Merry Christmas

First off, thank you Reva, Betty and Colleen for the wonderful Christmas cards and package. It was very sweet, and I really appreciated it. I hope your Christmas was amazing!

Thank you for the wonderful Christmas package mom. You are literally the best. I wasn't really expecting any gifts and to be honest I wouldn't have minded if I didn't get any gifts.  Again, thank you to infinity and back

It's crazy just how many great people there is in the world who can touch your life if you just take the time to get to know them. How much they will come to mean to you. I'm glad to know amazing people from California and Utah and Maine and everywhere else. Each person I meet in life, helps me to improve, to become my better self. I just want to thank them all and I love them with all my heart. Specific shout out to Mamma Giles! (my last companion and trainer)

I've learned since being out here that I need to rely more on the Lord. To be honest, that's my only option. In times faced with teaching and speaking and being the only person who knows what’s going on in the area, of course makes things a bit stressful. So, I’ve come to rely on the Lord for everything. I have also followed the words of my wise father who just recently emailed me some words of encouragement. "...Doing what needs to be done may not always make you happy, but it will make you great... Invest in yourself and have some fun. Do something important. Love somebody extra. You may do the work badly.  You may do the work too slow, or end up doing it fearfully.  Do it any way you have to, but just do it!  Whatever happens, however, never look back on a lost opportunity where an imagined concern kept you from even trying—lose or win.  Learn that there is no regret in a brave attempt, only in cowering to fear.  A mission is all about having what you have never had, and having the courage to do what you have never done." I notice when I just do the work without holding myself back or swimming in my frustrations; I hold on to what I know and embrace whatever comes my way. I have full confidence that the Lord will guide me to the places I'll do the most good, as well as shape me into the person he wants me to become. I've found that when I do that, I feel calm. I feel like I can do anything. This, is a time for me to find out what kind of missionary I want to be. This is a time for me to find out how happy I can be being a disciple of Jesus Christ... I need to do it well and the best I can, always looking forward. 

Alright, enough of my own thoughts, I'll move on to my crazy week that I'm sure you've all been dying to hear about. First, we had transfers and I had the opportunity to receive a new companion. Her name is Sœur McBride and she's from Virginia. She came from serving in Nivelle, Belgium and has only been out 5 transfers which is only one more than me. "CAN WE PANIC NOW??!" Well, it's not terrible, it's just a very sweet kick into progression. So now that everyone in our apartment, reminding you that we are living in a four man, is new, I’m the oldest in this area. Which means, I'm the only one who knows where things are as well as the members and my amis. But again, I'm alright and I'm working hard and excited to learn new things from a different perspective. I know I need this. 

So, the next day after transfers I was thrown back into the swing of missionary work. We had two rendezvous with first, Emine and then Oceane. Reminding you once again how terrified I was to go to these people’s house to teach for the first time without my amazing trainer. We got there, and we chatted, and my comp was able to ask questions to get to know her. Emine asked me if we cooked or baked, I said I could a little, but my companion doesn't cook at all. So Emine had me bake a cake for us to eat. It went well, and It was fun. Then I asked her if she had the chance to read the Book of Mormon, but I don't think she understood me because she said, yes one sec and then we can do the lesson.  I didn't exactly mean to push it on to her like that, but I wasn't complaining. Glad to know that she was expecting something like this. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went surprisingly well. She didn't remember what the Atonement was, so I explained it again.  At the end she said that she likes talking about these things, but going to church is too big of a step for her. She's not looking for that kind of change. She also said she hasn't started reading but she will eventually. Her boyfriend doesn't exactly like these kinds of things, so she does it when he's not around I guess. Afterwards, she asked us if we would help her put up pictures in her kid’s bedroom because her kids would be coming over for the weekend. It was fun, and we lost track of time and realized that we only had 3 minutes till our bus came. Sadly, we had to ask for the cake to go and just sprint out of there. She's always giving us food and I always feel bad because were always leaving in a hurry. In our rush, I forgot to ask for another day to see each other, but before we left she asked what day would work best for us to come back and see her again. Looks like she still wants to see us. So, we’ll see her Thursday again :)

Oceane we saw her right afterwards. I called her a couple of times to see if she was still good to see us, but she never answered. To be honest I was ok with that. Because it's incredibly scary to have rendezvous when you don't speak the language very well. But I knew that I needed to do my job and stop by her house and see if she was still able to meet with us just in case. Well, there she was, home and willing to meet with us. Well it's good, but crap because now I must teach her, IN FRENCH. I asked her how she liked church because she went last time and she said she really liked it. I explained a little bit more about church, so she'd understand better.  We taught her the first three commandments and she understood me and agreed with the things that I, we, were saying. I wish I could express myself better to help them understand, but right now I'm doing the best I can. I really tried to help her to understand the Book of Mormon again so that she would start reading by herself.  I asked her to read that evening, the testimony of Joseph Smith and pray afterwards. I hope she starts keeping her commitments. She said that she would, and I hope when I see her tonight that she did it. Pray that she did. 

Then the next day we saw Brian who is awesome. He said he read the scripture we told him to read, but he didn't really understand. So, I told them to read it together as a family again and pray afterwards. He said he totally forgot to pray so I told him I'd send a text to remind him to pray ;) well, we taught the next two commandments. He understood and had no problems. Things are going well there. Afterwards, their family fed us dinner and it was very yummy. They're so sweet and they complimented me on my French. Again, they said I've progressed so much and it does make me happy when they say that. I need to hear that sometimes. We talked a lot and laughed a lot and it was very fun. 

Sœur Bell’s companion has been sick lately, so I’ve been going on splits with her to help her with her rendezvous, so she doesn't have to cancel. Good thing it was Mike the Asian who speaks ENGLISH. It went very well and we both were very proud of ourselves. Sœur Bell said it was the best rendezvous they've had with him so far. He's progressed so much. I was happy to hear that. Afterwards, we went and had DMP meeting. (Ward Mission Leader) It was going to be just me and Sœur Bell. I was a bit nervous because again I didn’t have my trainer to talk and Sœur Bell doesn’t talk a whole lot and I thought it was going to be awkward and very short. It was very much the opposite. We both said everything we needed to say, and I talked a lot. I surprised my DMP. He said I've progressed so much. I remember the second day I arrived in France when I had DMP with him. I'm sure he remembers how I didn't really speak, I'm sure now it's different for him to see me like this ha-ha. But it went well and he's so nice and helpful to us.

Sunday was a crazy fun awesome day. First, we went to one-hour church service and Raphaël, our newly baptized convert, blessed the sacrament!! He's so awesome and I got teary eyed when I saw him doing it. It makes me so happy. His mom came too! It was so cool. 

Afterwards the Houmeaux family invited us over for the day... we sang and danced and played games. It was super-duper fun. The food we had was, first, appetizer, then oysters, smoked salmon, frog legs, snails, foie gras, mushrooms, clams, cheese and bread with salad, and then finished with desert which was a Bouche de Noël. I'm so happy I was able to try all that. It wasn't that bad! But I wouldn’t eat it on my own spare time :) Then Caroline gave us such cute presents. They're family is the best. So, so fun and awesome. 

Anyways, that was my week and my fun Christmas. I've already learned so much this transfer. Thanks for all your support and love as always. Keep being awesome and working hard and make sure to remember what's most important in your life. If any of you have questions or concerns, I know I'm not always available, but I'll do my best to respond back and help at any chance I get. 


Avec Amour,
Sœur Sarah Hunt  

My Christmas package from home

My little Christmas corner

Oysters

Escargot

Frog legs

Christmas lights

My newest companions

Changes!

There are only a few changes... nothing drastic like moving to a new ville or training, but I am getting a new companion. Her name is Sœur McBride, she seems really nice and ready to go. She's only 1 transfer ahead of me and she's coming from Belgium! On the other hand, Sœur Giles is leaving to be an STL in Paris with two francophones. In fact, her companion is from Canada so that'll be interesting for her. The other two people in her district are Asian and are speaking Mandarin Chinese and learning French. It's pretty cool. She's going to have a lot of fun. #byemom/polisher  We are losing 12 Soeurs and 1 Elder this transfer and we're only getting 6 new Soeurs.

The work is progressing so much here! I'm going to tell you a little story. To start, back track to the beginning of the transfer when we were all super surprised that Sœur Giles was staying for her 7th transfer here. That’s like half her mission. The STL asked president why she was staying another one. His response was, "It just didn't feel right for her to leave yet. She needs to stay to see the beginning of a marvelous work there in Nancy." Boy was he dead right. First, we had a baptism with Raphaël and we hadn't had a baptism since April, here. Now current and up to date, between us 4 Sœurs, we have 6 baptismal dates and we had 8 amis at church yesterday. It's incredible the drastic change we are seeing here. It’s also not just the amis, but it's also the less actives. There were 3 less active families at church the other day too. The ward needs it. Also, the members are more trusting of us now, compared to a few months ago. I’m so excited to be able to help with this great work.

First, I'll start with Oceane to show you how things are faring. We saw her last Monday. We were going to start the commandments, but we've been going very fast with the lessons instead of making her foundation, on the Book of Mormon, well established. Because once you have your testimony firm on the Book of Mormon then everything else will fall into place and come easier. So, we spent the rendezvous with her just starting to read. We read the 3 testimonies and started reading in 1Nephi. We helped her to understand things as we went and from what she was sharing, she was understanding the things we were saying. We told her about the Joseph Smith's testimony on finding the plates and asked her if she wanted to read it together or by herself. She said she'd read it by herself because she's very intrigued by it. Super sweet and I'm excited to teach her commandments next.

Speaking of commandments, we saw Brian again and he's doing awesome. We were going to teach him the first 4 commandments, but we needed to explain more in depth the first two which were, pray often and study the scriptures. Up until this time, we would ask him to pray and read and he would just say yeah, I'll try. But we never really seemed to be getting anywhere. So finally, we stopped and asked him what was holding him back? You need to act on the things we’re giving you. His response was along the lines of, I don’t feel clean or worthy to talk to Him. So, once he finally opened up to us we were able to help him with his thought process and help him to understand. Now he's committed to doing something. Things are going well with him. He's been coming to church and he looks a little different.

Now, Emine. We saw her on Wednesday and she was by herself this time. We had some great chats with her and she was able to open up to us more which is really cool. What's extra cool was that she had been on the phone a couple of times with her friend Oceane, and our ami, and they were talking about church and us. All good things, all good things. Like I said already, what was cool was that our ami asked our other ami to come to church. Totally possible for her to come, but Emine doesn't like waking upon the morning that early. She lives far, but way more possible than other to come because she has a car. So, she's thought about it and we didn't even ask her, but we planned on asking her. Pretty cool. We explained the Book of Mormon so she could start reading it and she's excited to read it. We gave the lesson, restoration and she liked it. Again, she's intrigued and understanding. It was really cool, and I hope to see her again soon.

Yesterday at church, I was asked to give a talk in sacrament for the 31st of this month. It's just 10 minutes, but it's 10 minutes IN FRENCH. Am I being punished for not speaking a lot??! Oh well, I'll be fine, I hope... Like I said already, church was very full and a great turn out. There was a visiting family there too, just this once. They're from AMERICA, Washington state. They're traveling the world right now. They've already been out since June and have seen England and Spain. They spend like a month in each country seeing the biggest parts of them. Tomorrow they're heading to Paris to finish up before they go to Germany. So, so cool and so, so lucky. It was fun talking with them about the new Star Wars moving coming out and other past movies that I've missed. It was especially fun to talk to them in a language I know... speaking of languages. One of our amis that we had come, is from Ecuador and speaks Spanish, obviously, and she doesn't really speak English or French very well. But she understands it. I told her I've been wanting to learn Spanish and that she'd need to teach me sometime. She was able to speak with our DMP leader because he's from Mexico and can clearly talk with her. When Luis (our DMP) couldn't be with her, I would try and translate for her... LET ME CLARIFY, I don't speak Spanish, so I translated to English it gave her things in Spanish to read. It was kind of a cool experience. Her name is Karol and she's super awesome. Hope to see her again soon!

Well to finish up my adventures from this past week, we went to Paris on Thursday because Sœur Giles needed to get her second-year legality. The place is like the DMV. It took a total of 2 hours of waiting in line (I sat in the waiting room talking to francophones), from 10:50 - 12:50. Our train back to Nancy was at 2:15 and we were running out of time. We wanted to see Notre Dame (which I saw from a mile’s distance) and we wanted to go to a fancy target store that was called Hema. Again, we didn’t have time, because everything took a long time, but I know I'll have more opportunities to see things later on.... hopefully. But what I did see, was my good friend, Elder James McDougal in passing. I stopped him and had a very brief chat because again we were in a hurry to catch our train. It was fun seeing him. Speaking of Elder McDougal, I heard he's training! What a guy.

Anyways, thanks everyone for being awesome and supporting me and loving me and everything. BETTY LLOYD, thank you for the very sweet Christmas card. You're the best and I really appreciated it. Have yourself a very Merry Christmas. 

Talk to you all next week!
Avec Amour,

Sœur Sarah Hunt


P.S. I learned Morse code. Legitimately. •••• •- •••- •   -•   •••- • •-• -•--   -- • •-• •-• -•--
-•-• •••• •-• •• ••• - -- •- ••• 

My district

Soeur N. Left me her cube!

DMP Family

Through the looking gate

Beyond the gate

Place Stanislas

Time Flies

December 11, 2017

The message of the gospel is the same no matter where you are called to serve on your mission. No matter what language you speak, no matter the cultural differences, because the feeling is the same. The teachings are the same. It’s pretty incredible. 

Yesterday I forgot that today was P day until Sœur N said, it's p-day eve! And then Sunday morning I totally didn't realize that it was Sunday. The week was very full, and the days blurred together. 

I'm continually surprised that I am currently living in the country of France. I used to look at it on the map as just a place, but it again hit me during church while singing with the relief society that it's not just a place. It's so much more. There are people here that are so incredible, and I wouldn't have ever known them or had any idea about anyone that I've met without having been able to come here. Now I think the same about every single place in the world. There are so many people that we haven't met, and they're our brothers and sisters. Again, I'm continually grateful for the opportunity I have been given to be here and meet these people. 

One thing that I've been really missing is the opportunity to attend the temple. I never thought that I'd miss the temple as much as I do now. It may not make that much sense to you because our lives are different and the things we experience and learn are different right now, but I must tell you how grateful I am to be able to live in an area where I can go to a temple where and whenever I want. I miss the feeling I get from being in the temple. I never realized it before because I was always so distracted by life. I miss the power it holds being in the temple. There really is something to be said about the feeling you get by being there. So please for me, take some time this coming week and go to the temple. The Lord wants you close to him. He loves you and wants you to experience everything He has by His side. 

We finally got back in touch with our ami and the reason she didn't answer was because she was sick. (Fact: French people don't inform you of things very much. For example, if they're not showing up to church and they're the ones with the lesson, they won't tell anyone, they just don't show up. So, then someone ends up improvising in place of them (usually us), so I guess because she was sick she couldn't pick up the phone, I don't know I try not to question it.) We finally got to see her, and we were also going to see her little girl too. Her little girl was so, so, so cute. She is 5 years old and when we talked about Jesus and God she didn’t know who they were. So, we taught her who Jesus was and who God was to us. We taught her how to pray and we asked her, how do we talk to him? She said, "uh... ça va?" It was funny. She prayed about 4 times. It was so cute. Her mom thought it was funny and cute too and liked that her daughter was learning these things. At the end we gave her a gift. Can you guess? Yes! A Book of Mormon in Italian! Good guess. She absolutely loved it. We told her that we would be giving it to her once we found it. She hugged it and put it on her dresser and said, oh yay it's all mine. She got the shivers too. Oh, we were so happy. We're very happy she's willing to meet with us and listen. She even asked if we wanted to come over with the rest of her family for the 24th but we already had an invitation from a member family. She's so sweet and awesome. 

Speaking of this member family it's just an older gentleman and his daughter. They're both fluent in English. The brother is a member of the high council and is a translator for conference and other books and stuff. He worked in the military as a translator. He knows like 4 languages fluently. He doesn't even have an accent.  His daughter has a little bit of an accent, but they're so awesome and so down to earth and fun. He wants us over to eat, take walks and see some cool sights. They're going to give us presents I think ha-ha. They said they want to give us the real French experience. They’re going to make snails, snake, frog legs bread and cheese and then see some war trenches. I'm so excited. I'm not scared to eat those things because I've always wanted to try them for the experience! 

Moving on to our other ami.  It's been going very well. We've had one other lesson and he's changing. We had a baptism for a little boy in the ward and he came with his family and he looked like he was very happy and having a good time with his friends. The members were so welcoming and excited to see him. His friends that he grew up with in the ward loved seeing him again and chatted up a while. The next day, yesterday, he went to church for the first time and again had a great time. It was so cool to see him there. 

Our other ami! We've taught her everything in the first 3 lessons so that's about half of everything. We met her two weeks ago and we see her a lot. She's super cool and has a lot of hardships in her life. But in the second lesson we asked her to be baptized again but with the proper authority. She said no, but then we told her that of course she wasn't sure right now, but we will help her get there. She told us why she didn’t want to, and I'll say right now she's having a hard time with the law of chastity and we’re kind of nervous to teach it. But we set a date as a goal for now and set it for February 16.  Were excited for it and were going to do our best to help her get there. We know she can do it. We see her again tonight to start reading the Book of Mormon and help her to gain a testimony of it, because once you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon then everything else will fall into place. 

Anyways, love you all. Talk later! Hope your Christmas season is going swell and that you're safe and having fun. I'll pray that you guys get snow because, let's be honest, there's no Christmas without snow. I have to say that to my companion repeatedly, but she just doesn't understand. California girls, am I right? Ha-ha.

Au revoir  (bye)

Avec amour (with love)
Sœur Sarah Hunt

Loving the new snowfall

Exchanges

Sarah made it for her ami (investigator)

Sarah's latest dinner creation- Fresh green beans, couscous and salmon

Bonjour à tous ! Vous allez bien ? Je ne parlerai pas beaucoup en français parce que le français pour moi est très dure. Mais, parfois il est très amusant. J'aime bien la France et les gens ici. D'accord, j'ai fini. (Hello Everyone! Are you well? I won't speak in French much because its very hard for me. But sometimes it's funny. I love France and the people here! Ok I'm done.)

You know, since being here, I've been to Paris twice. Back home, I never thought that it would be as easy as it has been to just take a train and head to Paris. You'd need to plan the trip, buy the tickets and figure out how you'll be able to live in France for the time being. Now I'm living here, and it's just so easy to do a day trip, so to speak. As a little girl I've heard so many stories about how romantic, beautiful and classy it is in Paris. Now I'm here, everything that people have said is true, that is, all the good things. The people are not impatient nor snooty, in fact they are pretty welcoming so long as you're not talking about God.  People would ask me where in the whole world would I want to visit. Of course, it's France. Now I'm here, and people are still asking me that question, so now I must think of something else to say in response. Where would I want to see next? It's so crazy how fast things can change. It’s very possible to just pick up life and head out right then and there. Life is fascinating people!

Why am I speaking about Paris? Well as a matter of fact, I headed 2 hours west to Paris for a Mission Conference Wednesday evening. Sœur Giles and I went down the night before and stayed the night in an apartment of other Sœurs in the city of Nogent which is about 30 minutes by tram from central Pairs. There were 10 Sœurs in the apartment and I don't think I'll say I slept like a baby. Maybe like a baby with colic but without the crying... lol I'm not sure that even makes sense, but who cares. Since being out here on the mission, I don't think I worry all that much anymore about the insignificant things. There’s no time for that. I'm trying to be someone better and see things from a different perspective. Sorry, tangent, moving on to the conference. Elder Sabin from 70 came and talked to all the zones.  We were divided up between the 3 Paris zones on Wednesday and the rest of us Thursday.  I loved seeing my wonderful pals from the MTC, and I was able to meet so many other awesome people.

Elder Sabin is very good with his words. I loved how he related everything back to an Eternal perspective. I love thinking about things in the eternal perspective.

It just shows and reminds me that nothing ends now, and nothing will last forever. This life is a spec compared to the rest of the plan. May I share a few things from what I've learned that I'm going to apply in my life? Good.

▪"Enjoy the learning curve, because it'll be with you for the rest of your life."

▪"If little things bother you, get over it, move on, forgive, grow up. Be grateful."

▪"Time goes by fast, and you have your whole life, including the one after this, to look back at what you've done. So, make it count."

▪"The race is against sin, not each other."

▪"Be obedient and things will work out."

▪"REMEMBER."

You may wonder why I decided to remember these few things... Well, let me tell you my reasons. First, you cannot go through life with a bad attitude. It makes it so hard! Trust me I've had my fair share of bad attitude in my life to know that it doesn't help. Life is already hard, don't make it harder on yourself! Yes, there are bad things. People make you angry, people annoy you, people don't recognize you or maybe even just nothing is working out the way you want it to. That leads me into my second point. If those things bother you, GET OVER IT, MOVE ON, GROW UP, FORGIVE. Just be grateful for what you have, and what you're going through! Everything we go through down here is for our eternal benefit.

Everything we are learning here is preparing us to become God's and Goddesses. We are here to become like our Heavenly Father. Of course, it’s going to be hard! Becoming an Eternal being isn't just handed to you. You must work for it. Don't you want that? Eternal happiness? Eternal peace? Living with your family forever? I do. Why throw that away for worldly things? Don't do it, it's stupid. Make your choices count. Time goes by very fast, so make things count! Because like I said before, this life is a spec compared to what will be coming. You will remember everything you've ever done. Do you want to look back at all the things you've done and regret it? I don't, but of course, were not perfect. We make mistakes, but really all we can do is our best, and utilize the Saviors sacrifice in our life. "The race is against sin, not each other."  For this point, this is how I thought of it; stop with the contention. We are all brothers and sisters. We're a big family. Stop trying to degrade yourself or blame others for things. Let's work together to punch Satan in the face and throw sin in the trash, because frankly, it stinks.

If you're obedient then things will work out. Lately I've been forgetting what rules I'm trying to obey. Because as a missionary we have many rules, so when I hear "be obedient" I just think, yeah, yeah I got it, but sometimes I forget what they mean by it. Elder Richard G Scott once said, "Be obedient to the prophetic teachings Christ would have you follow. Don’t rationalize away future happiness by taking shortcuts instead of applying sound gospel principles. Remember: little things lead to big things. Seemingly insignificant indiscretions or neglect can lead to big problems. More importantly, simple, consistent, good habits lead to a life full of bountiful blessings." I believe it. I know that things will work out for my good if I'm obedient. I've seen it in my life. “The discipline contained in daily obedience and clean living and wholesome lives builds an armor around you of protection and safety from the temptations that beset you as you proceed through mortality.” -L.Tom Perry. 

Sorry, one last thing is to remember what you feel. Remember what you learn. It's so easy to forget things. I personally am like Dory, maybe not as much, but pretty close. We fall always from the church because we forget what we feel, not because God's not real. If anything bad happens I'm pretty sure it's because of us. Again, it depends on your perspective and your attitude on the outcome of things. God doesn't make bad things happen to us. He loves us! He cries when we cry! He wants us to make it back to Him and live with Him forever.

Sorry that was a lot. I hope I didn't bore you too much. Moving on.

We got the friend referral from our ami Emina. Speaking of Emina, she's not answering our calls, but I hope it's just because her phone is broken. We finally asked her about it and got her friends number. Her friend is Oceane (oh-see-anne). We called her, and she was willing to meet with us. She has a 9-month-old boy and he's adorable. We saw her on Tuesday for 45 minutes. We taught her the restoration and taught her also how to pray. She gave a prayer and it was a very awesome experience. The spirit was there, and she said she got the chills when we talked about Joseph Smith. We were so happy. She's Evangelist but hasn't gone to church in a few years. We asked her to come church and she said she was and boy we were so excited! She is someone we could count on. I could just feel like she was different. We asked her if we could come back the next day and drop off the Book of Mormon and she said yes. We did and she said she had read the whole Reestablishment pamphlet. She also said she would start reading the Book of Mormon that night with her aunt. Awesome! It's going so well! Well we got back with her on Saturday night and she said she was too sick to come to church. I really hope we’ll be able to see her and that wasn't her first and last time telling us that she wasn't interested anymore.

The baptism! It was so, so awesome. I love that guy. He's literally the best. I cannot help but get teary eyed when I see people get baptized. It's so cool to see them make that first commitment to eternal life. He looked so happy and excited. His family came too and none of them are members. In fact, his brother lives in the south, but he came up to support him. He was recorded the gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting and it was again so very special. He's just someone who will be very strong in the gospel. He also is marrying into a family who is very strong in the church. I love the priesthood. It's such a powerful thing that we have down here. It's so fascinating and special.

At church because it was fast Sunday, we fasted, and I asked that I'd be able to feel the spirit and act upon it so that I can do the things the Lord wants me to do. He knows best. Well, I didn't think he was going to ask me to bare my testimony in sacrament. I can tell you with surety that was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life so far. I cried like a baby. I just couldn't shake the feeling of going up and giving my testimony. I think it helped because it helped me gain the trust of the members.

One other thing which was super-duper crazy cool, best part of my mission by far was going to the Chretien family last night. Last time we taught them we gave them the engagement to find someone who needed the gospel. Well they got someone, their son. He's been less active of 5 years and he's 22 now. His name is Bryan and it was his decision to meet with us. We weren't expecting anything like what we were about to experience there. He told us, "I need a shoulder. I've done some bad things in my life and I'm struggling. I really need some help. I'm not going anywhere and I'm not sure if it's the church and being a part of the organization or the principles they teach that I miss. I really need help." He was so humble. So sincere. We helped him with his questions and in turn he asked us the same questions so he would get ideas about how we felt too. He was someone who if he didn’t understand he'd say so, so he could understand. We bore our testimonies a lot. Frere Chretien, told me that he was very impressed with my language. He said I was improving so much. I felt happy, it's very nerve wracking to speak when you don't really know the language. But we testified, and the spirit was very strong. Bryan a few times was very close to crying. He had a many tears in his eyes and you could tell he wasn't happy, he regretted a lot of things and was very sad. I wanted to help him so much. We taught him the restoration/reestablishment because he wants the missionary lessons again. He's going to keep trying to see us. By the end of our lesson he looked so, so much happier. He looked like he had more hope. We came with a lesson prepared, but didn't even touch it. We followed the spirit and just went with it. I wish I could tell you in full how much of an amazing experience it was. He was someone who wanted to change and wanted to be better. I was so proud of him. He's such a cool dude and very fun and quite funny. At the end we just ended up talking about our lives and what we did and showed pictures and he seemed so much more relaxed too. He has a girlfriend, and we were even thinking to teach them together. Because Bryan also wants a really good family, so I think maybe it could work! Ah, it was super awesome. I want more of those experiences.

Anyways that was my week and I hope things are going well at home! It's still snowing and beautiful here. Learning lots like usual. Stay safe and keep being good!

Love,

Sœur Sarah Hunt 💙

Raphael's baptism

Snowing in Paris

Love the snow!!

Christmas in the apartment

My Christmas Tree package from home

Christmas in Downtown Nancy France

IT SNOWED!!

It snowed. THREE TIMES. Once it was sleeting and so was the next one, but then the next one was awesome with HUGMONGOUS flakes which only lasted 10 minutes and didn't stick to the ground. Oh well, I'm glad I saw it.

Thanksgiving was awesome. We had our own American Thanksgiving with the district. We made turkey with ash potatoes and sweet potatoes with brown sugar and baguettes and green bean casserole, and finished with the classic pumpkin pie. It was fun. Our district consists of St. Dié, Épinal and us here in Nancy. Two Elder équipés (companionships) and 2 Soeur équipés. So there is 8 instead of 6 now, because they added St. Dié to our area. Anyways, it was fun and it felt like a little American Thanksgiving. That was the day before thanksgiving. So Wednesday.

We saw Emina on Wednesday too. It was way awesome We made sure we left enough time open on our scheduled for her. She had just gotten out of bed when we arrived. Again, she talked more about her life and opened up a lot.  I love hearing about her life because we can understand her better and help her according to her needs. After her stories she said she was going to take a quick shower and be back. Ok... So we're just sitting downstairs waiting and just trying to decided what to do next. We were also going to have lunch with her and we wanted to share the Plan of Salvation and really focus on the Atonement of Christ for her before we ate. We did and it was awesome. We give her things in Italian because she reads better in Italian. She was super focused on what we were saying. She really liked talking about these things. She believes a lot the way we do. It went very well and we will be seeing her again to talk about the restoration! We had a good lunch, she cooks nicely and it tastes very good.  She gave us the leftovers and we ate them the next day.

Thursday we had our lesson with Raphaël.  We were super nervous for it. We just babbled on at the beginning, but then I bore an awesome testimony about missionary work ;) I'm able to speak more and more and come up with my own complete sentences! So, we gave the last lesson of laws and ordinances and just went over it within 30 minutes. He understands everything and is so on top of things. Also, the Elders prepared him very well, so we didn't do much. We talked about his baptism for a little bit, because he had already prepared everything. He has such great support. I mean the family he's most likely marrying into is so awesome and strong in the gospel. They have all helped him get things ready and he's getting more excited. It'll be such an awesome baptism this Saturday! Pray for Raphaël :)

We saw Valerie on the road. I can't remember if I told you already, but we saw her after a long time of not seeing her and scheduled a time to meet. She frudged (ditched) us a lot, so I didn't think I was going to see her again. But we did and we taught the Restoration.  It was very good. I used some really fun visual activities that helped her to understand better. She can't be baptized till she has a legal marriage and is legal in France. So it’s going to be pretty hard. But we really want to help her. She also needs to understand the authority between us and the other religions. But it's going good.

The security guards in our building are the best. Since there used to be just one companionship of Elders living in this building, there is only one set of keys. So... we have only one sensor for the door to the building. We asked for more keys, and we got more but still only have one sensor. So, we have to sometimes coordinate who will be home first so we don't have to wait or just stay locked out. Then we have to wait and have the Sœurs come get us. But the security guards are so nice, they usually let us in unless it's a new guard and doesn't know who we are. But they usually do and they're so nice and sometimes they just laugh at us because we’re a bunch of weirdos and they know that we are "the four American girls." One of them knows me as the one who really needs to pee all the time because I’m always doing the pee pee dance when we get home. He pushes the up button over and over for the elevator to come down for me when he sees me coming.

So, we decided to write a note and deliver brownies to them all. We wrote a funny note in French just saying, hey thanks for always opening the door when we forgot our keys... (even though we have keys just not a door sensor). They loved it. Then next day when we went down to go running at 6:30 two different guards were changing shifts, but they said thank you for the card that it was very nice of us. So, we became the famous four American girls to all the security guards and so now they always open the door and wave at us every time we pass by haha. Then just last night one security guy came up to our room and gave us a note half in French half in English and some amazing cookies that tasted like Almond Joys. It was so awesome haha!

Today was really fun. We met up with the Toul Soeurs and had sushi and went ice skating. It was super fun and the sushi was amazing as usual. They played the Michael Bublé Christmas album as we skated around a fun looking decorated tree thing. It was snowing a tiny bit as we skated too.  It was super-duper fun. It felt like Christmas and we loved it so much.

This week we will be heading down to Paris for a mission conference (Sabin Conference) and also have a baptism. I'm super excited for all the things I'll be able to experience. Love you all so much. Thanks for everything, comme d'habitude ;) (as usual) talk next week! Stay safe and pray that I get more snow!

Love

Sœur Sarah Hunt🎄🎁

Thanksgiving with our little district!

Ice skating with the Soeurs from Toul

Roomies

The cookies and note from the security guards

Was that Portuguese or French?

Its that time of year again, my sweaters are out and my ear muffs are on. I can smell the chocolat chaude in the stinging wind as it passes by my face. My breaths become more visible in the thick chilled night. Boy am I blessed to have a scarf wrapped like a present around my neck. The twinkling lights are coming up. The pine trees are covered in ornaments and tinsel. Weird, it feels like Christmas is coming. Where's the snow?! Where's Thanksgiving?! My brain can only take one holiday at a time! Don't worry I wouldn't ever skip Thanksgiving. We're going to our DMP's house for that! (Ward Mission Leader) 

This week went by incredibly fast. It's weird that it's already the 3rd week into the transfer. The Sœurs and us are handling life here well.  Work is progressing so much. Compared to when I first got here we now have 3 solid amies and even have a baptism next Saturday. The members are so much more involved in our work now too. Like the President has told us, we are here to see the work in Nancy start. I really have seen so many more miracles and things begin. Its changed so much since I've been here. I'm glad I've been able to help with the little French that I know. 

On Wednesday we had a rendezvous with Emina, the girl that I met on exchanges two times ago and who we helped move into her new apartment. So ever since the last time we helped her move, I've constantly been trying keep in touch with her until she either blocked me or told us to buzz off. I just kept thinking we shouldn't let her go even when she already said she wasn't interested. So our idea was to slowly slide in with the gospel the more we helped her, the more we built trust with her and the more she got to know us. So after she said she wasn't interested in the gospel we decided to just become her friend.  We would check up on her every once in a while and see how she was doing. Eventually she asked us to come over to her house some night and have dinner with her! She really likes us. The last time we came over she was going to give us coffee and turn on the TV because I think what she thought we were all going to just relax and chat. So we knew we needed to tell her our rules... we did and she thought it was very surprising and interesting. When she made lunch for us, we asked if we could say a prayer with her because that's what we do. She said sure and it was a good first prayer with her. After we said it, she thought it was very nice! 

Then while we were eating, she opened up about her life so much. She trusts us now. I told you she had kids when she was 16 and has never been married. Her ex boyfriend was a crazy guy. He stabbed her in the thigh, and we know this because she stood up right then and there and pulled down her pants to show us... I wasn't expecting that. Her ex would also give drugs to her kids and now he's in jail because he stole a car. She never wanted to dump him because he threatened to kill her brother. So yes, she's had a very rough life. She doesn't get to see her kids that much anymore, but she just found out from the judge that they can stay with her for 4 days during Christmas. It was such a very cute sight to see her so happy about that. So while she was telling her story about life we would testify about what we believed. She thought what we were saying was really reassuring and sweet. It was a very good moment to be with her for a bit, because she also lives alone a lot. Her boyfriend works so he's not home much. 

While we were heading home together back on the bus, Sœur Giles was showing pictures of her and her family to Emina. I was just watching Emina's face absorb it all. The pictures that Sœur Giles was showing were of her brother getting married in the temple and also just random ones of her family. Overall everyone looked really happy in them. At the end of showing them, she showed the temple to her and explained what we do there. Perform sacred ordinances and we're able to be sealed together forever with your spouse and family. I could definitely tell she wanted something like that with her family. I know she wants to be with her family forever. She loves her kids. At the end she told us that some day she was going to get married. 

Once we got off from the bus, we told her how much we enjoyed being with her and for her stories and for being such an amazing person. She wanted us to come back over this week. We asked if we could share more about our gospel and why we were hear. She then said, she would love to hear more. I just knew that if we kept being her friend and testifying that she would come around. Our story kind of reminds me of the story in Alma. How Ammon befriended the King and eventually by serving and loving him, was able to share this beautiful message. I'm excited to see her on Wednesday to talk more. 

Also, Sœur Bell and I went finding by ourselves and boy was it difficult. I was pretty much the leader and I don't even know exactly what I'm doing! But it was a fun experience. We talked to this one really sweet lady who was probably in her early 20s. She listened to us and I asked her questions and testified. She understood me and it was pretty good. She said she just wasn't interested or even had the time for God. She was very nice for just listening, but it was sad she didn't want to learn more. At the end before she walked away, she told me I had pretty good French. That made me happy. She asked me how long I'd been here and I told her 3 months and she was so shocked. She said I was doing really good and to keep it up. I felt much happier after that. 

This week was a week of figuring our my purpose as a missionary. I'm here to love the people. I haven't been able to figure out how to do that yet. I've been really trying to work on it. So this Thursday and Friday we went to Luxembourg for exchanges. I went with Sœur Miguel to go finding Thursday night before our rendezvous. We met this one lady and I guess I can say she was a bit arrogant. She thought she knew things and just looked like she was humoring us. She had met the missionaries on the street before but didn't stop to listen to them. So I guess this time she decided to stop and listen. Sœur Miguel was talking first and stopped the lady and the lady just listened, She said some thing but I didn't really understand. Then I heard her say, what makes you different from the rest of the other religions. I was thinking, oh wow, that's a tough one, you got it Sœur Miguel. Then I saw Soeur Miguel look at me giving me the cue to answer her question. My heart stopped beating. I think I died for a sec. So I started to answer, "nous croyons.... uh...." Then she said, "you know, I do speak English. I said, "oh good..." she said she likes to see people try and speak a different language to practice... Thanks. Well so I didn't speak still for a good 20 seconds because I wasn't sure where to start and how to actually answer. Then I ended up starting with Christ's earthy ministry all the way to the restoration with Joseph Smith. Towards the end I  felt the spirit and the spirit was putting words in my mouth. I didn't think I did very well. The girl didn't say anything and she kept saying she needed to leave and she didn't want to be rude. She said that we were wasting our time on her because she wasn't really interested. Even though I was pretty frustrated with her and myself, I ended up saying things I didn't even realize I was saying. I testified of the importance of this gospel and how we weren't wasting our time on her. She then said, well isn't this your job to convince others to join your religion? I responded saying, well no, we chose to come here. We chose to help people come closer to Christ, but not by forcing. She was intrigued by that. Then I continued saying, that we were here to help the people find true eternal happiness and strengthen their relationship with God. We know how important this gospel is because we've felt the happiness and experienced true peace and blessings in our lives and we wanted to share it with people here. I felt the spirit at that point. She responded by saying sorry I don't want to be rude, but I really need to go. That was that.  After that I realized what I said was from the spirit. I realized how much I wanted her to understand this gospel and how much we cared for her. But I didn't realize that by myself. The spirit put me through that so that I would learn. It seriously left me utterly perplexed. But I'm very grateful I went through that even if it was very tough and awkward. 

We met one more lady that I just felt love for. I mean, I'm still learning to love the people, but in this moment I was taking a step forward on my way to reaching that goal. She was a pregnant lady who lived all by herself. She is Muslim and had no idea who Jesus Christ is. She was super sweet and was listening to us, but she really wasn't interested. It was just an interesting experience. I barely knew her, and yet I totally understood her life with just a few words that she had told us.  I realized how big and important this gospel is and there are a ton of people who don't know about it. Its like I know these things, but sometimes depending on my situation, it just clicks in a  different perspective. Its so amazing the things you learn and feel being out on a mission. Anyways, I wanted her to know, and I wanted to help her. She wasn't interested and it was actually kind of sad. I know what people are missing out on. I know what I feel and I know what I've learned and I can't deny it's truthfulness. 

Sorry for the ramble. Moving on to our rendezvous later that night after our finding experience. This family spoke Portuguese. We had a member come with us to translate who was related or a family friend, I can't remember. There was a sister who was a member and her daughter as well. But not their mom or their brother. I just realized we were speaking 4 different languages during the lesson. Nothing would've been possible if it wasn't for the spirit. When the sister gave her experience on praying about the Book of Mormon she started to cry. She said when she felt what she did, she said she finally found the true church. She couldn't deny what she felt. She then started crying harder and said she just wanted her family to be with her forever too. I got pretty teary eyed even when I didn't exactly understand what she was saying. I'm telling you when you don't understand if people are speaking Portuguese or even French and you still cry... you know the spirit is real. We asked the brother and mother to be baptized by January and the brother said yes. The mom said she would still be searching. But it was such, such a great experience. During the lesson I just didn't want it to end. I felt so happy and I just didn't want to leave. I felt like I had everything I wanted and that I just didn't need anything else. I felt like I was with my family. I mean I am trying to help God's children find salvation which means I'm helping my siblings. Seriously it felt like true happiness. Then afterwards we ate cake the brother made which was lemon and super good and sang happy birthday and I got teary eyed at that too because everyone felt and looked so happy. It was just a sight I'll never forget. 

Well, one last thing that happened that I'd like to share is our surprise rendezvous with our ami Caroline and her husband Dominique. She was out of town these past few weeks and just got back. She was moving into a new apartment and a new office. We decided to text her to see how she was. She asked us if we wanted to come over to her office and help her rearrange her office to see what would look best. She also texted us back saying if we could set up an appointment for this week to have a lesson and a prayer. We left right away. We got to her place and we had herbal tea and chatted about life and about what we do as missionaries. The whole thing was just to catch up and see each other. They really enjoy us and like our company. She even reached out to us for a lesson. It was really nice just being able to talk with them. When we were done Caroline wanted to finish with a prayer. She absolutely loves our prayers and she always feels something when we pray. She and her husband always give each other this, that was so sweet, look afterwards. 

Anyways, things are going well with her and the rest of our amies. We are getting ready for Raphael's last lesson before his baptism and it's going to be fun. I love the things I learn and the things that are just starting. Its fascinating. This gospel is real. I love what it does to people's lives. I couldn't be happier. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Thank you all for your support, love and prayers. It makes a big difference. I hope everything is going well for you all back home. I pray for you all the time as well. 

Chat next week! and Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

Love, 
Sœur Sarah Hunt 

Finding with Soeur Bell

Exchanges in Luxembourg

 

Exchanges

Avoiding the weird man down the hall

New amis