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| Elder Johnson & Elder Strong in Albi |
WOOO! What a week! This
week was so good but also so hard. It is funny how that happens. Things are
just going good and then all of the sudden opposition just comes up out of nowhere.
There is a quote from an apostle that says something like "When everything
is going good... just wait." haha. It's true! Anyway, I'll explain.
LE BAPTÊME D'EDA
So! This week we had the
awesome occasion to baptize Eda! It was a really neat experience. There were
four baptisms that all went down on the same day. Up until this point in my
mission I haven't ever been to a baptism with more than one person being baptized
so it was a very special occasion for everyone that came. The two men in the
middle are from Toulouse Capitole and then the two sets on the outside (me, Eda,
Elder Gossel, and Mde Gil) are all from Albi.
There was a really good
turn out at the church despite the baptism being an hour drive away from where
we normally meet for church. Eda invited five friends, who all really enjoyed
themselves. One of them thought we were a sect before she came to the baptism
and then afterwards she said she felt a peace come over her as soon as she
walked into the building, the spirit :D We hope to start teaching her friends
soon. She is on a spiritual high right now and we are going to ride the wave of
that.
Super cool tender
mercy... Okay, prepare yourselves. Eda is from the Island of Maurice, which is
near Madagascar. Her family there is in the church. Her mom is super well known
over there for loving missionaries and always feeding them and whatever.
Anyway! The bishop of Toulouse Capitole Ward came up to Eda after the service
to congratulate her and they started talking and somehow they got onto the
subject of where Eda is originally from. The bishop served his mission in
Maurice and he ate at Eda's mom's house like every week! He said that she was
one of the best members there. Okay, so already cool tender mercy, the world is small and with the church it is
even smaller but it gets better. The bishop calls his wife over and then the
wife is like, you look familiar.. do you
have any sisters in the church? Eda says yes and she lists off the names. The
bishops wife looks super surprised and then covers her mouth with her hand and
she says,"When I was a missionary in England, I served with your
sister!" HA! How crazy is that?! They both started crying and hugged. lol.
It was super sweet. Eda had family that was going to come to the baptism but
then something happened to where they couldn't anymore. She said this is a way
the Lord allowed her "family" to come to her baptism. It was so
cool.
Something kind of funny.
As we walked into the water, I got all ready to do the baptism and say the
baptismal prayer and then Eda said... "Je suis prete, baptises moi!'' (I’m
ready... baptize me!) and starts to bend her knees and lean back... lol I was
like wait, wait, wait! lol
LES ÉPREUVES
So aside from Eda's
baptism this week was really hard. Our amis have kind of just fallen like
flies. We are no longer seeing Axel. He is in the hospital and he said he can't
see us for at least two weeks. The Family Leroy is still super cool and open to
have us but because of Stan's work and the new baby, we have been put on hold
for the moment. Meethel text us yesterday saying how she was too busy to see us
for at least two weeks. So... we are looking at square one pretty much (except
with Brigitte).
I don’t know if it is
because summer has started or what but suddenly people have been SO stinking
mean. I hadn't been yelled so violently in public in a really long time. I
don't know if it is because we stick out a lot easier with our white shirts or
what but man, people have just been awful. But! We know it is just because we
need to find new amis right now and someone wants us to be discouraged and give
up. HA! NEVER!
Our numbers were pretty
bad this week but they should be better this next week. We just hope to find
new people. That is our man focus right now.
FUNNY FRENCH BLOOPER
Elder Strong and I went
to the Yonnet's house and Soeur Yonnet had made some hummus and she was like
"Do you like spicy?" In French it is "Vous aimez épicé?"
and Elder Strong didn't understand and he repeated back "J'aime
pisser?" which means "I like to pee?" but kind of in a vulgar
way. The Yonnets tried so hard not to laugh but I exploded with laughter and
they gave up as soon as they saw my hopeless case.... it was too funny. I love
being with a bleu.
MIRACLE DE LA SEMAINE
So, we probably had our
best lesson we have ever had with Brigitte this week. We prayed and fasted
before and the spirit was so strong. We know she is ready to fix a date and she
does too but she is scared.
I probably made the boldest
promise I have ever made my entire mission in that rendezvous. We promised her
that if she fixed a date, she would find a new house without a problem IF she
fixes a date. Then we said, "After you see Eda's baptism, we are going to
fix a date, and you are going to find a house." She got all quiet and said,"Ok".
Usually when we try to fix a date she is like.. noooo, I don't want to... I
hate dates...etc. But this time she didn't fight it at all. It was so
cool.
I know that if we hadn't
prayed and fasted then we would not have been able to bring the spirit to the
lesson like we did. Our amis have so many needs and concerns and for us, it is
impossible to know all of them, to find the silver bullet so to speak. There
isn't just one thing that you can say that will help them. The silver bullet in
that sense doesn't exist. The spirit is the silver bullet. It changes hearts,
minds and notions. I am so thankful for power of the spirit in
conversion.
SOOOOO. That was our
week! Pray that we find new people!
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Johnson
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| Albi France |
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