Firstly, so with Petula (she is the one who has a baptismal date for the end of May and the photo is with her kids) we had a FHE last Monday. Her husband is super nice and very welcoming but he said early on that he is uninterested and either isn't there or he will leave the room when we are there. So we had FHE with Petula and her kids. It was HILARIOUS! So we taught a quick lesson and we taught them how to play charades. We were trying to think of a game that we could play (with my limited French) and they would enjoy too. Charades it was and they seriously had a blast. Now every time we come, they want to listen in on the lessons and hang out with us. Well after the FHE, her husband started talking to us. It was honestly the first time I had talked to him. He told me that he had actually taken the missionary discussions when he lived in the Congo and that the missionaries just lived next door to him and they would come over a lot. He said that next Sunday, that they should all go to church together. We were floored! What a miracle. I think seeing his family so happy and having fun together made him more curious than before. Oh and the other picture below is when we taught Petula later that week. One of the girls was fascinated by my hair and was playing with it/brushing it the whole time haha.
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| She Did Wonders for My Hair |
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| Family Night Fun |
So we found Prisca this week and I haven't met someone who is more ready for the Gospel. The first lesson, she said that she had been looking for the true church but that she has never been able to find it. Her husband told her that she could pray about it because God promised that he would let us know what was truth (this all happened on splits so I didn't meet her until lesson two). After the first lesson, they asked her to read Alma 32 and the Restoration pamphlet. The next time Soeur Rhondeau and I go back and sure enough she read the entireity of both! And when we asked her how it was she said "I find this book easier to understand than the Bible. It just explains things better" She went on to talk about her favorite parts about how it explained faith. Teaching her is awesome because I really feel that Soeur Rhondeau and I hardly do anything and the spirit does all the work. We are definitely prepared for lessons haha we haven't tried winging anything yet but the lessons just go so smoothly and she is progressing faster than I have seen anyone do so far.
OH! Another miracle this week. We met this wonderful woman named Zwina. We were porting one day and she opened the door and started talking to us about philosophy and how we can know something to be true in this confusing world. She said that a lot of times, religion is tied to hatred and bloodshed (talking about crusades etc). She invited us in and we met her cute little family. She was talking about how she wasn't very sure about Christianity when I had the feeling to give her a Book of Mormon. I usually only keep one or two in my bag but I decided to take it out. As soon as she saw it, she said "you are Mormon?!" And her whole attitude changed. She talked about how she loved the Mormons and that she knows that we are very family oriented people. Next thing I know, we are going to the back of her house and she gave each of us these old (like 18th century) Christian books (including the Bible) as a gift. It was the sweetest thing that I had ever witnessed.
The people of France are incredibly giving. I have seen it time and time again. For example, last week, our key to our old apartment stopped working. We have a key for the door and then a key for the building. The building key is electronic and so the batteries can die. Well...they did. Haha when we went to the agency, they said that we would just have to figure it out for a couple weeks. It got pretty tiring paging people in our building to ask them to buzz us in. One day, this man saw us and he said "oh my friend lives here. Let me page her". We get in and go inside to do planning. Suddenly we hear our doorbell ring. We go to the door and there is this woman there who says "my friend says there are these two English girls who don't have a key anymore! I have two! I knew you were on the 3rd or 4th floor so I have just been ringing every door until I found you. Here! Have my key". People are so nice!
So the other day we had splits and we stayed here in Melun and the Luxemburg sisters came down. THANKFULLY I was with a sister who has already served in the Melun area for a while so she knew the area and we were able to get around just fine. She got really close with the Bishop's family while she was here because they can speak English and I guess her French wasn't very good when she got here. That night the Bishop's family had us over for dinner and the Bishops wife said the sweetest thing (well...to me haha). She put her arm around my shoulders and said "Soeur Hurrell, Soeur Bitter has the gift of tongues...you...do not. But keep working. Not everyone can have the gift of tongues" Whoops haha. But it made me feel good to know my French isn't a complete disaster.
So they have this cool tradition in the Melun ward that whenever an 8 year old is about to be baptized, the missionaries will come and teach them. It's kind of like a ‘rite of passage’ thing for this ward. So the Lam Yams son is getting baptized this next week and so we had a lesson with him on Sunday. We decided that the Gospel of Christ would be good and we could talk about the importance of this next step. It was the best thing ever! He knew every answer to EVERY question. "Michael, what is faith" Answer: "Faith is hope for things which are not seen which are true." BOOM! His response for every question was quoting some scripture. It was amazing! Maybe he can come teach with us sometime.
All in all, this week was amazing. There were definitely more stories but I don't want to make my emails too overwhelmingly long haha.
I'm excited to talk to you on Sunday. Dad and I kind of worked out that it will be at 9 am your time...which is 10 am TX time for you Texans. :) And I'm hoping to do google hangout so we can all be in on it!
Happy Mother's day mom! You are so awesome! I can't wait to talk to you!
Je vous aime beaucoup!!
Soeur Kari Ann Bitter
p.s. The new apartment is great. It makes me smile every day I come home :) And we're really excited to have elders here! So we're not allowed to teach men (unless they have a family or unless we bring either a Sister from the ward or two Brethren) so it's sometimes hard. But with them here, I really feel like we will continue to find people who are searching for the truth. EXCITING!
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