Soeur Sarah Hunt France Paris Mission: Spirit

Oh la vache! (holy cow!) I can't believe another transfer has come and gone so quickly! Someone get my companion a walker because she's coming to the end of her life on the mission in about 6 weeks! As for me life is treating me very well! Sœur Franklin and I will stay together in Nantes for another! :)

Life over here has been going well and we plan to keep it up and work until the end!

So, let's start with going over to a wonderful older member couple’s house to get to know them and get them excited for general conference! They were very accommodating and very sweet. They teased a lot. They lived a city outside of Nantes, so we had to take a different kind of bus to come and go. On the way back, we were stopped by this man who kept looking at us. He told us he had seen us around Centre Ville (Downtown) and this time he finally had time to stop us. He told us he had friends just like us serving missions around the world with the same badge, a part of the same church. I had to clarify hehe. Anyways he said that because of Jesus Christ he's a new person and has a better life so now he goes around stopping people randomly preaching about Jesus Christ for like 15 minutes or less. We set up a time to meet with him again and it was cool! At the end he shook our hands and told Sœur Franklin he loved her. So that was pretty funny.

You CANNOT convert anyone or even be close to it without the spirit. The spirit is the one that touches the heart. The spirit impresses on their minds the importance of the message. Not us! So, when we met with our African family on Wednesday, it was such a great lesson. Best one I've had in a long time. I remember going in with the goal of helping them to really feel the spirit and inviting them to baptism and coming to general conference. We talked about the plan of salvation. They loved everything we said. When we got to the part about Christ's atonement we shared a video called "Il Vit" (He lives) which talks about his death and crucifixion. While bearing my testimony I got choked up and I knew for a fact that the spirit in the room was very tangible. I knew they felt it. We promised them the blessings they can have by being baptized by proper authority. We told them that the doctrine of Jesus Christ will add on to their faith with much more peace and joy in their family for eternity. I cannot even describe how much love was in the room. It was such a joy to be there in that moment sharing the beautiful message. We invited them to baptism and they said they would think about it. We offered them to come to general conference explain it to them and inviting them to come with questions and prepare to receive answers to their questions.

General Conference was absolutely amazing! I loved it so much. They're all so inspiring and I felt the spirit so strong that I couldn't help but tear up at some parts. I really loved hearing from Elder Oaks, Elder Holland. Then Sister Craig and Sister Franco from the General Women's session. They were the people that I was touched most by. But I LOVED all of them so much. By far one of my favorite conferences. I was reassured that "Your talents ARE enough in the sight of God" by sister Michelle Craig. I learned that we need to "seek, cherish, and make PEACE" by elder Holland. This world needs it especially at this time. I was especially touched by the missionary choir. It was so powerful, and It just made me think about how blessed and how happy I am to be one of them, a missionary in the France Paris Mission. I am so, so happy to be serving my Lord and Savior full time and helping him accomplish the greatest work in history. I couldn't ask for anything better at this moment in time.

Well, we had our sweet African family attend the Saturday evening session. I feel like it was specifically for them. They had many great speakers. It talked a lot about the LDM/BOM (Livre de Mormon/Book of Mormon) and Joseph Smith and baptism. I especially loved hearing Elder Uchtdorf who said with such power from the spirit. "Come. Come back. Join us. We need you. We cannot accomplish these marvelous things without you." I want my amis to join us. I want them so bad to taste the same joy and peace that I have right now. I hope they reflect and consider what they learned and felt and come join us.

So, I look forward to this new transfer full of waiting miracles to come to pass and more people to invite to come into Christ. I love this gospel and like many others I know; I'm so grateful for the tools we have, the prophets who guide us to keep us on the straight and narrow path so that we can have the best life possible and be closer to our heavenly father.

Love you so much and I hope you all are doing well. I would love to talk to you whenever you get the chance. Have a good week.

Avec amour (with love)

Sœur Sarah Hunt