This has been a wonderful week here in Renens, Switzerland! Sr. Paoli and I have overcome a lot together, and this week was seriously one of our best, especially the last few days. We recieved transfer calls on Friday, and this is the first transfer since I've been here that nothing has changed! I imagine I will stay here for a while, which I don't mind at all, Renens is great!
So, this week. We worked a bit in a nearby city called Morges, which is about five minutes away by train. I really love it there, its close to the lake and very homey. Fun fact as well is that Audrey Hepburn is buried not far from there! Anyway, its always fun to work a bit in the surrounding cities. We have been trying to find our friend Florica, the lady from Romania who we met contacting, but her phone number she gave us didn't work and we aren't sure which door is hers in her apartment building, but we hope to find her again soon and continue to share the gospel of Christ with her. We taught more lessons this week than any other week in the transfer, and we have two new people we are teaching. The first one is Bezhad. He is from Iran, and doesn't really have a religious background at all personally, but we have had a couple of interesting conversations and we will see where that goes. The other is named Zacharias, and he is awesome! I contacted him with one of the young women in our ward and the young women's leader while we were doing a missionary activity with them, and we had our first lesson with him this week and he is seriously so awesome. He is from Angola (same country our ami Mussole in Montpellier is from, portuguese speaking country in Africa) and he is very believing and very kind. I can't wait to teach him again! And his girlfriend was there last time two, so potentially two people to teach! Yayyy!
This week I officially passed the six month mark! So crazy how fast time goes by. We honestly didn't really do any thing special to celebrate, but I was feeling the missionary spirit all day because I was really excited to teach our ami, Segundo. His wife, Janeth, was baptized a little over a year ago I think, and him and their two sons haven't been baptized yet. I love this family. I remember seeing Segundo at church my first week here, and ever since I came I just really feel like one of the reasons I am here is to help this family all accept the marvelous blessings of the gospel in their lives together. I can't remember if I told you about it, but Segundo and I made a little deal together. One of the things he has a hard time with is giving up drinking alcohol, not because he's addicted, just because he likes it. So, i told him that I would give up chocolate for one month if he would not drink for one month, so we could kind of work on this together. So, basically, I think about him every day because there is chocolate everywhere. I have studied and concecrated a lot of thought and energy for this family, and I was really excited to teach them last week. But, when we got to their house, Segundo didn't want to come and listen to the lesson because he was watching soccer. But, we had a lesson with Janeth and their kids anyway, and you know, when I went home that night, I was still just so happy, because I knew I had given my all that day. Sometimes disappointing things happen, and people make choices that you don't understand, but the Lord rewards us with the comfort of His Spirit when we do our best. Besides, we have an awesome lesson plan for a our next rendez-vous that we are working on, and I am not giving up on this family!
Ok other things. We had district meeting this week, and I was in charge of giving a fifteen minute lesson on 'how to have fun while finding.' I love finding! Seriously, contacting and porte-a-porte can either be miseriable or incredible experiences, and pretty much 99% of this has to do with the missionaries attitude, not whether the people are nice or accept what you have to say. IT was a fun lesson to give, and Bryan Bennett will be happy to know that I used the IDEO brainstorming idea, and we all tried to think of innovative solutions to have better finding experiences. Creativity!
WE also have another new person we are teaching, Daniel, from Nigeria! Its like I'm in Dijon again! He is really nice, and loves the Lord. I love Africans! This week, I also taught Sunday school, our lesson was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, lesson 12 in Gospel Principles. i remember teaching this lesson at BYU-Idaho four years ago, during a time in my life where I was passing through some difficult challenges, and I remember coming to realize the healing power of the Atonement for myself personally. I love this lesson, and know that the Atonement of Christ is the enabling force that leads this work today.
Well, there's a littlle taste of my week. There were many other beautiful moments....like our conversation with two old friends on a park bench, who had just regained contact with each other after thirty years. It just felt right to talk to them about the resoration of the gospel with the background of the banjo music, under the shade of the big park trees. Then there's all the magnolia trees that are starting to bloom, and the little purple and yellow flowers in the grass. So many beautiful things.
The most beautiful thing of all is that Christ lives, and He loves us. He has re-established His church on the earth, and I know that it is led today by a Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. I can't wait for General Conference! Let us all prepare our hearts, and with faith, bring the questions of our souls to General Conference, and allow ourselves to recieve answers from the Holy Ghost, as carried by the words of the Latter-day Prophets. Yay!!!! Ok, I love you so. Have a blessed and a beautiful semaine!
Soeur Waldron
Note from Laura: Dear Friends and Family, You can view or listen to the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on television at BYUTV or via the internet atwww.lds.org/general-conference
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