Sprinting to the Finish - July 28, 2014

Hello hello!

So Sr Mason and I are in serious training mode. We go running every day---like clockwork. It's so awesome having a companion who wants to work out. Anyway, on our run every morning, we finish with this gnarly up hill and then immediately after it's a lovely downhill stretch. This morning, after reaching the top of the Goliath hill and starting my downhill sprint, I thought of my mission. I thought that I am now in that downhill sprint. Here in Vannes we have been INCREDIBLY blessed. The work isn't an uphill grind right now. In fact quite the opposite. But it's important that even though I'm tired and I can see the finish, that it really is a final sprint. So I ask all those who are reading this, please no more comments about the 21st of August. I am still in my race and I know that there is still much work for me to do here. I love you all but I'll see you in 4 weeks.

So this week was amazing. We'll start with the update on Françoise and Patrick. They are both doing well. Going strong. Coming to church. In one of our lessons this last week, we decided to talk about baptism. Obviously Françoise and Patrick had already heard a lot of baptism from us, the Gentry's and also at church but we thought that we should highlight a few doctrinal points that we didn't think were covered.

The Gentry's shared the stories of their baptisms and even brought pictures! The spirit was really strong and Françoise looked SO excited for that day to come. I then told her that I wished I could be at her baptism but before I could continue she said "BUT I'LL BE THINKING OF YOU!" I love her so much.

We then asked Patrick if he was continuing to contemplate about his own baptism. To which Patrick and Françoise simultaneously said "of course". His testimony is becoming stronger and stronger and he loves the church so much but then he told us that he doesn't think he can physically get baptized right now because of his health problems. Before I could say anything. Françoise cut in "BUT GOD IS STRONG! If He wants you to be baptized. YOU CAN BE BAPTIZED! That's just an excuse. Tell us. Why don't you really want to get baptized".

Haha I thought to myself "well...that was the best response imaginable". It is so impressive to me how much Françoise has progressed. It's crazy to think that we only started teaching her a month ago. When we first met her, she was pretty sure that there was a 'supreme being' but wasn't sure if that was God or who He was or what He was like. Now she boldly proclaims His love and His existence and His power. It really has been such a privilege teaching her.

We started teaching someone new whose name is Julie. She's also French and is about 25 years old. She is bursting with questions. Seriously. She will read from the Book of Mormon and the Bible and if she has questions, she will type them out and then print them off for us for the next lesson. She told us "I know that you come and you have prepared things to teach me...so i thought to stay on topic, I would send these home with you and you could just bring them back next time" haha so awesome. It is really cool to see someone so THIRSTY for the knowledge of the Gospel. This week we were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation.

Her entire upbringing, she has misunderstood that Heavenly Father is vindictive and unloving--and that's why there is so much saddness in the world. It was really beautiful to be able to teach someone of the profound love that Heavenly Father has and the priceless gift of agency. She says that she see's what we are saying so clearly and it makes so much sense to her but she can't help thinking also of her previous beliefs. So she is pretty divided right now but we are praying that with time it will become more and more clear.

So this last week there was a night that we had about an 40 minutes left before going home but we were near our neighborhood. Now Sr mason and I have pretty thoroughly ported that entire area BUT I noticed a small hidden neighborhood that I hadn't noticed before. Sr Mason said that we should go there and we start our little hike.

On our way there, we see (sadly) a dead bird in the middle of the road. It was just perfectly lying there with it's shiny feathers blowing in the wind. "awww" sad faces. JUST THEN! A car comes out of nowhere and RUNS IT OVER! The sound and the HORROR!! Instantly I gasped with hands over mouth and turned, wide-eyed to sr mason. For 15 seconds we just stared, HORRIFIED at each other. "Come on. Porting will make us forget". We went to that little neighborhood (literally like 8 houses) and after about 20 minutes, and without much success, we exited again. Looking down the street I could still see the sad little bird. Sr Mason and I both agreed--there was no way that we could walk back that way. We would have to walk the long way home.

We start hiking the hill and as I'm looking to the turn, I see this Asian girl turn the corner and start walking down the street. "NO WAY!" I thought. Now back story: Before I left Rennes, I said goodbye to my Best friend Sophie. Being the angel that she is, she gave me little gifts and then told me that she wishes me so much happiness and then (here's the important part) that I will be able to find my "Sophie #2" to share the Gospel with. At the time, I just smiled within myself thinking of how sweet Sophie is.

Fast-forward to two weeks ago: We were walking down the road to our house and I saw this same girl. The instant I saw her I heard Sophie in my mind saying "I wish that you find Sophie 2". The only problem, she was wearing headphones and in the process of reading something while she was walking--not exactly the easiest contact. So I didn't approach her. So. much. Shame. Now, 2 weeks later, while hiking a hill/fleeing a dead bird, I see the exact same girl turn the corner and start walking our way. Once again, she has her headphones in and this time she is typing on her iPhone. BUT this time, I would NOT let my opportunity pass.

I waved a huge BONJOUR to get her attention and then started talking to her. It was so interesting because everything I asked her--her responses were just like when I first started teaching Sophie. The idea of a life after, a God or anything of the sort had literally never occurred to her. She had never dwelt on such questions or ideas. And I believed her. Because I knew Sophie had experienced the same thing.


After talking for a bit, I asked if we could see her again, to which she responded "why not!". Then when we asked if she wanted to come to church with us she again responded "ya! how do I get there?". She came this last Sunday and the members were SO lovely to her. I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father gave me a second chance to meet her. So grateful for second chances.


In other news, the Batistas (a family that we have been teaching FOR.EV.ER) are progressing again! a few weeks ago we told them they are SERIOUSLY missing out on blessings from the Lord. And it saddens us as missionaries because we are seeing so many others take these opportunities and see for themselves. We told them that there wasn't much more we could do for them and that it was to them now to decide if they really wanted this or not. Well, last week, we are sitting in our classroom waiting for 2nd hour to start and I look out the window and I see Sylvain and Karene, walking hand-in-hand towards the chapel doors. BAM! So cool. It was so sweet to see them sitting next to each other in Sacrament fully participating and so happy to be there. We are really praying that this is the start of a real progression. Karene hasn't really been to church much....like once since I've been here (besides yesterday). So we're excited.

Well family and friends, I love you SO SO much. I hope that you have an amazing week :)
I actually wanted to include this link https://www.lds.org/pages/modern-day-pioneers?lang=eng.
It is a cool "Pioneer message" but it talks about modern day pioneers. I loved the first video by President Uchtdorf and it made me think of my beautiful sister-in-law Sarah. So I thought I would sent it for you to watch too. It's not to long. Just a little under 2 minutes.

Gros Bisous (Lots of Love)
Soeur Bitter

p.s. sorry no pictures this week. Computer is being weird. Maybe next week :)

Rerouted Bus Miracle - July 21, 2014

SALUT!!

Françoise is progressing so well. She made us even MORE of those bracelets. She's getting quite skilled at them. She made them for us and the entire family Gentry and when we got to Gospel Principles on Sunday and half the class was wearing them, the Elders said "Françoise, did you make those? They are so cool!" She immediately lit up and replied "WOULD YOU LIKE ONE?!" ha-ha She's basically making them for the whole branch. So cute.

Her confirmations of the truthfulness of this message are just getting stronger and stronger and she is becoming more and more confident in her personal testimony. So cool. She will be such a wonderful addition to this ward.

Sunday night the Gentry family texted us letting us know that they visited Patrick (her husband). He told them that he is so proud of his wife and the progress that she has made. He loves this church too and agrees with the teachings that she has learned. He even asked them how he could buy her a triple combination for her baptism present! How sweet is that!! We're just hoping that he can receive his witness as well. We would love for them to get baptized on the same day!

We have been seeing some pretty awesome miracles just these last few days. I think last week I said in my email that Soeur Mason and I decided to stop seeing a lot of people so that we could have more time to find. This last weekend we saw some seriously cool finding miracles. I don't have time to share them all but hopefully I will be telling you more about all of them in the future. The cool thing is we found 3 stable families who are SUPER excited for us to come back. Needless to say we have been pounding the pavement. I don't think my feet have been this torn up since I was a baby missionary in Melun with Soeur Rhondeau.

Here is one of the miracles we saw that I thought I would share:

So Sr Mason and I have been studying lots of maps. I definitely know every little corner street of Vannes (maybe that's an exaggeration haha). But we both felt that we should visit this area in our secteur of Vannes that we haven't been to before. Well we get on the bus and I'm watching the bus stops pass and I think to myself "ok. I think it should be in 2 more stops." Well the next stop passes and I think "...wait a second. HE SWITCHED ROUTES!" Sure enough we were on the bus 5 but suddenly the bus driver started driving on the bus 3 route. I got up to ask him why he changed and he explained to me that there was construction...SMACK dab in the middle of the few stops we wanted to be. "Brilliant" I thought.

The bus driver than tells us that after going to the end of the bus line, he would be flipping around and doing the route again and he would point out the best place for us to get off. After a little bit he tells us to get off and points us in the direction that we need to go to get to our desired porting area. I looked at our map and thought "oh. You know what. Actually this isn't that bad. It's only about a 10 minute walk."

We start heading on our way and not even a block into our walk, I hear "OOOOO PRETTY!!" and I turn to see Soeur Mason picking up a perfect tiny little hydrangea flower. Now I will have you know that these flowers are EVERYWHERE. And we are kind of obsessed with them. So naturally, I bust out the camera and I tell her to strike a pose.

Right after the picture is taken I hear "DO YOU WANT A BOUQUET?!". I turn to see this beautiful 50 year old French woman coming out with her clippers. She then starts clipping all of her flowers and giving them to us. "Which ones are your favorites? Do you like blue or purple? Why not both? OH! Take this one too. I love these flowers".

We just stood there dumbfounded as this lively sweet woman cut flower after flower for us. She then stopped and asked us "do you live around here?" we told her that in fact we lived more in the center of Vannes. "Are you going to a friend’s house?" I smiled within myself as I then realized the miracle of the rerouted bus. We then got to talking and she found out who we were and why we were here. She told us that she didn’t believe but as we got to talking she opened up and told us about really amazing experiences she has had that make her think that there is in fact something after this life.

We had a wonderful opportunity to testify to her and as tears filled her eyes she told us "you two are absolutely radiant".

After half an hour, a bouquet of fresh flowers, a tour of a French vegetable garden and having made a new friend, we continued on our way to our original destination---but this time with a prayer of gratitude in our hearts and even stronger conviction that there really are no coincidences.



Love you all so much.

I thought I would just share a little/long quote given by President Uchtdorf. So good.

"...No matter where you live, no matter how humble your circumstances, how meager your employment, how limited your abilities, how ordinary your appearance, or how little your calling in the Church may appear to you, you are not invisible to your Heavenly Father. He loves you. He knows your humble heart and your acts of love and kindness. Together, they form a lasting testimony of your fidelity and faith.
...Please understand that what you see and experience now is not what forever will be. You will not feel loneliness, sorrow, pain, or discouragement forever. We have the faithful promise of God that He will neither forget nor forsake those who incline their hearts to Him. Have hope and faith in that promise. Learn to love your Heavenly Father and become His disciple in word and in deed.
Be assured that if you but hold on, believe in Him, and remain faithful in keeping the commandments, one day you will experience for yourselves the promises revealed to the Apostle Paul: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

Soeur Bitter

The Power of Music - July 16, 2014

HELLO HELLO!!!! So this week was awesome. It's so stressful trying to recount all my experiences from a week in a weekly email...and this week I'm writing for ten days instead of the normal seven. Impossible. But I'll do my best.

Update on Françoise and Patrick: We saw them a few times last week and we also got to see them yesterday. In one of our RDVs last week, we taught about Modern Day Prophets. After explaining the importance of prophets and bearing our testimonies, we asked if we could show them on their computers lds.org and show them how to navigate the site.

The Gentry family had already given them a talk by President Monson so they were familiar with the talks by the general authorities. We pulled up the site and instantly she lit up. We showed her just two of the links: how to find General Conference talks and how to find the Mormon Messages. We thought much more than that might be overwhelming. When we pulled up the Mormon Messages, it had a row of conference talks by the quorum of the 12 apostles and President Monson. We started pointing and saying "that's the prophet. You probably recognize him from the pic on the talk the Gentry's gave you. Oh that's one of his counselors. He's from Germany. Oh that is one of the other apostles." At this point Patrick, who had been quietly sitting at the other side of the table, came running around to see the faces of the modern day prophets. Having living prophets from Joseph Smith on has REALLY interested him and he was just jumping to see who they were :).

That next day, at church, Françoise told us that they had watched one of the talks. She said that they loved watching them because listening was a nice break from the reading. She started to recount all the details of the talk (by Elder Holland) and she smiled as she shared the story of the sister missionary that had mashed potatoes thrown at her. Church was awesome.

I was able to play my violin. Me and one of the Elders arranged How great thou art. Françoise was incredibly touched. It was such a miracle. After church, she was talking to a recent convert named Ludo. They were talking about the musical number and Françoise was describing to him what she had felt while listening to the song. She told him that she hadn't heard that song before but she felt something within her so powerfully. He boldly exclaimed "THAT'S THE SPIRIT!". Now as a missionary standing nearby I'm thinking "you are the best member on the face of this earth."

That Tuesday we had an FHE with at the Gentry's house with the Fetivau's (Françoise and Patrick). We decided to watch the movie the Restoration so that they could solidify more their understanding of who Joseph Smith is. Afterwards we just had a little testimony meeting. The Gentry's shared awesome testimonies of how the Restoration has blessed them. Even their 14 year old daughter shared an AWESOME and powerful testimony of the power of prayer.

The topic later changed to searching for answers. Patrick said that it's important that we be searching and studying for the truth. Then Francoise turned to him and boldly said "well I've already found the truth. So I'm continuing down this path." Bam. Awesome. Started teaching her just a few weeks ago.

Later Sr Mason asked them both to really pray to know of the truthfulness of Joseph Smith's experience and the divinity of his calling. She then told us "Yes I'll do that. But I've already gotten my answer." So cool.

The start of the transfer has been awesome!! Sr Mason and I have been talking a lot about how we need new people to teach. Well, a lot of time in order to find new people, you have to find out the people you should stop seeing because they are more enjoying the company of the missionaries than the message we share. We prayed and decided who we were going to keep seeing and then we cleared almost our whole week to FIND!

Now sometimes this is an incredibly nerve-wracking thing to do because clearing your schedule completely to go out and knock doors all day every day can be hard but we knew that the Lord had prepared people here and we needed time to find them. Well, It. was. incredible. We found amazing new people and even the Elders have been calling us and telling us they are finding people who live in our area that we can teach.

Miracles are happening here in Vannes and it's awesome to see.

Well, those are all the updates from me.

I'm happy, healthy and so honored to be a missionary.

SOEUR BITTER

MEREDITH!!! It's been almost 9 months since I've heard from you. It'd love to hear how you're doing :)

Kati---same goes for you my love

While out porting, we turned a street and I hear a gasp from my companion. We look over and there is the CUTEST celestial white dog hanging half out of a white picket fence just chillin. So naturally we went over and made friends with him. We love him and he is our new best friend.

My Companion and I at the Ward activity that was spontaneously moved from a park to the beach. Didn't know until we were already there haha. So we took a picture of the two of us

Bottle of Coke made just for Sisters.

So there are these bracelets that are handmade and they're kind of a big deal here in France. Well on Tuesday night at our FHE Françoise told us that she had made some for us! She then let us pick which ones we liked and of course I took the opportunity to snap a picture. Sophie (the Gentry's 14 year old daughter) is on the left. Then me, Francoise and then Sr Mason.

Praying in the Rain - July 7, 2014

All of you have been telling me about your exciting 4th of July adventures so I thought I would tell you about ours. Well, Sr Mason and I were determined to make this day as patriotic as possible. So naturally we wore Red, White and Blue. :) (The only problem with that...those are also the French colors...and France was competing in the World Cup that day...so there may have been some confusion.) So we head out in our patriotic colors and go to a less active's house and they gave us lunch too. And what did they give us?? Hoagies, coke and watermelon!! Win! Little taste of AMERICA!! Later that day, when home for dinner, we made homemade American flags...and attached them to our wooden spoons. And had a photo shoot.

Well the night before we decided to find the most patriotic street in all of Vannes and knock EVERY DOOR!!! Well, usually cities have at least rue de la liberté or rue de la victoire or even sometimes Franklin Roosevelt or other American presidents...well apparently Vannes isn't too fond of America because the only Patriotic thing we could find was Albert Einstein haha close enough!! So we went out there!...but disappointingly we found pic 2 of email 2. A Science research block. Luckily there were some neighborhoods nearby we were able to porte!! Also, notice the spontaneous change of clothing from afternoon finding to night time. Yes..it pours in Vannes...in July. Well then that next day, we found red white and blue macaroons and that topped off our 4th of July celebrations. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!! I LOVE YOU!!

Well this week was awesome. It started off a little slow but ended with a bang! First off, we went to Angers again to meet the new mission President and his wife. I love them SO MUCH!! They are so inspired and loving. At first I was thinking "MINCE!! I wish I could have had my whole mission with the Poznanskis!" Now I'm wishing I had more time so that I could learn from and get to know the Babins. They are so wonderful and I can already see that they will continue to push this mission greater heights...all in preparation for the Paris Temple!!! Predicted completion--Oct 2016. Also, I wish I could share the story about how all roadblocks were cleared to make the Paris Temple possible to build. But it was nothing short of divine intervention. It reminded me of a quote that Soeur Mangum read to me my first day in Charleroi:

"the Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done” (History of the Church 4:540)

We visited Francoise and Patrick a couple times (always with the Gentry family) and they are doing amazingly. Actually, Francoise wants to be baptized!!! Before going to our RDV on Saturday, Sr Mason and I prayed about a date to fix with them. Our branch only has one baptismal service a month so that narrows down the options by default :). We started by praying about July and August (me secretly hoping that I could be there for the baptism). But after praying and just waiting for a bit, we both felt that September was the month for her and honestly, I felt totally ok with the fact that I wouldn't be there. We texted the Executive secretary to see when the baptismal date for september was and he said either the 3rd or 4th saturday. So we decided on the 20th and went to our RDV.

We shared the 1st half of the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was REALLY strong. Francoise told us that she wakes up every morning now and her mind immediately goes to the things that we have taught. We had told the Gentry's that we would be giving the baptismal invite this time but when I invited francoise to be baptized the 20th of september, Sister Gentry let out an audible gasp. haha I thought to myself "sr gentry, this shouldn't be a surprise. We told you." well after Francoise accepted, Sr Gentry bore testimony to how inspired that date was. All this couple wants to do is to build this branch and she told us that that day was in fact their wedding anniversary. Immediately I knew that it was the best Anniversary gift that the Gentry's could ask for--to see a friend come unto Christ. Patrick said that he will need a little more time but he is definitely "very positive about what he has learned so far". He loves that there is a modern day prophet and he LOVES the Book of Mormon. :) They both came to church again and it was so cute because Francoise was introducing herself to lots of the members and taking notes on all of the upcoming activities. It was so cool to see someone take the decision to be baptized and then throw themselves fully into the ward. :) Awesome.

That night, we had the entire evening to do porting. We found out that we would have the car that night so Sr mason and I went to the map of our area and prayed about what area we should go to. We both felt that we should go out to the city where our Branch President and his family live. We head out there and it is POURING. Oh my goodness haha it was so funny. Luckily it wasn't that freezing rain that I knew in belgium. It was warm summer rain but still. Crazy. Door after door, not very many interested people. Very VERY nice people...but not interested haha. We then knock on this door and I hear "Oui?? Hello?" I'm looking from the door to all the windows and I don't see anyone haha. Luckily Sr Mason saw this cute woman from Djibouti poke her head out of the tiny window that was obstructed from my view. She then starts to introduce herself but the rain is too strong that she couldn't hear us at all. She then tells us "i'm coming. Wait there." My thought "oh no...She's coming out in the rain?! She's not going to be happy".

A minute later she comes out in her rain coat and she grabs her umbrella from the porch and comes running to the gate. We reintroduce ourselves and told her that we are there to pray with her and her family. She just stared at us..."To PRAY with us?" I responded "yes...pray to God." She then responded by telling us that her and her family are not believing. Well after continuing to talk to her and ask her questions for about 3 minutes, she then tells us that the reason her family isn't PRACTICING (but they DO believe in God) is because they are a mix of a lot of religions. Her dad was jewish, her mom muslim, her husband is Christian. So they feel they can't choose. We then continued to talk to her and we asked her one more time if we could pray with her and leave a blessing for her house and children. She looked at us and told us "with so much pleasure." Sr Mason offered a simple beautiful prayer.

After finishing, the rain POURED like never before. I was just thinking "aw come on. This poor woman".

She then asked: "so...you do this every day".
Sr Mason: "All day every day"
Naima: "...even when it rains"
Sr Bitter: "YES!"

Soeur Mason and I just beamed at her while she looked at us in amazement. She then told us to wait there for 2 seconds and then she ran into her house and came running back with 10 euros. She told us that she would LOVE to have us come in but that her aunt was there and she was doing Ramadan (Muslim religious period) and that she didn't want to put her out so she wanted us to go and get ourselves a warm drink. After insisting for 3 minutes straight that we take her money, she gave up and just looked from one of us to the other and just said "what you do is TOO nice. You are amazing people". We then gave her a brochure of the restoration and she told us that she would come to church because of this little meeting.

As I walked back I turned to sr mason with tears in my eyes. I told her that in my whole mission I had never had someone come out in the rain to pray with us. During a lot of our 20 minute chat, I kept thinking "But I bet she's so cold. We should just let her go back inside" but then the spirit would push us to just talk with her a little longer.

Sometimes we're asked to reach out to those around us but logically it just doesn't seem like the "right moment". It's raining, her Muslim aunt is there. There is always an excuse. But maybe that "not ideal moment" is the perfect time to share your testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is so easy to justify away a spiritual prompting. But when followed, an undeniable peace can enter into our hearts and the hearts of those around us.

Another transfer has ended and I have started my very last transfer. I have no idea where the time has gone. I can so vividly remember my very first day when I stood up in a room of 40+ people and saw my trainer for the very first time. Cute little Sr Rhondeau. She then came bounding up to me, beaming from ear to ear and immediately took me under her wing. That started the most miraculous months I have ever lived and the wild ride we call a mission. There have been days that I couldn't stop smiling and days where I didn't stop crying but it has been the most rewarding and spiritually honing experience of my life.

I'm excited for these next 6 weeks!!

All those who have been slacking in your love letters to me---your days of repentance are drawing to a close. 6 weeks. Make them count. thehehe

The Church of Jesus Christ and His Gospel are restored again on the earth. He lives, He loves us and He will lift our burdens if we but turn to Him. For those of you who are tired and heavyhearted, just hold on a little longer. The sun will rise. He will come to your side. I promise.

Love you all so much,

Soeur Bitter

Oh p.s. I'm staying with Sr Mason!! I love her so much and I'm so excited to spend 6 more weeks with her :)

Sr. Mason, Sr. Bitter and my BLUE!!! Sr. Tane!! I love her so much.