Pastry Mirage - October 14, 2013

Hi,

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!!”

Mont Saint-Michel Where I Played a Concert as a Teenager

Mont Saint-Michel

Pastry Mirage

We jump off the bus and run for this seemingly irrefutable store of treats. Fueled by a burst of energy I stormed into the fantasy land of cakes….only to discover that it was a store for wedding cakes and mass produced party favors. What else added to our disappointment? Well, in my zeal for sugar, I didn’t realize that it was Saturday…the day of infrequent buses. Haha sure enough, we go back and the next bus is in 40 minutes. DEPRESSION!! So we started our long walk back to the Church and contacted people on our way. No treats, more exercise. C’est la vie de la missionnaire.

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

Joseph Smith Story From Mainland China - October 9, 2013

HELLO, HELLO!!! So let's just start by saying that this week was AWESOME!! My companion and I were nervous about this week. All day Thursday, we were in Angers for a tri-zone conference and with General Conference, we thought "Wow...that doesn't leave a lot of time for Missionary work". But the Lord takes care of his work.

The Rennes ward has had a lot of recent converts this year (WOOT! GO RENNES WARD!!) and so each week we have about six recent convert lessons. However, this week, we had only one. Why is this a celebration? Each one of our recent converts brought a friend or family member to their lesson, who wanted to know about the Gospel.

So the lesson quickly turned into a lesson with a new ami!! WOOT! Talk about convert power! It is amazing to me, the faith of these recent converts. They don't know everything about the Gospel and some of them are so new that they still need refreshers on the basic doctrine BUT they know how they feel WITH the Gospel and they remember how they felt without it. They are so ready to share that with others. It's such an example to me to NEVER take advantage of the Gospel and to share it will all our friends and family. Because in all honesty, what better gift can we give?

SUPER cool thing this week: So we were in our RDV with Sophie and we had decided to talk about the Restoration. Some background on Sophie: we have taught her a few times. She is from Mainland China so Christianity is really new to her…actually believing in God is really new to her. Before, it was something that she had read in textbooks, not a way of life. So teaching her is really slow.

We have to describe in depth each word we say (I.e. Faith, Prophet ≠ Profit). Anyway, so we sit down and we start talking about Joseph Smith and then she exclaims “I KNOW THIS STORY!!” And I thought to myself “I doubt it.” Haha She had just learned of the miracles of Jesus Christ last week. She described Christ’s miracles as “supernatural”. But then she starts to recount to us the ENTIRE story of Joseph Smith. *Pause for moment as I pick my jaw off the floor*. I then ask her how she knows of Joseph Smith and she explains that Joseph Smith is in every history textbook in China. So any girl who was a good student will know the story of Joseph Smith. Mind Blown.

Also, conference was just great. Themes I noticed:

· Missionary Work…ya and I don’t think I noticed it because I’m a missionary. Haha.

· Making and Keeping Sacred Covenants

· Protecting the sanctity of the family

Conference was SOO good. I loved what was said (can’t remember who it was) about watching conference will not build your testimony but LIVING the things that you learned sure will. It’s true that we can have such wonderful experiences at conference and feel the spirit so strong but it is when we apply the things that we learn that we really grow.

Great news: Annabelle, Anne and Ulzii all came to conference!! WOOT. Annabelle came to the R.S. session and she LOVED it. She told us that she was so nervous on the bus and almost turned back but she came anyway. YES! Anne was able to stay for both the R.S. broadcast and Saturday Morning (here those are back to back). She loved it as well. She understood most of it but I’m excited to get them to her in Vietnamese. Ulzii is a new ami this week that Tugsuu brought to her lesson. Apparently she has wanted to come to church for a long time and so when we invited her to conference, she was THRILLED. We weren’t able to talk to her after but we will see her this week and ask her what she thought.

Dear Howard and Lori: Thank you SOOO MUCH for the Birthday cake. We had SO much fun with it haha. And it was surprisingly delicious! Below are birthday fun pics. It also worked out really well because my companion’s birthday was this last Sunday :) So we both blew out the candle haha. Love you! Thank you so much!

This week in Mission Conference, our mission set a goal that EACH companionship bring a FAMILY unto the Gospel for Christmas. This meant for me to SERIOUSLY change my style of missionary work. The way I find, teach and even pray. We are working harder than ever; and then with the Prophetic demand at conference, who could deny that the work is moving forward.

"If every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful gift to the Savior." -Elder Bednar

The Lord has called you to the work—each and every one of you. Now the only question is, Will you respond to the call?

But no stress :) Just remember that "the task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us."

I love you all.



Soeur Bitter

Arabic Translation Fail - September 30, 2013

Hello,

First off can we just say this week was an explosion of love!! With Nicole having her baby, Kati get married and Jon and Sarah having their baby, I got an explosion of emails and love from everyone!! I'm sorry I'm not there for all these huge events but I love you all so much and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

So I was thinking we could start this week with a missionary fail moment. So once upon a time, Fatima was going to Morocco. She will be gone for two months which is a HUGE bummer because she is making so much progress BUT she does so much good work in Morocco so it'll be a good thing. Anyway, we were thinking of what we could do while she is gone to help her to keep progressing. We decided to make her a "Calendrier de Vacance" with specific chapters of the Book of Mormon or talks from online. Well, since Fatima only reads in Arabic...I've been studying a little bit of arabic this week haha. I would sit down and compare my english Book of Mormon with an Arabic version. I learned quickly what the different numbers were and so finding scriptures was a lot easier. I fill out the calender and at the bottom, there is a blank space. I thought to myself "Hmmm..I should put a scripture there. But what Scripture??....I KNOW!! Moroni 10:4".

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Obviously, this scripture was very easy to find because it was at the back of the Book of Mormon (or the front in Arabic). So I start the long tedious process of writing out a scripture in Arabic. Needless to say, it looked pretty legit. At the end of the scripture (literally as I'm finishing the last character) I think so smugly to myself "Fatima will be so touched." Almost as a response, I feel the spirit tell me "Maybe you should double check that scripture". I quickly look back to the scripture and realize "MINCE!! This isn't Moroni 10:4...this is chapter 9!!!....what a second...THIS ISN'T EVEN THE BOOK OF MORONI! IT'S ETHER!!....it's ok. I'm sure this scripture is good too." So I quickly pull out my english Book of Mormon. Imagine my worry when I turn to Ether 9 and none of the scriptures in that chapter are highlighted. THEN Imagine my dismay when I read Ether 9:4

And it came to pass that Jared was anointed king over the people, by the hand of wickedness; and he gave unto Akish his daughter to wife.

Fail. Yup...I'm sure "Fatima will be so touched" by that scripture. Hahaha. Pride comes before the fall n'est-ce pas?

Annabelle is progressing really well and is planning on coming to Conference!! We talked about prophets and a few of the commandments this week. She LOVED the conference ensigne we gave her--especially Soeur Dalton's talk "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father". She went on and on about it haha. She's so sweet and teachable. I've never met anyone so teachable in my life. When we taught the law of Chastity this week we asked her if she will commit to keeping the law of chastity and she said enthusiastically "I WILL BE PERFECT!!" We also started bringing Sr. Hamzic to a few of our lessons. Annabelle LOVES Sr. Hamzic. Everytime we are there now, (Whether or not Sr. Hamzic is there) she prays for Sr. Hamzic and thanks Heavenly Father for the touching things Sr. Hamzic said to her and the testimony she shared :). Happiness. Imgaine how thrilled Annabelle was when the next time Sr. Hamzic came, she brought a potted flower for her. It sits proudly on display in front of her front window.

Miracle of the week: Earlier this week I had been thinking about Annick. She is a recent convert in this ward. She had been an ami for 30 years and then one day decided she was going to get baptized :). (Fun insert, it was my mission president's wife, Soeur Poznanski who first found and taught her). Anyway, we don't meet with her a ton because she is pretty timid but I was thinking "Hey, with a new comp, I bet we could get another RDV with her". Sure enough, I'm getting on the bus and I see Annick is calling. I think to myself "SR Bitter, this is one call you can NOT ignore and call back later".

So I immediately pick up. She asks if we had called her. I think to myself "I had been wanting to call her...did I call her....?" I told her we hadn't but that I had been thinking about her a lot this week and that we would love to have a RDV with her and introduce my new companion. She said that would be no problem (!) and that we could have it after church on Sunday in one of the classrooms. We were planning our lesson for her and we thought that we should talk to her about Patriarchal Blessings and to prepare to receive hers.

We get into the RDV and we're just talking about her conversion story (and Sr. Barton is asking her questions about her experiences) and then suddenly she tells us "and then today during the Sacrament. A word just popped into my mind 'Patriarchal Blessing'". We told her that we had actually prepared that very thing to talk to her about. She was SO INCREDIBLY touched that we had received the same though as her. We started talking about Patriarchal Blessings and the personal guidance we receive from the Lord. "So it's like a letter from the Lord!" I sat back and thought about it and then realized...that is exactly what it is.

I can't even begin to describe our lessons with Annick. We don't have them often but when we do, there is a feeling beyond description. Soeur Barton and I were talking afterwards about how it is really a privilege to meet and know these people. We get to feel a little bit of the love that our Heavenly Father has for these people. Those moments make the weird encounters, the sore feet and the early mornings all worth it.

As always, our members are amazing! I can't even begin to describe. We get calls from them all the time asking us how they can help our amis. If they can have a specific amis number to help them move or telling them about their missionary experiences throughout the week. It's a beautiful thing and they uplift us as missionaries.

I love you all so much.

Jon & Sarah: Congratulations again! And that is super cool that you are looking for opportunities to share the Gospel and people to invite over with the Sister's. You're the kind of members that missionaries talk about and adore :)

Love love love you!
Soeur Bitter

Streets of Rennes

Soeur Hilton: Transferred to Belgium - September 23, 2013

So Soeur Hilton got transferred to Belgium :( sad day. We got taught and worked together so well and she is just a BLAST. And actually our last day together, we decided to go into Paris REALLY early with the Zone Leaders of exchanges. Zone Leaders have to be into Paris by like 930 but we don't really have to be there until noon. So we decided to get in just as early as the ZL's...and carry her bags all the way to the eiffel Tower :) We just sat under the Eiffel Tower and reminisced on an AWESOME transfer. It was so fun and the perfect way to end such a good transfer. I'm so grateful for my mission and the opportunity it has to be able to meet some of my greatest friends. Anyway, I stayed here in Rennes and my new comp (Sr. Barton) is awesome! In fact, she reminds me of Aunt Lora! Haha it is so much fun. Her little mannerisms too I just think...."I'm serving a mission in Paris with Aunt Lora". She is from Monticello Utah and she is just one transfer below me so it's really fun because (like last transfer) I'm with someone who has lots of energy and missionary fire. It's so fun.


So this week highlight was probably our lesson with Annabelle. Well...we actually had a couple lessons with Annabelle this week but last night we brought a member with us--Sr. Hamzic. Annabelle lives alone and is from a Catholic background. When we were telling Sr. Hamzic (our RS prez) about her, we found that the two of them had a lot of similarities and that a lot of Annabelle's confusions are the exact same as Sr. Hamzic's were.

For those of you coming late into the story, Annabelle is an ami that Sr. Hilton and I met our 2nd week together and we've been teaching her 2-3 times a week since then. She ADORES the Book of Mormon. She has read up to Alma 12 already and then she's read chapters here and there as we have assigned them. So... ya...she's pretty good at reading haha. However, prayers for her have been really hard. In the past, prayers have always been memorized. So the idea of just speaking to our Heavenly Father is definitely new.

Well anyway, yesterday, I was reminded why we invite members to lessons. Sr. Hamzic shared some experiences and ideas that really touched Annabelle. So much so that she said that she would pray and ASK if the Book of Mormon is true!! In her prayer at the end of the lesson, she thanked our Heavenly Father over and over for Sr. Hamzic and the things she shared and that "it touched her so much". She also thanked Him for how....persistent the missionaries are hahahaha.

Fatima is still doing so well. We had a goodbye dinner with her and the Delacourt's before Sr. Hilton left for Belgium. Galets. Yum. Fatima will be leaving to Morocco soon to visit her family for about a month. So we are going to back her a "vacation calender" of reading and things that will help her keep her testimony and keep her progressing while she is away.

Saturday there was a baptism (8 year old) and I had a chance to play my violin! woot. And then yesterday after church there was a picnic and we ate like kings. Double woot.

Congrats Jon and Sarah on little Callan!! I think his face might be rounder than mine! He's super cute and I feel like I'm officially an Aunt because now I have one niece and one nephew :) :) :) :) I love you guys so much and I'm so glad that everything went well.

Sorry it's shorter this week but know that I love you lots!

Soeur Bitter

The Sun Shines on Missionary Work - September 16, 2013

Greetings,

This week was such a good week and the perfect way to end the transfer. It is such a testimony that our hard moments can last as short as a week.  The sun does rise again.

Let's start from the beginning. So this week we went back to see that new young family that we found last week. On the way there I started thinking 'oh mince...I hope that they are there...and if they are not there...I hope the Grenal's don't remember." The Grenals having been fasting and praying for a missionary opportunity for years and the last thing we wanted to do was to squash their hopes. Well, sure enough, we turn the street and the Grenals are in their front yard haha at this point I think, "well, now they HAVE to be there."

Sure enough we turn the corner and the family was waiting for us! The lesson went super well. At the beginning of the lesson, he said "well, I just don't see the point of religion because no one has all the truth." Me and my companion think "well this is perfect" And we tell him "well, that's actually what we wanted to talk to you about today." haha. We go back to the Grenal's and tell them about our lesson with them. They are freaking out while we're playing it all cool (but secretly geeking out). They then told us that they had been praying all day that the family would remember our visit. I was seriously touched by their devotion to missionary work.

Then Soeur Grenal asks us about one of our Amis who we had been teaching and who had come to church once. This was kind of a sad topic because this ami had dropped appointments for about 4 weeks straight. We told her that we weren't seeing her any more. She then explained to us that the time that Fatima came to church, she had asked about baptism. This was super surprising to both of us because before I came, they had not taught Fatima formal lessons. Fatima is Muslim but non practicing. The missionaries had kept the appointments more casual just to keep the relationship up and then ease her into the missionary discussions.

When I came, Soeur Hilton and I decided I could play the new missionary card and we could start to structure the lessons more. Anyway, after our visit with Soeur Grenal, we decided to call Fatima again and see if we could fix something. Sure enough, she says that she is free the next day! We call a member and have her come with us. We're teaching the Doctrine of Christ. The spirit is really strong and towards the end of the lesson, we invite her to pray to know if Jesus Christ is her Savior. She then starts describing these experiences she has had and then finally proclaims that she has Faith in Jesus Christ. I was floored!

I remember the lesson we had with her at the beginning of the transfer and she was so confused by who Christ was and his role. She went on to say "Now that I believe in Him, it's like I've known him all along." The spirit was so unbelievably strong. Apparently she had been searching the internet and reading all she could. She kept our commitment to pray and felt an outpouring of the Spirit. It was probably one of the more touching moments of my mission. I met this woman about 6 weeks ago and at that point she wasn't sure who Christ was but now it's "like she's known him all along."

Other great news: This week Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard were here and this last weekend we went to Paris to a multi-stake conference. Officially, there are no more districts in France. All Stakes now. The temple is finally under construction!!! WOHOOO!! One of the highlights of the conference was seeing all the people I love and miss from Melun. I was able to see Prisca and she is doing SO WELL!! The greatest news was when I heard, "Soeur Bitter!". I turn around and it's Benjamin! I was SO excited to see him! Even more excited to see him in a white shirt and suit! That was shocking! We used to go and teach Benjamin and his mom every Friday night. They were a less active family in Melun. Our lessons were always really good but it was hard getting them to church.  As I left Melun, Benjamin was coming more and more often and starting to volunteer for the YSA activities and things like that. Well, I now find out, HE'S GOING TO SERVE A MISSION! Complete turn around!! I'm so excited for him. Oh my goodness!

Fun moment from weekend: We have an ami who is in Paris on an internship right now so we decided to set up a RDV while at the multi-Stake Conference. And where would we be meeting? In front of Notre Dame. Pourquoi pas? Ha. It was pretty magical as we were waiting for her in front of the most identifiable cathedral in the world while the Organ is blasting away. I serve in the coolest city in the world.

Last preparation day, we decided that after p-day was over, we would go and visit this family who live kind of far away. So far, that we can't take a bus or train...ROAD TRIP!!!  We decided we would spend p-day down there and see the chateau and then after, just stay and visit this family. First off, driving for an hour through french countryside-just loved it.  More than that, the Pahio's are the most Christ-like, loving people I think I have ever met. They have so much love for Christ and for others. When we heard their conversion stories and I was floored to find out that Soeur Pahio was the first member in her country! And now, just 11 years later, there are 2 branches there! They are so wonderful. It was kind of sad though because I could tell that being so far from the ward was really hard for them. Their car doesn't work 100 percent of the time and I don't think people go down and visit them often. So I'm thinking we're going to make a once per transfer road trip :)  We love them so much.

Well, those are all my stories for today. :)

Jon & Sarah: You have been in my prayers so much!! I'll be thinking of you two more than usual this week! Also, loving all the pictures that you are sending. You guys are the best. Tell my favorite nephew hi and give my favorite niece a kiss for me.

I love you all and think of you often.

Sœur Bitter

Tough Week - Delacourts Were Robbed: September 9, 2013

Bonjour mes chères,

This week was incredibly hard so I'm going to keep this short.

Miracle of the week: We were on our way to a members house this last Thursday and we got there about 15 minutes early. So we decided to do a little port à port for a few minutes. We really wanted to find a someone in this neighborhood.

The couple that we were going to go visit is AWESOME. They are such a strong family in the Gospel and the wife is fasting and praying all the time to have missionary experiences. So we really wanted to find a family in their area allowing them the opportunity to welcome-in and enjoy the spirit of missionary work. So we start porting and on the 3rd house, a young father answers the door. We start talking about the Plan of Salvation. He was really open and his wife was incredibly nice.

They invited us back for this week. Needless to say, the members were THRILLED!! I don't think I've seen someone's face light up like that except for kids on Christmas haha. It was awesome. But we're really excited because this week all of the families we were teaching have decided to stop seeing us. But now we have found a potential amis again. My companion and I were talking the other night about how much we want to find this ward REALLY STRONG stable families. People who will desire to build the kingdom here in France. So we are really excited to teach this awesome young French family.

Other news, the Delacourts got robbed for the 2nd time (in a month). The thieves took laptops and hard drives. The drive had all of their pictures on it. The robbers emptied closets and bookshelves. Every room has a pile about 3 feet high of stuff. It is so sad. So we spent a chunk of Wednesday helping her clean things up and we'll be there again this week.

God loves us. Christ lives. The Church is true.

Loves you lots

Sœur Bitter

Rennes Ward Is Awesome - September 2, 2013

Hello world!!

I can't believe another week has gone by. This transfer has just been flying. Soeur Hilton and I were doing planning last night and we both just turned to each other and were like "Is it P.day again?!" Haha. This week was pretty crazy. We had exchanges last Wednesday/Thursday and I went down to Nantes. It's a little bigger than Rennes and it's SO beautiful...but I was happy to return to my own ville with my own friends :).

So I'd like to start by talking about the ward. This ward is AMAZING!!! We had dinner with a couple of families this week and each time I was just AMAZED. The Rennes ward is FULL of the Pioneers of France. The first members of the Rennes Branch, The first members in bretagne. It is AMAZING. And it's even more unbelievable to me that Rennes is now one of the biggest wards in all of France. It is pushing the capacity of the chapel!! How awesome is that?? So Tuesday night, we saw the Trahmels--and of course they made us classic Bretagne galets. Yummm. Before we ate, Frère Trahmel walked us around his .5 acre garden telling us stories as we picked fresh raspberries and strawberries. (Sometimes I think my life isn't real). We brought our violins with us and we played a couple of hymns and then they told us their French Pioneer story. It blew my mind. It makes sense why the French LOVE the early pioneer stories so much. I feel like a little part of them relates but then they stand in awe at the added physical trial. So many members will ask us if we have pioneer stories in our heritage. When they tell us to recount them, without fail, their eyes just fill with tears.

Also, our ward takes care of us SO MUCH! EVERY Sunday, we're bringing home some sort of goody. Crepes, fresh picked corn, etc. This last week, Frère Mocquard comes up to me as we're greeting everyone at the beginning of church. He turns to me and whispers:

"Soeur Bitter, we have something in our car for you and your companion."

"Huh?"

"Do you have your car today?"

"Wait, my car? Yes. We drove today."

at this point I'm confused. Are we talking about HIS car or OUR car? Did he want to see our car? What's he trying to say? haha

I just decided to follow him out the door and find out. Low and behold, him and his wife bought us 3 GIGANTIC boxes of granola. Back story: We were at their house this week to eat dinner with them. I noticed they had BIG boxes of cereal--like putting Costco to shame. I asked them where they got it. I told them I've been trying to find cereal like that since coming here but without fail, the stores always had tiny boxes and they were super expensive. So what did they do? Bought us a month supply of yummy cereal haha. Oh my goodness I love this ward.

After church, we're all standing around and a few of the members bellow "MES SŒURS!!! ON VOUS AIME!!" :)

At the end of church, they took a ward photo and they insisted that we were in it, so I'll try to get my hands on one and send it to you all so you can see the great ward I'm in :)

So last Sunday (8 days ago) I noticed that Yann (a recent convert of 2 years) was with his mom. I had remembered Soeur Hilton telling me that his mom was a recent convert (not even a year) but that she didn't come too often. I ran up to her and asked if we could visit her this week. She was thrilled and invited us over for that Thursday. Soeur Hilton and I had noticed that she had not gotten any after baptism lessons. The missionaries just kind of left her!! I think they figured because her son was there that he would answer any questions. So we decided to ask her point blank if she wanted the lessons or not. We sit down with her and I tell her that normally there are lessons after you have been baptized. I asked if she had had any of those which she said she hadn't.

"Would you like these lessons?"

"If you can be patient with me..."

"Of course we'll be patient with you!"

"Then yes. I want those very much. I just feel like I don't know a lot. My mom asks me all these questions about the church and I don't know where to turn for the answers. In church, everyone knows where every scripture is and I just know what I learned from the missionaries."

She went on to say how she felt a little forgotten after she had been baptized and sometimes church was scary because she didn't know how to navigate the scriptures like the members. Notice to all members: Take care of the recent converts. Just because they're baptized doesn't mean that they instantly know everything.

But it was an awesome lesson and I am SO excited to teach her more.

I don't remember if I told you about Annabelle but we have been seeing her for a couple weeks. Soeur Hilton and I found her my very first week and we have been teaching her a couple times a week since then. She is French and she really thinks about everything we teach her which is AWESOME! She reads everything we give her and she has such good questions each time we come back. The thing we are trying to get her to do is just pray. Everything else she does. Haha. So this last week we decided it was time. At the end of the lesson I ask Annabelle if she will pray. She gets really nervous and starts saying "but I don't know what to say." and things like that.

Soeur Bitter: "He's your Father. Talk to him like you would talk to a friend. Tell him all the thoughts of your heart."

Annabelle: "I don't know if I can."

Soeur Bitter: "Yes. You can do it!"

And then I promptly bowed my head, folded my arms and closed my eyes waiting for her to start. I had to bite my lip from laughing at how funny this scene must look. Me standing there in ready prayer position while Annabelle is probably staring at me dumbfounded. Annabelle then scoots closer to my companion and whispers "what do I say?"

Soeur Hilton: "You start with Dear Heavenly Father, then you thank him for your specific blessings, ask him questions if you have any or for aide if you need it and then you close 'In the name of Jesus Christ Amen'"

Sure enough, Annabelle offered the prayer and it was one of the sweetest prayers I've ever heard. All she did was thank God for her blessings and she thanked Him over and over for sending us to France and to her house. She didn't ask for a single thing because "I'm actually pretty happy at the moment. So thank you for that too." We've had one more lesson after that lesson and without hesitation she offered the closing prayer again. :) There is nothing I love more than seeing our Amis progress!!!!

Our lesson with Tugsuu this week was so beautiful (no surprise there). She is so meek and humble that the spirit is ALWAYS so strong. We're helping her to know the stories and teachings of Christ more and how to navigate the New Testament. We showed her the bible videos on lds.org and she LOVED those. This last week we shared with her the story of the Good Samaritan. Her eyes filled with tears when we told her that the Samaritans and the Jews are enemies but the Good Samaritan chose to put differences behind him and see and serve his enemy as God would. We actually chose this story because we thought "Tugsuu IS the good Samaritan. She is always looking for opportunities to serve in the ward and putting others first." But sure enough she turns to us and says "I am not that good. How can I do that??" It's so amazing to me that the most Christ-like people are always the ones who think they are so far off the mark...when in reality they're the greatest example to us all. It's always the people who are full of Charity who are the ones saying they need to obtain it. It's such a testimony to me that you can't just obtain patience, Hope, Chairty etc. It's not a question of whether or not you have these Christ-like attributes but rather to what degree you have obtained them. Everything is a process in the Gospel. If my mission has taught me anything-it's that.

I love you all so so much. Thank you for all your letters and love.

Mayu: THANK YOU SO MUCH for your birthday package! PNB M&Ms!!! MY favorite :) They were such a good surprise and made me so happy. I was talking to my companion the other day and she was asking me about all my friends on my wall (which you're in most of the pics haha) and I said "Mayu is just one of those people who knows how to love. She loves so much and expects so little". And it's SO TRUE! You are seriously the best. I count it a blessing that I can call you my friend. xoxo

Until next we mes chères,

Sœur Kari Ann Bitter


p.s. Mom you have been asking me about French food. So I ate at a members house yesterday and they cooked this UNBELIEVABLE meal. Haha I wish I knew what it was called but it went like this: There was a giant zuccini and she cut it long ways down the middle so that it made a little boat. Then she filled the inside of the boat with a meat loaf kind of mixture. And stuck it in the oven. I wish I could be more descriptive but it was AMAZING! She referred to it like it was a common recepie so maybe you could look it up online. :) maybe search meatloaf stuffed zuccinni haha