September 2012 - Faith in Lyon

3 September 2012

My week was 'aighties'. Zone Council with President Tiexeira, then Zone Conference the next day, then we had a day to work in our area, so I was on exchange with another missionary that day, a District Leader from Valence, south of Lyon, then because of un previewed circumstances we had to go to Grenoble the Friday morning so that the DL could do a baptism interview.  Then we went to Valence so I could do one, then I got my companion back and we got back at 10pm that night, (as our train was one hour late) so travels are up..

 

 

 

Elder Tiexiera called us all to repentance during Zone Council, he was quite direct.  It was really, really, cool. I loved being instructed by him and by President. President was pulling things straight out of heaven during Zone Council.  It was combined, so I didn't have to do anything, just sitting back taking as many notes as my hand would let me
 

Back to Zone Council, so Elder Tiexeira opened up Preach My Gospel and turned to repentence in chapter 3, and then said how it's a change of behaviour, beliefs etc .  So for us, in order to expect miracles and sky rocket the work here in France, not only do we have to be exactly obedient but we have to have a different vison of the place, we have to believe differently, we have to have more faith.

 

 

Then he told us lots of stories from different missions here in Europe, which was killer, then gave us all the challenge to go find the elect.  He wants 10 new 'amies' from all of us every week.  This past week we got 2 but he said for all of us he gave 4 weeks to get that to 10 a week. So if we don't believe it, we have to repent. Kinda cool.  He then shared the parable of the 10 talents and broke it down.  He says it's all about leadership. It is. It made me realise that we are in charge to have real growth, even if it's tiny, in the area to which we are given responsability. If not, things won't be too good for us :p

All in all, a good couple of days.

Our 'ami' Fabian is going good, still hasn't accepted a date, but he's progressing towards baptism. We always have members with us so he is getting intergrated quite well in the ward.   He is really the man.  We had a cool experience this past week, we went to go visit him with our ward mission leader, then his older brother sent him out on an errand just as we got there, so fabian was gone for 30 mins. But we were able to get talking to his older brother about Fabian, what he's doing, what he is learning. etc etc. When Fabian came back, we were there 10 more minutes, and ended up giving a Book of Mormon to his brother which was cool. His brother will move cities in one week for university but we will be seing him again this week.

In other news. our less active now in full force, Mario is still going strong. This week we were actually also able to meet with a less active return missionary sister, who bumped into missionaries the same day Mario was found. kinda cool. That day there were all the new missionaries and we took them out blitzing Lyon. So good things came from that. This Sister, came to church, brought her cousin, so fun times. I really love less actives. They have testimonies, but it's just hard for them to do the right thing. But it's just the first push to get the ball rolling,then after that it's easier to keep it rolling.

This week ahead of us should be fun, lots of finding to do, lots of faith to find, fun fun fun.

These last couple days were actually really, really, cold. Rainy, 10 degrees C, but today it's a bit nicer, but still we had a glimps of winter.

Gros bisoux

Elder Bennallack

 

 

 

11 September 2012

Here today is transfer day. Things got shuffled up a little here in Lyon. I will explaine:



Elder Bennallack & Elder Pilling

I am still here, same place.  Elder Uluave got shipped out after just 6 weeks, he's down to Montpellier as ZL and the ZL who was there came up and took his place. So now I am with Elder Pilling :) this is kinda cool, as he was in the MTC at the same time as me. As we will both finish together it will be interesting to see if we will both finish together in Lyon. But this I shouldn't worry about too much.

My address in Villeurbanne, Lyon is:

Elder Jonathon Bennallack

Les Missionnaires

138 Rue Dedieu

69100 Villeurbanne

France

 

This week was a good one, soo many miracles. We arent doing too much, it's kinda like we are starting to reap the harvest.  This past week I taught the most amount of lessons I' have ever taught, but we haven't done too much different.

 

 

One of the greatest highlights is we have been working more with a less active who comes from Venesuela.  She's the return missionary who is coming back and she is just amazing!!! We went over to see her this week and she was there with her cousin who came to chuch with her last week, also a new friend who just moved here from Venesuela. When we asked who was going to pray, like a missionary she touched her nose, this means dibbs not.  The game is, last one to touch their nose says the prayer. As her friend has never seen this before he was the last, so she explained to him soo naturally and confidently how to pray, then he said a great little prayer.

The RMs name is Carolina, she is just soo amazing. She also introduced us to her tutor (french) and we were able to share a thought also with her cousin who came to church last week.

We were also able to teach some investigators in the homes of some members.  One member we went to with one of our investigators, actually had someone else there who wanted to be taught. So we taught both of them :)

A lady called us up on Saturday night saying, "hey is this the Church of Jesus Christ??" I said "why yes it is". Then she said "ahh cool, I was wanting to come to church tomorrow".  And she did :)

This week we taught a mother with her 16yo daughter and 11yo son the Plan of Salvation.  The mum has read through to Mosiah 27 in the Book of Mormon.  This week when we got there. I asked her where she was up to. I have just finished the part in Mosiah with Abinadi, and as soon as I mentioned Abinadi she said, "oh I just hate how cruel the people were with him in burning him to death. It's just awful". Then she posed the question: "where did they burn him, was that still in Zarahemla??" - yeah you can imagine me frantically looking through the pages trying to see! hahah

They all came to church this week, and loved it. I love this family soo much, from cote d'ivoire (Ivory Coast).

We met up with another man this week, he bought us a hot chocolate.  Then he was talking about his life and how he is searching for more peace. After the hot chocolate, it was delicious, we gave him a tour of our chapel. He cried, and was there at church again on Sunday.

I think i may have told you, that Sister Tiexiera gave us the challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 60 days. The time it took Joseph Smith to translate it. We have been doing that, and I am absolutely loving it. It's giving me more and more and more desire to share it with others. It really is a book with power.

Elder Tiexiera is now the new Area President, he was in the presidency before but now is the president.

This pday is really busy, as transfer day normally is.  I am now again in a 4 man apartment with another Frenchy.  The apartment is really a 3 man, so it's soo squishy, but with Elder Pilling with me, should help a lot to keep things steered. He's a good man, a good missionary, we should be able to do much good together this transfer

 

 

Elder Bennallack (the good looking one)

 

 

 

18 September 2012

 

'lyon' in Lyon!

It's really fun with my new comp.  He's a really funny guy. It's interesting how you judge someone before really getting to know them. I had all these ideas of how my comp would be, but he is heaps different from all of them. He works really hard, is obedient, so the perfect companion :)

 

This past week we worked towards our goal of 10 new investigators.  We did a lot of contacting which was really really fun.  One down side is that we nelglected a little bit on phone calls. And as Elder TB  correctly said a couple months back, if any one ever wants to get missionary work going he has to use the phone. So we taught less, and should have had a little more contact with our current investigators.

As there were a couple new District leaders and some new things in Lyon, we did a couple of exchanges early on. Actually I am going to back track. Monday was transfers, Tuesday the newbies came in. So as Elder Pilling has mission permission to drive (he was in a few areas with a car), we went and helped the 15 new missionnies come in. It was fun, it took almost the whole day as we were running around behind the scenes trying to get all of the transitions smooth for the huge first day that the newbies had.  We had taught, worked a bit, trained a District leader and we will train another this week back in Besançon.  Also this week coming, we have Zone Council which should be way, way fun. It's going to be all about prayer. Calling down the powers of heaven.

Fabian our 'ami' is still coming to church every week, he is progressing but taking his time to make the big step. But he is the man.

I am pumping through the Book Of Mormom in personal study. I'm a little slow as I do all my studies in French (I read better than i speak). I really look forward to personal study every morning :)

It's alarming, after being with a newbie, then an Elder who didn't like speaking French at all, my French is at an all time low. Well, not an all time low, but I can really feel the difference. I am struggling to get out sentences that I was saying with ease when I was at Besançon.  For example, considering how long I have been in a foreign country, I should be speaking a lot better than I am, but a transfer with a French guy in the apartment should hopefully help me a little.  

Elder Bennallack

 

 

 

24 September 2012

 

Great week for me :)

 

really busy and really tiring.

Tuesday, we had Zone Leader Council, it was a moment never to be forgotten, just a real highlight of the mission. The spirit was really, really, strong as we recieved lots of instruction. President just blasted us with the spirit. Just before lunch, we had another prayer and we all went out and worked Lyon, just went contacting for 40 minutes. It was great!  I really felt like there were angels walking down the street with me. Great experience.

 

 

After lunch while the Assistants were teaching us, President had to leave, I think he had to pick up his kids from somewhere, but he said whilst leaving, "Just so you know that the assistants aren't going apostate, they are going to have each or you give each other blessings before you leave". Which we did. It took about 40 mins, maybe more, but at the end, one by one, companionship by companionship, we gave each other blessings. Such a powerful moment. I really like Zone Councils. They're great.

 

 

At the same time they are really draining.  That night we were way tired. Then the next morning we were up at 5 am to go to Besançon for an exchange and to train up the DL who is there.  It was such a great exchange. Actually during Zone Conference the Assistants talked alot about real conversion and how for real conversion we need real repentance. Once people repent, they will want to be active. So we focused that day on basically calling people to repentance, which we can do, because we ourselves are doing it :)

 

 

We had a RDV with a recent convert who fell less active and now is trying to come back, but is having a hard time leaving behind things of the world.  She has a hole in her heart that she's trying to fill with things that won't fill her.   So we called her to repentance (all four of us were in this rdv, peculiar in itself).  Straight after going home, we were contacting and we were talking to nice French people coming home from a long day of work.  We stopped one lady and she asked us what we wanted, I basically said that we had been sent to invite people change their lives to be more in accord with Jesus Christ. Not too much different to what we normally say, but with the focus on repentance it changed everything.

 

 

That night particularly, I was very edified and I imagine that others were equally by the spirit.

Just a few choice experiences.

For District mtgs President is focusing on prayer and also on setting rediculously high finding goals. On average the Zone, separately, fixed goals for 13 ish new 'amis' each week.  Seeing that the current average is in between 1 and 2, it's quite the jump, but we are confident that we can reach it, or if not come really, really, close to it. Ourselves this week we had zero, so we have lots of work to do but the Lord is helping me know what things we need to change and improve on to merit his blessings.

President is focusing a lot on prayers, tomorrow we have zone interviews and we have to talk a little bit, mostly about faith, and then faith in our prayers. Things really at the base, but game changers.

At the moment we have some cool 'amis', not too many, but some cool ones. There's still Fabian who brought his little brother to church this past week, that was cool. We are also teaching a student from New Mexico that we bumped into a couple weeks back. Everyone just loves him. His name is Rocky. Everyone is asking us how he is going just because he is a really nice guy and everyone loves him. He is getting integrated nicely into the YSA here.

We are working with a less active as well who is an RM.  This week we went there to help her stop smoking and she said it's hard because her roomies all do it. So we called them all in and now they are all stopping together :) It's funny, when we told them we have a plan to stop in 7 days, they were soo, soo excited. They are soo taken in by this addiction and are excited to get out of ot.  We are too :) I love all her roomies, it's only a matter of time before they will be taught and accept the restored gospel. Surely :)

Elder J Bennallack