Seven Birthday Miracles - August 27, 2013

Hello hello everyone!!

This week was SO AWESOME!! We saw a ton of miracles and we had a lot of really great lessons with our amis. But I know all of you are dying to know what happened on my birthday so I thought I would do a rundown of that first :)

Wake up to my companion making me crepes. Such an angel. We do studies and right after studies, I get a call from Soeur Poznanski (the mission presidents wife) to wish me happy birthday and tell me the things that her and President love about me. Did I mention that Soeur and President Poznanski are seriously the most considerate people on this planet?

We head out early to go to practice our violins for a music program that will be that Sunday. We come back and then we go to an Ami's house to teach a lesson. We hadn't had time to eat so we were kind of hungry. We were hoping that we could run home after the lesson. We sit down and our ami is with her friend just chatting. She keeps apologizing and then suddenly says "I made fish! Would you like to try a little?" We respond that we could sample a little bit. Apparently a little bit means an entire fish because then she comes out with an entire grilled talapia hahaha. Soeur Hilton and I were thrilled. BIRTHDAY MIRACLE #1! And can I just say that it was DELICIOUS!!

We then head out and we decide to pass by this lady that was sick for our first lesson so we weren't able to see her. She lived kind of near our first ami so we just jumped on the metro and headed to her house. We knock on the door and instantly she opens and is like "Come in!". At which point I look at my companion confused. She had never met us before (she met the Elders) and we didn't have a RDV. She leads us into her dining room and there are 3 glasses set with napkins and different types of cookies. Haha it was seriously like she was expecting us. We had a wonderful lesson with her. It was really cool because she really meditated on what we said and she was really wanting to understand what we were teaching. BIRTHDAY MIRACLE #2.

After that we head to a recent converts house. Our lesson was SO BEAUTIFUL and so opened up to me and talked about her baptism experience and how she has felt after. On our way there, we were on the bus and a girl comes up to us and (in english) asks if we are missionaires. "Yes..." "That's awesome. We should get together." Mildly freaking out inside!! MIRACLE #3

After that my companion said that she wanted to take me to Ice Cream for my birthday. Don't I have the sweetest comp ever? BIRTHDAY MIRACLE #4.

So we went to Saint-Anne (The touristy spot of our ville) and got (not even kidding) the best ice cream I have ever had in my life. We're sitting on the steps of our cathedral when I see Leo walking in our direction. Now Leo was someone we had contacted in the park last week. She was super sweet and had a beautiful little girl. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and asked if we could visit with her sometime. We exchanged numbers but when I called the number, it didn't work :(. I thought that maybe she had given us a fake number but it was weird to us because she really did seem interested. But things like that happen. Anyway, so we see her walking down the rue that we are on and we wave at her and she comes over and talks to us for a bit. We told her that we tried calling her but her number didn't work. She look shocked. "WHAT?! Do you have the right number?? Here let me call you." To which point she takes out her phone and the little card we gave her and called us. At this point, not only do we have her right number, but also a rdv with her and we then find out that she has TONS of questions about the church and is actually really excited to meet with us. BIRTHDAY MIRACLE #5!!!!

We're really excited to meet with her this week. That was my favorite miracle because I was bummed that her number hadn't worked and running into someone again in a big ville like Rennes is highly unlikely. Turns out I just wrote the last number wrong hehe. Whoops. After that we headed to Marie and Jeans. Marie and Jean are our amis that we met while porting a few weeks ago. They invited us back for dinner and it just happened to be scheduled for my birthday tehehe. We head over there and we had, no joke, one of the best meals I have had in my entire life. MIRACLE #6!! It was the best way to end the day and they are so loving and wonderful. We talked about France back in the day and their family and just enjoyed each other's company. Did I mention it was a 7 course meal? Ya...it was a REAL french meal haha. But it was so fun and we gained like 5 pounds from just that.

All in all it was a great birthday and Soeur Hilton and I noticed throughout the day lots of little and big birthday miracles. :) I felt the love. The next day, we go to our mailbox and their are 3 packages!! SO MUCH LOVE!! Mom and Dad: All the clothes fit great and I LOVE THEM!! I'm wearing the shirt in the pictures attached :) and I'm wearing the scarf right now. Thanks for the makeup and the MANGOES!!! So happy right now. Haha. Also, you were inspired in sending me family pics. I have been wanting some but I kept forgetting to ask so I'm really happy that you included them. You are officially part of my picture collage above my desk.

Other great things of this week: So we had a lesson with the Houmed family. They are awesome! I love them so much. They are from Djibouti and a Muslim but they are looking for more. We taught the plan of salvation and decided to really emphasis Jesus Christ. They were floored at the pre-mortal life. THEY LOVED the idea of living with families forever. My favorite part of the lesson though was when their 12 year old daughter turned to us and was like
"I have another question."
"Go ahead"
"So you said that Jesus Christ suffered for all of us..."
"oui"
"Was he forced to do that or did he choose to do that?"
"That is an EXCELLENT question. A lot of people have that question. In fact there is a little quote in this pamphlet that I love a lot that will answer that"
We then gave her the Plan de Salut brochure and had her read (I only have the French one with me so I will roughly translate):
"Because your Heavenly Father loves you, he sent his son, Jesus Christ to pay for your sins. This payment is part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ willingly suffered for your sins, your pain, your illness and your sorrows. By his grace and mercy, he can help you in your trials and free yourself from the guilt and shame resulting from your sins."
"so he..."
"Voluntarily suffered"
At this point her eyes grew three times in size. "For all of us?"
"Yes. He chose to suffer to save all his brothers and sisters. All his friends"

That was seriously my favorite part of the week. Seeing the impact of the message of the Atonement of Christ prick the meek heart of someone as young as twelve. The message of the Atonement of Jesus Christ speaks for itself. It amazes me every lesson in fact. They're such a beautiful family. And they love us a ton because we're American. They always ask us about our life in the states and say how the want to come and visit us someday.

OH! Another birthday miracle: We saw our recent convert Tugsuu. She is so awesome. She is SUCH AN EXAMPLE. She is just overflowing with love. We teach her in English. Even though she can't speak French well, she tries SO HARD to communicate with the members and show them how much she loves them. The members ADORE her...as do we :). She is from Mongolia and so Christianity was very new to her when she got baptized. She is still learning a lot about Jesus Christ, his life, his purpose etc. I asked her if she had seen Finding Faith in Christ yet. She hadn't and so we found it out LDS.org and watched it together. Once again, the message of Christ's life and atonement is SO POWERFUL. Recent convert lessons are actually one of my favorite things. They are so wanting to learn and change and grow. It's a testimony to all the members really. In their eyes, they can never learn too much or stop improving. It makes me want to keep continuing to grow and to improve.

Oh also, I hit my 6 month mark this last week...that was weird.

OH, ANOTHER FUN FACT!! I learned to drive stick!! We had President interviews a couple of weeks ago and President asked after the interview
"So Soeur Bitter, do you have any questions or concerns for me?"
"so...we have a car."
"yes you do."
"I don't know how to drive manual and I want to learn. Can we have a member in our car to teach me?"
"Are you late to church?"
"By about 5 minutes"
"That's not good. Let me think about it"
This week, our Elders called us and Elder Richer-Brulé told me that he would be teaching me to drive. WOOHOOOO! We had lots of fun in parking lots. But now I've gotten the hang of it and we're able to go anywhere!!! We don't drive everywhere. In fact, we just drive to church and then if there is an ami or a less active or member who lives somewhere there are no trains or buses. It's super fun and I feel very accomplished.

There is so much more to write. This week was crazy but I don't want this email to be gigantic so just know that I love you all so much!! I'm attaching pictures of our adventure in Fougeres. We got to learn about the 100 years war and see one of the old fortresses. Apparently Bretagne was very, very rich and EVERYONE wanted it back in the day. So...we have lots of medieval castles in our area :)

God loves you and so do I

Soeur Bitter

Fougeres

Learning About the 100 Year War

Our Area is Such a Cool Place

Exploring the Ruins

Fougeres

My Picture Wall (Family Now Included)

No Excuses Keep Working - August 19, 2013

Can't believe it's already P.day again!! oh that's right...our last pday was only like 3 days ago. Don't worry I've got some stories up my sleeve to share with you.

First off, once again, I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS WARD!! The Rennes ward is fantastic. Everyone is so loving and so giving. We had a new couple move into our ward from Mongolia. They don't speak any french but they're able to communicate in English. Instantly the ward swarms around them and people are translating during all of the meetings and asking them how they can help them move in, help them navigate the trains etc. It was really beautiful to watch a ward run to the rescue. Needless to say, I think I am going to love my time here in Rennes and I hope it's long lived.

Also, Vacationers in France are KILLING ME.  EVERYTHING is closed and everyone is gone...well I guess not everyone. We're still managing to teach a lot but we're spending a lot of time porting. It's a good thing I love my companion so much. She's awesome. We laugh along the way and tell stories while we're porting. It makes the work go a lot faster.

So this week, we met the cutest old couple ever while porting. Jean & Marie. We first start talking to Jean and we notice that he has had some pretty extensive surgery on his scalp. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on but after talking to him for a bit, I learned that he had had some pretty extreme skin cancer and it all had to be lanced off. We talked about his family and his grand kids and everything under the sun really. After talking for about 20 minutes (all right at his gate), his wife comes out and immediately identifies us as the Mormons. When I ask how she knows us she said "Two vibrant Americans going door to door. I thought to myself that can only be only thing-THE MORMONS!"  We continue to talk with them and then ask if we can pray with them. Right away, they invite us in and after about 30 seconds, there are cookies and juice and chocolate all laid in front of us (officially in dream land). We continue to talk about families and the importance of strong morals and family in this increasingly degenerate world. At one point, both Marie and Jean turn to us and tell us so sincerely that we are the Angels of France. Marie told us that she knew we would have a good family one day because we were willing to sacrifice this time to the Lord. The most interesting thing of all of this-Marie and Jean don't believe in God. It was so beautiful for me to see how much they loved their family and how much they loved us. In fact they love us so much, they insisted on having us over for dinner this week :) to which we did not refuse. YAY we love new friends!!! It was interesting actually, later that week, we had a lesson with another older woman. Her husband passed away years ago and had been investigating the church. She had a very old copy of the Book of Mormon so we promptly gave her a new one :). She went on and on about how good we were. Marie and Jean and Madame Leclec seriously touched me so much. They were exactly what we needed this week. It was like having our very own grandma here in Rennes. Long story short--we love them.

Miracles of the week: So Soeur Hilton and I decided to explore one of the outer cities of Rennes. First off, wow. French countryside is TOTALLY different than Paris! Haha. I felt like I was in French Idaho...where the people speak French...and there are Cathedrals...OK so it might not be EXACTLY like it but it was beautiful just the same. Anyway, so when we're on the bus, we pass this little group of houses and I think "we should go here". But we continue on our way to our destination. (fail) Once in the ville, I keep thinking of that earlier group of houses. It kept building until it became a sense of urgency. Finally I tell my companion that I think it's time we get back on the bus and head back a little ways. We get off at the earlier stop and I look around and think "Ok...we don't have a lot of time. Where do we even start. This ville (if you can even call it that) looks completely deserted. After saying a quick prayer, Soeur Hilton and I immediately head for a strip of 3 houses. My eyes catch the house at the end of the three and my companion and I head to that house. Out comes a sweet old man in his 80s. After talking to him for a bit, we learn that he has been alone for over 20 years and he lives all alone. It broke my heart to see how lonely he was. We testified of the Lord's love for him and the Plan of Salvation. He told us that he couldn't change because he was too old. We affirmed to him that that didn't change the fact that we were there to tell him that God loved him-so much. It is such a testimony to me that Missionary work is SO MUCH more than baptism. I have seen so many miracles on my mission where people just need a little bit of love. Especially the love of their Father in Heaven. Which is perfect...because that's one of my favorite things to share with people :)

After this we headed back to Rennes. At this point I'm thinking "man I'm hungry. We haven't eaten in probably like 6 hours." Haha. We're sitting on the bus. At this point, my companion turns to me and she's like
"we should visit Fatima soon."
"ya no problem. What's soon?"
"maybe tonight....."
"Ya ok let's do it."
"....."
"or are you thinking we should go sooner?"
"I feel we should go right now. I know there are a ton of excuses why not to go but I think we should just go"
"No problem. Let's do it"

And she was right. There were a ton of excuses not to go. We had tried passing by fatimas 4 or 5 times in the last couple weeks and she was never home. We had been out all day and it was into our dinner time. We hadn't eaten anything, were starving and she probably wouldn't be there. Wrong wrong wrong wrong. Soeur Hilton was totally right in following the spirit. We go to Fatima's house and not only was she there but she said over and over again "I was thinking about you two a lot today." "You were on my mind a lot today". "I couldn't stop thinking of you today." It's so amazing how the Lord prepares people for us to reach out to and I know if we follow the smallest inspirations of the spirit, we can be an instrument in the Lord's hands for blessing the lives of others. Anyway, the lesson went really well and we were able to visit with her and her BEAUTIFUL 4 month old girl. SO CUTE! She's from Morocco and she is so open and loving and just wonderful. I'm so excited to teach her :).

Anyway, there is more I can tell you about our fun weekend in Rennes...but this computer is kind of frustrating...so that's where I'm going to stop.

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. You are all seriously the best. I miss you all terribly. But I'll make birthday wishes for you all :).

LOVE,

Soeur Bitter

The Zipper Failure - August 15, 2013

Hello hello!!

First off, sorry for the late email this week. Normally our P.day is on Mondays but last Friday, we got a call from the office. It went something like this:
"Hi is this Soeur Bitter?"
"Yes it is. What can I do for you?"
"This is Soeur Roberts. I'm just calling to tell you you're going to Belgium on Monday."
"Wait...THIS monday? I've already been to Belgium for legality."
"Yup. This monday. Something didn't work. So plan to leave from Paris at 9:30"

Two sisters came in from Vannes and Lorient and went with me to Paris on Sunday night and my companion and their companions stayed in Rennes for the rest of Sunday and Monday. Once again, Belgium is AWESOME! Haha but it's definitely been a crazy week. Between packing and moving and then taking random trips to belgium, I've probably been on trains for a total of 12 hours last week. Lots of fun :)

But Rennes is absolutely amazing. The ward is BIG and everyone is so nice. They all came up and were welcoming me and telling me how much I would love it here. Well, they were RIGHT! Rennes is fantastic. The people are amazing, the city is beautiful. It's a lot smaller than Melun but it's still considered a big city. Oh and another fun fact, Mont-St.-Michel and St. Malo are both in my area... so that is just dandy. The ward is absolutely amazing. I actually teared up a little bit at the end of R.S. when one of the members got up to say the prayer. In her prayer she said "please bless us that we may find people who are ready or know which of our friends are ready to have the Missionaries start teaching them". I almost fell off my chair. This ward is very involved in the missionary work and they are willing and ready to talk about the Gospel and bring their friends to church. SO FANTASTIC!!

Another fun story from church. I'm thinking "Wow this ward is so great and I just feel so comfortable here." Well that feeling quickly left when one of the members came up and told me I would be translating for 15 visitors from England. "Translating?! From What to what?!" It was an experience for sure.

Goodbye's were incredibly hard in Melun. We left for Paris on Wednesday. Between Monday and Tuesday, we ran around to as many people as we could to say goodbye and to tell them that I love them. The hardest was definitely Prisca. I LOVE HER SO MUCH!! Oh my goodness and her kids! I will miss them a ton. At the end of the visit, we were walking to the door and Prisca said, "but this is really sad...". DAGGER TO THE HEART! I thought "girl don't do this to me. I gotta be strong". We took some pics together and I took down all her info to send her fun postcards from all over France. It is really sad though. A couple of weeks ago I was thinking "I wonder what the BIG trial of my mission will be. Everyone has their thing. For some people it's contacting, some people it's the culture shock, homesickness...what's mine going to be?" Well I found it. It's the au revoir.  Just slays me.

There are lots of fun stories this week. Let's start with a good embarrassing one on the Metro. Those are always fun:

  I was in Paris last p.day just have a nice old time. We go down into the metro system and get on a train to go home. I'm standing, holding one of the poles talking to my companion just thinking "I love this city. It may be a crazy one but it will always have a special place in my heart." I'm reminiscing as such when our stop comes up. Still in la la land, my companion comes running up to me..."SOEUR BITTER!" she whispers urgently

"yes??" I day-dreamingly respond
"Your zipper is broken and your underwear is showing!"
Instantly I was ripped out of day dream world. Sure enough, I turn around and my skirt is only being held up by the very top button. BAHAHA I can only imagine what everyone on the metro was thinking when this little American blonde is smiling on the metro, completely oblivious to the fact that she is completely indecent. Ah well. I'll probably never see a single one of them again...except my companion of course. The life of a missionary. Never a dull moment.

Fun facts about my new companion: First off she is amazing!! Her name is Soeur Hilton and she is in her 3rd transfer so she is just one younger than me. IT'S SO FUN! She has so much energy and still has the fire to do the work. It's awesome. She is from California (San Fran area) and she was majoring in math at BYU. She's 22 like me too!! We get along marvelously as missionaries and as friends so I'm really excited for this next transfer. :)

One of my favorite moments of the week happened yesterday when Soeur Hilton and I went porting. Our very first port, this lady comes to the window and we begin talking to her. She is open to talking to us but she keeps saying that she is not interested in changing. We then ask if we can pray with her. Soeur Hilton gives a beautiful prayer and afterwards, Annabell (the lady) has a complete change of heart. She starts talking about how she has never heard anyone pray like that and that it was incredibly touching. She talked about how personal it was and how that is what she felt has been missing in her life. It ended with us being welcome back later this week!! I'm so excited. It's interesting actually. A lot of our Amis here are interested in prayer. The way we prayer and the sincerity of it. So we have been talking about prayer a lot here in Rennes and I absolutely love it.

I will write more about our amis as we get to know them more!! I love you all so much and I hope you're all profiting from the sunshine and summertime :)

Thank you so much for the birthday card Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Jim!! That was seriously so nice :) And you were the first mail that I got here in Rennes. I felt special. Thank you so much. You are awesome.

Brooke!! CONGRATULATIONS!! I can't believe you are married! That is so exciting!!
Aubs: You're the best. Thanks for sending all those pics :) It made me smile to see all my favorite people in one place....although...you're kind of in trouble BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME YOUR SISTER WAS ENGAGED!! What the what!! That is so awesome.

I love love love you all!
Soeur Bitter

Rennes: My New Ville

Meat Trillet in Belgium....So Much Food

Transfer News: Moving to Rennes - August 4, 2013

Bonjour mes chères!!

First off, I just got transfer news!! I'm going to Rennes! It's in Brittany (Or Bretagne in French) and is where we learned to do that cultural dance when we came to France. It's on the west coast of France. SO EXCITED!! Fun fact about Rennes--They didn't have sisters until last fall. And who were those first two sisters? Soeur Rhondeau (my trainer) and her trainer. So I'm just gonna go there and carry on the legacy.

So my favorite miracle of the week was in our lesson with the Famille Zounga. Petula we have been teaching for a long time and Divin is her son who went to YM's camp just a few weeks ago. Last time we committed their family to read Enos 1 and tell us what they can learn about prayer from this chapter in the Book of Mormon. We go into the lesson and in the beginning we ask if they read the passage. Who was the only one who read it? Divin. Shocked, I turned to him and asked "what did you learn??". He then went on to say "well I didn't understand it the first few times I read it but after a while I started to understand. There was a man named Enos and he had some sins so he prayed for forgiveness. He prayed for a long time. He then heard the voice of God forgive him. Then he prayed really hard for his brothers and that they would be saved too. Then he saw them be saved in a vision....". So after I picked my jaw off of the floor, we continued to teach of prayer and the power of the Book of Mormon. We showed them how to read together each night and challenged them to do so. Even now though, I remember the feeling I had in that lesson when I heard Divin teach his family of the things that he has learned in the Book of Mormon. As the oldest, at only 12 years old, I think he will be the example. They also came to church on Sunday (HUGE MIRACLE!) and Divin was listening intently to everyone's testimonies during fast and testimony meeting. I hope that they can all come back and that he will continue to progress. I bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting and told the ward that I would be leaving. When I sat down, Divin turned to me and said "so you're leaving?". "Well I'm not completely sure. But I will receive the news tomorrow. But Ya...I think I'm going". Divin: "That's really sad". Talk about heart breaking! I love this Ville so much and I'm going to miss it. As I was talking to all the members and our Amis after church, I thought "wow. I couldn't have had a better ville to start in. If I could stay, I would." But, it's good to leave on a good note :) and Elder Angel and I wrote an arrangement and played/sang it in church yesterday as our way of saying Goodbye.

Other great news: We went and taught Atalia this week again. She is amazing. The minute we came in, her, her sister Ange and her brother Gaitalia, came and sat down in a circle. In each of their hands they had the pamphlet that we had given them about the Plan of Salvation. I looked at each of their pamphlets and it was obvious they had read it SEVERAL times. (The things you notice as a missionary haha). After the prayer, they had a ton of sincere questions and concerns. I really see them all progressing and I'm going to miss lessons with them a TON.

I love you all SO much.

A HUGE thank you to the Youngs for the fun letter :) Attached below is my happiness at seeing a love note from Brenna. Seriously though, Randy, Julie, you two are awesome. Thank you so much. I love you both a ton.

Also, I heard a lot of this reunion and the fun happenings but I got ZERO pictures from it. COME ON!!! Donuts on the beach? Seattle in the summer? All my favorite people in one place?? And not a single photo???? FAIL!!! Just kidding. Love ya.

My new address in Rennes:

29, rue Tanguy Prigent
Rennes, 35000
France

LOVE YOU ALL SOO MUCH!!

Soeur Kari Ann Bitter

Sending some pics of my last day in Paris. Walking around Paris, you will just turn a corner and find a random Cathedral...like the one pictured below. Not sure which it is (and no...it's definitely NOT Notre Dame) but it sure is beautiful. I will miss this city.

The 'Not Notre Dame' Cathedral

Last P-Day in Paris, Great Place and Great People