Bonjour tout le monde!
As per usual, I don't have lot of time, but this week has been SO COOL!
This week, we had "Bounce Back" conference, where all the bleus (new missionaries) and their trainers came back to Lyon for a conference with President and Sister Brown. That means that our awesome MTC district was reunited and I got to have another sleepover with Soeur Jones. Sooooooo fun!
Our MTC district re-united at Bleus Conference.
It was so nice to see Sister Jones again!
Crazy there are this many "new" missionaries in the Lyon mission!
Love living in Lyon (close to the mission home), because when all the other missionaries come for conferences, it's like they're all coming to my home!
It's so cool to see how far everyone has come since the MTC. Something about spending time with Soeur Jones just reminds me that everything is going to be okay. Literally love her so much. It's just so cool to see how we're both struggling with some of the same things and having such similarly funny experiences with French and missionary life, but we're both going to be okay! Soeur Jones is seriously such an inspiration to me on how to always be improving and working, but also to just live in the moment be present. She really knows how to just appreciate what's happening in every given moment and that's one of my goals; to enjoy every day, every conversation, every experience of my mission. Because France is amazing and the French people are even more amazing, my heart is so content to be here amongst these incredible people in this beautiful country.
Miracle:
On Saturday, one of the other sisters said they met someone on the bus in our sector that knew the missionaries. We had never heard of him before. Later that night we got a call from someone asking where stake conference will be the next day because he wants to come. Unfortunately he got lost and kept texting us for directions during the conference. An hour after the conference started, he was still completely lost in Lyon and he was ready to "laissez tomber" (let it drop), for today. In that moment, I just said a prayer with all the faith I could muster that he would somehow find his way there. 10 minutes later, Cani Rwagasana walks into stake conference!!!
Afterward, we went and talked to him and he told us about how he had met the missionaries a long time ago, but his spirit "wasn't ready." He also told us how he is ready to change his life now. (Cool side note: A lot of the talks at stake conference were about how the gospel can change us! ) We asked him to start praying that his heart will be ready to receive the truth of our message and he said he would asked for us to pray for him too. We're meeting with him again tomorrow to start the lessons with him.
Crazy, that in the last seven weeks we've done sooo many hours of finding people to teach through door-to-door and street contacting, talking to hundreds of people in the process, and the ONE who is ready and want to learn more literally came to us. God definitely works in mysterious way, but it's also pretty clear that His way works better than ours. So grateful we aren't expected to do this work alone. I'm just His hands.
Other Miracles:
Luzia and Alexandre came to stake conference! She's been to church two weeks in a row and I really think she's starting to change. From that first miracle encounter in the elevator six weeks ago, to the strong relationship we have with her today, it's so cool to see that God sees the full picture! He knows what needs to happen today so that six weeks, six months, six years own the road, something incredible will happen.
Other Happenings:
The Macedonians: We had a cool lesson with a group of students from Macedonia (in English) on Sunday! Then we randomly ran into them in Lyon today on p-day! So fun!
Cool French experience: Someone at stake conference gave talk in Portuguese which was then translated into French. The juxtaposition between a language where I could understand nothing and then French, where I could understand almost everything, brought tears to my eyes. I hadn't realized until then just how much I've learned and how much God is clearly helping me in this process. Just 12 weeks ago, listening to French would have been like listening to the talk in Portuguese and I wouldn't have understood a thing. And now I can somehow understand. And I promise you that it has very little to do with me and a whole lot to do with the fact that God is helping me communicate with His children that He called to serve.
Je vous aime!!! Merci pour tout ce que vous faites et bon continuation!
Love,
Soeur Cami Goold
Me and Soeur Kelley with Soeur Jones and Soeur Holmgren.
Cool wall mural we passed.
As per usual, I don't have lot of time, but this week has been SO COOL!
This week, we had "Bounce Back" conference, where all the bleus (new missionaries) and their trainers came back to Lyon for a conference with President and Sister Brown. That means that our awesome MTC district was reunited and I got to have another sleepover with Soeur Jones. Sooooooo fun!
Our MTC district re-united at Bleus Conference.
It was so nice to see Sister Jones again!
Crazy there are this many "new" missionaries in the Lyon mission!
Love living in Lyon (close to the mission home), because when all the other missionaries come for conferences, it's like they're all coming to my home!
It's so cool to see how far everyone has come since the MTC. Something about spending time with Soeur Jones just reminds me that everything is going to be okay. Literally love her so much. It's just so cool to see how we're both struggling with some of the same things and having such similarly funny experiences with French and missionary life, but we're both going to be okay! Soeur Jones is seriously such an inspiration to me on how to always be improving and working, but also to just live in the moment be present. She really knows how to just appreciate what's happening in every given moment and that's one of my goals; to enjoy every day, every conversation, every experience of my mission. Because France is amazing and the French people are even more amazing, my heart is so content to be here amongst these incredible people in this beautiful country.
Miracle:
On Saturday, one of the other sisters said they met someone on the bus in our sector that knew the missionaries. We had never heard of him before. Later that night we got a call from someone asking where stake conference will be the next day because he wants to come. Unfortunately he got lost and kept texting us for directions during the conference. An hour after the conference started, he was still completely lost in Lyon and he was ready to "laissez tomber" (let it drop), for today. In that moment, I just said a prayer with all the faith I could muster that he would somehow find his way there. 10 minutes later, Cani Rwagasana walks into stake conference!!!
Afterward, we went and talked to him and he told us about how he had met the missionaries a long time ago, but his spirit "wasn't ready." He also told us how he is ready to change his life now. (Cool side note: A lot of the talks at stake conference were about how the gospel can change us! ) We asked him to start praying that his heart will be ready to receive the truth of our message and he said he would asked for us to pray for him too. We're meeting with him again tomorrow to start the lessons with him.
Crazy, that in the last seven weeks we've done sooo many hours of finding people to teach through door-to-door and street contacting, talking to hundreds of people in the process, and the ONE who is ready and want to learn more literally came to us. God definitely works in mysterious way, but it's also pretty clear that His way works better than ours. So grateful we aren't expected to do this work alone. I'm just His hands.
Other Miracles:
Luzia and Alexandre came to stake conference! She's been to church two weeks in a row and I really think she's starting to change. From that first miracle encounter in the elevator six weeks ago, to the strong relationship we have with her today, it's so cool to see that God sees the full picture! He knows what needs to happen today so that six weeks, six months, six years own the road, something incredible will happen.
Other Happenings:
The Macedonians: We had a cool lesson with a group of students from Macedonia (in English) on Sunday! Then we randomly ran into them in Lyon today on p-day! So fun!
Cool French experience: Someone at stake conference gave talk in Portuguese which was then translated into French. The juxtaposition between a language where I could understand nothing and then French, where I could understand almost everything, brought tears to my eyes. I hadn't realized until then just how much I've learned and how much God is clearly helping me in this process. Just 12 weeks ago, listening to French would have been like listening to the talk in Portuguese and I wouldn't have understood a thing. And now I can somehow understand. And I promise you that it has very little to do with me and a whole lot to do with the fact that God is helping me communicate with His children that He called to serve.
Je vous aime!!! Merci pour tout ce que vous faites et bon continuation!
Love,
Soeur Cami Goold
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