Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Are You Just Buying the Oranges?

Bonjour a tous!  I hope you have had a great week, Valentines Day and now, Presidents Day! We've had a great week here in Amiens with members and amis.  We had our Zone Conference and interviews with President and Soeur Babin in Paris too.  Here's a quick review of our week with a few highlights.

This week we did a lot of contacting and were able to meet some super cool people on the road.  I think contacting is one of my favorite things to do on my mission because you never know what the end result will be and you get to meet some of the most interesting people.  I've had contacts of every kind and it never gets old.  This week we had two great contacts.  We met Han, a young student from Vietnam.  She is buddist and as we talked about prayer and how we can talk to God openly she asked if she could do this since she is not a Christian.  We explained that everyone can talk to God and we had a prayer with her on the road.  It was her first time praying and she said that she felt good and would definitely do it again. #TheSpiritTestified #ChurchIsTrue

The second person we met is Simon,  Simon is a young man and when we asked how he received answers to his question he replied, "Through the scriptures."  We explained that it is the same for us and introduced the Book of Mormon.  When he saw the word "Mormon" we could see his face twinge and so we asked if he knew about the Mormons.  Like many other people he said that he knew we lived in little villages, didn't use technology and used horses, etc. (aka the Amish People)  Thanks to a documentary here called "The Mormons" we are now confused with the Amish people...it could be worse! (HaHa)  We explained that we are Christians and than explained more about the Book of Mormon.  He was super open and took the book saying he would read it and is coming to our FHE with the single adults tonight.

We've been able to walk around the ville and it's so beautiful downtown by the Cathedral.  We have a branch here of about 40 people and the area has lots of red brick.  My companion, Elder Barber, is from West Valley, Utah and has been out about 14 months.  He's super kind and makes me breakfast several times a week! (pancakes, french toast, omlettes)  It was his birthday this past week and he turned 21.

To finish I want to invite you all to watch or read the latest devotional for the YSA by Randall Ridd titled, "Living with Purpose, the Importance of Real Intent"  This was a large portion of our training with President Babin and it is so good.  Also, try to watch a little video called, "Focus Test"  (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-01-1040-focus-test?&lang=eng)  Try to count how many passes the team in white makes.  DON'T KEEP READING...WATCH THE VIDEO FIRST!

How many did you get...20, 21, 22, 23 or 24?

If you got 21 you were right...but did you see the Old woman moon dance across the floor or a Ninja on the court or the team in black put on hats.  If not watch the video again and you might see more things when you aren't so focused on the white team passing the ball.  Then read "The Parable of the Oranges" (it's about 1/2 way through the talk, under the sub-heading of section 2) https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/worldwide-devotionals/2015/01/living-with-purpose-the-importance-of-real intent?lang=eng

I love these two examples that illustrate that often we loose the ability to see the big picture.  We can become so caught up in things that we forget why we are doing them.  If we don't "Just buy the oranges" but come to understand why we are doing what we do we will be able to stay focused on the prize and put God first in our lives.

I'm so grateful to be here in the mission field.  It's such a great place to be able to see how much more there is to life than "Just Buying the Oranges"!  I hope we can always have eternal perspective and see the big picture.  Till next week...

Love...
Elder Player


Centre Ville of Amiens

Elder Barber and me


Le Gare du Nord in Paris
It's always exciting!

The Amien's Cathedral...It's Huge

Elder Barber's Birthday Pizza!


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