Hope

It was a hard week.  I learned so much about humility and about hope.

For about a year now, I've worn a ring on my finger that says "hope" in really small letters and I never take it off and I love it (it was from Abby, thanks, homegirl).  On Saturday I looked at it and it was truly like I was seeing it for the first time.  The word "hope" means something entirely different when you`re in a situation that makes having hope a challenge.  Now I continue to wear it every day, but with real purpose.  I wear it because I need the reminder to have hope.  

I really debated whether or not to write about the fact that it was a hard week, especially when I was feeling so down, but now that I do feel so much more light and hope, I feel good sharing about it.  At first, it was kind of fun getting doors slammed in my face and getting yelled at because it`s like "Hey, I'm a real missionary!" but let me tell ya, it gets old real quick.  Even when we could get appointments this week, we would show up and no one would be home, or, worse, they would get quiet as we walked up to the door and pretend not to be home.  By the way, this is including members in the ward.  It was really hard.  We prayed a lot.

Things really turned around when Sister Schmuhl (Yes, I spelled her name wrong last week.  Oops.) and I started praying more specifically.  Every time we go anywhere, we say a prayer before we get out of the car (standard practice) but a couple of days ago, we had a dinner appointment with a less active ward member that we were really excited about and it was pouring rain so we ran out of the car and into the apartment building and buzzed her number.  No answer.  We called her.  No answer.  We called her again.  No answer.  Then we decided to stop calling cause we didn`t want to seem super weird when she realized she had 100 missed calls from us, but we didn`t know what else to do.  We had confirmed our appointment with her only thirty minutes earlier and we were still being faced with the same feeling of rejection we had felt all week long.  Then Sister Schmuhl realized we hadn`t prayed before getting out the car because we had been too distracted by the rain.  We stood there, dripping wet, in between the two doors leading outside and into the building and prayed specifically that she would call us back.  And she did, as soon as we closed our prayer.  It was a miracle.  God answers our prayers.  The church is true.  It was an awesome dinner appointment.

Since that experience Saturday night, things have really started looking up.  Please don`t forget to talk to God every day.

In funnier news, they really do eat everything here with maple syrup.  It`s hilarious, but if you laugh they look at you weird.  My favorite is under-ripe watermelon with maple syrup.  And the Canadians that always told me their soda was better and I thought they were being obnoxious--they were totes right.  

This girl told me this week that I reminded her of a Disney princess and before I could pull a Juliette Wardle and say "WHICH ONE?!?!" she said "Just like, all the blonde ones" so that was a highlight of this week.  

Also, sometimes I'm amazed with myself at how well I can communicate in French here and then I'm chastised for my pride and can`t understand anything at all for a while haha, but it's so good, I'm learning so much.  It's all a process, and it gradually gets easier :)

Toujours, souvenez-vous qui vous êtes.

I love you all bunches and bunches!

Kirk out.