I don't know how to begin to describe all the things that happened this week but we'll do our best.
Tuesday we blazed trails into the great unknown. Each companionship gets 5 less active families to work with, one of ours is a woman named Annick Bragard, and her son. They live in a town called Theux, pronounced Teuh. Theux is not on any of the maps we own, and we have at least 4, so figuring out how to get there was a bit tricky. Luckily Elder Skousen had a big map and we figured out that we needed to go to Verviers (the place with the screaming Italian lady) and then take a bus from Verviers to Theux. We decided to take two buses instead of the train. It took an hour and a half to get to Verviers and then another hour to get to Theux. because we had no map of Theux we had no idea where we were or where to go. Luckily we were able to find the tourist office and figured out where we needed to go. Theux is a beautiful little town in the middle of forested hills, like most European town there is a river that runs through it. It is a truly picturesque place. We ended up not being able to find the house her house number being 183 and the numbers on the street ended at 125. I do not understand European streets at all, but it is very possible that there is another street with a similar or the same name. We waited an hour for the bus back and then took the two and a half bus ride back. Now the cool missionary part of this story. While we were waiting for the bus in Verviers, on the way to Theux, and African man named Philippe came up and started talking to us, he happened to be taking the same bus as we were so we were able to talk to him for about 40 minutes. He lives pretty far away, so we were hesitant to ask if he wanted to learn more, but he said that he comes to Liège often on the weekends. It was so cool, even though we didn't see the person we went out there to see we met someone who seems very open to the gospel. Plus the countryside is so beautiful!
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| Theux |
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| Theux |
Wednesday Thursday and Friday there was a bus strike, which always makes missionary work more interesting. Wednesday was very long, I think we walked about 25 Kilometers We were able to have Rendez-vous with Jean-Baptiste and Rita so it was good. Soeur Cope and I were both dead by the time we got home. Luckily Rita's daughter was at her house and she gave us a ride home in exchange for helping her daughter with her English homework. It was a tender mercy, I don't know if we would have made it home if we had had to walk. But we survived, and I am sure that the Lord helped us, because I know we would not have made it from Seraing to Bressoux in two hours if there weren't angels helping us.
Luckily for us we had Zone Conference in Lille Thursday so we missed day two of the bus strike. I learned a lot of good stuff, but it was a sad affair because it was our last time seeing President and Soeur Staheli as they are done the 28th of June. Soeur Staheli talked about becoming. I have been thinking a lot about who I am now and who I want to be at the end of my mission and at the end of my life. Elder Scott gave a talk last October conference about the changing power of faith and character. You should read it. It is the little choices that we make everyday that determines who we become.
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| Me with the Stahelis |
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| My district from last transfer: me, Soeur Cope, Elder McQuay, Elder Anderus, Elder wood, Elder Paoli, Soeur Skousen and Elder Skousen |
Friday we had a rendez-vous with Jean-Baptiste about the law of chastity. I am not sure he got it. After we explained it he was like yeah I believe in that and pulls a condom out of his wallet. Soeur Cope and I were but a little like AAAGH!!! But we kept our cool, I think we are going to teach it again. We saw him again Saturday and the lesson went really well. We talked about the importance of the scriptures and taught him about prayer. He had been struggling to understand that prayer is a communication between us and God, and that you talk to Him like you talk to other people. The spirit was really strong, but he gave the prayer at the end and it was good, he ended it with the Lord's prayer but it is a start. Unfortunately I think we are going to have to change the baptismal date because he is having a hard time with a couple of the commandments, so please pray for him. He has a good heart and he has been searching for the truth for a long time.
After church we stopped by and saw Ming Qi, she only has one more exam left so I think she is relaxing a little, we talked about the Book of Mormon and how we can find the answers to prayers. She talked about how even though she doesn't read it a lot, that when she is having a hard time she says a little prayer and opens to a page and she always finds a scripture that helps her, and she said she is going to try to start reading it regularly, yes!! Unfortunately after she is done with her exams she is going to China to see her family for a month so we won't be able to see her. I think we will try to see her once more before she leaves.
A Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there, I hope it was a good one!
Grosses Bises!!
Soeur Gaelin Turney
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