Bonjour everyone! I am officially out of my first 12 weeks, and no longer in training or considered "bleu" (greenie) anymore! I'm a real missionary! Haha
So, most importantly, transfer calls came and not only do I get to stay here in my beloved Chambéry, but I am going to continue to work with my favorite person in the world, Soeur Cherry! President said we are a terrific team and he wants to see what more we can get done! And I can't wait to keep helping the work here move forward, because it's at its highest point right now! Exciting times. The other 2 sisters, Kehl and Pagano, are staying here as well! The 4 of us are just the best of friends and I could not be more happy to continue serving with these sisters. This is going to be an amazing, miracle filled transfer!
So, the highlights of the week...I will start out with the not so good, and then the great!
We went porting one night (door to door) and the first door we knock on, the lady gets all worked up and tells us she will call the cops on us if we don't leave. Apparently there was a sign saying it's prohibited to knock on people's doors there...not true. But, not wanting to get thrown in the locker, we decided to leave. That was exciting. Haha
One night we were out contacting, and saw a very humble looking woman. So, we talk to her, then literally out of no where her whole face changed and she began screaming at us. Without going into too much detail, she began cursing us with wome devil-worshipping chant. That was a little scary, but we said a little prayer right after and felt much better. You can invite the spirit in instantly if you're worthy of it! It's really an incredible power, stronger than any power of darkness, because it's God's power!
Then we were out contacting, and we met this man. He said he was lacking in his faith, but he really wanted help in making his faith stronger again. He also wanted someone to help him stop smoking. We were like what the golden! That's why we are here! So we fixed a RDV with him for the next day. The next day, we start the RDV, and this is how it goes down. He literally is the BIGGEST Phil Collins fan I have ever met. Every line that came out of his mouth almost was a Phil Collins lyric. I might have sung a little Tarzan with him...haha. So, then he goes into how he and Phil are soul mates. And how he and Phil are going to transform into angels and announce the second coming of Christ. My comp and I just looked at each other with the "our golden amis is a loony toon" face. Haha, he's a super cool guy. Very fun to talk to, we just wont be teaching him anymore, needless to say.
Now I will share our miracles of the week!
Our amis who we have been trying to get out of the "friends zone" and DTR (define the relationship for you old fogies) with finally agreed to be taugth from us! So we taught him, and it was a really great experience. He is very skeptical, yet he loves being around the LDS crowd. So, after we taught the Restoration, he said "there's really no way you can actually know this is true though", fully expecting us to agree with his logic. But, I said "Actually you can. All you have to do is read, and pray and ask. That's all you have to do. And then you CAN know for sure, for yourself. That's what I've done, that's how I know. And you can do the same thing for yourself;" He was really taken back, but a couple hours after the lesson, he texted us and thanked us for the "beautiful testimonies", and that they "touched him."
Also, we had a lesson with our awesome amis who has a baptismal date fixed! Unfortunately his friend, our other amis, is being flakey, but the other is progressing so well! He showed up to our RDV having studied the first 2 chapters of Nephi in depth, with a piece of paper filled out with really good questions he had. We answered them all and he was really happy afterwards, because it all made more sense to him, and you HAVE to teach for understanding. That's what Elder Ballard taught us at our Conference. He came to church again on Sunday!
Then we had another lesson with our wonderful Albanian couple. Oh how I love them. Literally the most humble, kind people I have ever met. It is an honor to be in their home. We watched the Restoration with them, and the wife just began sobbing. She has been reading the BOM as well. At the end, she prayed. For 5 minutes she prayed, and it was such a sacred experience. She did it in her head, since she knew we wouldn't understand, but in those 5 minutes of silence, the Spirit was speaking volumes. Afterwards, I just couldn't contain myself, I had to hug her. You don't hug people here...But I just had to! And she loved it :)
I am beyond blessed to be here. I love my mission so much and have found true joy in this work. Also, I hope you're all preparing for General Conference! I would like to challenge you all to read a lot of last conference's talks before this weekend. Especially women, read from the priesthood session, and men, from the women's session. You'll see why once you just do it! The words that come out of our prophet's mouth are modern-day scripture! Please treasure the opportunity we have to hear from him and his Apostles!
I love you all!
-Soeur Shields
"Being a disciple of Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day...it's an effort of once and for all." - President Uchtdorf
So, most importantly, transfer calls came and not only do I get to stay here in my beloved Chambéry, but I am going to continue to work with my favorite person in the world, Soeur Cherry! President said we are a terrific team and he wants to see what more we can get done! And I can't wait to keep helping the work here move forward, because it's at its highest point right now! Exciting times. The other 2 sisters, Kehl and Pagano, are staying here as well! The 4 of us are just the best of friends and I could not be more happy to continue serving with these sisters. This is going to be an amazing, miracle filled transfer!
So, the highlights of the week...I will start out with the not so good, and then the great!
We went porting one night (door to door) and the first door we knock on, the lady gets all worked up and tells us she will call the cops on us if we don't leave. Apparently there was a sign saying it's prohibited to knock on people's doors there...not true. But, not wanting to get thrown in the locker, we decided to leave. That was exciting. Haha
One night we were out contacting, and saw a very humble looking woman. So, we talk to her, then literally out of no where her whole face changed and she began screaming at us. Without going into too much detail, she began cursing us with wome devil-worshipping chant. That was a little scary, but we said a little prayer right after and felt much better. You can invite the spirit in instantly if you're worthy of it! It's really an incredible power, stronger than any power of darkness, because it's God's power!
Then we were out contacting, and we met this man. He said he was lacking in his faith, but he really wanted help in making his faith stronger again. He also wanted someone to help him stop smoking. We were like what the golden! That's why we are here! So we fixed a RDV with him for the next day. The next day, we start the RDV, and this is how it goes down. He literally is the BIGGEST Phil Collins fan I have ever met. Every line that came out of his mouth almost was a Phil Collins lyric. I might have sung a little Tarzan with him...haha. So, then he goes into how he and Phil are soul mates. And how he and Phil are going to transform into angels and announce the second coming of Christ. My comp and I just looked at each other with the "our golden amis is a loony toon" face. Haha, he's a super cool guy. Very fun to talk to, we just wont be teaching him anymore, needless to say.
Now I will share our miracles of the week!
Our amis who we have been trying to get out of the "friends zone" and DTR (define the relationship for you old fogies) with finally agreed to be taugth from us! So we taught him, and it was a really great experience. He is very skeptical, yet he loves being around the LDS crowd. So, after we taught the Restoration, he said "there's really no way you can actually know this is true though", fully expecting us to agree with his logic. But, I said "Actually you can. All you have to do is read, and pray and ask. That's all you have to do. And then you CAN know for sure, for yourself. That's what I've done, that's how I know. And you can do the same thing for yourself;" He was really taken back, but a couple hours after the lesson, he texted us and thanked us for the "beautiful testimonies", and that they "touched him."
Also, we had a lesson with our awesome amis who has a baptismal date fixed! Unfortunately his friend, our other amis, is being flakey, but the other is progressing so well! He showed up to our RDV having studied the first 2 chapters of Nephi in depth, with a piece of paper filled out with really good questions he had. We answered them all and he was really happy afterwards, because it all made more sense to him, and you HAVE to teach for understanding. That's what Elder Ballard taught us at our Conference. He came to church again on Sunday!
Then we had another lesson with our wonderful Albanian couple. Oh how I love them. Literally the most humble, kind people I have ever met. It is an honor to be in their home. We watched the Restoration with them, and the wife just began sobbing. She has been reading the BOM as well. At the end, she prayed. For 5 minutes she prayed, and it was such a sacred experience. She did it in her head, since she knew we wouldn't understand, but in those 5 minutes of silence, the Spirit was speaking volumes. Afterwards, I just couldn't contain myself, I had to hug her. You don't hug people here...But I just had to! And she loved it :)
I am beyond blessed to be here. I love my mission so much and have found true joy in this work. Also, I hope you're all preparing for General Conference! I would like to challenge you all to read a lot of last conference's talks before this weekend. Especially women, read from the priesthood session, and men, from the women's session. You'll see why once you just do it! The words that come out of our prophet's mouth are modern-day scripture! Please treasure the opportunity we have to hear from him and his Apostles!
I love you all!
-Soeur Shields
"Being a disciple of Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day...it's an effort of once and for all." - President Uchtdorf
Around town
We went on a beautiful hike with our branch and amis Gilles
Our last night of the transfer party! Soeur kehl made us real french crepes! we did bible prophesies again... its tradition!
Arsene was so happy when he found out we were all staying in Chambery that he bought us the African equivalent to peanut butter...its almost just like it!
This one dude in our branch gave me cookies and this flower on sunday when he found out we were staying...were not sure why he gave it just to me
I love alleys!