Week 5 - To My Brothers and Sisters

I learned the most amazing thing this week. Guys, this has literally changed my perspective on everything I learn. Buckle in, get ready, and get excited. (I'm not going to start at the beginning of the week because I love this so much.)

Fast forward to Tuesday evening. It's choir. We're singing Have I Done Any Good, and everybody's pretty loud, and we stop again because it turns out the sopranos aren't just singing the melody - they've got a counterpart! So, it's pretty, except we don't know it.

Brother Egget (the conductor) looks at all of us, and says, "Why do people do good?"

What kind of question is that? 

He talks about The Good Samaritan, he talks about how we're all children of God. We know these lessons: we're all direct children of God, and he loves us, and so we need to show that love to everyone around us. He talks about a car crash. I'm going to paraphrase.

"You drive by, and there's a car on the side of the road. The hood is up, the side is dented - but there are people pulling over, there's already a couple cars behind it and people checking on the owner of the car. So you drive by, everything's fine.

"What happens when that person is your grandma?" We're silent. He mimes driving a car, squeals, "Grandma!" in a high pitched voice, and swings the steering wheel in a way that would turn one car crash into four. We all laugh, because Brother Egget is hilarious.

When the giggles and murmuring dies down, he reigns it all back in with his next words.

"Being related to them makes all the difference."

The lyrics, 'Have I done any good in the world today' suddenly mean something completely different. We're not doing good because we're getting points on an invisible scoreboard, we're not doing good to make people love us or want to be our friends, we're not doing good to convert or to change or to inspire or to get any kind of medal or reward. We're not doing good so that it can shoot off into space and change the force of the universe.

We do good purely out of love. Because everyone here, everyone on this earth, is related to us. How can I emphasize that more? We're brothers and sisters! We're not just friends. We're not family by choice - we're united by a celestial parent. We're from the same heavenly household. Brother and Sister aren't just titles.

So my service is coming from a different place now. Yes, service is a 'blessing of duty', but the lyric ends 'and love.' It's a blessing of love. 

I hope the Spirit was able to tell you just how much that means to me. That's a huge lesson in my eyes. (If you think of any additions to that discussion, PLEASE send them to me! I would love to hear them and keep learning from you and from the Spirit about this amazing principle!)

[Elder Trzeciak (the Primary Chorister) and Elder Jensen (the tall Zone leader) are AWESOME!!!!!!] >>I left for one second to switch out our laundry, and it seems that a couple of our elders have a message for you. I hope you felt the Spirit during that one, too.

Okay, jumping back in time. By way of news, we had an english fast on Monday of this week, and WOW. We didn't know we could speak that much french! It's really good to know that even when we're not going to be perfectly fluent, we can be comfortable with french. We just have to work hard. Diligence is key.

We decorated a couple Christmas trees this week - one for our classroom, one for our apartment. Each were about a foot and a half tall, and DECKED OUT with ornaments and lights, and both were sent from Soeur Allen's mom. (Thanks Soeur Allen's mom! We love you!) It made everyone so happy :)

Soeur Sanderson and I taught a TRC over Skype with a lady named Marselle who was the absolute cutest - she was halfway in and out of the frame the entire time, and she had these huge glasses and the most beautiful french accent. We taught about the light of Christ and the Light the World initiative this year, and she said, "You know that we can see the light in your eyes?" On that note, the Spirit was so strong during that meeting, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to speak to her about the gospel. She was so cute.

Soeur Sanderson got pinkeye, which makes it so now half of our room has gotten infected. We've wiped everything down multiple times now, and keep having to wash our sheets on non-P Days. All of us are just waiting to see if we get sick now... Fingers crossed. We keep checking our eyes every three seconds to see if we've got eye goobers. The paranoia is so real.

I found my favorite outfit this week! I got a white skirt from a sister who was leaving, and I wore my green-striped shirt with it. It made me feel like I was in Tahiti :) I don't know if there's a picture with me in it, but I'll check around.

We officially hit our halfway mark for being here! It’s been a month! I actually can’t believe it. We’re going to start learning Tahitian after next week, so we’d better know how to say at least SOMETHING in french before then, because they’ll be teaching to us in french! 

That being said, I realized that I hadn’t shared my testimony en français avec vous yet. When you share it so often during the day, sometimes you forget about the emails :) but, without further ado...

Je sais que nous avons un Pére céleste, qu’il nous aimes. Je sais que nous avons un objectif dans cette terre, et si nous lisons les écritures et nous sommes obéissant à les paroles de Dieu et son serviteurs, nous allons être bénir. Je sais que le Livre de Mormon est vraie et il enseigne du Christ. Parce que ces choses, je sais que l’eglise de Jesus-Christ des saints des dernier jours est le vraie church de Dieu sur terre. Au nom de Jesus-Christ, amen.

Désolé pour pas de photos! À semaine prochain...

Sœur Sperry

She didn't send any pictures this week but later sent me this one in a little note so I thought I'd include it here. Happy Friday!