Funny thing, so I direct the music in Relief Society sometimes and the other day I wasn't expecting to, and then at the last second the other woman who does it sometimes stepped out and I was called up to the plate. It was some French cantique that doesn't exist in English. It went fine partly because it wasn't a complicated song and partly because no one watches anyway. But then afterward one of the sisters told me that I am apparently very expressive with my face, and I realized that during the whole song I had been making this "what a weird hymn" facial expression. I asked her if that was a good or bad thing and she said that when I'm directing the music, it's a good thing. Mostly this experience just made me feel very much like my mother.
Second funny thing, we had dinner with this Latino family the other day which is always fun because we communicate in French but it's no one's first language. After dinner when we shared a message and all that good stuff I asked "Who are your friends with whom we can help you share the gospel?" and the husband closed his eyes and said really dramatically "Yes...It's true." Only then did we realize exactly how wide this gulf of a language barrier was. Either that or he was avoiding giving us a referral. Both are viable options.
Investigator-wise, we're struggling a little bit. We'll have a really awesome lesson with someone where they tell us they want to be baptized and set a date and they feel the spirit and we're all on the same page, and then they won't answer our calls after that and their date has to be dropped and when we finally get a hold of them, they're totally willing to meet with us (most of the time) but they've forgotten the progress they made. It's really hard. I don't know how many times we've shared Alma 5:26. It's so sad watching people change and become happier and then forgetting and falling back into old habits. But, we're keeping on keeping on and we're still feeling very hopeful with the potential some of our investigators DO have, even if they don't always recognize it. And we're always looking to make new friends!
Despite difficulties in that area, really good things happened this week. I have a testimony that you can bring about miracles by making cookies for less active members. Thanks to this discovery, I have learned how to make pretty decent cookies out of just about anything. And there have been miracles. Sister P has a daughter named Melinda and the first time we ever talked to her it was to invite her to the temple open house and she basically just laughed at us and said no. Since then, we've been able to do some service projects for her and recently heard from Sister P that Melinda had said she wasn't ready to talk to us about it yet, but was thinking about retaking the lessons. So, like any good sister missionaries, we made her some cookies and left them on the porch with a note saying to text us if there was anything we could do for her. She texted us the next day (Friday) to say she has been really touched by our kindness the last few months and feels like we are the right sisters to be here for her right now. She asked if we could start meeting with her at her parents' house to teach her, and we have an appointment set up for this week. Miracle.
It's getting closer to the time when Sister Schmuhl will leave, which is pretty weird. We've been serving together for a long time. I love Sister Schmuhl so much. I'm really not looking forward to that goodbye. I've been working on exercising faith in not dreading transfer calls. Succeeding to a degree.
BUT it was a great week and this next week is looking like another good one :) I love you all very much and I hope you have a good week as well,
Souvenez-vous qui vous etes,
Sister Lonas
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