I thought I should start putting an actual subject/theme with my emails instead of the week, this way you're more excited to know what happened during the week.
Well, there is lots to talk about. That was very sweet of the Finlay's to send me a wedding invitation for Alana, tell her congratulations! Thank you mom and dad for the letter that I received at the Christmas zone conference, it was very exciting! Ryan that story about Elena is great! Have fun in the office, obviously it will help prepare you for something you need to do in the future and the Lord has things in store for you. And of course Happy Birthday to Laurie today!
I too thought of Emily this last Friday and I'm so grateful for the knowledge that we have. A few weeks ago Soeur Creager and I listened to the recording of Emily's funeral and it was fun to hear all of the things about her life; I had forgotten some of the stories and things shared that day. The talks at the end given by Elder Kofford and Elder Callister were amazing!!! Wow, if only people knew what this life really is about, but that of course is why I am here as a missionary to share that knowledge with others. Jen that was neat to hear about your experience.
What a crazy storm! I heard about it from the senior couple serving in our zone. I'm so glad no one died. Mom and Dad you're such good examples, going and serving others and being prepared during these times. Mom you're so wonderful with all of your lanterns, it reminds me of how you had the lantern with us in the car the night of the accident. What a blessing that we had it there that night.
Well, last week I had an awful cold and had to sleep for almost 3 days straight, but we were still able to have some lessons during the week and we got lots of referrals from members. We went to branch council on Friday night and worked on a new mission plan for 2012 and I think we should see lots of progress here in Colmar if all of the members put it into practice.
We had an awesome lesson with Anna. She is the friend of a member and came to eat dinner with them and us on Sunday. She is Catholic but has heard a little about the church so we taught the restoration and the spirit was so strong. She wants to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are hoping to have another rendez-vous soon and invite her to be baptized.
Monday we had our Christmas zone conference. It was wonderful! It was just us and one other zone. President and Soeur Poznanski talked about staying focused on the true meaning of Christmas and Soeur Poznanski shared a story about the only Christmas she had during her mission and how she came to found the true meaning of Christmas, focusing on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and all that he did for us. It was so sweet and she filled up with tears as she told it. We then did the best object lesson I have ever had. Each of us were given an envelope and inside was a sea shell that represented us at the beginning of our mission. We talked about the texture and how on the outside it's rigid and coarse, but the inside is shiny and smooth and we discussed how it relates to us when we first arrived. We then each had a big piece of chalk (it looked like the chlorine you put in a pool. I don't know how else to describe it) and they had us write all of the things that are keeping us from being the missionary that we want to become. Then they had us use a screw/nail to scrape off all of the words we had written. It was awful! I hate the textrure and feeling of chalk, it took Soeur Creager and I forever. President Poznanski walked by me laughing and said, "It looks like you have a lot of repenting to do." So then I really started to think about it and how symbolic it was with the nail and trying to get rid of all of my weaknesses and sins. I thought of the Atonement and how through Christ we can wash away our sins and get rid of anything that's keeping us from being the person we should be. As I kept scraping and digging I saw something inside the chalk. At first is was dark, but then I started to see the shape and then it started to shine, so I kept going until I was able to pull it out. It was an even more beautiful and bigger sea shell that looked like a marble and it was smooth and transparent. We talked about the qualities of our new sea shells (other missionaries also had stars). It was such a spiritual and symbolic lesson! Soeur Creager and I both have our sea shells sitting on our desks now so that we can look at it each day and see how we are progressing and if we are becoming the missionary we want to be at the end of the mission, or more that the Lord would like us to be. I'm so grateful for the atonement of our savior Jesus Christ and the fact that we can become new creatures through him.
At the end of the conference we had a traditional christmas treat in France: hot chocolate with different gateaux (cakes) and an orange. Then we did a white elephant gift exchange... I got a little teddy bear that says "I love Luxembourg" and Soeur Creager got a huge gift bag that had 10 pokemon cards at the bottom! Pour thing. It was funny, but we also got stockings from President and soeur Poznanski with a few things inside and letters from our parents.
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
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