Our college friends
Saying goodbye to Sr Castillo
waiting for my new companion
exchanges with Enrika
Soeur Johns, my new comp
Loving the view from the apartment
Poor Soeur Johns with her cane and her broken foot :(
Bonjour everybody!
Well what a week!
First of all, I will pray for Uncle Cliff! Wow! Scary, and yet
so awesome he is alive and well! What a wonderful miracle.
So this week started off great. Soeur Castillo and I had an
awesome FHE with our American friend, Kate and we invited our American member,
Hannah to come as well and we made our own FHE at church and it was really
fun.
Tuesday was a crazy day of MIRACLES! I am just so blown away at
all of the miracles we witnessed this week. So Tuesday morning we went to see
Laura so Soeur Castillo could say goodbye. During the lesson we got 2 missed
calls from this number and I thought it was someone in the office..well it
turns out it was Camille, this girl we met on the street around 9:00 as we were
heading home. We just felt like we needed to talk to her even though we
could've gone home and still been obedient, we just wanted to talk to one more.
She wasn't interested, but she was super fun and had so much energy. Such a
cute, young girl. We ended up just giving her our card and a brochure. Then, 3
weeks later, she CALLED. Wow! So as I'm talking to her she says, "I want
to see you! Are you free today?" We were super booked the entire day, but
we actually had a last minute cancel rdv at 2 so we suggested it and she said,
'I will be there!' so cool. So then 2 rolls around and we're waiting at the bus
stop, so pumped because this has never happened to me ever in my mission!! So
she shows up with 2 of her friends and at first we were thinking, uhh I hope
they know we're not here to hang out. Then they told us they were doing a
project for their class and they thought of us. They're in architecture school
and had a project about young people and how they feel around certain areas and
environments. A little strange I thought at first and then it just turned into
a questionnaire about who we were and why we're here. We gave them a tour of
the church and they had so many great religious questions. In the end, I think
they forgot they were there for a project. They were all athiest, but they had
awesome questions like, "How is it possible to forgive people?"
"Why was the Atonement so important?" "How can we use the
Atonement?" It was so awesome as we just testified to these 3 awesome,
young, peers and they were so respectable of the church and were so nice. In
the end they said, "Could we talk to you another time?" They also
want to watch us go contacting just to observe and I think it's such an awesome
idea. Contacting can be so powerful!
Later we saw Nina and had a scheduled FHE set up with a part
member family. We made a cake and everything so they wouldn't frudge (they're
known for frudging quite often) 2 minutes before our appointment, we get a call
while on the bus with our cake and she cancelled! UGH! It was so close! So
frustrated, we got off the bus and got on a different bus to go home. As I sat
there holding this cake, I just didn't want to give up. I just looked at Soeur
Castillo and said, "We are not taking this cake home. We are coming home
empty handed tonight. Someone needs this cake." Immediately, we got off the
bus as we thought of a less active family we could go to and we listed off
several people. We called one and she said she wasn't there so we sat on the
bench just trying to think of who needs this cake. We both prayed in our hearts
that we could get some direction for what we should do. We decided to call our
mission leader because he knows the members and less-actives better than us. So
I called him and said, "our FHE just got cancelled, we have a cake and a
message about the resurrection..where should we go?" and he said,
"CAKE! bring it here! I'll eat it!" At first it was a funny joke, but
then I replied, "Well, do you have a friend over?" He then paused and
said, "Actually, wait a minute.." Turns out there was a friend of a
friend staying at their house for the week because she had an internship the
whole week in Rouen. She is a young Haitian girl who lives in Paris. Turns
out they were free and we went over and had our FHE. WOW! We didn't give up. We
were determined to have our FHE with a member and their friend and we had one. And it was incredible! The Spirit was so strong as we taught her about the
Atonement and Resurrection of Christ and what that means for us. She had a
million questions and was so intrigued. In the end, Nadège had so many
questions and we just left her with so much more hunger for the truth. The
members were so incredible at answering her questions and were so bold with her
and we can't wait for her to meet more missionaries now that she is back home
in Paris. Later Soeur Bitanga, the member, told us she was praying all day that
somehow we would be able to come over tonight and talk to Nadège! It was
incredible as the Lord answered both of our prayers and we had a wonderful, spiritual
edifying night.
Wednesday was super hectic and so much fun. Started off when we
took Soeur Castillo to the gare with the elders and other equipe of soeurs. We
ran into Kate and she was going on the same train. So cool! So they sat
together and off they went. Then I stayed with the other soeurs in Rouen while
my companion, Soeur Johns arrived later. We had an awesome lesson with one of
their new amis and later I had to do a split with Ennrika, a 16 year old only
member of her family. She is so incredible. She is just rock solid in the
church. We went and saw a less-active and I took her contacting and her eyes
were the size of soccer balls. It was quite an adventure. Then I got my dear
companion, Soeur Johns who is awesome! She is from Texas (southern pride) and
we have just become the best of friends. She is an awesome missionary and we
have just had our fair share of opposition and MIRACLES this week. So I took
Soeur Johns to our appartement, we dropped her bags off and went to see Liliane! We
got to teach her the rest of Plan of Salvation and she loved it! We really
hoping to set another baptismal date with her soon.
Thursday was another crazy adventure. We were planning on doing
a lot of finding and then last minute we had to go help a member move. She has
a lot of possessions and it was us and the elders and a few other awesome
members. We helped her move for about 5 hours and then as we were walking home,
Soeur Johns tripped on cobblestone and fractured her foot! The weird part was
the elders and I didn't even see it happen and then later as she was limping,
she gave me that look and we both knew it was a little more serious than a
twisted ankle. But my comp is a boss so we continued with our day and we went
to pass by a less active member and met this awesome lady Malika. At first she
told us she was muslim and then she said her husband was christian and she has
read the Bible. So we introduced her to the Book of Mormon and she just said,
"where can I get that?" we told her the truth is free!! and boy was
she happy! We prayed with her on the street and set up another time to see her!
Can't wait!
Friday, Soeur John's foot was still not better, but we had a ton of
rdv's set up and so we went to our lessons. We had an awesome FHE with Soeur
Bachlet and Veronique, this adorable Vietnamese lady who is half Buddhist, half Mormon, as she puts it. She was so cute and we hope to see her soon. Then we had
our meeting with the missionaries and our ward mission leader. After we asked
our leader if there was someone with crutches in the ward and he said they had
some. So he called his wife and we went over. Nadège was still there so we got
to see her again and they made us stay and teach her a lesson and fed us
awesome African food. So fun! I love last minute miracles!
Then, Saturday and Soeur John's foot was still not feeling too
great so we went to the clinique..after a 4 hour wait and converting everyone
in the waiting room, she finally got to see the doctor and turns out it is a
hairline fracture. She had just been going strong as a regular missionary with
a broken foot..no big deal. She is awesome! We ended up having so many laughs
about our crazy situation.
We also had to do our grocery shopping Saturday night because
everything is closed today. It took us so long to get home as I had our two
bags strapped to my back and 3 huge grocery bags. As we got into the elevator
at our metro stop, there were two little boys and their mom that joined us and
one of the little boys looked at me, looked at Soeur Johns and said, "You
don't have a boyfriend that can help you??" It was the cutest thing ever
and we just died laughing later about it.
Yesterday was Easter! We had church as normal and it was good.
We had a fire drill during sunday school which was interesting..poor Souer
Johns was on crutches rushing down 3 flights of stairs..turns out the Stake
Presidency asked them to do it and yadda yadda yadda..
Later we had an awesome Easter meal with the Barnjaks. I love
this family! We had a blast singing and sharing scriptures and just chatting
with them. We had just an incredible meal. Soeur Barnjak is just a master in
the kitchen and such a cute hostess. After we went porting and didn't have much
success at first (porting with crutches is quite an interesting experience), but
in the end we didn't want to give up so we decided to do a few more and this
old couple let us in. They are so cool. We told them we wanted to sing for them
and she took us into her art studio. She is an incredible artist! She then,
played piano as we sang cantiques to her. Then she said, "Oh you have to
learn this song!" She brought in Amazing Grace and..being from the South,
oh how we know this song. So we sang it while she played and sang with us and
it was so fun! She wanted to copy the songs and just kept asking where she
could get a cantique (hymn) book and we told her we would give one to her so she
could play the songs and see the beautiful lyrics that testify of Christ. We
then prayed with her and testified of the Plan of Salvation and took a picture with
her. She is just too cute!
That is the main events of the week. Happy Easter! Reflect on
the example of the Savior. Choose the right and if you are sleeping through the
Restoration..WAKE UP AND GO WATCH PRIESTHOOD SESSION! :) Love you all!
GROS BISOUS!
Soeur Berge
PS-- the top pic is last
week's P-day with the other soeurs Joanne d'Arc Tour of the Tower! Such cool
history..look it up and read about it! Real neat!
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