Pages

Monday, June 29, 2015

Friendship Rocks and Lessons from what Rude People Say


Hello family and friends! 

Soooo.. this week was interesting! 

LES ECHANGES 
This week we had two exchanges! We had one with the Zone Leaders and the other one with the District leader. So! For the first exchange we went to Toulouse for P-Day. That was sick. Toulouse is really pretty. I think I talk about it all the time but it is a city made out of red brick. We walked around and did touristyyy things before we date some dinner at McDo (McDonalds) and then headed out to do work.


Elder Johnson with Elder Duckworth

I was with Elder Duckworth (same transfer age as me) and we talked a lot about how fast the mission has gone by and how much the mission has changed over the course of being here. It was funny to reflect. We also vented about how everyone tells you not to get trunky but then every single missionary that talks to you makes a joke about how you are almost dead and to not get trunky. It is annoying mais je m'en fiche. I'm still just going to work hard. 

Trunky: Is when a missionary thinking about coming home all the time during his last months, and probably doesn’t put forth much effort of slacks off in his/her work. 

We were walking in this huge square, stopped to take a picture when two women on bikes nearly run us over... afterwards they yelled, "Today, we run over the MORMONS! MUWAHAHA!" and then they peddled off... hahaha I laughed so stinking hard. At least they knew who we were? 

The other exchange we went on was with the Montauban elders. I went to Montauban and Elder Steadman stayed in Albi. Montauban used to be a sister ville so it was funny to be there. Let's just say, I prefer Albi. It is about the same size, maybe a little bigger and about an hour west of us. But the people were so stinking mean there! I don't know if there was something in the air that day or what but I have never been rejected so hard. But, we did find some nice people towards the end so it was okay. 

During our exchange, after walking nearly half an hour, we didn't have the keys to the apartment. So, Elder Dunn (the one that sends creed all of the cool car pictures) and I called all of the members to see if they had a key to our apartment. We eventually got a key to the church, taught a few lessons, and then bounced back to Toulouse to stay the night with the zone leaders. I am glad we didn't have to sleep in the church.

Elder Johnson and Elder Dunn

Cool mini miracle. We are sitting in the gare waiting for the train and I am SO thirsty... like, about to die of thirst. I look in my bag and I only have a euro fifty in change and all of the drinks are two euros. Elder Dunn goes up to the machine and buys a drink and it gives him fifty cents back... Huh? So I try with my euro fifty and it works!!!! hahaha. I have never been so happy. The price was marked wrong :) 



RUDE THINGS PEOPLE SAY
This happened a few weeks ago... but it bothered me ever since I heard it. So, we contacted this woman and she is talking to us and and then she says... "You are wasting your time. God has no use of you. I find it sad that you think you are spending your time wisely in doing this when really it doesn't even matter. He does what HE wants to. Live your life.” 

This bothered me so stinking much. The more I thought about it the more it bothered me. I knew it wasn't true but it still put weird questions in my head. Am I wasting my time? Being rejected everyday? That sounds like a waste of time to me... This just added to the fact we have been having a really hard time to find people to teach recently.

I think what bothered me the most is that this woman was genuine in what she was saying. She really did feel like we were wasting our time and had pity on us. 

So then I prayed to find some peace because of this woman! It really just kept coming back to me every night. Then I was reading in the Book of Mormon, Alma 37:7 “ And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.”

And suddenly what this woman said to me sounded really stupid. Of course God can do anything. But He works in mysterious ways, small and simple ways to bring about the salvation of man. I may not be able to even make a dent in the amount of people that need to hear the gospel, but I can take comfort in knowing what I am doing is making a difference. 

FRIENDSHIP ROCKS (or are they stones?)
Okay, funny thing of the week. This will probably be more funny to my family than everyone else that reads this but oh well...
We visited a member this week who is a little particular. She is super, super nice and she is a master scriptorian but a little eccentric. Anyway. After the end of our rendezvous with her... she was like, “I was gardening when I found this heart shaped rock after I had said a prayer to gain a stronger testimony of God's love for me.” Okay, so cool experience. It is a neat little miracle. Then she is "I then looked for stones for each one of you and I charged them with good energy!" hahaha. She called them either friendship rocks or rocks of gratitude. But the thing is the ENTIRE time she was explaining these rocks to us, I was thinking about "Gentleman Broncos" and when you have to blow on the friendship stone and then throw it into the water.... I'm trying so hard not to laugh because she hasn't said anything funny but I am beside myself trying not to. I truly take after my mother. :) 

D'AUTRES CHOSES
It is super hot... like high 80s low 90s. It is killer. I'm melting. 

Train strikes ruin everything...

This week we got lost in the car going to a rendezvous to a members house and ended up getting in at 11 PM

Brigittes daughters aren't doing so hot. Brigitte is doing better though.

Eda said she is coming to my wedding when I get married.

OH! I'm not going to be second counselor anymore! :) I'm happy about that. It is good that members are doing it.

And that is it! I hope you all have a wonderful week!
I love you!
Elder Johnson :) 

Toulouse 

No comments:

Post a Comment