Matthieu 15: 16

"Et jesus dit: vous aussi, etes vous encore sans intelligence?"

and Jesus said, you also, are you still without understanding? (rough translation but i don't have my english scriptures with me.)

how many times has the Lord said that to us. Are you still not getting it? How many times do i hav to tell you. Why isn't it sinking in Sister Rasmussen? Dont' you get that i'm in control and that i love you? are you still, encore, questioning My will, My power, My ability to take you from a nothing non french speaking incredibly educated nobody to a french speaking, spiritually eddifying missionary? Why are you still not getting it?

Why don't we get it? Why are we so dumb? Why did Jesus have to ask his apostles over and over? Why did his apostles ask Jesus over and over? Maybe our humanity just gets in the way of our divinity.

I love how it says in french intelligence. it's not just connisaince or awareness of the subject its understanding of the subject. and i suppose that takes a life time of work and asking and searching. Good thing that the Lord is patient. Somehow he understands what it's like to be human. wait. maybe because he created us. or maybe becuase he is. Maybe its becuase he knows what it's like to be here. and that's why he kept answer the apostles every time they asked questions. In 3 Nephi 26:1 it says (again in french sorry. it's prettier in french anyway. get a dictionary or just look it up in english. they both work)

"Et alors, il arriva que lorsque jesus eut dit ces choses, il les expliqua a la multitude; et il lui expliqua tout, aussi bien les grandes choses que les petites."

Basically Christ took the time to teach the people the great and the small no matter. in french it says expliquer-to explain. more than to recite. more than to lecture. to explain. he's good at that.

i've learned a lot this week. I've learned that i'm not as cool as i thought. i've learned that sometimes we don't feel like smiling but we need to smile anyway.

A letter from a good friend said "It gets hard after a while, belive it or not! but keep doign it anyways...when you are tired, keep working! when you are mad, keep working until you aren't! When you are sick, pray like crazy to not be so you can keep going. When the last thing you wanna do is go out and walk around and talk to people, that's when the Lord will hafve someone who needs to hear your testimonty waiting." Thanks David. When did you get so smart?

Here's a story.
Ok so last night we are walking around in the -5 C weather freezing, just contacting people. Meaning we stop people on the street who are also freezing and try to give them a spiritual message or at least have a postive interaction with them. so we are freezing right and contacting and sr clement stops this girl with a big old cigarette. it's like 7h45 almost time for dinner and going in to recapture whatever form of heat we can in our freezing aprartment and we are en chemin chez nous. (on the way home) and i'm kinda uhhh...doubtful right?.....but the girls like hey what are you doing right now? want to come over? so we go to her house teach a freekin solid lesson. she all askign the perfect questions like how can i know for myself what is true? how can I know that the prophet is real? And she sets up a second rv for wednesday so we can take her the LDM Book of Mormon. we didn't have one but we happened to have december's ensign taht has a mesasge from president hinckly about joseph smith. what the perfect? so anyway she's 20 totally cool. gave us freeking good hot chocolate. She's smart and searching for some solid ground.

Today we go to a jamacian girls house that I (yep that's right me) contacted last week. Turns out she was meeting with the missionaries in jamacia. She's totally searching and said that strait out. "There are no coincidences and i'm searching. I love to read and i'm totally game for this."

what???

ultimately the lord has got this taken care of. he doesn't care that we ask stupid questions. he just wants us to talk to him. Every section of the doctrine and covenants came as a result of a question.

He loves us. I'm getting preachy.

Christmas in France was great. I ate raw swiggling oysters. yummmy and duck liver ground up in to a paste that you spread over bread. yummmmy. just wait. it's what you are all getting for christmas next year. :)

I called home two days ago. It was like i talk to my family every day. weird how time doesn't take away friendship and people you love. no matter the ocean in between.

ask dumb questions. read your scriptures. learn french. drink hot chocolate. pray for a missionary.

love Shai