Soeur Sarah Hunt France Paris Mission

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 💙