April 23, 2013

OH MY WORD. I will be in France in 3 short weeks!! My MTC experience is half way over?!?!?!?!?! WHERE DID THE TIME GO!! So this week has been fabulous!! Lost of fun stories!!

I just am so happy with the things that I am doing and I know its right. Its an amazing feeling knowing that you are doing exactly what the Lord wants you to do. I love it!!

Ok so lets get to the good stuff!! So how about a funny story! So my comp and I teach lessons every day! We have two investigators Fabian and Christopher. So one day in our lesson with Christopher we were teaching him the concept of prayer. And I used to jot down a few notes of point I wanted to hit or questions to ask...Well it was my turn to talk and as you can Imagine I was a little nervous...well somehow I just randomly asked him...."Will you pray for us.... like right now" You should have seen his face...and you should have seen my companions face... Surprise... confusion ...a mix of both...Oh man!! It was funny. I then realized what I had said and was surprised and confused myself!! What on earth!!!! But he did it so...I guess the bright side was I got him to pray. I mean overall the lesson went well it just was a not really the direction I thought I was going and then next thing you know I just drop a bomb on him!! Hahaha! When we left the room we burst out laughing!! My face was red with embarrassment but you just HAD to laugh!! SO funny! I definitely would say that was a highlight.

Now for a low point. So we do a thing called TRC. It is where volunteers come in and we give a visiting teaching type message to them. We get to know them then share a thought. Obviously we do all this in French. Well it got to my turn to speak and I opened my mouth and there were just no words to be had. My brain was blank and I had absolutely nothing to say. Immediately tears started to gush down my face (me...always a crier.) I had the craziest mix of emotions. I was scared, embarrassed, frustrated, exhausted but the spirit was SO strong. I finally just forced "Je" out of my mouth (which means "I") and words came. I bore my testimony on prayer and how it influenced me to be where I am today and how grateful I am to have that means of communication. It was an amazing experience. I literally had to leave it 100% to the Lord.  I don't think I really have ever done that before.  I am very comfortable with doctrine and discussing church related things...but I had nothing. I couldn't speak in English and I had to use a language I DONT even know how to speak. It’s frustrating to love and know the gospel with all your heart but not be able to convey those feelings because you can't speak the language. But you know during TRC...I was able to do both. And it was completely 100% because of my Heavenly Father. It was a wake up call. I cannot rely on myself to get things done. They just wont happen. "I need thee every hour." I am so grateful that good taught me that lesson only 3 weeks in. Because now, every single thing I do each day I do with Him—from laundry to teaching lessons. He is there every step of the way. 

Elder Scott spoke at our devotional last Tuesday and he spoke on Prayer. I realized how petty my prayers are. I was embarrassed to think that I had better conversations with my best friends than I did with my Heavenly Father. Ever since that talk I have made it my goal to approach Heavenly Father as my best friend. I make my prayers more conversational. I express my feelings the way I would to any of my friends. It has made the WORLD of difference. I think of how desperate Heavenly Father has felt for a conversation to me. I think of it this way: My Father has not really ever had a good, normal conversation with me in my entire life. Think of how strained our relationship is?! But fortunately He is my Heavenly Father. And He loves me in spite of my lack of sincere communication to Him. How grateful I am to my brother Jesus Christ, for his sacrifice on the cross. So I challenge each of you to just talk. Talk with your heavenly father as if he was your best friend. Last night a line in my prayer sounded something like this: "Heavenly Father...I am just down right exhausted. I feel like I am dragging a lifeless body from place to place. I need thy help. I need more energy. Help me to think of ways I can become more energized and ready for each day."  Prayer is wonderful. Everyone needs to be as addicted to it as I am!!

So here are some funny things people in my District have said while "popcorn teaching" (which is where you each take a few minutes of a lesson and then another companionship picks up where you left off): 1. “We should pray by your body.” HAHA so Soeur F. was trying to say: “We should pray with your heart.” But the word for heart is: coeur and the word for body is corps. When you actually say them...they sound very similar....oh it was great. 2. Ou est ce que Jesus-Christ a vous? Which means: Where is Jesus-Christ to you? Hahahah.  Elder that was playing the role of investigator was so confused and he said..."en le ciel??" which is: “In the sky?” hahaha.  We all burst out laughing! What he was trying to say, “Who is Jesus-Christ to you?”

So one of my teachers is named Frere S. He is MY AGE!! He just got home from his mission 6 weeks ago and he has a lot of mutual friends with me and Soeur Mod. from our freshman year!! It is the craziest thing!! One day in class I had just finished an apple and all of us always "shoot" our trash into the garbage can. Well, I NEVER miss. You know me ;) This time, however, I shot my apple core to the trash can and it and it barely nicked the edge of the table which diverted it right into Frere S.'s backpack.  It was so AWKWARDLY funny!! The whole class was dying with laughter and I felt sooooooo stupid!! The ONE TIME I miss--it goes into my teacher’s backpack during class!!

Oh and by the way...I was called as the Sister Training Leader which is the new calling for Sisters.  It is the equivalent to Zone Leader. It’s been fun! Especially that me and my comp were called together! It’s really helped us to get to know all the sisters in our Zone.  I can say that Sister Missionaries are the greatest!! Hearing each of their testimonies is such a blessing. A lot of the elders in our districts are here because its their "duty." Every single one of the Sisters, on the other hand, is here by choice. It brings such a different spirit to things. So future Elders of the world: if you view your mission only as a "duty," I can promise you that the first few months of your mission are going to be hard. Choose now to "choose" to go.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!! Everything was PERFECT!! Oh and I want Tyler to go get Coconut Joy ice cream from BYU Creamery!! He would love it!! Wednesday and Sundays we get BYU creamery ice cream...I literally have two bowls of that stuff every time because it is SO GOOD!! And it’s the only food I enjoy in this place!! Oh and Dad, when are you going to be in Chicago?? In May?? I have a layover in Chicago while I am flying to France. My travel plans are SLC to Chicago. Chicago to Halifax, London. and then London to Lyon. I will be leaving sooooo soon!! I leave May 13th!!  Goodness time is going fast!! Oh and I also talked to Sister Esplin (from the Primary General Presidency). I told her to say Hi to you dad. She gave our RS lesson! Church here is the best!!

Well goodbye my family!!

Je vous aime!! Je sais que Dieu vous aime aussi!!

Hugs and Kisses.

Soeur Richardson