Well....Its been a crazy week. A
very, very, crazy week. Monday was tiring and emotional. We do an FHE each
Monday and it has been a hit!! We had an American meal (Chili Cheese Dogs) and
we had 7 Amis there. Holler! Right at the end of the night, we found out one of
the sisters would be going home. Of course we were all in shock and extremely
sad. We were zombies all of Tuesday. I
think we were just in shock. We all got Hot Cocoa together at a Salon de Thé
and then dropped her off at the train station. As she pulled away we all began
to bawl. It was so hard. We all love her so much and she was apart of us here
in Chambéry. As we were all standing on the platform watching her train roll
away, we had tears streaming down our faces. I pulled the three of us in close (me, Soeur
Beeny, and Soeur Pape) and offered a prayer. It was the only thing I could think to do. I
am now in charge of two companions and one still a bleu. As I finished the prayer, we wiped our tears away and we were
strengthened. We knew we were in for some changes and that it might be rocky at
first but we are strong. God knows we can handle this and we immediately put
that faith and trust in him. We walked home and made chocolate chip banana
pancakes and shared funny experiences we've had since being on the
mission.
Not going to lie, I was really
worried about being in a trio at first but it’s been AMAZING. We are all a
perfect balance for each other and we are all extremely hard workers. Since we
had to smash our two equipes together
we had a lot to do! We now have 15 amis (8 of which are progressing), and 5
with baptismal dates! Moral of the story....WE ARE BUSY! But it’s been loads of
fun!! We laugh a lot together, teach in unity, and bring the spirit!
I am finding that here on the
mission (especially in European missions) you have to celebrate the small
things. You have to find the “positives” in everything that you can. For
example: this week we got a toaster. The package man came with a huge
box....naturally we were freaking out.
We were sooooo excited and were asking him what it was!!! Of course he
had no idea. I quickly signed for it and we all opened it together. As I said, it was a toaster. A toaster! But we
were freaking out!!!!! We were jumping up and down, screaming for joy. I know you think I am exaggerating but we
were SO EXCITED! Do you know what this means?! We can now turn our bread into
TOAST!!!!! Like I said....It’s the little things that we look for to make up
happy (giddy). My mission is hard. We get laughed at, mocked, and pointed at daily.
But I wouldn’t change one thing about my mission. Let them laugh, point, and
mock. I am a converted disciple of Christ, his angels walk next to me daily.
How blessed I am.
This week we dropped some people.
(it was kind of a necessity so we didn’t have over 20 Amis). So we showed our
faith and "dropped" the people that weren’t progressing and as a
result, we found people to replace them! Its amazing how simple getting
blessings is. The hard part I am finding is actually SHOWING your faith
(aka acting). But God and Jesus patiently wait for us to act, or show our faith
and the moment we do...BAM! Blessings!!
If, however, we need to learn something then God works it through His timing.
So it snowed. That was fun. I’m not
going to lie, it made me get pumped for Christmas! I’m dreaming of a White
Christmas (as in snow and also baptismal clothes, haha). We have been humming
Christmas songs this week. The only song we have banned from our repertoire is
"I'll Be Home for Christmas." I flat out told my comps that we are
not spending Christmas anywhere but France! Which is basically our home, of course. Snow
makes missionary work really enjoyable...aka...really hard and difficult. No
one wants to stop and talk!! But as Dory, the cute brightly blue colored Disney
fish, said, “Just keep swimming.” And that’s exactly what we are doing here in
Chambéry. Our cute little trio just keeps swimming! We are swimming with big
smiles and grateful hearts!! Happy Thanksgiving all!
Challenge of the week: Make Chocolate chip banana
pancakes and write a sincere note of gratitude to someone you love. I am
finding that when we do things with a very sincere intention the Spirit can
more easily work within us.
Love you all!!! Enjoy Thanksgiving! Everyone eat a spoonful
of Carrots and Turnips at Thanksgiving diner in my honor!!
Soeur Richardson
PS: I don’t know details of Christmas Skype yet...sorry!
I'll keep you posted!
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