Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Week 4 and it's Many Changes

Bonjour ma famille et mes amis,

So much has changed in the last few days! Mes Soeurs flew out for Lyon yesterday, but I have new Soeurs!! I am now companions with Soeur Brimhall and Olivio (they are in that picture I sent you last week) they are both going to Montreal French-speaking. The other two sisters in the room are Soeur Schmuhl and Soeur Gardner, also going to Montreal. Soeur Brimhall is from Orem and Soeur Olivio is from Queens, New York.

As well as getting new companions, me and my new companions are the new Sister Training Leaders for our zone! We will have a lot of work to do because we get 30 new missionaries in our zone tomorrow and we get to interview the 10 new sisters. I'm excited! We also get to do orientation for the new missionaries with the Zone Leaders on Wednesday night.

On Sunday we got a new counselor in our Branch Presidency, Brother Newell. He was recently released as the Mission President of the Sweden Stockholm Mission. Because of the new counselor, President and Sister Nally (MTC President and wife) were in our sacrament meeting. It's not everyday that you get to sit next to the MTC President's wife in sacrament meeting! She is so sweet and nice. I got to say the closing prayer in French for sacrament meeting, I didn't say anything crazy in French and it went well.

We have been teaching a lot. Last week for TRC we taught a family from Lyon who were here to pick a family member up from the Provo Mission. That was a fun experience! They were so helpful and loving. They gave us a great scripture about the spirit in Galations 5:22, I think that is what it is, I don't have my French scriptures with me to check the reference. We are teaching our other "investigators" almost every day. It is exciting to see them come closer to Christ and commit to baptism.

I love my district, but they can be a bit distracted sometimes. Almost everyday they have some conversation about Batman or Lord of the Rings. They are a funny group but I love them. I don't think I ever told you about the elders I teach with. I teach with Elder Lund and Elder Easton. Elder Lund is originally from Illinois but has lived in Centerville for the past few months, he just graduated from high school. he speaks Spanish, he took it through high school and doesn't love the French language yet. He often speaks "Fransish" (mix of French and Spanish) because he knows Spanish and didn't know any French before the MTC, but it has been becoming more and more French every time we teach. Elder Easton is from Illinois too. He went to the University of Wyoming for the past two years where he was converted to the church. Earlier this year he baptised his Dad. Both elders are going to be serving in new Caledonia ( if you don't know where that is it is between Australia and Fiji). It can be hard to teach in a trio but we are doing pretty well.

I have learned so much about teaching by the spirit and with unity since we have started teaching here.  I have realized that now is the time to make all the mistakes I can and say the crazy things in French on accident because we are all learning.
This week I ran into Elder Getter and Elder Winter. It's always fun to see people I know. I also figured out that the brother who teaches my companion's district is Bishop Sybrowsky's brother.

Things are going well here, my French is improving. I know this is where I am supposed to be and I am growing closer to the Lord and am coming to love this gospel even more. This gospel is here to make us happy and come to Christ. Our Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us because he loves us and wants us to return to him. Life is not easy, but that is because we need to learn and grow to gain experience to become more like him. I love you all and hope everything is well with you.

Until next week,

Sœur Banks

Ran into Elder Getter and his companion

Soeur Olivo drew this on the Board and I loved it and thought you might as well:)

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