Date: August 8, 2016
Location: Nancy
Companion: Soeur Petersen
Hello Everyone!
It is weird to say that I am not in
Rouen anymore! I still ask members, "So do you live here in Rouen?"
Haha completely forgetting that I am not there anymore and sometimes still
wishing that I was. This week was very bittersweet. I had to say bye to a ward
that has become my family, a companion that became my best friend, and Sylvie. Soooo
it could have been a better start to the week, but c'est la vie, quoi. Life
goes on, and I was shipped off to Nancy, the east of France, to open an équipe
of Soeurs and to train a new missionary, Soeur Petersen! :) Lots of big changes
requiring lots of prayers and lots of work, but it will work out okay!
Things started off pretty interesting when
we arrived. The Elders had raided our apartment when there were no Soeur
Missionaries, leaving a bunkbed, a shower curtain, and one dishtowel behind.
Donc, needless to say it was ready to live in ;) NOT. We are slowly getting back
what we need and settling in though haha :)
Opening a new companionship is really
hard. And training is hard! It is lots of contacting, knocking doors, and lots
of FINDING! Which I love, but it has been hard to stay focused when you have
the attention span of a dog. But we try and mix things up and make it fun and
we have met so many interesting people. A woman actually contacted us the other
day that was with her husband and son, and she is interested in learning more
so that was a miracle! We were even about to leave the park we were in because
we weren't feeling super inspired, and as we stopped to decide, she came up to
us asking us why we wear plaques! :) MIRACLE!
And my favorite miracle is a little gem
named Mireille. Mireille was found by the Elder's about a year or so ago and
she is a character. And she only has one foot and one arm! She is an older lady
that has been smoking her whole life and à cause de ça, she lost full use of an
arm and had a foot amputated! But she is still kickin'! And she loves the
missionaries. I asked her about the boy missionaries that had found her, and
she was all like, "I remember them! There was a really short one and a
really tall one! I don't remember both their names, but the short one was
named....ummmm... Oh! I remember! It was Elder!" haha I chuckled, and
asked, "Was that the other ones name too?" and she was all, "No.
I don't remember his name but I am positive it wasn't that." haha Gotta
love her.
And she goes on to ask us, which one of
us belongs to which Elder. I tried to explain we are all missionaries and we
work together, but she just won't accept it, and whenever she brings it up and
I explain it she just looks at me with this really creepy face and winks. haha
Oh la la I love french people. We will see where this goes :)
BUT I don't take back what I said in February
when I visited Nancy and knew that this was a ville with endless potential. But
I also can't lie and say that every week in the mission is the best week ever.
I am still here and I am still Alyssa and I still get sad and this week I really
wanted to go home. Not home to all of you, but home to Rouen. I just wanted to
take a little pause, or a big one, and go back and be with those people who
became my family. But that is what I want for me. God put me here because right
now, He sees something in my future that I don't. and because I know that, I am
still working hard, and I know that people need the gospel here just as much as
they do in Rouen, and it is my job to bring it to them. Remind me why He trusts
me with so much again? I don't always know, but He does :) So I am still happy
to be a missionary, even though this week was the hardest day of my mission.
Serving people has a way of doing that, getting you to love them.
So I know that probably next week or the
week after, I will be adjusted. And all will be well :) I can already see the
Spirit working through us and leading us to people who are prepared and who are
searching. I mean, they have been finding us, literally :)
I love you all very much :) I am having
fun and I am working hard!
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