This week we had our first zone conference with the new mission president, President Sorensen. He said a lot of great things, one of them being "don't count the days, make the days count." He was referring to photos missionaries would take of themselves holding a number corresponding with the number of transfers they've had, but that I took that to heart, so I won't be putting the week number on my emails. I was also counting the days each night in my journal (mostly just for memoirs and hitting big landmarks like 100 or 500 or whatever), but I'm not doing any of that anymore. Make the days count.
The first entire hour of the conference was solely focused on repentance. He shared a lot of quotes and yadee ya, but my favourite takeaway was when he had us listen to the song "Oh Divine Redeemer," sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He pointed out that it was originally written by a frenchman, Charles Gounod, and it was originally titled simply, "Le Repentir." If you have a minute, I recommend giving it a listen, in English or French, or both.
This Thursday was also our first Book of Mormon class at the church. When we first got there, I was a little worried because there were only two people, but by the time we got going almost 20 people were there. The format is very simple, we sit in a circle, we read the Book of Mormon (we may mix some Bible days in there) one verse per person with a pause between each verse to allow time for the spirit to speak to us, and for those in the circle to share their thoughts and feelings. It was very very spiritual and I definitely missed a ton of the French, because when people share their thoughts and stories and stuff, they tend to talk fast, but it was a spiritual "festin" -- a feast. We only had ward members there, but this week we're hoping to have a few "amis" attend.
This week is looking pretty solid for us, we're spending the WHOLE week in Troyes, and we've got lots of good stuff set up. So hopefully next week will be a full report. JP came to all 3 hours of church (all 4, really by the time he left) and loved all of it. You can already start to see him become for joyfull.
We had our legality day in Paris this week where they give you and OFII (no idea what it stands for, it's a little thing that goes in your passport) and check some medical stuff, really basic. But all the "bleu" missionaries were there, so the old MTC district got to hangout together a bit again. We took a "train selfie" (something the kids do these days) on the metro. It was cool to see and talk to everyone and hear how their experiences are going.
I uttered the most hideous franglais this week. I said the word invitation (spelt the same in English and French) but I said the first half the French way, and the second half the English way. In(nasal)veetahtion. The ugliest thing ya ever saw. Pics are the selfie and Auxerre, because it's pretty.
C'est tout pour maintenant, a la prochaine!
- Elder Johnson
Comments
Post a Comment