Bonjour à tous! We had a really cool, wonderful week full of learning and changing and growing here in Montpellier. Some unexpected things happened, both good and bad. But, I learned a lot from everything that happened! Well, remember our super on fire amie named Sarah? She fasted and read the BOM during her fast and was so gung-ho about really finding out for herself if she should get baptized now? Well, we went to go see her on Wednesday, basically expecting her to want to get baptized asap. Well, we get in and she is very reserved and won't really say much. So, we start talking, asking her about life and then about the fast. Then she just snapped... she felt that every missionary she's ever worked with is just a robot who wants to dunk her. She kept telling us that she thinks that is our only goal in seeing her, not because we actually care about her and want her to help her come unto Christ, but that we just want to up our baptismal statistics in the church. That hurt. It was like a sucker-punch to the gut. I've never had an ami tell me that they didn't think I cared about them and that I was basically just a baptism salesman. I love her so much, but I don't think our amis can really understand our level of love for them. Because we invite them to do these things out of our love for them, because we want them to be happy and have a better life. And sometimes they don't recognize that. She kept saying "I told you I wasn't ready, and yet you still asked me to fast." I thought fasting would help her receive an answer that she could be ready. Well, she asked us to leave. That hurt too. We did all we could to salvage it, but we will just have to give her some time. Then, on Friday we had a lesson with our other great amie, Flora. She's always been a bit doubting, but she's also desirous to learn more. Well, we read 2 Nephi 31 all together, explaining it to her as we went, and she really liked it. We were teaching with this stellar recent convert who just bore beautiful testimony all throughout. Then we all watched the Restoration film together. The spirit was so strong, and afterwards we all 3 were testifying to Flora about what we had just watched. The only words that came out of Flora's mouth was "I'm not going to have any more time to meet with you guys actually. I'm really busy. But thank you for letting me learn more about your church." We all felt like we got kinda slapped in the face. Totally didn't see that one coming. But our recent convert handled it like a champ and did exactly what members need to do when an ami is dropped...stay their friend! So she began inviting her to all these activities and set up a hike together. Let me tell you what I learned from these two experiences. One, I learned what my role is as a missionary. It is to INVITE others to come unto Christ. I am literally a mouth that opens and Christ's invitation to come unto Him comes out. When they say they don't want it, they are simply rejecting Christ and His plea to them to come closer to Him. They are not rejecting me. And, I fulfilled my role. My part is to extend the invitation, and then it is up to them to choose what they want. God gave us free agency for a reason, right? But at least I did my part. The second thing I learned is the importance of listening to the spirit in lessons, and really deeply praying for the gift of discernment to know the needs of those around you. You can not just go off of your own ideas, your own head, and think you know best. God has to be the one in control! I barely know these people. But He knows them absolutely perfectly, even better than they know themselves. So, He knows precisely what they need to hear. That's why I really have to learn to listen to Him and let Him speak through me. It's a work in progress. But, we had many amazing things happen this week! I will tell you about a few of them. One, we met this Swedish girl on the street, who said she wanted to come to church with us. She said she'd meet us at this specific spot on sunday morning, but since she only has a swedish phone, we had no way to contact her throughout the week to make sure it was still good. But we still went to that spot on Sunday morning just in case (normally we always get stood up), but she actually came!!! She stayed for all 3 hours and loved it. We are doing an FHE with her at a member's house this week. Then last night one of our amis called us up and said he wanted to have the next lesson asap! So, we did! And it was a powerful lesson. He had actually read the BOM since the last time, and he loves it. Then right after we left that lesson, we get a call. It was from this guy that we contacted on the street the week before, and he called us back from the pass-along card we gave him, asking for the Finding Faith in Christ DVD that's on the back. First time that has ever happened on my mission! So we met with him and gave it to him, and I think we'll be seeing him again. God is really pouring out miracles! I love this work so much. I can't get over how happy it makes me to be in the service of my Savior every single day. Bisous,Soeur Shields
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November 2015
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