I hope that you all had a wonderful week and a great 4th of July. At first, I thought it would be really odd to be out of the country for the holiday. Actually, celebrating the birth of America was rather big in France. They even planned a parade for it...it's called the Tour de France. Okay, maybe that is a stretch. There may not have been any huge parades where they throw candy, but we counted it as a parade. How many people can say that they got to see the Tour de France? That was really cool. Also, who can say that they have sung "Battlehymn of the Republic" and done the pledge of allegiance in a zone training (with people from Africa, Ukraine, France, and Canada)? It was strange, but I felt very patriotic on the other side of the world (despite the fact that there were no barbeques or fireworks). Oh well, great day anyway. Definitely unique.
This week was great, lots of work. We are starting to work with some of our potentials, ward members, and are having more rendez-vous. It is so fun for me to see this success and I feel like I am appreciating it a lot more than I would have after my last few transfers. Literally, until this last week, I had not taught one lesson to a progressing investigator in over 3 1/2 months. That is a long time. This realization has helped me really take advantage of every lesson that we are able to have. In a way, I think I am better able to appreciate the worth of each person that we teach now. Our lessons are not turning into just another number on the sheet to get counted with tons of other amis. Where I think it's easy to sometimes get complacent when your schedule is full of several lessons a day, every lesson that we are blessed to have is just that, a blessing. I love these people so much. I don't know how to explain it. The people we teach, the ward members, the people on the street. I don't think that I have ever felt love like this in my life. I know it's a cliche missionary thing, everyone says that you will love the people, but it is so true. The longer I am out here, the more love that I feel. I think it's cool because that is what I have been praying for since day one, charity for the people of France. At the beginning of my mission (six months ago tomorrow, isn't that crazy?), I wrote out goals that I wanted to accomplish. At the top of my list, the overarching goal, was that I wanted to come to know Christ. I think that as I have been striving to become more like Him, I am starting to feel His love for these people. It is amazing to see the correlation between all of these things. The more I serve the people, the more Christ grants me love them. The more I love them, the more I love and know Christ. The mission is awesome!
Three random sidenotes of the week...
Since being in Aix, I have acquired the best tan of my life...and the absolutely worst tanline. Haha, my forearms are pretty dark from holding the Book of Mormon all day.
This week we ported into nuns. That was funny. We talked about Jesus and then ended by saying we'd pray for each other.
I received a marraige proposal this morning. That was awkward. Weirdly enough, that's not an abnormal thing.
Well, that's my week. Sorry if it's a little short. I am absolutely loving my mission and feel so blessed to have the gospel in my life. Thank you for everything and I love you all!
Je vous aime,
Souer Alisa Hulme
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