August 29, 2011

Hello,
Well, early this morning we got transfer calls... and I'm going far, far away... not. I'm staying right here! Elder Coenen is leaving though, which is sad. We've had some good times together!! He's going to Aix, lucky duck. My new comp is named Elder Willet (I think) who is in his 4th transfer and was just in Lyon. I'm excited! I think the rest of the district is staying the same. I'm surprise, because the rest of the mission had super crazy changes. I'm stoked though.
The work went pretty well this week. Maurel still has a baptismal date. Muamba should be getting the priesthood soon. After two weeks of searhcing and searching for new investigators we finally got some and we found quite a few people who are interested. We didn't really do anything a whole lot different. We did a lot more knocking on doors than usual though. I used to not be a fan of that, but I'm growing to like it more and more. Victora and Flora are still doing okay. They're still coming church every week and Victoria is sitll looking for an apartment in Bordeaux. A ward member is moving out this week, and another member suggested that Victoria takes that house and works at home taking care of old people (that's a big business here in Bergerac and there's a high demand). That would be awesome! Victoria was stoked about the idea so we're hoping that things will work out so that that can happen, because it's not looking good for housing right now in Bordeaux.
I don't have a lot of time, but I'd like to share something I learned out of the scriptures this week. I was reading in Moroni 7, when Mormon talks about how every good thing comes from God and every bad thing comes from the devil. He also addresses the point that if we don't do good, or "give a good gift" with a good heart, but if we do it "grudgingly; it is counted unto him as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God." That scripture struck me. There's three ways we can do the work of the Lord: grudgingly, out of a sense of duty, and out of a sense of charity. Sometimes I just try to get to the end of the day and finish because I know it's my duty, but I don't really do it out of love for the people. It's hard sometimes to overcome the natural man and do it out of charity! But that is one of my goals for the rest of my mission - to do everything I do out of charity and love for the people. Charity should be the motivation for every work we do for the Lord, because it is His work, and everything He did and does for us is out of pure love. Sorry, I'm out of time, I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tudor