Digging in my heels 🥂

Salut my family that I will see next week.  I just mini threw up.

Two transfers ago President told me to make the end of my mission the finale of a firework show and I can honestly say my mission has just been an uphill climb towards that finale. I CAN'T BELIEVE THE MIRACLES I'M SEEING. 

On Tuesday we went o Combourg to see Michelle. She took us out to a real nice place right next to a big castle and a view of her little village. Tears are coming, I love France! Then she was like I'm taking you to Dinan (I have learned since that it was barely out of our sector but I have no regrets) so we drove 15 minutes to Dinan and took a stroll around the old BEAUTIFUL city listened to some guy play a weird thing and hopped back in the car and drove along the river back to catch our train. We listened to Elder Holland's talk "Be ye therefore perfect..eventually" on the drive back and it was just really really calm. Ya know? It was a really good one for her, she really liked it. She doesn't sleep well at night so she said she goes to the computer and reads the D&C (haha what!) and that it is really helping her grow her testimony of Joseph Smith. She also said that she has recently purchased a bible to read with the Book of Mormon. And she asked for a Jesus the Christ so I just gave her mine on Sunday. Only a little nervous about what I might have marked haha. But she was really positive and it was just so good.

Wednesday we saw Akil. He printed out a talk called the Kingdom's of Glory and had marked it all up and just went through it and we connected all the dots with the Plan of Salvation. We talked about Celestial Marriage and he was so happy. He was like wait even though I've never been married here on earth, if I live right I'll have a chance later to marry someone that will be my eternal companion!?! I've never really gotten into that with an ami but it was so powerful. We had to sprint for a bus or we would have extended a baptismal date. We were kind of bummed but we are excited to see him again this week. Ana Patea, the member we teach with is planning on leaving for a mission at the end of this year. It's been really cool for her to see his progression, she was like wow I would have never expected that.

We also saw Cécile ! She had a friend over and she became a good friend of ours, she isn't believing but it was sweet meeting with them. After her friend left we read a chapter of the livre de Mormon and left. She really loves it, her progression is just a little slower.

Jeudi we went and saw Annabelle and talked about temples and family history. Basically saying girl we done with the lessons. She is doing really good though for real. One inch closer.

Samedi was le baptême de Josué. Sadly Chari couldn't baptize him because the bishopric has been gone on vacances so he doesn't have the priesthood yet..But he held Josué's baptismal certificate the whole time haha and followed him around and bossed him around like a mom. No offense mom. There was a huge turn out of members and great talks and he bore his testimony after and it was SO GOOD. It's so good for the members to hear it ya know? Oh he is so cool. We had two amis there, Annabelle and Fredy. Annabelle loved it. I'm like come on lady. And Fredy did too 😂 we've only had one rendezvous with him and he just talked so much and I was tired so I was like yup yup great don't really want to set up a rendezvous again let's just invite him to the baptism. He flipped to every scripture mentioned in a talk and was saying amen a lot just really engaged.  Afterwards he was like when am I getting baptized? And I was like idk when do you want to? And he was like well first I need to come to church (we've been searching for a member to bring him, he lives really far away with no busses running Sunday) so I introduced him to Bishop and he was like I need someone to come get me I really want to get to church. And Bishop got him on the phone with someone and they brought him to church and now they are best friends and they are going to take him every week and we set a baptismal date with him after church for the 16th of September and when I leave next week he asked Bishop if he could take my place as a missionary so he can evangelize in Rennes. 😋

Okay so that's good..Annabelle and Fredy came to church. Michelle came too and met a new American family in our ward. I love them so much I'm like really why am I leaving right now. I haven't been asked to speak yet next Sunday hehe got em. And then I cried 4 tears last night because I realized I only have one French Sunday left.  Also, the Elders got me a Coke for Sunday, I ran around Saturday night trying to find one and everything was closed but they had bought me one. :")

Okay bye see you next week!

Soeur Nay

Dinan

Josue's Baptism

African's like to look thug in pics, but we got him :) 

Michelle

The Elect ♡

Salut salut!

Good week, of course a little exhausting but that's just life.

Monday: we gave out 4 Book of Mormons. We are only 5 books away from reaching our goal of 50 for the transfer!

Tuesday: We passed by Annabelle! I'm going home in 2 weeks so I take that as a pass to just do whatever I want. I really digged to see what her soucis were with baptism and she opened up so much. And because she is crazy she learns a lot of different languages and she is currently working on Chinois so I told her that President Nelson speaks Chinois and she was soooo happy !! And agreed to come to church again and she did!

Wednesday: We taught Akil with Ana again and he asked a lot of really weird questions...aye. But he came to church again 👍🏻 We also taught the most amazing lady ever, ZENON.  We met her last week on exchanges and this was our first rendezvouz.  It was so great just as soon as she walked into the church. She literally ran into the sacrament meeting room. She's from Congo and has been here for 2 yrs but like is already working and is just so put together. AND she lives on the C6 bus line, the one that still goes to the church on Sundays. Madames et Monsieurs, we found ourselves an elect 🎉😍😭 we had a great rendezvous and she accepted a soft baptismal invite!

Jeudi: not too much happened. We got stuck in a really creepy foyer but that was about it on the finding side of things. Then had interviews with President. I have begun praying for marriage, I picked the date of September 24th. I think it will make me stretch but with proper plans I think it can happen.

Vendredi: Zone Conference! It was chill, the whole Sorensen family came including their oldest daughter who just got home from Norway last week. So crazy, I met her in the MTC. Comment. I got to see LaFrance again as well :') There are 4 of us going home from my zone. After zone conference we had a mangezvous at a couples home from our ward. We didn't eat though because they are very against missionary work and we sat there like 🤨😒😌😴 as they went off for an hour. They sent us home with grilled cheese sandwiches and cherry tomatoes so I ain't mad.

Saturday: We saw Juliette and ate foufou. Ummm yuck. But that's okay better than eating crickets like she was originally planning. We taught word of wisdom and she was basically like oh gosh I'll try..She got this. I love my African mammy.

Sunday: so yeah Akil and Annabelle came and Juliette came too and sat next to me. The last song was Seigneur Mon Dieu, her favorite and the one we sing with her every visit and she knows it word for word. Oh man I cried! We had another ami come in time for Sunday School and then he stayed for the rest and for the repas after. He is into voodoo and was not my favorite person so at the end of the meal I was like when is your bus coming. Oops. But enough about him Josué and Chari were just looking so classy and stood there greeting everyone at the beginning of church and Josué was inviting everyone (including our annoying ami) to his baptism. He is so excited I just can't believe it, oh gosh I'm crying as I type, this was not scheduled. I was talking to him and Chari and they were joking about when they met me on the street and I was like Josué remember when you came to General Conference and knew you should get baptized.. Chari was like now I'm going to baptize you, you are a newborn babe!! And then Josué was like I'm not going to sleep this week like I'll be waking up every hour on Friday night checking my clock then I will wake up at 8 and keep checking my watch, head to republique still checking what time it is, get to the chapel and get baptized.  I just can't believe God's timing like Chari is just such a good member just good for everyone just builds up the ward and Josué is just ready to go. I'm just so happy for them my goodness.
Haha after we took the picture together of the 4 of us, Chari goes to Burrup and says that is not enough space for the holy ghost 😂  I was super tired after church though. During the repas I was teaching Akil and Voodoo guy the plan of salvation entirely and answering all of their questions and just yeah I'm ready for Sundays to be tranquille again. I wish I could just be a normal member in Rennes on Sundays.

We have an exciting week! We are going to Vitré for pday, going to see Michelle in Combourg tomorrow, then exchanges and baptism and just good good stuff. Yeah life is really good. I'm tired but life is good.

Can't wait to see you guys in like what 17 days? 😘 I had a dream that I hated being home so I'm getting kind of scared like digging in the heels. How bout y'all come to Rennes instead?? Yeah alrighty bisous bye

SŒUR NAY TA PRÉFÉRÉ

Chari and Josue

Packard, Chari, Me, Josue, Burrup, Skousen

aw mes frères de la prêtrise

Soeur Morrison who I just love!

Parliament

Miracles :')

Saluuuut

So guess what?!! Me and Burrup got to talk to our Indian this week. He left India for Switzerland to start working on like his masters or PHD or something idk but we referred him and the missionaries called us with him there in a rendezvous! He said he accidentally left his Book of Mormon at his parents home in New Delhi, but found one in English in his school. He thought it was his and was confused and then he called his parents asking if he had left his Book and they were like yeah! And we have been reading it and are so happy you found this!! OH MY HECK. 😭 it was cool, I literally stepped out of the shower the night they called so that was weird but it's so cool!!

Also, Annabelle!! She was an amie that Soeur Burrup and I had taught. She had been doing so good with reading the Book of Mormon but just wouldn't come to church or commit to anything. It got hard seeing her at the end of our last transfer together so we decided to give her a break. Until Tuesday! Two months later we decided to go pass by her and she was SO excited to see us again. You could tell the break did really good things for her especially when she agreed to come to church !? And she for real came!! That girl was so stinking stubborn let me tell ya. I could not believe it :')

Wednesday we had a lesson with Akil who showed up at church the week before. We taught with Ana Patea at his home and we had no idea what to expect.  He is like Muslim but acts like a Catholic and never mentions the Koran so we are kind of confused on his background but that's okay because he asked real good questions and listened and we taught all of Retab!! It wasn't our plan but it went so well. He had read the family proclamation as well before our lesson and loved it.

Okay so yeah yeah other good things lots and lots of finding. My skin is real dark after this week oh and we got fed by the Dagrys and they live in the prettiest little country home and helped us with French and I had prunes for the first time.

Sunday! Like 5 amis bore their testimony in sacrament meeting and like every member just gave power testimonies of their conversion and invited anyone who wasn't baptized to be baptized then in Gospel Principles class the amis were just like pumping each other up for their baptisms and one of those people was Josué, ahh he is soo cool and so excited for his baptism. Juliette was there with us (she is every Sunday) and she cuddled up to me during class and was like I was praying all week whether I should get baptized again or not and I found my answer, I will tell you the date Saturday. (We are going over to eat more banane plantains mmm) I remember my first lesson with this cute African mammy in March and she was not getting baptized she was so stubborn me and Burrup didn't know what to do with her because we loved her but we didn't think she would progress. Ever since she started coming to church she hasn't missed and now she has a testimony of her own and wants to be baptized. I cried a little and told her I will be leaving in 3 weeks so she better get her butt in gear with the lessons. I love her.

This week was just so exhausting because it was stinking hot and we were outside all day every day (mostly because I have ADHD and can't sit down to do calls or area book work oops) but when I look back it was just GOOD. We had four people who contacted us after we had contacted them on the street the day before and had given them a Book of Mormon. You know how rare that is? That's maybe happened once my whole mission. They want to seriously meet with us and learn more. I'm just amazed by all the goods things happening here. Ah I'm gonna cry thinking about coming home. Don't worry I'm excited I've made a bucket list for things to do when I get home. I also got teary eyed thinking that when I get home I get a member mangezvous every night grâce à mother.  I just love it here though wow.

We have zone conference on Friday. That's when I have my last interview (the marriage one) with President and share my French testimony in conference. I am shooooook. Ah. Only 3 more full weeks for real? Okay done talking this is a long email.

 Bye Felicias

Juliette :)

Indian Ami in Switzerland :)