Bonjour ma famille!
I arrived in france safe and I'm in Brive, which is above Toulouse. It is beautiful here and my companion is great! His name is Elder Boehme (Bamee).It is ironic, because he is from Logan!!!!! He also just got out of the hospital from appendicitus, so the timing was great for me to arrive! Ha ha he has been out a year and a half now. It is difficult to write because the keyboards are a little different here. I'll do my best.
When I first arrived France, President Carter was waiting for me, it was great! Then he we went to the mission office in Toulouse, which by the way was so familiar and you know why? because it is the exact picture on Google earth haha: I recognized the street and everything!!! haha, next you won't guess who I saw! Elder Miller!!! He is an assistant to the President, and couldn't wait for me to come!!! After all the logistical stuff, I ate a real french baguette sandwhich!!! Then I contacted with Elder Miller!!!! It was great :) Then I stayed at President house (the Mission home) was fed by Sœur Carter --- AMAZING MEAL!!!! They go all out with 3 courses haha. They sent me off to bed at 7:00 to catch up and get up early to head to Bordeaux in the morning for a Zone conference. By the way, I was the only one who got to stay at Presidents house out of this last group because there were so many!! Priviledged haha and blessed. Then of course that day was all zone conference and traveling to Brive. I got to ride the train, and we take it often to get back and forth from district meetings in Périgueux.
It is about 7:00 AM and your day is just starting, but mine has been going for quite a while already. Monday is P Day, so be watching for my emails. The work is definitely hard, I mean harder than anything I have ever done. I don't understand much of what anyone is saying, and it gets frustrating. We are out all day, finding people to teach. We have been finding 1 or 2 but we have to contact almost 50 or more people to do so. My leg is fine, so don't worry. My companion has takin very good care of me, and he is a great example. Church was cool, didn't understand a word but thats okay. We have a branch of about 50 members. One thing that was familiar was all the babies and obnoxious kids !!! haha reminded me of home. They had me get up and bear my testimony... It was good hahah. All the members are great, and bombarded me with conversation that I had them repeat many times. A few finally talked to me in english. Only a few know english however.
We ate at a members house, you will notice the picture :) It has been frigedly cold the last few days. Others joke with me that I brought the Utah weather with me. We tract all day, visit members, teach one man as of now. He called Elder Boehme back and was mad and wanted to return the Book of Mormon he gave him. Elder Boehme was like, "We will come over and talk about it!" We shared 3 Nephi 11, when the voice is heard; he said he hears voices in his head!! Then he starting freaking out because Jehovas Witness had messed with him a little bit and he thought he was going to get sucked into Mormonisn; he even told us he thought he was going to explode.... but we calmed him down and he was receptive after that... for the most part. We set up a second rendez-vous and got out of there! We have prayed for him ever since, and pray he reads the rest of 3 Nephi 11 by then. I pray he feels the peace that the words from the book of Mormon can give him.
We have a member who lives close to us, and he loves the missionaries. He is pretty much the best! His name is Jeremy Labini, and he is from La Reunion (just off of Madagascar) He has been a member for 8 years I believe. He has to be only in his 30's. We also have a really nice, old lady in our apartment that is our "mami" she brings us baguettes every morning!!! She isn't a member though, but would make a great one! ;)
This truly is the hardest work like I told you before. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The MTC was nothin. Please pray for me to recognize the promptings of the Spirit. It is a skill that I know takes a life-time to master, but I have been called to an amazing work, that requires much!! I know salvation isn't a cheap experience.He never said it would be easy, only worth it. I know my redeemer lives, and loves me. He loves his children, and knows each and everyone. He has prepared his elect, and I know when I am obedient and strive to be all I can be, the Lord will trust me and send them our way! I learned to look at contacts this way. We aren't getting turned down by 50 or 100 peoplet today, but we tried to share the Gospel with 50 or a 100 people today!! How cool is that!!
God bless you all,
Elder Petersen
No comments:
Post a Comment