A Day of Miracles-there's a first for everything

Famille et amis,

This week was unlike any other!!

I realized I was actually called to Africa on my mission. All of our amis are seriously from Africa. We eat so much African food and Haitian food. It's awesome. These people are absolutely amazing and the love I have for them already is unreal.

Time is going by way too fast. We are already on week 5 of the transfer. So nuts! But everyday I am just so filled with gratitude. Soeur Wynn and I laugh our heads off every day and have so many great experiences both with missionary work and other stuff. It's super awesome though.
I cannot express how grateful I am for all the miracles that we have been able to see this week. And with each day, they only got greater.

Last week, right after p-day was over we went to visit Sarah for another intervention. She is in surgery today to get her stomach tied and she is really grateful and will be done smoking for good...we hope.

We went and had a great lesson with her and afterwards we felt that we should stay in this area (despite it being quite sketchy...=/ ). We sat on a bench and began making some calls when we looked up and saw some houses across the street that we had never ported. So we headed over and prayed right outside the first house. There was a dad and some kids outside hosing off their feet as we prayed but off we went! We began talking to this dad and he at first was not interested at all. That didn't stop us. We just decided to be ourselves and ended up talking with this Muslim family for about 20 minutes outside their house. They said we could come back so we fixed a rdv with them. It was so neat because we have been praying to find a family, and especially find a father first so that there is less resistance within the family. That seems to always be the case for us...Prayers are answered!

We've really come to love talking with Athiests! No one is truly athiest. There is no way that people don't believe in some form of higher existence. All we have to do is ask the right questions to get them thinking and then as we bear solemn witness.  The spirit testifies to their hearts that there truly is something more for them in this life. We had a 45 minute contact with a woman this week and by the end of it, the spirit was super strong and she agreed to pray and begin being taught by us. We were so excited as we watched her heart soften and open up. We were in the process of exchanging our info when she suddenly looked up at us. Her countenance changed completely. It was as if we were looking at a new person...she suddenly took back the paper, said there was something stopping her from giving us her info and as we looked into her eyes a darkness filled our hearts. That night we saw the power that Satan can truly have. We were broken hearted as we walked away from this woman who, for maybe the first time ever, truly wanted to believe in God. It was one of the most disturbing and saddening experiences for us. But we have hope that the Lord will place someone in her path again someday.

The next morning we discovered the Spirit of Elijah- the love for family history work. As we are both very new missionaries going through the training program outlined by the church, we were encouraged to check out familysearch.org. As we got on and looked at the work that has already been done, we were amazed and marveled and hungered for more. We felt the power that can come through searching out our family. I encourage each of you to spend some time this week doing family history work. We read a talk this week that explained that the Lord sends us angels to bear us up and those angels are our ancestors. They are our flesh and blood sent to us to guide us and lead through life's difficulties. They stand next to us through all of our trials. They are with us, and as we seek them out, we learn to recognize better their presence. It is truly amazing and I always thought that geneology work was a little boring and something I would do later in life when I had more time to spare, but now I cannot wait to do it. It's like missionary work for those who have passed on before us  so they can have the same opportunities that we have as members of the Lord's kingdom. There is a special and really neat spirit that comes and even us young kids can find it super fun! We wanted to stay on for hours!!! We can't put it off til later. The Lord didn't put off the Atonement until later, til he had more time to spare. Our work of saving souls is similar (on a smaller degree) to his. We can perform things that people cannot do for themselves. We can truly be our ancestors saviors as we do their work for them. Seek them out and learn to recognize the angels that surround you every day.

We were able to teach a young 15 year old girl this week, Enricka, who truly has been prepared for our message. It is amazing to see that everyone we meet is either prepared already or not. It becomes obvious quickly and the Spirit helps us to know who the Lord has prepared for us to help bring to the Kingdom of God.

One such experience happened yesterday. This is a day I will never forget. A day of unending miracles.

Maria, who is a young 18 year old girl who went to church in Spain for 6 years and has come to our ward a few times came yesterday. We have taught her the lessons and invited her to be baptized but never heard anything from her...yesterday she faced many obstacles as she tried everything she could to get to church. Satan did not want her here! After the meetings, she expressed that she had decided to go to Spain for a few weeks and be baptized there. We were thrilled for her so we began trying to make arrangements for that. After several conversations with the bishopric, she pulled me outside and said she was having a change of heart. She had dreamed her whole life of being baptized in Spain but now in this moment, she felt compelled to just do it here!!! She said it was between her and the Lord and she really just wanted us to be there since we had been teaching her and preparing her all this time. Soeur Wynn grabbed her agenda and said, let's look at dates. 2 weeks ago in our lesson with her, we had prayed to know if the 28th of July was the right day for her. It was confirmed to us but we never gave her the date. She said she would pray to pick a day. Yesterday as I looked her in the eyes, Soeur Wynn asked her if she would be baptized the 28th of July, 1 week from yesterday. She looked back at us and said that every day this week the number 28 had been stuck in her head and she didn't know why?! It was incredible!!! So WE WILL BE HAVING OUR FIRST BAPTISM DIMANCHE LE 28 JUILLET!!! We immediately began making all the necessary preparations. I have never seen anyone so prepared for baptism in my life. It was incredible. She ended up spending the rest of the day with us, helping us do missionary work. It's really cool that we got to be part of her first missionary experience and she wants so badly to serve a mission. We saw the joy that it brought her as she contacted people and bore powerful testimony of the truth of this Gospel. She even contacted an entire family in Spanish for us on the bus!!! She turned to me halfway through and asked if we had a BOM in Spanish...luckily we had a few brochures so she invited them to church! It was so incredible. We are so thrilled for her and can't wait until next week!

It's truly been an amazing week and we feel so blessed everyday. I get along with my companion so well and seriously we never stop laughing and having a great time. I learn so much from her as well. We are so unified it's awesome.

Oh one cool thing this week we visited a member's house out way far away. She had an aquarium floor!!  And her bathroom was made for Greek goddesses...I wanted to find a reason to use it! Coolest house I've seen yet!

Two quotes of the week:

"For missionaries you have two options: Go big or go home...but sometimes you just go home bigger" -Souer Pulupuna

"Friends are like the family members that you choose"...hahaha our athiest woman told us that.

I truly am so touched by my experiences here. Time is flying by way too fast and I wish I could slow it down. I love you all so much and I am so grateful to have such a great support system back home.

Cool things about France..

-Everyone comments on my name. In French, 'berge' actually means 'river banks'

-2 things the French do better than anyone else: BREAD and flowers..the flowers here are beautiful and really well-kept.

-the toilets here are awful

I know the Lord is on my side and that the angels are getting easier to recognize. That's one of the miracles of missionary work, the Lord is never very far away!

Keep us in your prayers! We will send baptism photos next week! Love you all! FIRST FOR EVERYTHING!

Stay righteous, be true, be you!

Avec amour,

Soeur Berge