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!!”
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| Mont Saint-Michel Where I Played a Concert as a Teenager |
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| Mont Saint-Michel |
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| Pastry Mirage |
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
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