Sunday, August 17, 2014

Great Comfort from God's Plan






Hey hey!

Another crazy week! I don't have a ton of time so here are some of the events of the week:

Last Monday we saw our darling Christine. We didn't get to share a big lesson, but we helped her move around her stuff in her new apartment. She was really stressed because the people that moved her in just put her stuff all over the place. She has a handicapped son, so that was going to be really difficult for her. As we began moving furniture around we decided it was a task much bigger than the three of us. Unfortunately, we were leaving for quite a chunk of the week so we called the Elders and the missionary couple here to help her the next day. She was really grateful. So sweet.

Tuesday we made a trip to Rouen to finally finish my papers. While we were there we surprised some members and saw some lovely faces of the past.

Wednesday and Thursday we had exchanges in St. Quentin. I was with a sister named, Soeur Hafen. She is really nice and such a great teacher. A funny experience we had as we were coming back for the evening, we rang the wrong doorbell (since the other sisters had the key). Turns out we rung the intercom for their neighbor who lives just above them. She came out and we were all in the hall. She was so cute. We told her we were so sorry and she said it wasn't a big deal. We started chattin with her and she told us she was making crêpes for her kids and she'd bring some down for us when she finished! So sweet! So we offered to sing for her and her kids and she was really excited and told us when two other sisters (Soeur Vance and Soeur Kohlert) served there, they sang every morning and she and her cute 5 year old son would go sit on the steps and listen to them sing hymns because it made them feel at peace. That really made me realize that miracles happen all around us. We share the gospel with a lot more people than we even think.

So on Thursday Soeur Hafen and I went and pulled weeds for a bit at a cute member's house. She had the most beautiful garden. Then she made us a cute little French lunch. Later we went to teach a sweet Congolaise woman. When we arrived she was in tears. A few hours before we arrived for our scheduled rendez-vous, she got a call from her family in Kinshasa saying her sister passed away. I can honestly say I've never been there for a complete stranger as she mourns over the death of her own sister. I felt so bad for her and we did our best to give her our comfort. We sang and asked her to share memories of her sister and called the elders to come give her a blessing. Luckily, we had the bishop's wife there. She is the most loving woman and she knew just what to do. We were so appreciative because I just felt so young and unsure of how to comfort someone in that situation. After she got her blessing she seemed more at peace. We told her to rest and pray. I wish we could have done something more for her. She was so sweet to let us come over even through this hard time. It's moments like this where I am grateful Heavenly Father created His beautiful plan to see all our loved ones again one day. 

Friday we are finally in Nancy and we went over to visit a less active member named Evelyne. She was so sweet and made us a lunch (people have been so nice and feeding us all the time!) She told us her life story and it was nice to get to know her and encourage her to grow her faith in Christ. Later we made some cookies and went over to see our less active, Edith. She made us some crêpes and we had a good time with her and shared a message with her about prayer. We love her.

Saturday was a crazy,long day that ended in a beautiful way. So we had our Samedi Sports again. Irenes (our recent convert) went and really enjoyed it. After, we were free for the entire day and we really need to find some new amis that are ready for this gospel message. Soeur Lefrandt and I decided we were going to change up the way we contact people. We really wanted to testify to everyone about faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the holy ghost, straight off the bat! Then we went out for the rest of the night. For the next five hours we talked to everyone in sight. We passed by ami's houses, contacted everyone, talked to people on the bus, knocked on some doors, but no matter what we did and how many times we prayed, no one would give us more than a minute to talk to them. I'm really grateful for Soeur Lefrandt's attitude. She just didn't want to quit which made me want to go further too. We kept knocking on door. At this point it was around 8 at night and we were about 30 minutes away from our apartment. We knocked on one last door of the biggest house we had seen that night. We weren't really expecting much, but a teenage boy came out and then his mom came out. We introduced who we were then offered to sing and talk about Christ with them. Then..they totally invited us in!!! WHAT! It was so cool. Once we sat down with them, we introduced ourselves and shared why we were here. They thought it was so cool and told us they were so interested in our message. What! So we sang and prayed with them and they totally invited us to come over this week and eat with them! They had a big beautiful house and they were all musicians. They are the coolest people. After, Soeur Lefrandt and I were in awe. We immediately prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for that miracle after all that hard work. As we ended our prayer of gratitude, we opened our eyes to the most intense orange, sunset sky..obviously a kodak moment..photo included! Love miracles!!!

Sunday was great. Unfortunately, none of our amis came to church since most of them dropped us the day before. For example, Christine texted us telling us she would call us when she was ready to see us. We were crushed because normally they never call us back. However during Relief Society, she texted us asking when we could see her again. Miracle! So we told her we'd come that day. We went with the Gionet's (the missionary couple here). We got to teach her and meet her husband. We taught her more of the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. We just feel like she really wants this message. She even told us that the timing we met her on the tram was really not by coincidence because she had just been thinking about her mom who passed away and she is so glad she met us. That was such a miracle. Later we stopped by Remi, our ami, to say goodbye to him. He is moving to Paris. He had a friend there so we taught him and his friend. 

I love this work. Families are forever. Jesus Christ is our Savior and that's the best news there is!

Much love to you all! Have a great week!
GROS BISOUS

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