Really really cool moment of last week with no weekly: the BYU folkdance performers came to Paris and performed!!! It was AMAZING. People we haven't even been able to get to meet with us came and saw it, and they loved it. The dancers and musicians were talented and the spirit was actually really strong, especially during "an Irish prayer" that they sang towards the end. I loved when they sang "country road," too.
Remember my email about all the "a Yearning for Home" stuff from the Visitors' Center training? I know I have an amazing family, and a huge extended family that still stays close, and a ward that supports us in so many ways and I will always have a place to come home to, in the eternities and right now in this life. I am so incredibly grateful for the love and examples I have had, and the stories I get to share. I've seen loving and Christlike visiting and home teachers for my family that did "Ministering" for so long that I didn't even think of that being a new thing, all the sisters wait for Sister Mckee's letter with the new quote and love from home, I can testify to our new people about the power of righteous parents who do their best to follow Heavenly Father and love and teach their children because I have seen it, and I know it isn't always easy.
I love telling people about my home ward and being able to reassure them that they can make a difference in mutual, or primary, or relief society, or in writing someone a letter. I love being able to talk about ministering efforts I've seen and that their efforts do make a difference.
Not everyone has that. Not everyone knows that feeling, or believes that it is possible to learn to trust and rely on a community or a family. But, I've also seen that change for a person, the moment when they realize that a strong family is possible. Missionaries, and I think especially visitors center missionaries, get to teach about how much our loving Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, to have friends and family, to find a place that is ours anywhere in the world, and to know we're home. Family History and the Temple have changed people's view of their lives this week while we watched, and it wasn't anything we did.
That was the coolest part of the BYU event. People got to see dances and hear music from all over the world with inspired messages between them about the Journey and they loved it. Afterwards a few people we've helped with family history at the center came up to tell us a connection they'd made, one even found pictures of his family he didn't know existed And he wanted to show them to us!
Missionary invitation: For real, go find something really cool about your family history and investigate it. Make food from an ancestors country, find local music or a traditional dance, learn to say "Hello" in their language, whatever it may be. THEN: Go tell somebody about it! Remember your family, and invite someone to learn more about theirs too. Maybe even get a picture of one of them saved on your phone to share at opportune moments.
Follow up: tell me about it! Send a short email or picture of them and your experience sharing it with someone! Sharing it with a sibling totally counts.
Mom: can you find the songs "An Irish Prayer/Blessing" (May the road rise up to meet you, etc)
and "Homeward Bound,"
and the talk by Elder Uchdorf "A Yearning for Home"
and attach them to the blog?
ANYWAYS
Really really cool moment of this week: We were in the middle of a lesson with B when Gerauld Causé walked into the temple garden with a news crew. We finished the lesson and B walked right up to him and shook his hand, and told him "see you later," in English, to which he responded "I speak french...?" And she was even more impressed. He also made sure to shake all the Sisters hands in the garden and say hello before he had to leave, it was awesome!!
Turns out my love of roasted barley herbal tea really helps some people we're teaching with their Word of Wisdom struggles. I still can't get any other missionaries to like it, but our amis sure do! It's a thing in France! For missionaries, roasted chickoree without coffee added is in a lot of grocery stores and is a thing for our members too.
My leg is doing better and now I'm just trying not to do anything else to it 
Okay, I'm out of time for this week but next week is transfers so I'll know if I'm staying or going! And I'm also turning 22 on Tuesday so, yay?
I love you all! Say your prayers! Make good choices! Have fun!
-Soeur Alyssa Amott
No comments:
Post a Comment