I'm engaged!!

Well, well, well, this was a different week for sure.  I'm counting my blessings and expressing my gratitude to my Father in Heaven.

First, we had amazing exchanges with the STLs and I had the pleasure to be with Sœur Daines which is always such a blast. We did some great finding together which really started off our week on a good foot.  President has asked the mission to give out 20 invitations, or at least 10. An invite consists of inviting someone to hear our message or meet with us or take a card or brochure or just coming to Christ in anyway. Usually Soeur Skouson and I get around 10 invites but, this week was amazing in the fact that we never went below 15. We went above 20 to around 30.  It just produced many miracles from our hard work. Our goal this week has been to work hard and be more consecrated and well, God blessed us for it. But that's not all.  Around here our average for finding new amis has been 2 per week. But this week we found 9 new amis. It has been a tender mercy in our lives and we know God is helping us and showing us the results that come from working hard and staying diligent.  Reminding myself every morning that it's not about me has helped me put into perspective my role as a missionary. I'm grateful I get to invite people to come unto Christ every day.

Ok moving on to a funny story that we had during exchanges. But first back tracking a little bit. Sœur Skouson and I met this man while porting, he's about 45 or 50 and from Bulgaria. We contacted him, and I'll just say he made us feel very uncomfortable and we wanted to leave really quick. He wanted us to come into his house, but we just said we'd stop by another time and we set another time to meet him. We met him Tuesday again but this time we brought both the STLs and our DMP (Ward Mission Leader). Haha yup, party! No one is exempt from this gospel! Anyways we were doing a quick get to know you and as we were all talking he kept asking all of us how old we were. He kept saying he was from Bulgaria. I was wondering why he kept repeating himself. Then he looks at me and says, "Tu me marrie?" (will you marry me?)  I was caught off guard and didn't know what to say. I just snickered awkwardly but thank the heavens Soeur Skouson jumped right in and said, “Can we start with a prayer?”

Going on, the lesson was going great, but the guy kept interrupting us with random things like asking us our names and how old we were and that he was from Bulgaria, again. While Soeur Skouson was talking he told her to stop speaking Bulgarian because she wasn’t speaking it very well apparently and that she needed to just stick with French. Then there was a knock on the door and two young men walked in.  They were really confused why we were all there. We all greeted each other, and the Bulgarian guy went to use the bathroom. One of the guys that just came in said, “Did you know he's sick?”  That put us all on the edge of our seats... We said no why, and they told us that he has Alzheimer's. Ohhhh.... then he continued saying, so whatever you're teaching him he's not going to remember it. Great. Haha, that was fun and awkward and well, we left, that's it. Hahaha.

Anyways basically my week was porting and contacting on the street. You know just regular missionary life. I've loved all the things I've learned and I'm excited to learn more! I invite you all to take at least 10 minutes every morning to read your scriptures. What could be more important than that?

Love you all and have a great week!

Soeur Hunt

Love Soeur Daines

Still loving art

Porting but no one is home

Soeur Hunt and Soeur Daines

Exchanges with the STLs

A gift for our member friend

Trying to be cool

The STLs say we look like housewives

Soeur Daines said it's the best meal she's had

Exchanges in Hazebrouck

Chicken Curry by Soeur Hunt

Caught off guard during our studies

For those who don't know, Sarah's favorite color is blue, so she has decided to do a blue door selfie study where she plans on taking a selfie with every blue door she comes across.  HA!

L'Auberge, the British volunteer warehouse, has cool stuff

Utterly perplexed by our paper towels, but entertained

A walk in wonderland...

This week was full of adventures! I loved every second of it!

First, we had Zone Conference on Tuesday.  It was so fun to see some new faces in the zone. I was able to see Sœur Bell again which was great!  We were able to catch up on stories about Nancy and boy we had some good laughs from the memories we made. It was a great conference and I learned a lot and was spiritually edified as usual.

On Wednesday we were able to do some finding.  We found this young girl who is most likely still in high school.  She was polite and listened to us. Her name is Florine and when we stopped her she had her ear phones in and she seemed pretty sad. There wasn't a whole lot of people around, so I knew we just needed to stop her. I ended up asking her what things made her happy in life and she said nothing, nothing makes her happy. I testified of the happiness this gospel, our message, brings to our lives and how we wanted to help her find happiness in life. We exchanged numbers and she seemed like she was interested in listening to us again.  I wish I could have helped her more on our first contact. We texted her Saturday evening because we concluded that young people like texting rather than calling for the most part. It worked, she texted us back! It was a cute little conversation and I guess she just needed someone to listen to her because she wanted advice on how to forget someone.... she had a boyfriend, ok it's complicated, she said it wasn't a relationship like that... ha-ha well we gave her some advice to get herself distracted in something she likes doing or *talking under our breath* prayer... *cough* *cough* Anyways it was fun, she’s cute and were excited to talk to her more about the plan of salvation this week!

Alright here comes the real adventure, hold on tight folks.

We had the opportunity to go to Paris for OFII, Soeur Skouson’s legal papers. Our train to go down was at 8h15. The night before we slept so very sound and nothing was going to wake us up, you know... I guess that's why I had 50 prompting to check the time on my tablet. I think the spirit was trying to tell me something... but I shrugged it off, all you want to do is sleep you know and my alarm has never had problems. The only other problem I had once with my alarm was when I was in Nancy with Soeur Giles and we woke up at 7h30 because apparently my alarm was on mute... why is that even an option LOL. Anyways my body just kept telling me it was time to wake up, so I finally decided to check the clock and it was 7h20 and we had to leave for our train at 8h00. My tablet was all the way powered off because it died the night before and I forgot to turn it back on and Soeur Skouson forgot to set her alarm too... yeah, we need 2 alarms... Anyways we jumped up really quick and we were out the door in seconds ha-ha

We reached the gare 10 minutes early and when we printed out our tickets the mission office in Paris who gets us our tickets got them for a different gare.... not the one we needed. So, we were going to miss our train because you need a 20-minute bus ride to get out to Calais Frétun.  Anyways we called the office telling them and we made our way out to the right gare. We exchanged our tickets and waited for 2 hours in Calais Frétun doing some studies.  About 20 minutes before our train got into the station we remembered that we needed to eat lunch before the appointment because we wouldn't be able to eat before the meeting, so we ran to grab sandwiches in the little cafe in the gare.  The sweet young lady working there was making them fresh and so very slowly. It was excruciating to watch the time tick closer to our train’s departure and she's still making our sandwiches. We got them and ran to our train just in time. I would've been so angry and sad if we had missed the second train. We were already going to be late for her OFII appointment because our train options were 1hr. early or 1hr. late. So were not too late for the moment just 1hr. Instead of meeting at the church building. They gave us directions on how to go straight to OFII. There were no struggles on getting there, in fact I think I'm starting to get the hang of navigating Paris. It's literally a maze down there in the metros.

We met up with the Soeurs from Toul after OFII which ended really fast, faster than usual. Our trains going back to Calais were not until Friday afternoon at 12h52 because all the train Thursday night were full because everyone is trying to go back home before the grèves (strike) the following day. So, we had from 15h Thursday until Friday afternoon in Paris!!!  We did some street contacting in between some really beautiful sight seeing.  We saw Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower!!! We met some cool people from New York and Oregon and French people ha-ha. It's hard to find people who are not tourists in Paris. Paris is so beautiful.  I've been waiting for so long to finally see all these amazing sights! I wanted to see more, but I just kept telling myself I'll either serve here or I'm coming back! Paris is a lot like New York City except classier. Super fun!

We ended up spending the night in the STLs apartment.  We watched a 30-minute film the church just produced called Days of Harmony and one other A Day for the Eternities about the perspective of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer in the process of translating the Book of Mormon. It was a fun time. We ate popcorn and a baguette, what more can you ask for!?

The next morning, we did all our studies before we left the apartment and went to get some Asian Food Yummy (that was the name of the restaurant) before we caught our train. Our train only went until Hazebrouck and then we would take a bus the rest of the way to Calais. But because of the good old grèves (strike) our bus was canceled, and we had to wait in Hazebrouck for 3 hours. So, we ended up watching more mini films and did some studies. We explored the place a bit and shared the gospel with some goats.

On Sunday we visited Serge again.  And again, he's the highlight of my Sunday. He's so cute so kind and his testimony is very strong. He's in such pain but he still ends up finding ways to serve. I thought to myself that I'd want to do that too when I’m old but then I thought of myself in his position and I think that I'd probably not be as good as he because I wouldn't have the motivation for helping other when I can't even help myself.  Soeur Skouson and I were talking about this and we concluded that you can tell a lot about a person's character when they do something even when they're struggling or lacking something themselves. I hope to be able to obtain his ability of service and love for others just like him.

Anyways hope you have a great week and I love you all lots!

Soeur Hunt

Seeing the Eiffel Tower from a distance

First glimpse of the Eiffel Tower

Paris streets and cafe

Notre Dame Cathedral

Paris and the Seine River

Paris

The best fragrance store in the whole world (so glad there's one in City Creek)

A strawberry Nutella crepe in Paris

Perfect!

Happy we had extra time after doing Skouson's legality paper work

Seeing Soeur Bell again at Zone Conference!!

On est béni par le Seigneur...

Me and Soeur Skouson (Skoozy) had a very fun opportunity to ride a boat bus. It is a boat bus because it stops at stops like a bus and we were able to use our bus passes for the boat haha! It was a fun little ride. The boat conductor was a very animated character, I guess he had to be in a way because there were a lot of kids on it. Well, as we were just getting situated the conductor was introducing himself and welcoming us aboard and then points to us and says, "On est béni par le Seigneur, merci d'être avec nous sur le bateau." (We are blessed of the Lord to have you two on the bus with us today) Glad we were able to bless them with our presence 🤣

We found this woman about 2 weeks ago on the road.  She's from Cameroon and has 3 cute girls and one little boy on the way... like very soon... she's pretty big haha. Anyways her name is Jennifer and we were able to go over to her house last Tuesday and teach her and her kids. Her husband was sleeping because he works nights. Anyways as we were getting to know her and just doing a little small chat. I asked her if her baby was going to be a girl or boy and then she said a boy and I responded saying, oh cool now you'll have two girls and two boys! She responded saying, no I have 3 girls... yikes... that got real awkward and I just nervously laughed it off and tried to continue speaking. LOL, me and my big mouth. Anyways we taught the whole restoration and it was awesome. Her kids were well behaved and participated well. The member who was with us was a big help too with bearing her testimony.

On Thursday we took a train to a nearby Ville named Aurduicq. We had time because it was a holiday and here on holidays EVERYTHING closes for the day. Also, one of our rendezvous was canceled so we had the whole day to just find and do studies. Well, because everything is closed, who's going to be out you know. So, porting!! Yayayayay. I enjoy porting (door knocking) especially when you find a cute area and the people are nice and the sun is shining which it all was! We were there for 4 hours just knocking on doors. It was so fun! The people were so nice, and we had many fun chats with people making our time together end on a good note. We want them to remember us well. We got a couple compliments on our French!!  I contacted an 18-year-old boy who I totally was expecting to be a parent or something... It through me off, but it was good I guess LOL... I ended up dancing weirdly down the sidewalk at one point too and an old man driving by started mimicking me in his car which was really funny.

We had exchanges in Lille which was a blast as always. I was with Soeur Hicken. She is only one transfer ahead of me and she's so fun! I love her! We were able to go to their amis house Julian who is from Bolivia.  He's been in France for a while. He's so funny and very nice. Soeur Hicken and I lead the lesson at the end and it was really good. He made us a very interesting dinner of cold rotisserie chicken and rice with potatoes and white sauce with ketchup that he mixed in with it for color... not terrible... hahaha. It was nice of him. At the end we had the privilege of listening to him play his pipes (flute). The next day Soeur Hicken and I did a very fun contacting session! I love Lille

Well to finish up we really are "...béni par le Seigneur..." (blessed of the Lord) because I had the wonderful opportunity to Skype my mom/family for Mother’s Day. It's nice knowing not a whole lot has changed, at least not the most important things. The more I go through my mission the more I realize how important families are. They really are the foundation for everything. Most importantly I know I get to live with them forever. Everything I am and hope to be is thanks to them. Where I am now is because of how I was taught I don't know where I'd be without them and this gospel. Tell your family you love them this week!

Also,

SHOUT OUT TO MY BABY BROTHER GOING TO PITTSBURGH PENNSYLVANIA ON HIS MISSION!!!

Love you all and have a great week!

Soeur Hunt

After 4 hours of porting, a rest on the grass sounded nice.

I love the tag photos she send us

"I love you mom"

"I love you mom"

Beautiful French country house

 The lovely ville of Andruicq

The door sign basically says, "If you're a Jehovah's Witness, we're not interested, keep moving!"

Our ami Julian

Beware the butcher knife for cutting carrots

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly...

Well, sadly I have to say that I also don't have a whole lot to say this week, because it was just a bunch of finding and studies, my specialty.

District P-day was fun! We went to Dunkerque to see the bunkers at the beach.  It was so, so stormy. The wind was beating so hard and on top of that it was raining a bit.  The wind and the water from the English Channel was just spraying water and sand everywhere, but it made it that much more fun! Now the movie Dunkerque (Dunkirk) is going to be seen differently by me haha. One funny story that happened from this experience though. We were inside a bunker; it’s a big square room and it has a little look out bay with bars. Along the whole room bordered a ledge which was about to where my chest was, so it was hard to get up, but I did, and I sat on the ledge inside of the square room. On the other side of the room across from the bay window thingy was a little square opening which lead out of the room onto the roof. But from inside it just looks like nothing below but a 50-foot drop because we’re high up in the bunker. But I decided to go out through the square tunnel.  It was very cramped, but it opened up the further you went through. Everyone else inside was very confused and nervous about what I was doing. I was just going through to just see what was on the other side, but to my surprise it was not in fact a 50 ft drop, but like a 4-foot drop. So, I decided to keep going so I could get on the roof on the outside of the bunker. Since I was army crawling head first I want to try and turn around, so I could put my feet down first, but the square tunnel was way too cramped for my hips to turn around, so I got about sideways, and I couldn't go anymore. In the meantime, the Elders in the back, Soeur Skouson was down below she didn't want to come up, were all wondering what I was doing. While I was on the ledge of the square tunnel and sideways, my only option for getting out was to just let myself fall onto the roof. Well I did, and everyone behind me still in the bunker room still just sees sky and imagine a 50-foot drop through the square I just went through. Once they saw me fall, I heard them all gasp and start panicking. LOL it was sooo funny. Then I started laughing and I popped up from the roof in front of the square tunnel opening and they all heaved a sigh of relief. Then they all started shouting WE THOUGHT YOU DIED!! They started coming up with scenarios on how they would tell president that I died and how they all would be sent home and how Soeur Skouson would get another companion. Ah it was too good, so funny. Anyways that's the highlight of it. Then we all went back and played games and drank hot chocolate.

Elder Rice came two Wednesdays ago to our district because Elder Tropnas' driver’s license for France expired and Elder Cheng can't drive either, so they needed to bring Elder Rice in, who actually has been in France for barely 1 1/2 months so he's a blue. He's been on his mission for 4 months though. He was in Canada waiting for his visa haha. So yeah now St. Omer is a trio! Elder Cheng is still our DL so it's all great and fun!

We met these Chinese people this week. They were so cute and funny! They didn't speak French and they spoke a little bit of English, so we stopped them while they were taking pictures.  I asked where they were from and yes China and we kept talking and then the husband just asked if we wanted to take a pic with them!  We did and then we exchanged numbers, so they could send it to us. I talked a bit about the church and they said they knew a friend who was Mormon. Anyways it was a cute little visit and it was fun to talk with them and help them learn about the gospel because I don't think they can in China since there's no missionaries there, except in Hong Kong.

District Meeting was in Dunkerque, we had a crazy discussion about movies and books during lunch which was fun!

OK basically that was it for my week. I love reading the scriptures!! They're so enlightening and so inspiring! Seriously I have a different perspective of life thanks to the scriptures. Please read them, but don't just read them to read them, study them and learn to love them! It’s the absolute most important thing you could ever do in your life. Imagine so many more blessings and miracles if we all just understood the scriptures and loved them above anything else.

Anyways, have a great week! Love you!!

Soeur Hunt


P.S. Yes, I'm the one who almost swallowed a fly. Warning to everyone, when you yawn, make sure you cover your mouth... that's all I'm going to say.

Heading to Dunkerque for District P-day

Our Awesome district

The wind and rain are whipping up off the Channel

Dunkerque bunker

Inside a bunker

Looking out over the Channel from the bunker

The family Sigrist

Beautiful Calais in the evening

Writing "Thank you" notes to members