February 27, 2012

Dear everyone,
It really was a great week. We had to let a few amis go who haven' treally been progressing. We know that the Lord will bless with new investigators who are ready to progress towards baptism. It's always hard letting people go. We had multiple lessons with new people this week. One of them was this young catholic "missionary". He's a university student here and we found out quickly he just wanted to bash us. It was the most interesting lesson I've ever been in haha. He just didn't listen to anything and it was so frustrating. It's hard to convince a catholic using true doctrine, even using the bible, because they don't really believe in the Bible. So we testified, but he just left without even taking a BoM. We met some really humble guys from Cameroon though who were really receptive. The search continues! We still have a couple investigators who are really solid. T H. is doing great, he just has a hard time keeping a couple commandments, but it's mostly because he just doesn't know the commandments very well, so we're gonna help him out there this week. We really think that's the only thing that's holding him back from accepting a new baptismal date. H is doing great. She saw her bf in Paris this last week. Apparently he's really awful with her. We don't know why she's with him. But she's afraid to tell him she wants to keep the commandments because she thinks he'll be angry. We had a great lesson with her yesterday. She'll have faith sometimes and then sometimes she'll say that God is just something that is learned in society and doesn't really exist. But then she talked about how she's the third child in her family. In china, if you have a 2nd child you have to pay a big fine and then the mother isobligated to have an operation so she can't have children anymore. H's mom had that operation after her 2nd child, but she miraculously got pregnant again and when they tried to abort her, it wouldn't work. She told us that she knows God is there because of that experience. Wejust need to keep building her faith so she'll get over this bf thing.
I got some responses from you last week that I found kind of odd. I didn't mean for my letter last week to sound like I was down. I'm happier than I've ever been in my life and I'm working hard and being obedient every day. I haven't slowed down a bit and I'm not trunky at all. I just want to push myself to do more and more! I want my mission to be a constant push upward and I don't want it to want it to plane and flatten out near the end. I want to give myself completely to the Lord and let Him change my desires completely. I want to be totally consecrated to the work. That's all! :) This week went great though. I found myself looking at the work from another perspective. I told the Lord that I wanted to give Him my whole heart. When I did that, I started seeing things with different eyes. I feltmore guided than ever and more confident and happy that I was fulfilling my calling. I realized that I don't need to try to convince anyone of anything during contacts or lessons. If I simply teach the truth, testify, promise, and invite in the name of Jesus Christ and according to His will, The Lord will do the rest. I love the verse in DC 84:88. There are angels all around us not only bearing us up, but influencingthese people and preparing them for the gospel. Elder Gubbay and I presented something in a district meeting this week about how we are working in the Lord's vineyard. We shared scriptures from Jacob 5 and DC 101. Iwasreally touched this week by Jacob 5:71-72, especially when it states that "the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them." I know that God is not only with us, but that he WORKS with us. I found myself working with a lot more Faith this week, remembering that the Lord is the senior companion in this work.
Today we're driving to Tarbes to do an exchange and we're going to Lourdes with the whole tarbes district (bayonne, pau, and tarbes). It should be great! The weather is beautiful as well. Tuesday night we'll drive back and get right on a plane to Lyon for jedi council. Wednesday night we'll take the plane home. Thursday we'll finally get to work in our own area - crazy!!! The zone did awesome this week and just totally exploded. Areas who have hadn't a thing just shot through the roof and had the best results of the zone. I know that prayer and hard work brings miracles. I love the missionaries in our zone. They have so much faith.
The D's and R are doing great as well. R attended the preparatory class for the Melchezidek priesthood yesterday and the teacher asked him, "so R, what do you know about the priesthood?" "Well, I know that it is God's power given to man so he can act in God's name and accomplish ordinances like baptism and without it we can't have salvation. And it is only so we can serve others and we can only use it if we're righteous." I love this guy. He's the strongest recent convert I've ever met. P passed the sacrament yesteday and R blessed it. It was great! P looked good passing the sacrament with his tiny pony tail. Apparently he has a sweet afro that he promised me he'll show me in the future. I'll be sure to get a picture. Things are great here. Elder Gubbay is a great missionary and we're working hard together. I love all of you and I thank you for your prayers. Bonne semaine à tous!
Love,
Elder Tudor