week. It was fast and testimony meeting. The testimonies were incredibly powerful. But at one point, Leila (the 2 year old daughter of our Recent Convert) came up and was talking to us-- because we're her "best friends" as she says :). Well then suddenly I get the feeling I should be paying more attention to the testimonies. I look up and Sœur Puissant is walking to the pulpit. For a refresher--Soeur Puissant just barely started coming back to church about 3 weeks ago. She gets to the pulpit and starts her testimony by saying "I have just barely started coming back to church thanks to those two sister missionaries"--to which I almost started bawling. She then went on to tell of a RDV we had with her not too long ago. Here is the story which I will start from our point of view:
It was the end of the lesson and Sœur Mangum and I had decided to leave Soeur Puissant with the conference talk by President Uchtdorf "Come join with us". It is an amazing talk and I had seen it work some pretty awesome miracles in Rennes and we both agreed that it would be good for her to read it. So at the end of the lesson, I ask her if I can pull it up on her computer (which was right next to us). I pull it up and then we say our little goodbyes, she gives us cookies (comme d'habitude) and we left.
Now I will shift to her words: "After they left, I wasn't quite in the mood to read the talk so I thought I would minimize it to read later while I watched a movie on my computer. I try to pull up a new page...and the internet isn't working. Oh well, too bad, I'll watch some soccer on TV. And would you know it? The TV isn't working. Now I'm not a technician but I know how to unplug things and reset them. Affter ALL this, still the only thing that was accessible was the talk that the sister missionaries left me. I'm not stupid. I know when Heavenly Father is trying to tell me something. So I sat down to read the talk. And you want to know something? After I finished it, the internet and TV started working again."
MIRACLE. So cool. Also, seeing someone up there bearing their testimony, who 7 months ago wasn't letting ANYONE into her home, was just such a beautiful finishing touch.
Second story. So on Thursday, we planned to go out to see the Rosenbluth's again. They are a less active family as well. They used to be INCREDIBLY active. She served in the temple and they were there together all the time. When I first got to Charleroi, their door was completely closed to all visits. Home teachers-no. Visiting teachers-no. Missionaries-definitely not.
Well we schmeegled our way in and they are SO incredibly nice. We love them. Well the only problem with visiting them...they live FOREVER away...and actually we have rarely been there via public transportation. We had always planned it perfectly so that we were visiting them right after being with a member and the members are so great here that they always offer to drop us off at our next rdv. And to add on top of that..our maps don't go out as far as her house. The funny thing is, she is really not that far. She is about 10 min drive from the church.
But whatever. Anyway, we get rough directions and we head out there. We step off the metro and it is hailing and sleeting. Lots of fun haha. We ask the metro driver if he knows where their road was. He said he did and pointed us in the way and we started our walk. SOOO COLD. We get to a Bus office station (with all the workers) and we go in (pretty wet) and ask for directions again. The room is full of about 15 men and we're just these little lost american missionaries haha.
They gave us directions again and sent us on our way. To which about 45 seconds after, one of them came running after and offered us a ride. Now as a sister missionary, we can't accept rides from men. So I'm standing there in the sleet and I just say "no. but thank you so much for offering!" At this point he looks very confused and says "...but it's raining!" To which I respond "I know. It's good for morale." :) Well we then turn and continue on our way. We are LAUGHING so hard. The hail is pecking at our faces and we just couldn't help but laugh at our pitiful plight. And I kept thinking "Maybe our pitiful faces will help them come back to church".
We finally find their place. Before going in I turn to Soeur Mangum and ask:
"Do I have mascara on my face?"
"....yes..."
"Ok. Will you get it off?"
"......."
"Don't be shy."
"Well it's everywhere"
"HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH"
Tant pis. We'll just knock anyway. Soeur Rosenbluth threw open the door "I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!!! Come in. There is hot chocolate. Give me your wet coats". Within 3 minutes, we were seated at the table with hot chocolate in front of us, I no longer had makeup all over my face and there was the biggest pile of chocolate treats I have ever seen.
We then proceeded to have a beautiful lesson about the temple and the direction it can give us in our daily lives. We shared this amazing quote from True to the Faith that I have found to be SO true.
"Sometimes you may feel that you cannot think clearly because your mind is so burdened with problems and the many things clamoring for attention. In the temple, the dust of these distractions can settle, the fog and haze can lift, and you can understand things that you have not understood before. You can find new ways to deal with the challenges you face."
By the end of the lesson they were reminiscing about their days in the temple and she took out an old photo album of all the temple pictures and postcards that she has ever collected. It was very beautiful.
And guess who was there this Sunday :) Brother Rosenbluth. So amazing. We were trying to find a place to sit in Sacrament meeting and I thought to walk down the left side instead of the right like normal. And who do I pass sitting in the corner? Our good friend Frere Rosenbluth. I immediately plopped right down next to him. So it was a pretty amazing Sunday. Lots of amis at church and one less active bearing her testimony while I was sitting next to another.
Another CRAZY miracle. This one takes some back story. Here we go.
So a couple of weeks ago, we were at interviews in Brussels and the Soeurs in Strombeek said that they found some information about an old ami who had moved to Charleroi. They hadn't met her but they found her phone number and had called it and she said that she lived in Charleroi so they gave us a piece a paper with her name and phone number on it. Well, we head back to Charleroi and I get off the metro and as it's pulling away I realize "you don't have everything you had when you got on that metro." I look down and what am I missing? A package, letters from friends, a bag of candy...but most importantly---the womans info! I JUST ABOUT DIED!! It had already been a very hard day and I just thought "well that is just the icing on the cake". One of the Elders we were with felt SO bad for me and when we talked to him later he said "Soeurs! I've wanted to talk to you! I prayed that you would get back that info and I got the answer 'all in the Lord's time'. Don't worry Soeurs!" Well. That Elder was 100% right. Here's the story:
Last week in our meeting with our Ward mission Leader from Charleroi 1, he gave us a list of all the people that the missionaries have visited in the last 6 months. Annick was on there but I noticed that the number next to her name was not the number that we normally call her on. I check the phone and sure enough, they're different. "Well we'll try this one I guess." I decide to call her and a woman picks up on the other line...except she has a completely different voice than Annick.
"Is this Annick?"
"Yes this is!"
"...hi this is the sister missionaries-"
"OH LA LA!!! It has been TOO long! How are you??"
"...I'm doing well. How are you?"
"So good my sister. So good."
At this point I am thoroughly confused. Not only is this not the Annick that we know, this is someone that definitely knows the sisters
"Well we were calling to know if we could come see you this next week"
"OF COURSE! You tell me what day"
We then fix a time and day in my mind but I'm still thinking "this is not annick. I have to get this person's address". She tells us that she will text it to us. We get the text...and it is in the Charleroi 2 ward....now we are really confused. How did our ward mission leader get this number? She's not even in Charleroi 1! Still confused, we go to the RDV. After getting to know them, I realize THIS IS THE LOST REFERENCE FROM STROMBEEK!!! She took the lessons in Strombeek back in 2008. Went to church a few times. We taught her and her husband the Book of Mormon. They accepted it opening and were very excited to read it. Before we could even ask them if they would read it she said "we will read this every night." to which her husband added "we'll read it together".
I left feeling mind blown. Unfortunately we won't see them again haha. We're no longer over charleroi 1 and 2 wards. We're just over Charleroi 1 but we'll pass them to the Elders of Charleroi 2...which is the Elder that prayed that we would find them. Interesting how that all worked together isn't it?
Well there is lots more but that is a pretty long email and I feel that for some of you, you're eyes are probably burning from staring too long at an LCD screen. So we'll just keep it there.
Transfers are over. It's crazy to think how different Charleroi is now. Soeur Mangum and I were talking today about how proud we are of this area. It has completely turned around. The members have turned around, we have amazing amis and even the apartment is nicer :) haha. It has been a wild ride. Soeur Mangum is off to Paris and I'm going to have a new companion named Soeur Mackay....that's about all I know about her so you'll have to tune in next week if you wanna learn more.
I love you all.
Soeur Bitter
Now the miracles. Week six is the last week of the transfer and it is always FULL of those cherry on top moments where you really do see all your hard work coming together.
Church was amazing this last week. It was fast and testimony meeting. The testimonies were incredibly powerful. But at one point, Leila (the 2 year old daughter of our Recent Convert) came up and was talking to us-- because we're her "best friends" as she says :). Well then suddenly I get the feeling I should be paying more attention to the testimonies. I look up and Sœur Puissant is walking to the pulpit. For a refresher--Soeur Puissant just barely started coming back to church about 3 weeks ago. She gets to the pulpit and starts her testimony by saying "I have just barely started coming back to church thanks to those two sister missionaries"--to which I almost started bawling. She then went on to tell of a RDV we had with her not too long ago. Here is the story which I will start from our point of view:
It was the end of the lesson and Sœur Mangum and I had decided to leave Soeur Puissant with the conference talk by President Uchtdorf "Come join with us". It is an amazing talk and I had seen it work some pretty awesome miracles in Rennes and we both agreed that it would be good for her to read it. So at the end of the lesson, I ask her if I can pull it up on her computer (which was right next to us). I pull it up and then we say our little goodbyes, she gives us cookies (comme d'habitude) and we left.
Now I will shift to her words: "After they left, I wasn't quite in the mood to read the talk so I thought I would minimize it to read later while I watched a movie on my computer. I try to pull up a new page...and the internet isn't working. Oh well, too bad, I'll watch some soccer on TV. And would you know it? The TV isn't working. Now I'm not a technician but I know how to unplug things and reset them. Affter ALL this, still the only thing that was accessible was the talk that the sister missionaries left me. I'm not stupid. I know when Heavenly Father is trying to tell me something. So I sat down to read the talk. And you want to know something? After I finished it, the internet and TV started working again."
MIRACLE. So cool. Also, seeing someone up there bearing their testimony, who 7 months ago wasn't letting ANYONE into her home, was just such a beautiful finishing touch.
Second story. So on Thursday, we planned to go out to see the Rosenbluth's again. They are a less active family as well. They used to be INCREDIBLY active. She served in the temple and they were there together all the time. When I first got to Charleroi, their door was completely closed to all visits. Home teachers-no. Visiting teachers-no. Missionaries-definitely not.
Well we schmeegled our way in and they are SO incredibly nice. We love them. Well the only problem with visiting them...they live FOREVER away...and actually we have rarely been there via public transportation. We had always planned it perfectly so that we were visiting them right after being with a member and the members are so great here that they always offer to drop us off at our next rdv. And to add on top of that..our maps don't go out as far as her house. The funny thing is, she is really not that far. She is about 10 min drive from the church.
But whatever. Anyway, we get rough directions and we head out there. We step off the metro and it is hailing and sleeting. Lots of fun haha. We ask the metro driver if he knows where their road was. He said he did and pointed us in the way and we started our walk. SOOO COLD. We get to a Bus office station (with all the workers) and we go in (pretty wet) and ask for directions again. The room is full of about 15 men and we're just these little lost american missionaries haha.
They gave us directions again and sent us on our way. To which about 45 seconds after, one of them came running after and offered us a ride. Now as a sister missionary, we can't accept rides from men. So I'm standing there in the sleet and I just say "no. but thank you so much for offering!" At this point he looks very confused and says "...but it's raining!" To which I respond "I know. It's good for morale." :) Well we then turn and continue on our way. We are LAUGHING so hard. The hail is pecking at our faces and we just couldn't help but laugh at our pitiful plight. And I kept thinking "Maybe our pitiful faces will help them come back to church".
We finally find their place. Before going in I turn to Soeur Mangum and ask:
"Do I have mascara on my face?"
"....yes..."
"Ok. Will you get it off?"
"......."
"Don't be shy."
"Well it's everywhere"
"HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH"
Tant pis. We'll just knock anyway. Soeur Rosenbluth threw open the door "I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!!! Come in. There is hot chocolate. Give me your wet coats". Within 3 minutes, we were seated at the table with hot chocolate in front of us, I no longer had makeup all over my face and there was the biggest pile of chocolate treats I have ever seen.
We then proceeded to have a beautiful lesson about the temple and the direction it can give us in our daily lives. We shared this amazing quote from True to the Faith that I have found to be SO true.
"Sometimes you may feel that you cannot think clearly because your mind is so burdened with problems and the many things clamoring for attention. In the temple, the dust of these distractions can settle, the fog and haze can lift, and you can understand things that you have not understood before. You can find new ways to deal with the challenges you face."
By the end of the lesson they were reminiscing about their days in the temple and she took out an old photo album of all the temple pictures and postcards that she has ever collected. It was very beautiful.
And guess who was there this Sunday :) Brother Rosenbluth. So amazing. We were trying to find a place to sit in Sacrament meeting and I thought to walk down the left side instead of the right like normal. And who do I pass sitting in the corner? Our good friend Frere Rosenbluth. I immediately plopped right down next to him. So it was a pretty amazing Sunday. Lots of amis at church and one less active bearing her testimony while I was sitting next to another.
Another CRAZY miracle. This one takes some back story. Here we go.
So a couple of weeks ago, we were at interviews in Brussels and the Soeurs in Strombeek said that they found some information about an old ami who had moved to Charleroi. They hadn't met her but they found her phone number and had called it and she said that she lived in Charleroi so they gave us a piece a paper with her name and phone number on it. Well, we head back to Charleroi and I get off the metro and as it's pulling away I realize "you don't have everything you had when you got on that metro." I look down and what am I missing? A package, letters from friends, a bag of candy...but most importantly---the womans info! I JUST ABOUT DIED!! It had already been a very hard day and I just thought "well that is just the icing on the cake". One of the Elders we were with felt SO bad for me and when we talked to him later he said "Soeurs! I've wanted to talk to you! I prayed that you would get back that info and I got the answer 'all in the Lord's time'. Don't worry Soeurs!" Well. That Elder was 100% right. Here's the story:
Last week in our meeting with our Ward mission Leader from Charleroi 1, he gave us a list of all the people that the missionaries have visited in the last 6 months. Annick was on there but I noticed that the number next to her name was not the number that we normally call her on. I check the phone and sure enough, they're different. "Well we'll try this one I guess." I decide to call her and a woman picks up on the other line...except she has a completely different voice than Annick.
"Is this Annick?"
"Yes this is!"
"...hi this is the sister missionaries-"
"OH LA LA!!! It has been TOO long! How are you??"
"...I'm doing well. How are you?"
"So good my sister. So good."
At this point I am thoroughly confused. Not only is this not the Annick that we know, this is someone that definitely knows the sisters
"Well we were calling to know if we could come see you this next week"
"OF COURSE! You tell me what day"
We then fix a time and day in my mind but I'm still thinking "this is not annick. I have to get this person's address". She tells us that she will text it to us. We get the text...and it is in the Charleroi 2 ward....now we are really confused. How did our ward mission leader get this number? She's not even in Charleroi 1! Still confused, we go to the RDV. After getting to know them, I realize THIS IS THE LOST REFERENCE FROM STROMBEEK!!! She took the lessons in Strombeek back in 2008. Went to church a few times. We taught her and her husband the Book of Mormon. They accepted it opening and were very excited to read it. Before we could even ask them if they would read it she said "we will read this every night." to which her husband added "we'll read it together".
I left feeling mind blown. Unfortunately we won't see them again haha. We're no longer over charleroi 1 and 2 wards. We're just over Charleroi 1 but we'll pass them to the Elders of Charleroi 2...which is the Elder that prayed that we would find them. Interesting how that all worked together isn't it?
Well there is lots more but that is a pretty long email and I feel that for some of you, you're eyes are probably burning from staring too long at an LCD screen. So we'll just keep it there.
Transfers are over. It's crazy to think how different Charleroi is now. Soeur Mangum and I were talking today about how proud we are of this area. It has completely turned around. The members have turned around, we have amazing amis and even the apartment is nicer :) haha. It has been a wild ride. Soeur Mangum is off to Paris and I'm going to have a new companion named Soeur Mackay....that's about all I know about her so you'll have to tune in next week if you wanna learn more.
I love you all.
Soeur Bitter
No comments:
Post a Comment