Missionary work is the best!!

This week was pretty fabulous. I never would've imagined how crazy, cool and full of miracles it would hold for us. I almost forgot what missionary work was! This week was so jam packed full! We barely had any time for studies. It was so, so fun and awesome.

I’ll start with Monday evening. We went to an amis house. It was super cool and the spirit was very strong. They are crazy devout Catholics and love God a lot. They are seeing other missionaries from other religions to see which one is correct. I don't know if I ever told you, but, teaching Catholics is VERY HARD. They also speak English. They are the ones that came from Pakistan. They have a meeting very soon that tells them if they can stay or if they have to be deported. They're very nervous. Anyways, planning for their lesson was a little difficult, because they said they had many questions and we didn't know what they would ask. We did plan to ask them to be baptized though, but we for sure weren't thinking they would say yes, or they would have a hard time understanding because they’ve done every single little ritual you've ever done in the Catholic church and wouldn't understand why they would need to do it again. So we said to ourselves, well, it's our duty and we would be depriving them of promised blessings if we didn't invite them. So we were going for it. They kept asking us if we believe in Saints or if we prayed to them. They asked us to explain the 3 kingdoms again because they don't really hear a lot about the afterlife in Catholicism. When the time came to ask them to be baptized. We said, "If you came to know of these things to be true for yourself, would you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the proper authority?" Without hesitation, Joseph said, "Absolutely not." Well there ya go, REJECTED! Lol, it's fine, we were expecting it. They said if they decided to get baptized it would look like they gave up on this Catholicism. They weren't sure yet. But we continued our lesson and we started reading the Book of Mormon with them. Towards the end, they softened up a little and were more easy going. I think with time, they would get baptized. Anyways, they're such sweet people, very nice and we enjoy them a lot. 

Tuesday was fun, we had district meeting from 12 until 430. The Épinal elders missed their train and had to take a 2 hour bus ride here so it would've started at 1030. But it was all good. Afterwards, we found this really nice porting (contacting) place just 30 minutes outside centreville (downtown). The people there are so awesome and nice! Even if they don't want to hear from us or are not interested, they're still very polite about it. And it's in the country side and on a hill with beautiful scenery. 

Went to a museum. We got some tickets from a very nice member.  This furniture was what defined and developed the Parisian culture. Some of which they don't make anymore. It was a very beautiful house and the gardens were pretty amazing too. It was fun to learn some interior design of Paris! Haha, neener neener mother! ;) Afterwards, we went back to that porting place in the country side to finish up the night. 

Now Thursday is the magical day. The Luxembourg Sœurs came down for another exchange for this transfer. It was going to be a finding day and we didn't have any rendezvous until 5 and they were leaving at 5 for Paris for a mission conference. So to keep a long story short, pretty much, Sœur Staley and I found 4 new numbers and 1 new ami! We also got a couple of 5 Facebook followers to teach. It was actually really fun. Their method is really good. I want to be able to do what they do some day. But first I need the vocabulary for it. She just captures the people’s attention! Anyways, when we got back together with the other companionship, Sœur Giles and Sœur earl they had found 5 new amies! Side note, it's very difficult getting new amies finding right off the street. Anyways, we were so, so excited to actually have someone to teach. Our goal for the week was 4 but it turned out to be 5 new amies. It's all thanks to the Lord and the prayers we have received. Thank you all. 

Friday we found one girl all by ourselves by using the method of the STLs (Sister training Leaders). IT WORKED! I stopped this lady on the street and our conversation went like this:

Me: "Bonjour! On est missionnaires pour l'Église de Jésus-Christ et on est ici pour aider les gens à trouver la paix et fortifié votre relation avec Dieu. Est-ce que vous êtes quelqu'un croyant ?"

(Hello, we are missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ. We are here to help people find peace and strengthen their relationship with God.  Do you believe in God?)

New Amie: "oui." (yes)

Me: "qu'est-ce que vous croyez ?" (What is it that you believe?)

She didn't really know, but we asked her if she believed in Jesus or God and she did. Then we just chatted and got to know her a bit. Told her why we were here and where we were from. Then we asked her if she'd like to know more. She said, "pourquoi pas ?!"(why not?) Then she said she'd come by our church some time and we told her it's only open on Sundays, but we had the keys and would show her around. She said ok yeah lets meet at 12 30 and we can go together! We finished by saying a prayer which makes what we did a lesson and a rendezvous. Because a rendezvous consists of a principle taught and finishing with a prayer.  And getting a new ami is doing all of that AND setting another day and time to meet. That's why I said it's hard getting new amies when finding, because usually it just ends up being hello, would you like to learn more, no I'm busy, ok well how about next time, yeah sure, and then they just walk off. So we have to figure out a way to actually commit them and engage them in wanting to know more. And what we did was just that! We got a new ami and she was super sweet and awesome and we see her this Wednesday! We were so happy to be able to do that by ourselves without the STLs help.

We had DMP later and then started to set up for our Ward Halloween party but then, we then got a text from another ami that Soeur Staley and I met finding Thursday. She said she wasn't interested, but her friend was. She also said that she was in the process of moving. Then Sœur Staley said, oh! We can help you! Then she said, really? We love doing service; there aren't many occasions where we can help like that. But she texted us and asked if we were still willing to help her move. We said yes... here comes the crazy story... We told her we would be ready by 730 to help her and she said that worked just fine.

So we headed over to her house and remember we don't really know her, we just met her once. So we had no idea what to expect. We got to her place and they were pretty much done taking things out. She said that they were heading to her new place now. So we were going to drive with her... But as she walked away Sœur Giles and I looked at each other and Giles said, "can we even ride in a car with an ami??" I shrugged and said, "check the white handbook!" (White handbook are the rules of the mission). So we did and we were all clear. Phew! But told her we couldn't be in the car with only men. She said it's fine we will be together the whole time. Great. We got in the car with her husband. And he was taking out chewing tobacco to stuff in the side of his cheek. Great! What have we gotten ourselves into... Then the husband asked us what kind of music we like, and again me and Giles just looked at each other and shrugged.. I said, we like all music you pick... Then he handed us his phone and said, here you choose. So here I am holding the phone with YouTube on and I'm supposed to pick a song... I look at Sœur Giles and she whispers frantically, "I don't know MoTab?!" Then I said, "oh yeah! Let's just put some Mormon Tabernacle Choir on, they’ll love it! No we can’t do that!" All the while he’s waiting for us to pick a song. I’m trying to think frantically on what kind of song to put on. Then Sœur Giles says, "just put something on from the radio from back home!" But I couldn't remember any songs! Then I finally remembered... Paris by Chainsmokers. Yup I just did that. 

So then we started driving over and got out to what we thought was their new place, but they were taking stuff out of that apartment too. They had such a tiny little truck to stuff everything in. It was like playing Tetris. Those poor couches... so while they were trying to stuff everything in, we were getting to know her friend. She is 26 and was married when she was 15 and had her daughter when she was 16. She asked us if we had any kids and I told her no, but I didn't catch what she had said about having her first kid in high school, so I said no I had just finished high school.... (implying that that would be outrageous...) well... It's fine. She gave me a weird look and its fine... she is from Italy and her husband  from Algeria. So they were stuffing the couches for 30 minutes before we headed to their actual apartment. We had to be home by 9 and it was already 8:30. We drove away from the city and I thought to myself, cool this place is very far out and they’re going to take us to a secluded place and kill us. No we were fine, :) but it was out of range from our bus pass. We got there and we helped them unload and put their things into their apartment within 15 minutes. We got done around 915 which isn't bad. We can't be out any later than 930. Well, she bought pizza stuff and she was going to make some for us. So... we couldn't say no.  Each pizza took 20 minutes to make... by the time it was done cooking and we had eaten it was 1015. CRAP.  We were both freaking out a little. The husband during which was asking us a bunch of questions about what we do and why and other questions. Then we told them we had to leave. So they took us home and it was about a 15 minute car ride. We arrived at our place by 1035. So it was past curfew and past bedtime. Yikes! But we had no idea what to do. We've never been in that situation before. But it ended well and they even invited us back Sunday to help them finish up a bit. But this time we won’t do it in the evening. 

Next morning, we had a rendezvous with another ami which Sœur Staley and I met Thursday. She is from an island near Madagascar. I can't remember which. She was interested and she has a little girl named Mia. So we were heading to their house Saturday morning at 1030. We got there and it was an address to a deserted house where no one lived. Great! I was a little angry. All she had to do was tell us she wasn't interested instead of sending us to a deserted place. Its fine, we dropped her. We called her and sent her a text but she never responded, its fine we have others to attend to.

We then went to have lunch at a members with our ami and her friend. It was very good lunch, but she always makes me eat so much. I thought I was going to throw up at how much I ate. But the lesson with the friend went well.  We taught the Word of Wisdom and she said she'd stop drinking coffee. So it was good. 

Well the rest of the week was average, but very awesome! Thank you for all the help. The work is progressing and I could see the hand of God helping us. Keep having fun and working hard. Love you all a ton. This week will be very busy as well; we pretty much have a rendezvous every day. Pray that none fall through. 

Talk next week!

Your favorite Sœur Hunt 

Ward Halloween Party that Sarah's district put on for the ward

Some of the Halloween party guests of honor

 

 

Free tickets to the museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum was this beautiful house

And its gorgeous gardens

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah, the companionship cook

This week was great and I loved every second of it!

This week was just long I guess. I mean, not discouraging, but long. It consisted of personal study, finding, language study, finding, companion study, finding and then repeated 6 more times throughout the week. I really don't have much to write. Even with all the finding we've done, we didn't even manage to find someone who was even close to interested. We still have all our amies, but it's always hard getting back in touch with them. It's just the culture here. Caroline is out of town until Saturday and Victor is working and he travels a lot, so that doesn't really help. But it's ok! It’s all good! We’re doing the best we can and we still have great attitudes! This coming week is going to be very busy and I'm excited!

So I'll start first by sharing my wonderful, wonderful gift of tongues story from last Monday. We were headed over to a members house for dinner and family home evening.  They're the BEST family.  He speaks very clearly and I can understand everything he is pretty much saying. When he asked me things, I never had to say "comment?"(what?) Or look to my companion to help me out. I simply answered back in French and I seriously surprised myself! The whole night was like that, and even I asked him some questions. I found out that he is a photographer for a living and he's very good. He showed me his cameras which I might add, are humongous. So we had that in common. Next we ate the famous dish of Lorraine. It was actually very good and she also made chocolate mousse for us, yummy. Towards the end of dinner when we heading to leave, the dad said, "If only you could speak better because I can tell you like to joke and we would have so much more fun together." That made me happy. They also have a son who just turned 12 Thursday this last week. I'm glad because now I don't have to try and tu/toi. It's hard...

Anyways, moving on, we were heading down south to pick something up when on the bus ride down we saw Nicolas (you don't know him, it's a different Nicolas that who I've talked about so far). He is from down south but moved up here to go to school. He hasn't been coming to church but I guess that's just because he doesn't really know anybody, but he's a member and he's so sweet and awesome. Anyways, we almost forgot about him until we saw him! He saw us and came over to say hello! Sœur Giles was on the phone and couldn't talk to him. Great. That meant I had to speak French and actually try to speak. So I said hi and then looked away. I knew I couldn't just keep sitting there. He looked like he really wanted to speak with us. He probably really needed someone to talk to. So then I said, "Do you have school today?" He responded by saying, "Yes, I have a class soon, and it's going well." Then I asked what he studied. He said he studied mechanics and he said some others things but I didn't understand, but I knew enough so I nodded my head and said that was cool. I think that's as far as I could go. Soon he was leaving and he said goodbye and told us he'd be coming to church. We were so happy! It really made my day. 

On Sunday, we did see him and he came over and said hello my Sisters. Haha. It was really nice seeing him and now hopefully we can see him more and get to know him better. I think he really needed that. I think that was the reason we needed to go down south that day. It was for him, he needed to see us. It was a great experience. 

I guess now I can add one more thing because I just got back from doing service with a family who is in the ward. They’re awesome. She asked us to help her clean her house because she said she has a hard time cleaning and relaxing when she has to take care of the kids 24/7. She also served us lunch and she told us she likes preparing old French dishes for us. So this time we got rabbit and noodles with carrots, potatoes and a wonderful sauce to go with it. Really good. Anyways, I was really glad to help. 

Other than that, sorry to say, I don't have much else to add. This week was great and I loved every second of it. I'm not kidding. I love being here and the people here need help and I'm willing to help them. Thank you all for the support and love. I'm incredibly grateful for this gospel and for this wonderful plan of happiness our loving Heavenly Father has prepared for us. We don't realize how blessed we are. Again, take some time to study to have some quiet time and notice all the things the Lord has done for us. Thanks again for everything! 

Love always Sœur Hunt

The beautiful streets of France

 

All ready for Halloween

 

Here's to not holding anything back...

So this week was a week of finding, exchanges and miracle rendezvous. It wasn't such a crazy week until the end. It was pretty slow.  We didn't really see a bunch of people because no one will call us or text us or email us or anything. 

I'll just get right to it.  We were out contacting and we’re doing our regular thing and we managed to give out two Books and then we came upon this one other lady and we said "We're missionaries..." I see her stop and just glance at our tags and she immediately starts saying frantically, "nonononononono!" As she's waving her hands in the NO THANK YOU gesture. Now as this is happening this man who was walking behind us starts laughing out loud. We turned to him to see what he was laughing about. He stopped once he saw us look at him, and he said, "oh, pardon... I didn't mean to laugh out loud..." then we started laughing too, because it was pretty funny. We kept walking but then we stopped and asked him, "Do you know us?" He said, "yes I do. You're  Mormons. You Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses always get that reaction here. You're charming, but no, I don't want to know anything, thanks." We said alright and continued on our way. Entertaining in a way. 

So then Wednesday evening came around and we were heading to Luxembourg for our exchanges. I was able to be with Sœur Earl from Nevada. We had the privilege to go to an amis house and chat with this guy named Robert. He's in his 70s and he has a lot of theories. He is very spiritual with a lot of truths, but he just needs to have things put together clearly. At this point in time I've been able to follow where lessons are going, but I still have a hard time following conversations. It takes a lot of my brain to really understand, so I give up half way. But I can tell I'm getting better. I can for sure tell you this. The spirit is real because I don't even need to understand the words being spoken to feel it. I feel the spirit no matter what. I know the lesson is going well when I can feel the spirit and I don't even need to know what's happening. Anyways, we were going to speak with him no longer than 45 minutes but it turned out to be an hour and 45. So after we finished with him I asked Sœur Earl what really happened. She gave a rundown of all his stories because he talks A LOT.

 #1 story: he had a near death experience. He's an electrician and one day he fell from the telephone wire and the telephone poll fell on him and he was coughing up blood and it was a bad situation. He said that he heard God's voice but didn’t see him. He told God he could still learn things down here and would like to stay. So God said, "OK if you think so, then you may". So he did, obviously. 

#2 story: he was in the attic cleaning it out. He said he heard his grandson’s voice who had died at age 20. His grandson said, hey you know I really like it where I am. I've learned so much in these past few days then I ever could have in my 20 years on earth. I'm happy. Then Robert said, OK then you keep doing what you're doing.

At this point I'm think alright no judgements this probably is something that happened and it's pretty cool. Then here comes the other stories...

#3 story: his granddaughter couldn't find her dog. She was looking all over and couldn't find him. Then Robert said he found the dog just sitting on the couch. He called to his granddaughter but told her not to say anything and to watch him. He said he called to the dog with his mind without saying anything. The dog came to them. He said you just need to connect through the soul. Because everything has a soul.

#4 story: he has this theory that we’re not the only ones in the universe. There are extra-terrestrials that come to earth and transform themselves to look like us. Then they leave them here and they're the ones that do all the shootings and terrorist attacks. Because people don't do bad things!

At this point I'm thinking, OK, he's a crazy old man who just has a lot of theories. At the end of the lesson he pretty much dropped us. He said God can't have a body. God is way too powerful to have a body. But we told him it's not limiting to have a body. It's a good thing. He didn't agree. He said, OK well I have your number I know where your church is I'll call you if I need anything... So he dropped us. But he did say the Book of Mormon did something for him as he was reading a little. He had good feelings. So we pray the Book will change him somehow!

Anyways, moving on, Luxembourg is a very beautiful place and I really enjoy visiting there every once and a while. 

Remember the man Victor that Sœur Giles met in Paris when she was finding and I was doing my legality papers at the OFII? Yeah, well, he lives here in Nancy. We had a rendezvous with him on Saturday. I was so, so excited to meet him. Now let me tell you about him. He is a regular SANE dude. Not weird, not crazy! As a matter of fact he's from Africa, has two BEAUTIFUL kids. His son is 2 and his daughter is a month old. His wife is very pretty but we have yet to get to meet her. He doesn't really have a religion, but he loves learning about God. He searches and learns from other religions to decide for himself which is the right one. He has no problem telling you what he things. Doesn't hold anything back. He tells you things straight. I'll give you an example: he said, "Next time, please bring someone who doesn't have a language barrier." Yeah, sorry about that. Moving on.  He reads the bible and knows a lot of things. He almost reminds me of dad that way. I'm thinking Victor would really like Jesus the Christ, Our Heritage and all the others... He loves learning and connecting things. He wanted to know what made us different and how we worship The Creator and who is Jesus Christ for us. He doesn't like the pamphlets and also didn't like the fluff. He wanted a real discussion. Boy oh boy was I excited. We talked about the priesthood and he thought that was fascinating. We talked about a lot of other things that he thought were interesting. We laughed and we played with his little boy trying to get to know them and gain their trust. He said he hadn't had the time to start reading the Book of Mormon yet, but he said he knows that he needs to read and pray to understand and know for himself if these things are true. We taught him to pray and he gave a prayer without hesitation. He's willing to meet with us again and we’re going to bring awesome members with us. He also responds to our texts fast! So he's golden!!

Well I have to get going soon, so this next story I gotta make short but you'll get the gist. It's pretty cool.

After church we were starting to do our weekly planning and we decided to check up on Caroline. We hadn't heard from her all week. She responded and told us she wouldn't be able to see us anytime before November. Darn. But then she told us that she could meet with us by Place Stanislas in 5 minutes because they were in town. So we were going to have a rendezvous with her and her husband right then! Her husband was baptized into the church when he was 12 in like 1974 and hasn't been to church for 30 years. He said he remembers the 13 articles of faith. We talked with his wife a lot. She also loves to talk with us. She believes a lot of the same things we do and is willing to learn more! Her husband is willing to remember these things and help his wife too. I know I felt the spirit. We told them that we wanted to say a prayer at the end and after we did so they both were crying. I know they were so happy. We invited them, once they got back from their trip, to a church activity. They said they miss having a community of friends. They're excited and very grateful that they met us. 

I can't wait to help these fabulous new people. I hope that we'll be able to help them with the things they need. I hope we can say the right things through the power of God to help them come unto repentance and develop their relationship with the Lord. I want to help them really bad. I hope they give us a chance. I can’t wait to see what happens.

Anyways gotta run, love you all and I thank you for everything.

Love Soeur Sarah 

Exchanges in Luxembourg

Beautiful Hotel

Typical French style - So beautiful