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
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