A little art on a wall
Bonjour Famille et mes amis!
Goodbyes are never easy or fun so this week started off with
lots of sadness as I had to say goodbye to my family in Saint-Nazaire and my
wonderful companion/twin, Soeur Sorenson.
Monday night we had a super fun FHE with Jeanne at Rachel and
her family (RS President). We had so much fun and Jeanne really enjoyed it too.
Tuesday was a crazy day! We started off by seeing Edwidge and
saying goodbye. We haven't seen her in so long, but she came to church last
Sunday and I really wanted to see her before I left. She is the sweetest lady!
We had a good time showing her how to find Mormon Messages, which are so powerful!
She was so grateful for them as she made us bookmark it so she could find it to
and watch later.
Then we had a lesson with Allan who is such a boss. He is
progressing so great. We watched the Jospeh Smith Restoration video and he said
that it was exactly how he pictured it in his head (except the hole was a lot
bigger) haha but how cool is that! He says he knows that he is a prophet and
the Book of Mormon is true. He also said the other day he was feeling
frustrated and started reading the Book of Mormon because he feels good when he
reads it and it works. Wow..his testimony is just exploding and I was super sad
to leave, but I know Soeur Sorenson will take care of his lessons and getting
him ready for baptism soon.
Afterwards, we saw Esperance and Anthony. We made a cake with them and
sang hymns and laughed and it was SOO fun! I love them so much! Then Esperence
gave me a gift and it was so sweet because Esperence doesn't even have much and
it meant so much to me that she thought to get me something. She is such a
special person and I'm so proud of her progress since I first got there.
Then I said goodbye to Jeanne and that was hard too because we
have gotten so close to her and seen her grow so much spiritually. She has such
a powerful testimony and I'm so proud of her courage and desire to follow Jesus
Christ and break out of her shell and blossom into a powerful member of the
church. Life is not easy for her either and she is a little frustrated being
alone and all, but the aura around her has completely changed since I first met
her. She is happy now and she tells everyone she has a family now and it's the
members who are her family. I love how she always makes a point to say she
knows she is a daughter of God. I think that was the first thing that really
allowed the Spirit to touch her heart is when she gained her testimony of her
divinity as a child of God! Love her!!
Later we went to the Hemons and said goodbye and they are such a
cool family! I'm so grateful for their wonderful example to the branch being
the real complete family in the branch. They really are the glue that holds the
branch together along with the Poisbeau's and senior missionary couple, the Harrises.
Wednesday the Harrises drove us to the gare and helped me get on
our long train ride to Paris to switch companions so I could make my journey to
Rouen. This place is so amazing! I have heard so much about it since 2 of my
previous companions served here and showed me pictures. The members here are so
awesome and the view from our appartement is incredible! WOW! Such a priviledge
to be here and serve these cool people.
Something really cool about Rouen now is there are 6
missionaries here! Very different than being the only missionaries in
Saint-Nazaire along with our Senior Couple. There is another team of sisters
and a team of elders here.
Friday was really cool..we had a big meeting with our Branch
President and our ward mission leader and they basically laid out this huge
plan and objectives for about 3 hours! IT WAS SO COOL! They have SUCH a vision
here and we are all so excited to pitch in and get to work and make it happen.
It's all about the members and working with them to bring their friends to the
waters of baptism. SO COOL! I love it! Later we attended the branch counsel and
it was the most amazing counsel meeting I've ever been to! Everyone was
efficient and organized and it's all about delegating members to bring their
less active families back and to reach out to their friends and how we can help
the amis specifically. WOW! It was so unified and the members are so passionate
about the gospel and helping each other! Myself and the 2 other new sisters
were so impressed and it just got us so pumped to bring their vision into a
reality.
Saturday we did some porting and also had dinner with a member
and her daughter. Soeur Panou. I swear we were best friends in the life before
this one. She is soo funny and so cool! I LOVE HER! She has a daughter named
Barbara who I absolutely adore. It was a super fun night and the Spirit was so
strong as we sang and shared scriptures.
Sunday was really cool as well. The members are so sweet and we
had a good time getting to know them and trying to remember names. We later
went to the Barnjaks for an incredible, very French lunch (SOOO GOOD!) and we
went porting around their neighborhood. They gave us 2 streets specifically
that they prayed about that would be good to find and we had quite a bit of
success! We found a man named Gregory that we will pass to the elders. He is
really cool. Also, we found this little family and they weren't really
interested and they were more into scientifics and stuff, but the more we
talked, the more they respected us and eventually they let us in to show them the
familysearch.org
website and they thought it was so cool! They had the CUTEST little boy who is
2! I died..oh he is so cute! In the end they weren't super interested, but they
thought the family site was way cool and they took a Book of Mormon! It made me
really grateful for how the church emphasizes the importance of family and
searching our ancestors. It also made me super grateful that all my geneology
work is pretty much done thanks to Grandpa and Grandma and Nana! They thought
it was a nice site and then once I showed them what mine looked like with
pictures, stories, and documents they thought it was very cool.
OTHER cool miracles from the week-
- when Soeur Castillo and I were going home around 8:55 after
we contacted for a few hours I remembered how one of my favorite STL's told me
once about how miracles happen at 8:55 so I made the decision in my mind that I
would stop one more and it turned out she was the most open person we had
talked to all night! She said she has unanswered questions and she has always
wondered about religion and stuff so we prayed with her on the street and got
her number
-sang for the cutest little family with two little girls. The
mom was athiest and in the end the little girls begged their mom to take them
to our church and kept telling them how much they wanted to go (those girls
will always remember that experience even if the family isn't ready right now)
-found an Albanian family that almost broke my heart. they speak
hardly any French, but the mom gave us her address and we went by and she let
us in. we talked with her by drawing pictures and using the Albanian Book of
Mormon to communicate with her. At first she was a little unsure because she is Muslim and was unsure about us being Christians but as we communicated with her
through verses she was really touched and she liked what the scriptures said.
She has the 2 most cutest kids ever. They have hardly anything at all..the mom
was explaining how when she was pregnant she lived on the streets and that it
was really hard but she could never go back to Albania..she is so incredible.
In the end she told us to come back whenever we wanted and that we were her
family now..so touching!
Well Rouen is just beautiful! Incredible cathedrals, cobble
stone streets, Normanie culture, and so many adventures awaiting. There are
souls to save and people to find and I'm super excited and honored to be
serving here. The church is true and I'm ready to shout it from the rooftops!!
Rouen, here I come!
GROS BISOUS
Soeur
Berge
No comments:
Post a Comment