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.
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| 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.
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| 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 :)
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| Toulouse |
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