For those of you who read this and would like to know more about temples, check out lds.org or mormon.org!
Bonjour tout la monde!! What a great week. It is so true when they say that the days feel like weeks, but the weeks feel like days. I can't believe I'm already half-way done with the MTC! I've learned so much here. Where to begin...I'd like to tell you about my experiences at the temple last Tuesday and this morning. (We get to go every morning on P-day). I totally forgot to write about last week's trip. My companion and the other 2 sisters in my district did sealings last week. That was such a special experience. I got to seal a couple of daughters to their parents who were from France! I couldn't help but think that maybe I was sealing the family of perhaps the great-great-great grandparents of someone I might teach over there. Then today we did initiatories, and I did another person from France! It was so neat. Apart from that aspect, this is the message I would like to share. I know without a doubt that families can be together forever, through the priesthood ordinances that are done in the temple. This life is not the end, and we can be together with the ones we love for eternity. God has so many wonderful promises and blessings in store for us. He is truly a benevolent God. I encourage those of you who have a temple recommend to go to the temple often and learn more about God and of the blessings that He has given all of those who are willing to come unto Him. I sure will miss getting to go to the temple every week once I get to France! So, last Tuesday Quentin L. Cook came and spoke to us!! It was so cool. Tonight we supposedly have another Apostle coming and I'm so stoked! Elder Cook shared a wonderful message that touched the hearts of us going to missions where there is widespread atheism. He said that anything that builds up the Kingdom of God is successful missionary work. The number of baptisms, number of lessons, etc. is not the measure of success. If you do things like add more spirituality to a ward, inspire the youth there to serve missions, increase the ward's church attendance, etc. is just as much building up the Kingdom of God as having baptisms. On Wednesday we had our first TRC. That was a cool experience! Basically they just have French speakers come in who are members of the church and we leave them with a message, much like a visiting teaching appointment. Funny story: one lady we talked to talked really fast. I had a hard time following her. So, when in doubt, you just smile and nod a lot. Apparently, according to my comp, she said that her dad passed away last year and that her son left the church. She didn't show any negative emotion on her face though so I had no idea. So there I was just nodding and smiling as she told us those things. Haha Then later that night I got to train the 4 new sisters and new elder that came in! They're going to Vanuatu French-speaking. It's funny how just in a matter of a few weeks you feel like a veteran here and it seems like just yesterday you were sitting in their place. My branch president told me on Sunday that all 4 of those sisters had come to him and told them that I had made them feel super welcome and they were super appreciative of how much I took care of them. (I tend to act like everyone's mom as you all well know...haha). But that made me feel so good! We didn't have zone leaders or sister training leaders when I got here, so we were on our own. I wanted to make these sisters feel at home as soon as possible, and I'm glad I was able to help them with that. Something I learned a lot about this week was planning vs. preparing. There's a reason why missionaries have 3 hours a morning to study (prepare) and only 30 minutes at night to plan. If you study the doctrine and language thoroughly, you'll be prepared for whatever may arise in a lesson. But, if you just plan a lesson and only intend to stick to that during your appointment, you will most likely either have nothing to talk about if it goes off track, or you don't say much that's pertinent to the investigator's needs. (fun fact: in French, we don't call them investigators. They're called amis de l'eglise, or friends of the church. I like that so much better than investigator!) So, my comp and I really focused on preparing this week instead of planning. It's good to have a basic lesson outline and goal, but it's more important to be well-rounded on a lot of areas to talk about, than just mastering one specific topic. So, we taught our last 3 lessons like that and boy did it make all the difference!! Our French was just flowing, and the Spirit was guiding. After all, the Spirit is the teacher, not us. We are just the voice for the Spirit to talk through. I had scriptures come to mind and thoughts and words come to mind that were perfect for what we were discussing, and they weren't even things I had planned on using. The same thing happened with my comp. When you're focusing on the lesson or the language, you're doing everything except focusing on the person. We're there for the person, and to help them with their needs. Once I learned how to just talk to people and guide the lesson according to how it would most help them, our lessons became much more effective. Both of our teachers that we taught our lessons to this week pulled us back in the room after our lessons with tears in their eyes and thanked us. They said we were doing a great job of implementing the teaching methods we've been learning here and they could tell we were teaching by the spirit. They also said our French was at a level way beyond someone of 3 weeks at the MTC. Obviously my companion already knew that about herself, but that felt great for me to hear that I'm making progress. The teachers aren't even allowed to give us comments after our lessons, because that wouldn't happen in real life with an investigator, so the fact that both of them did really meant something special to me. The gift of tongues is a real thing folks. I still have a loooong way to go. But it's fun to look at our notes from the first lesson where I had to write out every last word, even "Bonjour", compared to now where we just have a few bullet points jotted down and we leave our notes in the classroom and just let the spirit guide. So every Sunday we're told to prepare a talk on the assigned topic, because the Bishopric picks out 2 missionaries to speak right there after the Sacrament. They have to be in French too. So, this last Sunday I prepared my talk on repentance. I was called on to speak, and I went up and gave my talk in French. Afterwards, my branch president came up to me and thanked me for speaking. He then said "I wish your mom could have been sitting in here. She would have been so proud. You're going to sound like a native by the end of your 18 months." That made me feel so good! We really are capable of doing what the Lord has asked us to do if we work hard at it. Sunday night at the Fireside we had Sheri Dew speak to us! She's a great speaker. She said some things that I badly needed to hear, as it was Father's Day and I was feeling a wee bit homesick as talks that day were centered around families. It was all about the grace and power of Christ. We all have weaknesses and hard times, but Christ has felt all of those pains for us. If we ask God, He WILL help us. If we feel like we are lacking in a certain department, we can pray and ask to be granted strengths in that area, if we work our best to get there. If you feel like you don't know how to feel the Holy Ghost in your life, pray to God to teach you how and He will. It was such a great talk and I wish I could do her words justice. We read 3 Nephi 11 yesterday as a class. What a beautiful chapter. I'd encourage anyone to go read it when they get the chance. I love hearing about Christ's actual words. We also learned about chiasmus. If you don't know what that is, check out Alma chapter 36. Every verse parallels each other, the last verse (30) with the first verse (1) and so forth. (29 & 2, 28 & 3, etc.) People, chiasmus are an ancient writing technique that are thousands of years old and were only discovered about 50 years ago. If anyone ever wants to try to convince me that Joseph Smith made up the Book of Mormon, it will take everything in me not to laug. There is no way that a young man with only an 8th grade education, wrote a several hundred page book that included things like chiasmus that were only discovered within the last few decades. Not to mention, all you have to do is read the first chapter of the Book and you will know that there is no way someone could just make that up, especially someone with as little education as him. The Book of Mormon is TRUE!! Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and they told him to restore Christ's true gospel back to the earth. I had to teach several lessons this week about the Apostasy, and the bible is FILLED with prophecies that after Christ's death and resurrection, there would not be the true gospel of Christ on the earth again for a long time until He restored it again through a Prophet. That Prophet was Joseph Smith, and he brought back the true gospel of Christ in its original and intended form. That gospel is what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches today. Our job is not to go persuade people to believe it, but to teach people about it and then invite them to come and partake of the truths themselves. I know that if you read the Book of Mormon, and ask God if it is true with a sincere heart, He will answer you, and the Holy Ghost will manifest the truth of it to you. I know this is true with all of my heart, because I've found out for myself. I'm so excited to go tell this message to the people of France. Funny story: You know you've been with someone 24/7 when you introduce yourself as the other person. My comp introduced herself to an elder we played volleyball with as Soeur Shields. She didn't even notice at first. It was pretty darn hilarious. Also, the elders here think Southern accents are the coolest thing on earth. They ask me to talk in one all the time and they about roll out of their chairs because they're so amazed by what a Southern accent sounds like. These Westerners. Cool fact: Eric Mika (BYU basketball player) is here at the MTC right now! I stood right next to him in the cafeteria. I went to his elbow I think. hahaAlso, for any of my friends who have taken Brother Merrill for a religion class at BYU, that's who my Branch President is. He's awesome! Tell Bonnie congrats on her wedding this weekend! I'm so excited for her! And I've told Jacqueline and Liesel this already but I'm so excited for them to head out on their amazing journey this week! I'm so glad we get to do this together. I love this gospel, I love being a missionary, and I love my Savior. Thank you to everyone who has been sending me messages, I love you ALL! It truly makes my day to hear from everyone back home. I wish I had time to write every one of you back, but know that you have all touched my life more than you know with your sweet and uplifting words. Love always, Soeur Shields
For those of you who read this and would like to know more about temples, check out lds.org or mormon.org!
4 Comments
Honey Holmes
6/17/2014 10:31:32 am
I'm so very touched by your testimony and so proud of you!!
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Cindy Davis Amador
6/17/2014 11:30:33 am
Je t'adore
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Marie-Laure D Price
6/18/2014 05:31:00 am
Bonjour Soeur Shields! I so enjoy reading your newsletter! It's amazing how the gift of tongue works, especially when you are learning the language of angels!... :)
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Mary Beth Hebert
6/18/2014 07:22:37 am
Wow sounds like you are adapting so fast. I am happy for you. Just got back from going to the airport to see Liesel & Jaqueline off.
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