Preachin' on the Coast

Bonjour ma famille et mes amies..

What a week! So our week began last monday night. Sœur Huntsman and I went to FHE at the Harris's. Apparently our wonderful senior couple here holds a family night every other monday night at their house. Half the branch shows up every time too! Fun time!

Tuesday we had our first district/zone meeting. There are so many sisters in our zone! (pic attached). Sœur Huntsman and I had exchanges with Sœur Hoover and Sœur Evans. They both are so awesome! I love those sœurs! They are just top notch missionaries. I was with Sœur Hoover the first day and our appointments all fell through so we decided to do some finding and we contacted this woman and she said she had already been meeting with the missionaries exactly a year ago but hasn't seen them in a while, but because we were sister missionaries we should come over! Whoa! Miracle.

Wednesday morning for exercise we ran to the beach and it was so much fun! It was really cold and pitch black, but we still had so much fun because we got to run on the sand and see the waves. Perks of living near the ocean. :) That day I was with Sœur Evans. We went and met with an ami named, Beauty. She has 3 daughters, Treasure, Princess, and Destiny. They're Nigerian. Gotta love their names..Then later that day we went to Christian's girlfriend's funeral at a Catholic Church. It was so sad. It was like 2 hours long and one of the most different experiences, but we went to be there for Christian (even though there were only 3 other people for the funeral). As we left though, Sœur Huntsman and I talked about how we both wanted to reach out to Christan the whole time and tell him that death is not the end! That night we went and had a family night and dinner at the Hemon's (just about the only family in the branch). They're such a hoot.

Thursday was rough. All of our RDV's (appointments) got canceled except for one that night. Her name is Jeanne. She is from Madagascar and speaks Malagasy and a little French. She is the sweetest woman and doesn't have very many friends and family, but she is so kind and loving. We invited her to be baptised on December 1 and she accepted!

Friday was super interesting haha. Sœur Huntsman and I decided to try and find. We knocked on doors until one lady opened up and told us she was already believing. Not taking no for an answer, I asked her if we could just sing a song for her. She was a bit older and alone and finally she said why not and let us in. We sang some songs with her and she just thought we were great singers that we should go around singing in hospitals. She was really interesting. In the end she said she really wasn't interested in coming to Church and she told us she never lets people into her apartment, but something about our eyes and the way we looked told her to let us in. Cool stuff!

Later that night we met with good ol' Christian. He eventually told us that his mother was born a catholic and he is going to die a catholic..well..we're just gonna keep working with him and see where it goes.

Finally, we had an INCREDIBLE dinner with a member named Mata and her 3 kids and husband. Mata is from Tonga and makes so much yummy food! She is the only member in her family. Her husband is Romauld and he plays rugby for France. He is huge, but the biggest teddy bear. We want to start teaching him soon. He is so cool, but all the members are scared of him because he is just so huge!

Yesterday, we had Ward Conference. We also had tons of inverstigators at Church. It was incredible! We had a huge feast afterwards, and it was fun to chat with members and investigators. Later Sunday night we went to pass by Mirna and her family, but they weren't home. We felt there was someone in the building who we needed to see so we knocked on a few doors and finally found this Turkish family. The 17 year old daughter spoke a little French, but the parents spoke zero French. We just asked if we could sing some songs for them and they loved listening even though they didn't know what we were saying. They kept showing us pictures of their sons and asking us if we were married and liked any of their 4 sons..awkward. Then they tried to pay us! They were just so giving even though they didn't even have much. We're going to try and go back with some Turkish pamphlets and hopefully find a Turkish Book of Mormon.

This week we saw so many little miracles and it's so incredible to see this tiny branch grow little by little. Sœur Huntsman and I finally feel like we're getting around ok, and everything is still really new, but it's so exciting learning the town together and meeting everyone.

I can't believe I'm hitting 6 months this week and turning 20. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes on Facebook (family forwarded them to me). I really just feel so blessed to be here growing and learning and preaching the gospel and couldn't be any happier. The more I'm out here, the more I recognize how blessed I am to have the little things in life like health, family, friends, and my faith. I am most grateful for the knowledge that I am a daughter of God and I can find joy and peace through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I have an older brother who died for me and suffered for my sins so that I might be able to live in the presence of our Father in heaven. I encourage all of you to study it out for yourselves and gain a special witness of Jesus Christ. He is our Master, Savior, and Redeemer and he extends the beautiful invitation to all of us to change our ways and follow His perfect example.

I love you all and pray you all will have a blessed week!

Stay righteous, be true, be you!

Avec amour,

Soeur Berge