This week was a little bit chilly and windy. It is almost overcast everyday and winter is getting close. We have been teaching all of our amis' this week, but for the last 2 weeks we haven't been finding as new investigators and its been a little depressing, so we decided to really hit the streets with Le Livre De Mormon and flood Carcassonne with the Book of Mormon. It worked great, in a matter of 2 hours we found 4 people and over the course of the week in total we took 10 contacts that were interested in our message.
This week on saturday we had 5 people not show up to our lessons, when the day started we had planned to teach 7 lessons and at the end of the day just 2. It was a little bit of a downer and we had to make some changes of plans, as we were walking to one of our amis' apartments, the wind gusted up and frankly I was miserable, the lessons had fallen through I was freezing and I wasn't feeling in the best of health. As the wind gusted I turned my head to avoid the wind and I looked at my tag that was flapping in the wind (it was the clip on tag) and I saw "ELDER SMITH". In that moment I realized that all of you were praying for me, my parents, my siblings and siblings-in-laws, my nephews and my nieces, and my friends, and that it was an honor to wear the name "SMITH" on my chest all day everyday, I thought of all the other Elder Smiths', Grandpa, Dad, Ben, Tres, Taylor and I thought to myself "What would they say right now?" I realized that you would tell me to keep going and finish the day strong. So thats what I did. At the end of the day, I was still a little disappointed in vast change of plans, but I had learned a valuable lesson of the power of prayer and of the love families and close friends.
This week I traveled to Toulouse for Zone Conference, unfortunately there was a strike with the train workers and our entire district missed the first half of Zone Conference. But after a little bit of a delay we made it to Toulouse on a different train. It was really good and I enjoyed it. President and Sister Carter talked about asking good questions and about teaching people not lessons. It was helpful for me, because sometimes as we teach the basic first lessons, we have taught them many many times, and I feel a little numb while we teach. I much prefer to have the spirit there and change the lesson to the needs of our investigator so that they can feel the importance of the restoration and plan of salvation.
Amis'
Carlos Bento: Because he lives far away, it has been difficult to teach him and to get him ready for his babtism, we talked with them and we have moved the date back so that we can teach him enough before his babtism. He will be babtised on the 7th of November and Confirmed on the 14th. He has asked Elder Magnan to babtise him and he asked me to confirm him a member of the church. yikes! I'm going to be praying for the gift of tongues, I've never given a blessing in French!
Vanessa: She is doing well, her and her fiance are getting married on the 24th of November and she will be babtised on the 4th of December. We hope that Benoit (the fiance) will be engaged for babtism for the same day. They are doing well and want to know more and more each lesson, Benoit is still yet to gain this testimony, but Vanessa is strong.
Didier: His babtismal date is set for the 7th of November, but we need to DTR (define the relationship), what I mean by that is find out if he really wants to be babtised. He is currently having some major struggles with the word of wisdom.
Sabrina Khemissi: In the past she was striving for babtism and she has been working really hard to get over the habit of smoking, this week she broke down and said it was too hard, and she has been feeling really stressed with her family and friends, she asked that we teach her less and more slowly, it is sad. We are scared of losing her if can't regain her fire.
Caroline: She has a testimony but she is living with her boyfriend. She knows it is true but she is being held back by him. Sadly he is a less active member and he is not a very good example for her, our next step his to get him worthy, so that he can be a good example to her.
We have others, but these are our amis' that we are really trying to focus on this week.
This week has been good. Elder Magnan and I are getting along well and we are enjoying our time together, I think in 3 weeks we will we separated.
I love you all and I pray for you ALL, from Grandma Sanders to Baby Carter, and everyone inbetween.
Elder Smith
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