Chasten my Soul till I shall be in Perfect Harmony with Thee
Famille et mes amis,
Bonjour!! So right now I am in Lourdes, which is this crazy Catholic city where the Virigin Mary appeared to this woman and now they have like a million shrines of her everywhere.. it's out of control. I'll send postcards because they are HILARIOUS! I shouldn't say that, but it is so true. And so wrong. lol. You will see. So Tuesday I had exchanges with Soeur Klingaman from Toulouse! And we came to Pau! But it was good. Weird, but good. Weird because I didnt have soeur bertolio and soeur Klingaman slept in her bed and everything!! But yeah. it was cool! She's really fun and goes to byu also!
So this week we had 6 tomber-vous. AKA cancelled appointments. yeah. Really bad. And it sucks because we like have been hyped up on goals and yet we keep on getting lessons falling through. But it is OKAY! Because we are trying and pushing forward, even when we are crawling, we are getting there! haha, and that was what was happening last week. But this week will be GREAT!!!!!!!! So on Saturday we had a "special" district meeting and we had the "super" missionaries come and teach us about what we were going to have, "e-day", which was yesterday. "e-day", we found out, was "endear day", aka endearing the members. We talked about how we should ALWAYS look happy and be really eager to talk to them but keep the message short so you can talk to everyone and just show you love! which for us is hard work, because we have so much to do, but it is so important! we have been trying to memorize everyones' names and what they like and ask them questions and just show our love like crazy! So Saturday evening a counselor to the bishop called and asked if we could both speak the next day, so we prepared talks and spoke! I decided to speak on the Book of Mormon, which was AWESOME!!! I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!!!!!! But it sucked because I couldnt just speak for 10-15 min without writing the things out because I wanted to tell a story and blahblahblah, so soeur bertolio was basically my translator because we didnt have time for me to just write out a bunch of stuff that didnt make sense. lol. So! I spoke on that and soeur bertolio talked about the Restoration and about how blessed we are to have the restored gospel on the earth today! SO INCROYABLE! So yeah. Awesome! And she read the lyrics to the Spirit of God.. it was great. And so proud to call her my comp! And what was so great about us giving talks was us being able to express to everyone there how much we love them!!!! It was seriously a blessing. And the people felt our love like crazy, and it was so great. We have this family, the abadie's, in our ward (its an older couple) and they are both so nice and the husband is just so kind to me. He is like my dad or grandpa. Every time I looked up from the pulpit (like 5 times. lol. I was so nervous!) I would look at a few people and he was always watching and just beaming! It was so comforting. Really kind. His wife is a chiropractor who has helped soeur bertolio with her back, too! theyre just what we need right now. haha.
So saturday we contacted everyone we saw, or could contact, after the district meeting! we have decided to be those kinds of missionaries because we really need new amis and we SHOULD be contacting EVERYONE!It is incredible how much I have learned in the last few weeks! We contacted this one guy who looked around 25 who doesnt believe in God, and soeur bertolio was like, would you be interested in meeting with us for like 20-25 min? And he was like, uhh...and I was like, 10 min! And he was, okay, right now. And we went at it! And i pulled out the Book of Mormon and had him read some from the introduction and he flipped through it and at first was saying that he isnt interested in what happens after death or like basically questions of the soul, but after a few min he began asking us them! It was so incredible seeing someone become more interested. Theyre answers that everyone wants, and its incredible to me that we have the answers!!! So this guy was moving to Marseille today so he couldnt meet with us and we asked if we could get his # for the missionaries there because we are EVERYWHERE, and he was like, ummm...no....and so we just gave him a card and showed him the email address on it. But he was so much more interested in the gospel! It was incredible! And Soeur Bertolio told me after that she had prayed for a rendez-vous on the spot of contacting someone the night before because her friend who is a missionary told her about his experience. So. Our prayers are totally answered.
We wwent to visit Marie and Roger, the couple who arent married, yesterday evening. Her dad just died so she has been really sad and we havent seen her since then, so this time I flipped to in Alma when Alma the younger is teaching corianton about life after death and how everyone will return to the God that made them, and that every hair on our head will be restored. She was really touched, and Soeur bertolio was saying that you can be with your family forever through the temple and being able to go and I was like, but you have to be baptized. Then Marie told us that she had a dream that she was beign baptized but every time they were g putting her under, the water dissapeared, and marie was like, maybe its not the right time, and soeur bertolio was like, no, its because youre not married! and marie was like, maybe..and I was like, no! It is! You have to follow the commandments to get baptized, and youre not! and again she was like, maybe.. and I was like, It IS! me being my stubborn self. then after the lesson they offered to feed us, then gave us all this food to take home (we ran out of food yesterday after lunch) and gave us a ride home!! they love us so much, its crazy. So yeah. and earlier we taught this guy alex who is dating a sister in our ward (theyre gtting married) and he said he doesnt want to pray to know the book of Mormon is true, but that he just wants to have a sign, and I was like, you have to pray and ASK. and he was like, yeah but I want it to happen at the right time and I dont want to force God to give me an answer... and I had him read the last paragraphs of the intro to the BOM and asked him what he had to do (Frère LePretre) and he kind of skipped over it. And then I bore my testimony and told him that I knew that the BOM was true because I read it and I prayed and asked, and he needs to do the same. I told him that it's a promise given to us from the BOM and that it is true, and I promised him that if he prayed about it he would recieve an answer. It was CRAZY how bold I was, for both Alex and marie and roger! I just felt so impressed to tell them those things! And they werent rude or chase me out of their homes! they took it! Because they know that it is what they should be doing. And its because they know that we love them so much! And I felt so bold and the Spirit so strongly because we have been contacting like CRAZY looking for new amis! Its beautiful seeing miracles everyday. AHHH!!!! Miracles are happening RIGHT NOW! I love life!!!!
Okay? gotta go, but its been great! people loving each other, people rejecting the gospel, missionary life. You have just gotta offer it to everyone!! I was talking to soeur bertolio this week and was like, we totally planned to be companions in the premortal life. then i realized, we probably were friends who are in pau right now looking for the gospel, and what if they were the ones we walk past instead of contact? What are we going to do when we see them after this life and theyre like, I was sitting right next to you at the bus stop and you didnt stop me. Why not? Why didnt you give me a chance? I was searching for you. This thought makes me eager to talk to everyone I pass in Pau, now. I want to be able to tell them that I tried. That I opened my mouth and offered them the things that they have been searching for.
I love my opportunity to be serving a mission and I am so glad to be here with the people I am with. I love you all SOOO MUCH and I am so grateful for all of you! Thanks for the letters!! Not this Friday, but next Friday we will be getting a call letting us know if we will be transferred or not; so I will let you know in 2 weeks, but I would not send letters after this week, because I may not be here? But I may be! Who knows! Rhetorical question!
Love ya and Keepp the letters comin!!!!
love always,
soeur gardner/devano
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