Je Parle Espagnol?

(The picture of the week is from mom. We are nearing the end of this mortal life for Grandpa Petersen and I can't imagine what that will be like for the missionaries. It's hard enough here for the rest of us. So, here is a little photo devoted to Grandpa and Alyssa. :)

José is getting baptised! I've learned how to bear a grammatically passable basic testimony in Spanish and just enough other words to really do a number on my French after every lesson with him. Soeur Illizarbe thinks it's hilarious every time I say "c'est bueno!" And has to pause her translation to laugh. 

We have some awesome members who translate for him in church, come to lessons, and are just generally absolutely amazing missionaries. Lots of the Americans speak Spanish better than French (and German, Japanese, Tagalog, Swahili, etc... Mormons, amiright?) And we have some members who have spanish parents. Jose rocks and he brought his own self to church the first time we met him and is just generally awesome. There's hard times here but also miracles too.

Turns out A speaks Spanish too and she started explaining Sunday school for him. Because why not. Seriously, she's taken the idea of ministering and is running with it and doing great things. 

This email will be really short because we went to the temple today (yay!) But I love you all and will hopefully be able to write you next week on the correct p-day. 

Music request for the week is "in Christ Alone I stand" by Owl City, and Mom, if you'd please put the "Orgins" Mormon message on the blog with the links for it in Spanish and French too? And I'd suggest everybody watch it!

(mom can't find the spanish or french and will have to keep looking)

We've taught a few people this week that really connected with Joseph Smith's experience. He had questions, they have questions, they both wanted answers, and now they're looking for God to respond. But it's hard to respond to a question that is never directly asked! 

Challenge for the week: Try to picture yourself as someone who has never heard of any of this before. They might have met the missionaries once, they're sitting at church, they're all alone, they don't know anyone and somebody at the front of the room is talking about something that makes no sense and is different from anything you've ever studied. You've been trying to read the book of Mormon and that Nephi guy just beheaded somebody and you're reasonably sure that is against the 10 commandments (Sorry, J....) but you're going to give this your best shot anyways. 

Then please encourage and support someone who is going through that situation right now. Show them the love you and the savior have for them, and welcome them home. They may not speak the same language, literally or figuratively, but everyone needs a little compassion. 

The picture is the verse that says "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." In French it says "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you." 

This turned out longer than I meant again but I love you all, the church is true, the temple is still awesome, sun burns are still a thing and mosquitoes think I'm delicious but I'm happy to be here! Give someone a hug for me! 

-Soeur Alyssa Amott 

So, between the greves and the visitors center schedule, p-day got moved to Wednesday for the four sisters in our apartment. Summer is officially here and there are tons of people coming into the center, it is amazing!

This letter is going to be short since we're in line writing it and have to move some things to other days, but it's a letter. 

We had an awesome zone conference and we talked about how to help members do more missionary work because it is THE best way to do anything. So, we're following the example of the video they showed us and we're writing a list of 100 ways members can do missionary work. Something easy for me is hard for Soeur O, and vice versa. So...

Challenge for the brave: Take a selfie with the Book of Mormon and post it on social media with a favorite scripture, and a reason why you read it.

OR: Post the Book of Mormon story video or "what is the Book of Mormon?" On Facebook or other social media, with or without a message

OR: Read your scriptures on the bus or something and share a good scripture with a person next to you. 

We're talking to people because we love them and we want to share the happiness and direction we've found, and the love we know we get from our Heavenly Father. That's something everyone can do! 

We've had a good struggle this week because suddenly we have lots of Spanish speaking people who want to learn amd... I do not speak Spanish. Or Chinese, or Polish. I am trying to learn a few words of Lingala and brushing up on my three words of Wolof so we can talk to people and let them know we care. 

One of our Spanish speaking amis has a baptismal date and is super motivated to learn, prayers that we can find people to translate for him would always be awesome. 

Funny of the week: there was a HUGE bug on the wall. I killed it... And the already questionable slats on the upper bunk of the bed. There were a few missing already so I just finished it off... but the important thing is the bug got squished. 

Thank you again for letters and messages, they're always awesome and are super motivating for me and I can share good bits with other people! 

Song of the week: Another missionary had The Lower Lights version of "Lead Kindly Light" (which I've already established I really really like) and its AWESOME.

Also, "Consider the Lillies" is the song of the scripture behind the stained glass of Christ in the Visitor's Center.

I love you all, be safe and have fun, talk soon! Keep reading your scriptures !

If I ever meet the Cheshire Cat

                              
Soeur Bossel from Switzerland and Soeur Illizarbe from Peru, she lived in Lima.

Something that has come up over and over in the mission training, preach my gospel, conference, personal study, etc., is that without goals we don't get very far. Mainly because we have no way to know where we're going and, consequently, no way to measure progress. Like the cat said to Alice, if you don't know where you're trying to go, why does it matter which road you take?

Soeur Oulès didn't appreciate this logic when I got us super lost during finding, but hey. The Jehovah's Witness companionship we accidentally contacted accepted cards for the Visitor's Center... and it only takes two hours to walk from one train stop to the next! Who knew!

But honestly, goal setting is something I need to focus on. That may become a recurring theme. We're meeting with members to help them set some goals, too, including their own personal missionary work! 

Fun thing of the week, we all have the Lamb of God music now and it is AWESOME. I get to translate what's happening for Soeur Oulès who speaks wonderful English but can't understand the singing all the time (accents are also an adventure) so I really have to listen too. We want to find more uplifting French music to share with our amis! 

It's another beautiful rainy day in Versailles. Last week was nearly 80 degrees and today is 46. I love both types of weather, but I save money on sunscreen this way! Everything is bright green and alive now.

3 little blessings of the week: Frere Nadauld, my MTC French teacher, came to the Visitor's Center when we were on shift! We were able to have a lesson with M who is insanely busy, and today while grocery shopping a ton of my favorite songs came on, including that cheesy old oldies "Mama loves mambo" song.

So, back to goals (I'm pretty sure the organization of this email would give Alice a migraine.) One of my goals is to be more organised. (HA.) A connected goal is to be more positive, and that's a continuous one so I'm starting small with: Recording 3 good things every day, using the breathing exercises in adjusting to missionary life, and memorizing optimistic scriptures. We always have mission goals and goals for every ami, too, which helps so much! 

Challenge: Write down three good things that happened in your day, every night before going to bed, for a week. 

The sharp end of this email is brought to you by motion sickness. I love you all, have fun, make good choices, pet more dogs, read your scriptures, etc.

Bisous,

Soeur Alyssa Amott 

I found mosquitoes and the week was still good.

Ami Altagracia got baptised and confirmed! Stuff happened for a minute and she had a hard time, but the Lord and lots of people helped her. We'll see if she'll ever get over the cold water in the font... but she's still happy and so are we! 

I fell asleep in her first lesson, we taught a lesson in a McDonald's, the font was ice cold and she had school and a job and she still got baptised and hasn't missed a day of church even for stake conference. This is definitely an example of the Spirit teaching people who listen even when the missionaries are totally lost.

Writing on a train again so this email might get a little chaotic:

It's rained almost every day of my mission so far but the last week has been 80 degrees, sunny, and strange. It's bringing the mosquitoes and bugs out of the woodwork (literally) but it's also bringing all the people out, so we'll find new people ready to listen soon. Today, thankfully, is a little cooler and overcast. People love telling me "it looks like you've found the sun!" And they all feel very clever and original saying it. I'm happier finding the sun than the mosquitoes! They normally shouldn't be around in April but the toasty warm weather confused everybody. 

We are still looking for places to go finding in our area since most people are very comfortable in their lives near us, and aren't really interested in listening to us yet, but we'll get there. Most people that accept an invitation approach us first, like this awesome guy named Richard who left off repairing the road to ask "Sisters! What's the good news?" Turns out his sister converted in west Africa but he never really knew what it was. 

There is a huge bee type thing living outside our patio door and we're trying to fumigate it with vinegar cleaning spray and hair spray.  The French phrase for a huge bug is a "huge beast!" Which is accurate. 

We've taught a lesson at a public park this week, as the ami was babysitting her grandson, and the bugs were very interested in the lesson even if the people were distracted. But, the lesson was on creation and the fall so they just helped us make an object lesson out of it, right? 

We got to Facebook video call into the baptism of a wonderful man we met at the temple! 

Okay today is busy again but challenge of the week: Talk to a stranger. Anyone, doesn't really matter there, but get used to it so you can talk to somebody when you need to someday. That's how Altagracia came to the temple and met the missionaries! A random woman on the bus said "have you seen the temple?" And gave her directions. Small and simple things. 

2. Ask the missionaries if they have any investigators you can help with. That you could befriend, or have a lesson with, or anything. 

Love you all, be safe, have fun! 

- Soeur Amott

lentils

yum!

I made an apple crisp for district meeting and let the elders warm it up in the oven. They tried to scrape off all the black parts... we heard "nooooooooo!" All the way down the stairs.

The shirt and charger are because a really sweet man came into the VC who was here for a Microsoft conference... He was Japanese American. The little prince is from Soeur Foley, my "fairy great-grandmother" in the mission.

War memorial in Le Chesnay

I told them the vinaigrette was sunflower oil and flavoring...

Grandma Nama had this book