How I Learned to Love Being Honest

Sœur Gardner and Me

Rough week. We only saw Lorena once (and she is loving life, thank you for your prayers) AND WENT CONTACTING. Have I ever provided you with a percentage of what people believe here in France? On a day where we contact say, 130 people, 60% will be absolute atheists that tell us we're wasting our time and "we'd have better luck talking to pigeons", 20% Non-practicing Catholic that tell us Jesus was a Catholic and we're blasphemous, 10% Muslim (sub-percentage 3% really kind and willing to take a pass-along card, 7% angry for no reason), 7% Buddhists, 2.9% kind but not interested, .1% willing to give us their phone number.  

There is good news to all this, however. I finally got to meet the Das family from Bangladesh that Sœur Gardner and her companion started teaching before I came here. They are wonderful people and their English accents are so adorable. Lorena and this young family have an interest in what we have to offer. They're GOLDEN. Thank you so much for your prayers. They are truly showing in this work. We are not giving up on Aline, either. She means so much to us.

FACTS I LEARNED:

• 40 year old hipster Icelandic men think Mormons are "hip". True story, folks.

• According to my companion, the reason I don't get hit on as often as the other sisters is because I have a boy back home praying that I'll stay with him. Ethan, stop worrying. Your prayers are killing my ego!!

• We may not have a cockroach problem here, but thanks to the river by my house, I wake up with a couple new mosquito bites on my legs and feet every day. I have to cover my feet when I sleep in the blazing summer heat in a country that doesn't believe in air conditioning, or I get eaten alive!! (This isn't even a reference to "The Other Side of Heaven". I'm serious.) 

For some reason I was able to act more comfortably at Zone Conference this go around, despite how nervous I was to have an interview with president. I guess my mind decided to shut off all the stress that's been building up and I could be more of myself around this huge group of people. I noticed that I was laughing and enjoying myself a lot more than usual, and everyone else noticed as well and asked me if I was okay. 

Despite how sad it is that people thought I was naturally emotionless, I loved that I was able to stop pretending to be the missionary I imagined my mission president wants me to be (which turned out to be wrong, because he even told my companion it was good to see me having human contact). I don't know what caused the change, but I all know is that I'm glad it happened. 

Moral of the story: be honest with yourself (*queue 80's motivational video music*) FIST PUMP!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

"When you get to the end of all the light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen: either you will be given something to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly."

-Anonymous

iMuchas gracias por su amor! I pray for all you as well, not just the French/Bengali people.

Sœur Green

P.S. May I toot my own horn for just a moment? In my interview with my mission president, he shared with me his absurd claim that I was learning the language at an accelerated pace and that I should consider picking up a second language a*k*a Spanish because we need more missionaries to talk to all these Spaniards. And with that, I was given the green light to add Spanish to my scheduled studies. So, if ANY of you know Spanish and want to practice with me so I can start preachin' the way by the border, necessita su ayuda, por favor :) Please write me if you'd like y que tenga un buen dia!