Playing a little badminton
Bonjour!
Well what another
incredible week here in Rouen, France! First off, Soeur Johns and I have just
found this extreme fire for missionary work this week and it was incredible. Left and right we witnessed so many miracles!
Ok so last Monday night we
got to have an FHE with one of my favorite families on the planet, the
BERTRANDS. They are so much fun and I love their family. Soeur Bertrand has to
be one of my favorite people ever. Soeur Johns and I just love them.
We taught Kalobe family
again and they are doing great. It's becoming a real struggle to communicate
with them, but luckily they feel the Spirit really strong so we just have to
keep praying for the gift of tongues and that they can make it to church one Sunday. Pray for them!
Also saw Camille, Wendy,
and AnneZoe. They are so awesome! They are such smart girls and we have become
such close friends with them.
Later that night we had
some time and were porting around and found a man named Atif! He is muslim but
thought what we were doing was so cool. We plan on teaching him and passing him
over to the elders.
Thursday we saw Juliette
and Blessing and taught the 10 commandments emphasizing church attendance.
Sadly, they couldn't make it to church.
We had a lot of other rdv's
that fell through..which is always really hard because it Satan's way of
attacking our hope, but luckily we didn't let it get to us.
Friday morning we were
walking to the church and we contacted a lady named Elisabeth. She is so cool and we began talking to her about the church and then we ended up feeling very
prompted to invite her for a tour right then. Normally people are busy, but she
was so excited. We walked into the chapel with her and immediately I felt like
we needed to share the canticles book (hymnal) with her so and so we did and she asked
if we could sing one. We sang Nearer My God to Thee and the Spirit was so
strong. She began to cry and told us how she felt about being in this church
with two women of God. We prayed together and then she asked if she could pray
too and it was the nicest prayer ever. She was thanking Heavenly Father for
sending her two young girls and for answering her prayers. Apparently she had
been having a rough time and asked God to feel His love and then we contacted
her and she was overwhelmed with God's love for her. We hope we can see her
soon. It was such a Friday morning miracle!!
Later we saw Ludivine and
taught her for the first time on our own since the other sisters passed her
over. We talked a lot about the Savior and His Atonement because she had been
having a lot of questions about HOW it's possible that Christ did that for us
and HOW is it possible that it's real? During the lesson Soeur Johns and I
shared a lot of personal experiences we hadn't planned on sharing which
completely invited the Spirit. It was such a powerful lesson for me as well. As
a missionary I know I need to have a sufficient amount of faith to encourage
others to have faith. Everytime one of our amis asks us a question, I ask
myself that question and reflect on my own testimony. I kept asking myself
Ludivine's question..HOW is it possible that Christ suffered sufficienlty for
all the difficult moments, for all of our mistakes, for all of our sins and
weaknesses..HOW could that all be paid for and wrapped together in one package
called the Atonement? How is it possible we deserve that gift? Immediately I
felt such love from the Savior as I was taught a powerful lesson that day. We
need not focus so much on the HOW it's possible, but WHY it's possible. Jesus
Christ suffered. He died. He chose that because He knew it was the only way we
could overcome our natural state and return to our Heavenly Father in a
glorified state. How incredible is that? I love the power of the Spirit and how
it can touch our hearts as we try to help our brothers and sisters here in
France progress on their journey back to our Father.
Later we saw Nina and we
taught her about Christlike attributes. Last lesson we asked her how we could
help her progress towrads baptism. She has been taught every lesson in the book
several times, so we just decided to ask her, Nina what do YOU want to be
taught? and she said Christlike qualities, which is exactly what this whole
month of June is about. Soeur Johns and I are giving all our members the
Christlike Attribute Activity found at the end of Chapter 6 in Preach My
Gospel..I encourage you all to go and do the activity. It's so wonderful!
Saturday we had tons of
lessons set up and they ALL fell through except for the lesson that night. We
just kept perservering through the day despite all the setbacks we had that day
and FINALLY the miracle came at the end of the day. We went to Rachel's that
night. She is an ancient amie that is really hard to get a hold of, but we set
something up with her. This is the 2nd lesson I've ever been to with her. We
showed her the film of the restoration of the church and we testified and
poured out our souls to her. We invited to her to be baptized if she knew it
was the true church and she accepted. WOW! It was so cool to see her heart
touched and accept this. She promised she would come to church the next
day...and SHE CAME! After so many weeks of inviting and inviting people and
promising blessings..our amies FINALLY CAME! It was so awesome! Soeur Johns and
I ended up missing sacrament trying to find her, but luckily we got to take it
in the Bishop's office afterwards.
Church was also followed by
a big branch meal and it was so fun to chat and hang out with these awesome
members! I really thought I was going to be leaving Rouen this transfer and at
first I was unsure because I like change and moving a lot, but after being
around these people again on Sunday, I just grew such a stronger love for all of
them and I really feel like I could never leave Rouen. My heart is just so
stuck here. I love these members who are just so special. I love our
amies that are finally putting forth effort after weeks and weeks of being let
down. I love how Soeur Johns and I have decided to be even bolder with our
contacting all around us and it's working! We decided no more making
conversations with people and slipping in the gospel..NO We are just going to
tell everyone in sight that we are the missionaries for the true church of
Jesus Christ and if they want to find the same joy we have, they should come to
church and meet with us for the lessons.
One last miracle from
Saturday night as we were almost home from our lesson with Rachel, we were on
the metro and a lady got on and sat next to Soeur Johns. She was on the phone.
I heard her say something about Jesus Christ and that caught my attention. Then
she said 'church' and 'Christian' in her conversation so I nudged Soeur Johns
to see if I heard that right and she just says back, "Don't worry, I'll talk
to her." Our metro stop was only 2 stops away and she was still on the
phone. My hopes and dreams are being crushed as I realized we weren't going to
be able to talk to her. I prayed that she would end her call and let us talk to
her so we would have enough time before our stop. Literally one minute after I
prayed in my head, her phone call ended and we started talking to her. She was
SO interested and immediately asked us a million questions about our exact
doctrines and it was so intense. She ended up getting off the SAME stop as us
so we kept talking to her. She saw her bus about to leave so she told us she
had to run and catch the bus. So we ran with her and we made the bus driver
wait so we could get her number. HECK YEAH! It was so awesome! We plan on
seeing her hopefully tonight if we can! SO PRAY FOR DANIELA!
Well that's about all I
have time to share today. I love this work, I love this people, I love this
gospel, and I just love my life! Couldn't be happier!
Love you all!
GROS BISOUS
Sœur Berge
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