il y a une fois...

once upon a time...

ok so i'm walking through the train station the other day and we seem some missioanries that we don't know. and this one kid is about to leave for bordeaux for the ville that i just came from so i told him to say hi to a million people that he's not going to remember and then all of the sudden he freeks out. oh my gosh he says. you are sister rasmussen. i'm from rigby idaho. do you know amy harris? so uh yeah i said. and then he was all....woah...that's weird. that is weird.

and then a few days later...an elder that had finished his mission came back to tour marseille with his parents. And then well they are from tremonton utah and they work with my uncle rob. weird. curtis. the family curtis. small world.

and then yet a few days later...we went to nice, a 2 hour bus ride, for stake conference. it was a broadcast from salt lake where the prophet was speaking. sooo cool. All the major countries in europe, 7 languages at least, historical occasion. its the first time that they have ever done it. so cool. so i got to see everyone from my first city on the mission. it was just like old times. and then soeur kim and i decided to go into the room that was being broadcast in english and well...she turns around and sees like 4 kids she knows from byu that were in town for the weekend. sooo weird. i mean. what a small world.

A little old lady that just got baptised, she's 94 years old, fell a few weeks ago and is now in the hospital. We decided to go get her some flowers. we went to the flower store planning on spending about 3 euros. we are poor ya know. and then the flower man just gave us this huge huge huge boquet. and we are all uh why? and he said, well we have spent a good moment together. it's a gift. so he gave us this 20e boquet for passing a good moment with him. actually what happend was we asked if some flower was the sign of death and decided against buying it when he answered in the affermative. he then commented on the asianality of my comapanion and informed us that in japan they eat these specific kind of flowers for a delicacy. good to know. and for this conversation, i think i also asked him if he loved his job, to which he also replied in the affermitive, he gave us a beautiful boquet of flowers. we were able to share that with a little old lady all alone in the hospital. who by the way was naked when we walked in. good to know.

her son also a newly baptised called us sunday night to thank us for the flowers and he told us a story. he said that that morning in nice he had 3 apples. he shared one with a girl named tien. he ate one. he then noticed that a little boy was eyeing his apple. so he asked if the little boy would like some. bernard - our friend- cut the apple. he asked the little boy if he would like it peeled. the little boy said yes. he asked the little boy if he wanted all of the unpleasant insides out. the little boy said yes. bernard was happy to do all of this for this little boy. he was after all a really really cute little boy. the boy takes his half and then runs off to eat it in peace. a little while later he returns and offers a slobbery kiss and a thank you. bernard said at that moment he would have given the little boy a whole basket full of apples skinned and pitted. it just felt so good to be thanked. bernard used this story to teach his 94 year old mother how important it is to daily thank our father in heaven and how much more willing he is to bless us if we thank him for what we already have.

Sunday night we went to visit a lady from haiti. she asked if we would go and visit her sister. sure. What was a "prayer visit" turned into a family affair. the two other sisters, the niece, and the grand kids. all gathered in to listen to a message from the messangers from god as we were called. a fun twist is that soeur kim had all of the sudden lost her voice three days earlier. she could not even speak. nothing. really funny squeeking but that is about it. on the way to the sisters house she tried to talk to me and sound came out. it was so weird. she was able to speak and bear powerful testimony on the life of jesus christ. it was so good.

once upon a time there was a little sister missionary in the south of france. she played and smiled and loved and wore ugly shoes. she recieved blessings from the lord daily. and miracles every minute. sometimes she was sad and a little frustrated but most of the time she was so happy to get up in the morning.

thanks for giving me reasons to smile. hope you like the story time.

i like you.

Shai