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 |
No comments:
Post a Comment