It’s December, the month of Christmas!!! It is such an
incredible time of the year. It’s fun being able to learn the many different
Christmas hymns and songs here in France. We are having a Christmas party in a
few weeks and we have been asked to sing "We Three Kings" for
everyone. It’s such a perfect time for the members to invite their non-member
friends to this activity, where they can see the church building and get a feel
for the members there. I need to do a better job of that when I get home as
well … invite your friends to church activities! Our ward has also made plans
to go out in groups to do some caroling … singing Christmas hymns in different
parts of Paris. I am really excited and I know that music can touch the hearts
of people in ways that words cannot.
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We got together and
celebrated with our entire zone of missionaries. I was quite impressed by the
turkey the elders ended up cooking … it was delicious! Soeur Hill and I, on the
other hand, were asked to make funeral potatoes. Lemme tell ya’, those things
coulda sent someone to their own funeral! Haha, they turned out so bad because
we weren’t able to find half of the ingredients here in France that were needed
in the recipe Soeur Hill got from her mom back home. We took a while to make
them and were just laughing the whole time because they turned out to be a
complete fail!
We had the afternoon to spend together and played a lot of fun games,
including different card games, a group animal noise game, and a “werewolf”
game. Our district leader shared a spiritual thought on the importance of
gratitude and we went around in a circle several times, listing off the many
things we were grateful for in our lives. As I reflected and gathered together
my thoughts, I realized how many things I really do have in my life. I grew
really emotional, as I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, my sweet
family and friends, and for the opportunity I have to serve as a full-time
servant of the Lord.
Exciting news! My friend Soeur Wynn, who is serving in Villeneuve
D'Ascq, told me that one of my old amies, Catherine, got baptized this past weekend!
It was such a great feeling knowing I had the chance to teach her for a while
when I was there and help participate in her journey of accepting the gospel of
Jesus Christ in her life.
We had the chance to have a family home evening with two less-active
families in our ward this week. One of them included a family where the wife,
Janoy, is a member and her husband is not. She is from Portugal and he is from
Angola. He was really touched by the Spirit he felt, and asked us to come back
to do several more family home evenings! It was cool to see his change of
heart, as this was someone who was very much against the church and the
missionaries in the past. The gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone!
This week, during personal study, I was studying the talk from the
last General Conference called, "Hastening the Lord’s Game Plan".
During the talk, Elder Nielsen talks about the importance of members and
missionaries working together. I invite each of you to figure out what your
personal game plan will be and apply each of these three principles into your life, so that you might bring someone
closer to Christ this Christmas season.
First, specifically pray
to bring someone closer to the Savior and His gospel every day. You could do
this by seeing all people as sons and daughters of God, helping each other on
their journey home. Think of the new friends you would make!
Second, pray for the
missionaries serving in your area and their investigators by name every day.
The only way to do this is to greet them, look at their badge, call them by
name, and ask them who they are teaching.
Third, invite a friend to
an activity in or out of your home. Wherever you go or whatever you do, ponder
who would enjoy the occasion and then listen to the Spirit as He directs you.
Right now we are staying in a temporary apartment with four other
sister missionaries until we get a new one. It is close quarters, and we sleep
on mattresses on the floor, but we try to find fun and joy in all we do. We
really have adopted an attitude of gratitude, so thankful for the blessings of
the gospel and the sisterhood we share. I know that as we all share the things
closest to our hearts with those around us this Christmas season, we will find
the most joy of all. The work is going great here! We find out next week about
transfers. My fingers are crossed that I will be staying here in Paris Lilas. We
are seeing so many miracles and our amies are progressing. Please continue to
pray for our amies and for the missionaries in your area!
My heart goes out to all of you. Take care and thank you for all
that you do!
Soeur Madeline Vance
.jpg)