The Goat Hair Lucky charm
Salut all!! -
Do you know what that means? It means salvation. But the locals use it like a bad beer commercial. "SAAAAAllllllvaaaaationnnnnnnn...." Good stuff. There are all these little charms in this language. As much as I hate it, and I hate it so much that I speak it at every opportunity and sometimes forget that my native language is english, it really is a beautiful language.
So I have been informed that my last email was below the imaginary bar I have set for myself. Sorry to all who suffered through my lack of self expression. Today I have had sufficient amounts of sleep, not scared of the boogy man lurking behind the 9 pm curfew, spent my morning in the closest thing to walmart, bought a dr pepper, and am enjoying the way my 4 month old hair cut lookes in the much needed sunshine. So no promises but...here's the thoughts for the week. (Oh, sorry about the spelling too...I hear as the french get's better, the english gets worse. :)
I'm going to recap you on the past two weeks actually because I know you won't be able to sleep tonight without the knowledge of the miracles de jour. So bliiipppp blurrrrippp zing....this is me two weeks ago....
Oct 20: Souer Johnsons "shake it off discourse" if you fall on the balance beam, you shake it off and get back on. You can take as long as you want to get back on, there is no time penalty, but who wants to spend time at the bottom. (She was a gymnast ya know) I've officially made best friends with a homeless man, SDF in French. I don't know what SDF means but acronyms sound so judgemental. he lost his dog today. And i really felt sad. Really really sad. That's his life force. He lost his life force today. So we prayed for him. Nafsta-mr cool vibes. An african enlish guy with dreads as long as a tree branch and a smile as white as the moon. He said he was in town to see his offspring grow and that we are all the children of the prophets. I have a "RAS" in my name making me a child of the prince. Man I love africa. I'm totally royalty there.
Oct 21: Skip and Run in the funky country. Saw it on a t-shirt today. WHy not? I think by a general standard the population of suit wearers don't skip enough. Someone in a suit do an experiment with skipping and running in the funky country and report back. I'll bet you will have a better day. Went to visit a lady named Mary Teresse. We've been visiting her for a while and every time it get's a little weirder. Tonight we sang and she prayed out lound for the first time in who knows how long. And it was sweet! She wears a sign that says speak lound i'm 80% deaf. Don't you wish we had badges that displayed our weaknesses to the world? Be nice i'm 47% insecure, 10% doubtfull, 33% stubborn.
Oct 22: Responding to a Presidential challenge to invite our amis to baptism. We have absolutly no one ready to make that committement. And then a new women shows up today named Marie Claire. We start to teach her and before we could even finish she asked if she could be baptised. What the miracle? Seeing an aposlte.
Oct 23: I'm naming my first daughter Halisa. It means special in a Ghana tribal language. It means an amazing 20 year old girl who moved to france on her own to study french so her law degree is more marketable. She showed up Stake conference today. Halisa, special, amazing. Have you ever thought of your self as an enemy to satan? I'm pretty sure he hates me. A talk on missionary work for parents. "Being a parent missionary" It was good.
oct 24: A 17 year old girl that is alwas there but never there. We talk to her mom and she sits. And out of know where she asks "how? How do you know that God is there? How can I know? How? " How do we know? its just like something that is written on my soul. How do you translate that into words let alone french words?
Oct 25: Seeing Delila on a bike this morning. What the chance? It is hard to obey rules that you didn't create. Why do we have to face the door on the elevator? Who did that? I sat two feet a way from an apostle. It's like sitting next to a camp fire. It just feels good. I just needed some marshmellows.
Oct 26: Waving to a driver who stopped to let us pass and accidently landing my wave on the face of my companion. I knew I should have trimed my fingernails. I spent time in a library today doing research for my english class. there is just something magical about a room full of books.
oct27: i never believed that trying on shoes makes a day better but let me tell ya, it's not so bad. Especially when the sun is shining. Making hand outs for our rendezvous today. Who am I? Hand outs?
oct 28: Jello jiggler soup. it's still good. eating dinner at the senior couple. drinking water out of goblets. i think it's good to drink out of nice glasses every onece in a while. even if it is with spagettii.
oct 29: friendship is the flower growing by the side of the road. never try to pluck it or posses it and it will blossom for you. the back of a card from tibet i saw at this old lady's house. women who are so open with their motherhood they share it with the world on the bus nursing ans smiling like it's everybody's favorite wish. Eating a kabob that looks like a normal kabob, smells like a normal kabab but tastes like oklahoma and greek festivals and malanos pizzeria on a tuesday afternoon.Learning to dance tahitian and taking a lady in a wheelchair for a walk.
Oct 30: praying in frustration this morning for how to be a missionnary a real missionary and finding a scripture that hit my heart.
Heleman 3:35: Nevertheless, they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ unto the filling of their souls with joy and consolation. Yea even to the purifying and sanctifiaction of their hearts which sanctification cometh becuase of their yeilding their hearts unto God.
in french the word yeild is livrer which means to deliver willingly, to give oneself up to, to open up to, to confide it, to devote onself to, to induldge in. My heart can be full of joy if I open up and confide in the Lord. Yeild to his will. Yeild to his crafting. Yeild to him.
Bernadette a lady I met once who has african art all over her house gave me an african neclace. There is a little piece of soft hair in the middle of hand crafted leather. Goat? Rabbit? Zebra? Love? It is going to be the turning point of my mission. What a gesture of heart. This poor woman has 6 kids, was recently baptised, and her daughter ran away to live with gypsies and she brings ME african goat hair. It was like my hug could not get big enough.
oct 31: happy halloween. meeting black steve again. seing nafsta again. meeting a baby named mona lisa. eating a kabob at a store called the kababolyn. hearing a lady we know and love asking us not to come back. how do you say good bye to a 5 year old with out crying? Family home evening and pumpkin confetti.
What an experience this life is. I have officially decided that pantyhose are of the devil, skirts are not that bad, sunshine is the glory of life, it's an honor to wear christ's name on my little black badge (the man at the internet cafe spoke to me in hushed reverent tones and said yes my sister, no my sister, thank you my sister.) i like to cary change in an old film canister, american mustard tastes good. i plan on keeping a miracle journal for the rest of my life.
So skip and run in the funky country. Stay away from gypsys. drink a drpepper when you can, wave to homeless people and pray for their dogs. whistle sometimes.
Transfers are a week from today. i'll know on saturday. who knows...
love shai
Do you know what that means? It means salvation. But the locals use it like a bad beer commercial. "SAAAAAllllllvaaaaationnnnnnnn...." Good stuff. There are all these little charms in this language. As much as I hate it, and I hate it so much that I speak it at every opportunity and sometimes forget that my native language is english, it really is a beautiful language.
So I have been informed that my last email was below the imaginary bar I have set for myself. Sorry to all who suffered through my lack of self expression. Today I have had sufficient amounts of sleep, not scared of the boogy man lurking behind the 9 pm curfew, spent my morning in the closest thing to walmart, bought a dr pepper, and am enjoying the way my 4 month old hair cut lookes in the much needed sunshine. So no promises but...here's the thoughts for the week. (Oh, sorry about the spelling too...I hear as the french get's better, the english gets worse. :)
I'm going to recap you on the past two weeks actually because I know you won't be able to sleep tonight without the knowledge of the miracles de jour. So bliiipppp blurrrrippp zing....this is me two weeks ago....
Oct 20: Souer Johnsons "shake it off discourse" if you fall on the balance beam, you shake it off and get back on. You can take as long as you want to get back on, there is no time penalty, but who wants to spend time at the bottom. (She was a gymnast ya know) I've officially made best friends with a homeless man, SDF in French. I don't know what SDF means but acronyms sound so judgemental. he lost his dog today. And i really felt sad. Really really sad. That's his life force. He lost his life force today. So we prayed for him. Nafsta-mr cool vibes. An african enlish guy with dreads as long as a tree branch and a smile as white as the moon. He said he was in town to see his offspring grow and that we are all the children of the prophets. I have a "RAS" in my name making me a child of the prince. Man I love africa. I'm totally royalty there.
Oct 21: Skip and Run in the funky country. Saw it on a t-shirt today. WHy not? I think by a general standard the population of suit wearers don't skip enough. Someone in a suit do an experiment with skipping and running in the funky country and report back. I'll bet you will have a better day. Went to visit a lady named Mary Teresse. We've been visiting her for a while and every time it get's a little weirder. Tonight we sang and she prayed out lound for the first time in who knows how long. And it was sweet! She wears a sign that says speak lound i'm 80% deaf. Don't you wish we had badges that displayed our weaknesses to the world? Be nice i'm 47% insecure, 10% doubtfull, 33% stubborn.
Oct 22: Responding to a Presidential challenge to invite our amis to baptism. We have absolutly no one ready to make that committement. And then a new women shows up today named Marie Claire. We start to teach her and before we could even finish she asked if she could be baptised. What the miracle? Seeing an aposlte.
Oct 23: I'm naming my first daughter Halisa. It means special in a Ghana tribal language. It means an amazing 20 year old girl who moved to france on her own to study french so her law degree is more marketable. She showed up Stake conference today. Halisa, special, amazing. Have you ever thought of your self as an enemy to satan? I'm pretty sure he hates me. A talk on missionary work for parents. "Being a parent missionary" It was good.
oct 24: A 17 year old girl that is alwas there but never there. We talk to her mom and she sits. And out of know where she asks "how? How do you know that God is there? How can I know? How? " How do we know? its just like something that is written on my soul. How do you translate that into words let alone french words?
Oct 25: Seeing Delila on a bike this morning. What the chance? It is hard to obey rules that you didn't create. Why do we have to face the door on the elevator? Who did that? I sat two feet a way from an apostle. It's like sitting next to a camp fire. It just feels good. I just needed some marshmellows.
Oct 26: Waving to a driver who stopped to let us pass and accidently landing my wave on the face of my companion. I knew I should have trimed my fingernails. I spent time in a library today doing research for my english class. there is just something magical about a room full of books.
oct27: i never believed that trying on shoes makes a day better but let me tell ya, it's not so bad. Especially when the sun is shining. Making hand outs for our rendezvous today. Who am I? Hand outs?
oct 28: Jello jiggler soup. it's still good. eating dinner at the senior couple. drinking water out of goblets. i think it's good to drink out of nice glasses every onece in a while. even if it is with spagettii.
oct 29: friendship is the flower growing by the side of the road. never try to pluck it or posses it and it will blossom for you. the back of a card from tibet i saw at this old lady's house. women who are so open with their motherhood they share it with the world on the bus nursing ans smiling like it's everybody's favorite wish. Eating a kabob that looks like a normal kabob, smells like a normal kabab but tastes like oklahoma and greek festivals and malanos pizzeria on a tuesday afternoon.Learning to dance tahitian and taking a lady in a wheelchair for a walk.
Oct 30: praying in frustration this morning for how to be a missionnary a real missionary and finding a scripture that hit my heart.
Heleman 3:35: Nevertheless, they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ unto the filling of their souls with joy and consolation. Yea even to the purifying and sanctifiaction of their hearts which sanctification cometh becuase of their yeilding their hearts unto God.
in french the word yeild is livrer which means to deliver willingly, to give oneself up to, to open up to, to confide it, to devote onself to, to induldge in. My heart can be full of joy if I open up and confide in the Lord. Yeild to his will. Yeild to his crafting. Yeild to him.
Bernadette a lady I met once who has african art all over her house gave me an african neclace. There is a little piece of soft hair in the middle of hand crafted leather. Goat? Rabbit? Zebra? Love? It is going to be the turning point of my mission. What a gesture of heart. This poor woman has 6 kids, was recently baptised, and her daughter ran away to live with gypsies and she brings ME african goat hair. It was like my hug could not get big enough.
oct 31: happy halloween. meeting black steve again. seing nafsta again. meeting a baby named mona lisa. eating a kabob at a store called the kababolyn. hearing a lady we know and love asking us not to come back. how do you say good bye to a 5 year old with out crying? Family home evening and pumpkin confetti.
What an experience this life is. I have officially decided that pantyhose are of the devil, skirts are not that bad, sunshine is the glory of life, it's an honor to wear christ's name on my little black badge (the man at the internet cafe spoke to me in hushed reverent tones and said yes my sister, no my sister, thank you my sister.) i like to cary change in an old film canister, american mustard tastes good. i plan on keeping a miracle journal for the rest of my life.
So skip and run in the funky country. Stay away from gypsys. drink a drpepper when you can, wave to homeless people and pray for their dogs. whistle sometimes.
Transfers are a week from today. i'll know on saturday. who knows...
love shai
posted by Unknown @ 5:47 AM
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