Ma famille et mes amies!
First off, thanks again EVERYONE for the letters, packages,
emails, and facebook messages! C'etait trop gentil! :)
This week was just marvelous! Every week I am just so blown away
at how the miracles are just never-ending here.
Cette semaine we are preparing for a BAPTISM! :) Our lovely ami,
Esperence is being baptized next Sunday and we couldn't be more thrilled. She
has such great faith and loves church. This week we have just been teaching her
every day and trying to get her ready.
Tuesday was our multi-zone conference and interviews with
President Poznanksi (best mission president ever.) The Poznanskis are just one
of a kind. They are the glue holding France together. I got to see Soeur
Huckstep at Zone Conference and it was so fun to catch up with my ol' MTC
comp.
Wednesday was one of those days. We passed by numerous
people and contacted everyone we could find but didn't have a ton of success.
Sometimes as a missionary you just have those days where you give it your all
and don't see much success, but you have to remember God always has a plan,
therefore we can't give up hope! :)
Thursday we taught Esperence and realized she didn't have much
of a knowledge of the Book of Mormon and with her baptism coming up it was a
bit of a panic, but with our awesome senior couple here we were able to teach
her almost all the lessons all over again :) We also ate dinner and talked with
Chloé and her mom. Chloé is preparing for her mission in New Zealand! She is so
sweet and has been helping us teach. I first met Chloé in Paris at the big
Missionary Prep Super Saturday that Soeur Lefrandt and I helped with. We had a
great time with them. Thursday night Soeur Huntsman and I saw such a miracle!
It was 8:50 at night and we were by our apartment. We remembered the
importance of being obedient (emphasized at zone conference) and Soeur Huntsman
looked at me and said, "Soeur Berge, we have 10 minutes..let's find one
more person!" And so we did! We walked along 2 roads and didn't feel
inspired to knock any doors. THEN we rounded the corner and I spotted an
apartment with a light and I said, "let's knock that one!" It just
so happened to be a man who said he didn't have a lot of time but wanted us to
come back and discuss religion with him and his wife. That night I learned such
a powerful lesson about strict obedience and the blessings we see when we are
obedient down to the minute. I'm so grateful for my companion and her desire to
encourage me to 'find one more.'
Friday we saw Esperence again and also tried to pass by our
Turkish family. We were so sad they weren't there. We ordered Turkish brochures
and they came in an hour before we left to go visit them. We were so bummed
they weren't there, but we are determined to see them this week!!
Saturday was such a great day! My companion is quite amazing ya
know. She had banners and balloons and hats and all this fun birthday stuff! We
went knocking doors in the morning just along the coast to invite people to our Thanksgiving party in a few weeks. We are inviting everyone we see. After, we
took some pictures by the beach and it was such a beautiful day. We taught
Esperence, and Therese (new lady we found) who doesn't speak a lot of French, but
her native language isn't written..we're not really sure how we can teach her.
Lately we have been finding a lot of people who don't speak English or French
so that's always fun..Later, I got a surprise knock at the door from our cute
missionary senior couple here with birthday wishes. After that we decided to go
porting around our neighborhood. The first door we knocked on was this adorable
mom with her cute little girl. She said she wasn't believing or interested, but
we weren't about to let her go. I asked her if we could just sing for her and
her daughter and she let us in. We sang 'Come Unto Jesus' and the Spirit was SO
strong and they loved it! We just left after that, but man it was so incredible
to leave their house knowing the Spirit was there.
Sunday, we had church (there were literally 10 people at church
because of so many other things going on in other wards that some of the members went
to.) It was so empty, but church is still church as long as you're going to the
right one. ;) Later we went over to the Poisbeau's and they made cake for Soeur
Harris's and my birthday. It was a grande party. We finished the evening with
another lesson with Esperence.
TODAY! We had an incredible miracle..literally 2 hours ago we
were sitting at the bus stop with all of our groceries. We BARELY missed the
bus by seconds and we had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. Luckily,
missionaries are prepared and we got out our stuff to write some letters. As I
was writing a letter, I needed some French help. There was a girl about my age
standing nearby waiting for the bus and I asked her for some help. After, Soeur
Huntsman struck up a conversation with her. She said she wasn't believing
because her mom passed away, and she said there is no way God would let that
happen if He really existed. Soeur Huntsman and I shoved our letter writing
into our sacs and Soeur Huntsman pulled out this handy Plan of Salvation layout. She asked the girl, Vanessa, if she could show her something. We then sat
there and taught her the ENTIRE Plan of Salvation lesson. She began to cry
because the Spirit was incredible strong. We asked her if she believed it was
true, and she said she didn't know, but she hopes it is. We are going to see her
on Wednesday and give her a church tour. Wow! Even on P-day you can teach
lessons that are just incredible. I have to admit I was sad when the bus showed
up because I just wanted to sit there and teach her more. It was one of the
most amazing experiences that I will keep forever dear in my heart. We need
prayers for Vanessa! :)
Well, there we have it. Another week down, and many more to go.
I am so grateful for this beautiful gospel that gives me the hope and faith to
keep going every day. I've learned so many things and witnessed so many
miracles here in France. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is
true. Anyone can pray to know and will find that it is the true church of Jesus
Christ re-established to this Earth with divine design. I love this gospel. I
love this great time to be alive and witness so many miracles in France! Love
you all and thank you for your prayers.
Stay righteous, be true, be you!
Avec amour,
Soeur
Berge
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