Sunday, November 10, 2013

Oct 14

Transfers week? What?

Yep, really really. We had transfer calls last week. My companion and I are both staying here in lovely Longueuil, but it was surprising (again) to see how fast time flies. As of this week I've got three complete transfers left before real life. It's insanity....
Well! We had far too many things happen this week (as usual) to write about, but I'll tell you about the best one. Saturday, we had a samedi de sauvetage (saturday of.... saving.... is the best translation), where we got all of the ward leaders together, and went two by two to visit members of the ward that we haven't seen in a while, and invite them to the ward conference and ward potluck the next day. It was incredible. It was one of the coolest things I've seen on my whole mission, watching ward members going out independently of the missionaries to visit the less-active members of the ward. I think it marked some real growth here in the stake, as several of our wards have had similar activites. 

My comp and I split with some of the members, and it was a great experience. :) 

The results were wonderful LOTS of less-active members came out to church, but even more gratifying than seeing them there, was seeing the effect it had on the members of the ward. It was crazy! Everyone was talking with and helping out the people that they had invited, and the ones that hadn't been able to see the families they'd tried to visit were talking about those families with EVERYONE and telling us all about their plans to go out and try again this week. It was amazing. It reminded me of an experience I had in a deacons quorum in Utah, where they sent us (the quorum boys) every sunday to go knock on a less-active boys door and invite him to church. At the time I didn't realize how great that was, until his testimony as he was leaving the ward told all of us what an impact those visits had had on him. The words of our prophet and apostles in general conference rang true in light of this samedi de sauvetage activity, and the whole ward was able to see the huge effect that a simple gesture of love can make in a persons life 'for by small and simple things are great things brought to pass'. 

Lets keep that in mind as we approach the Holiday season, and try to warm someone's heart with the light of the gospel, even if their own light seems to have grown dim.

I love you all! have a good week!

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