The spring is here

17 March 2014

Transfer 3, week 2

The spring is here. The sun's shining every day and there's flowers everywhere on the trees and we don't need to wear coats! It's amazing, amazing amazing! Missionary work is so much nicer when the weather's like this. Nicer but NOT any easier.

Our mission president came up with this idea of a questionnaire that will make our contacting more effective. There's four questions like "do you think there are serious problems in the world" and "do you think it would be good to have God's help" and then people respond and often it sparks a really good conversation. People are still often really rude but at least we can buy two minutes with them and give them the chance to feel the Spirit.

We had two great rendez-vous with the Sri lankan family. First time we taught them The plan of Salvation and the next time the restoration. We also gave them a soft baptismal invite and they're thinking about it. They are still so awesome. They have amazing questions, like babtising babies and reciting prayers etc, natural questions for Catholics to have and they're always really happy with our responses. The mom really likes the Book of Mormon, she's already in Mosiah and loooves king Benjamin. This is such a special and loving family and I'm 100 % sure Heavenly Father loves them SO MUCH. I just wish i stay in Clermont long enough to see them get baptized.

We had a mangez-vous with soeur Gribissi, the less-active who's now pretty much activated. We gave a lesson on forgiveness and used Christ as an example. He went through so much but still was willing to forgive everyone and even asked the Father to forgive (Luke 23:34).

Saturday was a sad day. We got dropped by two people who we thought we could help progress. But apparently not. Luckily soeur Burton made us rolls. That were the most delicious rolls I've ever eaten.

Yesterday evening we went to pass by a potential. She is sooo nice to us and very spiritual. We talked to her and prayed with her and she asked us to call her later in the coming week to set up a rendez-vous. She's got two little dogs and the other is named Uppsala! Haha, so random! She thought it's a town in Norway though but anyways, such a cool name for a french dog! And the best thing she told us was that there's mafia in Clermont!!! My day was made.

And just for everyone's information, my new favourite flower is MAGNOLIA. Everyone here has magnolia trees here and they are so so so beautiful this time of the year.

- Soeur H

First McDonald's lunch outside

Picture post transfer 2, week 6

We stopped to see an old, beautiful casle

Staying inside makes you go crazy

Transfer 2, week 5



This past week was looooong. Soeur Green got sick at the end of last week and whatever she had didn't go away until the end of this week. So we spent a lot of time inside. Too much time. Staying inside makes you go crazy.

We had a few good experiences with members though. We had mangez-vous with two families in the ward and had so much fun with them. The members here are so great, their testimonies are so strong and the way they live the gospel is a great example to me.

We got a few new amis this week! Who knows if anything will come out of them, the other is an old portuguese woman who's a practicing catholic, we're quite sure she  hasn't realized that we're not catholic... And the other is an african man, who's met with missionaries before and Temoin Jehovas visit him every now and then. Hopefully spirit will touch their hearts when we teach them.

And we had two amis at church both week ago and yesterday. AWESOOOOME. They're African and we've been teaching their friend who told them about church and they decited to come and see what it's like. We taught the other man this week and haha, that was interesting! He's a protestant preacher, he showed us this sketchy looking certificate he had, and started preaching to us about faith in the middle of our lesson. The funny thing is that he's not trying to fight us or our believes but apparently just wants to show off his knowledge about religion. He's really cool though, he loves being at church, after every talk in the sacrament meeting he comments on how great the talk was and he absolutely LOVES singing hyms! Totally off key but whatever.

Saturday was the best day of the week. We accidentally contacted this man who's door we had knocked on a few weeks earlier and who had been really rude to us. this time he was totally different! He apologized for not being nice to us and we talked to him about all kinds of things and at the end of our little 15 min conversation we were the best of friends with him! He's still not interested in the gospel but at least he has a good impression of mormon missionaries now! Later that evening we had a less-active miracle, we visited a lady we had never met before. She was so happy to see us and pretty much told us her whole life story and then gave us Coca-Cola and chocolate! She still has testimony of the church but feels unworthy to come back. She just needs friends who'll help her come back and the ward of Clermont is perfect for that.

À la fin, here's my fave scripture of the week:

MOSIAH 5:15

 15 Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen.

- Soeur H

Hi!

Fun at district meeting PICS

Fun at district meeting

Zone conference with my companion and her pioneer dress, so classy can't stand it!

Sisters in Nice

This past week was a week of BOLDNESS!

 10 February 2014

BONJOUR, it's Soeur M! Or Soeur Metsätahiti (people think for some reason that I am from Tahiti... Oh well!)

Still in Bordeaux and life is great. This is the 3rd transfer that me and my companion are together and we really work well together, which is fantastic!

For this transfer we've had different themes for each week. Last week was the week of restoration and we tried to teach and testify of the restoration of the gospel every given opportunity. It was really fun having a certain theme and somehow we kept finding and seeing opportunities which were perfect for our theme.

This past week was a week of BOLDNESS! I thought before my mission that I was brave and bold but actually I wasn't. :D Being brave and bold is something missionaries need always practice onbecause that is how we're supposed to be; brave and bold. It requires A LOT of faith in the Lord though. :) This week we contacted a lot of people and personally I tried to fight my "fears" by contacting big groups of people. I love contacting, it's so much fun meeting so many different kinds of people and talking to them about their believes and lives. 

You always meet interesting people also. For examle this one guy got mad at me for not wearing any red even though I said I like that color. :D I also met a guy who believed in fairies and taught me all about different colored aura's people have around them. the french people are super funny, I love them! :)

This one day we were walking through Gambetta when this one guy basically dragged us in into a boutique and made his co-workers confess their sins to us. We were so confused but it was so hilarious. We were all just cracking up because nobody knew what was going on. :D

Our ami's are doing great, we have a couple of ami's who are preparing to e baptised and I am so happy for them. It's crazy how muchyou can learn to love someone so much and want them to choose the right. One of the greatest gifts given to us is free agency and we can never decide anything in anyone's behalf. We can just invite people with love and help them with all of our power and might. :)

I am so happy to be a missionary!

Love, Soeur M

P.S Jasmi is the best blog updater ever!

Crazy times at a museum!

Selfie

Contacting

Happy hippo in BDX

SO JUST BE HAPPY!

3 February 2014

Tranfer 2, week 2

This week we worked really hard and ahd some really good contacts and even a few miracle lessons on the street. But we're having hard time finding people who actually want to have lessons with us... Until Sunday night!

Last week we contacted this older man who had just lost his mother and was really sad about that. He wanted to learn more about God's plan for us and how we can be together with our families after death. We set up a rendez-vous at his house but when we went there he wasn't there. We left him a Book of Mormon and a little note. We tried passing by him a few times but he wasn't there. He lives quite close to us so on Sunday night we decited to go see if he's home, one last thing before going home. We went there and he answered the sonnerie and let us in! We couldn't go in to his apartment though because we didn't have another female with us but we talked to him in the hallway and gave him a lesson! He was accepting the things we talked about, like the Book of Mormon and restoration and was excited to read. We fixed another rendez-vous for Friday and now we'll just pray that everything works out!

We also taught our miracle less-active lady who did a 180 turn in one night. She was like a different person when we saw her. She seemed happy and all the cynicism was gone. We talked about repentance and she had been studying the subject on her own. She really loved the scripture we shared especially when she noticed she had marked them when she was young.

Saturday was really nice day. We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with the adorable chinese girl and she had made us dumplings.

Then the highlight of the week! We went to eat chez the finnish couple in our ward. Finnish meat balls! And warm cranberry juice! From finnish Arabia cups! I was coutente. They're such a nice couple and their home is so Finnish. I just want to die!! I really don't need to feel homesick while serving in Clermont.

And one thing that I've learned this week. BE POSITIVE, HAVE GOOD THOUGHTS AND BE OBEDIENT!! That's the key to missionary work and the key to life. We're on this earth to have joy (2. Ne 2:25), and sometimes you need to seek for the little happy things in the dark times to have that joy but it's worth it. Christ suffered for us so that we could be happy. 

SO JUST BE HAPPY! SOYEZ HEUREUSES!

À la prochaine, soeur H

At the finnish couple's house

We went to primary

Nothing else to eat on fast sunday

The PAWS!

27 January 2014

Woo I'm still in Nice!

I just want to start off by telling that my companion Soeur Bailey is absolutely insane. That kid is crazy! Never have I met anyone like her. First off she is from America so that explains a lot.. secondly, she is from New Mexico so that explains it even more. She even speaks New Mexican, which is english spoken in a spanish accent. One of the members here actually thought that she was speaking in an other language. I'm just going to tell a few things she's done so that you can understand who I have to live with.. So this one time my companion couldn't find her planner, we thought she's lost it for good. We were freaking out because we had a lot of lessons planned and new numbers of potential investigators in it. She was freaking out dramatically! She was depressed and went lying under the table, almost losing all hope. I followed her under the table and there we were and didn't know what to do with our lives. We said a prayer to find the planner. After her wanting to sink into the deepest depression.. we found the planner on her table..

One time she was talking to an Asian man and then they were waving their hands to say goodbye and then suddenly she just high-fived the guy. Not awkward. Oh and she falls all the time! Like no sense of gravity or balance in her head. One time she opened a peanutbutter can with her bare hands and got some legit warrior wounds on her hands. One day she bought a toy gun and surprise attacked Soeur Hodder by shooting at her. Yhen she bought a whisel. I do not know why. She also has this funny blue flowery grandma nightgown that she wears every night. So the fact is that she is going to be a princess one day so that is why she sometimes practises her performances to us.One night she sat on the floor in her nighty and sang the little mermaid. I know, she was born to be a disney princess.

Just this last Sunday she gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting and as she was walking up she stumbled on something and almost fell flat on the ground in front of everyone. Talk about princess-like elegancy! It was funny though. The newest thing is called the PAWS! She makes me put my hands in hers and lock them together and look each other in the eyes. That's how we build companionship unity! Oh and one time we happened to be in the middle of locking paws when the bishop of our ward walked pass and laughed wierdly at us. Definitely building confidence in us!

Everyday is and adventure with Soeur Bailey and I love it! I've really been blessed to see her face every single day for the past 7 weeks. She is an inspiration for me and her enthusiasm is admirable. She touches people's lives and help to uplift their faith. She is an one of a kind missionary!

One of the greatest experiences we've had together was our investigator's baptism. He had a date fixed for him but we were thinking about pushing it with a week. But when we sat down with him in the beginning of the week, we all felt that we should keep the original date.This meant we only had one week to prepare for the baptism. After a lot of organising, we made it! The baptismal service was beautiful and so full of the Spirit. I know that God prepared Nic (our investigator) to hear about the gospel and to accept it. Nic made a lot of changes in his life and they were not easy ones. I feel like mt life was blessed by having this opportunity to see Nic change for the better and see how the gospel blessed his life. Happiness shines from his face and his faith and hope for the future are clear. Nice is a city of miracles!

- Soeur N

P-Day!

Bonne Année tout le monde!

6 January 2014

 

Transfer 1, week 4

Bonne Année tout le monde! My full year as a missionary starts now! New Year's resolution: learn french and be the missionary the Lord wants me to e. (Easier said than done)

Me and Soeur Kofoed ended the year 2013 by watching the District 2 and the Legacy, eating popcorn and drinking Shcweppes. And obediently went to bed at 10:30.

The first day of 2014 was spent in Lyon, we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. It was cool, I really liked seeing how other missionaries do things. I spent the day with Soeur Vidal, she's awesome even though she made me give a spiritual thought at a member's house...

Thursday after we got back from Lyon we had a mangez-vous with a Tahitian family in our ward. They are so awesome!! Their faith is so strong and they just love missionaries and missionary work. The family's little 5-year-old boy is also the most adorable thing, we even got bisous from him when we left!!! Too cute.

On Friday we had another mangez-vous and we got to taste frog legs!!!!!!! That was so awesome and they didn't even taste bad, little bit like chicken.

Frog legs!

Sunday we had a really cool experience after church. We had a rendez-vous in the afternoon at church and had some time before that so we decited to go porting (= tracting, knocking on doors) the houses nearby. As we were walking we were contacting the people we saw, well, Soeur Kofoed was and I was just smiling hehe. Then we saw this man in his late 50's walking on the other side of the road and Soeur Kofoed told me to contact him. I was like oh well, I might as well he'll probably just walk away mid sentence so I don't have to say much. I crossed the road and started talking to him anf it turned out he was actually really interested! He asked all these questions like is this something new compared to other Christian churches? (HECK YES IT IS!) and when we told him about the Book of Mormon he got super interested! We told him a little about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what the Book of Mormon is. We gave him a copy of the book and he said he really wants to read it and to understand it moore he would want to meet with us and come to church on sunday. He was so awesome!!! And since we weren't too far away from the chapel we walked there and he got a church tour from a member who was still at the chapel. We'll just pray and hope everything goes well and he'll feel the goodness of our message when he reads.

2. Nephi 32:5

For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.

- Soeur H 

Wild Missionary Life

6.1.2014

Bonjour and hi from Bdx! 

Missionary life is so busy here I barely have time on p-days to write my family but here is somethings I'd like to share with you!

Chrismas is Bdx was great, on Christmas eve we visited people who were going to be alone on Christmas and we brought them finnish Cinnamon rolls! One of my favourite people that we visited that night is an old man who takes care of his sick sister. They had no plans for Christmas so we surprised them with Christmas gifts and a Christmas tree. They were so happy and it felt so good just to give. He gives so much to his sister by taking care of her everyday so this time we wanted to give him something. It was great! I felt so happy.

New year's we wen't to bed early and woke up at midnight to see a couple of fireworks from our window, then fell back asleep. Wild missionary life.

Lately we've been working a lot with unactives! And I love it. Last week we were able to contact a couple of unactives that we've tried to get a hold of since last transfer. We are working with wonderful people and a couple of really cool families. Our Heavenly Father truly blesses us when we work hard and do our best trying to find people. :)

The work in France is progressing and I love being here! What a great way to spend 2014. Being a tool in the Lords hands... in Southern France.

Not bad.

Avec Amour Soeur M

Pics from Soeur N

CHRISTMAS = LIGHT = LOVE = CHRIST

Transfer 1, week 2 (16 Dec-22 Dec)

My second week in france was just as crazy as the first one. Monday was our preparation day, jour de préparation, and obviosly: my first one in France! We were still staying with the Sister Training Leaders in Lyon and Soeur Carter made us cpêpes for breakfast! After emailing and grocery shopping me and Soeur Kofoed went touring around town and got permission to ride the ferris wheel in Bellecour! It was such a nice and sunny and warm day and we got to see all the rooftops of Lyon from the top of the wheel. Gorgeous! 

Tuesday was a service day. 4 hours of gift wrapping at Toys'R'Us. I'm starting to get soo good at wrapping gifts I'm considering becoming Santa's elf after my mission... I'm already the right size so that shouldn't be a problem!

Wednesday we had Christmas conference!!! So awesome. 5 zones together at the fully Chapel in Lyon, singing Christmas songs and learning more about Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christmas which is the Spirit of Christ. CHRISTMAS = LIGHT = LOVE = CHRIST. I also got to see some old friends from the MTC, like Soeur Rönndahl, my beloved Swedish MTC companion!! Ohh I've missed her and it's only been a week! MTC was so much fun, I miss it sometimes...

We also got Christmas presents from the Roneys: new mission Christmas music cd's, hand sanitizer and THE COOLEST MISSION WATCHES EVER. Mine's too big for me so I can't really wear it... :(

And Wednesday was also a happy day because we got to finally move to our own home in Clermont!! Our apartment is so nice, it's very big and there's a bus stop right in front of our house and we're just loving it. Even though we still don't have a fridge and the toilet doesn't work very well... But we get by and we're just so excited to be here!!! Our senior couple the Burtons have helped us so so so much and they're just the best, I don't know how we could ever live without them.

For the last few days we've been trying to get things organized. We've been sitting in meetings with the mission leader and the Elders and the senior couple going through ward mission plans, ward lists etc. We've been making lists of people we need to visit and we've spent hours trying to make a map out of our area and where people live. Our area covers more than 40 little french towns; it's crazy! We've been trying to do a lot of contacting too and... I'VE DONE CONTACTING BY MYSELF!! I don't understand a lot of what people are saying to me but I just smile at them and give them pass-along cards.

French is really hard, trés dificil. I thought I'd come here and after a week start undestanding but NOOOO. I understand more and more each day but still!! It's frustrating sometimes because you feel like you're totally useless when you can't speak or understand what people are saying to you. But luckily my trainer is awesome. Sister Kofoed is so patient with me and helps me out a lot. And it's good to remember to be patient. Heavenly Father has his own timing and right now He need me to smile and speak broken and S-L-O-W french. Maybe that will touch someone's heart.

On Friday we had a rendez-vous with the Rapinats, the couple where the wife is Finnish. They are so lovely!! Their home is  so finnish, all these finnish decorations and books and paintings. And soeur Rapinat had baked us finnish cinnamon rolls and Karelian pie! I was in heaven.

I'm so glad I get to serve in Clermont, there's so much work to do but we're already witnessing miracles. Faith and obedience are the keys, God will do the rest.

MOSIAH 8:18 "Thus God has provided means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracled; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings."

- Soeur H

The coolest mission watch!!

On the ferris wheel

 

 

Escargots

On the same day we went to Monaco

Bonjour!

The week just passed by so quickly and here I am thinking what in the world did I even do during the week. We had a lot of lessons that we taught to people who are interested in our message. It is such an honour to meet these people and get to know them and their lives. What  they believe in and how they see the world, the meaning of life and the importance of the gospel!

On thursday morning we went jogging and my companion fell flat down on the asfalt because she did not see the chain on the ground. She injured her arm and can't use it. Which has given me a great opportunity to help her. On the same day we went to Monaco. Because Monaco has a law against proselytingwe had to take our tags off, which felt a bit weird. We visited Soeur Howden's cousins. Such a lovely family!

Sundays are the craziest days. We had three of our investigators to come to church. My companion almost went nuts trying to take care of everything. I was just like chill. Everything is fine. We had a good sacrament meeting, hah even though I don't understand much. It's all in french. I'm suprised how much I've learned in three weeks though.

Life is good. We got to experience a sick storm one night. Thunder and lightning all over the place. Was cool though. Oh and a flock of birds flew over us today and one had a great aim and hit my shoulder with poop. My companion laughed so hard and haha next thing she knows, she has bird poop on her hand. HAH!

A bientôt! Bisous, Soeur N