The last post was a transcription of a handwritten letter we received yesterday. Today Devan got to write the family an email, which she has specifically asked to be posted to the blog.
Bonjour, ma famille!
Yes, I am alive. Barely. jk. Haha. It's not too bad here, but it's
super difficult. We are studying like...all the time. And when we're not
studying? Ha. We're always studying; that's non-existent. Anyway,
things are going well here! My companion's name is Soeur Harris. She is
from Portland and is in the Beaverton Ward. Her dad is bishop, so..was
he y'all's bishop, Court, Nate and Asa? Umm..oh, post this on my blog,
please, ant.
So things are cRaZy HERE!!!! We are being taught to teach with the Spirit (as dad said in his last dearelder letter) (BTW I love getting letters, including dearelder.com ones. Better than nothing!!) and how to speak en francais. It's insane; I know how to bear my testimony already in french and almost pray completely without notes. I was called on yesterday in my district to give the spiritual thought before class, and I was like, oh okay! "En anglais?" and my teacher, Frère LaPretre (ant, say THAT in french! he says if you can say his name correctly you can learn to speak french. haha) was like, "Non! en francais!" and I was like, "Umm..que?" Haha. It was bad. But not. He told me I could do a scripture, so I did Alma 32:21 and then said that having faith was very important and that through having faith you can know that the church is true or something; I don't really remember because I said it so slowly. Haha. But yeah, then I bore my testimony that I know that the Book of Mormon is true and the gospel is true and I think I said that the prophet was the true prophet on the earth today. Yeah, I can say that en francais. Booyah!
Not really; Heavenly Father is blessing me so much with this language. I can't even begin to tell you. I'm obviously struggling a lot with it, but I would barely be saying "I believe" en francais if it weren't for His help. It's crazy how being here you feel the Spirit everywhere. That's what they really try to tattoo into your brain; teaching with the Spirit can change lives, not your perfect french. Frère LaPretre is a convert; when he was 20 he said the missionaries came to him and the missionary who barely could speak french made the biggest influence on him because he taught with the Spirit and with his heart. I thought and think still that that is the coolest thing. Teaching with your heart really makes an impact on the people you teach. Knowing the french language will definitely help you out with everything, but if you are scared of not knowing anything when you go out, as long as you have the Spirit with you and you love the people you meet and teach, you'll make an impact on them.
I love knowing the Gospel and I am so glad that I grew up in a home with the Spirit. Yeah, it wasn't perfect, but it was enough to influence me and help me to become the person that I am today and who I"m trying to become. This work is so difficult; I want to cry every afternoon (when I'm most tired) because I don't understand what my teachers are saying or I can't memorize something, but it all works out. You have to have faith that Heavenly Father will help you in all situations, and that's what I'm learning to do. I can't doubt myself; doubting comes from bad spirits. That won't help me and it won't make me feel good about myself. All I can do is KNOW that Heavenly Father will bless me for doing His work and that he will give me the gift of tongues. Please pray for me and for the gift of tongues; I need it. I am terrible at memorizing, which I'm sure y'all know, so I am trying so hardddd to memorize and memorize quickly, which almost feels like it's not enough, but I know that with the Spirit and with my hard work anything is possible as long as I have faith.
So things are cRaZy HERE!!!! We are being taught to teach with the Spirit (as dad said in his last dearelder letter) (BTW I love getting letters, including dearelder.com ones. Better than nothing!!) and how to speak en francais. It's insane; I know how to bear my testimony already in french and almost pray completely without notes. I was called on yesterday in my district to give the spiritual thought before class, and I was like, oh okay! "En anglais?" and my teacher, Frère LaPretre (ant, say THAT in french! he says if you can say his name correctly you can learn to speak french. haha) was like, "Non! en francais!" and I was like, "Umm..que?" Haha. It was bad. But not. He told me I could do a scripture, so I did Alma 32:21 and then said that having faith was very important and that through having faith you can know that the church is true or something; I don't really remember because I said it so slowly. Haha. But yeah, then I bore my testimony that I know that the Book of Mormon is true and the gospel is true and I think I said that the prophet was the true prophet on the earth today. Yeah, I can say that en francais. Booyah!
Not really; Heavenly Father is blessing me so much with this language. I can't even begin to tell you. I'm obviously struggling a lot with it, but I would barely be saying "I believe" en francais if it weren't for His help. It's crazy how being here you feel the Spirit everywhere. That's what they really try to tattoo into your brain; teaching with the Spirit can change lives, not your perfect french. Frère LaPretre is a convert; when he was 20 he said the missionaries came to him and the missionary who barely could speak french made the biggest influence on him because he taught with the Spirit and with his heart. I thought and think still that that is the coolest thing. Teaching with your heart really makes an impact on the people you teach. Knowing the french language will definitely help you out with everything, but if you are scared of not knowing anything when you go out, as long as you have the Spirit with you and you love the people you meet and teach, you'll make an impact on them.
I love knowing the Gospel and I am so glad that I grew up in a home with the Spirit. Yeah, it wasn't perfect, but it was enough to influence me and help me to become the person that I am today and who I"m trying to become. This work is so difficult; I want to cry every afternoon (when I'm most tired) because I don't understand what my teachers are saying or I can't memorize something, but it all works out. You have to have faith that Heavenly Father will help you in all situations, and that's what I'm learning to do. I can't doubt myself; doubting comes from bad spirits. That won't help me and it won't make me feel good about myself. All I can do is KNOW that Heavenly Father will bless me for doing His work and that he will give me the gift of tongues. Please pray for me and for the gift of tongues; I need it. I am terrible at memorizing, which I'm sure y'all know, so I am trying so hardddd to memorize and memorize quickly, which almost feels like it's not enough, but I know that with the Spirit and with my hard work anything is possible as long as I have faith.
Ahhh
things are insane here! I live with 5 other girls in the residence
halls and they're all great. 2 are from Australia and 1 is from
Guatamala. She is learning french and english! Poor girl. The girl who
sleeps on the top bunk of my bunk is Soeur Roney; yes, my mission
president's daughter. Crazy, right? She's going to the Paris Mission!
She's really nice and she says that her dad is really silly and wants
his missionaries to have fun and laugh and be real people..which I'm
excited for. Haha. I'm trying to keep the personality I have in my
french; right now it's really difficult but it's slowly coming. I only
have 30 min to be on the internet to email, so send me dearelders the
day before (my p-day is Tuesday!) and I'll try to respond to y'all's
letters in the email and handwritten letters. Oh, I sent my address to
the family. I hope y'all have gotten it. Post it on the blog and
facebook? Thanks!
By the way,
mom, I did see Elder Holland! I've seen him probably five times. He
says thanks for the package and that he was really confused when he
first got it because it was from us but had stuff from home in it. Lol.
He has meals an hour before me, so I don't usually see him at that time.
Ahhhh five minutes!! Umm...Well if you guys find any cute flats, please
send me some. My feet. Blah. Everyone is wearing cute flats here, well,
almost everyone. It's weird. Not very practical for being out in the
field, but practical for the MTC. But I have everything else I could
think of...oh! Dry mangos! Who knew they were so good?! If you would
like to send me some..that would be alright. ;-)
So
my companion is really fun, kind of quiet, and it took a while to get
her out of her shell. She does speak french; she took the RM BYU class
for a few days but got out of it because it was too much work and she
wasn't majoring in it. She graduated last August from BYU and lived in
Seattle working for a nonprofit organization. Yeah, one of those girls.
;-) jk, she's nice, kind of quiet at times, but I think she's getting
use to me. Lol.
Anyway,
I love you all. I hope that this makes you feel good that I"m doing
well. The food is not the best, but I just stay away from sauces and
strange meat. Haha. Salads galor, basically.
Please
let everyone know that I"m doing great, and tell them to write me! I
love letters. The guys in my district are really nice, btw. Elder Call
is our district leader and he has the most expressionistic face!! It's
hilarious. Anywho.
Love you guys. I want to see photos of the baby!!
Love from the empty sea (dad),
Soeur Gardner (devano)
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