March 24,2014 Le bonheur...c'est du fait-main

 Le bonheur...c'est du fait-main

Bonjour.

Sorry this is shorter, don't have tone of time today.

To start, my companion just got asked to stop playing the accordian that she borrowed from a Romanian guy in the metro, by a secret agent (he flashed his badge....that he probably made himself)...

So, this week was good. We did exchanges (duh), and I got to see Soeur Richardson! We did exchanges with Chambery, and I was with her cute bleu, who is French and wonderful, and so much fun. Also, Soeur Richardson and I went running in the morning, and it was like a flashback to the good ole' Toulouse times. The other exchange was with Soeur Young, and we ran all over the place, trying to use the questionnaire as much as we can. It is magical. People stop and listen and want to learn more.

Okay, okay, I can't even write in any sort of order because there were major highlights of the week. 

1. Roberto. 

Roberto found our card on the bus or something last week, and sent us a text. It went something like this "Bonsoir Thomas S. Monson..." (guess we contacted about the prophet), and then asked to meet with us. Almost fell off my chair when that happened. 

So in our first lesson, one of the first thing he tells us is that he believes in 3 degrees of glory, and can't find anyone else who believes that....

............. ..... .. ..................... .... ... ... . ................... AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH)é&'_ç'(ç)_~[`\`\]}^`¤`|\`\|`\[`[^$ù*:!;!!!!!!!................................ ; ...... . .......................

Don't worry, we held it together.

We taught him four times this week, and he came up to us at a baptism, yesterday and said "Hello, I'd like to be baptized on Saturday, please." Well, calm yourself, Roberto, you've got to go to church 2 more times first. But we set April 6, before they broadcast General Conference! Come to find out, other missionaries in Lyon were teaching him as well, so we had to figure that all out, but he lives in our sector. He's seriously so golden. He just drinks in everything that we teach, and is so willing to change. He has the weirdest opinions I've ever heard on religion, something about a king..on another planet..looking for gold...and I think an apple might have been involved, but really who knows. This is why we needed a Retoration, people.

2. Eliette.

Another ami who contacted us. She's 82, ad teaches Ti Chi (I know that's spelt so wrong...), and looks like she's 60. She's a Buddhist Catholic, because apparently that exists, and she loves us. She came to the stake relief society activity on Saturday, and enjoyed it. Which is incredible, cause that's sometimes hard, even for members.. She's really progressing, and we talked to her about baptism once, and now that's all she brings up.

3. Amida.

Another one who contacted us. She saw that we were "Soeur"s, and set up a time to meet with us, telling us she was about to get baptized in the Catholic church. Get this, I've actually contacted her before, and she's Albanian, and originally met missionaries there. She's so willing to learn more, and is literally a light.  

Okay, moral of this story, is that people seem to be coming out of nowhere. Come to find out, most of these amis were actually contacted previously by missionaries. I am grateful for the hard work of missionaries who have gone before us.....may they rest in peace...(too much?)

At the Relief Society activity on Saturday, I got to see some Grenoble members! Also, Soeur Carter and I are going there tomorrow for her legality. When you have been out for a year, you have to renew your legality, so you can stay in France. Guys, I got the big, white, scary envelope. Do you know what this means??? I'M OLD. Gross. 

Oh, and zone conference is in Switzerland! #countryofmyheritage #butmostlyexcitedforthechocolate #alsoSoeurFrancis

Also, saw a rollerblading race on Friday night, as we walked to our appartement. I love France.

I've been working on my personal prayers lately. Sometime, they get kind of routine. I'm actually praying only in English, since I can focus more. But, the Bible Dictionary has a beautiful definition of prayer:
"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."

Je vous aime.

Soeur Luthi

March 17, 2014

Bonjour!

This past week, our sister training duties commenced. What a week it was.

First of all, started with an incredible day wandering around Vieux Lyon. The nice thing about being with Soeur Carter, is that we've both been in Lyon. So we no longer feel the desire to go to the touristy locations, so now we're looking for some good souvenirs that we'll love forever. I got a beautiful, old print of Carcassonne. Also, on the way, we ran into one of our old amirs, Joy. She is African, and has the similar problem of having the desire and faith, but not actually transferring that into action and commitments. We ran into her on the commitment, and ended up meeting with her 3 times, and she's progressing! 

Tuesday, we had the Fellowship of the Jedi....also, properly known as Mission Leadership Council. The secret meeting, where all of the zone leaders and STLs all over the mission come to Lyon, so President can tell us his secrets (but mostly train us). It was incredible. We mostly went over the new questionnaire that President introduced, and it's our jobs to take it to all the new missionaries, and to make them as excited as we are. I know it sounds weird, for us to carry around surveys, but guys, I HAVE A TESTIMONY THAT IT WORKS. We talk to less people, because people listen. We've gotten so many numbers and found new amis through it. There are 4 simple questions, that are designed for us to be able to launch into a gospel conversations, easily. People who would normally say no right away, listen and become involved in the conversation. We got to practice at the meeting, and all of us leaders went into Lyon for 2 different hours, to put it into practice (even though we'd already been using it), and made a competition out of it. Any metro stop you got out of, you'd see missionaries spotting the streets, in conversations. Missionaries contacted entire metro cars...all at once (crazies). It was fun to see all of these incredible action spring into action. The cool thing is seeing that this is exactly what our mission needs. Hearts have been softened, and are open to our message. This is working, because the Lord's involved. At the end of the meeting, President said "I know this'll work. I know this'll work, because the Lord told me.", and got all teary. Basically, it was the best/most overwhelming few hours of the week. After, Pres took us out to dinner, and we sat by him and asked him gospel questions. Then at one point, he leaned over and asked "Who are you going to marry?"..... .... ... .. ......ummmm...*cue him telling me all the things I need to look for*. #thanksPres

Our first exchange was that night, and I was with a quiet Italian bleue. She was very sweet, but VERY timid, and had a hard time talking to people. We worked on that, and I tried to open her up a bit. I told her that (from my experience with European comps), Italians would be drawn to her. She laughed it off, and then, the last hour of our exchange, I contacted someone on the way to the metro, who was Italian. She sprang into action, and talked to her for 15 minutes, teaching her the first lesson. It was cool to see her confidence grow, as she talked and talked. This Spirit-building expererience, left us very late, and we ran all the way to the GARE, almost missing her train.

The day we were together, Soeur Carter and I visited a sweet family, who live about an hour from Lyon. They came from Tahiti, and it's just the mom and two kids, since she got divorced. She was the cutest, because you could tell that they didn't have much, but what they had, they gave willingly. She told us about how she would always take care of us, because when her son was on a mission, she would always worry that someone was. So mom, don't worry, Soeur Schohn's got my back.

We did another exchange, and I was with a fun sister. She is very reserved, but is wonderful. I loved seeing her desire as she works to set goals, and her fearlessness to teach at any point during lessons. It is wonderful to work with all of these sisters. All of them, trying to overcome trials or fears, but all here for the same purpose.

This'll take some getting used to though, because after each exchange, I feel like I need to curl up and sleep. But the work keeps moving. In other news, I forgot my plaque yesterday, and on the way to church (darn weird transition between winter and spring), I figured it out, so Soeur Carter loaned me one of hers. It was a sign of success to see that almost none of the members noticed, because they all know my name. Also, Ecully is splitting at the end of the transfer :(

Actually, not a sad thing, and it'll be good, since it's ginormous, but sad to say goodbye to some members. Also, we had 5 amis at church! And we're finding more, wonderful French amis. the members are excited every time we bring a stable, French person to church.

I love the work. It's progressing at a crazy rate. I love Soeur Carter, too. We have fun together, and she pushes me to be my best kind of missionary. Also, she's fun. Today, we had a race to see who could find a hymn in the hymnbook with Irish origins (shout out to St. Patrick's day). I won. *princess wave* But in all seriousness, I love the opportunity to be here as a missionary. People always talk about the sacrifice that it is, and yeah, that's true I guess, but really, it's a gain. A blessing.  A wonderful, hard, fun, crazy, fulfilling, French blessing.

Also, Isabel, I was thinking about you Saturday. I can testify that you, in fact, looked best.

Je vous aime,

Soeur Luthi

March 10, 2014

Bonjour.

I loved staying in my area, especially since Soeur Carter has been serving on the other side of the river in Lyon, so she's pretty familiar with the area. Made the transition go so smoothly. We had a good week. 

To start with, this whole "Sister training Leader" gig, is showing me all the work that goes on behind the scenes in the mission. Kind of cool. We had a loooong to do list, and are still making our way through it, because the days seem to fly by. 

Guys, I LOVE being with an older missionary. This is the first time since my first transfer that I have a companion who is older than me in the mission. I love training, but it's a different, awesome experience, when I can look at my companion, and know that she will have an idea of what to say and how to say it. We both lead the lessons, we both talk to memebers, we both contact. 

Okay, okay, so this week, other than all the random,w eird jobs we had to do like reorganize out apartment and getting maps and calling sisters, etc, we also did a lot of normal missionary work. It was a bit bizarre the first few days being with Soeur Carter, since it seemed like we were on exchanges. I had to shake off the idea that she was leading me around, and remember that this is my sector. But I showed her around, and she showed me the ropes of being a STL. 

A really cool thing this week, was that so many people that we met and talked to *asked us* if they could meet with us. We found new amis, who have lots of promise, just as we were going to and from other rendez-vous. Like this woman, named Eliette, who is 82 but looks in her 60s, and kept bowing to us and telling us how happy she was to have met us. At the end of our first rdv with her, she asked "Why aren't more people Mormon?"....yes...exactly...you see why we're here. 

We met with lots of members, to try to show the ward that Soeur Carter and I are in fact companions, even though for the rest of the transfers, we'll be with lots of other sisters. It included meeting the Relief Society president, who LOVES us now, and totally trusts us, since we're helping her with the sisters in the ward. More than half of our giant ward is sisters, so she needs a lot of help. But Ecully will be splitting soon #toomanyofus #templesoonplease?

These member visits included a semi-less active trying to teach us how gaurdian angels are the fourth members of the Godhead...#apostasie Probably the funniest experience of my life, when she kept testing us on the words to "As Sister's in Zion"...

We had mangez-vous with families who need lots of loves and prayers, and visited THE CUTEST and probably THE OLDEST couple. We had planned a language study at a members, and she forgot, but told us to go to her parents who live right across the street, so we popped in. Little old "Papa Torres" came hobbling out, yelling "LES SOEURS MISSIONNAIRES!!!!", because he's deaf (shout out to my favorite Papa). They were so excited, and Soeur Torres kept playing with our hair, and calling us "mes filles" (my daughters). We helped a member set up for her wedding, and got lost in a random bit of beautiful countryside on the way to a members. We made cookies for young women who didn't know what they where, and on Sunday, we randomly got invited right after church to go on a nature walk with a family with 2 twin 3 year olds, and had dinner at their house after.

All of these member experiences are important, because yesterday was mission-wide "E" Day (endearment day), where we do all we can to endear members. We worite notes, made cookies, smiled a lot, and sang in sacrament meeting. It was great, and it worked like a charm. We are booked, with exchanges and member visits. Soeur Carter was in awe of how simple it was, since the members asked us to come, instead of the awkward other way around.

There were 2 baptisms in our ward yesterday, and Zamir obviously came, and told us after:

He's going to ask his parents....

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH3627è_éç'è_éç&(é&!!§/%%A"'éçè_çè(àçàè_ç-#|^^@@]^|`\[`[`\!!!!!

This is major progress. Keep him in your prayers.

I love being a missionary. I love working in Lyon, and I love working with Soeur Carter. Even though it's new work, this now calling has helped...I don't know, ignite (?) a new desore to work hard. Whatever it is, I love it, and I'm just going with it. 

I found this clip on lds.org. THIS IS WHERE I SERVE MY MISSION. Watching it fills up my heart, and makes me even happier to be serving here. I love this work.

Je vous aime,

Soeur Luthi

March 3, 2014

At the parc (also, Soeur Carter is on the right).

Best surprise of our lives.

Sunbeams

Well this was quite a week...to say the least.

My heart was almost ripped out of my chst and stamped on because this week was transfers, and Soeur Francis is off to Suisse. It was surreal leaving her on the train, but she will do incredible things. Never have I worked with someone so similar to me. Love you, Sister British!

Oh, as for me, I'm staying in Ecully, receiving Soeur Carter (aka, best missionary in the mission). Aaaaand our equipe is becoming the new Sister Training Leader equipe.

For those who have no idea what that is, it's basically like a ZL for sisters..but with more sisters to cover. Lots of exchanges, and who knows what else. Soeur Hulme and Soeur Bragg screamed when I told them, so that's a good sign, yes? The subject of this email is because our equipe and the other STL's in Lyon decided to become the Fellowship. Mom, if you could send 4 rings of power, that'd be great..

The week started with the greatest P-days of our lives (minus the one at President's). We went to Parc de la Tete d'Or with other missionaries, had a picnics, and rode bikes through the zoo and the botanical gardens there. Also,  we had one last visit to Soeur Theroomy, our less active from Malaysia. she was so sweet, and so sad at the possibility to see one of us go. She even gave us Malaysian jelwelry, which looks very similar to Garment district jewelry...

This week, we were able to teach Lydia twice, out golden, French ami. We taught her the Retab and the Plan of Salvation, and the Spirit was incredibly strong. She kept trying to relate it back to Catholicism, so I talked lots about the priesthood, which I KNOW they don't have, and that's what got her. By the end, she was asking about baptism and inviting us for dinner at her house. 

We ate with the famille Rouffet, a classic French family this week. it was an adventure trying to even get to their house out in the country, but the best part was when Frère Rouffet said "A meal without cheese is like a day without sunshine." Welcome to France, everyone.

We did lots of less-active/recent convert this week, partly because we got tombez'd like 4 times in one day. We had 10 minutes before our next rdv, so we tried passing a random name we didn't know on the list. It worked. The famille Richa, as a whole, weren't there, but the non-member husband was happy to see us, and invited us back when his wife comes back from vacance. We also did activities centered on family history, which weren't super successful, but we stood out in the cold for a good part of the week, trying to talk to as many people as we could about family history. 

Calls came Friday, and the rest of the weekend went by way too fast. With packing, lessons, lunches with members, and lots of goodbyes, we were running around up until when Soeur Francis got on the train this morning. But we got matching shirts #alliswell. 

Yesterday was pretty much the best day of my life. Started by missing the bus on the way to church and walking. Then we taught sunbeams. We got the call Saturday night at around 8/30 from the desperate Primary president, begging us to teach the 3 year olds "WHATEVER we want". Yeah, cue us finding the one coloring page we had in the apartment (Joseph Smith), and planning to "teach" the Restoration. It became very apparent, very quickly that we haven't dealt with small children in a long time. A tidbit of our...interesting...planning for the lesson.

"We could watch the full Retab movie!" (20 minutes long...with 3 year olds....no)

"Well, we could just watch the vision part..?" (.....)

"We could teach them English!"

"We could talk about prophets?"

.......Yeah, we ended up holding up a picture of Joseph Smith and telling his story in about 2 minutes, and they colored the rest of the time.

Zamir came to church, telling us he had a surprise for us. Sadly, it wasn't Zamira (she doesn't want to meet with us anymore..) After Soeur Francis gave a rockstar goodbye testimony and finished crowd surfing back to our seats (sacreligious..sorry), we looked back and there was SOEUR FAHL. SOEUR JO FAHL. (Whatever her "real" name is.) Sitting, with her mom. We freaked out, especially since we were all emotional from Soeur Francis' impending departure. Soeur Fahl came to surprise us, bring her mom and the rest of her family. It was SO great to see her, and she's doing well. Her family is awesome, and I know she will do incredible things. Also, she brought us a huge box of peanut butter, Double stuffed Oreos, Doritos, and other smuggled American goods. Guys, if you didn't figure it out yet,

I HAVE THE BEST BLEUES.

We ate at Ivalani's, visited Soeur Berger-Perrin, and then had one last visit with Zamir and his parents. They were very sad to see Soeur Francis leave. But I just sat back and marvelled at the miracle that has happened since she's been here. It went from being completely not interested, to loving us and being so sad when Soeur Francis left. But that's what she did, she came, she touched hearts, softened people up, and then left. She did what she needed.

So, I'm excited for my new..calling? I guess that's what it is. We're over 7 or 8 equipes (including Soeur Richardson's, YAY), and will do exchanges and whatever else STLs do. I'm excited, especially for all I will learn, from my new comp and all the sisters!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Luthi