This week has been AMAZING here. I don't even know where to start! Soeur Christensen and I have improved an incredible amount in our lessons since we started teaching. She is SO good at bringing in the spirit and if she doesn't know a word in French most times I've been able to help her out, so we work really well as a team! We had our first experience with TRC this week, which is where we go and give a 20-30 minute lesson to church members that volunteer to come and speak French with us. It's hard because we have to plan a lesson but then follow the spirit to discern their needs and then figure out how to alter our lesson to be specific for them. It's tricky! We meet them and teach a lesson in such a short amount of time. Also our first lesson I just felt like--this man is so righteous and already has his life put together, what could I possibly share with him? But he was so sweet and we learned from him. Our second lesson at TRC was with a younger BYU student probably about my age. It was so good!! My companion was inspired to share a scripture and right after we read it he said that scripture is very personal to him right now because he's in the middle of making a tough decision. I had a personal experience that I thought was pertinent and so I shared that with him and bore testimony of what I knew to be true. I feel like we might have actually really helped him to think more about it! I don't know. Maybe not. He looked really pensive though haha and we had no idea that we would get to know someone so well and help him in such a short amount of time. We have TRC again tomorrowand this time we're skyping members in France. Ahhhh!!! I've been ok with the language thus far but now I will get a taste of real French and I'm scared! It's ok. I have confidence that we will be able to follow the spirit and teach what the Lord would have us teach.
We had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators, Muriel, this week! We've been teaching her for several weeks now and we've made a lot of progress but she lives with her boyfriend and he discourages her from getting baptised. He's an atheist and kind of makes fun of the church. We taught him with her this week though! We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it's the keystone of our religion. We talked about its importance in conversion and how the Gospel blesses families and makes us want to be better. We read several scriptures together and Muriel had moments here and there to tell us and her boyfriend, Luc, about special experiences she's had. I found myself telling him that Muriel needed his support and that he needed to read the Book of Mormon with her. When did I get so bold? Haha. Then we got him to pray for us at the end! So good. We've been learning about how to ask inspired questions that really help people think about the things that we talk about. And it sounds a lot easier than it is. But we've been getting so much better at it and I know it's been helping! We invited Muriel and her boyfriend to church but they didn't come. :(
But Hospice did! Hospice is another one of our amis d'Eglise who we've been teaching for a few lessons. Yesterday we had a lesson about the Sacrament and its importance to us because he went to church and he didn't know the significance of it. After explaining it to him and asking him questions and bearing testimony about it, we asked if he wanted to be baptised and he said yes! YAYYYYY!!! Our first one. It's funny cause none of these situations are real in that each of the investigators are actually my teachers and they're playing a role. But it's cool to see how happy and invested we become in these characters' lives, because that's just how it will be in the mission field. We pray about them for real, ALL the time, we sincerely love them, and we are truly guided in the questions we ask and subjects we teach. The Lord is fully aware of us and our needs!
This past Sunday was such a good day--very well one of the best days I've had here at the MTC. We had a really great Relief Society with the wives of the men in the mission presidency, and it was good to hear from them because it's their last Sunday! :( So sad. The presidency is getting released today and others will be called. They are the cutest people! Sacrament meeting and District meeting were great as well. I still haven't been called up at random to speak on something in French but I'm sure it will happen soon. Then in the evening we had Richard Heaton come speak for our devotional. He's the MTC administrative director and he already spoke for us a few Sundays ago, but he's great and gave a great talk. He talked about the phrase "Mind the Gap" and how we need to mind the gap between our investigators' lessons. The real conversion comes when they are praying on their own, reading Book of Mormon on their own, and attending church on their own. We can help them, but we need to really help them do that on their own in the gaps between our lessons. Great insight! He had recent converts in the congregation come to the mics and share their story of the moment they knew they wanted to be baptized, and it was SO GOOD. I could have listened to the stories the whole time. Everyone felt the humbling power of God in what we are doing as missionaries.
That night after the devotional, Sister Markham came to our residence and gave us "Château Markham" which is their grape juice that Brother Markham makes with grapes from the vineyard in their backyard. I vaguely remember Allison saying something about this too, but it was sooo good! And they make the best grape jelly too. They've been perfecting it for years and they just give hundreds and hundreds of bottles away every year. Amazing.
THANK YOU EVERYONE for the letters and packages you have sent me!! I really feel the love here and it's so comforting. It's so nice to get a little piece of home, even if it's the littlest thing.
Chrissy and Steve, still waiting to hear about the goals you've set for this year. Don't think I haven't forgotten--I'm a missionary now so I must follow up on commitments! ;) I heard that the new youth church theme for this year is "Embark in the Service of God." Cool huh! I love that! I hope you guys have some awesome plans for how you can serve this year, even in small ways. I know that just by being an example for your friends at church and school that you can serve others and change someone's day. Stephen, Dad tells me that your voice is changing. If I had my phone right now I would make the emoji with the huge surprised eyes. What! That's not allowed. You must be a 8 year old bishop steve forever. You can go to dances in a month!
Random Fact: Here at the MTC I am known as Soeur Durd. Yeah, not the most attractive name. One of the elders thought that was my last name was Durd for a good two weeks before he figured out it wasn't, so now it's stuck with the rest of the elders, and also "Soeur" is hard to say the French way all the time. So my name has morphed to "Sir Durd." With much emphasis on the Durrrrr.
Well I'm out of time but I love you all! Hope your new year is off to a great start!
Je vous aime beaucoup!
Soeur Hurd
Last tuesday we had a party during laundry time. And by party i mean we just ate food and wrote letters and that's it. Also those two other girls are our roommates that are going to Denmark! They're really sweet. One of the sisters in my district/room is from Denmark so she was super excited. In this picture they are eating some of her Danish candy, which is salt licorice and is NASTYY. Actually I might be the only one that hates it THAT much. but it's bad.
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