Christmas Cheer in Belgium - December 23, 2013

Hello hello! 

First off, so excited to see all your faces Wednesday!! I'm thinking 5pm my time should work just fine. The family said they have everything to Skype...but it case they don't the DMP has 2 computers with everything set up so we'll just skip over to his house if need be.

This week was really awesome. I can't believe all that has happened actually. Wednesday we went to Versailles for a Christmas conference. There were about 5 zones there so it was HUGE. It was so amazing. President and Soeur Poznanski really took care of us.

Highlights: When we showed up, under each chair was a large vanilla envelope (yes I know it's a manila envelope but seriously. What the heck is a manila? Vanilla makes so much more sense) and a small Christmas envelope that looked just big enough to fit a credit card in. After many beautiful uplifting words, we watched a slide show of photos of the people who have baptized and confirmed this year. Well naturally every missionary was feeling pretty fragile at the end of that. Then Soeur Poznanski tells us we can open the small Christmas envelope. Too excited to contain myself I rip it open. What is before my eyes? A temple recommend holder with the France Paris Temple on the cover. On the inside was written a quote from President Monson and then a message from President and Soeur Poznanski that said

"Nous prions pour que vous puissiez vous trouver un jour dans le Temple de Paris avec ces âmes si précieuses".

Translation: We pray that you may find yourself one day in the Paris Temple with these very precious souls.

My eyes filled with tears as I immediately thought of Prisca and Sophie. (Side note-Prisca's husband is getting baptized soon and Prisca is stronger than ever. They are planning to go to the temple to be sealed to their little girls a year after her husband is baptized). These people have become a piece of my soul and the idea of leaving here one day tears me up. I pray that one day I can find a way to come back after the Temple has been finished and re-find my best friends inside the walls of the Lord's House.

Second highlight: At the end of the conference, the Assistants opened up 2 LARGE boxes and Soeur and President Poznanski reached in and pulled out hundreds of red and green envelopes. My heart skipped a beat as I instantly thought. "No. Could it be? Are those letters from our parents?! Did they arrange to have our parents send letters to us?!" Sure enough that was EXACTLY what it was. Naturally my name was the 5th to last called. I hurriedly took my envelope and found a little corner in the church to read my letters. Hot tears rolled down my face as I read some of the most loving words from the most amazing parents. Thanks mom and dad. It was exactly what I needed at the exact time.

Highlight from Charleroi: So on Saturday, we went to go see Chantel. This was the first time I have ever met her so I was pretty excited :). I love new people! Well we get to her home and she lives in incredibly humbling circumstances. We sat down on the only two chairs she had (while she stood-even though she has a bad back-she insisted we sit. SUCH NICE PEOPLE!). The house was dim and her daughter (during the whole lesson) was in the process of silencing their loud and vicious GIGANTIC dog. Theoretically this would not be the best atmosphere for inviting the spirit. But I just thought "Tant pis. We told her we would teach her about Jesus Christ and that is EXACTLY what we will do." 

We decided to teach the Gospel of Christ. We started (naturally) at the beginning - faith. As soon as we started testifying of what faith in our Savoir meant, the spirit filled the room. Throughout the lesson, the dimness of her home and her humble circumstances seemed to wash away. Her dog that, if left to it's own devices I'm pretty sure would lunge at my throat, didn't seem so intimidating and instead of another stranger, I saw standing in front of me, a humble, searching, beloved daughter of God.

We invited her to church and when we called her the next morning (at 8am) to tell her we found her a ride, she told us that she was already ready and she was excited to come to church. When she arrived, I asked her how the rest of her Saturday was. She said that after we came, her day was so much brighter and she was just so excited to come to church. The members showered her with attention and love and I loved watching her throughout the meeting as the members testified of the Birth of Christ. Needless to say, we love her and I'm so excited to see her this week.

I stink as a daughter/sister. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH, STEVEN AND PAPA!!!!!!!! I'm sending you all personal emails as we speak. I'm cutting this email short so I can :) feel special

Anyway, I will see you all soon :) I'm so excited to skype with you.

May your Christmas be centered on the true spirit of Christmas and may you hearts be filled with thoughts of our Savoir and his birth.

Love love love you

Soeur Bitter

Big Move to Charleroi Belgium - December 16, 2013

Hello hello hello! 

I have officially left the countryside of France for the inner-city Belgium. Mmmmm waffles. Yum. It really is a COMPLETELY different country here. Same language but the people in beglium are most definitely not the French haha.

So I'll give the highlights of both Rennes and Belgium.

So I received the news Monday that I would be leaving Rennes. Not going to lie-biggest shocker of my life. I was in the middle of training and usually, you will stay with your blue. But anyway, I decided to wait to tell Sophie that I was leaving until our RDV -- which was Tuesdaynight--my last RDV in Rennes. (Couldn't have planned that better).

We went over to Sophie's and right away I told her (mainly because there was no way I could make it through an entire lesson without). She was SO SAD. She said when she imagined her baptism she thought of her best friend being there too. :( Sigh. She understood though and in her prayer, she asked Heavenly Father to help me find Sophie #2 in Belgium haha. So cute

So for our lesson, we went through the Baptismal questions and just made sure that she was completely ready for Baptism. It was an AMAZING experience. I got to hear her bear her testimony of each of the things that we had taught her. At first she was nervous for the questions but half way through it would go something like this:

"Do you believe that Jospeh Smith was a prophet and restored the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth again?"    "OF COURSE!! no problem. PASSED!!"

Then we asked her what these things meant to her. It was amazing to watch her search her thoughts and try to explain what she felt. One of my favorites was her describing what it meant to her to have a modern day prophet.

"To me it means....that Jesus sent someone...for us...so we could know Him better. Someone that talks to God and leads the church..." She said some more things like that and then turned to me and asked "And for you? What does it mean for you?"

It then turned into a testimony meeting of all the questions. Her bearing hers first and then me sharing mine. Definitely one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

That next day, she came to the Train Station to see me off. She bought all the missionaries breakfast patisseries and we took tons of pictures (naturally). I'm going to miss that girl so much.

Update on her: We set up an FHE the Thursday after I left and Sr Barton said that it went amazingly and (of course) the members just loved her so much. I'm excited for her to be a member. I know she will be such a support to the Rennes ward and that her testimony will bless SO MANY.

Now to Charleroi.

So We got our work cut out for us! That is for sure. We are over two wards here...unfortunately those two wards are in different buildings across town so we only get to see the members every other week--which really inhibits my endearing sense of charm. But We'll just have to work double time with the members. There are not a ton of amis right now so this is going to be the transfer of FINDING!! WOOT WOOT!! And actually we had an amazing finding experience last night.

We went to the Christmas broadcast to see if any of the less actives were there. We showed up in time for the last speaker (which was really good by the way). Well, none of the less actives were there but as I was sitting there, I was thinking of where we could do finding in Charleroi. I really didn't know the ville at all and there were really no sections that were more family oriented. it was all old--in fact it kind of looks like Brooklyn NY--no skyscrapers though. Just lots and lots of brick 2 or 3 story buildings all squished together. Some buildings are abandoned, some are nice, some have young families some have older people etc. It's just kind of a mix all together. Another problem-from our apartment, it takes a bit to get to proselyting areas. Around us has DEFINITELY been done and also around the church. Everywhere else takes like 45 minutes. I looked around the fireside and realized -- WAIT, this room is full of members!! They can take us to their neighborhoods! So Afterwards, we ran up to Soeur Wery in the ward and asked her if she could take us to their neighborhood to do some finding. She was thrilled. We drive over there and Sr Mangum has the great idea to make it a power hour.

Power Hour definition: You go to a members house, pray with them and tell them that you will be finding in their area and you ask them to pray for you while you're out. If they have ideas of specific places in their neighborhood, that's great too.

The Wery family told us of their neighbor who had received a Book of Mormon and a less active down the way. They said that the neighbor had already turned away the Elders but that we should try anyway. We try the less active first-not home. Tried the neighbor-fixed a lesson for the next day (tonight). AWESOME!! Well...at that point we had only used like 5 minutes of power hour -- so on we went. Well needless to say, I have never seen such an amazing finding miracle in my life. Not only did their neighbor and his whole family invite us back. But we also found 2 other families and single woman who we fixed lessons with this week. AMAZING!! It really is amazing how much working with members speeds up missionary work. I am so grateful for this ward and their faith and prayers. Needless to say, we're going back to that neighborhood to finish porting it (and also to teach the lessons we fixed haha).

Well, that's all I have time for. Wish us luck in Belgium!! This week is going to be crazy.

Also, going to Paris on Wednesday for a Christmas conference. SO EXCITED!!

Also, don't know when we will be skyping the family but I'm assuming it will be Christmas night time. So Christmas morning for you. We can try google hangout again so we can have many of you peeps on at a time :) It's up to you!! I would love to see Zoe and Callan and Jon and Sarah as well as you guys :)

Love you mucho!!

Soeur Bitter

Last RDV with Sophie

Tugsuu Sending Saying Farewell

Barton and I at the Coast

Goodbye With Sophie (and Breakfast)

First Day in Charleroi 

With Soeur Barton at the Beach

New Comp. Soeur Mangum

Leaving Rennes Before Christmas (Arghh) - December 9, 2013

Hello,

The saddest news ever- I'm leaving Rennes two weeks before Christmas. So...don't send anything more here. I'm really sad but I know that where I'm going is where I am meant to be. I'm headed off to Charleroi so....SEND ME SOMETHING WARM!! 

Other news: Sophie is getting baptized- the 21st (dad's birthday!). It's such a bummer that I won't be there but I'm so excited for her.

Here's the story: So last week, we talked about baptism but she said that she didn't think she was ready. She said maybe in two months. I thought that was acceptable so we left it there. That next morning, she sent us a text and said that she had woken up "really sad because I don't have a baptism". We had told her to pray about it to know which day would be good for her. When we got to our RDV, she told us:

"You know, I've been reading this book for two hours now."

At this point I whipped around, "QUOI!? Which book? The blue one??!"

Sure enough she had been reading the Book of Mormon for two hours straight. Best. News. Ever. And in her words "I really like this book". Her favorite chapter is still the one "about the seed that you have to water and then it will grow into a strong tree. I love it because it's like my faith" :) Love it.

We then talked about dates and we decided that the 21st would be the best :) I'm so excited for her. Since then, she has been sharing the Gospel with EVERYONE. She'll ask me often things like:

"How do you say the name of our church in French? I'm talking about it to my French friends."

She's is already such a great missionary and I know that she will be such a strength to this ward. I'm excited that Rennes gets to have her and I'm excited for how much love she'll receive from these wonderful members.

In all honesty, I'm really distracted by the news that I'm leaving Rennes so I'm having a hard time writing about the week. So that's all I'm going to say.

Have a great week everyone

Soeur Bitter

p.s. I received this morning the Christmas Package from everyone. I opened the letter to see if I could open the presents early. I was shocked to see everyone signed it and then I remembered when we all sat around the table last Christmas and signed the cards. Dad's made me laugh super hard "I know you miss me!" hehe it's so true.

p.p.s I received the cutest package last week from Aunt Maria and Uncle Craig!! I read all the cards and they made me SO SO happy! The stocking is sitting proudly on my desk :) I'm excited to check out the goodies inside.

Love From Craig and Maria

Sophie's Growth in the Gospel - December 2, 2013

Hello,

So it's week 6 again and we're at the end of the transfer. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stay here in Rennes because I'm in the middle of training...but really, you can never know haha. It's crazy how quick this transfer has gone. But since it's week 6, we have a ton of things to do on our p.day and we still want to go to St. Malo so this is going to be a quick email.

So today I'm just going to give an update on Sophie. So this week I really felt we should teach the Word of Wisdom. , I was nervous. She's a 25 year old college student so this could go SO many ways. We get to her lesson and we just ask her how she has been and then I say "OK awesome. We we brought a message but we would love to start with a prayer. You can choose who will give it."

"Me. I want to give it!"

I was a little surprised since with her, she usually gives the closing prayers but I didn't think anything of it and just bowed my head. She then gave the most beautiful prayer about how thankful she is to feel His support in her life especially as she is choosing to follow His path. The spirit was incredibly strong. She finished her prayer and then started to bear her testimony of the influence she has felt of the Lord in her life. Once again she mentioned General Conference. She talked about how before, she really didn't understand what we were describing when we described the Holy Ghost (which is interesting because I could have sworn she did...opps haha).

Then she said "but then you asked me to watch that Conference and...and...it was like there was a wall that I wasn't aware was even there-and someone knocked it down, and I saw for the very first time. Ever since then, I have felt someone behind me, pushing me down this path. I can see it and it's so clear to me".

She then continued and described how good it feels to have someone who supports her. Haha at this point she back-peddled a little and said quickly  "But I know you support me too! It's just, someone on the other side, someone bigger than me. When all my friends are telling me one thing, I know what He wants for me".

We then segued into the Word of Wisdom.  After the lesson she looked at me and said "you always bring the perfect things to teach me. This is exactly what I needed. It wasn't a coincidence you brought this." It was such a testimony to me that the commandments that the Lord gives us really ARE for our good and that telling others to keep them, telling others to repent. While scary, it WILL make them happier. I love that she sees that too. I love that she sees so clearly how she needs to change because she knows how she feels and she knows what we teach will bring her more of that feeling. 

Anyway, that's all I have time for. I can't wait to see all of your lovely faces on Christmas...or Christmas eve. Whichever works best for you. We need to arrange with members when we can be at their house on Christmas to use their skype but we will let you know. Which day is better for you? The 24th or the 25th?

Love my package. Also! This morning I got a package from Grandma Weber! What the surprise!! I'm so excited!! Although, I'm guessing I can't open it until Christmas.

Sending my love!!

Soeur Bitter

French Pastries -- Baffling to Say the Least

Awesome Bookends -- November 25, 2013

Hello Hello,

This week was kind of crazy good. I think we should talk about the bookends of the week--because let's be honest, they're the best part.

Monday night after P.day, we set up Sophie to come over with us to the Bishop's house and have a FHE. She was really excited--and so were we. It's good because Sophie's french has actually gotten very good. She spoke the whole night in French to them.  If ever she couldn't find a word, she would say it in English and because the Bishop's family is fluent in English as well, they understood just fine :). Anyway, so we decided to talk about Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost for the lesson. Soeur Letort had just finished sharing her thoughts about the role of the Holy Ghost in her life when Sophie said "I'd like to share my experience." I was kind of surprised. Normally Sophie is very open in our lessons but this was in French and with people she didn't really know. She began by saying that she used to be a good person. That before meeting the missionaries, she wasn't a bad person. But sometimes it's hard for young people to know the completely right path. She went on to talk about how the more she learns about Christ and the more she prays, the more clear the "right" is to her.

Later that night, when we were sitting around the table for dinner, Bishop Letor asked Sophie a little about China and religion there. She talked about how it is really closed off in China. That you can believe but you never talk about it. She said that they are very concerned with their careers but she said "but if they only knew that these things will just ADD to what they already have. They just need to know." Bishop Letort drove us and Sophie home that night. 

When Sophie got home, she called us. She thanked us profusely for the invitation and said that she had a really really good time. She then talked about how when she was was telling her experience, she felt that same feeling she did when she watched General Conference. :) She then asked us if during winter break she could come and do missionary work with us!! For about 3 days!! She said she loves "that feeling" so much and she "wants everyone to feel that feeling". Our little missionary. :) And yes ladies and gentleman. This is the same Sophie that only months ago was Atheist. Obviously not anymore!!

Last week, we scheduled another FHE with our ward mission leader, his family and one of our amis. Well, sadly that ami doesn't want to see us anymore. When our ward mission leader found out, he sent us a message and called us and said that he is really sorry but that he still really wants us to come to his house and eat dinner with his family even if we don't bring an ami. I told him that we had planned to bring an ami so we would keep searching for one. Well all week we searched and searched and searched for someone to bring to this FHE. 

Finally Saturday night came and we still don't have an ami. Then out of nowhere, an old ami texts us and asks how we are. We invite her to church and she says yes!! Then we invite her to the Moal's house...and she says yes again!! We're stoked. We're thinking SCORE!! BLESSINGS FALLING DOWN!! Well..then we get to church...and she's not there :( We text her and she can't come anymore. I'm sitting in Relief Society thinking still of who in the world we can bring. I knew that Frere Moal and his family would be happy to have us as we were but I also knew that this ward was really excited to do missionary work and I wanted them to experience the wonderful things we do each day! 

I then look out the window and what do I see? Nope. not popcorn popping BUT JEAN CHIRSTOPHE (our best member missionary) and who is he walking next to, I HAVE NO IDEA!!! Less than 2 minutes later he cracks open the door and leads her inside and plops her right down next to us.

*Be cool Soeur Bitter. Be cool*

She then came with us to Gospel Principles where we talked about eternal marriage. I translated for her since she doesn't understand French super well. She said she agreed with everything...which I thought was interesting since she is Chinese and this is her first time leaving mainland China. She then turned to me and told me "you know. You talk about really really good things here."

Then for Sacrament meeting it was the primary program--score. She ADORED IT. She kept saying over and over how warm it was and how next time she wanted to be early so she wouldn't miss a thing. Also, she adores the primary songs...but who doesn't. 

We invited her over to the Moals and she was so touched!! And not only was it a wonderful lesson, and she loves their family, guess who knows an unusal amount about Chinese history and speaks English really well? Frere Moal...naturally. haha They just chatted it up about the history of her country and the philosophers and the emperors and the periods of time and then she asked tons of questions about French culture. 

I was just sitting there in between these two thinking "this is not even real life." -- this is missionary dream life! I felt truly touched by how much the Lord provided for us that day. Needless to say, she is amazing and we'll be seeing her again after she gets back from Merseilles next week. :)
Also can we just point out how our most unbelivable amis are Chinese? Love them.

Well, that's all the goodies for today. :) Love you all tons!!

Also, I totally got the countdown package! I'm so excited :) They are sitting proudly on my desk (see pic below).

Happy thanksgiving

Also, last week I hit my half way mark---that was weird.

Soeur Bitter

12 Days of Christmas From Mom

Sophie - November 18, 2013

Hello,

Another week has come and gone. I was thinking I could do a little update of Sophie since we haven't talked about her in a while. Just for a refresher, Sophie is the Chinese student who had already heard the story of Joseph Smith.

So she went to Germany for a week and a half and unfortunately she lost her phone. haha But we dropped by and she had missed us! :) Anyway, she told this story of when she was in Germany. She met someone there and they went to lunch together (Sophie is one of the most outgoing people I know).

She said that this girl started talking about her life and she told Sophie about her theory of living: "Live today and take no thought for tomorrow". (As missionaries we're thinking "Uh Oh....and what did YOU say??" haha) But then Sophie said something amazing. She said she sat back and realized all the blessing that God has given her—a good family, help getting to France, and meeting the missionaries.

And then we introduced her to Christ and Christianity. She said "In that moment I knew that I was on the right path and I thought of my missionary friends and all that you have taught me". She went on to say that this last week or two has been hard because she hasn't had ANY time to see friends or to hang out.

She's in school full time and she works as well. (But she still makes time for us :)). She then said that every once in a while she feels lonely but then she thinks of us and what we told her she can do. So she gets on her knees and PRAYS! She said, "and then, I'm not sad anymore. And what is more? I know I should be doing this (praying) more often". She is so incredibly easy to teach. It's actually amazing to me how little we have taught her yet how many amazing spiritual experiences she has had. Teaching people like her make all of this worth it.

Well that's kind of all I want to share for this week :) haha sorry.

Mom & Dad- I'm so excited about the 12 days of Christmas! WOO HOOOOOO!!!! I was thinking the other day about how much I'm going to miss that. BUT NOW I WON"T! Now I'm just going to miss the Christmas stories. haha I'll look some up and read them to myself. teheh. You asked about the weather...it's pretty cold haha. But we're in one of the warmest areas in my mission...so I'm pretty grateful to be here.

Sending my love

Sœur Bitter

Annabelle - November 11, 2013

Hello hello!!

I can't believe that it is already Monday again. So I don't have a lot of time to write because today is a holiday and so the email place didn't open until really late and we have to catch a train in about an hour and I want to look up talks for a bunch of our Recent Converts and Less actives. So sorry but I won't be sending individual emails this week. But know that I love you all.

Only have time to give an update on Annabelle. She is doing really well. We have now officially taught all the lessons. We were nervous to go and teach tithing but when I started the lesson she said

"Oh I read this chapter in the Gospel Principles book"
"Oh ya? What do you remember"
"Wait. It's 10% of your income. And they use the funds for building churches and publishing the books and missionary work and for charity...ya and that's what I remember. I read all the scriptures that corresponded with the chapter. Tithing has been around for a while"

Easiest lesson of tithing I've ever taught. haha Anyway, so she came to church on Sunday (and once again was about 40 minutes early). We had a lesson after church and were talking to her a lot about baptism. At the end of the lesson I told her "Annabelle. I know I am persistent" (to which she beamed from ear to ear. "Yes incredibly persistent"). I then expressed how the reason I am so persistent with these things is because I love her and I want her to be with me in the Kingdom of Heaven and that that was my goal for myself and I want her to be there too.

"But even more, I know that your Heavenly Father wants you there more than you can understand and I also know that how you start that path back is through Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost."

Instantly the scripture from D&C flashed through my mind

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance...and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"

Today we were cleaning the apartment and we found a giant picture of Christ. We stuck it on the window facing out so all the world could see and we wrote with dry erase marker the scripture in John 3:16. As I sat there and read the scripture over and over and thought about my lesson with Annabelle, I thought of how lucky I am to be here. How happy I am to be here and how I feel like I could do this forever.

I know the Gospel is true and I KNOW it blesses families forever.

Love you all

Sœur Bitter

New Apartment, New Tahitian Companion - November 4, 2013

Mes Chères Amis

First things first, I got my companion Wednesday. She is from Tahiti...so needless to say...it's a little cold here for her haha. She spent about 10 days in the MTC in Madrid and then she came here to France!! She doesn't speak any English so it's French 24/7...and then Soeur Barton's Bleu is French so needless to say, we speak a lot of French in the apartment. But things are going well. It's been pretty crazy splitting up the ville. Everyone thinks that all four of us are one companionship at church.  It's been sad splitting up our amis. There are some people that I just won't teach anymore :(  The good side is that we've had a ton of finding miracles this week which has been awesome.

Now that we have 4 sisters in Rennes, we have a TON of finding time. Before we were pretty much going from RDV to RDV with just a little finding in between. Now....like large chunks of time.. But it is really good because Rennes has a ton of potential and now that we have more time, we can find people who are really ready for this message.

Cool finding experiences this week: We were doing some porting in the area around our new apartment (which is awesome BTW. The Elders kept it super nice) and we started talking to this lady at her Porte. She then tells us that her brother is LDS...and his wife...and all his kids...and all their kids served missions...and then their kids as well. She said that her brother had already talked to her about the Book of Mormon. We told her "that's awesome. Can we talk to you about the Plan of Salvation this next week?" She said yes! Woot! I'm so excited. She said that she was really impressed at how faithful her brothers family was to their faith. She said often you will see that the parents practice one thing but then the kids will practice another and she said she found that the most impressive.

Another cool finding experience, we were contacting on the metro and I thought to contact the girl standing next to me. We started talking and she talked about how excited she was to find someone believing too! That it's so hard to find people our age who firmly believe and practice. She immediately invited us back to her apartment (which we happily got off the metro and went). It was a beautiful lesson. We'll be seeing her this next week :)

Annabelle is doing great. She came to church again this Sunday and in Relief Society, the lesson was about Missionary work and how the members can participate in missionary work. We split off into groups. I was the missionary in this group and Annabelle was sitting next to me. Our group was in charge of the question "how can we open up the conversation to the church to our friends and people we meet". The people in our group started to give a lot of really good ideas. Suddenly Annabelle said "well I think it's necessary to just go on a full time mission. You know giving the Book of Mormon out". BAHAHAHAH Everyone got a kick out of that. Also, Annabelle finished reading the Book of Mormon. We gave it to her at the end of August and she finished it on Halloween. We had a FHE with Annabelle and Sr Hamzic. When we got there, this is how the conversation went:

"Annabelle! How are you?"
At this point I can see that she is bubbling over with something that she has been wanting to tell me.

"Well, I went for a run this morning, cleaned the house...and I finished the Book of Mormon." She smiled slyly.   Of course I exploded with joy and started asking her a million questions.

Then she went on, "I actually thought of you when I read one of the verses. It's in Moroni. Wait a second. I'll find it....Ah, here it is 'and likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such."

BAHAHAHA. Oh gosh. I don't think I ever said it that strongly. But needless to say, if ever anyone talked to Annabelle about prayer she would say "oh yes. Soeur Bitter has talked to me many times about having a sincere prayer."

But the greatest part was that she was not even offended by the scripture. Instead she said:"that's kind of an important scripture! You think they should have put that in the beginning!" :) oh cute Annabelle

Well that's probably enough for now :) Also, I showed Soeur Barton the pic that you sent of our home and she said that she has never seen greener, fluffier grass in her life--props to you peeps. She said that it was the most beautiful yard ever. woot

Anyway, I love you all so so much. Things are great here. The work is great and the ward is still so amazing. I am so thrilled that I will most likely stay for another 3 months here. What made me even more happy was that on Sunday, so many members ran up to me and told me how they had been hoping I would stay as well. SO CUTE!! I love it here in Rennes. I love the members. I love the people. I even love the rain. (going to buy myself an umbrella today). Rain-boots are still best purchase of the mission. Well, until next week.

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." -Ether 12:4

Soeur Kari Ann Bitter

OH ALSO GREAT NEWS!!! So, I know that in other missions each week or every transfer they have a party with their zone. Like a bbq or football...well not here -- we are all business. BUT President is letting us have a get together with the other missionaries in our Zone for Thanksgiving!!!!!! BEST. DAY. EVER!! I'm so excited. THANK YOU PREZ!! It's gonna be a fête.

Oh also, forgot to say, we got all moved in OK and below is my new address. Soeur Barton and I were pretty tired by the time Wednesday came...and then we needed to help the new missionaries move into our apartment too.  

Well when Soeur Tane got off the plane, two of her wheels had been removed from each of her suitcases ...so both of the suitcases didn't really move.  She told me this new news nervously at our first meeting. "No problem. That's what Elders are for!" hehe. So I convinced a few elders to hand carry her bags (one of them being like 65 lbs) all the way across Paris to our train. THANKS ELDERS!! You're the best. 

It's interesting being in a completely new part of town and in a new apartment and with all this new finding time, I kind of feel like I'm in a new ville!...but then I go to church on Sunday and I see all the members I love so much and I think "All is well. I'm still in Rennes".


New Address:

Les Missionnaires
2, rue Molière
Rennes 35700
France

Doubling the Sister Missionaries in Rennes - October 28, 2013

Until this transfer, there have had four missionaries in Rennes, one set of Elders (our zone leaders) and the Soeurs (which is my companion and me). However, this next transfer, we will have six missionaries! We will have two sets of Soeurs and our Zone leaders!! We are the first ville in our Mission to have two sets of Soeurs (that I know of).

Usually it is distributed with two sets of Elders and one set of Soeurs. And what's more, THEY'RE SPLITTING SOEUR BARTON AND I UP!! Mince. I love her so much. So we will be both getting baby blues this Wednesday. Our new companions are probably leaving the MTC as you read this.

I’m sad to be splitting up from Soeur Barton…but we’ll still be in the same apartment so the split is not that permanent. (Yeah!J The mission is in the process of finding us a bigger apartment but until then, we will just have to rearrange…and snuggle haha. But what this means is that most likely I will be in Rennes for another two transfers!! So I’ll be here for Christmas!! In this ward that I love SO much. WIN!

One of my favorite moments from this week was from our lesson with Annabelle. We had a FHE with her and a couple from the ward. We visited her later that week and Annabelle suddenly had this new fire for the Gospel. “Il faut croire! IL FAUT CROIRE!!” She went on and on about how you have to have a desire to have faith first and that leads to an increase in faith and it’s a continual process. She said, “I know that you have told me these same things many times…but it finally clicked when that man was talking about conversion!”

Happiness! She has a new fire for the Gospel and it has finally clicked for her that it is so much more than just reading scriptures (although-she is doing AWESOME at that. At the last lesson, she had read the all the way to Mormon so she’s almost finished! She’s read the entire conference ensign many times over, the proclamation to the world…basically all the materials we have given her haha). It’s still hard for her because she comes from a French Catholic background and although she is not practicing, getting baptized would be like a betrayal to her culture and heritage.

Slowly she is realizing that it is more about our relationship with God than anything else. The first time we met her she was deeply opposed to going to ANY church…and now she’s coming! And in her words “the three hours actually passes pretty quickly”. So she is doing well!

Ayn (anne) is doing really well too. We had a lesson with her this week and she told us about how much she LOVES institute. She loves hearing the experiences from the returned missionaries and everyone’s testimonies. She was so sad that she missed Stake Conference. She asked us to recount all we remembered to her. So sweet. We’re really starting from the beginning with her because this is her first time learning about deism…let alone Christianity. But she is doing really, really well and she has a strong desire to have faith and to learn more. Which that is a lot already.

*We interrupt this email for an important update: I will be spending the rest of the day moving our stuff into the Elders apartment and moving the Elders stuff into ours. Oh what JOY!*

Anyway now that I know we have SO much to do, we should probably get off emails and get to work!! Pday fail.

Haha I love you all so much.

Soeur Bitter

Soeur Barton, Tugsuu and me

Another Great Day For Missionary Work

Tugsuu and the Plan of Salvation - October 21, 2013

Hello,

I can't believe this transfer is already ending!! We are in our last week! So crazy.

This week we had exchanges and they were amazing!! I was with Soeur Hoover. Soeur Hoover and Soeur Rhondeau (my trainer) actually went on a study abroad together before the mission (CRAZY SMALL WORLD). Anyway, she is SO great. So sweet, and such an amazing missionary. I'm so grateful for my mission in giving me the occasion to meet all these amazing missionaries that I probably wouldn't know in any other circumstances.

On our exchange we taught a few lessons together but probably my favorite was with Tugsuu. So for a quick reminder, Tugsuu is our recent convert and she is doing so so well. She brings her friends to church all the time and shares the Gospel with just about everyone she meets. So Soeur Hoover and I decided to review the Plan of Salvation because it had been a while since she had been taught it. Soeur Hoover asked Tugsuu what the Plan of Salvation meant to her. She then turned to me and said "It's like the story that you and Soeur Hilton shared with me." *instantly racking my brain. Shoot what story*. Luckily then she continued "the story of the son who leaves his fathers house. It's like that. Like we're away from home and we're trying to find our way back and our Father will come and get us when we start walking back to Him". GLORIOUS!!! So amazing. She is such an example of pure faith. Every lesson with her is so edifying and so spiritual because she is so meek and open to the spirit. I love it.

So last Monday, our evening was a little open and I had been thinking of this area near one of our members. We decided to go out there. So we get there and all the apartment buildings are locked…or porting is not allowed. At this point I’m thinking “mince. Where have I led us? We’re just going to walk around all night and talk to no one” because at this point it was raining…and let’s be honest, no one is out when it rains haha. But as we keep going, we’re both reminded that we felt that we should come to this area and that it is important that we keep pressing forward. We turn the corner and we find this house snuggled within all these apartment buildings. WOOT! First port of the night! 

We run up to the door and ring it. The man answers and out runs his puppy (oops). “Come on in!” he says immediately. Suddenly I’m frozen. I think “uhh…we have not announced ourselves. Maybe he’s having a party and thinks we’re his guests…maybe this is an open house…does he know why we’re here???” At this point he’s grabbed his puppy and then says again “don’t just stand in the rain! Come in!”. We then hesitantly step into the foyer. By now, he is in the living room and welcoming us further into their incredibly beautiful home. He looks at us and then points out our tags and says “The Church of Jesus-Christ…SO you’re the Mormons”. BE COOL SOEUR BITTER! BE COOL! 

We then proceed to have a wonderful lesson with them. The father is not believing, the mother is a REALLY practicing Catholic. She said she goes to church about 3 times a week. The son is believing but not practicing. They are an incredibly nice family who really believes in ‘going about doing good’. 

We talk more and then they say that the other day they met a Mormon and he told them a little about our faith. “Maybe you know them. He is a very nice man. The Guiheux family.” Oh you mean our 2nd counselor in the bishopric? Ya…we know them haha. SO AMAZING!! They had just met Frere Guiheux at a garage where he was getting his car fixed. They were talking and Frere Guiheux had shared small truths about our Faith. Then, 2 weeks later, we knock on their door. So cool. 

They invited us over again for a classic French dinner (excitement) in about a week. And they wanted us to give the Guiheux’s their number. Such a cool miracle.

That’s probably long enough for a weekly letter J I love you all so much. Remember that you are loved by a Father in Heaven. By a King and creator of all. He knows you by name and he loves you.

“Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God”

Soeur Bitter

Vitré castle with Soeur Fellon (the member who drove us there. SHE IS SO AWESOME!)

Vitré

Best friends for life. Our picnic outside the grocery store

Pastry Mirage - October 14, 2013

Hi,

I can’t believe that it is already Monday again. This week was awesome and Sr. Barton and I are left just AMAZED at how we are living the dream out here. When people found out that I was coming out to Rennes, the response was pretty much the same “YOU LUCKY DUCK!!”. When people found out Sr. Barton was coming to Rennes, people told her something similar “THAT IS MY DREAM VILLE!!”. And here we are J In the most beautiful place, with the best ward and we are constantly amazed at our unbelievable amis.

Sophie is doing amazingly. She is about our age but she takes these lessons so seriously. As soon as we show up she tells us that she watched conference online and watched Finding Faith in Christ. She delves into all the things she thought and felt. Favorite quote “I didn’t understand every word but I felt AMAZING.” She went on to talk about how now SHE has started talking to others about how great it is to believe. That it is a normal thing. Missionaries are normal people but they have this amazing gift to give. It is absolutely amazing to me how much she is letting the Gospel come into her life. She told us this last lesson that some things are still hard for her to understand but she thinks it’s because of the way she was raised. All these ideas are so new and so she is slowly but surely putting all these beliefs into her previous way of thinking. My favorite part though was during our lesson of the plan of salvation. Towards the end of the lesson, she bore her testimony of the Father and of Christ. It has been amazing to see someone’s progression of faith. A few months ago-did not believe in God. A few weeks ago-doubting the faith she had in God. And now-this undeniable Faith that has now become a fact. God exists. Period. No dispute. She is so awesome. I love her so much.

Other great news: Last Monday we went and saw Leo!! We haven’t seen her in a while but I’ve been thinking about her a lot so we decided to call her up and then voila! Beautiful lesson. (For a refresher, Leo was the woman that I took down her number wrong but Birthday MIRACLE we saw her again and she gave us her right number). So we went with the intention of getting to know her, finding out her beliefs and then teaching the Plan Du Salut. We get there and she shows us her 2 week old baby *precious!*. And then we start talking to her. She tells us that she is nonpracticing Muslim and that she has been interested in Christianity in a while. She has been seriously searching and she told us that she is “looking for the path that will bring [her] closest to God.” And that she knows that there is one path that will do that. She just needs to find it. Drum roll please for my favorite moment of all: She said that she hasn’t been interested in religion a lot because she said that a lot of people let “their lips speak of Him but their hearts are far from Him.” Does that quote sound familiar to anyone besides me? It was amazing. Everything she said just made me more and more convinced that the Lord really does prepare people for His message. We’re excited to teach her more J

Ulzii is doing really well too. We saw her a couple times this week. We had a FHE with the Pahio family and it was amazing!! We decided to have it at the church right after church because the Pahio’s live super far. The Pahio’s are AMAZING!! They are a tidal wave of love. We talked about Jesus Christ and the blessings that come from believing in him. The Pahio’s shared such beautiful and powerful testimonies. It was a great lesson.

Funny story of the week: So somehow Sr. Barton and I have developed a very weird ability: the ability to NOT find a pastry in all of France. Haha. Granted it is good for our health to not eat pastries but…come on! You think we could at least find ONE in an entire transfer!! Sometimes we’ll be out all day and so for our ‘lunch break’ we’ll try to find a boulangerie to get something to eat and grab a treat as well. Well it usually turns out that we just wander for our entire lunch time…and then just go hungry. So after weeks of this, we were getting pretty desperate. Haha. We were coming back from porting in an area just outside of Rennes on Saturday. We had met some REALLY awesome people! BUT we had been out since like 9 am going to RDVs and what not…and we hadn’t brought anything to eat. At this point it’s about 5:30. We’re driving on the bus when we pass a store that says “Le Grande Magasin de gateau”. Or in English, “The Giant store of CAKE!!”

Mont Saint-Michel Where I Played a Concert as a Teenager

Mont Saint-Michel

Pastry Mirage

We jump off the bus and run for this seemingly irrefutable store of treats. Fueled by a burst of energy I stormed into the fantasy land of cakes….only to discover that it was a store for wedding cakes and mass produced party favors. What else added to our disappointment? Well, in my zeal for sugar, I didn’t realize that it was Saturday…the day of infrequent buses. Haha sure enough, we go back and the next bus is in 40 minutes. DEPRESSION!! So we started our long walk back to the Church and contacted people on our way. No treats, more exercise. C’est la vie de la missionnaire.

Other cool happenings, our ward threw a Fest-noz’s or a tranditional Bretagne (Brittany) party. Mom and Dad: remember when we went to that one small Abbey and we learned traditional French Dances? Well, they’re not traditional French, they’re from BRITTANY!! It was so much fun to see the ward laughing and having fun together. SO MUCH LOVE. And they swarmed our amis and just showered them with love. I love this ward so much. We never worry about our ami’s fitting in. This ward just accepts everyone. It’s a beautiful thing.

Happy Birthday Grandma!! 91! Woot woot! I love you so much and I think about you every day out here J I hope your day was awesome and that you know you are loved much by many. Since I wasn’t able to be there for your birthday tradition, I’ll write it here. My favorite memory of Grandma is when you came to Arizona to watch us. You had a bright pink raincoat on and the hummingbirds thought you were a flower so they kept coming and trying to eat you hahaha. Another was when we were all swimming but you had not brought your swimming suit but you still wanted to play with us…so you just jumped in the pool fully clothed BAHAHAH. So sporty. Love it

Love you all!

Soeur Bitter

Joseph Smith Story From Mainland China - October 9, 2013

HELLO, HELLO!!! So let's just start by saying that this week was AWESOME!! My companion and I were nervous about this week. All day Thursday, we were in Angers for a tri-zone conference and with General Conference, we thought "Wow...that doesn't leave a lot of time for Missionary work". But the Lord takes care of his work.

The Rennes ward has had a lot of recent converts this year (WOOT! GO RENNES WARD!!) and so each week we have about six recent convert lessons. However, this week, we had only one. Why is this a celebration? Each one of our recent converts brought a friend or family member to their lesson, who wanted to know about the Gospel.

So the lesson quickly turned into a lesson with a new ami!! WOOT! Talk about convert power! It is amazing to me, the faith of these recent converts. They don't know everything about the Gospel and some of them are so new that they still need refreshers on the basic doctrine BUT they know how they feel WITH the Gospel and they remember how they felt without it. They are so ready to share that with others. It's such an example to me to NEVER take advantage of the Gospel and to share it will all our friends and family. Because in all honesty, what better gift can we give?

SUPER cool thing this week: So we were in our RDV with Sophie and we had decided to talk about the Restoration. Some background on Sophie: we have taught her a few times. She is from Mainland China so Christianity is really new to her…actually believing in God is really new to her. Before, it was something that she had read in textbooks, not a way of life. So teaching her is really slow.

We have to describe in depth each word we say (I.e. Faith, Prophet ≠ Profit). Anyway, so we sit down and we start talking about Joseph Smith and then she exclaims “I KNOW THIS STORY!!” And I thought to myself “I doubt it.” Haha She had just learned of the miracles of Jesus Christ last week. She described Christ’s miracles as “supernatural”. But then she starts to recount to us the ENTIRE story of Joseph Smith. *Pause for moment as I pick my jaw off the floor*. I then ask her how she knows of Joseph Smith and she explains that Joseph Smith is in every history textbook in China. So any girl who was a good student will know the story of Joseph Smith. Mind Blown.

Also, conference was just great. Themes I noticed:

· Missionary Work…ya and I don’t think I noticed it because I’m a missionary. Haha.

· Making and Keeping Sacred Covenants

· Protecting the sanctity of the family

Conference was SOO good. I loved what was said (can’t remember who it was) about watching conference will not build your testimony but LIVING the things that you learned sure will. It’s true that we can have such wonderful experiences at conference and feel the spirit so strong but it is when we apply the things that we learn that we really grow.

Great news: Annabelle, Anne and Ulzii all came to conference!! WOOT. Annabelle came to the R.S. session and she LOVED it. She told us that she was so nervous on the bus and almost turned back but she came anyway. YES! Anne was able to stay for both the R.S. broadcast and Saturday Morning (here those are back to back). She loved it as well. She understood most of it but I’m excited to get them to her in Vietnamese. Ulzii is a new ami this week that Tugsuu brought to her lesson. Apparently she has wanted to come to church for a long time and so when we invited her to conference, she was THRILLED. We weren’t able to talk to her after but we will see her this week and ask her what she thought.

Dear Howard and Lori: Thank you SOOO MUCH for the Birthday cake. We had SO much fun with it haha. And it was surprisingly delicious! Below are birthday fun pics. It also worked out really well because my companion’s birthday was this last Sunday :) So we both blew out the candle haha. Love you! Thank you so much!

This week in Mission Conference, our mission set a goal that EACH companionship bring a FAMILY unto the Gospel for Christmas. This meant for me to SERIOUSLY change my style of missionary work. The way I find, teach and even pray. We are working harder than ever; and then with the Prophetic demand at conference, who could deny that the work is moving forward.

"If every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful gift to the Savior." -Elder Bednar

The Lord has called you to the work—each and every one of you. Now the only question is, Will you respond to the call?

But no stress :) Just remember that "the task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us."

I love you all.



Soeur Bitter

Arabic Translation Fail - September 30, 2013

Hello,

First off can we just say this week was an explosion of love!! With Nicole having her baby, Kati get married and Jon and Sarah having their baby, I got an explosion of emails and love from everyone!! I'm sorry I'm not there for all these huge events but I love you all so much and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

So I was thinking we could start this week with a missionary fail moment. So once upon a time, Fatima was going to Morocco. She will be gone for two months which is a HUGE bummer because she is making so much progress BUT she does so much good work in Morocco so it'll be a good thing. Anyway, we were thinking of what we could do while she is gone to help her to keep progressing. We decided to make her a "Calendrier de Vacance" with specific chapters of the Book of Mormon or talks from online. Well, since Fatima only reads in Arabic...I've been studying a little bit of arabic this week haha. I would sit down and compare my english Book of Mormon with an Arabic version. I learned quickly what the different numbers were and so finding scriptures was a lot easier. I fill out the calender and at the bottom, there is a blank space. I thought to myself "Hmmm..I should put a scripture there. But what Scripture??....I KNOW!! Moroni 10:4".

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Obviously, this scripture was very easy to find because it was at the back of the Book of Mormon (or the front in Arabic). So I start the long tedious process of writing out a scripture in Arabic. Needless to say, it looked pretty legit. At the end of the scripture (literally as I'm finishing the last character) I think so smugly to myself "Fatima will be so touched." Almost as a response, I feel the spirit tell me "Maybe you should double check that scripture". I quickly look back to the scripture and realize "MINCE!! This isn't Moroni 10:4...this is chapter 9!!!....what a second...THIS ISN'T EVEN THE BOOK OF MORONI! IT'S ETHER!!....it's ok. I'm sure this scripture is good too." So I quickly pull out my english Book of Mormon. Imagine my worry when I turn to Ether 9 and none of the scriptures in that chapter are highlighted. THEN Imagine my dismay when I read Ether 9:4

And it came to pass that Jared was anointed king over the people, by the hand of wickedness; and he gave unto Akish his daughter to wife.

Fail. Yup...I'm sure "Fatima will be so touched" by that scripture. Hahaha. Pride comes before the fall n'est-ce pas?

Annabelle is progressing really well and is planning on coming to Conference!! We talked about prophets and a few of the commandments this week. She LOVED the conference ensigne we gave her--especially Soeur Dalton's talk "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father". She went on and on about it haha. She's so sweet and teachable. I've never met anyone so teachable in my life. When we taught the law of Chastity this week we asked her if she will commit to keeping the law of chastity and she said enthusiastically "I WILL BE PERFECT!!" We also started bringing Sr. Hamzic to a few of our lessons. Annabelle LOVES Sr. Hamzic. Everytime we are there now, (Whether or not Sr. Hamzic is there) she prays for Sr. Hamzic and thanks Heavenly Father for the touching things Sr. Hamzic said to her and the testimony she shared :). Happiness. Imgaine how thrilled Annabelle was when the next time Sr. Hamzic came, she brought a potted flower for her. It sits proudly on display in front of her front window.

Miracle of the week: Earlier this week I had been thinking about Annick. She is a recent convert in this ward. She had been an ami for 30 years and then one day decided she was going to get baptized :). (Fun insert, it was my mission president's wife, Soeur Poznanski who first found and taught her). Anyway, we don't meet with her a ton because she is pretty timid but I was thinking "Hey, with a new comp, I bet we could get another RDV with her". Sure enough, I'm getting on the bus and I see Annick is calling. I think to myself "SR Bitter, this is one call you can NOT ignore and call back later".

So I immediately pick up. She asks if we had called her. I think to myself "I had been wanting to call her...did I call her....?" I told her we hadn't but that I had been thinking about her a lot this week and that we would love to have a RDV with her and introduce my new companion. She said that would be no problem (!) and that we could have it after church on Sunday in one of the classrooms. We were planning our lesson for her and we thought that we should talk to her about Patriarchal Blessings and to prepare to receive hers.

We get into the RDV and we're just talking about her conversion story (and Sr. Barton is asking her questions about her experiences) and then suddenly she tells us "and then today during the Sacrament. A word just popped into my mind 'Patriarchal Blessing'". We told her that we had actually prepared that very thing to talk to her about. She was SO INCREDIBLY touched that we had received the same though as her. We started talking about Patriarchal Blessings and the personal guidance we receive from the Lord. "So it's like a letter from the Lord!" I sat back and thought about it and then realized...that is exactly what it is.

I can't even begin to describe our lessons with Annick. We don't have them often but when we do, there is a feeling beyond description. Soeur Barton and I were talking afterwards about how it is really a privilege to meet and know these people. We get to feel a little bit of the love that our Heavenly Father has for these people. Those moments make the weird encounters, the sore feet and the early mornings all worth it.

As always, our members are amazing! I can't even begin to describe. We get calls from them all the time asking us how they can help our amis. If they can have a specific amis number to help them move or telling them about their missionary experiences throughout the week. It's a beautiful thing and they uplift us as missionaries.

I love you all so much.

Jon & Sarah: Congratulations again! And that is super cool that you are looking for opportunities to share the Gospel and people to invite over with the Sister's. You're the kind of members that missionaries talk about and adore :)

Love love love you!
Soeur Bitter

Streets of Rennes

Soeur Hilton: Transferred to Belgium - September 23, 2013

So Soeur Hilton got transferred to Belgium :( sad day. We got taught and worked together so well and she is just a BLAST. And actually our last day together, we decided to go into Paris REALLY early with the Zone Leaders of exchanges. Zone Leaders have to be into Paris by like 930 but we don't really have to be there until noon. So we decided to get in just as early as the ZL's...and carry her bags all the way to the eiffel Tower :) We just sat under the Eiffel Tower and reminisced on an AWESOME transfer. It was so fun and the perfect way to end such a good transfer. I'm so grateful for my mission and the opportunity it has to be able to meet some of my greatest friends. Anyway, I stayed here in Rennes and my new comp (Sr. Barton) is awesome! In fact, she reminds me of Aunt Lora! Haha it is so much fun. Her little mannerisms too I just think...."I'm serving a mission in Paris with Aunt Lora". She is from Monticello Utah and she is just one transfer below me so it's really fun because (like last transfer) I'm with someone who has lots of energy and missionary fire. It's so fun.


So this week highlight was probably our lesson with Annabelle. Well...we actually had a couple lessons with Annabelle this week but last night we brought a member with us--Sr. Hamzic. Annabelle lives alone and is from a Catholic background. When we were telling Sr. Hamzic (our RS prez) about her, we found that the two of them had a lot of similarities and that a lot of Annabelle's confusions are the exact same as Sr. Hamzic's were.

For those of you coming late into the story, Annabelle is an ami that Sr. Hilton and I met our 2nd week together and we've been teaching her 2-3 times a week since then. She ADORES the Book of Mormon. She has read up to Alma 12 already and then she's read chapters here and there as we have assigned them. So... ya...she's pretty good at reading haha. However, prayers for her have been really hard. In the past, prayers have always been memorized. So the idea of just speaking to our Heavenly Father is definitely new.

Well anyway, yesterday, I was reminded why we invite members to lessons. Sr. Hamzic shared some experiences and ideas that really touched Annabelle. So much so that she said that she would pray and ASK if the Book of Mormon is true!! In her prayer at the end of the lesson, she thanked our Heavenly Father over and over for Sr. Hamzic and the things she shared and that "it touched her so much". She also thanked Him for how....persistent the missionaries are hahahaha.

Fatima is still doing so well. We had a goodbye dinner with her and the Delacourt's before Sr. Hilton left for Belgium. Galets. Yum. Fatima will be leaving to Morocco soon to visit her family for about a month. So we are going to back her a "vacation calender" of reading and things that will help her keep her testimony and keep her progressing while she is away.

Saturday there was a baptism (8 year old) and I had a chance to play my violin! woot. And then yesterday after church there was a picnic and we ate like kings. Double woot.

Congrats Jon and Sarah on little Callan!! I think his face might be rounder than mine! He's super cute and I feel like I'm officially an Aunt because now I have one niece and one nephew :) :) :) :) I love you guys so much and I'm so glad that everything went well.

Sorry it's shorter this week but know that I love you lots!

Soeur Bitter

The Sun Shines on Missionary Work - September 16, 2013

Greetings,

This week was such a good week and the perfect way to end the transfer. It is such a testimony that our hard moments can last as short as a week.  The sun does rise again.

Let's start from the beginning. So this week we went back to see that new young family that we found last week. On the way there I started thinking 'oh mince...I hope that they are there...and if they are not there...I hope the Grenal's don't remember." The Grenals having been fasting and praying for a missionary opportunity for years and the last thing we wanted to do was to squash their hopes. Well, sure enough, we turn the street and the Grenals are in their front yard haha at this point I think, "well, now they HAVE to be there."

Sure enough we turn the corner and the family was waiting for us! The lesson went super well. At the beginning of the lesson, he said "well, I just don't see the point of religion because no one has all the truth." Me and my companion think "well this is perfect" And we tell him "well, that's actually what we wanted to talk to you about today." haha. We go back to the Grenal's and tell them about our lesson with them. They are freaking out while we're playing it all cool (but secretly geeking out). They then told us that they had been praying all day that the family would remember our visit. I was seriously touched by their devotion to missionary work.

Then Soeur Grenal asks us about one of our Amis who we had been teaching and who had come to church once. This was kind of a sad topic because this ami had dropped appointments for about 4 weeks straight. We told her that we weren't seeing her any more. She then explained to us that the time that Fatima came to church, she had asked about baptism. This was super surprising to both of us because before I came, they had not taught Fatima formal lessons. Fatima is Muslim but non practicing. The missionaries had kept the appointments more casual just to keep the relationship up and then ease her into the missionary discussions.

When I came, Soeur Hilton and I decided I could play the new missionary card and we could start to structure the lessons more. Anyway, after our visit with Soeur Grenal, we decided to call Fatima again and see if we could fix something. Sure enough, she says that she is free the next day! We call a member and have her come with us. We're teaching the Doctrine of Christ. The spirit is really strong and towards the end of the lesson, we invite her to pray to know if Jesus Christ is her Savior. She then starts describing these experiences she has had and then finally proclaims that she has Faith in Jesus Christ. I was floored!

I remember the lesson we had with her at the beginning of the transfer and she was so confused by who Christ was and his role. She went on to say "Now that I believe in Him, it's like I've known him all along." The spirit was so unbelievably strong. Apparently she had been searching the internet and reading all she could. She kept our commitment to pray and felt an outpouring of the Spirit. It was probably one of the more touching moments of my mission. I met this woman about 6 weeks ago and at that point she wasn't sure who Christ was but now it's "like she's known him all along."

Other great news: This week Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard were here and this last weekend we went to Paris to a multi-stake conference. Officially, there are no more districts in France. All Stakes now. The temple is finally under construction!!! WOHOOO!! One of the highlights of the conference was seeing all the people I love and miss from Melun. I was able to see Prisca and she is doing SO WELL!! The greatest news was when I heard, "Soeur Bitter!". I turn around and it's Benjamin! I was SO excited to see him! Even more excited to see him in a white shirt and suit! That was shocking! We used to go and teach Benjamin and his mom every Friday night. They were a less active family in Melun. Our lessons were always really good but it was hard getting them to church.  As I left Melun, Benjamin was coming more and more often and starting to volunteer for the YSA activities and things like that. Well, I now find out, HE'S GOING TO SERVE A MISSION! Complete turn around!! I'm so excited for him. Oh my goodness!

Fun moment from weekend: We have an ami who is in Paris on an internship right now so we decided to set up a RDV while at the multi-Stake Conference. And where would we be meeting? In front of Notre Dame. Pourquoi pas? Ha. It was pretty magical as we were waiting for her in front of the most identifiable cathedral in the world while the Organ is blasting away. I serve in the coolest city in the world.

Last preparation day, we decided that after p-day was over, we would go and visit this family who live kind of far away. So far, that we can't take a bus or train...ROAD TRIP!!!  We decided we would spend p-day down there and see the chateau and then after, just stay and visit this family. First off, driving for an hour through french countryside-just loved it.  More than that, the Pahio's are the most Christ-like, loving people I think I have ever met. They have so much love for Christ and for others. When we heard their conversion stories and I was floored to find out that Soeur Pahio was the first member in her country! And now, just 11 years later, there are 2 branches there! They are so wonderful. It was kind of sad though because I could tell that being so far from the ward was really hard for them. Their car doesn't work 100 percent of the time and I don't think people go down and visit them often. So I'm thinking we're going to make a once per transfer road trip :)  We love them so much.

Well, those are all my stories for today. :)

Jon & Sarah: You have been in my prayers so much!! I'll be thinking of you two more than usual this week! Also, loving all the pictures that you are sending. You guys are the best. Tell my favorite nephew hi and give my favorite niece a kiss for me.

I love you all and think of you often.

Sœur Bitter

Tough Week - Delacourts Were Robbed: September 9, 2013

Bonjour mes chères,

This week was incredibly hard so I'm going to keep this short.

Miracle of the week: We were on our way to a members house this last Thursday and we got there about 15 minutes early. So we decided to do a little port à port for a few minutes. We really wanted to find a someone in this neighborhood.

The couple that we were going to go visit is AWESOME. They are such a strong family in the Gospel and the wife is fasting and praying all the time to have missionary experiences. So we really wanted to find a family in their area allowing them the opportunity to welcome-in and enjoy the spirit of missionary work. So we start porting and on the 3rd house, a young father answers the door. We start talking about the Plan of Salvation. He was really open and his wife was incredibly nice.

They invited us back for this week. Needless to say, the members were THRILLED!! I don't think I've seen someone's face light up like that except for kids on Christmas haha. It was awesome. But we're really excited because this week all of the families we were teaching have decided to stop seeing us. But now we have found a potential amis again. My companion and I were talking the other night about how much we want to find this ward REALLY STRONG stable families. People who will desire to build the kingdom here in France. So we are really excited to teach this awesome young French family.

Other news, the Delacourts got robbed for the 2nd time (in a month). The thieves took laptops and hard drives. The drive had all of their pictures on it. The robbers emptied closets and bookshelves. Every room has a pile about 3 feet high of stuff. It is so sad. So we spent a chunk of Wednesday helping her clean things up and we'll be there again this week.

God loves us. Christ lives. The Church is true.

Loves you lots

Sœur Bitter

Rennes Ward Is Awesome - September 2, 2013

Hello world!!

I can't believe another week has gone by. This transfer has just been flying. Soeur Hilton and I were doing planning last night and we both just turned to each other and were like "Is it P.day again?!" Haha. This week was pretty crazy. We had exchanges last Wednesday/Thursday and I went down to Nantes. It's a little bigger than Rennes and it's SO beautiful...but I was happy to return to my own ville with my own friends :).

So I'd like to start by talking about the ward. This ward is AMAZING!!! We had dinner with a couple of families this week and each time I was just AMAZED. The Rennes ward is FULL of the Pioneers of France. The first members of the Rennes Branch, The first members in bretagne. It is AMAZING. And it's even more unbelievable to me that Rennes is now one of the biggest wards in all of France. It is pushing the capacity of the chapel!! How awesome is that?? So Tuesday night, we saw the Trahmels--and of course they made us classic Bretagne galets. Yummm. Before we ate, Frère Trahmel walked us around his .5 acre garden telling us stories as we picked fresh raspberries and strawberries. (Sometimes I think my life isn't real). We brought our violins with us and we played a couple of hymns and then they told us their French Pioneer story. It blew my mind. It makes sense why the French LOVE the early pioneer stories so much. I feel like a little part of them relates but then they stand in awe at the added physical trial. So many members will ask us if we have pioneer stories in our heritage. When they tell us to recount them, without fail, their eyes just fill with tears.

Also, our ward takes care of us SO MUCH! EVERY Sunday, we're bringing home some sort of goody. Crepes, fresh picked corn, etc. This last week, Frère Mocquard comes up to me as we're greeting everyone at the beginning of church. He turns to me and whispers:

"Soeur Bitter, we have something in our car for you and your companion."

"Huh?"

"Do you have your car today?"

"Wait, my car? Yes. We drove today."

at this point I'm confused. Are we talking about HIS car or OUR car? Did he want to see our car? What's he trying to say? haha

I just decided to follow him out the door and find out. Low and behold, him and his wife bought us 3 GIGANTIC boxes of granola. Back story: We were at their house this week to eat dinner with them. I noticed they had BIG boxes of cereal--like putting Costco to shame. I asked them where they got it. I told them I've been trying to find cereal like that since coming here but without fail, the stores always had tiny boxes and they were super expensive. So what did they do? Bought us a month supply of yummy cereal haha. Oh my goodness I love this ward.

After church, we're all standing around and a few of the members bellow "MES SŒURS!!! ON VOUS AIME!!" :)

At the end of church, they took a ward photo and they insisted that we were in it, so I'll try to get my hands on one and send it to you all so you can see the great ward I'm in :)

So last Sunday (8 days ago) I noticed that Yann (a recent convert of 2 years) was with his mom. I had remembered Soeur Hilton telling me that his mom was a recent convert (not even a year) but that she didn't come too often. I ran up to her and asked if we could visit her this week. She was thrilled and invited us over for that Thursday. Soeur Hilton and I had noticed that she had not gotten any after baptism lessons. The missionaries just kind of left her!! I think they figured because her son was there that he would answer any questions. So we decided to ask her point blank if she wanted the lessons or not. We sit down with her and I tell her that normally there are lessons after you have been baptized. I asked if she had had any of those which she said she hadn't.

"Would you like these lessons?"

"If you can be patient with me..."

"Of course we'll be patient with you!"

"Then yes. I want those very much. I just feel like I don't know a lot. My mom asks me all these questions about the church and I don't know where to turn for the answers. In church, everyone knows where every scripture is and I just know what I learned from the missionaries."

She went on to say how she felt a little forgotten after she had been baptized and sometimes church was scary because she didn't know how to navigate the scriptures like the members. Notice to all members: Take care of the recent converts. Just because they're baptized doesn't mean that they instantly know everything.

But it was an awesome lesson and I am SO excited to teach her more.

I don't remember if I told you about Annabelle but we have been seeing her for a couple weeks. Soeur Hilton and I found her my very first week and we have been teaching her a couple times a week since then. She is French and she really thinks about everything we teach her which is AWESOME! She reads everything we give her and she has such good questions each time we come back. The thing we are trying to get her to do is just pray. Everything else she does. Haha. So this last week we decided it was time. At the end of the lesson I ask Annabelle if she will pray. She gets really nervous and starts saying "but I don't know what to say." and things like that.

Soeur Bitter: "He's your Father. Talk to him like you would talk to a friend. Tell him all the thoughts of your heart."

Annabelle: "I don't know if I can."

Soeur Bitter: "Yes. You can do it!"

And then I promptly bowed my head, folded my arms and closed my eyes waiting for her to start. I had to bite my lip from laughing at how funny this scene must look. Me standing there in ready prayer position while Annabelle is probably staring at me dumbfounded. Annabelle then scoots closer to my companion and whispers "what do I say?"

Soeur Hilton: "You start with Dear Heavenly Father, then you thank him for your specific blessings, ask him questions if you have any or for aide if you need it and then you close 'In the name of Jesus Christ Amen'"

Sure enough, Annabelle offered the prayer and it was one of the sweetest prayers I've ever heard. All she did was thank God for her blessings and she thanked Him over and over for sending us to France and to her house. She didn't ask for a single thing because "I'm actually pretty happy at the moment. So thank you for that too." We've had one more lesson after that lesson and without hesitation she offered the closing prayer again. :) There is nothing I love more than seeing our Amis progress!!!!

Our lesson with Tugsuu this week was so beautiful (no surprise there). She is so meek and humble that the spirit is ALWAYS so strong. We're helping her to know the stories and teachings of Christ more and how to navigate the New Testament. We showed her the bible videos on lds.org and she LOVED those. This last week we shared with her the story of the Good Samaritan. Her eyes filled with tears when we told her that the Samaritans and the Jews are enemies but the Good Samaritan chose to put differences behind him and see and serve his enemy as God would. We actually chose this story because we thought "Tugsuu IS the good Samaritan. She is always looking for opportunities to serve in the ward and putting others first." But sure enough she turns to us and says "I am not that good. How can I do that??" It's so amazing to me that the most Christ-like people are always the ones who think they are so far off the mark...when in reality they're the greatest example to us all. It's always the people who are full of Charity who are the ones saying they need to obtain it. It's such a testimony to me that you can't just obtain patience, Hope, Chairty etc. It's not a question of whether or not you have these Christ-like attributes but rather to what degree you have obtained them. Everything is a process in the Gospel. If my mission has taught me anything-it's that.

I love you all so so much. Thank you for all your letters and love.

Mayu: THANK YOU SO MUCH for your birthday package! PNB M&Ms!!! MY favorite :) They were such a good surprise and made me so happy. I was talking to my companion the other day and she was asking me about all my friends on my wall (which you're in most of the pics haha) and I said "Mayu is just one of those people who knows how to love. She loves so much and expects so little". And it's SO TRUE! You are seriously the best. I count it a blessing that I can call you my friend. xoxo

Until next we mes chères,

Sœur Kari Ann Bitter


p.s. Mom you have been asking me about French food. So I ate at a members house yesterday and they cooked this UNBELIEVABLE meal. Haha I wish I knew what it was called but it went like this: There was a giant zuccini and she cut it long ways down the middle so that it made a little boat. Then she filled the inside of the boat with a meat loaf kind of mixture. And stuck it in the oven. I wish I could be more descriptive but it was AMAZING! She referred to it like it was a common recepie so maybe you could look it up online. :) maybe search meatloaf stuffed zuccinni haha