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| District meeting |
Dear Family and
Friends,
This week has been a
great one! Despite one huge disappointment, I will cover it later. Anyway, we
taught a lot this week! And we had a lot of good rendezvous with the amis that
we do have.
LA DÉCEPTION
SO! I will start with the
most terrible event of the week to get it over with ever since the very
beginning of my mission I have always been absolutely disgusted in how much dog
poop there is in the streets here in France. Literally you always have to be
looking down to not step in it. So, knowing me, I set the impossible goal to
not step in dog poop my whole mission. At first I just kind of set it as a joke
but the longer that I was not able to step in dog poop, the more serious the
goal became...
24 Janvier 2015,
Périgueux, France. It is a cold winter night, rainy and just absolutely
horrible. It is dark and the sidewalks are just full of biological landmines
laying in wait to be stepped on in the misty darkness. Elder Brill and Johnson
are contacting. Whilst contacting, Elder Johnson takes a blind step into the
darkness and with panic, realizes he has stepped in a huge pile of dog
crap.
Elder Johnson, to the
alarm of his companion, screams out in horror---knowing that his record of one
year and three months of not stepping in dog poop have come to a very
unfortunate end. He fought a good fight.
GOSH I was so mad that I
stepped in dog poop after making it this far!
LE BOUDIN
Sooooo.... This last
Monday we have a soirée familiale with all of the single members in the Branch
and we have a member who is from the West Indies (her name is Magguy). Magguy
made blood sausage for family home evening for us! I was a little hesitant to
try it but I know how hard it is to make so I decided to make her happy and eat
some. It wasn't actually bad! I wouldn't run back to eat some but it wasn't
bad. It had a very mild taste to it.
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| Before Elder Brill realized he didn't like blood sausage. |
Elder Brill on the other
hand, couldn't stand it. He took two bites and then whispered to me, "I'm
going to puke if I eat any more of this stuff." So then I took his and ate
it too. I'm a very charitable person. Right before the family home evening
Magguy called us and asked if we wanted her to bring more for us so we could
take some home after the soiree was over. I told her that I didn't know if I
liked it and that Elder Brill is a pretty picky eater so I told her that it
wasn't necessary. She then told me that she had talked to Elder Brill and he
said that he loved it! I was all confused because Elder Brill doesn't really
speak French yet and I knew that whatever conversation he had, he didn't have
any idea what was going on... I asked him about it and he said that Magguy
asked him if he liked "Black pudding" and he said YES! I love pudding.
Little did he know that "Black pudding" is blood sausage in the UK.
LOL. It was pretty darn funny. I laughed so hard when I realized what had
happened.
NOS AMIS
Our amis are doing really
well and, as I said we are starting to teach a lot more! It is great. I really
think that it is because we are really giving it our all. We are doing what the
Lord would want us to do and he is blessing us abundantly for it.
Yin-He is our Chinese
ami. I love him so much. He is really funny. As much as I love him, his
questions are always so hard and logically based sometimes I want to pull my
hair out. But we have realized we have to teach him with members if we want to
have a good lesson with him. The highlight of the week for me was one of the
lessons that we had with him.
Elder Brill and I were kind
of stuck on what we needed to teach him next. When suddenly, Elder Brill said
that we should watch a church DVD called "Finding Faith in Christ". Normally,
I don't like showing amis this DVD because it is before the church put so much
effort and quality into media. The film is pretty cheesy in some parts, but it
can still be a good tool. Anyway, I thought about it and I was about to say no
when I just felt like we should watch it. At the church later that evening, we
watched the film with Yin and Soeur Matthieu (who served a mission in Utah so
her English is the bomb).
When the film finishes,
the room goes all quiet and the spirit is unmistakably there. We all just sit
in silence for about a minute when Yin asks what I think of the movie and I
tell him that I think it is kind of old but that it is really touching and then
I ask him what he thought. He kind of just shrugged off the question and tried
to start talking about a study where they found Chinese people can't be
spiritual and all this n'importe quoi (nonsense). When Soeur Matthieu asks Yin
if the things that the stories in the movie depicts could be true.. and he says,
“I want them to be true”.
The room is quiet again
for about a minute when Yin asks me what I like about the movie. At the end of
the movie, there is a man that is talking to Thomas (the apostle) who says that
he wants to believe but he doesn't know if or how he can. I start to get really
emotional and tell Yin how he and this man are in the same situation and how
God just loves us so much. It’s that instant, I just felt so much love for Yin
it was almost crushing. I feel like I felt the love that God feels for him. The
lesson continues and we are all just weepy because the spirit was so present.
Yin was extremely touched.
He has been praying,
reading, and coming to church and he says he hasn't felt anything yet... and in
that moment, I know he felt the spirit. We engaged him right then and there to
pray to know if God was there and that if He loved him. Saying the closing prayer,
Yin probably said one of the most genuine prayers I have ever heard. In the
prayer I he asked "Please help me know this is true so I can share this
knowledge and truth with the people of China." After he said that, I got
the most distinct impression that he will eventually be baptized and become a
member of the church so he can share the gospel with the people in China.
It was a very tender
mercy of the Lord to have such a powerful lesson with Yin. I know without the
slightest doubt God loves Yin and wants him to know the truth. After a lesson
like that, you are just so happy! It is like a runner's high only way better
and more edifying!
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| My temporary legality papers until I get the actual card. |
Que Dieu soit avec vous!
Elder Johnson
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