Bonjour et salut!
The other day we had the strangest experience. We taught a lesson in
English. Whaaaaaaattt. It's a man who's from Vanuatu, so he speaks
Bislama and English and is learning French. But since we don't speak
Bislama (sadly, I"m in love with that language. It's just a happy
happy language) English it was! Talking with Americans and such is a
breeze in English, but whenever I have to speak English to someone who
normally I would just speak French to, it is the most awkward feeling.
The words are all foreign and weird coming out and it feels like a
second language. Hahah and my past self would probably be mortified at
the vocabulary I use because it's most certainly degraded (is degraded
a word?). How grateful I was for my time in Virginia during our
lesson! The feeling and vocabulary of teaching in English flowed back
a little bit into my mind and oh how it helped! Well we made it
through our lesson, with a few French words slipped in on accident. It
was a wonderful lesson and he is extremely receptive, so we're excited
for the future! We even get to give him a Book of Mormon, not even a
Livre de Mormon!
Had a first over here in Paita: we had 4 soeurs all at once in Paita.
It was wild, we got to schedule so many people for one day! It's
because we had an exchange with our soeurs dirigeants, but we all
stayed in Paita. The big blessing out of that was getting the chance
to go to Savannah, another town in our secteur that we NEVER get to go
see because we're always in Paita for lessons and soirees. Savannah is
HUGE, but has no amis or members. My heart aches thinking of all the
people there that are just sitting waiting for us to go find them. And
we finally got to start finding them on Saturday!
Something finally set in this week that I think I've been learning
my whole mission. The miracles happen after we do that little bit
more. Every time I have an experience where I really see the hand of
the Lord in my life or in our work, it is AFTER we do something a
little bit out of the ordinary. After we do something beyond what our
natural man tendencies say. The other night we were doing porte a
porte and a family pulled in at the house next to the house we were
trying to contact. They whiz up their loooooooong long driveway. Their
house was up on a hill and it was totally dark out. But they were
getting out of their car, so maybe they'd hear us. It was definitely
one of those moments when your awkward-meter says walk away, but I
yelled a bonsoir anyway and what do you knoooow a young man walked all
the way down his driveway. And then he INVITED US IN. He and his
little sister talked to us and are just as cute as cute can be and
were devastated when their mom told them "not tonight", but of course
we set another time. Miracles are real. If you don't see them, maybe
it's because God is waiting for us to get out of our comfort zone a
little. He's pushing us to do a little more. And THEN He will reward
us.
This week is Zone Conference which means WE GET TO SEE PRESIDENT.
Living on a different island and a different country than your mission
president makes the times we see him all the sweeter. I'm beyond
stoked.
We got to do our studies on the beach yesterday and it sunk in yet
again just how blessed we are to get to serve here. Ain't nothing like
eating a patisserie sandwich and the bestest ever goat cheese/herb
breadstick while studying the gospel on the beach of a tropical island
where you...oh yes, where you LIVE. Bienheureuse. We are bienheureuse.
Such a sweet reminder of this incredible experience that's happening
all around and inside me.
Love you all to pieces!
So joyous that so many friends are reporting this week or soon or
working on papers or anything of the sort!
Praying for you all and hoping you can feel my love and gratitude for
you each day,
Soeur Evans
The other day we had the strangest experience. We taught a lesson in
English. Whaaaaaaattt. It's a man who's from Vanuatu, so he speaks
Bislama and English and is learning French. But since we don't speak
Bislama (sadly, I"m in love with that language. It's just a happy
happy language) English it was! Talking with Americans and such is a
breeze in English, but whenever I have to speak English to someone who
normally I would just speak French to, it is the most awkward feeling.
The words are all foreign and weird coming out and it feels like a
second language. Hahah and my past self would probably be mortified at
the vocabulary I use because it's most certainly degraded (is degraded
a word?). How grateful I was for my time in Virginia during our
lesson! The feeling and vocabulary of teaching in English flowed back
a little bit into my mind and oh how it helped! Well we made it
through our lesson, with a few French words slipped in on accident. It
was a wonderful lesson and he is extremely receptive, so we're excited
for the future! We even get to give him a Book of Mormon, not even a
Livre de Mormon!
Had a first over here in Paita: we had 4 soeurs all at once in Paita.
It was wild, we got to schedule so many people for one day! It's
because we had an exchange with our soeurs dirigeants, but we all
stayed in Paita. The big blessing out of that was getting the chance
to go to Savannah, another town in our secteur that we NEVER get to go
see because we're always in Paita for lessons and soirees. Savannah is
HUGE, but has no amis or members. My heart aches thinking of all the
people there that are just sitting waiting for us to go find them. And
we finally got to start finding them on Saturday!
Something finally set in this week that I think I've been learning
my whole mission. The miracles happen after we do that little bit
more. Every time I have an experience where I really see the hand of
the Lord in my life or in our work, it is AFTER we do something a
little bit out of the ordinary. After we do something beyond what our
natural man tendencies say. The other night we were doing porte a
porte and a family pulled in at the house next to the house we were
trying to contact. They whiz up their loooooooong long driveway. Their
house was up on a hill and it was totally dark out. But they were
getting out of their car, so maybe they'd hear us. It was definitely
one of those moments when your awkward-meter says walk away, but I
yelled a bonsoir anyway and what do you knoooow a young man walked all
the way down his driveway. And then he INVITED US IN. He and his
little sister talked to us and are just as cute as cute can be and
were devastated when their mom told them "not tonight", but of course
we set another time. Miracles are real. If you don't see them, maybe
it's because God is waiting for us to get out of our comfort zone a
little. He's pushing us to do a little more. And THEN He will reward
us.
This week is Zone Conference which means WE GET TO SEE PRESIDENT.
Living on a different island and a different country than your mission
president makes the times we see him all the sweeter. I'm beyond
stoked.
We got to do our studies on the beach yesterday and it sunk in yet
again just how blessed we are to get to serve here. Ain't nothing like
eating a patisserie sandwich and the bestest ever goat cheese/herb
breadstick while studying the gospel on the beach of a tropical island
where you...oh yes, where you LIVE. Bienheureuse. We are bienheureuse.
Such a sweet reminder of this incredible experience that's happening
all around and inside me.
Love you all to pieces!
So joyous that so many friends are reporting this week or soon or
working on papers or anything of the sort!
Praying for you all and hoping you can feel my love and gratitude for
you each day,
Soeur Evans
No comments:
Post a Comment